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assist the common reader, whose benefit is here principally regarded.

In this edition I have made some essential alterations and additions, and should have made more, if time and situation would have permitted.

It will be proper to observe, that, in the prosecution of this work I have not only consulted Bishop Sparrow, Dr. Comber, Dr. Nichols, Mr. Bennet, Mr. Nelson, Mr. Wheatly, Mr. Shepherd, and others, but have actually selected from them whatever would answer my purpose; and especially from the last two named authors.

How well I have executed this undertaking I leave my reader to judge; hoping his candour will excite him to make favourable allowances for its many imperfections; and also that it may please God to bless my honest endeavours to his glory, and the good of his church, whose prosperity ever occupies the first place in my affections.

O pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love thee,

Peace be within thy walls, and plenteousness within thy palaces.

For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will wish thee prosperity.

Yea, because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek to do thee good.

Psalm cxxi

AN

EXPOSITION, &c.

CHAPTER I.

Of Forms of Prayer.

ST. LUKE xi. 1.

Lord teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

And

he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father who art in heaven, &c.

9. WHAT do you mean by common prayer?

A. The form of service used by the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, upon several occasions, ordinary and extraordinary; ratified by the Bishops, the Clergy, and the laity, in convention, the sixteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine; when they declared it to be the liturgy of this church, and ordered it to be received as such by all the members of the same.

2. Whence appears the lawfulness of forms of prayer?

A. From the custom of the ancient Jews, the precept and example of our Saviour, the example also of his Apostles, and the practice of the primitive Christians.

2. How does it appear that the Jews joined in precomposed forms?

A. By innumerable testimonies, both ancient and modern, as Josephus, Philo, Paul, Fagius, Scaliger, Buxtorf, and Selden, in Eutychium; and especially

B

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