A Godly and Learned Treatise of Prayer, Chapter 4
CHAP. IIII. Three questions cleared.
NOw for the further clearing of this point concerning1. Whether prayer be efficacious to obtein ou… desires. the profit and efficacy of prayer there are three questions to be decided:
1. Whether prayer be … impetratorium or of any efficacy to obtein our desires.
2. And if it be, Whether by prayer we do alwayes obtein our desires.
3. Whether there be any other profit or fruit to be expected by our prayers besides the obteining of our desires.
The decision of the first question is needfull, not onelyonly because some hereticks have held prayer to be superfluous, but chiefly because our adversaries father this heresie upon us.
Those that take away the use of prayer ground their fansie on the knowledge and providence of God. For first, If God our heavenly Father do knowObject. 1. our wants, and be of himself ready to supply them, shall not we seem to doubt either of his knowledge or of his goodnesse if we pray unto him. Answ. Answ.Our Saviour indeed doth teach us that God our heavenly Father doth know our wants, and is willing to supply them, Matth. 6. 32. but yet in the same chapter he teacheth us to pray, and promiseth that by prayer we shall obtein, Matth. 7. 7, 8. and therefore in obedience to the commandment, and in faith in the promise, we are to call upon God, whatsoever flesh and bloud can object to the contrary. Gods knowledge of our wants and readinesse to supply them must free us from distrustfull care, and move us with affiance to seek unto God in all our necessities; to which end our Saviour Christ informeth us of Gods knowledge and fatherly love. And so the Apostle Phil. 4. 6. foreign, Be not distrustfully carefull for any thing, but in every thing let your requests by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving be made known before God. The perswasion therefore of Gods knowledge and love must not hinder us from prayer, but rather incourage us with faith and▪ affiance to call upon him. Neither do we call upon God either to inform him in that which he knoweth not, or to move him to that which he hath not purposed, but to do our duty to God and our selves: to God, in worshipping him by this exercise, and acknowledging him by prayer and thanksgiving to be the authour of all good things: to our selves, in using that means which God hath ordained for the obteining of our desires. God hath purposed and promised to give good things, not to all but to those that use the means: There is a promise of receiving and obteining, but to those that ask; of finding, but to those that seek; and of opening, but to those that knock. And moreover, as Augustine saith, the Lord would have us to exercise and increase by prayer our desire, our hope and our faith, that so we may be the more capable of those good things which God hath promised to give; For they are great, sed nos ad accipiendum parvi & angusti Epist. 121. ad Probam.sumus. Tantò quippe illud quod valde magnum sumemus capaciùs quantò & sideliùs credimus, & speramus firmi…s, & desideramus ardentiús, But we are little and strait to receive: For that which is ve…y great we take more capaciously when as we do more faithfully believe, and more firmly hope, and more ardently desire.
The second objection is taken from the decree ofObject. 2. Gods providence. For whereas we teach that all things come to passe according to the counsel of Gods will, Ephes. 1. 11. which is unchangeable because it is alwayes the best, hereupon some object that we take away the use of prayer: For if allHunnius, De Providentia. things come to passe according to the immutable counsel of God, then to pray for any thing is needlesse or bootlesse: Needlesse, if God have already appointed that which we desire: bootlesse, if he have determined the contrary; for we may not think that by our prayer we can alter his decree which cannot be changed. Answ. It mayAnsw. well be that some do thus abuse the doctrine of Gods providence, as many do to the like purpose the doctrine of predestination, falling into the erroneous conceit of the Predestinatours. For if I be elected (say they) a godly life is needlesse; if not, it is bootlesse. But the same answer will serve for both: 1. Where God hath appointed any thing as the end, he hath also preordained the means whereby it is obteined. Finis imponit necessitatem Arist. Phys. 2.his quae sunt ad finem, The end imposeth a necessity unto those means which conduce to the end. Wherefore as it is necessary in respect of Gods decree, that the end appointed shall come to passe; so is it as necessarie in respect of the same decree, that it should be obteined by the preordained me…ns whereby it is to be obteined. Now prayer is the means which God hath ordained whereby we are to obtein good things, &c. Non propter hoc oramus T…. Aquin. 2. 2. qu…. 83. 2. c.(saith Thomas) ut Divinam dispositionem immutemus, sed ut id impetremus quod Deus disposuit per orationes sanctorum esse implendum: ut, scilicet, homines postulando mereantur accipere quod iis Deus omnipotens ante secula disposuit donare: that is, We do not therefore pray that we may change the Divine disposition, but that we may obtein that which God hath disposed to be accomplished by the prayers of the Saints; to wit, that men by praying may deserve to receive that which God omnipotent hath before all times ordained to give them. 2. God in his word hath injoyned us the use of this means, and graciously promised a blessing; and therefore farre be it from us, under a pretense of conforming our selves to the secret will of God which we know not, to rebell against his will revealed which we know. 3. God in his word by his gracious promises hath revealed his will concerning those that do pray as they ought, that they shall obtein. If therefore God hath enabled thee to pray effectually, thou mayest be assured that thou shalt obtein thy desire, or that which is better: For much availeth the prayer of a righteous man: and the Jam. 5. 