The request of Paul as a minister of Christ, for the prayers of believers 3/3

 Sixth. The love we owe to our brethren requires that we should desire others to pray for us.  The saints here live where none else love them but them­selves, therefore they need not make much of one another.  Now this of desiring their prayers carries a threefold expression of love to them.

1. By this we acknowledge the grace of God in our brethren, or else it is supposed we would not em­ploy them in such a work.  He that desires a friend to present a petition to the king on his behalf, shows he believes him to be in favour, and one that hath some interest in the prince.  Now, what more honourable testimony can we give to another than to own him as a child of God, one whose prayers are welcome to heaven?  We are bid to ‘prefer every one his brother in honour.’  Now no one way can we do this more than by making use of their help at the throne of grace to be our remembrancers to the Lord.

2. By this we do our utmost to interest our brethren in the mercy we desire them to pray for. Were a merchant to send some commodity to Turkey or Spain which he knows will make a gainful return, it would be a great favour to take others into partner­ship with him in the adventure.  And what voyage is gainful like this of prayer? and whoever shares in the duty is partner in the mercy.
3. By this we confirm them in a confidence of our readiness to pray for them.  What consists good neighbourhood in but a readiness to reciprocate kind­nesses one to another?—when that is at the service of one neighbour which is in the house of another?  Now, who will be bold or free with his neighbour to take a kindness from him that is not willing to receive the like?  Be ye strange to your friend, and you teach him to be so to yourself.  Nothing endears Christians more in love than an open heart one to another.  A friend should have no cabinet in his bosom to which he allows not his friend a key.

Objection (1.)  But do we not, by desiring our fellow-saints’ prayers, intrench upon Christ’s media­tory office?

           Answer.  No; surely Christ would not command that which would be a wrong to himself.  There is great difference betwixt our desiring Christ to pray for us and our fellow-brethren.  We desire Christ to pre­sent our persons and prayers, expecting acceptation of both through his blood and intercession.  But no such matter from the prayers of our brethren; we only desire them as friends to bear us company to the throne of grace, there to present our prayers in a communion together, expecting the welcome of both their and our prayers, not from them, but from Christ —relying on Christ to procure the welcome both to our prayers and theirs at our heavenly Father’s hand.

           Objection (2.)  But why, then, may we not desire the prayers of the deceased saints for the same purpose we desire the prayers of those that yet live with us?

           Answer (1.)  We have no precept or example for this in the word; and unbidden there in duties of worship, is forbidden.  We must not be ‘wise above what is written.’  Not to use the means which God hath appointed is a great sin, which was Ahaz’s case; but to invent ways or means more than God hath appointed is far worse.  It is bad enough for a subject not to keep the king’s laws, but far worse for him to presume to mint a law of his own head.  The first is undutiful, but the latter is a traitor.

           Answer (2.)  We have no way of expressing our thoughts and desires to the saints departed.  Why should we pray to them that cannot hear what we say? or where is the messenger to send our minds by? or which the word in Scripture that saith they hear in heaven what we pray on earth?

           Answer (3.)  It is the prerogative of Christ to be the only agent in heaven for his saints on earth.  ‘To which of the angels or saints did God say, ‘Sit thou at my right hand?’ In the outward temple we find the whole congregation praying, but into the holy of holi­est entered none but the high priest with his perfume. Every saint is a priest to offer up prayers for himself and others on earth; but Christ only as our High-priest intercedes in heaven for us.  The glorious an­gels and saints there no doubt wish well to the church below; but it is Christ’s office to receive the incense of his militant saints’ prayers, which they send up from this outward temple here below to heaven, and to offer it with all their desires to God; so that, to employ any in heaven besides Christ to pray for us, is to put Christ out of office.

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  Third.  If we desire not others to carry our name to a throne of grace, we are guilty of quenching the Spirit of prayer; which may be done in ourselves and others also.

