sometimes in such Visions as the bare representations thereof and foresight thereby of the Calamities of the Church of God under the Grecian Seleucian and Roman Powers drove him much out of heart and brought him into deep distemper both of mind and body O my Lord saith he by the Vision my sorrows are turned upon me and I have retained no strength Dan. 10.16 7.28 8 27. And at another time As for me Daniel my cogitations troubled me and my countenance changed in me And at a third time And I Daniel fainted and was sick certain days and I was astonished at the Vision And if that foreknowledg of the Events of the Church whereabout his prayers were employed were such an amazement and burden to his spirit what think we would the sight and sense of them be to those praying Saints that should live to see them acted and endured The Apostle Paul knowing what an advantage to Christianity in the Protection and Propagation of it it would be to have the Civil Magistrate Christian he giveth Christians a Precept in their private and publique Supplications in special to pray for Kings 1 Tim. 2.1 2. and for all that are in Authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty And no doubt the primitive Christians in and after the Apostles time were mindful and constant in the practise hereof besides the Authority of the Command their own conveniency would lead them to it That woman in St Johns Vision in the Revelations that appeared clothed with the Sun Rev. 12.12 treading under her feet the Moon and crowned with twelve Stars Divines take to be a figure of the Christian primitive Church And whereas it is said She being with child cryed travelling in birth and pained to be delivered they understand that to intend the said Churches crying unto God by dayly prayers to obtain a Christian Emperor that would cease their Persecutions and establish their Religion in Peace and Freedom yet was it near three hundred years ere she could bring forth that her Man-child Constantine the Great the first Emperor that set up the Christian Profession So long was the Church put to travel in prayer together with hot and painful persecutions ere they received therein their Answer The Church indeed brought forth a Christian Emperor before viz. Anno 245. Julius Philippus Euseb l. 6. c 31. Chron. Carian p. 245. Speed lib. 6. c. 31. but him she brought forth for Heaven and not for her Militant state here he lived not to establish Christianity in the Empire but was soon cut off by Decius the Author of the seventh Persecution who slew him and his son and Caesar a Christian also odio Christiani nominis of hatred to the Christian name So that in him the Churches pregnancy and travel in prayer proved abortive she continued travelling still until she brought forth Constantine We see though the Churches striving together in prayer be compared to the pains of a laboring woman yet it is so resembled in respect of Vehemency not of Duration a womans labour is but for a few hours the Churches travel may be for a multitude of years and some ages ere she bring forth Being thus passed out of Scripture into Ecclesiastical History I will add out of it a few Examples more of the overclouding or suspense put upon the prayers of the people of God Who hath not read or heard of the thundering Legion that Legion of Christian Souldiers which by their prayers relieved the Emperor Marcus Aurelius and his Army who in an Expedition against the Quadi and others being ready to perish having an Army of Enemies against them of nine hundred seventy five thousand and being withall destitute of water for five days together this Legion of Christians then in the Emperors Leaguer drew apart and falling prostrate upon the Earth in ardent prayer they prevailed with God so that they had plentious showres of Rain to satisfie the Armies thirst and Thunder and Lightening to disperse and destroy their Enemies and upon this that Legion was named by the Emperor though a Heathen the Thundering Legion These Christians and the rest of those times that were so earnest with God in the behalf of a Papan Emperor and Civil Cause were as much or rather more serious and fervent no doubt in dayly prayer for the Churches Rest and Enlargement then under bloody Persecution they must needs be granted to bear a part in the travelling womans pains and cry afore spoken of as also in that cry unto God of the Souls under the Altar at the opening of the fifth Seal which before also I insisted on But though they did and were so mighty in prayer and exercised those Arms of prayers and tears which were the Arms which the primitive Christians only owned as allowable wherewith to resist the Tyranny of their lawful Superiors they being then but of a private and plebeian capacity as diligently as they did their secular Arms for defence of the Emperor yet they could not thereby obtain a present period of those fiery Persecutions See Mr. Clarks Martyrolog p. 44 45 Mr Fox vol. 1. p. 67 c. which then had so long lasted but they went on by times for above a hundred years longer and although Aurelius upon the aforesaid Wonders decreed the stay of the fourth Persecution then on foot yet was it carried on still by the Judges and by his son Commodus After that the Roman Emperors were become Christian Gratian one of the most pious Mr Medeâ— Comment in Apoc. part 1. p 58. And Rosses Hist Book 3. c. 3. An. Chr. 379. zealous and orthodox Emperors we find in Story he was the first Christian Emperor as Mr Mede noteth that refused the Title and Pontifical Robe of the High priest-hood anciently annexed to the Imperial Majesty and a branch of the old Heathenish Idolatry He commanded a general Embracement of the Nicene Creed He suppressed Hereticks and restored the Orthodox banished by his Predecessor Valens an Arian This godly Emperor in his Expeditions of War was generally and affectionately prayed for by the Christian Churches A Historian saith of him At non Ambrosius duntaxat pro Gratiani victoriâ solicitus juges obtulit Deo preces sed fidelium omnium vota publica nuncupata sunt Schulting Thesaur Tom. 4. cap. 321. frequensque tunc pro eo piorum ad basilicas concursus prospera illi assidus postulantium But not only Ambrose offered up dayly prayers to God being solicitous for Gratians victory but the publique supplications of all the faithful were made for him and there was a great flocking together of the godly to the Cathedrals Chron. Caâ—ion l. 3. p. 293 Speed hist book 6. c. 51. p. 178. Rosses Hist B. 3. c. 3. to pray dayly for his prosperity Yet this good young Emperor was first overthrown in Battel and quickly after trayterously slain by Maximus the Usurper In this
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
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
