Social prayer distinguished as family prayer or church prayer

Third Distinction.  Social and joint prayer is either private in the family or public in the church.  I begin with the first—family prayer.

Family prayer a duty incumbent on the head of the family.          First.  Social or joint prayer may be private in the family.  By a family I mean a society of certain persons in mutual relation each to other, natural or civil, who live together under the domestic govern­ment of husband, master, or parent.  Wherever such a family is found, it is the duty of the governor of it to set up the worship of God there, and this part of wor­ship in particular—prayer in the family.  The Jews had their family sacrifice, Ex. 12:21, which the master of the house performed at home with his family. There still remains a spiritual sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving, which every master of a family is with his household to offer up to God.  The private house is the Christian’s ‘chapel of ease,’ to worship God in daily with his company.  The church began in a fam­ily, and it is upheld still by the piety of private families.  If the nursery be not preserved, the orchard must needs in time decay.

Question.  But the question will be, how can it be proved that family prayer is a duty?

Answer.  I hope none will require an set place of Scripture commanding this in terminis—in set terms, or else not believe it a duty incumbent upon them. This were the way not only to lose this part of God’s worship, but other duties also.  It will trouble us to find an express word commanding us totidem verbis, or, in plain terms, to keep the Christian Sabbath, or to baptize our infant children; yet, God forbid we should, with some, shake off the ordinances upon this account.  That which by necessary consequence can be deduced from Scripture, is Scripture, as well as that which is laid down in express terms.  And if this will content you—which I am sure should—I will hope to give you some satisfaction.

Directions for secret prayer

1. Direction. Let it be your constant trade. Rolling stones gather no moss. Unstable and uncon¬stant hearts will never excel in this or any other duty. The spirit of prayer is a grace infused, but advanced to further degrees by daily exercise. Frequency begets familiarity, and familiarity confidence. We go boldly into his house whom we often visit.

2. Direction. Let it be true secret prayer, and not have its name for naught. Take heed no noise be heard abroad of what thou dost in secret. ‘Enter into thy closet,’ said Christ, ‘and when thou hast shut thy door, pray.’ Be sure thou shuttest it so close that no wind of vainglory comes in. Rather than there should, shut the door of thy lips as well as of thy closet; God can hear though thy mouth delivers not the message. It is true, when Daniel prayed he ‘opened his window,’ but it was to show his faith, not his pride—that he might let the world know how little he feared their wrath, not that he coveted their praise. God curiously observes which way the eye turns, and it is a dishonour he will not bear that thou shouldst be pensioner to the world in expecting thy reward from man and not himself. Lose not God’s euge —well done! for man’s plaudite—applause. This is to change heaven for earth, and that is a bad bargain.

3. Direction. Be free and open. Come not to God in secret and keep thy secrets from him; speak thy very heart, and hide nothing from him. To be re¬served and close is against the law of friendship. ‘I have called you friends,’ saith Christ, ‘for all things which I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.’ Is Christ so open hearted not to conceal anything he knows for our good? and wouldst thou have any secret box in thy cabinet, that he—if thou couldst help it—should not see? Art thou confessing sins? Strip thy soul naked, and shuffle not with God. If thou dost, it speaks one of these two things—thou hast some secret design of sin for the future; or har¬bourest an ill opinion of God in thy breast concerning thy past sins, as if he would not be faithful to forgive what thou art free to confess; like some prodigal child who, though his father promiseth to pay all his debts, and forgive him also, yet because the sum is vast, dares not trust his father with the whole truth, but conceals some in his confession. The first of these is not the spot of God's children; but into the latter they sometimes fall, and, for a while, may be held by Sa¬tan’s policy and their own unbelief. But consider, Christian, whatever thy sin is, and how great soever, yet the way to obtain pardon is by confessing, not concealing it. Neither is it concealed from God, though thou confess it not. But God likes a confes¬sion out of thy own mouth so well, that as soon as thou dost lay open thy own shame, he hath obliged himself faithfully to cover it with the mantle of pardoning mercy. ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,’ I John 1:9. Again, art thou making thy requests to God? carry no burden away upon thy spirit, through a foolish mod-esty and fear of troubling God too much, or asking too deep, so long as the promise is on thy side. Christ never complained that his saints opened their mouths, or enlarged their desires, too wide in prayer; nay, he bids his disciples open them wider, and tells them, ‘they had asked nothing;’ that is, nothing pro¬portionable to the large heart in his breast to give.

4. Direction. It must be seasonable. This gives everything its beauty. (1.) Take heed that it doth not justle with public worship. The devil takes great pleasure in setting the ordinances of God at variance one against another. Some he persuades to cry up public prayer, and neglect secret; and others he would fain bring out of love with the public, by applauding the other; whereas there is room enough for both in thy Christian course. Moses, though he killed the Egyptian, yet the two Israelites, when scuffling to¬gether, he laboured to reconcile. Beware of giving Satan such an advantage as to neglect the communion of saints in the public, under a pretence of praying in thy closet. This is to set one ordinance to fight with another. They are sister ordinances, set them not at variance. Deny thy presence in the public, and thou art sure to lose God's presence in thy closet: ‘He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination,’ Prov. 28:9. (2.) Look that it interferes not with thy duty in thy particular calling. As thou art to shut thy closet door to pray, so open thy shop windows for following thy calling in the world. Go into thy closet before thy shop, or else thou art an atheist; but, when thou hast been with God there, attend thy shop and calling, or else thou art a hypocrite. Thou consistest of soul and body; God divides thy employment between both. He that is not diligent in the duty he owes God concerning both, is conscientious in neither. When every part in the body hath its due nourishment distributed to it health is preserved. So here. He is the sound Chris¬tian that divides his care wisely for his spiritual state and temporal also. Sleep not away thy time for prayer in the morning, and then think thou art suf-ficiently excused for omitting it because thy worldly business calls thee another way. Jade not thy body with over-labouring, nor overcharge thy mind with too heavy a load of worldly cares, in the day, and then think that the weariness of the one, and discompo¬sure of the other, will discharge thee from praying again at night. This is to make a sin thy apology for neglecting a duty.

