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| Chapter IX. Of the fourfold nature of prayer.
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Chapter IX.
Of the fourfold nature of prayer.
And therefore, when we
have laid this down with regard to the character of prayer, although
not so fully as the importance of the subject requires, but as fully as
the exigencies of time permit, and at any rate as our slender abilities
admit, and our dulness of heart enables us,—a still greater
difficulty now awaits us; viz., to expound one by one the different
kinds of prayer, which the Apostle divides in a fourfold manner, when
he says as follows: “I exhort therefore first of all that
supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings be
made.”1593
And we cannot
possibly doubt that this division was not idly made by the Apostle. And
to begin with we must investigate what is meant by supplication, by
prayer, by intercession, and by thanksgiving. Next we must inquire
whether these four kinds are to be taken in hand by him who prays all
at once, i.e., are they all to be joined together in every
prayer,—or whether they are to be offered up in turns and one by
one, as, for instance, ought at one time supplications, at another
prayers, at another intercessions, and at another thanksgivings to be
offered, or should one man present to God supplications, another
prayers, another intercessions, another thanksgivings, in accordance
with that measure of age, to which each soul is advancing by
earnestness of purpose?E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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