The Doctrine of Practical Praying, Chapter 20
CHAP. XX. Of Reverence required in prayer, and Heartinesse.
THe second thing required in the heart is a reverence of the Majesty of God to whom we speak, according to Davids both advice, Psal. 2. 11. Serve the Lord with reverence, and rejoyce with trembling; and practice, Psal. 5. 7. I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy merciemercy (that is, trusting therein) and in …he fear or reverence of thee will I worship towards thy holy temple.
That we are thus to call upon God, I shall not need to prove: For if when we are to speak to a Prince, we are touched with great reverence of an earthly Majestie, how are we to be affected when we speak unto God? And if the blessed angels being in Gods presence and sounding forth his prayse, are described in the Scriptures as having six wings, whereof two pair serve to cover their face & their feet, Isa. 6. 2, 3. thereby betokening their wonderfull reverence of God; how much more should we, who inhabit these houses of clay, subject to infirmities and corrupted with sinne, be strucken with an awfull reverence of God?
If therefore we did but seriously consider, That weMeditations to stirre up reverence. are to speak vntounto God, and did set him before our eyes who is in Majestie most glorious, and therefore to be reverenced; for power omnipotent, and therefore to be feared, Luke 12. for greatnesse or infinitenesse rather in every place, and therefore present with us to heare what we say and to behold what we do; for knowledge omniscient and a searcher of the heart, and therefore throughly acquainted with what disposition and affection we do come before him; for holinesse and justice a most pure Spirit, and therefore will be worshiped in spirit & truth; finally, who is, as Malachi speaketh, our Father, and therefore to be reverenced; our Lord, and therefore to be feared, chap. 1. 6. If, I say, we did set him before our eyes, and our selves in his presence (as we ought alwayes to do, but especially when we call upon him) it cannot be but that we shall be touched with great reverence of his glorious Majestie, and therefore shall behave our selves accordingly, doing speaking thinking nothing but that which may become his presence, and whereof we may be bold to admit him to be the hearer and the judge; all light behaviour, all wandring thoughts being far removed and abandoned, and we for the time being elevated above all earthly cogitations and having our conversation in heaven, supposing (as Chrysostome saith) our selves to be in the midst of the Angels, and performing the like exercise with them.
You see our duty: But what is our practice? Do no we vile wretches when we present our selves before the Lord behave our selves many times with lesse reverence or regard then if we were speaking to a mortall man that is our supe…iour? Insomuch that we hold it for good advice, (as indeed it is, respecting our weaknes) In such sort to speak to men as if God did heare us, so to speak to God as if man did heare us. And is not this an evidence that we are ca…nall, that our hearts are affected with no more then our senses apprehend, and that we want those eyes of faith which Moses had, Heb. 11. 27. whereby we might be moved to behave our selves in the presence of God as seeing him that is invisible.
Now to move us both to humilitie and reverence, let us consider, as Solomon adviseth Eccles 5. 1, 2. that God to whom we speak is in the heaven, full of majestie and power; (which consideration our Saviour also teacheth us to have in the beginning of our prayer, Matth. 6. 9.) and we which do speak are on the earth, base and vile, not onelyonly in respect of our mould, being but dust and ashes, but especially in respect of our sinnes, whereby we have made our selves unworthy to appear in his presence. And unto both these we are excited Psal. 95. which is prefixed as a preparative to our Liturgie, v. 6. Come let us worship and fall down, let us kneel before the Lord our maker: For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hands.
The third thing is heartinesse, devotion, or ardourOf heartinesse, ferven cie, and devotion r… quired in prayer. of the mind, when we are throughly affected with those things whereof we speak, calling upon God with our whole hearts. For if that be good counsel which the wise Solomon giveth, That what we do we do it with all our might, Eccles 9. 10. it is especially to be followed in prayer, wherein we are not to be cold or careless…. This heartinesse in prayer, is servencie or earnestnesse of desire; in thanksgiving, alacritie and chearfulnesse: the former arising from the sense of our want, the latter from the sense and experience of Gods goodnesse towards us: And it is that which giveth wings to our prayers, and causeth them to ascend before God: This is called li…ting up our prayer, Isai. 37. 4. Jer. 7. 16.
Here therefore two things are to be avoided: The first is coldnesse; when men call upon God without sense either of their wants in prayer, or of Gods blessings in thanksgiving; calling upon God for fashion or custome sake, usu mag…s quàm sensu orantes, praying rather out of use then sense. Such a prayer wanting lively affections is dead, and therefore counterfeit and hypocriticall, and a mere bodily worship. For this is to call upon God with our mouthes but not with our hearts; this is to pray without desire, and to give thanks without grace in our hearts. The other is taedium in orando, wearinesse in praying; That is, when mens hearts being set on other matters, all time that is bestowed in prayer is thought too long: and therefore the prayer as it is unwillingly begun so is it wearisomely performed, the end of the prayer many times being more desired then the end for which prayer was ordained. But our invocation must be as a free-willoffering, and our service of God must be performed with a willing mind: neither is that to be accounted a service of the soul which is without either the understanding (as I said before) or the will.