SERM. rious Hopes they had conceived, must have VII. overwhelmed them with an extreme Weight

of Grief, and Fear, and Disappointment. He therefore, ever full of a compaffionate Regard to his Servants, we find, applies himself throughout this and the two foregoing Chapters, to provide them with the strongest Supports, and moft fuitable Comforts. To which Effect, we have here published several Points of his Revelation referv'd to this Time; and others repeated, reinforced, and applied. One of these, of very great Account, is found in my Text, Verily, verily, I fay unto you, whatfoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name, be will give it you. Ye fee how proper and full a Confolation it minifters: All Wants answered by being exprefs'd; and in particular, the lamented Absence of their Lord fupplied by the Power of his Name. Of thefe, the former, indeed, the general Efficacy of Prayer, we meet with in other Difcourfes of our Saviour, and in the Old Teftament likewife; but the latter is first opened in these Chapters, that the Apostles night fuftain themfelves with Affurance of being ever heard thro'

the

the Interest and Virtue of his Name, who SERM, had chofen them, and whom they had loved VIL and believed.

Nevertheless, this and other Declarations

not

were only thus tim'd for their Sakes, but made with a common Regard to the Direction and Benefit of all other Perfons and Ages of the Church they were to establish; which Thing appears from the Prayer contained in the following Chapter, (the xviith.) wherein our Lord moft folemnly commending the Disciples, after his Departure, to the Protection and Sanctification of his Father; explains his Will to place all future Chriftians alfo in the like Degree of Divine Love, and an equal Hope of Communication of Divine Bleffings. Verfe 20, and 21. Neither pray I for thefe alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their Word: that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us. Accordingly, we fee, the Chriftian Church embraces the Direction above, and in her Litany clofes all Addreffes to the Throne of Grace with the prevailing Name of her Lord Jefus Christ.

And

SERM. And, I would to God, every Part and VII. Member of it had contented themselves

ations.

with this all-fufficient Pledge for obtaining their Petitions; had not difhonour'd THAT, and weaken'd their Intereft, instead of fortifying it, with other Names and MediBut the excellent Ufe of that Form, prefcrib'd by God, which fhews itself in directing the Matter of Prayer, qualifying the Petitioner, and securing the Succefs, will best infer, how abfurd in it-felf, pernicious to real Piety, and injurious to our ONE Lord, this other Practice of human Invention deferves to be efteemed.

The Confideration of the Promife, made in the Text, will lead us to the Ufe I have mentioned. Every reasonable Man, upon View of the Generality of that, or any other like Propofition, immediately enquires, if there be not fome Limitations included or intended, though not directly exprefs'd. Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name, he will give it you. The Common Sense of a moral Man will con-fine the Interpretation to Things fit to be asked by the one, and given by the other: And the Knowledge of a Chriftian Man

inftructs him from other Scriptures, what SERM are the Particulars neceffary to be observ'd, VII. as well in the Subject Matter of the Petition, as in the Perfon and Spirit of him that makes it. And if our asking in the Name of Chrift, ferves naturally as a perpetual Monitor, and moft powerful Regulator to thofe Purposes, the Excellency of the Appointment will, thereby appear; which I defign for the firft Part of this Difcourfe; as I do for the latter, the comfortable and evident Affurance of Success, which undeniably fprings from the fame.

The principal Limitations to the Promise, Whatfoever ye shall ask, we fhall find to be, first, that we ask Things good, and to good Ends: fecondly, that we be ourselves in a State of Repentance, and Difpofition of Obedience and thirdly, that we ask in Faith and full Truft on the Divine Goodness. The feveral Proofs of these Points, from Reason and Revelation, being first touch'd, I fhall infift upon the fame Confequence as maintain'd with a fpecial Force and Effect, by the Christian Manner of Praying recommended in the Text.

The

SERM. The firft Limitations concern, as I faid, VII. the Things prayed for; that they be theme felves good, and fought by the Supplicant for good Ends. In the former Part, as far as we ourselves are alone concerned; there would be no Need of the Rule, were it not for our Ignorance of the Matter for no Man can defire nor ask for what he knows to be immediately prejudicial to himself; yet in Fact we are fure, there is great Need of it. But how can it be apply'd, fince our Ignorance is fuch, that unless we forbear almost all particular Petitions, especially in Things temporal, we hall most frequently fall into the Abfurdity of praying against ourfelves? Reafon prescribes the Remedy; that thefe Requefts muft ever be accompanied with that Exception, express'd, or lodg'd in the Habit of our Minds; if the All-feeing Eye difcerns it to be finally good for us. And hereby we do not only avoid the Evil we pray for, but obtain the Good we pray not for the Goodnefs of our Father, which is in Heaven, giving us upon this Condition, Bread, when we ask Stones, and Fish, when we ask Serpents.

But