Second. Social Prayer—that which is performed in joint communion with others. It is double. Either it is private or public—family prayer or church prayer. To this, however, we assigned a separate distinction.

USE OR APPLICATION - What communion with God in secret prayer, or the neglect of it, implies

Use First. Let us here admire the condescending love of God, in stooping to hold any communion with his poor creatures, while they are clad with rags of mortality, and those besmeared also with many sinful pollutions. It is not enough that in heaven, when we shall put on our robes of glory—befitting the atten¬dance of so great a King—that then he will take us in¬to his royal presence, and give us places with those that stand above him; but will he even now, while our garments smell of the prison, and before our grave-cloth es be quite thrown off, admit us to be so near an accession? ‘What manner of love is this,’ that we should now be ‘called the children of God,’ and as such have liberty to speak our gibberish and broken language, and that with delight to him who continu¬ally hath the praises of blessed angels and glorified saints sounding in his ears! Nay, yet more, this liber-ty to be indulged us, not only when we come together and make up a choir in our public worship, but in our solitary and secret addresses! That a poor creature, whenever himself hath but a heart to step aside, and give God a visit in any corner of his house, should find the arms of so great a majesty open to embrace him!—this is so stupendous that we may better admire than express it. Should we see a poor beggar speaking familiarly with a great king—who, while all his courtiers stand bare before him, takes him into his embraces, and lets him familiarly whisper in his ear —might it not draw forth our wonderment at such an act of grace from majesty to beggary? This is the glor¬ious privilege of every saint on earth, who, when he prays, hath liberty to come up to the throne of God surrounded with glorious angels, and into his bosom to pour out his soul as freely as the child may speak to his indulgent father. O thank our good friend and brother, the Lord Jesus Christ, for this! It is he that brings us into the presence of God, and sets us before his face—as Joseph his brethren before Pharaoh. Whose face need a saint fear to look upon, that may thus boldly speak to God? Comfort thyself with this, Christian, when thou goest with thy petition to any great man on earth, and he will not be seen of thee —or such a rich kinsman, and he will not own thee —turn thy back of them both, and go to thy God, he will look on thee, and in his Son own thee for his child. Thou hast his ear that can command their heart and purse too. Jacob’s prayer altered his broth-er’s purposes, that he who meant to kill him falls on his neck to kiss him. Nehemiah had a boon to beg of the Persian king, and he goes—a carnal heart would think—the farthest way about to obtain it. He knocks first at heaven door: ‘Prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man,’ Neh. 1:11. And now to court he goes, where, behold, he finds the door open before he knocks. For the king said unto him, ‘For what dost thou make request?’ ch. 2:4. We may, you see, open two doors with this one key. At the prayer of this holy man, God and man both give their gracious answer. The Christian surely cannot long be in want if he can but pray. As one said, the pope would never want money so long as he could hold a pen in his hand. It is but praying in faith, and the thing is done which the Christian would have. Be careful for nothing; but... let your requests be made known unto God; and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts,’ &c., Php. 4:6, 7. ‘Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass,’ Ps. 37:5. the saints’ bills are received at first sight, whatever the sum is. Christ is our undertaker to see it paid; and his credit holds still in his Father’s bosom, and will, to procure welcome for all his saints, even to the least and last of them that shall be found on earth.

Use Second. This blots their names from among the number of saints that were never acquainted with this duty. What! a saint, and content with what thou hast of God, in joint communion with others, at church or family, so as never to desire any privacy between God and thyself! Canst find no errand to in¬vite thee to speak with God alone? Thou bringest thy saintship into question. When a prince passeth by in the street, then all—even strangers themselves—will come in a throng to see him. But his child thinks not this enough, but goes home with him, must live with him, and be under his eye daily. Hypocrites and pro¬fane ones will crowd into public ordinances, but a gra¬cious soul cannot live without more retired converse with him.

Use Third. Be exhorted, O ye saints, to hold up your secret acquaintance with God. ‘I am persuaded’ —as Paul said to Festus in another case—that none of these things’ which I have spoken concerning this duty, ‘are hidden from thee,’ if a saint. ‘Believest thou’ that this is thy duty? ‘I know that thou believ¬est.’ Dost thou pray in secret? I dare not question it; the Spirit of Christ which is in thee will not suffer thee to be wholly a stranger from it. But I would pro¬voke thee to be more abounding therein. ‘These things have I written,’ saith John, ‘unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God,...that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God,’ I John 5:13 —that is, that you may believe more. And these things do I now write to you that call upon the name of God in secret, that you may call oftener; and this you need, except you lived further from Satan’s quar¬ters than the rest of your brethren do. No duty more opposed by Satan or our own slothful hearts than this. The devil can allow you your church prayers, your family duties, and now and then a formal one in your closet too, and yet make his market of you. Therefore take along with you these three or four directions for your better managing thereof.

