N01545:42
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.
2. The Lords Servants are apt to mistake and think their Prayers are not Answered, because not in the very thing which they Pray for, whenas He gives them something else instead thereof, which is better for them; sometimes, yea, many times God grants to the Righteous, the very blessings they have been pleading for. So he did to Jabez. He called upon God, saying, Oh that thou wouldst bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, & keep me from evil that it may not grieve me; and God granted him that which he requested, 1 Chron. 4.10. And thus it was with Hannah, She said, For this ⟨p. 22⟩Child I prayed, & the Lord has given me the Petition which I asked of him, 1 Sam. 1.27. But the Lord does not always Answer the Prayers of the Righteous; in Specie sea in valour, in the thing which they ask, but in something else, which is more valuable. And then He fulfils his promise in hearing their Prayers. If a Man does promise another a hundred Pound, but in stead of that gives him a thousand, he is as good as his word. Thus when God sees meet not to grant to His Children that particular blessing they Pray for, He useth to give them something else of far greater worth. Moses prayed, that he might go into the Land of Canaan, and that he might see the goodly Mountain which was there, Deut. 3.25. The Jewish Expositors suppose that he intended Mount Moriah, where Abraham offered Isaac, & where afterwards the Temple was built. God would not hear him, ⟨p. 23⟩but bid him Speak no more to Him of that matter; but then God gave him to enter into Heaven of which the goodly Land of Canaan was a Type, and therefore the goodliest Mountain in all the Creation of God. Heaven is so. The Apostle Paul being exercised with sore Temptations, prayed again, and again, that that messenger of Satan might depart from him, but it was not so for some time. Only in Answer to his Prayer, God told him that a sufficiency of Grace should be vouch-safed to him to support him, and carry him well through' his Temptations, which was a greater Mercy than a present deliverance. The Righteous when in affliction pray for deliverance, God gives them Patience & that's better. They pray for Temporal blessings, and God answers their Prayers in Spiritual blessings, which are a thousand Times better.