תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

how various foever they have been in their Methods of worshipping him, all have agreed to ascribe to him their Bleffings and Enjoyments, in Thanksgiving; and to have recourfe to him for the Supply of their Wants, and the Removal of their Calamities, in Prayer.

The Christian Revelation carries thefe Duties to the greatest Height, is continually injoining them, and inforces them with the greatest Earnestness.

Our Lord commands his Disciples to pray in fecret, and affures them, that they fhall be rewarded openly; that what things foever they should defire when they prayed, if they believed that they should receive them, they should have them; He spake aParable alfo to them to this end, that Men ought always to pray, and not to faint.

His Apoftles, after him, are continually preffing thefe Duties. To pray without

without ceafing. I will that Men pray every where, lifting up holy Hands without wrath or doubting. Praying always with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all Perfeverance. And in the Words of my Text: Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving, let your Requefts be made known unto God. We see how frequently and earnesty these Duties are prefs'd upon us, and what great Encouragement, what powerful Motives are proposed to us, to induce us to be constant in the Discharge of them.

Thefe Duties therefore muft deserve our most strict Inquiry. I fhall take occasion to fhew you the Nature of them, the Reasons on which they are founded, which will be fo many Motives to excite us to the Discharge of them.

First then, I must observe to you, that in those Paffages of Scripture,

where

where fuch like Promises as these are made to Prayer; if two of you shall agree on earth, as touching any thing they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven. And again, Whatsoever ye shall ask in my Name, that will I do; if ye abide in me, and my Words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you: Is any fick among you, let him call for the Elders of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil, in the Name of the Lord, and the Prayer of Faith fall fave the Sick, and the Lord shall raise him up : The effectual fervent Prayer of a righteous Man availeth much. In all thefe and the like Instances, ordinary Prayer is not to be understood, but fuch as was that of Elias, who prayed earneftly, that it might not rain, and it rained not on the Earth for the space of three Years and fix Months, and he prayed again, and the Heaven gave rain,

and

and the Earth brought forth her Fruit. I say it is very evident that these Promises are made only to extraordinary or inspired Prayer. A Case. far from being uncommon in the first Ages. St. Paul fays exprefly, that the Spirit helped their Infirmities; for we knows not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit it felf maketh Interceffion for us with Groanings which cannot be uttered: And he that fearcheth the Hearts knoweth what is the Mind of the Spirit, because he maketh Interceffion for the Saints, according to the Will of God. He tells us again, that they had not received the Spirit of the World, but the Spirit which is of God, that they might know the things that are freely given to them of God, which thing's alfo they fpake, not in the Words which * Man's Wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghoft teacheth. In his Difcourfe concerning the Gifts of the Holy Ghost, and in his laying down Rules

for

for the Exercise of them; it appears that they fometimes prayed in an unknown Tongue, and that whilst their Spirit prayed, their Understanding was unfruitful; fo that this infpired Prayer was fuggefted, or immediately dictated, by the Spirit of God, and of Confequence must be entirely agreeable to his Will, and fo we need not wonder that fuch Promises should be annexed to it, that it should be heard and answer'd. There is nothing in this difficult or abftrufe, nothing but what is eafy and reasonable. For fuppofing that any Perfon could affuredly know that his Prayer was dictated to him, by the Spirit of God, he could not then but know that the Contents of it, the particular Matter of his Petition, must be granted; fuch Prayer as this may well be called the Prayer of Faith.

We must be careful to distinguish this kind of Prayer and every thing fpoken of it in the Scriptures, from

that

« הקודםהמשך »