duty, which he never inwardly liked ; whereas the sincere believer hath that in him which makes it impossible he should quite give over praying, except he should also cease believing: prayer is the very breath of faith; stop a man's breath, and where is he then ? It is true, tlie "believer, through his own negli- gence, may find more difficulty of fetcliiug his praying breath at one time than at another (as a man in a cold doth for his natural breath) ; alas ! who is so careful of his soul's health, that needs not bewail tins ? But for faith to live, and this breath of prayer to be quite cut off, is impossible. We see David did but hold his breath a l.ttle longer than ordinary, and what a distemper it put him into, till he gave himself ease again by venting his soul in prayer: 'I held my peace, and my sorrow stirred, my heart was bot within me ; while I was musing, the fire burned ; then spake I with my tongue, Lord, make me to know my end,' Psa. xxxix. Dost thou, O man, find thyself under a necessity of praying, as the little babe who cannot clioose but cry when it ails or wants any- thing, because it hath no other way to help itself than by crying, to hasten its mother or nurse to its help? The Cin-istian's wants, sins, and temptations, continuing to retui-n upon hiui, he cannot but continue also to pray against them. 'From the ends of the earth will I cry unto thee,' saith David, Psa. Ixi. 2 ; wherever I am, I will find thee out ; imprison me, banish me, or do with me what thou wilt, thou shalt never be rid of me ; ' I will abide in thy taber- nacle for ever,' ver. 4. But how coidd David do that, when banished from it ? surely he means by prayer ; the praying Christian carries a tabernacle with him. As long as David can come at the tabernacle, he will not neglect it; and when he cannot through sickness, banishment, &c., then he will look towards it,, and as devoutly worsliip God in the open fields, as if he were in it. ' Let my prayer be set before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the even- ing sacrifice,' Psa. cxli. 2 ; he speaks of such a time when he could not come to offer sacrifice at the tabernacle.
Section IIL — Faith hath a supporting act after prayer. First, It supports the soul to expect a gracious answer : ' I will direct my prayers unto thee, and will look up,' Psa. v. 3 ; or, I will look ; for what, but for a return ? An unbe- lieving heart shoots at ra)idom, and never minds where his arrow lights, or what comes of his praying; but faith fills the soul with expectation. As a merchant, when he casts up his estate, he counts what he hath sent beyond sea, as well as what he hath in hand ; so doth faith reckon upon what he hath sent to heaven in prayer and not received, as well as those mercies which he hath received, and are in hand at present. Now this expectation whicli faith raiseth in the soul after prayer, appears in the power that it hath to quiet and compose the soul in the interim between the sending forth, as I may say, the ship of pi-ayer, and its i-eturn home with its rich lading it goes for ; and it is more or less, according as faith's strength is. Sometimes faith comes from prayer in triumph, and cries, Victoria. It gives such a being and existence to the mercy prayed for in the Christian's soul, before any likelihood of it appeal's to sense and reason, that the Christian can silence all his troubled thoughts with the expectation of its coming. So Hannah prayed, 'and was no more sad,' 1 Sam. i. 18. Yea, it will make the Christian disburse his praises for the mercy long before it is received. Thus high faith wrought in David, Psa. Ivi. 3, 4 : ' At what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee ;' and in the next words, ver. 4 : 'In God will I praise his word ;' that is, he would praise God for his promise, before there were any performance of it to him, when it had no existence but in God's faithfulness, and David's faith. This holy man had such a piercing eye of faith, as he could see the promise when he was at the lowest ebb of misery, so certain and unquestionable in the power and truth of God, that he could then praise God, as if the promised mercy had been actually fulfilled to him. But I would not have thee, Christian, try tlie truth of thy iaith by this heroic high strain it mounts to in some eminent believers. Thou mayest be a faithful soldier to Christ, though thou attaine.st not to the degree of a few worthies in his army, more honourable in tliis respect than the rest of their brethren. There is a lower act of faith, which, if thou canst find, may certify thee of its truth; that, I mean, which, though it doth not presently disburthcn the soul (upon praying) of all its anxious, disquieting thoughts, yet keeps the soul's head above the waves, and gives a check to them, that they abate, though by little and little,
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452 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH.