his people hath in this place a threefold aspect First Wee are to consider it in relation to the persons whose prayers shall bee regarded and that you have in this word hee will regard the prayer of the destitute And Secondly This regarding of prayer doth respect the Time when hee will regard it When the Lord doth build up Zion hee will regard the prayers of the destitute And Thirdly This regarding of the prayers of his people hath an aspect upon the matter wherein hee will regard them when hee builds up Zion hee will regard their prayer that is as God willing you shall heare anon that their prayers shall be the means of building Zion he will build Zion as that which their prayers have been the means of and have drawn from him when the Lord shall build up Zion hee will regard the prayers of the destitute I begin with the first of them The persons they are here called the destitute hee will regard the prayer of the destitute the Hebrew word which is here translated destitute doth properly signifie Myrica a low shrub humilesque Myricae low shrubs that grow in Wildernesses some think they were Juniper shrubs some a kinde of wilde Tamyris but a base low shrub that grew no where but in a desolate forlorn place and sometimes the word in the Text is used to signifie the Deserts of Arabia the sandy desert place of Arabia which was a miserable wildernesse Now when this word is applyed to men it always means such as were forsaken men despised men such men as are stripped of all that is comfortable to them either they never had children or else all their children are taken away from them and all comforts banished and themselves left utterly forlorne like the barren heath in a desolate howling Wildernesse these are the people of whom my Text speaks that the Lord will regard the prayer of the destitute and this was now the state of the Church of God when they offer'd up this prayer and yet by faith did foretell that God would grant such a gratious answer And this promise as relating to these persons affords us two excellent lessons First Into what a miserable low and forlorn condition God often lets his Church fall before hee doe appear for their deliverante They are desolate and forsaken left like the Deserts of Arabia like the broken shrub of a tree that no body regards Such was their present condition you have it in all the former part of the Psalm Like a Pelican like an Owle as a desolate Widow they eate their meat with ashes and mingle their drink with weeping to this condition did God let his Church come before hee did appear as a succourer and a helper of her I confesse God doth not always so sometimes hee doth keep the feet of his people from falling sometimes assoon as ever they fall hee snatches them up with his right hand sometimes hee lets heavinesse fall upon them for a night and sends them joy and deliverance the next morning but frequently yea and ordinarily before the greatest mercies he lets them be brought into a most miserable condition so that they shall have no humane hope ever to come out of it So they were in Egypt wasted out in an iron fornace so they were in Babylon when their bones lay scattered upon the earth as Chips in a timber-yard and it was ordinary for the Church to complain before her deliverance that she was like a bird in the fowlers snare as a Lamb falne into a Wolves or Lions den and ordinary for God to acknowledge that when hee comes to deliver them he chuses them and findes them in a furnace of affliction And this is true not onely of the Church in generall but you may read the same of abundance of Gods dearest Saints who have been brought and reduced to extremity of misery before ever he appeared for their succour Thus it was with David and Daniel and the three Children and Paul and multitudes of others And this the Lord doth for these two causes First It usually thus betides Gods people through their own foolishnesse themselves are the causes why they come so low David in the name of the Church confessed I am brought into great heavinesse I lie roaring all the night long my wounds stink and are corrupt because of my own foolishnesse for first they offend God their gratious God and when they have offended him they continue impenitently in sin and when God appeares and begins to correct them they kick with the heele against him and will not take notice of his hand but goe on obstinately They impute it to any thing rather then Gods displeasure will not confesse their sin their uncircumsized heart is not humbled in them when they lie as a wilde bull in a net full of the fury of the Lord they kick and fling fret and vex themselves suffer and murmure smart and repine but will not renounce their own counsell nor lay down their arms of rebellion and thus like foolish sons they stay longer then they need in the place of the breaking forth of children and this God will not beare from them but now by long and tedious trials and by being thus brought to great extremities their hearts are softned and melted the pride of their spirits broken they search and try their wayes their foule stomachs are emptyed of that glut which lay upon them they cast off their carnall confidence and self-conceitednesse when they have been bound in fetters and holden in cords of affliction then they see their own works then their ears are opened to Discipline when with the Prodigall they have eat husks with the Swine and are ready to dye with hunger then they think seriously of returning to their Fathers house