`zeal as a man begs of a furgeon to cut him for the stone; or a condemned man defires his executioner quickly to put him out of his pain, by taking away his life. When things are come to that pafs, it must be done; but God knows with what little complacency and defire the man makes his request.

And yet the things of religion and the fpirit, are the only things that ought to be defired earnestly, and purfued vehemently; because God hath fet fuch a value upon them, that they are the effects of his greatest loving kindness. They are the purchases of Chrift's blood, and the effect of his continual interceffion; the fruits of his bloody facrifice, and the gifts of his healing and faving mercy; the graces of God's Spirit, and the only inftruments of felicity. And if we can have fondneffes for things indifferent, or dangerous; our prayers upbraid our fpirits, when we beg coldly and remifsly for those things, for which we ought to die; which are more precious than the globes of kings, and weightier than imperial fcep

tres,

tres, richer than the fpoils of the sea, or the treasures of the Indian hills.

UNDER this title of lukewarmness, may be comprised alfo thefe cautions: That a good man's prayers are sometimes hindered by inadvertency; fometimes by want of perfeverance.

For, inadvertency, or want of attendance to the fenfe and intention of our prayers, is an effect of lukewarmness, and a certain companion and appendage to human infirmity; and is only fo remedied, as our prayers are made zealous, and our infirmities pafs into the strengths of the fpirit. But if we were quick in our perceptions, either concerning our danger, or our need, or the excellency of the object, or the glories of God, or the perfections of religion; we fhould not dare to throw away our prayers fo like fools, or come to God and fay a prayer with our mind ftanding at a distance, fometimes with little attention, and fometimes none at all. I shall say no more to this, but that in reafon we can never D

VOL. IV.

hope,

hope, that God in heaven will hear our prayers, which we ourfelves fpeak, and yet hear not at the fame time. If they be not worth our own attending to, they are not worth God's hearing: If they are worth God's attending to, we must make them fo by our own zeal, and industry, and attention, and a prefent and holy fpirit.

Concerning perfeverance, the rule is this: Whatfoever we need, we must afk it of God fo long as we want it, even till we have it. For God therefore many times defers to grant, that we may persevere to ask. And because every holy prayer is a glorification of God, by the confeffing many of his attributes; a lafting and perfevering prayer is a little image of the glories and fervices of heaven. It is a continuation to do that, according to our measures here, which we fhall be doing to eternal ages. Therefore let us not think, that fome few prayers can fecure to us a mighty bleffing, and a supply of a great neceffity. He that prays fo, and then leaves off, hath faid fome prayers,

4

prayers, and done the ordinary offices of his religion; but hath not fecured the bleffing, nor used means, reafonably proportionable to a mighty intereft.

THE fum is this: If the man that makes the prayer be an unholy perfon, his prayer is not the inftrument of a bleffing, but a curfe; but when the finner begins to repent truly, then his defires begin to be holy. But if they be holy, and just, and good; yet they are without profit and effect, if the prayer be made without attention, or if the man foon gives over, or if the prayer be not zealous, or if the man be ruffled with anger. There are very many ways for a good man to become unbleffed, and unprofperous in his prayers. And he cannot be secure, unless he be in the ftate of grace, and his fpirit be calm, and his mind be attentive, and his defires earnest and vehement, and his devotions perfevering, lafting till his needs be ferved, or exchanged for another bleffing. Our prayers are fins and unholy, if a wicked man make them; and if they be made by a good man, they are yet ineffective, unless they

be improved by their proper difpofitions. A good man cannot prevail in his prayers, if his defires be cold, and his affections trifling, and his induftry foon weary. And if all these appendages be obferved, yet they will do no good to an evil man; for his prayer that begins in fin, thall end in forrow.

Henceforth, therefore, let no one wonder, that of those who pray, fo few find any acceptable return. To make up a good and fufficient prayer, there must be purity of intention, purity of the body and foul. There must be no vice remaining, no affection to fin. For he that brings his body to God, and hath left his will in the power of any fin, offers to God an imperfect oblation, and not a reasonable facrifice.

Let us therefore take heed, that we do not lofe our prayers; for by them we hope to have eternal life. And let any man, whofe confcience is moft religious and tender, confider, what condition that man is in, that hath not faid his prayers in thirty or forty years together: And that is the true