is offered or if for all collectively then only for those benefits to them which God hath declared to be common to all For that some persons are excepted out of our prayers for spirituals is manifest by that of the Apostle There is a sin unto death I do not say that he shall pray for it that is 1 Joh. 5.16 not for the life eternal of him that sinneth that sin 2. In particular there are also precepts to pray for others in special according to several states and relations Ecclesiastical and Civil publique and private The people of God are to pray for the Church of God Pray for the peace of Jerusalem Psa 122.6 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance Eph. 6.18 and supplication for all Saints And for the Ministry Brethren pray for us 2 Thes 3.1 that the Word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified In like manner the Ministers for the people We will give our selves continually to prayer Acts 6.4 and to the Ministry of the Word Moreover as for me 1 Sam. 12 23 God forbid I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you Is any man sick among you let him call for the Elders of the Church Jam. 5.14 16 and let them pray over him And Brethren for Brethren Pray one for another that ye may be healed If any man see his Brother sin a sin which is not unto death he shal ask and he shal give him life for them that sin not unto death Prayer also must be for others that stand in civil relation to us as for the Country we belong unto Lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left 2 Kin. 19.4 Ezek. 22.30 I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedg and stand in the gap before me for the Land that I should not destroy it And seek you the peace of the City whither I have caused you to be carryed away Captives Jer. 29.7 and pray unto the Lord for it for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace And for Magistrates For Kings and for all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all godliness and honest 1 Tim. 2.2 And for our kindred according to the flesh Brethren my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved Rom 10.1 And for our children and posterity Let thy work appear unto thy servants Psal â—0 16 and thy glory unto their Children Yea and for our Enemies But I say unto you Love your Enemies bless them which curse you Mat. 5.44 Ro. 12.14 and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you Bless them which persecute you Bless and curse not We see how far and how particularly the Precept warrants and binds to prayer for all sorts of men Secondly There is something also in Scripture for prayer against persons Which I mention as well for Explication and Caution as for Prescript or Incitation 1. Some are found to pray against themselves And this hath been done diversly in respect of the principle whence 1. Sometimes out of an extraordinary and super-eminent pitch of zeal and charity As Moses David and Paul 1. Moses Exo. 32.32 Yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin and if not blot me I pray thee out of thy Book which thou hast written David Let thine hand I pray thee O Lord 1 Chro. 21.17 be on me and on my fathers house but not on thy people that they should be plagued And Paul Rom. 9.3 For I could wish that my self were accursed from Christ for my Brethren my kinsmen according to the flesh Exempla quae nos admirari praestat quam imitari Scult deprecat c. 15. p. 54 Of these Instances I suppose I may say they are either scarce imitable or scarce attainable Observe also they are conditional or comparative rather this then that rather then the desire to which they are annexed should be frustrate Moreover for the first it is not easie to understand distinctly what Moses meant by that Book or by bloting out and besides Moses was in an extraordinary relation and function he was a typical Mediator For the second David doth but pass an equal censure upon himself that he that had committed the Sin might bear the punishment and that only rather then others that were innocent in it that were a publique community and the people of God And for the third Pauls is not a prayer but a profession what he could wish were it a prayable thing like that profession of his before King Agrippa Act. 26.29 Festus and the rest I would to God that not only thou but also all that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as I am except these bonds But this Sea this flame of Love as Chrysostom calls it breaking forth of the Apostle Paul expresseth it self indefinitely as to the matter of separation and may therefore be understood of separation not from the love of Christ but from his Enjoyment not everlastingly but for a time only 2. Sometimes holy men have prayed against themselves Job 6.8 Jon. 4.3 9. Num. 11.15 â— Kin. 19.4 but it hath been out of rashness and impatience as Job Jonah Moses Elijah I refer to the places quoted for their words and occasion of them I need not doubt to say they are left on record for our use indeed but not to practise but to avoyd Secondly There are prayers against others and of this sort there are found many Presidents and some Commands which I shall distinguish into several sorts and shortly point out the sence and use which according to judicious Interpreters may be made of them The Prayers against others are 1. Either by way of complaint of the wickedness or wrong done against them by whom they are put up So Elias is said to make intercession to God against Israel Rom. 11.2 Acts 4.29 Isa 37.14 So do the Apostles and Church of God complain in prayer of the threats of the high Priest and his Councel against them So doth Hezekiah make his plaint unto God of the blasphemy of Sennacherib against God and his rage against himself And the Book of Psalms aboundeth with such like prayers Now concerning this kind of prayer there is no doubt or difficulty but it may and should upon occasion be used by us 2. Or they are by way of imprecation that is wishing and desiring the Lord to manifest himself and lift up his hand against them in opposition to whom they are made And of this sort of prayers we must yet further note some difference 1. Some are only against mens counsels or practises Thus when Ahitophel conspired with Absalom 2 Sam. 15.31 David prayed O Lord I pray thee turn the counsel of Ahitophel into foolishness Such Imprecations are
fretting her unchearful look her meatless meals were now layd aside There is a promise to them that seek God That he will make them joyful in his house of prayer Isai 56.7 30.19 as he will bestow those blessings upon them which they crave so he will for earnest make them joyful before they go out of his house And in the same Prophet Thou shalt weep no more he will be very gracious unto thee at the voyce of thy cry David praying and being in a very heavy taking having his Soul cast down within him and deep calling unto deep at the noise of Gods water-spouts and all his waves and his billows going over him that is he being as it were overwhelmed in a Sea of sorrows evils flowing upon him like waves one at the heels of another had this reviving giving him Psa 42.4 7 9 Yet the Lord will command his loving-kindness in the day time and in the night his song shall be with me and my prayer unto the God of my life The Lord will command his loving kindness that is he will dispatch it forth to him instantly as a winged Messenger and Harbinger of a good issue of his prayers and afflicting griefs And whil'st he is praying the song of God shall come into and recreate him his own prayer and Gods song shall joyn company together and both at once associate him The Souls under the Altar that cry how long O Lord c. they are put to stay some time for their vindication Apoc. 6.11 Eccles 9.7 8 but in the mean space it 's said White robes were given unto every one of them Those white robes might betoken a chearful habit of spirit a good measure of alacrity put into them during their sufferings yet to be prolonged in assurance of their answer and release in due time to come 3. By a continuation of the Spirit of prayer or an exercise of it When the hands are still supported in their lifting up to God or raised and stretched out higher towards him when the motions vigor and vehemency of prayer are renewed or redoubled in the hearts of Gods servants it is a token from God that it shall not be in vain but to some purpose and effect that they call upon him Hos 12.3 4 When Jacobs strength in wrestling with the Angel was so great and did hold out until day break and he was so set that he would not let the Angel go until he had blessed him this was a strong argument of his power and prevalency with God and that he should prevail with men also with his Brother Esau and all his Troop The pouring upon the House of David Zec. 12.10 and upon the Inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications is put in the Prophet as a fore-running