Christ told the Disciples That if in any house they came to preach peace there were not a Sonne of peace Luke 10. on whom the message might take place and their peace rest Your peace saies hee shall returne unto you againe So is it if your prayers take not place §. 4. Good often in the end casts such out of our prayers hee intends not to heare us for 4. If wee have prayed long for those whom God â—ntends not mercy unto hee will in the end cast them out of our prayers and hearts and take our hearts off from praying for them That which he did by a revelation from heaven to some Prophets of old as to Samuel and Ieremiah the same hee doth by a more undiscerned worke that is by withdrawing assistance to pray for such by withdrawing the spirit of supplication from a man for some men and in some businesses Now thus he did with Samuel Why dost thou mourne for Saul The Reason 1. Sam. 16. 1. So with Ieremiah Jer. 7. 16. Pray not for this people and this he doth because he is loath when his people doe pray but to heare them and would not that such precious breath as that of prayer is should bee without its full and direct successe or be in vaine therefore when he meanes not to heare he layes the key of prayer out of the way so desirous is hee to give answers to every prayer It falls out in this case of praying for another as in reproving another One whom God intends not good unto God will lock up a mans heart towards such a man that hee shall not bee able to reprove him when towards another God doth inlarge it as much where hee intends good thus it is sometimes in praying for another so as in praying a man shall not be able to pray for as not to reprove such a man though his heart was to doe both but it fareth with him as God threatneth concerning Ezekiel towards that people that he makes his tongue cleave to the roofe of his mouth Ezek. 3. 26. §. 5. God sometimes answers those prayers in some others whoÌ„ we prayed not for 5. God will heare those prayers for and answer them in some others in whom wee shall have as much comfort as in those wee prayed for and so it often proves and fals out God The reason to shew he lookes not as man lookes nor chooseth as hee chooseth lets our hearts be set on work to pray for the conversion or good of one hee intends not mercy to and then answers them in some other whom Hee makes as deare unto us When God had cast off Saul still Samuels heart lingred after him and hee mourned for him but God at the same time when hee bids him cease mourning for Saul 1. Sam. 16. to shew that yet hee accepted that his mourning as it came from him Goe saies hee and anoint one of the sonnes of lesse 1. Sam. 16. 1. Samuel desired to see a good successor in that government and he having been their ruler it was his speciall care and he having anointed Saul it exceedingly grieved him that he should prove so wicked and God saw and answered the ground of his desires and therefore immediately upon his prayers sent him to anoint the best King that ever was upon that Throne who was the issue and Man-childe of those his prayers And again when Samuel came to anoint one of the sonnes of Iesse when he saw Eliab ver 6. Surely saies he the Lords anointed is before me If Samuel had been to choose hee would have chosen him and would have prayed for and desired him but God seeth not as man seeth ver 7. and chooseth not as man chooseth but in David was his praier fully heard and answered and that better So Abraham he had prayed for Ishmael and Oh let Ishmael live in thy sight Gen. 17. but GOD gave him Isaac in stead of him So perhaps thou prayest for one childe more then for another out of thy natural affection looking on his countenance and stature as Samuel did on Eliabs but yet thy prayers being sincere in the ground of them in that thou desirest a childe of Promise God therefore answers thee though in another for whom yet haply thy heart was not so much stirred who yet when he is converted proves to thee as great a comfort and it is as much as if that other thou diddest most pray for had bin wrought upon Chap. 4. CHAP. IV. The third Case about such prayers wherein others joine with us How therein to discern the influence of our own prayers THe third Case to bee considered is when a man prayes for something with others or which others likewise pray for with him so as he is not alone in it how then should he know that his prayers have a hand in obtaining it as well as theirs For in such cases Satan is apt to object though the thing is granted indeed yet not for thy prayers but for the prayers of those others joyned in it with thee §. 1. If our hearts were affected in praying with the same holy affections wherewith others that prayed with us were 1. If thy heart did sympathize and accord in the same holy affections with those others in praying then it is certaine thy voice hath helpt to carry it If two agree on earth sayes Christ Matt. 18. 19. the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is if they harmonially agree to play the same tune for prayers are musick in Gods eares and so called Melody to God Ephes 5. 19 It is not simply their agreeing in the thing prayed for but in the affections for it is the affections that make the consort and the melody now if the same holy affections were toucht and struck by Gods spirit in thy heart that in theirs then thou doest help to make up the consort and without thee it would have beene imperfect yea without thee the thing might not have been done for God stands sometimes upon such a number of voices and one voice casts it as when he named ten righteous persons to save Sodome when therefore the same holy motives and affections acted thee in thy prayer which did them in theirs it was the worke of the same spirit both in them and thee and God hath heard thee Especially if God did stir up the same secret instinct in thee Especially when this sympathy is unbeknowne each to other to sympathize with another in praying for such a thing unbeknowne one to another as sometimes it falls out then surely thy prayers are in it as well as his You shall observe sometimes a generall instinct of the Spirit put into Gods peoples hearts generally to pray for or against a thing without each others stirring up one another even as Ezekiel by the river Chebar prophecied the same things Ieremiah did at home at Ierusalem Thus against the time that Christ the Messiah came in
in readily and of themselves and that likewise with a quickning heat and inlargement of affections and with a lingring and longing and restlessenesse of spirit to bee alone to powre out the soule to God and to vent and forme those motions and suggestions into a prayer till you have laid them together and made a prayer of them And this is a speaking to the heart and observe such times when God doth thus and neglect them not then to strike whilest the iron is hot thou hast then his eare it is a speciall opportunity for that businesse such an one as thou mayest never have the like Suitors at Court observe mollissima fandi tempora their times of beging when they have Kings in a good mood which they will be sure to take the advantage of but especially if they should finde that the King himselfe should beginne of himselfe to speake of the businesse which they would have of him and thus that phrase of Psal 10. 17. is understood by some that God prepares the heart and causeth the eare to heare that is hee fashions it and composeth it into a praying frame And sure it is a great signe that God meanes to heare us The difference between Satans unseasonable urging us to pray and Gods moving us when himselfe shall thus indite the Petition And by the way let me give this note of difference betweene these speakings to the heart and those whereby Satan puts us upon such duties at unseasonable houres and times as when we are otherwise necessarily to be imployed in our callings to eate or to sleepe c. then to put upon praying is a device of his he useth to tire out new converts with The difference will appeare in this the devill comes in a violent imperious manner upon the conscience but inlargeth not the heart a whit unto the duty but whensoever God at such extraordinary by-times doth call upon us hee fits and prepares the heart and fills the soule with holy suggestions as materialls for the duty for whatsoever he calls to he gives abilities withall to the thing he calls for And thus usually when hee will have any great matters done effected hee sets mens hearts a worke to pray by a kinde of gracious pre-instinct hee stirres them up and toucheth the strings of their hearts by his Spirit sent downe upon them Thus against the returne of the captivity he stirred up Daniels heart Dan. 9. 1. Hee knowing by bookes the time to be neere expiring was stirred up to seek God Dan. 9. 2. and so hee that made this Psalme Salvation being then nigh ver 9. 10. then God stirred him up to pray and pen this prayer for their returne which God had foretold hee would doe Ier. 29. 10 11 12. For having promised ver 10. I will cause you to returne after seventy yeares Then sayes he ver 12. shall ye call upon me and ye shall goe and pray unto mee and I will hearken unto you he speakes it not onely by way of command what it was they ought to doe but as prophecying also what they should doe for then he meant to stirre up their hearts as then hee did as appeares by those forementioned instances Therefore observe what things God thus by an instinct doth inlarge thy heart to pray for at times and sometimes at extraordinary by-times when haply thou diddest not think to pray about any such thing yet hee then stirred thee up most it may be as thou wert walking c. and having spare time he drawes thee into his presence and moves thee in that maner specified §. 2. 2 In praier Gods speaking to the heart in prayer an evidence of hearing which may be discerned Now secondly as God thus speakes to the heart to pray so also in praying and his speaking to the heart in prayer may bee discerned by these particulars 1 By giving a quiet rest of spirit about the thing prayed for in and by prayer 1. When God quiets and calmes and contents the heart in prayer which is done by speaking something to the heart though what is spoken be not alwayes discerned If you should see one who was an earnest and importunate suitor and exceeding anxious when he went in to a great man but behold him after comming out from him contented and quieted and cheerefull in his spirit you would conceive that certainly something had beene said to him which gave him encouragement satisfaction and contentment in his suit Thus when thou goest to God and hast been importunate in a businesse as suppose for Christ Oh give me Christ or else I die and thy desires were exceedingly up for it But thou risest up with thy minde calmed and satisfied and feelest the anxiousnesse the solicitude of thy heart about the thing taken off and dispelled This is a good sign that God hath heard thy Prayer and hath spoken something to thy heart which makes it thus composed When Hannah out of much bitternesse and with strong desires which by a long delay had bin made more violent so as her heart was much disquieted for Prov. 13. 12. Hope and by the same reason desire also deferred makes the soule sick when out of the abundance of her griefe shee had poured her soule out before the Lord 1. Sam. 1. 16. Eli the Priest joyning in prayer also for her The Lord grant thy petition after that prayer she found her heart so quieted that shee looked no more sad as the Text sayes there She arose quieted and calmed and it was that prayer that did both fill Elies mouth with that word of prophecie and her heart with quietnesse and a secret word from God accompanying it that did still those waves and accordingly God gave her a Son a Son of her desires And the like God doth now by speaking as I said something to the heart as by dropping in some promise or other into the heart or some like consideration saying as it were to the heart even as Eli from God did to her The Lord grants thy petition As to S. Paul when he was earnest with God about removing his buffetings by Satan which whether they were the stirring up a lust or temptations of blasphemy I doe not now dispute I besought God thrice that is earnestly sayes hee that it might depart and to this hee had an answer in the meane time given him till it should bee taken away enough to still and quiet him so 2. Cor. 12. 8 9. And he said that is in prayer the Lord did put in this consideration and promise into his thoughts And he said unto me my grace is sufficient for thee and my power is made perfect in weaknesse This answer thus comming in this promise thus seasonably suggested stayed and quieted Pauls heart In like manner thou hast it may bee been long praying against poverty or the like distresse and God le ts fall this or the like promise into thy heart I will never leave thee
