upon God ? Will he call upon God as often as others call upon him to call upon God ? Oh no ! The hypocrite will not always call upon God ; he will not persevere in prayer ; he will not hold on nor hold out in prayer ; he is short-spirited ; he cannot always pray and not faint, or shrink back as sluggards do in work, or cowards in war, as the ori- ginal word in Luke imports, Luke xviii. ], Ixxaxs/V. An hypocrite, for want of an inward principle, can neither delight in God, nor always call upon God. If God comes not at his call, if he opens not as soon as he knocks, he is out of patience, and ready to say with that proud profane prince, ' Behold, this evil is of the Lord, and what should I wait for him any longer ?' 2 Kings vi, 33. If an hypocrite obtains the mercy he desires, then he will throw off prayer, as he said, * Take away the net, the fish is caught ;' if he obtains not the mercy, then he will grow weary of his duty. ' Thou hast been weary of me,' O Israel, Mai. i. 13, Isa. xliii. 22. Prayer is too hard and too high a work for an unsound heart to hold on in. Prayer is heart-work, and that proves heavy work to him. The soul of prayer lies in the pouring out of the soul before God, and this is a work that an hypocrite has no skill in, 1 Sam. i. 15. It was a profane and blasphemous speech of that atheis- tical wretch, that told God he was no common beggar, he never troubled him before -svith prayer, and if he would but hear him that time, he would never trouble him again.^ Even such a spirit and such prin- ciples lie lurking in every hypocrite's breast. Doubtless he hit it who said, ' How canst thou expect that God should hear thee, when thou wilt not hear thyself ? or that God should give thee a return in prayer, when thou art not mindful what thou ask est in prayer ?'^ But now a sincere Christian he will go on in prayer, speed or not speed. If he prevails, he will love prayer the better all his days ; if he do not for the present prevail, he will be so much the more importunate with God in prayer.' It is as natural for a bird to live without air, and for a fish to live without water, and for a man to live without food, as it is for a sincere heart to live without prayer. ' Oh,' saith Chrysostom, ' it is more bitter than death to be spoiled of prayer.' And hereupon, as he observes, Daniel chose rather to run the hazard of his life, than to lose or give over his private prayers, Dan. vi. Prayer is the key of heaven, and a sincere Christian loves much to be a-handling of that key, though he should die for it.* As that emperor said, Oportet inqjeratm^em stanteTTi moH, It behoves an emperor to die standing ; so may I say, OpoHet Ch'i'istianum mori precantem, it behoves a Christian to die praying. An hypocrite will never hold out to the end. Let but outward encouragements fail him, and his heart will quickly fail him in a way of duty. Hypocrites are like blazing stars, which, so long as they are fed with vapours, shine as if they were fixed stars ; but let the vapours dry up, and presently they vanish and disappear. Let but the eye, the ear, the applause of men, fail the hypocrite, and he will be ready to throw up all. If an hypocrite cannot make some gain of his godliness, some profit of his profession, some advantage of his religion, he will be ready with Deraas to turn his back upon all religious dtities
' Hil. Mic, p. 376. [As before. — G.] * Cyprian, de Oratione Dominica.
3 Gtn. xxxii. 24-29 ; Hosea xii. 3, 4; Mat. xv. 22-28.
* Prayer ia porta cceli, clavis paradisi, the gate of heaven, a key to let us into paradise.
Chap. IV.] A cabinet of jewels. 455
and services, 2 Peter ii. 20-22, 2 Tim. iv. 10. Look, as a lame horse, when he is heated, will go well enough, but when he cools, will halt down- right ; even so an hypocrite, though for a time he may go on fairly in his way, yet in the end he will halt downright, and bid farewell, if not defiance, to all religious duties and services. Profit and applause are usually the baits that hypocrites bite at, and if they miss these baits, then farewell profession, farewell religion, farewell all : John vi. 66. ' From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.' Many hypocrites who had given up their names to Clirist, and who for a time had been followers of Christ, at last deserted him and turned their backs for ever upon him : Mat. xiii. 5, ' Some fell upon, stony places, where they had not much earth' (not much care to receive, not much understanding to apprehend, not much faith to believe, not much will to obey, or not much love to retain it), ' and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth.' Ver. 6, 'And when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away.' This second ground goes beyond the former : for (1.) it receives the seed ; (2.) incontinently ; (8.) with joy ; (4.) it brings up the seed sown. It sprung up to sundry degrees : [1.] to external obedience and reformation in many things ; [2.] to an outward pro- fession ; rS.J to a kind of faith ; but when the sun of persecution beat hot upon them they withered and fell away ; not all at once, but by little and little, as a leaf loseth his greenness and flourish, and withers by degrees. In the Palatinate, when the sun of persecution began to scorch them, scarce one professor of twenty stood out, but fell to popery as fast as leaves in autumn. The crystal looks like pearl till it comes to the hammering ; so an hypocrite looks like a Christian, and in many things acts like a Christian, till he comes to be hammered by sufferings, by persecutions, and then he discovers himself in his colours ; and with Hymeneus and Alexander, he makes shipwreck of faith and a good con- science, 1 Tim. i. 19, 20, Hosea v. 2. In suffering times, hypocrites labour mightily to put out that light which shines in their bosoms, and when they have quenched that light, then farewell faith, farewell pro- fession, farewell a good conscience, farewell all. The wolf, though he often dissembles and closely hides his nature, yet he cannot always do so ; for at one time or other he will shew himself to be a wolf ; so though an an hypocrite may carry it closely for a time, yet he will one time or other discover himself to be an hypocrite. It is reported of the waters of Nilus, that having run many hundred of miles a pure and clear water, when it comes near the Mediterranean Sea, it begins to grow brackish and salt, and at last it falls into the sea and loseth its name. Sooner or later this will be the case of all hypocrites ; they won't retain their spiritual fairness, clearness, and sweetness long, but by degrees will grow brackish and salt, and lose their names, and all that seeming good- ness and sweetness that once seemed to be in them.