faces their affection favor and regard is to them and this sets them up against all the clear lights and admonitions of Gods Word their sin we see is of a blinding nature to them and they blindfold themselvs with it The Law saith of a gift Deu. 16.19 that it blindeth the eyes of the wise and perverteth the words of the righteous this it doth by raising the affections which like a steam or mist about a candle dim the eyes of the understanding So it is in the prevalency of every other sin as well as in that of bribery We say affection is blind love to sin doth deprive the sight and deprave the judgment that when an inquisition is passing the right cannot be discerned There is a place very full and suitable to this in the Prophet Isaiah Isai 44.18 They have not known nor understood for he hath shut their eyes that they cannot see and their hearts that they cannot understand He hath shut that is their Idol spoken of immediately before The Prophet there and in the discourse thereabout doth excellently set forth the infatuating and intoxicating nature of Idolatry and every lust-serving sin is real Idolatry how unreasonable stupid and sensless it makes the followers of it how it prevails not only to tempt and entice them to its committance but to bind and block up their senses and reason from all discovery of their extream folly in it so that they cannot once reflect upon or entertain a thought of their dotage therein though it be never so palpable And this place is sufficient to make good the description I gave before of a known sin we cannot expect to the making of it such that a man do actually apprehend and own and yield it to be a sin It is in the next words said of these men None considereth in his heart or as it is read none setteth it on Vers 19 or returneth or reduceth it to his heart neither is there knowledg or understanding to say I have burnt part of it in the fire c. This phrase none considereth or setteth on to his hearth gives us the sence of those words before and after wherein they are said to have no knowledg or understanding of what they did to wit they had not the practical applicative or actual knowing habitual knowledg principles out of which to deduce an act of judgment they had for the Prophet there abundantly proves what they did was against Natures light common Reason and ordinary sense and therefore in the following words he saith Remember these O Iacob and Israel Remember there wanted no more but an act of remembrance or calling in out of the storehouse of the memory that which was there already layd up and was sufficient to shew them the whole truth of that matter But to return to the point here it is evident that the cause of the Lords hiding himself may be near at hand may be in the very hearts and before the faces of men and yet they not see nor consider it that is they see it not to be a cause of such an evil the thing they see and own and that too much but they understand no such causality or effect by it and the reason why they do not is the darkening and deluding efficacy that their Idolized sin hath upon them The more men set up their sin in their heart and put it before their face as an Idol to wit in affection and regard the more it is out of their mind and sight in respect of entitling or attributing to it the mischief that it doth them they cannot see or find it out in point of causing and procuring that evil to them because they look and fix too much upon it in point of love and affection It is truly that beam in their eye which is not considered it is therefore not considered because it is in their own eye it is too near to be noted and being so close to them it not only scapes espying but it is the impediment that they cannot see any thing else as they ought Thus any allowed sin is a blind or skreen against the enquiry we we are upon by way of efficiency 2. It doth it Meritoriously or by way of provocation it moveth God to deny an answer and this is in the next words Should I be enquired of at all by them q. d. I cannot endure that such persons should come and enquire of me and if they do adventure upon it it shall be in vain This advancement of their Idols and iniquities in their heart and before their face doth mightily incense God and he takes their coming to enquire of him in this conjunction with their sin as a very high presumption and daring affront and indignity put upon him and for it he refuseth and repulseth their enquiry with indignation Suitable to this rejection is that in Daniel when the Church of God whether Jewish or Christian whether under Antiochus or Antichrist I shall not here dispute should be in her time of greatest trouble it is said Dan. 12.4 Many shall run to and fro to wit to understand the rise and continuance of those doleful afflictions and the Angel informs the Prophet Daniel that their enquiry should be of a twofold success according to the difference of the enquirers Vers 10 None of the wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand and the reason why none of the wicked shall understand is immediately foregoing because the wicked shall do wickedly for their wicked doings it shall be that they shall be left destitute of understanding in these Times they may run to and fro but it will be but as it is in the Psalmist like a dog with an unsatisfied mind and the reason is because they go round about like the dog to pursue their sinful lusts with greediness Yea it may be observed this retaining and persistency in their sin when they come to consult with God not only frustrateth their seeking unto him by provoking him to deny them resolution but it procureth a further sentence from God as the words following declare and it is of two parts 1. A penal tradition or delivery of them up to deceits and delusions Vers 4 I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his Idols q. d. He shall not only be denyed that answer which he would have and I would give if he were an obedient and sincere seeker of me that is a friendly and satisfying solution of his doubt but he shall have an answer worse then none an answer of judgment and displeasure and it shall be according to the multitude of his Idols that is as his abominable Idolatries deserve and in some proportion to that kind of sin he shall have no better an answer then if he were enquiring at his Idols he shall have an Idols answer and that was indeed sometimes a dumb mute and answerless repulse as was that of
before inumerated Let us therefore repeat them over 1. In relation to them that pray to encrease their assiduity and ardency in prayer To fit them for the mercy prayed for To exercise and try their faith patience love sincerity of sanctification and obedience To manifest himself to them the more fully either in or after the delay To make the benefit prayed for the more precious and welcome and useful when it comes To remove the impediments of their receiving or enjoying the mercy sought for And to raise up their thoughts their faith hope love and longing to the second appearing of Christ 2. In relation unto others To make up and bring in the number of those for whom the mercy is purposed To compleat the account of the Churches sufferers and sufferings To give others an example of patient and confident waiting upon God and for the greater dismay and confusion of the adversary 2. All these Ends especially those which concern the persons praying as they are good and desirable in themselves and very convenient to be attained ere their prayers come to issue so as many of them as we now upon a diligent view can discern or apprehend to be unaccomplished we may well conjecture the Lord intendeth to accomplish them before he perform his peoples prayers and that the Lords staying and gradual working for the bringing forth of these ends is the reason of his present deferring of those prayers Now who of the people of God among us can otherwise judg of themselves or their brethren but that many of or all of those said ends which respect them and much of every one of them remains unattained and therefore they may resolve there is very good reason for all this delay The Lord hath a great work yet to finish out in and upon his people before he work out their prayers for them To conclude therefore this part of mine Answer to the particular Case and Query Consider on one hand the ripeness and fulness of Englands sins and on the other hand the immaturity or unripeness of those gracious ends which the Lord setteth up to be effected in and by the delay of his peoples prayers and we have before us abundant matter of Reason for that dilatory hiding of God from his people Again consider if any one of those sins before recited may according to Scripture threat or example suffice to hinder the answer of prayer much more may many or all of them concurring together and that with so many circumstances and degrees of aggravation be forcible to that hinderance Now to the second Proposition 2. That plurality of Reasons which there may be now for this hiding of God from prayers we cannot reasonably think ascribeable wholly to every one or to any one person or party but we may attribute them to the whole community distributively or dispersedly so as that some of them more properly belong to one some to another and all to the whole by way of distribution These meritorious and final causes of this effect and the variety of particulars under each of them are not to be sought in or applyed to every person but some of them respect obtain and take place in this person some in that This proceeding of God concerneth and looketh at us all in common and general yet as it is with some difference of disposition in God as was above shewed * Chap. 3 Sect. 3. so it is with some difference in respect of grounds or reasons in or from men and with some difference also in regard of ends for or towards men all men do not contribute to it by way of provocation in the same kinds acts or measures of sins God hath not his ends towards all men alike or the same for nature or degree I have before distinguished of a double notion of the people of God some are such in regard of name and outward call and priviledg only some are such in regard of spiritual appropriation and communion also It must be granted this carriage of God may be partly grounded on some sins of those or some of them who are the people of God in the strictest sence and it may be partly for some merciful ends towards them or some of them who are at present Gods people but in the larger acception Yet it is most likely those that are the people of God in the common notion only have the largest share in the meritorious causes and those who are his people in the most peculiar notion have the largest portion in the final causes Now for any further resolution by way of application to persons or parties I only say As it is God alone who knoweth particularly who are his by either of these degrees of relation so he alone knoweth to allot to every single person his proper part and portion of either of those two sorts of causes And it is every mans duty first to reflect upon himself and consider how much he shareth in either of them and then to take notice of them in relation to the whole community I come to the third Proposition 3. Although many most or all the aforesaid causes may have influence into this case of ours yet some of them may be conceived more predominant and more notable in producing the effect then the rest and therefore more necessary for us to take notice of and lay to heart As among those three and four that is seven a compleat and full number of Transgressions of Judah Israel and others spoken of as the causes of the irrevocability of their respective judgments Amos chap. 2. 3. there is still one or two nominated as the chief or head of the rest so there is usually in such a case as ours some one or a few sins that do more appear and prevail then others in procuring this evil Judah had one sin viz. Idolatry that was written with a pen of Iron Jer. 17.1 and with the point of a Diamond and graven upon the table of their heart and upon the horns of their Altar Hos 5.5 7.10 Ephraim had one sin viz. Pride that did testifie to his face There is ordinarily to be seen upon a sinful Nation some sin or other Isai 3.9 that the shew of their countenance doth witness or hold forth that doth occur at the first blush as a mark or brand upon the forehead and is their proper and predominant National sin What sin or sins there be in us of this Land that bear this priority of place and influence it behoves us to observe I shall therefore here plainly speak my apprehension and for that end shortly first give the characters by which as I conceive they may be known and then say which I think they are 1. Those sins I suppose are of this prececedency and predominancy above others 1. Which are more general either in the whole community or in them that give themselves to prayer 2. That are the common root or mother
