Batteries Upon the Kingdom of the Devil, Chapter 2

Batteries Upon the Kingdom of the Devil · Chapter 2

p. 43The Dumb-Devil cast out: OR, The Horrible Sin of a Prayerless Life Discovered.

PSAL. liii. 4.

They have not called upon God.

'TIS an Observation which has been sometimes made for the incouragement of serious Devotions, That either Praying will make Men leave Sinning, or Sinning will make Men leave Praying. That there is an excess of Sinning among us, is a thing for which we have both God and Man testifying against us; 'tis that which particularly awakens the Messengers of Heaven to cry aloud, and not spare, but lift up our voice like a trumpet. And a defect of Praying among us, is doubtless to be assigned as p. 44one cause of our multiplyed abominations; 'tis not only it self an inexcusable Fault, but also 'tis the original of those many other Crimes which we are exposed unto the Vengeance of Heaven by. A witness is then to be born against the Prayerless Lives of too many in this place; and this Text is therefore now read unto you, that you may see the Holy Spirit of God stigmatizing all Prayerless People as, The workers of iniquity.

The Psalm, in which we find our Text, is a second Edition of the Fourteenth Psalm, with some little Variations and Alterations which do but assist the Exposition of them both. David probably found a new occasion to revive some of his former Thoughts, and the Inspired Compiler of the Psalms, had such a reverence for the Inspired Composer of them, as not t… lose the lea…t F…agment of his Holy Writings. Moreover, the …ject handled in these two Psalms, is of so much lmportance, and yet so little Regarded or Credited in the World, that a Repetition of it is far from inconvenient; it is the horrible disorder and corruption of Mankind, by Original Sin, that is here treated of; and we know, not only that the old Pagans were obstinately insensible of this depravation, but also, that among pretended Christians, the Antient Pelagians, and the Modern Arminians, have most venomously opposed the True Faith about it, while themselves have given an Instance to confirm what they have opposed.

Our Cont…xt contains the description of a Fool; now from the Language of Solomon, who p. 45in his Preachi…g and Writing made a great Imiitation of his Fat…er, we may learn, that by a Fool is meant a Sinner; for every Sinner is indeed a most notorious and egregious Fool. A word of the same kindred with what is used here, signifies, A carcase; indeed a Sinner is a dead Man, and he has but the Carcase of a Man that is without Religion. The Apostle Paul in his famous Commentary upon this Portion of Scripture, has very justly applyed the Characters here given, unto all the Children of Men in their Natural Estate. But a more special reference may herein be had unto the bloody Persecutors of the Church; perhaps the Courtiers of that bloody Tyrant Saul; or, if some Expressions in the Psalm agree not so well to such a time, there are who think that the Persecution by Nebuchadnezzar is in the Fourteenth Psalm pointed at; and the Persecution of Antioc…us, in this fifty third.

The great Article in the description of such woful Sinners is, their Atheism; 'tis possible, they dare not say with their Mouths, There is no God: Humane Society would not endure an Assertion so criminal and odious; and the most Bruitish Atheist will, as Calvin relates of one in a sudden distress, cry out, O God, help me! Nor can they think with their Hearts, There is no God: No, 'tis ingraven there with indelible Impressions; I cannot find that all Histories report of more than twenty persons that pretended unto perfect Atheism; yea, I suppose I may affirm, There never was a Man, who had a firm and long perswasion, that there was no God, p. 46without vehement suspicions to the contrary. But they say in their Hearts, There is no God; it is but a Practical Atheism, that they are guilty of; and this Verse gives us two demonstrations of it; they are both injurious to Men, and impious to God.

1. They eat up the People of God as they eat bread. They destroy the People of God with open mouth; and they do it with as little remorse, they do it with as much fury and as much delight, as they can eat a meal when they are hungry. Such Canibals do the People of God often meet withal!

2. They have not called upon God. They live without Prayer from day to day. Prayer is first a matter of meer form, and it quickly becomes a matter of pure scorn to such ungodly wretches.

