flat and dumpish temper is not for his honour. The heathens themselves
DELIGHT IN PRAYEE. 377
Ps. XXXVII. 4.
1. God will not give an answer to those prayers that dishonour him. A
flat and dumpish temper is not for his honour. The heathens themselves
thought their gods should not be put off with a sacrifice dragged to the altar. We read of no lead, that lumpish, earthly metal, employed about the taber-
nacle or temple, but the purest and most glistering sorts of metals. God will
have the most excellent service, because he is the most excellent being ; he
will have the most delighful service, because he bestows the most delightful and excellent gifts. All sacrifices were to be offered up with fire, which is
the quickest and most active element. It is a dishonour to so great, so
glorious a majesty, to put him off with such low and dead-hearted services. Those petitions cannot expect an answer which are offered in a manner
injurious to the person we address to. It is not for the credit of our great
Master, to have his servants dejected in his work ; as though his service
were an uncomfortable thing ; as though God were a wilderness, and the
world a paradise.
2. Dull and lumpish prayer doth not reach him, and therefore cannot
expect an answer. Such desires are as arrows that sink down at our feet.
There is no force to carry them to heaven. The heart is an unbent bow that
hath no strength. When God will hear, he makes first a prepared heart,
Ps. X. 17. He first strings the instrument, and then receives the sound. An enlarged heart only runs, Ps. cxix. 32 ; a contracted heart moves slowly, and often faints in the journey.
3. Lumpishness speaks an unwillingness that God should hear us. It
speaks a kind of fear that God should grant our petitions. He that puts up
a petition to a prince coldly and dully, gives him good reason to think that
he doth not care for an answer. The husbandman hath no great mind to a
harvest, that is lazy in tilling his ground and sowing his seed. How can we
think God should delight to read over our petitions, when we take so little
delight in presenting them? God gives not mercy to the unwilling person. The first thing God doth is to make his people willing. Dull spirits seek God as if they did not care for finding him : such tempers either account not God real, or their petitions unnecessary.
4. Without delight we are not fit to receive a mercy. Delight in a mercy wanted makes room for desire, and large desires make room for mercy. If no delight in begging, there will be no delight in enjoying ; if there be no
cheerfulness to quicken our prayers when we need a blessing, there will be
little joy to quicken our praise when we receive a blessing. A weak, sickly stomach is not fit to be seated at a plentiful table. Where there is a dull
asking supply, there is none, or a very dull sense of wants. Now, God will
not send his mercies but to a soul that will welcome them. The deeper the
sense of our wants, the higher the estimation of our supplies. A cheerful
soul is fit to receive the least, and fit to receive the greatest mercy. He will more prize a little mercy than a dull petitioner shall prize a greater, because he hath a sense of his wants. Had not Zaccheus had a great joy at the news
of Christ's coming by his door, he had not so readily entertained and welcomed him.
IV. Use. 1. Of information.
1. There is a great pleasure in the ways of God, if rightly understood.
Prayer, which is a duty wherein we express our wants, is delightful. There
is more sweetness in a Christian's asking, than in a wicked man's enjoying,
blessings.
2. What delight will there be in heaven ! If there be such sweetness in
desire, what will there be in full fruition ! There is joy in seeking ; what
is there then iu finding ! Duty hath its sweets, its thousands, but glory its