of the Sea-bestormed Psa 107. yea out of this universal commiserativeness God is said to hear the cry of brute beasts as of the young Lions of the young Ravens nay to hear inanimate Creatures as the Heavens the Earth the Corn Wine and Oyl Thus it comes to pass that many times very wicked men have their desires and prayers in temporals granted them The Lord took notice of Ahabs humbling himself upon Elijahs reproof and denunciations and because of it he said 1 King 21 29 He would not bring the evil upon his house in his days Wicked Jehoahaz delivered of God into the hands of the Syrian Kings 2 King 13 4 5 He besought the Lord and the Lord harkened unto him and the Lord gave Israel a Saviour so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians Israel in the Psalmist when they under his Judgments sought God and returned and enquired early after God though it was but in flattery and hypocrisie Psa 78.34 Yet he being full of compassion forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not 2. God appeareth to prayer out of that favor which is special and more peculiar he heareth the faithful seekers of him his own children from a neerer impulsive out of a dearer respect and consideration which he beareth towards their persons out of a federal and fatherly love and he embraceth their prayers not only out of a general but out of a special benevolence nor meerly with benevolence but with complacency and acceptation their prayers are as sweet as incense to him To the dwellers in Zion the Prophet saith Isai 30.19 He will be very gracious unto thee at the voyce of thy cry These are the different grounds of Gods hearing prayer Secondly For Gods hiding from prayer he doth it also upon the like different grounds 1. It is some yea most times out of wrath and that is either 1. Judicial or a wrath of loathing and hatred a full pure unallayed anger such he bears to carnal wicked men and to their prayers Zech. 7.12 13 as it is in the Prophet Therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of Hoasts therefore it came to pass that as he cryed and they would not hear so they cryed and I would not hear saith the Lord of Hoasts 2. Or Paternal and Conjugal the wrath of a Father or Husband a wrath tempered with and in time overcome and swallowed up of love intimate and peculiar love a wrath joyned to bowels of mercy such is that in the Prophet Isai 57.17 18 For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth and smote him I hid me and was wroth c. I have seen his ways and will heal him I will lead him also and restore comforts to him and to his mourners Such a wrath as is again exprest by the Lord in the same Prophet In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment Isai 59.8 but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer Mark well the great difference of this wrath from that which is against others it is the present wrath of a provoked Husband against an offending Wife by which she is widowed cast off and so barren and desolate in her prayers for a time for so are the words before The Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit and a wife of youth when thou wast refused saith thy God Again it is a little wrath and but for a moment and a small moment The sum is it is a moderated anger mixed with a dear relation and band of affection to them and it is a short and quickly cooled and forgotten wrath 2. This hiding from prayer is sometimes out of mercy yea it may be in special favor and the favor in withholding may be greater then it would have been to have granted the thing prayed for It may seem otherwise but the very truth is God doth sometimes deny his peoples prayers in indulgence and mercy to them they not seldom are set upon that which would be hurtful for them and ask the things which would be very bad for them to have in this case the want of their desires is better then the grant and God consulteth their good sheweth them favor in withholding their wishes from them Rachel was excessively bent to have children Give me children saith she or else I dye Well at length she had her longing but what came of it she dyed of child-bearing her second child was her Benoni the son of her sorrow so named by her self he was her bane and death As God giveth sometimes in anger so he withdraweth and denyeth sometimes in good-will and love As the natural father will give none but good gifts to his children he will not give his son a stone a Serpent a Scorpion for Bread for a Fish for an Egg So neither will our heavenly Father If the natural father will not exchange good petitions into bad gifts much more will our heavenly Father suspend bad Petitions or exchange them into good gifts * Deus quaedam negat propitius quae concedit iratus August Fideliter supplicans Deo pro necessitatibus hujus vitae misericorditer auditur misericorditer non auditur Quid enim infirmo sit utile magis novit medicus quam aegrotus August apud Aquin 22. qu. 83. art 15. Quid enim ratione timemus aut cupimus Quid tam dextro pede concipis ut te conatus non paeniteat voâ—â—que peracti evertere domos totas optantibus ipsis dii faciles nocitura toga nocitura petuntur militia Juvenal Saty. 10. Mr Goodwin Return of Prayer Chap. 9. Sect. 3. A worthy Author saith Oftentimes some great cross is prevented by the denyal of a thing which we were urgent for if we had had many of our desires we had been undone So it was a mercy to David that his child was taken away for whose life he was yet so earnest who would have been but a living monument of his shame SECT IV. The Answer to the Query summarily recollected and formed I Have finished the main tractation of the Query propounded in the Explication of the several terms or clauses and have shewed the difference to be noted among them that are stiled the people of God how Prayers are to be grounded both upon Precepts and Promises and the divers ways in which and grounds upon which God doth appear to or hide himself from Prayers I shall now only gather up all into a few Corollaries or summary Propositions fitted by way of Answer to the Query The Question was How or in what sense God may be said to hide himself from his peoples Prayers grounded upon his Promises and seem by his Providences to answer the Prayers which are contrary thereunto I answer 1. They that are the people of God by name outward call profession communion and form of godliness God may hide himself from their
please him to enable me to speak both of him the thing that is right and to men to his servants that which may be sound and satisfying The Question propounded affordeth matter for four Queries or it offereth four things to be distinctly considered and resolved 1. Whether there be any Example of this vis Gods hiding himself from his peoples prayers grounded upon his Promises and his seeming by his Providences to answer the prayers which are contrary thereunto 2. How or in what sence God may be said so to do 3. What may be the Reason of his so doing 4. What Vse should be made of it CHAP. II. THe first Query answered viz. Whether Gods hiding himself from his peoples prayers grounded upon his Promises and seeming by his Providences to answer the prayers which are contrary thereunto can be parallel'd with any Example SECT I. The Question affirmed and divided into Parts THis first Query is to be answered Affirmatively It is a thing that may be Exemplified there is no new thing in it Yea we are not without many Presidents of it going before us In producing the Examples required I will divide the matter to be patterned into its two Parts and shew the Examples 1. Of Gods hiding himself from his peoples prayers grounded upon his Promises 2. Of his seeming by his Providences to answer the prayers which are contrary thereunto SECT II. Examples of Gods Hiding himself from his Peoples Prayers FIrst Of the former viz. Gods hiding himself from his peoples prayers grounded upon his Promises there is great store of notable Examples of this I will set them down in this order 1. The Acknowledgments or Complaints of this in the mouths of the people of God 2. The Declarations of God himself to this purpose 3. Historical Observations of the thing I. First Of this the Saints or people of God have made their Acknowledgment or Complaint in Scripture And this is observable 1. Either of the prayers of particular persons 2. Or of the prayers of the Community or multitude of Gods people that is of the Church First For Personal Prayers Single persons have found themselves in this condition And this may be noted touching their prayers 1. For others 2. For themselves 3. For Gods own Cause 1. Let us hear their Testimonies in relation to their prayers for others Holy David telleth us He clothed himself with sackcloth Psa 35 13 and humbled his Soul with fasting for his Enemies and Persecutors Saul and his party and his prayer returned into his own bosom that is it proved ineffectual as for them He also solemnly fasted and besought God for his sick child but it availed not on the seventh day the child dyed Moses prayed earnestly for them of Israel who had set up and worshiped the golden Calf Yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin and if not blot me I pray thee out of thy Book Exod. 32.32 33 34 35. which thou hast written But what answer had he to this pathetick prayer And the Lord said unto Moses Whosoever hath sinned against me him will I blot out of my Book therefore now go lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee behold mine Angel shall go before thee Nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them And the Lord plagued the people because they made the Calf which Aaron made The Prophet Isaiah professeth his uncessantness in prayer for Zions and Jerusalems glorious Restauration For Zions sake will I not hold my peace and for Jerusalems sake I will not rest Isai 62.1 6 7. 63.11 15. 64.7 until the Righteousness thereof go forth as brightness and the Salvation thereof as a Lamp that burneth And he enjoyneth the same instancy in prayer to all other praying persons Ye that make mention of the Lord keep not silence and give him no rest till he establish and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the Earth Yet in the two following Chapters he in his own and their persons expostulateth and bemoaneth the Lords withdrawing and withholding himself from them and his people notwithstanding their prayers Where is he that brought them up out of the Sea with the Shepherd of his flock where is he that put his holy Spirit within him where is thy zeal and thy strength the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies towards me are they restrained And this his hiding himself is set out to be so dismal and long that they were even grown weary of prayer And there is none that calleth upon thy Name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee for thou hast hid thy face from us and hast consumed us because of our iniquities The Prophet Jeremiah prayeth most tenderly for Judah and Zion Jer. 14.19 21. 15.1 Hast thou utterly rejected Judah hath thy Soul lothed Zion Why hast thou smitten us and there is no healing for us We looked for peace but there is no good and for the time of healing and behold trouble Do not abhor us for thy Names sake do not disgrace the throne of thy glory remember break not thy Covenant with us c. And what is the Lords return unto this Then said the Lord unto me Though Moses and Samuel stood before me yet my mind could not be toward this people cast them out of my sight and let them go forth King Josiah upon his hearing read the words of the Book of the Law and understanding by it the great wrath of the Lord which was kindled against him and his people 2 K ng 23.25 26. he besought the Lord with extraordinary humiliation zeal and diligence His heart was tender he humbled himself before the Lord he rent his clothes and wept before God he sent to enquire of the Lord for himself and all Judah by the Prophetess Hâ—ld ah e assembled the people published the Book of the Law made and imposed on the people a Covenant before the Lord to yield obedience to it He rooted up Idolatry and Sorcery He restored the Temple and true Worship of God He was in all these a peerless King Like unto him was there no King before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might according to all the Law of Moses neither after him arose there any like him But all this would not appease Gods anger nor avert his Judgments unto desolation from Judah Notwithstanding the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah c. The Prophet Habakkuk gives us to understand how speedless he was in prayer beginning his Prophesie with this complaint unto God Hab. 1.2 O Lord how long shall I cry and thou wilt not hear even cry out unto thee of violence and thou wilt not save And going yet a second time unto God by prayer in expectation and hope of a better answer I will
and Reason in some sort by which he walks towards them In our present distractions and obscurities although we have not a Samuel now as Israel once had in their Assembly at Gilgal to say to us by immediate and extraordinary commission from God as he then to them 1 Sam. 12 7 Stand still that I may reason with you of all the righteous acts of the Lord by shewing us as he did to them what great things God had done from time to time for us and what evil returns we have made to him and what therefore he hath done against us and what the causes of his so doing have been in particular and to confirm his disceptation by a miraculous sign from Heaven that might enforce our confession as did Samuel upon Israel Luk. 16.29 Yet we have Moses and the Prophets to hear Isai 8.20 we have the Law and the Testimony to repair to 2 Pet. 1 12. we have that more sure word of Prophecy whereunto to take heed we have the holy Scriptures 2 Tim. 3.15 which are able to make us wise unto Salvation to furnish us This is the means by which God now layeth forth his ways and the grounds of them so far as he sees good to reveal them to us In the written Word of God there are divine Declarations that for such and such causes God will hide himself from prayers There are Histories and Narrations of times and cases wherein and of persons from whom and of reasons for which God hath withdrawn himself There are also Recognitions and acknowledgments of men both that such hath been the proceeding of God towards them or others and wherefore it hath been and of all those and all other Scripture Declarations Histories and Acknowledgments Rom 15 4 it is said Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning These things were our examples All these things happened to them for ensamples 1 Cor. 10.6 11 and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come The proper and direct end of the putting of these upon divine Record clearly was that as Urim Lots and Prophets speaking with lively voyce were to them of former ages unto whom they were afforded in stead of Scripture so the Scripture now should be to us in stead of Urim Lots and Prophets speaking and that those things which were once delivered by inspiration to some persons and on particular occasions should still retain an infallible Authority and an express voyce to give information generally unto all and in every case But to understand God speaking to us in his Word Among those many Reasons which Scripture layeth down of Gods hiding in this behalf to discern which of them more specially belongs to our case this is a matter of some skill and indeed herein lies the knot of the enquiry We are apt as in other so in this particular to misapply to take hold on that in Scripture which fits not us and to pass over that which appertaineth to us to catch at that which speaks not and to be deaf to that which doth speak to us Any better course for the seting of us right in this regard I cannot think of then that of the Psalmist in the 73 Psalm when he was come to a loss in his enquiry the which was somewhat alyed to this of ours when he thought to know the thing and it was too painful for him he went into the Sanctuary of God and there he understood the bottom of his query This way if well followed and practised may also stand us in good stead in the search in hand That entering into the Sanctuary of God and approach unto God therein is of such avail David will inform us elsewhere Thy way O God is in the Sanctuary And again They have seen thy goings Psa 77 13 68 24 O God even the goings of my God my King in the Sanctuary The proceedings of God toward his people with all that concerning them is requisite to be understood are to be learned in his Sanctuary for this reason it may be that it is called the place of his feet Isai 60.13 Ezek. 43.7 and the place of the soles of his feet that is the place where the tracts or prints of his feet may be found out so far as they are knowable Hence it is that whereas David makes this one thing among many and above others which he had desired of the Lord and would seek after Psal 27.4 to wit that he might dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life his end in it was to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple Let us therefore consider a little what this entering into the Sanctuary of God may mean or what it may import to us There were three constant and principal errands or occasions for which the people of God were to go into the Sanctuary of God 1. For Attonement or Reconciliation with God by sacrifice 2. For Prayer 3. For Instruction in the written Word of God What the moral of these is to us will be easily gathered Would we then be helped at this loss or stop Would we hear and understand what God the Lord speaks to us out of his Word Would we take out of it that portion which properly belongs to us Would we have the Book of God to open as it were in the fit place Luke 4.17 Augustin Confess l. 8. c. 12. as sometimes it did to our Saviour and as it is reported to have done once to holy Augustine Let us enter into the Sanctuary of God that is put in practise these three things 1. Seek we Peace and Reconciliation with God in the pardon of our sins through that one only real and sufficient Sacrifice of Christs Death The Lord promiseth Israel that at the door of the Tabernacle where the continual burnt-offering was offered up upon the Altar Exod. 29.42 43. there he would meet with them and he would speak there unto them David in the 51 Psalm that his penitential Psalm earnestly seeking unto God for pardon of sin doth therewithall promise to himself that in the hidden part God should make him to know wisdom yea in that measure to know it that he should be able to teach others the ways of God And Psal 25.4 5 7 11. in another Psalm petitioning God to shew him his ways to teach him his paths and lead him in his truth he annexeth as in order thereunto his requests that the Lord would not remember the sins of his youth nor his transgressions and that he would for his Names sake pardon his iniquity It may be observed that in the day of the Prophet Daniels solemn humiliation and prayer Dan. 9 19 c. and in the close thereof immediately as it seems upon those words of his O Lord hear O Lord forgive c. the man Gabriel came to him and
odors Their sweet odors were an emblem of prayer and the time of their Incense-offering was their time of prayer * Psa 141 2 Luk. 1.10 so that it is as much as if he had said I will not accept your prayers This the Prophet Daniel renders as the reason of the accomplishing of the seventy years captivity and of the Lords hiding so long in that particular from his people and their prayers All this evil is come upon us Dan. 9.13 yet made we not our prayers before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities The people before and all along during the captivity did pray as I have before noted but they did not so pray as withall to turn from their iniquities and therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil saith he in the next words or as some render Therefore hath the Lord been diligent Rolloc in loc and persevering in that evil which he hath brought upon us that is therefore he hath gone on in judgment against us and would not be entreated We may note it in all experience a course of prayer and a course of sin cannot stand together I mean they cannot both stand in force together but either prayer will beat down sin or sin will keep down and enervate prayer neither do they ordinarily stand together for any time in regard of practice but either prayer will break off the course of sin or sin will break off the custom of prayer What the Apostle saith of the Spirit and the flesh that they mutually lust against one another Gal. 5.17 the same may be said of prayer and sin they combate and conflict each against other and that until the one be brought down We have thus seen what sins in special are causes of Gods hiding from prayers and we have had them distinguished in three ranks namely sins against piety sins against the second Table and sins in or about prayer and under each of these have been mustered up divers particulars The fourth thing propounded to consideration was certain circumstances in sin which help forward this effect and move God the rather to it These are 1. Incorrigibleness in sin or a going on in sin notwithstanding and in contradiction unto special means applyed for reformation as when the Word of the Lord is sent out and published unto a person or people for a direct conviction and rebuke of the sin or sins committed and lived in and for the calling of men to repentance of and recovery from them or when the Judgments of God have come and lien upon men personally domestically or nationally in any kind as a witness against and correction for the sin or any other means hath been used and yet nevertheless men persist and obstinately persevere in their evil ways This was Israels and Judahs aggravation of their sin and it added weight to and furthered the Lords hiding from their prayers But they refused to harken Zech. 7.11 12 13. and pulled away the shoulder and stopped their ears that they should not hear yea they made their hearts as an adamant stone lest they should hear the Law and the words which the Lord of Hoasts hath sent in his Spirit by the former Prophets Therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of Hoasts Therefore it came to pass that as he cryed and they would not hear so they cryed and I would not hear saith the Lord of Hoasts When the Lord declared to Israel Hos 5.15 by the Prophet Hosea that he would go and return to his place that is that he would withdraw his presence and audience to a great distance from them this was one thing which brought it on They have done so and so Verse 2. though I have been a rebuker of them all And the same is alledged against that people in the Prophet Isaiah as concurring to this effect I hid me Isai 57.17 and was wroth and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart or as the late Annotations because he went on frowardly Divines Annot. 2 Edit c. And so their froward and obstinate running on in their sin was not the consequent but the antecedent and reason why God was wroth and being angry hid himself from them 2. Presumption or an adventuring to do an act or run a course against the express and particular prohibition or warning of God by his Messengers against the doing thereof As when Israel in the wilderness would needs go up to fight with the Amorites Moses relating it to them afterward saith And the Lord said unto me Say unto them Go not up neither fight Deut. 1 42 c. for I am not among you lest ye be smitten before your enemies So I spake unto you and ye would not hear but rebelled against the Commandment of the Lord and went presumptuously up into the hill c. and ye returned and wept before the Lord but the Lord would not harken to your voyce nor give ear unto you 3. Scandalous sinning David when the Lord had struck the child that Vriahs wife bare unto him with sickness besought God for the child and fasted and lay all night upon the Earth but nevertheless the child dyed and the special reason why the Lord was so inexorable to him in this particular Nathan the Prophet had before given him Howbeit because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the child also that is born unto thee shall surely dye * David was not heard because it stood not with the rule of divine justice that so scandalous a sin which made the enemies of God to blaspheme should not have an exemplary punishment Mr Mede Diatrib part 2 pag. 298. Those sins of the people of God which do open the mouths of the professed Adversaries of Religion to reproach the Name of God are more then ordinarily obstructive of prayer It is time for God upon the remittance of such by them to manifest his special dis-favour in such an effect that so he may vindicate that Name of his which his people call upon from the aspersion of their sin As God upon this ground refused to hear David so did he for the like cause deny the petition of another as eminent for nearness to and favor with him as he to wit Moses He besought the Lord very pathetically for leave to go into and see the Land of Canaan but the Lord would not harken unto him in it but he must dye beyond Jordan and what was the reason the Lord tells it Aaron and him Because ye beleeved me not Numb 20.12 27.14 to sanctifie me in the eyes of the children of Israel By his sin at the waters of strife a scandal was given unto the people reflecting upon God himself and therefore when mention is afterward made of this sin and the sentence of God upon it as it is often noted in the sacred
sins that are before the face of God and set in the light of his countenance as a vail of separation shutting out our prayers from him we put behind our backs or with Achan hide in the bottom of our Tent and some of them are justified and entitled to divine approbation and patronage Evil is called good and darkness light Isai 5.20 and bitter sweet We pray yet the heart is unhumbled All the weight of sins the woes of wrath and judgment the want of our desires and prayers break not the heart After the threefold captivity of Judah by the Babylonian Jer. 44.10 the Lord complains of those that were left They are not humbled even to this day After the treble Civil War which this Land within these few years hath been enflamed with it is in like manner with us We are not humbled even to this day nay we are more unhumbled and hardened at this day then at the first We pray but our devotion is formal and remiss We have prayed and fasted as we think long but how so long indeed that we appear tired out with it The longer we have continued the fainter and colder we have been about it until at last we have given it over in regard of constancy in publique and that pretendingly upon this very ground of weariness and formality as if that were a just reason to desist which is our sin and as if discontinuance were not as great a sin or greater and as much or more impedimental of prayer as remissness and formality and as if constancy and assiduity in prayer were the cause per se and justly chargeable with that slackness or the regular way to cure the ill habit and bad consequents of Customariness in a necessary duty were disuse Job 17.10 Job saith Will the Hypocrite always call upon God We say constancy in fasting and prayer is the breeder of Hypocrisie and unconstancy the remedy We pray but it may be feared we seek our selves in it and not God our ends are carnal and not spiritual James 4 3 Hos 7.14 we ask for our lusts not for our Souls we assemble for corn and wine not for the glory and service of God If our ayms in prayer may be judged by our other endevors we minde not the Kingdom of God or the advancement of Religion in the first or in any place for what do we act for them Our own wills our own interests our own quarrels are the attractive of our eyes We look at our own things and it is well if not with Jezebel in her Fast at Naboths Vineyard We pray but is it in mutual charity and forgiveness or in contention and strife We pray in relation one to another but is it for or against one another If irremission of quarrels and wrongs do lock up the gates of Heaven against prayers who can wonder that the prayers of England stand without doors Here are contentions numberless endless irreligious unpolitique irrational bloody fundamental and ruining and without all doubt as the subjects of these contentions are the subject of mens prayers so the affections that stir up and carry on those quarrels do move and act in their prayers There is scarce any union or agreement among us in any thing positive that which is betwixt any party seems rather to consist in a joynt-differing from and opposing others which is the union of Hell then in a conjunction or concuâ—rence in any positive truth or practice and though some mens judgments and ends do meet in some things yet the variance that is betwixt them in other things or the quarrel they are together engaged in against a third party deprives them of or disturbeth that sweet union and complacency which they should have in their concurrent practice and fruition of that wherein they agree Well it is Isai 58.4 if men do not now fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness For my part I will here deal plainly I admire that the subject of publique Fasts should constantly be matter of civil interest and such things as they that do most attend fasting and prayer do mainly differ in and that the not publishing of those Fasts should be matter of snare and penalty to Ministers and they that will not come publickly to hear the Word to worship or call upon God either on those or the Lords own days should be left free And is it now come to this That whereas ere-while coercive proceedings might be only in civil matters and in things of conscience as they speak or of Religion there might be no compulsion now what man commands in point of Religion the indicting or proclaiming of a Fast to be kept on such a day may be under a pain but what God himself commands to wit the actions themselves of fasting prayer preaching and hearing must be arbitrary * If it be said the publication of a fast is no act of Religion but a civil action only introductory thereto it is of the same nature with that of a mans travelling from his home unto the publique Assembly and his placing himself and continuing there during the publique worship these actions are but introductory to performances why may not then these be commanded under a pain as well as that or both be left free We pray but we reform not The gap lies down the hedg lies open betwixt divine wrath and us while we continue irreformed Prayers and tears alone will never make up that breach It is to trust in lying words for men to enter in at the gates of the Lords house Jer. 7.2 c. there to worship sacrifice fast and pray and to say The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord without through amendment of their ways and doings It is to make God a Patron of Thieves Murderers Adulterers Perjurers and Idolaters and his House a den of such Reformation beginneth at the House of God so hath it been proceeded in by all the eminent and exemplary Reformers that ever have been Our Saviour Christ whose coming and publishing the Gospel was the time of Reformation the first thing we find enterprised by him at his first entrance into Jerusalem Heb. 9.10 Joh. 2.14 c. was his driving out of the Temple with a scourge the Profaners of it and purging his Fathers house Let persons in Authority suffer in the house of God emptiness separation disorder error and profanation and it shall be bootless for them to set upon life-reformation in so proceeding as they are preposterous in the undertaking so they will prove unprosperous in the effecting of a Reformation The Lord saith to Israel Hos 4.13 14 because they went a whoring from their God by Irreligion and Idolatry Therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom and your spouses shall commit adultery I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom nor your spouses when they commit adultery * I
