And as the private religion of some persons has fuffered for want of fuch assistance, so I am well affured, that one reason why there are so many prayerless families in the nation, even where the governors of those families are truly religious, is because they find they are not capable, or have not courage to express themselves in morning and evening prayer, in the midst of their families, in a proper and edifying manner; and yet, through fome mistaken principles in their education, they have been taught to abandon all the assistances they might derive from fuch religious composures. I would not willingly believe that any wife and pious person would abhor, and cenfure all manner of forms of prayer when used in a pious and prudent way. What if the matter of a family took some well written prayers, as directive in the matter and method for the right discharge of this duty, (as Dr. Owen expresses it,) and made use of the expreffions set down in them, where the flate and condition, wants and defires of his family were declared, and then added and altered, or omitted or enlarged, according to present occafions? I am sure this practice would be far better than to let families go on from year to year, without any prayer in them at all. I with all ferious minds would take this matter into further confideration.

But to pass this by at present: let the cafe stand as it will with regard to grown perfons, yet it is certain that most of he children, who have never been taught any little prayers, in their younger years, grow up too far in life void of practical religion, and without a ferious and particular acknowledgment of God our Creator and our Saviour. It has been certainly the cafe of fome children, and perhaps of multitudes, that they would fain have begun more early to address the great God in prayer, if they had known what to say. Whereas those who have been trained up in the ufe of fuch helps as these, have learned betimes the language of prayer; and this would be much more happily effected, if they were not confined to one fet form, but were furnished with a variety of affittances, and if they were taught to use that variety, in a proper manner, for the exercise of their own thoughts in devotion, and for their acquiring a readiness to express the pious working of their own hearts thereby.

I grant there may have been such times and seasons, wherein the Spirit of God has been poured out so plentifully as a spirit of fupplication, and that on children, as well as perfons of riper years, as would render fuch helps as these unneceffary: and would to God that fuch a feason would return again, that our ears might hear these pleasing wonders, and our hearts feel the overflowing delight of such heavenly devotions! but in fuch a degenerate age as this, wherein the blessed Spirit is greatly withdrawn from the church of God, all the assistances we can obtain, are little enough to uphold and promote serious religion: And if any persons have ever any need of such aids as these, the children and youth of this generation have the most need of them; and I am sure, I am not alone in this opinion. It is in this view of things, that I have complied with the repeated importunities of some of my friends, and fent these little composures into the world. The methods and rules, which I have laid down to myself, and according to which I have framed them, were these:

I. I thought it proper to compose distinct prayers for children according to their different fucceffive ages: This made it necessary for me to diftinguish them by different titles, viz. The Infant's Prayer at three or four years old; and from thence to feven or eight, the Young Child's Prayer: From eight years old to ten or twelve, the Child's Prayer: From thence to fourteen or fifteen, the Youths Prayer may be used: And from fifteen they may make some use of the Young Person's Prayer, till by holy diligence, and the affiftance of divine grace, they may be enabled to pray without the necessity of such helps as these. Every careful reader will observe, how much I have endeavoured to fuit these prayers, to the understanding and to the memory of children, in their younger years of life, and that both in the fenfe 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, fooner or later, proceed to the more ad

vanced forms.

II. I was willing to put into most of these prayers, as far as poffible, the most common and general, the most easy, necessary and practical notions that relate to religion, or the most important principles of doctrine and duty both toward God and toward man, that children, according to their different capacities and years, might be

VOL. 17.

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put in mind of them, whenfoever they pray: And where some of these are omitted in the morning-prayer, they are generally inferted in the evening, especially in the longer prayers, as the growing age and capacity of children permitted me to enlarge. Among these common and important principles, I esteem such attributes of God, as his perfect knowledge or wisdom, his almighty power, his hatred of fin, his general goodness, and his mercy to repenting finners. I add also, such characters of God as our Creator, our Preserver, our Father, the Author of all our bleffings, our righteous Governor, and our final Judge and Rewarder. These ideas of God are within the reach and capacity of children.

In this rank, I place a sense of our duties to God, viz. fear, love, faith, hope, obedience, &c. and duties to man, viz. honour of fuperiors, truth, love, &c. a fente of fin, and the punishment due to it, the diftinction between foul and body, the foul's furvival of the body, and a state of happiness or mifery hereafter, according to our behaviour here, the wrath of God in hell, which is threatened to impenitent finners, and the promifes of dwelling with God in heaven, to those who have fulfilled the various duties of religion and holiness here on earth. I add petitions for pardon of fin, for the knowledge of 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 prefervation from all the follies and iniquities, the dangers and evils, of every kind, to which children are expofed, together with thanksgivings for mercies, which they have already received.

