nations and empires, is still worse; it is to pre sume that we possess such an interest with the Deity, as to be able, by our applications, to bend the most important of his counsels; and that the happiness of others, and even the prosperity of communities, is to depend upon this interest, and upon our choice. Now, how unequal soever our knowledge of the Divine economy may be to the solution of this difficulty, which requires perhaps a comprehension of the entire plan, and of all the ends, of God's moral government, to explain satisfactorily, we can understand one thing concerning it, that it is, after all, nothing more than the making of one man the instrument of happiness and misery to another; which is perfectly of a piece with the course and order that obtain, and which we must believe were intended to obtain, in human affairs. Why may we not be assisted by the prayers of other men, who are beholden for our support to their labour? Why may not our happiness be made in some cases to depend upon the intercession, as it certainly does in many, upon the good offices, of our neighbours? The happiness and misery of great numbers we see oftentimes at the disposal of one man's choice, or liable to be much affected by his conduct; what greater difficulty is there in supposing, that the prayers of an individual may avert a calamity from multitudes, or be accepted to the benefit of whole communities? CHAP. III. Of the duty and efficacy of prayer as represented THE reader will have observed, that the reflections stated in the preceding chapter, whatever truth and weight they may be allowed to contain, rise many of them no higher than to negative arguments in favour of the propriety of addressing pray. er to God. To prove that the effiacy of prayers is not inconsistent with the attributes of the Deity, does not prove that prayers are actually efficacious: and in the want of that unequivocal testimony, which experience alone could afford to this point, (but which we do not possess, and have seen good reason why we are not to expect,) the light of nature leaves us to controverted probabilities, drawn from the impulse by which mankind have been almost universally prompted to devotion, and from some beneficial purposes, which, it is conceived, may be better answered by the audience of prayer than by any other mode of communicating the same blessings. The revelations which we deem authentic, completely supply this defect of natural religion. They require prayer to God as a duty; and they contain positive assurance of its efficacy and acceptance. We could have no reasonable motive for the exercise of prayer, without believing that it may avail to the relief of our wants. This belief can only be founded, either in a sensible experience of the effect of prayer, or in promises of acceptance signified by Divine authority. Our knowledge would have come to us in the former way, less capable indeed of doubt, but subjected to the abuses and inconveniences briefly described above; in the latter way, that is, by authorized significations of God's general disposition to hear and answer the devout supplications of his creatures, we are encouraged to pray, but not to place such a dependance upon prayer as might relax other obligations, or confound the order of events and of human expectations. The Scriptures not only affirm the propriety of prayer in general, but furnish precepts or examples which justify some topics and some modes of prayer that have been thought exceptionable. And as the whole subject rests so much upon the foundation of Scripture, I shall put down at length texts applicable to the five following heads to the duty and efficacy of prayer in general; of prayer for particular favours by name; for public national blessings; of intercession for others; of the repetition of unsuccessful prayers. 1. Texts enjoining prayer in general: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find.-If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him ?"" Watch ye, therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all those things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.-"Serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer."-" Be careful for nothing, but in every thing by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.". I will, therefore, that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting."" Pray without ceasing." Matt. vii. 7. 11.; Luke xxi. 36.; Rom. xii. 12.; Philip. iv. 6.; Thes. v. 17.; 1 Tim. ii. 8. Add to these, that Christ's reproof of the ostentation and prolixity of pharisaical prayers, and his recommendation to his 'disciples, of retirement and simplicity in theirs, together with his dictating a particular form of prayer, all presuppose prayer to be an acceptable and availing service. 2. Examples of prayer for particular favours by name:"For this thing" (to wit, some bodily infir mity, which he calls a thorn given him in the flesh') "I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me."-" Night and day praying exceedingly, that we might see your face, and perfect that which is lacking in your faith." 2 Cor. xii. 8.; 1 Thess. iii. 10. 3. Directions to pray for natural or public blessings: "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem."-" Ask ye of the Lord rain, in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.""I exhort, therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men ; for kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty; for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour." Psalm cxxii. 6. ; Zech. x. 1. ; 1 Tim. ii. 1-3. 4. Examples of intercession, and exhortations to intercede, for others :-" And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people? Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants. And the Lord re pented of the evit which he thought to do unto Ms people."-"Peter, therefore, was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him."-" For God is my witness, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers."-"Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me, in your prayers for me."-"Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed: the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." Exod. xxxii. 11.; Acts xii, 5.; Rom. i. 9. xv. 30. ; James v. 16. 5. Declarations and examples authorizing the repetition of unsuccessful prayer: "And he spake a parable unto them, to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint."-" And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words."" For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me." Luke xviii, 1,; Matt. xxvi. 44. ; 2 Cor xii. 8.* CHAP. IV. Qf private prayer, family prayer, and public worship CONCERNING these three descriptions of devotion, it is first of all to be observed, that each has its separate and peculiar use; and therefore, that the exercises of one species of worship, however regular it be, does not supersede, or dispense with, the obligation of either of the other two. I. Private prayer is recommended for the sake of the following advantages: *The reformed churches of Christendom, sticking close in this article to their guide, have laid aside prayers for the dead, as au thorized by no precept or precedent found in Scripture. For the same reason they properly reject the invocation of saints; as also because such invocations suppose in the saints whom they address, a knowledge which can perceive what passes in different regions of the earth at the same time. And they deem it too much to take for granted, without the smallest intimation of such a thing in Sertyture, that any created being possesses a faculty little short of that ompitituce and opinipresence which they acribe to the Deity. Private wants cannot always be made the subject of public prayer; but whatever reason there is for praying at all, there is the same for making the sore and grief of each man's own heart the business of his application to God. This must be the office of private exercises of devotion, being imperfectly, if at all, practicable in any other. Private prayer is generally more devout and earnest than the share we are capable of taking in joint acts of worship; because it affords leisure and opportunity for the circumstantial recollection of those personal wants, by the remembrance and ideas of which the warmth and earnestness of prayer are chiefly excited. Private prayer, in proportion as it is usually ac companied with more actual thought and reflection of the petitioner's own, has a greater tendency than other modes of devotion to revive and fasten upon the mind the general impressions of religion. Solitude powerfully assists this effect. When a man finds himself alone in communion with his Creator, his imagination becomes filled with a conflux of awful ideas concerning the universal agency, and invisible presence, of that Being; concerning what is likely to become of himself; and of the superlative importance of providing for the happiness of his future existence, by endeavours to please him who is the arbiter of his destiny reflections which, whenever they gain admittance, for a season overwhelm all others; and leave, when they depart, a solemnity upon the thoughts that will seldom fail, in some degree, to affect the conduct of life. Private prayer, thus recommended by its own propriety, and by advantages not attainable in any form of religious communion, receives a superior sanction from the authority and example of Christ "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet; and when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father, which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly."-" And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into mountain apart to pray." Matt. vi. 6. xiv. 23. II. Family prayer. The peculiar use of family piety consists in its |