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A

METHOD

FOR

PRAYER.

CHAP. I.

Of the first Part of PRAYER, which is Addrefs to GOD, Adoration of him, with fuitable Acknowledgments, Profeffions, and preparatory Requests.

OUR fpirits being compofed into a very reverend

and serious frame, our thoughts gathered in, and all that is within us charged in the name of the great God, carefully to attend the folemn and awful fervice that lies before us, and to keep close to it, we must with a fixed attention and application of mind, and an active lively Faith, set the LORD BEFORE US, see his eye upon us, and set ourselves in his special prefence, prefenting ourselves to him as living facrifices, which we defire may be holy and acceptable, and a reasonable servicea; and then bind thefe facrifices with cords to the horns of the altar, in fuch thoughts as these :

a Rom, xii. 1.

b Pfal. cxviii, 27.

Let us now lift up our hearts, with our eyes and hands unto God in the heavens d.

Let us ftir up ourselves to take hold on God, to seek his face, and to give him the glory due unto his name f.

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Unto thee, O Lord, do we lift up our fouls.

Let us now, with humble boldness, enter into the holieft by the blood of Jefus, in the new and living way h, which he hath confecrated to us through the Veil i.

Let us now attend upon the Lord without distraction, and let not our hearts be far from him, when we draw nigh unto him with our mouths, and honour him with our lips *.

Let us now worship God, who is a SPIRIT, in fpirit and in truth for such the Father feeks to worship

him'.

Having thus engaged our hearts to approach unto Godm,

1. We must folemnly addrefs ourselves to that INFINITELY GREAT and GLORIOUS Being with whom we have to do, as those that are poffeffed with a full belief of his PRESENCE and a holy awe and reverence of his MAJESTY; which we may do in fuch expreffions as thefe:

HOLY, Holy, holy Lord God Almighty, which and waft, and art to come ".

art,

O thou whose name alone is JEHOVAH, and who art the moft HIGH over all the earth!

;

O God, thou art our God, early will we feek theep our God and we will praife thee; our father's God, and we will exalt thee 9.

Othou who art the true God, the living God, the

c Lam. iii, 41. f Pfal. xxvii, 8. xxix, 2.

1 Cor. vii, 35. m Jer. xxx, 21. p lxxxiii. 1.

d John xvii, 1.

g XXV, I.
k Mat. xv, 8.
n Rev. iv, 6.
q Exod, xv, 2.

e Ifa. Ixiv, 7.

b Heb. x, 19. / John iv, 23, 24. Pfalm lxxxiii, 18.

only living and true God, and the everlasting King'! The Lord our God who is one Lord'.

And we may thus diftinguish ourselves from the worshippers of false gods.

The idols of the heathen are filver and gold, they are vanity and a lie, the works of men's hands; they that make them are like unto them, and fo is every one that trufteth in them. But the portion of Jacob is not like them, for he is the former of all things, and Ifrael is the rod of his inheritance; the Lord of hosts is his name, God over all, blessed for evermore w.

Their rock is not our rock, even the enemies them. felves being judges; for he is the rock of ages, the Lord Jehovah, with whom is everlafting ftrength : whofe name fhall endure for ever, and his memorial unto all generations 2, when the gods that have not made the heavens and the earth fhall perish from off the earth, and from under those heavens a.

2. We must reverently adore God, as a Being tranfcendently bright and blessed, felf-existent, and felf-fuffici ent, an infinite and eternal Spirit, that has all perfections in himself, and give him the glory of his titles and attri

butes.

O Lord our God, thou art very great, thou art clothed with honour and majesty, thou coverest thyfelf with light, as with a garment, and yet as to us makeft darkness thy pavilion; for we cannot order our speech by reafon of darknefs d.

This is the meffage which we have heard of thee, and we fet to our feal that it is true, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all: and that God is love, and they that dwell in love, dwell in God, and God in them f.

Thou art the Father of light, with whom is no varir Jer. x. 10. Deut. vi. 4. t Pfal. cxv. 4. v Jer. x: 15, 16. w Rom. ix. V. x Deut. xxxii. 31. y Ifa. xxvi. 4. Pfal. cxxxv. 13. a Jer. x. 11. b Pfal. civ. 1, 2. cxviii. 11. d Job xxxvii. 19. e 1 John i. 5. ƒiv. 16.

B

ableness or fhadow of turning, and from whom proceeded every good and perfect gift %.

Thou art the bieffed and only Potentate: the King of kings, and Lord of lords, who only haft immortality, dwelling in the light, which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath feen, or can see 1.

We must acknowledge his being to be unquestionable and past difpute.

The heavens declare thy glory, O God, and the firmament showeth thy handy-work, and by the things that are made is clearly feen and understood thine eternal power and Godhead *. So that they are fools without excufe, who fay there is no God; for verily there is a reward for the righteous, verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth, and in heaven too 1.

We therefore come to thee, believing that thou art, and that thou art the powerful and bountiful rewarder of them that diligently feek thee m.

Yet we must own his nature to be incomprehenfible.

We cannot by fearching find out God, we cannot find out the Almighty unto perfection ".

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unfearchable.

Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? who can fhow forth all his praise P?

-And his perfections to be matchlefs and without compare

Who is a God like unto thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders ? ?

q

Who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? who among the fons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord? O Lord God of hofts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee, or to thy faithfulness round about thee?

g James i. 17. h 1 Tim. vi. 15, 16. Rom. i. 20. / Pfalm xiv. 1. lviii. 11. n Job xi. 7. o Pfalm cxlv, 3. pcvi. 2. - Psalm lxxxix. 6, 8.

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Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord, neither are there any works like unto thy works; for thou art great, and doft wondrous things; thou art God alone's

There is not any creature that has an arm like God, or can thunder with a voice like him ".

-And that he is infinitely above us and all other beings. Thou art God, and not man; haft not eyes of flesh, nor feeft thou as a man feeth ; thy days are not as the days of man, nor thy years as man's days w.

V

As heaven is high above the earth, fo are thy thoughts above our thoughts, and thy ways above our ways *.

All nations before thee are as a drop of the bucket, or the fmall duft of the balance, and thou takeft up the ifles as a very little thing: they are as nothing, and are counted to thee lefs than nothing and vanity Y.

Particularly in our adorations we must acknowledge (1.) That he is an eternal God, immutable, without beginning of days, or end of life, or change of time.

Thou art the King eternal, immortal, invisible 2.

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, from everlafting to everlasting thou art God a; the fame, yesterday, to-day, and for ever b.

Of old haft thou laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thy hands: they fhall perish, but thou fhalt endure; yea, all of them fhall wax old, like a garment, as a veíture halt thou change them, and they fhall be changed; but thou art the fame, and thy years fhall have no end .

Thou art God, and changeft not; therefore is it that we are not confumed d.

Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord our God, our

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s Pfalm 1xxxvi. 8, 10. t Job xl. 9. v Hof. xi. 9.

ru Job x. 4, 5. Tim. i. 17. cii. 25, 26, 27.

9.

x Ifa. lv.
a Pfalm xc. 2.
d Mal, iii. 6.

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Ifa. xl.
15, 17.
b Heb. xiii. 8.
c Pialın

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