Margin answered him 1 Sam. 7.9 10 and as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering the Philistins drew neer to battel against Israel but the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistins and discomfitted them and they were smitten before Israel 2. Somtimes it is successive or effected by degrees when the servants of the Lord in their straits and needs call upon him he often helps them gradatim or by successive steps Two steps more frequently he makes in this work 1. He sends strength and support under and during the affliction or want of the benefit desired 2. And then after he gives them deliverance from it he loosens the bands of their distress and they escape out of it both these we have distinctly noted in divers Scriptures as in that of the Psalm He shall call upon me and I will answer him and mark the degree of the answer which follows I will be with him in trouble there 's the one I will deliver him and honor him there 's the other And again In the day when I cryed thou answeredst me and strengthened me with strength in my Soul there 's the first present support in his exigence which is further amplified after Though I walk in the midst of trouble Psa 138.3 7 thou wilt revive me and then follows in the next words recovery out Thou shalt stretch out thine hands against the wrath of mine Enemies and thy right hand shall save me This double step of relief from God to his people upon their prayer is notably set forth in the Prophet Malachi When the state of things was grown so forlorn Mal. 3.14 c. as that the ordinary sort of Fasters and Prayers concluded it a vain thing to sâ—â—ve God and a profitless course to keep his Ordinances and to walk mournfully before him yet there were some left that truly feared the Lord that spake often one to another in mutual corroborations unto piety and that thought upon the Name of God in diligent and constant calling upon it and observe the issue these have a twofold day set for them and in them have those 2 degrees of help from God successively 1. There is a day when God makes up his Jewels or as Drusius interprets a day when he makes Judgment or proceeds in Judgment and in that day they saith the Lord of Hoasts shall be my Jewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him that 's the first day and first step of succor The Lord will own them for his in the evil day he will take care of them as of his choycest and preciousest goods and he will moderate their share of troubles and support them therein so that as it is in the next words there shall be a palpable difference put and discerned betwixt them and the wicked in their sufferings 2. There is another day cometh after a day that shall burn as an oven and in this latter day is that other step of the help of those fearers and seekers of God that is their deliverance and full satisfaction For in that day the proud yea and all that do wickedly shall be stubble and the day that cometh shall burn them up saith the Lord of Hoasts that it shall leave them neither root nor branch But unto you that fear my Name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings and ye shall tread down the wicked for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this saith the Lord of Hoasts I will further note that the latter of these two degrees of Gods return to prayer viz. Deliverance out of trouble or fruition of the thing asked may have its several degrees also As 1. When God raiseth up the means and secondary causes which he will use and sets himself to work by them 2. When he doth carry on and consummate deliverance with them This order he pursued in bringing Israel out of Egypt upon the hearing of their cries and groans he first appears to Moses in Midian and gives him a Call Commission and Instructions to go into Egypt and fetch them out I have heard saith he to them out of the burning Bush their groaning Acts 7.34 and am come down to deliver them and now come I will send thee into Egypt And then Moses and Aaron being joyned together in Egypt and after many goings in there unto Pharaoh for dismission of them and many additions of oppressions upon the Israelites and many miraculous plagues upon Pharaoh his People and Land they are led or posted out of Egypt in one night And in the recovery of the same people long after from their captivity and ruines under the Babylonian the Lord proposeth in his promise several degrees as in the Prophet Hosea And it shall come to pass in that day I will hear saith the Lord Hos 2.21 22 21 I will hear the Heavens and they shall hear the Earth And the Earth shall hear the Corn and the Wine and the Oyl and they shall hear Jezreel and I will sow her unto me in the Earth and I will have mercy on her c. Such a series of causes and operations the Providence of God doth often go through in delivering his people This is spoken figuratively in the Prophet not as if the Heavens and the rest of the inferior Creatures here had a voyce or did pray and we must not understand it as spoken of the order of Gods receiving but of his performing prayers In order of receiving prayer God immediately and only hears Jezreel his people but in order of answer and execution he first hears or answers the Heavens that is puts efficacy and influence into them and then by them into the Earth and by the Earth into its fruits and so comes home to Jezreel and then also Jezreel must be sown in the Earth that is must be cast into the ground and lie under the clods of affliction and be in appearance as dead for a time and then spring up and be restored The smoke of incense which came with the prayers of the Saints Rev. 8.4 and ascended up before God out of the Angels hand by it and them were procured the seven following Trumpets Now these Trumpets the issue and execution of those prayers sounded successively one after another and did accomplish those prayers by so many degrees and the term of their succession and continuance ere all be finished is supposed to be for many years yea divers ages Thus of the second way of prayers receiving its answer and the several steps of it The third and last is that of Commutation The Lord doth sometimes hear and answer the prayer when he doth not give the very thing prayed for There is an answer by way of exchange to wit when God gives in lieu of that which is asked another thing which is as good or better for
their place To give some instances Daniel fasts and prays for the return of the captivity in the first year of Darius and he prays That the Lord would haâ—ken and do and not defer but God did defer until the first year of Cyrus which was two years current * Dan. 9.1 19. Darius imperium accepit A. M. 3466. imperavit annis duobus Cyrus Monarchia potitus est A. M. 3468 Vide Annales Usser pag. 145 146. Dan. 10.2 12.13 Luk. 18.7 And again at another time of his fasting and praying he is told in a Vision That from the first day he set his heart to understand and to chasten himself before God his words were heard yet he continued mourning three full weeks and the Angel appearing to him in the end thereof telleth him his answer was stopped in the way just so long to wit one and twenty days God doth hear his own Elect which cry day and night unto him under their pressures but there is a long bearing with their adversaries interposed betwixt his hearing and avenging of them Rev. 6.10 11 The Souls under the Altar that cry with a loud voyce How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judg and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth They were heard but withall they are told They must rest for a little season until their fellow servants also and their Brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled This little season of stay for the issue of their prayers is computed by a very judicious Commentator to be above a hundred years Mr Mede who begineth the fift Seal an 268. and the first Trumpet which he makes the beginning of the answer of their cry an 395. See his Key Comment part 1. pag. 52. 