1. By this we may quench it in ourselves.  Partly, because we neglect a duty.  We are bid to ‘confess our sins one to another,’ and for what end but to have the benefit of mutual prayers?  The same Spirit which stirs thee up to pray for thyself will excite thee in many cases to set others at prayer for thee; which, if thou dost not, thou overlayest his motions, and so committest a sin.  Again, thou quenchest the Spirit of prayer in thyself by depriving thyself of that assistance which thou mightest receive in thy own prayers through theirs; for the Spirit conveys his quickening grace to us in the use of instruments and means.  He that doth not hear the word preached quenches his Spirit, because God useth this as bellows to blow up and enkindle the saint’s grace.  So, he that desires not the prayers of others quencheth the Spirit of prayer in himself, because the exercise of their grace in prayer for thee may fetch down more grace to be poured in unto thee.
2. Thou mayest be accessory to the quenching of the Spirit in others, because thou hinderest the acting of those graces in them which would have been drawn forth in prayer for thee hadst thou acquainted them with thy condition.  Fire is quenched by subtracting fuel as well as by throwing on water.  By opening thy wants or desires to thy brethren thou feedest Spirit of prayer in them, as they have new matter administered to work upon; by acquainting them with the merciful providences of God to thee, thou prickest a song of praise for them.  How many groans and sighs should God in prayer have had from thy neighbour-saints hadst thou not bit in thy temptations and afflictions from their knowledge!  What peals of joy and thank­fulness would they have rung hadst thou not con­cealed thy mercies from them!

           Fourth.  We are to desire others to pray for us, to express the humble sense we have of our own weakness, and the need we have of others’ help. Humble souls are fearful of their own strength.  They that have little, desire partners with them in their trade; but when they conceit their own private stock to be sufficient, then they can trade by themselves. ‘Now are ye full, now are ye rich; ye have reigned as kings without us,’ saith Paul of the self-conceited Cor­inthians.  The time was you thought you had need of Paul’s preaching to you and praying for you, but now ye reign without us!  O how many are there, when time was, could beg prayers of every Christian they met! Nothing but wants and complaints could be heard from them, which made them beg help from all they knew to pray their corruptions down and their graces up.  But now they have left the beggar’s trade, and reign in an imaginary kingdom of their self-conceited sufficiency.  Certainly, as it shows want of charity not to pray for others, so no want of pride not to desire prayers from others.

           Fifth.  We are to desire others to pray for us, that we may prevent Satan’s designs against us.  He knows very well what an advantage he hath upon the Christian when severed from his company; wherefore he labours what he can to hinder the conjunction of his solitary prayers with the auxiliary aid his brethren might lend him.  Samson’s strength lay not in a single hair but his whole lock; the saint’s safety lies in com­munion, not in solitude and single devotion.  How many, alas! concealing their temptations from others, have found their sorrows grow upon them after all their own private endeavours and wrestlings in secret against them? like one who, when his house is on fire, tries to quench it himself, but is not able, and so haz­ards the loss of all he hath for want of timely calling his neighbours to his help.

          

The request of Paul as a minister of Christ, for the prayers of believers 1/3

                                                                                       ‘And for me.’

           Here is an exhortation, or Paul’s request for himself, and in him for all ministers of the gospel—‘and for me.’  First. We may note here that people are to be taught the duty they owe to their minister as well as to others.  Second. It is not only our duty to pray for others, but also to desire the prayers of others for ourselves.  Third. We may note that the ministers of the gospel are, in an especial manner, to be remembered in the saints’ prayers.

           First.  We may note here that people are to be taught the duty they owe to their minister as well as to others; though indeed no duty is harder for the minister to press or for the people to hear—for him to preach with humility and wisdom, or for them to receive without prejudice.

It is our duty as well to desire the prayers of others, as to pray for them.

           Second. It is not only our duty to pray for others, but also to desire the prayers of others for our­selves.  If a Paul turns beggar, and desires the remem­brance of others for him, who then needs it not?  This hath been the constant practice of the saints.  Sometimes they call in the help of their brethren upon special occasions to pray with them.  Thus Daniel, ch. 2:18, when required to interpret the king’s dream, makes use of ‘Hananiah, Mishael,’ and ‘Azariah, his companions.’  ‘Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to these that they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concern­ing this secret.’  Daniel would not give an answer to the king till he had got an answer from God.  To prayer therefore he goes.  No doubt he forgot not his errand in his closet when at his solitary devotions; but withal he calls in help to join in social prayer with him.  He sends for them to his house; where, it is probable, they prayed together, for the mutual quick­ening of their affections and strengthening of their petition by this their united force.  Wherefore, he ac­knowledgeth the mercy as an answer to their con­current prayers: ‘I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee,’ ver. 23.  This justifies the saints’ practice when, in any great strait of temp­tation or affliction, they get some other of the faithful to give a lift with them at this duty.  Sometimes we have them desiring their brethren’s prayers for them when they cannot conveniently have it with them. Thus Esther sets the Jews in Shushan to prayer for her, Est. 4:16; so our apostle in many of his epistles desires the saints to carry his name with them to the throne of grace, Rom. 15:30; II Cor. 1;10, 11; Col. 4:3; Php. 1:19.  And not without great reason, for,

           First. God hath made it a debt which one saint owes to another to carry their names to a throne of grace.  Now, not to desire this debt to be paid, which God hath charged our brethren with, is to undervalue the mercy and goodness of our God.  Should a legacy be left us by a friend, were it not a despising of his kindness not to call upon the heir who is to pay it? Surely God accounts he doth us a kindness herein, and therefore may take it ill not to ask for it.  It is not our usage to lose a debt for want of a demand, and this is none of the least we have owing to us.

