Ah ! but wicked men come off from prayer with hearts more encouraged to sin, and more resolved to walk in ways of sin : Prov. vii. 14-24, ' I have peace-offerings with me,' saith the harlot ; ' this day have I paid my vows : therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee. Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning ; let us solace ourselves with loves.'^ So in Jer. vii, 9, 10, ' Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and bum incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not ; and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say. We are delivered to do all these abominations ?' Wicked men are like Lewis, king of France, that would swear and then kiss the cross, and then swear more bitterly and then kiss the cross. So they sin and rpray, and pray and sin; and the more they pray, the more easily, resolutely, impudently do they sin.* They make use of prayer to charm their consciences, that so they may sin with more pleasure and less regret. Ah ! what pains do such sinners take to go to hell, and to arm their consciences against themselves in that day, wherein they shall say, There is no help, there is no hope !
Tfie eighth difference. Eighthly and lastly. Gracious souls do more
^ Prayer without the heart is but an empty ring, a tinkling cymbal,
* Dan. ix. 9, Neh. x., compared ; Rom. viii. 26, <rfvavT(Xa^/3a«ra/, helpeth together, or helps us as the nurse doth the little child. Prayer is the breath of the Spirit, &c.
3 Dm nn3, be drunken with loves, which shews her unsatiable lusts.
* Mr [Thomas] Shepherd, in his ' Sincere Convert,' speaks of such a monster : yea, this age is full of such monsters, that have no pity upon themselves. [Shepherd's 'Works' have been collected in 3 vols, crown 8vo (1853), in. America. The 'Sincere Convert ' is still a favourite. — G.]
Rom. VIII. S2-34.] heaven on eaeth. 501
eye and observe how their own hearts are wrought upon in prayer, than how others' hearts are wrought upon} When they pray, they look with a curious eye upon their own spirits, they look with a narrow eye upon their own hearts, and observe how they are affected, melted, humbled, quickened, raised, spiritualized, and bettered by prayer. But vain men, as they pray to ' be seen of men,' so they eye most how others like their prayers, and are affected and taken with their prayers. They are most critical in observing what operations their prayers have upon others' hearts, but never mind, to any purpose, how they operate upon their own hearts ; a worse plague cannot befall them.^
And thus I have endeavoured to shew you what a wide difference there is betwixt the prayers of the godly and the ungodly ; and by this, as by the former particulars laid down, you may see what prayer that is that accompanies salvation.
Now, in the seventh place, I shall shew you what perseverance that is that accompanies salvation, and that I shall do in these following particulars.
(1.) The first property. First, That perseverance that accompanies salvation, is Perseverance in a holy profession. Heb. iv. 14, * Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession by a strong hand,' or by a hand of holy violence [xmrOjfiiv'j. So in chap. x. 23, ' Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering ' (or as it is in the Greek, 'without tilting, or tossing to one side or other'), 'for he is faithful that promised.'^ Therefore let no temptation, affliction, opposi- tion, or persecution, take us off from our holy profession, but let us hold our profession with a forcible hand, yea, with both hands, in the face of all difficulties, dangers, and deaths, as Cynaegirus, the Athenian captain, did the ship that was laden with the rich spoil of his country.*
(2.) Tlie second property. Secondly, That perseverance that accom- panies salvation, is a perseverance in holy and spiritual principles. It is an abiding in love, John xv. 9, 10 ; and an abiding in faith and hope, 1 Cor. xiii. 13, &c. Perseverance is not a particular distinct grace of itself ; but such a virtue as crowns all virtue ; it is such a grace as casts a general glory and beauty upon every grace, it is a grace that leads every grace on to perfection.*
To persevere in holy and heavenly principles, is to persevere in be- lieving, in repenting, in mourning, in hoping ; it is to persevere in love, in fear, in humility, in patience, in self-denial, &c. Now it is this per- severance in holy and gracious principles that accompanies salvation, that leads to salvation.* No grace, no, not the most sparkling and shining grace, can bring a man to heaven of itself, without persever- ance ; not faith, which is the champion of grace, if it faint and fail ; not love, which is the nurse of gi'ace, if it decline and wax cold ; not
' Ps. XXXV. 13, my prayer returned into my own bosom, Isa. xxvi. 8, 9.
* Mat. vi. 23. The virtue of some lieth in the spectator's eyes.
3 xitTix;t"f^if signifies a forcible holding, a holding with both hands, 'AxXivS.
* Justin, ii. 9, &c. — G.
6 So Col. i. 23 ; 1 Tim. iv. 15 ; Heb. xiii. 1, and xi. 13. These all died in faith, or as it is hi the Greek, they all died according to faith, that is, persevering in faith.
* It is a rule in the civil law, Ifec videtur actum si quid supersit quodagatur, that nothing seems to be done if there remain aught to be done. Let a man do never so much, if he do not persevere, he will be found to have done nothing.
502 HEAVEN ON EARTH. [ROM. VIII. 32-84.
humility, which is the adorner and beautifier of grace, if it continue not to the end ; not obedience, not repentance, not patience, nor no other grace, except they have their perfect work. It is perseverance in grace that crowns every grace, and every gracious soul with a crown of glory at last. Rev. ii. 10, * Be thou faithful to the death, and I will give thee a crown of life.' Such as only believe for a time, and repent for a time, and love for a time, and rejoice for a time, and hope for a time, as all hypocrites only do &c., but do not persevere and hold out, will be doubly miserable in the day of vengeance. Perseverance is the accomplishment of every grace; without it, he that fights cannot hope to overcome; and he that for the present doth overcome, cannot look for the crown, unless he still perseveres and goes on conquering and to conquer, till he finds all his enemies slain before him.