sweet sence of mercy received encouraging comforting strengthening enlivening enlightening mercy c. Thus David pours out his soul to bless and praise and admire the great God for his loving kindness to such poor vile wretches Psal. 103. 1 2. Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy Name Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits Who forgiveth all thine iniquities who healeth all thy diseases and crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies who redeemeth thy life from destruction who satisfieth thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed as the Eagles And thus is the Prayer of Saints sometimes turned into praise and thanksgiving and yet are Prayers still This is a Mystery God's people pray with their praises as it is written Phil. 4. 6. Be careful for nothing but in every thing by Prayer with supplication and thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God A sensible thanksgiving for mercies received is a mighty Prayer in the sight of God it prevails with him unspeakably 3dly In Prayer there is sometimes in the soul a sence of Mercy to be received This again sets the soul all on a flame Thou O Lord God saith David 2 Sam. 7. 27. hast revealed unto thy Servant saying I will build thee an house therefore hath thy Servant found in his heart to pray unto thee This provoked Jacob David Daniel with others even a sence of Mercies to be received as you may see Gen. 32. 9 10 11 12. Dan. 9. 2 3 4. which caused them not by fits and starts nor yet in a foolish frothy way to babble over a few words written in a paper but mightily fervently and continually to groan out their conditions before the Lord as being sensible sensible I say of their wants their misery and the willingness of God to shew mercy A good sence of sin and the wrath of God with some encouragement from God to come unto him is a better Common Prayer-Book than that which is taken out of the Papistical Mass-Book being the Scraps and Fragments of the devices of some Popes some Friars and I wot not what 3. Prayer is a sincere sensible and an affectionate pouring out of the soul to God O the heat strength life vigor and affection that is in right Prayer As the heart panteth after the Water-brooks so longeth my soul after thee O God Psal. 42. 1. I have longed for thy Precepts I have longed after thy Salvation Psal. 119. 40. My soul longeth yea fainteth for the Courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God Psal. 84. 2. My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy Judgements at all times Psal. 119. 20. Mark ye here My soul longeth it longeth it longeth c. Oh what affection is here discovered in Prayer The like you have in Daniel Dan. 9. 19. O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do defer not for thy Names sake O my God Every syllable carrieth a mighty vehemency in it This is called the fervent or the working Prayer by James Jam. 5. And so again Luke 22. 44. And being in an Agony he prayed more earnestly or had his affections more and more drawn out after God for his helping hand Oh how wide are the most of men with their Prayers from this Prayer that is Prayer in God's account Alas the greatest part of men make no conscience at all of the duty and as for them that do it is to be feared that many of them are very great strangers to a sencere sensible and affectionate pouring out their hearts or souls to God but even content themselves with a little lip-labour bodily exercise mumbling over a few imaginary Prayers When the Affections are indeed engaged in Prayer then then the whole man is engaged and that in such sort that the soul will spend it self to nothing as it were rather than it will go without that good desired even communion and solace with Christ. And hence it is that the Saints have spent their strengths and lost their lives rather than go without the blessing Psal. 69. 3. Psal. 38. 9 10. Gen. 32. 24 25 26. All this is too too evident by the ignorance prophaness and spirit of envy that reigns in the hearts of those men that are so hot for the Forms and not the Power of prayer Scarce one of forty among them know what it is to be born again to have communion with the Father through the Son to feel the power of Grace sanctifying their hearts but for all their prayers they still live cursed drunken whorish and abominable Lives full of Malice Envy Deceit Persecuting of the dear Children of God Oh what a dreadful after-clap is coming upon them which all their hypocritical assembling themselves together with all their prayers shall never be able to help them against or shelter them from Again It is a pouring out of the Heart or Soul There is in Prayer an unbosoming of a man's self an opening of the Heart to God an affectionate pouring out of the Soul in requests sighs and groans All my desires are before thee saith David Psal. 38. 9. my groanings are not hid from thee And again My soul thirsteth for God even for the living God When shall I come and appear before God When I remember these things I pour out my soul in me Psal. 42. 2 3. Mark I pour out my Soul It is an Expression signifying that in Prayer there goeth the very life and whole strength to God As in another place Psal. 62. 