wanting. And all these the soul hath a sense of by the Spirit, an inexpressible sense and experience. Without this, prayer is not prayer; "men's voices may be heard but they speak not in their hearts. Sense of want, is the spring of desire; natural of natural, spiritual of spiritual. Without this sense given by the Holy Ghost, there is neither desire nor prayer.

(2dly). The expressions, or the words of such persons, come exceeding short of the labouring of their hearts; and therefore in (and after) their supplications, the Spirit makes intercession with sighs and groans that cannot be uttered.' Some men's words go exceedingly beyond their hearts. Did their spirits come up to their expressions, it were well. He that hath this assistance, can provide no clothing that is large and broad enough to set forth the desires of his heart t; and therefore, in the close of his best and most fervent supplications, such a person finds a double dissatisfaction in them. 1. That they are not a righteousness to be rested on; that if God should mark what is in them amiss, they could not abide the trial. 2. That his heart in them is not poured out, nor delivered in any proportion to the holy desires and labourings that were conceived therein; though they may in Christ have great refreshment by them. The more they speak, the more they find they have left unspoken.

(3dly.) The intercession of the saints thus assisted, is according to the mind of God; that is, they are guided by the Spirit to make requests for those things unto God, which it is his will they should desire; which he knows to be good for them, useful and suitable to them, in the condition wherein they were. There are many ways, whereby we may know when we make our supplications according to the will of God. I shall instance only in one; that is, when we do it according to the promise. When our prayers are regulated by the promise, we make them according to the will of God. So David, Psal. cxix. 49. Remember the words wherein thou hast caused me to put my trust.' He prays and regulates his desire by the word of promise, wherein he had trusted. But yet, men may ask that which is in the promise,

n 1 Sam. i. 13.

Isa. xxxviii. 14. Exod. xiv. 15. p Isa. Ixiv. 6. Psal. cxxx. 3.

and yet not have their prayers regulated by the promise. They may pray for what is in the promise, but not as it is in the promise, so James says, some ask and receive not, because they ask amiss, to spend it on their lusts;' chap. iv.3. Though the things which God would have us ask, be requested, yet if not according as he would have us do it, we ask amiss.

Two things are required, that we may pray for the things in the promise, as they are in the promise.

[1st.] That we look upon them as promised, and promised in Christ; that is, that all the reason we have, whence we hope for attaining the things we ask for, is from the mediation and purchase of Christ, in whom all the promises are yea and amen. This it is, to ask the Father in Christ's name; God as a Father, the fountain, and Christ as the procurer of them.

[2dly.] That we ask for them for the end of the promise, not to spend on our lust. When we ask pardon for sin, with secret reserves in our hearts to continue in sin, we ask the choicest mercy of the covenant, to spend it on our lusts. The end of the promise the apostle tells us, 2 Cor. vii. 1. Having these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all pollution of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.' When we ask what is in the promise, as it is in the promise, to this end of the promise, our supplications are according to the will of God. And this is the first conjugal affection that Christ exerciseth towards believers; he delights in them; which, that he doth is evident, as upon other considerations innumerable, so from the instance given.

In return hereunto, for the carrying on of the communion between them, the saints delight in Christ; he is their joy, their crown, their rejoicing, their life, food, health, strength, desire, righteousness, salvation, blessedness; without him they have nothing, in him they shall find all things; Gal. vi. 14. God forbid that I should rejoice, save in the cross of Christ.' He hath from the foundation of the world, been the hopes, expectation, desire, and delight of all believers. The promise of him was all (and it was enough), that God gave Adam in his inexpressible distress, to relieve and comfort him; Gen. iii. 15. Eve perhaps supposed that

9 Psal. lxxviii. 35-37.

the promised seed had been born in her first-born, when she said, 'I have gotten a man from the Lord,' so most properly A denoting the fourth case; and this was the matter of her joy; Gen. iv. 1. Lamech having Noah given to him as a type of Christ, and salvation by him, cries out, This same shall comfort us concerning our work, and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed ;' Gen. v. 29. he rejoices in him who was to take away the curse, by being made a curse for us. When Abraham was in the height of his glory, returning from the conquest of the kings of the east, that came against the confederate kings of the vale of Sodom, God appears to him with a glorious promise, Gen. xv. 1. 'Fear not Abraham: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.' What now could his soul more desire? alas, he cries (as Reuben afterward upon the loss of Joseph) the child is not and whither shall I go? ver. 2. 'Lord God what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless?" Thou hast promised, that in my seed shall all the earth be blessed, if I have not that seed, ah what will all other things do me good? Thence it is said that he rejoiced to see the day of Christ; he saw it and was glad,' John viii. 56. the thoughts of the coming of Christ, which he looked on at the distance of two thousand years, was the joy and delight of his heart. Jacob blessing his sons, lifted up his spirit when he comes to Judah, in whom he considered the Shiloh to come, Gen. xlix. 8, 9. and a little after, wearied with the foresight and consideration of the distresses of his posterity, this he diverts to for his relief, as that great delight of his soul; ‘I have waited for thy salvation, O God:' for him who was to be the salvation of his people. But it would be endless to instance in particulars. Old Simeon sums up the whole: Christ, is God's salvation, and Israel's glory; Luke ii. 30, 31. and whatever was called the glory of old, it was either himself, or a type of him. The glory of man is their delight.' Hence Haggai ii. 7. he is called the desire of all nations." Him whom their soul loves and delights in, desire, and long after. So is the saints' delight in him made a description of him by way of eminence, Mal. iii. 1. The Lord whom ye even the messenger

