makes us become like the Saint himself that is Virtuous And this because 't is the very Nature of the Soul to become that thing by her Understanding and Will which it studiously knows and affectionately loves and in that very regard too and to that degree in which we apply our selves considerately to know it and heartily to love it But this will better be understood by what follows after § 7. Hence also is seen the true use of Pictures keeping Holidays of Saints and such other Devotions All which renewing in our minds the thoughts of such a virtuous person must needs be beneficial since they purify our mind by familiarizing it to such holy and Elevated Objects and by helping it to make the Character of the Saints virtuous life and of it's particular agreeableness to us more express till at length by Will and Affection as well as by meer Understanding we become in a manner It. But especially these helps are necessary to those who arrive not at the Love of spiritual Goods by strength of Judgment or clear Evidence of Reason but by often reiterated impressions of Objects upon the knowing Power by means of the Senses I meddle not here with other more wonderful Effects done by our Application to Saints and their Intercession for us when the Faith of him that prays requires it the Principles of which are to be laid so deep and are withal so remote from our present purpose that it would be too long a digression to attempt here their Explication SECT V. Of the Excellency of Prayer as t is the Infallible means to obtain all our best Wishes THe Impetrative Part of Prayer or the virtue it has of obtaining from God infallibly what ever we ask for our selves that we can be sure is our true Good is perhaps as great an incentive to exercise it as any of the rest This seems to be a Doctrine no less comfortable than strange We ought then to unriddle it and make it out And first we must remark that we can never be sure that any External thing is good for us be it Riches Honour Pleasure Health Friends c. For to many all these have been the occasion of their Damnation as they have of Salvation to others Nay some are of that Genius and so circumstanc't that nothing but Extream Misery in this World can keep them from Sinning others again are so temper'd that they grow desperate by great and continual crosses and fall into a stupidity or disregard of all duties if prest heavily by afflictions Nay more speaking of Interiour perfections which have a greater vicinity to Virtue even Knowledge has made some solidly Virtuous others vainly Proud Nothing therfore but that perfection of the mind call'd Virtue is securely good for us Since then 't is directly against Reason to wish pressingly and absolutely those things which we know not whether they will do us good or harm Reason tells us we are not to beg of God absolutely any thing but Virtue The rest only Conditionally or with this reservation in case our Heavenly Father judges we have need of them or in case he sees them convenient for us And 't is of this I affirm that if it be askt of God by Prayer it will be always Granted and that too to the very same degree as is our fervency in asking it § 2. To understand how this is effected we must reflect that to Pray for any Virtue is earnestly to wish it as also that Prayer if perform'd attentively and as it ought is the most Serious action of our whole life being a Treaty or Communication with God the seer of our Hearts with whom 't is the most irreverent folly that may be not to be in earnest when we profess it outwardly Prayer therfore for Virtue is the most serious and most effectual act of the Will imaginable strongly set and bent towards the attainment of that perfection we pray for that is 't is a frequent and hearty wish of Virtue And what is Virtue but a confirm'd Disposition of the Will to do our Duties to God and Man or an habitual will to act according to Right Reason and Christian Principles And how are Habits got but by oft repeated or very effectuall Acts since then when ever we pray for Virtue as we ought both these are found in the Exercise of that Prayer for we both repeat often our Wishes which are Acts of our Will and withall they are the most serious most solemn and most Elevated Acts that can be and thence very Efficacious it follows that the Praying for Virtue is the very gaining it in the same manner as warming continued and advanc't begetts Heat and Heat a Flame § 3. You will say all this gives no great account of any Particularity in Prayer towards the attainment of Virtue since according to this Doctrin the frequent considering with our selves and pondering well the Excellency of Virtue may beget Wishes of it and consequently Virtue in us and this in as high a manner if well followed as Prayer does I answer first the case is impossible for except when we wish to get Virtue we aim at Heaven by thus wishing it 't is not true Virtue we wish but some Apish resemblance of it to make us esteem'd by the world or for some other Temporal End And if in setting our selvs to consider it's Goodness and Excellency which consists in this that it disposes us for Heaven and thence wishing it we aim'd at the attainment of Heaven or the Blissful Sight of God by it we were in prayer all the while we wisht it after some manner though perhaps there went not along with it the Addressive part to God by way of Petition which yet 't is very hard should be wanting in those who habitually know by Faith and by Christian Language and Practice are inur'd to