the power of God against the power of Satan and sin. The Psalms are full of suitable expressions that may be used with advantage.—My soul cleaveth to the dust, quicken thou me according to thy word. Create in me a clean heart, O God; renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Thus contend against your spiritual enemies, and you must overcome them. DETERMINE ΤΟ STRIVE AGAINST WANDERINGS. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you. James iv. 7. Are you not in general going carelessly to the worship of God, as a matter of habit and custom, without much thought of engaging your heart to approach unto him. This seems to be a too general case from the inquiry, Who is this that hath engaged his heart to approach unto me, saith the Lord? Jer. xxx. 21. The heart must be engaged to serve God. We should resolve with Jeremiah, Let us lift up our hearts with our hands, unto God in the heavens. Lam. iii. 41. Before you enter on this holy duty, pause, and pray with David, Unite my heart to fear thy name; (Psalm lxxxvi. 11,) as if he had said, 'I find my heart divided, and my thoughts dissipated; gather in all my wandering affections; may they be fixed on ONE great object; may they all be united in this single act that is before me:' "That all my powers, with all their might, ΚΕΝ. SEEK TO GAIN A SPIRITUAL MIND. To be spiritually-minded is life and peace. We are only cutting off a leaf or a twig from this evil tree, while we take away a particular distraction. O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved! How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee? Jer. iv. 14. Till the heart be washed from sin, by the blood of Jesus and by the grace of his Spirit, vain thoughts will be sure to lodge, or take up an abode in you, and to mingle with all you do. The heavenly-minded Christian, whose heart is continually with God, finds it comparatively easy to keep it more closely fixed on him, in the particular act of prayer. But if you are under the full influence of the carnal mind, it is utterly impossible that you can offer spiritual worship. You must be born again, John iii. 7. Such want an entire new heart. When they gain that, they may the better hope to attend upon the Lord without distraction. Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long, and then there will not be the difficulty which you find in fixing your thoughts, and staying your mind on God, during the act of prayer.1 Men of the world are not distracted about their worldly business, but will pursue it with all fixedness and intention of mind, hour after hour, day after day, and year after year. They have an earthly mind, and love earthly things. Seek you to have a spiritual mind, and then you will thus pursue spiritual things. All the lines of your affections should unite here; all the radii of the circle should meet in this centre in a fixedness of heart on God in his worship. The circumstances of our prayers often lead our minds from God. We have to think of our sins, and their circumstances, when we confess them, and 1 See Owen's Grace and Duty of being spiritually minded.' of our wants when we pray for what we need, and of our mercies when we thank God for them, and of our friends when we intercede for them; but if the mind were in a spiritual state, these things would rather be the means of drawing our hearts nearer to God, than of drawing them from him. Our thoughts should not so run out on the particulars of worship, as to forget the presence of Him whom we worship. PERSEVERE IN PRAYER NOTWITHSTANDING DISTRACTIONS.-In the path of duty, every obstacle gives way to the faith of the Christian. When the Israelites were come to the Red Sea, and to the waters of Jordan, they were directed to go forward. It might have been objected, If we go forward, shall we not be drowned? But still their duty was to go forward; and so should we go in the path of a plain command, leaving to our God the removal of all obstacles. The reluctance and the discouragement of prayer will be overcome in the performance of the duty. When their heart is in this distracted frame, in private prayer, by giving more time to the duty, and dwelling on the petitions till you are able to attend to what you say, you will often be enabled to overcome your difficulties. "Patience is a grace as necessary sometimes in devotion, as in afflictions; and the want of patience does as often make our devotions defective as the want of recollection." The difficulty of praying without distraction, and the fact that distractions do mingle with our holiest services, should inculcate many practical LESSONS; such as humility, brokenness of spirit, and, as has been already noticed, entire dependence on Christ for righteousness and strength, breathings after the influence of the Spirit, and a longing to be in heaven, where all our services will be pure and holy. That prayer is not lost which produces any of these effects. Nay, if a distracted prayer do but deeply humble us, it may be one of our most profitable prayers. And when our distractions are lamented, and our desire after spiritual blessings unfeigned, it may encourage us to remember that we pray to a Father. A little child often finds a difficulty in expressing its wants to an earthly father; yet he, being desirous to meet the wishes of the child, will be ingenuous and patient, to discover and supply those wishes: so shall our heavenly Father give good things to them that ask him. OUR incapacity, indeed, is not physical, but moral; yet God, notwithstanding these many sins, considers those who trust in his Son as children, and pities them, and spares them, as a man spareth his son. CHAPTER XIV. ON DEVOTIONAL FEELINGS MERELY. THERE are a number of persons whom we have no reason to believe to be under the influence of real religion; their tempers are frequently unsubdued and irritable; their affections, in the main, are worldly; and their pride of heart is evident; they yet express themselves in a devout way, and talk as if they found pleasure in devotion. The beauties of creation, the charms of nature, the fancied pictures which they draw of the goodness of the Deity, fill their minds with lively ideas of the benevolence of the Creator. They love to contemplate these things, and to converse about them in a strain of devout admiration and praise. Deists and idolaters sometimes express themselves in this way; and Socinians often talk as if their view of religion encouraged real devotion. What, then, are the great defects of the kind of devotion which has been described? It is accompanied by some one or other of the following marks. With respect to those who profess to have it, it |