translated it into an anniversary solemnity, and upon St. Mark's day did solemnly intercede with God to divert or prevent his judgments falling upon the people, “majoribus litaniis," so they are called; with the more solemn supplications they did pray unto God in behalf of their people. And this hath in it the same consideration, that is in every great necessity; for it is a great thing for a man to be so gracious with God as to be able to prevail for himself and his friend, for himself and his relatives; and therefore in these cases, as in all great needs, it is the way of prudence and security, that we use all those greater offices, which God hath appointed as instruments of importunity, and arguments of hope, and acts of prevailing, and means of great effect and advocation such as are, separating days for solemn prayer, all the degrees of violence and earnest address, fasting and prayer, alms and prayer, acts of repentance and prayer, praying together in public with united hearts, and, above all, praying in the susception and communication of the holy sacrament; the effects and admirable issues of which we know not, and perceive not; we lose because we desire not, and choose to lose many great blessings rather than purchase them with the frequent commemoration of that sacrifice, which was offered up for all the needs of mankind, and for obtaining all favours and graces to the catholic church. Εὐχῆς δικαίας οὐκ ἀνήκοος θεός, " God never refuses to hear a holy prayer;" and our prayers can never be so holy, as when they are offered up in the union of Christ's sacrifice for Christ, by that sacrifice, reconciled God and the world; and because our needs continue, therefore we are commanded to continue the memory, and to represent to God that which was done to satisfy all our needs: then we receive Christ; we are, after a secret and mysterious, but most real and admirable manner, made all one with Christ; and if God giving us his Son could not but with him give us all things else,' how shall he refuse our persons, when we are united to his person, when our souls are joined to his soul, our body nourished by his body, and our souls sanctified by his blood, and clothed with his robes, and marked with his character, and sealed with his Spirit, and renewed with holy vows, and consigned to all his glories, and adopted to his inheritance when we represent his death, and pray in virtue

of his passion, and imitate his intercession, and do that which God commands, and offer him in our manner that which he essentially loves; can it be that either any thing should be more prevalent, or that God can possibly deny such addresses and such importunities? Try it often, and let all things else be answerable, and you cannot have greater reason for your confidence. Do not all the Christians in the world, that understand religion, desire to have the holy sacrament when they die; when they are to make their great appearance before God, and to receive their great consignation to their eternal sentence, good or bad? And if then be their greatest needs, that is their greatest advantage, and instrument of acceptation. Therefore if you have a great need to be served, or a great charity to serve, and a great pity to minister, and a dear friend in a sorrow, take Christ along in thy prayers: in all thy ways thou canst, take him; take him in affection, and take him in a solemnity; take him by obedience, and receive him in the sacrament; and if thou then offerest up thy prayers, and makest thy needs known; if thou nor thy friend be not relieved; if thy party be not prevalent, and the war be not appeased, or the plague be not cured, or the enemy taken off, there is something else in it but thy prayer is good and pleasing to God, and dressed with circumstances of advantage, and thy person is apt to be an intercessor, and thou hast done all that thou canst; the event must be left to God; and the secret reasons of the denial, either thou shalt find in time, or thou mayest trust with God, who certainly does it with the greatest wisdom and the greatest charity. I have in this thing only one caution to insert; viz.

That in our importunity and extraordinary offices for others, we must not make our accounts by multitude of words, and long prayers, but by the measures of the spirit, by the holiness of the soul, and the justness of the desire, and the usefulness of the request, and its order to God's glory, and its place in the order of providence, and the sincerity of our heart, and the charity of our wishes, and the perseverance of our advocation. There are some (as Tertullian observes), "Qui loquacitatem facundiam existimant, et impudentiam constantiam deputant;" "they are praters and they are impudent, and they call that constancy and impor

tunity:" concerning which, the advice is easy: many words or few are extrinsical to the nature, and not at all considered in the effects of prayer; but much desire, and much holiness, are essential to its constitution; but we must be very curious, that our importunity do not degenerate into impudence and rude boldness. Capitolinus said of Antonius the emperor and philosopher, "Sane quamvis esset constans, erat etiam verecundus;" "he was modest even when he was most pertinacious in his desires." So must we; though we must not be ashamed to ask for whatsoever we need, "Rebus semper pudor absit in arctis:" and in this sense it is true, that Stasimus in the comedy said concerning meat, "Verecundari neminem apud mensam decet, Nam ibi de divinis et humanis cernitur:" "men must not be bashful so as to lose their meat; for that is a necessary that cannot be dispensed withal:" so it is in our prayers; whatsoever our necessity calls to us for, we must call to God for; and he is not pleased with that rusticity or fond modesty of being ashamed to ask of God any thing, that is honest and necessary; yet our importunity hath also bounds of modesty, but such as are to be expressed with other significations; and he is rightly modest towards God, who, without confidence in himself, but not without confidence in God's mercy, or without great humility of person, and reverence of address, presents his prayers to God as earnestly as he can; provided always, that in the greatest of our desires, and holy violence, we submit to God's will, and desire him to choose for us. Our modesty to God in prayers hath no other measures but these: 1. Distrust of ourselves: 2. Confidence in God: 3. Humility of person: 4. Reverence of address: and, 5. Submission to God's will. These are all, unless you also will add that of Solomon, "Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter a thing before God; for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth; therefore let thy words be few." These things being observed, let your importunity be as great as it can; it is still the more likely to prevail, by how much it is the more earnest, and signified and represented by the most offices extraordinary.

