A30241:640
CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…
CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John, or, Christs prayer before his passion explicated, and both practically and polemically improved by Anthony Burgess ...
London: printed by Abraham Miller for Thomas Underhill, 1656
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
5. God will have us pray because hereby we must testify our desire and high esteem we have of the mercy prayed for; Do we not say that is little worth which is not worth asking? Now then should God do all our good things for us, and we not pray, the desire and esteem of the mercy would not be expressed; Hence it is that God loveth wrestling and fervent prayers, God loveth importunity and an holy violence, as we see by the Parable of the unjust Judge, yea, the fervent prayer of the righteous, and that only availeth much, Jam. 5.16. Now why doth God delight in such prayers of agony, only because hereby we discover our earnest desires, hereby we show our strong affections, and hence it is that prayer doth not draw God to us, but our hearts to God; In our earnest Petitions we do not bring Gods will to ours but ours to him; Prayer is a golden chain that reacheth from heaven to earth, and although we think to move God to us, yet we move our selves to him, as the Ship that is fastened with the Cable, doth not bring the haven to it, but it's self to the haven, so that the change prayer makes is not on God, but on our selves.
5. God will have us pray because hereby we must testifie our desire and high esteem we have of the mercy praied for; Do we not say that is little worth which is not worth asking? Now then should God do all our good things for us, and we not pray, the desire and esteem of the mercy would not be expressed; Hence it is that God loveth wrestling and fervent praiers, God loveth importunity and an holy violence, as we see by the Parable of the unjust Judge, yea, the fervent praier of the righteous, and that only availeth much, Jam. 5.16. Now why doth God delight in such praiers of agony, only because hereby we discover our earnest desires, hereby we shew our strong affections, and hence it is that praier doth not draw God to us, but our hearts to God; In our earnest Petitions we do not bring Gods will to ours but ours to him; Praier is a golden chain that reacheth from heaven to earth, and although we think to move God to us, yet we move our selves to him, as the Ship that is fastened with the Cable, doth not bring the haven to it, but it's self to the haven, so that the change praier makes is not on God, but on our selves.