Moses ere those things were effected much time passed many stops occurred and Israel was many times out of hope of attaining them both in Egypt and in the Wilderness Nevertheless as the Lord audibly told Moses out of the bush that he was now come down to accomplish those things so his appearance in that manner to wit in a bush burning with fire yet unconsumed visibly told him if I may so speak the reason of all those delays and difficulties and the equivalent recompence or rather the advantage afforded them for and by the same Whilest the Lord was bringing them up like a vine out of Egypt to transplant them in Canaan they were like that bush all on a flame by reason of the afflictions and oppositions meeting with them from first to last in their way and their danger of perishing thereby yet they came through and survived them all by which means the presence and power of God in and for them was the more put forth and evidenced they had the light and lustre of that fire but escaped the devouring heat of it God shewing himself the more apparently with them and in their conservation As a Commentary or Paraphrase upon that Emblem of the burned unburned Bush we may take that of the Apostle spoken of himself and his fellow-laborers in the Ministry We are troubled yet not distressed we are perplexed but not in despair persecuted 2 Cor. 4.8 c. but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Iesus How and wherefore is all this That the life also of Iesus might be manifest in our body for we which live are always delivered unto death for Iesus sake that the life also of Iesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh Here are a heap of expressions of sufferings and straits troubled on every side perplexed c. but each of these hath its stop allay and correction here are many plunges over head as if they were quite drown'd and lost but here are as many recoveries and fetchings up again But observe what 's the efficient cause of these their recoveries and what 's the final cause or end of their delivery up to such depressions and deadly hazards and of their holding out and safe coming off The efficient cause of their recoveries is the life of Iesus that it is that still brings them back and raiseth them up again when they are welnigh gone and the final cause both of their relinquishment to those dejections and perils and of their safe enduring and coming off from them is that the life of Iesus might be made manifest in them they are in deaths oft they dye dayly they are pressed out of measure above strength even to despair of life and have the sentence or answer of death in themselves as the Apostle elsewhere saith * 2 Cor. 11 23. 1 Cor. 15.31 2 Cor. 1.8 9 and wherefore all this but that they may have so many resurrections from death and those as eminent and as dayly reiterated and that the power vertue or life of Christ might be so much the oftner and the more conspicuously put forth in those resurrections With good congruity therefore doth Beza understand what follows vers 14. of the civil and analogical resurrections where he saith Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Iesus shall raise up us also by Iesus and shall present us with you 2. It may be for the Lords more illustrious appearing afterward or in the issue and upshot of the delay The greater deferrings and the stranger crossings there be of prayer while they are in putting up and prosecuting the more glorious may the appearing of God be in the end when they come to be answered What the Apostle saith to Philemon of his new converted servant Onesimus For perhaps he therefore departed for a season that thou shouldst receive him for ever Philem 15 16 not now as a servant but above a servant a brother beloved the like may be said of God in reference unto this case he may hide himself for a time that he may be the more seen and the more welcom and the more comfortably and constantly enjoyed when he doth manifest himself David tells us He waited patiently or he waited long for the Lord Psa 40.1 c. and then he inclined unto him and heard him he brought him up also out of an horrible pit out of the miry clay and set his feet upon a rock and established his goings This appearing of God after so long waiting when he was sunk so low and dangerously raised up Davids thankfulness unto God and admiration of him very high He hath put a new song in my mouth even praise unto our God Many O Lord my God are thy wonderful works which thou hast done and thy thoughts which are to us-ward they cannot be reckoned in order unto thee Upon this so earnestly sought so long expected so extreamly needed and now so admirably effected a deliverance God is very much exalted and dignified in Davids eyes his praise is now set forth not by an ordinary but by a new song in his mouth he is now rapt up into a wonderment at the works and contrivances of God and he sees an inexplicable multiplicity of marvels in them The Penman of Psalm 102. in the midst of all the sadness and solitariness he is in in Sions behalf foresees yet that the Lord will regard the destitute and not despise their prayer He will look down from the height of his Sanctuary and from Heaven he will behold the Earth to hear the groaning of the prisoner Psal 102.15 c. to loose those that are appointed to death And when thus it shall be he foretells what will be the consequent of it in reference to God to wit high and general and lasting advancement of his Name Glory and Praise So the Heathen shall fear the Name of the Lord and all the Kings of the Earth thy Glory When the Lord shall build up Sion he shall appear in his glory This shall be written for the generation to come and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord. There is a like remarkable place in Isaiah setting forth both unto what extremity the Lord sometimes deferreth his craving people and whereto it tendeth When the poor and needy seek water Isai 41 17 c. and there is none and their tongue faileth for thirst I the Lord will hear them I the God of Israel will not forsake them Unto this extent of delay the Lord may put off his servants prayers even till they be as a people that have all their pools and springs quite dryed up so that they cannot find a drop of water to cool their thirst and till their tongue be tyred and spent with drought and importunity of asking yet he hears them at length and then he hears them to the purpose I will open rivers in high
