upon himself a large part of the burden by which our infirmity is weighed down, and not only succours us in a slight degree, but effectually relieves us by dividing, as it were, the burden with us. The image is taken from one who sets his shoulder to another's and lifts with him at the same load. Let this consideration then encourage us! What, if it is not said in Scripture that we shall be wholly delivered in this world from our moral sicknesses; is it not much that we are effectually assisted under them? Shall we despair, whilst we have such an helper?

The image here employed may also teach us that we are not to relax our exertions, whilst looking for the gracious aid of the Spirit, but rather to increase them. The idea of help,' seems to imply that we are ourselves making all possible efforts, and that, whilst making them, the Spirit relieves us under our infirmities. It is true, indeed, that all which is good in us is the fruit of the preventing grace of God; but it appears to be intimated in the expression before us, that, in the ordinary course of our duty in prayer, we are to put forth and stir up to the utmost the grace of God which is in us, in dependence on this almighty aid.

The particular manner in which this help is afforded is by the Spirit MAKING INTERCESSION FOR US, that is, so sanctifying our affections and exciting our desires, that we are enabled to pour out our minds to God in fervent effectual intercession and prayer. This seems to be the meaning of the term Intercession in this place, as it is obviously explanatory of the previous general expression of helping our infirmities, and stands opposed to our not knowing what to pray for as we ought; and as it is connected with those unutterable desires in prayer which the text proceeds to describe.

The intercession of the Spirit, then, is not to be understood of his acting the part of a mediator be

tween God and man on our account, before the throne of the Majesty on high, but of his relieving. our infirmities, as the Illuminator and Comforter of the faithful, in our religious addresses and duties. Christ is the only Mediator and Advocate with the Father; the Spirit is our Sanctifier and the assister of our weaknesses here. The office of Christ is imme diately before the throne of God, the agency of the Spirit is more directly with the church. The intercession of Christ is without us, that of the Holy Ghost is within us. The intercession of Christ is meritorious, the intercession of the Spirit is gracious and supporting. Christ intercedes, and the Spirit is given; the Holy Ghost intercedes, and we implore the benefits of the Saviour's death. By the intercession of Christ all the obstacles to our salvation are removed, as they respect our offended God; by the intercession of the Spirit all the difficulties are taken away which arise from our own frail and corrupt hearts. Christ pleads above, the Spirit pleads below. By the one we are taught to pray, by the other our prayers are accepted. Accordingly the Holy Ghost was of old promised as a Spirit of grace and of supplications: and, because we are sons, God is said to have sent forth the Spirit of his Son into out hearts, crying, (or as it is in the 8th chapter of the Romans, whereby we cry,) Abba, Father. Gal. iv. 6. This last expression will precisely explain the term Intercession before us: for, as by the blessed Spirit crying in our hearts, Abba, Father, is obviously meant his enabling us so to cry; in like manner his making intercession for us, is designed to describe his enabling us to intercede and pray for ourselves.

The aid which we derive from this gracious assistance of the Holy Spirit will further appear, if we attend to the last words of our text, WITH GROANINGS WHICH CANNOT BE UTTERED.-These groanings

these heart-felt supplications-are the effect of the gracious movement of the divine Spirit on our hearts. Ardent importunity and fervent desires in prayer are the fruit of his intercession. There would appear to be a reference in these words, to what the Apostle had just before spoken of the whole creation groaning and travailing in pain together for deliverance. In this earnest longing the true Christian largely partakes. Ourselves also, adds the Apostle, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. And in this, the Spirit itself helpeth our infirmities, making intercession for us with groanings not to be uttered, filling us with desires and pantings of the whole soul after God, which no words can adequately express.

Sin has disordered all the creation. A curse mingles with every pleasure; the irrational creatures are subjected to vanity; and the unconverted mass of mankind may be said to wait, as it were, with piteous and touching misery, for the manifestation of the sons of God. But Christians especially, who have an actual and spiritual sense of all the evil around them, who see the full malignity and mischief of sin, and who have already some pledge and earnest of the future deliverance, labour as in strong pangs to accelerate the promised rescue; and, when thus employed, the Holy Spirit prompts their desires

The whole passage is very remarkable-so remarkable, that the full and satisfactory explanation of it has hitherto presented a difficulty to the greatest divines. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope; because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. Rom. viii. 19-23.

and intercedes for them by those sighs and breathings which he excites after the redemption to which he seals them, and for the enjoyment of which they therefore long with intense faith and fervency.

These unutterable groanings will be better understood, if we consider the general state of difficulty and conflict in which the Christian, in consequence of sin, is involved. For, what are all the infirmities of the sincere Christian, what are all his defects in prayer, what all his trials in the earthly tabernacle, but the effect of that general state of ruin into which man's sin has plunged both himself, and the whole creation, so to speak, with which he stands connected? The aid, therefore, of the blessed Spirit is seen chiefly in the humble but fervent expression of these painful feelings. The Christian in this world is in a state of conflict. Every thing combines to make his devotions partake largely of the language of depressions and grief. He has to contend with the corruption of a desperately wicked heart; he has to resist the temptations to unbelief and despair which Satan presents; he has to keep under his body and bring it into subjection. Besides this, he has to perform the duties of his station, to ascend in affection to God, to walk in the love of Christ, to exercise faith in an unseen world, and to aim in all things at the divine glory. He has further to bear with the infirmities of others, to witness the disorder which sin has brought into families and neighbours and kingdoms, to behold the contempt that is put upon the astonishing remedy provided for fallen men in Christ Jesus, and to see his fellowsinners rush into eternity with heedless and desperate determination. Then his own conscious feebleness and mistakes, his indwelling sin, his shame and confusion for his small proficiency in the ways of God

See Whitby in loc.

and duty all these topics, connected with the thoughts of heaven and of his Saviour's presence there, make him groan, being burdened: not for that he would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

And when the Holy Spirit is pleased especially to help his weakness in prayer and intercede for him, so that he knows what to pray for, and how to pray with somewhat of right affections, he expresses his desire to depart and be with Christ in fervent aspirations which God only can fully understand. Then, with the importunity of the man in our Lord's parable who begged the three loaves, he perseveres in his earnest suit. Then, like the royal Prophet, he follows hard after God. Then, like Jacob, he says with holy boldness, I will not let thee go except thou bless me.

These impassioned sighs and expectations are utterly unknown to the irreligious world; nor can they be fully explained in words. They are regarded, however, by God who searcheth the heart. A man must be born from above before he can attain any just conceptions of prayer in general, and much less of these mysterious breathings of the deyout penitent. They are not the fruit of impatience or self-will; but they are the humble and yet eager feelings of a soul which breaketh for the very fervent desire which it hath always unto God's judgments. They do not flow forth so much in copious and fluent expressions, as in broken sentences and detached ejaculations, which imply more than we can find terms to utter. They may not even be framed into words, but conveyed to heaven in the sighs and throbs of a contrite heart. And the penitent is, perhaps, ashamed at the incoherence of his devotions, at the very time that the all-seeing God accepts and answers them.

Thus the Holy Ghost relieves and helps the true