Will he always call upon God? (Job xxvii. 10).
CONCERNING these words, I would observe,
1. Who it is that is here spoken of, viz. the hypocrite; as you may see,
If you take the two preceding verses with the verse of the text. "For
what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh
away his soul? Will God bear his cry when trouble cometh upon him? Will
he delight himself in the Almighty? Will he always call up on God?"
Job's three friends, in their speeches to him, insisted much upon it, that
he was an hypocrite. But Job, in this chapter, asserts his sincerity and
integrity, and shows how different his own behavior had been from that of
hypocrite. Particularly he declares his steadfast and immoveable resolution
of persevering and holding out in the ways of religion and righteousness
to the end; as you may see in the six first verses. In the text, he shows
how contrary to this steadfastness and perseverance the character of the
hypocrite is, who is not wont thus to hold out in religion.
2. We may observe what duty of religion it is, with respect to which the
hypocrite is deciphered in the text, and that is the duty of prayer; or
calling upon God.
3. Here is something supposed of the hypocrite relating to this duty, viz.
That he may continue in it for a while; he may call upon God for a season.
4. Something asserted, viz. That it is not the manner of hypocrites to continue
always in this duty. Will he always call upon God? It is in the form of
an interrogation; but the words have the force of a strong negation, or
of an assertion, that however the hypocrite may call upon God for a season,
yet he will not always continue in it.
DOCTRINE
However hypocrites may continue for a season in the duty of prayer, yet
it is their manner, after a while, in a great measure, to leave it off.
In speaking upon this doctrine, I shall show,
I. How hypocrites often continue for a season to call upon God.
II. How it is their manner, after a while, in a great measure to leave off
the practice of this duty.
III. Give some reasons why this is the manner of hypocrites.
I. I would show how hypocrites often continue for a season in the duty of
prayer.
1. They do so for a while after they have received common illuminations
and affections. While they are under awakenings, they may, through fear
of hell, call upon God, and attend very constantly upon the duty of secret
prayer. And after they have had some melting affections, having their hearts
much moved with the goodness of God, or with some affecting encouragements,
and false joy and comfort; while these impressions last they continue to
call upon God in the duty of secret prayer.
2. After they have obtained an hope, and have made profession of their good
estate, they often continue for a while in the duty of secret prayer. For
a while they are affected with their hope: They think that God hath delivered
them out of a natural condition, and given them an interest in Christ, thus
introducing them into a state of safety from that eternal misery which they
lately feared. With this supposed kindness of God to them, they are much
affected, and often find in themselves for a while a kind of love to God,
excited by his supposed love to them. Now, while this affection towards
God continues, the duties of religion seem pleasant to them; it is even
with some delight that they approach to God in their closets; and for the
present it may be, they think of no other than continuing to call upon God
as long as they live.
Yea, they may continue in the duty of secret prayer for awhile after the
liveliness of their affections is past, partly through the influence of
their former intentions: They intended to continue seeking God always; and
now suddenly to leave off, would therefore be too shocking to their own
minds and partly through the force of their own preconceived notions, and
what they have always believed, viz. That godly persons do continue in religion,
and that their goodness is not like the morning cloud. Therefore, though
they have no love to the duty of prayer, and begin to grow weary of it,
yet as they love their own hope, they are somewhat backward to take a course,
which will prove it to be a false hope, and so deprive them of it.
If they should at once carry themselves so as they have always been taught
is a sign of a false hope, they would scare themselves Their hope is dear
to them, and it would scare them to see any plain evidence that it is not
true. Hence, for a considerable time after the force of their illuminations
and affections is over, and after they hate the duty of prayer, and would
be glad to have done with it, if they could, without showing themselves
to be hypocrites; they hold up a kind of attendance upon the duty of secret
prayer. This may keep up the outside of religion in them for a good while,
and occasion it to be somewhat slowly that they are brought to neglect it.
They must not leave off suddenly, because that would be too great a shock
to their false peace. But they must come gradually to it, as they find their
consciences can bear it, and as they can find out devices and salvos to
cover over the matter, and make their so doing consistent, in their own
opinion, with the truth of their hope. But,
II. It is the manner of hypocrites, after a while, in a great measure to
leave off the practice of this duty. We are often taught, that the seeming
goodness and piety of hypocrites is not of a lasting and persevering nature.
It is so with respect to their practice of the duty of prayer in particular,
and especially of secret prayer. They can omit this duty, and their omission
of it not be taken notice of by others, who know what profession they have
made. So that a regard to their own reputation doth not oblige them still
to practice it. If others saw how they neglect it, it would exceedingly
shock their charity towards them. But their neglect doth not fall under
their observation; at least not under the observation of many. Therefore
they may omit this duty, and still have the credit of being converted persons.
