Sermon 11

(Matthew 15:23) But he answered her not a word: And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for she cries after us. (Matthew 15:24) But he answered, and said, I am not sent, but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (Matthew 15:25) Then came she, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.

We now enter into the Dialogue between the Woman and Christ: The first trial is, The woman cries: But Christ answers not a word. I show first wherein the temptation stands: 2. The reasons of it, and in what cases Christ answers not: 3. Bring the uses; for the first, God's temptations and Satan's, and the flashes, agree in this, that all temptations are of one color, to wit, white, and seeming good, even when the skin of temptations is black as hell, yet there is white in it, as (Curse God and die, that you may be hidden in the grave from misery) the reason is, temptation were not temptation, if it had not a taking power to break in upon reason. This is clear in Satan's temptations, he knows man is a fallen and broken creature like himself, yet that there is reason left: and that must have a fair object, the first black apple must be good to the eye: so the Devil suits a wife ever in his whites, though if you would wash the Devil and the lie, the bones are always black. Now this woman sees that which she looked not for, and the affections must be stirred: Is this the Lord, the hearer of Prayers? 2. Is this he that bids us pray, and promises to hear? 3. Is this the meek Lamb of God, of whom [reconstructed: it is said], He shall carry the lambs in his bosom (Isaiah 42:11), And a bruised reed he shall not break, a smoking Flax he shall not quench: He answers me not one word. Indeed, he denies me to be his, as is hereafter, he reproaches me with the name of a dog: nature would say, I repent that ever I came to him, let my daughter suffer twenty, one hundred, a Legion of Devils, I have done with Christ, I come no more at him: especially supposing what was true, that she had a great Faith: and Faith cannot be but loving and kind to Christ. What? My heart saddened and broken: my daughter vexed with a Devil! But oh alas, my Savior answers, not one word, sweet Jesus rejects me, how can I stand under so many Hells? He cures all that come to him: I am the first that ever this King sent away with a sad heart, he casts none away that comes, he welcomes all, only he will not look on me poor and miserable? Oh what can I now do! You may know a mother's heart to her tormented child, and a believer's bowels to a Savior, here is a burden above a load. But why does he answer all sinners, but not one word to me? Answer. 1. Few or none are tempted, but the upshot of the temptation is to beget big apprehensions of the temptation: never was man in the condition I am in: Christ answers the Devils when they cry, he will not give me one look, one cast of his eye, not one half word. The temptation must represent Christ, as a none-such for rough dealing, and the tempted a none-such for misery. Elias must say (1 Kings 18:20), I, even I only, am left alone, and they seek my life (Psalm 22:4). Our fathers trusted in you, they trusted in you, and were delivered (verse 6). But I am no body. But I am a worm and no man (Lamentations 1:12). O passers by, hear behold, and see if there be any sorrow, like to my sorrow! etc. (1 Corinthians 4:9). We are made a theater, a spectacle to men and Angels. The temptation must put on the face of hell to drive at this, to cause the child of God put himself out of the calendar and society of God's children: hence, that (no there was never a soul since the world was, like me, I am my alone). 1. Christ once, first or last, must be no Christ, and God not God to the tempted, Has he forgotten to be gracious? (Psalm 77). A forgetting God, a changed God is not God; stick by this principle, Yet he is Christ, and my Christ too. 2. It is said, he answered her not a word: but it is not said, he heard not one word: these two differ much: Christ often hears when he does not answer, his not answering is an Answer, and speaks this, pray on, go on, and cry) for the Lord holds his door fast bolted, not to keep out, but that you may knock and knock. Prayer is to God, worship: to us, often, it is but a servant on mere necessity sent on a business. The father will cause his child say over again, what he once heard him say, because he delights to hear him speak. So God hears and lays by him an answer for Ephraim (Jeremiah 31:18). I have heard Ephraim bemoaning himself; but Ephraim heard not, knew not that God told all Ephraim's prayer over again behind his back. 3. No answer from Christ is hell to a Believer: but to kiss and embrace hell, because it is Christ's hell, is a work of much acceptance: when you say, I will pray, and die praying, though I be never heard, because praying is my duty, and God's glory: let me die in a duty that glorifies him. 4. Wrestling adds strength to arms and body, praying and praying again strengthens Faith: customary running, lengthens the breath: By much praying faith is well breathed. Jacob is stronger in the morning, when he has prayed a whole night, than at bed-time (Genesis 32:26). The Angel said, Let me go, for the day breaks: And he said, I will not let you go, till you bless me. Then in the dawning he has prayed harder, and used his arms with greater violence than before, by this hunger grows fatter, sense stronger; it is here, Eat and be hungry, pray and desire more strongly to pray. 3. Reasons of God's not hearing prayer are; 1. Superstitious and false worship (Isaiah 16:12). Moab wearied of his high places, comes to his Sanctuary to pray, but prevails not. Wildfire cannot roast raw flesh. 2. God hears not sinners (John 9:31). Let his prayer be sin (Psalm 109:7). Indeed the prayers of Britain are not heard, nor their solemn fasts accepted; for iniquity has separated between God and us (Isaiah 59:2). 3. God hears not when there is a heart-love to vanity (Psalm 66:18, Job 35:15). 4. God hears not malignants, nor us, when many are heart-enemies to the cause (Psalm 18:41). 5. He hears not bloody men (Isaiah 1:15). Now for the Saints, sense makes non-answering a merciful judgment, it is here as in riches: he is rich who thinks himself rich, and desires no more. So not to be answered is a plague: but to find you are not answered, and be sad for it, has much of Christ. The Saints are heavier, because God answers not, than because the mercy is denied.

