[3.] You must pray earnestly in secret as well as in company : Mat. vi. 5, 6, ' When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues, and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men : but thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret/ &c. We have more enlargement there, because we represent our own case to God. Mourn apart : Jer. xiii. 17, ' My soul shall weep in secret places.' We are flat, cold, loose, careless in private ; strive to speak with the same power, life, holiness in private as you would in public.
[4.] What you would be in prayer, you must be out of prayer : Prov. xxvi. 7, ' The legs of the lame are not equal, so is a parable in the mouth of a fool ;' as the legs of the lame, one doth not answer another. They are devout, all of a lire in their prayers, but neglectful of God in their conversations: Eph. vi. 18, 'Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, watching thereunto with all perseverance;
YER. 145.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 45
Prov. xxviii. 9, ' He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination.' He doth not live his prayers. We must live in the same frame.
[5.] You must pray as affectionately for heavenly as you would for earthly things. A carnal man's mind and heart is upon worldly things, and spiritual tilings lie by ; contrary to Mat. vi. 33, where we are bid, ' First to seek the kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof,' &c. ; and Ps. xxvii. 4, ' One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after ; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.' They have no savour for other requests, but can find tender affections for safety, ease, sloth : other petitions do but bear these company ; there is their business with God. If God will give these things, we will give a discharge for other things ; so that their prayers do not come from grace, but nature ; thanks to his natural necessities for all the affections he hath in prayer.
[6.] We must not only have our flashes and good moods. So Balaam : Num. xxiii. 10, ' Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.' So those, John vi. 34, ' Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread/ Strange strivings for the present, but it is only for privileges. It is vanishing : Job xxvii. 10, ' Will he delight himself in the Almighty? will he always call upon God?' They would have heaven without holiness ; pardon of sin, rather than power against it, or a new heart. He will pray when he seeth his time, as men take strong waters in a pang : he hath a praying fit upon him in adversity, not in prosperity : Hosea v. 15, ' In their affliction they will seek me early.'
[7.] As you pray to God, so you must entirely trust him : James i. 6, 7, ' Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering ; for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed.' A carnal man wavereth ; he would fain have help from God, but his heart runneth upon other things: Hosea vii. 11, ' Ephraim is like a silly dove without heart ; they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.' Their hearts are seeking to other refuges, however they call to God among the rest. Ahaz would not ask a sign that would engage him to depend upon God, and keep him from running to other shifts. Sometimes he thinketh prayer will do it, and by and by desponds, dareth not trust God upon his prayers; he knoweth not what course to take, whether to shift for himself, or tarry God's leisure. But one that commits all to God is fixed : Ps. cxii. 7, ' He shall not be afraid of evil tidings, his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.' He is freed from anxious cares.
SERMON CLXIII.
I cried with my whole heart ; hear me, 0 Lord ; I will keep thy statutes. — Yer. 145.
Secondly, Here is the petition, ' Hear me;' or, as it is in the Hebrew, * answer me ; ' not in words, but deeds.
46 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. CLXIII.
Doct. God's children when they pray are earnest for an answer.
To give you some instances : Ps. lxxxv. 8, ' I will hear what God the Lord will speak.' A gracious heart doth not make prayer a vain babbling or an empty prattle, but a gracious exercise that will in time get an answer, and obtain a good return or blessing from the Lord. Therefore they are listening and hearkening after news from heaven, if they can hear anything from God, how he receiveth their prayers, and what he will do for them: Micah vii. 7, 'Therefore I will look unto the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation : my God will hear me.' They are not only waiting, but observing and watching what cometh in upon prayer; for they are certain it is not breath poured out in the air, but a petition commended to their God, who hath promised to hear them. So Hab. ii. 1, 'I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say to me.' He compareth himself to a watchman that is spying abroad if he can get any intelligence of any approaching comfort. So Ps. v. 3, 'I will pray, and look up;' as Elijah, if he could spy a cloud, any preparation towards mercy.