Men of this character can come to a neglect of secret prayer by degrees
without very much shocking their peace. For though indeed for a converted
person to live in a great measure without secret prayer, is very wide of
the notion they once had of a true convert; yet they find means by degrees
to alter their notions, and to bring their principles to suit with their
inclinations; and at length they come to that, in their notions of things,
that a man may be a convert, and yet live very much in neglect of this duty.
In time, they can bring all things to suit well together, an hope of heaven,
and an indulgence of sloth in gratifying carnal appetites, and living in
a great measure a prayerless life. They cannot indeed suddenly make these
things agree; it must be a work of time; and length of time will effect
it. By degrees they find out ways to guard and defend their consciences
against those powerful enemies; so that those enemies, and a quiet, secure
conscience, can at length dwell pretty well together.
Whereas it is asserted in the doctrine, that it is the manner of hypocrites,
after a while, in a great measure to leave off this duty; I would observe
to you,
1. That it is not intended but that they may commonly continue to the end
of life in yielding an external attendance on open prayer, or prayer with
others. They may commonly be present at public prayers in the congregation,
and also at family prayer. This, in such places of light as this is, men
commonly do before ever they are so much as awakened. Many vicious persons,
who make no pretense to serious religion, commonly attend public prayers
in the congregation; and also more private prayers, in the families in which
they live, unless it be when carnal designs interfere, or when their youthful
pleasures and diversions, and their vain company call them; and then they
make no conscience of attending family prayer. Otherwise they may continue
to attend upon prayer as long as they live, and yet may truly be said not
to call upon God. For such prayer, in the manner of it, is not their own.
They are present only for the sake of their credit, or in compliance with
others. They may be present at these prayers, and yet have no proper prayer
of their own. Many of those concerning whom it maybe said, as in Job xv.
4, That they cast off fear and restrain prayer before God, are yet frequently
present at family and public prayer.
2. But they in a great measure leave off the practice of secret prayer.
They come to this pass by degrees. At first they begin to be careless about
it, under some particular temptations. Because they have been out in young
company, or have been taken up very much with worldly business, they omit
it once: After that they more easily omit it again. Thus it presently becomes
a frequent thing with them to omit it and after a while, it comes to that
pass, that they seldom attend it. Perhaps they attend it on Sabbath days,
and sometimes on other days. But they have ceased to make it a constant
practice daily to retire to worship God alone, and to seek his face in secret
places. They sometimes do a little to quiet conscience, and just to keep
alive their old hope; because it would be shocking to them, even after all
their subtle dealing with their consciences to call themselves converts,
and yet totally to live without prayer. Yet the practice of secret prayer
they have in a great measure left off.
I come now,
III. To the reasons why this is the manner of hypocrites.
1. Hypocrites never had the spirit of prayer given them. They may have been
stirred up to the external performance of this duty, and that with a great
deal of earnestness and affection, and yet always have been destitute of
the true spirit of prayer. The spirit of prayer is an holy spirit, a gracious
spirit. We read of the spirit of grace and supplication, Zech. iii. 10.
I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
the spirit of grace and supplications. Wherever there is a true spirit of
supplication, there is the spirit of grace. The true spirit of prayer is
no other than God's own Spirit dwelling in the hearts of the saints. And
as this spirit comes from God, so doth it naturally tend to God in holy
breathings and pantings. It naturally leads to God, to oonverse with him
by prayer. Therefore the Spirit is said to make intercession for the saints
with groanings which cannot be uttered, Rom. viii. 26.
But it is far otherwise with the true convert. His work is not done; but
he finds still a great work to do, and great wants to be supplied. He sees
himself still to be a poor, empty, helpless creature, and that he still
stands in great and continual need of God's help. He is sensible that without
God he can do nothing. A false conversion makes a man in his own eyes self-sufficient.
He saith he is rich, and increased with goods, and hath need of nothing;
and knoweth not that be is wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind,
and naked. But after a true conversion, the soul remains sensible of its
own impotence and emptiness, as it is in itself, and its sense of it is
rather increased than diminished. It is still sensible of its universal
dependence on God for every thing. A true convert is sensible that his grace
is very imperfect; and he is very far from having all that he desires. Instead
of that, by conversion are begotten in him new desires which he never had
before. He now finds in him holy appetites, an hungering and thirsting after
righteousness, a longing after more acquaintance and communion with God.
So that he hath business enough still at the throne of grace; yea, his business
there, instead of being diminished, is, since his conversion, rather increased.
