hearts mourn And on this behalf such as bear good will to our English Sion pour out their souls before God in prayers and tears Yet let us not be so peevish children as to throw away what we have because we have not all we would nor wish our selves in Egypt again because we have not as yet the possession of the promised Land Thus to do is the ready way to provoke God to shut us out thence with an Oath and to swear that we shall never enter into his rest Hereby we shall not prevail with God for what we want but provoke him to deprive us of what we have Doubtless if we will act ingeniously and as becomes us we cannot but confess that God hath made our present Rulers instruments of much good to us and the whole Land That we have peace and protection is something there are those that would have swallowed us up quick That we may sit under our roofs in quiet and enjoy our own none to make us afraid is something there are those who would have stript us of all and rejoyced to see us begging our bread from door to door The Saints in the 11 Heb. who wandred up and down in sheep-skins and goat-skins destitute afflicted and tormented would have set an high price upon this mercy That we enjoy the Gospel and have liberty to meet together and worship God in season and out of season is something they would have thought it so who walked in darkness had not the word of God powerfully preached among them and could not without danger repair to those places in which it was so preached In a word that we may if we will have Ordinances purely administred the holy separated from the profane is something they cannot but think so who do remember what a burthen unto their consciences unlawful mixtures not long since were Questionless Brethren these are mercies of no small magnitude We have prayed for them and wept for them and fasted for them and spent much blood and treasure for them and it would be an argument of an heart very much out of frame should we now slight and undervalue them Those blessed Saints that are gone before us and are now in Heaven maintaining an everlasting sabbath would have blessed God while they lived if they had but enjoyed that which we do now enjoy and therefore we have reason to do so too And by way of expressing our thankfulness let us pray for our Magistrates who have been a means of bringing over these good things to us And as for those mercies which we want let us pray for our Magistrates that through their means they may be supplied as for those things that are amiss and out of order among us let us pray for our Magistrates that by their means they may be rectified every stone of stumbling taken out of the way the work of Reformation compleated and the Head-stone of the spiritual Temple brought forth with shoutings crying Grace grace unto it By all that hath been spoken you may plainly see that to pray for Kings and such as are in authority is a piece of duty and no more then what we owe unto them as they are men as they are Magistrates and as they are Benefactors The third and last Reason is this Governors and such as are in Authority have need of prayers their necessity calls upon us to be much in actings of this nature There is not the lowest and meanest Christian who is placed in the narrowest sphere of activity and whose work lieth within the smallest compass but is constrained always but more especially at some times to call in the help of his Fellow-christians and see cause to rejoyce and bear up his spirit with this that he hath a stock of prayers going in other hands that Saints all the world over are praying for him But those who are placed in an higher and larger sphere who have greater work and more publick imployment cut out for them have much more need of prayers Thus Ministers in the Church who are the Guides Overseers Pastors Leaders of the flock of Christ have need of prayers Paul though an Apostle a man singularly learned eminently gifted furnished with a great measure of grace extraordinarily assisted from above yet could not be without prayers and therefore he doth most earnestly beg them in sundry of his Epistles Eph. 6.19 1 Thes. 5.25 and Rom. 15.30 Now I beseech you Brethren for the Lord Jesus Christs sake and for the love of the Spirit that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me Pray for me I say pray for me I say quoth Father Latimer Pray for me pray for me for Gods sake pray for me said holy Bradford Ministers should have a special interest in their peoples prayers for they have great need of them and so have Magistrates too As they cannot be without subjects so neither can they well be without praying subjects that prince is not like to live wel nor raign well not like to do his duty nor to be a blessing to the nation who is shut out of the prayers of the Saints The Head in the natural body cannot say to the meanest member I have no need of thee some way or other it may be useful and serviceable to it Truly so the Prince who is the Head of the Body Politick cannot say to the meanest subject I have no need of thee he that is the foot in that body may go to heaven and fetch a blessing from thence upon him A Prince hath as