is, when we, without any reflection or meditation before hand, address ourselves to God, and speak the thoughts of our hearts, as fast as we conceive them. Now this is most property done in that which is called ejaculatory prayer, when we lift up our souls to God in short breathings of request or thanksgiving, in the midst of any common affairs of life. But there may be also some other occasions for it: viz.

1. I grant, that in secret prayer, there is not the same degree of premeditation necessary, as in public: For there a person takes a greater liberty to express his thoughts and the desires of his soul, just as they rise within him, which may be very significant to awaken and maintain his own affections in that duty, though perhaps they would be very improper and disagreeable in public.

2. I grant also, that persons of better natural parts, of a lively temper, or ready expression, of great heavenly-mindedness, or such as have been long exercised and experienced in this work, are not bound to premeditate all the materials and methods of their prayer in daily worship in a family; nor are ministers, whose graces and talents have been well improved, obliged to think over all the substance of every public address to God beforehand. A short recollection of thought may supply such persons with matter for those constant returns of worship. Nor are christians who are possessed of such endowments, at any time bound to an equal degree of premeditation as others are. Bishop Wilkins very pertinently tells us, The proportion of gifts that a man hath received is the measure of his work and duty in this case. Yet upon some great and solemn occasions, public and private, when seasons are set apart for prayer, a regular premeditation is very useful and advantageous to persons of the highest attainments.

3. I grant further, that there may be several calls of providence, which may demand such sudden addresses to God, even from persons of less skill and experience; and they have then reason to hope for more especial assistance from the Spirit of God, while they obey the call of present and necessary duty. But I am ready to suspect that some persons, who are unskilled in praying, and yet cry out against premeditation, do indulge a degree of spiritual sloth, that secretly prevails upon them, while they profess to be afraid of any thing that comes near to a form.

The arguments that may incline and encourage younger christians to prepare their thoughts for prayer beforehand are these:

1. The common reason of man and light of nature teach us, that an affair of such solemnity and importance, which requires our utmost care to perform it well, cannot be done without some forethought. The skill of a christian in the inward exercise of grace, is to be learned and improved by forethought and diligence; and much more in the external performance of a religious duty. Now if the light of nature leads us to it, and scripture no where forbids, why should we not pursue the practice? The words of scripture seem to encourage such a premeditation, when it tells us, we should not be rash with our mouth, nor let our heart be hasty to utter any thing before God; Eccles. v. 2.

2. That the heart should be prepared for prayer, is certainly necessary; the preparation of the heart is frequently spoken of in the word of God: now the heart cannot be prepared for any act of worship, without some degree of premeditation. What is the use of reading the word of God just before prayer, in our families? Why are we so often advised to recollect the sermons we hear when we retire for prayer, but that by premeditation we may be better fitted with materials for this duty?

3. There can be no such thing as learning to pray in a regular way without it. The distinction of the nature of prayer into its several parts, adoration, confession, petition, is all useless, if we must not think before-hand. The excellent rules that ministers lay down to teach us to pray, are mere trifling, if we must not think beforehand. If we may not consider, what our sins are, what our wants, and what our mercies, before we speak in prayer, there is no possibility of ever learning to perform this part of christian worship with any tolerable measure of decency or profit. An utter aversion to think beforehand, whatever the pretences are, will be a most effectual bar against the attainment of the gift of prayer in any considerable degree.

4. Due preparation for prayer is the way to serve God with our best. But for younger christians, unskilled in this work, to rush always into the presence of God in solemn prayer, without due forethought, even when there is time allowed for it; and to pour out words before God at all adventures, is no sign of that high reverence which they owe to so awful a majesty, before whom angels veil their faces, who is jealous of his own worship, and abhors the sacrifice of fools.

If we utterly neglect preparation, we shall be ready to fall into many inconveniences. Sometimes we shall be constrained to make long and indecent stops in prayer, not knowing what to say next. At other times we shall be in danger of saying those things that are very little to the purpose, and of wandering far from our purposed subject and design, which can never be acceptable to God, And sometimes when the mind is not regularly furnished, the natural spirits are put into a hurry, and we run into a confused, incoherent, and impertinent rhapsody of words, whereby both God may be dishonoured, and our own edification and the edification of others spoiled; while the Spirit of God stands afar off from us for a season; it may be, on purpose to reprove our negligence of a wise and holy care to learn to pray.

