But, abstracting from the reason, let us consider who keeps the precept best, he that deliberates, or he that considers not when he speaks? What man in the world is hasty to offer anything unto God; if he be not, who prays extempore? And then add to it but the weight of Solomon's reason, and let any man answer me, if he thinks it can well stand with that reverence we owe to the immense, the infinite, and to the eternal God, the God of wisdom, to offer Him a sacrifice which we durst not present to a prince or a prudent governor, "in re seriâ," such as our prayers ought to be.

And that this may not be dashed with a pretence it is carnal reasoning, I desire it may be remembered that it.is the argument God Himself uses against lame, maimed, and imperfect sacrifices, "Go, and offer this to thy prince," see if he will accept it; implying that the best person is to have the best present, and what the prince will slight as truly unworthy of him, much more is it unfit for God. For God accepts not of anything we give or do, as if He were bettered by it; for, therefore, its estimate is not taken by its relation or natural complacency to Him, for, in itself, it is to Him as nothing; but God accepts it by its proportion and commensuration to us. That which we call our best, and is truly so in human estimate, that pleases God; for it declares that if we had better we would give it Him. But to reserve the best says too plainly that we think anything is good enough for Him. And, therefore, God, in the law, would not be served by that which was imperfect "in genere naturæ' so neither now nor ever will that please Him which is imperfect, "in genere morum," or "materiâ intellectuali," when we can give a better.

And, therefore, the wisest nations and the most sober persons prepared their verses and prayers in set forms, with as much religion as they dressed their sacrifices, and observed the rites of festivals and burials. Amongst the Romans, it belonged to the care of the priests to worship in prescribed and determined words. “In omni precatione qui vota effundit sacerdos, Vestam et Janum aliosque deos præscriptis verbis et composito carmine advocare • solet." The Greeks did so too, receiving their prayers by dictate, word for word. 'Itaque sua carmina suæque precationes singulis diis institutæ sunt; quas plerumque, ne quid præposterè dicatur, aliquis ex præscripto præire et ad verbum referre solebat. Their hymns and prayers were ordained peculiar to every god, which, lest anything should be said preposterously, were usually

pronounced, word for word, after the priest, and out of written copies;" and the magi among the Persians were as considerate in their devotions: "Magos et Persas primo semper diluculo canere diis hymnos et laudes, meditato et solenni precationis carmine; "The Persians sang hymns to their gods by the morning twilight, in a premeditate, solemn, and metrical form of prayer," said the same author. For, since in all the actions and discourses of men, that which is the least considered is likely to be the worst, and is certainly of the greatest disreputation, it were a strange cheapness of opinion towards God and religion, to be the most incurious of what we say to Him; and in our religious offices it is strange that everything should be considered but our prayers. It is spoken by Eunapius, to the honour of Proæresius's scholars, that when the proconsul asked their judgments in a question of philosophy, they were προσενεγκόντες τὰ ̓Αριστείδου μετὰ πολλῆς σκέψεως καὶ πόνου, ὥς οὐκ εἰσὶ τῶν ἐμούντων, ἀλλὰ Tŵv ȧKρißоúvтwv-"they, with much consideration and care, gave in answer those words of Aristides, "That they were not of the number of those that used to vomit out answers, but of those that considered every word they were to speak." "Nihil enim ordinatum est quod præcipitatur et properat," said Seneca ; "Nothing can be regular and orderly that is hasty and precipitate ;" and, therefore, unless religion be the most imprudent, trifling, and inconsiderable thing, and that the work of the Lord is done well enough when it is done negligently, or that the sanctuary hath the greatest beauty when it hath the least order, it will concern us highly to think our prayers and religious offices are actions fit for wise men, and, therefore, to be done as the actions of wise men use to be, that is, deliberately, prudently, and with greatest consideration.

