An exposition with practical observations continued upon the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters…

First, The estate of some wicked men, is out of the prayers of Gods people. When they go by their dwellings, they cannot say, The blessing of the Lord be upon you, we bless you in the name of the Lord, Psal. 129. 8. It is a great mercy to stand under the influences of prayer, and for a man to have his estate, land, dwellings watered with showers of blessings and hearty good wishes from the mouths of Saints. Their blessings or their cursings, are next to the blessings and cursings of Christ, nay, they are his; It is an argument that Christ hath blessed or cursed a man, when the spirits of his people generally are carried to either. It is one of the saddest presages in the world, for a man to be cast out of the prayers of the ⟨p. 193⟩Saints, or to be cast by their prayers; that is, when their prayers are against him, and he presented naked to the displeasure of Christ: It shows that the sin of a man is a sin unto death, when the faithful cease praying for him, 1 Joh. 5. 16. What can it prognosticate then but approaching ruin and destruction, when they bend the strength of prayer against him? There was never any habitation of wickedness, so firmly founded or strongly fortified, but that Great and Holy Ordinance hath or may shake, and batter it to the dust. The fair Towers and walls of Babylon, the seat and state of Antichrist, have long been under this curse; All the Saints, whose eyes God hath unsealed and brought out from Egyptian darkness, have seen That foolish man taking root, and have cursed his habitation. Secondly observe;

First, The estate of some wicked men, is out of the prayers of Gods people. When they goe by their dwellings, they cannot say, The blessing of the Lord be upon you, we blesse you in the name of the Lord, Psal. 129. 8. It is a great mercy to stand under the influences of prayer, and for a man to have his estate, land, dwellings watered with showers of blessings and hearty good wishes from the mouths of Saints. Their blessings or their cursings, are next to the blessings and cursings of Christ, nay, they are his; It is an argument that Christ hath blessed or cursed a man, when the spirits of his people generally are carried to either. It is one of the saddest presages in the world, for a man to be cast out of the prayers of the