8. Trust in him at all times ye people pour out your hearts before him This is the Prayer to which the Promise is made for the delivering of a poor Creature out of captivity and thraldom If from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thou shalt find him if thou seekest him with all thy heart and with all thy soul Deut. 4. 29. Again It is a pouring out of the heart or soul to God This sheweth also the Excellency of the Spirit of prayer it is the great God to which it retires When shall I come and appear before God And it argueth that the Soul that thus prayeth indeed sees an emptiness in all things under heaven That in God alone there is rest and satisfaction for the Soul Now she that is a Widow and desolate trusteth in God 1 Tim. 5. 5. So saith David In thee O Lord do I put my trust let me never be put to confusion deliver me in thy Righteousness and cause me to escape incline thine ear to me and save me be thou my strong habitation whereunto I may continually resort For thou art my rock and my fortress deliver me O God out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man For thou art my hope O Lord my God thou art my trust from my mouth Many in a wording way speak of God but right Prayer makes God
must the Scripture be fulfilled that thus it must be Mat. 26. 53 54. As who should say were there but a word for it in the Scripture I should soon be out of the hands of mine enemies I should be helpt by Angels but the Scripture will not warrant this kind of praying for that saith otherwise It is a praying then according to the word promise The Spirit by the Word must direct as well in the manner as in the matter of Prayer I will pray with the Spirit and I will pray with the Understanding also But there is no understanding without the Word For if they reject the Word of the Lord what wisdom is in them Jer. 8. 9. 6. For the good of the Church This clause reacheth in whatsoever tendeth either to the honour of God Christ's advancement or his Peoples benefit For God and Christ and his People are so linked together that if the Good of one be prayed for to wit the Church the glory of God and advancement of Christ must needs be included For as Christ is in the Father so the Saints are in Christ John 17. 23. And he that toucheth the Saints toucheth the Apple of God's Eye Deut. 32. 10. Psal. 17. 8. Zach. 2. 8. And therefore pray for the Peace of Jerusalem and you pray for all that is required of you Psal. 122. 6. Psal. 51. 8. Isa. 62. 6 7. For Jerusalem will never be in perfect peace until she be in Heaven and there is nothing that Christ doth more desire than to have her there That also is the place that God through Christ hath given to her He then that prayeth for the peace and good of Sion or the Church doth ask that in prayer which Christ hath purchased with his Blood and also that which the Father hath given to him as the price thereof Now he that prayeth for this must pray for abundance of Grace for the Church for help against all its temptations that God would let nothing be too hard for it and that all things might work together for its good that God would keep them blameless and harmless the Sons of God to his glory in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation And this is the substance of Christ's own Prayer in the seventeenth of John And all Paul's Prayers did run that way as one of his Prayers do eminently shew in Ephes. 1. 16 to the 21. and Chap. 3. ver 14 to the 19th with Col. 1. 9 10 11 12 13. And Phil. 1. 9 10 11. he saith And this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in all knowledge and in all judgement that ye may approve things that are excellent that you may be sincere and without offence until the day of Christ. Being filled with the fruits of Righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God But a short Prayer you see and yet full of good desires for the Church from the beginning to the end That it may stand and go on and that in the most excellent frame of spirit even without blame sincere and without offence until the day of Christ let its temptations or persecutions be what they will And because as I said Prayer doth submit to the will of God and say Thy Will be done as Christ hath taught us Matth. 6. 10. therefore the People of the Lord in humility are to lay themselves and their prayers and all that they have at the foot of their God to be disposed of by him as he in his heavenly wisdom seeth best Yet not doubting but God will answer the desire of his People that way that shall be most for their advantage and his glory When the Saints therefore do pray with submission to the Will of God it doth not argue that they are to doubt or question Gods love and kindness to them But because they at all times are not so wise but that sometimes Satan may get that advantage of them as to tempt them to pray for that which if they had it would neither prove to God's glory nor his Peoples good 1 John 5. 14 15. Yet this is the confidence we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his Will he heareth us And if we know that he heareth us whatsoever we ask we know that we have the Petition that we ask of him that is we asking in the Spirit of grace and supplication For as I said before that Petition that is not put up in and through the Spirit it is not to be answered because it is beside the Will of God For the Spirit only knoweth that and so consequently knoweth how to pray according to that Will of God For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man that is in him even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2. 