and said, "Fie on thee, Leonard."

But when we pray, we must not let it come to, fie upon thee; but
must certainly hold, conclude, and believe, that we are already
heard in that for which we pray with faith in Christ. Therefore the
ancients finely described prayer, namely, that it is, Ascensus
mentis ad Deum, a climbing up of the heart unto God, that is,
lifteth itself up, crieth and sigheth to God: neither I myself,
said Luther, nor any other that I know, have rightly understood the
definition of this Ascensus. Indeed, we have boasted and talked
much of the climbing up of the heart; but we failed in Syntaxi, we
could not bring thereunto the word Deum; nay, we flew from God, we
were afraid to draw near unto him, and to pray through Christ, in
whom the strength of prayer wholly consisteth; we always prayed in
Popedom conditionaliter, conditionally, and therefore uncertainly.

But let us pray in heart, and also with our lips; for prayer, by our
loving God, supporteth the world; otherwise, without prayer, it
would stand in a far more lamentable state.


Of the Power of Prayer, and of the Lord's Prayer.

Our Saviour Christ, said Luther, most excellently, and with very few
words, comprehended, in the Lord's Prayer, all things both needful
and necessary; but without trouble, trials, and vexations, prayer
cannot rightly be made. Therefore God saith, "Call on me in the
time of trouble," etc., without trouble it is only a cold prattling,
and goeth not from the heart; the common saying is "Need teacheth to
pray." And although the Papists say that God well understandeth all