Cap.i6. An Expofation topan th Book ofJ OB. verf.i7. 343 am pure inflate, yet if I am impure in life, the ear of God will (hut againfi my fuites, Ifa. 1.14.15. God. rejeoits the prayers of his own people, becaufe their hands was full of blood, aid hence hiscounfell, Wafhyou makeyou clean, put away the evil! ofyour doingsfrom before mine eyes, &c. Come non' -lei to' reafon together, faith the Lord, very, 18. As if he had laid, while 1 fee your fins, I cannot hear your prayer; ; while your-iniqui- ties are before mine Eyes , your fupplications cannot enter into mine Ear, nor will j anfwer them. How can any foul expel with Faith, that God (hould do what hereque(is, whenhe will not doe what God commands ? Or that God fhould fufill our defrres, while we in any thing.negled. his rules As the prayer ofan unholy perfon is turned into fin, fo the fin ofa holy perfon may, caufe the. Lord to turnaway his pray- er : Then take that counfcll of the Apoflle , writing to, and of. Saints, Heb. 1®. 22. Let us dram nigh to God with a true heart infull af'urance of Faith : bavingour hearts fprinkled from an evill conycience, andour bodies waffled with pure water : There is a twofold evill coufcience. Firfl,. That which lives in anyknown fn unrepented of,, Secondly, That which is unquiet and unfetled about the pardon of thole fins whichwe have repented of. We fhould get both thefe evill conlciences but efpecially the firil, cured and removed by the fprinkling of the blood of Chrifi, before we draw nigh to God in prayer : as all() our bo- dies.mafbed in pure water, which is either an .allufion to the old Ceremonies among the Jews, who before they came to worlhip at the Tabernacle, purged themfelves with diverfe outwards wafflings, leading them to the confideration of that moral purity , both of heart and life , in which God is to be worfhipped; or it is an allufion to Baptifm in fpecial ; in which there is anexternal! wafhing ofthe body, fignifying the wafhing of the foul by the blood ofChritl, and by the effeetual working of the fpirit ; The fumofall is, unlefs the perfon be pure his prayer is not pure. Thefe are the ingredients which conflitute pure prayer ; all thefe met in Job, and therefore he concluded, not onely confidently, but truely, c lilyprayer is pure And
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