11. But more of this hereafter Thus you see first what Prayer is Now to proceed II. I will pray with the Spirit Now to pray with the Spirit for that 's the praying man and none else so as to be accepted of God It is for a man as aforesaid sincerely and sensibly with affection to come to God through Christ c. which sincere sensible and affectionate coming must be by the working of God's Spirit There is no man nor Church in the world that can come to God in Prayer but by the assistance of the holy Spirit For Eph. 2. 18. through Christ we all have access by one Spirit unto the Father Wherefore Paul saith We know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered And he that searcheth the heart knoweth the meaning of the Spirit because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God And because there is in this Scripture so full a discovery of the Spirit of Prayer and of mans inability to pray without it therefore I shall in a few words comment upon it Rom. 15. 16. For we Consider first the person speaking even Paul and in his person all the Apostles We Apostles we extraordinary Officers the wise Master-builders that have some of us been caught up into Paradise 1 Cor. 3. 10. 2 Cor. 12. 4. We know not what we should pray for Surely there is no man but will confess that Paul and his Companions were as able to have done any work for God as any Pope or proud Prelate in the Church of Rome and could as well have made a Common-Prayer-Book as those who at first composed this as being not a whit behind them either in grace or gifts For we know not what we should pray for We know not the Matter of the things for which we should pray neither the Object to whom we pray nor the Medium by or through whom we pray none of these things know we but by the help and assistance of the Spirit Mat.
11. 27. 1 Cor. 2. 9 10 11. Should we pray for Communion with God through Christ should we pray for Faith for Justification by Grace and a truly sanctified heart None of these things know we For As no man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man that is in him even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2. 11. But here alas the Apostles speak of inward and spiritual things which the world knows not Isa. 29. 11. Again As they know not the Matter c. of Prayer without the help of the Spirit so neither know they the Manner thereof without the same and therefore he addeth We know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit helpeth our infirmities with sighs and groans which cannot be uttered Mark here they could not so well and so fully come off in the manner of performing this duty as these in our dayes think they can The Apostles when they were at the best yea when the holy Ghost assisted them yet then they were fain to come off with sighs and groans falling short of expressing their mind but with sighs and groans which cannot be uttered But here now the wise men of our dayes are so well skill'd as that they have both the Manner and Matter of their Prayers at their fingers ends setting such a Prayer for such a day and that twenty years before it comes One for Christmass another for Easter and six dayes after that They have also bounded how many syllables must be said in every one of them at their publick Exercises For each Saints day also they have them ready for the generations yet unborn to say They can tell you also when you shall kneel when you should stand when you should abide in your seats when you should go up into the Chancel and what you should do when you come there All which the Apostles came short of as not being able to compose so profound a manner And that for this reason included in this Scripture because the fear of God tyed them to pray as they ought For we know not what we should pray for as we ought Mark this As we ought For the not thinking of this word or at least the not understanding it in the spirit and truth of it hath occasioned these men to devise as Jeroboam did 1 King 12. 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33. another way of Worship both for matter and manner than is revealed in the Word of God But saith Paul We must pray as we ought and this we cannot do by all the art skill cunning and device of Men or Angels For we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit nay further it must be the Spirit it self that helpeth our infirmities not the Spirit and man's lusts What man of his own brain may imagine and devise is one thing and what they are commanded and ought to do is another Many ask and have not because they ask amiss Jam. 4. 3. and so are never the nearer the injoying of those things they petition for It is not to pray at random that will put off God or cause him to answer While Prayer is making God is searching the heart to see from what root and spirit it doth arise And he that searcheth the heart knoweth that is approveth only the meaning of the Spirit because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God 1 John 5. 