The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, D.D. (Volume 4); With a Memoir of the Author

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1871. Excerpt: ... This is like him in Msop that blew hot and cold with the same breath. A good man should be uniform and constant: the same heart cannot be occupied by God and the devil, nor the same tongue be employed to such different uses. The Pharisee prayed and censured at the same time, Luke xviii. 10; and many pray and curse, pray and rail, in the same breath. This is most unseemly; one part condemneth and destroyeth the other; the good aggravateth the evil, and the evil disproveth the good: railing is the worse because of the solemnity of the action; and praying is but a revengeful eructation, when thus managed and accompanied. When the tongue is employed in prayer, it is as it were hallowed and consecrated, and therefore must not be alienated to common and vile purposes. They were carnal wretches that said 'Our tongues are our own, ' Ps. xii. 4; thine is given up to God. 06s. 2. From that ought not to be. We must look not to what we desire to do, but what ought to be done. Lust, or the bent of the spirit, is not the rule of duty. Many advise with no other counsellor but their own hearts; carnal constraints are an ill warrant. Beasts are led by strength of instinct and natural impulse; man is to be governed by an outward rule: there is an higher Lord than your own will. Look, then, not to the earnestness of your motions, but the regularity of them; not at what you would, but what you ought. Ver. 11, 12. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the Jig-tree, my brethren, bear olive-berries? cither a vine, figs? so can no fountain yield both salt water and fresh. Here are several illustrations taken from the course of nature, to show that one cause and original can have but one orderly and kindly birth. He reasoneth from what is impossible in nature to what is abs...