The double plot of Satan in interrupting prayer 2/2

Second Plot.  In interrupting prayer Satan hath a plot against thee, Christian.

1. If he can get thee to sport with these, or sluggishly yield to them without making any vigourous resistance, that prayer, he knows, will neither do him hurt nor thyself good.  Dost [thou] think God will welcome that prayer to heaven which hath not thy heart to bear it company thither?  And how can thy heart go with it when thou hast sent it another way? It were a vain thing to expect that ship should make a prosperous voyage which is set adrift to sea to be carried whither every wave it meets will drive it, with­out any pilot to steer it to a certain haven, or such a one that hath no skill or care to hold the helm with a steady hand.  Such are the prayers that come from a roving heart.  Will God hear thee when thou mockest him?  And if this be not to mock him, what is?  Like children that give a knock at a door and then run away to their play again, thus thou rearest up thy voice to God, and then art gone in thy roving thoughts to hold chat with the world or worse, forgetting whom thou spakest last to.  Is not this to play bo‑peep with God?  Magnam injuriam Deo facio, cum precor, ut meas preces exaudiat, quas ego qui fundo, non exaudio; deprecor illum, ut mihi intendat, ego vero, nec mihi, nec mihi, intendo.  Thus the holy man complains of himself how injurious and un­worthy of God his carriage was in prayer—‘I would have God,’ saith he, ‘hear my prayer which myself doth not, when I put it up; I would have God’s ear attentive to me, when I neither mind God nor myself when I pray.’
2. He disturbs thee in praying, that he may make thee weary of praying.  Indeed, he is not likely to miss his mark if thou lettest these vermin go on to breed in thy heart; for these will rob thee of the sweetness of the duty; and when the marrow is once out, thou wilt easily be persuaded to throw the bone away.  Omnis vita gustu ducitur—he is in danger to forsake his meat who hath lost his relish of it.  Prayer is a tedious work to him that hath no pleasure in performing of it; and weariness init stands next door to being weary of it.
3. Thou provokest the Spirit of God—that alone can carry you through the work—to withdraw his assistance.  Who will help him that minds not what he does?  You know what Joab said to David when he indulged his inordinate passion for the loss of Absalom, ‘If thou go not forth, there will not tarry one with thee this night: and that will be worse unto thee than all the evil that befell thee,’ II Sam. 19:7. Truly, either thou must speedily rouse thyself out of thy sloth and non-attendance, or else the Spirit will be gone; and he departed, it will be worse with thee than ever.  Who hast thou then to help thee in thy work?  And thou wilt find it harder to bring him back, than to keep him from going.  The necessary infirm­ities which cleave to thy imperfect state, if protested against, shall not drive him away; but if thou lettest them nestle in thy heart, he takes it as thy giving him warning to be gone.  An affront done to an ambassa­dor by the baser sort of people as he walks in the street—while resident in a foreign state—may be passed over; but when such shall find countenance from the prince, it then makes a breach.  Take heed, therefore, of showing favour to such disturbers of the league betwixt God and thy soul.  Thy heart, which should be a house of prayer, Christ will not endure to have it a place of merchandise.  Either thou must whip these buyers and sellers out, or the Spirit will go.  We read of an ‘abomination of desolation standing in the holy place,’ Matt. 24:15, which some interpret to be the Roman ensigns there displayed when Jerusalem was taken.  This abomination ush­ered desolation.  What dost thou, by thy roving thoughts, but set up an abomination in the temple of thy heart?  O! down with these, as thou wouldst not be left desolate, and wholly void of God’s gracious presence with thee.

Question.  But, it may be, now you will ask, ‘What counsel can you give to arm us against both these incursions of Satan and bubblings of our own vain hearts in prayer?  How can we keep either our hearts in, or these out?’

{Answer.} Impossible, indeed, it may be wholly to prevent them, they come so suddenly and secretly —even as lightning in at the window.  We may as well keep the wind out of our house—which gets in at every crevice, though the doors be shut—as wholly free our hearts from their disturbance.  Yet this will not disoblige us from our utmost care and endeavour to hinder the prevalency of them.  Humours, while rouling here and there, do not endanger us so much as when they gather to a head, and settle in some joint and part of the body.  I have read of some eastern parts of the world, where such multitudes of locusts and caterpillars are seen, that they almost darken the air as they fly, and devour every green thing where they light.  The inhabitants, therefore, when they perceive this army hovering over them, by making fires in their fields, keep them from lighting with the smoke that ascends therefrom.  Thou canst not hinder these roving thoughts from flying now and then over thy head, but surely thou mayest do some­thing that may prevent their settling.  Towards which good work take these directions, which I shall endea­vour to suit to these several causes from whence they proceed.  The wanderings in prayer may be referred to four causes.  First. The natural vanity and levity of our minds.  Second. A dead and inactive heart in him that prayeth.  Third. Encumbrance of worldly cares. Fourth. Non‑observance of the heart in the act of prayer.