cause of his sufferings; and with an eye of dependence, for all their expectation of grace, and peace, and life, is through him alone.

3. They that have the spirit of prayer, are earnest for the fruits and graces of the spirit; that love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, all which the apostle enumerates, Gal. v. 22, 23. may be in them and abound; and they are restless in prayer for the mortification of the deeds of the flesh, for they consider what is said, Roin. viii. 13, "if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body ye shall live."

4. They that have the spirit of prayer, are enabled to go unto God as unto a father. "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father," Gal. iv. 6. Not but that doubts and fears may be in those that have the spirit; witness the Psalmist, who cried out, "Will the Lord cast off for ever; and will he be favorable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever; doth his promise fail for vermore? Hath God forgotten to be

gracious; hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies?" Psalm 1xxvii. 7-9. But at length, and truly it may be long before, faith gets the better of unbelief. Many that are the children of God cannot always call him Father; yet even then they go to him, and are not quite beat off from him; and there is a secret trust, that he has some gracious respect to them; and by this they are encour aged still to persist in prayer.

Use 3. Of exhortation. Prize and value the spirit of prayer. As without his help you cannot pray to any purpose; so he can make prayer mightily prevailing. The Spirit will create an holy boldness in your access to the throne of grace; he will enlarge your hearts in this duty; which enlargements are not without sweetness and great satisfaction. The Spirit will draw up and indite such petitions for you, as will not be denied, and give some encouraging intimation of your being accepted, and answered in the Beloved

Now, if you would have the spirit of prayer, follow these directions.

1. Rest not in the bare gift of prayer; let it not satisfy you that you have a

praying tongue, and no more: All your supplications are but a flattering the Lord with your lips, and a lying unto him with your tongues, while your hearts are not right with him.

2. Be sensible of your need of the Spirit. Light and liberty, life and liveliness, are the effects of the Spirit; good motions, holy affections, are his offspring. "Without him, you will be like Pharaoh's chariots when the wheels were taken off, and drive on heavily; but he can make your sculs like the chariots of Amminadab.

3. Part with every thing that grieves the Spirit. Foster not any lust or inordinate affection, that may render your hearts an unpleasant habitation to him.

4. Frequently beg for the Spirit, and especially in secret This will be a sign that you indeed desire him. Plead the promises which you find, Luke xi. 13. "If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit unto them that ask him?" And what God has promised, Christ died that he might purchase; nay, Christ has prayed that the Spirit might

be bestowed; and therefore you may pray with the greater encouragement and asThus concerning the third

surance.

doctrine.

WATCH IN PRAYER.

In prayer, watching is a necessary ingredient. Watching is a duty which the great Prophet Christ himself frequently pressed; and the injunction is general, What I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch," Mark xiii. 37. He knew that a spiritual lethargy is a disease most incident. But if at any time, surely in holy duties this heedlessness and sleepiness, does discover itself; we had need there. fore to rouse up our spirits, that are so sluggish naturally. Deborah speaks to herself four times: "Awake, awake; Deborah awake, awake; utter a song," Judges v. 12. We have need thus again and again to call upon our souls to awake and be watchful, when about to utter a prayer. Watching and prayer are joined in Scripture and not only so, but watching is required in prayer; Col. iv. 2.

"Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving." So 1 Pet. iv. 7. "But the end of all things is at hand, be ye therefore sober, and watch unto pray

In the handling of this doctrine, I shall, 1st, show what we are to watch against in prayer. 2dly, What we are to watch over. 3dly, What we are to watch for. 4thly, What manner of watching is required in prayer. 5thly, Give the reason why watching is so necessary. Lastly, make application.

In the first place, I am to tell you, what we are to watch against in prayer.

1. We must watch against indwelling corruption. There is a law in our members that wars against the law of our minds; and the law in our members commands quite contrary to the law of God. This law says, pray not at all; but especially forbids seriousness and fervency in prayer; and if not watchful, this law will sway and over-rule us, and bring us into captivity to the law of sin. We had need look to ourselves, for when we have thought of doing good, "evil will be present with us." And if care be not taken, the evil will hinder our doing