pedalo faitlyi opening a door to that infinite mafs or trea- lure of Grace which is laid up for thofe that firive and wreftle with him for fupplies out of it. This is a CatholickDuty, good in all pla- ces. The Jews prayed in or towards the Temple, but now the whole World is confecrated for it; every where holy hands are to be lifted up ; fit for all times, praying always, faith the Apoftle, Ephef 6. IS. Not that we are to do nothing ' elfe, as the Euchi,.e or Meffaliani of old drea- med ; but that there is no time wherein the Mercy-feat is {hut, or Chrift not interceding above, or the holy Spirit not ready in force meafure to allift Believers : Neither is there any time in which we fhould not carry about with us a virtual confef ion in our fenfe of Sin, or a virtual Prayer in our fenfe of Wants,or a virtual Praife in our fenfe of Mercies. Conti- nuum defiderium eft continua oratio, as St. Aultin hath it. Vita hominis, faith Luther, nihil aliud eft,nifi oratio, gemitus, defiderium, faf iriurn ad mifericordiam Dei ; Mans life fhould be a per- petual breathing after God. And withal it is in- cumbent on all Men; the firft Adam in Inno- cency probably addre{%d himfelf to God in Prayer ; and Jefus Chrift the fecond Adam was much in it ; the Ethnicks by the light of Nature ufed it. It was an old Gentile -Law. Ad divos adeunto, go to the gods. Socrates prayed that he might be Intus pulcher, inwardly fair with virtue. Plato faith, Every one who is corn - pos mentis, will in the beginning of any work in- . voke the gods.How much more muff Chriftians pray, 383
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