81 85. In the Song of Solomon the Spouse twice had lost her beloved and missing sought him and seeking was yet disappointed for some time of meeting with him yet this missing and not finding Cant. 3.1.5 6 was not a dereluction or divorce but a stepping aside of him only for a time The prayers of the Saints in the Book of the Revelation are resembled by the smoke of Incense Rev. 8.3.5 their answer or return by voyces thunderings lightenings and earthquakes There is in this resemblance a great congruity to the work of Nature for smoke or such hot and dry vapors ascending into the upper region do produce thunder and lightening which are the voyce of God and inclosed in the Earth do cause Earthquakes but as there is naturally a good time after the exhaling of these vapors for the altering and forming of them ere they break forth into Thunder Lightening or Earthquakes so it is with the Saints prayers there is often an intervall of time betwixt their ascent and effect and as it is the folly of the vulgar to think when they see smoke or vapors gone up out of their sight that they are quite vanished or annihilated so is it for us to judg those prayers of none effect that are a good while a working above ere they come down in visible impressions here below I have thus endevored to shew the diversity of the ways of God towards the prayers of men both in appearing to and hiding from them The second thing proposed now is to follow viz. the diversity of grounds or impulsives whereupon he doth either This will not hold us long as being not altogether so various and intricate First for the Lords appearing unto prayer the difference of grounds may be thus taken He doth appear to prayer 1. In Anger 2. In Favor 1. God doth sometimes hear and grant mens prayers in anger he gives men their desires and it is sometimes not in mercy but in displeasure Numb 11 20 33 Psa 78.21 26.106.15 1 Sam. 8.21 22 so God gave quails to Israel in the wilderness he sent them out of wrath and wrath was the sauce with which they did eat them Thus also God gave a King to Israel in the days of Samuel Questionless the Quails were in themselves very good and wholesom food and did not naturally engender the plague but they asked them lustfully Satius erat non audiri a Dominó quam cum carnibus ejus indignationem vocare Calv. not for need and diffidently not in faith and God gave them accordingly out of anger and with the plague they were the last meat that many of them ever ate they brought them to their graves the graves of them that lusted Doubtless Monarchy was and is in it self a good Government and was promised long before as a blessing to that people and as it appeared by the sequel was intended them shortly as a mercy and it is as a mercy promised to the Church of after times Gen. 17.6 16 2 Sam. 7.8 c. 23.3 c. 2 Chro. 2 11 Isai 49.23 Rev. 17.16 21.24 but they asked a King not by vertue of or in the way of promise but rebelliously ambitiously distrustfully and God gave them a King suitably Saul an impious tyrannical despairing King And we may note God gives sometimes evil and unlawful requests in wrath or for correction to others besides the askers The curses or enchantments of malice or witchery God sometimes brings to pass as means of punishment or affliction to those against whom they are intended by the maleficous Judg. 9.20 Vide Calv. Instit l. 3. c. 20. S. 15 Thus he gave success to Jothams curse upon the men of Sechem Thus he yielded to Satans desire against Job in his goods children and body and thus our Saviour granted the Devils request touching entering into the Gadarens herd of swine Mat. 8.32 yea Satan had his desire of Peter so far as to have him to sift him as wheat Luk. 22.31 though not to destroy his Faith 2. God appeareth to prayer in mercy and favor and this may be more ways then one It may be 1. Out of his general goodness and common pity God hath a propension to shew mercy a disposition to extend favor towards all as they are his creatures as they are in want and misery Vide Aqui. 22. qu. 83 Art 16 Job 34.28 Exo 22.23 Gen. 21.17 as they may put forth and express their natural desires before him He heareth the cry of the afflicted saith Elihu I will surely hear their cry saith he himself of the widow and fatherless child God heard the voyce of the lad Ishmael Under this notion are those hearings and deliverings taken to be of the solitary hungry thirsty and harborless of the imprisoned Psalmus docet non carere effectu preces quae tamen fide in coelum non penetrant Colligit enim quas incredulus non minus quam piis necessitas extorquet preces ex naturae sensu quibus tamen Deum propitium esse ex eventu demonstrat Calv. Instit l. 3. c. 20. sect 15. scultet de prec c. 15. p. 54. of the sick and
providence co-operate together and in this co-working each hath its proper part as it were the one is to petition the other is to perform and consequently the one is to propose the other to dispose the one to crave the other to carve the one to importune the other to opportune or to contrive the way method and season of effectuating as may be for the best As in shooting the hand and the eye act together the one to draw the Bow and enforce the Arrow the other to direct both to the work Or as in sailing the Pilot and the Rowers or Halers work together the one to make the ship go the other to make it steer its right course so do Providence and Prayer close and concur together in working for the good of praying Saints The breath of our Prayers must fill the Sails but the divine disposal must tend the Card and Compass 4. In judging of Gods appearing to or hiding from their prayers the faithful seekers of God are not to rest in their own sense or eye-sight nor in the present face of Gods providence or ways these may yield them for a time no answer no testimony of audience they are like the vision in Habakkuk not always speaking but having a peculiar time to speak At the end it shall speak and not lye Hab. 2.3 yea these may yield them occasion of discouragement or doubt when indeed the Lord hath a respect to their prayers is mindful of a return and an answer may be in drawing or dispatching out to them And further they are to look over all the ways of hearing whether by Testification Performance or Commutation lest their answer may be with them and they not aware of it not find it out * Vid. Calv. Instit l. 3 c. 20 S. 52 5. As divine providence may at present stand at a distance from or proceed oppositely to prayer even whilest prayer may be heard and answered or in answering so it may run parallel or go along with it it may act agreeably and answerably to prayer it may produce what prayer hath asked and yet nevertheless the prayer may be unanswered all this may be and not in answer to prayer Therefore as God may be apprehended to hide himself from his peoples prayers when indeed he doth not but sets open the door of mercy and his hearing ear to them and sets awork his hand of providence in the best manner for them so he may be conceived to answer the prayers that