much need of praying subjects as he hath of grave and â—udicious Counsellers or of numerous and valiant Armies or of strong and potent Navies Nay let me tell you great persons have more need of prayers then any men in the world Great expences do call a good purse and large Revenues to bear them out An Earl or Noble-man must have a greater estate then an ordinary Farmer since he must keep a greater house and live at an higher rate Oh the expences of Princes are more then most men dream of they are continually laying out and so had need that some should be by prayer continually laying up for them But we shall by sundry particulars make this evident to you Princes need your prayers because their employment is great Many men are apt to envy them the Crown because it is made of gold but they little consider that it is lined with care and is heavy enough to make their heads ake It is true Diadems and Scepters are glittering things and they dazle the eyes of those that see them but believe it they make their hands weary that sway them The burden which lieth upon their backs is weighty and so they cannot be without good supporters Diogenes in a tub had more quiet and ease than Alexander in his throne They are full of thoughts in the day and cares in the night their rest is broken while we sleep sound and securely
authority and raised up to eminent place While Princes have their hands upon the Rudder subjects should have their eyes unto heaven while they are consulting and caring for us we should be praying and wrestling for them They are not too great but that a weak Christian may and should carry them in his armes to the Throne of Grace outward advantages do not raise them above our prayers Indeed those that sit upon Christs throne in heaven and are crowned with the glory above have no need either to pray themselves or that any else should pray for them but they that sit upon earthly thrones and are clothed with majesty here will see cause not onely to ask for themselves but to send others also to the Throne of Grace that they may speak a good word and beg for them Nor are they too good for us to pray for David was a man after Gods own heart eminent for piety and holiness yet should the Church bless him in his exploits If a Prince be religious he will be sure to meet with most temptations from Satan most oppositions from wicked men and therefore should be most strongly guarded Though there be a good Ioshua fighting in the valley yet the Amalekires may prevail if the hands of Moses in the mount be not kept up The godliness of a Magistrate doth encourage us to pray for him since we go to God on the behalf of his friend and servant but it doth not give us a Writ of Ease nor exempt us from our duty Nor are any of them too wicked for us to pray for them Nero the Emperor when Paul wrote this Epistle and ordered out this exhortation he was an overgrown sinner a monster a beast rather then a man a desperate enemy to Christian Religion and all its professors yet pray for him saith Paul Good Princes cannot be without prayers wicked Princes stand most in need of them pray for those that are bad that God would make them better for those that they might never back-slide from God for these that they might return unto that God from whom they have already back-slidden Our charity ought to be comprehensive and by our prayers we should promote the welfare both of friends and foes as our Lord and Master gave us commandment Love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitâ—fully use you and persecute you 5 Matth. 44. which precept he backt with his own example begging pardon for them who crucified him 23 Luke 34 Father forgive them for they know not what they do Indeed none are to be denied an interest in our prayers those onely excepted concerning whom we can upon good grounds conclude that they have committed the sin unto death the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which certainly and positively to affirm concerning any man is the most difficult thing in the world and not very far removed from an impossibility In the further prosecution of this Point I shall observe this method 1. We will enquire what kinde of prayers must be made for Kings and all in authority 2. We will shew you what is to be the matter of our prayers or what we ought to pray for 3. We will give you some reasons why we ought to pray for Kings and those in authority and then in the last place make some improvement of the truth in a way of Application Of all which in their order First what kinde of prayers must be put up for Kings and those that are in authority I might give an answer to this question in our Apostles own words in another place 6 Eph. 