A Plain Discourse on Vain Thoughts, Doctrine 1 · Part 21
AND here three things we ſhould earneſtly beg of GOD in Prayer. Viz.
1. THAT GOD would … Diſcover to us thoſe Vain Thoughts that may be in us. Tho' our hearts are very deceitful, yet GOD knows them thorowly, and ſees all the deluding Vain Thoughts that are in our hearts; they may be concealed from us, but they are not hid from GOD. We ſhould therefore cry to the heart-ſearching GOD▪ that He would give us a diſce…n…ng of theſe Vain Thoughts that may be hid de… from our own eyes. Say as in Job 34.32. That which I ſee not, teach them …. If we are thus really willing and deſirous to know the Evil that is in us, we ſhall not long abide Strangers to our own hearts. GOD will ſhew them unto us.
2. THAT GOD would graciouſly deliver us from the deceiving Power of thoſe Vain Thoughts that may be in us. Though our Vain Thoughts ſhould be diſcovered to us; yet unleſs GOD put forth His Mighty Power, we ſhall ſtill be deceived by them. John the Baptiſt diſcovered to the carnal Jews the Vanity of their Imagination, that their Relation to Abraham as their Father, would ſecure them from Deſtruction, Math. 3.9. And think not to ſay within your lives, we have Abraham to our Father. Yet notwithſtanding they remained under the Power of this Vain Imagination. Nothing ſhort of the mighty working of the Spirit of GOD can caſt down the Vain Imaginations that are in us. We ſhould therefore cry to GOD, that no ſinful Thought may have Dominion over us, and that we may not be … to hold faſt Deceit.
3. THAT GOD would help …s to take upright Th…ug…ts … put them into practiſe. 'Tis GOD only that can furniſh our Minds with right Notions of things. He makes us in the hidden part to Know Wiſdom, Pſal. 51.6. He by His Spirit leads us into all Truth; and He …lone can make us to walk in the Truth, to live up and according to the Truth revealed to us. Pray then to GOD that when He has diſcovered the right way to you, He would alſo enable you to walk therein. Let the Prayer of David be your humble Prayer to GOD; Pſal. 139.23, 24. Search me, O God, and know my heart: Try me, and know my thoughts, and ſee if there be any wicked way in me, and leed me in the way everlaſting.
THE Great Concern OF MAN.
ACTS III. 59.
—LORD JESUS receive my Spirit
THESE words contain the dying Prayer of the Martyr Stephen for himſelf: it is but a ſingle & a very ſhort Petition, yet it comp…ſes in it all that bleſſedneſs, which a dying Man and a never-dying Soul can deſire. Two things may be obſerved in it.
1. THE Object of his Prayer or the Perſon to whom he directs his Prayer, viz. The Lord Jeſus. Our Lord had, a little before, open'd the Heavens to Him in a miraculous manner, and favour'd Him with a bodily ſight of His glorifyed Humanity. He ſaw the Glory of God, and Jeſus Chriſt the Son of man, standing at the right hand of God. Unto this Lord and King of Glory thus exhibited to him, he makes his Laſt Prayer. His Praying Seaſon was juſt at an end, and he was paſſing out of Time into Eternity, yet in this Critical Moment which would be deciſive of his Eternal Condition, he directs his Prayer to the Lord Jeſus. If he now apply'd himſelf to a wrong Object, he went out of the World Guilty of Idolatry, and conſequently Periſhed for ever: but this Man, who was Full of Faith and of the Holy Ghoſt, knew Jeſus Chriſt to be the proper Object of Religious Worſhip. He … Him to be ſuch a Lord as ought to be invocated by Prayer. Such a Lord, that if we had but one Prayer more to make in this World, it would be our Wiſdom and Duty to make it to Him. Herein then he plainly and publickly profeſſes his Faith concerning the Glorious Godhead of Jeſus Chriſt our Saviour. This dying Prayer to Chriſt for himſelf, and the following Prayer to Chriſt, not to lay the Sin of his Murderers to their Charge, are his dying Teſtimony to the Adorable Divinity of our Lord Jeſus Chriſt: He is the Prayer-hearing GOD▪ unto whom Men ought to Pray both for themſelves and for others, and that for Spiritual and Eternal Bleſſings, as here.
2. THE matter of his Prayer or the thing which he Prays for, viz. That Jeſus Chriſt would … his Spirit. He Piouſly Commends his Soul into the hands of the Lord Jeſus Chriſt: Herein imitating his Lord in …s …ke Caſe, Luk. 23.46. Father, Into thy hands I commend my ſpirit. This Dying Servant of Chriſt, is concerned for the welfare of his departing Spirit, and in order to this he asks nothing more, but that Jeſus Chriſt would r…eive his Spirit: That's enough, that's all that is needful unto the future wellbeing of the Soul. If Jeſus Chriſt will receive it, it ſhall be well with it for ever.
Hence obſerve,