ful and acceptable prayer is called the prayer of faith. Who would apply, or who can apply, to God, for any mercy, but from a perfuafion that he is prefent to hear, and that he is able and willing to beftow? Now, when this faith begins to fail, either from its natural weakness, from our finful negligence, from the fubtle infinuations, or the more violent affaults of the adverfary of our fal vation, it must be a great hindrance to the exercife of prayer.

Many are the difficulties of this kind which the Chris tian, from time to time, hath to ftruggle with. Sometimes he is made to doubt of the certainty, and fometimes of the meaning of the promises. We fee fome diftreffed perfons fo embarraffed with fcruples, or fo mifled by controverfy, as to lose the relifh and fpiritual comfort of the word of God, while they are contending about it. Sometimes they are made to doubt their own title to apply the promises which appear like a rich and sumptuous table, encompassed with a flaming fword, forbidding their approach. Thus they are led away from the confolation of Ifrael, and made to feek in vain for a foundation of comfort in themfelves. How often do we fee, that the very sense of fin, and fear of danger, the very mifery and neceffity which particularly difcover the fitnefs and excellence of the truths of the everlasting gospel, are made use of to discourage us from embracing them!

Sometimes the truths themfelves are perverted, or fet in oppofition one to another, and mutually deftroy each other's influence. Thus, while the conftant and overruling providence of God fhould be the great foundation both of our faith and prayer, it is fometimes fet in oppofition to both. The falfe reafoner will fay to himself, Why fhould I pray for deliverance from this diftrefs? why should I pray or hope for the poffeffion of fuch a mercy? The whole order and courfe of events is fixed and unalterable. If it is appointed to happen, it shall happen, whether I fpeak or be filent; if it is otherwife determined, the prayers of the whole creation will not be able to obtain it. How unhappily do men thus reason themselves out of their own peace! not confidering the unfpeakable abfurdity of

making our weak and imperfect conceptions of the nature and government of God to ftand in oppofition to his own exprefs command. The influence of fecond caufes, moral as well as natural, is a matter of undeniable experience. If you acknowledge it in the one, fhould you deny it in the other? Is not intemperance the caufe of disease? is not flothfulness the way to poverty? is not neglected tillage the cause of a barren field? and is not reftraining prayer also the way to barrennefs of fpirit? Believe it, my brethren, fervent prayer is as fure and effectual a mean of obtaining those mercies which may be lawfully prayed for, as plowing and fowing is of obtaining the fruits of the ground.

Again, fometimes by the cunning of Satan, the believer is driven to the brink of the precipice, and made to doubt of the very being of God, and the reality of all religion. It is easy to fee, that this must wholly take away the neceffity and use of prayer. But even when it is not for powerful as to prevent the practice, yet doth it in a great measure, cool the fervor and deftroy the comfort of prayer. He that wrestles with God has often thefe difficulties, in a greater or leffer degree, to struggle with. Some of them it is his duty to oppofe by reafon, and fome of them directly and immediately to refift and banish as temptations; and I think an exercised Chriftian will usually make the matter of his complaint the subject of his prayer. This is in. deed defeating the tempter with his own weapons: it is bringing sweetness out of the strong, and meat out of the eater, when the difficulties thrown in the way of our prayers serve to excite us to greater ardor, importunity, and frequency in that neceffary and profitable exercise.

4. Another difficulty with which the believer hath to ftruggle, is the coldnefs and flothfulnefs of his own heart. This is as great a hindrance of prayer as any that hath been named; and I believe it is of all others the most common and prevalent. At the fame time it affords a very mortifying view of our own character and state. Strange indeed! that when we confider the great and eternal God with whom we have to do, we fhould find fo much difficulty in maintaining a ferious and attentive

frame of spirit! that when we lie under fo great and unfpeakable obligations to his mercy, our sense of gratitude fhould be fo weak and languid! that when we have bleffings to afk of fo ineftimable value, we fhould notwithftanding do it with fo much indifference! And what is firanger ftill, are there not many who have tafted, in fome degree, the sweetness and confolation of communion with God, and yet are ready to return to a ftate of coldness and negligence!

I am perfuaded I need not tell any ferious perfon in this affembly the danger or frequency of the Chriftian's being feized with a flothfulnefs, coldness, or fecurity of spirit. It is probable many are at this moment inwardly ashamed on being thus barely put in mind of it. How often is it the reproach and flain of all our worfhip in public, in family, and in fecret! how eafily do we degenerate into a form! how hardly is the fpirit and affection kept alive! How many are there over whom confcience has fo much power, that they neither dare abfent themfelves from public ordinances, nor difcontinue the form of fecret duty: and yet they may continue long in a heartlefs, lifelefs, and unprofitable attendance upon both! Times of deep conviction, of heavy affliction, or harraffing temptation, are more diftreffing; but they are not fo infnaring, as this leprofy that creeps upon us in a feafon of quiet and ferenity. The other difficulties, if I may speak fo, force us to wrestle with them, because they leave us no peace; but this tempts us to fit ftill under it, because it gives us no ditturbance.

