Of Prayer.
There is no greater argument in the world of our spiritual danger
and unwillingness to religion, than the backwardness which most men have
always, and all men have sometimes, to say their prayers - so weary of their
length, so glad when they are done, so witty to excuse and frustrate an
opportunity: and yet all is nothing but a desiring of God to give us the
greatest and the best things we can need, and which can make us happy - it is a
work so easy, so honourable, and to so great purpose, that in all the instances
of religion and providence (except only the incarnation of his Son) God hath
not given us a greater argument of his willingness to have us saved, and of our
unwillingness to accept it, his goodness and our gracelessness, his infinite
condescension and our carelessness and folly, than by rewarding so easy a duty
with so great blessings.
Motives to Prayer.
I cannot say anything beyond this very consideration and its
appendages to invite Christian people to pray often. But we may consider that,
1. It is a duty commanded by God and his holy Son. 2. It is an act of grace and
highest honour, that we, dust and ashes, are admitted to speak to the eternal
God, to run to him as to a father, to lay open our wants, to complain of our
burdens, to explicate our scruples, to beg remedy and ease, support and
counsel, health and safety, deliverance and salvation: and, 3. God hath invited
us to it by many gracious promises of hearing us. 4. He hath appointed his most
glorious Son to be the precedent of prayer, and to make continual intercession
for us to the throne of grace. 5. He hath appointed an angel to present the
prayers of his servants: and, 6. Christ unites them to his own, and sanctifies
them, and makes them effective and prevalent: and, 7. Hath put it into the
hands of men to rescind, or alter, all the decrees of God, which are of one
kind, (that is, conditional, and concerning ourselves and our final estate, and
many instances of our intermedial or temporal,) by the power of prayers. 8. And
the prayers of men have saved cities and kingdoms from ruin: prayer hath raised
cities and kingdoms from ruin: prayer hath raised dead men to life, hath
stopped the violence of fire and shut the mouths of wild beasts, hath altered
the course of nature, caused rain in Egypt, and drought in the sea: it made the
sun to go from west to east, and the moon to stand still, and rocks and
mountains to wales; and it cures diseases without physic, and makes physic to
do the work of nature, and nature to do the work of grace, and grace to do the
work of God; and it does miracles of accident and event; and yet prayer, that
does all this, is, of itself, nothing but an ascent of the mind to God, a
desiring things fit to be desired, and an expression of this desire to God as
we can, and as becomes us. And our unwillingness to pray is nothing else but a
not desiring what we ought passionately to long for; or, if we do desire it, it
is a choosing rather to miss our satisfaction and felicity than to ask for it.
There is no more to be said in this affair, but that we reduce it
to practice, according to the following rules:
Rules for the Practice of Prayer.
1. We must be careful that we never ask anything of God that is
sinful, or that directly ministers to sin; for that is to ask God to dishonour
himself, and to undo us. We had need consider what we pray; for before it
returns in blessing it must be joined with Christ’s intercession, and presented
to God. Let us principally ask of God power and assistances to do our duty, to
glorify God, to do good works, to live a good life, to die in the fear and
favor of God and eternal life: these things God delights to give, and commands
that we shall ask, and we may with confidence expect to be answered graciously;
for these things are promised without any reservations of a secret condition:
if we ask them, and do our duty towards the obtaining them, we are sure never
to miss them
2. We may lawfully pray to God for the gifts of the Spirit that
minister to holy ends; such as are the gift of preaching, the spirit of prayer,
good expression, a ready and unloosed tongue, good understanding, learning,
opportunities to publish them, etc., with these only restraints: 1. That we
cannot be so confident of the event of those prayers as of the former. 2. That
we must be curious to secure our intention in these desires, that we may not
ask them to serve our own ends, but only for God’s glory; and then we shall
have them, or a blessing for desiring them. In order to such purposes our
intentions in the first desires cannot be amiss; because they are able to
sanctify other things, and therefore cannot be unhallowed themselves. 3. We
must submit to God’s will, desiring him to choose our employment, and to
furnish our persons as he shall see expedient.
3. Whatsoever we may lawfully desire of temporal things, we may
lawfully ask of God in prayer, and we may expect them, as they are promised. 1.
