ty being to pray and not to examine; and probably this being among the "secret things which belong to God," and not to us, it will lie hidden among those numberless mysteries which we shall not fully understand till faith is lost in sight.

In the mean time it is enough for the humble believer to be assured, that the Judge of all the earth is doing right: it is enough for him to be assured in that word of God which cannot lie," of numberless actual instances of the efficacy of prayer in obtaining blessings and averting calam. ities, both national and individual; it is enough for him to be convinced experimentally, by that internal evidence which is perhaps paramount to all other evidence, the comfort he has received from prayer when all other comforts have failed-and above all, to end with the same motive with which we began, the only motive indeed which he requires for the performance of any duty,it is motive enough for him, that thus saith the Lord. For when a serious Christian has once got a plain, unequivocal command from his Maker on any point, he never suspends his obedience while he is amusing himself with looking about for subordinate motives of action. Instead of curiously analy sing the nature of the duty, he considers how he shall best fulfil it for on these points at least it may be said without controversy, that "the ignorant (and here who is not ignorant?) have nothing to do with the law but to obey it."

To

Others there are who, perhaps, not controverting any of these premises, yet neglect to build practical consequences on the admission of them; who, neither denying the duty nor the efficacy of prayer, yet go on to live either in the irregular observance or the total neglect of it, as appetite, or pleasure, or business, or humour, may happen to predominate; and who, by living almost without prayer, may be said to live almost without God in the world." such we can only say, that they little know what they lose. The time is hastening on when they will look upon those blessings as invaluable, which now they think not worth asking for. "O that they were wise! that they under"stood this! that they would consider their latter end !" There are again others, who, it is to be feared, having once lived in the habit of prayer, yet not having been well grounded in those principles of faith and repentance on

which genuine prayer is built, have by degrees totally discontinued it. "They do not find," say they, "that their "affairs prosper the better or the worse; or perhaps they "were unsuccessful in their affairs even before they dropt the "practice, and so had no encouragement to go on." They do not know that they had no encouragement; they do not know how much worse their affairs might have gone on, had they discontinued it sooner, or how their prayers help. ed to retard their ruin. Or they do not know that perhaps "they asked amiss," or that, if they had obtained what they asked, they might have been far more unhappy. For a true believer never "restrains prayer," because he is not certain he obtains every individual request; for he is persuaded that God, in compassion to our ignorance, sometimes in great mercy withholds what we desire, and often disappoints his most favoured children by giving them, not what they ask, but what he knows is really good for them. The froward child, as a pious prelate* observes, cries for the shining blade, which the tender parent withholds, knowing it would cut his fingers.

Thus to persevere when we have not the encouragement of visible success, is an evidence of tried faith. Of this holy perseverance Job was a noble instance. Defeat and disappointment rather stimulated than stopped his prayers, Though in a vehement strain of passionate eloquence he exclaims, "I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry "aloud, but there is no judgment:" yet so persuaded was he

of the duty of continuing this holy importunity, that he persisted against human hope, till he attained to that pitch of unshaken faith, by which he was enabled to break out into that sublime apostrophe, "Though he slay me, I will trust "'in him."

But may we not say that there is a considerable class, who not only bring none of the objections which we have stated against the use of prayer; who are so far from rejecting, that they are exact and regular in the performance of it: who yet take it up on as low ground as is consistent with their ideas of their own safety; who, while they consider prayer as an indispensable form, believe nothing of that change of heart which it is intended to produce? Many who yet adhere scrupulously to the letter, are so far from

* Bishop Hall. *

entering into the spirit of this duty, that they are strongly inclined to suspect those of hypocrisy who adopt the true scriptural views of prayer. Nay, as even the Bible may be so wrested as to be made to speak almost any language in support of almost any opinion, these persons lay hold on Scripture itself to bear them out in their own slight views of this duty; and they profess to borrow from it the ground of that censure which they cast on the more serious Chris tians. Among the many passages which have been made to convey a meaning foreign to its original design, none has been seized upon with more avidity by such persons than the pointed censures of our Saviour on those "who for a 66 pretence make long prayers;" as well as on those "who 66 use vain repetitions, and think they shall be heard for much "speaking." Now the things here intended to be reproved, were the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and the ignorance of the heathen, together with the error of all those who depended on the success of their prayers, while they imitated the deceit of the one or the folly of the other. But our Saviour never meant those severe reprehensions should cool or abridge the devotion of pious Christians, to which they do not apply.

