Chapter 1 (continued, part 53)
Passing from what we have said of diverse manner in prayer, we are now to consider the diversam materiam orationis—the diverse matter of prayer. And thus, to pray with all prayer and supplication, is to encircle the whole matter of prayer within the compass of our duties, and not to leave anything out of our prayers which God would have taken in. Now this diversity of prayer's matter, some think they find in the two words of the text, BDTF,LP¬ and *,ZF4H; but I shall not ground my discourse on so nice a criticism. We will content ourselves with the division which the same apostle makes: 'In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God,' Php. 4:6; and, 'Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks,' I Thes. 5:17, 18. In both which places the whole matter of prayer is comprehended in these two: FIRST. Request or petitionary prayer. SECOND. Thanksgiving. These two are like the double motion of the lungs, by which they suck in and breathe out the air again. In the petitionary part of prayer we desire something at God's hands; in thanksgiving we return praise to him for mercies received from him. I begin with the petitionary part of prayer.
[THE PETITIONARY part of prayer.]
FIRST. The first of the twofold division of the whole matter of prayer, viz. petitionary prayer. This is threefold. First. Precatory. Second. Deprecatory. Third. Imprecatory. As for that of intercession, we shall leave it to another place, under those words 'supplication for all saints.'
[First kind of petitionary prayer—THE PRECATORY.]
First. Precatory prayer; that part of prayer, I mean, wherein the Christian desires of God, in the name of Christ, some good thing of the promise to be given unto him. Now the good things promised are either spiritual or temporal—those that respect our souls and our eternal salvation, or those which relate to our bodies and temporary estate of them in this life. Such a large field hath the Christian given him for his requests to walk in, for 'godliness hath the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come,' I Tim. 4:8. This earth below, to a saint, is a land of promise, though not the land which is chiefly promised. God hath not promised him heaven but left him to the wide world to shift for his outward subsistence, he hath not bid them live by faith for their souls, but live by their wits for their bodies. No, he that hath promised to 'give' him 'grace and glory,' hath also said, 'no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly,' Ps. 84:11. Their bill of fare is provided as well as their inheritance hereafter. Now all that I shall do here is to put a compass into your hand, by the help of which you may steer your course safely, when you are bound in your requests to either point of the promise, whether it be for temporal or spiritual mercies. And that I may not run you beside the true channel upon rocks or sands, I shall touch the needle of that compass I would commend to your use with the lodestone of Scripture, from which we may gather a fourfold similitude to be used in our request for spiritual and temporal good things promised, and a threefold dissimilitude also.
1. There is a fourfold similitude to be used in precatory prayer.
(1.) Whether thou prayest for temporal or spiritual blessings, thou must pray in the sense of thy own unworthiness, for thou deservest neither. When Christ prays for us, he pleads as an advocate for justice, because he paid before he prays, and asks but what he gives the price for. But we poor creatures are beggars, and must crave all as pure alms, for the money comes not out of our purse that made the purchase; neither was God the Father bound to engage his Son, or the Son to engage himself, in our recovery, who were fallen by forfeiture into the hands of divine justice. So that mercy is the only plea thou who art a sinner canst make with God. Thou mayest with man stand upon thy desert. Thus Jacob claimed his wages at Laban's hand; but when he hath to do with God he changeth his plea, and sues sub formâ pauperis—in the form of the poor: 'I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant,' Gen. 32:10. So Daniel: 'We do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.' No blessing so great but may be obtained where mercy is the plea, and none so little that we merit. If thou wouldst therefore beg anything at God's hand, confess thou deservest nothing. Then are we fit to receive great things from God when we are least in our own eye; then nearest the crown when we judge ourselves unworthy of a crust. The proud Pharisee brought his righteousness in his prayer to God, and carried away his sin bound upon him; the publican brought his sin in his humble confession, and carries away his absolution and justification with him. Thus God crosseth his hands like Jacob in giving his blessings.
(2.) In both thou must pray in faith, for both spiritual and temporal blessings are promised, and therefore thou art to believe that God will be as faithful and punctual in the performance of the
less promises that concern this life, as in the more weighty matters which respect thy eternal happiness in the other. Indeed, he promiseth spiritual blessings in specie—grace and glory he will give; but temporal enjoyments in valore—either in kind or value—'no good thing will he withhold.' And it is fit he should judge when a temporal enjoyment will be good for us, and when it will be better to give some other thing in the lieu of it. Hence that method in our Lord's prayer, first to pray, 'Thy will be done,' before we pray, 'Give us this day our daily bread.' But the seal is the same which ratifies temporal promises with that which he sets to spiritual; his truth and faithfulness are as deeply obliged to perform temporal promises, according to the tenure in which they are made, as to make good the other. And therefore we are as strongly to acquiesce in his care and providence for our protection and provision here, as for our salvation hereafter; else he had done his people wrong to take them off from an anxious care for those things which he meant not to charge his providence with. Certainly if he bids us be careful for none of these things, but only let our requests be made known to him, he intends not our loss by our ease, but thereby would have us understand and believe that he will take the care upon himself, and give us at last a full account of his love and faithfulness in the issue of his providence, how all was disposed for our best advantage.
(3.) We must join our endeavour in the use of all means with our prayers, whether they be put up for spiritual or temporal blessings. Lazy beggars are not to be relieved at our door. 'This we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat,' II Thes. 3:10. And certainly God will not bid them welcome to his door whom he would have us deny at ours. We must pray with our hand at the pump or the ship will sink in sight of our prayers.
Is it temporal subsistence thou prayest for? Pray and work, or pray and starve. Dost thou think to set God at work whilst thou sittest with thy hand in thy bosom? Those two proverbs in Solomon are observable, 'The hand of the diligent maketh rich,' Prov. 10:4; and, ver. 22, 'The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.' He that prays but is not diligent is not like to be rich. He that is diligent but prays not may be rich, but he cannot be blessed with his riches. But he that obtains his riches by sincere prayer in conjunction with his diligence is rich by the blessing of God, and shall escape the sorrow which the worldling lays up with his money; yea, though he gets not an estate, yet he hath the blessing of God, and that makes him rich when there is no money in his purse.
Again, is it any spiritual blessing thou prayest for? Wouldst thou have more knowledge in the things of God? Think not it will drop into thy mind without endeavour. Daniel studied as his eyes were one while on the book, and another while lift up to heaven in prayer, Dan. 9:2. 'Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased,' Dan. 12:4. It is got by running from one means to another. As the merchant's ship takes in some of her freight at one port, some at another, so the Christian gets some light in a sermon, some in a conference; some in one duty, some in another. And he that takes up one duty, but through sloth neglects the rest, saves but his pains to lose his gains. Sometimes God is found in this duty and sometimes in that, on purpose to keep up the credit of all, that we waive none.
