Prayer to God through the mediation of Christ, is one of the more immediate means of grace, as we are assured by holy writ, and as every good man's experience must convince him: it is a duty therefore to which a Christian should address himself with more than ordinary application. The words to be used in prayer are best selected by the petitioner himself. A most excellent. model he cannot want, if he takes for his guide the liturgy of the church of England, But as the heart of man is languid, and alas too frequently indisposed to pray, let him previously collect his scattered thoughts, and seriously meditate not only on his wants, but by whom, and for whose sake he has reason to hope that those wants will be supplied; and then, it is likely, he will not speak unadvisedly with his lips. "Before thou prayést prepare thyself, and "be not as one that tempteth the Lord." A rash, or a careless, or an inconsiderate supplicant, is an absurdity in nature; nay, he is worse, he draws down a curse and not a blessing; and when such is " judged, he " will "will be condemned, and his prayer will "become sin.' As we are best acquainted with our own infirmities, we shall, perhaps, find it a good practice to use variety in our prayers. Not that in God is to be found any variableness or shadow of turning, but that we may be able to accommodate our expressions to our various wants, and to the predominant disposition of our mind. Sometimes a sense of guilt presses down the soul; sometimes the hope of mercy elevates the heart. At one time, perhaps, we are inclined to mourn like a dove; at another, we "take a psalm, bring forth the tabret, the merry harp, or "the lute." Sometimes we may address our heavenly Paren't in a pre-conceived form of words; and sometimes the heart may break its chain, and fly to the throne of grace on the wing of ardent and spontaneous effusions. "While I was thus musing," says David," the fire [of de❝votion] kindled, and at last I spake with my tongue. Thus Milton represents our first parents, as paying the duty of adora 6.6 tion "In various style; for neither various style - To private prayer alone, selected or unmeditated, should this variety be confined. Public worship should be conducted upon a different principle. I would not even introduce it into the offices of family devotion; which I consider as an indispensable duty in the dwelling of a Christian. As no man can profess himself a member of any religious society, without an open association with it, so no man can, with propriety, call himself a member of the general church of Christ, without endeavouring to instruct that small community in the midst of which he is placed; and unite in prayer, with his immediate friends, relatives, and servants, to that God who maketh those to be of one mind who dwell in one house. This is a branch of habitual devotion carefully to be attended to, the blessing of heaven will descend upon the pious circle, and "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ" will rest upon their hearts :-" blessed shall "be be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit "of thy ground-blessed shall be thy "basket, and thy store-blessed shalt thou "be when thou comest in, and blessed "shalt thou be when thou goest out."-If you wish to behold a family of love, good parents, good children, good servants, convene them daily in the more immediate presence of God; shew them, in the ritual of prayer, the relative duties of human life; teach them the virtues and graces of a Christian in the devotions of a Christian; display the motives by which the love of God descends upon their heads-then no arguments will be necessary to recommend the practice of domestic religion. As example is always more interesting than precept, I shall conclude with the character of an eminent religious physician, drawn by the luminous pen of a christian philosopher*. I venture to address, on this occasion, gentlemen of the same profession; a profession which brings before the eye the most humiliating instances of human infir *Life of Boerhaave, by Samuel Johnson, LL.D. mity, and ought to produce in the heart those sentiments of devotion, which the practice of the art of medicine is so well calculated to excite. "Honour the physi"cian with the honour due to him."— "Give place to the physician, the Lord " created him." "The piety of Boerhaave, and a religious sense of his dependance on God, was the "basis of all his virtues, and the principle "of his whole conduct. He was too sen"sible of his weakness to ascribe any thing "to himself, or to conceive that he could "subdue passion, or withstand temptation, by his own natural power; he attributed σε every good thought, and every laudable "action, to the Father of goodness. Being "once asked by a friend, who had often "admired his patience under great provo"cations, whether he knew what it was to "be angry, and by what means he had so "entirely suppressed that impetuous and "ungovernable passion? he answered, with "the utmost frankness and sincerity, that he was naturally quick of resentment, but "that he had by daily prayer and medita "tion, |