presage and introduction to many great mercies to them The Apostle brings in this as a clear earnest to Believers of deliverance from sins and sufferings and of receiving the glory and redemption of the body expected and groaned after That the Spirit helpeth our infirmities and maketh intercession for us in prayer with groanings which cannot be uttered Rom. 8.26 As it is a special favor and a good sign to a people that God gives to his Prophets the opening of the mouth in declaring his Word Eze. 29.21 so it is also that he bestows upon them a mouth opened wide and a voyce loud and lifted up in prayer Open thy mouth wide saith God to his Israel and I will fill it Psa 81.10 4. By an erected confidence and it may be a clear foresight and evidence that the Petition is dispatched in Heaven and shall assuredly be accomplished in time on Earth This pledg God doth sometimes vouchsafe his faithful ones upon their seeking of him and before he work to the effecting of their prayers as it is in the Psalmist Lord thou hast heard the desire of the humble Psa 19.17 thou wilt prepare their heart or as the Margin thou wilt establish their heart that is When they have poured out their desires unto thee thou wilt give them a seal of success by setting impressions of confidence and evidence of it upon their hearts This we often find in David in one part of his Psalm he is praying weeping complaining expostulating and deprecating the dejections and desertions of his Soul for lack of audience and by and by before any thing be done about the affairs or particulars of his prayer he is lifted up and composed in full assurance of having his requests yea triumphs in them as already embraced Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity Psa 6.8 9 13.5 6 â— 20.6 42.11 142.7 for the Lord hath heard the voyce of my weeping the Lord hath heard my supplication But I have trusted in thy mercy my heart shall rejoyce in thy Salvation I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed he will hear him from his holy Heaven with the saving strength of his right hand Why art thou cast down O my Soul why art thou disquieted within me Hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him The righteous shal compass me about for thou shalt deal bountifully with me Cornelius the Centurian in one of his Fast-days and whil'st he was praying had a vision of assurance in which an Angel told him Cornelius Act. 10.30 Luk. 1.13 Philem. 22 thy prayer is heard and the like had Zacharias the Priest in the Temple at the time of prayer The Apostle Paul also being in prison at Rome conceived such a confidence of his being given up to the Christians at Coloss by way of enlargement upon their prayers that he sends out of his prison to Philemon at Coloss to prepare him a lodging with them there This may be sufficient for the illustration of the first way of the Lords answering prayer to wit by way of Obsignation or Assurance wherein we have noted four instances or acts I come to the second kind of answer which is by way of performance this is when the thing entreated for in prayer is accomplished This is the most sensible and most noted way of prayers return from Heaven to the Petitioner David describes it in that his benedictory Psalm Psa 20.1 4 21.2 The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble c. Grant thee according to thine own heart and fulfil all thy counsel and in the next Psalm to that Thou hast given him his hearts desire and hast not withholden the request of his lips It will not be unnecessary to observe the several methods of this answer of performance 1. Sometimes it is instantaneous or dispatched all at once it is finished in one compleat act as when Samuel cryed unto the Lord for Israel at what time the Philistins Army stood ready to give the on-set upon them it is said The Lord heard or in the
Baals Priests in Elijahs contest with them 1 King 18 26 but sometimes it was a doubtful and aenigmatical or a downright false and lying answer Hab 2.18 The molten Image is a teacher of lyes the Idols have spoken vanity and the Diviners have seen a lye and have told false dreams Zech. 10.2 5 The answer is further described That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart that is the consequence of their enquiry shall be their catching and ensnaring they shall be possessed with the error and misprision of their own brains in stead of a true revelation from God and by it they shall be held and led on with confidence as in a net or snare to their own ruine This sentence is the same both in effect and in cause with that of the Apostle For this cause God shall send them strong delusion 2 Thes 2.10 11 12 that they should believe a lye and wherefore is it because they received not the love of the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness and the special means by which they should thus fall into the trap is in the subsequent words And if the Prophet be deceived Verse 9 when he hath spoken a thing I the Lord have deceived that Prophet It should be by the deceiving and deceivedness of false Prophets whose falshood and delusion whether subjective or effective whether in themselves or in the people though it be their own sin as the peoples delusion also is their own sin in that they seek to and credit such Prophets yet it is also penal and so from God not by active infusion but by giving them up to Satan his instruments and engines to themselves and their own stumbling blocks 2. The other part of the sentence is Vers 8. I the Lord will answer him by my self and I will set my face against that man and will make him a sign and proverb and I will cut him off from the midst of my people Here is still more weight added to the punishment of the presumptuous sinner that dares enquire of God with his heart upon his sin he shall not only be denyed a favorable and resolving answer from God nor only besides that be given up by God to others and his own deceits but he shall have thereto an immediate positive return from God and it is an heavy one it containeth much it is a most dreadful thing for a man to have the face of God set against him it is one of the terriblest expressions in the whole Scripture and he that will seek to God but will not sincerely set himself towards him to seek his face but will keep up the stumbling block of his iniquity before his own face he must look for this return Therefore it behoves every one not only in relation to the well-speeding of his enquiry in this or any other matter but in reference to all other his concernments to that dearest concernment of his own Soul that there be an unfeigned parting betwixt him and his iniquity To close up then this Rule let that admonition of God himself annexed to the rebuke and sentence I have been insisting on in this place be embraced and followed Vers 6 which is this Therefore say unto the House of Israel thus saith the Lord God Repent and turn your selves from your Idols and turn away your faces from all your abominations and let us together with this remember that in Psal 111. when the Psalmist had discoursed of the great honorable glorious and wonderful works of God and of the duty of searching them out he concludeth with this sentence as containing the way thereto and with it I will conclude this particular The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom a good understanding have all they which do his Commandments Other two Rules there are which I shall dispatch shortly 4. Come to the enquiry with an humble heart 1. With an heart-humbled under this condition of Gods hiding himself from us in relation to prayer according to the nature of it and as it deserves We have great reason to take it very heavily The Lords hiding from his servants or from his Church hath ever been the matter of their deepest hearts-piercing bitterest sorrow and dolefullest lamentation So it was to Job to David Job 30.28 to Heman Job saith I went mourning without the Sun Psa 30.7 88.15 I stood up and I cryed in the Congregation David saith Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled Heman complains I am afflicted and ready to dye from my youth up while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted And so it hath been to the Church of God When the Lord told Israel in the Wilderness upon their sin and notwithstanding Moses intercession for them that he would not go up in the midst of them for that they were a stiff-necked people it 's said When the people heard these evil tydings Exod. 33.3 4 they mourned and no man did put on his ornaments The Church in that allegory of Solomons Song when she arose up and opened to her beloved and found that he had withdrawn himself Cant. 5.5 6 8 and was gone her Soul failed or melted and when she sought him and could not find him when she called him but he gave her no answer she charges the daughters of Jerusalem if they could find him to tell him she