Composed prayer distinguished as secret or social 2/2

 Great and rich are the returns which in Scripture we find to be sent from heaven upon the solitary ad­venture of the saints in this bottom.  ‘This poor man cried,’ said David, ‘and the Lord...saved him out of all his troubles,’ Ps. 34:6.  As if he had said, Haply you are afraid to be so bold to go alone and visit God in secret.  Though you dare venture to join with others in prayer, and hope to find welcome when you go with such good company, yet you are ready to say, Will God look upon me, or my single prayer?  Yes, behold me, saith David, who am newly come from his door, where I lay praying in as poor a condition, and as sad a plight, as ever beggar was at man’s—a poor exile, in the midst of enemies that thirsted for my blood.  Yet I—and that when I betrayed so much das­tardly unbelief as to scrabble on the wall like a mad­man—cried, and God heard.  Who then need be afraid, either from his outward straits or inward in­firmities, if sincere, to go with a humble boldness unto God?  Nay, further, as God hath a pitiful eye to see when we pray in secret, so also an angry eye, that sees when we do not.  I have read of a prince that would, in the evening, walk abroad in a disguise, and listen under his subjects’ windows, whether they talked of him, and what they said.  To be sure God’s eye and ear watcheth us, ‘the Lord hearkened, and heard it,’ Mal. 3:16.  And he that hath a book of re­membrance for his saints that fear him and think upon his name, hath also a black bill for their names who shut him out of their hearts and closets.  ‘The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.’  Though his seat be in heaven, yet his eye is on earth; and what doth he observe but whether men ‘understand and seek after God?’

           (2.) In regard of ourselves—the more to prove our sincerity.  I do not say that to pray in secret amounts to an infallible character of sincerity—for hypocrisy may creep into our closet when the door is shut closest, as the frogs did into Pharaoh's bed-chamber.  Yet this is not the hypocrite’s ordinary walk.  And though his heart may be naught that fre­quently performs secret duty, yet, to be sure, his heart cannot be good whose devotion is all spent before men, and is a mere stranger to secret communion with God; or else our Saviour, in drawing the hypo­crite’s picture, would not have made this to be the very cast of his countenance, ‘When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues,’ &c.  ‘But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet,’ Matt. 6:5, 6. The command sends us as well to the closet as to the church; and he is a hypocrite that chooseth one and neglects the other; for thereby it appears he makes conscience of neither.  He likes that which may gain him the name of religious in the opinion of men, and therefore puts on a religious habit abroad, but in the meantime lives like an atheist at home.  Such a one may for a time be the world’s saint, but God will at last uncase him, and present him before the eyes of all the world for a hypocrite.  The true lover delights to visit his friend when he may find him alone, and enjoy privacy with him; and I have read of a devout person who, when the set time for his private devo­tions were come, would, whatever company he was in, break from them with this handsome speech, ‘I have a friend that stays for me, farewell!’ It is worth parting with our best friends on earth, to enjoy communion with the God of heaven.  One called his friends thieves, because they stole time from him.  None worse thieves than they who rob us of our praying seasons.

           (3.) In regard of the duty itself, and the influ­ence which the holy management of it would have upon the Christian’s life.  This duty is a main pillar to uphold the whole frame of our spiritual building. Without this the Christian’s house—as Solomon saith of the sluggard’s—will drop out at the windows. That which is most necessary to keep the house standing is underground—I mean the foundation. That which keeps the man alive is the heart in his breast, that is unseen.  Cease your secret communion, and you undermine your house—you stab godliness to the heart.  If the tree grow not in the root, it will ere long wither in the branch.  He that declines this way, can be a gainer in no other.  How zealous soever he may appear, all, without this, is but a distempered heat, as when the outward parts burn but the inward chill.  Such a one may pray to the quickening and comforting of others, but he will get little of either himself.  The truth is, this is the first step toward apostasy.  Backsliders grow first out of acquaintance with God in secret.  Their delight in this duty declines by little and little.  then are they less frequent in their visits.  Upon which follows a casting off of the duty quite—and yet they may appear great sticklers and zealots in public ordinances.  But, if they recover not what they have lost in their secret trade, they will ere long break here also.

Composed prayer distinguished as secret or social 1/2

           Second Distinction.  What we have called composed prayer may be distinguished as either soli­tary, or social—performed jointly with others.  It is designated composed, because the Christian compos­eth himself more solemnly to the work by setting some considerable time apart from his other occa­sions, for his more free and full communion with God in prayer.  We begin with the first of these.

           First. Secret Prayer.  When the Christian re­tireth into some secret place, free from all company, and there pours out his soul into the bosom of God, none being witness to this trade he drives with heaven but God and himself.  I shall here, 1. Prove this to be a duty incumbent upon us; and, 2. Give the reasons why.