           Second.  Many are the gracious promises that are made to such prayers of the faithful one for another.  ‘If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them,’ I John 5:16.  But you will say, How can the prayer of one obtain the forgiveness for another? I answer, None is forgiven for the faith of another; this must be personal; but the believing fervent prayer of one is an excellent means to obtain the grace of repentance and faith for another, whereby he may come to be forgiven.  So, ‘Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed,’ James 5:16.  Now, in not desiring our breth­ren’s help in this kind, we make no use of these promises—the proper end of which is to encourage us to call in the auxiliary aid of others—as if such pas­sages of Scripture might have been well spared for any need we have of them.  Should you see a piece of ground never sown nor fed, you might well say the ground is barren or the owner a bad husband; either the promise is empty and useless, or we that do not improve it are worse husbands for our souls.  But we cannot say so of the promise, if we consider the great fruit and advantage which the saints in all ages have reaped from it.  Did not Daniel get the knowledge of a great secret as a return of his companions’ prayers with him?  Did not Job’s friends escape a great judg­ment that hung over their heads at his intercession? What a miraculous deliverance had Peter at the prayers of a few saints gathered together on his be­half!  Bring not therefore an evil report upon this promise, seeing such sweet clusters as these are to be shown that have been gathered from it.

         

APPLICATION OF: WHY in praying on behalf of saints we are to comprehend ‘ALL’ 2/2

    (1.) When a person is himself swimming in abundance of all enjoyments, and can then lay aside his own joy to weep and mourn for and with any afflicted saints, though at never so great a distance from them.  Thus did Nehemiah for his brethren at Jerusalem, when himself was in a warm nest and had all the enjoyments that so great a prince's court could afford.  It is not usual for any but those of great grace to feel the cords of the church’s afflictions through a bed of down on which themselves lie.  It must be a David that can prefer Jerusalem above his chief joy.

           (2.) On the other hand, when in the depth of our own personal troubles and miseries, we can yet reserve a large room in our prayers for any other saints, this speaks a great measure of grace.  It showed the Romans’ strength and courage to be great, that they could spare several legions to send into Spain for the help of their friends there, while Hanni­bal was near their own walls with a puissant army.  To be able to lend auxiliary prayers to other afflicted saints, or abroad to the church of God, when thou thyself art engaged deeply with private sorrows, does signify a very gracious spirit.

           (3.) When, in our own distresses, we can entertain the tidings of any other saint's mercies with joy and thankfulness.  This requires great grace in­deed, to act two so contrary parts well at the same time.  The prosperity of others too oft breeds envy and discontent in them that want it.  If therefore thou canst praise God for others’ mercies, while the tears stand in thy eyes for thy own miseries, it is a rare temper; flesh and blood never learned thee it thou mayest be sure.

           To shut up this with a caution—though we are to pray for all saints, yet some call for a more special remembrance at our hands.

           (a) Those that are near to us by other relations. First, by bond of nature as well as of grace: ‘A brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord?’ Phm. 16.  It is true the bond of the Spirit is more sacred than that of the flesh—sanctior est copula cordis quàm cor­poris; yet, when that of the flesh is twisted with the other, it adds, as force to the affection, so argument to the duty; therefore saith Paul, ‘much more unto thee.’  Charity may begin, though it must not end, at home.  Again, by domestic relation, society and com­munion, whether civil or religious—these give an enforcement to the duty; master for servant, and servants for masters; minister for people, and people for minister.  He that starves his family is not like to feast his neighbours.  He that is a churl to his neigh­bours, is not like to be overkind to strangers.  So he that prays not for those who by these relations stand so near to him, is very unlike to abound in this duty for others.

