Directions for extraordinary prayer 2/2

   (2.) There is more close and immediate prepa­ration required, and this I call actual preparation.  It is true, indeed, he that is conscientious and careful in the ordinary exercises of religion, hath a great advan­tage of him that either neglects them or is loose in them, for his heart must needs stand in a nearer disposition to this extraordinary service than the other—as he that is up and hath his clothes on, is more ready to go on his master’s errand than he that is asleep in his bed.  Yet, besides this care in our daily walking, there needs some further pains to be taken with his heart to raise it unto such a frame as may comport with this solemn service.  The neat house­wife, though she endeavours to keep her house clean, yet, against some good time, as they call it, she is more than ordinary curious in washing her rooms, and scouring her vessels, that they might not only be clean but bright; and so should the Christian.  Now is the time for thee to scour off the dust thou contract­est in thy daily course, and to brighten thy graces unto a further glory that appears in thy everyday walking, to do which will cost pains and require time.

           The Christian is like some heavy birds, as the bustard and others, that cannot get upon the wing without a run of a furlong or two; or a great bell that takes some time to the raising of it.  Now, meditation is the great instrument thou art to use in this pre­paratory work.  Allow thyself some considerable por­tion of time, before the day of extraordinary prayer, for thy retirement, wherein thou mayest converse most privately with thy own heart.  This cannot be done in a crowd, neither must it be left to the time of engaging in the extraordinary duty.  We cannot do both duties together.  The husbandman cannot whet his scythe and cut grass at once.  Betake thyself there­fore to thy closet, and in the first place call thy thoughts off the world, and as much as is possible clear thy soul of all that is foreign to the work thou art about; this is the wiping of the table‑book before we can write anything well on it. Now the more effec­tually to gather in thy heart to a holy seriousness, and compact thy thoughts together, it were expedient for thee at first to lay before thee the grand importance of the approaching service.  Thou art going to stand be­fore the great God, and that very near in an extra­ordinary duty, wherein thou wilt either sanctify or profane his reverend in a high degree, and accordingly art to expect his love or wrath in some choice blessing or dreadful curse, to be the issue and result of thy undertaking!  Gird the loins of thy mind with some such awful apprehensions as these.  As natural fear makes the spirits retire from the outward parts of the body to the heart, so this holy fear of miscarrying in so solemn a duty would be a means to call thy thoughts from all exterior carnal objects, and fix them upon the duty in hand; 'In thy fear will I worship,’ Ps. 5:7.  Such will the print on the wax be as the sculpture is on the seal.  If the fear of God be deeply engraven on thy heart, there is no doubt but it will make a suit­able impression on the duty thou performest.  Well, now the court is set and silence commanded, a few particulars I shall propound for thy thoughts to go upon in this preparatory work.

Directions for extraordinary prayer 1/2

           Question Fifth.  What counsel or direction may be given to the acceptable and successful performance of this solemn duty?

           Answer.  I come now to shut up my discourse on this point, in answering this last question.  A serious necessary one it is, for indeed it is an edge‑tool of excellent use, but dangerous in his hand that knows not how to use it.  Like some physic, if it doth not purge it poisons.  In the same fat soil where the corn is best the weeds also are rankest.  Neither grace nor sin grow to such a height anywhere as in those that converse much with this solemn ordinance.  And therefore, as they who are in a ship upon a swift stream had need the more look to the steerage of it, because they will be carried amain either to their port or wreck; so have they to be reason to be very careful in the managery of this service, the issue whereof cannot be ordinary because the duty is extraordinary. Now the counsel or direction to be given must neces­sarily be divided into these three general heads.  1. Some preparatory direction before the duty.  2. Something to be observed in the performance of the duty.  3. Something after the despatch of it.

The city cannot be safe unless the whole line be kept. It is all one whether the enemy breaks in at the front flank or rear of an army; or whether the ship be taken at sea, or sink in the haven when the voyage is over.

What is needful before extraordinary prayer

1. Requisite.  Some preparatory direction before the duty.  Now there is a double preparation requisite —the one more remote, the other immediate; or, if you please, habitual preparation and actual.

           (1.) There is a remote and habitual preparation, of great use to the performance of this solemn duty of extraordinary prayer.  It lies in this, to look, Chris­tian, that thou showest a conscionable care in thy daily walking, and the constant exercise of this duty in thy ordinary daily offices of devotion, or else thou art like to make but bad work when thou comest to engage in the extraordinary.

           (a) Thy neglect in the ordinary duty will exceed­ingly indispose thee for the extraordinary.  Who would take a foggy horse out of the pasture to run a race?  In extraordinary prayer the soul is to be put on her full speed, all her powers to strained to their utmost ability, and to continue long in the work also. Is he fit for so swift and long a race, whose soul is not kept in breath by the daily exercise of ordinary prayer, but lets his graces, if he hath any, to be choked up with sloth or formality?  The more any member is used, the stronger it is.  The right hand, which is our working hand, hath more activity than the left, that is used less.  A weakness will certainly invade the powers of thy lazy soul, which, though thou perceivest not as thou sittest in thy chair of sloth, will appear when thou risest, and thinkest to go forth in any solemn duty, as thou wert wont to do; then thou wilt find, with Samson, that thou hast lost thy strength in the lap of sloth and negligence.  As fasting is too strong for new bottles, so it is too sweet wine for to be put into fusty and mouldy ones.  Now the only way to keep a bottle or cask sweet, is to not let it stand long empty without any liquor in it.

