it pleased God to frustrate the Christians prayers and to give the Victory and that Western Empire to a usurping Tyrant The Monks of Bangor in Flintshire were famous in their times and still are among Historians for their piety and devotion as also for their austerity of life and industry in manual labour being no way like unto the pack of degenerate and vicious Monks of latter ages When the Britains about Anno Christi 609. were gathered together at Chester to defend themselves by Arms against Ethelfrid King of the Northumbrian Saxons a Pagan they procured those godly Monks to assemble thither and assist them with their prayers against that fierce Enemy three days they continued in fasting and prayer King Ethelfrid Mr Fox Acts vol. 1. p. 153 154. Usser Brit. Eccl. Anti. c. 6. p. 133. Index Chronol apudeund An. 602 603 613. Cambd. Brit. Engl. p. 603. Speed B. 7. c. 9. s 7. p. 241 c. 18. s â—1 p. 292. understanding of their there assembling demanded what they did there and being informed that they prayed for the Christian Britains against him and his Army Then saith he although they bear no Arms yet they fight against us with their prayers and preaching Brockmail the British General and his Christians were vanquished Whereupon Ethelfrid having chased them commanded his men to fall upon those Monks that had fasted and prayed against him and he slew of them there to the number of twelve hundred I the rather take notice of this event of praying Christians falling before invading persecuting Infidels for the occasions sake upon which it is observed to have fallen out which was as remarkable as the disaster it self and suitable for the observation of us as things go now Thus they say it was Augustine he that was sent over by Gregory the first to plant or rather restore and reform Christian Religion here in Britain had a little before this accident called together seven of the British Bishops and some say the Bishops of Scotland also in a Synod for a Consultation and Concurrence in propagating the Christian Faith and Religion and extirpating Heathenish Idolatry At their meeting these British and Scots Bishops could not agree with Augustine and his Associates Some say their discord was about a matter of Complement at their first meeting others that it was concerning some Rites about Baptizing and keeping of Easter But a Breach there was and shortly upon it ensued both this destruction of the Christian Britains and Monks at Chester and an overthrow also of the Scots by the same Ethelfrid under Ean their King at Degsafton wherein they say there were killed the same number of 1200 of the Scots Clergy and both these defeats were they say foretold by Augustine to come by reason of their disagreement and interruption thereby of advancing their common work of reforming and propagating Religion I need not apply or compare this president to the Jars of these days either in the Causes or Consequences felt or feared I will descend to latter times It is well known with what asseduity and fervency of prayer as well as other labours the restoring of the Gospel and Reformation of Religion was enterprized and carried on by Luther Melanctâ—â—â— and the rest of the Protestant Professors in Germany This work being by the mighty and good hand of God advanced to a fair progress at length it came to the Tryal and hazard of War When it had been for about thirty years carried on in the hands of Luther Oecolampadius Capito and others by prayer preaching disputation and such like spiritual and peaceable means The Emperor Charls the fifth with Pope Paul the third raise a great Army of Spaniards Italians Germans and other Nations Thuan. l. 1. Brightman in Apoc. 11 and under the conduct of the said Emperor they come upon the Protestants arming themselves for their necessary defence in Saxony The issue is the Protestants under the leading of Jo Frederick Elector of Saxony are defeated and so great and continuing was the Overthrow that Mr Brightman takes it and the suppression of the freedom of the Protestants which followed together with the Decree of the Council of Trent about the same time concerning the sole Authority of the Vulgar Latin Translation of the Scriptures to be the overcoming and killing of the Witnesses by the Beast From An. 1547. Apr. 24. the day of that Battel to the middle of Anno 1550. Melch. Adam in vit Luth. p. 162 Revel 11. and their lying dead and unburied in the street for three days and a half for the strages of that disaster lasted as he computes for three years and a half and upon it the Pope and Papists made mighty triumph At Wittenberge where Luther was buried but the year before the Emperors Soldiers insulted over his grave and had well nigh digged up his Corps and burned it but that the Emperor himself restrained thâ—â— To this Instance might be added many like unto it of the black days that have gone over the faithful in these late ages in regard of their heavy sufferings and desertions and their outrageous Adversary riding and raigning over them by Wars Massacres Inquisitions and secular Judicatories This hath been their lot in all Countries wheresoever the light of the Gospel hath broke out to the dispelling of Popery at some time or other since the Reformation began And when thus it hath been the cry of the Faithfuls prayers and of their blood hath gone up to Heaven together whilest the Lord for a time hath shewed as if he regarded neither and their prayers as well as their blood hath seemed as water spilt upon the ground But particulars of this sort as they may be better remembered so they are too many to be descended unto I will only mention one more it shall be of our own time and state even within the compass of these our troubles In the year 1644. upon the ill successes of the Parliaments Army in the West the two Houses kept a publique Fast for that occasion One of the godly Ministers that performed the duty of that day observed to them Mr T. Coleman's Sermon before the House Septem 10 1644. pag. 3 5. That their Western disaster was the day after the last publique Fast kept in the Kingdom and in that City and place and not many days after a peculiar Fast for the welfare of that Army in six Churches And taking Psal 65. v. 5. for his Text he gathered and handled this Proposition from it viz. Terrible things may be the Consequent of the duty and day of Prayer God may answer our private and publique Intercedings with Terrible things The other in like manner reminded them That the dissipation of that brave gallant hopeful Army Mr Mathew Newcoâ—en Serâ— on Josh 7.10 11. p. 7. 24. was of an Army that was sent out with solemn Fasting and Prayer and since they came to be in the straits wherein they unhappily
for him Our Inducements may be 1. God hath prefixed his time the which is the best and fittest time for us his delaying is that he may bring about that time that time he will punctually keep and none shall either preoccupate or put it back and he hath that time in his own hand See for all this Psal 102.13 Isai 49.8 Hab. 2.13 Isai 60.22 Psal 31.15 That which Solomon begged of God concerning his prayer made at the dedication of the Temple holds true of all the faithful prayers of his people They are nigh unto the Lord day and night 1 Kin 8.59 that he may maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people at all times or the thing of a day in his day as the margent 2. Consider upon what good grounds and necessary reasons are the Lords deferrings he delays not an hour without a special cause and end while the Lord holdeth back our prayers it is still for the accomplishment of something very needful to be in us and to antecede our receiving of our petitions The particulars have been given above * Chap. 4. Sect. 6. 