CHAPTER III: The Second Case
long time to come, which thou mayest never behold with thine eyes, even as David also did, and rejoiced in it.
(3.) And when they are accomplished, and thou in heaven, thy joy will surely be the more full for these thy prayers: as at the conversion of those thou hast prayed for, so at the ruin of the church's enemies,
&c., whom thou didst pray against; for if there be joy in heaven at the conversion of a sinner, as at the birth of a new prince and heir of heaven, then haply in a proportion he shall rejoice most whose prayers had most hand in it, and a special interest therein. And so as thy other works, so thy prayers follow thee, and 'the fruit of them,' as Jeremiah speaks, chap. 17:10; and, however, yet at the day of judgment thou shalt rejoice, as well as they that enjoyed the fruit of thy prayers in their times, thou having sown the seed of their happiness: 'Both he that sows and he that reaps shall then rejoice together,' as Christ says, John 4:36.
CHAPTER III:
The Second Case
The second case, concerning prayers made far others, of our friends, &c.—How they are answered.
2. THE second case is concerning answers to our prayers for others, for particular men, as friends and kindred, &c., and likewise for temporal blessings.
Pray for others you know we must; so the elders of the church for those that are sick, James 5:15, 16: 'Pray one for another,' says St James. As in case a man is troubled with a lust, tell some private friend of it: 'Confess your sins one to another,' that when a man's own prayers are not strong enough to cast it out, it may be done by the help of another's prayers joined with his. So it follows, 'that ye may be healed,' ver. 16, for in that sense I understand healing in ver.
16. So also, 1 John 5:16, 'If a man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death,'—that is, not against the Holy Ghost,—'he shall ask life for him, and God shall give him life that sins not unto death.'
Concerning this case, I give these considerations, how such prayers are answered:— First consideration.—Such prayers God often heareth; why else are any such promises made? As, 'that they shall be healed in their bodies,' James 5:15, 'healed of their lusts,' ver. 16; 'converted to life,'
1 John 5:16. God hath made these to encourage us to pray, and to testify his abundant love to us; that it so overflows and runs over, that he will hear us, not only for ourselves, but for others also; which is a sign we are in extraordinary favour. So God intimates concerning
Abraham to Abimelech, Gen. 20:7, 'He is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live.' And as he was a prophet, so we are priests, as for ourselves, so for others also, to God our Father; and it is a prerogative we have through the fellowship we have, and communion of Christ's priestly office, 'who hath made us kings and priests,' Rev. 1:6, to prevail and intercede for others, and a special token and pledge of extraordinary love; for if God hears a man's prayers for others, much more for himself in his own behalf. So when
Christ healed the man sick of the palsy, it was, as it is said, for the faith of the standers-by, Matt. 9:2: 'He, seeing their faith, said, Thy sins are forgiven thee.' The meaning is not as if for their faith's sake he forgave that man his sins, for, Hab. 2:4, 'the just doth live by' his own 'faith;' but to encourage them who out of faith brought that sick man to him, and us all in like manner to bring others and their plaints by prayer before him, he therefore then took occasion to declare and pronounce forgiveness to that poor man; he therefore then said, 'Thy sins are forgiven thee.'
Second consideration—Yet, secondly, prayers for others may often also not obtain the particular thing prayed for them. So Samuel's prayer for Saul, 1 Sam. 15:35; so David for his enemies, Ps. 35:13.
For it is in this as it is in the use of other means and ordinances for the good of others; God making such like kind of promises to our prayers herein as he hath made to our endeavours to convert when we preach to men: that look, as we preach to many, and yet but few believe,—for 'who hath believed our report?' Rom. 10:16, even 'as
many as are ordained to eternal life;' we 'become all to all, and win but some,'—so we pray for many, not knowing who are ordained to eternal life, which whilst we know not, we are yet to pray for them, 1
Tim. 2:3, 4. Only as where God hath set his ordinance of preaching, it is more than a probable sign he hath some to convert, and usually the word takes among some, though often but a few; so when he hath stirred up our hearts to pray for others, it is a sign God will hear us for some of those we pray for, yet so as we may be denied. For God doth require it as a duty on our parts, because it is an outward means ordained by God, by which sometimes he useth to bring things to pass; but yet not as such a certain and infallible means, as he hath tied himself universally unto, to bring the thing to pass on his part.
