Chapter 10

Of Mental Prayer as pretended unto by some in the Church of Rome.

HAving described or given an account of the Gift of Prayer, and the use of it in the Church of God, and the Nature of the Work of the Spirit therein; it will be necessary to consider briefly what is by some set up in Competition with it, as a more Excellent way in this part of Divine Worship. And in the first place Mental Prayer as described by some devout persons of the Church of Rome, is preferred above it. They call it pure spiritual Prayer, or a quiet repose of Contemplation; that which excludes all Images of the Fancy, and in time all perceptible actuations of the Understanding, and is exercised in single Elevations of the Will, without any force at all, yet with admirable Efficacy; and to dispose a Soul for such Prayer there is previously required an entire Calmness and even Death of the Passions, a perfect purity in the spiritual affections of the will, and an entire abstraction from all Creatures, Cressy Church Hist. Pref. parag. 42, 43.

1. The Truth is, I am so fixed in a dislike of that mere outside formal course of reading or singing Prayers, which is in use in the Roman Church (which though in Mr. Cressy's esteem, it have a shew of a very civil Conversation with God, yet is it indeed accompanied with the highest contempt of his infinite purity and all Divine Excellencies) and do so much more abhor that Magical incantation which many among them use in the Repetition of Words which they understand not, or of applying what they repeat, to another End than what the words signifie, as saying so many Prayers for such an End or purpose, whereof it may be there is not one word of mention in the Prayers themselves; that I must approve of any search after a real internal intercourse of Soul with God in this Duty. But herein men must be careful of two things: (1.) That they assert not what they can fansie, but what indeed in some measure they have an Experience of. For men to conjecture what others do experience (for they can do no more) and thence to form Rules or Examples of Duty, is dangerous always, and may be pernicious unto those who shall follow such Instructions. And herein this Author fails, and gives nothing but his own Fancies of others pretended Experience. (2.) That what they pretend unto an Experience of, be confirmable by Scripture Rule or Example. For if it be not so, we are directed unto the Conduct of all extravagant imaginations in every one who will pretend unto spiritual Experience. Attend unto these Rules, and I will grant in Prayer all the ways whereby the Soul or the Faculties of it, can rationally act it self towards God in an Holy and spiritual manner. But if you extend it unto such kind of actings as our Nature is not capable of, at least in this World, it is the open fruit of a deceived Fancy, and makes all that is tendred from the same hand to be justly suspected. And such is that instance of this Prayer, that it is in the Will and its Affections without any actings of the Mind or Understanding. For although I grant that the Adhesion of the Will and Affections unto God by Love, Delight, Complacency, Rest and Satisfaction in Prayer, belongs to the Improvement of this Duty; yet to imagine that they are not guided, directed, acted by the Understanding in the contemplation of Gods Goodness, Beauty, Grace and other Divine excellencies, is to render our Worship and Devotion, brutish or irrational; whereas it is and ought to be our Reasonable service.

And that this very Description here given us of Prayer, is a mere effect of Fancy and Imagination, and not that which the Author of it was led unto by the conduct of spiritual Light and Experience, is evident from hence, that it is borrowed from those Contemplative Philosophers, who after preaching of the Gospel in the World, endeavoured to refine and advance Heathenism into a Compliance with it; at least is fansied in imitation of what they ascribe unto a perfect mind. One of them, and his expressions in one place may suffice for an instance. Plotinus Ennead. 6. lib. 9. Cap. 10. For after many other ascriptions unto a Soul that has attained Union with the chiefest Good, he adds: [illegible]. A mind thus risen up is no way moved, no anger, no desire ofany thing is in it (a perfect rest of the Affections.) Nay, neither Reason nor Understanding (are acted) nor, if I may say so, it self; but being Ecstasied and filled with God, it comes into a quiet, still, immoveable repose and state, no way declining (by any sensible actings) from its own Essence, nor exercising any reflect act upon it self, is wholly at rest, as having attained a perfect state, or to this purpose; with much more to the same. And as it is easy to find the substance of our Authors Notion in these words, so the Reader may see it more at large declared in that last Chapter of his Enneads. And all his Companions in design about that time speak to the same purpose.

