HYPOCRITES   DEFICIENT   IN   PRAYER

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

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Concerning these words, I would observe, who it is that is here spoken of, viz, the hypocrite….Job’s three friends, in their speeches to him, insisted much upon it, that he was a hypocrite.  But Job, in this chapter, asserts his sincerity and integrity and shows how different his own behavior had been from that of hypocrites.  Particularly he declares his steadfast and immovable resolution of persevering and holding out in the ways of religion and righteousness to the end; as you may see in the six first verses.  In the text, he shows how contrary to this steadfastness and perseverance the character of the hypocrite is, who is not wont [in the habit of] this to hold out in religion.

DOCTRINE: However hypocrites may continue for a season in the duty of prayer, yet it is their manner, after a while, in a great measure, to leave off….They do so for a while after they have received common illuminations and affections. While they are under awakenings, they may through fear of hell call upon God and attend very constantly upon the duty of secret prayer.  And after they have had some melting affections, having their hearts much moved with the goodness of God or with some affecting encouragements, false joy, and comfort; while these impressions last they continue to call upon God in the duty of secret prayer.

It is the manner of hypocrites, after a while, in a great measure, to leave off the practice of this duty. We are often taught that the seeming goodness and piety of hypocrites is not of a lasting and persevering nature.  It is o with respect to their practice of the duty of prayer in particular, and especially of secret prayer.  They can omit this duty and their omission of it not be taken notice of by other, who know what profession they have made, so that a regard to their own reputation doth not oblige them still to practice it.  If others saw how they neglect it, it would exceedingly shock their charity [judging mercifully and hopefully, making allowance for apparent faults or short-comings] towards them.  But their neglect doth not fall under their observation; at least not under the observation of many.  Therefore, they may omit this duty and still have the credit of being converted persons.

Men of this character can come to a neglect of secret prayer by degrees without shocking their peace.  For though indeed for a converted person to live, in a great measure, without secret prayer is very wide of the notion they once had of a true convert; yet they find means by degrees to alter their notions and to bring their principles to suit with their inclinations.  And at length they come to a notion that a man may be a convert and yet live very much in neglect of this duty.  In time, they can bring all things to suit will together: a hope of heaven, an indulgence of sloth, gratifying carnal appetites, and living, in a great measure, a prayerless life.  They cannot indeed suddenly make these things agree; it must be a work of time.  And length of time will effect it.  By degrees, they find out ways to guard and defend their consciences against those powerful enemies, so that those enemies and quiet, secure conscience can at length dwell together.

Whereas it is asserted in the doctrine that it is the manner of hypocrites, after a while, in a great measure, to leave off this duty, I would observe to you that it is not intended but that they may commonly continue to the end of life in an external attendance on prayer with others.  They may commonly be present at public prayers in the congregation and also at family prayer…they may continue to attend upon prayer as long as they live, and yet may truly be said not to call upon God.  For such prayer, in the manner of it, is not their own.  They are present only for the sake of their credit or in compliance with others.  They may be present at these prayers, and yet have no proper prayer of their own.

But they in a great measure leave off the practice of secret prayer.  They come to this pass by degrees.  At first, they begin to be careless about it under some particular temptations.  Because they have been out in young company or have been taken up very much with worldly business, they omit it once.  After that, they more easily omit it again.  Thus, it presently becomes a frequent thing with them to omit it; and after a while, it comes to that pass, that they seldom attend it.  Perhaps they attend it on Sabbath-days and sometimes on other days. But they have ceased to make it a constant practice daily to retire to worship God alone and to seek His face in secret places.  They sometimes do a little to quiet conscience and just to keep alive their old hop because it would be shocking to them, even after all their subtle dealing with their consciences, to call themselves converts and yet totally to live without prayer.  Yet…they have, in a great measure, left off.

