[1.
Prayer.] Would he pray? Where will he find materials
for his prayer? Alas, he 'knows not what he should pray for as we
ought,’ Rom. 8:26. Let
him alone, and he will soon pray himself into some temptations or other, and
cry for that which [it] were cruelty in God to give; and therefore God puts
words in our mouths: 'Take with you words and say,’ Hosea 14:2. Well, now he hath words put into his
mouth. Alas, they will freeze in his very lips, if he hath not some
heart-heating affections to thaw the tap. And where shall this fire
be had? Not a spark to found on his own hearth, except it be some
strange fire of natural desires, which will not serve. Whence then
must the fire come to thaw the iciness of the heart, but from
heaven? The Spirit, he must stretch himself upon the soul, as the
prophet on the child, and then the soul will come to some kindly warmth and
heavenly heat in its affections. The Spirit must groan, and then the
soul will groan. He helps us to these sighs and groans which turn
the sails of prayer. He dissolves the heart and then it [i.e. prayer]
bursts out of the heart by groans of the lips by heavenly rhetoric, out of the
eyes as from a flood-gate with tears. Yet further, now the creature
is enabled to wrestle with God in prayer, what will he get by all
this? Suppose he be weak in grace, is he able to pray himself strong,
or corruption weak? No, this is not to be found in prayer, as an act
of the creature; this drops from heaven also: 'In the day when I cried thou
answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul,’ Ps. 138:3. David received it in duty,
but had it not from his duty, but from his God. He
did not pray himself strong, but God strengthened him in his prayer.
[2.
Hearing the Word.] Well, cast your eyes once more upon the
Christian, as engaging in another ordinance of hearing the word
preached. The soul's strength to hear the Word is from
God. He opens the heart to attend, Acts 16:14, yea, he opens the understanding of the saint to
receive the Word, so as to conceive what it means. It is like
Samson's riddle, which we cannot unfold without his heifer. He opens
the womb of the soul to conceive by it, as the understanding to conceive of it,
that the barren soul becomes a 'joyful mother of children.’ David
sat for half a year under the public lectures of the law, and the womb of his
heart shut up, till Nathan comes, and God with him, and now is
the time of life. He conceives presently, yea, and brings forth the
same day, falls presently into the bitter pangs of sorrow for his sins, which
went not over till he had cast them forth in that sweet 51st Psalm. Why
should this one word work more than all the former, but that now God struck in
with his word, which he did not before? He is therefore said to
'teach his people to profit,’ Isa. 48:17. He sits in heaven that teacheth hearts. When
God's Spirit, who is the headmaster, shall call a soul from his usher to
himself, and say, —Soul, you have not gone the way to receive by hearing the
word. Thus and thus conceive of such a truth, improve such a promise
—presently the eyes of his understanding open, and his heart burns within him
while he speaks to him. Thus you see the truth of this point, 'That
the Christian's strength is in the Lord.’ Now we shall give some
demonstrations [or reasons].