2. The spiritual intense fixation of the mind, by contemplation on God in Christ, until the Soul be as it were swallowed up in admiration and delight, and being brought unto an utter loss through the infiniteness of those Excellencies which it does admire and adore, it returns again into its own Abasements; out of a sense of its infinite distance from what it would absolutely and eternally embrace, and with all the inexpressible Rest and satisfaction which the will and Affections receive in their approaches unto the Eternal fountain of goodness; are things to be aimed at in Prayer, and which through the riches of Divine condescension, are frequently enjoyed. The Soul is hereby raised and ravished, not into Ecstasies or unaccountable Raptures, not acted into Motions above the Power of its own Understanding and Will, but in all the Faculties and Affections of it through the effectual workings of the Spirit of Grace, and the lively impressions of Divine Love, with intimations of the Relations and kindness of God, is filled with Rest, in joy unspeakable and full of Glory. And these spiritual acts of Communion with God, whereof I may say with Bernard, Rara Hora, Brevis Mora, may be enjoyed in mental or Vocal Prayer indifferently. But as the Description here given of Mental spiritual Prayer, has no countenance given it from the Scriptures, yea those things are spoken of it which are expresly contrary thereunto, as perfect purity, and the like; and as it cannot be confirmed by the Rational Experience of any, so it no way takes off from the Necessity and usefulness of Vocal Prayer, whereunto it is opposed. For still the use of Words is necessary in this Duty, from the nature of the Duty it self, the command of God, and the Edification of the Church. And it is fallen out unhappily as to the Exaltation of the conceived excellency of this Mental Prayer, that our Lord Jesus Christ not only instructed his Disciples to pray by the use of Words, but did so himself, and that constantly, so far as we know, Mat. 26:39, 42. Yea, when he was most intense and engaged in this Duty, instead of this pretended still Prayer of Contemplation, he prayed [illegible]with a strong outcry, Hebrews 5. which Psalm 22. is called the voice of his Roaring. And all the Reproaches which this Author casts on servent, earnest Vocal Prayer, namely that it is a tedious, loud, impetuous and an uncivil conversation with God, a mere artificial slight and facility, may with equal Truth be cast on the outward manner of the praying of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was oft-times long, sometimes loud and vehement. And unto the Examples of their Lord and Master we may add that of the Prophets and Apostles, who mention nothing of this pretended Elevation, but constantly made use of, and desired God to hear their voices, their cry, their Words in their Supplications; the words of many of them, being accordingly recorded: Wherefore Words proper, suggested by the Spirit of God, and taken either Directly or Analogically out of the Scripture, do help the mind and enlarge it with Supplications. Interdum voce nos ipsos ad devotionem & acrius incitamus, August. Epist. 121. ad Probam. The use of such Words, being first led unto by the desires of the mind, may and does lead the mind on to express its further desires also, and encreass those which are so expressed. It is from Gods Institution and Blessing that the Mind and Will of praying do lead unto the Words of Prayer, and the words of Prayer do lead on the mind and will, enlarging them in desires and Supplications. And without this Aid, many would oftentimes be straitned in acting their Thoughts and Affections towards God, or distracted in them, or diverted from them. And we have experience that an obedient, sanctified persistency in the use of gracious words in Prayer, has prevailed against violent Temptations and injections of Satan, which the mind in its silent Contemplations was not able to grapple with; And holy Affections are thus also excited hereby. The very words and Expressions which the Mind chuss to declare its thoughts, conceptions and desires about Heavenly things, do reflect upon the Affections encreasing and exciting of them. Not only the things themselves fixed on, do affect the Heart, but the Words of Wisdom and sobriety whereby they are expressed, do so also. There is a recoiling of Efficacy, if I may so speak, in deep impressions on the Affections, from the words that are made use of to express those Affections by. But we treat of Prayer principally, as it is to be performed in Families, Societies, Assemblies, Congregations, where this Mental Prayer would do well to promote the Edification which is attainable in the silent Meetings of the Quakers.

And because this kind of Prayer, as it is called, is not only recommended unto us, but preferred before all other ways and methods of Prayer, and chosen as an instance to set off the Devotion of the Church of Rome, to invite others thereunto, I shall a little more particularly inquire into it. And I must needs say that on the best view I can take, or Examination of it, it seems to be a matter altogether useless, uncertain, an effect of, and Entertainment for vain Curiosity, whereby men intrude themselves into those things whichthey have not seen, being vainly puft up by their own fleshly mind. For to call over what was before intimated, in things that are Practical in Religion, no man can understand any thing whereof he can have no experience. Nothing is rejected by virtue of this Rule, whereof some men through their own default have no Experience; but every thing is so justly, whereof no man in the discharge of his Duty can attain any Experience. He that speaks of such things unto others, if any such there might be, belonging unto our Condition in this World, must needs be a Barbarian unto them, in what he speaks; and whereas also he speaks of that wherein his own Reason and Understanding have no interest, he must be so also unto himself. For no man can by the use of Reason however advanced by spiritual Light, understand such actings of the Souls of other men or his own, as wherein there is no exercise of Reason or Understanding; such as these Raptures are pretended to consist in. So whereas one of them says, sundus animae meae tangit fundum Essentiae Dei; it had certainly been better for him to have kept his Apprehensions or Fancy to himself, than to express himself in words which in their own proper sense are Blasphemous, and whose best defensative is, that they are unintelligible. And if it be not unlawful, it is doubtless inexpedient for any one in things of Religion, to utter what it is impossible for any Body else to understand, with this only Plea that they do not indeed understand it themselves; it being what they enjoyed without any acts or actings of their own Understanding. To allow such pretenses is the ready way to introduce Babel into the Church, and Expose Religion to scorn. Some pretending unto such Raptures among ourselves I have known, wherein for a while they stirred up the Admiration of weak and credulous Persons; but through a little observation of what they did, spake, and pretended unto, with an Examination of all by the unerring Rule, they quickly came into contempt. All I intend at present is, that whatever be in this pretense, it is altogether useless unto Edification, and therefore ought the declaration of it, to be of no regard in the Church of God. If the Apostle would not allow the use of Words, though miraculously suggested unto them that used them, without an immediate interpretation of their signification, what would he have said of such words and things as are capable of no interpretation, so as that any man living should understand them? For those by whom at present they are so extolled and commended unto us, do themselves discourse at Random, as blind men talk of Colours, for they pretend not to have any Experience of these things themselves. And it is somewhat an uncouth way of procedure to enhance the value of the Communion of their Church, and to invite others unto it, by declaring that there are some amongst them who enjoyed such spiritual Ecstasies, as could neither by themselves, nor any others be understood. For nothing can be so, wherein or whereabout there is no exercise of Reason or Understanding. Wherefore the old Question cui bono, will discharge this pretense from being of any value or esteem in Religion with considerate men.