(From An Apology for authorized and set Forms of Liturgy.):

ON DIFFERENCE OF OPINION

BUT men are, nowadays, and indeed always have been, since the expiration of the first blessed ages of Christianity, so in love with their Own fancies and opinions, as to think faith and all Christendom is concerned in their support and maintenance; and whoever is not so fond, and does not dandle them like themselves,

it grows up to a quarrel, which, because it is in "materia theologiæ," is made a quarrel in religion, and God is entitled to it; and then if you are once thought an enemy to God, it is our duty to persecute you even to death-we do God good service in it; when, if we should examine the question rightly, the question is either in "materia non revelata,” or “minus evidenti,” or “non necessaria," either it is not revealed, or not so clearly, but that wise and honest men may be of different minds; or else it is not of the foundation of faith, but a remote superstructure; or else of mere speculation; or perhaps, when all comes to all, it is a false opinion, or a matter of human interest that we have so zealously contended for; for to one of these heads most of the disputes of Christendom may be reduced; so that I believe the present factions, or the most, are from the same cause which St. Paul observed in the Corinthian schism; "When there are divisions among you, are ye not carnal ? " It is not the differing opinions that is the cause of the present ruptures, but want of charity; it is not the variety of understandings, but the disunion of wills and affections; it is not the several principles, but the several ends, that cause our miseries; our opinions commence and are upheld according as our turns are served, and our interests are preserved, and there is no cure for us but piety and charity. A holy life will make our belief holy, if we consult not humanity and its imperfections in the choice of our religion, but search for truth without designs, save only of acquiring heaven, and then be as careful to preserve charity as we were to get a point of faith; I am as much persuaded we shall find out more truths by this means : or, however, which is the main of all, we shall be secured though we miss them, and then we are well enough.

For if it be evinced that one heaven shall hold men of several opinions, if the unity of faith be not destroyed by that which men call differing religions, and if a unity of charity be the duty of us all, even towards persons that are not persuaded of every proposition we believe, then I would fain know to what purposes are all those stirs and great noises in Christendom, those names of faction, the several names of churches not distinguished by the division of kingdoms, "ut ecclesia sequatur imperium," which was the primitive rule and canon, but distinguished by names of sects and men; these are all become instruments of hatred; thence come schisms and parting of communions, and then persecutions, and then wars and rebellion, and then the dissolutions of all friendships and

societies. All these mischiefs proceed not from this, that all men are not of one mind, for that is neither necessary nor possible-but that every opinion is made an article of faith, every article is a ground of a quarrel, every quarrel makes a faction, every faction is zealous, and all zeal pretends for God, and whatsoever is for God cannot be too much; we, by this time, are come to that pass, we think we love not God except we hate our brother, and we have not the virtue of religion unless we persecute all religions but our own, for lukewarmness is so odious to God and man, that we, proceeding furiously upon these mistakes, by supposing we preserve the body, we destroy the soul of religion,—or, by being zealous for faith, or, which is all one, for that which we mistake for faith, we are cold in charity, and so lose the reward of both. (From The Liberty of Prophesying.)

BISHOP WILKINS

[John Wilkins was born at Oxford in 1614, and educated in his early years under the care of a well-known dissenter, Mr. John Dod, who was his grandfather on the mother's side. He afterwards entered at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and after taking his degree went abroad and became Chaplain to the Count Palatine. Joining the Parliamentary side when the Rebellion broke out, he was made Warden of Wadham in 1648, and Master of Trinity, Cambridge, in 1659, having in 1656 married Robina, sister of Oliver Cromwell, and widow of Peter French, Canon of Christ Church. On the Restoration, he was ejected from Trinity, but became Rector of St. Lawrence Jewry; and subsequently, through the help of a somewhat compromising patron, the Duke of Buckingham, he was promoted first to the Deanery of Ripon, and then to the Bishopric of Chester, in 1668. He died in 1672.

His works were numerous. In 1638, there appeared The Discovery of a New World: a Discourse to prove that there may be another habitable world in the Moon. A second part of this treats of The Possibility of a Passage to the Moon. In 1640, appeared A Discourse Concerning a new Planet: tending to prove that the Earth may be a Planet. Others of his works were Mercury, or the Secret Messenger (1641); Mathematical Magic (1648); The Principles of Natural Religion (printed after his death); and an Essay towards a Real Character and Philosophical Language. This last is a scheme for a universal language, and was written for, and published under the auspices of, the Royal Society, of which Wilkins was a devoted member.]

WILKINS'S curious variations of political adherence, and the fact that his patrons were so strangely assorted as to comprise Cromwell, Charles II., and the Duke of Buckingham, do not lead us to infer that his political faith was very ardent, or that he was troubled with any special delicacy of feeling. But it would be absurd to describe him as a political schemer. His interests were chiefly in other pursuits: such creed as he had was summed up chiefly in the determination to adhere very closely to no creed; and he was sufficiently astute to make his religious, as well as his political, latitudinarianism, serve his own interests. His friends admit that he was ambitious: and on the other hand, his enemies do not charge against him any dishonourable act. His books