           (b) Those that are in distress.  Whoever you for­get, remember these.  If one be sick in our family, we will send him his portion before we carve for any that are at the table.  This is a fit season for love.  A friend for adversity is as proper as fire is for a winter’s day. Job's friends chose the right time to visit him in, but took not the right course of improving their visit.  Had they spent the time in prayer for him which they did in hot disputes with him, they had profited and pleased God more.  Again, this is the season that the tempter is busy.  This lion walks abroad in the night of affliction, hoping then to make the Christian his prey.  And if he wakes to make a prey of him, shall not we watch to pray for him?  Again, this is the sea­son of God’s most speedy answering prayers.  ‘In the day when I cried thou answeredst me,’ Ps. 138:3; that is, in the day of affliction.  Indeed now is the time when  the Spirit of Christ will be stirring us up to pray.  And when should we send our letters but when the post calls?  He that stirs thee up to pray for them, will be as careful to deliver up thy prayers and see an answer returned.

           (c) Such of the saints as are of a public place and use.  You pray for many here while you pray for one.

           (d) Such as have expressly desired and engaged you to remember them at the throne of grace.  Among debts, specialties are paid in the first place.  Thou art a debtor to all thy brethren, and owest them a re­membrance in thy prayers; but more especially them to whom thou hast particularly promised it.  This is, as it were, a bond under thy hand, given for further security of paying this debt to thy friend.  Whoever thou forgettest, remember him.  Did the butler’s con­science accuse him for not remembering his promise to Joseph, who had engaged him—when he was restored to court—to intercede with Pharaoh for him?  ‘I do,’ saith he, ‘remember my faults this day,’ Gen. 41:9.  Much more hast thou cause to confess thy faults, who forgettest to make mention of them to the Lord that have solemnly desired it at thy hands.  To have promised the payment of a sum of money, and to have failed, were not greater dishonesty.  Thou mayest prejudice his soul more by disappointing him of thy prayer, than his estate could suffer for want of thy money.  How knowest thou but the mercy he wants is stopped while [until] thy prayers come to heaven for it?  That other saints obtain by their prayers for us what sometimes we do not by our own is clear from Job 42:8.

APPLICATION OF: WHY in praying on behalf of saints we are to comprehend ‘ALL’ 1/2

           Use First. O what a rich merchant is the saint, who hath a stock going in so many hands!  In heaven Christ is hard at prayer for him, on earth his breth­ren.  What can this man want?  Christ hath such an interest in his Father’s heart, that he can deny him nothing; the saints such interest in Christ, that he will not deny them.  So the Christian’s trade goes smoothly on in both worlds.  Think of this, Christian, for thy comfort—wherever a child of God is living upon earth, there hast thou a factor to traffic with heaven for thy good.  Let this help thy faith in putting up thy own private prayers, knowing that thou prayest in a communion and fellowship with others.  Even when thou art alone in thy closet, expect an answer to more than thy own prayer.  It is an uncharitableness not to pray for others, and pride not to expect a benefit from the prayers of others.

           Use Second. It teacheth us how inquisitive we should be of the affairs of our brethren and state of the church, that so we may pray with a more bowelly sense of their wants for them.  Nehemiah, when he heard of some that were come out of Judea, inquires how it fared with his brethren there? and from the sad report he heard of their afflictions and reproach­es is put into a bitter passion, which he emptied, with prayers and tears for them, into the bosom of God, Neh. 1:4.  How could he have done this so feelingly, had he not first been acquainted with their distressed condition?  We are many of us asking oft, ‘What news?’ and reading books of intelligence, foreign and national; but is it as Athenians, or as Christians? to fill our heads, or to affect our hearts? to furnish us with matter of chat and talk by the fireside with our neighbours, or of prayer to our God?

           Use Third. Labour to get a wide heart in prayer for all the saints.  God, it is said, gave Solomon a large heart of knowledge and wisdom, as the sand of the sea, I Kings 4;29.  Behold a mercy greater than that to Solomon is here.  A large heart is better than a large head—to do good, than to know it.  Nothing is more unworthy than a selfish spirit; no selfishness worse than that which is vented in prayer.  A heathen could blame that Athenian who in a drought prayed for his own city, saying, ‘O Jupiter, rain upon the fields of the Athenians,’ but forgot that his neighbours wanted as well as himself.  Many heathens were great admirers of this virtue of charity.  Take one instance for all.  It was a law among the Romans that none should come near the emperor’s tent in the night up­on pain of death.  Now, there was one night a certain soldier apprehended, standing near the emperor’s tent with a petition to deliver unto him, who was therefore presently to be executed; but the emperor, hearing the noise from within his pavilion, called out, saying, ‘If it be for himself, let him die; if for another, spare his life.’  Being examined, it was found his pe­tition was for two of his fellow-soldiers that were taken asleep on the watch.  So both he escaped death and they punishment.  Was this office of charity so pleasing to an earthly prince as to dispense with a law for its sake?  O how acceptable then to our merciful God is it to intercede for our fellow-saints!  But the more to provoke you to the exercise of this duty in its full breadth and latitude—viz. for all saints —consider,

