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only be to confine our private prayers to privateplaces, in which we are to keep up a fecret intercourfe with our Maker, withdrawn from the eye of the world, and unobserved by any other than that Almighty Being to whom our petitions are addressed.

The last inftance produced by our Saviour is that of fafting. "When ye fast, be not as the hypocrites of a fad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to faft; verily I fay unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to faft, but unto thy Father which is in fecret; and thy Father which feeth in fecret fhall reward thee openly."

There is very little neceflity to dwell on this precept here, for there are scarce any in thefe times and in this country who feem disposed to make a show of fafting, or to be ambitious of acquiring a reputation for that kind of religious difcipline; on the contrary, it is by great numbers entirely laid afide, and too frequently treated with derifion and contempt. Yet from this very paffage we may learn that it ought to be confidered in a much more ferious light; for although our Saviour did not command his difciples to faft whilft he was with them, yet he himself fafted for forty days. He here plainly fuppofes that his difciples did sometimes faft; and gives them directions how to perform that duty in a manner acceptable to God. And it appears also, that if they did fo perform it, if they fafted without any oftentation or parade, with a defign not to catch the applaufe of men, but to approve themselves to God, he affured them they should have their reward.

Before we quit this divifion of the chapter, we must go back a little to that admirable form of prayer which our Lord gave to his difciples, after cautioning them. against all oftentation in their devotions.

This prayer ftands unrivalled in every circumstance that conftitutes the perfection of prayer, and the excellence of that fpecies of compofition. It is concife, it is

perfpicuous, it is folemn, it is comprehenfive, it is adapt ed to all ranks, conditions, and claffes of men; it fixes our thoughts on a few great important points, and impreffes on our minds a deep fense of the goodness and the greatnefs of that Almighty Being to whom it is addreffed,

It begins with acknowledging him to be our most gra cious and merciful Father; it begs that his name may every where be reverenced, that his religion may spread over the earth, and that his will may be obeyed by men with the fame ardour, and alacrity, and conftancy that it is by the angels in heaven. It next intreats the fupply of all our effential wants, both temporal and fpiritual; a fufficiency of those things that are abfolutely neceffary for our fubfiftence; the forgiveness of our tranfgreffions, on condition that we forgive our brethren; and, finally, fupport under the temptations that affault our virtue, and deliverance from the various evils and calamities that every where furround us; expreffing at the fame time the utmost trust and confidence in the power of God, to grant whatever he sees it expedient and proper for his creatures to receive.

The full meaning then of this admirable prayer, and of the feveral petitions contained in it, may perhaps be not improperly expreffed in the following manner:

O thou great Parent of the universe, our Creator, our Preferver and continual Benefactor, grant that we and all reasonable creatures may entertain just and worthy notions of thy nature and attributes, may fear thy power, admire thy wisdom, adore thy goodnefs, rely upon thy truth; may reverence thy holy name, may bless and praise thee, may worship and obey thee.

Grant that all the nations of the earth may come to the knowledge and belief of thy holy religion; that it may every where produce the bleffed fruits of piety, righteousness, charity, and fobriety; that, by a conftant endeavour to obey thy holy laws, we may approach, as near as the infirmity of our nature will allow, to the more perfect obedience of the angels that are in heaven;

and thus qualify ourselves for entering into thy kingdom of glory hereafter.

Feed us, we befeech thee, with food convenient for us. We ask not for riches and honours; give us only what is neceffary for our comfortable fubfiftence in the feveral tations which thy providence has allotted to us; and above all give us contented minds.

We are all, O Lord, the best of us miferable finners.Be not extreme,, we beseech thee, to mark what we have done amifs, but pity our infirmities, and pardon our offences. Yet let us not dare to implore forgiveness from thee, unless we alfo from our hearts forgive our offending brethren.

We are furrounded, on every fide, with temptations to fin; and fuch is the corruption and frailty of our nature, that without thy powerful fuccour we cannot always ftand upright. Take us then, O gracious God, under thy almighty protection; and amidst all the dangers and difficulties of our Chriftian warfare, be thou our refuge and support. Suffer us not to be tempted above what we are able to bear, but fend thy holy spirit to strengthen our own weak endeavours, and enable us to escape or to fubdue all the enemies of our falvation.

