Advocate here on Earth by way of Instruction and Excitation of us to pray and animating or enlivening our requests within us We labor of a double incapacity to go to God in prayer 1. Of guilt and unworthiness as being enemies and transgressors against God 2. Of ineptitude or infirmity both in point of understanding and will as being both ignorant and liveless to ask any thing of God Wherefore we have need of and have given us a double Advocate First Of Propitiation in Heaven the Lord Jesus Christ Secondly Of Interpellation or Efficiency with and in us this is the proper work of the Holy Ghost And therefore we are said to have access unto the Father through Christ and by the Spirit The Rule then in this place to be followed is We must pray 1. In Christ Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my Name Ask and you shall receive that your Joy may be full At that day ye shall ask in my Name Io. 16 24.26 Rom. 3.25 Psal 80.1 Exod. 30.6 Christ is our Propitiatory or Mercy-seat As in the time of the Law the Lord afforded his presence over the Mercy-seat and thence gave Answers to the Enquiries of the high Priest and people of Israel so are we now without such visible and local types brought near unto God and vouchsafed audience through Jesus Christ 2. We must pray in the Spirit Praying in the Holy Ghost Iudâ— 20. Eph. 6.18 Tim. 5. â—6 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit The Apostle James saith The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much Prayer is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 effectual Dr Downham doctr of pâ—ayer cap. 6. p. 27. when it hath the inward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or working when it is actuated and effectuated by the Spirit of God in generating this inward efficacy in our prayers which we are not able to give them saith a most judicious Author Our prayer must not be the work of our lip or voyce nor of our brain wit memory nor of our will and carnal desire only it must not be a meer humane work or but from a common acquired gift of prayer serving only to put our case into a form of words and method but it must be the work of the Spirit upon the heart it must be made of impressions and expressions that are inward and proceed of the Spirit of God impressions of softness tenderness and mourning Zech. 12. â—0 Rom. 8.27 expressions of groanings that cannot be uttered We see this part of the way in which prayer must be offered up viz. the Means by which Secondly The Manner There are certain particular Qualifications and Affections that must accompany prayer Those are these following or the main of them 1. Understanding a 1 Cor. 14 15 2. Faith b Mat. 21.22 Iam. 1 6. Rom 10.4 3. Repentance c Ps 66 18 Lam. 3 40 41 4 Sincerity d Heb. 10.22 Psa 145.8 Ro. 12 12 5. Fervencye. 6. Charity f Mark 11 25 1 Tim. 2.8 7. And lastly Perseverance g Luk 18.1 Eph. 6 18. I leave the Reader for brevities sake to search the places quoted in the Margin I have thus given a brief description of the ground of Precept layd down for prayer in the Word of God I am now to come to the ground of Promise and to do the like by it I shall for our survey of this propose unto observation two things 1. The several kinds of promise upon which prayer is to ground it self 2. The right sence and acception in which those promises are made and to be taken by us in building our prayers upon them and consequently of the grounding of prayers upon the promises First The several kinds of promises for the bottoming of prayer The Promises of God upon which prayer may fix and hold are of two sorts 1. Irrespective or such as are made of doing good without any express mention of or relation to prayer 2. Relative or such as are made to prayer as of hearing or of giving this or that blessing upon prayer The former promiseth the matter or thing prayed for the latter promiseth it unto prayer So that the former I may term the material the latter the formal ground of prayer First For the irrespective promises I need not may not be particular upon them they are so huge a multitude they make a principal part of Scripture and for their nature they are great and precious of a vast and various comprehension they are extended to all things times persons states and uses they are by themselves a subject large enough for a whole Treatise and so they are put forth by a learned and worthy Author with much diligence * Mr Leigh Treat of Divine Promises now a 3d time imprinted Only I shall note one distinction of them 1. They are either such as concern all are made and propounded and so in some sort appertain to all or any whomsoever so they come duly qualified to them such are the main bulk and current of Scripture-promises 2. There are that belong to some special persons only who are usually by name spoken to or of in them such was that promise made to David of a lasting family and succession in the Kingdom over Israel 2 Sam. 7.16 Isai 38.5 and that promise made to Hezekiah of recovery from sickness and of an addition of fifteen years unto his life and of defence of himself and the City Jerusalem from the King of Assyria and as a sign of the same of the return back of the shadow upon the Sun-dyal of Ahaz ten degrees and that promise made to the captive Jews of a return home from Babylon after seventy years accomplished in captivity Secondly For the relative promises or those that are made expresly to prayer they are as the former 1. Either peculiar to some persons as God promised Abraham upon his prayer to spare Sodom Gen. 18.26 20.7 according to the conditions by him inserted touching the number of the righteous to be there found and he promised Abimelech King of Gerar life upon Abrahams praying for him 1 Kin. 17 1. Jam. 5.17 And he promised Elijah that there should not be dew nor rain for some years but according to his Word which was his prayer 2. Or universal and layd down for all and these are the promises now of use to us for the grounding of our prayers upon them and therefore we are to take these into our more special consideration They are all general in regard of object or extent to persons but in regard of their subject or the matter promised 1. Some are more generally propounded as when the Lord promiseth to hear Isai 58.9 Psâ—l 144.18 19 50 15 86.5 Rom. 10 12 13 to answer to save to be plenteous in mercy to be nigh to be rich over them that call upon them or that they that ask shall receive and the like These are promises