so in some cases there is the like testimony for the obtaining of some eminent thing we have asked Which particular speciall faith doth in a kind of similitude answer to the faith of miracles of old whereby a man had a particular confidēce that God would doe such a miracle by him so in by meanes of prayer in some things there may be a particular strengthning assuring the heart that God will doe such a thing for a man which I confesse is rare and extraordinary as also that immediate testimony concerning our persons is which many want that goe to heaven And haply this other concerning the accomplishment of speciall mercies is much more rare and but in some businesses and is a thing which some men are not acquainted with but yet may bee in some cases existent to some mens spirits as it was to Davids in the thing mentioned And concerning this also I will also adde a Caution A caution that herein a conditionall evidence be not taken for absolute as about the former That it doth not alwayes fall out upon all such kind of evidences made to a mans spirit and that by God that the thing prayed for doth come to passe For these very perswasions stirred up by God may bee and are often but conditionall though thus immediately made to a mans spirit and are so to bee understood and not peremptory and absolute It cannot bee imagined that all these should alwayes be of greater absolutenesse and peremptorinesse than were many of those revelations made by God to the Prophets wherein Hee manifested his gracious purpose towards such a man or people either to vouchsafe them such a mercie or bring such a judgement which forewarnings though they were particular and expresse yet limited and intended with a condition according to the performance or not performance of which it fell out either the judgement expresly threatned was diverted or that good thing which was as directly and fully promised was not bestowed as it was in the case of Ionas threatning the destruction of Nineveb and so in the promise concerning Ely's house 1. Sam. 2. 30. I said indeed that thy house and the house of thy father should walke before mee for ever but now the Lord sayes it shall not bee so For they had broken the condition which was implied in it they had despised the Lord and them that despise me sayes God there I will despise In like manner is Gods meaning expressed towards us in such like perswasions wrought in us by prayer to be understood as that such mercies will surely come to passe but still under a condition of obedience and performing of those vowes which a man joyned with those his petitions to move the Lord to grant the things which if a man faile in or ceaseth to goe on to beleeve it may and doth often come to passe that things fall out contrary to that perswasion and then wee are apt to question whether it was from God or no which it might bee and truely wrought by his Spirit and yet not alwaies absolutely meant that was your mistake so to take it but conditionally onely For in such great requests of the soule unto God there use to passe mutuall covenants betweene God and us and Indentures are drawne and sealed unto by us that is we in prayer offer and promise to doe thus and thus if God will vouchsafe us such a mercy and pleade it to God to move him to bestow it and God hee thereupon it may bee seales a covenant on his part to grant the thing works such an undoubted perswasion but if wee in that interim of waiting for that mercy doe deale falsely in that covenant which we made and this even whilest wee are yet in dependance upon God for it whereby it appeares that we would have done so much more after wee should have received it once in this case God denies the thing and yet notwithstanding that perswasion and evidence was from God that heard the prayer He said indeed he would doe thus and thus for thee as he told David I would have given thee much more because thou saidst to him thou wouldst walke thus and thus or didst vow this or that to him thou failest in thy word upon which God uttered his and thereupon sayes God as to Ely Now it shall not be so and yet God had spoken it afore and not Satan nor thine owne heart onely §. 5. Whē God puts a restlesse importunity into the heart to pray for a particular mercy 4. When God doth put a restlesse importunity into the heart maugre all discouragements So in that Psalme 27. 4. One thing I have desired and I wil seek after it that is as I have sought it so I will not leave seeking to God for it when God maintaines this in the heart it is a signe he heares and will answer for you know the Parable that the unjust Iudge heard her for her importunity therefore when God puts an importunity into the heart he meanes to heare Onely this likewise is to be added in this A double importunity one accepted not the other There is a double importunity one out of such an inordinate desire to a thing as the heart knows not how to be without such a mercie and so continues to ask but asketh amisse and so receives not Iam. 5. But there is an importunity joyned with a subjection to Gods will which when it runs along with it then God hath stird it up and then looke for something to come otherwise you may bee importunate as they seeke mee daily when yet God heard not Esay 58. 2. Chap. 6. CHAP. VI. Further Observations to be made on the dispositions and carriage of our hearts after Prayer untill the issue of the thing prayed for NExt after thou hast prayed observe what God doth towards thee § 1. Whē God gives an obedient dependant heart in walking before him As first how hee doth guide thy feet and heart after praying there is much in that that which was the Spirit of supplication in a man when he prayed rests upon him as the spirit of obedience in his course so as that dependance hee hath upon God for the mercy hee seekes for is a speciall motive meanes to keep him fearefull of offending and diligent in duty to looke to his paths to walke and behave himselfe as becomes a suitor as well as to come and pray as a suitor Thus David he walked by this principle Psal 66. 18. If I regard iniquity in my heart God will not heare me that consideration still came in as a curb unto sinne and without this a man provokes God and so casts himselfe behind-hand againe and by sinning loseth what ground hee had got by praying Therefore David Psal 145. 8 9 10. when he was to pray even as for his life as then he did it being a deliverance from his enemies he sought he specially prayes God to
17. that others may see it and be ashamed and such tokens doth God often make small circumstances to bee Things small in themselves may bee magna indicia great signes and tokens for example Moses and Aaron and the Israelites had long cryed to GOD for the deliverance of his people and laid up many prayers their cry came up as was said and when God doth deliver them what tokens were there of good and of GODS hand in it and of his answer to their prayers The Text notes as was observed before that a dog did not barke at their going out Exod. 11. 7. which was a small circumstance but it was magnum indicium and so intended by God for the Text addes That ye may know that God puts a difference between the Israelites and the Egyptians This was a â—oken of Gods hand to over-rule the tongues of rude bruit creatures that use to stir at such unusuall noises and at travellers especially in the night So when Isaac and Abraham and his servant also had prayed for a Wife for Isaac see by what a token God shewed he had heard their prayers Rebekkah was the first that came out to the servant sent to bring a wife for him and if shee be the woman appointed for Isaac saies the servant Let her offer me drinke Gen 23. 13 14. and my Camels also this was a small thing in appearance but a great indicium of Gods hand in it and therefore the servant bowed at it and worshipped and the signe in it selfe was such as argued a good nature in her and a kinde courteous disposition which therefore it may bee hee singled out as a token of a meet wife as a thing especially to be looked at in the mariage choise § 3. Observation from the time wherein the thing prayed for is accomplisht as Againe the consideration of the time wherein the things we have asked are granted may much help us to discerne whether it be in answer to our prayers For God who doth all things in weight and measure shewes his wisdome and love as much in the season as in giving the thing it selfe GOD considereth all times of thy life and still chosseth the best and fittest to answer thy prayers in In an acceptable time have I heard thee So Esay 49. 8. As David in like maner sayes hee prayed in an acceptable time Psal 69. 13. So accordingly God answers in the best and most acceptable time to us for he waits to be gracious for he is a God of judgement Esay 30. 18. that is Hee is a wise God that knowes the fittest times and seasons wherein to shew kindnesses and to deale forth his favours in 1 Sometime the thing is accomplisht about the time wherin we are most instant in prayer As first it may be that at that very time when thou hast beene most instant and earnest yea even whilest thou art a praying or presently after the thing is done and accomplisht To this purpose is that of Esay 65. 24. That as sometimes he heares before they call which argues much love to give mercies unsought so also whilest they are speaking I will heare and grant the thing which argues no lesse love and he culs out that time on purpose that they might rest assured that it was in answer to their prayer Thus to assure Hezekiah his prayer was heard God sent the Prophet in unto him whilest hee was a praying and weeping with his head turned towards the wall So Isaac going out to pray in the field meets his Rebekkah then a comming Gen. 24 63 that blessing of a good Wife being surely the great request temporall hee was then in Treaty with God for this Rebekkah was the fruit of many prayers So when S. Peter was in prison the Church being gathered together to pray for him S. Peter comes and knocks at the same houre Acts 12. from the 12. ver to the 18. So as it often falls out herein as to the Ruler in the Gospel Iob. 4. 52. who inquiring diligently found that the same houre that Christ had said to him Thy sonne liveth his son recovered and so he beleeved and his whole houshold So also here that sometimes the thing is done or the newes of it comes the same houre or soone after wherein a man was praying about it and haply then when the heart was most stirred about it more then at any time else this is a signe it was an answer of prayers and may help to confirme a mans faith in it as that also did his 2 When granted in the fittest time Or secondly when it is the most acceptable and every way the fittest time to have the thing granted At that time 1. when thou hadst most neede and 2. when thy heart was most fit for it For in answering prayers God aimes especially at two things 1. To shew his mercy that a man might magnifie and exalt that And 2. To have the heart satisfied and filled with joy and contentment in his answer and the thing made sweet and a mercy indeed to him in briefe that his goodnesse might be delighted in and his mercy exalted The fittest time knowne two wayes And for these two purposes he culs out such times when we have most need and also when our hearts are most subdued and our lusts mortified For then we are fittest to rellish his goodnesse alone and not to bee drawne away with the carnall sweetnesse that is in the thing The one you have exprest Esay 30. 18. Hee waits to bee gracious to have his mercy exalted The second intimated Iames 5. Ye aske and receive not because ye aske amisse to consume upon your lusts Such prayers whilest the heart is in this temper the Lord denies or deferres in mercie till the heart bee weaned 1 When wee have most need For the first of these As suppose thou diddest pray long for assurance of salvation and joy in the Holy Ghost and when thou hadst most need of it either when thy spirit would have failed without it as Esay 57. 16. Or against some great affliction approaching or some great encounter with the world for the Name of Christ then God filled thy heart with it c. that was the fittest time now hath God heard thy prayer As S. Peter hee was in Prison and had beene so for many dayes as appeares by the fourth and fifth verses Acts 12. God could haue delivered him at any time while the Church prayed for him ver 5. But God kept him in on purpose till that very night when in the next morning Herod meant to bring him forth to execution and then God delivered him at the prayers of the Church then was the most fit time As the Psalmist sayes The full time to have mercy on him was come Psal 102. 1â— And then to receive an answer is a signe God did it out of speciall love which love hee would have exalted by thee as Esay