14. For in that which is according to his Will only he heareth us and in nothing else And it is the Spirit only that can teach us so to ask it onely being able to search out all things even the deep things of God Without which Spirit though we had a thousand Common-Prayer-Books yet we know not what we should pray for as we ought being accompanied with those infirmities that make us absolutely uncapable of such a work Which infirmities although it is a hard thing to name them all yet some of them are these that follow First Without the Spirit man is so infirm that he cannot with all other means whatsoever be enabled to think one right saving thought of God of Christ or of his blessed things and therefore he saith of the wicked God is not in all their thoughts Psal. 10. 4. Unless it be that they imagine him altogether such a one as themselves Psal. 50. 20. For every imagination of the thought of their heart is only evil and that continually Gen. 6. 5. Gen. 8. 21. They then not being able to conceive aright of God to whom they pray of Christ through whom they pray nor of the things for which they pray as is before shewed how shall they be able to address themselves to God without the Spirit help this infirmity Peradventure you will say By the help of the Common-Prayer-Book but that cannot do it unless it can open the eyes and reveal to the soul all these things before touched Which that it cannot it is evident because that is the work of the Spirit only The Spirit it self is the revealer of these things to poor souls and that which doth give us to understand them wherefore Christ tells his Disciples when he promised to send the Spirit the Comforter He shall take of mine and shew unto you as if he had said I know you are naturally dark and ignorant as to the understanding any of my things though ye try this course and the other yet your ignorance will still remain the vail is spread over your heart and there is none can take away the same nor give you spiritual understanding but the Spirit The Common-Prayer-Book will not do it neither can any man expect that it should be instrumental that way it being none of God's Ordinances but a thing since the Scriptures were written patched together one piece at one time and another at another a meer mane invention and institution which God is so far from owning of that he expresly forbids it with any other such like and that by manyfold sayings in his most holy and blessed Word See Mark 7. vers 7 8. and Col. 2. vers 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23. Deut. 12. 30 31 32. Prov. 30. 6. Deut. 4. 2. Rev. 22. 18. For right prayer must aswell in the outward part of it in the outward expression as in the inward intention come from what the soul doth apprehend in the Light of the Spirit otherwise it is condemned as vain and an abomination Mark 7. because the heart and tongue do not go along joyntly in the same Prov. 21. 9. Isa. 29. 13. neither indeed can they unless the Spirit help our infirmities And this David knew full well which did make him cry Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise Psal. 51. 10 11. I suppose there is none can imagine but that David could speak and express himself as well as others nay
of this is that which God complains of Ezek. 33. That they draw nigh to him with their mouth and honour him with their lips but their hearts were far from him but chiefly they that walk after the Commandments and Traditions of men as the scope of Matth. 15. 8 9. doth testifie And verily may I but speak my own Experience and from that tell you the difficulty of Praying to God as I ought it is enough to make your poor blind carnal men to entertain strange thoughts of me For as for my heart when I go to pray I find it so loth to go to God and when it is with him so loth to stay with him that many times I am forced in my Prayers first to beg of God that he would take mine heart and set it on himself in Christ and when it is there that he would keep it there Psal. 86. 11. Nay many times I know not what to pray for I am so blind nor how to pray I am so ignorant onely blessed be Grace the Spirit helps our infirmities Oh the starting-holes that the heart hath in the time of Prayer none knows how many by-wayes the heart hath and back-lains to slip away from the presence of God How much pride also if enabled with expressions how much hypocrisie if before others And how little conscience is there made of Prayer between God and the Soul in secret unless the Spirit of Supplication be there to help VVhen the Spirit gets into the heart then there is Prayer indeed and not till then Ninthly The soul that doth rightly pray it must be in and with the help and strength of the Spirit because it is impossible that a man should express himself in Prayer without it when I say it is impossible for a man to express himself in prayer without it I mean that it is impossible that the heart in a sincere and sensible affectionate way should pour out it self before God with those groans and sighs that come from a truly praying heart without the assistance of the Spirit It is not the mouth that is the main thing to be looked at in Prayer but whether the heart be so full of affection and earnestness in Prayer with God that it is impossible to