1. First, Then hear him. If we will have God to hear us, then let us hear God, as Josiah did. When he heard the woi'd read, his heart melted. For ' he that turneth away his ears from hearing the law, even his prayers shall be abominable,' saith God, Prov. xxviii. 9.
And is it not good reason, think we, for God not to hear us, when we will not hear him ? Prov. i. 24, 25, ' Because I have called, and you have refused ; when you are in misery, and shall out of self-love cry to me to be delivered, then I will refuse to hear you,' saith the Lord. Therefore let all profane persons, that will not hear God, know a time will come, that though they cry and roar, yet he will not hear them.
2. Secondly, If we will have God hear our prayers, they must proceed from a broken heart. Prayers be the sacrifice of a broken spirit. Josiah
THE AKT OF MOURNING. 75
had a tender and a broken heart, and therefore God could not despise his prayers. So David pleads with God : Ps. li. 17, ' The sacrifice of God is a broken and a contrite spirit.' So holy Bernard saith, ' I have led a life unbefitting me ; but yet my comfort is, that a broken heart and a contrite spirit, Lord, thou wilt not despise.'* God will hear the prayers and tears of relenting hearts.
3. Thireily, To strengthen our prayers we must add to them the wings of love, faith, hope, and earnestness, as Josiah did here. Out of love to his country his prayers were joined with weeping, and he wrestled with tears. Oh ! the prayers that have tears with them cannot go without a blessing.
4. Lastly, If we would have God to hear us, let us have such a resolu- tion and purpose of reformation as Josiah had ; for his prayers were joined with a purpose of reformation, which he afterwards performed in so strict a manner, that there was never such a reformation among all the kings of Judah as he made. To this purpose David saith, ' If I regard wickedness in my heart, God will not hear my prayer,' Ps. Ixvi. 18. If we have but a resolution to live in any sinful course, let us make as many prayers as we will, God will not respect them. God regarded good Josiah, because he had no purpose to live in any sin against him.
If we come with a traitorous mind unto God, with our sins in our arms, we must look for no acceptation from him. When a man comes to a king to put up a petition unto him, and comes with a dagger in his hand to stab him, will the king accept of this man's petition ? So, do we think that God will hear our prayers when we bring a dagger in our hand, to stab him with our sins ? If we will not leave swearing, Ij'ing, pride, covetousness, and the like, if we have not covenanted with our own hearts, but still go on in sin, we shall never go away with a blessing. Josiah reformed him- self; therefore God saith, ' I have also heard thee.' Thus if our prayers issue from a heart rightly afiected, as good Josiah's was, then we shall speed as he did ; for God did not only hear his prayer, but see how he rewards him with an excellent blessing ; to be taken home to heaven from the troubles of this life : which we shall in the next place speak of. * In his Letters very often. — G.
THE SAINT'S REFRESHING.
SERMON IV.
BehoJiJ, I iviJl rjathcr thee to thy fathers, and thou shall be gathered to tJnj rpave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will briny upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of the same. So they brought the king word again. — 2 Cheon. XXXIV. 28.
It is for the most part the privilege of a Christian, that his last days are his best ; and ' though weeping be in the evening, yet joy comes in the morn- ing,' Ps. XXX. 5 ; though he do begin in darkness, yet he ends in light. "Whereas, on the contrary, the v.'icked begin in jollity and light, but end in darkness ; yea, such a darkness as is 'utter darkness,' Mat. viii. 12 — by Peter called the ' blackness of darkness,' 2 Pet. ii. 17 — the preparations whereunto arg, God's outward judgments in this life inflicted upon the im- penitent and rebellious, wherein God many times puts a sensible, visible difference betwixt the godly and the wicked ; as betwixt Lot and the Sodom- mites, Noah and the adulterous world, Moses and the Israelites with him, from Korah, Dathan, and his company, the Egyptians and the Israelites at the Pi.ed Sea ; and in this text, betwixt this good king and his people. He must not see all the evil that God was to bring upon his wicked and rebellious subjects. Oh the happiness of holiness, which is sure to speed well in all storms whatsoever ; because on all the glory there is a defence, as Isaiah speaks, Isa. iv. 5. Light is sown for the righteous, Ps. xcvii. 11 ; and whatsoever his troubles be, yai his last end shall be blessed. * Let me die,' saith Balaam, ' the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his,' Num. xxiii. 10. Such honour have all his saints, such honour had this good king Josiah ; being removed from hence that he might not see the evil to come. Though he were taken from earth, yet it was for Lis good, that he might be gathered into heaven, and make a royal exchange.