him, and yet to cry, though for the present he made no answer; and the Lord help all his poor, tempted, and afflicted people to do the like, and to continue, though it be long, according to the saying of the prophet, and to help them (to that end) to pray, not by the inventions of men and their stinted forms, but with the Spirit and with understanding also.

And now to answer a query or two, and so to pass on to the next thing.

Query 1. But what would you have us poor creatures to do that cannot tell how to pray? The Lord knows I know not either how to pray or what to pray for.

Answer. Poor heart! thou canst not, thou complainest, pray; canst thou see thy misery? Hath God showed thee that thou art by nature under the curse of his law? If so, do not mistake; I know thou dost groan, and that most bitterly. I am persuaded thou canst scarcely be found doing any thing in thy calling but prayer breaketh from thy heart. Have not thy groans gone up to heaven from every corner of thy house? I know it is thus, and so also doth thine own sorrowful heart witness thy tears, thy forgetfulness of thy calling, &c. Is not thy heart so full of desires after the things of another world that many times thou dost even forget the things of this world? Prithee read the Scripture in Job xxiii. 12.

Query 2. Yea, but when I go into secret, and intend to pour out my soul before God, I can scarce say any thing at all.

Answer. Ah, sweet soul! it is not thy words that God so much regards as that he will not mind thee except thou comest before him with some eloquent oration. His eye is on the brokenness of thine heart, and that it is that makes the very bowels of the Lord run over: "A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."

2. The stopping of thy words may arise from overmuch trouble in thy heart. David was so troubled sometimes that he could not speak. But this may comfort all such sorrowful hearts as thou art, that though thou canst not through the anguish of thy spirit speak much, yet the Holy Spirit stirs up in thine heart groans and sighs so much the more vehement; when the mouth is hindered, yet the Spirit is not.

Moses (as aforesaid) made heaven so ring again with his prayers (that we read of) not one word came out of his mouth. But,

3. If thou wouldest more fully express thyself before the Lord, study, first, thy filthy

estate; secondly, God's promises; thirdly the heart of Christ, which thou mayest know or discern-1. By his condescension and bloodshed. 2. By the mercy he hath extended to great sinners formerly, and plead thine own vileness by way of bemoaning Christ's blood, by way of expostulation; and in thy prayers let the mercy that he hath extended to other great sinners, together with his rich promises of grace, be much upon thy heart. Yet et me counsel thee-1. Take heed that thou content not thyself with words. 2. That thou do not think that God looks only at them. But, 3. However, whether thy words be few or many, let thine heart go with them; and then shalt thou seek him, and find him when thou shalt seek him with thy whole heart.

Objection. But though you have seemed to speak against any other way of praying but by the Spirit, yet here you yourself can give direction how to pray.

Answer. We ought to prompt one another forward to prayer, though we ought not to make for each other forms of prayer.

To exhort to pray with Christian direction is one thing, and to make stinted forms for the tying up the Spirit of God to them is another thing.

The apostle gives them no form to pray withal, yet directs to prayer.

Let no man therefore conclude that because we may with allowance give instructions and directions to pray, therefore it is lawful to make for each other forms of prayer.

Objection. But if we do not use forms of prayer, how shall we teach our children to pray?

Answer. My judgment is, that men go the wrong way to learn their children to pray in going about so soon to learn them any set company of words, as is the common use of poor creatures to do.

For to me it seems to be a better way for people betimes to tell their children what curs ed creatures they are, and how they are under the wrath of God by reason of original and actual sin, also to tell them the nature of God's wrath and the duration of the misery; which if they conscientiously do, they would sooner learn their children to pray than they do. The way that men learn to pray, it is by conviction for sin, and this is the way to make our sweet babes do so too. But the other way-namely, to be busy in learning children forms of prayer before they know any thing else-it is the next way to make them cursed

hypocrites and to puff them up with pride. Learn therefore your children to know their wretched state and condition, tell them of hellfire and their sins, of damnation and salvation, the way to escape the one and to enjoy the other, (if you know yourselves;) and this will make tears run down your sweet babes' eyes and hearty groans flow from their hearts; and then also you may tell them to whom they should pray, and through whom they should pray; you may tell them also of God's promises, and his former grace extended to sinners according to the word.

Ah! poor sweet babes, the Lord open their eyes and make them holy Christians! Saith David, "Come, ye children, hearken unto me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord."

He doth not say, I will muzzle you up in a form of prayer, but, "I will teach you the fear of the Lord;" which is, to see their sad state by nature, and to be instructed in the truth of the Gospel, which doth through the Spirit beget prayer in every one that in truth learns it. And the more you learn them this the more will their hearts run out to God in prayer.