Secret prayer a duty, and the reasons why

1. I shall prove secret or closet prayer to be a duty incumbent upon us.  That is it is the Christian’s duty secretly and solitarily to hold intercourse with God in prayer, I believe will be granted of more than practise it.  Even those that are strangers to the per­formance thereof carry in their own bosom that which will accuse them for their neglect, except by long looking on the light, and rebelling against the same, their foolish minds be darkened and have lost all sight and sense of a deity.  If any prayer be a duty, then secret prayer needs be one.  This is to all the other as the carinaor keel is to the ship—it bears up all the rest.  If we look into the practice of Scripture saints, we shall find them all to have been great dealers with God in this trade of secret prayer.  Abra­ham had his ‘grove,’ whither he retired to ‘call on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God,’ Gen. 21:33. Neither was Rebekah a stranger to this duty, who, upon the babes struggling in her womb, ‘went to inquire of the Lord,’ Gen. 25:22, which, saith Calvin, was to pray in secret.  Jacob is famous for his wres­tling, as it were hand to hand, with God in the night. Holy David’s life was little else, he ‘gave himself to prayer,’ Ps. 109:4.  Allow but some time spent by him for nature’s refection and the necessary occasions of his public employment—which yet came in but as a parenthesis—and you will find most of the rest laid out in meditation and prayer, as appears, Ps. 119.  We have Elias at prayer under the juniper tree, Peter on the leads, Cornelius in a corner of his house; yea, our blessed Saviour—whose soul could have fasted long­est without any inward impair through the want of this repast—yet none more frequent in it.  Early in the morning he is praying alone, Mark 1:35, and late in the evening, Matt. 14:23.  And this was his usual prac­tice, as may be gathered from Luke 22:39 compared with Luke 21:37.  Thus Christ sanctified this duty by his own example.  Yea, we have a sweet promise to the due performance of it—and God doth not use to promise a reward for that work which he command­eth us not to do—but ‘when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly,’ Matt. 6:6. Where our Saviour takes it for granted that every child of God will be often praying to his heavenly Fa­ther; and therefore he rather encourageth them in the work he seeth them about, than commands them to it.  ‘I know you cannot live without prayer.’  Now, when you would give God a visit, ‘enter into thy closet,’ &c.  But why must the Christian maintain this secret intercourse with God?
2. I shall give the reasons why secret or closet prayer is incumbent upon us.

           (1.) In regard of God.  He hath an eye to see our secret tears, and an ear to hear our secret groans; therefore we ought to pour them out to him in secret. It is a piece of gross super­stition to bind this only to place or company: ‘I will,’ saith the apostle, ‘that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands,’ &c., I Tim. 2:8.  God is everywhere to be found, at church and at home, with our family and our closet; and therefore we are to pray everywhere.  O what a comfort it is to a gracious soul, that he can never be out of God’s sight or hearing, wherever he is thrown, and therefore never out of his care! for it is out of sight out of mind.  This comforted holy David.  His friends and kins­men, they, alas! were afar off.  He might lie upon his sick-bed, and cry till his heart ached, and not make them hear.  But see how he pacifies himself in this solitude, ‘Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee,’ Ps. 38:9.  Little thought Jacob that he had a son prisoner in Egypt, laden there with irons that entered into his soul.  But he had a God that was nigh unto him all the time of his dis­tress, and heard the cry of the poor prisoner, though his earthly father never dreamed of any such matter.         

SOME HELPS to ejaculatory prayer

1. Help. Keep thy heart with all diligence—thy affections, I mean. The very reason why we sally out so seldom toward God in these occasional prayers is because the weight of our affections poise us another way. The bowl runs as its bias inclines, the stream flows as the fountain empties itself. If our affections be carnal, to earth we go, and God hath little of our company. Adam, it is said, ‘begat a son in his own likeness,’ Gen. 5:3, and so doth the heart of every man. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; as is the heavenly, such they also that be heavenly. La¬bour, therefore, to get and keep thy heart heavenly; especially look to these three affections—thy love, fear, and joy.

(1.) Thy Love. If this fire burn clear, the more of these sparks will from it mount up to God. Love is a great friend to memory. The adulterer is said to have his ‘eyes full of the harlot,’ and holy love will be as mindful of God. Such a soul will be often setting God in its view: ‘I have set the Lord always before me,’ Ps. 16:8. And by often thinking of God the heart will be enticed into desires after him. ‘The desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee,’ Isa. 26:8. And see what follows, ‘With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early,’ ver. 9. Love sets the soul on musing, and musing on praying. Meditation is prayer in bullion, prayer in the ore—soon melted and run into holy desires. The laden cloud soon drops into rain, the piece charged soon goes off when fire is put to it. A meditating soul is in proximâ po¬tentiâ to prayer. ‘While I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue, Lord, make me to know mine end,’ Ps. 39:3, 4. This was an ejaculatory prayer shot from his soul when in the company of the wicked.

(2.) Thy Fear. Even wicked men, thought they be great strangers to prayer, yet we shall hear them knocking at God’s door in a fright; much more will a holy fear direct the Christian, upon all occasions, to lift up his heart to God. Art thou in thy calling? Fear a snare therein, and this will excite thee oft in a day to bespeak counsel of God how to behave thyself therein. Art thou in company? Fear lest thou should st do or receive hurt, and thou wilt be lifting up thy heart to him that can only keep thee from both. We cannot have a more faithful monitor to mind us of this duty than a holy fear. ‘They that feared the Lord thought upon his name,’ Mal. 3:16. ‘At what time I am afraid,’ saith David, ‘I will trust in thee.’ Fear makes us think where our safety lies, and leads us to our ref-uge. Had not Noah feared a storm the ark had not been built. Men fear no sin nor danger, and therefore God hears not of them all the day long: the ungodly world, who walk with their back upon heaven and look not up to God from morning to night. We may tell the reason—‘The fear of God is not before their eyes.’

