the Rev. W. Turner , Jun. , MA., Lives of the eminent Unitarians

[204] objections, and establishes the duty as well as the efficacy of prayer, upon plain and Christian principles. To this is added, a translation of a discourse of Maximus Tyrius on prayer, with remarks upon it. He shews that prayer, as a natural expression of our sense of the perfections and providence of God, of our dependence on him and obligations to him, and of our concern for moral improvement, is a rational and advantageous exercise of the mind, and may with reason be expected to procure favours from God; not by working a change in the Deity, who will always do what is best; but by producing such a change for the better in man, as will render it best and fittest for the Deity to distinguish the pious and humble suppliant with instances of his particular favour.

In 1726 he married Mrs. Elizabeth Hills, widow, with whom he lived very happily for fourteen years. In 1729 he received and accepted an invitation to become minister of a congregation in King John's Court, Southwark, the duties of which station he discharged with great acceptance and satisfaction for eleven years.

The admirable success which had attended Mr. Locke's endeavours to apply the principles of just and rational interpretation in his excellent commentary on five of St. Paul's Epistles, had often inspired a wish that some person similarly qualified would continue the work on a similar plan, and in the same enlightened and liberal spirit. We have already seen that Mr. Peirce, in the latter part of his life, entered upon this labour, and gave to the world an exposition of the Epistles to the Colossians and Philippians,