A Godly and Learned Treatise of Prayer, Chapter 29
CHAP. XXIX. Of Prayer or Petition: and what is required unto it.
HItherto of the generall doctrine of Invocation1. A sense of our wants and a desire to have them supplyed. common to both the sorts. Now followeth the speciall.
Invocation is either prayer or thanksgiving. In the former we ask good things at the hand of God: In the latter we return praise and thanksgiving for benefits received. The former hath reference to the time to come; the latter, to the time past. For in the former we crave either the gift of such things as we want for the time to come, or the continuance and increase of that which we have. In the latter we praise Gods goodnesse for his blessings either bestowed already, or at the least promised. In the former we beg and pray; in the latter we give, or rather render and repay, the praise which is due to his name.
But howsoever in nature these two sorts of InvocationPrayer and thanksgiving must be joyned together. do differ, and so are in doctrine to be severed, yet in use and practice they must go together. Neither must we be more ready to crave new blessings at the hands of God then to return thanks for benefits already received. And therefore the performance of both these duties the holy Ghost in many places hath joyned together: as 1. Thess. 5. 17, 18. Psal. 50. 14, 15. 1. Tim. 2. 1. Col. 3. 17. More plainly Col. 4. 2. Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving. Phil. 4. 6. Be distrustfully carefull for nothing, but in all things let your requests be manifested unto God in prayer and supplication with giving of thanks. Examples: of Jacob, Gen. 32. 9, 10, &c. David, 1. Chron. 29. 10, 18. 2. Sam. 7. 18. Paul, Col. 1. 9, 12. Phil. 1. 3, 4. 1. Thess. 1. 2. Not that by giving of thanks for benefits received we do merit greater and better, according to that of the Schoolmen, De acceptis beneficiis gratias agentes meremur Th. Aquin. 2. 2. quaest. 83. 17. 6.accipere potiora, When we render thanks for benefits received, we merit to receive better; but that the Lord of his mere bounty is ready to reward our thankfulnesse for former benefits with granting new blessings which we crave at his hands: and likewise ourselves, when we are affected with a thankfull remembrance of Gods goodnesse towards us for the time past, are the more encouraged with faith and affiance to crave new blessings for the time to come; Psal. 4. 1. 1. Kings 3. 6, 7, 8. Psal. 116. 1, 2.
But first we are to speak of prayer. Prayer isWhat Prayer or Petition i…. that invocation whereby we effectually crave any thing which we do well (that is, lawfully and profitably) desire at the hands of God.
Where I say it is invocation, I mean that it is a religious speech of the faithfull made unto God in the name of Christ, according to the will of God, by the help of the holy Ghost, concerning good things apperteining to Gods glory and our good; and consequently, that whatsoever before hath been spoken in generall concerning Invocation is particularly to be applyed to Prayer. The proper nature and difference is expressed in the word crave: For prayer is that invocation whereby we beg and crave of God. But because we speak of that prayer which is right and acceptable, and is framed according to the will of God, as was said in the generall out of 1. John 5. 14. and it is the will of God that our prayer should be effectuall and our desire good; therefore I added, whereby we effectually crave any thing which we do well (that is, lawfully and profitably) desire of God.
That our prayer which shall avail with God must in it self be effectuall, S. James teacheth us, chap. 5. 16. The prayer of a righteous man availeth math, it being effectuall. The word is foreign of which I have spoken before. As therefore that is an effectuall oration wherein nothing is omitted which the oratory art requireth, whether the hearers be perswaded or not; so that is an effectuall prayer wherein nothing is omitted which in the word of God, that teacheth the art and doctrine of prayer, is required either in generall or in particular. For although the efficacy of prayer doth not properly consist in the observation of the generall points, yet they are such as without them it cannot be effectuall: As 1. ThatThegenerals of Invocation applyed to Petition. the party which prayeth be faithfull, that is, a penitent and believing sinner; 2. That the prayer be directed unto God; 3. In the name and mediation of Christ; 4. By the help of the holy Ghost; 5. That it be a prayer of the heart, or that the prayer be made in truth; (for to that the promise is restrained, Psal. 145. 18. and therein the life of the prayer consisteth, without which it is dead and counterfeit) that it be made with knowledge, and with faith, with humility, with reverence, and with heartinesse; 6. For good things. All which are essentiall points required in all invocation.
