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.       

Why believers are to be specially remembered in prayer 1/3

           In praying for others, of all we remember, saints must not be forgot.  The apostle hints this, by making them the instance for all, as the species famosa—or chief rank of men, for whom we are to pray; and it suits well with Paul's doctrine elsewhere.  We are here bid ‘As we have opportunity, let us do good unto all, especially unto them who are of the household of faith,’ Gal. 6:10.  Now this of prayer I take to be one of the most eminent ways of doing them good.  What greater kindness can a man do for his sick friend than to go to the physician for him.  By other acts of charity we give a little out of our own purse; but, by praying for the poor saints, we open God’s treasury for them.  If one should meet a beggar, and out of his purse throw him a few pence; but another tells him, I have no money of my own to give, yet I will go to court, and open your necessitous condition to the king my master; it were easy to tell which of these does the poor man the greatest kindness.  A poor saint may thus do more for another, though, as Peter told the cripple, he hath neither silver nor gold to give, than he who hath the largest purse of his own. That of Araunah is observable, where we have his bountiful offer to king David: ‘Let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good unto him: behold, here be oxen for burnt‑sacrifice,’ II Sam. 24:22.  This was much, and showed his heart to be noble and large, as it follows, ‘All these things did Araunah, as a king, give unto the king,’ ver. 23.  Yet one thing he did amounted to more than all this, which was his hearty prayer to God for David's acceptance: ‘And Araunah said to the king, The Lord thy God accept thee.’  He might have done all the other for fear; a subject sometimes gives his prince, because he knows he may take though he gives it not.  But by his pray­ing for him he discovered his hearty affection to him. There are several weighty reasons for this duty. First. >From God.  Second. From Satan.  Third. From the saints prayed for.  And, Fourth. From the saints praying.

Considerations to induce to a public spirit in prayer

           Take two or three quickening considerations to set thee the more feelingly to this work.

1. Consideration.  Thou canst not pray in faith for thyself, if only for thyself.  The Lord Jesus taught his disciples this piece of charity in the form of prayer he gave them: ‘When ye pray, say, Our Father.’  Pater est verbum fidei; noster est verbum charitatis— ‘father’ is a word of faith and confidence; ‘our father’ imports love and charity, two necessary graces in prayer.  We live by faith, and faith works by love. No prayer can be without faith, nor faith without charity. Christ sends him in the gospel from the altar, to rec­oncile himself to his brother before he offered his gift. And why, but that he might be as ready and willing to pray for his brother as himself?  If we have not charity to pray for our brother, we cannot expect welcome when we pray for ourselves.
2. Consideration.  You do not else make good the character and report which God gives of his children.  He speaks of them to be a blessing to the persons and places about them: Israel ‘a blessing in the midst of the land of Assyria,’ Isa. 19:24.  They are compared to a fountain, which is a common benefit to serve a whole town; to stop or trouble which is a wrong to all that draw their water thence, Prov. 25:26. Now, one way wherein the godly are eminently serviceable to others, is by the interest they have in God and the prevalency of their prayers with him. ‘By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted,’ Prov. 11:11; that is, by their fervent prayers, which draw down a blessing from heaven upon it.  God blesseth imperatoriè—by command: ‘he commanded the blessing, even life for evermore,’ Ps. 133:3.  The saints bless when they pray: ‘On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless thee, and keep thee,’ Num. 6:23, 24.
3. Consideration.  God gives a signal testimony of his favour to his saints' prayers for others.

           (1.) He doth great things at their request for others.  How oft did Moses reverse divine plagues that were executed on Egypt? even as oft as Pharaoh had a heart to beg his prayers.  How low did Abraham beat the market for Sodom’s preservation? he brought it down to ‘ten righteous men.’  Could that wicked place have but afforded that number, it had not been turned to ashes.

           (2.) When their prayers obtain not a mercy for the people, then nothing else can help them.  There­fore God, to express his peremptory resolution and irreversible decree to punish Israel, tells them, ‘Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people,’ Jer. 15:1, thereby intimating their case desperate.  If the prayers of such holy men could not prevent the fall of that cloud of his wrath impending, much less could they with their own power or policy shift it off.  Indeed when God is fully set upon a vindictive way, he takes them off from praying: ‘Pray not thou for this people,...for I will not hear thee,’ Jer. 7:16.  And even in this he shows at what a rate he values his people’s prayers, which makes him loath they should bestow their pains in vain. ‘Pray not thou for this people’—as if he had said, Let them pray if they will, I can without any regret reject their motion; but I am un­willing thou shouldst pray in an unaccepted time for that which I have no mind to give.