arising either from man or from God they are such as are either given by man or proposed and aymed at by God or they are either meritorious causes or final causes that is they are either the ungracious procurements and provocations of man or the gracious intendments and purposes of God 1. There are causes arising from man those which he giveth this effect is promerited and procured by him there is in him that which provoketh God to it 2. There are causes arising from God final causes merciful ends purposes and designs proposed and aymed at by him The former sort of causes makes the hiding penal the latter makes it profitable by the one it is vindictive by the other it is beneficial I shall insist on these two severally but there is one thing that would first be denoted concerning them both together which is that these two sorts of causes may sometimes go alone or apart or the one may be severed from the other sometimes again they may concur or go conjoyned 1. Sometimes or in some cases they may be found apart or alone or the one without the other and that both ways to wit this without that and that without this 1. One while God may be observed to do this namely to hide himself from prayer for the demerit or delinquency of the party praying only without any ground of gathering his respect therein to any gracious ends towards or for them Prov. 1.28 as in that of Solomon Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me Here the hiding may be meerly penal 2. Another while it may be for certain gracious ends which God hath to accomplish thereby on or for them that pray without respect to any special provocation of theirs as in the Churches case Psa 44.17 c. Psal 44. They were covered with the shadow of death God as unto their sense was asleep had cast them off did hide his face and forget their affliction and oppression yet they say all this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee neither have we delt falsly in thy Covenant our heart is not turned back neither have our steps declined from thy way And this appears to be Jobs case his own words so report it Behold I go forward Job 23.8 c. but he is not there and backward but I cannot perceive him on the left hand where he doth work but I cannot behold him he hideth himself on the right hand that I cannot see him but when he hath tryed me I shall come forth as gold my foot hath held his steps his way have I kept and not declined c. In these cases the hiding may be conceived not penal at all but meerly procurative of their good 2. Sometimes those two sorts of reasons may concur or be conjoyned in this effect And this may be two ways 1. Either distributely or with relation to several persons joyned together in one community and in the same prayers that is it may be that the Lord may hide himself from the joynt prayers of a society of men so as that to some of them it may be only for their demerits and so meerly penal to others of them it may be from merciful intentions in God and so conducing to their benefit We read in the Prophet Jeremiah the people of Judah were distinguished by God into two parties by the emblem of two baskets of figs Jer. 24.1 c. the one whereof had very good the other had very naughty figs in it by the former were figured those of Jehojakims and Jeconiahs captivity by the latter those of Zedekiah both these sorts that is all the people of Iudah the the whole Nation generally prayed as I have made evident before and for testimony of it take the places in the margent a Jer. 21.1 2.36 9 37 3.42.1 c. Ezek. 14 1 c. Zech. 7.5 and as they all sought unto God so did God hide himself in respect of a prevention or instant return of the captivity from the prayers of them all both of the one sort and the other But it was with this difference as it is in that Prophecy of the Figs those resembled by the good figs though they were carryed and kept in that captivity it was for their good for many gracious ends to be thereby accomplished to them which you may see in that Text b Vers 6 7 Those noted by the naughty figs were delivered up to the hands of Nebuchadnezzar for their hurt and that many ways as may be read to that Prophecy c Ver. 9 10 and so it was unto them purely for punishment Here then is a hiding from prayer upon both those sorts of reasons distributively referred 2. Or it may be individually or with relation to the same persons The hiding of God from prayers may be for reasons of both those kinds respecting the same parties to wit both for their provocation and unto the effecting of happy ends to them it may be both for the sins and for the good of the self-same persons for their sins as the procuring cause on their part and for their good as the purposed end on Gods part Daniel was one of those good figs afore spoken of he was one of Iehojakims captivity and of it also were the three children and either of that or of Ieconiahs