The fourth difference. Fourthly, A gracious soul looks and lives nnore upon God in prayer than upon his prayer. He knows, though prayer be his chariot, yet Christ is his food. Prayer may be a staff to support him, but Christ is that manna that must nourish him, and upon him he looks, and lives : Ps. v. 3, ' In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee ' (or marshal and set in order my prayer, as it is in the He- brew), ' and will look up '• (or ' look out,' as it is in the Hebrew) ' as a watchman looks out to discover the approaches of an enemy.'' But vain men, they live and look more upon their prayers than they do upon God ; nay, usually they never observe what returns they have from heaven. They are like those that shoot arrows, but do not mind where they fall. Wicked men think it is religion enough for them to pray ; and to look after their prayers, to see how their prayers speed, is no
' This pharisee was like the Egyptian temple, painted without, and spotted within ; varnish without, and vermin within. ,
2 Pa. Ixxviii. 84 ; Zech. vii. 5-7 ; Isa. xxvi. 16, 17. * nSVNI 17 "pVH, in PihU.
Rom. VIII. 32-34.] heaven on eaeth. 499
article of their faith ; but a gracious soul is of a more noble spirit ; when he hath prayed he will stand upon his watch-tower, and observe what God will speak : Ps. Ixxxv. 8, ' I will hear what God the Lord will speak ;' for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints : but let them not return to folly;' or, as the Hebrew maybe read, 'And they shall not return to folly. Veal iashubu le chislah.' Wicked men would have God to be all ear to hear what they desire, when them- selves have never an ear to hear what he speaks. But deaf ears shall always be attended with dumb answers. Justice always makes mercy dumb, when sin hath made the sinner deaf.
The fifth difference. Fifthly, No discouragements can take gracious souls off from prayer, but tJie least discouragments will take offcarTial heaHs from piuyer, as you may see in the following scriptures com- pared together : Ps. xl. 1, 2, and xliv. 10-23 ; Mat. xv. 21-29 ; MaL iii. 14 ; Isa. Iviii. 1-3 ; Amos viii. 3-5, &c.^
When one of the ancient martyrs was terrified with the threatenings of his persecutors, he replied, ' There is nothing,' saith he, ' of things visible, nothing of things invisible that I fear ; I will stand to my pro- fession of the name of Christ, and contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints, come on it what will.' It is neither the hope of life, nor the fear of death, that can take a real Christian off from prayer. He is rather raised than dejected, he is rather quickened than dis- couraged by delays or denials ; .he will hold up and hold on in a way and course of prayer, though men should rage and lions roar, and the furnace be heat seven times hotter, &c. But it is not so with carnal hearts. Job xxvii. 9, 10.
The sixth difference. Sixthly, When a gracious man prays, he hath his heaH in his prayer ; ivhen he falls upon the work, he makes heart- work of it? So David, Ps. xlil 4, ' When I remember these things, I pour out my heart.' So Hannah, 1 Sam. i. 15, 'I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit,' said she, ' and have poured out my soul before the Lord.' So the Israelites in 1 Sam. vii. 6, 'pour out their souls like water before the Lord.' So the church in Isa. xxvi. 8, 9, * The desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee. With my soul have I desired thee in the night ; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early.' Gracious souls know that no prayer is acknow- ledged, accepted, and rewarded by God, but that wherein the heart is sincerely and wholly.* It is not a piece, it is not a comer of the heart, that will satisfy the maker of the heart. The true mother would not have the child divided. As God loves a broken and a contrite heart, so he loathes a divided heart. God neither loves halting nor halving, he will be served truly and totally. The royal law is, * Thou shalt love and serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,' Deut. X. 12. Among the heathens, when the beasts were cut up for
^ nyD CS, I will listen, and lay my obedient ear to what the Lord shall speak.
2 Aristotle, though a heathen, coald say, that in some cases a man had better lose his life than be cowardly. — Ethic, iii. cap. i.
* In his course his heart is in his prayer ; he finds by experience that the heart is the jyrimum mobile, the great wheel that moves all other wheels. It is the chief monarch in the isle of man.
< The voice of God is Da mihi cor. The heart, as a prince, gives laws to all other members. The heart is Christ's bed of spices ; it is his presence-chamber ; it is his royal throne ; it is one of those four keys that God keeps under his own girdle.
/)00 HEAVEN ON EAKTH. [ROM. VIII. 82-34
sacrifice, the first thing the priest looked upon was the heart, and if the heart was naught the sacrifice was rejected. Verily, God rejects all those sacrifices wherein the heart is not.
Now wicked men are heartless in all their services, in all their prayers, as you may see in comparing the following scriptures together ; I shall not transcribe the words, because I must cut short the work : Isa. xxix. 13 ; Mat. xv. 7-9 ; Ezek. xxxiii. 30-32 ; Zech. vii. 4-6 ; 2 Chron. xxv. 1, 2. As the body without the soul is dead, so prayer, without the heart be in it, is but dead prayer in the eye and account of God.^ Prayer is only lovely and weighty, as the heart is in it, and no otherwise. It is not the lifting up of the voice, nor the wringing of the hands, nor the beating of the breasts, but the stirrings of the heart, that God looks at in prayer, God hears no more than the heart speaks ; if the heart be dumb, God wiU certainly be deaf. No prayer takes with God but that which is the travail of the heart.
The seventh difference. Seventhly, Gracious souls usually come off from 'prayer, with hearts more disengaged from sin, and more vehe- mently set against it.^ The precious communion that they have with God in prayer, the sweet breathings of God into their hearts, whilst they are a-breathing out their requests in his ears, and the secret assistance, stirrings, and movings of the Spirit upon their souls in prayer, arm them more against sin, and makes them stand upon the highest terms of defiance with sin. How shall I do this or that wickedness against God ? says the praying soul. Oh I cannot, I will not do anything unworthy of him that hath caused his glory to pass before me in prayer.