To go to God when tbou art full of sorrow, when thy heart is ready to burst within thee, as it was with Christ in this clay of his trouble ; and say, Father, thus and thus the case stands with thy poor child ; and so and so it is with me ; I will not go up and down complaining from one creature to another, it is to no pur- pose to do so ; nor yet will I leave my complaint upon myself : but I will tell thee, Father, how the case stands with me ; for to whom should children make their moan, but to their Father ? Lord, I am oppressed, undertake for me, What thinkest thou, reader, of this? Is it relieving to a sad soul? Yes, yes; if thou be a Christian that hast had any experience this way, thou wilt say there is nothing like it ; thou wilt bless God for appointing such an ordi- nance as prayer, and say, Blessed be God for prayer: I know not what I should have done, nor how in all the world I should have waded through the troubles I have passed, if it had not been for the help of prayer,
Inf. 2. Did Christ withdraw from the disciples to seek God by prayer ? Thence it follows, That the company of the best men is not always seasonable. Peter, James, and John, were three ex- cellent men, and yet Christ saith to them, Tarry ye here, while I go and pray yonder. The society of men is beautiful in its season, and no better than a burden out of season. I have read of a good man, that when his stated time for closet-prayer was come, he would say to the company that were with him, whatever they were, Friends, I must beg your excuse for a while, there is a friend zvaits to speak with me. The company of a good man is good, but it ceases to be so, when it hinders the enjoyment of better company. One hour with God is to be preferred to a thousand days enjoy- ment of the best men on earth. If thy dearest friends in the world intrude unseasonably betwixt thee and thy God, it is neither rude nor unmannerly to bid them give place to better company ; I mean, to withdraw from them, as Christ did from the disciples, to enjoy an hour with God alone. In public and private duties we may admit of the company of others to join with us ; and if they be such as fear God, the more the better : but in secret duties, Christ and thou must whisper it over betwixt yourselves ; and then the com- pany of the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, that is as thine own soul, would not be welcome. " When thou prayest, enter into " thy closet ; and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy " Father which is in secret,'' Mat. vi. 6. It is as much as if Christ had said, See all clear ; be sure to retire in as great privacy as may be ; let no ear but God's hear what thou hast to say to him. This is at once a good note of sincerity, and a great help to spiritual liberty and freedom with God.
Inf 3. Did Christ go to God thrice upon the same account ?
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Thence learn, That Christians should not be discouraged, though they have sought God once and again, and no answer of peace comes. Christ was not heard the first time, and he goes a second : he was not answered the second, he goes the third and last time, yet was not answered in the thing he desired, viz. that the cup might pass from him; and yet he hath no hard thoughts of God, but re- solves his will into his Father's. If God deny you in the things you ask, he deals no otherwise with you than he did with Christ. " O my God (saith he) I cry in the day-time, but thou hearest " not ; and in the night, and am not silent/1 Yet he justifies God, " but thou art holy,11 Psal. xxii. 2. Christ was not heard in the thing he desired, and yet heard in that he feared, Heb. v. 7.
The cup did not pass as he desired, but God upheld him, and enabled him to drink it. He was heard as to support, he was not heard as to exemption from suffering : his will was expressed con- ditionally ; and therefore though he had not the thing he so de- sired, yet his will was not crossed by the denial. But now, when we have a suit depending before the throne of grace, and cry to God once and again, and no answer comes ; how do your hands hang down, and your spirits wax feeble !
Then we complain with the church, Lam. iii. 8, " When I cry " and shout, he shutteth out my prayers ; thou coverest thyself " with, a cloud, that our prayers cannot pass through.11 Then, with Jonah we conclude *< we are cast out of his sight.11 Alas ! we judge by sense according to what we see and feel ; and cannot live by faith on God, when he seems to hide himself, put us off, and refuse our requests. It calls for an Abraham's faith, to " believe against hope, giving glory to God.11 If we cry, and no answer comes presently, our carnal reason draws a headlong hasty conclusion. Sure I must expect no answer : God is angry with my pravers : The seed of prayer hath lain so long under the clods, and it appears not ; surely it is lost, I shall hear no more of it.
Our prayers may be heard, though their answer be for the present suspended. As David acknowledged, when he coolly con- sidered the matter, Psal. xxxi. 22. " I said in my haste, I am cut " off from before thine eyes ; nevetheless thou heardest the voice " of my supplication, when I cried unto thee.11 No, no, Christi- an ; a prayer sent up in faith, according to the will of God, cannot be lost, though it be delayed. We may say of it as David said of Saul's sword, and Jonathan's bow, that they never returned empty.
Inf. 4. Was Christ so earnest in prayer, that he prayed himself into a very agony? Let the people of God blush to think how unl'ika their spirits are to Christ, as to their prayerjYamcs.
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O what lively, sensible, quick, deep, and tender apprehensions and sense of those things about which he prayed, had Christ ? Though he saw his very blood starting out from his hands, and his clothes died in it : yet being in an agony, he prayed the more earnestly. I do not say Christ is imitable in this ; no, but his fervour in prayer is a pattern for us, and serves severely to rebuke the laziness, dulness, torpor, formality, and stupidity, that are in our prayers. How often do we bring the sacrifice of the dead before the Lord ! how often do our lips move, and our hearts stand still ! O how unlike Christ are we ! his prayers were pleading prayers \ full of mighty arguments and fervent affections. O that his peo- ple were in this more like him !
Inf. 5. Was Christ in such an agony before any hand of man was upon him, merely from the apprehensions of the wrath of God, with which he now contested ? " Then surely it is a dread- " ful thing to fall into the hands of the living God ; for our God " is a consuming fire."