           (b) As it will indispose thee for this solemn duty, so it is a bad symptom concerning thy spiritual state itself, which is worse than the former.  Grace works uniformly, and discovers a comely proportion in its actings.  Haply you may see the son of a prince on some high day in richer and more glorious apparel than on another day that is ordinary; but you shall never find him in sordid, ragged, and beggarly clothes. Still he will be clad as becomes a king's son.  Possibly, yea, it is likely, that you may see the Christian come forth, in an extraordinary day and duty, with more enlargement of affections in prayer, and all his graces raised to a higher glory in their actings, than ordinary, but you shall never find him with his robe of grace laid aside.  Still the true saint will declare his high birth by his everyday course.  He will not live in the neglect of ordinary duties, and cast off communion with God, in his daily walking.  O, it is the brand of a hypocrite to have his devotion come by fits, and, like a drift of snow, to lie thick in one place and none in another; to seem for zeal like angels at a time and live like atheists many weeks after.  Surely grace acts more evenly and is never so unlike itself.  It is ill living in that miser's house who hath never any good meat on his table but when he makes a feast, and that is very seldom; or with him that upon an occasion hath a day of prayer, but starves himself and family, or pinches them in their daily fare.  Well, never think of med­dling with this extraordinary duty till thou inurest thyself to the ordinary exercise of prayer, and takest more care in thy daily walking with God.

        

The reasons for extraordinary prayer

           Question Fourth. But why is extraordinary prayer to be superadded by the Christian to his ordinary exercise of it in his daily course?

           Answer 1. Extraordinary prayer is superadded in obedience to the command of God.  He commands not only that we should ‘pray always,’ but ‘with all prayer’ also, and extraordinary prayer is one kind among the rest.  And let none of us say it is not enough to pray once or twice every day, but we must upon some occasions devote a whole day also, to the damage of calling and family?  O what niggards would some be towards God, were they left free to devote what time they thought fit for his worship?  This cavil sounds too like that of Judas: ‘To what purpose is this waste?  For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor,’ Matt. 26:8, 9.  ‘But this he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief.’  Truly so, when I hear some carnal wret­ches cry out against this waste of time in praying and fasting—‘how much might the improvement of that time, if laid out in their callings, have advantaged their families, wives, and children’—I am ready to think it is not because they have such a care of their relations as they pretend (for they who grudge a day for prayer can throw, some of them, many away at the ale-house or in idleness), but they carry thievish hearts in their bosoms, which love to rob God of his due, and care not how little service they put him off with.  Is he a loyal subject that pays the ordinary tribute to his prince, but, if occasion of state requires a subsidy, refuseth this, or doth it grudgingly?  God’s commands are none of them, no not this which car­ries some outward severity on it, so grievous, that any should need to groan or grumble under them.  Those yokes—duties and commands, I mean—whose out­side seem most hard have the softest lining within. What seem harder than suffering? and yet when are the saints fuller of heaven's joy?  What duty more austere than this of fasting and afflicting our souls? and yet in the breast of this lion, that scares sensual wretches, the Christian finds the sweetest honey-comb of inward comforts.  Temple-work is sure to be well paid if well done; though it be never so little work in his house, God will not have it done gratis. None shall kindle a fire on his altar for naught.  And therefore he takes it in great disdain at their hands who durst say, ‘What profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?’ Mal. 3:14.  Whereas the fault was not in the duty, but in themselves, that they got no more by it.  As if a naughty servant should bring himself by his riot and excess to poverty, and then give out a hard master hath undone him.

           Answer 2. It is superadded to comport with the providence of God, by a suitable return of duty to his actings and dispensations towards us.  When God is extraordinary in his providence, he expects his people should be more than ordinary in seeking of him. What else means that of the prophet? ‘Thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel,’ Amos 4:12.  Here God alarms them by his extraordinary proceedings intended against them, to take the hint of this warning, and apply themselves speedily to the solemn practice of repentance and humbling their souls, as a suitable posture to meet God in, and keep off the storm of his wrath now gathering against them. Is it not high time for a nation to betake them to their defensive arms when a mighty host is marching against them?  So, Isa. 26:20, 21, ‘Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee,’ &c.  Here he sends his people to their chambers and closets, that they may, by afflicting their souls and fervent prayers, find a hiding in the day of his indignation.  And why must they do thus? ‘For behold the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity,’ ver. 21.  The rising of God out of his place imports some notable enterprise he is about to do; and when the master riseth, it is not manners for the servant to sit still, but to rise also and prepare to follow him where he goes.  God takes special notice how we be­have ourselves and comport with is dispensations of judgment or mercy, ‘In that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning;’ Isa. 22:12, that is, he called them by the voice of his providence as well as his prophets, the nature of which was such, that had not their lusts bunged up their ears and made them deaf, they could not but hear and under­stand that now was the time, if ever, that God ex­pected to see them in sackcloth and tears humbling their souls before him.  Now see how heinously he takes their security and profane slighting of his provi­dence, ‘And it was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord of hosts,’ ver. 14.  Few sins more provoke God than this.  ‘Because they re­gard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up,’ Ps. 28:5.  So, ‘And thou...O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this,’ Dan. 5:22.  This lost him his life and kingdom, as the contrary saved Ahab’s for a time, though it was not so sincere as it ought.  A temporal humiliation got him a temporal benefit.

           Answer 3. It is superadded for the great influ­ence that this extraordinary duty solemnly performed would have upon our whole life and course of godliness.  To keep the body healthful requires not only daily food, but now and the physic also; for in the soundest constitution, and that advantaged with the best care and temperance, there will, in time, such a quantity of superfluous humours gather, that nature without help cannot digest.  And truly the temper of the soul is as infirm and needs as much tending as the body.  Ordinary prayer is the saint’s food.  He can as little miss the constant returns of it as his usual meals.  But extraordinary is his physic, to clear and discharge his soul of those distempers which it con­tracts, and cannot conquer by the use of ordinary means; as also to advance and heighten the Chris­tian’s graces unto a further degree of strength and activity.  As God hath, in his wise providence, ordered one star of great influence to be at a certain season of the year in conjunction with the sun, for the more effectual ripening of the harvest in these colder parts of the world; so hath he, in the same wisdom, ap­pointed for the Christian's spiritual advantage and help in this cold climate of the world, that this sol­emn duty should now and then be taken into con­junction with our ordinary exercise of devotion; for want of which it is that many ripen slower both in their graces and comforts than some of their fellow-saints who sit often under the influences of this powerful quickening ordinance.