Some such unhappy practices as these in the last age have given great offence to the pious, and been a stumbling-block and scandal to the profane. The wicked and profane world have taken occasion from hence to throw loads of reproach on all conceived prayer, under the name of praying extempore, and have endeavoured to render all prayer without books and forms as odious as possible under this name. The more sober and pious part of the church of England, that usually worship God by liturgies and precomposed forms, have been too ready to give ear to these reproaches, and have by this means been confirmed in their confinement to liturgies and prayer-books; they have been hardened hereby against attempting to seek the gift of prayer themselves, and been tempted to oppose and censure those who have attained it. No small share of this public scandal will be found at the door of those few bold, ignorant, and careless men, who have been guilty of such rash and thoughtless addresses to God, under a pretence of praying by the Spirit.

In opposition to this practice of premeditation, some pious and sincere christian may say, I have now and then meditated many things which I designed to speak in prayer; but when I came to pray, I found my thoughts enlarged beyond all my preparations, and carried away to dwell in prayer upon subjects and petitions of a very different kind, and in a much more lively manner to express my thoughts than I had before conceived. Now I would persuade such a person to receive this divine assistance, not as an argument to neglect premeditation for the future, but as a reward of his diligence in preparing his heart beforehand for this work.

way.

Another christian will tell me, that sometimes when he has thought over many materials for his prayer before, he has found a greater confusion in his mind between his former preparations and his present suggestions, than if he prayed in an extemporary In reply to this objection, I must confess that I have sometimes had the same unhappy experience: But I impute it to one of these three defects: Either my premeditation was very slight and imperfect, as to the matter or method; so that I had not ranged the materials of my prayer in any settled form and order in my memory, but left them almost as much at uncertainty, as new thoughts that might occur to my mind in praying. And it is more troublesome sometimes to mend and finish what is very imperfect, than to make entirely new. Or perhaps my premeditation had been chiefly the work of my head, without so due a consultation of the frame of my heart. I had prepared my head, but not my heart for prayer; and then it is no wonder that when the heart comes to be warmly engaged in praying, it runs far away from the mere premeditations of the head; and sometimes betwixt both, create a confusion in the mind.

3. Or it may be, my soul hath been out of frame, and indisposed for prayer; and then I would not lay the fault upon premeditation, which would have been as bad or worse without it. But where my preparation both of head and heart hath been carefully and wisely managed, I have had several experiences of the conveniency and usefulness of it, especially in my younger years, and upon some extraordinary and solemn occasions.

After all, if some particular persons have conscientiously, and with due diligence, attempted this way, and find they always pray more usefully, and more honourably, with more regularity and delight, by the mere preparation of the heart for this duty, without fixing the parts and method of their prayer in their memory beforehand, they must follow those methods of devotion themselves, which they have found most effectual to attain the best ends; but not forbid the use of premeditation to others, whom God hath owned and approved in that way. And let this be observed, that it is but a few christians that attain so great a readiness and regularity in the gift of prayer, without learning by premeditation; far greater is the number of those whose performances are very mean, for want of thinking beforehand.

Having thus endeavoured to secure you from these two dangerous extremes, viz. a perpetual confinement to forms on the one hand, and a neglect of all premeditation on the other; I proceed. In the gift of prayer, we are to consider these five things: The matter, the method, the expression, the voice, and the gesture. I shall treat of each of these at large.

SECTION III.

OF THE MATTER OF PRAYER.

FIRST, It is necessary to furnish ourselves with proper matter, that we may be able to hold much converse with God; to entertain our souls and others agreeably and devoutly in worship; to assist the exercise of our own graces and others, by a rich supply of divine thoughts and desires in prayer, that we may not be forced to make too

long and indecent pauses whilst we are performing that duty; nor break off abruptly as soon as we have begun, for want of matter; nor pour out abundance of words to dress up narrow and scanty sense, for want of variety of devout thoughts. I shall therefore, first, propose some rules in order to furnish ourselves with proper matter for prayer; and then lay down some directions concerning these materials of prayer, with which our souls are furnished. Rules to furnish us with matter are these:

I. Rule. Labour after a large acquaintance with all things that belong to religion; for there is nothing that relates to religion, but may properly make some part of the matter of our prayer. This is therefore the most general advice, and the most universal rule that can be given in this case, let us daily seek after a more extensive and a more affecting knowledge of God and of ourselves: A great acquaintance with God in his nature, in his persons, in his perfections, in his works, and in his word, will supply us with abundant furniture for invocation, adoration, and praise, thanksgiving and blessing; and will suggest to us many arguments in pleading with God for mercy. An intimate acquaintance with ourselves, and a lively sense of our own frames of spirit, our wants, our sorrows and our joys, will also supply us with proper thoughts for confession, for petition, and for giving thanks. We should acquaint ourselves therefore with the word of God in a great degree; for it is there he reveals himself to us, and there he discovers us also to ourselves. Let the word of Christ dwell richly in you in all wisdom, that you may be furnished with petitions and praises.