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit Pray at all times to day and to morrow while and as often as you have praying opportunities In the morning sowe your seed and in the evening hold not your hand and so pray all prayers Confession Petition Thanksgiving but we need not go anywhere else for an Answer to our Question since we have a full and satisfactory one in the Text The Apostle here tells us we must make supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks Unto all which we shall speak in their order We must pray for Princes and Governors with deprecatory prayers which are in the Text called Supplications The word in the Original is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which saith Cameron signifieth petitionem opis qua egemus ad avertanda mala a desiring of succor and help needfull for the averting or keeping off those evils and mischiefs which face and threaten us Zanchy saith the word imports those prayers quibus mala deprecamur â—am spiritualiae quà m corporalia tam temporalia quam aeterna i. e. by which we deprecate or desire God to preserve us from evils both spiritual which scatter their malignant influences upon the soul and corporal which molest and are enemies to the welfare of the body temporal which are inflicted in this life and make our way uncomfortable eternal which are reserved for the life to come and make our end miserable in a word these supplications are the calling in of God to be our shield and buckler our fortress and strong tower to keep us safe from what ever and whosoever would deprive us either of being or of well-being Now these supplications are to be made for Princes and Rulers Their thrones do not stand so sure but they may shake Their interest is not so great but they have some enemies Their designs and endeavors never so much for others good but some in their Realms may be desiring and contriving their destruction Though David was a man after Gods own heart and chosen by God himself to be King yet had he a Shimei to curse him an Absalom to rise up against him and thousands in Israel to back him in his unnaturalness and rebellion Indeed very few of their houses are as a morning without clouds Sometimes the Sun of prosperity shines gloriously upon their tabernacles but anon again the day is overcast the heaven is black with clouds and winde and there is a sound of abundance of rain Now it becomes us to labour the preventing of those miseries which threaten them and the keeping off those evils which seem imminent over them and to hold that hand which would sacrifice them and offer them up unto the fury of their enemies When there are any black clouds of trouble hanging over them we should labour to scatter them and blow them away by our praying breath When judgements are breaking in like a flood upon them and that with so great a violence as if there were no hope but they would carry all before them then should we be all Noahs Daniels and Iobs standing in the breach and hindering the Inundation begging God who by his commanding and omnipotent word sets bounds to the Sea to say unto these waves Be still and either to drive them back as once he
own spirits and prejudice the Nations welfare In times of publick danger and so in times of publick distempers and disorder prayer is of an excellent use it is in season at all times men ought always to pray and not to faint but it is most especially in season in such times Is any man afflicted let him pray Is the Nation afflicted let all pray If the Ship is like to be broken with a tempest then let every one of the heathenish Mariners cry unto his God We are called out unto this work this day our Governors have now put an opportunity into our hands to such a purpose they do invite us to the work they desire and beg it at our hands Let us not loose the price that is in our hands let us not fool away nor idle away nor wrangle away praying opportunities Let us not be deaf to the cry of Englands Necessities nor to the call of Englands Rulers but let us up and be doing and the Lord will be with us You that never prayed before pray now you have been strangers to the work and careless of the Nation long enough already You that have prayed formerly continue your acquaintance with that work still and double your forces now Blessed be God something hath been already done this day among us here and we are not alone there is a sacrifice almost upon every Altar throughout the Nation there are those that be putting to their helping hand and are tugging for mercy let us joyn with them and pull hard God is not yet gone oh pray that he would not depart out of our Coasts We are not yet past hope pray that God would give us to see the desire of our hearts Our disease is not incurable though it may puzzle the wisest men yet it cannot non-plus the infinitely wise God oh pray that God would be our Physitian and undertake for us Our Prince riseth gloriously pray that he might not set in a cloud Our hopes concerning him are great pray that they may not be blasted Who knows what we may do if we would but do what we can grant that there is but a peradventure yet let that prevail The Nation may be lost but let not that dishearten you for it may be saved and let that encourage you Ionah preacht yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown here was great ground of fear that judgement being denounced by the Prophet upon the commandment of the Lord but saith the King let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God c. but why so the sentence is gone out hath the Lord said it and shall he not do it nay but