are strong wise vigilant that are many who have all the Antichristian and Malignant part of the Christian world joyned with them and besides all this I am perswaded we now grapple with the revenging hand of God for the sins which this Nation hath lien in this hundred years God doth now remember them and visits the Kingdome for them the idolatry the blood the Apostasie and innumerable other evils and abominations our troubles are very great and the event may seem very difficult and doubtfull but let me tell you here is that may counterpoise all and support us against all discouragements and make us comfortably conclude of a good issue We shall over-master all that are against us we shall over-match them because the spirit and power of prayer is on our side we have had these three or foure years especially the spirit of prayer powred out I am perswaded in the greatest measure that hath been since the Apostles of Christ lived upon earth and our prayers have not been in vain though the full return be not yet made we have had the first fruits many a sweet in-come we have had already But know Honorable and beloved they are all filed up before God there is not one of them lost they will bring another manner of return then yet they have done And not our prayers only but the prayers of all the Christian world are before God in our behalf our cause is Gods the work we are ingaged in is the building up of Zion and therefore there is not a good man in the world no not at Oxford who prayes Thy Kingdome come but prayes for us who are indevouring the raising up of Christs Kingdom now these prayers are all before God and must bring a comfortable answer in due time Nay this comfort reaches yet further not onely wee that are now alive and our prayers but all the Worthies who are now with God their Prayers pray for us Though we must say of them as the Church did of Abraham they know us not they are ignorant of our condition yet their prayers which they offered up while they were on earth and longed to see this work proceed are now really assistant to us Daniel and Jeremiah did as really build the Temple and City as Zerubbabel and Nehemiah though they were dead long before That look as the blood of the Martyrs cryed for vengeance from Abel to Zacharias and thereby reach a present persecuting generation so the prayers of those who loved Zion do blesse and reach all the workmen now imployed in the rearing up of the Church their prayers speak as Abels Faith did when he was dead and rotten insomuch that I may confidently conclude that the two Houses of Parliament and our Armies as unworthy as we are are daily carryed upon the wings of many millions of prayers that have been offered up to God these many years they are all before God night and day God is only waiting the fit time and therefore I beseech you bear up your spirits against all other discouragements the Lord will in the most accepted time let you know that all that have ever said to him Lord remember England Lord purge thy Church in England Lord set it up there down with Prelacy stablish Liberty make way for Christ they are all before God and must prevaile and therefore certainly our comfort may be greater ten to one then our discomfort need be though all the Nations of the world were sworn against us You shall God willing have more of this before I dismisse you let this taste suffice at the present And Secondly It is also a most comfortable lesson to poore afflicted dejected spirits who mourn and wrastle with God for their own distresses There may be many such in this Assembly this day who pray every day it may be with David seven times in a day ten times in a day but the heart sinkes for want of an answer as wicked men think they shall never be reckoned with for their sins because divine vengeance seems to sleep so do poore soules conceive that because God at present seems to slight them he will never regard them I have oft heard many a sad soule lament after this manner Did but God heare my prayers did he but accept me I would with David call upon him as long as I did live might but my prayer come up before him and be lookt upon but to be thus as a despised reed a scorned poore creature as I confesse I deserve to be this daunts my soule that I dare not pray I am even ready to give over O saith the sad heart I beg mercies and I taste wrath I beg grace and I feel corruption I beg ease and I indure torment I beg love and I finde displeasure all goes backwards God casts my prayer out shuts it out from him and this this wounds the soule let me to such a sad soule speak a few comfortable words from the Lord I take this for granted that the things thou dost beg are according to Gods will thou darest not beg an unlawfull thing I take it also for granted that thou that dost call upon God dost indevour to depart from iniquity that thou darest not call upon the name of God and walk in sinfull waies but thou wouldest be his servant and I likewise take it for granted that thou dost not expect or desire audience for any ones sake but for Christ Jesus thy Saviour to whom thou lookest this I hope God witnesses with thee Why if so then it seems the onely evill that oppresses thy spirit is God doth not answer thee he doth not give thee such a return of thy prayer as thou desirest But know thou Gods answering of thy prayer must not be measured by thy sad apprehensions but by his own word which word assures me that all thy prayers are before God night and day and for his present answering of thee it is no token of his displeasure that he does not give thee a sudden answer his forbearance is no deniall the best of all his Saints have cryed and prayed till their throate hath been dry and God hath seemed not to answer David had prayed long for an answer Psal. 69. 3. when he complained Hee was weary of his crying his throate was dry his eyes failed while hee did waite for his God The whole Church long sought him whom her soule loved and found him not and Paul thrice that is many times besought God to remove the messenger of Satan which was sent to buffet him and was fain to wait still so that thou art not alone in being thus delayed Nay I tell thee further God hath many wayes of regarding and answering Prayer Sometimes he may regard a prayer which he absolutely denies when the thing would not be good for him that begs it So he peremptorily denyed Moses his prayer to goe into the Land of Canaan But if the thing be good and
Our own hand hath saved us He will have such instruments of whom he will be sure they shall not offer to lay claime to his glory Now brethren God is wholly confident of Prayer that it will never undermine him in his glory he hath no jealousie of it but what he doth to the weeping eye and the mourning heart at their humble request when they have got the thing all the glory which they will desire is to come back again and cry Grace Grace all was grace all was favour Thus praying David when he had dedicated one thousand three hundred cart load of silver and gold toward the building of Gods house all the glory he took to himself was but to admire Gods goodnesse in giving him a heart to offer it and that God was pleased to accept it at his hands who am I Lord that I should have a heart to give any thing to thee of thy own have I given thee Thus will Prayer give God all the glory But when mercies are not fetched in by prayer ordinarily God hath little praise for them either they are imputed to chance or industry friends or wit or one creature or other these rather wears the glory then God but mercies wone by prayer are worne with thankfulnesse it alwayes layes the creature low and exalts free grace highly This is one reason why prayer is so effectuall in this great work Another is Hereby hee doth greatly honour his people hee puts a great deale of glory upon his Servants when he is pleased as at their request to lay the foundation of a new Heaven and a new Earth This is a great honour to them to be thus owned by him to be such powerfull advocates When Job friends