of other sins 3. Which God more apparantly manifests himself against and strikes at in his cross providences 4. Which our Consciences must take to or reflect on by way of charge if not upon our selves yet at least upon one another 5. Which the evil under present consideration reflecteth on by way of proportion These are the tokens by which as I suppose the sins which are predominant in this effect may be discerned 2. Now which are they unto what sins do these tokens more eminently agree According to these characters or any other rule I have to go by and upon the most considerate and impartial survey that I can take of the visible state and ways of this Nation the sins that among the whole herd appear to me as Saul did among the people higher by head and shoulders then any of the rest that is to be the leading and master-sins as to the pulling down of other judgments so in special to the procurement of this are these two 1. The gross disesteem contempt and rejection of the holy Word and glorious Gospel of the blessed God 2. The high and dear esteem advancement and love of a worldly-private-interest These two are Englands sins and if I much mistake not they are the predominant sins in the obstruction of the prayers of or for England For the making good of this charge much needs not be said who can doubt of it in relation to either of them Let me speak a little of them severally and under that double charge 1. That they are Englands sins 2. That they are the reigning sins of England and therefore of chiefest influence in the hindrance of prayers First For the contempt and rejection of the Word of God and Gospel of Christ And of it 1. That it is Englands sin 2. That it is Englands master sin 1. The contempt and rejection of the Word and Gospel of God is Englands sin this is too apparent We of this Nation are of this guilty all manner of ways and in the greatest height Scarce ever any people have enjoyed the Gospel so freely so generally so plentifully and so long as we neither hath ever any more vilely despised and rejected it Israels or Judahs contempt of the Word of the Lord in the worst and corruptest times even when the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers 2 Chro. 36 15 16 rising betimes and sending but they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no remedy was not above ours at this day but is rather exceeded and outstripped by us both in regard of the more excellent manner of the Lords sending and speaking to us now then he used then to wit Heb. 1.1 2 by his own Son and his Prophetical Office and in respect of the higher measure of scorn disdain and abuse we cast upon Christs Word and Ministry The Jewish rejection of Christ and his Gospel when he lived and preached personally among them was not beyond ours of this age and Nation Mat. 11.20 c. Was Chorazin's Bethsaida's and Capernaums impenitency ever a whit more inveterate or upbraidable then is ours As it was said in the Parable of Dives his Brethren They have Moses and the Prophets Luk. 16.29 so it may be said of us We have Christ and his Apostles He who is greater then Jonah greater then Solomon is here in his Administrations and that in those Ordinances which they had not with us And as they of that generation repented not at the presence and preaching of Christ and his Apostles so neither do we Mat. 21 33 22.2.23.37 Have not we had the Kingdom of God as a planted and manured vineyard let out to us and have not we as reproachfully denyed to render the fruits thereof in their seasons as violently handled the servants of Christ sent to us to demand them as did the Jews We are those whom the King of Heaven hath bidden and called to the marriage of his Son Luk. 19.42 and we have made light of and refused the invitation and have spitefully entreated his servants sent to bring us to it We have had as tender and frequent calls and offers to be gathered shrouded and cherished under the wings of Christ as Jerusalem had and have as obstinately as they denyed it We have as wittingly and wilfully shut our eyes upon the things which belong unto our peace and against the day of our visitation as ever did they Were the Apostles and Ministers of Christ after Christs departing from them to Heaven and sending them forth to all Nations disobeyed derided envyed slandered contradicted and persecuted with threats accusations bonds banishments and death and have not the Ministers of Christ been so done unto with us Was the Apostle Pauls calling more questioned his Ministry more basely accounted of his Office more presumptuously and unwarrantably usurped by the Corinthians or their novel Teachers then now is the same Ministry The Galatians did not more vilely desert the Gospel nor more strangely change their respects towards and fall to quarrel at the Apostle Paul that brought it to them then men do now adays grow weary of and cast off that Gospel and turn to grudg at and emulate the true preachers thereof The Apostle foresaw that the time would come that men would not endure sound Doctrine but would after their own lusts heap to themselves Teachers having itching ears and would turn away their ears from the Truth and would be turned unto Fables And do not we see these things now fulfilled and acted before our eyes The Apostles Peter and Jude discovered in their time some in the Christian Church that turned from the holy Commandment delivered unto them and in stead thereof betook themselves to the wanton and impure lusts and ways of the flesh and became scoffers and mockers of the doctrine and hope of the Gospel And have not we many of this stamp multitudes of worldly and sensual Libertines multitudes of profane Atheistical Deriders of holiness and strictness and of the reward thereof These things in the Apostles days were but in the bud they are now with us grown ripe and rotten Once more Those sharp rebukes which our Lord Jesus sent unto the several Angels and Churches of Asia and in particular those unto the Churches of Ephesus Sardis and Laodicea for their falling away from their first love and life and for their loathsom cooling in their respect to the Word and Name of Christ do fall fully and heavily upon us Yea all those aforecited instances do cast back their faces upon us as their exact followers yea as their over-passers and justifiers and all the menaces and woes which are by the Holy Ghost denounced against them respectively do sadly declare against us * See Mat. 11.22 24 12.45 21.43 44 22.7 23.38 39 Luke 19.43.44.23 29 30 31 2 Thes
we have it These are our scarlet crimson sins which we have to be removed as the causes of the putting back or suspense of our prayers and which are therefore to be throughly repented of and purged away that our prayers may take effect And let me perswade to and prevail in it in the words of Jotham Hearken unto me Judg. 9.7 that God may hearken unto you 2. The second thing to be applied by way of remedy is Let the people of God diligently follow on to the attaining of those ends for the effecting whereof in them the Lord for present hideth himself from them in this kind those ends have been laid down before the hastning on of them is the way to speed the issue of our prayers To instance in and press to some of them in a few words 1. Be constant in prayer hold out in it unto the end yea do not only hold on but mend and quicken your pace therein Add more fuel to increase the flame of your devotions pray more ardently Let your progress in prayer be like the natural motion of a body to its center or proper place the longer still the more swift and vigorous Doth God hide himselfe that you may seek his face then seek the Lord and his strength 〈◊〉 â—05 4 seek his face evermore and so seek that you may find him Certainly prayer is the Key of Heaven if then through unexpertness in the use of it you cannot get the door open presently cast not therefore the key out of your hand but turn and try it again and again until it be open Undoubtedly prayer is the way to find the face of God though it be hid leave not then slack not in the way because it is long lose not the end for lack of holding out It was the sin of Saul upon which immediately followed his ruine that when in his sore distress by the Philistins war he enquired of the Lord and got not an answer from him presently he left off enquiring of God and sought to a woman that had a familiar Spirit 1 Chro. 10 13 14 for this the Text saith the Lord slew him and turned the Kingdom unto David yea in this regard it saith he enquireth not of the Lord His once enquiring was void and stood for nothing and was no more then if he never had done it because he continued not enquiring until he hâ—d answer but through a distrustful and impatient fear ran from God to the Witch 2. Labour for an humbled heart a mourning Spirit both for sins and for prayers succeslesness The want of this hath been our great defect under our late sufferings and seekings to God It was noted of those Jews who remained after the destruction or the Temple City and Land by Nebuchadnezzar that they were not humbled even unto that day Jer. 44.10 they enquired of God by the Prophet Jeremiah Cap. 42.3 to shew them the way wherein they might walk and the thing that they might do but they were still unhumbled they had seen and felt a great deal of the wrath of God upon them for their sins but yet they were not humbled to that day And this is our very state we have sought unto God for his conduct in our Affairs his hand hath been out against and upon us many wayes for our sins but for all that we remain unhumbled But it will not so be most surely now we have had so much to do with God and he with us humbled we must be never did any person or people come off or part with him stoutly Levit. 10.3 he will be sanctified in them that come nigh him God will have us down and lay us low either in Spirit or in worldly state either inwardly or outwardly either to repentance or to ruine and if that will not be without this we shall be humbled both wayes if ever and ere ever God do raise us up Remember what the Lord saith to his people in the Prophet when he had hid his face from them Isai 54.6 The Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit and a wife of youth when thou wast refused If we be as forsaken and refused of God it behoves us to be of a grieved Spirit and so we must be ere the Lord call us or look again upon us He reviveth the spirit of the humble and the heart of the contrite ones Isai 57.15.49.13 Mat. 5.4 He will have mercy upon his afflicted He is nigh to them that are of a broken heart and saveth such at be of a contrite spirit They that mourn shall be comforted They that sow in tears shall reap in joy 3. Be sure to bide out the present tryal and exercise of the grace of God in you that is of your faith patience love and obedience Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in Christ under the tryal Mat. 11.6.24 13. He that shall endure unto the end the same shall be saved It was a desperate course in Saul and the forerunning passage of his ruine that whereas he had before-time rooted out those that had familiar spirits and wizards out of the Land 1 Sam. 28.3 7. being in his extremity he sought to one of them It would be a dangerous practise for any now to fly or turn to that sinful way for help in their strait which in a freer and calmer condition they justly abandoned and opposed 4. Look we after not only the end of our prayers but our fitting and preparation for that end Chap. 4. Sect. 6. The parts of this preparation have been opened already out of Zech. 12. 13. and Zeph. 3. Three of them you may remember were sanctity brotherly-unity and simplicity or truth in our dealings with God and man For sanctity The pure in heart are they that shall see God Mat. 5.8 When the Lord will work such a Salvation for his people as that all the ends of the Earth shall see it he will have his people to depart Isai 52.10 11 and go out thence from Babylon and touch no unclean thing and be themselves clean For brothâ—rly union and pâ—ace When the Earth shall be full of the knowledg of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea God will make a compliance and harmony betwixt the Wolf and the Lamb the Leopard and the Kid Isai 11 6 c. the Calf and the young Lion Vers 13. the Cow and the Bear the Lion and the Ox the sucking Child and the Asp and Cockatrice their antipethies shall cease that is as it is quickly after explained the envy of Ephraim shall depart Ephraim shall not envy Iudah and Iudah shall not vex Ephraim Of Iob Job 42.10 it is said The Lord turned the captivity of Iob when he prayed for his friends It was not while he disputed with but when he prayed for them The first thing as I take it wherein the Lord appeared
you in all patience 2 Cor. 12.12 in signs and wonders and mighty deeds Whereby he gives us to observe that patience especially all or compleat patience is a vertue seated in the highest form of Christians and somewhat demonstrative of an Apostle A learned Expositor conjectureth of David that the 73 Psalm wherein he confesseth how he was offended and staggered Foord in Psal 49. 73. and what envy and impatience he was tainted with at the wickeds prosperity and the afflictedness of the godly was written by him when he was yet but young whereas the 37 and 49 Psalms wherein he professeth his quietness and unmoveableness at the flourishing of the wicked and adversity of the righteous and teacheth the same to others were penned by him when he was grown old and thereby attained to be a veterane Souldier in patience Common experience tells us passive grace is much more difficult to get and use then active as it is more ado to travel in a deep or craggy way then in a fair and smooth road as Seafaring men find it is an otherwise labor to sail in a storm then in a calm The exercise of active grace consisteth either in receiving good or in communicating the good endowments we have to others or in restraining from superfluities but these things are much more easie then to bear the want of good the presence of evil and to lay down ourselves and resign up our very Being 6. The last thing I shall take notice of by way of Reason here is the Faithfuls Interest experience confidence in and recourse to God in prayer These references in their ordinary and direct use are the great means to regulate and compose the heart and to give stop to corruption but being reflâ—cted on with a humane Judgment in a state of trouble and seeming desertion they are turned to matter of aggravation of the affliction they help to breed more discontent and give rise to great thoughts of heart It is with the Saints in this case as with one that lies sick Such a man if there be a Physician of greatest skill and account or a receit of most soveraign vertue and if he can procure that Physician to undertake him or that receit to be applyed to him he is in a full hope of recovery but having made use of them if he do not find that effect by them which he looked for he is now the more dejâ—ctâ—d and the greater hopes he had of himself from their worth the worse heart will he have from their disappointment Just so it sometimes is with a Christian Whatsoever can befall him his great Salvo or Refugâ— is â—hat he hath God for his God he hath found the advantage of that relation he continues st dfastly trusting in him and earnestly calling upon him and in thus doing what security and good success doth he not promise to himâ—â—l and indeed what safety and good success may he not promise himself that way But he mistaking the matter that is taking his safety and success to lie within the compass of such a means such an order such a time and such an issue when indeed it doth not he finding his expectation in God failed as to such circumstances of safety and good success which he had circumscribed he is now in his own sense by so much the more unhappy That which had been and still should be his only cordial his infirm mind is ready to take for an encrease of his sorrow and to chew upon as one of his bitterest morsels So it was with David I remembred God and was troubled Why Ps 77.2 3. how should the remembrance of God be matter of trouble to David The words immediately preceding will tell us In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord my sore ran or my hand was stretched out in the night and ceased not my Soul refused to be comforted I remembred God and was troubled He had recourse to God in his trouble and found no present ease neither in body nor mind and hence it came to pass that he remembered God and was troubled Seeing he could receive no relief no comfort from God he reaps an addition of discomfort the more he seeks and suffers repulse the more is his sorrow stirred 1. The Saints Interest in God as his peculiar people in this case exaggerates their grief So the Psalmist O God Ps 79.1 2. the Heathen are come into thine Inheritance thine holy Temple have they defiled the dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the Heaven the flesh of thy Saints unto the beasts of the Earth c. And so Nehemiah Neh. â— 10 Now these are thy servants and thy people whom thou hast redeemed by thy great Power and by thy strong hand And so also Jeremiah in the Lamentations Behold O Lord and consider to whom thou hast done this Lam. 2.20 And again He remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger 2. Their former experience and enjoyment of God makes his withholdings of himself more strange and heavy So David Psal 42.4 When I remember these things I pour out my Soul in me for I had gone with the multitude I went with them to the house of God with the voyce of joy and praise with a multitude that kept holy-day And in another Psalm Psa 77.10 Furthermore I said This is that which maketh me infirm that the right hand of the most High is changed Infirmare me istud mutata dextra excelsi Tremel Foord Isai 33.17 Lam. 1.7 that is that the right hand of God which was wont to deliver defend and comfort me is now withdrawn or turned against me So Hezekiah Behold for peace I had great bitterness And in the Lamentations its said Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her misery all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old 3. Their Confidence in God when not answered as they expect makes them the more confounded Solomon saith Hope deferred maketh the heart sick Pro. 13.12 That which helped to encrease the wonder and sadness of those two Disciples of Christ that on the day of his Resurrection were travelling to Emmaus and communing together in the way of the crucifying of Christ Luk. 24.21 was this But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel 4. Lastly Their recourse to God in prayer when they find not their desired effect being in like manner reflected on contributes to their perplexity and dejection So Heman Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction Psal 88.9 13 14. Lord I have called upon thee I have stretched out my hands unto thee But unto thee have I cryed O Lord and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee Lord why castest thou off my Soul why hidest thou thy face from me So David rather personating our Saviour Christ then himself My God my God why
sleepest thou O Lord Arise cast us not off for ever Wherefore hidest thou thy face and forgettest our affliction and our oppression And yet what Cause did they suffer in Thâ—y immediately before represent that to him Yea for thy sake are we killed all the day long we are counted as sheep for the slaughter And in another Psalm they bespeak him in this sort Arise O God Psa 74.22 plead thine own Cause remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee dayly Yet then it appears by that which goes before they accounted themselves cast off and lying under the smoking anger of God and they complain We see not our signs there is no more any Prophet neither is there among us any that knoweth how long These Examples may suffice for the first Head to wit the Complaints of the Saints touching the Lords hiding from their personal prayers Secondly It hath so fared with the joynt and publique Prayers of the Community of Saints or Church of God as they have made their Complaint This was the case of the Church at the time of the penning of the 80 Psalm O Lord God of Hosts Psal 80.4 how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people It is not here intimated that the Lord was angry with the prayer of his people as if it were peccant in the nature of it for which he should be displeased with it but he was angry against their prayer that is his anger proceeded still on though their prayer was for his pacification their prayer was for the calling back of his Judgments his anger carried them still on so that this went on in opposition to that The particular time and occasion of the compiling of this Psalm is not manifested by its title of tenor but their Conjecture is probable that assign it to the rending of the ten Tribes from the house of David and Kingdom of Judah and the setting up of Jeroboam upon which the Invasion of Judah by Shishak King of Egypt shortly followed For it hath often come to pass and it may here be seasonably observed by us that when those whom God hath joyned together in one Religion and under one Government do break asunder and erect opposite Thrones over them respectively which â—ide soever hath the better yea or the right of it the common Enemy presently comes in and gets his greatest advantage by it It is noted of the people of Judah yea witnessed of them by God himself that they prayed much Yet they seek me dayly and delight to know my ways Isai 58.3 They take delight in approaching to God and how succeeded their prayers The next words will inform us Wherefore have we fasted say they and thou seest not Wherefore have we afflicted our Soul and thou takest no knowledg The Prophet Jeremiah in his Lamentations representing the Church of Judah under her Babylonian Calamities Lam. 3.8 sets forth her plaints for want of audience in prayer Also when I cry and shout he shutteth out my prayer They not only prayed but cryed yea even shouted that is called upon God with greatest vehemency yet their prayer found no entrance And again in the same Chapter Verse 44. Thou hast covered thy self with a cloud that our prayer should not pass through And surely this cloud lay long over their prayers as will appear if we compare with this those places of Zechariah Zech. 7.3 5 8 19. where their set times of fasting and humbling themselves are found to have been for seventy years together In the Prophet Malachi's days when the people were grown very corrupt and Religion was much collapsed yet they had so much Religion left as to fast and pray and this they did so long without success that at length they grew stout and â—ullen against God concluding a course of devotion to be bootless They said It is vain to serve God Mal. 3 14. and what profit is it that we have kept his Ordinances and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts We have thus seen the Complaints and Acknowledgments of the people of God in the matter to be Exemplified and that in sufficient variety of Instances II. In the next place let us observe what the Lord himself declares touching his hiding or with-holding himself from his praying people and we shall receive it from his mouth by way 1. Of Threatening 2. Of Prophecy or Prediction 3. Of Narration First He utters it by way of Threatening or Denunciation as a special Judgment or effect of his wrath against his people and that concerning 1. Their own prayers 2. The prayers of others for them 1. He threatens he will hide himself from them praying for themselves Upon the Apostacy of the Israelites unto Idolatry in the times of the Judges when the Lord had for that cause sold them into their Enemies hands the Text saith The children of Israel cryed unto the Lord saying We have sinned against thee Judg. 10.10 c. both because we have forsaken our God and also served Baalim And the Lord said unto the children of Israel Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites c. The Zidonians also and the Amalekiles and the Maonites did oppress you and ye cryed to me and I delivered you out of their hand Yet ye have forsaken me and served other gods wherefore I will deliver you no more The same bar upon the gate of entrance of prayer the Lord puts in the time of his Prophets Isaiah Jeremiah and Ezekiel against the prayers of his people of Israel and Judah In Isaiah he saith And when ye spread forth your hands Isai 1.15 I will hide mine eyes from you yea when you make many prayers I will not hear In Jeremiah he declares Though they shall cry unto me Jer. 11.11 14. I will not harken unto them for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble When they fast Cap. 14.12 I will not hear their cry and when they offer burnt-offering and an oblation I will not accept them In Ezekiel he forestalls them thus Ezek. 8.18 Though they cry in mine ears with a loud voyce yet I will not hear them 2. Yea but perhaps though the sinfulness of their persons made their prayers cast back yet the prayers of others who were righteous persons and had been usually prevalent with God might avail for them nay neither must they be heard for them Jer. 7.16 Therefore pray not thou saith the Lord to his Prophet Jeremiah for this people neither lift up cry nor prayer for them neither make intercession to me for I will not hear thee And when he did make bold to speak a few words for them his answer is Cha. 15.1 Though Moses and Samuel stood before me yet my mind could not be toward this people And by the Prophet Ezekiel the Lord pronounceth it four times over at once
Ezek. 14.14 16 18 20. Though these three men Noah Daniel and Job were in it they should deliver but their own Souls by their righteousness So we hear this proceeding of God owned by himself by way of Threatening Secondly He hath spoken it by way of Prophecy or Prediction Our blessed Saviour in his Exhortation to his Disciples to uncessantness in prayer by the example of the windows importunity with the unjust Judg in the reddition of that Parable he foretells Luk. 18.1 7 8. that God will indeed avenge his own Elect which cry day and night to him but withall he will bear long with them that is he will long sit still and forbear to appear and vindicate his people notwithstanding the cry of their prayers and the provoking of their Oppressors And in the next words he describes how long to wit so long as that it will be a question whether the Son of man when he cometh shall find faith on the Earth That is as I understand when Christ our Saviour shall come either personally and visibly to the last Judgment or virtually and by his divine working in this life to the rescue of his Church and ruine of their Enemies according to the several Promises and Predictions in Scripture the faith of his people not in the absolute being or nature of it but in regard of that particular use of act of it in beleeving that God will seasonably avenge them and confident staying for it shall even be worn out through pining delay and brought almost to a fail In the Prophecy of the Revelation at the opening of the fifth seal by the Lamb our blessed Redeemer there appeared under the Altar the Souls of them that were slain for the Word of God Rev. 6.9 10 and for the Testimony which they held and they cryed with a loud voyce saying How long O Lord c. white Robes were given unto every one of them and it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season until their fellow-servants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fufilled These Souls under the Altar are unanimously interpreted to be the Persecuted and Martyred Christians in the Ten primitive Persecutions and more especially according to Mr Mede those under Dioclesians Immâ—nity We see they cry for Avengement and complain of a long putting off How long and nevertheless their answer is that notwithstanding all the delay that hath been they must rest contented and stay yet some time longer Learned Mr Mede conceiveth the time of their yet further deferring to be till the sounding of the Trumpets and their fellow-servants and brethren which in the Interim were to be killed as they to be those who after were slain under Licinius Julianus and the Arrians Rev. 8.2 3 c. Those seven Trumpets he also reckoneth to be so many alarums to the fatal ruines of the Roman Empire God taking punishment by those ruins for the blood of the said Martyrs shed by the Roman Emperors And the Angels adding much incense to the prayers of al Saints upon the golden altar before the Throne and the ascending before God of the smoak of the incense out of the Angels hand with the prayers of the Saints which immediately antecedeth the Trumpets to be a renewing of the memoral of those prayers of the afore-martyred Saints under the the fifth Seal upon which as an answer of that remembrance and of those prayers so long before put up the seven Angels prepare to sound their Trumpets Now betwixt the beginning of the last of the Ten Persecutions and the beginning of the seven Trumpets there was more then the age of a man Mr Mede begineth the fifth Seal at the year of Christ 268. and the Trumpets at 395. it was thus long to wit 127 years ere those prayers of the afflicted Martyrs began to be answered and moreover the time of the continuance of the first six of those Trumpets in which their answer is made up he accounts to be 1260 years more after that Another Prophecy in the same Book we may add to this purpose it is that of the two Witnesses the Text saith They shall prophecy a thousand two hundred and threescore days clothed with sackcloth Rev. 11.3 5 and if any man will hurt them fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoured their Enemies By those two Witnesses our Divines understand those few Preachers Professors and Maintainers of the Truth of Christ which shall be found during the Gentiles treading under foot the holy City that is the prophane and idolatrous peoples trampling upon the face of the visible Church Those one thousand two hundred and three-score days they compute to intend so many years That sackcloth they take to emblematize their mourning complaining condition And that fire issuing out of their mouths they expound to be their prayers for divine ayd and rescue like as Elijah called for fire to come down from Heaven 2 Kings 1 10. to consume the Captains and their fifties These persons although such precious ones so raised up and impowred by Christ yet we see they are put to walk mournfully and pray continuedly for so great a term of years ere their prayers speed and their state be changed Yea notwithstanding all their patience and constancy in that sad and expecting condition they are at length to be overcome and slain and kept unburied and insulted over by the Beast and his accomplices before they come to receive the issue of their prophecying and praying Rev. 11.7 8 9 10. by their re-advancement This last part of their sorrowful cup seems to be not only a suspense of their long continued prayers but even a breaking off of them and of all hope of their enjoying the benefit of them unless they must expect it in another world But yet the next words will resolve us that both their former walking in sackcloth and their slaying at last is to be no more then a suspense or deferring for a time for within three days and a half they are raised up again to life to their feet yea to Heaven in a Cloud in sight of their Enemies that is they attain to an happy end of their labours and sufferings and to an accomplishment of their prayers This last passage the slaying of the Witnesses is conceived by many to be yet behind or in fulfilling unto others it seems to be acted and past It is beyond me peremptorily to determine either way only whereas it appears unlikely to be yet to come when as sundry Nations sometimâ—s following and serving the Beast have cast him off bidden defiance to him and set up the Reformed Religion I will here insert Mr Medes gloss upon it very appositely meeting with that scruple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When they shall be about to finish their testimony for so it is to be translated not when they have finished the Beast which ascendeth out of the bottomless
