than to fill up our time with constant repetitions; such as, O Lord our God; if it be thy blessed will; we intreat thee; we beseech thee; O Lord, have mercy upon us! For though some of these expressions may be properly enough repeated several times in a prayer, yet filling up every empty space, and stretching out almost every sentence with them, is not agreeable to our fellow-worshippers, nor an ornament, nor a help to our devotion, or theirs.

V. Do not always confine yourselves to one set form of words to express any particular request, nor take too much pains to avoid an expression, merely because you used it in prayer heretofore. Be not over fond of a nice uniformity of words, nor of perpetual diversity of expression in every prayer. It is best to keep the middle between these two extremes. We should seek indeed to be furnished with a rich variety of holy language, that our prayers may always have something new, and something entertaining in them, and not tie ourselves to express one thing always in one set of words, lest this make us grow formal and dull, and indifferent in those petitions. But, on the other hand, if we are guilty of a perpetual affectation of new words, which we never before used, we shall sometimes miss our own best and most spiritual meaning, and many times be driven to great impropriety of speech; and at best, our prayers by this means will look like the fruit of our fancy, and invention, and labour of the head, more than the breathings of the heart. The imitation of those christians and ministers that have the best gifts, will be an excellent direction in this, as well as in the former cases.

SECTION VI.

OF THE VOICE IN PRAYER.

IV. THE fourth thing to be considered in the gift of prayer, is the voice. Though the beauty of our expressions, and the tuneableness of our voice, can never render our worship more acceptable to God, the infinite Spirit; yet our natures, being composed of flesh and spirit, may be assisted in worship by the harmony of the voice of him that speaks. Should the matter, method, and expressions be never so well chosen in prayer, yet it is possible for the voice to spoil the pleasure, and injure the devotion of our fellowworshippers. When speeches of the best composure, and the warmest language, are recited in a cold, harsh, or ungrateful way, the beauty of them is almost lost. Some persons, by nature, have a very sweet and tuneful voice, that whatsoever they speak appears pleasing. Others must take much more pains, and attend with diligence to rules and directions, that their voice may be formed to an agreeable pronunciation: For we find by sad experience, that all the advantages that nature can obtain or apply to assist our devotions, are all little enough to keep our hearts from wandering, and to maintain delight: At least it is a necessary duty to know and avoid those disagreeable ways of pronunciation, that may rather disgust than edify such as join with us. I confess, in secret prayer there is no necessity of a voice; for God hears a whisper as well as a sigh and a groan. Yet some christians cannot pray with any advantage to themselves without the use of a voice in some degree; nor can I judge it at all improper, but rather preferable, so that you have a convenient place for secrecy: For hereby you will not only excite your own affections the more, but by practice in secret, if you take due care of your voice there, you may learn also to speak in public the better. The great and general rule I would lay down for managing the voice in prayer is this; let us use

the same voice with which we usually speak in grave and serious conversation, especially upon pathetical and affecting subjects. This is the best direction that I know, to regulate the sound as well as the words. Our own native and common voice appears most natural, and may be managed with greatest ease. And some persons have taken occasion to ridicule our worship, and to censure us as hypocrites, when we fondly seek and affect any new and different sort of sounds or voices in our prayers. The particular directions are such as these:

I. Let your words be all pronounced distinct, and not made shorter by cutting off the last syllable, nor longer, by the addition of hems and o's, of long breaths, affected groanings, and useless sounds, of coughing or spitting, &c. which some have heretofore been guilty of, and have sufficiently disgraced religion. If you cut off and lose the last syllable of your word, or mumble the last words of the sentence, and sink in your voice, so that others cannot hear, they will be ready to think it is because you did not speak properly, and so were afraid to be heard. If on the other hand you lengthen out your sentences with ridiculous sounds, you endanger the devotion even of the wisest and best of your fellow-worshippers, and expose the worship to the profane raillery of idle and corrupt fancies. While you seem to be designing to rub off the roughness of your throat, or to express greater affection by such methods, others will suspect that it is a method only to prolong your sentences, to stretch your prayers to an affected length, and to recover your thoughts what to say next. Therefore, when your passions happen to be elevated with some lively expression in prayer, and you are delightfully constrained to dwell upon it; or when you meditate to speak the next sentence with propriety; it is far better to make a long pause, and keep a decent silence, than to fall into such indecencies of sound.

II. Let every sentence be spoken loud enough to be heard, yet none so loud as to affright or offend the ear. Between these two extremes there is a great variety of degrees in sound, sufficient to answer all the changes of our affections, and the different sense of every part of our prayer. In the beginning of prayer especially, a lower voice is more becoming, both as it bespeaks humility and reverence, when we enter into the presence of God, and as it is also a great conveniency to the organs of speech not to arise too high at first; for it is much harder to sink again afterwards, than to rise to higher accents, if need require. Some persons have got a habit of beginning their prayers, and even upon the most common family occasions, so loud as to startle the company; others begin so low in a large assembly, that it looks like secret worship, and as though they forbid those that are present to join with them. Both these extremes are to be avoided by prudence and moderation.