was sick of love 2. With an heart humbled under the sense of our ignorance and inability to see into this matter of our selves There must be an ingenuous and lowly acknowledgment of our blindness and unskilfulness to discern what we should see herein and of our proneness to be puzled non-plussed and offended at all those ways of God wherein he walks behind a cloud in any sort towards us If we would be enwised in this particular 1 Cor. 3.18 we must become fools in our own sense that we may be wise He that intently looketh over the History of Job may find this failing both in Job and his friends which might be one cause of their mistaking touching the ways of God towards his afflicted servants that they arrogated too much to themselves and insisted too much upon comparisons with each other in point of wisdom and understanding Agur going to utter his Prophecy or Doctrine of Christ under the Titles of Ithiel and Vchal the former rendered God with me the latter God Almighty thus vilifies yea nullifies himself Prov. 30.2 3 Vide Jun. Trap Cleaver in loc Surely I am more brutish c. or as some interpret Surely I have been brutish since I was a man neither is there in me the understanding that was in Adam I neither learned wisdom nor have the knowledg of the holy And if we will understand the reason why he who is Ithiel or Emmanuel God with us doth sometimes withhold or conceal his presence from us we must take Agurs course and abase our selves
providence co-operate together and in this co-working each hath its proper part as it were the one is to petition the other is to perform and consequently the one is to propose the other to dispose the one to crave the other to carve the one to importune the other to opportune or to contrive the way method and season of effectuating as may be for the best As in shooting the hand and the eye act together the one to draw the Bow and enforce the Arrow the other to direct both to the work Or as in sailing the Pilot and the Rowers or Halers work together the one to make the ship go the other to make it steer its right course so do Providence and Prayer close and concur together in working for the good of praying Saints The breath of our Prayers must fill the Sails but the divine disposal must tend the Card and Compass 4. In judging of Gods appearing to or hiding from their prayers the faithful seekers of God are not to rest in their own sense or eye-sight nor in the present face of Gods providence or ways these may yield them for a time no answer no testimony of audience they are like the vision in Habakkuk not always speaking but having a peculiar time to speak At the end it shall speak and not lye Hab. 2.3 yea these may yield them occasion of discouragement or doubt when indeed the Lord hath a respect to their prayers is mindful of a return and an answer may be in drawing or dispatching out to them And further they are to look over all the ways of hearing whether by Testification Performance or Commutation lest their answer may be with them and they not aware of it not find it out * Vid. Calv. Instit l. 3 c. 20 S. 52 5. As divine providence may at present stand at a distance from or proceed oppositely to prayer even whilest prayer may be heard and answered or in answering so it may run parallel or go along with it it may act agreeably and answerably to prayer it may produce what prayer hath asked and yet nevertheless the prayer may be unanswered all this may be and not in answer to prayer Therefore as God may be apprehended to hide himself from his peoples prayers when indeed he doth not but sets open the door of mercy and his hearing ear to them and sets awork his hand of providence in the best manner for them so he may be conceived to answer the prayers that are contrary to them when indeed it is nothing so As God sometimes hears the prayer when he doth not give the thing so he sometimes gives the thing when he doth not hear the prayer This seeming Paradox I will endevor to make clear by instances and illustration The Danites messengers whom they sent to spy out the Land of Laish for them as they went turned into the house of Micha and in the Idolatrous way of his Religion that is Judg. 18. by the Ephod and Teraphim and carved Image and molten Image which he had made and by the young Levite which he had consecrated and kept as his Priest for that Idolatry enquired of God as they called it concerning the success of their expedition and the said Priest returned them this answer Go in peace before the Lord is your way wherein ye go and according to his answer it succeeded with them they discovered and immediately conducted the six hundred Danites who for their better speed robbed Micah and took along with them those his good presaging Idols and Priest unto a large and good Land which was that they sought after and lacked and they most easily and prosperously conquered the Inhabitants and possessed the Land and enjoyed it long though they there set up Micahs graven Image and superstitious Priesthood all the time the house of God was in Shiloh Here Providence speeds and suits with the ends and enterprizes of those devotions which certainly could not be but very displeasing unto God and therefore could not be followed with any such success for the prayers sake In like manner Saul when as Samuel came not to Gilgal within his time he took in hand to offer burnt-offerings and peace-offerings either in his own person or by another contrary to the Commandment of God 1 Sam. 13 9 12 that as he pleaded to Samuel his Soldiers might not desert him and the Philistins might not set upon him before he had made supplication unto the Lord. Well notwithstanding this his sacrilegious or otherwise presumptuous Error in thus seeking to God contrary to his Will and way prescribed yet he goes out presently to his War against the Philistins and though he had a very small Army but six hundred men and neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of them yet he prospered and got the victory The Text saith The Lord saved Israel that day Ver. 15 22 ch 14 20 23 and there was a very great discomfiture of the Philistins Thus it went happily according as Saul had prayed yet questionless this was not properly in answer to his prayer for the answer to that Samuel had given him before and it was quite of another nature viz. a sharp rebuke for his transgression and foolishness therein 〈◊〉 4 and a declaration of the Lords purpose upon it to translate the Kingdom from him and dispose of it to another Prayer is properly answered 1. When the thing prayed for is not only done but is done in accâ—ptation and reward of prayer or for the prayers sake and it s well pleasing and prevalency with God 2. When it is done by vertue of the Promise 3. When it is done in special mercy to the person praying But a wicked mans prayer cannot come within these rules or any of them the prayer of such a one cannot be pleasing or acceptable or of any force with God Prov. 28.9 He that turneth away his ears from hearing the Law even his prayer shall be abomination the prayer of such a one hath no promise belonging to it Psa 50.16 Vnto the wicked God saith what hast thou to do that thou shouldst take my Covenant in thy mouth unto such a one the Lord beareth no fatherly affection Psa 34 16 The face of the Lord is against them that do evil And as an evil mans prayer cannot properly receive answer from God so neither can an evil prayer whatsoever the person be Psa 66.18 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me Observe it though it were holy David or the choycest of Gods servants that should pray yet if he pray amiss if he regard iniquity in his heart he cannot have hearing And again Who is of the generation of them that seek God that seek his face and shall receive the blessing from the Lord Psa 24.4 and righteousness from the God of his Salvation why he who hath not lift up his Soul
