A discourse concerning prayer : and the frequenting daily public prayers . ss;so it is impossible that they who enjoy familia-rity with God, should continue mortal. For ifthey who are taken into the society of a king,and advanced to honour by him, cannot bepoor; how much more impossible is it thatthey who by Prayer have familiarity with God,should have mortal souls ? Ungodliness andan irregular life is the death of the soul; there-fore the worship of God, and a conversationsuitable to it, is its life. Now Prayer leads usto a holy life, becoming the worship of God:nay, it marvellously stores ou
A discourse concerning prayer : and the frequenting daily public prayers . ss;so it is impossible that they who enjoy familia-rity with God, should continue mortal. For ifthey who are taken into the society of a king,and advanced to honour by him, cannot bepoor; how much more impossible is it thatthey who by Prayer have familiarity with God,should have mortal souls ? Ungodliness andan irregular life is the death of the soul; there-fore the worship of God, and a conversationsuitable to it, is its life. Now Prayer leads usto a holy life, becoming the worship of God:nay, it marvellously stores our souls with themost precious treasures. Whether a man bea lover of virginity, or study purity in a mar-ried estate, whether he would suppress anger,or purge himself from envy, or do any othergood thing; Prayer is his conductor, andsmoothing the way for him, makes the course o -o o o 96 PLEASURE OF PERFORMING THIS DUTY. of virtue ready and easy. For it cannot be thatthey who ask of God Temperance, Righteous-ness, Meekness and Goodness, should not ob-tain their 0 ^— _„>.^ ™_^ o 9— o THE BENEFITS OF PRAYER. 97 CHAPTER Vm. THE GREAT BENEFITS WE RECEIVE BY SERIOUSPRAYER TO GOD. XT7HAT force there is in Prayer, both to* make us and preserve us such as weought to desire to be, may be understood ingreat part, by what hath been already dis-coursed on the two foregoing heads. WhereinI have represented, how it raises, spiritualizes,widens, and greatens our minds ; filling us withhigh thoughts ; possessing us with heavenlyaffections; satisfying us in the love of God;putting us into the Divine protection; securingus against all events ; and drawing down uponus the Divine blessing. In short, it is a vastimprovement of our minds, by lifting them upabove themselves, as well as above this world:and that not only for the present, but tying usfast to God by a constant sense of Plim, which 1 ?? O o ) o 98 THE BENEFITS WE RECEIVE it is apt to leave upon our minds, it puts us
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Keywords: ., bookauthorpat, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840, booksubjectprayer
