(2.) The very praying often inferreth an obligation of greater strict- ness, that we may be such out of duty as we profess to be in duty : 1 Peter i. 17, 'And if ye call on thePather, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear ; ' 2 Tim. ii. 19, ' Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.' What ! confess sin, and yet commit it ? What ! pray so zealously, and live so vainly ! confute and contradict your prayers by your lives ! ask grace so earnestly of God, and cast it away so carelessly in your conversations ! Leave off one or the other, for hypocrisy is a double provoking thing, more than open profaneness.
Use 1, Is to reprove those that never call upon God, or very rarely, either in their families, or closets, or both. This cometh to pass —
1. Sometimes through a defect of their faith ; they do not believe God's being and providence, and the promises of his holy covenant as made with us. They do not believe his being : Ps. xiv. 1, ' The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God ; ' and ver. 4, ' They call not upon the Lord.' The practical atheist doth not pray : Job xv. 4, ' Thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God.' As the awe and reverence of God abateth in them, they cast off prayer, espe- cially in secret. God's children may be straitened in prayer, but they do not restrain prayer. Conscience is clamorous; prayer would fain break out, but they smother these checks and sentiments of religion till they wholly quit a course of praying. Sometimes they deny provi- dence: Ps. Ixxiii. 11, 'They say, How doth God know? and is there any knowledge in the Most High? ' and ver. 13, 'I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency; ' Mai. iii. 14, 'Ye have said, It is in vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?' Or else they do not soundly believe the covenant of God as made with them in Christ : Eom. x. 14, ' How shall they
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call upon him in whom they have not believed?' We cannot address ourselves to God in Christ, if we are not rooted in the faith of the gospel.
2. Sometimes through a defect of their love to God. They have no deh'ght in him, and therefore call not upon his name : Job xxvii. 10, ' Will he delight himself in the Almighty ? will he always call upon God ? ' They may sometimes cry to him to be free from trouble, but they do not always call upon him, nor keep up a constant use of prayer. They are weary of God : Isa. xliii. 22, ' Thou hast not called upon me, 0 Jacob ; thou hast been weary of me, 0 Israel.' They that left their first love left their first works, Eev. ii. 3, 4. Or else they are glutted with worldly happiness, and so God is neglected: Jer. ii. 31, ' We are lords, we will come no more unto thee.' They are well and at ease, or else they are besotted with carnal pleasures, that they have no heart to come to God : Luke xsi. 34, ' Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunken- ness and cares of this life.' The heart is withdrawn from God, and stolen away by carnal vanities.
3. From a defect in their hope ; tliey despair either of assistance or acceptance.
[1.] Of assistance. Having such a wandering, lean, and barren understanding, and dead afi'ections, they think they shall be never able to pray. And though God hath promised a Spirit of grace and supplication, and is ready to give it to those that do not give way to these evils, but strive against them, and the Holy Ghost is appointed to teach them to pray, yet they give way to this dulness and deadness, out of an indulgence to tbe ease of the flesh, and slothfulness and despair of God's help : Isa. Ixiv. 7, ' And there is none that calleth. upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee.' There is the lazy despair, as well as the raging despair, when men will not stir up themselves, and overcome the seeming difficulties which at first a course of prayer meeteth with.
[2.] Of acceptance. They have lost their peace by some grievous, wounding sin, and then have not the heart to go to God; as David kept silence, and hung off till he recovered his peace, Ps. xxxii. 3. So others have ofi'ended God, and represent him to themselves as an angiy judge rather than a gracious father, and so run away from him as guilty Adam did to the bushes. Gen. iii. 8, rather than come to him. In part this may be in God's children when they have grieved the Spirit ; but mostly it is in the wicked, who go on impenitently in some grievous and heinous sin, and so can have no heart to go on in a course of lively prayer. The presence of God is terrible to a sinner because of the conscience of their own sinful courses ; they expect nothing but wrath and vengeance from God, and they will not take God's way to reconcile themselves, and make their peace with him, but only put off the thoughts of that they cannot put away, and neglect God rather than seek to appease him.