Prayer in the text is noted to be a stirring duty there 's none that stirreth up himself there 's none that calleth upon thy name that stirreth up himself Had they prayed and prayed as they ought this would have stirred them up or have been their stirring up them selves to take hold of God But neglecting to pray they therein neglected to stir up themselves Prayer is a stirring duty 1. 'T is to stir up the Lord to their help Ps 35.23 Stir up thy self and awaken to my judgment my God and my Lord. Ps 80.2 O Shepherd of Israel thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep thou that dwellest between the Cherubims shine forth stir up thy strength and come to save us The God of Israel sometimes seems to be as Elijah once said mocking of that false God Baal 1 Kings 18.27 It may be he is asleep and must be awakened Though he be the keeper of Israel and never slumbreth nor sleepeth yet he sometimes carries it towards them as if he were asleep and expects to be awakened by their cries upon him 2. Especially prayer is for the stirring up our selves There is a sort of praying dull and cold and formal praying that 's good for nothing but to lay our souls asleep When conscience begins to stir and run upon sinners and fright them for their neglect of God then they will to their prayers and blind devotions and this must serve them as a charm to allay and quiet conscience as Davids Musick did to drive away that evil spirit that vexed Saul Some sinners consciences will not let them be quiet but dog them and haunt them and fright them into something of religion they dare not live without calling upon God their consciences will not suffer them to be quiet under a total neglect and thereupon something must be done which they can call praying and then they are at ease and can go on quietly in their sins without trouble or disturbance these mens praying serves them for nothing but to lull them asleep in their sins But prayer rightly performed will stirr and awaken prayer is said to be a striving with God Rom. 15.30 a wrestling with God Gen. 32 24. and this is our most effectually striving with God and wrestling with God our striving and wrestling with and stirring up our own hearts Praying is not the saying of some good words but the calling up all our powers to come in and joyn in seeking the Lord. That you may particularly understand what a stirring duty Prayer is consider 1. That in Prayer we set our selves under the Eye of the great and mighty God of Heaven and Earth It is a drawing night unto God a lifting up our Eyes to the Everlasting hills a presenting our selves before the throne of God the throne of his Grace a setting all the Attributes of God before our Eyes his Allmightiness his Allsufficiency his infinite greatness dreadfulness goodness and grace which all make up that fearful Name the Lord our God Deut 28.58 and sure Friends such a sight of the glorious and dreadful God will be a stirring sight 2. In Prayer we come to deal with God about all the wonderful and astonishing things of Eternity we are to have eternal life and death in our Eye when we pray and what will stir us if Eternity if a sense that we are now treating with the Eternal God about the eternal things will not O a sense of this that we are begging for our lives begging for our immortal Souls begging the everlasting Kingdom seeking our escape from the everlasting Fire a deep sense of this upon our hearts will awaken them 3 In Prayer there is a ripping open all the affrightning Evils that are in our Hearts Confession unbowels the Soul and fetches up all the filth and rottenness of the Heart lays open all the deadly Diseases that are in the Heart every wicked thought and filthy lust and vile affection all the falshood and Hypocrisie all the pride and malice and envy and frowardness of the Heart are in our confessions brought forth and laid open before the Lord. The Devils are rouz'd that lodged within us and were taken too little Notice of and all the hazard and danger that our Souls are in by these our wickednesses will in our confessions be made to stand before our Eyes and there cannot be such a discovering of our wicked Hearts and our danger that we are in but it will affright and awaken us 4. Prayer is the uniting of all our powers and the engaging them all in seeking the Lord. It strains every string it bends all our forces upon the duty it sets all our faculties our understandings our memories our wills our affections our consciences on work as the Psalmist Ps 103.1 Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his Holy Name Pray to the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me call upon his Name Prayer is not tongue-work or knee-work but Soul-work bless the Lord O my Soul and 't is not a peice of an Heart one string of the Instrument but every string must be strained and struck up understanding memory will affections all must joyn all that is within me bless his holy Name All our faculties and all our graces our faith our love our hope our desires whatever we have of God within us all must be called forth to joyn in seeking of him 5. Prayer is not only the employing and exercising our Souls with all their faculties and graces but the putting them forth to the height not only the striking every string but the straining every string to the height the word in the original which is translated Acts. 12.5 Prayer without ceasing signifies instant earnest Prayer or more properly according to the notation of the word strained Prayer prayer stretched out and this is that praying which is stirring praying the pouring forth our