Of Perfeveranu in Prayer. 681 we go to God with any frtedom of Spirit? How can we call him Father with "any Boldncfs and Confidence, while we arc confcious to our felves that we have daringly provoked hjm hy fame wilful Offence? I may appeal to your own Experience in this; Do .not your Confciences fly in your Faces? Do they not rake you by the Throat and even choak your Speech, while you arc praying with fame fuch Suggcfrions as thefe? What, can 1 pray for the Pardon of Sin, that frequently commit that which I know to be Sin? Shall I dare to lift up unclean Hands before his pure and holy Eyes, l)r. to fpeak to him in Prayer, when as thofc Sins that rancor and :Ccfter in my Confcience, muft needs make my Breath unfavory aud noifome to him? Will the Lord hear fuch Prayers? Or, if hedoth hear them, will he not account t hem an Abomination?·Younow, whofe Confciences thus accufc you, do you not find fuch Refled'ions as thefe to be great Deadnings to your Hearts, fuch Damps to Duty, fuch Clippings of· the Wings of the Spiri t of God and takings offof the Wheels of the Soul , fo that it drives on but Oowly and heavily in th(" performance of that Duty? Certainly Guilt is the greateft Impediment to Duty in the World, for it takes off from the Freenc:fs and Filialnefs of our Spirts. and fills us with Diftruft1. Diffidence and a flavifh Fear of coming before God, rather as our Judge than as our Father. And therefore we find that as foon as Adam had finned againfE his Maker, he hides himfelf from him: Yea, and we may obferve it .in our felves, what a flavifh dejeCl:ednefs and deadnefs feizeth upon us when we come to God in Duty, after we have wronged him by any known Sin; how cloth this make us come with fuch mifgiving Fears, as if we would not have God to take not ice that we were in his Prefence, mak ing us to be continually in Pain until the Duty be done? And thus you fee what it is to Pray without cca.. fing. Is is to pray conftantly at fet times and Seafons, it is to pray importunately and vehemently, it is llpon all Occafions to be fending up holy Ejaculations unto God, and efpecially to keep alive 'and cherifh a praying Frame of Heart ; Which \Vhofoever would do he muit beware of immerging himfelf in the World, and of committing apy ~mown and prefumptuous Sin. And fo much .for the DoCtrinal part. . · The Application lhall be to ftir us up and excite us to the performance of this .An. E:dor~ Holy Duty, wherein indeed the Vitals of Religion and Holinefs do confift : And;; ~kon untt~ to prefs this upon you, confider with me thefe following Part iculars : raJ"· Firft, Prt~yer is one of the zreateft Signs of .c Man's tlew Birth. And is in ,the natu~ 1 • ral Birth we know the Child is living by its Crying when it comes into the Prt~Jer it World; fo alfo in this .fpiritual Birth it is an evidence, that we are born living "/ig,n of Souls to God, when we cry mighti.Jy unto God in Prayer. And therefore in ~/ ;ew .Afls 9• I 1. when God feDt .Ananias unto Paul, that he might take off that Fear rz · from him that might otherwife feize upon him in going to fuch an enraged Perfecuror as he was, he tells him St. Paul was changed, for behold he prays. This is an infallible Sign that we are Children of God, when we can with a Holy Reverence and Boldnefs cry Abha, F~tther. Secondly, Crmjider it i.f a great and inejlimable Privilege, that God will permit us ~· _ ro approach fo neAr to bimfelf; that lie win permit fuch vile Duft and Afhes as we Pra!e~:~ are £O fpeak to him, who is the God of the Spirits ofallFlefu. The holy Angels ~:l'I:P~• in Heaven fb.nd always m1niftring in the prefence of God; and Prayer doth in vilege~ fome kind affociatc us with them; it brings us to lie proftrate at the Feet of God, at w hofe Feet alfo .Angels and all the Powers in Heaven do with much more Humility than we, fall down and worlbip him ; we and they fall down together at the Feet of the great God, we in Prayer and they in Praifes . This Privilege coft Jefus Chrift dear, for it is through him (as the Apoftle fpeaks) that we have accefs with /Joldne(s unto the Throne of Grace. All accefs thither was barred againfi: Sinners till Chrift opened a Paflilge for us by his own Death and m oft precious Blood: And thall not we make ufe of a Privilege purchafed for us at fo dear a Rate as that is ? Bath Chrift fhed his Blood to procure us liberty to pray, and filall nqt we fpend our Breath in praying? Hath Chrift died fuch a curfed, c~uel Death, to purchafc liberty for us to praY·, and fhall we rather choofc to dre and eternal Death than make ufe of iE? This is to defpife the Blood of Jefus Chrift, to offer an high Affront and lndignity unto him, to account it a vile and contemptible Thing, when we make no more eftccm of that for the purchafe of R r r r r · which
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