VOL. GOD; and fuch prayers being directed to him, II. fhall not be in vain. Therefore we should take heed, upon these accounts, that we faint not. WE must know that fainting may be either when faith languifheth, or defire. It is faint praying, when we pray as if we cared not whether we prayed or no. The word here rendered faint, in our text, is the fame with that, which elfwhere is rendered weary. Let us not be weary + in well doing; for in due feafon we Jhall reap if we faint not: that is, if ye be not fluggish in the courfe of well doing. Take heed therefore of praying the fluggard's prayer, or at the fluggard's rate. The defire of the flothful kills him, because his hands refuse to labour'. His own defires carry no life in them; they are even death to his very heart; cold things that ftrike death into the foul, and put no life into it. AND then too when faith languifheth, it is Faint praying. Let not that man, (fays St. James) that is, the man who wavers like a wave of the fea, and is driven of the wind and toffed; think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord". What! come to GOD, as if we did not expect to get any thing by GoD! and as if we agreed in the same sense with thofe profane Atheists, and fymbolized with them who fay, "What profit * ἐκκακεῖν. Gal. vs. 9. † ἐκκαλῶμες. " is 1 Prov. XXI. 25. m Jam. 1. 7. 1 is it that we have prayed to him or kept his SERM, "ordinances?" go heartlessly into the divine XV, prefence; give way to a cold, dull fpirit, in the very performance of the duty; and never look after the fuccefs of it when it is over. Such had as good never pray at all, who pray only to keep up a custom, and to make a fhew; and that they may be able to say when all is over, "The "duty is done." Let not fuch think they shall receive any thing at the hands of God; fuch efpecially as come to him with no expectation, and pray to him as to one that cannot fave. Ir is to cast infamy upon the great object of our worship; as if we were only bleffing an idol, when we pray to the true living God, as if he were fuch a one as the idols of the Gentiles are faid to be, that have eyes but fee not, ears but hear not, and can neither do good nor hurt. It is no wonder if fuch praying fignify nothing; for it carries an affront in it felf. Every fuch prayer is an indignity, and an infolent affront put upon the great GOD: as if the injunction of this duty upon the children of men, was either unreasonable and to no purpose, and so a reflection upon the wisdom of his law, who has commanded us to pray; (in as much as that is always unwifely injoined that hath no end) or, as if there was no power in him to accomplish what we come to him about, though we come according to his own direction. It cannot, I fay, but be an affront to GoD, either way, to come to him with defponding T 3 VOL. defponding hearts. In the former cafe, if our II. defires languifh, we are worfe than the importunate widow; in the latter cafe, if faith languishes, we make Gop worse than the unjust judge. SER M. SERMON XVI. Preached at Jewen-street, ROMANS v. 5. first clause. T will not be impertinent or unuseful to say fomething, from this Scripture, concerning this property of the Chriftian's hope; namely, that it maketh not afhamed. But let us first briefly confider the scope and series of the Apostle's discourse here, and fee how this paffage depends and is introduced. We have here, after a long difcourfe touching our juftification by faith in GoD, through our Lord Jefus Chrift, fome account of the privileges of a juftified state in the beginning of this chapter. As firft, peace with GOD. Being juftified by faith we have peace with God, through our Lord Jefus Chrift. And fecondly, free accefs unto God, and the liberty of his prefence. By whom alfo we have access by faith into this grace wherein we ftand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of GOD. In which words we have alfo T 4 the VOL. the patient, joyful expectation of the glorious II. state, that was defigned for the people of GOD hereafter. And finally, cheerfulness in a prefent afflicted condition, is represented by the Apostle as another privilege. And not only so, but we glory in tribulation alfo. It was no fuch strange thing, that they should be found exulting in the expectation of fo glorious a ftate, as that which Chriftians look for hereafter; but we have this also to say (faith the Apostle) concerning our cafe, that we can glory in tribulation too, and triumph over all the difficulties that accompany an afflicted condition. And of this, as having fomething of a paradox in it, and appearing more ftrange, he giveth the particular grounds and reasons. As 1. THE knowledge of this truth, that tribulation worketh patience. We are, as if he had faid, well pleased, yea and do even glory in our prefent afflicted condition upon this ground, that we know, by this means, that patience will be wrought out. We look upon it as a thing of very high value, that the more hope of so much gain fhould make perfons glory in fuch tribulations, which feemingly call for other affections. Tribulation is not a pleasant thing to be gloried in of it felf; why then, or upon what account is it to be gloried in? Why, upon this account, as that out of it the gain of patience shall accrue, and refult to us. By this we fhall have our spirits compofed to a peaceful acquiefcence in the divine e Ver. 3. Ver. 3. |