Counsel and direction for the weak Christian in persevering prayer 2/3

1. Consider what it is to pray.  It is to go a beg­ging for an alms, not to demand a debt.  Now, doth it become thee in so poor a condition, and about such a work, to be so quick and short with thy God?  If you can live without being beholden to God, why then do you at all come to his door?  If you cannot, why then do you not wait more patiently for his pleasure? Should he wrong thee if he beat thee from his door? Why then art thou no more thankful for his leave to wait there, though thou beest not presently served?
2. Consider who he is thou prayest to.  Is he not the great and glorious majesty of heaven and earth?  And is not this one piece of the state he looks to be served in by his poor creatures?  How long did Mor­decai sit at the king's gate before he had that which he waited for?  Is it not time enough for the servant to be set at dinner after he hath waited at his master’s table?  Were it not unsufferable sauciness in the serv­ant to complain his master sat too long and required too much waiting at his hands?  This is the language of our hearts, when we think much to stay God’s time for a mercy.  Is he not a righteous holy God?  Surely he doth thee no wrong to make thee pray, and that long, for a mercy which thou deservest not when it comes at last.  Is he not wiser than thou, to know how to time his mercies?  ‘Shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?’ Job 18:4.  Wilt thou have God overthrow the course of his providence, which he thinks fit, to gratify thy impatient spirit?  Surely this is to charge God fool­ishly with some error in his government.  In a word, is not he a faithful God, though he comes not so soon to thy relief  as thou wouldst have him?  where did he give thee leave to date his promises and set the day of payment?  No; he hath promised to answer his chil­dren’s prayers, but concealed the time of performance of his promise, on purpose to keep them in a waiting posture; and therefore he breaks not his promise when he detains a mercy, but thou forgettest thy duty not to wait.  God is not unfaithful, but thou art faith­less and unbelieving.
3. Have not as good as thyself prayed, and that as long as thou, before they have received an answer,and yet have not thus behaved themselves?  Look into the generation of seekers, and thou wilt find that God hath exercised their patience as well as thine. Hast thou stood at God’s door longer than many of thy brethren have done?  Remember Job, David, and Heman, how many troubles came over their heads! what sad tidings did they hear!  Dismal afflictions did they endure they endure before the day broke and divine providence cleared up!  Shall God raise a causey^[5] for thee to walk by thyself dryshod, while these, and thousands besides, have taken many a weary step through the deep sloughs of affliction, before they could come to fair way?  When God led Israel far about, and made it a journey of forty years from Egypt to Canaan, it had been great pride for any among them to have desired God to lead them a shorter way thither than all his brethren.  David de­sired no more at God’s hands than to fare as his fellow-saints did: ‘Be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name,’ Ps. 119:132.  Nay, doth not Christ himself and example beyond all example, wait, and that long, even in heaven itself for an answer to his prayers?  He hath been already above a thousand years  there at prayer for his church, and against his enemies, and hath not as yet received the full of his desires; but still is expecting till the one be saved, and the other be made his footstool.  Who art thou that thou shouldst have so high an opinion of thyself, as to look God should make all stay, and trade for time, while thou alone for ready money?
4. Consider whether thou didst never make God wait on thee before his suit could be heard, though he begged not for his benefit but thy own.  Did God wait in thy carnal state upon thee, that he might at last be gracious to thee, and thinkest thou much to wait at prayer now on him?

          

Counsel and direction for the weak Christian in persevering prayer 1/3

           Fourth. I shall wind up the discourse with a word of counsel and direction for the help of the weak Christian therein.  Now this will, I suppose, be best performed by laying be­fore you the several causes of a person’s falling off from this duty, or fainting in it, and so to fit the directions accordingly. All diseases are not cured with the same medicine, neither are catholic remedies so effectual as those which respect the particular humour from which the distemper aris­eth.  Now the causes of non‑persevering in prayer are diverse.

