dan boast, than all the vanities of the world can bestow. By this every mercy is sanctified, every afflic tion is alleviated, every holy disposition is invigorated, every corrupt affection is weakened, and every temptation is resisted.

Now, prayer, in the most general and abstracted notion of that word, may be described: The speech of the rational creature unto God, whether conceived in the heart, or uttered by the mouth; whereby we either celebrate his amiable perfections, confess our own defects, implore his divine power for the mercies we want, or thank him for the blessings we have received.

But let us more particularly attend unto his character, of whom it may be said, behold he prayeth. And, first of all, detesting their abominable idolatries, who direct their religious addresses, either to these imaginary beings that never, perhaps, did so much as exist; or those beings which indeed have a real existence, but no divinity, seeing they are all the creatures of God, and many of them the works of men's hands.God and God alone, is the object of his adoration; who only can hear, who only can judge, who only can answer the prayers that are made; for his knowledge is infallible, for his equity is inflexible, for his power is irresistible. "O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come." Nor shall any rotten distinction, devised by the antichristian church, ever induce me to entertain a favorable thought of that palpable violation of the law, who hast expressly commanded in thy word, "thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou fear."

But how shall he, whose character is a miserable sinner, dare to approach that tremendous Majesty, in whose presence the foolish shall not stand, who hears not sinners, who abhors the workers of iniquity ?The mediation of Jesus Christ is the sole, is the happy solution of this knot. To his care he directs all his petitions, His name he mentions in faith and in righteousness; and finds a gracious acceptance. If,

as we are informed in history, the king Admetus was reconciled to Themistocles, when the latter taking the young prince in his arms, presented him to the father; shall not much more a gracious God shew favor, complacency, and love unto sinners, who, though unworthy in themselves, yet bring the dearly beloved Son of God in the arms of their faith, saying, 66 See, O God, our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed!" By him the humble supplicant, draws near to God, of whom it is said, "this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

As in the sacred story the angel of Manoah ascended in the smoke of his offering; so Christ ascends in the incense of all his prayers, and brings them near the throne of his heavenly Father. By him he has access with confidence. Towards him he bends his eye in all his supplications; even as the ancient Jews never did pray, but with their faces towards the holy temple at Jerusalem, though at the greatest distance from them.

The word of God is the only rule by which he regulates his devotions, both as to the time, the place, the matter, the manner.. By this he is taught, that as no time is unfit, so no place is improper for this honorable duty. Though there are stated times of public and private devotion, which he cheerfully observes; and though it is the joy of his soul to join with his fellow-worshippers in places that are appointed for the assembling of the church; yet he can never think that prayers which are made in canonical hours or consecrated places, are of greater efficacy on that account. The labors of the day he begins with prayer, he mixes with prayer, he finishes with prayer.-He is more anxious to get a praying heart, than to find a place; for he remembers how Jeremiah could pray in the dungeon, Daniel in the den of lions, Jonah in the belly of the fish, Hezekiah upon his bed, Nehemiah in the king's presence, Peter on the house top, Paul on the shore, and Christ in the garden. He considers that Christ is an omnipresent temple; and therefore lifts up holy hands in every place.

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By the same unerring rule he is directed to have a special care, that the matter of his addresses be agreeable to the divine nature and will. The bodily gesture he uses, is from irreverence on the one hand, and from superstition on the other. Bowing, kneeling, bodily prostration, elevation of the hands and eyes, uncovering of the head, are the outward expressions of his inward reverence. But ludicrous and antic ceremonies, pharisaical disguisings of the face, he avoids as tending to beget a contempt of religion in the minds of spectators, instead of imprinting a reve rence. The words of his mouth are neither too low and familiar on the one hand, nor too high and affecting on the other far less are they unintelligible, and pronounced in an unknown tongue. For, as the priests offered incense when the lamps were lighted; so, when he prays in the spirit, he prays with the understanding also. The words which the Holy Ghost teaches, he prefers above all others. He uses not vain repetitions, as though much speaking were the thing that recommends him to the Almighty. A multitude of words, he knows very well, is not that importunity which availeth much in the fervent prayer of the righteous. For, though the gesture of the body should be ever so decent, and the words of the mouth ever so well chosen, he knows very well, that still one thing is lacking, and indeed the principal thing, the disposition of the heart, which if it is not right with God, the most lowly gestures, and the most elegant expressions, are but smoke in his nostrils, and a fire that burneth all the day.

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your smiles.

ON MOURNING OR FASTING.

LAUGH, ye profane, and prove your misery by What though games and revelry should snatch your hours away, and your whole life should seem but one continued festivity? Miserable crea

tures! while you dance on the brink of a tremendous precipice, in a moment you descend into the grave; and drop into that place, where all joy is darkened, and horrors reign in everlasting triumph. Commend me to that awful joy that dwells with him that is poor and of a contrite spirit.

A person of this holy temper is not a stranger to natural cheerfulness; far less to spiritual joy. But he endeavors to repress that vain and frothy mirth, which, instead of doing good as a medicine, will eat as doth a canker. He waters with his tears even the pardon of his sins, and cannot think on the transgressions of his past life, without real emotions of grief.— For, though they will never subject him to condemnation from God, for this very reason he condemns himself the more He is often heard, like Ephraim, bemoaning himself, and mourning like a dove in the valley, for the sad prevalence of the body of sin and death.

He can drop a generous tear for the miseries of his fellow creatures, and remembers them that are in bonds as bound with them. He cannot but be grieved with transgressors; cannot but be vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked; cannot but sigh and cry for all the abominations that are committed in the land of his nativity. He satisfies not himself with open censures of public evils, which may proceed from pride and malice; but weeps for them, like Jeremiah, in a secret place; and thus he proves his real charity; his sincere regard to the divine honor; and disinterested benevolence to men. Moreover that he delivers his own soul from the guilt of those sins for which he mourns.-If the church of God is involved in great distress; if she is under persecution; or, what is infinitely worse, if the bulk of her sons and daughters are laboring under a lamentable decay as to the power of godliness; if her pastors are brutish, if her ordinances are barren; if her doctrine is corrupted; if her discipline is perverted; if her government is neg lected; if her unity is broken; then is he sorrowful

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for the solemn assembly; he weeps when he rementbers Zion; like Nehemiah, who was the king's cupbearer; and like you, ye captives of Babylon, when ye hanged your harps upon the willows.

He follows for his pattern the great apostle of the Gentiles, who served the Lord with many tears, warning every man ; who had continual sorrow in his heart for his brethren according to the flesh; and could not without weeping, so much as mention the enemies of the cross of Christ. But chiefly he looks on him whom he has pierced, and mourns for thee, O suffering Redeemer! Surely thou hast borne our griefs, and carried our corrows. We have often heard of thy tears, but never of thy laughter.

O greatly wise, whose heart is in the house of mourning! strangers indeed they are to loud and jovial mirth, and to the drunkard's noisy song; but not unto the smile at heart, and calm sunshine of the mind. For them Christ is anointed to preach glad tidings; to give them the oil of joy for mourning, and the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness.With them the holy One will deign to dwell, before all palaces and temples. Even now he keeps a bottle for their tears, and is mindful of them, as they were written in a book. A time approaches, when, with his own kindly hand, he will wipe them forever from their eyes; and they who have gone forth weeping, bearing precious seed, shall bring back their sheaves with rejoicing.

On the sacrament of the supper.

IT was in that fatal night, when the accursed traitor had resolved, with calm, deliberate malice, upon the most unworthy terms, to betray his Lord and Master into the hands of sinners. Ah! cursed lust of gold, to what enormous crimes dost thou push on the human race O heart impenetrably hard, which