ciency for our place and work, and a blessing on our endeavours; to secure peace with our enemies, or protection against them; to carry every point that is truly good for us; to bring down blessings on our families, friends, and country; to procure peace and prosperity to the church, the conversion of sinners, and the spread of the gospel; and for all things which we can desire or conceive, must be allowed by every man who reverences the Scriptures, or knows what it is," to walk with God." Did men speculate and dispute less, and pray more, their souls would be like a watered garden; fruitful, joyful, beautiful, and fragrant. Prayer is the first breath of divine life: it is the pulse of the believing soul, the best criterion of health or sickness,vigour or debility. By prayer, we draw water with joy from the wells of salvation: by prayer, faith puts forth its energy,in apprehending the promised blessings, and receiving from the Redeemer's fulness; in leaning on his Almighty arm, and making his name our strong tower; and in overcoming the world, the flesh, and the devil. All other means of grace are made effectual by prayer; every doctrine and instruction produces its effect, in proportion as this is attended to; even grace revives or languishes according to the same rule. Our grand conflict with satan and our own hearts, is about praythe sinner feels less reluctance and meets less resistance, in respect of all other means of grace, than in retiring to pour out his heart before God in secret; and the believer will find his chief difficulty to consist in continuing instant and fervent in his spiritual exercise. If he succeed here, all else will ever er; tually give place before him, and turn out to his benefit and comfort. It should likewise be remembered, that prayer may be either public, social, or secret. Public worship most honours God, and is the grand end of our assembling together; though few seem thus to understand it. Social worship tends greatly to maintain brotherly love, and to bring down blessings on families and societies. But secret prayer is the grand mean of maintaining communion with God, and keeping alive the power of religion in the soul. Without this, the others degenerate into formality; and the man himself continues devoid of life, strength, and comfort, in the midst of them. Christians should therefore remember to prepare for public and social worship, by secret prayer, meditation, and reading the Scriptures; and not yield to the temptation of neglecting the one, by spending too much time in the other. If we desire to pray aright, we must carefully observe, that the Scripture always calls upon us "to pray in the Spirit ;" or " in the Holy Ghost," or rather "by the Spirit :" our first petition, therefore, should be, that the Lord would graciously give us his Holy Spirit, to teach and enable us to pray.— When this is duly attended to, a very heartless beginning will often have a bright and encouraging conclusion, and our desires may be too large, even for utterance; but without it, words will often flow, that have little meaning and no correspondent affections.* We should also be very particular in our secret devotions; both in confession, in supplication for tem *Rom. viii. 26, 27. poral and spiritual mercies, according to our circumstances, in thanksgivings, and in prayers for others: for whilst men deal in general words, they must either be very short, and superficial, or run into needless repetitions. Occasional ejaculatory petitions also are a blessed addition to stated seasons of retirement. All our prayers should be explicitly offered in the name, and through the intercession of the divine Saviour: in dependence on his merits, with realizing expectation of success, and in a loving, forgiving spirit. Finally, a thorough acquaintance with the devotional part of the psalms; the petitions contained in other parts of Scripture; and a careful observation of the requests which the sacred penmen offered, the pleas they used, the order and proportion they observed, and the confessions, adorations, and grateful praises they intermixed with their fervent supplications for personal and public, temporal and spiritual mercies, will be more useful to the serious Christian, in this part of religion, than all other helps whatever. Above all, the LORD'S PRAYER, well understood and digested, will teach him what the confidence and leading desire of his heart in every prayer should be; what are the blessings especially to be sought for; and with what moderation and submission he should ask for temporal mercies, compared with the forgiveness of his sins, and deliverance from temptation and the tempter, from evil and the evil one: that in approaching the throne of grace, he may "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; assured that "all other things will be added unto him." ESSAY XXIV. On Baptism and the Lord's Supper. AMONG the ordinances, which the Lord hath appointed in his church, as means of grace and acts of solemn worship, some have, from the earliest times, been distinguished by the name of Sacraments. The word Sacrament originally signified the military oath which the commanders of the Roman armies requir. ed from their soldiers; and these institutions were considered as solemn engagements to be faithful and obedient to Christ, under whose banner all Christians have enlisted. In process of time, sacraments were multiplied, which gave rise to immense superstition and absurdity: and as human nature conti. nually verges to extremes, so it may be doubted whether numbers have not lately been induced too much to disregard all distinctions of this kind. The word, however, is not scriptural; and the nature of the two solemn ordinances, which Protestants consider the only Sacraments under the Christian dispensation, seems in general, to be this: 'In them, divine truths are exhibited to our senses, and illustrated to our minds, by outward emblems, and the reception of spiritual blessings is represented by significant actions. Thus observances in themselves indifferent, by divine appointment become a part of religious worship, honourable to God, and profitable to us and positive duties arise, where none before subsisted by moral obligation.' * Baptism is the initiatory ordinance of Christianity; as circumcision under the old dispensation, from Abraham to the ascension of Christ, was the door of admission into the visible church. It consists in the application of water to the baptized person," in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Water is the universal purifier of our persons, garments, houses, streets, and cities; it is essential to the beauty and fertility of the earth; and it is the original element from which every liquor that quenches our thirst, or exhilarates * The design of this compendious publication, renders it wholly improper to treat of this subject in a controversial manner. After long and patient investigation, and mature reflection, the writer is a Podo-Baptist; and his discussions will consequently be most applicable to those, who coincide with him in sentiment and prac tice. But he considers all as brethren who "love the Lord Jesus in sincerity:" and would not willingly offend any man, who conscientiously differs from him in such matters: he therefore reasonably hopes for similar candour from his readers. The disputes about the mode and subjects of Baptism seem to have too long occupied a disproportionate degree of attention; whilst numbers remain ignorant of the nature and obligations of the ordinance itself. Mr. Henry's observation seems well grounded; 'If infant baptism were more conscientiously improved, it would be less disputed.' |