3. The last great advantage towards a prevailing intercession for others, is, that the person, that prays for his relatives, be a person of an extraordinary dignity, employ

ment, or designation. For God hath appointed some persons and callings of men to pray for others, such are fathers for their children, bishops for their diocesses, kings for their subjects, and the whole order ecclesiastical for all the men and women in the Christian church. And it is well it is so; for, as things are now, and have been too long, how few are there that understand it to be their duty, or part of their necessary employment, that some of their time, and much of their prayers, and an equal portion of their desires, be spent upon the necessities of others. All men do not think it necessary, and fewer practise it frequently, and they but coldly, without interest and deep resentment: it is like the compassion we have in other men's miseries, we are not concerned in it, and it is not our case, and our hearts ache not when another man's children are made fatherless, or his wife a sad widow: and just so are our prayers for their relief: if we thought their evils to be ours,-if we and they, as members of the same body, had sensible and real communications of good and evil,-if we understood what is really meant by being "members one of another," or if we did. not think it a spiritual word of art, instrumental only to a science, but no part of duty, or real relation,-surely we should pray more earnestly one for another than we usually do. How few of us are troubled, when he sees his brother wicked, or dishonourably vicious? Who is sad and melancholy, when his neighbour is almost in hell? when he sees him grow old in iniquity? How many days have we set apart for the public relief and interests of the kingdom? How earnestly have we fasted, if our prince be sick or afflicted? What alms have we given for our brother's conversion? Or if this be great, how importunate and passionate have we been with God by prayer in his behalf, by prayer and secret petition? But, however, though it were well, very well, that all of us would think of this duty a little more; because, besides the excellency of the duty itself, it would have this blessed consequent, that for whose necessities we pray, if we do desire earnestly they should be relieved, we would, whenever we can and in all we can, set our hands to it; and if we pity the orphan-children, and pray for them heartily, we would also, when we could, relieve them charitably: but though it were therefore very well, that things were thus

with all men, yet God, who takes care of us all, makes provision for us in special manner; and the whole order of the clergy are appointed by God to pray for others, to be ministers of Christ's priesthood, to be followers of his advocation, to stand between God and the people, and to present to God all their needs, and all their desires. That this God hath ordained and appointed, and that this rather he will bless and accept, appears by the testimony of God himself, for he only can be witness in this particular, for it depends wholly upon his gracious favour and acceptation. It was the case of Abraham and Abimelech: "Now, therefore, restore the man his wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for thee, and thou shalt lived;" and this caused confidence in Micah: "Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest:" meaning that in his ministry, in the ministry of priests, God hath established the alternate returns of blessing and prayers, the intercourses between God and his people; and through the descending ages of the synagogue it came to be transmitted also to the Christian church, that the ministers of religion are advocates for us under Christ, by "the ministry of reconciliation," by their dispensing the holy sacraments, by "the keys of the kingdom of heaven," by baptism and the Lord's supper, by “binding and loosing," by "the word of God and prayer;" and, therefore, saith St. James, "If any man be sick among you, let him send for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him':" meaning that God hath appointed them especially, and will accept them in ordinary and extraordinary; and this is that which is meant by blessing. A father blesses his child, and Solomon blessed his people, and Melchisedec the priest blessed Abraham, and Moses blessed the sons of Israel, and God appointed the Levitical priests to "bless the congregation ;" and this is more than can be done by the people; for though they can say the same prayer, and the people pray for their kings, and children for their parents, and the flock for the pastor, yet they cannot bless him as he blesseth them; "for the less is blessed of the greater, and not the greater of the less;" and this is "without all contradiction," said St. Pauls: the meaning of the mystery is this, That God hath d Gen. xx. 7. ⚫ Judg. xvii. 13.

f James, v. 14.

6 Heb. vii. 7