in the land of the living. God may for a time, in his wife and good providence, with-hold our defires from us, and yet fulfill them afterwards, when they more contribute to his glory or our good; and the parable of the unjuft Judge, and poor Widow, doth very strongly enforce on us that duty, which our Saviour intended to confirm in it, always to pray, and not to faint.

To the abovementioned qualifications of an acceptable Prayer we must add, lastly, a lively Faith in Chrift; fuch a Faith as may be a proper foundation for us to build the other qualifications upon, fuch a Faith as doth not overthrow good works, but produceth them, herself working by Love. The light of natural reafon directs us to offer up our Prayers to God only; but the Scriptures further inform us, that they must be offered up through Christ. It is by his merits only, that we can expect to have our fins forgiven, and our wants fupplied. He is the merciful High Priest,

who

who having felt our infirmities has learned to compaffionate them; having experienced our distreffes, is become willing to relieve them; and having born temptation, is both able and willing to affift us in, and deliver us out of it: he receives our prayers, offers them up to God, intercedes in our behalf, and backs our petitions with his own prevailing merits; fo that there is no good thing which we may not hope for, through his mediation.

Pleasure, Honour, and Profit, are the three great idols of the modern world, and engrofs the adoration of much the greatest part of mankind, the Senfual, the Ambitious, and the Covetous. It is through the inducements of thefe prevailing paffions, that our hearts are entirely weaned from the confideration of another life, and rivetted on this; it is one or all of these which make us fit loose to the duty of Prayer, and think every moment spent therein precious time loft from the pursuit of our darling objects. But if it will appear

(as

(as to an unprejudiced perfon I am sure it will) that Prayer is the best means of affording not only one of these advantages feparately, but all of them conjunctively, and each of them in a greater degree than we could enjoy without it, then we certainly have a very strong argument to enforce this duty, as well upon the interefts as the confciences of mankind.

The man of Pleasure may boast of his enjoyments, and those noble indulgencies of his fenfuality, in which the Brutes may vie with him, nay, in one refpect, far excell him, in that they feel no remorse, no compunction afterwards, and to such an one (whilst he continues fuch) it will be in vain to represent the more folid, lafting, and fuperior pleasures which are to be found in a fincere performance of the duty of Prayer. But if we make our appeal to the hearts of those who are inflamed with true devotion, and can relish the exercifes of Piety, we may be eafily fatisfied, that one moment spent in the discharge of

this

this duty, will much outweigh an whole life fpent in the indulgence of Senfuality and Libertinifm. So much as the Soul is superior to the body, fo much are the pleasures of the one beyond those of the other. Corporeal gratifications are violent, but not lafting; they foon cloy, and pall upon the appetite, and, notwithstanding the charm of variety, grow tedious and infipid. The pleasures of the foul are more fedate and temperate, more lafting and permanent; the more we ufe, the more we relish them, the longer we are acquainted with them, the more lovely they appear, and the stronger they engage us. But of all the pleasures of the foul, those which the receives from the communication of God in the exercise of Prayer, are undoubtedly the most excellent, when the mounts upon the wings of Devotion, and, divefted of earthly thoughts and affections, penetrates into the highest Heaven, and enjoys the glorious prefence, and the gracious converfation of her God. Sensual gratifications leave a fting behind them, which

the

1

the greatest libertine in the world cannot always appeafe; he must fometimes in his cooler hours, feel the terrors, and groan beneath the burden of an accufing confcience; but the pleasures refulting from Prayer, as they are free from all difquietudes at the time, fo they are not terminated with the exercise itself, but diffuse a solid and lafting fatisfaction over the foul; and the action is not only pleasant in the performance, but alfo in our confideration of it afterwards. A pleasure this, which Vice may always wish for, but never can enjoy. We may therefore with great truth affert, that whatever the world may think, and wicked men may talk of pleasure, it is never to be found till we become acquainted with God, till we are made fenfible of his love, and enjoy that happy friendship, and communion with him, which is only expreffed and maintained by Prayer, and fpiritual exercifes.

But the performance of this duty is not only attended with Pleasure, but Honour

alfo.