WHY we should pray IN ALL CONDITIONS 3/4

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.

WHY we should pray IN ALL CONDITIONS 2/4

1. As it spiritualizes our joy into thankfulness. It is carnal joy that is dreggy, and therefore soon putrefies. Now, as prayer in affliction refines the Christian’s sorrow by breathing it forth into holy groans to God, whereby he is kept from sinful complaints of God and murmurings against him, thus here the Christian, by giving a spiritual vent to his joy in thanksgiving and praises to his God, is preserved from the degeneracy of carnal joy, that betrays the soul to many foul sins, if itself be not one. For this purpose it is that the apostle James cuts out this twofold channel for this double affection to run in: ‘Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms,’ James 5:13. As if he should say, ‘Let the afflicted soul pray, that he may not murmur. Let the joyous saint sing psalms, that his joy turns not sensual.’ A carnal heart can easily be merry and jocund when he prospers; the saint alone is praiseful. The psalmist, speaking of the mariners delivered from storms at sea, which threatened their wreck, saith, ‘Then are they glad because they be quiet,’ Ps. 107:30. But this they may be and yet not thankful. Wherefore he adds his holy option, ‘O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness!’

2. By prayer the soul is led into the acquaintance of higher delights than are to be found in all his temporal enjoyments, and thereby is taken off from an inordinate valuation of them, because he knows where better are to be had. The true reason why men are puffed up with too high an opinion of worldly felicities is their ignorance of {the} spiritual.

3. Prayer is God’s ordinance to sanctify our creature-comforts. Everything is ‘sanctified by the word of God and prayer,’ I Tim. 4:5. Now, this obtained, the Christian may safely drink of these streams. The unicorn hath now put in his horn to heal them; Satan shall not have such power to corrupt him in the use of them as another that bespeaks not God’s blessing on them. There is a vanity and flatulency in every creature, which, if not corrected by prayer, breeds indigested humours in him that feeds on it.

Fourth. In thy prosperity, Pray to show thy dependance on God for what thou enjoyest. Thou holdest all thy mercies in capite—he that gave thee thy life holds thy soul in life. ‘Thou hidst thy face,’ saith David, ‘and I was troubled.’ Truly it is time for God to withdraw his hand when thou goest about to cut off his title. That enjoyment comes but as a guest which is not entertained by prayer. Solomon tells us of wings that our temporal mercies have. Now if anything can clip these and keep them from fleeing away, it is prayer. God would often have destroyed Israel, but Moses stood in the gap; their mercies were oft upon the wing, but that holy man’s prayers stayed their flight. God’s heart would not serve him to come over the back of his prayer and put that to shame. No; they shall live. But let them say, Moses’ prayer begged their life. Now, if the prayer of a holy person could avail for others, and obtain a new lease for their lives, that were, many of them, none of the best; surely, then, the prayer of a saint may have great power with God for his own. Long life is promised to him that honours his earthly father. Prayer gives our heavenly Father the greatest honour. If, therefore, thou wouldst have thy life, or the life of any mercy, prolonged, forget not to pay him this tribute. Yea, would you transmit what God hath blessed you with to your posterity, the best way thou canst take is to lock thy estate up in God’s hand by prayer. Whatever will thou makest, God is sure to be thy executor. Man may propose and purpose, but God disposeth. Engage him, and the care is taken for thy posterity.