           (3.) When the saints’ prayers bring not back with them the mercy for others that is their express errand, yet God is careful that his people should not have the least suspicion that the denial proceeds from any dis­respect he hath to their persons or prayers, and there­fore he sometimes gives the thing they desire, only he changes the subject.  Thus, when God denied Abra­ham for Ishmael he gave him abundantly in Isaac. Sometimes, again, what he denies them for others he grants to themselves.  Thus David’s prayers for his enemies ‘returned into his own bosom.’  Now in praying for others:

           (a) Get thy heart deeply affected with their state and condition for whom thou prayest.  God loves mercy better than sacrifice.  To draw out our souls in giving and alms is greater charity than to draw out our purse.  So in prayer, be sure thy soul be poured out, or else thou art a deceiver; thou wrongest both God and him also  thou prayest for.  Before Christ prayed for Lazarus he troubled himself.  ‘Behold how he loved him!’ said those about him who were witness to the groans he fetched and tears he shed.  Then thou wilt pray fervently for others when thy heart is warmed into sympathy for them.  A lawyer may show more rhetoric in pleading a man’s cause, but a brother or dear friend that carries the sense of his condition upon their hearts must needs discover more affection.

           (b) Prefer spiritual blessings in thy prayers for others before temporal.  Is it a sick friend on whose errand thou goest?  If health be all thou beggest for him, thou art not faithful to thy friend.  He may have that and be the worse for it.  Ask of Christ grace and glory for him, and then thou dost something to purpose.  Surely this our Saviour meant in his method of causing the palsied man to be cured of his disease: ‘Be of good cheer,’ saith Christ, ‘thy sins are forgiven,’ Matt. 9:2.  He first brings him the news of a pardon, as a mercy {of} infinitely more worth than life or limbs, thereby tacitly reproving his friends, who took more care to have his body healed than his soul saved.  Is it the nation thou art praying for?  Aim at more than deliverance from outward judgments and plagues.  The carnal Jews could say, ‘Give us water that we may drink,’ Ex. 17:2; but thought not of their sin, to beg repentance for and pardon of it.  That was the cry of the creature—a beast can low and bellow in a drought; but this is the voice of a saint.

           (c) Be not discouraged in your prayers for others though an answer doth not presently overtake them. Thou prayest for a rebellious child, or carnal friend, who yet continue to be so; take heed thou dost not presently think them past grace, and give over the work.  Samuel saw the people he prayed for mend but slowly, yet hear what he saith: ‘God forbid that I should cease praying for you,’ I Sam. 12:23.  I have heard of some that have been laid forth, yea buried, before they were dead, by their overhasty friends.  Be not thou thus cruel to the souls of thy relations or neighbours.  Lay them not out of thy prayers, bury them not in thy thoughts for reprobates, because thou canst not perceive any sign of spiritual life in them, though thou hast many a time stretched thy hands in prayer over them; their souls thou seest are yet in their bodies, and so long it is not too late for God to breathe the life of grace into their souls.  Again, is it for the public thou prayest?  Draw not in thy stock of prayer, though thou hast not so quick a return in thy trade with heaven for it as thou desirest.  The father’s labour is not lost if his son receives the benefit of it. He may be dies before the ship comes home he sent forth, but his child lives to have the gains of that adventure paid into his purse.  Thus one generation sows prayers for the church, and another reaps the mercy prayed for.

