a fall into a deadly sin and most good men are in this condition that they have enough to doe to live and keep themselves above water but how few men are able to pay their own debts and lend great portions to others The number of those who can effectually intercede for others to great purposes of grace and pardon are as soon told as the number of wise men as the gates of a City or the entries of the river Nilus But then doe but consider what a great ingagement this is to a very strict and holy life If we chance to live in times of an extraordinary trouble or if our relatives can be capable of great dangers or great sorrows or if we our selves would doe the noblest friendship in the world and oblige others by acts of greatest benefit if we would assist their souls and work towards their salvation if we would be publick ministers of the greatest usefulness to our countrey if we would support Kings and relieve the great necessities of Kingdoms if we would be effective in the stopping of a plague or in the successe of armies a great and an exemplar piety and a zealous and holy prayer can do all this Semper tu hoc facito ut cogites Id optimum esse tute ut sis optimus si id nequeas saltem ut optimis sis proximus He that is the best man towards God is certainely the best Minister to his Prince or Countrey and therefore doe thou endevour to be so and if thou canst not be so be at least next to the best For in that degree in which our Religion is great and our piety exemplar in the same we can contribute towards the fortune of a Kingdome and when Elijah was taken into heaven Elisha mourn'd for him because it was a losse to Israel My Father my father the chariots of Israel and horsemen thereof But consider how uselesse thou art when thou canst not by thy prayers obtain so much mercy as to prevaile for the life of a single Trooper or in a plague beg of God for the life of a poor Maid-servant but the ordinary emanations of providence shall proceed to issue without any arrest and the sword of the Angel shall not be turn'd aside in one single infliction Remember although he is a great and excellent person that can prevaile of God for the interest of others yet thou that hast no stock of grace and favour no interest in the Court of heaven art but a mean person extraordinary in nothing thou art unregarded by God cheap in the sight of Angels uselesse to thy Prince or Countrey thou maist hold thy peace in a time of publick danger For Kings never pardon Murtherers at the intercession of Theeves and if a mean Mechanick should beg a Reprieve for a condemned Traitor he is ridiculous and impudent so is a vicious Advocate or an ordinary person with God It is well if God will hear him begging for his owne pardon hee is not yet disposed to plead for others And yet every man that is in the state of grace every man that can pray without a sinfull prayer may also intercede for others and it is a duty for all men to doe it all men I say who can pray at all acceptably I will therefore that prayers and supplications and intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men and this is a duty that is prescrib'd to all them that are concern'd in the duty and in the blessings of Prayer but this is it which I say if their piety be but ordinary their prayer can be effectuall but in easy purposes and to smaller degrees but he that would work effectively towards a great deliverance or in great degrees towards the benefit or ease of any of his relatives can be confident of his successe but in the same degree in which his person is gracious There are strange things in heaven judgments there are made of things and persons by the measures of Religion and a plain promise produces effects of wonder and miracle and the changes that are there made are not effected by passions and interests and corporall changes and the love that is there is not the same thing that it is here it is more beneficiall more reasonable more holy of other designes and strange productions and upon that stock it is that a holy poor man that possesses no more it may be then an Ewe-lambe that eats of his bread and drinks of his cup and is a daughter to him and is all his temporall portion this poor man is ministred to by Angels and attended to by God and the Holy Spirit makes intercession for him and Christ joyns the mans prayer to his own advocation and the man by prayer shall save the City and destroy the fortune of a Tyrant army even then when God sees it good it should be so for he will no longer deny him any thing but when it is no blessing and when it is otherwise his prayer is most heard when it is most denyed 2ly That we should prevaile in intercessions for others we are to regard and to take care that as our piety so also must our offices be extraordinary He that prays to recover a family from an hereditary curse or to reverse a Sentence of God to cancell a Decree of heaven gone out against his friend hee that would heale the sick with his prayer or with his devotion prevaile against an army must not expect such great effects upon a Morning or Evening Collect or an honest wish put into the recollections of a prayer or a period put in on purpose Mamercus Bishop of Vienna seeing