fretting her unchearful look her meatless meals were now layd aside There is a promise to them that seek God That he will make them joyful in his house of prayer Isai 56.7 30.19 as he will bestow those blessings upon them which they crave so he will for earnest make them joyful before they go out of his house And in the same Prophet Thou shalt weep no more he will be very gracious unto thee at the voyce of thy cry David praying and being in a very heavy taking having his Soul cast down within him and deep calling unto deep at the noise of Gods water-spouts and all his waves and his billows going over him that is he being as it were overwhelmed in a Sea of sorrows evils flowing upon him like waves one at the heels of another had this reviving giving him Psa 42.4 7 9 Yet the Lord will command his loving-kindness in the day time and in the night his song shall be with me and my prayer unto the God of my life The Lord will command his loving kindness that is he will dispatch it forth to him instantly as a winged Messenger and Harbinger of a good issue of his prayers and afflicting griefs And whil'st he is praying the song of God shall come into and recreate him his own prayer and Gods song shall joyn company together and both at once associate him The Souls under the Altar that cry how long O Lord c. they are put to stay some time for their vindication Apoc. 6.11 Eccles 9.7 8 but in the mean space it 's said White robes were given unto every one of them Those white robes might betoken a chearful habit of spirit a good measure of alacrity put into them during their sufferings yet to be prolonged in assurance of their answer and release in due time to come 3. By a continuation of the Spirit of prayer or an exercise of it When the hands are still supported in their lifting up to God or raised and stretched out higher towards him when the motions vigor and vehemency of prayer are renewed or redoubled in the hearts of Gods servants it is a token from God that it shall not be in vain but to some purpose and effect that they call upon him Hos 12.3 4 When Jacobs strength in wrestling with the Angel was so great and did hold out until day break and he was so set that he would not let the Angel go until he had blessed him this was a strong argument of his power and prevalency with God and that he should prevail with men also with his Brother Esau and all his Troop The pouring upon the House of David Zec. 12.10 and upon the Inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications is put in the Prophet as a fore-running presage and introduction to many great mercies to them The Apostle brings in this as a clear earnest to Believers of deliverance from sins and sufferings and of receiving the glory and redemption of the body expected and groaned after That the Spirit helpeth our infirmities and maketh intercession for us in prayer with groanings which cannot be uttered Rom. 8.26 As it is a special favor and a good sign to a people that God gives to his Prophets the opening of the mouth in declaring his Word Eze. 29.21 so it is also that he bestows upon them a mouth opened wide and a voyce loud and lifted up in prayer Open thy mouth wide saith God to his Israel and I will fill it Psa 81.10 4. By an erected confidence and it may be a clear foresight and evidence that the Petition is dispatched in Heaven and shall assuredly be accomplished in time on Earth This pledg God doth sometimes vouchsafe his faithful ones upon their seeking of him and before he work to the effecting of their prayers as it is in the Psalmist Lord thou hast heard the desire of the humble Psa 19.17 thou wilt prepare their heart or as the Margin thou wilt establish their heart that is When they have poured out their desires unto thee thou wilt give them a seal of success by setting impressions of confidence and evidence of it upon their hearts This we often find in David in one part of his Psalm he is praying weeping complaining expostulating and deprecating the dejections and desertions of his Soul for lack of audience and by and by before any thing be done about the affairs or particulars of his prayer he is lifted up and composed in full assurance of having his requests yea triumphs in them as already embraced Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity Psa 6.8 9 13.5 6 â— 20.6 42.11 142.7 for the Lord hath heard the voyce of my weeping the Lord hath heard my supplication But I have trusted in thy mercy my heart shall rejoyce in thy Salvation I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed he will hear him from his holy Heaven with the saving strength of his right hand Why art thou cast down O my Soul why art thou disquieted within me Hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him The righteous shal compass me about for thou shalt deal bountifully with me Cornelius the Centurian in one of his Fast-days and whil'st he was praying had a vision of assurance in which an Angel told him Cornelius Act. 10.30 Luk. 1.13 Philem. 22 thy prayer is heard and the like had Zacharias the Priest in the Temple at the time of prayer The Apostle Paul also being in prison at Rome conceived such a confidence of his being given up to the Christians at Coloss by way of enlargement upon their prayers that he sends out of his prison to Philemon at Coloss to prepare him a lodging with them there This may be sufficient for the illustration of the first way of the Lords answering prayer to wit by way of Obsignation or Assurance wherein we have noted four instances or acts I come to the second kind of answer which is by way of performance this is when the thing entreated for in prayer is accomplished This is the most sensible and most noted way of prayers return from Heaven to the Petitioner David describes it in that his benedictory Psalm Psa 20.1 4 21.2 The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble c. Grant thee according to thine own heart and fulfil all thy counsel and in the next Psalm to that Thou hast given him his hearts desire and hast not withholden the request of his lips It will not be unnecessary to observe the several methods of this answer of performance 1. Sometimes it is instantaneous or dispatched all at once it is finished in one compleat act as when Samuel cryed unto the Lord for Israel at what time the Philistins Army stood ready to give the on-set upon them it is said The Lord heard or in the
in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them And the Lord plagued the people because they had made the Calf c. Many a dear Saint of God and many a holy prayer of such hath been non-suited in Heaven by the over-poysing sins of them for whom they have interceded 2. Or the sin may be theirs who are in near relation to the persons prayed for We may find that sometimes the wickedness of bad friends or alies hath made more against men then the prayers of their godly friends could make for them Josiah and Jeremiah both very choyce ones the one for a Prince the other for a Prophet they both prayed for Judah about one time but the sins of Manasseh the grandfather of Josiah and the King of Judah were too strong for them both they are mentioned as the prevailing reason against both their prayers * 2 Kings 22.15 16 17 with 23 25 26 Jer. 14.19 15.1 2 3 4. 