and art lukewarm dead hearted and secure still to what end are all thy praiers when thou enjoyest not the end of thy praiers to what end is plowing of thy ground if it be not fallow when thy plowing is done to what end is the worke of thy servant if thy businesse be not done and dispatched when all is done As good never pray as pray to no end as good that thou never hadst begun to pray as to cease and to give over thy praiers before thou hast obtained the grace thou prayest for The prayers of the wicked are an abomination unto the Lord but the prayer of the upright is his delight Prov. 15. 8. that is the praiers of a wicked man that continues in his wickednesse when his praiers are done praiers are an abomination to the Lord but the praiers of the upright though he were before he praied never so wicked yet if it be the praier of an upright and godly man when his praiers are done that his praiers rid him of his sin and make him an upright man his praiers are Gods delight Beloved many pray against distrust in Gods providence Infidelity in Gods promises Impatiency under Gods corrections c. and yet have never the more trust and affiance in God never the more patience under the hand of God all these praiers are endlesse Secondly thy praiers are fruitlesse to what purpose is a beggers begging of an almes if he be gone before the almes be bestowed his begging is fruitlesse so all thy praiers are lost if thou art gone from the Throne of grace before grace is given thee for if such a praier be endlesse then is it also fruitlesse it will never do thee any good what is a fruitlesse tree good for but to be cut down what is a fruitlesse Vine good for but to be burned So all thy praiers are lost all thy beginnings of grace are lost we know saith the man that was borne blind John 9. that God heareth not sinners we know it Why may some say how do you know that God heares not sinners why we know it by eâ—perience by examples A drunkard prayeth to God to cure him of his drunkennes yet he doth not leave his ill company all the world may see that God hears not the drunkards praier because he cures him not but lets him go on in his sin and so for all other sins seest thou a man goe on in his sinnes thou mayest see that God heareth not his praiers if a man should be sicke on his death bed and send for the Physicians and Apothecaries in the Country and send for his Father Mother and for all his friends to come to him to minister to him yet I know he is not cured by them so long as I see his deadly disease remaines upon him so if I see a mans pride hypocrisie security deadnesse of heart his lust anger c. lie upon him notwithstanding all his praiers I know God heares not his praiers he prayes to be cleansed from his sinnes and to be purged from his lust and to be redeemed from his vaine conversation if now God let his sinnes continue in him and lets him goe on in them we see plainely God heares not him O what a pittifull and miserable case are such men in that pray and pray and yet all their praiers are endlesse and fruitlesse is not that man in a pittifull case that all physick all cost and charges is lost upon him when his cating and drinking his sleeping and winding and turning from this side to that side do him no good do we not say of him that he is a dead man so if a mans praiers and supplications to God be endlesse and fruitlesse that man must needs be a dead and a damned man so long as he goeth on in that case Now we come to the second part of the Text the sensiblenesse of the godly soule whether it speed or no the soule that praies aright that praies unsatiably it is able to say the Lord doth heare me the Lord doth grant me the thing that I praied to him for Thus saith Jonah I cried unto the Lord and he heard me out of the belly of Hell cryed I and thou heardst my voice Jonah 2. 2. How could Jonah say God heard his voice if he had not known it therefore he knew it But against this some may object How can this be how can the soule know that God heares it we have no Angels nor voices from Heaven now to tell men as the Angel told Cornelius that his praiers were accepted and come up before God or to say as Christ to the woman in the Gospell Be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven thee I know God heares me with his All-hearing eare and therefore I have a good beliefe in God but how shall I know that God heares my praiers in mercy so as to grant that I pray for There be sixe wayes to know whether the soule shall speed in prayer yea or no The first is the having of a Spirit of further and further praying When God gives the soule a further and further ability to pray when God opens a way for the soule to the Throne of grace and gives him a free accesse to the gate of mercy and a spirit to hold out in prayer It is a signe that God meanes to hear it When a Petitioner hath accesse to the King and presents his Petition If the King imbolden him in his speech and let him speak all that he would speak it is a signe that the King meanes to grant that man his petition because otherwise the King would never have endured to have heard him so long but would have commanded him to be gone So it