and so hereby are made the fitter for their deliverance And Secondly Hee likewise doth it for his own glory for the lower they are before hee appeare for their succour the more honour doth he gain to himself in their deliverance This reason Christ himself gave it in the 11 of John when they told him that Lazarus was sick and Christ knew he was sick to death yea that hee was dead but This sicknesse said Christ is not unto death but that the Son of God might bee magnifyed as if he had said Lazarus shall dye and goe to the grave and lie while he is ready to stink there not that I delight to have Lazarus brought low and looked upon as a dead man but that my glory might the more appear in raising him up so when the Lord hath brought his people into such a low forlorn condition that all help and strength seems to be gone then for him to come in and succour this advances his glory many wayes the glory of his wisdome and of his love and of his power c. for such causes as these doth God let his Church
answer them and while they are speaking hee doth heare and as Abrahams servant noted of himself even while he was praying Rebekah came so have many of Gods servants found so did Daniel as soon as he had done praying about the time of the Evening Sacrifice the Angel Gabriel being caused to fly swiftly brought him a gratious answer and told him that in the beginning of his supplication he received his answer sometimes the harvest overtakes the seed-time especially when their prayers are offered up when Gods appointed time is come or when their need is instant and extream when the fluctus decumanus when the tenth and terrible wave is ready to overwhelm them he gives them leave to say Heare me speedily and he will not fail them when Peter is ready to sink he no sooner cryes Lord save me but Christ presently gives him his helping and saving hand But secondly it is not alwayes aske and have after asking must be seeking and knocking and seeking and knocking again and when it is so God defers them for two excellent ends The one is his own glory the other is the good of his people First his own glory is exceedingly advanced by it for in dealing after this manner he doth assert First his own Soveraignty in dispensing his mercies so as it may appear that it belongs to him to dispose of things and times at his own pleasure You know great Lords and Princes make it a great part of their Soveraignty to have Suiters wait upon them and it is the great glory of the Lord Jehovah to have his people lie long before him with their petitions in their hands and withall it asserts his free-Grace it manifests that whenever he doth answer the prayers of his people that it is free favour were it their due his Justice would not let him keep the labourers hire an houre from him he commands us not to doe it but that wee may know that all is free he will have us wait his leisure And thirdly Herein he likewise manifests his own wisdome that he can and will make both the prayers of his people and his answers to them when they come together each of them appear beautifull in their season that as his wisdome is manifested in giving them an heart to pray in their season so you shall see it manifested in giving his answer in his best season But besides in the second place Hereby he doth marvailous good unto his people who thus wait upon him For first He doth hereby prepare them for their answer And secondly He thereby prepares the answer to be the better for them First he prepares them to be the fitter for an answer hee traines them up in these three or foure excellent things while he seems to despise their prayer First Hereby they grow marvailously dexterous in the art of prayer he teaches them to pray by suspending his answer to prayer you shall find in the Scripture that those men who have been the greatest wrastlers with God have been such whom God hath longest put off before he hath answered them Heman and David and Hannah and I know not how many of them that have offered up most soule ravishing prayers were such as have prayed till their throats have been dry and their voyce hoarse and complained from years end to years end God hereby makes them skilfull and excellent Artists at it And then Secondly Hereby doth the Lord train them up in humility there is nothing in the world humbles a Soule more then to be long mourning before the Lord for a mercy and the Lord not to relieve him in it nor is any Soule so fit for any thing as an humble Soule David that had been long without his Kingdome when he came to have it could say O Lord my Soule is like a weaned childe and very vile and base in his own eyes by being long delayed they come to be privy to the wickednesse of their own hearts even as a horse that hath any infirmity he will shew it in a long journey a leg that hath any imperfection will discover it in a long walk and so will the secret corruptions of our hearts discover themselves when God delayes us hereby we shall discover the pride murmuring discontent self-ishnesse and what ever else is naught in our spirits and thereby come to be made wondrous low in our own eyes and Thirdly Hereby the Lord likewise traines them up both in Faith and Hope he hereby exerciseth and thereby increaseth both these excellent Graces in them Thus was it with Abraham Rom. 4. Thus with the poore woman Mat. 15. Thus with Paul 2 Cor. 1. brought even to despaire of life brought under the sentence of death that he might learn to trust and hope in God Thus Esay in the name