And though indeed his promise to hear and accept the prayer is general and universal, yet the promise to hear it, by granting the very thing itself prayed for, is but an indefinite promise, such as he makes to other means of doing men good; as to our admonitions and reproofs, and to our preaching, &c. He makes such promises because sometimes he doth hear and convert by them. For instance, that promise, James 5:15, of healing the sick, cannot be universal; for it might then be supposed, as a truth implied in it, that sick men might never die, whereas 'it is appointed for all men once to die,' Heb. 9:27, seeing it may be supposed that the elders may at all such times of danger of death still come and pray with them. But the meaning is, that it is an ordinance which God hath made a gracious promise unto, because he often cloth restore the sick at their prayers: and therefore upon every such particular occasion, we are to rely upon
God for the performance of it by an act of recumbency, though with an act of full assurance that we shall obtain it we cannot; the promise being not universal, but indefinite.
Of the like nature are all other promises of things temporal and outward, of which we herein speak, as when God promiseth to give long life to them that honour their parents, riches and honours to them that fear him; the tenor and purport of which promises is not, as if absolutely, infallibly, and universally God doth always perform these to those that are yet truly qualified with the conditions specified in those promises; the contrary both Scripture instances and common experience shews: they are therefore indefinitely meant, and so to be understood by us. For, because whenever God doth dispense any such mercies to any of his, he would do it by promise; all his ways to his being truth, that is, the fulfilling of some truth promised; and also God having purposed in his outward dispensation of things here in this world, to bestow riches and honours upon some that fear him, though not upon all, for how then should 'all things fall alike to all,' Eccles. 9:2, poverty and contempt upon them that fear God, even as well as those that fear him not? He hath therefore indefinitely expressed his gracious dispensation herein: requiring answerably an act of faith—which principle in us is suited to a promise, as a faculty is to its proper object—suitable to that his meaning in the promise; that as he intended not in such promises an absolute, infallible, universal obligation of himself to the performance of them to all that fear him, so the act of faith which a man is to put forth toward this promise, in the application of it for
his own particular, is not required to be an absolute, infallible persuasion and assurance that God will bestow these outward things upon him, having these qualifications in him; but only an indefinite act, as I may so call it, of recumbency and submission, casting and adventuring ourselves upon him for the performance of it to us, not knowing but he may in his outward dispensations make it good to us, yet with, submission to his good pleasure, if otherwise he disposeth it.
It is true, indeed, that that act of general assent which faith is to give to this promise, in the general abstract truth of it, is to be an assured certain persuasion and belief that God hath made this promise, and that he certainly will and doth perform it unto some according to his purpose expressed therein; which act of general assent is that believing without wavering,—namely, of the truth of the promise in general,—which St James calls for in prayer, chap. 1:6. But yet that special act of application, as divines call it, required in this faith, whereby I am to rest upon it for my own particular, is not required to be such an undoubted persuasion as to think that I shall certainly have this particular promise in kind fulfilled to me; for the truth, purpose, and intent of the promise is not universal, but indefinite. So as it is but an it may be‚ as God elsewhere expresseth such promises, as Zeph. 2:3, that it shall be performed to me; and yet because it may be God will perform it unto me, therefore my duty is to cast myself upon God, and put in for it, with submission to his good pleasure for the performance of it to me. So that so far as the truth and intent of it is revealed to be infallible and certain, so far a man is bound to have
an answerable act of faith, of certain and infallible persuasion towards it, as to believe without wavering that God hath made such a promise, and will perform it according to his intent in making it, which is unto some. But yet withal, because the tenor of it is but indefinite, and in that respect whether it shall be performed to me or no is not therein certainly revealed; therefore God requires not of me, in the application of such a promise, an absolute full persuasion that he will perform it to me in such or such a manner, &c.; but only an act of dependence and adherence, with referring it to his wise and righteous good pleasure towards me.
And yet again, if God should at any time give a man such a special faith concerning any such particular temporal blessing for himself or another, then he is bound to believe it thus in particular: as when he gave power to any to work miracles, as to his apostles he did, with a commission to work them, then they were bound to believe that such and such a miracle should infallibly be wrought by them, as that the devils should be cast out by them, &c. And therefore in this case
Christ rebukes his disciples for not believing thus upon such particular occasions, Matt. 17:20.
And then it is also true that if God give such a faith, he will infallibly perform it; and thus those his words are to be understood, Matt.
