(3.) Thirdly, I answer. It is not the infirmities and weaknesses of a Christian which are seen, lairfiented, bewailed, and resisted, that can obstructor hinderthe efficacy and success of his prayers.^ Letmeclearup thi s in afew instances. Jonah, you know, was a man full of sinful passions, and other weaknesses, &c,, and yet his prayer was very prevalent with God : Jonah ii. 1, 2, 7, 10, compared. So Elias his prayers were exceed- ing prevalent with God ; he could open and shut heaven at his pleasure ; and yet subject to like passions as we are, James iii. 17. Elias was a man of extraordinary sanctity and holiness, a man that lived in heaven whilst he dwelt on earth ; Enoch-like, he walked with God, and yet sub- ject to like passions as we are, 1 Kings xix. 8 ; Romans xi. 2, 3. God did in an eminent way communicate to him his counsel and secrets ; he lay in the bosom of the Father ; and yet was a man subject to like passions as we are. He was a very powerful and prevalent prophet ; his very name imports as much ; Eli-jah signifies my strong God. In that 1 Kings xvii. 1, it is Uli-jahu, that is, the Lord he is my strong God ; and yet subject to like passions as we are. He was a man much in fasting and prayer ; he was an inferior mediator between God and his people ; and yet subject to like passions as we are. Now because some from hence might object and say. No wonder if such a man as he was, could by his prayers open and shut heaven at his pleasure ; but 1 am a poor, weak, low, sinful, and unworthy creature ; I am full of infirmi- ties, weaknesses, and passions ; and shall my prayers ever find access to
1 A spiritual infirmity is the sickness or indisposition of the soul, that arises from weakness of grace.
Mat. VI. 6.] the privy key of heaven, 241
God, and acceptance with God, or gracious answers and returns from God ? Now to obviate this objection, and to remove this .discouragement out of the thoughts and hearts of poor sinners, the Holy Ghost addeth this clause, that he was not a god, nor an angel, but a man, and such a man as was not exempted from common infirmities ; for he had his passions, frailties, and weaknesses as well as other saints ; intimating to us, that infirmitiesin the meanest saints should no more prejudice the acceptance and success of their prayers with God, than they did in Elias himself. The word passion sometimes signifies, first, a motion of the sensual appetite, arising from the imagination of good or ill, with some com- motion of the body ; secondly, sometimes passions signify sinful infirmi- ties, sinful perturbations of the mind ; and thirdly, sometimes passion is taken more strictly for the especial affection of sinful anger and wrath, which Chrysostom calls brevis dcemon, a short devil It makes a man speak he knows not what, as you may see in Jonah ; and to do he knows not what, as you may see in SauL Now in these two last senses Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and yet a man so potent with God, that by private prayer he could do even what he listed in the court of heaven. In that 1 Sam. chap, xxi, you may read of David's round lies, and of his other failings, infirmities, and unseemly carriages before Achish, kingof Gath, and for which he was turned out of the king's presence, under the notion of a madman ; and yet at that veiy time he prays, and prevails with God for favour, mercy, and de- liverance : Ps. xxxiv. 4, ' I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and de- livered me out of all my fear.' But when was this ? Ilead the title of the psalm, and you shall find it : ' A psalm of David, who changed his behaviour before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed.' In that Num. xx. 10-12, Moses his infirmities are pointed out. First, You have there his immoderate anger. (2.) His speaking to the people, when he should have spoke to the rock, ver. 8. (3.) His smiting of it, when he should only have spoken to it with the rod in his hand ; and smiting it twice, as in a pang of passion and impatiency. (4.) His dis- trusting of the Lord's word, ver. 12. (5.) His reviling of the people, when he should have convinced them, ' Hear, ye rebels.' (6.) He seems to be so offended at his commission, that he can hardly forbear mur- muring : ' Must we bring water out of the rock V Mark that word, ' must we.' Oh how is the meekest man in all the world transported into passion, and anger, and unbelief, and hurried into sad indecencies ! Num. xii. 3 ; and yet there was not a man on earth whose prayers were so powerful and prevalent with God as Moses his were, Ps. cvi. 23, Exod. xxxii. 9-15, xxxiii. 11-17, xiv. 13-16, &c. So king Asa was a man full of infirmities and weaknesses ; he relies on the king of Syria, and not on the Lord, 2 Chron. xvi. 7-13; he is very impatient, and under a great rage upon the seer's reproof He imprisons the seer ; he oppressed some of the people ; or, as the Hebrew hath it, ' he crushed,' or he trampled upon some of the people at the same time ; and being greatly diseased in his feet, he sought to the physicians and not to the Lord ; and yet this man's prayer was wonderful prevalent with God, 2 Chron. xiv. 11-15. The saints' infirmities can never make void those gracious promises by which God stands engaged to hearken
242 THE PRIVY KEY OF HEAVEN. [MaT. VI. 6-
to the prayers of his people, Ps. 1. 15, Isa. xxx. 19, and Ixv. 24. God's hearing of our prayers doth not depend upon sanctification, but upon Christ's intercession ; not upon what we are in ourselves, but upon what we are in the Lord Jesus ; both our persons and our prayers are acceptable in the beloved, Eph. i, 6, 1 Pet. ii. 5, When God hears our prayers, it is neither for our own sakes nor yet for our prayers* sake, but it is for his own sake, and his Son's sake, and his glory's sake, and his promise's sake, &c.
Certainly God will never cast off his people for their infirmities.
First, It is the glory of a man to pass by infirmities, Prov. xix. 1 1. Oh how much more, then, must it be the glory of God to pass by the infirmities of his people !
Secondly, Saints are children ; and what father will cast off his chil- dren for their infirmities and weaknesses? Ps. ciii. 13, 14, 1 Cor. xii. 27.
Thirdly, Saints are members of Christ's body ; and what man will cut off a member because of a scab or wart that is upon it ? ' What man will cut off his nose,' saith Luther, ' because there is some filth in it?'
Fourthly, Saints are Christ's purchase ; they are his possession, his inheritance.* Now what man is there that will cast away, or cast off his purchase, his possession, his inheritance, because of thorns, bushes, or briars that grow upon it ?