3. Our waiting shall not be in vain it shall have its end and fruit provided it be regular see Psal 85.8 Prov. 23.18 Hab. 2.3 Yea moreover as the end or matter waited for shall not miscarry so neither shall the time patience or trouble that it costs us in tarrying be lost or left upon our score but it shall also be recompenced us to the full we shall lose nothing by waiting The Church saith It is good that a man should both hope Lam. 3 26. and quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord. Observe it It is good that a man should quietly wait we may understand it not only of moral goodness but it is good in point of advantage and profit it 's gainful for a man to wait We say it is good for a man to be dispatched quickly and to have his petitions out of hand so it may be in Civil Courts and so may Nature judg it to be in the Court of Heaven but the Holy Ghost tells us it is good to wait God will consider thee in waiting not only to perform the thing waited for but to renumerate thy waiting 1. In present supports and comforts during thy expectance Psal 27.14 Isai 40.31 2. In the end the return will be so much the ampler and happyer Isai 30.18 Abraham Hannah and Job waited the two former each for a child the last for a recovery out of his afflictions the Lord gave them not only that which they waited for but an overplus and interest in their respective mercies as to Abraham and Hannah an increase of children above what they asked or looked for * Gen 25 1. c. 1 Sam. 2.21 and to Job twice as much as he had before †Job 42.10 as a compensation of their respective waitings 4. Consider how God hath been wont to deal with his servants his ordinary course hath been in conferring his special favours upon them to use delayes and make them wait for before they have them The Lord when he would quiet and comfort his Church in such a case as ours willeth them that follow after righteousness that seek the Lord Isai 51.1 2 to look unto Abraham their Father and Sarah that bare them Now if we consider how God disposed toward Abraham and Sarah in reference to their promised son and toward the rest of the faithful in Scripture in relation to their several mercies we shall find that God usually put them to great stayes and exercises of their patience If I had room I might here be large in instances and that of several kinds I will but touch them lightly referring them to these two Heads 1. How long time the Saints of God have suffered the delay of their prayers 2. How low they have been brought in their delayes 1. How long have the Servants of God been delayed in their prayers The choycest and eminentest Saints and Gods chiefest and notablest works of mercy for them have undergone great delays and have long stayed in the birth and have been fetched off with mighty difficulties The reduction of Abraham's posterity out of pilgrimage their bringing up out of Egypt and possession in Canaan according to the promise of God to Abraham was four hundred and seventy years * Exod. 12 40. And forty years after in their journey The Church of the Jews were kept waiting and playing in Babylon seventy years and after that their restauration in Iudea was long in accomplishing some reckon it an hundred others an hundred and fifty others two hundred years ere the Temple City and State were re-establâ—shed †See the variety of reckoning of the time and the Authours for them in Master Newcomer his Epist Dedic before his Sermon on Neh. 4 11 Psal 6.3 13.1.2 119.8 4 The coming of our Saviour and the Work of Redemption by him was looked for by believers from Adams time and onward which was for some scores of Generations The Prophet Davids complaints of his overcloudings and of the length of them under the want of D vine Presence and audience are frequent in the Psalms How long wilt thou forget me O Lord for ever How long wilt thou hide thy face from me c. But thou O Lord how long How many are the days of thy servant when wilt thou execute udgment on them that persecute me The Lord instructing his people how they should keep their Fasts to be acceptable to him and making his promises to them of happy consequents of their so observing them this is one of the promises Isai 58.12 See Div. Annotat. 2d Edit And they that shall be of thee shall build the old wast places c. He saith not themselves that so fast and pray as he directeth shall build c. But they that shall be of them their following generations they must pray and the effect must be reserved for their posterity to reap The souls under the Altar the slaughtered Christians under the most bloody persecution of Dioclesian crying unto God How long O Lord holy and true Revel 6. c. As having laid under Pagan persecutors long already even by succâ—ssive persecutions for almost three hundred years they are yet willed to rest and wait for the answer of their outcrys for a little season during which time the Church must yet undergo fresh pâ—rsecution Now that season of delay is accounted by Mr Mede See Mr Medes Comment in Engl. p. 52. 85. to have been about 127 years so long they must stay ere any beginning of their vindication come to pass by the beginning of the first of the seven Trumpet and then there was to be but a beginning See his Key part 2. Synchron 1. Dâ—v Annot. 2d Ed. on Rev. 9.13 and Bez. in Apoc. 14 14. for that avengement of them is not compleated untill
their place To give some instances Daniel fasts and prays for the return of the captivity in the first year of Darius and he prays That the Lord would haâ—ken and do and not defer but God did defer until the first year of Cyrus which was two years current * Dan. 9.1 19. Darius imperium accepit A. M. 3466. imperavit annis duobus Cyrus Monarchia potitus est A. M. 3468 Vide Annales Usser pag. 145 146. Dan. 10.2 12.13 Luk. 18.7 And again at another time of his fasting and praying he is told in a Vision That from the first day he set his heart to understand and to chasten himself before God his words were heard yet he continued mourning three full weeks and the Angel appearing to him in the end thereof telleth him his answer was stopped in the way just so long to wit one and twenty days God doth hear his own Elect which cry day and night unto him under their pressures but there is a long bearing with their adversaries interposed betwixt his hearing and avenging of them Rev. 6.10 11 The Souls under the Altar that cry with a loud voyce How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judg and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth They were heard but withall they are told They must rest for a little season until their fellow servants also and their Brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled This little season of stay for the issue of their prayers is computed by a very judicious Commentator to be above a hundred years Mr Mede who begineth the fift Seal an 268. and the first Trumpet which he makes the beginning of the answer of their cry an 395. See his Key Comment part 1. pag. 52. 81 85. In the Song of Solomon the Spouse twice had lost her beloved and missing sought him and seeking was yet disappointed for some time of meeting with him yet this missing and not finding Cant. 3.1.5 6 was not a dereluction or divorce but a stepping aside of him only for a time The prayers of the Saints in the Book of the Revelation are resembled by the smoke of Incense Rev. 8.3.5 their answer or return by voyces thunderings lightenings and earthquakes There is in this resemblance a great congruity to the work of Nature for smoke or such hot and dry vapors ascending into the upper region do produce thunder and lightening which are the voyce of God and inclosed in the Earth do cause Earthquakes but as there is naturally a good time after the exhaling of these vapors for the altering and forming of them ere they break forth into Thunder Lightening or Earthquakes so it is with the Saints prayers there is often an intervall of time betwixt their ascent and effect and as it is the folly of the vulgar to think when they see smoke or vapors gone up out of their sight that they are quite vanished or annihilated so is it for us to judg those prayers of none effect that are a good while a working above ere they come down in visible impressions here below I have thus endevored to shew the diversity of the ways of God towards the prayers of men both in appearing to and hiding from them The second thing proposed now is to follow viz. the diversity of grounds or impulsives whereupon he doth either This will not hold us long as being not altogether so various and intricate First for the Lords appearing unto prayer the difference of grounds may be thus taken He doth appear to prayer 1. In Anger 2. In Favor 1. God doth sometimes hear and grant mens prayers in anger he gives men their desires and it is sometimes not in mercy but in displeasure Numb 11 20 33 Psa 78.21 26.106.15 1 Sam. 8.21 22 so God gave quails to Israel in the wilderness he sent them out of wrath and wrath was the sauce with which they did eat them Thus also God gave a King to Israel in the days of Samuel Questionless the Quails were in themselves very good and wholesom food and did not naturally engender the plague but they asked them lustfully Satius erat non audiri a Dominó quam cum carnibus ejus indignationem vocare Calv. not for need and diffidently not in faith and God gave them accordingly out of anger and with the plague they were the last meat that many of them ever ate they brought them to their graves the graves of them that lusted Doubtless Monarchy was and is in it self a good Government and was promised long before as a blessing to that people and as it appeared by the sequel was intended them shortly as a mercy and it is as a mercy promised to the Church of after times Gen. 17.6 16 2 Sam. 7.8 c. 23.3 c. 2 Chro. 2 11 Isai 49.23 Rev. 17.16 21.24 but they asked a King not by vertue of or in the way of promise but rebelliously ambitiously distrustfully and God gave them a King suitably Saul an impious tyrannical despairing King And we may note God gives