are contrary to them when indeed it is nothing so As God sometimes hears the prayer when he doth not give the thing so he sometimes gives the thing when he doth not hear the prayer This seeming Paradox I will endevor to make clear by instances and illustration The Danites messengers whom they sent to spy out the Land of Laish for them as they went turned into the house of Micha and in the Idolatrous way of his Religion that is Judg. 18. by the Ephod and Teraphim and carved Image and molten Image which he had made and by the young Levite which he had consecrated and kept as his Priest for that Idolatry enquired of God as they called it concerning the success of their expedition and the said Priest returned them this answer Go in peace before the Lord is your way wherein ye go and according to his answer it succeeded with them they discovered and immediately conducted the six hundred Danites who for their better speed robbed Micah and took along with them those his good presaging Idols and Priest unto a large and good Land which was that they sought after and lacked and they most easily and prosperously conquered the Inhabitants and possessed the Land and enjoyed it long though they there set up Micahs graven Image and superstitious Priesthood all the time the house of God was in Shiloh Here Providence speeds and suits with the ends and enterprizes of those devotions which certainly could not be but very displeasing unto God and therefore could not be followed with any such success for the prayers sake In like manner Saul when as Samuel came not to Gilgal within his time he took in hand to offer burnt-offerings and peace-offerings either in his own person or by another contrary to the Commandment of God 1 Sam. 13 9 12 that as he pleaded to Samuel his Soldiers might not desert him and the Philistins might not set upon him before he had made supplication unto the Lord. Well notwithstanding this his sacrilegious or otherwise presumptuous Error in thus seeking to God contrary to his Will and way prescribed yet he goes out presently to his War against the Philistins and though he had a very small Army but six hundred men and neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of them yet he prospered and got the victory The Text saith The Lord saved Israel that day Ver. 15 22 ch 14 20 23 and there was a very great discomfiture of the Philistins Thus it went happily according as Saul had prayed yet questionless this was not properly in answer to his prayer for the answer to that Samuel had given him before and it was quite of another nature viz. a sharp rebuke for his transgression and foolishness therein 〈◊〉 4 and a declaration of the Lords purpose upon it to translate the Kingdom from him and dispose of it to another Prayer is properly answered 1. When the thing prayed for is not only done but is done in accâ—ptation and reward of prayer or for the prayers sake and it s well pleasing and prevalency with God 2. When it is done by vertue of the Promise 3. When it is done in special mercy to the person praying But a wicked mans prayer cannot come within these rules or any of them the prayer of such a one cannot be pleasing or acceptable or of any force with God Prov. 28.9 He that turneth away his ears from hearing the Law even his prayer shall be abomination the prayer of such a one hath no promise belonging to it Psa 50.16 Vnto the wicked God saith what hast thou to do that thou shouldst take my Covenant in thy mouth unto such a one the Lord beareth no fatherly affection Psa 34 16 The face of the Lord is against them that do evil And as an evil mans prayer cannot properly receive answer from God so neither can an evil prayer whatsoever the person be Psa 66.18 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me Observe it though it were holy David or the choycest of Gods servants that should pray yet if he pray amiss if he regard iniquity in his heart he cannot have hearing And again Who is of the generation of them that seek God that seek his face and shall receive the blessing from the Lord Psa 24.4 and righteousness from the God of his Salvation why he who hath not lift up his Soul
of perseverance i Acts 1.14.2.42.6.4.12.5 Rom. 22.12 Eph. 6.18 Col. 4.2 so often by the Holy Ghost annexed to prayer Interpreters observe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haec duo involuit vehementem quandam animi intentionem quasi pugnum dum versatur in actu orandi assiduam frequentationem orationis Epis Davenant in Colos 4.2 Vide Cr. Sacra in voc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie to persevere with strength or force or to hold on with importunity Some apprehend in these terms a Metaphor taken from hunting-dogs that pursue the game with a full cry and with all the might in them and give not over till they have gotten it and though they be sometimes at a loss yet they retrive or cast about till they get again the sight or scent of their prey and so prosecute it unto seizure l Mr Leigh his Crit. Sacr. and Mr Trap on Cant. 5.6 1. There must be a continuance in respect of time and frequency of acts The Lord foretelling the recovery of his people from their Babylonian ruines and captivity or that deliverance of the same people yet to come from the Roman desolations and dispersions he saith They shall come with weeping Jer. 31.19 and with supplication will I lead them And again in another place The children of Israel shall come they and the children of Judah together going and weeping Jer. 50.4 they shall go and seek the Lord their God In both these places the peoples advance and progress towards their Country and former state is to be accompanyed and carryed on with a constant tract or course of prayer they must travel to home in a posture and march of prayer that they may arrive there they must be always advancing in it as well as in their way and in this course of prayer the Lord doth lead or train them on by slow and successive paces with supplications will I lead them Here methinks God is resembled unto a Father that hires his young child to go with some alluring reward in his hand so as whilest the child comes on towards him he goes backward still until he hath drawn his little one on as far as he thinks fit and then he delivers him the reward Thus the Lord by delays tilleth on his people to trace out their full course of prayer ere he give them a return and whilest they are thus prosecuting the mercies they desire going and weeping they go and seek the Lord that is all along as they go they weep and pray their journey and their prayers are pursued with equal steps their acts of weeping and praying they reiterate as often as they do their paces or the stages of their journey Again Prayer is compared to a Husbandmans sowing Psa 126.5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy He that will sow that he may have a harvest and an answerable crop he must not think that to go into the field and there cast down his seed all at once on a heap will serve for a seeding but he must be content as it is in the next words to bear his precious seed or as the words are interpreted to bear draw-seed * See Divines Annot in loc Edit 1. that is seed drawn forth out of the basket by handfuls he must carry his seed over all the field and