Quest. How shall we know we are answered? Answ. Hannah knew it by peace after prayer. 2. Paul knew it, by receiving new supply to bear the want of that he sought in prayer; he is answered that is more heavenly after prayer. 3. Liberty and boldness of Faith, is a sign of an answered prayer: The intercessor at the right hand of God, cannot lose his own work; his spirit groans in the Saints; does not my head accept what I set my heart on work to do? (Romans 8:23, 26, 27, compared with Revelation 8:3). 4. We are heard and answered of God, when we are not heard and answered of God. I pray for a temporal favor; victory to God's people in this battle, they lose the day: yet I am heard and answered, because I prayed for that victory, not under the notion of victory, but as linked with mercy to the Church and the honor of Christ. So the formal object of my prayers was a spiritual mercy to the Church, and the honor of Jesus Christ. Now the Lord by the loss of the day, has shown mercy on his people in humbling them, and glorifies his Son, in preserving a fallen people. So he hears that which is spiritual in my prayers; he is not to hear the errors of them. Christ puts not dross in his censer of gold. 5. We are heard whenever we ask in Faith; but let Faith reach no further than God's will: when we make God's will our rule, he will do his own will; if he does not my will, it's to be noted, that the creature's will, divided from God's will, in things not necessary for salvation, and God's glory, is no part of God's will, and no asking of Faith. Therefore, Faith frequently in the Psalms, prays, and answers. Psalm 6:4, compared with verse 9. Psalm 55:2, Attend to me, and hear me, verse 19. God shall hear and afflict them. Psalm 57:1, Be merciful to me O God, etc., verse 3, He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Psalm 59:1, Deliver me from my enemies, O my God. 2. Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, verse 10. The God of mercy shall prevent me, God shall let me see my desire upon my enemies. Psalm 60:1, O God you have cast us off, you have scattered us, etc. But in the end, verse 12, Through God we shall do valiantly. The prophesying of Faith is not dead with the prophets. Faith sees afar off as yet; to see things that God shall do, either by himself, or by angels, is an act of prophecy, and differs not in nature from the prophetic light of the prophets: now the light of Faith sees as yet the same, to wit, that Christ shall raise the dead, and send his angels to gather in his wheat into his barn; especially hope of glory is prophetic. 6. Patience to wait on, while the vision speak, is an answer. 7. Some letters require no answer, but are mere expressions of the desires of the friend; the general prayers of the saints, that the Lord would gather in his elect, that Christ would come and marry the Bride, and consummate the nuptials, do refer to a real answer; when our Husband the King shall come in person at his second appearance.

1. Use. You take it hard, that you are not answered, and that Christ's door is not opened at your first knock. David must knock, Psalm 22:2, O my God I cry by day, and you do not hear, and in the night season I am not silent. The Lord's Church, Lamentations 3:8, And when I cry and shout, he shuts out my prayer. Sweet Jesus the heir of all, prayed with tears and strong cries, once, O my father, again, O my father, and the third time, O my father, before he was heard. Wait on, die praying, faint not.

2. Use. It's good to have the heart stored with sweet principles of Christ, when he hears not at the first. It's Christ, he will answer. It's but Christ's outside that is unkind.