THE CHRISTIANS Daily Sacrifice Duly Offer'd OR A Practical Discourse Teaching the Right Performance of Prayer By LANCELOT ADDISON D. D. Dean of Lichfield S. James IV. 3. Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss LONDON Printed for Robert Clavel at the Peacock at the West end of S. Pauls 1698. To the Honourable Sir BENJAMIN BATHURST SIR IN setting so Eminent a Name before so mean a Work shews that I have as little skill in Dedication as they have in Architecture who erect a Stately Entrance to a House of no Competent Reception To which Indecorum I was carried by a Zeal I have ever had to own to the World the Honour and Advantage that for many many Years I have receiv'd from Your steady Friendship Which was begun in a Foreign Nation where You added no small Credit and Reputation to Your Own I therefore Address You SIR as a Friend the Noblest Title upon Earth and come not meerly to crave Your Patronage but to pay You a Debt A Debt of Gratitude which as it will alway be Due so it shall alway be Paid But I know Time and Business is precious to You and therefore I will not farther trespass upon either than to beg Your Pious Acceptance of this Small Treatise and that You would look upon it as a Pledge of my Grateful Sense of Your Favours and of the great Zeal I have for Your Eternal Welfare And now SIR being no Friend to the Common matter of Letters Dedicatory pardon me that instead of enlarging upon Your Merits I apply my self to Prayer the Subject of the ensuing Discourse That You and Your Lady and Children may long long Enjoy Health and Prosperity and that the God of Blessings may Bless You with all Divine Graces on Earth and in Heaven Crown You with Glory Lichfield July 8. 1698. Your most Obliged and Humble Servant L. Addison INTRODUCTION TWO very different Opinions and both sufficiently erroneous concerning the Holy Exercise of Prayer got very early footing among the Judaizing Christians to whom St. James the pious Bishop of Jerusalem wrote his circular Epistle Some there were among them in whose esteem Prayer was sunk so low that they thought it either wholly unnecessary or at most but a thing of Choice and not Duty and of that Indifference that they might use or let it alone as they pleas'd without any Offence to God or hindrance to themselves And of this Opinion were those who coveted and had not who kill'd and desired to have and could not obtain Who Fought and Warr'd yet they had not because they asked not S. James 4.2 All their Coveting Envying Contending and Fighting brought them in no advantage because they neglected Prayer the only means of rendring their honest Endeavours Prosperous and Successful And as these were apt to neglect and set too small an Esteem upon Prayer so there were others who had a notion of Prayer as much bending to the other Extreme For they laid so much stress upon it and thought it so efficacious as to expect that every thing must of course be granted them if they sought for it in Prayer The former made Prayer in a manner useless as to the obtaining of any thing the latter thought it able to obtain all things Being of opinion that the meer Exercise thereof had such a power with God as to prevail with him even for such things as they design'd to consume upon their Lusts and to support their Envy Malice Covetousness and Ambition How far the Present Age guilty of all sorts of vile Opinions and Practices is gone in this distemper I leave every one to make his own observations my purpose being to return at least an Honest if not a Satisfactory answer to the Request made to me namely To give a familiar account of the Holy Duty of Prayer So that without further Preface I shall begin with the true Notion thereof as that which will more easily lead to the knowledge of its Nature and Importance CHAP. I. Of the true Notion of Prayer NOT to spend time about the Grammatical meaning of the Words by which Prayer in all Languages is signified I shall briefly set down what Prayer is and what it does imply Now Prayer according to S. Austin in Psal 85. is A speaking to God When you read the Scripture saith the Father God speaks to you but when you Pray you speak to him From which words Drexelius took occasion to define Prayer The Conversation and Discourse of the soul with God Which is agreeable to the Notion of this Duty in Job 15.4 for as Drusius observes the Hebrew Word there used for Prayer signifies to have a Familiar Converse with the Almighty And the Greek Fathers speak of it in the same sense when they call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a familiar talking with or unto God For in it you unbosom your self and open your heart and mind unto him as a man would do unto his Friend in whom he most confides Some of the Antients speaking Rhetorically of Prayer call it a Chain of gold hanging down from heaven to draw men up thither and to bring them into the more immediate presence of God and to an intimate access to the Fountain of all Goodness And it is suppos'd to make such a Change in us as if it plac'd us on Mount Tabor to enjoy a kind of Transfiguration of the Soul which by the means of Prayer as in a Glass beholds the glory of the Lord and is changed into the same Image from glory to glory The eye of the Soul by the help of Prayer as truly as the eye of the Body feeds it self with the beauty of the fields does refresh and recreate it self with the Excellencies of God and the Perfections of the Holy Jesus From whom