Whatsoever is necessary to our life and being is promised to us; and therefore
we may, with certainty, expect food and raiment, food to keep us alive,
clothing to keep us from nakedness and shame; so long as our life is permitted
to us, so long all things necessary to our life shall be ministered. We may be
secure of maintenance, but not secure of our life - for that is promised, not
this: only concerning food and raiment we are not to make accounts by the
measure of our desires, but by the measure of our needs. 2. Whatsoever is
convenient for us; pleasant, and modestly delectable, we may pray for, so we do
it, 1. With submission to God’s will. 2. Without impatient desires. 3. That it
be not a trifle and inconsiderable, but a matter so grave and concerning as to
be a fit matter to be treated on between God and our souls. 4. That we ask not
to spend upon our lusts, but for ends of justice, or charity, or religion, and
that they be employed with sobriety.
4. He that would pray with effect must live with care and piety.
For although God gives to sinners and evil persons the common blessings of life
and chance, yet either they want the comfort and blessing of those blessings,
or they become occasions of sadder accidents to them, or serve to upbraid them
in their ingratitude or irreligion: and in all cases, they are not the effects
of prayer, or the fruits of promise, or instances of a father’s love; for they
cannot be expected with confidence, or received without danger, or used without
without a curse and mischief in their company. But as all sin is an impediment
to prayer, so some have a special indisposition towards acceptation; such are
uncharitableness and wrath, hypocrisy in the present action, pride and lust;
because these, by defiling the body or the spirit, or by contradicting some
necessary ingredient in prayer, (such as are mercy, humility, purity, and
sincerity,) do defile the prayer, and make it a direct sin, in the
circumstances or formality of the action.
5. All prayer must be made with faith and hope, that is, we must
certainly believe we
shall receive the grace which God hath commanded us to ask; and we must hope
for such things which he hath permitted us to ask, and our hope shall not be
vain, though we miss what is not absolutely promised; because we shall at least
have an equal blessing in the denial as in the grant. And, therefore, the
former conditions must first be secured; that is, that we ask things necessary,
or at least good and innocent and profitable, and that our persons be gracious
in the eyes of God: or else, what God hath promised to our natural needs he
may, in many degrees, deny to our personal incapacity; but the thing being
secured, and the person disposed, there can be no fault at all; for whatsoever
else remains is on God’s part, and that cannot possibly fail. But because the
things which are not commanded cannot possibly be secured, (for we are not sure
they are good in all circumstances,) we can but hope for such things, even
after we have secured our good intentions. We are sure of a blessing, but in
what instance we are not yet assured.
6. Our prayers must be fervent, intense, earnest, and
importunate, when we pray for things of high concernment and necessity.
‘Continuing instant in prayer; striving in prayer; labouring fervently in
prayer; night and day, praying exceedingly; praying always with all prayer:’ so
St. Paul calls it.
‘Watching unto prayer:’ so St. Peter.
‘Praying earnestly:’ so St. James.
And this is not at all to be abated in matters spiritual and of duty: for,
according as our desires are, so are our prayers; and as our prayers are, so
shall be the grace; and as that is, so shall be the measure of glory. But this
admits of degrees according to the perfection or imperfection of our state of
life; but it hath no other measures, but ought to be as great as it can, the
bigger the better: we must make no positive restraints upon ourselves. In other
things they are to use a bridle; and as we must limit our desires with
submission to God’s will, so also we must limit the importunity of our prayers
by the moderation and term of our desires. Pray for it as earnestly as you may
desire it.
7. Our desires must be lasting, and our prayers frequent,
assiduous, and continual; not asking for a blessing once, and then leaving it,
but daily renewing our suits, and exercising our hope, and faith, and patience,
and long-suffering, and religion, and resignation, and self-denial, in all the
degrees we shall be put to. This circumstance of duty our blessed Saviour
taught, saying, that ‘men ought always to pray, and not to faint.’
Always to pray, signifies the frequent doing of the duty in general; but
because we cannot always ask several things, and those are such as concern our
great interest, the precept comes home to this very circumstance; and St. Paul
calls it ‘praying without ceasing;’
and himself in his own case gave a precedent-’For this cause I besought the
Lord thrice.’ And so did our blessed Lord; he went thrice to God on the same
errand, with the same words, in a short space-about half a night; for his time
to solicit his suit was but short. And the Philippians were remembered by the
apostle, their spiritual father, ‘always pray for the pardon of our sins, for
the assistance of God’s grace, for charity, for life eternal, never giving over
till we die; and thus also we pray for supply of great temporal needs in their
several proportions; in all cases being curious we do not give over out of
weariness or impatience; for God God oftentimes defers to grant our suit,
because he loves to hear us beg it, and hath a design to give us more than we ask,
even a satisfaction of our desires, and a blessing for the very importunity.
