x fi 8 Hope to be &lcernecl, true underíhanding , upon your prayers alone without all the relit of his appointed means Nor that you shall attain it by thofe means , as loon as you delire and leek it ; For then prayer would be a notable pretenfe for lazinefs, and they that would not be at the labour, of Rudy, me- ditation, or conference,might fave all their pains, and go to God and ask wifdome of him and he would give it them. Even as idle beggars think without working , to get an alms to maintain them in their fiothfitlnefs. If inf ead of ail our reading, hearing, and meditation , wecould but prey, and fo bet all the knowledge which other men fludy, labour and wait for , it would be too cheap a way to wifdome. Solomon that got it by prayer extraordinarily, commanded) us ve- ry great diligence toget it. It is very confiderable, not only, that Chrifr increafed in wifdome in his youth, but alto that he would not enter upon his publick Minifiery ( as is aforefaid) till he was about thirty years of age. When it had been more eafie far Chrif to have got all knowledge by two or three earneft prayers, than for any of us. Moreover you muff pray according to Gods xdld. of precept, not only in the matter but in the manner of your prayers. And there may be more felfifhnefs, and many other corruptions in the nner ofthem than you difcern. And there are many things which fubmifiively you may lawfully pray for, which God bath ne- ver promifed you at all: You may pray for the life of the lick, andfor the converfion and faI-. nation of all your relations, and of thoufands of others
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