*It was especially towards the conclusion of his Lord’s work, that he was favoured with such near fellowship with him. He approached the throne of grace with much of the reverential boldness of faith, _believing_, that whatever he asked, he should have the petitions he asked for; the holy Spirit making intercession in his heart, according to the will of God. And to such a degree of confidence in him, did he arrive by this means, that in the greatest straits of his life (and he met with some things which came home to him, with the deepest sensibility) he was more than kept up; so that he seemed to fear nothing, even where, to all human apprehension, every thing was to be feared. He so abandoned himself to God, in the discharge of his duty, that his very friends were sometimes ready to charge him with being a little rash or imprudent. Altho’ he endeavoured to use his understanding as far as ever it would go; yet acting in view of _those things which are not seen_, and from motives referring to eternity, he was not, it is true, so attentive to the decorums among men, as mere human prudence would have dictated. And in reality it is a truth, which is learned from a series of experience, and confirmed by numberless examples, that whoever would do much for God, should take care of being (in a sense) too wise. There is reason to think, that if the apostles themselves had consulted the directions of bare human reason, they never had undertook the conversion of the world. An habitual spirit of mortification served as wings to his prayer. And perhaps the want of this, is, much more than is commonly thought, a grand cause of that indisposedness to, and weariness in prayer, which is so generally complained of among Christians; many of whom are often even glad of a pretended occasion to avoid the duty. “Something is amiss in us, and it wanted a name, till the Spirit of God, by enjoining us the duty of mortification, hath taught us to know, that want of mortification of spirit, is the case of all, at least of many of our secret and spiritual indispositions. The excellencies of heaven cannot be discerned but by a spirit disrelishing the low appetites of the world. Unless our spirit be mortified, we neither love to pray, nor does God love to hear us.” We find all the way thro’ our _heavenly_ journey, that to be _carnally minded_, in the least degree, is a proportionable degree of death. And that a mind truly spiritual alone, has true life and peace.