1. This praying for all saints will prove thy love to saints sincere.  A man, in praying for himself or his relations, stands not at that advantage to see the actings of pure grace, as when he prays for such as have not these carnal dependencies on him.  When thou prayest for thyself in want or sickness, how knowest thou that it is any more than the natural cry of the creature?  Is it for thy family thou prayest? Still thy flesh hath an interest in the work, and may help to quicken thee—if it be not the chief spring to set thee agoing.  But when thy heart beats strongly with a sense of any other's misery, that hath nothing to move thee, but his Christianity to be his remem­brancer, and thou canst in secret plead with God for him as feelingly as if thou didst go on thy own errand, truly thou breathest a gracious spirit.
2. As it will speak for the truth of thy grace, so for the height and vigour of it.  It is corruption that contracts our hearts.  They were none of the best Christians of whom Paul gives this character, ‘They sought their own,’ Php. 2:21.  As the heart advanceth in grace, so it widens and grows more public‑spirited. The higher a man ascends a hill the larger his pros­pect.  One that stands upon the ground cannot look over the next hedge; his eye is confined within the compass of his own wall.  Thus the carnal spirit thinks of none but his own estate or stake, feels not the water till it comes into  his  own cabin; whereas grace cleaves the soul, and the more grace a man hath, the more it will enable to look from himself over into the condition of his brethren.  Such a one partakes of the nature of the heavenly bodies, which shed their influences down upon the whole world. Especially this would speak grace high in its actings, if these circumstances concur with it:

       

WHY in praying on behalf of saints we are to comprehend ‘ALL’

 Reason First. We are to love all saints, there­fore to pray for all.  Love in a saint is the picture of God's love to us; and God’;s love looks not asquint to one saint more than another.  That image is not of God’s drawing which is not like himself.  Nature may err in its productions, but not God in the grace he begets in his saint’s bosom.  The new creature never wants its true nature.  If God loves all his children, then wilt thou all thy brethren, or not one of them. When Paul commends Christians for this grace of love, he doth it from this note of universality, Eph. 1:15; ‘After I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints;’ so Col. 1:4; Phm. 5.  Now, if we love all, we cannot but pray for all.  To say we love one, and not pray for him, is a solecism.  Can a courtier love his friend and not speak to his prince for him, when he may do him a favour by it?  Love prompts a man to do that wherein he may express the greatest kindness to his friend.  Mary pours the most precious ointment she hath upon Christ. Prayer, if of the right composition, is the most precious ointment thou canst bestow on the saints.  Save it not for some few of them that are of thy private society or particular acquaintance; but let the sweet odour of it fill the whole house of the church; pray for all.

           Reason Second. We are to pray for all saints, because Christ prays for all.  He carries all their names in his breastplate.  ‘Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.’  He leaves not one of the num­ber out of his remembrance.  The elder brother was priest to the whole family; so is Christ, our elder brother, to the whole household of believers.  Now Christ’s intercession is a pattern for our prayers.  We cannot indeed pray for all as he doth.  He prays for them not only in the lump, but for every individual saint by name: ‘I have prayed,’ Peter, ‘for thee,’ Luke 22:32; yea, not only for every person by name, but for their particular wants and occasions.  ‘I have prayed that thy faith fail not.’  Christ takes notice of that very grace which was in most imminent danger, and se­cures it by his intercession.  O what unspeakable comfort is this to a saint, that he in particular should be spoken of in heaven, and every want or temptation he laboureth with be taken notice of, and pro­vided for, by Christ’s mediation!  Thus indeed we cannot pray for all, because we know but few of their persons, and little of the state and condition of those we know. Neither is there need we should.  Our general suffrage and vote is as kindly taken as if we could descend to particular instances.  God knows the mind of the Spirit, in our prayers on earth, to be for the same things which Christ insisteth on in his intercession in heaven.

           Reason Third. We must pray for all saints, or else we can pray for none.