Again, As the whole of this kind of Prayer is useless as to the Benefit and Edification of the Church or any member of it; so it is impossible there should ever be any certainty about the Raptures wherein it is pretended to consist, but they must everlastingly be the subject of contention and dispute. For who shall assure me that the Persons pretending unto these Duties or Enjoyments are not mere pretenders? Any man that lives, if he have a mind unto it, may say such things, or use such expressions concerning himself. If a man indeed shall pretend and declare that he does, or enjoys such things as are expressed in the Word of God as the Duty or privilege of any, and thereon are acknowledged by all to be things in themselves true and real, and likewise attainable by Believers, he is ordinarily, so far as I know, to be believed in his Profession, unless he can be convicted of falshood by any thing inconsistent with such Duties or Enjoyments. Nor do I know of any great Evil in our credulity herein, should we happen to be deceived in or by the Person so professing, seeing he speaks of no more than all acknowledge it their Duty to endeavour after. But when any one shall pretend unto spiritual actings or Enjoyments which are neither prescribed nor promised in the Scripture, nor are investigable in the Light of Reason, no man is upon this mere profession obliged to give credit thereunto; Nor can any man tell what evil effect or Consequences his so doing may produce. For when men are once taken off from that sure Ground of Scripture, and their own understandings, putting themselves afloat on the uncertain Waters of fancies or conjectures, they know not how they may be tossed; nor whither they may be driven. If it shall be said, that the Holiness and Honesty of the Persons by whem these especial privileges are enjoyed, are sufficient Reason why we should believe them in what they profess; I answer, they would so in a good measure, if they did not pretend unto things repugnant unto Reason and unwarranted by the Scripture, which is sufficient to crush the Reputation of any mans Integrity. Nor can their Holiness and Honesty be proved to be such, as to render them absolutely impregnable against all Temptations, which was the preeminence of Christ alone. Neither is there any more strength in this Plea, but what may be reduced unto this Assertion, that there neither are, nor ever were any Hypocrites in the World undiscoverable unto the Eyes of men. For if such there may be, some of these pretenders may be of their Number, notwithstanding the appearance of their Holiness and Honesty. Besides, if the Holiness of the best of them were examined by Evangelical Light and Rule, perhaps it would be so far from being a sufficient countenance unto other things, as that it would not be able to defend its own Reputation. Neither is it want of charity, which makes men doubtful and unbelieving in such cases; but that Godly Jealousy and Christian prudence which require them to take care that they be not deceived or deluded, do not only warrant them to abide on that guard, but make it their necessary Duty also. For it is no new thing that pretenses of Raptures, Ecstasies, Revelations and unaccountable extraordinary Enjoyments of God, should be made use of unto corrupt Ends, yea abused to the worst imaginable. The experience of the Church both under the Old Testament and the New, witnesss hereunto as the Apostle Peter declares, 2 Peter. 2:1. For among them of old, there were multitudes of false pretenders unto visions, dreams, Revelations and such spiritual Ecstasies, some of whom wore a rough Garment to deceive, which went not alone but accompanied with all such appearing austerities, as might beget an opinion of Sanctity and Integrity in them. And when the Body of the People were grown corrupt and superstitious, this sort of men had credit with them above the true Prophets of God; Yet did they for the most part shew themselves to be Hypocritical Liars. And we are abundantly warned of such Spirits under the New Testament, as we are foretold that such there would be, by whom many should be deluded. And all such pretenders unto extraordinary intercourse with God, we are commanded to try by the unerring Rule of the word, and desire only Liberty so to do.

But suppose that those who assert these Devotions and Enjoyments of God in their own Experience, are not false pretenders unto what they profess, nor design to deceive; but are perswaded in their own minds of the reality of what they endeavour to declare, yet neither will this give us the least security of their Truth. For it is known that there are so many ways, partly natural, partly Diabolical, whereby the Fancies and Imaginations of persons may be so possessed with false images and apprehensions of things, and that with so vehement an efficacy as to give them a confidence of the Truth and Reality, that no assurance of them can be given by a perswasion of the sincerity of them by whom they are pretended. And there are so many wayes whereby men are disposed unto such a frame and actings, or are disposed to be imposed on by such delusions, especially where they are prompted by Superstition, and are encouraged doctrinally to an Expectation of such imaginations, that it is a far greater wonder that more have not fallen into the same Extravagancies, than that any have so done. We find by Experience that some have had their imaginations so fixed on things evil and noxioos by Satanical delusions, that they have confessed against themselves, things and crimes that have rendred them obnoxions unto Capital punishments; whereof they were never really and actually guilty. Wherefore seeing these acts or Duties of Devotion are pretended to be such as wherein there is no sensible actuation of the mind or understanding, and so cannot rationally be accounted for, nor rendred perceptible unto the understanding of others, it is not unreasonable to suppose that they are only fond imaginations of deluded Fancies, which superstitious, credulous Persons have gradually raised themselves unto, or such as they have exposed themselves to be imposed on withal by Satan, through a groundless, unwarrantable desire after them, or Expectation of them.

