no warrant of Scripture but rather contrary thereunto CHAP. V. Some uncommon Considerations to stir you up to the Holy exercise of Prayer THere is not any one part of Religious Worship which is more strictly commanded by the Laws of God or more highly recommended by the practice of Holy Men than that of Prayer This carries with it the greater Beauty and Lustre and in all respects is of greatest use and benefit And yet notwithstanding all this there are not many things wherein perhaps you may find your self more indifferent cool and unactive than in Prayer And therefore the better to quicken you up to this Sacred Office I here present you with some less obvious Considerations to that purpose And 1. Consider that by your diligence in Prayer and constant calling upon God you become his Remembrancer and suffer him not to be unmindful of you And indeed he can no more be forgetful of such as importune him with their Prayers than a Mother can forget her sucking Child But if a Mother should be so unnatural as to stop her ears to the Infants cry yet God will hearken unto the cry of his Children and give them if not what they particularly desire yet what he knows to be most for their good It is not safe for you to conclude of his kindness towards you by his not speedily granting your Requests For they that are dearest to him may oftentimes with great difficulty work out those blessings which fall into the Mouths of the Careless And the Wise disposer of all things knows it fit to hold his best Servants short of those Favours which they sue for but then it is for the tryal of their Faith or the exercise of their Patience or the encrease of their Importunity or the doubling of their Obligation And when he withholds his Benefits for a while from his humblest Suppliants yet he does not forget them However if he were capable of forgetting any one as he is not and especially of those that pray unto him yet frequent application is of the like nature with the importunity we use to one another when we want to be reminded and have our Memory refresh'd It is holding such a continual converse with God as humbly to let him know as Jacob did the Angel with whom he strove that we will not suffer him to leave till he is graciously pleas'd to bless us 2. All pious Christians according to S. Paul have their conversation in Heaven Phil. 3.20 Matth. 6.20 21. it is their Property and Glory to live here below as if they were above they bend all their Thoughts and Desires principally to Heaven and tho' their Bodies are on Earth yet their Affections are where Christ sits at the right hand of God Now there is no readier way for you to have your Conversation in Heaven than by continually sending up your Soul thither in fervent Prayer For by this you pierce the Clouds and have access to the throne of Divine Mercy and hold correspondence with the Almighty Maker and Governor of the Universe When your Soul is not press'd down with earthly heavy Affections but by a pure and holy Life becomes light and Ethereal then it nimbly mounts up to the things on high and may be said to soar above the low creeping Concerns of this impure World and to have its Conversation in Heaven And by the force of pious Desires it ascends to the blessed Mansions above whence you look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ And if this be fully consider'd 't will be enough to endear Devotion to your choice and to oblige your care of so Seraphic a performance In the Third place Consider that at the last general Judgment your Prayers shall come up for a memorial before God and be both acknowledged and rewarded by him Then will the Judge of the whole Earth own all devout Souls for his and in the most literal sense make good what ought as far as in us lies to be daily verified in this World That he is greatly to be feared in the Assembly of the Saints and to be had in Reverence of all those that are round about him In the Sacred History of the Acts of the Apostles you read of Cornelius a Proselyte of the Jews one who worshipped the true God tho' uncircumcis'd That he gave much alms to the poor and pray'd to God alway Acts 10. He was charitable and bountiful to the indigent and a constant observer of the set times of Prayer And his Alms and Prayers were so pleasing to God that they brought down no ordinary blessing upon him for of a Jewish Proselyte God made him a Christian Convert By which single instance you may discern the particular regard Heaven has for those who conscientiously observe slated Times of Prayer and joyn Works of Charity with Devotion That such are blessed of the Lord and shall not fail of reaping the Fruit thereof in due season if they faint not Consider in the last place the singular satisfaction which from Prayer accrews to the best and worthiest Powers of your Soul All thinking men observe That the Understanding and Will which are your principal Faculties meet with a sensible Pleasure and Content when they are employ'd about the noblest of their proper Objects Now Truth is the most proper object of the Understanding and God is the noblest Truth and seeing that in Prayer the Mind is employ'd in the Contemplation of him it cannot miss of Delight and Pleasure nor fares it otherwise with the Will the proper Object whereof is what we call Good either