Sect. 7. 235 14. [Let Prayers and Supplications and giving of 1 Tim. 2. 2. thanks be made for all men: for Kings and all that are in authority. For this is good and acceptable in the fight of God our Saviour.] We who must love our Neighbours as our felves, muft alfo pray for them as for our felves: with this only difference, that we enlarge in our temporal defires for Kings, and pray for fecular profperity to them with more importunity than for our felves, because they need more to enable their Duty and Government, and for the Interefts of Religion and Juftice. This part of Prayer is by the Apostle called [Interceffion] in which with fpecial care we are to remember our Relatives, our Family, our Charge, our Benefactors, our Creditors; not forgetting to beg Pardon and Charity for our Enemies, and protection against them.

15. Rely not on a fingle Prayer in matters of great Concernment; but make it as publick as you can by obtaining of others to pray for you this being the great Bleffing of the communion of Saints, that a Prayer united is ftrong like a well-ordered Army; and God loves to be tied faft with fuch cords of love, and conftrained by a holy violence.

16. Every time that is not feiz'd upon by fome other duty, is seasonable enough for prayer: but let it be performed as a folemn Duty morning and even. ing, that God may begin and end all our bufinefs, and the outgoing of the morning and evening may praise him; for fo we blefs God, and God bleffes us. And yet fail not to find or make opportunities to worfhip God at fome other times of the day; at leaft by ejaculations and fhort addreffes, more or lefs, longer or fhorter, folemnly or without folemnity, privately or publickly, as you can, or are permitted: always remembring, that as every fin is a degree of danger and unfafety; fo every pious Prayer and well employed opportunity is a degree of return to hope and pardon.

Caution

Cautions for making Vows.

17. A Vow to God is an act of prayer and a great degree and inftance of importunity, and an increafe of duty by fome new uncommanded inftance, or fome more eminent degree of duty, or frequency of action, or earnestness of tpirit in the fame. And because it hath pleated God in all Ages of the World to admit of entercourfe with his fervants, in the matters of Vows, it is not ill advice, that we make Vows to God in fuch cases in which we have great need, or great danger. But let it be done according to these Rules and by these Cautions.

1. That the matter of the Vow be lawful. 2. That it be useful in order to Religion or Charity. 3. That it be grave, not trifling and impertinent, but great in our proportion of duty towards the blefling. 4. That it be in an uncommanded inftance, that is, that it be of fomething, or in fome manner, or in fome degree to which formerly we were not obliged, or which we might have omitted without fin. 5. That it be done without prudence, that is, that it be fafe in all the circumstances of perfon, left we beg a bleffing, and fall into a snare. 6. That every Vow of a new action be alfo accompanied with a new degree and enforcement of our effential and unalterable duty: fuch as was Jacob's Vow, that (befides the payment of a tithe) God should be his God: that fo he might ftrengthen his duty to him firft in effentials and precepts, and then in additionals and accidentals. For it is but an ill tree that spends more in leaves and fuckers and gummns than in fruit: and that thankfulness and Religion is beft that firft fecures duty, and then enlarges in counfels. Therefore let every great prayer, and great need, and great danger draw us nearer to God by the approach of a pious purpose to live more ftrictly; and let every mercy of God anfwering that prayer produce a real perfor mance of it. 7. Let not young beginners in Religion enlarge

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enlarge their hearts, and ftrengthen their liberty by Anguftum vows of long continuance: nor (indeed) any one gefta, dixit elfe, without a great experience of himtelf, and of Pythag id eft, all accidental dangers. Vows of fingle actions are Vitae genus fafeft, and proportionable to thote fingle bleffings care, nec ever begg'd in fuch cafes of fudden and tranfient im- vinculo te portunities. 8. Let no action which is matter of metipfum obftringere. queftion and difpute in Religion ever become the Pitarch matter of a vow. He vows foolishly that promifes Sic Novatus to God to live and die in fuch an opinion, in an ar- novitios fuos ticle not neceflary, nor certain; or that, upon con- jurandum nè compulit ad fidence of his prefent guide, binds himself for ever unquam ad to the profeffion of what he may afterwards more pifcopos rereasonably contradict, or may find not to be useful, dirent. Eufeb, or not profitable, but of fome danger, or of no ne. 1. 2 Eccl. Hift. ceffity.