came to make their peace with God and God would not accept them untill Job prayed for them Goe to my Servant Job and he shall pray for you for him will I accept else I shall deale with you according to your folly Was not this a mighty honour put upon Job When God told Abimelech that he and his house were but dead men unlesse Abraham prayed for them did he not thereby highly honour his servant When Ahashuerosh takes Queen Esther to him and bids her ask to the half of his Kingdome and at her request grants her her life and the lives of all her people it was a great honour he put upon her So God hereby magnifies his love to his that they may have his eare and be able to doe such great things with him And besides as it is a glory to them so it makes the building up of Zion infinitely more comfortable and usefull to them any thing that a gracious heart hath obtained by prayer it prizes so much the more we will know how wee part with what wee came hardly by When Moses could tell the people such a time I fell down before God for you forty dayes and forty nights and such a time I besought the Lord for you hee knew the worth of those mercies and tasted the comfort of them When the Saints can say this we begged at Gods hands and this wee sought God for it will infinitely ingage their spirits to value it and walk worthy of it And not onely so but their sweetnesse and comfort in the use of it will be the greater when they shall see the travaile of their soule it is a great satisfaction to them Bathsheba much rejoyced in Solomon and Hannah in Samuel and Sarah in Isaac because they were the Sons of their vows of their prayers as well as of their womb Many excellent Uses may be made of this Doctrine I shall indevour to presse two or three which are most seasonable and then I have done Is the building up of Zion the fruit of Gods peoples prayers Is prayer the great Master-builder on earth then I beseech you learn to whom and what under God we may most of all attribute the severall mercies and deliverances which we have received It is true God only hath been our help every stone which hath been laid into this building is an Eben-Ezer we may write upon every stone Hitherto God hath helped us but among all our friends on earth none to be compared with prayer God hath poured out a Spirit of prayer upon his people Old men Maids and Servants as well as Ministers and Gentle-men and Noble-men all that feare God have been knocking at heaven gates with all intensenesse of Spirit with all earnestnesse that God would save poor England and build up his Church amongst us and give me leave to say it without derogating from any of your worth under God we have been most beholding to prayer Mistake me not I know there are worthy ones amongst us that have done excellently many of our Nobles have done worthily many of this honourable Assembly have been excellent instruments many of our Souldiers Counsellors Ministers Citizens and Commons have willingly put all they have into this great Lottery and when the Lord comes to reckon up his helpers not one of them shall be forgotten not a night they have watched not a journey you have took not a drop of blood they have spent not an estate any of you have hazzarded not any paines you have took which the Lord God will forget but he will remember all and your selves in heaven and it may be your posterity on earth shall know that God hath associated you with himself to help forward this great work but for all this when all is done let us say Saul hath slaine his thousands but David his ten thousands All these have done worthily but among all prayer hath done the greatest of all the rest How often hath prayer fetched God into our Armies and rallied them againe after they were routed and given us the day after we had lost it How often have Moses hands lift up upon the Mount helped Joshua fighting in the valley and covered his head in the day of battell How often hath prayer brought God amongst our Counsellours when they have been at a losse and directed them and discovered some desperate plot turned the counsels of Achitophel into foolishnesse How many in every place who have served the Lord in this great work hath prayer helped at a dead lift Prayer hath hitherto saved the kingdome I remember a proud boast of our enemies when we had lost Bristoll and the Vies they then sent abroad even into other kingdoms a triumphant paper wherein they concluded all was now fubdued to them and among many other confident expressions there was one to this purpose Nil restat superare Regem c. which might be construed two wayes either thus There remaines nothing for the King to conquer but onely the prayers of a few fanatick people or thus There is nothing left to conquer the King but the prayers of a few fanatick people every thing else was lost all was now their owne And indeed we were then in
come to be destitute before he seems to regard their prayers I note this onely to this end that it might teach you all to be charitable Judges of the strange and various administrations of our God towards almost all the Churches in Christendome at this day indeed if we look upon the state of almost all the Christian world we cannot but say it is very low Germany hath now for six or seven and twenty yeers been an Aceldama a field of blood in Ireland the slain not to be numbred their widows multiplyed like the sand of the Sea shore Scotland been shaken and harrassed miserably and England which hath been as a Garden of God now is conflicting with the saddest of all judgements and bleeds and melts away and sinks deeper into the quick-sands of desolation every day then other All our Physitians have hitherto proved of no value no balm yet found to cure our wound no plaister will as yet cleave to our soare the storm still increaseth our Anchors all come home and we are even at our wits end and every where the displeasure of the Lord seems to bee on all the Churches as if he would bring such a desolation upon them that affliction should not rise up the second time Now beloved in these deep and deplorable extremities learn to judge wisely of the state of Christs Church and people think it no more strange to see the Church of God tossed and afflicted then it is to see the Sea tossed with waves or the lower region to be full of storms and tempests but when you do see these things be you withall assured that the Lord loves his Church and all his Saints too dear to be lavish of any one drop of their blood he prefers the meanest of his people before all the Kingdoms of the world and will give them for ransomes for his redeemed ones he thought it not too much to redeem them with the blood of his own Son be you therefore fully assured that it is not out of any slighting of them that these troubles are upon them but rather that in all these conflicts hee hath holy aimes and ends which it may be we cannot yet dive into and let us not look too much upon the dark side of the cloud of Gods providence when we cannot see the bottome of his Counsels let us not hang down despairing hands Let us be contented that we are of his Court though we be not admitted to be of his Privy Counsell and let us set this down for an assured conclusion That how low soever the Lord brings his people he will bring them back again from the depth of their miseries let us in the mean time as the Prophet said he would doe Search and try our wayes and be humbled before him but let us also beleeve upon plain trust and waite upon God who at this day hides his face from the house of Jacob and let us look for him untill hee please to return again Secondly As the Lord sometimes makes them destitute before hee regards them so hee will regard the prayers of the destitute this sad title that they are destitute is set downe here as an argument that God would regard their prayers which affords us this instruction That the prayers of the most forlorne and despised and abased of all Gods people are in the highest regard with him Whose petitions soever are laid aside God will be sure