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your soul into penitence and love? Can you devoutly pray to the divine Spirit, who is sent by the Father and the Son to be your comforter and dwell within you, rendering your body "the temple of God," and yet feel no "consolation in Christ; no comfort of love; no fellowship of the Spirit; no bowels of mercies?" This cannot be; the scriptures teach, and experience confirms, that it is profitable and edifying to worship the God, of whom, and through whom, and by whom we are made, and redeemed, and sanctified.

And let us daily and earnestly pray, that "he who has given us grace, by the confession of a true faith to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of the divine Majesty to worship the unity, will keep us steadfast in this faith." "Beware, lest any man spoil you," lest your faith be perverted through philosophy and a vain deceit; after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ; for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily;" and if you worship him in his true character, you worship God. Let men say, if they will persist in saying, that you worship three gods, or four, or twenty. Such uncharitable misrepresentations should excite your pity, rather than your resentment. For yourself it is enough to know that you worship but one God, and him only whose sacred names are graven upon your Christian armour. May "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with us all;" to this, with the inspired apostle, we say, "Amen."

SERMON XXI.

ON THE USEFULNESS OF PRAYER.

Job. xxi. 15.

What profit should we have, if we pray unto him?

THE moral, like the natural world, continues from age to age the same. The sentiments and hopes and pious trust of religious men, and the scoffs and the reasonings of infidelity, were the same in the days of Job, that they are at the present time. God was then merciful, and showered his blessings upon the earth, as he still does; and the same ingratitude and departure from his laws, operated then which now prevail. In this chapter, Job speaks of the wicked; they live to old age; "they are mighty in power;" their dwellings remain in peace; their herds increase; "their children dance," and "thus spend their days in wealth," and mirth, and vanity, even to the moment when they go down to the grave, without repentance, or any serious regard for their future state.

And what inference did men then make from this forbearance and long-suffering of God? The same

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which they make still; they despised his laws, and denied his providence. "Therefore, they say unto God, depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. What is the Almighty that we should serve him, and what profit should we have if we pray unto him?” “Are we not as healthy and strong, as prosperous and happy in the world, as they who fear God, and call upon his name, and practise religion?"

From these words, as indeed from all ancient history, we learn that prayer is not a new thing. The pious of all ages, and wise and good men generally, have acknowledged the fitness of prayer, and have been sensible that it is both our duty and our privilege, to adore God, and ask of him the things which we need, and which he alone can give. Prayer is of all exercises the most purely religious; it is the most direct and intimate communion of the soul with her God and Saviour. And we may then expect that every corrupt propensity of our nature, and every art of our spiritual foe, will be opposed to this holy exercise. Great and inestimable as is this privilege, it is natural to our fallen state, that excuses innumerable, and all manner of objections, should be employed to justify, or at least to quiet conscience under the neglect of prayer. Some indeed, who cannot quiet conscience, still live in the neglect of it. They feel that they ought to be more constant in their attendance on public worship; that they ought at their meals, to bless the God whose bounty feeds them; that they ought to pray with their families, and to be often on their knees in private devotion; and yet, the performance is irksome; they had rather attend to their worldly business, or to their pleasures;

or even to do nothing, is to them more pleasing than

to pray.

But men had much rather quiet conscience than endure its reproofs. He that lives without prayer, generally endeavours to satisfy himself that it is unnecessary and useless. There is a vain -philosophy existing in every age, which affects to be wiser than the rest of the world, and to contemn the experience of ages and the maxims of common sense. Thousands conceive that their own reasoning is superior to every proof which can be brought from the general views and practice of mankind; from all the records of history; from the experience of good men, and from the word of God. And in preaching the gospel, it is sometimes expedient to meet the boasters "of science falsely so called," upon their own ground, and to expose the weakness of their arguments.

It is intended in the present discourse, the Lord permitting, first and chiefly, to obviate some of the principal objections which are made to the worship of God; and secondly, to answer more directly this question of infidelity, "What profit should we have, if we pray unto him?"

I. Among the objections and arguments urged against the profitableness of prayer, is one grounded on the immutability of God's nature. The divine Being all allow, is unchangeable in his nature and providence; and from this some infer, that prayer is unreasonable and improper; because, it supposes that God will change in consequence of our petitions. But they who make this objection, err through ignorance. They ought to know and to consider, that

the change effected by prayer, is not in Him who hears and grants, but in men who offer the petitions. In setting forth our wants, we make God no wiser; he knows our ignorance in asking. We render him no more gracious in his nature; he is infinite in goodness and in every perfection. Prayer does not indeed, nor can any thing render God more benevolent, or more disposed to benefit his creatures, and make them happy; but it makes us more fit and better prepared to receive his favours. It is a part of the divine system in the government of the universe, or of this world certainly, that they who honour God shall by him be blessed and honoured. His grace is exhibited to us on this condition; “Ask and ye shall receive." His immutable word is pledged to hear our prayers, and to grant our requests. It is because he is faithful; it is because he is unchangeable, that they who seek of him shall find. God is the giver of all temporal blessings; but many of them we never receive, nor can receive, except we, on our part, use those means for attaining them which God has appointed. You must eat, or you will perish with hunger; nor can your bread be obtained without the use of means. This shows not that God is changeable; but that he is wise, and just, and good. When a father withholds favours from his children, while they are refractory and disobedient, and is kind to the same children if they repent and ask his pardon, he is wise and consistent; his purpose and character remain immutable; the child it is who changes. God undoubtedly will do what is fitting to every man and for every man, whether he pray or not; but every man should well consider that some

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