VeK. 26.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. 237
■come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.' And to obey his sanctifying motions : Ps. xxvii. 8, ' When thou saidst, Seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.'
3. We cannot say we have not the spirit of prayer, because we have not such freedom of words as may give vent to spiritual affections. If there be a sense of such things as we mainly want, that is, Christ and his graces, and an affectionate desire after them, and we address ourselves to God with these desires in the best fashion we can, that we may have help and relief from him, and you are resolved not to give him over till you have it, you have the spirit of grace and supplica- tions, though it may be you cannot enlarge upon these things with such copiousness of expression as others do. Therefore let us consider what is the spirit of prayer, and how far doth he make use of our natural faculties. I conceive it thus. A man is convinced that his happiness lieth in the enjoyment of God ; that there is no enjoy- ment of God but by Christ, till he be justified and sanctified, and walk in holy obedience to him. The Spirit of God upon this changeth his heart, and it is set within him to seek after God in this way: 1 Chron. xxii. 19, 'Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God ; ' and Ps. cxix. 36, ' Incline my heart unto thy testimonies.' Now, because the will without the affections doth not work strongly, but is like a ship without sails — affections are the vigorous and forcible motions of the will, without ■which it would lie sluggish and idle, or like a chariot without wheels and horses, or a bird when her wings are clipped — therefore the Holy Ghost stirreth up these affections, and our heart within us makes us willing, and this bringeth the soul to God. For no other can give us satisfaction, but he alone ; and the difficulties of salvation are so many that we cannot overcome them but in his power and strength. Now sense of wants, and an earnest desire of a supply, will ordinarily put words into a man's mouth, and affections beget expressions ; yet because many accidental reasons may hinder it, the weight of prayer is not to be laid so much upon the expression as. the affection. If there be a strong and an earnest desire after grace, it will make us express ourselves to God in the best manner that we can. As long as you pray for necessary graces, and other things in subordination thereunto, and can heartily groan and sigh to God for what you want with respect to your great end, the prayer is well performed. There may be a great petulancy and extravagance of words where there is not a good and an honest heart — vain babblings, without faith, or feeling, or spiritual affections.
4. It is not to be understood as if all that pray graciously had the Spirit in a like measure, or the same persons always in the same measure. No, the wind bloweth where it listeth, John iii. 7, and he giveth us to will and to do. We cannot find the assistance at our own pleasure ; some have it in a more plentiful, others in a scanty measure, though all have it. Jesus Christ himself, though he had not the Spirit by measpre, yet he exercised and acted the spirit of prayer more at one time : Luke xxii. 44, 'And being in an agony,he prayed, e/cTej/e'o-Tepoi', more earnestly ;' his love to God was always the same, but the expression of it different. So God's children seek heavenly things with a weaker degree of desire,
238 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. [SeR. XXXV.
and sometimes with a stronger ; at some times we have the directing work of the Spirit, and are not sensible of those eai-nest and unexpressible groans ; that is to say, we put up our requests for things lawful and use- ful, and most necessary for us at the time, but not with that ardour and fervency that we do desire. We cannot say that the Holy Ghost doth not assist these prayers, as sometimes the assistance is given us more largely as to the groaning part, and men are all in a flame. Strong and passionate att'ections do most bewray themselves, some- times as a spirit of confidence and holy liberty with our Father, and faith is clearly predominant in prayer ; at other times repentance and child-like reverence and fear are altogether in action in the prayer, and there is a great seriousness, though not such life and vigour or strength of faith as grief for sin, bemoaning our failings.
5. Gifts are more necessary when we join with others, and are their mouth to God ; but the spirit of prayer is of most use when we are alone, and we have nothing to do but to set ourselves before the searcher of hearts, and draw forth our desires after him ; when, with- out taking in the necessities of others, we present our personal requests to God, and lament the defects of our own hearts and the plague of our own souls. When we pray alone, it is good to observe the work- ings of our own hearts ; surely whatever prayer we make to God, we should find it in our hearts : 2 Sam. vii. 27, ' Therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee.' Having a deep sense of our wants, a real desire of the blessing, we ask exer- cising gi-ace rather than memory and invention ; pouring out our very souls to God, with sighs and groans rather than words ; we are at liberty there to use or not use the voice, to continue speech and break it off, and lift up the heart by strong desires to God. Use 1. It informeth us —