I come now to the reasons why this is the manner of hypocrites:

1.     Hypocrites never had the spirit of prayer.  They may have been stirred up to the external performance of this duty, and that with a great deal of earnestness and affection, and yet always have been destitute [utterly lacking; devoid] of the true spirit of prayer.  The spirit of prayer is a holy spirit, a gracious spirit.  We read o the spirit of grace and supplication: [earnest, humble request or plea.]  “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications” (Zec 12:10).  Wherever there is a true spirit of supplication, there is the spirit of grace.  The true spirit of prayer is no other than God’s own Spirit dwelling in the hearts of the saints.  And as this Spirit comes from God, so doth it naturally tend to God in holy breathings and pantings.  It naturally leads to God to converse with Him by Prayer.  Therefore, the Spirit is said to make intercession for the saints  “with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Rom 8:26)….The truly godly have the spirit of adoption, the spirit of a child, to which it is natural to go to God and call upon Him, crying to Him as to a father.

But hypocrites have nothing of this spirit of adoption:  they have not the spirit of children, for this is a gracious and holy spirit, given only in a real work of regeneration.  Therefore, it is often mentioned as a part of the distinguishing character of the godly, that they call upon God. “The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.  He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him:  he also will hear their cry, and will save them” (Psa 145:18, 19).  “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Act 2:21).

It is natural to one who is truly born from above to pray to God and to pour out his soul in holy supplications before his heavenly Father. This is as natural to the new nature and life as breathing is to the nature and life of the body.  But hypocrites have not this new nature.  Those illuminations and affections, which they had, went away and left no change of nature.  Therefore, prayer naturally dies away in the, having no foundation laid in the nature of the soul. It is maintained awhile only by a certain force put upon nature.  But force is not constant; and as that declines, nature will take place again. 

The spirit of a true convert is a spirit of true love to God, and that naturally inclines the soul to those duties wherein it is conversant with God and makes it to delight in approaching Him.  But a hypocrite hath no such spirit.  He is left under the reigning power of enmity against God, which naturally inclines him to shun His presence.

The spirit of a true convert is a spirit of faith and reliance on the power, wisdom, and mercy of God; and such a spirit is naturally expressed in prayer.  True prayer is nothing else but faith expressed.  Hence we read of the prayer of faith (Jam 5:15).  True Christian prayer is the faith and reliance of the soul breathed forth in words.  But a hypocrite is without the spirit of faith.  He hath no true reliance or dependence of God, but is really self-dependent.

As to those common convictions and affections, which the hypocrite had, and which made him keep up the duty of prayer for a while – they not reaching the bottom of the heart more being accompanied with any change of nature – a little thing extinguishes them. The cares of the world commonly choke and suffocate them; and often the pleasures and vanities of youth totally put an end to them; and with them ends their constant practice of the duty of prayer.

2.     When a hypocrite hath had his false conversion, his wants are in his sense of things already supplied; his desires are already answered; and so he finds no further business at the throne of grace.   He never was sensible that he had any other needs, but a need of being safe from hell.  And now that he is converted, as he thinks, that need is supplied. Why then should he still go on to resort to the throne of grace with earnest requests?  He is out of danger; all that he was afraid of is removed.  He hath got enough to carry him to heaven, and what more should he desire?  While under awakenings, he had this to stir him up to go to God in prayer: he was in continual fear of hell.  This put him upon crying to God for mercy.  But since in his own opinion he is converted, he hath no further business about which to go to God.  And although he ay keep up the duty of prayer in the outward form a little while, for fear of spoiling his hope, yet he will find it a dull business to continue it without necessity, and so by degrees he will let drop the practice.  The work of the hypocrite is done when he is converted, and therefore he standeth in no further need of help.