God never did account Paul a praying man until he was a convinced and converted man; no more will it be with any one else.

Objection. But we find that the disciples desired that Christ would teach them to pray, as John also taught his disciples, and that thereupon he taught them that form called the Lord's Prayer.

Answer 1. To be taught by Christ is that which not only they but we desire; and seeing he is not here in his person to teach us, the Lord teach us by his word and Spirit; for the Spirit it is which he hath said he would send to supply in his room when he went away, as it is in John xiv. 16 and xvi. 7.

2. As to that called a form, I cannot think that Christ intended it as a stinted form of prayer

(1.) Because he himself layeth it down diversely, as it is to be seen if you compare Matt. vi. and Luke ix. Whereas, if he intended it as a set form, it must not have been so laid down, for a set form is so many words and no

more.

(2.) We do not find that the apostles did ever observe it as such, neither did they admonish others so to do. Search all their epis tles, yet surely they, both for knowledge to discern and faithfulness to practice, were as eminent as any one ever since in the world which would impose it.

But, in a word, Christ by those words, "Our Father," &c., doth instruct his people what rules they should observe in their prayers tc God

(1.) That they should pray in faith. (2.) To God in the heavens. (3.) For such things as are according to his will, &c. Pray thus or after this manner.

Objection. But Christ bids pray for the Spirit: this implies that men without the Spirit may notwithstanding, pray and be heard.

Answer 1. The speech of Christ there is directed to his own. Ver. 1.

2. Christ, in telling of them that God would give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him, is to be understood of giving more of the Holy Spirit; for still they are the disciples spoken to, which had a measure of the Spirit already; for he saith, "When ye pray, say, Our Father," (ver. 2;) “I say unto you," (ver. 8;) "And I say unto you," (ver. 9;) "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good things to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him ?" Christians ought to pray for the Spirit—that is, more of it-though God hath endued them with it already.

Question. Then would you have none pray but those that know they are disciples of Christ?

(1.) To desire God in Christ, for himself, for his holiness, love, wisdom, and glory. For right prayer, as it runs on to God through Christ, so it centres in him, and in him alone: "Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none in earth that I desire (long for or seek after) besides thee."

(2.) That the soul might enjoy continually communion with him, both here and hereafter: "I shall be satisfied when I awake with thine image or in thy likeness." "For in this we groan earnestly," &c.

(3.) Right prayer is accompanied with a continual labour after that which is prayed for: "My soul waiteth for the Lord, more than

they that watch for the morning." "I will arise now and seek Him whom my soul loveth." For mark, I beseech you, there are two things that provoke to prayer: the one is a detestation to sin and the things of this life; the other is a longing desire after communion with God in an holy and undefiled state and inheritance. Compare but this one thing with most of the prayers that are made by men, and you shall find them but mock prayers and the breathings of an abominable spirit; for even the most of men either not pray at all, or else only endeavour to mock God and the world by so doing; for do but compare their prayer and the course of their lives together, and you may easily see that the thing included in their prayer is the least looked after by their lives. O sad hypocrites!

Thus have I briefly showed you-1. What prayer is; . What it is to pray with the Spirit; 3. What it is to pray with the Spirit and with the understanding also.

IV. I shall now speak a word or two of application, and so conclude with-1. A word of information; 2. A word of encouragement; 3. A word of rebuke.

Use 1. A word of information.

For the first to inform you: As prayer is the duty of every one of the children of God, and carried on by the Spirit of Christ in the soul, so every one that doth but offer to take upon him to pray to the Lord had need to be very wary, and go about that work especially with the dread of God, as well as with hopes of the mercy of God through Jesus Christ.

Prayer is an ordinance of God in which a man draws very near to God, and therefore it calleth for so much the more of the assistance of the grace of God to help a soul to pray as becomes one that is in the presence of him. It is a shame for a man to behave himself irreverently before a king, but a sin to do so before God. And as a king (if wise) is not pleased with an oration made up with unseemly words and gestures, so God takes no pleasure in the sacrifice of fools. It is not long discourses nor eloquent tongues that are the things which are pleasing in the ears of the Lord, but a humble, broken, and contrite heart that is sweet in the nostrils of the heavenly Majesty. Therefore, for information, know that there are these five things that are obstructions to prayer, and even make void the requests of the creature:

1. When men regard iniquity in their hearts at the time of their prayers before God: "If I

regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear my prayer." When there is a secret love to that very thing which thou with thy dissembling lips dost ask for strength against; for this is the wickedness of man's heart, that it will even love and hold fast that which with the mouth it prays against; and of this sort are they "that honour God with their mouth, but their heart is far from him." Oh how ugly would it be in our eyes if we should see a beg gar ask an alms with an intention to throw it to the dogs, or that should say with one breath, Pray bestow this upon me, and with the next, I beseech you give it me not! And yet thus it is with these kind of persons; with their mouth they say, Thy will be done, and with their hearts nothing less; with their mouth say, Hallowed be thy name, and with their hearts and lives they delight to dishonour him all the day long. These be the prayers that become sin, and though they put them often, yet the Lord will never answer them.

