Answer (c). Consider that God may, and doth, sometimes conceal his enlivening presence, till the soul be engaged in the work. And would it not grieve thee to lose such an opportunity? How oft hast thou found thyself at the entrance into a duty becalmed, as a ship which at first setting sail hath hardly wind to swell its sails—while under the shore and shadow of the trees—but meets a fresh gale of wind when got into the open sea? Yea, didst thou never launch out to duty as the apostles to sea, with the wind on thy teeth, as if the Spirit of God, instead of helping thee on, meant to drive thee back, and yet hast found Christ walking to thee before the duty was done, and a prosperous voyage made of it at last? Abraham saw not the ram which God had provided for his sacrifice till he was in the mount.
In the mount of prayer God is seen; even when the Christian does oft go up the hill towards duty with a heavy heart, because he can as yet have no sight of him. Turn not therefore back; but on with courage. He may be nearer than thou thinkest on. ‘In that same hour,’ saith Christ, ‘it shall be give unto you,’ Matt. 10:19. ‘In the day,’ said David, ‘when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul,’ Ps. 138:3. It is no more than the promise gives us security for: ‘The way of the Lord is strength.’ Just as it is with a man, who at first going out on a journey feels a lassitude and feebleness in his limbs; but the farther he goes, the more strength he gathers, as if there arose strength out of the ground he walks on. Truly the saints find this in God’s way: ‘I have remembered thy name, O Lord, in the night, and have kept thy law. This I had, because I kept thy precepts,’ Ps. 119:55, 56. His meaning is, by doing his best endeavour to keep them, he got this by the hand, to be able to keep them better, and he thinks himself so well paid in for this his pains, that he glories in it—‘This I had.’ So the saint hath this for praying —he gets his heart in tune to pray better.
We may observe those children in Scripture which came of barren wombs were the greatest comforts to their parents when they had them. Witness Isaac, Samuel, and John. The greater deadness and barrenness thy heart, to thy own sense, lay under, and the less hope thou hadst to get out of the indis¬position, the more joyful will the quickening presence of God be to thee. The assistance that thus surpri¬seth thee beyond thy expectation will be a true Isaac —a child of joy and laughter. And a double reason is obvious why God doth thus. You see it in the great delight the Lord takes in pure obedience. ‘To obey is better than sacrifice,’ I Sam. 15:22. To pray in obedience is better than barely to pray. This is the jewel in the ring of prayer. Now, to pray in pure obedience is to set upon the duty when there is no assistance visi¬ble or encouragement sensible—to go to duty not because God puts forth his hand to lead me, but because he holds forth his precept to command me. As when a general commands his army to march, if then the soldiers should stand upon terms, and refuse to go except they have better clothes, their pay in hand, or the like, and then they will march; this would not show them an obedient disciplined army. But if, at the reading of their orders, they presently break up their quarters, and set forth, though it be midnight when the command come, and they without money in their purse, clothes on their back—leaving the whole care of themselves for these things to their general, and they only attend how they may best fulfil his command—these may be said to march in obedience. Thus, when a soul, after a faithful use of means, finds his heart dead and dull, yet in obedience to the command kneels down—though the sense of his inability is so great that he questions whether he shall have power to speak one word to God as he ought, yet had rather be dumb and dutiful, than disobedient in running away from his charge —here is an obedient soul, and he may hope to meet God in his way with that which he cannot carry with him—as the lepers, who, when they went, in obedience to Christ’s command, to ‘show themselves to the priest,’ were cured by the way, though they saw nothing of it when they set forth.
Another fetch that Satan hath to make the Christian put off the duty of prayer as unseasonable at present, is—
2. Plea. Some worldly business or other that then is to be despatched; and therefore suggests such thoughts as these to divert him:—‘I have no leisure now to pray; this business is to be done, and that ne¬cessary occasion calls for my attendance. I will therefore adjourn the performance till I can come with more freedom and leisure.’
Now to arm thee, Christian, against such dilatory pretences, I shall lay down a few directions.
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