on whom you ought to cast all your Cares as being well assur'd that he careth for you And this I conceive was meant by S. Paul when he exhorted the Phillippians that in their Devotions they should be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplications with thanksgiving to make their requests known unto God Phil. 4.6 The Soul of it self is nimble and active and in an instant can mount up to Heaven in Prayer which is therefore call'd an Elevation of the Soul Psal 25.1 But Earthly-mindedness keeps it fluttering below and fastens its Affections to the Dust which does so clog them that they cannot aspire to the things above You are therefore to take off the Weights which the World hangs upon your Thoughts and which distract them in your Supplications For whilst you cherish immoderate Desires of the World they will either hinder you from Praying at all or from Praying as you ought III. Idleness and Sloth may be another occasion of the wandring of your Thoughts in Prayer For perhaps you will not take pains to suppress and correct the Extravagances of your Thoughts and to keep them within due Bounds and Measures By which neglect your Soul becomes like the field of the slothful and the vineyard of the man void of understanding which was all grown over with thorns and nettles had covered the face thereof and the stone-wall thereof was broken down But to whatever occasion the wandring of your Thoughts in Prayer may be imputed it highly concerns you industriously to avoid them And in a great measure you may be able to do this if you use that due attention and zeal in Prayer which you must own to be wholly requisit and needful And first you must use all due Attention for by it you fix your Thoughts upon God and frame to your self a strong and lively Idea of his Presence and possess your heart with awful apprehensions of his Majesty Ever having in mind that your Prayer is to him in whom you live move and have your being When the Jews enter the Synagogue they for a while stand silently in the posture of Prayer before they begin it in which time they labour to affect their minds with his Glorious Attributes Buxtorf Syn. Jud. l. 5. whom they are come to Worship that the Consideration thereof may help the better to keep them from being vain and trifling And one of their Masters taught his Scholars that before they began their Prayers They should think a while on him to whom they make them And it would doubtless much contribute to the restraint and amendment of that wandring in Prayer to which you will find your self wonderfully prone to consider in whose Presence you are and the infinite disproportion that there is betwixt God and you For you can no sooner consider that it is God to whom you speak in Prayer but the Thought thereof will quicken your Attention and render you apprehensive and make you in a dread and surprize if you find your self heedless and unconcern'd in so Important a Business and in so Great a Presence Secondly Attention is a proper cure for wandring in Prayer because it keeps your Mind and Thoughts to every sentence and word thereof For that Attention which is to accompany Prayer is a settled and composed Temper of Mind which gathers all your Thoughts together and fixes them upon the Solemn Business you are about And tho' Idle Impertinent Wandring Thoughts will be ever ready to thrust themselves upon you and intrude into your Holy Offices so that you cannot be always totally free from them yet by Attention you may much hinder and keep them from making any stay or getting the Dominion over you so far as to corrupt or captivate the Will So that notwithstanding that this Wandring to which you are liable may be your Unhappiness yet it can never be your Sin as long as you strive against it and deny it your Approbation and Consent And tho' you can never entirely conquer this Wandring of your Thoughts in Prayer yet you may restrain and deal with it as Abraham with the ravenous Birds which he continually Drove away when they came to devour his Sacrifice Gen. 15.11 Causinus who was no contemptible Director of Devotion advises his Suppliant to stay upon every Sentence in Vocal Prayer the space of a breathing and in that time to ponder the Words he pronounces and to consider the Person to whom he speaks and his own Unworthiness He would likewise have him so to apply the Prayer as if it had been made for his own particular use and to espouse all the Affections which the Composer of the Prayer had when the Holy Ghost moved him to compose it and assisted him in the Composition But your want of Attention will hinder you from the observation of this advice and will also hinder God from regarding your Prayers For can you expect God should attend to the Prayers to which you do not attend your self Can you hope that he with a Paternal kindness and affection should open his Ears to those who are not serious before him If at the same time you call to Heaven your Thoughts are so set upon Earthly concerns so that when you have done Praying you scarce know what you have been doing is not this to offer the sacrifice of Fools Who are rash with their mouth and hasty in their heart to utter any thing before God not considering that he is in the heavens and they on the earth Eccles 5.2 You are not then to run over your Prayers by Rote but with recollected Thoughts to Weigh and be Attentive to what you say unto him with whom is Terrible Majesty and who is a consuming Fire Thirdly 'T would not a little conduce to your exercise of Attention in Prayer if you would consider that the Perfection of your Prayers is according to the degrees of your Attention and that the more Attentive you are in Prayer the greater benefit you receive by it And here one way to mend your Attention is to repeat the Prayer again wherein you have found it defective and to continue this course till you find your heedlesness worn off and removed For by this means you will defeat the Devil who occasions your unattentiveness by injecting wicked Thoughts into your mind and presenting you with amusing objects But it would be Satans interest to give over tempting you thus to Wander in Prayer if once he finds your sense of it arming you against such Wandring and quickning your Attention and rendring you more circumspect Now this Repetition comes not within the compass of that which our Lord censur'd for vain and idle Matth. 6.7 For in this case you do not repeat your Prayers over and over out of a conceit that God will the sooner be mov'd to hear you or that by your Repetition he better understands your meaning which was the Opinion of those Heathens whose Repetition of their Prayers was
THE CHRISTIANS Daily Sacrifice Duly Offer'd OR A Practical Discourse Teaching the Right Performance of Prayer By LANCELOT ADDISON D. D. Dean of Lichfield S. James IV. 3. Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss LONDON Printed for Robert Clavel at the Peacock at the West end of S. Pauls 1698. To the Honourable Sir BENJAMIN BATHURST SIR IN setting so Eminent a Name before so mean a Work shews that I have as little skill in Dedication as they have in Architecture who erect a Stately Entrance to a House of no Competent Reception To which Indecorum I was carried by a Zeal I have ever had to own to the World the Honour and Advantage that for many many Years I have receiv'd from Your steady Friendship Which was begun in a Foreign Nation where You added no small Credit and Reputation to Your Own I therefore Address You SIR as a Friend the Noblest Title upon Earth and come not meerly to crave Your Patronage but to pay You a Debt A Debt of Gratitude which as it will alway be Due so it shall alway be Paid But I know Time and Business is precious to You and therefore I will not farther trespass upon either than to beg Your Pious Acceptance of this Small Treatise and that You would look upon it as a Pledge of my Grateful Sense of Your Favours and of the great Zeal I have for Your Eternal Welfare And now SIR being no Friend to the Common matter of Letters Dedicatory pardon me that instead of enlarging upon Your Merits I apply my self to Prayer the Subject of the ensuing Discourse That You and Your Lady and Children may long long Enjoy Health and Prosperity and that the God of Blessings may Bless You with all Divine Graces on Earth and in Heaven Crown You with Glory Lichfield July 8. 