and argue us of hypocrisie 1 Sam. 12.23 Isai 64.7 Gal. 6.9 Nisi ad sit in oratione perseverandi constantia nihil orando agimus Calv. Instit l. 3. c. 20. s 52. Job 27.10 5. One special end of Gods deferring our prayers is to train us on to seek him more diligently Hos 5.15 6. Lastly How hath God been over-intreated by incessancy in prayer as by Jacob distressed at his brother Esaus approach Gen. 32.26 by Moses for Israel Deut. 9.18 19. by Israel under the Ammonitish bondage Judg. 10.16 and by the Church of God in Peters behalf Act. 12.5 Learn we then and keep to this Lesson Let us in the Scripture phrase roul our way upon the Lord Psal 37.5 55.22 Prov. 16.3 Though he should seem to turn it back again from him by delaying to accomplish it yet still be rouling or devolving it over to him by ingeminated petitions Let our prayers be poured out unto God as the Church saith her tears shall be without any intermission till the Lord look down and behold from Heaven Lam. 3.49 c. 3. Beleeve what you see not to wit the presâ—nt acceptance and future return in some or other yea the bâ—st way of your prayers framed accordiâ—g to the Will of God As we must pour out our hearts before God so must we trust in him at all times Psal 62.8 and in particular trust in him for the prayers which we pour out before him From whence had David that lively confidence of the Lords audience of him and the prediscovery of the issue of his prayers so clear as if he saw them already performed before his eyes the which he often professeth even under or together with his most bitter complaints of the Lords hiding himself from him as Psal 6.8 9. 13.5 6. 22.24 43.5 54.7 Had he it from any peculiar or extraordinary revelation or by vertue of the promise of God in his Word layd hold on faith I suppose it might be by the latter way only But by whethersoever it was I see no reason why the vigor of a Christians faith may not without the former extraordinary means attain to the same assurance and triumph which he arrived at For whether it was upon special revelation or upon the written Word that David was so bottomed it was still but by force of a divine word or promise the difference 'twixt those two lies but in the manner of receiving The promise which all Beleevers have in the written Word for the success of their prayers is as firm and certain as that which David built on could possibly be The Lord telleth all his people Isai 45.18 19. in substance thus much He is the Lord that created the Heavens that formed and made the Earth and established it And as he created it not in vain but to be inhabited so he hath not commanded the seed of Iacob to seek him in vain As sure as he made the Earth to be inhabited so sure he hath ordered his people to pray that he may perform and they may possess their prayers What can be a surer testimony to the validity of any thing then that asseveration of our Saviour is for the validity of prayer Luke 18 7.8 Shall not God avenge his own Elect which cry day and night unto him I tell you that he will avenge them speedily I tell you If Christ tell us so in his Gospel it is as sure as if the Spirit told us so by his inspiration to us Can there be a firmer bond to ascertain us then is that tye which we find betwixt the spirit of prayer poured out Zech. 12.10 and the hearing and answer of prayer Chap. 13.9 And from this we may assuredly conclude God hath not in these days poured out the spirit of supplications and thereby put his servants on so universally solemnly and earnestly to pray yea and to enter into such vows and covenants but it is for a great and gracious end at least to themselves in which he will specially manifest himself to be their God and they to be his people Prayers and tears have been accounted the Churches weapons and doubtless what is said of the bow of Ionathan 2 Sam. 1.12 and the sword of Saul that they never returned empty the same shall be made good of those arms of the Church And as the assurance that is given to prayer in general is so stable so is that which is given in special to the prayers of the deserted The needy shall not alway be forgotten The expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever The Lord will not cast off for ever but Psal 9.18 Lam. 3.31 32 Psa 102.17 Zech. 10 6. though he cause grief yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies He will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer I will be as though I had not cast them off for I am the Lord their God and will hear them To perswade us further to exercise faith in this behalf 1. Consider God hears and sometimes the petitioner doth not discern it For this take that of Elihu Job 35.14 Although thou sayst thou shalt not see him yet judgment is before him Mat. 21.22 therefore trust in him 2. The promise of audience takes in faith as a condition or requisite 3. The special use of faith is to settle the heart in beleeving and hoping things unseen Heb. 11.1 Rom. 4.18 19 yea and what is cross to present and visible things and in particular things of that nature in return or answer to prayer This is the confidence that we have in him 1 Joh. 5.14 15 that if we ask any thing according to his Will he heareth us c. This is the confidence we may understand it either that this is the matter of the confidence or this is the office or use of our confidence or faith to wit to beleeve and know the success of our prayer though we sensibly find it not 4. This exercise of faith will enable us to wait patiently and regularly Isai 28.16 He that beleeveth shall not make haste 5. Such a faith will be a token or pledg unto the petitioner of a happy issue of his prayer and desertion But I have trusted in thy mercy my heart shall rejoyce in thy Salvation Psal 13.5 6. Lastly All the interpositions improbabilities difficulties or oppositions which come betwixt us and our prayers by reason whereof we apprehend God hidden from us and our prayers hindered do not make the least distance obscurity pawse or impediment to the real presence or working of God to us or for our help * Ps 73.23 Zech. 8.6 4. Be content to stay Gods time for the issuing of your prayers wait upon God with constancy and patience So the Prophet Isai 8.17 I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob and will look
Whosoever then shall enter upon the enquiry which we are about I would advise him to lay down this as a ground or grant beforehand That that is perfectly right which God doth and that is sufficient to be known which God revealeth I cannot pass from this rule until I have further backed it with a Scripture-Aphorism and an example added to it The Aphorism is that of Moses Deu. 29.29 The secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever that we may do all the words of this Law Here are two sorts of things solemnly distinguished secret things and those which are revealed and two distinct parties to whom they are severally appropriated Secret things belong unto the Lord Revealed unto us and to our children and the proper end or reason of the latter part of the distinction and of that appropriation of it that we may do all the words of this Law Dr Hall Exhort apud Acta Synodi Nat. Dord Sess 16. A great Divine in an Exhortation spoken in a famous Synod observed that in all the Scripture the Jews note fifteen places that have a special kind of mark set upon them and this is one and the first of them and it is the more to be marked in reference to our purpose because it is spoken in way of answer to a question not much differing from this we have in hand When all Nations shall say upon the sight of the dreadful Judgments of God upon Israel for their forsaking of him and breach of their Covenant with him wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this Land what meaneth the beat of this great anger then men shall say because they have forsaken the Covenant of the Lord c. Unto which positive answer this is added as the close and boundary unto mens expostulations touching that matter The secret things belong unto the Lord c. The example is that of Job and his three Friends They in Jobs heavy taking enter into and maintain on both sides and carry very far on a perplexed debate about Gods providence towards righteous and wicked men and the differences and ends thereof from which neither part came off clear and innocent much less satisfied or satisfying to their Reader in the end therefore God himself interposeth to decide the controversie when Elihu had assayed and could not Job 38.1 and speaking out of the whirlwind blameth them both Job he faulteth somewhat to wit of presumption and rashness but his three Friends more to wit of unsoundness and untruth in their several discourses of his ways and he so deals with them both as that he drives them to recant their Errors and return into the bounds of piety and charity Let this example instruct us Job 40.3.42.1 let us not forget the silence self-abhorring and retractation which Job was brought unto nor the kindling of Gods wrath against Eliphaz and his two friends and what attonement by sacrifice Cap. 42.7 and the intercession of Iob they were put to 3. Take heed of setting up a skreen or drawing a shadow betwixt us and the thing we enquire after I mean of an allowance of our selves or a purposed continuance in any known sin against God to bolster up our selves or to dispense with our selves in any known way of wickedness is wilfully to put a vail before our own eyes and industriously to prevent our selves of finding out that which we pretendingly seek to know And by the way a known sin I understand to be not only that which is actually apprehended or presently judged by our selves to be a sin but that which is contrary to our habitual knowledg or received principles though we should not apply them to its condemnation actually yea whatsoever we have so sufficient and plentiful means to be convinced of to be a sin that if it were not for our affection to the sin and our disaffection to the light that would detect us in it and draw us from it it would be evident enough to us that it is a sin And if there should be any that will not allow the latter branch of this description of a known sin yet I dare affirm to him that a sin even so continued in may justly prove such a skreen or vail as I am speaking of He that will not know his evil way to be a sin in Gods sight or knowing will not forsake it that man must not look to succeed well in this enquiry How should he expect to receive information in the cause that he knoweth not that will not obey information in the case that he knoweth or is afforded full information in That such adherence to a manifest sin is of this obstructing nature and interruptive consequence may appear if we look into that notable place in Ezekiel Son of man Eze. 14.13 these men have set up their Idols in their heart and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face should I be enquired of at all by them Here we have certain of the Elders of Israel repairing to the Prophet and sitting be ore him their business is to enquire of the Lord or as it is termed after to enquire of the Prophet concerning the Lord that is Verse 7 to be acquainted from God with what they desired to know concerning God his Will and ways but the posture they come in is the matter which the Lord takes notice of more then the errand which they come about and this is quite spoiled with that These men have set up their Idols in their heart c. This is the thing which puts a stop to their enquiry here comes in the skreen or traverse which interposeth betwixt them and their business We may observe sin indulged brings this about two manner of ways 1. Efficiently 2. Meritoriously And both are in this Text. 1. Efficiently sin distempereth the heart that it cannot take in or receive 2. It provoketh God that he will not give answer or satisfaction 1. Efficiently It distempereth or indisposeth the heart for the receiving of an answer Their Idols are set up in their heart and the stumbling block of their iniquity is put before their face that is there is a prepossession of their heart and sight by their sin it is gotten into the heart before-hand and there it hath the uppermost seat or throne it is the Lady or Mistriss it is the Idol or Goddess there And it is before their face it hath taken up the whole scope and region of their eye-sight it covers all before them and this is with their own consent and will it is their own doing they have so set it up in their heart so put it before their face they have been otherwise taught and instructed they have been often and plainly detected of and rebuked for those their sins yet they will still set and keep them up in their hearts and before their