So Hannah having obtained Samuel by prayer shee returnes him unto God 1. Sam. 1. 27 28. For this childe I prayed and God gave me my petition and therefore also I have lent him to the Lord as long as hee liveth If therefore thou findest this his dealing with thee in answering thee to be a kindely motive to cause thee to mourne for sin and to bee as a restraint against sin it is a signe it was the fruit of praier Thus it wrought with David Psal 6. 8. Away from mee yee that work iniquity God hath heard the voice of my weeping Also if thou rejoycest in God more than in the thing obtained so Hannah begins her song when she blesseth God for her child My heart rejoyceth in the Lord c. 1. Sam. 2. 1. Shee rejoyceth not so much in the gift as in the giver and his favour more in this that her prayer was answered then in the thing obtained this is a signe of having obtained the mercy through prayers when it is thus sanctified unto a mans spirit §. 2. Prayer answered enlargeth the heart with thankfulnesse 2 Prayers answered will inlarge thy heart with thankefulnesse and thus usually they doe selfe-love makes us more forward to pray than to give thankes for nature is all of the craving and taking hand but where grace is there will be no eminent mercie gotten with much strugling but there will be a continued particular thankfull remembrance of it a long while after with much inlargement and As prayers abounded so will thanksgiving abound also Hannah shee makes a Song 1. Sam. 1. 2. Great blessings that are wonne with prayer are worne with thankfulnesse such a man will not ask new but he will withall give thankes for old Thankfulnesse of all duties proceeds from pure grace therefore if the spirit stirs thee unto it it is a signe he made the prayer What thankes shall I render to God for the joy I have in you saith S. Paul 1. Thess 3. 9 10 So in all his other Epistles all those hee writes to as he prayes for them so hee tells them he gives thanks for them and for their graces which he had prayed for And if answering prayers for others makes S. Paul so thankfull what when for himselfe Prayer and thanks are like the double motion of the lungs the ayre that is sucked in by prayer is breathed forth againe by thanks Is thy heart afresh inlarged as to mourne for past sins long since committed so in like manner to give thankes for past mercies wonne with long prayers and this for a long while after it is a sign that they were obtained by prayer §. 3. If this encourageth thee to go to God againe 3 If the mercy obtained doth encourage thee to goe to GOD another time to pray againe the more confidently and fervently it is a signe thou hast got the former that way For the Holy Ghost having once shewed thee this way of procuring mercy hence it is thou art thus ready to take the same course another time Psal 116. 2. The Lord hath heard mee and I will call on him as long as I live I know sayes hee now what course to take if I be in any want even to call upon him and he calls upon others to doe so too § 4. It makes a man carefull to performe his vows made in prayer to obtaine it 4 When God having heard thy prayers upon solemne vowes made by thee thy heart is made carefull to pay those vowes which thou didst make in the time of thy suing to GOD for that mercy this may be an argument to thee the thing being granted that thy prayer was heard For first it argueth that thy heart it selfe doth secretly make such an account that upon them God did grant the thing and thou dost therefore make conscience to return all again to God in service as the condition of thy Indentures made with him and as an homage due and an acknowledgement for ever that such a mercy was won by prayer and by this preservest the memory of the receit of that mercy vowes being of the nature of homage and secondly in this also it is an evidence that the thing was obtained by prayer in that God cals for those vowes from thee by his Spirit in thy heart and stirs thee up to perform them it argues that in relation to thy prayers answered He takes them as dues from thee that having dispatcht thy suite He now calls for what was agreed to bee given him when it should bee performed And thirdly in that also he doth accept the payment of these thy vows of thee he acknowledgeth that those vowes and prayers were heard for as Manoah said in another case If hee meant to have destroyed us Iudg. 13. 23 hee would not have accepted a sacrifice so in this case it may be said if God had not heard thy prayers hee would not have accepted thy vowes after thy praying Thus David Psal 66. 13 14. I will pay thee my vowes which my lips have uttered and my mouth hath spoken when I was in my trouble the reason follows v. 17 19. because that Verily God hath heard me when I cryed to him and so Eliphaz in Iob doth connect and hang these two together Iob 22. 27. Thou shalt make thy prayer to him and he shall heare thee and thou shalt pay thy vowes This which he speakes of paying his vowes was not onely as it was to be his duty but also as a consequent that would follow the other that when his prayers should be heard he thereupon would performe his vowes for his scope is to move Iob to turne to God shewing what benefit would accrue to him by it and amongst others this The hearing his prayers and performing his vowes 5 If a man sees by faith and acknowledgeth God ◠sole han◠in the accomplishment 5 When thou art inabled by faith to see cleerly Gods hand shewed forth in the effecting of that mercy over and above the power of second causes and to acknowledge it to his glory for the truth is one maine cavilling reason in our blinde hearts whereby wee are usually hindred and put by from apprehending our prayers to be answered when yet the thing is done wee shall find to be that our eyes are terminated and bounded in second causes and not raised to see Gods hand in the thing therefore on the contrary when God inableth thee to see that hee hath done thee this kindnesse so as thy minde is cleere in it this is a fruit of his hearing thy prayers And this you will usually finde to be true that so much faith and dependance as you had upon God in prayer for the obtaining of a mercy so much faith and acknowledgement you will have in the accomplishment of it Parallel with this rule is that other which in another case is usually given that in performance of duties so much as the soul did
goe out of it selfe to God for strength to performe them so much when they are performed will the heart acknowledge Gods assistance and be humbled And this is a signe of prayer being heard upon this ground because Gods end of hearing prayers is that wee might glorifie him So Psal 50. 15. Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify mee Therefore when the heart hath prayed much for a mercy with dependance before the obtaining of it and then is enabled to exalt God when it is obtained it is a signe that God did it in relation to those prayers For there is that connexion made betweene these as between the cause and the effect I will heare thee and thou shalt glorifie me David when he was delivered out of all his troubles as when hee made that 18. Psal he was as appeares by the title of it then at the 6. verse he relates how he had prayed and how hee was heard and see thereupon how his heart was enlarged to acknowledge God alone to have done all in the rest of that Psalme so from the 27. and also from the 31. ver When wee see Angels from God beyond the power of second causes descending it is a signe that prayers as Angels first ascended and obtained that mercy Thus also the Church Esay 26. having obtained those deliverances by prayer ver 17. for which there she makes that song by way of thankfulnesse she ascribes all unto God ver 12. Thou hast wrought all our workes for us and ver 18. Verily we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth §. 6. With the mercy sometimes a speciall evidence comes in that it is obtained by prayer 6 When with the mercy there commeth the assurance of Gods love and an evidence of his favour when GOD sends not a bare token only but a letter also with it to beare witnesse of his love in which the token is wrapt I need not make that a sign for when this comes with a mercy it carries its owne evidence you will then know well enough that it is the fruit of prayer §. 7. By the evēt things obtained by prayer prove reall and stable mercies 7 Lastly it will be evident by the event things obtained by prayer have few thornes in them the curse is taken out but what comes but by ordinary providence comes as it were up of it selfe alone and like the earth untilled is full of thornes and bryers and many vexations The reason is for what comes in by prayer comes as a blessing and so no sorrow is added to it and also because prayer killeth those inordinate lusts which is the cause of that vanity and vexation which is in the things enjoyed But when the blessing of God maketh rich he addeth no sorrow with it Prov. 10. 22. Things long deferred at last obtained by prayer prove most cōfortable and in a setled manner such they prove standing and stable blessings and what trouble the heart was put to in the deferring it is recompenced by the more setled constant immixt sweetnesse in the enjoying prayer having long perfumed it and the thing being steeped therein it proves exceeding pleasant So Prov. 13. 12. Hope deferred makes the heart sicke but when the desire comes it is a tree of life and heales that sicknesse and abundantly comforts the heart Thus Isaac found Rebekkah a great blessing and a comfortable wife to him Gen. 24. ult Such a comfort also was Isaac to Abraham Gen. 17. 18 19. A sonne indeed a sonne of laughter as his name signifies and such was Samuel to Hannah shee had not onely a sonne of him but a good son a blessed son a Prophet and the Judge of the people of God whereas Iacob getting the blessing but without prayer how imbittered was it to him though a blessing to him in the event by twenty yeeres banishment from his mothers house When Israel themselves set up a King but not by me as God saies what a punishment was he to them given in wrath and taken away in anger Hos 13. 11. Chap. 9 CHAP. IX Considerations to quiet the heart and to help it to discerne an answer to and acceptation of the prayer when the thing is not accomplisht § 1. The thing prayed for is not alwaies granted when yet the prayer is heard BUt now the next and more difficult question is When the thing is not granted how shall we then discerne and know that God doth notwithstanding heare the prayer Concerning which I must premise this that it is true that alwayes the very thing it selfe desired is not granted when yet the prayer is heard Christ prayed the Cup might passe from him which though some interpret the word passing for the short continuance of the brunt and that therefore in that respect hee was heard directly in what he asked yet if so why was that clause if it be possible added that argues his petition was for a totall removall yet with subjection to Gods will for he knew there was no great impossibility in a short removall of it nay it was impossible but that it should passe Acts 2. 24. But howsoever it is plain in Moses about his going into Canaan Deut. 3. 26. I besought the Lord sayes hee ver 23. and hee was angry with mee and would not heare me ver 26. Likewise ere I come to resolve the case an objection is also to be removed which is That if the Spirit of GOD doth make every faithfull prayer in us as Rom. 8. 26. it is said Hee doth wee know not what to pray for but the Spirit helpeth our infirmities c. and he searcheth the deep things of God as it is said 1 Cor. 2. that therefore hee knowing that GOD will not grant such a thing you may think that he should not stirre up the heart to pray for that which God meanes to deny but alwayes guide the heart aright and not let us erre or misse in the things wee pray for To this in briefe by way of answer An objection answered 1. The Spirit makes not prayers in us alwayes according to what Gods secret will and foreknowledge is That though the Spirit knows Gods mind and teacheth us what to pray for yet the thing prayed for may not bee granted but according to his revealed will to us both in his word and in his providence as things therein are presented to us and doe lie before our view and so not alwayes according to what hee meanes to doe but according to what it is our duty to pray most for for hee concurres to assist us to pray as he doth in preaching or using other such like meanes and Ordinances wherein though the spirit knowes whom God meanes to convert whom not yet he assists us Ministers in our spirits oftentimes as much to preach to those hee meanes not to convert as to those hee meanes to convert Hee dealing with us
