Prefatory note.

The preface to the following treatise is of some interest, as an earnest pleading against liturgical impositions, on four different grounds:— as having been instrumental in securing, at an early period, currency for the errors of the great apostasy; in introducing the gorgeous embellishments of carnal fancy into the pure worship of the Christian religion; in tempting ecclesiastical authorities to the employment of civil penalties in matters of faith; and in leading to the cessation of spiritual and ministerial gifts in the church. The treatise itself unfolds the evidence and nature of the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit in prayer, and would be esteemed meagre and incomplete if it were regarded as a treatise on the whole subject of prayer. To understand its precise scope, it must be considered simply as another book in the general work of our author on the dispensation and operations of the Holy Spirit. Given the subsidiary discussions, on the mental prayer, of the church of Rome, and the use of devotional formulas, are evidently connected with the peculiar and distinctive object of the treatise, — as designed to illustrate the operations of the Spirit in the devotional exercises of believers.