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.