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fickly Sacrifice, but a dead and polluted one. Have we Paffions that actuate us on all other Occafions, and fhall they be afleep and quite unactive, where the Objects of them are most affecting? Is it required that we should be grieved and confounded at the Thoughts of our Sins, and fhall we feel none of thefe inward Movements when we confefs them to God, the Person offended? Can we have an awful Sense of God's tremendous Perfections, and feel no awful Senfations when we acknowledge them? Can we have a grateful Senfe of his Goodness to us, and feel no grateful Emotions when we thank him for his Bleffings and Mercies? This is unnatural, impoffible, contrary to all our Experience of human Nature, which muft operate after the fame Manner at our Prayers as it does at other Times; contrary to the Practice of holy Men recorded in Scripture; of Jacob when he wrestled with the Angel, and made his Supplication to him; of Mofes when he prayed for Forgiveness for the Ifraelites; of David when his Heart was hot within him, when the Fire kindled with an holy Flame that burst out with Vehemency of Expreffion; of our blessed Saviour, who prayed to God in his Agony with Strong Crying and Tears, and did fweat great Drops of Blood. Languid and fpiritless Addresses are as contrary to Precept, as they are to Nature and Examples; for, we are commanded to Arive in Prayer, to pray exceedingly, to pray earnestly, and to labour fervently in Prayer. Thus we must pray with our Heart, as well as our N 3 Under

Understanding. It cannot be Prayer unless we Speak to God with our Minds, unless our Thoughts be directed to him; fo neither can our Prayers be Devotions, unless they be accompanied with pious Affections.

But tho' we all of us might, with due Care, pray with more Attention and Devotion than we have done; yet, the very beft Performances, of the very best of us, will be imperfect ones; and, therefore, while I am endeavouring to awaken the Careless, and to quicken the Indolent, I muft be careful not to difcourage the well-meaning Chriftian.

In the first Place, we, all of us, find a Difficulty in keeping our Minds fixed, for any confiderable Time, upon an invifible Object. This Difficulty arifes chiefly from our having been fo constantly habituated to fenfible Objects, that our Thoughts naturally direct themselves thither. As we have been fo much accustomed to the Exercise of our Senfes, and are perpetually furrounded with fenfible Things, they are apt to ingrofs our Attention. But the Generality of Mankind, because they cannot fee God with their bodily Eyes, find fome Difficulty in directing their Minds to a Being of which they have no Idea; and a greater Difficulty, ftill, in keeping them fo directed for fo long a Time as the Performance of this Duty requires.-And, therefore, the only Ways by which we can naurally acquire a proper Attention to our Prayers, and a Capacity of directing our Minds to God, the Object of them, muft be, first, to accustom

our

ourfelves, at other Times, to think upon him, upon his Nature, Attributes, and Providence. This (as I have already obferved under the Head of fhort Ejaculations) may be done, not only in our Clofets, when the neceffary Affairs of Life will permit us to retire for Reading and Meditation, but we may often do it while we are performing the Duties of our Station; not only when we are alone, but when we are in Company. In all Places there will be vacant Intervals, when we may employ our Thoughts on other Things befides those which concern our worldly Bufinefs, even while we are attending upon it. And, if at other Times we use ourselves to think of a Being who made us, and every Thing else about us; if we make the Thoughts of his providential Care over us, and tender Mercies towards us, familiar to us; if we often confider this our Relation and Obligation to him, and our Dependance upon him; but, withal, how unworthily, how undutifully, how ungratefully we have behaved towards this bountiful Lord and Master; I fay, if we acquire a Habit of thinking in this Manner, we shall not find it fo difficult to think of God in his own Houfe, and to direct thofe Thoughts to him there, which we have accuftomed ourfelves to entertain in our Minds in other Places. But, if we never use ourselves to think upon God, and the Subject Matter of our Prayers, at any other Time than when we come to Church, or to private Prayers, we fhall not be able to do it then. If we would be truly devout, we must acquire

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acquire a Habit of Reflection; I mean, this Kind of practical Reflection; for, a Man may have his Mind ftored with great Variety of Learning, and be very contemplative, and yet as void of pious Sentiments and Difpofitions, as the Man whofe Thoughts are continually employed in a Circle of Bufinefs, or Pleafure, and, confequently, be as inattentive and indevout at his Prayers.

But, farther, as foon as we enter the Church, or our Closet, we should immediately recollect ourselves that we are going to addrefs God, and that we are immediately to banish from our Minds all other Thoughts whatsoever. And this conftant Method of recollecting ourselves at: our first Entrance into the Church, (which it is in every one's Power to follow) tho' it will not fecure us from all Wanderings, yet will it be a confiderable Help to us in fixing our Attention to the Bufinefs of our Devotion; efpecially, if we be careful not to divert our Attention from it by.. talking to others, or looking about upon external Objects, which will foon carry away our. Thoughts along with them.

Speaking of the Difficulty of directing our Minds to God, as he is an invisible Object, a Friend of mine fuggefted a very ingenious Thought, viz. That as the Man Chrift Jefus is PERSONALLY united with the Godhead, it might be of Use to some People, in order to fix their Attention, to direct their Devotions to him. Every one has an Idea of the Perfon of Chrift's Human Nature, and may as eafily direct their Minds to it, as we can direct them to the Per

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fon of any other Man, or as they prayed to Chrift when he was on Earth; and the Human Nature being equally united to the Divine in Heaven, there can be no Idolatry in fuch Worship any more than there was then.

These are the only natural Ways, that I can think of, for fixing our Attention, and directing our Minds to God; without which, as I have obferved to you, we cannot be faid to pray to him, or have juft Grounds to hope that he will pay any other Regard to our Service, than to punish us for the Infincerity of it. As to thofe Difpofitions which ought to accompany our Prayers, in order to render them, in a proper Sense, Devotion, and an acceptable Service, we must not be too much difcouraged at the frequent Coldnefs and Languor of our Addreffes. The very fame Causes which make it fo difficult for us to keep our Attention fixed, make it difficult for us to pray with Fervency. Our habitual Attention and Attachment to worldly and fenfual Matters take Poffeffion of our Hearts, while they engage our Thoughts. Such an Intimacy with them naturally begets an Affection for them, which, in proportion to its Strength, will weaken our fpiritual Affections. The more paffionately we purfue, or enjoy, worldly and fenfual Pleafures, the lefs we fhall be affected with heavenly Thoughts and Exercises. These two Paffions are directly oppofite, and at continual Variance with one another; infomuch, that if we be worldly-minded and fenfual in our Difpofition, we shall be proportionably indevout in our Pray

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