A Spiritual Antidote Against Sinful Contagion, Treatise 1 · Duty 4 – Duty 5
DUTY IV.
BE much in secret Fervent Prayer. Weep Secret Prayer.when you are alone; wrastle with God, when you have him by himself: Neglect not to visit God in your Closet. Gods people have sweetest communion in secret. Take heed of dulness, and lukewarmness, when you are in secret. Let the eye of God be that to you in secret, which the eye of Men is to an Hypocrite in publick. Judge more of the sincerity of your heart by its frame in secret, then in the company of others. No Grace will thrive well, if you are negligent of, or superficial in your secret duties. And because we are apter to be dull, when we are praying alone, then we are in the presence of others; because then we do want those external motives of applause and esteem among others. To quicken your heart in secret Duty, I would pray you to consider,
1. A slothful Prayer will not be acceptable unto Ten Arguments to quicken us in Prayer.God: Nay, they will provoke him, to see you pray, as though you were more inclined to sleep, then to pray: To speak to God, and think of something else, is a great slighting of the God of Heaven. A Prayer from a dead, dull, and slothful heart, will be a torn, lame, and ragged Prayer, Mal. 1. 8, 14. Nay, it will bring down a curse, and not a blessing; to offer the blinde and lame, when you have a Male in your flock. To give God a few words in Prayer, when you have an heart in your brest to serve him with. God loves a broken heart, but doth not approve of a dull broken Prayer; that is so, through the carelessness of the Suppliant. And, wherefore do you pray at all, but that you may be accepted? then ply your work, while you are at it.
2. Dull and slothful Prayers will not be prevalent with God. And why do you pray, but that you may prevail? Do you think a slothful Prayer, shall obtain pardon of sin, or peace of Conscience? It is the effectual, fervent (or inwrought) Prayer of the Righteous, that avails much. The Seed of Jacob shall not seek Gods face in vain, Isai. 45 19. But then Jacob was a wrestler with God, Gen. 32. 24, 25, 26. Hos. 12. 3, 4.
3. Dull and slothful Prayers, will never afford you comfort in the actual performance of them; nor in the after review.
4. Dull and slothful Prayers, will bring a deal of guilt upon your Conscience; And do you pray to make them more guilty, or to get off former contracted guilt? You should pray for the pardon of a dull and lifeless Prayer; and will you pray for pardon of a lukewarm Prayer, with a lukewarm Prayer? Will one sin prevail with God, to get off the guilt of another? When you have been upon your knees in secret, and look back when your duty is done; doth not Conscience reproach you, for remisness and deadness of your heart therein? When you come to die, what will Conscience then say to you? Thou didst indeed pray in secret, Oh! but I remember, saith Conscience, It was very coldly, it was very lazily, and lukewarmly; and shall Conscience reproach you not onelyonly for your secret sins, but also for your secret duties? Yea, it will be better to you, to consider your very duties to be sin, by your ill management of them.
5. Consider the Heart-piercing Eye of God is upon you, when you are in secret. When you are upon your knees, remember God is by you. God is looking on you: How would you pray in secret, if you thought an holy Man did over-hear you? And shall not the presence of the Great God awaken you, to a lively performance of your duty much more? God seeth in secret, Matth. 6. 6. And will not you give eye-service unto God?
6. Consider you must give an account unto God of the manner of your duties; not onelyonly whether you pray in secret, but how you pray in secret. The matter of a duty will not profit you, if the manner be neglected by you. God will not regard Mens duties, by the bulk and number, but according to their weight and manner: And what difference will there be at the day of accounts, if one Man go to Hell for not praying at all, and another go to Hell for not praying aright?
7. Possess your heart with the weightiness of the business you are going about. And let the earnestness of your heart bear some proportion to the greatness of you work. You are about matters of the highest importance, when you are upon your knees: You are then to pray down the power of your sin; and were it possible, to pray it out of your heart. You are then to pray for pardon of sin; for the favor of God; for strength to resist temptation; to do duty for everlasting life, against everlasting flames. And doth it become such a man to be lukewarm, and slothful in his petitions unto God? Nay, your work that then you have to do, requires haste. Reconciliation with God is a great work, and it requires haste, or else you may die in your enmity to him. Preparation for death, is a great work, and it requireth haste, or else you may die before you are prepared: And will you then be slothful, when your work calleth for much diligence?