captivity were Mordecai Ezra Ezekiel and all those who being carryed to Babylon were after the seventy years set free and brought to Iudea for of Zedekiahs deportation none were to return d Or if any a very few compare Jer. 24 10 with 44 28. they were the basket of naughty figs that were to be consumed from off the Land and being so they all belonged to the basket of the good figs Jer. 24.20 and consequently God did hide himself from them in regard of and during that captivity for their good yet it was also for their sins as themselves acknowledg e Dan. 9.8 16 Ezr. 9.7.13 Neh. 9 33 37. L m. 3 42 43 44. Psâ— 79 89 Isai 64 7 and the Lord himself testifieth f Ezâ—k 39 23 28 29 I before observed of David that it was a mercy to him that the child which Vriahs wife bare unto him dyed that his prayer in that behalf was denyed him and yet withall this was for his sin g 2 Sam. 12 14 Israel at Kadesh having so far provoked God by their diffidence and murmuring against him upon the return of their spies from Canaan as that he doomed them to wander out forty years in the wilderness ere they should pass over Jordan into the promised Land they upon better thoughts relent and offer to redeem their said offences by going up to fight for and to possess that Land and being repulsed first by divine prohibition Deut. 1.45 and then by the Amorites sword They returned and wept before the
certain measure of afflictions to undergo and pass through with the stint of time for the continuance thereof and from these no supplications or intercessions unto God can redeem or recover him until they be made up and finished 3. To give others an example of patience and confidence in God under the like delays David waited long for the Lord Psal 40.1 2 3. and then he inclined unto him and heard his cry and brought him up out of the horrible pit c. and the effect of this his patient staying Gods leasure and the issue of it is Many shall see it and fear and shall trust in the Lord. Long and great endurings become famous and draw the eyes of men much upon them and the consequent of mens observing them is by the operation of Gods grace that they fear and trust in the Lord They fear with a reverential fear of Gods mighty hand a with a Providential fear so as to prepare for the like tryal and lay up trust in God against it come Job likewise inferreth this as the effect of all his miseries and the delay of his prayers under them Job 17.8 9 Vpright men shall be astonied at this and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite the righteous also shall hold on his way and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger Chap. 15.16 17 20. He had somewhat before in this his present reply to Eliphaz mentioned his prayers and tears My face is foul with weeping and on my eye-lids is the shadow of death not for any injustice in my hands also my prayer is pure My friends scorn me but mine eye poureth out tears unto God Jobs sorrows we see were abundant and continuing and his prayers exact and holy See Divines Annot in loc 2 Edit yet at present he was insulted on as one deserted of God notwithstanding in these his extremities he gathered this comfort unto himself that other godly men will make a better use of his afflictions then his friends had done and although at first they might be taken with admiration to see such a man as he in that condition yet upon recollected thoughts they will decline censuring yea clear and joyn with him against his enemies and by his example will reinforce their stediness and renew their strength courage to entertain and bear the like encounters 4. Lastly The more to dismay deject and confound the enemies and reproachers of his people in the issue The Church of Judah in the Prophet Micah when after her low fall and long waiting and sitting in darkness and bearing the indignation of the Lord he at last pleadeth her cause and executeth Judgment for her bringing her forth to light and letting her behold his Righteousness she telleth us Mic. 7.10 Then she that is mine enemy shall see it and shame shall cover her which said unto me Where is the Lord thy God Hannah staying and praying and weeping long for a child and during her barrenness being much provoked and fretted by her adversary Peninnah when at length she obtained her son Samuel she saith in her song My mouth is enlarged over mine enemies 1 Sam. 2.1 3. because I rej yce in thy Salvation Talk no more so exceeding proudly let not arrogancy come out of your mouth When the wall of Jerusalem was at last by the diligent prayers labours and watchings of Nehemiah and the people of Judah finished it is said Neh 6.26 All their enemies when they heard thereof and all the Heathen that were about when they saw it they were much cast down in their own eyes for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God When the Beast hath overcome and killed the two Witnesses who by prophecy and prayer oppugn his Kingdom and maintain the truth of Christ there will be great insulting They that dwell upon the Earth shall rejoyce over them and make merry and shall send gifts one to another But anon when after the three days and an half they are raised again and called up into Heaven in the sight of their enemies great fear shall fall upon those their beholders Look how much pleasure and joy they took in their dead and prostrate condition so much terror and confusion will possess them at their recovery and ascention into Heaven It was the thing which Peter observed as soon as he was come to hâ—mself upon his deliverance out of prison then when the purposes of his Persecutors against him and the prayers of the Church of God for him were come even to