William Gurnall: The Christian in Complete Armour

The Inward Principle of Prayer.

‘In the Spirit.’

[To pray in the spirit, we must have SINCERITY.]

 

Third We pray in the spirit when we pray in sincerity. There may be much fervour where there is little or no sincerity. And this is strange fire; the heat of a distemper, not the kindly natural heat of the new creature, which both comes from God and acts for God; whereas the other is from self, and ends in self. Indeed the fire which self kindles serves only to warm the man's own hands by it that makes it: ‘Behold, all you that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks,’ Isaiah 50:11; the prophet represents them as sitting down about the fire they had made. Self-acting and self-aiming ever go together; therefore our Saviour with spirit requires truth. He ‘seeks such to worship him’ as will ‘worship him in spirit and in truth,’ John 4:23, 24.

 

Question. But wherein consists this sincere fervency?

 

Answer. Zeal intends the affections, sincerity directs their end, and consists in their purity and incorruption. The blood is oft hot when none of the purest, and affections strong when the heart insincere; therefore the apostle exhorts us that we ‘love one another out of a pure heart fervently,’ I Peter 1:22, and speaks in another place of ‘sorrowing after a godly sort,’ that is, sincerely. Now the sincerity of the heart in prayer then appears when a person is real in his prayers, and that from pure principles to pure ends.

 

First. When he is real in what he presents to God in prayer. The index of his tongue without and the clockwork of his heart within go together; he does not declaim against a sin with his lips which he favours with his heart; he does not make a loud cry for that grace which he would be sorry to have granted him. This is the true badge of a hypocrite, who oft would be loath {that} God should take him at his word. A dismal day it would be to such when God shall bring in their own conscience to witness against them that their hearts never signed and sealed the requests which they made. There is a state-policy used sometimes by princes to send ambassadors, and set treaties on foot, when nothing less than peace is intended. Such a deceit is to be found in the false heart of man, to blind and cover secret purposes of war and rebellion against God with fair overtures in prayer to him for peace.

 

Second. When the person is not only real in what he desires, but this from a pure principle to a pure end. I doubt not but a hypocrite in confession may have a real trouble upon his spirit for his sins, and cordially, yea passionately, desire his pardoning mercy; but not from a pure principle—a hatred of sin —but an abhorrency of wrath he sees hastening to him for it; not for a pure end, that the glory of God’s mercy may be magnified in and by him, but that himself may not be tormented by God’s just wrath. He may desire the graces of his Spirit, but not out of any love to them, but only as an expedient, without which he knows to hell he must go; as a sick man in exquisite torture—suppose of the stone or some other acute disease—calls for some potion he loathes, because he knows he cannot have ease except he drinks it. Whereas the sincere soul desires grace, not only as physic, but food. He craves it not only as necessary but as sweet to his palate. The intrinsical bounty and excellency of holiness inflames him with such a love to it, that, as one taken with the beauty of a virgin, says he will marry her though he hath nothing with her but the clothes to her back; so the sincere heart would have holiness though it brought no other advantages with it than what is found in its own lovely nature. So much to show what sincerity in prayer is.

 

Now he that would pray acceptably must pray thus in his spirit, that is, with the sincerity of his spirit. ‘The prayer of the upright is his delight.’ Nadab and Abihu brought fire, and had fire, ‘a strange fire,’ to destroy them for the ‘strange fire’ they offered; and such is all fervency and zeal that is not taken from the altar of a sincere heart, Leviticus 10:1. ‘The fervent prayer ‘avails much.’ It can do much, but it must be of a righteous man, and such the sincere man only is. And no wonder that God stands so much upon sincerity in prayer, seeing the lip of truth is so prized even among men. Nature hath taught men to commend their words to others by laying their hands on their breasts, as an assurance that what they say or promise is true and cordial; which the penitent publican it is like aimed at, he ‘smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner,’ Luke 18:13, thereby declaring whence his sorrowful confession came. That light which told the heathens that God must be worshipped, informed them also this worship must come from the inward recesses of the heart. What care the gods for gold! let us offer that which is more worth than all treasures, the heart and inward affections of it. It is a strange custom Benzo, in his Historia Novi Orbis, relates of the natives there: the West Indians, when worshipping their gods, used, by putting a little stick down their throat, to provoke themselves to vomit, thereby showing their idol that they carried no secret evil within them. I should not have named this barbarous custom but to show how deeply this notion is engraven in the natural conscience—that we must be sincere in the worship of God.

 

Use. Let it put us upon the trial whether we thus pray in the spirit—whether you can find sincerity stamped on your fervency. If the prayer be not fervent it cannot be sincere, but it may have a fervour without this. This is a very fine sieve; approve yourself here, and you may without presumption write yourself a saint. But how fervent soever you are without sincerity, it matters not. Nay, zeal without uprightness is worse than key-cold; none will go to hell with more shame than the false-hearted zealot, who mounts up towards heaven in the fiery chariot, a seeming zeal, but at last is found a devil in Samuel’s mantle, and so is thrown down like lightning from heaven, whither he would have been thought by his neighbours to be going. Be not loath to be searched. Then there will then need no further search to prove thee unsound. If God’s officer be denied entrance, all is not right within. Now to help thee in the work, inquire—

 

[RULES for trying the sincerity of our hearts in prayer.]

