fo for not killing the fame way. Wealth and plenty may furfeit a man, and poverty ftarve him, but still the man dies as furely by the one as by the other. God indeed fends us nothing but what is naturally wholesome, and fit to nourish us, but if the devil has the cooking of it, it may deftroy us; and therefore the divine goodness has prefcribed prayer as an univerfal prefervative against the poifon of all conditions, extracting what is healing and falutary in them from what is baneful and pernicious, and fo making the very poison of one condition a specifick antidote against that of another. In fine, let none wonder, that prayer has fo powerful an ascendant over the tempter (as mighty as he is) when God himself is not only willing, but pleafed to be overcome by it; for ftill it is the man of prayer, who takes heaven by force, who lays fiege to the throne of grace, and who, in a word, is thereby faid to wrestle with God: and furely if prayer can raise a poor mortal fo much above himself as to be able to wrestle with his maker, it may very well enable him to foil the tempter. And therefore fince both our Saviour himself, and his great apostle St. Paul, represent prayer without ceafing as fo eminent a duty, and fo opportune a fuccour, we must needs own, that there cannot be a more preffing argu

ment

ment for a never-ceafing prayer than neverceafing temptations; and therefore whatsoever our personal strengths are (as at best they can be but little) it is certain, that our auxiliary forces and supplies must come in from prayer; in a word, I know no one bleffing so small, which can be rationally expected without it, nor any fo great but may be obtained by it.

But then to render it thus prevalent and effectual, there are required to it these two qualifications.

1. Fervency, or importunity.

2. Conftancy, or perfeverance. 1. And first for fervency. Let a man be but as earnest in praying against a temptation as the tempter is in preffing it, and he needs not proceed by a furer measure. He who prays against it coldly and indifferently, gives too fhrewd a fign, that he neither fears nor hates it; for coldness is, and always will be, a fymptom of deadnefs, efpecially in prayer, where life and heat are the fame thing.

The prayers of the faints are fet forth in fcripture at much another rate, not only by calls, but cries, cries even to a roaring, and vociferation, Pfal. xxxviii. 8. and fometimes by strong cries with tears, Heb. v. 7. fometimes again by groanings, not to be uttered, Rom. viii. 26. things too big for vent, too high

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for expreffion. In fine, he who prays against his fpiritual enemy as he ought to do, is like a man fighting against him upon his knees; and he who fights fo, by the very posture of his fighting fhews, that he neither will nor can

run away.

Lip-devotion will not serve the turn; it undervalues the very thing it prays for. It is indeed the begging of a denial, and shall certainly be answered in what it begs; but he, who truly and sensibly knows the invaluable happiness of being delivered from temptation, and the unspeakable mifery of finking under it, will pray against it, as a man ready to starve would beg for bread, or a man fentenced to die would entreat for life. Every period, every word, every tittle of fuch a prayer is all fpirit and life, flame and extasy; it shoots from one heart into another, from the heart of him who utters, to the heart of him who hears it.

And then well may that powerful thing vanquish the tempter, which binds the hands of justice, and opens the hands of mercy, and in a word, overcomes and prevails over Omnipotence it felf; for, let me go; fays God to Jacob, Gen. xxxii. 26. and, let me alone, fays God to Mofes, Exod. xxxii. 10. One would think that there was a kind of trial of strength between the Almighty and them; but whatfo

ever it was, it fhews that there was and is fomething in prayer, which he, who made heaven and earth, neither could nor can refift; and if this be that holy violence which heaven it felf (as has been fhewn) cannot stand out against, no wonder if all the powers of hell muft fall before it. But,

2dly, To fervency must be added alfo conStancy or perfeverance. For this indeed is the crowning qualification, which renders prayer effectual and victorious, and that upon great reafon, as being the fureft teft and mark of its fincerity; for, as Job obferves, Job xxvii. 10. Will the bypocrite call always upon God? No, he does it only by fits and ftarts, and confequently his devotional fervours are but as the returning paroxyfms of a fever, not as the conftant kindly warmths of a vital heat: they may work high for a time, but they cannot laft, for no fit ever yet held a man for his whole life.

Discontinuance of prayer by long broken intervals is the very bane of the foul, expofing it to all the flights and practices of the tempter. For a temptation may withdraw for a while and return again, the tempter may ceafe urging, and yet continue plotting; the temptation is not dead, but fleeps, and when it comes Cc 2

on

on afresh, we shall find it the stronger, for having flept.

And therefore our Saviour cafts the whole ftrefs of our fafety upon continual prayer, by a notable parable intended, as St. Luke tells us, Luke xviii. 1. to fhew, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; nothing being more fatally common, than for men, not receiving immediately answers to their prayers, to defpond and give over, and to conclude with themselves, as good not at all as to no purpose. A man perhaps labours under the tyranny of some vexatious-luft or corruption, and being bitterly fenfible of it, he fets upon it with watching and ftriving, reading and hearing, fafting and praying, and after all thinks he has got but little or no ground of it: and now what shall fuch an one do? Why, nothing else must or can be done in the cafe, but refolutely to keep on praying; for no man of fense who fows one day expects to reap the next. This is certain, that while any one prays fincerely against a temptation, he fights against it, and fo long as a man continues fighting, tho' with his limbs all battered, and his flesh torn and broken, he is not vanquish'd; 'tis conqueft, in the account of God, not to be overcome. God perhaps intends, that there shall be war between thee and thy corruption

all