real or in appearance Now in Prayer the Will is suppos'd to be fixt upon God who is Goodness it self all those Excellencies which are scatter'd among the Creatures and denominate them to be good and all which put together are but few and small in comparison of the supreme Good do all concentre in a superlative degree in him to whom we pray so that the mind must needs receive a sensible delight as being thereby conversant about the most excellent of the things that properly belong to them But besides all this there is a great satisfaction accrewing to the Soul through the means of Prayer by reason of that pious Familiarity which therein it enjoys with God Can there be a greater satisfaction to your Rational part than to have the liberty of unloading all your Perplexities and Fears Scruples and Doubts into the bosom of the Almighty Is it possible that any thing should bring more ease to a pained Mind than freely to make known unto the Lord not only your Frailties but even your worst wilful Sins and that too with assurance of their Remission if they are truly repented of and entirely forsaken That God the only Maker Preserver and Universal Monarch of the World should admit sinful Dust and Ashes to approach him and in Prayer to converse with him is not only the highest Satisfaction and Contentment but the greatest Dignity and
concerning Matters of highest importance in a grave and learned Assembly Will he not rather if he may choose to come prepared and compose and weigh every Word and Period before he ventures to speak lest he expose himself by any rude and indigested Expression this would be but a becoming Piece of Respect at least and the want of it be condemn'd as no small Presumption Now in the case before us the reason of the thing is only so much stronger than it can be put in any worldly Concerns as there is so much more of awe due to the Person we are to speak to and the Business we come upon is of far greater Moment than any thing that is meerly Temporal can pretend to You that Fray are but a Worm Dust a Shadow a Bubble Nothing nay worse sinful polluted and abominable He to whom you Pray is the Lord of Heaven and Earth who is able eternally to destroy your Soul and Body in Hell The things you may Pray for are not of an inferiour but of the greatest Moment even the Salvation of your Soul Grace in this Life and Glory in the next And when you have maturely consider'd these things I leave you to make your own Conclusion as to the Preparation now spoken of And whether Reason do's not convince you of its Necessity But if your great Oracle Reason were Dumb in this case yet the Scriptures are plain and express to the purpose They teach you not to come before God without having first fitted your self for so dreadful a Presence And this you may collect from God's Command to Aaron which was that neither he nor his Sons should Enter upon Divine Service till they had wash't their hands and feet in the Laver appointed for that end Exod. 4. A Ceremony that among other things did certainly imply that all ought Piously to compose and order themselves for the Celebration of Religious Doubts and to put away all Filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit e're they did enter upon so Momentous a Solemnity You read in Esay 1. that God would not look upon Israel when they spread out their hands unto him which was an ancient manner of Praying nor hearken when they made many Prayers because their Hands were full of Blood and their Actions full of Injustice But if they would wash and make themselves clean and put away the evil of their doings and retract their faults then he would incline his Ear to their Supplications and be found of them when they sought unto him But till this was done all their Sacrifices Prayers and Oblations were to no purpose Whilst Israel lov'd to wander and would not refrain their feet whilst they continued in their Vices and would not give over their wicked Courses God did not only reject their own Prayers but also the Prayers that others made in their behalf For he positively forbad the Prophet to pray for them Jer. 7.16 and 14.12 11. Declaring that he would not hear their Cry when they Fasted nor accept them when they offer'd Burnt Offerings and Oblations And those Cruel Princes that pluck't the Skin of the People and the Flesh from their Bones who chopt them in pieces for the Pot and as flesh for the Caldron when they cry'd unto the Lord he would not hear them because they were wicked in their doings Mich. 3.2 3 4. Though they cry in mine ears saith the Lord with a loud voice yet I will not hear them Ezek. 8.18 Mine eye shall not spare neither will I have pity You have then no hope that God should accept your Services whilst you continue Impenitent Your Heart must be furnish'd with sincere Piety if you expect your Prayers should be regarded in God's sight or that any other part of Worship should be seasonable and welcom to him Without Repentance all the Religious Acts you can possibly execute are but Illusion and Hypocrisie inward Wickedness hidden under the Cloak and Visard of outward Sanctity Till therefore you give Glory to God by a free Confession of your Sins and by a lively Conversion fly to his Mercy you can neither feel the effects of Pardon nor the acceptation of your Prayers