William Bates on praying for the removal of afflictions

[Reformed Covenanter]

First; an earnest deprecation of an impending Judgment, is reconcilable with our Submission to the pleasure of God, declared by the Event. Our Saviour with humility and importunity desired the removing of the Cup of Bitterness. We must distinguish between God’s Law, and his Decree and Counsel; The Law is the Rule of our Duty, and requires an entire exact subjection in all our Faculties, even in our internal Desires, in the first motions of the Will; the least velleity, or rising of the Heart against the Divine Command, is irregular and culpable; for not only the acts of Sin are forbidden in every Command respectively, but all the incitations of Concupiscence, before the deliberate judgment of the Mind, or the actual consent of the Will. But the Decree of God is not the Rule of our Duty, and Secret, till manifested by the event of things. This being premised, the Reasons are evident why we may pray against an Affliction that threatens us, without violating our Duty.

First; Because Afflictions are Evils which the Will naturally declines, and are not desirable things in themselves. They are not beneficial and productive of our good by any proper efficacy and operation, but by the over-ruling Providence of God, and the gracious assistance of his Spirit. When Aaron‘s Rod was put into the Sanctuary, and became green and flourishing with Blossoms and Almonds, ’twas not from any inherent virtue of its own, but from the special influence of the Divine Power; for the other Rods remained dead and dry: thus the happy effects of the Afflicting Rod are from Divine Grace. ...

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William Bates on praying for the removal of afflictions

First; an earnest deprecation of an impending Judgment, is reconcilable with our Submission to the pleasure of God, declared by the Event. Our Saviour with humility and importunity desired the remo…

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