WHY we should pray IN ALL CONDITIONS 1/4

First. Pray in prosperity, that thou mayest speed when thou prayest in adversity. Own God now, that he may acknowledge thee then. Shall that friend be welcome to us that never gives us a visit but when he comes to borrow? This is a right beggar’s trick, but not a friend’s part.
Second. Pray in prosperity, to clear thyself that thou didst not pray in hypocrisy when thou wert afflicted. One prayer now will be a better evidence for thy sincerity than a whole bundle of duties performed in adversity. Colours are better discerned and distinguished by daylight than by the candle in the night. I am sure the truth and plainness of our hearts in duty will be best discovered in prosperity. In afflic¬tion, even gracious souls have scruples upon their spirits that they seek themselves. Smart and pain, they fear, makes them cry till they remember that their acquaintance with God did not begin in their af¬fliction, but that they took delight in his company before these straits drove them to him.
Third. Pray in prosperity, that thou mayest not be ensnared by thy prosperity. Ephraim and Manasseh were brethren, and so are plenty and forgetfulness —the signification of their names. Prosperity is no friend to the memory; therefore we are cautioned so much to beware when we are full, lest then we forget God: magnus vir est cui præsens fælicitas si arrisit non irrisit (Bern.)—he is a holy man indeed whose present prosperity doth not mock and abuse him when it smiles most pleasingly on him. O how hard it is to be pleased with it and not be ensnared by it! ‘Wine,’ Solomon saith, ‘is a mocker;’ it soon puts him that is too bold with it to shame. Prosperity doth the same. A little of it makes us drunk, and then we know not what we do. This hath proved often an hour of temptation to the best of men. You shall find in Scripture the saints have got their saddest falls on the evenest ground. Noah, who had seen the whole world drowned in water, no sooner was he almost come to safe shore but himself is drowned in wine. David’s heart was fixed in the wilderness; but his wan¬ton eye rouled and wandered when upon the terrace of his palace. Health, honour, riches, and pleasures, with the rest of this world’s enjoyments, they are like luscious wine. We cannot drink little of them, they are so sweet to our carnal palate; and we cannot bear much of them, because they are strong and heady, fuming up in pride and carnal confidence. Now prayer is an excellent preservative against the evil of this state.

Praying always

           We shall begin with the first direction, which points to the time of performing the duty of prayer —‘always.’  This word ‘always’ hath a threefold importance.  First. To pray ‘always’ is as much as if he had said, ‘pray in everything,’ according to that of the same apostle in another epistle—‘In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.’  Second. To pray ‘always’ may import as much as to pray in all conditions.  Third. To pray ‘always’ is to pray daily.

Threefold import of the expression ‘praying always.’

           First.  To pray always is to pray in everything. Prayer is a catholic duty, with which, like a girdle, we are to compass in all our affairs.  It is to be as bread and salt on our table; whatever else we have to our meal, these are not forgot to be set on: whatever we do, or would have, prayer is necessary, be it small or great.  Not as the heathen, who prayed for some things to their gods, and not for other.  If poor, they prayed for riches; if sick, for health; but as for the good things of the mind, such as patience, content­ment, and other virtues, they thought they could carve well enough in these for themselves, without troubling their gods to help them.  The poet it seems was of this mind—    It is enough,

           To pray of Jove who gives and takes away  That he may give me life and wealth:  I will myself prepare the equal soul. 

           O how proud is ignorance! let God give the less, and man will do the greater.

           But their folly is not so much to wondered at, as the irreligion of many among ourselves, who profess to know the true God, and have the light of his word to direct them what worship to give him.  Some are so brutish in their knowledge, that they hardly pray to God for anything others for everything.  May be they look upon pardon of sin, and salvation of their souls —as fruit on the top branches of a tree—out of the reach of their own arm, and therefore now and then put up some slighty prayers to God for them.  But as for temporals, which seem to hang lower, they think they can pluck them by their own industry, without setting up the ladder of prayer to come at them. They that should see some—how busy they are in laying their plots, and how seldom in prayer—could not but think they expected their safety from their own policy, and not God’s providence.  Or, should they observe how hard they work in their shop, and how seldom and lazy they are at prayer for God’s blessing on their labour in their closet, they must conclude these men promise themselves their estates more from their own labour than the divine bounty.

