III. But true worship can only come from a heart prepared by the Lord. (Prov. xvi. 1; Rom viii. 14.) This preparation is by the sanctification of the Spirit; by which, if God's children are led in the general course of their lives, as Paul teaches, much more in their worship to their Creator and Redeemer. And whatever prayer be made, or doctrine be uttered, and not from the preparation of the Holy Spirit, it is not acceptable with God: nor can it be the true evangelical worship, which is in spirit and truth; that is, by the preparation and aid of the Spirit. For what is a heap of the most pathetical words to God Almighty; or the dedication of any place or time to him? He is a Spirit, to whom words, places, and times, strictly considered, are improper or inadequate. And though they be the instruments of public worship, they are but bodily and visible, and cannot carry our requests any further, much less recommend them to the invisible God; by no means; they are for the sake of the congregation: it is the language of the soul God hears, nor can that speak but by the Spirit, or groan aright to Almighty God without the assistance of it.
IV. The soul of man, however lively in other things, is dead to God, till He breathe the spirit of life into it: it cannot live to Him, much less worship Him, without it. Thus God tells us, by Ezekiel, when in a vision of the restoration of mankind, in the person of Israel, an usual way of speaking among the prophets, and as often mistaken, "I will open your graves," saith the Lord, "and put my Spirit in you, and you shall live." (Ezek. xxxvii. 12–14.) So, though Christ taught his disciples to pray, they were, in some sort, disciples before he taught them; not worldly men, whose prayers are an abomination to God. And his teaching them is not an argument that every body must say that prayer, whether he can say it with the same heart, and under the same qualifications, as his poor disciples or followers did, or not; as is now too superstitiously and presumptuously practised; but rather as they then, so we now, are not to pray our own prayers, but his: that is, such as He enables us to make, as He enabled them then.
V. For if we are not to take thought what we shall say when we come before worldly princes, because it shall then be given us; and that "it is not we that speak, but the Spirit of our heavenly Father that speaketh in us;" (Matt. x. 19, 20;) much less can our ability be needed, or ought we to study to ourselves forms of speech in our approaches to the great Prince of princes, King of kings, and Lord of lords. For be it his greatness, we ought not by Christ's command; be it our relation to him as children, we need not; he will help us, he is our Father; that is, if he be so indeed. Thus not only the mouth of the body but of the soul is shut, till God opens it; and then he loves to hear the language of it. In which the body ought never to go before the soul: his ear is open to such requests, and his Spirit strongly intercedes for those that offer them.
VI. But it may be asked, how shall this preparation be obtained?
I answer: By waiting patiently, yet watchfully and intently upon God: "Lord," says the Psalmist, "thou hast heard the desire of the humble; thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:" (Psalm x. 17:) and, says wisdom, "The preparation of the heart in man is from the Lord." (Prov. xvi. 1.) Here it is thou must not think thy own thoughts, nor speak thy own words, which indeed is the silence of the holy cross, but be sequestered from all the confused imaginations that are apt to throng and press upon the mind in those holy retirements. It is not for thee to think to overcome the Almighty by the most composed matter, cast into the aptest phrase; no, no; one groan, one sigh, from a wounded soul, a heart touched with true remorse, a sincere and godly sorrow, which is the work of God's Spirit, excels and prevails with God. Wherefore stand still in thy mind, wait to feel something that is divine, to prepare and dispose thee to worship God truly and acceptably. And thus taking up the cross, and shutting the doors and windows of the soul against everything that would interrupt this attendance upon God, how pleasant soever the object be in itself, how lawful or needful at another season, the power of the Almighty will break in, his Spirit will work and prepare the heart, that it may offer up an acceptable sacrifice. It is he that discovers and presses wants upon the soul; and when it cries, it is he alone that supplies them. Petitions, not springing from such a sense and preparation, are formal and fictitious: they are not true; for men pray in their own blind desires, and not in the will of God; and his ear is stopped to them: "but for the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy," God hath said, "I will arise;" (Psalm xii. 5;) that is, the poor in spirit, the needy soul, those that want his assistance, who are ready to be overwhelmed, that feel a need, and cry aloud for a deliverer, and that have none on earth to help: none in heaven but Him, nor in the earth in comparison of Him: "He will deliver," said David, "the needy when he cries, and the poor, and him that has no helper." (Psalm lxxii. 12, 14.) He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence, and precious shall their blood be in His sight. "This poor man," says he, "cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles." (Psalm xxxiv. 6–8.) "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivers them," and then invites all to come and taste how good the Lord is; "yea, He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great." (Psalm cxv. 13.)
VII. But what is that to them that are not hungry? "They that be whole need not a physician:" (Matt. ix. 12;) the full have no need to sigh, nor the rich to cry for help. Those that are not sensible of their inward wants, that have not fears and terrors upon them, who feel no need of God's power to help them, nor of the light of his countenance to comfort them, what have such to do with prayer? their devotion is but at best, a serious mockery of the Almighty. They know not, they want not, they desire not what they pray for. They pray the will of God may be done, and do constantly their own: for though it be soon said, it is a most terrible thing to them. They ask for grace, and abuse that they have: they pray for the Spirit, but resist it in themselves, and scorn at it in others: they request mercies and goodness of God, and feel no real want of them. And in this inward insensibility, they are as unable to praise God for what they have, as to pray for what they have not. "They shall praise the Lord," says David, "that seek him: for he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry with good things." (Psalm xxii. 26; cvii. 8.) This also he reserves for the poor and needy, and those that fear God. Let the spiritually poor and the needy praise thy name: ye that fear the Lord, praise him; and ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him. Jacob was a plain man, of an upright heart: and they that are so, are his seed. And though (with him) they may be as poor as worms in their own eyes, yet they receive power to wrestle with God, and prevail as he did.
VIII. But without the preparation and consecration of this power, no man is fit to come before God; else it were matter of less holiness and reverence to worship God under the gospel, than it was in the times of the law, when all sacrifices were sprinkled before offered; the people consecrated that offered them, before they presented themselves before the Lord. (Numb. viii., xix.; 2 Chron. xxix. 36; xxx. 16, 17.) If the touching of a dead or unclean beast then made people unfit for temple or sacrifice, yea, society with the clean, till first sprinkled and sanctified, how can we think so meanly of the worship that is instituted by Christ in gospel times, as that it should admit of unprepared and unsanctified offerings? Or, allow that those, who either in thoughts, words, or deeds, do daily touch that which is morally unclean, can, without coming to the blood of Jesus, that sprinkles the conscience from dead works, acceptably worship the pure God: it is a downright contradiction to good sense: the unclean cannot acceptably worship that which is holy; the impure that which is perfect. There is a holy intercourse and communion betwixt Christ and his followers; but none at all betwixt Christ and Belial; between him and those that disobey his commandments, and live not the life of his blessed cross and self-denial. (2 Cor. vi. 15, 16.)
IX. But as sin, so formality cannot worship God; no, though the manner were of his own ordination. Which made the prophet, personating one in a great