Soul in Prayer With my Soul have I desired thee Is 26.9 the straining and working up all within us every faculty and grace of our Hearts to the height the stirring up all our strength in the work this is that Praying instantly required Rom. 12.12 that praying fervently Jam. 5.16 that crying and crying mightily unto God unto which the Scriptures promise Audience Now when Prayer hath thus rouzed up our sleepy Souls set all our Faculties and Graces a stirring within us and so gotten an heat in the heart by the joynt and vigorous exercise of all within us in the duty when we have prayed our Souls awake and all our Graces awake and our Heart is waxen hot within us we are therein prepared and put in a readiness and disposedness to and shall feel our selves bent upon the practise of every holy duty in our whole course This therefore is my next direction put upon Praying and such stirring Praying Go set the Lord and all his Glory before your Eyes and get a sense of eternity upon your Hearts rip open and lay
and the misery of those you are praying for Hear the cry of the poor blind and hardned Sinners amongst us these stones cry out their misery does let fall a tear over us lift up a Prayer for us Hear the cry of your Enemies who curse you and persecute you for Religion sake their case calls upon you bless us that curse you pray for us that despitefully use you and persecute you hear the cry of your brethren in the Lord especially your Sin-sick brethren your Soul-sick brethren your decayed and backsliding brethren do not their cases cry loud in your Ears Help help us by your Prayers hear your poor Children and Families crying what shall we do What will become of us if there should be a going on in this sinning and sinking 'till the Gospel be taken from us For our sakes try what ye can do besiege the Throne of Grace take hold of the God of Grace that he leave us not to die for want of Instruction Hear Magistrates and Ministers crying We need your help as much as any cry mightily unto the Lord for us Hear a whole Kingdom yea hear the whole World crying Pray to the Lord for us O Brethren how much matter of Prayer have we how many moving and heart-breaking cases have we before us Set them before your eyes lay them deeply to heart and this will quicken you in Prayer All these cases and multitudes more send in their Bills and passionately cry in your ears now try what you can do to help in a time of need to help a poor languishing Nation to help poor Magistrates and Ministers to help poor sinning and dying Souls you that make mention of the Lord now keep not silence bow your knees call up all your sighs and groans pour out your tears pour out your souls set heart to heart and prayer to prayer unite your strength and cry in the ears of the Almighty O Lord behold for we are very vile we are very low arise and save us save Lord or we perish 2. How you may most successfully perform this Duty In answer to this take these few following Directions 1. Make God your Friend and see that there be no standing controversie betwixt Him and your Souls See that you be sincere Converts to God and have a good conscience towards God see that ye be reconciled to God by the blood of Jesus and be not aliens and enemies and that matters be kept fair and clear betwixt God and your Souls Is it peace betwixt the Lord and you or is there not a particular controversie that he hath with you Consider if the Lord hath not somewhat against you and such as hath provoked him to anger against you Get the controversie to be taken up make your own peace first and then you will be fit to be Intercessors for others If I had a Petition to present to the King I would not put it into the hands of a Rebel no nor into his who were under his Princes frown I would put it into the hands of a Favourite and so should have the more hope to speed If you would do your friends a kindness in Heaven see that you hold your own friendship there If I regard iniquity in mine heart God will not hear my Prayer Ps 66.18 Pray for whom you will for your self or your friends 't is like to come to all one as if you held your peace God will not hear you whilst you regard iniquity in your hearts Hast thou Sin in thee and Sin that thou allowest in thy self what ever it be great or little open or secret purge it away and cast it from thee or God will not hear thee Prov. 15.8 The prayer of the upright is his delight Give me the holy Souls the humble the tender the watchful the Jacobs the Daniels the Noahs the plain-hearted them that walk with God and are highly favoured of the Most High to appear before the Lord for me Those that are in their Sins and utterly Strangers from God and those that have declined in Godliness and are become Wanderers from the Lord what hope is there of any service that their Prayers will do God heareth not Sinners but if any man be a worshipper of God and doth his will him he heareth John 9.31 Beloved a poor languishing Nation calls upon you for the help of your Prayers but alas what help is there in them To have a company of poor hard-hearted impenitent and dead Sinners or of sick and loose and carnal Professors to have such a company gather'd together to pray there is as much hope in it as if the Blind and the Lame and the Bed-ridden of a Nation should be gathered together into an Army to fight as great success is like to be obteined by such a sinful congregation assembled to pray as would be by such an impotent Army gather'd together to fight One sincere upright hearted Saint will do more than a whole congregation of praying Sinners Acts 27. we read of a Ship