8. Let the words of our prayers be pertinent, grave, material,
not studiously many, but according to our need, sufficient to express our
wants, and to signify our importunity. God hears us not the sooner for our many
words, but much the sooner for an earnest desire; to which let apt and
sufficient words minister, be they few or many, according as it happens. A long
prayer and a short differ not in their capacities of being accepted, for both
of them take their value according to the fervency of spirit, and the charity
of the prayer. That prayer, which is short by reason of an impatient spirit, or
dulness, or despite of holy things, or indifferency of desires, is very often
criminal, always imperfect; and that prayer which is long out of ostentation,
or superstition, or a trifling spirit, is as criminal and imperfect as the
other in their several instances. This rule relates to private prayer. In
public, our devotion is to be measured by the appointed office, and we are to
support our spirit with spiritual arts, that our private spirit may be a part
of the public spirit, and be adopted into the society and blessings of the
communion of saints.
9. In all forms of prayer mingle petition with thanksgiving, that
you may endear the present prayer and the future blessing, by returning praise
and thanks for what we have already received. This is St. Paul’s advice - ‘Be
careful for nothing; but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known unto God.
10. Whatever we beg of God, let us also work for it, if the thing
be matter of duty, or a consequent to industry; for God loves to bless labour
and to reward it, but not to support idleness.
And therefore our blessed Saviour in his sermons joins watchfulness with
prayer, for God’s graces are but assistances, not new creations of the whole
habit, in every instant or period of our life. Read Scriptures, and then pray
to God for understanding. Pray against temptation; but you must also resist the
devil, and then he will flee from you. Ask of God competency of living; but you
must also work with your hands the things that are honest, that ye may have to
supply in time of need. We can but do our endeavor, and pray for blessing, and
then leave the success with God; and beyond this we cannot deliberate, we
cannot take care - but, so far, we must.
11. To this purpose let every man study his prayers and read his
duty in his petitions. For the body of our prayer is the sum of our duty; and
as we must ask of God whatsoever we need, so we must labour for all that we
ask. Because it is our duty, therefore we must pray for God’s grace; but
because God’s grace is necessary, and without it we can do nothing, we are
sufficiently taught, that in the proper matter or our religious prayers is the
just matter of our duty; and if we shall turn our prayers into precepts, we
shall the easier turn our hearty desires into effective practices.
12. In all our prayers we must be careful to attend our present
work,
having a present mind, not wandering upon impertinent things, not distant from
our words, much less contrary to them; and if our thoughts do at any time
wander, and divert upon other objects, bring them back again with prudent and
severe arts - by all means striving to obtain a diligent, a sober, an
untroubled, and a composed spirit.
13. Let your posture and gesture of body in prayers be reverend,
grave, and humble - according to public order, or the best examples, if it be in
public - if it be in private, either stand or kneel, or lie flat upon the
ground on your face, in your ordinary and more solemn prayers, but in
extraordinary, casual, and ejaculatory prayers, the reverence and devotion of
the soul, and the lifting up the eyes and hands to God with any other posture
not indecent, is usual and commendable; for we may pray in bed, on horseback,
‘everywhere,’ and at all times, and in all
circumstances; and it is well if we do so; and some servants have not opportunity
to pray so often as they would, unless they supply the appetites of religion by
such accidental devotions.
14. ‘Let prayers and supplications and giving of thanks be made
for all men; for kings, and all that are in authority; for this is good and
acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour.’
We, who must love our neighbours as ourselves, must also pray for them as for
ourselves, with this only difference, that we may enlarge in our temporal
desires for kings, and pray for secular prosperity to them with more
importunity than for ourselves; because they need more to enable their duty and
government, and for the interests of religion and justice. This part of prayer
is by the apostle called intercession; in which, with special care, we
are to remember our relatives, our family, our charge, our benefactors, our
creditors, not forgetting to beg pardon and charity for our enemies, and
protection against them.
15. Rely not on a single prayer in matters of great concernment;
but make it as public as you can, by obtaining of others to pray for you - this
being the great blessing of the communion of saints, that a prayer united is
strong, like a well-ordered army; and God loves to be tied fast with such cords
of love, and constrained by a holy violence.
