his daily walk in the world, that on a number of occasions when he would exercise faith he cannot, and feels how difficult it is to realize and to trust the promises of God-let him remember that the most eminent believers were once as feeble. The way they attained their present strength is a way open to all who depend on no natural endowments, no accidental advantages, nothing but the sovereign goodness of God inviting his creatures to strength, inviting his suffering creatures to peace, inviting his poor wretched sinners to all the privileges of believers and saints. Now, this is open to every soul here; and therefore if a child of God shall be going on from month to month, or from year to year, complaining that he makes little or no progress, oh, let him be ashamed, let him be ashamed, that he will not enjoy what the good and gracious Father of heaven is waiting to bestow. May God forgive us for that weakness of faith which is dishonorable to him, which is injurious to us, which is absolutely irrational, which has no ground in sense, which is repelled by scripture, which the experience of multitudes forbids us to have. Oh, would to God that even this present narrative might, under his gracious influence, lead us to come to Christ in earnest and persevering prayer to obtain this blessing. If only this single practical lesson be learnt by any of us this night, we have learnt much. It is easy to learn a theory-Christians, have you not often found it difficult to realize in practice? Whatever be the sources of our weakness, we must not suffer our minds to despond: our business is to persevere in prayer that the Lord will grant us this strength of faith. Bring within your reach all possible and suitable blessings. Our faith is apt to be weak and partial. To obtain this blessing we must get that strength of faith. Our only mode of obtaining it is prayer, and the use of other appointed means.

Our conclusion is inevitable. Oh, that God the Father would fix our minds on that conclusion, and not suffer it to expire in mere ineffective wishes, but bring us to a resolution and strength of purpose, by which we might realize the blessing. Remember that to believe strongly whatever God has promised is our most reason

able and obvious duty. Remember that to believe strongly what God has promised plainly, brings with it abundant comfort and plentiful strength. Remember that to believe strongly what God has promised plainly, honors him as much as the contrary dishonors him. Remember that this is what he will unquestionably at last bestow. On the other hand, unbelief, or a weak and partial faith, which taken the form of unbelief with respect to the particular thing we doubt, is as unnatural as it is unreasonable, is as common as it is wicked; we easily fall into it. Almost every person around us in the world is constantly exercising unbelief, and not faith. It is as mischievous to our own souls as it is offensive to God; and these two contrary sets of conclusions, both weighing on our minds, bring us to this strong determination, that we will seek by earnest and effectual prayer this blessing from God. Our Saviour has taught us how to pray-how happy should we be to receive his admonition. He has taught us that "Men ought always to pray and not to faint." A thousand times we may ask for that blessing, and a thousand times we seem to fail; and could you observe the history of those men whose experience has been left on record, you will often see that their eminent grace was the result of many a conflict, in which, unknown to the world, they were wrestling with God in secret. They found no pains too great; they kept their eye on the great attainments before them; they would take no denial, and at last they succeeded. Go you, dear brethren, and do likewise. God is not satisfied till you have this strength of faith, which will introduce you to a thousand and ten thousand blessings, by which you may be as blessed in your own souls, as you may do good to the whole circles of those with whom, in the ordinary habits of life, you are by Divine Providence connected.

ERRATATUM. The date to Rev. J. Stratten's Sermons should have been 1830' instead of '1822.**

London: Published for the Proprietors,
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DELIVERED BY THE REV. J. BURNETT,
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AT CAMBERWELL CHAPEL, SEPTEMBER 12, 1830.

2 Thessalonians, iii. 1.—“ Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified.”

his own power exclusively, the grand | the views which the word of God gives energy by which the soul is quickened us of this holy exercise. Prayer is not together with Christ, that by grace it the offering of an empty form-it is might be saved. He looked, there- not the words that proceed from a fore, to the fountain whence this energy heart untouched-it is not the expresmust spring-he looked to the great sion of mere sentiment, or the indicasource whence spiritual power must tion of existing feelings-it is not the still be derived; and whilst he minis- creature of unsanctified desire, howtered the energies of his apostleship ever fervent that desire may be—it is under the commission and the sanction not the cry of those who wish to see of the God of truth, he still looked some grand object achieved in connecthrough the ordinary channels in which tion with the renovation of the world, grace was still to be measured out whilst they rest not on the mediation he still looked through them for the of a crucified Redeemer, as that mediainterposition of the power by which tion is set forth in the word of truth: God would make his people willing in but Prayer will be found to involve in the day of his power. Thus he, at it certain circumstances, and views, and once, lays before us an expression of states of mind, by which those who his own humility, and a recognition of really pray must always be characterthe peculiar character of the gospel of ized. We are committing a crime Christ, as a demonstration of divine against the dearest interests of an unpower coming direct from God; and in godly people, when we are telling them both of these he at once conveys in- they are able to pray; and that they struction, and sets us an example. are the spiritual priesthood on whom God lifts the light of his countenance. We are soothing them in the midst of a state which ought to induce us to sound the loudest, alarm, when we are connecting with them any of the features that belong to the gospel of Christ. We are telling them they have passed within the portals, and are now competent to minister at the altar, when we know they are standing aloof from the glory of God, and of his Son Christ Jesus. We are healing their wounds slightly, and we are daubing them with mortar which has never been tempered. We are saying, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we," on their behalf, and we are inviting them to unite in the cry, when we know they are aliens from the common wealth of Israel, if we are telling them they can pray, and that the incense they offer ascends with acceptance before heaven's high throne, if we know they have not tasted that God is gracious. It becomes essential, therefore, to just views of the duty enjoined in the words of the text, to have just views of the exercise of prayer.

