iquities have many aggravations; O that I might mourn for them before thee in secret! O that [ could pour out my soul before thee in sorrow, because of multiplied offences!" Thus, let the language of affection follow the language of our judgment; for this is the most rational and natural method.

Having laid down these general rules, the best particular method I can direct you to is, that division of the parts of prayer mentioned in the foregoing chapter. I know not a more natural order of things than this is. To begin with invocation, or calling upon God; then proceed to adore that God whom we invoke, because of his various glories; we are then naturally led to the work of confession, considering what little contemptible creatures we are in the presence of so adorable a God; and to humble ourselves, because of our abounding sins, and our many necessities: when we have given praise to a God of holiness, and having spread our wants before God, petitions for mercy naturally follow, and pleading with such divine arguments as the Spirit and the word of God put into our mouths, should accompany our requests: after all, we resign ourselves into the hands of God, and express our self-dedication to him; then we recollect the mercies that we have received, and out of gratitude pay him our tribute of honor and thanks. And as he is glorious in himself, and glorious in his works of power and grace, so we bless him, and ascribe everlasting glory to him.

I cannot but think it a very useful thing for young beginners in the work of prayer, to remember all these heads in their order, to dispose

of their thoughts and desires before God in this method, proceeding regularly from one part to another. And as this must needs be useful to assist and teach us to pray in public, so sometimes in our secret retirements it may not be improper to pursue the same practice.

Yet it must be granted, there is no necessity for confining ourselves to this, or to any other set method, any more than there is of confining ourselves to a form in prayer.

Sometimes the mind is so divinely full of one particular part of prayer, perhaps of thanksgiving, or of self-resignation, that high expressions of gratitude, and of devoting ourselves to God, break out first.

"Lord, I am come to devote myself to thee in an everlasting covenant: I am thine, through thy grace; and through thy grace I will be thine for ever." Or thus: "Blessed be thy name, O Lord God Almighty, for thine abundant benefits, that fill my soul with the sense of them; for thou hast pardoned all my iniquities and healed all my diseases."

Sometimes, even in the beginning of prayer, when we are insisting on one of the first parts of it, we receive a divine hint from the Spirit of God that carries away our thoughts and our whole souls with warm affection into another part that is of a very different kind, and that usually perhaps comes in near the conclusion: and when the Spirit of God thus leads us, and our souls are in a very devout frame, we are not to quench the Spirit of God, in order to tie ourselves to any set rules of prescribed method.

There is no necessity that persons of great talents, of divine affections, of much converse with God, and that have attained to a good degree of this gift, by long exercise, should bind themselves to any one certain method of prayer. For we find the prayers recorded in holy scripture are very various in the order and disposition of them, as the Spirit of God and the divine affections of those saints led and guided them: but still there is some method observed, and may be traced and demonstrated.

I am persuaded, that, if young Christians did not give themselves up, in their first essays of prayer, to a loose and negligent habit of speaking every thing that comes uppermost, but attempted to learn this holy skill, by a recollection of the several parts of prayer, and disposing their thoughts into this method, there would be great numbers in our churches that would have arrived at a good degree of the gift of prayer; and be capable afterwards of giving a more glorious and unbounded loose to their souls, without breaking the rules of just and natural method; and that to the great edification of our churches, as well as of their own families.

SECTION V.

OF EXPRESSION IN PRAYER.

THE third thing that relates to the gift of prayer is Expression.

Though prayer be the proper work of the heart

yet in this present state, in secret as well as in social prayer, the language of the lips is an excellent aid to this part of worship. A person, indeed, may pray heartily and effectually, and yet make use of no words. Sometimes the desires of the heart may be too big to be expressed, when the Spirit of God is with us in plentiful operations, and assists us to plead with sighs, and groans which cannot be uttered, as Rom. viii. 26. Persons that are dumb, may think over their wants, and raise their souls to God in longing desires, and wishes for grace, in a time of need. Nor is there any necessity of using language upon God's account; for he knows the desires of our hearts, and our most secret breathings towards him. He that hears without ears, understands us without our words. Yet as language is of absolute necessity in social prayer, that others may join with us in our addresses to God, so for the most part, we find it necessary in secret too. For there are few persons of so steady and fixed a power of meditation, as to maintain their devotion warm, and to converse with God, or with themselves profitably, without words.

Expressions are useful, not only to dress our thoughts, but sometimes to form and shape and perfect the ideas and affections of our minds. The use of words makes us doubly sensible of the things we conceive; they serve to awaken the holy passions of the soul as well as to express them. Our expressions sometimes follow and reveal the warmer motions of the heart, and sometimes they are dictated by the judgment, and are a mean to warin the heart, and excite those holy

motions. They fix and engage all our powers in religion and worship, and they serve to regulate as well as to increase our devotion. We are bid to "take unto us words, and turn to the Lord, and say unto him, take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously." Hos. xiv. 2. And in the Psalms of David, we often read of his "crying to the Lord with his voice, and making supplication with his tongue," when the matter of his prayer is such, that we have abundant reason to believe that it was performed in secret.

Here I shall first lay down some directions how to attain a rich treasure of expressions in prayer: and secondly, give several rules about the choice of words and expressions.

The directions to attain a treasure of expressions are these:

Direction 1. Beside the general acquaintance with God and with yourselves, that was prescribed under a former head, labor after the fresh, particular and lively sense of the greatness and grace of God, and of your own wants and sins, and mercies, whenever you come to pray. This will furnish you with abundance of proper expressions. The passions of the mind, when they arc moved, do mightily help the tongue. They fill the mouth with arguments; they give a natural eloquence to those who know not any rules of art; and they almost constrain the dumb to speak. There is a remarkable instance of this in ancient history: when Atys, the son of Croesus the king, who was dumb from his childhood, saw his father ready to be slain, the violence of his passion broke the bonds wherewith his tongue was tied,