overcome thy distempei- so far as to traffic with the world, but not to trade with heaven ? Surely all is not right. May not God say, I deserve thy company as well as the world? But supjjose thou art quite laid up, and cannot attend to thy worldly employments ; yet will this excuse thee from visiting the thi-one of grace ? God takes thee out of the shop to shew thee thy way into the closet : he knocks thee off thy worldly trade, that thou mayest follow thy heavenly more closely. Thou art not, indeed, able to pray in a continual discourse, as in health; neither doth God expect it. Here that scripture, which the devil would have thee abuse, is suitable to thy present state, — ' God loves mercy rather than sacrifice.' .Yet now, if ever, is tlie time for thee to shoot those darts of ejacula- tory prayer to God. When our body breathes shortest, it breathes quickest. Though thou canst not pray long, yet thou mayest pray much in these pathetic sallies of thy soul to heaven. The Christian should have his quiver full of these arrows, which, thougli short, go with force. Christ never prayed more earnestly than in his agony ; which prayer was of this nature, — ' O, my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me ; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt,' Matt. xxvi. 39. And after a little pause (that nature might take soine breath, by reason of that unspeakable burden which then lay upon it) he shoots the same dart again to heaven thrice, one after another, ver. 44. In a word, though thou canst not pray as thou wert wont, yet thou canst desire others to pray for thee and with thee : we are bid to send for the elders, yea, and beg prayers of others too. So pitiful is God to us, that when, through our own weakness, we are disabled from delivering our own conceptions in prayer, we may have the assistance of others ; when we cannot go ourselves, as we were wont, to the work, we may be carried on the shoulders of their prayers, and fly on the wings of their faith to heaven.
CHAPTER IX.
Satan's stratagem to keep the christian from prayer, upon pretence OF present indisposition of heart.
O, BUT thou mayest say, it is not the sickness of thy body, but the deadness of thy heart, and indisposition of thy soul, that keeps thee from duty. Thou wouldst fain have that in a better frame, and then thou wouldst not be long a stranger to it.
Section I. — Let me ask thee. Christian, what thou hast found (in the observ- ation of thy own heart) to be the fruit that hath grown from such delays ? Hath neglect of duty at one time fitted thee for it at another ? I believe not. Sloth is not cured with sleep, nor laziness with idleness. If our leg be numbed, we walk, and so it wears oft". Satan knows, if thou playest the truant to-dav, thou wilt go the more loth to school to-morrow. Give the flesh a little scope by thus unlacing thyself, and it will endure less to be straitened afterward. There is something to do to bridle a wanton beast, when he hath got the bit once out of its mouth. The spouse's coat sat very easy when on her back, and unwilling, no doubt, she was to be stripped; but when once, by a wile of Satan, she was persuaded to put it off, how loth was she then to get it on again ! and therefore, whenever you are turning from any other duty, merely upon this ac- count, consider well what is likely to follow. Thou wilt see thy sin, and return with shame and sorrow for thy neglect. And is it not less trouble to pray now, than upon such terms afterward ? A heathen could say, he would not sin to buy repentance ; and shouldst not tliou have more wisdom to know which is a bad bargain for thy soul ? Tliis neglect will beget another, and that a third, and so thou wilt run farther in arrears with thy conscience, till at last, thou givestover all thoughts of renewing thy acquaintance with God, because thou hast dis- continued it so long.
Section II. — Examine from whence this present indisposition comes, and prol)ably thou wilt find reason to charge it either upon some sinful miscarriage in thy christian course, or on thy neglect of those means through which thou art to pass into the performance of this duty. First, See whether thou hast not been tampering with some sin knowingly. There is an antipathy between sinning and praying, partly from guilt, which makes the soid shy of coming into CJod's sight, because conscious of a fault. The child thathath misspent the day in play
ggg PRAYING ALWAYS, ETC.