sometimes evil and unlawful requests in wrath or for correction to others besides the askers The curses or enchantments of malice or witchery God sometimes brings to pass as means of punishment or affliction to those against whom they are intended by the maleficous Judg. 9.20 Vide Calv. Instit l. 3. c. 20. S. 15 Thus he gave success to Jothams curse upon the men of Sechem Thus he yielded to Satans desire against Job in his goods children and body and thus our Saviour granted the Devils request touching entering into the Gadarens herd of swine Mat. 8.32 yea Satan had his desire of Peter so far as to have him to sift him as wheat Luk. 22.31 though not to destroy his Faith 2. God appeareth to prayer in mercy and favor and this may be more ways then one It may be 1. Out of his general goodness and common pity God hath a propension to shew mercy a disposition to extend favor towards all as they are his creatures as they are in want and misery Vide Aqui. 22. qu. 83 Art 16 Job 34.28 Exo 22.23 Gen. 21.17 as they may put forth and express their natural desires before him He heareth the cry of the afflicted saith Elihu I will surely hear their cry saith he himself of the widow and fatherless child God heard the voyce of the lad Ishmael Under this notion are those hearings and deliverings taken to be of the solitary hungry thirsty and harborless of the imprisoned Psalmus docet non carere effectu preces quae tamen fide in coelum non penetrant Colligit enim quas incredulus non minus quam piis necessitas extorquet preces ex naturae sensu quibus tamen Deum propitium esse ex eventu demonstrat Calv. Instit l. 3. c. 20. sect 15. scultet de prec c. 15. p. 54. of the sick and
Story it is said that God was angry with Moses for the peoples sakes * Deu. 1.37 3.26 4.21 Psa 106.32 It is to be understood to have been not for the peoples fault but for his own sin which was an evil example and a God-dishonoring offence unto the people In the days of the Prophet Malachi and in his Prophecy it appears there was an ill success of prayer I have divers times mentioned it and this was one cause of it the not hallowing duly the Name of God Mal. 2.2 3 8 13. their contempt and vilifying of it and in particular the Priests and Levites are taxed therewith the Lord saith unto them by name If ye will not give glory unto my Name I will curse your blessings These blessings may signifie either the blessings bestowed on them by God or the blessings or prayers which they offered up to God and wherewith they blessed the people or both say the late Annotations the latter of the two senses as it aptly suiteth to the present purpose so it is not incommodious to the words and drift of them The prayers of them that serve God and in special of the Ministers of his house are blasted for their scandalous sins In the very next words he saith I will spread dung upon your faces even the dung of your solemn Feasts and one or it shall take you away with it The Lord will abhor them and make them an abhorring and a shame unto men that despise and detract the glory of his Name They that pollute and besmear as with dung his solemn Feasts and Sacrifices by their profaneness Drusius in loc Con. temptus nominis mei adducet vos ad istam contemptum q. d. par pari c. he will cast them out of his sight and cause them to be carried out like as the intrails and excrements of the beasts that were killed for sacrifices on those days in the holy place were carried out of the Camp or City It shal take them away to it that is as Drusius saith the Hebrew scholia expounds it the contempt of my Name shall bring you to that contempt A little further he saith to the same persons Ye are departed out of the way ye have caused many to stumble at the Law and in the sequel insomuch that he the Lord regardeth not the offering any more or receiveth it with good will at your hand The errors of the Priests are very prevalent causes by way of pattern or patronage of others many others falls and therefore may justly become causes of the non-acceptance of sacrifices and of the non-audience of prayers with God To this I will add one example more and it is still of the same degree of persons What was the cause of those dismal events unto Israel in Eli's time that notwithstanding they fetched the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh into their Camp after their first defeat 1 Sam. 4.2 c. yet they received a second and greater a total overthrow by the Philistins The Ark of God saved them not yea it self was taken and in it the glory departed from Israel the presence of God was in a sence removed from them the cause was principally the sins of those that bare the Ark the Priests the two sons of Eli according as the Lord had before twice over by two several Prophets declared to Eli And what were their sins Besides the gross nature of them impious violation of the sacrifices and whoredom this was their aggravation through them men abhorred the offering of the Lord 1 Sam. 2.17 24. they made the Lords people to transgress Their sins were gross and flagrant scandals and stumbling blocks to the people both to deter them from the worship of God by sacrifices and to draw them to commit the same crimes I have the rather noted this way of sinning as prejudicial to the success of prayer because our times and people abound with scandalous sins and that our Moseses and Davids our Priests and Levites I mean our Superiors and Leaders in Magistracy and Ministry may be put in mind how pernicious the scandals of persons of their rank are unto others and how obstructive of the prayers and votes put up unto God 4. Sinning after prayer and whilest we are in expectance of our answer This manner of sinning is of a special malignity to hinder the taking effect of prayers at least for the time When we have drawn as near to God as we can by any solemn and serious seeking unto him and while we are waiâ—ing he is preparing or working for the fulfilling of our petitions if in the interim we fall to sin and especially if it be any gross or presumptuous sin this may well interrupt and dash our fair expectations this calls back our prayers as it were in their going up or meets the answer in its way to us and causeth it to return back again to Heaven This seems to be the sence of that caution uttered by the Psalmist when he said I will hear what God the Lord will speak for he will speak peace to his people Psal 85.8 and to his Saints But let them not turn again to folly That caution let them not turn again to folly may as fitly be applyed to the time betwixt his servants praying and the Lords speaking peace that is the time of their harkening for an answer of peace as to the time after he hath spoken peace to them and so it layeth forth to them the danger of running into any sin especially the folly that they had fallen into and have in seeking unto God professed repentance of then when they are looking towards Heaven and attending for the fruit of their supplications unto God their so doing may prevent the Lords speaking peace unto them Thus it fared with Israel They in Egypt and under their yoke of bondage cryed and groaned and their cry came unto God and God heard their groaning and upon it he appeareth to Moses Exo. 3 7 8 telling him out of the bush I have heard their cry and am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egytians and to bring them up out of that Land unto a good Land and a large unto a Land flowing with milk and honey c. and accordingly the Lord did bring them out of Egypt and even to the borders of Canaan presently after But when they should have received the other part of their prayers and hopes and of the Lords promises to wit possession of that good Land Numb 14 26 64. their sin at Kadesh upon the return and report of the Spies concerning that Land put betwixt them and it and for the same the Lord had well-nigh utterly dis-inherited them of it and destroyed them with the pestilence but however they were so far pardoned yet they were made to wander in the wilderness until forty years and the lives of all the men that came out
