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The saints daily exercise A treatise concerning the whole duty of prayer. Delivered in…The saints daily exercise A treatise concerning the whole dutie of prayer. Delivered in…
The saints daily exercise A treatise concerning the whole duty of prayer. Delivered in five sermons upon I Thess. 5.17. By the late faithful and worthy minister of Jesus Christ, John Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplain in ordinary to his Majesty, Master of Emmanuel College in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Lincolns Inn.The saints daily exercise A treatise concerning the whole dutie of prayer. Delivered in fiue sermons vpon I Thess. 5.17. By the late faithfull and worthy minister of Iesus Christ, Iohn Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplaine in ordinary to his Maiesty, Master of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Lincolnes Inne.
London: printed by W. Jones, 1629London: printed by W. Iones, 1629
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Only remember this (when we exhort you thus to keep a constant course, for which you heard so many reasons in the morning, I say, remember this caution) that if it be performed in a 1formal, or in a customary, and overly manner, you were as good to omit it altogether: for the Lord takes not our prayers by number, but by weight: when it is an outward picture, a dead ⟨p. 30⟩carcass of prayer, when there is no life, no fervency in it, he regards it not, be not deceived in this, it is a very usual deceit, it may be a mans conscience would be upon him, if he should omit it altogether, and therefore when he doth something, his heart is satisfied, and so he grows worse and worse, therefore, consider, that the very doing of the duty, is not that which the Lord heeds, but he will have it so performed; that the end may be obtained, and that the thing may be effected, for which you pray. If a man send his servant to go to such a place, it is not his going to and fro that 2he regards, but he would have him to dispatch the business; so in all other works, he cares not for the formality of performance, but would have the thing so done, that it may be of use to him; if you set a servant to make a fire 3for you, and he go, and lay some green wood together, and perhaps put a few coals under, this is not to make a fire for you, but he must, either get dry wood, or he must blow till it burn, and be fit for use; so when your hearts are unfit, when they are like green wood, when you come to warm them, and to quicken them by prayer to God, it may be, you post over this duty, and leave your hearts as cold, and as distempered as they were before: My beloved, this is not to perform this duty. The duty is effectually performed, when your hearts are wrought upon by it, & when they are brought to a better tune, and to a better temper then they were before. If you find ⟨p. 31⟩sinful lusts, there your business is to work them out by prayer, to reason the matter, to expostulate the thing before the Lord, and not to glue over, till you have set all the wheels of your soul right, till you have made your hearts perfect with God; and if you find your hearts too much cleaving to the world, you must wean them, and take them off;