only is to be prayed unto that can hear our praiers he onely can hear them that knows our hearts and understands with what affection we pray unto him But suppose again that Saints and Angels could hear our prayers and did know our hearts and suppose that God had put it to our choise whether we would pray to him or to them have we not more reason to pray to him who is the fountaine of grace then unto them who are but vessels of grace Would they be so propitious as he is unto us Would they be so ready to hear our prayers As he commands us to pray unto him so he promiseth to gives us whatsoever we aske John 16.23 Whatsoever saith our Saviour John 16. ye shall aske the Father in my Name he will give it unto you And because of our selves we know not how to pray nor what to aske he gives us his Spirit to help our infirmitie and to teach us to pray He prepars our hearts as David saith Psal 10.17 and his eare hearkens thereunto And because we are not so ready to ask as he would have us he therfore many times prevents our asking is more ready to grant our requests then we are to make them So he promises Esay 65.24 Antequam clament ego exaudiam Before they call I will answer and while they are yet speaking I will hear So he dealt with David in this 32 Psalme who had no sooner said he would confesse his sinne but God forgave him Nay as he prevents our asking so many times he exceeds our desires and gives us more then we aske of him 1 King 3.13 So he dealt with Solomon when he begged of God that he would give him a wise and understanding heart God gave him both that which he did desire and told him besides I have also given thâ—e that which thou hast not asked both Riches and Honour And can we have greater incouragements then these to pray unto God who is so ready to grant our prayers And so there is great reason why we should pray onely to him And thus much likewise for the Object of prayer I now procced unto the last point The time when the godly shall come unto God by prayer nuncly 〈◊〉 time when he may be found But some man may say why is there time when God may not be found will God at any time absent himselfe and keep himselfe out of the way when men seek after him Indeed Bâ—â—als Priests 1 King 18. They sought and all to besought their God sâ—â—â— morning to noon but could not finde him Cry saith Eluck 〈◊〉 aloud unto your god for it may be he is talking with some body anâ— doth not mark you or it may be he is rid on of town and is in his journey or it may be he is taking a nap and â—â—ust be Wakened before he can hear you Thus the Prophet derided their counterset good but it is not so with the God of Jacob Psal 12â— 4 the Keeper of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps If David seek him David shall finde him nay David and every godly man shall find him whensoever they seek him Paul and Silas cannot pray at mid-night but the will hear them Acts 16.25 Mat. 18.20 Two or three cannot be gathered together in his name but he will be in the midst of them Nay he is so far from not being found that if thou offer thy selfe unto him with the Prodigall he will go forth to meet thee Luke 15.20 Luke 15.4.5 nay though thou be strayed away with the lost sheep he will go after to seek thee and never lin seeking untill he have found thee Why then saith David here In a time when thou mayest be found why is there a time when God may not be found The answer is That there is a time as the very words imply when God may not be found and therefore if we will find God we must come in a time while he may be found The time when God may not be found is two-fold Tempus impossibilitatis and tempus improbabilitatis the time when it is impossible to finde him and the time when it is unlikely to finde him The time when it is impossible to finde him is when this life is ended For after this life there is no time for grace no time for repentence no time for good works Therefore it is that Christ saith John 9.4 I must work the Works of him that sent me while it is day the night comes and then no man can work by day understanding the time of this life and by night death Hie amittitur vita aut reciperatur saith â—â—prian In this life the life to come is either lost or gotten He that defers the seeking thereof till this life be past he knocks with the foolish Virgins when the gates are shut and then it is to late he that seeks not for mercy till after this life he shall find none no not so much as a drop of cold water to coole his tongue For as the tree falls so it lies and as the day of our death doth leave us so shall the day of judgement find us The time when it is unlikely to find God is when he offers us grace and we reject the same when he calls us by his Word and we harden our hearts and when upon presumption of the mercy of God whensoever we repent we deferr our repentance to the end of our lives and so indeed do never truly repent And therefore the Counsell is very good Ecclesiasticus 5.7 Make no tarrying to turn unto the Lord and put it not off from day to day for suddenly shall the wrath of God break forth and in