thorn by his extraordinary proceedings intended against them, to take the hint, and apply themselves to the solemn practice of repentance, and humbling of their souls, as a suitable posture to meet God in, and keep off the storm of his wrath. Is it not high time for a nation to betake themselves to their defensive arms, when a mighty host is marching against them? So Isaiah xxvi. 20, ' Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee,' &c. Ilere he sends his people to tlieir chambers, that they may, by afflicting their souls, and fervent prayers, find a hiding-place in the day of his indignation ; and why? — ver. 21, ' For behold the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their Iniquity.' The rising of God out of his place imports that he is about to perform some notable enterprise ; and when the master riseth, it is not proper for the servant to sit still, but to rise also, and prepare to follow him where he goes. God takes special notice how we behave ourselves, and comport with his dispensations of judgment or mercy, Isa. xxii. 12 : 'In that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning;' that is, he called them by the voice of his providence, as well as his prophets, the nature of which was such, that, had not their lusts stopped up their ears, and made them deaf, they could not but hear and imder- stand, and that was the time, if ever, when God expected to see them in sack- cloth and tears, humbling their souls before him. Now see how he looks upon their security and profane slighting of his providence, ver. 14 : ' And it was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord God of hosts.' Few sins provoke God more than this, Psa. xxviii. 5 : ' Because they regard not the woi'ks of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up.' So Dan. v. 22 : ' And thou, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this :' this lost him his life and kingdom, as the contrary saved Ahab's for a time, though it was not so sincere as it ought : a temporal humiliation got him a temporal benefit. Thirdly, For the great influence that this extraordinary duty, solemnly performed, would have upon our whole life. To keep the body healthful, requires not only daily food, but now and then physic ; for in the soundest constitution, with the best care and temperance, there will in time such a quantity of superfluous humours gather, that nature, withovit help, cannot digest : and truly the temper of the souLis as infirm, and needs as much attention as the body. Ordinary prayer is the saint's food ; he can as little miss the constant returns of it as his usual meals. But extraordinary prayer is his physic, to clear and discharge the soul of those distempers which it contracts, and cannot conquer by the use of ordi- nary means ; as also to advance and heighten the Christian's graces unto a farther degree of strength and activity. As God hath in his wise providence ordered one star of great influence to be at a certain season of the year in con- junction with the sun, for the more effectual ripening the harvest in these colder parts of the world ; so hath he in the same wisdom appointed, for the Christian's spiritual advantage and help in this cold climate of the world, that this solemn duty should now and then be taken into conjunction with oiu- ordinary exercise of devotion, for want of which it is that many ripen slower, both in their graces and comforts, than some of their fellow-saints who sit often under the influences of this quickening ordinance.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
DIRECTIONS TO THE PERFORMING EXTRAORDINARY PRAYER,
What direction may be given to the acceptable and successful performance of this solemn duty ?
I come now to close my discourse on this point, in answering this last ques- tion ; a serious, necessary one it is, for indeed it is an edge-tool of excellent use, but dangerous in his hand that knows not how to use it; like some physic, if it doth not purge, it poisons. In the same fat soil where the corn is best, the weeds are rankest. Neither grace nor sin grow to such a height anywhere as in those that converse much with this solemn ordinance. Therefore, as they wiio are in a ship upon a swift stream had need the more look to the steerage of it, because they will be either carried rapidly to their port, or be wrecked ; so
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703 WITH ALL PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION.