' Rejoicing in hope.' There cannot from hopes of enjoying : Rom. xii. 12,
376 charnock's works. [Ps. XXXVII. 4.
'' A perfect heart and a willing mind are put together,
spiritual delight.
1 Chron. xxix. 2. There cannot be wilUngness without sincerity, nor sin-
cerity without willingness.
4. From a holy and frequent familiarity with God. Where there is a great familiarity, there is a great delight ; delight in one another's company, and delight in one another's converse : strangeness contracts, and familiarity
dilates the soul. There is more alacrity in going to a God with whom we are acquainted than to a God to whom we are strangers. This doth encourage the soul to go to God. I go to a God whose face I have seen, whose goodness I have tasted, with whom I have often met in prayer. Frequent fami-
liarity makes us more apprehensive of the excellency of another ; an excellency apprehended will be beloved, and being beloved, will be delighted in.
5. From hopes of speeding. There is an expectative delight which ariseth from hopes of enjoying : Rom. xii. 12, ' Rejoicing in hope.' There cannot be a pleasant motion where there is a palsy of doubts. How full of delight must that soul be that can plead a promise, and carry God's hand and seal
to heaven, and shew him his own bond, when it can be pleaded, not only as a favour to engage his mercy, but in some sense to engage his truth and righteousness ! Christ in his prayer, which was his swan-like song, John
xvii., pleads the terms of the covenant between his Father and himself: ' I have glorified thee on earth, glorify me with that glory I had with thee before the world was.' This is the case of a delighful approach, when we carry a covenant of grace with us for ourselves, and a promise of security and perpetuity for the church. Upon this account we have more cause of a pleasant motion to God than ancient believers had. Fear acted them under the law, love us under the gospel. He cannot but dehght in prayer that hath arguments of God's own framing to plead with God, who cannot deny his own arguments and reasonings. Little comfort can be sucked from a j)erhaps
but when we come to seek covenant mercies, God's faithfulness to his covenant puts the mercy past a perhaps. We come to a God sitting upon a throne of grace, upon mount Sion, not on mount Sinai ; to a God that desires our presence, more than we desire his assistance,
6. From a sense of former mercies and acceptation. If manna be rained down, it doth not only take olf our thoughts from Egyptian garlic, but quickens our desires for a second shower. A sense of God's majesty will make us lose our garishness, and a sense of God's love will make us lose our dumpishness. We may as well come again with a merry heart, when God accepts our prayers, as go away and eat our bread with joy when God accepts our works, Eccles. ix. 7. The doves will readily fly to the windows where they have formerly found shelter, and the beggar to the door where he hath
often received an alms : ' Because he hath inclined his ear to hear me, there-
fore will I call upon him as long as I live,' Ps. cxvi. 2. I have found refuge with God before ; I have found my wants supplied, my soul raised, my temptations checked, my doubts answered, and my prayers accepted, there-
fore I will repeat my addresses with cheerfulness.
I might add, also, other causes : as a love to God, a heavenliness of spirit, a consideration of Christ's intercession, a deep humiliation. The more unpleasant sin is to our relish, the more delightful will God be, and the more cheerful our souls in addresses to him. The more unpleasant sin is to us, the more spiritual our souls are ; and the more spiritual our souls, the more
spiritual our affections : the more stony, the more lumpish and unapt for motion ; the more contrite, the more agile. From a spiritual taste ; report of a thing may contribute some pleasure, but a taste greater,
III. Reasons. Without cheerful seeking, we cannot have a gracious answer.