it receives whatever it can desire and through whom it avoids whatever it has cause to fear In Prayer saith Albertus Magnus the soul is carried to the source and spring of all help and comfort bounty and goodness It brings a man saith he to know God and knowing to love him and loving to seek him and in seeking to take pains and in taking pains to find him But these and the like sayings of the Antients concerning Prayer serve rather to express the Worth and the Effects of it than to declare its Nature any farther than that from such like expressions we may reasonably infer that Prayer implies a great deal more than telling over a few Beads as is the way of some or the bare reciting so many words or sentences form'd and compos'd into that which we call a Prayer which is to be fear'd is the case of many A man may say a thousand of these and that too with great outward seriousness and composure and yet be far from that which is truly and properly to be called Praying For nothing deservedly bears that name wherein there is not an elevation of the soul and a lifting up of the heart to God
Vouchsafement whereof a Mortal can be capable When Gods Wrath was so incens'd against Israel that he resolved to consume them he could not do it whilst Moses Pray'd for them and therefore he bad him give over his Praying and to let him alone that he might execute the Displeasure he had against that stiffnecked People which by Moses's intercession was restrain'd And though Moses grants that there were great Reasons and Causes for God to destroy them yet he shews also that there were greater for God to spare them By their Sins they deserv'd Destruction but yet God's Glory was concern'd in their Preservation lest otherwise the Egyptians should say For mischief did he bring them out to slay them in the Mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth Exod. 32.12.14 And Moses's intercession for Israel was so prevailing that God repented of the Evil which he thought to do unto his People Not that there could be in God a proper Repentance as it signifies a sorrow for a Fault committed and an alteration of his Mind toward the same subject but by this word repenting taken from Men is signified an alienation of God's will and liking towards a thing which of Good is become Evil. But that which is chiefly here to be remark'd is the force Prayer has with the Alwise Creator in that by it Moses moved God to avert his Judgements and to appease the Anger he had justly conceiv'd against his People It was Prayer that hinder'd Israel's Ruin and it is still the best Instrument to fetch down the greatest Blessings for it pierces the clouds saith Ben-Sirach and will not turn away till the highest regard it Ecclus. 35.17 You would think your self an happy Man if you could get one certain means of helping you to whatever you wanted tho' it cost you never so much pains and labour to get it Prayer is this certain means which never fails of bringing you if not all that you think you want yet all that you really want or all that God sees fit for you And considering in what continual want you are of receiving something or other from that bountiful hand which only is able to supply all Wants it were an unaccountable carriage to neglect that which alone can procure it Nor is there any such uneasiness in the exercise of Prayer as may dishearten you from its performance For if there be any uneasiness therein it arises not from the nature of the Duty but the untowardness of your own Heart If you would refine and purge that from all Earthly and Carnal Thoughts and endeavour to put it into an Heavenly Spiritual frame and accustom it to Prayer all uneasiness therein would wear off and for Pain you would find a singular Delight and Pleasure For not only your best Faculties are employ'd about the noblest of their proper Objects in Prayer as was said but it also brings you near to him who is the Source and Spring of all Felicity which must needs yield a great Delight to Hearts which are not distemper'd and like a sick Palate cannot relish the most pleasant Food But Prayer being a Spiritual Duty is not to be tasted by a Mind that is Carnal therefore if your Affections be set either on the Delights of the Flesh or the Dross of the World no wonder if the divine Pleasures of Devotion are insipid and that like Israel you prefer Flesh-pots before Milk and Honey and leave the Quails and Manna for Onions and Garlick You will not I hope account these things unworthy of your Thoughts nor wilfully make your self comfortless by suffering either Employments or Pleasures to thrust them out of your Mind But rather make use of them to season your Delights and sweeten your Troubles and interpose themselves betwixt you and the World that so your Life may be happy and your Death welcome I know you have better Monitors and carry the best about you in your bosom And if what I write be needless yet it argues my Affection and discharges the Duty of Friendship My Prayers are better than my Counsels and both are hearty and unfained for your good God prosper your perusal and make you happy in the practice of what you now receive O Lord we beseech thee mercifully to hear us and grant that we to whom thou hast given an hearty desire to Pray may by thy Mighty Aid be Defended and Comforted in all Dangers and Adversities through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen CHAP. VI. Of Preparation to Prayer HAving giving you an account