The seasons for extraordinary prayer 3/3

  Again, in affliction we are called to pray, as more inten­sively, so more extensively; I mean longer and oftener.  Thus I find that our Saviour, rendered by Lucas Brugensis and others, prolixius orabat—he prayed longer, that is, he spent more time than ordinary in it.  Thrice one after another we find him at it, Matt. 26:44.  His agony was great and the waves of his affliction vio­lent, and therefore he doubles, yea trebles, his prayer with deep sighs and strong cries to his Father.  Nature never strains so to its utmost, as when it is oppressed; then temples work, lungs heave, and heart pants; so in affliction the spirit of prayer should be increased and intended.

           Season 4.  When the Christian is buffeted with any temptation, or overpowered with a corruption, and cannot, with the use of ordinary means, quench the one or master and mortify the other.  If the short dagger of ordinary prayer will not reach the heart of a lust, then it is time to draw out this long sword of extraordinary prayer upon it.  There is a ‘kind’ of devils, our Saviour tells us, that ‘goes not out but by prayer and fasting,’ Matt. 17:21.  You know the occa­sion of this speech was that complaint of one con­cerning his lunatic son, ‘I brought him to thy disciples and they could not cure him.’  Thus some poor souls complain they have come to the word preached so long, in their daily prayers begged power over such a lust, resolved against it many a time, and none of these means could cure it; what can they now do more?  Here thou art told.  Bring thy condition to Christ in this solemn ordinance of prayer and fasting; this hath at last been the happy means to strengthen many a poor Christian to be avenged on those spir­itual enemies which have outbraved all the former, and like Samson to pull down the devil’s house upon his head.

           Season 5.  When sin doth abound more than or­dinary in the times and places we live in.  Sinning times have ever been the saints’ praying times.  This sent Ezra with a heavy heart to confess the sin of his people, and to bewail their abominations before the Lord, Ezra 9.  And Jeremiah tells the wicked rout of his degenerate age that his ‘should weep in secret places for their pride,’ Jer. 13:17.  Indeed sometimes sin comes to such a height and insolence, that this is almost all the godly can do, to get into a corner and bewail the general pollutions of the present age; as he told Luther, abi, frater, in cellam et dic miserere Domine—go, brother, into a cell and bewail.  ‘If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?’ Ps. 11:3.  Such dismal days of national confusion our eyes have seen, when foundations of government were destroyed, and all hurled into a military confusion. When it is thus with a people, what can the righteous do?  Yes, this they may, and should do, ‘fast and pray.’  There is yet a God in heaven to be sought to, when a people's deliverance is thrown beyond the help of human policy or power.  Now is the fit time to make their appeal to God, as the words following hint, ‘The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven,’ ver. 4; in which words God is pre­sented sitting in heaven as a tem­ple, for their en­couragement, I conceive, in such a desperate state of affairs, to direct their prayers thither for deliverance. And certainly this hath been the engine that hath been above any instrumental to screw up this poor nation again, and set it upon the foundation of that lawful government from which it was so dangerously slid.

           Season 6. To name no more, times of great ex­pectation are times for extraordinary prayer.  When the people of God have been big with expectation of great mercies approaching, then have they been more abounding in prayer.  As the cocks crow thickest to­wards break of day, so the saints, the nearer they have apprehended the accomplishment of promises made to his church, the more instant they use to be in prayer.  When a woman with child her reckoning is near out, then she desires her midwife to be at hand. And prayer hath had the name of old for its excellent usefulness to obstetricate mercies.  ‘The children are come to the birth,’ saith good Hezekiah; and then he desires the help of the prophet’s prayer for the fair delivery of it: ‘Lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left,’ Isa. 37:3, 4.  When Daniel the prophet had learned by study that the happy period of the seventy years' captivity, bound upon the Jews’ neck for their sin, was now at hand, Dan. 9:1, then in an extraordin­ary manner he sets himself to pray and afflict his soul before the Lord.  And we have reason to hope that spir­itual Babylon—Rome, I mean—is not long‑lived; it is high time therefore that the saints should fall more earnestly than ever to dig her grave for her by their prayers.

The seasons for extraordinary prayer 2/3

Season 2. When the Christian is in the dark con­cerning any truth, and cannot satisfy his judgment by humble and diligent inquiry he hath made after it. Now is a fit season to take up this extraordinary duty as an excellent means to be led into the knowledge of the mind of God therein.  Prayer is the proper key to unlock God’s heart, and he alone can open our un­derstandings and satisfy our scruples.  This course Daniel took, and got more understanding by his fasting and prayer than by all his study, for a mes­senger is sent from heaven to ‘give him skill and understanding,’ Dan. 9:20-23, and again, ch. 10:12.  In both he sped.  And the angel is careful to let him know that it was his extraordinary praying that procured this extraordinary favour, and also how acceptable his motion was, by the easy access and quick despatch it found with God; and therefore tells him in both, that he had no sooner set upon this course of afflicting his soul but he was heard, and the messenger ordered to give him an answer to his prayer.  Surely prayer hath not lost its credit in heaven, but is now as welcome to God as ever; and though an angel be not the mes­senger to bring the saint an answer, yet he shall have it by as sure and more honourable hand—even the Holy Spirit, whose office is to lead his people into truth.  Thus Cornelius, Acts 10, came to be instructed in the mystery of the gospel, upon his extraordinary seeking of God by fasting and prayer.  It is very prob­able this good man in those divided times, wherein he saw many zealous for the old way of Jewish worship, and others preach up an new way, stood in some doubt what to do; and this might stir him up by fast­ing and prayer to ask counsel, and beg further light, of God, to direct him in the way of truth, as may seem by the tenor of the message sent him from God in the vision while he was at prayer, which bade him send to Joppa ‘for one Simon, whose surname is Peter,...and he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do,’ ver. 5, 6. And certainly, in our divided times, wherein there is so much difference in judgment, had there been less wrangling among ourselves, and more wrestling with God for his teaching Spirit, we had been in a fairer way to find the door of truth, which so many are yet groping for.  The way of controversies, and conten­tious disputes raise this dust, and blow it most into their eyes that gallop fastest in it, so that they miss the truth, which humble souls find upon their knees at the throne of grace.  When the apostles were quar­relling, then they got nothing from Christ but a chid­ing, Luke 22:24, &c.; but when they were praying to­gether earnestly, then he sent the Spirit to teach them, Acts 2.