You may behold in this Verse; First, A question by way of Complaint: Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread? It is the note of one, that the Psalmist here does not so much quaerere as queri; not so much inquire as complain. A wicked folly is here supposed in all the Persecutors of the Church. But wherein does that appear? Why, Secondly, We have an Answer hereunto, They have not called upon God. q. d. This puts it out of doubt, that they are the workers of iniquity which have no knowledge in them. In the former mention of this passage, the Name of Jehovah was used, which represents God as the Author of Being; in this 'tis the Name of Elohim, which represents God as the Author of Judgment. It intimates that they who call not upon p. 47God, forget either that they had their Being, or shall have their Judgment from him.

The Doctrine which lies before us, is, That it is a wicked Folly to live without calling upon the Name of God.

Some so render the Clauses here; When they eat Bread, they call not upon the Lord; and it is truly a wicked folly to eat after such a Beastly fashion: But that comprehends not all that is to be considered here. Take two Propositions.

PROP. I.

A true Prayer is a calling upon God in Christ, for Mercy to be in his time, and way, and measure bestowed upon us.

First, For the Object of Prayer, it is, God in Christ. It is a vile, a detestable, an execrable Idolatry to pray unto any other besides the Eternal God. For to pray, is to repair unto the first cause, for help in our difficulties. An Holy Daniel, with his three worthy Companions, bravely chose to undergo very terrible Deaths, rather than to commit that Iniquity. It is an Oracle which the chief Devil of Hell once trembled at, in Matth. 4.10. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. None but the Hearer of Prayer can without infinite absurdity be made the Object of Prayer. The Hearer of Prayer must needs be p. 48an Omnipresent one; he must be able to perceive millions of persons in millions of places, at once pouring out their Groans unto him. And the Hearer of Prayer must needs be an Omnipotent one; he must be able to gratifie and accomplish the vast wishes of Immortal Souls, which inlarge themselves like the very Heavens. Now none besides the Lord our God, is thus Omnipresent and Omnipotent; it is his Title in Psal. 65.2. O thou that hearest prayer. But the great God may not be addressed by sinful Men, but in, and by, and through Jesus Christ; our Blessed Jesus has told us in John 14.6. I am the way, none comes to the Father, but by me. 'Tis through a Mediator that God will be conversed withal; and let Popery teach what it will, There is but one Mediator for us, even the Man Christ Jesus. As Joseph said unto those in Gen. 43.5. You shall not see my face, except your brother be with you; so does our God say unto us, You shall not seek my face unless you bring your Saviour with you. When we pray, it must be with an Eye to the satisfaction of the Lord Jesus Christ. As Jonah said in his Prayer, in Jon. 2.4. I will look toward thy holy temple; thus in our Prayers, we must exercise a dependance on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Antitype of the Temple, for our acceptance with the Father. And when we pray, it must be with an eye to the intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ; that is, the Incense which we must have our Prayers perfumed withal, that they may not be ungrateful unto God; as we read in Rev. 8.4. The smoke of p. 49the incense which came with the prayers of the Saints, ascended up before God, out of the Angels hands.

Secondly, For the Nature of Prayer, 'tis a calling upon God. A Desire is that in which begins the Formation of a Prayer; but the business of Prayer is to present our Desire before the Almighty God; the Apostle calls Prayer, in Phil. 4.6. A making known of our requests unto God. Sometimes Prayer only forms these Requests into Thoughts; thus that Invitation to Prayer, in Lam. 3.41. Let us lift up our hearts unto God in the heavens. There are in it the secret outgoings of the Will unto God for his Blessing, and perhaps unutterable groans. Sometimes Prayer also forms the Requests into Words; as we are advised in Hos. 14.1. Take to your selves words. The Arrowes are shot up to Heaven by the Bow of the Tongue. But in what manner does a Right Prayer present our Desires unto God? It is with a calling upon him. Prayer is thus deciphered in Acts 7.59 'tis, A Calling. And the Almighty God is therein call'd upon. This is a term used for Prayer, I think, more than twenty times in the Book of God. And hence also, Prayer is denominated very frequently, A crying to the Lord; thus we read about, The cry of the Righteous; and it is said in Psal. 34.6. This poor man cryed unto the Lord. This is the difference between right Prayer, and what cometh short of it. In False Prayers Men complement, but in Right ones, they clamour. A Call is an earnest Request; a Call is a Request with much fervency, with some agony, and coming p. 50from a sense of deep distress. When a Man truly Prayes, he does not sport in it, or scoff in it; but according to that in Jam. 5.17. He prayes in Prayer. There is a striving in Prayer, there is a wrestling in Prayer, there is a labouring Prayer, where Prayer is duely made. Indeed the Call of a Right Prayer is not so much in the Voice of it, as in the Grace of it. We read not that Moses audibly uttered a syllable, when yet the Lord said in Exod. 14.15. Wherefore cryest thou unto me? Warm and strong Affections make a cry in that thing which is worthy to be called, A Prayer; 'tis a thing beyond meer Lip-labour or Lung-labour; 'tis not the meer saying of Prayers, that is of any account with that God, who if he be not served in Spirit, counts himself not served in Truth.

