A load-starre to spirituall life. Or, a Christian familiar motiue to the most sweet and heauenly exercise of diuine prayer With prayers for morning and euening. Written to stir vp all men to watchfulnesse and reformation of their carnall and corrupt liues. By I. Norden.

CHAP. VIII.

Carnall wisedome hath not chiefe place of counsell in the regenerate man: he de∣pendeth on God, and not on the meanes in any enter∣prise.

FRiends (we obserue) do most vsually communi∣cate together, not by way of dissimulation, but by sincere affection: and one is ayded and comforted of another, according to the occasions each propoundeth to other. And shal we think that that man that loueth God, will estrange his occasions from the counsaile of God? Will hee deliberate of any matter of importance, but will first consult with the Oracle of

Gods mouth? And will hee not impart his occasions by powring them forth vnto him in praier? assuring him∣selfe that God againe will answer him by his holy spi¦rit, and by him certifie his spirit what he shall doe, and what course hee shall take, both for the atchieuing of the good he desireth, & for the auoyding the danger he feareth. No carnall counsel whatsoeuer, not warranted by the word, shall be ad∣mitted to that consultation or resolution: he will aban∣don all carnall respects, and onely holde himselfe to di∣uine direction: hee will not vse humane wisedome,* 1.1 but as it were a hand-maide to di∣uine prudence. It may serch and find out such wants, and

corporall necessities, as are fit in spiritual vnderstanding to be supplied, but leaueth the execution to diuine wis∣dome, which produceth faith, and faith prayer for the obtayning thereof at the hands of God. And as A∣braham left his seruants and Asses behinde him when he went to offer vp his sonne; so doth this heauenly wise∣dome leaue all carnall re∣spects behinde when it ap∣procheth towards God, to offer the sacrifice of prayer or praise. Contrariwise, it is too manifest, that the most carrie their carnall vanities with them euē to the Altar; making their petitions part∣ly in the flesh and partly in the spirit, in part beleeuing and in part doubting, halt∣ing

before God, and yet see∣ming to walk vprightly be∣fore men, who iustifie or cō∣demne the outward action, not seeing the inward heart.

To pray vnto God with the lippes for any corporall benefit,* 1.2 and yet to haue the eye of the hart fixed in con∣fidence vpō naturall means, is a kinde of spirituall adul∣tery. For, what man is hee that hauing a wife, outward∣ly affable, vsing wordes of loue vnto him, and yet her he••rt set vpon another man, will not thinke her a faithles and vnchaste wise? And is God lesse iealous think we, who craueth our hearts when we shall worship him in words and outward shew of works, when our consci∣ences cannot but tell vs that

we aske that of God which we inwardly beleeue more probable and possible to be obtained by meanes with∣out him? Is not this a falsi∣fying of our faith and dis∣sembling of our prayers? Is not this a manifest breach of the law that saies, we shal haue no other Gods but Iehouah; as also not to take his name in vaine, as they do that call vpon him with the lips, their hearts farre from him?

The Iewes thinking to make themselues strong by the Egyptians and other car¦nall meanes,* 1.3 left their de∣pendancie on God; & ther∣fore did God denounce his iudgements against them: Cursed is the man that trust∣eth in man, and maketh flesh

(any kind of carnal meanes) his arme,* 1.4 and withdraweth his heart from the Lord: hee shall not see, when any good commeth. How can he then attribute praise or prayer vnto God for whatsoeuer successe, when he groundeth his hope on earthly meanes, and not on God? Nay, though hee pray vnto God, and yet dependeth more, and puts more hope on se∣condarie meanes? if he find that come to passe that hee desired, how can hee but yeeld part of the praise vnto the mediate cause, wherein hee in part trusted? and so derogate the praise due vnto God, who is eyther all or no part of the cause of that wi∣shed successe. For although God vse naturall instru∣ments

to effect his will, not onely in relieuing his chil∣dren when they pray vnto him, but also in punishing the wicked when they of∣fend; yet are these meanes onely of, and by God, wor∣king, not as man willeth, but as God foreseeth fit for the good of the one, & punish∣ment of the other. God v∣sed clay to cleere the eies of the blinde man: if the blinde man had yeelded the thanks to the clay as the cause of his sight, though hee had like∣wise giuen praise vnto God, hee had robbed God of his right. For to allow vnto God a fellow-helper, were to argue him of himselfe in∣sufficient; as som most fear∣fully belch forth a most su∣perstitious praier, saying,

God and our Lady do this or that, or preuent this or that; whereby they eyther make God no God, or a God not absolute in power, nor with∣out a cooperator complete, which cannot bee but most horrible blasphemie. I here∣by yet inferre not that it is vnlawfull to giue reuerence vnto the means which God vseth for our good, as Dauid did to Ionathan; yet no fur∣ther but as to the instru∣ments, without which God might haue effected his worke, eyther by other meanes, or without any meanes, nay, against means, as not tied to any secondary meanes of necessitie. Heze∣kiah being healed with a cluster of figges, did not per∣swade himself that nothing

else could haue done the cure, but that whatsoeuer God had made the mediate cause, howsoeuer contrarie to the opinion that man might haue of the thing, it would haue wrought the same effect. For he is able by weakest means to performe the greatest worke; as it ap∣peared by the ouerthrow of the wals of Iericho with the sound of Rams hornes.* 1.5 And as he worketh by meanes, so sometimes without meanes, euen by his word, as in healing the Cananitish woman, and the Centurions seruant: nay, such is his ab∣solute power as he worketh as familiarly and easily a∣gainst meanes, as in bring∣ing water out of the hard & drie Rocke, making the wa∣ters

to diuide as the red Sea and Iordan, in making the Sunne to stand still in G••be∣on, and the Moon in the val∣ley of Aialon at the prayer of Iosuah: and causing the Sunne to goe backe in his sphere contrarie to, and a∣gainst his naturall motion, at the prayer of Hezekiah. The holy Scriptures are full of such sweete examples of the absolute power of God, who to effect them requires necessarily no other human meanes but faithfull praier•• not the praier which passeth onely the lips, the affections of the heart being extraua∣gant, but that prayer which proceedeth from the sancti∣fied soule,* 1.6 well and rightly tuned in all her faculties; the vnderstanding thinking

on nothing but on God, the will onely louing him, the memory coueting to retaine nothing but him, the desire aspiring to no other happi∣nesse but what he hath pro∣mised vs in his word. In this maner were our holy fathers qualified, and in this sweete consent of the affections poured they forth the con∣cordant harmonious praiers that wrought these former most admirable supernatu∣rall effects, in altering the naturall course of those cre∣atures which he himselfe set in the firmament, neuer to be moued to the end of the world.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Carnall wisedome a hand-maide to diuine prudence.
• * 1.2

  To pray to God, and to beleeue▪ in meanes is spirituall adulteri••.
• * 1.3

  Esa. 2. 21. A curse on them that leaue God to depend on other meanes.
• * 1.4

  Ier. 17. 5.
• * 1.5

  God works by meanes, without & against meanes.
• * 1.6

  How the soule must be qualified in time of prayer.