[2.] There is besides this, hostis domesticus, the bosom enemy, the flesh, or the inbred corruption of our nature, that is ready to betray us to the basest temptations, and to open the gates to the enemy without. Man needeth no devil to tempt him, we have enough in our own bosoms to prompt and urge us to sin : James i. 5, ' The spirit in us lusteth to envy ; ' Gen. vi. 5, ' The thoughts and imaginations of our hearts are evil continually.' It is easy to set tinder, gunpowder, or flax on fire, and therefore they had need to be kept asunder. We cannot be too careful, the best of us have a good self and a bad self ; the one must watch over the other, or all will come to ruin, and grace will be ready to die : Kev. ii. 2, ' Be watchful and strengthen the things that remain, that are ready to die.' From whence cometh the vanity of our minds, our proneness to break the bounds of due liberty in all our comforts, our readiness to err in speech, our frequent miscarriages in conversation, our frequent unfitness for holy duties, our unfruit- fulness in our conversing with others, our unsettledness in our con- sciences, our immoderate cares and fears ; whence, I say, cometh all this, but from our want of watching against this inward enemy our flesh ? Especially when temptations are near, importunate, and con- stant. We proceed every step to heaven by conflict and contest, be- cause sin is always at hand, ready to assault us and taint us ; so that a serious Christian cannot but take himself to be still in danger.
[3.] The world. We walk in the midst of snares and temptations, saith Austin ; and Bernard saith that our life is a continual tempta- tion. We are in the midst of tempting objects, that are comfortable to our senses, necessary to our uses, and present to our embraces, that
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we can hardly distinguish between what necessity craveth, and lust desireth, and so we are strangely gained upon: 1 John ii. 16, ' For all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and pride of life.' He doth not say, ' Whatsoever is in our corrupt hearts ;' but ho describeth the objects by the lusts, because they are readily excited by them : ' All that is in the world.' There are baits for every temper ; honour for the ambitious, wealth for the covetous, pleasure for the sensual. Now every distemper loveth the diet that feedeth it : lust in the soul, or unmortified corruption maketh our abode in the world dangerous : 2 Peter i. 4, that ' having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.' Here one plungeth himself over- head and ears in the world ; another is intemperate in the delights of the flesh and the entertainments of sense ; another is aspiring after honour, great places, and pomp of living, or esteem in the world ; or at least we give ourselves too great a liberty and freedom in these things. Therefore you see what need there is of watching, when alluring objects lay such close siege to the appetite and senses.
2. There is a watching unto good, or for the performance of our duties, that we go about them in a holy, serious, conscionable manner, observing the best opportunities, and taking heed there be no secret leaven of hypocrisy in them. Of all holy duties the scripture applieth it to prayer, which of all other holy services is the commonest and the chiefest ; and watching therein is a great help ; though by analogy it hoi de th good in other duties, as we shall see in a few places : Col. iv. 2, ' Continue in prayer, and watch in the same, with thanksgiving.' So 1 Peter iv. 7, ' Be sober, and watch unto prayer.' So Eph. vi. 18, ' Watching therein with all perseverance.' Satan is a great enemy to this duty, and our hearts are averse, and hardly brought and kept to it. Unless it be well performed, our communion with God is inter- rupted and at a stand. Out of all these places we may well collect that there is— (1.) A watching unto prayer, or before prayer. (2.) A watching in prayer, or in the duty. (3.) A watching after prayer, or when the duty is over.
[1.] The watching unto prayer, or before the duty, is mainly to keep up a praying frame, that we may be ready upon all occasions to call upon God. The praying frame lieth partly in brokenness of heart, or a clue sense of our necessities ; and partly in an earnest bent of heart towards God, and holy and heavenly things ; and partly in a holy liberty, and child-like confidence. If either of these be lost, how slack and backward shall we be in God's worship, or slight in the perform- ance of it, whether in closet, or family, or public assemblies ; and slubber it over in any fashion. But when this frame of spirit is kept up, the soul is mightily actuated and enlarged in the duty. As when there is brokenness of heart, or a due sense of our necessities, which is the occasion of prayer, or an earnest desire of grace, which is the soul of prayer, or our liberty and confidence is not broken, which is the great encouragement of prayer, then we are like light and airy bodies, whose natural motion is upwards ; so are we carried out towards God, and prayer is our element in which we live and breathe. Indeed the whole spiritual life is but a ' watching unto prayer,' that we may have always a readiness for communion with God, 1 Peter iii. 7.