           In a word, it is some great occasion that must bring them upon their knees before God in prayer. May be, when they have an extraordinary enterprise in hand, wherein they look for strong opposition or great difficulty, in such a case God shall have them knocking at his door—for now they are at their wits’ end and know not how to turn them; but the more or­dinary and common actions of their lives they think they can please their master at their pleasures, and so pass by God’s door without bespeaking his presence or assistance.  Thus, one runs into his shop, and another into the field, and takes no notice that God is concerned in their employments.  If to take a long journey by the sea or land, where eminent dangers and hazards present themselves unto their thoughts, then God hath their company; but if to stay at home, or walk to and fro in their ordinary employments, they bespeak not the providential wing of God to overshadow them.  This is not to ‘pray always.’  If thou wilt, therefore, be a Christian, do not thus part stakes with God, committing the greater transactions of thy life to him, and trusting thyself with the less: but ‘acknowledge God in all thy ways, and lean not to thine own understanding’ in any.  By this thou shalt give him the glory of his universal providence, with which he encircles all his creatures and all their ac­tions.  As nothing is too great to be above his power, so nothing is too little to be beneath his care.  He is the God of the valleys as well as of the mountains.  The sparrow on the hedge and the hair on our head are cared for by him; and this is no more derogatory to his glorious majesty than it was to make them at first.  Nay, thou shalt, by this, not only give God his glory, but secure thyself, for there is no passage in thy whole life so minute and inconsiderable, which—if God should withdraw his care and providence—might not be an occasion of a sin or danger to thee.  And that which exposeth thee to these calls upon thee to engage God for thy defence.

           First.  The least passage in thy life may prove an occasion of sin to thee.  At what a little wicket, many times, a great sin enters, we daily see.  David’s eye did but casually light on Bathsheba, and the good man’s foot was presently in the devil’s trap.  Hast thou not then need to pray that God would set a guard about thy senses wherever thou goest? and to cry with him, ‘Keep back mine eyes from beholding vanity?’  Dinah went but to give her neighbours, ‘the daughters of the land,’ a visit—which was but an ordinary civility—and we may imagine that she little thought, when she went out, of playing the strumpet before she came home; yet, alas! we read how she was deflowered!  What need then hast thou, before thou goest forth, to charge God with the keeping of thee, that so thou mayest be in his fear from morning till night!

           Second.  No passage of thy life so small wherein thou mayest not fall into some great danger.  How many have been choked with their food at their own table?—received their deadly wound by a beam from their own house?  Knowest thou what will be the end of any action when thou beginnest it?  Joseph was sent by his father to see his brethren in the field, and neither of them thought of a longer journey; yet this proved the sad occasion of his captivity in a strange land. Job’s servants were destroyed with lightning from heaven when they were abroad about their mas­ter’s business.  Where canst thou be safe if heaven’s eye be not on thee?  A slip of thy foot as thou walkest, or a trip of thy horse as thou ridest, may break thy bones, yea thy neck.  O what need, then, of a God to make thy path plain before thee!  It is he that ‘pre­serveth man and beast;’ and canst thou have faith to expect his protection when thou hast not a heart to bespeak it in thy humble prayers at his hand?  What reason hath God to care for thy safety, who carest no more for his honour?

           Second.  To pray always may import as much as to pray in all conditions; that is, in prosperity as well as in adversity.  So Calvin takes it: omni tempore perinde valet, atque tam prosperis quâm adversis—it holds at all times equally, and as much in prosperity as in adversity.  Indeed, when God doth afflict, he puts an especial season for prayer into our hands; but when he enlargeth our state, he doth not discharge us of the duty, as if we might then lay it aside, as the traveller doth his cloak when the weather is warm.  Prayer is not a winter garment. It is then to be warn indeed; but not to be left off in the summer of pros­perity.  If you would find some at prayer you must stay till it thunders and lightens; not go to them ex­cept it be in a storm or tempest.  These are like some birds that are never heard to cry or make a noise but in or against foul weather.  This is not to pray always; not to serve God, but to serve ourselves of God; to visit God, not as a friend for love of his company, but as a mere beggar for relief of our present necessity; using prayer as that pope is said to have used preach­ing, for a net to compass in some mercy we want, and when the fish is got then to throw away the duty. Well, Christian, take heed of this; thou hast argu­ments enough to keep this duty always on its wheels, let thy condition be what it will.