1698. Your most Obliged and Humble Servant L. Addison INTRODUCTION TWO very different Opinions and both sufficiently erroneous concerning the Holy Exercise of Prayer got very early footing among the Judaizing Christians to whom St. James the pious Bishop of Jerusalem wrote his circular Epistle Some there were among them in whose esteem Prayer was sunk so low that they thought it either wholly unnecessary or at most but a thing of Choice and not Duty and of that Indifference that they might use or let it alone as they pleas'd without any Offence to God or hindrance to themselves And of this Opinion were those who coveted and had not who kill'd and desired to have and could not obtain Who Fought and Warr'd yet they had not because they asked not S. James 4.2 All their Coveting Envying Contending and Fighting brought them in no advantage because they neglected Prayer the only means of rendring their honest Endeavours Prosperous and Successful And as these were apt to neglect and set too small an Esteem upon Prayer so there were others who had a notion of Prayer as much bending to the other Extreme For they laid so much stress upon it and thought it so efficacious as to expect that every thing must of course be granted them if they sought for it in Prayer The former made Prayer in a manner useless as to the obtaining of any thing the latter thought it able to obtain all things Being of opinion that the meer Exercise thereof had such a power with God as to prevail with him even for such things as they design'd to consume upon their Lusts and to support their Envy Malice Covetousness and Ambition How far the Present Age guilty of all sorts of vile Opinions and Practices is gone in this distemper I leave every one to make his own observations my purpose being to return at least an Honest if not a Satisfactory answer to the Request made to me namely To give a familiar account of the Holy Duty of Prayer So that without further Preface I shall begin with the true Notion thereof as that which will more easily lead to the knowledge of its Nature and Importance CHAP. I. Of the true Notion of Prayer NOT to spend time about the Grammatical meaning of the Words by which Prayer in all Languages is signified I shall briefly set down what Prayer is and what it does imply Now Prayer according to S. Austin in Psal 85. is A speaking to God When you read the Scripture saith the Father God speaks to you but when you Pray you speak to him From which words Drexelius took occasion to define Prayer The Conversation and Discourse of the soul with God Which is agreeable to the Notion of this Duty in Job 15.4 for as Drusius observes the Hebrew Word there used for Prayer signifies to have a Familiar Converse with the Almighty And the Greek Fathers speak of it in the same sense when they call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a familiar talking with or unto God For in it you unbosom your self and open your heart and mind unto him as a man would do unto his Friend in whom he most confides Some of the Antients speaking Rhetorically of Prayer call it a Chain of gold hanging down from heaven to draw men up thither and to bring them into the more immediate presence of God and to an intimate access to the Fountain of all Goodness And it is suppos'd to make such a Change in us as if it plac'd us on Mount Tabor to enjoy a kind of Transfiguration of the Soul which by the means of Prayer as in a Glass beholds the glory of the Lord and is changed into the same Image from glory to glory The eye of the Soul by the help of Prayer as truly as the eye of the Body feeds it self with the beauty of the fields does refresh and recreate it self with the Excellencies of God and the Perfections of the Holy Jesus From whom it receives whatever it can desire and through whom it avoids whatever it has cause to fear In Prayer saith Albertus Magnus the soul is carried to the source and spring of all help and comfort bounty and goodness It brings a man saith he to know God and knowing to love him and loving to seek him and in seeking to take pains and in taking pains to find him But these and the like sayings of the Antients concerning Prayer serve rather to express the Worth and the Effects of it than to declare its Nature any farther than that from such like expressions we may reasonably infer that Prayer implies a great deal more than telling over a few Beads as is the way of some or the bare reciting so many words or sentences form'd and compos'd into that which we call a Prayer which is to be fear'd is the case of many A man may say a thousand of these and that too with great outward seriousness and composure and yet be far from that which is truly and properly to be called Praying For nothing deservedly bears that name wherein there is not an elevation of the soul and a lifting up of the heart to God
Pray and go not thither full of thy Sins unrepented of And be not as Fools who offer Sacrifices for their Sins and yet turn not from them Only Penitents then are fit to come to the House of Prayer and to be Suppliants at the Throne of Grace Every one is to put off his Shooes to abandon his Sins when he comes unto God to take heed to his Feet and approach him with all possible Reverence Under the Law no man had liberty to come into the Congregation who had touch'd any Unclean thing till he was sprinkl'd with Water by the Priest And under the Gospel there is no coming unto God without having your heart sprinkl'd from an evil Conscience and your body wash't with pure water Heb. 10.22 2. The Masters forbad any to enter the Temple with Dust on their Feet meaning thereby That all Earthly and Worldly Affections Thoughts and Passions were to be shaken off and discharged by them who come to offer Spiritual Holy Services unto God The Jews were also injoyn'd not to bring with them into the Sanctuary any of those Tools and Instruments used by them in their Civil Trades and Imployments by which they were also minded to leave behind them whatsoever might in the least suggest any Earthly Concern Worldly Notion or Incumbrance whilst they were at God's House lest they should be disturb'd or diverted in Devotion Nor were the Jews singular in this particular or the only People that were careful thus to Prepare themselves for Prayer For the Mahumedans who took many of their Rites from the Jews are very precise in Preparing themselves for the Moschs or Giamma's the places of their Publick Worship For they never repair to these till they have first Wash't at home nor do they enter those Solemn Places with their Shooes on And they are of Opinion That if they come Unprepared to Prayers or behave themselves Indecently at them that they lose the benefit of their coming Cleanliness according to Mahumed is the Key of Prayer and that it is not regarded without it Under the name of Cleanliness all the Preparatives to Prayer are understood And by Prayer is meant the whole System of Religious Worship Now this Cleanliness does not only respect the Body but also regards the Mind and Conversation and it implies the putting away of all unlawful Actions the purging of the Heart from all vicious and unworthy Thoughts and Affections And they hold that Filthiness in these is a thing most offensive to God who according to their Alcoran as well as our Bible is of Purer Eyes than to behold the least Defilement And it may well be suppos'd that Christians will not come behind Jews and Mahumedans in this particular Nor boldly and inconsiderately rush upon those holy Duties which these Infidels approach with so great Preparedness The Apostle advises all of his Religion to lift up holy and pure hands in Prayer 1 Tim. 2.8 By his Apostolical Authority he appointed that not only at the Temple at Jerusalem but every where else Christians should Pray with that Ceremony of holding up the hands joyn'd with Purity of Conscience and Good Works And that they should take care that no doubts or irresolutions of Mind should hinder the exercise or benefit of Prayer You do but burn Incense to Vanity and lift up your hands to Heaven to no purpose whilst you regard Iniquity in your Heart and your Actions are unjust God will cast back your Prayers like dung upon your face and reject both them and your Person when you tread his Courts and at the same time hate to be reform'd God hears not sinners but if any man be his worshipper him he heareth S. John 9.31 His eyes are over the righteous and his ears are open to their Prayers but his face is against them that do evil Psal 34.15 1 Pet. 3.12 God looks kindly on his obedient servants but he sets himself as an enemy against the obstinately wicked He is nigh to good men and hears their Prayers but their Prayer is an abomination unto him who turn their ears from hearing the Law Prov. 28.9.15.29 The humble dutiful Soul imploring God's assistance is sure to