The Christian’s guard or watch about prayer set for him 2/3

(1.) An unwillingness and backwardness to duty. If thou findest this, it appears thou beginnest to be heavy‑eyed.  When grace is wakeful, the Christian needs not many words to persuade him into God’s presence.  ‘Thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said, Thy face, Lord will I seek.’  therefore, conclude thou mayest that some vapours have fumed up from thy corruptions, to dull and deaden thy heart to the work.  He that would run to the door, when awake, at the first knock of his dear friend to let him in, may, when between sleeping and waking, let him stand too long.  This was the spouse’s case, and it lost her the company of her beloved.  It showed plainly she was in a sleepy distemper, in that she was so backward to duty; for that was the door that Christ would have met her at.

           (2.) Formality in prayer is a certain symptom that a sleepy distemper hangs about thee.  Grace awake is full of life and activity; at least it discovers itself by making the soul deeply sensible of its dead­ness and dulness.  Vigilantis est somnium narrare. saith Seneca—it shows the man awake that tells his dream, what he did in his sleep; and it proves the soul awake that can feelingly and mournfully confess his deadness.

           (3.) Prevalency of wandering thoughts.  In sleep, fancy and imagination rules and ranges without any control.  If thy thoughts range and scatter into imper­tinences in time of prayer, and meet with no check from thee, it shows thy grace, if thou hast any, is not well awake.

4. Particular.  Express a conscientious diligence at thy particular calling in the intervals of prayer. They that sit up to watch had some need of work to keep them awake.  Idleness is but one remove from sleep.  I cannot believe that he who lazeth a day awake in idleness, should find his heart awake to pray at night; for he hath that day lived in the neglect of a duty as necessary as this, and it is bad going to one duty through the neglect of another.  There is a gen­eration of men indeed, that under a pretence of watching and praying always, betake themselves to their cloisters, and renounce all secular employments, as if it were easy to put off the world as to change their clothes, and get on a cowl or a religious habit; but the world hath found those places commonly to have proved, not so much houses to pray in, as dens to draw their prey into.  It is more like that those who are pampered with sloth and fulness of bread should be eaten up with luxury and sensuality than with zeal and devotion.  The air, when still, thickens and cor­rupts; the spirits in our body are choked with rest; and the soul needs motion and exercise as much as either.  In spiritual offices it cannot hold out without intermmittings; therefore, God hath provided our particular callings as a relief to our spiritual devo­tions.  Only, our care must be not to overdo.  The same thing may quicken and weaken, wake us and lay us asleep.  No greater help to our religious offices than a faithful discharge of our particular calling; no greater duller of the Spirit of prayer than the same when inordinately pursued.  The same oil feeds the lamp and drowns it if excessively poured on.  Hold the candle one way, and the wax nourishes the flame; turn the other end up, it puts it out.
5. Particular.  Preserve a sense of thy spiritual wants.  As fulness inclines the body to sleep, so doth a conceit of spiritual fulness the soul.  When the belly is full then the bones would be at rest—the man hath more mind to sleep than work; whereas he that is pinched with hunger, his empty craving stomach keeps him awake.  If once thou beginnest to have a high opinion of thyself, and thy spiritual hunger be a little stayed—from a conceit of thy present store, and sufficiency of thy grace—truly then thou wilt compose thyself to sleep, and sing the rich man's lullaby to thy soul, ‘Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for may years; take thine ease.’  The Corinthians are a sad instance for this purpose.  ‘Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us,’ I Cor. 4:8.  Paul is now nobody with you.  The time hath been you could not be without his pains.  The hungry child did no more cry for the breast than you for the word preached by him.  But now your stomach is stayed, you are full and can live without him. Whereas, God knows, it was a fulness of wind of pride, not of solid grace.  It is the nature of grace to dilate the heart and make room for more, but of pride to cloy and glut the soul.  God hath long kept open house in England; the wine-cellar door of his ordinances hath not been shut upon us; we have had free access to drink, and that abundantly, of their sweet wine.  But, alas! may it not be for a lamentation to see how many are drunk with spiritual pride, rather than filled with grace, after so long an enjoyment of them!—insomuch that some have attempted to stave the very vessels from which they have drawn this wine!  Such are they that decry all ordinances, and would down with ministers and ministry; yea, who can live without public preaching and private praying also.  Others, not so mad drunk as the former, are yet fallen asleep under the tap; they have lost their first life in and love to ordinances; they sit with sleepy eyes and dead hearts under them.  Well, Christian, if thou wouldst keep thy soul awake for this or any other ordinance, take heed thou losest not the sense of thy wants. Begging is the poor man's trade.  When thou beginnest to conceit thyself rich, then thou wilt be in danger to give it over, or be remiss in it.
6. Particular.  Retire often to muse on some soul-awakening meditations.  We seldom sleep when we are thoughtful, especially if the thoughts we muse on be of weight and importance enough to intend and occupy the mind.  Indeed, idle trivial thoughts such as have nothing to invite attention, are given as a ready means to bring a man asleep—I mean bodily sleep. That Christian who neglects frequently to med­itate on spiritual things, and lets his thoughts walk all day in the company of carnal worldly occasions, I should wonder if he finds his heart awake at night to pray in a spiritual manner.  Give me therefore leave to present a few subjects for thy meditations to insist upon, and they will be as the brazen ball which some philosophers used to hold in their hand that they might not sleep too long, or as the alarm which men set overnight to call them up to their business early in the morning.