What in God’s deportment to a Christian after prayer Satan falsifies 5/5

   Yet it is as true, that more commonly mercies that are won by prayer come not with this pomp and observation.  But, as converting grace oft steals into the hearts of some with less terror and noise of humiliation than it doth into others; so, truly, do answers in prayer—and that more commonly—come with more silence, and in the ordinary road by the concurring help of second causes.  As, the Christian praying for the temporal provisions of this life, God answers his prayer by blessing his diligence in his calling.  The sick Christian praying, hath his food and physic thoroughly sanctified, and so recovers.  Now, though God hath left himself at liberty, either to send his mercies by secondary hands, or, when he pleaseth, to be the messenger himself, and bring them in an extraordinary way with his immediate hand; yet hath he not left us at liberty to leave the ordinary road, and neglect the means, under a pretence of expecting extraordinary ways to have our desires.  Now as to this ordinary way of giving in mercies in answer to prayer, these two things are to be inquired for:—

         (1.) Inquire whether thou who didst put up the prayer beest in a covenant state.  When God gives a mercy in answer to prayer, he is said to ‘remember his covenant,’ Ps. 105:34 compared with ver. 8, and to be ‘mindful of his covenant,’ Ps. 111:5. His eye is first on the person, taking notice who he is, whether his child or no, and then his ear is open to his cry: ‘The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry,’ Ps. 34:15.  ‘Who art thou, my son?’ said Isaac to Jacob, before he gave him the blessing.  If God sees thou art not his child—and his eyes are not dim, like old Isaac’s, that he can be deceived—thy prayer is not accepted.  Indeed, neither canst thou, in that state, pray in a gospel sense, nor God graciously bid thy prayer welcome; for the spirit of prayer is a covenant grace, and interest in the mediation of Christ a covenant privilege, without both which no prayer is accepted. God hears not any that have not his Spirit to pray in them, and his Son to pray for them; and none have these but such as are in a covenant state.

         (2.) Inquire what thy frame of heart was in the duty of prayer, and also after its performance.  Thy not being in a covenant state will prove thy prayer was not heard, and consequently that the mercy received came not as a gracious answer to it; but thy being in a covenant state is an insufficient ground for thee to conclude that this particular prayer that now thou puttest up is accepted, because there may intervene something to hinder the present benefit of this privilege which is annexed to thy covenant state.  For, though thy state be good, yet thy present frame and behaviour may be naught.  Thou mayest, though a child of God, be under fresh guilt and defilement as yet unrepented of.  Now in this case God can shut his door upon his own child.  Thou hast indeed jus in re, but not aptitudinem ad rem—as a saint, thou hast a right to all the promises of the covenant, and to this, of having God’s ear open to thy prayers among the rest; but as thou art a saint under guilt, or the defilement of any sin that thou hast not yet repented of, thou art not fit to enjoy what thou hast a right to as a saint.  God doth not disinherit thee indeed, but he sequesters the promise from thee, and the rents of it shall not be paid to thee, till thou renewest thy repentance and faith on the Lord Jesus for the pardon of it.  Thy God will choose a fitter time than this is to signify his love to thee.  The leper under the law was to stand off while purified; and so will thy God turn his back of thy prayer, till thou beest cleansed of thy sin.

         Again, suppose thou art a saint, and hast not thus defiled thyself with any gross sin, yet thy graces might not be exercised in the duty of prayer; haply thou didst pray, but no faith or fervency were exerted in it.  There may be grace in the heart, but none in the duty; and such a prayer shall not speed. The promise is to the saint acting his faith and fervency in prayer.  ‘The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much,’ James 5:16.  ‘Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart,’ Jer. 29:13.