receive it in kind or in equivalence But the Texts of Scripture declaring the Prayers of Sinners to be ineffectual are to be understood of none but Impenitent sinners who stubbornly walk in the Ways of their own Hearts and do that which is Right in their own Eyes who either wilfully continue in their Impieties or retain a kindness for them It is not then your having committed Sin and your sense of some Guilt being upon you that ought to hinder your Praying For you must Pray the rather that God may remit and pardon the sins you have commited For if you are humbly minded and sincerely chang'd from Bad to Good if you loath and forsake your evil Ways and with a broken and contrite Heart grieve for your Offences you then are one whose cry God will hear and whose tears he will put into his bottle and not suffer a Drop falling from the eye of a Penitent to be as Water spilt upon the ground He will hear your cry and deliver your soul from death He will recover your feet from falling that you may walk before him in the light of the living Psal 116.8 9.13 He will give you space and opportunity to live and acceptably to serve him He will hear your Prayers when you come unto him without the love of your Sins about you or purposes to continue in them When Noah came out of the Ark in which saith one he had long been Buried not Dead his first Care was to Build an Altar unto the Lord and to take of every Clean Beast and of every Clean Fowl to offer in Burnt-Offerings And the Lord smelt a sweet Savour he took notice of the Purity of Noah's heart and accepted of his Actions and shew'd himself pleas'd with his Holy Intentions But that which herein seems to be most observable and to our purpose was Noah's great Industry and Care for the right offering of this Sacrifice And this was seen in his Building an Altar and making Choice of such Beasts and Birds as were fit thereon to be Offered Now Prayer is your best Sacrifice which in Imitation of Noah you are to offer unto the Lord with great Preparedness For the want of this will betray in you a Prophane temper of Spirit and a lack of a just Esteem and Reverence for God and his Service And therefore according to Siracides Before thou prayest prepare thy self and be not as one that tempteth the Lord Ecclus 18.23 Let the Clean Beasts and Birds offer'd by Noah mind you of keeping your Soul Clean and Pure from all wicked Resolutions and Affections and to appear before the Lord empty of all Sinful Habits and Intentions And let no Envy Hatred Malice or any Uncharitableness lodge in your Heart For no Lusts of Carnal Uncleanness no Filthiness of Spirit no
condemn'd by our Saviour but the Repetition now spoken of is to mend your Incogitancy and Thoughtlesness of the Business you are about For it is not the tumbling out of so many words or of the same words over and over again or the Length and Multitude of them that is pleasing unto God any farther than as they express the fervency of your Spirit the Importunity of your Zeal and the greatness of your Wants But if you affect Length and Repetition in Prayer either out of Hypocrisie or Vainglory it will be so far from pleasing God and prevailing with him that it will have a quite contrary effect And this you may conclude from our Saviours carriage in this Particular who disliking the Heathens Length and Vociferation in Prayer gave his Disciples a short comprehensive Form which they were to use and imitate in their calling upon God Fourthly When you find out the Wandring of your Thoughts and that you are ready to mind any thing rather than that you should there is no such Cure for this as Attention For by it you instantly recal your self to your Business and to a serious minding of what you are about And you will soon perceive your obligation to do this when you consider that without doing it you slight one of the most Eminent Parts of God's Worship By drawing nigh unto him with your lips when your heart is far from him Besides if you exactly weigh your lack of Attention you will find it has in it a great degree of Atheism For not to Attend to what you say when you speak unto God betrays in you a low esteem of his Majesty and that you have mean unworthy Thoughts of the Godhead which has ever been accounted a piece of the vilest Atheism Call home then your roving Thoughts and employ them in what you are about Get as near Heaven as you can and have your mind there and there only For unless this be your care and practice when you offer to God the Sacrifice of Prayer you will be but like the Cheat in Plutarch Who brought unto the Altar of his Idol the Skeleton of an Ox cover'd with a fair hide pretending that he offer'd a goodly Sacrifice of Flesh and Entrails when indeed there was nothing but a skin full of bones You would count him a vain Thoughtless Person worthy of Ridicule and Contempt who coming to beg his Life of his Prince should give over his Suit to run after a Butterfly And yet this is your figure when in Prayer you suffer your mind to be carried away to impertinent objects and fasten your Thoughts to the things which you ought to avoid thinking on Can you hope as was but now intimated God should incline His ears to the Prayers to which you will not incline your own That he should regard your Petitions when you do not regard them your self You may easily observe your aptness to heedlesness at Devotion and how many things all foreign to what you are about do interpose when you fall down upon your Knees you may find to your sorrow the Common Enemy tampering with your Heart at the same time your tongue is speaking unto God 'T is therefore necessary to recollect your self to fix your mind when you come before the Almighty and to affect your Soul with this consideration That you are not sure of another opportunity to solicit him with your Prayers But if through the frailty of humane Nature you cannot always exercise that Attention which is necessary to restrain your wandring in Prayer then beg of God to assist your frailty and to establish your Attention against all avocations And tho' they may steal upon you at Devotion that he would enable you by his Grace to reject them And if after all you cannot be rid thereof be sure to give them no encouragement but to deny them your approbation and consent For when you do sincerely strive against them God will either crown your endeavour with conquest over them or pardon them if they prove invincible But if the want of attention in Prayer be the fruit of your own wilful Negligence you can hope neither for God's assistance nor his pardon whilst this negligence is continued CHAP. XI Zeal in Prayer ZEal is another help against the wandring of your thoughts in Prayer Now Zeal is a sacred warmth and fervour of Mind and an affectionate earnestness to have your Prayers heard For it is not enough that you keep your Thoughts to what is utter'd by him that ministreth in the publick Service and to ponder and mind every word he speaks but you must do it with intention and fervency For both all wandring and all deadness in Prayer must be driven away True Zeal will melt and dissolve your heart and make you cry unto God with the utmost strength of Spirit and it will move you to be wholly bent to obtain what you crave A cold indifferent Suitor seldom prevails with Men. For if a begger should ask relief at your hands and do it in so loose a manner as that he seem'd indifferent whether he had it or no you would think he had either little Want or great Pride and so have no heart to relieve him Now the things you beg of God are so much above the rate of any ordinary Alms that you can never expect they should be given you if you are slight and heavy in asking them When you apprehend and fully consider the matter of your Prayer and add to it a devout earnestness of desire then may your Devotion be truly said to be Zealous And tho' this quality chiefly resides in the Soul yet it often appears in the gestures of the Body As was seen in Moses who when he made intercession for Israel Fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights and did neither eat bread nor drink water because of all the sins that Israel had sin'd in doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger Deut. 9.18 And the Zeal of this meekest of Men was more than ordinary when he desir'd God rather to blot him out of his BOOK than that he should execute his menaces against Israel Elias cast himself upon the earth to express his Earnestness in praying for Rain And the ever Blessed Jesus continued all night in Prayer and offer'd up his supplications with strong crying and tears Luke 6.12 Heb. 5.7 And pray'd with such Ardour and Affectionateness that the sweat fell from him to the ground as if it had been great drops of blood Luke 22.44 And this zeal and earnestness seems to have been meant by S. Paul when he exhorted Believers to be instant in Prayer Rom. 12.12 To strive in prayer Rom. 15.30 To labour frequently in prayer Col. 4.12 Night and day to pray exceedingly To pray always with all prayer praying earnestly 1 Thes 3.10 Eph. 6.18 1 Pet. 4.7 Jam. 6.7 By all which sacred Texts that Zeal and Vehemency seems to be enjoyn'd which I