(3.) Thy joy and delight in God. O cherish this. As fear disposeth to pray, so joy to praise. Now, and not till now, the instrument of thy heart is in tune. One hint now from the providence of God, and touch from his Spirit, will set such a soul on work to bless God. Carnal men, when they are frolic and upon the merry pin, then they have their catches and songs as they sit in their house or ride on the way: how much more will the gracious soul, that walks in the sense of God’s love, be often striking up his harp in holy praises to God? ‘Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee,’ Ps. 63:3. ‘I will bless thee while I live,’ ver. 4. And again, ‘My mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips,’ ver. 5. See how he goes over and over again the same note. Joy can no more be hid than ointment. As that betrayeth itself by its hot and sweet perfumes, so doth holy joy make its own report in the praises it sounds forth to God. It behooves thee therefore, Christian, to be as chary and choice of thy joy as thou wouldst be of the blood in thy veins; for in this runs the spirits of praise and thanksgiving. Now, would you nourish your joy? Do it by sucking the promises—those breasts of consola-tion. these are a food of pure juice and strong nourishment; they soon turn into blood—joy and peace, I mean—and with this a spirit of praise must needs also grow.

2. Help. Possess thy heart with strong apprehensions of God’s overruling providence in all thy enterprises, great or small; that he doth what pleaseth him in heaven and earth, so that all thy labour and toil in any business is in vain while [until] this main wheel begins to stir—his providence gives countenance to the action. O, how would this raise thy heart up to God, and send thee with many an errand into his presence! Suppose a man was going about some im¬portant business, and had him in his company that alone {which} could help or hinder the despatch of it; were it not strange that he should travel all day with him and not apply himself to this person to make him his friend? This is thy very case, Christian. Thou and all thy affairs are at the absolute disposure of the great God, to bless or blast thee in every enter¬prise. If thou hast not his vote, thy business is stop¬ped in the head. Now, this God is always in thy com¬pany, whether at home or abroad, in thy bed or at thy board. Surely thou didst believe this firmly, thou wouldst oft in a day turn thyself to him, and beg his good will to favour thy undertaking and facilitate thy business for thee.

3. Help. Look thou compliest with the motions of the Holy Spirit. The Christian shall find him, as his remembrancer to mind him of the more solemn performance of this duty of prayer, so his monitor, to suggest many occasional meditations to his thoughts —even amidst worldly employments—as a hint that now it is a fit time to give God a visit in holy some ejaculation, by thus setting the door, as it were, open for him into God’s presence. Sometimes he will be recalling a truth thou hast read or heard, a mercy thou hast received, or a sin thou hast committed. And what means he by all these but to do thee a friendly office, that by these—thy affections being stirred—thou mayest be invited to dart thy soul up to God in some ejaculation suitable to his motion? Now, take the hint he gives, and thou shalt have more of his company and help in this kind. For, as the evil spirit, where he finds welcome to his wicked suggestions, grows bold to knock oftener at that door because it is so soon opened to him; so the Holy Spir¬it is invited, where his motions are kindly entertained, to be more frequent in these his approaches; where was thy neglect of them may cause him to with¬draw and leave thee to thy own slothful spirit. When Christ had thrice made an attempt to take away his drowsy disciples by calling them up to watch and pray, and they fell to nodding again, truly then he bids them ‘sleep on.’

Exhortation to the believer’s frequent use of ejaculatory prayer

           Use Second. To the saints.  Be ye excited to the frequent exercise of this duty of ejaculatory prayer.  I know you are not altogether strangers to it—if you answer your name and be such as you go for; but it is a more intimate and familiar acquaintance with this kind of prayer that I would gladly lead you into.  Such an art it is that, were we but skilful traders in it, we should find a blessed advance in our spiritual estate and soon have more money in our purse—grace and comfort, I mean, in our hearts—than now most Christians can show.  We might, by a spiritual alchemy, turn all we touch into gold, extract heaven out of earth, and make wings of every creature and provi­dence that meet us to help us in our flight to God. Our whole life would be—what I have read of a holy man—but one communion‑day with Christ. Then neither friends nor foes, joys nor woes, callings nor recreations—or whatever else we have in this world to do with—should be able to interrupt our acquaintance with him.  Whereas now, alas! everything inter­poseth, as an opaque body, to hide God and heaven from our eye.  We who now walk—like travellers in some bottom or low swamp—with our thoughts of heaven so overtopped by the world, that we hardly get a sight of that glorious city to which we are going from morning to night—and thereby lose much of the pleasure of our journey—should then have it in a manner always before us, as a joyful prospect in our eye, to solace us in the difficulties of our pilgrimage, and make us gather up our feet more nimbly in the ways of holiness when we shall see whither they lead us.  We count them pleasantly situated who live in a climate where the sun is seldom off their horizon. Truly, none have such a constant light of inward joy and peace shining upon their souls as those who are familiarly conversant with this duty.  They are in sole positi—placed in the sun, as is said of the Rhodians; they stand at the best advantage of any other to have, if not a continual, yet a frequent, intercourse with God, from whom both the influences of comfort and grace also do all come.  And if those trees must needs have the fairest and sweetest which stand most in the sun, then, surely, they are most likely to excel others both in comfort and grace who are most with God. Every little that the bee brings to the hive—as she flies in and out, though she stays not long on any flower—adds to the stock.  Though the soul makes no long stay with God in this kind of prayer, yet the frequent reiterations thereof conduce much to the in­crease of its grace.  Light gain, with quick returns, makes a heavy purse.  Little showers, often following one upon another, plump the corn and fill the bushels.  So do these short spurts—sallies of the soul to heaven—enrich and increase grace in the heart ex­ceedingly.  Now, if thou shouldst ask how thou may­est make this kind of ejaculatory prayer more familiar unto thee, take these few words of counsel:—

APPLICATION. Reproof to those who either do not use ejaculatory prayer at all, or not rightly

 

Use First. A reproof to those that use not this kind of prayer, or do it in a profane manner; or that use this, but neglect other kinds of prayer.

