for courtiers have those that will be alwa3s undemiining them if they can : and ■ Satan is at the right hand of the Christian at every miscarriage, to accuse him unto God, saying. This is your favourite, though he be so devout in prayer ; he can do this or that, when the duty is over : and therefore if any have a tie upon them more than others, to walk exacily, it is they that minister before the Lord in this duty. Princes are more curious of their attendants, than of others at farther distance from them. When David shewed some distraction of mind before king Achish, he bids — 'Away with him! have I need of madmen, that you bring such a one into mj' presence V And does a poor mortal man, that sits on a throne of dust, take such state on him, as not to bear the discomposure of any before him ? How nuich less will the great God brook any unholy behaviour in those that wait so nigh upon him ! This, no doubt, made Cain run so fast from the presence of God, because he knew that there was no standing so nigh God with such an unholy heart as he carried in his bosom. Secondly, By the soul's near access to God in prayer, it receives sweet influ- ences of grace from God. All grace comes from the God of grace ; not only the first seed of grace, but its growth also ; and God usually sheds forth his grace in a way of communion with his people. Now by prayer the Christian is led into most intimate communion with God, and from communion follows communication. As the warmth the chicken finds by sitting under the hen's wings cherisheth it, so are the saints' graces enlivened and strengthened by the sweet influences they receive from close communion with God. The Christian is compared to a tree, Psa. i. 3, and those trees flourish most, and bear the sweetest fruit, which stand most in the sun. The praying Christian stands nigh to God, and ha^h God nigh to him in all that he calls vipon him for. Therefore you may expect his fruit to be sweet and ripe, when another that stands, as it were, in the shade, and at a distance from God, (through neglect of, or infre- quency in this duty,) will have little fruit found on his branches, and that but green and sour. ' Those that be planted in the house of the Lord, shall flourish in the co\n-ts of our God : they shall still bring forth fruit in old age, they shall be fat and flourishing,' Psa. xcii. 13, 14.
CHAPTER IIL
prayer's prevalency with god. the third reason given.
The third reason why the Christian should join prayer to all other means, is taken from the great prevalency prayer hath with God. He will do no great matter for a saint without prayer, and nothing is too great for him to do at his request. Prayer, like Jonathan's bow, (when duly qualified as to the person and act,) never returns empty. Never was faithful prayer lost at sea. No merchant trades with such certainty as the praying saint. Some prayers, indeed, have a longer voyage than others, but then they come with the richer lading at last. In trading, he gets most by his commodity that can do without his money longest. So the Christian that can with most patience stay for a return of prayer, shall never be ashamed of bis waiting. The promise insures an answer to his prayer; 1 John iii. 22. O, who can express the powerful oratory of a believer's prayer! This little word ' Father,' lisped forth in prayer by a child of Ciod, exceeds the eloquence of Demosthenes, Cicero, and all other famed orators. "We read of taking heaven by force. Matt. xi. 12. If ever this may be said to be done, it is by prayer, saith Tertullian. We knock at heaven, and the merciful heart of God flies open, which we bring away with us. The same speaks of Christians, how they went to pray, as an army doth to besiege a town, and take it l)y storm : and then adds. This holy violence that we offer to God in prayer is very pleasing to him. Surely, if it were not, he would neither help the Christian in the work, nor reward him for it when done ; whereas he doth both. He helped Jacob to overcome ; Hosea xii. 3, 'By his strength he had power with God ;' that is, not by his own, but the strength he had from (Jod. And then he puts honour upon him for the victory. Gen. xxxii. 28 : ' Thy name shall not be called Jacob, but Israel ; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast pre- vailed.' It were easy here to enter into a large history of the great exploits which prayer is renowned for in holy writ, — James v. 17 ; Isa. xxxvii. 15 ;
ggO PRAYING ALWAYS, ETC.