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NOW I come to the necessitie of prayer: which is necessary by a threefold bond of necessitie: 1. Necessitate praecepti, necessitie of precept; as be∣ing a dutie most straitly injoyned, and a principall part of that worship and service which we ow unto God. This necessitie is not absolute, but if we will avoid his curse, Jer. 10. 25. 2. Necessitate medii, ne∣cessitie
of the means; as being the means ordained by God for the obteining of all good things which he hath either purposed or promised to bestow up∣on us for our good: so that if we ask aright, we have; if we ask not we have not, as S. James saith chap. 4. 3. Necessitate signi, necessitie of the signe; as being a necessarie signe and cognizance of all true Christians, who are described in the Scripture to be such as call upon the name of God: As contrari∣wise the foolish Atheist who saith in his heart, There is no God, is deciphered by this note, that he doth not call upon the Lord, Psal. 14. 4. In which respects the holy man Daniel held the performance of this du∣tie so necessary, that when the king had published a decree which might not be revoked, That whosoe∣ver should ask a petition of either God or man save of the king for thirtie dayes, he should be cast into the lions den, he chose rather to be cast into the den of the lions, then to omit this dutie but thirty dayes, Dan. 6. neither did he omit it one day; see vers. 10.