continually to God and that without which you can never hope to be safe and prosperous For Praying gives you a title to God's safeguard and preservation and it must be as lasting as your own wants and obligation to worship God And therefore till you find you have no need of God's Mercies nor any tye upon you to adore him you must Pray without ceasing Which words imply Secondly That your Prayers under the Gospel must bear proportion with the Daily Sacrifices under the Law which were constantly offer'd Morning and Evening And you cannot sink your Prayers to a lesser proportion or pray seldomer than Morning and Evening It being highly reasonable and necessary that you should begin all your works with calling upon God for his direction and blessing and end them with praise and thanks for his protection and assistance Some have interpreted the Apostles words Pray without ceasing of spending every moment of their life in Prayer which can be no error if it be understood of such an excellent frame of Spirit and pious disposition of Mind as is alway in readiness to call upon God This religious temper and habitual devoutness of Soul is like the Holy fire of the Sanctuary which never went out For it is always ready to flame in pious ejaculations and affectionate breathings after God And when for want of meet circumstances your Prayers cannot be Vocal yet they may be Mental And in this sense you may be said to pray without ceasing which according to Diodati is to be understood rather of the heart and affection than of the tongue and words And tho' you have not always leisure and opportunity to be upon your knees yet you never want either to bow your heart before God and by a pious temper of mind and spirit of Devotion to lift it up to the Lord. And notwithstanding the Scripture has left the frequency of Prayer undetermined yet you may take your measures as to publick Prayers from the Rules of the Church and in your private Devotions from the examples of Holy Men. And first the Rules of the Church acquaint you with the stated times of Publick Prayer from which you are not to be absent when you can possibly be at them And it must be a matter of considerable moment that can justify your absence from the Lords House at the set times of Prayer Now according to some Expositors you may be said to Pray without ceasing when you observe the hours or times of Prayer appointed by the Church But if you were not injoyn'd to observe such stated times of Prayer yet the very Light of Nature and the Law of Piety would oblige you to observe them For both these teach you to omit no occasion to express your Duty to God Which consists in worshipping him giving him thanks calling upon him honouring his holy Name and his word and serving him truly all the days of our life And as to Frequency in your Private Devotion you have the Examples of Holy men in Scripture for your Guide And first of David Who evening morning and at noon did cry unto the Lord and he heard his voice Psal 55.17 With his constant importunity he re-inforc'd an impression of his Prayers upon God the better to move him to grant them My voice shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up Psal 5.3 This religious Prince made the first fruits and prime of the day to present his supplications before God and after the manner of earnest Petitioners he fix'd his eyes on heaven resolving to wait and never to move till the Lord hearken'd unto the voice of his Prayer nay from thrice David encreas'd his praying to seven times a day Psal 119.164 rightly concluding that he could never sufficiently admire and magnifie the Divine Excellencies and that if he had had nothing else to be the matter of his praises yet he thought himself bound continually to extol them It 's true the phrase seven times may be taken in a larger sense and not meerly to signifie that number but be look'd upon as a mode of speech denoting a great frequency in Prayer and shewing that David was daily very often imploy'd therein which custom to pray often was not peculiar to David only but was also used by God's people many hundred years after he saw corruption As was seen in Daniel who when he knew the Dead-warrant was sign'd for his execution Went into his house and his windows being open in his chamber towards Jerusalem he kneel'd upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did aforetime Dan. 6.10 The last words shew that it was not an emergent zeal or an extraordinary fit of Devotion but that it was his constant and usual practice to pray thrice a day which was the common custom of the Jews who made Morning noon and evening the three times of prayer Acts 3.1 and 10.4 and 9.31 which custom was observ'd also by the Apostles and some Devouter Christians went farther and pray'd six times a day taking in the Compline or the Prayer made by good men at nine at night But if you should imagine these examples to be imitable and that it would exhaust too much of your time to be so often on your knees then revolve with your self 1. That you are never so far to immerse and bury your self in worldly business as not to allow space to begin and end the day with Prayer And you cannot justly complain you want time to be thus often in Devotion when you consider how much time you can find to cast away if not upon that which is vicious yet upon that which is wholly impertinent to your Station If you would prudently retrench your Recreations and imploy in Piety the hours you spend in Vanities you would never be straitned for time to bestow in Devotion The true reason of your having so little time to give to this is because you lavish so much away in things of so little moment if not worse that when it is past you cannot but condemn your self for it But seeing you must one day give an account of the spending of your time it behoves you to be wary how you spend it And the more time you have wastfully mispent already the more signally careful you ought to be of that which yet remains And to redeem the hours you have thrown away upon Impieties by a vertuous and religious imployment of those God shall yet please to vouchsafe you Consider Secondly how reasonable and just a thing it is that you allow a liberal portion of your time to his service who is graciously pleas'd to allow so much to your own God does not grudge you space enough for your lawful Business and necessary Diversions but then he expects you would not encroach upon those minutes which are appointed to Religious Exercises It is very observable That men of
for worldly Riches do not desire them for such low regards as the maintaining of Pride Pomp Luxury or the like but that you may have wherewith to maintain good Works and to be in your prosperity what Job was in his Eyes to the blind and feet to the lame That the blessing of him who is ready to perish may come upon you and that by your means the heart of the needy may sing for joy Job 29. 