the last cast of tryal which should prevail that the Lord had sent his Angel and delivered him out of the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the people of the Iews Herods hand had now even almost gone through with the execution of Peter the Jews were mightily pleased with his proceedings and the eve of his designed deaths-day being come they were high in expectation to have their cruel eyes and malicious hearts satisfied with the spectacle of his slaughter wherefore his rescue thus long deferred and now atchieved did the more abate and cross the insolency of his enemies These are the Ends which I find in Scripture respecting others for which the Lord may hide himself from his peoples prayers by way of delay and having done with them I have finished the whole series or order of Causes of the Lords hiding himself from prayers both the procuring Causes given by man and the ends or final Causes proposed by God and under this latter head both the ends of Gods denying and the ends of his deferring his servants prayers and of the latter sort both the ends which concern the persons praying and those which reflect upon others And having made up this enumeration I have returned answer to that Query What may be the reason of Gods hiding himself from his peoples prayers grounded upon his promises in its general state or as it may extend to any time case or people SECT VII The Application of both sorts of Causes unto the present Case I Am now to speak to the Hypothesis or the Case in particular as it is ours What may be the reason of the Lords hiding himself now from his people of these Nations in respect of their prayers Of this I must say something but it shall be but by way of hint for I neither need to speak of this all that I could nor can I speak all that there is in it The former I need not the resolution of this query being someway contained in what hath been already said in answer to the query in general the latter I cannot by reason of the large bredth of the Subject it extending it self to so wide a circuit of ground to so great a multitude of persons and to so vast a mixture and variety of ways and transactions and those so secret or intricate that neither mine nor any other one mans experience or
will punish your Idolatry by abandoning your daughters and daughters in law to infamous and unbridled lust which shall not be repressed by the Laws or Magistrates punishments nor corrected by 〈◊〉 Diodate The which is to be understood as well of the Lords dissolving the force of Laws and the Magistrates power and proceedings as of hs withdrawing his own preventing grace and withholding his castigations by which the women might be restrained from those crimes and this he declareth as the punishment of the adulterers license which the parents or husbands of those women took to themselves and permitted to others in matters of Worship and Religion Now how is Reformation minded with us In special how is it in relation to the house of God For Superiors is it not wholly professedly inexorably layd aside by them It is if I much mistake not For Inferiors men are generally unwilling impatient of coming under any Rule either of Confession of Faith or of Worship or of Government There was erewhile nothing but disputing for and against this and that way of Discipline and there was eager contention each party for the advancement of their frame of Government but now men are generally agreed to let all alone and to be without any at all and to leave off all settlement in Religion And this is the issue which the Tempter certainly aimed to bring it unto when Reformation was first moved in and he stirred up so many Commotions and particularly such a multitude of Sects and Civil Interests to stickle in it And there are two things which make our irreformedness exceeding abominable and therefore very forcible against our prayers 1. We are they that lately drew near to God very solemnly in Prayer Fasting Oaths and Covenants for Reformation of Religion Now it is a most desperate thing and so no doubt it will be found for men to dally with God in a work of this nature for men to seek God and swear by him for Reformation and then to reject and stand against it How should God hear our prayers when we our selves hinder them How should he not deny them when we our selves deny them How should he answer them when we contradict them If we make voyd our Prayers and Covenants for his Interest we are impudent unto stupidity if we look for any thing but frustration in the remainder of our suits Exod. 19.8 24.3 7. Heb. 9.18 Deut. 5.27 Exod. 32 33. Israel at Mount Sinai hears and receives the Law from Gods own mouth they make a Covenant with him for its performance dedicated with blood they desire Moses to go up into the Mount unto God to hear receive and bring them down all that the Lord would speak and they would hear and do it but after this ere Moses could return and ere forty days were expired they set up gods of their own handy work and a worship of their own devising and this made that heavy breach betwixt God and them for which they payed so dear and were so long remembered This was that which heightened Judahs sin and desolation even their universal seeking and covenanting with God and beginning to act for Reformation under Josiah and their as general Apostacy under Zedekiah And this was that which brought that fearful ruine of the Jewish State and of Jerusalem by the Roman after Christs time They generally professed repentance and embraced the Baptism of it by John Mat 3.5 Mark 1.5 Luke 7.29 but they falsified herein turning to persecute and crucifie Christ to withstand and infest his Apostles