Object of our Prayers, and the fubject Matter of them, being the fame in the Closet and at Church, the fame Affections and Difpofitions ought to accompany our Prayers in both Places. We should magnify God's Perfections with the fame awful Admiration; confefs our Sins with the fame Humility and Sorrow; beg God's Mercies and Bleffings with the fame Earneftness; acknowledge those which we have received, with the fame Gratitude and Joy; and intercede for our Brethren with the fame Affection in our

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private, as in our publick Prayers.

3. As to the Ufe of the Voice in private Prayer, I have but one Direction to give about it, and that is, that we take care that nobody bears us pray in our Closet, which would destroy the Nature and Ends of Privacy in our Prayers, and is contrary to the Command for praying in fecret; for we might as well leave the Door of our Clofet open, and let Men fee us pray, as let them bear us. But the Point of Privacy or Secrecy, being fecured, perhaps, with many Perfons, fpeaking the Words may be a Means of fixing the Attention, and increafing their Fervency.

4. Again, fourthly, Reverence of Behaviour in Prayer refpects the Closet as much as the Church. God has a Right to the Homage of the whole Man in both Places, and bodily Gestures have, alike in both Places, a natural Tendency to improve those Conceptions which we ought to have of God, and thofe Affections which we ought to have towards him. Let not any there

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fore imagine, that in private they may pray as well in their Chair, or in their Beds, as on their Knees, because Kneeling being by Custom a Posture of Respect and Humiliation, the Use of it will be a Help to the Soul in improving our inward Reverence. I do not mean that nobody ought occafionally to lift up their Hearts to God in any other Pofture than kneeling or ftanding, for good People frequently do it in all Poftures; but we must, in our stated and fet Times of Prayer in our Clofet, ufe bodily Reverence, and pray in the most humble Posture; and, if we accustom ourselves to a flovenly and careless Behaviour in our private Prayers, we shall foon find our inward Reverence for God begin to decay. The Affections of the Mind are wonderfully raised and enlarged by the Motions of the Body, and bodily Gestures avail much in blowing up the Fervour of our Spirits into a holy Flame. Now, in our Clofets, where we are concealed from outward Obfervation, we may ufe fuch Gestures as will be the most affecting, without giving Encouragement to our own Vanity and Oftentation, or the leaft Sufpicion of our Sincerity to others, by the Singularity of our Behaviour. Dr. Watts, speaking of that Act of Worship which we exercise before, and after Meals, is of Opinion that we need not rise from our Seat when we perform it alone. I muft differ from this fenfible and pious Writer, because these are not occafional Ejaculations, but fet and flated Acts of Worship, and ought to be performed with more Reverence, as well as any

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other fated A&t of private Prayer. Thus, by God's Help, I have finished (as well as my Ability and Condition would permit) a Difcourse upon the most folemn and feasonable Subject of Prayer; May God's Grace make it ufeful. Amen.

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DISCOURSE

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SACRAMENT of the Lord's-Supper.

Otwithstanding the great Number of Books upon this plain Inftitution, and many of them written by very learned and able Men, I must be of Opinion that there is still Room to add fomething that may be of Ufe; however, if the Reader fhould be difappointed he fhall lofe but little time; for, every thing that is neceffary for Chriftians in general to know concerning this Matter may be brought into a very narrow Compass. It is a common Excufe, with Perfons of no Education, that they never had any Learning, and are not able to qualify themfelves for the Sacrament; but, what a blafphemous Notion do these People entertain of God, by fuppofing him to have inftituted an Ordinance for the Ufe of all Chriftians, which, by much, the greatest Part of them are not capable of understanding. As I have nothing, at present, to do with the Quakers, I may venture to take it for granted that our Saviour inftituted this as an external Rite for the Ufe of all his Followers, to the End of the World. As there is nothing in the Words of the Inftitution that is peculiar to

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the Circumstances of the Apostles, but equally applicable to all Chriftians, fo the End and Defign of the Inftitution concerns all Chrift's Difciples; it was to commemorate his Death, and this till he fhould come the fecond Time in order to Judgment So St. Paul exprefsly declares, 1. Cor. xi. 26. We have then as pofitive a Command for the univerfal Obfervance of it, as we have for the Obfervance of any other Precept in the Bible, and confequently it is of as univerfal, and indifpenfable Obligation. What makes any thing a Duty, is, its being the Will of God that we should do it? What makes any thing finful is, its being a Violation of his Will. Omitting to do a thing that God has exprefsly required, is, in its Nature, equally a Violation of his Will, and equally a Sin. I fhall probably fhock fome of my Readers (as I did once before in my Difcourfe upon the Duty of keeping the whole Law) by affetting that a Chriftian can no more justify his deliberately living in the habitual Neglect of this Sacrament, than he can justify living in the Habit of any known Act of Immorality: If any one denies this, I afk him whether Difobedience to God's Commands be not a Sin; whether omitting to do what God has abfolutely required, be not as much an Act of Difobedience, as doing what God has abfolutely forbidden. Nay it is, in reality, as much an immoral Act as Intemperance, or Whoredom, forafmuch as it is a Breach of our Rule of Action, which is the Will of God: This is undeniably true; and, if it be, it deferves to be well confidered by those who are so easy under

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