The Christian’s guard or watch about prayer set for him 1/3

           Third. The third thing I promised was to set the Christian’s watch for him, by giving some little coun­sel and help towards his constant performing this duty of watchfulness.  In doing this, we take the fol­lowing particulars.

1. Particular.  Harbour not any known sin in thy bosom.  Sin hath two contrary effects on the con­science, and both sad enough.  Either it fills the con­science with horror, or benumbs and stupifies it; it breaks the soul’s rest, or takes away its sense.  The latter is the more common.  Suffer the devil to anoint thy temples with this opium, and thou art in danger to fall into the sleeping disease of a stupid con­science; little list then thou wilt have to pray.  Or if it hath the other effect upon thee, thou wilt be as much afraid, as now thou dost little desire, to pray.
2. Particular.  Beware of any excess in thy affec­tions to the creature.  A drunken man, of all other, is most unfitting to watch.  Such a one will be asleep as soon as he is set in his chair.  Now all inordinacy of affection is a spiritual drunkenness.  Christ joins both together, ‘Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares,’ Luke 21:34.  It is a pre­servative against drowsiness of spirit, that the day of the Lord might not take them napping.  And of the two, the drunkenness of the affection is the worse. He that is bodily drunk over-night, is sober by the morn­ing; but he that is overcharged with the cares or love of the world, rises as drunk as when he lay down; and how can he then watch unto prayer?  We have there­fore these two often joined together, ‘Let us watch and be sober,’ I Thes. 5:6; ‘Be ye therefore sober, and watch,’ I Peter 4:7.  Whatever the affection is, the in­temperance of it lays the soul under a distemper, and indisposeth it to prayer.  Is it sorrow?  Our Saviour finds his disciples ‘sleeping for sorrow,’ when they should have watched and prayed, Luke 22:45.  Is it love?  This laid Samson asleep in Delilah’s lap.  The heart of man hath not room enough for God and the world too.  Worldly affec­tions do not befriend spir­itual.  The heart which spends itself in mourning for worldly crosses, will find the stream runs low when he should weep for his sins.  If the cares of this life fill his head and heart he will have little list to wait on God for spiritual purposes.  It is no wonder that the master finds his servant asleep in the day, when he should be at work for him, if he sat up revelling all the night.

3. Particular.  Resist this spiritual drowsiness when it first creeps upon thee.  Sleep is easier kept off when approaching, than shaken off when it hath got possession and bound the senses.  This sleepy disease of the soul steals insensibly upon us, even as the night steps in by little and little.  When, therefore, thou findest it coming, rouse up thyself; as a man who hath business to do would start up from his chair to shake off his drowsiness.  Now thou mayst observe these few symptoms of this distemper invading thee.

Wherein watchfulness unto prayer consists 2/2

2) The Christian must watch in prayer.  It is not enough to watch the child that he goes to school, but the master’s eye must watch him in school; to be idle at school is as bad as to truant from it.  Thou dost well, Christian, to take care of thyself before prayer, and to see that the duty be not omitted; but wilt thou now leave it at the school-door?  Truly then all thy former care is to little purpose.

           (1.) Thou must watch thy outward man, and rouse that up from sleep and sloth.  If the body be heavy-eyed in prayer the soul must needs be heavy-heeled; the pen drops out of the writer’s hand when he falls asleep.  ‘Watch and pray,’ saith Christ to his disciples; he knew that they could not do that work nodding.  And yet, how many do we see at the very time of prayer in our congregations so far from watch­ing, in this sense, that they invite sleep to come upon them by laying themselves in a lazy posture?  Cer­tainly, friends, communion with God is worth keep­ing our eyes open.  Little do these drones think what contempt they cast upon God and his ordinance.  I wonder any can sleep at the worship of God and not dream of hell‑fire in their sleep.  But it is not enough to keep thy awaked, if thou sufferest it to wander. ‘Turn away mine eyes,’ saith David, ‘from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way,’ Ps. 119:37.

           (2.) Thou must watch thy soul in prayer.  The soul is the man, and the soul in prayer is the very soul of prayer.  Watch what its ends and aims are, that it shoots not beside the mark.  Watch what strength and force thy soul puts to the work.  Our prayers miscarry by shooting short as well as wide.  In a word, thou must keep thy heart with all diligence from one end of the duty to the other, or else it will give thee the slip before thou art aware.  How oft, alas! do our souls begin to speak with God in prayer, and on a sudden fall a chatting with the world!  One while, our hearts are warm at the work, and we pursue hard after God with full cry of our affections; but in­stantly we are at a loss and hunt cold again.  Holy David was sensible of this, and therefore we have him in the midst of this duty begging help from God to call in his gadding heart: ‘Unite my heart to fear thy name,’ Ps. 86:11.