Season 3. When the Christian is under any great affliction.  Now is a fit season if he be able for the work.  ‘Is any among you afflicted? let him pray,’ James 5:13.  That is, let him then be more than ordin­ary in this duty; for he must, yea will, if a Christian, pray where he is not afflicted as well as when he is. But the meaning is, he must now pray after an extra­ordinary manner; he must now pray with more vehe­mency; for, though in all our addresses to God, we are to express the lively workings of our hearts to him, without which our prayers are unsavoury (cold prayers ever find cold welcome); yet God expects, and it always hath been the care of, holy men in their extraordinary applications to this duty of prayer, to wind up their affections to a pitch higher than ordin­ary, having the advantage of some special occasion to help them thereunto. Look upon them in some great strait and affliction, and you shall find them exceeding themselves, and put upon them a prince-like spirit.  So Jacob behaved himself in prayer, Gen. 32:28.  As a prince fighting in the field for his crown and kingdom, he wrestled with the angel, who was no other than God himself; that is, he strained as it were, every vein in his heart, and put forth his whole might in prayer, as a wrestler would do that grapples with a potent adversary.  Moses is so transported in zeal for Israel, when a dismal cloud of wrath impended them for their idolatry, that he offers rather to die upon the place, than to go down the mount and not carry the joyful news of a pardon with him, Ex. 32:32.  And Nehemiah, when he had been afflicting his soul and praying before the Lord, it was with such vehemency that the anguish of his spirit looked out at his eyes, and left a mark of sorrow upon his very countenance, which his prince could observe as he waited on him.

The seasons for extraordinary prayer 1/3

           Question Third. What are the special seasons wherein the Christian is to take up the practice of this duty of extraordinary prayer?

           Answer. I answer, in general, any extraordinary occasion, as it emergeth in the course of providence in the Christian’s life.  This kind of prayer is not of constant use, as ordinary prayer is; this is food, that physic.  And it were absurd to be taking physic all the year long; which shows the folly of the Papists in their fasts, which are holden at set times, whether affairs be prosperous or not prosperous, ordinary or extraordin­ary.  I would not be thought here to speak against set fasts; we have had our monthly fasts, but the extra­ordinary cause for which they were appointed contin­ued.  But to instance in a few special seasons wherein the Christian hath a fit occasion to make use of this extraordinary duty.

           Season 1. When the Christian is to set upon any more than ordinary enterprise, wherein he may meet with great difficulty or danger, and the issue whereof will be a great mercy or affliction.  Now is a fit season to take up this extraordinary duty, as an excellent means whereby all mountains of intervening diffi­culties may be levelled, and his undertaking be crowned with happy success.  Thus Esther, before she adventured upon that heroic attempt of going un­called into the king’s presence to beg the life of her people, given to the butchery and slaughter by the king’s seal at bloody Haman’s request—an action that carried death and danger on the face of it—she first goes to God by fasting and prayer, and gets all the auxiliary forces of others’ prayers she can, and, at­tended with this convoy, she, against the Persian law, presents herself before the king, and speeds; for in­stead of losing her own life, which was forfeited by the law for this attempt, she reverseth the unjust judg­ment passed upon the life of her people, and recoils it upon the head of him that laid the plot.  Prayer had so unlocked and opened the king’s heart that she hath but what she asks at the king’s hands.

           No such engine to facilitate and carry on any great design to its desired end as this of extraordinary prayer.  Who could have believed that Ezra and his company of pilgrims should all get safe from Babylon to Jerusalem, being so generally hated everywhere? Now what stratagem doth this leader of his people use to secure his passage and escape the fury of his ene­mies?  Doth he desire a band of the Persian king to be their guard?  No; he hath gloried so much of that God they served, that he is ashamed the king should think now he was not willing to cast himself upon his protection; but he goes to fasting and prayer, Ezra 8:21. Then they take their march, and find the way all along cleared before them, ver. 31.  Our blessed Sav­iour hath sanctified this duty for this end in his own holy example, who, when to choose and send forth the twelve to preach the gospel, that they may speed the better in their embassy, he sends them forth un­der the conduct of prayer, and to that end spends the preceding night himself in prayer, Luke 6:12, 13.  Now, though every Christian is not called forth, or likely to be in all his life, to such great and public enterprises as some others are, yet if he will observe the several passages of his more private employments and turns of providence in the course of his life, he shall find many such actions occur as give him a fair hint to make use of this duty.  Haply thou art to enter upon a calling, or, in the calling thou art, meetest with many difficulties and temptations.  Thou hast a long journey or dangerous voyage to take; thou hast to do with a subtle potent adversary, though thy cause be good, yet like to outwitted or overborne.  Here is a fair errand put into thy mouth to go before the Lord for counsel, assistance, and protection.  May be thou hast children, and these are to be disposed of into callings or new relations; and is not this a great undertaking wherein tou hast a great adventure going in their bottom?  Will not the issue that depends on this great change of their condition lay the foundation of much grief or joy to thee?  Yet how slighty are many herein, as if it were of little more importance to marry a child than it is to put off a horse or cow at a fair! Few matches are, alas! thus made in heaven—I mean by solemn prayer engaging God in the business. Abraham’s servant puts many parents to shame—he hard at prayer for success in his journey when sent to take a wife for his master’s son, and not they for their children.  But I wonder not that they who propound low and carnal ends to themselves in such enter­prises, should forget by prayer both to ask his counsel in the match, or invite him to offer his blessing at the wedding.

