In this verse he anticipateth and preventeth an objection.
They might say, We do ask, and go to God (suppose) by daily prayers. The
apostle answereth, You ask indeed; but because of your vicious intention you
cannot complain of not being heard; would you make God a servant to your lusts?
For to convince them, he showeth what was the aim of their prayers - the
conveniences of a fleshly life: 'Ye ask, that ye may consume it upon your lasts
or pleasures, tais hèdonais.
There are several points notable in
this verse; they may be reduced to these three: -
1. That we pray amiss
when our ends and aims are not right in prayer.
2. That our ends and aims
are wrong when we ask blessings for the use and encouragement of our lusts.
3. That prayers so framed are usually successless; we miss when we ask
amiss.
Obs. 1. I begin with the first. That we pray amiss when our ends and
aims are not right in prayer. The end is a main circumstance in every action,
the purest offspring of the soul. Practices and affections may be overruled;
this is the genuine, immediate birth and issue of the human spirit. We may
instance in all sorts of actions; we know the quality of them, not by the
matter, but the end. In indifferent things the property of the action is
altered by a wrong end. To eat out of necessity is a duty we owe to nature; to
eat out of wantonness is an effect of lust. So in all things instituted and
commanded, the end determineth the action. Jehu's slaying of Ahab's children
was not obedience, but murder, because done for his own ends. God required it,
2 Kings x. 30; and yet God saith, Hosea i. 4, 'I will avenge the blood of
Jezreel upon the house of Jehu.' God required it as a righteous satisfaction to
justice. Jehu spilt it out of ambition; therefore so many persons slain, so
many murders. So in these actions of worship, they are good or bad as their end
is. Speaking to God may be prayer, if it come from zeal; it may be howling, if
it come from lust, Hosea vii. 14; then it is but a brutish cry, as beasts out
of the rage of appetite howl for the prey, or things they stand in need of. For
worship must never have an end beneath itself. We act preposterously, and not
according to reason, when the means are more noble than the end. When we make
self the end of prayer, it is not worship of God, but self-seeking. All our
actions are to have a reference and ordination to God, much more the acts that
are proper to the spiritual life; it is called a 'living to God,' Gal. ii. 19.
That is the main difference between the carnal life and the spiritual; the one
is a living to ourselves, the other is a living to God. Now especially acts of
worship are to be unto God and for God, for there the soul setteth itself to
glorify him; and the addresses being directly to him, must not be prostituted
to a common use. Well, then, consider your ends in prayer, not the manner only,
not the object only, but the end. It is not enough to look to the vehemency of
the affections; many make that all their work, to raise themselves into some
quickness and smartness of spirit, but do not consider their aim. It is true,
it is good to come with full sails; 'fervent prayer' is like an arrow drawn
with full strength, but yet it must be godly prayer. A carnal spring may send
forth high tides of affection; the motions of lust are usually very earnest and
rapid. It is not enough to look to the fluency and serviceableness of
invention; carnal affections and imagination joined together may engage the
wit, and set it a-work; invention followeth affection. It is not enough to make
God the object of the prayer, but the end also. Duty is expressed sometimes by
'serving God,' at other times by 'seeking God;' serving noteth the object,
seeking noteth the end; in serving we must seek, &c.
Obs. 2. The
next point is, that our ends and aims are wrong in prayer when we ask blessings
for the use and encouragement of our lusts. Men sin with reference to the aim
of prayer several ways: (1.) When the end is grossly carnal and sinful. Some
seek God for their sins, and would engage the divine blessing upon a revengeful
and carnal enterprise; as the thief kindled his torch that he might steal by at
the lamps of the altar. Solomon saith, Prov. xxi. 27, the wicked offereth
sacrifice 'with an evil mind.' Foolish creatures vainly imagine to entice
heaven to their lure. Balaam buildeth altars out of a hope that God would curse
his own people; and wicked men hope by fasts and prayers to draw God into their
quarrel; others seek a blessing upon their theft and unjust practices. The
whore had her vows and peace-offerings for the prosperity of her unclean trade,
Prov. vii. 14. This was a thing which heathens condemned. Juvenal laughed at it
in one of his satires. Plato forbiddeth it in his Alci-biades. Pliny detesteth
it as a stupid impudence, to profane the religion of the temples by making it
conscious to unclean requests. These impious stories of prayers commended to
the Virgin Mary for a blessing upon thefts and adulteries, which yet they say
were granted because of the devoutness of the supplicants in the psalter and
rosary, are worthy all Christians' abomination. (2.) When men privily seek to
gratify their lusts, men look upon God tanquam aliquem magnum, as some great
power that must serve their carnal turns; as he came to Christ, Luke xii. 13,
'Master, speak to my brother to divide the inheritance.' We would have somewhat
from God to give to lust; health and long life, that we may live pleasantly;
wealth, that we may 'fare deliciously every day;' estates, that we raise up our
name and family; victory and success, to excuse ourselves from glorifying God
by suffering, or to wreak our malice upon the enemies; church deliverances, out
of a spirit of wrath and revenge. As they were ready to 'call for fire from
heaven,' not knowing of what spirit they were, Luke ix. 55. So some pray for
the assistance and quickenings of the Spirit to set off their own praise and
glory, and pervert the most holy things to common uses and secular advantages.