(4.) Our requests for both must be spiced with thanksgiving. 'With thanksgiving let your requests be made known,' Php. 4:6; and, I Thes. 5:18, 'in everything give thanks.' Art thou praying for the love and favour of God? Bless God thou art where it may be obtained,
and not in hell past hope or help. Is it health thou desirest? Bless God for life; it is the Lord's mercy we are not consumed. No condition on earth can be of so sad a colour in which there may not some eye of white, some mixture of mercy, be found interwoven. Puræ tenebræ—utter darkness, without any stricture of mercy, is found in hell alone. Come not therefore to pray till you know also what to praise God for. As God hath an open hand to give, so he hath an open eye to see who comes to his door, and to discern between the thankful beggar and the unthankful. Will God give more to him on whom all is lost that he hath formerly bestowed? Indeed he doth do good to the evil and unthankful, but it is not a gracious return of their prayers, but an act of common providence, of which they will have little comfort when he brings the bounty of his providence in judgement against them, to aggravate their sins and increase their torment.—Now follows a threefold dissimilitude which we are to observe in framing our requests for spiritual and temporal mercies.
2. There is a threefold dissimilitude to be used in precatory prayer. Temporal mercies are chiefly to be desired for the sake of spiritual, but spiritual mercies for themselves, and not for temporal advantages.
(1.) Temporal mercies are chiefly to be desired for the sake of spiritual blessings, and not their own. The traveller desires a horse not for itself so much as for the convenience of his journey he is to go. Thus the Christian, when praying for temporal things, should desire them as helps in his way and passage to heaven. I do not say it is unlawful to desire life, health, and other comforts of this life, for the suitableness these have to our natural affections, and to supply our outward necessities; but to desire them only for this is low and base, it is the mere cry of the creature. The ravens thus cry, and all the beasts of the field seek their meat of God; that is, they desire the
preservation of their lives, and make their moan when they want that which should support them. And these creatures being made for no higher end than the enjoyment of these particular narrow good things, they observe the law of their creation. But thou art an intellectual being, and by thy immortal soul, which is a spiritual substance, thou art as near akin to the angels in heaven as thou art by thy meaner bodily part to the beasts, yea, allied to God thy Maker, not only made by him, as they were, but for him, which they are not. He is thy chief good, and therefore thou infinitely dishonourest him and thyself too if thou canst sit down short of him in thy desires. Nihil bonum sine summo bono—nothing should be good to thee without God, who is thy chief good. Non placent tibi mea sine mecum, nec tua mihi sine tecum—thus shouldst thou say and pray, O Lord, as all my gifts and services do not please thee except with them I give thee myself, so none of these gifts of thy bounty can content me except with them thou wilt bestow thyself on me. Now this regular motion of the heart in praying for temporals is to be found only in those whose inward wheels—I mean powers and faculties —are set right by the hand of divine grace. Man in his corrupt state is like Nebuchadnezzar at grass—he hath a beast's heart, that craves no more than the satisfaction of his sensual appetite. But when renewed by grace, then his understanding returns to him, by which he is enabled in praying for temporals to elevate his desires to a higher pitch and nobler end.
Doth sick David pray that some further time may be added to the lease of his temporal life? It is not out of a fond love to this world or the carnal entertainments of it, but to prepare himself the better for another life. 'O spare me,' a little 'that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more,' Ps. 39:13. Is he comforted with hopes of a longer stay here? It is not any of this world's carnal pleasures that kindles this joy in his holy breast, but the advantage
he shall thereby have for praising God in the land of the living. 'Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God,' Ps. 42:11. The saint hath as quick a sense to taste the sweetness of a temporal mercy as another; but his heart being spiritual, and so acquainted with higher enjoyments, he desires with Luther that God would not put him off with these shells of blessings. O how few thus pray for temporals! Most are but progging for their lusts while praying for them. 'Ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts,' James 4:3. One is sick, and prays for health that he may be again at his pots or harlots. Another is childless, and he would have an heir to uphold the pride and grandeur of his house, but not the increase of Christ's family in the world. A third would be a greater man in the world—and for what? May be, that having more power he may take the fuller revenge on his enemies that are now out of his reach. And other that bring not their sacrifice with so evil a mind, yet look no higher their carnal contentment in the enjoyment they would have, as appears by their carriage in the use of it. Thus the mariners in a sea-storm, 'Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble,' Ps. 107:28. And when they have their life given them as they desire, 'then are they glad because they be quiet,' and God hears no more of them now their turn is served—a plain evidence that they were selfish and carnal in their prayer for this mercy, because they improve it not for their spiritual end. Which makes the psalmist break out into that holy option and vote, 'Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness,' ver. 31. But much more abominable is it to pray for spiritual mercies for the sake of some temporal advantage we hope to have by them. Thus Simon Magus desired the gifts of the Holy Ghost that he might be JÂH µX("H—a man of fame and name. And do not some labour to bring the gospel to town as an expedient to mend the takings in their shop? —others pray for the assistances of the Spirit, and project their own praise by the means, basely perverting those holy things to
secular advantages? O horrid baseness! As if one should desire a prince's robe to stop an oven with it! This is, as Austin saith, uti Deo ut fruamur mundo—to make God the stirrup and the creature our saddle.
(2.) Those spiritual blessings which are intrinsical to our happiness and indispensably necessary to our salvation, these we are to pray for with an undeniable importunity. Such are pardon of sin, the love and favour of God, and the sanctifying graces of the Spirit. To be cold or indifferent in our prayers for these is a great wickedness. The promise will bear us out in our greatest importunity: 'Seek the Lord, and his strength: seek his face evermore,' Ps. 105:4. 'Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely,' Rev. 22:17. Tantum possumus in negotio religionis, quantum volumus—we are powerful in the matter of religion. Nothing loseth us these mercies more than weak velleities and faint desires of them. But our prayers for temporal blessings must be with a latitude of submission to the will of God, because they are promised conditionally. The promise is the foundation of our faith, the superstructure therefore of our prayers must not jet beyond it. This was Israel's sin —'Who shall give us flesh to eat?' Num. 11:18. God had indeed promised to feed them in the wilderness, but not to give them every dish their wanton palate craved; and therefore, when God's bill of fare contents them not, but they cry for flesh, they have their desire but sour sauce with it; for, 'while their meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them,' Ps. 78:31. Thus they were fed for the slaughter by the meat they inordinately lusted after. O take heed of peremptory prayers for any temporal enjoyment, for thereby thou beggest but a rod for thy own back. Rachel must have children or else she dies, and she at last hath two, but dies in travail of the latter. It was a smart saying of one to his wife, who passionately desired a son, and had one at last, but
none of the wisest, 'Wife,' saith he, 'thou hast long passionately desired a boy, and now thou hast one that will always be a boy.' God may justly set some print of his anger on that mercy which he answers our peremptory prayers with. Why, alas! must we needs have that which we must needs lose, or shall not enjoy while we have it?