But what ever there may be in the height of this contemplative Prayer as it is called, it neither is Prayer, nor can on any account be so esteemed. That we allow of Mental Prayer and all actings of the mind in Holy Meditation, was before declared. Nor do we deny the usefulness or necessity of those other things of mortifying the Affections and Passions, of an entire resignation of the whole Soul unto God with complacency in him, so far as our nature is capable of them in this World. But it is that incomparable Excellency of it in the silence of the Soul, and the pure adhesion of the Will without any actings of the understanding that we inquire into. And I say whatever else there may be herein, yet it has not the nature of Prayer, nor is to be so esteemed, though under that name and notion it be recommended unto us. Prayer is a Natural Duty, the notion and understanding whereof is common unto all mankind. And the concurrent voice of Nature deceivs not. Whatever therefore is not compliant therewith, at least what is contradictory unto it, or inconsistent with it, is not to be esteemed Prayer. Now in the common sense of mankind, this Duty is that acting of the mind and Soul, wherein from an acknowledgement of the Sovereign Being, self-sufficiency, Rule and Dominion of God, with his infinite Goodness, Wisdom, Power, Righteousness and Omniscience and Omnipresence, with a sense of their own Universal dependance on him, his will and pleasure as to their Beings, Lives, Happiness, and all their concernments, they address their desires with Faith and trust unto him according as their state and condition does require; or ascribe praise and glory unto him for what he is in himself, and what he is to them. This is the general notion of Prayer, which the Reason of mankind centers in; neither can any man conceive of it under any other notion whatever. The Gospel directs the performance of this Duty in an acceptable manner with respect unto the Mediation of Christ, the Aids of the Holy Ghost, and the Revelation of the Spiritual Mercies we all do desire; but it changs nothing in the general nature of it. It does not introduce a Duty of another kind, and call it by the name of that, which was known in the Light of Nature, but is quite another thing. But this general nature of Prayer all men universally understand well enough, in whom the first innate principles of natural Light are not extinguished or wofully depraved. This may be done among some by a long traditional course of an Atheistical and Bruitish Conversation. But as large and extensive as are the convictions of men concerning the Being and Existence of God, so are their Apprehensions of the Nature of this Duty. For the first actings of Nature towards a Divine Being, are in Invocation. Jonahs Mariners knew how, Every one to call on his God, when they were in a storm. And where there is not Trust or Affiance in God acted, whereby men glorify him as God, and where Desires or praises are not offered unto him, neither of which can be without express acts of the Mind or Understanding, there is no Prayer, whatever else there may be. Wherefore this contemplative Devotion, wherein as it is pretended, the Soul is ecstasied into an advance of the Will and affections above all the actings of the mind or understanding, has no one property of Prayer as the nature of it is manifest in the Light of Nature and common Agreement of mankind. Prayer without an actual Acknowledgement of God in all his Holy Excellencies, and the actings of Faith in Fear, Love, Confidence and gratitude, is a Monster in Nature or a By-blow of imagination, which has no Existence in rerum natura. These Persons therefore, had best find out some other name wherewith to impose this kind of Devotion upon our Admiration; for from the whole precincts of Prayer or invocation on the name of God, it is utterly excluded: and what place it may have in any other part of the worship of God, we shall immediately inquire.

But this Examination of it by the Light of Nature will be looked on as most absurd and impertinent. For if we must try all matters of Spiritual Communion with God, and that in those things which wholly depend on Divine supernatural Revelation by this Rule and Standard, our measures of them will be false and perverse. And I say, no doubt they would. Wherefore we call only that concern of it unto a Trial hereby, whose true notion is confessedly fixed in the Light of Nature. Without extending that line beyond its due bounds, we may by it, take a just measure of what is Prayer, and what is not; for therein it cannot deceive nor be deceived: And this is all which at present we engage about. And in the pursuit of the same inquiry we may bring it also unto the Scripture, from which we shall find it as foreign as from the Light of Nature. For as it is described, so far as any thing intelligible may be from thence collected, it exceeds or deviates from whatever is said in the Scripture concerning Prayer, even in those places where the Grace and privileges of it are most emphatically expressed; and as it is exemplified in the Prayers of the Lord Christ himself, and all the Saints recorded therein. Wherefore the Light of Nature, and the Scripture do by common consent exclude it from being Prayer in any kind. Prayer in the Scripture-representation of it, is the Souls Access and Approach unto God by Jesus Christ through the Aids of his Holy Spirit, to make known its requests unto him with Supplication and Thanksgiving. And that whereon it is recommended unto us are its external Adjuncts, and its internal Grace and efficacy. Of the first sort, Earnestness, fervency, importunity, constancy and perseverance are the principal. No man can attend unto these or any of them in a way of Duty, but in the Exercise of his mind and understanding. Without this, whatever looks like any of them, is bruitish fury or obstinacy.

And as unto the internal form of it, in that description which is given us of its nature in the Scripture, it consists in the especial exercise of Faith, Love, Delight, Fear, all the Graces of the Spirit as occasion does require. And in that Exercise of these Graces wherein the Life and Being of Prayer does consist, a continual regard is to be had unto the Mediation of Christ, and the free Promises of God, through which means he exhibits himself unto us as a God hearing Prayer. These things are both plainly and frequently mentioned in the Scripture, as they are all of them exemplified in the Prayers of those holy Persons which are recorded therein. But for this contemplative Prayer as it is described by our Author and others, there is neither precept for it, nor Direction about it, nor Motive unto it, nor Example of it in the whole Scripture. And it cannot but seem marvellous to some at least, that whereas this Duty and all its concernments are more insisted on therein, than any other Christian Duty or privilege what ever, that the Height and Excellency of it, and that in comparison whereof all other kinds of Prayer, all the actings of the mind and Soul in them are decried, should not obtain the least intimation therein.

For if we should take a view of all the particular places wherein the nature and excellency of this Duty are described, with the Grace and privilege wherewith it is accompained, such as for instance, Ephes. 6:18. Philippians 4:6. Hebrews 4:16. Chapter 10:19, 20, 21, 22. there is nothing that is consistent with this contemplative Prayer. Neither is there in the Prayers of our Lord Jesus Christ, nor of his Apostles, nor of any Holy men from the beginning of the World, either for themselves or the whole Church, any thing that gives the least countenance unto it. Nor can any man declare, what is, or can be the Work of the Holy Spirit therein, as he is a Spirit of Grace and Supplication; nor is any Gift of his mentioned in the Scripture, capable of the least exercise therein: so that in no sense it can be that praying in the Holy Ghost which is prescribed unto us. There is therefore no Example proposed unto our imitation, no mark set before us, nor any direction given for the attaining of this pretended Excellency and perfection. Whatever is fancied or spoken concerning it, it is utterly foreign to the Scripture, and must owe it self unto the deluded imagination of some few Persons.