         Lastly, Though thou wert stirred up in prayer, yet may be thy heart was not raised up to rely on God after prayer for the answer.  Then we pray in faith when we so take hold of God by faith in prayer, as to wait and stay ourselves on God for a return of mercy from him.  Now by putting all these together, thou mayest come to the resolution of the question in hand.  If thou beest in a covenant state, and liest not in any known sin unrepented of—if thou prayest fervently, and actest faith on God, so as to stay thy soul upon God for an answer, though accompanied with many weaknesses and staggerings—truly thou mayest, without presumption, conclude the mercy which finds thee in this orderly manner waiting upon God comes in a gracious answer to thy prayer.  We do not fear to break open a letter when we find our name in the superscription directing it to us.  Search the promises, and thou shalt find them directed by name to thee who prayest thus.

What in God’s deportment to a Christian after prayer Satan falsifies 4/5

         Consideration (b).  Consider how thou prayedst when thou didst meet with this denial.  Didst thou pray peremptorily and absolutely, or conditionally, with submission to the will of God?  If peremptorily, thou wert beside the rule, and art the cause why thy prayer came back without its errand.  God will not hear, or bear, commanding prayers.  He that must have a temporal mercy, if he gets it, he may have a spiritual curse, but is sure to have a temporal cross. So Delilah proved to Samson, who would not take his parents’ counsel, but must have her whatever comes of it: ‘Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well,’ Judges 14:3.  But he paid dearly for his choice.  May be such an employment pleaseth thee well.  Thy carnal heart is in love with it; and that sets the a praying inordinately for it.  Alas! poor creature, if thou hadst it, what wouldst thou do with it?  Thou wouldst fondly lay thy head in its lap and let it rock thy grace asleep, and then betray thee into the hand of some sin and judgment!  But, if thou sayest that thou prayedst with a submissive spirit, on condition it liked God as well as thyself; if so, why then dost thou now recant thy prayer, seeing God hath declared his will that it is not good for thee to have thy desire?  Wilt thou not be determined by him to whom thou didst refer thyself? Hast thou not reason to think that God takes the best way for thee?  There is never a prayer put up but God doth, as it were, weigh and ponder it, and then his love sets his wisdom on work to make such a return as may be most for his own glory and his child’s good. Now, it being the product of such infinite wisdom and love, thou oughtest to acquiesce in it, yea to praise God for it.  Thus did David in a great strait, ‘O my God, I cry in the daytime, and thou hearest not,’ Ps. 22:2.  Well, what hears God from him now he hears nothing from God (as to the deliverance prayed for)? No murmuring nor cavilling at God’s proceedings —nay, he hears the quite contrary; for he justifies and praises God, ‘But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel,’ ver. 3.

         Consideration (c).  Observe whether thou canst not gather something from the manner of God’s denying the thing prayed for, which may sweeten it to thee.  Haply thou shalt find he denies thee, but it is with a smiling countenance, and ushers it in with some expression of grace and favour that may assure thee his denial proceeds not from displeasure.  As you would do with a dear friend, who, may be, comes to borrow a sum of money of you—lend it you dare not, because you see plainly it is not for his good. But, in giving him the denial, lest he should misinterpret it, as proceeding from want of love and respect, you therefore preface it in with some kind of language of you hearty affection to him, as that you love him, and therefore deny him, and shall be ready to do for him more than that comes too.  Thus God sometimes wraps up his denials in such sweet sugared intimations of his love as prevent all jealousies from arising in the hearts of his people.  When David was denied to build a temple for God, as was in his heart to do, God gave him a large testimony of his affection, how highly he accepted his good-will therein.  Though he should not build a temple for him, yet his desire was so kindly taken that God would build a house for him that should last forever.

