22. Part 3, Chapter 6. Pleading in Prayer
CHAPTER VI.
PLEADING IN PRAYER
We have already spoken to some cases of conscience in the incessant practice of prayer. A sixth case comes now to be spoken to: namely, holy pleading with God in prayer. Wherein let us consider, 1. That we must use holy pleas in prayer. 2. What we may use therein. 3. What rules we are to attend unto in our pleading.
First. We must plead with God in prayer. God says to penitent ones, “Come, let us reason together.” God reasons with us by his word and providences, outwardly; and by the motions of his spirit, inward but we reason with him, by framing certain holy arguments, grounded upon allowed principles, drawn from his nature, name, word, or works. It is condemned as a very sinful defect in professors, that they did not plead the church’s case with God: “There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up.” if you pursue the examples of the most famous, and prevailing suppliants of God, recorded in Scripture, you shall find them using holy pleas in their prayers for themselves or others. Thus did Abraham: “Shall not the judge of the whole earth do right?” So Jacob, “Which saidst, Return to thy father’s house. And saidst, Surely I will do thee good.” Which is, as if he had said, Lord, I undertook not the journey upon my own head, but thou badest me go, and I have thy word for a good success; and therefore I look thou shouldest bear me harmless, and bless me in this undertaking. So Moses, David, Daniel, and others, in prayer are full of holy pleas. And that we may strengthen this by two or three reasons, consider:—
1. It is an argument of holy friendship thus to plead with God in prayer, and therefore most suitable to this holy talking with God. As men use to plead with such as they are most intimate with, so the saints, who have been men inward with the Lord, to whom he has made himself most known, ever use the most pleas with God in their prayers. What, mere men more intimate with God, than Abraham, Moses, and David? and who pleaded it more stoutly and freely with him than they did? And it being so dear a bought privilege, we may well improve it to the utmost: “In whom we have boldness and access with confidence.” “By the blood of Jesus we have access with boldness unto the holy place.”
2. It will be an argument of fervency and holy seriousness in our spirits in prayer, to back the same with prevailing pleas. As it is in all petitioners amongst men, suing for things they most strongly desire.
3. It will be an argument of our careful and serious minding, and recording of what the Lord holds forth in his word or works for our encouragement in prayer. Hence when the ministers of the church are wished to be pleaders in the church’s case, they are called remembrancers, recorders, and therefore men fitted to plead, yea, called to plead with the Lord for his people: “Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, give him no rest.” But three or four things may be objected against the necessity of such pleading.
Objection 1. Jesus Christ is the advocate for his people: “If we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” What need they more than barely present their requests unto God in his name?
Answer True, Christ’s office is to present our requ. sts to God. which we bring before him, also to pertune those holy pleas with the odor of his merit and mediation. The Lord Christ meant to pray the Father for them, but vet will have the disciples in his name to ask more to purpose than ever they had done: Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name: ask (that is, more freely, fully, and strongly,) that your joy may be full.” Yea, he is an advocate to solicit and plead in our behalf, when we pray.
