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the will, and conducive to the glory, of God.

Whilst mistakes like these prevail, a confideration of the duty of prayer cannot be out of season; it cannot prejudice those who beft understand it, and may be ferviceable to those who do not.

Prayer is a folemn act of worshipping the Supreme Being; wherein we, on the one hand, acknowledge our weakness and indigence, on the other his power and ability to afford us relief; it naturally implies fome defect in him who offers it up, and some authority in him to whom it is offered to pardon and amend it; it fupposes God to be the Maker and Governor of all things, and fo gracious and condefcending, fo potent and abfolute in his nature, as always to be ready to hear, and able to redress the Grievances of his Creatures, fo that this duty is founded on the infinite goodness and power of God; he is infinitely good, and therefore willing, infinitely

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fortunes, and procure bleffings; premifing only, that, by a righteous man we are not to understand one who is perfectly pure, and free from fin, but one who performs his duty to the utmost of his power, and makes up for any infirmity in his Obedience, by the ftrength of his Faith, and the fincerity of his Repentance.

The duty of prayer is in the present age by many entirely neglected, or imperfectly obferved, and by fome openly decried. There are many who difallow any other application to God than that of the mind, and not a few who, however constant in the outward forms of prayer, do yet by their lives but too plainly fhew that their minds are unaffected. Some too there are, who run into the contrary extreme, who are so unwarrantably attentive to the performance of this duty, as to neglect obligations which are of much greater import, which are more immediately neceffary for their own good, and the benefit of fociety, and which of confequence must be more agreeable to

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the will, and conducive to the glory, of God.

Whilst mistakes like these prevail, a confideration of the duty of prayer cannot be out of season; it cannot prejudice those who beft understand it, and may be ferviceable to those who do not.

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Prayer is a folemn act of worshipping the Supreme Being; wherein we, on the one hand, acknowledge our weakness and indigence, on the other his power and ability to afford us relief; it naturally implies fome defect in him who offers it and some authority in him to whom it is offered to pardon and amend it; it fuppofes God to be the Maker and Governor of all things, and fo gracious and condescending, fo potent and abfolute in his nature, as always to be ready to hear, and able to redress the Grievances of his Creatures, fo that this duty is founded on the infinite goodness and power of God; he is infinitely good, and therefore willing, infi

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nitely powerful, and therefore able to relieve us; and for these reasons he is, and he alone can be, the proper object of our Prayers.

The Heathens themselves, as they were fully perfuaded of these perfections in God, and of the great need in which they stood of having them exerted in their behalf, were alfo convinced that it was their duty to pray to him; and this duty was heartily acknowledged, earnestly recommended, and ftrictly practifed by the wifeft and soberest among them. The Scriptures, as they every where abound with earnest and pathetick exhortations to the religious performance hereof, fo they afford us many ftrong motives which the Heathens could not have; they supply us with the names of many great and good men who were exemplary in the performance of it, amongst whom, as in all other works of Righteoufnefs, our bleffed Lord fhines with distinguished luftre; they fully inftruct us both as to the Object to, and the manner in

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which they ought to be offered; they apply themselves to our fears by the most severe threats, to our hopes by the most delightful promises, fupplying us with an encouragement to, and laying a foundation for the performance of this duty, which the Heathens could not have, in the veracity of God himfelf; who hath faid and cannot lie; who hath declared and cannot deny himfelf, that they who afk fhall receive.

The reasonableness of this duty in gene

ral appears from the flightest attention to the particular branches of which it confifts. If we confider Man merely as a Creature, as just come out of the hands of his Maker, as raised into being from the dust of the earth, and, befides many other, endued with those distinguishing privileges, Reafon and Immortality, fure nothing can be more reasonable than for him to pay his most submissive and reverential homage to that Being who employs Omnipotence in conferring Benefits upon him; to exert his reafon in the praife of him who gave it,

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