       

By whom extraordinary prayer is to be performed

           Question Second.  Who are they that are called to the practice of this duty of extraordinary prayer?

           Answer.  The command comprehends all that by age are enabled to understand the nature of this duty when any extraordinary occasion occurs for the per­formance of the same.  We find it required of a church and nation.  It is the magistrate’s duty, when there is a national cause, to call his subjects to the public practice of this duty, Joel 2:15; Neh. 9:1; and he that re­fuseth his call thereunto makes himself an of­fender both to God and man, Lev. 23:29.  It reacheth to private families.  Esther and her maidens keep a re­ligious fast together Est. 4:16.  Yea, it is a duty bound upon single persons, and reacheth to the secret closet, ‘But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret,’ Matt. 6:17, 18.  The circumstances of the place show it is meant of a secret fast in the closet.  We have them all together in one place, ‘The land shall mourn;’ there is a national fast: every family apart, the family of the house of David, and the house of Nathan apart,’ &c.; there is domestical: ‘and their wives apart;’ Zech. 12:12; there is a personal secret fast in the closet.

           Objection.  But is not this extraordinary prayer and fasting too austere and rigid a duty for gospel times?  Where doth Christ command his people in gospel times to macerate their bodies with such sever­ities as these?  Joy and praise better becomes the free­dom and liberty of the gospel.

           Objection met.  Such wild stuff hath been vented by some in our late loose times.  These are a new sort of saints, which the world hath hardly been ac­quainted with before these unhappy days of ours; they would be in heaven before their time, and leave no tears on their cheeks for Christ at death to wipe away.  If any of these could live without sin and suffering they would have some colour for their plea; though even then, being yet ‘in the body,’ they should owe those tears to their brethren which they need not drop for themselves.  The apostle I am sure bids us ‘weep with those that weep,’ and mourn with those that mourn, Rom. 12:15.  Thus did Nehemiah fast for his afflicted brethren in Jerusalem when his own affairs were prosperous enough—being surrounded with the beams of the Persian emperor’s favour.  But there are none in mortal flesh free from sin or exempted from sorrow; and therefore a mourning habit may sometimes become the best of saints on earth.  ‘They that wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses,’ Matt. 11:8.

           Glorified saints, who dwell in the King of heav­en’s court, are always clad with joy, but this on earth is the saint’s holiday suit.  As he hath now and then his rejoicing days, so he wants not his days for mourning.  ‘The days will come,’ saith our Saviour of his disciples, ‘when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast,’ Matt. 9:15—and surely they lived in gospel times.  If these merry pro­fessors had been by Paul to see him how he beat down his body and chastised himself with fasting, they sure­ly would have chid him for his pains, and thought him ignorant of his Christian liberty.  The worst I wish these poor deluded souls is, that they who are so much for joy here meet with no mourning in another world.  It is but an ill sign when men quarrel with a duty for its strictness, and slip the yoke off their necks because the wanton flesh saith it is uneasy.  These are like Ephraim, whom the prophet compares to a heifer ‘that loveth to tread out the corn,’ but not to plough.  That is hard hungry work.  A thanksgiving day, that brings a feast with it.  This they like, and are content it should pass for a gospel duty.  But a day of prayer and fasting, wherein they are to pinch their carcass a little, this will not go down.  But is there no feast ex­cept that it goes down the throat and fills the belly? Certainly this blessed duty deserves not the ill name it hath given unto it by men of sensual spirits.  It is indeed to carnal wretches a heavy yoke, a tedious work.  As the milk kine carried the ark went bellowing for their calves that were taken from them, so do these in a fast‑day after their employments and enjoy­ments of the world, from which they are for that time restrained.  Alas! poor creatures, as the ark was noth­ing but a burden to the kine, so the duty is no other to them.  But the true saint, that knows what ease his poor heart feels in exonerating his conscience by humble confession of sin, what sweet satisfaction his soul meets with in communion with God, and what faith and inward peace he carries away with him from the duty, will give you another character of this ordin­ance than so.  He will tell you he had rather be fasting with God that feasting at a king’s table.  What saint had not rather be fasting on the mount with Moses, than eating and playing with the carnal Israelites below the hill?  Who would not miss a meal for his body, to satiate his soul with those delights that the presence of God in such an ordinance affords?  Who would not take pleasure in mourning and weeping for sin, to have the tears he shed dried up with kisses from his Saviour's mouth?  It is indeed to him that stands sucking of the bush—I mean the external part of the duty—a dry sapless service; but to him that is taken into the wine‑cellar, and there drinks full draughts of the love of God, it is a most sweet soul-ravishing ordinance.  The lower exterior part of the duty, like the bottom of Jacob’s ladder, stands on the earth, and leaves the creature on the earth also where it found him—for ‘bodily exercise profiteth little;’ but the top and spiritual part of it reacheth to heaven, and mounts the gracious soul thither, even unto bosom communion with God.  There is as much dif­ference between a saint and a hypocrite or carnal soul in this duty, as there is between a thief locked up with his keeper in a prison, and a scholar locking up him­self in his study to read some book that he is greatly delighted with; to the one it is a grievous burden, to the other an incomparable pleasure.

