I beseech you, even as you would have comfort from the fountain of comfort, that usually conveys all gi'ace and comfort to us by a spirit of prayer, labour to be much in communion with God in this blessed exercise, especially in troubles : ' Call upon me in the day of trouble,' Ps. 1. 15. The evil day is a day of prayer ; of all days, in the day of trouble especially, * make your request known to God,' Phil. iv. 6.
Obj. But perhaps God will not hear me.
Ans. Yes, this fruit follows : ' The peace of God which passeth all under- standing shall keep your hearts and minds,' Philip, iv. 7. When you have eased your souls into the bosom of God by prayer, you may go securely, and know that he will let you reap the fruit of your prayers in the best time.
Obj. Yea, but I have prayed long, and have had no answer.
A7is. Wait in prayer; God's time is the best time. The physician keeps his own time ; he turns the glass,- and though the patient cry out that he torments him, it is no matter, he knows his time. The goldsmith will not take the motal out of the fire till it be refined. So God knows what to do ; wait his good leisure. In the mean time, because we must have all from God by prayer, I beseech you, derive all from him this way ; pray for evreything, and then we shall have it as a blessing indeed.
* The allusion is to the ' hour-glass,' the then common measure of time, as the watch is now. — G.
368 Christ's sufferings for man's sin.
Obj. But put the case I cannot pray, as sometimes we are in such a case that we cannot make a large prayer to God.
Ans. Then do as Christ did, cry ; if thou canst not pray, groan and sigh, for they are the groans and the sighs of God's Spirit in thee. There is a great deal of oratory in these words. What is the use of eloquence but to persuade ? and what could persuade God more than when Christ shewed how he esteemed his love, and how he was now, in the absence of it, environed with grief before him ? Here was rhetoric. If Christ had not spoken, his wounds had said enough, and his pitiful case spake suf- ficiently. Everything hath a voice to cry for mercy. But he adds hia voice to all, and cries vocally aloud, ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? '
Beloved, if you acquaint yourselves with God in prayer, then you may go readily to him in any extremity. Therefore, in time of health and pros- perity, cherish communion with his blessed Majesty, make him your friend ; and upon every good occasion improve this plea, 0 my God. If we have riches, if we have a friend in the court, we will improve them ; if we have anything, we will make use of it. Have we a God, and will we not improve him ? Have we a God that is our God, and do we want grace ? Do we want comfort, and strength, and assistance, and have we a God, the fountain of all, to go to ? Shall we have such a prerogative as this, to have Jesus Christ to be our gi'eat peacemaker, that we may go boldly to the throne of grace through him, and shall we not improve the same ? We may go boldly to God, and welcome, because God is infinite, and the more we go and beg, the more he gives. We cannot exhaust that fountain. 0 let us improve this blessed prerogative ; then we shall live the hfe of heaven upon earth. Especially when the conscience is troubled with sin, as Christ was now with the displeasure of his Father, then let us go to God, and plead with his Majesty, and we may plead lawfully with him — Lord, thy justice is better satisfied in Christ, than if thou shouldst send me to hell ; if thou wUt, thou mayest destroy me (for conscience must come to a great resigna- tion ; it cannot desire mercy, but it must see its own misery) ; Lord, thou mayest justly call me to hell, but it would not be so much for thy glory ; thou art more glorious in satisfying thy justice in Chi-ist, than if thou shouldst damn me to hell. Why ? Because God's justice is better satis- fied in Christ. Man sinned, but God-man satisfied for sin ; man would be like God in pride, God becomes man in humility. The expiation of God is greater than the sin of man. He prayed for his persecutors, and gave his life for them. Doth not this proportion more the justice of God than the sin of man ? The law doth but require a nocent person, a guilty person to sufi'er. Christ was innocent. The law requires that man should sufiier. Christ was God. Therefore Christ hath done more than satisfied the law. The satisfaction of Christ is more than if we had suffiered. We are poor ' men, — creatures. That was the satisfaction of God-man. Our sins are the sins of finite persons, but he is infinite. Therefore, the soul may plead. Lord, I am a wretched sinner, but I should take away thee, and take away Christ, if I should despair ; I should make thee no God, and make Christ no Christ, if I should not accept of mercy ; for Christ is given to me, and I labour to make him mine own, by laying hold of him. Faith hath a power to make everything ite own that it toucheth ; particular faith (which is the only true comfortable faith) makes general things mine. Wlien the soul can lay a particular claim to God as his God, by giving himself to him only, then we may plead in Clnist better satisfaction to God's justice, than if he