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at least to offer unto him, as any admired speaker or eminent scholar.

SUNDAY XLVII.

CHAP. XLVII.

On the Necessity of Prayer.

WHAT was offered in the preceding chapter will make plain, to the meanest capacity, the nature and the matter of real prayer. But ignorance, alas! is the weakest obstacle to this duty we have to remove; aversion to such spiritual, soul-humbling confession, and natural profaneness, are much more difficult to overcome. For this end let us consider in what manner scripture urges the necessity of prayer.

It is enforced in that divine book, by the practice of the most venerable persons, as the only means of obtaining grace to pay uniform obedience to God, as required by his command.

It is enforced by the most venerable names, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Samuel, David, Daniel, Peter, and Paul; the first names for excellency before God were constant in prayer. This enlivened their graces, and gave them such transcendent lustre. But their diligence in the duty of prayer is not recorded to give them the trifling honour of a posthumous fame; it is designed to prove that we must do as they did; that if we hope to be with them in the kingdom of glory, we must follow them, who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises. If

then we revere the word of God, we cannot neglect a duty which was of such importance in the judg ment of all his saints.

But if their practice proves the necessity of prayer, how much more the example of Christ? Before his brightness, prophets, apostles, and martyrs fade away, as stars in the firmament when the sun arises. He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners; nevertheless, prayer employed a considerable portion of his time. Fatigued as he was by excessive labours of love, in travelling from place to place, preaching in every town and village to immense multitudes, who thronged and pressed upon him, he needed all the rest the night could afford; yet would he sometimes rise a great while before it was day, that, retiring upon the mountain's top, he might pray without interruption. Sometimes the moon and stars saw him, their Maker, an earnest and devout intercessor, whilst others were sleeping in their beds.

After this record, can any one, calling himself a Christian, question the absolute need he has to pray? If the master of the house, infinitely distant from the slightest stain of sin, prayed, how much more must they of his household, weak and sinful as they are? If the Lord over all, when he appeared in our flesh, prayed, how much more must fallen creatures be bound to pray? Should any one imagine himself excused from this duty. the proper rebuke of such audacious impiety is to reply, the prophets, the apostles, and the martyrs, all prayed; the Saviour in the days of his flesh prayed-Whom makest thou thyself?

Further, the absolute need we have to pray is evident, because it is the only means of obtaining mercy, and grace to do the will of God. He gives health and long life, houses and possession, to those who never bend their knee before him. Not so spi

ritual and eternal blessings. He never pardons sin, or saves from its detestable dominion, till prayer is made for the invaluable favour. The unchangeable ordinance runs thus: If thou shalt pray unto God, he shall be favourable unto thee, Job xxxiii. "Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy [what, to all sorts of men indiscriminately, to the profane and self-sufficient? No, but] unto all them that call upon thee," Psalm lxxxvi. 6. Omniscient as he is, and full of compassion, he requires and commands us to make our requests known to him, before he will supply our spiritual necessities. "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not," Jer. xxxiii. 3. But no words can more emphatically prove that prayer is the grand necessary means of obtaining mercy, and finding grace to help, than those of our Redeemer. "Ask and ye

shall have; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." This is as much as to affirm, that without asking, seeking, and knocking, we can receive no spiritual good from above. Consequently, not to pray is, most evidently, to remain destitute of the things which accompany salvation. Every one who despises this method, which God hath chosen as the fittest for conveying necessary supplies to the immortal soul, confiding in his own strength or virtues, in the finished work of Christ, or the election of grace, must unavoidably remain a slave to sin, and under the curse.

The profane will not stoop to seek help and power from on high; therefore, the appearances of goodness, which are their boast, can never amount to more than a partial regard for what is right; which, poor as it is, is sure to fall a sacrifice to the ruling passion. Thus you may often observe a man priding himself on his moral goodness, and pouring

contempt on devotional duties, miserably chagrined by every trifling disappointment, and for the slightest provocation full of resentment, if not breathing mur.

derous revenge. You may often observe a despiser

of prayer much caressed by others, and no less selfapplauded for humanity, good nature, and contempt of money, studiously plotting the ruin of innocence, and adding cruelty to injustice, to gratify his body. And frequently you may see a warm advocate for the doctrines of grace, and the glory of Christ, de, ceitful, covetous, and a slave to sin, through habitual neglect of prayer.

In fact, the connexion of all graces is the work of the Holy Spirit, const quently no one can pay uniform obedience, who doth not place his dependence on that promised helper, only given to them who ask him.

Add to these arguments for the necessity of prayer the plain command of God. No man is left at libberty whether he will pray or no, nor can he neglect prayer, yet only suffer the loss of some advantages he might procure by it. Great guilt is contracted by neglecting to pray. It is a contempt of God and his authority, who has not more expressly required us to shew mercy than to worship himself. "Men ought always to pray, and to continue in prayer.” To plead our good qualities and good behaviour, as setting aside our obligation to prayer, is actually to live in the commission of the basest theft, defrauding even God of his due. With equal reason, and as little affront to him, may we refuse to obey his law in doing justice to men, as refuse honour to himself, to whom honour in the highest degree belongs.

In this light you must regard the duty of prayer, to be preserved from the contagion of unreasonable and wicked men, who either totally neglect, or de

plorably trifle and dissemble with God in it. So will you perceive odious injustice masked with the appearance of integrity: and high pretensions to honour, whilst, in fact, there is a violation of the most important duty, a duty resulting from our relation to God, as our Maker, and enjoined by him, the one Lawgiver, able to save and to destroy.

This injustice towards God, and contempt of him expressed by habitual neglect of prayer, is a sin which no excellencies the world applauds can in the least degree excuse. Wherever it is chargeable, like rebellion against the state, or adulterous commerce, it cancels every pretension to be spared on account of any good qualities. any good qualities. Kings of the earth never acquit a rebel, because high treason is his only crime; much less does the Lord Almighty, whose name is jealous, overlook the contempt thrown upon himself, because the person guilty of it is free from all dishonesty towards men. To fancy he will overlook such an affront, is to entertain the most despicable idea of his character, as if he was ignorant of the treatment his name and word receive, or indifferent about the matter. But such a God no more resembles the God of the whole earth, the God of Christians, than Baal or Moloch. The true God is a jealous God, and terrible: jealous, not to allow his glory to be given to another, or denied to himself: terrible, to punish his adversaries, who rob him of the homage he demands, as the Lord of the universe, in whose hands is the breath of every living thing. He hath taught us, by every form of expression which can engage our attention, that to serve him with reverence and godly fear is the whole duty of man: consequently a despiser of prayer, though adorned with every quality the profane admire, still wants the one thing needful to sanctify his generosity, benevolence, and social vir

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