(3.) Those spiritual blessings which are intrinsical to the saints' happiness are to be prayed for with boundless desires. Not, Give me thus much grace and I will trouble thee for no more. No, God gives a little grace, not to stop our mouth, but to open it wider for more. Yet, alas! how unreasonably reasonable are most in this particular! So much holiness contents them as will, like salt, keep them from putrefying in gross sins, that they be not unsavoury to the nostrils of their neighbours, or as will save them from the lash of their tormenting conscience; like school-boys, that care for no more of their lesson than will save a whipping. Alas! this is not to desire it at all; it is thy credit abroad and thy quiet within thou desirest, and the other but to help thee to these. He that knows the true worth of grace thinks he hath never enough till satisfied with it in glory. Paul had more than many of his brethren, yet prays and presseth as hard after more as if he had none at all, Php. 3:13, 14. But in temporal enjoyments we are to stint our desires, and not let out all the sails of our affections when praying for them. A gracious heart is as unwilling to have too much of these as afraid of having too little. 'Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me,' Prov. 30:8. I think not a saint but could cheerfully say amen to this prayer of Agur—I am sure he ought. That house is best seated which stands neither on the bleak top of the hill nor on the wet bottom. The nature of these temporal good things is enough to convince any wise man that the mean is best. They are not the Christian's freight but his ballast, and therefore are to be desired to
poise, not load, the vessel. They are not his portion—heaven is that; but his spending money in his journey thither; and what traveller that is wise desires to carry any greater charge about him than will pay for his quarters?
[Second kind of petitionary prayer
—THE DEPRECATORY.]
Second. Deprecatory prayer. The second branch in the petitionary part of prayer is deprecation, wherein we desire of God, in the name of Christ, the removal of some evil felt or feared, inflicted or threatened. So that evil is the object of deprecation. Here I shall briefly point at the evils to be deprecated, and how we are to frame our requests to God in deprecating of them. All evil is comprehended in these two:—1. Sin. 2. Suffering.
[First object of deprecatory prayer.]
1. Object. Sin. This indeed is the evil of evils, against which chiefly we are to let fly the arrows of our prayers. This is the only thing that is intrinsically evil in its own nature. Suffering is rather evil to us than in itself, and our sufferings have both their being and malignity from the evil of our sins. Had there been no sin, there had been no suffering. Where that ceaseth, this is not to be found. No sorrow in heaven, because no sin. These, like twins, live and die together. 'If thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door;' that is, if thou doest the evil of sin, prepare to meet with the evil of suffering. Now in sin two things [are] to be deprecated: (1.) Guilt, and (2.) Filth—the defiling power of sin.
(1.) Guilt. This is the proper effect and consequent of every sin. Whenever any sin is committed there is guilt contracted,
whereby the creature becomes obnoxious to the wrath of God; and this guilt wears not off by length of time, but continues bound upon the sinner till God by an act of pardoning mercy absolves him. So that, though the act of sin be transient, and passeth away as soon as the fact is committed, yet the creature is in the bond of his iniquity, held with this chain of guilt as a prisoner to divine justice, till he by faith and repentance sues out his pardon; even as a felon who, may be, is not presently after the fact taken and brought into judgment, yet abides a debtor to the law, wherever he is, till he can obtain his pardon. Now need I speak anything to set out the dismal and deplored condition of a soul under guilt, thereby to provoke you to pray for the removal of it? There is no mountain so heavy as the guilt of the least sin is to an awakened conscience. Better thy house were haunted with devils than thy soul with guilt. If thy conscience tells thee thou art 'in the bond of iniquity,' thou canst not be 'in the gall of bitterness,' they are joined together, Acts 8:23. Guilt is a burden which the sinner can neither stand under nor throw off. One compares him to a beast stung with a gadfly—fain would he run from his pain, but still he finds it in him. This lies throbbing in his soul like a thorn in the flesh, and will not let him rest by day or sleep by night; he turns himself on his bed as Regulius in his barrel stuck with nails—not an easy plat that he can find in it. This makes him afraid of every disease that comes to town, pox or plague, lest it should arrest him and bring him by death to judgment. His guilt makes him think that every bush a man, and every man a messenger of divine vengeance to slay him. The 'mark' that God set upon guilty Cain, Gen. 4:15, is by many interpreters conceived to be a trembling heart, made visible by a ghastly countenance and discomposed carriage of his outward man; and that passage, ver. 12, 'A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth,' the Septuagint read thus, FJXT 6"Â JDXµT §F® ¦BÂ JH (H —thou shalt be sighing and trembling in the earth. No convulsion fit so distorts the body as sin doth the soul.
—Now in this prayer against guilt, and for pardon, observe these particulars.
[Five particulars to be observed
in praying against guilt.]
(a) Pray with a deep sense and sorrow for thy sins. The worse nonsense in prayer is of the heart, when that hath no sense of the sin [the person praying] deprecates, or of the mercy he desires. Nothing more hardens the heart of God against our prayer, than the hardness of our heart in prayer; and, on the contrary, no such way to melt God into pity as for our own hearts to dissolve into sorrow. He that would have us 'give wine unto those that be of heavy hearts,' Prov. 31:6, saves this vessel—the promise, I mean, of pardoning mercy, which holds the sweetest wine in God's cellar—'to revive the heart of the contrite ones,' Isa. 57:15. A tear in the eye for sin adorns the creature more than a jewel in his ear, and his prayer more than all the embroidery of expressions in it can do. While the publican smote his own breast, he got into God's bosom, and carried a pardon home with him. Will Christ drop his blood to procure thy pardon who canst shed no tears for thy sin? The truth is, here lies the difficulty of the work—not how to move God, but how to get the sinner's own heart melted. It is harder to get sin felt by the creature, than the burden, when felt, removed by the hand of a forgiving God. Never was tender-hearted chirurgeon more willing to take up the vein and bind up the wound of his fainting patient, when he hath bled enough, than God is, by his pardoning mercy, to ease the troubled spirit of a mourning penitent. It is one rule he gives his servants in their practice upon their spiritual patients, to beware of making too great an evacuation in the souls of poor sinners by excessive humiliation, lest thereby the spirits of their faith be too much weakened:
'Sufficient to such a man is this punishment,' c. 'So that...ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow,' II Cor. 2:6, 7.