3. The hope which the hypocrite hath of his good estate takes off the force
that the command of God before had upon his conscience; so that now he dares
neglect so plain a duty. The command which requires the practice of the
duty of prayer is exceeding plain; Matth. xxvi. 41. "Watch and pray,
that ye enter not into temptation." Eph. vi. 18. "Praying always
with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, and watching thereunto with
all perseverance, and supplication for all saints." Matth. vi. 6. "When
thou prayest enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray
to thy Father which is in secret." As long as the hypocrite was in
his own apprehension in continual danger of hell, he durst not disobey these
commands. But since he is, as he thinks, safe from hell, he is grown bold,
he dares to live in the neglect of the plainest command in the Bible.
4. It is the manner of hypocrites, after a while, to return to sinful practices,
which will tend to keep them from praying. While they were under convictions,
they reformed their lives, and walked very exactly. This reformation continues
for a little time perhaps after their supposed conversion, while they are
much affected with hope and false comfort. But as these things die away,
their old lusts revive, and they by degrees return like the dog to his vomit,
and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. They return to
their sensual practices, to their worldly practices, to their proud and
contentious practices, as before. And no wonder this makes them forsake
their closets. Sinning and praying agree not well together. If a man be
constant in the duty of secret prayer, it will tend to restrain him from
wilful sinning. So, on the other hand, if he allow himself in sinful practices,
it will restrain him from praying. It will give quite another turn to his
mind, so that he will have no disposition to the practice of such a duty
It will be contrary to him. A man who knows that he lives in sin against
God, will not be inclined to come daily into the presence of God; but will
rather be inclined to fly from his presence, as Adam, when he had eaten
of the forbidden fruit, ran away from God, and hid himself among the trees
of the garden.
To keep up the duty of prayer after he hath given loose to his lusts, would
tend very much to disquiet a man's conscience. It would give advantage to
his conscience to testify aloud against him. If he should come from his
wickedness into the presence of God, immediately to speak to him, his conscience
would, as it were; fly in his face. Therefore hypocrites, as they by degrees
admit their wicked practices, exclude prayer.
5. Hypocrites never counted the cost of perseverance in seeking God, and
of following him to the end of life. To continue instant in prayer with
all perseverance to the end of life, requires much care, watchfulness, and
labor. For much opposition is made to it by the flesh, the world, and the
devil and Christians meet with many temptations to forsake this practice.
He that would persevere in this duty must be laborious in religion in general.
But hypocrites never count the cost of such labor; i. e. they never were
prepared in the disposition of their minds to give their lives to the service
of God, and to the duties of religion. It is therefore no great wonder if
they are weary and give out, after they have continued for a while, as their
affections are gone, and they find that prayer to them grows irksome and
tedious.
6. Hypocrites have no interest in those gracious promises which God hath
made to his people, of those spiritual supplies which are needful in order
to uphold them in the way of their duty to the end. God hath promised to
true saints that they shall not forsake him; Jer. xxxii. 40. I will put
my fear into their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. He hath promised
that he will keep them in the way of their duty; 1 Thess. v 23, 24. And
the God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God your spirit, soul,
and body, be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. But hypocrites have
no interest in these and such like promises and therefore are liable to
fall away. If God do not uphold men, there is no dependence on their steadfastness.
If the Spirit of God depart from them, they will soon become careless and
profane, and there will be an end to their seeming devotion and piety.
APPLICATION
May be in an use of EXH0RTATION in two branches.
I. I would exhort those who have entertained an hope of their being true
converts, and yet since their supposed conversion have left off the duty
of secret prayer, and do ordinarily allow themselves in the omission of
it, to throw away their hope. If you have left off calling upon God, it
is time for you to leave off hoping and flattering yourselves with an imagination
that you are the children of God. Probably it will be a very difficult thing
for you to do this. It is hard for a man to let go an hope of heaven, on
which he hath once allowed himself to lay hold, and which he hath retained
for a considerable time. True conversion is a rare thing; but that men are
brought off from a false hope of conversion, after they are once settled
and established in it, and have continued in it for some time, is much more
rare.
Those things in men, which, if they were known to others, would be sufficient
to convince others that they are hypocrites, will not convince themselves;
and those things which would be sufficient to convince them concerning others,
and to cause them to cast others entirely out of their charity, will not
be sufficient to convince them concerning themselves. They can make larger
allowances for themselves than they can for others. They can find out ways
to solve objections against their own hope, when they can find none in the
like case for their neighbor.