3. The third thing propounded to consideration is What sins in special do provoke God to hide himself from his peoples prayers The Scripture brands a multitude of sins by name and special note with this effect Let us view the particulars And for that end I will put them into three ranks 1. Sins against Piety or duty to God 2. Sins against the second Table 3. Sins in or about Prayer it self 1. Sins against Piety Unto this rank belong these sins following 1. Idolatry or the setting up and giving divine Worship unto those that are no Gods For this peruse that story in Judg. 10. In short it is thus The Lords anger waxed hot against Israel and he sold them into the hands of the Philistins and of the Ammonites The Israelites under their oppressions and distresses by them cry unto the Lord with confession of their sin The Lord answers them That seeing after and notwithstanding many former deliverances from the like evils they had now forsaken him and served other gods therefore he will deliver them no more let them go and cry unto and be delivered by the gods which they have chosen This was the dolorous repulse which in a day of tribulation they received for their sins of Idolatry For this sin it was that God declared he would neither hear his people of Judah praying for themselves Jer. 11.10 c. nor his Prophet Jeremiah praying for them See also for this Ezek. 20.31 2. Covenant-breaking with God As in that example I last mentioned of Judahs and Jeremiahs prayers They were rejected for this as one cause The house of Judah have broken my Covenant which I made with their fathers therefore c. And though they shall cry unto me I will not harken unto them c. Therefore pray not thou for this people neither lift up a cry or prayer for them c. 3. Abuse of Religion to carnal ends This was the sin of the Prophets of Judah and for it they are sentenced with this Judgment They make my people to err Mic. 3.5 6 7 they bite with their teeth and cry peace and he that puteth not into their mouths they even prepare war against him Therefore night shall be unto you that ye shall not have a vision and it shall be dark unto you that you shall not divine and the Sun shall go down over the Prophets and the day shall be dark over you Then shall the Seers be ashamed and the Diviners confounded yea they shall all cover their lips for there is no answer of God 4. Contempt neglect waxing weary of slothfulness in or falling off from the service of God Mal. 3.14 The people in the Prophet Malachi complain by way of taxing God It is vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his Ordinances and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hoasts And wherefore do they thus charge God what was the cause of this obstruction of their prayers If they had looked well about them they might have found it in themselves and in those very services which they complained to be disregarded in as the Prophet before in the first second and third Chapters had made it manifest against them They were grown to despise Gods Name to pollute and account contemptible his Table to offer the blind the lame and the sick for sacrifice to profane the Name of God to esteem his service a weariness and to snuff at it the Levites were departed out of the way they had caused many to stumble at the Law they had corrupted the Covenant of Levi Iudah had profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved from the days of their fathers they were gone astray from Gods Ordinances and had not kept them they had robbed God namely in tythes and offerings No marvel their devotions proved so vain and unprofitable to themselves when they were so vile and curtalled as they were done unto God they had no worse then they brought When the Spouse in Solomons Song gave her self to sluggishness Cant. 5.3 6. and would not arise from her bed when she was called up by her Beloved this moved him to withdraw from her door and to absent himself from her when after she would have entertained him and missing sought him The set time for God to favor Sion in regarding the prayer of the destitute Psal 102. and in hearing the groaning of the prisoner is when his servants take pleasure in her stones and favor the dust thereof that is as I understand when the sight and face of Gods house and service is amiable to them and the very dust the humblest and meanest part of it is delightsom 5. Loathing of refusing to harken and disobedience to the Word of God Solomon saith He that turneth away his ear from hearing the Law Prov. 28 9 Chap. 1.24 28 29 30. even his prayer shall be an abomination And Because I have called and ye re-refused I have stretched out mine hand and no man regarded c. Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me c. See the verifying of this in Zech. 7.11 12 13. What congruity is there that men should look to be heard of God when they will not harken to him Upon these terms is audience promised by our Saviour to his servants Joh. 15.7 If ye abide in me and my words abide in you ye shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you 6. Carnal security or putting confidence in a temporal portion as in wealth successes or advancements This sin was Davids cloud In my prosperity I said I shall never be moved Lord Psa 30.6 7 by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled 2. The next rank of sins is of those against the second Table In it as causes of this effect are 1. Blood-guiltiness When you spread
3.12 13. and set me as a mark for the arrow he hath caused the arrows or sons of his quiver to enter into my reins Thus the crosses of the servants of God come thronging in and coupled together and environing them about on every side I will add but one expression more to this purpose and it is very full one to wit that of Job I am full of confusion Job 10.15 16 17. therefore see thou mine affliction for it increaseth thou huntest me as a fierce Lion and again thou shewest thy self marvelous upon me thou renewest thy witnesses against me and increasest thine indignation upon me Changes and War are against me 3. There is then usually a Multiplicity of sufferings The Lords hand goes out against them in afflictions not only heavy for measure and many for number but manifold or divers for kind He maketh use of variety of ways in dealing thus with them And that either 1. Successively so that when they have avoyded or recovered from an evil of one kind they are met with by one of another kind as in that of the Prophet Fear and the pit and the snare are upon thee O Inhabitant of the Earth And it shall come to pass that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare for the windows from on high are open and the foundations of the Earth do shake And in that of the Lord to Eliah 1 King 19.17 And it shall come to pass that him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay So the people of Judah were parcelled out to several Judgments A third part of thee shall dye with the Pestilence and with Famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee and a third part shall fall by the Sword round about thee Ezek. 5.12 and I will scatter a third part into all the winds and I will draw out a sword after them Or 2. At one and the same time Sometime it so befalleth the servants of God that at once afflictions come upon them from God from Man and from Satan that they are troubled both in Body and Soul both within and without at the same time 1. Sometimes they have God immediatly Man and Satan at once against them so it was with Job Satan stood up against him and accused him to God and upon license obtained smote him in all kinds death excepted and in this condition he was afflicted immediatly of God he hiding his face from him and shewing the tokens of his anger against him so that he cryes out The arrows of the Almighty