Baals Priests in Elijahs contest with them 1 King 18 26 but sometimes it was a doubtful and aenigmatical or a downright false and lying answer Hab 2.18 The molten Image is a teacher of lyes the Idols have spoken vanity and the Diviners have seen a lye and have told false dreams Zech. 10.2 5 The answer is further described That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart that is the consequence of their enquiry shall be their catching and ensnaring they shall be possessed with the error and misprision of their own brains in stead of a true revelation from God and by it they shall be held and led on with confidence as in a net or snare to their own ruine This sentence is the same both in effect and in cause with that of the Apostle For this cause God shall send them strong delusion 2 Thes 2.10 11 12 that they should believe a lye and wherefore is it because they received not the love of the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness and the special means by which they should thus fall into the trap is in the subsequent words And if the Prophet be deceived Verse 9 when he hath spoken a thing I the Lord have deceived that Prophet It should be by the deceiving and deceivedness of false Prophets whose falshood and delusion whether subjective or effective whether in themselves or in the people though it be their own sin as the peoples delusion also is their own sin in that they seek to and credit such Prophets yet it is also penal and so from God not by active infusion but by giving them up to Satan his instruments and engines to themselves and their own stumbling blocks 2. The other part of the sentence is Vers 8. I the Lord will answer him by my self and I will set my face against that man and will make him a sign and proverb and I will cut him off from the midst of my people Here is still more weight added to the punishment of the presumptuous sinner that dares enquire of God with his heart upon his sin he shall not only be denyed a favorable and resolving answer from God nor only besides that be given up by God to others and his own deceits but he shall have thereto an immediate positive return from God and it is an heavy one it containeth much it is a most dreadful thing for a man to have the face of God set against him it is one of the terriblest expressions in the whole Scripture and he that will seek to God but will not sincerely set himself towards him to seek his face but will keep up the stumbling block of his iniquity before his own face he must look for this return Therefore it behoves every one not only in relation to the well-speeding of his enquiry in this or any other matter but in reference to all other his concernments to that dearest concernment of his own Soul that there be an unfeigned parting betwixt him and his iniquity To close up then this Rule let that admonition of God himself annexed to the rebuke and sentence I have been insisting on in this place be embraced and followed Vers 6 which is this Therefore say unto the House of Israel thus saith the Lord God Repent and turn your selves from your Idols and turn away your faces from all your abominations and let us together with this remember that in Psal 111. when the Psalmist had discoursed of the great honorable glorious and wonderful works of God and of the duty of searching them out he concludeth with this sentence as containing the way thereto and with it I will conclude this particular The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom a good understanding have all they which do his Commandments Other two Rules there are which I shall dispatch shortly 4. Come to the enquiry with an humble heart 1. With an heart-humbled under this condition of Gods hiding himself from us in relation to prayer according to the nature of it and as it deserves We have great reason to take it very heavily The Lords hiding from his servants or from his Church hath ever been the matter of their deepest hearts-piercing bitterest sorrow and dolefullest lamentation So it was to Job to David Job 30.28 to Heman Job saith I went mourning without the Sun Psa 30.7 88.15 I stood up and I cryed in the Congregation David saith Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled Heman complains I am afflicted and ready to dye from my youth up while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted And so it hath been to the Church of God When the Lord told Israel in the Wilderness upon their sin and notwithstanding Moses intercession for them that he would not go up in the midst of them for that they were a stiff-necked people it 's said When the people heard these evil tydings Exod. 33.3 4 they mourned and no man did put on his ornaments The Church in that allegory of Solomons Song when she arose up and opened to her beloved and found that he had withdrawn himself Cant. 5.5 6 8 and was gone her Soul failed or melted and when she sought him and could not find him when she called him but he gave her no answer she charges the daughters of Jerusalem if they could find him to tell him she was sick of love 2. With an heart humbled under the sense of our ignorance and inability to see into this matter of our selves There must be an ingenuous and lowly acknowledgment of our blindness and unskilfulness to discern what we should see herein and of our proneness to be puzled non-plussed and offended at all those ways of God wherein he walks behind a cloud in any sort towards us If we would be enwised in this particular 1 Cor. 3.18 we must become fools in our own sense that we may be wise He that intently looketh over the History of Job may find this failing both in Job and his friends which might be one cause of their mistaking touching the ways of God towards his afflicted servants that they arrogated too much to themselves and insisted too much upon comparisons with each other in point of wisdom and understanding Agur going to utter his Prophecy or Doctrine of Christ under the Titles of Ithiel and Vchal the former rendered God with me the latter God Almighty thus vilifies yea nullifies himself Prov. 30.2 3 Vide Jun. Trap Cleaver in loc Surely I am more brutish c. or as some interpret Surely I have been brutish since I was a man neither is there in me the understanding that was in Adam I neither learned wisdom nor have the knowledg of the holy And if we will understand the reason why he who is Ithiel or Emmanuel God with us doth sometimes withhold or conceal his presence from us we must take Agurs course and abase our selves
forth your hands Isai 1 15 I will hide mine eyes from you yea when you make many prayers I will not hear your hands are full of blood See also for this Isai 59.2 3. Isai 58 3 6. 2. Oppression injustice and violence Wherefore have we fasted say they and thou hearest not c. Is not this the Fast that I have chosen to loose the bands of wickedness to undo the heavy burdens and to let the oppressed go free and that ye break every yoke They have filled the Land with violence c. Ezek. 8.17 18 therefore though they cry in mine ears with a loud voyce yet I will not hear them You may read also Isai 59.2 4 7. And for Magistratical and Martial Injustice take that of Micah Hear I pray you O Heads of Jacob and ye Princes of the House of Israel Mic. 3.1 c. Is it not for you to know Judgment who hate the good and love the evil who pluck off their skin from off them and their flesh from off their bones who also eat the flesh of my people and stay their skin from off them and they break their bones and chop them in pieces as for the pot and as flesh within the cauldron Then shall they cry unto the Lord but he will not hear them he will even hide his face from them at that time Let men of this quality and crime look to it As they have their time to act their mischiefs and cruelties and may proceed from one degree of violence to another until they have even made meat of their inferiors so God hath his time of deserting them and of refusing to hear their cry 3. Unmercifulness Prov. 21.13 or uncharitableness to the poor and afflicted Who so stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor he also shall cry himself but shall not be heard The people of Judah making complaint of God to himself Isai 58.3 6 7 Wherefore have we fasted and thou seest not c. The Lord discovers to them the causes to wit the defaults of their Fasts Is not this the fast that I have chosen c. Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh Cornelius the Centurion Act. 10.2 4 31 as he prayed to God alway so he gave much alms to the people and we may take notice as alms and prayers and that in answerable proportion praying alway and much alms were joyned together in his practice so they were by God in his acceptance of him So the Angel told him Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God On the contrary if we forget to shew mercy to men together with our prayer to God we may look that God may forget and withhold his mercy from our prayers 4. Covetousness This was one of Judahs sins and of the bolts that kept out their prayers from God Isa 1.57.17 For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth and smote him I hid me and was wroth c. A greedy desire to and over-fast holding of earthly things as it hinders our desires and affections from ascending upwards to Heaven so it stops on prayers from coming downwards from thence in answer to us Matt. 6 23 Dr Hammond prac Catec This is that evil eye which in our Saviours sentence makes the whole body full of darkness and that great darkness and the darkness in that place means a privation of the sight of those treasures and benefits that are layd up in and come down from Heaven 5. Pride Elihu in Job tells us There they cry but none giveth answer Job 35.12 13 because of the pride of evil men Surely God will not hear vanity neither will the Almighty regard it Pride is vanity or a lye by it we either foolishly assume to our selves what we have not or impiously ascribe to our selves what we have and deny our dependance on or beholdingness to God And it is but suitable that if we take to our selves that excellency which we have not we should go without that which we would obtain and if we deny God the glory of what we have received and with it be lifted up in our selves he may well cut us short of what we ask and would receive of him Agur entreated God not to give him riches last being full Pro. 30.8 9 he should deny God A proud man is too full in himself to be fit to receive any thing at the hands of God and it is far better even for us that God should deny us in some