*I will give you a touch-stone. Offer as continually as you can, this following form of prayer to God. Offer it frequently on your knees; but, whether sitting, standing, or walking, be always inwardly longing, and earnestly praying this _one prayer_ to God: “That, of his great goodness, he would make known to you, and take from your heart, every _kind_, and _form_, and _degree_ of pride, whether it be from evil spirits, or your own corrupt nature; and that he would awaken in you the _depth_ and _truth_ of all that humility, which can make you capable of his light and Holy Spirit.” Reject every thought, but that of wishing, and praying in this manner from the bottom of your heart, with such truth and earnestness, as people in torment wish and pray to be delivered from it. Now if ye dare not, if your hearts will not, cannot give themselves up in this manner to the spirit of this prayer, then the _touch-stone_ has done its work, and ye may be as fully assured both what your infidelity is, and from what it proceeds, as ye can be of the plainest truth in nature. This will shew you, how vainly you appeal to your _reason_, as the cause of your infidelity: that it is full as false and absurd, as if _thieves_ and _adulterers_ should say, that their theft and adultery was entirely owing to their bodily eyes, which shewed them external objects, and not to any thing that was _wrong_ in their hearts. On the other hand, if you can, and will give yourselves up in _sincerity_ to this spirit of prayer, I will venture to affirm, that if ye had twice as many evil spirits in you, as _Mary Magdalen_ had, they will all be cast out of you, and ye will be forced with her, to weep with tears of love, at the feet of the holy Jesus.
But here, my friends, I stop, that we may return to the matter we had in hand.
_Rusticus._ You have made no digression _Theophilus_, from our main point, which was to recommend Christianity to poor _Humanus_. He must, I am sure, have felt the death’s-blows, that you have here given to the infidel scheme. Their _idol_ of reason, which is the vain god they worship, is here like _Dagon_ fallen to the ground. _Humanus_ is caught by your bait of love, and I dare say wants only to have this conversation ended, that he may try himself, by this divine _touch-stone_, which you have put into his hands.
_Academicus._ Give me leave, gentlemen, to add one word. _Theophilus_ has fairly pulled _reason_ out of its usurped throne, and shewn it to be a powerless, idle _toy_, when compared to the royal strength of the heart, which is the kingly power, that has all the government of life in its hands.
But now, _Theophilus_, I beg we may return to that very point concerning prayer, where we left off. I think my heart is entirely devoted to God: and that I desire nothing but to live in such a state of prayer, as may best keep me under the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit. Assist me therefore, in this important matter; give me the fullest directions that you can; and if you have any _manual_ of devotion, that you prefer, or any method that you would put me in, pray let me know it.
_Rusticus._ I beg leave to speak a word to _Academicus_. Ask not _Academicus_, for a book of prayers; but ask your heart what is within it, what it _feels_, how it _stirs_, what it _wants_, what it would have altered, what it desires; and then, instead of calling upon _Theophilus_ for assistance, stand in the same form of petition to God.
For this turning to God according to the inward _feeling_, _want_, and _motion_ of your own heart, in love, in trust of having from him all that you want, and wish, is the best form of prayer in the world.――――*Now no man can be ignorant of the state of his own heart, or a stranger to those tempers, that are stirring in him; and what should be the form of his prayer, but that which the state of his heart demands? If you know of no trouble, feel no burden, want nothing to be altered, or removed, nothing to be increased or strengthened in you, how can you pray for any thing of this kind? But if your heart knows its own plague, feels its inward evil, knows what it wants to have removed, will you not let your distress form the manner of your prayer? Or will you pray in a form of words, that have no more agreement with your state, than if a man walking above-ground, should beg every man he met, to pull him out of a deep pit? For prayers not formed according to the _real state_ of your heart, are but like a prayer to be pulled out of a deep well, when you are not in it. Hence you may see, how unreasonable it is to make a mystery of prayer, or an art, that needs so much instruction; since every man is, and only can be, directed by his own inward state, and condition, when and how, and what he is to pray for, as every man’s outward state shews him what he outwardly wants.