Oh the heavenly fire, the holy fervency that was in Daniel's closet prayer 1 ' O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do, defer not for thine own sake,' Dan. ix. 19. Look, as there be two kinds of antidotes against poison, viz., hot and cold, so there are two kinds of anti- dotes against all the troubles of this life, viz., fervent prayers and holy patience : the one hot, the other cold ; the one quickening, and the other quenching, and holy Daniel made use of them both. Fervency to prayer, is as the fire was to the spices in the censer, or as wings to the bird, or as oil to the wheels; and this Daniel found by experience. God looks not for any James with horny knees, through assiduity of prayer; nor for any Bartholomew with a century of prayers for the morning, and as many for the evening; but for fervency of spirit in prayer, which alone carries all with God. Feeble prayers, like weak pangs, go over, and never brings a mercy to the birth. Cold prayers are still-born children, in whom the Father of spirits can take no pleasure. Look, as a painted man is no man, and as painted fire is no fire; so a cold prayer is no prayer. Such prayers never win upon the heart of God that do not first warm our own hearts. As a body with- out a soul, much wood without a fire, a bullet in a gun without powder; so are all prayers without fervency of spirit.
Luther terms prayer homharda Christianorum, the gun or cannon of Christians, or the Christian's gun-shot.
The hottest springs send forth their waters by ebullitions. Cold prayers make a smoke, a smother in the eyes of God. Lazy prayers never procure noble answers ; lazy beggars may starve for all their begging, Isa. i. 15, and Ixv. 5.
Such as have a male in their flock, and offer to the Lord a female ; such as offer to the Lord the torn, and the lame, and the sick ; such as turn off God with their cold, lazy, sleepy, and formal devotions, are condemned, cast, and cursed by God, Mai. i. 13, 14. David compares his prayers to incense, and no incense was offered without fire, Ps. cxli. 2 ; it was that that made the smoke of it to ascend. It is only fervent prayer that hits the mark, and that pierces the walls of heaven, though, like those of Gaza, Isa. xlv. 2, made of brass and iron. While the child only whimpers and whines in the cradle, the mother lets it alone ; but
» Doi:. Don. fol. p. 622, Gen. xviii. 22, 23. [Query— Dr Donne? Of. Sermon on Qeuesis xviii. 25. — G.
Ji60 THE PRIVY KEY OF HEAVEN. [MAT. VL 6.
when once it sets up its note, and cries outright, then she runs and takes it up. So it is with a Christian : Fs. xxxiv. 6, ' This poor man cried.' Tliere is his fervency, he cried; but it was silently and secretly, in the presence of King Achish, as Moses did at the Red Sea. and as Nehemiah did in the presence of the king of Persia. ' And the Lord heard him, and delivered him out of all his troubles ;' here is his pre- valency. So Latimer plied the throne of grace with great fervency, crying out, ' Once again, Lord, once again restore the gospel to Eng- land,' and God heard him.*
Hudson the martyr, deserted at the stake, went from under his chain, and having prayed fervently, he was comforted immediately, and suf- fered valiantly.^
I have road of one Giles of Bruxels, a Dutch martyr, who was so fer- vent in his prayer, kneeling by himself in some secret place of the prison where he was, that he seemed to forget himself; and being called to his meat, he neither heard nor saw who stood by him, till he was lifted up by the arms, and then he would speak gently to them, as one awaked out of a trance.^
So Gregory Nazianzen, speaking of his sister Gorgonia, saith, that, in the vehemency of her prayer, she came to a religious impudency with God, so as to threaten heaven, and tell God that she would never depart from his altar till she had her petition granted.*
Let us make it our business to follow these noble examples, as ever we would so prince it in prayer as to prevail with God. An importu- nate soul in prayer is like the poor beggar, that prays and knocks, that prays and waits, that prays and works, that knocks and knits,^ that begs and patches, and will not stir from the door till he hath an alms. Well, friends, remember this, God respects no more lukewarm prayers than he doth lukewarm persons, and they are such that he hath threat- ened to spue out of his mouth. Those prayers that are but lip-labour are lost labour; and therefore, in all your closet prajers, look to the fer- vency of your spirits.
(7.) My seventh advice and counsel is this. Be constant, as ivell as fervent, in closet-prayer. Look that you hold on and hold out, and that you persevere to the end in private prayer: 1 The.s. v. 17, * Pray without cea.sing.' A man must always pray habitually, though not actually ; he must have his heart in a praying disposition in all estates and conditions. Though closet-prayer may have an intermission, yet it must never have a cessation : Luke xviii. 1, 'And he spake a parable unto them, to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint,' or, as the Greek hath it, eKxaKiT^, not to shrink back, as sluggards in work, or cowards in war. Closet-prayer is a fire like that on the altar, that was never to go out, day nor night: 1 Thes. iii. 10, 'Night and day praying exceedingly/ Paul speaks like a man made up all of prayer, like a man that minded nothing so much as prayer : so Eph. vi. 18, ' Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance.' Calvin makes this difference between 'praying always' in the beginning of this verse, and 'praying with perseverance' in the end of this verse: 'By praying always,'
• Clarke, as before. Foxe, tub nomine. — G. * Ibid — G. ^ Ibid. — G.
* Puuliu. Epist. lib. i. Epist. 4. ^ Hee Glostary lor other uses of this wurd. — G.
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