3. The Christian is to watch after prayer.

           (1.) By calling his soul to a review concerning the duty, how it was performed by him.  God himself, when he had finished the works of creation, looks back upon them, ‘And God saw every thing that he had made,’ Gen. 1:31; that is, he viewed his work, as an artist would do a piece he had drawn. He hath given us all a faculty to reflect upon our actions, and looks we should use it, yea, complains of those that do not ‘consider their ways and doings.’  Many duties de­pend upon this.  He that looks not back how he prayed, can he be humbled for the sins that cleaved to it?  And will God pardon what he takes no care to know, that he may show his repentance for them?  Or will he mend those faults in the next prayer which he found not out in the former?  No, but rather increase them.  We need not water weeds; let them but stand unplucked up and they will grow alone.  This is the sluggard whose soul will soon run into a wilderness, and be overgrown with those sins in prayer, which at last may choke the very spirit of supplication in him.

           (2.) By observing what is the issue and success of his prayer.  As he is to look back and see how he prayed, so forward to observe what return he finds of his prayer.  To pray, and not watch what becomes of our prayer, is a great folly and no little sin; like chil­dren that throw stones into a river, which they never look to see more.  What is this but to take the name of God in vain, and play with an ordinance that is holy and sacred?  Yet thus, alas! do many knock at God’s door—as idle children at ours—and then run away to the world, as they to their play, and think no more of their prayers.  Or, like Pilate, who asked Christ, ‘What is truth?’ and, when he had said this, went out to the Jews, forgetting what he asked.  Holy David did not think prayer such an idle errand.  ‘My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up,’ Ps. 5:3.  First, he is careful to take his aim right in delivering this arrow of prayer, which he sends with a message to heaven, ‘I will direct my prayer unto thee.’  Then he is as careful to observe where his arrow lights, and what answer is made to it, ‘and I will look up,’ which amounts to as much as that expression, ‘I will hear what God the Lord will speak,’ Ps. 85:8, that is, to me, concerning the prayer which in those words immediately foregoing he had made, ‘Show us thy mercy, O lord, and grant us thy salvation.’  When the merchant hath sent his ship to sea, he is inquiring at the exchange after her, to hear how she got to her port, whether on her return, and with what lading.  When the husbandman hath cast his seed into the ground, then he comes every day al­most to see how it comes up.  This, Christian, is to watch unto prayer, to wait for answers to prayer. Mor­decai, no doubt had put up many prayers for Esther, and therefore he waits at the kings gate, looking what answer God would in his providence give thereunto.

Wherein watchfulness unto prayer consists 1/2

           Second. The second thing I promised was to show wherein the Christian is to express his watchful­ness in reference to this duty of prayer.  Take it in these three particulars.  1. He is to watch before prayer.  2. He is to watch in prayer.  3. He is to watch after prayer.

1. The Christian is to show his watchfulness be­fore prayer; and that,

           (1.) By watching for the fit season to pray in. We cannot be always on our knees.  We may serve God all the day, but worship him we cannot; this is a duty that requires some set times for its exercises.  Now it is our duty to watch for the season of prayer as the merchant watcheth for the exchange hour; he orders his other occasions so that by no means he may miss that.  Thus the Christian should endeavour to dispose his occasions so that his devotions be not shut out or crowded up into straits of time by his improvidence; no, nor interfere with other necessary duties.  Many a fair child is lost by an untimely birth, and good duty spoiled by being unseasonably performed.

           (2.) By keeping a strict watch over himself in his whole course.

           (a) By shunning all that may defile his con­science, and so render him unmeet for communion with God.  Thus the priest was to watch himself that he touched no unclean thing, God thereby signifying that he will have them to be holy in their lives that approach near to him in the duties of his worship.