of our prayers then that we should deny him in his benefits David saith The Lord respecteth the lowly Psa 138.6 but the proud be knoweth afar off and Peter 1 Pet. 5.5 that God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble The Apostle Paul was in danger of being exalted above measure through the abundance of revelations and therefore when for the prevention thereof there was given to him a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet him and for that thing he besought the Lord thrice 2 Cor. 12 7 c. that it might depart from him He was not instantly heard as to the removal of that evil the same end in all probability that brought it to wit the cure of pride continued it upon him and prevented his prayers from that way taking effect lest the plaister being taken off the sore might gather and swell again 3. The third rank of sins are those that may be in or about prayer it self these are many The most remarkable may be these 1. Praying without a sight and discovery of the sins that lie against us The Lord saith I will go and return unto my place till they acknowledg their offence and seek my face With seeking of the face of God there must go along a finding out and owning of our sin and in particular our offence that is the special sin we are most guilty in and most stands up against us before God We are all readier to see our wants then our sins like Malefactors before a Judg apter to petition for a release then to confess our faults Ioshua and the Elders of Israel lay upon their faces and prayed before God upon their discomfiture as Ai but they were not aware of Israels sin in the accursed thing the Lord therefore bids them get themselves up 1 Kin. 8.38 and go hunt out that Solomons request was that God would hear what prayer and supplication soever be made by any man or by all his people Israel which shall know every man the plague of his own heart Sin is the plague of the heart this plague must be known that prayer may be heard and every man must know the proper plague or sin of his own
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
odors Their sweet odors were an emblem of prayer and the time of their Incense-offering was their time of prayer * Psa 141 2 Luk. 1.10 so that it is as much as if he had said I will not accept your prayers This the Prophet Daniel renders as the reason of the accomplishing of the seventy years captivity and of the Lords hiding so long in that particular from his people and their prayers All this evil is come upon us Dan. 9.13 yet made we not our prayers before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities The people before and all along during the captivity did pray as I have before noted but they did not so pray as withall to turn from their iniquities and therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil saith he in the next words or as some render Therefore hath the Lord been diligent Rolloc in loc and persevering in that evil which he hath brought upon us that is therefore he hath gone on in judgment against us and would not be entreated We may note it in all experience a course of prayer and a course of sin cannot stand together I mean they cannot both stand in force together but either prayer will beat down sin or sin will keep down and enervate prayer neither do they ordinarily stand together for any time in regard of practice but either prayer will break off the course of sin or sin will break off the custom of prayer What the Apostle saith of the Spirit and the flesh that they mutually lust against one another Gal. 5.17 the same may be said of prayer and sin they combate and conflict each against other and that until the one be brought down We have thus seen what sins in special are causes of Gods hiding from prayers and we have had them distinguished in three ranks namely sins against piety sins against the second Table and sins in or about prayer and under each of these have been mustered up divers particulars The fourth thing propounded to consideration was certain circumstances in sin which help forward this effect and move God the rather to it These are 1. Incorrigibleness in sin or a going on in sin notwithstanding and in contradiction unto special means applyed for reformation as when the Word of the Lord is sent out and published unto a person or people for a direct conviction and rebuke of the sin or sins committed and lived in and for the calling of men to repentance of and recovery from them or when the Judgments of God have come and lien upon men personally domestically or nationally in any kind as a witness against and correction for the sin or any other means hath been used and yet nevertheless men persist and obstinately persevere in their evil ways This was Israels and Judahs aggravation of their sin and it added weight to and furthered the Lords hiding from their prayers But they refused to harken Zech. 7.11 12 13. and pulled away the shoulder and stopped their ears that they should not hear yea they made their hearts as an adamant stone lest they should hear the Law and the words which the Lord of Hoasts hath sent in his Spirit by the former Prophets Therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of Hoasts Therefore it came to pass that as he cryed and they would not hear so they cryed and I would not hear saith the Lord of Hoasts When the Lord declared to Israel Hos 5.15 by the Prophet Hosea that he would go and return to his place that is that he would withdraw his presence and audience to a great distance from them this was one thing which brought it on They have done so and so Verse 2. though I have been a rebuker of them all And the same is alledged against that people in the Prophet Isaiah as concurring to this effect I hid me Isai 57.17 and was wroth and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart or as the late Annotations because he went on frowardly Divines Annot. 2 Edit c. And so their froward and obstinate running on in their sin was not the consequent but the antecedent and reason why God was wroth and being angry hid himself from them 2. Presumption or an adventuring to do an act or run a course against the express and particular prohibition or warning of God by his Messengers against the doing thereof As when Israel in the wilderness would needs go up to fight with the Amorites Moses relating it to them afterward saith And the Lord said unto me Say unto them Go not up neither fight Deut. 1 42 c. for I am not among you lest ye be smitten before your enemies So I spake unto you and ye would not hear but rebelled against the Commandment of the Lord and went presumptuously up into the hill c. and ye returned and wept before the Lord but the Lord would not harken to your voyce nor give ear unto you 3. Scandalous sinning David when the Lord had struck the child that Vriahs wife bare unto him with sickness besought God for the child and fasted and lay all night upon the Earth but nevertheless the child dyed and the special reason why the Lord was so inexorable to him in this particular Nathan the Prophet had before given him Howbeit because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the child also that is born unto thee shall surely dye * David was not heard because it stood not with the rule of divine justice that so scandalous a sin which made the enemies of God to blaspheme should not have an exemplary punishment Mr Mede Diatrib part 2 pag. 298. Those sins of the people of God which do open the mouths of the professed Adversaries of Religion to reproach the Name of God are more then ordinarily obstructive of prayer It is time for God upon the remittance of such by them to manifest his special dis-favour in such an effect that so he may vindicate that Name of his which his people call upon from the aspersion of their sin As God upon this ground refused to hear David so did he for the like cause deny the petition of another as eminent for nearness to and favor with him as he to wit Moses He besought the Lord very pathetically for leave to go into and see the Land of Canaan but the Lord would not harken unto him in it but he must dye beyond Jordan and what was the reason the Lord tells it Aaron and him Because ye beleeved me not Numb 20.12 27.14 to sanctifie me in the eyes of the children of Israel By his sin at the waters of strife a scandal was given unto the people reflecting upon God himself and therefore when mention is afterward made of this sin and the sentence of God upon it as it is often noted in the sacred
eye-sight is able to ken or overlook the whole In short unto a full and perfect discovery of the reason I mean not of what is hidden in Gods councel but of that matter of reason which is extant and enquirable by means afforded to us of this effect in our Case there must go these three things 1. An exact knowledg and remembrance of the whole Oracle of God at least so much of his Word as delivers us any rule or light in this matter 2. A perfect understanding of the spiritual condition of the ways and of the prayers of all the persons that have any either influence or concernment in this effect 3. A faculty of discourse or deduction which is unerring or certain both by way of application of the Rule to the subject and of inference of the conclusion thereupon So much as any is deficient in any of these as who is not in every of them so far he shall come short of a compleat and absolute resolution of this question Now if I should say some kind of certitude in the point of Application and Inference is attainable yet it must be acknowledged very rare and difficult in this imperfect state of man on Earth and in these byassing and partial times But for a perfection in the two former who can in this world once pretend to it Yet must not the Question therefore be wholly layd aside For 1. Though an exact knowledg and comprehension of the Rule of Scripture be not to be acquired yet some good and serviceable measure thereof is acquirable and though the full state of mens hearts ways and prayers be not humanely fathomable yet there is much matter of fact obvious unto those that will observe as to many particulars which do most concern us to lay to heart a curious search a critical Judgment Josephs divining cup or his divining for his cup needs not they are plain enough to be seen we have not so much need to be new informed as to be put in mind of them and the work is not so much to bring them within our sight as to press them upon our hearts 2. As it most nearly concerns us so it may much advantage us to discover what we can in this query though we cannot be so absolute and exact in our solution of it for we shall never seek remedy either by the removal of the procuring Causes or by endeavoring after the Ends of this hiding of God from us until we be somewhat resolved herein and so far as we gain any discovery and satisfaction about it so far we are in an advance towards the remedying of it 3. If we be diligent to find out what we can and to practice according to what we find we then may hope God will both accept and meet us in the discovery we endevor and promote us both in it and in our recovery out of that evil which is the subject of it Although there may be divers reasons in men moving God to this deportment toward his people which we can never search out yet the invincible ignorance of them shall not prejudice us God imposeth not upon us to find out what is inextricably hid but to destroy and own what is occurrent to our knowledg and to rectifie what is so desired If each man would busie himself about this and we would all communicate each to other and borrow one of another our several apprehensions though one can say but a little yet all together might by the help of divine grace search out and bring in much towards the making up of a sufficient answer to this That which I apprehend and will here say of it shall be contained under these three Propositions 1. It is more then probable that of all those causes of the Lords hiding himself from his peoples prayers above collected not one or some few only but many if not all have some