Obj. 2. God is not as man, hard, but rather easy to be entreated, as being much more merciful, and wise, than any of the sons of men; whose wisdom from above, is to be easy to be entreated. Besides, as men, the more sincere they are, the more candid they are, in ready answers to others’ desires, which they may grant. They will not assent to carry it otherwise than as they intend; no more will the Lord; but as he is, so will he show himself ready to show mercy, and to forgive, and therefore what need of such pleading
Ans. True, the Lord is thus ready to help and hear; yet who more full of pleas for his mercy than David, the penman of the Holy Ghost, in ascribing this to God, that he is ready to forgive, and plenteous in his mercy to all that call upon him? He pleads: “Incline thine ear and hear.” Why so? “for I am poor and needy.” “And preserve thou my soul.” Why so? “For I am thy servant, and trust in thee.” “Be merciful to me, O Lord.” Why so? “For I cry to thee continually.” “And rejoice the soul of thy servant.” Why so? “For unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.” Which is backed with another argument from this very gracious disposition of God: “For thou Lord art good, and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy to all that call upon thee.” This readiness to mercy must not hinder, but further the saints’ pleading, and help to more argument, whereby to plead with God therein. Jesus Christ knew that his Father always heard him, yet in solemn prayer how many arguments does he use, to strengthen his petitions, to glorify him: “Father, glorify thy Son.” Why so? The “hour (or the time) is come.” And “1 have glorified thee on earth; and I have finished the work thou hast given me; and now glorify me.” “Let them be one in us.” Why so? “That the world may know thou hast sent me.” “Let them be with me to behold my glory.” Why so? “For thou lovedst me before the world was.” Surely God himself must needs be ready to do what himself wills; yet as one stirring up himself to act, he argues with himself: “Awake, awake, O arm of the Lord.” Why so? “Art not thou it that hast wounded the dragon?” “Art not thou it that hast dried up the sea?” For he said, “Surely they are my people, children that will not lie. So he was their Savior.” “For the oppression of he poor, and for the sighing of the needy, now I will arise, saith the Lord, and I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.” God glorifies his readiness to mercy, in that we no sooner plead for it in our prayers but he shows mercy: “Whilst they yet speak, I will hear.” “O thou that art hearing prayer.” It is the Lord who prepares our hearts in prayer and furnishes them with holy pleas; and it is the rather a pledge that he is ready to hear the pleas of his own spirit. The Lord may, and sometimes does anticipate the prayer of his people with mercy: “Before they call I will hear.” Yet ordinarily he will have us pray and plead first, ere he will answer you Christ prevented Zaccheus, and bade himself to his house: “Zaccheus, come down quickly, for I must abide at thine house to-day;” yet usually be went to no house, but he was first invited; which makes way to answer another objection.
Obj. 3. God may and does bestow upon his people many desirable blessings, without so much ado, in pleading for them. The penitent thief did but say, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom,” and Christ presently answered him, “This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise ;“ and the publican did but cry, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner,” and he went away justified. And David did but in a short ejaculatory way seek the Lord, and be delivered him from all his fears.
Ans. 1. Some extraordinary examples do not take away from the force of an ordinary rule, in prayer.
2. The cases of the saints may be such, that a few broken expressions may be as much, yea, more than many pleas in other cases, and at other times. As in the poor thief, encompassed with so much sense of guilt of his former courses, with bodily tortures, and fear of death. So in David, in that instant when he changed his behavior before Abimelech. So poor tempted saints, under bonds, bolts, and keepers, and with heavy weights upon their spirits, “make short cries in depths.”
3. God will sometimes order passages for peculiar examples of his royal bounty, that none may glory in man, nor in prayers, nor in pleas, although acted therein by the spirit of grace; and that none may be dismayed, though they cannot sometimes plead the cases of their souls.
4. The Scripture, in recording the saints’ prayers, does not always express all, but rather sets down the substance of what was uttered by them.
5. In short prayers there may be couched many pleas, as in that of the publican’s prayer, wherein almost every word includes a secret plea.
Obj. 4. God is not as man to be moved by our pleas, but abides unchangeable in his purposes of what he will do: So that as he said to Samuel touching Saul: “Why mournest thou for Saul, seeing I have rejected him? God is not as man to repent;” what pleas soever are made to the contrary: “God answereth me not, (says Saul,) neither by Urim, nor by Prophets.” The hypocrites plead: “Lord, Lord, have we not eaten and drunken in thy presence? Have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils?” but both in vain: “I know you not, (says the Lord,) depart from me.”
Ans. 1. It is true, amidst God’s divers expressings of himself to us, sometimes as frowning, sometimes as smiling, there is no change with God; God is the same when he carries it to us as willing, or when as unwilling to hearken to us: because by an immutable act of his counsel, he ordered it so diversely towards us in his dispensations.
2. It is true, also, that there is nothing done in time, but the Lord decreed it immutably before all time; as that he would confer upon his people such and such a mercy, but in such a way of moving them to pray and plead for it.
