deny all internal real efficacious Operations of the Holy Spirit on the Souls of men and deride all their effects have so far diffused and riveted themselves into the minds of many that little is to be expected from a Retreat unto those Aids and Reliefs This Evil in the profession of Religion was reserved for these latter Ages For although the Work and Grace of the Holy Spirit in Divine Worship was much neglected and lost in the World Yet no Instances can be given in Ages past of such contempt cast upon all his internal Grace and Operations as now abounds in the World If the Pelagians who were most guilty did fall into any such Excesses they have escaped the Records and monuments that remain of their Deportment Bold Efforts they are of Atheistical Inclinations in men openly avowing their own Ignorance and utter want of all experience in things Spiritual and Heavenly Neither doth the Person of Christ or his Office meet with better entertainment amongst many and by some have been treated with scurrility and Blasphemy In the mean time the contests about Communion with Churches are great and fierce But where these things are received and approved those who live not on a Traditionary Faith will not forsake Christ and the Gospel or renounce Faith and Experience for the Communion of any Church in the World But all Flesh almost hath corrupted its Ways The Power of Religion and the Experience of it in the Souls of Men being generally lost the profession of it is of no great use nor will long abide Yea multitudes all the World over seem to be weary of the Religion which themselves profess so far as it is pleaded to be of Divine Revelation be it true or false unless it be where they have great secular advantages by their profession of it There is no greater pretence of a flourishing State in Religion than that of some Churches of the Roman Communion especially one at this day But if the account which is given us from among themselves concerning it be true it is not much to be gloried in For set aside the multitude of Atheists Antiscripturists and avowed Disbelievers of the supernatural Mysteries of the Gospel and the Herd that remains influenced into an Hatred and persecution of the Truth by a combination of men upholding themselves and their way by extravagant secular Interests and Advantages is not very highly considerable Yea their present height seems to be on a precipice What inroads in other places bold Opinions concerning the Authority of Scripture and the Demonstration of it the Person and Office of Christ the Holy Spirit and all his operations with the Advancement of a pretence of Morality in opposition to Evangelical Grace in its Nature and Efficacy are made every day is known unto all who consider these things And although the effects of this Poyson discover themselves daily in the decays of Piety the encrease of Immoralities of all sorts and the abounding of flagitious Sins exposing Nations unto the high Displeasure of God Yet the security of most in this state of things proclaims it self in various fruits of it and can never be sufficiently deplored Whereas therefore one means of the preservation of the Church and its Deliverance out of these Evils is a due attendance unto the discharge of this Duty of Prayer the Declaration of its Nature with a Vindication of the Springs and Causes from whence it derives its efficacy which are attempted in the Ensuing Discourse may I hope through the blessing of God be of some Use unto such whose minds are sincere in their Enquiries after Truth ERRATA PAg. 13. l. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 16. l. 15. Supplication And it is l. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 18. l. 13. these r. therefore l. 14. in r. for l. 15. but r. put p. 23. l. 17. r. out for p. 28. l. 1. r. prophecy p. 41. margin dele Abba Father the meaning of it l. 7. r. Ymma l. 9. in regard r. is required l. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 51. l. 12. what whereas r. that p. 72. l. 26. liked not p. 73. These words in the margin Omnino oportet nos were the beginning of a quotation which is omitted the whole is as followeth Omnino oportet nos orationis tempore in curiam intrare coelestem illam utique curiam in qua Rex Regum stellato sedet solio circumdante innumerabili inessabili beatorum Spirituum exercitu Quanta ergo cum reverentia quanto timore quantâ illuc humilitate accedere debet è palude sua procedens ranuncula vilis quà m tremebundus quà m denique humilis solicitus toto intentus animo Majestatali gloriae Bernard Serm. de quatuor orandi modis p. 74. l. 7. r. Prayers p. 119. l. 22. Others there are p. 120. l. 28. unwearied r. unvaried p. 142. l. 2. this r. their p. 144. l. 21. Afflictions r. Affections p. 175. l. 21. their r. these p. 201. l. 26. the r. their p. 202. l. 11. r. noxious l. 14. r. obnoxious THE WORK OF THE Holy Spirit IN PRAYER AS The Spirit of Grace and Supplications and the Duty of Believers therein with a brief enquiry into the nature and use of Mental Prayer and Forms CHAP. I. The Use of Prayer and the Work of the Holy Spirit therein THE Works of the Spirit of God towards Believers are either general and not confined with a respect unto any one Duty more than another or particular with respect unto some especial Duty Of the first sort are Regeneration and Sanctification which being common