one that would pretend to be a head and vindicator to them of that nature and by means of that conceit and those distempers arising from it they never rested until they brought the Roman Emperor upon them unto their utter ruine †See Tho. Goodwins Serm. on Psa 105.14 and Dr Jackson in Serm. p. 32 It is a sad presage now to us to see both the like aestuations and stirs among us and withall the Roman Beast hovering over us to set up himself and his abomination that maketh desolate again in the midst of us And what sets all these Hurlyburlies on foot and creates this omen but the impetuous minding of an earthly felicity a worldly Christ What makes men so grosly and diversly misapply both Scripture and Providences The plain sence of Scripture is wrested and the clear Authority of it is obscured and it is from hence Mens consulting their worldly interest blinds the mind and corrupts the judgment and silenceth if not seareth the Conscience The world is a pearl in the eye it makes the eye evil double and dark Mat. 6.22 23 so that it seeth nothing though never so evident but what agreeth with it He that is set upon his gain and commodity he dissents from wholesom words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Doctrine which is according to Godliness 1 Tim 6.3 5 He becomes of a corrupt mind and destitute of the Truth Divine Providences are misconceived also how comes it about Gain is become Godliness Gold is made a God and Prosperity is put in stead of Piety and men of this mind will upon all occurrencies construe Gods approving or disapproving Will to be as things temporal succeed well or prove improsperous An unhappy rule it is to go by What 's the cause of Persecution where or whensoever ye see it in the world Self-interest is the most ordinary cause Come say the Husbandmen in the Parable of the Vineyard this is the heir Luk. 20.14 come let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours A Kingdom made Hazael an inhumane 2 Kin. 8.12 dogged Persecutor notwithstanding his former abhorrency of it This was the principal ground of the persecution of Christ and his Apostles and Church by the High Priests and Elders of the Jews Joh. 11.49 50. 19.12 13. Mat. 2.3 16. Act. 16.19 17 6 7 8. 12.25 24 5. by Herod by Pilate and others Men do nowadays condemn and oppose principles ways and persons hand over head in respect of any conscientious warrant that is not for that they find them sinful or stand to examine that but because they meet with them in an opposite party and posture to their earthly interest and concernment What 's the reason of that delusion above touched of a temporal felicity earthly promotion enrichment and power by Religion or Christianity Men are wont to dream of what their mind is most upon those therefore whose hearts are bent upon the world do easily dream of such a matter That phantastical conceit that State embroiling and subverting doctrine is the hatching of a sordid earthly spirit What 's the reason of the many scrued and conscience-relucting compliances that men make now adays Some men can say swear subscribe act oppose any thing as the times turn their private interest is the oyl that supples them the shooinghorn that draws on what would otherwise pinch We may observe some carnal and self-interested Christians in the primitive Church devised ways of accommodating their Religion with the strain of the times and people where they lived and this was for their beloved worldly concernments sake So did the Galatians Gal. 6.12 or some of them endeavor to comply with the Jews in point of Circumcision and Ceremonies to avoyd persecution for the Cross of Christ For that end did the Corinthians 1 Cor. 8.1 c. as it seemeth labour to temporize with the Gentiles in communion with them in Idolothytes In like manner did some of the Christian Souldiers under Julian the Apostate to receive their pay Mr Clarks Martyrol 1 p. 84. they cast incense into the fire of the Idolatrous Altars which Julian set for that purpose to be a train to draw them to a denyal of their Religion If men did not immoderately favour the world they would never do that which proves after a sting to their conscience a blur to their profession and a dishonor to their name Their tenderness and indulgence to their estate-concernments makes them harsh and violent to their inward principles and conscience Two things I fear when I consider the course of things and the shifts and turns of men in them and I will here express them 1. That those evasions and compliances will not serve they must be thundered frighted out of those their Zoars greater tryals must sift them out of those holes 2. That men will hardly stop at their present shifts but that those will dispose them to admit of greater wider compliances And what will they do in the end thereof It may come to that again whether you will carry a Taper and bear a fagot to the fire in renunciation of Protestantism Lastly To take in all at once the many enormous crimes the indirect courses the violent practises the irreligious unrighteous and perfidious contrivements and atchievements that have been acted in these times have sprung from hence men have absolutely and unmeasurably addicted themselves to the affection and service of their own earthly interest this they are peremptorily resolved on that they will maintain and enlarge all they can their fortune as they call it in the world be it by right or wrong They lay down to themselves for a principle that of the Satyrist Juvenal Satyr 14. Vnde habeas quaerit nemo sed oportet habere The Apostle Paul foretelling to Timothy that perillous times shall be or as the word may be rendered hurtful troublesom cruel times in these last days he reckoneth up nineteen several vices or sorts of depraved persons as the causes of those bad times and in the head of them all as the leaders or common parents of the rest he placeth the lovers of their own selves and the covetous Inde fere scelerum causa nec plura venena miscuit aut ferro grassatur saepiu◠ullum Humanae mentis vitium quam saeva cupido Indomiti census nam dives qui fieri vult cito vult fieri sed quae reverentia legum Quis metus aut pudor est unquam properantis avari Ad scelus atque nefas quodcunque est purpura ducit Juvenal Satyr 14. That which he then said shall be now we do see The whole band of those vicious persons are broken in upon us or risen up out of us and their chief or the king of them is this Apollyon the self-lover and next unto him as his second is the covetous 3. It is a sin which the Lord doth specially appear
a good Expositor may be referred unto every parcel He desireth to come to them if it be the Will of God by such means as God will at some time when God will and prosperously if God will Little did Paul think how the Will of God had determined he should come to Rome viz. that it should be by persecution that he should come thither a prisoner to appear before Nero and that in his journey thither he should have such a tedious perillous shipwracking voyage by Sea as he had this was not in all likelyhood the prosperous journey which he thought of Yet the Lord made it prosperous as to the end he proposed in it and he had not his prayer crossed even in those adverse passages in regard he prayed with reference to the Will of God In the latter place where he mentioneth his praying the subject of it is that he might be delivered from them that do not beleeve in Judea and that he might come unto them with joy by the Will of God It proved that he was not delivered from but given up into the hands of the unbeleevers in Judea to wit to be apprehended beaten accused conspired against and prosecuted before the Governors by them and so those things which he would by his prayer have dis-joyned that is persecution by the Jews and leave to go to Rome the Lord by his wise Providence conjoyned and made the one to effect the other for their apprehension and persecution of him brought him to Rome he therefore well inserted that clause by the Will of God and so his prayer stood good yea and took effect though not in an absolute yet in a qualified sense for he was delivered from the Jews in respect of their utmost intentions for they would fain have prevented his going to Rome and have had his blood spilt in Judea and went very near it at sundry times and yet he was brought to Rome and that not without joy for he had joy in his bonds and Martyrdom * Act. 28.15 Gal. 6.14 Col. 1.24 2 Tim. 4.7 It is said by the Psalmist Psal 10. wherein Gods hiding from his people is purposely treated of as the subject of the whole Psalm The poor committeth himself unto thee vers 14. or as the margent the poor leaveth himself to thee that is he refers himself and his cause over unto God to be heard and maintained as he seeth good he doth not limit or prescribe God a method or time but leaves the way season and order unto Gods circumscription Let us then in praying for our own wills submit to Gods and be content either to have or want either to stay or forthwith receive as he shall think to dispose Not to call upon God in our affairs is Atheism to think to mould him to our frame and humor is to make an Idol of him 1. Consider our own imperfection in asking and Gods absolute perfection in disposal of and to us We are unable to choose for our selves our imperfection therein appears both in point of knowledg and will In knowledg either with the sons of Zebedee we rashly run on Mat. 20.22 and ask we know not what or we are at a stand Rom 8.26 and as the Apostle saith we know not what we should pray for In will when we go to pray we are apt to ask amiss that is for our lusts and the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy saith St James Jam. 4.3 5 But God is infinitely able to make choyce for us The Apostle Peter saith 2 Pet. 2.9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation And the Apostle Paul Eph. 3.20 He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think 2. Consider our unworthiness to be heard or answered by God in any petition There is no reason why we should at all be aggrieved at God for the deferring or denying of any of our suits we must learn with Job to lay and leave our complaint upon our selves Job 10.1 When we pray to God we have more cause with Abraham to reflect upon our own unworthiness and deprecate his anger for our speaking to him then to be angry at him if he do not at all or not speedily hear us 3. To quiet us let us reflect on what we receive and enjoy from him as well as what we miss Let us look upon his concessions as well as upon his deferrings or refusals and set the one against the other If God abridg or delay his people in some things he hears them in other yea in many moe and greater matters It hath been reckoned by the choycest of Gods servants for a high favor unto them that in times of great and publique calamities they may escape and have their lives for a prey see Jer. 15.11 39.17 18. 