2. When men pray for show, to be heard and thought somebody in religion, and the like.

These prayers also fall short of God's approbation, and are never like to be answered in reference to eternal life.

There are two sorts of men that pray to this end:

(1.) Your trencher-chaplains, that thrust themselves into great men's families, pretending the worship of God, when in truth the great business is their own bellies; these were notably pointed out by Ahab's prophets, and also Nebuchadnezzar's, who, though they pretended great devotion, yet their lusts and their bellies were the great things aimed at by them in all their pieces of devotion.

(2.) Them also that seek repute and applause for their eloquent terms, and seek more to tickle the ears and heads of their hearers than anything else. These be they "that pray to be heard of men, and have all their reward already."

These persons are discovered thus: 1. They eye only their auditory in their expressions. 2. They look for commendation when they have done. 3. Their hearts either rise or fail according to their praise or enlargement. 4. The length of their prayer pleaseth them, and that it might be long they will vainly repeat things over and over; they study for enlargements, but look not from what heart they come; they look for returns, but it is the windy applause of men; and therefore they love not

to be in their chamber, but among company; and if at any time conscience thrusts them into their closet, yet hypocrisy will cause them 'to be heard in the streets; and when their mouths have done going their prayers are ended, for they wait not to hearken what the Lord will say.

3. A third sort of prayer that will not be accepted of God it is when either they pray for wrong things, or if for right things, yet that the things prayed for might be spent upon their lusts and laid out to wrong ends: "Some have not, because they ask not, (saith James,) and others ask and have not, because they ask amiss, that they may consume it on their lusts." Ends contrary to God's will is a great argument with God to frustrate the petitions presented before him. Hence it is that so many pray for this and that, and yet receive it not. God answers them only with silence; they have their words for their labour; that

is all.

Objection. But God hears some persons, though their hearts be not right with him, as he did Israel in giving quails, though they spent them on their lusts.

Answer. If he doth, it is in judgment, not in mercy. He gave them their desire indeed, but they had better have been without, for he sent leanness into their souls. Woe be to that man that God answereth thus!

4. Another sort of prayers there are that are not answered; and those are such as are made by men and presented to God in their own persons only, without their appearing in the Lord Jesus. For though God hath appointed prayer, and promised to hear the prayer of the creature, yet not the prayer of any creature that comes not in Christ: "If you ask anything in my name. And whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." If you ask anything in my name, &c. Though you be never so devout, zealous, earnest, and constant in prayer, yet it is in Christ only that you must be heard and accepted. But, alas! the most of men know not what it is to come to him in the name of our Lord Jesus, which is the reason they live wicked, pray wicked, and also die wicked; or else, 2, that they attain to nothing else but what a mere natural man may attain unto, as to be exact in word and deed betwixt man and man, and only with the righteousness of the law to appear before God.

5. The last thing that hindereth prayer is the form of it without the power. It is an

easy thing for men to be very hot for such things as forms of prayer as they are written in a book, but yet they are altogether forgetful to inquire with themselves whether they have the spirit and power of prayer. These men are like a painted man, and their prayers like a false voice: they in person appear as hypocrites, and their prayers are an abomination. When they say they have been pouring ut their souls to God, he saith they have been howling like dogs.

When therefore thou intendest or art minded to pray to the Lord of heaven and earth, con sider these following particulars:

(1.) Consider seriously what thou wantest. Do not as many who in their word only beat the air, and ask for such things as indeed they do not desire nor see that they stand in need thereof.

(2.) When thou seest what thou wantest, keep to that, and take heed that thou prayest sensibly.

Objection. But I have a sense of nothing; then, by your argument, I must not pray at all.

Answer 1. If thou findest thyself senseless in some sad measure, yet thou canst not complain of that senselessness but by being sensible. There is a sense of senselessness. According to thy sense, then, that thou hast of the need of any thing, so pray, and if thou art sensible of thy senselessness, pray the Lord to make thee sensible of whatever thou findest thy heart senseless of. This was the usual practice of the holy men of God: "Lord, make me to know my end." "Lord, open to us this parable," said the disciples.

