And Micah is very zealous and refolute in this good exercife: I will look unto the Lord, I will wait for the • God of my falvation: my God will hear me.' Thus did the children of the fpirit, that thirsted after an inward fenfe of him. The wicked cannot say so; nor they that pray, unless they wait. It is charged upon Ifrael in the wilderness, as the cause of their disobedience and ingratitude to God, that they waited not for his coun'fels.' We may be fure it is our duty, and expected from us; for God requires it in Zephaniah: There⚫fore wait upon me, faith the Lord, until the day that I arife, &c. O that all who profefs the name of God, would wait fo, and not offer to arife to worship without him! and they would feel his ftirrings and arifings in them, to help, and prepare, and fanctify them. Chrift exprefsly charged his difciples, they fhould not ftir from Jerufalem, but wait till they had received the promise of the Father, the baptifm of the Holy Ghost, in order to their preparation for the preaching of the glorious gofpel of Chrift to the world. And though that were an extraordinary effufion for an extraordinary work, yet the degree does not change the kind. On the contrary, if fo much waiting and preparation by the Spirit was requifite to fit them to preach to man; fome, at leaft, may be needful to fit us to speak to God. §. XII. I will close this great fcripture doctrine of waiting, with that paffage in John, about the pool of Bethesda. There is at Jerufalem, by the fheep-market, a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches; in these lay a great multitude of • impotent folks, of blind, halt, and withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went ⚫ down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whofoever then firft, after the troubling of the water, stepped in, was made whole of whatsoever difeafe he had. A moft exact representation of what is intended by all that has been faid upon the fub Mic. vii. 7. Zeph. iii. 8. Acts i. 4-8. John v. 2, 3. 4. ject ject of waiting. For as there was then an outward and legal, fo there is now a gospel and spiritual Jerufalem, the church of God, confifting of the faithful. The pool in that old Jerufalem, in fome fort, represented that fountain, which is now fet open in the New Jerufalem. That pool was for those that were under infirmities of body; this fountain for all that are impotent in foul. There was an angel then that moved the water to render it beneficial; it is God's angel now, the great angel of his prefence, that bleffeth this fountain with fuccefs. They that then went in before, and did not watch the angel, and take advantage of his motion, found no benefit of their stepping in: thofe that now wait not the moving of God's angel, but by the devotion of their own forming and timing, rufh before God, as the horse into the battle, and hope for fuccefs, are fure to miscarry in their expectations. Therefore, as then, they waited with all patience and intention upon the angel's motion, that wanted and defired to be cured; fo do the true worshippers of God now, that need and pray for his prefence, which is the life of their fouls, as the fun is to the plants of the field. They have often tried the unprofitableness of their own work, and are now come to the fabbath indeed. They dare not put up a device of their own, or offer an unfanctified requeft, much lefs obtrude bodily worship, where the foul is really infenfible or unprepared by the Lord. In the light of Jefus they ever wait to be prepared, retired, and reclufe from all thoughts that cause the least distraction and difcompofure in the mind, till they fee the angel move, and till their beloved please to wake; nor dare they call him before his time. And they fear to make a devotion in his abfence; for they know it is not only unprofitable, but reprovable : Who has required this at your hands?' He that believes makes not hafte. They that worship with their own, can only do as the Ifraelites, turn their ear-rings into a molten image, and be curfed for their pains. Nor fared they better, that gathered sticks of old, and kindled a fire, and compaffed themselves about with the fparks that they had kindled ';' for God told them, they fhould lie down in forrow.' It fhould not only be of no advantage, and do them no good, but incur a judgment from him: forrow and anguish of foul fhall be their portion. Alas! flesh and blood would fain pray, though it cannot wait; and be a faint, though it cannot abide to do or fuffer the will of God. With the tongue it bleffes God, and with the tongue it curfes men, made in his fimilitude. It calls Jefus Lord, but not by the Holy Ghoft; and often names the name of Jefus, yea, bows the knee to it too, but departs not from iniquity: this is abominable to God. §. XIII. In short, there are four things so neceffary to worthipping of God aright, and which put its performance beyond man's power, that there feems little more needed than the naming of them. The first is, the fanctification of the worshipper. Secondly, the confecration of the offering, which