Among thefe neceffary things, also, I esteem not only the doctrine of the guilt of fin, but alfo the want of a mediator to reconcile us to God, the doctrine of Chrift, as the Son of God coming down to earth, dying to make atonement for our fins, rifing again, ascending to heaven, and interceding for us there, and for whose sake mercies here on earth are bettowed upon us. It is neceffary also to confider 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 our own 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 affiftance of the Spirit of God, whose influence we should teach children to feek early. Such subjects and notions as these, I kept generally in my view, and endeavoured to work them at least into the longer compofures, and to give some hints of them in the shorter.

III. Yet I must confess, I have been cautious of mingling fuch fublime notions in divinity, as are utterly too hard for children to understand: And for this reason in the prayers for infants and young children, &c. I have omitted some of these things which are mentioned in the other following composures; for I am well fatisfied, that the best way of teaching children, both in matters divine and human, is to lead them into fome tolerable idea and conception of all the things fignified by the words they are taught to use, as foon as those words are taught them; that they may not be accustomed, even in their younger days, to deal in mere sounds, to talk without ideas, and to fpeak words and fyllables without a meaning. I hope no reader will be fo unjuft, as to suppose I would require in children a very distinct knowledge, and much less a perfect or comprehenfive notion, of all those things of religion which go to compofe a prayer: This is not attained by men, or indeed attainable. All that I aim at, is to have children taught to frame some tolerable conception of what is meant by the words they pronounce, that they may not fay any part of their prayers like young parrots, without any meaning at all, or as the Pater-nofters and Ave Marys are used in the church of Rome, where they say their prayers in an unknown tongue. Perhaps fome may think, I have transgressed this rule, in mentioning the mediation of Christ, in the prayers for infants, and the affistance of the holy Spirit, in those which are composed for young children. But I was not willing to let children pass feveral years of life, without some hints of those two molt peculiar glories of our religion: And for this reason, I defire parents and teachers to acquaint children early, with the most easy and general notion of these things, that they may not use these words merely by rote.

IV. I was defirous to frame all the expressions in so general a manner, as might not offend the spirits of good chriftians of different opinions, nor favour of a narrow party-fpirit, and betray children into a party-zeal in their early years. It is this lays

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the foundation of long uncharitableness, and fullies the beauty of the gospel, which is a law of love. When the unnecessary phrafes, of the several fects of chriftians, are mingled and made up with the prayers of children, they receive an early and lasting prejudice, that there is fomething very facred and divine, in all the words they are taught to use: The little creatures are hereby lifted into a party from their infancy, and grow up to contend with fury in their maturer age, for that which they prayed for almost as soon as they could fpeak. I have endeavoured therefore to avoid those expressions, which would be offenfive to pious minds on this account.

By observing this caution also, I have reason to hope that these composures may he made more extensively useful, because they are less offensive, to the various denominations of christians. As for those persons, who will cavil at every sentence, that expresses the sacred doctrine of the trinity, the corruption of our nature, the operations of God's holy Spirit, the atonement of Chrift for fin, or the neceffity of divine grace, I am not folicitous to comport with their schemes, nor confine myself to fuch models as would exclude the peculiar revelations, or the chief bleffings of chriftianity out of chriftian devotions.

V. I have taken care to use various forms of doxology, according to the examples of scripture: Not that I think a doxology is necessary in itself at the end of every prayer, for there are many more scriptural prayers without it than with it: But herein I have complied with present practice, in which it is generally used, and efpecially, fince it closes the prayer, which our Lord taught his disciples, commonly called the Lord's-prayer. When I use any of the doxologies of fcripture in the prayers for children, which are not quite so easy to be understood by them, I have paraphrafed or explained some of the words. This leads me to the next particular:

