1 Timothy 2:1-4

(1) В¶ I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; (2) For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. (3) For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; (4) Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

We shall do well to observe, what the Holy Ghost hath here commanded by Paul, on the subject of prayer. It is for all men. By which we learn, what is here meant, by praying for all, in this indiscriminate manner. The passage indeed explains itself: that we may lead a quiet, and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty. It is simply for temporal things, similar to what God commanded the Prophet on the subject of prayer, when the Church was going into captivity. Seek the peace of the city, (saith the Lord), whither I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace. Jeremiah 29:7. And the close of this paragraph, becomes a further confirmation. For this is good, and acceptable, in the sight of God our Savior; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of truth. What saving is this, which God our Savior is said, that he would have all men to have? Not salvation surely. For if so, how comes it to pass, that all are not saved; or that any is lost. The loss of a single soul, if this were the sense of the passage, would prove, that what God willed, came not to pass. And this would throw down all God's divine attributes. But, if the words be interpreted by what went before, in allusion to temporal safety; then it follows, that our prayers for all men, while having an eye only to their temporal prosperity, are in perfect agreement, with all men having temporal safety in Christ: and which Christ, as the Maker, and Upholder of all things, is the sole cause of. See 1 Timothy 4:10 and Commentary.

Reader! I take occasion from this passage, to offer a short observation on prayer, which I conceive to be of no small importance, to regard, in our spiritual life. I mean, in always confining our petitions in prayer for spiritual blessings, to the Church; in conformity to the pattern of Christ. I pray not for the world, (said Jesus), but for them which thou hast given me. John 17:9. It is certainly most suitable, and becoming in the Church, and every individual of the Church, to follow Christ's example in this, as well as upon every other occasion which is imitable. As we know not who are, or who are not, the members of Christ's body, in numberless cases, we cannot often speak of persons as Jesus did; yet, we shall still follow the Lord's steps in this particular in prayer, if we always qualify our petitions for spiritual blessings for any, with subjoining: If it be the Lord's holy will and pleasure. A child if God, when seeking grace for his family, for his little ones, and bringing them to ordinances with this view, to present them before the Lord, for his blessing; will not err, as long as he asketh, all he asketh for them, with this gratifying clause: If it he thy holy will. It was thus the people brought their sick and diseased to the Lord Jesus, in the days of his flesh; beseeching him that they might only t ouch the hem of his garment. Mark 6:55. And if we do the same now, in the day of Christ's power; here we ought to rest. And, if the Lord gives a spirit of prayer for them; it is a blessed hope, that the Lord will answer it in mercy. Further we cannot presume, neither to be wise above what is written, or to dictate to the Lord of his doings.