Whilst your Silver is Dross and your Wine mixt with Water whilst your Life and Actions that should be Pure continue Corrupt and Degenerate all you do in Religion in stead of Appeasing will incense the Divine Displeasure CHAP. VII Preparation to Prayer practised by the Jews c. AND what is now spoken concerning this Preparation is no novel or upstart Doctrine but an ancient Orthodox Truth Taught and Practis'd by Men of all Religions and rejected by none but the Lewd and Miscreant And first as to the Antient Jews Aristaeus reports that it was their Custom to Wash before they Pray'd Hist 72. And the modern Jews living in the Eastern Countries observe the same custom of Washing as a Preparative to Prayer and reading the Shemaah And no doubt they do this in imitation of the Priests who enter'd not upon performing any Religious Office in the Sanctuary unless they had first Wash'd And it was with respect to this Custom that David would not come to the Altar till he had washt his Hands in Innocency that is till he had prepared himself to Worship God being well assur'd that he was not worthy to receive the Divine Protection or any gracious Answer to the Prayers wherein he did not joyn Purity to Devotion and had a Heart as clean as the Hands he had washt And that his Thoughts and Actions were as purified as his Body And tho' it was common with the Jews in any solemn Business to wash their Hands in protestation of their Innocency yet this Ceremony was especially used before they said their Prayers Which shew'd the great esteem they had for that Duty and that they thought it of such Holiness and Purity as that it could not be rightly perform'd without a Preparation answerable thereunto And this you may further collect from the several Rules prescrib'd by the Rabbins to be observ'd by the Jews when they come to Pray And 1. The Masters forbad any to enter the Temple with Shooes on their Feet Which Prohibition they founded on those Words of God to Moses Exod. 3.5 Put thy shooes off thy feet for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground which command was also given to Joshua 5.15 by the captain of the Lords host God does not bid them to put off their Shooes as if the Ground whereon they stood were Holy by an internal or perpetual Quality but because of God's Presence which he was pleas'd at that time in that place in a more especial manner to exhibit And from this injunction given to these two Worthies Solomon likely gave that General Rule namely that every one should take heed to his Feet when he enter'd the House of God Which Text the Targum explains thus Thou Son of Man take heed to thy Feet when thou entrest into the Sanctuary to
on whom you ought to cast all your Cares as being well assur'd that he careth for you And this I conceive was meant by S. Paul when he exhorted the Phillippians that in their Devotions they should be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplications with thanksgiving to make their requests known unto God Phil. 4.6 The Soul of it self is nimble and active and in an instant can mount up to Heaven in Prayer which is therefore call'd an Elevation of the Soul Psal 25.1 But Earthly-mindedness keeps it fluttering below and fastens its Affections to the Dust which does so clog them that they cannot aspire to the things above You are therefore to take off the Weights which the World hangs upon your Thoughts and which distract them in your Supplications For whilst you cherish immoderate Desires of the World they will either hinder you from Praying at all or from Praying as you ought III. Idleness and Sloth may be another occasion of the wandring of your Thoughts in Prayer For perhaps you will not take pains to suppress and correct the Extravagances of your Thoughts and to keep them within due Bounds and Measures By which neglect your Soul becomes like the field of the slothful and the vineyard of the man void of understanding which was all grown over with thorns and nettles had covered the face thereof and the stone-wall thereof was broken down But to whatever occasion the wandring of your Thoughts in Prayer may be imputed it highly concerns you industriously to avoid them And in a great measure you may be able to do this if you use that due attention and zeal in Prayer which you must own to be wholly requisit and needful And first you must use all due Attention for by it you fix your Thoughts upon God and frame to your self a strong and lively Idea of his Presence and possess your heart with awful apprehensions of his Majesty Ever having in mind that your Prayer is to him in whom you live move and have your being When the Jews enter the Synagogue they for a while stand silently in the posture of Prayer before they begin it in which time they labour to affect their minds with his Glorious Attributes Buxtorf Syn. Jud. l. 5. whom they are come to Worship that the Consideration thereof may help the better to keep them from being vain and trifling And one of their Masters taught his Scholars that before they began their Prayers They should think a while on him to whom they make them And it would doubtless much contribute to the restraint and amendment of that wandring in Prayer to which you will find your self wonderfully prone to consider in whose Presence you are and the infinite