DIRECTIONS against levity in prayer 3/3

Now, to preserve thy affections in prayer warm and lively, let it be thy care to chase and stir up the natural heat that is undoubtedly in thee, if a Chris­tian, by the serious consideration of thy sins, wants, and mercies.  While thou art pondering on these, thine eye will affect thine heart.  They will, as Abishag did to David, by laying them in thy bosom, bring thy soul to a kindly heat in those affections which thou art to act in the several parts of prayer.  Thy sins re­viewed, and heightened with their aggravations, will make the springs of godly sorrow to rise in thy heart. Canst thou choose but mourn when thou shalt read thy several indictments to thy guilty soul, now called to hold up its hand at the bar of thy conscience? Canst thou hear how the holy law of God hath been violated, his Spirit grieved, and his Son murdered by thy bloody hands, and this when he hath been treat­ing thee mercifully, and not mourn?  Surely, should a man walk over a field after a bloody battle hath been fought, and there see the bodies, though of his enemies, lying weltering in their blood, his heart could not but then relent, though in the heat of battle his fury shut out all thoughts of pity.  But what if he should spy a father or a dear friend dead upon the place, of the wounds which his unnatural hand had given, would not his bowels turn?  Yes, surely, if he carried the heart of a man in his bosom.  Thou may­est guess, Christian, by this, what help such a media­tion would afford toward the breaking of thy heart for thy sins.  Certainly it would make thee throw away that unhappy dagger which was the instrument to give those deep stabs to the heart of Christ—and this is the best mourning of all.  Again, thy wants well weighed would give wings to thy desires.  If once thou wert possessed with the true state of thy affairs—how necessary it is for thee to have supplies from heaven, or to starve and die.  And so in the rest, &c.

Third Cause.  A third cause of roving thoughts, is encumbrance of worldly cares.  It is no wonder that man can enjoy no privacy with God in a duty, who hath so many from the world rapping at his door to speak with him when he is speaking with God.  Peri­clitatur pietas in negotiis—religion never goes in more danger than when in a crowd of worldly busi­ness.  If such a one prays, it is not long before some­thing comes in his head to take him off.  ‘Isaac went out to meditate,...and behold the camels.’  The world is soon in such a one's sight.  He puts forth one hand to heaven in a spiritual thought, but soon pulls it back, and a worldly one steps before it, and so makes a breach upon his duty.  ‘A dream,’ Solomon tells us, ‘cometh through a multitude of business.’  And so do dreaming prayers.  They are made up of heterogene­ous independent thoughts.  The shop, barn, ware­house are unfit places for prayer—I mean the shop in the heart, and the barn in the heart.  I have read of one who was said to be a walking library, because he left not his learning with his books in his study, but carried it about with him wherever he went, in his memory and judgment, that had digested all he read, and so made it his own.  And have we not too many walking shops and barns, who carry them to bed and board, church and closet?  And how can such pray with a united heart, who have so many sharers in their thoughts?  O anima sancta sola esto, anne nes­cis verecundum habes Sponsum!—O, holy soul, get thee alone, if thou wouldst have Christ give thee his loves. Knowest thou not thou hast a modest husband? Indeed he gives the soul not his embraces in a crowd, nor the kisses of his lips in the market.  Jacob sends away his company to the other side of the river, and then God gave him one of the sweetest meetings he had in all his life.  Let him now pray even a whole night if he will, and welcome.  Now, Christian, for thy help against these—

DIRECTIONS against levity in prayer 2/3

1. 3 Direction.  Go not in thy own strength to this duty, but commit thyself by faith to the conduct of the Spirit of God.  God hath promised to prepare, or establish, as the word is, the heart.  Indeed, then the heart is prepared when established and fixed.  A shaking hand may soon write a right line as our loose hearts keep themselves steady in duty.  Shouldst thou, with Job, make a covenant with thine eye, and resolve to bung up thine ear from all by‑discourse, how long, thinkest thou, shouldst thou be true to thine own self, who hast so little command of thine own thoughts?  Thy best way were to put thyself out of thine own hands, and lay thy weight on him that is able to bear thee better than thy own legs.  Pray with David, ‘Uphold me with thy free spirit,’ Ps. 51:12.  The vine leaning on a wall preserves itself and its fruit, whose own weight else, without this help, would soon lay it in the dirt.

Second Cause.   A second cause of these wander­ing roving thoughts in prayer, is a dead and unactive heart in him that prayeth.  If the affections be once down, then the Christian is as a city whose wall is broken down.  No keeping then the thoughts in, or Satan out.  The soul is an active creature.  Either it must be employed by us, or it will employ us, though to little purpose.  Like our poor, find them work and they keep at home.  But let them want for it, and you have them roving and begging all the country over. The affections are as the master-workmen, which set our thoughts on work.  Love entertains the soul with pleasant and delightful thoughts on its beloved object. Grief commands in the soul to muse with sorrowful thoughts on its ail and trouble.  So that, Christian, as long as thy heart bleeds in the sense of sin, they will have no leisure, when thou art confessing sin, to rove and wander.  If thy desires be lively, and flame forth in thy petitions, with a holy zeal for the graces and mercies prayed for, this will be as ‘a wall of fire’ to keep thy thoughts at home.