unto them all are the general Principles of all actings of Grace or particular Duties in them But there are moreover sundry especial Works or Operations of this holy Spirit in and towards the Disciples of Christ which although they may be reduced unto the general head of Sanctification yet they fall under an especial consideration proper unto themselves of this sort is the Aid or Assistance which he gives unto us in our Prayers and Supplications I suppose it will be granted that Prayer in the whole compass and extent of it as comprizing Meditation Supplication Praise and Thanksgiving is one of the most signal Duties of Religion The Light of nature in its most pregnant notions with its practical Language in the Consciences of mankind concur in their suffrage with the Scripture in this matter For they both of them jointly witness that it is not only an important Duty in Religion but also that without it there neither is nor can be the exercise of any Religion in the world Never any Persons lived in the acknowledgment of a Deity but under the conduct of the same apprehension they thought the duty of Vows Prayers and Praises incumbent on them as they found occasion Yea although they found out external Ceremonious ways of solemnizing their Devotions yet it was this Duty of Prayer alone which was
wherein we must acquiesce and whereby all Experiences on the one side or the other must be tryed and regulated Two things therefore I do propose unto my self in the ensuing Discourse concerning both which I shall plainly and briefly endeavour the satisfaction of indifferent and unprejudiced Readers And these are first to evince that there is promised and actually granted an especial work of the Spirit of God in the Prayers or praises of Believers under the New Testament Secondly to declare the Nature of that work wherein it doth consist or the manner of the operation of the Holy Spirit therein And if in these things no impression can be made on the minds of men possessed with those mighty prejudices which reject their very Proposal and all consideration of them with contempt yet it may be of use unto them who being not byassed with the undue love or hatred of parties of men nor elated with high valuations of their own conceptions above those of others whom they think they have reason if not to hate yet to scorn do sincerely desire to live unto God and to preferr the performance of their Duty unto all other considerations endeavouring to subdue their inclinations and affections thereunto Nor do I desire more of any Reader but that he will grant that he is herein conversant about things which will have an influence into his everlasting account CHAP. II. Zech. 12. 10. Opened and vindicated THE especial Promise of the Administration of the Spirit of God unto the end under consideration is that which I shall lay as the foundation of the ensuing discourse Zech. 12. 10. I will pour upon the House of David and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of Grace and Supplications The Spirit here promised is the Spirit of God the Holy Spirit with respect unto the especial end for which he is promised And the manner of his Administration in the accomplishment of the promise is expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will pour out The same word is used to the same purpose Ezek. 39. 29. Joel 2. 28. as are also other words of the same importance which we render by pouring out as Prov. 1. 23. Isa. 32. 15. Chap. 44. 3. Chap. 52. 10. Two things have been elsewhere declared concerning this Expression applied unto the Communication of the Holy Ghost 1 That a plentiful Dispensation of him unto the end for which he is promised with respect unto a singular and eminent Degree in his operations is intended therein The Apostle expresseth this word or the accomplishment of what is promised in it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 3. 6. he hath richly or abundantly poured out his spirit Not therefore a meer Grant and Communication of the Spirit but a plentiful Effusion of him is intended which must have some eminent Effects as pledges and tokens thereof For it is absurd to speak of a plentiful abundant Effusion with Degrees above what was before granted and yet there be no certain ways or means whereby it may be evidenced and demonstrated The Spirit therefore is so promised in this place as to produce some notable and peculiar Effects of his Communication 2. That this Promise is peculiar unto the Days of the Gospel I mean every Promise is so where mention is made of pouring out the Spirit on men which may be evinced by the consideration of every place where this expression is used But in this place it is most unquestionable the immediate effect of it being a looking unto Christ as he was pierced And it may be yet further observed that there is a tacit comparison in it with some other time or season or some other act of God wherein or whereby he gave his Spirit before but not in that way manner or measure that he now promiseth to bestow him Of the whole of these observations Dydimus gives us a brief account De Spir. Sanct. l. 1. Significat autem effusionis verbum largam divitem muneris abundantiam itaque cùmunus quis alicubi aut duo Spiritum Sanctum accipiunt non dicitur Effundam de Spiritu meo sed tunc quando in universas gentes munus Spiritus Sancti redundaverit 2. Those