A62050:323
Ouranos kai tartaros= heaven and hell epitomized. The true Christian characterized. As also an…
Ouranos kai tartaros= heaven and hell epitomized. The true Christian characterized. As also an exhortation with motives, means and directions to be speedy and serious about the work of conversion. By George Swinnocke M.A. sometime fellow of Balliol College in Oxford, and now preacher of the Gospel at Rickmersworth in Hertfordshire.Ouranos kai tartaros= heaven and hell epitomized. The true Christian characterized. As also an exhortation with motives, means and directions to be speedy and serious about the work of conversion. By George Swinnocke M.A. sometime fellow of Baliol Colledge in Oxford, and now preacher of the Gospel at Rickmersworth in Hertfordshire.
London: printed by E.M. for Tho. Parkhurst, 1659
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.
What sayest thou? Reader, dost thou like the importunate Widow, take no denial? but use an (humble) impudency, as the Word of Christ includeth, when thou art entreating the Divine Majesty for spirituals? Or dost thou pray, but it is as if thou prayedst not? so dully and coldly that thou canst hardly hear thy self? only as it were between sleeping and waking, thou mumblest over a few petitions, either out of custom, or to stop the mouth of conscience, never regarding whether God answer thy requests or no.
What sai'st thou? Reader, dost thou like the importunate Widow, take no denial? but use an (humble) impudency, as the Word of Christ includeth, when thou art intreating the Divine Majesty for spirituals? Or dost thou pray, but it is as if thou prayedst not? so dully and coldly that thou canst hardly hear thy self? only as it were between sleeping and waking, thou mumblest over a few petitions, either out of custome, or to stop the mouth of conscience, never regarding whether God answer thy requests or no.
Didst thou but consider the dreadful Majesty of that God to whom thou prayest, the unvaluable worth of the soul, and endless state for which thou prayest, and the poor pittance of time (upon which thy eternity dependeth) that thou hast to pray in, it might rouse thee out of thy security.
Common beggary as it is the poorest, so it is the easiest trade;1 but this special, as it is the richest, so it is the hardest. The fervent prayer is the prevalent prayer, Jam. 5.16. The bullet will fly no farther than the force of the powder will carry it. That arrow of prayer that would hit the mark, must be drawn with full strength. He that in prayer for grace through an humble dependence on Christ, will not be denied, shall not be denied. Lip-labour doth no more than a windy instrument, makes a loud noise, and that is all. Prayer without the travail of the soul, is but the cold carcass of a duty, and no wonder if it be unsavoury in Gods nostrils. How many among us are there that pray every day for pardon and holiness, and yet shall die without them, and perish eternally for want of them? and all because they never begged them in good earnest, but were always indifferent