pit shall make War with them and shall overcome them and kill them Mr. Medes Comment part 2. pag. 3. Engl. That is when now part of the holy City or inhabitants of the Christian world repenting of their idolatries and abominations and clensing the temple of God within themselves the witnesses rejoycing should begin to put off their sackcloth and to be freed from their dayly mourning notwithstanding they should not yet be wholly freed that Roman seven-headed Beast of the last time of which Chap. 13. chafing that the preaching of those Mourners had so far prevailed shall make war against them overcome and kill them The first of which concerning the mourning of the Witnesses already begun to determine hath been continually performed from the beginning of the Reformed Church until this present The other concerning war and slaughter I conjectture is yet to come Thirdly The Lords hiding from his peoples prayers himself declareth by way of Narration as of a thing done This he doth by his Prophet Zechariah Zech. 7.13 Therefore it is come to pass that as he cryed and they would not hear so they cryed and I would not hear saith the Lord of Hosts And he mindeth the Israelites that so he had done by them speaking thus by Moses And they returned and wept before the Lord Deut. 1.45 but the Lord would not harken to your voyce nor give ear unto you I have thus layd forth the Examples of Gods hiding from his praying people comprised under those two first general Heads to wit the Saints own Acknowledgments and the Declarations of GOD Himself III. The third followeth that is to be Observations out of Story And for this I think I may safely affirm two things 1. There was never any publique Calamity or Judgment came upon any people professing the knowledg of the true God and his true Worship since the beginning of the world to this day but there hath been always some of or about them or both who have been earnest and faithful Petitioners unto Almighty God for the preventing of the said Calamity from coming and for the removal of it as soon as come and notwithstanding that Judgments have come and have continued for their time to wit that time which had been fore-allotted and sometimes foretold 2. There hath scarce ever been any great work of Mercy which God hath brought forth towards or for his people but as his servants have had some preapprehension of it by means of his promise and upon that intimation have a good while prayed and waited for it so ere it hath come about they have been at a stagger concerning it and their prayers for it and it hath seemed to them for a time as if the Lord had forgotten his Word hid himself from and disappointed them Therefore many particular Instances I need not take forth Exod. 2.23 24. 3.7 Israel being under servitude in Egypt it is said they sighed by reason of the bondage and cryed and their cry came up unto God by reason of their boâ—dage and God heard their groaning And so the Lord telleth Moses out of the bush I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt and have heard their cry by reason of their task-masters for I know their sorrows Here is Israel praying yea even crying sighing groaning in Egypt and yet notwithstanding after this when Moses and Aaron were sent of God to deliver them and had reported their message from God to them and to Pharaoh they were in worse case then before their burdens were encreased and their Officers beaten whereupon they cry out of Moses and Aaron as being become their Tormentors in stead of being their Deliverers And Moses complaineth unto God Exod 5.6 19 20 21 22 23. Wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people Why is it that thou hast sent me For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy Name he hath done evil to this people neither hast thou delivered thy people at all And the Israelites became so hopeless of their own prayers and Moses his enterprise taking any effect that when Moses was sent unto them from God with a second Message Exod. 6.6 to 12. assuring them of the Lords hearing their groans remembering his Covenant resolving to bring them out and to seat them in the promised Land and to approve himself their God and to own them as his people they heeded him not the Text saith They harkened not to Moses for anguish of spirit Cap. 14.12 and for cruel bondage Yea they said Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians When the Israelites received that terrible overthrow by the Philistins wherein the Priests of the Lord were slain and the Ark was taken it is said The word of Samuel came to all Israel 1 Sam. 4.1 Tho. Coleman's Sermon before the House Septem 12 1644. pag. 5. 1 Sam. 7.2 or as one translares the word of Samuel was for all Israel His dayly words and prayers saith that Interpreter were for his people and for their good and particularly for a comfortable success in this expedition yet Samuels prayer could not prevent that disaster no nor recover it of twenty years after The holy and zealous Prophet Jeremiah as he was faithful to deliver the Word of the Lord to the Kings and people of Judah concerning their Desolation and Captivity at hand under Babylon so he was instant with God in prayer to have made up that gap and intercepted those evils Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them Jer. 18.20 and to turn away thy wrath from them Yet as he could not prevail with Judah to repent of their sins so upon their impenitency he might not prevail with God to recall his denounced Judgments When these destructions were accomplished upon Judah there was a certain and plain promise for their Recovery at the end of seventy years and there was much praying in that space both by the people of God generally as may appear by the Book of the Lâ—mentations and by the 79 the 102 the 126 and the 137 Psalms and by the Prophets Jeremiah Ezekiel Daniel and other eminent servants of God in particular And yet when the foreset time of Deliverance was at hand or comeâ— what was become of all their expectations and prayers in their apprehension The Prophet Isaiah will shew us But Zion said The Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me Isai 49.14 And Ezekiels Vision of the dead and dry bones will inform us Eze. 37.11 Son of man these bones are the whole house of Israel behold they say Our bones are dryed and our hope is lost we are cut off from our parts The Prophet Daniel did inure himself unto prayer and fasting in relation not only to the present affairs of the people of God but to those of future times The return of those his extraordinary Humiliations and seekings unto God was
miscarried were solemnly again sought for of God by Fasting and Prayer and yet this Army lost and lost in a week of Fasting and Prayer And in the prosecution of his Subject enquiring after the Cause of this Disaster he saith I will tell you what we may not think it to be we may not must not think that the ground and cause of the War is unjust and sinful because of this disaster no more then Joshua's here Josh 7. or the Benjamites he meant Israel against the Benjamites Judg. 20. No though God should frown yet further upon us and break us with breach upon breach This was sound and acceptable Doctrine then and if any man upon the Change of Successes now speak contradictorily who then assented to it he is with the Apostles Heretick to be rejected and he sinneth Tit. 3.10.11 being condemned of himself So much of the former part of the matter to be presidented viz. The Lords hiding himself from his Peoples Prayers grounded upon his Promises In the insisting of it I have thought it superfluous to point out the Promises upon which the prayers in each Example respectively may be grounded there being many general Promises in Scripture easie to be called to mind for instance Psal 50.15 Call upon me in the day of trouble c. upon which every one of those mentioned prayers may have ground And whereas some few of the Examples produced are of the prayers of such as the Scripture brandeth for hypocrisie and other gross sins let the Reader consider that these notions of Gods people and of the grounding of prayers upon the promises of God are sometimes of a stricter sometimes of a larger acception as well shall see hereafter and a community of people unto which both those terms and the question in hand have some relation is of a mixt nature and contains a better and a worser sort and therefore it was suitable that some Examples of each sort should be remembered SECT III. Examples of the Lords seeming by his Providences to answer the Prayers which are contrary to his Peoples I Proceed to the latter part viz. The Lords seeming by his Providences to answer the Prayers which are contrary thereunto In this I will be shorter Two things are in this 1. That sometimes there are prayers against prayers or that men in evil ways and in those designs which are opposite to the prayers of Gods people do pray and call upon God for his ayd and blessing 2. That in their so doing the Lord seemeth by his providences sometimes to answer such prayers 1. Men in bad ways and designs contrary to the prayers of the people of God do pray and invocate the Name of God for his ayd and blessing Balaam sacrificed Numb 23. and went to enquire of God when he so earnestly and often endevored to curse Israel 2 Sam. 15.7.8.11 12 Absalom went to Hebron to pay his Vow unto the Lord and to serve him and there he offered sacrifices when he was going in hand with his Conspiracy against King David his Father Foord in Psal 3 2â— and it is conceived that thereby he seduced those two hundred men that went out of Jerusalem in their simplicity and knew not any thing of the Treason David in his song of praise for all the Lords deliverances of him from all his Enemies saith of them that they cryed even unto the Lord. The degenerate and corrupt Psâ— 18.41 but prevalent party in Judah that hated and cast out those that trembled at Gods Word and that for his Names sake said Isai 66.5 Let the Lord be glorified that is they professed to seek and pray for the advancement of the way will and honor of God The malicious and persecuting Pharisees of our Saviours time fasted and prayed often Luk. 5 35. Mat. 9.14 The unbelieving Jews that opposed Christianity instantly served God day and night and they were devout men that persecuted Paul and Barnabas from Antioch I read of the Jews of these latter times Acts 26.7 Buxtorf Synag c. 3 apud Ellis on Obad. 20 Cambd. Britan. of Irel. p. 144 Pulchra laverna da mihi fallare da justum sanctumque videri noctem peccatis fraudibus objice nubem Juven Illa sibi intrâ—rsum sub lingua immurmurat O si ebullit patrui praclarum funuâ— O si sub castro crepet argenti mihi seria dextro Hercule pupullumve uti nam quem proximus baeres impello expungam Pers saty 2. that they expect and dayly pray for the subversion of the Christian Empire as that which must antecede the coming of their yet expected Messiah The Law and Light of Nature hath taught all Nations the most Heathen as to acknowledg a God so to pray to him and to implore his assistance in all their needs and important undertakings and they whose Consci nces are so licentious as to give them way to act wicked and unjust designs yet they are withall so religious as to oblige them to crave divine help and benediction thereupon Cambden in his Britannia observes of the wilde Irish When they go to rob they pour out their prayers to God that they may meet with a booty and they suppose that a cheat or booty is sent unto them from God as his gift neither are they perswaded that either violence or rapine or man-slaughter displeaseth God for in no wise would he present unto them the opportuniy if it were a sin nay a sin it were if they did not lay hold upon the said opportunity In all the warlike enterprizes that have been nothing hath been more generally observable then this that both sides have made their addresses and supplications to the God whom they respectively acknowledged for â—afety and victory Who knoweth not that in the Wars of Christendom the Protestants and the Papists the just Defendants and the unjust Invaders the lawful Powers and the lawless Rebels each have from time to time had recourse to God by prayer in and for their Martial Adventures The blackest Treasons that ever have been brooded have been accompanyed with the solemn devotions of the Conspirators so was the Powder-plot and at the beginning of the stirs and breaches betwixt the late King and his Parliament there was a discovery made and oft mentioned of an appointment of the Romish Priests and Papists the first movers without doubt of those stirs by Fast-days and Prayer to recommend their Intentions to divine help and questionless as their devotion and activity hath gone along in all these late Revolutions so whatsoever hath fallen out to the advantge of their cause and to the crossing of the sincere Protestants intentions and endevors as divers things have they apprehend and as much hug themselves at it as the supposed return of their prayers as others do more openly in relation to theirs And I may add as such men in such ways are wont to pray so when they speed they return thanksgivings unto
God Those oppressing Tyrants that made a prey of the people of God in or after Zechâ—â—iah the Prophets time they were endued with this kind of cruel Religion as appears by their character thus given Whose possessors slay them Zech. 11.5 and hold themselves not guilty and they that sell them say Blessed be the Lord for I am rich When those horrible villanies of that most bloody Massacre in France on Saint Bartholomews day were acted See Mr Fox vol. 3 pag. 1024 and continuation pa. 60. the Authors and Abettors thereof the Guisians the King and the Parliament of Paris appointed general Processions to be made throughout the City of Paris by way of thanksgiving unto God with Bonefires singing and ringing And at Rome solemn Masses were sung with Te Deum and Procession yea in honor of that Butchery a Jubilee was commanded by the Pope with great indulgence such may be the mistaken devotion of blood-guilty persecutors 2. The second thing is As men in evil ways and in opposition to the lawful desires and prayers of the people of God do pray so the Lord doth seem sometimes by his providences to answer them David in the apprehension hereof entreats thus against his Enemies Grant not Psa 140 8 Psal 73 7 O Lord the desires of the wicked further not his wicked device lest they exalt themselves In vain should the holy King pray thus for the preventing of the desires of his Enemies against him if the accomplishment of such mens bad petitions were a thing that never came to pass Sometimes then the Lord grants the desires of the wicked Yea elsewhere the Psalmist observes of such persons that they have more then their hearts desire Let us single out of many a few remarkable examples The Prophet Jeremiah notes and complains of the wicked and very treacherous dealers to wit those his Kinsmen and Brethren the men of Anathoth that sought his life That their way prospered they were all happy Thou hast planted them saith he further unto God yea Jer. 12.1 2 they have taken root they grow yea they bring forth fruit thou art neer in their mouth but far from their reins See how their impious piety and flourishing prosperity went along together You may note here these four things 1. These men in their unrighteous and perfidious ways they were praying men thou art neer in their mouth 2. They were successful in so doing their way prospereth they are happy that deal very treacherously 3. Who made them so to be even the Lord Thou hast planted them c. 4. How many degrees of success and answer of their prayers they attain to 1. Thou hast planted them 2. Yea they have taken root 3. They grow 4. Yea they bring forth fruit In sum they have a pleasant Spring and a long Summ r even to the full and ripe Harvest Let this example among others be taken notice of by us in these stumbling times Though these degenerate Brethren of the Prophet take unjust and perfidious courses yet they pray and though they pray in such courses yet they prosper Divine providence speeds them and speeds them to a high rise with a long tract of successes In the mean time how fares it on the other hand with the Prophet himself their Antagonist why to this expostulation about them he subjoyneth his prayer for himself and against them in the next words following But thou O Lord knowest me thou hast seen me c. and the Answer which he receives to this is in effect thus That in stead of those footmen with which he was now matched and was wearyed he must look to be charged with horsemen and in stead of that Land of peace wherein then he expected good but found wearying the swelling of Jordan was coming in upon him that is he was yet to wait and arm for a continuance yea a further accumulation of adversities Here then we have a dishonest and false-dealing party praying and prospering and an upright-hearted faithful and zealous Prophet praying and persecuted yea and pursued still with growing indignities and pressures Those stout-speaking Jews in the Prophet Malachi who had so long fasted and prayed fruitlâ—sly that they conclude it a vain and profitless thing to serve God Mal. 3.13 14 15. and walk mournfully before the Lord of Hoasts although we may by no means admit of their conclusion yet in their narration of the state of the wicked and godless whom they grudged at there is no reason why we may not credit them In it they tell us They that work wickedness are set up yea they that tempt God are even delivered What was this their tempt ng of God To tempt God is to make an unwarranted experiment of God or to ask his assistance or manifestation of himself otherwise then he hath allowed us to require it The Israelites in the Wilderness are said to tempt God and to that their tempting him our margent and other Bibles and Commentaries refer us upon this place when they desired of God that provision or conduct which he had not warranted them to ask as in that their discontented petitioning for flesh to eat of which the Psalmist saith They tempted God in their heart Psâ— 78.18 by asking meat for their lust and when at Massah they quarrelled at Moses for lack of water to drink the Text saith Exod. 17.7 They tempted the Lord saying Is the Lord amongst us or not When men presume without Commission from God to expect and move him to discover his Power Presence Providence Justice approving Will or other perfection of his this is to tempt God Suitably these persons in this place of the Prophet tempted God in some one or other of these particulars They implored his appearance to them unallowedly it 's probable they might entreat his assistance to some unlawful undertaking for their tempting God is joyned to their working wickedness or happily they would refer the Justice of a cause in Controversie to divine decision by the event of an encounter as some do in duels Vide Amâ—s medulâ—a l. 2. c. 12. S. 20. and others in more general engagements of war which way soever they did it we see they that tempted God that is unwarrantably invocated him to manifest himself they are delivered God answereth their desires in the thing even as Israel asking flesh the Lord sent them Quails and when they tempted him at Massah he gave them water Thus sped these tempters of God whilest we find in the same place they that kept his Ordinances and walked mournfully before the Lord of Hoasts were unanswered and no present profit appeared of their seeking God That so it was with such may appear not only by what these murmurers take occasion to utter vers 14. but by what the Lord himself declareth touching those that feared the Lord and thought upon his Name Mal. 3.16 17 18. and 4â— 1 2. in the subsequent Verses viz. That
not be dew nor rain for some years but according to his word whereupon he grounded his prayer mentioned in the Epistle of James But the more proper universal and adequate ground of warrant for prayer is that of precept Some things happily may be found promised that are not to be prayed for as the promise of retribution of our wrongs Rom. 12.19 and that of the not perishing of one hair of a Christian Luk. 21.18 and there are divers things which have been lawfully and are to be prayed for concerning which there is no special promise Such is Abrahams prayer for Sodom Gen. 18. Moses prayer for Israel Exod. 32. Pauls prayer for the Salvation of the Jewish Nation of his age Rom. 10.1 Prayer for our Enemies Matt. 5.44 Prayer for all men 1 Tim. 2.1 And the general promise of hearing besides that it doth not constantly intend the giving of the thing as will after be shewed it must be resolved into that proviso that the prayer be for a thing warrantable to be asked The ground of warrant therefore must be distinct from the promise and in cases ordinary is to be primarily and originally fetched from the rule or precept for prayer It being a matter of much weight and use to know how to ground prayers aright and to understand what prayers are grounded as they should be and what are not it will be requisite that we take a distinct view of both these groundworks of prayer that is both that of precept or rule and that of promise of the one to guide our Conscience in making of the other to erect our confidence in believing and expecting our prayers First Of the ground of precept this besides that it warrants prayer and makes it necessary gives us moreover direction about it in two respects 1. What may and ought to be the subject of our prayer 2. How or in what manner it must be put up to God I shall here take notice of it only in these two respects First The subject of prayer is regulated by Scripture-precept and that 1. Either in the matter or thing for which 2. Or in the person or parties for or concerning whom prayer is to be made In point of matter or things for which we are to pray the Scripture gives us precepts 1. Sometimes generally or indefinitely as in that of our Saviour Ask and it shall be given you Mat. 7.7 11 seek and ye shal find knock and it shall be opened unto you which indefinite Command is interpreted by the following words to be not simply universal ask any thing whatsoever but circumspectly universal viz. within the predicament of good Your Father which is in Heaven shall give good things to them that ask And the Apostle delivers us such another general warrant for the matter Be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God Phil. 4.6 5 8 The Apostles eye doubtless in this universal precept is only upon lawful serious ordinarily possible and good things those namely about which the Moderation forespoken of of Christians is to be exercised for whatsoever is otherwise is wholy to be refrained and those things which presently after he defines by the characters of true honest just pure lovely of good report vertuous praise-worthy those are the things to be thought of yet with Moderation not with anxious diffident carefulness and with a pious recommendation of them in prayer unto God 2. Yet the precept leaves us not so in the general but descends to particulars It instructs us in a multitude of yea in all particulars to be prayed for it requires us to deprecate such and such evils and to supplicate and implore this and that good thing It points us out to Temporals Spirituals and Eternals to things of body things of mind and things of external property and respect I might gather up and bring in precepts for every of these in particular as they lie scattered in their several places of Scripture But with this I need not charge my self or my Reader there is a form of prayer excellâ—nt and perfect both for matter and order taught and commanded by our blessed Saviour which distributeth under six Petitions or heads the whole substance of prayer and under those heads are comprehended all things good and religiously to be desired there is in that prayer summa petendorum a compleat platform or groundwork of prayer for the matter So that look what is reducible to it may and must be asked of God and whatsoever thing is not comprizable under some of the branches of it is not allowed a place in our prayers Concerning it our Saviour hath spoken plainly After this manner therefore pray ye c. Secondly for the personal subject of prayer or the persons concerning whom we must make request to God we have in the Word of God Rules 1. For praying for persons 2. For praying against persons First The persons to be prayed for are of two sorts 1. Divine as our Saviour enjoyns us in his platform to pray in the three leading Petitions for Gods own immediate concernments The hallowing of his Name the Coming of his Kingdom and the performance of his will And as he instructs us by his Word so doth he teach us by his example to pray whilest he himself prays Father glorifie thy Name Joh. 12.28 and we are directed to this also by the practice of the Apostle Paul praying That the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in the Thessalonians 2 Thes 1.12 In this kind of prayer the divine Majesty is both the object and subject of our supplication and it is peculiar to him so to be 2. The other sort of persons to be prayed for are humane and they are 1. Our selves 2. Others 1. For our selves we have many Commands to pray Is any among you afflicted Jam. 5.14 let him pray He must not only send for the Elders to pray over him in his sickness as it followeth but he must pray for himself And again Take with you words and turn to the Lord and say Hos 14.2 Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously 2. We are also to be Petitioners for others and the extent of our prayers for others is prefixed 1. Universally unto all men I exhort therefore that first of all supplications 1 Tim. 2.1 prayers intercâ—ssions and giving of thanks be made for all men For all men that is not for all collectively if we intend our prayer to be for their Salvation for God hath declared his counsel and purpose to be against that and Christ our Saviour in praying for those that shall be saved and for all them in order to their Salvation hath contradistinguished them from the world I pray for them Joh. 17.9 I pray not for the world But either distributively for any of whatsoever sort or degree for one as well as another as occasion
is offered or if for all collectively then only for those benefits to them which God hath declared to be common to all For that some persons are excepted out of our prayers for spirituals is manifest by that of the Apostle There is a sin unto death I do not say that he shall pray for it that is 1 Joh. 5.16 not for the life eternal of him that sinneth that sin 2. In particular there are also precepts to pray for others in special according to several states and relations Ecclesiastical and Civil publique and private The people of God are to pray for the Church of God Pray for the peace of Jerusalem Psa 122.6 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance Eph. 6.18 and supplication for all Saints And for the Ministry Brethren pray for us 2 Thes 3.1 that the Word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified In like manner the Ministers for the people We will give our selves continually to prayer Acts 6.4 and to the Ministry of the Word Moreover as for me 1 Sam. 12 23 God forbid I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you Is any man sick among you let him call for the Elders of the Church Jam. 5.14 16 and let them pray over him And Brethren for Brethren Pray one for another that ye may be healed If any man see his Brother sin a sin which is not unto death he shal ask and he shal give him life for them that sin not unto death Prayer also must be for others that stand in civil relation to us as for the Country we belong unto Lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left 2 Kin. 19.4 Ezek. 22.30 I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedg and stand in the gap before me for the Land that I should not destroy it And seek you the peace of the City whither I have caused you to be carryed away Captives Jer. 29.7 and pray unto the Lord for it for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace And for Magistrates For Kings and for all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all godliness and honest 1 Tim. 2.2 And for our kindred according to the flesh Brethren my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved Rom 10.1 And for our children and posterity Let thy work appear unto thy servants Psal â—0 16 and thy glory unto their Children Yea and for our Enemies But I say unto you Love your Enemies bless them which curse you Mat. 5.44 Ro. 12.14 and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you Bless them which persecute you Bless and curse not We see how far and how particularly the Precept warrants and binds to prayer for all sorts of men Secondly There is something also in Scripture for prayer against persons Which I mention as well for Explication and Caution as for Prescript or Incitation 1. Some are found to pray against themselves And this hath been done diversly in respect of the principle whence 1. Sometimes out of an extraordinary and super-eminent pitch of zeal and charity As Moses David and Paul 1. Moses Exo. 32.32 Yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin and if not blot me I pray thee out of thy Book which thou hast written David Let thine hand I pray thee O Lord 1 Chro. 21.17 be on me and on my fathers house but not on thy people that they should be plagued And Paul Rom. 9.3 For I could wish that my self were accursed from Christ for my Brethren my kinsmen according to the flesh Exempla quae nos admirari praestat quam imitari Scult deprecat c. 15. p. 54 Of these Instances I suppose I may say they are either scarce imitable or scarce attainable Observe also they are conditional or comparative rather this then that rather then the desire to which they are annexed should be frustrate Moreover for the first it is not easie to understand distinctly what Moses meant by that Book or by bloting out and besides Moses was in an extraordinary relation and function he was a typical Mediator For the second David doth but pass an equal censure upon himself that he that had committed the Sin might bear the punishment and that only rather then others that were innocent in it that were a publique community and the people of God And for the third Pauls is not a prayer but a profession what he could wish were it a prayable thing like that profession of his before King Agrippa Act. 26.29 Festus and the rest I would to God that not only thou but also all that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as I am except these bonds But this Sea this flame of Love as Chrysostom calls it breaking forth of the Apostle Paul expresseth it self indefinitely as to the matter of separation and may therefore be understood of separation not from the love of Christ but from his Enjoyment not everlastingly but for a time only 2. Sometimes holy men have prayed against themselves Job 6.8 Jon. 4.3 9. Num. 11.15 â— Kin. 19.4 but it hath been out of rashness and impatience as Job Jonah Moses Elijah I refer to the places quoted for their words and occasion of them I need not doubt to say they are left on record for our use indeed but not to practise but to avoyd Secondly There are prayers against others and of this sort there are found many Presidents and some Commands which I shall distinguish into several sorts and shortly point out the sence and use which according to judicious Interpreters may be made of them The Prayers against others are 1. Either by way of complaint of the wickedness or wrong done against them by whom they are put up So Elias is said to make intercession to God against Israel Rom. 11.2 Acts 4.29 Isa 37.14 So do the Apostles and Church of God complain in prayer of the threats of the high Priest and his Councel against them So doth Hezekiah make his plaint unto God of the blasphemy of Sennacherib against God and his rage against himself And the Book of Psalms aboundeth with such like prayers Now concerning this kind of prayer there is no doubt or difficulty but it may and should upon occasion be used by us 2. Or they are by way of imprecation that is wishing and desiring the Lord to manifest himself and lift up his hand against them in opposition to whom they are made And of this sort of prayers we must yet further note some difference 1. Some are only against mens counsels or practises Thus when Ahitophel conspired with Absalom 2 Sam. 15.31 David prayed O Lord I pray thee turn the counsel of Ahitophel into foolishness Such Imprecations are