taken for the clearing thereof in order to the taking effect of those prayers and the bringing on of that restauration 3. The Salvation of Sion that thereupon ensues in answer to prayer then is she called Sought out a City not forsaken by all which we are given to understand that betwixt a restless persistency in prayer and the accomplishment thereof there are ordinarily some interposing impediments which must be removed and for that reason the said accomplishment is for some time delayed The impediments which are in the way of the people of God to the mercies they pray for are for the most part either bad Rulers that are over them or bad people that are mingled and associated with them 1. Sometimes such persons as are in power and rule and are enemies to God and his people they or their enmity or oppositeness are the obstacles to be removed Whilest Daniel is afflicting his Soul and solemnly supplicating in behalf of the Church of God the Temple Dan. 10.1 2 and the City of Ierusalem three full weeks the Prince of the Kingdom of Persia stands in the way of the Angel that was dispatched to Daniel with the answer of his prayers and hinders him from arriving at Daniel for that space and so did the said Prince and divers of his successors afterwards interrupt the effecting of Daniels prayers in the instauration of the Temple and recovery of the Church of God in Iudea The Angel therefore who at the end of those three weeks comes to Daniel to deliver him his answer telleth him by way of satisfaction in the delay already past and that which was yet to come in relation to the matter or things prayed about His words were heard from the first day but he came not until then havâ—ng been withstood and detained for those three weeks by the Prince of the Kingdom of Persia Ver. 12 13 20 and that as soon as he had delivered to him his message he was forthwith to return again to fight with the Prince of Persia Interpreters understand this Prince of Persia in vers 13. to be Cambyses and the resistance which he made to the Angel to be his opposing by his inhibition the building of the Temple which formerly was authorized by his father Cyrus but now whilest Cyrus is absent and imployed in the Scythian War his son Cambyses governing in his place forbiddeth it and the Prince of Persia in vers 20. is conceived to signifie those his successors by whom or during whose reigns the aforesaid work in Iudea ceased to wit Darius Histaspes Ahasuerus called Xerxes and Artaxerxes called Longimanus The Angel therefore as the Minister of God is sent first to take cognizance and course about those proceedings of Cambyses and then to bring unto Daniel matter of information and encouragement touching the subject of his prayers and after that he is to return back to the Court of Persia and there continually to attend the actions of the Princes thereof successively and to fight against those of them that withstood the rebuilding of the Temple and recovery of the state of Iudah All this work was in order to the remotion of the impediments which letted the effecting of Daniels Petitions and for this reason it was that there was so much time to run out ere they could be accomplished as the Prophet himself saith in his Preface to this Vision Vers 1. A thing was revealed unto me and the thing was true but the time appointed was long 2. Sometimes the impediments to be removed are such wicked persons as are mingled or associated with the special people of God whom neither the Will of God nor the conveniency and good of those his people will brook to be copartners with them in the mercies prayed for The Lord declareth his purpose and promise to confer sundry blessings upon a certain party whom he calleth My people that have sought me Isai 65.8 9 10. and whom he contradistinguisheth from that rebellious and provoking people whom he had described before vers 2 3 4 5. But when shall those promises take effect what is it that stands in their way to them Why that rebellious and provoking people must first be proceeded with and taken out of the way they must not survive to participate with the faithful servants of God in those mercies concerning them therefore he saith vers 11. and on-ward But ye are they that forsake the Lord that forget my holy mountain c. Therefore I will number you to the sword and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter c. Behold my servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry behold my servants shall drink but ye shall be thirsty behold my servants shall rejoyce but ye shall be ashamed behold my servants shall sing for joy of heart but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart and shall howl for vexation of spirit and ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen for the Lord God shall slay thee and call his servants by another name By that Vision of the two baskets of figs Jer. 24. the Lord sheweth the Prophet the reason why he would not grant the Jews already in captivity represented by the basket of very good figs a return from captivity presently nor until after seventy years and it was because the Lord would first consume from off the Land of Judea Zedekiah and the rest that still remained there or that dwelt in Egypt who were signified by the other basket of very evil figs see vers 8 9 10. these were first to be emptyed out and made an end of if the other the better part now in Babylon should have returned while these were left alive in Judea they must have been mixed with them and so either the better party must have fared as ill as the worse or the worst must have shared with the better in their felicity either the naughty figs would have tainted the good and so both have perished together or the happiness of the good would have been blemished by the presence of the bad it was therefore in special wisdom and mercy provided by God that these two sorts should be kept several in two baskets in two far distant Lands that the purer part was put and kept by themselves at Babylon until the more degenerate and incorrigible part were consumed out that so the other might re-enter and enjoy the Land City and Temple of God alone according hereunto is that in Ezekiel Ezek. 20.38 41 42 I will purge out from among them the rebels and them that transgress against me they shall not enter into the Land of Israel and then it 's said I will accept you with your sweet savor when I bring you out from the people and gather you out of the Countries c. 7. Lastly The delay of the Saints prayers may be to raise up their thoughts their faith their love and their longing desire unto the last day and second and glorious
verification of the same in and amongst our selves That which was once complained of as the case of Judah Jer. 4.10 hath been made good upon us to wit the Swords reaching unto the Soul It hath reached unto yea and pierced through the Soul of these three Nations in regard of their publique Interests besides that it hath run through the Soul of many and many a particular person in them in respect of life or of other things dearer to them then their own lives and this Soul-piercer hath been a shrewd Heart-discloser As when that holy King and Prophet David was driven out of his Kingdom by the rebellious sword of his own son and Subjects the hearts of men did diversly discover themselves towards him One shewed himself a traytorous Ahitophel another a raillng Shimei another a self-advantaging Ziba another a seditious Sheba others as the two hundered which went with Absalom out of Jerusalem in their simplicity are seduced from their Loyalty others stand fast and approve their fidelity though some of them are mis-represented to David as Zadock and Abiathar Ittai and Mephibosheth So hath it come to pass amongst us Our eyes do now behold all these parts acted as the several issues of mens hearts drawn forth by this dissecting Sword O what Ambition Deceitfulness Malice Covetousness Dissimulation Cruelty Carnal-policy Mutability Hypocrisie in Religion Perfidy and Perjury in Covenants and Oaths What Ignorance in the ways of God Insensibleness of one anothers Miseries Censoriousness Contentiousness hatred of Reformation weariness in well-doing Impatience Infidelity have the several bosoms of men opened by this Sword poured out in the face and theater of the world during the progress of these Wars and Commotions These times abound not scarce with any thing so much as with strange extractions and productions out of the mynes of mens hearts by the efficacy and influence not of the Stars but of these sublunary Revolutions Whilest an height of earthly prosperity and advancement hath so dissolved some and a load of hardships and frustrations hath so depressed and squeezed others that they have expressed become and acted what neither themselves would nor others durst imagine of them 'T is commonly observed saith one that though smooth and peaceable times are best for the Liver Jo. Wilkins Beauty of Providence pag. 62. yet times that are full of Changes and Vicissitude are best for the Writer for the Historian then hath greater store of strange passages to commit to memory SECT III. The Faithful's Persecutions cause Heart-discoveries in themselves IT is besides my present purpose to undertake the decyphering or cure of all or many of those unhappy heart-maladies even now named the most of them are too dangerous Ulcers for me to deal with such a Spittle-ful of running raging sores require the view and applications of a whole Colledg of the ablest Physicians It is enough if I admove my hand to the most gentle and curable amongst them There are some of them are the taintures and griefs of the godliest uprightest men such as in the aforementioned tryals the faithfulest Disciples of Christ the fastest friends of David yea and David himself was subject to those both deserve more pity and promise more hope of recovery Such are weariness in the