III. Herein the Most High God is distinguished from false gods. The true God is the only God of this character; there is no other of whom it may be said, that he heareth prayer. Those false gods are not gods that hear prayer, upon three accounts.

1. For want of a capacity to know what those who worship them pray for. Many of those things that are worshipped as gods in the world, are things without life; many are idols made by their worshippers; they are mere stocks and stones, that know nothing. They are indeed made with ears; but they hear not the prayers of them that cry to them, let them cry ever so loudly: They have eyes; but they see not, &c. Psal. cxv. 5....9.

Others, though they are not the work of men's hands, yet are things without life. Thus, many worship the sun, moon, and stars, which, though glorious creatures, yet are not capable of knowing any thing of the wants and desires of those who pray to them.

Others worship some certain kinds of brute animals, as the Egyptians were wont to worship bulls, which, though they be not without life, yet are destitute of that reason whereby they would be capable of knowing the requests of their worshippers. Others worship devils, instead of the true God: 1 Cor. x. 20. " But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils." These, though they are beings of great powers and understandings, and great subtlety, have not that knowledge which is necessary to capacitate them fully to understand the state, circumstances, necessities, and desires of those who pray to them. No devil is capable of a perfect understanding of the circumstances and need of any one person, much less of attending to, and being thoroughly acquainted with, all who pray to them through the world.

But the true God perfectly knows the circumstances of every one that prays to him throughout the world; he perfectly knows the needs and desires of every one. If there be millions praying to him at once, in different parts of the world,

it is no more difficult to him, who is infinite in knowledge, to take notice of all, and perfectly to be acquainted with every one, than of one alone. But it is not so with any other being but the Most High God.

God is so perfect in knowledge, that he doth not need to be informed by us, in order to a knowledge of our wants; for he knows what things we need before we ask him. The worshippers of false gods were wont to lift their voices and cry aloud, lest their gods should fail of hearing them, as Elijah tauntingly bid the worshippers of Baal do, 1 Kings xviii. 27. But the true od hears the silent petitions of his people. He needs not that we should cry aloud; yea, he knows and perfectly understands when we only pray in our hearts, as Hannah did, 1 Sam. i. 13.

2. False gods are not prayer hearing gods, for want of power to answer prayer. Idols are but vanities and lies; in them is no help. As to power or knowledge, they are nothing; as the apostle says, 1 Cor. viii. 4. “An idol is nothing in the world." As to the images that are the works of men's hands, they are so far from having any power to answer prayer, or to help them that pray to them, that they are not able at all to act: "They have hands, and handle not; feet have they, but they walk not; neither speak they through their throat." They, therefore, that make them, and pray to them, are senseless and sottish, and make themselves stocks and stones, like unto them: Psal. cxv. 7, 8, and Jer. x. 5. "They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: They must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil; neither also is it in them to do good." As to the hosts of heaven, the sun, moon, and stars, although mankind receive benefit by them, yet they act nothing voluntarily, but only by necessity of nature; therefore they have no power to do any thing in answer to prayers. And devils that are worshipped as gods, they are not able, if they had disposition, to make those happy who worship them, and can do nothing at all but only by divine permission, and as subject to the disposal of divine providence.

False gods can none of them save those that pray to them; and therefore, when the children of Israel departed from the true God to idols, and were distressed by their enemies, and cried to God in their distress, God reproved them for their folly in worshipping false gods, by bidding them go and cry to the gods whom they had served, and let them deliver them in the time of their tribulation, Josh. x. 14. So God challenges those gods themselves, in Isa. xli 23, 24. "Show us things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods; yea, do good or do evil, that we may be dismayed and behold it together. Behold ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: An abomination is he that choose th you."

These false gods, instead of helping those who pray to them, cannot help themselves. The devils are miserable tormented spirits; they are bound in chains of darkness for their rebellion against the true God, and cannot deliver themselves.

