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METHOD

FOR

PRAYER,

WITH

SCRIPTURE - EXPRESSIONS

PROPER TO BE USED UNDER EACH HEAD.

By the Late Reverend

MATTHEW HENRY,

MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL.

A NEW EDITION.

PRINTED BY

B BRWICK:

AND FOR W. PHORSON; AND

B. LAW, AVE-MARY LANE, LONDON.

M,DCC,LXXXI.

BRITISH

CIBRARY

R

To the REA DE R.

ELIGION is fo much the bufinefs of our lives,

and the worship of God fo much the bufinefs of our religion, that what hath a fincere intention and probable tendency to promote and affift the acts of religious worship (I think) cannot be unacceptable to any that heartily with well to the intereft of God's kingdom among men: For if we have fpiritual fenfes. exercifed, true devotion (that afpiring flame of pious affections to God, as far as in a judgment of charity we difcern it in others, though in different shapes and dreffes, which may feem uncooth to one another) cannot but appear beautiful and amiable, and as far as we feel it in our own breasts, cannot but be found very pleafant and comfortable.

Prayer is a principal branch of religious worship, which we are moved to by the very light of nature, and obliged to by fome of its fundamental laws. Pythagoras's golden verfes begin with this precept, whatever men made a God of, they prayed to," De

liver me, for thou art my God." Ifa xliv. 17. Nay, whatever they prayed to, they made a God of Deos qui rogat ille facit. It is a piece of refpect and ho mage fo exactly confonant to the natural ideas which all men have of God, that it is certain "thofe that live without prayer, live without God in the "world."

Prayer is the folemn and religious offering up of devout acknowledgments and defires to God, or a fincere reprefentation of holy affections, with a defign to give unto God the glory due unto his name thereby, and to obtain from him promifed favours, and both through the Mediator. Our English word Prayer

is too ftrait, for that properly fignifies petition or requeft; whereas humble adorations of God, and thanksgivings to him, are as neceffary in prayer as any other part of it. The Greek word Profache, Euche, is a vow directed to God. The Latin word votum is used for prayer. Jonah's mariners with their facrifices made Vows; for prayer is to move and oblige ourselves, not to move and oblige God: Cle mens Alexandrinus (Serom. vii. p. 722. Edit. Colon.) calls prayer (with an excufe for the boldnefs of the expreffion) omelia profton theon, it is converfing with God. And it is the fcope of a long difcourfe of his. there, to fhew that his O gnoftekos, i, e. his believer (for faith is called knowledge, and p. 719. he makes his companions to be omoios pepifleukotes, thofe that. have in like manner believed) lives a life of communion with God; and fo is praying always; that he ftudies by his prayers continually to converfe with God. Some (faith he) have their stated hours of prayer, but he pare olon euchetai ton bion, "prays all his life long." The Scripture defcribes prayer to be our "drawing near" to God, "lifting up our fouls" to him, "pouring out our hearts" before him.

This is the life and foul of prayer; but this foul in the prefent ftate must have a body, and that body must be fuch as becomes the foul, and is fuited and adapted to it. Some words there must be, of the mind at leaft, in which, as in the fmoke, this incense must afcend; not that God may underftand us, for our thoughts afar off are known to him, but that. we may the better understand ourselves.

A golden thread of heart prayer must run through the web of the whole chriftian life; we maft be fre-. quently addreffing ourselves to God in fhort and fudden ejaculations, by which we must keep up our communion with God in providences and common. actions, as well as in ordinances and religious fervices. Thus prayer must be fparfim (a sprinkling of

it) in every duty, and our eyes must be ever towards

the Lord.

Inmental prayer thoughts are words, and they are the first-born of the foul, which are to be confecrated to God. But if, when we pray alone, we fee caufe, for the better fixing of our minds, and exciting of our devotions, to cloathe our conceptions with words; if the conceptions be the genuine products of the new nature, one would think words fhould not be far to feek: Verbaque prævijam rem not invita fequunter, Nay, if the groanings be fuch as cannot be uttered, he that fearcheth the heart knows them to be the mind of the spirit, and will accept of them, Rom. viii, 26, 27. and answer the voice of our breathing, Lam. iii. 55. Yet through the infirmity of the fleth, and the aptness of our hearts to wander and trifle, it is often neceffary that words should go first, and be kept in mind for the directing and exciting of devout af fections, and in order thereunto, the affiftance here offered, I hope, will be of fome use.

When we join with others in prayer, who are our mouth to God, our minds must attend them, by an intelligent believing concurrence with that which is the fenfe, and fcope, and fubftance of what they fay, and affections working in us fuitable thereunto; And this the fcripture directs us to fignify, by faying Amen, mentally, if not vocally, at their giving of thanks, 1 Cor. xiv. 16. And, as far as our joining with them will permit, we may intermix pious ejaculations of our own with their addrefies, provided they be pertinent, that not the least fragment of praying-time may be loft.

But he that is the mouth of others in prayer, whether in public or private, and therein ufeth that parrefia, that freedom of fpeech, that holy liberty of prayer, which is allowed us, (and which we are fure many good christians have found by experience to be very comfortable and advantageous in this duty) ought not only to confult the workings of his own heart,

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