ways of God failing and frowardness of heart under the smart of worldly troubles and disappointments distrustful thoughts doubts and reasonings about the Promises and Providences of God and the like My design is to apply my self did I know how unto some of the servants of God laboring under or in danger to be overtaken by these evils To speak as the Prophet bids to them that are of a fearful or hasty heart Isai 34.4 to be strong and not to fear It being promised by the same Prophet both that the heart of the rash or hasty shall understand knowledg Isai 32.4 29.24 and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly or elegantly and that they that erred in spirit shall come to Vnderstanding and they that murmured shall learn Doctrine It is no new thing that the hearts of men truly gracious and holy under disastrous events do manifest some perversity or distemper It hath scarce ever been otherwise with any such in that condition Adverse Providences are a stone at which as carnal and prophane persons do stumble and fall and are broken and snared and taken so do the faithful stagger Isai 8.15 Psal 73.2 Jer. 25.15.27 8.18 Lam. 1.20 22. in so much that their feet are almost gone their steps are well nigh slipt The Judgments of God are a Cup of which all must drink and the potion thereof as it makes the wicked drunk so that they spue and fall and rise again no more so it bringeth upon the soundest of the servants of God qualms and sick fits and is very painfully digested by them It is in a sanctified Soul as in a Bee-hive If you stir or thrust any thing into the hive presently all the Bees come forth the honey stays within but the stinging Bees swarm out So if such a Soul be pierced with that persecuting-sword that entered into Mary's Soul the corruption in it makes issue and comes forth whilest the graces and vertues lie hidden and couched down within As in Nature when the heart is violently affected either through any sudden passion of the mind or noxious humor in the body the blood and vital spirits retire inward and betake themselves to the heart the outward parts are possessed with weakness paleness trembling and distortion So you may observe in the spiritual Constitution Let vehement troubles assail a gracious person and you may find not seldom and especially in the first onset that in such a one infirmities and corruptions are forward to break out and the good that 's in him to be slow of vent or benummed and shut up in the Center The Examples of the Servants of God in Scripture thus carrying under Afflictions the obscurement and overcasting of their graces and good principles and the irruption of their frailties are more and larger then I can allow my self to lay forth How much in this kind is recorded in the Old Testament of those great names and renowned Saints Job David Heman Ethan Jeremiah Jonah and Habakkuk may easily be remembered The bitter Complaints the overwhelming Horrors the deep Astonishments the high Expostulations the perverse Judgments and Conclusions the Infidelity Wrath Impatience and Despondency which they have bewrayed are too ample a Subject for me here to expatiate on Some perhaps will presume those imperfections and over-cloudings were peculiar to that time of the Churches Minority before the Gospel times but now she is come to more maturity under the Gospel the Saints are overgrown those distempers But this can in no wise be admitted I alledged before the weaknesses of this nature appearing even in the Apostles and other Disciples of Christ in the hour of his falling into his
Righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you Mat. 6 33· First that is not so much in time or priority of uttering as in degree and measure of will and affections prius that is potius first is here more earnestly and ardently then other things and if both cannot be enjoyed as we desire rather these then any If we seek temporal things only and let spirituals alone or if we seek outward things before or in equal position with spirituals we break the Order and cannot expect to speed but may well look to go without both This method is necessary to our prevailing upon our observation of this order both sorts of mercies are promised us Heavenly things are promised as Principals Earthly as Accessaries to them Seek earthly things we may for the first place given to the Kingdom of God importeth other things to have some place allotted them in our seeking But to seek them out of their place Primum relative dicitur ad secundum Lyra. is the way to lose all and our labour also If we would have them follow our prayers we must make them follow spirituals in our prayers One therefore hath well said Non est claviâ— alia qua jannam sibi fideles ad orandum corporalia aperiant quam spirituaelium petitio Scultet de prec cap. 25. The petition of heavenly things is the only key that must open the door to our petitions for temporals A great example we have in Solomon who being put to ask of God what he should give him desired wisdom and knowledg and because he did so hâ— had his request given him in an incomparable measure and with it riches also wealth and honor unparallel'd This order our Saviour hath observed to us in his prayer teaching us to pray first for the glory of Gods Name the coming of his Kingdom of Grace and Glory too and in us and for spiritual ability and readiness to do his Will and then for dayly bread 5. The fifth Proviso concerning the extent of the Promises is touching the Circumstances of Time Means and Manner of their accomplishment upon our prayers These Circumstances are in most Promises especially if common to all persons unassigned or left free and arbitrary and where they are so our prayers must not limit them but leave them to the most wise and gracious choyce of the Promiser Where there is a latitude we must not frame a limitation We must not prescribe unto God beyond what he hath promised The Promise of God by his Prophets was for the restoring again of the Kingdom of Israâ—l after the removing of the Diadem by the Babylonian The Apostles being come together at the Ascention of Christ ask him Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel Acts 16.7 The answer returned to them is It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power The times and seasons are concealed usually and reserved free by God in the making of his Promises And where they are not given us to know they are not given us precisely or determinately to expect But in beleeving and praying for the benefit promised we are to submit to Psal 32.6 Isai 49.8 Hâ—b 2.3 1 Pet. 5.6 Gal. 4 4. 1 Tim. 6.13 and attend Gods time There is a certain time of finding an acceptable time an appointed time a due time a fulness or ripeness of time Gods time proper to every promise to every prayer This God knoweth and not we to his choyce who best can choose we must leave it upon him we must wait for the Consummation of it The Apostle Paul speaketh of the dispensation Oeconomy oâ— disposition of the fulness of times Ephes 1.10 and this appertaineth peculiarly unto God David saith My times are in thy hand Psa 31.15 37.18 and the Lord knoweth the days of the upright So for the Means The Lord had said to Moses Bring up thâ— people and had said also Exo. 33.12 I know thee by name and thou hast found grace in my sight yet had he not let him know whom he would send with him The Lord sent Samuel to Bethlehem and told him he had provid d him a King among Jesses sons and ordered him to fill his horn with oyl 1 Sam. 16.1 and go and anoint him whom he should name unto him but all this while he told him not which of the eight in so much as when he came and looked on Eliab he took him to be the Lords Anointed The Lord promised our first Parents a Seed of the Woman which should break the Serpents head Gen. 3.15 See Musc Cartwr in loc but he gave no special description of his person or lineage or of the term to be expected of his coming for a long time after and therefore some conjecture when Eve said of her first son Cain Gen. 5.29 See Musc in loc Pasor in voc I have gotten a man from the Lord she took him to be that promised seed who afterward proved a destroyer of her seed The like Error it 's conceived Lamech was in concerning his son whom he therefore named Noah Rest and the Patriarchs generally are thought to have expected the Messiah all along from Adam And so for the Manner It was Israels sin that being in the wilderness through which God had promised to conduct and provide for them they were ever and anon when in any want or danger ready to tempt God and limit the holy One of Israel that is Psal 78.40 they would alway be prescribing him how and in what manner they would be relieved In another Psalm it is more fully set forth They soon forgat his works Psa 106 13 they waited not for his counâ—â—sel but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted God in the desart In the Margin and Hebrew it is they made haste they forgat they limited and so tempted God in all those forementioned respects First For time they made haste they would not tarry his leasure or season Secondly For manner they waited not for his counsel they would not refer the way of their help to God but were impatient to have their own way and ambitious to be their own carvers Thirdly For means they lusted a lust they would needs be fed and satisfied with flesh they were not content to be sustained with that feeding which the Lord did even miraculously provide for them This is the latitude we must give to the Promises both in Time Means and Manner 6. The last Requisite to Prayers conformity to the Promise is that it be to the right end The general end which every prayer must arrive at is the honor of God and our Souls good And besides there are intermediate and particular ends of prayer differing according to the subject As if our prayer be for the good of a Brother or a Nation or a Church our heart must