to regard and read over the petitions offered up by the desolate their prayers are most prevalent and most acceptable with God I might give you an hundred places where God saith it expresly he heares the poore he regards the despised he will save the afflicted he will comfort the distressed his eares are open to their cry David who well understood all the topicks of Prayer all places from whence any argument might be drawne to prevaile with God in prayer made this his usuall argument Heare me Lord for I am desolate attend to my cry for I am brought very low heare me speedily my spirit is overwhelmed as if he could lay such a claime to be regarded when he was destitute that God must faile of his word if he failed then to regard his prayers And there is good reason why they above all others should have their prayers regarded by God Because they pray in their prayers Prayer is the powring out of the soule to God so saith the title of this Psalm A prayer of the afflicted when he powres out his soule Now even Gods owne people when they have ease and liberty and are in no straits it 's too ordinary with them to powre out words when they doe not powre out prayers and to be in a bodily posture of prayer when the inward man is little affected they often pray without a heart but the poore and destitute speak supplications before God they poure out their soule and spirit and that is prayer indeed And secondly The destitute and forsaken have no other to flye to but God onely all other succour failes them and he hath much engaged himselfe in his Word never to desert the soule that betakes it selfe to him He shall deliver the needy when he cryeth the poore also and him that hath no helper Now this forlorne and desolate wretch looks on his right hand and none will know him other refuge failes him no other cares for his soule he hath onely a melting heart and a mourning eye and these are fixt upon God alone and therefore no wonder though he be regarded And then thirdly The desolate of all others will value an answer of prayer let God doe any thing for a poore forsaken wretch it 's highly prized any almes to a Begger at the door who is ready to starve if it be but a crust fit for the dogges yet I say to a starving Begger it 's a greatefull thing When the poore and needy seek water and there is none when their tongue faileth for thirst and the Lord pleaseth to open rivers to them in the wildernesse O how acceptable and welcome is it And fourthly God will regard the destitute because in truth his fatherly bowels know that there is more need that he should succour them then any other he hath put those bowels into earthly parents that if any of them have many children the sickest the weakest the simplest the most despicable of all the rest hath the greatest care from the father and from the tender-hearted mother among all the test of the children there is not such an Orator to prevaile for themselves or others as the sickest babe And even so it is with our good God he knowes the condition of the poor how every one treads upon a worme he well considers that he who is so weak that he is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him who is at ease he knowes
that few will look to the destitute unlesse it be to scorne despise them brow-beat them and turne the back upon them and therefore he himself will regard them he commands us to deale our bread to the hungry to bring the poore who are cast out to our house when we see the naked that we cloath him that we draw out our soule to the hungry and that we satisfie the afflicted soule yea he commands his very enemies to regard his out-cast and afflicted let my out-cast dwell with thee Moab be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler how much more will his owne tender bowels yerne towards them This also is a lesson of singular comfort to every afflicted soule to assure them their prayers and supplications are tenderly regarded before God I have often observed such poore forsaken ones who in their owne eyes are brought very low that of all other people they are most desirous to begge and obtaine the prayers of their friends when they see any that hath gifts and peace and cheerfulnesse of spirit and liberty and abilities to performe duties O how glad they are to get such a mans prayers I beseech you will you pray for me will you please to remember me at the throne of grace whereas in truth if we could give a right judgment all such would rather desire the poore and the desolute to be mediators for them for certainly whomsoever God neglects he will listen to the cry of those that are forsaken and destitute And therefore O thou afflicted and tossed with tempests who thinkest thou art wholly rejected by the Lord continue to poure out thy soule to him thou hast a faithfull promise from him to be rewarded he will regard the prayer of the destitute Why then doe they so long goe without their answer why are they and their prayers destitute To this you will have a satisfying answer in the next branch of my Text which is the aspect that this promise of Gods regarding prayer hath unto the time when he will doe it when the Lord doth build up Zion he will then regard the prayer of the destitute At another time it may be he seems not to regard them while he lets Zion lie waste he seemed to despise their prayers but when once the time is come that the Lord will build up Zion he will then regard the prayer of the destitute then it shall well appeare hee will not despise their cry any longer There you will have a full answer to this doubt and I conceive these words not despise are added purposely to prevent or answer this doubt poore afflicted ones are ready to suspect Gods good will and to think they are despised because they have not a speedy answer but in that day it shall appeare how farre God is from it And this circumstance of the time when God regards them affords us two other notable lessons which because they are exceeding seasonable I shall the Lord assisting me enlarge my Discourse upon them whereof the first is this That the prayers of Gods afflicted people which may seem for a long time to bee slighted and despised by the Lord are yet highly regarded by him and will bring a timely answer This I think lies plain in the Text before you in the beginning of the Psalme There was crying for audience and that his face might not continue hid that he would incline his eare but there was no audience to be obtained but now when the Lord builds up Zion he will regard them he will despise their prayers no longer that is the first And in this Lesson there are two branches to be cleared before I come to apply it First That the prayers of Gods own servants may for a long time seeme to bee despised Secondly However they may seem so to be yet they are highly regarded and will bring a timely answer First they may seem to be despised despising especially from God is a very sad word and sinks very deep it implies three things which all may betide the prayers of Gods own people First A silence in God a sitting still taking no notice of their prayers to let them powre out their soules and the Lord be as if their prayer never came to his eare that is one thing in despising and the best of it so the Church complains O my God I cry in the day time but thou hearest not and elsewhere Keepe silence no longer lest if thou be as one that heareth not I become like unto him that goes down into the pit very often shall you heare the people of God complaining that they pray and pray and the Lord regarded not this is very sad as if a childe should lie sick mourn and cry to the Mother and she sit by it and not so much as cast an eye towards it enough to break the childes heart But Secondly In despising there is more and worse when their prayers are entertained with a distaste and displeasure expressing a manifest dislike against them and even that sometimes betides the prayers of Gods people so Asaph complained in the name of the whole Church How long Lord wilt thou bee angry with the prayer