flowly, and is without transport, and often hindered, and never hafty, and is full of mercy. Prayer is the peace of our fpirit, the stilness of our thoughts, the evenness of recollection, the feat of meditation, the reft of our cares, and the calm of our tempeft. Prayer is the iffue of a quiet mind, of untroubled thoughts; it is the daughter of charity, and the fifter of meeknefs; and he that prays to God with an angry, that is, with a troubled and difcompofed fpirit, is like him that retires into a battle to meditate. Anger is a perfect alienation of the mind from prayer; and therefore is contrary to that attention, which presents our prayers in a direct line unto God.

And, befides this, anger is a combination of many other things, every one of which is an enemy to prayer. It hath in it the trouble of forrow, and the heats of drunkenness, and the disease of revenge, and the boilings of a fever, and the rashnefs of folly, and the disturbance of perfecution; and therefore is a certain effective enemy against prayer; which ought

to be a spiritual joy, and an act of mortification; and to have in it no heats, but of charity and zeal; and they are to be guided by prudence and confideration, and allayed with the delicioufnefs of mercy, and the ferenity of a meek and quiet spirit. And therefore St. Paul gave caution, that the fun fhould not go down upon our wrath; meaning, that it fhould not ftay upon us till evening prayer, for it would hinder the evening facrifice; God having by many fignifications taught his people, that when they went to the altars to pray, or give thanks, they should bring no fin or violent paffion along with them to the facrifice.

ANOTHER thing, which altho' it is not a direct fin, yet is an hinderance to our prayers, and caufes them often, to return without effect, is indifference, and eafiness of defire. We pray for health oftentimes; and God, it may be, gives us a fickness that carries us to eternal life. We pray for neceffary fupport for our perfons and families; and he gives us more than we

need. We beg for a removal of present fadness; and he gives us that which makes us able to bear twenty fadneffes, a chearful fpirit, a peaceful confcience, and a joy in God, as a foretaste of eternal rejoycings in the kingdom of heaven.

But then, although God doth very frequently give us beyond the matter of our defires; yet he doth not fo often give us great things beyond the Spirit of our defires, beyond the quickness, vivacity, and fervour of our minds. For there is but one thing in the world that God hates befides fin, and that is, indifferency and lukewarmness; which, although it hath not in it the direct nature of fin, yet it hath this teftimony from God, that it is an abomination unto him ; and excepting this thing alone, God never faid fo of any thing in the New Teftament, but what was a direct breach of a commandment. The reason of it is, because lukewarmness, or an indifferent fpirit, is an undervaluing of God and of religion. It is a feparation of our reafon from our af+ Rev. iii. 16.

fections.

fections. It is a conviction of our understanding as to the goodness of a duty, and a refufing to follow what we understand.

For he that is lukewarm, understands the better way, but feldom pursues it. He hath fo much reafon as is fufficient, but he will not obey it. His will doth not follow the dictate of his underftanding, and therefore it is unnatural. It is like the phantaftick fires of the night, where there is light and no heat.

And therefore, although an act of lukewarmnefs is only an indecency, and no fin; yet a state of lukewarmness is criminal, and a finful ftate of imperfection. An act of indifferency hinders a finglé prayer from being accepted; but a state of it makes the perfon ungracious and unacceptable to God. And therefore St. James, in his accounts concerning an effective prayer, not only requires that he' be a juft man who prays, but his prayer must be fervent; -the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. It must be an intent, zealous, active, operative prayer.

For

For confider, what a mighty indecency it is, that a man fhould fpeak to God for a thing that he values not; or that he fhould not value a thing, without which he cannot be happy; or that he should fpend his religion upon a trifle; and if it be not a trifle, that he fhould not spend his affections upon it.

If our prayers be for temporal things, I shall not need to ftir up your affections to be earneft for obtaining them. We defire them greedily, we run after them intem- . perately, we are kept from them with great impatience, we are delayed with infinite regrets; we prefer them before our duty; we ask them unfeasonably; we receive them with our own prejudice, and we care not; we chufe them to our hurt and hinderance, and yet delight in the purchafe; and when we do pray for them, we can hardly bring ourfelves to it to fubmit to God's will, but will have them (if we can) whether he be pleased or no.

But then for fpiritual things, for the intereft of our fouls, and the affairs of heaven, we pray to God with just such a

zeal