We should also be watchful observers of the dealings of God with us in every ordinance and in every providence, and know well the state of our own souls. We should observe the working of our hearts towards God, or towards the creature, and call ourselves to account often, and often examine our temper and our life, both in our natural, our civil and religious actions. For this purpose, as well as upon many other accounts, it will be of great advantage to keep by us in writing some of the most remarkable providences of God, and instances of his anger or mercy towards us, and some of our most remarkable carriages towards him, whether sins, or duties, or the exercises of grace. Such observations and remarks in our daily walking with God, will be a growing treasury to furnish us for petition and praise. This seems to be the meaning of those scriptures where we read of watching unto prayer; Eph. vi. 18. and 1 Pet. iv. 7. This will make us always ready to say something to God in prayer, both concerning him and concerning ourselves. Let our judgments be constantly well stored, and our graces and affections be lively, and lead us to the duty, and for the most part some proper matter will naturally arise, and flow with ease and pleasure.

II. Rule. Let the nature of this duty of prayer, as divided into its several parts, be impressed upon your hearts, and dwell in your memories. Let us always remember that it contains in it these several parts of worship, namely, invocation, adoration, confession, petition, pleading, profession, or self-resignation, thanksgiving, and blessing; which that we may retain the better in our minds, may be summed up in these four lines:

Call upon God, adore, confess,

Petition, plead, and then declare
You are the Lord's, give thanks and bless,

And let Amen confirm the prayer.

And by a recollection of these several parts of prayer, we may be assisted to go on step

by step, and to improve in the gift of performance of this part of worship. It would tend also to improve the gift of prayer, if such persons as have time and capacity would set down all these parts of prayer as common places, and all the observable passages that occur in reading the holy scripture, or other authors; or such passages as we hear delivered in prayer that are very affecting to our souls, should be written down and registered under those heads. This would preserve such thoughts and expressions in our memories, which have had a peculiar quickening influence upon us. Bishop Wilkins in his Treatise of Prayer, has given us such collections of scripture, and Mr. Henry, in a late book, has furnished us with a great many more, and judiciously ranged under their proper subjects.

III. Rule. Do not content yourselves merely with generals, but if you would be furnished with larger supplies of matter, descend to particulars, in your confessions, petitions, and thanksgivings. Enter into a particular consideration of the attributes, the glories, the graces, and the relations of God. Express your sins, your wants and your sorrows, with a particular sense of the mournful circumstances that attend them; it will enlarge your hearts with prayer and humiliation, if you confess the aggravations that increase the guilt of your sins, viz. whether they have been committed against knowledge, against the warnings of conscience, &c. It will furnish you with large matter for thankfulness, if you run over the exalting and heightening circumstances of your mercies and comforts, viz. That they are great, and spiritual, and eternal, as well as temporal: That they were granted before you sought them, or as soon as asked, &c. And let your petitions and your thanksgivings in a special manner be suited to the place and circumstances of yourselves, and those that you pray with, and those that you pray for. Our burdens, our cares, our wants, and sins are many; so are our mercies also, and our hopes, so are the attributes of our God, his promises and his graces; if we open our mouths wide, he will fill and satisfy us with good things, according to his word. If generals were sufficient for us, one short form would make all others needless; it would be enough to express ourselves in this manner to God. O Lord, thou art great and good, but we are vile sinners, give us all the mercies we stand in need of for time and for eternity, for the sake of Jesus Christ ; and through him accept all our thanksgivings for whatsoever we have and hope for: To the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be eternal glory. Amen.

This is a most general and comprehensive prayer, and includes in it every thing necessary: But there is no christian can satisfy his soul, to go from day to day to the mercy-seat, and say nothing else but this. A saint in a right frame loves to pour out his soul before God in a hundred particulars; and God expects to see his children sensibly affected with their own special wants, and his peculiar mercies, and to take notice of the lesser, as well as of the more considerable circumstances of them. Let us not be straitened in ourselves then, for the hand of God and his heart are not straitened. Our Lord Jesus bids us ask, and promises it shall be given; Matt. vii. 7. The apostle Paul bids us in every thing by prayer and supplication to make known our requests to God; Phil. iv. 6. And the apostle James tells us, we receive not, because we ask not; James iv. 2.

IV. Rule. In order to furnish our minds with matter for prayer, it is very conve nient at solemn seasons of worship to read some part of the word of God, or some spiritual treatise written by holy men, or to converse with fellow-christians about divine things, or to spend some time in recollection or meditation of things that belong to reli