Why believers are to be specially remembered in prayer 2/3

           First.  There is a reason taken from God.

1. They are the special object of his love; his heart is set upon them, his thoughts and providence are at work continually for them.  Others indeed do partake of divine bounty, but they may thank the saints’ company and neighbourhood for it.  When the gardener waters his beds of flowers, some runs down into the alleys, but had he no flowers he would save that pains.  When once God hath got his whole family of saints home to himself in heaven, it will quickly be seen what God will do with the rest of the world.  God dispenseth the same providence to them both, but not with the same affection, not to the same end. ‘He is the Saviour of all men, but especially of those that believe,’ I Tim. 4:10.  He saves the saints with sav­ing purposes; the wicked he saves temporally, to des­troy them eternally.  He saves them from a present sickness or danger that they may ripen for hell; as we save our young wood for greater growth, and then cut it down for the fire.  Now what shall be done for those whom God declares so much love?  We cannot do less than pray for them.  By this we comply with God, and show our content in his choice.
2. God hath made them the proper heirs of all his promises.  Now promises are the ground of prayer. We are to pray for others, though wicked, not  know­ing but God may have a secret purpose of doing them good.  But when there is grace, hic se asperit decre­tum—here God breaks open his decree. The fountain of his electing grace, which ran hitherto underground, now bursts forth; so that now you may with fuller confidence pray for such a one.  When Paul begs prayers, to encourage his friends at the work for him, he assures them of his sincerity: ‘Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly’ Heb. 13:18.  As if he had said, You pray for one that God will not chide you for men­tioning.  It is an encouragement for a merchant to ad­venture when he puts his stock into a good bottom.
3. They are a generation that alone honour God in the world.  Indeed God honours himself upon others in their present lusts and future damnation. He makes their wrath praise him here, and his wrath poured on them shall praise him hereafter; but no thanks to them for all this, for they do their utmost to lay the honour of God in the dirt.  But the saints are a people who are not merely passive but active in the praising of God; it is their mother‑language to bless the name of God.  Whatever is their work, this is their end and aim—‘whether they eat or drink,’ to ‘do all to the glory of God.’  Now, upon this account, we are to pray for saints above others.  The first thing our Saviour teacheth us to pray for is, that the name of God may be hallowed, in order to which he directs us in the very next words to pray for his church and saints, as those who alone can hallow it—‘thy kingdom come.’

           Second. There is a reason from Satan.  His great spite is against the saints.  God owns them; therefore he hates them, and spits fire and brimstone at them. Where God is of one side you may be sure to find the devil on the other; indeed they are the only company that stand in his way.  As for the wicked, he takes himself to be advanced when they are exalted in the world; the father is honoured when the child is pre­ferred.  But the saints’ rising portends his fall; this makes him bend all his force, by temptation or perse­cution, to procure their ruin.  these are the stars he would stamp under his feet.  The first murder in the world was of a saint; and Cain will kill Abel to the end of the world.  In all broils and confusions of na­tions these are the threatened party, therefore they need our prayers most.