of thy people And this the Lord sometimes shews by bringing upon them the very thing which they pray against as if a Childe should beg pardon and then the Mother take it up and whip it when Retro omnia when all things goe crosse to their prayers when they ask bread and God gives them a stone Job found it so the very thing that he feared and prayed against came upon him Thus also it proved to Israel in Egypt when they cryed to God because of their burthens their burthens were increased upon them but in despising there is a third thing which is sadder then all this Thirdly Not onely silence or expressing some distast but doing this with scorn and indignation as he did to Miriam when he spit in her face so the Lord doth often seem at the prayers of his own people not onely to be angry but even with scorn to shut the doore against them This Heman felt Psal. 88. who cryed day and night before God when his Soule was full of trouble and yet then God vexed him and afflicted him with all his waves and seemed to abhorre and cast him off As a man would take an unwelcome guest by the head and shoulders and turn him out of doores and bolt them after him and thus the whole Church of God complains that she did cry to the Lord and complained of her sin and sorrow and the Lord then set her as a But to shoote his Arrows at and so also Job professed God did unto him not onely bolt the doore against his prayer but when he mourned and complained the Lord did then take his Arrowes of indignation and shoote at his very heart and gnashed his teeth upon him and so did
according to his will deferring of it is no denying of it if in the mean time while before God answer thee he vouchsafe to uphold thy heart by his Spirit as he did Davids Psal. 73. 22. I was as a beast before thee neverthelesse thou upholdest mee by thy right hand If he now and then dart in a beam of love which is as the fire from Heaven to assure thee thou art accepted if he stablish thee nay if he doe but draw thy heart out to continue to pray to him if he make thy Soule more humble and vile in thy own eyes if he more wean thee from the creature and train thee up to wait upon him truely friend it is ten thousand times better then all the time that thou spendest thou hast a large recompence in Gods doing thus much for thee this is to be preferred before thousands of gold and silver but I tell thee more not one of thy suites will be lost no they are all before God he reads them over every day and what thou hast been begging this seven years this twenty years he dayly remembers them and in his heart answers them all Whatever thou hast sown in tears thou shalt reap in joy be content though at present thou seest nothing but darknesse doe as Elia's servant did who went seven times to look for rain till the seventh time he saw nothing and then but a very little yet that little soon proved a great deale It may be thou shalt not see the answer a great while possibly not till thy death come Old Simeon a good gratious man had many years begged of God that he might see his Salvation yet he never got Christ in his arms till he was ready to depart the world then he got his full answer so it may be when thou comest to die thou shalt have hosts of answers stand round about thee nay peradventure the greatest returns of thy prayers shall be when thou art dead and rotten in thy grave what thou hast begged for Gods Church thy prayers shall produce it when thou art gone what thou hast begged for thy husband wife and children it may be God will give thee the greatest return of them when thou hast no being in this world and for thy self while thou livest when it may be thy heart is dull and thou art unfit for prayer and canst not pray the quickning prayers which thou didst offer up many years agoe God is then remembring them when peradventure thou fearest he is taking advantage of thy present dulnesse and distemper Therefore goe thy wayes on and waite upon him treasure up thy suits be it against corruption against temptation for thy Family for the Church waite Gods time the vision is for an appointed time it will come in the end that is certain every tear every sigh every short ejaculation is continually before him he hath a bottle for thy tears as well as a bag for wicked mens sins a treasury for thy prayers as well as for their blasphemies let his present answer be what it will beleeve any thing of him rather then a rejecting of the supplications of the poore who seek him in his Sonnes name hee hath promised it and is faithfull and cannot deny himselfe Another thing I observe from this circumstance the time when the time of regarding them is when he builds up Zion and that affords us another lesson as seasonable for this present auditory viz. That when the Lord doth build up his Church hee doth then answer all his afflicted peoples prayers Sometimes God will not be prayed to or if he doe his answer shall bee waite a while but when he builds up Zion then the Lord answers his peoples prayers then he sits in his Court of Request to heare petitions then he holds out his golden Scepter to every poore supplicant There are three things that God is laid in the Scripture to remember when he builds the Church Hee then remembers his enemies when the new Jerusalem comes downe from heaven then great Babylon comes into mind before God that she may be repaid then secondly God uses to remember his Covenant hee remembred for them his Covenant and thirdly then also doth God remember the prayers of his people and this God willing I shall make good to you for the truth of it you shall finde it fully expressed in the 29. of Jeremiah 10. 11. speaking of the time when he would bring them back to build the Temple then saith the Lord shall you call upon mee and I will answer you then it may be now he would not but then I 'le answer you then you shall seek mee with your whole heart and you shall find me so in the 25. of Isaiah in the day that God builds up his Church for that is the great promise of that Chapter the Prophet tells you that his people should then sing a song of praise whereof this is one part Loe this is our God we have waited for him loe this is our God and he hath saved us wee have waited that is we have prayed and attended his leisure now wee have an answer of all To make this lesson more cleare I shall indeavour to cleare these two things First when the Lord doth build up Zion he doth then remember the particular wants the particular requests which his Saints have offered up to him the Lord casts it so as to make Zions refreshing time concurrent with the relieving of the wants of his particular people that as in executing of vengeance when he is to execute vengeance upon a nation he will remember particular malefactors what they have done in their persons so when he comes to build up his Church hee remembers the particular fuites that his holy ones have offered up to him and of this I could give you many testimonies In that day he will let every prisoner out of prison he will binde up the wounds of every wounded soule he will make the blinde to see the lame to walk the deaf to hear In that day in the 31 of Jeremiah the Lord will satiate every weary soule and replenish every sorrowfull soule in that day when the Lord erects his new Jerusalem there shall be a tree of life the leaves of it shall heale the diseases of all the Nations In that day he gives strength to the needy in his distresse a shadow from the storm then he strengthens weak hands and confirmes feeble knees then every wildernesse is filled with pooles of water then Christ will powre out abundance of his Spirit as David at his Coronation remembred all his friends and dealt to all the people every one a bottle of Wine So the Lord at that day delights to make their personall comforts joyn with the publick and Common weale of his Church and Kingdome This is one way how this Doctrine is true that then the Lord regards the prayers of his people when he builds up