and to reject his Gospel These patterns sadly speak to us at this day who have done the like to them 2. We have let slip yea thrust away the opportunity of Reformation when it served Formerly the Court and the Bishops bore the blame of the irreformedness of the Church and Nation of latter days the Malignants and Wars were urged as the impediments of it but since these blocks have been removed and a full opportunity hath been put into their hands who before cryed and petitioned to God and man for it and I cannot but say if I must say the truth in their hands it hath miscarryed the fairest opportunity that ever Nation had and that under the strongest engagements to it hath miscarryed nothing wanted but hearts to use it One part hath failed through remissness in it and over-much eying other interests inferior to it and another part hath actively withstood and put it back opposing all conclusions and agreements towards it kindling new flames yea traversing and confounding their own principles councels and courses rather then not interrupt it Here is irreformedness to a height if not a non-ultra This is a Lamentation O England and shall be for a Lamentation But I will insist no further on the sins in or about our prayers I wil also here omit the above-named modal aggravations of our sins having purposely for brevities sake taken them or the most of them in as I have gone over the heads already touched This shall serve for the noting out the Reasons on our part viz. the meritorious Causes or provoking sins for which the Lord now hideth himself from his peoples prayers For the other sort of Reasons to wit the final Causes or the Ends which the Lord may have to accomplish upon us or others thereby It is not fit or expedient that I descend unto the particulars thereof by way of positive assertion as to say it is for this or that special end It may suffice that I have gathered out of Scripture and layd down in one series those several ends for which the Lord declareth to hide himself from his peoples prayers and that further I hear annex these two things 1. As it is not to be doubted but that the Lord hath a peculiar people in England yea such as are his not only by external calling and profession but according to the Election of grace and that have a sanctifying and saving interest in him and his promises so questionless he hath these or some of these ends to bring forth in or unto them by his present hiding himself from their prayers and in especial from those prayers which they have and do still dayly put up to him for the publique concernments of the Church of Christ and in particular for those of England They are of many kinds some of them he may in their determinate import never grant others of them he doth delay Those which he may finally deny his end towards them which he may I suppose I may without presumption say he doth aim at and will accomplish thereby is both to prevent the evil which by their obtaining those petitions might ensue to them and to provide for and procure their greater good Those which he doth for a time delay his intent and drift we may conceive and conclude certainly in that delay is to bring to pass thereby some of those Ends if not all which have been
into captivity though she have not the prospect of them or of the accomplishment of her prayers for them though it be to her sense as the Prophet in the Lamentations on her behalf expresseth it Lam. 2.7 8 The Lord hath given up into the hand of the Enemy the walls of her palaces The Lord hath purposed to destroy the wall of the Daughter of Zion He made the rampart and the wall to lament they languished together Yet her walls are continually before him they decay not in his memory he constantly minds the upholding or rebuilding of them When her walls are in her view as low as the ground yea sunk into and buryed in it even then they reach up to Heaven in regard of Gods watchful eye and care for their instauration and a little after the Lord puts this matter of difference betwixt him and her viz. her accounting her self deserted by him unto proof and evidence Isai 50 1. Thus saith the Lord where is the bill of your mothers divorcement whom I have put away or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you q. d. Thou O Zion are full of mistrust jealousies and exclamations of my forsaking thee but where is thy proof for this hast thou any bill of divorce or sale under my hand to shew canst thou produce any legal testimony that I have either through change of mind or affection on my part repudiated thee or for my poverty and engagements to others sold thee There hath been no mutation or defect on my side either of matrimonial fidelity or of sufficiency of estate and if there hath been a distance or withdrawing for some time or in respect of some enjoyments if any temporal or partial separation the tenor of the act if it be brought out wil shew that it 's your deed not mine it 's you that have given the cause and made the breach Behold for your iniquities have you sold your selves and for your transgressions is your mother put away Again What if the faithful servants of God in seeking of him have not their prayers instantly returned This deferring must not go for a final refusal or frustration The Lords suspense of his peoples prayers complained of in Scripture by them they themselves in a calm and deliberate temper have not so understood but have interpreted it otherwise as in that complaint of the Church in the Lamentations cited among the examples above given When I cry and shout he shutteth out my prayer Thou hast covered thy self with a cloud Lam. 3 8 44 31 32 that our prayer should not pass through