unto whom he is thus promised are the House of David and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem that is the whole Church expressed in a Distribution into the ruling family and the body of the people under their rule And the Family of David which was then in supream power among the people in the Person of Zerubbabel is expresly mentioned for three reasons 1. Because the Faithfulness of God in his Promises was concerned in the preservation of that Family whereof the Messiah was to spring Christ himself being thereby in the Rule of the Church typed out in an especial manner 2. Because all the Promises in a peculiar manner were first to be fulfilled in the Person of Christ so typed by David and his House On him the Spirit under the New Testament was first to be poured out in all fullness and from him to be communicated unto others 3. It may be to denote the especial Gifts and Graces that should be communicated unto them who were to be imployed in the Rule and conduct of the Church under him the King and Head thereof And the Inhabitants of Jerusalem is a phrase expressive of the whole Church because that was the seat of all their publick ordinances of worship See Psal. 122. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. Wherefore the whole spiritual Church of God all Believers are the object of this Promise as represented in the Family of David and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem 3. The especial Qualifications of the promised Spirit are two For 1. He is to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Spirit of Grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Greek constantly render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we from the Latine Gratia Grace is derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as is also the following word which signifies to have Mercy or Compassion to be Gracious as all the words whereby Gods Gracious dealings with Sinners in the Hebrew do include the signification of Pity Compassion free Goodness and Bounty And it is variously used in the Scripture Sometimes for the Grace and Favour of God as it is the fountain of all gracious and merciful effects towards us Rom. 1. 7. Chap. 4. 4 16. Chap. 5. 2 14 20. Chap. 6. 1. Chap. 11. 5. 1 Cor. 1. 3. and in other places innumerable and sometimes for the principal Effect hereof or the gracious Favour of God whereby he accepts us in Christ Eph. 2. 5. 2 Thes. 1. 12. which is the Grace the Apostle prays for in the behalf of the Church Rom. 16. 20. 1 Cor. 16. 23. And sometimes it is applied unto the Favour of men and acceptation with them called the finding grace or favour in the sight of any Gen. 39. 4 21. Chap. 41. 24. 1 Sam. 2. 26. Rom. 15. 11. Esther 2. 15 17. Chap.
things that had some low and mean Resemblance of what was intended in the Words suggested unto him by the Holy Spirit as he was a Type of Christ yet the Depth of the Mysteries contained therein the principal Scope and Design of the Holy Ghost was in a great measure concealed from himself and much more from others Only it was given out unto the Church by immediate Inspiration that Believers might search and diligently inquire into what was signified and foretold therein that so thereby they might be gradually led into the Knowledge of the Mysteries of God according as he was pleased graciously to communicate of his Saving Light unto them But withal it was Revealed unto David and the other Prophets that in these things they did not minister unto themselves but unto us as having Mysteries in them which they could not which they were not to comprehend But as this Gift is ceased under the New Testament after the finishing of the Canon of the Scripture nor is it by any pretended unto So was it confined of old unto a very few inspired Persons and belongs not unto our present enquiry for we speak only of those things which are common unto all Believers And herein a preference must in all things be given unto those under the New Testament If therefore it could be proved which I know it cannot be that the Generality of the Church under the Old Testament made use of any Forms of Prayers as mere Forms of Prayer without any other end use or mystical Instruction all which concurred in their Prophetical Composures for the sole end of Prayer yet would it not whatever any pretend or plead thence follow that Believers under the New Testament may do the same much less that they may be obliged always so to do For there is now a more Plentiful and Rich Effusion of the Spirit of Grace and Supplication upon them than was upon those of old And as our Duty is to be regulated by Gods Commands so Gods Commands are suited unto the Dispensation of his Grace For Persons under the New Testament who are Commanded to Pray not to make use constantly in their so doing of the Gifts Aids and Assistance of the Spirit which are peculiarly dispensed and communicated therein on pretence of what was done under the Old is to reject the Grace of the Gospel and to make themselves Guilty of the highest Ingratitude Wherefore although we may and ought to bear with them who having not received any thing of this promised Grace and Assistance nor do believe there is any such thing do plead for the use of Forms of Prayer to be composed by some and read by others or themselves and that only in the Discharge of this Duty Yet