acknowledge that all Goods especially Supernatural ones come from God § 4. Next I answer that there is no doubt but a true Sight of the excellency and utility of Virtue improv'd by our consideration may cause some degrees of Wishes or Desires of it and so beget Virtue at first or advance it something But that all those means are dry and inefficacious without Prayer will appear by the Advantages found in Prayer As First that while our thoughts are set upon him who is our last End we take our aim more steadily at the means by which we are to attain him 2ly Faith which we suppose to go before Prayer telling us all comes from him it heightens our Soul and consequently Fancy far above that pitch to which Natural and Unelevated thoughts could have rais'd them 3ly Faith telling us also he is the Fountain of all Virtue the very Approach to him by Prayer and begging it of him is the drawing it into our selvs from his Inexhaustible Treasures of all Good 4ly Faith telling us he has promis'd to hear our prayers which are made according to
OF DEVOTION By J. S. Printed in the Year 1678. TO THE Right Honourable THE COUNTESS OF KINNOVL MADAM IT was the pressing Desire of Your Pious Heart which inspir'd me with a Will to satisfy your Christian Enquiry what true Devotion was and to write this Piece A laudable Ambition to dress up Your Soul in such a manner as it might look Beautifully in the Eye of Heaven made You strain towards th' Attainment of It but Your acute Understanding did not so easily find out its certain Idea nor discover clearly what was it's proper Nature You were too Wise to think it consisted in Light Bigotteries and those Affections which were built up from Solid Truths were apt to seem too Learned and too Rigid for that flexible and Soul-melting Disposition Manly Thoughts appear'd too Stiff Childish ones too Weak to compound it and it bred in Your Ladyship no small Difficulty to hit the Golden Mean between flying Fancies and low Dulness Nay You scarce knew Her when she was high in Your Self and were loath out of a Humble Errour to think the prompt Flights of Your Spirit could consist with the Heaviness or Distractedness of Imagination Your Ladyship might have discover'd Her nearer hand and better exprest than I can do it here in the Exemplary Life and Conversation of the Earl of Kinnoul Your every-way most Worthy Husband What Virtue was there which when occasion presented he did not readily Execute What Duty either to God or his Neighbour which through the whole Course of his Life he was known to neglect His Piety was steady and fervent his Deportment Noble and Affable his calm Reason fixt by Christian Principles was never shaken or mov'd from it's just Level by the Whirlwinds of Passion which toss the Generality and shipwrack such vast Multitudes His Disregard of the World was Admirable or rather to speak more properly for one of his Rank his just Regard of it esteeming it and behaving himself as if he esteem'd it to be what truly it is a Stage so to act our respective Parts on as to please the Great King of Heaven and his Glorious Court our Spectators None of it's gay Follies affected him no Bribe either of Honour Profit or Pleasure had ever the Power to warp him Nor had Dulness the least share in this unmoved Temper of his Mind His Wit was piercing and wanted nothing but the rambling Part of it which shoots Bolts at Rovers Nor was his Judgment less solid though he had not the Vanity to blaze either or discover them without precise Necessity and I can speak by Experience not very many even of those who make a Profession of Knowledge understood better either the Grounds of our Faith or the Reasons why we ought to be Virtuous I mean the Proportion the Means has to the End Grace to Glory or a well-led Life here to the Attainment of Eternal Bliss hereafter No wonder then he clos'd so Pious a Race with so Happy an End and look't upon Death as the Treshold to Heaven May we not say Madam That the Remembrance of his Life and Death as from some Luminary plac't in a Higher Sphere sends down their Influence upon Your Self prompting You powerfully with like Steps to follow such a Leader Whoever considers the strictest severity of Your Widdow-state the total Application of Your Mind to Devotion and Your earnest straining towards Heaven with all the Powers of Your Soul will discern You proceed as if You made account the Better Half of Your Self were there already But I must remember Madam You are yet alive and in that Circumstance just Praises are liable to be esteem'd Flattery The rest I ow'd to the Memory of Your dear Lord and to my own Duty not to let so great an Example of exactest Virtue in a Person of so high a Rank especially clouded by his own sober Modesty and silent Humility be lost to us for want of proposing it to the World To return then to my Matter Your Ladyship might I say have found a Living Character of Devotion nearer hand and have sav'd me all this Labour and you already saw all was Virtuous all was Saintly throughout the whole Course of his Life But it was the exact Knowledge of what Devotion was as distinguish 't from the Common Natures of Virtue and Goodness which You aim'd at For You had observ'd that many were held Virtuous and Good Persons who were not esteem'd Devout and that this Word Devotion had something in it's Notion particularly Excellent not found in the other This Excellency Your Ladyship aspir'd to and therefore You wisely desir'd in the first place to gain a clear Discernment of what it was and in