Thirdly, For the matter of Prayer, it is, Mercy to be obtained as the Lord shall please. What is to be the Petition of our Prayers? In short, it is that in Psal. 51.1. Have mercy upon me, O God. And the particular Mercies which our Prayers must insist upon, are those which the Word of God recommends unto us. We are told in 1 John 5.14. If we ask any thing according to the will of God, he heareth us. Our Prayers must be alwayes answerable to the revealed Will of God; the Will of Gods Precept hath set the bounds of our Prayers, and said, Hitherto shall ye go, and no further. Of every command there, it should be our Prayer, Lord, help me to keep it; of every Promise, Lord, give me to find it; of every Threatning, Lord, give me to shun it: In short, The Lords Prayer p. 51is to be the Directory of all our Prayers. But our Prayers must also be with a submission to the secret Will of God; the time, and way, and measure of Mercies, it must be left unto the Will of Gods purpose to order that. Our Language in our Prayer should be, Let God have mercy on me when he will; it is not for me to know the time: Our Language is to be, Let God have mercy on me, how he will: his way is alwayes best: It is to be, Let God proportion his mercy to me, according to his pleasure; I may not limit the holy one of Israel. This is a true Prayer. But now,

PROP. II.

It is a wicked folly to live without such Prayer unto the Eternal God. Now to evince this, let these things be pondered.

First, To live without Prayer is a piece of cursed Atheism; no easier a Name than that is to be put upon it. He that lives without Prayer, denies or disputes the very Being of a God. Thus we find concerning the Atheist, in Psal. 14.1. He hath said in his heart, there is no God; and it quickly follows, They call not upon the Lord. If we grant this, That God is, the next thing to be granted, is, He is diligently to be sought unto. The Apostle in Heb. 11.6. makes those two Principles to stand as immovable and inseparable as the very Pillars of Heaven. To live without Prayer, is to live as if there were no Soul, no Hell, no God. It p. 52is said in Psal. 10.4. The wicked will not seek after God; God is not in all his thoughts: Or, as it may be rendered, All his thoughts are, that there is no God. He that withholds this piece of Natural Worship from God, e'en sayes, I will have no God at all. But what a wicked Folly is this? 'Tis an Impiety beyond what the blackest and the fiercest of all the Devils in Hell ever yet arrived unto. All the Works both of Creation and Providence, are every one of them the Heralds of a Deity; the Atheist has every motion in the Universe, together with the consent of Nations, to cry out upon him; and there is nothing in the World, but what serves to confound that Leviathan.

Secondly, To live without Prayer is to disobey and contradict the Command of the Great God. The God of Heaven is the Governour of the World; he is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Most High Monarch over all; and he has required this Homage from all the Children of Men, That we pray unto him. 'Tis the Edict of Heaven in 1 Thess. 5.17. Pray without ceasing. This is indeed a main thing required in the First Commandment of the Law; when 'tis said, Thou shalt have the Lord for thy God, a main thing therein intended is, Thou shalt make thy Prayers unto the God of Heaven. 'Tis a thing which the Command of God has, without exception or exemption, enjoined upon all the World. As for good Men; our Lord said unto his Disciples, in Matth. 6.9. Pray ye. As for ill Men too; 'twas said unto such an one, in Acts 8.22. Pray to God. Now 'tis a wicked p. 53Folly to rebel against the Voice of God. All his Commandments are holy, and just, and good; and it is a madness for us to dare his Righteous and his Terrible Vengeance, by speaking like those Miscreants of old, As for the word spoken to us in the Name of the Lord, we will not hearken thereunto.