thy security thou shalt be destroyed And as there is a time when God may not be found so there is a time when he may be found this time is likewise twofold either more common and generall or more proper and speciall The common and generall time when God may be found is this whole life time from the beginning of our life till the end thereof And therefore if we must come unto God while he may be found and he may be found this whole life time then we cannot begin to soone to come unto him Therefore Solomon counsells us to remember our Creator in the dayes of our youth that so we may be seasoned with godlinesse and Religion in the beginning of our life The more speciall time when God may be found is when he cals us unto him by the preaching of the word for then he offers his grace unto us and knocks by his Spirit at the doore of our hearts that he may have entrance If we open unto him he will say to our souls here will I dwell for I have a delight herein but if we refuse to give him entrance if we harden our hearts when we hear his voice we know not when whether ever or never he will come againe
therfore our Saviour excused his Disciples for not fasting by an argument drawn from the time Can the children of the Bride-chamber fast while the Bridegroom is with them Mat. 9.15 as long as they have the Bridegroom with them they cannot fast Giving of almes is another duty which is much commended in the Scripture unto us yet giving of almes hath a limitation of persons for all are not injoyn'd to give almes but onely such as are of ability and they that are of ability are not injoyned to give almes unto all but onely to such as are in want and necessity but as every one is injoyn'd to pray so to pray for all men I exhort saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 2.1 that supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men So that if we put all these together That every one is injoyn'd to pray to pray for all persons to pray at all times to pray in all places and to pray with all manner of supplications and prayers This must needs be a very necessary duty because it is so generally and absolutely injoyn'd us And indeed there is great reason why prayer should have no limitation because every man may easily performe the same If God had commanded us to offer goats and bullocks unto him the poore and the needy might have excused themselves for want of ubility if God had commanded us to go a pilgrimage into faâ—re Countries and there do him service the blinde and the lame might have excused themselves by reason of their impotencie But no man can pretend any just excuse why he should not pray because every man may easily performe this duty And thus much briefly for the necessity of prayer The Object of prayer Object of prayer ye see is God Every one that is godly shall pray unto thee He doth not say shall pray to Saints or Angels or the Virgine but unto thee For this is the Title which David gives unto God That he is the hearer of prayer Psal 65.25 O thou that hearest prayer unto thee shall all flesh come For prayer is a part of Gods service and worship and so to be given to no other but God Therefore God commands us to pray unto him Call upon me faith God in the fifty Psalm Christ teacheth us to pray unto God Our Father which art in heaven c. The Spirit teacheth us to pray unto God For God saith the Apostle Gal. 4.6 hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying Abba Father So that if we would be instructed to whom we must pray can we have better instructers then these the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghest who teach us to pray unto God onely Therefore if we search all over the Scripture from the beginning of Genesis to the end of the Revelation among all the prayers which are registred therein among all the Psalmes one hundred and fifty whereof two parts at the least are prayers yet we finde not one prayer among them all which was ever made to Cherubin or Seraphim to Raphael Gabriel or any of the Angebs to Abraham or Isaac or any of the Patriarchs to Moses or Samuel or any of the Prophets to Peter or Paul or any of the Apostles to the blessed Virgine or any of the Saints but onely to God Thus if we would have presidents of prayer can we have better presidents then these which the Scripture records and which have been made by the faithfull in all Ages And the reason is plain because they had no warrant out of Gods word to pray to any other but God and they knew besides that God and no other hears our prayers and sees our wants Indeed the Papists who pray to Saints and Angels hold that they cannot but see our wants and hear our prayers For How say they should not they see all things who sea the face of him that seeth all things as if by seeing God they must see all things that God sees which if it were true their knowledg ye know must needs be infinite as God is And besides this is plainly confuted by Christ for Christ who tells us Math. 18. Mat. 18.10 Mar. 13.32 That the Angells do alwayes behold the face of his Father in Heaven He likewise tells us Marke 