And to this is annexed the promise, "Call upon me and I will hear thee and show thee great and mighty things that thou knowest not," that thou art not sensible of. But,

2. Take heed that thy heart go to God as well as thy mouth. Let not thy mouth go any further than thou strivest to draw thine beart along with it. David would lift his heart an soul to the Lord, and good reason; for s: fat as a man's mouth goeth not along with his heart, so far it is but lip-labour only; and though God calls for and accepteth the calves of the lips, yet the lips without the heart argueth not only senselessness, but our being without sense of our senselessness; and therefore, if thou hast a mind to enlarge in prayer before God, see that it be with thy heart.

3. Take heed of affecting expressions, and so to please thyself with the use of them that thou forget not the life of prayer.

I shall conclude this use with a caution or two.

And the first is, take heed you do not throw off prayer through sudden persuasions that thou hast not the Spirit, neither prayest thereby. It is the great work of the devil to do his best, or rather worst, against the best prayers. He will flatter your false, dissembling hypocrites, and feed them with a thousand fancies of well-doing, when their very duties of prayer and all others stink in the nostrils of God when he stands at a poor Joshua's hand to resist him—that is, to persuade him that neither his person nor performances are accepted of God. Take heed, therefore, of such false conclusions and groundless discouragements; and though such persuasions do come in upon thy spirit, be so far from being discouraged by them that thou use them to put thee upon further sincerity and restlessness of spirit in thy approaching to God.

Secondly. As such sudden temptations should not stop thee from prayer and pouring out thy soul to God, so neither should thine own heart's corruption hinder thee. It may be thou mayest find in thee all those things before mentioned, and that they will be endeavouring to put forth themselves in thy praying to him. Thy business then is, to judge them, to pray against them, and lay thyself so much the more at the foot of God in a sense of thy own vileness, and rather make an argument from thy vileness and corruption of heart to plead with God for justifying and sanctifying grace than an argument of discouragement and despair. David went this way: "O Lord, (saith he,) pardon mine iniquity, for it is great."

Use 2. A word of encouragement.

And therefore, secondly, (to speak a word by way of encouragement to the poor tempted and cast-down soul,) to pray to God through Christ. Though all prayer that is accepted of God in reference to eternal life must be in the Spirit, for that only maketh intercession for us according to the will of God, yet because many a poor soul may have the Holy Spirit working on them and stirring of them to groan unto the Lord for mercy, though through unbelief they do not, and for the present cannot, believe that they are the people of God, such as he delights in, yet forasmuch as the truth of grace may be in them, therefore I shall, to encourage them, lay down further these few particulars:

1. That Scripture in Luke xi. 8 is very en

couraging to any poor soul that doth hunger after Christ Jesus. In the 5th, 6th, and 7th verses he speaketh a parable of a man that went to his friend to borrow three loaves, who because he was in bed, denied him; yet for his importunity's sake, he did arise and give him; clearly signifying that though poor souls, through the weakness of their faith, cannot see that they are the friends of God, yet they should never leave asking and knocking at God's door for mercy. "Mark, (saith Christ,) I say unto you, although he will not arise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity (of restless desires) he wi!l arise and give him as many as he needeth.' Poor heart! thou criest out that God will not regard thee, thou dost not find that thou art a friend to him, but rather an enemy in thine heart by wicked works; and thou art as though thou didst hear the Lord saying to thee, "Trouble me not, I cannot give unto thee," as he in the parable; yet, I say, continue knocking, crying, moaning, and bewailing thyself: I tell thee, though he will not arise and give thee because thou art his friend, yet because of thy importunity he will arise and give thee as many as thou needest. The same in effect you have discovered in the parable of the unjust judge and the poor widow; her importunity prevailed with him. And verily mine own experience tells me that there is nothing that doth more prevail with God than importunity. Is it not so with you in respect of your beggars that come to your door? Though you have no heart to give them any thing at their first asking, yet if they follow you, bemoaning themselves, and will take no nay without an alms, you will give them, for their continual begging overcometh you. Is there bowels in you that are wicked, and will they be wrought upon by an importuning beggar? Go thou and do the like. It is a prevailing motive, and that by experience; he will arise and give thee as many as thou needest.

2. Another encouragement for a poor, trembling, convinced soul is, to consider the place, throne, or seat on which the great God hath placed himself to hear the petitions and prayers of poor creatures; and that is a throne of grace, the mercy-seat, which sig nifieth that in the days of the Gospel God hath taken up his seat, his abiding-place in mercy and forgiveness; and from thence he doth intend to hear the sinner and to commune with him, as he saith, (speaking before of the mercy-seat,) "And there will I meet