every land or butt step by step scattering it orderly and by little and little as he goeth Suitably thereto must prayers be sown as it were with a diligent hand and a successive pouring forth in number and weight unto a due proportion Again Prayer is likened unto a womans going with child as in that of the Revelation Rev. 12.1 There appeared a woman clothed with the Sun c. and she being with child cryed travelling in birth and pained to be delivered This is understood of the Churches laboring in prayer to obtain of God a Christian Emperor which might cease their persecutions and establish the Christian Religion Now in Nature a woman that brings forth a child doth not only conceive it but ripen it certain moneths in her womb and when she hath gone her full time she must undergo sharp labour and bitter birth-pains ere she embrace her child In like manner that our prayers may bring forth the man-child begged there must be not only a first conception but a dayly forming and an increasing of them and a prosecuting them to the full time and a sustaining the burden and sorrows of their maturation and bringing forth Again The prayers of the Saints are represented by golden viols full of odours Rev. 5.8 They must not only be for their quality odours or incense that is pure fragrant and delightsom unto God but for the quantity they must be viols full as we read elsewhere of a bottle for the tears of Gods servants so here we have viols for their prayers and they must be content to stay for the return of their prayers and to renew them until they have filled up these viols with them when these are full then the Lamb openeth the seven seals then doth God manifest himself in his Providences answerable to them Mr Trap on Gen. 25.21 I will but add this Prayer is resembled to those arrows which Elisha lying sick on his death-bed ordered King Joash to take and with them to smite upon the ground As the blows given with them so the use of prayer must be often reiterated that the mercy may be throughly obtained we must repeat and renew it and that often enough if we do it not to the full count we may impe our selves in the benefit sought of God 2. In prayer we must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is we must not only continue our prayers and multiply them in number but reinforce them we must renew and intend our instancy and vigor in them For this purpose prayer is called an agony strife or combate The Apostle Paul desires the Romans to strive together with him in their prayers to God for him Ro. 15.30 Now they that undertook those exercises in the Grecian games to which the phrase alludeth it did not suffice them to hold out the time and keep up the action but they were to put to their utmost strength and follow it with might and main that they might overcome and get the Crown So the Lord would have us to do in prayer This is the meaning of that Parable of one friends coming to another at midnight to borrow of him three leaves Luk. 11.5 c. which motion the friend requested at first excusing himself from as having his doors shut and being in bed with his children and indisposed then to rise but being further pressed with importunity he cannot but grant it The reddition hereof is the near relation and dear affection which a servant of God standeth in with
entertain it and better to employ it Solâ—mon observes Eccl. 3.11 God hath made every thing beautiful in its time Isai 49.8 And the Lord saith In an acceptable time have I heard thee and in a day of Salvation have I helped thee Now the time unto which the Lord defers his answer is that time and his deferring it is which is one means of that beauty and acceptableness of the thing at that time It is with benefits obtained by prayer as with the fruits of trees and other plants these must have their time to ripen ere they be to be gathered so as to be either for pleasure or profit and it is usually sound that those fruits that are longest in growing and ripening are the most wholesom useful and lasting rathe-ripe fruits are more for fond delight then solid and durable use So it is in blessings that come by prayer they become sweet and serviceable to us by our praying and staying for them until a full time be and the longer the stay is the more comfort profit and permanency may be in them when enjoyed Psa 126.1 Sion after her long endured captivity had her mouth filled with laughter and her tongue with singing and said The Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad After a laborious and tedious seeding she had a full harvest of joy Lemuels mother was very affectionate to him and sollicitous for his vertuous education and her introduction to her instructions given him yields the reason thereof Prov. 31.2 What my son and what the son of my womb and what the son of my vows She had bred him in her bowels and born him with travel and hazard she had not only endured bodily pains and sorrows for him but her soul had travelled for him as Monica for her Augustine he was the son of her vows and therefore he was very dear to her and she entirely applyeth her endeavors for his training up holily Hannah obtained her son Samuel with prayers and tears ere she could have him she was put to strong conflicting in prayer the text saith 1 Sam. 1.10 c. that in Shiloh she was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore and she vowed a vow and she continued praying or multiplyed to pray before the Lord. And she her self saith to Eli I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit I have poured out my soul before the Lord out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken And coming by him so hardly and by so many so earnest suits unto God she accordingly received and disposed of him to wit with much thankfulness and officious observance of her vow of dedication of him unto God conceived and uttered before the Lord ere she conceived him in her womb The former solemn thankfulness she expresseth both in the name which she gave him at his birth Samuel that is asked of God and in the song of praise which she sung and left upon record in memory of that benefit The latter her diligent and punctual observation of her vow appeareth not only in that she denoteth him to God as a Nazarite according to her former obligation but in that she kept him no longer with her at home then until he was weaned and in the least degree capable of delivery up to God and employment in the service of his house and in that she presented him to the Lord so solemnly that is both with a large free-will-offering and a publique profession before Eli of the Lords return of her prayers in this child and of her return of him unto God as his devoted servant in lieu or consideration thereof Thus God deferreth his servants prayers not to deprive them of the fruit thereof but to frame their hearts to a higher esteem a gladder entertainment and a more thankful and profitable disposal of it It is the note of a very reverend Divine that God when he casteth out the prayers of his Saints Mr Trap on Cantic pag. 278. deals by them as the Lioness doth by her young ones which she seems sometimes to leave till they have almost killed themselves with roaring this is to make them more careful another time That which is gotten by working