2. Examples of prayer for particular favours by name: "For "this thing (to wit, some bodily infirmity, 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 exceed"ingly, 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 national 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, 2, 3.

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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? Re"member Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants. And the "Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his peo"ple."—" 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."—" Con*fess 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.

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5. Declarations and examples authorizing the repetition of unsuccessful prayers: "And he spoke 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.*

CHAPTER IV.

OF PRIVATE PRAYER, FAMILY PRAYER, AND PUBLIC WORSHIP.

CONCERNING these three descriptions of devotion, it is first of all to be observed, that they have each their separate and peculiar use; and therefore, that the exercise of one species of worship, however regular it be, does not supersede or dispense with the obligation of either of the other two.

İ. Private prayer is recommended for the sake of the following advantages:

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 hearty and earnest than the share we are capable of taking in joint acts of worship; because

* The reformed churches of Christendom, sticking close in this article to their guide, have laid aside prayers for the dead, as authorized 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 Scripture, that any created being possesses a faculty little short of that omniscience and omnipresence which they ascribe to the Deity.

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 is chiefly excited.

Private prayer, in proportion as it is usually 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 impressions of religion. Solitude powerfully assists 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 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 effect 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 thy door, pray to thy Father, which is in secret; "and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee open"ly."" And when he had sent the multitudes 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 servants, and the young members of a family, who want sufficient seriousness and reflection to retire of their own accord to the exercise of private devotion, and whose attention you cannot easily command in public worship. The example also and authority of a father and master act in this way with the greatest force; for his private prayers, to which his children and servants are not witnesses, act not at all upon them as examples; and his at

tendance upon public worship they will readily impute to fashion, to a care to preserve appearances, to a concern for decency and character, and to many motives besides a sense of duty to God. Add to this, that forms of public worship in proportion as they are more comprehensive, are always less interesting than family prayers; and that the ardour of devotion is better supported, and the sympathy more easily propagated, through a small assembly connected by the affections of domestic society, than in the presence of a mixed congregation.

III. Public worship.

If the worship of God be a duty of religion, public worship is a necessary institution; forasmuch as, without it, the greater part of mankind would exercise no religous worship at all.

These assemblies afford also, at the same time, opportunities for moral and religious instruction to those who otherwise would receive none. In all Protestant, and in most Christian countries the elements of natural religion, and the important parts of the evangelic history, are familiar to the lowest of the people. This competent degree and general diffusion of religious knowledge amongst all orders of Christians, which will appear a great thing when compared with the intellectual condition of barbarous nations, can fairly, I think, be ascribed to no other cause than the regular establishment of assemblies for divine worship; in which, either portions of Scripture are recited and explained, or the principles of Christian erudition are so constantly taught in sermons, incorporated with liturgies, or expressed in extempore prayer, as to imprint, by the very repetition, some knowledge and memory of these subjects upon the most unqualified

and careless hearer.

The two reasons above stated, bind all the members of a community to uphold public worship by their presence and example, although the helps and opportunities which it affords may not be necessary to the devotion or edification of all; and to some may be useless for it is easily foreseen, how soon religious assemblies would fall into contempt and disuse, if that class of mankind

who are above seeking instruction in them, and want not that their own piety should be assisted by either forms or society in devotion, were to withdraw their attendance; especially when it is considered, that all who please, are at liberty to rank themselves of this class. This argument meets the following, and the only serious apology that is made for the absenting of ourselves from public worship. "Surely I may be excused from going to church, so long as I pray at home; and have no reason to "doubt but that my prayers are equally acceptable and effica"cious in my closet as in a cathedral; still less can I think my"self obliged to sit out a tedious sermon, in order to hear what "is known already, or better learnt from books, or suggested by "meditation." They, whose qualifications and habits best supply to themselves all the effect of public ordinances, will be the last to prefer this excuse, when they reflect upon the general consequence of setting up such an exemption, as well as the turn which is sure to be given in the neighbourhood to their absence from public worship. You stay from church, to employ the Sabbath at home in exercises and studies suited to its proper business your next neighbor stays from church, to spend the seventh day less religiously than he passed any of the six, in a sleepy, stupid rest, or at some rendezvous of drunkenness and debauchery, and yet thinks that he is only imitating you, because you both agree in not going to church. The same consideration should overrule many small scruples concerning the rigorous propriety of some things which may be contained in the forms, or admitted into the administration of the public worship of our communion: for, it seems impossible that even two or "three should be gathered together" in any act of social worship, if each one require from the rest an implicit submission to his objections, and if no man will attend upon a religious service which in any point contradicts his opinion of truth, or falls short of his ideas of perfection.

Beside the direct necessity of public worship to the greater part of every Christian community, (supposing worship at all to