8. Remember Death is at your back; and it might be the last time, you might ever have to speak and plead with God in behalf of your Soul. Tell me, Would you pray so slothfully, if you were to die when your Prayer is done? Did you suppose you were to go into Eternity, to the Bar of God, when your Prayer is over? Oh, how would you pray, and weep, and strive with God, that you would be loth to rise off your knees, till you were perswaded you had obtained a Blessing? Thoughts of Death would enliven you in your duty; especially now in this time of great Mortality, when so many thousands in a week go down into their Graves; and for ought you know, Death might arrest you on your knees, What, and with a sleepy prayer in your mouth? Eccles. 9. 10. Whatsoever therefore thou findest in thy hand to do (that is good) do it with all thy might; for there is no wisdom, or counsel in the Grave, whither thou art going; there is no praying in your Grave. Praying time is but short, therefore Prayer should be the more fervent.
9. Get a right sense and feeling of your wants; then you will be more importunate. No wonder that a man that doth not feel the want of Christ, and the want of Grace, and the favor of God, be lukewarm in his actions for them. A Man that feels himself pinched with hunger, needs not be bidden to ask earnestly for his food: Therefore when you go to Prayer, think first with your self, and work it upon your heart, and say to your self, I need a pardon for my sin; I need the Righteousness of Christ to cloath me in the sight of God. I need more love to God, more faith in Christ, more holiness. Know your need, you will be fervent in begging for supplies.
10 Consider that the Devil is laborious to deaden your hearts, and divert your thoughts, and make you dull; and will not you be laborious in duty to counter-work him? The Apostle doth exhort to greater vigilancy, because the Devil, our adversary, as a roaring Lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. 1 Pet. 5. 8. Do but think how you please the Devil, when you pray lukewarmly; and that duty is but badly done, when the Devil is pleased with it.
But here I would wish you to distinguish betwixt the slothfulness of heart in duty, and deadness and dulness of heart in duty. Dulness doth not always argue slothfulness, though slothfulness doth evermore cause dulness. A slothful heart, is always a dead and a dull heart; but a dead, and a dull heart, cannot be said to be always slothful: For a man may take a great deal of pains with his own heart in Prayer, and yet not get it quickned and enlivened. A man might labor till he sweat, in rolling up a great stone up Hill, and yet he cannot do it. It is not because he is slothful, but because it is above his strength. To conclude this, let me advise (if it may be) that you be not dead or dull in secret Prayer, but be sure you be not slothful.
DUTY V.
BE much in speaking of God, and in the exercise Zeal for God and Mens Souls.of Grace in every Company and Duty; live a Life of Faith and Love; be much in speaking for God, and to men, for their Souls good, as you have opportunity. Give them some hints of the danger of Death; bespeak them to be serious for God, and for their Souls. Oh, what good might a word do upon some men, when the Arrows of God are flying abroad, when they do not know how soon God might strike his Arrows in their heart, and dip them in their blood!
Oh, Speak unto your carnal Relations, and your carnal Neighbours, speak to them with earnestness, with compassion, that you may be instrumental to save their Souls from Sin. For this end,
First, Consider the worth and excellency of Five Arguments to endeavor to save Souls.the Souls of men, that one Soul is of more value and worth then all the World: Little do the ungodly think of the excellency of that Soul, that they will drink away, and swear away, and lose it for a Lust.
Secondly, Consider what the Soul of man is capable of; it is capable of the Communion of God upon Earth, and of the enjoyment of God in Heaven; it is capable of living and delighting in God; and should it not grieve and pity you to see them fix their noble affections upon such vile and empty things (even as their primary objects) upon the World and Sin?
Thirdly, Consider the Price that was laid down by the Lord Jesus Christ, to ransom and redeem Souls; for ought you know, Christ laid down his precious Blood to redeem that mans Soul that you stand by, and hear him swear, and will not reprove him. For ought you know, Christ had the Soul of your Child in his eye, and upon his heart, when he was upon the Cross; and will not you try and endeavour to recover his Soul out of the power of Satan and Sin? Did Christ shed his blood, and will not you speak a word to save a Soul?
Fourthly, Consider the real danger their Souls are in while unconverted, how little there is betwixt them and Hell; Can you see them merry at the very Borders of Hell, and not warn them? Can you see them chearfull, when they are near Damnation, and not your bowels yearn over them?
Fifthly, Consider the time is very short that they are to be with you; and now in the time of Plague, how short indeed! within a day they may be out of the reach of your Admonitions and Reproofs, of your Counsels and Warnings, and afterwards you may wish you had done something for their Souls, when it will be too late. Are not men falling about you by the hand of God? and can you see men daily going to Eternity, and many of them unfit to die, and not speak a word to save their Souls? Tell them, oh tell them, of the evil of Sin, of the greatness of their Misery, of the Danger, they are in, and of the Remedy by Christ, and of the Terms and Conditions of the Covenant of Grace.