Ques. But you will say, How shall we discern this false veliemency from that which is true, and that which is holy feivour and going out of the s|)irit towards God ? It may be tried by the irreverence of your souls in [aayer, and carelessness of your souls after prayer.
L By the irreverence of soul in prayer. When there is not a due consideration of the nature and presence of God, certainly it is a natural transiiortation ; when men are drawn out to a great heat of affection yet no reveience of God. In a distempered heat in prayer or preaching men are apt to forget themselves ; they do not consider to whom or before whom they speak, therefore they are ' rash to utter anything •with their mouth,' Eccles. v. 1, 2. Men may be hasty to utter words.
464 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR. XV.
though there be no due afiection and reverence in the sphit. A true earnestness of spirit makes us remember God the more, because we are enjoying communion with God ; but a false earnestness is counted but babbling. Mat. vi. 7, our Saviour speaks of those ' that thought to be heard for their much speaking.' Carnal worshippers place much in this, in their vehement pronouncing ; as Baal's priests, Elijah bids them ' cry aloud,' 1 Kings xviii. 27 ; so they place much in the mere extension of their voice, and crying aloud.
2. It may be discerned by the carelessness of their souls after prayer; when men are vehement in worship, and never look after the effects of worship. Usually men throw away their prayers, as children shoot away their arrows, and never look after them. True vehemency will stir up a like earnestness in the expectations and endeavours of the fioul : Ps. Ixxxv. 8, ' I will hear what God the Lord will speak,' There will be hearkening after the success of such earnest prayers that have been poured out with height of affection. Now to pray against sin and not strive against it, and not to look after the return of it, shows a false heart, and that it was but a feigned and personated heat, like acting of a part upon a stage, till the task of prayer was over. Desire is a vigorous bent of the soul ; it is an active affection, that will put men upon endeavours ; and you will be stirring, waiting, seeing how your prayers are accomplished ; otherwise it is but a passion put on for a time. When a man prays vehemently for grace, and then goes out and sins against his prayers, how can those prayers be right ? It is but an empty declamation, especially if men confute their own prayers with their lives ; like those that sacrificed to Esculapius, and prayed for health, but kept on their riotous feasts.
Case 3. The third case is concerning the end of duties, Whether or no the children of God may not reflect sometimes upon a carnal end in duties of worship ? And how far is it a note of insincerity ?
I answer in several propositions —
1. The best trial of a christian is in his duties of worship. If at •any time, there he may discern the effects and operations of the new nature, and the actings of grace in his own soul ; for there sins are most checked, there he comes more solemnly to exercise his grace, there his addresses are immediately to God. It argues much of unmorti- iiedness to have carnal reflections when we are conversing with God. It is God's complaint, Jer. xxiii. 11, * Both the prophet and priest are profane ; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the Lord.' To conceive those fleshly motions in God's house is a matter of high aggravation ; for here we come to set up grace in authority most solemnly, and act it in the highest way of operation towards God.
2. As a christian is tried in his duties, so our duties are tried by our designs and aims. It is not the excellency of the outward address, it is not the vehemency of the inward affection, but the integrity of the end and aim towards God. Practice may be overruled by custom; excellency of speech may be drawn forth upon carnal impulsions ; affections may be made violent by lust : but the genuine birth of the spirit is the end and aim we propose to ourselves. And therefore a child of God can appear to God's omnisciency for his love to him. Human infirmities may make us fail in all other parts of duty, but
VeR. 4.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 465
grace will set the end right, which is usually proportioned to the frame of the heart. As the heart is, so is the end. This is the great dif- ferencing circumstance : Prov. xvi. 2, ' The Lord weighs the spirits, quo animo ; with what end and aim an action is done. Christ saith, ' The light of the hody is the eye,' Mat. vi. 22. A single aim and intern towards God is the best discovery of our sincerity in religious duties,
3. Yet notwithstanding the carnal part will be interposing and vexing the spirit with carnal aims, as the daughters of Heth vexed Eebecca, Gen. xxvii. 46. In the best duties we ever perform we plough with an ox and an ass. When we come to do good, evil will be present : Rom. vii. 21, ' I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me.' And as evil, so also evil aims ; I know no difference. Corruption may cast in vain-glorious glances, or covetous thoughts and reflections upon external advantages, as well as blas- phemies and sins of another nature.