Preferve us alfo, if it be thy bleffed will, not only from fpiritual, but from temporal evil. Keep us ever by thy watchful providence, both outward in our bodies, and inwardly in our fouls; that thou, being in all cafes our ruler and guide, we may fo pass through things temporal as finally to lose not the things eternal.

Hear us, O Lord our governor, from heaven thy dwelling place; and when thou heareft, have regard to our petitions. They are offered up to thee in the fulleft confidence that thy goodness will difpofe, and thy power enable thee to grant whatever thy wisdom feest to be convenient for us, and conducive to our final happiness.

The next thing which peculiarly demands our attention in this chapter is the declaration contained in the 24th

verfe, which presents to us another fundamental principle of the Christian religion; namely, the neceffity of giving the first place in our hearts and our affections to God and religion, and pursuing other things only in fubordination to thofe great objects. "No man," fays our Lord, “can ferve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or elfe he will hold to the one and defpife the other. Ye cannot ferve God and mammon*.”

The word mammon is generally interpreted to mean riches only; but the original rather directs us to take it in a more general fenfe, as comprehending every thing that is capable of being an object of truft or a ground of confidence to men of worldly minds; fuch as wealth, power, honor, fame, business, fenfual pleasures, gay amufements, and all the other various pursuits of the present fcene. It is thefe that conftitute what we ufually exprefs by the word world, when opposed to religion. Here then are the two mafters who claim dominion over us, God and the world; and one of these we muft ferve; both we cannot, because their difpofitions and their commands are in general diametrically oppofite to each other. The world invites us to indulge all our appetites without control; to entangle ourselves in the cares and distractions of bufinefs; to engage with eagernefs in endless contefts for fuperiority in power, wealth, and honor; or to give up ourelves, body and foul, to gaiety, amufement, pleafure, and every kind of luxurious indulgence. Thefe are the fervices which one mafter requires. But there is another mafter, whofe injunctions are of a very different nature. That matter is GOD; and his commands are, to give him our hearts; to love him with all our heart, and foul, and mind, and ftrength; to be temperate in all things; to make our moderation known unto all men; to fix our affections on things above; to have our converfation in heaven; to caft all our care upon him; and to take up our crofs and follow Chrift.

Judge now whether it be poffible to ferve thefe two mafters at one and the fame time, and to obey the commands

* Matth. vi 24.

of each; commands fo perfectly contradictory to each other.

Yet this is what a great part of mankind most abfurdly attempt; endeavor to divide themselves between God and mammon, to compromise the matter as well as they can between the commands of one and the feductions of the other; to vibrate perpetually between vice and virtue, between piety and pleasure, between inclination and duty; to render a worldly life and a religious life confiftent with each other; and to take as much as they can of the enjoyments and advantages of the prefent world, without lofing their hold on the rewards of the next.

Yet, in direct contradiction to fo extravagant and pre. pofterous a fyftem as this, Chrift himself affures us here that we cannot serve two masters; that we cannot ferve God and mammon. Our Maker expects to reign abfolute in our hearts; he will not be served by halves; he will not accept of a divided empire; he will not fuffer us to halt between two opinions. We must take our choice, and adhere to one fide or the other. "If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him*.”

But what then are we to do? Are we to live in a state of perpetual warfare and hostility with that very world in which the hand of Providence has placed us, and which is prepared in various ways for our reception and accommodation? Are we never to taste of those various delights which our Maker has poured fo bountifully around us? Are we never to indulge those appetites which he himself has planted in our breasts? Are we fo entirely to confine ourselves to the paths of righteoufnefs, as never to enter those that lead to power, to honor, to wealth, or to fame? Are we to engage in no fecular occupations, to make no provision for ourselves and our families? Are we altogether to withdraw ourselves from the cares and bufinefs and distractions of the world, and give ourselves wholly up to folitude, meditation, and prayer? Are we never to mingle in the chearful amufements of fociety? Are we not to

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