But it your case be such as is spoken of in the doctrine, it is surely time
for you to seek a better hope, and another work of God's Spirit, than ever
you have yet experienced; something more thorough and effectual. When you
see and find by experience, that the seed which was sown in your hearts,
though at first it sprang up and seemed flourishing, yet is withering away,
as by the heat of the sun, or is choked, as with thorns; this shows in what
sort of ground the seed was sown, that it is either stony or thorny ground;
and that therefore it is necessary you should pass through another change,
whereby your heart may become good ground, which shall bring forth fruit
with patience.
I insist not on that as a reason why you should not throw away your hope,
that you had the judgment of others, that the change of which you were the
subject was right. It is a small matter to be judged of man's judgment,
whether you be approved or condemned, and whether it be by minister or people,
wise or unwise. I Cor. iv. 3. " It is a very small thing that I should
be judged of you or of man's judgment." If your goodness have proved
to be as the morning cloud and early dew if you be one of those who have
forsaken God, and left off calling upon his name, you have the judgment
of God, and the sentence of God in the Scriptures against you, which is
a thousand times more than to have the judgment of all the wise and godly
men and ministers in the world in your favor.
Others, from your account of things, may have been obliged to have charity
for you, and to think that, provided you were not mistaken, and in your
account did not misrepresent things, or express them by wrong terms, you
were really converted. But what a miserable foundation is this, upon which
to build an hope as to your eternal state!
Here I request your attention to a few things in particular, which I have
to say to you concerning your hope.
1. Why will you retain that hope which by evident experience you find poisons
you? Is it reasonable to think, that an holy hope, an hope that is from
heaven, would have such an influence? No surely; nothing of such a malignant
influence comes from that world of purity and glory. No poison groweth in
the paradise of God. The same hope which leads men to sin in this world
will lead to hell hereafter. Why therefore will you retain such an hope,
of which your own experience shows you the ill tendency, in that it encourages
you to lead a wicked life? For certainly that life is a wicked life wherein
you live in the neglect of so well known a duty as that of secret prayer,
and in the disobedience of so plain a command of God, as that by which this
duty is enjoined. And is not a way of disobedience to God a way to hell?
If your own experience of the nature and tendency of your hope will not
convince you of the falseness of it, what will? Are you resolved to retain
your hope, let it prove ever so unsound and hurtful? Will you hold it fast
till you go to hell with it? Many men cling to a false hope, and embrace
it so closely, that they never let it go till the flames of hell cause their
arms to unclench and let go their hold. Consider how you will answer it
at the day of judgment when God shall call you to an account for your folly
in resting in such an hope. Will it be a sufficient answer for you to say,
that you had the charity of others, and that they thought your conversion
was right?
Certainly it is foolish for men to imagine, that God had no more wisdom,
or could contrive no other way of bestowing comfort and hope of eternal
life than one which should encourage men to forsake him.
2. How is your doing, as you do, consistent with loving God above all? If
you have not spirit to love God above your dearest earthly friends, and
your most pleasant earthly enjoyments; the scriptures are very plain, and
full in it, that you are not true Christians. But if you had indeed such
a spirit, would you thus grow weary of the practice of drawing near to him,
and become habitually so averse to it, as in a great measure to cast off
so plain a duty which is so much the life of a child of God? It is the nature
of love to be averse to absence, and to love a near access to those whom
we love. We love to be with them; we delight to come often to them, and
to have much conversation with them. But when a person who hath heretofore
been wont to converse freely with another, by degrees forsakes him, grows
strange, and converses with him but little, and that although the other
be importunate with him for the continuance of their former intimacy; this
plainly shows the coldness of his heart towards him.
The neglect of the duty of prayer seems to be inconsistent with supreme
love to Go also upon another account, and that is, that it is against the
will of God so plainly revealed. True love to God seeks to please God in
every thing, and universally to conform to his will.
3 Your thus restraining prayer before God is not only inconsistent with
the love, but also with the fear of God it is an argument that you cast
off fear, as is manifest by that text, Job. xv. 4. "Yea, thou castest
off fear, and restrainest prayer before God." While you thus live in
the transgression of so plain a command of God, you evidently show, that
there is no fear of God before your eyes. Psal. xxxvi. 1. "The transgression
of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before
his eyes."
4. Consider how living in such a neglect is inconsistent with leading an
holy life. We are abundantly instructed in scripture, that true Christians
do lead an holy life; that without holiness no man shall see the Lord, Heb.
xii. 14; and that every one that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself,
even as Christ is pure, 1 John iii. 3. In Prov. xvi. 17, it is said, The
highway of the upright is to depart from evil, i.e. it is, as it were, the
common beaten road in which all the godly travel. To the like purpose is
Isa. xxxv. 8. A highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called
the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be
for those, i. e. those redeemed persons spoken of in the foregoing verses.
