In Queen Anne’s time, there was often no part of the Church service in which the High or Low Church tone of the congregation was more closely betokened than when the preacher had just entered the pulpit.  In the one case, the Bidding Prayer was said; in the other, there was an extempore prayer, often of considerable length, commonly called the pulpit prayer.  The Bidding Prayer had its origin in pre-Reformation times.  ’The way was first for the preacher to name and open his text, and then to call on the people to go to their prayers, and to tell them what they were to pray for; after which all the people said their beads in a general silence, and the preacher also kneeled down and said his.’[1187] It was thus not a prayer, but an exhortation to prayer, and instruction in the points commended to private but united worship.  In Henry VIII.’s time the Pope’s name was omitted, and prayer for the King under his proper titles strictly enjoined.  In Elizabeth’s reign, praise for all who had departed in God’s faith was substituted for prayer in their behalf.[1188] By the existing Canons, as agreed upon in 1603, preachers were instructed to move the people to join with them in prayer before the sermon either in the Bidding form, ’or to that effect as briefly as conveniently they may.’[1189] It was, however, no longer clear whether it were itself a prayer, or, as in former time, an admonition to pray.  On the one hand, it was called ‘a form of prayer,’ and was followed without a pause by the Lord’s Prayer, and then by the sermon.  On the other hand, it was prefaced not by the familiar ‘Let us pray,’ but by the old bidding, ‘Ye shall pray,’ or ‘Pray ye,’ and the congregation stood as listeners until the Lord’s Prayer began.[1190] Hence a difference in practice arose, curiously characteristic of the controversies, ecclesiastical and political, which were being agitated at the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century.  In Charles I.’s reign, many of the clergy had chosen to consider it a prayer, and taking advantage of the permission to vary it, had converted it into one of those extempore effusions which Puritan feeling considered so peculiarly edifying.[1191] It need hardly be added that the Anglican party were more than ever careful to adhere to the older usage.  After the Restoration, the Bidding Prayer was for a time not very much used, and the pulpit prayer, as adopted by Low Churchmen from Puritans and Presbyterians, began in many places to assume a most prominent position.  ‘Some men,’ Sherlock said, in 1681, ’think they worship God sufficiently if they come time enough to church to join in the pulpit prayer.’[1192] High Churchmen could not endure it.  ’It is a long, crude, extemporary prayer,’ said South, ’in reproach of all the prayers which the Church, with such an admirable prudence and devotion, has been making before.’[1193] The use, however, of extempore prayer in this part of the service was defended by some of the clergy and