such as have been made Partakers of this Grace and who own it their Duty constantly to use and improve the promised Aids of the Spirit of God will be careful not to admit of any such principles or practice as would plainly annihilate the Promise Thus much then we may suppose our selves to have obtained in the Consideration of this Testimony That God hath promised under the New Testament to give unto Believers in a plentiful manner or measure the Spirit of Grace and Supplication or his own Holy Spirit enabling them to pray according to his mind and will The way and manner of his Work therein shall be afterwards declared And it may suffice to oppose in General this one Promise unto the open reproaches and bold Contempts that are by many cast on the Spirit of Prayer whose Framers unless they can blot this Text out of the Scripture will fail at last in their design We shall not therefore need to plead any other Testimony to the same purpose in the way of Promises Only we may observe that this being expresly assigned as a part of the Gracious Work of the Holy Spirit as promised under the New Testament there is no one Promise to that purpose wherein this Grace is not included Therefore the known Multiplication of them addeth strength unto our Argument CHAP. III. Gal. 4. 6. Opened and Vindicated THE next general Evidence given unto the Truth under Consideration is the Account of the Accomplishment of this Promise under the New Testament where also the Nature of the Operation of the Holy Spirit herein is in general expressed And ' this is Gal. 4. 6. Because ye are sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son crying Abba Father An Account as was said is here given of the Accomplishment of the Promise before explained And sundry things may be considered in the Words First The Subject on whom he is bestowed and in whom he worketh are Believers or those who by the Spirit of Adoption are made the Children of God We receive the Adoption of Sons and because we are Sons he sendeth his Spirit into our Hearts And this priviledge of Adoption we obtain by Faith in Christ Jesus John 1. 12. To as many as received him he gave Power to become the Sons of God even to them that believed on his Name Secondly There is an especial Appellation or Description of the Spirit as promised and given unto this purpose He is the Spirit of the Son That the Original ground and Reason hereof is his Eternal Relation to the Son as proceeding from him hath been elsewhere evinced But there is something more particular here intended He is called the Spirit of the Son with respect unto his Communication to Believers There is therefore included herein that especial Regard unto Jesus Christ the Son of God which is in the Work mentioned as it is an Evangelical Mercy and Priviledge He is therefore called the Spirit of the Son not only because of his eternal Procession from him But 1. Because he was in the first place given unto him as the Head of the Church for the Unction Consecration and Sanctification of his humane Nature Here he laid the Foundation and gave an example of what he was to do in and towards all his Members 2. It is immediately from and by him that he is communicated unto us and that two ways 1. Authoritatively by Virtue of the Covenant between the Fatherand him whereon upon his Accomplishment of the Work of the Mediation in a State of Humiliation according to it he received the Promise of the Spirit that is Power and Authority to bestow him on whom he would for all the ends of that Mediation Acts 2. 33. Chap. 5. 31. 2 Formally in that all the Graces of the Spirit are derived unto us from him as the Head of the Church as the spring of all spiritual Life in whom they were all treasured and laid up unto that purpose Col. 2. 19. Eph. 4. 16. Col. 3. 1 2 3 4. Secondly The Work of this Spirit in general as bestowed on Believers is partly included partly expressed in these words In general which is included He enables them to behave themselves suitably unto that state and
condition whereunto they are taken upon their Faith in Christ Jesus They are made Children of God by Adoption and it is meet they be taught to carry themselves as becomes that new Relation Because ye are Sons he hath given you the Spirit of his Son without which they cannot walk before him as becometh Sons He teacheth them to bear and behave themselves no longer as Foreigners and Strangers nor as Servants only but as Children and Heirs of God Rom. 8. 15. He endoweth them with a frame and disposition of heart unto Holy filial obedience For as he takes away the distance making them to be nigh who were Aliens and far from God so he removes that fear dread and bondage which they are kept in who are under the power of the Law 2 Tim. 1. 7. For God hath not given us the Spirit of fear but of power and love and of a sound mind Not the Spirit of fear or a Spirit of bondage unto fear as Rom. 8. 15. that is in and by the efficacy of the Law filling our minds with dread and such considerations of God as will keep us at a distance from him But he is in the Sons on whom he is bestowed a Spirit of Power strengthening and enabling them unto all Duties of Obedience This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that whereby we are enabled to Obedience which the Apostle gives thanks for 1 Tim. 1. