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heavenly beings, and made you long to bear a part in their eternal music.

If you will but use yourself to this method, and let your imagination dwell among such representations as these, you will soon find it an excellent means of raising the spirit of devotion within you.

Always therefore begin your psalm or song of praise, with these imaginations; and at every verse of it, imagine yourself amongst those heavenly companions, that your voice is added to theirs, and that angels join with you, and you with them; and that you with a poor and low voice, are singing that on earth, which they are singing in heaven.

Again, Sometimes imagine that you had been one of those that joined with our blessed Saviour when he sung an hymn. Strive to imagine to yourself, with what majesty he looked; fancy that you had stood close by him, surrounded with his glory. Think how your heart would have been inflamed, what ecstasies of joy you would have then felt, when singing with the Son of God. Think again and again, with what joy and devotion you would then have sung, had this been really your happy state, and what a punishment you should have thought it, to have been then silent; and let this teach you how to be affected with psalms and hymns of thanksgiving.

Again, Sometimes imagine to yourself, that you saw holy David with his hands upon his harp, and his eyes fixed upon heaven, calling with transport on the creation, sun and moon, light and darkness, day and night, men and angels to join with his rapturous sout in praising the Lord of heaven.

Dwell upon this imagination, till you think you are singing with this divine musician, and let such a companion teach you to exalt your heart unto God in the following psalm; which you may use constantly first in the morning.

Psalm cxlv. I will magnify thee, O God my King : I will praise thy name for ever and ever, &c.

These following psalms, as the 34th, 96th, 103d, 111th, 146th, 147th, are such as wonderfully set forth the glory of God: and therefore you may keep to any

one of them at any particular hour, as you like: or you may take the finest parts of any psalms, and so adding them together, may make them fitter for your own devotion.

CHAP. XVI.

Recommending devotion at nine o'clock in the morning, called in scripture, the third hour of the day. The subject of these prayers, is humility.

I AM now come to another hour of prayer, which in scripture is called the third hour of the day; but according to our way of numbering the hours, it is called the ninth hour of the morning.

The devout Christian must at this time look upon himself as called upon by God to renew his acts of prayer, and address himself again to the throne of grace.

There is indeed no express command in scripture to repeat our devotions at this hour. But then it is to be considered also, that neither is there an express command to begin and end the day with prayer. So that if that be looked upon as a reason for neglecting devotion at this hour, it may as well be urged as a reason for neglecting devotion both at the beginning and end of the day.

But if the practice of the saints in all ages of the world, if the customs of the pious Jews and primitive Christians be of any force with us, we have authority enough to persuade us, to make this hour a constant season of de

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The scriptures shew us how this hour was consecrated to devotion, both by Jews and Christians: so that if we desire to number ourselves amongst those whose hearts were devoted unto God, we must not let this hour pass, without presenting us to him in some solemnities of devotion. And beside this authority for this practice, the reasonableness of it is sufficient to invite us to the observance of it.

For if you was up at a good time in the morning, your first devotions will have been at a proper distance from this hour you will have been long enough at other business, to make it proper for you to return to this greatest of all business, the raising your soul and affections unte

God.

But if you have risen so late, as to be hardly able to begin your first devotions at this hour, which is proper for your second, you may thence learn that the indulging yourself in the morning sleep is no small matter; since it sets you so far back in your devotions, and robs you of those graces and blessings, which are obtained by frequent prayers.

For if prayer has power with God, if it looses the bands of sin, if it purifies the soul, reforms our hearts, and draws down the aids of divine grace; how can that be reckoned a small matter, which robs us of an hour of prayer?

Imagine yourself somewhere placed in the air, as a spectator of all that passes in the world; and that you saw in one view, the devotions which all Christian people offer unto God every day. Imagine that you saw some piously dividing the day and night, as the primitive Christians did, and constant at all hours of devotion, singing psalms, and calling upon God, at all those times. the saints and martyrs received their gifts and graces from God.

Imagine that you saw others living without any rules, as to times and frequency of prayer, and only at their devotions sooner or later, as sleep and laziness happens to permit them.

Now if you was to see this, as God sees it, how do you suppose you should be affected with this sight? What judgment do you imagine you should pass upon these different sorts of people? Could you think, that those who were thus exact in their rules of devotion, got nothing by their exactness? Could you think, that their prayers were received just in the same manner, and procured them no more blessings than theirs do, who prefer laziness and indulgence, to times and rules of devotion?

Could you take the one to be as true servants of God,

as the other? Could you imagine, that those who were thus different in their lives, would find no difference in their states after death? Could you think it a matter of indifference, to which of these people you were most like?

If not, let it be now your care to join yourself to that number of devout people, to that society of saints, amongst whom you desire to be found, when you leave the world.

And although the bare number and repetition of our prayers is of little value, yet since prayer rightly and attentively performed, is the most natural means of amending and purifying our hearts; since opportunity and frequency in prayer is as much pressed upon us by scripture, as prayer itself, we may be sure, that when we are frequent and importunate in our prayers, we are taking the best means of obtaining the highest benefits of a devout life.

And on the other hand, they who through negligence, laziness, or any other indulgence, render themselves either unable, or uninclined to observe rules and hours of devotion, we may be sure, that they deprive themselves of those graces and blessings which an exact and fervent devotion procures from God.

Now as this frequency of prayer is founded in the doctrines of Scripture, and recommended to us by the practice of the true worshippers of God; so we ought not to think ourselves excused from it, but where we can shew, that we are spending our time in such business, as is more acceptable to God, than these returns of prayer.

Least of all must we imagine, that dulness, negligence, indulgence, or diversions, can be any pardonable excuses. for our not observing an exact and frequent method of devotion,

If you are of a devout spirit, you will rejoice at these returns of prayer, which keep your soul in an holy enjoyment of God; which change your passions into divine love, and fill your heart with stronger joys and consolations, than you can possibly meet with in any thing else.

And if you are not of a devout spirit, then you are moreover obliged to this frequency of prayer, to trai

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and exercise your heart into a true sense and feeling of devotion.

Now seeing the holy spirit of the Christian religion, and the example of the saints of all ages, calls upon you thus to divide the day into hours of prayer; so it will be highly beneficial to you, to make a right choice of those matters which are to be the subject of your prayers, and to keep every hour of prayer appropriated to some particular subject, which you may alter or enlarge, according as the state you are in requires.

By this means, you will have an opportunity of being large and particular in all the parts of any virtue or grace, which you then make the subject of your prayers. And by asking for it in all its parts, and making it the substance of a whole prayer once every day, you will soon find a mighty change in your heart; and that you cannot thus constantly pray for all the parts of any virtue every day of your life, and yet live the rest of the day contrary to it.

If a worldly minded man was to pray every day against all the instances of a worldly temper; if he should make a large description of the temptations of covetousness, and desire God to assist him to reject them all, and to disappoint him in all his covetous designs, he would find his conscience so much awakened, that he would be forced either to forsake such prayers, or to forsake a worldly life.

The same will hold true, in any other instance. And if we ask, and have not, it is because we ask amiss. Because we ask in cold and general forms, such as only name the virtues without describing their particular parts, such as are not enough particular to our condition, and therefore make no change in our hearts. Whereas when a man enumerates all the parts of any virtue in his prayers, his conscience is thereby awakened, and he is frightened at seeing how far short he is of it. And this stirs him up to an ardour in devotion, when he sees how much he wants of that virtue which he is praying for.

I have in the last chapter laid before you the excellency of praise and thanksgiving, and recommended that as the subject of your first devotions in the morning.

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