(b) Justify and clear God in all the expressions of his displeasure for thy sins. Thou dost perhaps carry the marks of his anger on thy flesh in some outward judgement; or, which is worse, the terrors of the Lord have taken hold of thy soul, and like poisoned arrows lie burning in thy conscience, where they stick. Acknowledge him just, and all this that has come upon thee 'less than thy iniquities deserve,' Ezra 9:13. The way to escape the fatal stroke of his axe is to kiss the block. Clear his justice, and fear not but his mercy will save thy life. Thou hast a promise on thy side: 'If then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: then will I remember my covenant,' Lev. 26:41, 42. David took this course and sped, 'For I acknowledge my transgressions,' Ps. 51:3. And why is he so willing to spread his sins in his confession before the Lord? See ver. 4: 'That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.' He would have all the world know that God did him no wrong in the judgments that came upon him; he takes all the blame upon himself.
(c) Take heed thou prayest not with a reservation. Be sure thou renouncest what thou wouldst have God remit. God will never remove the guilt so long as thou entertainest the sin. What prince will pardon his treason that means to continue a traitor? It is desperate folly to desire God to forgive what thou intendest to commit. Thou hadst as good speak out and ask leave to sin with impunity, for God knows the language of thy heart, and needs not thy tongue to be an interpreter. Some princes have misplaced their high favours to their heavy cost, as the emperor Leo Armenius, who pardoned that monster of ingratitude Michael Balbus, and was in the
same night in which he was delivered out of prison murdered by him. But the great God is subject to no mistake in his government. Never got a hypocrite pardon in the disguise of a saint. He will call thee by thy own name, though thou comest to him in the semblance of a penitent. 'Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam,' said the prophet. Hypocrisy is too thin a veil to blind the eyes of the Almighty. Thou mayest put thy own eyes out, so as not to see him; but thou canst never blind his eyes that he should not see thee. And as long as God loves himself, he must needs hate the hypocrite; and if he hates him, surely he will not pardon him. The pardoned soul and the sincere are all one. 'Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile,' Ps. 32:2.
(d) Make Christ thy plea. Pardon of sin is a favour not known in the first covenant. Do, and live; sin, and die, were all its contents. No room left for an after-game by that law. The gospel covenant is our tabula post naufragium—the only plank by which we may recover the shore after our miserable wreck. This covenant is founded in Christ, who, upon agreement with his Father, undertook to answer the demands of the law, and happily performed what he undertook; upon which the gospel is preached, and pardon promised to all that repent and believe on him. 'Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour,' Acts 5:31. Him hath God 'set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood,' Rom. 3:25. As therefore, when Christ intercedes for poor sinners, he carries his blood with him and presents it to God, for the price of that forgiveness he desires for them; so thou mayest bring the same blood in the hand of thy faith when thou prayest for the pardon of thy sins, for 'without shedding of blood is no remission,' Heb. 9:22. This is the more to be heeded, because many, out of ignorance, and some from a corrupt principle, apply themselves to their prayers to the absolute goodness and mercy of God for pardon. Ask them why they hope to
be forgiven, and they will tell you, 'God is good, and they hope he will be merciful to them, seeing his nature is so gracious.' But, alas! they forget he is just as well as merciful, and mercy will not act but with the consent of his justice. Now the only salve for the justice of God is the satisfaction of Christ. 'Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness;...that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus,' Rom. 3:25, 26. So that, to desire God to forgive thee thy sin without the intervening of Christ's satisfaction, is to desire God to be unjust, and pardon thee with the loss of his own honour; and how welcome thou art like to be that comest to him on such an errand, is easy to think.
(e) Lastly, take no denial in this thy request, but, pray for it with unwearied importunity. It is a mercy thou canst not want; it is more necessary than thy very being. Better never to be than ever be unpardoned. Think but a little on thy dismal condition while guilt is not taken off and thy pardon not obtained, and it is impossible that thou shouldst e a cold faint suitor for this mercy of mercies. Know, then, while unpardoned thou art God's prisoner. All the plagues written in the law cleave as close to thee as thy girdle to thy loins. Every moment thou mayest fear they should take hold upon thee as thou walkest in thy house, sittest at thy table, or liest on thy bed. Where canst thou be safe who hast God {for} thine enemy? Can the bread resist him that eats it? or the tree withstand the axe of the feller? truly no more canst thou the wrath of an avenging God. Is it not he that holds the stoutest devils in chains?—he who can kindle a fire in thy own bones and bosom, and make thee consume like lime with the inward burning of thy self-tormenting thoughts? Is he not a righteous God, whose justice binds him, in the distributions of justice, to be exact according to the sinner's demerit? Is he not the everlasting God?—not a sorry creature, who may threaten thee to-
day, and be dead himself to-morrow; but eternity itself, who ever lives to take vengeance on sinners, out of whose hands thou canst not escape by dying?
In earthly courts, when the man dies his cause dies with him, because out of their jurisdiction, and past their summons. But, at death, thou fallest into the hands of the living God, who will pursue his quarrel with thee in the other world also. No sooner is thy soul abandoned of thy body and turned out of its earthly house, but it shall return to God to receive its doom. Neither shall thy body long rest in the grave where it is earthed, but be called forth to share with the soul in torment, whose partner it hath been in sin. The parting of these at death to a guilty soul is sad enough; but their meeting again at the great day of judgement will be much more dismal. For husband and wife, that have joined in some bloody murder, to be attached and sent to several prisons in order to their trial, must needs fill them with fear and terror of their approaching judgment, but much more dreadful is it to them when brought forth to receive their sentence, and suffer at the same gibbet together. At death, the sinner's body is disposed of to one prison, his soul to another, and both meet again at the great day of assize for the world—then to be sent by the final sentence of the Judge to everlasting flames in hell's fiery furnace, where, after the poor wretch hath experimented a thousand millions of years the weight of God's just vengeance, he shall find himself no nearer the end of his misery than he was the first day wherein his torment commenced. Then death will be desired as a favour, but it shall flee from him—his misery being both intolerable and interminable. By this time, I suppose, a pardon will be thought worth thy having, and too good to be lost by sluggish sleepy praying for it. When, therefore, thou hast chafed thy soul thus into a sense of the indispensable necessity of this mercy, then take up a holy resolution to lay thy siege to the throne of grace, and never to
rise till God open the gates of his mercy to thee. As it is so necessary thou canst not want it; so thou hast the promise of a faithful God that thou shalt not miss it, upon the timely and sincere seeking of it. 'If we confess, he is faithful and just to forgive.' Prayers and tears are the weapons with which the Almighty may be overcome. Manasseh, who could not on his throne —when he sinned and stouted it out against God —defend himself from the justice of God, yet in his dungeon and fetters, greatly humbling himself before the Lord, obtained his mercy. So Ephraim, 'when he spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died,' Hosea 13:1.