Besides, the Scripture does not propose unto us any other kind of Access unto God under the New Testament, nor any nearer approaches unto him, than what we have in and through the Mediation of Christ and by Faith in him: but in this pretense there seems to be such an immediate Enjoyment of God in his Essence aimed at, as is regardless of Christ, and leaves him quite behind. But God will not be All in all immediately unto the Church, until the Lord Christ has fully delivered up the Mediatory Kingdom unto him. And indeed the silence concerning Christ, in the whole of what is ascribed unto this contemplative Prayer, or rather the Exclusion of him from any concernment in it as Mediator, is sufficient with all considerate persons, to evince that it has not the least interest in the Duty of Prayer, name or thing.

Neither does this Imagination belong any more unto any other part or exercise of Faith in this World; and yet here we universally walk by Faith and not by sight. The whole of what belongs unto it may be reduced unto the two heads of what we do towards God, and what we do enjoy of him therein. And as to the first, all the actings of our Souls towards God belong unto our Reasonable service, Romans 12:1. more is not required of us in a way of Duty. But that is no part of our Reasonable service, wherein our Minds and understandings have no concernment. Nor is it any part of our Enjoyment of God in this life. For no such thing is any where promised unto us, and it is by the Promises alone that we are made partakers of the Divine Nature, or have any thing from God communicated unto us. There seems therefore to be nothing in the Bravery of these affected expressions, but an endeavour to fancy somewhat above the measure of all possible attainments in this life, falling unspeakably beneath those of future Glory. A kind of Purgatory it is in Devotion, somewhat out of this World and not in another; above the Earth, and beneath Heaven, where we may leave it in Clouds and darkness.

On mental prayer as taught by some in the Church of Rome.

Having described the gift of prayer, its use in the church of God, and the nature of the Spirit's work in it, it will now be necessary to briefly consider what some have put forward as a more excellent way of prayer in competition with it. First among these is mental prayer, as described by certain devout persons in the Church of Rome, who prefer it above all other forms. They call it pure spiritual prayer, or a quiet rest of contemplation — one that excludes all images of the imagination and, in time, all perceptible movements of the understanding, and is exercised in simple elevations of the will without any effort at all, yet with remarkable effectiveness. To prepare the soul for such prayer, a complete calm and even death of the passions is said to be required first, along with perfect purity in the spiritual affections of the will and a complete detachment from all created things (Cressy, Church History, Preface, paragraphs 42-43).

First, the truth is that I am so deeply opposed to the merely external, formal practice of reading or singing prayers in use in the Roman Church — which, whatever its reputation as a seemly sort of conversation with God, is in fact accompanied by the greatest contempt of His infinite purity and all divine excellencies — and I so much more abhor the near-magical incantation many among them use when repeating words they do not understand, or applying what they repeat to some end entirely different from what the words mean (such as saying so many prayers for a given purpose when the prayers themselves contain not a single word about it) — that I would welcome any genuine search for real inward communion of soul with God in this duty. But in this pursuit, people must be careful about two things. First, they must assert only what they have some actual experience of, not what they can merely imagine. For people to speculate about what others experience — which is all they can do — and from that to form rules and examples of duty is always risky and may prove harmful to those who follow such guidance. On this point the author under discussion fails, offering nothing but his own imaginings of others' supposed experience. Second, what they claim to have experienced must be confirmable by Scripture rule or example. If it is not, we are left with no guide other than the unbounded imaginations of anyone who claims spiritual experience. Follow these rules, and I will acknowledge in prayer every way the soul and its faculties can rationally direct themselves toward God in a holy and spiritual manner. But if you extend prayer to kinds of action that our nature is not capable of — at least not in this life — it is the plain product of a deceived imagination, and it casts just suspicion on everything else offered from the same source. Such is the claim that this prayer operates in the will and its affections without any movement of the mind or understanding. I grant that the clinging of the will and affections to God through love, delight, contentment, rest, and satisfaction in prayer belongs to the fullness of this duty. But to imagine that these are not guided, directed, and moved by the understanding in its contemplation of God's goodness, beauty, grace, and other divine excellencies is to make our worship and devotion irrational and brutish — whereas it is and ought to be our reasonable service.

That this very description of prayer is a mere product of fancy and imagination — not something the author arrived at through the guidance of spiritual light and experience — is evident from the fact that it is borrowed from those contemplative philosophers who, after the Gospel spread through the world, sought to refine and elevate paganism into agreement with it, or at least is imagined in imitation of what they ascribed to a perfected mind. One of them will serve as an example, and a single passage will suffice. Plotinus, in the Enneads, Book 6, chapter 9, section 10, writes: after many other descriptions of a soul that has attained union with the highest Good, he adds that a mind thus elevated is in no way moved; there is no anger in it, no desire for anything — a perfect rest of the affections. Nor is reason or understanding at work; and if I may say so, not even the self. Being transported and filled with God, it enters a quiet, still, and unmovable repose, declining by no perceptible movement from its own essence, exercising no reflective act upon itself, wholly at rest, as having attained a perfect state — to this effect, with much more to the same purpose. The substance of our author's idea is easily found in these words, and the reader may see it more fully laid out in the final chapter of Plotinus's Enneads. And all his companions of that school at the time speak to the same end.

