nefs, but they, who are convinced, that no human righteoufnefs can fave them? Who can befeech the Lord to grant them true holiness, but they who, through the Divine Spirit, have been led to the abhorrence of fin in their mortal bodies; or who, but they, really defire of this gracious Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body, and to crucify the flesh with its affections and lufts? Can flesh defire to crucify flesh, or that, which is vile and wicked, love purity and righteoufnefs, or that which is dead quicken itself, or any effect act against its cause, or above it, or without it? Our Lord tells us, that what is born of the flesh, is flesh, and muft confequently proceed according to its own vile nature and

It is obfervable, that Leaven and Flesh in the Old Teftament are fignified, in the original, by the fame word. Hence, the Apostle's exhortation to purge out the old leaven, that is, the flesh with its affections and lufts, which cannot follow Christ, nor can be conjoined with him, as the believer's paffover, righteoufnefs, or propitiation.

propen

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propenfities; and that, what is born of the Spirit, is fpirit, and can alone rife, therefore, to fpiritual life, and its concomitant properties.

Let me not, however, be mistaken in this matter. I am not speaking of the ufe or duty of prayer, nor of forms of prayer, or prayer extemporaneous. All men, unless those perhaps of the utmost impiety, are agreed, that fupplications to God are becoming in his intelligent creatures, who live by his bounty; and that all should be taught the neceffity of this duty. But my prefent object of confideration is the power of performing fpiritual and gracious. prayer, the prayer of the heart to God in Chrift, for all the mercies of redemption, and for the greatest purification of the foul by his Holy Spirit. This, in other words, is the prayer of faith, from grace for grace, to which every bleffing is promised; not the dry and dull prayer of the lips only, which, if the heart be

not

not right, is faid to be an abomination to the Lord. Of true prayer the judicious Hooker has well obferved, that "God's heavenly inspirations and our holy defires are as fo many angels of intercourfe between him and us;" and that prayer of this kind" is the first thing wherewith a righteous life beginneth, and the laft wherewith it doth end *." We are alfo taught by a higher authority, that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much;` because fuch a man being justified by faith, is from a state of fin tranflated to a ftate of righteoufnefs, and fo hath the Spirit of Chrift dwelling in him, by which he is enabled to pray thus fervently and effectually, according to the will of God.

$ 9. But the children of this world, while fuch, or as fuch, can fincerely afk for no fuch Gift as the Holy Spirit,

or for the efficient Graces that flow from him. They defire not the knowledge of God, nor of his ways; for they are always hard and grievous to them, and, if not quite out of their fight or apprehenfion, they find obftacles enough both. for ftoppage and ftumbling. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are fpiritually difcerned. He must therefore be renewed or be born of the Spirit, before he can difcern the worth of fpiritual things, or truly afk for them. He must be previously changed in heart, or he cannot in true earneftnefs feek for the mortification of his finful flesh, and for the life of Christ, contrary as it is to that flesh, to be made manifeft in his mortal body. Unlefs he be quickened into fpiritual life, he hath nothing but his mere natural life, which, being depraved, craves only for itself, and for its own gratifications,

whether

whether refined, or flagitious, in the ways of the world. If he be not delivered from the bondage of the strong one armed by a fuperior power, he is in continual captivity to the Law of fin in his members; and is fo far from understanding the facred, pure, and gracious Liberty of the Children of God, that it is not from want of inclination, if he doth not openly revile and deteft it. He hath no true sense of the Love of the Father, or of the Work of Chrift in Redemption, or any real defire for the Spirit, as a Spirit of Wisdom and Grace, either to lead him into the true knowledge of his own finful nature and dangerous ftate, or to the right knowledge of God, or to conftant fellowship with him in the paths of godliness and truth. He may ask for the Spirit in words, and fo may a prating bird; all the words too may be excellent and found; but if, in words only, he is far from afking according to the will of God, who hath repeatedly declared,