1. We cannot pray really for any, if not for all. He that prays for one saint and desires not good to another, prays not for that one as a saint, but under some other consideration, as wife, friend, child, or the like—a saint clothed with such and such circum­stances; for à quatenus ad omne valet consequentia—he that loves a man, because a  man, loves all, because the same human nature is found in all; and all saints have the same nature.
2. We cannot pray acceptably for one, except for all; and so we wrong those for whom we do pray, by leaving them out for whom we also should.  Joseph would not hear the patriarchs for Simeon’s release till they brought Benjamin over to him also.  If thou wouldst be welcome to God in praying for any, carry all thy brethren to him in thy devotions; leave none behind.  ‘Are here all thy children?’ said Samuel to Jesse. He would not sit down till the stripling David was fetched to complete the company.  May be thou art earnest in prayer for thy hear neighbour Chris­tians, but dost thou not forget others that are further off?  Thou rememberest the church of God at home, but dost thou lay the miseries of the churches abroad to heart?  What if God should ask thee now, Are here all thy brethren?  Are there none but these that live under thy eye to be remembered?  Have not I chil­dren, and you brethren, elsewhere in the world to be thought upon?  The Jews in Babylon were not to for­get Jerusalem because of the great distance. ‘Remember the Lord afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind,’ Jer. 51:50.

In praying for saints, we must comprehend ‘ALL'

In praying for saints, we must be careful to com­prehend and encircle all saints.  I do not mean, as the Papists, for quick and dead.  Prayer is a means to wait upon them in their way; at death, then they are at their journey’s end.  Prayers are bootless for the dead sinner, and needless for the deceased saint.  The wicked in that state are beneath, the saint above, our prayers.  We cannot help the wicked.  The tree is fall­en, and so it must lie.  We read of a change the body shall have after death.  Vile bodies may, but filthy souls cannot, after  death be made glorious.  If they go off the body filthy, so they shall meet it at the resurrection.  The time to  pray for them is now while they live among you, or never; for death and hell come together to the sinner.  No sooner Dives’ wretched soul is forced out of his body, but you hear it shriek in hell, ‘The rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torment,’ Luke 16:22, 23.  But Abraham tells him ‘there is a gulf fixed,’ that forbids all intercourse betwixt heaven and him.  No what is that but an irrevocable decree with which the wicked are sealed under ever­lasting wrath?  

If God receive no prayers from them, then not from others for them.  And as the wicked are beyond our help, so the saints above all need of our help; for they are in their port and haven.  Prayer implies want, but saints departed are perfect, called therefore ‘the spirits of just men made perfect.’  We need not beg a pardon for them, for the Lord acquits them—they are ‘just;’ not for a supply of any good they want, they are ‘made perfect;’ not to remove any pain they feel, for ‘the Spirit saith, Blessed are they that die in the Lord, they rest from their labours.’ But they who invented this device intended, it is like, gain to their own purse, rather than benefit to others’ souls.  It is a pick‑purse doctrine, contrived to bring grist to the pope’s mill.  But, to leave this, they are the living saints, your companions here in tribulation, that are the subject of your prayers, and of these we are to encircle the whole community within our re­membrance.  The Papists speak much of a treasury the church hath.  This indeed is the true treasury of the church—the common stock of prayers with which they all trade to heaven for one another.  Paul tells us what a large heart he had, even for those whose ‘face he never saw in the flesh,’ Col. 1:2.  Take a few rea­sons for the point.

Use or Application WHY believers are to be specially remembered in prayer 2/2

2. 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.
3. 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.’

Use or Application 1/2

           Use First.  Must we pray above all for saints? Woe then to those who, instead of praying for them, had rather with those, Isa. 59:15, make ‘a prey’ of them; that, instead of praying for them, can curse them, and drink to their confusion.  Haply it is not under the plain name of saints, but as wrapped up in the bearskin of fanatic, puritan, or some other name of scorn, invented to cover their malice, so they can devour and tear them in pieces.  The saints are a sort of people that none love but those that are themselves such.  It is a good gloss of Jerome, estote sancti, ut oratis pro sanctis—be saints, and then you will pray for saints.  The righteous is an abomination to the wicked: it is a sect everywhere spoken against.  The feud began at first between Abel and Cain, and so spread over the whole world; one generation takes up the cudgel against them, as another lays it down. Hamilcar bequeathed his hatred against the Romans to his son Hannibal when he died.  So is the feud transmitted by the wicked from one generation to an­other against the saints.  Nothing can quench their wrath or take up the quarrel;—no moral perfections, which, were they in others, would be thought lovely. Let the saint be never so wise, meek, affable, and bountiful, yet this, that he is a Christian, is a ‘but’ that will blot all in the wicked world's thoughts. Bonus vir Cajus Sejus, sed malus tantum quod Christianus, was the language in Tertullian’s age —Cajus Sejus had been a good man if he had not had that without which he could not be good.  No near relation can wear off their spite.  Michal cannot bite in her scornful spirit, but jeers her husband to his face for his zeal before the Lord.