1. For reproof of those that are wholly unacquainted with ejaculatory prayer—not such a dart to be found in all their quiver. Their heart is as a bow bent indeed, and their quiver full of arrows. But all are shot beside this mark. The world is their butt; at this they let fly all their thoughts. God is so great a stranger with them, that they hardly speak to or think of him from morning to night, though they travel all day in his company. And is it not strange that God, who is so near his creature, should be so far from his thoughts? Where canst thou be, or what can thy eye light upon, that may not bring God to thy remembrance, and give thee a fair occasion to lift up thy heart to him? He is present with thee in every place and company. Thou canst use no creature, enjoy no mercy, feel no affliction, and put thy hand to no work, which will not prompt thee either to beg his counsel, seek his blessing, crave his protection, or give him praise for his gracious providence over thee. The very beast thou ridest on, could it speak—as once Balaam’s ass did—would reprove thy atheism, who goest plodding on thy way, and takest no notice of him that preservest both man and beast. But God speaks once, yea twice, and brutish men perceive it not. Well may Solomon say, ‘The heart of the wicked is of little worth,’ when God is not in all his thoughts. What can that heart be worth, that is stuffed with that which is worth naught? at least within a while will be so? for within that moment wherein these poor wretches die, all their thoughts perish and come to nothing. Truly, though ye were so many kings and emperors, yet, if the stock of your thoughts be spent all the day long upon earthly projects—never flying so high as to lead you into communion with God—you are but like those vermin that are buried alive in some stinking dunghill. The food your souls live upon is low and base, and such must the temper of your souls also needs be.

O! how many are there in the world, whose backs are bravely clad with scarlet, while their souls embrace the dunghill—whose bellies are high fed and deliciously pampered, but their souls set at coarse fare! The body, which is the beggar, is mounted on horseback, and the soul, which is the prince, walks on foot—preferred to no higher employment than to hold her slave’s stirrup—being made to bestow all his thoughts and care how to provide for that, an allowed nothing for itself. Yet these must be cried up for the only happy men in the world! Whereas, some poor creatures are to be found though their outward port and garb in the world renders them despicable—who enjoy more of heaven and true comfort, by the frequent commerce they have with God, as they are at their loom or wheel, in one day, than the other do in all their lives, for all their pomp and fanciful felicities. What account will such give to God for the expense of their thoughts, the first born of their souls? What pity is it that strangers should devour them,—the highest improvement whereof is to send them in embassies to heaven, and to converse with God! He who gave man a countenance erect, to walk—not creep on all four, as some other creatures, with their back upon heaven and mouth to the earth—never intended his soul should stoop so below itself, and lick the dust for its food; but rather, that it should look up to God, and enjoy himself in enjoying communion with him that is the Father of spirits. If it be so bad a spectacle to behold a man bowed down through the deformities or infirmities of his body, as to go like a beast on all four, hands and feet; much more, to see a soul so crippled with ignorance and sensual affections, that it cannot look up from the earth where it lies a roveling, to converse with God its Maker.

2. It reproves those who do indeed shoot now and then to heaven some of these darts of ejaculatory prayers, but in so profane a way as makes both God and gracious men to nauseate them. Did you never hear a vile wretch interlace his discourse with a strange medley of oaths and prayers?—rap out an oath, and then send out a vain prayer, in the midst of his carnal discourse? ‘God forgive us!’ ‘God bless us!’ ‘God be merciful to us!’ Such forms of speech many have got, and they come tumbling out when they do not mind what they say. Now, which do you think is like to get first to heaven—their oaths or their prayers? It is hard to say whether their swearing or their praying is the worst. What base and low thoughts have those wretches of the great God, to make so bold with his holy and reverent name, which should not be thought or spoken of without fear and trembling! ‘The legs of the lame are not equal, so is a parable in the mouth of fools;’ that is, it is uncomely. The name of God doth not fit a profane mouth; the discourse is not equal. One step in hell and another in heaven is too great a stride at once to be taken. To shoot one dart at God in an oath, and another to him in a prayer, what can you make of this but a toying with that which is sacred? Religion and the eye are too tender to be played with. Such prayers as these are shot out of the devil’s bow, and are never to reach heaven, except it be to bring back a curse for him that put them up.

3. A reproof to those who content themselves with this kind of prayer. They will now and then cast a transient glance upon God in a short ejaculation, but never set themselves to seek God in a more sol¬emn way. And is this all thou canst afford? No more than to look in at God’s door, and away presently! Dost thou not think that he expects thou shouldst sometimes come to stay longer with him in a more settled communion? It is true, these occasional visits, when joined with the conscientious performance of the other, is an excellent symptom of a heavenly heart, and speaks grace to be very lively when they are frequent. As when a man between his set meals is so hungry that he must have something to stay his stomach, and yet, when dinner when dinner or supper come, can feed as heartily as if he had eaten noth¬ing—this shows indeed the man to be healthy and strong. But, if a bit by the by takes away his stomach, that he can eat little or nothing at his ordinary meal, this is not so good a sign. Thus here: if a Christian, between his set and solemn seeking of God morning and night, finds an inward hunger upon his spirit, so strongly craving communion with God that he cannot stay till his stated hour for prayer returns, but must ever and anon be refreshing himself with the beverage of ejaculatory prayer, and then comes sharp set to duty at his ordinary set time, this speaks grace to be in statu athletico—strong and thriving; but, on the contrary, it shows a slighty and naughty spirit to make these an excuse or plea for the neglect of the other. Thou tastest, sure, little sweetness, and findest little nourishment from these, or else they would excite thy soul to hunger for further communion with God. As soon as David opened his eyes in the morning, his heart was sallying forth to God—‘When I awake I am still with thee.’ And as he walked abroad in the daytime, every occasion led him into the presence with God: ‘Seven times a day do I praise thee;’ that is, often—as it is said, The righteous fall seven times in a day. But, did these short glances of David's heart steal from the more solemn performance of his duty? No; we find he had his set seasons also: ‘Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud,’ Ps. 55:17. Mr. Ainsworth interprets this place of solemn stated prayer; and it seems to have been the practice of more devout Jews to devote three seasons in a day for that duty. I can no more believe him to be frequent and spiritual in ejaculatory prayer who neglects the season of solemn prayer, than I can believe that he keeps every day in the week a Sabbath who neglects to keep that one which God hath appointed.

