bee any longer hardned against each other a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand but give us all the spirit of meeknesse Mar. 3.23 patience and brotherly love Take from us all self-ends and private interests that we may all unanimously seek thy glory and this Kingdoms welfare Give the King thy judgements O Lord Psal 72.1 and thy righteousnesse to the Kings Sonne blesse them the Queen and the rest of the Royall stem with all the graces of thy holy Spirit blesse the Fathers and Ministers of thy Word and Sacraments with zeal and piety Restore incorrupt Doctrine and holy discipline to the Church and in thy good time a setled and religious Peace to this dying perishing Kingdom Blesse all our Magistrates and Counsellours with wisdom knowledge and integrity blesse all thy people with true faith and obedience and grant us all high and low the spirit of unity and charity that we may agree in a blessed and acceptable harmony to praise thy holy Name for all thy mercies to us in Christ Jesus Amen Another O Lord Father of mercies the God of peace unity and love Psal 80.4 How long wee beseech thee wilt thou bee angry against the prayer of thy people How long will it be ere thou thou remove this unnaturall and execrable warre Look upon the afflictions of thy people give ear to the sighes teares and groanes of the poore and let the effusion of so much Christian blood move thee to pity Alas O Lord we acknowledge that this and other thy judgements are just punishments for our sinnes we have sinned we have committed iniquity we have despised and forsaken thee the fountain of life and our own happinesse and have waged warre against thee and thy commandments by our daily offences We have kept none of thy statutes which according to thy word by the Prophet hath brought the sword into our land to devoure us Isa 1.20 Yet thou O Lord in the midst of thy wrath remember mercy Hab. 3.2 Which that we may be capable of give us grace to call to our remembrance to confesse bewaile and forsake our transgressions Send into our hearts the spirit of grace and supplication that we may humbly deprecate thy just displeasure and cry unto thee and say Lord pity Lord save thy people whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood and be not angry with us for ever Lord sheath this bloody and devouring sword and let us not fall as Saul did upon our own swords Command all those that minister occasions of warre to return to their own places that so by thy grace and favour through the merits of our alone Saviour we may again recover if it stand with thy good will and pleasure our lost happy and most desired peace and agree again as becometh Christians in unity of hearts and mindes to praise and glorifie thy holy Name for ever Amen In this time of unseasonable weather dearth and scarcity ALmighty Lord God which givest food to every living thing that coverest the heaven with clouds and preparest rain for the earth that commandest the clouds to send forth rain and again doest stop the flood-gates of heaven who at the prayer of thy Prophet Elias didst shut the cataracts thereof so that it rained not in three yeers space and didst again open them and the clouds did yeeld plentifull showers one for the peoples good the other for their punishment Wee confidently beleeve that thou doest what thou pleasest in heaven in earth in the sea and all places Wee thy poor distressed and miserable Creatures humbly acknowledge and confesse that wee have departed from thee and have not hearkned to thy word to walk in thy commandments Wee have spent the dayes appointed for thy seruice in idlenesse and excesse and neglected thy worship letting loose the reynes of the flesh to all uncleannesse Therefore that curse denounced in thy law for such rebellion hath befalne us Deut. 28.16 c. That wee should bee cursed in the city and cursed on the field in our store in the fruit of our body and of our land in the encrease of our kine and the flâ—cks of our sheep And that the heaven over our head should bee brâ—sse and the earth under us irâ—n And that the rain should come down till we be destroyed O Lord we have seen with ioy and comfort that in the former parts seaons of the year the earth was plentifully cloathed with fruits in abundance which filled us with hopes and expectation of a plentifull harvest and a numerous encrease of all things for the sustentation of man and beast But O Lord thankful hearts not accompaneing our joyful minds thou hast broken up the springs of the earth thou hast opened the windows of heaven and immoderate rains have fallen whereby the land hath been overmoistned the corn hath been depressed and laid flat to the ground and for want of the comfort and heat of the Sunne hath not attained to its due ripening and the waters have overflowed the earth so much that our cattell are like to want necessary food and sustentation so that all our former hopes seem to be frustrate and unlesse thou of thy speciall providence be mercifull to us the labours of our hands will prove altogether vain and our