is with the soule at the Throne of grace if it come with a petition and prayer to God if God dispatch the soule out of his presence so that the soul hath no heart to pray nor to continue its suite but praies deadly and dully and is glad when he hath said his prayers and hath done it is a fearefull signe that God never means to heare that mans prayers but if thou praiest and praiest and hast not done in thy praiers but God by casting in a spirit of prayer and zeale and fervency in prayer imboldens thy heart in its petitions it is a signe that God will heare thee and grant thee thy prayers Blessed be God saith the Prophet that hath not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me How could the Prophet say that the Lord did not turne away his mercy from him How because he turned not away his prayer from him Many Expositors expound it of not turning away his prayer from his heart as if he should say Lord thou continuest my heart to pray thou hast not taken away my prayer from my heart therefore I know that thou continuest thy mercy unto me Secondly the preparednesse of the heart to pray is a signe that God
then he comes a third day and findes his two former dayes worke standing then he proceeds to a third dayes worke and makes walls to it and so he goes on till his building be finished So prayer it is the building of the soule till it reach up to heaven therefore a godly heart praies and reacheth higher higher in praier till at last his prayers reach up to God It is a signe of a wicked man to pray and to let his prayers fall downe againe upon him And here I appeale to the consciences of wicked men if it be not so with them they pray and pray but their hearts are as dead and deceitfull as proud and vaine as ignorant blockish and rebellious as if they had never praied Thirdly it is more and more a fervent praier if a little praier will not serve the turne if he speeds not to day then he will pray more earnestly to morrow and if that will not serve the turne he will adde more As a man in winding up of a bucket if two or three windings will not fetch it up he will winde it up higher and higher till it comes up for if he should onely winde up once or twise and no more but hold it just at the same pin the bucket would never come up So if a man praies and praies and windes not up his heart higher but holds it just at the same pegge it was praies in the same fashion he did grace will never come up Marke then how thou prayest examine thy heart dost thou pray to day as yesterday with no more zeal nor feeling affection nor sencible desire thou praiest not unsatiably No thou restrainest thy praying from growing an excellent discription of an hypocrite Iob 14. 4. though falsly applied to Job Thou restrainest prayer before God in some translations it is Thou keepest thy prayers from growing thou restrainest thy praiers as a dwarffe is restrained from growing so thou restrainest thy praiers from being more and more earnest and effectuall and fervent unsatiable praier is growing in zeale and affection Fourthly it is a more and more frequent praier so that if twice a day will not serve the turne he will pray three times a day Psal. 55. 17. and if that will not prevaile he will pray seven times a day Psal. 119. 164. and when that is not enough he will be even ever a praying hardly broken off day or night Psal. 88. 1. he cares not how often he praies it may be that thou hast been a suitor for strength and grace against corruptions and hast put up many praiers to the same purpose If now thou stickest at any praiers thy praiers are not unsatiable an unsatiable soul never resteth though it have made ten thousand praiers till it have gotten the grace it is so with other things and therefore we neede not wonder at it when a man doth his worke one day he will do it another and so on as long as he lives till his worke be done so must we doe for heaven and for grace Fifthly it is ever more and more a backt praier if ordinary praiers will not serve the turne a godly heart will cut off time from his recreations and pleasures though in themselves lawfull Beloved it may be with thy soule in its wrastlings and strivings for grace and power against corruptions that ordinary praiers will not satisfie it but it will be necessary to give over even lawfull delights and give that time to praier so a man will doe for the world if he have a businesse of importance that will bring him in gaine he will be content to part with his delights and recreations and pleasures to follow after it so a man must doe for his soule and if that be not enough then lay aside the duties of thy calling to take time from that If a man have two houses on fire both together the one his mansion dwelling house the other some backe roome or stable if he can he will save both but if he see that by spending his time on quenching the fire on the stable that his great mansion house will burne downe he will then neglect the other and let it burne if it will and imploy himselfe about his house So when the soule is in misery under the want of grace that it cannot live under but must perish eternally if it have it not then the soule being better then the body rather then that the soule miscarry we will neglect the body sometime And if this will not serve abstaine from meate and drinke fast it out thus the people of God are faine to doe many times their lust and corruptions being even as the devill himselfe which cannot be cast out but by praier and fasting there is an excellent place Joel 2. 