and trimmed thy room for ? Didst go to duty to meet those friends, or do they unmannerly break in upon thee, and forcibly can-y thee, as Christ foretold of Peter in another case, whither thou wouldst not? If so, why shouldst thou bring thy sincerity into dispute ? Dost thou not know the devil is a bold intruder, and dares come where he knows there is none will bid him sit down, and that soul alone he can call his own house, where he finds rest? Luke xii. 24. Suppose in your family, as you are kneeling- down to prayer, a company of rioters should stand under your window, and all the while you are praying they would be roaring and hallooing, this could not but much disturb you ; but would you, from the disturbance they make, fall to question your sincerity in the duty? Truly, it is all one, whether the disturbance be in the room, or in the bosom, so the soid likes the one no more than he doth the other.
Secondly, Dost thou sit contented with this company, or use all tlie means thou canst to get rid of them, as soon as may be? Sincerity cannot sit still to see such doings in the soul, but as a faithful servant, when thieves break into his master's house, though overpowered with their strength and nuiltitude, that he cannot with his own hands thrust them out of doors, yet he will send oiU secretly for help, and raise the town upon them : prayer is the sincere soul's messenger, it posts to heaven with full speed in this case, counting itself to be no other than in the belly of hell with Jonah while it is yoked with such thoughts, and as glad when aid comes to rescue him out of their hands as Lot was when Abraham recovered him from the kings that had carried him away prisoner.
Fourthly, But may be thou wilt sav, though thou darest not deny that thy cry is sent to heaven against them, yet thou hearest no news of the prayer, hut continuest still pestered with them as before, which increaseth thy fear that thy heart is naught, or else thy prayer would have been an-swered, and thou deli- vered from these inmates.
Aniy. Paul might as well have said so, when he besought the Lord thrice, but could not have the thorn in his flesh plucked out, 2 Cor. xii. 8. He doth not by this shew thee to be a hypocrite, but gives thee a fair advantage of proving thyself sincere ; not nuich imlike liis dealings with the Israelites, before whom he did not, as they expected, hastily drive out the nations, but left them as thorns in their sides, and why? hear the reason from God's own mouth, Judges ii. 22 : ' That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk therein as their fathers did keep it, or not.' Thus God leaves these corruptions in thee, to prove whether thou wilt at last fall in and be friends with them, or maintain the conflict with them, and continue pi'aying against them, by which perseverance thou wilt prove thyself to be indeed upright. A false heart will never do this. He is soon answered, that doth not cordially desire the thing he asks. The hypocrite, when he prays against his corruption, goes of his conscience's errand, not his will's; just as a servant that doth not like the message his master sends him about, but dares not displease him, and therefore goes and may be knocks at the man's door whither he is sent, yet very faintly, loth he should hear him ; all that he doth is, that he may but bring a fair tale to his master, by saying he was there : even so prays the hypocrite, only to stop the mouth of his conscience with this flam, that he hath prayed against his lust ; glad he is when it is over, and more glad that he returns re infecfa. Observe therefore the behaviour of thy heart in prayer, and judge thyself sincere, or not sincere, by that, not by the present success it hath. God can take it kindly that thou askest, what at present he thinks better to deny than give. Thou wouldst have all thy coiTuptions knocked down at one blow, and thy heart in a posture to do the work of thy God without" any stop or rub from lust within, or devil without; wouldst thou not? God highly approves of your zeal, as he did of David's, who had a mind to build him a temple ; but as he thought not fit that the house should in David's time be reared, reserving it for the peaceful reign of Solomon, so neither doth he that this thy request should be granted in this life, having reserved this immunity as an especial part of the charter of the city that is above, which none but glorified saints, wlio are inhabitants there, enjoy: he hath indeed taught us to pray, 'Let thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven ;' but we must expect the full answer to it when we come there. But learn therefore, poor sold, to take this
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