on those who would fain hear prayers, not spouting!

Ib. p. 249.

The great controversies between the hypocrite and the true Christian,
whether we should be serious in the practice of the religion which we
commonly profess, hath troubled England more than any other;--none
being more hated and divided as Puritans than those that will make
religion their business, &c.

Had not the Governors had bitter proofs that there are other and more
cruel vices than swearing and careless living;--and that these were
predominant chiefly among such as made their religion their business?

Ib.

And whereas you speak of opening a gap to Sectaries for private
conventicles, and the evil consequents to the state, we only desire
you to avoid also the cherishing of ignorance and profaneness, and
_suppress all Sectaries_, and spare not, in a way that will not
suppress the means of knowledge and godliness.

The present company, that is, our own dear selves, always excepted.

Ib. p. 250.

Otherwise the poor undone Churches of Christ will no more believe you
in such professions than we believed that those men intended the
King's just power and greatness, who took away his life.

Or who, like Baxter, joined the armies that were showering cannon balls
and bullets around his inviolable person! Whenever by reading the
Prelatical writings and histories, I have had an over dose of
anti-Prelatism in my feelings, I then correct it by dipping into the
works of the Presbyterians, and their fellows, and so bring myself to
more charitable thoughts respecting the Prelatists, and fully subscribe
to Milton's assertion, that "Presbyter was but Old Priest writ large."

Ib. p. 254.

The apocryphal matter of your lessons in Tobit, Judith, Bel and the
Dragon, &c., is scarce agreeable to the word of God.

Does not Jude refer to an apocryphal book?

Ib.

Our experience unresistibly convinceth us that a continued prayer doth
more to help most of the people, and carry on their desires, than
turning almost every petition into a distinct prayer; and making
prefaces and conclusions to be near half the prayers.

This now is the very point I most admire in our excellent Liturgy. To
any particular petition offered to the Omniscient, there may be a
sinking of faith, a sense of its superfluity; but to the lifting up of
the soul to the Invisible and there fixing it on his attributes, there
can be no scruple.