alone And this is a part of it that he keeps our Souls intent upon Christ according unto what is required of us as he is the Way of our Approach unto God the Means of our Admittance and the Cause of our Acceptance with him And where Faith is not actually exercised unto this purpose all Prayer is vain and unprofitable And whether our Duty herein be answered with a few words wherein his name is expressed with little spiritual regard unto him is worth our Enquiry To enable us hereunto is the Work of the Holy Ghost He it is that glorifies Jesus Christ in the Hearts of Believers John 16. 14. And this he doth when he enableth them to act Faith on him in a due manner So speaks the Apostle expresly Eph. 2. 18. For through him we have an access by one Spirit unto the Father It is through Jesus alone that we have our Access unto God and that by Faith in him So we have our Access unto him for our Persons in Justification Rom. 5. 2. By whom we have an Access by Faith unto this Grace wherein we stand And by him we have our actual Access unto him in our Supplications when we draw nigh to the Throne of Grace But this is by the Spirit It is he who enables us hereunto by keeping our minds spiritually intent on him in all our Addresses unto God This is a genuine Effect of the Spirit as he is the Spirit of the Son under which Consideration in an especial manner he is bestowed on us to enable us to pray Gal. 4. 6. And hereof Believers have a refreshing Experience in themselves Nor doth any thing leave a better savour or relish on their Souls than when they have had their Hearts and minds kept close in the exercise of Faith on Christ the Mediator in their Prayers I might yet insist on more Instances in the Declaration of the Work of the Holy Ghost in Believers as he is a Spirit of Grace and Supplication But my design is not to declare what may be spoken but to speak what ought not to be omitted Many other things therefore might be added but these will suffice to give an express understanding of this Work unto them who have any spiritual Experience of it and those who have not will not be satisfied with Volumes to the same purpose Yet something may be here added to free our passage from any just Exceptions For it may be some will think that these things are not pertinent unto our present purpose which is to discover the Nature of the Duty of Prayer and the Assistance which we receive by the Spirit of God therein Now this is only in the Words that we use unto God in our Prayers and not in that Spiritual Delight and Confidence which have been spoken unto which with other Graces if they may be so esteemed are of another Consideration An. 1. It may be that some think so and also it may be and is very likely that some who will be talking about these things are utterly ignorant what it is to pray in the Spirit and the whole nature of this Duty Not knowing therefore the thing they hate the very name of it as indeed it cannot but be uncouth unto all who are no way interessed in the Grace and priviledge intended by it The objections of such Persons are but as the stroaks of Blind-men whatever strength and violence be in them they always miss the mark Such are the fierce arguings of the most against this Duty they are full of Fury and Violence but never touch the Matter intended 2. My design is so to discover the Nature of Praying in the Spirit in general as that therewith I may declare what is a furtherance thereunto and what is an hindrance thereof For if there be any such Ways of Praying which men use or oblige themselves unto which do not comply with or are not suited to promote or are unconcerned in or do not express those workings of the Holy Ghost which are so directly assigned unto him in the Prayers of Believers they are all nothing but means of Quenching the Spirit of disappointing the Work of his Grace and rendring the Prayers themselves so used and as such unacceptable with God And apparent it is at least that most of the ways and modes of Prayer used in the Papacy are inconsistent with and exclusive of the whole Work of the Spirit of Supplication CHAP. VII The nature of Prayer in General with respect unto Forms of Prayer and Vocal Prayer Eph. 6. 18. Opened and Vindicated THE Duty I am endeavouring to express is that injoyned in Eph. 6. 18. Praying always with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all Perseverance and Supplication for all Saints Some have made bold to advance a fond Imagination as what will not Enmity unto the Holy ways of God put men upon that praying in the Spirit intends only praying by vertue of an extraordinary and miraculous Gift But the use of it is here enjoyned unto all Believers none excepted men and Women who yet I suppose had not all and every one of them that extraordinary miraculous Gift which they fansie to be intended in that Expression And the Performance of this Duty is enjoyned them in the manner prescribed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 always say we in every season that is such just and due seasons of Prayer as Duty and our Occasions call for But the Apostle expresly confines the exercise of extraordinary Gifts unto some certain seasons when under some Circumstances they may be needful or useful unto Edification 1 Cor. 14. There is therefore a praying in the Spirit which is