treading in his steps, 2 Cor. vi. 5, ' In watchings and fastings.' Many a sweet spiritual entertainment holy David's devout soul got in the night, when others lay asleep in their bed : ' My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, —when I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night- watches,' Psa. Ixiii. 5, 6. No doubt, for a devout soul, upon some extraordi- nary occasions, thus to watch unto prayer, is not only laudable, but delectable. Happy soul, that can thus steal in the dai-k into the arms of his beloved, and watch for devotion, while others watch to do mischief. This is the Christian, whose soul, like Gideon's fleece, shall be filled with the influences of heaven above others. Watching is taken metaphorically, for the vigilancy of the soul ; this is principally meant here, and in other Scriptures where we are commanded to watch, Mark xiii. 35 ; Rev. xvi. 1.5 ; 1 Thess. v. 6 ; 1 Peter v. 8. Now, we shall the better understand what duty is imposed upon the Christian under this word, if we consider what bodily watching is ; two things it imports, — ' waking' and ' working ;' when a man wakes in the night to attend some busi- ness to be done, such an one truly watcheth ; a man that has no sleep in the night, but not through any business that he hath to despatch, he may be said to wake, but not to watch. The shepherds ai'e said to keep watch over their flocks in the night, Luke ii. 8 ; and the disciples watched with Christ, while they sat up to wait on him the night before his passion, Matt. xxvi. 40. So that for a Christian to watch in a spiritual sense, is to preserve his soul awake from sin in the night of this world, that he may keep the Lord's charge, and do the duty imposed upon him as a Christian. Now prayer being one principal duty he is to attend, and that with all his might, therefore watching is very often joined with it. Matt. xxvi. 41 ; Mark xiii. 33 ; Luke xxi. 36 ; Col. iv. 2 ; 1 Peter iv. 7. In handling this duty, I shall, First, shew, why the Christian is to watch unto prayer : Secondly, and wherein the duty consists : Thirdly, I shall set the Chris- tian's watch for him, by giving some little counsel towards his constant per- forming of it. First, Why must the Christian watch in prayer ?
Section II. — First, Because of the importance of the duty of prayer; no one action doth a Christian meet with in his whole life, of greater weight and moment. First, in regard of God. Prayer is an act of religious worship in ■which we have immediately to do with the great God, to whom we approach in prayer. It is too sacred a duty to be performed between sleeping and waking, with a heavy eye or a drowsy heart ; this God complained of — 'There is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee,' Isaiah Ixiv. 7. He counts it no prayer where the heart is not stirred up and awake. There is no duty in which we can honovir and dishonour God more, than in prayer : O, how then ought we to watch in this duty ! Again, in regard of ourselves ; for our behaviour in prayer hath an universal influence upon all the passages of our whole life ; as a man is in this duty, so he is likely to be in all the rest; if he is careless in praying, then he is negligent in hearing, loose in his walking ; he shall find that he miscarries in all his enter- prises, is ensnared in all his enjoyments, baffled with every temptation, and dis- composed at every affliction that meets him: and the reason of this is, because our strength, both to do and sufler, comes from God. God comnumicates his assistance to his children in a way of commvmion with them ; they ask, and have; they seek, and find ; knock, and mercy is opened to them. Prayer is the channel, in which the stream of divine grace, blessing, and comfort, runs from God into their hearts; dam up the channel, and the stream is stopped. Secondly, Watchfulness is of as great importance to prayer, as prayer is to all our other duties : no duty can be despatched well without prayer, nor prayer without watch- ing ; for it is not prayer, but prayer performed in a holy, spiritiuil manner, that is effectual ; now this cannot be done when the Christian is oft" his watch. Take the Christian napping, with his graces in a slumber, and he is no fitter to pray, than a sleepy man is to work ; whatever a man is doing, sleep, M'hen it comes, puts an end to it ; the strong man is as unable to defend himself in his sleep, as the child ; the rich man and the poor are alike, he enjoys his estate no more than if he had none. Thus the Christian, while his graces are asleep, is like another that hath no graces (as to the present use of them) ; he will pray as the carnal man doth, and enjoy no more of God in the duly than such an one. O, how sad is this! aiul yet how prone are we to give way unto this drowsiness
Yg^^ WATCHING THEREUNTO.