of the whole Church Esay 8. and innumerable others have learned both to beleeve and waite when God hath seemed to hide his face from them And then Secondly By this long delaying of them as he fits them the better for the answer so he fits his answer the better for them for then is the mercy alwaies both the greater and the sweeter great ships that goe long voyages before they come home are usually most richly laden an Oak is long growing but proves a great tree and long-lived whereas a Gourd which grows up in a night in another night is smitten with a worm and dyeth a blessing that is long a comming is ordinarily a great one when it doth come The Lord makes the mercy the sweeter when it comes Isaac that hath been begging many a year when he comes he is an Isaac a Son of laughter When Hannah had long wept for a Childe when he comes he is a Samuel and he proves a very sweet childe to her Solomon was a childe of teares a son of his Mothers vowes but was a pleasant Childe indeed so was John Baptist to his Parents who were past children before he was born much prayer many tears laid out for a mercy before it comes are all abundantly repaid in the greatnesse and sweetnesse of it when it doth come Hope deferred maketh the heart sick but when the desire commeth it is a tree of life But whether I have answered the case of Conscience fully or no sure I am the Lesson is most plain that though God may seem to despise his peoples prayers they are all before him and will bring an answer in due time This is a most comfortable Doctrine And I shall onely make a comfortable use of it in two Branches The one is to our selves in respect of our present distresses This present lesson may more refresh and establish our hearts in assurance of a good issue in this great work wherein we are ingaged then a million of Gold or the assistance of a potent Army We have a huge conflict we grapple with enemies that
come to be destitute before he seems to regard their prayers I note this onely to this end that it might teach you all to be charitable Judges of the strange and various administrations of our God towards almost all the Churches in Christendome at this day indeed if we look upon the state of almost all the Christian world we cannot but say it is very low Germany hath now for six or seven and twenty yeers been an Aceldama a field of blood in Ireland the slain not to be numbred their widows multiplyed like the sand of the Sea shore Scotland been shaken and harrassed miserably and England which hath been as a Garden of God now is conflicting with the saddest of all judgements and bleeds and melts away and sinks deeper into the quick-sands of desolation every day then other All our Physitians have hitherto proved of no value no balm yet found to cure our wound no plaister will as yet cleave to our soare the storm still increaseth our Anchors all come home and we are even at our wits end and every where the displeasure of the Lord seems to bee on all the Churches as if he would bring such a desolation upon them that affliction should not rise up the second time Now beloved in these deep and deplorable extremities learn to judge wisely of the state of Christs Church and people think it no more strange to see the Church of God tossed and afflicted then it is to see the Sea tossed with waves or the lower region to be full of storms and tempests but when you do see these things be you withall assured that the Lord loves his Church and all his Saints too dear to be lavish of any one drop of their blood he prefers the meanest of his people before all the Kingdoms of the world and will give them for ransomes for his redeemed ones he thought it not too much to redeem them with the blood of his own Son be you therefore fully assured that it is not out of any slighting of them that these troubles are upon them but rather that in all these conflicts hee hath holy aimes and ends which it may be we cannot yet dive into and let us not look too much upon the dark side of the cloud of Gods providence when we cannot see the bottome of his Counsels let us not hang down despairing hands Let us be contented that we are of his Court though we be not admitted to be of his Privy Counsell and let us set this down for an assured conclusion That how low soever the Lord brings his people he will bring them back again from the depth of their miseries let us in the mean time as the Prophet said he would doe Search and try our wayes and be humbled before him but let us also beleeve upon plain trust and waite upon God who at this day hides his face from the house of Jacob and let us look for him untill hee please to return again Secondly As the Lord sometimes makes them destitute before hee regards them so hee will regard the prayers of the destitute this sad title that they are destitute is set downe here as an argument that God would regard their prayers which affords us this instruction That the prayers of the most forlorne and despised and abased of all Gods people are in the highest regard with him Whose petitions soever are laid aside God will be sure to regard and read over the petitions offered up by the desolate their prayers are most prevalent and most acceptable with God I might give you an hundred places where God saith it expresly he heares the poore he regards the despised he will save the afflicted he will comfort the distressed his eares are open to their cry David who well understood all the topicks of Prayer all places from whence any argument