d from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord, even thou only ." So the church of God in the time of distress; "Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name;" and deliver and purge away our sins for thy name's sake: wherefore should the heathen say, "Where is their God?" As every creature of God was made for his glory ; so every attribute of God doth work and put forth itself for his glory. If he show mercy, it is to shew the riches of his glory ;-If he execute justice, it is to make his 'power known". When he putteth forth his power, and doth terrible things, it is to make his name known. If he engage his truth, and make his promises Yea and Amen, it is for his own glory, and that his name may be magnified in doing what he hath said. Whensoever therefore we pray unto God, and therein implore his mercy on us, his justice on his enemies, his truth to be fulfilled, his power, wisdom, or any other attribute to be manifested towards his people,-the highest and most prevailing medium we can use, is the glory of his own name:' God's ultimate end in working must needs be our strongest argument in praying, because therein it appears, that we seek his interest in our petitions, as well as, and above our own. SECT. 5. This serveth, first, to encourage us unto prayer, because God doth not only hear and answer prayers, which is a sufficient motive unto his servants to call upon him, "O thou that hearest prayers, unto thee shall all flesh come1;" but because he oftentimes exceedeth the modesty, the ignorance, the fearfulness of our requests, by giving unto us more than we ask. When poor men make requests unto us, we usually answer them as the echo doth the voice;-the answer cuts off half the petition. The hypocrite, in the apostle, (James ii. 15, 16,) when he saw a brother or sister naked or destitute of daily food, would "bid him be warmed or filled,"but in the mean time "give him nothing" that was needful; and so did rather mock than answer their requests. d Isai. xxxvii. 20. Rom. ix. 23. Ephes. i. 11, 12. k2 Cor. i. 20. e Psalm lxxix. 9, 10. f Prov. xvi. 4. Rom. xi. 36. lxiv. 1, 2, 3. Josh. xxi. 45. ! Psalm lxv. 2. We shall seldom find amongst men Jael's courtesies ": giving milk to those that ask water, except it be as hers was, lapov adapov, munus [cum hamo", an entangling benefit, the better to introduce a mischief. There are not many Naamans among us, that when you beg of them one talent, will force you to take two. But God's answer to our prayers is like a multiplying-glass, which renders the request much greater in the answer than it was in the prayer. As when we cast a stone into the water, though it be but little in itself, yet the circles which come from it, spread wider and wider, till it fill the whole pond ;-so our petitions, though very weak as they come from us, and craving but some one or other good thing, yet finding way to the fountain of life, and unsearchable treasure of mercy which is in Christ, are usually answered with many and more spreading benefits. The trumpet exceedingly strengtheneth the voice which passeth through it: it goes in at a narrow passage, and the voice is but a silent breath, as it comes from the mouth; but it goes out wider with a doubled and multiplied vigour :-so our prayers usually go up narrow to God, but they come down with enlarged answers from him again: as the root is but of one colour, when the flower which groweth out of it, is beautified with variety. 66 Now this should be a great encouragement unto us to call upon God with sincerity of heart, because he multiplieth to pardon, because "we know not the numbers" of his salvation ; we cannot count the sum" of his thoughts towards us'. If there were any man so wealthy, that it were all one with him to give pounds or pence, and who usually, when he were asked silver, would give gold,-every indigent and necessitous person would wait upon this man's mercy. Now, it is as easy with God to give talents as farthings, as easy to over-answer prayers, as to answer them at all. It is as easy to the sun to fill a vast palace, as a little closet, with light; as easy to the sea, to fill a channel, as a bucket, with water. "He can satisfy with goodness, and answer with wonderful and terrible things." Oh! who would not make requests - Judges v. 21. "Seneca. • 2 Kings v. 23. p Spiritus noster clariorem sonum reddit, cùm illum tuba, per longi canalis angustias tractum, potentiorem novissimo exitu effudit. Sen. Epist. 108.-Ruhkopf, vol. iii. p. 315. 9 Psalm lxxi. 15. r Psalm cxxxix. 17, 18. Psalm lxv. 4, 5. " - X unto such a God, whose usual answer unto prayer is, "Be it unto thee as thou wilt!"" Nay, who answers us beyond "our wills and thoughts ";" and measureth forth mercy by the greatness of his own grace, and not the narrowness of our desires. The shekel belonging to the sanctuary was, as many learned men think, in weight double to the common shekel, which was used in civil matters :-to note unto us, that as God expects from us double the care in things belonging unto him, above what we use in the things of the world, so he usually measureth back double unto us again: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, into our bosoms." When the man, sick of the palsy, was carried unto Christ to be healed,-Christ did beyond the expectation of those that brought him; for he not only cured him of his disease, but of his sin; gave him not only health of body, but peace of conscience :-First, "Be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee;" and then, Arise, take up thy bed, and go to thy house." The thief on the cross besought Christ to remember him, when he came into his kingdom; but Christ answers him far beyond his petition, assuring him that, the very same day, he should be with him in Paradise. The poor man at the gate of the temple begged for nothing of Peter and John but a small almis; but they gave him an answer to his request far more worth than any other alms could be; namely, such an alms as caused him to stand in need of alms no longer, restored him in the name of Christ unto sound strength, that he "walked, and leaped, and praised God." In like manner, doth God answer the prayers of his people, not always (it may be) in the kind, and to the express will of him that asketh; but for the better, and consequently more to his will than himself expressed. SECT. 6. Secondly, This should encourage us in prayer to beg for an answer, not according to the defect and narrowness of our own low conceptions, but according to the ful t Matth. xv. 28. u Ephes. . 