13. That the Angells are ignorant of the day of Judgement And for the Saints departed the Scripture tells us That they know no more what is done upon the earth and have no understanding of the affaires of the living So Solomon tells us Eccles 9. That the dead know not any thing neither have they any more a portion for ever Eceles 9.6 in any thing that is done under the Sunne If any of the dead should have any knowledge of the state of the living then questionlesse Princes of the state of their Subjects and Fathers of their children But that Princes after they are departed have not any knowledge of their Subjects we see by Josias where God gratiously promises to take him away 2 King 22.20 that he might not see the evill which he would bring upon the Jewes And that Fathers have no knowledge after their departure of the state of their children Job plainly tells us in his 14. Chapter the 20. verse speaking of a Father that is dead and leaves children behind him His Sonnes saith he come to honour and he knows it not and they are brought low and he perceives it not Nay Abraham the Father of the faithfull to whom God promised that he would multiply his seed as the Starres of Heaven yet he had no knowledge after his departure what became of them And therefore the Israelites Esay 63.16 ver acknowledge that Abraham and Jacob that were dead had no knowledge of their miseries Doubtlesse say they thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Jacob know us not yet thou O Lord art our Father and Redeemer thy name is for ever Si tanti Patriarche c. If saith St. Augustine so great Patriarchs were ignorant what became of the people that came from their loines How shall the dead have ought to do in the knowledge or aide of the affaires and actions of their dearest survivers But suppose they did know our affaires and actions yet our hearts they cannot know for this is proper to God onely who is the searcher of the heart Now our hearts ye know are the seate of our prayers the lips do but vent them to the eares of men And therefore Solomon in the 1 of the Kings the 8. Chapter useth this as an argument why we are to pray to no other but God because God and no other can hear our prayers because he onely knows our hearts Hear thou saith he 1 King 8.39 in Heaven thy dwelling place and do and give to every man according to his wayes whose heart thou knowest for thou even thou onely knowest the hearts of all the children of men So that he
we must be content to yield him obedience and to live as becomes his servants or he will not save us And therefore only the godly that serve him in their life can with comfort commend their souls unto him at the time of their death and say as Steven did Lord Jesus receive my spirit He prayes not for his body but for his soule Though it were his body which was here in danger while the Jews were stoning him yet it is not his body but it is his soule that he prayes for as being more sensible of his future estate then of his present condition and not so much regarding this present life as the life to come Many in their life and at the time of their death are carefull for their bodies thinking of the great pain which their bodies are to suffer when death siezes upon them and taking care how they shall be able to overcome the same This care troubles many that are good Christians who are the more afraid of death for the pain thereof and imagine the pain to be greater then it is That death is painfull there is not any question Si nulla esset mortis amaritudo non magna esset martyrum fortitudo saith Augustine If there were no sharpnesse and pain in death it were no great fortitude in the Martyrs to suffer it But though death be painfull yet we must remember this for our comfort that it will be no more painfull to us then it hath been to the godly in all ages and therefore why should we be afraid to undergo that which all the godly have undergone before us Will not any man be content to be put to that whereunto the King puts his chiefe Favourites for he will think with himselfe if I be put to no more then the Kings Favourites are I shall fare well enough The godly ye know are Gods chiefe Favourites God loves and favours them above all others if therefore they have suffered the paine of death and have not been exempted by God from it we may well be the lesse carefull to undergo it and may assure our selves that though the paine were never so great yet Christ who hath redeemed both our soules and bodies will inable us to bear it and as Cyprian saith Qui semel pro nobis mortem vicit semper vincet in nobis He that once overcame death for us will alwayes overcome it in us And therefore whether we die for the Lord or in the Lord we may well lay the care of our bodies aside and may chearfully commend our soules unto Christ as Steven here did Lord Jesus receive my spirit Doct. I might hence observe the immortality of the soule That though the body do die yet the soule is immortall This is signified by those words of Solomon Eccles 12.7 That the body shall returne to the earth from Whence it was taken