are within me Job 6.4 7 13 14. the poyson whereof drinketh up my spirits the terrors of God do set themselves in Array against me and when I say my bed shal comfort me my couch shal ease my complaint then thou scarest me with dreams and terrifiest me through visions And being thus men also become his tormentors as he often complaineth and particularly in one place he reckoneth up how many sorts of men did aggravate his trouble His brethren his acquaintance his kinsfolk his familiars Job 19.13 to the 20. and inward friends his menial servants his own wife and the young fry of little children In another place he describes at large what a rabble of abject miscreants assailed him * Job 30.1 to the 15. And this is often seen when the Lord layes his hand upon any of his then Men and Devils come in upon them Men that is the vulgar sort and especially the professed enemies of God and godliness do then let slye at them both with tongue and hand with the scorn and derision of the one and with the Rapine and violence of the other Job hath an elegant expression of this Because he to wit God hath loosed my cord and afflicted me they have also let loose the bridle before me Job 30.11 Beza Diodat in Loc. compar with Job 12.18 that is as Beza and Diodate pharaphrase it He hath loosed the bands of my power and authority over them and therefore they run riot and cast off the reines of subjection and modesty In like manner Satan in what he may is ready then to put in 2 Cor. 12.7 1 Thes 3.5 as the Apostle Paul both found it in himself in that thorn in the flesh his buffeting messenger and feared it in the Thessalonians when in his own tribulations he could not forbear but must needs send Timotheus to know their faith lest by some means the tempter should have tempted them 2. Again sometimes they are at the same time troubled both within and without both in soul and body Psal 6.2.3 2 Cor. 7.5 O Lord heal me saith David for my bones are vexed my soul also is sore vexed We saith S. Paul were troubled on every side without were fightings within were feares This then being the Dimension of the endurings of Gods servants seeing they often prove to be so mighty numerous and various it is not to be wondred at if they be surprised with a kind of stupefaction in regard of the exercise of their graces and be somewhat distempered in respect of the acting of corruption Holy and wise Heman being in such a plight of sorrows Psal 88.3 4 15. was in his own acknowledgment as a dead and distracted man as dead in regard of the sense and use of the grace and comfort and as distracted in regard of the fumes of corruption that invaded his mind 4. A fourth consideration of occasion helping forward the said effect in the faithful may be the means of their afflictions or the persons by whom instrumentally they come and this consideration may lye two wayes or there are two sorts of men which not seldome are imployed in laying on the sufferings of the Church and their agency therein may add some aggravation to those sufferings and exasperation to the spirits of the sufferers of them 1. Sometimes the Instruments are of the worst of men and very wicked persons and this adds to their affliction and moves their discontented passions that such as those should be their scourges so the Psalmist makes the Churches complaint O God the heathen are come into thine inheritance Psal 79.1 2 3 6 7 74 4. thy holy Temple have they defiled they have laid Ierusalem on heaps the dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat to the foules of the heaven the flesh of thy Saints unto the beasts of the Earth their blood have they shed like water c. Again they to wit the heathen that have not known thee and the kingdomes that have not called upon thy name they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his dwelling place and in another Psalm thine Enemies roar in the midst of thy Congregations they set up their Ensigns
you in all patience 2 Cor. 12.12 in signs and wonders and mighty deeds Whereby he gives us to observe that patience especially all or compleat patience is a vertue seated in the highest form of Christians and somewhat demonstrative of an Apostle A learned Expositor conjectureth of David that the 73 Psalm wherein he confesseth how he was offended and staggered Foord in Psal 49. 73. and what envy and impatience he was tainted with at the wickeds prosperity and the afflictedness of the godly was written by him when he was yet but young whereas the 37 and 49 Psalms wherein he professeth his quietness and unmoveableness at the flourishing of the wicked and adversity of the righteous and teacheth the same to others were penned by him when he was grown old and thereby attained to be a veterane Souldier in patience Common experience tells us passive grace is much more difficult to get and use then active as it is more ado to travel in a deep or craggy way then in a fair and smooth road as Seafaring men find it is an otherwise labor to sail in a storm then in a calm The exercise of active grace consisteth either in receiving good or in communicating the good endowments we have to others or in restraining from superfluities but these things are much more easie then to bear the want of good the presence of evil and to lay down ourselves and resign up our very Being 6. The last thing I shall take notice of by way of Reason here is the Faithfuls Interest experience confidence in and recourse to God in prayer These references in their ordinary and direct use are the great means to regulate and compose the heart and to give stop to corruption but being reflâ—cted on with a humane Judgment in a state of trouble and seeming desertion they are turned to matter of aggravation of the affliction they help to breed more discontent and give rise to great thoughts of heart It is with the Saints in this case as with one that lies sick Such a man if there be a Physician of greatest skill and account or a receit of most soveraign vertue and if he can procure that Physician to undertake him or that receit to be applyed to him he is in a full hope of recovery but having made use of them if he do not find that effect by them which he looked for he is now the more dejâ—ctâ—d and the greater hopes he had of himself from their worth the worse heart will he have from their disappointment Just so it sometimes is with a Christian Whatsoever can befall him his great Salvo or Refugâ— is â—hat he hath God for his God he hath found the advantage of that relation he continues st dfastly trusting in him and earnestly calling upon him and in thus doing what security and good success doth he not promise to himâ—â—l and indeed what safety and good success may he not promise himself that way But he mistaking the matter that is taking his safety and success to lie within the compass of such a means such an order such a time and such an issue when indeed it doth not he finding his expectation in God failed as to such circumstances of safety and good success which he had circumscribed he is now in his own sense by so much the more unhappy That which had been and still should be his only cordial his infirm mind is ready to take for an encrease