3. The prevalency of these affections. That God and his interest be uppermost in the soul, and the heart be effectually bent towards him ; for prayer is not a work barely of our natural faculties, but of grace guiding, ordering, and inclining those faculties ; not only a work of understanding and will, but of faith, love, fear, zeal, hatred of sin, temperance, patience, and other virtues, which do bend the heart to- wards God, and draw it off from other things : and without them the understanding will not be clear, and have any deep sense of the worth of spiritual things, 2 Peter i. 19. Without these, the will is remiss, and they never pursue them in good earnest. We may wish for them, but shall not will them : As Balaam, ' Oh that I might die the death of the righteous ! But he loved the wages of iniquity,' 2 Peter ii. 15, and so spake words which his heart allowed not. The affections will be diverted to other things, and we cannot have those longings and strong desires after grace, Ps. cxix. 36 ; Col. iii. 2 ; or at best but a little passionate earnestness for the present.
4. A universal care to please God in all tilings, without harbouring any known sin in our hearts, Ps. Ixvi. 18 ; Ps. xvii. 3, ( Thou has proved mine heart ; thou hast visited me in the night ; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing ; ' nothing contrary to the new covenant, no guile ; nothing in his heart contrary to what was in his mouth. So no insincerity found : Job xi. 13-14, ' If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thy hand towards him : if iniquity be in thy hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness • dwell in thy tabernacles.' If you mean to call upon God with any confidence, all that is displeasing to him must be cast out of the heart. This is the best preparation ; all filth must be swept out when you come to the holy God, for he will not do us good till we are fit to receive good. Therefore if you mean to stretch out your hand in prayer, thus you must do, then may you lift up your face without spot, have boldness and confidence in prayer ; but when the heart is wedded to any vanity, God will not hear: Job xxxv. 13, ' Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it/
Use. To persuade us to pray with our whole hearts ; for —
41 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. CLXII.
1. God will not be mocked, Gal. vi. 7 ; that is in vain. You may venture to mock God, put him off with vain pretences, but it will cost you dear. He knoweth the thoughts afar oft0, Ps. cxxxix. 2 ; and Heb. iv. 12-13, ' The word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart; neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight ; but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.' Though man cannot find you out, yet God can.
2. God hath expressly told you, ' The prayer of the upright is his delight,' Prov. xv. 8. He will pardon many defects, but he will not pardon want of sincerity, either in the person or prayer. Though you cannot bring the pomp of gifts, or exact righteousness, yet, if sincere, God will delight in you ; he measureth your prayer by that.
3. Where there is a moral integrity you do not dissemble ; God can find the defect of supernatural integrity : Dent. v. 29, ' I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee ; they have well said in all that they have spoken : oh that there were such an heart in them,' &c. Therefore be sure your lips do not feign, Ps. xvii. 1, and pretend more grace than you have; so that for the main your hearts be upright, seriously, readily bent to please him in all things. To this end —
[1.] The tongue must not only pray, but the heart. How dare you tell God to his face that you love him, and fear him, and trust in him, when there is no such matter ? No such forgery as counterfeiting the voice of God's Spirit. The heart should be first and chief in prayer, Ps. xli. 1 ; and Lam. hi. 4, ' Lift up your hearts with your hands to God in the heavens.' There is the chief voice ; the hand without it is nothing.
[2.] You must make conscience of graces as well as gifts, yea, more than gifts : 1 Cor. xii. 31, 'But covet earnestly the best gifts ; and yet show I unto you a more excellent way ; ' with 1 Cor. xiii. 1, 2. And bewail unbrokenness of heart more than brokenness of expression ; if you chatter like cranes, yet if there be a holy desire in it, God will hear.