Thirdly, What Man alive is there, who has not manifold occasions of calling upon the Lord? Poor Man is a depending sort of thing; he cannot subsist of and from, as he may not for himself. He cannot make a shift without God, and therefore 'tis a wicked Folly for him to live without Prayer unto God. It was the insolent speech of Pilate, in John 19.10. Speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that I have power over thee? But the Glorious God may speak after that rate unto every one of us: What? Speakest thou not unto me? Shall not I have a Prayer from thee, when I have such power over thee? Knowest thou not, that in me thou livest, thou movest, thou hast thy Being. Knowest thou not that thou art every moment in danger of my Damning thee for thy Disobedience? Truly every Soul of us, has many Sins to be pardoned, many wants to be supplyed, many woes to be deprecated; we are strangely stupid and sottish, 'tis a dumb Devil that has possession of us, if we go not unto God by Prayer in such unhappy circumstances.

Fourthly, There is no Godly Man that can live without Prayer, unto the God that made him. Sayes the Psalmist, in Psal. 32.6. Every one that is godly shall pray unto thee. A Godly Man is alwayes p. 54a praying Man. A Man does do soone… begin to have a real impression of Godliness upon him, but it may be said of him, as it was of Repenting Paul, Behold he prayes! All Godly Men have a true fear of God; they are loth to provoke, loth to offend, unwilling to incense his Eternal Majesty. Hence it may be said of them, as in Psal. 145.18, 19. They call upon him in truth, for they fear him. Again, all Godly Men have a true Faith in God; they realize unto themselves that fullness, and that kindness, which is in the Lord: Hence it may be said by them, as in Psal. 116.10. I have believed, therefore have I spoken; i. e. I have prayed. Moreover, all Godly Men have a true love to God; a communion with him is the pleasure of their Souls; they are never so well as when they are in his company. Hence they can say after David, in Psal. 116.1, 2. I have loved the Lord, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. Once more, All Godly Men have the Spirit of God, he has renewed them, he has sanctified them, he has possessed them as Temples for himself. Now 'tis said of him in Zech. 12.10. He is a Spirit of supplication; there is an abiding inclination to supplication, in all that are acted and filled by the Spirit of God. Well then, you that live without Prayer, are but so many ungodly ones; you are altogether without the Fear, and without the Faith, and without the Love, and without the Spirit of God; by consequ…nce then, 'tis a wicked Folly that has dominion over you,