2. Let your Prayers and Endeavours go hand in hand for the former without the latter is trifling and mockery and the latter without the former vanity and presumption you can never rightly desire what you do not by all good means labour to obtain To pray for that which you do not endeavour after is to be the moral of the Clown in the Apologue who call'd to Hercules to help him out with his mir'd Cart without setting his own shoulder to the wheel The eye to Heaven and the hand to the Helm is the old rule Supplications and Endeavours are never to be disjoyn'd no good is to be expected from either of them when alone 3. Observe what answer God makes and what returns you receive to your Prayers And in particular consider that his gracious Providence may often deny you some temporal Blessings as seeing them less fit for you to receive But then he gives you others in their stead which his infinite Goodness and Wisdom sees are more for your advantage And tho' God has promis'd to give to them that ask yet it is with these limitations viz. That he sees it good for you and that he has not by some particular Decree determin'd the contrary As for example If God has determin'd to destroy an impenitent Nation it is not all the Prayers of the holiest men on Earth can prevail with God to preserve it And of this you have a dreadful instance in Ezekiel 14. where it is evident that when God has resolv'd to punish a Land with any kind of Scourge he will not forbear to do it for any manner of intercession Finally whether God grants or denies your requests it is your duty to resign your will to his and to affect your mind with a profound sense of his infinit goodness in that without difficulty of Access he admits you to pray unto him and that you need not doubt of acceptance if you pray as you ought And to shew how you are to do this has been my care in what I now present you God prosper what has been said and make it to be for his own Glory and your eternal Happiness through Jesus Christ To whom with God the Father and God the Holy Ghost be Praise Glory Adoration and Thanksgiving for ever and for evermore Amen FINIS Books Written by the Reverend L.A. D. D. Dean of Lichfield WEst Barbary or an Account of the Customs and Revolutions of that Countrey The Present State of the Jews in Barbary The First State of Mahomedism The Primitive Institution or a Discourse of Catechising A Modest Plea for the Clergy An Introduction of the Sacrament The Catechumen An Account of the Millennium The Genuine use of the two Sacraments viz. Baptism and the Lord's Supper with the Christians Obligation frequently to receive the Latter The History of the Heresie denying the Divinity of Christ The Christians daily Sacrifice duly offer'd being a practical Discourse of the right Performance of Prayer An Account of Tangier during the Earl of Tiviot 's Government in a Letter to a Person of Quality
none can be thought worthy to live or to enjoy the breath of life who does not chearfully exercise himself in praying to and praising the Almighty Which shews the Universality as well as Necessity of Prayer and that it is the Duty not only of this or that sort of men but of all For if any should vainly pretend to be excus'd from paying this homage to God it must be either because they are too holy or too great either they are so good as not to need to pray or so great that it is below them But no man by reason of his holiness can be free from this duty for those who have been most eminent for this divine quality have been also most eminent for Devotion And of this you have an unquestionable instance in our Saviour who was superlatively eminent for all heavenly perfections and immaculate both by nature and conversation For he was both born and liv'd without sin And yet it is recorded of this most heavenly divine person That in the days of his flesh whilst he was yet in the world in the course of his obedience and humiliation and not arriv'd to the glorious and spiritual state of the celestial life Heb. 5.7 He did offer up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he fear'd or as it is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for his piety Here the Eternal Son becoming Man made his submissive Petition to his Eternal Father either to free him from that direful passage to death or to strengthen and bear him up in the horrible terrors conflicts and agonies that therein he met with and that being dead he would restore him to life and not to let him continue in the grave but to raise him thence and send back his spirit into his body And God heard and granted his desire For the third day after his burial Christ rose from the dead and God gave him back that spirit which on the Cross he so affectionately recommended into his hands Luke 23.46 And as by this plain example of Christ's praying you may clearly see that no mans sanctity can excuse him from doing doing the like so in the next place no man is freed from praying upon the score of his grandeur or secular Greatness This was evident in David who at the same time he wore the Royal Diadem did not neglect the hallowed Censor but constantly offer'd unto God the Incense of Prayer And for his diligence and assiduity in this sacred office he gain'd as some think the glorious character of being a Man after God's own heart 1 Sam. 13.14 And indeed all good men have ever thought it their duty and made it their practice to worship God by Prayer And even bad men too have been of the same judgment For they likewise have own'd it to be their obligation thus to serve God And whenever they perform'd Prayer as a Duty to him without doubt they were accepted of him Saul pray'd for a decision by lots and God granted his request but it had like to have cost him the life of his Son and the revolt of his Subjects 1 Sam. 14.41 42. Which shows That God do's sometimes hear the prayers of the wicked but then it is in justice and not in mercy as will appear in due place And now seeing Prayer is a special and principal part of God's worship you must own it to be indispensibly requir'd of you so long as you think it your duty to worship God He commands and you must discharge it your obedience herein is above all things most acceptable to God and will be best rewarded by him CHAP. III. The necessity of Prayer as it is made to be the means of obtaining what we want and of conveying a blessing on what we enjoy WAnt is commonly said to be the Mother of Prayer so that if you want nothing you need use prayer no otherwise than as it is an expression of your Duty and a discharge of the worship you owe to God But if you stand in need of any thing you can never solidly hope to receive it but by the mediation of Prayer For God has appointed it as the proper means to obtain his blessings And all those Texts which require Prayer as a Duty and homage belonging to God do at the same time propound it as a means to gain his favour in the relief of your wants and blessing what you have But here I expect to find you objecting That tho' Prayer be undeniably a part of religious Worship which none ought to neglect yet you think it needless to the obtaining a supply of your necessities because God needs not your prayers to inform him of your wants nor to move him to relieve them 'T is true God needs not your prayers to inform him of your wants For according to our Saviour Matth. 6.8 He knows what things you have need of before you ask him which words shew that Prayer is not needful in order to inform God who by reason of his infinite knowledge can be ignorant of nothing but they respect those who at our Saviour's being upon Earth were wont to lengthen out their Prayers with vain repetitions and idle Tautologies thinking they should have their petitions the sooner granted for the sake of the multitude of words used therein whereas Our Lord assures them that our heavenly Father was not to be wrought upon by their long prayers and their much speaking and that such were altogether useless in order to inform him of mens minds and wants as fully knowing them without being told Christ was so far from abolishing that he establishes the use of prayer when he taught his Disciples how they might pray aright To which end he gave them a most absolute comprehensive Form of Prayer which he enjoyn'd them both to use and imitate Which form bears his Name and from him is call'd the Lord's-Prayer Whereof I shall have occasion to mind you in another place As to the other branch of your Objection which makes Prayers unnecessary to move God to relieve your wants because of his being ready to do it without them there needs no more to be said to it but only to desire you to consider That tho' God is naturally inclin'd to be gracious and ready to give more than either you desire or deserve yet he has been pleas'd to declare That he will not give without asking And it sufficiently demonstrates his goodness and bounty to give to them that ask and to open to them that knock And tho' goodness is essential to God and that it is his nature and property to open his hand and fill his creatures yet still he expects you should address your requests to him if not to move his goodness to relieve your wants yet to shew you are sensible of them and that you believe he alone is able to give supply Besides in every prayer