16. Every time that is not seized upon by some other duty is
seasonable enough for prayer; but let it be performed as a solemn duty morning
and evening, that God may begin and end all our business; that the outgoing of
the morning and evening may praise him; for so we bless God, and God blesses
us. And yet fail not to find or make opportunities to worship God at some other
times of the day, at least by ejaculations and short addresses, more or less,
longer or shorter, solemnly or without solemnity, privately or publicly, as you
can, or are permitted, always remembering, that as every sin is a degree of
danger and unsafety, so every pious prayer and well-employed opportunity is a
degree of return to hope and pardon.
Caution for making Vows.
17. A vow to God is an act of prayer, and a great degree and
instance of opportunity, and an increase of duty by some new uncommanded
instance, or some more eminent degree of duty, or frequency of action, or
earnestness of spirit in the same. And because it hath pleased God, in all ages
of the world, to admit of intercourse with his servants in the matters of vows,
it is not ill advice that we make vows to God in such cases in which we have
great need or great danger. But let it be done according to these rules and by
these cautions:
1. That the matter of the vow be lawful. 2. That it be useful in
order to religion or charity. 3. That it be grave, not trifling or impertinent;
but great in our proportion of duty towards the blessing. 4. That it be an
uncommanded instance, that is, that it be of something, or in some manner, or
in some degree, to which formerly we were not obliged, or which we might have
omitted without sin. 5. That it be done with prudence; that is, that it be safe
in all the circumstances of person, lest we beg a blessing and fall into a
snare. 6. That every vow of a new action be also accompanied with a new degree
and enforcement of our essential and unalterable duty - such as was Jacob’s
vow, that (besides the payment of the tithe) God should be his God; that so he
might strengthen his duty to him, first in essentials and precepts, and then in
additionals and accidentals. For it is but an ill tree that spends more in
leaves and suckers and gums than in fruit; and that thankfulness and religion
is best that first secures duty and then enlarges in counsels. Therefore, let
every great prayer and great need and great danger draw us nearer to God by the
approach of a pious purpose to live more strictly, and let every mercy of God
answering that prayer produce a real performance of it. 7. Let not young
beginners in religion enlarge their hearts and straighten their liberty by vows
of long continuance; nor, indeed, any one else, without a great experience of
himself and of all accidental dangers.
Vows of single actions are safest, and proportionable to those single blessings
ever begged in such cases of sudden and transient importunities. 8. Let no
action which is matter of question and dispute in religion ever become the
matter of a vow. He vows foolishly that promises to God to live and die in such
an opinion in an article not necessary nor certain; or that, upon confidence of
his present guide, binds himself for ever to the profession of what he may
afterwards more reasonably contradict, or may find not to be useful, or not
profitable, but of some danger or of no necessity.
If we observe the former rules we shall pray piously and
effectually; but because even this duty hath in it some special temptations, it
is necessary that we are armed by special remedies against them. The dangers
are, 1. Wandering thoughts; 2. Tediousness of spirit. Against the first these
advices are profitable:
Remedies against Wandering Thoughts in Prayer.
If we feel our spirits apt to wander in our prayers, and to
retire into the world, or to things unprofitable, or vain and impertinent:
1. Use prayer to be assisted in prayer; pray for the spirit of
supplication, for a sober, fixed, and recollected spirit; and when to this you
add a moral industry to be steady in your thoughts, whatsoever wanderings after
this do return irremediably are a misery of nature and an imperfection, but no
sin, while it is not cherished and indulged to.
2. In private it is not amiss to attempt the cure by reducing
your prayers into collects and short forms of prayer, making voluntary
interruptions, and beginning again, that the want of spirit and breath may be
supplied by the short stages and periods.
3. When you have observed any considerable wanderings of your
thoughts, bind yourself to repeat thy prayer again with actual attention, or
else revolve the full sense of it in your spirit, and repeat it in all the
effect and desires of it; and, possibly, the tempter may be driven away with
his own art, and may cease to interpose his trifles when he perceives they do
but vex the person into carefulness and piety; and yet he loses nothing of his
devotion, but doubles the earnestness of his care.
4. If this be not seasonable or opportune, or apt to any man’s
circumstances, yet be sure, with actual attention, to say a hearty Amen to the
whole prayer with one united desire, earnestly begging the graces mentioned in
the prayer; for that desire does the great work of the prayer, and secures the
blessing, if the wandering thoughts were against our will, and disclaimed by
contending against them.
5. Avoid multiplicity of businesses of the world, and in those
that are unavoidable, labour for an evenness and tranquillity of spirit, that
you may be untroubled and smooth in all tempests of fortune; for so we shall
better tend religion when we are not torn in pieces with the cares of the
world, and seized upon with low affections, passions, and interest.