If we obferve the former Rules, we fhall pray piously and effectually: but because even this duty hath in it fome fpecial temptations, it is neceflary that we be armed by fpecial remedies against them. The dangers are, 1. Wandring thoughts. 2. Tedioulnefs of fpirit. Against the first thele advices are profitable.

Remedies against wandring Thoughts

in Prayer.

If we feel our fpirits apt to wander in our prayers, and to retire into the World, or to things unprofitable, or vain and impertinent;

1. Ufe Prayer to be affifted in Prayer: pray for the fpirit of fupplication, for a fober, fixed and recollected fpirit: and when to this you add moral industry to be fteady in your thoughts, whatfoever wandrings after this do return irremediably, are a mifery of Nature and an imperfection, but no fin, while it is not cherifhed and indulged to.

2. In private it is not amifs to attempt the cure by reducing your Prayers into Collects and fhort forms of prayer, making voluntary interruptions, and beginning again, that the want of fpirit and breath may be fupplied by the short stages and periods.

3. When

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3. When you have obferved any confiderable wandring of your thoughts, bind your felf to repeat that prayer again with actual attention, or elfe revolve the full fence of it in your fpirit, and repeat it in all the effects and defires of it: and pollibly the tempter may be driven away with his own art, and may ceafe to interpole his trifles, when he perceives they do but vex the perfon into carefulness and piety; and yet he lofes nothing of his devotion, but doubles the earnestnefs of his care.

4. If this be not seasonable or opportune, or apt to any Man's circumftances, yet be ture with actual attention to lay a hearty Amen to the whole Prayer with one united defire, earnestly begging the graces mentioned in the Prayer: tor that defire does the great work of the Prayer, and fecures the bleffing, if the wandring thoughts were against our will, and difclaimed by contending against them.

5. Avoid multiplicity of bufineffes of the world; and in thofe that are unavoidable, labour for an evennefs and tranquility of fpirit, that you may be untroubled and imooth in all tempelts of fortune: for to we shall better tend Religion, when we are not torn in pieces with the cares of the World, and feized upon with low affections, paffions and intereft.

6. It helps much to attention and actual advertifement in our Prayers, if we fay our Prayers filently without the voice, only by the spirit. For in mental Prayer, if our thoughts wander, we only ftand till; when our mind returns we go on again; there is none of the Prayer loft, as it is it our mouths fpeak and our hearts wander.

7. To incite you to the use of thefe or any other countels you fhall meet with, remember that it is a great undecency to defire of God to hear thofe Prayers, a great part whereof we do not hear our felves. If they be not worthy of our attention, they are far more unworthy of God's.

Signs of tedioufnefs of Spirit in our Prayers and all Actions of Religion.

The second temptation in our Prayer is a tedioufnefs of fpirit, or weariness of the employment; like that of the Jews, who complained that they were weary of the new Moons, and their Souls loathed the frequent return of their Sabbaths: fo do very many Chriftians, who fift pray without fervour and earneftness of spirit; and fecondly, meditate but feldom, and that without fruit, or fence, or affection; or thirdly, who feldom examine their confciences, and when they do it, they do it but fleepily, flightly, without compunction, or hearty purpofe, or fruits of amendment. 4. They enlarge themselves in the thoughts and fruition of temporal things, running for comfort to them only in any fadnefs and misfortune. 5. They love not to frequent the Sacraments, nor any the inftruments of Religion, as Sermons, Confeffions, Prayers in publick, Faftings: but love eate, and a loose undifciplin d life. 6. They obey not their fuperiours, but follow their own judgment, when their judgment follows their affections, and their affections follow fenfe and worldly pleatures. 7. They neglect or diffemble, or deferr, or do not attend to the motions and inclinations to vertue which the Spirit of God puts into their Soul. 8. They repent them of their vows and holy purpofes, not because they discover any indifcretion in them, or intolerable inconvenience, but because they have within them labour, (as the cale now ftands) to them difpleasure. 9. They content themselves with the first degrees and neceflary parts of vertue; and when they are arrived thither, they fit down, as if they are come to the mountain of the Lord, and care not to proceed on toward perfection. 10. They enquire into all cafes in which it may be lawful to omit a duty; and though they will not do lefs than they are bound to, yet they will do no more than needs mult; for they do out of fear and felf love, not out of the love of God, or the