might be drawne to prevaile with God in prayer made this his usuall argument Heare me Lord for I am desolate attend to my cry for I am brought very low heare me speedily my spirit is overwhelmed as if he could lay such a claime to be regarded when he was destitute that God must faile of his word if he failed then to regard his prayers And there is good reason why they above all others should have their prayers regarded by God Because they pray in their prayers Prayer is the powring out of the soule to God so saith the title of this Psalm A prayer of the afflicted when he powres out his soule Now even Gods owne people when they have ease and liberty and are in no straits it 's too ordinary with them to powre out words when they doe not powre out prayers and to be in a bodily posture of prayer when the inward man is little affected they often pray without a heart but the poore and destitute speak supplications before God they poure out their soule and spirit and that is prayer indeed And secondly The destitute and forsaken have no other to flye to but God onely all other succour failes them and he hath much engaged himselfe in his Word never to desert the soule that betakes it selfe to him He shall deliver the needy when he cryeth the poore also and him that hath no helper Now this forlorne and desolate wretch looks on his right hand and none will know him other refuge failes him no other cares for his soule he hath onely a melting heart and a mourning eye and these are fixt upon God alone and therefore no wonder though he be regarded And then thirdly The desolate of all others will value an answer of prayer let God doe any thing for a poore forsaken wretch it 's highly prized any almes to a Begger at the door who is ready to starve if it be but a crust fit for the dogges yet I say to a starving Begger it 's a greatefull thing When the poore and needy seek water and there is none when their tongue faileth for thirst and the Lord pleaseth to open rivers to them in the wildernesse O how acceptable and welcome is it And fourthly God will regard the destitute because in truth his fatherly bowels know that there is more need that he should succour them then any other he hath put those bowels into earthly parents that if any of them have many children the sickest the weakest the simplest the most despicable of all the rest hath the greatest care from the father and from the tender-hearted mother among all the test of the children there is not such an Orator to prevaile for themselves or others as the sickest babe And even so it is with our good God he knowes the condition of the poor how every one treads upon a worme he well considers that he who is so weak that he is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him who is at ease he knowes
according to his will deferring of it is no denying of it if in the mean time while before God answer thee he vouchsafe to uphold thy heart by his Spirit as he did Davids Psal. 73. 22. I was as a beast before thee neverthelesse thou upholdest mee by thy right hand If he now and then dart in a beam of love which is as the fire from Heaven to assure thee thou art accepted if he stablish thee nay if he doe but draw thy heart out to continue to pray to him if he make thy Soule more humble and vile in thy own eyes if he more wean thee from the creature and train thee up to wait upon him truely friend it is ten thousand times better then all the time that thou spendest thou hast a large recompence in Gods doing thus much for thee this is to be preferred before thousands of gold and silver but I tell thee more not one of thy suites will be lost no they are all before God he reads them over every day and what thou hast been begging this seven years this twenty years he dayly remembers them and in his heart answers them all Whatever thou hast sown in tears thou shalt reap in joy be content though at present thou seest nothing but darknesse doe as Elia's servant did who went seven times to look for rain till the seventh time he saw nothing and then but a very little yet that little soon proved a great deale It may be thou shalt not see the answer a great while possibly not till thy death come Old Simeon a good gratious man had many years begged of God that he might see his Salvation yet he never got Christ in his arms till he was ready to depart the world then he got his full answer so it may be when thou comest to die thou shalt have hosts of answers stand round about thee nay peradventure the greatest returns of thy prayers shall be when thou art dead and rotten in thy grave what thou hast begged for Gods Church thy prayers shall produce it when thou art gone what thou hast begged for thy husband wife and children it may be God will give thee the greatest return of them when thou hast no being in this world and for thy self while thou livest when it may be thy heart is dull and thou art unfit for prayer and canst not pray the quickning prayers which thou didst offer up many years agoe God is then remembring them when peradventure thou fearest he is taking advantage of thy present dulnesse and distemper Therefore goe thy wayes on and waite upon him treasure up thy suits be it against corruption against temptation for thy Family for the Church waite Gods time the vision is for an appointed time it will come in the end that is certain every tear every sigh every short ejaculation is continually before him he hath a bottle for thy tears as well as a bag for wicked mens sins a