In the Cambridge University Library[371] is the copy of _A Prayer of a Nonconformist before his Sermon, which was preached to an eminent Congregation, August, 1662_. The prayer is long, and consists chiefly of confession of sin and of supplication for spiritual blessings; the only passages which seem to refer to existing circumstances are the two following:--"It is the Spirit that makes ordinances efficacious--although Thou art pleased to tye us to them, when we may purely enjoy them, yet Thou dost not tye Thyself to them." "Bring our hearts to our estates, if not our estates to our hearts. It is the happiness of the saints in heaven to have their estates brought to their hearts; but the happiness of the saints on earth to have their hearts brought to their estates." [Sidenote: 1662.] The Fire of London swept away so many of the old City churches that we are unable to picture the localities where the City ministers preached, what they called, their own funeral sermons; but it is otherwise in the provinces. Everyone who has entered the Vale of Taunton, and tarried in the town from which it takes its name, must have lingered under the shadow of the noble Church of St. Mary, and longer still within its spacious nave, sometime since restored with exquisite taste. In 1662 the town had just had its walls razed, as a punishment for what the inhabitants did in the Civil Wars--the bones of their townsman Blake had been dug out of his grave in Westminster Abbey; old Puritan members of the Corporation had been displaced for new ones of Cavalier sympathies; and now, with bitter recollections, the nonconforming parishioners entered the Church on the 17th of August, to listen for the last time to their minister, George Newton--"a noted gospeller," and remarkable for his missionary zeal. "As to the particular Divine providence," he said, "now ending our ministry among you, whatever happeneth on this account, let it be your exercise to cry out for the Holy Spirit of Christ, and He will grant you a greater support than you may expect from any man whatever.... The withdrawing of this present ministry may be to cause you to pray for this Holy Spirit, day and night; and Christ promiseth that the Father will give it to them that ask it.... If I cannot serve God one way, let me not be discouraged, but be more earnest in another."[372] [Sidenote: THE BARTHOLOMEW EJECTMENT.]