It is spoken of in Rom. viii. 1, as the character of all believers, that
they walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
But how is a life, in a great measure prayerless, consistent with an holy
life? To lead an holy life is to lead a life devoted to God; a life of worshipping
and serving God; a life consecrated to the service of God. But how doth
he lead such a life who doth not so much as maintain the duty of prayer?
How can such a man be said to walk by the Spirit and to be a servant of
the Most High God? An holy life is a life of faith. The life that true Christians
live in the world they live by the faith of the Son of God. But who can
believe that man lives by faith who lives without prayer, which, is the
natural expression of faith? Prayer is as natural an expression of faith
as breathing is of life; and to say a man lives a life of faith, and yet
lives a prayerless life, is every whit as inconsistent and incredible, as
to say, that a man lives without breathing. A prayerless life is so far
from being an holy life, that it is a profane life. He that lives so, lives
like an heathen, who calleth not on God's name; he that lives a prayerless
life, lives without God in the world.
5. If you live in the neglect of secret prayer, you show your good will
to neglect all the worship of God. He that prays only when he prays with
others, would not pray at all, were it not that the eyes of others are upon
him. He that will not pray where none but God seeth him, manifestly doth
not pray at all out of respect to God, or regard to his all-seeing eye,
and therefore doth in effect cast off all prayer. And he that casts off
prayer, in effect casts off all the worship of God, of which prayer is the
principal duty. Now, what a miserable saint is he who is no worshipper of
God! He that casts off the worship of God, in effect casts off God himself:
He refuses to own him, or to be conversant with him as his God. For the
way in which men own God, and are conversant with him as their God, is by
worshipping him.
6. How can you expect to dwell with God for ever, if you so neglect and
forsake him here? This your practice shows, that you place not your happiness
in God, in nearness to him, and communion with him. He Who refuses to come
and visit, and converse with a friend, and who in a great measure forsakes
him, when he is abundantly invited and importuned to come; plainly shows
that he places not his happiness in, the company and conversation of that
friend. Now, if this be the case with you respecting God, then how can you
expect to have it for your happiness to all eternity, to be with God, and
to enjoy holy communion with him?
Let those persons who hope they are converted, and yet have in a great measure
left off the duty of secret prayer, and whose manner it is ordinarily to
neglect it, for their own sake seriously consider these things. For what
will profit then to please themselves with that, while they live, which
will fail them at last, and leave them in fearful and amazing disappointment?
It is probable, that some of you who have entertained a good, opinion of
your state, and have looked upon yourselves as converts; but have of late
in a great measure left off the duty of secret prayer; will this evening
attend secret prayer, and so continue to do for a little while; after your
hearing this sermon, to the end, that you may solve the difficulty, and
the objection which is made against the truth of your hope. But this will
not hold. As it hath been in former instances of the like nature, so what
you now hear will have such effect upon you but a little while. When the
business and cares of the world shall again begin to crowd a little upon
you, or next time you shall go out into young company, it is probable you
will again neglect this duty. The next time a frolic shall be appointed,
to which it is proposed to you to go, it is highly probable you will neglect
not only secret prayer; but also family prayer. Or at least, after a while,
you will come to the same pass again, as before, in casting off fear and
restraining prayer before God.
It is not very likely that you will ever be constant and persevering in
this duty, until you shall have obtained a better principle in your hearts.
The streams which have no springs to feed them will dry up. The drought
and heat consume the snow waters. Although they run plentifully in the spring,
yet when the sun ascends higher with a burning heat they are gone. The seed
that is sown in stony places, though it seem to flourish at present, yet
as the sun shall rise with a burning heat, will wither away. None will bring
forth fruit with patience, but those whose hearts are become good ground.
Without any heavenly seed remaining in them, men may whenever they fall
in among the godly, continue all their lives to talk like saints. They may,
for their credit's sake, tell of what they have experienced But their deeds
will not hold. They may continue to tell of their inward experiences, and
yet live in the neglect of secret prayer, and of other duties.
II. I would take occasion from this doctrine to exhort all to persevere
in the duty of prayer. This exhortation is much insisted on in the word
of God. It is insisted on in the Old Testament; I Chron. xvi. II. "Seek
the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually."...Isai. lxii.
7. "Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence;" i. e.
be not silent as to the voice of prayer, as is manifest by the following
words, "and give him no rest till he establish and till he make Jerusalem
a praise in the earth," Israel of old is reproved for growing weary
of the duty of prayer. Isai. xliii. 22. "But thou hast not called upon
me, 0 Jacob, thou hast been weary of me, 0 Israel."