The several kinds of prayer distinguished as ORDINARY OR EXTRAORDINARY

           Fourth Distinction.  Solitary and social, pri­vate and public prayer, are either ordinary or extra­ordinary.  For the development of this distinction I shall endeavour to answer these five questions: —First. What extraordinary prayer is.  Second. By whom it is to be performed.  Third. What are the special seasons wherein we are to take it up.  Fourth. Why extraordinary prayer is superadded to ordinary. Fifth. What counsel or direction may be given for the acceptable and suc­cessful performance of this duty.

The nature of extraordinary prayer Question First. What is extraordinary prayer?

           Answer. Prayer may be called extraordinary in a double respect: 1. In regard of the time set apart for the performance of it.  2. In regard of its adjunct.

1. Prayer may be called extraordinary in regard of the time set apart for the performance of it.  Then it is extraordinary when some more than ordinary portion of time is set apart and devoted to this work. Thus we find Jacob wrestling till break of day, Gen. 32, and Joshua with the elders of Israel till eventide; the one probably spending the night, the other the day, in this duty.  And Israel, in their war with Benjamin, ‘wept and sat there before the Lord that day till even,’ Judges 20:26.  We find Daniel many days together in prayer, Dan. 10:12.
2. Prayer may be called extraordinary in regard of its adjunct.  Then prayer is extraordinary when fasting is joined to the duty of prayer.  Now, fasting is a religious abstinence, whereby we forbear the use of all earthly comforts in the time set apart for this duty —so far as necessity and decency will permit—the more to afflict our souls and enforce our prayers; as,

           (1.) A forbearing of food, whether meat or drink, Est. 4:16; Jonah 3:7.  From this the whole action is called a fast, which imports not a sober use of food—for this we are at all times bound to observe—but a total abstinence, if necessity of nature, through some de­bility and infirmity, doth not require otherwise.  For, in this case, the less duty must yield to the greater —the end of fasting being to help us in prayer, which it doth not when nature faints under it; for the soul cannot fly if the wings of our bodily spirits flag.

           (2.) All costly apparel and ornaments of the body.  Gaudy rich clothes on a fast‑day do no better than a light trimming on a mourning suit: ‘They mourned: and no man did put on him his orna­ments,’ Ex. 33:4.  And this was by God’s own com­mand; ‘for the Lord had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel,’ that they ‘put off their orna­ments,’ ver. 5.  In a word, all carnal mirth, music, per­fumes, and whatever might recreate and delight the senses, are to be forborne upon this extraordinary occasion.  See Dan. 6:18; 10:2, 3.  For, though abstinence from food, with the other severities imposed on the outward man, be not in themselves acts of worship, nor intrinsical to the nature of prayer, yet are they required in the extraordinary performance of this duty by way of adjuvancy to it, and they have a reference to spiritual ends.

           (a) By this abstinence we acknowledge our un­worthiness to enjoy such comforts, and that God may justly take from us what for a time we voluntarily deny ourselves of.

           (b) We express by our outward abstinence and fasting, the strength and vehemency of those inward affections which are to be exerted in extraordinary prayer.  Men use to signify the violent passions of their soul by forbearing the repast and delights of the body.  Is it a passion of grief one is oppressed with? you will see him oft forsake his food.  Thus David: ‘My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread,’ Ps. 102:4.  Is it fear that pos­sesseth the heart with the apprehension of some great danger impending and approaching? you will have such a one refuse his wonted repast.  So the mariners did in the sea‑storm, Acts 27.  Is it anger that vexeth a man?  Ahab was deep in his passion upon the denial of Naboth’s vineyard, and he throws himself on his bed and will not eat, I Kings 21.  Is it desire of com­passing any great design that the head and heart is taken up and transported with? such a one will not allow himself time for his meal.  ‘Cursed be the man,’ saith Saul, ‘that eateth any food until evening, that I may be avenged on mine enemies,’ I Sam. 14:24.  We find the smith, in the prophet, so earnest in his idola­trous work, that he pincheth himself with hunger, and he will not eat though his strength faileth, nor drink though he be ready to faint, Isa. 44:12.  Now, in extra­ordinary prayer the Christian is to have all these af­fections in a spiritual and holy manner wound up to the highest key possible.  He is to have a deep sorrow for sin, fear and trembling at the judgments of God feared to come for them; a holy anger and indignation against sin, with a vehement desire to be revenged on it for the dishonour it hath cast upon God; and, in a word, a longing desire to make his peace with God and recover his favour, which sin hath unhappily de­prived him of.  Now, because the excess of natural passions discovers itself this way, even to afflict their very bodies, and makes them deny themselves that which nature most craves, therefore God will have his people in their extraordinary humiliations do the same, that nature may not put grace to shame.

           (c) By this abstinence, especially from food, we tame and subdue our wanton flesh, and so come to have a greater advantage for mortifying those sensual lusts that receive the fuel which feeds and inflames them from the flesh.  A full body is a mellow soil for such lusts to grow rank in.  Cum carne nutriuntur vita carnis—the lusts of the flesh are nourished when the body is pampered.  If the body be kept high, carnal lusts will not easily be kept low.  What else made Paul to beat down his body by fasting and watching, in which he was often, but that he might have the fuller blow at those lusts that received strength from it?  Nostrum est lasciviens jumentum frænis inediæ subjugare, ut sessorem Spiritum sanctum moderato et composito portet incessu (Hieronymus, Epist. 9)—in­deed a pampered horse is most like to cast his rider; and the Holy Spirit, using the body as well as soul in the work, this bridle of fasting is of excellent use to curb it.