informed him concerning the counsel of God delivering to him that revelation of the seventy weeks And it deserves to be well taken notice of Isai 54.8 9 11 Jer. 33.34 Heb 8.11 12 that in the New Covenant the benefit of being taught of God and of the abounding of the knowledg of God is joyned with the removal of Gods wrath and the forgiveness of sins and iniquities Let it be our first care then to seek and obtain reconciliation with God and expiation of sins 2. Let us go unto God by Prayer and make this a special petition unto him that he would disclose his mind and give us wisdom in this particular Doth the Lord hide himself from our prayers set we our selves to prayer so much the more closely It is recorded of our blessed Saviour Luk. 22.41 44. that when he was in the garden and at prayer being in an agony he prayed more earnestly And let us for this in particular seek unto God to know the reason of his hiding of himself that reason I mean which it behoveth us to know and he would have us seek after David in his exile and want of God Psal 42.9 saith I will say unto God My Rock why hast thou forgotten me why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy Thus Elihu adviseth Job Job 34.31 32 Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement I will not offend any more that which I see not teach thou me And this Job himself had done when he said unto God Chap. 10.2 Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me And again where he faith How many are mine iniquities and sins Chap. 13.23 24 Make me to know my transgression and sin Wherefore hidest thou thy face and holdest me for thine enemy Let that be our course in this doubt which was the course of Daniel and the three children for the finding out of Nebuchadnezzars dream namely Dan. 2.18 19 to desire mercies of the God of Heaven concerning this secret This way succeeded with them for then was the secret revealed to Daniel in a night vision And we may hope the like success though not by the same means may be unto us Solomon tells us Prov. 28 5 Evil men understand not judgment but they that seek the Lord understand all things This is the way directed unto by the Apostle James and unto it he gives us a promise Jam. 1 5. If any of you lack wisdâ—â— let him ask of God and it shall be given him The Prophet Daniel confesseth the neglect of this as both the sin and the prejudice of his people then in captivity in this regard All this evil is come upon us Dan. 9 13. yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy Truth To understand Gods Truth here I conceive intendeth the practical and particular understanding of the congruity of Gods dealings then in Judgment with them with his Word in the threatenings pronounced by Moses and the Prophets and the applicative knowledg or acknowledgment of the verification of those denunciations upon them together with an attributing of their desolations to these evil ways of theirs against which the Prophets had before declared them And the reason why they had not understood this truth of God was they had not made their prayer unto God that they might turn from their iniquities and understand this truth Where by the way you may note the necessity of that which I insisted on before in the Rules given to wit turning from our iniquities to the end we may know Gods truth manifested in his dealings with us The people of the Jews had made their prayer after their manner both before and during the seventy years captivity but they had not made their prayer with a returning from their iniquities and therefore they had not attained to understand the aforesaid truth in this behalf But to conclude this particular if God do hide himself from our prayers we are to pray to him that the reason of it may not be hidden from us and that if it seemeth good unto him for a time to make a stop of our other prayers yet he would not deny us in this but herein discover his intention to us that so we may both the more contentedly stay and make the better use of his delaying or denying of us in the other 3. Attend diligently to the written Word We have before shewed the Scripture to be now the only ordinary means of understanding the reason of these ways of God towards us and that the common or main difficulty that is obvious to us on the part of this means is whereas God revealeth to men in his Word variety of Reasons for this according to the variety of Cases how to know or pitch upon that which in special concerns us and our condition and that in order to the clearing our selves of this difficulty we are to get into terms of peace and reconciliation with God we are particularly to pray for special information herein of God Now unto these we must thirdly add a close and cordial inspection into the Word Conscience must here awaken come in and diligently do its office and that is not only to open and acquaint us with the whole rule or dictate of Scripture but to make use application or deduction from it to our selves and this consists mainly if not only in taking a distinct and right view of our case or in bringing in a true and full account evidence or judgment of the matter of fact This matter of fact hath two parts 1. Gods dealing with us 2. Our own ways towards him 1. A strict and narrow insight into a serious consideration of Gods dealing with us must be had Come behold the works of the Lord Psal 46.8 what desolations he hath made in the Earth Every Providence of God especially his more notable acts hath a reason written upon it Eze. 14.23 could mans eye read it And the due eying of the ways of God is a great means to bring to light that reason The contemplation of Gods proceedings is hereunto apt in two respects 1. By vertue of that similitude or proportion which often there is especially in crosses betwixt Gods dealings with men and their dealings afore with him And this is particularly to be found in Gods walking towards us in relation to prayer As Solomon hath it in his prayer at the dedication of the Temple 1 Kings 8.39 Then hear thou in Heaven thy dwelling place and forgive and do and give to every man according to his ways whose heart thou knowest Take one instance of this proportion of Gods ways to mens as to the matter of prayer O the hope of Israel the Saviour thereof in time of trouble Why shouldst thou be as a stranger in the Land Jer. 14 8 9 10 and as a wayfaring man that turneth
heart this is a pestilence that too often walketh in darkness as to mens taking notice of it 2. Unhumbledness of heart There is to be in all especially in our solemn and extraordinary prayers an humbled Spirit in regard of needs judgments and sins So the Lords promise upon Solomons prayer runs 2 Chro. 7 14 If my people which are called by my Name shall humble themselves and pray c. and so it was before to Moses If then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity c. The want of this affectedness of heart was one cause that though the people of Iudah sought God dayly and fasted and afflicted their Souls by bodily interdiction yet the wrath of God would not be averted They bowed down the head as a bulrush Isa 58.3 5 and spred sackcloth and ashes under them but they still found pleasure in sin 3. Hypocrisie word or lip-devotion without the power of piety to wit the true love and fear of God and seeking after him in the heart Of the Hypocrite Iob saith Job 27.9 Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him Solomons prayer which seems to be the square both according to which we should pray and God will accept and hear was 2 Chro. 6 30 and render unto every man according unto all his ways whose heart thou knowest The thing intimated hereby as I conceive is this Men that pray shall have a return from God not meerly according to their present form of prayer but according to the universal course of their lives If their prayer be for its composure good and their