his City and all the Diocese in great danger of perishing by an earthquake instituted great Letanies and solemn supplications besides the ordinary devotions of his usuall hours of prayer and the Church from his example took up the practise and translated it into an anniversary solemnity and upon St. Mark 's day did solemnly intercede with God to divert or prevent his judgments falling upon the people majoribus Litaniis so they are called with the more solemn supplications they did pray unto God in behalf of their people And this hath in it the same consideration that is in every great necessity for it is a great thing for a man to be so gracious with God as to be able to prevaile for himself and his friend for himself and his relatives and therefore in these cases as in all great needs it is the way of prudence and security that we use all those greater offices which God hath appointed as instruments of importunity and arguments of hope and acts of prevailing and means of great effect and advocation such as are separating days for solemn prayer all the degrees of violence and earnest addresse fasting and prayer almes and prayer acts of repentance and prayer praying together in publick with united hearts and above all praying in the susception and communication of the holy
grown by a long progresse to a resolute and finall impiety nor done injustices greater then sorrow or restitution or recompense or acknowledgment However though it may be uncertain and disputed concerning the number of sins unto death and therefore to pray or not to pray is not matter of duty yet it is all one as to the effect whether we know them or no for though we intend charity when we pray for the worst of men yet concerning the event God will take care and will certainly return thy prayer upon thy own head though thou didst desire it should water and refresh thy neighbors drynesse and St. John so expresses it as if he had left the matter of duty undetermin'd because the instances are uncertain yet the event is certainly none at all therefore because we are not encouraged to pray and because it is a sin unto death that is such a sin that hath no portion in the promises of life and the state of repentance But now suppose the man for whom wee pray to be capable of mercy within the covenant of repentance and not farre from the Kingdome of heaven yet 2ly No prayers of others can further prevail then to remove this person to the next stage in order to felicity When S. Monica prayed for her son she did not pray to God to save him but to cōvert him and when God intended to reward the prayers and almes of Cornelius he did not do it by giving him a Crown but by sending an Apostle to him to make him a Christian the meaning of which observation is that we may understand that as in the person prayed for there ought to be the great disposition of being in a saveable condition so there ought also to be all the intermediall aptnesses for just as he is disposed so can we prevail and the prayers of a good man first prevail in behalf of a sinner that he shall be invited that he shall be reproved and then that he shall attend to it then that he shall have his heart open'd and then that he shall repent And still a good mans prayers follow him thorough the severall stages of pardon of sanctification of restraining graces of a mighty providence of great assistance of perseverance and a holy death No prayers can prevaile upon an undisposed person For the Sun himself cannot enlighten a blind eye nor the soule move a body whose silver cord is loosed and whose joints are untyed by the rudenesse and dissolutions of a pertinacious sicknesse But then suppose an eye quick and healthfull or apt to be refreshed with light and a friendly prospect yet a glow-worm or a diamond the shels of pearl or a dead mans candle are not enough to make him discern the beauties of the world and to admire the glories of creation Therefore 2. As the persons must be capable for whom we pray so they that pray for others must be persons extraordinary in something 1. If persons be of an extraordinary piety they are apt to be intercessors for others This appeares in the case of Job When the wrath of God was kindled against Eliphaz and his two friends God commanded them to offer a sacrifice but my servant Job shall pray for you for him will I accept and it was so in the case of the prevaricating Israelites God was full of indignation against them and smote them Then stood up Phinehas and prayed and the plague ceased For this man was a good man and the spirit of an extraordinary zeal filled him and he did glory to God in the execution upon Zimri and his fair Madianite And it was a huge blessing that was intail'd upon the posterity of Abraham Isaac and Jacob because they had a great Religion a great power with God and their extraordinary did consist especially in the matter of prayers and devotion for that was eminent in them besides their obedience for so Maimonides tells concerning them that Abraham first instituted Morning prayer The affairs of Religion had not the same constitution then as now They worshipped God never but at their Memorials and in places and seldome times of separation The bowed