QUERY. What would you have a poor creature do, that cannot tell how to pray?
ANSWER. Thou canst not, thou complainest, pray; canst thou see thy misery? Hath God showed thee that thou art by nature under the curse of his law? If so, do not mistake. I know thou dost groan, and that most bitterly; I am persuaded thou canst scarcely be found doing any thing in thy calling. But prayer breaks from thy heart. Have not thy groans gone up to heaven from every corner of thy house? I know it is thus: and so also doth thine own sorrowful heart witness thy tears and thy forgetfulness of thy calling. Is not thy heart so full of desires after the things of another world, that many times thou dost even forget the things of this world? Prithee, read this scripture: Job 23: 12.
QUERY. Yea, but when I go in secret, and intend to pour out my soul before God, I can scarce say any thing at all.
ANSWER. Ah, sweet soul, it is not thy words that God so much regards, that he will not mind thee except thou comest before him with some eloquent oration. His eye is on the brokenness of thy heart; and that it is which makes the compassions of the Lord run over: "A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."
The stopping of thy words—may arise from overmuch trouble in thy heart. David was so troubled sometimes that he could not speak. But this may comfort all such sorrowful hearts as thine, that though thou canst not through the anguish of thy spirit speak much, yet the Holy Spirit stirs up in thy heart groans and sighs so much the more vehement.
AFFECTIONATE CONFIDENCE IN PRAYER.
God has given thee his Son's righteousness to justify thee; he has also, because thou art a son, sent forth the Spirit of his Son into thy heart to satisfy thee, and to help thee to cry unto him, Father, Father! Wilt thou not cry? wilt thou not desire? Thy God has "bidden thee open thy mouth; he has bid thee open it wide," and promised, saying, "and I will fill it;" and wilt thou not desire?
Oh, thou hast a license, a leave, a grant to desire; wherefore, "be not afraid to desire great mercies of the God of heaven."
OBJECTION. "But I am an unworthy creature."
ANSWER. That is true; but God gives to no man for his worthiness, nor rejects any for their sinfulness, that come to him sensible of the want and worth of mercy for them. Besides, the desires of a righteous man, and the desires or his God, agree. God has a desire to thee, thou hast a desire to him. God desires truth in the inward parts and so dost thou with all thy heart. God desires mercy, and to show it to the needy; that is what thou also wantest, and what thy soul craves at his hand.