45.5 And they speed well if by their prayers they obtain so much Mal. 3.16 17. Luke 21.36 Yea and when they may not be vouchsafed that but that they fall under sufferings yet a mercy worthy the recounting and tending to the satisfying of their spirits it hath been to them that they have been left undestroyed Lam. 3.21 22 23. Wherefore look we about us and within us Do we not espy the breakings forth and reservations of many special mercies to us in the midst of the Lords hidings and withholdings in some respects from us Even in those events which we observe falling out directly cross to the matter of our prayers we may descry the goodness of God alleviating or moderating such disasters Desinentes contristari propter ea quae non habemus de rehus praesentibus gratias agere debemus Basil We may call to mind many particulars wherein it might have been worse with us yea we may find cause to admire at some remarkable intermixtures of favor When Elijah complained to God of the miserable havock that Ahab and Iezebel had made of Religion and the true worshippers in Israel it seemeth he took and related the case to be somewhat worse then it was when he said And I am left alone and they seek my life and the Lord answered him that yet he had reserved to himself seven thousand men that had not bowed unto Baal We do often with Elijah exagerate our misery and overlook the mitigations and benefits we enjoy under crosses 4. God maketh all occurrences to us all his Providences to work together for good unto his That promise Rom. 8.28 is immediately subjoyned to the doctrine of the Saints prayers He contriveth sometimes the weal of his people by stops and denyals of their requests Consider seriously how much better it is for thee to want or wait for thy râ—quests at the throne of grace with the Lords respect favor and purposes of good towards thee and with an hold upon his promises with the help of his Spirit and to such beneficial ends as have been above described then with others to have
stand upon my watch Chap. 2.1 2 3. and set me upon the tower and will watch to see what he will say unto me and what I shall answer he is yet delayed in his petition and receives an answer of further Judgments yet to come And the Lord answered me and said Write the Vision and make it plain upon tables Chap. 3.2 that he may run that readeth it for the Vision is yet for an appointed time c. So that his hopes were overwhelmed with fears and terrors which he expresseth in this third recourse in prayer to God O Lord I have heard thy speech and was afraid When I heard my belly trembled my lips quivered at the voyce Verse 16. rottenness entered into my bones and I trembled in my self c. The Apostle Paul was earnest by prayer for Israels Conversion and Salvation that is for the Body of that Nation which continued in blindness and stood upon their own and out against the righteousness of God for Justification Brethren my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved Rom. 10.1 The answer of God unto him in this was That a remnant only should then be called and the rest be judicially hardened for a long time to come Chap. 11.5 7 25. even until the coming in of the fulness of the Gentiles Upon Sauls disobedience and the Lords repenting of his advancement to the Kingdom Samuel prayed a whole night 1 Sam. 15.11 35. yet the Lord rejected Saul from being King over Israel and when this was done Samuel still mourned for Saul Chap. 16.1 till at length the Lord reproved him and sent him to anoint another for that place 2. The holy servants of God have met with stays and disappointments not only in their petitions for others but even in their supplications for themselves and when they have prayed in their own behalf Upright Job that man of Tryals doth in this respect thus make known and bewail his case to his friends Know now that God hath overthrown me and hath compassed me with his Net Job 19.6 7 8. Behold I cry out of wrong but I am not heard I cry aloud but there is no Judgment He hath fenced my way that I cannot pass and he hath set darkness in my paths And in another place he complaineth of thâ— same unto God I cry unto thee and thou dost not hear I stand up and thou regardest m not Cap. 30 20 26 27 28. When I looked for good then evil came upon me and when I waited for light there came darkness My bowels boiled and rested not the days of affliction prevented me I went mourning without the Sun I stood up and I cryed in the Congregation The Prophet David often finds himself in this condition often cries out of it unto God In his 13 Psalm he complains thus for lack of audience How long wilt thou forget me O Lord Psal 13.1 2 3. for ever How long wilt thou hide thy face from me How long shall I take counsel in my Soul having sorrow in my heart dayly How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me Consider and hear me O Lord my God In the 31 Psalm he saith I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind Psa 31.12 I am like a broken vessel In the 69. he 〈…〉 moan thus I am weary of my crying Psal 69.3 my throat is dryed mine eyes fail while I wait for my God Holy Heman also was in this very plight O Lord God of my Salvation I have cryed day and night before thee Psal 88.1 and with what success He tells presently Verse 4 5. I am counted with them that go down into the pit I am as a man that hath no strength Free among the dead like the slain that lie in the grave whom thou rememberest no more and they are cut off frâ—â— thy hand And again a little after Lord I have called upon thee I have stretched out my hands unto thee Yet had he no better speed Vers 9.14 Lord why castest th u off my Soul why hidest thou thy face from me Nay the greatest Example possible we have for this to wit that of our blessed Saviour who in his Passion is pâ—rsonated by David in these words My God My God Psa 22 12. Mat. 27.46 why hast thou forsaken me Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring O my God I cry in the day time and thou hearest not and in the night season and am not silent Part of which words he audibly uttered or rather cryed out when he hung upon the Cross I will add hereunto only one Instance and it is as great as can be added to the former It shall be taken from the contâ—nual experience of all true Christians that are or ever were in the world Our blessed Saviour teacheth all his to pray Thy Will be done in Earth as it is done in Heaven And again Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil Now although these things are and ought to be dayly prayed for yet it must needs be acknowledged as it is experienced by all the Saints of God on Earth that never doth any of them attain to in this life an absolute conformity to the Will of God like that of the Angels and Saints in Heaven nor to a sinless distance from all temptations Bellar. T. 4 de Justif lib. 4. cap. 13. Chamier T. 3. l. 11. c. 7. s 21. Bellarmine would infer from hence a capacity of perfection in the Saints â—â—edience in this life for otherwise saith he these petitions in the Lords prayer are in vain taught and used This Inference we deny There are divers things allowed yea commanded and necâ—ssary to be prayed for which yet may never be granted and there are sundry things as those petitions specified which are to be prayed for every day and yet they may in their just and full measure never be attained till our last day and end come 3. Yea when the servants of God have called upon God in and for his own Cause and Concernment yet the Lord hath sometimes hid himself from their prayer Eliah whom the Apostle James brings in for a singular pattern of prevalency in prayer he maketh intercession to God against Israel in the Lords Cause as well as his own saying Lord they have killed thy Prophets Rom. 11.2 3. and digged down thine Altars and I am left alone and they seek my life Yet after this things went still on in Israel in relation to the matters of God as they did before he never lived to see any redress The people of God in Psal 44. call out upon God and expostulate with him as one that seemed to sleep out the time of their heavy Calamities and hid his face purposely from them and put their Case into utter oblivion Psal 44.8 22 23 24. Awake why