           First. Sometimes the cause is want of a lasting and en­during motive or principle to keep and hold us constantly to the duty.  When the spring is down the watch must needs cease going, for that fails that gave the wheels their motions.  That sometimes which sets the creature to prayer, is not pure obedience to the command, but a desire to some particular mercy, which, if obtained, the fish being caught, the net is laid aside; or, if he prays long, and hath it not, he grows weary of the work, and lets it fall.  Be sure, Christian, therefore to pray in obedience.  Bind the duty upon thy conscience, and thou wilt not easily shake it off.  ‘God forbid that,’ saith Samuel, ‘I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you,’ I Sam. 12:23.  He had little encouragement, from them he prayed for, to continue at the work, but his obedience to God, to whom he prayed, held him to it. This is a strong fence to hedge in the heart indeed. We cannot break through this hedge but we shall feel the thorns in our side.  A gracious soul dreads noth­ing more than guilt.  Tell him it is a sin to cease pray­ing, and you say enough.  What though God answers not my prayer, his silence to my prayer must not make me silent not to pray.  Prayer is still a duty. God is not bound to answer presently when we pray, but we are bound to pray though he doth not answer. ‘All this is come upon us,’ saith the church, ‘yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant,’ Ps. 44:17.  Remember, Christian, thou art a covenant servant, and one thing thou art as such bound to do is, to pray to thy God without ceasing, I Thes. 5:17.  This will defend thee against any motion that the tempter suggests to the contrary.  the beggar knocks awhile at the rich man's door, and, if he be not served, away he goes.  But the servant in the house, though he be hungry, doth not run away pres­ently from his master, because he hath not his dinner so soon as he desires.

           Second. Sometimes this not persevering in prayer comes from pride.  ‘This evil is of the Lord; what should I wait for the Lord any longer?’ II Kings 6:33.  What a haughty spirit was here!  Pride likes not to wait, but to be waited on.  He in the gospel was ashamed to beg, much more to stand long at the door upon a begging errand.  Now, though this be a disease which a saint is more free from than other men, yet there are dregs enough still within him to royle and distemper his spirit, if he be not daily evacuating and purging them out.  It will not therefore be amiss to leave a few soul‑humbling considerations in your hands, which you may be often taking, especially when you feel any grudgings of this sin about you, and your hearts begin to grow discontented that God makes you stay so long for any mercy prayed for.

Some considerations pressing the duty of persevering prayer 2/2

   Fourth Consideration.  Consider it is as sinful as foolish to give over this duty.  ‘Thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God,’ Job 15:4.  It is a high crime for one trusted with a castle for his prince to deliver it cowardly into his enemy’s hand, espe­cially if he hath provision wherewithal to defend it. Now hath not God provided sufficiently to enable the Christian to maintain this duty against all the armies of men and devils, afflictions and temptations, that can oppose it? Princes are most careful to enforce and supply frontier castles above others with all necessaries for defence, because most assaulted.  Prayer is a duty that is as hard laid at by Satan as any, and hath many other difficulties that render it no easy matter for the Christian to be instant and constant at it.  God hath considered this, and accordingly pro­vided succour.  He gives his Spirit to help the Chris­tian—because of his many infirmities—what and how to pray; who, if he be used kindly, will not be wanting to lift with him in the work.  And, while the Spirit is ready to pray in him, Christ is as ready in heaven to pray for him; who also sends the precious promise of the gospel—as messengers into a besieged town—to assure the soul relief is coming from heaven to him, be the affliction or temptation never so great and formidable that besets it.  Now, to faint in the work, and, by giving over the duty, to open the city gates of his soul, for Satan to enter and triumph over God with his insulting blasphemies—O what gracious soul, that hath any spark of loyalty in his breast unquenched to his God, doth not tremble at the thought of such a treasonable action!  We cannot cast off prayer, but we cast some dishonourable reflection upon God; for, as one saith well, every real defect in the creature proceeds from an imaginary defect which he falsely supposeth to be in God.  Men first conceive unworthily of God, and then carry themselves un­worthily and undutifully to him.  Now the causes from which this fainting in prayer proceeds are all evil and bitter, as by and by will appear.

           Fifth Consideration.  As it is foolish and evil, so it is of dangerous consequence to ourselves, to faint, and cease to pray.

1. It is the ready way to bring some stinging affliction upon us.  This is the best that can come of it.  Art thou a servant of God, and fleest from his face?  Art thou a child, and playest the truant?  Look that thy heavenly Father will send thee to school with a rod at thy back.

           2. Cease to pray, and thou wilt begin to sin. Prayer is not only a means to prevail for mercy, but also to prevent sin.  ‘Pray that ye enter not into temptation.’  The thief comes when the candles are out and all the house in their beds. Christ could not keep his disciples awake at their devotions; and how soon were they put to the rout when the tempter came!  When the courtier in a discontent withdraws, and gives over his attendance at court, he is more easily wound in to disloyal practices against his prince.  Discontent softens the heart to receive sinful impressions from the tempter.  ‘Thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God,’ Job 15:4.  Eliphaz’s doctrine was true, though his application was false.  When Saul gave over in a pet to pray to God, then he sought to a witch.  Sins of commission are the usual punishments that God inflicts on persons for sins of omission.  He that leaves a duty may fear to be left to commit a crime; he that turns his ear from the truth takes the ready course to be given over to believe fables, II Tim. 4:4.  He that casteth off prayer, it is a wonder if you find him not ere long cast into some foul sin.

