A Godly and Learned Treatise of Prayer, Chapter 1
CHAP. I. Of the definition of prayer; and of the persons who are to pray.
AMong all the duties of Christianitie, as there is not any more honourable in it self, more glorious to God, more profitable and necessary for us then the exercise of prayer and invocation, so is there none wherein we do more need direction and instruction, and consequently nothing wherein my labour in speaking and yours in hearing may better be imployed. For, as Chrysostome saith, Pulcherrima est scientia veré que Christiano homine dig…a quae docet rectè precari: That is the most excellent knowledge and truly worthy a Christian man which teacheth rightly to pray. In treating whereof I purpose (by the help ofThe method observed in this tractate, Of prayer. God) to observe this order: First, I will set down the doctrine of invocation, and then explain that absolute form or pattern of prayer prescribed by our Saviour Christ, wherein the practice of the doctrine is conteined.
The doctrine must first be generall and common to both the sorts of invocation, viz. prayer and thanksgiving; and then speciall and peculiar to either.
The generall doctrine consisteth of such points as are either more substantiall, foreign or accidentall, foreign.
The substantiall points are all of them comprised in this definition; Invocation or prayer is aThe definition of Prayer. religious speech of the faithfull, directed unto God in the name of Christ, framed according to the will of God by the help of the holy Ghost, concerning good things apperteining to his glory and our good.
The phrase of invocating or calling upon the name Of the name of Invocation & Prayer.of God sometimes signifieth the profession of the true religion whereby we take the name of God upon us, and are called after his name: as Gen. 48. 16. and 4. 16. Isa. 63. 10. Acts 9. 14. 1. Cor. 1. 2.
And first, as touching the name; This part of Gods worship is usually in the Scriptures expressed by the phrase of calling upon the name of God, and therefore is fitly called invocation, that is, calling upon God, whether it be by way of praying or praysing. In which generall sense the Hebrew word foreign, tephillat, is sometimes used; 1. Sam. 2. 1. Psal. 86. 1. Isa. 56. 7. Domus orationis, oratio, and invocatio in Latine: and by a Synecdoche prayer in the English tongue; though properly it signifieth that species or kind of invocation whereby we crave any thing at the hands of God. By a Metonymie of the signe it is sometimes called the lifting up of the hands, Psal. 141. 2. and 44. 20. sometimes, the lifting up of the eyes, Psal. 123. 1. more properly, a lifting up of thé heart unto God, Psal. 25. 1. whereof the other are but signes. Which must teach us when we pray, to lift up our hearts with our hands unto God in the heavens, as Jeremie speaketh Lam. 3. 41. So much of the name.
In the definition the nature of Invocation is setOf the generall nature of Prayer. forth: both the generall, which Logicians call the genus; and proper, in that which is called the difference. The generall, in that I call it a religious speech. For of religious speech there are two speciall sorts: the one of man …nto man in the name of God and in the stead of Christ; which is preaching: the other of man unto God in the name and mediation of Christ; which is prayer or invocation: And both of them somewhere in the Scriptures are expressed by one and the same name of prophesying: which for Preaching is used, 1. Cor. 14. 3, 4. and elsewhere for Invocation, both in the sense of praying, 1. Kings 18. 29. with 26. and of praysing, 1. Chron. 25. 1, 2, 3. First, I say, it is a speech. And because the religious speech is the chief speech which we can use, therefore as preaching is called Sermo, so prayer is of the Latines foreign called Oratio.
But where I say prayer is a speech, you are to understand, that whereas there is a twofold speech, foreign, outward and inward, the inward being also called foreign, or foreign, a speech conceived in the mind: the outward, foreign, or foreign, a speech uttered with the voice: prayer is not the outward speech chiefly or onelyonly, but the inward of the soul; either alone, when in prayer the voice is not used, as Gen. 24. 45. Exod. 14. 15. 1. Sam. 1. 13. and is called oratio mentalis, which is usuall in meditation,Psal. 5. 1. and is sometimes so called: or chiefly when the voice is used, as most commonly it is: Whereupon some define prayer to be foreign,Damasc. De Orthodoxa side, lib. 3. cap. 24. the speech or communication of the soul with God; others, foreign, the ascending of the mind unto God. In which respect the holy Ghost calleth it the lifting up of the heart unto God, Psal. 25. 1. and the pouring forth of the soul before the Lord, Psal. 62. 8. 1. Sam. 1. 15. As for that prayer which is onelyonly the outward speech of the mouth without the inward of the heart, it is not a prayer in truth, but a meer lip-labour. For to call upon God in truth, is to pray with our souls, and to call upon him with our hearts, to lift up our hearts and to poure forth our souls before the Lord, as I shall shew more fully hereafter.
But I adde, that it is a religious speech, to note that prayer is a part, and indeed a principall part of that religious adoration and worship which we ow unto God: and consequently to teach us, that it is a dutie to be performed religiously and devoutly, as intending thereby an holy and acceptable service unto God. So that true prayer is not a bare reading or recitall of any form of prayer without understanding, withou affection, without devotion, without faith; but a religious service devoutly offered unto God out of an upright and pure heart, 2. Tim. 2. 22. Psal. 119. 7.