(2.) The second thing in sin to be deprecated is the defiling power of it. He that desires not to be purged from the filth of sin, prays in vain to be eased of the guilt. If we love the work of sin, we must like the wages also. A false heart, could be willing to have his sin covered, but the sincere desires his nature to be cured and cleansed. David begged a clean heart as well as a quiet conscience: 'Blot out all mine iniquities; create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,' Ps. 51:9, 10. He desires water to purify his heart, as well as blood to sprinkle and pacify his conscience. Now, in framing thy requests as to this, observe these particulars.
[Five particulars to be observed in praying
against the defilement of sin.]
(a) Be sure thou comest with a deep abhorrence of thyself for that sin-filth which cleaves to thee. This is called 'knowing the plague of a man's own heart,' I Kings 8:38, when a creature is affected and afflicted with the sense of his corruptions, as if he had so many plague sores running upon him, and bathes himself for them, as
much as Job did for the boils and sores with which his body was covered. The leper was commanded, in order to his cure, to put himself into a mourner's habit: 'His clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean,' Lev. 13:45. Why all this, but to express the deep sense of his sin and misery? Look upon the saints in scripture, and you shall find this was their way to abase themselves in their prayers with the greatest self-abhorrency that was possible. Penitent David takes the fool, yea the beast, unto himself; he knows not how to speak bad enough of himself. 'So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee,' Ps. 73:22. Holy Job cries out, 'I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes,' Job 42:6. Others blush, and are as much ashamed to be seen in the presence of God, as one that had fallen into some puddle or jakes would be in that pickle to come before his prince.
(b) In praying against thy lusts, look thy heart goes with thy tongue. In nothing so our hearts put more cheats upon us than in our prayers, and in no requests more than in those which are levelled against our lusts. That is least oftentimes intended which is most pretended. And truly we had need be well acquainted with ourselves before we can find the bottom of our designs. Austin confesseth, when he was a young man, and forced by conviction in his conscience to pray that God would deliver him out of the bondage of his lust, that yet the secret whispers of his heart were non adhuc, Domine—not yet, Lord. He was afraid that God would take him at his word. Thus the hypocritical Jews first 'set up their idols in their heart,' Eze. 14:3. This is a great wickedness. And it were a just, though a heavy plague, for God to answer such according to the secret vote of their hearts, by them up to those lusts which they inwardly crave. When Paul begs prayers for himself, to embolden them in their requests for him, he assures them of his sincerity: 'Pray
for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly,' Heb. 13:18. As if he had said, I durst not make you my spokesmen to God, if my heart did not check me that I did secretly comply with any sin, and did not mean in all things to live honestly. How then canst thou have the face to go thyself to God on an errand to desire that of him which thou wouldst be loath to have.
Question. But how may we come to know that our hearts are sincere or hypocritical in praying against the defiling power of sin?
Answer [1]. Observe whether thy prayer be uniform—laid against all sin, one lust as well as another. Sincerity makes not here a balk and there a furrow; is not hot against one lust and cold against another; but goes through stitch in the work: it 'hates every false way,' Ps. 119:104. It shoots its arrows at the whole flock, and singles not this sin out in his prayers which he would have taken, and that left: 'Let not any iniquity have dominion over me,' ver. 133. He knows if all his chains were knocked off, and only one left upon him, he should be as true a slave to Satan as if all the other were still on. He prays not against one sin because a great one, and pleads for another because it is a little one. The dust and rubbish help to fill up the wall as well as the great stones; little sins contribute as well as great to make up the partition wall between God and the creature. Every little speck blemisheth the garment, and every penny increaseth the sums. So little sins defile the soul and swell the sinner's account. Therefore he prays against them as well as the other. David, who desired to be kept back from 'presumptuous sins,' did also beg to be 'cleansed from his secret faults,' Ps. 19:12.
Answer [2]. Observe whether thy heart stand firmly resolved to renounce that sin thou prayest God to subdue. The sincere Christian binds himself, as well as labours to engage God against his sin.
Indeed that prayer is a blank which hath not a vow in it. 'Thou...hast heard my vows,' Ps. 61:5; that is, his prayers, which are always to be put up with vows. Is it a mercy thou prayest him to give? If sincere, thou wilt vow to praise him for it and serve him with it. Is it a sin thou prayest against? Except thou jugglest with God thou wilt vow as well as pray against it. 'Remove from me the way of lying,' Ps. 119:29. There is David's deprecation. Now, mark his promise and vow: 'I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me,' ver. 30. While he prays against the way of lying he chooseth the way of truth.
Answer [3]. Observe whether thou beest vigorous in the use of all appointed means to mortify the lust thou prayest against. Resolutions in the time of prayer are good when backed with strenuous endeavours, else but a blind for a false heart to cover itself with. Samson did not only pray he might be avenged on his enemies, but set his hands to the pillars of the house. He that hath bid thee pray against thy lust hath bid thee shun the occasions of it. 'Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house, lest thou give thy honour unto others,' Prov. 5:8; that is, lest thou be hooked in to her by the occasion. Thus Joseph, that he might not be drawn to lie with his mistress, would not stay alone in the room with her, Gen. 39:7-12. So, Prov. 23:20, 'be not among wine-bibbers;' and, 'look not on the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup,' ver. 31, because looking may breed liking. Now, art thou conscientiously careful to keep out of the way that leads to the sin, and to shun the occasion that might betray thee into the hands of that lust thou prayest against? Certainly, he that would not have his house blown up will not have set his gunpowder in the chimneycorner.
