Practical truths tending to promote the power of godliness

And thus to do is essential unto prayer: yea, thus doth every one that is godly pray. As for Pagans that pray unto God without any Mediator; and Papists that pray unto him through other Mediators besides Christ; that make Saints and Angels their Mediators, thereby turning Christ out of his office, so far as is in in them to do; their prayers are as •o prayers: yea when they offer Incense it is an abomination to the Lord.

And thus to do is essential unto prayer: yea, thus doth every one that is godly pray. As for Pagans that pray unto God without any Mediatour; and Papists that pray unto him through other Mediators besides Christ; that make Saints and Angels their Mediators, thereby turning Christ out of his office, so far as is in in them to do; their prayers are as •o prayers: yea when they offer Incense it is an abomination to the Lord.

Prop. 4. As for the matter of prayer, it is to be for things agreeable to the Will of God, 1 Joh. 5. 14. The holy Incense appointed under the Law▪ (which signified Prayer, Mal. 1. 11.) was to be made exactly according to divine prescription, Exod, 30. 34, 35. so must prayer be, as to the matter of it. Whatever is promised in the covenant of grace, is fit matter for prayer: even temporal blessings, so far as the Lord hath promised to bestow them, but especially spiritual and eternal blessings, (they being the chief things spoken of in the Covenant) are to be prayed for. And above all, we are to pray that God may have glory, and that the Kingdom and Interest ⟨p. 11⟩of the Lord Jesus Christ may be advanced. All this we see in that Rule or Platform of Prayer, (commonly called the Lords Prayer) which the Lord Christ hath given to his Disciples for their direction and imitation. To present unlawful desires before God. is a great transgression of the Rule of prayer. It is to offer a dead polluted thing upon the Lords altar: yet we find that sometimes godly men have offended this way. So did the Sons of Zebedee, when imagining that Christ would have a pompous temporal dominion, they prayed for great enjoyments in the world. What warrant had they from any word of God, to come before the Lord with such a request as that was? so when persons under deep affliction do out of the impatience of their Spirits, pray and wish for Death, that's an unlawful desire: thus did godly Job, sometimes miss it in his prayers, Chap. 6, 7, 8. O (saith he) that I might have my request! and that God would grant me this thing that I long for, even that it would please God to destroy me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off. So Jonah, He was afraid that some would look upon him as a false Prophet; and rather then undergo a little disgrace from men; in a sullen pang of discontent, he beseecheth God to take away his life from him, Chap. 4. 3. God delights not in such requests as these are. They are not as Incense before him.