O how great and upright and godly Christian’s prayer is! how powerful with God; that a poor human creature should speak with God’s high majesty in heaven, and not be affrighted, but, on the contrary, knoweth that God smileth upon him for Christ’s sake, his dearly beloved Son. The heart and conscience, in this act of praying, must not fly and recoil backwards by reason of our sins and unworthiness, and must not stand in doubt, nor be scared away. We must not do, said Luther, as the Bavarian did, who with great devotion called upon St. Leonard, an idol, set up in a church in Bavaria, behind which idol stood one who answered the Bavarian and said, “Fie on thee, Bavarian”; and in that sort oftentimes was repulsed, and could not be heard: at last, the Bavarian went away, 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 the words of those that pray, yet St. Bernard is far of another opinion, where he saith, “God heareth not the words of one that prayeth, unless he that prayeth heareth them first himself.” The Pope is a mere tormentor of the conscience. The assembly of his greased and religious crew in praying was altogether like the croaking of frogs, which edified nothing at all. It was mere sophistry, and deceiving, fruitless, and unprofitable.