6. It helps much to attention and actual advertisement in our prayers,
if we say our prayers silently, without the voice, only by the spirit. For, in
mental prayer, if our thoughts wander we only stand still; when our mind
returns we go on again - there is none of the prayer lost, as it is if our
mouths speak and our hearts wander.
7. To incite you to the use of these, or any other counsels you
shall meet with, remember that it is a great indecency to desire of God to hear
those prayers, a great part whereof we do not hear ourselves. If they be not
worthy of our attention they are far more unworthy of God’s.
Signs of Tediousness of Spirit in our Prayers and all Actions of Religion.
The second temptation in our prayer is a tediousness of spirit or
a weariness of the employment; like that of the Jews, who complained that they
were weary of the new moons, and their souls loathed the frequent return of
their Sabbaths: so do very many Christians, who first pray without fervour or
earnestness of spirit; and, secondly, meditate but seldom, and that without
fruit, or sense, or affection; or, thirdly, who seldom examine their
consciences, and when they do it, they do it but sleepily, slightly, without
compunction, or hearty purpose, or fruits of amendment. 4. They enlarge
themselves in the thoughts and fruitation of temporal things, running for
comfort to them only in any sadness and misfortune. 5. They love not to
frequent the sacraments, nor any the instruments of religion, as sermons,
confessions, prayers in public, fastings; but love ease and a loose
undisciplined life. 6. They obey not their superiors, but follow their own
judgment when their judgment follows their affections, and their affections
follow sense and worldly pleasures. 7. They neglect, or dissemble, or defer, or
do not attend to the motions and inclinations to virtue which the Spirit of God
puts into their soul. 8. They repent them of their vows and holy purposes, not
because they discover any indiscretion in them, or intolerable inconvenience,
but because they have within them labour (as the case now stands) to them
displeasure. 9. They content themselves with the first degrees and necessary
parts of virtue; and when they are arrived thither, they sit down as if they
were come to the mountain of the Lord, and care not to proceed on toward
perfection. 10. They inquire into all cases in which it may be lawful to omit a
duty; and, though they will not do less than they are bound to, yet they will
do no more than needs must; for they do out of fear and self-love, not out of
the love of God, or the spirit of holiness and zeal. The event of which will be
this: he that will do no more than needs must, will soon be brought to omit
something of his duty, and will be apt to believe less to be necessary than is.
Remedies against Tediousness of Spirit.
The remedies against this temptation are these:
1. Order your private devotions so that they become not arguments
and causes of tediousness by their indiscreet length, but reduce your words
into a narrow compass, still keeping all the matter; and what is cut off in the
length of your prayers supply in the earnestness of your spirit; for so nothing
is lost, while the words are changed into matter, and length of time into
fervency of devotion. The forms are made not the less perfect, and the spirit
is more, and the scruple is removed.
2. It is not imprudent, if we provide variety of forms of prayer
to the same purposes, that the change, by consulting with the appetites of
fancy, may better entertain the spirit; and, possibly, we may be pleased to
recite a hymn when a collect seems flat to us and unpleasant; and we are
willing to sing rather than to say, or to sing this rather than that: we are
certain that variety is delightful; and whether that be natural to us, or an
imperfection, yet if it be complied with, it any remove some part of the
temptation.
3.Break your office and devotion into fragments, and make
frequent returnings by ejaculations and abrupt intercourses with God; for so no
length can oppress your tenderness and sickliness of spirit; and, by often
praying in such manner and in all circumstances, we shall habituate our souls
to prayer by making it the business of many lesser portions of our time; and by
thrusting in between all our other employments, it will make everything relish
of religion, and by degrees turn all into its nature.
4. Learn to abstract your thoughts and desires from pleasures and
things of the world; for nothing is a direct cure to this evil but cutting off
all other loves and adherences. Order your affairs so that religion may be
propounded to you as a reward, and prayer as your defence, and holy actions as
your security, and charity and good works as your treasure. Consider that all
things else are satisfactions but to the brutish part of a man; and that these
are the refreshments and relishes of that noble part of us by which we are
better than beasts; and whatsoever other instrument, exercise, or
consideration, is of use to take our loves from the world, the same is apt to
place them upon God.
