than we do in secret. When we are satisfied therefore that we are engaged in present duty to God, let us maintain a noble negligence of the censures of men, and speak with the same courage as though none but God were present.

Yet to administer farther relief under this weakness, I add,

7. Make your first essays in the company of one or two either your inferiors, or your most intimate, most pious and candid acquaintance, that you may be under no fear nor concern about their sentiments of your performance. Or join yourself in society with some young Christians of equal standing, and set apart times for praying together, which is an excellent way to obtain the gift of prayer.

8. Do not aim at length of prayer in your younger attempts, but rather be short; offer up a few more common and necessary requests at first, and proceed by degrees to enlarge and fulfil the several parts of worship, as farther occasion shall offer, and as your gifts and courage increase.

9. Be not discouraged if your first experiments be not so successful as you desire. Many a Chris tian has in time arrived at a glorious gift of prayer, who in their younger essays have been overwhelmed with bashfulness and confusion. Let not Satan prevail with you therefore to cast off this practice, and your hope, at once, by such a temptation as this.

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10. Make it the matter of your earnest requests to God, that you may be endowed with Christian courage, with a holy liberty of speech, and freedom

of utterance, which the blessed apostle Paul often prays for: And you have reason to hope, that he that gives every good and perfect gift, will not deny you that which is so necessary to the perform ance of your duty.

I proceed now to the fourth general direction.

IV. Intreat the assistance of some kind Christian friend, to give you notice of all irregularities that yourselves may have been guilty of in prayers, especially in your first years of the prac tice of this duty; and esteem those the most valuable of your friends, who will put themselves to the trouble of giving you a modest and an obliging hint of any of your own imperfections: for it is not pos sible that we ourselves should judge of the tone of our own voice, or the gestures that we ourselves use, whether they be agreeable to our fellow-worshippers or no. And in other instances also, our friends may form a more unbiassed judgment than ourselves, and therefore are fittest to be our correc

tors.

For want of this, some persons, in their youth, have gained so ill a habit of speaking in public, and so many disorders have attended their exercise of the gift of prayer, ill tones, vicious accents, wild distortions of countenance, and divers other improprieties, which they carried with them all the years of their life, and have oftentimes exposed the worship of God to contempt, and hindered the edifica tion of those that join with them, rather than pro. moted it.

V. Be frequent in the practice of thiduty of prayer, not only in future, but with one another. * For though every rule that I have before given, were fixed in your memories, and always at hand, yet without frequent practice, you will never attain to ŝ any great skill and readiness in this holy exercise. > As our graces themselves, by being' often tried and put upon action, become stronger, and shine brighter, give God more glory, and do more service to men: so will it fare with every gift of the Holy Spirit also; it is improved by frequent exercise Therefore the apostle bids the yonng evangelist Timothy, that he should not neglect to stir up the gift that was in him, though it was a gift communicated in an extraordinary way, by the imposition of hands, 2 Tim. i. 6. And therefore it is, that some serious Christian, that have less knowledge, will excel persons of great learning and wit, and judgment, in the gift of prayer; because though they do not understand the rules so well, yet they practice abundantly more. And for the most part, if all other circumstances are equal, it will be found a general truth, that he that prays most, prays best.

CHAP. III.

OF THE GRACE OF PRAYER.

In the two first chapters, I have finished what I' proposed concerning the external parts of prayer;" I proceed now to take a short view of the internal ? and spiritual part of that duty; and this has been usually called the grace of prayer.

Here I shall endeavor to explain what it means, and show how properly that term is used: after ward I shall particularly mention what are those in ward and spiritual exercises of the mind, which are required in the duty of prayer, and then give directions how to attain them.

But in the most part of this chapter I shall pass over things with much brevity, because it is not my design in writing this book, to say over again what so many practical writers have said on these subjects.

SECT. I.

WHAT THE GRACE OF PRAYER 18, AND HOW IT DIFFERS FROM THE GIFT.

Grace, in its most general sense, implies the free and undeserved favor of one person toward another that is esteemed his inferior. And in the language of the new testament, it is usually put to signify the favor and mercy of God toward sinful creatures, which upon all accounts is acknowledged to be free and undeserved. Now, because our natures are corrupt and averse to what is good, and whensoever they are changed and inclined to God and divine things, this is done by the power of God working in us; therefore this very change of nature, this renewed and divine frame of mind, is called in the common language of Christians by the name of grace.

If I were to write my thoughts of the distinction between the terms of virtue, holiness and grace, I should give them thus:

Virtue generally signifies the mere material part of that which is good, without a particular reference to God, as the principle or end thereof. Therefore the good dispositions and actions of the heathens were called virtues. And this word also is applied to sobriety, righteousness, charity, and every thing that relates to ourselves and our neighbors, rather than to religion and things that relate to divine worship.

Holiness signifies all those good dispositions and actions, with their particular reference to God as their end, to whose glory they are devoted and performed. The word holy signifies that which is devoted, or dedicated.

Grace denotes same dispositions, with a peculiar regard to God, as their principle, intimating that they proceed from his favor.

Sometimes this word is used in a comprehensive sense, to signify the whole train of Christian virtues, or the universal habit of holiness. So may those texts be understood, John i. 16; Of his fulness we have received grace. 2 Peter iii 18; Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so in our common language we say, such a person is a graceless wretch, he has no grace at all, i. e., no good dispositions. We say such a one is truly gracious, or he has a principle grace, i. e., he is a man of religion and virtue. Sometimes it is used in its singular sense, and means any one inclination or holy principle in the mind. So we say, So we say, the grace of faith, the of faith, the grace of

of