ways be good too they may expect from God a good answer but though that be good if they be peccant in these they can look for no good answer and the reason here may be for that God looketh at and for the heart and the integrity of it and there is not any such true character or picture of a mans heart as is the general course and frame of his ways it and these do exactly answer each other as do the signet and the impression 4. The proposing of indirect by and unworthy ends in prayer The Apostle saith Ye ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts Jam. 4.3 It is intolerable that holy and godly desires for the matter of them should travel to and traffique with Heaven to serve and bring in provisions for sensual or vile lusts The Lord taxeth it upon Israel that they cryed not unto him when they howled upon their beds Hos 7.14 they assembled themselves for corn and wine their end was not God it seems but their own belly It was an hainous crime for any man of Israel to make a perfume like to that which was holy Exo. 30.37 38 and compounded for the incense of the Sanctuary or to turn it to a civil and private use as for himself to smell to this was to be punished with cutting off from his people Accordingly it must needs be very displeasing unto God for a man to convert the sacred incense of prayer from its own proper and religious end to any carnal or sinful purpose or design 5. A contentious quarrelous or malicious heart in prayer Our blessed Saviour thus instructs us for prayer And when you stand praying Mark 11.25 forgive if you have ought against any that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive you your trespasses but if you do not forgive neither will your Father which is in Heaven forgive your trespasses A Rule to be well taken notice of at all times especially in these warring and jarring times wherein there is not only party against party in more divisions then can be mustered up but even prayer against prayer and if withall there should be strife and rancor within and so heart against heart as alass how hard is it to be avoyded who can hope it is any better among many This default would be enough it self alone both to keep back their prayers from them and to bind on their sins upon them As two persons cannot walk together except they be agreed so neither can their prayers ascend up to Heaven together except they be agreed the one at least and if both be from a strife-enflamed Censer what ever the matter be both must needs be shut out The Apostle wills That men pray every where lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting 1 Tim. 2.8 or without wrath and disceptation and so both terms may exclude debate in devotion When Israel went to war in their Land against the enemy that oppressed them the Priests were to blow an alarm against the enemy with both the Trumpets of the Sanctuary Num. 10 9 and then they should be remembred before the Lord their God and be saved from their Enemies But what might be expected if they should sound Trumpet against Trumpet and Priest against Priest 6. Infidelity or weakness of Faith or trust in God The Apostle James requires us to ask in Faith nothing wavering for let not that man that wavereth think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. Jam 1.6 7 Mr Medes Diatr part 2. p. 297 This wavering saith one is when we reel from God to rest upon second means It is a hard matter to use friends wisdom or strength and not to relie upon them and it is as hard to go to God in prayer and sincerely and stedfastly to trust in him It is wont to be said we must use the means but trust in God but the usual practise is to invert that and to use prayer use God but trust in the means Our Saviour saith that God will avenge his own Elect which cry day and night to him though he bear long with them Lu. 18 7 8 he will avenge them speedily nevertheless when the Son of man cometh shall he find Faith on the Earth How is this Can it be long and yet speedy We must take it in divers respects or in relation to divers persons It is long in the account and sense of them that pray but it is speedy to the wicked that are the subjects of that avenging It is long because God waits for strength of faith as well as assiduity of cries in his Elect it is speedy because God is quicker in coming on in his work then they are in their advance of faith Though he bear long yet he comes sooner then their faith is ready for when he cometh he shall scarce find faith in the Earth 7. A continuance of sin in heart and life If I regard iniquity in my heart Psa 66.18 the Lord will not hear me saith David And the Lord tells Israel Lev. 26 27 31 If ye will not for all this harken unto me but walk contrary unto me I will bring your Sanctuaries unto desolation and I will not smell the savor of your sweet
of them with all the saving satisfying and gladding fruâ—ts of his presence as v. 14. to the end of the Chapter But wherefore or what is the matter that they must wait and tarry for this happiness why there are certain dispositions and alterations to be wrought in them to whom that command is given and those blessings are promised and those changes must be first produced in them ere they can enter into the harvest of those comforts they must wait therefore until they be accomplished with them The qualifications are those that lie in that Text betwixt vers 8 and 14. Let us take the particulars out because they are very material They or the principal of them are these four 1. Purity in them that call upon the Name of the Lord I will turn to the people a pure language vers 9. where language is not put as the sole and entire subject of purity but figuratively as for the whole conversation in as much as real sanctity in the tongue is one main yea and ordinarily the highest and last attained point in purity Jam. 3.2 If any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man 2. A general union in Religion That they may all call upon the Name of the Lord to serve him with one consent vers 9. There must be neither neutral Atheism nor unbrotherly separation or diversity in divine service 3. Sole confidence in God and as a means thereof stripping off all their former outward glory prosperity and wealth I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoyce in thy pride and thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holy mountain I will also leave in thee an afflicted and poor people and they shall trust in the Name of the Lord vers 11 12. 4. Fidelity and truth in deed and word The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speak lyes neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth vers 13. These gracious dispositions the Lord will have introduced or renewed in his people calling upon his Name as suitable to fore-run and usher in the benefits promised in the residue of that Chapter Let these four things in Zephaniah and the other four noted out of Zechariah be well considered as the pre-requisites which the Lord designeth to find or frame in his praying people and which he annexeth to the promise of audience especially in things of grand importance as necessary antecedents to the execution thereof I might amplifie and parallel these by other places of Scripture but the clear and close delivery of them in these two places shall suffice Let our mediation upon them be this Until we be thus disposed and fashioned in some convenient measure we are not fit to have the great and excellent things which we prosecute by prayer and all the delay of our prayers which we sorrowfully lie under is but needful as the space of time which is allotted for the acquiring of those dispositions and how long soever the delays seem to be it is our slow coming on in these graces which extends the length thereof unto what it is 3. Another end may be the exercise and tryal of the people of God that pray As the Lord by deferring their prayers for some time may intend the producing or bettering those graces which are deficient in them and thereby the fitting of them for the receipt of their answer so he may aym at the exercise and probation of such graces as are already seated in them for the which exercise and probation the withholding of their prayers may be a fit opportunity and means There are some virtues or fruits of the Spirit the chief use and experiment whereof appears in desertions and over-cloudings As the principal service of Tapers is to give us light when the place we are in is covered with darkness or as the worth and soveraign vertue of some precious cordials is shewn in a swoon or trance so is the truth and excellency of some graces best attested by the absence for a time of those enjoyments and comforts which are sought and waited for Such a case discovers what mettal the vertues we profess are made of and what indeed they can do By this means is faith patience love and sincerity set a work and proved in