PART I, in holy Ajetlions. 21 nication of the Religion of Heaven ; their Grace is the Dawn of Glory ; and God fits them for that World by conforming them to it. g. This appears from the Nature and Defign of the Ordinances and Duties, which God hath appointed, as Means and Expreffions of true Religion. To inflance in the Duty of Prayer : 'Tis manifeft, we are not ap- pointed, in this Duty, to declare God's Perfe&ions, his Majefly, Ho- liners, Goodnefs, and Allfufficiency, and our own Meannefs, Empti- nefs, Dependence, and Unworthiness, and our Wants and Defires, to inform God of thefe Things, or to incline his Heart, and prevail with him to be willing to Phew us Mercy ; but fuitably to afet our own Hearts with the Things we exprefs, and fo to prepare us to receive the Bleílings we ark. And fuchGeftures, and Manner of ex- ternal Behaviour in the Worfhip of God, which Cuftom has made to be Significations of Humility and Reverence, can be of no further Ule, than as they have fome Tendency to affea our own Hearts, or the Hearts of others. And the Duty offinging Praifes to God, feems to be appointed wholly to excite and exprefs religious Affe&ions. No other Reafon can be afligned, why we fhould exprefsour felves to God in Verfe, rather than inProfe, and do it withMufick, but only, that fuch is our Nature and Frame, that thefe Things have a Tendency to move our Affe&ions. The fame thing appears in the Nature and Defign of the Sacra- ments, which God bath appointed. God, confidering our Frame, bath not only appointed that we fhould be told of the great Things of the Gofpel, and of the Redemption of Chriff, and inftru&ed in them by his Word ; but alto that they fhould be, as it were, exhi- bited to our View, in fenfible Reprefentations, in the Sacraments, the more to affe& us with them. And the impreffing divine Things on the Hearts and Affe&ions of Men, is evidently one great and main End for which God has ordain- ed, that his Word delivered in the holy Scriptures, Mould be opened, applied, and fet home upon Men, in Preaching. And therefore it don't anfwer the Aim which God had in this Inflitution, meerly for Men to havegoodCommentaries and Expofitions on theScripture, and other good Books of Divinity ; becaufe, altho' thefe may tend, as well as Preaching, to give Men a good doelrinal or fpeculative Un- derflanding of the Work of God, yet they have not an equal Ten- dency to impress them on Men's Hearts and Affe&ions. God bath appointed a particular, and lively Application of his Word, to Men, in the Preaching of it, as a fit Means to affe& Sinners, with the Im- portance of the Things of Religion, and their own Mifery, and Ne- cefty of a Remedy, and the Glory and Sufficiency of a Remedy C 3 provided ;
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