4. Holy fervency and vehemency will be argumentative, and plead with God ; as Abraham: Gen. xviii. 25, ' Shall not the judge of all the earth do right ?' So Jacob : Gen. xxxii. 9, Jacob pleadeth God's promise ; Return unto thy father's house; I will deal well with thee ; Lord, I undertook not this journey but upon this encouragement. The
42 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SER. CLXII.
little honour God hath by the church's calamities, Ps. xliv. 12; Isa. lii. 4, 5. The praise God will have from his people, Ps. cxlii. 6. Do it, as David in the text, ' I will keep thy statutes.' The chief argu- ments are — God's covenant : Ps. lxxiv. 22, ' Arise, 0 God, plead thine own cause ; remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily. Have respect to thy covenant.' The merits of Christ : Lord, hear for the Lord's sake. Desire is witty to find out arguments and reasoning to enforce the things we sue for.
But how shall we get it ?
[1.] Have a sincere desire to the things asked. We will cry for what we value and earnestly desire : Prov. ii. 3-5, ' If thou criest for know- ledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding ; if thou seek for her as for silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures ; then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.'
[2.] Be persuaded of the Lord's willingness to hear and power to help. A rich and bountiful person, a beggar will not let him go, if he see only a rich man : Mat. viii. 2, ' Lord, if thou wilt thou canst ;' it is in the power of your hand to help us. But is not God willing also ? Suppose it be an uncertainty, yet cry mightily unto God, ' Who can tell that he will not repent ? ' Jonah iii. 8, 9. If there be but a possibility, yet try what importunity will do : Ps. lvii. 2, ' I will cry unto God most high, unto God who performeth all things for me/ He hath heard once, and will again.
[3.] Beg the assistance of the Spirit. Our necessities are not sharp enough to quicken our affections, they need the secret influence of grace ; it is his work to set us a-groaning and crying to God. How well are we provided for, with an advocate and notary : Horn. viii. 26 ; Jude 20.
[4.] Let us rouse up ourselves : Isa. Ixiv. 7, ' There is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee ;' Psa. lvii. 8, ' Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp ; I myself will awake early.' We must avafairvpelv ' stir up the gift of God, which is in us,' 2 Tim. i. 6.
[5.] Let us take heed we do not quench the Spirit, 1 Thes. v. 19, bring deadness on our hearts by carnal liberty. So much enlarged as we are to the flesh, so much straitened in the spirit. Where desires are after other things, there will be little delight in prayer.
[6.] The way to be fervent is to be frequent and often with God. A key seldom turned rusts in the lock. The fire of the sanctuary was never to go out. By great interruptions we lose what we have wrought : ' The way of the Lord is strength to the upright, but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity,' Prov. x. 29.
I come now to the second qualification, ' With my whole heart ;' xvhich importeth his integrity and sincerity in praying.
Doct. Our prayers to God must be sincere as well as fervent.
The heart must be in them, and the whole heart. This noteth —
1. Seriousness, that we heed what we say, otherwise we do not pour out our hearts before God. It is so far from being a spiritual act that it is not a rational act, but like the parrots speaking by rote, or as children say their prayers ; and we must not be always children. Surely we do not speak to God as God, as an all-seeing Spirit, if we
VER. 145.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 43
do not mind what we say, John iv. 24 ; and Prov. xxviii. 23, ' Burning lips and a wicked heart are as a potsherd covered with silver dross.'
2. A hearty desire or affectionateness. Praying from memory and invention, and praying from affection, are two distinct things ; yea, praying from conscience, and praying from the heart. Many times the mind is in prayer when the heart is not in it. The mind or con- science dictates what is fit to be asked, but the heart doth not con- sent, or not urge it to make any such suit to God ; and so the prayer is repeated in the very making : Psa. Ixvi. 18, ' If I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hear me.' The understanding judgeth that a meet prayer, but the heart is biassed the contrary way to some known sin. Therefore as David calleth all that is within him to bless God, Ps. ciii. 1, so to pray to him — memory, understanding, conscience, will, affections, all that is within us must attend upon this work ; that which God heareth is desire : Ps. x. 17, ' Lord, thou hast heard the <lesire of the humble : thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear/ So Ps. cxlv. 19, 'He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him : he also will hear their cry, and will save them.'