treasury for thy prayers as well as for their blasphemies let his present answer be what it will beleeve any thing of him rather then a rejecting of the supplications of the poore who seek him in his Sonnes name hee hath promised it and is faithfull and cannot deny himselfe Another thing I observe from this circumstance the time when the time of regarding them is when he builds up Zion and that affords us another lesson as seasonable for this present auditory viz. That when the Lord doth build up his Church hee doth then answer all his afflicted peoples prayers Sometimes God will not be prayed to or if he doe his answer shall bee waite a while but when he builds up Zion then the Lord answers his peoples prayers then he sits in his Court of Request to heare petitions then he holds out his golden Scepter to every poore supplicant There are three things that God is laid in the Scripture to remember when he builds the Church Hee then remembers his enemies when the new Jerusalem comes downe from heaven then great Babylon comes into mind before God that she may be repaid then secondly God uses to remember his Covenant hee remembred for them his Covenant and thirdly then also doth God remember the prayers of his people and this God willing I shall make good to you for the truth of it you shall finde it fully expressed in the 29. of Jeremiah 10. 11. speaking of the time when he would bring them back to build the Temple then saith the Lord shall you call upon mee and I will answer you then it may be now he would not but then I 'le answer you then you shall seek mee with your whole heart and you shall find me so in the 25. of Isaiah in the day that God builds up his Church for that is the great promise of that Chapter the Prophet tells you that his people should then sing a song of praise whereof this is one part Loe this is our God we have waited for him loe this is our God and he hath saved us wee have waited that is we have prayed and attended his leisure now wee have an answer of all To make this lesson more cleare I shall indeavour to cleare these two things First when the Lord doth build up Zion he doth then remember the particular wants the particular requests which his Saints have offered up to him the Lord casts it so as to make Zions refreshing time concurrent with the relieving of the wants of his particular people that as in executing of vengeance when he is to execute vengeance upon a nation he will remember particular malefactors what they have done in their persons so when he comes to build up his Church hee remembers the particular fuites that his holy ones have offered up to him and of this I could give you many testimonies In that day he will let every prisoner out of prison he will binde up the wounds of every wounded soule he will make the blinde to see the lame to walk the deaf to hear In that day in the 31 of Jeremiah the Lord will satiate every weary soule and replenish every sorrowfull soule in that day when the Lord erects his new Jerusalem there shall be a tree of life the leaves of it shall heale the diseases of all the Nations In that day he gives strength to the needy in his distresse a shadow from the storm then he strengthens weak hands and confirmes feeble knees then every wildernesse is filled with pooles of water then Christ will powre out abundance of his Spirit as David at his Coronation remembred all his friends and dealt to all the people every one a bottle of Wine So the Lord at that day delights to make their personall comforts joyn with the publick and Common weale of his Church and Kingdome This is one way how this Doctrine is true that then the Lord regards the prayers of his people when he builds up
rewarded abundantly I humbly commend this to your wisdoms and faithfulnesse God hath called you to this work it would be your great glory to have it done in your hands and it would not be for your honour to have it done by other hands but done it will be I assure you the Church will be reformed If you should altogether neglect it sit still and hold your peace or if you should make but a halfe worke of it a patched reformation help and deliverance will come from some other place No stone great enough could be laid in the mouth of Christs sepulchre to keep him from rising nor can any power prevent the building of Zion when the appointed time is come no not though all the Nations of the earth should be gathered together against it The remnant of Jacob shall bee as a dew from the Lord as the showers upon the grasse that tarryeth not for man nor waiteth for the Sons of men the work is upon the wheeles and there is one engine at work that will effect it if all others faile and that is the spirit of Prayer which what efficacy it hath for the building of Zion will appear in the last branch of my Text And that is the matter wherein God will regard their prayer When the Lord builds up Zion he will regard the prayer of the destitute that is hereby it shall appear that he regards their prayer because at their prayer he will doe it it shall be done as the fruit and effect of his peoples prayers which affords us this Doctrine That the Lord will have the building of Zion the reforming and repairing of the Church to bee the fruit of his peoples prayers this is the main scope then God regarded their Prayers when he makes all the world know that at their request and for their prayers sake he did now arise in glory to build up Zion the truth of this excellent lesson will appear even to a