Some considerations pressing the duty of persevering prayer 1/2

           Third. Having shown why we are to persevere in prayer, I come no to the third place, to cast in some considerations to move us to the duty.  Christ bestowed a parable on his disciples for this very end, to show that ‘men ought always to pray and not to faint.’  Surely, then, it deserves an exhortation. Now to enforce the exhortation, take these five particulars into your consideration.

           First Consideration. The prevalency of perse­verance in prayer.  This is emphatically expressed by that question of our Saviour in his parable upon this subject: ‘Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?’ Luke 18:7.  As if he had said, Can you think that God will send away those who are so near and dear to him, his own elect, with a denial and that when he hath made full proof of their faith and patience in waiting long upon him for an answer?  ‘I tell you,’ saith Christ, ‘that he will avenge them speedily.’  Men seek to please their old customers that are constant to their shop, whoever else they send away; so will God those that are in constant trading with him at the throne of grace.  ‘They that wait upon the Lord are not ashamed.’  David is careful for our encouragement to let us know how well he sped after his long waiting at God's door: ‘I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry,’ Ps. 40:1; Hebrew ‘in waiting I waited;’ that is, I stayed waiting long, and at last he came.  But David was a favourite; may others look to speed as he did?  See ver. 3, ‘Many shall see it,...and shall trust in him.’  Answer of prayers is a covenant privilege.  It is not a monopoly given to one or two, but a charter granted to the whole corporation of saints to the end of the world: ‘He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer,’ Ps. 102:17.  Now mark what follows, ‘This shall be written for the generation to come,’ ver. 18.

           Second Consideration.  Thy perseverance in prayer will help to evidence thy state to be gracious. The hypocrite is oft uncased here; will he pray always? Job 27:10.  Many will come into a workman’s shop, and take up his tools to work with them for awhile, and lay them down again by and by, who would never yield to be bound to his trade and serve out an apprenticeship at it.  Thus an unsound heart will be meddling with this duty now and then, but grows weary of the work at last, especially if he be made to wait long for an answer.  Saul prays to God, and because he hears not from him, goes at last to seek to the devil.  Observe what effect God’s silence, frowns, and seeming denials produce in thy heart, and thou mayest know the temper of thy spirit there­by.  Do they wear off thy edge to prayer, or sharpen it?  Do they make thee fall off, and send thee away from God’s door—as some sturdy beggars go from ours when denied an alms—with clamours in thy mouth, and discontent in thy heart, resolved to beg no more there?  Or do they make thee fall on with more courage, and enkindle thy affections to God and this duty more ardently? as the suitor, whose love is heightened by repulses, and importunity doubled by being obstructed and opposed.  Truly, if thou findest the latter, thou mayest conclude, if this instant constancy in prayer be for spiritual blessings—Christ and his sanctifying graces—that divine virtue, and that good store hath gone from Christ into thy soul. ‘O woman, great is thy faith!’

           Third Consideration.  Consider the great folly of fainting in prayer.  Thou dost a foolish and irrational act.  Haply thou art in a deserted condition, prayest for comfort, but none comes; for victory over such a temptation without or corruption within, but art foiled in both, for all thy praying; therefore thou first faintest in the duty, and then givest it over.  What egregious folly is this!  Because mercy comes not in all haste to thee, therefore thou wilt run from it —which thou dost in ceasing to pray!  When the fisher misseth his draught, he doth not presently give over his trade, but falls a mending his net.  O cease not to pray, but mend thy praying!  See at what hole the fish went out—the mercy was lost; double thy diligence, and all shall be well at last.  If thy pain con­tinues while the plaster is on, dost think it will cease when it is taken off?  Whatever the mercy is thou wouldst have, must it not come from God’s hands? Now will God give the mercy to thee who rejectest his counsel for the obtaining of it?  Is not prayer, and that ‘with all perseverance,’ the way he directs all his people to take? Suppose a physician, who is sent for to a sick patient, should give the messenger an elec­tuary to carry back with him, and saith, It will be some time before I come myself to the sick man, but charge him to take a good quantity of this as oft as he finds himself ill, every day, till I come, and he shall do well.  Now the patient begins to follow his physi­cian’s directions, but, staying longer than he likes before he comes, and finding his trouble continue, sets it away, and takes no more of it.  The physician at last sets forth, and, as he is on his way to him, hears of it, turns back, and comes not at him; so the poor man dies by his own hasty folly.  Truly this is our case.  God, for reasons best known to himself, stays some while before he comes to his tempted distressed servants, for their deliverance, but leaves order when any of them ail anything—so the word 6"6`B"2,Ã, James 5:13, signifies—that they should pray, apply themselves to the use of this duty; yea, continue the spiritual constant use of it till he comes; and withal assures us he will come soon enough to save us.  Now, what folly is it to cast off this means so strictly prescribed?  Surely, thought there were noth­ing else, this is enough to turn God back when on his way of mercy to do us good.