sometimes God doth hear his servants for others not so qualified but assurance that his prayer shall be heard to the good of the other person he hath none that I know of unless the other be so qualified For instance The promise in the Apostle James his Epistle is The prayer of Faith shall save the sick Jam. 5.15 and the Lord shall raise him up and if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him This must be as I apprehend understood as well of the sick's Faith who is to call for the Elders of the Church to pray over him as of the Elders Faith Forgiveness of sins is not promis'd nor given that I know but upon the Faith of the person forgiven We cannot think to have others receive corporal or spiritual good by our prayers upon easier terms then we our selves can or that we may be prevailed for by others praying repenting believing without our own I observe when the man sick of the Palsie was brought to Christ by his friends When Jesus saw their Faith Mark 2.3 Luk. 5.18 he said to the sick of the Palsie Son thy sins be forgiven thee Their Faith that is the sick mans and his friends for he was born of four and they that brought him to Christ uncovered the roof of his house and let him down through the Tiling before Christ all their Faiths both the parties and theirs that thus moved for him concurred Again our Saviour directing his seventy Disciples at his emission of them into whatsoever house they enter to say Peace be to this house he tells them withall If the son of peace be there your peace shall rest upon it if not it shall turn to you again their prayer could be only effectual to true Believers Psa 35.13 David praying and fasting for his wicked and persecuting Enemies his prayer returned into his own bosom Exo. 32.27 33. 4 Josh 7.6 c. Moses at one time and Josuah with the Elders at another praying turned away Gods wrath from Israel but it was when Israel repented humbled themselves and reformed the offence Otherwise I think the case is plain particular men though they must pray yet they cannot confidently look to remove Gods Judgments from a Nation unless the Nation repent and amend * See Jer. 15. â— Ezek. 14 13 c. So that when we would obtain the deliverance or prosperity of a people the ready way is to pray for and endevor their repentance True it is we are not able to discern infallibly these qualifications in another person or people and therefore we cannot attain an infallible certainty of prevailing for them but it sufficeth to the making of our prayer that we have a precept to pray for them that we have any hope or possibility of the thing that the parties in our eye have not sinned the sin unto death Joel 2 14 Amos 5.15 Jonah 4.9 that we have Joels Who knoweth if he will return Amos his It may be and Jonah's Who can tell and that however it be it will be to our own good God will accept of and reward the Petitioner They shall prosper Psa 112â— 75 1â— that pray for and love Jerusalem Their prayer that pray for others shall return not to the ground but into their own bosom And it must suffice that in relation to others we have a conditional assurance if they have the requisites and conditions in them suitable to the promises they shall have the benefit of those our prayers that are grounded on them Our prayers for others proceeding upon these terms it will behove us to look more at our duty then any infallible certainty of the particular issue to them to be more pressing in our desires then peremptory in our resolves and if we resolve on any things it may be this That if we seek God aright we shall not seek him in vain Let the Reader observe in this Proposition the case being not much handled by any that I meet with I give my Judgment and Grounds for it under submission SECT III. Of Gods answering and of his hiding himself from Prayers THe third clause in the Query to be unfolded now follows viz. Gods answering of or hiding from Prayers For the helping of the unclean in this particular I shall propound and insist on two things 1. The variety of the ways or behavior of God towards the prayers of men 2. The diversity of the grounds or impulsives whereupon he walketh in â—hat diversity of ways The unfolding of these two will I hope serve much for the clearing of this subject First Of the diversity of the ways or behavior of God towards the prayers of men The supposition that the carriage or way of God towards mens prayers is various I need not labor to prove it will be confest The matter to be stood on is What that Variety is It hath two parts in the general very obvious to apprehension to wit 1. His inclining appearing to prayer 2. His declining hiding from prayer But besides there is a great diversity under each of these God doth many ways appear to and many ways hide from prayers his appearing is of divers sorts his hiding is of several kinds I will begin with the former Gods appearing to prayer and therein consider the several ways of his inclining or appearing to prayers or to persons praying These are to be comprehended under two heads The first is in hearing or receiving the prayer The second is in making a return or giving answer to prayer Both these the Psalmist exemplifies to us together I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears And again This poor man cryed and the Lord heard him Psa 34.4 6 and saved him out of all his troubles There is first hearing and secondly delivering first hearing the prayer or cry then delivering or saving the person First God inclines or appears to prayer when he receives or hears it when he gives it admission or audience this is at the putting up or presenting of the prayer Whiles they are yet speaking I will hear It 's said unto Daniel Isai 65.24 From the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand Dan. 10.12 and to cast thy self before thy God thy words were heard This act of reception of prayer though in some sort it be more largely extended as will after be shewed is propâ—rly taken an act of special grace and paternal favor which God appropriateth and exerciseth to those persons and prayers that are good in his sight and well-pleasing to him The Word of God setteth forth the Lords entertainment and acceptance of prayers with great variety of expressions and those very savory and sweet as if it studyed to point it out as an act of very great worth and a thing very notable and affective when it is thus the Scripture saith of prayers They come and ascend up before God Neh. 8.4 Acts
expected promise of divine service to wit the blessing of God upon their ground and tillage and what reason do they find for it who is in the fault in their judgment why they lay it upon God Mal. 3.9 c. Their words are stout against him they say it is in vain to serve God and profitless that they kept his Ordinance and that they have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hoasts The truth was the causes were grosly and palpably extant in themselves and that in the very point of Gods service they despised and profaned his Name they polluted and villified his offerings they grew weary and snuffed at his worship and they robbed him in Tythes and Offerings yet they cast the blame of the fruitlessness of their Religion upon him nay a spice and tainture of this error a proneness to look upon God and his ways somewhat awry even the servants of God are subject unto as was Job whom Elihu is offended at because he justified himself rather then God Job 32.2 Josh 7.7 and Joshua in his expostulating with God upon the defeat befaln the Israelites Army before Ai when the delinquency was in the Camp of Israel and David Psal 77.7 10 when he asked Will the Lord cast off for ever will he be favorable no more when there was no defect but his own infirmity Indeed we are prone many ways to direct our enquiry amiss in regard of the place or subject and to seek most for the fail where it is not in this we are like the Lapwing who makes the greatest fluttering and cry when she is furthest from her nest we are readier to look towards God then man to find it and in looking towards him we are more ready to look into his providences then into his Word and into his Decrees and Purposes then into either and when we do look towards man we are apter to look into others for it then into our selves and in looking into others rather into them that are more remote and distant from us then near home or into the men of our confederacy As when Ahab would father the trouble of Israel 1 King 19 17 he went to pin it upon Elijahs sleeve whereas it was from himself and his fathers house And when Laban made search for his stoln gods he went first into the Tent of Jacob Gen. 31 33 his son-in-law then into his daughter Leah's and lastly into the Tent of Rachel his younger and dearer daughter Secondly We look not with good eyes not with a cleared sight but some or other mist or distemper blears our eyes There are three indispositions ordinarily incident to men in this kind 1. Offence at the thing fallen out 2. Mens partiality to themselves 3. Their prejudice against others 1. Offence at the thing fallen out The Penman of Psal 73. had much difficulty about that case of the wickeds supereminent flourishing and the godlies deep sufferings to find out the reason of it he confesseth When he sought to know it it was too painful for him and from hence was his difficulty the scandalization and discomposure of his spirit at the case as he acknowledgeth Psa 73.2 My feet were almost gone my steps had welnigh slipt He that will ken an object somewhat remote or indistinct he must stand still A man that is in motion especially if he stumble and stagger will lose the view of his object or see but imperfectly Again he saith Vers 21 My heart was grieved and I was pricked in my reins Inferbuit cor meum renes mei meipsum exacuebant My heart seethed like water upon the fire or worked like Bear new-tunned in the vessel or swelled like leavened meal and my reins pricked or spurred me on And through this rising or boyling up of his heart this commotion of his natural passions his head was dazled his understanding or apprehensive faculty was intoxicate as he after confesseth So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a beast before thee Vers 22. 2. Mens partiality to themselves Self-indulgence spreads a vail over the eyes and forestalls the judgment that whatsoever cause of the thing there may be in our selves we cannot easily see it The Prophet Isaiah saith of the Idolater Isai 44 20 A deceived heart hath turned him aside that he cannot deliver his Soul nor say Is there not a lye in my right hand A self-conceited heart is the self-deceiving heart and verily every man in this respect is an Idolater to wit an Idolizer of himself to this degree that he cannot quickly descry within himself the deserving cause of his own miseries which may be there no nor scarce undertake to put the question to himself concerning it he cannot because he will not Favor and affection to our selves will not admit of an evil imagination Jer. 8.6 1 Chro. 21 17 Mat. 26.22 1 Tim. 5 25 of a suspicious reflecting or misgiving thought by our selves No man repented him of his wickedness saying what have I done Where is the man that will confess with David I it is or that will as the Disciples every one of himself Lord is it I Most mens sins in this regard follow after or come behind them they are like Moab Jer. 48.10 Zeph. 1.12 or the men of Jerusalem setled on their lees their faults are sunk down and stay in the bottom of the Cask whilest they draw very clear as if there were no dregs in them It is almost incredible to read how confident and peremptory those degenerate Jews to whom the Prophet Malachi was sent were in their own justification against the several charges layd unto them in the Name and Authority of the Lord He bespeaking them in this stile Mal. 1.6 2.17 3.8 13 O ye Priests which despise my Name they presently retort Wherein have we despised thy Name The Prophet tells them a little after Ye have wearyed the Lord with your words They abruptly interrogate him Wherein have we wearyed him The Lord again challengeth them Will a man rob God yet ye have robed me They roundly demand of him Wherein have we robbed thee Once more the Lord accuseth them Your words have been stout against me They still expostulatingly reply What have we spoken so much against thee See unto what a height of shameless and impudent self-excusation the spirit of man may transport him even then and in those things when and wherein he is most guilty And though we think this prodigious in them yet it is but an instance of the overweening partiality that is in us all towards our selves withstanding all imputation of any blame-worthâ—ness to us and so indisposing us to the abovesaid enquiry 3. Prejudice against o hers We are no less prone to be suspicious hasty and severe in sentencing and faulting other men then we are well-conceited slow to mistrust and favorable in judging of our selves Our Saviour hath decyphered this humor in us where he
Whosoever then shall enter upon the enquiry which we are about I would advise him to lay down this as a ground or grant beforehand That that is perfectly right which God doth and that is sufficient to be known which God revealeth I cannot pass from this rule until I have further backed it with a Scripture-Aphorism and an example added to it The Aphorism is that of Moses Deu. 29.29 The secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever that we may do all the words of this Law Here are two sorts of things solemnly distinguished secret things and those which are revealed and two distinct parties to whom they are severally appropriated Secret things belong unto the Lord Revealed unto us and to our children and the proper end or reason of the latter part of the distinction and of that appropriation of it that we may do all the words of this Law Dr Hall Exhort apud Acta Synodi Nat. Dord Sess 16. A great Divine in an Exhortation spoken in a famous Synod observed that in all the Scripture the Jews note fifteen places that have a special kind of mark set upon them and this is one and the first of them and it is the more to be marked in reference to our purpose because it is spoken in way of answer to a question not much differing from this we have in hand When all Nations shall say upon the sight of the dreadful Judgments of God upon Israel for their forsaking of him and breach of their Covenant with him wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this Land what meaneth the beat of this great anger then men shall say because they have forsaken the Covenant of the Lord c. Unto which positive answer this is added as the close and boundary unto mens expostulations touching that matter The secret things belong unto the Lord c. The example is that of Job and his three Friends They in Jobs heavy taking enter into and maintain on both sides and carry very far on a perplexed debate about Gods providence towards righteous and wicked men and the differences and ends thereof from which neither part came off clear and innocent much less satisfied or satisfying to their Reader in the end therefore God himself interposeth to decide the controversie when Elihu had assayed and could not Job 38.1 and speaking out of the whirlwind blameth them both Job he faulteth somewhat to wit of presumption and rashness but his three Friends more to wit of unsoundness and untruth in their several discourses of his ways and he so deals with them both as that he drives them to recant their Errors and return into the bounds of piety and charity Let this example instruct us Job 40.3.42.1 let us not forget the silence self-abhorring and retractation which Job was brought unto nor the kindling of Gods wrath against Eliphaz and his two friends and what attonement by sacrifice Cap. 42.7 and the intercession of Iob they were put to 3. Take heed of setting up a skreen or drawing a shadow betwixt us and the thing we enquire after I mean of an allowance of our selves or a purposed continuance in any known sin against God to bolster up our selves or to dispense with our selves in any known way of wickedness is wilfully to put a vail before our own eyes and industriously to prevent our selves of finding out that which we pretendingly seek to know And by the way a known sin I understand to be not only that which is actually apprehended or presently judged by our selves to be a sin but that which is contrary to our habitual knowledg or received principles though we should not apply them to its condemnation actually yea whatsoever we have so sufficient and plentiful means to be convinced of to be a sin that if it were not for our affection to the sin and our disaffection to the light that would detect us in it and draw us from it it would be evident enough to us that it is a sin And if there should be any that will not allow the latter branch of this description of a known sin yet I dare affirm to him that a sin even so continued in may justly prove such a skreen or vail as I am speaking of He that will not know his evil way to be a sin in Gods sight or knowing will not forsake it that man must not look to succeed well in this enquiry How should he expect to receive information in the cause that he knoweth not that will not obey information in the case that he knoweth or is afforded full information in That such adherence to a manifest sin is of this obstructing nature and interruptive consequence may appear if we look into that notable place in Ezekiel Son of man Eze. 14.13 these men have set up their Idols in their heart and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face should I be enquired of at all by them Here we have certain of the Elders of Israel repairing to the Prophet and sitting be ore him their business is to enquire of the Lord or as it is termed after to enquire of the Prophet concerning the Lord that is Verse 7 to be acquainted from God with what they desired to know concerning God his Will and ways but the posture they come in is the matter which the Lord takes notice of more then the errand which they come about and this is quite spoiled with that These men have set up their Idols in their heart c. This is the thing which puts a stop to their enquiry here comes in the skreen or traverse which interposeth betwixt them and their business We may observe sin indulged brings this about two manner of ways 1. Efficiently 2. Meritoriously And both are in this Text. 1. Efficiently sin distempereth the heart that it cannot take in or receive 2. It provoketh God that he will not give answer or satisfaction 1. Efficiently It distempereth or indisposeth the heart for the receiving of an answer Their Idols are set up in their heart and the stumbling block of their iniquity is put before their face that is there is a prepossession of their heart and sight by their sin it is gotten into the heart before-hand and there it hath the uppermost seat or throne it is the Lady or Mistriss it is the Idol or Goddess there And it is before their face it hath taken up the whole scope and region of their eye-sight it covers all before them and this is with their own consent and will it is their own doing they have so set it up in their heart so put it before their face they have been otherwise taught and instructed they have been often and plainly detected of and rebuked for those their sins yet they will still set and keep them up in their hearts and before their
faces their affection favor and regard is to them and this sets them up against all the clear lights and admonitions of Gods Word their sin we see is of a blinding nature to them and they blindfold themselvs with it The Law saith of a gift Deu. 16.19 that it blindeth the eyes of the wise and perverteth the words of the righteous this it doth by raising the affections which like a steam or mist about a candle dim the eyes of the understanding So it is in the prevalency of every other sin as well as in that of bribery We say affection is blind love to sin doth deprive the sight and deprave the judgment that when an inquisition is passing the right cannot be discerned There is a place very full and suitable to this in the Prophet Isaiah Isai 44.18 They have not known nor understood for he hath shut their eyes that they cannot see and their hearts that they cannot understand He hath shut that is their Idol spoken of immediately before The Prophet there and in the discourse thereabout doth excellently set forth the infatuating and intoxicating nature of Idolatry and every lust-serving sin is real Idolatry how unreasonable stupid and sensless it makes the followers of it how it prevails not only to tempt and entice them to its committance but to bind and block up their senses and reason from all discovery of their extream folly in it so that they cannot once reflect upon or entertain a thought of their dotage therein though it be never so palpable And this place is sufficient to make good the description I gave before of a known sin we cannot expect to the making of it such that a man do actually apprehend and own and yield it to be a sin It is in the next words said of these men None considereth in his heart or as it is read none setteth it on Vers 19 or returneth or reduceth it to his heart neither is there knowledg or understanding to say I have burnt part of it in the fire c. This phrase none considereth or setteth on to his hearth gives us the sence of those words before and after wherein they are said to have no knowledg or understanding of what they did to wit they had not the practical applicative or actual knowing habitual knowledg principles out of which to deduce an act of judgment they had for the Prophet there abundantly proves what they did was against Natures light common Reason and ordinary sense and therefore in the following words he saith Remember these O Iacob and Israel Remember there wanted no more but an act of remembrance or calling in out of the storehouse of the memory that which was there already layd up and was sufficient to shew them the whole truth of that matter But to return to the point here it is evident that the cause of the Lords hiding himself may be near at hand may be in the very hearts and before the faces of men and yet they not see nor consider it that is they see it not to be a cause of such an evil the thing they see and own and that too much but they understand no such causality or effect by it and the reason why they do not is the darkening and deluding efficacy that their Idolized sin hath upon them The more men set up their sin in their heart and put it before their face as an Idol to wit in affection and regard the more it is out of their mind and sight in respect of entitling or attributing to it the mischief that it doth them they cannot see or find it out in point of causing and procuring that evil to them because they look and fix too much upon it in point of love and affection It is truly that beam in their eye which is not considered it is therefore not considered because it is in their own eye it is too near to be noted and being so close to them it not only scapes espying but it is the impediment that they cannot see any thing else as they ought Thus any allowed sin is a blind or skreen against the enquiry we we are upon by way of efficiency 2. It doth it Meritoriously or by way of provocation it moveth God to deny an answer and this is in the next words Should I be enquired of at all by them q. d. I cannot endure that such persons should come and enquire of me and if they do adventure upon it it shall be in vain This advancement of their Idols and iniquities in their heart and before their face doth mightily incense God and he takes their coming to enquire of him in this conjunction with their sin as a very high presumption and daring affront and indignity put upon him and for it he refuseth and repulseth their enquiry with indignation Suitable to this rejection is that in Daniel when the Church of God whether Jewish or Christian whether under Antiochus or Antichrist I shall not here dispute should be in her time of greatest trouble it is said Dan. 12.4 Many shall run to and fro to wit to understand the rise and continuance of those doleful afflictions and the Angel informs the Prophet Daniel that their enquiry should be of a twofold success according to the difference of the enquirers Vers 10 None of the wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand and the reason why none of the wicked shall understand is immediately foregoing because the wicked shall do wickedly for their wicked doings it shall be that they shall be left destitute of understanding in these Times they may run to and fro but it will be but as it is in the Psalmist like a dog with an unsatisfied mind and the reason is because they go round about like the dog to pursue their sinful lusts with greediness Yea it may be observed this retaining and persistency in their sin when they come to consult with God not only frustrateth their seeking unto him by provoking him to deny them resolution but it procureth a further sentence from God as the words following declare and it is of two parts 1. A penal tradition or delivery of them up to deceits and delusions Vers 4 I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his Idols q. d. He shall not only be denyed that answer which he would have and I would give if he were an obedient and sincere seeker of me that is a friendly and satisfying solution of his doubt but he shall have an answer worse then none an answer of judgment and displeasure and it shall be according to the multitude of his Idols that is as his abominable Idolatries deserve and in some proportion to that kind of sin he shall have no better an answer then if he were enquiring at his Idols he shall have an Idols answer and that was indeed sometimes a dumb mute and answerless repulse as was that of
Baals Priests in Elijahs contest with them 1 King 18 26 but sometimes it was a doubtful and aenigmatical or a downright false and lying answer Hab 2.18 The molten Image is a teacher of lyes the Idols have spoken vanity and the Diviners have seen a lye and have told false dreams Zech. 10.2 5 The answer is further described That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart that is the consequence of their enquiry shall be their catching and ensnaring they shall be possessed with the error and misprision of their own brains in stead of a true revelation from God and by it they shall be held and led on with confidence as in a net or snare to their own ruine This sentence is the same both in effect and in cause with that of the Apostle For this cause God shall send them strong delusion 2 Thes 2.10 11 12 that they should believe a lye and wherefore is it because they received not the love of the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness and the special means by which they should thus fall into the trap is in the subsequent words And if the Prophet be deceived Verse 9 when he hath spoken a thing I the Lord have deceived that Prophet It should be by the deceiving and deceivedness of false Prophets whose falshood and delusion whether subjective or effective whether in themselves or in the people though it be their own sin as the peoples delusion also is their own sin in that they seek to and credit such Prophets yet it is also penal and so from God not by active infusion but by giving them up to Satan his instruments and engines to themselves and their own stumbling blocks 2. The other part of the sentence is Vers 8. I the Lord will answer him by my self and I will set my face against that man and will make him a sign and proverb and I will cut him off from the midst of my people Here is still more weight added to the punishment of the presumptuous sinner that dares enquire of God with his heart upon his sin he shall not only be denyed a favorable and resolving answer from God nor only besides that be given up by God to others and his own deceits but he shall have thereto an immediate positive return from God and it is an heavy one it containeth much it is a most dreadful thing for a man to have the face of God set against him it is one of the terriblest expressions in the whole Scripture and he that will seek to God but will not sincerely set himself towards him to seek his face but will keep up the stumbling block of his iniquity before his own face he must look for this return Therefore it behoves every one not only in relation to the well-speeding of his enquiry in this or any other matter but in reference to all other his concernments to that dearest concernment of his own Soul that there be an unfeigned parting betwixt him and his iniquity To close up then this Rule let that admonition of God himself annexed to the rebuke and sentence I have been insisting on in this place be embraced and followed Vers 6 which is this Therefore say unto the House of Israel thus saith the Lord God Repent and turn your selves from your Idols and turn away your faces from all your abominations and let us together with this remember that in Psal 111. when the Psalmist had discoursed of the great honorable glorious and wonderful works of God and of the duty of searching them out he concludeth with this sentence as containing the way thereto and with it I will conclude this particular The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom a good understanding have all they which do his Commandments Other two Rules there are which I shall dispatch shortly 4. Come to the enquiry with an humble heart 1. With an heart-humbled under this condition of Gods hiding himself from us in relation to prayer according to the nature of it and as it deserves We have great reason to take it very heavily The Lords hiding from his servants or from his Church hath ever been the matter of their deepest hearts-piercing bitterest sorrow and dolefullest lamentation So it was to Job to David Job 30.28 to Heman Job saith I went mourning without the Sun Psa 30.7 88.15 I stood up and I cryed in the Congregation David saith Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled Heman complains I am afflicted and ready to dye from my youth up while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted And so it hath been to the Church of God When the Lord told Israel in the Wilderness upon their sin and notwithstanding Moses intercession for them that he would not go up in the midst of them for that they were a stiff-necked people it 's said When the people heard these evil tydings Exod. 33.3 4 they mourned and no man did put on his ornaments The Church in that allegory of Solomons Song when she arose up and opened to her beloved and found that he had withdrawn himself Cant. 5.5 6 8 and was gone her Soul failed or melted and when she sought him and could not find him when she called him but he gave her no answer she charges the daughters of Jerusalem if they could find him to tell him she was sick of love 2. With an heart humbled under the sense of our ignorance and inability to see into this matter of our selves There must be an ingenuous and lowly acknowledgment of our blindness and unskilfulness to discern what we should see herein and of our proneness to be puzled non-plussed and offended at all those ways of God wherein he walks behind a cloud in any sort towards us If we would be enwised in this particular 1 Cor. 3.18 we must become fools in our own sense that we may be wise He that intently looketh over the History of Job may find this failing both in Job and his friends which might be one cause of their mistaking touching the ways of God towards his afflicted servants that they arrogated too much to themselves and insisted too much upon comparisons with each other in point of wisdom and understanding Agur going to utter his Prophecy or Doctrine of Christ under the Titles of Ithiel and Vchal the former rendered God with me the latter God Almighty thus vilifies yea nullifies himself Prov. 30.2 3 Vide Jun. Trap Cleaver in loc Surely I am more brutish c. or as some interpret Surely I have been brutish since I was a man neither is there in me the understanding that was in Adam I neither learned wisdom nor have the knowledg of the holy And if we will understand the reason why he who is Ithiel or Emmanuel God with us doth sometimes withhold or conceal his presence from us we must take Agurs course and abase our selves