in a Storm and a desperate hazard of being cast away all visible hope of its being saved was cut off the Mariners could do little more in the Ship and such a company of profane Wretches could do nothing in Heaven But behold one Paul he prays and he prevails the Lord gave him his life and the lives of all them that sailed with him the Mariners and the Soldiers might have prayed while they would but the Ship had been never the more secured from sinking if Paul had not been with them Indeed it 's the duty of Sinners to be present in days and in the exercises of Humiliation and there may be this advantage of it They may by this means be converted and so 1. There 's one more added to the number of God's Remembrancers there 's one more Souldier added to the Praying Army If there were hundreds or thousands of Converts more brought in so many would there be added to joyn in their strength to wrestle with God 2. By every new Convert God's Interest is increased in such a people by how many more Converts there are by so much the more hath God to lose if such a people should miscarry Well this is the first Direction if you would that your praying should be to any purpose Make God your Friend 2. Make often use of your Friend in your personal cases live a Praying life those that are much in Prayer are most like to be mighty in Prayer He that deals much with the Lord in prayer will have many experiences of God's gracious dealings with him in answer to his Prayers You will hereby prove that Prayer is not such an helpless and insignificant Duty as those that disuse themselves to it are apt to distrust it to be you will never give off your cases for hopeless whilst there is this way open to go to God He that uses to go before the Lord will be the more able to go with boldness and confidence
The God of all grace who hath called us to his eternal Glory by Jesus Christ establish strengthen settle you We should every one of us prove unstable souls and shall never stand if the God of Grace do not stablish us we are every one of us weak souls and shall certainly fall and come to nothing if the God of grace do not strengthen and settle us And therefore we had need to pray and that earnestly every one of us the God of all grace stregthen me the God of all grace stablish and settle this my weak and unstable soul Hence also Christians are exhorted Rom. 3.11 Hold fast what thou hast keep that good thing which is committed unto thee And so we had need every one of us to call upon our selves hold fast O my soul hold fast to Christ hold fast to Holiness hast thou gotten any Grace any sound Religion into thine heart Hold it fast that thou lose it not Our Candle will burn dim there is a Thief in the Candle which will wast it away if it be not carefully snuffed and look'd to Grace in the heart is as a spark of fire in the Hearth it will be cover'd over with Ashes if it be not kept continually blowing the rust will eat out our Gold the Moth will fret out our Garments the Thief will steal away our Treasure if it be not watchfully maintained O what Losses do many Christians actually suffer through their carelesness and negligence loss in their Love loss in their Life and Zeal and all their holy Affections that little good that is in them may grow to such a decay that it may be ready to dye and come to nothing and as their Grace which is their Life decays so their vital operations fail with it All their sensible and sweet communion with God will be hindred the warm and lively workings of their hearts upon God their thoughts and meditations on God their desires after Him their delights in the Lord the secret entercourses of love betwixt the Lord and them will much cease when grace flags Whilst grace is kept alive the thoughts of God will be many and precious Psal 139.17 How precious are thy thoughts to me O Lord how great is the sum of them Their Meditations of him will be sweet a reviving and refreshing to their hearts Have you none of you sometimes found it so Have you not poured out your souls into his Bosom and felt the Lord pouring in his Wine and his Oyle into yours Have you not walk'd with him upon the Mount and sate down under his shadow with great delight and found his Fruits sweet to your tast Have you not sometimes rejoyc'd in his Presence and felt the joy of the Lord to be your strength And then O what Love hath streamed forth O what Praises have been sent up to His Blessed Name This if ever you have experienced such Blessed seasons hath been maintained from the life of Grace in you and according as Grace sinks or gathers rust and grows dim so doe not all your vital operations fail with it I need not spend time to prove that such sinking and decaying of our Spirits our Graces and the comfortable operations of them may be the experiences of Christians do too fully and too frequently yield us undeniable proofes 2. There may be outward decays decays in point of practise There may be a neglect of the duties of Prayer Hearing Meditation Examining and taking an account of our selves Isa 43.22 Thou hast not called upon me O Jacob thou hast been weary of me O Israel I can seldom hear of thee thou hast been a Praying People a Sacrificing People but thou art grown weary of my worship How seldom art thou found in thy Closet or in the Congregation Thou art become a very Stranger to those duties which once were thy delight Or if duties be performed yet the heart and the life of them may be lost their Sacrifices may be without an heart if they bring their Incense yet there may be no fire to kindle it dead Praying cold Praying must suffice them O