She in the same Chapter cleareth her meaning from apprehending or intending an utter rejection For the Lord will not cast off for ever but though he cause grief yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies The Church here as she is sensible of a present putting off of her prayer so she is no less secure against a perpetual casting off and she makes sure of a commiserative return to come The Penman of Psal 102. which is the sad mans Psalm purposely compiled for a mourning moaning wailing condition for the servant or Church of God that is in deepest afflictions and in their most sorrowful prayers he representeth the Church in a solitary and pining state complaining of Gods absence By reason of the voyce of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin I am like a Pelican of the wilderness I am like an Owl of the desart I watch and am as a Sparrow alone upon the house top and yet she doth not for this tiresom stay give her prayers as forlorn and lost but fixeth upon this Thou shalt arise Vers 5 6 7 13 17 and have mercy upon Zion for the time to favor her yea the set time is come or cometh and again He will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer This Psalm is supposed to have been composed by the Prophet Daniel Junius Ford in hunc Psal or some such person neer the end of the Judean Churches Captivity seventy years at Babylon during all which time they had sowed in tears they had setly and solemnly fasted and mourned in certain months in the year besides the personal humiliations of some of them as of Daniel mentioned in Scripture and in this their desolate condition and praying posture they were held in delay and expectation for so many years Zion was still a heap of stones and lay in the dust and they continued praying over her stones and pitying her dust * Quia voluerunt bene servi tui lapidibus ejus pulveris ejus miserti sunt Ar. Mont. and in those their prayers they for present remained solitary and destitute of divine help and recovery yet they remain resolved Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion the time to favor is coming he will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer 3. When and so far as God doth hide himself from his faithful peoples prayers it is not only righteous in him and consistent with his promises either their prayers not holding correspondence with his promises and so he is free or his proceedings exactly corresponding thereunto though it be not discerned and so he is faithful but it is in mercy to them either in withholding from them their desires when bad for them or in reserving them either till they be reduced to their rule if they be irregular that they may have them in a promissory way or till they be ripened to that exercise and growth of grace wherein they may be most acceptable and profitable to them To this purpose weigh seriously that of the Apostle And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God Rom. 8.18 to them who are the called according to his purpose He layeth this down as a known and generally received principle They that are the people of God indeed that peculiarly love him and are beloved by him all things work together for good to them He had spoken immediately before of Believers prayers and the Spirits helping their infirmities and making intercession for them according to God and here he enlargeth his speech and riseth from the particular to the universal not only doth the Spirit help but all things work together for the good of Believers in special as the coherence seems to imply their prayers that come from the Spirit how ever at present they succeed whether the effect of them be stayed or instantly emergent evident or inevident or however transformed yet they work for good to them and which is much to be noted he saith they work together for good they are not single causes to produce an effect of or by themselves solitarily but they work together that is together with other things and amongst or above other things that must work with them is the divine disposal the Saints prayers and Gods hand of
before inumerated Let us therefore repeat them over 1. In relation to them that pray to encrease their assiduity and ardency in prayer To fit them for the mercy prayed for To exercise and try their faith patience love sincerity of sanctification and obedience To manifest himself to them the more fully either in or after the delay To make the benefit prayed for the more precious and welcome and useful when it comes To remove the impediments of their receiving or enjoying the mercy sought for And to raise up their thoughts their faith hope love and longing to the second appearing of Christ 2. In relation unto others To make up and bring in the number of those for whom the mercy is purposed To compleat the account of the Churches sufferers and sufferings To give others an example of patient and confident waiting upon God and for the greater dismay and confusion of the adversary 2. All these Ends especially those which concern the persons praying as they are good and desirable in themselves and very convenient to be attained ere their prayers come to issue so as many of them as we now upon a diligent view can discern or apprehend to be unaccomplished we may well conjecture the Lord intendeth to accomplish them before he perform his peoples prayers and that the Lords staying and gradual working for the bringing forth of these ends is the reason of his present deferring of those prayers Now who of the people of God among us can otherwise judg of themselves or their brethren but that many of or all of those said ends which respect them and much of every one of