12. Therefore now turne unto the Lord with fasting weeping and mourning rent your hearts c. Therefore now now your sinnes are so divelish now your sinnes are so deepely rooted in your soules now your corruptions are come to be such plague soares within you doe you not thinke that your ordinary repentance and ordinary praiers and humiliations will serve the turne but now backe them with fasting and mourning Here now thou mayst examine thy soule whether it have praied effectually unsatiably yea or no hath it ever a begging praier that thou praiest as if thou hadst never praied before is it evermore a proceeding praier that thou doest every day draw neerer to God then other is it more and more a backt praier a fervent and frequent praier hast thou taken from thy recreations from thy calling to give to it yea from thy belly and backe and used all meanes for a prevailing with God then are thy praiers effectuall and unsatiable This then condemnes the praiers of most men in the world they pray and pray for grace and their praiers come to an end and cease before they have it the angrie fretchard praies for patience and meeknesse and yet sets downe without it the covetous worldling praies to be weaned from the world and his praiers are done before he is so so the lukewarmeling deadhearted and vaine-thoughted professor praies for better thoughts for more zeale and yet comes to his be it so before he have it and so every wicked man praies and he is come to his Amen before the grace is given let all such men know that such praiers first they are endlesse secondly they are fruitlesse First they are endlesse The Philosopher said that that for which a thing is that is the end of the thing now praier is for the speeding with God and therefore he whose praiers speed not with God his praiers are endlesse thou hast praied against thy pride but art as proude still thou hast praied against thy choler and art as teachy still thou hast praied against earthlines and worldlines and art earthly and worldly still thou hast praied against security and deadnes of heart and lukewarmenesse in Gods service
under its wants and yet kept out from grace and from growing in grace because of discouragements yea the best and strongest of Gods Saints have been kept off and have hung much on discouragements Feare not saith God to Abraham Genes 15. 1. So feare not Joshua saith God to Joshua Josh. 1. 9. Intimating that both Abraham and Joshua were afraid of discouragements they were afraid that many evils would befall them that they should meet with many rubs and difficulties that would be too hard for them therefore the Lord calls to them feare not be not dismayed nor discouraged Thou saidst feare not Hence observe That God would not have any Christian soule to be discouraged in praier Thou saidst feare not For our clearer proceeding herein first let me shew you what discouragement is and secondly how it comes to be dangerous and hurtfull in praier What is discouragement It is a base dismayment of spirit below or beneath the strength that is in a man vnder the apprehension of some evill as if it were too hard for him to grapple with it There be foure things in this diffinition First I say it is a base dismayment of spirit and so I call it to distinguish it for there is an humble dismayment which a Christian is commanded A man is bound to be dismayed for his sinnes Isay 32. 11. Tremble ye carelesse women that are at ease be troubled ye carelesse ones these carelesse ones went on in their sinnes and feared not God calls to them and bids them to be dismayed But the dismayment and the discouragement I speake of it is a base dismayment of spirit which is either when he is dismayed that ought not or he is dismayed at that whereat he ought not to feare where no cause of feare is As Vitello his man thought his Master had got skill in Optickes he riding along upon the high way spying a mans shape thought it was some Spirit and thereupon he sickened and died So many a poor soul looking in the perfect Law of God and seeing his owne uglinesse and filthynesse he is discouraged and thinkes himselfe undone his heart waxeth cold within him and he begins to feare that he is but a dead and damned man Secondly it is downe beneath the strength that is in a man that man is properly said to be discouraged not that he hath no strength at all in him nor no courage at all for such a one is an infeebled man not a man discouraged but a discouraged man is a man put besides the courage that is in him when a man hath strength enough to grapple with the evill before him but through dismayment of spirit he cannot put it forth Have not I commanded thee saith God to Joshua Be strong and of a good courage be not afraid neither be thou dismaied Josh. 9. God had given Joshua strength enough whereby he was inabled to observe and do according to all that Law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded him God had now doubled his Spirit upon him yet he commands him be not afraid neither dismayed as if he had said Joshua if thou beest dismayed and discouraged though thou hast strength and power to go through the businesse that I have called thee unto yet thou wilt not be able to use it nor to put it forth if thou beest discouraged Thirdly it is at the apprehension of some evill I say not at the sight of some evill for a man may be dismayed at the apparition of good as Mary when she saw nothing but a good Angell Luke 1. 