prayer is not acceptable from the terms in which it is clothed, but from the temper of the heart which the fupplicant poffeffes. Further, you may be able to pray in a manner which is for the edification of your domeftics, though you are not for the edification of a large affembly. I do not believe that the objection arifing from a want of gifts, ever prevented the head of a family from maintaining focial prayer in his ⚫ houfe, when he was really roufed to a fenfe of his duty. in the garden, repeated a former prayer in the fame words. We know that he was heard; and therefore may conclude that a mere man may be acceptable to God, though he be confined in his devotions to a form of words. The objection against family prayer from a want of gifts, it appears, is not infurmountable; and it is hoped that no one will dwell upon it, fo as to prevent his compliance, with a reasonable, fcriptural and important daty. OBJECTION VI. "I am an impenitent finnerThe facrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: I can not therefore in confcience pray to God by myfelf; far lefs can I confent to lead in the devotions of others, as in family prayer." I fuppofe, my friend, that you feel yourself to be ftrongly forti, fied by an objection which is in the mouths of many at the pref It is granted that all good men are not equally gifted in prayer. But thofe of the fmalleft gifts may perform to the edification of their families, by treafuring up in their minds the prayers uttered in the fcriptures. I know that fome perfons are offended with a propofal of any kind which countenances a form of prayer. But their objection is groundlefs. If they object against confining pub-ent time. I fhall not be able to lic bodies to a fet form of words, prefcribed by the authority of the church, they, in that cafe, ftand on good ground. But the cafe before us is of a different nature. This only refpects the cafe of an individual who is deficient in the gift of prayer, and is laboring to remedy his deficiency by laying up in his mind the adorations, confeffions, petitions, thankfgivings, &c. recorded in the book of God. A man may use the fame words in his prayer continually, and yet pray with the fpirit. He may va ry drive you from your imaginary ftrong hold, unless God by his fpirit fpeak to your heart. I re queft you to confider the following things, 1. If the plea of impenitence will avail to excufe you from prayer, it will excufe you from the performance of every other duty; and fhould you remain impenitent to the day of your death, you will be found without guilt. Your plea for the neglect of prayer proceeds on the ground that you do not think yourself to deferve punishment. What an aw ful ftate are you in, while con tending with God?-The confideration that you are an impenitent finner, furnishes a ftrong argument for feeking God by hum ble prayer, as well as in the ufe of other means, that you may obtain mercy. Eee 2. You act inconfiftently with, yourself. You restrain prayer before God, because you are an impenitent finner. Why do you not ftop plowing? The plowing of the wicked is fin. Why do you eat and drink, fince you are commanded to do thefe, and whatev. er you do, to the glory of God? If you do not perform the common offices of life out of a fupreme regard to the divine glory, you fin in the performance of them. Why are you so much afraid of finning against God in prayer, while you have no fear of it in fo many other things, in which you are equally commanded to feek his glory? Would you, if your houfe was on fire neglect to extinguish the flame because that you are an impenitent finner? Oh! be affured that you are travelling in a crooked path, and that a deceived heart has turned you afide. While you are, every moment, in danger of hell-fire, you flatter your felves that you must not pray to God for efcape; and that any thing is a duty rather than attention to the concerns of your foul. 3. You have not that reverence for God which you may fuppofe you have, while you urge a fcruple of confcience against praying to him. If you had a true reverence for God, how could you prefume to use the gifts of providence without asking his leave? You do use them in this manner, while you neglect to pray to God. You neither acknowledge his hand in any thing, nor afk of him a bleffing, nor his leave to ufe any thing in your prayerlefs ftate. Does fuch conduct as this evidence a reverential fear of the Most High? Are you impelled to fuch behavior by a teader confcience ? Suppofe a neighbor of yours comes to your granary before your eyes, and takes from it bread-corn for himfelf and family, and should reply to your expoftulation, “I can't in confcience ask you for it, but the grain I must have;" would you think that he conducts as he does from a fcrupulous regard to your character? Or, suppose he takes your horfe and rides to a diftant town, and pleads, when you call him to an account, that he could not in confcience ask you for the loan of your beaft, would you not either think him to be a deranged man; or under the influence of a very corrupt difpofition? Now apply the cafe of your neighbor to yourself. The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. The beafts