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Christ that enableth me that is by his Spirit of Power For without the Spirit of Adoption we have not the least strength or Power to behave our selves as Sons in the Family of God And he is also as thus bestowed a Spirit of Love who worketh in us that Love unto God and that delight in him which becometh Children towards their Heavenly Father This is the first genuine consequent of this Relation There may be many Duties performed unto God where there is no true Love to him at least no love unto him as a Father in Christ which alone is genuine and accepted And lastly he is also a Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a modest grave and sober mind Even Children are apt to wax wanton and curious and proud in their Fathers House but the Spirit enables them to behave themselves with that Sobriety Modesty and Humility which becometh the Family of God And in these three things spiritual Power Love and Sobriety of mind consists the whole deportment of the Children of God in his Family This is the State and Condition of those who by the effectual working of the Spirit of Adoption are delivered from the Spirit of Bondage unto fear which the Apostle discourseth of Rom. 8 15. Those who are under the Power of that Spirit or that efficacious working of the Spirit by the Law cannot by virtue of any Aids or Assistance make their Addresses unto him by Prayer in a due manner For although the means whereby they are brought into this State be the Spirit of God acting upon their Souls and Consciences by the Law yet formally as they are in the State of Nature the Spirit whereby they are acted is the unclean Spirit of the World or the influence of him who rules in the Children of disobedience The Law that they obey is the Law of the Members mentioned by the Apostle Rom. 7. The Works which they perform are the unfruitful works of darkness and the fruits of these unfruitful Works are Sin and Death Being under this Bondage they have no power to approach unto God and their Bondage tending unto fear they can have no Delight in an access unto him Whatever other provisions or preparations such Persons may have for this Duty they can never perform it unto the Glory of God or so as to find acceptance with him With those who are delivered from this State all things are otherwise The Spirit whereby they are acted is the Spirit of God the Spirit of Adoption of Power Love and a sound mind The Law which they are under Obedience unto is the Holy Law of God as written in the fleshly Tables of their Hearts The Effects of it are Faith and Love with all other Graces of the Spirit whereof they receive the Fruits in peace with joy unspeakable and full of Glory Thirdly An Instance is given of his effectual working these things in the adopted Sons of God in the Duty of Prayer crying Abba Father 1. The Object of the especial Duty intended is God even the Father Eph. 2. 18. Abba 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abba is the Syriack or Chaldee name for Father then in common use among the Jews And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the same name amongst the Greeks or Gentiles So that the Common Interest of Jews and Gentiles in this Priviledge may be intended Or rather an holy boldness and intimate confidence of Love is designed in the Reduplication of the name The Jews have a saying in the Babylonian Talmud in the Treatise of Blessings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Servants and handmaids that is Bondservants do not call on such a one Abba or Imma Freedom of State with a Right unto Adoption whereof they are uncapable in regard unto this Liberty and confidence God gives unto his adopted Sons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a frèe Spirit Psal. 51. 14. a Spirit of gracious filial ingenuity This is that Spirit which cryes Abba that is the word whereby those who were adopted did first salute their Fathers to testify their affection and obedience For Abba signifies not only Father but my Father For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Father in the Hebrew is rendred by the Chaldee Paraphrast only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abba see Gen. 19. 34. and elsewhere constantly To this purpose speaks Chrysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Being willing to shew the ingenuity that is in this Duty he useth also the language of the Hebrews and says not only Father but Abba Father which is a word proper unto them who are highly ingenuous And this he effecteth two ways 1. By the Excitation of Graces and Gracious Affections in their Souls in this Duty especially those of Faith Love and Delight 2 By enabling them to exercise those Graces and express those Affections in Vocal Prayer For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotes not only crying but an earnestness of mind expressed in Vocal Prayer It is praying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is said of our Saviour Math. 27. 50. For the whole of our Duty in our Supplications is expressed herein Now we are not concerned or do not at present enquire what course they take what means they imploy or what helps they use in Prayer who are not as yet Partakers of this priviledge of Adoption It is only those who are so whom the Spirit of God assists in this Duty And the only question is What such Persons are to do in complyance with his Assistance or what it is that they obtain thereby And we may compare the different expressions
