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First, I shall begin with Prayer, confider'd as a religious Duty.

It may, perhaps at the first Hearing, appear strange to some, that Prayer should at all be accounted a Duty of Religion, that is to say, any Act of Piety towards God, to which Mankind should in Duty be obliged: For (fay they) all Acts of Religion, in the very Nature of them, ought to respect the Honour of God; whereas Prayer seems only to respect our own Benefit, and little, if at all, God's Honour: When a Beggar asketh an Alms at your Door, doth he thereby mean to do you any Worship or Respect, or rather purely to serve his own Needs ? certainly the latter. It is true, to give Thanks for Benefits received (which is one part of Prayer, in the large Sense of the Word) is an Inftance of Respect and Honour done to God; but Prayer strictly so called, that is, the putting up Requests to God for Mercies which we want, seems not to be so, but only to respect our selves. Thus perhaps it may be said; but those that reafon at this rate seem not to have sufficiently confider'd this Matter. Though Prayer be put up for the obtaining Benefits for our selves, yet that doth not hinder but that it may be an Act of Religion properly so called, and an Instance of that Honour which we are bound to perform to God. And certainly we must think so if we will ever believe God's own Declarations in this VOL. IV.

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First, As for the Holy Scriptures, Prayer is always therein accounted an Act of God's Worship, and ftrictly enjoyned as fuch to all Mankind. In the 15th Pfalm, 13. ver, where God is declaring to his People how he will be ferved; Thinkest thou (fays he) that I will eat Bulls Flesh, or drink the Blood of Goats? Offer unto God Thanksgivings, and pay thy Vows unto the most High, and call apon me in the Day of Trouble. As therefore he that offereth unto God Thanksgivings is in the fame Pfalm said to Honour God, (be that offereth me Thanks be honoureth me;) so he that calleth upon God honoureth him alfo. Nay, fo great a Part doth Prayer make of Religion, that the Whole of it is sometimes expressed thereby, and to call upon God, to pray to God, and to feek God, is in the Scripture Language the same thing as to walk religioufly before God; nay, it is sometimes put to express and signify the whole Condition that is required of us in order to Salvation. Thus Romans xii. 17. The fame Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him, for whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved. And on the other Side the Character by which wicked Men, fuch as have no Sense of Piety and Religion, are described in Scripture, is, That they do not practise this Duty of Prayer, they do not call upon God, as you may fee, Pfalm liii. 4.

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I wish this was serioufly taken notice of by those that live in a general Neglect and Disuse of this Point of Piety. Whatever other laudable Qualities they have to recommend them, yet vif they live without Praying, without calling upon God, they must be numbred among those that have no Fear of God before their Eyes, but are workers of Wickedness, as that Pfalm expresseth it. oι ποίξίν Τ

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But in the Second Place, let us confider the Nature of Prayer it self. I grant that Prayer hath this peculiar to it, that it doth more directly and immediately, in its own Nature, respect our Benefit, than any of the other Acts of Piety and Religion strictly so called: But yet if we will seriously confider it, we shall find that for all this it doth as necessarily respect God, and is as great an Instance of his Service as any of the others. For Prayer, if we will form true Notions of it is a Payment of that Homage we owe to God as he is Creator and Governour of the World; it is the owning him to be the fovereign Lord of all his Creatures, and that he hath a Right to order and difpose of them as he pleaseth: It is the acknowledging our Dependance upon his Providence for all we have, and for all we are; actually profeffing, to his Honour, that in him we live, move, and have our Being, and that from him descends every good and perfect Gift. Now surely, these are Actions

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Actions that do directly respect God, and are prime Instances of that Honour and Service that we poor Creatures are able to pay him, even every whit as much as Fear, or Love, or Thanksgiving is... D

There is more in Prayer than speaking to God, or representing our Défires to him, though that be all that is generally taken notice of in it; that which makes it a Vertue, and stamps Religion upon it, is the Acknowledgment it makes of our own Vileness and Impotence, and of God's Sovereign Power and Goodness And in the Dependance it professeth upon him, and him only, for the Supply of our Wants, and the obtaining whatever Good we do defire; in this, I say, consists the very Life and Soul of Prayer, and if we take away this, it has nothing valuable in it; mor indeed will it find any Acceptance with God, or Answer from him.

By this Account it appears that Prayer and Thanksgivings do not so much differ as one would imagine, they are both the Expressions of our Dependance upon God, and making our Acknowledgments to him; only the one (that is Thanksgiving) looks backward and confiders the Mercies or Benefits acknowledged, as already given; the other, (that is Prayer) looks forward, and confiders them as yet not given, but only as defired and expected, that is all the

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To make this Notion of Prayer yet a little plainer if I can: To every religious Prayer that we put up (if we put it up as we should do) there will go these Four Things.

First of all there is supposed a Sense of our Wants, and a Defire of the Supply of them, but withal, a Conviction of our own Impotence and Inability to help our selves.

Secondly, There is supposed a Senfe of God's Prefence, and Povidence, and Goodness, and a Belief that God doth see our Condition, and knows what we want, and hath also that Love and Kindness for his Creatures, that upon Prayer he will fupply our Neceffities, and give us either what we pray for, or what is more convenient for us.

Upon these Confiderations there follows, in the Third Place, a looking up to God, a waiting upon him for those Blessings we stand in need of, disclaiming all Help in our selves, and entirely depending on his Care and Kindness for the Supply of whatsoever we defire. Now in the fourth and last place, when we come to form this Sense, and those Defires, and this Dependence, into direct Addresses to God, when we make Expression of them by actual Application to the Throne of his Grace, whether in Thought alone; or in Thought and Word too, then is our Prayer compleated.

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