sake. For thou art our God, our King, and a strong Redeemer. Blessed art thou, O Lord, the Redeemer of Israel.

8. Heal us, O Lord our God, and we shall be healed. Save us, and we shall be saved; for thou art our praise. Bring unto us sound health, and a perfect remedy for all our infirmities, and for all our griefs, and for all our wounds. For thou art a God who healest, and art merciful. Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, who curest the diseases of thy people Israel.

9. Bless us, O Lord our God, in every work of our hands, and bless unto us the seasons of the year, and give us the dew and the rain to be a blessing unto us upon the face of all our land; and satiate the world with thy blessings, and send down moisture upon every part of the earth that is habitable. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who givest thy blessing to the years.

10. Convocate us together by the sound of the great trumpet, to the enjoyment of our liberty, and lift up thy ensign to call together all of the captivity from the four quarters of the earth into our own land. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who gatherest together the exiles of the people of Israel.

11. Restore unto us our judges as at the first, and our counsellors as at the beginning, and remove far from us affliction and trouble, and do thou only reign over us in benignity, and in mercy, and in righteousness, and in justice. Blessed art thou, O Lord our King, who lovest righteousness and justice.

12. Let there be no hope to them who apostatize from the true religion; and let heretics, how many soever they be, all perish as in a moment. And let the kingdom of pride be speedily rooted out and broken in our days. Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, who destroyest the wicked, and bringest down the proud.

13. Upon the pious and the just, and upon the proselytes of justice, and upon the remnant of thy

i This is the prayer which was added by Rabbi Gamaliel against the Christians, or, as others say, by Rabbi Samuel the little, who was one of his scholars. k The Roman empire. 1 The proselytes of justice were such as received the whole Jewish law, and conformed in all things to their religion. Other proselytes there were,

people of the house of Israel, let thy mercies be moved, O Lord our God; and give a good reward unto all who faithfully put their trust in thy name, and grant us our portion with them, and for ever let us not be ashamed: for we put our trust in thee. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who art the support and confidence of the just.

14. Dwell thou in the midst of Jerusalem thy city, as thou hast promised, build it with a building to last for ever; and do this speedily, even in our days. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who buildest Jerusalem.

15. Make the offspring of David thy servant speedily to grow up and flourish, and let our horn be exalted in thy salvation: for we hope for thy salvation every day. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who makest the horn of our salvation to flourish.

16. Hear our voice, O Lord our God, most merciful Father, pardon and have mercy upon us, and accept of our prayers with mercy and favour, and send us not away empty from thy presence, O our King; for thou hearest with mercy the prayer of thy people Israel. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who hearest prayer.

17. Be thou well pleased, O Lord our God, with thy people Israel, and have regard unto their prayers: restore thy worship to the inner part of thy house, and make haste with favour and love to accept of the burnt sacrifices of Israel, and their prayers; and let the worship of Israel thy people be continually wellpleasing unto thee. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who restorest thy divine presence to Zion.

18. We will give thanks unto thee with praise: for thou art the Lord our God, the God of our Fathers for ever and ever. Thou art our Rock, and the Rock of our life, the Shield of our salvation. To all generations will we give thanks unto thee, and declare thy praise, because of our life which is always in thy hands, and because of our souls, which are ever depending upon thee, and because of thy signs, which are every day with us, and because of thy wonders

who conformed only to the seven precepts of the sons of Noah; and these were called the proselytes of the gate, because they worshipped only in the outer court of the temple, and were admitted no farther than the gate leading into the inner courts.

and marvellous loving-kindnesses, which are morning and evening and night continually before us. Thou art good, for thy mercies are not consumed; thou art merciful, for thy loving-kindnesses fail not. For ever we hope in thee. And for all these mercies be thy name, O King, blessed, and exalted, and lifted up on high for ever and ever; and let all that live give thanks unto thee. Selah. And let them in truth and sincerity praise thy name, O God of our salvation, and our help. Selah. Blessed art thou, O Lord, whose name is good, and whom it is fitting always to give thanks unto thee.

19. Give peace, beneficence, and benediction, grace, benignity, and mercy, unto us, and to Israel thy people. Bless us, O our Father, even all of us together, as one man, with the light of thy countenance. For in the light of thy countenance hast thou given unto us, O Lord our God, the law of life, and love, and benignity, and righteousness, and blessing, and mercy, and life, and peace. And let it seem good in thine eyes to bless thy people Israel with thy peace at all times, and in every moment. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who blessest thy people Israel with peace. Amen.

