PLEADING.

For thy mercies' sake, O Lord, save me. Our fathers cried unto thee, and were delivered.

SELF-DEDICATION.

I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved. I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments.

THANKSGIVING.

My mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips. O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name, who forgiveth all thy sins, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, and crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies. BLESSING.

Blessed be his glorious name for ever.

Now unto the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

O that every reader might be inclined, and by the Spirit of God enabled, to enter on the full and enlarged practice of private prayer! A continual spirit of devotion is the highest attainment of man; it is the root which draws up the sap and life of the tree of righteousness, and thus causes it to bring forth all that fruit which glorifies God and benefits man. Hence love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith, and temper

ance, all godliness, and all true excellence. Believe me, it will be worth many sacrifices and struggles to gain the spirit of prayer. Only beware of trusting in your own strength; beware of self-righteousness. Remember, in prayer we put off our own righteousness and pride, our wisdom and riches, and confess our sinfulness and poverty.*

Whilst this account of the various parts of prayer has been given, it is readily admitted that the purest private prayer is above form and method. It is the expression of a full heart, pouring out the inmost desires of the soul before God, in the most natural and obvious words.

It was a saying of the martyr Bradford, "that he would never leave a duty, till he had brought his heart into the frame of the duty; he would not leave confession of sin, till his heart was broken for sin; he would not leave petitioning for grace, till his heart was quickened and enlivened in a hopeful expectation of more grace; he would not leave the rendering of thanks, till his heart was enlarged with the sense of the mercies which he enjoyed, and quickened in the return of praise."

And surely every part of our duty, as it is brought before us, in the word of God, shews us both our guilt, and our weakness. But still the perfection of the rule must be declared. It is calculated to stimulate us to higher efforts, and to humble us in lower prostration of soul, under a sense of our so frequently coming short of the mark set before us.

"Prayer is a sweet travelling and trafficking of the soul betwixt emptiness and fulness, betwixt want and all-sufficiency, and betwixt our inability to help ourselves and his ability to help us." A. Gray, on Prayer.

SECT. VI.-Brief observations on the Lord's Prayer.

The prayer which our Lord gave his disciples is not only a perfect form of prayer, but also an admirable pattern and guide. It is in one place introduced to our notice, thus, When ye pray, say, (Luke xi, 2.) and in another, After this manner pray ye. Matt. vi, 9.

Its method is simple and clear. It consists of three parts:

I. AN INTRODUCTION, expressing the goodness and greatness of Him to whom we speak. Our Father, which art in heaven.

II. SIX PETITIONS, three of which have a more immediate respect to the glory of God.

1. Hallowed be thy name.

2. Thy kingdom come.

3. Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. And the three remaining, more immediately respect our own personal wants; temporal and spiritual.

1. Give us this day our daily bread.

2. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.

3. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

The four first of these petitions are for the obtaining of good, and the two last for the averting of evil.

III. A CONCLUSION, not only acknowledging the perfections of God, but most powerfully pleading them as a reason why our prayers should be heard.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

Every part of prayer is comprehended in this pattern. Confession is plainly implied in every request, for the requests suppose either our weakness or our sinfulness in the particulars desired.

Petition forms the main substance of this prayer.

Intercession is also involved in the whole; in the three first petitions more directly, and in the remaining petitions by their being in the plural number-give us, -forgive us, lead us, &c.

Thanksgiving is expressed in the conclusion, and there is in the petitions an implied acknowledgment of all the great perfections of God.

This prayer is too generally used as a vain repetition. It is worthy of remark, that at the very time our Lord gave it, he expressly warned his disciples against vain repetitions.

Many things may be learned respecting prayer, from this pattern.

1. The filial confidence and reverence with which we ought to approach God.

2. The expediency of method and order in our prayers.

3. The necessity of seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

4. The lawfulness of then asking for temporal blessings.

5. The importance of the temper in which we pray : an unforgiving temper obtains not God's for

giveness.

6. The duty of praying much for others.

7. The excellence of simplicity of expression.

!

8. The powerful pleas with which we may urge our petitions.

In this prayer we are not taught to ask in the name of Christ; and the reason may be, that when it was given Christ's atonement had not actually taken place, nor his intercession as a risen Saviour begun. Therefore our Lord says, hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name—at that day ye shall ask in my name. John xvi, 23.

SECT. VII. On Answers to Prayer.

Our too general neglect of looking for answers to what we ask, shews how little we are in earnest in our petitions. "None ask in earnest," says Traill, "but they will try how they speed. There is no surer and plainer mark of trifling in prayer, than when men are careless what they get by prayer."-A husbandman is not content without the harvest; a marksman will observe whether the ball hits the target; a physician watches the effect of the medicine which he gives; one who writes or applies to another for any temporal good eagerly expects the answer; and shall the Christian be careless about the effect of his labour?

Every prayer of the Christian, made in faith, according to the will of God, for that which God hath promised, offered up in the name of Jesus Christ, and under the influence of his Spirit, whether for temporal or for spiritual blessings, is, or will be, fully answered. God always answers the general design and intention of his people's prayers in doing that which, all things considered, is most for his own glory, and their spiritual and eternal welfare. As we never find that Jesus Christ rejected a single supplicant who came to him for mercy,