sleepest thou O Lord Arise cast us not off for ever Wherefore hidest thou thy face and forgettest our affliction and our oppression And yet what Cause did they suffer in Thâ—y immediately before represent that to him Yea for thy sake are we killed all the day long we are counted as sheep for the slaughter And in another Psalm they bespeak him in this sort Arise O God Psa 74.22 plead thine own Cause remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee dayly Yet then it appears by that which goes before they accounted themselves cast off and lying under the smoking anger of God and they complain We see not our signs there is no more any Prophet neither is there among us any that knoweth how long These Examples may suffice for the first Head to wit the Complaints of the Saints touching the Lords hiding from their personal prayers Secondly It hath so fared with the joynt and publique Prayers of the Community of Saints or Church of God as they have made their Complaint This was the case of the Church at the time of the penning of the 80 Psalm O Lord God of Hosts Psal 80.4 how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people It is not here intimated that the Lord was angry with the prayer of his people as if it were peccant in the nature of it for which he should be displeased with it but he was angry against their prayer that is his anger proceeded still on though their prayer was for his pacification their prayer was for the calling back of his Judgments his anger carried them still on so that this went on in opposition to that The particular time and occasion of the compiling of this Psalm is not manifested by its title of tenor but their Conjecture is probable that assign it to the rending of the ten Tribes from the house of David and Kingdom of Judah and the setting up of Jeroboam upon which the Invasion of Judah by Shishak King of Egypt shortly followed For it hath often come to pass and it may here be seasonably observed by us that when those whom God hath joyned together in one Religion and under one Government do break asunder and erect opposite Thrones over them respectively which â—ide soever hath the better yea or the right of it the common Enemy presently comes in and gets his greatest advantage by it It is noted of the people of Judah yea witnessed of them by God himself that they prayed much Yet they seek me dayly and delight to know my ways Isai 58.3 They take delight in approaching to God and how succeeded their prayers The next words will inform us Wherefore have we fasted say they and thou seest not Wherefore have we afflicted our Soul and thou takest no knowledg The Prophet Jeremiah in his Lamentations representing the Church of Judah under her Babylonian Calamities Lam. 3.8 sets forth her plaints for want of audience in prayer Also when I cry and shout he shutteth out my prayer They not only prayed but cryed yea even shouted that is called upon God with greatest vehemency yet their prayer found no entrance And again in the same Chapter Verse 44. Thou hast covered thy self with a cloud that our prayer should not pass through And surely this cloud lay long over their prayers as will appear if we compare with this those places of Zechariah Zech. 7.3 5 8 19. where their set times of fasting and humbling themselves are found to have been for seventy years together In the Prophet Malachi's days when the people were grown very corrupt and Religion was much collapsed yet they had so much Religion left as to fast and pray and this they did so long without success that at length they grew stout and â—ullen against God concluding a course of devotion to be bootless They said It is vain to serve God Mal. 3 14. and what profit is it that we have kept his Ordinances and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts We have thus seen the Complaints and Acknowledgments of the people of God in the matter to be Exemplified and that in sufficient variety of Instances II. In the next place let us observe what the Lord himself declares touching his hiding or with-holding himself from his praying people and we shall receive it from his mouth by way 1. Of Threatening 2. Of Prophecy or Prediction 3. Of Narration First He utters it by way of Threatening or Denunciation as a special Judgment or effect of his wrath against his people and that concerning 1. Their own prayers 2. The prayers of others for them 1. He threatens he will hide himself from them praying for themselves Upon the Apostacy of the Israelites unto Idolatry in the times of the Judges when the Lord had for that cause sold them into their Enemies hands the Text saith The children of Israel cryed unto the Lord saying We have sinned against thee Judg. 10.10 c. both because we have forsaken our God and also served Baalim And the Lord said unto the children of Israel Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites c. The Zidonians also and the Amalekiles and the Maonites did oppress you and ye cryed to me and I delivered you out of their hand Yet ye have forsaken me and served other gods wherefore I will deliver you no more The same bar upon the gate of entrance of prayer the Lord puts in the time of his Prophets Isaiah Jeremiah and Ezekiel against the prayers of his people of Israel and Judah In Isaiah he saith And when ye spread forth your hands Isai 1.15 I will hide mine eyes from you yea when you make many prayers I will not hear In Jeremiah he declares Though they shall cry unto me Jer. 11.11 14. I will not harken unto them for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble When they fast Cap. 14.12 I will not hear their cry and when they offer burnt-offering and an oblation I will not accept them In Ezekiel he forestalls them thus Ezek. 8.18 Though they cry in mine ears with a loud voyce yet I will not hear them 2. Yea but perhaps though the sinfulness of their persons made their prayers cast back yet the prayers of others who were righteous persons and had been usually prevalent with God might avail for them nay neither must they be heard for them Jer. 7.16 Therefore pray not thou saith the Lord to his Prophet Jeremiah for this people neither lift up cry nor prayer for them neither make intercession to me for I will not hear thee And when he did make bold to speak a few words for them his answer is Cha. 15.1 Though Moses and Samuel stood before me yet my mind could not be toward this people And by the Prophet Ezekiel the Lord pronounceth it four times over at once
miscarried were solemnly again sought for of God by Fasting and Prayer and yet this Army lost and lost in a week of Fasting and Prayer And in the prosecution of his Subject enquiring after the Cause of this Disaster he saith I will tell you what we may not think it to be we may not must not think that the ground and cause of the War is unjust and sinful because of this disaster no more then Joshua's here Josh 7. or the Benjamites he meant Israel against the Benjamites Judg. 20. No though God should frown yet further upon us and break us with breach upon breach This was sound and acceptable Doctrine then and if any man upon the Change of Successes now speak contradictorily who then assented to it he is with the Apostles Heretick to be rejected and he sinneth Tit. 3.10.11 being condemned of himself So much of the former part of the matter to be presidented viz. The Lords hiding himself from his Peoples Prayers grounded upon his Promises In the insisting of it I have thought it superfluous to point out the Promises upon which the prayers in each Example respectively may be grounded there being many general Promises in Scripture easie to be called to mind for instance Psal 50.15 Call upon me in the day of trouble c. upon which every one of those mentioned prayers may have ground And whereas some few of the Examples produced are of the prayers of such as the Scripture brandeth for hypocrisie and other gross sins let the Reader consider that these notions of Gods people and of the grounding of prayers upon the promises of God are sometimes of a stricter sometimes of a larger acception as well shall see hereafter and a community of people unto which both those terms and the question in hand have some relation is of a mixt nature and contains a better and a worser sort and therefore it was suitable that some Examples of each sort should be remembered SECT III. Examples of the Lords seeming by his