hopes will be as thistle-down Sap. 5.14 which is carried away with the winde and as the froth which is driven away with a storm and as the smoak which is dispersed here and there with a temptest and wee may justly fear a famine to ensue When O Lord we see and feel these extraordinary tempests and rains wee cannot but acknowledge thy just hand upon us for our ingratitude in not giving thee due praise for former plentifull yeers and seasonable times and for our sleighting and undervaluing so great blessings as also that thou art enforced to draw us to thee by more severe means and to learn by those thy plagues that mans labour avails nothing without thy blessing and that if thou withdraw thy hand of providence all our endeavours prove invalid and uneffectuall and therefore we should not undertake any thing without addresse to thee by prayer and when thy heavy hand is upon us in this or any other kinde to betake our selves to no other means then calling upon thy holy Name to releeue us At this time therefore lying under this scourge of thine we flee unto thee O mercifull Father wee tender our humble supplications to thee and earnestly in thy Sonnes Name and for his Merits beseech thee if it stand with thy blessed will to keep back the bitter judgement of dearth and famine which wee have just cause to fear O deal not with us in thy fury but bee pleased that we may enjoy those fruits of the earth which thou didst put us in hope to receive Supply O Lord what wee shall want by some way or means which thou in thy providence doest better know to give then wee to expect Isa â—9 1 Thy hand is not shortned that it cannot help And it is all one to thee to releeve us either with or without means Lord abate in us all immoderate desires to the creatures which with other our transgressions hath caused this judgement of famine to beginne to take hold upon us Divert these intemperate showers into our eyes and extract showers of tears from them which may testifie that wee unfeignedly bewaile our sinnes and deplore our manifold offences These showers will prove farre better and more wholsome and profitable for us and be a meanes by the intercession of our Saviour to stay and cease those stormes which seem to foretell our destruction and ruine Lord hear us and answer us for thy son Christ Jesus sake in whom thou are alone well pleased Amen FINIS
his favours of whose mercy and loving kindenesse we have had so oft experience and of whose omnipotence it were blasphemy to doubt Again we are to know that Prayers are a testimony of our faith If then wee in our Prayers doubt of the truth of Gods promises and question whither he hear them or not what mark or print of Faith appears in us who can perswade himself that such prayers are heard 3. Again we erre in the manner of our prayers if we do not so temper and conform our owne will that it may become wholly subject to the will of God observing what is agreeable to his will in what we ought to pray for and in what not in what he hath promised to hear us in what he hath not promised not murmuring at any crosse is laid upon us by him but bearing it with thanksgiving and blessing his holy Name for it And God will have us and of right he may exact it from us so obsequious and observant to him as that we make enquiry in his Word with all modesty and reverence concerning those things which he hath promised and to wait with patience and assured hope for his performance in his own time leaving to him aswell what as when seems him good not prescribing to his wisdom and omnipotency either time or manner For it were an intollerable arrogancy if wretched and mortall men should assume such power over their Creator as to subject him to their appetite and not to submit wholly to his good will and pleasure who knoweth what is better for them then they themselves This Saint John knew well when he said This is the confidence which we have in him 1. Jo. â— 14 that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us And God himself by the Prophet intimates as much Isa 49.8 In an acceptable time have I heard thee and in a day of salvation have I helped thee that is at that time which I have determined in my wisdom and providence Therefore in praying for terrene and temporary things such as we beg under the title of daily bread we are to subject our selves to Gods fatherly will and to desire them if it stand with his good pleasure if not we must yeeld to him in a filial obedience and patiently endure what he shall lay upon us as long as he pleaseth King David in his exile did so as appears by his speech to Zadok the Priest 2. Sam. 15.21.25.26 Carry back the Ark of the Lord saith he into the city If I shall finde favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and shew me both it and his habitation But if he thus say I have no delight in him behold here am I let him do to me as it seemeth good to him So the Leper in his petition for his cure Mat. 8.2 Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean The like request did our Saviour make before his death Mat. 