us to the purpose Here is the faith and patience of the Saints Rev. 13.10 14.12 And again Here is the patience of the Saints here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus that is here they come to action proof and manifestation in their faith patience and sincerity of obedience namely where and while Gods witnesses prophecy in sackcloth his Saints are captived and killed under the tyranny of the cruel beast The Apostle Pauls faith and courage were then evidenced when in the tempest at Sea neither Sun nor Star in many days appeared Act. 27.10 and all hope of being saved was taken away Jonahs confidence in God was then put to it and tryed when being shut up in a double grave viz. the belly of the Whale and the bowels of the Sea he nevertheless said unto God I am cast out of thy sight yet I will look again towards thy holy Temple Jonah 2.4 Jobs trust in God was then raised to the height of action and manifestation when in his deserted state he resolved Though he slay me yet will I trust in him Hab. 2.3 4 The just then lives by his faith indeed when the vision of the fulfilling of his prayers and the divine promises tarryeth The patience of the Prophet Isaiah and of the faithful personated by him appeareth where he saith I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob Isa 8.17 and I will look for him It was a full proof of Jobs sincerity when Satan could not move him from his integrity neither by all the miseries which he brought upon him from without nor by all the mists and temptations which he cast upon his spirit So were the people of God tryed Psa 44 17 c. when the Lord had sore broken them in the place of Dragons and covered them with the shadow of death When the Lord as to their sense was asleep cast them off and hid his face forgetting their affliction and their oppression and yet then they did not forget him neither deal falsly in his Covenant their heart did not turn barck neither did their steps decline from his way The love and compassion of the servants of God is seen when Sion sitteth watching solitary and desolate Psa 102.14 c. 137.1 c. and they then take pleasure in her stones and favor the dust thereof and when they sit down by the rivers of Babylon and weep at the remembrance of Sion and protest not to forget Jerusalem but to remember her before their chief joy Such graces as these the Saints of God have given them not
14. acknowledgeth though in going forward backward to the right hand and to the left he could not meet with God yet he knoweth the way that I take for he performeth the thing that is appointed for me and many such things are with him In the time when God standeth afar off and hideth himself the wicked man saith in his heart God hath forgotten he hide-eth his face he will never see it he will not require it But the servants of God are not of that opinion in the next words they say Psal 10.1 11 13 14. Thou hast seen it for thou beholdest mischief and spite to requite it with thy hand c. In the heaviest oppressions of the poor and he violentest perverting of judgment in a Province Eccles 5.8 Solomon minds us He that is higher then the highest regardeth Beware therefore lest in dark times when the Lord will come to search Jerusalem with candles we be not found setled on our lees and saying The Lord will not do good Zeph. 1.12 neither will he do evil Beware lest with those profane Jews we weary the Lord with our words in saying Every one that doth evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in them or where is the God of Judgment Mal. 2.17 4. In point of truth and fidelity The people of God in Babylon and under an overclouding of their prayers there call to mind and raise up themselves with this Lam. 3.23 Great is thy Faithfulness David complaining in Psal 119. now his Soul fainted for Gods Salvation his eyes failed for his Word doth nevertheless keep close to this I know O Lord that thy Judgments are right and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me Psa 119.75 Thus are the people of God in a state of dereliction to maintain in themselves clear thoughts of God his Justice Goodness Providential Care and Fidelity Though there did not appear any reason for the Lords dealing so with their prayers which yet we have before seen there doth abundantly yet we are to rest satisfiâ—d upon those principles that God is invariably holy gracious all observing and true Many of his ways are deep and unsearchable but not one of them hath the least taint of the contrary to any of those Attributes Though we should be left in doubt how the Lord takes what he will do upon our prayers though we should see the Lord shining upon the counsels of the wicked and an horror of great darkness Gen. 15.12 like that of Abrahams falling upon us yet we must take notice of the burning lamp Verse 17. as well as of the smoking furnace as in that appearance of God to Abraham we must acknowledg the brightness and lightsomness of Gods ways in the midst of our darksom furnace of affliction 2. Take heed of making this case an occasion of slighting or disaccounting prayer although it fare thus with the people of God when they have prayed yet think never the worse of prayer for it let us not hence fall into a mean esteem or disregard of prayer The Psalmist after he had taken a survey of the present flourishing of the ungodly and suffering of the children of God doth in the conclusion of the Psalm Psa 73.28 notwithstanding resolve But it is good for me to draw near to God those cross Providences in relation to those two sorts of persons could not shake his good opinion of prayer Job Job 9.22 having asserted against hâ—s three friends that God dealeth in some Providences after a like manner with good and bad Eliphaz will needs argue from thence that he restrained prayer before God that he discouraged men from praying unto God Though we assent to Jobs Job 15.4 assertion or should experience it yet we must not admit of Eliphaz his inference from it far be it that we should say So it is therefore let us no longer make any reckoning of prayer either to practise it or hope for good by it This is a carnal and wretched deduction If there be a medicinal receipt that is known to be of a soveraign vertue a man will not contemn or cast it away because it may miss a cure once in a thousand times usage or because it healeth not in the first application Mâ—n do not therefore neglect or lay aside sowing or Sea-voyages because there is ordinarily a long delay and sometimes there is a disappointment in the harvest or return of Merchandise expected thereby for though husbandmen wait for their crop or adventure yet at last they usually receive them and if a seeding or voyage miscarry that 's not one of many So neither should prayer be neglected or disused for the like events upon it And yet prayer cannot justly be equalled with those affairs in point of swerving The Seedsman using the best skill and industry imaginable his labour and hopes may miscarry The Adventurer employing the greatest providence and art in his voyage all may be lost But a servant of God putting up his prayer according to the Will of God that is conformably to the revealed Rule his prayer doth certainly speed some way or other at the last Again Honest men do not in their thoughts condemn or in their practise give over the use of the Law or Trading because Knaves sometimes by those means obtain as much or more by unrighteousness therein then the justest persons So neither ought we to take it either as a disparagement of or a discouragement from prayer that men or ways that are wicked succeed sometimes well in a course of prayer Two sorts of persons are in the Book of Iob noted to vilifie prayer the rich and wealthy worldling Iob 21.15 22.17 and the false hypocrite Iob 27.9 10. And wherefore do they so The former doth it because he hath happily attained his desires without he therefore now thinketh he needeth not to it The latter doth it because he hath taken it up for a time but he findeth not present help by it in his need Both these are as irrational in their reasoning as they are profane in their conclusion and practise Let it be far from us to be swayed by either of their principles Let neither the prosperous issue of evil desires make prayer seem frivolous to us nor the present frustration of our expectation by it cause us to conclude it bootless 3. Conâ—lude not of the justâ—fiableness or sinfulness of the divine approval or disapproval of a way or cause by the good or bad success of it or of the prayers that attend it Say not the course of these men is pleasing to God because the event thereof is pleasing to the men thâ—mselues Say not their cause God disalloweth because he disappeareth to it It is great folly to condemn a way for its swerving in success which if it had stood would have gone for good with us and while it went on it stood clear in our censures It is a