out in ages to come NOw as for rules and helps to find out Gods meaning towards you in your prayers and to spie out answers and how to know when God doth any thing in answer to your prayers this is the next thing to bee handled wherein first I will answer some cases and queries which may fall out in severall sorts of prayers about the answering of them 1 As first concerning prayers put up for the Church for the accomplishment of such things as fall out in Ages to come 2 Concerning praiers made for others of your friends kinred c. 3 Concerning those praiers whether for your selves or others wherein others joine with you For the first §. 1. The full answer to such prayers is to come First there may bee some prayers which you must bee content never your selves to see answered in this world the accomplishment of them not falling out in your time such as are those you haply make for the calling of the Iews the utter downfal of Gods enemies the flourishing of the Gospel the full purity and liberty of Gods Ordinances the particular flourishing and good of the society and place you live in all you whose hearts are right doe treasure up many such praiers as these and sowe much of such precious seed which you must bee content to have the Church it may be in after Ages to reape All which prayers are not yet lost but will have answers for as God is an eternall God and Christs righteousnesse an everlasting righteousnesse and therefore of eternall efficacie Dan. 9. 24 Being offered up by the eternall Spirit Heb. 9. 14. So are prayers also which are the worke of the eternall Spirit of Christ made to that God in his Name and in him are eternally accepted and of eternall force and therefore may take place in after Ages So the prayer that S. Stephē made for his persecutors tooke place in Saul when S. Stephen was dead So Davids prayer against Iudas Psal 109. 8 9. took effect above a thousand yeeres after as appeares Acts 1. 20. So the prayers of the Church for three hundred yeeres in the Primitive times That Kings might come to the knowledge of the truth and they leade peaceable and quiet lives in all godlinesse and honesty which S. Paul in Nero's time exhorted unto 1. Tim. 2. 2. were not answered accomplished till Constantines time whē the Church brought forth a Man-childe Revel 12 1 So Esay 58. after hee had exhorted to and given directions for fasting prayer in a right manner hee adjoyneth this promise Thou shalt raise up the foundation of many generations thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach namely for this because his fasting and prayers might have influence into many ages yet to come in the accomplishment of what was prayed for And that which Christ saies of the Apostles reaping the fruit of S. Iohn the Baptists ministery and the seed he had sowne is in like maner herein verified Iohn 4. 37. One soweth and another reapeth And in this sense that which the Papists say is true that there is a common treasury of the Church not of their merits but of their praiers there are bottles of teares a filling Vials a filling to be powred out for the destruction of Gods enemies what a collection of prayers hath there been these many Ages towards it and that may bee one reason why God will do such great things towards the end of the world even because there hath beene so great a stock of prayers going for so many ages which is now to be returned and herein it falls out to us in our prayers as in their prophecies to the Prophets of old 1. Pet. 1. 11 The Spirit in them did signifie the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow Vnto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things that are now revealed and thus is it in the spirit of prayer which is instead of the spirit of prophecy for wee pray through the guidance of the Spirit who teacheth us what to aske for many things that come to passe in after ages Onely at present §. 2. Yet they may have an answer at present in assurāce both that they shall come to passe and of the acceptation of our persons for them it may bee in prayer thou hast revealed unto thee by a secret impression made on thy spirit that these things shall come to passe and so hast thy faith confirmed in them and withall an evidence that even for thy prayers among others God will performe them and that the contribution of thy prayers doth help to make up the summe and upon such prayers God usually for the present also testifies the acceptation of a mans person and reveales himselfe most to him that hee is his as he did to Moses he never revealed his love to Moses more then when he praied most for Gods people And haply thou hast that as one of thy best evidences of the uprightnesse of thy heart that thou canst pray for the Churches good though for a long time to come which thou maiest never behold with thine eyes even as David also did and rejoyced in it §. 3. And in heaven we shall rejoyce at the accomplishment of them and at the day of Judgement And when they are accomplished and thou in heaven thy joy will surely bee the more full for these thy praiers as at the conversion of those thou hast prayed for so at the ruine of the Churches enemies c. whom thou didst pray against For if there bee joy in heaven at the conversion of a sinner as at the birth of a new Prince and Heire of heaven then haply in a proportion hee shall rejoyce most whose prayers had most hand in it and a speciall interest therein And so as thy other workes so thy prayers follow thee and the fruit of them Ier. 17. 10. as Ieremy speakes and how ever yet at the day of Judgement thou shalt rejoice as well as they that enioyed the fruit of thy prayers in their times thou having sowne the seed of their happinesse both hee that sowes and hee that reapes shall then rejoyce together as Christ sayes Iohn 4. 36. Chap. 3. CHAP. III. The second Case concerning prayers made for others of our friends c. How they are answered THe second case is concerning answers to our prayers for others for particular men as friends and kinred c. and likewise for temporall blessings Pray for others you know wee must Pray for others wee ought so the Elders of the Church for those that are sick Iam. 5. 15 16. Pray one for another sayes S. Iames as in case a man is troubled with a lust tell some private friend of it Confesse your sins one to another that when a man 's owne prayers are not strong enough to cast it out it may bee done by the help of
THE RETVRNE OF PRAYERS A TREATISE WHEREIN this Case How to discerne Gods answers to our prayers is briefly resolved WITH OTHER OBSERVATIONS UPON PSAL. 85. 8. concerning GODS speaking PEACE c. BY THO GOODVVIN B. D. HAB. 2. 1. I will watch to see what he will say to mee LONDON Printed for R. Dawlman and I. Fawne at the signe of the Brazen Serpent in Pauls Church-yard 1636. TO THE MUCH HONOVRED KNIGHT SIR NATHANIEL RICH. SIR GOd who from all eternitie hath had an infinit Masse of grace and glory lying by him to bestow upon his Church and did accordingly provide a treasury and Magazin sufficient wherein to store up all the Bosome of his Sonne in whom are hid Ephes 3. 8. riches so unsearchable as cannot bee told over much lesse spent to all eternity Hee hath as richly shed his holy Sprit on us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 3. 6. that we who could never have known of any thing bequeathed us nor what to pray for as wee ought might both fully from him know all that God hath given us and through him lay claime thereto who maketh intercession for us and so doth furnish us with a privy key to all that Treasury which otherwise is fast shut up to all the world Through which Spirit of of prayer and supplications thus powred foorth beleevers come to bee at once anointed to the fellowship and execution of those three glorious Offices of Christ their head Not only 1. of Priests by offering up their prayers as spirituall sacrifices acceptable to GOD through Jesus Christ but 2. of Kings to rule with God Hos 11. 12. Being hereby made of Privy Councell to the King of kings Psa 20. 4 5 so as their Councels and desires exprest in their Petitions are said to be fulfilled and their decrees in their Praiers made Iob 22. 27 28. ratified and establisht Nay further by vertue of this priviledge advanced to such height of favour Hos 12. 3 4 as by their strength in praier alone to have power with God himselfe and not onely with him but also over him and in their wrestlings to prevaile Yea to command Himselfe hath said it Thus saith the Lord the holy One of Israel and his Maker ASKE of me of things to come concerning my sonnes and concerning the worke of my hands COMMAND ye ME Isai 45. 11. which so transcendent priviledge of power is likewise by the expresse words of this great Charter universally extended unto all transactions of this lower part of his dominions whether Ecclesiasticall which doe concerne his sonnes that is his Church or what ever other the more ordinary works of his hands that appertaine to common providence And for as much as these grand affaires of this his Kingdome Mat. 6. 10. as future and to come are commended to their praiers as their most proper subject about which they are to treate Aske of mee of things to come in this respect they doe become as truely 3. Prophets also though not in so full and compleate yet in some kinde of true resemblance not by foretelling yet by forespeaking in their prayers things that come to passe To demonstrate which God who made and upholds this world and all things in it by the word of his power doth likewise rule and governe it by the Presidents and prescript rules of the word of his will exactly dispensing unto men Psal 25. 10. both rewards and punishments according to the tenour of some or other of his promises and threatnings and former like proceedings therein recorded though with such various liberty in respect of the particulars that his wayes remaine unsearchable and past finding out That looke how he appointed in the heavens those ordinances of the Sunne Moone and Starres by their light heate and motion to rule the day and night to divide and cause the severall seasons of the yeare and all the changes and alterations that doe passe over this animall and naturall world in like manner hath hee stretched out that so exceeding broad expanse of his word and law Psal 119. 96. to which the Psalmist doth assimulate it over this rationall world Psal 19. 1 2 3 4. compared with Rom. 10. 18. of Angels and Men and therein set his Statutes and his Judgements that by the light of Precepts and their influences in rewards and punishments they might order and direct these his creatures reasonable and all their actions also dispose and set out all the issues of them And seeing his Saints they are a people in whose hearts is his Law and their delight is to meditate therein both day and night they daily calculating and observing the various aspects conjunctions and mixt influences of those innumerable precepts promises and threatnings which themselves and others Nations or Men stand under and by a Judgement thence resulting Ier. 8. 7. so farre as they have attained endeavouring to frame their supplications and petitions according to Gods will Hence their praiers oft full happily succeed and aforehand doe accord to those issues and events that afterwards fall out That like as it sometimes falls out that the earth comes to bee just under the Sun and Moone in some of their conjunctions so their desires and praiers sometimes in a direct line fall under and subordinately concurre with Gods secret purposes and some revealed promise met in conjunction to produce such and such effects The Spirit also herein helping their infirmities sometime so guiding and directing them by a gracious preinstinct though unbeknowne to them to pitch their requests upon such particulars as God hath fully purposed to bring to passe becomming thereby as it were the Spirit of prophecy unto them respectively in some measure and degree Thus doth that great King imploy his nearest servants as his under-Officers and Sherifes to serve his Writs executions upō his Enemies to execute the Judgement written in his threatnings Psalm 149. 9. and to accomplish his mercies written also by putting all the promises in suit to be as man-midwives as Hezekiahs allusion when hee sent a visiting to the Prophet Esay Esay 37. 2 3 4. for his voice and suffrage seemeth to import to help and assist his promises and decrees in their travell with mercies and deliverance Zeph. 2. 2. when these their children doe come unto the birth and there is no strength to bring them forth In all which they shall therefore have the honour to bee accounted Co-workers together with God in his greatest works of wonder And at the latter day when that great and last Edition both of all Gods works and likewise ours then compleate and finished shall be published to all the world they shall finde their names put to them together with his owne and the same by him acknowledged to be as truely the works of their hearts and prayers as that they are the sole worke of his hands and power Such honour have all his Saints And if all the
