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parent, liftening to the cries of his chil"dren, and moved by them h".

To all which I anfwer, That, as to the common and prevailing fentiments of mankind, they are of no moment, unleffe they be founded upon truth and reafon. And, as to the queries from holy fcripture, it is evident that God has not a body, tho' several parts and members of the human body be, in holy writ, afcribed to him. In like manner, all human paffions, defects and imperfections are to be far removed from God; and fuch representations to be looked upon, only as accommodations to our capacities; as human ways of fpeaking, or familiar comparifons, by way of condefcenfion to us, and to our manner of thinking and expreffing ourfelves.

For whoever would understand the holy fcriptures, muft remember that they are calculated to plant and promote religion, even among the lowest of mankind; and, as such, their language is popular, and speaks according to common appearances. They meekly condefcend (as our Blessed Lord did) to inftruct the poor, and that after a most eafy and familiar way, fpeaking of things fpiritual and divine, in the language and after the manner of men.

Matt. vii. 9, 10, 11. Pfal. cii. 13.

Thus

Thus, in the cafe before us, inasmuch as men want to be informed of the circumstances of the diftreffed, and to be importuned to do good; the facred writers, by way of analogy, apply this to God. Not that he really wants to be informed, or importuned to help, where it is proper; but only that the events are, in fome meafure, alike; viz. God, in all proper cafes, grants mercies, in confequence of mens praying for them; as parents regard the requests of their obedient, or penitent, children.

But, though the events be alike (and, upon that account, they are fpoken of, in the fame phrase, and manner) yet the principles, from which fuch events procede, are by no means alike. For earthly parents are commonly moved by pity and sympathy, which have a mixture of paffion and uneafinesse in them. God acts only from pure reason, and fupreme goodneffe. An earthly parent may mistake the cafe, and grant requests, or deny them improperly; through an exceffe of fondneffe, or for want of natural affection; but unerring wisdom and infinite goodnesse can never do fo. So far the analogy holds, that our heavenly father (as well as an earthly parent) beftows favors upon the praying and well-difpofed, which he witholds from fuch as are of a different temper and practice.

Thus, I think, I have answered the queries from holy fcripture, and fully vindicated my own conceffions.

I therefore now return to the objections, which the feeptics pretend to draw from reafon.

But, before I procede to what I reckon the chief end of prayer, and the main folution of their difficulties, I would propofe this, as one, and that no inconfiderable advantage of prayer, viz. that God does hereby moft graciously condefcend to our infirmities, in allowing, nay inviting us, this way, to relieve our hearts, when moft oppreffed; by pouring out our moans and complaints into his ear; as into the ear of one that is most tenderly concerned for us, and kindly and mercifully difposed to relieve us. For, though he knows it more exactly than we can lay it before him; yet it is a great relief, under any preffing calamity, to unbofom ourselves, and give a vent to the fulneffe of our hearts, in, the prefence of a wife and compaffionate friend; even though he be perfectly acquainted with the cafe, and all its attending circumftances. To talk it over to ourfelves; and, in perfect folitude, to give our diftreffed thoughts breath and accent, can by no means afford that relief, which the laying it before a kind, powerful, and wife friend, is capable of affording. And, finally, there are many cafes, which it may be improper to spread before

before any one, except the infinitely wife and benevolent ruler of all, who confiders our frame, who pities our infirmities, and who will not expose us, nor take any advantages against us, from his knowlege of our diftreffes; no, nor of our many crimes and follies neither; if we do but fincerely repent of them, and carefully guard against them for the time

to come.

But, to return to the main folution, I would afk (though omniscience cannot want to be informed, nor infinite wisdom and goodnesse to be importuned to do what is proper, nor the unchangeable ruler of the univerfe alter his counfels, or measures of action; yet) where is the abfurdity, if we should suppose that he (who has laid the plan of the natural world, in fuch an amazing harmony, order, and proportion; and that has adjusted things to things, in fuch exact number, weight and measure) may have laid the plan of the moral, or rational world, in a fignal and harmonious correfpondence to the natural world; as well as connected and proportioned the feveral parts of the moral scheme to one another? And that thus there may be a diftinction frequently made, even in this world, between fuch as pray, and fuch as neglect it?

Nay, does not biftory, reafon, and obfervation evidently fhow, that, in feveral instances, it is actually fo? i. e. the events in

! See Dr. Burnet's facred Theory of the earth.

the

the natural world, which bring judgment, or mercy, to mankind, are, by the infinite wifdom and power of the creator and governor of all, fo calculated, as only to be confequences of his framing the heavens and the earth, and preferving their being and motions in that ftate and order, to which (in perfuance of their firft difpofition) they naturally tended.

And yet how exactly do fuch confequences happen at the appointed feafons, so as to reward the righteous, and punish the guilty?

"To this purpofe it deferves to be inquired, "whether God did not calculate the structure "of the primeval heavens and earth, lo as

greatly to conduce, to the paradifiacal hap

pineffe, to bleffe man in his ftate of inno"cence and integrity? And afterwards, as "remarkably fute the courfe of nature to the "ftate of things, to curfe the earth with "barrenneffe, as a juft judgment upon the "difobedient?"

"Did he not, by the particular conftitution "of the heavens and the earth, before the "flood, occafion the world, that then was, to perish by an univerfal deluge, when the "earth was degenerate, and all flesh bad corrupted their ways?

"And did he not very wonderfully, by "the like appointment, cause a vulcano to break

If any of thefe inftances be found to be miraculous, and not the confequences of the original plan of creation

(as