           In a word, no benefit which accrues to the wicked by the saints’ neighbourhood—and that is not a little—can make them lay down their hatred.  They are the only bail which God takes to keep a nation, when under his arrest, out of prison.  They are the cause of blessings to the families, towns, and king­doms they live in; yet the butt at which their enven­omed arrows are levelled against.  The whole city is against Lot; not a man among them to take his part, so true and constant are the wicked to their own side. Tertullian tells us of some heathen husbands that liked their wives, though loose and wanton, and lived with them, when such, before they were converted to Christianity, but when once they had embraced the faith, and thereby were made chaste, they put them away; fathers that could bear undutiful rebellious car­riages in their children, when once converted  and these amended, they turned them out of doors.  Ut quisque hoc nomine emendatur, offendit—as any were reformed in their lives by turning Christian, so he became an offender.  It were will if this were only the heathens’ sin; but by woeful experience we find that the true Christian hath not more cruel enemies in the whole world than some be that are of his own name.  The sharpest persecutions of the church have been by those that were in the church.  O what a dreadful will such have to make in the great day, who profess the name of Christ, yet hate his nature in the saints!—who call Christ Lord, yet persecute his best servants and destroy his loyalest subjects!  These are the men that above all other shall feel the utmost of the Lord’s fiery wrath in the day when he shall plead his people’s cause and avenge himself on their adversaries.

           Use Second.  Be exhorted tot his duty of praying for saints; you cannot do that which God will take more kindly at your hands.  He himself puts this petition into our mouths: ‘Ask me of things to come concerning my sons,’ Isa. 45:11. Courtiers frame their petitions according to their prince’s liking.  They are careful not to ask that which he is unwilling to give; but when they perceive he favours a person or busi­ness, then they are ambitious to present the petition. Joab knew what he did in sending the woman of Te­koah to David, with a petition wrapped up in a hand­some parable for Absalom the king’s son.  He knew the king’s heart went strongly after him, and so the motion could not but be acceptable.  And is not the Lord’s heart gone after his saints?  Thy prayer for them, therefore, must needs come in a good time, when it shall find the heart of God set upon the very thing thou askest.  This was it that God was so pleased with in Daniel, ch. 9:22, 23. Now, in your prayers for the saints, among other things that you pray for them, forget not these:

1. Pray for their lives.  They are such a blessing when they live, that they seldom fall but the earth shakes under them.  It is commonly a prognostic of an approaching evil when God takes them away by death.  Jeroboam had but one son in whom some good was found; he must die, and then the ruin of his father’s family follows, I Kings 14:7.  When Augustine died, then Hippo falls into the enemy’s hands.  If the wise man be gone that preserved the city, no wonder if its end hastens. God makes way to let his judg­ments in upon the world by taking the saints out of the world.  When God chambers his children in the grave, a storm is at hand, Isa. 26.  It is, you see, of con­cernment to do our utmost to keep them among us, especially when their number is so few and thin al­ready, that we may say, as once the prophet con­cerning Israel, ‘I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape-gleanings of the vintage,’ Micah 7:1.  Did we indeed see them come up as thick in our young ones as they fall in the old, we might say a blessing is in them.  These would be as hope‑seeds at least for the next generation.  But when a wide breach is made and few to step into it, this is omi­nous.  At Moses’ death, Joshua stood up in his place, and it went well with Israel’s affairs.  But when Joshua died, and a generation rose up that had not seen the wonders God had done for his people, and so rebelled, then they to wrack apace, Judges 2:9, 10.

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

  Third. There is a reason taken from the saints prayed for.