p. 55Fifthly, Very great and good things are to be obtained by our Prayers unto the Lord our God. It is the Promise of God in Matth. 7.7. Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find. One of the Antients ingeniously compared Prayer unto a Golden Chain, one end of which is tyed unto the Tongue of Man, the other unto the Ear of God; by this Chain we may effectually pull down from Heaven all the Blessings that we are justly desirous of. Let us trade much in the Ship of Prayer, and in the Covenant of God we shall find settled an Insuring Office to secure us our Adventures. It has been said, Est quaedam Omnipotentia precum. I pray, what is there that can't be done by Prayer? Fir…t for great things; why Prayer! it hath … th… very Ch…riots of the Sun in the …ament, the Prayer of Joshua did it. Prayer, it hath managed the Corks on the Bottles of Heaven; the Prayer of Elijah did it. Prayer, it hath made the dead themselves alive again; the Prayer of Elisha did it. Prayer, it hath …zzled the M…u…s o… ravenous Li…ns; thus did the Prayer of Daniel. Prayer, it hath made the Fire unable to burn; so did the Prayer of the three Worthies. Prayer, it hath made the strongest Bars of Prison-doors to fly before it; while the praying Saints were knocking at the Doors of Heaven for Peters liberty, Peter came knocking at the Door of the House in which they were assembled. About the successes of Prayer, I may say l…ke the Apostle, The time would fail me to mention t…em. It as it were obtains a victory over the Almighty God p. 56himself; you know what the Prayer of Jacob, and what the Prayer of Moses did. Such are the great things that may be done by Prayer; but let me also tell you a few of the good things that may be thereby acquired; I may indeed say of Prayer, as the Apostle sayes of Piety, 'Tis profitable for all things. It is, as Paul speaks in Heh. 10.22. A drawing near to God; it maintains a very near Communion between God and us; but what said the Psalmist, It is good for me to draw near unto God. In short, It is a Golden Key to unlock all the Treasures of an Allsufficient God. It was a sweet speech once of a person in distress, I have no Friend, but I have a Prayer, and as long as I have a praying Heart, I am sure that my God will have an helping hand. Particularly, would you have your Souls to be blessed in very deed? What sayes the Psalmist, in Psal. 69.32. Your heart shall live that seek God. A praying Soul will be a thriving Soul; it will have its Graces kept in a continual exercise. There is an Island in the Mediterranean Sea, whereof they say, The Sun will be sure to shine upon it, at least once every day throughout the year. This is the happiness of a praying Soul; the light of Gods countenance will be upon it every day. And a praying Soul will be a joyful Soul; it will never want an Hearts case in its Afflictions. A Soul that being melted with grief is poured out unto the Lord, is in a ready way to be no more sad. A Famous Man being driven to his Kne…s by his Perplexities, had that chearing Message brought from Heaven to him, Thou art a Man greatly beloved. In brief, A praying p. 57Soul shall be a saved Soul; we are assured in Rom. 10.3. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Yet further, would you have your Bodies, your Estates, and all your Affairs under the perpetual Blessings of Heaven? Why, 'tis the proffer of our God unto us, in Psal. 91.15. He shall call upon me, and I will deliver him, and honour him, with long life will I satisfie him. The Steward of Abraham thought that Prayer would not hinder, but procure a prosperous Journey for him. When Saul perceived how much David kept Prayer i'going, he said, Thou shalt do great things. Finally, would you have rich Ble…sings to be showred from on high upon your Families? Truly you cannot lay up a better portion for your Children than a stock of Prayers; and a praying Man has before now been able to say, This day have I obtained mercy for my self, and all of mine. Yea, by being much in Prayer, we may like Noah, like Job, like Daniel, we may our selves be publick Blessings; we may be the gapmen of the places in which we live; we may d…liver Islands, and be the Saviours of our Country. But what a wicked Folly must it be for us to deprive our selves of such inestimable benefits!

Lastly, The neglect of Prayer is that which will plunge the Souls of Men into intolerable and interminable Miseries. Know it for certain, That without Prayer you cannot be made partakers of those Divine Favours, without which, It had been good for you that you had never been born. God has indeed engaged all manner of Salvations for his chosen ones; but he has p. 58added in Ezek. 36.37. I will yet for this be inquired of to do it. We must inquire of God, and intreat of God, or we may not hope for any thing that is truly comfortable. Yea, without Prayer 'tis impossible but we should perish among them that are without God, and without Christ, and without Hope in the World. A Man may pray after a sort, and yet be damned after all: Our Lord said unto his Disciples in Matth. 5.20. Except your righteousness exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; and yet the Scribes and Pharisees had their formal Prayers every day. But what will then become of them that never or seldom do pray at all? Hear, ye Prayerless ones, and be amazed at what I am going to read from the Infallible Word of the everliving God concerning you; in Psal. 9.17. They that forget God shall be turned into Hell. I am sure, the Great God is horribly forgotten by all that follow him not with Dayly and Serious Prayers; now 'tis no less than Hell it self, and all the burning Brimstone, and smoking Torment of that formidable Pit, that belongs to such miserable ones. Now consider of this, ye that forget God, lest he tear you to pieces, and there be none to deliver you. 'Tis true, there will a day come, when the most Prayerless Monster upon Earth, shall pray with an incredible anguish of Soul. They that spend all their dayes like swine, and never give a look or a cry to God all their dayes, yet when the sharp Knife of Everlasting Vengeance is at last laid unto their Throats, they will then pierce the Clouds with Groans unto p. 59the Lord. Those abominable Miscreants that now dare call upon the Devil to take them, and upon God Almighty to damn them, will one day pray for Salvation, in the Groans of a deadly wounded man. But what a confusion shall all their Prayers then meet withal! When they come to a dying Hour, and their trembling Souls are upon their quivering Lips, dragging away into an astonishing Eternity; or, when they appear before the Judgment-Seat of God, and stand quaking there in expectation of their Eternal Judgment; they will doubtless then pray hard, like the Foolish Virgins, Lord, Lord, open the doors of thy mercy to us! But what will all those despairing Prayers avail? God will answer those Prayers only in fiery Thunders, and furious Reb…k…s, and reply upon them, No, 'tis all too late: Go, depart from me, ye prayerless workers of iniquity. And now, judge, I pray you; is it not a mo… wicked Folly for a Man to put himself into a condition thus deplorable!