with God that is by instant and constant prayer is ordinarily better blessed to us it is sanctified unto a more happy enjoyment then what is earned meerly or principally by secular industry or hath not so strong and deep a tincture of prayer upon it This is according to that of the Apostle Every creature of God is good for it is sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer 1 Tim. 4 4 5 When Iacob acted as Iacob that is a supplanter when he delt with policy he got indeed at one time the birthright at another time the blessing of his Father from his Brother Esau but those winnings of his for a long time were not so prosperous they stood him in little stead they were followed with divers bitter crosses as with his exile from his habitation and Parents and his tedious pilgrimage in Mesapotamia and the hardships there undergone but when he acted as Israel a Prince with God by importunate prayer he got a clearer blessing a blessing which was followed with sundry tokens of Gods special appearance and goodness to him 6. The delay of the prayers of the people of God may be for the removal of those persons and things which stand in their way as impediments to their receiving or enjoying the mercies prayed for In the Prophet Isaiah while the faithful resolve They for Sions and Jerusalems sake will not hold their peace and while the watchmen placed by God upon the walls of Ierusalem the Lords dayly remembrancers are commanded that they keep not silence and that they give the Lord no rest Isa 62.1 6 until the righteousness of Sion go forth as brightness and the Salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth and until the Lord make Ierusalem a praise in the Earth There is a charge given out by God unto some agents of his either Angels or men after this manner Go through go through the gates prepare ye the way of the people cast up Ver. 10 11 12 cast up the high way gather out the stones lift up a Standard for the people and then it follows Say ye to the Daughter of Zion Behold thy Salvation cometh behold his reward is with him and his work before him And they shall call them The holy people the redeemed of the Lord and thou shalt be called Sought out a City not forsaken Here we have clearly set forth these three things in order 1. The incessancy and importunacy of prayer imposed upon the friends and lovers of Sion that her deliverance and exaltation may be procured 2. The many blocks and obstructions that lie in the way by which Sion is to pass to the deliverance and happiness prayed for and the course that is
coming and appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ that 's the great Audit-day the great and full harvest the solemnest and compleat year of release and Jubilee Some promises and prayers are wholly referred for their accomplishment or answer to that day and others have not their perfect and ultimate accomplishment until then that 's the full period and utmost mark of the Saints faith a 1 Pet. 1.9 the complement or winding up of their hope b Vers 13 the last point of their paience c Jam. 5.7 the close of the whole book of God and in especial of the Revelation wherein are recorded the great promises and comforts of the Church their clouds of prayer and strong cries their exquisite and lasting tryals in faith and patience their reigns and rages of their many Rev. 22.20 mighty and cruel Enemies the close I say of all this is Even so come Lord Iesus Solomon likewise shutteth up his Ecclesiastes with this Eccles 12.13 14 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole duty of man for God will bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil This is the conclusion of the whole that is of all the discourse in the book and therefore of what he had said before of the oppressions which he had considered under the Sun that there were the tears of such as were oppressed Chap. 4.1 and they had no comforter and that on the side of the oppressors there was power but they had no comforter and of that vanity Chap. 8.14 that there be just men unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked again there be wicked men to whom it hapneth according to the work of the righteous And that as to the present and visible state of persons all things come alike to all to him that sacrificeth Cha. 9.1 2 and to him that sacrificeth not The conclusion drift and use of all is to fear God and keep his Commandments and for a spur thereunto and a corrective and encouragement against all the vexation of spirit that ariseth from the above recounted evils we must fix our minds on this God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing August de Civ Dei lib. 20 c 3 St Austin readeth this last clause with every secret thing somewhat otherwise then our Translations to wit of every despised man paraphrasing it thus God will bring every work that is every act of man in this life unto judgment yea the works of every despised man of every contemptible person that seemeth not to be noted at all God seeth him and despiseth him not neither overpasseth him in judgment And thus much of the first sort of ends which the Lord may have in suspending for a time the return of his peoples prayers to wit such as concern themselves that pray The other sort viz. those that respect others I am now come unto The ends of such delay reflecting upon others briefly may be these 1. To raise and make up the number full of those who in the purpose and promise of God are to be partners or joynt-possessors of the mercies prayed for The Apostle saith of that cloud of Beleevers before the first coming of Christ who witness unto us the necessity and efficacy of faith They received not the Promise God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect These received not the promise that is they attained not the thing promised or the fulfilling of the promâ—se of the Messiahs coming in the flesh with the immediate glorious consequences thereof and the reason is God had provided that better thing to wit the Evangelical estate so called for its precellency above theirs of the first Covenant for us that is for the Beleevers of the Church under the Gospel who had been prevented of this prerogative over them if they by the coming of Christ in their days had enjoyed in their life time the Gospel perfection No doubt but those men of faith under the Law as they beleeved the Incarnation of Christ to come so they prayed for it * Mat. 13.17 but their prayers were put off that the Christians of Pauls time and of the following ages might not by the anti-dating of Christs manifestation in the flesh be forestalled by their predecessors of that priviledg which was peculiarly intended for them The general calling of the Jews which was the earnest prayer of Saint Paul Rom. 10 1 11.12 15 and ought to be the continual vote of the Gentile Church and which will be as great a wonder as the resurrection of a man of a Nation from the dead and which shall be the riches of the world and of the Gentiles is deferred until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in Vers 25. It hath been so long and is yet deferred for that end that all the Gentile Nations and persons whom the Lord hath foretold or purposed that he will call may be gathered into the Church God will have as it were the Theater of the Gentile Churches full for their beholding and enjoying that admirable and abundant mercy of the Jews conversion We sometimes are put to pray and our posterity are intended to enter into the harvest of our prayers not we or it may be they that are yet unborn or though in being yet uncapable are to have a share in the blessings prayed for as well as we and for them therefore the return of our prayers is stayed 2. To compleat the account of the sufferers and sufferings of the people of God The Souls under the Altar that cry with a loud voyce Rev. 6.9 10 11. saying How long O Lord c. it is 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 fulfilled The Apostle Paul in all his persecutions desired and had the prayers of the Churches of Christ for his constant enduring and deliverance * Rom. 15.30 31. 