22.42 Father if thou be willing remove this cup from me neverthelesse not my will but thine be done 4. Another errour in our Prayers and which may obstruct the passage of them is an overweening of our own worth if we ascribe any thing to our own merits and expect to be heard the rather for them Therefore it were better for us Ber. serm 4. inadvent to follow Bernards rule rather to hide then to brag of our good works if we have any as poor people when they begge an alms put not on fine clothes but ragges and discover their sores and nakednesse to make men inclineable to pity And indeed what have we to boast of Whatsoever good we do is meerly of the grace of God not of the merit of the doer but of the good pleasure of his will to the glory of his grace 1. Cor. 1.31 So that he that glorieth is is not to glory in himself but in the Lord who giveth to whom he pleaseth Meritum meum miseratio domini saith Aust My merit is the mercy and goodnesse of the Lord. The same Aust. In Psa 138. upon the words forsake not the woek of thy hands saith I commend not the work of my hands for I fear if thou look upon that thou shalt finde more sinnes then merits This I onely pray speak and desire Forsake not the work of thy hands Look upon thy work in me not my work for if thou look upon mine thou wilt condemn it if upon thine own thou wilt crown it If then we acknowledge not our own misery and our manifold frailties and imperfections with all submission and reverence and that we are nothing or lesse then nothing or if we be any thing that we are but dust and corruption and a masse infected with the poyson of sinne and for that liable and subject every moment to death here and eternall condemnation hereafter If I say we acknowledge not this but Pharisaically presume upon our own righteousnes and good works and think that God is bound to hear us for them we may seek him early but we shall not finde him Pro. 1.28 But if with the Publican we shall confesse our unworthines and say with Jacob Lord I am not worthy or I am lesse then the least of all thy mercies Gen. 32.1 c. and with Esay Isa 57.15 I am a man of unclean lips To this man will God look Isa 57.15 even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit for the more we humble our selves the fitter we are to seek and finde God and to receive a gracious answer from him 5. As the conceit for it 's but a meer conceit of the merits of our good works so the opinion of the merit of our own prayers makes an obstruction that God hears them not It 's true that they are our defensive armes against Satans designes and the means by which God hath appointed us to have recourse to him in any difficulty or danger yet they must not be offered to God as though they were able of themselves without a further supply to merit accesse and acceptation with him For this were to make a man lay his foundation upon himself which indeed he is apt enough to do but our prayers deserve not any honour of themselves but as God honoureth them by commanding us to use them as the means to obtain his promises by them If therefore we shall offer up our prayers for theirs and not our Saviours merits and in his Name or that we shall decline Christ and betake us to Saints or Angels they cannot but procure an ill savour in the nostrils of God We must direct them then to God by his son Jesus Christ onely Heb. 4.16.15 by whom we have accesse to the throne of grace with boldnesse He is our High Priest and cannot but be touched with the feeling of our infirmities and was tempted in all points like as we are yet without sinne
unprofitable and hurtfull to us but such as neither stand with the glory of God nor the good of our own souls And in these cases no marvaile if God answer not our petitions We ought therefore to beg such things as are fit for God to give and for us to receive and these are first Spirituall and heavenly And secondly Corporall and temporall 1. The best of Spirituall good things is the Summum bonum the chief good Eternall blessednesse which indeed is the Epitomee of all good things and consists in the fruition of the beatificall vision of God in his glory and kingdom Psal 16.11 There are other spiritualls too that we may lawfully pray for as the knowledge of God of which our Saviour said This is life eternall Jo. 17.3 that they may know thee the onely true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent As also Faith Hope Charity and all other graces of the Holy Spirit These good things we may nay we ought to pray earnestly for 2. Corporall and temporall blessings are health of body deliverance from dangers for food and sustenance peaceable times and many other of this nature and these may be lawfully prayed for yet not without condition For whereas many times they do more harm being obtained then good they must therefore be prayed for with this limitation as farre as they shall conduce to Gods glory and our own salvation But surely we many times ask those things which stand in opposition to both these whereby it falls out that God will not hear us according