what it consisted as singled from other common Considerations belonging to Goodness which often run mixt with it Hence I became oblig'd both to decypher Devotion and dissect Her and not only so to delineate Her Nature that it might be particularly known but by dividing her into her several kinds and treating at large of her Chief Act Prayer to acquaint You more perfectly with her Composition In a word You have here at once my Obedience and Your own Duty and that it may benefit Your Soul towards it's Improvement in Knowing Virtue shall be the daily Prayer of Madam Your Ladyship 's most Devoted and most Obedient Servant I. S. THE PREFACE TO THE READER THough this Treatise bears the Title Of Devotion yet I hope it will not be expected it should be either made up of Set-Forms of Prayer or be as easy as Prayers use and ought to be I have already declar'd that the Intention of writing it was to settle exactly the Nature and Notion of Devotion which kind of Discourses having for their Subject the Ground-work of the Matter they treat of cannot possibly ly so open to a Common View as those that concern the Superstructures built upon them Yet I hope there will be little found here which may not be easily render'd Intelligible to any attentive Reader who will think those Knowledges which advance his Soul worth the pains of a serious Endeavour to purchase them I am sure none of it is disproportion'd to the Understanding of that Noble Personage for whom as a private Paper I first writ it If all Readers be not such I heartily wish they were and endeavour as well as I can they should be so by yeilding to the Sollicitation of Friends to expose this Treatise to be Printed No small Kindness from me considering the Common Apprehension that a Resolution is already taken and fixt by some to find fault with all I have writ or shall write I beseech God to send them more Charity and me Patience It may be ask't Why such high Subjects should be writ in English I answer Because very many who understand not Latin may be capable of comprehending good Sense and concern'd too to receive thorow-Information in such Subjects Nor do I think any thing here unintelligible by the
alter a course directed by our best and clearest Reason for the suggestions of disorderd fancies But if once those temptations can deceive a soul into these erroneous conceits first that all her Prayer is fruitless and then harmful as being in her apprehension a kind of perpetual fault and such as she cannot mend for she finds by experience she can do no better with all endeavours she can use she is in danger to leave it quite off and think it better not to pray at all than to continue to do ill And this I take to be one of the most dangerous temptions in the World both because it comes mask't in the Vizard of Vertue and so is apt to take with well-meaning Souls which are not aware of it as also because Devotion being the best disposition of the soul to practise all Christian Duties and particularly Prayer which includes in it self the exercise of Faith Hope and Charity it follows that a soul which thus abandons her self to Sloth must needs languish away into a spiritual Consumption and piningly decay in those Christian Virtues which give life to all the rest and without which the outward practise of others are but false appearances springing from material habits and as it were the Ghosts of true Vertue § 4. Another Weapon of great use in this kind of Fight is this consideration That we may be certain we merit in the sight of God or serve and please him by continuing our Prayer when we are seized with this Dryness and Dulness and assaulted with Distractions whereas we cannot be so certain of this when our Prayer is accompany'd with satisfaction and delight The content taken in sensible feeling is so inbred and in a manner essential to a Soul according to her Inferior part or as she is the Form of the Body and this natural propension to all manner of delights so heighten'd in us by Original Corruption which still draws us from Spirituality to Sense that we are apt to adhere and cling to whatever is thus agreable and this even in prayer it self Whence it comes to pass that because nature so subtly seeks its own satisfaction 't is very hard when this sensible pleasingness accompanies our prayer to discern whether we are not serving our selves when we should be serving God at least it often happens in this case of sensible delight that our easiness and promptness to apply our selves frequently to Acts of Prayer springs in part from our love of this pleasure which is a great alloy to the spirituality of Devotion and to some degree taints the purity of our intentions Whence all spiritual Masters use to take great care that those souls who find sweetness in their prayer be not attacht to it lest they fall into spiritual Gluttony and depress the mind to sensible Objects by those very means which should raise it above them § 5 Now all this danger is securely avoyded when our Prayers are disgustful For however they seem to us sapless and dry yet we are sure the desire of pleasing our inferior part or complying with our corrupt inclinations has not any the least share in what we do but that the Prayer and Intention which as was said necessarily goes along with it in the superiour part which only is Spiritual remains altogether pure and untainted Let then the Soul which finds litle gust in Prayer continue in the posture and circumstance of praying especially if the prayer be Obligatory and in the