their head when they came to a hallowed stone and upon the top of their staffe and worshipped when they came to a consecrated pillar but this was seldome and they knew not the secrets and the priviledges of a frequent prayer of intercourses with God by ejaculations and the advantages of importunity and the Doctors of the Jews that record the prayer of Noah who in all reason knew the secret best because he was to teach it to all the world yet have transmitted to us but a short prayer of some seaven lines long and this he onely said within the Ark in that great danger once on a day provoked by his fear and stirred up by a Religion then made actuall in those days of sorrow and penance But in the descending ages when God began to reckon a Church in Abraham's family there began to be a new institution of offices and Abraham appointed that God should be prayed to every morning Isaac being taught by Abraham made a law or at least commended the practise and adopted it into the Religion that God should be worshipped by decimation or tithing of our goods and he added an order of prayer to be said in the afternoon and Jacob to make up the office compleat added evening prayer and God was their God and they became fit persons to blesse that is of procuring blessings to their relatives as appears in the instances of their own families of the King of Egypt and the Cities of the Plain For a man of an ordinary piety is like Gideons fleece wet in its own locks but it could not water a poor mans Garden But so does a thirsty land drink all the dew of heaven that wets its face and a great shower makes no torrent nor digs so much as a little furrow that the drils of the water might passe into rivers or refresh their neighbours wearinesse but when the earth is full and hath no strange consumptive needs then at the next time when God blesses it with a gracious shower it divides into portions and sends it abroad in free and equall communications that all that stand round about may feel the shower So is a good mans prayer his own cup is full it is crowned with health and overflowes with blessings and all that drink of his cup and eat at his table are refreshed with his joys and divide with him in his holy portions And indeed he hath need of a great stock of piety who is first to provide for his own necessities and then to give portions to a numerous relation It is a great matter that every man needs for himself the daily expences of his own infirmities the unthriving state of his omission of duties and recessions from perfection and sometimes the great losses and shipwracks the plundrings and burning of his house by
is like the compassion we have in other mens miseries we are not concerned in it and it is not our case and our hearts ake not when another mans children are made fatherlesse or his wife a sad widow and just so are our prayers for their relief If we thought their evils to be ours if wee and they as members of the same body had sensible and reall communications of good and evill if we understood what is really meant by being members one of another or if we did not think it a spirituall word of art instrumentall onely to a science but no part of duty or reall relation sure we should pray more earnestly one for another then we usually doe How few of us are troubled when he sees his brother wicked or dishonorably vicious Who is sad and melancholy when his neighbour is almost in hell when he sees him grow old in iniquity How many days have we set apart for the publick relief and interests of the Kingdome How earnestly have we fasted if our Prince be sick or afflicted What almes have we given for our brothers conversion or if this be great how importunate and passionate have we been with God by prayer in his behalf by prayer and secret petition But however though it were well very well that all of us would think of this duty a little more because besides the excellency of the duty it self it would have this blessed consequent that for whose necessities we pray if we doe desire earnestly they should be relieved we would when ever we can and in all we can set our hands to it and if we pity the Orphan children and pray for them heartily we would also when we could relieve them charitably but though it were therefore very well that things were thus with all men yet God who takes care for us all makes provision for us in speciall manner and the whole Order of the Clergy are appointed by God to pray for others to be Ministers of Christs Priesthood to be followers of his Advocation to stand between God and the people and present to God all their needs and all their desires That this God hath ordained and appointed and that this rather he will blesse and accept appears by the testimony of God himself for he onely can be witnesse in this particular for it depends wholly upon his gracious favour and acceptation It was the case of Abraham and Abimelech Now therefore restore the man his wife for he is a Prophet and he will pray for thee and thou shalt live and this caused confidence in Micah Now know I that the Lord will doe me good seeing I have a Levite to my Priest meaning that in his Ministery in the Ministery of Priests God hath established the