        

Why we are to pray ‘with all perseverance 2/2

  (1.) He usually pays them use for their forbear­ance.  The longer they pray, the more redundant the mercy is when it comes.  Such a mercy, that comes as an answer of persevering prayers, is compared to the husbandman’s gains at harvest, which abundantly recompenseth his whole year’s patience. ‘In due season we shall reap, if we faint not,’ Gal. 6:9.  The breast is filling for the child while the mother is sleeping.  God sometimes seems to sleep and forget his poor children that cry to him, but he is preparing the fuller mercy for them.

           (2.) Such mercies are got with longest and great­est difficulties, they come with sweetest manifesta­tions of divine love: ‘O woman, great is thy faith,’ Matt. 15:28.  This poor woman had not her request so soon granted as some others, but she lost nothing by it; for, with the recovery of her child—which was all her errand—she carries away with her a high testi­mony from Christ’s own mouth to the truth and emi­nency of her grace.  She who was at first called a dog is at last owned for a dear child.

           (3.) Such mercies as are the issue of persevering prayers, they are received usually with more joy and thankfulness than others.  Partly they are so, because the Christian's desires are more intense and sharp by long staying and earnest praying for them—and so he tastes more sweetness in the mercy, as he that comes hungry from a long journey at plough relisheth his food better than another that hath not whetted his appetite with any labour or exercise; and also because such mercies give disappointment to the Christian’s many fears, which their long stay occasioned.  When God is long a coming, we are prone to question whether he will come at last or no: ‘Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?  Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore?’ Ps. 77:7, 8.  See how many sad thoughts gathered about this good man’s heart; which, though they did not overthrow his chariot of prayer, yet clog­ged his wheels, and made him drive with a heavy heart.  Now, for a mercy to break out of so dark a cloud, it must needs bring such a glory with it as to ravish the soul with joy and enlarge it into thank­fulness.  Those judgments amaze and dispirit sinners most which come after long peace and prosperity, when they think the danger is over and bitterness of death is even past; as in Haman’s case, who was sent to the gallows after he had vaunted how he was invi­ted to the queen’s banquet.  This strange turn of his affairs made it a double death to him.  So, mercies that surprise the saint after he hath prayed long, and can hear no tidings that they are on their way, O how it affects his heart with joy and gratitude!  The church had prayed ‘without ceasing’ for Peter in prison, but still he is there, even to the very time when Herod would have brought him forth—probably to his exe­cution.  Now, when he came himself to bring the joyful news their prayers were heard—while they were instant at the work—it is said ‘they were astonished,’ Acts 12:16.

           (4.) They were usually more holily used and im­proved.  For God holds his people long at prayer for a mercy many times for this very end—to prepare and season their hearts, that, when they have it, they may know the better how to employ it for his glory and their own good.  None are more careful to husband a great estate than those who are at most pains to get it. Hannah prayed long for a son, but none is given. This makes her add a vow to her prayer: ‘If thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and wilt give unto thine handmaid a man-child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life,’ I Sam. 1:11.  Happy was it for this good woman she had not her desire sooner.  If she had received him at first, haply she had never given him back to God again.  The Lord sometimes forbears to give a mercy to us, only to get us deeper into bonds to lay it out for him when we have it.

           (5.) The last advantage that comes to the Chris­tian by perseverance in prayer is, when the mercy is at last denied.  And it is this—it will enable and dispose him to bear the denial more meekly and holily than another.  He that is short‑spirited, and cannot wait on God for a mercy, will not easily submit to him in a denial; whereas, he that keeps up a spirit of prayer for it, when God comes to take away the subject of his prayer, will acquiesce, now he sees God hath fully de­clared his will in the thing.  David and Job are preg­nant instances for this.  Job lets not a day pass without prayer for his children; and how does the man behave himself when they are slain?  Doth he fret and fume?  Doth he curse God for making them a sacrifice for whom he had offered so many sacri­fices?  No; he meekly submits to his holy will; he opens not his mouth against him, but in praises to him.  So David, when his child was dead—for whom, while living, he ceased not passionately to pray—to show how well satisfied he was with divine provi­dence, he washeth his blubbered cheeks, puts off his mourning apparel, and goes to the house of God to worship, II Sam. 12:20. Prayer is a great heart‑easer; it breathes out those distempered passions which, being bound up in others, break out when God at any time crosseth them in their wills.