material exercise of it at least vocally if she can do no more Two comforts will ensue hence one that the merit of such prayer is secure every Act of bearing up against this dryness and the sloth to which it tempts being manifestly an adhesion or clinging to God with the superior part of the Soul The other is that the gain made by such continuance though it seem small comes in clear there being nothing to be defalkt from its purity by the mixture of any motive sprung from matter or Body wheras generally in good actions perform'd by the middle sort of Christians there goes so much out to the inferior part that is to Fancy and Appetite that when the Chaff comes to be winnowed from the pure Corn there remains not so many grains of Spirit as some apprehend 'T is very well if they escape with the Abatement of half And after all the harvest of the former sort does but only seem small for in truth 't is otherwise since of necessity the Habit of adhering to God must be got by a frequent repetition of Acts so that the soul which faithfully continues to struggle against the difficulties of Prayer cannot fail at last to come to a facility of it so much the more to be valued and endeavour'd by how much it is free from all suspicion of alloy from the inferior part being manifestly wrought out by the strength and predominancy of the Superior § 6. There is yet another comfort in this constancy and resolution which is that the not deserting our devotions for want of sensible content but going steadily on whatever we feel is an evident testimony or argument to the soul that she is as she ought to be For since she cannot act this to please Nature to whose grain it lies so cross it must of necessity proceed from a motive above Nature that is a firm will and hearty desire to please God The knowledg of which must needs increase Hope and if it be well laid to heart will in despite of the Dryness and the Scruples apt to ensue upon it produce that fruit of the Holy Ghost which is called Spiritual Ioy and such a solid Peace of mind as the World cannot give § 7. A Soul which needs more helps in this kind may make use of some Preparation to Prayer such as may be most efficacious to fix her attention and keep her Fancy from wandring To which purpose she may a litle reflect upon the importance of it and remember That Happiness or Misery and this for all Eternity depends upon the disposition which she carries with her out of this life and that disposition on Prayer which is the means to procure it That so much time is allotted to every one to work out his Salvation as every one lives and no more And that this time mispent can never be recalled That the rest of our life is only to fit us to pray well and if the time of Prayer be fruitless our whole life is fruitless and irrecoverably Lost That we cannot be disposed for Heaven without Time and the time of Prayer is that wherein alone it can be expected this disposition should be wrought wherefore if this time be lost at what other time can we hope to do that which if it be not done we are miserable and yet cannot be done but at some time c. These and the like reflexions such as we find most apt to work upon us may contribute much to the well
performance of Prayer § 8. Freedome of Spirit is another great help in this case Distractedness for the most part proceeding from worldly matters which our too great concern in them is perpetually suggesting to our thoughts He that can contrive himself into circumstances which free him from having any thing to do with the World more then to make use of the means it affords him to gain Heaven is in the happiest condition and likely to find least disturbance in Prayer He that cannot free himself from business let him free himself from all unnecessary concerns for it and settle this judgment firmly in his Soul That reason permits him not to be farther concern'd cern'd for worldly affairs let their importance be what it will than as they depend on him That success is out of his power and depends not on him but Providence to which he should contentedly resign it and must whether he be content or no That his part and all the share he has in any Action is to use his endeavours according to the best of his skill That when he has allotted the time which is necessary for this and imploy'd it as well as he can he has done all he has to do or can do in these matters and ought to be concern'd no farther but is now at liberty to employ the time allotted for Prayer in the Best manner Likewise That there is no business which takes up so much time as not to leave sufficient for Prayer if negligence more than business do not hinder and the like But above all let him still remember that whatever other business he have or can have and I do not except any not love to Parents care of Children the strongest and most rational tyes to the nearest and most dearest Relations nay the pursuit of things most necessary even of Livelyhood of Cloths and Meat is of no importance in comparison of this If this succeed not he is undone and that Eternally however he thrive in others And if this succeed no miscarriage in any or all the rest can hinder him from being Eternally Happy He that lives gloriously and with full Satisfaction of all his desires is wretched if he go at last into Hell and after his short dream of Happiness wake into a horrid and never ending real misery And he who lives despised and scorn'd and dyes starved with cold or hunger is happy if he go to heaven and find his short and now