I tell yoii, that he will avenge them speedily.' What greater security can the lieart of a saint desire, more than the word of a faithful God? Yet how few are to be found, after all their praying for deliverance, that can entirely wait for the same ! ' Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?' Luke xviii. 7, 8. Secondly, Thy obedient walk. Solomon's advice is, to 'keep thy'foot when thou goest to the house of God,' Eccles. V. 1 : mine at present is, to look to thy foot as thou comest from it. Thou mayest soon do thyself more mischief than all the devils in hell can do thee : they cannot intercept thy prayers and hinder the happy return of them into thy bosom : but thou mayest. ' Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save ; neither his ear heavy, that he cannot hear ; but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear,' Isa. lix. 1, 2. This it is that makes God, our best friend, stand aloof from his people and their prayers. Be as careful, Christian, after a fast, as a man would be after strong physic : a little disorder in thy walking may be of sad consequence. Remember, that as thou hast left thy prayers, so are thy vows with the Lord; as thou lookest God shoidd answer the one, so he expects thou shouldst pay the other : break thy promise to him, and thou dischargest God ofany mercy he owes thee ; it is, folly to think thou canst bind God, and keep thyself free.
CHAPTER LL
A FOURFOLD SIMILITUDE TO BE OBSERVED IN PRAYER.
Having despatched the distinction of the kinds of jirayer, from which hath been shewn, that we are to pray with all manner of prayer, we now have to consider the diverse matter of prayer : thus, ' To pray with all prayer and supplication,' is to enciixle the whole matter of prayer within the compass of our duties, and not to leave anything out which God woidd have taken in. Now this diversity of the matter of prayer, we will ground on the division the apostle makes, Phil. iv. 6, ' In everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God ;' and, 1 Thess. v. 17, 18, ' Pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks :' in both which places the whole matter of prayer is comprehended in request and 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 ])raise to him for mercies received from him. I begin with the petitionary part ; and it is threefold. First, That part of prayer 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 ; 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,' 1 Tim. iv. 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, and left him to the wide world to shift for his outward subsistence ; he hath not bid them live by faith, for their souls, and live by their wits, for their bodies. No ; he that hath promised to give him 'grace and glory,' he hath also said, ' No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly,' Psa. Ixxxiv. 11. Their bill of fare here is provided as well as their inheritance hereafter. Now, here I shall put a compass into your hand, by the help of Avhich you may steer your course safely, when you are bound in your requests to either point of the promise, whether it be for tempoi-al or spiritual mercies : and that I may not run you out of the true channel, upon rocks or sands, I shall touch the needle of that compass I would commend to your use \yith the loadstone of the Scrijiture, 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. First, Whether thou praycst for the one or the other, thou nuist 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 befoix> he prays ; but we poor creatures are beggars, and must crave all as pure alms, for the money comes not out of oiu- purse, that made the j)urchase; neither was God the Father bound to engage his Son, or
WITH ALL PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION. 727