used by the Apostle in this matter whereby the general Nature of the Work of the Spirit herein will further appear In this place he saith God hath sent forth into our Hearts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit of his Son crying Abba Father Rom. 8. 15. He saith we have received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Spirit of Adoption the Spirit of the Son given us because we are Sons whereby or in whom we cry Abba Father His acting in us and our acting by him is expressed by the same word And the enquiry here is how in the same Duty he is said to cry in us and we are said to cry in him And there can be no Reason hereof but only because the same Work is both his and ours in divers Respects As it is an Act of Grace and Spiritual Power it is his or it is wrought in us by him alone As it is a Duty performed by us by virtue of his Assistance it is ours by him we cry Abba Father And to deny his actings in our Duties is to overthrow the Gospel And it is Prayer formally considered and as comprizing the Gift of it with its outward Exercise which is intended The mere excitation of the Graces of Faith Love Trust Delight Desire Self-abasement and the like animating Principles of Prayer cannot be expressed by crying though it be included in it Their actual Exercise in Prayer formally considered is that which is ascribed unto the Spirit of God And they seem to deal somewhat severely with the Church of God and all Believers who will not allow that the Work here expresly assigned unto the Spirit of Adoption or of the Son is sufficient for its end or the discharge of this Duty either in private or in the Assemblies of the Church There is no more required unto Prayer either way but our crying Abba Father that is the making our Requests known unto him as our Father in Christ with Supplications and Thanksgivings according as our State and occasions do require And is not the Aid of the Spirit of God sufficient to enable us hereunto It was so of Old and that unto all Believers according as they were called unto this Duty with respect unto their Persons Families or the Church of God If it be not so now it is because either God will not now communicate his Spirit unto his Children or Sons according to the Promise of the Gospel or because indeed this Grace and Gift of his is by men despised neglected and lost And the former cannot be asserted on any safe grounds whatever the latter is our interest to consider This two-fold Testimony concerning the Promise of the Communication of the Holy Spirit or a Spirit of Supplication unto Believers under the New Testament and the accomplishment of it doth sufficiently evince our general Assertion that there is a peculiar Work or special gracious operation of the Holy Ghost in the Prayers of Believers enabling them thereunto For we intend no more hereby but that as they do receive him by vertue of that Promise which the World cannot do in order unto his Gracious efficiency in the Duty of Supplication so he doth actually incline dispose and enable them to cry Abba Father or to call upon God in Prayer as their Father by Jesus Christ. To deny this therefore is to rise up in contradiction unto the express Testimony of God himself and by our unbelief to make him a Lyar. And had we nothing farther to plead in this cause this were abundantly sufficient to reprove the petulant folly of them by whom this Work of the Holy Ghost and the Duty of Believers thereon to Pray in the Spirit if we may use the despised and blasphemed expressions of the Scripture is scorned and derided For as to the Ability of Prayer which is thus received some there are who know no more of it as exercised in a way of Duty but the outside shell and appearance of it and that not from their own Experience but from what they observed in others Of these there are not a few who confidently affirm that it is wholly a Work of Fancy Invention Memory and Wit accompanied with some Boldness and Elocution unjustly fathered on the Spirit of God who is no way concerned therein And it may be they do perswade many no better skilled in these things than themselves that so it is indeed Howbeit those who have any Experience of the real Aids and Assistances of the Spirit of God in this Work and Duty any Faith in the express Testimonies given by God himself hereunto cannot but despise such fabulous Imaginations You may as soon perswade them that the Sun doth not give Light nor the Fire Heat that they see not with their Eyes nor hear with their Ears as that the Spirit of God doth not enable them to pray or assist them in their Supplications And there might some probability be given unto these pretences and unto the total Exclusion of the Holy Ghost from any concernment herein if those concerning whom and their Duties they thus judge were generally Persons known to excel others in those Natural Endowments and acquired Abilities whereunto this Faculty of Prayer is ascribed But will this be allowed by them who make use of this pretence namely that those who are thus able to pray as they pretend by virtue of a Spiritual Gift are Persons excelling in Fancy Memory Wit Invention and Elocution It is known that they will admit of no such thing but in all other Instances they must be