Second, the intense spiritual fixing of the mind through contemplation on God in Christ — until the soul is, as it were, overwhelmed in wonder and delight, brought to a kind of bewilderment by the boundlessness of the excellencies it admires and adores, only to return to a deep sense of its own lowliness in view of its infinite distance from what it would wholly and eternally embrace — together with all the inexpressible rest and satisfaction the will and affections receive as they approach the eternal fountain of goodness: these are things to be aimed at in prayer, and through the riches of God's condescension, they are frequently enjoyed. The soul is thereby lifted and ravished — not into trances or unaccountable raptures, not moved by powers beyond its own understanding and will — but through the effective workings of the Spirit of grace and the living impressions of divine love, with a sense of God's relationship and kindness, all its faculties and affections are filled with rest, 'with joy inexpressible and full of glory.' These spiritual acts of communion with God — of which I may say with Bernard, 'rare is the hour, brief the stay' — may be enjoyed equally in mental or vocal prayer. But the description given here of mental spiritual prayer has no support from Scripture. In fact, things are said of it that are expressly contrary to Scripture, such as the requirement of perfect purity. It cannot be confirmed by the rational experience of any person, and it in no way removes the necessity and usefulness of vocal prayer, which it is set in opposition to. For the use of words remains necessary in this duty from the very nature of the duty, the command of God, and the edification of the church. And it has unfortunately happened for those who exalt the supposed excellence of this mental prayer that our Lord Jesus Christ not only taught His disciples to pray using words but did so Himself — consistently, as far as we know (Matthew 26:39, 42). Indeed, when He was most intensely engaged in this duty, instead of the stillness and contemplation being advocated, He prayed with a loud cry (Hebrews 5), which Psalm 22 calls 'the voice of His roaring.' All the reproaches this author levels against fervent, earnest vocal prayer — calling it tedious, loud, impetuous, and an uncivil conversation with God, a mere artificial ease and technique — can with equal justice be directed at the outward manner in which our Lord Jesus Christ prayed, which was often long, sometimes loud and intense. And to the examples of their Lord and Master we may add the prophets and apostles, who mention nothing of this supposed elevation, but consistently made use of their voices and asked God to hear their cry and words in their supplications — the words of many of them having been recorded for us accordingly. Words that are fitting, prompted by the Spirit of God, and drawn directly or analogically from Scripture, help the mind and expand it in supplication. As Augustine wrote to Proba: 'Sometimes we arouse ourselves to devotion more powerfully by the use of our own voice.' The use of such words — first led to by the desires of the mind — may and does lead the mind on to express further desires, and increases those already expressed. It is from God's institution and blessing that the mind and will in prayer lead to the words of prayer, and the words of prayer lead the mind and will forward, expanding them in desires and supplications. Without this aid, many would often be cramped in directing their thoughts and affections toward God, or would become distracted or diverted from them. And we have experience that an obedient, holy persistence in the use of gracious words in prayer has prevailed against violent temptations and assaults of Satan that the mind in its silent contemplation was not able to resist. Holy affections are also stirred up in this way. The very words and expressions the mind chooses to declare its thoughts, conceptions, and desires about heavenly things reflect back on the affections, increasing and awakening them. It is not only the things themselves that move the heart, but also the words of wisdom and sobriety by which they are expressed. There is a kind of rebound of power, if I may put it that way, in the deep impression on the affections made by the very words used to express those affections. But we are speaking of prayer chiefly as it is to be performed in households, societies, assemblies, and congregations — settings where mental prayer would promote roughly the same kind of edification as the silent meetings of the Quakers.

Because this so-called prayer is not only commended to us but is preferred above all other ways and methods of prayer — and is held up as a showcase of Roman Catholic devotion to attract others to it — I will examine it a little more carefully. On the best examination I can make of it, it appears to be altogether useless, uncertain, a product of and entertainment for idle curiosity — by which people intrude themselves into things they have never seen, inflated by their own imagination. For in practical matters of religion, no one can understand anything of which he has no experience. By this rule, nothing is rightly dismissed merely because some people, through their own failure, lack experience of it — but anything of which no person pursuing his duty can attain any experience is rightly set aside. Anyone who speaks of such things to others — if any such things belonging to our condition in this world could even exist — must be unintelligible to them. And since he also speaks of things in which his own reason and understanding have no share, he must be unintelligible to himself as well. For no person, however advanced in spiritual light, can understand by reason such acts of the soul — in himself or in others — as involve no exercise of reason or understanding, which is what these supposed trances are claimed to consist in. So when one of them says, 'the ground of my soul touches the ground of God's essence,' it would certainly have been better for him to keep his fancy to himself than to express himself in words which, taken at their plain meaning, are blasphemous, and whose best defense is that they are unintelligible. And whether or not it is unlawful, it is certainly unwise for anyone in religious matters to utter what it is impossible for anyone else to understand — with the only defense being that they do not understand it themselves, since they received it without any exercise of their own understanding. To tolerate such claims is the ready path to introducing confusion into the church and exposing religion to contempt. I have known some among us who claimed such trances, and for a time they stirred up the admiration of weak and credulous people — but through a little observation of what they did, said, and claimed, and through testing it all by the unfailing rule of Scripture, they quickly fell into contempt. All I intend at present is this: whatever may be said for this claim, it is entirely useless for edification and its promotion therefore deserves no place in the church of God. If the apostle would not permit the use of words that were miraculously given to those who spoke them, without an immediate interpretation of their meaning, what would he have said about words and experiences incapable of any interpretation that any living person could understand? For those who currently praise and commend these things to us speak aimlessly — like blind men describing colors — for they do not claim to have any personal experience of these things themselves. And it is a rather strange approach to enhancing the appeal of their church and inviting others to join it, by claiming that there are some among them who enjoyed spiritual ecstasies that neither they themselves nor anyone else could understand. For nothing can be genuine where there is no exercise of reason or understanding. Therefore the old question — what good is it? — is enough to dismiss this claim from serious consideration by thoughtful people in religious matters.

