Fifth. Pray now, that thou mayest outlive the loss of thy prosperity. When prayer cannot prevail to keep a temporal mercy alive with thee, yet it will have a powerful influence to keep thy heart alive when that dies. O it is sad when a man’s estate and comfort are buried in the same grave together! None will bear the loss of an enjoyment so patiently as he that was exercised in prayer while he had it. When Job was in his flourishing estate, his children alive, and all his other enjoyments, then was he a great trader with God in this duty. He ‘sanctified’ his children every day. He did not bless himself in them, but sought the blessing of God for them; and see how comfortably he bears all: ‘The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’ The more David prayed for his child while alive the fewer tears he shed for it when it was dead.
THIRD. To pray always is to pray daily. When the Christian keeps a constant daily exercise of this duty, prayer is not a holiday, but everyday work: ‘Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever,’ Ps. 145:2. This was typified by ‘the daily sacrifice,’ called therefore ‘the continual burnt offering,’ Ex. 29:38; whereby was signi¬fied our daily need of seeking mercy at God’s hands through Christ. When our Lord taught his disciples to pray, he bade them not to ask bread for a week, no, not for a morrow, but for the present day: ‘Give us this day our daily bread’—plainly signifying our duty to seek our bread every day of God. This surely was also the end why God gave the manna in such a portion as should not stuff their cupboards, and furnish them with a store for a month or a week, but be a just demensum —measure and sufficient allowance for a day, that so they might be kept in a daily dependence on God, and look up to him daily who carried the key of their pantry for them. And have not we the same necessities upon us with them? Our bodies are as weak as theirs, and cannot be preserved without a daily repast. Do we not depend on him for the bread of the day and the rest of the night? And he hath too good an opinion of his soul’s constitution, who thinks it can live or thrive with yesterday’s meal, without renewing his communion with God to-day. The mother would think her sucking child not well, if it should forsake the breast a whole day; so mayest thou conclude thy soul is not right, that can pass a day without craving any spiritual repast in prayer. If thy wants be not suf¬ficient to keep the chariot of this duty on its wheels, yet the sins which thou daily renewest would drive thee every day to confess and beg pardon for them.
We are under a law not to let the sun go down upon our wrath against our brother. And dare we, who every day deserve God’s wrath, let the sun go down before that controversy is taken up between God and us? In a word, every day hath its new mercies. ‘His compassions fail not; they are new every morning,’ Lam. 3:23. These new mercies contract a new debt, and God hath told us the way of payment, viz. a tribute of praise. Without this, we cannot expect a sanctified use of them. He is branded by all for a profane person that eats his meat and gives not thanks. And it would be thought a ridiculous excuse, should he say he gave thanks yesterday, and that should serve for this meal also. We have more mercies every day to bless God for than what is set on our tables. We wear mercies; we breathe mercies; we walk upon mercies; our whole life is but a passage from one mercy, to be entertained by another. As one cloth is drawn, another is laid for a new feast to be set on. Now, doth God every day anoint our head with fresh oil, and shall not we crown him with new praises? I will not enter into a discourse how oft a Christian should in a day pray. At least it must be twice, i.e. morning and night. Prayer must be the key of the morning and lock of the night. We show not ourselves Christians, if we do not open our eyes with prayer when we rise, and shut them again with the same key when we lie down at night. This answers to the morning and evening sacrifice in the law, which yet was so commanded as to leave room for those other free will offerings which their zeal might prompt them to. Pray as oft as you please besides, so that your devotions justle not with the necessary duties of your particular callings; the oftener the more welcome. We read of David’s ‘seven times a day.’ But be sure thou dost not retrench and cut God short of thy stated hours. ‘It is a good thing,’ saith the psalmist, ‘to give thanks unto the Lord, to shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,’ Ps. 92:1, 2. God is alpha and omega. It is fit we should begin and end the day with his praise, who begins and ends it for us with his mercy.
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