           (b) By a holy care to observe and lay up the most remarkable passages of God’s providence to him, as also the frame and behaviour of his own heart to God all along the interval between prayer and prayer.  The want of this part of watchfulness is the cause why we are so jejune and barren in the performance of this duty.  It is no wonder that he should want matter for his prayer at night, and trifle in it with impertinences, who did not treasure up what passed in the day be­twixt God and him.  Though the minister be not mak­ing his sermon all the week, yet by observing in his other studies what may be useful for him in that work, he is furnished with many hints that help him when he goes about it.  Such an advantage the Christian will find for prayer by laying up the remarkable in­stances of God’s providences to him and of his carriage to God again under them; these will furnish him with necessary materials for the performance. The bag is filling while the kine are feeding or chewing the cud, and accordingly yields more plentily when milked at night.  Truly thus it is here.  That Christian must needs be most fruitful and plentiful in his devotions, when he comes to pour out his heart to God in prayer, that hath been thus filling it all the day with meditations suitable and helpful to the duty. Would he praise God?  He hath the preservations, deliverances, and assistances which God hath given into him at hand, in the commonplace‑book of his memory, which another hath lost for want of writing them down in this book of remembrance.  Would he humbly confess the sins of the day?  He presently recalls, ‘In this company I forgat myself and spake unadvisedly with my lips; in that enjoyment I ob­served my heart to be inordinate; this duty I omitted; that I was remiss and negligent in doing.’  Now what a wonderful help hath such a soul above another that walks at random to get his soul into a melting mourn­ful frame?  The eye affects the heart.  The presence of the object actuates the affection.  The sight of an enemy stirs up anger; the sight of a dear friend excites love, and puts a man into a sudden ravishment —whom, may be, he should not have thought on, if he had not seen him.  How can they mourn for the sins of the day at night who remember them no more than Nebuchadnezzar his dream?

           (c) By the frequent exercise of ejaculatory prayer.  He doth not watch to pray that never thinks on God but when he is on his knees; for, by this long discontinuing his acquaintance with God, he indis­poseth himself for the more solemn addresses of his soul to him.  Long fasting takes away the stomach. The Christian will find that the oftener he is refresh­ing his spirit with those little sips and short gusts of heaven, the larger draught he will be able to take when he returns to his set meal of morning and even­ing prayer.  For, by the means of these he will be se­cured from worldly affections, which exceedingly deaden the heart, and also be seasoned and prepared for further communion with God.  These short walks often taken keep the soul in breath for a longer journey.

Why the Christian is to watch unto prayer

           First.  I shall show why the Christian is to watch unto prayer.

1. Reason.  Because of the importance of the du­ty of prayer.  No one action doth a Christian meet with in his whole life of greater weight and moment than this of prayer is; and that in regard of God or himself.

           (1.) In regard of God.  Prayer is an act of religious worship; we have immediately to do with the great God, to whom we approach in prayer.  Now reli­gion is as tender as the eye; it is not a thing to be played with or handled without great care and heed­fulness.  Prayer is too sacred a duty to be performed between sleeping and waking, with a heavy eye or a drowsy heart.  This God complained of, ‘There is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of me,’ Isa. 64:7.  He counts it no prayer where the heart is not stirred up and awake. No way can we more honour or dishonour God than in prayer.  O how then ought we to watch to this duty!

           (2.) Again, in regard of ourselves; for our beha­viour in prayer hath a universal influence into all the passages of our whole life.  As a man is in this duty so he likely to be in all the rest.  If careless in praying, then slighty in hearing, loose in his walking; he shall find that he miscarries in all his enterprises, is en­snared in all his enjoyments, baffled with every temp­tation, and discomposed at every affliction that meets him.  And the reason of all this is—because our strength both to do and suffer comes from God.  Now God communicates his assistance to his children in a way of communion with them.  They ask, and they have; they seek, and find; knock, and the treasury of mercy is opened to them.  Prayer is the channel in which the stream of divine grace, blessing, and com­fort runs from God the fountain into the cistern of their hearts.  Dam up the channel and the stream is stopped.  If the stomach doth not its office all the members want their nourishment.  If the trade fails in the shop there is but a poor house kept within.

2. Reason. Watchfulness is of as great impor­tance to prayer as prayer is to all our other duties. No duty can be despatched well without prayer, nor prayer without watching; for it is not prayer, but prayer performed in a holy spiritual manner, that is effectual.  Now, this cannot be done when the  is off his watch.  Take the Christian a napping, with his grace in a slumber, and he is no fitter to pray than a man is to work that is asleep.  Whatever a man is doing, sleep, when it comes, puts an end to it.  Sleep is the great leveller of the world, it makes all men alike.  The strong man is as unable to defend himself from an enemy in his sleep as the child.  The rich man asleep and the poor man are alike; he enjoys his estate no more than if he had none.  Thus the Chris­tian, while his graces are asleep, is even like another that hath no grace—as to the present use of them, I mean—he will pray as the carnal man doth, enjoy God no more in the duty than such a one would do. O how sad is this! and yet how prone are we to give way unto this drowsiness of spirit in prayer!  It creeps insensibly upon the soul, as sleep doth upon the body; the heart is gone before the Christian is well aware.  The more need therefore there is to watch against it.

           3. Reason.  Because Satan is so watchful against prayer, therefore it behoves the Christian to watch unto prayer.  Where should the strongest guard be set but where the enemy maketh his fiercest assault? This is the fort he batters and labours with all his might to beat the Christian from, well knowing the shot which gall him most come out of it.  What he doth otherwise against the Christian is on a design to hinder his prayers, I Peter 3:7, as an enemy falls upon one part of the city to draw their forces from another place which he chiefly desires to gain.  Indeed the soul never falls fully into his hands till it throws up this duty.  ‘Pray that ye enter not into temptation.’ Sometimes the city is taken, and the enemy is forced back again, by those in the castle which commands the city.  Prayer is like such a castle.  Sometimes the Christian hath nothing left him but a spirit of prayer, and with this he beats back the devil out of all his advantages, and wrings out of his hands his new-gotten victories.