Why we are to pray ‘with all perseverance 1/2

           Second.  I proceed to the second thing prom­ised, viz. to show why we must pray ‘with all perse­verance;’ which take in these particulars:—
           First.  It is strictly commanded.  ‘Pray without ceasing,’ I Thes. 5:17; that is, without fainting.  So our Saviour, Luke 18:1, ‘And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.’  Mark, not only that they might, but ‘ought.’  It is indeed a high privilege to us, and a low stoop in the high God, to give us leave thus to lie at his door, and to suffer the cry of our prayers to be ever sounding his ears.  We, I ma sure, could not like to have beggars knocking day and night at our doors; but so infinitely good is God, that he doth not only allow us this bold­ness, but also commands it,that the fear of a sin might move us, if the loss of a privilege will not.
           Second.  This perseverance in prayer is highly recommended.  Indeed perseverance crowns every grace and commends every duty.  It is not our faith and hope, but to ‘hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end,’ that God looks at, Heb. 3:6.  Not the seeming zeal and swiftness of our motion in the ways of God at our first start and setting forth, but the constancy of a well-breathed soul in holding on his course till the race be finished, that Christ commends: ‘If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed,’ John 8:31.  So in prayer.  Not the short spurts of an inconstant zeal, that begins to pray as they say the French do to fight —like thunder and lightning, but if the first charge carries it not, then they quail, and are quite cowed in their spirits.  No; it is not this soft metal, whose edge is thus easily turned, that God likes in prayer, but a zeal tempered and hardened so with resolution that makes it cut through all delays and difficulties.  This God highly commends.  It got Jacob the name of a prince, so nobly he behaved himself in this duty, holding it out till break of day with God, and then would not let him go till he had blessed him.
           Third.  It is that which God intends by his delays and seeming denials.  Why deals he thus with his people?  Surely it is to put their graces to the trial, whether they will quit the siege for a few repulses or fall on with more courage.  He holds his peace, to make them cry the louder; steps aside, to make them hunt more eagerly after him.  He lays blocks before the wheel of their prayers, to try their mettle how well they will draw, when it seems a dead pull, and the mercy comes not at their prayer.  Now two things God aims at by his people’s perseverance in prayer.  1. His own glory.  2. Their advantage.  These two are never severed.

1. His own glory.  What fairer occasion can the Christian have in his whole life to honour God, than by holding fast his integrity, and keeping his alle­giance to God firm, when he seems to be neglected, yea, forsaken of him?  Certainly God would never have put Job to so much trouble, nor have made him pray and stay so long for the gracious issues of his providence, but to glorify himself in the faith and patience of his faithful servant.  ‘Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord,’ saith the apostle James, ch. 5:11.  Truly, we could not have heard so much of his patience, if we had not heard so much of his troubles.  Had God put an end sooner to them, he might have found more ease, but not God more honour.  This was it that God was pleased with and counted himself highly honoured by —that Satan with all his wits and wiles could not make Job give over praying, much less fall of cursing God; no, not when God broke him with his tempest, and seemed not to regard him or his prayers.  It pleaseth us most when our prayers make the shortest voyage—when they are at heaven and back again with and answer quickly; but it glorifies God most when he lays an embargo—as I may so say—upon our prayers, that no answer comes from heaven to us, and yet we will send more after them, as Jacob did Benjamin after his other son, who was then prisoner in Egypt. When the poor soul will not be taken off the duty by any intervening discouragements, but presseth harder upon God from his seeming denials, this is indeed to give glory to God.  ‘Blessed is he that hath not seen, and yet’ thus ‘believeth.’
2. God, by his people’s persevering long in prayer before he gives in his gracious answer, intends their advantage.

         

