exercise they are inseparable : neither would be of any avail without the other : prayer without watchfulness would be hypocritical ; and watchfulness without prayer, presumptuous. We shall therefore combine the duties, as though it had been said, Watch in the exercise of prayer. And that we may yet further simplify the subject, we shall not enter into a detail of particulars, but rather follow the general ideas of our text ; and shew,
1. What we should watch and pray against —
[Here we must include every thing which has a tendency to lull us asleep. We see how intent men are on all the things of time and sense : the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, so occupy them, that they find no time
nor inclination for spiritual concerns
Against these then we should " watch and pray:" we should watch, to prevent them from gaining an ascendant over our hearts ; and cry mightily to God to keep us from yielding to their influence. Seeing how the whole world is led captive by them, we should tremble for ourselves; and day and night in treat God rather to leave us destitute of all earthly things, than to give us over to the love of them, or suffer them to deprive us of eternal happiness ]
2. What we should watch and pray for —
[To be found ready, at whatever moment our Lord shall call for us, should be the one object of our ambition. With this view, we should seek to be found in Christ, not having our own righteousness, but that which is of God through faith in Christ. Not content with a general hope of acceptance through Christ, we should wash our every sin, yea our every duty also, in the fountain of his blood, which must cleanse us from the "iniquity even of our holiest actions." We should seek also to " be renewed in the spirit of our minds," and to be trans- formed into " the image of our God in righteousness and true holiness." No attainments should ever satisfy us : if we were as holy as Paul himself, we should, like him, " forget the things that are behind, and reach forward towards that which is before." With a view to progressive holiness, we should care- fully " abide in Christ," " living by faith on him," and receiving daily out of his fulness grace for grace : assured, that without him we can do nothing, but through him shall be enabled to do all things. In a word, we should seek to be ever ready to meet our God ; yea, to be " looking for, and hasting unto the coming of that day," when we shall be summoned to his tribunal, and receive our eternal doom