Heb. 13. 5. nor forsake thee which quiets and contents thy minde This is an answer and observe such answers for they are precious 2 When God drawes nigh and reveales His love in and upon such a petition 2. If whilest thou art a praying God doth draw nigh to thy soule and revealeth himselfe to it in and upon such or such a particular petition As in case thou didst mainely intend when thou diddest begin to pray to set thy selfe to beg some temporall mercie at his hands some great matter for the good and prosperity of the Church as Daniel Chap. 9. did set himselfe to seeke God for the returne of the Captivity and even before thou commest to aske it or in asking it God smiles upon thee welcomes thee falleth about thy neck and kisseth thee This thou art to observe as a signe hee heares thy prayer and accepteth both thee and it when there is such a strong sense of Gods favour and presence whilest thou art upon such a suit and request more then at other times or then in other passages of the same prayer this is a token God heares thee in that particular and thou art to observe this his speaking to thy heart When thus thou shalt no sooner come into his presence to enquire of him but hee sayes Here I am as the promise is Esay 58. 9. Therefore Psal 69. 17 18. Heare me speedily sayes David and that I may know thou hearest mee draw nigh to mee therefore when God drawes nigh to thee it is a signe hee heares thee Daniel having fasted and prayed for three weekes together Dan. 10. 2 3 Then an Angell came and one of the three Persons came and told him hee was a man greatly beloved ver 11 and 19. when in like maner God by his Spirit comes downe and meets thee and tells thy heart in secret that thou art His beloved and Hee is thine then thy prayers are certainly heard for if hee accepts thy person much more thy prayers 1. Iohn 5. 19 20. Men false men false upon the ballance as David speakes when they come to bee tried and weighed they will out of cunning use suitors most kindly then when they meane to put them off and deny them their requests But God who is truth and faithfulnesse it selfe doth not use so to deale but when he means to answer the prayer Hee withall sometimes reveals his free grace most to the end they may see and acknowledge the fountaine of all to be his everlasting love and so take the thing granted as a fruit of it and thereby come to bee the more abundantly thankfull Onely let me adde this Caution A caution That yet this is not alwayes an infallible signe the thing is granted though that the prayer is accepted which may bee of great use to you That it is not alwayes infallibly true that when God drawes nigh to you in a particular request that that request in particular shall bee granted in that maner you desired but it is a certaine evidence that thy prayer is heard and that the thing thou askest is agreeable to his will and that hee approves of thee and thy request exceedingly and thinketh the better of thee for it and hee will give thee it or something that is better There may be herein and sometimes is a mistake of Gods meaning to thinke that alwayes then the thing shall be granted when God drawes nigh to a man experience sometimes shews the contrary Quest But you will say Why doth God draw so nigh if he meanes not to grant it Answ 1. He shewes thereby His approving will of the thing prayed for Now GOD approves many things hee decrees not The reasons why God sometimes drawes nigh when he grants nor the thing There is his approving will and his decreeing will God may shew his approving wil of the thing thou askest as suppose it bee in view a matter which is of great consequence for the Church which hee doth for thy encouragement but yet it followes not that his decreeing wil is for the accomplishment of that very thing in particular 2. God may accept the person and the prayer when hee doth not grant the thing prayed for and by that drawing nigh witnesse his acceptation of thy person and the prayer Yea 3. That revealing of himselfe is oftentimes all the answer he intended to such a prayer and it is answer enough too to enjoy in the stead of a particular mercy the assurance of Gods love As suppose thou didst pray against some evill comming upon his Church which he yet intends to bring which hee did set thy heart a worke to pray against thereby to manifest the sincerity therof and then hee seeing thee thus sincere drawes nigh to thee and tells thee however it shall go well with thee and that thou art greatly beloved of Him Thou art sometime to take this for all the answer hee meanes to give And this hee doth sometimes also to content the heart and prepare it for a deniall in the thing whereas otherwise the deniall of what a Christian hath been earnest in might occasion as in many it doth a questioning and doubting of Gods love §. 4. God some times stirs up a particular faith of assurāce in some businesses 3 When God stirres up in the heart a particular faith in a businesse as sometimes He doth and upholds the heart to wait for it maugre all discouragements So hee did in David Psal 27. 3. David was then in great hazards by reason of Saul or Absalom and those such and so often as that to sense and outward probabilities hee was like never to live quietly againe at Ierusalem and enjoy Gods Ordinances there in peace but for this David had prayed and had made it as the grand request of his whole life as every man hath some one great request of all other even as Hee hath some speciall grace above all other or gift c. so request to God next to His salvation as haply for his Ministery or the like therefore sayes David verse 4. This one thing have I desired and accordingly God gave him a speciall faith in this thing above all other because it was his great request In this will I be confident verse 3. And though an hoste of men should againe and againe incompasseme saies he yet in this I will be confident that I shall still escape and see Ierusalem againe and enjoy the Ordinances and live in peace and though his faith failed him often as in the persecution of Saul it did for he said he should one day perish by the hand of Saul 1 Sam. 27. 1 yet at other times his faith was marvellously upheld and hee was confident in this Hee used not to be so in other requests thus absolutely particularly and distinctly and therefore he sayes In this c. As there is a witnesse of the Holy Ghost immediate to the heart sealing up adoption to a mans person
30. 18. 2. When the heart was best prepared to receive it and most weaned from it If 2. when thy heart was most fit for the mercy it was granted then art thou also heard in an acceptable time for God doth not with hold mercies from those that are his out of want of love neither so much for what is past as for the present evill disposition of their hearts whereby they are unfit to receive them and in this sense likewise may that bee understood that God prepareth the heart and heareth the prayer Psal 10. 17. As first when thy heart is most weaned from that temporall mercy supposing it such granted thee upon seeking of it So David when had hee the Kingdome in possession given him then when hee was as a weaned child and had his high thoughts which haply at the first newes of it had risen in his minde purged out Psal 131. 2. I have no high thoughts c. sayes hee then Thus when thy heart had let all carnall ends goe and had betaken it selfe alone to God for thy portion to be had alone out of him then the thing prayed for comes to passe this was the fittest season Object But you will bee ready to say To have a thing when my heart is taken off from it and even contented not to have it makes it to be as no mercy for where there is no desire there is no rejoycing Answ If thy desire bee taken off the thing then thou wilt rejoyce the more in GOD now and though the thing of it self should now give thee lesse satisfaction yet God by the thing wil give thee more and he will make it up for thou wilt rellish his love and sweetnesse in it now which is better then life and therefore much better than that thing enjoyed and indeed the violence of the desire before would have made it lesse sweet for the thing alone would not have filled and contented that desire when it was an inordinate lust and so thou wouldst have beene vexed with it rather than satisfied and found a greater vanity in it but now when it is become a subordinate desire unto God that the desire is downe and the heart quieted and contented with God in the thing the heart sayes as she said I have enough So 2. likewise thou maist have an affliction thou prayedst long against taken off then when thy heart was most willing to accept thy punishment as Moses's phrase is Lev. 26. 41 and to submit to God in it § 4. A third sort of observations from the answerable proportion betweene Gods dealing in the accōplishment of it and our prayers A third thing you are to observe concerning the accomplishment of the thing prayed for whereby you may discern whether granted in answer to prayers is when thou seest God in his dealings with thee and answering of thee to deale in a kinde of proportion with thy manner of praying and seeking of him and of walking with him whilest thou were dependant on him for such or such a mercy And as you may see a proportion between sinnes and punishments which are the rewards of them that you can say such a sin brought forth this affliction it is so like the Father so you might see the like proportion betweene your prayers and your walking with God and Gods answers to you and his dealings with you So did David Psal 18. 24. According to the cleannesse of my hands hath he recompenced me c. His speech notes some similitude or likenesse as for example The more by-ends or carnall desires you had in praying and the more you mingled of these with your holy desires and the more want of zeale fervency c. were found in your prayers the more you shall it may be finde of bitternesse mingled with the mercy when it is granted and so much imperfection and want of comfort in it so sayes David in the same Psal verse 25. 26. With the pure thou wilt shew thy selfe pure Pure prayers have pure blessings è contra With the foward thou wilt shew thy selfe froward and againe as you in praying sometimes slackened and grew cold so you might see the businesse in like manner to coole and cast backward as when Moses hands were downe Amalck prevailed but when they were lifted up Israel had the better Exod. 17. 12. God let him see a proportion which argued his prayer was the meanes of prevailing A man findes in praying that his suite sometimes sticks and goes not on as he expected this is because he gives not so good a fee as he was wont and doth not ply God and solicite him but on the contrary when hee was stirred up to pray then still hee found things to goe well by this a man may clearely see that it was the praier which God did heare and regarded Thus likewise when a man sees hils and dales in a businesse faire hopes often and then all dasht againe and the thing in the end brought to passe let him looke back upon his prayers didst not thou in like maner just thus deale with God When thou hadst prayed earnestly and thought thou hadst even carried it then dash all againe by interposing some sin and thus againe and againe Herein God would have you observe a proportion and it may help you to discern how and when they are answered and obtained by prayer because God deales thus with you therein in such a proportion to your prayers Chap. 8. CHAP. VIII Seven Observations more from the effects which the accomplishment of the mercy hath upon the heart c. §. 1. If the thing obtained drawes the heart neerer to God and to reioyce in his favour in it more than in the thing FOurthly thou mayest discerne whether they bee in answer to thy prayers by the effects upon thy heart As 1. If the thing that is granted upon thy prayers draw thy heart more neere unto God it is then certaine that it was granted as an answer to thy prayers Things granted out of ordinary providence onely doe increase our lusts and are snares to us as Saul gave David his daughter Michol to be a snare to him Psal 69. 22. So their full tables are made snares so GOD gave the Israelites their will the things they desired but withall gave them up to their lusts Psal 106. 15. hee gave them their requests but sent leannesse into their soules the Quailes might fat some of their bodies that survived yet their soules grew leane there was a curse upon their Spirits this new delicate food made their bodies more lustfull they did eate and drinke Exod. 32. 6 and rose up to play But things obtained by prayer are sanctified to us for every thing is sanctified by prayer 1. Tim. 4. 5 so as it shall not insnare nor intangle our hearts a thing obtained by prayer as it came from God so a man will returne it to God and use it for his glory