Lamentation for the want of a public spirit in prayer

           A lamentation may be taken up for the narrow­ness of our spirits in prayer.  Some, indeed, are so far from praying for others, that they have not learned to show so much mercy to themselves; yea, live in such an estate of alienation from God, wherein they can­not pray for themselves or their dearest relations.  O how many prayerless fathers have we that are cruel to their own flesh! husbands to the wives of their own bosom!  Ask whether they love them; they will tell you, Yes, that they do as their own souls.  And you may believe them, for they serve them no worse than they do their own souls.  A time is coming wherein they will know, one hearty prayer found upon the file for their relations would speak more for their love they pretend towards them, than all the bags of money which they fill for them.  Others, if they show a little natural affection to their own flesh and domes­tic relations, yet their love hath much ado to get over their own thresholds, to inquire how it fares with others.  O how little do they feel their neighbours’ pains! how seldom do they spread them with any real sense upon their hearts before the Lord!  Or, if their eye affects their heart with what is presented so near unto them in the afflictions of their next-door neigh­bour, yet how few discover such a public spirit as to carry upon their hearts the miseries of those that are at further distance, so as to be faithful remembrancers to the Lord for them?  Blessed Paul was afflicted with, yea, had ‘a great conflict for, those that had never seen his face in the flesh.’  Even among those that are Christian, O what a decay is there of this public spirit!  There is great complaint in the world among men of their great losses in our late times of confusion; but I think the saints are the greatest losers, who have lost so much of their love and char­ity.  One saith the world was once destroyed with water, propter ardorem cupidinis—for the heat of lust which had set it on a flame; and shall be once again destroyed with fire, propter teporem charitatis—for the coldness of love and charity.  Love is to the soul what natural heat is to the body—it gives vigour, and enables for the performance of all offices of life.  But alas! how is this kindly heat decayed among Chris­tians in this old age of the world!  This was long ago foretold by our Saviour, ‘The love of many shall wax cold,’ Matt. 24:12, and no won­der, when self‑love, that predatory fire, waxes so hot; foretold also by the apostle, ‘In the last days men shall be lovers of themselves,’ II Tim. 3:2.  And what a black regiment follows this captain sin, is there to be seen!  If once a man make self the top of his aim, farewell loving of or praying for others.  Charity cannot dwell in so narrow a house as the self‑lover's heart is; yea, it is diametri­cally opposed to it: ‘Love seeks not her own,’ I Cor. 13:5.

           But to turn lamentation into exhortation: labour for a public spirit in prayer.  Is there none, O man, that needs the mercy of God besides thyself? Wouldst thou have none saved in another world, nor provided for in this with thee?  Now, in remembering others, God will give thee leave thy love should begin at home, though he would not have it end there.  Look into thy family; canst thou forget them a day, if thou rememberest thyself?  Shall a believer turn worse than an infidel?  He provides for his house; and thou hast light that tells thee all thy providing for them is nothing, except God say amen. When thou hast paid thy duty to them, still widen thy charity and take up thy neighbours into thy thoughts.  O consider what is doing in the streets and neighbourhood!  How many mayest thou there soon find pouring out their pre­cious souls as a drink-offering to Satan, the god of this world, in their horrid abominations?  O pray that God would stay their bloody hand before they have irrecoverably made away themselves!  Then take a further walk in thy meditations to view the public state and posture of the nation.  See what mercies are writ with the golden pen of Providence upon its fore­head, and pay thy humble thanks; what prognostics of judgments coming thou canst observe in the face of the times, and get into the gap before the wrath begins.  Did Abraham so plead for a Sodom, though himself was far enough from the danger of the storm, and not thou for thy own nation, who art like to be taken in it if it fall in thy days, or thy posterity to rue it, if the cloud impending be not scattered by the prayers of the faithful?  Nay, let not the sea that divides thee and the other parts of the earth make thee think thou art not concerned in their happiness or misery.  Let thy prayers walk over the vast ocean, and bring matter for thy devotions, like the mer­chant’s ship her freight from afar.  Visit the churches of Christ abroad; yea, the poor Indians and other ruins of mankind that lie where Adam’s sin threw them with us, without any attempt made as yet upon them by the gospel for their recovery, and carry their deplored condition before the Lord.  Our Drake is famous for compassing the earth with his ship in a few years; thou mayest by thy prayers every day, and make a more gainful voyage of it too than he did.

Why a public spirit must be shown in prayer

           First.  It is one end why the Spirit of prayer is given us.  The gifts of the Spirit are to be employed according to the mind and intent of the Donor.  If a man bequeaths house and land to another, but charges the estate with such a payment for the use of the poor, he forfeits his legacy that fulfills not the will of the dead.  God intends the good of others in all his gifts to particular saints; the way to lose our gift is to hoard it up, and not lay it out for the end it was given. ‘The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal,’ I Cor. 12:7.  How should we profit others by this gift of the Spirit, if not by praying for them?  That Spirit which stirs us up to pray for our­selves, will, if we quench it not, send us on the same errand for others; yea, in some cases, for others be­fore ourselves—for their spiritual good, before our own temporal; for the public good of a community, before the private good of our single person; as in Moses’ case, who would not be taken off praying for Israel to be made great upon their ruins.  Indeed that offer from God, ‘Let me alone, and I will make of thee a great nation,’ was only probatory, to try whether Moses would prefer his own stake before the people’s, and God was highly pleased with his self-denial.

