never think what you do what you aim at I and my family are now going to seek the great God in prayer I am now going to joyn with my father or my master now that we are altogether in this family to tender up that worship and homage that we poor creatures owe to that infinite glorious first being of all things whereby to testifie our high respect and esteem of him Now if thy prayer be a customary way of prayer it is vanity it hath not a right end It may be thou goest to prayer meerly to satisfie conscience· Or some have this by end in prayer a wicked end that is they think to satisfie God for their former sinfull wicked wayes They take liberty in company to drink and please the flesh and as they served themselves then so now they will serve God and set one against another Sometimes they will give liberty to the flesh to take contentment that way but they will not alway do so sometime they will be devout serve God There is no man so wicked as to be alwayes in the acts of wickednesse but they think God must have his turn and they must have their turn sometimes And this is the prayer of many people to put their sins in one scale and so many devout prayers in the other scale and the one shall poize the other This is vanity this is not the end of prayer When God doth not see thy expressions filled with the graces of the Spirit this is vanity Take heed of vain expressions when there is nothing but nature in prayer though there be never so much earnestnesse in prayer if there be but a naturall spirit it is vanity we must pray in the spirit as the Scripture speaks And take heed of sluggishnesse in prayer that makes it vanity The breath that comes from life in mans body is warm but the breath that comes from bellows is artificiall and cold some mens breath in prayer is artificiall and cold but the prayer that comes from life is warm breath that comes up to God Again vanity in prayer is this when all is eaten out with vain thoughts thy heart roves in prayer thou knowest not where thou art thou canst not call that which thou makest a prayer A prayer with vain thoughts it like beer or wine that is dead and hath lost the spirits Vain thoughts are worms that eat out the strength of a duty would you present a dish to your superiour that were worm eaten or that were gnawn on before when we let out our thoughts in duties and present them to God they are worm-eaten and torn the strength of them is quite gone And after you have prayed take heed that you make not your prayers vain by not looking after them for the accomplishment of them or by being proud of your prayers gifts by resting in them And again it is vaniâ—y when thou undoest all as soon as thou hast done by going contrary to thy prayer in thy life not adding watchfulnesse to prayer If a man take pains to weave a web and spend so many hours in it and then ravell it out this man spends his time in vain So do most people with their prayers they pray for mercie and grace and as soon as they have done they go quite contrarie and ravell and undo all is not this vanity No marvell if thou thinkest it in vain when there is nothing but vain thoughts in thy prayers And take heed that you make not the prayers of others vain Luther writes to Melancthon angerly in regard of his fear of the power of his adversaries saith he You make our prayers void So it may be said of many that are cold and luke-warm and dead-hearted and do not take to heart the cause of God that fear the displeasure of this bodie and that bodie you make our prayers void You that have praying friends it may be fathers mothers that are dead whose prayers are put up in heaven take heed that you make not their prayers void that you give them not cause if they should come to live again from the dead to weep and cry out O how are our prayers made void by the prayers of such and such But you will say Lord what will become of us we have abundance of vanitie in our prayers Therefore that you may not be discouraged know that though there be manie vain thoughts in prayer yet if there be sighing and mourning and humbling of the soul and panting of the heart after God in groning and sighing though there be a mixture of vanitie yet there is a working of the Spirit of God and of grace in the heart after God know that the Lord will not charge this vanitie on thee the Lord will do away thy sin therefore let not that discourage thee The efficacy lies not in the excellencie of thy prayer but in the merits of Christ and his mediation Onely Christ will have somewhat of thy self in thy prayer he will have thy heart pant work after him but there may be abundance of vanitie thou drawest a line and makest a blot and another line and another blot Christ draws all fair again and presents to his Father But another question is this you say it is vain to pray Can you make good that you are one of the seed of Iacob This priviledge belongs to them it may be you are of the seed of Esau The seed of Esau what is that The Apostle speaks of Esau what his guise was Heb. 12.6 and saith Take heed that none of you be such as Esau lest there be any fornicatour or profane person as Esau who for one morsell of meat sold his birth-right Now if thou prove a fornicatour thou art of the seed of Esau or a profane person what is that for one morsell of meat he sold his birth-right that is to please and satisfie and content the flesh he sold his birth-right that was the land of Canaan so typified the priviledges of the Church of God and even a type of heaven it was His birth-right had a spirituall meaning it had reference to the spirituall priviledges that the Saints of God have to this day in all the ordinances of God That man or woman that priseth any carnall contentment before spirituall priviledges they are of the seed of Esau and not of Iacob Thou thinkest there is some savour in monie and in a good trade and in good chear and such a day as this November 5. is better then a fastday because of the good chear but for the spirituall duties of this day to come and magnifie God and to attend upon his word thou thinkest they are circumstances and by matters and thou art troubled if the Sermon be too long to hinder thee of thy dinner thou art a prophane Esau all that I have said belongs not to thee thou dost not belong to Iacob but to Esau that preferrest carnall things for the
