is in some degree invested with) without performing this duty of family

prayer.

We find it, therefore, remarked, when mention is made of Cain and Abel offering sacrifices, that they brought them. But to whom did they bring them? Why, in all probability, to their father Adam, who, as priest of the family, was to offer sacrifice in their names. And so ought every spiritual son of the second Adam, who is entrusted with the care of an household, to offer up the spiritual sacrifices of supplications and thanksgivings, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, in the presence and name of all who wait upon, or eat meat at his table.

Thus we read our blessed Lord behaved, when he tabernacled amongst us : for it is said often, that he prayed with his twelve disciples, which was then his little family. And he himself has promised a particular blessing to joint supplications: "Wheresoever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." And again, "If two or three are agreed touching anything they shall ask, it shall be given them." Add to this, that we are commanded by the Almighty to pray always, with all manner of supplication," which doubtless includes family prayer. And holy Joshua, when he set up the good resolution that he and his household would serve the Lord, certainly resolved to pray with his family, which is one of the best testimonies they could give of their serving him.

Besides, there are no families but what have some common blessings, of which they have been all partakers, to give thanks for; some common crosses and afflictions, which they are to pray against; some common sins, which they are all to lament and bewail: but how this can be done, without joining together in one common act of humiliation, supplication, and thanksgiving, is difficult to devise.

From all which considerations put together, it is evident, that family prayer is a great and necessary duty; and, consequently, those governours that neglect it, are certainly without excuse. And it is much to be feared, if they live without family prayer, they live without God in the world.

And yet, such an hateful character as this is, it is to be feared, that was God to send out an angel to destroy us, as he did once to the Egyptian firstborn, and withal give him a commission, as then, to spare no houses but where they saw the blood of the lamb sprinkled on the door-post, so now, to let no families escape, but those that called upon him in morning and evening prayer; few would remain unhurt by his avenging sword. Shall I term such families Christians or Heathens? Doubtless they deserve not the name of Christians; and heathens will rise up in judgment against such profane families of this generation; for they had always their household gods, whom they worshipped, and whose assistance they frequently invoked. And a pretty pass those families surely are arrived at, who must be sent to school to pagans. But will not the Lord be avenged on such profane households as these? Will he not pour out his fury upon those that call not upon his name?

G. WHITFIELD.

EXTEMPORARY PRAYER.

IN extemporary prayer, what men most admire God least regardeth; namely, the volubility of the tongue. Herein a Tertullus may equal, yea, exceed St. Paul himself, whose speech was but mean. Oh, it is the heart keeping tune and time with the voice which God listeneth unto. Otherwise the nimblest tongue tires, and loudest voice grows dumb before it comes half way to heaven. Make it," said God to Moses, "in all things like the pattern in the mount." Only the conformity of the words with the mind, mounted up in heavenly thoughts, is acceptable to God. The gift of extemporary prayer, ready utterance, may be bestowed on a reprobate, but the grace thereof, religious affections, is only given to God's servants.

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DR. FULLER.

LOVE OF CHRIST.

Ir is love which fetched thee down from the glory of the highest heavens, from the bosom of thine eternal Father, to this lower world, the region of sorrow and death. It is that which, to the wonder of angels, clothed thee with this flesh of ours, and brought thee who thoughtest it no robbery to be equal with God," to an estate lower than thine own creatures.

O mercy, transcending the admiration of all the glorious spirits of heaven, that God would be incarnate! Surely, that all those celestial powers should be reduced to either worms or nothing, that all this goodly frame of creation should run back into its first confusion, or be reduced to one single atom, is not so high a wonder, as for God to become man. Those changes, though the highest creatures are capable of, are yet but of things finite; this is of an infinite subject, with which the most excellent of finite things can hold no proportion.

O the great mystery of godliness, “God manifest in the flesh, and seen of angels!" Those heavenly spirits had, ever since they were made, seen his most glorious Deity, and adored him as their omnipotent Creator; but to see the God of spirits invested with flesh, was such a wonder, as had been enough, if their nature could have been capable of it, to have astonished even glory itself; and whether to see him that was their God so humbled below themselves, or to see humanity thus advanced above themselves, were the greater wonder to them, they only know.