(c) Again, God, who bids thee pray against thy lusts, commands thee also to take the sword of his word, by meditating on it, and applying it close to thy heart and conscience, to cut them down and get victory over them. Thus did David. He hid the word in his heart that he might not sin. Thou prayest against covetousness. O that God would rid thy heart of it! Well, what dost thou towards thy own delivery from this base lust? Here is a sword put into thy hand, whose edge is sharp enough to cut and kill if thou wilt lay it on in good earnest. This sets forth the vanity of the creature—how vile and base a sin covetousness is; takes away all occasion of inordinate desires and cares for the world by many sweet promises—what he hath laid up in another world for us, and what care in his providence he will take for us in this life. 'Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,' Heb. 13:5. Now, what use doth thou make of this weapon? Dost thou strengthen thy assent to the truth of these promises?—labour to affect thy heart with the sweetness of them, and then draw forth this sword to defend thyself against this lust when the enemy comes with a temptation to it? If so, thou wert sincere in thy prayer. A false heart contents itself with a few idle lay prayers against his lust, but is afraid to use this sword against it. Or, if he doth, he strikes with the back and not the edge; or lays his stroke so favourably on that it shall not much endanger the life of his sin—like a mountebank, that will be sure to make no worse wound in his side than his balsam will in a day or two cure.
Now, to raise thy heart to the greater vehemency in praying against thy lusts, labour deeply to affect thy heart what a fearful plague it is—indeed, of all other incomparably the greatest—for a soul to be given up of God to the power of his lusts. This consideration, if any, will make thee lay close siege to God and set upon him with the utmost importunity, knowing thou art an undone
creature if thou speedest not in thy errand. When God intends to smite home he takes his aim at the heart, he gives the creature over to his lusts. Thus he hardened Pharaoh to a final obstinacy, 'I will...send all my plagues upon thine heart,' Ex. 9:14. They did not only light upon the beasts and fruits of the field, or upon their own bodies, but chiefly upon their hearts and spirits, hardening them into obstinacy to their destruction. And this, indeed, is to send all plagues in one. Other plagues, that reach only to estate or body, are consistent with the love and favour of God. He can smite the body and smile on the soul; blast the man's estate and bless him with spiritual riches; make him poor in the world and rich in faith. But he that is given up to his lusts is abhorred of God. A saint may be given up to Satan ut lictori—to correct him, for the destruction of the flesh and saving of his spirit; but it is the brand of a reprobate to be delivered up to Satan ut domino —that his lusts may have full power over him; which judiciary act of God portends the sinner's destruction, Deut. 2:30; II Thes. 2:11. Outward plagues are sometimes in the sinner's mouth as a bridle to restrain him from sin. But this is a spur that makes them more mad after their lusts; it takes away the sense of sin, and then the wretch plays the devil. Nothing will stop him in his way, but to hell he will go over hedge and ditch.
(d) Pray against the power of thy lusts as a branch of the gospel covenant. God is not bound by the first covenant to stir a foot for man's help. Man went of his own accord over to the devil's quarters. He deserted God and chose a new lord; and in his hands God might have left him, without offering any help for his rescue. It was not any tie that man had upon God by the covenant of nature which obliged him, but his own free grace that moved him, to undertake his recovery. And this he doth by making a new covenant on the ruins of the old. So that, whoever will pray against his lusts with success must first become a covenanter with God, by accepting the terms
upon which God in it offers to save us from our sins, and they are faith and repentance. When the soul doth thus face about from his sins to close with Christ, then he becomes a covenanter with God, and may, with faith, call God into the field for his help against this huge host of lusts and devils that come against him. God's chariots are his; the whole militia of heaven is engaged in his quarrel. 'Sin shall not have dominion over you'—and why?—'for ye are not under law but under grace,' Rom. 6:14; that is, you are not under the law covenant made with Adam, but under the gospel covenant made with Christ, and through him with all believers. O how many prayers against sin are lost for want of well understanding this grand notion of the gospel! A great cry is made and complaint by many of their sins to God, and victory over them pretend to be desired; yet they live and grow stronger every day than other. And what is the reason? Alas! they stand not in a federal relation to God; neither take they any care how to get into it. Will a prince raise an army to fight for he knows not whom? Indeed, if his subjects or allies be in distress he is ready to step in for their succour; but strangers cannot expect he should do this for them. Leagues are made before assistance desired. God first promised to bring Israel 'into the bond of his covenant,' Eze. 20:37; and then, that he will 'accept them with your sweet savour,' ver. 41. David knew this very well, that the carnal world are abandoned by God, to be trod under the foot of every lust; and therefore, when he prays God would order his steps in his word, and let no iniquity have dominion over him, he desires it as a favour peculiar to those that were near and dear to him: Deal with me 'as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name,' Ps. 119:132.
(e) Pray not only against the power of sin, but for the power of holiness also. A naughty heart may pray against his sins, not out of any inward enmity to them, or love to holiness, but because they are troublesome guests to his conscience. Believe it for a certain truth,
his zeal is false that seems hot against sin but is key-cold to holiness. A city is rebellious that keeps their rightful prince out though it receives not his enemy in. Nay, the devil needs not fear but at last he shall make that soul his garrison again, out of which for a while he seems shut, so long as it stands empty and is not filled with solid grace, Matt. 12:44, 45. What indeed should hinder Satan's re-entry into that house which hath not in it to keep him out?
[Second object of deprecatory prayer.]
2. Object. The second object of deprecatory prayer is suffering. Sin brought suffering into the world. Sin is indeed the elder twin, but suffering stayed not long after it; for it took it by the heel, presently arresting Adam upon the very place where he committed his trespass, and ever since follows it as close as the shadow doth the body. It leaves not the saint till death parts him and his sin, but pursues the wicked with their sins into the other world also. So that this distribution of suffering into temporal and eternal shall content us at present—they being comprehensive of all the miseries which sin hath brought upon the sons of men. Now my work in this place shall be only to direct the Christian how to frame his prayer in deprecating the one and the other also. (1.) Temporal sufferings—how the Christian is to deprecate and pray against them. (2.) Eternal suffering.
[How the Christian is to pray against
temporal sufferings.]
(1.) Temporal sufferings—how the Christian is to deprecate and pray against them.