He that wrefiles with God in prayer, then, muft maintain a conflict with the flothfulness of his own fpirit, and endeavor to preferve that vigor and fervency of affection fo neceffary to the right performance of the duty. You will fay, perhaps, With what propriety is this called wreftling with God? it is rather wrefiling with himfelf. But when we confider, that every gracious difpofition mult come down from above, from the Father of lights, and author of every good and perfect gift: and, in particular, that the fpirit of prayer is one of his moft precious and excellent gifts; the juftnefs and propriety of this language

will manifeftly appear. The coldness of our hearts, and deadness of our affections in worship, ought, on the one hand, to be imputed to ourfelves as the immediate and finful caufe, and, on the other, may be confidered as a part of God's most holy providence, who withdraws his Spirit in righteous judgment. Thus the Pfalmift very beautifully fays, Pfal. lxv. 4, "Bleffed is the man whom thou "chufeft, and caufeft to approach unto thee, that he may "dwell in thy courts." And thus the fpirit of fupplication is a remarkable gospel-promife: Zech. xii. 10. " And "I will pour upon the houfe of David, and upon the in"habitants of Jerufalem, the fpirit of grace and of fupplications, and they fhall look upon me whom they have "pierced, and they fhall mourn for him, as one mourneth "for his only fon, and fhall be in bitterness for him, as one "that is in bitterness for his first born."

My brethren, there is the greatest reafon for every Chriftian, not only to wreftle against a flothful difpofition as a fin, but to fear its influence as a judgment; for if among fpiritual judgments it holds a chief place, when God giveth" the spirit of flumber; eyes that they should "not fee, and ears that they should not hear;" it ought to be treated in the fame manner with all other obftructions, that is to fay, encountered by vigorous refiflance. Like all other enemies, it acquires courage by fuccefs; like all other fins, it is ftrengthened by indulgence. And yet, alas! how often is this very circumftance made ufe of as an excufe for the omiffion of prayer? When the Christian finds himself lifelefs and indifpofed to prayer, it makes him either neglect it altogether, or flur over the performance in a careless and trifling manner, faying to himfelf," I am "not now in a fit temper for it." Nay, fometimes he reafons himself even religioufly out of his duty, faying, “I fhall but difhonor God by fuch a heartlefs facrifice; and "therefore I had better delay it till I be in a frame that is fitter for it." But if the time and other circumstances call for the duty, our own indifpofition of heart is, of all others, the molt foolish and criminal excufe. How much better would it be to wreftle as Jacob in the text, and infift upon the blefling; which cannot be more fenfibly illuf

trated with refpect to this particular branch, than by men. tioning to you a refolution which an eminent Chriftian entered into for his own practice: That he would not be baffled by a treacherous fpirit; for he would never give over the work of praife, till his affections were stirred, and he was brought to a fense of gratitude for divine goodness; and that he would never give over enumerating and confeffing his fins, till his heart was melted in contrition and penitential forrow!

5. I may mention one other difficulty with which we have to ftruggle in prayer, viz. when it pleafes God to poftpone, for a feafon, his compliance with our requefis. Though his ears are always open to the cry of his people, he fometimes carries in fuch a manner, as if they were faft clofed against them. Though their petitions be offered up in faith, and on a subject agreeable to the will of God, they may not always be granted in the manner, in the measure, or in the feafon that they themselves defire, or even in their imperfect judgment may think moft proper. Many examples might be given of this. A minifter praying for the fuccefs of his labors, may be heard in mercy, though it do not happen fo foon, and though he cannot fee it fo clearly, as it is natural for him to defire. He may have many feals of his miniftry, although he meet with difappointment in fome of thofe on whom he looked with the most favorable eye. A parent may pray for the falvation of his children, and his defires may have gone up with acceptance before the throne, although the accomplishment be yet far diftant, and they feem, for the time, to increase unto more ungodlinefs. An afflicted perfon may have actually obtained the fanctified improvement of his affliction, although he cannot yet perceive the ends of Divine Providence in it, the comfortable difcovery of which may be a feast reserved for him at fome future feafon; or, in general, a mercy may be granted with advantage and increase, though it be fufpended for a time.

In this interval, however, the Chriftian's eyes may be ready to fail with looking long; he may be in danger of ceafing his application, or abating his fervor, through defpair of fuccefs. Therefore we have many exhortations