- Pray for their liberty and tranquility. ‘Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love thee,’ Ps. 122:6. Jerusalem was the place for their public worship, ‘whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord,’ ver. 4; so that, by praying for Jerusalem’s peace, is meant such serene times wherein the people of God might enjoy his pure worship without disturbance. The church hath always had her vicissitudes; sometimes fair and sometimes foul weather, but her winter commonly longer than her summer; yea, at the same time that the sun of peace brings day to one part of it, another is wrapped up in a night of persecution. Universal peace over all the churches is a great rarity; and where it is in any part of it enjoyed, some unkind cloud or other soon interposeth. The church’s peace therefore is set out by a half-hour’s silence, Rev. 8:1. When God gave the poor Jews ‘a reviving,’ after a tedious captivity, by moving Cyrus to grant them liberty to go and rebuild the house of God, how soon did a storm rise and beat them from their work! One prince furthers them, another obstructs the work. The gospel church Acts 9, had a sweet breathing time of peace; but how long did it last? this short calm went before a sudden hurricane of persecution that falls upon them, Acts 12. Thus have the politic rulers of the world used the saints, as their carnal interest seemed to require; one while to countenance, another while to suppress, them. No sort of people in the world can expect less favour from the world than the church; their only safety therefore lies to engage God to espouse their cause.
- Pray for their love and unity among themselves. The persecutor’s sword—blessed be God!—is not at the church’s throat among us. But are not Christians at daggers’ drawing amongst themselves? The question in our days hath oft been asked, Why the word preached—being as frequent, clear, and powerful as any former age ever enjoyed in this nation —hath been no more effectual to convert the wicked or to edify the saints? I will not say this is the sole reason, but I dare deliver it as none of the least causes—and that is the woeful divisions and rents amongst those that have made greatest profession of the truth.
(1.) For the saints. It is no wonder they should thrive no more under the word, for the body of Christ is edified in love, Eph. 4. So long as there is a fever upon the body it cannot nourish. The apostles themselves, when wrangling, got little good by Christ’s sermon, or the sacrament itself administered by Christ unto them. One would have thought that such was a meal in the strength whereof, as so many Elijahs, they might have gone a long journey. But, alas! we see how weak they rise from it. One denies his master, and the rest in a fright forsake him; so unfit were they in such a temper to make a spiritual advantage of the best of means.
(2.) Again, for the wicked. It is no wonder that the word prevails no more on them. The divisions and scandals that have arisen among those that call themselves saints have filled their hearts with prejudice against the holy truths and ways of God. Christ prays for his people’s unity: ‘That the world may believe,’ saith he, ‘that thou hast sent me,’ John 17:21. What is oftener in the mouths of many profane wretches than this—We will believe them when they are all of one mind, and come over to them when they can agree among themselves? Who loves to put his head into a house on fire? This should, methinks, stir up all that wish well to the gospel to pray, and that instantly, for the reunion of their divided hearts. Hot disputes will not do it; prayer, or nothing can. Pliny saith of the pearls called uniones, that their nature, though they be engendered in the sea, partakes of the heavens more than the earth. ‘The God of peace’ can only see us at peace. If ever we be wise to agree, we must borrow our wisdom from above; this alone is ‘pure and peaceable.’
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