4. Another needy time is the day of persecution; this is called, as was hinted before, 'the hour of darkness,' 'the cloudy and dark day.' Therefore, this day is full of snares and evils of every kind. Here is the fear of man, the terrors of a prison, of loss of goods and life. Now all things look black, now the fiery trial has come. He that cannot now pray; he that now applieth not himself to God on the throne of grace, by the priesthood of Jesus Christ, is like to take a fall before all men upon the stage; a foul fall, a fall that will not only break his own bones, but also the hearts of those that fear God and behold it: 'Come therefore boldly unto the throne of grace, that ye may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.'
5. Another time of need is when thou changest thy condition, and enterest into a new relation. For here also the snares and traps lie waiting for thee. There is a hopeful child who goes to service, or to be an apprentice; there is a young man, a young maid, who entereth into a married condition, and though they pray before, yet they leave off to pray then. Why, these people are oftentimes ruined and undone; the reason is, this change is attended with new snares, with new cares, and with new temptations, of which, because through unwatchfulness they are not aware, they are taken, drawn to perdition and destruction by them. Many in my short day have gone, I doubt, down to the pit, THIS way, that have sometimes been to appearance the very foremost and hopefulest in the place where they have lived. Oh, how soon has their fire gone out; have their lamps forborne to burn! How quickly have they lost their love to their ministers, by whom they were illuminated, and to the warmest Christians, through communion with whom they used to be kept awake and savoury! How quickly have they found out new friends, new companions, new ways and methods of life, and new delights to feed their foolish minds withal! Wherefore, O thou that art in this fifth head concerned, 'Come boldly unto the throne of grace, to obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.'
6. Another time of need is when the generality of professors are decayed; when the custom of fancies and fooleries has taken away all gravity and modesty from among the children of men. Now pray, or thou diest; yea, pray against those decays, those vain customs, those foolish fancies, those light and vain carriages that have overtaken others, else they will assuredly knock at thy door, and obtain favour at thy hand, the which if they do, they will quickly bring thee down into the dirt with others, and put thee in peril of damnation as well as they.
7. Another time of need is the time of guilt contracted and the hiding of God's face. This is a dangerous time. If thou now shalt forbear to pray, thou art undone, for the natural tendency of guilt is to drive a man from God. So it served our first father; when God hides his face, men run into desperation, throw up all duties, and say as he of old, 'What should I wait for the Lord any longer?' (2 Kings 6:33). Now thy great help against this is prayer, continuing in prayer. Prayer wrestleth with the devil, and will overthrow him: prayer wrestleth with God, and will overcome him: prayer wrestleth with all temptations, and makes them fly. Great things have been done by prayer, even by the prayer of those who have contracted guilt and who have lost the smiles and sense of God's favor by their sins. Wherefore, when this needy, this evil time has overtaken thee, pray: 'Come boldly unto the throne of grace, to obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.'
8. The day of reproach and slander is another time of need, or a day in which thou wilt want supplies of grace. Sometimes we meet with such days laden with reproaches, slanders, scandals, and lies. Christ found the day of reproach a burdensome day unto him; and there is many a professor driven quite away from all conscience towards God, and open profession of his name, by such things as these (Psa 69:7). Reproach is, when cast at a man, as if he was stoning to death with stones. Now ply it hard at the throne of grace, for mercy and grace to bear thee up, or thou wilt either miscarry or sink under ground by the weight of reproach that may fall upon thee.
9. Another time of need is when a man's friends desert and forsake him because of his gospel principles or the temptations that attend his profession. This is a time that often happens to those who are good. Thus it was with Christ, with Paul, with Job, with Heman, and so has been with many other of God's servants in the day of their temptations in this world; and a sore time it is. Job complained under it, so did Heman, Paul, and Christ (John 6:66; 2 Tim 1:15; Job 19:13-19). Now a man is as forlorn as a pelican in the wilderness, an owl in the desert, or a sparrow upon the house-top. If a man cannot now go to the throne of grace by prayer, through Christ, and so fetch grace for his support from thence, what can he do? He cannot live on himself (John 15:4). This is a sore evil.
10. Another time of need is the day of death, when I am to pack up and be gone from hence, the way of all the earth.[35] Now the greatest trial has come, excepting the day of judgment. Now a man is to be stripped of all, but that which cannot be shaken. Now, a man grows near the borders of eternity. Now he begins to see into the skirts of the next world. Now death is death, and the grave the grave indeed! Now he begins to see what it is for body and soul to part, and what to go and appear before God (Eccl 12:5). Now the dark entry, and the thoughts of what is in the way from a deathbed to the gate of the holy heaven, comes nearer the heart than when health and prosperity do compass a man about. Wherefore, this is like a trying time, a time of need. A prudent man will make it one of the significant concerns of his whole life to get, and lay up a stock of grace for this day, though the fool will rage and be confident: for he knows all will be little enough to keep him warm in his soul, while cold death strokes his hand over his face, and over his heart, and is turning his blood into jelly; while strong death is loosing his silver cord, and breaking his golden bowl! (Eccl 12:6). Wherefore, I say, this motive weareth a spur on his heel, a spur to prick us on to the throne of grace for mercy, and grace to help in time of need. But,
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