Die Mercurii April 30. 1645. ORdered by the Commons Assembled in Parliament that Sir William Massam do from this House give thanks to Mr. Marshall for the great paines hee took in the Sermon hee Preached this day at the intreaty of this House at St. Margarets Westminster it being the day of publique humiliation and to desire him to Print his Sermon And it is Ordered that none shall presume to Print his Sermon not being authorized under his hand-writing H. Elsynge Cler. Parl. D. Com. I appoint Stephen Bowtell to Print my Sermon Stephen Marshall THE STRONG HELPER OR The interest and power of the Prayers of the destitute for the building up of Sion Opened in A SERMON BEFORE The Honorable House of COMMONS Assembled in Parliament upon the solemn day of their Monethly Fast April 30. 1645. BY Stephen Marshall B.D. Minister of Gods Word at Finching-field in Essex JER. 29. 12. Then shall yee call upon me and yee shall goe and pray unto mee and I will hearken unto you PSAL. 10. 17. Lord thou hast heard the desire of the humble thou wilt prepare their heart thou wilt cause thy eare to hear LONDON Printed by Richard Cotes for Stephen Bowtell and are to be sold at the signe of the Bible in Popes-head Alley 1645. TO THE HONORABLE HOVSE OF COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT THE Lord that now makes it his great work to build up Zion and settle his Arke there in its place hath made it your great honour that hee hath taken you into a partnership in so blessed a work Hee make it your happinesse that your Faithfull indevours being crowned with a blessed successe both the present and after Ages may deservedly call you the Repairers of the breach and restorers of paths to dwell in It is pity such builders should want either fair weather or a sure Scaffold to build on but you will not be discouraged whilest you think how in great repaires all use to lie on heaps and remember what the ablest of Gods Master-builders in this kind have met with it is enough that Jerusalems Wall may be built in troubleous times God can lay the beams of his Chambers in the water and Faith can plant Sycamines in the Sea it was a confused Chaos without form and void full of darknesse which this goodly Fabrick of Heaven and Earth was at first made out of and there were Evenings as well as Mornings all along in the Work however it went on each day adding distinction and beauty and the last perfection so that God beheld all and saw it to bee very good It is the same creating God that must order our present confusions and raise up our ruines in which your humble and faithfull Prayers will be more usefull then your ablest Counsels Moses Elias our Saviour the great builders and repairers of the Church are every one of them recorded to have fasted forty daies and nights when they were upon that Worke it much commends Prayer and Fasting to all who are at any time ingaged in a like service that was your businesse when this Sermon was Preached which if either in the delivery it did any whit help your Spirits then in prayer or in the publishing it may now or hereafter ingage you when you most diligently look to your Work more earnestly to look up to God in it it will bee the joy as it is the prayer of Your Servant in this great Work STEPHEN MARSHALL A SERMON PREACHED To the Honorable House of COMMONS at their Monethly Fast Aprill 30. 1645. PSAL. 102. 17. Hee will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer I Began the handling of this portion of Scripture the last publique solemn Fast before the Honourable House of Peeres and I then shewed that these two Verses doe containe two such remarkable circumstances which alwayes accompany the building up of Zion as doe justly render it the most glorious and excellent work in all the world most worthy of all mens observation and admiration so that all the Kings and all the Nations might well stand amazed at it and it deserves to bee writen that all the Generations to come may praise God for it the first is that when ever the Lord doth build up Zion hee doth appeare in his glory hee never shews himself more like himself never more magnifies those excellent perfections of his Wisdom and Power and Mercy and Holinesse and Truth then hee doth when hee builds up his Church This I handled before that Honourable House the last day at large and now this Honourable House having commanded my poore labours to bee a furtherance of your humiliation and prayer that you may be the assistance of God be carryed on the better in your great work of helping the Lord in building the Church while like so many Nehemiahs you are building with the Trowell in one hand and the Sword in the other I could not think of any more fitter more suitable or seasonable Theame then to goe on to open the second Circumstance which accompanies the building up of Zion which you have in these words When the Lord doth build up Zion hee will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer All the prayers that his forlorn and desolate people had been offering up many yeeres before when it may bee they despaired of ever meeting with any comfortable return they should now finde their Jubilee they should now have a full crop of all their seed gathered in with joy when the Lord doth build up Zion hee regards his peoples Prayers The summe of the Text is A gratious promise of Gods hearing his peoples Prayers Hee will regard the prayers of the destitute or hee will turn to them or hee will looke upon them hee will behold them the meaning plainly is hee will grant them thus that is first positively laid down secondly it is also laid down negatively Hee will not despise them and in this negative there is another affirmation rather stronger then the former for when God is said not to despise the meaning is hee doth highly value it with God non spernere is magnifacere as An humble and a broken heart O God thou wilt not despise that is thou dost highly esteem it so also here however these poore afflicted ones had imagined because God had made them no return that hee did scorne them and their prayers hee would now let them to their comfort know that all their prayers lay before him and were very highly regarded by him They had sown in tears they must now reap in joy now they should finde that their prayers were like so many Talents put into Gods bank which they should receive into their bosome with advantage hee would no longer cause their heart to faint with deferring their hope hee would now regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer Which gracious promise of God to regard the prayers of
our Saviour Christ to the poore woman when she came and prayed Lord helpe mee thou Son of David helpe mee At first he seemed not to regard her would not answer the next time he stayed and when she had delivered her petition he called her Dog to her face enough to have cut the womans heart in peeces This is wofull indeed this cuts to the quick and comes near to one of the saddest judgements threatned against his enemies You shall call and I will not answer but will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh So you see the prayers of Gods own people may for a long time seem despised But then the second branch is That even then are they highly regarded and will bring a timely answer That they are so I might give you abundance of proofe David observed it in the 31 Psalme one time he prayed and God gave him such an answer that he thought himself despised I said saith he I am cast out of the sight of Gods eyes when he prayed God turned him out of his presence yet follows Neverthelesse thou heardest the voyce of my prayer when I called upon thee And so in Egypt how long did Gods people mourn there and their burthens increasing it is like they thought God had wholly rejected them yet God told Moses Exodus 3. I have heard the cry of my people in Egypt But this will abundantly clear it that the prayers of the afflicted are said to be upon Gods file before God Let these my prayers bee nigh unto the Lord night and day they lye leiger before God they are called a memoriall they are alwayes