"that ye may be healed: the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." Ex. xxxii. 11. Acts xii. 5. Rom. i. 9. xv. 30. James v. 16. Declarations and examples authorizing the repetition of unfuccefsful prayers: "And he fpoke a "parable unto them, to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint." And he left "them, and went away again, and prayed the third "time, faying the fame words." "For this thing I befought the Lord thrice that it might depart from "me." Luke xviii. 1. Matt. xxvi. 44. 2 Cor. xii. 8*. The reformed churches of Chriftendom, fticking close in this article to their guide, have laid afide prayers for the dead, as authorized by no precept or precedent found in fcripture. For the fame reafon they properly reject the invocation of faints; as allo becaufe fuch invocations fuppofe in the faints whom they addrefs a knowledge which can perceive what paffes in different regions of the earth at the fame time. And they deem it too much to take for granted, without the fmalleft Intimation of fuch a thing in fcripture, that any created being poffeffes a faculty little fhort of that omifcience and omniprefence which they ascribe to the Deity. CHAP. CHA P. IV. OF PRIVATE PRAYER, FAMILY PRAYER, AND PUBLIC WORSHIP. Co ONCERNING thefe three defcriptions of devotion, it is first of all to be observed, that each has its feparate and peculiar ufe; and therefore, that the exercife of one fpecies of worship, however regular it be, does not fuperfede, or difpefne with the obligation of either of the other two. I. Private prayer is recommended for the fake of the following advantages: Private wants cannot always be made the fubjects of public prayer but whatever reason there is for praying at all, there is the fame for making the fore and grief of each man's own heart the bufinefs of his application to God. This must be the office of private exercises of devotion, being imperfectly, if at all, practicable in any other. Private prayer is generally more devout and earneft than the fhare we are capable of taking in joint acts of worship; because it affords leifure and op portunity for the circumftantial recollection of thofe perfonal wants, by the remembrance and ideas of which, the warmth and earneftness of prayer is chiefly excited. Private prayer, in proportion as it is ufually accompanied with more actual thought and reflection of the petitioner's own, has a greater tendency than other modes of devotion to revive and faften upon the mind the general impreffions of religion. Soli tude tude powerfully affifts this effect. When a man finds himself alone in communication with his Creator, his imagination becomes filled with a conflux of awful ideas concerning the univerfal agency, and invifible prefence of that being; concerning what is likely to become of himfelf; and of the fuperlative importance of providing for the happiness of his future existence, by endeavours to please him, who is the arbiter of his deftiny: reflections, which, whenever they gain admittance, for a feafon overwhelm all others; and leave, when they depart, a folemnity upon the thoughts that will feldom fail, in fome degree, to affect the conduct of life. Private prayer, thus recommended by its own propriety, and by advantages not attainable in any form of religious communion, receives a fuperior fanction from the authority and example of Christ. "When thou prayeft, enter into thy clofet; and "when thou haft fhut thy door, pray to thy father "which is in fecret; and thy father which feeth in fecret, fhall reward thee openly. " And "when he had fent the multitudes away, he went up into a mouain apart to pray." Matt. vi. 6. xiv. 23. II. Family prayer. The peculiar ufe of family piety confifts in its influence upon fervants, and the young members of a family who want fufficient ferioufnefs and reflection to retire of their own accord to the exercife of private devotion, and whofe attention you cannot eafily command in public worship. The example alfo and authority of a father and mafter act in this way with the greateft force; for his private prayers, to which his children and fervants are not witneffes, act not at all upon them as examples; and his attendance upon public worship they will readily impute to "fashion, to a care to preferve appearances, to a concern for decency and character, and to many motives befide befide a fenfe of duty to God. Add to this, that forms of public worship, in proportion as they are more comprehenfive, are always lefs interefting than family prayers; and that the ardor of devotion is better fupported, and the fympathy more eafily propagated, through a small affembly connected by the affections of domeftic fociety, than in the prefence of a mixed congregation. III. Public worship. If the worship of God be a duty of religion, public worship is a neceffary inftitution; forafmuch as without it, the greater part of mankind would exercife no religious worship at all. Thefe affemblies afford alfo, at the fame time, opportunities for moral and religious inftruction to thofe who otherwife would receive none. In all proteftant, and in most chriftian countries, the elements of natural religion, and the important parts of the evangelic history, are familiar to the lowest of the people. This competent degree and general diffufion of religious knowledge amongst all orders of chriftians, which will appear a great thing when compared with the intellectual condition of barbarous nations, can fairly, I think, be afcribed to no other caufe, than the regular establishment of affemblies for divine worship; in which, either porti ons of fcripture are recited and explained, or the principles of chriftian erudition are fo conftantly taught in fermons, incorporated with liturgies, or expreffed in extempore prayer, as to imprint, by the very repetition, fome knowledge and memory of thefe fubjects upon the most unqualified and careless hearer. The two reasons above stated bind all the members of a community to uphold public worthip by their prefence and example, although the helps and opportunities which it affords may not be neceffary to the devotion or edification of all; and to fome may be useless: for it is eafily forefeen, how foon religious religious affemblies would fall into contempt and difufe, if that clafs of mankind, who are above feeking inftruction in them, and want not that their own piety fhould be affifted by either forms or fociety in devotion, were to withdraw their attendance; efpecially when it is confidered, that all who please are at liberty to rank themfelves of this clafs. This argument meets the only ferious apology that can be made for the abfenting ourfelves from public worship. Surely, fome will fay, I may be ex"cufed from going to church, fo long as I pray at "home, and have no reafon to doubt but that my prayers are as acceptable and efficacious in my clofet, as in a cathedral; ftill lefs can I think myfelf obliged to fit out a tedious fermon, in order to hear what is known already, what is "better learnt from books, or fuggefted by medi"tation." They, whofe qualifications and habits best supply to themfelves all the effect of public ordinances, will be the laft to prefer this excufe, when they advert to the general confequence of fetting up fuch an exemption, as well as when they confider the turn which is fure to be given in the neighbourhood to their abfence from public worship. You ftay from church, to employ the fabbath at home in exercifes and ftudies fuited to its proper business: your next neighbour ftays from church, to fpend the feventh day lefs religioufly than he paffes any of the fix, in a fleepy, ftupid reft, or at fome rendezvous of drunkennefs and debauchery, and yet thinks that he is only imitating you, because you both agree in not going to church. The fame confideration fhould over-rule many fmall fcruples concerning the rigorous propriety of fome things, which may be contained in the forms, or admitted into the adminiftration of the public worship of our communion; for it feems impoffible, that even "two or three fhould be gathered together," in any act of focial worship, if each one require from the |