What is Prayer, but an Afcent ofSER M the Mind towards God? An holy En- VIII. gine, by which we lift up our Spirits to the great Father of Spirits; maintain a sweet Intercourse with him, and breath out, from the Bottom of our Hearts, our common Defires and Acknowledgments to him? And what is there of this, in coming unto him, as his Ezek. People cometh, in fitting before him as his xxxiii. 31. People fitteth; in fhewing much Love with our Mouth, while our Heart goeth after its Covetousness?

Wondrous is the Efficacy of Prayer, as represented in Scripture; mighty Things are there faid to have been done in vertue of it. But how were they done? By the mere bending of the Knees, and uttering of Words and Syllables? No! but by the Attention of the Heart, by Zeal, and Fervency. It is only the fervent Prayer of a righ- James v. teous Man, that availeth much: And when Elias by his prevalent Interpofition with God shut up, or opened the Heavens, brought Drought or Rain,

upon

16.

SERM.upon the Earth, it is said of him, werVIII. &x woodalo, that he prayed ardentJames v. ly and earnestly.

17.

Indeed this Qualification of Prayer is enjoined us by God; not only as a becoming Expreffion of our religious Reverence towards him; but as a proper and natural Means of working in our Souls those good Difpofitions, which his bleffed Spirit delights in, and delights to reward. We are directed to afk with a fixed and fervent Mind, because such a Manner of asking fits and qualifies us for receiving; makes us humble, fubmiffive, dependent, affects us with a deep Sense of our own Infufficiency and Unworthiness, and of the divine Bounty and Goodness; fufpends the evil Motions and Defires of our Hearts for a Time; and produces in us an heavenly Frame and Temper of Soul. This is the nearest and most immediate Effect of Prayer, which must first be obtained in order to the obtaining of our Requefts: And how therefore can he,

who

who is a Stranger to the one of thefe,SER M. ever hope to arrive at the other?

Can we imagine that Pardon of Sin, and Peace of Confcience; the Fruits of the Spirit, and Support against Temptations; in a Word, the Blessings of this World and the next, with which God has promised to reward our Prayers, should be purchased at the cheap Expence of Forms and Appearances? That those Devotions which affect not us first, fhould affect God afterwards? That he fhould attend to, or regard fuch Requests, as we neither regard, nor attend to our felves?

Let us then not mock God, and deceive our felves! Let us not think we have fulfilled our Duty merely by reforting to the Church, and adding one to the Number of the Congregation; by doing as other Men do, and faying as other Men fay there; nor hope to attone by an outwardly decent Behaviour, for an inwardly alienated Mind. But let us, under a due Sense of the preceding Reflections, whenever

we

VIII.

SERM. We come to the Houfe of God, not fail VIII. to come whole and entire; to offer and prefent unto God (as the Liturgy speaks) our felves, our Souls, and Bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively Sacrifice to him; let us resolve to worship him, not with our Lips and Knees only, but Mar. xi. (as we are obliged to love him) even with all our Heart, and with all our Soul, and with all our Mind, and with all our Strength!

30.

God be thanked, by whofe good Providence we are Members of a Church, where the publick Offices of Religion are fo modelled nnd contrived, as to be apt in every Part of them, to raise the Attention, and kindle an holy Flame in the Breafts of all fincere Worshippers. I cannot better spend the remaining Part of my Time, than in pointing out to you the great Advantages which we, in this Respect, enjoy, and by that Means fhewing you, how inexcufable we are, if we neglect to improve them, more inexcufable than the Members of any other Church, or

Commu

Communion in the Chriftian World. SER M.

For,

1. The Language, wherein our Service is performed cannot but be of Use to fix and keep alive our Attention. 'Tis our own Mother Tongue, what all of us are acquainted with; and can therefore liften to with Ease, and Delight, because we understand it. There is a Church, whofe publick Prayers are put up in a Language unknown to the greatest Part of those who are to join in them. But how can the Heart be affected by the mere Sound of Words, while it is utterly a Stranger to their Meaning? The publick Devotions therefore of an unlettered Papist, muft needs be one continued Scene of Distractions and Wanderings, from the Beginning to the End of them.

Nor are our Offices drawn up only in our own Tongue, but in the most eafy and plain Parts of it, which lie open to Chriftians of the meanest Capacities and Attainments. There is nothing fantaftical in the Expreffion of

I

them,

VIII.