3. It is true also, that there is a time when pleas avail not: as,
1. For a time: and so the Lord may express distaste and carry it as one that is angry with his own, yea, when pleading in prayer. The Church pleads, “Hear:” why so? “O, thou shepherd of Israel,” etc., yet expostulates: “Why art thou so long angry with the prayers of thy people?” yet were their pleas, and prayers, and tears treasured up for a fit season of help.
2. Forever: namely, in case of expiration of the day and season of grace with any: “They shall seek me early, and not find me.”
3. Though the Lord be not moved by our pleas; yet are our pleas his ordinance, and therefore we are to attend thereto: and they are an ordinary means, in the use whereof God will give promised mercies; yea, they are a means which the Spirit of God makes use of to move and quicken our sense of such and such wants, our desire of such and such mercies, and our faith in such and such promises or attributes of God, to put us upon the serious urging of such and such holy pleas in our prayers.
Secondly, What pleas we are to use in our prayers to the Lord. There are in arguing the cases and intricacies of our souls, certain radical notions in God and Christ, and the word, which yield fruitful and forcible arguments, in this our holy discourse and reasoning with God: true it is, that it is not every one that can raise so aptly, seasonably, strongly, plentifully, and graciously, such prevailing pleas: some are but juniors and freshmen in the school of Christ; others are senior students in this holy logic; there is much skill required to become one of Heaven’s barristers. But for the better help and direction in this art, and fruitful practice thereof, let us reduce these pleas to three heads. Some respect God, some ourselves, some others. Briefly then of some pleas respecting God, we find the Scripture recording some approved, and (as I may say) unanswerable pleas. As first, the engagement of his own name in the cases before him. When a petitioner has such skill in pleading his suit, that he can prudently involve the petitioned party in his case, and so make it as well the ease of the petitioned, as of the petitioner: this with men is undeniable pleading; so with God, thus: “Why doth thy wrath wax hot,” etc. “Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, For mischief did the Lord bring them out to slay them in the mountain.” As if he had said, Lord, I say not how the name of thy grace, wisdom, faithfulness, and longsuffering, may suffer in the eyes and hearts of thy professed people, if thou shouldst deny my request; but consider what a disparagement it will be to thy glory, in the eyes of thy enemies, to deal so strictly with thy people: men are forbidden to lay a stumbling- block before the blind; and will God lay such an occasion of offence and falling in the way of blind Egyptians? The like plea is used in this: “Help us for the glory of thy name, purge away our sins for thy name’s sake: wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? Render to them the reproach wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.” So in many other places to like purpose. The cases wherein God’s name and glory are in any special sort engaged, are of greatest weight, and therefore none need be afraid or ashamed to plead them before the Lord: in such pleas truly, if the Lord should deny his saints, he should deny himself. And the self-denial of the suppliant shines forth the more in such pleas, when he pleads the case, not so much in reference to himself, as to the Lord himself, and to his name.
Secondly, the suitableness of the relation betwixt God and us: “Help us, O God of our salvation; deliver us, for thy name sake.” As if they would say, thou stylest thyself the God of our salvation: we by thy grace do own thee as such; wherefore show that thou art such by saving us: let it appear that it is no empty title. And what is more suitable to a God of salvation, than to save his people? or wherein shall that name of thine be more magnified, than in thy delivering thy people? “Doubtless thou art our father, our redeemer.” As if they had said, O Lord, we have no other but thee; of whom should children seek relief or from whom should they expect succor, but from their father? Now, we are resolved to own no other for our father but thee, and can a father be cursed to his desolate, disconsolate children, when it is in his power to relieve them? To this we may add the suitableness of the mercies we ask of God, unto him, and unto us: “Let the power of my Lord be great, as thou hast said, The Lord is long- suffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity; pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of thy people.” As it is suitable to a sinning people to get a pardon, so it is most suitable to a sin-pardoning God, to give a pardon to them: “But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayst be feared.” I need not speak more in this case, or so much as scruple it, that thou shouldst be strict upon a poor, desolate, tempted creature, to mark what is done amiss, and so to proceed to condemn or confound such a one as I am; for there are forgivenesses with thee: the manifold par. dons that I need for my manifold and multiplied sins, are in readiness in abundance with thee: thou canst not deny the benefit thereof to me in my case; I will and do conclude it as a granted case, there are forgivenesses with thee: What then? that thou mayest be feared. Thus the faith of Heaven’s suppliants will be framing good conceits of God, of his generous nature, that if he deny them, he should disparage himself in their eyes, who had better thoughts of him. As Paul, desiring Agrippa’s becoming a Christian, he winds him in by his holy rhetoric, thus: “Believest thou the prophets? yea, I know thou believest:” so that if Agrippa deny this, he must in a manner weaken his own esteem: so when the saints in their pleas hold forth their faith in God, as the Lord who uses not to exercise himself short of their apprehensions; but it is for his honor to make good the utmost of his people’s desires and expectations of faith.