you acknowledge your dependence on God that you are his Beads-man live upon his alms and expect to receive nothing at his hands but what you seek for by humble and diligent prayer But then again suppose Want as hath been already observ'd is the Mother of Prayer and prayer the means to have our wants supply'd suppose at the same time you had no want to be supply'd and that you could truly say I am rich and increas'd with goods and have need of nothing Rev. 3.17 suppose you were able to stretch your fancy as far as to imagine an All-sufficiency in your self and that you were set above the reach of indigence yet still you have need to pray that God would sanctify the things you possess For every creature of God is sanctified by the word and prayer 1 Tim 4.5 These two are requir'd to make all the creatures lawful for your use and to render you happy in their enjoyment For first the Word permits you a freedom in the use of all the Creatures God therein having remov'd the distinction and taken down the old partition-wall which stood between clean and unclean beasts and repeal'd the Law concerning forbidden meats To the repeal of which Law Christ had an eye when he said That which goes into the man that which is eaten and drunk is not that which defiles a man And in S. Peter's Vision Christians are taught to call nothing Common or unclean And as the Word allows you an unrestrain'd use of all the creatures so Prayer sanctifies them to your use by obtaining the divine Blessing upon them For whatsoever by the means of prayer you receive from the bountiful hand of heaven by the same means you receive Grace rightly to imploy them which is that I call a blessing But Prayer do's not only obtain a blessing upon your dayly food and the things of this present life but likewise on the things relating to the life to come For the Divine Ordinances which are the means of salvation will never answer their end unless God water them from above and make them prosperous and successful And yet you have no reason to expect this blessing unless you seek it by prayer from him who alone has power to give it You must seek this blessing I say only from God exclusively of all others which to make out because the practice of some is very much to the contrary shall be the Subject of the next Chapter CHAP. IV. Prayer is to be made only unto God YOU are not ignorant who they are that mantain and practise the worship of Saints and pretend to excuse it by saying That the worship they give the Saints is of another kind than that which they give unto God But since the Apostle forbids us to call upon any in whom we do not believe Rom. 10.14 that is not to pray to any who is not fit to be the object of our Faith and Trust and God alone being fit for this to him alone you ought to make your prayers But if you will give that honour to another which belongs only to God you transfer his worship to the Creature which is a most aggravating Sacrilege and Injustice It is a general received doctrine That no sensible or material sacrifices such as were under the Law are now to be offer'd unto God under the Gospel yet all grant that the spiritual sacrifice of Praise and Thanks-giving is still to be offer'd to him and that to offer this to any other is a derogation from his Glory and quite contrary to his doctrine who said Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Indeed some of the Fathers are thought to have favour'd the Worship and Invocation of Saints because they desir'd the Holy Men whose memories they celebrated to joyn with them in their prayers Yet the expressions used by them on such occasions may by any impartial Reader be plainly found to be rather flights of fancy and Wishes than Prayers and savour more of luxuriancy of Style and Harangue than Devotion It is notorious that the Church of Rome requires her Members to make Vows and offer Incense to the Saints To worship their Reliques and Images To believe that through their help and assistance God's benefits are obtain'd and that for the sake of their Intercession Grace and Merit he bestows many favours on mankind But grant that this were true and that by reason of the benefits you receive by the Saints you ought to pray to them yet before you do this you ought to be well assur'd that those are really and infallibly Saints to whom you are to pray and that they already enjoy the presence of God both which are necessary even according to the Romanists themselves to warrant your Invocation of them Before you invoke the Saints you are likewise to be well assur'd that they can and will hear you that they know the Wants and State of men upon earth and are mindful of them and at leisure to obtain the things that are pray'd for Now to say the Saints know all mens Necessities and are ready in all places and at all times to supply them is to equal them with God and to make them as Almighty Omniscient Omnipresent c. as himself Which is a Conclusion the Papists would be loth to grant tho' they hold Premises naturally tending to it But let the Papist's Opinions be in this case what they please it is your happiness to be of that Communion which teaches you to direct your Prayers only to God who you are well ascertain'd knows all your Wants and is willing and able to relieve them The Scripture saith expresly that Christ is the only mediator with God and that he gave himself a ransom for all 1 Tim. 2.5.6 The office of Saviour and Mediator are two things which must necessarily be joyn'd together so that he who is the one is the other also Now seeing there is but one Saviour there is also but one Mediator and that is Christ There is but one God and he is the Creator of all and wills and designs the good of all and there is but one Peace-maker God and Man namely Christ who has taken upon him our Common Nature and in it dyed for all whose Nature he took He laid down his Life and pour'd out his Blood to rescue Mankind out of an evil State and commands all that communicate with him in humane Nature to come unto God only through him God having no where appointed any other intercessors besides him Which consideration moved the Church ever since it was call'd Christian to offer up her Prayers only in the name of Christ and to conclude them in this Form Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Keep therefore to the Doctrine of the Church to which you belong and which obliges you to pray only to God and in her 22d Article censures all praying to any else To be a foolish thing vainly invented and grounded upon
came to offer Was their Incense unsavory Or were their Censers unhallow'd Was their Altar profane Or did they offer with Strange Fire No but the fault was in themselves their Hearts were Proud and Stubborn leven'd with Envy and Malice and this was what kindled Gods Wrath and provok'd him to an unheard of Method of Destruction For they did not dye the common death or as every one dieth but the Lord made a new thing and the earth open'd her mouth and swallow'd them up and they went down quick into the pit Numb 16.29 30. Malice made the offering of these Wretches unwelcome and it still corrupts not only Prayer but makes all other Solemn Acts of Religion to lose their Acceptance with the Almighty For he has no Pleasure in Wickedness neither can any evil dwell with him Such as be foolish shall not stand in his sight and he hateth all them that work vanity Psal 5.4 5. Such as run eagerly upon Sin and are as 't were mad to commit it shall perish through their own imagination and the Lord shall cast them out in the Multitude of their Transgressions Their own Malicious Uncharitable Designs of Mischief shall betray them to Ruin and their very Prayers shall become an Abomination unto the Lord and be no more acceptable than was of Old the Presenting unto God what they had no Value for themselves such as Unclean things or the Refuse of their Flock God is obliged by Promise to prosper and crown your Fidelity in his Service and to Defend and with his Favour to compass you as with a Shield He will open his Ear to your Petitions and hearken to the Voice of your Prayer which you make in Faith and Charity only have this always in Mind That as there is a great Benefit in Prayer so there is some Difficulty to discharge it aright And that it is Impossible to do this without due Preparedness Which being maturely consider'd by the Primitive Christians they never began their Publick Prayers till the Priest had raised their Minds with a Preparatory Introduction To which Pious Custom our own Church had an Eye when She Order'd him that ministers to Prepare the Congregation for Prayers with the Reading some select Sentences of Scripture and after that is done with a short Affectionate Exhortation That by this means the People might be Stir'd up and Excited to a devout and reverent Deportment and to Draw nigh unto God with their Hearts as well as their Lips And from what has now been said you will be easily able to conclude That there is a Moral Impossibility your Prayers should prevail while you remain Impenitent And