The revelations, which we deem authentic, completely supply this defect of natural religion. They require prayer to God as a duty; and they contain pofitive affurances of its efficacy and acceptance. We could have no reasonable motive for the exercife of prayer, without believing that it may avail to the relief of our wants. This belief can only be founded, either in a fenfible experience of the effect of prayer, or in promifes of acceptance fignified by divine authority. Our knowledge would have come to us in the former way, lefs capable, indeed, of doubt, but fubjected to the abufes and inconveniences briefly described above: in the latter way, that is, by authorized fignifications of God's general difpofition to hear and answer the devout fupplications of his creatures, we are encouraged to pray, but not to place fuch a dependence upon prayer, as might relax other obligations, or confound the order of events and human expectations.

The fcriptures not only affirm the propriety of prayer in general, but furnifh precepts or examples which juftify fome topics and fome modes of prayer that have been thought exceptionable. And as the whole fubject refts fo much upon the foundation of fcripture, I fhall put down at length texts applicable to the five following heads; to the duty and efficacy of prayer in general; of prayer for particular favours by name; for public national bleffings; of interceffion for others; of the repetition of unfuccefsful prayers.

"If

1. Texts enjoining prayer in general: "Afk, and it fhall be given you; feek, and ye fhall find." ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more fhall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that afk him ?" "Watch ye, therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all thofe things that fhall come to pafs, and to fland before the Son of Man." "Serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing inftant in pray

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er."

"Be careful for nothing, but in every thing by prayer and fupplication, with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." "I will, therefore, that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.' Pray with out ceafing." Matt. vii. 7. 11. Luke xxi. 36. Rom. xii. 12. Phil. iv. 6. i Theff. v. 17. 1 Tim. ii. 8. Add to these, that Chrift's reproof of the oftentation and prolixity of pharifaical prayers, and his recommendation to his difciples of retirement and fimplicity in theirs, together with his dictating a particular form of prayer, all prefuppofe prayer to be an acceptable and availing fervice.

2. Examples of prayer for particular favours by name: "For this thing (to wit, fome bodily infir mity, which he calls a thorn given him in the flesh) I befought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me." "Night and day praying exceedingly, that we might fee your face, and perfect that which is lacking in your faith." 2 Cor. xii. 8. 1 Theff. iii. 10.

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3. Directions to pray for national or public bleffings: "Pray for the peace of Jerufalem." "Afk ye of the Lord rain, in the time of the latter rain; fo the Lord fhall make bright clouds, and give them fhowers of rain, to every one grafs in the field." "I exhort, therefore, that first of all, fupplications, prayers, interceffions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, in all godlinefs and honefty; for this is good and acceptable in the fight of God our Saviour." Pfalm cxxii. 6. Zech. x. i. 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2, 3.

4. Examples of interceffion and exhortations to intercede for others: "And Mofes befought the Lord his God, and faid, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people? Remember Abraham, Ifaac, and Ifrael, thy fervants. And the Lord re pented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people." "Peter therefore was kept in prifon, but prayer was made without ceafing of the church unto

God for him." "For God is my witness, that without ceafing I make mention of you always in my prayers." "Now I befeech you, brethren, for the Lord Jefus Chrift's fake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye ftrive together with me, in your prayers for me.” "Confefs your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed: the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much." Exod. xxxii. 11. Acts xii. 5. Rom. i. 9. xv. 30. James v. 16.

5. Declarations and examples authorizing the repetition of unsuccessful prayers: "And he spoke a parable unto them, to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint." "And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, faying the fame words." "For this thing I befought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. Luke xviii. 1. Matt. xxvi. 44. 2. Cor. xii. 8.*

Chapter IV.

OF PRIVATE PRAYER, FAMILY PRAYER, AND PUBLIC WORSHIP.

CONCERNING these three defcriptions of devotion, it is first of all to be obferved, that each has its feparate and peculiar ufe; and therefore, that the exercife of one fpecies of worship, however regular it be, does not fuperfede, or difpenfe with the obligation of either of the other two.

I. Private Prayer is recommended for the fake of the following advantages:

*The reformed churches of Christendom, sticking clofe in this article to their guide, have laid afide prayers for the dead, as authorized by no precept or precedent found in fcripture. For the fame reafon they properly reject the invocation of faints; as also because fuch invocations fuppofe in the faints whom they addrefs a knowledge which can perceive what paffes in different regions of the earth at the fame time. And they deem it too much to take for granted, without the smallest intimation of fuch a thing in. fcripture, that any created being poffeffes a faculty little fhort of that omnifcience and omniprefence which they afcribe to the Deity.

Private wants cannot always be made the fubjects of public prayer; but whatever reason there is for praying at all, there is the fame for making the fore and grief of each man's own heart the bufinefs of his application to God. This must be the office of private exercises of devotion, being imperfectly, if at all, practicable in any other.

Private prayer is generally more devout and earneft than the fhare we are capable of taking in joint acts of worship; because it affords leifure and opportunity for the circumftantial recollection of thofe perfonal wants, by the remembrance and ideas of which, the warmth and earneftnefs of prayer are chiefly excited.

Private prayer, in proportion as it is ufually accompanied with more actual thought and reflection of the petitioner's own, has a greater tendency than other modes of devotion to revive and faften upon the mind the general impreffions of religion. Solitude powerfully affifts this effect. When a man finds himself alone in communication with his Creator, his imagination becomes filled with a conflux of awful ideas concerning the univerfal agency, and invifible prefence of that Being; concerning what is likely to become of himfelf; and of the fuperlative importance of providing for the happiness of his future exiflence, by endeavours to please him who is the arbiter of his deftiny; reflections which, whenever they gain admittance, for a feafon, overwhelm all others; and leave, when they depart, a folemnity upon the thoughts that will feldom fail, in fome degree, to affect the conduct of life.

Private prayer, thus recommended by its own propriety, and by advantages not attainable in any form of religious communion, receives a fuperior fanction from the authority and example of Chrift. "When thou prayeft, enter into thy clofet; and when thou haft fhut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in fecret; and thy Father which feeth in fecret, fhall reward thee openly." "And when he

into a

had fent the multitudes away, he went up mountain apart to pray." Matt. vi. 6. xiv. 23. II. Family Prayer.

The peculiar use of family piety confifts in its influence upon fervants, and the young members of a family, who want fufficient seriousness and reflection to retire of their own accord to the exercise of private devotion, and whofe attention you cannot eafily command in public worship. The example alfo and authority of a father and mafter act in this way with the greatest force; for his private prayers, to which his children and fervants are not witneffes, act not at all upon them as examples; and his attendance upon public worship they will readily impute to fashion, to a care to preferve appearances, to a concern for decency and character, and to many motives befides a fenfe of duty to God. Add to this, that forms of public worship, in proportion as they are more comprehenfive, are always lefs interefting than family prayers; and that the ardour of devotion is better fupported, and the fympathy more easily propagated, through a fmall affembly connected by the affections of domestic fociety, than in the presence of a mixed congregation.

III. Public Worship.

If the worship of God be a duty of religion, public worship is a neceffary institution; forafmuch as without it, the greater part of mankind would exercife no religious worship at all.

These affemblies afford alfo, at the fame time, opportunities for moral and religious inftruction to those who otherwife would receive none. In all Proteftant, and in moft Chriftian countries, the elements of natural religion, and the important parts of the evangelic hiftory, are familiar to the lowest of the people. This competent degree and general diffufion of religious knowledge amongst all orders of Chriftians, which will appear a great thing when compared with the intellectual condition of barbarous nations, can fairly, I think, be afcribed to no

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