           (d) This abstinence from food is required to sharpen our spirits, and enliven the powers of the soul in this duty, which are pressed down and thick­ened, as I may so say, with the charge of the stomach. A full body makes a heavy eye and drowsy spirits; and what can then be expected but yawning prayers, es­pecially when we are to continue longer than ordinary at the work?

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           Question.  Whether it be lawful to be present at that service, or those prayers in the congregation, that have something faulty in them?

           To the answering of this question, we must first distinguish of faults, all are not of a size.  There are faults in a matter, and faults in the form and method, of a prayer.  And faults in the matter may be either fundamental or of a less nature—such as are not fundamental or bordering thereupon; and those less faults may be generally dispersed through the prayer, that it is soured throughout with them, or only in some particular passages.

           Again, we must distinguish between approving of the faults, defects, and corruptions that are in a prayer, and being present at the service of God where some things are done faultily.  Now I answer, that it is lawful for a Christian to be present at those prayers wherein some things may be supposed to be faulty for outward form, yea, and also in matter, in things not fundamental nor bordering thereupon, and these not dispersed through the whole body of the prayers, but in some passages only.  We may be present where God is present by his grace and favour.  We may follow the Lamb safely wherever he goes.  Now God doth not, for corruptions of doctrine that are remote from the foundation, or of worship in things ritual and of an inferior nature, cast off a church, and with-draw his presence from it; neither ought we.  Indeed, if the foundation of doctrine be destroyed, and the worship becomes idolatrous, in that case God goes before us, and calls all the faithful after him to come out from the communion of such a church.  But, where corruptions in a church are of the former nature, and such laws be not imposed by the church in their communion with it as being a necessity of approving things unlawful, the sin is not in holding communion with it, but in withdrawing from it, and that no little one either.  Many things must be tolerated for maintaining peace and unity, and enjoying the worship of God, when it is not in our power to redress them.  Neither doth our presence at the ordinance carry interpretatively a consent with it of all that is there done.  It is one thing to tolerate and another to approve.  Whoever said that all who are present in an assembly by it show their consent to every impertinent phrase in the minister’s prayer, corrupt gloss, or false interpretation he makes of any text quoted in his sermon?  If this were true, our Saviour led the people into a snare when he bade them beware of the leaven of the Pharisees’ doctrine, yet bade them hear them preach, Matt. 23:3.

           (3.) Of exhortation.

           (a) Make conscience of joining with the church in her public worship.  Do not think thou art left to thy liberty whether thou wilt or not, but bind it upon thy conscience as a duty, for so indeed it is.  You think it is the minister’s duty to dispense ordinances. Surely then it is your duty to attend on them.  He might as well pray for you at home as come to church and not find his people there.  Is there a woe to him if he doth not provide food for your souls, and none for you if you come not to partake of it?  How can you reasonably think so?  And when you come, think not you are time enough there if you get to the sermon, though you miss the prayers, which should prepare you for the word and sanctify the word to you.  It is not the way to profit by one ordinance to neglect another. The minister may preach, but God must teach thee to profit. If God opens not thy understanding to conceive of, and thy heart to conceive by, the word thou hearest, no fruit will come of it.  Now prayer is the key to open God’s heart, as his Spirit the key to open thine.

           (b) Take heed how thou comest to, and behavest thyself, as in other parts of public worship, so espe-cially in prayer.  How thou comest to public worship: take heed thou comest not in thy filthiness, I mean, that thou regard not iniquity in thy heart. Wash and then pray.  So David resolves, “I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar,’—alluding to the priests, that went to the laver before they approached with their sacrifice to the altar, Ex. 40.  It was counted a great presumption in one that durst come near his prince with a stinking breath.  O what a bold act then is it to draw near to the great God with any sin upon thee!  This is sure to make thy breath in prayer stink, and render thee for it abominable to him.  [2.] How thou behavest thyself in the duty; be sure it be with a holy reverence—with an inward reverence and also an outward reverence.

           We are to believe in the duty of worship with an inward reverence.  God is called ‘the Fear’ of his people, because he is reverenced by them in their approaches to him.  ‘Fear’ is put for the whole worship of God, because no part of it is to be done without a holy trembling.  This, as the quaver to the music, gives a grace and acceptableness both to our prayers and praises also: ‘Serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling.’  Now, to fill thee with awful thoughts of God, labour to set up a right notion of God in thy mind as infinitely glorious in holiness, majesty, and power.  Irreverence is the product of low thoughts we have of a person, which makes it impossible that an ignorant soul should truly reverence God —how humble soever his outward posture is—be-cause he knows not what God is.  A prince in a disguise is not known, and therefore not entertained, when he comes, as when he appears in his royal majesty.  The saints use to awe their hearts into a reverence of God in prayer by revolving his titles of majesty in their thoughts, Ps. 89.6, 7.

           We are to believe in the duty of worship with an outward reverence.  God is a Spirit, yet will have the reverence of our body as well as spirit, for both are his, and especially in the public.  A prince would not like a rude behaviour from his servant in his bedchamber where none besides himself is witness to it, but much less will he bear it in his presence chamber, as he sits on his throne before many of his subjects. Now, the fittest gesture of body in public prayer to express our reverence is kneeling: ‘Come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord,’ Ps. 95:6. So Paul, taking his leave of the elders of Ephesus, kneeled and prayed with them all, Acts 20:36.  And all the Christians at Tyrus, accompanying Paul to the ship with their wives and children, ‘kneeled down on the shore, and prayed,’ Acts 21:5.  Where that cannot be done, they should stand—if debility of nature hinder not.  As for sitting we do not find it commended in Scripture as a praying posture; neither have the churches of Christ judged it so: sedentem orare extra disciplinam est, saith Tertullian—to pray sitting is not according to the church’s order.  As for that, II Sam. 7:18, David ‘sat before the Lord,’ it may be read, he abode or stayed before the Lord.  So the word in other places is taken; as Gen. 27:44; Lev. 14:8; I Sam. 1:22.

