CHAPTER V. 195 sense, but a powerful utterance too, has enabled them to bush out upon the attentive auditory, with a mighty stream of devout and unaffected eloquence. When a man so qualified, endued with learning too, and above all, 'adorned with a good life, breaks out into a warm and well delivered prayer before his ser- mon, it has the appearance of a divine rapture ; he raises and leads the hearts ofhis assembly in another manner than the most composed or best-studied form of set words can ever do : And the pray we's, who serve up all their sermons with the samegar- nishing, would look like so many statues, or men of straw in the pulpit, compared with those that speak with such a powerful zeal, that men are tempted at the moment to believe heaven itself has dictated their, words to them." Y. A fifth persuasive to seek the gift of prayer, shall be drawn from the easiness of attaining it, with the common assis- tance of the holy Spirit. Easy I call it, in comparison of the long toil and difficulty that men go through, in order to acquire a common knowledge in arts, sciences or trades in this world i though it is not to be expected without somepains and diligence. Some young persons may be so foolish and unhappy, as to make two òr threebold attempts to pray in company, before they have well learned to pray in secret ; and finding themselves much at a loss and bewildered in their thoughts, or confounded for want of presence of mind, they have abandoned all hopes, and con- tented themselves with saying, it is impossible : Andas they have tempted God, by rashly venturing upon such an act of worship without any due care and preparation, so they have afterward thrown the blame of their own sloth upon God himself, and cried, it is a mere gift of heaven, but God hath not bestowed it upon me. This is as if a youth whohad just begun to read logic, should attempt immediately to dispute in a public school, and finding himself baffled and confounded, should cast away his book, renounce his studies, and say, I shall never, learn it, it is impossible. Whereas when we seek any attainment, we must begin regularly, and go on gradually toward perfection with pa- tience and labour : Let but the rules recommended in the second chapter of this treatise, for acquiring the gift of prayer, be duly followed, and I doubt not but a christian of ordinary capacity may in time gain so much of this skill, as to answer the demands of his duty and his station. Rather than T would be utterly destitute of this gift of prayer, I would make such an experiment as this. Once a month I would draw up a new prayer for myself in writing, for morning and evening, and for the Lord's-day, according to all parts et' this duty described in thefirst chapter of this book, or out of the scriptures that Mr. Henry hath collected in his method of prayer, which hook I would recommend to all christians. I N 2
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