OUR REASONS WHY the Christian should use ejaculatory prayers

Reason 1. The first reason may be taken from God, who, to show his great delight in his children’s prayers, lets his door stand always wide open, that whenever we have but a heart, and will be so kind as to step in to visit him with a prayer at what hour of the day or night soever it be, we shall be welcome. Nay, he doth not only give us a liberty, but he lays it as a law upon us, to let him hear from us as oft as possibly we can, and therefore commands us to ‘pray without ceasing,’ I Thes. 5:17, and ‘whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him,’ Col. 3:17. What do these and such like places signify, but that we should take every occasion that his Spirit and providence bring to our hand to the lifting our hearts up to him in prayer? And an we suppose that a prayer at our first setting forth in the morning, with never thinking of God any more till we come to our round for prayer at night again, will pass for a praying continually? When a father chargeth his son, that lives abroad, to let him as oft as may be hear from him, though he doth not expect a long epistle from him by every messenger that comes that way, yet he looks for some short remembrance of his duty by word of mouth, and that is accepted, till he hath more leisure to write his full mind. God bids pray continually. Now, he knows we cannot be always on our knees in the solemn performance of this duty. But, therefore, he expects to hear the oftener from us in these occasional remembrances of him—hinted to us all along the day by emerging providences—which the Holy Spirit stands ready as our messenger to convey unto him.

Reason 2. The second reason may be taken from the excellent use of ejaculatory prayers in the Christian’s whole course of life.

(1.) They are of excellent use to be set against those sudden injections of Satan, which he will be darting into our minds. It were strange if the best of saints should not find the devil busy with them in this kind. None so pure whose chastity of mind this foul spirit dares not to assault. And when his temptations have once coloured our imagination, it is hard wiping them off before they soak so deep as to leave some malignant tincture on our affections. Now, when any such dart from hell is shot in at thy window, no such way to wind out of the temptation as to shoot thy darts to heaven in some holy ejaculation. Our Saviour taught his disciples the use of this weapon: ‘Pray that ye enter not into temptation.’ Now when thou canst not draw out the long sword of a solemn prayer, then go to the short dagger of ejaculatory prayer; and with this—if in the hand of faith—thou mayest stab thy enemy to the heart. He that at one short prayer of David could infatuate Ahithophel, an oracle for policy, can befool the devil himself, and will at thy prayer of faith. ‘The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan,’ said Christ. It is time now for Satan to be gone, when heaven takes the alarm; as when thieves are about a house to rob it, and they within beat a drum, or give a sudden shriek to call in help, presently they flee. And if God for thy trial should not come at first call, to rid thee of these unwelcome guests, yet thy very crying out—if affectionate and cordial—will clear thee from consenting to their villainy.

(2.) They are a sovereign means to allay the Christian’s affections to the world—one of the worst enemies he hath in the field against him; for it chokes the soul, thickens the Christian’s spirit, and changes his very complexion. Who but dying men smell of the earth and carry its colour in their countenance? Grace dieth apace where the heart savours much of the earth. Now, prayer, what is it, but the lifting of the soul from earth to heaven? Were we oftener in a day sucking in, as it were, fresh air and new influences of grace from God, our spirits could not possibly be so much poisoned with worldly affections. When one was asked, ‘Whether he did not admire the goodly structure of a stately house?’ he answered, ‘No. For,’ saith he, ‘I have been at Rome, where more magnificent fabrics are to be seen.’ Thus, when Satan presents the world’s pleasures or treasures to the Christian—that he may inveigle his affections to dote on them—a gracious soul can say, ‘I have been at heaven; there is not an hour in the day wherein I enjoy not better than these in communion with my God.’

Reason 3. Ejaculatory prayers keep the Christian’s heart in a holy disposition for the more solemn performance of his duty. He that is so heavenly in his earthly employments will be the less worldly in his heavenly. It was a sweet speech of a dying saint, ‘That he was going to change his place but not his company.’ A Christian that is frequent in these ejac¬ulations, when he goes to pray more solemnly, he goes not from the world to God, but from God to God—from a transient view of him to a more fixed; whereas, another discontinues his acquaintance with God, after his morning visit, and comes not in his company till called in by his customary performance. O! how hard a business will such a one find it to pray with a heavenly heart! What you fill the vessel with, you must expect to draw thence. If water be put in, we cannot without a miracle think to draw wine. What! art thou all day filling thy heart with earth —God not in all thy thoughts—and dost thou look to draw heaven thence at night? If you would have fire for your evening sacrifice, expect not new from heav¬en to be dropped, but labour to keep what is already on thine altar from going out; which thou canst not better do than by feeding it with this fuel.