 

Rule 1. What is your care in performing this duty of prayer in secret? If your heart be sincere, it will delight in privacy. A false heart calls others to see his zeal for God. May be he is forward to put himself upon duty where he hath spectators to applaud him, and can be very hot and earnest at the work; but wither he is wholly a stranger to secret prayer, or else he is cold in the performance; he finds himself becalmed now he wants the breath of others to fill his sails. The plummets are off which quickened his motion, and he moves heavily to what he did before company. Whereas a sincere Christian never finds more freedom of spirit, and liquefactions of soul, than in his solitary addresses to God. Joseph, when he would give full vent to his passion, sought some secret place where to weep, and therefore retired himself into his chamber, Genesis 43:30. So the sincere Christian goes to his closet, and there eases his heart into the bosom of God, and lets his passions of sorrow for sin, and love to Christ, burst forth and have their full scope, which in public prayer he restrains —as to the outward expression of them—out of a holy modesty, and fear of being observed by others, which he hunts not for. Now speak, Christian, what is your temper? Can your closet witness for thee in this particular? It is the trick of a hypocrite to strain himself to the utmost in duty when he hath spectators, and to draw loose in his gears when alone; like some that carry their best meat to market, and save the worst for their own food at home; and others that draw their best wine to their customers, but drink the dead and flat themselves at their own private table.

 

Rule 2. Observe yourself in your more public addresses to the throne of grace: and that in two particulars. (1.) When you pray before others. (2.) When you join with others that pray.

 

(1.) When you pray before others, observe on what you bestow your chief care and zeal, whether in the externals or internals of prayer—that which is exposed to the eye and ear of men, or that which should be prepared for the eye and ear of God; the devout posture of your body, or the inward devotion of your soul; the pomp of your words, or the power of your faith; the agitation of your bodily spirits in the vehemency of your voice, or the fervency of your spirit in heart-breaking affections. These inward workings of the soul in prayer are the very soul of prayer; and all the care about the other without this, is like the trimming bestowed upon a dead body—that will not make the carcass sweet, nor these your prayer to God’s nostrils. It is the faith, love, brokenness of heart for sin, and the inward affections exerted in prayer, that, like Elijah in his fiery chariot, mount up to God in the heavens, while the other, with the prophet’s mantle, fall to the ground. The sincere soul dares not be rude in his outward posture. He is careful of his very words and phrase, that they may be grave and pertinent. Neither would he pray them asleep that joins with him, by a cold, dreaming, and lazy manner of delivering of it; but still, it is the inward disposition of his heart he principally looks to, knowing well, that by the other he is but cook to others, and may fast himself if his own heart be idle in the duty; and there-fore he does not count he prays well—though to the affecting of their hearts—except he finds his own affections drawn out in the duty. Whereas the hypocrite, if he may but come off the duty with the applause of others in the external performance, is very well pleased, though he be conscious of the deadness and naughtiness of his own heart therein.

 

(2.) When you join with others that pray. Do the gifts and graces that breathe from others in prayer warm your affections, and draw out your soul to bear them company to heaven in the petitions they put up? Or do they stir up a secret envying and repining at the gifts of God bestowed on them? This would discover much pride and unsoundness in your spirit. The hypocrite is proud, and thinks all the water is spilt and lost that runs beside his own mill; whereas the sincere soul prizes the gifts of others, can heartily bless God for them, and make a humble and holy use of them. His heart is as much affected with the holy savoury requests that another puts up, as when they come out of his own mouth. But the hypocrite's eye is evil, because God’s is good.

 

Rule 3. Observe whether your fervency in prayer be uniform. A false heart may seem very hot in praying against one sin; but he can skip over another, and either leave it out of his confession, or handles it very gently. As a partial witness, that would fain save the prisoner’s life he comes against, will not speak all he knows, but minces his evidence; thus does the hypocrite deal with his darling lust. He is like one that mows grass with a gapped scythe; some he cuts down, and other he leaves standing; vehement against this, and favourable to that lust; whereas sincerity makes clear work as it goes. ‘Order my steps in your word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me,’ Psalm 119:133.

Again the false heart is as uneven in his petitions as in his deprecations. Very earnest he is for some mercies, and they are commonly of an inferior nature, but more indifferent in his desires for those that are greater; he tithes mint and cummin in his prayers —temporal mercies, I mean—but neglects the weightier things of the promise—the sanctifying graces of the Spirit, humility, heavenly-mindedness, contentment, self-denial; a little of these upon a knife’s point will content him.

