A supplement to The Morning-exercise at Cripple-Gate, or, Several more cases of conscience practically…

4. Own thy personal interest with God, and plead it humbly. Consider whom thou goest to in secret, pray to thy father who seeth in secret. Canst thou prove thy self to be in Covenant, what thou canst prove thou mayest plead,¹ and have it successfully issued. In prayer we take God's Covenant into our mouths, but without a real interest the Lord expostulates with such, what have they to do with it. God never graciously hears but 'tis upon interest. This argument Solomon presses in prayer, for they be thy people and thine inheritance: ²Thus David pleads,^(a) Thou art my God, hear the voice of my supplication, ^(b)I am thine, Lord save me. ^(c)Truly I am thy servant, I am thy servant; Arias turns [Greek or Hebrew] by obsecro, quaeso, I beseech thee O Lord, I am thy servant. God will avenge his elect when they cry unto him, I was cast upon thee from the womb, ⁶thou art my God from my mothers belly. Therefore Asa turns the contest heavenward, O Lord thou art our God, let not mortal man prevail against thee. ⁷Thou takest me for the sheep of thy fold, and the servant of thy household, therefore seek me. When Israel shall be refined as silver and tried as gold, they shall call on his name and he will hear them. I will say it is my people, my tried, refined, golden people, and they shall say the Lord is my God. ⁸When thou canst discern the print of the broad seal of the Covenant upon thy heart, and the privy seal of the spirit upon thy prayers, and canst look upon the Son of God in a sacerdotal relation to thee, thou mayst^(a) come boldly to the throne of grace in time of need.