THE CONSTANCY PROPER TO PRAYER - With all perseverance

These words, ‘with all perseverance,’ contain the fifth branch in the apostle's directory for prayer—the constancy proper to prayer—which I shall despatch briefly in these four heads.  First. By giving the importance of this phrase, ‘all perseverance.’  Second. By giving the reason why we are to pray ‘with all perseverance.’  Third. I shall cast in some considerations to move us to the duty.  Fourth. Wind up the discourse with a word of counsel and direction for the help of the weak Christian therein.
Importance of the phrase ‘with all perseverance.’   First.  Let us explain the importance of the phrase ‘with all perseverance.’  Here is perseverance, yea ‘all perseverance,’ required in prayer.  First. Let us inquire what is meant by ‘perseverance.’  Second. What is meant by ‘all perseverance.’
First.  What is meant by ‘perseverance.’  The word BD@F6"DJXD0F4H here used comes from 6"D­JÎH, the same with 6D"JÎH—a letter only transposed to melt the sound.  It signifies strength and victory; hence its compound BD@F6"DJ,D,Ã<, is to prosecute any business with an unwearied constancy till all dif­ficulties be conquered and the thing at last be ac­complished.  It is used for the diligence and labour of hunting dogs that follow the chase till at last they get the game pursued; it is applied also to lackeys that with great labour run after their masters and are at their hand in a journey.  In Scripture it is frequently applied to the duty of prayer, as Acts 6:4; Col. 4:2; Rom. 12:12, and signifies that invincible patience, courage, and constancy which a Christian is to show in up­holding this duty of prayer.
Question.  But are ‘praying always’ in the begin­ning of this verse, and this ‘praying with persever­ance,’ the same?  If not, wherein lies the difference?
Answer.  It cannot be thought the apostle, being giving directions for prayer, would let them interfere one with another, and in so short a space repeat the same direction over again in other words; the rest are all distinct, so therefore will we take these.  Calvin makes this to be the difference:—By ‘praying always,’ saith he, he exhorts us to pray in prosperity as well as adversity; and not then to intermit the practice of this duty because not driven to it by such outward pres­sing necessities.  But, by ‘praying with perseverance,’ admomet ne defatigemur, instandum esse alacri ani­mo; infracto studio continuandas esse preces, si non statim consequamur quod volumus—he admonisheth that we be not weary of the work; but continue instant and constant in its performance, though we have not presently what we pray for.  By ‘praying always,’ we are exhorted to the daily constant exercise of the duty of prayer, not to neglect the seasons the seasons for prayers as they return upon us.  By ‘praying with per­severance,’ we are pressed to bear up against discour­agements as to any particular suit or request we make at the throne of grace, and not to give over though we have not a speedy answer to it.  So that the former is opposed to a neglect of duty in its stated seasons, and the latter to a fainting in our spirits as to any par­ticular suit we put up.  We may keep our constant course of prayer, and yet not persevere in prayer for this or that mercy, which God withholds sometime for the exercise of our grace.
Second. I shall show what is meant by ‘all perseverance.’

1. By ‘allperseverance’ is meant such a perse­verance as holds out to the end—till God doth give the thing we pray for, or takes away the subject of our prayer, as he did in David’s case for his sick child by his death.  It is possible a soul may continue long, yet at last faint when it sees the time for answering still protracted.  God still stays, and no news of his com­ing, after many a despatch sent to heaven upon that occasion.  O it is hard to hold up our hands, with Moses, ‘to the going down of the sun!’  Christ com­plains how rare and scarce such a faith is to be found, when he bears long before he throws in the mercy prayed for.  ‘Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?’ Luke 18:8. Shall he find so much faith as to keep his people at prayer in expectation of his coming to their relief?
2. By ‘allperseverance’ is meant a perseverance of the whole man in prayer.  We must not only persevere to hold up the outward performance of the duty of prayer; but persevere to exert the inward pow­ers of our souls and their graces in the duty.  The duty may be kept up, and the heart be down in per­forming it.  The faith, zeal, and other graces of the soul may be gone or act but feebly.  Like an army that hath not yet quitted the field, but their powder and are even all spent; there they stand, and set a good face on it, but can do little or nothing to offend the enemy or defend themselves.  Thus many in afflic­tions pray still.  They have not yet given over the duty and run out of the field.  But alas! their faith fails and their heart quails; there is little life and vigour to be seen in the performance.  Here is some kind of perse­verance, but not this ‘all perseverance,’ which above all requires the perseverance of grace in its actings at the duty.  So we translate the word, Rom. 12:12.  What is here 'with perseverance,’ is there ‘continuing in­stant in prayer;’ the word is BD@F6"DJ,B@Ø<J,H. Some are ‘instant,’ but it lasts not.  If they find the mercy comes, they draw hard; but if their chariot of prayer be set, and after a pull or two the mercy comes not, their faith jades, and they give over the work. Others are constant, but not instant; they continue to pray, but pray themselves cold; they grow lifeless and listless in the work, as if they looked for nothing to come of it.  We must join both together, or expect benefit from neither.

Shall thy enemy be awake to seek to cut thy throat, and wilt not thou rise to save it?

