pray aright in Christ's Name, without the assistance of His Spirit: for, as the Apostle saith, "We know not what we Rom. 8. 26. should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us, with groanings which cannot be uttered." It maketh intercession for us, not as Christ doth in Heaven, but, as it is explained in the beginning of the verse, "by helping our infirmities;" i.e. by directing our intentions, by strengthening our faith, by exciting our desires, by supplying us, not, as some vainly imagine, with words, but with groanings which cannot be uttered, with such fervent and earnest affections, which no words are able to express, and none can know, but He that "searcheth the heart, and ver. 27. knows the mind of the Spirit."

By this means, what we do, becomes acceptable to God,

by Him whose Spirit it is; but they who have "not the Rom. 8. 9. Spirit of Christ, are none of His." They are none of His disciples, they do not believe in Him, nor pray in His Name, nor obey Him, nor do any thing as they ought, and therefore this promise doth not belong to them; for it is made only to Christ's faithful disciples, as He Himself intimates in these very words; and in another place He expressly declares it, saying, "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide John 15. 7. you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." And that this promise is always fulfilled to such, St. John found by his and all his fellow-disciples' experience: "Whatsoever we ask," saith He, "we receive of Him, be- 1 John 3.22. cause we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight."

in

9.

But what doth our Lord here mean by saying, "If ye shall ask?" That He Himself explains, where speaking, upon supposition, of a man that went to borrow three loaves of his friend, He saith, "I say unto you, though he will not Luke 11. 8, rise and give him, because he is his friend; yet, because of9. his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you." Where it is plain, that by asking, He means asking as the man did, with importunity, and these three, "ask," "seek," and "knock," are not to be taken singly, every word by itself, as if they all signified the same thing;

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17;

Col. 4. 2.

SERM. but they must be understood conjunctly, so as always to go together: ask so as to seek; seek so as to knock that is, Rom. 12.12. as St. Paul expresseth it, a man must "continue instant in 1 Thess. 5. prayer," and "pray without ceasing." As when St. Peter was in prison, "Prayer was made without ceasing of the Acts 12. 5. Church unto God for him." They did not think it enough to pray once, but they prayed continually for him till he was out. Thus St. Paul being troubled with a thorn in the 2 Cor. 12.7, flesh, "besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from Matt.26.44. him." Yea, our Lord Himself prayed three times for the Luke 18. 1. same thing, in the same words. "And spake a parable to this very end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint." And therefore it is in this sense that He is to be understood in my text: not that He will do what we ask once and no more; but if we pray, and faint not, but continue to ask it earnestly, instantly, importunately of Him, then He will do it.

8.

But what will He do? Any thing we ask, "If ye ask," saith He, "any thing;" any thing that is good for us; that is necessarily supposed and implied in our asking it for no man would ask any thing, but what he thinks to be good for him; what is evil, is not the object of our desires, but abhorrence: neither is it the subject-matter of a promise, but a threatening; and therefore all God's promises to grant what we pray for, suppose it to be good for us: and thereMatt. 7. 11. fore our Saviour saith, "If ye then being evil, know how to

give good gifts to your children; how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven, give good things to them that ask Him?" Instead of good things, St. Luke reads, Luke 11.13. "the Holy Spirit;" that being the greatest good we can ask, or rather all good things together: for without that nothing is good; with it all things are so. They are good in the highest sense, that is, they are spiritually good; and they are such good things especially, that God hath promised, and which we therefore ought to ask: such things as are necessary to our doing good, and to our being good; and so to our obtaining eternal Salvation by Him. These are the good things which Christ purchased for us with His own blood; and therefore doth here promise to give us, upon our asking them in His Name; as being really, abso

lutely, universally, good in themselves; which the things of this life are not. They may, or may not be good for us; and whether they be, or be not, we cannot tell, only God knows that: and therefore we must ask such things of Him, only with this proviso or condition, that He knows them to be good; or, as our Church expresseth it, " as may be most expedient for us." But so far as any thing is so, we may confidently ask it, and believe that He will grant it to us. This is that which St. John means, where he saith, "This is 1 John 5.14. the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us." For He hath plainly declared it to be His will, in that He hath promised, to give us all things that are really good for us, so far as He Himself knows them to be so. "For He will give grace Ps. 84. 12. and glory, and no good thing will He withhold from them that live a godly life."