tho' one main Branch of your Prayer is for the Remission of your Faults yet you cannot expect this till you resolve to forsake them To confess and bewail with your Tongue the Sin you approve and cherish in your Heart will make all your Prayers but an Heap of Indignities against God and of Imprecations upon your self When therefore you come to Adore Worship and Serve the Lord your inward Thoughts and External Actions are to be Purified from Sin by Sincere Repentance For God heareth not the impenitent nor those who regard iniquity in their heart John 9.31 Psal 66.18 In a Word all the same Things that are requir'd of you when you come to the Lord's Supper are requir'd of you when you come to Prayer Namely To examine your self whether you repent you truly of your former sins stedfastly purposing to lead a new life have a lively faith in God's mercy through Christ a thankful remembrance of his death and to be in charity with all men And when you are thus rightly prepar'd to offer Prayers unto God and rightly qualified he will hear in Heaven and from thence bless you in Christ Jesus Twenty First Sunday after Trinity GRant unto Us we beseech thee Merciful Lord and to all thy Faithful People Pardon and Peace that we may be cleansed from all our Sins and serve Thee with a quiet Mind through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen Twenty Fourth Sunday after Trinity O Lord We beseech Thee absolve us from our Offences That through Thy bountiful Goodness we may all be deliver'd from the bands of those Sins which by our Frailty we have Committed Grant this O Heavenly Father for Jesus Christ's sake Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Amen CHAP. X. Circumspection at Prayer HAving already given you an Account of that Preparation which is requir'd when you come to Prayer and shewn the Necessity thereof and wherein it consists I am now to acquaint you with the Circumspection you are to use at the performance of this Great and Solemn Act of Religion By Circumspection I understand your care and diligence to deep your Soul Devout and your Body Reverent during the time of Prayer And First as for the Circumspection which regards the keeping of your Soul Devout it does in a great measure consist in avoiding as far as possible whatever may occasion the Wandring of your Thoughts in Prayer which are chiefly such as now follow I. Inconstancy and Unsettledness of Mind by reason whereof your Thoughts are distracted and divided contrary ways an Emblem of this unhappy State of Man with respect to the wandring of his Thoughts has been ingeniously enough drawn out in the way of a Picture wherein Christ is suppos'd to be hanging on the Cross and the Votaries upon their knees looking up to him and breathing out the different aspirings of their Souls according to the expression in the Gospel Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Out of the mouth of the one flows a Label directing itself in a strait line to to the Wounds of a Bleeding Saviour Praying to be made Partaker of the Merits of the Blood that he shed from the Mouth of the other are seen to proceed several Labels waving to and fro some pointing one way and some another some to the Fields and Rural Sports and Diversions others to the Sea to Trade and Business some are made up of corrupt Passions and Appetites others are fill'd with unlawful Desires or the recital of sinful Pleasures past and many other things of the like Nature The first Man would not suffer any thing to interrupt or divert him in the Prayers he offer'd but like a Beam of Light they swiftly and directly made their way to their proper Object the other did not mind what he was about but gave his thoughts the Reins and left them at liberty to ramble where they list And though he may seem to look the same way as the other did yet his mind is roving all the while verifying the expression of the Prophet quoted by our Saviour Matth. 15.8 such a one may seem to draw nigh with his mouth and honour God with his lips but his heart is far from him II. Carking immoderate Worldly Thoughts are the next thing which discompose your Mind and beget in you diffidence and distrust in God
now recommend as an excellent help against the wandring of your thoughts in Prayer Which is a fault whereof you can not be guilty when you pray with spiritual Affection with ardent Desire with a fervent Mind and with a Heart inflam'd with that Zeal which the Holy Ghost kindles in it God regards not the Prayers which you offer when you do not stir up your Affections and chafe your desires and move your mind into a warmth The Great Ruler of the world will not listen to cold luke-warm Devotions Such Prayers can never reach Heaven which want Zeal and Love the only Wings that should carry them thither Be careful then when you approach God to raise up your Soul to the highest pitch of Zeal and Earnestness that you are able And because that of your self you are not able to do this beseech the Divine Omnipotence to inflame your Heart with the heavenly fire of Devotion and when it is obtain'd beware of quenching it with wilful sin or letting it go out again for want of fuel or stirring up and imploying it And there want no Motives to beget in you this Fervency in Prayer when you consider God's wonderful kindness and carry the thoughts thereof through your whole Devotion For to think that he is not only good by Nature but also in communicating his Benefits That he is ready upon your Repentance to blot out your transgressions and to be merciful to your Sins Such Thoughts as these are good inward motives to raise your heart into Zeal When you lift up your voice and call upon the Lord either in his house or your own And First when you come to the Lord's house to joyn in publick Prayers you have a good opportunity to shew your Earnestness and Zeal God has Promis'd a special blessing to the joynt Requests which the Faithful make in his House and that He will be in the midst of them and bestow his Mercies and set marks of Favour on them when they meet together in the unity of the spirit and in the bond of peace And your absence from the Publick Prayers cannot be excus'd without an important occasion for if it be wilful and deliberate you cut your self off from the Church and from the partaking of those Prayers wherein all are in common concern'd And by this means you inflict a punishment upon your self even a sort of Excommunication which is never inflicted by the Church but in case of the most heinous offences The same Zeal and Attention are also requisite in the Prayers made in your Family which are a sort of Common-Prayers because all the Members of the Houshold joyn therein And it belongs to the Master of the Family carefully to provide for this office and to see nothing be wanting for the welfare of their Souls who are under his Government For the Family is Heathenish where God is not worshipt and where the Master does not resolve with Joshua That he and his house will serve the Lord. Josh 24.15 And as to the Prayers you make apart when you are solus cum solo and have no witness of what you do but only God and your Conscience yet because that even here you are subject to Wandring and Distraction as well as you are in company you have need of the same Zeal and Attention to correct it In your private Devotions you may be more particular according to your personal Necessities and you may use therein a greater freedom both in words and gestures than you can in publick But still the Devotion of the Heart is therein requir'd as being that which God principally regards And as it is your duty to perform all these sorts of Prayers so it is likewise your duty to be Zealous and Attentive at them all Prayer in your Family and Closet will not excuse your Prayer at Church all are requir'd all are necessary and one must not be taken in exchange for the other And whosoever is diligent in publick Prayer and yet negligent in private it is to be fear'd he rather seeks to approve himself to men than to God Which is contrary to the mind of our Saviour who commands you to Pray to God in secret and from him alone to expect your Reward and not from the vain praises of Men. You have been often told That Prayer is that part of divine worship which the Soul is to pay unto the Lord and you have also been told with what Circumspection it ought to be perform'd Give me leave to conclude this particular with observing that tho' Prayer be a spiritual duty and the proper business of the Soul yet the Body has its share and part therein For both being God's workmanship and purchase both ought to give him