of his sorrow and to chew upon as one of his bitterest morsels So it was with David I remembred God and was troubled Why Ps 77.2 3. how should the remembrance of God be matter of trouble to David The words immediately preceding will tell us In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord my sore ran or my hand was stretched out in the night and ceased not my Soul refused to be comforted I remembred God and was troubled He had recourse to God in his trouble and found no present ease neither in body nor mind and hence it came to pass that he remembered God and was troubled Seeing he could receive no relief no comfort from God he reaps an addition of discomfort the more he seeks and suffers repulse the more is his sorrow stirred 1. The Saints Interest in God as his peculiar people in this case exaggerates their grief So the Psalmist O God Ps 79.1 2. the Heathen are come into thine Inheritance thine holy Temple have they defiled the dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the Heaven the flesh of thy Saints unto the beasts of the Earth c. And so Nehemiah Neh. â— 10 Now these are thy servants and thy people whom thou hast redeemed by thy great Power and by thy strong hand And so also Jeremiah in the Lamentations Behold O Lord and consider to whom thou hast done this Lam. 2.20 And again He remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger 2. Their former experience and enjoyment of God makes his withholdings of himself more strange and heavy So David Psal 42.4 When I remember these things I pour out my Soul in me for I had gone with the multitude I went with them to the house of God with the voyce of joy and praise with a multitude that kept holy-day And in another Psalm Psa 77.10 Furthermore I said This is that which maketh me infirm that the right hand of the most High is changed Infirmare me istud mutata dextra excelsi Tremel Foord Isai 33.17 Lam. 1.7 that is that the right hand of God which was wont to deliver defend and comfort me is now withdrawn or turned against me So Hezekiah Behold for peace I had great bitterness And in the Lamentations its said Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her misery all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old 3. Their Confidence in God when not answered as they expect makes them the more confounded Solomon saith Hope deferred maketh the heart sick Pro. 13.12 That which helped to encrease the wonder and sadness of those two Disciples of Christ that on the day of his Resurrection were travelling to Emmaus and communing together in the way of the crucifying of Christ Luk. 24.21 was this But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel 4. Lastly Their recourse to God in prayer when they find not their desired effect being in like manner reflected on contributes to their perplexity and dejection So Heman Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction Psal 88.9 13 14. Lord I have called upon thee I have stretched out my hands unto thee But unto thee have I cryed O Lord and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee Lord why castest thou off my Soul why hidest thou thy face from me So David rather personating our Saviour Christ then himself My God my God why
without scruple 2. Others are bent against the persons of men and these are also differenced into 1. Such as are not for mens destruction but correction only by some temporal evil or affliction which is desired to befall them for this end that they may be brought to understand humble themselves repent of their iniquity and turn to God As is that of the Psalmist Psal 83.16 Fill their faces with shame that they may seek thy Name O Lord. So Elihu is conceived to pray concerning Job My desire is that Job may be tryed or O my Father Job 34 36. let Job be tryed unto the end because of his answers for wicked men that is as Diodate paraphraseth it Do not O God withdraw thy visitations from Job until thou hast brought him to the duty of a child and to the only means of obtaining pardon which is humility and confession Neither is the lawfulness of Imprecations like to these stuck at by Divines 2. Such as are against mens persons for their subversion and these are of a threefold nature or Consideration 1. Some are against men as they are Gods Enemies a Psa 68.1 69 2.109.6 Rom. 11.9 Judg. 5.31 2. Some are against men as they are the Churches Enemies b Psa 79.6 137.7 Lam. 3.64 Neb. 4 4 3. And some are against men as they are their own Enemies that pray c Ps 55.15 59.13 71 13 Jer. 15.15 17 18 18.21 20.12 2 Kin. 1.10 2.24 2 Tim. 4.14 Now these three kinds of Malediction are those that are called into question and that two ways 1. Whether they were Justifiable in them that used them in sacred writ 2. Whether they be imitable lawfully in by us against the like Enemies First For the former Question The Justifiableness of them in them that used them in holy Writ is generally assented unto and thus cleared 1. Many of those Execrations may be taken to be uttered by a Spirit of Prophecy and so to be rather Prophetical Predictions and Denunciations of divine Judgments certainly foreseen to come upon the parties then meer wishings and desirings of evil to them proceeding originally from the wills of them that pray d Verba praedicantium non vota imprecantium * August contra Faustum idem de Serm. Dom. li. 1. Optativo modo usi sunt pro Indicativo 2. Others of them if they came not from a divining Spirit yet they might come from a discerning Spirit peculiarly given to them whereby they might be able to discover those against whom they so prayed to be implacable and desperate Enemies of God his Church and Truth 3. The Utterers of those prayers being Penmen of holy Writ or otherwise extraordinary persons may well be deemed to have been moved with a pure zeal of God and his Cause and clear of those base incentives of private passion malice and impatience more incident to others And whereas those prayers may seem to oppugn the Rules of charity and prayer for our Enemies it may be said Those Rules are to bind where there is no special Warrant for exception and charity to men must be subordinate and secondary to our love and zeal towards God 2. But if any vitiosity may be supposed in any of those Instances as some incline to admit in those votes of the Prophet Jeremiah e H. Bullinger in Jer. 15. â—5 And Scultet de prec c. 16. p. 76. such doubtless are to be born with in them and passed over by us without following them therein Secondly For the latter Question about them viz. their Lawfulness for us to practise This may not simply be granted but we are to distinguish of the manner of conceiving such prayers which may be 1. Either generally or indefinitely as when one prayeth against the Enemies of God and Christ whomsoever they be not pitching upon any particular persons and without eyeing or judging these or those to be such but leaving it to God to find them out and deal with them accordingly Of this nature is that of Deborah and Barak So let all thine Enemies perish O Lord Judg. 5.31 And that of the Apostle not only pronounced by him but imposed upon others to concur in If any man love not the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 16.22 let him be Anathema Maran atha Such like Imprecations keeping within the general denunciation both with tongue and eye are not inconvenient for Christians now 2. Or particularly conceived that is personally applyed and fixed on this or that man or people and these Maledictions are to be held unwarrantable for us ordinarily we having no special or infallible gift of prophecy or discerning whereby we may be enabled to see into mens spiritual estate or to foresee what is absolutely the portion of their cup from the Almighty or to dictate unto us such prayers we falling short also of that clearness of zeal and immixture of Love to God which in some in times past hath been We having no such special call or assistance as others have had our safest and clearest way is to take notice of that rebuke of our Saviour unto James and John Luk. 9.55 Mat. 5.44 Ro. 12.14 19. 