           (3.) Consider wicked men are awake, and hard at work for Satan and their lusts.  The philosopher blushed that the smith should be up and have his hammer in his hand before he had his book.  O may it not put the Christian to shame! Consider how watchful the men of the world are to follow their worldly business.  Do they not rise early, and go to bed late, grudging the very time that is spent to re­fresh nature in the night with sleep, so bent they are upon their carnal projects!  The philosopher observed this, and shamed himself for suffering the smith to be at his anvil in the morning sooner than he was at his book.  O Christian! should it not make thee blush much more to see the whole town up and as busy as bees about a garden, one flying this way, another that way—and all to bring a little more of this world’s perishing pelf into their hive, out of which death, ere long, will smoke them, and force them to leave what with so much pains they have gathered for others they know not who, possibly their greatest enemies—while thou, Christian, sleepest away thy precious time, though thou art sure to carry thy gettings into the other world with thee,, and there enjoy the fruit of thy short labour here with everlasting glory!  Nay, con­sider how watchful the wicked are to take all oppor­tunities to pursue their works of darkness.  The adul­terer watcheth for the twilight to meet his minion; and wilt not thou watch unto prayer, that thou mayest fill thy soul with spiritual loves in communion with thy God?  The thief is up at midnight to get his prey; and wilt not thou break thy rest a little for to obtain a richer treasure than is to be found in the coffers of the richest princes that the world boasts of?  Shall these be at so much pains to satisfy their lusts, and thou take none to honour and enjoy thy God?  O what a shame was it to the heavy-eyed disciples that they could not watch to pray with their Master, when Judas that bold traitor was so wakeful to be up in the dead of the night to betray him into his murderers’ hands!

           (4.) Consider how short the time is that thou art desired to watch.  ‘Could you not watch with me one hour?’ saith Christ,’ Matt. 26:40.  Ere long, Christian, thou shalt be called off thy guard, and then thou shalt have all rest, though no sleep.  It is but for this short life thou art put to stand upon this hard duty; and is that so long?  Others do not count it so.  O how soon is a day, a year, yea a life, passed at play or sin?  The great complaint that such make is, ‘Time is short.’ They wish they could clip its wings, and take off the weights from this clock that make it post away so fast. Is time so short and sweet to spend in sin, and can it be tedious to thee to bestow it in devotion?  Why should an hour in the closet be thought by a saint long, when day and night spent in an ale-house is too short for the sinner?  But, above all, consider whether it be not better to watch and pray here on earth for a few days than to wake and roar in hell under endless and easeless torments!

           (5.) Consider seriously how great a loser thou hast been already in thy heavenly trade for want of watching.  It is with the Christian as with some negli­gent merchant, who takes notice of some one loss of a round sum that befalls him—may be some hun­dreds at a clap.  At this he cries he shall be undone; but regards not the pence and shillings that he idly spends, nor considers his loss which follows upon his daily negligence.  Here his estate melts insensibly, and he is not aware of it; whereas, would he count what in this dribbling way is lost by retail, he might find it amounts to more than the other.  Thus the Christian sometimes is troubled for one great sin into which he hath fallen—and that not without reason —but withal, he observes not how he neglects this duty to-day, and negligently performs that at another time; how he now prays coldly for want of due prepar­ation, and what little fruit comes of another for want of watchfulness after it; whereby in time he falls low, though with an easy descent, step by step; whereas, if he could bring the several items of these his particular losses together, he would find them swell into a sad reckoning, except with these his losses he hath also lost—which is the greatest—the tenderness of his conscience.  Now, Christian, hast thou not a mind to thrive at last?  And shall a careless Christian add to his stock?  Did you ever go by the sluggard’s field and not find it overgrown with thorns?  Wouldst thou but be persuaded to make it thy business daily to watch thy heart—how thou prayest, and how thou walkest after thou hast been at prayer—thou shouldst find a blessed change in thy spiritual affairs.  This strictness will at first be uneasy, like a new suit; but every day that will wear off, and a sweet facility follow when thou shalt see thy gains come trowling in by it.  He that finds how well he is paid for his diligence by the increase of his estate, will not grudge the sluggard his ease when he shall see him walk by his door in rags. It was the saying once of a rich man, who, by God’s blessing on his diligence, had raised a vast estate, that at his first setting up in the world he got a little with much trouble, but afterwards he got his great gains with little trouble.  And thou, Christian, wilt find the same in thy spiritual trade.  Thy trouble will be most at first, but thy gains most at last; and the trouble less, because the way of godliness, by use and experience, will be naturalized to thee, and conse­quently become easy and delightful.

           (6.) Consider what others lose by thy not watch­ing.  He that lives in a town wrongs his neighbour as well as himself by not looking to his fence: thus one Christian may injure many by not keeping his own watch.

