Examples of interceffion, and exhortations to intercede for others: "And Mofes befought the "Lord his God, and faid, Lord, why doth thy "wrath wax hot against thy people? Remember "Abraham, Ifaac, and Ifrael, thy fervants. And "the Lord repented of the evil which he thought "to do unto his people."-" Peter therefore was

kept in prifon; but prayer was made without ceafing, of the church, unto God for him.""For God is my witnefs, that without ceafing "I make mention of you always in my prayers.""Now I befeech you, brethren, for the Lord "Jefus Chirft's fake, and for the love of the "Spirit, that ye ftrive together with me, in your prayers for me.""Confefs your faults oneto 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.

Declarations and examples authorizing the repetition of unsuccessful prayers: "And he fpoke 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, faying the fame words." "For this thing I befought the Lord thrice, that

66 ' it

"it might depart from me."-Luke, xviii. 1. Matt. xxvi. 44. 2 Cor. xii. 8 *.

* The reformed churches of Christendom, fticking clofe in this article to their guide, have laid afide prayers for the dead, as authorised by no precept or precedent found in fcripture. For the fame reason they properly reject the invocation of faints; as also because fuch invocations fuppofe, in the faints whom they addrefs, a knowledge which can perceive what paffes in different regions of the earth at the same time. And they deem it too much to take for granted, without the fmalleft intimation of fuch a thing in fcripture, that any created being poffeffes a faculty little fhort of that omniscience and omnipréfence which they afcribe to the Deity.

CHAP

CHA P. IV.

OF PRIVATE PRAYER, FAMILY PRAYER, AND PUBLIC WORSHIP.

NONCERNING these three defcriptions

CON

of devotion, it is first of all to be obferved, that each has its feparate and peculiar ufe; and therefore that the exercife of one species of worship, however regular it be, does not fuperfede or dispense with the obligation of either of the other two.

I. Private prayer is recommended for the fake of the following advantages;

Private wants cannot always be made the fubjects of public prayer; but, whatever reafon there is for praying at all, there is the fame for making the fore 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 earneft than the fhare we are capable of taking

in

in joint acts of worship; because it affords leifure and opportunity for the circumftantial recollection of those perfonal wants, by the remembrance and ideas of which, the warmth and earneftness of prayer are chiefly excited.

Private prayer, in proportion as it is ufually accompanied 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 impreffions of religion. Solitude powerfully affifts this effect. When a man finds himself alone in communication with his Creator, his imagination becomes filled with a conflux of awful ideas concerning the universal agency, and invisible prefence 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 deftiny: reflections which, whenever they gain admittance, for a season overwhelm all others; and leave, when they depart, a folemnity upon the thoughts that will seldom fail, in fome degree, to affect the conduct of life.

Private prayer, thus recommended by its own propriety, and by advantages not attainable in

VOL. II.

E

any

any form of religious communion, receives a fuperior fanction from the authority and example of Chrift." When thou prayeft, enter into thy "clofet; and when thou haft fhut thy door,

pray to thy Father which is in fecret; and thy "Father, which seeth in fecret, shall reward thee openly."- "And when he had sent the mul “titudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray.”—Matt. vi. 6. xiv. 23.

II. Family prayer.

The peculiar use of family piety consists in its influence upon fervants, and the young members of a family, who want fufficient seriousness and reflection to retire of their own accord to the exercife of private devotion, and whofe attention you cannot eafily command in public worship. The example alfo and authority of a father and mafter act in this way with the greatest force; for his private prayers, to which his children and fervants are not witnesses, act not at all upon them as examples; and his attendance upon public worship they will readily impute to fashion, to a care to preferve appearances, to a concern for decency and character, and to many motives befide a sense of duty to God. Add to this, that forms of public worship, in proportion as they are more compre

hensive,