who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not Thus here Our sins are very many our breaches very great God is highly provoked the clouds over our heads are thick yet who can tell but that mercy mâ—y triumph in the Nations welfare who can tell but God may have thoughts of good and peâ—ce concerning us A drowning man will catch hold of any thing for the saving of his life could we see but a spirit of prayer poured out among us I would not question but that God would open the bottles of his mercy and rain down upon us a blessing in abundance I will here lay downe something by way of direction and then by way of Motive and so conclude By way of direction take onely these two things Pray Fervently and Constantly First pray fervently You must fire the Sacrifice if you would have it ascend as high as heaven He will never hit the marke who doth not draw the arrow up to the head Therfore call forth all your powers muster up all your forces all your praying graces all your praying affections and go to the throne of grace as strong as you can It is the effectuall fervent prayer of a righteous man that availeth much If the Child do onely wrangle a little it may ly still in the cradle and be neglected but if once it crieth fiercely and cannot otherwise be pacified then will the Mother draw her Breast See that what you desire be good and that your end in desiring it be right and then cry mightily Luther said Vtinam semper eodem ardore orare possem would to God I could alwaies pray with the same Earnestness and Fervency for then I should alwaies have this answer Fiat quod velis Be it unto thee even as thou wilt They that would return Honâ—urably must set out Valiantly wrestling with God is the onely way to prevaile like Princes oh therefore be earnest There are many to hinder and if you would obtain you must be importunate Englands sins do abound and they are as so many middle walls between Gods ear and your Prayers you must cry aloud if you would be heard They lie as so many rubs in the way of mercy lay out all your strength for the removing of them When a Peoples transgressions are many and their prayers are cold reason will tell us that their expectations must neds be low no sacrifice will be accepted but the male in the Flock If you offer to God the Blind and the Lame cold dead formal prayers they are so far from being a sweet-smelling savour as that they are like the Cutting of a Dogs neck or offering swines flesh an abomination to the Lord Let all saith the King of Nineveh cry yea cry mightily unto God We can never thinke that God should be prevailed with by those prayers with which we our selves are not at all affected The Church complains in the 64 Isa. 7. There is none that calleth upon thy Name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee No wonder If God doth not rise to our help if we do not stir up our selves to take hold of him dull and sleepy prayers are never like to awaken Gods arm But then Secondly pray constantly prayer is the work not of an houre but of a life not onely of a fasting day but of every day It is not enough to send out one messenger to Heaven but we must speed away one after another If a petition be sent to Court and none to follow it it will come to nothing the thing will not be granted he that faints in prayer will fail of mercy When an Army beleagures a Town they do not give over at the first or second repulse nor leave it unless a surrender be presently made but there they lie week after week and storm it time after time and never give over till they are Masters of it Thus when we besiege the Throne of Grace with our prayers we must not be discouraged though we do not presently obtain nor be put out of heart with the first or second refusal but continue the work and renew our requests Shrink not back like cowards in war but stand your ground Prayer must be redoubled and reinforced like those arrows of
person Wo to that Land whose Prince is not directed by the spirit of God nor curbed by the fear of God nor constrained by the love of God Wo to that Land whose Prince hath neither grace in his heart nor God in his eye Evils in Princes are the worst and greatest evils because they have the strongest influence if the Pilot miscarry the Ship is lost Thus you see it clearly proved to you that Princes have need of prayers and so have we done with the Reasons and finished the Doctrinal part Give me leave to speak something though but a little by way of Use And here I might justly take up a bitter complaint of and order out a sharp reprehension unto those who neglect this piece of their duty Some out of a profane spirit who spend days weeks and moneths and yeers without prayer they enjoy many mercies but they were never of their seeking If God wil do good to themselves or others he may but he shall never be desired by them How many are there that shut prayer and the whole worship of God out of their houses and closets and they that will not pray for themselves will never be suitors for others if they will not beg their own lives the lives of their souls at the hands of God they will not beg their Princes peace and prosperity But let such men