 

Rule 4. Observe whether your endeavours correspond with your prayers. The false heart seems hot in prayer, but you will find him cold enough at work. He prays very fiercely against his sins, as if he desired them to be all slain upon the place; but what does he towards the speeding of them with his own hands? Does he set himself upon the work of mortification? does he withdraw the fuel that feeds them? is he careful to shun occasions that may ensnare him? When temptations come, do they find him in arms upon his guard, resolved to resist their motion? Alas! no such matter. If a few good words in prayer will do the work, well and good; but as for any more, he is too lazy to go about it. Whereas the sincere heart is not idle after prayer; when it hath given heaven the alarm, and called God in to his help, then he takes the field himself, and opposes his lusts with all his might, watching their motions, and taking every advantage he meets with to fall upon them. Every mercy he receives, he beats it out into a weapon, to knock down all thoughts of sinning again. Thus, ‘Seeing that you our God has punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and has given us such deliverance as this; should we again break your commandments?’ Ezra 9:13, 14. O God forbid, says the holy soul, that he should bid such a thought welcome! Every promise he reads, he lifts it up as a sword for his defence against this enemy. ‘Having these promises, let us cleanse ourselves,’ 2 Corinthians 7:1. I shall shut up this head with a few directions how we may get this sincere heart in prayer.

 

[How we may get this sincerity in prayer.]

 

(1.) Get your heart united by faith to Christ. It is faith that purifies the heart from its false principles and ends in duty. ‘God made man upright;’ and, while he stood so, his eye and foot went right; neither did his eye look or his foot tread awry. But after Eve had talked with the serpent, she and all mankind after her learned the serpent’s crooked motion, to look one way and go another. ‘God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions,’ Ecc. 7:29. O beg therefore, with David, that God would ‘renew a right spirit within thee,’ Psalm 51:10. What the evil spirit hath perverted the Holy Spirit alone can set right. If the cause why a piece carries wrong be in its make and mould, it must be new cast, or it will never carry right. Hypocrisy in duty comes from the falseness of man’s depraved nature; the heart therefore must be made new before it can be sincere. The new heart is the single heart, ‘I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you,’ Ezekiel 11:19. He that loves ‘truth in the inward parts’ can put it there.

 

(2.) Make hypocrisy in prayer appear as odious to you as possibly you can; and you need not dress it up in any other than its own clothes to do this. Consider but how grievous a sin and how great a folly it is, and methinks it were enough to set thee against it.

 

(a) Consider what a grievous sin it is. A lie spoken by one man to another is a sin capable of high aggravations; what then is that lie which is uttered in prayer to God? Surely this must be much more horrid, for here is blasphemy in the untruth. God spares not to give the hypocrite the lie, ‘Ephraim compasses me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit,’

Hosea 11:12; so many lies they told to God, as prayers they put up. O the patience of a God that does not strike the hypocrite dead upon the place, while the lie is in his throat, as he did Ananias and Sapphira.

 

(b) Consider what a great folly it is. [1.] As it is infeasible. Who but a fool can think to blind the eyes of the Almighty? Canst you cover the eye of the sun with your hand or hat, that it shall not shine? as unable are you to hide your secret designs so close that the great God should not see them. [2.] As it is impossible to deceive God, so you put a woeful cheat upon yourself. You think you mend the matter by praying, and you make it worse. When you come on your trial for your life, your hypocrisy in prayer will cost you dearer than your other sins. You take pains to increase your condemnation; you dost, as Solomon says of another kind of hypocrite, Proverbs 1:18, ‘lay wait for your own blood; they lurk privily for your own life.’ Of all sinners, the hypocrite hath the precedency in God’s purposes and preparations of wrath. Hell is prepared for them as the firstborn of damnation. Other sinners are said to have their ‘portion with hypocrites,’ as the younger brethren with their elder, who is the heir, Matthew 24:51.

 

(3.) Crucify your affections to the world. Hypocrisy in religion springs from the bitter root of some carnal affections unmortified. So long as your prey lies below, your eye will be to the earth, even when you seem like an eagle to mount in your prayers to heaven. The false heart - uses religion for secular ends, and makes his seeming piety to God but as a horsing-block to get into the creature’s saddle. God is in his mouth, but the world is in his heart; which he projects to attain more easily by the reputation that this will gain him. I have read of one that offered his prince a great sum of money for no more but to have his leave once or twice a day to come into his presence, and only say, ‘God save your majesty.’ The prince, wondering at this large offer for so small a favour, asked him what this would advantage him? O sir, says he, this, though I have nothing else at your hands, will get me a name in the country for one that is a great favourite at court, and such an opinion will help me to more by the year's end than I am out for the purchase. Thus some, it is to be feared, by the very name which they get for great saints among their neighbours, from their acquaintance with religious duties, do facilitate their carnal projects, and advance their worldly interest, that lie at the bottom of all their goodly profession. Well, Christian, this is but to play at small game—to fish for any of the world's petty enjoyments with religion’s golden hook. As you lovest your soul, and wouldst not lose this for ever, to get that which you must lose after you hast got it, mortify those carnal affections which you finds most likely to withdraw your heart from God. You know not God, if you see not enough in him to make you happy without the world's contributions. This, thoroughly believed, will make you sincere in his service. ‘I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be perfect,’ Genesis 17:1.