A

FEW CONCISE

OBSERVATIONS

ON

PRAYER;

THE IMPORTANCE OF THAT DUTY,

AND THB

BEST MEANS OF PERFORMING IT.

TO WHICH ARE ADDED, SOME

MORNING AND EVENING

PRAYERS.

A few Concife Obfervations, &c.

PRAYER

RAYER is the nobleft exercife of the foul; the nearest approach to Almighty God, and the highest enjoyment of him, of which weare capable in this life. It is a service which we owe him as our Creator and Preserver, and is not only highly reasonable in itself, but in many places of fcripture is expressly injoined by Christ and his apostles, as a neceffary condition, and a sure means of having our wants supplied. Our Saviour (Matt. vii. 7.) makes our afking the only means of our receiving; "Afk, and it fhall be given you; feek, and ye fhall find." And St. James expressly faith, (James iv. 2.) That we have not, because we ask not:" And St. Paul's precept is, (Phil

iv. 6.) "That in every thing by prayer and fupplication, with thanksgiving, we

.

let our requests be made known unto "God." Not that he wants to be informed what our neceflities are, for he underftands them much better than we ourfelves; and, as our Saviour faith, (Matt.. vi. 8.) "knoweth what things we have need of before we afk Him." But the defign of making prayer a religious ordinance, and obliging chriftians to ask that they may receive, is to preferve upon their minds a conftant fenfe of their dependance upon God, and an habitual reverence and obedience to him and his laws.

It has been obferved, and with great truth, that by perfevering in the fincere performance of this duty, we fhall either be compelled to abandon a finful course of life; or, a continuance in fuch a courfe of life, will compel us to abandon prayer-and hence the importance of the proper dif charge of this great duty is obvious.

If then the performance of the duty of prayer be a matter of fuch importance, the

manner in which that duty can be most properly and acceptably preformed, must be an object worthy our moft ferious attention. and inquiry.

There can, I conceive, be little doubt but that thofe prayers which are conceived in the mind, and afterwards delivered in fuch language as may be thought most proper, are preferable to fet or pre-compofed forms of prayer.

Among the many reafons which might be given for this preference, the following are, perhaps, the most obvious.

ift. There is great danger that the conftant use of a fet form of prayer, however good in itself, will in time degenerate into mere lip fervice; and though this confequence does not always follow, yet notwithstanding our best endeavours to the contra

ry,

it is very apt to make our fpirits cold and flat, formal and indifferent to our devotion-the frequent repetition of the fame words in a great measure destroying that ef fect which at first, perhaps, they were well calculated to produce on our minds.