them remains unattained and therefore they may resolve there is very good reason for all this delay The Lord hath a great work yet to finish out in and upon his people before he work out their prayers for them To conclude therefore this part of mine Answer to the particular Case and Query Consider on one hand the ripeness and fulness of Englands sins and on the other hand the immaturity or unripeness of those gracious ends which the Lord setteth up to be effected in and by the delay of his peoples prayers and we have before us abundant matter of Reason for that dilatory hiding of God from his people Again consider if any one of those sins before recited may according to Scripture threat or example suffice to hinder the answer of prayer much more may many or all of them concurring together and that with so many circumstances and degrees of aggravation be forcible to that hinderance Now to the second Proposition 2. That plurality of Reasons which there may be now for this hiding of God from prayers we cannot reasonably think ascribeable wholly to every one or to any one person or party but we may attribute them to the whole community distributively or dispersedly so as that some of them more properly belong to one some to another and all to the whole by way of distribution These meritorious and final causes of this effect and the variety of particulars under each of them are not to be sought in or applyed to every person but some of them respect obtain and take place in this person some in that This proceeding of God concerneth and looketh at us all in common and general yet as it is with some difference of disposition in God as was above shewed * Chap. 3 Sect. 3. so it is with some difference in respect of grounds or reasons in or from men and with some difference also in regard of ends for or towards men all men do not contribute to it by way of provocation in the same kinds acts or measures of sins God hath not his ends towards all men alike or the same for nature or degree I have before distinguished of a double notion of the people of God some are such in regard of name and outward call and priviledg only some are such in regard of spiritual appropriation and communion also It must be granted this carriage of God may be partly grounded on some sins of those or some of them who are the people of God in the strictest sence and it may be partly for some merciful ends towards them or some of them who are at present Gods people but in the larger acception Yet it is most likely those that are the people of God in the common notion only have the largest share in the meritorious causes and those who are his people in the most peculiar notion have the largest portion in the final causes Now for any further resolution by way of application to persons or parties I only say As it is God alone who knoweth particularly who are his by either of these degrees of relation so he alone knoweth to allot to every single person his proper part and portion of either of those two sorts of causes And it is every mans duty first to reflect upon himself and consider how much he shareth in either of them and then to take notice of them in relation to the whole community I come to the third Proposition 3. Although many most or all the aforesaid causes may have influence into this case of ours yet some of them may be conceived more predominant and more notable in producing the effect then the rest and therefore more necessary for us to take notice of and lay to heart As among those three and four that is seven a compleat and full number of Transgressions of Judah Israel and others spoken of as the causes of the irrevocability of their respective judgments Amos chap. 2. 3. there is still one or two nominated as the chief or head of the rest so there is usually in such a case as ours some one or a few sins that do more appear and prevail then others in procuring this evil Judah had one sin viz. Idolatry that was written with a pen of Iron Jer. 17.1 and with the point of a Diamond and graven upon the table of their heart and upon the horns of their Altar Hos 5.5 7.10 Ephraim had one sin viz. Pride that did testifie to his face There is ordinarily to be seen upon a sinful Nation some sin or other Isai 3.9 that the shew of their countenance doth witness or hold forth that doth occur at the first blush as a mark or brand upon the forehead and is their proper and predominant National sin What sin or sins there be in us of this Land that bear this priority of place and influence it behoves us to observe I shall therefore here plainly speak my apprehension and for that end shortly first give the characters by which as I conceive they may be known and then say which I think they are 1. Those sins I suppose are of this prececedency and predominancy above others 1. Which are more general either in the whole community or in them that give themselves to prayer 2. That are the common root or mother
