Our Sincerity or Hypocrisy – How to tell which, Gurnall

[Ed Walsh]

From: The Christian in Complete Armour​

Note: It is always a bit frustrating to post an excerpt from Gurnall since it is out of context from the whole. But here is a portion that stood out to me today. Actually, every day I read him something stands out. But I just can’t post a thousand pages at once.

From
CHAPTER XII
FOUR CHARACTERS OF TRUTH OF HEART, OR SINCERITY
Gurnall, W., & Campbell, J. (1845). The Christian in Complete Armour​

Secondly, A true heart is plain as with itself, so with God also. Several ways this might appear; take one for all, and that is in his petitions and requests at the throne of grace: the hypocrite in prayer juggles, he asks what he would not thank God to give him; there is a mystery of iniquity in his praying against iniquity. Now this will appear in these two particulars, whether we be plain-hearted in our requests or not.

First, Observe whether thou art deeply afflicted in spirit when thy request is not answered, or regardest not what success it hath. Suppose it be a sin thou prayest against, or some grace thou prayest for; what is thy temper all the while thy messenger stays, especially if it be long? Thou prayest, and corruption abates not, grace grows not; now thy hypocrisy or sincerity will appear; if sincere, every moment will be an hour, every hour a day, a year, till thou hearest some news from heaven; hope deferred will make the heart sick; doth not the sick man that sends for a physician think long for his coming? O he is afraid his messenger should miss of him, or that he will not come with him, or that he shall die before he brings his physic; a thousand fears disturb him, and make him passionately wish he were there; thus the sincere soul passeth those hours with a sad heart, that it lives without a return of its request: ‘I am a woman,’ saith Hannah to Eli, ‘of a sorrowful spirit,’ 1 Sam. 1:15: and why so? Alas! she had from year to year prayed to God, and no answer was yet come: thus saith the soul, I am one of a bitter spirit; I have prayed for a soft heart, a believing heart, many a day and month, but it is not come; I am afraid I was not sincere in the business; could my request so long have hung in the clouds else? Such a soul is full of fears and troubles; like a merchant that hath a rich ship at sea, who cannot sleep on land till he sees her, or hears of her. But if, when thou hast sent up thy prayer, thou canst cast off the care and thoughts of the business, as if praying were only like children’s scribbling over pieces of paper, which when they have done they lay aside and think no more of them: if thou canst take denials at God’s hands for such things as these, and blank no more than a cold suitor doth when he hears not from her whom he never really loved, it breaks not thy rest, embitters not thy joy, a false heart set thee on work. And take heed, that instead of answering thy prayer, God doth not answer the secret desire of thy heart; which should he do, thou art undone for ever.

Secondly, Observe whether thou usest the means to obtain that which thou prayest God to give. A false heart sits still itself, while it sets God on work; like him, that when his cart was set in the slough, cried, Jupiter, help! but would not put his own shoulder to the wheel; if corruptions may be mortified and killed for him, as Goliath was for the Israelites, he, like them, looking on, and not put to strike stroke, so it is: but for any encounter with them, or putting himself to the trouble of using any means for obtaining the victory, he is so eaten up with sloth and cowardice, that it is as grievous, he thinks, as to sit still in slavery and bondage to them. But a sincere soul is conscientiously laborious: ‘Let us lift up our hearts with our hands unto the Lord,’ Lam. 3:41; that is, saith Bernard, Oremus et laboremus; let us pray and use the endeavour; the hypocrite’s tongue wags, but the sincere soul’s feet walk, and hands work.

Thirdly, The sincere soul discovers its plainness and simplicity to men. We had our conversation ‘among you,’ saith Paul to the Corinthians, in ‘simplicity,’ and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom. The Christian is one that cannot subject his heart to his head, his conscience to his policy; he commits himself to God in well-doing, and fears not others, if he be not conscious to himself; and therefore he dares not make a hole in his conscience to keep his skin whole, but freely and openly vouches God without dissembling his profession; while the hypocrite shifts his sails, and puts forth such colours as his policy and worldly interest adviseth; if the coast be clear, and no danger at hand, he will appear as religious as any; but no sooner he makes discovery of any hazard it may put him to, but he tacks about, and shapes another course, making no bones of juggling with God and man; he counts that his right road, which leads to his temporal safety; but quite contrary the upright, Prov. 16:17: ‘The highway of the upright is to depart from evil.’ This is the road that this true traveller jogs on in; and if he be at any time seen out of it, it is upon no other account, than a man that hath unwillingly lost his way, never quiet till he strike into it again.

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Gurnall, W., & Campbell, J. (1845). The Christian in Complete Armour (pp. 258–259). London: Thomas Tegg.

 

[Solparvus]

Humbling and assuring.

I have to remind myself that even though I see sin, the marks of grace are truly the work of the Spirit. We cannot for humility's sake diminish those marks when we see them.

Spurgeon on Psalm 5:3, Treasury of David

Psalm 5:2–3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.

"And will look up," or, as the Hebrew might better be translated, "'I will look out,' I will look out for the answer; after I have prayed, I will expect that the blessing shall come." It is a word that is used in another place where we read of those who watched for the morning. So will I watch for thine answer, O my Lord! I will spread out my prayer like the victim on the altar, and I will look up, and expect to receive the answer by fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice.

From Gurnall again:

Faith hath a supporting act after prayer; it supports the soul to expect a gracious answer: "I will direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up," or I will look; for what, but for a return? An unbelieving heart shoots at random, and never minds where his arrow lights, or what comes of his praying; but faith fills the soul with expectation. As a merchant, when he casts up his estate, he counts what he hath sent beyond sea, as well as what he hath in hand; so doth faith reckon upon what he hath sent to heaven in prayer and not received, as well as those mercies which he hath received, and are in hand at present. Now this expectation which faith raiseth in the soul after prayer, appears in the power that it hath to quiet and compose the soul in the interim between the sending forth, as I may say, the ship of prayer, and its return home with its rich lading it goes for, and it is more or less, according as faith's strength is. Sometimes faith comes from prayer in triumph, and cries, Victoria. It gives such a being and existence to the mercy prayed for in the Christian's soul before any likelihood of it appears to sense and reason, that the Christian can silence all his troubled thoughts with the expectation of its coming. Yea, it will make the Christian disburse his praises for the mercy long before it is received. . . . . . For want of looking up many a prayer is lost. If you do not believe, why do you pray? And if you believe, why do you not expect? By praying you seem to depend on God; by not expecting, you again renounce your confidence. What is this but to take his name in vain? O Christian, stand to your prayer in a holy expectation of what you have begged upon the credit of the promise. . . . . Mordecai, no doubt, had put up many prayers for Esther, and therefore he waits at the king's gate, looking what answer God would in his providence give therunto. Do thou likewise. William Gurnall.

 

[Solparvus]

Delighted in providence to come across Bridges on the same matter:

"The Lord is far from the wicked, but he heareth the prayer of the righteous." - Proverbs 15:29

"Yet let us look out, and see how our prayers speed. The husbandman looks for his harvest. And when we have sown in a fruitful soil--in the very bosom of God--shall not we look for the return, wait in hope, strengthen our heart in the Divine promises, and never cease to look up, till the answer come down? No prayer will be without God's fruit." (C. Bridges, Proverbs, Banner of Truth ed. 2008).