108 A GUIDE TO PEATEE. In the first propagation of the gospel it pleased the Spirit of God to bestow various powers and abilities on believers, and these were called Me gifts of the Spirit ; 1 Cor. xii. 4 S, 9. Such were the gills of preaching, of exhortation, of psalmody, that is, of making and singing of psalms, of healing the sick, of speaking several tongues, 4c. Now, though these were given tomen at once in an extraordinary way then, and the habits wrought in them by immediate divine power made them capable of exerting the several acts proper thereto on just occasions yet these 'powers or abilities of speaking "several tongues, of psalmody, of preaching and healing, are now to be obtained by human diligence, with due dependence on the concurring blessing of God. And the same must be said concerning the gift or fa- culty of prayer. As the art of medicine or healing is founded on the know- ledge of natural principles, and made up of several rules drawn from the natureof things, from reason and observation ; so the art of preaching is learned and attained by the knowledge of di- vine principles, and the useof rules and directions for explaining and applying divine truths ; and so the holy skill of prayer is built on a just knowledge of God and ourselves, and may be taught in as rational a method by proper directions and rules. But because in a special manner we expect the aids of the Holy Spirit in things so serious and sacred, therefore the faculties of preaching and praying are called the gifts of the Spirit even to this clay ; whereas that word is not now -a-days applied to the art of medicine, or skill in the languages. Seer. II. Of Forms of Prayer, offree or conceived Prayer, anal praying Extempore. The gift of prayer is one òf the noblest and most useful in the christian life, and therefore to be sought with earnest desire and diligence; and in order to attain it, we must avoid these two extremes : I. A confining ourselves entirely to precomposed forms of prayer. II. An entire dependence on sudden motions and suggestions of thought. I. The first extreme to be avoided is, a confining ourselves to set precotnposed forms of prayer. I grant it lawful and con- venient for weaker christians to use a form in prayer, rather than not perform that duty at all. Christ himself seems to have in- dulged it to his disciples in their infant state of christianity; Luke xi. 1, 2, &c. I grant also that sometimes the most im- proved saints may find their own wants and desires, and the frames of their own hearts so happily expressed in the words of other men, that they cannot findbetter ; and may therefore in a very pious manner use the same, especially when they labour under a present deadness of spirit, and great indisposition for
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