anothers praiers joyned with his So it followes That yee may bee healed ver 16. For in that sense I understand healing in ver 16. So also 1. Iohn 5. 16. If a man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death that is not against the Holy Ghost hee shall aske life for him and God shall give him life that sins not unto death Concerning this case I give these considerations how such prayers are answered 1. Consideration §. 1. Such prayers for others God often granteth Such prayers God often heareth why else are any such promises made as That they shall bee healed in their bodies James 5. 15. Healed of their lusts ver 16. Converted to life 1. Ioh. 5. 16. God hath made these to encourage us to pray and to testifie his abundant love to us that it so overflowes and runs over that he will heare us not onely for our selves but for others also which is a signe we are in extraordinary favour So God intimates concerning Abraham to Abimelech Gen. 20. 7. He is a Prophet and he shall pray for thee and thou shalt live and as he was a Prophet so wee are Priests as for our selves so for others also to God our Father and it is a prerogative we have through the fellowship wee have and communion of Christs Priestly office Revel 1. 6. who hath made us Kings and Priests to prevaile and intercede for others and a speciall token and pledge of extraordinary love For if God heares a mans prayers for others much more for himselfe in his owne behalfe So when Christ healed the man sick of the palsie it was as it is said For the faith of the standers by Matth. 9. 2. Hee seeing their faith said Thy sinnes are forgiven thee the meaning is not as if for their faith sake he forgave that man his sins Hab. 2. 4. for The just doth live by his owne faith but to encourage them who out of faith brought that sick man to him and us all in like maner to bring others and their plaints by prayer before him he therefore then tooke occasion to declare and pronounce forgivenesse to that poore man §. 2. hee therefore then said Yet alwaies they do not prevaile for the parties prayer for Thy sinnes are forgiven thee 2. Consideration yet secondly prayers for others may often also not obtaine the particular thing prayed for them So Samuels prayer for Saul 1. Sam. 15. 35. So David for his enemies Psalm â—7 13. For it is in this The reason as it is â—n the use of other means and ordinances for the good of others God making such like kinde of promises to our prayers herein as hee hath made to our endeavours to convert when wee preach to men that looke as wee preach to many and yet but few beleeve Rom. 10. 16. for Who hath beleeved our report even as many as are ordained to eternall life wee become all to all and winne but some So we pray for many not knowing who are ordained to eternall life which whilest wee know not wee are yet to pray for them 1. Tim. 2 3 4. Onely as where God hath set his Ordinance of Preaching it is more then a probable signe hee hath some to convert and usually the word takes among some though often but a few So when hee hath stirred up our hearts to pray for others it is a signe God will heare us for some of those we pray for yet so as we may be denied For God doth require it as a duty on our parts because it is an outward meanes ordained by God by which sometimes Hee useth to bring things to passe but yet not as such a certaine and infallible meanes as hee hath tied himselfe universally unto to bring the thing to passe on his part And though indeed his promise to heare and accept the praier is generall and universal Such promises to hear us for others being but indefinite not universall yet the promise to heare it by granting the very thing it selfe praied for is but an indefinite promise such as he makes to other meanes of doing men good as to our admonitions and reproofes and to our preaching c. Hee makes such promises because sometimes hee doth heare and convert by them For instance that promise Iam. 5. 15. of healing the sick cannot be universall for it might then be supposed as a truth implied in it that sick men might never die wheÌ„ as it is appointed for all men once to die Heb. 9. 27. seeing it may bee supposed that the Elders may at all such times of danger of death stil come and pray with them but the meaning is that it is an Ordinance which God hath made a gracious promise unto because he often doth restore the sick at their praiers and therefore upon every such particular occasion wee are to rely upon God for the performance of it by an act of recumbencie though with an act of full assurance that we shall obtain it we cannot the promise being not universall out indefinite Of the like nature are all other promises of things temporall and outward Illustrated by the like tenour of all promises of things temporall of which wee herein speak as when God promiseth to give long life to them that honour their parents riches and honours to them that feare Him the tenour and purport of which promises is not as if absolutely infallibly universally God doth alwayes performe these to those that are yet truely qualified with the conditions specified in those promises The contrary both Scripture instances and common experience shewes they are therefore indefinitely meant and so to bee understood by us for because when ever God doth dispense any such mercies to any of his hee would doe it by promise All his wayes to His being truth that is the fulfilling of some truth promised and also God having purposed in his outward dispensation of things here in this world to bestow riches and honours upon some that fear him though not upon al for how then should all things fall alike to all Eccles 7. 