16. Rom. 10. 12.Lord is rich to all that call upon him. 4. Though the will and purpose of God for the granting or denying thy desire were revealed unto thee, yet were it thy dutie notwithstanding to call upon God. First, for denying by threatnings: for though God non novit mutare consilium, yet novit mutare sententiam, knoweth not to change his counsel, yet he knoweth to change his sentence. The threatnings of God are conditionally to be understood, namely if we do not use the contrary means, Ezek. 33. 11. Jer. 18. 7, 8. Jon. 3. Joel 2. 12, 13, 14. When Hezekiah was sick unto the death, the Prophet Isaiah brought this message from the Lord, Set thy house in order, for thou shalt die and not live: notwithstanding by effectuall prayer he obteined the prolonging of his life, Isa. 38. 1, 2, 5. So Judg. 10. 13, 16. Matth. 15. Secondly, For granting by petitions and promises. For Daniel though he knew by reading the prophesie of Jeremie, that the captivitie of theJer. 25. 11, 12 Jews in Babylon should continue but seventie yeares; yet when the seventy yeares were expired he thought it his dutie to beg the deliverance of the people by fasting and prayer, Dan. 9. 2, 3. To Isaac was the promise made of Seed in which all the nations should be blessed; and yet he prayeth to the Lord that he might have seed, Gen. 25. To Elias the Lord had revealed his purpose concerning rain, which Elias believed, and in the name of God promised to Ahab; and yet notwithstanding he goeth up into the mount Carmel to beg it of God: And the obteining of this rain after the long drought, though purposed and promised by God, is ascribed to the efficacie of Elias his prayers, Jam. 5. 16, 18. Conferre Acts 27. 24, 25, 31. God hath promised and purposed to give good things, sed roganti, quaerenti, pulsanti, to him that asketh, seeketh, knocketh, and not to those who tempt him in the neglect of means. See Jer. 33. 3. Luke 18. 41. Psal. 2. 8.
Moreover, the Papists object against us, that weBellarm. D… bonis operib▪ in particul. lib. 1. cap. 3. take away the efficacie of prayer in obteining remission of sinnes or any other good things. The former, because we teach that faith alone justifyeth: the latter, because we teach that the prayer which must obtein any thing proceedeth from speciall faith, which cannot be had. But more worthily the Papists may be charged for denying the efficacy of obteining remission both to faith and to prayer, which they ascribe to the Sacraments, especially of Baptisme for sinnes going before, and Penance for sinnes following after Baptisme, which they hold do free from sinne, and conferre the grace of justification ex opere operato; whereunto they require neither prayer nor faith, nor any other good motion or disposition in the party, save onelyonly that he do not ponere obicem peccati mortalis, put in the way the barre or stop of mortall sinne; affirming that the Sacraments do contein grace as vessels, and that they are physicall causes of grace, justifying by efficacie put into them by God, as the heat of fire is the cause of burning; abusing that place, Acts 22. 16. Be baptized and wash away thy sinnes, having called on the name of the Lord. But let us come to their objections. To the first I answer, That we do teach that remission of sinnes is obteined by prayer; and that to that end our Saviour hath taught us to crave remission and hath acquainted us with the example of the Publicane who by prayer obteined justification; as David, Manasseh, and the faithfull and penitent sinners in all ages have done: which hindreth not but that we are justified by faith alone. For it is not every prayer, but the prayer of faith, as S. James calleth it, which is impetratory; I say, it is the prayer of faith which by prayer obteineth pardon.
To the second: Where our Divines define faith to be a full and certain perswasion of Gods love towards us in Christ forgiving our sinnes, &c. they define it in the highest degree and perfection thereof whereunto we must alwayes aspire. But there are two principall degrees of faith: The first is an assent to the truth of Gods word, and more especially to the promises of the Gospel, assuring salvation to all that believe in Christ. This assent in the judgement to the Law and Gospel, if it be true, lively, and effectuall, worketh in the heart and will a lothing of our sinnes, a resolution to leave them, a desire of grace, and a hungring and thirsting after Christs righteousnesse, and a resolution to acknowledge Christ to be. our Saviour, and to rest upon him alone for salvation. And howsoever those who have but this degree cannot say that they are assured of forgivenesse and salvation, yet their desire of grace proceeding from this lively faith expressed in their prayer is acceptable before God, and obteineth that which is desired. Now they which have this degree must proceed to the second: For seeing the promises belong to them concerning justification and salvation, they ought to apply them to themselves. And look how sure a man may be that he believeth, that is, giveth a true and lively assent to the doctrine of the Gospel, so sure ought he to be of the remission of sinnes and salvation by Christ. And of this assurance there are degrees according to the measure of grace received.
To conclude therefore this point; We ascribe to faithfull prayer efficacie to obtein that which we desire in the name of Christ according to the will of God, and by the Scriptures do demonstrate the efficacie of prayer; which now we are to shew by the wonderfull effects which by prayer have been brought to passe.