were opposite and irreconcileable They were sunk and lost in sensuality and had no other interest than that of their flesh VVhen man hath made himself a brute he then thinks himself fittest to be a God The interest of our soules must unite us with him that of our flesh engages us against him Some are thorough the power of his grace returning VVhat a pleasure would it be to us to behold our selves among the reduces those that are upon their return That are again taking the Lord only to be their God and his interest for their only interest 3. Consider that our very name as we are Christians obliges us to be of that obedient happy number For what is Christianity but the tendency of soules towards God through the mediation and under the conduct of Christ Therefore is the initial precept of it and the condition of our entrance into that blessed state self-denyal VVe answer not our own name further than as we are revolving and rolling back out of our single and separate state into our original most natural state of subordination to God wherein only we are capable of union with him and final blessedness in him This is Discipleship to Christ and the design of the Christian Religion to be subdu'd in our Spirits and wrought down into compliance with the divine will to be meek lowly humble patient ready to take up the cross to bear any thing lose any thing be any thing or be nothing that God may be all in all This is our conformity not to the precepts only but to the example too of our great Lord. Who when he was in the form of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man And being found in fashion as a man humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross Phil. 2. 6 7 8. And hereupon because he was so entirely devoted to the honour and service of Gods great name father glorifie thy name summ'd up his desires therefore God highly exalted him and gave him a name above every name That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow c. verse 9. 10. And when ever he shall have a Church in the world that he will think it fit to own with visible unintermitted favours it must consist of persons formed according to that patern And then by losing their own name and little interests for Gods they will find all recovered when their glorious Redeemer shall write upon them the name of his God and the name of the City of his God and his own new name Rev. 3. 12. 4. Let it be further in the last place considered with what chearfulness and confidence we may then pray when our hearts are wrought to this pitch that we sincerely design the honour of the divine name as the most desireable thing and which name above all things we covet to have glorifi'd For we are sure of being heard and to have the same answer which was given our Lord by a voice like that of thunder from heaven when he pray'd Father glorifie thy name Joh. 12. I have both glorifi'd it and will glorifie it again Our hearts are not right in us till we can count this a pleasant grateful answer And if we can we can never fail of it For we are told 1 Joh. 5. 14. That whatsoever we ask according to his will he heareth us This will deliver our minds from suspence When we pray for nothing whereof we are uncertain but with great deference and submission and for nothing absolutely and with greatest ingagement of heart but whereof we are certain Upon such termes we may pray with great assurance as Daniel did O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do defer not for thine own sake O my God for thy city and thy people are called by thy name ch 9. 19. And tho an angel be not thereupon sent to tell us as was to him so many weeks are determined upon thy people and thy holy City so the matter is exprest as it were kindly giving back the interest in them to Daniel with advantage that he had before acknowledged unto God to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity c. yet we are assured of vvhat reasonably ought to be as satisfying that vvhatsoever shall befall our City or our people shall end in the eternal glory of God and of the City of God FINIS Octav. apud Min. F. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sprevit contempsit Vulg. Lat. Chald. Par. Deut. 7. 7. C. 10. 15. Maimon Mor. Nevoch Selden de Diis Syris Synt. 2. Cap. 16.
