Section III. — When the Christian is under any great affliction. Now is a fit season, if he is able for the work: * Is any among you afflicted? let him pray,' James v. 13 ; that is, let him then be more than ordinary in this duty ; for he must, yea, will, if a Christian, pray when he is not aiHicted : but the meaning is, he must now pray after an extraordinary manner ; he must now pray with more vehcmency ; for though in all our addresses to God we are to express the lively workings of our hearts to God, without which our prayers are unsavoury, yet God expects, and it hath been always the care of holy men, in their extraordinary applications to this duty of prayer to wind up their affections to a pitch higher than ordinary. Look upon them in some great strait and affliction, and you shall find them exceeding themselves, and evincing a princely spirit : so Jacob behaved himself in prayer. Gen. XKxii. 23 ; as a 2)rince fighting in the field for his crown and kingdom, he wrestled with the angel, who was no other than God himself; that is, he strained, as it were, every vein in his heart, and put forlli his whole might in prayer, as a wrestler would do that grappled with a potent adversary. Moses is so transported with zeal for Israel, when a dismal cloud of wrath threatened them for their idolatry, that he oflers rather to die upon the place, than to go down the Mount, and not carry the joyful news of pardon with him, Exod. xxxii. 32. And Nelie- miah, when he had been afflicting his soul, and praying before the Lord, it was with such vehemency that the anguish of his spirit looked out at his eyes, and left a mark of sorrow upon his very countenance which his prince could observe as he waited on him. Again, in aflliction we are called to pray, as more inten- sively, so more extensively ; I mean, longer and oftener. Thus our Saviour spent more time than ordinary in it. tThrice, one after another, we find him at it. Matt. xxvi. 44. His agony was great, and the waves of his affliction violent ; and therefore he doubles, yea, trebles, his prayer, with deep sighs and strong cries to his Father. Nature never strains so to its utmost as when it is op- pressed ; then temples work, lungs heave, and heart jiants ; so in affliction the spirit of prayer should be increased and extended.
Section IV. — When the Christian is buffeted with any temptation, or over- powered with a corruption, and cannot with the use of ordinary means quench the one or mortify the other. If the short dagger of ordinary prayer will not reach the heart of a lust, then it is time to draw out this long sword of extra- ordinary prayer upon it. There is a kind of devils, our Saviour tells us, that goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. Matt. xvii. 21. You know the occasion of this speech was that complaint of one concerning his lunatic son ; ' I brought iiim to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.' Thus some poor souls com- plain that they have come to the word in their daily prayers, begged power over such a lust, resolved against it many a time, and none of these means cure it ; what can they now do more ? Here thou art told : bring thy condition to Christ in this solemn ordinance of prayer and fasting ; this hath been the happy means of strengthening many a poor Christian to be avenged on those spiritual enemies which have outbraved all the former, and, like Samson, to pull down the devil's house upon his head.
Section V. — When sin abounds more than ordinary in the times we live in. Sinning times have ever been the saints' praying times : this sent Ezra with a heavy heart to confess the sin of his people, and to bewail their abominations before the Lord, chap. ix. And Jeremiah tells the wicked of his degenerate age that his 'soul should weep in secret places for their pride,' Jer. xiii. 17. Indeed, sometimes sin comes to such a height that this is almost all the godly can do, to get into a corner, and bewail the general pollutions of tlic age. ' If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?' Psa. xi. 3. Such dismal days of national confusion our eyes have seen, when foundations of government were destroyed, and all hurled into military confusion. When it is thus with a people, what can the righteous do? Yes, this they may, and should do, ' fast and pray.' There is yet a God in heaven to be sought to, when a people's deliverance is thrown beyond the help of human policy or power. Now is the fit time to make their appeal to God, as the words following hint, ver. 4 : 'The Lord ir, in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven ;' in
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70(5 WITH ALL PRAYER AND SUPrLICATION.