how do our Spirits often freeze in those Devotions which should kindle a fire in us Some Mens duties serve for nothing but to keep them asleep and to keep Conscience quiet which if there should be a total neglect would flye in there faces and awaken them There may be a decay in their Conversations they may decline from a Spiritual to a Carnal conversation from an Heavenly to an Earthly Life Those that had once escaped the pollutions of the world may be again entangled in the world 2 Pet. 2.20 There may be a declining from a savoury useful to an unsavoury and unprofitable life the Salt of the Earth may have lost its savour those very Tongues whose speech was used to be with Grace seasoned with Salt Ministring Grace to the Hearers may either be dumb and speak nothing or else be employed to speak Vanity How long may we be in some Professors company e're we hear a savoury word from their lips or if any good does come how heartless and lifeless is it In what they do they move like Puppets in what they speak they speak like Parrots that which they have learn'd by rote but without any true sense of what themselves do speak Such decays as these both inward decays and outward decays may be grown upon Christians Such declining souls are a miserable Spectacle the reproach of the Gospel the disgrace of Religion that are more like Carkases or Ghosts than living souls Idol Christians that have Eyes and see not Ears and hear not Tongues and speak not Feet and walk not Such who if they have any thing of Religion in them no body in the world is like to have the benefit of it nor themselves the comfort of it They may be stark dead and dryed up at the roots they may be meer Chaff and Stubble for ought any body else or themselves either can say to the contrary These dry Trees how-ever they stand in the Vineyard they may stand there for Fuel for the fire and not for Fruit. Such miserable Spectacles are withering Professors and yet what multitudes of them are there to be seen Friends let us consider our selves with respect to the perticulars mentioned if we have not denyed the Faith and become down-right Infidels and Atheists if we believe God and the Gospel and the great and wonderful things of the world to come yet are there not many of us that have lost the sense of the weight and importance of those great things Have not the lean and ill-favoured Kine eaten up the fat ones Have not the thin and the blighted Ears smitten and destroyed the full ones Hath not this Earth and the businesses thereof choaked up some of our hearts and left little sense of God or Immortality upon us Particularly consider 1. Do we live as People that do verily believe we must shortly be in another world
and as Children can't go alone without me saies Christ you can do nothing Joh. 15.5 You are apt to be comfortless Children and 't is He that hath said Isa 51.12 I even I am He that comforteth you Learn to know your own state and carry it accordingly Hast thou Grace Improve it preserve it and make the best of it but never count you have enough to last you till you come home you must to the Breasts every day you must to Christ for your daily Bread or you will quickly starve Hast thou a little strength strength for Duty Improve it to the utmost be diligent and busie in the work of the Lord in every good work in Hearing and Praying and Watching and striving against sin in mortifying the Flesh in helping and strengthning one another do what-ever you can be as active and stirring and industrious as possible but go not in your own strength trust not to the strength you have but let this be your hold which was the Apostles Phil. 4.13 I shall be able to do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me Trust ye in the Lord Jehovah trust ye in the Lord Jesus for in him is everlasting strength Isa 26.4 Have ye comfort in your hearts Say not as the Psalmist Psal 30.5 I shall never be moved thou Lord of thy goodness hast made my Mountain so strong but know that you will need to fetch in fresh comforts as you have of daily supplies of strength Well thus this Trust will answer to these and all other the doubting questions that a Christian will have to put in his life-time whilst he lives in this Wilderness who will shew me my way who will sustain me in my way till I come to my Journeys end c. Christ will do it I trust He will 2. Case I have a Jordain to pass over I must dye who will bring me over Jordain who will stand by me in that hour He is an established Christian who is able to dye who can say with the Apostle To me to live is Christ to dye is gain none of these things move me I am ready to be offered up I desire to depart and to be with Christ Then is the Life of Jesus most signally manifested in our mortal Flesh when we can by Faith tryumph over mortality But as for me I am afraid to dye I am one of their weakly souls who for fear of death are all their life-time subject to Bondage I walk unevenly and uncomelily because upon this account I walk so uncomfortably How may I out-grow my fears and come to a settlement How shall I do to dye If I could dye I could live to better purpose than now I do or can What shall I have to comfort me Whom shall I have to stand by me in that hour Trust answers why Christ will stand by me He that hath taught me to live will I trust help me to dye He hath conquer'd Death he hath disarm'd and pluck'd out the sting of Death He hath broken the head of that Leviathan 'T was He that said Hos 13.14 O Death I will be thy death O Grave I will be thy destruction He hath said it and He hath done it He himself hath passed over that