ended suffrings swallowed up in infinite Bliss So that in truth to amuse our selves with what happens in this life to the prejudice of what is to come hereafter is a folly infinitly more senceless then what we can fancy most ridiculous § 9. This Freedom of Spirit is a Disposition so highly conducive to Devotion that it ought to be preserv'd even in the immediate means to it I mean in our Prayers and reading devout Books in case they be not obligagory or that after a deliberate consideration with the assistance and advice of our Spiritual Director it appears not that we have already made choice of the best and see that others are improper or less beneficial For there are many good Souls so strangely fixt by a habituated Custome of saying such and such Prayers that they fall into Scruples if upon occasion they hap to omit or change them and yet let them examin their own thoughts to the bottom they can discover no reason or ground of such a Scruple but the aukwardness of breaking a longinur'd Custom And to such persons it seems very advisable in my judgment that they omit them in very good occasions or with good advice change them that so freeing themselves thus from the tyrannous slavery of Custome and the biggottery of irrational fears they may inure themselves still to follow Right Reason in what they do and no other motives of which they can give no account which is indeed to assert and preserve the just Liberty of Spirit due by the Laws of Nature and Grace where no contrary Duty or Obligation does restrain it § 10. There are divers reasons why we should not always use the same Prayers and run still in one track One is because a perpetual custom hinders our attention to the sense and due penetration of the words in which chiefly consists the Fruit or spiritual advance by Prayer Another is the irrational scruple as was said of leaving off what meer Custom has addicted one to which is a fault or imperfection and so ought to be amended A third because it is not to be expected in this state that our Spirit should be always in one humour or disposition and 't is best that every thing be wrought upon according as it is dispos'd to have the Effect produc't in it A fourth and principal reason is because our Soul every day grows or should grow in spirituality at least at every competent distance season or stage of our Lifes Race she must needs by the very practise of a vertuous Christian Life have gain'd a considerable advance though perhaps she discern it not especially while 't is growing and 't is as irrational to think the same thoughts are apt to fit her in all states as to think that our Bodies ought always to be fed with Milk because we eat nothing else when we were Infants I for my part know no one Devotion suting all sorts all states all times and every pitch but that which was made by the Wisdom of the Eternal Father who fully comprehended them all I mean the Lords Prayer § 11. But the best help of all is a good Director For as in the Body the same diseases proceed somtimes from different causes and require different ways of cure so it is in the Mind too It may happen that the same indisposition which in some proceed from the Impersection of Nature may be caused by the Perfection of Nature in others A Soul fitted for higher Operations than these in which she is imploy'd and straining at them by a natural propension and yet not reaching them for want of Instruction may fall into the same unsatisfactory condition which happens to other Souls from other causes A good Director is as necessary in such cases as a good Doctor where diseases spring from not usual and not easily perceived causes However our conduct is sure to be so much the wiser as he has more Wisdom than our selves In this particular there are but two things to be observed to chuse one who is truly fit and then to treat freely with him They are both of great importance but need not be farther dilated SECT IV. Of the two chief kinds of Devotion § 1. BEcause Devotion is a steady bent of the Will to Spiritual Operations and there be two ways by which the Will may come to this disposition those two different Methods make two sorts or Kinds of Devotion For the Will may be wrought to this temper either by a Habit got as other Habits
strive by continual Prayer made after that weak manner at least as they are able to improve those Imperfect Wills into Perfect Ones and groaning under the Slavery they now fully experience at once sigh and tremble before their justly offended God Which kind of Exercise in this case is more profitable and proper for them to use than Love of God of which their Hearts yet full of Filth are at present uncapable Yet their utmost Industry must be imploy'd by Faith and some Degree of Hope which are here the only Acters to promote and advance these good Motions and Graces of the Holy-Ghost not yet within them but only moving them to towards that Grace by which the same Holy-Ghost enters into their Heart and inhabits there The hardest struggle is at first till the Scales begin to turn which done all is easie to us if we pursue our Victory But for those who are in this State it were very fit that Mortification went along with Prayer to wean deterr and divert the Soul from the noxious Gust she took in sinful Objects 14. Lastly We may hence admire the Wise Methods and Matchless Bounty of our good God in alluring us by so many Motives to apply to him by Prayer that so we may arrive at true Happiness and giving us by the very asking that is as soon as