Providences to answer the Prayers which are contrary to his Peoples I Proceed to the latter part viz. The Lords seeming by his Providences to answer the Prayers which are contrary thereunto In this I will be shorter Two things are in this 1. That sometimes there are prayers against prayers or that men in evil ways and in those designs which are opposite to the prayers of Gods people do pray and call upon God for his ayd and blessing 2. That in their so doing the Lord seemeth by his providences sometimes to answer such prayers 1. Men in bad ways and designs contrary to the prayers of the people of God do pray and invocate the Name of God for his ayd and blessing Balaam sacrificed Numb 23. and went to enquire of God when he so earnestly and often endevored to curse Israel 2 Sam. 15.7.8.11 12 Absalom went to Hebron to pay his Vow unto the Lord and to serve him and there he offered sacrifices when he was going in hand with his Conspiracy against King David his Father Foord in Psal 3 2â— and it is conceived that thereby he seduced those two hundred men that went out of Jerusalem in their simplicity and knew not any thing of the Treason David in his song of praise for all the Lords deliverances of him from all his Enemies saith of them that they cryed even unto the Lord. The degenerate and corrupt Psâ— 18.41 but prevalent party in Judah that hated and cast out those that trembled at Gods Word and that for his Names sake said Isai 66.5 Let the Lord be glorified that is they professed to seek and pray for the advancement of the way will and honor of God The malicious and persecuting Pharisees of our Saviours time fasted and prayed often Luk. 5 35. Mat. 9.14 The unbelieving Jews that opposed Christianity instantly served God day and night and they were devout men that persecuted Paul and Barnabas from Antioch I read of the Jews of these latter times Acts 26.7 Buxtorf Synag c. 3 apud Ellis on Obad. 20 Cambd. Britan. of Irel. p. 144 Pulchra laverna da mihi fallare da justum sanctumque videri noctem peccatis fraudibus objice nubem Juven Illa sibi intrâ—rsum sub lingua immurmurat O si ebullit patrui praclarum funuâ— O si sub castro crepet argenti mihi seria dextro Hercule pupullumve uti nam quem proximus baeres impello expungam Pers saty 2. that they expect and dayly pray for the subversion of the Christian Empire as that which must antecede the coming of their yet expected Messiah The Law and Light of Nature hath taught all Nations the most Heathen as to acknowledg a God so to pray to him and to implore his assistance in all their needs and important undertakings and they whose Consci nces are so licentious as to give them way to act wicked and unjust designs yet they are withall so religious as to oblige them to crave divine help and benediction thereupon Cambden in his Britannia observes of the wilde Irish When they go to rob they pour out their prayers to God that they may meet with a booty and they suppose that a cheat or booty is sent unto them from God as his gift neither are they perswaded that either violence or rapine or man-slaughter displeaseth God for in no wise would he present unto them the opportuniy if it were a sin nay a sin it were if they did not lay hold upon the said opportunity In all the warlike enterprizes that have been nothing hath been more generally observable then this that both sides have made their addresses and supplications to the God whom they respectively acknowledged for â—afety and victory Who knoweth not that in the Wars of Christendom the Protestants and the Papists the just Defendants and the unjust Invaders the lawful Powers and the lawless Rebels each have from time to time had recourse to God by prayer in and for their Martial Adventures The blackest Treasons that ever have been brooded have been accompanyed with the solemn devotions of the Conspirators so was the Powder-plot and at the beginning of the stirs and breaches betwixt the late King and his Parliament there was a discovery made and oft mentioned of an appointment of the Romish Priests and Papists the first movers without doubt of those stirs by fast-Fast-days and Prayer to recommend their Intentions to divine help and questionless as their devotion and activity hath gone along in all these late Revolutions so whatsoever hath fallen out to the advantge of their cause and to the crossing of the sincere Protestants intentions and endevors as divers things have they apprehend and as much hug themselves at it as the supposed return of their prayers as others do more openly in relation to theirs And I may add as such men in such ways are wont to pray so when they speed they return thanksgivings unto
saith Mat. 7.3 And why beholdest thou the moat that is in thy Brothers eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye In reprehending this fault he insinuateth the commonness of it in the nature and practice of men and the thing which he reproveth is not the bare seeing of a moat a little fault in our Brothers eye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 piâ—◠〈◊〉 quaÌ„ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 damnatur qui vel fratâ—es vel suos errores videt intelligit sed quia alienos intuetur studio reprehendendi suos autem dissimulat Bez. in loc for that is not culpable but a studying to detect ouâ— Brother of a fault signified in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beholdest that is lookest or pâ—yest strictly narrowly and rigidly with a forwardness and quickness to apprehend something amiss in another as may also be insinuated in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the moat in the eye for in looking towards another man we commonly look him first in the face and in the eye and if any thing be there amiss though it be but a small moat we see it presently and apprehend it in the largest shape any slight blemish or buâ— an appearance of an imperfection in that part is speedily marked This aptness to fault another is that which Elihu in the upshot of the debate taxed Jobs three Friends with They had found no answer Job 32 3 and yet had condemned Job They could alledg no reason or matter to convince him yet they find a heart and mind to condemn him And as there is in men a prejudice towards others in general through which they are disposed to find fault with all but themselves and to lay that blame which must rest some where at any other mans door rather then their own So there is a more special and vehement prejudice among those one against another betwixt whom there is any contrariety or variance and the stronger the opposition is the stronger is the prejudice and hence it is that men that are bandied into Sects or parties against each other do usually without standing to enquire or reflect any other way cast all the chaâ—ge and procurement of calamitous events upon their opposite way or party In that notable Schism in the Camp of Israel of Corah and his Complices into which they drew all the Congregation against Moses and Aaron when God cut off the Conspirators by his immediate and terrible hand in the Earths opening her mouth and swallowing up the Ring-leaders and the fires consuming the rest the people that had followed those movers of Sedition impute this dreadful destruction to Moses and Aaron Numb 16 41 On the morrow they murmur against Moses and against Aaron saying Ye have killed the people of the Lord. They h d killed them no otherwise then that they durst not concur with them but had kept to the Ordinance and charge of God by him imposed on them yet thus they lay the sad consequences of their insurrection and sacriledg upon them Envy and enmity are very precipitate and unequal Judges and know not where to lay any load but upon them against whom they are bent all the odium and guilt must needs be transferred to their adverse party When Seleucus as it is in the Maccabean story had sent Heliodorus his Treasurer to seize for his use a great sum of Mony 2 Maccab. cap 3 4 Jac. Usser Annal. An. M. 3828. p. 554. treasured up in the Temple at Jerusalem and the said Heliodorus adventured to execute the command notwithstanding the admonitions and entreaties of Onias the High Priest and the outcries of the people against the presumption of that deed and being in the Temple in the very act was by an apparition of Angels struck down speechless and carryed out thence for dead and his whole guard and retinue sore terrified but upon the prayer of Onias was recovered to life and returning to Seleucus the King acknowledged the hand and power of God in that his punishment and so desisted Simon the Benjamite an inveterate adversary to Onias who in despite to Onias had discovered the said Treasure and procured Heliodorus to bâ— sent to despoyl the Temple of it this Simon upon the aforesaid issue accused Onias a good Patriot of Religion and of his Country as the worker of those evils against Heliodorus and upon them slandered him