the constant Duty of all Believers and it is a great reproach unto the Profession of Christianity where that name it self is a matter of Contempt If there be any thing in it that is Foolish Conceited Fanatical the Holy Apostle must answer for it Yea he by whom he was inspired But if this be the Expression of God himself of that Duty which he requireth of us I would not willingly be among the number of them by whom it is derided let their pretences be what they please Besides in the Text all Believers are said thus to pray in the Spirit at all seasons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all Prayer and Supplication that is with all manner of Prayer according as our own Occasions and Necessities do require A man certainly by vertue of this Rule can scarce judge himself obliged to confine his performance of this Duty unto a prescript form of Words For a Variety in our Prayers commensurate unto the various occasions of our selves and of the Church of God being here enjoyned us how we can comply therewith in the constant use of any one Form I know not those who do are left unto their Liberty And this we are obliged unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diligently watching unto this very
immediately enquire But this Examination of it by the Light of Nature will be looked on as most absurd and impertinent For if we must try all matters of Spiritual Communion with God and that in those things which wholly depend on Divine supernatural Revelation by this Rule and Standard our measures of them will be false and perverse And I say no doubt they would Wherefore we call only that concern of it unto a Trial hereby whose true notion is confessedly fixed in the Light of Nature Without extending that line beyond its due bounds we may by it take a just measure of what is Prayer and what is not for therein it cannot deceive nor be deceived And this is all which at present we engage about And in the pursuit of the same enquiry we may bring it also unto the Scripture from which we shall find it as foreign as from the Light of Nature For as it is described so far as any thing intelligible may be from thence collected it exceeds or deviates from whatever is said in the Scripture concerning Prayer even in those places where the Grace and priviledges of it are most emphatically expressed and as it is exemplified in the Prayers of the Lord Christ himself and all the Saints recorded therein Wherefore the Light of Nature and the Scripture do by common consent exclude it from being Prayer in any kind Prayer in the Scripture-representation of it is the Souls Access and Approach unto God by Jesus Christ through the Aids of his Holy Spirit to make known its requests unto him with Supplication and Thanksgiving And that whereon it is recommended unto us are its external Adjuncts and its internal Grace and efficacy Of the first sort Earnestness fervency importunity constancy and perseverance are the principal No man can attend unto these or any of them in a way of Duty but in the Exercise of his mind and understanding Without this whatever looks like any of them is bruitish fury or obstinacy And as unto the internal form of it in that description which is given us of its nature in the Scripture it consists in the especial exercise of Faith Love Delight Fear all the Graces of the Spirit as occasion doth require And in that Exercise of these Graces wherein the Life and Being of Prayer doth consist a continual regard is to be had unto the Mediation of Christ and the free Promises of God through which means he exhibits himself unto us as a God hearing Prayer These things are both plainly and frequently mentioned in the Scripture as they are all of them exemplified in the Prayers of those holy Persons which are recorded therein But for this contemplative Prayer as it is described by our Author and others there is neither precept for it nor Direction about it nor Motive unto it nor Example of it in the whole Scripture And it cannot but seem marvellous to some at least that whereas this Duty and all its concernments are more insisted on therein than any other Christian Duty or priviledge what ever that the Height and Excellency of it and that in comparison whereof all other kinds of Prayer all the actings of the mind and Soul in them are decried should not obtain the least intimation therein For if we should take a view of all the particular places wherein the nature and excellency of this Duty are described with the Grace and priviledge wherewith it is accompained such as for instance Ephes. 6. 18. Phil. 4. 6. Heb. 4. 16. Chap. 10. 