1 Pet. 3.9 1 Pet. 2.23 Lu. 23.34 Acts 7.60 when they would have called for fire down from Heaven upon certain Samaritans And to walk by those Rules which on the other hand are given us in the Gospel of Loving doing good to blessing praying for our Enemies Cursers and Persecutors and of refraining cursing self-avenging and wrong-retaliating And for which we have the practise of our blessed Saviour and of his servants set before us in Scripture We have thus an Extract of the Rules of Scripture concerning the Subject of prayer both as it respecteth things and persons There is yet another branch of this preceptive ground of prayer to be viewed viz. that which prescribeth the way in which prayer must be performed and put up to God This hath included in it two things 1. The means or assistance by which we must pray 2. The manner how Briefly of both First The means or assistance by which we must pray this is twofold 1. It must be in Christ 2. It must be in the Spirit We are to make use of both these by way of Intercession or Advocateship Christ maketh Intercession for us in Heaven a Ro. 8.34 at the right hand of God The Spirit maketh Intercession within us in the heart b Ro. 8.26 Christ is our Advocate with the Father c 1 Joh. 2.2 The Spirit is our Advocate abiding with and in us d Jo. 14 16 The Spirit is called another Advocate in relation to Christ who is also our Advocate The Spirit is another because different from him both in person and in the nature of his Advocateship Christ is our Advocate in Heaven by way of Expiation of our sins Attonement Reconciliation and Representation of our persons and of our prayers before God The Spirit is our
10.4.31 Psa 18.6 they come up for a memorial before God David saith His cry came before God even unto his ears The Priests the Levites when they arose and blessed the people at Zedekiahs Passover the Text saith 2 Chro. 30 27 Their voyce was heard and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling place even unto Heaven And when it is thus the Scripture saith of God in relation to prayers His ears are open to their cry He harkens and hears Psa 34.15 Mal. 3 16 Psal 86.1 10.17 66.16 102.17 Prov. 15.8 Cant. 2.14 Psa 145.18 Lam. 3.57 Job 33.26 Isai 30.19 Jer. 31.20 Mal. 3.16 Jer. 29.14 Ezra 8.23 Gen. 19.21 Cant. 2.14 He bows down his ear and hears He causeth his ear to hear He attendeth to the voyce of prayer He regardeth and despiseth not their prayer The prayer is his delight the voyce is sweet And it saith of God in relation to the Petitioner He is nigh He draweth neer to them that call upon him He is favorable He is very gracious to them at the voyce of their cry He doth earnestly remember them still His bowels are troubled for them A book of remembrance is written before God for them He is found of them He is entreated of them He accepteth their face their countenance is comely In such terms as these the Scripture travelleth to deliver and explain to us the respâ—ct and welcome which God gives to his childrens prayers And this is the first part of prayers succeâ—s or taking with God it 's heard or received The second is Gods answer or making return to prayer The Lord appears to prayers by answering them and this is the appearance whereof we are more sensible this is that we find in the Prophet Then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer thou shalt cry Isai 58.9 and he shall say Here am I. David tells us That when in his distress he called upon the Lord Psal 18 6 and cryed unto his God he heard his voyce out of his Temple and his cry came before him even unto his ears that was the first effect of prayer of which before It then follows He bowed the Heavens also and came down and darkness was under his feet and he rode upon a Cherub and did fly yea he did fly upon the wings of the wind the Lord also thundered in the Heavens c. yea he sent out his arrows c. that 's the latter effect the return and answer the Lord did visibly and mercifully appear for his help and rescue as is there figuratively and largely set forth There were indeed times when God did return answers to his people audibly or sensibly by appearances or voyces as he did by vision to Abraham and others by voyce or visible token to Moses and the High-Priest in the Tabernacle of the Congregation and from above the Mercy-seat and by Dreams by Vrim by Prophets from time to time to his people Israel and sometimes by Angels to some of them But these returns some of them were peculiar to those times others were then extraordinary and now much more extraordinary and neither then were much less now are to be looked for There is another way of return which is more common and constant and that is by his workings of this David makes relation I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined to me and heard my cry He brought me up also to an horrible pit out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock and establish'd my goings This his raising out of the pit and seating upon a firm standing is the active answer of God to Davids prayer Now this return of prayer is divers ways made and the several sorts of it must be well noted I shall distinguish them thus There is a threefold answer of prayer or return is made thereto three ways 1. By way of obsignation 2. By way of performance 3. By way of commutation These three ways God answereth the prayers of his servants when they are faithfully put up and grounded as before was shewed that is some one at least of thâ—se three ways The first way is obsignatory this is an answer by way of testimony or assurance of acceptance and audiâ—â—ce of the prayer that hath been offered up to God or by way of Earnest or pledg of future accomplishment God is pleased many times before he perform the request of his servants to give them immediately or upon their seeking to him a pledg that they are heard and shall have an issue of their desires This he doth usually when the performance is to be at some distance of time and the Petitioner must bear some delay for it then he vouchsafes often to give as it were a Bill of assurance under his hand in the interim for it But what is it that God doth give in pledg why something still that is both valuable and suitable Some fire as it were comes down from Heaven upon the