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
Lord but the Lord would not harken to their voyce nor give ear unto them Here the denyal of their suit and the irrevocability of the sentence of their wandering so long in the wilderness was plainly for their sin And yet we read elsewhere in the story the same was ordered so for their good also The Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee to know what was in thine heart c. and he humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger c. that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live And a little after Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery Serpents Deut. 8.2 3 15 16 c. that he might humble thee and that he might prove thee to do thee good at thy latter end These many excellent benefits were the end for that peoples attainment whereof they were put to travel and stay so long a time out of Canaan and in the desart The proposal of so happy an end by God and the committance of such great offences by the people concurred together in the denyal of their request above spoken of And the like may be said of Moses in regard of the denyal of his request to go over Jordan and into Canaan it was his benefit being that in lieu thereof he dying attained to a better life and Canaan and yet his sin also was in it as the cause of that refusal h Deut. 3.26.32.52 Numb 20 12 Psa 106.33 We see then by these instances those very persons whom the Lord hideth himself from it may be both to correct their sin and to consult their good he may do it to them both for the punishment of their offences and for the procurement of their profit SECT V. Of the first sort of Causes of Gods hiding from prayers HAving made this observation of both the sorts of Causes layd together I now proceed to speak of them severally 1. Of the former namely the Reasons arising from man or the meritorious Causes on mans part Concerning this head of Reasons I shall endeavor to shew four things 1. That sin is a cause of Gods hiding from his peoples prayers 2. Whose sins 3. What special sins for kind 4. Certain circumstances in sin that help forward this effect 1. That sin is a cause of this deportment of the Lord towards his praying people I shall not need to say much to this it is a thing so evident It is plainly declared by God It is freely acknowledged by the people of God themselves 1. It is expresly declared by God Isai 59.12 Your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear Jer. 33 5. For all whose wickedness I have hid my face from this City Because they trespassed against me Ezek 39.23 24. therefore I hid my face from them According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them and hid my face from them And predictâ—vely Mic. 3.4 Then shall they cry unto the Lord but he will not hear them he will even hide his face from them at that time as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings 2. The consciences of the people of God have given testimony to this against themselves So the Church of Iudah under her Babylonian pressures Lam. 3.42 43 We have transgressed and have rebelled thou hast not pardoned Thou hast covered thy self with a cloud that our prayers should not pass through Isai 64 7 For thou hast hid thy face from us and consumed us because of our iniquities David elegantly expresseth this where he saith Psal 65 3. Verba iniquitatum prevaluerunt mihi Foord Ar. Mon. pelican Musc Iniquities prevail against me or as our margent with other Interpreters read the words of iniquities prevail against me He had in the verse next before used this compellation to God O thou that hearest prayer and with relation unto that stile he is conceived to intend this speech The words of iniquities prevail against me We see iniquities speak they have a voyce yea a cry As our prayers speak and cry for us so if iniquity have dominion over us it will speak yea clamour and clamouring prevail against us As God is a hearer of prayer so he is a hearer of the cry of sin As he receives the suits which our prayers present for us so also he admits the bills which our sins put in against us As he hath an ear of mercy open to the one so hath he an ear of justice and holiness open to the other And it is but equal that as the presentment of our wants or wrongs by prayer so the accusation of our sins which are injuries done unto God should have access to him yea and that God himself should first be vindicated and the sin expiated and removed and we our selves set right in the Court of Heaven upon our repentance ere our prayers for us should have a hearing and return from God 2. The next thing is Whose sin it is that may cause God to hide himself from his servants prayers I answer 1. It is very ordinarily their own sin that do pray I will give no other instances for this then those even now given out of Isaiah Ieremiah the Lamentations Ezekiel and Micah look but over them again and you will read in every of them that as sin was the motive of Gods hiding from those prayers so the sin was theirs whose were the prayers 2. It is oftentimes the sin of others As 1. Theirs for whom the prayer is put up to God As in the intercessions of the servants of God for others they may pray for others out of duty to Gods Command and pious affection to them and their prayer may be regular and it may be acceptable to God and yet the Lord may hide himself from it in regard of granting the benefit to the persons prayed for and the reason may be the sins of those persons 1 Sam. 15.11 Samuel cryed unto the Lord all night for Saul but Sauls disobedience in his expedition against the Amalekites suffered not Samuel to prevail for him Ezek. 9.8 9 Ezekiel prayed for Ierusalem when the six men the Executioners of Gods wrath were sent out into it with their destroying weapons in their hands but the full measure of the Lands and Cities sins would not admit of a rescue though it was Ezekiel that prayed Israels Golden Calf stood up and made such a breach for Gods anger against them Exod 32.31 c. that though Moses his chosen stood before him in it yea and turned away his wrath as to the destroying of them yet he could not obtain for them a total remission of punishment The Lord answered him Nevertheless
in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them And the Lord plagued the people because they had made the Calf c. Many a dear Saint of God and many a holy prayer of such hath been non-suited in Heaven by the over-poysing sins of them for whom they have interceded 2. Or the sin may be theirs who are in near relation to the persons prayed for We may find that sometimes the wickedness of bad friends or alies hath made more against men then the prayers of their godly friends could make for them Josiah and Jeremiah both very choyce ones the one for a Prince the other for a Prophet they both prayed for Judah about one time but the sins of Manasseh the grandfather of Josiah and the King of Judah were too strong for them both they are mentioned as the prevailing reason against both their prayers * 2 Kings 22.15 16 17 with 23 25 26 Jer. 14.19 15.1 2 3 4. 3. The third thing propounded to consideration is What sins in special do provoke God to hide himself from his peoples prayers The Scripture brands a multitude of sins by name and special note with this effect Let us view the particulars And for that end I will put them into three ranks 1. Sins against Piety or duty to God 2. Sins against the second Table 3. Sins in or about Prayer it self 1. Sins against Piety Unto this rank belong these sins following 1. Idolatry or the setting up and giving divine Worship unto those that are no Gods For this peruse that story in Judg. 10. In short it is thus The Lords anger waxed hot against Israel and he sold them into the hands of the Philistins and of the Ammonites The Israelites under their oppressions and distresses by them cry unto the Lord with confession of their sin The Lord answers them That seeing after and notwithstanding many former deliverances from the like evils they had now forsaken him and served other gods therefore he will deliver them no more let them go and cry unto and be delivered by the gods which they have chosen This was the dolorous repulse which in a day of tribulation they received for their sins of Idolatry For this sin it was that God declared he would neither hear his people of Judah praying for themselves Jer. 11.10 c. nor his Prophet Jeremiah praying for them See also for this Ezek. 20.31 2. Covenant-breaking with God As in that example I last mentioned of Judahs and Jeremiahs prayers They were rejected for this as one cause The house of Judah have broken my Covenant which I made with their fathers therefore c. And though they shall cry unto me I will not harken unto them c. Therefore pray not thou for this people neither lift up a cry or prayer for them c. 3. Abuse of Religion to carnal ends This was the sin of the Prophets of Judah and for it they are sentenced with this Judgment They make my people to err Mic. 3.5 6 7 they bite with their teeth and cry peace and he that puteth not into their mouths they even prepare war against him Therefore night shall be unto you that ye shall not have a vision and it shall be dark unto you that you shall not divine and the Sun shall go down over the Prophets and the day shall be dark over you Then shall the Seers be ashamed and the Diviners confounded yea they shall all cover their lips for there is no answer of God 4. Contempt neglect waxing weary of slothfulness in or falling off from the service of God Mal. 3.14 The people in the Prophet Malachi complain by way of taxing God It is vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his Ordinances and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hoasts And wherefore do they thus charge God what was the cause of this obstruction of their prayers If they had looked well about them they might have found it in themselves and in those very services which they complained to be disregarded in as the Prophet before in the first second and third Chapters had made it manifest against them They were grown to despise Gods Name to pollute and account contemptible his Table to offer the blind the lame and the sick for sacrifice to profane the Name of God to esteem his service a weariness and to snuff at it the Levites were departed out of the way they had caused many to stumble at the Law they had corrupted the Covenant of Levi Iudah had profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved from the days of their fathers they were gone astray from Gods Ordinances and had not kept them they had robbed God namely in tythes and offerings No marvel their devotions proved so vain and unprofitable to themselves when they were so vile and curtalled as they were done unto God they had no worse then they brought When the Spouse in Solomons Song gave her self to sluggishness Cant. 5.3 6. and would not arise from her bed when she was called up by her Beloved this moved him to withdraw from her door and to absent himself from her when after she would have entertained him and missing sought him The set time for God to favor Sion in regarding the prayer of the destitute Psal 102. and in hearing the groaning of the prisoner is when his servants take pleasure in her stones and favor the dust thereof that is as I understand when the sight and face of Gods house and service is amiable to them and the very dust the humblest and meanest part of it is delightsom 5. Loathing of refusing to harken and disobedience to the Word of God Solomon saith He that turneth away his ear from hearing the Law Prov. 28 9 Chap. 1.24 28 29 30. even his prayer shall be an abomination And Because I have called and ye re-refused I have stretched out mine hand and no man regarded c. Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me c. See the verifying of this in Zech. 7.11 12 13. What congruity is there that men should look to be heard of God when they will not harken to him Upon these terms is audience promised by our Saviour to his servants Joh. 15.7 If ye abide in me and my words abide in you ye shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you 6. Carnal security or putting confidence in a temporal portion as in wealth successes or advancements This sin was Davids cloud In my prosperity I said I shall never be moved Lord Psa 30.6 7 by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled 2. The next rank of sins is of those against the second Table In it as causes of this effect are 1. Blood-guiltiness When you spread
Story it is said that God was angry with Moses for the peoples sakes * Deu. 1.37 3.26 4.21 Psa 106.32 It is to be understood to have been not for the peoples fault but for his own sin which was an evil example and a God-dishonoring offence unto the people In the days of the Prophet Malachi and in his Prophecy it appears there was an ill success of prayer I have divers times mentioned it and this was one cause of it the not hallowing duly the Name of God Mal. 2.2 3 8 13. their contempt and vilifying of it and in particular the Priests and Levites are taxed therewith the Lord saith unto them by name If ye will not give glory unto my Name I will curse your blessings These blessings may signifie either the blessings bestowed on them by God or the blessings or prayers which they offered up to God and wherewith they blessed the people or both say the late Annotations the latter of the two senses as it aptly suiteth to the present purpose so it is not incommodious to the words and drift of them The prayers of them that serve God and in special of the Ministers of his house are blasted for their scandalous sins In the very next words he saith I will spread dung upon your faces even the dung of your solemn Feasts and one or it shall take you away with it The Lord will abhor them and make them an abhorring and a shame unto men that despise and detract the glory of his Name They that pollute and besmear as with dung his solemn Feasts and Sacrifices by their profaneness Drusius in loc Con. temptus nominis mei adducet vos ad istam contemptum q. d. par pari c. he will cast them out of his sight and cause them to be carried out like as the intrails and excrements of the beasts that were killed for sacrifices on those days in the holy place were carried out of the Camp or City It shal take them away to it that is as Drusius saith the Hebrew scholia expounds it the contempt of my Name shall bring you to that contempt A little further he saith to the same persons Ye are departed out of the way ye have caused many to stumble at the Law and in the sequel insomuch that he the Lord regardeth not the offering any more or receiveth it with good will at your hand The errors of the Priests are very prevalent causes by way of pattern or patronage of others many others falls and therefore may justly become causes of the non-acceptance of sacrifices and of the non-audience of prayers with God To this I will add one example more and it is still of the same degree of persons What was the cause of those dismal events unto Israel in Eli's time that notwithstanding they fetched the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh into their Camp after their first defeat 1 Sam. 4.2 c. yet they received a second and greater a total overthrow by the Philistins The Ark of God saved them not yea it self was taken and in it the glory departed from Israel the presence of God was in a sence removed from them the cause was principally the sins of those that bare the Ark the Priests the two sons of Eli according as the Lord had before twice over by two several Prophets declared to Eli And what were their sins Besides the gross nature of them impious violation of the sacrifices and whoredom this was their aggravation through them men abhorred the offering of the Lord 1 Sam. 2.17 24. they made the Lords people to transgress Their sins were gross and flagrant scandals and stumbling blocks to the people both to deter them from the worship of God by sacrifices and to draw them to commit the same crimes I have the rather noted this way of sinning as prejudicial to the success of prayer because our times and people abound with scandalous sins and that our Moseses and Davids our Priests and Levites I mean our Superiors and Leaders in Magistracy and Ministry may be put in mind how pernicious the scandals of persons of their rank are unto others and how obstructive of the prayers and votes put up unto God 4. Sinning after prayer and whilest we are in expectance of our answer This manner of sinning is of a special malignity to hinder the taking effect of prayers at least for the time When we have drawn as near to God as we can by any solemn and serious seeking unto him and while we are waiâ—ing he is preparing or working for the fulfilling of our petitions if in the interim we fall to sin and especially if it be any gross or presumptuous sin this may well interrupt and dash our fair expectations this calls back our prayers as it were in their going up or meets the answer in its way to us and causeth it to return back again to Heaven This seems to be the sence of that caution uttered by the Psalmist when he said I will hear what God the Lord will speak for he will speak peace to his people Psal 85.8 and to his Saints But let them not turn again to folly That caution let them not turn again to folly may as fitly be applyed to the time betwixt his servants praying and the Lords speaking peace that is the time of their harkening for an answer of peace as to the time after he hath spoken peace to them and so it layeth forth to them the danger of running into any sin especially the folly that they had fallen into and have in seeking unto God professed repentance of then when they are looking towards Heaven and attending for the fruit of their supplications unto God their so doing may prevent the Lords speaking peace unto them Thus it fared with Israel They in Egypt and under their yoke of bondage cryed and groaned and their cry came unto God and God heard their groaning and upon it he appeareth to Moses Exo. 3 7 8 telling him out of the bush I have heard their cry and am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egytians and to bring them up out of that Land unto a good Land and a large unto a Land flowing with milk and honey c. and accordingly the Lord did bring them out of Egypt and even to the borders of Canaan presently after But when they should have received the other part of their prayers and hopes and of the Lords promises to wit possession of that good Land Numb 14 26 64. their sin at Kadesh upon the return and report of the Spies concerning that Land put betwixt them and it and for the same the Lord had well-nigh utterly dis-inherited them of it and destroyed them with the pestilence but however they were so far pardoned yet they were made to wander in the wilderness until forty years and the lives of all the men that came out
of Egypt save Caleb and Joshua were expired together Such and so long an interruption was caused by the interposition of their sin betwixt their prayers and the Lords performance even when they were at the very brink thereof 5. Lastly Apostatical sinning or sinning by way of Apostacy or falling off from God and his ways after an embracement of them When men have once owned themselves to God professed and happily covenanted to be his and to serve him and to walk in and keep his ways their turning back from this their devoted relation and course into a practise of sin chiefly if broadly opposite to the same this will turn back their prayers from Heaven without entrance or answer Thus the Prophet Azariah forewarned Asa 2 Chron. 15.2 and his people The Lord is with you while you be with him and if ye seek him he will be found of you but if you forsake him he will forsake you And the same Item had David left with his son Sololomon 1 Chro. 28 9 Deu. 31.16 And it was long before that also foretold by Moses unto Israel and so it proved to be and was verified to that people upon their several revolts from God both in the times of the Judges and particularly that before Jeptha's deliverance a Judg. 10.13 And in Samuels time in the Lords forsaking his Tabernacle at Shiloh upon their revolting carriage b Psal 78.59 60. And also in the rejection of the State of Judah and their prayers in the Prophet Jeremiahs time for seventy years which was for their reiterated Apostacies c Jer. 11.10 11. 15.1 6. 18.15 17. And in the frustration of the prayers of that people when after the captivity they had obtained a return and resettlement in their Land and in the priviledges of the house of God but were found again to be departed from the Ordinances of God d Mal. 3 7 14 Of all the ways of sinning that are this is one that doth as it were naturally and by a kind of near proportion procure this effect Those that profess and vow themselves unto the Lord though they call upon him with their lips in their need yet if their feet be declined from his ways if they have left off following him in his service and Commandments they must look for a withdrawing on Gods part SECT VI. Of the latter sort of Causes of Gods hiding from Prayers WE have gone over the first sort of Reasons of the Lords hiding from his peoples prayers and have therein seen what influence men on their part may have unto this effect by way of demerit or provocation the other sort come now to be enquired into those are the final Causes or the Ends which God proposeth designeth and aimeth at in so doing One End viz. the punishment of sin is involved in all that which hath been said already of the Causes given by men for if the sins of men procure God to hide himself from prayers then the punishing of their sin is one end aimed at by him in so doing I shall not therefore here need to insist on that But besides there are many other ends which God may have and which his Word discovereth to be set up by him in this proceeding and those are of another nature to wit merciful and gracious ends or intentions of good and profit unto his servants God hath his gracious purposes and is merciful in holding off from the prayers of his servants as well as in manifesting himself upon them Jer. 29.11 As in that of the Prophet For I know the thoughts that I think towards you saith the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end The words are uttered upon a supersede as or stay of about seventy years put upon the hopes and prayers of those of Judah that were then captivated at Babylon The Lord tells them he had intendments and contrivances on foot directed to that very end which they themselves desired and expected which was their peace and good and he would not fail to bring that to pass although he posted off their prayers in regard of the direct purport of them their present return to Judea to so long a term yea he would effect that end of their prayers by not granting them he would give them their expected end though not by their expected means they longed and waited to enjoy peace and welfare again at Ierusalem but the Lord tells them they should have those benefits for seventy years at Babylon a Ver. 5 6 7 and then after the expiration of that time they should re-enjoy the same at Jerusalem b V. 10 14 God sometimes seeth that his and his peoples aym will not be procured by letting them have their wills and prayers the end therefore which he finds will be unattained by his subscribing to their Petitions he projecteth to accomplish by disposing other ways as the judicious Physician in some cases discerns that abstinence is more conducible to his Patient then either food or physick so the wisdom of God upon some occasions judgeth it better for his Petitioners to keep them fasting in respect of the satisfaction they desire then to send them away full-handed from his presence The Lords hiding from his servants prayers may be as to the purpose in hand two manner of ways First By way of denyal of the thing asked Secondly By way of deferring it for a time 1. By denying and when he doth thus the question here is What may be his end herein I answer The intention and aym of God in relation to the Suitors is their profit and benefit 1. To prevent their harm 2. To promote their good 1. To prevent the harm that might ensue unto them if those desires which he denyeth should have been accomplished The prayers of the servants of God when they descend to particulars as when they beg health peace victory deliverance prosperous success in such a calling undertaking or condition or the like for themselves or others such particulars I say though they think them desirable and intend them for good yet they may be as incommodious and hurtful for them to have as wine or sweet-meats are for one in a Fever God therefore in denying them those things provideth for their indempnity Of not a few of those things which our hearts are carryed after and our eyes are fixed upon in prayer it may be said to us as it was by our Saviour to the two sons of Zebedee and their mother of their request Ye know not what ye ask Mat. 20.22 We are like children of vehement and impetuous desires but very unable in judgment either to refuse the evil See Mr Goodwins Return of Prayers chap. 9. sect 3. Evertere domos totas optantibus ipsis Dii faciles nocitura toga nocitura petuntur Militia c. Ergo quid optandum foret ignorasse fateris Sejanum nam qui nimios optabat
honores Et nimias poscebat opes numerosa parabat Excelsae Turris tabulata unde altior esset Casus impulsae praeceps immune ruinae Iuvenal Satyr 10. or chuse the good We are bent to ask a stone in stead of bread a serpent in stead of a fish for an egg a scorpion And certainly if our heavenly Father were as ready to give as we are to ask some things if he did not consult our safety and profit more then we do our selves and manifest his goodness some while in withholding as well as other-while in giving we might perish or be very near undoing by our Petitions The Apostle saith We know not what we should pray for as we ought * Rom. 8.26 The saying holds true not only of the manner as we ought but of the matter what and it holdeth universality of all matters we are unskilled what to ask in all desirable things whatsoever unless the Spirit help us and as an advocate in the Court form our requests and pleas in and for us Spirituals we cannot see at all to desire them and temporals we cannot see so as to distinguish of them or discern what is convenient for us and what is not One of the wholesomest Petitions that ever was put up to God in relation to worldly Affairs is that of our Saviour praying to his Father for his Disciples that he would keep them from the evil of the world Joh. 17.15 It is more necessary for us to be preserved from the evil of the world then to be gratified with the benefits of it in any kind whatsoever and we being subject to mistake in our wishes about them if we have a part in Christs prayer we must needs be denyed in some of our own prayers concerning them if God according to it deliver us from the evil of the world he must needs deliver us from some of our suits about it 2. To promote their good The Lords denyal of a thing prayed for may be not only to put by a hurt that would come to his people by it but to procure to them a benefit it may be not only for their security but for their advantage not only cautional but gainful to them It often cometh to pass that the keeping back of a temporal benefit turneth to the spiritual good of them that sought it they miss an outward comfort and meet with an inward and so are great gainers by the repulse of their desires If men learn by a disappointment of their Petition about some earthly concernment to amend what is amiss in their Souls lives or prayers if they be drawn nearer to God and more alienated from the things of this life it proves well for them that they sped not in the particular asked they are no losers by such a miscarrying It is with the servants of God in this respect as with Vines let the branches of a Vine lance and sprout forth while they will and they will spread much but bear little the way to have them fruitful is to prune them So give a godly man all his requests and he will be like an unlopped Vine but slender and slow in spiritual growth and fruit the way to make him fertile and flourishing in grace is to cut him short of some of his desires I have mentioned before the Lords denyal of his people Israel at Kadesh Deut. 2.45 when they would have had the sentence of the forty years wandering in the wilderness reversed and an instant admission into Canaan granted Now Moses after those years were expired and they were come again to the borders of Canaan to enter into it looking back upon that many years travel observes a multiplicity of good effects for which they had been kept and led about by God so long in that wilderdess to wit to humble them and to prove them to know what was in their heart whether they would keep Gods Commandments or no and to make them know Deut. 8.2.3 15 16. See also Deut. 29.5 6 that man doth not live by bread only but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord and that he might prove them to do them good at their latter end Those servants of God that are much and diligent in prayer do and ought to petition dayly for a multitude of things both in relation to themselves and others and in this variety of matters prayed for although there be a fair consistibility in the asking of them yet there may be an inconsistency in the enjoying of them there may be a simulty of desire there cannot be a simulty of fruition for though there be no intrinsecal contrariety yet there may be an accidental opposition amongst them In this case therefore where we cannot have all our requests fulfilled if the Lord chuse out and prefer those that are the more beneficial and needful if he put back smaller matters that he may make way for greater if he set aside meaner Petitions that he may reserve place for weightier the accounts of our prayers being cast up together we shall sustain no prejudice but on the other hand reap much advantage by denyal in some particulars 2. The other way of the Lords hiding from his peoples prayers is in deferring or delaying them for a time This way being more frequent with God towords his faithfullest servants then the other of that denyal I shall be something more large and particular in noting out the several ends of it They may be either 1. In relation to the persons praying 2. Or respecting others 1. The ends in respect of the parties praying as we learn them out of Scripture may be these 1. In reference to their prayers to better them therein to stir them up and set them on to pray with both more frequency and more fervency to excite them to a further measure both of assiduity and ardency in prayer God will have us not only to ask when the matter is of moment but to ask again and again to pray and that with much instancy and vehemency this may be the meaning of our Saviours trebling of the precept Ask seek Matt. 7.7 knock importing both a multiplication of the act and an heightening in the activity and intention of the mind therein Seeking implyeth more earnestness and intensness then asking and knocking more importunacy then seeking David saith Evening morning and at noon Psa 55.17 will I pray and cry aloud and the Lord shall hear my voyce To bring his suit to a hearing he resolves on it as requisite not only that he pray but that he make an advance in praying and that both in number and measure that in regard of the one he reiterate in regard of the other he re-inforce his prayers 1. He will reiterate their number Evening and morning and at noon 2. He will re-inforce their measure I will pray and cry aloud Both these are contained in those terms of continuing instant and
