Fenner - Houston-Packer Collection BX5037 .F46 1651

2,14 Í 2. CH R I S, T'S ilarm confiderativeneffe, ftudious trivings, and all's active that way now ; fo that if a man be hill dead, his repentance is fà11è. Againe, to goe over all duties of Religion ; they mull be dole with life ; to doe them with a dead heart, is as good as not to doe them at all. FirfiPrayer, fuppofe we pray at Church, and pray in our Families, and pray in our clofets, is this all ? To pray with a dead Heart, as if we cased not whe- ther we feed or no, no pullinns of our heart downe before God ; no wraftlings with God for what we aske, no fittings of our foules up, no tannings of our minds upon his Pretence, no cryes, no mournings, no importunity, but the heart as lum- pifh and unweldy as a Stone ; is this Praying ? No ['ayes David ; ,Qaicke,n us 0 Lord, that we may call upon thy hams, Pfah80.sS. Secondly, for Hearing of the word r It is not thy hearing of it to many times a weeke, though thou main heare it as of- een as ever thou canif, and thole that will not heart as fre- quently as they may, arc high delpifers of God and his Ordi- nances ; bat yet if thou heareft the word with a dead heart, thy hearing is made as no hearing ; It is Paid of chofe primitive Converts, that they were pricked in their hearts as they were hearing, Aéf.a.37. They onely got good by their hearing, they heard the word with life ; fo it is Paid of many of Chriffs hearers, they did imet7as1, they layd upon him,theypreafed up- on him, Lb k.5.1. In another place, it is laid, thjt they bu:g upcn him, they were attentive and eager to him ; our Savt- ourChrift lays, aú a very great judgement to be dull of hear- ing, Matth.a 3.1 S. When people lit as if the word did not con - cerne them, when they heare without any motion or affedfion, the word hardly joggeth their hearts, it hardly fhaketh their Confcience at all, the word does neither delight them, nor wound them, nor pierce then,, it beaks none oftbeir Fames, it cannot get betweene them and their lulls ; when they have heard a Sermon, they goe away juif as they came, they finde nothing now to doe, it does not dragge them one jot more out of the world, not an inch neerer heaves ; their carriage is mach

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=