Simon Magus would have gifts that he might be tis megas, a man of great repute
in his place, Acts viii. 9. The divine grace, by a vile submission and
diversion, is forced to serve our vainglory. (3.) When we pray for blessings
with a selfish aim, and not with serious and actual designs of God's glory, as
when a man prayeth for spiritual blessings with a mere respect to his own ease
and comfort, as for pardon, heaven, grace, faith, repentance, only that he may
escape wrath. This is but a carnal respect to our own good and welfare. God
would have us mind our own comfort, but not only. God's glory is the pure
spiritual aim. Then we seek these things with the same mind that God offereth
them: Eph. i. 6, 'He hath accepted us in the beloved, to the praise of his
glorious grace.' Your desires in asking are never regular but when they suit
with God's ends in giving. God's glory is a better thing, and beyond our
welfare and salvation. So in temporal cases. When men desire outward provisions
merely that they may live the more comfortably, not serve God the more
cheerfully. Agur measureth the conveniency and inconveniency of his outward
estate, as it would more or less fit him for the service of God: Prov. xxx. 8,
9, 'Not poverty, lest I deny thee; not riches, lest I forget thee.' So in
public cases of church deliverance, when we do not seek our own safety and
welfare so much as God's glory: Ps. cxv. 1, 'Not to us, not to us,' &c.;
that is, not for our merits, not for our revenge, our safety, but that mercy
and truth may shine forth.
But you will say, May we not seek our own good
and benefit?
I answer - Not ultimately, not absolutely, but only with
submission to God's will, and subordination to God's glory. The main end why we
desire to be saved, to be sanctified, to be delivered out of any danger, must
be that God may be honoured in these experiences, in comparison of which our
own glory and welfare should be nothing: 'Not to us, not to us,' &c.
But you will say, How shall we know that God's glory is the utmost aim? A
deluded heart will pretend much.
I answer - You may discern it: (1.) By
the work of your own thoughts. The end is first in intention and last in
execution, therefore the heart worketh upon it. Now, what runneth often in the
thoughts? When you pray against enemies, do you please yourself with
suppositions and surmises of revenge, or hopes of the vindication of God's
name? So in prayers for strength and quickening, do not you entertain your
spirit with whispers of vanity, dreams of applause, and the echoes and returns
of your own praise? or enchant your minds with the sweet music of public
acclamations? By these inward and secret thoughts the soul falleth out after
carnal success and advantage. (2.) By the manner of praying - absolutely for
God's glory, but in all other things with a sweet submission to God's will:
John xii. 27, 28, 'Save me from this hour; for this cause came I to this hour.
Father, glorify thy name.' Christ is absolute in that request, and so receiveth
an answer. It is enough to a gracious heart if God will glorify his own name.
But now carnal aims make the spirit impetuous and impatient of check and
denial. They are all for being saved from this hour. Rachel must have children
or die. When the heart is set upon earthly success, or pleasure, or comfort,
they cannot brook a denial. (3.) By the disposition of your hearts. When
prayers are accomplished, when we do not ask for God's glory, we abuse mercies
to revenge, luxury, excess. Lust is an earnest craver, but when it receiveth
any comfort it consumeth it in ease and pleasure. We deceive ourselves with
notions. The time of having mercies is the time of trial.
But how shall I
do to get my ends right in prayer?
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 requireth 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 kata
Theon, 'according to the will of God;' or, as it is in the original, 'according
to God,' Rom. 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: Rom. 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 supplication
with a confutation; it is the next way to be denied. Spiritual sighs and
breathings are sooner heard 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 blessing 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 peccati, a fellow-servant, and yoke him with
yourselves in the same servility, it is not to be endured. Well, then, it
teacheth us what to do when our prayers are not granted; let us not charge God
foolishly, but examine ourselves: Were not our requests carnal? suppose 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 suppositions of
greatness and esteem in the world. O 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.
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