of the Nature of Prayer I come next to shew what is requir'd to render your Prayers acceptable and so prevent the praying amiss And the first thing requifite to this end is the Preparing and Fitting of your self for so excellent a Performance That there is such Preparation expected at your hands you may learn both from Reason and Scripture from whence all that is Solid and truly Argumentative is to be had for the proof of any Position And First Reason or the Light which is Natural and Common to all Men clearly shews you That matters of moment and importance ought not to be undertaken till they be throughly weigh'd and it be consider'd how they may be best manag'd and effected He that intends to build a house or to make war ought first to sit down and consider whether he has sufficient to carry on the work before he begins it lest having begun and wanting abilities to finish he be forc'd to give it over with shame and reproach Luke 14.28 29 30 31 c Few things succeed well which are not first well considered Every thing you undertake requires a Preparation sutable to the Undertaking And in the business of Prayer you may fetch Arguments enough from within your self for an humble Preparation to discharge it For when you seriously reflect upon your own Vileness the dreadful Majesty of Heaven to which you are to Pray and the fearful effects of not Praying aright you must be far gone in stupidity and senselesness if you apprehend not the necessity of preparing your self for this Duty No man will solicit a favour at the hands of one of like Passion with himself without using the due forms of Application Would you not esteem it a piece of egregious rudeness to address an Earthly Potentate in a Style and Mode which is contrary to the Custom and not done with that Grace as is usual on such occasions Common Sense directs you to approach those who are your Superiours either in Condition or Power or both in such a sort as becomes their Station and yours Reason is a Law against Indecency as well as against grosser Immoralities So that you need no clearer Light then that within to shew you with what careful preparedness you are to speak unto God by Prayer and hold an holy Converse with him in that best of Religious Duties Will any man of either Modesty or Discretion venture to utter himself extempore
as to the Original of our being with a fervent desire to be made like unto him So that you cannot be truly said to pray unless the Soul so far gets loose from the entanglements of the world and the body as not only to look up to the place from whence it came but to make some sort of approaches towards it and to him who dwelleth there and who is the Author of its being and the proper Object of its love There must be an earnest endeavour to be united to God to become one with him to partake of his Divine nature or at least to bear as much of his image and likeness with respect to holiness and purity as we can In the Act of Praying if we do it as we ought we make an oblation of our souls and bodies to the Eternal Being and declare our dependence upon his infinite Goodness and an entire subjection to his Infinite Power We so place our selves to advantage before the throne of his Divine Majesty as to have the dimness of our Understandings enlighten'd by the brightness of heavenly light and our minds cold and dead as they are made warm and enliven'd by the beams of the Everlasting Sun Our actions in the mean time are hereby to be so influenc'd as for the future to be conform'd to the excellent model and pattern set us by Christ himself so as to become fit objects of Divine Love and Compassion It is to him to the Holy Jesus and to the treading in his foot-steps we are so closely to apply our selves as that it may beget in us a strong desire to be joyn'd unto him and to be one with him not enduring the thoughts of ever being separated from him This is what either Prayer should produce in every pious soul or what we ought to wish it might and which it will when it is in its due perfection and when we have been sufficiently exercis'd in its practice It 's true such flights and raptures such fervours and transports as some may be suppos'd to have in their Devotion such a near intercourse with God as prayer in its perfection implies ought not to be look'd upon as the only sign of praying as we ought or praying to any purpose The want of this indeed is to be imputed to the weight of those Corruptions wherewith the soul is clogg'd and press'd down and kept from being elevated to the contemplation of the transcendent beauty and adorable excellencies of the Divine Nature But then a great deal of this so long as we continue cloth'd with Flesh is what we cannot help And seeing wandring of thoughts coolness of affection want of attention and sometimes no small defects in outward behaviour arguing too much inward sloth and negligence may in a great measure be owing to Infirmity or Inadvertency God will no doubt accept of our sincere endeavour and desire that the soul should keep upon the wing and do its part in all respects whilst we are upon our knees our hands lift up to heaven and our mouths uttering our Petitions in the most decent Expressions we can think of and with profound humility and resignation to the will of God to grant what he thinks fit shewing all the dependence upon his goodness and favour that we are able to express If there be thus much observ'd by us toward praying as we ought we