Jordain and hath thereby made a way for his Ransomed to pass over He will send his Angels to conduct me through that shady and dismal passage He knows what it is to dye how hard the conflict is with the last Enemy and what special need I shall have of his help in that hour and therefore hath said I will never fail thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13.5 If I can but hold me by him while I live I will hang upon him when I dye and with Confidence say with the Psalmist Psal 23.4 Though I walk through the Valley of tâ—e shaddow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me He hath said Joh. 11.25 Whoever liveth and believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live He hath said Rev. 20.6 Blessed is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on him the second death shall have no power Come on therefore O my soul fear not to lanch forth into the deep trust in Christ He that hath delivered and doth deliver will also deliver in that day from death he will not deliver it 's appointed to all once to dye there 's no repealing that Statute but He will deliver in death He will by death deliver me from all my fears and sorrows Who of all His ever miscarryed in death Look to this that thou be one of His hold thee by Him cleave to Him follow Him while thou livest be faithful to Him to the death and trust to Him He will be faithful to thee in death 3. Case I have an Inheritance which I hope for in the Land of Promise And here the question will be Who shall give me entrance who shall give me possession of mine Inheritance There is a great Gulf fixed betwixt me and Glory there is a Judgment that I must pass through in my entrance into the Rest of God and in that Judgment I must pass under a strict and severe examination and give an account of my self and of all my ways unto God O how shall I stand in the Judgments or who shall stand by me I am a Sinner a guilty soul before the Lord and mine Iniquities are all marked before Him Once I was an Enemy to Christ and how much hath he against me for that time Since I became his Servant and Solemnly Covenanted and Vowed my self to Him Vowed Repentance Vowed Obedience Vowed Holiness to him O what a Servant have I been What an idle and sloathful Servant What a barren and unprofitable Servant He hath made me his Child but O what a wanton unruly froward Child have I been How often have I turn'd aside from him and serv'd my Flesh and this present World O my Pride and Hypocrisie O my trifling and my haltings after the Lord O the reproaches that have fallen upon his Name by my unworthy uneven and uncomely walking before him How shall I answer for this in the Judgment or who shall answer for me Who shall stop the Mouth of my Accuser in that day Christ I trust will do it I put my whole Cause into his Hand He shall be my Advocate against my Accuser whom I will trust to plead for me He hath his Stripes and his Wounds He hath his Blood and his Death to answer for me It is Christ that dyed who shall condemn Rom. 8.34 But what shall I have to confirm my trust in Christ and to secure me that he will answer for me There be many that lay claim to Christ amongst the Unbelievers the workers of Iniquity they will put their trust in Christ and will call to him Lord Lord open to me Mat. 7.22 23. Lord Lord answer for me to whom he will say Away from me I know you not I will not
forth to the light all that filthiness and garbage and rottenness that is within you bend all within you to seek the Lord and go cry unto him and cry so loud that your own Souls may be awakened by your cry Strive so with God in prayer wrestle so with the Almighty that your own Soul may find its Hands and Legs Friends do not neglect Prayer and do not deceive and undo your selves by your Prayers do not pray your Souls asleep do not pray your consciences asleep but awaken them 'T is a miserable thing to consider how little some Professors are in secret Prayer sometimes they pray and sometimes they can't tend it their Closet is so seldom visited that it may be said of the very way to it as of the way to Zion Lam. 1.4 the ways of Zion do mourn because none come to the solemn Feasts The Grass grew upon their paths because they were so little trod It is a miserable thing that there is so little praying such seldom Praying as there is but a worse Evil then this is that that little which is is worth nothing we go to Pray many of us as if we had a mind to mock God and provoke him to his Face we go to this duty as if we had a mind to lay our Souls to sleep rather then to stir up and awaken them 't is no wonder there is no more light in our Paths when there is no more life in our Duties 't is no wonder there are so many grey Hairs on the Head so many wrinkles in the Face of our Religion when it is so cold at the Heart when our secret recesses and retirements to God are so Heartless and Spiritless 't is no wonder that Sin and Lust and vanity do so swell and abound that Grace and Holyness do so sink and disappear in our conversations when that which should kill Sin and keep Grace alive the Soul of Duty is so little to be found Friends if ever you would recover the beauty of your ways begin in Secret revive the power of Duty pray constantly pray frequently and be fervent in Prayer pray and strive with God in Prayer pray and strive with your own hearts in Prayer pray and wrestle against the Devil and the World and your Sins in Prayer such praying would make the nest too hot for the Devil and your Sins such Praying would cure your colds such praying in the Morning might be a means to keep you warm for