           Second. The law of love binds it as a duty upon us.  We are commanded to ‘love our neighbour as ourself.’  That ‘as’ imports a parity for kind, though not for proportion; for manner, though not for measure.  I must love my neighbour as truly, though not as strongly, as myself.  Now, how do we show real love to ourselves, if we pray not for ourselves? Our Saviour expounds our love to our enemy by praying for him: ‘Love your enemies,’ and ‘pray for them which despitefully use you,’ Matt. 5:44.  We may give an alms to an enemy, and not love him.  It is easier to draw out our purse than to draw out our soul to the hungry; as the prophet phraseth it, in prayer we draw out our souls.  If a man ever speaks or does anything sincerely, surely it is when he directs his speech to God in prayer, saith Lucas Brugens, upon the place.  Therefore, God chooseth this of praying for our ene­mies as the surest testimony for our loving of them. And truly he that wisheth well only to himself may well be reckoned among the most degenerate of mankind.  One well compares such a self-lover to the hedgehog, that laps himself with his own soft down, and turns out bristles to all the world besides.

           Use. This shows the largeness of God’s bountiful heart.  He gives his children not only leave to ask for themselves, but for others.  This is not the manner of men; we count it too much boldness to beg for them­selves and others also.  If a poor man, when he hath got his alms, should then beg for all his neighbours, where should he find the man that would bid him welcome?  But behold here the immensity of divine goodness, who gives us leave to bring our neighbour’s pitcher with our own to his door, yea commands it, and then takes it ill when we steal to prayer upon our own private errand, and leave the thought of others’ necessities behind us.  Why shouldst thou, Christian, stand in doubt whether God will supply thy own wants, when he commands thee to intercede for others?

And supplication for all saints

           These words contain the sixth and last branch in the apostle’s directory for prayer, and that is, the comprehensiveness of the duty, or the persons that are to be the subject of our prayers—‘supplication for all saints.’  But what! would he have us pray for none but saints?  Thus cannot be the apostle’s meaning, it being so contrary to the mind of Christ, from whom he hath his message.  Christ both bids us pray for our enemies, and is himself our pattern for it; yea, Paul himself teacheth contrary doctrine to this: ‘I exhort therefore, that, first of all, prayers and supplications be made for all men,’ I Tim. 2:1, that is, all sorts of men, faithful and infidels, friends and enemies.  So then saints are not here named as the adequate and only subject of our prayers, but as a principal species, a sort of persons whom we are in an especial manner to carry in our prayers to God, whom if we do but remember, we shall not easily forget to pray for others also; because, as Augustine saith, numerus sanctorum de numero impiorum semper est auctus —the saints’ number is increased and taken out of the number of the wicked.  In praying for Babylon, we pray for Jerusalem.  The more that are prayed out of sin, the more are prayed into Christ.  We shall wind up our discourse upon this subject upon these three propositions or bottoms.  First. We must show a public spirit in prayer, by praying for others as well as ourselves.  Second. Of all whom we remember in our prayers, saints must not be forgot.  Third. In praying for saints, we must be careful to comprehend and encircle all saints.

A public spirit must be shown in prayer.    We must show a public spirit in prayer, by praying for others as well as ourselves.  This is a duty of common interest, in which others are to share with ourselves.  Like the buckets that hang in our houses, which are for the use of the whole town when any house is on fire, the spirit of prayer is a public treasure, though laid up in some few hands.  All can­not pray, therefore all should be prayed for.  I say it is the saints' duty, not a favour upon courtesy, which may ad libitum—at pleasure, be done or left undone. We sin and transgress the law of prayer if we do it not.  ‘God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you,’ I Sam. 12:23.  Paul writes him­self a debtor to his brethren in this respect, ‘We are bound to thank God always for you,’ II Thes. 1:3. He acknowledges it due debt.  In another place he ‘thanks God that he hath them in remembrance al­ways.’  So sensible he was of the weight of this duty, that he thanks God for giving of him a heart to perform it. 