of the field and of the foreft, and the eattle upon a thousand hills are his. They are his in the ftricteft fenfe; as he is their Creator, and conftant preferver. He openeth his hand and fatisfieth the desire of every living thing. Creatures cannot be yours only in a very limited fenfe; but they are the Lord's in the highest fenfe poffible. You are daily using fome or other of the creatures of God, for your fubfiftence and comfort; and are, as a prayerless man, neither afking his leave to use them, nor his bleffing in the ufe. How is it that if your confcience be fo tender that you cannot ask leave to take the bleffings of providence for your ufe, that your confcience will fo quickly permit you to lay your hands upon them without paying any acknowledgment to their divine author? How does it happen that confcience is fo tender in the one cafe, and fo unfeeling in the other? We should certainly think that a man who fcrupled to ask another for a fa vor, would equally fcruple to take, and discountenancing wickedness for his ufe what he wifhed for, | from its tendency to hand religion down to the fucceeding generations, from facts recorded in fcripture relative to the conduct of men highly approved of God, and from the example of Chrift in particular, in praying with his family. To thefe, add the dreadful ftate of families which continue prayerlefs thro' life. Upon them the Lord will pour out his fury, and caufe them to feel the bitter fruits of their wickedness. The objections which have been brought againift this duty can have no weight with a ferious mind. Heads of families will not, if they act rationally, be deterred from the duty, becaufe it is an old cuftom handed down by traditionbecause fome who pray in their houfes appear to have no proper fenfe of what they are doingbecaufe many live in the neglect 4. Prayer, whether of the fecret or focial kind, is not, like fome other duties, limited to qualified fubjects; but the performance of it is enjoined upon all men without delay. A perfon cannot be admitted to the Lord's Supper, according to divine rule, unless fome character be formed in him which constitutes his next or immediate right. He is, for inftance, to have knowledge to difcern the Lord's Body, and is to examine himself as to his motives, before he comes to the communion table. But prayer does not fuppofe a good character previoufly formed, any more than reading the Bible, and an attendance on public worship. The impenitent finner therefore, may be cal-of the duty-because they are led upon to pray as his next duty, diffident in their make; and bebe his prefent character what it cause they have not the best gifts, and are deftitute of grace in their hearts. Thefe objections, with all others which may be brought, will vanish like the fhades of night | before the approach of the morn ing fun, when God (hall fer your fins in order before your eyes. may. Should you feel alarmed, as many impenitent finners have done, your fcruples of confcience would inftantly vanish. You would, while you realized that you finned in every thing, be engaged in prayer, both in your clofet and family. Reft not upon an excufe which will, fooner or later, give you unfpeakable pain. Act the rational part of thofe who daily call upon God. You ftand, my friends, in an important relation to pofterity. It will be remembered of you while your name is preferved among the living, whether your house was a Bethel, a houfe of God, or a houfe of Belial. Which of thefe reputations do you wish to leave among the living ? Impartially and feriously review the remarks which have now been offered to convince you of | your duty, and to remove your Suppofe a fon of yours, fettled objections. May you be excited in family ftate, fhould be feized to the practice of family devotion, with dangerous fickness, his fears by arguments drawn from family of future mifery fhould be alarmforrows and joys, from its benev-ed, and he fhould thus addrefs olent tendency towards your do- you: "My father, I lived with meftics, in encouraging piety, you from infancy to manhood beft tend to imprefs your own hearts and the hearts of your do mestics. Inftruct your households in the doctrines and duties of revealed religion, while you are praying with them from day to day. Enforce your endeavors by a holy example.-Remember that without faith it is impoffible to please God. You must have the power as well as the form of god but I never heard a prayer from your lips. I felt encouraged by your example to fet out in the world without prayer. I have been fetting the fame example before my little ones which you did before yours. But now I tremble at the confequences. Permit me, my dear parent, to fpeak plainly I greatly fear that you and I have the blood of fouls to anfwer for by our neglect. Oh, let us re-linefs, or you will perish, after all pent and reform without delay, and feek a pardoning God for mercy." Would not fuch an addrefs cat to the heart the prayerlefs Father, who is not dead to all tender feelings? Avoid all occafions hereafter, I entreat you, of laying yourselves open to fuch reproofs from the lips of a dying child. Begin family prayer without delay. If you neglect this duty any