continues the relation when he might abandon and cast them off It is further imply'd 2. That the more serious and apprehensive among such a people do understand it at sometimes more especially a thing very highly deserv'd that God should abhor and reject them The deprecation is a tacit acknowledgment that the deprecated severity was reasonably to be feared not only from Sovereign Power but offended Justice This is indeed exprest in the next foregoing words We acknowledge O Lord our wickedness and the iniquity of our Fathers for we have sinned against thee Do not abhor us c. So that this ought to be the sense of the Supplicants in the present case that they are herein perfectly at mercy that if they be heard 't is undeserv'd compassion if they be rejected 't is from most deserved displeasure And if it were not exprest yet the Supplication must be understood to imply it For when the great God hath vouchsafed to limit his Sovereign power and antecedent liberty by his Promise and Covenant such a Prayer were it self reflecting and an affront if it should proceed upon a supposition or but intimate that he should ever be inclin'd to do such a thing without an excepted cause Such as that his rejecting them upon it might consist with his being faithful to his word When he values himself so much upon his faithfulness and seems even to lay his very Godhead upon it As those strangely Emphatical words import Deut. 7. 9. Know therefore that the Lord thy God he is God the faithful God which keepeth Covenant and Mercy with them that love him and keep his Commandments to a Thousand Generations implying that he would even yield himself not to be God if he did not in all points vindicate and demonstrate his faithfulness Nor indeed do we properly crave for any thing but we therein disclaim a Legal right to it and acknowledge it to be rightfully in his power to whom we apply our selves to grant or deny We make demands from Justice and are Supplicants for Mercy and with this sense the Spirits of Holy Men have abounded when they have taken upon them to intercede in the like case as we see Dan. 9. 7. O Lord Righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of faces as at this day c. And to the same purpose Ezra 9. Nehem. 9. at large and in many other places q. d. Our only resort O Lord is to thy Mercy Thou mightest most justly abhor and abandon us and say to us Loammi ye are none of my People but in the multitude of thy tender compassions and mercies do it not It is again further to be Collected 3. That this is a thing which holy and good men do most vehemently dread and deprecate viz. that God should thus abhor and reject a people so related to him 'T is that which the very Genius and Spirit of Holiness in the sincere regrets beyond all things for themselves They have taken the Lord to be their God for ever and ever Their hearts have been attempered to the tenour and constitution of an Everlasting Covenant which they entered with no design or thought of ever parting but that it should be the ground of an Eternal Relation And the Law of love written in their hearts prompts them to desire the same thing for others too Especially such to whom they have more especial endearing Obligations and if it were possible that the whole body of a people to whom they are themselves united might all be united to God upon the same termes even by the same Vital and Everlasting Union And therefore also that same Divine and Soul-enlarging love being a living Principle in them makes them have a most afflicting sense of any discerned tendencies to a Rupture and separation that might prevent and cut off the hope of his drawing still more and more of them into that inward living Union and Inter-course with himself These things it may suffice briefly to have noted from the Petition in the Text. That which I principally design'd is what we have next coming under our view viz. II. The Argument brought to enforce it For thy Names sake About which what I shall observe shall be with special reference to the case which the Prophet refers unto in his present use of it viz. That in Praying for a people professing the name of God that he would not reject and cast them off the fit and proper argument to be insisted on is that from his own Name See Verse 1. 9. And here it will be requisite 1. To have some very brief consideration of this argument in the general though 2. We principally intend to treat of it as it respects this present case 1. In the general we are to consider both what the name of God in it self imports and what is signifi'd by using it as an argument in Prayer And 1. As to what is imported by the name of God in it self considered We shall not trouble this discourse with the fancies of the Rabbins Of whom yet one very noted soberly and plainly tells us the name of God is wont to signifie his essence and truth though the instance he gives shewes he means it of the Nomen Tetragrammaton the name Jehovah which indeed more eminently doth so To our purpose it is obvious and sufficient to note that by his name more generally is signified both the peculiar excellencies of his nature and being which are himself as the use of a mans name is to notifie the man So when he is pleased himself to proclaim his own name thus it runs The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping Mercy for Thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin c. Exod. 34. 6 7. And again That by his name is meant his Glory and most especially the honour and reputation of his Government For so too a mans name signifies his fame and repute in the World as they whom our translation calls men of Renown Gen. 6. 4. the Hebrew Text sayes only but plainly meaning the same thing they were Men of name And if he be a publick Person a Prince and Ruler over others it must more peculiarly signifie his Reputation and Fame as such Thus Moses designing to celebrate the unexceptionable equity and awful Majesty of the Divine Government begins thus Because I will publish the name of the Lord ascribe the greatness unto our God He is the Rock his work is perfect for all his wayes are Judgment Deut. 32. 3 4. 2. As an Argument used in Prayer it may accordingly either signifie the principle from which it is hoped and requested he should do what we desire or the end for which For as his name signifies his nature which himself hath taught us primarily to conceive under the notion of goodness mercy love in that forementioned Exod. 34. 7. and 1 Joh. 4. 16. So when we pray he would do this or that