Counsel and direction for the weak Christian in persevering prayer 3/3

 Third.  This not persevering in prayer proceeds oft from unbelief.  The creature prays, God is silent, and no answer comes.  Now, thinks Satan, is my time come to do this person a mischief; and therefore he labours to persuade the creature that there is no mercy to be expected from God.  If, saith the tempter, God had meant to come, he would have been here be­fore now.  So many days and months are now gone, and no news of his approach.  Thou hast stayed too long to meet with disappointment at last; give over, and take some other course. Thus he dealt with our Saviour.  No enemy appeared in the field for forty days, and then he appears.  This is his way with the saints also.  He lets them alone while he thinks they are softened into a compliance by long standing upon duty, and hopes their ammunition grows low; then he comes to parley with them, and take them off from waiting upon God, by starting many fears and doubts in their thoughts concerning the power, mercy, and truth of God; so that the poor Christian is at last put to a stand, and knows not whether he should pray or not pray.  Or if he holds up the duty, yet not his heart in it; he prays faintly, and with a kind of despair, as the poor widow made ready her last handful of meal with no other thoughts than of dying when she had ate it.  Thus he prays, but lots upon nothing but death and misery to follow it.  O this is sad praying, to expect no good from God in the performance!  Un­belief is a soul‑enfeebling sin; it is to prayer as the moth to the cloth, which bites the very threads asunder, and crumbles it to nothing; it wastes the soul's strength, that it cannot look up to God with any hope.  ‘For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened,’ Neh. 6:9.  Resist therefore Satan, steadfast in the faith.  Never let thy heart suf­fer the power, mercy, or truth of God to be called into question; thou hadst as good question whether he can cease to be God.  These attributes of the divine na­ture are to thy faith like the stone to Moses, which Aaron and Hur put under him to sit upon; they will sustain thy spirit, that thou shalt not faint or grow weary at the work, though God makes thee wait till ‘the going down of the sun.’  O this waiting posture highly pleaseth God, and never puts the soul to shame.  Mary, that stayed by the sepulchre, though she missed her Lord there, got at last a happy sight of him.  Quæramus et nos Christum, saith one upon the place, ex fide, et astabit nobis licet non illicò eum ag­noverimus—let us but seek Christ in faith, and he will at last be with us, though we do not presently see him.

           Fourth.  Some persevere not in prayer, because they have their eye upon some other than God from whom they expect help.  It is no wonder he gives over praying who thinks he hath another string to his bow. While the carnal heart prays for deliverance, he hath other projects in his head how to wriggle himself out of the briers in which he is caught, and on these he lays more stress and weight than on God to whom he prays; therefore, at last, he leaves praying, to betake himself to them.  Whereas another, that looks for all from God, and sees no way to help himself but by calling in God to his aid, will say as Peter to Christ —asking his disciples whether they would leave him as others had done—‘Lord, to whom shall we go but unto thee? thou hast the words of eternal life.’  I know not another door to knock at—saith the poor soul—but thine; the creature hath it not to give, but thou hast; I will therefore never leave thee.  We know not what to do, said good Jehoshaphat, but our eyes are up unto thee.

           Fifth.  It proceeds from a want of inward com­placency which the creature should have in God, and communion with him.  ‘Will he delight himself in the Almighty? will he always call upon God?’ Job 27:10.  He will not always call upon him, because he never did ordinarily delight in him.  We easily let go what we take no great content to enjoy.  The sincere soul is tied to God by the heart‑strings, his communion is founded in love; and ‘love is stronger than death,’ ‘many waters cannot quench it.’  A stranger may have an errand that brings him to a man's house; but that done his acquaintance ceaseth.  But a friend, he comes to sit with him, and the delight he takes in his company will not suffer him to discontinue his ac­quaintance long.  Get therefore thy affections but once placed upon God as thy chief good, and the spark or stone will as soon forget the way to their centre, as thou the way to thy God in prayer.  The hypocrite useth prayer as we use physic—not because he loves the taste of it; the sincere soul as food—it is sweet to his gust^[6].  David, from the inward satis­faction he found in the presence of God, cries out, ‘It is good for me to draw near to God;’ Ps. 73:28, as one that, tasting some rich wine or sweet morsel, lays his hand on his stomach—where he finds the cheering of it—and saith to the standers‑by, ‘O it is good!’  Never will such a soul part with it.  No, he will say, as the fig‑tree in Jotham's parable, Shall I forsake my sweet­ness, and the good fruit I have found in communion with my God!  I will never do it.