of them with all the saving satisfying and gladding fruâ—ts of his presence as v. 14. to the end of the Chapter But wherefore or what is the matter that they must wait and tarry for this happiness why there are certain dispositions and alterations to be wrought in them to whom that command is given and those blessings are promised and those changes must be first produced in them ere they can enter into the harvest of those comforts they must wait therefore until they be accomplished with them The qualifications are those that lie in that Text betwixt vers 8 and 14. Let us take the particulars out because they are very material They or the principal of them are these four 1. Purity in them that call upon the Name of the Lord I will turn to the people a pure language vers 9. where language is not put as the sole and entire subject of purity but figuratively as for the whole conversation in as much as real sanctity in the tongue is one main yea and ordinarily the highest and last attained point in purity Jam. 3.2 If any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man 2. A general union in Religion That they may all call upon the Name of the Lord to serve him with one consent vers 9. There must be neither neutral Atheism nor unbrotherly separation or diversity in divine service 3. Sole confidence in God and as a means thereof stripping off all their former outward glory prosperity and wealth I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoyce in thy pride and thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holy mountain I will also leave in thee an afflicted and poor people and they shall trust in the Name of the Lord vers 11 12. 4. Fidelity and truth in deed and word The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speak lyes neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth vers 13. These gracious dispositions the Lord will have introduced or renewed in his people calling upon his Name as suitable to fore-run and usher in the benefits promised in the residue of that Chapter Let these four things in Zephaniah and the other four noted out of Zechariah be well considered as the pre-requisites which the Lord designeth to find or frame in his praying people and which he annexeth to the promise of audience especially in things of grand importance as necessary antecedents to the execution thereof I might amplifie and parallel these by other places of Scripture but the clear and close delivery of them in these two places shall suffice Let our mediation upon them be this Until we be thus disposed and fashioned in some convenient measure we are not fit to have the great and excellent things which we prosecute by prayer and all the delay of our prayers which we sorrowfully lie under is but needful as the space of time which is allotted for the acquiring of those dispositions and how long soever the delays seem to be it is our slow coming on in these graces which extends the length thereof unto what it is 3. Another end may be the exercise and tryal of the people of God that pray As the Lord by deferring their prayers for some time may intend the producing or bettering those graces which are deficient in them and thereby the fitting of them for the receipt of their answer so he may aym at the exercise and probation of such graces as are already seated in them for the which exercise and probation the withholding of their prayers may be a fit opportunity and means There are some virtues or fruits of the Spirit the chief use and experiment whereof appears in desertions and over-cloudings As the principal service of Tapers is to give us light when the place we are in is covered with darkness or as the worth and soveraign vertue of some precious cordials is shewn in a swoon or trance so is the truth and excellency of some graces best attested by the absence for a time of those enjoyments and comforts which are sought and waited for Such a case discovers what mettal the vertues we profess are made of and what indeed they can do By this means is faith patience love and sincerity set a work and proved in us to the purpose Here is the faith and patience of the Saints Rev. 13.10 14.12 And again Here is the patience of the Saints here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus that is here they come to action proof and manifestation in their faith patience and sincerity of obedience namely where and while Gods witnesses prophecy in sackcloth his Saints are captived and killed under the tyranny of the cruel beast The Apostle Pauls faith and courage were then evidenced when in the tempest at Sea neither Sun nor Star in many days appeared Act. 27.10 and all hope of being saved was taken away Jonahs confidence in God was then put to it and tryed when being shut up in a double grave viz. the belly of the Whale and the bowels of the Sea he nevertheless said unto God I am cast out of thy sight yet I will look again towards thy holy Temple Jonah 2.4 Jobs trust in God was then raised to the height of action and manifestation when in his deserted state he resolved Though he slay me yet will I trust in him Hab. 2.3 4 The just then lives by his faith indeed when the vision of the fulfilling of his prayers and the divine promises tarryeth The patience of the Prophet Isaiah and of the faithful personated by him appeareth where he saith I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob Isa 8.17 and I will look for him It was a full proof of Jobs sincerity when Satan could not move him from his integrity neither by all the miseries which he brought upon him from without nor by all the mists and temptations which he cast upon his spirit So were the people of God tryed Psa 44 17 c. when the Lord had sore broken them in the place of Dragons and covered them with the shadow of death When the Lord as to their sense was asleep cast them off and hid his face forgetting their affliction and their oppression and yet then they did not forget him neither deal falsly in his Covenant their heart did not turn barck neither did their steps decline from his way The love and compassion of the servants of God is seen when Sion sitteth watching solitary and desolate Psa 102.14 c. 137.1 c. and they then take pleasure in her stones and favor the dust thereof and when they sit down by the rivers of Babylon and weep at the remembrance of Sion and protest not to forget Jerusalem but to remember her before their chief joy Such graces as these the Saints of God have given them not
places and fountains in the midst of the valleys I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water I will plant in the wilderness the Cedar c. And the end or issue first of that protracted indigence and then of this exceeding affluence first of that low ebb and then of this full tyde is that they may see and know and consider and understand together that the hand of the Lord hath done this and the holy one of Israel hath created it Here we have the effect notably exprest it is not meerly said that the hand of the Lord and his work may be visible but the act of acknowledgment of it is set forth by a multiplicity of words by a fourfold term to note both the conspicuity of the object to be observed and the intentness of the observer of it that they may see and know and consider and understand together In our prayers which are ordinarily put up and as continually answered we scarce see or confess God in the return but when as we are put to seek God long ere we speed and are hard pinched with the want and delayed expectation of the thing and are even wearied and faint with our waiting and crying and when at last our requests are granted us then we apprehend God clearly in the issue we own him expresly and take solemn notice of him in it As Hagar when the Lord appeared to her by the well in the wilderness gave unto God this appellation Gen. 16.13 Thou Lord seest me and said Have I also here looked after him that seeth me in like manner do the servants of God now on such an appearance of him Or as it is in another passage of Isaiah of a suitable import to this they say Lo this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us Isai 25.9 this is the Lord we have waited for him we will be glad and rejoyce in his Salvation Observe what the occasion is of this exultation in Gods appearing and of this pointing out of God as it were with the finger the preface to those words denoteth it to us Verse 8. And it shal be said in that day Lo this is our God c. In that day to wit when the Lord God will swallow up death in victory and will wipe away tears from off all faces and the rebuke of his people shall be taken away from off all the earth that 's the day in which this shall be said This then is one intent of God in withholding himself for a time from his peoples prayers that his appearance to them in the upshot may be the more grateful and glorious Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you Isai 30.18 that is not as if God were not gracious in disposition and affection unto his servants at all times but the meaning is the Lord hath his special season of exercising and bringing forth the eminent effects of his grace and favour to them and the special season is when mercy will appear to be mercy indeed and grace will look like grace and shine forth in its orient brightness and this season is brought on ripened by the Lords deferring or waiting for a time even until his people be come to that extremity of affliction and inability as is there described in the context Mar. 8.24 Mark 4 37 If Christ had not slept in the ship while the storm arose and came to that height that his Disciples and the rest of the company in it apprehended themselves at the point of perâ—shing the divine Power of Christ had not so appeared and been so admired by them as it was when he upon their awakening him with their cries rebuked the wind and stilled the Sea and made it calm in an instant Mat. 14.24 And at another time of their passing by Sea had it not been that they had been so tossed by waves and contrary winds and that he tarried from them until the fourth watch of the night and that when he came unto them he came walking upon the Sea and when he was come into the ship the wind and waves immediately ceased they in the ship had not been so moved to worship him and to conclude him of a certain to be the Son of God Ye have heard saith St James of the patience of Job Jam. 5.11 and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy The end of the Lord I conceive here may be not so much or not only the conclusion which God put to Jobs afflictions in the happy change and recovery of his outward estate double to his former prosperity as the end which the Lord accomplished upon the spirit of Job and doth still work upon the hearts also of all others that look upon and make a right use of the dealings of God with him which is the demonstration of Gods exceeding pitifulness and tender mercifulness unto him in pardoning his infirmities dispelling his temptations and raising him up from so miserable a state to flourish again and this was the end of Jobs endurings and the exercise of his patience in so great a measure by them the end I â—ay it was of his endurings not which they by their own natural efficacy produced but which the Lord by his ordering brought forth it 's therefore termed the end of the Lord that is the end which the Lord proposed and at length attained by his proceedings in that manner with him Gen. 32.31 Jacob when he so stoutly wrestled with the Angel of God as that he prevailed and carried the blessing withall he got a halt and came off sinew shrunk by the Angels touch of the hollow of his thigh The reason which is commonly rendered was that by this mark of infirmity it might appear that he got not the victory by his own strength but by his with whom he prevailed it was the will and not the weakness of him with whom Jacob wrestled by reason whereof he got the upper hand As the hollow of Jacobs thigh was touched before he obtained the blessing so do the servants of God not seldom get a halt or come on slowly to the enjoyment of their desires in prayer and it is for that very reason that the divine power and grace may be the more magnified in the end 5. A further end of the Lords deferring to answer his peoples prayers may be to inhance the price of the benefit prayed for to teach them by the long want of it and by their painful and sollicitous seeking for it to set a due rate upon it That which costs us dear we usually account dearly of The mâ—rcy which is gotten by hard begging and long craving will be more acceptable and better improved when it comes it will be both more pleasing and more profitable when it is possessed we shall by that means learn better to
despised vilified and distrusted persons in the Land while those who are but reputed Temporisers are the men looked upon received into the bosom promoted and entrusted Now where Religion is talked of and the ground and band of all correspondency and confidence is mens absolute flexibility and giving up themselves to any publique interest for private and self-respects sake even Charity her self will judg Religion is taken in but upon design It being thus manifest that many mens forwardness for Religion hath been to serve base carnal ends we may gather thence both what intolerable abuse hath been done to Religion and what guilt is then contracted 1. Religion hath grosly been abused and sadly suffered thereby and that many ways It its life and being whilest overgrown and overtopped with hypocrisie and worldly-mindedness in its honour whilest exposed to scandal and reproach and in its advance and growth whilest the Reformation intended and begun hath been by no means so much undermined retarded and blasted as by this All the professed contradictions and oppositions of the Papists and prophane have not so availed to crush and strangle this work as these self-designers like the Samaritans in Ezra Ezr. 4.1 2 coming in to joyn with the children of the Captivity in building the Temple on purpose to cross it have done 2. A great trespass is thereby committed Jer. 22 14. See our English margent Et lacerat sibi fenestras meas tectum cedrinum deinde pingit Iudici Junius i. e. Rerum e domo mea amocarum in usum suum loco obducit colorem floridum Judâ—ci ne fraus manifesta sit Id. this is for men with Jehojakim as our margent and Junius read that place in Jeremiah to cut out Gods windows and his Cedar-sieling out of his Temple therewith to build and deck our own houses and to paint over the breach they have so made in Gods house with Vermillion that is to bestow upon Religion a vain flourish or colourable complement and under pretence thereof to dispoil it of its solid and substantial furniture For that fact of Jehojakim the Lord pronounceth a wo upon him Wo unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by wrong that saith Ver. 13 14 15 An Regnaturus es quia tu misces te cum ista Cedro Jun. i. e. Res sacras admisces tuis an his artibus regnum tuum stabilum iri existimas Id. I will build me a wide house and large chambers and cutteth him out my windows and Cedar-sieling and then paints it over with vermillion and in particular tells him Shalt thou reign because thou closest thy self with that Cedar Let the false pretending dissemblers to Religion that seek and set up themselves and enlarge their houses and estates thereby take to themselves this woe else it will certainly take hold on them Let us go on to other particulars Here is a decay cooling dying of Religion we are all generally baptized persons professed Christians we bear the name of Christ own the Religion of his Gospel in opposition to and distinction from Heathenism Judaism Turcism yea and Popery We declare for Protestantism and Reformation but where is the soundness life vigor and efficacy of these things If any sense or power of these things moved in us at first unto the embracement of them what is become of it The Lord may say of us as of Jerusalem I remember thee the kindness of thy youth Jer. 2.2 the love of thine espousals In the beginning of Reformation in King Edwards Queen Maries and Queen Elizabeths days there was some zeal and forwardness expressed for the truth and for the pure worship of God in acting for the abolition of Popery and for Church-Reformation and in sufferings unto death but from that time how soon were we departed How continuedly have we degegenerated How far are we now fallen from that life and fervor Where are the forward actors Where are the resolute Endurers for the Cause of God A zealous strict gracious and fruitful course of life and conversation hath all along by the most been layd aside loathed hated denyed and persecuted We have of late begun high attempts and engagements as if we would not only recover but exceed and out-strip our first settings forth for Religion but this rise hath seemed to be but like that of a body mortally sick or wounded which in the approaches of death well have one or a few starts and liftings up to recall as it were its departing Soul but is not able to hold up when it is raised and therefore yields presently again to the seizure of death May we not fear that the late stirrings and sticklings for Reformation were but as sprints or struglings before death considering how little these are seconded yea how quite flat these are layd down yea what intentions studies and practices clean contrary to them are taken up and practised Methinks when I consider the story of Gideon I see a lively portraicture of the men of these times Gideon at first when in his low condition when he threshed wheat by the wine-press to hide it from the Midianites and when he confessed his family was poor in Manasseh and he was the least in his fathers house and the Lord set him to throw down the Altar of Baal and cut down the grove by it and to build an Altar unto the Lord and to offer thereon a burnt sacrifice with the wood of that grove he was very forward zealous and couragious both in the removing of Idolatry and erecting the worship of the true God But when he had accomplished his great conquests and the deliverance of Israel from the Midianites and Amalekites how then proceeded he in reference to Religion Why he makes a request to his people for their golden Ear-rings Judg. 6.11 15. cap. 8 24 c. accordingly they grant and spreading a garment every man therein casts the Ear-rings of his prey and he makes an Ephod thereof and puts it in his City and all Israel goes thither awhoring after it Even thus have men the Gideons the mighty men of valor now delt with Religion At the first when they were little in their own sight then down with the Altar of Baal and the grove down with Idolatry Superstition and all humane Innovations and Inventions in Religion Then for nothing so much as for Reformation and purity in the Worship of God and in the Ministry and Government of his House but when the Wars are over and Victory is obtained then the conclusion about Religion is this Let every man bring in his golden Ear-ring the uncouth and extravagant Notions and Opinions which he hath taken up during the War an employment which hath often proved not more hurtful to mens bodies by bringing diseases wounds and death then to their minds and souls by breeding Error and vice and make a many-coloured changeable Ephod that is an interwoven mixture and free Toleration
2.12 Heb. 10.38 2 Pet. 2.1 3 10 12 13 c. Jude 5.8 c. Revel 2.5 16 22 3.3 16. Jer. 16.18 with vers 14 15. God we may justly fear hath other things in store for us then the accomplishment of our prayers or the bestowing of those blessings which we have sought and waited for even the fulfilling of the several threats of his Word against the highest contemners thereof and that although he would not utterly reject our prayers but sometime perform them yet that he should first make good his own Word upon us and vindicate it against us Once he said of Judah when he promised them an exceeding great and renowned deliverance out of Babylon First I will recompence their iniquity and their sin double So may we apprehend the Lord determining concerning us I do no where read that either God did ever so long afford his Word written and preached in such freedom and plenty to any people as he hath afforded it to us or that having begun in judgment with any for their abuse of it he was so quickly and so easily pacified and entreated as we now expect he should be The dignity and worth of the Word of God the singularity of the mercy of enjoying it b Psa 147.20 Rom. 3.2 the holy and jealous nature of God c Josh 24 19 the platform of his ways described to us in Scripture denunciations and examples to this purpose d As Shiloh was a pattern to Jerusalem Israel to Judah Jer. 7.12 13 14. 26 6. so were they both to the Christians of the primitive age 1 Cor. 10 6 11. and so are they all three unto us the contempt of God himself which the contempt of his Word both in its own tendency and in his interpretation amounteth to e Luk. 10.16 1 Thes 4.8 and lastly that how shall we escape which the Apostle fixeth upon the neglect of that great Salvation which the Gospel preacheth to us f Heb. 2.3 These considerations alone besides many other which come in both from the nature of the fact and from the aggravating circumstances of it as it is ours g Those passages in the Epistle to the Hebrews wherein the Apostle argueth the sins of Christians now under the Gospel out-go those of Gods people under the Law and that the Judgments coming upon these do exceed them that came upon those as Heb. 2.2 3. 10.28 29 30 do cast a very terrible aspect upon us do induce me to apprehend that as God may have I hope hath thoughts of peace towards his people and their prayers in England so his thoughts are not all of peace but some of evil towards this Nation Only this Repent O England Repent or thou mayst give thy prayers thy self and the Gospel which thou hast contemned as lost But my scope was to make good the charge of this sin upon us and not to presage from it To return therefore We have ever since the restoring and republishing of the Word of God by the Preaching and Translation of it in our Tongue in the beginning of the Reformation been declining in our respect to it Although the light of it even in our acknowledgment hath been still ascending and waxing clearer and brighter and extending it self more generally and although the end of its protracted continuance extent and growth hath been as that of the housholders sending more servants then the first and at last his own Son in the Parable of the Vineyard to wit to conciliate and procure at length our reverence and obedience to it yet we have all along unto this day still the less esteemed it the more grosly despised it so that now it is become the most despicable and loathed thing in all the Land and we are casting the very dregs of our contempt upon it Christ and his Apostles and Ministers were not more contemptible in the eyes of the infidel world 1 Câ—r 1 13 4.13 when they were accounted a stumbling block and foolishness the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things then the Word of God and its Ministry are now in the esteem of professed Christians Popery and Prelacy or what ever was most nauseated were not more stomacked in the beginning of the late Stirs then are now Orthodox Preaching and Presbytery with many And although we have for about these hundred years been declining in our respect to the Word yet I dare say we have fallen and degenerated more therein within these ten last years then we did in all the other fourscore and ten And what think we doth this hastening in our defection and our arrival now at the very lowest step of it portend Certainly not the speeding of our prayers but of our punishment What contempt or indignity is there which the Word of God is capable to suffer and we capable to act which we have not done unto it In two words What ever there is in the Gospel worthy of honour and acceptation we despise and vilifie What way soever respect and esteem is to be shewed unto it therein we manifest our contempt of it 1. What ever there is in the Gospel deserving and commanding our honour and acceptance we despise and vilifie We despise and vilifie the light of the Gospel by affecting ignorance and love of darkness We despise its Truth by changing it into a lye entertaining or enduring the Errors opposite to it and wresting it to patronize falshood and iniquity We despise and vilifie its grace by practical infidelity or irreconciliation to God pleasure in sin and earthly-mindedness We despise and vilifie its holiness by Atheism impiety and hypocrisie Its righteousness by injustice violence sedition fraud falshood and perjury Its purity by Epicurism luxury and pride Its union peace and love by malice envy strife cruelty and schism Its order lastly by Libertinism confusion and profanation 2. What way soever there is respect and esteem to be shewed to the Gospel therein we manifest our contempt of it There is honour to be done to it in hearing and reading it in beleeving it in obeying it in professing and adorning it before others and in maintaining it But we have all these ways cast contempt upon it 1. We contemn it in point of hearing and reading Look into our Assemblies see how they are accounted followed frequented What absenting turning away the ear from hearing what emptiness is there in the Congregations Time was in the primitive age in the begining of Reformation yea in our memories no pains travel or frequency in repairing to Sermons was too much now we are overcloyed with much preaching Erewhile we complained of the Bâ—shops for putting down Sermons but now many of the people do put off more Sermons I dare say then ever the Bishops put down It is now counted by some a poor and low business for a man to be diligent in following the publick Ordinances he that cannot with Elies sons kick at Gods Sacrifice
and his offering which he hath commanded in his habitation or at least fly higher then the Church-assemblies Worship and Sacraments and the Scriptures too he is scarce one of the godly or well-affected Again look into the disposition of hearers when they are come May it not be said of divers yea of the most and in some places of all Their ear is uncircumcised they cannot harken behold Jer. 6.10 the Word of the Lord is unto them a reproach they have no delight in it The Word of God was unto David more desireable then gold and sweeter then honey now it is generally nauseous and wearisom How hard dead careless disdainful quarrelling are mens hearts unto it Some can hardly stay it out others can scarce refrain their tongues from breaking out against it many come and sit it out but their hearts are gone from it Plain and pure doctrine pleaseth but a few Now the common temper of them that lend their ear to hear the Word is nicety and novellizing So great is the affectation of novelty and disrelish of ancient and wholesom truth that no doctrine will go down with many but what is quaint and new either for the matter or the dress Men are never swift to hear but when they smell something that is uncouth The beaten rode of plain and familiar doctrine though in the Apostles sentence it be safe for the hearer * Phil. 3.1 yet it is no way satisfying but tiresome Again Look into mens houses and closets What constancy care delight is there used of men in the Reading of Gods Word Are not the Bibles of many that have them and can read cast into a corner the week through never taken up unless to carry to and from the Church scarce ever looked upon but when their ear should rather be employed in hearing then their eye in reading At home they are seldom or never opened What was once spoken as a heavy Judgment is now become a wilful practice Isai 29.11 The vision of all is become as the words of a Book that is sealed In what account was the Word of God in England when it was first translated by Mr Tindal and then under what peril did many procure and keep it in their houses and with what diligence eagerness and pleasure did they read or hear it Some that could not read it hired others with their money to read it to them Now the Book of God is reputed as strange and antiquated whilest Diurnals and Prognostications those worse then legendary lyars the one for time past the other for the future those constant publique scandals of our Religion and Nation are in all the request upon which it may be doubted the continual users of them do bestow more time and cost and it s well if they give not more heed and credit to them then they do upon or to the Word of God Rome and some other Cities are infamous for the permission of Stews Is it not as disgraceful to our Commonwealth to suffer such Marts of falshood cozenage and slander as are practised by those weekly and yearly Pamphlets Their officious lyes and flatteries will not be found advantageous at all to the State if the dishonor and guilt that they lay upon it be well weighed But I had almost in pursuit of these shameful abuses digressed but sure I am not transgressed 2. In point of believing we manifest our contempt of the Word in this respect That exclamation of the Prophet Isaiah applyed by the Evangelist John and by the Apostle Paul unto the Jews of whom they wrote may be justly taken up of us Isai 53.1 Joh 12.36 Ro. 10.16 Lord who hath believed our report The preaching of Christ and Faith in him is very plentiful and general but the Faith which is in Christ is very rare if we may judg by the Apostle James his demonstration of Faith * Jam. 2.18 Christ Jesus is layd forth unto us now as once he was layd in Sion 1 Pet. 2.6 Isai 28.16 as a most precious tryed stone a chief corner stone a sure foundation but with multitudes he is a stone disallowed set at nought and rejected If Christ were our sure foundation there would not be so many rents and divisions If he were our tryed stone or touchstone * See on Isai 28.16 Div. Annot 2 Edit there would not be taken up so many apparantly false doctrines and unlawful courses If he were a stone precious and in honor with us there would not be so much stumbling and falling at him If he were really believed on among us there would not be such making haste Isai 28.16 so much impatience and and fear of man such shrinking in and deserting of the way of Truth and Righteousness upon the least imagination of trouble 3. In point of obedience The Word of God consisting in a great part in Commands and containing the Will of God which we are to do and being spoken to us for that end that we may become conform to the Will of God the most immediate direct and real contempt of it after we come to know it is disobedience to it Now our contempt of it in this respect breaks forth most notoriously and in all kinds of contumacious and rebellious carriages how unsubjugate we generally are thereto would be endless to discover Look into our Congregations once again after the power success and fruit of the Word of God herein who almost is there that gives up himself to the Lord 2 Cor. 8.5 Rom. 6.17 who that obeys from the heart that form of doctrine unto which he is delivered May not the Lord say of us as of Israel sometimes Isa 65.2 3 I have spred out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people which walketh in a way not good after their own thoughts a people that provoke me to anger continually to my face There is a sort of men among us who dispute and deny the binding power of the Moral Law of God unto Christians but we are generally practical Antinomians When the Commandments of God are delivered unto us though we do not flatly say unto him as the first son in the Parable unto his father Mat. 11.28 We will not go yet we do as the second son did who answered his father I go Sir and went not The Land is full of nothing so much as of disobedience and contemptuous violations of the Commandments of God and of Jesus Christ We cast off and abrogate the Precepts of both Testaments We reject both Law and Gospel we not only break in sunder the bands of the Lord but we cast away the cords of his anointed the easie and light yoke of Christ is refused The general vote among us even against Christ himself is We will not have this man to reign over us Witness both the impetuous resistance that hath been made against his regiment in his house and the searedness of mens Consciences
