And altho’ this be the highest temper that you can aim at; yet it is not tied to any _time_, or _place_, or _great_ occasion, but is always in your power, and may be the exercise of every day. For the _common events_ of every day are sufficient to discover and exercise this temper, and may plainly shew you how far you are governed in all your actions by this thankful spirit. 24. It may perhaps be objected, that tho’ the benefit of this practice is apparent; yet it seems not so fit for _private_ devotions, since it can hardly be performed without making our devotions public. It is answered, _first_, that great numbers of people have it in their power to be as private as they please; such persons therefore are excluded from this excuse. _Secondly_, Numbers of people are by the _necessity_ of their state, as _servants_, _apprentices_, _prisoners_, and _families_ in small houses, forced to be continually in the presence of somebody or other. Now are such persons to neglect their prayers, because they cannot pray without being seen? Are they not rather obliged to be more exact in them, that others may not be witnesses of their neglect, and so corrupted by their example? And what is here said of devotion, may surely be said of _singing a psalm_. The rule is this: Don’t pray that you _may be seen_ of men; but if your _confinement_ obliges you to be always in the sight of others, be more afraid of being seen to _neglect_, than of being seen to have _recourse_ to prayer. _Thirdly_, Either people can use such privacy in this practice, as to have no hearers, or they cannot. If they can, then this objection vanishes as to them; and if they cannot, they should consider their _confinement_, and the _necessities_ of their state, as the confinement of a _prison_; and then have an excellent _pattern_ to follow: they may imitate St. _Paul_ and _Silas_, who _sang praises to God in prison_, tho’ we are expresly told, that the _prisoners heard them_. They did not refrain this kind of devotion, for fear of being heard by others. If therefore any one is in the same necessity, either in _prison_ or out of prison, what can he do better, than to follow this example? _Fourthly_, The _privacy_ of our prayers is not _destroyed_ by our _having_, but by our _seeking_ witnesses of them. If therefore nobody hears you but those you cannot separate yourself from, you are as much in _secret_, and _your Father who seeth in secret_, will as truly reward your secrecy, as if you was seen by him alone. CHAP. XIII. _Recommending devotions at nine o’clock in the morning, called in scripture, the |third hour| of the day. The subject of these prayers may be |humility|._ I AM now come to another hour of prayer, which in scripture is called the _third hour_ of the day; but according to our way of numbering the hours, it is called the ninth hour of the morning.