Perseverance in the duty of prayer is very much insisted on in the New Testament;
as Luke xviii. at the beginning, "A man ought always to pray, and not
to faint;" i. e. not to be discouraged or weary of the duty; but should
always continue in it. Again, Luke xxi. 36. "Watch ye therefore, and
pray always." We have the example of Anna the prophetess set before
us, Luke i. 36, &c. who, though she had lived to be more than an hundred
years old, yet never was weary of this duty. It is said, "She departed
not from the temple, but served God, with fastings and prayers, night and
day." Cornelius also is commended for his constancy in this duty. It
is said, that he prayed to God always; Acts x. 2. The Apostle Paul, in his
epistles, insists very much on constancy in this duty; Rom. xii. 12. "Continuing
instant in prayer." Eph. vi. 18,19. "Praying always with all prayer
and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance."
Col. iv. 2. "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same." I Thess.
v. 17. "Pray without ceasing." To the same effect the Apostle
Peter, 1 Pet. iv. 7. "Watch unto prayer."....Thus abundantly the
scripture insists upon it, that we should persevere in the duty of prayer;
which shows that, it is of very great importance that we should persevere.
If the contrary be the manner of hypocrites, as hath been shown in the doctrine,
then surely we ought to beware of this leaven.
But here let the following things be particularly considered as motives
to perseverance in this duty.
1. That perseverance in the way of duty is necessary to salvation, and is
abundantly declared so to be in the holy scriptures; as Isai. lxiv. 5. "Thou
meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember
thee in thy ways: Behold, thou art wroth, for we have sinned: In those is
continuance, and we shall be saved." Heb. x. 38, 39. "Now the
just shall live by faith: But if any man draw back, my soul hath no pleasure
in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them
that believe to the saving of the soul." Rom. xi. 22. "Behold
therefore the goodness and severity of God: On them which fell, severity;
but towards thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise
thou also shalt be cut off....So in many other places.
Many, when they think they are converted, seem to imagine that their work
is done, and that there is nothing else needful in order to their going
to heaven. Indeed perseverance in holiness of life is not necessary to salvation,
as the righteousness by which a right to salvation is obtained. Nor is actual
perseverance necessary in order to our becoming interested in that righteousness
by which we are justified. For as soon as ever a soul hath believed in Christ,
or hath put forth one act of faith in him, it becomes interested in his
righteousness, and in all the promises purchased by it.
But persevering in the way of duty is necessary to salvation, as a concomitant
and evidence of a title to salvation. There is never a title to salvation
without it, though it be not the righteousness by which a title to salvation
is obtained. It is necessary to salvation, as it is the necessary consequence
of true faith. It is an evidence which universally attends uprightness,
and the defect of it is an infallible evidence of the want of uprightness.
Psal. cxxv. 4, 5. There such as are good and upright in heart, are distinguished
from such as fall away or turn aside: "Do good, O Lord, to those that
are good, and to them that are upright in their hearts. As for such as turn
aside to their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers
of iniquity. But peace shall be upon Israel." It is mentioned as an
evidence that the hearts of the children of Israel were not right with God,
that they did not persevere in the ways of holiness. Psal. lxxviii. 8. "A
generation that set not their hearts aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast
with God."
Christ gives this as a distinguishing character of those that are his disciples
indeed, and of a true and saving faith, that it is accompanied with perseverance
in the obedience of Christ's word. John viii. 31. "Then said Jesus
to those Jews which believed on him, if ye continue in my word, then are
ye my disciples indeed." This is mentioned as a necessary evidence
of an interest in Christ, Heb. iii. 14. "We are made partakers of Christ,
if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end."
Perseverance is not only a necessary concomitant and evidence of a title
to salvation; but also a necessary prerequisite to the actual possession
of eternal life. It is the only way to heaven, the narrow way that leadeth
to life. Hence Christ exhorts the church of Philadelphia to persevere in
holiness from this consideration, that it was necessary in order to her
obtaining the crown. Rev. iii. 11. "Hold fast that which thou hast,
that no man take thy crown." It is necessary, not only that persons
should once have been walking in the way of duty, but that they should be
found so doing when Christ cometh. Luke ix. 43. "Blessed is that servant
whom his lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing." Holding out to
the end is often made the condition of actual salvation. Mat. x. 22. "He
that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved:" And Rev. ii. 10.
"Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."
2. In order to your own perseverance in the way of duty, your own care and
watchfulness is necessary. For though it be promised that true saints shall
persevere, yet that is no argument that their care and watchfulness is not
necessary in order to it; because their care to keep the commands of God
is the thing promised. If the saints should fail of care, watchfulness,
and diligence to persevere in holiness, that failure of their care and diligence
would itself be a failure of holiness. They who persevere not in watchfulness
and diligence, persevere not in holiness of life, for holiness of life very
much consists in watchfulness and diligence to keep the commands of God.