29. she saw nothing but a glorious Angel neverthelesse she was afraid and discouraged Why because she had a secret apprehension of some evill either of some evill proceeded in the salutation or some unworthinesse in herselfe to receive such a gracious salutation it cannot be the apprehension of any good that discourageth a man but the apprehension of some evill Fourthly not of every evill neither for if the evill be but small courage will stand it out but it is of such an evill as he feares he is not able to grapple withall If the evill before him be inferiour to him he scornes it as the barking of a toothlesse Dog If it be but an evill equall to his strength then he makes a tush at it because he knowes or thinkes himselfe able to encounter with it But if it be an evill above his strength then his spirit melts and droops before him See this in Saul 1 Sam. 17. 11. and his people When they saw the Champion of the Philistims comming against them when they saw him so hugely and mervelously armed and heard him speake such biggs words they thought they were not able to stand and to encounter with him and therfore saith the Text when Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistim they were dismayed and greatly afraid Thus you see what discouragement is such discouragements the Lord would not have our hearts to be in when we pray unto him For first God cannot give eare to that man that is out of heart in his prayers Thou canst never pray if thou beest dismaied in prayer When the soul begins to feare and reason O I am so unworthy that God will not looke at me I am so sinfull so blockish so dead and dull to all good that God will never regard me thou canst never pray Rom. 10. 14. How shall they call on him in whom they have not beleeved If thou dost not believe that God will heare thee if thou dost not beleeve that thou shalt prevaile that God will deliver thee out of these corruptions and that lust that thou praiest against that God will give thee this grace or that grace if thou dost not beleeve that God will owne thee if thou hast these doubtfull discouragements O he will not grant me I shall never get this or that how canst thou call on him thou mayest call so and so but never canst thou call to any purpose if thou dost not beleeve in him A begger though he be never so well able to begge yet if when he comes to the House-keepers dore he be perswaded that he shall not speed that let him beg as long as he will he shall get nothing this blunts his begging and makes him give over his suite without any great importunity So it is impossible that ever a soule should hold out and pray that is discouraged in prayer Secondly thou canst not pray unlesse thou use all thy strength in prayer If thou be discouraged thou canst not use thy strength A discouraged man his strength melts into feare and whatsoever strength he hath he cannot put it forth How came Jacob to prevaile and to have power with God Why he used all his strength with God and so prevailed Hosea 12. 3. Thou canst never prevaile with God by thy prayers unlesse thou puttest forth all thy strength in praier If Jacob had reasoned I am but dust and
to lose my selfe I see nothing here now but huge Gyants the sonnes of Anack strong corruptions inclining and forcing me to evill most fearefull and violent suggestions and temptations of the Devill ready to thrust me into the gulfe of wickednesse and despaire And now the soule begins to thinke that it is good for it to returne again into Egypt to fall to its old courses againe for certainly God lookes for no such matter he requires no such strictnesse and precisenesse And so it falls a whining and repining at the Word and Ministers of God that have call'd men to it and laid it upon them and hath no heart now to do thus and thus any longer And thus it falls into discouragements because of the way and into a thousand quandaries whether it may not goe back againe or no And all these murmurings and repinings are because men suffer themselves to be discouraged Thirdly discouragements will cause thee to thinke that God hates thee When the soule like Baals Priests hath been crying from morning to noone ten twenty thirty yeeres it may be and yet hath no answer now it will begin to thinke if God did love me then he would grant me my petitions Then hereupon comes into a mans secret thoughts and feares that God hardly loves his soule So was it with Israel when they were discouraged they said because the Lord hated us therefore he brought us out of the Land of Egypt Deut. 1. 