19 20 21 22. there is nothing that is consistent with this contemplative Prayer Neither is there in the Prayers of our Lord Jesus Christ nor of his Apostles nor of any Holy men from the beginning of the World either for themselves or the whole Church any thing that gives the least countenance unto it Nor can any man declare what is or can be the Work of the Holy Spirit therein as he is a Spirit of Grace and Supplication nor is any Gift of his mentioned in the Scripture capable of the least exercise therein so that in no sense it can be that praying in the Holy Ghost which is prescribed unto us There is therefore no Example proposed unto our imitation no mark set before us nor any direction given for the attaining of this pretended Excellency and perfection Whatever is fancied or spoken concerning it it is utterly forraign to the Scripture and must owe it self unto the deluded imagination of some few Persons Besides the Scripture doth not propose unto us any other kind of Access unto God under the New Testament nor any nearer approaches unto him than what we have in and through the Mediation of Christ and by Faith in him but in this pretence there seems to be such an immediate Enjoyment of God in his Essence aimed at as is regardless of Christ and leaves him quite behind But God will not be All in all immediately unto the Church until the Lord Christ hath fully delivered up the Mediatory Kingdom unto him And indeed the silence concerning Christ in the whole of what is ascribed unto this contemplative Prayer or rather the Exclusion of him from any concernment in it as Mediator is sufficient with all considerate persons to evince that it hath not the least interest in the Duty of Prayer name or thing Neither doth this Imagination belong any more unto any other part or exercise of Faith in this World and yet here we universally walk by Faith and not by sight The whole of what belongs unto it may be reduced unto the two heads of what we do towards God and what we do enjoy of him therein And as to the first all the actings of our Souls towards God belong unto our Reasonable service Rom. 12. 1. more is not required of us in a way of Duty But that is no part of our Reasonable service wherein our Minds and understandings have no concernment Nor is it any part of our Enjoyment of God in this life For no such thing is any where promised unto us and it is by the Promises alone that we are made partakers of the Divine Nature or have any thing from God communicated unto us There seems therefore to be nothing in the Bravery of these affected expressions but an endeavour to fancy somewhat above the measure of all possible attainments in this life falling unspeakably beneath those of future Glory A kind of Purgatory it is in Devotion somewhat out of this World and not in another above the Earth and beneath Heaven where we may leave it in Clouds and darkness CHAP. XI Prescribed forms of Prayer Examined THERE are also great Pleas for the use of prescribed limited Forms of Prayer in opposition to that spiritual Ability in Prayer which we have described and proved to be a Gift of the Holy Ghost Where these Forms are contended for by men with respect unto their own use and practice only as suitable to their Experience and
common People of Christians nor ever been the means of that Idolatry which at length spread it self over the whole visible Church of these parts of the World had not this Device of prescribed Forms of Prayer wherein those Abominations were not only expressed but graphically represented and acted so violently affecting the carnal Minds of men superstitious and ignorant imposed them on their practice which gradually hardened them with an obdurate credulity For although they saw no ground or reason Doctrinally to believe what was proposed unto them about Transubstantiation and the Sacrifice of the Mass and might easily have seen that they were contradictory unto all the conductive Principles of men and Christians namely Faith Reason and Sense yet they deceived themselves into an obstinate pretence of believing in the notion of Truth of what they had admitted in practice Men I say of corrupt minds might have disputed long enough about vagrant Forms Accidents without subjects Transmutation of substances without Accidents Sacrifices bloody and unbloody before they had vitiated the whole Worship of the Church with gross Idolatry had not this engine been made use of for its introduction and the minds of men by this means inveagled with the practice of it But when the whole matter and means of it was gradually insinuated into and at length comprized in those Forms of Prayer which they were obliged continually to use in Divine Service their whole Souls became leavened and tainted with a confidence in and love unto these Abominations Hence it was that the Doctrines concerning the Sacraments and the whole worship of God in the Church as they became gradually corrupted were not at once Objectively and Doctrinally proposed to the minds and considerations of men to be received or rejected according to the Evidence they had of their Truth or Error a method due to the Constitution of our Natures but gradually insinuated into their practice by Additional Forms of Prayer which they esteemed themselves obliged to use and observe This was the gilding of the poysonous Pill whose operation when it was swallowed was to bereave men of their Sense Reason and Faith and make them madly avow that to be true which was contrary unto them all Besides as was before intimated the things themselves that were the ground-work of Idolatry namely Transubstantiation and the Sacrifice of the Mass were so acted and represented in those Forms of Worship as to take great impression on the minds of carnal men until they were mad on their Idols For when all Religion and Devotion is let into the Soul by Fancy and Imagination excited by outward spectacles they will make mad work in the World as they have done and yet continue to do But hereof I shall speak in the next place It