Thirdly, the little gain that the Lord would have by denying his people, in the mercies they request. David begs his own life of God, using this plea:
“What profit is there in my blood?” So did the captive church plead: “Thou sellest thy people for naught, and dost not increase thy wealth thereby. So poor saints of God, in their prayers, plead that indeed he may condemn, or confound, or cast them off; he may continue to frown upon them, and to withdraw his Spirit from them; he may deny their requests, for just causes in thin; but what will he gain thereby? he may gain many praises by helping them; but what good will it do him to see them oppressed by the enemies of their souls? or what delight would it be to him to see them sighing, and fainting under sad pressures, this is an allowed, and a very successful kind of pleading. We might instance in many other pleas respecting God, as that: “Where is thy zeal, and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels, and of thy sayings towards me? are they restrained?” These are prevailing pleas, since the Lord can as soon cease ‘to be, as cease to be zealous of his own glory, in his people’s welfare; since he neither wants power nor will to help them in any needful case: for he has strength, and therefore is able; and bowels of compassion and tender mercies, and therefore is willing to succor his people. Yea, every attribute and title of God, and every promise is a several plea, which God cannot deny. The second sort of pleas respect the saints themselves, and are of two sorts:—
First, some respect the dependency and neediness of our condition.
Secondly, others the good of grace shining forth in us. Of the former sort let us instance in these:—
1. It may be, and has been pleaded, that we are God’s creatures; both considered as men, and as saints by calling: we are the workmanship of his hand, and as such plead for his gracious respects: “Thou hast made me as the clay, and wilt thou bring me to dust again?” As if he should say, thou hast been at such cost and pains to make me, and now wilt thou altogether mar me by afflictions and temptations? so the church pleads: “But now thou art our Father: we are the clay, thou art the potter: be not wroth very sore.” Which is as much as to say, fathers do not use to be irrevocably displeased with their children, nor will they correct them without measure, or whip them to death. Thus David pleads his fashioning by God: “Thy hands have made and fashioned me, give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments.” God himself makes it an argument to himself, why he will bear his people: “I have made, and I will bear: even I will carry, and will deliver you.” And it is a prevailing reason with God, “not to contend forever, lest the soul should fail before me, (says he,) and the spirit which I have made.” So would God have this an argument to help the weakest faith, to raise its desires above all its fears: “But now, thus saith the Lord, that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not. For I have created him for my glory, I have formed him, yea, I have made him.” And, therefore, surely the saints may well urge this in prayer.