27. Because that they were discouraged and because that their Brethren that went for spies had disheartned them therefore they were apt to say the Lord hated them Beloved it is a miserable thing when the soule calls the love of God into question Consider that as thou canst not have a friend if thou beest suspitious and jealous of his love to thee So thou canst never have the love of God settled on thy heart so long as thou art jealous of his love to thee Fourthly If thou root them not out it is to be feared that they will bring thee to despaire Melancholy thoughts and feares and discouragements drive the soule to despaire For when the soule sees it selfe still disappointed of its hopes at the last it grows hopelesse If it have waited one day and the next day too if it have praied this weeke this month this yeare and yet still it seeth it selfe held off and disappointed it will at last grow hopelesse Take heed therefore I beseech you of all needlesse discouragements to fear be ause that thou findest not that that thou wishedst or prayedst for to day or to morrow in thine own time that therefore thou shalt never get it that now thou shouldest for ever despaire of the grace and love of God and thinke that now God will never heare thee that thou shalt never get grace and power over thy corruptions Men thinke that the preaching of the Word of God brings men to despaire the preaching of such strict points and the urging such precise doctrines makes men despaire men are loth to be at the paines to root out their discouragements It is rather a cold or dead preaching of the Word that is the cause of this for when the soule is instructed by holinesse humbled by holinesse converted by holinesse at the last when it comes to be thorowly awakened when it sees that this and this is required in a true conversion of the soule to God that herein true repentance must declare and demonstrate it selfe by these and these fruits or else it is but false and rotten Why now the soul must needs be brought to despaire because it seeth that though it have been thus and thus humbled though it have praied fasted and mourned in this and this manner yet it sees it hath not a soundnesse of grace There is such a grace in it such a worke and such a fruit of Gods Spirit in it that yet he could never finde in himselfe this makes the soule to despaire Indeed Preachers may be too blame if they speake and preach onely the terrours and condemnations of the Law without the promises of the Gospel for these should be so tempered that every poore broken soule may see mercy and redemption for him upon his sound and unfeined repentance and humiliation But if men doe despaire they may thanke themselves for it their owne sinnes for it their owne discouragements for it because they suffer these to continue in them Cain his heart grew sad his countenance fell he was wroth and disquieted in his minde and heavily discouraged why Gen. 4. Sin lay at the dore what dore the dore of his conscience rapping and beating upon his heart Beloved when the soule lets sinne lie at the dore drunkenesse pride and worldlinesse security hardnes and deadnes of heart lie at the dore when a man lets his negligent and fruitlesse hearing of the word lie at the dore when a man lets his vaine and dead praying his temporizing and fashionary serving of God lie at the dore of conscience to tell him that all his hearing of the word of God profits him nothing that his praiers are dead and vaine that his mourning fasting and all his humiliation is counterfeit and rotten and that he hath no soundnesse of grace in him but that for all this he may fall into hell when sinne lyeth thus at the dore thus rapping at the conscience it is no wonder if the soule fall into desperation Cain let his sinne lie at the dore there it lay rapping and beating and told him that his carelesenesse and negligent sacrificing to God was not accepted and therefore no marvell if Cain be so cast down in his countenance and that he fall to despaire O beloved when sinne lieth bouncing and beating at the dore of thy heart when thy sinne whatsoever it is search thy heart and finde it out lies knocking and rapping at the dore of thy conscience day by day and month by month and thou art content to let it lie and art unwilling to use meanes to remove it and art loth to take the paines to get the bloud of Christ to wash thy soule from it or the Spirit of Christ to cleanse thee from it then thy soule will despaire either in this world or in the world to come But let us take heede then that our conscience condemne us not in any thing or course that we allow in our selves for if that doe then much more will God who is greater then our consciences and knowes all things The Apostle hath an excellent Phrase Rom. 8. 1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus c. As if he should say there is not one condemnation there is none in Heaven God doth not condemne them there is none in earth their owne heart and conscience doth not condemne them he that is in Christ Jesus that walks not after the flesh but after the Spirit there is none no not one condemnation to him none neither in Heaven nor in