bottom of a well, which will not ascend with all our pumping, till God pour in his exciting grace, and then it conies. To will is more than to think; to exert our will into action, more than both; these are of God, Phd. ii. 13: 'It is God that work eth in you to will and to do of his good pleasure.' He makes the heart new, and having made it for heavenly motion, setting every wheel, as it were, in its right place, then he winds it up by his actuating grace, and sets it on going, the thoughts to stir, the will to move, and make towards the holy object presented; yet here the chariot is set, and cannot ascend the hill of action till God puts his shoidder to the wheel. ' To will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not,' Rom. \'ii. God is at the bottom of the ladder, and at the top also, the author and finisher; yea, helping and lifting the soul at every round in his ascent to any holy action. Well, now the Chi'istian is set on work ; how long will he keep close to it ? Alas, poor soul, no longer than he is held up by the same hand that empowered him at first! He hath soon wrought out the strength received, and therefore to maintain the tenure of a holy course, there must be renewing strength from heaven every moment; which David knew, and therefore when his heart was in as holy a frame as ever he felt it, and his people by their freewill oflering declared the same, yet even then he prays that God would ' keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of his people, and establish tlieir hearts to him,' 1 Chron. xxix. 18. He adored the mercy that made them willing, and then he implores his further grace to strengthen them, and tie a knot, that these precious pearls, newly strung on their hearts, might not slip ofi". The Christian, when fullest of Divine communications, is but a glass without a foot; he cannot stand, or hold what he hath received, any longer than God holds him in his strong hand. Therefore Christ, when bound for heaven, and ready to take his leave of his children, bespeaks his Father's care of them in his absence, Jolmxvii. ' Father, keep them;' as if he had said, they must not be left alone ; they are poor, shiftless children, and can neither stand nor go without help; they will lose the grace I have given them, and fall into those temptations which I kept them from while I was with them, if they be out of thine eye or anus but one moment; and therefore, 'Father, keep them.'
Again: consider the Chi-istian as addressing himself to any duty of God's worship, still his strength is in the Lord; would he pray? where will he find matter for his prayer? Alas! ' he knows not v.'hat to pray for as he ought.' Rom. viii. Let him alone, and he would soon pray himself into some temptation or other, and cry for that which were cruelty in God to give ; and therefore God puts words in our mouths: ' Take words with you and say,' Hos. xiv. 2. Well, now he hath put words into his mouth, alas ! they will freeze in his very lips, if he hath not some heart-heating aftections to thaw the tap. And where shall this fire be had ? Not a spai-k to be found on his own hearth, except it be some strange fire of natural desires, which will not serve. Whence then must the fire come to thaw the iciness of the heart but from heaven ? The Spirit, he must stretch himself upon the soul, as the prophet on the child, and then the soul will come to some kindly warmth and heavenly heat in his afl'ections ; the Spirit must groan, and then the soul will groan ; he helps us to these sighs and groans, which turn the sails of prayer ; he dissolves the heart, and then it bursts out of the heart by groans of the lips, by heavenly rhetoric ; out of the eyes as from a floodgate, with tears : yet fiu'ther, now the creature is enabled to wrestle with God in prayer, what will he get by all this ? Suppose he be weak in grace, is he able to pray himself strong, or corruption weak? No, this is not to be found in prayer as an act of the creature. This drops from heaven also, Psa. cxxxviii. 2 : 'In the day that I cried, thou answerest me, and gavest me strength in my soul.' David received it in duty, but had it not from his duty, but from his God. He did not pray himself strong, but God strengthened him in his prayer. Well, cast yoiu- eye once more upon the Christian, as engaging in another ordinance of hearing the word preached. The soul's strength to hear the word is from God : 'he opens the heart to attend,' Acts xiv. 14. Yea, he opens the imderstanding of the saint to receive the word, so as to conceive what it meant. It is like Samson's riddle, which we cannot unfold without his heifer; he opens the womb of the soul to conceive by it, as the imderstanding
BE STRONG IN THE LORD. Q