A learned and very useful commentary on the whole epistle to the Hebrews wherein every word and particle in the original is explained ... : being the substance of thirty years Wednesdayes lectures at Black-fryers, London / by that holy and learned divine Wiliam Gouge ... : before which is prefixed a narrative of his life and death : whereunto is added two alphabeticall tables ...

§. 153. Of praying for conscionable Ministers.

Verse 18.

Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience in all things, willing to live honestly.

HEre is another duty required of people towards their Ministers; that is, to pray for them.

Of Prayer in general, and of praying for Ministers in particular, See, The whole Armour of God, on Ephes. 6. 18, 19. Treat. 3. Part. 1, 7. §. 4, &c. & 151, &c.

A reason to enforce this duty, is thus expressed, For we trust we have a good con∣science, &c.

The first particle a 1.1 FOR, being a causal Conjunction, giveth evidence, That that conscience which Ministers have in performing their duty for their peoples good, should the rather quicken and stir up the spirits of people to pray for them. Such a Minister was Paul, who desired them to whom he wrote, To strive together with him in their prayers to God for him, Rom. 15. 30. Such an one also was Peter, For whom earnest prayer was made for the Church, Act. 12. 5. These are the Ministers by whom people receive most good, and in that respect they ought to be prayed for. Both gratefulnesse to their Minister, and also providence to themselves requires as much, that so their Ministers may be continued the longer over them, and they themselves reap the more benefit by them.

Notes

• a 1.1

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.