Reason 4. Ejaculatory prayers are of excellent use to alleviate any great affliction that lies heavy upon soul or body. While others sit disconsolate, grinding their souls and wasting their spirits with their own anxious thoughts; these are his wings with which he flieth above his troubles, and in an instant shoots his soul to heaven, out of the din and noise of his af¬flictions. How can he be long uncomfortable, who, when anything begins to disquiet him, lets it not lie boking and belking in his mind—as a thorn in the flesh—but presently gives vent to it, by some heavenly meditation or heart-easing prayer to God? Those heavenly tidings which came to Job, one upon the neck of another, it was not possible for him to have stood under, had his thoughts been employed on no other subject than his affliction. But, being able to lift up his heart to God—‘The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord’—this one devout meditation or ejaculation gave him incomparable ease. Indeed, in afflictions that are very sharp and violent, it is no time for long discourses; the poor creature cannot hold out in a continued duty of prayer, as at another time. When the fight grows hot, and the army comes to grapple hand to hand with their enemy, they have not leisure to charge their great artillery, then their short swords do them most service. Truly thus it is in this case. The poor creature, may be, finds his body weak, and his spirit oppressed with temptations, which Satan pours like so much shot upon him, that all he can well do is to pray quick and short—now fetch a groan for the pain he feels, and then shoot a dart to heaven to call God in to his help. And blessed is the man who hath his quiver full of these arrows. We see Christ in his agony chose to pray oft, rather than long: ‘If it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine be done.’ This short ejaculation he sends to heaven thrice, with some little pause of time between prayer and prayer. ‘And was heard in that he feared,’ Heb. 5:7.

With all prayer and supplication

The second branch in the apostle’s directory for prayer follows, which hath respect to the kinds of prayer that are to be taken into the Christian’s exercise.  As for the season, he must ‘pray always;’ so for the kinds of prayer, ‘with all prayer and supplication.’  Now, there is a double ‘all’ to be observed, as we shall make clear under two branches.  First. There is all manner of prayer.  Second. There is all matter of prayer.

‘All prayer’ is viewed as to diversity in manner

I shall begin with the first branch mentioned, viz. the modus orandi—the manner of praying: and that falls under several divisions, and distinctions.  First. Prayer is sudden and ejaculatory, or composed and fixed.  Second. That which is composed, is either solitary, or social—performed jointly with others.  Third. Social and joint prayer is either pri­vate in the fam­ily or public in the church.  Fourth. Solitary and social, private or public prayer, are either ordinary or extraordinary.

Prayer distinguished as ejaculatory or composed

First Distinction.  Prayer is sudden and ejac­ulatory, or composed and fixed.

First.  Sudden or ejaculatory prayer, which is nothing else but the lifting up of the soul to God up­on a sudden emerged occasion, with some short but lively expression of our desires to him.  Sometimes it is vocal, sometimes only groaned forth from the secret workings of a secret heart.  These darts may be shot to heaven without using the tongue’s bow. Such a kind of prayer that of Moses was, which rang so loud in God's ear that he asked Moses, ‘Wherefore criest thou unto me?’ Ex. 14:15; whereas, we read of never a word that he spake.  It was no season for Moses then to retire and betake himself to the duty of prayer, in a composed and settled way, as at other times he was wont, for the enemy was at his back, and the people of Israel flocking about him, murmuring and charging him with the guilt of blood, in that he had enticed them out of Egypt to fall into such a trap, wherein they expected no other than to lose their lives, either in the sea or by the Egyptians.  This no doubt made Moses presently despatch his desires to heaven by the hand of some short ejaculation, the surest and quickest post in the world, which brought him back a speedy and happy return, as you may see, ver. 16.

Thus, Nehemiah also, upon the occasion of the king’s speech to him, interposeth a short prayer to God between the king’s question and his answer to it: ‘Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request?  So I prayed to the God of heaven, and I said unto the king,’ &c., Neh. 2:4.  So soon was this holy man at heaven and back again—even in a trice —without any breach of manners in making the king wait for his answer.  Sometimes you have the saints forming their desires into a few smart and passionate words, which fly with a holy force from their lips to heaven, as an arrow out of a bow.  Thus old Jacob, when he was despatching his sons back again to Egypt, and had with the greatest prudence provided for their journey, by furnishing them with double money, and a choice present in their hand to appease the governor of the land, that now he might engage heaven on their side, he breathes forth into this ejacu­latory prayer, ‘God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother, and Benjamin,’ Gen. 43:14.  And David, when intelligence came that Ahithophel was of Absalom’s council, let fly that dart to heaven, ‘O Lord, I pray thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness,’ II Sam. 15:31.  This kind of praying David might mean when he saith, ‘Seven times a day do I praise thee,’ Ps. 119:164.  Not as if he had seven set hours for this duty every day, as the Papists would have it, to counten­ance their seven canonical hours, but rather a definite number is here put for an indefinite.  And so it amounts to no more than this—he did very often in a day praise God, his holy heart taking the hint of every providence to carry him to heaven on this er­rand of prayer and praise.

Now, to despatch this kind of prayer, I shall only, first, show why the Christian, beside his stated hours for prayer, wherein he holds more solemn com­merce with God, should also visit God occasionally, and step into his presence over and anon—whatever he is about—with these ejaculatory breathings of his heart; for this is a kind of prayer that needs not inter­rupt the Christian, nor break any squares in his other enjoyments.  Is he on a journey?  He may go to heav­en in these short sallies of his soul, and make no less speed in his way for them.  Is he in the field at work? His plough needs not stand still for this.  As the meadow is not the worse for what the bee sucks from its flowers, so neither doth a man’s worldly occasions suffer any loss from that spiritual improvement which a gracious soul thus makes of them.