I. Let us pray and strive, and strive and pray again, adding endeavours § 1 to prayers, and prayers to endeavours, that we may be filled with the knowledge of Gods will. And we have need to make this an essential part of our prayer; for first, We may happily do the will of God Materially, when we do it not Formally; not under that formal and precise consideration, that what we do is the will of God, and that we do it under that consideration because it is the will of God. A Man may perhaps stumble upon some practices that are commanded by the Moral Law, and yet in all this not do Gods will but his own; that which in all our obedience we are to eye, and regard, is the Authority, the will of God; we cannot be said to observe a Commandment, unless we observe Gods Authority in that Commandment; nor to keep Gods Statutes, unless we keep God in our eye as the great Legislator and Statute maker: A blind obedience even to God is no more acceptable, than a blind obedience to Men is justifiable. Secondly, We ought to pray that we may be filled with the knowledge of Gods will, that there may be more employment for the powers and faculties of the Soul, which in every heart wherein the grace of God radically is, are in the general inclined to do the will of God: There are some well disposed Christians, of strong affections and good inclinations to do Gods will, who are but slenderly furnished with knowledge what that will of God is, which he would have them do: And thus those warm propensions of Spirit, either lye like dead stocks upon their hands, or else they laid out the zeal of their Souls upon that which is not the will of God; and when they have spent their vigour and strength of Soul upon it, they come to God for a reward, who asks them, who required this at your hand? And thus even holy Davids zeal was mislaid upon this account, that God had not spoken a ⟨image 71⟩word, nor revealed his will in the Case, 2 Sam. 7.7. Thirdly, Its our great concern that we may know the will of God, and be filled with that knowledge; that the knowledge of Gods will may be an operative principle of obedience; thus David prays, Psal. 143.10. Teach me to do thy will, O God: We are to pray that God would teach us to know, and then teach us to do his will: knowledge without obedience is lame, obedience without knowledge is blind;
I. Let us pray and strive, and strive and pray again, adding endeavours § 1 to prayers, and prayers to endeavours, that we may be filled with the knowledge of Gods will. And we have need to make this an essential part of our prayer; for first, We may happily do the will of God Materially, when we do it not Formally; not under that formal and precise consideration, that what we do is the will of God, and that we do it under that consideration because it is the will of God. A Man may perhaps stumble upon some practices that are commanded by the Moral Law, and yet in all this not do Gods will but his own; that which in all our obedience we are to eye, and regard, is the Authority, the will of God; we cannot be said to observe a Commandment, unless we observe Gods Authority in that Commandment; nor to keep Gods Statutes, unless we keep God in our eye as the great Legislator and Statute maker: A blind obedience even to God is no more acceptable, than a blind obedience to Men is justifiable. Secondly, We ought to pray that we may be filled with the knowledge of Gods will, that there may be more employment for the powers and faculties of the Soul, which in every heart wherein the grace of God radically is, are in the general inclined to do the will of God: There are some well disposed Christians, of strong affections and good inclinations to do Gods will, who are but slenderly furnisht with knowledge what that will of God is, which he would have them do: And thus those warm propensions of Spirit, either lye like dead stocks upon their hands, or else they laid out the zeal of their Souls upon that which is not the will of God; and when they have spent their vigour and strength of Soul upon it, they come to God for a reward, who asks them, who required this at your hand? And thus even holy Davids zeal was mislaid upon this account, that God had not spoken a ⟨image 71⟩word, nor revealed his will in the Case, 2 Sam. 7.7. Thirdly, Its our great concern that we may know the will of God, and be filled with that knowledge; that the knowledge of Gods will may be an operative principle of obedience; thus David prays, Psal. 143.10. Teach me to do thy will, O God: We are to pray that God would teach us to know, and then teach us to do his will: knowledge without obedience is lame, obedience without knowledge is blind;