VI. It cost me much labour to express all the facred fentiments of religion, in the most plain, familiar and easy language: And I hope the plainness of the style will not be an offence, since it is the only way to bring these things within the reach and capacity of young children; and this I have scarce ever yet feen done with sufficient care in any forms, though they were made on purpose for children. For this reafon, I have not only avoided, in the prayers for children, in their younger years, all long hard words that have been introduced into divinity by the inventions of men, but even many of those more difficult words which the scripture itself uses, such as redemption, communion, sanctification, mortification, propitiation, regeneration, &c. as supposing children to have but very confused or mistaken ideas under them. Nor was I willing to use metaphorical expressions, fuch as the Lamb of God, or washing away our fins in his own blood, or fitting at the right-hand of God, &c. without fome little explication of them. I have therefore generally used literal expresfions, to fignify the religious fentiments which I introduce into these compofures; unless it be where those literal expressions would be more difficult to be understood, and where the metaphors being very common, would more easily convey fufficient ideas into the minds of children. And it is for this reason, that where mention is made of Chrift and of the holy Spirit, and of their offices in our falvation, I have feldom thought it fufficient to express these things in the brief, usual forms, viz. through our Lord Jesus Christ, or by the holy Spirit, but have enlarged the manner of speech, to make the true ideas of those great doctrines appear plainer.

VII. I was folicitous to frame the first sentence of every prayer, in a way fuited to the time or occafion, whether of morning or evening worship, or on the Lord'sday; that fo children, by having the first paragraph in memory, might be always directed when to use them properly, and not mistake the proper times, and seasons for each of them, when their book was not at hand.

VIII. I always endeavoured to vary the expreffions in every prayer, where the fame fentiments are repeated; and especially to begin every sentence, as far as poffible, with a different word, or in a different manner, and not to use any remarkable word twice, in the fame prayer, where I could avoid it. I must confefs, that by reason of the great scarcity of such plain and familiar words, as are understood by children, I found this part of my work exceeding difficult: And yet I have set a further guard upon myself still, so that I have scarce ever used the fame three or four words together; in any two of all these prayers; but endeavoured to vary the phrafe perpetually; because, if the fame words were repeated, children would be

too ready to run out of one prayer into the other, when they repeat them by heart, and they would thereby join two disagreeing parts together, being led by the track and found of the fame words again occurring to them. Besides also, this variety of expression being treasured up in the memory, will tend to furnish and prepare them, in their advancing years to pray without a form, which design I have always kept in view.

IX. I thought it proper, also, to cast some of these composures into a method, according to the several parts of prayer, viz. adoration, confession, petition, &c. which are explained more at large, in my book called " A Guide to Prayer :" Hereby two ends will be attained: First, Children will more easily learn by heart what is diftinguished into divers paragraphs: And in the next place, they may learn the nature and parts of prayer by the use of these very fornis: And they will hereby cafily know when and where to add, or alter any expression, as they grow up to greater understanding. By this means they may be instructed how to frame prayers for themselves, and by the blessing of God on these assistances, they may obtain that which we call the gift of prayer, or an ability to pray properly on all occafions. In the prayers that are composed for young persons, I have endeavoured for the most part to follow the fame rules as before; except only that I have with more freedom admitted various modes of expression of a little higher rank; fuppofing that as persons are grown up to maturer years, they are capable of understanding the common forms of speech, which are used in scripture, and in the language of our public worship, which is chiefly adapted to the understanding of grown persons, rather than of children. In the shorter forms of occafional confeffion, petition or thanksgiving, &c. I have endeavoured so to contrive them, that they may be wrought into the body of other prayers, or may be used alone at proper seasons.

X. Since I have in all this work aimed at brevity and plainness, I hope my friends will excufe me, that I have not drawn out any of the devout fentiments, here expressed, into large and pathetic forms of expression: This I confess would have added more life and spirit to each composure, and, perhaps, might have had its use to awaken the pious passions into a warmer exercise. But then every prayer must have been much longer, and I confidered for whose use they were written. Children must not be over-burdened and tried, when we would allure them to the practices of early piety.

If any person defire to fee patterns of devotion, wherein pious fentiments are drawn out into more copious and affecting language, they may find something of this kind, in the devotional writings of Bishop Patrick, Mr. Dorrington, Mr. Meriton, Mr. Jenks, and the author of the Christian Monitor, and feveral others, which may be of excellent use to teach younger chriftians what to pray for, and in what manner to express themselves. And above all, I would recommend to them the late Mr. Henry's method of prayer, where the devout expreffions of the holy men of God, in fcripture, are ranged under a variety of heads or common places, fuited to the several parts of prayer, and the different occasions of the christian life: On this occasion alfo I would recommend Mr. Benret's Chriftian Oratory, as an excellent work; and Mr. Murrey has given good examples of closet devotions on the principal heads of divinity in the expreffions of scripture. But for me to have dwelt long on each devout sentiment, would have been inconsistent with my design in this

book.