so is the Ministry thereof In stead of maintaining it is denyed invaded reviled undermined despoyled and discountenanced They that are in superior place are very jealous of any that shall disown their power or take up Arms without their warrant they take such acts to be very dishonorable and treasonable against them but the power which our Lord hath given to the Stewards of his House a Luk. 12.46 is denyed the warfare which he hath ordered and committed to certain hands b 1 Tim. 1 18 2 Tim. 2.3 is usurped at every ones pleasure It is now noted for one step or qualification for him that would obtain favor or preferment that he get up into the Pulpit some other way then by the stairs and door that he have the presumption to preach of himself Whilest this is the way of rising the calling and work of the Ministry advanceth not but goeth down The Gospel preached is compared by our Saviour to a Treasure which he that findeth will sell all that he hath to buy but now there is many a one that had rather buy any thing then it that had rather sell then buy it that in stead of selling all for it would sell or take all from it But I have gone far enough with the first part of our charge in relation to the first sin the contempt of the Word of God viz. that it is Englands sin 2. The second thing is This contempt of Gods Word is Englands reigning sin and so of chiefest influence in the prevention of our prayers This may be evident by a brief application of the afore-given characters unto it 1. It is a general sin whether we respect the whole community or the company of them that give themselves to prayer The Gospel is generally in regard of places and persons preached and heard and in a manner as generally contemned and rejected All those among us to whom the reproach of it is a burden will confess that by the multitude it is and hath been from the first disrespected and disaccounted although they draw near unto it with their lips and ears in seeming to attend and in making profession of it yet all real and hearty esteem and entertainment they deny it If some in the several places where it is preached do cleave unto it as there did at Athens unto Paul the generality look contemptuously or strangely at it Act. 17.34 It is with us as once with Judah in the Prophet Isaiahs and Jeremiahs days Isai 28.9 Jer. 6.10.5.4 5 Whom shall he teach knowledg and whom shall he make to understand Doctrine them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the brests To whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear Behold their ear is uncircumcised and they cannot harken behold the Word of the Lord is unto them a reproach they have no delight in it Go to the poor they are foolish for they know not the way of the Lord nor the judgment of their God Go to the great men and speak unto them these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds That which the Prophet Isaiah is commanded to go and write in a Table and note in a Book that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever concerning that peoples despising the Word of the Lord may be also set before us as a Diagram suiting us I desire therefore the Reader to peruse it Isai 30. vers 8. unto 13. These Scriptures do like a glass represent our faces and that as truly and fitly as they did theirs we are thus universally old and young rich and poor high and low wayward and averse from the Word of God 2. It is the common root and mother of other sins and therefore the predominant and reigning sin All the many and mighty sins that break out and overflow in this Land do own and father themselves upon this the contempt and rejection of the Word of God The trampling under foot of this is the opening of the floodgates to the inundation of all sorts of crimes A few instances may here serve This is the cause of that Atheism ungodliness and profaneness that prevails in many among us The contempt of God himself immediately and inseparably follows upon the contempt of his Word He that despiseth you despiseth me Luk 10.16 Psa 81.11 And My people would not harken to my voyce Israel would none of me This is the cause of that gross blindness and inadvertency that men are now involved in both in the matters of God and in those of Civil right and polity They have rejected the Word of the Lord 〈◊〉 8.9 and what wisdom is in them This is the cause head and spring of all those strange damnable and contagious Heresies and false doctrines that now so monstrously abound with the proneness of men to receive them and their height of confidence in them Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved 2 Thes 2.10 11. for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should beleeve a lye This is the cause of that disorder discommunion and anti-disciplinary carriage and disposition appearing in the Church of God among us Men are come through pride and inordinate lusts to ravel and trample under foot that order and authority which the Apostles of Christ from him have delivered unto us in the Word as sometimes the Corinthians in some particulars did * 1 Cor. 11 17 c. 2 Cor. 10 8. Some ungodlily spurn at others overweeningly undertake to mould after their fashion or to transcend Scripture Rule and Institution This is the cause of the warrantless and bold usurpation of the work of the Ministry in preaching The Word of God is become base and mean in the eyes of people therefore it is thought a light and easie work to dispense it any man is fit enough for it no matter who takes upon him to speak it Mens irreverence to it hath begotten arrogant and unskilful speaking of it As Jereboam when he and the people were perswaded the worship ordained of God was too much for them he then made two golden Calves to be their gods 1 King 12.28 31. and of the lowest of the people to be their Priests This is the cause of that base fear of men and obsequiousness to their commandments even where persons are convinced otherwise in their consciences Laying aside the Commandment of God ye hold the tradition of men Mark 7.8 9. Full well ye reject the Commandment of God that ye may keep your own tradition If the Word of God were of more weight and force with men the precepts of men repugnant thereto would be of less or no value Lastly This is the cause that the irreligious heathenâ—sh practise of Divination Astrology and Prognostication is grown into so much request and use The great Prophet of the Church whom the Lord hath raised up and hath appointed
to be his Oracle unto us and hath willed us to harken unto even the Lord Jesus with those whom he hath set in his Church under him are rejected I desire the Reader for this and for his satisfaction against the use of Astrology and Almanack-divination to peruse that prohibition of it and the opposition which is put betwixt it and Christs Prophetical Office Deut. 18. vers 9. unto 19. and the contestation which was betwixt the Apostle Paul and Elymas * Elymas is supposed to be an Arabick word or to be a Gentile name taken from a place in Persia called Elymais and it is of the same signification and use with the title Chaldaeus which is an Astrologer because in Chaldaea Astrology was invented and much used See Beza Drussus and Heusius in loc the Sorcerer Wiseman or Chaldaean Acts 13.8 unto 12. 3. Against this sin God doth specially manifest himself in his proceedings among and against us It is apparant God leaveth us now unto obscurity and darkness of mind and we are benighted and to seek what the Will of God is almost in all affairs both Religious and Civil publique and private For the Reason let the Holy Ghost speaking in the people of Judahs case Isai 29.11 tell us The vision of all is become unto you as the words of a Book that is sealed vers 13 14 c. Why was it so For as much as this people draw near me with their mouth and with their lips do honour me but have removed their heart far from me and their fear towards me is taught by the precept of men Therefore I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people even a marvelous work and a wonder for the wisdom of their wise-men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid The Jews long continued wilful shutting their eyes ears and hearts against the Word of God was the reason which our Saviour rendereth why he spake to them in Parables Mat 13.13 14 so as hearing they should not understand and seeing they should not perceive Both the Word and Providences of God are perverted and misapplyed they are become unto many a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence and a snare upon which they stumble and fall and are taken in error and pernicious ways What 's the reason Because men have been so long wittingly disobedient stubborn and contumacious against the plain and clear instruction of the Word Is 8.13 14 28.12 13. 1 Pet. 2.8 That which they would not suffer to be their Ruine is become their Rule they would not be led by it therefore they are left to be misled by the shadow of it We are divided and set one against another in numberless breaches and quarrels in matters divine and humane publique and personal Wherefore is it Why the Gospel and Christ in it is a stone which being rejected of men in regard of their building thereon will fall upon its Rejecters Mat. 21.4 and on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder We are dissolved even to dust in rents and divisions by this very means and for this cause Those that have Christ preached to them as the Son of God and their King and they devise rage consult and set themselves against him Psal 2.9 to break his bands asunder and cast away his cords from them Christ will break them with a Rod of Iron and dash them in pieces like a Potters vessel We have thus risen up against Christ and he hath thus now dealt with us The Lord declares by his Prophet that this very iniquity to wit despising the Word Isai 30.12 13 14. and trusting in oppression and perversness and staying thereon shall be as a breach ready to fall swelling out in a high wall and he shall break it as the Potters vessel that is broken to pieces he shall not spare so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sheard to take fire from the hearth or to take water withall out of the pit Thus contempt of the Word brings fractions and ruptures among a people We are subject to changes and mutations of State Persons in supream Authority are dethroned and outed one party after another * This is a divine punishment Prov. 28.2 Amos 6 13 their Authority and Laws are conculcated men do take to them horns by their own strength What 's the reason Why divine Authority the Commandments of God his Word and Will are layd aside dispensed with transgressed and waved at pleasure and as humane policy suggests I dare say it before all the world The not walking evenly by the Word of God the Gallio-like disposition towards it that is the not regarding to vindicate and settle it the not caring and providing that the Word of the Lord may run and be glorified these corrupt neglects of men in Authority are one reason of their displacing and ejection Psal 82.5 2.10 11 12 And O that they would know and understand and not walk on in darkness that they would be wise now and instructed and serve the Lord and kiss his Son This sin was it for which the Kingdom of the Ten Tribes of Israel was rent from Solomon in his heir Rehoboam and was translated to Jeroboam see 1 King 11.9 to 12. And this was it for which the Lord afterward delivered Rehoboam and his people of Judah over into the hand of Shishak King of Egypt they cast off the Rule and Law of God and therefore he determined of them thus They shall be his servants that they may know my service 2 Chro. 12 2 8 and the service of the Kingdoms of the Countries Suitable hereunto is that which the Lord saith of Israel in the Prophet Ezek. 20.24 25. Because they had not executed my Judgments but had despised my Statutes c. wheresore I gave them also Statutes that were not good and Judgments whereby they should not live Lastly We are in doubt and danger of the Removal of the Gospel from us either by Apostacy or Persecution or both for these have been wont usually to tread one upon the heels of the other and therefore I say we are in that danger and if so it be what is the reason It is the proper product of our unworthy and contemptuous carriage towards it * Mat. 21.43 4. This is the sin which our Consciences do now take to and reflect upon as the procuring Cause of all our miseries and particularly of this hiding of God from prayers That so it is I shall not go about to confirm by reason or instance it is sufficient to refer to and the proper evidence thereof is the sense and dictate of every mans conscience of theirs especially who are cordially observant of the evils we lie under from God and of the incentives of them from our selves There may be indeed yea there is partiality and indulgence in every one
to himself Few of us smite upon our own brests or say each one to himself This Soul is guilty hereof But the contempt of Gods Word is ordinarily in mens mouths as a charge upon others and is noted for a sin of this reigning nature and predominant influence 5. Last of all The evil under present consideration the Lords hiding from our prayers looketh full upon this sin by way of proportion and similitude This desertion is an answerable punishment or correction to that sin It is one denyal one put off for another We harken not to God in his Word and God harkeneth not to us in our prayers We manifest no delight in Gods Word God manifesteth no pleasure that he takes in our seekings of him The Gospel of peace is not entertained with accâ—ptance by us we receive not an answer of peace to our supplications We yield not to God God yields not to us We defer our obedience to his Will and he delays the grant of our wishes Thus much of the first master Sin of England The other I now come unto to wit the high and dear esteem advancement and love of a worldly-private-Interest This and the former sin are usually to be met with together they are like two German Sisters or Twins that are born and grow up together Where the Word of God falls and lies under contempt and loathing there an earthly-self-Interest lifteth up its head and carries mens hearts and adorations after it and vice versa where worldly-interest gains favour and esteem there the Gospel comes into disgrace and disrespect The Word and the World are as contraries that do mutually expel and remove one another Earthly-mindedness is the Anti-Gospel Antichristian Sin The Gospel sets up the life of Faith Earthly-mindedness sets up the life of Sense That carries to things unseen and eternal this fixeth on things seen and temporal Christ calleth us out of the world this setteth up our rest in the world Christ commands us to forsake all that we have this enjoyns us to grasp at all the world and hold fast all that we can get Christ conquers the world unto us this captivates us to the world Christ teacheth us to deny our selves this wills us to love and save our selves And as these two the contempt of the Word and the adoring of Self-Interest are bred and live together so they concur and work together for the obstruction of prayers It is the latter I am now to speak to and for brevities sake I will joyntly assert that it is the sin and the reigning sin of England as to this effect What is now the professed study care and projection what is the labour strife and adventure of men It is to make themselves rich high safe free and potent and that with little or no respect to Religion Conscience other mens or the publique Interest The Land though it be very full of various opinions and parties divided and subdivided in point of Judgment yet it is not so full of them as it is of particular Interests each whereof is prefered by its owner above the whole We are indeed lately new-termed a Commonwealth but let it be without offence if I say what is undenyably true and plain to be seen to wit these two words 1. Private Wealth and common Poverty were never more procured then since we were a Commonwealth 2. If it had not been for private-wealth and Interest the Commonwealth had not had so many friends and followers It hath been in divers ages a catching opinion that Faith and Religion brings a kind of temporal right or an earthly priviledg dominion and preheminence The Jews extracted such a worldly notion out of the Promises and Priviledges they had by their father Abraham and those they expected by the Messiah a Jo. Selden de Jur. Nat. lib. 6. cap. 3. p. 678. cap. 12. p. 730. cap. 18. pag. 770. cap. 19. p. 774 c. The Disciples of Christ until after his Ascension harbored a strain of that Jewish fancy b Mark 9.34.10.35 Acts 1.6 After that the Corinthians and other Heretiques in the Christian Church took up the conceit c Augustin de Haeres But more notoriously and grosly the Mahumetans entertained this Opinion and pursued it with the Sword unto the erecting of a vast Dominion d Appendix ad Aug. de Haeres Io. Selden de Jur. Nat. lib. 6. cap. 12. pag. 732. Of late the e Io. Sleiden Com. lib. 10. Cambden Elizab Tom. 2. p. 34. Anabaptists in Germany and Hacket and his Complices here were possessed with this principle unto a strange height of fury and dotage And it is very probable there are some now among us that have sucked in this for a Doctrine They have layd but a weak title to any other warrant and what they alledg they quickly take from themselves by their contrary actions If indeed they hold this Doctrine they think it fitter to practise then preach it to keep it to themselves then to proselyte others to it Sure I am for any to challenge by vertue of Saintship or Christianity a right to dispossess others and to assume to themselves as much of the property and rule of this world as they can lay their hands on is one of the most unsaint-like and unchristian points that is imaginable The Devil once entitled himself to the Monarchy of the World * Luk. 4.16 and after him the man of sin the Pope hath claimed it And whatsoever sort of men do take to themselves such a preheminence upon such a ground as is above-said they are not the followers of Christ but of these two and the direct contradictors of the Gospel But my work here is not to prosecute them with a Confutation Whether it be this principle or that downright 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the insatiable greedy desire after the things of this world and a ruined bent to have them by what means soever or both that prevails certain it is that the hearts of men are exceedingly enflamed with the love of an earthly-self-interest This is the powerful attractive the swaying concernment the axletree that actions and affairs now move upon Let us in one word measure the regnancy of this sin by the afore-given characters 1. This is general It was once said of Judah From the least of them even unto the greatest of them Jer. 6.13 every one is given to covetousness Can any less be said of England There are many new and strange Sects noted among us but there is one not of a new rise but of late much encreased and the most numerous Sect of any that is to be found which is that of the Mammonists this is the greatest Sect the strongest party you can meet with amongst them all nay these cannot properly be called a party they are rather the whole All other parties and Sects though they be never so much divided and opposite to one another in other regards
one that would pretend to be a head and vindicator to them of that nature and by means of that conceit and those distempers arising from it they never rested until they brought the Roman Emperor upon them unto their utter ruine †See Tho. Goodwins Serm. on Psa 105.14 and Dr Jackson in Serm. p. 32 It is a sad presage now to us to see both the like aestuations and stirs among us and withall the Roman Beast hovering over us to set up himself and his abomination that maketh desolate again in the midst of us And what sets all these Hurlyburlies on foot and creates this omen but the impetuous minding of an earthly felicity a worldly Christ What makes men so grosly and diversly misapply both Scripture and Providences The plain sence of Scripture is wrested and the clear Authority of it is obscured and it is from hence Mens consulting their worldly interest blinds the mind and corrupts the judgment and silenceth if not seareth the Conscience The world is a pearl in the eye it makes the eye evil double and dark Mat. 6.22 23 so that it seeth nothing though never so evident but what agreeth with it He that is set upon his gain and commodity he dissents from wholesom words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Doctrine which is according to Godliness 1 Tim 6.3 5 He becomes of a corrupt mind and destitute of the Truth Divine Providences are misconceived also how comes it about Gain is become Godliness Gold is made a God and Prosperity is put in stead of Piety and men of this mind will upon all occurrencies construe Gods approving or disapproving Will to be as things temporal succeed well or prove improsperous An unhappy rule it is to go by What 's the cause of Persecution where or whensoever ye see it in the world Self-interest is the most ordinary cause Come say the Husbandmen in the Parable of the Vineyard this is the heir Luk. 20.14 come let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours A Kingdom made Hazael an inhumane 2 Kin. 8.12 dogged Persecutor notwithstanding his former abhorrency of it This was the principal ground of the persecution of Christ and his Apostles and Church by the High Priests and Elders of the Jews Joh. 11.49 50. 19.12 13. Mat. 2.3 16. Act. 16.19 17 6 7 8. 12.25 24 5. by Herod by Pilate and others Men do nowadays condemn and oppose principles ways and persons hand over head in respect of any conscientious warrant that is not for that they find them sinful or stand to examine that but because they meet with them in an opposite party and posture to their earthly interest and concernment What 's the reason of that delusion above touched of a temporal felicity earthly promotion enrichment and power by Religion or Christianity Men are wont to dream of what their mind is most upon those therefore whose hearts are bent upon the world do easily dream of such a matter That phantastical conceit that State embroiling and subverting doctrine is the hatching of a sordid earthly spirit What 's the reason of the many scrued and conscience-relucting compliances that men make now adays Some men can say swear subscribe act oppose any thing as the times turn their private interest is the oyl that supples them the shooinghorn that draws on what would otherwise pinch We may observe some carnal and self-interested Christians in the primitive Church devised ways of accommodating their Religion with the strain of the times and people where they lived and this was for their beloved worldly concernments sake So did the Galatians Gal. 6.12 or some of them endeavor to comply with the Jews in point of Circumcision and Ceremonies to avoyd persecution for the Cross of Christ For that end did the Corinthians 1 Cor. 8.1 c. as it seemeth labour to temporize with the Gentiles in communion with them in Idolothytes In like manner did some of the Christian Souldiers under Julian the Apostate to receive their pay Mr Clarks Martyrol 1 p. 84. they cast incense into the fire of the Idolatrous Altars which Julian set for that purpose to be a train to draw them to a denyal of their Religion If men did not immoderately favour the world they would never do that which proves after a sting to their conscience a blur to their profession and a dishonor to their name Their tenderness and indulgence to their estate-concernments makes them harsh and violent to their inward principles and conscience Two things I fear when I consider the course of things and the shifts and turns of men in them and I will here express them 1. That those evasions and compliances will not serve they must be thundered frighted out of those their Zoars greater tryals must sift them out of those holes 2. That men will hardly stop at their present shifts but that those will dispose them to admit of greater wider compliances And what will they do in the end thereof It may come to that again whether you will carry a Taper and bear a fagot to the fire in renunciation of Protestantism Lastly To take in all at once the many enormous crimes the indirect courses the violent practises the irreligious unrighteous and perfidious contrivements and atchievements that have been acted in these times have sprung from hence men have absolutely and unmeasurably addicted themselves to the affection and service of their own earthly interest this they are peremptorily resolved on that they will maintain and enlarge all they can their fortune as they call it in the world be it by right or wrong They lay down to themselves for a principle that of the Satyrist Juvenal Satyr 14. Vnde habeas quaerit nemo sed oportet habere The Apostle Paul foretelling to Timothy that perillous times shall be or as the word may be rendered hurtful troublesom cruel times in these last days he reckoneth up nineteen several vices or sorts of depraved persons as the causes of those bad times and in the head of them all as the leaders or common parents of the rest he placeth the lovers of their own selves and the covetous Inde fere scelerum causa nec plura venena miscuit aut ferro grassatur saepiu◠ullum Humanae mentis vitium quam saeva cupido Indomiti census nam dives qui fieri vult cito vult fieri sed quae reverentia legum Quis metus aut pudor est unquam properantis avari Ad scelus atque nefas quodcunque est purpura ducit Juvenal Satyr 14. That which he then said shall be now we do see The whole band of those vicious persons are broken in upon us or risen up out of us and their chief or the king of them is this Apollyon the self-lover and next unto him as his second is the covetous 3. It is a sin which the Lord doth specially appear
our friend we must look that God should be strange to us If the world be in all the request with us we shall be but in little request with God Jacob was a Prince with God when he was but weak in the world If we seek an earthly Princedom as our promotion and stay we must be no Israels none of Gods favorites The Apostle James Jam. 4.3 4 8 at large teacheth us this Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your lusts Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you but withall cleanse your hands ye sinners and purifie your hearts ye double-minded I will proceed no further in the prosecution of the predominant Sins of England in the production of this sad effect of prayer-obstruction And having done with it I am come to the close of those three Propositions which I layd down for the resolution of this grand Case of Prayer as it is ours and so I have finished as far as I now intend the resolution it self I apprehend my self in this Section to have run the hazard of falling under censure diversly as of attempting too highly of redundancy of amplification of deficiency in discovery of boldness and plainness of reprehension of mistake or error in judging but my design hath been to avoyd what is justly culpable in any of these respects and for what is not severely blameable rather to cast my self upon the candor of my Reader with submission to his judicious correction then not to endeavor seeing I have undertaken it what I may the satisfaction of the anxious Christian and the awakening of the drouzy in a point so material SECT VIII What may be the Reason of the Lords seeming by his Providences to answer the Prayers which are contrary to those of his People HAving gone through this enquiry What may be the Reason of the Lords hiding himself from his Peoples Prayers grounded upon his Promises I have in a manner answered the whole Query propounded in the beginning of this Chapter Only whereas it was divided into two parts * See Sect. 4. and the latter which is What may be the Reason of the Lords seeming by his Providences to answer the Prayers which are contrary to those of his People I have directly and distinctly said nothing unto I shall therefore here remember it but in one word The resolution of the former I take to be the main both in point of necessity and in the intent of the Proposer and it is moreover in effect the answering of this latter for the prayers in the former from which the Lord hides himself and the prayers in the latter which seem to be answered by him are supposed to be contrary to each other so that the suspense of the one is the succeeding of the other and the Reasons which move God to hide himself from the one and to answer the other are the same especially in relation to the people of God In a word therefore the Reasons for which the Lord seemeth by his Providences to answer the prayers which are contrary to his peoples may be twofold 1. In relation to them that pray those contrary prayers It is in wrath to them and in judgment against them This it must needs be for the prayers of the people of God are presupposed to be at least for matter good and agreeable to the Will of God the prayers then that are contrary to them must needs be for their matter sinful as repugnant to the revealed Will of God or rule of Prayer and what is so sinful success therein must needs be in wrath and judgment For a man to prosper in his evil way to bring his wicked devices to pass though he joyn prayer therewith it cannot but be his sin yea his conjunction of that holy performance of prayer with his unlawful enterprize much addeth to his sin * As the Scribes Pharisees devouring Widows houses for a pretence making long prayer made their condemnation the greater Mat. 23.14 and that which is the proper fruit or product of sin must needs be judgment and punishment It is one of the stiles which is given to the judgments of God upon men for their sins they are called the fruit of their own way and the fruit of their own thoughts When God therefore performeth or speedeth such prayers it is in his displeasure to them and for their hurt It had been better for them not to have had their desires †Bernard calls this misericordia omni indignatione crudelior It may be a judgment to them two ways 1. In being an occasion or means of increasing their sin this is a heavy judgment Men by prospering in their evil designs especially when they as they think obtain them by prayer when they are the sequel and they take it the issue of their devotions they take occasion thereby of delusion infatuation hardening and furtherance in Sin Prov. 1.31 Jer. 6 19 Their Table is their snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a recompence Rom. 11.9 What Table is this May it not be the Table on which they spred their prayers before God or may it not be applyed to that Councel Table of the chief Priests Scribes and Elders of the Jews at which they consulted to take Jesus by subtilty and kill him which plot Mat. 26.4 because they prosperously atchieved even beyond their hopes doing it by the help of Judas in the Feast of the Passover in the most open and ignominious manner which they doubted they could not do they therefore concluded their action good Mat. 27.63 43 and that Christ justly suffered as an Impostor They tyed the proof of his Innocency and of his being the Christ upon the event of their prosecution of him and therefore they said when Christ was upon the Cross He trusted in God Mark 15.32 let him deliver him now if he will have him or as Beza if he be grateful or pleasing to him and Let Christ the King of Israel come down from the Cross that we may see and believe Prevalency in evil undertakings carryed on with prayer putteth on and emboldeneth to many sins For example 1. It lifts men up in pride Hâ—nce that of David Grant not O Lord Psa 140.8 the desires of the wicked further not his wicked device lest they exalt themselves 2. It makes men the more violent and fierce in their enmity and persecution of the people of God Sennacherib made this one ground of his rage and insolent threats against Hezekiah and his people Am I now come up without the Lord against this Land to destroy it Isai 36.10 The Lord said unto me Go up against this Land and destroy it 3. Upon it they justifie themselves and wax more