Since our Saviour spared not freely to tell the Jews of all the corruptions which they had in his time run into, and on all occasions reproached them therewith, had it been contrary to the will of God to use set forms of prayer in his public service, or had it been displeasing to him to be addressed to in such mean forms, when much better might have been made; we may be sure he would have told them of both, and joined with them in neither. But he having never found fault with them for using set forms, but, on the contrary, taught his own disciples a set form to pray by; nor at any time expressed a dislike of the forms then in use, because of the meanness and emptiness of them, but always joined with them in their synagogues in the forms above recited, this may satisfy our Dissenters, if any thing can satisfy men so perversely bent after their own ways, that neither our using set forms of prayers in our public worship, nor the using of such which they think not sufficiently edifying, can

be objections sufficient to justify them in their refusal to join with us in them; for they have the example of Christ in both these thus directly against them. The truth is, whether there be a form or no form, or whether the form be elegantly or meanly composed, nothing of this availeth to the recommending of our prayers unto God. It is the true and sincere devotion of the heart only that can make them acceptable unto him; for it is this only that gives life and vigour, and true acceptance, to all our religious addresses unto him. Without this, how elegantly and moving soever the prayer may be composed, and with how much seeming fervour and zeal soever it may be poured out, all is as dead matter, and of no validity in the presence of our God. But if we bring this with us to his worship, any form of prayer, provided it be of sound words, may be sufficient to make us and our worship acceptable unto him, and obtain mercy, peace, and pardon, from him. For it is not the fineness of speech, or the elegancy of expression, but the sincerity of the mind, and the true devotion of the heart only, that God regards in all our prayers which we offer up unto him. It is true, a new jingle of words, and a fervent delivery of them by the minister in prayer, may have some effect upon the auditors, and often raise, in such of them as are affected this way, a devotion which otherwise they would not have. But this being wholly artificial, which all drops again, as soon as the engine is removed that raised it, it is none of that true habitual devotion, which can alone render us acceptable unto our God in any of our addresses unto him. This we ought to bring with us, whenever we come into the house of God to worship before him; and with this, in any form which is of sound words, we may pray acceptably unto him, and none can ever do so without it. But whether any form of such sound words can be well preserved in those extemporary effusions of prayer which some delight in, whether this doth not often lead them into indecent, and sometimes into blasphemous expressions, to the great dishonour of God, and the damage of religion, it behoves: those who are for this way seriously to consider.

But, to return from whence I have digressed; these nineteen prayers were enjoined to be said by all that were of age, of what sex or condition soever, either in public or in private, three times every day, that is, in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night. And they were of that esteem, and are so still, among them, that they allow the name of prayer to be proper to the saying of these nineteen prayers only; looking on it by way of eminence to be much more so, than the saying of all the rest. And therefore they are, on every synagogue day, offered up in the solemnest manner, in all their public assemblies. But these prayers are in their offices, no other, than as the Lord's prayer in ours, that is, they are the fundamental and principal part: for besides them they have many other prayers, some going before, others interspersed between them, and others following after, which all together make their synagogue service very long. Our Saviour found fault with their prayers for being too long in his time. Many additions in their liturgies have made them much more so since.

2. The second part of their synagogue service is the reading of the Scriptures, which is of three sorts; 1st. The Kiriath Shema; 2d. The reading of the law; and, 3d. The reading of the prophets. Of the two latter I have already spoken; and therefore I shall now treat only of the first. It consists in the reading of three portions of Scripture. The first is from the beginning of the fourth verse of the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, to the end of the ninth verse; the second, from the beginning of the thirteenth verse of the eleventh chapter of Deuteronomy, to the end of the twentyfirst verse; and the third, from the beginning of the thirty-seventh verse of the fifteenth chapter of Numbers, to the end of the chapter. And because the first of these portions in the Hebrew Bible begins with the word Shema, that is, hear, they call all these three together the Shema, and the reading of them Kiriath

m Maimonides in Tephillah. n Mat. xxiii, 14. Mark xii, 14. o Maimonides in Kiriath Shema. part 2, c. 15.

Luke xx, 47.

Vitringa de Synagoga Vetere, lib. 3