demonstration if you please but briefely to consider these three things First Gods Providences speak it so Secondly and so doe his Commands And Thirdly his Promises First His Providences speak it there are two Providences of God use to appear at the building of Zion which alone were sufficient to shew that Prayer is the great builder on our part that it is indeed all that we can doe God usually lets it come to such irrecoverable ruine that nothing we can do besides prayer is able to doe any thing that it may appear that on our part prayer doth all Nil nisi vota supersunt When all other Anchors are come home when all other Cables are brok when all other friends have forsaken and all props snapped apeeces that either prayer must doe it or they have nothing that is the time he ordinarily chuses to build up Zion as himself said Deut. 32. When hee saw their strength was gone there was none shut up or left who might be a helper then hee himself would judge his people and repent hâ—m for his servants So when they were as a woman with childe near the time of delivery the children come to the birth and no strength to bring forth not any in the earth to be a deliverer then they cry unto the Lord and he delivers them this is so plentifully to be found in the Scripture that I may forbear especially in these straights of time to produce particular instances Secondly The other providence is this That when God builds up Zion he then uses to powre out the Spirit of Prayer upon his people more then at any other times he then fils them with his Spirit which inclines their hearts to be vehement and earnest with him for that very thing Zephyrus vere flat this gale never blows so sweetly as at such times Jer. 29. Then you shall pray and I will answer In that day he powres out the Spirit of supplication and mourning upon all his people Then he makes all his people say with them Esa. 62. 1. For Zions sake I will not hold my peace and for Hierusalems sake I will not rest untill the righteousnesse thereof goe forth as brightnesse and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth And this is so sure a note of it that Gods people durst make Propheticall conclusions out of the Spirit of Prayer powred out as in this very Psalme The time to deliver her the set time is come How know you that Thy servants pity the dust of it thy servants are weeping and mourning before thee therefore the time of Zions deliverance is come take all the times of building the Church and you shall see that great builders have been great praying men Moses the great builder could fall down before God forty dayes and forty nights together David Solomon Elias Ezra Nehemiah all their prayers built more then their hands did Luther a mighty man in it and the Ministers who joyned with him indefatigable and potent in prayer yea the Spirit of Prayer uses to ebbe and flow in the Church according as God purposes to retard or hasten the work of the building of the Church insomuch as the Spirit of God drawing out the hearts of his people to doe that which he would have done doth Prophesie or foretell what God means to doe There uses to be such a concord and harmony between Gods secret purposes and his peoples Prayers their prayers as such expressions of his sacred will that they even seem to decree a thing by Prayer and God establishes it in Heaven the prayers of Gods people for the building of Zion is as a John Baptist before Christ only makes way for him as the Morning star which assures you the morning is at hand Now these two Providences Gods doing it at such a time as they have nothing left but prayer and this powring out the Spirit of prayer at that time do sufficiently tell us that God will have prayer to be the great Builder on our part Secondly His Commands speak it as plainly this is a good rule in Divinity Look whatsoever God Almighty commands us chiefely to doe in reference or relation to such a work that would he have us look upon as the great instrument on our part to effect it as when God commands us to beleeve for the forgivenesse of sins you may thence conclude that Faith is the great instrument of our Justification So when God commands us to attend upon the word for our Spirituall life for our comfort for our edification you may boldly conclude that the ministery of the Word is to be the great instrument of all these things And therefore because God above all that we can doe commands that his people should pray for the building of Zion you may conclude that he will have prayer the great instrument on their part for the building of it And God hath abundantly injoyned his people that they call upon him for it You shall
a very low condition our strong holds taken our Armies melted away our hearts generally failing us for feare multitudes flying out of the Kingdome and many deserting the cause as desperate making their peace at Oxford nothing almost left us but preces lachrymae but blessed be God prayer was not conquered they have found it the hardest wall to climbe the strongest Brigade to overthrow it hath hitherto preserved us it hath raised up unexpected helps and brought many unhoped for successes and deliverances let us therefore under God let the Crowne upon the head of prayer ye Nobles and Worthies be ye all content to have it so it will wrong none of you in your deserved praise God and man will give you your due Many of you have done worthily but prayer surpasses you all and this is no new thing prayer hath alwayes had the preheminence in the