and the spirit shall returne unto God who gave it Mat. 10.28 and by that saying of our Saviour Fear not those that can kill the body but are not able to kill the soule But I will passe this over and come briefly to the prayer which he makes for his persecutours He kneeled down and cryed with a loud voice Lord lay not this sinne to their charge Where first observe the gesture he used he kneeled down when he prayed The Jews did commonly stand when they prayed Therefore Christ alluding to this their custome Mark 11. When ye stand saith he and pray if ye have ought against any man forgive him And the Jewes have a saying Sine stationibus non consisteret mundus that the world could not consist without standing that is without praying because they were wont to pray standing 1 Kings 19.4 1 Chro. 17.16 The Prophet Eliah when he fled from Iezabel he prayed sitting And we read the like of David that he sat and prayed Other kinde of gestures we use in our prayers which may be reduced unto these two heads such as we use in regard of our Hope or in regard of our Humiliation and Reverence In regard of our hope we lift up our eyes and we stretch forth our hands as expecting and requiring Gods help and assistance So David in the 121. Psalm I will lift up mine eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help And Moses praying for the Isracletes Exod. 17. That they might prevale against Amaleck he stretched forth his hands For as Saint Austin saith Oculus erectus expectat manus extensa postulat The eyes being lift up expect help and the hands being stretcht forth do seeme to reuqire it In regard of our humiliation and reverence we uncover our heads we bow down our bodies and we kneele on our knees we uncover our heads which is Magnificentia depositio a laying aside of our greatnesse And thus Kings and Princes when they pray unto God do uncover their heads laying aside their state and acknowledging thereby that they are Gods Servants So we prostrate our selves and fall down on our knees as Steven here did in token of the reverence we owe unto God in offering our prayers And this gesture of kneeling we finde to have been often used by the faithfull and as the Magdeburgenses who wrote the Centuries affirme hath been the most ancient gesture in prayer and the most used by the Church in all ages Peter as we see in the 9. of the Asts and Paul in the 20. did pray kneeling so did the Prophet Daniel in his sixt Chapter Saint James the first Bishop of Jerusalem was so frequent in praying on his knees that he made his knees as hard as the hoofe of a Camel with continuall kneeling And the like did Asella as we read in St. Jerome It is true indeed that it is the heart and affection of him that prays and not the gesture of the body which God respects but withall this is true that he that makes no conscience of praying reverently doth never pray heartily and he that will not bend the knee unto God much lesse out of doubt will he bend the heart O come let us Worship and fall down saith the Psalmest and kneele before the Lord our maker Psal 95.6 Micah 6.6 Where withall shall I come saith the Prophet Micah in his sixt chapter before the Lord and bow my self before the high God To shew that he might not come into his presence but with great reverence And therefore this serves to reprove those that shew no signes of reverence unto God 2 Chr. 6.13 Luke 22 4â— when they come before him to offer up their prayers We see that Solomon when he consecrated the Temple 2 Chron. 6. he kneeled down and prayed and a greater then Solomon our blessed Saviour Luke 22. kneeled down when he prayed be for his passion If he therefore used such reverence in prayer should not we much more For shall mercy bend her knee and shall not misery Shall the Physician and shall not the Patient Shall
preacht as knowing that the Gospel which is the glad tydings of salvation would be most welcome unto them because it offers grace unto those who finding in themselves a want of grace do unfeinedly and earnestly desire the same Here then we see who they be that are fit to hear the Gospel and that do find comfort in hearing of it namely such as do see their spirituall poverty and feele in their hearts a want of grace therefore renouncing their own righteousnes do flie unto Christ to findâ—rest to their souls Mat. 11.28 Therefore Christ in the Gospel invites only such to come unto him as finde themselves weary heavy laden and rejected the Pharisees that trusted in themselves Mat. 9.12 Mat. 18.11 Mat. 9.13 because the whole have no need of the Physitian For he came into the World to save that which vvas lost and he came not as he saith to call the righteous but sinners to repentance To draw then briefly to a conclusion of all if we would reape comfort by the preaching of the Gospel vve must labour to see our spirituall poverty to find in our selves our vvant of knowledge our want of faith our vvant of grace and then the good tydings of the Gospel will be as vvelcome to us as cold waters to a traveller that is weary Prov. 25.25 and as the bringing of good newes from