any other occasion. David says "The Lord is on my side: I will not fear what man doeth unto me." (Ib. cxviii. 6.) And we may say the same of a much more formidable enemy. May the children whom he has seduced return to their family; and they who are now children of God in name only, or only "called the children of God," be really such when he shall appear, being like him in faith as well as profession, and brethren after the spirit, as well as after the flesh!

"But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham," (John viii. 40,) says he. And could they be brethren to Jesus after the spirit, as Abraham was, and as all must be, to be the children of God? No more than Cain was god-brother to Abel, or Esau to Jacob; of whom God is said to have loved one and hated the other, (Rom. ix. 13,) as they did him. I fear therefore that the true children of Abraham, being related to him after the Spirit, as well as after the flesh and according to promise, cannot be as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore,”—if all the Cains and Esaus, or persons of a murderous and faithless disposition are to be excluded from the number: there being many such who would not think it of themselves, any more than Hazael three days before he smothered his benefactor; (Kings II. viii. 15;) or the Jews before mentioned, who were probably among the crucifiers of Messiah, and thought him mad when he foretold it, for only anticipating such an atrocity from persons of their equitable and humane disposition. (John vii. 20.)

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Anciently the privilege of using the whole of this sacred form of prayer in public was made to depend on other forms and professions: now it seems to depend more on custom: but a time will come, to judge from our Saviour's prediction, when it shall no longer depend on either, but on affinity with him "in spirit and in truth:" (John iv. 23:) and never can we regard any, as proper subjects to offer up this prayer to Heaven, who are not likely to follow it thi

ther. "For this ye know (says St. Paul) that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God" (or the Kingdom of God in Christ). "Let no man deceive you with vain words (says he): for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience." (Eph. v. 5, 6.) Whereupon it may be said, who then shall dare to use this formidable, searching composition? It is enough to drive one to despair, if perceiv ing one's chance for eternal life so precarious, one might not be allowed to improve it by prayer. That observation belongs to

§ 2. Our second head concerning the Use of the Prayer, and that, of course, as it stands; more especially with regard to the Invocation. Where the question will not be whether a sinner in precarious or even in desperate circumstances might not throw himself on the divine mercy, as well as one who may not have so far forfeited his new birthright seemingly. For in the body of the Prayer we all own our unworthiness, in praying to have our trespasses forgiven; and be may not always be the most unworthy who has the deepest sense of his unworthiness. Our Saviour says, "Come unto me ALL ye that labour and are heavy laden;" (Matt. xi. 28;) and also by the prophet God says, "Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves and live." (Ezek. xviii. 30, &c.) Now to turn ourselves to God alone, we hold to be impossible: and if it were otherwise, where were the need of prayer? But every thing is done by ways and means. What prodigious weights are turned by machinery! Now prayer is machinery for the soul: and if to this the cooperation of numbers be added, what may we not expect?

Therefore being invited to Christ and unable to go without help, only his invitation may seem to authorize the most desperate sinner to try every probable or even possible means of grace, and among others this of praying with others, however inconsistently. If only a man's temporal life was at stake, he would, though much against his inclination, be less scrupulous in common decencies than usual perhaps; and why not, when his eternal life depended on every possible medium and exertion? Nay; a man might even venture to say, Father, in such a case when he could not venture to look up; speaking with the rest, yet almost fearing to be heard.

It would not occur to a mere human imagination perhaps, but that there might be quite devotion enough in a man's coming to God, and calling upon God as it were singly, either to do something for him, or to prevent, as it may suit under all circumstances; especially considering what "an advocate he has with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous." (John I. ii. 1.) But it is Jesus Christ himself who teaches us, that in every case applying to more than one person, or in which more than one are concerned, a petition in the singular person, or the prayer of one man for himself exclusively will not be heard. For he told his disciples, expressly told them, to say OUR Father at the beginning of their universal Prayer: whereas either of them must say My, to pray in the singular or exclusive person; and that was a privilege of the Son alone, as being alone in his degree, when he chose it.

Indeed; only taking Christ along with us in our prayers, as we should in every thing that we do, may be enough to disable us from praying singly. For he says, "Without me ye can do nothing:" (John xv. 5:) and again, "What I say unto you, I say unto all." (Mark xiii. 37.) So it would become every one of us, when he goes up to God having Christ by his side, as he may think, with a becoming petition, whether at church or at home, to say in his heart, "For my brethren and companions' sakes,"

(Ps. cxxii. 8,) likewise. Or else, if it were just to tell him, as Barak told his conductress, "If thou wilt go with me then I will go; but if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go," (Judges iv. 8,) it would be equally just, and no more than one might expect, considering his equal relation to these, for him to reply, who art thou of all mankind, that I should go with thee alone?-that I should bestow my company and the sanction of my presence on thee particularly. Go by thyself if thou canst: I will not go with thee. And what then? Why, we may be assured, that if he will not go with us, we must fail miserably in all our undertakings: our measures shall be ill taken in all, and our motives no better than our success. For IF

HE WILL NOT GO WITH US, WE MUST GO WITHOUT HIS

GOOD QUALITIES; consequently without the blessing that is upon them.

When we offer to go before God with Christ, it may be well in taking him for our Great High Priest too, as well as "the First born among many brethren;" because we have some things to pay and atone for, as well as some to pray for and receive: and how can we carry a single or selfish consideration with us in this case; it may be, up to the house of the Lord our God; without remembering "the great congregation," for which our Great High Priest atones and intercedes collectively as well as individually?

But by that "House" I do not mean one church only; nor by "the Great congregation," only a church full of people; nor yet by both, so little as a land full of churches, but "all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord;" (Cor. I. i. 2;) the whole suppliant multitude, however congregated or dispersed,-as well those who are toiling and jeoparding their lives by land and sea, as those who meet here in comfort and security; as well those who are most diffident of their eternal condition, it may be whose hearts are rent with sorrow and remorse, as those who are most confident of the same, being very easy and well satisfied in themselves; of those who have every thing

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to beg,-friends, favour, freedom, and even necessary food perhaps, as those who have enough of such things and may be glad to keep what they have, if they can but be satisfied with it: I mean the widow, the fatherless, and those in extreme danger and distress; prisoners and captives, the sick, maimed, starving with cold and hunger, and at the point of death; but especially the penitent among others; and no matter where for any of them. "In Jewry is God known: his name is great in Israel." (Ps. lxxvi. 1.) "And other sheep I have, (says the Great Shepherd,) which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd." (John x. 16.) Such, my brethren, is the "Great congregation," to be remembered and taken along with us in thought and affection when we venture to appear before God, the Creator and Preserver of all mankind,” in “the house of the Lord our God," under the ministration of our "Great High Priest," and sanctioned by the presence of the First born, only Son: where "there is neither Jew, nor Greek; there is neither bond, nor free; there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." (Gal. iii. 28).

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The voice of this prayer offered up by such a congregation through Christ, its visible Organ that was, though now invisible, were like the sound of some mighty triumphant tide rushing down a steep cataract, or struggling between two headlands,-even "as the sound of many waters," if it could be collected into one audible concert, as it is into one spiritual effect. It is interesting to consider the sound however divided of one single prayer simultaneously repeated by hundreds of thousands of voices, as that under consideration might have been, and likewise several times, this very day-in Christendom, and far beyond by many a willing wanderer for the gospel, and also by many an hapless exile in the cause of freedom. Only the invocation of which we are considering, and which is not even a part of the Prayer in strictness, being poured forth