If, therefore, my friends, we find the apostle of the Gentiles, notwithstanding the authority of his office, and the power by which that office was sustained, casting himself upon the prayers of the people, and connecting the triumphs of the gospel of Christ with the holy breathings of those who had already been made the subjects of its power, much more should we, when we consider our vast inferiority, both in office and powers and endowments, to the great apostle, cast ourselves, and the gospel we proclaim, into the arms of a people presenting in holy desires their fervent breathings to the God of prayer.

With this view of the passage I have just read, let me direct your attention, in the first place, to the nature of Prayer generally. In the second place, to Prayer for Ministers in particular. In the last place, to the Influence of a praying people on the state of the church and the world with regard to the diffusion of the gospel.

In the first place, let me direct your attention to THE SUBJECT OF PRAYER GENERALLY. "Brethren pray for us," is the request made by the apostle, and is the request which we would still, after his example, continue to make to the people of God. But when we call upon any to pray that the gospel may have free course, and so be abundantly glorified, it is necessary we should state

Prayer, generally, then, we should say, implies, in the first place, Sincere Desire. There can be no petition acceptable in the sight of a heart searching God that proceeds not from the inward state of the mind with regard to the object of request before Jeho

vah's throne. If in any instance we find God commanding us to request a blessing, and if we find we can duly appreciate its value, we are not pray.. ing for that blessing, unless we embody in our supplications that sincerity of desire that will give them reality and character in the esteem of Him who sees not as man sees, but who searches the heart and tries the reins of the children of men. There must be, then, the sincerity of desire, there must be the fervour of feeling, there must be the ardour of the mind itself, embodied in the request that seeks a blessing at the footstool of the throne of God.

|

gospel of Christ, as it has been re-
vealed as the foundation of our ap-
proach to God, we must be selecting
some way of our own. One is sincere,
and he conceives that to be enough:
the confidence which he places in the
sufficiency of this sincerity actually
sets aside the whole administration of
the gospel. Another believes his cha-
racter is good, and he deems this a
sufficient plea for expecting an answer
of peace to his prayers.
This is only
substituting the character of the peti-
tioner for the merits and the glory of
the great Advocate for sinners at the
right hand of God. Another believes
that because he has attended the ordi-

But there must not only be sincere
desire in real and scriptural prayer-nances of worship he can offer
there must also be Believing Expecta-
tion of the blessing for which we sup-
plicate. The prayer of the man who
doubts-the prayer of the heart that
wavers, is a prayer that refuses to give
God glory by confiding in the promise
he has made. If we ask of God, and
doubt his willingness to bestow-if we
ask of God, and disbelieve the testi-
mony on which we profess to ground
our plea, the state of our minds is be-
lying the request of our lips; we are
offering what is in utter inconsistency
with the condition of our hearts:
and thus the inner and the outward
man are at positive and direct warfare;
thus are unbelief and professed con-
viction conflicting at the throne of
God, whilst the man who is the sub-
ject of the conflict professes to be a
petitioner at his footstool. There must
be, therefore, a believing expectation
of the blessing we desire, associated
with the request that expresses the de-
sire we feel.