all day and such praying in the Evening would make you awake warm the next Morning Therefore Friends pray hearken to the Word of the Lord hearken to me in this thing put your selves to it put upon constant secret Prayer and put upon such stirring Prayer such instant and importunate Prayer what say you will you do it will you hearken to me in this thing I tell you Friends if I may but prevail with you in this one thing if you will obey and practise this one direction this will make all the rest to prosper you will deny me in nothing if you will but grant me this and if you deny me here if you will go on to satisfie your selves with cold and perfunctory Devotions if you will not set to it to be lively and vigorous in your secret duties I shall look upon all else that I have said as lost and that which will come to nothing and therefore pray consider with your selves what you mean to do in this thing will you begin this night go not to pray as at other times but put on upon the life of the duty and then I shall hope to see a blessed and a visible change upon the whole frame and face of your conversation What say you therefore will you do it I am in great earnest with you in this thing since the success of all that I have said to the recovering the decaying interest of Religion among you depends so much upon this one thing and therefore once again I pray deny me not and that you may not deny me take particular notice of this one word more that I shall add remember these words anon in the Evening when you are going to Pray then remember what I have now spoken from the Lord to you and accordingly set your Hearts to it and the Lord grant you the presence of his gracious and Almighty Spirit to help you herein to the praise of his Grace and the comfort and advantage of your Souls For the more effectual fixing of this direction upon you and for your improvement by it I shall here remember you of two Directions which I have formerly Preached and published 1. Be so earnest and intent in this duty that you may feel your hearts enlarged in the lively actings and exercise of Grace and so raised and warmed by your sensible communion with God as may put you into a spiritual and heavenly frame that if it be possible you may come off your knees in a better and more lively disposition of soul than you had in your entrance upon your duty Do not satisfie your selves with the work done but let your aims and endeavours be to get something more of God that you may have to carry away with you when you depart that you may come out of your Closets as Moses came down from the Mount Exod. 34.39 whose face did shine and was a token that he had been conversing with God O let there at such times be a shining and a burning light raised up within you come from your duties as men coming out of Heaven with the very Sun-beams shining in your countenances and with some tincture of Heaven upon your spirits We come many times with no other spirits from our duties than we come out of our Shops or Fields with no more sense and favour of God than if we had never been near him O 't is a sign that thou hast but trifled in thy duties that thou neither hadst nor much mindedst to have communion with God in it certainly sincere communion with God will leave some divine impressions behind it Well every time you go to pray put hard for it to get you into such a divine and spiritual frame before you have done 2. Whatever better or more spiritual frame you are gotten to in duty be careful to maintain it and keep it alive afterwards See to it that your spirits do not presently sink and cool and grow dull and carnal again when you have been thus quickened and spiritualized hath there been an holy fire kindled in you O keep it burning keep it flaming and let it not be covered over with ashes get your hearts to be alive in your duties and keep them alive from duty to duty In the Old Testament though their Sacrifices were offer'd but morning and evening yet the fire that kindled them was not to go out night nor day there must be fire kept alive from the morning Sacrifice to kindle the evening Sacrifice and
fire left from the evening to kindle the morning Sacrifice O Friends how often is it that though at our morning Sacrifice a fire be kindled that it 's quenched and lost before the evening through the carelesness and negligence of our hearts Sin and the World have a whole days time to quench and put out what an hours duty hath been kindling and so at the return of our duty-seasons we find our hearts at the same loss in the same deadness and hardness as before Beloved these two Directions of getting up our hearts into a lively frame in duty and of keeping up that holy frame from duty to duty though there be some difficulty and it will cost you pains to practise them to purpose yet the advantage you will hereby gain will be abundantly worthy all your pains and therefore I pray remember them if you do in good earnest intend an advancing in Religion let these two Directions be before your eyes every day you have them preached to you and you have them written for your use the Lord write them upon your hearts and hold them before your eyes This course will be as the whetting our Instruments and keeping them keen for our work how much work may be done and with much more ease by a cutting than a blunted Instrument Eccl. 10.10 If the Iron be blunt and he do not whet the edge he must put to more strength 't will cost you much more pains to make any work in your Religion whilst your edge is blunted a dull heart will do little and that little not without much pains By the