? Shall God be resolute to help, when we are not
earnest in seeking it? No wonder God answer you according to the idol; no
wonder you be given up to serve idols, and your sin grow upon you as a
plague for your hypocrisy. When you engage your heart too much to any
creature, and come to pray and inquire of the Lord in your necessity,
shall it not be righteousness with him, to send you to your god? "When
thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee," Isa. lvii. 13. O man, cry
unto thy bosom-idol, and let it help thee, since thou trustest to it, and
spendest thy heart upon it! Deut. xxxii. 37, 38, "Where is the God that
drank the wine of your offerings, and did eat the fat of your sacrifices?"
Where is the creature that you have made your heart an altar to, to send
up the flames of your choicest thoughts and affections to it? Let this
rise up, and help you now, saith the Lord. Therefore we exhort you, if you
would have your prayers a delight, be upright in the thing you seek, and
see that you entertain no known sin, give it no heart-allowance.

_Thirdly_, There are many prayers not heard, not known, because the mouth
out-crieth the heart. It is the sacrifice of the contrite heart that God
despiseth not. The prayers of this people were such, (Isa. xxix. 13,)--they
drew near with the mouth, but the heart was far away. It is worship in
spirit and truth that God loveth, John iv. 23. Since prayer is a communion
of God with the creature, a meeting of one with God, and speaking face to
face, God, who is a Spirit and immortal, must have a spirit to meet with,
a soul to speak to him. Now, do you not find your hearts gadding abroad
even in duty? Is it not most about your corns and lands in the time of
solemn worship? Therefore God getteth no more but a carcase to keep
communion with: he may have as much fellowship with the stones of the
wall, and timber of the house, as he can have with your ears and mouths,
while you remove your hearts to attend other things. And I would say
more,--if your mind be present, yet your heart is gone; sometimes, yea
often, both are gone abroad. Sometimes the mind and thought stayeth, but
the affection and heart is not with it, and so the mind's residence is not
constant. Your thought may come in as a wayfaring man, but tarrieth not
all night, dwelleth not. Now speak to it, even Christians, may not your
prayers often have a contrary interpretation to what they pretend? You
pray so coldrifely(317) and formall