“Of the Nature of Prayer in General; with the Import of Praying Without Ceasing 1 Thessalonians 5:17, ‘Pray without ceasing.’… Secondly, The parts of prayer are three, (1.) Confession, (2.) Thanksgiving, and (3.) Petition. 1. Confession, Daniel 9:4, 5, ‘I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant, and mercy to them that love him,…
Call to Worship December 17, 2024
“Of the Nature of Prayer in General; with the Import of Praying Without Ceasing1 Thessalonians 5:17, ‘Pray without ceasing.’THESE words are an exhortation briefly delivered, as laws use to be; and therein we have, 1. A duty proposed, ‘Pray.’ 2. The manner of it, ‘without ceasing.’ I. We have the duty itself, ‘Pray.’ It may be asked, What is prayer? I answer, It is ‘an offering up…
Call to Worship November 10, 2024
“3. Consider the evils of it; I mean its present evils. Danger respects what is to come; evil, what is present. Some of the many evils that attend an unmortified lust may be mentioned:— (1.) It grieves the holy and blessed Spirit, which is given to believers to dwell in them and abide with them. So the apostle, Eph. 4:25–29, dehorting them from many lusts and sins, gives this as the great…
Call to Worship November 3, 2024
“(4.) There is the danger of eternal destruction. For the due management of this consideration, observe,— [1.] That there is such a connection between a continuance in sin and eternal destruction, that though God does resolve to deliver some from a continuance in sin that they may not be destroyed, yet he will deliver none from destruction that continue in sin; so that whilst any one lies under an abiding power of sin,…
Call to Worship October 27, 2024
“(3.) Loss of peace and strength all a man’s days. To have peace with God, to have strength to walk before God, is the sum of the great promises of the covenant of grace. In these things is the life of our souls. Without them in some comfortable measure, to live is to die. What good will our lives do us if we see not the face of God…
Call to Worship October 20, 2024
“So, then, let these things, and the like considerations, lead thee to a clear sense of the guilt of thy indwelling lust, that there may be no room in thy heart for extenuating or excusing thoughts, whereby sin insensibly will get strength and prevail. 2. Consider the danger of it, which is manifold:— (1.) Of being hardened by the deceitfulness. This the apostle sorely charges on the Hebrews, chap. 3:12,…
Call to Worship October 13, 2024
Get a clear and abiding sense upon thy mind and conscience of the guilt, danger, and evil of that sin wherewith thou art perplexed:— 1. Of the guilt of it. It is one of the deceits of a prevailing lust to extenuate its own guilt. “Is it not a little one?” “When I go and bow myself in the house of Rimmon, God be merciful to me in this thing.”…
Call to Worship October 6, 2024
“6. When thy lust hath already withstood particular dealings from God against it. This condition is described, Isa. 57:17, ‘For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart.’ God had dealt with them about their prevailing lust, and that several ways,—by affliction and desertion; but they held out against…
Call to Worship September 29, 2024
“5. When it is probable that there is, or may be, somewhat of judiciary hardness, or at least of chastening punishment, in thy lust as disquieting. This is another dangerous symptom. That God doth sometimes leave even those of his own under the perplexing power at least of some lust or sin, to correct them for former sins, negligence, and folly, I no way doubt. Hence was…
Call to Worship September 22, 2024
“4. When a man fighteth against his sin only with arguments from the issue or the punishment due unto it, this is a sign that sin hath taken great possession of the will, and that in the heart there is a superfluity of naughtiness. Such a man as opposes nothing to the seduction of sin and lust in his heart but fear of shame among men or hell from…