seek shall suddenly come to his temple, of the covenant whom ye delight in.' He whom ye seek, whom ye delight in, is the description of Christ. He is

their delight and desirable one, the person of their desire. To fix on something in particular.

In that pattern of communion with Jesus Christ, which we have in the Canticles, this is abundantly insisted on. The spouse tells us, that she sits down under his shadow with great delight; chap. ii. 3. And this delight to be vigorous and active, she manifests several ways, wherein we should labour to find our hearts in like manner towards him.

1st. By her exceeding great care to keep his company and society, when once she had obtained it; chap. ii. 7. I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my beloved until he please.' Having obtained sweet communion with Christ, described in the verses foregoing, of which before, here she expresseth her delight in it, and desire of the continuance of it; and therefore, following on the allusion formerly insisted on, she speaks as one would do to her companion, that had rest with one she loved. I charge you by all that is dear to you, by the things you most delight in, which among the creatures are most lovely, all the pleasant and desirable things that you can think of, that you disturb him not. The sum of her aim and desire is, that nothing may fall out, nothing of sin or provocation happen that may occasion Christ to depart from her, or to remove from that dispensation wherein he seemed to take that rest in her. O stir him not up until he please, that is, never,

, love

itself: in the abstract to express a rádos, or earnest affection, for so that word is often used. When once the soul of a believer hath obtained sweet and real communion with Christ, it looks about him, watcheth all temptations, all ways whereby sin might approach, to disturb him in his enjoyment of his dear Lord and Saviour, his rest and desire. How doth it charge itself, not to omit any thing, nor to do any thing, that may interrupt the communion obtained. And because the common entrance of temptations, which tend to the disturbance of that rest and complacency which Christ takes in the soul, is from delightful diversions from actual communion with him; therefore is desire strong and active, that the companions of such a soul, those with whom it doth

r Aernitatem temporis juxta sensum mysticum in se includit, ut alias in Scriptura; quiæ nunquam a tali somno, id est, conjunctione cum sponso, excitari velit. Mor. in loc.

converse, would not by their proposals or allurements, divert it into any such frame, as Christ cannot delight, nor rest in. A believer that hath gotton Christ in his arms, is like one that hath found great spoils, or a pearl of price. He looks about him every way, and fears every thing, that may deprive him of it. Riches make men watchful; and the actual sensible possession of him, in whom are all the riches and treasure of God, will make men look about them for the keeping of him. The line of choicest communion, is a line of the greatest spiritual solicitousness: carelessness in the enjoyment of Christ pretended, is a manifest evidence of a false heart.

S

2dly. The spouse manifests her delight in him, by her utmost impatience of his absence, with desires still of nearer communion with him, chap. viii. 6. 'Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal' upon thine arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is cruel as the grave, the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.' The allusion is doubtless from the high-priest of the Jews, in his spiritual representation of the church before God. He had a breastplate which he is said to wear on his heart, Exod. xxviii. 29. wherein the names of the children of Israel were engraven after the manner of seals or signets, and he bare them for a memorial before the Lord. He had the like also upon his shoulder, or on his arms, ver. 11, 12. both representing the priesthood of Christ, who bears the names of all his, before his Father, in the holiest of holies; Heb. ix. 24. Now the seal on the heart is near, inward, tender love, and care, which gives an impression and image on the heart of the thing so loved. 'Set me,' saith the spouse,' as a seal upon thine heart;' let me be constantly fixed in thy most tender and affectionate love; let me always have a place in thine heart; let me have an engraving, a mighty impression of love upon thine heart, that shall never be obliterated. The soul is never satisfied with thoughts of Christ's love to it. Oh that it were more, that it were more, that I were as a seal on his heart!' is its language. The soul knows indeed on serious thoughts, that the love of Christ is inconceivable, and cannot be increased, but it would fain work up itself to an apprehension of it; and therefore she adds here, 'set me Hag. ii. 24. Jer. xxii. 24.