           (a) Thy very example is a wrong to others, for this sleepy disease is catching; thy loose conversation may make others so, as one learns to yawn of another. It s no small blessing to to live among active Chris­tians, whose zeal and forwardness in the ways of God is exemplary; this puts mettle in those that follow them; the heavenly holy conversation of a master is a help to the whole family.

           (b) Thou indisposest thyself for doing thy duty to them.  We are commanded to watch over one another in love, as those that are concerned in our brethren’s welfare.  Now, how unfit is he to watch over others that doth not watch himself? to ‘provoke to love and to good works,’ who needs himself the spur?  Can one asleep wake another that is so?

           (7.) Lastly, Consider Christ’s care over thee. Look upon him in his providence.  That eye which neither sleeps by night nor slumbers by day is thy constant keeper.  Consider him in his intercession. There he prays for thee, ‘watching thereunto with all perseverance.’  It is his trade and business in heaven, for he lives to make intercession for his saints.  Con­sider him in his Spirit.  What is he but Christ’s mes­senger sent as our guardian to take care of the saints in his absence?  In a word, consider him in the gospel ministry, which is set up for this very purpose, to ‘watch for your souls.’  Yea, every private saint hath a charge to be his brother's keeper.  This well consid­ered would make thee,

           (a) Watchful to promote his glory that so care­fully provides for thy safety.  What put David into such a rage against Nabal but the disrespect that his servants found at his hands to whom he had been so serviceable?  ‘In vain have I kept all that this fellow hath.’

           (b) It would make thee the more watchful over thy own soul, if thou hast so much ingenuity as to fear grieving thy God, who expresseth this tender care over thee.  What greater grief can the indulgent parent have than to see his child not mind his own good after all his care and cost laid out upon him?  He joys to see the money he gives him improved and in­creased by his diligence; but it breaks his very heart with sorrow when it is all wasted and squandered away by ill husbandry

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

 (1.) Meditate of Christ’s coming to judgment. Surely thou wilt not easily sleep while this trumpet, that shall call all mankind to judgment, shall sound in thy ear.  The reason why men sleep so soundly in security is, because they either do not believe this, or at least do not think of it seriously so as to expect it. The servant that looks for his master will be loath to be found in bed, when he comes; no, sits up sits up to open the door for him when he knocks.  Christ hath told us he ‘will come;’ but not when, that we might never put off our clothes or put out the candle. ‘Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come,’ Matt. 24:42.  There are indeed negative signs concerning his coming to the general judgement of the world, by which we may know he will not yet come; as the fall of Babylon, the calling of the Jews, and other prophecies, that must be fulfilled; before which he will not come.  But there are none such, from which we may conclude that his coming to any of us in particular, to take us away by death, and summon us to our particular judgment before his bar, shall not yet be.  Thou art young; thou canst not therefore say thou shalt not die as yet.  Alas! measure the coffins in the churchyard, and thou wilt find some of thy length.  Young and old are within the reach of death’s scythe.  Old men indeed go to death; their age calls for it.  But, young men cannot hinder death's coming unto them.  Thou art rich, will this excuse thee?  Rich men indeed can get others to serve in their arms here, when their prince calls them forth to war; but ‘there is no discharge in this war.’  Solomon tells us ‘Thou must personally do this.  Thou art strong and lusty, thou canst not therefore say that death will be longer at work to fell thee down.  Some indeed he cuts down by chips in consumptive diseases —they die by piecemeals; others he tears up in one night, as a tree by a tempest.  O think of this, and thy sleep will depart from thee!

           (2.) Consider the devil is always awake.  Is it time for them in the city to sleep, when the enemy without watch, and may be are climbing the walls? Our Saviour takes it for granted, ‘If the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up,’ Matt. 24:43.  Of all the nights in the year he would not then have slept. Would Saul have slept in his trench, if he had thought David had been so near?  Or Sisera have lain down to rest, if he had seen the hammer and nail in Jael’s hand to drive through his temples?  ‘Hannibal is at the gates!’ was enough to wake the whole city of Rome, and call them to their arms.  And is not diabolus ad ostium—the devil is at thy door, enough to keep thee out of thy bed of sloth and negligence? What day in all the year is no term to Satan?  What place or company art thou in, that he cannot make a snare to thy soul?  What member of thy body, or faculty of thy soul, which is not in danger to be abused by him?  Hast thou not an inmate in thy own bosom that watcheth to open the gate to him? and is there not a constant correspondence between them? O how oft doth he beat us—as Bernard saith—with our own staff; and as the thief sometimes serves the traveller, binds us with our own garters!  Shall we not always watch to pray, when he watcheth to tempt? Shall not we keep our correspondence with God, and Christ, our allies in heaven, as he doth with our flesh that is his confederate?

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.