The proper nature of Invocation is described inThe proper nature of Invocation. the rest of the definition, conteining six substantiall points necessarily required in all prayer, viz. Quis, Quem, Cujus nomine, Quomodo, Cujus ope, De quibus; that is, Who must pray, Whom we must pray unto, In whose name, In what manner, By whose help, and For what. For in all invocation that shall be acceptable unto God, there is required, 1. ThatWhat is required in all invocation acceptable to God. the person which prayeth be faithfull; 2. That the partie to whom we pray be the onelyonly true God; 3. That the prayer be made in the name of Christ; (For sinne having made a separation between God and us, there is no accesse for us unto God in our own name.) 4. For the manner, that it be foreign, according to God, Rom. 8. 27. or, as S. John speaketh more fully, 1. Epist. 5. 14. according to the will of God, that is, that in our invocation or prayer we perform those things which God hath willed and required in his word to be performed in prayer. 5. Because we are not able of our selves to perform any of those things which God hath required, I adde, that we are to call upon God by the help of the holy Ghost. 6. And lastly, I shew that the object of our invocation, that is, the things concerning which we do speak unto God in prayer, are good things apperteining to his glorie and our good; as namely and especially, the benefits and blessings of God, for which we do either pray unto him, or praise him. Of these six in order: And first for the partie which is to pray. When I say that prayer is a speech of the faithfull, you are to understand, 1. That we speak of prayer as it is officium viatorum, a duty injoyned unto men living here upon earth as pilgrimes in the Church militant, unto whom alone the doctrine of Invocation doth appe…tein; and not as it is exercitium spirituum beatorum, the exercise of the Saints and Angels in the Church triumphant in heaven, to whom neither the commandments injoyning this duty, nor the promises made to prayer, nor the directions which teach how to pray are directed. For although the word of God hath revealed that they are conversant in the one part of invocation, that is, in praising & glorifying God (wherein we are to imitate them, that we may do this will of God, 1. Thess. 5. 18. as the Saints and Angels do it in heaven) yet as touching the other part, which is prayer or petition, for what or for whom they pray in particular, the Spirit of God in the Scriptures hath not revealed: and it is but foolish curiositie to seek to be wise above that which is written. For herein especially is that verified, Quae supra nos nihil ad nos, that is, Things above us belong not unto us: much lesse ought we with the superstitious Papists upon an erroneous conceit of theirs, I mean the Saints and Angels in particular, that is, such Saints and Angels praying for us in particular, ground an idolatrous practice of our praying unto them. But of this also more hereafter.
2. Seeing we consider it as the dutie of the living, Isa. 38. 19. we are more particularly to consider both who in this world are required to pray, and also what is required in them that do pray. This dutie is required of all men living without exception: All are to call upon God. And that their prayer may be accepted of God, it is required of all that they should have faith. For as much therefore as we are to define prayer as it is effectuall and acceptable, for that cause I defined it to be the speech of the faithfull: not but that all are bound to pray, but that none pray effectually and acceptably but they onelyonly that believe. Concerning the partie therefore which is to call upon God, I am to shew these two things: 1. That it is required of all to pray; 2. That it is required of all which do pray that they be faithfull. The former I am the rather in this place to perform, lest when I have defined Quid sit, and so taught how we are to pray, I leave place to the question An sit, Whether we are to pray at all or not.
For howsoever it is a great honour and favour for a sinfull man who is but dust and ashes (as Abraham upon this occasion confesseth, Gen. 18. 27.) that the Lord should admit him to familiar speech with his great and glorious Majestie (For as Chrysostome saith, Quis non admirar…tur tantam benignitatem De orando Deo, lib. 1. cap. 1.quam in nos declarat Deus, qui nos mortales dignos habuerit qui cum ipso colloquamur, nostráque vota apud ipsum deponamus? that is, Who would not admire this so great goodnesse which God declareth towards us, who esteemeth mortalls worthy to talk with him, and to lay before him all our suits?) and that he should be near unto us in all that we do call upon him for, Deut. 4. 7. and therefore a thing greatly to be desired and highly to be esteemed of us; yet naturally men abhorre from the performance of this dutie: which caused the Prophet Isaiah to complain that there was none that calledIsa. 64. 7. upon the name of the Lord. The reason is, because sinne having made a separation between God and us, the man whose conscience condemneth him of sinne unrepented of, as not being reconciled unto God, flieth from his presence as the guilty person or malefactour from the sight of the judge; so farre is he from presenting himself voluntarily before the Lord: as we see in the examples of our first parents, Gen. 3. 8. in Peter before his effectuall calling, who perceiving by the miraculous draught of fish the Divinitie of our Saviour Christ, desireth him to depart from him, for I (saith he) am a sinfull man: in the Gergasines or Gadarenes, who being strucken with fear at the miraculous dispossessing of the legion of devils, besought our Saviour to depart out of their coasts, Matth. 8. 34. Luke 8. 37. It shall be needfull therefore to use some reasons and motives to move us to the performance of this dutie.