The duty of watching unto prayer - And watching thereunto

           These words present us with the fourth branch in the apostle’s directory for prayer, which I called prayer’s guard.  Prayer to the saints is as the great artillery to an army—of great use to defend them, and of as great force to do execution upon their enemies; it therefore needs the stronger guard to be set about it, lest it be taken from them, or turned against them by the enemy.  Now the guard which the Spirit of God here appoints this great ordinance of prayer, is watching—‘watching thereunto.’  Watching is either or improper, literal or metaphorical.  First. Watching, literally taken, is an affection of the body.  But, Second. Watching is taken metaphorically for the vigilancy or watchfulness of the soul.

           First. Watching, literally taken, is an affection of the body.  That only can properly be said to watch which is subject to sleep; and so the body is, but not the soul.  Thus, to watch in a religious sense is a vol­untary denying of our bodies sleep, that we may spend either the whole or part of the night in pious exercises.  Thus the Jews kept the night of the pass­over holy, Ex. 12:42.  Our Saviour oft spent the night in prayer, Matt. 14:23; 26:38.  We find Paul treading in his Lord and Master’s steps, ‘In watchings, in fast­ings,’ II Cor. 6:5.  Many a sweet spiritual junket holy David’s devout soul got in the night, when others lay in their bed: ‘My soul shall be satisfied as with mar­row and fatness,...when I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches,’ Ps. 63:5, 6. No doubt, for a devout soul, upon some extra­ordinary occasions—so superstition be avoided and health regarded—thus to watch unto prayer is not only laudable but delectable.  Vig­iliæ in quantum val­etudinem non perturbant, si orando, psal­lendo, le­gendo sumantur, in delicias spirituales convertuntur —happy soul, that can thus steal in the dark into the arms of his beloved, and watch for devotion while others watch to do mischief or fill themselves with impure delights (Augustinus).  This is the Christian, whose soul, like Gideon’s fleece, shall be filled with the dews and influences of heaven above others.  But, The duty of watching unto prayer

           Second. Watching is taken metaphorically for the vigilancy or watchfulness of the soul.  This is principally meant here, and in other scriptures, where we are commanded to watch, Mark 13:35; Rev. 16:15; I Thes. 5:6; I Peter 5:8; cum multis aliis—with many others.  Now we shall the better understand what duty is imposed upon the Christian under this word [watching], if we consider what bodily watching is. Two things it imports—waking and working.  When a man wakes in the night to attend some business then to be done, such a one only truly watcheth; a man that sleeps not in the night, but to no purpose, for no business he hath to despatch, he may be said to wake but not to watch, for this relates to some em­ployment he hath in charge to look to.  Thus the shepherds are said to ‘keep watch over their flock by night,’ Luke 2:8, and the disciples ‘watched’ with Christ while they sat up to wait on him the night before his passion, Matt. 26:40.  So that, for a Christian to watch in a spiritual sense is to preserve his soul awake form sin in the height of this world, that he may keep the Lord’s charge and do the duty imposed upon him as a Christian.  Now prayer being one principal duty he is to attend and intend with all his might, therefore watching is very often joined with it, Matt. 26:41; Mark 13:33; Luke 21:36; Col. 4:2; I Peter 4:7.  In handling this duty of watching unto prayer, I shall show, First. Why the Christian is to watch unto prayer.  Second.  Wherein the duty of watchfulness, in reference to prayer, consists.  Third. I shall set the Christian’s watch for him, by giving some little counsel and help towards his performing this duty of watchfulness; for it is not a temporary duty, but for his whole lifetime.

Exhortation to those who by the rules of trial find the Spirit of God is in them 2/2

(3.) By priding ourselves in and with the assis­tances he gives.  Pride is a sin that God resists wher­ever he meets with it; for indeed it is a sin that justles with God himself for the wall.  It is time for the Spirit to be gone when his house is left over his head.  He takes it as a giving him warning to be gone, when the soul lifts up itself into his seat; if he may not have the honour of the work he will have no hand in it.  Now the proud man makes the Spirit an underling to him­self, he useth his gifts to set up himself with them. Three ways pride discovers itself in prayer, and all to be resisted if we mean to have the Spirit’s company.

           (a) When the creature ascribes the Spirit’s work to himself, and sets his own name upon the duty, where he should write the Spirit’s; like Caligula, who set the figure of his own head on the statue of Jupiter. Instead of blessing God for assisting, he applauds himself, and hath a high opinion of his own abilities, pleasing himself with what expressions and enlarge­ments of affection he had in the duty.  This is plain felony, a sin which every gracious soul must needs tremble at.  Church robbery is a great wickedness: O what then is spirit robbery!  ‘I live,’ saith Paul, ‘yet not I,’ Gal. 2:20.  ‘I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me,’ I Cor. 15:10.  Thus shouldst thou, Christian, say, ‘I prayed, yet not I; I laboured and wrestled, yet not I, but the Spirit of God that was with me.’  Ap­plaud not thyself, but humbly admire the grace and dignation of God, to help such a poor creature as thou art.  Thus David did: ‘Who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee,’ I Chr. 29:14.  That steward deserves to be put out of his office, that brags of his master’s money as his own.