had therefore been utterly impossible that an Idolatrous Worship should have been introduced into the Church in general had not the Opinion of the necessity of devised Forms of Prayer been first universally received At least it had not been so introduced and so established as to procure and cause the shedding of the blood of thousands of Holy persons for not complying with it By this means alone was brought in that fatal engine of the Churches Ruine from whose murderous efficacy few escaped with their Lives or Souls Had all Churches continued in the Liberty wherein they were placed and left by our Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles it is possible that many Irregularities might have prevailed in some of them and many mistakes been admitted in their practice Yet this monster of the Mass devouring the Souls of the most and drinking the blood of many had never been conceived nor brought forth at least not nourished into that terrible form and Power wherein it appeared and acted for many Ages in the World And upon the account thereof it is not without cause that the Jews say that the Christians received their Tephilloth or Prayer-books from Armillus that is Antichrist It is true that when the Doctrine of Religion is determined and established by civil Laws the Laws of the Nation where it is professed as the Rule of all outward Advantages Liturgies composed in compliance therewithal are not so subject to this mischief But this ariseth from that external cause alone Otherwise where ever those who have the ordering of these things do deviate from the Truth once received as it is common for the most so to do Forms of Prayers answerable unto those deviations would quickly be insinuated And the present various Liturgies that are amongst the several sorts of Christians in the World are of little other use than to establish their minds in their peculiar Errors which by this means they adhere unto as Articles of their Faith And hereby did God suffer contempt to be cast upon the supposed Wisdom of men about his Worship and the ways of it They would not trust unto his Institutions and his Care of them but did first put the Ark into a Cart and then like Uzzah put forth a hand of force to hold it when it seemed to shake For it is certain that if not the first Invention yet the first publick Recommendation and prescription of devised Forms of Prayer unto the practice of the Churches were designed to prevent the insinuation of false opinions and corrupt Modes of Worship into the publick Administrations This was feared from Persons infected with Heresy that might creep into their Ministry So the Orthodox and the Arians composed Prayers Hymns and Doxologies the one against the other inserting in them passages confirming their own profession and condemning that of their Adversaries Now however this Invention might be approved whilest it kept within bounds yet it proved the Trojan Horse that brought in all evils into the City of God in its Belly For he who was then at work in the Mystery of Iniquity laid hold on the Engine and occasion to corrupt those Prayers which by the constitution of them who had obtained Power in them the Churches were obliged and confined unto And this took place effectually in the constitution of the Worship of the second Race of Christians or the Nations that were converted unto the Christian Faith after they had destroyed the Western Roman Empire To speak briefly and plainly it was by this means alone namely of the necessary Use of devised Forms of Prayer in the Assemblies of the Church and of them alone that the Mass with its Transubstantiation and Sacrifice and all the Idolatrous Worship wherewith they were accompanied were introduced until the World inflamed with those Idols drench'd it self in the bloud of the Saints and Martyrs of Christ for their Testimony against those abominations And if it had been sooner discovered that no Church was intrusted with Power from Christ to frame and impose such devised Forms of Worship as are not warranted by the Scripture innumerable Evils might have been prevented For that there were no Liturgies composed no imposed Use of them in the Primitive
of the Spirit of Grace and Supplication unless he be despised And this is done in the accomplishment of that great Promise Mal. 1. 11. For from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place Incense shall be offered unto my name and a pure Offering for my name shall be great among the Heathens saith the Lord of hosts Prayer and Praises in the Assemblies of the Saints is the pure Offering and that Sacrifice which God promiseth shall be offered unto him And this Oblation is not to be kindled without the Eternal Fire of the Spirit of Grace No Sacrifice was to be offered of old but with fire taken from the Altar Be it what it would if it were offered with strange fire it was an Abomination Hence they were all called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the firings of the Lord. And this was in a Resemblance of the Holy Ghost Whence Christ is said to offer himself to God through the eternal Spirit And so must we do our Prayers In the fruits and effects of his Workslyes all the Glory and Beauty of our Assemblies and Worship Take them away and they are contemptible dead and carnal And he carrieth this Work into the Families of them that do believe Every Family apart is enabled to pray and serve God in the Spirit and such as are not do live in darkness all their Dayes He is the same to Believers all the World over in their Closets or their Prisons They have all where ever they are an Access by one Spirit unto the Father Eph. 2. 