Secondly,1 If you would maintain a praying Temper of Soul, be careful not to fall into the commission of any known, presumptuous Sin. The Guilt of Sin lying upon the Conscience, will exceedingly deaden the Heart to Prayer. Alas! how can we go to God with any freedom of Spirit? How can we call him ⟨p. 414⟩Father with any Boldness and Confidence, while we are conscious to our selves that we have daringly provoked him by some wilful Offence? I may appeal to your own Experience in this; Do not your Consciences fly in your Faces? Do they not take you by the Throat and even choke your Speech, while you are praying with some such Suggestions as these? What, can I 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, or to speak to him in Prayer, when as those Sins that rancour and fester in my Conscience, must needs make my Breath unsavoury and noisome to him? Will the Lord hear such Prayers? Or, if he doth hear them, will he not account them an Abomination? You now, whose Consciences, thus accuse you, do you not find such Reflections as these to be great Deadnings to your Hearts, such Damps to Duty, such Clippings of the Wings of the Spirit of God and takings off of the Wheels of the Soul, so that it drives on but slowly and heavily in the performance of that Duty? Certainly Guilt is the greatest Impediment ⟨p. 415⟩to Duty in the World, for it takes off from the Freeness and Filialness of our Spirits, and fills us with Distrust, Diffidence and a slavish Fear of coming before God, rather as our Judge than as our Father. And therefore we find that as soon as Adam had sinned against his Maker, he hides himself from him: Yea, and we may observe it in our selves, what a slavish dejectedness and deadness seizeth upon us when we come to God in Duty, after we have wronged him by any known Sin; how doth this make us come with such misgiving Fears, as if we would not have God to take notice that we were in his Presence, making us to be continually in Pain until the Duty be done? And thus you see what it is to Pray without ceasing. It is to pray constantly at set Times and Seasons, it is to pray importunately and vehemently, it is upon all Occasions to be sending up holy Ejaculations unto God, and especially to keep alive and cherish a praying Frame of Heart:
Secondly,1 If you would maintain a praying Temper of Soul, be careful not to fall into the commission of any known, presumptuous Sin. The Guilt of Sin lying upon the Conscience, will exceedingly deaden the Heart to Prayer. Alas! how can we go to God with any freedom of Spirit? How can we call him ⟨p. 414⟩Father with any Boldness and Confidence, while we are conscious to our selves that we have daringly provoked him by some wilful Offence? I may appeal to your own Experience in this; Do not your Consciences fly in your Faces? Do they not take you by the Throat and even choak your Speech, while you are praying with some such Suggestions as these? What, can I 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, or to speak to him in Prayer, when as those Sins that rancor and fester in my Conscience, must needs make my Breath unsavory and noisome to him? Will the Lord hear such Prayers? Or, if he doth hear them, will he not account them an Abomination? You now, whose Consciences, thus accuse you, do you not find such Reflections as these to be great Deadnings to your Hearts, such Damps to Duty, such Clippings of the Wings of the Spirit of God and takings off of the Wheels of the Soul, so that it drives on but slowly and heavily in the performance of that Duty? Certainly Guilt is the greatest Impediment ⟨p. 415⟩to Duty in the World, for it takes off from the Freeness and Filialness of our Spirits, and fills us with Distrust, Diffidence and a slavish Fear of coming before God, rather as our Judge than as our Father. And therefore we find that as soon as Adam had sinned against his Maker, he hides himself from him: Yea, and we may observe it in our selves, what a slavish dejectedness and deadness seizeth upon us when we come to God in Duty, after we have wronged him by any known Sin; how doth this make us come with such misgiving Fears, as if we would not have God to take notice that we were in his Presence, making us to be continually in Pain until the Duty be done? And thus you see what it is to Pray without ceasing. It is to pray constantly at set Times and Seasons, it is to pray importunately and vehemently, it is upon all Occasions to be sending up holy Ejaculations unto God, and especially to keep alive and cherish a praying Frame of Heart:
- 12. That they fall into no known and presumptuous Sin.2. That they fall into no known and presumptous Sin.