           (b) When we go to duty in confidence of the gifts and grace we have already received, and do not ac­knowledge our dependence on the Spirit, by casting ourselves after all our preparations upon him for present assistance.  As we must pray by the Spirit, so we must ask for him that we may pray by him: ‘How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him,’ Luke 11:13.  And it is not once asking for all will serve the turn.  Thou mayest have his help in the morning and want it at night, if thou dost not humbly ask again for his aid.  You know how Samson was served when he thought to go out as he used to do.  Alas! poor man, the case was altered, he was weak as water; the Spirit was gone and he had carried away his strength with him.  God will have thee, O Christian, know the key to thy heart hangs at his girdle, and not thy own, that thou shouldst be able to open and enlarge it at thy pleasure.  Acknowledge God, and his Spirit shall help thee; but ‘lean to thy own understanding,’ and thou art sure to catch a fall. When pride is in the saddle, shame is in the crupper; if pride be at the beginning of a duty, shame will be at the end of it.

           (c) When we rely on our prayers, and not en­tirely on Christ’s mediation, for acceptance and audi­ence; this is pride with a witness, and highly deroga­tory to the honour of Christ.  God indeed accepts the saints in prayer, but not for their prayer, but for Christ’s sake.  Now the Spirit, who is Christ’s messen­ger, will not, you may be sure, give his assistance to rob Christ of his glory.  When he helps thee to pray, if thou wouldst harken to his voice, thou mayest hear him calling thee out of thyself, and confidence of thy prayers, to rely wholly on the mediation of Christ.  Wrong Christ, and you are sure to grieve his Spirit.

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2. To the saints; the word I have for you is to be­seech you not to grieve or quench the Holy Spirit in your bosoms. Thou canst not fadge to live long with­out prayer if a saint, nor art thou able to pray to pur­pose without him.  When he withdraws, thy hand presently will forget its cunning.  Such a chillness will invade thy soul, that thou wilt have little list to pray, for it is he that stirs thee up to the duty; and if thou creepest to it, thou wilt not be warm in the work, for it is his divine breath that must make thy green-wood burn, thy affections enkindle.  Clothes do not warm the body, till the body warm them; and the body cannot warm them, except the soul, which is the prin­ciple of life, warm it.  If there be no warmth in the heart, there can be no fervency in the prayer; and without the Spirit of God—who is the Christian’s soul and what his soul is to his body—no kindly heat can be in the soul.  O take heed therefore thou dost not grieve him, lest being distasted he refuse to assist thee.  Now three ways the Spirit of God may be dis­tasted by a saint, so as to cause him to deny his wonted assistance in prayer.

           (1.) By some sin secretly harboured in the heart. ‘If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me,’ Ps. 66:18.  Now when God refuseth to hear, we may be sure the Spirit refuseth to assist, for God never rejects a prayer that his Spirit indites and his Son presents. Sin is so offensive to the Holy Spirit, that wherever it is bid welcome he will show his dis­taste.  If you would have this pure dove stay with you, be sure you keep his lodging clean.  Hast thou defiled thyself with any known sin? think not to have him help thee in prayer till he hath helped thee to repent of it.  He will carry thee to the laver before he go with thee to the altar.  The musician wipes his instrument that hath fallen into the dirt before he will set it to his mouth.  If thou wouldst have the Spirit of God breathe in thy soul at prayer, present it not to him be­smeared with any sin unrepented of.

           (2.) By frequent resisting or putting off his motions.  As the Spirit helps in prayer, so he stirs up to prayer; he is the saint's remembrancer and moni­tor: ‘He shall bring all things,’ saith Christ of the Spirit, ‘to your remembrance,’ John 14:26.  God called Jacob up to Bethel, so the Spirit prompts the saint to duty.  Such a mercy thou hast received—up, Chris­tian, praise thy God for it while it is fresh in thy mem­ory and warm in thy heart.  Such a temptation lies before thee—go pray thou mayest not be led into it. Thy God waits for thy company, and expects thy attendance; now is a fit time for thy withdrawing thyself to hold communion with him, and pay thy homage to him.  Now, when the Christian shall shift off these motions and not take the hint he gives, but from time to time neglect his counsel, and discon­tinue his acquaintance with God, notwithstanding these his mementos, he is exceedingly distasted, and, taking himself to be slighted, he gives over calling upon him, and leaves the soul for a time, till his ab­sence, and the sad consequences of it, bring him to see his folly, and prepare him to entertain his mo­tions more kindly for the future.  Thus Christ leaves the spouse in her bed, when she would not rise at his knock, and makes her trot after him with many a weary step before he will be seen of her.  It is just that God should raise the price of his mercy, when we may have it at an easy rate and will not.  Christ thrice calls up his drowsy disciples to ‘watch and pray,’ that they might not ‘enter into temptation,’ but finds them still asleep when he comes; what saith he then?  Truly he bids them ‘sleep on,’ as if he had said, ‘Take your course and see what will become of it.’  Indeed they soon saw it to their sorrow, for they all presently fell into that very temptation which their master had so seasonably alarmed them by prayer to prevent, and this waked them to purpose.