It was your foolish misprision, O ye ignorant Lystrians, that you took the servants for the Master here only it is verified, which you supposed, that God came down to us in the likeness of man, and as man conversed with

men.

:

What a disparagement do we think it was for the great monarch of Babylon for seven years together, as a beast to converse with the beasts of the field! Yet, alas, beasts and men are fellow creatures; made of one earth; drawing in the same air; returning, for their bodily part, to the same dust; symbolysing in many qualities, and in some mutually transcending each others; so that here may seem to be some terms of a tolerable proportion; since many men are in disposition too like unto beasts, and some beasts are in outward shape somewhat like unto men: but for him that was, and is, "God blessed for ever," eternal, infinite, incomprehensible, to put on flesh and become a man amongst men, was to stoop below all possible disparities that heaven and earth can afford. O Saviour, the lower thine abasement was for us, the higher was the pitch of thy divine love to us.

BP. HALL.

INFLUENCE OF RELIGION.

BUT the religion of the Bible, the religion we are anxious to describe to you, and the influence of which we are to trace in scenes of sufferings, is something more than this. There is a hope, that will make its possessor, sooner or later, ashamed; a hope, that will betray him in the hour of danger, and leave him, like the foundation of sand, to the fury of the tempest and the mercy of the deep; but their rock is not as our rock, our enemies themselves being judges. When the confidence of such is scattered like the chaff before the wind; when all around them heaves as with an earthquake, and is agonized as with the throes of an untimely birth; whilst, with a distracted eye, they look for safety and for shelter, but in vain; we can point to a Rock, immoveable as the pillars that support the eternal throne, and a scene of felicity, unmingled aud unruffled as the repose of heaven. On that Rock the Christian stands, and in that scene the Christian dwells. "For in the time of trouble, God will hide him in his pavilion, and under his wings shall he trust.' There he dwells serenely while the storm is passing by; the thunder rolls beneath him, the lightnings play harmless at his feet, and he is like the traveller who has ascended to the summit of some lofty mountain in

the midst of a tempest-the spot on which he stands is luminous, through all around is dark-and whilst the woods and vallies below are wrapped in clouds, and ravaged by the storm, he enjoys a glorious sunshine, a perpetual calm. And religion is the minister of mercy, the commissioned angel, who bears him on its pinions to this land of light, and gives him its blissful regions for his residence and rest. But what is that religion whose superiority we are anxious to demonstrate? I must answer, with the pious and eloquent Saurin, "It is difficult to include an adequate idea of it, in the bounds of what is called a definition." Religion, in the best, the highest sense of it-the sense essential to salvation, and involved in our subject-the sense which comports with the meaning of its synonymous terms, godliness, piety, &c., in the Scriptures, comprehends the consecration of every affection of the heart to God, as the supreme object of veneration and love-the surrender of every faculty of the soul to the control of his Spirit, and the regulation of his law; and consists in confidence in him, relationship with him, obedience to him, and enjoyment of him. It is knowledge in the mind, by which it is distinguished from superstition and fanaticism; sacrifice in the life, by which it is distinguished from mere form and profession: and zeal in the heart, by which it is distinguished from the languishing emotions of the lukewarmthat easy, placid kind of thing, which sometimes obtains the name of religion, but is merely the result of an amiable disposition and a happy constitution. That religion, which consists in nothing more than the observance of external forms, and the avowal of the creed of a particular church, is perfectly natural, and involves in it no superior agency; so natural, that in some degree it is common to the human race; and, in countries where Divine Revelation is enjoyed, a thing so wrought into the habits of the people, and fixed in the veneration of mankind, that he who throws off every form, disavows every creed, bursts asunder every sacred bond, and ranks among the bold and daring abettors of Infidelity, is deemed a monster, and contemplated with emotions of disgust and horror! But the religion of which I speak, involves in it an agency of the highest order, and demonstrates in its production the finger of God: for it inspires with the purest principles-animates by the noblest motives-renews after the loveliest image-awakens to the fairest prospects-calls to the sublimest pursuitsassociates with the most glorious beings-and exalts to the highest and the happiest destiny. It is a conquest gained over the most ferocious appetites, the basest passions, the wildest lusts:-a victory over all that is foul, deadly, and degrading in its character, and fatal in its influence, in favour of all that is pure in its character, lovely in its aspect, and benign in its tendency. In a word, it is a new nature-a divine principle, implanted and maintained by the Holy Spirit in the heart-diffusing its hallowed influence over the temper and the conduct-uniting its possessor to Christ by a living faith-assimilating him to the image of God by the washing of regeneration, and the sanctification of the Spirit-raising him above the world-animating him with a hope full of immortality-a blessed immortality, for which the new nature he has received is the preparation, and of which the peace he now enjoys with God, is the pledge.