Again, there must not only be believing expectation of the blessing, but there must be some ground on which this believing expectation rests; and that ground is the belief of the testimony of God concerning his Son Jesus Christ. If I throw any qualification around the testimony of God concerning his Son-if I have any mental reservation when I express my belief of that testimony, I am casting a cloud over the brilliancy of discovery which God has associated with the testimony that forms the basis of his kingdom; I am casting a reflection on the integrity and moral glory of all his attributes. Besides, if we believe not the

prayer:

he is a keeper of the sabbath, he meets when the assemblies unite together to offer common supplication to a common God in the name of a common mediator; but still his mind is destitute of the spiritually renewing power which gives the image of God, and which gives the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ. Now, this individual conceiving that these observances may furnish a ground, on which he can lift his voice as a supplicant before God, is actually setting aside the great substance of the gospel for the external means by which we approach its glory and its power. All the ordinances connected with the gospel are only so many avenues into the immediate presence of the Saviour's glory; but they are to be regarded in no other point of light. They are the ways of access to the Majesty of heaven; but they are not the objects of the affections of those who would travel into his presence. If we have found ourselves approaching some high destination-if some lofty achievement is in our eye-if we are found on the wing of ardent expectation, hastening, or professedly hastening, to that object; and if our minds are more alive to the scenery around us, to the approaches to the object we profess to regard as the grand point to which every thing is tending; are we not proving to a demonstration that we have lost the end in the means-that we have forgotten the great, the ultimate object of our desire, in the intervening medium through which we are passing to the professed enjoyment of it?

So it is with regard to the gospel

of Christ. Never upon any occasion
can we rest in the ordinances of the
gospel, and say, that we are glorying
in the Lord Jesus, and in him alone.
When the apostle Paul wrote to the
Corinthians on baptism, and to the
Hebrews on laying on of hands, we
find him in both cases making Christ
the grand and prominent object he had
in view. And to the church at Corinth,
when he has gone over the names of
Cephas and Apollos, and the baptisms
by which individuals had listed them-
selves under the name of men, who had
ministered to them on those institu-
tions, he says, "I am determined to
know nothing among you save Jesus
Christ, and him crucified." He re-
garded, in this instance, the conduct
of some of the Corinthians as setting
the ordinances above the design of
their appointment; and therefore he
comes forward, and with holy bold-
ness he bounds over them all, and
plants himself as a devout admirer at
the foot of Calvary, that he may sing
to the glory of the Saviour. This
is the way we should all approach |
the Redeemer; the believing expecta-
tion of those who would really pray
must rest upon enlightened views, and
fixed convictions, of what Christ has
done, and what he has undertaken yet
to accomplish for the salvation of his
people.

But, again, prayer must not only consist in sincere desire, in believing expectation; but it must consist, also, in the offering up of spiritual desires influenced by the Spirit of God. There must not only be sincere desire, there must not only be believing expectation, but there must be the desires over which the Spirit of God exercises a holy and sanctifying presidency. If we are offering only the convictions of logic founded upon arguments, and convictions of philosophy derived from a survey of facts, and an induction of particulars drawn from the generalities of revelation, whatever may be the fixed character of that conviction so founded, and derived from such sources, these convictions are not connected with the influence of the Spirit of truth, and form no part of that believing expectation of divine benefits of which we have been speaking. There must be, if we would really offer the prayer of faith, the influence of the Spirit of

truth. "If any man has not the Spirit of Christ," says the word of God, "he is none of his." Without the Spirit's regenerating power we can have no distinct spiritual vision, and we can have no believing confidence. We are distinctly informed that the heart is enmity against God, and cannot be subject to his law, distinctly refuses it, rebels against all his moral acquirements, and is totally incapable of exercising toward him any holy and affectionate sympathies. Under these circumstances, there can be no sincere desire associated with believing expectation. The Spirit of God, therefore, must create again: except a man be born of the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven; he cannot be a member of it on earth; he cannot come within its limits below, nor look to its glory, on just and enlightened grounds, when that glory shall be revealed above. Without the influence of the Spirit of God, therefore, there can be no prayer.

Let us remark, that this same apostle, in another passage, speaks of the Spirit of adoption by which we cry, "Abba Father." Now, the Spirit's operation referred to in this passage is obviously the cause of the filial love, the feelings of son-ship, by which the believer is able to cry, with a holy consciousness that the relationship is real, "Abba, Father." Then, as we cannot call God our Father but by the Spirit of adoption, we cannot offer the prayer of children without that Spirit. If without the Spirit we are dead in trespasses and sins, we must be quickened by him ere we can live unto God. These views of the Spirit's operation directly tells us, that there must be, connected with desire and with faith, the influences of the Spirit of God, which are, in fact, the spring of both the desire and the faith of which we have been speaking. Hence the prayer of the wicked is described to be "an abomination to the Lord;" and is connected with his ploughing, which is said to be sin. Under these circumstances, we must regard that as prayer, and that only, which proceeds from a mind of which the Spirit of truth has taken possession, which he has created for himself, and which he directs in holy aspirations to God, while it rests on the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ for a response to its aspirations.