has been spoken to before fomewhat largely. Thirdly, what to pray for; which no man knows, that prays not by the aid of God's fpirit; and, therefore, without that spirit no man can truly pray. This the apostle puts beyond dispute; We know not (fays he) what we fhould pray for, as we ought, but the Spirit helpeth our infirmities"." Men unacquainted with the work and power of the Holy Spirit, are ignorant of the mind of God; and those, certainly, can never please him with their prayers. It is not enough to know, we want; but we fhould learn, whether it be not fent us as a bleffing: difappointments to the proud, loffes to the covetous, and to the negligent ftripes to remove thefe, were to secure the deftruction, not help the falvation of the foul. The vile world knows nothing, but carnally, after a fleshly manner and interpretation; and too many that would be thought enlightened, are apt to call providences by wrong names. For inftance, afflictions f Ifa. 1. 11. Rom. viii. 26. they they ftile judgments; and trials (more precious than the beloved gold) they call miferies. On the other hand, they call the preferments of the world by the name of honour, and its wealth, happiness; when for once that they are fo, it is much to be feared they are fent of God an hundred times for judgments, at least trials, upon their poffeffors. Therefore, what to keep, what to reject, what to want, is a difficulty God only can refolve the foul. And fince God knows, better than we, what we need, he can better tell us what to afk, than we can him: which made Chrift exhort his disciples to avoid long and repetitious prayers; telling them, that their heavenly Father knew what they needed, before they afked": and therefore gave them a pattern to pray by; not as fome fancy, to be a text to human liturgies, which of all fervices are most justly noted and taxed for length and repetition; but exprefsly to reprove and avoid them. But if those wants, that are the fubject of prayer, were once agreed upon (though that be a mighty point) yet how to pray is still of greater moment, than to pray; it is not the request, but the frame of the petitioner's fpirit. The what may be proper, but the how defective. As I said, God needs not be told of our wants by us, who must tell them to us; yet he will be told them from us, that both we may feek him, and he may come down to us. But when this is done, To this man will I look, faith the 'Lord, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite fpirit, and that trembleth at my word:' To the fick heart, the wounded foul, the hungry and thirsty, the weary and heavy laden ones; fuch fincerely want an helper. §. XIV. Nor is this fufficient to complete gofpelworship; the fourth requifite muft be had, and that is faith, true faith, precious faith, the faith of God's chofen that purifies their hearts, that overcomes the world, and is the victory of the faints*. This is that which animates prayer, and preffes it home, like the impor h Mat. vi. 7, 8. Tit. i. 1. 2 Pet. i. 1. i Ifa. lxvi. 2. 1 Tim. i. 5. Acts xv. 9. tunate tunate widow, that would not be denied, to whom Chrift (feeming to admire) faid, O woman, great is thy faith'.' This is of highest moment on our part, to give our addreffes fuccefs with God; and yet not in our power neither, for it is the gift of God: from him we must have it; and with one grain of it more work is done, more deliverance is wrought, and more goodness and mercy received, than by all the runnings, willings, and toilings of man, with his inventions, and bodily exercifes. Which, duly weighed, will easily spell out the meaning, why fo much worship fhould bring fo little profit to the world, as we fee it does, viz: True faith is loft. They afk, and receive not; they seek, and find not; they knock, and it is not opened unto them: the cafe is plain: their requests are not mixed with purifying faith, by which they fhould prevail, as good Jacob's were, when he wrestled with God, and prevailed. And the truth is, the generality are yet in their fins, following their hearts lufts, and living in worldly pleasures, being ftrangers to this precious faith. It is the reason rendered by the deep author to the Hebrews, of the unprofitableness of the word preached to some of those days; not being (fays he) mixed with faith in them that heard it.' Can the minifter then preach without faith? No, and much less can any man pray to purpose without faith, especially when we are told, That the juft live by faith.' For worship is the fupreme act of man's life; and whatever is neceffary to inferior acts of religion, muft not be wanting there. §. XV. This may moderate the wonder in any, why Christ so often upbraided his difciples with, O ye of little faith!' yet tells us, that one grain of it, (though as little as that of mustard, one of the least of seeds) if true and right, is able to remove mountains. As if he had faid, there is no temptation fo powerful, that it cannot supply: wherefore those that are captivated by temptations, and remain unsupplied in their I Mat. xv. 28. Jam. iv. 3. fpiritual |