place causality or efficacy in the present case 2. That plurality of reasons which there may be of this thing among us we cannot reasonably suppose ascribable wholly to every one or to any one person or party but we may attribute them to the whole community distributively or dispersedly so as that some of them more properly belong to one some to another and all to the whole by way of distribution 3. Although many most or all the recited causes may have influence in the present case yet some of them may be conceived more predominant and more notable in the effect then the rest and therefore more necessary for us to observe and lay to heart Somewhat of each of these in order 1. It is more then probable that of all the reasons of the Lords hiding himself from his peoples prayers above enumerated a multitude of them if not the most or all have some place causality and efficacy in this effect now among us I mean of all of both those sorts viz. whether meritorious or procuring on mans part or final and intentional on Gods part All the causes of both these kinds or many of each of them may now have influence in the producing of this sad effect Our case seems to yield much matter of reason in both these respects many and mighty provocations in us great and various designments of God 1. For the matter of provocation on our part we need not look far or ask for which of those sins before rehearsed it is that the Lord deals thus with us there is such store of them among us that we may ask which of them is not found in us and that in an high degree and therefore which of them is it not for We can scarce tell how to pitch upon any of them to say it is for this or that more then the other they are all so rife amongst us As the Lord tells his people of Iudah I have wounded thee with the wound of an Enemy Jer. 30.14 15 with the chastisement of a cruel one for the multitude of thine iniquity because your sins were increased And again Why cryest thou for thine affliction thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity because your sins were increased I have done these things unto you And elsewhere having pronounced his desolating judgments upon them and having told the Prophet that when they fast and offer burnt-offerings he will not hear their cry nor accept them yea and forbidden him to pray for them for their good and told him though Moses and Samuel were interceding for them his heart could not be towards them for all this he alledgeth the reason after this manner Jer. 15.13 and that for all thy sins even in all your borders All their sins committed in all the quarters and coasts of their Land the Lord doth as it were gather and bundle up together and lay in the ballances with their prayers and those do far over-weigh these So may it be said of us why hath the Lord in so many and great things
list do so likewise And how general is if not the committance yet the contagion of Idolatry when as some practise it others plead for its freedom others argue for it as no Idolatry others connive at it and let it alone and others work underhand for its further impunity That which the Prophet utters by way of description and reproof of the impiety of the Heathen Nations Micah 4.5 All people will walk every one in the name of his God is now owned and voted for by many and they say Let all people or they should walk every one in the name of his god and further besides the gross or corporal sort of Idol-worship or adoring either Images the work of mens hands or Creatures the work of Gods hands there are two other kinds of Idolatry and they are both among us There is the Idolatry of the brain and the Idolatry of the heart The Idolatry of the brain to wit the entertaining of Antitheistical notions or conceits of God or the seting up of such figments in the understanding of God as are directly opposite to that divine Nature and Personality or distinction of subsistence as is revealed unto us in the Word of God to be the object of our faith and worship And the Idolatry of the heart that is Covetousness for this sin the Apostle brandeth for Idolatry * Col. 3 5. Ephes 5 5 Vide Drusius in Hos 12.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we Ephes 4.19 translate greediness Vide Bez. in loc presertim Dan. Heusii excercit lib 10 c 4 l. 13. c. 2 And Mr Leigh's Crit. Sacr. in vocab And we must understand the term is of a larger extent then our ordinary sence of the word Covetousness reacheth unto for it signifieth an over-greedy desire prosecution and use of any earthly thing and so may include in it ambition intemperance luxury or any other inordinacy as well as the love of mony or worldly wealth and particularly it signifies that satisfying or accomplishment of any corrupt lust which is brought about by violence treachery or breach of Covenant Now who will not confess that the Land is full of this Idolatry or can say that ever any Age or Country equalled or more abounded with this kind of Idolatry and Worship then this of ours Here is Covenant breaking and especially with or in the matters of God I think I may confidently say Never any Nation scarce Israel it self in Moses time or after hath so generally publâ—quely solemnly sacredly and reiteratedly bound themselves to or in the th ngs of God as hath this with our neighbor Nation and never did any so quickly so universally in regard of things so professedly so constantly with such self justifying and so hypocritically or under a pretence of acting from and for God violate their bonds unto him as multitudes have done among us Did ever any people lift up their hands so high unto God in swearing performance of all religious and humane Duties and defence and advancement of all sacred and civil Rights and presently let down their hands so low when it came to execution yea and lifted them up so high against the very things which they swore for as many in England have done We have multiplyed Oaths and studied for the most solemn express and strict forms of declaring and binding our selves as if we would constrain both God and all the world to beleeve and build upon our word most surely and as if we would make it unimaginable and impossible that we should break but after all this there are men found that have gone to work in the matters of the Oaths and Covenants as if the direct contrary to what was the subject of their Oaths had been the things they had undertaken and tyed themselves unto and as if all that they did in entering into those Obligations and in their proceedings afterward had been out of a study to make themselves and the Land as deeply guilty as they could both against God and man of Oath and Covenant-violation Who so shall but look back if a remembrance thereof now may be offenceless upon the Vow and Protestation of the year 1641. and the League and Covenant of the year 1642. and therein take notice to let all other things pass of what was vowed protested covenanted and sworn by the generality of this Nation in one or other or both of those bonds in relation to God What maintenance and defence of the true reformed Protestant Religion against all Popery and Popish Innovations and what endeavor of the punishment of all the Actors to the contrary what endeavor for the preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland and for the Reformation of Religion in the Kingdom of England and Ireland and that in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government in respect both to that Church and to these Kingdoms and for the Conjunction and Vniformity of the Churches of God in all the three Kingdoms in Religion c. and for the extirpation of Popery Prelacy Superstition Heresie Schism Profaneness c. He I say that shall but think thereof and then cast his eye upon the universal indisposition and backwardness of the whole Nation to the making good of these things their lothness to expose or imploy any life power or estate for the same the late committance to otter oblivion and deep silence of all these Obligations their total desistance from and constant refusal of all these performances in whose hands it is publiquely to manage the same and their disenabling letting and discouraging them that would stir therein the declarings endeavors and exploits of many directly contrary to these clauses both to the downfall of what was to have been preserved restored or effected and to the reviving and flouâ—ishing of what was to have been extirpated and lastly the favour and help that hath been lent to the known Enemies of the Religion professed and covenanted for in all the said branches thereof and in their enmity against the same He I say again that shall revolve these things if he have any sense either of the things obliged to or the nature of the Obligation cannot chuse but sit down with some part of Ezra's astonishment and heaviness conceived upon the sin of some of his people in the point of anti-federal marriages And as to the purpose in hand in stead of wondering what is become of all the prayers that have been put up for England he may admire what shall become of England and of them that have made it and themselves so guilty in this matter For this our heart is faint for these things our eyes are dim Lam 5.17 Here is Religion abused unto carnal ends and that very commonly plainly and grosly Religion hath been for a long time universally embraced and pretended to in England There have of late been many proceed ngs taken in hand about it yea it hath been one thing which men have held forth and made
of all these and of whatsoever else any will further take up and contribute and let all England go a whoring after it according as his deluded phancy shall lead him But that Ephod proved a snare to Gideon and to his house a snare first of sin in their superstitious use of it and then of punishment in fratricide and usurpation of Abimelech and the sedition and bloodshed that followed chap. 9. A sad presaging pattern The main pillars and vital parts of Religion to wit Piety Love Charity tenderness of Conscience and Courage are grown faint and brought low It is very plain to be seen that Luxury and Epicurism in some worldliness in others and an heretical judgment or a dividing and contentious spirit in a third sort hath deadened and destroyed Religion and besides these three sorts there are but a few left to keep up any life of it among us Many of the Disputes about it and about the outward support of it by the power of the Magistrate and the set maintenance of the Ministry may justly be deemed to arise from the mean esteem cold affection and nauseating weariness of it into which many are declined They account every thing in it unnecessary and burthensom any command of it over them any diligence in its practice any charge bestowed on it though by others seemeth too much They fall to question and quarrel with it as being desirous to ease themselves of its power restraint cost and labor All the dotage unsetledness and Libertinism in opinions and ways that is on foot seems to be from a Paralysis or dead Palsie seized on our Religion In that disease there is a decay or stop of the animal spirits and from thence a resolution of the sinews and muscles and so a stupefaction of the senses and a loosening of the members and limbs of the body In such a manner it is now analogically with Religion A dead Palsie hath struck us the vigor and spirits of our Religion are perished and from thence it is that the understandings of men are become so vain and phantastical their minds and consciences so loose unstable and extravagant That zeal which should heat mens hearts and warm their affections unto the practice of their duties and the resistance of gross errors and sins is cold and extinct to that use and enflamed only to strife and debates of tongue pen and hand either frivolous or plainly heterodox and unrighteous Our unkindly and sickly heats in Religion have begotten Wars and these Wars have not only destroyed the natural lives and worldly estates of many but have drawn out the life and blood of Religion it self and have left it as a cold mangled