1. They exceedingly desire prayers.  The wicked, I confess, may do this also, but it is by fits—in a pang of fear or fright.  Thus Pharaoh sends in all haste for Moses when the plagues of God are in his house and fields.  The carnal Jews pray Samuel to pray for them that they die not; but it was when terrified with dread­ful thunder and rain that fell, I Sam.   Yea, Simon Magus himself, smitten with horror at Peter’s words, begs his payers, ‘that none of those things which he had spoken might come upon him.’  But at another time these wretches cared neither for the saints nor for their prayers. Pharaoh, who desired Moses at one time to pray for him, at another time chases him out of his presence with a charge never to come at him more.  But now, the saints are very covetous, yea ambitious, of the auxiliary prayers of their brethren, and those not the meanest among them neither.  In­deed, as any is more eminent in grace, so more greedy of his brethren’s help. The richer the tradesman is, the more he sets at work for him. Paul himself is not ashamed to beg this boon of the meanest saint.  ‘Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me,’ Rom. 15:30. Did you ever hear a beggar at your door, or prisoner at the gate, beg more passionately?—for the Lord Jesus’ sake, for the Spirit’s sake. If ever you felt any warmth in your hearts from the blood of Christ, or love of the Spirit comforting you, strive FL<"(T<­\.,2,, wrestle with me till we together have the vic­tory, prevailed with God for this mercy.
2. As the saints are covetous of prayers, so they lot upon it that you do pray for them; yea, take up comfort beforehand from the expectation of what they shall receive by them.  ‘I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayers,’ Php. 1:19.  ‘I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you,’ Phm. 22.  Where,

           (1.) Observe Paul’s modesty.  He sinks and drowns his own prayers, and expresseth his faith on theirs.

           (2.) His confidence.  He doubts not but they will pray, neither does he question the happy return of them into his bosom.  As if he had said, If ye be faith­ful ye will pray for me.  So that we break our trust, and disappoint our brethren, if we forget them.

3. Saints are the honest debtors we can deal with; they will pay you in their own coin.  He that shows any kindness to a saint is sure to have God for his paymaster; for it is their way to turn over their debts to God, and engage him to discharge their score to man.  Onesiphorus had been a kind friend to Paul, and what does Paul for him?  To prayer he goes, and desires God to pay his debts.  ‘The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain,’ II Tim. 1:16.

           Fourth. There is a reason taken from the saints praying.  There is no duty God commands but he pays the Christian well for the performance, and leaves him a loser that neglects it.  There is enough in this duty we are speaking to that may make it lovely and desirable in our eye.  The best of saints have ac­counted it a great privilege to be admitted into this noble order.  Paul thanks God that ‘without ceasing he had Timothy in remembrance in his prayers night and day.’  But wherein lies this mercy to have a heart to pray for our brethren?

1. It is a singular mercy to be instrumental to the grace or comfort of any saint, much more to be instru­mental for the glorifying of God.  This a gracious heart prizeth highly, though it costs him dear to pro­mote it.  Now in praying, though but for one single saint, thou dost both.  ‘Ye also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf,’ II Cor. 1:11.  Paul, begging prayers, enforceth his request with a double argu­ment.

           (1.) From the prevalency of joint prayers.  When twenty pull at a rope, the strength and force of every one is influential to the drawing of it; so in prayer, where many concur, all help.  God looks at every one’s faith and fervency exerted in the duty, and directs the answer to all.

           (2.) From the harmony of joint praises.  The ful­ler the concert in praises, the sweeter the music in God’s ear.  Joint prayers produce social praises.  He that concurs to a prayer, and not in returning praise, is like one that helps his friend into debt, but takes no care to bring him out.

2. By praying for others we increase our own joy. When Paul saw the prayers which he had sown for the Thessalonian saints, I Thes. 1, come up in their faith and zeal, he is transported with joy, as an incompar­able mercy bestowed upon himself: ‘What thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God?’ I Thes. 3:9.  He had watered them with his prayers; God gives increment to their grace.  From this his joy flourisheth, and his heart is so ravished, that he knows not what thanks to God are enough for the mercy he receives through his hands.  Truly, the rea­son why we gain no more from the graces of our brethren, is because we venture no more prayers upon them.
3. This would be an undoubted evidence to prove ourselves saints—could we but heartily pray for them that are such.  Love to the brethren is oft given as a character of a true saint.  Now, no act whereby we express our love to saints stands more clear from scruples of insincerity than this of praying for them. Will you say you love the saints because you frequent their company, show kindness to their persons, stand up ion their defence against those that reproach them, or because you suffer with them?  All this is excellent, if sincere; yet how easy is it for vainglory, or some other carnal end, to mingle with these!  But if thou canst find thy heart in secret—where none of these temptations have such an advantage to corrupt thee—let out to God for them with a deep sense and feeling of their sins, wants, and sorrows, this will speak more for the sincerity of thy love, than all the former without this.