himself dignifi'd as persons of great excellency in prayer And whose prayers he would have a value for if for any mans Though Moses and Samuel stood before me c. Jer. 15. 1. Thus also doth Joshua insist upon occasion of that rebuke Israel met with before Ai Josh. 7. 8 9. O Lord what shall I say when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it and shall environ us round and cut off our name from the earth and what wilt thou do unto thy great name And so doth Daniel plead one of a famous triad too of potent wrestlers in prayer Ezek 14. 14. O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do defer not for thine own sake O my God for thy city and thy people are called by thy name Dan. 9. 19. 7. To the highest example and patern of prayer fit to be mentioned apart our Lord himself VVho in some of his last agonies praying Father save me from this hour represses that innocent voice But therefore came I to this hour and addes Father glorifie thy name Joh. 12. 27 28. intimating that the summe of his desires did resolve into that one thing And contented to suffer what was most grievous to himself that so that might be done which should be finally most honourable to that great name 8. To the design and end of prayer which is partly and principally to be considered as an act of worship an homage to the great God and so the design of it is to honour him And partly as a meanes or way of obtaining for our selves the good things we pray for which therefore is another but an inferiour end of prayer Whether we consider it under the one notion or the other or propound to our selves the one or the other end in praying 'T is most agreeable to pray after this tenour and to insist most upon this argument in prayer For First Do we intend prayer as an homage to the great God and to give him his due glory in praying to him How fitly doth it fall in with our design when not only our praying it self but the matter we chiesly pray for have the same scope and end We pray that we may glorifie God And the thing we more principally desire of him in prayer is that he would glorifie himself or that his name be glorified And square all other desires by this measure desiring nothing else but what may be or as it is subservient hereto And Secondly If we intend and design any thing of advantage to our selves We can only expect to be heard and to obtain it upon this ground The great God deales plainly with us in this and hath expresly declared that if he hear and graciously answer us it will only be upon this consideration as is often inculcated Ezekiel 36. 22. Therefore say unto the house of Israel thus saith the Lord God I do not this for your sakes O house of Israel but for mine holy names sake And I will sanctifie my great name which was profaned among the heathen and again Not for your sakes do I this saith the Lord God be it known unto you be ashamed and confounded for your own waies O house of Israel Verse 32. This every way then appears a most fit argument to be insisted on in prayer And to this purpose as well as to any other Many of the instances mentioned from scripture having an express and particular reference to this very case of praying for a people related to God and upon whom his name was called It remaines then to shew 2. What is requisite to the right and due use of this argument unto this purpose Where we may summe up all in two words sincerity and submission The former whereof belongs to this case in common with all others wherein we can use this argument or which is all one wherein we can pray at all The other hath somewhat a more peculiar reference to this case considered apart by it self And indeed that the one and the other of these are requisite in the use of this argument are both of them Corollaries from the Truth it self we have been hitherto insisting on and that have the very substance and spirit of it in them For if this be an argument fit to be used in prayer at all it is obvious to collect that it ought to be used with great sincerity in any case and with much submission especially in such a case as this 1. It is requisite we use this argument with sincerity i. e. That we have a sense in our hearts correspondent to the use of it or that the impression be deeply inwrought into our spirits of the glorious excellency of the name of God So as it be really the most desireable thing in our eyes that it be magnifi'd and rendred most glorious whatsoever becomes of us or of any people or nation under Heaven Many have learnt to use the words For thy names sake as a formula a plausible phrase a customary fashionable form of speech when first there is no inward sense in their hearts that doth subesse lies under the expression so as that with them it can be said to signifie any thing or have any meaning at all Or secondly They may have much another meaning from what these words do import a very low self-regarding one As when in praying for a people that bear this name of whom themselves are a part these words are in their mouths but their hearts are really solicitous for nothing but their own little concernments their wealth and peace and ease and fleshly accommodations Apprehending a change of Religion cannot fall out among such a people but in conjunction with what may be dangerous to themselves in these mean respects Whereupon it may fall out that they will pray earnestly cry aloud be full of concern vehemently importunate and all the noise and cry mean nothing but their own corn wine and oile They mention the name of the Lord but not in truth It appeares the servants of God in the use of this argument have been toucht in their very soules with so deep and quick a sense of the dignity and honour of the divine name that nothing else hath seem'd considerable with them or worth the regarding besides As in those pathetic expostulations What wilt thou do to thy great name What will the Egyptians say c. This alone apart from their own concernments was the weighty argument with them For it weighed nothing with Moses on the contrary to be told I will make of thee a great nation To have himself never so glorious a name to be spread in the world and transmitted to all after ages as the root and father of a mighty people was a light thing in comparison of the injury and disreputation that would be done to Gods own name if he should desert or destroy this people Or thirdly They may