therein according to what is our duty not according to what is his decree Againe secondly that phrase helpes to answer this when hee is said to helpe our infirmities and therefore not according to his owne vast knowledge doth he frame our prayers but so as hee applies his assistance to our infirme weake and narrow apprehensions and stirres up desires in us to such things as according to our knowledge wee are in duty to conceive and which by all wee can see by what is afore us revealed in his providence we thinke to be most for our good and his glory and God accepts such desires as from us but yet doth for us according to the largenese of his owne love §. 2. A mistake to pray absolutely for such blessings as are not absolutely promised And so now to come to the case propounded and therein unto helps to pacifie and direct the heart about those prayers at which the things are not granted And first how diddest thou frame thy prayer for that thing which is denyed thee Didst thou pray for it absolutely and peremptorily as simply best for thee thou must not then think much if such a prayer bee denyed for therein thou wentest beyond thy commission but if thou didst pray for it conditionally and with an if as Christ did if it be possible which instance is a strong ground for such kinde of prayers and not my will but thy will be done so as thou didst referre it unto and trust Gods judgement in the thing and not thine owne onely didst put him in mind as thy duty was of what was represented to thee as best for thee in view and so left it to him to cast and didst referre it to His will and wisedome In which when we are denied we are to rest in Gods judgment as best for us and so interpret the prayer answered Then thy prayer may be most fully answered and heard and yet the thing denied and thou art to interpret and God takes meaning and mind revealed in the event in the best sense which way soever it falls for otherwise CHRIST had not been heard when yet the Text sayes Hee was heard in all hee feared Hebr. 5. 7. § 3. There may be a reservation in the denial for some greater mercy 2. Observe if there were not a reservation in that denial for some greater and further mercy whereof that deniall was the foundation Thus 1 oftentimes some great crosse is prevented by the deniall of a thing which we were urgent for if we had had many of our desires we had been undone So it was a mercy to David that his childe was taken away for whose life he was yet so earnest who would have been but a living monument of his shame It was also a mercy to David that Absalom was taken away whom surely he prayed much for for hee loved him much who if he had lived might have beene the ruine of him and his house As a wicked mans deliverance and the granting his request layes a foundation and is a reservation of him to a worse Judgement So the deniall of a Godly mans prayer is for his greater good and is laid as a foundation of a greater mercy 2 and againe oftentimes the very deniall breaks a mans heart and brings him nearer to God puts him upon searching into his wayes and estate and in his prayers to see what should be amisse therein which alone is a great mercy and better then the thing seeing by the losse of that one thing hee learns how to pray better and so to obtaine a hundred better things afterward Christ desired the Cup might passe it did not and that was the foundation of our salvation the way to His glory Hee being to passe through that suffering into His glory The woman that had the bloody issue though shee used many meanes and haply prayers among the rest and all in vaine yet none tooke effect that in the end shee might come to Christ and have both body and soule healed at once §. 4. There may be a transmutation of the thing denied into some other blessing that is better of the same kind 3 Observe if there be to a transmutation and a translation or turning of â—he thing desired into some other greater blesâ—ing of the same kind for God all whose wayes are mercy and truth to His people doth improve husband and lay out the precious stocks of their prayers to the best advantage in things whereby the greatest returns and gains may accrue as old Iacob laid not his Hand of blessing as Ioseph would have guided them but laid the right hand upon the yonger Sonne whom Ioseph did set at his left So often doth God take off his hand of blessing from the thing we prayed for and laies discovers it in another more for our good and as God giving Isaac the power and priviledge to blesse a sonne though Isaac hee intended it for Esau yet God unbeknown to him transmitted it to Iacob yet so as the blessing was not lost Thus is it in our prayers for blessings both upon our selves and others There is often a transmutation never a frustration of them which may as truely and directly bee called an answer to the prayer As if a factor beyond Sea when the owner sends for such and such commodities supposing them more vendible and advantagious but the Factor knowing the state of things and the prices sends him â—ver in stead of them such as shall sell better and bring in more profit may be said to answer his letters and that better then if hee had sent those very commidities he writ for Thus Abrahams prayers for Ishmael were turned for Isaac Davids for the Childe to Solomon §. 1. God answers to the ground of our prayers 4 Observe if in the end God doth not answer thee still according to the ground of thy prayer that is see if that holy end intention and affection which thou hadst in prayer be not in the end fully satisfied though not in the thing thou didst desire for God answers Secundum cardinem according to the hinge which the prayer turnes upon As when a General is sent out with an Army by a King or a State who give him many particular directions how to order and dispose and manage the war although in many particulars that fall out wherein they could not foresee to give so punctuall and particular directions he swerve from the directions yet if he keeps to the intent of their Commission and doth what is most advantagious for their ends he may bee said to keepe to his Commission For as they say of the Law Mens leg is est lex the mind of the Law is the Law not the bare words it is printed in so the Meaning of the Spirit is the prayer Rom. 8. 27. and not simply the things desired wherein wee expresse those our desires and still the meaning the intent the ground of our
all things wee pray for If a man comes to sue to any man whose mind he knew not whether hee loved him or not he would have small hope or expectation of having his suite granted though hee came againe and again but if he be assured he is in favour with him according to that degree of favour hee supposeth himself to stand in with him hee is assured and confident of obtaining his request 2 Of the weaknesse of our prayers which is answered by three things 2 Discouragement is the weaknesse of their prayers though a man thinks his person is accepted yet alas sayes he my prayers are so poore and weake as surely God will never regard them To remove which let mee first aske thee this question Doest thou pray with all thy might then though that thy might be weak in it selfe and in thine owne apprehension such yet because it is all the might which thou hast and which grace hath in thee it shall be accepted For God accepts according to what a man hath and not according to that he hath not 2 Cor. 8. 12. 2. Thou art to consider that God doth not heare thee for thy prayers sake though not without them but for his Names sake and his Sons sake and because thou art his child as the mother when her child cryes suppose it be a weake child doth not neglect to heare and relieve it but tenders it not because it doth cry more lowd but because it cries and pities it the more the weaker it is 3. Againe though the performance in it selfe be weake yet confidered as a prayer it may be strong because a weake prayer may set the strong God a worke as faith for the act of it as produced by us may be weak yet because its object is Christ therefore it justifies so it is in prayer it prevailes not because of the performance it selfe but because of the name which it is put up in even Christs name and therefore as a weake faith justifies so a weake prayer prevailes as well as a stronger and both for the like reason in both for faith attributes all to God and so doth prayer for as faith is meerly a receiving grace so prayer a begging grace And therefore dost thou think thy prayers are accepted at all notwithstanding their weaknesse if that they are accepted then they must be accepted as prayers now if they be accepted as prayers then as effectuall motives to prevaile with God to grant the thing you aske for if hee should not accept them to that end for which they were ordained it is as if hee accepted them not at all As therefore when he approves of any mans faith as true and sincere hee approves and accepts of it to that purpose for which it was ordained which is to save and justifie and to this end doth as fully accept the weakest act of faith as the strongest so is it with their prayers which being ordained as a means to obtaine mercies from him if hee accepts them at all it is with relation to the accomplishment of them which is their end 4. Men are mistaken in judging of the weaknes of their prayers they judge of the weaknesse of their prayers by their expressions and gifts in performing them or by the stirring and overflow of affections whereas the strength vigor of prayer should be estimated from the faith the sincerity the obedience the desires exprest in it As it is not the lowdnesse of a Preachers voice but the weight and holinesse of the matter and spirit of the Preacher that moves a wise and an intelligent hearer so not gifts but graces in prayers are they that move the Lord. The strength of prayer lies not in words but in that it is fitted to prevaile with God one prayer is not more strong then another further then it is so framed as it hath power with God more or lesse as of Iacob it is said he had power with God Hos 12. Now prayers move God not as an Oratour moves his hearers but as a child moves his father two words of a childe humbled and crying at his fathers feet will prevaile more then penned orations Rom. 8. It is the meanning of the spirit that God lookes unto more then the expressions for the groans there are said to be unutterable Hezechiahs expressions were so rude and broken that he sayes Esay 38. 14. that he did but chatter hee being then sick even as a crane yet God heard them 3. So often failings of answers answered by foure things A third discouragement is faylings of answers I have prayed often and long and I have been seldome or never answered and therefore I make little account of my prayers that they are heard others have the revenewes of their prayers comming in but I doe misse whatsoever almost I stand for Therefore say they as those Why have we fasted and thou regardest it not Isay 58. 3. To remove this consider 1. That thou hast the more reason to wait for thou hast the more answers to come for as wicked men treasure up wrath so doe godly men mercy and especially by their prayers therefore mercies and answers do often come thick together even as afflictions also doe Suppose thou shouldst have few answers concerning the things thou seekest for here either in praying for thy selfe or others yet thy reward is with the Lord. It is in praying as in preaching a man may preach faithfully many a yeere and yet not convert a soule and yet a man is not to give over waiting but to observe after every Sermon what good is done and whether God will give men repentance as it is 2 Tim. 2. 25. And if none be converted yet as Esay 49. 4. A mans reward is with the Lord. Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour 1 Cor. 3. 8. and not according to the successe of his labour only So it is in praying though thou missest againe and again nothing succeeds thou prayest for yet be not discouraged for thy reward is with the Lord which will come in one day 3. God doth it not that hee heares thee not but to try thee for a man to say as David sayes Psal 116. 1 2. God hath heard my prayer therefore I will call upon him as long as I live that is nothing so much as to be able to say Well I have prayed thus long and for these many things and never sped and yet I will call upon him whilst I live though I find no answer in this life To finde commings in in a trade and yet to hold out trading still argues not so much faithfulnesse in a mans calling as when a man hath losses and castings behind hand and yet to follow it 4. God usually stayes so long that we have done expecting Luke 18. 8. The Elect cry day and night but God stayes so long ver 7. that when he comes hee findes not faith they have