III. Observe a due medium between excessive swiftness and slowness of speech, for both are faulty in their kind. If you are too swift, your words will be hurried on, and will (as it were) intrude upon one another, and be mingled in confusion. It is necessary therefore to observe a due distance between your words, and a much greater distance between your sentences, that so all may be pronounced distinct and intelligible. Due and proper pauses and stops will give the hearer time to conceive and reflect on what you speak, and more heartily to join with you, as well as give you leave to breathe, and make the work more easy and pleasant to yourselves. Besides, when persons run on heedless with an incessant flow of words, being carried as it were in a violent stream, without rests or pauses, they are in danger of uttering things rashly before God, giving

no time at all to their own meditation, but indulging their tongue to run sometimes too fast for their own thoughts, as well as for the affections of such as are present with them. And hence it comes to pass, that some persons have begun a sentence in prayer, and been forced to break off and begin anew: Or if they have pursued that sentence, it has been with so much inconsistency, that it could hardly be reduced to sense or grammar; which has given too sensible an occasion to others to ridicule all conceived prayer, and has been very dishonourable to God and his worship. All this arises from a hurry of the tongue into the middle of a sentence, before the mind has conceived the full and complete sense of it.

On the other hand, if you are too slow, and very sensibly and remarkably so, this will also grow tiresome to the hearers, while they have done with the sentence you spoke last, and wait in pain, and long for the next expression, to exercise their thoughts, and carry on their devotion. This will make our worship appear heavy and dull. Yet I must needs say, that an error on this hand in prayer is to be preferred before an excess of speed and hurry, and its consequences are less hurtful to religion. In general, with regard to the two foregoing directions, let the sense of each sentence be a rule to guide your voice, whether it must be high or low, swift or leisurely. In the invocation of God, in humble adoration, in confession of sin, and self-resignation, a slower and a modester voice is for the most part very becoming, as well as in every other part of prayer where there is nothing very pathetical expressed. But in petitions, in pleadings, in thanksgivings and rejoicing in God, fervency and importunity, holy joy and triumph, will raise the voice some degrees higher; and lively passions of the delightful kind will naturally draw out our language with greater speed and spirit.

IV. Let proper accents be put according as the sense requires. It would be endless to give particular rules how to place our accents. Nature dictates this to every man, if he will but attend to the dictates of nature. Yet in order to attain it in greater perfection, and to secure us from irregularity in this point, let us avoid these few things following: 1. Avoid a constant uniformity of voice, that is, when every word and sentence are spoken without any difference of sound; like a boy at school repeating all his lesson in one dull note, which shews that he is not truly acquainted with the sense and value of - the author. Now though persons may be truly sincere and devout who speak without any difference of accent, yet such a pronunciation will appear to others as careless and negligent, as though the person that speaks were unconcerned about the great work in which he is engaged, and as though he had none of his affections moved, whereby his voice might be modulated into agreeable changes.

2. Avoid a vicious disposition of the accents and false pronunciation. As for instance, it is a vicious pronunciation, when a person uses just the same set of accents, and repeats the same set of sounds and cadences in every sentence, though his sentences are ever so different as to their sense, as to the length, or as to the warmth of expression: As if a man should begin every sentence in prayer with a high voice, and end it in a low; or begin each line with a hoarse and deep bass, and end it with a shrill and sharp sound. This is as if a musician should have but one sort of tune, or one single set of notes, and repeat it over again in every line of a song, which could never be graceful. Another instance of false pronunciation is, when strong accents are put upon little words, and particles which bear no great force in the sentence. And some persons are so unhappy, that those little words, they, and that, and of, and by, shall have the biggest force of the

voice bestowed upon them; whilst the phrases and expressions of chief signification are spoken with a cold and low voice. Another instance of false pronunciation is, when a calm plain sentence, wherein there is nothing pathetic, is delivered with much force and violence of speech: or when the most pathetical and affectionate expressions are spoken with the utmost calmness and composure of voice. All which are very unnatural in themselves, and to be avoided by those that would speak properly, to the edification of such as worship with them. The last instance I shall mention of false pronunciation is, when we fall into a musical turn of voice, as though we were singing instead of praying. Some devout souls have been betrayed into such a self-pleasing tone, by the warmth of their spirits in secret worship; and having none to hear, and inform them how disagreeable it is to others, have indulged it even to an incurable habit. 3. Avoid a fond and excessive humouring every word and sentence to extremes, as if you were upon a stage in a theatre; which fault also some serious persons have fallen into for want of caution. And it hath appeared so like affectation, that it hath given great ground for censure. As for instance, if we should express every humble and mournful sentence in a weeping tone, and with our voice personate a person that is actually crying; that is what our adversaries have exposed by the name of canting and whining, and have thrown it upon a whole party, for the sake of the imprudence of a few. Another instance of this excessive affectation is, when we express every pleasurable sentence in our prayers, every promise or comfort, every joy or hope, in too free and airy a manner, with too bold an exultation, or with a broad smile, which indeed looks like too familiar a dealing with the great God. Every odd and unpleasing tone should be banished from divine worship; nor should we appear before God in humility upon our knees, with grandeur and magnificence upon our tongues, lest the sound of our voice should contradict our gesture, lest it should savour of irreverence in so awful a presence, and give disgust to those that hear us.