But the things wherein more properly the efficacieFervency & faith required in our petitions. of prayer consisteth are Fervency and Faith: and to pray effectually, is to pray fervently and faithfully. For as touching the former; whatsoever we do effectually ask that we do fervently desire. Quae v…rò Bern. De orat. & jeju…. serm. 4. sol. 21. R.fidelis, & humilis, & fervens …ratio fuerit, coelum sine dubio penetrabit: unde certum est, quòd vacua redire non poterit: The prayer which is faithfull, humble, and fervent will without doubt pierce the heavens: whence we certainly gather, that it cannot return vain and empty.
Now fervency presupposeth a sense and feelingSense and feeling of our wants required in prayer. or acknowledgement of our want: And both of them in the Scriptures are signified in the phrases of hungring and thirsting, Isai. 55. 1. Matth. 5. 6. John 7. 37. For as in hunger and thirst there concurre two things; a sense of our want, and an appetite to have that want supplyed: so in prayer we must hunger and thirst after those graces and blessings which we do crave, that is, we must have a true sense and acknowledgement of our want, and an earnest desire to have it supplyed. In which respect David compareth his soul to thirstie lands which gape for the rain, Psal. 63. 2. and 143. 6. and to the hart braying for the rivers of waters, Psal. 42. 1. Both these are necessary to effectuall prayer: For what we ask we desire, and what we desire we want: Neither can we fervently ask that we do not earnestly desire, and we cannot earnestly desire that whereof we feel no want. The whole needeth not the Physician, as our Saviour saith Luke 5. 31. And as the Philosophers teach, Nihil appetit quod habet, Nothing affecteth what it hath: therefore this I said is presupposed. If any want wisdome, saith S. James, let him Jam. 1. 5.ask it. For if he find not himself to want it in whole or in part, he is not to ask it, unlesse he will mock God, who will not be mocked, Gal. 6. 8.
Here therefore they offend, I. In respect of temporall things, who trusting in their own means, and relying upon their own store, do not find themselves to stand in need of Gods help, neither do depend upon the providence or blessing of God in the use of the means. For such when they pray unto God for these things, as namely, to give them this day their daily bread, they do not pray in truth, because they do not unfeignedly desire that whereof they find no want.
II. In respect of spirituall things two sorts of men offend: First, those that are carnally secure, who although they be wretched and miserable, poore, blind, and naked, yet being lukewarm with the Laodiceans, Rev. 3. 17. & feeling no want, think they are rich and need nothing. Secondly, those who are righteous in their own conceit; as Pharisaicall and Popish justitiaries. For both these and the other feeling no want, either pray not at all, or if they do pray, it is but for fashions sake: and therefore praying usu magis quàm sensu, out of custome rather then sense, their prayer is not acceptable unto God, and like lukewarm water to the stomach. Wherefore it behoveth us to labour that we may have a true sense of our wants: Which I speak especially in respect of spirituall graces: for when we are pinched with bodily wants, we are many times but too sensible thereof: But of spirituall wants many have no sense; and being miserable they feel no misery. First, therefore it is good to be perswaded that this sense of our wants is necessary for us: For without it neither will we seriously seek unto the Lord, neither will he seem to regard us. We will not earnestly seek unto him: for what we do not want we do not desire; and what we do not desire that we do not ask, except it be for fashion: And how can we look that the Lord will compati, that is, have compassion on us, when we do not pati, or feel any want? How can we desire him …isereri, to have mercy on us, when we do not esteem our selves miseri, to whom mercy belongeth? (for thence hath misericordia the name.) Yea, if we be rich and full in our own conceits, the Lord will send us away empty, Luke 1. 55. remaining in our sinne, Luke 18. 14. exposed to his curse, Luke 6. 24, 25. Whereas on the other side, if we be humbled with the sense of our want, the Lord will have speciall regard unto us, Isai. 66. 2. and 57. 15. and be near unto us in all our desires, Psal. 34. 18. Yea, such he calleth to him, Matth. 11. 28. such he promiseth to heare, Psal. 10. 17. …ohn 7. 37. such he pronounceth blessed, Matth. 5. 3, 4, 5.