         Thus, sometimes a faithful minister prays earnestly that God would bless his labours to the converting of his people, and is denied; yet intimations of God’s love to his person are dropped, with a promise that, however, ‘his reward is with the Lord.’  So that his prayer, though denied as to them, is returned with peace into his own bosom.  Another prays passionately, ‘O that I might see Jerusalem a quiet habitation,  and that truth and peace might flourish in his days!’  This, may be, is not granted, because his desire antedates the period which God hath fixed in his purpose for the fulfilling of his promise to his church: but he withal manifests his love to him, and expresseth how highly he resents[4] his love to the church.  Thus God did by Daniel, to whom an angel was sent to let him know what kind entertainment his prayer had, and that he was a man ‘greatly beloved of God,’ Dan. 9:21.  So in temporal mercies.  Haply thou art pleading with God for deliverance out of this trouble and that affliction, and it is denied thee, but a message [is] with the denial that recompenseth it double.  May be some sweet illapses of his love he drops into thy bosom, or assurance of seasonable succours that shall be sent in to enable thee to charge through them with faith and victory.  So God dealt by Paul, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee.’  I hope now thou wilt not say thy prayer is lost.  When Saul sought his father’s asses, was he not shrewdly hurt to find a kingdom instead of them?  The holy women that went to the sepulchre to anoint the body of Jesus with their spices, did not lose their labour though they found him risen.  Were they, thinkest thou, sorry for that?  What are all the enjoyments of the world to the spiritual mercies and comfort of the promises which thou findest in thy attendance on God?  Not so much as the dead body of our risen Saviour.  Thou findest not some dead creature-comfort, but thou meetest with embraces from a living God.

         Argument 3.  The third and last thing that Satan abuseth the Christian with, to make him doubtful of the acceptance of his prayer, and also to question, when a mercy is given in after prayer, whether it comes as a gracious answer to it or no, is taken from the common providence of God, that dispenseth the same things to the wicked without praying which the saints receive praying.  Now, with Satan, how knowest thou that thy mercies come to thee as an answer to thy prayer, and not at the door of common providence with them?   For the extricating thee out of this snare thou must know, that we are not to expect the extraordinary ways to determine this, but must satisfy ourselves with what light the word of God affords, which is able to resolve, not only this, but all our cases of conscience. It is true that God doth sometimes cast in some such circumstances as bring an evidence with them that the mercy flies to us on the wings of prayer.  As when, upon Abraham’s servant’s praying at the well for God’s gracious conduct and help to despatch his master’s business prosperously, that Rebecca should presently come forth, and, by her kind carriage and invitation, so fitly answer the mould of his prayer, even as the lock doth the key made for it.  Here heaven declared to his very sense, that his prayer found the right way to heaven. When, upon prayer, the mercy is thus cast in strangely and suddenly without the concurrence of second causes—yea, when they all lie under a visible sentence of death, and the thing is put beyond the activity of their sphere to work—here there is no rival to stand in competition with prayer.  Thus, when the apostles healed the sick upon a short prayer darted up to heaven—not so much as a doctor’s advice asked in the cure.  When Peter knocked at the door where the church was praying for him, what but prayer bound his keeper’s senses so fast in the chains of sleep, and made those with which Peter was bound to fall off without any kind hand to help, but heaven’s?  What made the iron gate so officious to open to him that had no key in his hand to unlock it?  Surely we must confess, prayer opened heaven door, and heaven, at the church’s prayer, opened the prison door.

What in God’s deportment to a Christian after prayer Satan falsifies 3/5

         [2.]  It may assure thee that his ear is open to thy cry when his face is hid from thine eye.  For, consider but who this Spirit is that thus helps thee in prayer, and furnisheth thee with all thy spiritual ammunition with which thou so pliest and batterest the throne of grace.  Is he not one that knows the mind of God? and that would not have a hand in that petition which should not be welcome to heaven? Having therefore this assistance from the Spirit, doubt not thy acceptance with the Father.  In a word, the Spirit that helps thee to thy groans and sighs in prayer is no other than that God thou prayest to; and will God deny himself?  This I conceive part, if not the principal part, of the scripture’s meaning, ‘I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain,’ Isa. 45:19.  That is, whenever I stir up a soul to pray, and empower him with my Spirit to perform it feelingly, fervently, and after a holy manner, it is always to purpose.  God never said thus to any, ‘Seek ye me in vain.’