It is one promise of the covenant of grace, that the Saints shall keep God's
commandments. Ezek. xi. 19, 20. Yet that is no argument that they have no
need to take care to keep these commandments, or to do their duty. So the
promise of God, that the saints shall persevere in holiness, is no argument
that it is not necessary that they should take heed lest they fall away.
Therefore the scriptures abundantly warn men to watch over themselves diligently,
and to give earnest heed lest they fall away. 1 Cor. xv. 13. "Watch
ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong." 1 Cor.
x. 12. "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall."
Heb. iii. 12, 13, 14. "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of
you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort
one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened
through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if
we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end." Heb.
iv. 1. "Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering
into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it." 2 Peter
iii. 17. "Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before,
beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from
your own steadfastness." 2 John v. 8. "Look to yourselves that
we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full
reward."
Thus you see how earnestly the scriptures press on Christians exhortations
to take diligent heed to themselves that they fall not away. And certainly
these cautions are not without reason.
The scriptures particularly insist upon watchfulness in order to perseverance
in the duty of prayer. Watch and pray, saith Christ; which implies that
we should watch unto prayer, as the Apostle Peter says, 1 Pet. iv. 7. It
implies, that we should watch against a neglect of prayer, as well as against
other sins. The apostle, in places which have been already mentioned, directs
us to pray with all prayer, watching there unto with all perseverance, and
to continue in prayer, and watch in the same. Nor is it any wonder that
the apostles so much insisted on watching, in order to a continuance in
prayer with all perseverance; for there are many temptations to neglect
this duty; first to be inconstant in it, and from time to time to omit it;
then in a great measure to neglect it. The devil watches to draw us away
from God, and to hinder us from going to him in prayer. We are surrounded
with one and another tempting object, business, and diversion: Particularly
we meet with many things which are great temptations to a neglect of this
duty.
3. To move you to persevere in the duty of prayer, consider how much you
always stand in need of the help of God. If persons who have formerly attended
this duty, leave it off, the language of it is, that now they stand in no
further need of God's help, that they have no further occasion to go to
God with requests and supplications: When indeed it is in God we live, and
move, and have our being. We cannot draw a breath without his help. You
need his help every day, for the supply of your outward wants; and especially
you stand in continual need of him to help your souls. Without his protection
they would immediately fall into the hands of the devil, who always stands
as a roaring lion, ready, whenever he is permitted, to fall upon the souls
of men and devour them. If God should indeed preserve your lives, but should
otherwise forsake and leave you to yourselves, you would be most miserable:
Your lives would be a curse to you.
Those that are converted, if God should forsake them, would soon fall away
totally from a state of grace into a state more miserable than ever they
were in before their conversion. They have no strength of their own to resist
those powerful enemies who surround them. Sin and Satan would immediately
carry them away, as a mighty flood, if God should forsake them. You stand
in need of daily supplies from God. Without God you can receive no spiritual
light nor comfort, can exercise no grace, can bring forth no fruit. Without
God your souls will wither and pine away, and sink into a most wretched
state. You continually need the instructions and directions of God. What
can a little child do, in a vast howling wilderness, without some one to
guide it, and to lead it in the right way? Without God you will soon fall
into snares, and pits, and many fatal calamities.
Seeing therefore you stand in such continual need of the help of God, how
reasonable is it that you should continually seek it of him, and perseveringly
acknowledge your dependence upon him, by resorting to him, to spread your
needs before him, and to offer up your requests to him in prayer. Let us
consider how miserable we should be, if we should leave off prayer, and
God at the same time should leave off to take any care of us, or to afford
us any more supplies of his grace. By our constancy in prayer, we cannot
be profitable to God; and if we leave it off, God will sustain no damage:
He doth not need our prayers; Job x. 6, 7. But if God cease to care for
us and to help us, we immediately sink: We can do nothing: We can receive
nothing without him.
4. 4. Consider the great benefit of a constant, diligent, and persevering
attendance on this duty. It is one of the greatest and most excellent means
of nourishing the new nature, and of causing the soul to flourish and prosper.
It is an excellent mean of keeping up an acquaintance with God, and of growing
in the knowledge of God. It is the way to a life of communion with God.
It is an excellent mean of taking off the heart from the vanities of the
world and of causing the mind to be conversant in heaven. It is an excellent
preservative from sin and the wiles of the devil, and a powerful antidote
against the poison of the old serpent. It is a duty whereby strength is
derived from God against the lusts and corruptions of the heart, and the
snares of the world.
