N01545:32
Two discourses showing, I. That the Lords ears are open to the prayers of…Two discourses shewing, I. That the Lords ears are open to the prayers of…
Two discourses showing, I. That the Lords ears are open to the prayers of the righteous. II. The dignity & duty of aged servants of the Lord. : Also, a preface in which the Congregational discipline of the churches in New-England is vindicated, with the authors dying testimony there-unto. / By I. Mather, D.D. ; [Four lines of quotations]Two discourses shewing, I. That the Lords ears are open to the prayers of the righteous. II. The dignity & duty of aged servants of the Lord. : Also, a preface in which the Congregational discipline of the churches in New-England is vindicated, with the authors dying testimony there-unto. / By I. Mather, D.D. ; [Four lines of quotations]
printed by B. Green for Daniel Henchman, 1716
Title page typeset from the transcription.
The Ears of the LORD are open to the Prayers of the Righteous.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
3. The Righteous are the Lords Favourites. Which is implied when it is said, That His Ears are open to them, as the Ears of a Prince are open to one that is his favourite. Such an one has the Kings Ear: He is apt to grant the request of such an one, whether it be for himself or others. The Tyrians and Sidonians were sensible ⟨p. 8⟩of this: Wherefore when Herod was displeased with them, and they stood in need of his favour, in order to obtaining it, they made Blastus the Kings Chamberlain their friend, Act. 12.20. Now righteous Men, especially such as are eminently righteous and holy, are highly in favour with God. They are the objects of His singular love. Psal. 146 8. The Lord loves the righteous. They are His Jewels. No Jewels are in such esteem with Men as the righteous are with God. A few of them are more valued by Him, than Millions of other Men. Since they are precious in His sight, and that He Loves them, He says, He gave men for their Life, and Egypt, & Ethiopia for an handful of His People. How many were those Egyptians, and Ethiopians, and Assyrians whom God gave for the Life of the People whom He Loved? When Pharaoh with his Egyptians followed the Israelites into ⟨p. 9⟩the red Sea, the Jewish Historian says, There was in that Army Fifty thousand Horses, and two hundred thousand Foot: They were all drowned that the Lords People might be Saved. We know from the Scripture, that in the Ethiopian Army, in Asa's time, there were a Million. And what an Army had the Assyrians? When God sent an Angel to kill an hundred four-score and five thousand of them in one Night. And all this for the Life of those whom He Loved, Isai. 43.3, 4. As for the righteous, their Persons are acceptable to God, & the objects of His delight, therefore their Prayers are so too: Prov. 15.8. The Prayer of the Upright is his delight. Under the New Covenant God does not accept of first the Work & then the Person: but first the Person, and then the offering. This we see in Cain & Abel. Cains oblation was not accepted because he was an Unbeliever and so