The Godly Man's Picture

2 Want of love among Christians, doth much silence the spirit of prayer: hot passions, make cold prayers; where animosities and contentions prevail, instead of praying one for another, Christians will be ready to pray one against another; like the Disciples, who prayed for fire from heaven upon the Samaritans, Luke. 9. 54. and will God, think you, hear such prayers as come from a wrathful heart: will he eat of our leavened bread? will he accept of those duties, which are soured with bitterness of spirit? shall that prayer ever go up as incense, which is offered with the strange fire of our sinful passions?

2 Want of love among Christians, doth much silence the spirit of prayer: hot passions, make cold prayers; where animosities and contentions prevail, instead of praying one for another, Christians will be ready to pray one against another; like the Disciples, who prayed for fire from heaven upon the Samaritans, Luke. 9. 54. and will God, think you, hear such prayers as come from a wrathful heart: will hee eat of our leavened bread? will hee accept of those duties, which are sowered with bitterness of spirit? shall that prayer ever go up as incense, which is offered with the strange fire of our sinful passions?

3 These heart-burnings, hinder the progress of piety in our own souls; the flower of grace, will not grow in a wrathful heart; the body may as well thrive while it hath the Plague, as a soul can, that is infected with malice: while Christians are debating, grace is abating; as the spleen grows, health decays, and as hatred increaseth, holiness declines.

3 These heart-burnings, hinder the progress of piety in our own souls; the flower of grace, will not grow in a wrathful heart; the body may as well thrive while it hath the Plague, as a soul can, that is infected with malice: while Christians are debating, grace is abating; as the spleen grows, health decaies, and as hatred increaseth, holiness declines.