Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

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

[ocr errors]

kept in prison, 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."

66

[ocr errors]

66

Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jefus Chrift's fake, and for the love of the fpirit, that ye ftrive together with me, in your prayers for me." "Confefs 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." Ex. xxxii. 11. Acts xii. 5. Rom. i. 9. xv. 30. James v. 16. Declarations and examples authorizing the repetition of unsuccessful prayers: "And he

[ocr errors]

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

[ocr errors]

prayed the third time, faying the fame words." "For this thing I befought the Lord thrice that

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

* The reformed churches of Christendom, sticking close in this article to their guide, have laid afide prayers for the dead, as authorized by no precept or precedent found in scripture. For the fame reason they properly reject the invocation of faints; as also because such invocations suppose in the faints whom they address 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 smallest intimation of fuch a thing in fcripture, that any created being poffeffes a faculty little fhort of that omniscience and omniprefence which they ascribe to the Deity.

CHAP.

CHAP. IV.

OF PRIVATE PRAYER, FAMILY PRAYER, AND PUBLIC WORSHIP.

ONCERNING thefe three defcriptions

CON

of devotion, it is first of all to be obferved, that each has its feparate and peculiar use; and therefore, that the exercise of one fpecies of worship, however regular it be, does not fuperfede, or difpenfe 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 tak

ing 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 earneftnefs 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 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 univerfal agency, and invisible prefence of that being; concerning what is likely to become of himself; and of the super-` lative importance of providing for the happiness of his future exiftence, 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 folemnity upon the thoughts that will feldom 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, ઠંડ pray to thy father which is in fecret; and thy "father, which feeth in fecret, fhall reward thee openly." "And when he had fent the multiinto a mountain apart

[ocr errors]

«tudes

away,

he went up

"to pray." Matt. vi. 6. xiv. 23.

II. Family prayer.

The peculiar ufe of family piety confifts 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 exercise of private devotion, and whose 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 witneffes, act not at all upon them as examples; and his attendance 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 beside a sense of duty to God. Add to this, that forms of public worfhip, in proportion as they are more compre

henfive,

« AnteriorContinuar »