The lazy prayer is the roving prayer.  When Israel talked of travelling three days’ journey in the wilderness, Pharaoh said, ‘Ye are idle, ye are idle; therefore ye say, Let us go.’  As if he had said, ‘Surely they have little to do, or else they would not think of gadding.’  And therefore, to cure them of this, he commanded more work to be given, Ex. 5.  We may truly say thus of our wandering hearts, ‘They are idle.’ We pray, but our affections are dead and dull.  The heart hath little to do in the duty for the setting of its thoughts on work—only to speak or read a few words, which is so easy a task that a man may do it and spare whole troops of his thoughts to be employed else­where at the same time.  But now, when the affec­tions are up, melting into sorrow in the confession of sin, sallying forth with holy panting and breathing in its supplications, truly this fixeth the thoughts.  The soul intended can no more be in two places together than the body.  And as these holy affections will pre­vent the soul’s wandering disposition, so also make it more difficult for Satan to throw in his injections. Flies will not so readily light on a pot seething hot on the fire as when it stands cold in the window. Baalze­bub is one of the devil’s names—that is, the god os a fly—an allusion to the idolatrous sacrifices, where flies were so busy.  This fly will not so readily light on thy sacrifice when flaming from the altar of thy heart with zeal.

DIRECTIONS against levity in prayer 1/3

1. Direction.  Innure thyself to holy thoughts in thy ordinary course.  The best way to keep vessels from leaking—when we would use them for some special occasion—is to let them stand full.  A vain heart out of prayer will be little better in prayer.  The more familiar thou makest holy thoughts and savoury discourse to thee in thy constant walking, the more seasoned thou wilt find thy heart for this duty.  A scholar, by often rubbing up his notions when alone, and talking of them with his colleagues, makes them his own; so that, when he is put upon any exercise, they are at hand, and come fresh into his head. Whereas another, for want of this filling, wants mat­ter for his thoughts to feed on, which makes him straggle into many impertinencies before he can hit of that which suits his occasion.  The carnal liberty which we give our hearts in our ordinary walking, makes our thoughts more unruly and unsuitable for duties of worship.  For such thoughts and words leave a tincture upon the spirit, and so hinder the soul’s taking a better colour when it returns into the pres­ence of God.  Walk in the company of sinful thoughts all the day, and thou wilt hardly shut the door upon them when thou goest into thy closet.  Thou hast taught them to be bold; they will now plead acquaint­ance with thee, and crowd in after thee; like little children, who, if you play with them, and carry them much in your arms, will cry after you when you would be rid of their company.
2. Direction.  Possess thy heart with a reverential awe of God’s majesty and holiness.  This, if anything, will ‘gird up the loins of thy mind’ strait, and make thee hoc agere —mind what thou art about.  Darest thou toy and trifle with the divine majesty in a duty of his worship! carry thyself childishly before the living God! to look with one eye upon him, as it were, and with the other upon a lust! to speak one word to God, and chat two with the world!  Does not thy heart tremble at this?  Sic ora, saith Bernard, quasi assumptus et præsentatus ante faciem ejus in excelso throno, ubi millia millium ministrant ei—so pray as if thou wert taken up and presented before God sit­ting on his royal throne on high, with millions of mil­lions of his glorious servitors ministering to him in heaven.  Certainly the face of such a court would awe thee.  If thou wert but at the bar before a judge, and hadst a glass of a quarter of an hour’s length turned up—being all the time thou hadst allowed thee to improve for the begging of thy life, now forfeited and condemned—wouldst thou spare any of this little time to gaze about the court, to see what clothes this man had on, and what lace another wears?  God shame us for our folly in misspending our praying seasons.  Is it not thy life thou art begging at God’s hand; and that a better, I trow, than the malefactor sues for of his mortal judge?  And dost thou know whether thou shalt have so long as a quarter of an hour allowed thee when thou art kneeling down? And yet wilt thou scribble and dash it out to no purpose upon impertinencies?  If thou dost, why no better? Why no closer and compact in thy thoughts? Will God judge us for ‘every idle word’ that is spoken in our shop and house, at our work, yea sport and recreation?  And shall thy idle words in prayer not be accounted for?  And are not those idle words that come from a lazy heart, a sleepy heart, that minds not what it says?  What procured Nadab and Abihu so sudden and strange an death?  Was it not their strange incense?  And is not this strange praying, when thy mind is a stranger to what thy lips utter? Behave thyself thus to thy prince if thou darest.  Let thy hand reach a petition to him, and thine eye look or thy tongue talk to another; would he not command this clown, or rather madman, to be taken from be­fore him?  ‘Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence?’ I Sam. 21:15, said Achish when David be­haved himself discomposedly.  O! could you but look through the keyhole, and see how glorious angels in heaven serve their Maker, who are said to ‘behold the face of God continually,’ surely thou wouldst tremble to think of thy slightly performing this duty.