More or fewer words, however, so little constitute the value of prayer, that there is no doubt but one of the most affecting specimens on record is the short petition of the Publican; full fraught as it is with that spirit of contrition and self-abasement, which is the very principle and soul of prayer. And this perhaps is the best model for that sudden lifting up of the heart which we call ejaculation. But I doubt, in general, whether the few hasty words to which these frugal petitioners would stint the scanty devotions of others, will be always found ample enough to satisfy the humble penitent, who, being a sinner, has much to confess; who, hoping he is a pardoned sinner, has much to acknowledge. Such an one perhaps cannot always pour out the fulness of his soul within the prescribed abridgments. Even the sincerest Christian, when he wishes to find his heart warm, has often to lament its coldness. Though he feel that he has received much, and has therefore much to be thankful for, yet he is not able at once to bring his wayward spirit into such a posture as shall fit it for the solemn business; for such an one has not merely his form to reVOL. II.

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peat, but he has his peace to make. A devout supplicant too will labour to affect and warm his mind with a sense of the attributes of God, in imitation of the boly men of old. Like Jehosaphat, he will sometimes enumerate "the pow"er, and the might, and the mercies of the Most High," in order to stir up the sentiments of awe and gratitude and humility in his own soul. He has the example of his Saviour, whose heart dilated with the expression of the same holy affections: "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heav"en and earth." A heart thus warmed with divine love cannot always scrupulously limit itself to the mere business of prayer, if I may so speak. The humble supplicant, though he be no longer governed by a love of the world, yet grieves to find that he cannot totally exclude it from his thoughts. Though he has on the whole, a deep sense of his own wants, and of God's abundant fulness to supply them, yet when he most wishes to be rejoicing in those strong motives for love and gratitude, alas! even then he has to mourn that his thoughts are gone astray after some "trifle lighter than vanity itself." The best Christian is. but too liable, during the temptations of the day, to be ensnared by "the lust of the eye, and the pride of life," and is not always brought without effort to reflect that he is but dust and ashes. How can even good persons, who are just come perhaps from listening to the flattery of their fellow. worms, acknowledge before God, without any preparation of the heart, that they are miserable sinners? They require a little time, to impress on their own souls the solemn confession of sin they are making to Him, without which brev. ity and not length might constitute hypocrisy. Even the sincerely pious have in prayer grievous wanderings to la. ment, from which others mistakingly suppose the advanced Christian to be exempt. Such wanderings that, as an old divine has observed, it would exceedingly humble a good man, could he, after he had prayed, be made to see his prayers written down, with interlineations of all the vain and impertinent thoughts which had thrust themselves in amongst them. So that such an one will indeed, from a sense of these distractions, feel deep occasion with the prophet to ask forgiveness for "the iniquity of his holy 66 things" and would find cause enough for humiliation every night, had he to lament the sins of his prayers only.

2 Chron. xx. 5, 6.

We know that such a brief petition as, "Lord, help my "unbelief," if the supplicant be in so happy a frame, and the prayer be darted with such strong faith that his very soul mounts with the petition, may suffice to draw down a blessing which may be withheld from the more prolix petition. er: yet, if by prayer we do not mean a mere form of words, whether they be long or short; if the true definition of prayer be, that it is the desire of the heart; if it be that secret communion between God and the soul which is the very breath and being of religion; then is the Scripture so far from suggesting that. short measure of which it is accused, that it expressly says, "Pray without ceasing:". "Pray evermore:""I will that men pray every where:" "Continue instant in prayer."

If such "repetitions" as these objectors reprobate, stir up desires as yet unawakened, for "vain repetitions" are such as awaken or express no new desire, and serve no religious purpose, then are "repetitions" not to be condemned.

And if it be true that our Saviour gave the warning against "long prayers" in the sense these allege; if he gave the caution against vain repetitions in the sense these believe; then he broke his own rule in both instances: for once we are told "he continued all night in prayer to God." And again in a most awful crisis of his life, it is expressly said, "He prayed the third time using the same words."*

But as it is the effect of prayer to expand the affections as well as sanctify them, the benevolent Christian is not satisfied to commend himself alone to the divine favour. The heart which is full of the love of God, will overflow with love to its neighbour. All that are near to himself he wishes to bring near to God. Religion makes a man so liberal of soul, that he cannot endure to restrict any thing, much less divine mercies to himself: he spiritualizes the social affections, by adding intercessory to personal prayer: for he knows, that petitioning for others is one of the best methods of exercising and enlarging our love and charity towards them. It is unnecessary to produce any of the num'berless instances with which Scripture abounds, on the efficacy of intercession: I shall confine myself to a few observations on the benefits it brings to him who offers it.When we pray for the objects of our dearest regard, it pu

* Matt. xxvi. 44.