in his sight and he is therefore called in the Scripture The God hearing Prayer God hearing Prayer is one of his attributes hearing is a participle of the present tense as if you cannot speak to him under the notion of God but you must conceive him hearing prayer hearing the prayers of his people at all times he is said likewise to remember the prayers of his people to carry them in his minde to have them in his thoughts and which makes all more clear he hath promised not onely to heare but in the best time to answer them in an accepted time I have heard thee The Lord would thereby intimate that hearing is one thing and answering is another thing and there often is a distance between them but all that distance of time God is but consulting as it were of the fittest opportunity and the best way to answer the prayers of his people The examples are not to be numbred of the timely answer of such prayers David in the 22 Psalme in his owne name in the person of Christ in the name and person of the whole Church begins with a sad complaint O my God I cry in the day time but thou hearest not but in the same Psalm concludes as comfortably he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted neither hath he hid his face from him but when he cryed unto him he heard Abraham had long prayed for a sonne before any answer came yet when in all probability he had given over praying he received a full answer So did Zachary and Elizabeth Luk. 1. so did Cornelius Act. 10. and those slaughtered soules Rev. 6. who cryed How long Lord holy and true c. at last received a full returne The building of the Temple after the 70 yeares captivity was a work long on the wheele even the time of 7 Princes reigne yet the prayers for the accomplishment and perfecting of it were all answered and fulfilled in their season and came as God promises the returne of prayer shall be like the former and the latter raine in due season And you will grant that this is so and must be so that their prayers must be thus regarded if you consider but these five things which meet in them First when the afflicted people of God doe powre out their prayers to the Lord they doe that which he commands them to doe they have his expresse commandement to doe it Gall upon me in the day of trouble now that which Gods people do in obedience to his command cannot be despised by him it would reflect upon his honour if duties and performances of his owne will should not be regarded Secondly when the afflicted soule prayes Gods owne Spirit prayes in them for they know not how to pray as they ought but it is the Spirit of God in them that makes intercession and however the Lord might be thought to quench the spirit of his poore sinfull ones he will never quench his owne spirit he must needs regard that And thirdly when ever Gods people doe thus pray Jesus Christ intercedes for them as his Spirit makes intercession within them upon earth so Christ makes intercession for them in heaven Hee is the Angel of Gods presence and the Lord cannot but regard that which is presented unto him by the hand of one whom he alwayes loves And fourthly They themselves are very dear to God they are infinitely beloved even those despised ones he hath none in heaven or earth dearer to him then his afflicted ones are This argument Christ himself uses to assure them their Prayers will be regarded in the 16. of John You shall ask in my name said he and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you for the Father himself loveth you when you come to pray to him you come not as to an enemy and though I be your Mediator it is between you and a friend not between you and an enemy My Father loves you dearly we that are evill can give good things to our Children because we love them how much more will our heavenly Father doe it This argument our Saviour also presseth most sweetly in the parable of the unrighteous Judge who through importunity did right to a poore Widow and shall not God much more do it for his Elect ones his beloved ones And fifthly He hath ingaged himself by innumerable promises to the poor the desolate and the afflicted that they shall be answered by him Call upon me and I will answer thee in an accepted time I will answer thee many a time hath God engaged himselfe for it and he that commands his own servants if they look for his favour that they keep their promises though it be to their hinderance though it should be to an enemy certainly himself will never alter the thing the word that is come out of his mouth to them who are so dear to him as his Saints are and therefore their prayers must needs be before him But it may bee demanded Why then do they seem to be despised and why doth the Lord defer to answer them I Answer First God doth not alwayes defer them sometimes before they call hee doth
Zion But the second is the main Secondly The Lord doth then answer the prayers of his people when he builds up Zion because in truth the building up of Zion is the all in all of all his peoples prayers that is as Solomon saith Money answers all so whatsoever particular suites Gods people have offered up the building up of Zion hath been such a request that the answering of that answers all others whatsoever he denies them it skils not they have enough they are abundantly satisfyed they will clear all books and break all Tallies with God they will give in all other bills whatsoever if this be but done that this is so observe I beseech you wheresoever in the Scripture you read of the prayers of Gods people as by the way you shall hardly read of any godly man but you shall read of his prayer you will finde that the strain and the stream of all their prayers runs for Zion read Moses his prayers Joshuahs prayers goe on to David to Solomon to Ezra to Nehemiah and the severall Prophets read all their prayers and you shall finde that Zion is the bulk of them all In thy good pleasure doe good to Zion and though there are many particular suites to themselves yet what they beg to themselves is only begged as a means but when they beg for Zion they beg it as an end Thy Kingdome come to Gods people is next to Hallowed bee thy name It is more to them then all the rest of the Lords Prayer Give us our dayly bread Forgive us our trespasses Leade us not into temptation Deliver us from evill They are all inferiour to Thy Kingdome come the building up of Gods Church is that which hath swayed all with the Saints in all their prayers And it must be so it can be no otherwise with true godly men if you consider either the relation that the Church hath to God or that which they have to the Church First that of the Church to Christ it is his Love his Dove his Fair one his Spouse his Jewell that which he hath laid all his own glory upon one to whom he stands in all relations which argues intimative dearnesse and tendernesse what-ever is done to them is done to himself Yee did it to them therefore yee did it to mee The Churches cause is his Her rising is his glory her reproach is his dishonour Arise O Lord plead thy own cause remember how the foolish people reproach thee forget not the voyce of thy enemies when the Synagogues of the Church was pulled down when the Church was wasted And to themselves likewise it is their Mother in whose womb they have laine whose breasts they have sucked it is the Magazine wherein all their treasure is laid up a vessel wherein all their wealth sinkes and swims if the Church be safe they are safe and no thought of safety if it miscarry salva Ecclesia salva omnia as they were wont to say of Rome Salva Roma salva patria salva omnia so next unto God the Church is their all and therefore the building up of Zion the welfare of the Church of God must needs be the answer to all their prayers Give me leave to present you with a twofold Use of this Lesson and then I hasten to that which I chiefly intended First this Lesson may serve to every of you for one of the greatest discoveries of your owne spirits that can be whether in truth your hearts be right with God thinke how