2. Poverty and cotempt upon them that feare God even as well as those that feare him not Hee hath therefore indefinitely expressed His gracious dispensation herein The faith towards them required to be but an indefinite act of recumbency not of assurance requiring answerably an act of saith which principle in us is suited to a promise as a faculty is to its proper object suitable to that his meaning in the promise That as hee intended not in such promises an absolute infallible universall obligation of himselfe to the performance of them to all that feare him so the act of faith which a man is to put forth toward this promise in the application of it for his owne particular is not required to be an absolute infallible perswasion and assurance that God will bestow these outward things upon him having these
all things wee pray for If a man comes to sue to any man whose mind he knew not whether hee loved him or not he would have small hope or expectation of having his suite granted though hee came againe and again but if he be assured he is in favour with him according to that degree of favour hee supposeth himself to stand in with him hee is assured and confident of obtaining his request 2 Of the weaknesse of our prayers which is answered by three things 2 Discouragement is the weaknesse of their prayers though a man thinks his person is accepted yet alas sayes he my prayers are so poore and weake as surely God will never regard them To remove which let mee first aske thee this question Doest thou pray with all thy might then though that thy might be weak in it selfe and in thine owne apprehension such yet because it is all the might which thou hast and which grace hath in thee it shall be accepted For God accepts according to what a man hath and not according to that he hath not 2 Cor. 8. 12. 2. Thou art to consider that God doth not heare thee for thy prayers sake though not without them but for his Names sake and his Sons sake and because thou art his child as the mother when her child cryes suppose it be a weake child doth not neglect to heare and relieve it but tenders it not because it doth cry more lowd but because it cries and pities it the more the weaker it is 3. Againe though the performance in it selfe be weake yet confidered as a prayer it may be strong because a weake prayer may set the strong God a worke as faith for the act of it as produced by us may be weak yet because its object is Christ therefore it justifies so it is in prayer it prevailes not because of the performance it selfe but because of the name which it is put up in even Christs name and therefore as a weake faith justifies so a weake prayer prevailes as well as a stronger and both for the like reason in both for faith attributes all to God and so doth prayer for as faith is meerly a receiving grace so prayer a begging grace And therefore dost thou think thy prayers are accepted at all notwithstanding their weaknesse if that they are accepted then they must be accepted as prayers now if they be accepted as prayers then as effectuall motives to prevaile with God to grant the thing you aske for if hee should not accept them to that end for which they were ordained it is as if hee accepted them not at all As therefore when he approves of any mans faith as true and sincere hee approves and accepts of it to that purpose for which it was ordained which is to save and justifie and to this end doth as fully accept the weakest act of faith as the strongest so is it with their prayers which being ordained as a means to obtaine mercies from him if hee accepts them at all it is with relation to the accomplishment of them which is their end 4. Men are mistaken in judging of the weaknes of their prayers they judge of the weaknesse of their prayers by their expressions and gifts in performing them or by the stirring and overflow of affections whereas the strength vigor of prayer should be estimated from the faith the sincerity the obedience the desires exprest in it As it is not the lowdnesse of a Preachers voice but the weight and holinesse of the matter and spirit of the Preacher that moves a wise and an intelligent hearer so not gifts but graces in prayers are they that move the Lord. The strength of prayer lies not in words but in that it is fitted to prevaile with God one prayer is not more strong then another further then it is so framed as it hath power with God more or lesse as of Iacob it is said he had power with God Hos 12. Now prayers move God not as an Oratour moves his hearers but as a child moves his father two words of a childe humbled and crying at his fathers feet will prevaile more then penned orations Rom. 8. It is the meanning of the spirit that God lookes unto more then the expressions for the groans there are said to be unutterable Hezechiahs expressions were so rude and broken that he sayes Esay 38. 