Prayer will do a great deal more good now, than when trouble hath overtaken us ; for now it is a sign it comes from a religious seeking of God, then it comes from self-love. There is a great deal of difierence when a malefactor seeks to the judge before the time of the assizes, and when he seeks to him at the present time ; for then it is merely out of self-respect, and not respect to him. If we seek to God now, he will single and mark out those that mourn for the sins of the time, and pour out their spirits to him in prayer, that he would still dwell and continue the means of salvation amongst us ; when God, I say, * comes to gather his jewels,' Mai. iii. 17, he will single and call out them as peculiar to himself.
Therefore let us in all our prayers put in the church. Things do more than speak. They cry to us to cry to God earnestly. Put case we be not in trouble ourseh'es, our prayers will be the more acceptable. Before trouble come, it is the only way to prevent it, as it is the only way to rescue us when we are in trouble.
I come now to the remedy.
' He saved them out of their distress.'
God is a physician, r/ood at all maimer of sicknesses. It is no matter what the disease be, if God be the physician. Though they be as these * at the gates of death,' he can fetch them back. Herein God diflers from all other physicians.
First of all, he is a general physician. He can heal a land, a whole kingdom, of sickness, of pestilence, and as it is in 2 Chron. vii. 14.
* The plague of 1625-6.— G. t That is, 1588, from the Armada. — G. VOL. VI. K
116 A RESCUE FROM DEATH,
Then he is a physician of body and soul, of both parts. And then he is not tied to means.
Other physicians can cure, but they must have means. Other physicians cannot cure all manner of diseases, nor in all places, but God can cure all. ' He saved them out of their distress.'
Other physicians cannot be alway present, but God is so to every one of his patients. He is a compassionate, tender, present physician.
Use. Which should encourage us in any extremity, especially in sickness of body, to have recourse to God, and never to despair though wc be brought never so low. He that can raise the dead bodies can raise us out of any sickness. Therefore let us use the means ; and when there is no means, trust God, for he can work beyond means and without moans.
' They cried to the Lord, and he saved them out of their distress.' It was the fruit of their prayers.
Doct. There was never any j^i'ctljer from the heginning of the ivorld made to God siiccesslesshj.
What, should I speak of prayer ! Our very breathings are known to God, when wc cannot speak, our sighs ; as it is Ps. xxxviii. 9, ' My groans and sighs are not hid from thee.' God hath a ' bottle for our tears,' Ps. Ivi. 8, and preserves our sighs and groans. There is nothing that is spiritual in us but God regards, as in Rom. viii. 2G, ' We know not what to ask, but the Spirit of God stirreth up in us sighs and groans that cannot be ex- pressed.' And God hears the voice of the sighs of his own Spirit.
Let us also be exhorted from this issue to ' cry unto the Lord ;' for there was never any man did sow prayers in the breast and bosom of God, but he received the fruit of it. He is a God ' hearing prayer.' He will not lose his attribute. Nay, further, mark, the instances in this psalm are not made only of men in the church, but likewise of men out of the church, of men that have not the true religion. They pray to God, as creatures to the Creator ; and though God have not their souls, yet he will not be beholding to any man for duties. If Ahab do but hypocritically fast, Ahab shall have outward deliverance for his outward humiliation ; and these men mentioned in the text, if they call to God but as creatures, and not to idols, God will regard them in outward things, and deliver them. God will not be in any man's debt for any service to him, though it be outward.
And do we think that he that regards ' dogs' out of the church, will neglect his children in the church ? He that regards heathen men when thejf pray to him in their extremity, and delivers them to shew his over- flowing bounty and goodness, will he not regard his own children, that have the spirit of adoption, of supplication, and prayer ; that put up their suits and supplications in the mediation and sweet name of Christ ? Will he not regard the name and intercession of his Son and of his Spirit, the Holy Ghost, stirring up prayers in them, and the state of his children, being his by adoption, since he regards the very heathen ?