50 OF SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. cerning whom the wisdom of God says, 'Because I called unto them, and they refused; they shall call on me, but I will not answer ; they shall seek me early, and shall not find me,' Prov. i. 18-21. And although we may say unto such persons in general, either leave your sinning, or leave your praying, from Psalm 1. 16, 17, and that with respect unto present scandal, and cer- tain miscarriage in the end, if both be continued in; yet in particular I would not advise any such person to leave off his praying, until he had left his sin. This were to advise a sick man to use no remedies until he were well cured. Who knows but that the Holy Spirit, who works when and how he pleaseth, may take a time to animate these lifeless prayers, and make them a means of deliverance from the power of this sin. In the mean time, the fault and guilt is wholly their own, who have effected a consistency between a way of-sin- ning and a course in praying; and it ariseth from hence, that they have never labored to fill up their requests with grace. What there hath been of earn- estness or diligence in them, bath been from a force put upon them by their convictions and fears. For no man was ever absolutely prevailed on by sin, who prayed for deliverance, according to the mind of God. Every- praying man that perisheth, was an hypocrite. The faithfulness of God in his promises will not allow us to judge otherwise. Wherefore the thoughts that such persons have of spiritual things, even in their duties, do not arise from within, nor are a natural emanation of the frames of their hearts and affections. 3. Earnestness and apparent fervency in prayer, as to the outward delivery of the words of it, yea, though the mind be so affected as to contribute much there- unto, will not of themselves prove, that the thoughts
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