2 Cor. 1.11 Phil. 1.19 1 Thes 3.6 Philom 22 Heb. 13.18 yet his troubles were many great and sometimes long and the reason he himself gives Who now rejoyce in my sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his bodies sake which is the Church The sufferings of the Apostle are here called the afflictions of Câ—rist both in regard of the mystical union which is betwixt Christ and every Beleever as between the head and the members and in regard of that sympathy or sense of the sufferings of the faithful wherewith Christ is touched and he termeth his present bonds a filling up of the remainders of the afflictions of Christ denoting to us that God hath apportionated unto every member of Christ a
for him Our Inducements may be 1. God hath prefixed his time the which is the best and fittest time for us his delaying is that he may bring about that time that time he will punctually keep and none shall either preoccupate or put it back and he hath that time in his own hand See for all this Psal 102.13 Isai 49.8 Hab. 2.13 Isai 60.22 Psal 31.15 That which Solomon begged of God concerning his prayer made at the dedication of the Temple holds true of all the faithful prayers of his people They are nigh unto the Lord day and night 1 Kin 8.59 that he may maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people at all times or the thing of a day in his day as the margent 2. Consider upon what good grounds and necessary reasons are the Lords deferrings he delays not an hour without a special cause and end while the Lord holdeth back our prayers it is still for the accomplishment of something very needful to be in us and to antecede our receiving of our petitions The particulars have been given above * Chap. 4. Sect. 6. 3. Our waiting shall not be in vain it shall have its end and fruit provided it be regular see Psal 85.8 Prov. 23.18 Hab. 2.3 Yea moreover as the end or matter waited for shall not miscarry so neither shall the time patience or trouble that it costs us in tarrying be lost or left upon our score but it shall also be recompenced us to the full we shall lose nothing by waiting The Church saith It is good that a man should both hope Lam. 3 26. and quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord. Observe it It is good that a man should quietly wait we may understand it not only of moral goodness but it is good in point of advantage and profit it 's gainful for a man to wait We say it is good for a man to be dispatched quickly and to have his petitions out of hand so it may be in Civil Courts and so may Nature judg it to be in the Court of Heaven but the Holy Ghost tells us it is good to wait God will consider thee in waiting not only to perform the thing waited for but to renumerate thy waiting 1. In present supports and comforts during thy expectance Psal 27.14 Isai 40.31 2. In the end the return will be so much the ampler and happyer Isai 30.18 Abraham Hannah and Job waited the two former each for a child the last for a recovery out of his afflictions the Lord gave them not only that which they waited for but an overplus and interest in their respective mercies as to Abraham and Hannah an increase of children above what they asked or looked for * Gen 25 1. c. 1 Sam. 2.21 and to Job twice as much as he had before †Job 42.10 as a compensation of their respective waitings 4. Consider how God hath been wont to deal with his servants his ordinary course hath been in conferring his special favours upon them to use delayes and make them wait for before they have them The Lord when he would quiet and comfort his Church in such a case as ours willeth them that follow after righteousness that seek the Lord Isai 51.1 2 to look unto Abraham their Father and Sarah that bare them Now if we consider how God disposed toward Abraham and Sarah in reference to their promised son and toward the rest of the faithful in Scripture in relation to their several mercies we shall find that God usually put them to great stayes and exercises of their patience If I had room I might here be large in instances and that of several kinds I will but touch them lightly referring them to these two Heads 1. How long time the Saints of God have suffered the delay of their prayers 2. How low they have been brought in their delayes 1. How long have the Servants of God been delayed in their prayers The choycest and eminentest Saints and Gods chiefest and notablest works of mercy for them have undergone great delays and have long stayed in the birth and have been fetched off with mighty difficulties The reduction of Abraham's posterity out of pilgrimage their bringing up out of Egypt and possession in Canaan according to the promise of God to Abraham was four hundred and seventy years * Exod. 12 40. And forty years after in their journey The Church of the Jews were kept waiting and playing in Babylon seventy years and after that their restauration in Iudea was long in accomplishing some reckon it an hundred others an hundred and fifty others two hundred years ere the Temple City and State were re-establâ—shed †See the variety of reckoning of the time and the Authours for them in Master Newcomer his Epist Dedic before his Sermon on Neh. 4 11 Psal 6.3 13.1.2 119.8 4 The coming of our Saviour and the Work of Redemption by him was looked for by believers from Adams time and onward which was for some scores of Generations The Prophet Davids complaints of his overcloudings and of the length of them under the want of D vine Presence and audience are frequent in the Psalms How long wilt thou forget me O Lord for ever How long wilt thou hide thy face from me c. But thou O Lord how long How many are the days of thy servant when wilt thou execute udgment on them that persecute me The Lord instructing his people how they should keep their Fasts to be acceptable to him and making his promises to them of happy consequents of their so observing them this is one of the promises Isai 58.12 See Div. Annotat. 2d Edit And they that shall be of thee shall build the old wast places c. He saith not themselves that so fast and pray as he directeth shall build c. But they that shall be of them their following generations they must pray and the effect must be reserved for their posterity to reap The souls under the Altar the slaughtered Christians under the most bloody persecution of Dioclesian crying unto God How long O Lord holy and true Revel 6. c. As having laid under Pagan persecutors long already even by succâ—ssive persecutions for almost three hundred years they are yet willed to rest and wait for the answer of their outcrys for a little season during which time the Church must yet undergo fresh pâ—rsecution Now that season of delay is accounted by Mr Mede See Mr Medes Comment in Engl. p. 52. 85. to have been about 127 years so long they must stay ere any beginning of their vindication come to pass by the beginning of the first of the seven Trumpet and then there was to be but a beginning See his Key part 2. Synchron 1. Dâ—v Annot. 2d Ed. on Rev. 9.13 and Bez. in Apoc. 14 14. for that avengement of them is not compleated untill