disproportion that there is betwixt God and you For you can no sooner consider that it is God to whom you speak in Prayer but the Thought thereof will quicken your Attention and render you apprehensive and make you in a dread and surprize if you find your self heedless and unconcern'd in so Important a Business and in so Great a Presence Secondly Attention is a proper cure for wandring in Prayer because it keeps your Mind and Thoughts to every sentence and word thereof For that Attention which is to accompany Prayer is a settled and composed Temper of Mind which gathers all your Thoughts together and fixes them upon the Solemn Business you are about And tho' Idle Impertinent Wandring Thoughts will be ever ready to thrust themselves upon you and intrude into your Holy Offices so that you cannot be always totally free from them yet by Attention you may much hinder and keep them from making any stay or getting the Dominion over you so far as to corrupt or captivate the Will So that notwithstanding that this Wandring to which you are liable may be your Unhappiness yet it can never be your Sin as long as you strive against it and deny it your Approbation and Consent And tho' you can never entirely conquer this Wandring of your Thoughts in Prayer yet you may restrain and deal with it as Abraham with the ravenous Birds which he continually Drove away when they came to devour his Sacrifice Gen. 15.11 Causinus who was no contemptible Director of Devotion advises his Suppliant to stay upon every Sentence in Vocal Prayer the space of a breathing and in that time to ponder the Words he pronounces and to consider the Person to whom he speaks and his own Unworthiness He would likewise have him so to apply the Prayer as if it had been made for his own particular use and to espouse all the Affections which the Composer of the Prayer had when the Holy Ghost moved him to compose it and assisted him in the Composition But your want of Attention will hinder you from the observation of this advice and will also hinder God from regarding your Prayers For can you expect God should attend to the Prayers to which you do not attend your self Can you hope that he with a Paternal kindness and affection should open his Ears to those who are not serious before him If at the same time you call to Heaven your Thoughts are so set upon Earthly concerns so that when you have done Praying you scarce know what you have been doing is not this to offer the sacrifice of Fools Who are rash with their mouth and hasty in their heart to utter any thing before God not considering that he is in the heavens and they on the earth Eccles 5.2 You are not then to run over your Prayers by Rote but with recollected Thoughts to Weigh and be Attentive to what you say unto him with whom is Terrible Majesty and who is a consuming Fire Thirdly 'T would not a little conduce to your exercise of Attention in Prayer if you would consider that the Perfection of your Prayers is according to the degrees of your Attention and that the more Attentive you are in Prayer the greater benefit you receive by it And here one way to mend your Attention is to repeat the Prayer again wherein you have found it defective and to continue this course till you find your heedlesness worn off and removed For by this means you will defeat the Devil who occasions your unattentiveness by injecting wicked Thoughts into your mind and presenting you with amusing objects But it would be Satans interest to give over tempting you thus to Wander in Prayer if once he finds your sense of it arming you against such Wandring and quickning your Attention and rendring you more circumspect Now this Repetition comes not within the compass of that which our Lord censur'd for vain and idle Matth. 6.7 For in this case you do not repeat your Prayers over and over out of a conceit that God will the sooner be mov'd to hear you or that by your Repetition he better understands your meaning which was the Opinion of those Heathens whose Repetition of their Prayers was
now recommend as an excellent help against the wandring of your thoughts in Prayer Which is a fault whereof you can not be guilty when you pray with spiritual Affection with ardent Desire with a fervent Mind and with a Heart inflam'd with that Zeal which the Holy Ghost kindles in it God regards not the Prayers which you offer when you do not stir up your Affections and chafe your desires and move your mind into a warmth The Great Ruler of the world will not listen to cold luke-warm Devotions Such Prayers can never reach Heaven which want Zeal and Love the only Wings that should carry them thither Be careful then when you approach God to raise up your Soul to the highest pitch of Zeal and Earnestness that you are able And because that of your self you are not able to do this beseech the Divine Omnipotence to inflame your Heart with the heavenly fire of Devotion and when it is obtain'd beware of quenching it with wilful sin or letting it go out again for want of fuel or stirring up and imploying it And there want no Motives to beget in you this Fervency in Prayer when you consider God's wonderful kindness and carry the thoughts thereof through your whole Devotion For to think that he is not only good by Nature but also in communicating his Benefits That he