§. 16. Direct. 8. Satan will do what he can to make it go worse with you after, than before. He1 will discourage you if he can, by hindering your success, that he may make you think it is to no purpose: so many Preachers, because they have fished long and catched nothing, grow cold and heartless, and ready to sit down, and say as Jer. 20. 9. I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his ⟨p. 125⟩name. So in Prayer, Sacrament, Reproof, &c. the Devil makes great use of this, What good hath it done thee? But patience and perseverance win the Crown. The beginning is seldom a time to perceive success: The Carpenter is long at work before he rear a house: Nature brings not forth the Plant or birth the first day. Your life-time is your working time. Do your part, and God will not fail on his part. It is his part to give success; and dare you accuse him, or suspect him? There is more of the success of prayer to be believed, than to be felt. If God have promised to hear, he doth hear, and we must believe it, whether we feel it or not. Prayers are oft heard long before the thing is sent us that we prayed for: We pray for Heaven, but shall not be there till death. If Moses his message to Pharaoh ten times seem lost, it is not lost for all that. What work would ever have been done, i• on the first conceit of unsuccessfulness it had been given off? Be glad that thou hast time to plough and sow, to do thy part, and if God will give thee fruit at last.
§. 16. Direct. 8. Satan will do what he can to make it go worse with you after, than before. He1 will discourage you if he can, by hindering your success, that he may make you think it is to no purpose: so many Preachers, because they have fished long and catcht nothing, grow cold and heartless, and ready to sit down, and say as Jer. 20. 9. I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his ⟨p. 125⟩name. So in Prayer, Sacrament, Reproof, &c. the Devil makes great use of this, What good hath it done thee? But patience and perseverance win the Crown. The beginning is seldom a time to perceive success: The Carpenter is long at work before he rear a house: Nature brings not forth the Plant or birth the first day. Your life-time is your working time. Do your part, and God will not fail on his part. It is his part to give success; and dare you accuse him, or suspect him? There is more of the success of prayer to be believed, than to be felt. If God have promised to hear, he doth hear, and we must believe it, whether we feel it or not. Prayers are oft heard long before the thing is sent us that we prayed for: We pray for Heaven, but shall not be there till death. If Moses his message to Pharaoh ten times seem lost, it is not lost for all that. What work would ever have been done, i• on the first conceit of unsuccessfulness it had been given off? Be glad that thou hast time to plow and sow, to do thy part, and if God will give thee fruit at last.
- 1Direct. 8.