to our will though he hear us for our good We are like little children many times that will even with tears beg of their fathers things which may do them harm as knives and the like yet their fathers in discretion will not grant them So God who loves us with greater affection then any father loves his children nay more then we love our selves in his divine wisdom consults what is best for our good and denies us those things which we foolishly ask to our own detriment and in his fatherly affection and mercy grants those things which he knows needfull and profitable for us See what Saint Bernard excellently said upon this subject Detriplici modo orois serm 5. in quadrages I beleeve saith he that the Petitions of the heart consists in three things nor do I see what a child of God ought to pray for besides Two of them are temporall the good things of body and soul the third is the blessednesse of life eternall Marveile not neither that I said corporall good things are to be prayed for of God because all corporall are his aswell as spirituall Therefore they are to be expected from him by prayer whereby we may be strengthned in his service Yet we are to pray oftner and more fervently for the wants of the soul that is to obtain Gods grace and the vertues of the soul no lesse are we to do for eternall life where both soul and body will be in perfect blisse Therefore in these three as they are petitions of the heart we are to beware of these things Superfluity in the first Impurity in the second and Pride in the third For many times Temporall things are desired for pleasure vertues and graces for ostentation and some perhaps seek not Eternall life in humility but in confidence of their merits Nor do I speak this but that when a man hath received grace it gives him confidence to pray but yet it becomes him not to place confidence in or by that grace to obtain that he prayes for These graces are so given onely to conferre this upon him to hope for greater things from that hand that bestowed the other Let therefore our prayer for Temporalls be restrained to necessaries Let that prayer which is made for the good of the soul be free from all inpurity and intent onely to the good pleasure of God and let that prayer which is made for Eternall life be in all humility presuming as is said onely upon Gods mercy 2. We may erre also in the manner of Praying many wayes which cause our prayers to become fruitlesse 1. We pray many times coldly and perfunctorily without attending to what we pray for Surely considering that all our safety happinesse and good depends only upon God and that we are to seek for it no where else and that were it not for Gods mercy and goodnesse we should perish for ever We should therefore as as often as we make our addresse to him by prayer cast our selves as it were out of our selves and lay aside all terrene cares and encumbrances which otherwise may hinder and trouble us in performance of that duty But if when we set our selves to Prayer or other Spirituall exercises we become Carnall and suffer evil and foolish thoughts to possesse our mindes suffering our selves to be carried away and our thoughts to wander up and down these prayers are in the sight of God but hypocrisie and abomintion nor can they receive any gracious answer from him for how can we conceive that God will hear us when we hear not our selves Would we have God mindefull of us when we are not mindefull of our selves nor minde that we Pray for And if we Pray thus carelessely is it not expedient that God should shake of this frigidity and extravancie from us by withholding his assistance Qui timide rogat docet senegari A cold and perfunctory Prayer deserves a negative answer 2. What if we Pray without Faith and confidence to be heard doubting of the divine promises so frequently made in Scripture Psal 50.15 Isa 58.9 as Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee And Thou shalt call and the Lord shall answer thou shalt cry and he shall say here I am Mar. 11.24 And What things soever you desire when ye pray beleeve that ye receive them and ye shall have them When our Saviour was importuned by the father of the deaf and dumb childe whom the disciples could not cure Christ told him hearing him say If thou canst do any thing If thou canst beleeve all things are possible to him that beleeveth 9.22.23 That is there 's nothing but Christ can and will do for them that beleeve If I say we doubt of these and the like promises we deprive him of his glory and do what in us lies to detract from his mercy and truth and make God our enemy instead of hearing and granting our petitions Certainly if we beleeve men so often falsifying their words why beleeve we not but distrust God that cannot lie whose promises in Christ are Yea and Amen Heb. 6.18 2. Cor. 1.10 especially considering that his incomprehensible Power and mercy are joyned with his truth It 's the custom among men to confide in those that are willing and able to help us with what sace then can we distrust God so true in his promises so indulgent in