Secondly, that we may attein to this sight andHow we may come to a sight & sense of our wants. sense of our misery and wants, we are to look into the glasse of the law; which will reveal unto us our misery, both in respect of our sins, and also of the punishment due for the same, &c.
Thirdly, for as much as the sight and sense of our misery is the gift of God and work of his spirit, we are to pray unto God that he will anoint the eyes of our minds with the eye-salve of his spirit, Revel. 3. 18. that we may see our sins; and that he would touch our hearts with the finger of his spirit, as he struck the rock in the wildernes, that they may melt within us, as the heart of Josias did at the reading of the law, 2. Kings 22. 19. and be resolved into a fountain of tears, by which we may bewail our sinnes whereby we have displeased and dishonoured God.
From this sense of our wants ariseth the secondThat we must in prayer have an earnest desire to have our wants suplyed. thing, that is, an earnest desire to have our wants supplyed. And this is of such force in prayer, that it seemeth to be nothing else but the expressing of our desire, and is therefore called foreign and of such efficacie …n prayer, that some place the efficacie of prayer therein; & so reade the words of S. James, ch. 5. 16. The effectuall …ervent prayer of a righteous man ava…leth much; others, The prayer of a righteous man availeth much if it be fervent. But though it be not the onelyonly cause of efficacy, yet it is one of the principall: for, as Augustine saith, Dignior scquitur effectus quem Epist. ad Probum, 121.ferventior affectus praecedit: A more worthy effect followeth which a more fervent affection precedeth
This praying with earnest desire is commended to us in the word of God by divers significant phrases: For besides that it is called crying unto the Lord, and crying mightily, Jon. 3. 8. lifting up of our prayer, I…ai. 38. 14. this is also to poure forth our souls before the Lord like water, Lam. 2. 19. In which sense the Is…elites are said 1. Sam. 7. 6. to have drawn water from the fountain of their hearts, and poured it out before the Lord. This is to pray with grones unspeakable, Rom. 8. 26. which the holy Ghost stirreth up in us; and is therefore an evident token of the child of God indued with the Spirit of adoption: which is also the spirit of grace and supplication, making us when we look upon him whom we have pierced by our sinnes, to lament and mourn as a man mourneth for his first-begotten, Zech. 12. 10. For, as AugustineEpist. 121. saith, Plerunque hoc negotium plùs gemitibus quàm sermonibus agitur, … plùs quàm …: For the most part this businesse is effected better with grones then words, with weeping rather then speaking. This is to pray with Paul foreign, exceedingly, r. Thess. 3. 10. This is with Epaphras, Col. 4. 12. as it were to wrestle with the Lord: which the Apostle commendeth to the Romanes, chap. 15. 30. By which kind of wrestling Jacob prevailed with God, as Hosea teacheth chap. 2. 3, 4. and was therefore called Israel, Gen. 32. This is that prayer of the humble which pierceth the clouds, Ecclus 35. 21. This fervent desire therefore is fervently to be desired of us, and happy are they which have atteined to it, Matth. 5. 6.
The means to attein unto it are, First, because itThe means to obtein fervency of desire. is the work of Gods spirit, to beg it of him by prayer.
Secondly, to labour after a true sense of our wants.
Thirdly, in our preparation to meditate on the excellency, profit and necessity of those things which we crave, that so our affections may be inflamed with a desire thereof; as also of the necessity of Gods help, that except the Lord heare us and help us our case is desperate. So David prayeth Psal. 28. 1. and 143. 6, 7. Heare me, O Lord, and hide not thy face; else I shall be like to them that go down into the pit.
Fourthly, we are upon extraordinary occasions to joyn fasting with our prayers, as we are directed in many places of the Scripture. For fasting as it causeth the hunger of the body, so it is an effectuall means to stirre up and increase the hunger of the soul. For which cause the Fathers call fasting orationis alas, the wings of prayer.