a far Country FINIS The Eleventh SERMON CANTICLES 3.1 By night on my Bed I sought him whom my soul loves THey are the words of the Church expressing her longing desire after Christ Division And in the words we may observe these three things the Act the Object and the Circumstances the Act sought the Object Christ I sought him whom my soule loves and the Circumstances are two the circumstance of time and the circumstance of place the time when she sought him I sought him by night and the place where she sought him I sought him on my Bed By night on my Bed I sought him whom my soul loves And these are the parts I will begin with the circumstances because they are set downe first in the words And first for the time when she sought Christ it was by night Now night is taken two wayes in the Scripture Sometime litterally sometime metaphorically litterally for the time which is opposite to the day when the Sun hath passed over our Horizon and leaves us darknesse through the interposition of the Earth between the Sun us So the night is taken litterally when the Apostle saith Thes 5.7 They that are drunke are drunke in the night Implying thereby that then drunkards were ashamed to be drunke in the day which now a daies they are not but were drunk in the night that they might the better conceal it Sometime night is taken metaphorically as when the Apostle saith Rom. 13. The night is far spent Rom. 13.12 the day is at hand let us therefore cast off the works of darknesse and let us put on the armour of light But in my Text as I take it the night is not taken metaphorically because it is added by night on my bed which being joyned together do shew that they are both to be taken literally First then here observe the Churches sincerity By prayer she sought Christ not openly in the day to be seen of men as the Pharisees were wont to pray in the streets but secretly in the night Mat. 6.5 when there were none to see or hear what she did Ille colit vere qui sine teste colit He worships Christ truly who worships him when there is no witnesse of it Many will do that openly where they may be seen and commended which they will not do secretly where they are not seen to do it like the Monk that would fast whole dayes together whil'st he was in the Monasterie where men saw and commended him for fasting so long but when he was in the Desart he could not fast because there were none to see him This was hypocrisie but where there is sincerity a man will rather do good in secret that he may not be known to do it So our Saviour Mat. 6. teacheth us to fast When thou fastâ—st Mat. 6.17 anoint thy head and wash thy face that thou seem not unto men to fast So he teacheth us there to give almes Mat. 6.3 When thou doest thine almes let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doâ—th So he teacheth us there to pray Mat. 6.6 When thou prayest enter into thy chamber and shut thy door All to be done in secret that we may not be seen to do it as the Church here sought Christ by night Secondly here observe the Churches Wisdome She sought Christ by prayer and made choise of the night as the fittest time to pray in When we pray in the night our ears and our eyes are not carried away with variety of objects which many times so hinder us when we pray in the day that we cannot mind our prayers And therefore it is that commonly when we pray in the Church we set our hands or our hats before our eyes making the day as it were night that our eyes being not troubled with outvvard objects our hearts may the better mind our prayers Lastly Here observe the Churches importunity For that vvhich is here translated by night is by nights in the originall implying that she sought him night by night and would not give over but continued importunate like the woman of Canaan Mat. 15. til she had obtained her desire Christ likes an importunate suiter that will take no demall a wearilesse seeker that seeks while he findes and till he finde what he seeks will never give over Such a suiter such a seeker was the Church here she sought him night by night and though as it is said in the next words she found him not yet she still persevered and never lin seeking untill she had found him And as she sought him by night so on her bed As the night is the time so the bed is the place to rest in but when others were asleep and taking their rest the Church was awake and her thoughts and desires wholy set upon Christ So that as Origen saith of Mary Magdalene when she came to Christs Sepulchre and found him not there Maria ibi non erat ubi non erat quia tota ibi non erat ubi Magister erat Mary was not there where she was but was wholly there where her Master was So the Church was not there where she sought Christ but was wholly there where Christ was whom she sought So wholly with him in desire and affection that she could find no rest no not in the place of rest but in thinking of him As the Church here sought Christ so must we that are Christians we must seek him by prayer night by night in our beds not suffering our eyes any night to sleep nor the temples of our