alternate returns of blessing and prayers the entercouses between God and his people And thorough the descending ages of the synagogue it came to be transmitted also to the Christian Church that the Ministers of Religion are advocates for us under Christ by the Ministery of Reconciliation by their dispensing the holy Sacraments by the Keyes of the Kingdome of heaven by Baptisme and the Lords Supper by binding and loosing by the Word of God and Prayer and therefore saith St. James If any man be sick among you let him send for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him meaning that God hath appointed them especially and will accept them in ordinary and extraordinary and this is that which is meant by blessing A Father blesses his childe and Solomon blessed his people and Melchisedec the Priest blessed Abraham and Moses blessed the Sons of Israel and God appointed the Leviticall Priests to blesse the congregation and this is more then can be done by the people for though they can say the same prayer and the People pray for their Kings and Children for their Parents and the Flock for the Pastor yet they cannot blesse him as he blesses them for the lesse is blessed of the greater and not the greater of the lesse and this is without all contradiction said S. Paul the meaning of the mysterie is this That God hath appointed the Priest to pray for the People and because he hath made it to be his ordinary office and imployment he also intends to be seen in that way which he hath appointed and chalked out for us his prayer if it be found in the way of righteousnesse is the surer way to prevaile in his intercessions for the people But upon this stock comes in the greatest difficulty of the text for if God heareth not sinners there is an infinite necessity that the Ministers of Religion should be very holy For all their ministeries consist in preaching and praying to these two are reducible all the ministeries Ecclesiasticall which are of divine institution so the Apostles summ'd up their imployment But we will give our selves continually to prayer and to the ministery of the Word to exhort to reprove to comfort to cast down to determine cases of conscience and to rule in the Church by the word of their proper Ministery and the very making lawes Ecclesiasticall is the ministery of the word for so their dictates passe into lawes by being duties injoyn'd by God or the acts or exercises or instruments of some injoyn'd graces To prayer is reduced administration of the Sacraments but binding and loosing and visitation of the sick are mixt offices partly relating to one partly to the other Now although the Word of God preached will have a great effect even though it be preached by an evill Minister a vicious person yet it is not so well there as from a pious man because by prayer also his preaching is made effectuall and by his good example his Homilies and Sermons are made active and therefore it is very necessary in respect of this half of the Ministers office The preaching of Word he be a good man unlesse he be much perishes to the people most of the advantages are lost But then for the other half all those ministeries which are by way of prayer are rendred extremely invalid and ineffectuall if they be ministred by an evill person For upon this very stock it was that St. Cyprian affirmed that none were to be chosen to the Ministery but immaculati integri antistites holy and upright men who offering their sacrifices worthily to God and holily may be heard in their prayers which they make for the safety of the Lords people But he presses this caution to a further issue that it is not only necessary to choose holy persons to these holy Ministeries for fear of losing the advantages of a sanctified Ministery but also that the people may not be guilty of an evill communion and a criminall state of society Nec enim sibi plebs blandiatur quasi immunis à contagione delicti esse possit cum sacerdote peccatore communicans the people cannot be innocent if they
Cassian hath named one sign which if you give me leave I will name unto you It is a sign we shall prevail in our prayers when the Spirit of God moves us to pray cum fiduciâ quasi securitate impetrandi with a confidence and a holy security of receiving what we aske But this is no otherwise a sign but because it is a part of the duty and trusting in God is an endearing him and doubting is a dishonour to him and he that doubts hath no faith for all good prayers relye upon Gods Word and we must judge of the effect by prudence for he that askes what is not lawfull hath made an unholy prayer if it be lawfull and not profitable we are then heard when God denies us and if both these be in the prayer he that doubts is a sinner and then God will not hear him but beyond this I know no confidence is warrantable and if this be a signe of prevailing then all the prudent prayers of all holy men shall certainely be heard and because that is certain we need no further inquiry into signes I summe up all in the words of God by the Prophet Run to and fro thorow the streets of Jerusalem and see and know and seek in the broad places thereof if you can finde a man if there be any that executeth judgment