they in the Prophet said but listen what God will speak he onely must and can doe it and be sure you make sure of him before you come to die Would any wise Prince deferr the treaty of peace with his enemy till hee come into the field and when the battel is begun how foolish then are those who neglect seeking after God till the assault of death comes and the King of feares with all his terrours hath encompassed them round Obser 4 4. Observation is that let Gods people be in never so great distresse yet it is an easie thing for God to give peace to them mark the expression used here It is but speaking peace that is it is as easie for him to give peace as it is for you to speake a word it is no more to him Then our comfort is that as he onely must doe it so he easily can doe it even with a word Reas 1 Reason 1. Because his speaking is creating if he speaks he makes things to be even with a word as at first he did but say Let there be light and there was light so still if he but say Let there bee peace there is peace hee made all and upholds all by the word of his power As therefore when the storme was at its height and the waves most raging yet at one word of Christs they were all still The sea and the winds obey him so when tentations are most fierce and the doubts of thine owne heart most tumultuous and raging a word from him can still them Reas 2 Secondly because the light which God gives to a mans spirit when hee speaks peace is a sure and infallible light and therefore a satisfying light so as when it comes it must needs give peace and no objection no tentation can darken or obscure it when it shines If he give quietnesse who can trouble sayes he in Iob 34. 29. No creature is able to separate from his love or the assurance of it 1 It is a certaine and infallible light which God gives when hee speakes peace The anointing from above which enlighteneth a mans eyes is truth and is no lie 1. Ioh. 2. 27. that is in teaching a man of which hee there speakes not onely what hee is in himselfe but what hee is in teaching us he doth it so as a man is not deluded by it and therefore it is added None else need teach him for did the spirit whē he did speak peace speak so as that that man to whom it is spoken did not infallibly apprehend it hee should speake in vaine for so the Apostle reasons in case of unknown tongues that if a trumpet give an uncertaine sound or a man speakes so as it shall not be knowne what hee speakes hee beats the aire 1. Cor. 14. 9. Now therefore surely God when hee speakes peace speakes it so infallibly and distinctly that the soule knows the meaning of it It is not a voice else for sayes the Apostle there ver 10. The end of all voices is to signifie and therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice hee shall be as a Barbarian that speakes to me ver 11. especially when the speaker undertakes to bee a witnesse as the Holy Ghost in speaking peace is 1. Iohn 5. 6. Now to witnesse is such a testimony as is taken for infallible for the end of it is to put an end to the controversie and it ends the strife betweene man and man now the Holy Ghost when hee speakes speakes as a witnesse and therefore puts an end to a mans doubts he speakes infallibly And therefore in the second place it is a satisfying light also it is such a light as dispells darknesse as answers all objections and so speakes peace home As in a question and Controversie in Divinity or Logike when some one bottome truth is understood a man hath a light which goes through all the Objections and answers them all such a light doth the Spirit give to a poore distressed soule about the great controversie of his owne salvation when hee doth speake peace hee gives such a light as satisfies the minde as lets him see that in Gods free grace and in Christ which doth answer to all hee or all the devills can say against him from what wants or objections are in himselfe Hee openeth and no man nor devill is able to shut And therefore when he doth speake peace his testimony is taken and beleeved If wee receive the witnesse of men and rest in it 1. Iohn 5. 9. The witnesse of God is greater that is of more power and efficacie to perswade and satisfie the soule Vse 1 1. Vse is an Use of comfort to poore soules that are in distresse and in such distresse sometimes as they thinke and say their case is desperate and past recovery so farre are their soules sometimes shot into despaire Consider how easie it is for you to have your condition altered and changed even in a moment I tell thee though it may be thou hast been cast down this twenty yeeres and thy soule is battered broken hardened setled fixed in serious thoughts of thy ruine and reprobation yet one good looke one good word from God shall in an instant dispell all alter thy conceit and apprehension cleane God can and doth often more with one word in one moment then Satan could doe in many yeeres with all the objections he could muster up The truth of this in experience wee often finde and observe in our selves and others Yea and sometimes when hee doth speake peace hee gives such satisfaction to a mans soule in that particular that hee would bee content to bee as many yeeres more in his spirituall conflicts to enjoy but the like light one halfe houre Thus easie is it for God to speake peace Though thou thinkest thy selfe never so far off from peace yet he can speake peace to them that are afarre off as well as those who are neere as himselfe sayes Esay 57. 19. for sayes hee it is I that speake it And when hee doth it then all thy doubts and distresses will bee forgotten as the paines of a woman in travaile are when a man-childe is borne Vse 2 Secondly is the Church in any distresse as the Church here at this time was hee can redeeme it out of all with a word A word spoken to Cyrus his heart did set them in their owne land againe so you have it expressed Esay 44. 26 27 28. The God that saith to Ierusalem thou shalt bee inhabited and to the Cities of Iudah yee shall bee built you see his maner of doing it it is but with a word speaking he sayes to Ierusale be built and though there be neuer so great impediments in the way he will say to the deep bee dry that his people may passe over hee dryed up a whole Nation a sea of people namely the Babylonians to make way for this deliverance And when they are conquered and Cyrus a new King
comes to have the sway of things God speakes to his heart also That saith of Cyrus he is my shepheard and causeth him to say to Jerusalem Be thou built Therefore goe to him and trust in him in all the distresses of the Church as the Church also did Psal 44. 4. Thou art my king command deliverances A Mandamus from God doth it and will doe it at any time Obser 5 Let God bee never so angry and his peoples distresse never so great yet he will speak peace in the end to his people you heard before that if wee have peace he onely must give it and then that hee could and was able with ease to doe it and now you shall heare that hee will certainly doe it in the end The Reasons the Text suggests are these Reas 1 1. If wee consider but who this God is that is to speake peace I will heare what God the Lord will speake he is the Lord and therfore able to speak what pleaseth him he is peculiarly the God of peace and therefore willing to speake peace Now 1. when it is said hee is the God of peace and the God of comfort the meaning is hee is full of it infinitely full of it and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speakes thoughts of peace and love to his doe boile within him as hatred or malice doth in a malicious man towards his enemy so as hee cannot containe and forbeare expressing it towards him that as David sayes his thoughts did burne within him and at last brake forth so in God I know the thoughts I thinke towards you saies hee to them of the captivity Ier. 29. 11. They are thoughts of peace and not of evill And 2. besides that these his thoughts of peace are taken up of himselfe his Son also hath bespoken peace for us and therefore God will speake it Even as Ioseph though he spake roughly a while to his brethren yet could not in the end containe Gen. 45. 1. so nor God Reas 2 Secondly Let us consider who they are to whom hee is to speake it they are his people as the text hath it and to them there is no question but hee will speake peace though hee seemes angry for a while They are his people that is the reason given 1. Sam. 12. 22. Hee will not cast off his people as also Easy 63. 8 9. When they rebelled he was wroth yet hee said surely they are my people so I was their Saviour They why they are the sonnes of peace Luke 10. 6. ordained for peace and therefore shall be sure to have it and although some differences may arise betwixt God and them yet there is a naturall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Lord that moves him to speake peace in the end to them as the dumbe sonne of Craesus when hee saw his father like to bee killed though hee had never spake before yet then out of an impetus of spirit the strings of his tongue were unloosed and hee cried out to the murtherer Kill not King Craesus so when the enemies of his Church are ready to devoure his people and Satan is ready to swallow his child up in despaire then Gods bowells worke within him and hee can hold no longer but cries save my child save my Church Is Ephraim my pleasant child sayes God Ier. 31. 20 Well sayes God though I spake against him and took him up and chid him soundly yet I cannot forget my child sayes he nor my Fatherly affection to him but my bowels are stirred and I will surely have mercy on him Reas 3 Thirdly otherwise if God did not in the end speake peace they would indeed returne to follie which is the third thing in the text For his end of speaking peace is that they might not returne to folly Psal 125. 3. The rod of the wicked shall not alwayes lie upon the righteous least they put forth their hand to iniquity Therefore at the last verse Peace shall be upon Israel As for this cause he speakes outward peace so also inward and suffers not the rod of Satan and of his owne heavie displeasure to lie upon their hearts for else they would returne to the pleasures of sinne for every creature must have some delight their spirits would faile and be tired out else and wearied in good duties if GOD should not in the end speake peace Esay 57. The spirit would faile before me When the childe swounds in the whipping God le ts fall the rod and falls a kissing it to fetch life into it againe As t is a rule in Physicke still to maintaine nature and therefore when that shall bee in hazzard to bee destroyed they leave giving purging Physicke and give cordials so doth GOD with his people though with purging physicke he often brings their spirits very weake and low yet hee will uphold and maintaine their spirits so as they shall not faile and bee extinguisht but then he will give cordials to raise them up againe Vse 3. What good heart that beares a child-like affection to God would offend such a God that bee thy distresses what they will bee will certainely speake peace then doe not put him to it spend not upon that precious stock of his free grace and love T is true he is maried to thee and therefore though thou hast gone a whoring after many lovers Ier. 3. 1 2 14. still hee sayes Returne for I am maried to thee as therefore when man and wife are fallen out they consider wee must live together and therefore they reconcile themselves againe so consider it must bee betweene God and thee and make it a meanes and motive to recover thee as Samuel did to the Israelites 1. Sam. 12. 22. You have committed this great sinne yet turn not aside from following the Lord for God will not cast you off you are his people Goe home to him againe he will speak peace Thinke thus the time will come wherein God will be friends again with me he and I cannot be strange long though I would he will not Esay 57. 18 19. though he went on stubbornly yet God healed him and would not lose his childe therefore I will returne of my selfe THE FOLLY OF RELAPSING after Peace spoken Psal 85. ver 8. But let them turne no more to folly Obser 6 THE sixth Observation is That Peace being spoken to their hearts by GOD they should returne no more to folly See this Ezra 9. 13 14. Thou having punisht us lesse then wee deserve and given us such a deliverance as this should wee againe breake thy Commandements wouldst thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us Reas 1 1 Reason Because it will be a greater aggravation in sinning It is made the aggravation of Solomons sinne 1 Kings 11. 9. That God had appeared to him twice they were especiall appearances and manifestations of mercy and though such doe now cease yet wee reade of such as are analogicall to
