The Great Duty of Self-Resignation to the Divine Will, Section 2 · Chapter 2
CHAP. II. That humble and fervent prayer is a necessary and effectual means to the attaining the grace of Self-Resignation.
II. IN the second place, Being humbled in a deep sense of thy Irresignation and Disobedience, (wherein thou hast hitherto walked to the hurt and danger of thy Soul) beg of God this high and holy temper of Soul. This one thing desire thou of God, and seek after it all thy days.
Humble and holy Prayer is one of the greatest helps to the obtaining of any grace or good thing from God. Let us then carefully apply our selves to him for this great blessing; it being such a one as none but himself can give; and he who is our Father in Heaven, the Father of mercies, will give this, and all good things to them that ask him.
If any of you lack wisdom (saith S. Iames) let him ask of God, chap. i. 5.that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not: and it shall be given him. Now this Resignation of our wills to the Will of God is the highest point of wisdom; and this sort of wisedom is particularly meant in the Text, as appears by the foregoing verses.
But then our Prayers must be with fervency and in faith.
First, They must be fervent. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much: James v. 16. Not cold and languid desires, or faint wishes.
But we are not to judge of the true fervency of Prayer by the heat of the head or phansie, but by the heat of the heart and the ardency of our affections. My heart (saith David) foreign boils or bubbles forth a good matter. We are to judge thereof by the passionateness and earnestness of our desires, not by any thing that is obvious to sense, not by the loudness or length of Prayer, (be it without or with a form of words) though it were as long as that prayer of Baals Priests, from morning to noon, or as that prayer among the Papists of fourty hours, by which they amuse the weak and injudicious in spiritual things.
There may be as much, yea more, of the Spirit of Prayer, when there are no words at all. There are times when the Spirit maketh intercession with groanings that cannot be uttered, affections too quick and strong for expressions, and which would cool, if put into words. Thus Hannah spake in her heart to God, her voice was not heard, but she poured out her Soul before the Lord; and God heard, who knoweth the secrets of the heart, and the mind of the Spirit. These inward breathings of the Soul are ever very precious to God, and find favour with him.
When a Soul prayeth out of a deep sense and feeling of its wants, and is full of affectionate breathings after God, and hath the most ardent and inflamed desires after Spiritual things, this is true praying with fervency, and in the Holy Ghost. And the silence of the Soul is louder, and much sooner reacheth the ears of the Almighty, than the greatest loudness and volubility of speech.
If we would therefore obtain this best and most divine of all blessings, let us pray for it with the greatest ardour of affection: we may be assured that God will never cast away so rich a Pearl as this, upon those that declare themselves insensible of its worth, by asking it in a cold and formal manner.
And the more to excite and quicken our desires after it, let us know, that if God accepts our prayers, and gives us this holy temper of Spirit, he doth infinitely more for us than what Herod promised the daughter of Herodias. If he gives thee this Empire over thine own Will, he bestows that on thee which incomparably excells the greatest earthly Kingdom. The Kingdom of God (as hath been said) is then within us here, and we are thereby made meet for his Kingdom of Glory hereafter. And who that duly considers this, can be flat and heavy in his prayers for this Grace?
Secondly, Our Prayers must be also in Faith. Thus S. Iames tells us we must ask this Spiritual Wisdom, in the following verse: But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering—That is, we must believe that as God is able, so he is as willing and ready to give us what we ask, if we ask according to his will, as S. Iohn qualifies it, 1 Ep. v. 14. And it is according to his Will, and pleaseth him highly that we ask Spiritual Wisdom.
This Faith is the ground of all address to God, Heb. xi. 6. He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. And this he will assuredly be in his own time, which is always the best. God may sometimes make as if he did not hear, that we may seek him more diligently and pray more fervently, that he may prove our patience and just valuation of his blessings, and that we may be the more thankful for them when we have them, prize them the more, and improve them the better; but if we persevere in earnest and believing praying, we shall undoubtedly in due time obtain. And as for such spiritual good things as are necessary to Salvation, we are to pray for them with such a faith, as to assure our selves that God will give them, if we ask aright; his most gracious nature and promises assuring us that he cannot deny them to such askers.