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1. The most general Caufe of Diftractions in Prayer, is, I believe, the Inordinate Love of the World and its Enjoyments. Whatever has most of our Affections will have most of our Thoughts. This our Saviour has given as à Certain Maxim, Mat. vi.-Where your Treafure is, That which you most Love and Value, There will your Hearts be also. Men may be fo wholly taken up with the World, that they may have little mind to come at all to the Houfe of God; but if an Outward Civility is to be paid to him, or perhaps to Custom, their Duties There are performed accordingly. What has the Heart at all other times, will have the Afcendant, and keep Poffeffion There. Thus the Prophet Amos tells us of the Ifraelites, that they were fo Intent upon the World, that though they did outwardly obferve the Sabbaths and other Religious Festivals, yet they were tedious to them, and their Minds and Thoughts were all the while Buying and Selling, managing their Worldly Interests, faying in their Hearts, When will the New Moon be gone, Chap. viii. that we may fell Corn? And the Sabbath, that we may fet forth Wheat? Thus, fays God, does my People draw nigh unto me, Ezekiel and with their Mouth they fhew much Love, xxxiii. 31. but their Heart goeth after their Covetousnefs. And thus it will be; So long as we Love and Value the World above all things, wherever we are it will be uppermost in our R 3 Thoughts;

Thoughts; For we cannot prefently Command our Mind, and turn it about which way we will, contrary to its conftant Bent and Frame, and the standing Principles that are wont to govern it.

Therefore if we will begin at the Foundation, we must form to ourselves right Notions both of This World and the Other and must set our Value on Each of them according to their Worth. And when we have feriously confider'd, and concluded with ourfelves, That there is One Thing above all others Neceffary; That many things may be requifite to serve our Prefent Conveniencies, but the Care of our Souls is the Thing that muft make us for ever Happy; That all other Things are Trifles in comparison, that fhall vanish away and forfake us; but that the Service of God is the Great End of our Being, and the only Way to fecure our Everlasting Welfare; That whilst we are Praying or Hearing God's Word, it is the greatest Concern we have in the World, the Bufinefs of Eternity that we are transacting: I fay, when we have once fettled our Minds to fuch Conclufions as thefe, the Cares and Bufinefs of the World, and all the Incumbrances of this Life, will by degrees fit loofer about us, and we fhall be able to fix ourselves with more Serioafnefs and Attention to the Duties of Religion

It is but Labour in Vain ever to think to ferve God without Distraction, whilft the World

World remains in full poffeffion of our Hearts.

Whilst we Serve God and Mammon, our

Hearts will be Divided, and Mammon will get the Better Half; Therefore till we make Mammon submit to God, we cannot ferve God, as we should endeavour to do, with All our Heart, and with All our Mind.

2dly, There is an Airiness and Levity of Converfation and Thinking, which fome indulge themselves in, that is a great Source of Wandering Thoughts. There is indeed an Innocent Mirth and Chearfulness, which are Ufeful and Commendable in their Season. But when Men will wholly give themselves up to Giddy Wanton Mirth, trifling and fooling evermore, in Seafon and out of Season, turning every thing into Raillery and Jefting and Wantonnefs, fuch Jefting and Foolish Talking, the Apoftle tells us, are not Con- Eph. v.4. venient. And amongst other Inconveniences, fuch a Habit of Levity and loofe Conversation makes a Slight Trifling Spirit; It vitiates the whole Frame and Habit of Mind; and ftuffs the Head with fo much Folly, fo many Idle Vain Conceits, as will unfit a Man for any Serious Business or Serious Thinking, especially in the Business of Religion, which of All things requires the moft Serious Temper and Compofedness of Spirit. A loose Ungoverned Mind has no Fence nor Guard upon it. Solomon tells us, that He that hath Prov. xxv. no Rule over his own Spirit, is like a City 28. that is broken down, and without Walls

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He lies open to all the Enemies of his Soul to throw in what Troops of Evil Thoughts and Temptations they please, to quarter upon him, and to infult and command and govern him at their Pleasure. But the Man that would be able to govern his Thoughts, and make himself fit for any thing that is Serious, must first of all fix and fettle his Mind under fome Discipline, and put it into a Serious Pofture; He muft Contract a new way of Thinking, and accuftom himself to a Grave and Sober Conversation, and learn to be Serious at other Times and Places, or else he will fcarce be Serious enough for the House of God.

No Man can put on a New Temper of Mind all at once whenever he pleases: No Habits are to be got on the fudden; and much lefs Habits of the Mind, because the Motions of the Mind are much lefs under our Command than the Motions of the Body. Therefore, above all Habits, the Habit of Thinking Seriously and Intently, (especially in Divine Matters, which we have naturally leaft Inclination to,) is not to be got but by Care, and Time, and Serious Endeavour and Practice on Our part; Which alfo will Prepare and Difpofe us for the fupervening Affiftance of Divine Grace. Therefore unless we have an Habitual Senfe of Duty, and know how to be Serious at other times, we fhall not have a New Spirit meet us at the Door of the Tabernacle, nor any where come upon us all at once, so soon as ever we fall upon our Knees,

But

But if we would always keep up a Senfe of Religion, and think it in part the Bufinefs of every Day as well as of This; Efpecially if, to make fome Amends for the Di ftractions of our Set-Services, we would now and then, in the Course of our Common Bufinefs, at breathing Times, fend up a Good Wish or fhort Ejaculation Heaven-wards, There can be no Wandering in a fingle Thought, and there may be much Spirit and Life in them. We cannot be offering up the Sacrifices of Prayers and Praises all the Day long; but frequent Ejaculations will fan the Holy Fire, and keep it ftill burning, ready for our Daily Sacrifices at the Hours of Prayer. They will always keep the Spirit in a good Frame, and preferve fuch a constant Senfe of Religion in the Soul, as when we come to our Solemn Worship, will fit us the better to attend upon the Lord without Diftraction.

Or if when we are in the House of God in the midst of Prayers, we find ourselves on a fudden far gone in a Train of rambling Thoughts, and have thereby loft a Prayer, we will presently check and recollect ourfelves, not to examine and trace back our Wandering Steps, (which would but bring us back again into the fame Maze,) but to gather up the Subftance of our Prayer into One Hearty Defire, and instantly dart it upwards with all the Force and Vigour of our Souls, This would in some measure retrieve our Lost

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