for so the text implieth. "The Pharisee," saith the text, "stood and
prayed thus with himself," or "by himself," and may signify, either
that he spoke softly, or that he made this prayer by reason of his
natural parts. "I will pray with the Spirit," said Paul; 1 Cor. xiv.
15. "The Pharisee prayed with himself," said Christ. It is at this
day wonderfully common for men to pray extempore also; to pray by a
book, by a premeditated set form, is now out of fashion. He is
counted nobody now, that cannot at any time, at a minute's warning,
make a prayer of half an hour long. I am not against extempore
prayer, for I believe it to be the best kind of praying; but yet I am
jealous, that there are a great many such prayers made, especially in
pulpits and public meetings, without the breathing of the Holy Ghost
in them; for if a Pharisee of old could do so, why not a Pharisee do
the same now? Wit and reason, and notion, are not screwed up to a
very great height; nor do men want words, or fancies, or pride, to
make them do this thing. Great is the formality of religion this
day, and little the power thereof. Now, where there is a great form,
and little power (and such there was among the Jews, in the time of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ), there men are most strangely
under the temptation to be hypocrites; for nothing doth so properly
and directly oppose hypocrisy, as the power and glory of the things
we profess. And so, on the contrary, nothing is a greater temptation
to hypocrisy, than a form of knowledge of things without the savour
thereof. Nor can much of the power and savour of the things of the
gospel be seen at this day upon professors (I speak not now of all),
if their notions and conversations be compared together. How proud,
how covetous, how like the world in garb and guise, in words and
actions, are most of the great professors of this our day! But when
they come to divine worship, especially to pray, by their words and
carriage there, one would almost judge them to be angels in heaven.