conversion to Roman Catholicism.^15 Owen declares that “whatever 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.”^16 According to Owen, the primary fault of mental
prayer is that it bypasses the importance of the mind or understanding.^17 Additionally,
he finds no biblical support for it^ and the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples
employed words.^18 Further, Owen associates mental prayer with the Quakers and
Ambrose’s reaction to them illuminates the seriousness of this charge.^19 Surprisingly,
Owen can also approve of “mental prayer, and all actings of the mind in holy
meditations” provided that the mind is actively engaged.^20 Therefore, in reality
Owen affirms the value of contemplative prayer:
The spiritual intense fixation of the mind, by contemplation on God in Christ,
until the soul be as it webrought unto an utter loss, through the infiniteness of those excellencies which re swallowed up in admiration and delight, and being
it doth 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, withal, 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.”^21
(^15) DNB, 5:75-6. The controversy and criticism that surrounded Cressy was at least
partially due to his editing of Augustine Baker’s works. See Lunn, “Augustine
Baker.” 16
17 Owen, Holy Spirit in Prayer, 334-35.^
(^18) Owen, Owen, Holy Spirit in PrayerHoly Spirit in Prayer, esp. 335, cf. 328, 330, 337. - 31, 336.^
(^19) Owen, Holy Spirit in Prayer, 331.
(^20) Owen, Holy Spirit in Prayer, 335. For mental prayer in the Puritans see Scougal,
Life of God in Soul of Man, 121-3(incorrectly numbered 121); Wakefield, Puritan
Devotion, 85-9; and Horton Davies, Worship and Theology in England, 2:125n149.
Both Wakefield and Davies mention Ambrose in relation to mental prayer. 21
Owen, Holy Spirit in Prayer, 329-330. For a helpful elaboration of Owen’s
perspective on contemplative spirituality see King “Affective Spirituality of John Owen.”