when he heard of a dishonour done to the people of Israel the Text saith that his anger did rise within him an excellent pattern for all Governours for all in publick places to be very silent quiet self-denying putting up wrongs in their own cause but to be full of zeal for the publick cause to reserve their spirits for a publick good Many when they are anger'd in their private cause and so full of violence and spend their spirit there so much that they have no spirit at all when it comes to a publick cause Saul went beyond them in this Further Saul was one who was much troubled at the sin of the people against God he had not onely a spirit to vindicate publick wrongs but when he saw the people sin against God his heart was much troubled thereat and grieved for it and being mighty sollicitous and carefull to prevent sin in the people this you shall have in the first of Samuel 14.33 they told Saul there that the people had sinned in eating with bloud upon that Saul shews himself displeased come saith he and do not sin against the Lord rowle a stone hither he would see with his own eyes that they did slay the cattle and they did powre forth the bloud that they might not sin against God in eating bloud this was his care yea he was very diligent to enquire of God what he should do in businesses of great consequence he would not go out till he had first enquired of God Yea more then all this he was a man that had a very reverend esteem of the Prophets of God when Samuel came to him O thou blessed of the Lord saith Saul to him when Samuel shewed unto him what his sin was he câ—me and confessed it before the people saying I have sinned I have sinned against the Lord meerely at the conviction of one Prophet And God seemed to be with Saul very much shewing great respect to him to make him an instrument of much good to Israel he granted unto him as glorious a victory as ever man had in this world for so we may call it and if there be any outward thing in the world might be gather'd as an argument of Gods love such a remarkable victory as he had over his enemies well might the victory you shall find in the first of Samuel 13. where the Philistins were risen up against him and there were 30000 chariots of his adversaries and 6000. horsemen and people as the sand of the Sea for multitude well here was a mighty enemie what had Saul to oppose these you shall find that there were but 600. men with Saul there was of one side 30000. Chariots 6000 horsemen and people as the sand of the Sea without number and Saul had but 600. with him at this time yea and of those 600. there was not any one of them that had a sword but onely Saul and Ionathan for the Philistins were wise enough to disarm all the malignants that they accounted so and would not let so much as a smith be amongst them they would not onely take away their arms but they would look to them to see that they had no armes supplied unto them that was the wisedome of the Philistins yet we find if you read afterwards in the Scripture that God was so far with Saul and blessed him and gave him victory over all these besides all this God blessed Saul with a very gracious child a Godly Son of a sweet nature Ionathan which indeed if any outward argument in the world might be an argument of Gods love that might be Now put all these things together and yet here is the man that hath his portion in this world I now challenge him that hath certain evidence of a mighty work of God upon him in Christ let him shew me greater arguments of Gods love to him then Saul might have done and yet it proved to be Sauls condition to have onely his portion in this world God herein shews that his mercy is his own and that he will let out his mercy as he pleases it is your Fathers pleasure to give you a Kingdom the Father deals out the portion as he pleases unto his children God will let the line of his mercy go thus far to one and there stop and so far to another and there stop and then come in a crosse line again unto him God so disposes of his mercy that there are some that shall have heaven and earth to be their portion there portion is blessed indeed there are some that shall have earth but not heaven and their portion is poor and sad there are others that shall have heaven but not earth and their portion is rich blessed there are others that shall neither have heaven nor earth and their portion you 'l say is miserable indeed Gods mercy is his owne to dispose off as he will we read of Abraham He calleth for Ishmael and Hagar and he gives them a piece of bread a bottle of water and sends them away there is an end of them so Jehoshaphat He gave his other Son saith the Text gifts but the Kingdom he gave to Iehoram so God hath people to whom he gives pieces of bread bottles of water yea some to whom he gives great gifts in this world but he keeps his inheritance for his Isaacs he keeps the Kingdom for Iehoram Esau he had his portion in this world and such a portion as he thought to be a very good portion too Brother saith he I have enough Most rich men go not so far as Esau they have their portion and yet complain of it Esau had his portion and thought he had enough Christs auditours in the 6. of Luke 24. had their portion in this world woe to you here is your consolation saith Christ unto them O dreadfull speech wo to this man wo to such wretches here is their consolation Dives he had his portion in this world Son remember in thy life time thou hadst thy pleasure in thy life time and thou hadst thy good things they were thy good things those things that were measur'd out for thee thou hadst them in thy life time In the handling of this argument I shall divide what I have to say into these 6. particulars that you may every one of you go the more readily along with me first why it is that God will deal out somewhat to wicked men in this world why they shall have any portion at all Secondly that this their portion it is confined to this life and why so Thirdly some Corollaries that you will see will naturally flow from those two Fourthly we shall consider the condition of these men who are such that have their portion in this world and fifthly we shall endeavour to shew unto you who are those men to cull out of the congregation what that man is which is that woman that is like
