TWO STEATAGEMS WIIERF-BY SATAN LABOURS TO KEEP THE WEAK CHRISTIAN FROM THE DUTY OF PRAYER.
His first design upon thee will be to keep thee from prayer ; to effect which, he wants not his stratagems; many objections he will start, and discourage- ments throw in thy way to this duty, hoping that if thou stuni])lest not at one, yet he may make thee fall by another. And, which is worst, thou wilt lind a party in thy own bosom ready to listen to what he saith, yea, to take up his arguments, and maintain the dispute against thy engaging in this work. We shall pick a few among many, and put an answer into thy mouth against he comes.
Section I. — What, thou pray ! if thou dost, thou wilt but play the hypoci'ite, and thou hadst better not pray at all. Nay, possibly thy own misgiving heart may suggest the same, or at least so far credit his charge, as to make thee waver in thy thoughts, what thou shouldst do, pray or not. Now, to arm thee against this, consider. First, Thou art but afraid thou shouldst play the hypocrite : but thou wilt certainly prove thyself an atheist, if thou dost not ; and that is it which he would have. I hope thou art wiser than to neglect a known duty upon a jealousy thou hast of miscarrying in it ; to lie down in a known sin, yea, so broad a one as brands him for an atheist that continues in it, for fear of meeting a lion (and may be but a bugbeai-) in the way of thy obedience to an indispen- sable command. Secondly, Thou art in less danger of playing the hypocrite, because of thy fear. Some bodily diseases, indeed, are catched with fear. He is most likely to have the plague that fears it most; but none are so safe from sin as they that most fear the falling into it. I desire no better aj-gument to prove thee sincere than thy fear of hypocrisy. If this be the great trouble of thy soul, the devil hath more reason to fear thy sincerity, than thou thy hypocrisy ; and this it is that makes him endeavour to dissuade thee trom prayer, because thou wouldst scare him so much by thy praying. If thou wert an hypocrite, as he pretends, he would invite and persuade thee to it, rather than thou shouldst not come to the work ; and when thou art risen from thy knees, he would thank thee for thy pains, because he knows God would not. The hypocrite does him more service than God. You do not believe, surely, that the devil was any great enemy to Jezebel's fasting ; nay, I doubt not but he put it into her head, that she might thereby mock both God and man. Her fast was the devil's feast. Thirdly, If thou findest more cause to fear thy playing the hypocrite, than I do who am a stranger to thy heart ; I say, if thou fearest that this is the sin which is most likely to make a breach upon tliee in thy duty, do as Moses did, who slew the Egyptian to rescue the Israelite : destroy the sin, that thou mayest rescue thy soul from the neglect of a duty. Thou hast a fair advantage by the intelligence God graciously gives thee whence thy danger is most likely to come, of falling on thy enemy, and taking the fuller revenge on him before thou settest about the work of prayer. If in thy heart tliou hate this odious sin, and are fixed in tliy resolution against it, with God's blessing it shall neither be able to hurt thee, nor hinder thy prayer.
Section II. — O ! but saith Satan, thou hast no gifts for prayer ; leave that for them that can perform this duty after a better fashion. What meanest thou by gifts? If a flowing tongue, which some have, whereby they are able on a sudden, with a long continued discourse, to run over all the heads of prayer in a clear method, and clothe every petition with apt and moving expressions ; we will suppose thou hast not the gift ; but God forbid that the want of this sliould keep thee from praying, or make thee go the less comfortably to the duty ! The want of these shews only thou hast not so good a head, but doth not the least hinder thy heart to he as gracious as theirs ; and better the defect should be
g36 PRAYING ALWAYS, ETC.