and liveless carcass Even in many of those who seemed to be affected to Religion above the generality it is evaporated into winds of Doctrine fumes of contention or flashes of high-flown notions or expressions I have culled out these amongst many of the sins of England against the first Table which stand up against and may well out-cry the prayers that are put up for her For those against the second Table they are also as flagrant among us Blood-guiltiness injustice and unmercifulness I need not point at they so break out and fill every place that there is no room left for my complaint against them Covetousness I have met with afore Only a word of Pride Here is pride even in its height Luciferian arrogancy Pride was the National sin of Sodom and after that of Jerusalem and it brought them both to ruine * Ezek. 16 49 and it is now our National sin as much as ever it was either of theirs or any others We have been proud of all the earthly of all the heavenly blessings God hath given us We have been proud of our plenty power wisdom peace successes impunity deliverances We have been proud of our Gospel-priviledges of our Religion Reformation Profession Ministers unseemlily preferring our Church Clergy and Professors above those of other Nations Our pride appears in our discords and jars If contention be the proper issue of pride as Solomon saith it is * Prov. 13 10 then we may conclude our selves the most pride-swollen people under Heaven for we are absolutely the most broken and divided Nation that is or ever was I think upon the Earth Our pride appears in the seditious and aspiring spirit that now lifts men up Every man almost is a Korah and takes too much yea all upon him Every man almost arrogates the highest demerit honor and power to himself scarce a man to be found especially of the lower degree and worth but thinks himself fit and worthy of the chiefest employment and command and none so fit as himself It is not now as in Jothans Parable wherein the Trees going to anoint a King over them first offered their Kingdom to the more noble and profitable Trees the Olive-tree the Fig-tree and the Vine and they refusing then to the Bramble but these being rejected and trambled under-foot every Bramble assumes to himself superiority and will rather set all on fire then not be a Ruler Our pride appears in that contempt and disdain which men cast one upon another The exalted spirits of the Times as they greaten themselves in their own eyes so they lessen and detract from others they look at themselves as more then men at others their Connatives in the Land their Brethren now or once in religious profession and it may be both in the eyes of God and other men their betters as Pagans or Dogs not deserving any respect society liberty protection or subsistence with them Our pride appears in that like the Caldean or Amaeziah King of Judah we cannot keep at home but must be enlarging our desires unsatisfiedly Hab. 2.5 2 Chro. 25 19 and stretching our line to and gathering unto us all Nations and heaping unto us all people Although we are become a shame and a derision a proverb and a by-word a reproach and a taunt unto the Nations that are round about us yet we vaunt and boast it out we stand upon tiptoe we are high and honorable in our own conceits we glory in our selves yea in our shame In these days in which the spirit of drunkenness and deep sleep darkness and dotage is poured out upon us men dream of a higher measure of light and will needs fancy to themselves extraordinary illumination like the Prince of Tyrus Ezek. 28.12 13 14 we seal up the sum full of wisdom and perfect in beauty as if we had been in Eden the Garden of God or were become anointed Cherubs Next follow as obstructers of prayer the sins we are guilty of in and about our prayers If I should take scope in them every one severally I should scarce find a way to any end In brief therefore We pray yet sin though open and in impudent enough in it self is as to our distinct and convictive acknowledgment latent and hidden Many of those
sins that are before the face of God and set in the light of his countenance as a vail of separation shutting out our prayers from him we put behind our backs or with Achan hide in the bottom of our Tent and some of them are justified and entitled to divine approbation and patronage Evil is called good and darkness light Isai 5.20 and bitter sweet We pray yet the heart is unhumbled All the weight of sins the woes of wrath and judgment the want of our desires and prayers break not the heart After the threefold captivity of Judah by the Babylonian Jer. 44.10 the Lord complains of those that were left They are not humbled even to this day After the treble Civil War which this Land within these few years hath been enflamed with it is in like manner with us We are not humbled even to this day nay we are more unhumbled and hardened at this day then at the first We pray but our devotion is formal and remiss We have prayed and fasted as we think long but how so long indeed that we appear tired out with it The longer we have continued the fainter and colder we have been about it until at last we have given it over in regard of constancy in publique and that pretendingly upon this very ground of weariness and formality as if that were a just reason to desist which is our sin and as if discontinuance were not as great a sin or greater and as much or more impedimental of prayer as remissness and formality and as if constancy and assiduity in prayer were the cause per se and justly chargeable with that slackness or the regular way to cure the ill habit and bad consequents of Customariness in a necessary duty were disuse Job 17.10 Job saith Will the Hypocrite always call upon God We say constancy in fasting and prayer is the breeder of Hypocrisie and unconstancy the remedy We pray but it may be feared we seek our selves in it and not God our ends are carnal and not spiritual James 4 3 Hos 7.14 we ask for our lusts not for our Souls we assemble for corn and wine not for the glory and service of God If our ayms in prayer may be judged by our other endevors we minde not the Kingdom of God or the advancement of Religion in the first or in any place for what do we act for them Our own wills our own interests our own quarrels are the attractive of our eyes We look at our own things and it is well if not with Jezebel in her Fast at Naboths Vineyard We pray but is it in mutual charity and forgiveness or in contention and strife We pray in relation one to another but is it for or against one another If irremission of quarrels and wrongs do lock up the gates of Heaven against prayers who can wonder that the prayers of England stand without doors Here are contentions numberless endless irreligious unpolitique irrational bloody fundamental and ruining and without all doubt as the subjects of these contentions are the subject of mens prayers so the affections that stir up and carry on those quarrels do move and act in their prayers There is scarce any union or agreement among us in any thing positive that which is betwixt any party seems rather to consist in a joynt-differing from and opposing others which is the union of Hell then in a conjunction or concuâ—rence in any positive truth or practice and though some mens judgments and ends do meet in some things yet the variance that is betwixt them in other things or the quarrel they are together engaged in against a third party deprives them of or disturbeth that sweet union and complacency which they should have in their concurrent practice and fruition of that wherein they agree Well it is Isai 58.4 if men do not now fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness For my part I will here deal plainly I admire that the subject of publique Fasts should constantly be matter of civil interest and such things as they that do most attend fasting and prayer do mainly differ in and that the not publishing of those Fasts should be matter of snare and penalty to Ministers and they that will not come publickly to hear the Word to worship or call upon God either on those or the Lords own days should be left free And is it now come to this That whereas ere-while coercive proceedings might be only in civil matters and in things of conscience as they speak or of Religion there might be no compulsion now what man commands in point of Religion the indicting or proclaiming of a Fast to be kept on such a day may be under a pain but what God himself commands to wit the actions themselves of fasting prayer preaching and hearing must be arbitrary * If it be said the publication of a fast is no act of Religion but a civil action only introductory thereto it is of the same nature with that of a mans travelling from his home unto the publique Assembly and his placing himself and continuing there during the publique worship these actions are but introductory to performances why may not then these be commanded under a pain as well as that or both be left free We pray but we reform not The gap lies down the hedg lies open betwixt divine wrath and us while we continue irreformed Prayers and tears alone will never make up that breach It is to trust in lying words for men to enter in at the gates of the Lords house Jer. 7.2 c. there to worship sacrifice fast and pray and to say The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord without through amendment of their ways and doings It is to make God a Patron of Thieves Murderers Adulterers Perjurers and Idolaters and his House a den of such Reformation beginneth at the House of God so hath it been proceeded in by all the eminent and exemplary Reformers that ever have been Our Saviour Christ whose coming and publishing the Gospel was the time of Reformation the first thing we find enterprised by him at his first entrance into Jerusalem Heb. 9.10 Joh. 2.14 c. was his driving out of the Temple with a scourge the Profaners of it and purging his Fathers house Let persons in Authority suffer in the house of God emptiness separation disorder error and profanation and it shall be bootless for them to set upon life-reformation in so proceeding as they are preposterous in the undertaking so they will prove unprosperous in the effecting of a Reformation The Lord saith to Israel Hos 4.13 14 because they went a whoring from their God by Irreligion and Idolatry Therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom and your spouses shall commit adultery I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom nor your spouses when they commit adultery * I