longer, Satan will take advantage from it, and will by himself and his emiffaries, labor to prevent the performance of it in any future period of your life. Look to God for help. Confefs to your domeftics your fin in living without prayer heretofore, and tell them, that you are refolved by divine grace to reform. Be engaged in the duty, which has been urged, and you will find that ten thoufand difficulties will vanish. Take unto yourselves the whole armor of God. Pray always with all prayer and fupplication in the Spirit, and fun thatiunto with Spirit, and watch all perfeverance. your exertions to maintain order in your houses. Adopt the refolution of David, (Pfal. ci.) “ I will fing of mercy and of judg ment: unto thee O Lord will I fing. I will behave myself wifely in a perfect way. Oh when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my houfe with a perfect heart." May you have fuch members of your households, as that you may be enabled to enjoy a little refemblance of the family in heaven, while you are pilgrims and ftrangers on the earth; and may all those bleffings come upon you, which are promised to the habitation of the juft! QUESTION. Do faints ever lofe any degree of grace, or fandlification? Or, Is grace in faints ever diminifbed, fo that a lefs quantity is now poffeffed, than at a prece ding period? Tful being, does not be Let those who maintain family prayer, be encouraged to continue in the practice, with as few interruptions as poffible. In your degree, of that fanctification which votion guard against all oftentation on the one hand, and against cold formality on the other. Let your Torning and evening facrifices be performed in a manner which shall they have attained. This is a fubject on which revelation only is to be confulted, and the evidence from revelation is to be obtained from two fources. gree, is totally inconfiftent. Let us now confider the other fource of inftruction, 2. That of comparison or fimilitude.-As the fimilitudes which represent the nature and state of grace are numerous as well as various, let it fuffice only to refer to them, or produce the fcriptures which contain them. The parables of the muftard feed, and leaven caft into meal, are probably defigned to represent the nature of grace in the hearts of faints, equally with the progress of Christ's kingdom in the world. In Prov. iv. 16. grace is compared to a fhining light which thines more and more until the perfect day.Ifa. xliv. 4. They shall Spring up as willows by their water courses. Pfa. i. 1-3. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counfel of the ungodly-his leaf alfo SHALL NOT wither. Mal. iv. You that fear my name-shall grow up as calves for the ftall. John iv. 14. The water that I shall give him, fhall be a well of water Springing up to everlasting life. 2 Cor. iii. 18. But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the fame image from glory to glory. Grace in faints is compared to an infant or child. 1 Pet. ii. 2. As new born babes, defire the fincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby. I Cor. xiii. 11. When I was a child, I understood as a child--but when I became a man I put away childish things.-Eph. iv. 11. And he gave fome apoftles 1. Pofitive affurances or declarations, that holiness in saints fhall be progreffive. It is faid, Job. xvii. 9. The righteous fhall hold on his way. This is equal to a poftive declaration or an abfolute promife, that the righteous fhall maintain his degree of grace, or the progrefs he hath made in the way of holiness or life. If he doth not this, if the quantity or degree of grace in him be diminifhed, at that time, he doth not hold on his way; but reclines, and his movement is retrogade, rather than progreffive. It is added, and he that hath clean hands fhall wax ftronger and fronger. This also afferts an increafing or conftant improving, which is inconfiftent with a declining ftate. It is faid, Pfa. lxxxiv. 7. They go from frength to ftrength. If this relates primarily to faints, equally with the other, it afferts that pragreffive improvement of grace with which the diminution of it at at any time is incompatible.-If it defcribed the collection of the tribes of Ifrael from their refpective refidences, to folemnize the feafts of the Lord, or of individuals, to attend his worthip in Jerufalem, and this were typical of the collection of the numerous communities, or individuals of his peo. ple, from the four winds of heaven, in his holy hill of Zion-it teaches, that faints in their pilgrimages are continually progreffing toward that better country, as the tribes of Ifrael progreffed in their journey to Jerufalem.-It is faid, Ifa. xl. 31. They that wait upon for the perfelling of the faintsthe Lord fhall renew their firength, till we all come in the unity of the they shall mount up with wings as faith, unto a perfect man-that eagles, run and not be weary, walk we be no more children, but speakand not faint: All which expref- ing the truth in love may grow up fions imply that conftant progrefs into him in all things which is the in holiness with which the diminu-head, even Chrift.If it be said, tion of fanctification, in any de. As plants wither by drought, and |