20. * Hier. in Ezek. 49.-Pagnin. in Thesaur.-Waserus de mensur. Heb. lib. 1. c. 1. Sect. 6.1.-Bez. on Mat. 17. 24.-Jun. in Gen. 23.-Masius in Josh. 7.-Ainsworth on Gen. 20.-Serar. in Josh. 7, q. 5. y Folio Edition, p. 561. b Acts iii. 6. xxiii. 42, 43. Matth. ix. 2, 6. • Luke c Si non secundum voluntatem, tamen ad utilitatem. Πράξω ἃ θέλετε ἃ δὲ λέγετε, παραιτήσομαι. Acrot. apud Plutarch Laconic. Apophtheg. Xyland. tom. 2. P. 216. ness of God's own abundant mercies. It would not please one of us, if a beggar should ask of us gold, or jewels, silk, or dainties; we should esteem such a petitioner fuller of pride and impudence than of want. But God delights to have his people beg great things of him, to implore the performance of "exceeding great and precious promises;" to pray for a share in the "unsearchable riches of Christ;" to know things which pass knowledge, and to be filled" with the fulness of God;" to ask "things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath entered into the heart of man to conceive;" to ask not as beggars only for an alms, but as children for an inheritance; not to ask some thing, or a few things, but "in every thing to let our requests be made known unto God ":" because, with Christ, he giveth us "freely all things;" even "all things richly to enjoy ." As Alexander the Great' was well pleased with Anaxarchus the philosopher, when he desired a hundred talents of his treasurer: "He doth well," saith he, "in asking it; and understands his friend aright, who hath one both able and willing to give him so great a gift." God allows his children a spiritual and heavenly ambition to "covet earnestly the best gifts ";"-to aspire unto a kingdom; and accordingly to put up great and honourable requests unto him ;-to think what great things Christ hath purchased, what great things God hath promised and proposed to us; and to regulate our prayers more by the merits and riches of Christ, and by the greatness of God's mercies, than by those apprehensions which we cannot but have of our own unworthiness. m SECT. 7. Now next from the particulars of the text, though many particular observations might be raised, yet I shall reduce them unto one general, which may comprehend the particulars; namely,―That whom God loves and pardons, upon them he poureth forth the benediction of his grace and Spirit, as the dew of heaven, to quicken them unto a holy and fruitful conversation. The general promises nakedly set down before, I will heal,' I ' will love,' are here further amplified by many excellent metaphors, and elegant figures,-which are nine in number, multiplied into so many particulars, partly, because of the difficulty of the promise to be believed, which is therefore severally inculcated and represented ;-partly, because of the dejectedness of the people under the variety of their former sufferings, who are therefore by variety of mercies to be raised up and revived; and, partly, to represent the perfection and completeness of the blessings intended, which should be of all sorts, and to all purposes. And the foundation of all the rest is this, that God promiseth to be as the 'dew' unto Israel for Ephraim having been cursed with much drought and barrenness; now when God blesseth him again, he promiseth to be unto him, as dew is to the weary and thirsty ground, which so refresheth it, that the fruits thereof do grow and flourish again. Lilies, flowers, trees, vines, corn, are very apt (especially in such hot countries as Judea), without much refreshing dew and showers from heaven, to dry up and wither away: so would Ephraim have been quite consumed by the heavy wrath of God, if he should not, with the supplies of his great and holy Spirit, and with his heavenly refreshments and loving countenance, revive them again. 'Dew,' in the natural signification of it, importeth a comforting, refreshing, encouraging, and calling forth the fruits of the earth, as being of a gentle, insinuating virtue, which leisurely soaketh into the ground: and, in that sense, is mentioned as a blessing", Gen. xxviii. 39. In the mystical and spiritual sense of it, it signifieth Christ; who, by his holy word and heavenly grace dropping down and distilling upon the souls of men,—by his princely favour and loving countenance, which is as a cloud of the latter rain,-by his heavenly righteousness, and most spiritual efficacy',-doth so quicken, vegetate, and revive the hearts of men, that they, like "dew from the womb of the morning," are born in great abundance unto him ;-as multitudes of men, and believers, use to be expressed in the Scripture by drops of dew.' In one word, that which dew is to the fields, gardens, vinevards, flowers, fruits of the earth, after a hot and a scorch n Folio-Edition, p. 562. xxxii. 2. Job xxix. 22, 23. xlv. 8. • Chrys. in Ps. li. 7. Psalm lxxii. 6. q Prov. xvi. 15. xix. 12. $ Psalm cx. 3. Mich. v. 7. P Deut. r Isai. xxvi. 19. |