           

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   (3.) Plant thyself under the word preached.  This is vehiculum Spiritus—the Spirit’s chariot in which he rides, called therefore ‘the ministration of the Spirit.’  The serpent, that evil spirit, wriggled into Eve's heart by her ear; and the Holy Spirit ordinarily enters in at the same door, for he is received ‘by the hearing of faith,’ Gal. 3:2.  They that cast off hear­ing the word to meet with the Spirit do as if a man should turn his back off the sun that it may shine on his face. The poor do not stay at home for the rich to bring their alms to their house, but go to their door and there wait for relief.  It becomes thee, poor creature, to wait at the posts of wisdom, and not expect the Spirit should lacquey after thee.  If the master come to the truant scholar’s house it is to whip him to school.

           (4.) Take heed of resisting the Spirit when he makes his approaches to thee in the word.   Some­times he knocks, and, meeting a repulse, goes from the sinner’s door.  This is dangerous.  He that hath promised to come in if we open, hath not promised to come again though we unkindly send him away. He doth indeed oft return after repulses; but sometimes, to show his liberty, he doth not, nay, leaves a padlock, as I may so say, on the door, a judiciary hardness and unbelief, which no minister’s key can open.  Thus Christ dealt with them that so mannerly excused themselves to his messengers that invited them. ‘None of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper,’ Luke 14:24.  Doth the Spirit move on thy heart in an ordinance?  Haply it is by some secret re­bukes directing the minister’s finger unawares to touch thy sore plat.  O beware how thou now behavest thyself towards the Spirit.  Quarrel not with the preacher, as if he had a spite against thee and came for a spy to find out the nakedness of thy soul.  Strug­gle not with thy convictions, smother not the motions of the Holy Spirit in thy next pillow at night, but rather cherish and improve them.  It is no little mercy that, as the Spirit went by in his chariot, he would call at thy door and give thee so merciful a warning, which, if kindly received, may bring on a treaty of peace betwixt God and thee that may end in thy con­version here and salvation hereafter.  It heightened the favour which God bestowed on the widow of Sar­epta that there were many other widows in Israel at the same time, but the prophet was sent to her and not to them.  So it enhanceth this mercy vouchsafed to thee, that there should be many other sinners in the congregation, and yet the Spirit not sent to them, but to thee; that his arrows should fly over their heads, and be shot at thy window with a secret mes­sage from heaven, to rouse thy sleepy conscience and woo thy affections from sin to Christ.  Verily the king­dom of heaven is come nigh unto thee.  Be but friendly to these his motions and thou shalt have more of his company.

           (5.) Converse with the saints that have the Spirit of God in them.  They that would learn a foreign lan­guage associate with men of that country whose na­tural tongue it is.  Wouldst thou have the Spirit, and so learn to speak to God in heaven’s language?  Con­sort with those who by reason of their heavenly nature will be speaking of God and the things of God unto thee.  It is true, they cannot derive and propagate this their spiritual nature; but it is as true, that the Spirit of God may make the gracious discourses which they breathe forth vital and quickening to thee.  While thou art with such, thou walkest in the Spirit’s com­pany.  Joseph and Mary sought Christ among his kin­dred, supposing it most likely to find him among them.  And it is more probable to find the Spirit of Christ among the saints, his spiritual kindred, than among strangers.  The Spirit of God came upon Saul when among the prophets; at the hearing of them prophesy and praise God, his spirit was moved also to do the same.  Who knows but thy heart may be warmed at their fire, and from the savour of their graces be drawn thyself to the love of holiness?  But, above all, take heed of profane company; this is a great quencher to the Spirit’s work.  When David re­solves for God and a holy life, he packs the wicked from him: ‘Depart from me, ye evildoers: for I will keep the commandments of my God,’ Ps. 119:115.  The husbandman busheth his young plants about to keep the cattle off.  If there be any buddings and puttings forth of the Spirit of grace in thee, as thou wouldst not have all cropped and bit off, choose not men of a profane spirit for thy associates.  They are like the north wind that blows away the rain.  When the Spirit of God hath been moving on a soul, the clouds begin to gather in his bosom, and some hopes of a shower of repentance to follow; then comes wicked company and drives all these clouds away, till there be no show left upon his heart of what before there was great hopes.