that seeketh truth virum quaerentem fidem a man that seeketh for faith propitius ero ei and I will pardon it God would pardon all Jerusalem for one good mans sake there are such dayes and opportunities of mercy when God at the prayer of one holy person will save a people and Ruffinus spake a great thing but it was hugely true Quis dubitet mundum stare precibus sanctorum the world it self is established and kept from dissolution by the prayers of Saints and the prayers of Saints shall hasten the day of Judgement and we cannot easily find two effects greater But there are many other very great ones for the prayers of holy men appease Gods wrath drive away temptations resist and overcome the Devill Holy prayer procures the ministery and service of Angels it rescinds the Decrees of God it cures sicknesses and obtains pardon it arrests the Sun in its course and staies the wheels of the Charet of the Moon it rules over all Gods creatures and opens and shuts the storehouses of rain it unlocks the cabinet of the womb and quenches the violence of fire it stops the mouthes of Lions and reconciles our sufferance and weak faculties with the violence of torment and sharpnesse of persecution it pleases God and supplies all our needs But Prayer that can do thus much for us can do nothing at all without holinesse for God heareth not sinners but if any man be a worshipper of God and doth his will him he heareth Sermon VII Of godly Fear c. Part I. Heb. 12. part of the 28th and the 29th verses Let us have Grace whereby we may serve God with reverence and godly fear For our God is a consuming fire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so our Testaments usually read it from the authority of Theophylact Let us have grace But some copies read it in the indicative mood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have grace by which we do serve and it is something better consonant to the discourse of the Apostle For having enumerated the great advantages which the Gospell hath above those of the Law he makes an argument à majori and answers a tacite objection The Law was delivered by Angels but the Gospell by the Son of God The Law was delivered from Mount Sinai the Gospell from Mount Sion from the heavenly Jerusalem The Law was given with terrors and noises with amazements of the standers by and Moses himself the Minister did exceedingly quake and fear and gave demonstration how infinitely dangerous it was by breaking that Law to provoke so mighty a God who with his voice did shake the earth but the Gospell was given by a meek Prince a gentle Saviour with a still voice scarce heard in the streets But that this may be no objection he proceeds and declares the terror of the Lord Deceive not your selves our Law-giver appeared so upon earth and was so truly but now he is ascended into heaven and from thence he speaks to us See that ye refuse not him that speaketh for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven for as God once shaked the earth and that was full of terror so our Lawgiver shall do and much more and be farre more terrible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said the Prophet Haggai which the Apostle quotes here he once shook the earth But once more I shake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is in the Prophesie I will shake not the earth only but also heaven with a greater terror then was upon Mount Sinai with the voice of an Archangell with the trump of God with a concussion so great that heaven and earth shall be shaken in pieces and new ones come in their room This is an unspeakable and an unimaginable terror Mount Sinai was shaken but it stands to this day but when that shaking shall be the things that are shaken shall be no more that those things that cannot be shaken may remain that is not only that the clestiall Jerusalem may remain for ever but that you who do not turn away from the faith and obedience of the Lord Jesus you who cannot be shaken nor removed from your duty you may remain for ever that when the rocks rend and the mountains flie in pieces like the drops of a broken cloud and the heavens shall melt and the Sun shall be a globe of consuming fire and the Moon shall be dark like an extinguish'd candle then you poor men who could be made to tremble with an ague or shake by the violence of a Northern winde or be remov'd from your dwellings by the unjust decree of a persecutor or be thrown from your estates by the violence of an unjust man yet could not be removed from your duty and though you went trembling yet would go to death for the testimony of a holy cause and you that would dye for your faith would also live according to it you shall be established by the power of God and supported by the arme of your Lord and shall in all this great shaking be unmovable as the corner stone of the gates of the new Jerusalem you shall remain and abide for ever This is your case And to summe up the whole force of the argument the Apostle addes the words of Moses as it was then so it is true now Our God is a consuming fire He was so to them that brake the Law but he will be much more to them that disobey his Son he made great changes then but those which remain are