816 PREFACE. I. f thought 'it proper to compose distinct prayers for children accord- ing to their different successive ages: This made it necessary for me to distinguish them by different titles, viz. The Infant's Prayer at three or four yearsold ; and from thence to seven or eight, the Young Child's Prayer Front eight years old to ten or twelve, the Child's Prayer From thence to . fourteen or fifteen, the Youth's Prayer may be used : And fromfifteen they may makesome use of the Young Person's Prayer, till by holy diligence, and the assistance of divine grace, they may be enabled to pray without the necessity of such helps as these. Every careful reader will observe, bow much I have endeavoured to suit these prayers, to the understand- ing and to the memory of children, in their younger years of life, and that both in the sense and language of the composures, as well as in the length of them. According as children improve, more or less, in their understanding and capacity, so they may, sooner or later, proceed to the more advancedforms. II. I was willing to put into most of these prayers, as far as possi- ble, the most common and general, the most easy, necessary and prac- tical notions that relate to religion, or the most important principles 'of doctrine and duty both toward God and toward man, that children, ac- cording to their different capacities andyears, might be put in mind of them, whensoever they pray: And wheresome of theseare omitted in the morning prayer, they are generally inserted in the evening, especially in the longer prayers, as the growing age and capacity of children permitted me to en- large. Among these common and important principles, I esteem such attri- butes of God, as hisperfect knowledge or wisdom, his almighty power, his . hatred of sin, his general goodness, andhis mercy to repenting sinners. I add also, such characters of God as- our Creator, our Preserver, our Father, the Author of all our blessings, our righteous Governor, and our final Judge and Rewarder. These ideasof God arewithin the reach and capacity of children. In this rank, I placea sense of our duties to God, viz. fear, love, faith, hope, obedience, &c. andduties to man, viz. honour of superiors,truth, love,. &c. a sense of sin, and the punishment due to it, the distinctionbetween soul and body, the soul's survival of the body, and a state of happiness or misery hereafter, according to our behaviour here, the wrath of God in hell, which is threatened to impenitent sinners, and the promises of dwelling with God in heaven, to those who have fulfilled the various duties of religion and holiness hereon earth. I add petitions for pardon of sin, for the know 'edgeof duty, and ability to perform it, whether it be duty to God or man, to parents, rulers, friends, &c. Petitions for all needful comforts of life, and preserva- tion from all the follies and iniquities, the dangers and evils, of every kind, to which children are exposed, together with thanksgivings for mercies, which they have already received. Among these necessary things -also, I esteem not only the doctrine of the guilt of sin, but also the want of amediator to reconcile us to God, the doctrine of Christ, as the Son qf God coming down toearth, dying tomake atonementfor oursins, rising again, ascending to heaven, and interceding for us there, and forwhose sake mercies hereon earth are bestowedupon us. It isnecessary also to consider him as the Lord of all, who shall come at last to judge the world; and to whom our obedience and worship are due, as well as to God the Father. To these, I may add the doctrine of ourown ignorance and our weakness to learn and practise religion, by the power of our own spirits, and the need that we have of the inward teaching and assistance of the Spirit of God, whose influence we should teach children to seek early. Such subjects and notions as these, I kept generally in my view, and endea- voured towork them at least into the longer composures, and to give some lints of them in the shorter.
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