12. In all prayers, we must be careful to attend our present work, having a present mind, not wandering upon inpertinent things, not distant from our words, much less contrary to them: and if our thoughts do at any time wander, and divert upon other objects, bring them back again with prudent and severe arts; by all means striving to obtain a diligent, a sober, an untroubled, and a composed spirit. 13. Let your posture and gesture of body in prayers be reverent, grave, and humble: according to public order, or the best examples, if it be in public: if it be in private, either stand, or kneel, or lie flat upon the ground on your face, in your ordinary and more solemn prayers; but in extraordinary, casual, and ejaculatory prayers, the reverence and devotion of the soul, and the lifting up the eyes and hands to God with any other posture not indecent, is usual and commendable; for we may pray in bed, on horseback, 66 every where,”* and at all times, and in all circumstances; and it is well if we do so: and some servants have not opportunity to pray so often as they would, unless they supply the appetites of religion by such accidental devotions. 14. "Let prayers and supplications and giving of thanks be made for all men; for kings, and all that are in authority. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour."+ We, who must love our neighbours as ourselves, must also pray for them as for ourselves: with this only difference; that we may enlarge in our temporal desires for kings, and pray for secular prosperity to them with more importunity than for ourselves; because they need more to enable their duty and government, and for the interests of religion and justice. This part of prayer is by the apostle called intercession; in which, with special care, we are to remember our relatives, our family, our charge, our benefactors, our creditors; not forgetting to beg pardon and charity for our enemies, and protection against them. 15. Rely not on a single prayer in matters of great concernment; but make it as public as you can, by obtaining of others to pray for you: this being the great blessing of the communion of saints, that a prayer united is strong, like a well-ordered army; and God loves to be tied fast with such cords of love, and constrained by a holy violence. 16. Every time, that is not seized upon by some other duty, is seasonable enough for prayer: but let it be performed as a solemn duty morning and evening, that God may begin and end all our business, and "the outgoing of the morning and evening may praise him;" for so we bless God, and God blesses us. And yet fail not to find, or make opportunities to worship God at some other times of the day; at least by ejaculations and short addresses, more or less, longer or shorter, solemnly or without solemnity, privately or publicly, as you can, or are permitted: always remembering, that as every sin is a degree of danger and unsafety; so every pious prayer and well-employed opportunity is a degree of return to hope and pardon. Cautions for making Vows. 17. A vow to God is an act of prayer, and a great degree and instance of importunity, and an increase of duty, by some new uncommanded instance, or some more eminent degree of duty, or frequency of action, or earnestness of spirit in the same. And because it hath pleased God, in all ages of the world, to admit of intercourse with his servants in the matters of vows, it is not ill advice, that we make vows to God in such cases in which we have great need, or great danger. But let it be done according to these rules and by these cautions. 1. That the matter of the vow be lawful. 2. That it be useful, in order to religion or charity. 3. That it be grave, not trifling or impertinent; but great in our proportion of duty towards the blessing. 4. That it be in an uncommanded instance; that is, that it be of something, or in some manner, or in some degree, to which formerly we were not obliged, or which we might have omitted, without sin. 5..That it be done with prudence; that is, that it be safe in all the circumstances of person, lest we beg a blessing, and fall into a share. 6. That every vow of a new action be also accompanied with a new degree and enforcement of our essential and unalterable duty: such as was Jacob's vow, that (besides the payment of a tithe) God should be his God that so he might strengthen his duty to him, first in essentials and precepts, and then, in additionals and accidentals. For it is but an ill tree, that spends more in leaves and suckers and gums, than in fruit: and that thankfulness and religion is best, that first secures duty, and then enlarges in counsels. Therefore let every great prayer, and great need, and great danger, draw us nearer to God by the approach of a pious purpose to live more strictly and let every mercy of God, answering that prayer, produce a real performance of it. 7. Let not young beginners in religion enlarge their hearts and straiten their liberty by vows of long continuance: nor indeed any one else, without a great experince of himself, and of all accidental dangers. Vows of single actions are safest, and proportionable to those single blessings ever begged in such cases of sudden and transient importunities. 