It would be endless, to give a full account of all the reasons, that inclined me to frame and express the particular parts, of every one of these compofures, in the man. ner in which I have done it. There is fcarce one word, in all these forms, which I have not fet down, and reviewed with fome care, and committed to the perufal of fome of my friends. Yet after all my diligence and folicitude, to serve the interests of religion, in the best manner I could, and to please all pious perfons in this part of the education of their children, I foresee some fcruples which will arife, a few of which it may not be improper to relieve, or at least to attempt it.

Perhaps, fome persons may object and say, That children should not be taught to use the words, Our God, our Father, our Saviour, lest it raife in them a notion of their own personal interest in God and Christ, as their God, their Father, their Saviour, without due grounds, and before they have any thing of ferious religion begun in their hearts.

To this I answer, there is a very good sense wherein these words, Our God, our Father, our Saviour, may be used without implying that peculiar interest in God or Chrift, which belongs only to real inward christians. Is not God our God, and our common Father, as we are creatures and the works of his hands? Is he not the God of the spirits of all flesh, as well as the Father of spirits? Num. xxvii. 16. Heb. xii. 9. Is he not our God, whom we own and adore by prayer and praise, and all divine worship, in opposition to idols, and to the gods of other nations? Pf. cxv. 3. Is not God the Saviour of all men, but especially, of those who believe? 1 Tim. iv. 10. Was not Judas, among the rest of the apostles, taught to say, Our Father which art in heaven? Are not Mofes and the prophets full of such expressions? Do they not tell all the nation of the Jews, that God is their Father and their God, their Saviour and Redeemer, though thousands of vicious persons were among them, who had no inward spiritual relation to God, as their God and Father or Saviour ? From all which we may infer, that these appropriative words, our God, our Father, and our Saviour, do not necessarily imply a personal interest in the special love of God, or the falvation of Chrift, but a general relation to God as his creatures; or a general relation to Christ as a part of mankind, whose nature he affumed, and whom he came to fave; or as parts of a nation profeffing the one God and the religion of

Chrift.

But here I would observe once for all, that wheresocver any word, expression or fentence, is not agreeable to the taste or fentiment of parents or teachers, or not fuitable to the cafe or circumstances of the child, it is a very easy matter with a pen to blot it out, and to put in what they please instead of it in the margin: Or if what I have written, may but encourage and excite them to compose other and better prayers for their children, I have attained my end and shall rejoice in it.

Another objection is this, viz. That several of these prayers are too long for children to learn by heart, at those respective ages, for which these prayers are de. figned; and if they use them in worship, they can do nothing but read them for a great while at least.

Answer. I. I had a defire to infert into the prayers of every day, most of the necessary and important things of practical religion, that I could fuppose children of those different ages might apprehend; and though I ever kept my designed brevity in my eye, yet this defire has drawn them to such a length: But I am well perfuad ed, that almost all children of those ages, with a moderate share of capacity, may be taught by degrees to retain those different prayers in their memory, if they are firit taught to understand them well. I confess, if they must learn them, merely by rote, without any understanding, that is a hard task indeed, and what I would never impose upon any man, woman, or child. It is hard work to learn any fet of words without a meaning to them: And there is as little religion in it, as there is reafon, though the words, with their proper meaning, may carry never so much reason and religion in them.

II. If some of the prayers for children and youth be too long, it is easy for the parent to strike out the sentences which are lefs necessary, or to include them in two brackets, thus ( ) and let the child omit them. And thus alsoin the prayers for young perfons, which I am sensible are too long, every one may leave out what they please, for they are supposed by this time, at least, to be capable in some mea. fure of determining, what is most suitable to their present sentiments and circumitances.

But I answer thirdly, Where would be the crime of it, if children and young persons should read over the prayers, seriously, in a way of worship to God every morning and every night, while they are learning them by heart? Must there not be a time to learn their prayers, though they were never so short? And why may not the ferious and folemn repetition of them, morning and evening, with their hearts lifted up to God, assist their memory to retain them the fooner? Must they be bound to rife every morning and lie down every evening without any acknowledgment of God, till they can say a prayer perfect without book? There may be some few memories so very feeble, that perhaps, at seven years old, they could hardly retain and repeat with conftancy and perfection the young child's, or even the