21:22, 'Whatsoever ye ask in faith, believing, ye shall receive:' he speaks it of the faith of miracles; for, ver. 21, he had said, 'If ye believe and doubt not, ye shall say to this mountain, Remove into the sea, and it shall be removed.' So that when God works such a faith,
and we are called to it, we are bound to believe with a certain persuasion that such a thing will be done, and it shall be done; but unto such a kind of special faith in temporal promises for ourselves or others, God doth not now always call us. If indeed at any time we did believe and doubted not, by reason of a special faith wrought by God, that God would remove a mountain into the sea, or bestow any outward mercy, it should be done; for he that stirred up such a faith would accomplish the thing. But it is not that which God requires of believers, that they should without doubting thus believe concerning outward things; the promises thereof being not universal but indefinite; and therefore answerably a man is not absolutely bound to believe that God will certainly bestow such a temporal blessing on him, no, not though he should have the qualification which the promise is made unto, the promise being not universal, made to all so qualified, but indefinite, to some of such so qualified. The case is the same of believing promises made to our praying for others, which is the thing in hand.
Third consideration.—When the prayers are thus made out of conscience of our duty for such whom yet God doth not intend that mercy unto, then they are returned again into our own bosoms, to our advantage; even as St Paul saith, that his rejoicing that others preached, though they lost their labour, should turn to his salvation,
Phil. 1:19. So prayers for others, though to the parties themselves we prayed for they prove in vain, yet they turn to our good. So, Ps. 35:12,
13, when his enemies were sick, David prayed and humbled himself; 'and my prayers,' says he, 'returned into my bosom.' David did by
this his prayer in secret for his enemies testify the sincerity of his heart to God, and his true forgiveness of them,—for it is the usual disposition of God's children to pray for them that are the greatest enemies to them,—and this prayer, though it did not profit them, yet it turned to David's own good; it came back, and home again to him, with blessings to himself; God delighting in and rewarding such a disposition in his child, as much as any other, because therein we resemble Christ so truly, and shew that God is our Father, and ourselves to have his bowels in us. And God stirreth up this praying disposition in his children for their enemies, not always that he means to hear them for them, but because he means to draw forth, and so have an occasion to reward, those holy dispositions which are the noblest parts of his image in them, and wherewith he is so much delighted; and so their prayers return into their own bosom, and it is taken as if they had prayed for themselves all that while. Thus in like manner, when Moses prayed so earnestly for the people of Israel,
God offered to return his prayer into his own bosom, and do as much for him alone as he had desired that God would do for them. 'I will make thee a great nation,' says God to him, for whom I will do as much for thy sake as thou hast prayed I should do for these. As in preaching the gospel, Christ told the disciples, that if in any house they came to preach peace, there were not a 'son of peace,' Luke 10:6, on whom the message might take place, and their peace rest, 'your peace,' says he, 'shall return unto you again.' So is it if your prayers take not place.
Fourth consideration.—If we have prayed long for those whom God intends not mercy unto, he 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 Jeremiah, the same he doth by a more undiscerned work; 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 mourn for Saul?' 1 Sam. 16:1. So with Jeremiah, chap. 7:16,
'Pray not for this people.' And this he doth because he is loath when his people do pray but to hear them, and would not that such precious breath as that of prayer is should be without its full and direct success, or be in vain; therefore when he means not to hear, he lays the key of prayer out of the way, so desirous is he 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 man's heart towards such a man, that he shall not be able to reprove him; when towards another God doth enlarge it as much, where he 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 do both: but it fareth with him as God threateneth concerning Ezekiel towards that people, that he
'makes his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth,' Ezek. 3:26.
Fifth consideration.—God will hear those prayers for, and answer them in, some others, in whom we shall have as much comfort as in those we prayed for; and so it often proves and falls out. God, to
shew 'he looks not as man looks,' nor chooseth as he chooseth, lets our hearts be set on work to pray for the conversion or good of one he intends not mercy to; and then answers them in some other, whom he makes as dear unto us. When God had cast off Saul, still
Samuel's heart lingered after him, and he mourned for him; but God, at the same time, when he bids him cease mourning for Saul, 1 Sam.
16, to shew that yet he accepted that his mourning as it came from him, 'Go,' says he, 'and anoint one of the sons of Jesse,' 1 Sam. 16:1.
Samuel desired to see a good successor in that government, and he having been their ruler it was his special care; 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-child of those his prayers. And again, when Samuel came to anoint one of the sons of Jesse, when he saw Eliab, ver. 6, 'Surely,' says he, 'the Lord's anointed is before me.' If Samuel had been to choose, he 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 prayer fully heard and answered, and that better. So Abraham, he had prayed for Ishmael, and 'O let Ishmael live in thy sight!' Gen. 17:18; but God gave him Isaac instead of him.
So perhaps thou prayest for one child more than for another, out of thy natural affection, looking on his countenance and stature, as Samuel did on Eliab's; but yet thy prayers being sincere in the ground of them, in that thou desirest a child of promise, God therefore answers thee, though in another, for whom yet haply thy