8. Let no action, which is matter of question and dispute in religion, ever become the matter of a vow. He vows foolishly, that promises to God to live and die in such an opinion, in an article not necessary, nor certain; or that, upon confidence of his present guide, binds himself for ever to the profession of what he may afterward, more reasonably contradict, or may find not to be useful or not profitable, but of some danger, or of no necessity. If we observe the former rules, we shall pray piously and effectually: but, because even this duty hath in it some special temptations, it is necessary, that we be armed by special remedies against them. The dangers are, 1. Wandering thoughts; 2. Tediousness of spirit. Against the first, these advices are profitable. Remedies against wandering Thoughts in Prayer. If we feel our spirits apt to wander in our prayers, and to retire into the world, or to things unprofitable, or vain and impertinent 1. Use prayer to be assisted in prayer; pray for the spirit of supplication, for a sober, fixed, and recollected spirit; and when to this you add a moral industry to be steady in your thoughts, whatsoever wanderings after this do return irremediably, are a misery of nature, and an imperfection, but no sin, while it is not cherished and indulged to. 2. In private, it is not amiss to attempt the cure by reducing your prayers into collects and short forms of prayer, making voluntary interruptions, and beginning again, that the want of spirit and breath may be supplied by the short stages and periods. 3. When you have observed any considerable wander ing of your thoughts, bind yourself to repeat that prayer again with actual attention, or else revolve the full sense of it in your spirit, and repeat it in all the effect and desires of it: and, possibly, the tempter may be driven away with his own art, and may cease to interpose his trifles, when he perceives, they do but vex the person into carefulness and piety; and yet he loses nothing of his devotion, but doubles the earnestness of his care. 4. If this be not seasonable or opportune, or apt to any man's circumstances, yet be sure, with actual attention, to say a hearty Amen to the whole prayer with one united desire, earnestly begging the graces mentioned in the prayer for that desire does the great work of the prayer, and secures the blessing, if the wandering thoughts were against our will, and disclaimed by contending against them. 5. Avoid multiplicity of business of the world; and in those that are unavoidable, labour for an evenness and tranquillity of spirit, that you may be untroubled and smooth, in all tempests of fortune: for so we shall better tend religion, when we are not torn in pieces with the cares of the world, and seized upon with low affections, passions, and interest. 6. It helps much to attention and actual advertisement in our prayers, if we say our prayers silently, without the voice, only by the spirit. For, in mental prayer, if our thoughts wander, we only stand still; when our mind returns, we go on again: there is none of the prayer lost, as it is, if our mouths speak, and our hearts wander. 7. To incite you to the use of these or any other counsels you shall meet with, remember, that it is a great indecency to desire of God to hear those prayers, a great e part whereof we do not hear ourselves. If they be not worthy of our attention, they are far more unworthy of God's. Signs of Tediousness of Spirit in our Prayers and all The second temptation in our prayer, is a tediousness of spirit, or a weariness of the employment; like that of the Jews, who complained, that they were weary of the new moons, and their souls loathed the frequent return of their sabbaths: so do very many Christians, who, first, pray U without fervour and earnestness of spirit; and, secondly, meditate but seldom, and that without fruit, or sense, or affection; or, thirdly, who seldom examine their consciences, and when they do it, they do it but sleepily, slightly, without compunction, or hearty purpose, or fruits of amendment. 4. They enlarge themselves in the thoughts and fruition of temporal things, running for comfort to them only in any sadness and misfortune. 5. They love not to frequent the sacraments, nor any the instruments of religion, as sermons, confessions, prayers in public fastings; but love ease, and a loose undisciplined life. 6. They obey not their superiors, but follow their own judgment, when their judgment follows their affections, and their affections follow sense, and worldly pleasures. 7. They neglect or dissemble, or defer, or do not attend to, the motions and inclinations to virtue, which the Spirit of God puts into their soul. 8. They repent them of their vows and holy purposes, not because they discover any indiscretion in them, or intolerable inconvenience, but because they have within them labour, (as the case now stands,) to them displeasure. 9. They content themselves with the first degrees and necessary parts of virtue; and, when they are arrived thither, they sit down, as if they were come to the mountain of the Lord, and care not to proceed on toward perfection. 10. They inquire into all cases, in which it may be lawful to omit a duty; and, though they will not do less than they are bound to, yet they will do no more than needs must; for they do out of fear and selflove, not out of the love of God, or the spirit of holiness and zeal. The event of which will be this: he, that will do no more than needs must, will soon be brought to omit something of his duty, and will be apt to believe less to be necessary, than is. Remedies against Tediousness of Spirit. The remedies against this temptation are these :— 1. Order your private devotions so, that they become not arguments and causes of tediousness by their indiscreet length; but reduce your words into a narrower compass, still keeping all the matter, and what is cut off in the length of your prayers, supply in the earnestness of your spirit for so nothing is lost, while the words are changed into matter, and length of time into fervency of devotion. : |