you could answer this one question Would the Lords building up of the Church the setling and establishing of Religion in purity and peace would that be to thy soule the answer of all thy prayers art thou able to say it before God Build but up Zion and I have enough No man under heaven can say it but a Saint and there is not a Saint upon earth but may say it I know it lies in the bottome of his soule But how shall we know it I le give you but one way of tryall If the welfare of Zion the building up of the Church be the summe of all thy prayers then it is likewise the summe of all thy endevours thy studies thy time thy wit thy parts thy interest what ever may be called thine are mainly laid out in promoving in helping forward the welfare of Zion This you shall finde cleare in the book of God that as all the prayers of Gods people run upon Zions welfare so now I say in the second place all the endevours of all that prayed for Zion run to help it forward Zion was the summe of all their prayers and of all their joyes and cares no joy to them like the joy they had in the prosperity of Zion when the Lord at any time turned back the captivity of his people they were like men that dreamed their mouth was filled with laughter and their tongue withjoy and no sorrow like that which was caused by the affictions of Jacob then they would even dye with griefe then they would name their children Ichabod then they would mourne and not be comforted and consequently all they had or could contribute was most readily afforded The Prophets and Apostles cold preach as well as pray and all their Sermons were for Zion Kings could plot project counsell c. as well as pray all their plots and projects were to build up Zion Souldiers could fight as well as pray all their warres were the warres of God Rich men could lay out money as well as pray all their wealth was a Sacrum to God a devoted thing to him when the Church needed it their penny went as willingly as their Pater noster other learned men if any man could write histories if any Poet could make songs all was laid our about the Church about furthering the welfare of it or if any were found among them who would professe love to it and joine in prayer for it yet mind their own affaires build their owne houses and let Gods house lye wast they are branded for degenerate hypocriticall ignoble spirits These were the Potters and those who dwelt among hedges there they dwelt with the King for his work a base people who would tarry in Babylon to get wealth and not go up with their brethren to build the house of God and even thus may we judge of our selves And therefore I say to you Honourable Senators that are Noble-men and Gentlemen engaged in this great work the present service you are called to if really you doe make the building of Zion to be the answer of your prayers it is the great Parliament project this day to settle the Church I know when Nehemiahs work was to build the walls of Hierusalem one halfe of his servants were faine to carry the Arms while the other built and many times those that built were faine to have a sword in one hand as well as a trowoll in the
rewarded abundantly I humbly commend this to your wisdoms and faithfulnesse God hath called you to this work it would be your great glory to have it done in your hands and it would not be for your honour to have it done by other hands but done it will be I assure you the Church will be reformed If you should altogether neglect it sit still and hold your peace or if you should make but a halfe worke of it a patched reformation help and deliverance will come from some other place No stone great enough could be laid in the mouth of Christs sepulchre to keep him from rising nor can any power prevent the building of Zion when the appointed time is come no not though all the Nations of the earth should be gathered together against it The remnant of Jacob shall bee as a dew from the Lord as the showers upon the grasse that tarryeth not for man nor waiteth for the Sons of men the work is upon the wheeles and there is one engine at work that will effect it if all others faile and that is the spirit of Prayer which what efficacy it hath for the building of Zion will appear in the last branch of my Text And that is the matter wherein God will regard their prayer When the Lord builds up Zion he will regard the prayer of the destitute that is hereby it shall appear that he regards their prayer because at their prayer he will doe it it shall be done as the fruit and effect of his peoples prayers which affords us this Doctrine That the Lord will have the building of Zion the reforming and repairing of the Church to bee the fruit of his peoples prayers this is the main scope then God regarded their Prayers when he makes all the world know that at their request and for their prayers sake he did now arise in glory to build up Zion the truth of this excellent lesson will appear even to a demonstration if you please but briefely to consider these three things First Gods Providences speak it so Secondly and so doe his Commands And Thirdly his Promises First His Providences speak it there are two Providences of God use to appear at the building of Zion which alone were sufficient to shew that Prayer is the great builder on our part that it is indeed all that we can doe God usually lets it come to such irrecoverable ruine that nothing we can do besides prayer is able to doe any thing that it may appear that on our part prayer doth all Nil nisi vota supersunt When all other Anchors are come home when all other Cables are brok when all other friends have forsaken and all props snapped apeeces that either prayer must doe it or they have nothing that is the time he ordinarily chuses to build up Zion as himself said Deut. 32. When hee saw their strength was gone there was none shut up or left who might be a helper then hee himself would judge his people and repent hâ—m for his servants So when they were as a woman with childe near the time of delivery the children come to the birth and no strength to bring forth not any in the earth to be a deliverer then they cry unto the Lord and he delivers them this is so plentifully to be found in the Scripture that I may forbear especially in these straights of time to produce particular instances Secondly The other providence is this That when God builds up Zion he then uses to powre out the Spirit of Prayer upon his people more then at any other times he then fils them with his Spirit which inclines their hearts to be vehement and earnest with him for that very thing Zephyrus vere flat this gale never blows so sweetly as at such times Jer. 29. Then you shall pray and I will answer In that day he powres out the Spirit of supplication and mourning upon all his people Then he makes all his people say with them Esa. 62. 