Altar and consumes their sacrifice Psa 20.3 in testimony of acceptance This obsignatory answer may be by divers effects or ways 1. By an inward taste or testification from God of his good-will and love to the Suppliant Elihu saith He shall pray unto God and he will be favorable unto him Job 33.26 and he shall see his face with joy When Jacob had prayed and wrestled all night and had got the victory and blessing yielded him He called the name of the place Peniel that is the face of God Gen. 32.30 for I have seen said he God face to face The request that he had been conflicting about was to be delivered from the hand of Esau his Brother he had it granted and in assurance he should find it fulfilled the day following in the reconciled face and embracements of his Brother he hath immediately the sight of Gods face and the light of his countenance shewed him and this made him go on with boldness of heart though with a halting thigh from Peniel to meet his Brother The Prophet Daniel when he had fasted and made his supplications unto God Dan. 9.13 10.11 8.26 10 1 14 7.28 8.27 had several times an Angel appearing to him and telling him He was greatly beloved to wit of God the visions shewed him were for many days and the time appointed was long and some of them were sad and unpleasing unto him But in the interim and for a cordial he had this message sent him from God that he was a man in high favor with God 2. By a removal of that sorrow dejection fear or anxiety of spirit that before might possess and fill him that prayed Hannah having poured forth her prayer and tears and uttered her vow before the Lord in Shiloh and received that good presage from Eli the Priest of her Petition 1 Sam. 1 18 it 's said She went her way and did eat and her countenance was no more sad she thenceforth had a light heart her
heart this is a pestilence that too often walketh in darkness as to mens taking notice of it 2. Unhumbledness of heart There is to be in all especially in our solemn and extraordinary prayers an humbled Spirit in regard of needs judgments and sins So the Lords promise upon Solomons prayer runs 2 Chro. 7 14 If my people which are called by my Name shall humble themselves and pray c. and so it was before to Moses If then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity c. The want of this affectedness of heart was one cause that though the people of Iudah sought God dayly and fasted and afflicted their Souls by bodily interdiction yet the wrath of God would not be averted They bowed down the head as a bulrush Isa 58.3 5 and spred sackcloth and ashes under them but they still found pleasure in sin 3. Hypocrisie word or lip-devotion without the power of piety to wit the true love and fear of God and seeking after him in the heart Of the Hypocrite Iob saith Job 27.9 Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him Solomons prayer which seems to be the square both according to which we should pray and God will accept and hear was 2 Chro. 6 30 and render unto every man according unto all his ways whose heart thou knowest The thing intimated hereby as I conceive is this Men that pray shall have a return from God not meerly according to their present form of prayer but according to the universal course of their lives If their prayer be for its composure good and their ways be good too they may expect from God a good answer but though that be good if they be peccant in these they can look for no good answer and the reason here may be for that God looketh at and for the heart and the integrity of it and there is not any such true character or picture of a mans heart as is the general course and frame of his ways it and these do exactly answer each other as do the signet and the impression 4. The proposing of indirect by and unworthy ends in prayer The Apostle saith Ye ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts Jam. 4.3 It is intolerable that holy and godly desires for the matter of them should travel to and traffique with Heaven to serve and bring in provisions for sensual or vile lusts The Lord taxeth it upon Israel that they cryed not unto him when they howled upon their beds Hos 7.14 they assembled themselves for corn and wine their end was not God it seems but their own belly It was an hainous crime for any man of Israel to make a perfume like to that which was holy Exo. 30.37 38 and compounded for the incense of the Sanctuary or to turn it to a civil and private use as for himself to smell to this was to be punished with cutting off from his people Accordingly it must needs be very displeasing unto God for a man to convert the sacred incense of prayer from its own proper and religious end to any carnal or sinful purpose or design 5. A contentious quarrelous or malicious heart in prayer Our blessed Saviour thus instructs us for prayer And when you stand praying Mark 11.25 forgive if you have ought against any that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive you your trespasses but if you do not forgive neither will your Father which is in Heaven forgive your trespasses A Rule to be well taken notice of at all times especially in these warring and jarring times wherein there is not only party against party in more divisions then can be mustered up but even prayer against prayer and if withall there should be strife and rancor within and so heart against heart as alass how hard is it to be avoyded who can hope it is any better among many This default would be enough it self alone both to keep back their prayers from them and to bind on their sins upon them As two persons cannot walk together except they be agreed so neither can their prayers ascend up to Heaven together except they be agreed the one at least and if both be from a strife-enflamed Censer what ever the matter be both must needs be shut out The Apostle wills That men pray every where lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting 1 Tim. 2.8 or without wrath and disceptation and so both terms may exclude debate in devotion When Israel went to war in their Land against the enemy that oppressed them the Priests were to blow an alarm against the enemy with both the Trumpets of the Sanctuary Num. 10 9 and then they should be remembred before the Lord their God and be saved from their Enemies But what might be expected if they should sound Trumpet against Trumpet and Priest against Priest 6. Infidelity or weakness of Faith or trust in God The Apostle James requires us to ask in Faith nothing wavering for let not that man that wavereth think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. Jam 1.6 7 Mr Medes Diatr part 2. p. 297 This wavering saith one is when we reel from God to rest upon second means It is a hard matter to use friends wisdom or strength and not to relie upon them and it is as hard to go to God in prayer and sincerely and stedfastly to trust in him It is wont to be said we must use the means but trust in God but the usual practise is to invert that and to use prayer use God but trust in the means Our Saviour saith that God will avenge his own Elect which cry day and night to him though he bear long with them Lu. 18 7 8 he will avenge them speedily nevertheless when the Son of man cometh shall he find Faith on the Earth How is this Can it be long and yet speedy We must take it in divers respects or in relation to divers persons It is long in the account and sense of them that pray but it is speedy to the wicked that are the subjects of that avenging It is long because God waits for strength of faith as well as assiduity of cries in his Elect it is speedy because God is quicker in coming on in his work then they are in their advance of faith Though he bear long yet he comes sooner then their faith is ready for when he cometh he shall scarce find faith in the Earth 7. A continuance of sin in heart and life If I regard iniquity in my heart Psa 66.18 the Lord will not hear me saith David And the Lord tells Israel Lev. 26 27 31 If ye will not for all this harken unto me but walk contrary unto me I will bring your Sanctuaries unto desolation and I will not smell the savor of your sweet