It hath a great tendency to keep the soul in a wakeful frame, and to lead
us to a strict walk with God, and to a life that shall be fruitful in such
good works, as tend to adorn the doctrine of Christ, and to cause our light
so to shine before others, that they, seeing our good works, shall glorify
our Father who is in heaven And if the duty be constantly and diligently
attended, it will be a very pleasant duty. Slack and slothful attendance
upon it, and unsteadiness in it, are the causes which make it so great a
burden as it is to some persons. Their slothfulness in it hath naturally
the effect to beget a dislike of the duty and a great indisposition to it.
But if it be constantly and diligently attended, it is one of the best means
of leading
not only a Christian and amiable, but also a pleasant life; a life of much
sweet fellowship with Christ, and of the abundant enjoyment of the light
of his countenance.
Besides, the great power which prayer, when duly attended, hath with God,
is worthy of your notice. By it men become like Jacob, who, as a prince,
had power with God, and prevailed, when he wrestled with God for the blessing.
See the power of prayer represented in James v. 16,18. By these things you
may be sensible how much you will lose, if you shall be negligent of this
great duty of calling upon God; and how ill you will consult your own interest
by such a neglect.
I conclude my discourse with two directions in order to constancy and perseverance
in this duty.
1. Watch against the beginnings of a neglect of this duty. Persons who have
for a time practiced this duty, and afterwards neglect it, commonly leave
it off by degrees. While their convictions and religious affections last,
they are very constant in their closets, and no worldly business, or company,
or diversion hinders them. But as their convictions and affections begin
to die away, they begin to find excuses to neglect it sometimes. They are
now so hurried; they have now such and such things to attend to; or there
are now such inconveniences in the way, that they persuade themselves they
may very excusably omit it for this time. Afterwards it pretty frequently
so happens, that they have something to hinder, something which they call
a just excuse. After a while, a less thing becomes a sufficient excuse than
was allowed to be such at first. Thus the person by degrees contracts more
and more of an habit of neglecting prayer, and becomes more and more indisposed
to it. And even when he doth perform it, it is in such a poor, dull, heartless,
miserable manner, that he says to himself, he might as well not do it at
all, as do it so. Thus he makes his own dullness and indisposition an excuse
for wholly neglecting it, or at least for living in a great measure in the
neglect of it. After this manner do Satan and men's own corruptions inveigle
them to their ruin.
Therefore beware of the first beginnings of a neglect: Watch against temptations
to it: Take heed how you begin to allow of excuses. Be watchful to keep
up the duty in the height of it; let it not so much as begin to sink. For
when you give way, though it be but little, it is like giving way to an
enemy in the field of battle; the first beginning of a retreat greatly encourages
the enemy, and weakens the retreating soldiers.
2. Let me dfrect you to forsake all such practices as you find by experience
do indispose you to the duty of secret prayer. Examine the things in which
you have allowed yourselves, and inquire whether they have had this effect.
You are able to look over your past behavior, and may doubtless, on an impartial
consideration, make a judgment of the practices and courses in which you
have allowed yourselves.
Particularly let young people examine their manner of company keeping, and
the round of diversions in which, with their companions, they have allowed
themselves. I only desire that you would ask at the mouth of your own consciences
what has been the effect of these things with respect to your attendance
on the duty of secret prayer. Have you not found that such practices have
tended to the neglect of this duty? Have you not found that after them you
have been more indisposed to it, and less conscientious and careful to attend
it? Yea have they not from, time to time, actually been the means of your
neglecting it?
If you cannot deny that this is really the case, then, if you seek the good
of your souls, forsake these practices. Whatever you may plead for them,
as that there is no hurt in them, or that there is a time for all things,
and the like; yet if you find this hurt in the consequence of them, it is
time for you to forsake them. And if you value heaven more than a little
worldly diversion; if you set an higher price on eternal glory than on a
dance or a song, you will forsake them.
If these things be lawful in themselves, yet if your experience show, that
they are attended with such a consequence as I have now mentioned, that
is enough. It is lawful in itself for you to enjoy your right hand and your
right eye: But if, by experience, you find they cause you to offend, it
is time for you to cut off the one, and pluck out the other, as you would
rather go to heaven without them than go to hell with them, into that place
of torment where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
Please visit our other web sites: The
Torments of Hell, The
Narrow Way, Heaven
and Hell, The Terrors
of Hell, Suicide:
Gateway to Peace? and The
Pilgrim's Progress Primer. To read an account of several modern examples
of conversion similar to those described by Jonathan Edwards in A Faithful Narrative,
please see Great
Awakening Style Conversions.
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