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
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
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
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
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
be upright to that end David enjoyning us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem adds this promise they shall prosper that love thee The words may intend the prosperity or success of prayer and then the promise is thus limited they shall prosper in their prayer or speed in it that love Jerusalem and loving pray for her or pray for her out of love to her that is for her good But the honor of God and our spiritual good in him is the universal end of all our prayers and this end may be layd down in that promise Ye shall find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart And in that Jer. 29.13 2 Chrâ— 15.2 The Lord is with you while ye be with him and if ye seek him he will be found of you Where seeking God may well import that God is to be not only the object of our invocation him whom we pray unto but the end him whom our drift is to glorifie and find to our Souls enjoyment in praying to him And those promises assure us to find him but upon this proviso that we seek him to that end From this end do those prayers decline of which the Apostle Jam. 4.3 Ye ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts And those in Hosea Hos 7.14 They have not cryed unto me with their heart when they howled upon their beds they assembled themselves for corn and wine And those in Zechariah Zech. 7.5 When ye fasted and mourned did ye at all fast unto me even to me As also those in Isaiah Ye fast for strife and debate Isai 58.4 and to smite with the fist of wickedness and to make your voyce to be heard on high And being they swerved thus in regard of the end they were out of the compass of the promise and so failed of prevalency And thus I have endeavored to open the sence wherein the Promises are made and to be taken by us in our making use of them in prayer We must learn to take along their genuine meaning and force circumscribed with these qualifications touching the person praying the manner matter order and end of petitioning and the Circumstances where the promise is not particular in them of time means and manner of performance True it is these points are not all exprest or literally provided in every promise yet they being somewhere exprest are always to be understood and to be supylyed out of their parallel places As for example there is a promise Whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved Rom. 10.13 This may seem very large and lax But the very next Verse supplyeth it with one main limitation How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed Faith must be an ingredient in their invocation who may have a title to that promise and other proviso's must be borrowed from other places for the due bounding of it in every qualification The result of what hath been spoken concerning the grounding of prayer I will now sum up in these few Propositions 1. The promises made unto prayer as of hearing or giving upon it are not extensible beyond the Rule or Precept for prayer that is we are not by vertue of the promise to beleeve or expect to be heard and answered in any request but such as we have a warrant for in the Word 2. A prayer may be said to be grounded on the promises of God two manner of ways 1. With respect to the matter only in the kind and nature of it as when the thing prayed for is in the promise 2. With respect both to the matter and to the conditions of the promise and to every one of them either prescribing such and such qualifications to be in the person and in the prayer and in this both in regard of manner matter order and end of the supplication or reserving a latitute in the time means and manner of performance That a prayer then be compleatly grounded on the promises it is required not only that the thing prayed for be the subject of a promise but that there be in reality all these conditions 3. Whereas we have above distinguished of the promises unto prayer that some are in more general terms as to hear answer help upon prayer put up others are more particular as of doing giving this or that thing in special We are to note thereupon a threefold Rule 1. That promises unto prayer are more determinate touching spiritual things simply necessary for us then touching other things in these the promise usually is in general of audience and answer in those it is often of doing or giving the particular thing 2. General promises of hearing are to be interpreted according to the variety of ways wherein God may be said to hear or answer of which by and by and must not be restrained to one way of hearing or answering 3. Promises must be differenced according to their subject matter some being of invariably good and absolutely necessary things others are of things of a mutable or indifferent nature these must be taken conditionally if they be good in the case wherein they are sought and because we our selves know not when or how far they may be good or necessary for us or others in whose behalf we ask them that our prayer may be conform to the promise we are particular cases concerning such things to pray with submission and reverence to the infinite wisdom and most gracious disposition of God desiring the thing only if it shall be good in his eyes and leaving the determination of that condition to him so that such promises and petitions must be resolved into that general modification It is the Note of the Divines in the late English Annotations on the Bible upon that prayer of Moses unto God I beseech thee shew me thy glory Exod. 33.18 19. and the Lords answer to it I will make all my goodness pass before thee Moses say they makes his demand of Gods glory and he answereth him by the mention of his goodness whereby he promiseth that so much as is good and profitable for him to know he will reveal unto him And surely if we have Gods goodness shewed and communicated to us though we have not our wish or our eye satisfied or the particular given us which our prayer may be for yet it is as fully conform to the promise so sufficient and best for us 4. I will add one Proposition here concerning prayers for others and the promises made unto them I conceive the conditions required of him that prayeth as faith in Christ and the rest especially what ever is necessary to a persons being acceptable unto God must also be in the person prayed for else no ground of assurance to speed for him The Rule of Precept indeed binds to pray for others however and he that prayeth as he ought hath assurance to be heard some way other and