An humble attempt to promote explicit agreement and visible union of God's people in…

As there is so great and manifold Reason from the Word of God, to think that if a Spirit of earnest Prayer for that great Effusion of the Spirit of God which I am speaking of, prevailed in the christian Church, the Mercy would be soon granted; so those that are engaged in such Prayer might expect the first Benefit. God will come to those that are seeking him and waiting for him; Isai. xxv.9. and xxvi.8. When Christ came in the Flesh, he was first revealed to them who were waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and looking for Redemption in Jerusalem, Luke i.25, 38. And in that great Out-pouring of the Spirit that was in the Days of the Apostles, which was attended with such glorious Effects among Jews and Gentiles, the Spirit came down first on those that were engaged in united earnest Prayer for it.— A special Blessing is promised to them that love and pray for the Prosperity of the Church of God, Psal. cxxii.6. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper, that love thee.

7. We are presented with many Motives in the Dispensations of divine Providence, at this Day, to excite us to be much in Prayer for this M•rcy.

There is much in Providence to show us our Need of it, and put us on desiring it. The great outward Calamities, in which the World is involved; and particularly the bloody War that embroils and wastes the Nations of Christendom, and in which our Nation has so great a Share, may well make all that believe God's Word, and love Mankind, earnestly long and pray for that Day, when the Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb, and the Nations shall beat their Swords into Plough-shares, &c. But especially do the spiritual Calamities and Miseries of the present Time, show our great Need of that blessed Effusion of God's Spirit: There having been, for so long a Time, so great a Withholding of the Spirit, from the greater Part of the christian World, and such dismal Consequences of it, in the great Decay of vital Piety, and the exceeding Prevalence of Infidelity, Heresy and all Manner of Vice and Wickedness; and especially in our Land and Nation; of which a most affecting Account has lately been published in a Pamphlet printed in London, and re-printed in Scotland, entitled Britain's Remembrancer; by which it seems that Luxury, and Wickedness of almost every Kind, is well nigh come to the utmost Extremity in the Nation; and if Vice should continue to prevail and increase for one Generation more, as it has the Generation past, it looks as tho' the Nation could hardly continue in Being, but must sink under the Weight of it's own Corruption and Wickedness. And the State of Things in the other Parts of the British Dominions, besides England, are very deplorable. The Church of Scotland has very much lost her Glory, greatly departing from her ancient Purity, and excellent Order; and has of late been bleeding with great and manifold […], occasioned by their Divisions