encouraged by thee. This granted, for thy comfort know, they arc not so offensive to God, as to thyself. Thy prayers pass such a refining in Christ's mediation, that their ill scent is taken away. Doth thy scruple arise from the sinful failings of thy daily conversation and Christian course ? To remove this, observe how the Spirit of God, when he instanceth in Elias, as a person whose prayers were exceedingly prevalent with God, doth not describe him by the transcendencv of his grace above others, but by his infirmities like unto them: ' Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained not,' James v. 17. As if God should say, Were I so cui'ious in my scrutiny as you fear, Elias's prayer would have been stopped, for he was not without his infirmities. How many failings do we find in David's unseemly carriage before Achish, for which he was turned out of the king's presence under the notion of a madman ! yet his prayer at that time, when he betrayed so many unbelieving fears, found favour with God ; Psa. xxxiv. 4, ' I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.' Read tlie title, and you shall find it, A Psalm of David, who changed his behaviovu- before Achish, Avho drove him away, and he departed. Are they the sinful infirmities which escape thee in the duty of prayer ! Canst thou find more in any prayer thou puttest up, than were in the disciples', for one so short ? — where they exercised so little faith that Christ calls it no faith ; Mark iv. 40, ' Why are ye so fearful ? How is it that ye have no faith ?' Yea, they pray to Christ and chide him in the same breath, ' Master, carest thou not that we perish ?' Yet Christ could find sincerity hid in their infirmities, and granted their request. It is true he rebuked them, but it is as true that he rebuked the wind also. God's promise for hearing of prayer, shall not be made void by the saint's weakness in prayer : yea, for thy farther comfort, know, that the less power these have to shake or disturb thy spirit in expecting a gracious answer, the more kindly will God take it at thy hand. ' Abraham,' it is said, 'believed, not considering his own body, or the deadness of Sarah's womb ;' and for this was highly commended, because he thereby did signally glorify the power of God, to which he believed their bodily indisposition should not be any obstacle. Truly, thus it will be highly pleasing to God, if thou canst rely, not staggering at thy spiritual indispositions, and that deadness of thy heart which rises up as a great objection in thy thoughts against the success of thy prayer : for by this, thou givest Christ both the honour of his death, through which thou hast this free access for thy weak prayers to the throne of grace, and also of his intercession, which clarifies them all from their sinfid mixtures.
CHAPTER XXV.
A THREEFOLD ARGUMENT WHICH SATAN DRAWS FROM GOd's DEPORTMENT TO THE CHRISTIAN IN AND AFTER PRAYER, TO MAKE HIM QUESTION ITS ACCEPTANCE.
Satan draws his argument from God's deportment to the soul in and after I)rayer ; in which, three things he commonly insists upon, by them to create trouble to the Christian's thoughts. First, His silence, which he would have the Christian interpret to be God's slighting or disregarding of him and his prayer. Secondly, His frowns, from which he would have him conclude, neither he nor his duty are accepted. Thirdly, His not giving the mercy in kind : and this he tells the Christian amounts to a denial.
Section I. — His silence after prayer. As wicked men sometimes sin, and God keeps silence, which makes them bold to think God approves of them and their way ; so sometimes a gracious soul prays, and God holds his peace here also ; and the poor soul begins to fear, that neither his person nor his duty are approved of God. Now Satan, knowing what thoughts are likely to rise in the Christian's own heart, falls in, and joins issue with the Christian's bosom enemy, labouring to confirm him in these his unbelieving fears. To help thee out of this. First, Learn to distinguish between God's hearing, and his answering the saint's prayer. Every faithful prayer is heard, and makes an acceptable report in God's ear as soon as it is shot ; but God doth not always thus speedily answer it. The father at the reading of his son's letter (which comes haply on
gQ.J, PRAYING ALWAYS, ETC.