Downame - BV209_D69_G6_1640_v1

For whom tine muf pray. 185 If they be without fruit, though they be to them Anfiv, idle, yet not to thee : Thy prayer _hall return into thine own bofome,Pfal. 3 5.13. according to that Mat. - 10.13. When ye come into an houj, (salute it , or ivi fl peace unto it: if thehoufe be worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. As for thofe that be our enemies; Though the Schoolmen teach that we are not or at leaft need not fpecially to pray for them, yet our Saviour Chrift hath commanded us to love our enemies, to bleffe them that curt us, and to pray for them who de- fpitefully u/ us and perfecute us. So Jer. 29. 7. Rom. 12. 14. And this was practiced by our Saviour, Luke 1 3.34. by Stephen, Acts 7. 6o. To this kind of praying for others we are to re- of E1efsíngd ferre Blef ing : which is a fpeciall kind of prayer of kiñ i f 1 the fuperiour for the inferiour, Heb. 7.7. As ofthe prayer. Prince, I . Kings 8.5 5. of the Priem, Num. 6. 23, 24. of the parents, Gen. 9. and 27. and 49. To which the Lord hath given great force, infoniuch that the prolonging of the chiidrens life and dayes feemeth to be attributed to the parents in the fifth commandment, that they may prolong their dayes, &c. And therefore not without caufe are children taught to crave the bleffing of their parents ; the rather becaufe as it is our duty to pray for others, fo al% to defire others to pray for us. Which hath been done not onely by the inferiour and weak in grace, as I. Sam. 12. Jam. 5.14. but alto by the chief Saints of God, as by Paul in many places of his epiflles, as Rom. 15'. 3o. Eph. 6. 19, But when we