and must consequently proceed according to its own vile nature and propensities; and that, what is born of the Spirit, is spirit, and can alone rise, therefore, to spiritual life, and its concomitant properties.

Let me not, however, be mistaken in this matter. I am not speaking of the use or duty of prayer, nor of forms of prayer, or prayer extemporaneous. All men, unless those perhaps of the utmost impiety, are agreed, that supplications to God are becoming in his intelligent creatures, who live by his, bounty; and that all should be taught the necessity of this duty. But my. present object of consideration is the power of performing spiritual and gracious prayer, the prayer of the heart to God in Christ, for all the mercies of redemption, and for the greatest purification of the soul by his Holy Spirit. This, in other words, is, the prayer of faith, from grace for

grace,

"

grace, to which every blessing is promised; not the dry and dull prayer of the lips only, which, if the heart be not right, is said to be an abomination to the Lord. Of true prayer the judicious Hooker has well observed, that" God's heavenly inspirations and our holy desires are as so many angels of intercourse between him and us;' and that prayer of this kind "is the first thing wherewith a righteous life beginneth, and the last wherewith it doth end." We are also taught by a higher authority, that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much; because such a man, being justified by faith, is from a state of sin translated to a state of rightcousness, and so hath the Spirit of Christ 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 such, or as such, can sincerely ask for no such Gift as the Holy Spirit, or for the efficient Graces that flow from him. They desire 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 sight or apprehension, they find obstacles enough both for stoppage and stumbling. 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 spiritually discerned. He must, therefore, be renewed or be born of the Spirit, before he can discern the worth of spiritual things, or truly ask for them. He must be previously changed in heart, or he cannot in true earnestness seek for the mortification of his sinful flesh, and for the life of Christ, contrary as it is to that flesh, to be made manifest

in his mortal body. Unless he be quickened into spiritual life, he hath nothing but his mere natural life, which, being depraved, craves only for itself, and for its own gratifications, 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 superior power, he is in continual captivity to the Law of sin in his members; and is so far from understanding the sacred, pure, and gracious Liberty of the Children of God, that it is not from want of inclination, if he doth not openly revile and detest it. He hath no true sense of the Love of the Father, or of the Work of Christ in Redemption, or any real desire for the Spirit, as a Spirit of Wisdom and Grace, either to lead him into the true knowledge of God, or to constant knowledge of his own sinful nature and dangerous state, or to the right

fellowship

.

fellowship with him in the paths of godliness and truth. He may ask for the Spirit in words, and so may a prating bird; all the words too may be excellent and sound; but, if in words only, he is far from asking aecording to the will of God, who hath repeatedly declared, that he regardeth not the lips, but the heart. St. Paul, in his natural state, had without doubt often used words of prayer, and of many long prayers too, like other Pharisees; but none of his petitions bad the divine acknowledgement of, Behold, he prayeth, till after his conversion, when he first breathed out supplications, which flowed from life, and were carried up by faith and hope towards Heaven. Without faith it is impossible to please God; and as faith is primarily his gift, and always carried on by the operation of his Spirit, we may be convinced on divine authority, that no carnal man,

no