CIIAPT1R iI. 105 sensible inivard persuasion of our own unworthiness, our wants and our sorrows which we have before expressed. -2. A wishing and desiring to obtain all that we have prayed for, longing after it, and looking for it. Lord, let it be thus as we have said, is the languageof this littleword Amen in the end of our prayers.-3. A confirmation of all our professions, promises, and engage- ments to God : it is used as the form of the oath or God in some places in scripture, verily or surely in blessing I will bless thee;. Ileb. vi. 13, 14. And it is as it were a solemn oath in our lips, binding ourselves to the Lord, according to the professions that we have made in the foregoing part of worship. l. It implies also the hope and sure expectation of the acceptance of our per- sous, and audience of Mu' prayers. For while we thus confirm our dedication of ourselves to God, we also humbly lay claim to his accomplishment of the promises of his covenant, and ex- pect and wait that he will fulfil all our petitions, so far as they are agreeable to our truest interest, and the designs of his own glory. CHAP. II. Of the Gift of Prayer. HAVING already spokenofthe natureof prayer, and distin- guished'it into its several parts, I proceed to give some account of the gift or abiiity to pray. This holy skill of speaking to God in prayer, bath been usually called a gift, and upon this account it bathbeen represented by the weaknessand folly ofsome persons like the gift of miracles or prophecy, which are entirely the effects of divine inspiration, wholly out of our reach, and unattainable by our utmost endeavours. The malice of others bath hereupon taken occasion to reproach all pretences to it as vain fancies andwild enthusiasm. But I shall attempt togive so rational an account of it in the followingsections, and lay down such plain directions how to attain it with the assistance of the Holy Spirit,' and his blessing on our own diligenèe and labour, that I hope those prejudices will be taken off, and the unjust, reproach be wiped away for ever. SECT. I. !'That the Gift of Prayer is.' The gift of prayer may be thus described : It is an ability to suit our thoughts to all the various parts and designs of this duty, and a readiness to express those thoughts before God in the fittest manner to profit our own souls, and the souls of others that join with us. It is called a gift, partly because it was bestowed on the apostles and primitive christians in an immediate, and extraordinary manner, by theSpirit of God ; and partly because there is the ordinary assistance of the Spirit of God required even to the attaigment of this holy skill or ability to pray.
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