Furthermore, just as this whole kind of prayer is useless for the benefit and edification of the church or any of its members, so there can never be any certainty about the trances in which it is claimed to consist. They must forever remain a matter of controversy and dispute. For who can assure me that those claiming these experiences are not simply pretending? Anyone alive, if he chooses to, can say such things or use such language about himself. If someone claims and declares that he does or enjoys what the word of God sets forth as a duty or privilege for believers — things acknowledged by all to be real and genuinely attainable — he is ordinarily to be believed in his claim, unless he can be shown to be lying by something inconsistent with such duties or privileges. Nor do I see any great harm in our believing him, even if we happen to be mistaken about the person, since he is speaking of nothing more than what everyone acknowledges to be their duty to pursue. But when someone claims spiritual experiences and enjoyments that are neither prescribed nor promised in Scripture, nor can be examined by the light of reason, no one is obligated to believe them on that bare claim alone. And no one can predict what harm his doing so might produce. For when people once leave the solid ground of Scripture and their own understanding, setting themselves adrift on the uncertain waters of fancy and conjecture, they do not know how they may be tossed or where they may be driven. If it is argued that the holiness and integrity of those who claim these special privileges is sufficient reason to believe them, I answer: it would be in good measure, if they did not claim things contrary to reason and unsupported by Scripture — which is enough to undermine the credibility of any person's integrity. Nor can their holiness and integrity be shown to be so perfect as to make them entirely impervious to all temptation, which was the prerogative of Christ alone. Nor is there any more force in this argument than what reduces to the claim that there are no hypocrites in the world who could escape people's detection. For if such there may be, some of these claimants might be among their number, despite their apparent holiness and integrity. Besides, if the holiness of the best of them were examined by the standard of the Gospel, perhaps it would be so far from lending credibility to other claims that it would not be able to defend its own reputation. And it is not lack of charity that makes people doubtful and skeptical in such cases. It is that godly caution and Christian wisdom which require them to take care not to be deceived or deluded — and these not only justify them in staying on guard but make it their necessary duty. For it is nothing new that claims of trances, ecstasies, revelations, and extraordinary experiences of God should be put to corrupt ends, indeed abused to the worst imaginable purposes. The history of the church — both under the Old Testament and the New — testifies to this, as Peter declares (2 Peter 2:1). Among the people of old, there were multitudes falsely claiming visions, dreams, revelations, and spiritual ecstasies. Some of them wore rough garments to deceive — which never traveled alone but was accompanied by all such outward austerities as might create an impression of holiness and integrity. When the general population had grown corrupt and superstitious, these men carried more credibility with the people than the true prophets of God, and yet they mostly showed themselves to be hypocritical liars. We are abundantly warned in the New Testament about such spirits, and foretold that there would be those by whom many would be deceived. And we are commanded to test all such claimants to extraordinary communion with God by the unfailing rule of the word — and we ask for nothing but the freedom to do so.

But suppose that those who assert these devotional experiences of God are not intentional frauds — that they are not trying to deceive, but are genuinely persuaded of the reality of what they try to describe. Even this gives us not the slightest assurance that they are telling the truth. For it is well known that there are many ways — some natural, some diabolical — by which people's imaginations can become so gripped by false images and perceptions of things, and with such force as to give them complete confidence in their reality, that no assurance can be drawn from a person's apparent sincerity. And there are so many ways by which people are disposed to such states and experiences, or are made vulnerable to such delusions — especially where they are prompted by superstition and doctrinally encouraged to expect such experiences — that it is a far greater wonder that more people have not fallen into the same extremes than that any have done so. Experience shows that some people's imaginations have been so fixed on evil and harmful things by satanic delusion that they have confessed crimes against themselves that made them liable to capital punishment, crimes of which they were never actually guilty. Therefore, since these claimed acts and experiences of devotion are said to involve no perceptible movement of mind or understanding, and so cannot be rationally accounted for or made intelligible to anyone else, it is not unreasonable to suppose that they are nothing but foolish imaginations of deluded minds — which superstitious and credulous people have gradually worked themselves up to, or to which they have made themselves vulnerable through a baseless, unwarranted desire for or expectation of them.

But whatever may be said for this so-called contemplative prayer at its highest, it neither is prayer nor can rightly be called prayer. We have already said that we allow mental prayer and all exercises of the mind in holy meditation. Nor do we deny the usefulness or necessity of those other things — the mortifying of the affections and passions, the entire yielding of the whole soul to God with delight in Him — so far as our nature is capable of them in this life. But it is the supposed incomparable excellence of this form, in the silence of the soul and the pure adherence of the will apart from any movement of the understanding, that we are examining. Whatever else may be found in it, it does not have the nature of prayer and is not to be regarded as such, even though it is recommended to us under that name. Prayer is a natural duty, and the basic understanding of it is common to all mankind. The universal voice of human nature does not deceive. Whatever is not consistent with it — and especially what directly contradicts it — is not to be counted as prayer. In the common understanding of all people, this duty consists in the soul's engagement with God wherein, from an acknowledgment of His sovereign being, self-sufficiency, rule, and dominion, along with His infinite goodness, wisdom, power, righteousness, omniscience, and omnipresence, and from a sense of their own total dependence on Him — on His will and pleasure — for their existence, life, happiness, and all their concerns, people address their desires in faith and trust to Him according to their state and condition, or ascribe praise and glory to Him for what He is in Himself and what He is to them. This is the general concept of prayer that all human reason converges on, and no one can conceive of it under any other description. The Gospel directs the performance of this duty in an acceptable way with respect to the mediation of Christ, the aid of the Holy Spirit, and the revelation of the spiritual mercies we all desire — but it does not change the general nature of prayer. The Gospel does not introduce a duty of a completely different kind and call it by the name of something already known by the light of nature, as though it were something entirely different. But all people, in whom the first innate principles of natural light have not been extinguished or severely corrupted, understand well enough this general nature of prayer. This can happen among some through long familiarity with an atheistic and brutish way of life. But as broad and extensive as are people's convictions about the existence and being of God, so are their instincts about the nature of this duty. For the first natural movement of a person toward a divine being is invocation. Jonah's sailors knew how, each man, to call on his god when they were in the storm. And where there is no trust or confidence in God — by which people glorify Him as God — and where desires or praise are not offered to Him, neither of which can occur without the explicit action of mind and understanding, there is no prayer, whatever else there may be. Therefore this contemplative devotion, in which — as it is claimed — the soul is swept up into an advance of the will and affections above all movement of the mind or understanding, has not a single feature of prayer as the nature of it is revealed by the light of nature and the universal agreement of mankind. Prayer without an actual acknowledgment of God in all His holy excellencies, and without the exercise of faith in fear, love, confidence, and gratitude, is a monster of nature or a product of imagination that has no real existence. These people had better find some other name to recommend this kind of devotion to our admiration — for from the whole domain of prayer and calling on the name of God, it is completely excluded. What place it may have in any other aspect of the worship of God we will inquire into immediately.