need not despair of being heard for want of more that is for want of praying like a Saint or feeling in our selves the Holy Ardours which are peculiar to some men But still a sincere desire and endeavour to come up to the height and perfection of this Heavenly exercise is no more than what is of the very essence of Prayer and without which we cannot promise to our selves any great benefit from our performance of it And thus much being said in general of the nature of Prayer whereof more may be met with in the sequel of this Discourse it may not be amiss to enforce the Duty by acquainting you with the necessity of Prayer and to shew that it is what God has at all times expected and which has accordingly been paid him in all Ages of the World and the consequence has shown God's approbation thereof CHAP. II. Of the Necessity of Prayer in General IN matters of Religion things become necessary to be done either as they are enjoyn'd by God in the way of Service due to him or as a means of bringing some considerable advantage to his Creatures Now Prayer is necessary in both respects And first as a Duty in the way of Service to be paid to God which needs no other proof but this That it is an eminent part of his Worship Now Worship is that by which in an especial manner we acknowledge the God-head and therefore is to be look'd upon as that which is indispensibly requir'd at our hands In the Sacred History of the Antediluvian World we read That men began to call upon the Name of the Lord Gen. 4.26 which words tho' they will bear another interpretation do according to the most natural construction of them demonstrate That Prayer is an Act of homage which from the beginning was paid unto the Almighty 'T is true we find no positive Law for doing this there was not then as there is now any command enjoyning or requiring men to Pray Nor indeed was there need of any For the Common light of Nature sufficiently directed all men to this performance And as we find no Nation was ever so barbarous as to deny the existence of a God so none was ever heard of who did not own themselves obliged to Pray to that which they acknowledg'd for their God In the first age of the World Religion was mightily suppress'd by wicked men till the time of Enosh but then God was pleas'd to move the hearts of the good and pious to restore Religion and to call upon his Name And afterwards when the Heathen World fell into wild and extravagant opinions about the God-head ascribing it to such things as were wholly destitute of the excellencies which were suppos'd to go along with it betraying therein a great infatuation and stupidity yet they still invok'd whatsoever they call'd their Deity And tho' nothing could be more senseless and absurd than to fancy that to be a God which they could make and destroy at their pleasure tho' it was a deep degree of infatuation to pray to a Snake or Crocodile for protection which were ready every hour to devour them and tho' it was a most sottish unmanly conceit to beg health of a Fever and to seek for recovery at the Altar of the Plague which things sound so odd that one would not imagine such Deities could ever have been thought of and tho' I say nothing could be more unreasonable and unmanly than to worship such inferiour Beings nor more contradictory to the Nature of God yet amidst these absurdities apparent in the Idolatry of the Gentiles
none can be thought worthy to live or to enjoy the breath of life who does not chearfully exercise himself in praying to and praising the Almighty Which shews the Universality as well as Necessity of Prayer and that it is the Duty not only of this or that sort of men but of all For if any should vainly pretend to be excus'd from paying this homage to God it must be either because they are too holy or too great either they are so good as not to need to pray or so great that it is below them But no man by reason of his holiness can be free from this duty for those who have been most eminent for this divine quality have been also most eminent for Devotion And of this you have an unquestionable instance in our Saviour who was superlatively eminent for all heavenly perfections and immaculate both by nature and conversation For he was both born and liv'd without sin And yet it is recorded of this most heavenly divine person That in the days of his flesh whilst he was yet in the world in the course of his obedience and humiliation and not arriv'd to the glorious and spiritual state of the celestial life Heb. 5.7 He did offer up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he fear'd or as it is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for his piety Here the Eternal Son becoming Man made his submissive Petition to his Eternal Father either to free him from that direful passage to death or to strengthen and bear him up in the horrible terrors conflicts and agonies that therein he met with and that being dead he would restore him to life and not to let him continue in the grave but to raise him thence and send back his spirit into his body And God heard and granted his desire For the third day after his burial Christ rose from the dead and God gave him back that spirit which on the Cross he so affectionately recommended into his hands Luke 23.46 And as by this plain example of Christ's praying you may clearly see that no mans sanctity can excuse him from doing doing the like so in the next place no man is freed from praying upon