3. With respect to the new nature, or the temper and disposition of the saints. Prayer is the cry of the new creature, a work natural and kindly to the saints : Zech. xii. 10, ' I will pour upon the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication.' A spirit of grace will soon break out into supplications, and vent itself that way: Acts ix. 11, ' Behold, he prayeth;' Zeph. iii. 9, 'I will turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, and serve him with one consent.' In the margin it is a * pure lip.' God's true children are carried to him by a kind of natural motion, as light bodies move upward ; they are a sort of men that are seeking after God : Ps. xxiv. 6, ' This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, 0 Jacob ! Selah ! ' Therefore we should quite check and cross the bent and inclination of the new nature, unless we be much in prayer and often with God.
4. With respect to the necessities of the saints. Our wants are continual, as well in spiritual as in temporal things. That we need daily bread is evident to sense, and that we need daily pardon and daily strength against temptations should be as evident to faith. The soul hath its necessities as well as the body ; yea, they are greater, and of a more dangerous nature. Sometimes we lack wisdom, and who shall give it us but God ? James i. 5, ' If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth
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not, and it shall be given him.' Sometimes we Inck strength, and that is to be sought in prayer : Eph. iii. 10, ' Tliat he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with all might hy his Spirit in the inner man.' Sometimes we lack life and quickening, and to whom should we go but to the life-making Spirit, to him who quickeneth all things? In short, the throne of grace was set up for a time of need, and therefore, when our necessities drive us to it, we should not hang off: Heb. iv. 16, ' Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.' We always need to be delivered from evil ; we always need to be established in good. Sometimes we need a blessing on what we have, that our comforts may be sanctified to us ; sometimes a blessing on what we do, that we may begin it and end it in God. All our relations increase our necessities, so do all our enjoyments ; new mercies occasion new necessities ; and in the variety of our afflictions we have still somewhat to do with God. The receipt of one mercy discovereth the need of another.
5. With respect to the utility and profit of it. It is endless to instance in all things, I shall confine the discourse to spiritual profit, and there —
[1.] The three radical graces, faith, hope, and love, are acted and increased in prayer: Jude 20, 21, ' But ye, beloved, building up your- selves in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercies of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life ! ' Mark there, praying in the Holy Ghost is to be referred in common to them all, to building up your- selves in your most holy faith, to keeping yourselves in the love of God, to looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Surely frequent prayer keepeth every grace active, and more ready than if it were seldom used.
(1.) For faith in this duty : the mysteries of our most holy faith are reduced to practice ; even that great mystery of the trinity, and their distinct personal operations ; we find the benefit of it in prayer : Eph. ii. 18, 'For through him we both have an access, by one Spirit unto the Father/ To tlie Father as an all-sufficient fountain of grace: Gen. xvii. 1, 'I am the Almighty God' By Cln-ist, who hath pur- chased leave, welcome, and audience : Heb. x. 19, ' By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.' And by the Spirit, who hath given us an heart to come, inspiring us with holy motions, enlivening our affections : Rom. viii. 26, ' Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities ; ' that we may open our hearts to God. If prayer be prayer indeed, not a few cold heartless words, then is faith solemnly acted.
(2.) Love is acted and increased in this duty, while we desire of God all things in order to God, and show forth our hearty groans after everything that will bring us nearer to himself; praying first for God's love, then tlie grace of the Redeemer, and all other subordinate blessings and helps as they relate thereunto. Yea, this very opening our hearts to God is a solace to us, and the fruit and act of our delight in him. Tlie groans of the Spirit are the immediate issues of love, and come from a heart strongly bent to God and heavenly things. As faith directeth us to God as the first cause, so love to the chief