But this evaluation of mental prayer by the light of nature will be seen as absurd and beside the point. For if we must test all matters of spiritual communion with God — including those that wholly depend on divine supernatural revelation — by the light of nature, our measurements will be false and distorted. And I say, without doubt they would be. Therefore we are bringing to this test only that aspect of prayer whose true meaning is acknowledged to be fixed in the light of nature. Without extending that standard beyond its proper limits, we may by it take an accurate measure of what is prayer and what is not — for in this area it cannot deceive or be deceived. This is all we are engaging with at present. And in the same line of inquiry we may also bring it to the test of Scripture, where it will be found just as foreign as it is to the light of nature. For as this prayer is described, so far as anything intelligible can be drawn from the description, it surpasses or departs from everything Scripture says about prayer — even in those passages where its grace and privileges are most emphatically expressed, and as exemplified in the prayers of the Lord Christ Himself and all the saints recorded in it. Therefore the light of nature and Scripture together, by common agreement, exclude this practice from being prayer in any form. Prayer as Scripture presents it is the soul's access and approach to God through Jesus Christ by the aid of His Holy Spirit, to make its requests known to Him with supplication and thanksgiving. And what recommends prayer to us consists in its outward characteristics and its inward grace and power. Of the first kind, earnestness, fervency, persistence, constancy, and perseverance are the principal ones. No person can attend to these, or any of them, in a dutiful way except through the exercise of his mind and understanding. Without this, whatever resembles any of these is nothing but brutish intensity or stubbornness.

As for the inward form of prayer, as Scripture describes it, it consists in the specific exercise of faith, love, delight, fear, and all the graces of the Spirit as the occasion requires. And in that exercise of these graces — in which the life and being of prayer consists — a continual regard is to be had to the mediation of Christ and the free promises of God, through which He presents Himself to us as a God who hears prayer. All of these things are plainly and frequently mentioned in Scripture, and all are exemplified in the recorded prayers of the holy persons found there. But for this contemplative prayer as described by our author and others, there is neither command for it, nor direction about it, nor motivation toward it, nor example of it anywhere in the whole of Scripture. And it cannot but seem remarkable to thoughtful people that whereas this duty of prayer and all its aspects are more extensively treated in Scripture than any other Christian duty or privilege, this supposedly supreme form of it — in comparison with which all other kinds of prayer and all movements of the mind and soul in prayer are dismissed as inferior — should not receive even the slightest hint of mention anywhere in Scripture.

Indeed, if we look at all the specific passages in which the nature and excellence of this duty are described, together with the grace and privilege that accompany it — such as Ephesians 6:18, Philippians 4:6, Hebrews 4:16, and Hebrews 10:19-22 — there is nothing that is compatible with this contemplative prayer. Neither in the prayers of our Lord Jesus Christ, nor those of His apostles, nor those of any holy person from the beginning of the world — whether for themselves or for the whole church — is there anything that gives the least support to it. Nor can anyone explain what the work of the Holy Spirit in this kind of prayer would be, as He is the Spirit of grace and supplication — nor is any gift of His mentioned in Scripture that could have even the smallest role in it. In no sense, therefore, can it be that praying in the Holy Spirit which is commanded of us. There is therefore no example set before us for imitation, no goal marked out, and no guidance given for attaining this supposedly supreme excellence and perfection. Whatever is imagined or said about it, it is utterly foreign to Scripture and must owe itself to the deluded imagination of a few individuals.

Furthermore, Scripture does not present any other kind of access to God under the New Testament, nor any nearer approach to Him, than what we have in and through the mediation of Christ and by faith in Him. But in this claim there seems to be aimed at such an immediate enjoyment of God in His essence as is independent of Christ and leaves Him entirely behind. Yet God will not be all in all immediately to the church until the Lord Christ has fully delivered up the mediatorial kingdom to Him. And indeed the complete silence about Christ throughout everything attributed to this contemplative prayer — or rather, the exclusion of Him from any role in it as Mediator — is sufficient for any thoughtful person to demonstrate that it has not the slightest connection to the duty of prayer in either name or reality.

Nor does this notion belong any more rightly to any other aspect or exercise of faith in this life — and yet in this life we universally walk by faith, not by sight. Everything belonging to it may be reduced to two heads: what we do toward God and what we enjoy of God in it. As for the first: all the soul's actings toward God belong to our reasonable service (Romans 12:1). Nothing more is required of us in the way of duty. But what our minds and understandings have no part in is no part of our reasonable service. Nor is it any part of our enjoyment of God in this life. For no such thing is promised to us anywhere, and it is by the promises alone that we share in the divine nature or receive anything communicated to us from God. It seems, therefore, that there is nothing in the grandeur of these inflated expressions but an attempt to imagine something above every attainment possible in this life — while falling immeasurably short of the glories of the life to come. It is a kind of purgatory of devotion — somewhere outside this world and not yet in the next, above the earth and beneath heaven — where we may leave it in clouds and darkness.