the score of his grandeur or secular Greatness This was evident in David who at the same time he wore the Royal Diadem did not neglect the hallowed Censor but constantly offer'd unto God the Incense of Prayer And for his diligence and assiduity in this sacred office he gain'd as some think the glorious character of being a Man after God's own heart 1 Sam. 13.14 And indeed all good men have ever thought it their duty and made it their practice to worship God by Prayer And even bad men too have been of the same judgment For they likewise have own'd it to be their obligation thus to serve God And whenever they perform'd Prayer as a Duty to him without doubt they were accepted of him Saul pray'd for a decision by lots and God granted his request but it had like to have cost him the life of his Son and the revolt of his Subjects 1 Sam. 14.41 42. Which shows That God do's sometimes hear the prayers of the wicked but then it is in justice and not in mercy as will appear in due place And now seeing Prayer is a special and principal part of God's worship you must own it to be indispensibly requir'd of you so long as you think it your duty to worship God He commands and you must discharge it your obedience herein is above all things most acceptable to God and will be best rewarded by him CHAP. III. The necessity of Prayer as it is made to be the means of obtaining what we want and of conveying a blessing on what we enjoy WAnt is commonly said to be the Mother of Prayer so that if you want nothing you need use prayer no otherwise than as it is an expression of your Duty and a discharge of the worship you owe to God But if you stand in need of any thing you can never solidly hope to receive it but by the mediation of Prayer For God has appointed it as the proper means to obtain his blessings And all those Texts which require Prayer as a Duty and homage belonging to God do at the same time propound it as a means to gain his favour in the relief of your wants and blessing what you have But here I expect to find you objecting That tho' Prayer be undeniably a part of religious Worship which none ought to neglect yet you think it needless to the obtaining a supply of your necessities because God needs not your prayers to inform him of your wants nor to move him to relieve them 'T is true God needs not your prayers to inform him of your wants For according to our Saviour Matth. 6.8 He knows what things you have need of before you ask him which words shew that Prayer is not needful in order to inform God who by reason of his infinite knowledge can be ignorant of nothing but they respect those who at our Saviour's being upon Earth were wont to lengthen out their Prayers with vain repetitions and idle Tautologies thinking they should have their petitions the sooner granted for the sake of the multitude of words used therein whereas Our Lord assures them that our heavenly Father was not to be wrought upon by their long prayers and their much speaking and that such were altogether useless in order to inform him of mens minds and wants as fully knowing them without being told Christ was so far from abolishing that he establishes the use of prayer when he taught his Disciples how they might pray aright To which end he gave them a most absolute comprehensive Form of Prayer which he enjoyn'd them both to use and imitate Which form bears his Name and from him is call'd the Lord's-Prayer Whereof I shall have occasion to mind you in another place As to the other branch of your Objection which makes Prayers unnecessary to move God to relieve your wants because of his being ready to do it without them there needs no more to be said to it but only to desire you to consider That tho' God is naturally inclin'd to be gracious and ready to give more than either you desire or deserve yet he has been pleas'd to declare That he will not give without asking And it sufficiently demonstrates his goodness and bounty to give to them that ask and to open to them that knock And tho' goodness is essential to God and that it is his nature and property to open his hand and fill his creatures yet still he expects you should address your requests to him if not to move his goodness to relieve your wants yet to shew you are sensible of them and that you believe he alone is able to give supply Besides in every prayer
now recommend as an excellent help against the wandring of your thoughts in Prayer Which is a fault whereof you can not be guilty when you pray with spiritual Affection with ardent Desire with a fervent Mind and with a Heart inflam'd with that Zeal which the Holy Ghost kindles in it God regards not the Prayers which you offer when you do not stir up your Affections and chafe your desires and move your mind into a warmth The Great Ruler of the world will not listen to cold luke-warm Devotions Such Prayers can never reach Heaven which want Zeal and Love the only Wings that should carry them thither Be careful then when you approach God to raise up your Soul to the highest pitch of Zeal and Earnestness that you are able And because that of your self you are not able to do this beseech the Divine Omnipotence to inflame your Heart with the heavenly fire of Devotion and when it is obtain'd beware of quenching it with wilful sin or letting it go out again for want of fuel or stirring up and imploying it And there want no Motives to beget in you this Fervency in Prayer when you consider God's wonderful kindness