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of our infinite Obligations to Revelation, which, alone, can encourage us to draw near to God, ⚫ in full Affurance of Faith, that our Addreffes to the Throne of Grace, tho' made by fuch mean, and worthless, less than worthless, the most unworthy Creatures, to a Being infinite in Goodness, in Purity, in Wisdom, in Juftice, and Power, fhall be gracioufly accepted and anfwer'd, if offer'd with a fincere Heart. We are bere affured that our Demerit, and the Imperfection of our Prayers, fhall be amply suppli⚫ed by the all-fufficient Merits of Christ's Death; who, in virtue of his meritorious Paffion, is appointed our Interceffor in Heaven, and conftantly refides there, at his Father's right Hand, ཝ་ to recommend our Devotions to his Accept<ance. We Chriftians, not only approach God as our Creator, our heavenly King, and Fudge, (Ideas that carry Awfulness and Terror, that ferve to intimidate and difcourage us) but, in right of our Adoption, we go to God with Chearfulness and Boldness, crying Abba, • Father; a Title of Indearment, that carries in it Tenderness and Affection, and an Affurance that, as an earthly Patent pitieth his Children, fo will our heavenly Father be compaffionate, indulgent, and condefcending to us, tho' his undutiful Children; if we afk Forgiveness • with Hearts fincerely penitent. We have, moreover, for our Encouragement to pray to God, a Series of Examples, from the Beginning of the World, thro' the Hiftory of the old and new Teftament, of Men of like Paffions,

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< and Infirmities with ourselves, offering up their Prayers to God, and of the Acceptableness and Efficacy of them.

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With my repeated Thanks for your very fenfible and ingenious Letter, and Compliments to the Doctor, I am,

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Your affectionate Friend and Servant,

W. WEBSTER,

P. S. Upon a Review of my Letter, I find, I have conceded a thing to you which you ⚫ have not proved, and is not true in the Senfe • in which you have afferted it, and upon the Strength of the Argument as you, and I, both, have ftated and enforced it.-Prayer, we affert to be a natural Means of promoting Religion and Virtue; and this appears to be a very clear Truth. -From ⚫ hence we deduce its natural Obligation upon us, as rational Creatures, nothing being clearer to our natural Reafon than that it must be the Will of the fupreme Being, that Religion and Virtue fhould be promoted among us, his rational Creatures, in the most effectual Manner that may be. But, till we have proved that Religion and Virtue can't be as effectually promoted without the Ufe of Prayer, as by the Help of it; we cannot conclufively deduce from the natural Effect of Prayer upon our Minds, the confequent Obligation to the Practice of it. Suppofe, for Inftance, a Deift should

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• affert that regular, and ferious, and frequent • Meditation upon our Relation to God, as dependent and finful Creatures, will be as effectual towards exciting and improving. religious Sentiments and Difpofitions, as the Act of Prayer; then, its Neceffity, as a • Means towards the religious and virtuous Ends, upon which we grounded the Obligation, ceafing, does not the Obligation, fo far as it arifes from its natural Tendency, ceafe likewife? And if we be not obliged to the Act of Prayer, on account of its Influence < upon us, his Creatures, and for the Sake of our own Good; then we are brought back to the Neceffity of proving our Obligation to the Practice of it, from fome Confide<rations repecting the Deity; the Abfurdity of which I have already prov'd. We muft, therefore, proceed one Step farther, and fhew, from the Nature and Circumfances of Prayer, that it is, in itself, not only A Means, but a necessary Means; forafmuch as Meditation, or Contemplation, ⚫ under any poffible Circumftances, never can be made as effectual a Means towards the • Promotion of Religion and Virtue as Prayer may be. I think, I can prove thus much; but, I am fatisfied I fhall be the better able to do it by the Affiftance of your farther Thoughts upon the Subject. Your Letter ' has been of fo much Ufe to me, that, without it I could not have stated and proved my own Notion in the manner that I have

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now done. Your Anfwer to an Objection is juft and acute; but, as I am Opponent, I ' have nothing to do with it.'

In answer to This Letter, I received another from him, confifting of nine Pages in Folio, full of Ingenuity and fubtle Diftinctions, but by no means fatisfactory; in fome Places inconfiftent, and the whole of it too abftrufe to be of general Ufe, or Entertainment. At the End of his Letter he defired that the Difpute might be concluded by a perfonal Interview; but, foon after, he was taken ill, and died before I had an Opportunity of feeing him; and by his Death the World loft the Example of a pious Chriftian, and the Advantages of a very able Writer, while his Friends were deprived of an useful, entertaining, and agreeable Companion. I am glad of This decent Opportunity of paying my publick Refpects to his Memory; and, though, for the Reason above-mentioned, I do not think fit to publish his fecond Letter, I fhall preserve it for the Satisfaction of any of his Friends who may have the Curiofity to perufe it.

About five and twenty Years ago (for fo long have I given a particular Attention to This Subject) I took the Liberty of writing to another Gentleman, of the fame Name, and of equal Eminence for his metaphyfical Capacity; I mean the late celebrated Mr. Clarke, of Hull. Tho' I was a mere Stranger to him, he very readily complied with my Requeft, and fent me what he apprehended to be a conclufive Argument in E

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proof of the Duty of Prayer from natural Principles. This Letter, with my Reply, I have loft, together with many other Papers, in the conftant Hurry of a fatiguing, difagreeable Life; but I have not loft the Subftance of them, because I foon took Occafion to work them. up into a Sermon upon the Subject, and preached it with Approbation at the Univerfity Church at Cambridge. His Argument was fhort, and, like his Namefake's, drawn from the Fitnefs of Things; not My Friend's Fitness of Congruity, as he ftiles it, but the Fitness of a Means to an End. He obferved, very justly, that every fober Deift must own a moral Obligation to use the most likely Means to promote Virtue; and then proceeded. to fhew, that Prayer was a Means of promoting it, by the Influence which it must have upon, our Minds when the Duty is properly discharged, and, confequently, that it must be every Man's Duty to pray. In my Reply, I agreed with him as to the good Influences of Prayer, that it was a natural Means of promoting Virtue; but denied that, therefore, it must be a natural Duty, because it might not be a Means necessary to the Support of Virtue. If Virtue may be as effectually fupported and promoted by any other Means, then the Neceffity of it ceafes, and the Force of his Argument is deftroyed, as I observed in my Poftfcript to my Letter to my other Friend. As I there faid, if a Deift fhould pretend that regular Meditation may be as effectual a Means to promote Virtue, as Prayer can be, it is incumbent upon us, if we will argue with him upon natural

Principles,

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