is ready upon your Repentance to blot out your transgressions and to be merciful to your Sins Such Thoughts as these are good inward motives to raise your heart into Zeal When you lift up your voice and call upon the Lord either in his house or your own And First when you come to the Lord's house to joyn in publick Prayers you have a good opportunity to shew your Earnestness and Zeal God has Promis'd a special blessing to the joynt Requests which the Faithful make in his House and that He will be in the midst of them and bestow his Mercies and set marks of Favour on them when they meet together in the unity of the spirit and in the bond of peace And your absence from the Publick Prayers cannot be excus'd without an important occasion for if it be wilful and deliberate you cut your self off from the Church and from the partaking of those Prayers wherein all are in common concern'd And by this means you inflict a punishment upon your self even a sort of Excommunication which is never inflicted by the Church but in case of the most heinous offences The same Zeal and Attention are also requisite in the Prayers made in your Family which are a sort of Common-Prayers because all the Members of the Houshold joyn therein And it belongs to the Master of the Family carefully to provide for this office and to see nothing be wanting for the welfare of their Souls who are under his Government For the Family is Heathenish where God is not worshipt and where the Master does not resolve with Joshua That he and his house will serve the Lord. Josh 24.15 And as to the Prayers you make apart when you are solus cum solo and have no witness of what you do but only God and your Conscience yet because that even here you are subject to Wandring and Distraction as well as you are in company you have need of the same Zeal and Attention to correct it In your private Devotions you may be more particular according to your personal Necessities and you may use therein a greater freedom both in words and gestures than you can in publick But still the Devotion of the Heart is therein requir'd as being that which God principally regards And as it is your duty to perform all these sorts of Prayers so it is likewise your duty to be Zealous and Attentive at them all Prayer in your Family and Closet will not excuse your Prayer at Church all are requir'd all are necessary and one must not be taken in exchange for the other And whosoever is diligent in publick Prayer and yet negligent in private it is to be fear'd he rather seeks to approve himself to men than to God Which is contrary to the mind of our Saviour who commands you to Pray to God in secret and from him alone to expect your Reward and not from the vain praises of Men. You have been often told That Prayer is that part of divine worship which the Soul is to pay unto the Lord and you have also been told with what Circumspection it ought to be perform'd Give me leave to conclude this particular with observing that tho' Prayer be a spiritual duty and the proper business of the Soul yet the Body has its share and part therein For both being God's workmanship and purchase both ought to give him homage and observance Now the observance the Body ought to pay unto God in Prayer consists in such lowly decent and reverent gestures as may testify the humility and reverence of the Soul Bowing prostration and the like external acts of Religious Worship are a particular right belonging to God before whom you are to fall down and kneel for he is your maker your shepherd your protector The Royal Author of the 95. Psalm does affectionately call upon every one joyntly to adore worship and pray unto God and to make the members of the Body the partners and witnesses of the real devotion of the Heart and to joyn inward and outward reverence together That the submissive and lowly gestures of the Body may serve to express and signifie the sincere humility of the Soul For tho' the humblest external bodily gestures are the least considerable thing in Prayer as having little or no proportion to the necessary dispositions of the Soul yet they are of such moment that if you pray without them it looks as if you did not consider or know what a weighty business you are about nor had a sense of God's Dignity or of your own Vileness But in these bodily Gestures you are carefully to avoid whatsoever is vain fantastical and superstitious and to keep within the bounds of decency and prudence And your gestures being thus conducted they will help to heighten inward Devotion in your self and be an happy means to raise the Devotion of others But I leave the farther prosecution of this particular to consider of the Frequency you ought to use in Prayer CHAP. XII Of Frequency in Prayer THough Prayer be a Duty which you are never to neglect yet there is not any Text in Scripture that determines how often you are to use it The Inspired Word positively commands you to call upon God but it has left it to your Conscience how frequently you are to do it The Scripture that is most peremptory in this particular is 1 Thes 5.17 where S. Paul exhorts to Pray without ceasing By which Text you are certainly obliged to these two things viz. 1. Not to grow restive in Prayer but therein to be constant and persevering it being an homage you are to pay