tion of God, that there are innumerable Orders of reasonable or moral Agents, of different degrees of Power and Perfection, and who, as well as we, must have a proper Scene of Action, a fuitable Latitude to exercife their Powers in; as there must be a certain Connexion or Dependance betwixt all the Links of this Chain; and as Moral Perfection must be the fame in all, and can only vary in degree; and as Prayer and Thankf giving are evidently reasonable or moral Duties, they must be means. of uniting us to the Source of all Power, and engaging it in favour of us. And if fo, what greater Encouragement can we have to pray without ceafing, to be careful for nothing of a temporal Nature, that is, not to be anxious or follicitous; but in every thing, by Prayer and Supplication, with Thankf giving, to make known our Requests unto God, the only independent Being, the the Author of all Power and Perfection, who irradiates the whole Series of rational Beings, and to whom all must be accountable for the Ufe of their several Powers; seeing by the Discharge of these, and other Duties which are infeparably connected together, we procure all Favour and engage all Power on our Sides. The Material World is indeed incapable of hearing Prayer, or observing our Actions; but it is enough that that Being hears us, to whom all is fubject, and of consequence by whom the whole Extent of Nature, either mediately or immediately, is continually modelled and applied, in a rational and moral way. Our moral Behaviour, therefore, is the Caufe of all our Happiness or Mifery; all depends upon it; and as Prayer and Thanksgiving are fuch eminent Parts of Morality, and as it were the Sources of all Virtue, without the conftant conftant Practice of which, all the other Branches of it must decay, and come to nothing; all may be faid to depend on these Duties. Walk before me (lays God to Abraham) and be perfect; this is evidently the Way to Perfection and Happiness; this is the way to overcome our Sins and our Miseries, to be careful for nothing, to live with as little Sollicitude as the Circumstances of this evil World will admit. They who know they please God, must be free from innumerable Cares and Fears, and real Evils, which they who are without God in the World must be continually expos'd to. They who impute all to Chance or Fate, and will not allow a Moral Government of the World, converse in a very dark and comfortless Scene of Things. Where there is no Interpofition of Power, of Wisdom, and Justice, in Human Affairs, there can be no Prayer, no Thankf Thanksgiving, no Hope, no chearful Profpect of any kind, no Reason, no Duty; this is inverting and unhinging the whole Order of Things. But as we have the Light, and the Truth before us, all this Gloom must be diffipated, and the Darkness difappear. Let us therefore preferve in our Minds a continual Sense of the Divine Being and Government, and this will be attended with nevercealing Prayer and Thankfulness; it will keep with us in all our Employments, and be a fure Guide to us in all Difficulties; it will be a Comfort to us under Difappointments, and Strength in Temptation: And let us always remember, That Prayer confifts in the real Defire of the Soul, whether it be exprefs'd in Words, or no, and that Words without This are no Prayer, whatsoever the Sound or Signification of them may be. DISCOURSE VIII. The mutual Relation and Benefit of Hope and Patience. ROM. xii. 12. Rejoicing in Hope, patient in Tribulation. way AINT Paul's Manner is, after he has dispatch'd the principal Business and Defign of his Epistle in a close of Reasoning, to remind his Correfpondents in the Conclufion of his Letter, of the chief Duties of their Calling, of those especially which bore any near Relation to the Circumftances they |