building of Zion God hath reserved severall works for severall men and severall ages but in all ages and among all men prayer hath been the chiefest instrument especially in the building up of Zion Let me in the next place shew you what esteem you should all have of prayer and praying men who have liberty to have the Lords eare who have the Spirit of prayer powred downe upon them while you live have them in high esteem what David said of Goliahs sword There is none to it is true here No helpe like the help of prayer There are foure things wherein prayer is beyond all other helps whatsoever The one is It is the most absolute the most universall medicine in the World it is a Catholicon it is good for every thing it is offensive and defensive it will do good in the Army in the Parliament house in the Assembly in the City every where Solomon teacheth this 1 Kings 8. from the 33 to the latter end of it whatsoever plague whatsoever sicknesse whatsoever other evill of pestilence war famine if they pray help will come it is of such a large extent there is no enemy but it will conquer no sore but it will cure no misery but it will heale no danger but it will prevent or remove the healing tongue of prayer is like the Tree of Life which healeth every disease Others may be good for something but Prayer for every thing Nay secondly it is not onely a help in any evill but in any extremity of evil A man a State a Church a People can be in no such extremity as to be past prayers help if prayer takes them in hand there is helpe for them if God poure out the Spirit of prayer if Esay can lift up a Prayer when the child is come to the birth and no strength to bring forth prayer will doe it I have read of a stone I think they call it Dioscordis that if it be put into the mouth of one newly dead it will revive him again I know not how true that is but certainly there is no extremity so great but prayer may help if any help may be found in heaven or earth And then thirdly It will help at any distance They talk of some kind of Weapon-salve that will cure at a great distance but prayer will doe any thing at any distance Look what is said of God in the 139 Psalme If you goe into heaven or hell or the utmost parts of the sea or any of the corners of the earth Gods hand reaches there and elsewhere he is a God afar off as well as a God at hand the same may we say of praier it wil passe through sea and land relieve any distressed garrison strengthen any of our Armies They say Archimedes could sit in his Study and with his Engins defend Syracusa both by sea and land this may a praying man do upon his knees in his Closet he may bring helpe unto the uttermost parts of the world And then It is speedy it will help at an instant it is like Elias his cloud which his man saw when he was at prayer for rain a little cloud like a hand which presently spread over all the heavens the Angel Gabriel could not flye more swiftly then prayer will flye to help at any extremity at any distance O that these things were studied and beleeved how highly should we then esteeme it what encouragement then should we give to prayer and praying men how much would we then endevour to have our Armies furnished with praying Ministers and Souldiers all your Garrisons Assemblies Committees well stocked and stored with praying Saints nothing would be too hard for them you would if you rightly consider this be more carefull to keep them all in a posture of prayer then in a posture of defence Lastly with which I shall end because God will have prayer the great means of building up the Church I most earnestly beseech you that this means may never be wanting in any of you who have it to contribute O pray pray pray do not with-draw from it use it as the first and last and best remedy of all others turne not your back upon it O doe not as men say some great ones doe make the dayes of prayer and the times of prayer the times they chuse for their owne pleasures or businesse and thereby plainly discover themselves to be of Machiavels religion who counsels a Prince to set up a shew of Religion ad captandum populum to awe their people but themselves not to be under such rules let us really attend it and give God no rest night nor day untill he establish our Jerusalem a praise in the earth and this every one of you who are godly may doe Every one hath not money to contribute nor strength nor wisdome but every gracious heart can pray there is not a Maid not an Apprentice not a Servant not the meanest in the Congregation that hath the Spirit of God in them but is this thing you may come in to be Master-builders you may do as much as any Parliament-man or Assembly-man or any whatsoever if the Lord give you but a praying heart therefore I beseech you follow this work Two Motives I propound to quicken you the one is We may justly say our prayers hitherto have not had a miscarrying wombe nor dry breasts we may say with the Psalmist Verily God hath heard us he hath attended to the voice of our prayers and with Johan When our soule fainted within us we remembred God and our prayer came in unto him Never had an unworthy people more experience of the power of prayer then we have had The Romans once in a great distresse took the weapons out of the Temple of their God and with them got a glorious victory over their enemies O how many victories have these Sanctuary-weapons obtained for us he is a blind man who seeth not visible returnes of prayer and God hath so ordered our affaires that what