But how sliall I do to get my ends right in praj'er ?
It is a necessary question ; nothing maketh a man see the necessity of the divine help and concurrence to the word of prayer so much as this. To act for a holy end require! h the presence of the Spirit of grace ; supernatural acts need supernatural strength. It is true in these inward productions ' that which is of the flesh is flesh ; ' water cannot rise higher than its fountain ; bare nature aimeth at its own welfare, ease, and preservation ; therefore go to God ; beg uprightness — it is his gift as well as other graces. The help that we have from the Spirit is to make requests Kara 0eov, * according to the will of God ;' or, as it is in the original, * accoi'ding to God,' Eom. viii. 27 ; that is, to put up godly requests for God's sake. Besides, there should be much mortification ; that which lieth uppermost will be soonest expressed : 'Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.' God's people are ready in holy requests, because their hearts are exercised in them: Ps. xlv. 1, 'My heart inditeth a good matter,' &c. Worldly cares, worldly sorrows, worldly desires, must have vent. Vessels give a sound according to the metal they are made of. Hypocrites will howl for carnal comforts. Beat away these carnal reflections when they rush into your minds : Abraham drove the fowls away, Gen. xv. When you feel the heart running out by a perverse aim, disclaim it the more solemnly : ' Not to us, not to us,' &c.
Obs. 3. That prayers framed out of a carnal intention are usually successless. Prayers that want a good aim do also want a good issue. God's glory is the end of prayer and the beginning of hope, otherwise we can look for nothing. God never undertook to satisfy fleshly desires. He will own no other voice in prayer but that of his own Spirit : Eom. viii. 27, ' He that searcheth the heart knoweth the mind of the Spirit.' What is a fleshly groan ? and what is a spiritual groan ? A carnal aim expressed is but a sup])lication with a confutation ; it is the next way to be denied. Spiritual sighs and breathings are sooner
342 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [J AS. IV. 4.
lienrd than carnal roarings : they that cannot ask a mercy well, seldom use it well: in the enjoyment there is more temptation. Usually our hearts are more devout when we want a blessinj^ than when we enjoy it ; and therefore when our prayers are not directed to the glory of God, there is little hope that when we receive the talent we shall employ it to the Master's use. Besides all this, prayers made with a base aim put a great affront and dishonour upon God ; you would make him a servant to his enemy : Isa. xliii, 24, ' Ye made me to serve with your iniquities.' We would commit sin, and we would have God to'bless us in it. It is much you should be servants of sin, but that you should make God administrum peccali, a fellow- servant, and yoke him with yourselves in the same servility, it is not to be endured. Well, then, it teachctli us what to do when our prayers are not granted; let us not charge God foolishly, but examine ourselves : Were not our requests carnal ? suppo.se you prayed for quickening, and God left you to your own deadness, did not your heart fancy your own praise ? If for safety, you would live in ease, in pleasure ; if for an estate, you were pleasing yourself in the supposi- tions of greatness and esteem in the world. 0 brethren ! as we mind success, let us not come to God with an evil mind ; holy desires have a sure answer, Ps. cxlv. 19, and x. 17.
Ver. 4, Ye adulterers and adulteresses, knoio ye not that the friend- ship of the world is enmity ivith God I whosoever therefore ludl he a friend of the luorld, is an enemy of God.
Because they were so overcome with worldly lusts that their very prayers and devotionary acts looked that way, he cometh to show the danger and heinousness of these lusts. The arguments of this verse are two — (1.) They will make you commit adultery ; (2.) They will make you enemies to God.
Ye adulterers and adulteresses. — This must be understood spirit- ually, as appeareth by the following words and the drift of the con- text, which is to inveigh against those lusts and pleasures which inveigle the soul and withdraw it from God. Now these are spiritual adulterers whom the love of the world alienateth and estrangeth from the Lord. The metaphor is elsewhere used, Mat. xii. 39, and xvi. 4, ' Tl)is evil and adulterous generation.'.
Knoio ye not. — He appealeth to their consciences ; it is a rousing question. Worldly men do not sin out of ignorance so much as incogitancy ; they do not consider.
That the friendship of the ivorld. — By 7} (fjiXla tov Koaixov he under- standeth an emancij)ation of our affections to the pleasures, profits, and lusts of the world. Men study to please their fiiends, and they are friends of the world therefore that seek to gratify worldly men or worldly lusts, and court outward vanities rather than renounce them ; a ])ractice unsuitable to religion. You may use the world, but not seek the friendship of it. Those that would be dandled upon the world's knees, lo.se a friend of Christ. As to instance, in pleasing the men of the world. Gal. i. 10, ' If I yet please men, I were not the servant of Christ.' So for gratifying of worldly lusts ; we may use the comforts of the world, but may not serve the lusts and pleasures of it : that is a description of the carnal state, Titus iii. 3.