APPLICATION.

All these Considerations do but put Stings into the Reproof that now belongs unto all that make no Conscience of calling upon God. But in dispensing of Reproofs we shall not cut, unless like Nathan of old we oome to so much particularity, as to say, Thou art the Man! Let us therefore descend unto the several sorts of Prayer, which many People among us are to be reproved for the omission of. The Apostle bids us in Eph. 6.18. Pray with all pra…r. But alas, p. 60there are those who practice no Prayer at all, and multitudes there are, who in some Prayer are notoriously deficient.

First, It is matter of reprehension, that secret Prayer is not regarded by many of us. It is the Command of our Lord, in Matth. 6.6. Pray in thy closet; and it was his own custom accordingly, To depart into a solitary place, that he might be praying there. But O how many of us are there that are Baptized, and professing People, and yet go from day to day, without any secret Prayers before the Lord. Many there are that make no stick at sinning in secret, though the Eye of the Great God be upon all their cursed Effeminacies there; but as to Praying in secret, they do nothing at it. Hear this, ye giddy young people that know your selves guilty here: The God of Heaven hath often enough seen your secret pranks; but O when did he hear any of your secret Prayers un…o him? There are some hundreds of persons in this Congregation; if the Angels of God that are probably now throng'd in amongst us, were now to make a publick discovery, Who of all the Hearers is come to the Meeting, without a… secret Prayer this Morning before they came? Ar… there not some scores that might be pointed out? Let me tell you then, that you are wor… than Balaam himself; of whom we are told in Numb. 23.3. He went alone to seek the Lord. You have secret Sins to be confessed; but where are your secret Prayers, to bewail them all? Have you not your Temptations and Vexations that are also secret? Why, by these your secret p. 61prayers are called for. It may prove a perillous and a pernicious thing, to omit but one secret prayer; it was bitterly bewailed by Origen of old, that the day whereon he fell into the soul scandal that cost him such an Ocean of Tears and Shame, was a day wherein secret Prayer had been passed over with him. Sayes our Lord, Pray to thy Father which is in secret: It seems they who duely pray in secret may call God their Father; did the Lord often see you, like Nathanael, under the Fig tree, he would say of you, as in John 1.47. Behold, an Israelite indeed! But alas, he rarely sees you there. The secret Prayers of Jacob in the Field, preserved all that belonged unto him; the secret prayers of Nehemiah carried on all his weighty Businesses at the Court; the secret Prayers of Hannath begg'd of God but for one Son, and he gave her six times as much as she asked of him; the secret prayers of Jeremiah prevented his falling as a Sacrifice to unreasonable Men; and the secret prayers of Peter in the Belcony, fetched into his holy Soul, as much of Heaven as ever he could hold. But these are things which you are meer strangers unto: O that you were sensible of the wicked Folly in your being so!