aside to tarry for a night Why shouldst thou be as a man astonied as a mighty man that cannot save Thus saith the Lord unto this people Thus have they loved to wander they have not refrained their feet therefore the Lord doth not accept them c. Here the people of Judah are by the Prophet Jeremiah personated in a complaint of Gods withdrawing from them and the Lord maketh his reply unto them by way of reddition of a reason wherefore he did it Thus have they loved to wander q. d. They complain of me that notwithstanding the relation they are in unto me of my people I am as a stranger or a night-lodger as a wearied man or as a strong man whose power is overmatched in that I do not hear and save them they may see if they will why it is and what 's the matter I am so strange and helpless to them what it is that makes me dislodg and be gone from among them and while I stay to be as a man altogether unconcerned in their condition Thus have they loved to wander Right as I carry to them so have they to me they have estranged themselves and run away from me after their Idols so that they may say like sin like punishment 2. By vertue of that sense and awakening efficacy which the works of God of this sort more especially are apt to introduce upon the Conscience As in the Prophet Zechary it is said of the Jews upon their captivity Zech. 1.6 And they returned and said Like as the Lord of Hoasts thought to do unto us according to our ways and according to our doings so hath he dealt with us This observation which they make upon the ways of God towards them is even wrung out from them by their present sense and smart under Gods Judgments and their Consciences are induced to this acknowledgment by the transparency of the hand of God upon them In this respect the Judgments of God are as the light that goeth forth Hos 6.5 or the morning light of force to awaken and rouze up those men that lie asleep in their beds of sensless security 2. The other branch of the matter of fact is our own ways towards God Let us search and try our ways saith the afflicted Church of Judah Lam. 3.40 upon this very occasion of the Lords covering himself with a cloud that their prayers could not pass through Hag. 1 5 7 Consider your ways Consider your ways The Lord saith it twice over to his ill-succeeding people And the same again is reiteratedly required in that of Zephaniah Gather your selves together yea gather together or as others read Winnow sift or search your selves and again winnow c. your selves And indeed this we have need to do very faithfully and fully If we will not take a true and through account of our own ways there is no congruity that we should expect to find out a reason of Gods ways If we will let our own courses go unsearched it is but suitable that the proceedings of God should remain hidden to us When any evil of affliction is upon us as God always brings it so there is still a reason for it on our part there is a cause ever extant in us there is always something in us that calleth for it either something that needeth it or something that procureth it and if we seem desirous to know the cause of an evil we lie under and will not search and soundly search where it is we deserve not to find it SECT IV. The Question divided into its parts and the Causes of Gods hiding from Prayers distinguished WE have hitherto been detained at the threshold of this question but it hath been somewhat necessarily by taking a view of the impediments arising in the way the manner how to address unto and the means by which to gain satisfaction in it it is now time to enter upon it The Question hath two parts 1. What may be the reason of Gods hiding himself from his peoples prayers grounded upon his Promises 2. What may be the reason of his seeming by his providences to answer the prayers which are contrary unto them although the former be the main and that being resolved will be in effect the resolution of the latter I begin with the first to wit What may be the reason of Gods hiding himself from his peoples prayers grounded upon his promises The intent of this Query as I take it is not meerly to ask in the general what at any time or in any case may be the reason of the said effect but particularly what may be the reason now and as the case stands with us yet it will be first very requisite and a good part of our work to deal with the question in its general state that is to survey the whole series or predicament of causes of this effect which the Scripture gives us and then we may proceed to the hypothesis or the case as it is present and proper to us It will be requisite I say and make much towards the clearing of the Query to look into and sum up all the reasons so far as we can collect them which the Word discovers to us of the Lords hiding from the prayers of his people grounded upon his promises and in so doing to take in this general account those notions of Gods people and of Prayers groundedness upon the Promises in the larger sence namely to include all those persons who are the people of God by outward profession and calling and all the prayers of such which may be said to be grounded on the Promises in regard of the matter prayed for though they be deficient in the qualifications necessary For 1. Though the case upon which our eye is intent be but one yet the reasons that have influence into it may be many 2. Among the many reasons in Scripture for the over clouding of prayer some in this particular case may belong to some persons more directly and peculiarly and other to others it may avail therefore to have all represented 3. If we come short in the unfolding of the present case set before us as infallibly and perfectly to open it I must be far from promising yet to have gone thus far will be an advantage for when we have a collection of what reasons are possible to come within our case layd before us then each mens conscience may set it self on work and we have the enquiry with the rule to go by put into our hand as in a Systems or Anatome 4. Though there be much difference betwixt Gods hiding from the prayers of the faithful seekers of him and his hiding from those of the hypocrite in respect of manner or degree yet there may be and is too often a co-incidency in respect of causes The reasons or causes which the Scripture rendereth for the Lords hiding from his peoples prayers may be reduced to two heads They are