           Again, in the duty of worship we are to exercise attention and intention of mind, that we may go along with the minister by our devout affections, and witness our consent t the prayers put up with our hearty amen at the end of them, I Chr. 16:36; Neh. 8:6; I Cor. 14:16. Else indeed, we are as a broken string in a consort, that speaks not with the rest, and thereby discomposeth the harmony.

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5. I come now to the fifth thing propounded in prosecution of this head of public prayer, and that is some applicatory improvement of this head.

           (1.) This shows what reason the people of God, wherever they live, have to pray for good magistrates, especially kings and princes.  Regna sunt hospitia ecclesiæ—as the inn is to the traveller, so kingdoms are to the church in its pilgrimage here on earth.  As they are, such is its usage in the world, and entertainment that it finds.  ‘Pray for kings,’ saith the apostle, ‘and all in authority; that we may lead quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty,’ I Tim. 2:2. By godliness he means in an especial manner the free profession of the truth and public exercise of God’s pure worship.  No magistrate may hinder the saints living godly as to the embracing of the truth in their hearts and secret performance of prayer.  Daniel would and could pray, do Nebuchadnezzar his worst. But princes carry the keys of the church doors at their girdles, and an shut or open them.  When faithful magistrates sway the sceptre, then the ways of Zion are easy and open. When enemies to the ways and worship of God bear rule, then they mourn; church doors are shut and prison doors opened to the servants of Christ.  Then the woman flees into the wilderness, and the church into private chambers, as we find in the apostles’ days, when the church was met with the door shut to pray for Peter.  O, pray for kings and princes; for, as they carry the keys of the church doors, so God carries the key that opens the doors of their hearts at his pleasure.

           (2.) It reproves those that turn their backs off the public worship.  Now they are of two sorts—the profane atheist, the scrupulous separatist.

           (a) The irreligious atheist—such who, out of a profane spirit, turn their back off the public worship of God.  The Jews have a saying of one of their rabbis much in their mouths, quisquis incolit civitatem in quâ extat synagoga, et inibi non pecatur, is est qui meritò dicitur vicinus malus—he that dwells in a city where there is a synagogue, and comes not to prayers there, he is a person that deserves the name of a bad neighbour.  How many bad neighbours do we, alas! live among, who are seldom seen in the public assembly from one end of the year to the other?  Many live as if they had rent the bond that was sealed at their baptism, and renounced all homage to their Maker, and would tell the world they owe him no worship. Worse brutes these are than the hog in their sty, or horse in their stable.  They were made for our use, and accordingly serve us.  Man was intended for the service of his Maker—a creature made for religion —by which some would define and distinguish the human nature from that of brutes, rather than by his rational faculty.  Indeed, in some brutes there is a sagacity that looks something like man’s discoursive faculty.  But religion is a thing their nature is wholly incapable of, and therefore nothing makes man so truly a brute as irreligion.  The Jewish Talmud propounds this question, Why God made man vesperâ Sabbathi?—on the evening before the Sabbath? and gives this as one reason, ut protinus intraret in præceptum—that is, God made man on the evening just before the Sabbath, that he might forthwith enter upon the observation of the command to sanctify the Sabbath, and begin his life as it were with the worship of God, which is the chief end why it was given him. May we not therefore wonder at the patience of God in suffering these ungodly wretches to live, that by casting this horrid contempt upon his worship, walk contrary to the very end of their creation?  If the bells which call us to the worship of God were to give them notice of a wrestling, foot ball, or drunken wake, O how soon should we have them flock together!  But prayers and sermons they care not for.  What shall we impute this irreligion and atheism of multitudes among us to?  Surely it proceeds from a criminous conscience.  It is said of Cain, ‘He went out from the presence of the Lord,’ Gen. 4:16; that is, say some interpreters, from the place where God had his church and worship, there God is especially present.

 Guilt indeed makes men afraid of God.  This makes them {do} what they can to wear off the thoughts of a Deity that are so troublesome to their flagitious consciences.  Now, to do this, they have no other way than to shun those duties which will bring God and their sins to their remembrance.  Herod was soon persuaded to cut off that head whose tongue was so bold to tell him his faults; and profane hearts are easily drawn to cast off those duties which will gall and rub hard upon their sore consciences.  But that man is in a miserable case that knows no way to get ease but by throwing away the plaster that must heal his wound.  Ah, poor wretches! this will not serve your turn.  What though the prisoner stops his ears, and will not hear the judge pronounce the sentence against him, will that save him from the gallows? Surely no; but rather procure his being sent thither the sooner for his contempt of the court, who, had he carried himself better, and humbly begged his life at the judge's hand, might possibly have got the sentence reversed.  Whether sinners will hear the word or no, come to his worship or no, God will proceed in his work.  Flouting against God, and turning thy back on his worship, is not the way to prevent but hasten divine vengeance.  How much better were it to make thy humble supplication to thy judge, and wait at the posts of wisdom!  While men, though bad, wait on ordinances, there is hope, for they are under the means. But when they cast them off, then their ruin hastens.

  (b) The scrupulous separatist—such who do not absent from the public worship out of a profane atheistical spirit, as the former, but from scruples whether they may lawfully be present at the prayers there put up, because there are some maladministrations in the performance of it, or at least {that} which they think to be such.  At these they are distasted, and so withdraw.  May be it is because the duty of prayer is performed with a set form, which they conceive unlawful.  This I shall waive, having spoken already to it.  Or, may be it is not a form, but some passages in the form used, that offends them, and therefore they dare not be present.  So that the question will be—