3. False gods are not gods that hear prayer, for want of a disposition to help those who pray to them. As to those lifeless idols whom the Heathen worship, they are without both understanding and will. As to the devils, who in the dark places of the earth are worshipped as gods, they have no disposition to help those who cry to them; for they are cruel spirits; they are the mortal enemies of mankind, that thirst for their blood, and delight in nothing but their misery. They have no more disposition to help mankind, than a parcel of hungry wolves or lions would have to protect and help a flock of lambs. And those that worship and pray to them get not their good will by serving them: All the reward that Satan will give them, for the service which they do him, is to make a prey of them, and devour them.

I proceed now,

IV. To give the reasons of the doctrine; which I would do in answer to these two inquiries: 1. Why God requires

prayer in order to the bestowment of mercies on men? 2. Why God is so ready to hear the prayers of men?

INQUIRY 1. Why doth God require prayer in order to the bestowment of mercies? To this I shall answer both negatively and affirmatively.

(1.) Negatively. 1. It is not in order that God may be informed of our wants or desires. God is omniscient, and with respect to his knowledge, unchangeable; his knowledge cannot be added to. God never is informed of any thing, nor gains any knowledge by information. He knows what we want a thousand times more perfectly than we do ourselves. He knows what things we have need of before we ask him; he knows our desires before we declare them by prayer.

2. Nor is it to dispose and incline God to show mercy : For though, in speaking after the manner of men, God is sometimes in scripture represented as though he were moved and persuaded by the prayers and cries of his people; yet it is not to be thought that God is properly moved or made willing by our prayers; for it is no more possible that there should be any new inclination or will in God, than new knowledge. The mercy of God is not moved or drawn by any thing in the creature; but the spring of God's beneficence is within himself only; he is self moved; and whatsoever mercy he bestows, the reason and ground of it is not to be sought for in the creature, but in God's own good pleasure. It is the will of God to bestow mercy in this way, viz. in answer to prayer, when he designs beforehand to bestow mercy, yea, when he has promised it; as Ezek. xxxvi. 36, 37. "I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it. Thus saith the Lord, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them." God has been pleased to constitute prayer to be an antecedent to the bestowment of mercy; and he is pleased to bestow mercy in consequence of prayer, as though he were prevailed on by prayer.

Yet God is not in fact prevailed on or made willing by prayer. But when he shows mercy in answer to prayer, his

intention of mercy is not the effect of the prayer; but that the people of God are stirred up to prayer, is the effect of God's intention to show mercy. Because God intends to show mercy, therefore he pours out the spirit of grace and supplication.

(2.) Affirmatively. There may be two reasons given why God requires prayer in order to the bestowment of mercy; one especially respects God, and the other respects ourselves.

1. With respect to God, prayer is but a sensible acknowledgment of our dependence on God, to his glory. As God hath made all things for his own glory, so he will be gloried and acknowledged by his creatures; and it is fit that he should require this of those who would be the subjects of his mercy. That we, when we stand in need of any mercy of God, or desire to receive any mercy from him, should go to God, and humbly supplicate the divine Being for the bestowment of that mercy, is but a suitable acknowledgment of our dependence on the power and mercy of God for that which we need, and but a suitable honor paid to the great Author and Fountain of all good.

2. With respect to ourselves, God requires prayer of us in order to the bestowment of mercy, because it tends to prepare us for the receipt of mercy. Fervent prayer many ways tends to prepare the heart for the receipt of the mercy prayed for. Hereby is excited a sense of our need of the mercy, and of the value of the mercy which we seck, and at the same time are excited earnest desires of it; whereby the mind is more prepared to prize it, and rejoice in it when bestowed, and to be thankful for it. Prayer, with that confession which should be in prayer, may be the occasion of a sense of our unworthiness of the mercy we seek; and the placing of ourselves in the immediate presence of God may make us sensible of his majesty, and we may be humbled before him, and be fitted to receive mercy of him. Our prayer to God may excite in us a suitable sense and consideration of our dependence on God for the mercy we ask, and a suitable exercise of