5. Do not seek for deliciousness and sensible consolations in the
actions of religion, but only regard the duty and the conscience of it; for
although in the beginning of religion most frequently, and at some other times
irregularly, God complies with our infirmity, and encourages our duty with
little overflowings of spiritual joy, and sensible pleasure, and delicacies in
prayer, so as we seem to feel some little beam of heaven, and great
refreshments from the spirit of consolation, yet this is not always safe for us
to have, neither safe for us to expect and look for; and when we do, it is apt
to make us cool in our inquires and waitings upon Christ when we want them: it
is a running after him, not for the miracles but for the loaves; not for the
wonderful things of God, and the desires of pleasing him, but for the pleasures
of pleasing ourselves. And as we must not judge our devotion to be barren or
unfruitful when we want the overflowings of joy running over, so neither must
we cease for want of them. If our spirits can serve God choosingly and greedily
out of pure conscience of our duty, it is better in itself and more safe for
us.
6. Let him use to soften his spirit with frequent meditation upon
sad and dolorous objects, as of death, the terrors of the day of judgment,
fearful judgments upon sinners, strange horrorid accidents, fear of God’s
wrath, the pains of hell, the unspeakable amazements of the damned, the
intolerable load of a sad eternity: for whatsoever creates fear, or makes the
spirit to dwell in a religious sadness, is apt to entender the spirit, and make
it devout and pliant to any part of duty; for a great fear, when it is
ill-managed, is the parent of superstition; but a discreet and well-guided fear
produces religion.
7. Pray often, and you shall pray oftener; and when you are
accustomed to a frequent devotion, it will so insensibly unite to your nature
and affections, that it will become a trouble to omit your usual or appointed
prayers; and what you obtain at first by doing violence to your inclinations,
at last will not be left without as great unwillingness as that by which at
first it entered. This rule relies not only upon reason derived from the
nature, of habits, which turn into a second nature, and make their actions
easy, frequent, and delightful’ but it relies upon a reason depending upon the
nature and constitution of grace, whose productions are of the same nature with
the parent, and increases itself, naturally growing from grains to huge trees,
from minutes to vast proportions, and from moments to eternity. But be sure not
to omit your usual prayers without great reason, though without sin it may be
done; because after you have omitted something, in a little while you will be
past the scruple of that, and begin to be tempted to leave out more. Keep
yourself up to your usual forms - you may enlarge when you will; but do not
contract or lesson them without a very probable reason.
8. Let a man frequently and seriously, by imagination, place
himself upon his death-bed, and consider what great joys he shall have for the
remembrance of every day well spent, and what then he would give that he had so
spent all his days. He may guess at it by proportions; for it is certain he
shall have a joyful and prosperous night who hath spent his day holily; and he
resigns his soul with peace into the hands of God, who hath lived in the peace
of God and the works of religion in his lifetime. This consideration is of a
real event; it is of a thing that will certainly come to pass. ‘It is appointed
for all men once to die;’ and after death comes judgment; the apprehension of
which is dreadful, and the presence of it is intolerable; unless, by religion
and sanctity, we are disposed for so venerable an appearance.
9. To this may be useful that we consider the easiness of
Christ’s yoke,
the excellences and sweetnesses that are in religion, the peace of conscience,
the joy of the Holy Ghost, the rejoicing in God, the simplicity and pleasure of
virtue, the intricacy, trouble, and business of sin; the blessings and health
and reward of that; the curses the sicknesses and sad consequences of this; and
that, if we are weary of the labours of religion, we must sit still and do
nothing; for whatsoever we do contrary to it is infinitely more full of labour,
care, difficulty, and vexation.
10. Consider this also, that tediousness of spirit is the
beginning of the most dangerous condition and estate in the whole world. For it
is a great disposition to the sin against the Holy Ghost: it is apt to bring a
man to backsliding and the state of unregeneration; to make him return to his
vomit and his sink; and either to make the man impatient, or his condition
scrupulous, unsatisfied, irksome, and desperate: and it is better that he had
never known the way of godliness, than, after the knowledge of it, that he
should fall away. There is not in the world a greater sign that the spirit of
reprobation is beginning upon a man than when he is habitually and constantly,
or very frequently, weary, and slights or loathes holy offices.
11. The last remedy that preserves the hope of such a man, and
can reduce him to the state of zeal and the love of God, is a pungent, sad, and
a heavy affliction; not desperate, but recreated with some intervals of
kindness, or little comforts, or entertained with hopes of deliverance; which
condition if a man shall fall into, by the grace of God he is likely to
recover; but if this help him not, it is infinite odds but he will quench the
spirit.
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