180 A GUIDE TO PRAYER. pute the difference that is between the prayers of the same true christians at different seasons only, to the unequal assistauces of the blessed Spirit ; for many other things may concur to make them more or less cold or fers cut, dull or lively, in the exercise of the gift of prayer. The second case wherein we may be in danger of mistake is, Where there is but a small measure of the gift of prayer. Ilow ready are some persons to judge the Spirit of prayer' is absent from the heart of that person that speaks to God, if he bath but a mean and contemptible gift ; if he seems to repeat the same things over again, if he labours under want of words, or expresses his thoughts in improper or disagreeable language; if he bath no beauty of connection between Lis sentences, and hath little order or method in the several parts of prayer ! Now, though such persons that have so very small and despicable a talent should not be forward to speak in prayer in a great assem- bly; or among strangers, till by practice in a more private way they have attained more of this holy skill ; yet there may be muelr of the Spirit of prayer in the hearts of some such persons as these. It may be they are young christians lately converted, and are but beginning to learn to pray. The business of praying is a new work to them, though their zeal be warm and their hearts Iively in grace. And natural bashfulness may sometimes hinder the exercise of a good gift in prayer. Or it may be they have very low natural parts, a poor invention and memory, a barren- ness of words, or some difficulty or unhappiness in their com- mon way of expressing themselves about other affairs ; they may be some of thosë foolish things of this world that God hath called to the,knowledge of his Son; and filled their hearts with t jch ;race ;, but grace Both not so far exalt nature,- as to change a dull geniús, ìutd low capacity into a sprightliness of 'thought and vivacity of language. Or'perhaps they have long disused , themselves from praying in public, and at first when they are called. to it again, they May be much at a loss as to the gift of prayer, though grace may be in its advances in the soul. Or perhaps they are in the lively exercises of deep. humility and mourning before God under a sense of guilt, or over- whelmed with fears of divine desertion, or conflicting and wrest- ling hard with some hurrying temptation, or under apresent de- pression of mind by some heavy sorrow, and may be in the case of David ; Psal. lxxvii.' 4. when he was so troubled that be could not speak. Or finally, God may withhold from them the exercise of the gift of prayer to punish them with shame and confusion for some neglected duty, and chastises, them, it may be, for carelessness in seeking after this holy skill of speaking to God, though some graces, such as zeal and love, may be at work in the heart.
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