on men without it. §. 16. This faith is not only. poffible now, but neceffary. §. 17. What it is, further unfolded. §. 18. Who the heirs of this faith are; and what were the noble works of it in the former ages of the just.

§. I. BUT there be others of a more refined fpeculation, and reformed practice, who dare not use, and lefs adore, a piece of wood or ftone, an image of filver or gold; nor yet allow of that Jewish, or rather Pagan pomp in worship, practifed by others, as if Chrift's worship were of this world, though his kingdom be of the other, but are doctrinally averfe to fuch superstition; and yet refrain not to bow to their own religious duties, and esteem their formal performance of feveral parts of worship that go against the grain of their fleshly ease, and a preciseness therein, no small crofs unto them; and that if they abstain from gross and fcandalous fins, or if the act be not committed, though the thoughts of it are embraced, and that it has a full career in the mind, they hold themselves safe enough within the pale of difciplefhip, and walls of Chriftianity. But this alfo is too mean a character of the difcipline of Chrift's cross: and those that flatter themselves with fuch a fort of taking it up, will in the end be deceived with a fandy foundation, and a midnight cry. For faid Chrift, But I fay unto you, that every idle word that men fhall fpeak, they fhall give an account thereof in the day of judgment.*

§. II. For firft, it is not performing duties of religion, but the rife of the performance that God looks at. Men may, and some do, crofs their own wills, in their own wills: voluntary omiffion and commiffion: Who has required this at your hands ? faid the Lord of old to the Jews, when they seemed induftrious to have ferved him; but it was in a way of their own contriving or inventing, and in their own time and will; not with the foul truly touched and prepared by the divine power of God, but bodily worship only: that the apostle tells us, profits little. Not keeping to the manner of taking up the crofs in worfhip, as well as other things, has been a great caufe of the troublesome fuperftition that is yet in the world. For men have no more brought their worship to the teft, than their fins: nay, lefs; for they have ignorantly thought the one a fort of excufe for the other; and not that their religious performances fhould need a crofs, or an apology.

§. III. But true worship can only come from an heart prepared by the Lord. This preparation is by the fanctification of the Spirit; by which, if God's children are led in the general courfe of their lives, as Paul teaches, much more in their worship to their Creator and Redeemer. And whatever prayer be made, or doctrine be uttered, and not from the preparation of the Holy Spirit, it is not acceptable with God: nor can it be the true evangelical worship, which is in fpirit and

Ifaiah i. 12.

Prov, xvi. 1. Rom. viii. 14.

truth; that is, by the preparation and aid of the fpirit. For what is an heap of the most pathetical words to God Almighty; or the dedication of any place or time to him? He is a fpirit, to whom words, places, and times, ftrictly confidered, are improper or inadequate. And though they be the inftruments of public worship, they are but bodily and visible, and cannot carry our requests any further, much lefs recommend them to the invifible God; by no means; they are for the fake of the congregation; it is the language of the foul God hears, nor can that fpeak but by the fpirit, or groan aright to Almighty God without the affiftance of it.

§. IV. The foul of man, however lively in other things, is dead to God, till he breathe the fpirit of life into it: it cannot live to him, much less worship him, without it. Thus God tells us, by Ezekiel, when in a vision. of the restoration of mankind, in the perfon of Ifrael, an usual way of speaking among the prophets, and as often mistaken, I will open your graves, faith the Lord, and put my fpirit in you, and you fhall live. So, though Chrift taught his difciples to pray, they were, in fome fort, difciples before he taught them; not worldly men, whose prayers are an abomination to God. And his teaching them, is not an argument that every body must say that prayer, whether he can fay it with the fame heart, and under the fame qualifications, as his poor difciples or followers did, or not; as

Ezek. xxxvii. 12, 13, 14.

is now too fuperftitiously and prefumptuously practifed; but rather, that as they then, fo we now, are not to pray our own prayers, but his: that is, fuch as he enables us to make, as he enabled them then.

§. V. For if we are not to take thought what we fhall fay when we come before worldly princes, because it fhall then be given us; and that it is not we that speak, but the fpirit of. our heavenly Father that fpeaketh in us; much lefs can our ability be needed, or ought we to ftudy to ourselves forms of speech in our approaches to the great Prince of princes, King of kings, and Lord of lords. For be it his greatness, we ought not by Christ's command; be it our relation to him as children, we need not; he will help us, he is our Father; that is, if he be fo indeed. Thus not only the mouth of the body, but of the foul is fhut, till God opens it; and then he loves to hear the language of it. In which the body ought never to go before the foul: his ear is open to fuch requests, and his fpirit ftrongly intercedes for thofe that offer them.

§. VI. But it may be asked, How fhall this preparation be obtained?

I answer: By waiting patiently, yet watchfully and intently upon God: Lord, fays the Pfalmift, thou haft heard the defire of the humble; thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt caufe thine ear to hear: and, fays Wisdom, The preparation of the heart in man is from the Lord. Here it is thou must not think thy Pfalm x. 17. • Prov. xvi. 1.

Mat. x. 19, 20

own thoughts, nor fpeak thy own words, which indeed is the filence of the holy crofs, but be fequestered from all the confused imaginations, that are apt to throng and prefs upon the mind in thofe holy retirements. It is not for thee to think to overcome the Almighty by the most compofed matter, caft into the apteft phrafe, no, no; one groan, one figh, from a wounded foul, an heart touched with true. remorse, a fincere and godly forrow, which is the work of God's fpirit, excels and prevails with God. Wherefore stand still in thy mind, wait to feel fomething that is divine, to prepare and difpofe thee to worship God truly and acceptably. And thus taking up the cross, and fhutting the doors and windows of the foul against every thing that would interrupt this attendance upon God, how pleasant foever the object be in itself, how lawful or needful at another feafon, the power of the Almighty will break in, his fpirit will work and prepare the heart, that it may offer up an acceptable facrifice. It is he that discovers and preffes wants upon the foul; and when it cries, it is he alone that fupplies them. Petitions, not fpringing from fuch a fenfe and preparation, are formal and fictitious: they are not true; for men pray in their own blind defires, and not in the will of God; and his ear is ftopped to them: but for the very fighing of the poor, and crying of the needy, God hath faid, he will arife; that is, the poor in fpirit, the needy foul, thofe that want his affiftance, who are

h

Pfalm xii. 5.

D