is not in vain As for thy praising voice God shall have enough of that in heaven but he shall have none of thy praying voice therefore why shouldest thou not be willing that God should have more of thy praying voice here All that ever God shall have of thy praying voice it is in this worln and after a little time God shall never hear us pray more Therefore let us be willing to go on and continue in prayer and not to wonder why God keeps us on in a way of praying because all the time that ever God shall have to delight himself in the praying voice of his people it is in this world and for our praising voice we would fain spend all our dayes in praising God for his mercies but that is reserved for another world Further it may be Gods way to stay till he bring a great deal of mercy together and not by bitts and drops As when men deal with great merchants they expect not to have payments by six pences or shillings or Crowns at once but though there be two or three or ten pounds due they stand not on that but stay for a greater summe Now little traders that deal by retail they take it in by pence and little summes Christians that are to deal with God they deal for great things and there are great transactions between God and a gracious heart therefore think not much that God stayes with a greater summe For as God deals with the wicked in the way of justice so he deals with godly men in a way of mercy He lets wicked men go on a great while he comes not to judgement for sin but stayes till all come together till a great summe of wrath and judgement come together So he deals with the saints he comes not with lesse mercies but he stayes till abundance come and when Gods time is come mercies will come to the full indeed Further it may be God hath so much mercy that thou hast not a vessell capable of it Onely know that heaven and earth and all are working for thee Is the plowing and the sowing of the husbandman and all the showers in vain because the corn is not in the barn we account it not so so we must not account our prayers lost because the thing we pray for is not presently graunted and owe prayers answered Now for Application First if it be so that God saith call upon me and I will answer thee certainly there are great things for the Church to build on God is to do marvelous things for his people in these latter dayes Why because all the Saints from the beginning of the world have been seeking God not onely for their own times but for the Church to this very day all their prayers are upon the fyle and must be answered one day O what a glorious harvest will it be blessed are they that shall live to partake of it We have a little but certainly there are glorious things for the Church because everie prayer shall be answered Secondly you that are the Saints of God know your honour though you be never so poor otherwise God hath given you that which makes you rich you have the key of heaven you may open the treasures in heaven and it shall never be in vain Gods people are such as are exceeding honourable in the eyes of God and in this regard that they have credit in heaven that their prayers shall be heard and answered Bathsheba saith to Solomon 1 King 2.20 I desire one petition of thee I pray thee say me not nay It is translated by some Ne confundas faciam confound not my face Indeed the denying of a petition it is a dishonour and a confounding of the face but God will not confound the faces of his people O here see your priviledge and your riches all the prayers that you have made in your life time they are all trading in heaven they are not lost If a man have ventured a stock abroad to the Indies and do not hear of it in a great while he thinks it is lost gone but if he hear certain news that all his stock is safe in the place where he would have it and those that are there faithfully improve his stock he is revived by this it rejoyceth his spirit and he can say blessed be God I hope to be a rich man for all this I say to thee be of good comfort thy stock is not lost it is trading in heaven and everie prayer that thou hast put up is there We should account our prayers as riches as adventures sent to heaven and not as children that shoot arrows and do not mind them And then learn this it is a great priviledge to have a praying friend a praying companion Manie of you love friends that are delightfull of a cheerly nature and merry but are they praying ones praying friends are the speciall friends because prayer can prevail with God To have a friend in the Court that can obtain any petition we think it a priviledge to have one great friend in heaven is a great priviledge Many people when they lie on their sick beds they send to such and such to pray for them why do they not send to their companions that they did drink with and swear with to pray for them O they dare not Here is enough to convince anie mans conscience who are the best men whatsoever they say Suppose thy condition were thus that thou diddest lie on thy death-bed and thy life did depend upon the prayers of four or five men If God should speak thus from heaven thou art at the brink of destruction onely this favour thou shalt find thou shalt have leave to choose where thou wilt four or five men to pray for thee and according as they pray so it shall be with thee thou hast liberty to choose through the world whom thou wilt I appeal would a drunkard choose four or five drunkards or a swearer choose swearers or unclean ones that they most delighted in all their life time If all should depend upon it thou wouldest not choose such therefore thou art convinced in thy conscience thou knowest that those are not precious in Gods eyes however thy lust have prevailed but that the other are better men that are gracious and have more credit in heaven Learn to prise praying friends that can prevail with God And let us set the crown upon prayers head in the mercies we have from God in publick mercies and private deliverances of friends attribute it not to second means to fortune and chance take heed of denying God his glorie It is a sign of a carnall spirit when God hath glorified himself in answering the prayers of his people to attribute it to any other means As I remember I read of the Porphirian atheists that followed the atheisme of Porphyrie they darkned the work of God in delivering the children of Israel out of Egypt thorough