Secondly, 'Tis matter of reprehension, that private Prayer is not attended by many of us. The Apostle sayes to Masters of Families in Col. 4.2. Continue in prayer; alluding to the continual offering under the Law of old. But how many Masters do rob God of this Daily Sacrifice? They do not bring it both Morning and Evening to him. They pretend they have p. 62no time to pray with their Families; but they can find a time to eat, sleep and smoke with them; and they ponder not, What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? They pretend they want utterance and confidence to pray with their Families; but would they plead this, if th…y were like Daniel, to suffer Death for leaving undone that which Daniel did? They forget the Word of the Lord Jesus, Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed. And the Prayerless Masters of Vessels as well as of Houses, are deeply concerned in this Admonition. Vain Men, how little are you like Joshua, who resolved in chap 24.15. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Were there much Prayer constantly going in your Houses, God would bless them, as he did the House of Obed-edom, when the Ark was there. If you, and the two or three in your Family, would agree on Earth in Prayer to God in Heaven, you might have any thing to be done for you. But now, thy Prayerless Family is no better than a Pagan Family: and that fearful Thunderbolt of Death now falls upon it, in Jer. 10.25. O Lord, pour o… thy fury on the Families that call not on thy Name. It seems, the Lord Jesus Christ is not the Advocate, but the A…cuser of such a Family; and the Prayerless House must look to have none other than the flying Roll of Curses entring thereinto. Thy Family is the very Suburbs of Hell; … Man had better live in a prison, in a Dungeon, than in such a Family! Such Families bring in a Deluge of Disorder upon the Town and Land, p. 63and set Fire to the Dwellings in which they live. And Man, what will become of thy poor Children and Servants in another World? Will they not with bitte… execrations cry out upon thee. O why did you never teach me to pray by your Example? 'Tis your Pra…erless House that has plunged me into this fiery Hell for ever. I beseech you then, that this wicked Folly be repented of!

Thirdly, 'Tis matter of lamentation, that solemn prayer is no more usual with us. Not only do many very contentedly absent themselves from the whole, or at least▪ from a part of the publick prayers, but also Prayer with Fasting is of too little improvement with us. We may make that confession in Dan. 9.13. All this evil is come upon us▪ yet have we not made our prayer before the Lord our God. How backward have we been to Fasting under our complicated Iniquities and Calamities? and when we do Fast, is it with such a Fast as the Lord has chosen? Do not we Fast with our Ornaments upon us? Or without any Affliction in our Abstinence? And how little Fasting is there of Christians in retirements before the Lord? Nehemiah would not undertake a weighty matter, before he had spent a whole day in a retired Fellowship with God. But how common is it for us to change our Conditions, to begin our Voyages, to approach our Sacraments, and do many more such important things, without such preparations? This is utterly a fault among us.

p. 64Fourthly, It were well if we were more frequent and more serious in our Ejaculatory Prayers. These are a sort of prayers which our Blessed Jesus was much used unto; and we read of a great Man in Neh. 2.4. that he would not answer a Question of any Concernment, without such a prayer. Indeed, there are profane Ejaculations proceeding from the mouths of many; with very frothy frames, they lard all their Discourses with an, O Lord, and O Lord, bless me! A common Swearer is but the Elder Brother of them who thus take the Name of God in vain. But instead thereof, we should be often sending up our Ejaculatory Prayers, both Hosannahs and Hallelujahs, both Petitions and Thanksgivings, from our affected Souls unto the Lord. A besieged City have before now tyed their Letters unto Arrows, and shot them over the Heads of their Adversaries, into the Hands of their Auxiliaries. Thus, when we are besieged and beset never so much with the incumbrances of the World, yet we should be often in a Day lifting up our Hearts unto God who dwelleth in the Heavens. But how few are there that thus keep in their Souls a continual Feast? As we are walking the Streets with our Minds quite empty of all other things, how rarely have we any devout Ejaculations in them, for a Blessing on themselves, or on them that are before our Eyes? Yea, when the Hearers of our Lord heard him preach about the Bread of Life, they presently annexed an Ejaculation thereunto, Lord, Give us this Bread; but how p. 65few Ejaculations has any among us made, since the Sermon this day began? This is also one of our miscarriages. Now let us take the Reproofs of God; let our Prayers become very vigorous; let us be much in the Mount, with our Hands up-lifted there: O tremble at being found among the workers of iniquity, that have no knowledge in them.