But it is far otherwise with the true convert.  His work is not done; but he finds still a great work to do and great wants to be supplied.  He sees himself still to be a poor, empty, helpless creature, and that he still stands in great and continual need of God’s help.  He is sensible that without God he can do nothing.  A false conversion makes a man in his own eyes self-sufficient.  He saith he is rich, and increased with goods, and hath need of nothing; and knoweth not that he is wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked (Rev 3:17).  But after a true conversion, the soul remains sensible of its own impotence and emptiness, as it is in itself, and its sense of it is rather increased than diminished.  It is still sensible of its universal dependence on God for everything.  A true convert is sensible that his grace is very imperfect; and he is very far from having all that he desires.  Instead of that, by conversion are begotten in him new desires which he never had before. He now finds in him holy appetites, a hungering and thirsting after righteousness, a longing after more acquaintance and communion with God.  So that he hath business enough still at the throne of grace; yea, his business there, instead of being diminished, is rather increased.

The hop, which the hypocrite hath of his good estate, takes off the force that the command of God before had upon his conscience, so that now he dares neglect so plain a duty.  The command which requires the practice of the duty of prayer is exceeding plain: “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation” (Mat 26:41).  “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance, and supplication for all saints” (Eph 6:18).  “When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret” (Mat 6:6).  As long as the hypocrite was in his own apprehension [understanding] in continual danger of hell, he durst not disobey these commands.  But since he is, as he thinks, safe from hell, he is grown bold.  He dares to live in the neglect of the plainest command in the Bible.

It is the manner of hypocrites, after a while, to return to sinful practices, which will tend to keep them from praying.  While they were under convictions, they reformed their lives and walked very exactly.  This reformation continues, after their supposed conversion, while they are much affected with hope and false comfort.  But as these this die away, their old lusts revive; and by degrees, they return like the dog to his vomit and the sow that was washed to her willowing in the mire.  They return to their sensual, worldly, proud and contentious practices, as before.  And no wonder this makes them forsake their closets.  Sinning and praying agree not well together.

I would exhort those who have entertained a hope of their being true converts – and who since their supposed conversions have left off the duty of secret prayer and ordinarily allow themselves in the omission of it – to throw away their hope.  If you have left off calling upon God, it is time for you to leave off hoping and flattering yourselves with an imagination that you are the children of God.  Probably it will be a very difficult thing for you to do this.  It is hard for a man to let go a hope of heaven on which he hath once allowed himself to lay hold, and which he hath retained for a considerable time.  True conversion is a rare thing.  But that men should be brought off from a false hope of conversion – after they are once settled and established in it and have continued in it for some time – is much more rare.

Insist not on that as a reason why you should not throw away your hope, that you had the judgment of others…Is is a small matter to be judged of man’s judgment whether you be approved or condemned. And whether it be by minister or people, wise or unwise… if you be one of those who have forsaken God and left off calling upon His name, you have the judgment and sentence of God in the Scriptures against you, which is a thousand times more than to have the judgment of all the wise and godly men and ministers in the world in you favor.

Why will you retain that hope which by evident experience you find poisons you?  Is it reasonable to think, that a holy hope, a hope that is from heaven, would have such an influence?  No, surely, nothing of such a malignant influence comes from that world of purity and glory.  No poison growth in the paradise of God.  The same hope, which leads men to sin in this world, will lead to hell hereafter.  Why therefore will you retain such a hope, of which your own experience shows you the ill tendency, in that it encourages you to lead a wicked life?

If your own experience of the nature and tendency of your hope will not convince you of the falseness of it, what will?  Are you resolved to retain your hope, let it prove ever so unsound and hurtful?  Will you hold it fast until you go to hell with it?  Many men cling to a false hope and embrace it so closely that they never let it go till the flames of hell cause their arms to unclench and let go their hold.

Certainly, it is foolish for men to imagine, that God had no more wisdom, or could contrive no other way of bestowing comfort and hope of eternal life, then one which should encourage men to forsake Him.

From “Hypocrites Deficient in the Duty of Prayer” in The Works of Johathan Edwards, Vol.2, reprinted by the Banner of Truth Trust.

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758): Massachuesetts Congregational preacher. Regarded as America’s greatest evangelical theologian and well-known for his preaching in the Great Awakening along with George Whitefield.  Author of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, and numerous other titles.  Born in East Windsor, Connecticut, America

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