Wherefore, we not being able to see into the consequences of things, what may do us good or hurt at long run, must take special care not to be too particular in what we pray for; but to ask only such things in general which God knows to be good for us, according to that Divine form, which our Lord Himself hath composed for our daily use. In which He hath taught us to begin our prayers in His Name, by directing them to God as our Father in Him; for it is He that gives us power to become the sons of God, and John 1. 12. so to call God Father. And then to pray, that His Name may be hallowed, sanctified, or glorified in the world; that His kingdom may come, the kingdom of His grace, into our hearts, and His glory over all the earth; that His holy Will may be done by us upon earth, as it is by the glorified Saints and Angels in Heaven. These things are all good in themselves, the best that can be desired in the world: but as for other things, we pray not for great offices, large estates, long life, or the like; but for our daily bread, for food convenient, so much as He knows to be necessary to support our mortal life, so long as He sees good. That He would forgive us our trespasses, whatsoever we have done contrary to His laws, as we for His sake forgive those who have wronged us that He would not lead, nor suffer us to be led into any trial or temptation that may be too strong

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SERM. for us, and cause us to fall; but that He would deliver us from evil, not from this or that particular thing, which we think to be evil for us, but from evil in general, from whatsoever He knows to be so: and by consequence, that He would give us whatsoever He knows to be good for us; it being a great evil to want any thing that is good. Thus we ought always to pray in private, as we do in our public prayers, which are all composed according to this excellent form: and whatsoever we ask that is thus good for us, our Lord here promiseth to do it.

But for that purpose, we must ask it in His Name: "If ye shall ask any thing," saith He, "in My Name." Not only by using His Name, as we are apt to do when we never think of Him, but by apprehending and believing that we deserve not the good things we ask, for any thing in ourselves, but that He hath merited them for us; and therefore asking them only for His sake, as merited by Him, trusting and depending upon Him to mediate or intercede, that we may have them. For though it be not necessary to name His Name in every petition, yet we must keep our hearts and our faith all along thus fixed upon Him, as the only Mediator between God and men, by whom alone we can ever receive any thing that is good; and by whom there is nothing that is good, but we may receive, and particularly that which we now ask, if it be really good for us, and we ask it thus in His Name: for He Himself hath promised to do it; saying,

"I will do it :" He will do the very thing we ask, if that be best; otherwise He will do something for us, which, all things considered, shall be better: so that our prayer is still answered. As if we ask something that is really good, in that it would conduce to some good end which we have in our eye, if He gives us something that will conduce more to that end than that particular thing we asked would, He doth not only do what we asked, but more. As when St. Paul prayed that the thorn in his flesh might be removed, 2 Cor. 12. 8. and our Lord answered, "My grace is sufficient for thee:"

the Apostle looked upon his prayer as fully answered, although he had not the very thing he prayed for; because it was better to have the grace of Christ alway sufficient for him, than to be freed from any particular trouble. And

thus it is that Christ usually doth what we ask; if He doth not do the thing itself, He doth that which is better, and which we therefore would have asked, if we had known it as well as He.

But how doth our Lord do what we ask in His Name? Not in an extraordinary or miraculous manner, by altering the whole course of nature for it; but He doth it in the use of the ordinary means which He hath appointed for such an end as if we ask for food convenient, He gives it by blessing us in our particular calling, or directing us to some such means, as by His assistance shall certainly effect it. If we pray for His Holy Spirit to assist and direct us in our lives, He gives it in the performance of our public and private devotions, in reading or hearing His Holy Word, and in receiving the Holy Sacrament; therefore called "the means of grace," because it is by them that Christ usually confers His grace and Holy Spirit upon us. And thus whatsoever it is that we ask, we must use such means as He hath ordained for it; otherwise we have no ground to expect that He should do it, no more than that He should work miracles for us.

In this sense therefore these words are to be understood, and this promise is always fulfilled. If any of Christ's faithful Servants and Disciples, living in His true faith and fear, if they shall heartily, earnestly, and frequently ask any thing of Almighty God, that is really good for them; and if they ask it in the Name, and for the sake of Jesus Christ, trusting on Him, and Him alone for it, in the use of the proper means, then He will certainly do it: He will either do that very thing they ask, or something that is better for them; so that they shall never pray in vain: and they that do so, must conclude that they fail in some or other of the forementioned particulars. They are either no true Christians, or they do not continue instant in prayer, or they ask something which they had better be without than have, or they do not ask it aright in the Name of Christ, or else do not use the means that He hath appointed for it; for otherwise, it is impossible they should not have it, as impossible as it is for God to lie.

By this therefore, we may see the great happiness of those