to himself Few of us smite upon our own brests or say each one to himself This Soul is guilty hereof But the contempt of Gods Word is ordinarily in mens mouths as a charge upon others and is noted for a sin of this reigning nature and predominant influence 5. Last of all The evil under present consideration the Lords hiding from our prayers looketh full upon this sin by way of proportion and similitude This desertion is an answerable punishment or correction to that sin It is one denyal one put off for another We harken not to God in his Word and God harkeneth not to us in our prayers We manifest no delight in Gods Word God manifesteth no pleasure that he takes in our seekings of him The Gospel of peace is not entertained with accâ—ptance by us we receive not an answer of peace to our supplications We yield not to God God yields not to us We defer our obedience to his Will and he delays the grant of our wishes Thus much of the first master Sin of England The other I now come unto to wit the high and dear esteem advancement and love of a worldly-private-Interest This and the former sin are usually to be met with together they are like two German Sisters or Twins that are born and grow up together Where the Word of God falls and lies under contempt and loathing there an earthly-self-Interest lifteth up its head and carries mens hearts and adorations after it and vice versa where worldly-interest gains favour and esteem there the Gospel comes into disgrace and disrespect The Word and the World are as contraries that do mutually expel and remove one another Earthly-mindedness is the Anti-Gospel Antichristian Sin The Gospel sets up the life of Faith Earthly-mindedness sets up the life of Sense That carries to things unseen and eternal this fixeth on things seen and temporal Christ calleth us out of the world this setteth up our rest in the world Christ commands us to forsake all that we have this enjoyns us to grasp at all the world and hold fast all that we can get Christ conquers the world unto us this captivates us to the world Christ teacheth us to deny our selves this wills us to love and save our selves And as these two the contempt of the Word and the adoring of Self-Interest are bred and live together so they concur and work together for the obstruction of prayers It is the latter I am now to speak to and for brevities sake I will joyntly assert that it is the sin and the reigning sin of England as to this effect What is now the professed study care and projection what is the labour strife and adventure of men It is to make themselves rich high safe free and potent and that with little or no respect to Religion Conscience other mens or the publique Interest The Land though it be very full of various opinions and parties divided and subdivided in point of Judgment yet it is not so full of them as it is of particular Interests each whereof is prefered by its owner above the whole We are indeed lately new-termed a Commonwealth but let it be without offence if I say what is undenyably true and plain to be seen to wit these two words 1. Private Wealth and common Poverty were never more procured then since we were a Commonwealth 2. If it had not been for private-wealth and Interest the Commonwealth had not had so many friends and followers It hath been in divers ages a catching opinion that Faith and Religion brings a kind of temporal right or an earthly priviledg dominion and preheminence The Jews extracted such a worldly notion out of the Promises and Priviledges they had by their father Abraham and those they expected by the Messiah a Jo. Selden de Jur. Nat. lib. 6. cap. 3. p. 678. cap. 12. p. 730. cap. 18. pag. 770. cap. 19. p. 774 c. The Disciples of Christ until after his Ascension harbored a strain of that Jewish fancy b Mark 9.34.10.35 Acts 1.6 After that the Corinthians and other Heretiques in the Christian Church took up the conceit c Augustin de Haeres But more notoriously and grosly the Mahumetans entertained this Opinion and pursued it with the Sword unto the erecting of a vast Dominion d Appendix ad Aug. de Haeres Io. Selden de Jur. Nat. lib. 6. cap. 12. pag. 732. Of late the e Io. Sleiden Com. lib. 10. Cambden Elizab Tom. 2. p. 34. Anabaptists in Germany and Hacket and his Complices here were possessed with this principle unto a strange height of fury and dotage And it is very probable there are some now among us that have sucked in this for a Doctrine They have layd but a weak title to any other warrant and what they alledg they quickly take from themselves by their contrary actions If indeed they hold this Doctrine they think it fitter to practise then preach it to keep it to themselves then to proselyte others to it Sure I am for any to challenge by vertue of Saintship or Christianity a right to dispossess others and to assume to themselves as much of the property and rule of this world as they can lay their hands on is one of the most unsaint-like and unchristian points that is imaginable The Devil once entitled himself to the Monarchy of the World * Luk. 4.16 and after him the man of sin the Pope hath claimed it And whatsoever sort of men do take to themselves such a preheminence upon such a ground as is above-said they are not the followers of Christ but of these two and the direct contradictors of the Gospel But my work here is not to prosecute them with a Confutation Whether it be this principle or that downright 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the insatiable greedy desire after the things of this world and a ruined bent to have them by what means soever or both that prevails certain it is that the hearts of men are exceedingly enflamed with the love of an earthly-self-interest This is the powerful attractive the swaying concernment the axletree that actions and affairs now move upon Let us in one word measure the regnancy of this sin by the afore-given characters 1. This is general It was once said of Judah From the least of them even unto the greatest of them Jer. 6.13 every one is given to covetousness Can any less be said of England There are many new and strange Sects noted among us but there is one not of a new rise but of late much encreased and the most numerous Sect of any that is to be found which is that of the Mammonists this is the greatest Sect the strongest party you can meet with amongst them all nay these cannot properly be called a party they are rather the whole All other parties and Sects though they be never so much divided and opposite to one another in other regards
our friend we must look that God should be strange to us If the world be in all the request with us we shall be but in little request with God Jacob was a Prince with God when he was but weak in the world If we seek an earthly Princedom as our promotion and stay we must be no Israels none of Gods favorites The Apostle James Jam. 4.3 4 8 at large teacheth us this Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your lusts Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you but withall cleanse your hands ye sinners and purifie your hearts ye double-minded I will proceed no further in the prosecution of the predominant Sins of England in the production of this sad effect of prayer-obstruction And having done with it I am come to the close of those three Propositions which I layd down for the resolution of this grand Case of Prayer as it is ours and so I have finished as far as I now intend the resolution it self I apprehend my self in this Section to have run the hazard of falling under censure diversly as of attempting too highly of redundancy of amplification of deficiency in discovery of boldness and plainness of reprehension of mistake or error in judging but my design hath been to avoyd what is justly culpable in any of these respects and for what is not severely blameable rather to cast my self upon the candor of my Reader with submission to his judicious correction then not to endeavor seeing I have undertaken it what I may the satisfaction of the anxious Christian and the awakening of the drouzy in a point so material SECT VIII What may be the Reason of the Lords seeming by his Providences to answer the Prayers which are contrary to those of his People HAving gone through this enquiry What may be the Reason of the Lords hiding himself from his Peoples Prayers grounded upon his Promises I have in a manner answered the whole Query propounded in the beginning of this Chapter Only whereas it was divided into two parts * See Sect. 4. and the latter which is What may be the Reason of the Lords seeming by his Providences to answer the Prayers which are contrary to those of his People I have directly and distinctly said nothing unto I shall therefore here remember it but in one word The resolution of the former I take to be the main both in point of necessity and in the intent of the Proposer and it is moreover in effect the answering of this latter for the prayers in the former from which the Lord hides himself and the prayers in the latter which seem to be answered by him are supposed to be contrary to each other so that the suspense of the one is the succeeding of the other and the Reasons which move God to hide himself from the one and to answer the other are the same especially in relation to the people of God In a word therefore the Reasons for which the Lord seemeth by his Providences to answer the prayers which are contrary to his peoples may be twofold 1. In relation to them that pray those contrary prayers It is in wrath to them and in judgment against them This it must needs be for the prayers of the people of God are presupposed to be at least for matter good and agreeable to the Will of God the prayers then that are contrary to them must needs be for their matter sinful as repugnant to the revealed Will of God or rule of Prayer and what is so sinful success therein must needs be in wrath and judgment For a man to prosper in his evil way to bring his wicked devices to pass though he joyn prayer therewith it cannot but be his sin yea his conjunction of that holy performance of prayer with his unlawful enterprize much addeth to his sin * As the Scribes Pharisees devouring Widows houses for a pretence making long prayer made their condemnation the greater Mat. 23.14 and that which is the proper fruit or product of sin must needs be judgment and punishment It is one of the stiles which is given to the judgments of God upon men for their sins they are called the fruit of their own way and the fruit of their own thoughts When God therefore performeth or speedeth such prayers it is in his displeasure to them and for their hurt It had been better for them not to have had their desires †Bernard calls this misericordia omni indignatione crudelior It may be a judgment to them two ways 1. In being an occasion or means of increasing their sin this is a heavy judgment Men by prospering in their evil designs especially when they as they think obtain them by prayer when they are the sequel and they take it the issue of their devotions they take occasion thereby of delusion infatuation hardening and furtherance in Sin Prov. 1.31 Jer. 6 19 Their Table is their snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a recompence Rom. 11.9 What Table is this May it not be the Table on which they spred their prayers before God or may it not be applyed to that Councel Table of the chief Priests Scribes and Elders of the Jews at which they consulted to take Jesus by subtilty and kill him which plot Mat. 26.4 because they prosperously atchieved even beyond their hopes doing it by the help of Judas in the Feast of the Passover in the most open and ignominious manner which they doubted they could not do they therefore concluded their action good Mat. 27.63 43 and that Christ justly suffered as an Impostor They tyed the proof of his Innocency and of his being the Christ upon the event of their prosecution of him and therefore they said when Christ was upon the Cross He trusted in God Mark 15.32 let him deliver him now if he will have him or as Beza if he be grateful or pleasing to him and Let Christ the King of Israel come down from the Cross that we may see and believe Prevalency in evil undertakings carryed on with prayer putteth on and emboldeneth to many sins For example 1. It lifts men up in pride Hâ—nce that of David Grant not O Lord Psa 140.8 the desires of the wicked further not his wicked device lest they exalt themselves 2. It makes men the more violent and fierce in their enmity and persecution of the people of God Sennacherib made this one ground of his rage and insolent threats against Hezekiah and his people Am I now come up without the Lord against this Land to destroy it Isai 36.10 The Lord said unto me Go up against this Land and destroy it 3. Upon it they justifie themselves and wax more
