feigned lips;" or, as it is in the Hebrew, "without lips of deceit." Heart and tongue must go together; word and work, lip and life, prayer and practice, must echo one to another, or else thy prayers and thy soul will be lost together; the labour of the lips, and the travail of the heart must go together.

The Egyptians, of all fruits, made choice of the peach, to consecrate to their goddess; and for no other cause, but that the fruit thereof is like to one's heart, and the leaf like to one's tongue. These very heathens in the worship of their gods, thought it necessary that men's hearts and tongues should go together. Ah christians, when in your closet duties your hearts and tongues go together, then you make that sweet and delightful melody, that is most pleas ing to the King of kings. The very soul of prayer lies in the pouring out of the soul before God. Psalm xlii. 4. "When I remember these thiings, I pour out my soul in me." So the Israelites poured out their souls like water before the Lord:-So the church, "The desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee. With my soul have I desired thee in the night, yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early," Isa. xxvi. 8, 9. So Lam. ii. 41. "Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens." So Heb. x. 22. "Let us draw near with a true heart, &c." So Rom. i. 9. God is my witness, whom I serve in the spirit." 1 Cor. xiv. 15. "I will pray with the spirit, and sing with the spirit." Phil. iii. 3. “We are the circumcision, that worship God in the spirit." Under the law the inward parts were only to be offered to God in

"For

sacrifice; the skin belonged to the priests: whence we may easily gather, that truth in the inward parts,.. is that which is most pleasing in a sacrifice. When the Athenians would know of the oracle the cause off their often unprosperous› successes in battle against the Lacedemonians, seeing, they offered the choicest things they could get to sacrifice to their gods, which their enemies did not, the oracle gave them this au swer, that the gods were better pleased with their inward supplication withet ambition, than with all their outward pomp in costly sacrifices. Ah sirs! the reason why so many are so unsuccessful in their closet duties and services is, because there is not more in their hearts of them. No man can make sure or happy work in prayer, but he that makes hearts work of it. When a man's heart is in his prayers, then great and sweet will be his returns from heaven; › that is no prayer, in which the heart of the person/ bears no part. When the soul is separated from the body, the man is dead; and so when the heart is se parated from the lip in prayer, the prayer is dead.

The Jews at this day write upon the walls of their synagogues these words, tephilloh belo cavannah ceguph belo neshama; that is, a prayer without the heart, or, without the intention of the affection, is like a body without a soul.'

In the Law of Moses the priest was commanded to wash the inwards and the feet of the sacrifices in water, and this was done, saith Philo, to teach us to keep our hearts and affections clean when we draw nigh to God.' In all your closet duties, God looks first and most to your hearts, "My son give me thy Q

heart." It is not a piece, it is not a corner of the heart, that will satisfy the Maker of it; the heart is a treasure, a bed of spices, a royal throne wherein he delights. God looks not at the elegancy of your prayers, nor at their length, or the sweetness of your voice, but at the sincerity of your prayers. There is no prayer acknowledged, approved, accepted, recorded, or rewarded by God, but that wherein the heart is sincerely and wholly. The true mother would not have the child divided. As God loves a broken and contrite heart, so he loaths a divided heart. Godneither loves halting nor halving, he will be served truly and totally. The royal law is, "Thou shalt love and serve the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul." Among the heathens, when the beasts were cut up for sacrifice, the first thing the priest looked upon was the heart, and if the heart was nought, the sacrifice was rejected. Verily, God rejects all those services and sacrifices, wherein the heart is not engaged. Prayer without the heart is sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Prayer is only lovely and weighty, as the heart is in it, and not otherwise: it is not the lifting up of the voice, nor the wringing of the hands, nor the beating of the breasts nor the affected tone, nor studied motions, nor seraphical expressions, but the heart, that God looks at, in prayer. God hears no more than the heart speaks; if the heart be dumb, God will certainly be deaf; no prayer takes with God, but that which comes from the heart.

The same day Julius Cæsar came to the imperial dignity, sitting in his golden chair, he offered a beast

as a sacrifice to the gods; but when the beast was opened, it was without a heart, which the soothsayers looked upon as an ill omen. 'Tis a sad omen, that thou wilt rather provoke the Lord, than prevail with him, who art habitually heartless in thy closet duties. Of the heart God seems to say to us, as Joseph did to his brethren, concerning Benjamin, "Ye shall not see my face without him.”

It was the speech of blessed Bradford, That he would never leave a duty, till he had brought his heart into the frame of the duty; he would not leave confession of sin, till his heart was broken for sin; he - would not leave petitioning for grace, till his heart was quickened and enlivened, in a hopeful expectation of more grace; he would not leave gratulation, till his heart was enlarged with the sense of the mercies he enjoyed, and quickened in the return of praise.'

6. Be fervent, be warm, be importunate with God in your closet-duties and performances. James v. 17. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much;" or as the Greek has it the 'working prayer;' that is, such working prayer as sets the whole man to work, as sets all the faculties of the soul and all graces in the soul at work; the work signifies such working as notes the liveliest activity that can be. Certainly all those usual phrases, of crying, wrestling with God, which are scattered and down in scripture, do strongly argue that holy importunity and sacred violence, that the saints of old have expressed in their addresses to God. Fervency feathers the wings of prayer, and makes them fly to

up

heaven. An arrow if it be drawn up but a little way, flies not far; but if it be drawn up to the head, it will fly far, and pierce deeply: So fervent prayer flies as high as heaven, and will certainly bring down blessings from thence. Cold prayers bespeak a denial but fervent prayers offer a secred violence both to heaven and earth. As in painted fire there is no heat, so in cold prayer there is no warmth, no devotion, no blessing. Cold prayers are like arrows without heads, as swords without edges, birds without wings, they pierce not, they cut not, they fly not up to heaven. Such prayers as have no heavenly fire in them, always freeze before they reach as high as heaven: but fervent prayer is very prevalent with God, Acts xii. 5. “Peter

incitore was kept prison, wuc player was maue without ceasing." The Greek word signifies instant prayer, earnest prayer, stretched out prayer, prayer stretched-out upon the tenters, as it were. These gracious souls did in prayer strain and stretch themselves, as men do that are running in a race; they prayed with all the strength of their souls, and with all the fervency of their spirits, and accordingly they carried the day with God, as you may see in the following verses. So Acts xxvi. 7. Unto which promise our twelve tribes instantly serving God day and night," or rather as the Greek hath it, in a stretchedout manner, serving God day and night. These twelve tribes or the godly Jews of the twelve tribes of Israel stretched out their hearts, their affections, their graces, to the utmost in prayer. In all your private retirements, do as the twelve tribes did. Rom. xii. 11.

Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." The Greek