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3).O labour to get this heavenly guest to come and dwell in your hearts.  Better it were thou hadst not the spirit of a man than to want the Spirit of God. If the Holy Spirit be not in thee, assure thyself the evil spirit is; and no way is there for thee to turn this troublesome guest out of doors but by getting the Spirit of God in.  Thou mayest know where thy eter­nal  mansion will be, in heaven or hell, hereafter, by the spirit that fills and acts thy soul here.  If God takes not up thy soul as a mansion for his Spirit on earth, it shows that he prepares no mansion for thy soul in heaven, but leaves thee to be entertained by him in the other world that is thy guest in this.  Thus thou seest how thy soul hangs over the infernal pit. What course canst thou take to prevent this thy end­less misery that is coming upon thee?  Wilt thou stand up as Haman to make request for the life of thy soul?  Alas! thou canst not pray though thy life lies on it; thou wantest the Spirit of God that should help thee to groans and sighs; thou must live before thou canst breathe.  Prayer, you see, is not a work of na­ture, but a gift of grace; not a matter of will and parts, got by human skill and art, but taught and inspired by the Holy Ghost.  At the bar of man the orator’s tongue may so smooth over a cause as to carry it. Rhetoric hath a kind of spell in it that charms the ears of men, he is called the ‘the eloquent ora­tor,’ {Hebrew Characters Omitted}—nekÇn l~chash—he that is skilful in a charm, Isa. 3:3.  Thus Abigail charmed David’s passion with a well-set speech, and returned his sword into his scabbard that was drawn to cut off her husband and his family.  But words, alas! how handsomely soever they chime, make no music in God’s ear; they avail no more with him when his Holy Spirit is not with them, than Esau’s prayers and tears did with old Isaac for the blessing.  The same rod which wrought miracles in Moses’ hand would have done no such thing in the hand of another, because not acted with the Spirit that Moses had.  The same words put up in prayer by a man’s own private spirit are weak and ineffectual, yea, distasteful and abomin­able; which, delivered by the Spirit of God in another, are mighty with God and exceedingly acceptable to him.  Kings have their cooks, and eat not but what is dressed by their hands.  The great God, I am sure, will not like that sacrifice which his Spirit doth not prepare and offer.  Those prayers which are highly es­teemed and applauded by men are sometimes a great abomination to the Lord, who sees the heart to be naught and wholly void of his Spirit and grace.  And on the contrary, those prayers which are despised and harshly censured by man may be highly pleasing to God.  Eli was offended with Hannah and took her for a drunken woman; but God knew her better, that she was not drunk with wine, but filled with the Spirit in prayer, and therefore answered graciously her request. It was wisely done of that Grecian, who, being sent ambassador to a foreign prince, studied the language of the country that he might the more effectually per­suade the king by delivering his embassy in his own tongue.  O, get thou the Spirit of God, that thou may­est pray to God in the language of heaven, and no fear but thou shalt speed.  Now, if thou wouldst obtain the Spirit,

           (1.) Labour to be deeply sensible of thy deplor­able state while without the Spirit.  An unsavoury sap­less creature thou art, God knows, unable for any duty, incapable of any comfort.  The Spirit is oft in Scripture compared to water, rain, and dew.  Now, as the earth is barren and can bring forth no fruit with­out these, so is the heart of man without the Spirit of God.  O get thy soul affected with this!  When the fields are burned up for want of rain, man and beast make a moan; yea, the very earth itself, cleft with drought, by opening its thirsty mouth expresseth its extreme need of some kind showers from the heavens to refresh it.  And hast thou no sense of thy woeful condition?  Which is worse, thinkest thou—to have the earth iron or thy  heart stone? that the fruits and beasts of the field should perish for want of water, or thy soul for want of the Spirit?  O couldst thou but be brought to lament thy want, there were hope for hav­ing it supplied.  ‘For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground.  I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed,’ Isa. 44:3.

           (2.) When thou art inwardly scorched with the sense of thy spiritless graceless condition, go and ear­nestly beg this gift of God.  Now thou goest in a good time and mayest hope to speed.  Possibly thou hast heretofore prayed for the Spirit, but so slightily and indifferently that thou hast grieved his Spirit while thou hast been praying for him.  But now thou seest thy need of him, and thyself undone except thou may­est get him; and therefore, I hope, thou wilt not now shut the door upon thy own prayers by being a cold suitor; which if thou dost not, thou art sure to bring him away with thee.  Christ himself assures thee as much.  Take it from his own mouth, ‘If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?’ Luke 11:13.  A fa­ther may deny his wanton child bread to play with and throw under his feet, but not his starving child that cries for bread to preserve his life.  God can, and will, deny him that asks the Spirit to pride himself with his gifts, but not the hungry soul, that pinched with his want of grace, humbly yet vehemently cries, ‘Lord, give me thy Spirit, or else I starve, I die.’  Nay, let me tell thee, thy strong cries and earnest prayers for the Spirit would be a sweet evidence to thee that thou hast him already within thee.