ever we ask all that is our certain and true Good or all we can according to right Reason heartily beg of him You 'l say It will follow hence that if one immediately ask Heaven he shall have it I answer That this were the same manner of fond Petition but far more highly unreasonable as to ask the Virtue of our Lady or the Apostles without thinking of putting first the Immediate Disposition to have it which is to press God to do a Miracle for our sakes a thing true Humility Reverence the Requisites to a rightly made Prayer will scarce allow And so still our general Principle remains firm to us that we shall be sure to obtain what we pray for when we ask for our true Good so we ask as we ought Now the Immediate Disposition to Heaven being Love of God if we pray for the Means we shall be sure both to obtain This and Heaven too which is our End by it Which secures to us the Effect of our Prayer or the Accomplishment of our Wishes though it come not to us after our own foolish manner but according to the Method our infinitly Wise God has appointed that is that all things even in Super-naturals except in some few Cases be carryed forwards from Connatural Causes or Dispositions to proper Effects Which Consequence of the Effects out of their proper Causes is the true meaning of the Word Merit so misrepresented by our Adversaries only superadding That God has promis'd this certain Effect shall follow and that the Generality of the Faithful Work out of that Consideration or out of a Relyance on God's Promises without knowing perhaps how this Promise is brought about or perform'd to us Which yet when known by those who are capable of understanding it must needs add a strange Degree of Comfort and an exceeding Courage to employ themselves in Prayer Whence may be easily Collected that I only concern my self with that kind of Impetrative Virtue by which rightly made Prayer obtains certainly of God our true Spiritual Good that by shewing the Connatural Efficacy of it and with how necessary a Consequence the Attainment of Virtue springs from it I may excite my Readers to pursue that best Duty and withal by the way instruct them how to perform it What other Virtue Prayer has of obtaining many things of God for our selves and our Neighbour by obliging his infinit Goodness and Wisdom in his Government of the World so to contrive and order Things that not one Prayer of the Just be left unavailable as far as can possibly consist with the common Good of the Universe nay even so far as if the Prayer be made with a perfect Faith Confidence and firm Relyance upon him to alter the Course of Nature by Miracle for such a Prayer's sake Of these I say it is not my purpose to treat at present it being out of my Road as depending on Principles which ly very remote from my present Design as was said formerly in a like Case concerning Prayer to Saints at the End of the Fourth Section I shall end this Discourse with those most expressive Words of St. James If any one wants Wisdom let him ask of God who gives to all abundantly and without grudging and it shall be given him But let him ask in Faith nothing doubting For he that doubts is like a Wave of the Sea which is mov'd and tost about by the Wind. Let not then such a Man think that he shall obtain any thing of our Lord. Where we are to note first that by Wisdom is not meant Speculative Knowledge but that Wisdom which is our certain and true Spiritual Good and of which the Fear of God is the Beginning as the Love of God is its Accomplishment or Perfection Next he assures us It shall be given and that without grudging or upbraiding any that they have receiv'd enough already but abundantly without stint so they dispose themselves by Prayer to receive it Thirdly He puts the Disposition to receive it to be a firm Hope Faith or Confidence in God's over-flowing Goodness which is strengthen'd by knowing that what we ask is agreeable to his Holy Will Lastly He declares that the want of this Confidence in asking renders our whole Prayer ineffectual For the Wish cannot be strong and efficacious to work the Soul into a hearty and habitual Love of God if it be held before-hand as it ought that it cannot be had without God's giving it and the Asker thinks that let him ask Virtue how he will it is yet an obscure kind of Mystery lying in God's Breast and depending on his meer Will whether he will please to give him any Virtue or no and that let him pray for it how he will there are yet no determinate or certain Causes laid in the Course of his Supernatural Providence to attain it and thence comes to doubt whether he shall ever obtain any Virtue or none at all which is very uncomfortable Whereas were it known and well penetrated that God's Will is already as to that Point determined by his Wisdom governing and promoting Souls by Prayer to Virtue and by Virtue to Heaven as by proper Dispositions to those Effects according to that Saying of the Psalmist They shall rise from Virtue to Virtue till they see the God of Gods in Sion Also were it known and consider'd that an unwavering and thence efficacious Prayer or Wish strengthen'd by directing it to God is the proper Disposition or Means effectually and necessarily as we may say to gain Virtue It will become impossible to want Courage to ask it heartily and absolutely impossible to waver or want Assuredness in our asking it impossible our Wishes of it should not become an Efficacious Means to obtain it Lastly impossible we should not obtain what we ask Soli Deo Gloria FINIS