[2.] The second requisite. The second requisite in prayer is this, viz.. The matter of your prayer must he good : 1 John v. 1 4, ' And this is the confidence that we have in him. That if we ask anything ac- cording to his will, he heareth us.' The favourites of heaven have no further the ear of the King of kings in prayer, than the matter of their prayer is good, and ' agreeable to his will,' E,om. viii. 27. The matter of your prayer must fall under some particular or general precept or promise, or else God will never own it nor honour it with acceptance. You must not pray as Augustine prayed before his conversion ; he prayed for continency, with a proviso : ' Lord, give me eontinency,' saith he, ' but not yet.'^ Such hypocrisy is double iniquity, and God will deal with such sinners accordingly.*
[3.] Tlie third requisite. Thirdly, As the matter of your prayer must be good, so the manner of your prayer must be right. God re- gards not so much the matter as the manner of our prayer. ** God loves adverbs better than nouns ; not to pray only, but to pray well. Non bonum, sed bene agere, not to do good, but to do it well.
Now for the better and further clearing of this truth, I shall shew you, by divine assistance, what it is to pray in the right manner, and that I shall do in the following particulars :
First, To pray in a right manner, is to pray under standingly, to pray knowingly : 1 Cor. xiv. 15, ' I will pray with understanding.' He that doth not pray understandingly, doth not pray but prate ; as that
manner ; as, first, mental prayer, which is the inward lifting up of the heart to God ; secondly, vocal, which is uttered by words, as the publican, ' God be merciful to me a sinner ;' tliirdly, there is conceived prayer, and prescribed prayer ; fourthly, there is public or private prayer. These hints may suflice as to this. » Diog. Laert, i. 82-88 ; Plut., Sol. iv G.
2 Quid prodest voce invocare, quern operibus negas ? — Jerome. What availeth it to invocate him with thy voice, whom thou deniest in thy works ?
' Confessions, b. viii, 27, et alibi. — G.
* lt<was both a profane and blasphemous speech of that atheistical wretch, that told God he was no common beggar, he never troubled him before with prayer, and if he would hear him that time, he would never trouble him again. — Heil. Mic. p. 876.
492 HEAVEN ON EARTH. [ROM. VIII. 32-34.
parrot in Rome that could distinctly say over the whole creed : John iv. 22, ' Ye worship ye know not what/ says Christ. So many pray they know not what. ' Without knowledge the mind cannot be good,' Prov. xix. 2. And can the prayer be good when the mind is bad ? A blind mind, a blind sacrifice, a blind priest, are abominable to God.^ It was a good saying of one, ' God heareth not the words of one that prayeth,' saith he, ' unless he that prayeth heareth them first himself And, verily, God will never understand that prayer that we do not un- derstand ourselves.
Secondly, To pray in a right manner, is to pi^ay believingly ;* Heb. xi. 6, * He that cometh unto God, must believe that he is ;' that is, that he is really as good, as gracious, as glorious, as excellent, as constant, &c., as his word reports him to be ; and that he is ' a rewarder of them that diligently seek him :' Mark xi. 24, ' Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.' In the Greek it is Xafi^anri, in the present tense, ' ye do receive them,' to shew the certainty of receiving them. You shall as certainly receive the good things that believingly you ask in prayer, as if you had them already in your hand. God will never let the hand of faith go empty away in prayer. Faith is God's darling, and he never fails to give it a worthy portion, a Benjamin's portion, a Hannah's portion, a double portion : James i. 5-7, ' If any of you lack wisdom, let him avsk of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and up- braideth not ; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering : for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind, and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.' He that prayeth doubtingly, shuts the gates of heaven against his own prayers.^
It is reported in the life of Luther, that when he prayed it was tarda reverentia ut si Deo, et tantafiducia ut si amico, with so much reve- rence, as if he were praying to God ; and with so much boldness, as if he had been speaking to his friend. Faith in prayer makes a man divinely familiar and bold with God in prayer. That prayer that hath not the image and stamp of faith upon it, is no prayer in divine account. The sweetest flowers of paradise are only acceptable to God as they are ten- dered to him by the hand of faith.
Augustus, when a poor man came to present a petition to him with his hand shaking and trembling out of fear, the emperor was much dis- pleased, and said, ' It is not fit that any should come with a petition to a king as if a man were giving meat to an elephant ;' that is, afraid to be destroyed by him.
Verily Jehovah loves to see every one of his petitioners to come to him with a stedfast faith, and not with a trembling hand. Christ gets most glory, and the soul gets most good, by those prayers that are ac- companied with the actings of faith.
' Ignorai sane inqmibut omnia, saith Aristotle, ignorance is the source of all sin, th» very well-spring from which all wickedness doth issue.
' The philosopher could say, Qui titnide rogat, docet negate. He that eraveth fearfully, draweth on a denial. One of the ancients describes prayer thus : it is, saith he, AscentuM mentis ad Deum, a climbing up of the heart to God, which cannot be done but by th« power of faith.
* Unbelief is virtually all ill ; therefore fight especially against it.
EOM. VIII. 32-34.] HEAVEN ON EARTH. 493