express their sence and desire For then a man desires indeed when his desires are so strong many and mighty that all the words tears and groans that can come from the heart cannot utter them The Spirit helpeth our infirmities and maketh intercession for us with sighs and groans that cannot be uttered That is but poor prayer which is only discovered in so many words A man that truly prayes one Prayer shall after that never be able to expresse with his mouth or pen the unutterable desires sence affection and longing that went to God in that Prayer The best Prayers have often more groans than words and those words that it hath are but a lean and shallow representation of the heart life and spirit of that Prayer You do not find any words of Prayer that we reade of come out of the mouth of Moses when he was going out of Egypt and was followed by Pharoah Exod. 14. 15. and yet he made Heaven ring again with his cry But it was the unexpressible and unsearchable groans and cryings of his soul in and with the Spirit God is the God of Spirits Numb 16. 22. and his eyes look further than the ourside of any duty whatsoever 1 Sam. 16. 7. I doubt this is but little thought on by the most of them that would be looked upon as a praying people The nearer a man comes in any work that God commands him to the doing of it according to his will so much the more hard and difficult it is And the reason is because man as man is not able to do it But Prayer as aforesaid is not only a duty but one of the most eminent duties and therefore so much the more difficult Therefore Paul knew what he said when he said I will pray with the Spirit He knew well it was not what others writ or said that could make him a praying person nothing lesse than the Spirit could do it Tenthly It must be with the Spirit or else as there will be a failing in the act it self so there will be a failing yea a fainting in the prosecution of the work Prayer is an Ordinance of God that must continue with a soul so long as it is on this side glory But as I said before it is not possible for a man to get up his heart to God in Prayer so it is as difficult to keep it there without the assistance of the Spirit And if so then for a man to continue from time to time in Prayer with God it must of necessity be with the Spirit Christ tells us That men ought alwayes to pray and not to faint Luke 18. 1 2. And again tells us that this is one definition of an Hypocrite That either he will not continue in Prayer or else if he do it will not be in the power Job 27. 10. that is in the Spirit of Prayer but in the Form for a pretence only Mat. 23. 14. It is the easiest thing of an hundred to fall from the Power to the Form but it is the hardest thing of many to keep in the Life Spirit and Power of any one duty especially Prayer That is such a work that a man without the help of the Spirit cannot so much as pray once much less continue without it in a sweet praying frame and in praying so to pray as to have his Prayers to ascend into the ears of the Lord God of Sabbaoth Jacob did not only begin but held it I will not let thee go unless thou bless me Gen. 32. So did the rest of the Godly Hos. 12. 4. But this could not be without the Spirit of Prayer It is through the Spirit that we have access to the Father Ephes. 2. 18. That same is a remarkable place in Jude when he stirreth up the Saints by the Judgement of God upon the Wicked to stand fast and continue or hold out in the Faith of the Gospel as one excellent means thereto without which he knew they would never be able to do it Saith he Build up your selves in your most holy Faith praying in the holy Ghost Jude 20. As if he had said Brethren as eternal Life is laid up for the persons that hold out only so you cannot hold out unless you continue praying in the Spirit The great cheat that the Devil and Antichrist deludes the World withal it is to make them continue in the form of any Duty the Form of Preaching of Hearing of Praying c. These are they that have a Form of Godliness but deny the Power from such turn away 2 Tim. 3. 5. Here followeth the Third Thing to wit What it is to pray with the Spirit and with understanding And now to the next thing What
plain terms to tell them their doom for all their hypocritical pretences And yet forsooth every cursed whoremaster thief and drunkard swearer and perjured person they that have not only been such in times past but are even so still these I say by some must be counted the only honest men and all because with their blasphemous throats and hypocritical hearts they will come to Church and say Our Father Nay further these men though every time they say to God our Father do most abominably blaspheme yet they must be compelled thus to do And because others that are of more sober Principles scruple the truth of such vain Traditions therefore they must be looked upon to be the only Enemies of God and the Nation Isa. 53. 10. when as it is their own cursed Superstition that doth set the great God against them and cause him to count them for his enemies And yet just like to Bonner that blood-red Persecutor they commend I say these wretches although never so vile if they close in with their Traditions to be good Church-men the honest subjects while God's People are as it hath alwayes been Ezra 4. 