course prescribed whet your spirits and keep them with a good edge and then all your work will be the more easily carried on To this I shall add 3. Let your prayers be pursued in your practice Whatever Grace you pray for whatever Sin you pray against follow after the one and fight against the other in your daily practice Let Prayer and Practice joyn hand in hand and both drive the same way Think not you have done your whole days work when you have prayed morning and evening Religion must be the business of your whole time be thou in the fear of the Lord be thou at the work of the Lord all the day long Prov. 23.17 and not the business of an hour or two When you have been praying for an heavenly mind that God would help you to live in the spirit to set your affections on things above to have your conversation in Heaven when you have ended your Prayer what should ye now do Why then to thinking on heavenly things let your thoughts run upon and be working more throughout the day upon these holy things to pray for an heavenly mind and never to think more of heavenly things all the day long till you come to pray again what will such praying come to When you pray for a willing obedient and fruitful life what should you do Go and take pains with your hearts to bring them on and to hold them close to your several duties When you have been praying against Sin for power over a proud heart or a froward heart or a covetous worldly heart what should you now do Why then set your watch against your sins take heed of every proud thought of every froward word take heed and beware of all covetous practices set your selves to the mortifying of these sins to restraining your selves from the actings of them to pray against pride or to pray against covetousness and as soon as you have done to leave your hearts loose for them to carry it as proudly or as frowardly as before to be as busie for the world as eager in hunting after it what 's this but to set your Prayers and your Practices together by the ears to destroy the things you have been building to destroy by your Practices what you have been building by your Prayers And whilst this hath been the voice of your Prayer Lord deliver me from a proud or froward or covetous heart your Practices say I care not whether this Prayer be heard or no I had rather be let alone and left under the power of them If ever you would that your praying should come to any thing let your Prayers and Practices drive the same way Let it not suffice you to pray for a more gracious and fruitful heart and life to pray for a more mortified heart a more self-denying course but set to it to put your Prayers into practice Let the stream of your care the stream of your endeavours run the same way with the stream of your prayers and desires and that 's the stirring Prayer I would have you give your selves to such as may effectually overpower the stream and course of your life and carry it on according to the stream of your Prayers O Friends If of all that I have said these three last words might be remembred and observed if in every Prayer you henceforth make you would diligently strive to get you up into a spiritual and lively frame If 2. you would carefully maintain this blessed frame afterwards from duty to duty If you would 3. set to the practice of those things you pray that God would enable you to what do you think would be the success O what a cure would be wrought O what a blessed change might we expect to appear upon you and all your Religion 2. Fasting and Prayer In the former particular I spake of Prayer as an ordinary duty here as an extraordinary as annexed to that extraordinary duty of Fasting and Humiliation We may say of that evil spirit that Spirit of slumber and of a deep sleep that 's fallen upon us as Christ said of that Devil Mat. 17.21 This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting Extraordinary Diseases must have extraordinary Remedies Hitherto I have spoken mostly to our personal Cases now I shall speak with more respect to the publick Case of our People and Age and shall direct you 1. How you may most effectually stir up a spirit of Prayer in your days of Humiliation 2. How you may most successfully perform this duty 1. How you may most effectually stir up a spirit of Prayer in your days of Humiliation And so 1. There 's something in the very abstinence that conduceth to the stirring up the spirit of Prayer Abstinence is pinching upon the flesh and should be so much in such days as may afflict the body first and thereby the soul The abstinence of a Fast should be afflicting abstinence as far forth as the body will bear it without prejudice to its health and so becoming an hindrance rather than a furtherance of the duty There 's a two-fold failing too common in our days of Humiliation 1. In the time Mostly what we call a Day of Humiliation comes to no more but a few Hours of Prayer It 's said of a Fast Lev. 17.31 It shall be a Sabbath of Rest to you that is 1.