know God hath wrath pure wrath fierce wrath full vials of wrath to poure out upon the Heathen that know him not and upon the families that call not upon his name God doth not heare from them now but one day they shall hear from him yea a terrible sound shall be in their ears and the terrours of the Almighty shall make them afraid Others neglect this duty out of a private spirit who do indeed pray and make conscience of it too dare not omit it but they extend their care no further then themselves their thoughts are wholly taken up about their own private interest They can pray for blessings upon themselves and upon their families but that is all and so things be well at home they care not how they go abroad Paul complained of this in the 2 Philip 21. all seek their own things and not the things which are Jesus Christs the things of Christ are shouldered out and the interest of the Church is not studied self-interest like Aarons rod swalloweth up all other and drowns the glory of God and the publique good but this spirit is below a man Heathens will condemn it It is said of Cato that he did toti genitum se credere mundo look upon himself as born for the whole world the care of the Community lay upon him This spirit is below a Christian and unworthy of the Gospel which teacheth us to look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others Timothy is said naturally to care for the Churches welfare This spirit is hateful to all men he that is wholly shut up within himself is an odious person and the place he lives in longs for a vomit to spue him out In a word this spirit is condemned by reason it self what dost thou think will become of thy Cabin if the Ship miscarry It is not like thy Closet should stand when the house is burnt down Others there are who utterly lay aside this duty out of a froward and discontented spirit who like Flies feed upon the sores of Magistrates thereby hindering a cure but will not go to heaven for a plaister that they may be healed they do not like the hand which sways the Scepter nor the things that are done by him who sits in the throne and therefore they will not so far befriend him as to give him a room in their Petitions They will shut him out of their prayers because they cannot approve all his doings and yet they may finde fault where there is none and look upon that with an evil eye which in it self is matter and ground of thankfulness Let persons that are guilty of this neglect from what principle soever they act know that they have little sense of the mercies which they enjoy Were Gods goodness to us in our Governours eyed and the blessings which by them we receive laid to heart and seriously considered of they would work another frame of spirit in you Such as these are small friends to our English Zion the Nation is much beholding to them is it not how can it be thought they should spend their estates shed their blood hazard their lives for the Nation who will not be at the cost of a few prayers for its prosperity I might also tell them that they will have little thanks for their forbearance at the last and that if the Nation miscarry its ruine may be laid at their doors If the wrath of God breaks in upon us like a sea and drowns all it was because you came not up to stand in the gap If God departs from England and carries his Gospel and spiritual and temporal Mercies along with him we may thank you and such as you are he would have stayed if he had been but more desired But I shall wave those things and proceed to an Vse of Exhortation And Let me prevail with you to set you upon this work Oh pray for your Governors and in a more special maner for him whom God hath made Chief over you and by his providence called to the supream place of Magistracy in the Nation God hath been pleased of late to make a sad breach among us taking away from us our former Pilot the late Renowned Protector who when he had fought the Nations Battels carried us thorow the wilderness preserved us from the rage and fury of our enemies and brought us within sight of the promised Land gave up the ghost laid down his leading-staff and his life together with whose fall the Nation was shaken his death covered all the faces of sober and considerate persons with paleness and their hearts with sadness as if Peace and Prosperity Reformation the Gospel all lay drawing on and would be buried in the same grave with him But blessed be God Divine Grace vouchsafed to cast an eye toward us and to visit us in our low estate there is another Pilot placed in his room while he directs the course let us fill the sayls with our praying breath Moses it is true is dead but we have a Ioshua succeeding him let us pray that what the other happily begun this may more happily finish and bring the accomplishment of all your right-bred hopes and what they said to Ioshua let us say unto his Highness According as we hearkened unto Moses in all things so will we hearken unto thee onely the Lord thy God be with thee as he was with Moses Iosh. 1.17 My Brethren let us leave disputing and quarreling and complaining and finding fault our work lies elswhere these proceedings will but roil our