SECTION VII.

OF GESTURE IN PRAYER.

V. WE proceed now to the fifth and last thing considerable in the gift of prayer; and that is, gesture. And though it may not so properly be termed a part of the gift, yet in as much as it belongs to the outward performance of this piece of worship, I cannot think it improper to treat a little of it in this place. Since we are commanded to pray always, and at all seasons, there can be no posture of the body unfit for short ejaculations, and pious breathings towards God; while we lie in our beds, while we sit at our tables, or are taking our rest in any methods of refreshment, our souls may go out towards our heavenly Father, and have sweet converse with him in short prayers. And to this we must refer that passage; 1 Chron. xvii. 16. concerning David, where it is said, He sat before the Lord, and said, Lord, who am I, or what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? But when we draw near to God in special seasons of worship, the work of prayer calls for a greater solemnity, and in every thing that relates to it, we ought to compose ourselves with greater reverence; that we may worship God with our bodies, as well as with our spirits, and pay him devotion with our whole natures; 1 Cor. vi. 20. In our discourse concerning gestures fit for worship, we shall consider, first, the posture of

the whole body; and secondly, of the particular parts of it; and endeavour to secure you against indecencies in either of them.

1. Those postures of the body which the light of nature and rule of scripture seem to dictate as most proper for prayer, are standing, kneeling, or prostration.

Prostration is sometimes used in secret prayer, when a person is under a deep and uncommon sense of sin, and falls flat upon his face before God, and pours out his soul before him, under the influence of such thoughts, and the working of such graces, as produce very uncommon expressions of humiliation and self-abasement. This we find in scripture made use of upon many occasions; as Abraham fell on his face before God; Gen. xvii. 3. and Joshua before the Lord Jesus Christ, the Captain of the host of God; Josh. v. 14. So Moses, Ezekiel, and Daniel, at other seasons: So in the New Testament, when John fell at the feet of the angel to worship him, supposing it had been our Lord; Rev. xix. 10. And who could choose but fall down to the dust at the presence of God himself.

Kneeling is the most frequent posture used in this worship, and nature seems to dictate and lead us to it as an expression of humility, of a sense of our wants, a supplication for mercy, and adoration of, and dependence upon him before whom we kneel. This posture hath been practised in all ages and in all nations, even where the light of scripture never shined; and if it might be had with conveniency, would certainly be a most agreeable posture for the worship of God, in public assemblies, as well as in private families, or in our secret chambers. There are so many instances and directions for this posture in scripture, that it would be useless to take pains to prove it. So Solomon; 2 Chron. vi. 13. Ezra; Ezra ix. 5. Daniel; Daniel vi. 10. Christ himself; Luke xxii. 41. Paul; Acts xx. 36. and xxi. 5. Eph. iii. 14.

In the last place, standing is a posture not unfit for this worship, especially in places where we have not conveniency for the humbler gestures. For as standing up before a person whom we respect and reverence, is a token of that esteem and honour which we pay him; so standing before God, where we have not conveniences of kneeling, is an agreeable testification of our high esteem of him whom we then address and worship. There are instances of this gesture in the word of God. Mark xi. 25. Our Saviour says to his disciples, when ye stand praying: and Luke xviii. 13. The publican stood afar off, and prayed. Standing seems to have been the common gesture of worship in a large and public assembly; 2 Chron. xx. 4, 5, 13. And in this case it is very proper to conform to the usage of christians with whom we worship, whether standing or kneeling, since neither of them are made absolutely necessary by the word of God.

But I cannot think that sitting, or other postures of rest and laziness, ought to be indulged in solemn seasons of prayer, unless persons are in any respect infirm or aged, or the work of prayer be drawn out so long as to make it troublesome to human nature to maintain itself always in one posture. And in these cases, whatsoever gesture of body keeps the mind in the best composure, and fits it most to proceed in this worship, will not only be accepted of God, but is most agreeable to him. For it is a great rule that he hath given, and he will always stand by, that bodily exercise profiteth little; for he looks chiefly after the heart, and he will have mercy and not sacrifice.

2. The posture of the several parts of the body, that are most agreeable to worship, and that may secure us from all indecencies, may be thus particularized and enumerated.