thoughts, while his eyes seem fixed on heaven ; can he be fervent ? Can the affections be true, and the mind inattentive? Fervency unites the soul, and gathers in the thoughts to the work in hand; it will not suffer diversions, but answers all foreign thoughts, as Nehemiah did them that would have called him off from building, * I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down ; why should the work cease?' Nehem. vi. 3. It is said of Elias, he prayed earnestly; 'he prayed in praying,' so the Greek; as in Ezekiel's vision, there was a wheel in a wheel, so a prayer in his prayer : Avhereas the i-oving soul is prayerless ; his lips pray, and his mind plays ; his eye is to heaven, as if that were his mark, but he shoots his thoughts down to the earth. Fourthly, He to whom the duty is tedious and wearisome, who doth not sigh and groan in the duty, but under it ; who prays as a sick man works, finding no delight in it. True fervency suffers no weariness, feels no pain. Affections are strong things, able to pull up a weak body. Therefore, he that shrugs at a duty, and turns, as a sick man, from one side of his bed to the other for ease, shews he hath little pleasure in the duty, and therefore less zeal. These aches of the spirit in prayer, though he be a saint, declare him to be under a great distemper. A man in health finds not more savour in his food, and refreshment from it, than the Christian doth in the offices of religion, when his heart is in the right temjjei".
CHAPTER V.
SOME ARGUMENTS TO ENKINDLE OUR ZEAL IN PRAYER.
First, For exhortation. Dost thou pray ? Pray fci-vently, or thou dost nothing. That prayer which warms not thine own heart, will it, thinkest thou, move God's? A man hath not the use of his hand when it is benumbed with cold, neither canst thou have the use of thy spirit in duty, till thy heart has some sense and feeling of what thou prayest for.
Section I. — Consider the excellency of zeal and fervency. If a saint, thou hast a principle that inclines thee to approve of things that are excellent ; and such is this. Life is the excellency of beings ; yea, even in inanimate creatures there is an analogical life, and therein consists their excellency. The spirits of wine commend it: in the diamond, the sparkle gives the worth ; in fountain- water, that which makes it most excellent is its motion, called therefore living water : much more in beings that have true life ; for this, the flea or fly are counted nobler creatures than the sun. The higher kind of life that beings have, their nature is thereby the more advanced,^ — beasts above plants, men above beasts, and angels above men. Now as life gives the excellency to being, so vivacity and vigour in operating gives excellency to life. Indeed, the nobler the life of the creature is, the greater energy is there in its actings ; the apprehension of an angel is quicker, and zeal stronger, than of a man. So that the more lively thou art in duty, and the more zeal thou expressest therein, the nearer thou comest to their nature, who, for their zeal in the service of God, are called a ' flame of fire.' To be calm and cool in infei-ior things, is better than zeal. Prov. xvii. 27 : ' A man of understanding is of an excellent spirit :' in the Hebrew it is 'a cool spirit :' injuries do not put him into a flame, neither does any occurrence heat him to any height of joy, grief, or anger. Wlio more temperate in these than Moses ? But set this holy man to pray, he is all life and zeal. Indeed, it is one excellency of this fervency of spirit in prayer, that it allays all sinful passions. David's fervency in praying for his child when alive, made him bear the tidings of his death so patiently. We hear not an angry word that Hannah replies to her scolding companion Peninnah, and why, but because she had found the art of easing her troubled spirit in prayer? What need she contend with her adversary, who could be wrestling with God to espouse her quarrel ? And were there nothing else to commend fervency of spirit in prayer, this is enough, that, like David's hai'p, can charm the evil spirit of our passions, which in their excess, the saint counts great sins, and finds them grievous troubles. When are you more serene, than when your soids can mount with fervour in the flame of your sacrifices into the bosom of God? Possibly you may come, like Moses, down the mount with greater heat, but it will be against sin.
IN THE SPIRIT. r/AO