as a Traytor to the King So miserably squint eyed and prejudicate is malice and contention So easie and ordinary is it for them that are Antagonists to turn any disastrous accident into matter of aspersion and impeachment against those to whom is their grudg The Jews the Enemies of Christs Name ascribed the dangers and discords their Nation was in from the Roman State which ended in their destruction unto our Saviour his Disciples and Doctrine as appears in the History of the Evangelists and the Acts of the Apostles The Heathen Romans accused the Christians as the causes of all the mischiefs that by Commotions War Famine Pestilence Earthquakes See Clarks Martyrol p. 34 37 56 98. Rev. 12.10 and Invasions of barbarous Nations befell the Roman Empire By these slanders did Satan in those Pagan Persecutors act his part of the Accuser of the Brethren It is well known how the Papists Athiests and hypocritical Time-servers have ever since the rise of Antichrist to these our days aspersed and now cease not but rather whet their tongues sharper to asperse the faithful Martyrs Confessors and Protestant Reformers in the several Countrâ—es of Europe with the true and pure Doctrine and Religion professed maintained and revived by â—hem as the causes of the publique combustions and woes This not only the Histories of t mes passed and our own present hearts-grieving experience witness but the Scripture as I understand foretelleth where it saith The seven-headed Reâ— 1â— â— ten-horned and ten-crowned Beast openeth his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his Name and his Tabernacle and them that dwell in Heaven Such is the propension of mans nature when an unhappy event must be somewhere charged to cast it upon other mens backs to bear rather then their own and of all others soonest on those upon whom they have any spleen or malice placed and this readiness to prejudg and impeach others may often be the cause of mens miscarrying in the discovery of the true reason of the sad occurrences or providences they meet with As I have given divers instances of that propenseness and of this effect of it let it be without offence if I pass not over one instance more it being so plain present and pertaining to us The heavy things that have fallen out in England and Scotland these two last years the dint whereof hath more immediately light upon the Scotish Nation as at Worcester and Dunbar in which affairs there was much seeking unto God by prayer for and against as the perswasion and
against and strike at in his present proceedings among us This is very evident to him that will see Whilest people of all degrees are busie with head and hand by policy and power or industry to raise and secure their Interest in the world so that Religion Truth Right and publique Peace are nothing regarded in comparison of it the Lord seems even to set himself against them and to cross thwart and curse them in that their beloved concernment What is become of those secular Prerogatives and Priviledges of the which superior persons have been so much more jealous and tender then of the weightier things of their charge particularly the honour of God the safety and lustre of his Truth and the purity and order of his House What satisfaction or success have others had in all their private labours cares and ploddings for the world The sollicitude and turmoyl of most hath proved to be vain and voyd yea to their loss and going backward so that we may say with the Prophet Behold is it not of the Lord of Hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity Hab. 2.13 Have not we experience of this Mens wordly endeavors now are as labour in the very fire wherein the laborers have pain in stead of profit and their work consumes as fast as they make it Verily the toyl adventures and strivings of the most in these days for their earthly respects comes to the same reckoning with theirs in Haggai Hag. 1.6 Ye have sown much and bring in little c. all endeavors prove unhappy and abortive and it is from the same agent and for the same cause that then it was so I did blow upon it Why saith the Lord of Hosts because of mine house that is waste Verse 9. and ye turn every man to his own house Never were people more intent and desirous to grow high great and rich in the world then of late have been and now are the men of this generation and how remarkably even to almost every mans conviction doth God appear against them unto their debasement and impoverishment by Wars and distractions at home and abroad by Land and Sea The Lord by his ways may be conceived to have passed a peremptory sentence of us as in the words of the Prophet Yea they shall not be planted yea they shall not be sown yea their stock shall not take root in the Earth Isai 40.34 and he shall also blow upon them and they shall wither and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble q. d. Men would fain take root in the Earth they assay to sow to plant they attempt all ways of thriving in the ground but all in vain God is against them in it he says it thrice over they shall not they shall not they shall not which may respect those three ways of disappointment Either he prevents them in the beginning they shall not be planted they shall not be sown he denies them materials wherewith or soyl wherein to set up their husbandry Or he crosseth their progress their stock shall not take root in the Earth either the storms from without shake it or some vermin at the root some secret curse of God deads it that the stock of wealth parts or friends with which they set up rots and consumes in the Earth Or he blasteth them before the harvest they shall wither and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble all their gay hopeful and promising flourishes do in a short while ere the years end miscarry if they can stand out ordinary storms which nip others the Lord himself will blow upon them with his mighty whirlwind and that turns their fruit into dryed stubble In the midst of the falls and miscarriages of the most some it may be gather and go away with great spoils of wealth honour and advancement but what quiet or comfort have they withall what blessing either from God or man attends them Do we not see the Lord sending among the fat ones leanness and kindling under their glory a burning Isa 10.16 33. Do we not see the Lord lopping the bough with terror and the high ones of stature are hewn down We see one War Combustion and Change coming after another in which the greatest do take their turns both in ascending and coming down There is a War now on foot threatening sad things in many respects and particularly in this of mens worldly interest if it go on as it must needs wear and waste the Community in Blood and Treasure by Slaughter Impositions and loss of Trade so it may abate and shrink the strongest Power the highest arm of flesh the deepest Treasury Methinks the Lord bespeaks our Mammonists and Matchiavels less and greater now as he did them of Judah or Israel by Isaiah Isai 10 3. And what will ye do in the day of visitation and in the desolation which shall come from far To whom will ye flee for help and where will ye leave your glory c. 4. Let the Consciences of men speak Do we not generally acknowledg this to be the reigning sin of the times Do we not universally note and complain of it We take not the charge of every one home to himself yet we cry out of it in one another and as the sin of the age The Country charge the Soldiery with it the Soldiery lay it upon them of higher place and office Clients and Suiters complain of it in Courts and Judicatories and they again retort it The Ministers reprove it in the people and some of the people cast it upon their Ministers None own it in themselves but every one asperseth his neighbor with it I shall not here say where it lies more then otherwhere or endeavor the excuse of any but thus it is evident by every mans confession that it is the Nations regnant sin 6. To conclude This is a sin which the evil under present consideration the Lords hiding from prayers reflecteth on by way of proportion This evil is a suitable retaliation to that fault In having recourse to God by prayer we make profession to place our Interest in Heaven but if under that profession our hearts our dependencies be nevertheless upon the Earth it is but suitable that God should put us back and our interest in Heaven desert us in our recourse to it In so doing God doth but say to us as he did once of Israel Where are their gods Deut. 32.37 38. See Judg. 10.14 their rock in whom they trusted which did eat the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink-offerings let them rise up and help you now and be your protection If our ambition and aim be to be great and potent in this world we must think to be but weak in Heaven If we will court the world we must expect but cold entertainment with God If we make the world