our petitions in wrath and to our hurt 5. Lastly None of the servants of God I may doubtless say since the world began have had all their prayers accomplished or obtained them at their first asking but in many things they have been either denyed in the particular asked or deferred We have divers instances in Scripture of the chief Saints of God denyed in some requests which are questionless therefore recorded that their examples might qualifie us in like cases Peruse at leasure for this those passages of Moses Samuel David Ieremiah Ezekiel and Paul Exod. 32.32 to the end Deut. 3.26 1 Sam. 15.11 35. with 16.1 2 Sam. 12.16 18. Ier. 14.19 with 15.1 Ezek. 9.8 9 10. Rom. 10.1 with 11.7 I have thus done with the first Head of Uses to wit the Rules of Direction for our carriage in the Case before us both preventive and positive The other Head follows SECT III. The way to Help or Remedy in this Case of the Lords hiding from his Peoples Prayers THat which only now remains is to shew what is to be done what the course is which we are to take for the Remedy or Cure of this condition of Prayer-obstruction For this I will propound but three things And they if duly followed will suffice 1. Seek and get the Causes of the Lords so hiding himself from us to be removed I mean the procuring or promeriting causes on our part which are our many prayer-letting God-provoking sins That such there are and what they are hath been before endeavoured to be discovered The way to have them removed is well known in regard of the Doctrine of it to wit Repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ for reconciliation to God This is a larger subject then I can now enter upon the opening of We have had it long and yet have it through the mighty mercy of God taught and pressed upon us daily by the Ministry of the Word Let me only in a word exhort and perswade to a sincere and diligent bestirring in the practise of it Look not at talk not so much of this party or that designe or the other preposterous course of any among us as coming betwixt us and the end of our prayers No no the obstructers of our prayers are ours and the Nations sins these humane occurrences do only obstruct by vertue of these Our sins they are that are in the chair of all the Counsels and in the head of all the Forces that interpose betwixt us and the issue of our prayers And now Brethren Is it not time thus to seek the Lord Hos 10.12 till he come and rain righteousness upon us Have we now any thing left us but our prayers to betake our selves unto and can we have any hope that our prayers will any thing avail us without this We are like Ephraim in that place of the Prophet that loved to tread out the corn verse 11 We would be reaping and threshing out the Harest of our prayers but there is other work first to be done God will have us to plow and break our clods and to sow to our selves in righteousness and then we may look to reap in mercy As the Lord said to Joshuah when he and the Elders of Israel were upon their faces before God in prayer and humiliation after the defeat before Ai Israel hath sinned Josh 7.11 12 they have taken of the accursed thing therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies but turned their backs before their enemies because they were accursed neither will I be with you any more except ye destroy the accursed from amongst you Even thus he now appears bespeaking us Now he hath begun to hide his saving countenance and to cover his hearing ear from us and to discover his angry countenance against us there is no expecting he should be with us in mercy any more until in a heart-searching sin-exterpating repentance and a sin-expiating soul-reconciling application of the blood of Christ the cause of his separating from us and controversie with us be taken away That is a well known I would it were as well a followed passage of the Prophet Isai 1.16.17 Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil c. Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord. He had immediately before said When you spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yea when ye make many prayers I will not hear Yet upon the terms of repentance he invites them in this friindly manner Come now and let us reason together or parly Repent O England Repent ye people of God of the Lands and of your own sins that prevent or foreslow your prayers Repent of the Idolatries of the Covenanâ—-breaking and perjury of the prostitution of Religion to sinister ends of the neglect and sloth in the worship of God of earthly confidence blood-guiltiness injustice violence unmercifulness and pride Repent of and remove those blots and blemishes of our prayers the hiding daubing over and justification of some gross sins the hardness of heart hypocrisie carnal respects hatred contention and irreformedness Repent especially of those capital crimes the which we the universal sins of this Nation the loathing rejection and disobeying of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the vile imbracement and adoration of the interest of this present world And moreover add unto the score of your repentance all those steps that have been trod in following the way of Cain the errour of Balaam Jude 11. or the gainsaying of Core together with all those filthinesses of the Spirit to wit the many errours and departing from the faith and the many breaches of Order and Union in the Church of God with which through wrechless ignorance self-conceitedness wantonness newfangledness inconstancy emulation lukewarmness security licenciousness covetousness and contempt of others as with a spreading and fretting leprosie so many professours are tainted And let those aggravations of these recited sins be taken in to further and increase our repentance which cleave to them as they are now committed by us namely the scandal the Apostacy the Presumption the incorrigibility and the boundless growth of or in them These are Englands and in some sort all our sins which bâ—cloud the Throne of Grace deafen the ear of God overcast his face out-cry our prayers and open a way or gap to his hot anger against us These are the sins which the Ministers of Gods word have been long declaring against and they have now even outfaced and overgrown all their admonitions and reproofs These are the sins which have long stood up in competition with our prayers and they have now prevailed above them These are the sins which have made way for the desires and prayers of our enemies to take place so that now they open their mouth wide against us and say Aha Aha our eye hath seen it so would