our petitions in wrath and to our hurt 5. Lastly None of the servants of God I may doubtless say since the world began have had all their prayers accomplished or obtained them at their first asking but in many things they have been either denyed in the particular asked or deferred We have divers instances in Scripture of the chief Saints of God denyed in some requests which are questionless therefore recorded that their examples might qualifie us in like cases Peruse at leasure for this those passages of Moses Samuel David Ieremiah Ezekiel and Paul Exod. 32.32 to the end Deut. 3.26 1 Sam. 15.11 35. with 16.1 2 Sam. 12.16 18. Ier. 14.19 with 15.1 Ezek. 9.8 9 10. Rom. 10.1 with 11.7 I have thus done with the first Head of Uses to wit the Rules of Direction for our carriage in the Case before us both preventive and positive The other Head follows SECT III. The way to Help or Remedy in this Case of the Lords hiding from his Peoples Prayers THat which only now remains is to shew what is to be done what the course is which we are to take for the Remedy or Cure of this condition of Prayer-obstruction For this I will propound but three things And they if duly followed will suffice 1. Seek and get the Causes of the Lords so hiding himself from us to be removed I mean the procuring or promeriting causes on our part which are our many prayer-letting God-provoking sins That such there are and what they are hath been before endeavoured to be discovered The way to have them removed is well known in regard of the Doctrine of it to wit Repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ for reconciliation to God This is a larger subject then I can now enter upon the opening of We have had it long and yet have it through the mighty mercy of God taught and pressed upon us daily by the Ministry of the Word Let me only in a word exhort and perswade to a sincere and diligent bestirring in the practise of it Look not at talk not so much of this party or that designe or the other preposterous course of any among us as coming betwixt us and the end of our prayers No no the obstructers of our prayers are ours and the Nations sins these humane occurrences do only obstruct by vertue of these Our sins they are that are in the chair of all the Counsels and in the head of all the Forces that interpose betwixt us and the issue of our prayers And now Brethren Is it not time thus to seek the Lord Hos 10.12 till he come and rain righteousness upon us Have we now any thing left us but our prayers to betake our selves unto and can we have any hope that our prayers will any thing avail us without this We are like Ephraim in that place of the Prophet that loved to tread out the corn verse 11 We would be reaping and threshing out the Harest of our prayers but there is other work first to be done God will have us to plow and break our clods and to sow to our selves in righteousness and then we may look to reap in mercy As the Lord said to Joshuah when he and the Elders of Israel were upon their faces before God in prayer and humiliation after the defeat before Ai Israel hath sinned Josh 7.11 12 they have taken of the accursed thing therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies but turned their backs before their enemies because they were accursed neither will I be with you any more except ye destroy the accursed from amongst you Even thus he now appears bespeaking us Now he hath begun to hide his saving countenance and to cover his hearing ear from us and to discover his angry countenance against us there is no expecting he should be with us in mercy any more until in a heart-searching sin-exterpating repentance and a sin-expiating soul-reconciling application of the blood of Christ the cause of his separating from us and controversie with us be taken away That is a well known I would it were as well a followed passage of the Prophet Isai 1.16.17 Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil c. Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord. He had immediately before said When you spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yea when ye make many prayers I will not hear Yet upon the terms of repentance he invites them in this friindly manner Come now and let us reason together or parly Repent O England Repent ye people of God of the Lands and of your own sins that prevent or foreslow your prayers Repent of the Idolatries of the Covenanâ—-breaking and perjury of the prostitution of Religion to sinister ends of the neglect and sloth in the worship of God of earthly confidence blood-guiltiness injustice violence unmercifulness and pride Repent of and remove those blots and blemishes of our prayers the hiding daubing over and justification of some gross sins the hardness of heart hypocrisie carnal respects hatred contention and irreformedness Repent especially of those capital crimes the which we the universal sins of this Nation the loathing rejection and disobeying of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the vile imbracement and adoration of the interest of this present world And moreover add unto the score of your repentance all those steps that have been trod in following the way of Cain the errour of Balaam Jude 11. or the gainsaying of Core together with all those filthinesses of the Spirit to wit the many errours and departing from the faith and the many breaches of Order and Union in the Church of God with which through wrechless ignorance self-conceitedness wantonness newfangledness inconstancy emulation lukewarmness security licenciousness covetousness and contempt of others as with a spreading and fretting leprosie so many professours are tainted And let those aggravations of these recited sins be taken in to further and increase our repentance which cleave to them as they are now committed by us namely the scandal the Apostacy the Presumption the incorrigibility and the boundless growth of or in them These are Englands and in some sort all our sins which bâ—cloud the Throne of Grace deafen the ear of God overcast his face out-cry our prayers and open a way or gap to his hot anger against us These are the sins which the Ministers of Gods word have been long declaring against and they have now even outfaced and overgrown all their admonitions and reproofs These are the sins which have long stood up in competition with our prayers and they have now prevailed above them These are the sins which have made way for the desires and prayers of our enemies to take place so that now they open their mouth wide against us and say Aha Aha our eye hath seen it so would
we have it These are our scarlet crimson sins which we have to be removed as the causes of the putting back or suspense of our prayers and which are therefore to be throughly repented of and purged away that our prayers may take effect And let me perswade to and prevail in it in the words of Jotham Hearken unto me Judg. 9.7 that God may hearken unto you 2. The second thing to be applied by way of remedy is Let the people of God diligently follow on to the attaining of those ends for the effecting whereof in them the Lord for present hideth himself from them in this kind those ends have been laid down before the hastning on of them is the way to speed the issue of our prayers To instance in and press to some of them in a few words 1. Be constant in prayer hold out in it unto the end yea do not only hold on but mend and quicken your pace therein Add more fuel to increase the flame of your devotions pray more ardently Let your progress in prayer be like the natural motion of a body to its center or proper place the longer still the more swift and vigorous Doth God hide himselfe that you may seek his face then seek the Lord and his strength 〈◊〉 â—05 4 seek his face evermore and so seek that you may find him Certainly prayer is the Key of Heaven if then through unexpertness in the use of it you cannot get the door open presently cast not therefore the key out of your hand but turn and try it again and again until it be open Undoubtedly prayer is the way to find the face of God though it be hid leave not then slack not in the way because it is long lose not the end for lack of holding out It was the sin of Saul upon which immediately followed his ruine that when in his sore distress by the Philistins war he enquired of the Lord and got not an answer from him presently he left off enquiring of God and sought to a woman that had a familiar Spirit 1 Chro. 10 13 14 for this the Text saith the Lord slew him and turned the Kingdom unto David yea in this regard it saith he enquireth not of the Lord His once enquiring was void and stood for nothing and was no more then if he never had done it because he continued not enquiring until he hâ—d answer but through a distrustful and impatient fear ran from God to the Witch 2. Labour for an humbled heart a mourning Spirit both for sins and for prayers succeslesness The want of this hath been our great defect under our late sufferings and seekings to God It was noted of those Jews who remained after the destruction or the Temple City and Land by Nebuchadnezzar that they were not humbled even unto that day Jer. 44.10 they enquired of God by the Prophet Jeremiah Cap. 42.3 to shew them the way wherein they might walk and the thing that they might do but they were still unhumbled they had seen and felt a great deal of the wrath of God upon them for their sins but yet they were not humbled to that day And this is our very state we have sought unto God for his conduct in our Affairs his hand hath been out against and upon us many wayes for our sins but for all that we remain unhumbled But it will not so be most surely now we have had so much to do with God and he with us humbled we must be never did any person or people come off or part with him stoutly Levit. 10.3 he will be sanctified in them that come nigh him God will have us down and lay us low either in Spirit or in worldly state either inwardly or outwardly either to repentance or to ruine and if that will not be without this we shall be humbled both wayes if ever and ere ever God do raise us up Remember what the Lord saith to his people in the Prophet when he had hid his face from them Isai 54.6 The Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit and a wife of youth when thou wast refused If we be as forsaken and refused of God it behoves us to be of a grieved Spirit and so we must be ere the Lord call us or look again upon us He reviveth the spirit of the humble and the heart of the contrite ones Isai 57.15.49.13 Mat. 5.4 He will have mercy upon his afflicted He is nigh to them that are of a broken heart and saveth such at be of a contrite spirit They that mourn shall be comforted They that sow in tears shall reap in joy 3. Be sure to bide out the present tryal and exercise of the grace of God in you that is of your faith patience love and obedience Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in Christ under the tryal Mat. 11.6.24 13. He that shall endure unto the end the same shall be saved It was a desperate course in Saul and the forerunning passage of his ruine that whereas he had before-time rooted out those that had familiar spirits and wizards out of the Land 1 Sam. 28.3 7. being in his extremity he sought to one of them It would be a dangerous practise for any now to fly or turn to that sinful way for help in their strait which in a freer and calmer condition they justly abandoned and opposed 4. Look we after not only the end of our prayers but our fitting and preparation for that end Chap. 4. Sect. 6. The parts of this preparation have been opened already out of Zech. 12. 13. and Zeph. 3. Three of them you may remember were sanctity brotherly-unity and simplicity or truth in our dealings with God and man For sanctity The pure in heart are they that shall see God Mat. 5.8 When the Lord will work such a Salvation for his people as that all the ends of the Earth shall see it he will have his people to depart Isai 52.10 11 and go out thence from Babylon and touch no unclean thing and be themselves clean For brothâ—rly union and pâ—ace When the Earth shall be full of the knowledg of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea God will make a compliance and harmony betwixt the Wolf and the Lamb the Leopard and the Kid Isai 11 6 c. the Calf and the young Lion Vers 13. the Cow and the Bear the Lion and the Ox the sucking Child and the Asp and Cockatrice their antipethies shall cease that is as it is quickly after explained the envy of Ephraim shall depart Ephraim shall not envy Iudah and Iudah shall not vex Ephraim Of Iob Job 42.10 it is said The Lord turned the captivity of Iob when he prayed for his friends It was not while he disputed with but when he prayed for them The first thing as I take it wherein the Lord appeared