Such objectors will do well to confider, that our Prayers are not intended to give any information to God, which he before had not, but to implant deeply in our own breafts a proper fenfe of what we have done, and a due eftimation of what we want; fo that the pardon of our fins, and fupply of our neceffities may have their due weight with us. Our thoughts come upon us fo fuddenly, and fo quickly pafs away, that it is fcarce poffible accurately to remember the thoughts even of a few hours; but when we give them birth, and bring them forth in proper words, they are then strongly impreft on our minds, and by a constant repetition of the fame means by which they firft ftruck root, muft always live and flourish in our memories. When the thoughts which we entertain upon a furvey of our fins and neceffities fo far influence us as to incline us to Prayer,

when

when we bring them forth before the Most High, cloathed in proper expreffions and attended with fuitable geftures, they are thereby most deeply imprinted on our minds, and by a steady and uniform performance of this duty, are at last fixed in fuch ftrong colours, as never to be dif charged; whereas had they never iffued from the closet of our hearts, they might have been ftrangled in the birth, or proved the children but of a melancholy moment.

To be in fault, and afhamed to confefs it and afk pardon, to be in want, and afhamed to acknowledge it and afk relief, are moft certain figns of an obstinate and proud temper; a temper not at all qualified to receive bleffings from God, who refifteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Before we can expect favours from God, we must entirely root out thefe faults, and in their

ftead

ftead implant humility and meekness; nor is there any better way of enabling us fo to do, no other way of fhewing that we have fo done, than the performance of the duty of Prayer.

In the common affairs of this world we do not expect our faults to be pardoned, nor our wants to be relieved before they are made known; and furely in point of common decency we cannot expect ineftimable bleffings from a Being fuch as God is, upon easier terms than those which we perform to our Brethren, for things of little or no confequence. However extensive the divine knowledge may be, how intimately foever God may be acquainted with our wants before we cry unto him, yet we must not expect that he will intereft himself in our behalf, until we fhew by Prayer, that we are known not only to him, but also

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to

to ourselves, the most difficult but most neceffary of all knowledge, which should always accompany, and can scarce fubfift, without the performance of this duty.

may

be

But, fay they again, though it reasonable and neceffary to pray to a Being of infinite knowledge, furely it cannot be fo to pray to a Being of perfect Goodness, who is readier to hear than we to pray, readier to forgive our fins, and relieve our wants, than we are even to acknowledge them.

Those who argue thus have very mistaken notions of the divine nature; they confider God's Attributes abstractedly from, nay, in oppofition to, each other, and thereby make him inconfiftent with himself. We ought always to confider the perfections of the deity as compatible with each other, as moving in the moft perfect harmony, as

being but fo many rays derived from, and centered in the fame Body of Light and Perfection. His mercy is not inconfiftent with his Juftice, neither does his wifdom exclude, or is it excluded by his Goodness; he is infinitely merciful, in fuch a manner as to be, at the fame time, infinitely just; infinitely wife, in fuch a manner as to be infinitely good. We must not therefore entertain fuch high notions of any one Perfection, as to exalt it at the expence of any other; we must not, as thofe do who make God's goodness an argument against prayer, magnify his goodness at the expence of his Wifdom. For whatever goodness it might fhew, yet certainly it would be no mark of Wisdom to confer Bleffings on us, whatsoever we ftood in need of, without our petitioning for them. Thofe perfons can never be the proper objects of God's goodness who are above praying for the effects

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