A Godly and Learned Treatise of Prayer, Chapter 3
CHAP. III. Other motives to the duty of prayer.
UNto these we may adde three principall motives;1 From the excellency of it. viz. the excellency, the profit, the necessity of invocation: that the excellency may invite, the profit allure, the necessity draw us to the performance thereof.
First therefore it is excellent and honourable: For this is a great honour and high favour for a sinfull and mortall man, who is but dust and ashes, to have ordinary accesse unto God and free conference with him; but especially to have the Lord near unto to us in all things that we call upon him for, Deut. 4. 7. For it is no small honour for a man to have free accesse to his prince who is made of the same mould, and to have as we say the kings eare. Illud Lib. De orand. p. 120.maximum (saith Chrysostome) quòd quisquis or at cum Deo colloquitur. Quantae autem dignitatis sit hominem cum Deo miscere sermonem, neminem latet: That is the greatest priviledge, that whosoever prayeth talketh with God. And how great a dignity it is for a man to be admitted conference with God none can be ignorant.
But it is not onelyonly honourable unto us, but (which is much more to be regarded) unto God himself: For hereby we asscribe unto him omniscience, omnipotency and all-sufficiency, infinite mercy and goodnesse, acknowledging him to be the authour and fountain of all good things. And therefore he preferreth the sacrifice of prayse and of prayer, which are the calves of our lips, before the sacrifice of goats and bulls; Psal. 50. 8. ad 16. [For as touching the sacrifice of a broken and humble soul poured forth in prayer, the holy Ghost testifieth that the Lord esteemeth it in stead of all sacrifices, Psal. 51. 17. And for the other of praise, the Lord professeth Psal. 50. 23. He that offereth or sacrificeth praise honoureth me. By prayer we glorifie God: for magna est Dei gloria, saith Augustine, ut nos simus mendici ejus; that is, It is the great glory of God that we are his beggers. But by praysing much more: for to prayse God is to magnifie and glorifie him, and by these terms it is expressed in the scriptures.
But profit is that respect which most men look2. From the profit of it. after: Psal. 4. 6. There be many which say, Who will shew us any good? And in this particular; What will it profit us if we shall call upon God? Job 21. 15. First, for prayse: If we glorifie God he will glorifie us; 1. Sam. 2. 30. Secondly, for prayer: The profit is so great, that it is the ordinary means of obteining all good things which we do desire, and of avoyding all evil which we fear. It hath the promises both of this life and of a better: neither is there any good thing which the Lord hath ordeined for us, whether temporall for our good, or spirituall for our salvation, but he hath appointed that we should obtein it by prayer. Prayer is the key of Gods treasury, yea it is clavis coeli▪ that is, theAugust. key of heaven: It is armour of proof against allChrysost. tentations, serving for all parts, and therefore not assigned to any one, Ephes. 6. 18. flagillum diaboli, At…anas. De Psal. 68.the scourge of the devill; foreign, a sovereigne remedy against all evil. In the spirituall life it is as the hand in the temporall, foreign, the instrument of instruments. But the profit is best manifested by the promises of God which are infallible, especially if ye will compare Matth. 7. 7, 8. with John 16. 23. and 1. John 5. 14. Whosoever …sketh any thing whatsoever in the name of Christ according to Gods will, it shall be granted. What promise can be more large then whosoever and whatsoever? In a word, God is rich unto all that call upon him; for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, Rom. 10. 12, 13.