[1.] Negatively—The Christian is not to pray for an immunity from all temporal sufferings. There is no foundation for such a prayer in the promise; and what God thinks not fit to promise we must not be bold to ask. Temporal promises are to be understood, saith Melancthon, cum exceptione crucis —with exception of the cross. God had one Son without sin, but he will have none in this life without suffering. John writes himself, 'Your brother, and companion in tribulation,' Rev. 1:9. He hath too high an opinion of himself that would have God lead him dryshod on a fair causeway to heaven, while he sees the rest of his brethren march through thick and thin to the same place; or who thinks he needs not this thornhedge of suffering, to keep him as well as others from wandering out of his way to glory. The rod and ferule are not more needful among children at school than suffering is to the saints while in their minority here on earth. If thou wert come to that ripeness of ingenuity as to have worn off all thy childishness, thou shouldst stay here no longer under the lash; but while thou art subject to sin thou must submit to his disciplinary rod. Valetudinarious bodies can as well spare food as physic, and saints in this their crazy state may as well live without ordinances as without sufferings. In a word, to pray absolutely against all suffering is to desire one of the greatest punishments on this side hell. When God said, 'I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom,' Hosea 4:14, he meant them no good by sparing his rod. If we count him an unwise father that, when he puts his child to school, indents with his master not to whip him; surely much more folly were it in thee to desire God to privilege thee from all suffering.
[2.] Affirmatively—how he may and should pray against sufferings; and in these particulars following.
(a) Deprecate the vindictive justice and wrath of God in all temporal sufferings. Thus Jeremiah shapes his prayer, 'O Lord, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing,' Jer. 10:24, and, ch. 17:17, 'Be not a terror unto me: thou art my hope in the day of evil.' He declines not suffering but deprecates wrath. As if he had said, 'Let trouble come, but not with this message—to tell me thou art mine enemy; shoot thy darts, my breast is open to receive them; but let them not be envenomed arrows headed with thy punitive justice.' Without this sting all suffering is innocent and harmless. But if the creature does fear—though without just cause— that they are shot out of justice's bow, then they drink up his spirits and exanimate him presently. 'When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth,' Ps. 39:11. That holy woman, I Kings 17:18, was not so much distressed for her son's death as for the reflection this sad providence made upon her conscience: 'Art thou come...to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?' Thou canst not therefore be too passionately importunate in deprecating this.
(b) Deprecate the snare and temptation that suffering may expose thee to. Satan commonly finds it easy to make some sinful impression upon the saint when he is heated, and his 'heart made soft,' as Job phraseth it, 'in the furnace of affliction.' He is a rare Christian in whom the stream of his grace runs clear upon such royling. Job was a man of a thousand —God's nonesuch: 'None like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man,' Job 1:8; yet bewrayed many weaknesses in his troubles, and would have done more, had not God in pity to his poor servant taken the devil off before he had quite run him down. Christ teacheth us to pray against suffering under the notion of temptation: 'Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.' That is, let us not be led into sin when we fall into suffering, let us not fall into thy hands and Satan's
together. This discovers a holy frame of heart—to be more tender of our conscience than skin; not so much to fear affliction from God, as, left in it, we should be have ourselves unseemly and unholily towards him. Agur is not so much ashamed to beg as afraid to steal, and so take the name of his God in vain, upon which account he chiefly prays against poverty, Prov. 30:8, 9. There is nothing lost by serving God first and preferring his honour before our own private interest in our prayers. Self-denial is the best for self-seeking; for, by neglecting ourselves for God's sake, we oblige him to take the care of us upon himself, and he is the only happy man who hath his stake laid up in God's hands.
(c) Deprecate the excess of suffering—that thou beest not overladen, thy burden too heavy for thy back. This is promised. Thou mayest therefore present it in faith: 'I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee: but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct thee in measure;' Jer. 46:28. The patient doth not intrench upon the physician's art by desiring him to proportion his dose according to the weakness of his body, if, when he hath done this, he acquiesceth in his skill and faithfulness for the same. Indeed, to desire God to consider our weakness, and then not to rely on his wisdom and care, but continue jealous and suspicious, or to murmur at his prescriptions, as if the physic he gives were too churlish and strong, this makes a dishonourable reflection upon God. Sometimes the physician exceeds the proportion that his fearful patient thinks strong enough, but withal tells him, 'You are not so weak as you take yourself to be. Your body may bear so many grains more in the composition. Leave me to my art and all shall be well.' Thus God, who knows our frame exactly, deals with his people, and is highly pleased to see them satisfied with what he orders them out: 'In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly,' Job 1:22; @Û6 §*T6, •ND@Fb0 Jè 2,è—so the Septuagint reads it—he did not impute folly
to God; indeed the word {Hebrew Characters Omitted} (tiphlah), is a noun. The meaning of the place is, Job did not make any unworthy reflection upon God for the evils he suffered by his providence, as if anything were wanting in his care or wisdom, like some rash physician, who fails either in timing or tempering his physic.
(d) Thou mayest not only deprecate these evils in thy affections, but also pray believingly for a happy issue out of them all. The darkest lane of suffering shall, to the saint, have a lightsome end. And all, we say, is well that ends well. 'Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful,' James 5:11. This is that which God so fully intends in all his saints' troubles, that he takes pleasure in thinking of it beforehand: 'I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace,' Jer. 29:11. And that petition comes in a happy time to court, which finds the king thinking of the very business it prays for.
(2.) Eternal suffering. The second kind of suffering is eternal in hell. This is the center in which all the lines of sin and of misery meet—the common shoal into which they all disgorge themselves, as rivers do their streams into the vast ocean. And as rivers, when they are fallen into the sea, lose their several names in one that comprehends them all—the ocean; so all the evils of this life, when resolved into this, forget their private names—sickness, pains, poverty, c,—and are called hell. Not that these are all formally and literally there, but virtually, in that the torment of the damned doth not only amount to, but, beyond expression, exceed them all. As in heaven there is no belly-cheer, yet a feast; no silks and satins worn, yet all in glorious robes; as silver is in gold, and gold in a jewel, so all these are in heaven—because that which is of infinite more value and worth than such things as are of highest reckoning on earth. Thus the great miseries of this life are incomparably less than the least
torment of hell. Never can the creature say he is completely miserable, till the devouring jaws of that infernal pit inclose him. Were the worst of his punishment what he feels here, he might in a manner bless himself; as Paul, on the contrary saith, he should judge the saint miserable above others, if all his hope were here. But there is the sinner's easeless endless state. There is not so much as one well day to release him a while from his pain, but he shall continue forever in the height of his paroxysm; no change of weather or hope of clearing, but a perpetual storm set in to rain fire and brimstone upon him to all eternity, for so long it will be before the arm of the Almighty is weary of pouring out his wrath, or his heart be brought in love with sin, and reconciled to the sinner. Now, in deprecating this, we should endeavour to keep this threefold notion of hell in our thoughts, for which above all we are to desire to be delivered from it.