before him He that hath been often heard for himself in his personal or Family-necessities will speak with the more confidence for his friends or people I have seen how Prayer will help a poor distressed person a poor distressed family and why may it not prevail for a diseased and distressed Nation Since I have found that the Lord hath heard me when I have been seeking him for my self and for mine house O what hope doth this give that he will also hear me now that I am seeking him for his own House Beloved when any of you that fear God are under any pressing straits and desire the help of Prayer to whom do you use to seek you do not call together the lazy and the idle and the careless ones that use not to call upon God you do not send to such to come and pray for you but you will pick out and call together the praying people those that are most conversant in this duty what 's the reason of this why your consciences tell you that if there be any whose Prayers are like to help you these are they the men of Prayer Be you such in both these respects be ye thus prepared Be the friends of God and be often with God and then I will add no more but as the Prophet Joel 2.15 16 17. Then come and sanctifie your Fasts call your solemn Assemblies gather the people sanctifie the congregation assemble the Elders let the Bridegroom go forth out of his Chamber and the Bride out of her Closet let the Tradesmen come out of their Shops and the Husbandman out of the fields let the Ministers and people of the Lord weep before his Altar and let them say and cry and cry aloud Spare thy people O Lord heal thy languishing heritage be not angry with them till thou hast consumed them let not the ungodly say to them in thy reproach Where is your God your Christ and your Religion And who knows but the Lord may hear and what ever evils be upon us and to whatever distance he is withdrawn from us he may yet return and repent and leave a blessing behind him and may be jealous for his Land and pity his people and heal them For a conclusion let me add a word or two both to those that have heard and to them also that read these words I am unwilling if I could help it to make an end before I have done before the work be done for which all this hath been spoken and written Have I been all this while beating the Air or speaking to the Wind or writing in Sand Must I at last sit down with the shame and the grief of the disappointed Mine heart and mine eye is upon success I have been plowing in hope and harrowing and sowing in hope O thou who art the hope of Israel make thy servant partaker of his hope Success is of God Paul may plant and Apollo may water but it is God that gives the increase We are they whom the Lord hath set to watch and give warning to convince and reprove to instruct and exhort but who is it that must give the fruit As hard as our work is as small success as we yet see yet therefore we faint not because we trust in the living God who is the Saviour Where is the Lord he who hath said My word shall not return unto me void but it shall accomplish that which I please and shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it Wherefore hath the Lord spoken Is it that we may go and fall backward and be broken and snared and taken Is it for the hardning of those that have sinned that they may not repent Is it for the sealing up of the eyes of those that see not that they may be the more blind Is it for the searing of brawned spirits that they may be more hard Is his Light only to dazle and put out our eyes and his strokes only to hammer into more senselesness and to drive away his wanderers farther from him God forbid God forbid we hope better things we long we wait for better issues and if the Lord hath any pleasure in us if utter ruin be not determined upon us he will give good success he will recover and revive us he will humble and heal us Success is of God O our God we have no might nor know we what to do only our eyes are upon thee But though it be the Lord that gives success 't is we and you all that must seek it and be working towards it 'T is not the best Physician that can cure you unless you take his Medicines and follow his Prescriptions he that reaches down his hand to help you up out of the Pit into which you are fallen will not lift you out unless you will do what you can to help your selves In order to your seeking and obtaining good success let me ask 1. Thou whose eyes are now upon these words Art thou one of them whose doleful cases have been here opened and lamented Art thou a Sleeper a loytering or back-sliding Soul Whilst thou hast been looking on this Glass hast thou not seen thine own face in the company Hath not this Word found thee out and said unto thee even unto thee as Nathan to David Thou art the man Or hast thou so much as asked the question of thy self Am I not one of them If thou hast not read over again go back before thou read forward consider again and again before thou conclude I am none of them whoever they be mine heart I hope is right with God I am free Put me not off with an I hope I am none of them but inquire more narrowly till thou hast put it out of doubt what thou art 2. If thou seest thou art one of these wretched souls art thou content to continue thus Is it safe is it comfortable to thee thus to live Wilt thou die a Backslider or but a Babe Wilt thou venture it to continue as thou art Art thou at a point with Christ that thou wilt no more of him than thou hast nor shall he have more of thee than at this day Shall thy flesh and this world still go such great sharers with him Wilt not thou come back to be only his to be wholly his Wilt thou say as those Jer. 2.25 There is no hope no hope of prevailing with me Wilt thou say I have loved strangers and after them I will go I love this world I love my carnal friends I love my ease and my idleness and my liberty and I can't part with them the life I live is better than that severe life you call me to Art thou indeed of this mind and dost mean to hold thee of the same mind till thou comest to the Grave Do thy tender-hearted friends weep over thee to see what a Child or a Changeling thou art and dost thou bless thy self in thine own heart and say thou art