RAFFLES.

PRAYER.

WERE the object of prayer to make God acquainted with our wants, prayer were a ridiculous exercise; for the Omniscient is better acquainted with our wants than we are ourselves. Were its object to recommend ourselves to God, then it were a presumptuous exercise; for prayer includes in it a confession of guilt and misery. Were its object to press our case on the notice and feelings of God, then it were an impious exercise; for it would be a reflection on his mercy, and would seem to imply that he did not care sufficiently for us. But, the object of prayer is, to acknowledge our dependence upon God-to put his goodness to the proof. Prayer is not confined to men, nor to Christians; the inferior part of the creation also engage in it. The

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ravens CRY to God, and he heareth them-all creatures "WAIT" on him that they may receive their meat in due season. There is a desire in all who live and breathe, and this desire, according to their capacity, is prayer to the Author of their being. The neglect of prayer is a most dangerous feeling in the human mind; it springs from pride, and it is a denial of the homage due to God. The lamb kneels as it sucks its parent ewe; to teach man to bow before the source of all his supplies. This homage of our minds must precede our reception of the various blessings of Divine mercy. Those who are hungry and thirsty, will most relish meat and drink; the sick will most value health; those who are in bondage, will be most eager for liberty; and a sense of want will make us best relish the blessings of salvation. It is painful to a minister of the Gospel, who has laboured many years among a people, to see any deficiency in this respect, and to be obliged to urge the necessity and importance of prayer; but the depravity of the human heart seems to render this often necessary.

WAUGH.

SELF KNOWLEDGE.

SELF-knowledge was considered, even by unenlightened heathens, as so indispensably necessary, that it was a motto engraved on one of their temples, Know Thyself. Thus they made the stone cry out of the wall, to every one who entered, that without this important acquisition, he was a vain worshipper. How many professed Christians are there, who may well blush at this relation, as they have never reckoned the knowledge of themselves a matter deserving their attention; nay, are there not multitudes, who industriously avoid the investigation of their own hearts? The greatest part of professors are as averse to look into themselves, as if the sight of their spiritual plague would increase its malignity. They are as much afraid of being jealous of themselves, as if it were the greatest sin they could be chargeable with: as if a persuasion of the goodness of their own hearts, were the only faith the gospel required. We see many as reluctant to fulfil the counsel of the prophet to good Hezekiah, of setting their houses in order, and settling their worldly affairs, as if it would hasten the stroke of the King of Terrors. But thousands are overcome by a far more destructive folly. They are as much afraid of inquiring into the state of their hearts, and endeavouring to have them set in order according to the word, as if a doubt of their salvation, even while continuing in sin, would certainly expose them to eternal destruction. It is a very bad sign of traders when they are afraid to look at the state of their worldly circumstances? Surely then if persons constantly avoid the exercise of self-examination, it is a decisive evidence that they are in a state of bankruptcy for eternity. A man's wounds must be noisome indeed, if he cannot bear the sight of them, if he be afraid of his own company; and he must be deeply confirmed in the most deplorable state, who will rather turn his eyes any way than to the plague of his own heart. But all such pretended Christians have the same inscription on their hearts that Paul observed on the Athenian altar, "to the unknown God:" and they will ever continue to worship him ignorantly, till they become better acquainted with themselves. JAMIESON.

cheering and interesting intelligence | settled, since the commencement of