(a) Conceive of hell as a state of sin as well as of suffering, yea, in its utmost height. Earth is a middle place betwixt heaven and hell. Neither sin in the wicked, nor grace in the saint, come here to their full ripeness. Grace being an outlandish slip brought from heaven's paradise, riseth not to its just height and procerityTallness; highth of stature. — From WEBSTER'S, till it be transplanted and set in its native climate from whence it came. And sin, being a brat of hell, comes not to its full complexion and monstrosity, till it be sent back to the place it came from. Here poor wretches are tolled on to sin by the pleasure it promiseth. But there they sin out of malice, for nothing else can invite them where this morsel is eaten with such sour sauce. On earth the sinner is maidenly, and conceals the venom that is bagged in his heart; but in hell he spits it out in blasphemies against heaven. In a word, here he sins with wavering thoughts, and some weak purposes of repenting, but there he is as desperate as the devil himself—hardened beyond all relenting. Now, under this notion, thou shouldst pray to be delivered from hell, that thou
mayest never be one of that damned crew, who think it not enough to fight against God their Maker on earth, but carry the war with them into the other world also, and there continue their feud with implacable enmity to eternity. Certainly the saints—to whom the notions of sin in this life are so grievous, above all the crosses and losses that befall them, and who count a few years' neighbourhood among the wicked so great an affliction, that they cry, 'Woe is me, that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar'—must needs deprecate that dismal state with their utmost vehemency of spirit, wherein they should be everlastingly yoked with sin, and cooped up with unclean sinners, both which they loathe so perfectly.
It was the speech of a gracious woman when on the very marches of death: 'O Lord, send me not to hell among such filthy company, which thou knowest I have not liked on earth.' But as for those that can fadge very well with their lusts, and the company of the wicked here, I know not how they can thus deprecate that place where they shall meet with that which pleaseth them so much on earth. David, Ps. 26, first protests his abhorrency against the ways and society of the wicked: 'I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers; I have hated the congregation of evildoers; and will not sit with the wicked,' ver. 4, 5: then his zeal for God, and delight he had in his house to praise and serve him, ver. 68. After which, he breaks out into this prayer, 'Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men,' ver. 9. As if he had said, I am not of their knot in my life, O let me not be of their bundle at my death. I have praised thee on earth, send me not to blaspheme thee in hell. I have loved the habitations of thy house here, let me not dwell with unclean spirits hereafter.
(b) Hell is a state of separation from the blissful presence of God. Pray to be delivered from it under this notion—as it is the last, yea,
everlasting excommunication of the creature from God. 'Go, ye cursed,' that is, never to see my sweet face more—called therefore 'outer darkness,' because not the least beam or stricture of his favour to enlighten the souls of the damned, nor the least crevice is left open for hope to expect it. The heat of hell-fire is not so dismal, as the want of this light. This makes them cursed; 'Go, ye cursed.' The curse lies in their departure from God, the fountain of all blessing. All besides this were tolerable. Would God cast but one kind look upon those miserable souls, as they swim in this lake of fire and brimstone, it were able to change the property of the place, and the joy thereof were enough to take away the sense of their torment. The three worthies in Daniel could walk in the fire, having God to bear them company, as if they had been only in the sunshine. That which a saint prizeth most in heaven is the presence of God: 'So shall we ever be with the Lord,' I Thes. 4:17. And hell is most dreaded by them, because a gulf is fixed between the souls in it and God, that no communion can be had with him to all eternity. O how few pray against hell under this notion! how few cry out with David, 'Cast me not away from thy presence!' Ps. 51:11. If this were the thing above all they feared should befall them in the other world, would they so willingly live without acquaintance with God in this world? Surely no.
(c) Hell is a state wherein the damned can never actually satisfy God's justice; for their debt being infinite, and they, because creatures, but finite, will ever be paying. But the last farthing can never be paid, which is the only reason they lie forever in prison, because it can never be said, 'Now God hath his due.' But Christ, the saints' pay-master, discharged their whole debt at once, and took in the bond, which he nailed to his cross, leaving no back-reckoning unpaid, to bring the believer afterward into any danger from the hands of divine justice. Now, as an ingenuous debtor desires his
freedom at his creditor's hands, that thereby he may be capable of paying his debt, as well as to escape the misery that himself should endure by his imprisonment; so an ingenuous soul—and such is every saint—deprecates hell, as well with an eye to God's glory, as to his own ease and happiness. Lord, saith the sincere soul, if thou packest me away to hell, there I shall pay thee, it is true, by my just torments something in a dribbling way by retail, but never be able to discharge the whole sum; but at Christ's hands thou mayest receive to the full what thy justice can demand at mine, and also make me thy poor creature a trumpeter of thy praise to eternity. O send me not to blaspheme thee among that wretched crew of damned souls and unclean spirits, who so much desire to join with the choir of holy angels and saints in singing hallelujahs to thy holy and glorious name.
[Third kind of petitionary prayer
—THE IMPRECATORY.]
Third. Imprecatory prayer; wherein the Christian imprecates the vengeance of God upon the enemies of God and his people. On such a sad and solemn errand are the saints' prayers sometimes sent to heaven, and speed as effectually as when they go to obtain blessings for themselves and the church of God. And no wonder, for they are perfumed with Christ's merits, and thereby are as acceptable to God as any other they put up in his name. 'And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God,' Rev. 8:4. Now what kind of prayers these were is clear by the next words, 'And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake,' ver. 5. By which is signified the dreadful judgments which God in answer to his saints'
prayers would bring upon the wicked world, whose bloody persecutions of the church, and fury against the truth of God, made the saints to cry to heaven for vengeance upon them; and that it should come inevitably come as thunder, lightning, and earthquakes, that can be resisted by no power or policy of the greatest monarch on earth. Thus, as at the firing of some cannon planted against a city, you may see its turrets or wall come tumbling down; so, upon the prayers of the saints, great judgments were certainly to befall the enemies of God and his church. Now, the path wherein the Christian is here to tread being very narrow, he is to be the more cautious that he steps not awry. He is, in this part of prayer which is imprecatory, like one that drives a chariot on the brow of a steep hill, who, if he hath not the quicker eye and steadier hand, may soon spoil all. The highest strains of a saint's duty run nearest the most dangerous precipices, as the most mysterious truths are soonest perverted into the most damnable errors. I shall therefore first lay down a few particulars which may serve as a rail to compass in this duty, for the better securing the Christian from falling into any miscarriage about it.