2. We may plead the imbecility and frailty of our natures. So Job pleads for the speeding of God’s manifesting his pardoning and reconciling grace to him: “Why (lost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust.” As if he had said, Lord, if ever thou intendest, (as I am persuaded thou dost,) to renew the former beams of thy favor, and pardoning mercy, thou hadst not need to defer too long, lest it come too late; for erelong I shall return to my dust. This is David’s plea in the like case: “Keep not silence at my tears, for I am a stranger with thee. Spare me a little, that I may recover my strength, before I go hence, and be no more.” So Job pleads this: “Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue dry stubble?” What credit is it to so great a Majesty as thou art, to show thy power against a poor leaf? or to run after a poor leaf, which every puff of wind whisketh hither and thither? or is it any honor to a man, to be hewing a poor leaf, which can make no resistance? Thus Abraham pleads for audience and patience in hearing him: because he is but dust and ashes, of little substance, and short continuance before the Lord:if the Lord please now to hear him whilst he is before him, he is not like to trouble him long; he is but weak, and it is not much discouragement in denial of requests, which he is able to bear. And the Lord has sanctified this plea, as an argument to himself to show his servants mercy: “He pitieth those that fear him; for he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are but dust.” “I will not contend forever, for the spirit should fail before me.” This prevails with the Lord, not to charge too hard upon his poor people.
3. We may plead the extremities of our miseries, our extremities being God’s opportunities of hearing and helping us: “Have mercy upon me, O Lord;” why so? “for I am desolate. Hear me speedily, O Lord,” why so? “my spirit faileth.” I have but a little spirit left, O Lord, to breathe after thee, and speak to thee, let me not spend that in waste: Lord, my soul is dying away; answer, Lord, before I faint quite away. A gracious answer, Lord, would even bring life in me again: and nothing else but that will recover me: and therefore hear me speedily, a poor dying, sinking, fainting spirit, O Lord, I entreat thee: “Save me, O God, for the waters are come in unto my soul: I sink in the deep mire, where is no standing.” This plea in effect is thus, Lord, I am ready to drown; if ever thou wouldst save a poor perishing servant of thine, save me: my troubles and temptations are too deep for me, I am ready to sink, and therefore Lord reach hither thy gracious hand, and bear up my head above water, lest otherwise I miscarry. Especially, if such extremities continue, the continuance of them may be pleaded. Such is Heman’s plea: “Lord, why hidest thou thy face from me? I am afflicted and ready to die: from my youth up, whilst I suffer thy terrors, I am distracted: “and God makes this an allowed plea to himself, of showing his people mercy in such a case: “I have a long time holden my peace. Now will I destroy and devour at once. And I will bring the blind by a way they know not.” Christ the angel uses this plea: “O Lord of Hosts, how long wilt thou not have not have mercy on Jerusalem against which thou hast had i,itlrI:i:iou these thrces-ore and ten years?”
4. We may lead our helplessness in ourselves, and in any other besides himself: "Be not far from Jne fur trouble is near:for there is none to help. Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles, that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? Art not thou he, O Lord, our God? therefore we whi wait upon thee:for thou hast made all these things.” We have no might, we know not what to do. hut our eves are unto tbee.” Either thou must do O Lord, or else thitie enemies will prevail: “ Give us help against trouble, for vain is the help of man.” When people are in a perishing condition, it must not keep them from God, but they must take this to bottom their requests upon for mercy; their spiritual oppresors must make them repair to the Lord, and that will prevail for succor, from the Lord Jesus:
“They shall cry unto the Lord, because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a Savior and a great one, and he shall deliver them.” It is engaged concerning Christ the true Solomon: “He shall deliver the needy when he crieth, the poor also and him that hath no helper.” God himself’ urges his people to come to him, with this plea in their mouths:
“Take unto you words and say, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously. For in thee the fatherless find mercy.” “Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills:truly in the Lord our God is salvation.” So is the Lord himself moved hence to help his people: “And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold:therefore mine own arm brought salvation to me.” “ The Lord shall repent for his servants, when he seeth their power is gone.”