of 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
Lord but the Lord would not harken to their voyce nor give ear unto them Here the denyal of their suit and the irrevocability of the sentence of their wandering so long in the wilderness was plainly for their sin And yet we read elsewhere in the story the same was ordered so for their good also The Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee to know what was in thine heart c. and he humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger c. that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live And a little after Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery Serpents Deut. 8.2 3 15 16 c. that he might humble thee and that he might prove thee to do thee good at thy latter end These many excellent benefits were the end for that peoples attainment whereof they were put to travel and stay so long a time out of Canaan and in the desart The proposal of so happy an end by God and the committance of such great offences by the people concurred together in the denyal of their request above spoken of And the like may be said of Moses in regard of the denyal of his request to go over Jordan and into Canaan it was his benefit being that in lieu thereof he dying attained to a better life and Canaan and yet his sin also was in it as the cause of that refusal h Deut. 3.26.32.52 Numb 20 12 Psa 106.33 We see then by these instances those very persons whom the Lord hideth himself from it may be both to correct their sin and to consult their good he may do it to them both for the punishment of their offences and for the procurement of their profit SECT V. Of the first sort of Causes of Gods hiding from prayers HAving made this observation of both the sorts of Causes layd together I now proceed to speak of them severally 1. Of the former namely the Reasons arising from man or the meritorious Causes on mans part Concerning this head of Reasons I shall endeavor to shew four things 1. That sin is a cause of Gods hiding from his peoples prayers 2. Whose sins 3. What special sins for kind 4. Certain circumstances in sin that help forward this effect 1. That sin is a cause of this deportment of the Lord towards his praying people I shall not need to say much to this it is a thing so evident It is plainly declared by God It is freely acknowledged by the people of God themselves 1. It is expresly declared by God Isai 59.12 Your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear Jer. 33 5. For all whose wickedness I have hid my face from this City Because they trespassed against me Ezek 39.23 24. therefore I hid my face from them According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them and hid my face from them And predictâ—vely Mic. 3.4 Then shall they cry unto the Lord but he will not hear them he will even hide his face from them at that time as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings 2. The consciences of the people of God have given testimony to this against themselves So the Church of Iudah under her Babylonian pressures Lam. 3.42 43 We have transgressed and have rebelled thou hast not pardoned Thou hast covered thy self with a cloud that our prayers should not pass through Isai 64 7 For thou hast hid thy face from us and consumed us because of our iniquities David elegantly expresseth this where he saith Psal 65 3. Verba iniquitatum prevaluerunt mihi Foord Ar. Mon. pelican Musc Iniquities prevail against me or as our margent with other Interpreters read the words of iniquities prevail against me He had in the verse next before used this compellation to God O thou that hearest prayer and with relation unto that stile he is conceived to intend this speech The words of iniquities prevail against me We see iniquities speak they have a voyce yea a cry As our prayers speak and cry for us so if iniquity have dominion over us it will speak yea clamour and clamouring prevail against us As God is a hearer of prayer so he is a hearer of the cry of sin As he receives the suits which our prayers present for us so also he admits the bills which our sins put in against us As he hath an ear of mercy open to the one so hath he an ear of justice and holiness open to the other And it is but equal that as the presentment of our wants or wrongs by prayer so the accusation of our sins which are injuries done unto God should have access to him yea and that God himself should first be vindicated and the sin expiated and removed and we our selves set right in the Court of Heaven upon our repentance ere our prayers for us should have a hearing and return from God 2. The next thing is Whose sin it is that may cause God to hide himself from his servants prayers I answer 1. It is very ordinarily their own sin that do pray I will give no other instances for this then those even now given out of Isaiah Ieremiah the Lamentations Ezekiel and Micah look but over them again and you will read in every of them that as sin was the motive of Gods hiding from those prayers so the sin was theirs whose were the prayers 2. It is oftentimes the sin of others As 1. Theirs for whom the prayer is put up to God As in the intercessions of the servants of God for others they may pray for others out of duty to Gods Command and pious affection to them and their prayer may be regular and it may be acceptable to God and yet the Lord may hide himself from it in regard of granting the benefit to the persons prayed for and the reason may be the sins of those persons 1 Sam. 15.11 Samuel cryed unto the Lord all night for Saul but Sauls disobedience in his expedition against the Amalekites suffered not Samuel to prevail for him Ezek. 9.8 9 Ezekiel prayed for Ierusalem when the six men the Executioners of Gods wrath were sent out into it with their destroying weapons in their hands but the full measure of the Lands and Cities sins would not admit of a rescue though it was Ezekiel that prayed Israels Golden Calf stood up and made such a breach for Gods anger against them Exod 32.31 c. that though Moses his chosen stood before him in it yea and turned away his wrath as to the destroying of them yet he could not obtain for them a total remission of punishment The Lord answered him Nevertheless