240 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. [SeR. XXXV.
of it. God giveth out influences of grace according to his will or good pleasure ; hut we must pray according to his will of precept. The influence of grace is not the warrant of duty, but the help ; we are to do all acts in obedience to God's command, whatever cometh of it, Luke V. 5. God is sovereign ; disposed or indisposed, you are bound. Our impotency is our sin. Now our sin cannot excuse us from our duty, for then the creature were not culpable for his sinful defects and omissions. The outward act of a duty is commanded as well as the inward ; though we cannot come up to the nature of a perfect duty, yet we should do as we can. Tota actio, and totum actionis, falleth under the command of God: Hosea xiv. 2, 'Take with you words;' ay, and also take with you affections. Though I cannot do all, I must do as much as I can, bring such desires as I have. God's Spirit is more likely to help you in duty, than in the neglect of it. You quench the Spirit that must assist you by neglecting the means ; when the door is bolted, knocking is the only way to get it open. Present yourselves before God, and see what he will do for you. By tacking about, men get the wind, not by lying still ; there is many times a supply cometh ere we are aware : Cant. vi. 11, 12, " Or ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib.' We begin with much deadness and straitness ; by striving against it, rather than yielding to it, we get enlargement afterwards ; God assists those that will be doing what he commandeth ; when we stir up our- selves, he is the more ready to help us.
Use 2. Is caution. See that your prayers come from the Spirit ; there are some prayers it is a reproach to the Holy Spirit to father them upon him.
1. An idle and foolish loquacity. When men take a liberty to prattle anything in God's hearing, and pour out raw, tumultuous, and in- digested thoughts before him : Eccles. v. 2, ' Be not hasty to utter anything before God ; ' it is a great irreverence and contempt of his majesty. Surely the Spirit is not the author of ignorant, senseless, and dull praying ; nothing disorderly cometh from him. The heathen are charged with vain babbling and heartless repetitions : Mat. vi. 7, 'They think to be heard for their much speaking.' Shortness or length are both culpable, according to the causes from whence they come ; shortness out of barrenness and straitness, or length out of affectation, or ingeminating the same thing, without savour or wisdom, or a mere filling up the time with words.
2. A frothy eloquence and affected language ; as if the prayer were the more grateful to God, and he did accept men for their words rather than their graces, and were to be worsliipped with fine phrases and quaint speeches. No, it is the humble exercise of faith, hope, and love, whicli he regardeth ; and such art and curiosity is against God's sovereignty, and doth not suit with the gravity and seriousness of worship. If we would speak to God, we must speak with our hearts to him rather than our words ; and the more jilain and bare they are, the better tliey suit with the nature of duty. Moses was bid to put off his shoes in holy ground, to teach us to lay aside our ornaments when we humble ourselves before God. It is not words, but spirit and life; not a work of oratory, but filial allection. Too
VeR. 26.] . SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. 241
much care of verbal eloquence showeth our hearts are more conversant with signs than things, words than matter ; and it hath a smack of the man, and smelleth of the man, but savoureth not of the Spirit : Ps. cxix. 26, ' I declared my ways, and thou heardest me.'
3. Outward vehemency and loud speech. The heat which ariseth from the agitation of bodily spirits, and vehemency of speech, dif- fereth from an inward affection, which is accompanied with reverence and child-like dependence upon God. It is not the loud noise of words which is best heard in heaven ; the fervent affectionate cries of the saints are those of the heart, not of the tongue : Ps. x. 17, ' Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble;' and Ps. xxxviii. 9, 'O Lord, all my ways are before thee, and my groaning is not hid from thee.' The vehemency of the affection may sometimes cause the extension of the voice ; but without it, we are but as tinkling cymbals.
4. Natural fervency, when instant and earnest for some kind of bless- ings, especially when we are oppressed with grievous evils, and would fain get rid of them ; yet they cannot be looked upon as a motion of the Spirit ; partly because it is the temporal inconvenience they mind more than tlie removal of sin ; and cry more to get ease of their troubles than repentance for their sins which procured them ; and the supply of their necessities which they mind, and not the favour of God ; and therefore the Holy Ghost calleth it howling, Hos. vii. 14, like the moans of the beasts for ease. Partly because they have no more to do with God when their turns are served, and they are delivered from their troubles: Jer. ii. 27, 'In the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us ;' Exod. x. 17, 'Entreat the Lord, that he may take away this death only ; ' so that all cometh from mere self-love. Partly because those relentings which they have for sin go not deep enough to divorce their hearts from it : Ps. Ixxviii. 36, 37, ' Nevertheless, they did flatter with their mouth, and they lied to him with their tongues ; for their heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant.' Even then, when they sought God right early, and remem- bered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer, the judgments of God had some slight effect upon them, reduced them to some degree of repentance and good behaviour and temper for a while ; but all this while they were but like ice in yielding weather, thawed above, and hard at bottom. Partly because, if they pray for spiritual things, it is but a dictate of conscience awakened for the time, not the desires of a renewed heart, seconded with constant en- deavours to obtain what we ask of God ; and so, ' The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing,' Prov. xiii. 4 ; they are not urging desires that quicken to diligence.