6. We may plead the greatness of our sins, not to keep us from mercy, but to prevail for it: “Pardon my sin, for it is great.” “Heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee.” “Do thou it for thy name’s sake; for our backslidings are many, we have sinned against thee.” This is a strong plea, when sincerely urged, by an humble and contrite spirit. It glorifies God as one that is abundant in goodness, rich in mercy, and one with whom are forgivenesses and plenteous redemption. And it honors Christ as infinite in mercy. Hence also the Lord himself, when he would stir up himself to choice acts of mercy to his poor people, he first aggravates their sin against him to the highest, and then expresses his royal act of grace to them. So God by Isaiah says, “Thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob, but hast been weary of me, O Israel; thou hast not honored me with thy sacrifices, but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, and wearied me with thine iniquities:
I, even I am he, that blotteth out thy transgressions for my name’s sake.” The latter sort of pleas respecting ourselves, or the grace in us, are, —
1. God’s own stirring us up to pray for such mercies. When a petitioner can plead with God, Lord, I come not to thy blessed court uninvited; it was thou who hast appointed me to come to thy door of grace, else I had not come; thy Spirit moved me, thy promise encouraged me; and therefore, O Lord, I expect the fruit of my coming. So David pleads. Lord, thou saidst this and that touching my house, and therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer. He pleads, “ Thou saidst, Seek my face;” and my heart answered, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” And well he may, in that God is not wont so to stir up and strengthen us to seek him, but when lie intends to be found of us: “ Thou wilt prepare the heart, thou wilt bow thine ear to hear.” “Then shall ye seek me, and find mc, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” And God makes it an argument to himself, that if he say to any inwardly as well as outwardly, “Seek my face,” he that speaks righteousness cannot frustrate their prayers, and bid them seek his face in vain: “I said not to any of the seed of Jacob, Seek my face in vain. I the Lord speak right things.” If Ahasuerus bid his spouse ask, surely he will not fail to grant her petition. So when Christ called the blind man to him to tell him his grievance, it was truly said to him by them, “Be of good comfort, rise, for he calleth thee.”
Secondly, our expectations of faith which the Lord has wrought in us, may be pleaded. That a king should occasion a petitioner’s expectation of bounty, and fail him, were not seemly; it were strange. Hence Asa’s plea, in his prayer for help: “Help, Lord.” Why so? “For we rest on thee.” “Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I have believed thy commandments.” “My God, I trust in thee, let me not be confounded.” “Lead me forth in thy truth, for on thee do I wait all the day.” “Let me not be confounded, for I trust in thee.” “Let uprightness preserve me, for my hope is in thee.” “Let me hear thy loving-kindness in the morning, for in thee is my trust.” And it is an argument with. men; such a one does depend upon me, and I have passed my word to do such or such a thing for him, and he comes to meet me, according to my own appointment, at such a time, in expectation of what I promised; and therefore I cannot, must not fail him. So it is with God: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee.” “The poor committeth himself to thee. Thou art the helper of the fatherless.”
Thirdly, we may (in all humility) plead our heartbreakings and weepings in sense of want of mercies which we crave, and our pantings and faintings after the same. As “Hold not thy peace at my tears.” David, who grounds all his pleas only upon the free grace of the Lord, says, “Have mercy upon me, according to thy loving-kindness,” etc. Yet he pleads the brokenness of his heart: “The sacrifices of God are a broken heart; a broken and contrite spirit, O Lord, thou wilt not despise.” It is a moving argument with a compassionate father, when his child craves this or that with tears, from him, not then to deny him. In such a case, a father will be ready to say, Alas, my dear child, thou shalt not weep any longer; thou shalt have what thou cravest. So doubtless is it with the Lord towards his children. When Ephraim smites upon his thigh, is ashamed, and even confounded, because he bare the iniquity of his youth, how this took with God we may perceive by what himself replies: “Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.” So Isaiah is bid to go to weeping Hezekiah, and tell him from God, “.1 have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears.” As if he had said to Isaiah, Go run to yonder child of mine, bid him not weep so sore; tell him he shall have his request. “The Lord bath heard the voice of my weeping.” “The Lord hath heard my petition.” His prayer itself spake, and his tears also spake aloud in God’s ears, and prevailed for audience.