and carry the thoughts thereof through your whole Devotion For to think that he is not only good by Nature but also in communicating his Benefits That he is ready upon your Repentance to blot out your transgressions and to be merciful to your Sins Such Thoughts as these are good inward motives to raise your heart into Zeal When you lift up your voice and call upon the Lord either in his house or your own And First when you come to the Lord's house to joyn in publick Prayers you have a good opportunity to shew your Earnestness and Zeal God has Promis'd a special blessing to the joynt Requests which the Faithful make in his House and that He will be in the midst of them and bestow his Mercies and set marks of Favour on them when they meet together in the unity of the spirit and in the bond of peace And your absence from the Publick Prayers cannot be excus'd without an important occasion for if it be wilful and deliberate you cut your self off from the Church and from the partaking of those Prayers wherein all are in common concern'd And by this means you inflict a punishment upon your self even a sort of Excommunication which is never inflicted by the Church but in case of the most heinous offences The same Zeal and Attention are also requisite in the Prayers made in your Family which are a sort of Common-Prayers because all the Members of the Houshold joyn therein And it belongs to the Master of the Family carefully to provide for this office and to see nothing be wanting for the welfare of their Souls who are under his Government For the Family is Heathenish where God is not worshipt and where the Master does not resolve with Joshua That he and his house will serve the Lord. Josh 24.15 And as to the Prayers you make apart when you are solus cum solo and have no witness of what you do but only God and your Conscience yet because that even here you are subject to Wandring and Distraction as well as you are in company you have need of the same Zeal and Attention to correct it In your private Devotions you may be more particular according to your personal Necessities and you may use therein a greater freedom both in words and gestures than you can in publick But still the Devotion of the Heart is therein requir'd as being that which God principally regards And as it is your duty to perform all these sorts of Prayers so it is likewise your duty to be Zealous and Attentive at them all Prayer in your Family and Closet will not excuse your Prayer at Church all are requir'd all are necessary and one must not be taken in exchange for the other And whosoever is diligent in publick Prayer and yet negligent in private it is to be fear'd he rather seeks to approve himself to men than to God Which is contrary to the mind of our Saviour who commands you to Pray to God in secret and from him alone to expect your Reward and not from the vain praises of Men. You have been often told That Prayer is that part of divine worship which the Soul is to pay unto the Lord and you have also been told with what Circumspection it ought to be perform'd Give me leave to conclude this particular with observing that tho' Prayer be a spiritual duty and the proper business of the Soul yet the Body has its share and part therein For both being God's workmanship and purchase both ought to give him homage and observance Now the observance the Body ought to pay unto God in Prayer consists in such lowly decent and reverent gestures as may testify the humility and reverence of the Soul Bowing prostration and the like external acts of Religious Worship are a particular right belonging to God before whom you are to fall down and kneel for he is your maker your shepherd your protector The Royal Author of the 95. Psalm does affectionately call upon every one joyntly to adore worship and pray unto God and to make the members of the Body the partners and witnesses of the real devotion of the Heart and to joyn inward and outward reverence together That the submissive and lowly gestures of the Body may serve to express and signifie the sincere humility of the Soul For tho' the humblest external bodily gestures are the least considerable thing in Prayer as having little or no proportion to the necessary dispositions of the Soul yet they are of such moment that if you pray without them it looks as if you did not consider or know what a weighty business you are about nor had a sense of God's Dignity or of your own Vileness But in these bodily Gestures you are carefully to avoid whatsoever is vain fantastical and superstitious and to keep within the bounds of decency and prudence And your gestures being thus conducted they will help to heighten inward Devotion in your self and be an happy means to raise the Devotion of others But I leave the farther prosecution of this particular to consider of the Frequency you ought to use in Prayer CHAP. XII Of Frequency in Prayer THough Prayer be a Duty which you are never to neglect yet there is not any Text in Scripture that determines how often you are to use it The Inspired Word positively commands you to call upon God but it has left it to your Conscience how frequently you are to do it The Scripture that is most peremptory in this particular is 1 Thes 5.17 where S. Paul exhorts to Pray without ceasing By which Text you are certainly obliged to these two things viz. 1. Not to grow restive in Prayer but therein to be constant and persevering it being an homage you are to pay