18. And for this enlargement of Grace God justly expects a revenue of Glory from us 3. It is assuredly our Duty to make use of the Gift of the Spirit as that which is purchased for us by Christ and is of inestimable advantage unto our Souls There are two ways whereby men may be guilty of the neglect of this heavenly favour 1. They are so when the Gift it self is not valued nor sought after nor endeavoured to be attained And this is done under various pretences some imagine that it is no Gift of the Spirit and so despise it others think that either by them it is not attainable or that if it be attained it will not answer their labour in it and diligence about it which it doth require and therefore take up with another way and means which they know to be more easy and hope to be as useful By many the whole Duty is despised and consequently all Assistance in the performance of it is so also None of those do I speak unto at present But 2. We are guilty of this neglect when we do not constantly and diligently on all Occasions make use of it for the End for which it is given us yea abound in the exercise of it Have you an Ability to pray always freely given you by the Holy Ghost why do you not pray always in private in Families according to all occasions and opportunities administred Of what concernment unto the Glory of God and in our Life unto him Prayer is will be owned by all It is that only single Duty wherein every Grace is acted every Sin opposed every good thing obtained and the whole of our Obedience in every instance of it is concerned What difficulties lye in the way of its due performance what discouragements rise up against it how unable we are of our selves in a due manner to discharge it what Aversation there is in corrupted nature unto it what Distractions and Weariness are apt to befall us under it are generally known also unto them who are any way exercised in these things Yet doth the Blessedness of our present and future Condition much depend thereon To relieve us against all these things to help our Infirmities to give us Freedom Liberty and Confidence in our Approaches to the Throne of Grace to enable us as Children to cry Abba Father with Delight and Complacency is this Gift of the Spirit of Grace and Supplication given unto us by Jesus Christ. Who can express how great a folly and Sin it is not to be found in the constant exercise of it Can we more by any means grieve this Holy Spirit and endamage our own Souls Hath God given unto us the Spirit of Grace and Supplication and shall we be remiss careless and negligent in Prayer Is not this the worst way whereby we may quench the Spirit which we are so cautioned against Can we go from day to day in the neglect of Opportunities occasions and just seasons of Prayer How shall we answer the Contempt of this gracious Aid offered us by Jesus Christ Do others go from day to day in a neglect of this Duty in their Closets and Families blame them not or at least they are not worthy of so much blame as we They know not how to pray they have no Ability for it But for those to walk in a neglect hereof who have received this Gift of the Holy Ghost enabling them thereunto making it easy unto them and pleasant unto the inner man how great an Aggravation is it of their Sin Shall others at the tinkling of a Bell rise and run unto prayers to be said or sung wherein they can have no spiritual interest only to pacify their Consciences and comply with the prejudices of their Education and shall we be found in the neglect of that Spiritual Aid which is graciously afforded unto us How will the blind Devotion and Superstition of multitudes with their diligence and pains therein rise up in Judgment against such negligent Persons We may see in the Papacy how upon the ringing of a Bell or the lifting up of any Ensign of Superstition they will some of them rise at Midnight others in their Houses yea in the Streets fall on their knees unto their Devotions Having lost the conduct of the Spirit of God and his gracious Guidance unto the performance of Duty in its proper seasons they have invented ways of their own to keep up a frequency in this Duty after their manner which they are true and punctual unto And shall they who have received that Spirit which the World cannot receive be treacherous and disobedient unto his Motions or what he constantly inclines and enables them unto Besides all other Disadvantages which will accrew hereby unto our Souls who can express the horrible Ingratitude of such a Sin I press it the more and that unto all sorts of Prayer in private in Families in Assemblies for that end because the Temptations and Dangers of the daies wherein we live do particularly and eminently call for it If we would talk less and pray more about them things would be better than they are in the World at least we should be better enabled to bear them and undergo our portion in them with the more satisfaction To be negligent herein at such a Season is a sad token of such