14. that he did but chatter hee being then sick even as a crane yet God heard them 3. So often failings of answers answered by foure things A third discouragement is faylings of answers I have prayed often and long and I have been seldome or never answered and therefore I make little account of my prayers that they are heard others have the revenewes of their prayers comming in but I doe misse whatsoever almost I stand for Therefore say they as those Why have we fasted and thou regardest it not Isay 58. 3. To remove this consider 1. That thou hast the more reason to wait for thou hast the more answers to come for as wicked men treasure up wrath so doe godly men mercy and especially by their prayers therefore mercies and answers do often come thick together even as afflictions also doe Suppose thou shouldst have few answers concerning the things thou seekest for here either in praying for thy selfe or others yet thy reward is with the Lord. It is in praying as in preaching a man may preach faithfully many a yeere and yet not convert a soule and yet a man is not to give over waiting but to observe after every Sermon what good is done and whether God will give men repentance as it is 2 Tim. 2. 25. And if none be converted yet as Esay 49. 4. A mans reward is with the Lord. Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour 1 Cor. 3. 8. and not according to the successe of his labour only So it is in praying though thou missest againe and again nothing succeeds thou prayest for yet be not discouraged for thy reward is with the Lord which will come in one day 3. God doth it not that hee heares thee not but to try thee for a man to say as David sayes Psal 116. 1 2. God hath heard my prayer therefore I will call upon him as long as I live that is nothing so much as to be able to say Well I have prayed thus long and for these many things and never sped and yet I will call upon him whilst I live though I find no answer in this life To finde commings in in a trade and yet to hold out trading still argues not so much faithfulnesse in a mans calling as when a man hath losses and castings behind hand and yet to follow it 4. God usually stayes so long that we have done expecting Luke 18. 8. The Elect cry day and night but God stayes so long ver 7. that when he comes hee findes not faith they have
their absence such an infallible though a great efficacy to preserve his minde in an everlasting disrelishing former delights but that hee may and often doth fall in love againe too too much with them although indeed whilst the present sense of them did abide upon the heart it abstracted the minde from all things here below And hence a man is apt to fall from his first love Rev. 2. and from that high esteeme of spirituall things as the Galathians Gal. 4. 15. Where is the blessednesse you spake of sayes Saint Paul to them therefore answerably the remembrance of the bitternesse of any sin felt in our deepest humiliations is much lesse able to preserve a man nor is the impression and dint made so lasting nor the scarres and wounds of conscience continuing for ever so fresh as everlastingly to preserve and deterre us from falling into the same sinne againe For both are but creatures and at best but arguments drawne from sense and experience within our selves and have but an humane created power which is not alwayes efficacious especially seeing GOD hath ordained us to live by saith more then by sense for faith is appointed by God to be our more constant keeper 1. Pet. 1. 5. We are kept through faith unto salvation and by it more surely and more constantly then by impressions of joy or sorow which are made to sense and yet wee are not kept by it of it selfe but by the power of God so then wee are kept by the power of God as the principall supporter and guardian through faith as the instrumentall and by it rather then by sense or any other grace of sorrow or repentance because faith caries the heart out of it selfe and commits it selfe wholly into the hands of God as a faithfull Creator who is the strength of Israel to keepe a man from everie evill worke as not being able to secure it selfe against any sin through the power of any fortification or strength that any other grace or degree of grace hath built no not for one moment and therefore is as dependant upon God after a fall and a renewed repentance out of it yea and more then before hee fell and his owne wofull experience hath reason to make him so The like instance to illustrate the truth of this wee may draw from the assurance of faith it selfe For even the assurance of faith it selfe which is an act properly belonging to that grace called therefore the assurance of faith Heb. 10. 