homage and observance Now the observance the Body ought to pay unto God in Prayer consists in such lowly decent and reverent gestures as may testify the humility and reverence of the Soul Bowing prostration and the like external acts of Religious Worship are a particular right belonging to God before whom you are to fall down and kneel for he is your maker your shepherd your protector The Royal Author of the 95. Psalm does affectionately call upon every one joyntly to adore worship and pray unto God and to make the members of the Body the partners and witnesses of the real devotion of the Heart and to joyn inward and outward reverence together That the submissive and lowly gestures of the Body may serve to express and signifie the sincere humility of the Soul For tho' the humblest external bodily gestures are the least considerable thing in Prayer as having little or no proportion to the necessary dispositions of the Soul yet they are of such moment that if you pray without them it looks as if you did not consider or know what a weighty business you are about nor had a sense of God's Dignity or of your own Vileness But in these bodily Gestures you are carefully to avoid whatsoever is vain fantastical and superstitious and to keep within the bounds of decency and prudence And your gestures being thus conducted they will help to heighten inward Devotion in your self and be an happy means to raise the Devotion of others But I leave the farther prosecution of this particular to consider of the Frequency you ought to use in Prayer CHAP. XII Of Frequency in Prayer THough Prayer be a Duty which you are never to neglect yet there is not any Text in Scripture that determines how often you are to use it The Inspired Word positively commands you to call upon God but it has left it to your Conscience how frequently you are to do it The Scripture that is most peremptory in this particular is 1 Thes 5.17 where S. Paul exhorts to Pray without ceasing By which Text you are certainly obliged to these two things viz. 1. Not to grow restive in Prayer but therein to be constant and persevering it being an homage you are to pay
to pray So that when you are in the greatest solitude and separation from company you are to own your union with the Church and Communion with all true Believers for whose happiness you ought to pray as well as for your own The Jewish Church Ordain'd that all their Publick Prayers should be concluded with Amen I say Publick Prayers for in their Private or Phylacterical Prayers it was omitted And it was a sign those Prayers were Publick to which Amen was added and a sign they were otherwise when it was not used And the Christian Church retains the same Custom adding Amen to all her Prayers Which is a word of that weight and moment that it ought never to be omitted For by saying Amen you declare your trust and assurance that God will grant the things you ask according to his Will It being one special branch of your confidence in God that if you ask any thing according to his Will and not your own fancy he heareth you By saying Amen to the Publick Prayers you express your approbation of them that you agree with the Congregation and present but one common vote unto God And when there is a happy harmony and consent of heart and voice in praying for things lawful and expedient you may be assured that he who has promis'd to grant the Requests of two or three gather'd together in his Name will much more incline his ear to a pious multitude to a numerous Congregation met solemnly to beg his Blessings But besides all this your humble hearty and zealous saying Amen shews your attentiveness to the Publick Prayers and that you are neither asleep nor inadvertent when they are made And indeed one way to quicken your attention is to consider that you are to say an hearty Amen to every Prayer and as it were to set your seal unto it by so doing And by saying Amen you also let the Hearer of Prayers know that you hope and believe to have your share in the good things that are desir'd and that on the contrary you do not expect any benefit by the Petitions which you do not sign and confirm by your Amen In which single word all your own Wants are sum'd up and theirs also for whom you pray And we read that the Primitive Christians thought the saying an hearty Amen to be of so great importance that they pronounc'd it with a sort of vociferation and affectionate earnestness which is enough to shame and awaken their negligence who either regard not at all to say Amen or do it with so provoking a drowsiness and indifferency as if it were all one to them whether God would grant or deny their Request whether he did hearken to their Prayers or stop his ears against them which being consider'd will I hope have the happy influence to make you so attentive to Prayer as to close it with such a sensible Amen as that the Lord God may say so too 1 Kings 1.36 CHAP. XVII Of our Lord's Doxology AND having now given you this plain familiar account of the Things you are to desire of God as they are set down in the Divine Summary left us by our Lord give me leave for a conclusion to present you with a short account of the drift and design of the scope and end of Prayer which is none other than God's Glory and your own Benefit That God's Glory ought to be the first and principal end and drift of Prayer is naturally to be concluded from the Doxology wherewith both Jews and Christians have ever closed their Supplications That Doxology was us'd by the Hebrews in David's time is plain from his own practice who praised the Lord before all the People and said Blessed be thou Lord God of Israel our Father for ever and ever Thine O Lord is the Greatness and the Power and the Glory and the Victory and the Majesty for all that is in the Heaven and in the Earth is thine thine is the Kingdom O Lord and thou art exalted as Head above all Both Riches and Honour come from thee and thou Reignest over all and in thy Hand is Power and Might and in thine Hand it is to make Great and to give Strength unto all Now therefore our God we thank thee and praise thy glorious Name Chron. 29 10 11 c. And we find a Doxology added to all the Publick Prayers of the Jews which was follow'd by our Saviour in his Compendious Form And tho' some both in the Greek and Latin Church have look'd upon the Doxology at the end of the Lord's Prayer to be a Spurious Addition put in by some well-meaning man who did not well know what he did yet I see no ground for this saying For since it is granted by all That our Saviour took every Petition of his Prayer out of the Jewish Euchologues it may justly be thought that he thence also took the Doxology and added it to his Prayer as the Jews to theirs Now the Doxology is not only a Form of Praise and Thanksgiving fit and proper to be the closing up of all Devotions in token that they are directed to God's Honor but it also contains the fundamental grounds of making your Addresses unto God For in saying Thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever You acknowledg all those excellencies to be in God which are the true and chief motives of Prayer and which give life and spirit to that Heavenly Duty and to all the Graces therein to be exercis'd And first your Faith is greatly supported in the expectation of the good things you pray for when you maturely revolve that you beg them of him who is the only universal absolute Independent Lord and Sovereign of the World And that he is easily intreated of his Subjects and takes pleasure in their Protection and Happiness Only remember that at the same time you acknowledge God's Kingdom you own your self to be his Subject and that it is your duty to obey his Laws and to submit intirely to his Government and not to countenance any one rebel Lust against him And when Secondly you ascribe Power unto God you profess your belief of his All-sufficiency and that you present your Petition to one who is able and willing to grant it For if he wanted either Will or Power to give what you beg it were enough utterly to discourage your Application But seeing that God has the bowels of a Father and the arm of a King and a Soveraign right to dispose of every thing as he pleases he is in all respects fitly qualified to grant the request you make unto him And although your own unworthiness might justly hinder you from receiving any favour at his hand yet he will not withhold what you rightly sue for That his free Grace may have that Glory from you which he hath from all to whom he has been formerly bountiful There is an excellent Honour arising unto God from his own