surprized with base feare once when hee tempted Christ not to hazard himselfe at Ierusalem where Christ had told him that he was to suffer Matth. 16. 21 22 23. Master sayes hee spare thy selfe upon which speach Christ calls him Satan rebuketh him more sharply then at any other time for which surely there was a more then ordinary cause Saint Peter thought that if his Master should suffer at Jerusalem that himselfe and the rest should not be safe That speech therefore proceeded from feare and therefore Christ doth immediately thereupon call for selfe deniall and taking up the Crosse verse 24. And this was immediately after peace spoken verse 16 17 18. CHRIST had never more comfortably given testimony to Saint Peter and his faith then there Yet againe after this Christ had him up into the Mount and transfigured himselfe to hearten him against that tryall to come which made him so confident yet then hee denied him at his arraignment when againe Christ immediatly upon that lookt back upon him with so sweet a looke as broke his heart for this his folly and so he returned againe and it cost him many a tear and Christ after the Resurrection owned him againe more then any of the rest bad them that first met him Goe tell Peter Hee mentions him by name and in especiall goe tell him the first newes of it and then also hee asked him Peter lovest thou me and hee said Lord thou knowest I love thee as if he had said Though I have played the wretch yet I love thee upō this though hee grew more bold Acts 4. 13. yet Gal. 2. 11 12. we finde him falling into the grudgings of the same disease which cast him into another fitt hee dissembled fearing them of the Circumcision this was a spice of the former sinne though not so grosse and though the outward acts in these sinnes were divers in their occasions yet they were all acts and buds of the same root of bitternesse and may as well bee called sins of the same kind as the committing differing acts of uncleannesse are reckoned falling into the same sinne In the fourth place if the Scriptures had beene utterly silent in examples yet reason consonant to other principles and grounds of Divinity and of the Scriptures might perswade the same Reas 1 1. If hee may after the most serious and through repentance fall againe into as grievous a sinne of another kind and returne why not into the same againe I confesse there is some disparity which might make him more averse and set him in some more remotenesse from the same sinne he hath particularly repented of then another which shall bee considered in its place Yet the difference cannot bee supposed such as should make the one possible and not the other all true repentance working the heart to an abominating every sinne as well as any and therefore if it were true it was for that particular sinne as sin and then it would worke the like against all and every sinne according to the measure of the sinfulnesse and though it may and doth worke a more keen and speciall hatred against that particular sin a man hath beene most stung with yet still this is but so farre as this aggravation to fall into the same sinne againe may cause such a relapse to bee more sinfull then another sinne and so farre and upon that ground he is and may bee more set and strengthened against it then against another sinne But then if the supposition fall upon another grosse sinne never before committed the sole and single act of which other circumstances make as heynous even as this reiterated act of a sinne formerly committed can be then the one is equally as possible as the other But however yet still the difference is but in degrees namely in that the heart is elongated a degree or so further from that sinne formerly committed then any other which will not therefore so vary the case as magis minus doe not that it should bee made impossible to fall into the one and not into the other Reas 2 2. Reason If he may fall into some grosse sin which at first conversion hee did above all other humble himselfe for and yet that same initiall repentance did not put him into such an impossibility of falling into that sinne againe Why then should a renewed act of repentance for the same or for some other reiterated sin be supposed to have such vertue in it as to make him shot-free for ever from the same fiery dart againe Reas 3 Againe thirdly Let it be considered frō whence it should be that a renewed or indeed any act of true repentance though never so great and intense should have such a transcendent eternall and invincible vertue in it and priviledge annexed to it for how is it that repentance doth strengthen us against sinne but by restoring the decayed frame of Grace to a better constitution and greater degree of strength then before and by raising it above a mans lusts and above that lust more then all other as in David when hee prayed Create in me a cleane heart which through his sinne of uncleannesse was in an especiall manner defiled with a pronenesse to that sin But yet withall remember that that new frame of heart strength gotten by that renewed repentance and that augmentation and increase of hatred against and abominating that sinne wrought by it is all but a creature as grace and every new degree of Grace is and therefore for preserving us hath in it selfe but the power and force of a created habit which may bee prevailed against by the sin that is in us and can no more nay much lesse put us into a state of confirmation against any particular sin then the grace of the Angels could of it selfe confirme them in a state against all sinne And as for the impression of that bitternesse which in our repentance for that sin fallen into was made upon our hearts that also can bee supposed to have but the like force upon our spirits that the impression of joy unspeakable and glorious hath upon the heart in those heavenly raptures which beleevers sometimes enjoy yea and the latter of these will easily be supposed to be of the greater efficacie of the two and both but creatures Now those ravishing joyes are not yet such immortall and everlastingly quickning cordialls that put such spirits into a man as to preserve him from swounds and faintings of spirit for ever and though whilst they abide and are present to the heart they do then raise it above all thing here below yet when a man hath beene a while off from that Mount and hath conversed a while with things here againe below then that lustre weares away as the glory that shined in Moses face did and after a while the sense and present tast of those joyes weares out and when that is gone the bare remembrance of thē which is left hath not in
they being the common mire or kennell wherein the uncleane swine of this world wallow and which the Apostle calls such workes of the flesh as are manifest Gal. 5. 19. even to the light of Nature such as are adultery fornication drunkennesse c. and by those two expressions doe they distinguish them from a sort of more spirituall and refined lusts For secondly there are corruptions more spirituall as pride secret love of the world Now for those grosse corruptions which are contrary even to common honesty and to use Iobs phrase are punisht by the Iudges 31. Iob 11. which profane men wallow in a godly man hath more strength against them so as it is not so ordinary for him to bee entangled againe and againe with these for where but morall principles are these are abstained from as we see in the Pharisee I am no adulterer c. therefore where grace is much more And some sinnes are more opposite to the spirit of holinesse and lesse compatible with grace as uncleanesse of which Saint Paul sayes God hath not called us to uncleanesse but to holinesse 1 Thes 4. 7. it is in an especiall manner there opposed to holinesse and such as these are works of the flesh which are manifest even to Nature to civill men and therefore when they are often fallen into they doe manifest that the heart is but flesh And although the limits how seldome or how often cannot bee set concerning relapses into these or any sinnes yet in an ordinary course it may be said that few godly men fall into such sinnes againe and againe God keepes them from such in an ordinary providence that scandalls should not arise they being sinnes which all the world takes notice of But those other sinnes of rash anger and love of the world and spirituall pride c. these being lesse manifest and sitting more close to our spirits godly men are more subject unto Yet secondly we must againe distinguish 1. There are the inward lustings to those outward acts now though grace weakeneth the very lustings within yet takes them not wholly away The spirit that is in us that is in us Saints sayes S. Iames lusteth to envy and as to envy so to all other sinnes And secondly there are the outward grosse acts of such sins and there in the weaknesse of sin in a regenerate man and strength of grace shewes it selfe most in preferving from them for as to will is present with me saies S. Paul to will what is good yet how to performe it I am not able Rom. 7. 18. So on the contrary to lust the heart may bee ready and lust may soone rise up in rebellion but when it should come to the act there is a weaknesse discovered they come to the birth and want strength often to bring forth the contrary lusting and prevailing of grace being then seene and discovering it selfe that it fareth with a regenerate man in this case often as with a man that is deadly wounded who riseth up to strike his enemy and thinkes to runne him thorow but sinks downe againe medio conatu when his sword is at his enemies breast through a deficiency of spirits or as a man in a Palsie or the Gout who thinks hee is able to walke til he comes to try and then he finds a weaknesse which makes him fall backe againe Thus even when the whole forces of lusts are mustred up yet the weapons fall out of their hands Humours in a healthfull constitution may stirre and boake in the stomacke when yet they come not up nor prevaile unto vomiting In that place afore named Gal. 5. the Apostle seemes not to deny but that in the most regenerate lustings may arise for the flesh sayes he lusteth against the spirit ver 17. but yet as for outward acts he tels them verse 16. That if they walke in the spirit that is in the prevalency of the spirit keeping up a holy frame of heart above the flesh that then yee shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh for that frame of heart so kept up will hinder the outward fulfilling of the lust which is never done till flesh and corruption is actually raised above the spirit gets more voyces to carry it till the spirit be under hatches and the flesh above and so steeres the helme otherwise the lusting of the spirit against the flesh will hinder the outward doing and fulfilling of a lust For the reason hee gives verse 17. so as you cannot doe what you would implyes that not onely lustings which arise without consent may be in such a man but further much of the will may bee wonne to consent to them to like them when yet there is not strength enough to carry it on to the outward act you cannot doe what you would And what those works of the flesh are which are manifest workes of the flesh and which Christians whilst they walke in the Spirit fulfill not hee mentions and reckons up in the following words And this is the more ordinary frame of a Christians heart for verse 24. sayes hee they that are Christs have crucified the affections and lusts that is so farre as not to fulfill them 3. He may more easily fall into a grosse sinne of another kinde then into the same after speciall repentance for it and peace spoken in the pardon of it Because true repentance especially fortifies the heart against that sin which a man hath most repented him of and sincerity lies more in watching over that sinne then any other so sayes David Psal 18. I was upright and kept my selfe from mine iniquity that especiall sinne which was eminently his sinne A mans arme that hath beene broke will if well set rather breake in some other place then where it was broke at the first Hence sometimes it falls out that that which was a godly mans bosome sinne before conversion continues not to be so after but another steps up in the roome of it by reason that hee then endeavoureth to wash out that great staine most and spendeth the most of the Fullers sope to purge himselfe from it and so becomes ever after most watchfull over it and sets in this his weakest place the strongest garison and a watch to prevent the enemy And as an act of some presumptuous sinne though it inclines the heart more to all sinne then before yet especially to commit that kinde of sinne againe rather then any other so on the contrary is it in a sound and solemne repentance for some especiall sinne and in the endeavouring to mortifie some especiall member of the body of sinne to mortifie which not only in the bulke and generall but also particularly and apart in the severall members of it the Holy Ghost exhorts Colos 3. 5. though thereby the whole habit of the body of sinne is purged and weakned yet that particular sinne which we aime especially to have mortified is through Gods blessing more subdued then any other We