22. which doth strengthen us as much against doubting when it is joyned with joy unspeakable and glorious as repentance can do against any other sinne and whilest it is upon us in the strength of it a beleever is apt to thinke himselfe armed and strengthened and so establisht as that hee shall never question Gods love any more or the pardon of his sinnes and yet experience shewes it that the guilt of sinne prevailes sometimes againe after this and the same doubts arise and prevaile as much as ever neither will the remembrance of the former assurance be alwayes of force enough to resist them for hee may come to question that assurance it selfe also and so forget that hee was purged from his old sinnes And if the guilt of sin prevaile in the Conscience againe against such a renewed and setled act of faith why may not the power of a lust prevaile in the members after a renewed act of repentance Reas 4 4. If it be said that a renewed act of thorow repentance doth keepe a man not by any peculiar vertue in it selfe alone but by the power of God concurrent with it Then I demand to see the promise wherin God hath infallibly obliged and ingaged his power upon such a renewed act of repentance to preserve from falling into that sinne of all other for ever without which no man in faith can affirme it and without which there is an it may bee and a supposition of such a possibility as sometime falleth out and is reduced to existence GOD indeed hath said that if we fall hee will put under his hand to breake that fall that it shall not ruine us but not so to keep us in his hands as we shall bee out of danger of falling againe A renewed act of repentance is indeed an ordinance sanctified to preserve a man yet but in the same maner that other ordinances are as Prayer and the word preacht and admonition c. with which GOD doth not alwayes so infallibly cooperate as efficaciously to worke alwayes that which they serve to 5. If there were not such a possibility as might and doth sometimes fall out then every regenerate man after such a renewed act of repentance might secure himselfe against the committing that grosse act againe for ever but so he can never doe against any particular act of sinne but that sinne against the Holy Ghost Saint Paul therefore exhorts when a brother is fallen into a sinne to restore such an one with the spirit of meekenesse upon this consideration considering thy selfe lest thou also bee tempted and hee layes the exhortation upon those who are most spirituall Yee that are spirituall refore such an one considering thy selfe lest thou also be tempted Gal. 6. 1. so as hee speakes of such as have their hearts raised up to the best frame through the most deepe and serious repentance and now wee will suppose one that hath formerly fallen himselfe into the same sinne which another is fallen into but not yet restored but himselfe is returned by repentance out of it for indeed such a spirituall man is of all other like to bee the meekest bone-setter of a man fallen even such doth Saint Paul exhort to consider that themselves may for the time to come be also or in like manner tempted that is fall as this man fell and therefore so bee tempted as to fall into the same sinne againe that he was fallen into And if any man could bee secure from the like fall againe hee had beene out of the reach of this exhortation to this duty upon that ground mentioned as not capable of it But the Holy Ghost hath else where 1. Cor. 10. 13. told us that there is no tentation which is common to man but is incident to befall any man at any time and therefore verse 12 exhorts him that standeth to take heed lest be fall indeed that temptation which is common to Devils with men the sinne of finall despaire and against the holy Ghost c. a regenerate man may through the grace of Christ secure himselfe against but all such sinnes as are common to man from these or any of them no man in any state can without an extraordinary revelation secure himselfe from the commission of Onely I adde these Cautions concerning this case Cautiō 1 1. There are two sorts of corruptions First more grosse corruptions which Saint Peter calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the defilements of the world 2. Pet. 2. 20.
qualifications in him but onely an indefinite act as I may so call it of recumbency and submission casting and adventuring our selves upon him for the performance of it to us not knowing but he may in his outward dispensations make it good to us yet with submission to His good pleasure if otherwise Hee disposeth it Though of assurance to the promise in generall yet not in the application of it It is true indeed that that act of generall assent which faith is to give to this promise in the generall abstract truth of it is to bee an assured certaine perswasion and beleefe that God hath made this promise and that He certainely will and doth performe it unto some according to his purpose expressed therein which act of generall assent is that beleeving without wavering namely of the truth of the promise in general which S. Iames calls for in prayer Iam. 1. 