         (3.) The third thing from which Satan takes his advantage to breed scruples in the Christian’s mind concerning the acceptance of his prayer, is the denial of mercy in kind which is prayed for.  We are prone enough to have such thoughts ourselves, and Satan will not be wanting to feed any bad humour that is stirring in us.  Or, if our hearts seem pacified with this dealing of God, he hath his ways and wiles to conjure up this evil spirit of discontent and unbelief. On this errand he sent Job’s wife, to make him think and speak evil of God: ‘Dost thou still retain thy integrity?’  As if she had said, ‘What! art thou at thy old work?—still praying and praising God?  Dost thou not see how much he regards thee, or thy serving of him?  What hast thou got by all thy devotion?  Is not thy estate gone?—thy children slain and buried in one grave, and thyself left a poor loathsome cripple? —thy life serving for nothing but to make thee feel thy present misery and feed on thy past crosses?’

         Indeed, it requires a good insight into the nature of the promises, and the divers ways God takes to fulfil them, to enable us to spell an answer out of a denial of the thing we pray for.  Yet, such a ‘good understanding have all they that do his commandments,’ Ps. 111:10.  They can clear God and justify his faithfulness in all his dealings, though, when he comes to answer their prayers, he chooseth not to enter in at that door which they set open in their own thoughts and hopes for him, nor treads in the very steps of their express desires.  The whole psalm contains a testimony given to the faithfulness of God in his providential works, at which, though a carnal cursory eye—from the mysteries hid therein—is scandalized and takes offence, yet the gracious soul, by his more curious observance of and inquiry into them, finds a sweet harmony between them and the promise, and therefore concludes, ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.’  They, having a key to God’s character, can read the hand of his providence, and so are able to praise him —knowing him faithful—when others are ready to curse him.

         But, to help thee out or keep thee from falling into this temptation, thou art in the first place to consider what mercy it is that God denies thee.  Is it not of that sort of blessings which are not necessary unto thy happiness as a saint?  Such all temporal mercies are.  The kingdom of God consists not in meat and drink.  Thou wilt find an absolute denial for no other; he hath bid us take no denial for his love and favour, grace and glory: ‘Seek the Lord, and his strength: seek his face evermore,’ Ps. 105:4—that is, be not put off for these, but live and die at God’s door till he brings this alms to thee.  Well, we will take this for granted it is a temporal mercy thou art denied. Now, when thou art tempted to question the love of God, or acceptance of thy prayer, let me desire thee to weigh this THREEFOLD CONSIDERATION.

         Consideration (a).  Consider how ill God may take this at thy hand; and that in a double respect.  [1.] That thou dost suspect his love on so slight and trivial a matter as the temporal enjoyments of this life are, which he thinks are not worth enough to be put into the promise any otherwise than they are subservient to the spiritual and eternal blessings of the covenant: ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you,’ Matt. 6:33—that is, as you need them.  He casts them into the other more grand blessings, as a tradesman would do thread or paper, or a skein of silk, into a parcel of rich commodities that a customer buys of him.  Suppose a child should ask his father for money to buy some toy or trifle that pleaseth his green head, but the father denies him the thing.  If, now, the child should go and make proclamation in the open street, to the disgrace of his father, that his father did neither love nor regard him—though he wants neither food nor raiment—would this be well taken at the child’s hand?  This thou dost, Christian, in this case, though thou thinkest not so much; and hath not thy heavenly Father more reason to question thy love for taking away his good name, than thou to suspect his for his denial?  But again, [2.] He may take it ill that thou hast aspersed his wisdom.  Is there no way but this for the wise God to show his love and answer thy prayer? Cannot he deny health and give patience?—take away thy estate and turn it into contentation?—teaching thee to be abased, and to bless God thou art made low.  He that will make thee so happy in heaven, where few of this world’s enjoyments shall be seen, cannot he make thy life comfortable on earth without some of them?