Fourthly, the integrity of our hearts and ways, in former service for God, may by faith in Christ, as all in our justification, be also pleaded: “Remember that I have walked before thee in truth.” “O Lord, thou hast taught me from my youth, and hitherto I have declared thy wondrous works. Now, also, when I am old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not.” “With my whole heart have I sought thee, O let me not wander from thy commandments.” The Lord himself makes it to himself a motive, to show mercy to his people: “They are children that will not lie; so he was their Savior.” “I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth,” etc. Only we must use this plea more sparingly, in a self-denying way, in faith in Christ’s righteousness, as made ours. The like also may be said of our integrity with men, which in some cases, as of reproach, slander, or injurious dealing from men, may be by way of appeal, pleaded before the Lord: “Know, O Lord, that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke.” “Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in mine integrity.”
Fifthly, we may plead our sufferings, especially those that are most directly and properly for God and his cause. Other sufferings also may be pleaded, as, “Let not all the trouble seem little to thee, which bath come upon us. Howbeit thou art just in them.” “Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us.” But especially plead those which are undergone for the Lord’s sake: “For thy sake we are killed all the day long. Awake, why sleepest thou?”
Sixthly, our former experiences of mercy in like cases may be pleaded, as Isaiah: “Where is the sounding of thy bowels, and of thy mercies towards me? Are they restrained?” Which is as much as to say, Lord, thou hadst wont to be a compassionate God, I have had experience in various conditions and cases of thy bowels; how comes it to pass that they are so shut up now? “Thou hast taught me from my youth up, forsake me not now when I am old.” “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I: For thou hast been a shelter to me.”
Lastly, the great good which we might both get and do, may be also pleaded. God put that plea in their mouths: “Take away iniquity and receive us graciously.” Why so? “So will we render the calves of our lips.” “We will no more say to the works of our hands, Ye are our Gods.” “Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes, and I will keep it to the end.” “Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law.” “Restore to me the joy of thy salvation; then will I teach transgressors thy ways.” And as the saints may plead the good which they may do, if answered, so that good of inward quickening, encouragement, and enlargement which they may thereby receive: “O satisfy us early with thy mercy.” Why so? “So shall we rejoice and be glad before thee all our days.” A third sort of pleas are those respecting others, which are these:—
1. Others’ experiences of the like mercy in like cases: “Be merciful to me, as thou usest to do to those that love thy name.” Lord, do not change thy wont, do to me as thou hast ever done to others in my case. Let not me be the first anomaly.
2. Others’ discouragements or encouragements in ours: “Let not them that wait on thee be ashamed for my sake.” “Let thy salvation set me up on high.” Why so? “The humble shall see this and be glad.” If thou hear me, others will be encouraged; or if not, they will be ashamed.
3. The subtle and malicious desires of ours and God’s enemies. Ah, Lord, our miseries, snares, fears, straits, temptations, and falls, are that for which they plot and wait, and are ready to reproach us with; and therefore the rather tender our case. Thus may we plead, as others have done: “Make my way plain, because of my enemies.” “I said, hear me, lest otherwise they rejoice over me.” “Deliver me from all my transgressions, make me not a reproach to the foolish.”
Lastly. The rules which we are to attend to in pleading in prayer, are these:—
1. Plead in faith; yea, with some strength of faith, suitably to our pleas: “Where are thy bowels towards me? Doubtless thou art our father; why hast thou hardened our hearts from thy fear?”
2. Do it with holy skill, improving those promises or attributes of God, which are most suitable to our present case, which are most strongly speaking, most apt to move, at least ourselves to believe, and such as used to prevail that way formerly. So did the church. Isaiah 63:15-17.
3. Be submissive in our pleas, and not inordinate, impatient, or distempered. Moses was somewhat distempered in those pleas: “Wherefore hast thou evil-entreated this people? Why hast thou sent me?” “Whence should I have flesh for so many? I am not able to bear the burden alone. If thou deal thus with me, kill me.”
4. Be humble and self-denying therein, and come not to God to stand upon terms with him, or to chop logic (as we say) with the .holy one. Job was to blame herein, and so were they who said, “Wherefore have we fasted, and thou regardest it not?” “Have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name done wonderful works?”
5. Be sincere, that there be nothing lurking with us, and too well approved by us, which may be counterpleaded against us, and that justly by our own consciences: “Behold, ye fast for strife.” “Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity.”