1. For Zions sake I will not hold my peace and for Hierusalems sake I will not rest untill the righteousnesse thereof goe forth as brightnesse and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth And this is so sure a note of it that Gods people durst make Propheticall conclusions out of the Spirit of Prayer powred out as in this very Psalme The time to deliver her the set time is come How know you that Thy servants pity the dust of it thy servants are weeping and mourning before thee therefore the time of Zions deliverance is come take all the times of building the Church and you shall see that great builders have been great praying men Moses the great builder could fall down before God forty dayes and forty nights together David Solomon Elias Ezra Nehemiah all their prayers built more then their hands did Luther a mighty man in it and the Ministers who joyned with him indefatigable and potent in prayer yea the Spirit of Prayer uses to ebbe and flow in the Church according as God purposes to retard or hasten the work of the building of the Church insomuch as the Spirit of God drawing out the hearts of his people to doe that which he would have done doth Prophesie or foretell what God means to doe There uses to be such a concord and harmony between Gods secret purposes and his peoples Prayers their prayers as such expressions of his sacred will that they even seem to decree a thing by Prayer and God establishes it in Heaven the prayers of Gods people for the building of Zion is as a John Baptist before Christ only makes way for him as the Morning star which assures you the morning is at hand Now these two Providences Gods doing it at such a time as they have nothing left but prayer and this powring out the Spirit of prayer at that time do sufficiently tell us that God will have prayer to be the great Builder on our part Secondly His Commands speak it as plainly this is a good rule in Divinity Look whatsoever God Almighty commands us chiefely to doe in reference or relation to such a work that would he have us look upon as the great instrument on our part to effect it as when God commands us to beleeve for the forgivenesse of sins you may thence conclude that Faith is the great instrument of our Justification So when God commands us to attend upon the word for our Spirituall life for our comfort for our edification you may boldly conclude that the ministery of the Word is to be the great instrument of all these things And therefore because God above all that we can doe commands that his people should pray for the building of Zion you may conclude that he will have prayer the great instrument on their part for the building of it And God hath abundantly injoyned his people that they call upon him for it You shall
the noble Generall said at the first victory we obtained at Edge-hill That there was never any thing wherein there was lesse of man and more of God So in most of our businesses we may truely say Man hath failed and God hath helped that is prayer hath prevailed you have a good handsell a good encouragement to goe on Secondly And truely our extremities and difficulties are such which yet remaine to be conquered as can be overcome by nothing but prayer All your Learning Counsell Strength your Wisdome your Treasure and what ever else you have to contribute are not like to deliver us unlesse prayer bring God in for our helper You know the Kingdome is brought low and though we have a considerable strength both in the Armie the Citie and the Navie yet you know divided Kingdomes doe not stand and God hath for our sins brought this great judgment upon us that we are divided and subdivided into minutula frustula into the least bits of all in Church and State every where there are heart-burnings divisions among our selves and a potent enemy very vigilant to take advantage and many Malignants every where ready to blow up and encrease our distractions many mens estates undone and brought to poverty and beggery and if these bloudy wars continue ere long famine and desolation will come upon us beside all the guilt of our former and later provocations these all are visible before your eyes and all your helps are not like to doe it suddenly unlesse God come in unlesse prayers fetch him downe Therefore pray I beseech you Noble-men Gentle-women and all other pray pray follow the Lord and remember this is the Strong helper which must save or we perish we have as much need of prayer as ever we had therefore you who are the Lords remembrancers and have his eare ply the Throne of grace diligently let not your heart grow sluggish remember what the Prophet said unto the King who smote with the arrows three times and then stayed Thou shouldest have smitten five or sixe times and then thou shouldest utterly have smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it Say thou so to thy owne heart Thou shouldst in these dayes have prayed 10000 times more then thou hast done go on now with it humbly spread our sad condition before him plead with him daily thou canst not want arguments tell him it is his owne cause we are engaged by him and for him tell him how long and how much his people have suffered under their oppressors and how violently they rise up still to spoile all that there are abundance of his Saints engaged in this work and they will never give him rest till he have set up Jerusalem to be a praise upon the whole earth and when the unworthinesse of the Kingdome comes in and objects against us that we are a sinfull wretched Kingdome fit to be destroyed you may still find answers and arguments enow in Gods grace and favour He hath begun to build and surely he will not be like the foolish builder that begun and then gave over he himselfe blames them who goe about a work and not goe through with it tell him we will give him all the glory of it and serve him better if he will give us grace that if our enemies prevaile it will be worse with his people then ever his name will be more dishonoured then ever Thus follow him with a mourning heart a melting eye do it constantly doe it daily I confesse these monethly Fasts are grown to a most wretched formality in many places the Lord of heaven teach us how we may be more quickned in this great work of prayer and let every one who hath any interest in heaven remember Bradfords usuall Motto and exhortation Pray pray pray But before I dismisse you I must put in this caution You must not thinke every man and every prayer will be thus effectuall Alas no here are it may be three or foure thousand people at Church God onely knowes whether every fourth man hath a praying Spirit It is not every man who will pretend to pray whom God will accept When they fast saith God of the wicked Israelites Jeremy chap. 4. I will not heare their cry when they offer an oblation I will not accept them but I will consume them Doe not I beseech you thinke that the prayers of Blasphemers and Drunkards and Whore-masters and Scorners of God and Religion of those that pretend to be for him and are against him doe not I say imagine that God will regard such as these are though they cry Arise and save us I will not say to these men Pray not but I will say to them as Peter did to Simon Magus Pray if it may be possible that the thoughts of thy heart may be forgiven thee for thou art in the gall of bitternesse but be you assured that these mens prayers will not come into the shot of those that shall build Gods Church or deliver us No no the Philosopher could teach thus much who when they were at Sea in a Tempest and all went to their prayers and among the rest a profligate wicked wretch amongst them went to his prayers the Philosopher called to him Hold thy peace lest the Gods heare thee and drown us all for thy sake He who would be one of this number whose prayers shall come before God must be acquainted with God Acquaint thy selfe with God be at peace with him then thou shalt make thy prayer to him and he shall heare thee but these men have no acquaintance with him he will say to them as the evill Spirit said to the sonnes of Sceva Paul I know but who are ye so the Lord will say Prayer I know but what are ye Doe you whore and drinke and sweare and lye and abuse my Name and Ordinances and think you of praying No no beloved these are not the people beleeve it they are not they are the prayers of his Saints and of his Saints onely which he regards And then secondly as it is not every man so it is not every prayer will doe it I know it may be a weak prayer a prayer where there may be very weak utterance weak gifts and weak judgement and memory yet it may be accepted God knowes how to interpret the meaning of his owne Spirit in them but they must not be dead prayers livelesse formall slight perfunctory customary prayers not the saying over of prayer as if a Lesson were onely read out of a book without spirit understanding devotion but prayer must be prayer it must be the pouring out the soule it must be fervent prayer it must be humble prayer it must be from a pure heart and faith unfained it must be prayer offered up in the name of Christ in the strength of the Covenant of grace these things must at least be aimed at and endevoured in prevailing prayers These things deserve