confident of the goodness of their way Ephraim saith I am become rich I have found me out substance in all my labors they shall find none iniquity that were sin Hos 12.8 As some deceive themselves in thinking they pray wâ—ll or aright for matter therefore they shall speed so others delude themselves in arguing they speed well therefore they do pray well Cambden hath observed of the Wilde Irish as was once before said that when they go to rob they pour out their prayers to God Cambdens Britannia of Ireland page 144 that they may meet with a booty and they suppose a cheat or booty is sent unto them from God as his gift neither are they perswaded that either violence or rapine or man-slaughter displeaseth God for in no wise would he present unto them the opportunity if it were a sin nay a sin it were if they did not lay hold on the said opportunity 4. They take occasion thereby to go on the more securely and presumptuously in their sinful course The Jews in Egypt peremptorily determine to go on in their Idolatry in direct contradiction to the Prophets forewarning them from it in the Name of the Lord and they take their boldness from hence Because when they were at home and burned Incense there to the Queen of Heaven Jer. 44.16 17 they had plenty of victuals and were well and saw no evil Job Job 12.6 observes also They that provoke God are secure into whose hands God bringeth abundantly 2. As their success in prayer proves their temptation to sin so it becomes their precipice to cast them head-long upon their ruine Those wicked men in Jeremiah Jer. 12.1 2 3 who have God neer in their mouth but far from their reins and in that posture go on prosperously in their way their happiness is but their preparation or fat pasture to fit them for the day of slaughter Solomon saith The prosperity of fools shall destroy them Prov. 1.32 This was made memorably good in Israel who in the wilderness tempting God by asking meat for their lusts Numb 11 33 Psa 78.18 c. when God gave them their own desires by sending them quails and they did eat and were filled with them while the meat was yet in their mouths the wrath of God fell upon them in a very great plague 2. There are Reasons of it in relation to the people of God whose prayers are supposed thereby to be crossed 1. It may be for their sins It is not the vertue or value of those prayers but the vileness of the sins of Gods people which makes way for or lifts up those prayers to Heaven They are the same sins on the part of Gods people which stop their prayers and promote the prayers of their opposites Their Transgressions do at the same time bring them down very low Deut. 28.43 44 and lift up the stranger that is among them very high above them they make them the tail and these the head They move God to cast off and abhor and be wroth with them Psa 89.38 42 and to set up the right hand of their adversaries 2. It may be to accomplâ—sh those ends which the Lord aimeth at also in his hiding from their prayers Their not speeding in their own and their beholding the success of the contrary prayers may work together for the ripening of the same ends Emulation at their corrivals may be a notable spur together with their own disappointment to forward them in the attainment of those ayms 3. One end it may be more especially for in relation to them to wit for their probation or tryal The Prophet saith looking upon the wicked mans happiness in his hypocritical devotion Thou Jer. 12.3 O Lord hast tryed mine heart towards thee Possibly he might mean that very spectacle was his tryal What Moses forewarneth the people of God of in reference to false Prophecy may be methinks fitly applyed to false Devotion If a Prophet or a Dreamer give thee a sign or a wonder when he saith Let us go after other gods c. and the sign or the wonder come to pass Thou shalt not harken to that Prophet or Dreamer Deut. 13.1 c. for the Lord your God proveth you to know whâ—ther you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your Soul In like manner in our case If any do for a pretence or the promotion of a bad purpose call upon God and the prayer come to pass we must take it to be a tryal from God whether our love and loyalty be sound or no And indeed it is a notable and strong tryal when the cloke of Piety and the course of Divine Providence in prospering the Tabernacles of Robbers do Job 12 6 like the hot Sun upon Jonahs head cast their bright beams upon our faces The servants of God who are cordially godly are apt to be taken with a form of godliness in others and being given both to prayer and to the eying of Providence they are much afflicted with the cross or happy success of the one and proceeding of the other Where therefore they observe a course of Prayer and an instance or sâ—ries of Providence going together and the cause or way on which they attend to be contradictory in their view both to the rule of Scripture and their own prayers grounded thereon there they are very hard put to to keep stedfast whilest on the one hand they are bottomed upon the sure Word of holy Writ on the other they are encountred with the goodly rays of the most just and wise disposal of God and the serious devotions of men But this is no greater a tryal then is that in the case of Prophecy above cited and therefore as Moses saith upon it Thou shalt not harken to the words of that Prophet or that Dreamer of Dreams Verse 2 so must we resolve in this and the ground we must stand upon and stick unto is that which Moses there delivers them by way of Antidote against that temptation Ye shal walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his CoÌ„mandments Verse 4 and obey his voyce Where the voyce of God in his Word and Commandments is given as the rule to guide and the weight to preponderate or sway the judgment in a question wherein the Providence of God in the coming to pass of a sign or wonder in favor of a way cross to that of Gods commandment is produced I know this is a tryal which may move the servants of God but it must not remove them It doth happily shake them when as they have not only the doubts and despondencies of their own delay or disappointment in prayer to conflict with but the upbraidings and insultings of their successful opposites and their own vexations and murmurings thereby stirred up to wrestle with and vanquish but though it shake it must not cast them down They
14. acknowledgeth though in going forward backward to the right hand and to the left he could not meet with God yet he knoweth the way that I take for he performeth the thing that is appointed for me and many such things are with him In the time when God standeth afar off and hideth himself the wicked man saith in his heart God hath forgotten he hide-eth his face he will never see it he will not require it But the servants of God are not of that opinion in the next words they say Psal 10.1 11 13 14. Thou hast seen it for thou beholdest mischief and spite to requite it with thy hand c. In the heaviest oppressions of the poor and he violentest perverting of judgment in a Province Eccles 5.8 Solomon minds us He that is higher then the highest regardeth Beware therefore lest in dark times when the Lord will come to search Jerusalem with candles we be not found setled on our lees and saying The Lord will not do good Zeph. 1.12 neither will he do evil Beware lest with those profane Jews we weary the Lord with our words in saying Every one that doth evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in them or where is the God of Judgment Mal. 2.17 4. In point of truth and fidelity The people of God in Babylon and under an overclouding of their prayers there call to mind and raise up themselves with this Lam. 3.23 Great is thy Faithfulness David complaining in Psal 119. now his Soul fainted for Gods Salvation his eyes failed for his Word doth nevertheless keep close to this I know O Lord that thy Judgments are right and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me Psa 119.75 Thus are the people of God in a state of dereliction to maintain in themselves clear thoughts of God his Justice Goodness Providential Care and Fidelity Though there did not appear any reason for the Lords dealing so with their prayers which yet we have before seen there doth abundantly yet we are to rest satisfiâ—d upon those principles that God is invariably holy gracious all observing and true Many of his ways are deep and unsearchable but not one of them hath the least taint of the contrary to any of those Attributes Though we should be left in doubt how the Lord takes what he will do upon our prayers though we should see the Lord shining upon the counsels of the wicked and an horror of great darkness Gen. 15.12 like that of Abrahams falling upon us yet we must take notice of the burning lamp Verse 17. as well as of the smoking furnace as in that appearance of God to Abraham we must acknowledg the brightness and lightsomness of Gods ways in the midst of our darksom furnace of affliction 2. Take heed of making this case an occasion of slighting or disaccounting prayer although it fare thus with the people of God when they have prayed yet think never the worse of prayer for it let us not hence fall into a mean esteem or disregard of prayer The Psalmist after he had taken a survey of the present flourishing of the ungodly and suffering of the children of God doth in the conclusion of the Psalm Psa 73.28 notwithstanding resolve But it is good for me to draw near to God those cross Providences in relation to those two sorts of persons could not shake his good opinion of prayer Job Job 9.22 having asserted against hâ—s three friends that God dealeth in some Providences after a like manner with good and bad Eliphaz will needs argue from thence that he restrained prayer before God that he discouraged men from praying unto God Though we assent to Jobs Job 15.4 assertion or should experience it yet we must not admit of Eliphaz his inference from it far be it that we should say So it is therefore let us no longer make any reckoning of prayer either to practise it or hope for good by it This is a carnal and wretched deduction If there be a medicinal receipt that is known to be of a soveraign vertue a man will not contemn or cast it away because it may miss a cure once in a thousand times usage or because it healeth not in the first application Mâ—n do not therefore neglect or lay aside sowing or Sea-voyages because there is ordinarily a long delay and sometimes there is a disappointment in the harvest or return of Merchandise expected thereby for though husbandmen wait for their crop or adventure yet at last they usually receive them and if a seeding or voyage miscarry that 's not one of many So neither should prayer be neglected or disused for the like events upon it And yet prayer cannot justly be equalled with those affairs in point of swerving The Seedsman using the best skill and industry imaginable his labour and hopes may miscarry The Adventurer employing the greatest providence and art in his voyage all may be lost But a servant of God putting up his prayer according to the Will of God that is conformably to the revealed Rule his prayer doth certainly speed some way or other at the last Again Honest men do not in their thoughts condemn or in their practise give over the use of the Law or Trading because Knaves sometimes by those means obtain as much or more by unrighteousness therein then the justest persons So neither ought we to take it either as a disparagement of or a discouragement from prayer that men or ways that are wicked succeed sometimes well in a course of prayer Two sorts of persons are in the Book of Iob noted to vilifie prayer the rich and wealthy worldling Iob 21.15 22.17 and the false hypocrite Iob 27.9 10. And wherefore do they so The former doth it because he hath happily attained his desires without he therefore now thinketh he needeth not to it The latter doth it because he hath taken it up for a time but he findeth not present help by it in his need Both these are as irrational in their reasoning as they are profane in their conclusion and practise Let it be far from us to be swayed by either of their principles Let neither the prosperous issue of evil desires make prayer seem frivolous to us nor the present frustration of our expectation by it cause us to conclude it bootless 3. Conâ—lude not of the justâ—fiableness or sinfulness of the divine approval or disapproval of a way or cause by the good or bad success of it or of the prayers that attend it Say not the course of these men is pleasing to God because the event thereof is pleasing to the men thâ—mselues Say not their cause God disalloweth because he disappeareth to it It is great folly to condemn a way for its swerving in success which if it had stood would have gone for good with us and while it went on it stood clear in our censures It is a
with wicked men in their obtaining of their evil desires 7. Let no man insult over the cross events that come upon the pious prayers of the people of God to rejoyce thereat to turn the disappointments slâ—ps or delays of such mens prayers into derision and triumph Psa 13.2 4 38.16 35.15 69.10 11. Mic. 7.8 is the character of the wickedest persons and the enemies of God but Rejoyce not against me O mine enemy c. These are the Miscarriages to be shunned SECT II. The Graces or Duties to be exercised in the Case above mentioned THe Graces or Duties which in this condition are specially seasonablâ— and necessary to be put in practise are these 1. Lay the case to heart and be duly affected with it They that know any thing of the use of prayer and the worth of Gods face and attentive ear need no perswading to this What should dejâ—ct us if not this While the Ark the sign of Gods presence was a stranger to Israel and captive with the Philistins 2 Sam. 7.2 all the house of Israel mourned after the Lord. This absence of God was David's dayly sorrow of heart yea it was as death unto him For this he made his tears his meat day and night He poured out his Soul in him Psal 42.3 4 10. and his upbraidings by his enemies with this were as a sword in his bones Nay it was this which was as the splitting of the heart of our Saviour upon the Cross when he cryed with a loud voyce Mat. 27.46 My God my God why hast thou forsaken me The 22 Psalm whence the wordâ— were taken pitch them upon a dereliction in prayer Tâ—is withdrawing of God is an Inlâ—t to a muâ— itude if not all miseries and mischiefs a Deut. 31 17. Psal 10.1 c. It is an â—v l for which there is no remedy or compâ—nsation but the ceasing of it b Jâ—b 3â— 29 See Diâ—in Annot. and to the mourner under it is the promise of restoring made c Isai 57. â—5 18. 2. Persevere in prayer give not over the pursuit of your petitions for this cause It behoves us to hold on in duty what ever be the issue Pray we must speed or speed not When the Cloud the token of Gods appearance and conduct unto his Israel in the wilderness was taken up from the Tabernacle Num. 9.21 whether it was by day or by night the people journeyed Whether we be in the light of his presence in this effect of prayer hearing or in the darksom night of his absence we must travel on in our prayers after God Doth God hold his peace we must nevertheless Psa 109 4 yea the rather with David give our selves to prayer Quest But how long must the people of God pray is there no time to give over Answ Those things for which we have a general and indefinite Precept to pray being Temporals for about Spirituals we may pray and must while we live we must continue our requests for until God do either accomplish them for us or take us off and discharge us from the prosecution of them This latter he hath 1. Sometimes done by express word as he did to Moses Deut. 3.26 and to Samuel 1 Sam. 16.1 2. Sometimes he doth it by Providence so he did to David when he fasted and prayed for his child that was struck with sickness 2 Sam. 12.15 16. the Lord took him off from his praying by the death of the child vers 22.23 When the Lord layeth upon the thing prayed for an impossibility in Nature that it should come to pass as he did upon that childs recovery by its death then unless there be a special promise that the thing shall be though it be above Nature as there is of the Resurrection of the body we are to surcease prayer But if the impossibility be but moral that is when it amounts but unto a great unlikelyhood such was that of Zech. 8.6 the flourishing of Ierusalem after the captivity that is no supersedeas unto prayer We find the servants of God have interposed their prayers when the Lords sentence hath been out against the subject of their prayers Deut. 9.25 2 Sam. 12.14 16 Isai 38.1 2. Ion. 3.4 c. Nay when unto their prayers God hath answered them with a plain denyal yet they have persisted to pray Iudg. 10.13 15. Nay further when the Lord hath not only declared that he would not hear them but hath forbldden them to pray yet they have continued praying Ier. 7.16 11.14 with Chap. 14.11 19. That which God hath denounced he may revoke again that which he hath begun to execute he may give over and undo again Ier. 18.7 8. Ezek. 33.8 10 11. Amos 7.2 3 4 5 6. He threateneth under express or implicite conditions He acteth with divers and unknown intents But one condition one intent which he hath made known to us is that we seek unto him unto which his menaces and his judicial proceedings are rather a spur then a discharge As the promises and predictions of God for the coming to pass of a thing are no release from the duty of prayer but rather an invitation and a tye unto it * Ezek. 36.37 so neither are denunciations to the contrary of our prayers any discharge from pâ—ayer no neither are contrary providences or disposings of God which do not reach to an utter or natural impossibility Wherefore lift we up and keep we up our languishing hands and hearts and reinforce our strivings in prayer There are many Considerations to induce it 1. God straitly injoyns it He commandeth not only that we call upon him in our wants and troubles but that we persevere and be importunate therein See Luk. 18.1 c. Rom. 12.12 Ephes 6.18 Col. 4.2 Psal 62.8 Isai 62.6 7. 2. Continuance and instancy in prayer hath its special promises Christ our Saviour in those two passages of Luke 11.5 c. and 18.2 c. hath fully assured us by promise of the prevalency of perseverance in prayer confirming it with a treble comparison taken from the efficacy of persistency in prayer with men with evil men as with a friâ—nd with a father with an unjust Judg how much more then shall it be forcible with God 3. The servants of God have gon this way to work and have left us on record the example of their practise and of the happy succâ—ss of it at length for our imitation and encourag ment In the darkest desertions they have prayed most cryed loudest and wrestled hardest Psal 21.1 2 11 19. 13.1 c. 42.7 8 9. 43.2 3. 44.23 24 26. 61.2 80.4 7 â—4 19 141.7 8. 143.4 6. Isai 5â— 9 62.1 63.15 64.7 8. Lam. 3.18 41 44 54 55. Ion. 2.4 Hab. 1.2 3. with 2 1. 3.1 4. To cease praying would add to our sin increase our misery undo the prayers we have put up
and argue us of hypocrisie 1 Sam. 12.23 Isai 64.7 Gal. 6.9 Nisi ad sit in oratione perseverandi constantia nihil orando agimus Calv. Instit l. 3. c. 20. s 52. Job 27.10 5. One special end of Gods deferring our prayers is to train us on to seek him more diligently Hos 5.15 6. Lastly How hath God been over-intreated by incessancy in prayer as by Jacob distressed at his brother Esaus approach Gen. 32.26 by Moses for Israel Deut. 9.18 19. by Israel under the Ammonitish bondage Judg. 10.16 and by the Church of God in Peters behalf Act. 12.5 Learn we then and keep to this Lesson Let us in the Scripture phrase roul our way upon the Lord Psal 37.5 55.22 Prov. 16.3 Though he should seem to turn it back again from him by delaying to accomplish it yet still be rouling or devolving it over to him by ingeminated petitions Let our prayers be poured out unto God as the Church saith her tears shall be without any intermission till the Lord look down and behold from Heaven Lam. 3.49 c. 3. Beleeve what you see not to wit the presâ—nt acceptance and future return in some or other yea the bâ—st way of your prayers framed accordiâ—g to the Will of God As we must pour out our hearts before God so must we trust in him at all times Psal 62.8 and in particular trust in him for the prayers which we pour out before him From whence had David that lively confidence of the Lords audience of him and the prediscovery of the issue of his prayers so clear as if he saw them already performed before his eyes the which he often professeth even under or together with his most bitter complaints of the Lords hiding himself from him as Psal 6.8 9. 13.5 6. 22.24 43.5 54.7 Had he it from any peculiar or extraordinary revelation or by vertue of the promise of God in his Word layd hold on faith I suppose it might be by the latter way only But by whethersoever it was I see no reason why the vigor of a Christians faith may not without the former extraordinary means attain to the same assurance and triumph which he arrived at For whether it was upon special revelation or upon the written Word that David was so bottomed it was still but by force of a divine word or promise the difference 'twixt those two lies but in the manner of receiving The promise which all Beleevers have in the written Word for the success of their prayers is as firm and certain as that which David built on could possibly be The Lord telleth all his people Isai 45.18 19. in substance thus much He is the Lord that created the Heavens that formed and made the Earth and established it And as he created it not in vain but to be inhabited so he hath not commanded the seed of Iacob to seek him in vain As sure as he made the Earth to be inhabited so sure he hath ordered his people to pray that he may perform and they may possess their prayers What can be a surer testimony to the validity of any thing then that asseveration of our Saviour is for the validity of prayer Luke 18 7.8 Shall not God avenge his own Elect which cry day and night unto him I tell you that he will avenge them speedily I tell you If Christ tell us so in his Gospel it is as sure as if the Spirit told us so by his inspiration to us Can there be a firmer bond to ascertain us then is that tye which we find betwixt the spirit of prayer poured out Zech. 12.10 and the hearing and answer of prayer Chap. 13.9 And from this we may assuredly conclude God hath not in these days poured out the spirit of supplications and thereby put his servants on so universally solemnly and earnestly to pray yea and to enter into such vows and covenants but it is for a great and gracious end at least to themselves in which he will specially manifest himself to be their God and they to be his people Prayers and tears have been accounted the Churches weapons and doubtless what is said of the bow of Ionathan 2 Sam. 1.12 and the sword of Saul that they never returned empty the same shall be made good of those arms of the Church And as the assurance that is given to prayer in general is so stable so is that which is given in special to the prayers of the deserted The needy shall not alway be forgotten The expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever The Lord will not cast off for ever but Psal 9.18 Lam. 3.31 32 Psa 102.17 Zech. 10 6. though he cause grief yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies He will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer I will be as though I had not cast them off for I am the Lord their God and will hear them To perswade us further to exercise faith in this behalf 1. Consider God hears and sometimes the petitioner doth not discern it For this take that of Elihu Job 35.14 Although thou sayst thou shalt not see him yet judgment is before him Mat. 21.22 therefore trust in him 2. The promise of audience takes in faith as a condition or requisite 3. The special use of faith is to settle the heart in beleeving and hoping things unseen Heb. 11.1 Rom. 4.18 19 yea and what is cross to present and visible things and in particular things of that nature in return or answer to prayer This is the confidence that we have in him 1 Joh. 5.14 15 that if we ask any thing according to his Will he heareth us c. This is the confidence we may understand it either that this is the matter of the confidence or this is the office or use of our confidence or faith to wit to beleeve and know the success of our prayer though we sensibly find it not 4. This exercise of faith will enable us to wait patiently and regularly Isai 28.16 He that beleeveth shall not make haste 5. Such a faith will be a token or pledg unto the petitioner of a happy issue of his prayer and desertion But I have trusted in thy mercy my heart shall rejoyce in thy Salvation Psal 13.5 6. Lastly All the interpositions improbabilities difficulties or oppositions which come betwixt us and our prayers by reason whereof we apprehend God hidden from us and our prayers hindered do not make the least distance obscurity pawse or impediment to the real presence or working of God to us or for our help * Ps 73.23 Zech. 8.6 4. Be content to stay Gods time for the issuing of your prayers wait upon God with constancy and patience So the Prophet Isai 8.17 I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob and will look
incomparable good The Prophet Habakkuk Hab. 3.17 18 under all creature-disappointments resolveth he shall be able to furnish himself with joy and comfort enough in the Lord the God of his Salvation To express in any proportion the numberless and invaluable Consolations that are in God for such a state and use as this is not to be undertaken take in lieu thereof these Considerations 1. God is alway present with his even when they most seem to be deserted of him Joseph through envy was sold into Egypt but God was with him Acts 7.9 God was with David in his walk through the valley of the shadow of death Psal 23.4 God was with the three children in the fiery furnace Dan. 3.25 And in his presence is fulness of joy Psal 16.11 His presence is Salvation Psal 42.5 margent 2. God still hears his people even when and while they pray according to his Will though he do not presently answer Isai 65.24 Ier. 31.18 and in hearing he takes exact notice of them and their requests Act. 7.34 Iob 23.10 and he is dearly affected tenderly moved with their condition and cry Iudg. 10.16 Ier. 31.20 and he constantly bears in mind them and their prayers A Book of remembrance is written for them that fear the Lord and that think upon his Name Mal. 3.16 They are graven upon the palms of his hands and their walls are continually before him Isai 49.16 The words of their supplication are nigh unto the Lord their God day and night 1 King 8.59 And he still owns his people highly esteems tenderly cares for them as his Jewels Mal. 3. 17. This is his mind and disposition towards them even under desertion 3. His people have the pledg of his Word and Promise to stay upon and move him with Remember the word unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope This is my comfort in my affliction for thy Word hath quickened me Psal 119.49 50. Gods word of promise is in many respects better unto his people then his present providential workings for this is common to the wicked as well as them and it is temporary and variable but his Word is eternal and invariable and the peculiar tenure of his children 4. There is no such strait or difficulty to the people of God but he hath still a way out for them though they see not the portal or passage That speech of the Apostle is excellent to this purpose We are troubled on every side yet not distressed we are perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed 2 Cor. 4.8 9. In In every one of those clauses they cast one of their eyes downward upon themselves and there see their strait and another upward to God and there see their outlet They are as to their own sense environed with troubles as at their wits end as quite overthrown they know not which way to turn them for escape but looking up to God their nonplus is at an end they know he hath still a postern to open for them and set them free 5. The people of God have their former experiences of God to revive and be an earnest unto their faith Psal 22.9 10. 71.5 6. 77.5 6. 143.6 Lam. 3.56 57 58. 6. God doth and will support strengthen stablish and settle them that trust and wait on him Psal 138.3 He giveth them songs in the night His light riseth in their obscurity He satisfies their Soul in drought Iob 35.10 Psal 42.8 Isai 58.10 11. 7. Lastly The people of God that are so indeed have an assurance from God that his present and partial desertion of them is not neither ever shall be total or perpetual The true measure of Gods forâ—aking thâ—m is given us Isai 54.8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment The desertion is not total it is but in a little wrath Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand Psal 37.24 Hence is it that at the same time and in the same condition the people of God to wit during the seventy years captivity in Babylon are said to be cast off and forsaken of God Ezek. 11.16 Ierem. 7.29 12.7 23.33 39. 2 King 23.27 and not to be forsaken of God Ezra 9.9 Ier. 51.5 because though they were indeed forsaken in regard of the presence and special blessings of God they before enjoyed at Ierusalem yet they had still the acknowledgment the favor the protection the care the purposes of God for special good upon them for which read Ier. 24.5 6 7. Ezek. 11.16 17 18 19 20. Neither is the desertion such as it is perpetual or endless it is but for a moment The Lord will not cast off for ever but though he cause grief yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies Lam. 3.31 32. In regard of perpetual forsaking â—t is said The Lord will not cast off his people neither will he forsake his inheritance Psal 94.14 The Lord forsaketh not his Saints they are preserved for ever Psal 37.28 And of the same people of God whom in part he had forsaken he himself saith Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken Thou shalt be called Sought out A City not forsaken Isai 62.4 12. Psal 80.3 7 19. Turn us again O God vers 7. O God of Hosts vers 19. O Lord God of Hosts and cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved 2 Thes 3.5 And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ Amen FINIS A Catalogue of Books Printed for Luke Fawn at the Parrot in Pauls-Churchyard In Folio 1. A French-English Dictionary by Mr Randle Cotgrave with the Supplement of Mr James Howel 2. Ovid Metamorpâ—â—sis Eâ—â—lished Mythologiz'd and represented in figurâ—s by Mr G. Sandys 3. The Worâ—s oâ— Mr Williâ—m â—erkins the first Volume 4. Dr Fulk upon the Rhemists Testament 5. The Works of John Boys Doctor in Divinity containing an Exposition of the Dominical Epistles and Gospels used in our English-Liturgie 6. A Dictionary in Spanish and English together with a Spanish Grammar by Iohn Minshew 7. The Laws and Customs of a Common-wealth by Iohn Bodin 8. Englands Recovery being the History of the Actions of the Army under the Conduct of Sir Thomas Fairfax by Ioshua Sprig In Quarto 9. An Exposition with Practical Observations upon the first fourteen Chapters of the Book of Iob by Ioseph Caryll 10. A Practical Commentary or an Exposition with Notes on the Epistle of Iames by Thomas Manton 11. Of Wisdom 3 Books written in French by Peter Charron and translated into English by Sampson Leonard 12. Christs victory over the Dragon or Satans dowfall in an Exposition of the 12 Chapters of the Revelation by Dr Thomas Taylor 13. The way of life in four several Treatises 1. The pouring out of the Spirit 2. Sins deadly wound 3. The