and aptly serves to reprehend and correct such praying as disagrees with it Especially the carnality and the selfishness of our prayers The use of this argument implies that the glory of God and the exaltation of his name should be the principal design of our prayers Is it not in these respects much otherwise We keep fast after fast and make many prayers And what is the chief design of them or the thing we are most intent and which our hearts are principally set upon We see how God expostulates this matter Zech. 7. 5. When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month even those seventy years did you at all fast unto me even unto me Why to whom can it be thought this people did keep fasts but unto God Yes no doubt they did eye him as the object but not as the end They were kept to him but not for him so as that his interest and glory was the thing principally designed in them Nor can it be if the things we cheifly insist upon be such as have no connection with his true interest or subserviency to it And let us enquire upon these two heads whether our prayers in these respects do not run in such a strain as that they cannot possibly be understood to mean him or have a true reference to him 1. In respect of the carnality of them When we pray for the people of our own land or for the Christian Church more generally what sort of evils is it that we find our hearts most feelingly to deprecate and pray against what are the good things we chiefly desire for them We find our selves 't is likely to have somewhat a quick sense and dread of the calamities of war depredation oppression persecution and we feel probably somewhat of simpathy within our selves when we hear of any abroad professing true reformed Christianity that suffer the spoiling of their goods are banisht from their pleasant homes drag'd to prisons prest with pinching necessities for the sake of their Religion and it were well if our compassions were more enlarged in such cases And if we should hear of nations depopulated Cities sackt Towns and Countreys delug'd with blood and slaughter these things would certainly have an astonishing sound in our eares But have we any proportionable sense of the Spiritual evils that wast and deform the Christian Church exhaust its strength and vigour and blemish its beauty and glory Ignorance terrene inclination glorying in the external formes of Religion while the life and power of it is unknown and deny'd estrangement from God real infidelity towards the Redeemer vailed over by pretended nominal Christianity uncharitableness pride wrath strife envy hatred hypocrisie deceitfulness towards God and man We ought to lament and deprecate the former evils without over-looking these or counting them less or being less affected with them We are apt to pray for peace unto the Christian community for halcyon dayes prosperity the abundance of all outward blessings in conjunction with the universal reception of such forms of Religion as are most agreeable to our minds and inclinations But do we as earnestly pray for the reviving of primitive Christianity and that the Christian Church may shine in the beauties of holiness in heavenliness faith love to God and one another in simplicity meekness patience humility contempt of this present world and purity from all the corruptions of it This we chiefly ought to have done without leaving the other undone Which while it is left out of our prayers or not more principally insisted on in them how ill do they admit of enforcement by this argument from the name of God For do we think it is so very honourable to his name to be the God of an opulent luxurious voluptuous proud wrathful contentious people under what religious form or denomination soever 2. But also do not our prayers chiefly center in our selves while we make a customary not understood use in them of the name of God And when we principally design our selves in our prayers what is it we covet most for our selves 'T is not agreeable to the holy new divine nature to desire to ingross spiritual good things to our selves when for others we desire only the good things of this earth But if our prayers do only design the averting from our selves outward calamities or inconveniencies and the obtaining only of ease indulgence and all grateful accommodations to our flesh how absurd an hypocrisie is it to fashion up such a petition by adding to it for thy names sake As if the name of God did oblige him to consult the ease and repose of our flesh when our soules thereby are made and continued the nurseries of all the evil vicious inclinations which shew themselves in our practice most of all to the dishonour of that name what subordination is there here Manifest is the opposition of our carnal interest to the interest and honour of the blessed name of God If a Malefactor convicted of the highest crimes against the Government should petition for himself to this purpose that it will bring a great disreputation upon authority and detract from the famed clemency and goodness of the Prince if any punishment should be inflicted on him for his offences or if he be not indulg'd and suffered to persist in them How would this petition sound with sober intelligent men 'T is no wonder our flesh regrets suffering but 't is strange our reason should be so lost as to think at random that right or wrong the name of God is not otherwise to be indemnifi'd than by its being saved from suffering As if the gratification of our flesh and the glory of Gods name were so very nearly related and so much akin to one another And now this carnal self-interest insinuating it self and thus distorting our prayers is the radical evil in them and the first and original part of their faultiness For it is not likely we should love others better than our selves Therefore we cannot go higher in supplicating for others But yet we inconsiderately mention the name of God for fashion sake though it be no way concern'd in the matter unless to vindicate and greaten it self in rejecting us and our prayers together 2. The further use of what hath been said upon this subject will be to perswade and engage us to have more regard to the name of God in our prayers Especially in our praying about national and publick concernments or such external concernments of our own as are involv'd with them That in the habitual temper of our spirits we be so entirely and absolutely devoted to God and the interest of his great name that our prayers may savour of it and be of an agreeable strain that the inward sense of our soules may fully correspond to the true import of this argument and our hearts may not reproach us when we use it as only pretending God but meaning our selves and that only our carnal self the