Lord my God, most high and most holy God and Father. O God of Israel, that dwelleth between the cherubim. Almighty God, and everlasting King. Our Father who art in heaven. O God that keepest covenant;" and several others.

2. A declaration of our desire aad design to worship him. "Unto thee do we lift up our souls;

we draw near unto thee as our God. We come into thy presence. We, that are but dust and ashes, take upon us to speak to thy Majesty. We bow ourselves before thee in humble addresses," or such like.—And here it may not be amiss to mention briefly one or two general expressions of our own unworthiness.

3. A desire of his assistance and acceptance, under a sense of our own insufficiency and unworthiness, in such a language as this: "Lord, quicken us to call upon thy name.-Assist us by thy Spirit in our access to thy mercy-seat. Raise our hearts towards thyself. Teach us to approach thee as becomes creatures, and do thou draw near to us as a God of grace. Hearken to the voice of my cry, my King and my God, for unto thee will I pray;" in Psalm, v. 2. in which words you have all these three parts of invocation expressed.

SECTION II.

OF ADORATION.

THF second part of prayer is Adoration, or hon or paid to God by the creature; and it contains these four things:

1. A mention of his nature as God, with the

highest admiration and reverence: and this includes his most original properties and perfections, viz. his self-sufficient existence; that he is God of and from himself. His unity of essence; that there is no other God besides himself. His inconceivable substance in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; which mystery of the Trinity is a most proper object of our adoration and wonder, since it so much surpasses our understanding. His incomprehensible distance from all creatures, and his infinite superiority of nature above them, seem also to claim a place here. The language of this part of prayer runs thus: "Thou art God, and there is none else; thy name alone is Jehovah the most high. Who in the heavens can be compared to the Lord, or who among the sons of the mighty can be likened to our God? All nations before thee are as nothing, and they are counted in thy sight, less than nothing, and vanity. Thou art the first and the last, the only true and living God; thy glorious name is exalted above all blessing and praise."

2.

The mention of his several attributes, with due expressions of praise, and with the exercise of suitable grace and affection: As his power, his justice, his wisdom, his sovereignty, his holiness, his goodness, and mercy. Abundance of which sort of expressions you find in Scripture, in those addresses that the saints have made to God in all ages.—“ Thou art very great, O Lord, thou art clothed with honor and majesty. Thou art the blessed and only potentate, King of kings and Lord of lords. All things are naked and open before thine eyes. Thou searchest the heart

of man, but how unsearchable is thine understanding, and thy power is unknown. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Thy mercy endureth forever. Thou art slow to anger, abundant in goodness, and thy truth reacheth to all generations." These meditations are of great use in the beginning of our prayers, to abase us before the throne of God, to awaken our reverence, our dependence, our faith and hope, our humility and our joy.

3. The mention of his several works; of creation, of providence, and of grace, with proper praises. For as God is glorious in himself, in his nature and attributes, so by the works of his hands, hath he manifested that glory to us, and it becomes us to ascribe the same glory to him, i. e. to tell him humbly what a sense we have of the several perfections he hath revealed in these works of his, in such language as this: "Thou, Lord, hast made the heavens and earth. The whole creation is the work of thy hands. Thou rulest among the armies of heaven; and among the inhabitants of the earth thou doest what pleaseth thee. Thou hast revealed thy goodness towards mankind, and hast magnified thy mercy above all thy name. Thy works of nature and of grace are full of wonder, and sought out by all those that have pleasure in them."

4. The mention of his relation to us, as a Creator, as a Father, as a Redeemer, as a King, as an Almighty friend, and our everlasting portion. And here it will not be improper to make mention of the name of Christ, in and through whom alone we are brought nigh to God, and made his

children. By whose incarnation and atonement he becomes a God and Father to sinful men, and appears their reconciled Friend. And by this means we draw still nearer to God in every part of this work of adoration.

When we consider his nature, we stand afar off from him as creatures from a God; for he is infinitely superior to us: When we speak of his attributes, there seems to grow a greater acquaintance between God and us, while we tell him that we have learnt something of his power, his wisdom, his justice, and his mercy. But when we proceed to make mention of the several works of his hands, wherein he hath sensibly discovered himself to our understandings, we seem yet to approach nigher to God; and when at last we can arise to call him our God, from a sense of his special relation to us in Christ, then we gain the nearest access, and are better prepared for the following parts of this worship.

SECTION III.

OF CONFESSION.

THE third part of prayer consists in confession, which may also be divided into these four heads:

1. An humble confession of the meanness of our nature in its origina.: Our distance from God, as we are creatures: Our subjection to him, and our constant dependence on him.-" Thou, O Lord, art in heaven, but we on the earth; our being is but of yesterday, and our foundation is in the dust. What is man that thou art mindful

of him, and the son of man that thou shouldst visit him? Man that is a worm, and the son of man that is but a worm! 'Tis in thee that we live, move, and have our being: thou withholdest thy breath and we die."

2. A Confession of our sins, both original, which belong to our nature, and actual, that have been found in the course of our lives. We should confess our sins, under the sense of the guilt of them, as well as under the deep and mournful impressions of the power of sin in our hearts. We should confess the sins that we have been guilty of in thought, as well as the iniquities of our lips and our lives. Our sins of omission and sins of commission; the sins of our childhood and of our riper years; sins against the law of God, and sins more particularly committed against the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Sometimes, it is convenient and necessary to enter into a more particular detail of our various faults and follies. We should mourn before God, because of our pride and vanity of mind, the violence of our passions, our earthly-mindedness and love of this world; our sensuality and indulgence of our flesh, our carnal security and unthankfulness under plentiful mercies, and our fretfulness and impatience, or sinful dejection, in a time of trouble; our neglect of duty and want of love to God, our unbelief and hardness of heart, our slothfulness, and decay in religion, the dishonors we have brought to God, and all our miscarriages towards our fellow creatures. And these may be aggravated on purpose to humble our souls yet more before God, by a reflection on