6. But yet that speciall act of application as Divines call it required in this faith wherby I am to rest upon it for my owne particular is not required to be such an undoubted perswasion as to thinke that I shall certainly have this particular promise in kinde fulfilled to me for the truth purpose and intent of the promise is not universall but indefinite So as it is but an it may bee as God elsewhere expresseth such promises as Zeph. â— 1 2. That it shal be performed to mee and yet because it may be God wil perform it unto mee therefore my duty is to cast my self upon God and put in for it with submission to His good pleasure for the performance of it to me So that so farre as the truth and intent of it is revealed to be infallible certain so far a man is bound to have an answerable act of faith of certaine and infallible perswasion towards it as to beleeve without wavering that God hath made such a promise and will perform it according to His intent in making it which is unto some but yet withall because the tenour of it is but indefinite and in that respect whether it shal be performed to mee or no is not therein certainely revealed Therefore God requires not of mee in the application of such a promise an absolute full perswasion that He will performe it to mee in such or such a manner c. But only an act of dependance and adherence with referring it to his wise and righteous good pleasure towards me And yet againe if God should at any time give a man such a speciall faith concerning any such particular temporall blessing for himselfe or another Yet when God sometimes gives a speciall faith then we are to bee assured the thing shall bee done then hee is bound to beleeve it thus in particular as when Hee gave power to any to work miracles as to his Apostles Hee did with a Commission to work them then they were bound to beleeve that such and such a miracle should infallibly bee wrought by them as that the Devils should be cast out by them c. And therefore in this case Christ rebukes His Disciples for not beleeving thus upon such particular occasions Matth. 17. 20. And then it is also true that if God give such a faith Hee will infallibly perform it and thus those his words are to bee understood Matth. 27. 22. Whatsoever yee aske in faith beleeving An objection prevented yee shall receive hee speakes it of the faith of miracles for 21. ver he had said If ye beleeve and doubt not yee shall say to this Mountaine remoove into the sea and it shall be remooved so that when God works such a faith and wee are called to it we are bound to beleeve with a certain perswasion that such a thing will be done and it shall bee done but unto such a kinde of speciall faith in temporall promises for our selves or others God doth not now alwayes call us If indeed at any time wee did beleeve and doubted not by reason of a speciall faith wrought by God that GOD would remove a mountaine into the Sea or bestow any outward mercy it should be done for he that stirred up such a faith would accomplish the thing but it is not that which God requires of beleevers that they should without doubting thus beleeve concerning outward things the promises thereof being not universall but indefinite and therefore answerably a man is not absolutely bound to beleeve that God wil certainly bestow such a temporall blessing on him no not though he should have the qualification which the promise being not universal made â—o all so qualified but indefinite to some of such so qualified The case is the same of beleeving promises made to our praying for others which is the thing in hand §. 3. Such prayers for others are often returned into our own bosome 3. When the prayers â—re thus made out of concience of our duty for such whom yet God doth not intend that mercy unto then they are returned againe into our owne bosomes to our advantage even as S. Paul saith that his rejoycing that others preached though they lost their labour should turne to his salvation Phil. 1. 20. So prayers for others though to the parties themselves we prayed for they prove in vaine yet they turne to our good So Psalm 35. 12 13. When his enemies were sick David he praied and humbled himselfe and my prayers saies he returned into my bosome David did by this his prayer in secret for his enemies testifie the sincerity of his heart to God and his true forgivenesse of them for it is the usuall disposition of Gods children to pray for them that are the greatest enemies to them and this prayer though it did not profit them yet it turned to Davids owne good it came back and home againe to him with blessings to himselfe God delighting in and rewarding such a disposition in his childe as much as any other The Reason because therein we resemble Christ so truely and shew that God is our Father and our selves to have his bowels in us and God stirreth up this praying disposition in his children for their enemies not alwaies that he means to heare them for them but because he meanes to draw forth and so have an occasion to reward those holy dispositions which are the noblest parts of his image in them and wherewith hee is so much delighted and so their prayers returne into their owne bosome and it is taken as if they had prayed for themselves all that while Thus in like maner when Moses prayed so earnestly for the people of Israel God offered to returne his prayer into his owne bosome and doe as much for him alone as hee had desired that God would doe for them Exod. 32. 10. I will make of thee a great Nation saies God to him for whom I will doe as much for thy sake as thou hast prayed I should doe for these As in preaching the Gospel