12 to 16. looked upon to be a turbulent seditious and factious people Therefore give me leave a little to reason with thee thou poor blind ignorant Sot It may be thy great prayer is to say Our Father which art in Heaven c. Dost thou know the meaning of the very first words of this Prayer Canst thou indeed with the rest of the Saints cry Our Father Art thou truly born again hast thou received the Spirit of Adoption dost thou see thy self in Christ and canst thou come to God as a Member of him Or art thou ignorant of these things and yet darest say Our Father Is not the Devil thy Father John 8. 44. and dost thou not do the deeds of the flesh and yet darest thou say to God Our Father Nay art thou not a desperate Persecutor of the Children of God hast thou not cursed them in thy heart many a time And yet dost thou out of thy blasphemous throat suffer these words to come even Our Father He is their Father whom thou hatest and persecutest But as the Devil presented himself amongst the Sons or God Job 1. when they were to present themselves before the Father even our Father so is it now because the Saints are commanded to say Our Father therefore all the blind ignorant rabble in the world they must also use the same words Our Father Secondly And dost thou indeed say Hallowed be thy Name with thy heart Dost thou study by all honest and lawful wayes to advance the Name Holiness and Majesty of God Doth thy heart and conversation agree with this passage Dost thou strive to imitate Christ in all the works of Righteousness which God doth command of thee and prompt thee forwards to It is so if thou beest one that canst truly with God's allowance cry Our Father Or is it not the least of thy thoughts all the day and dost thou not clearly make it appear that thou art a cursed Hypocrite by condemning that with thy daily practice which thou pretendest in thy praying with thy dissembling tongue Thirdly Wouldest thou have the Kingdom of God come indeed and also his Will to be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Nay notwithstanding thou according to the form sayest Thy Kingdom come yet would it not make thee ready to run mad to hear the Trumpet sound to see the Dead arise and thy self just now to go and appear before God to reckon for all the deeds thou hast done in the Body Nay are not the very thoughts of it altogether displeasing to thee And if God's VVill should be done on Earth as it is in Heaven must it not be thy ruine There is never a Rebel in Heaven against God and if he should so deal on Earth must he not whirle thee down to Hell And so of the rest of the Petitions Ah! how sadly would even those men look and with what terror would they walk up and down the world if they did but know the lying and blaspheming that proceedeth out of their mouth even in their most pretended sanctity The Lord awaken you and learn your poor souls in all humility to take heed that you be not rash and unadvised with your heart and much more with your mouth when you appear before God as the wise man saith Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing especially to call God Father without some blessed experience when thou comest before God But I pass this Seventhly It must be a praying with the Spirit if it be accepted because there is nothing but the Spirit can lift up the soul or heart to God in Prayer The preparation of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord Prov. 16. 1. That is In every work for God and especially in Prayer if the heart run with the tongue it must be prepared by the Spirit of God Indeed the tongue is very apt of it self to run without either Fear or VVisdom But when it is the answer of the heart and that such an heart as is prepared by the Spirit of God then it speaketh so as God commands and doth desire They are mighty words of David where he saith That he lifteth his heart and his soul to God Psal. 25. 1. It is a great work for any man without the strength of the Spirit and therefore I conceive that this is one of the great reasons why the Spirit of God is called a Spirit of Supplication Zech. 12. 11. because it is that which helpeth the heart when it supplicates indeed to do it And therefore saith Paul Ephes. 6. 18. Praying with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit And so in my Text I will pray with the Spirit Prayer without the heart be in it is like a sound without life and a heart without it be lifted up of the Spirit will never pray to God Eighthly As the heart must be lifted up by the Spirit if it pray aright so also it must be held up by the Spirit when it is up if it continue to pray aright I do not know what or how it is with others hearts whether they be lifted up by the Spirit of God and so continued or no But this I am sure of First That it is impossible that all the Prayer-Books that men have made in the world should lift up or prepare the heart that is the work of the great God himself And in the Second place I am sure that they are as far from keeping it up when it is up And indeed here is the life of Prayer to have the heart kept with God in the duty Exod. 17. 12. It was a great matter for Moses to keep his hands lifted up to God in Prayer but how much more then to keep the heart in it The want