represented as dull stupid ignorant unlearned and brutish Only in Prayer they have the advantage of those natural Endowments These things are hardly consistent with common Ingenuity For is it not strange that those who are so contemptible with respect unto natural and acquired Endowments in all other things whether of Science or of Prudence should yet in this one Duty or Work of Prayer so improve them as to out-go the Imitation of them by whom they are despised For as they do not as they will not pray as they do so their own Hearts tell them they cannot which is the true Reason why they so despitefully oppose this praying in the Spirit whatever Pride or Passion pretends to the contrary But things of this nature will again occurr unto us and therefore shall not be here further insisted on Having therefore proved that God hath promised a plentiful dispensation of his Spirit unto Believers under the New Testament to enable them to pray according unto his mind and that in general this Promise is accomplished in and towards all the Children of God It remaineth in the second place as to what we have proposed that we declare what is the Work of the Holy Ghost in them unto this end and purpose or how he is unto us a Spirit of Prayer or Supplication CHAP. IV. The nature of Prayer Rom. 8. 26. Opened and Vindicated PRayer at present I take to be a Gift Ability
this Delight Under this consideration he is the proper object of all our Addresses unto him in our Supplications Heb. 4. 16. Let us come boldly to the Throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find Grace to help in a time of need The Duty of Prayer is described by the subject matter of it namely Mercy and Grace and by the only object of it God on a Throne of Grace And this Throne of Grace is further represented unto us by the place where it is erected or set up and that is in the Holiest or most Holy Place For in our coming unto God as on that Throne we have boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus Heb. 10. 19. And hereby the Apostle shews that in the expression he had respect or alludes unto the Mercy-Seat upon the Ark covered with the Cherubims which had a Representation of a Throne And because of Gods especial Manifestation of himself thereon it was called his Throne And it was a Representation of Jesus Christ as I have shewed elsewhere God therefore on a Throne of Grace is God as in a readiness through Jesus Christ to dispense Grace and Mercy to suppliant Sinners When God comes to execute Judgment his Throne is otherwise represented See Dan. 7. 9 10. And when Sinners take a view in their minds of God as he is in himself and as he will be unto all out of Christ it ingenerates nothing but Dread and Terror in them with foolish Contrivances to avoid him or his displeasure Isa. 33. 14. Mic. 6. 7 8. Rev. 6. 16. All these places and others testifie that when Sinners do ingage into serious thoughts and conceptions of the Nature of God and what entertainment they shall meet with from him all their Apprehensions issue in Dread and Terror This is not a frame wherein they can cry Abba Father If they are delivered from this fear and bondage it is by that which is worse namely carnal boldness and presumption whose Rise lyeth in the highest Contempt of God and his Holiness When men give up themselves to the customary performance of this Duty or rather saying of their Prayers I know not out of what Conviction that so they must do without a due Consideration of God and the Regard that he hath unto them they do but provoke him to his Face in taking his name in Vain Nor however they satisfie themselves in what they do have they any Delight in God in their approaches unto him Wherefore there is required hereunto a Prospect of God by Faith as on a Throne of Grace as exalted in Christ to shew Mercy unto Sinners So is he represented Isa. 30. 18. Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious and therefore will he be exalted that he may have Mercy Without this we cannot draw nigh to him or call upon him with Delight as becometh Children crying Abba Father And by whom is this discovery made unto us Is this a fruit of our own Fancy and Imagination So it may be with some to their ruine But it is the Work of the Spirit who alone in and through Christ revealeth God unto us and enableth us to discern him in a due manner Hence our Apostle prays for the Ephesians that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory would give unto them the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of him that the Eyes of their understanding being enlightned they might know what is the hope of his Calling and what the Riches of the Glory of his Inheritance in the Saints Chap. 1. 17 18. All the Acquaintance which we have with God in a way of Grace is from the Revelation made in us by his Spirit See Col. 2. 1. 2. By him doth God say unto us That Fury is not in him and that if we lay hold on his Arm that we may have peace we shall have peace Isa. 29. 4 5. Secondly Unto this Delight is required a sense of Gods Relation unto us as a Father By that name and under that Consideration hath the Lord Christ taught us to address our selves unto him in all our Supplications And although we may use other Titles and Appellations in our speaking to him even such as he hath given himself in the Scripture or those which are Analogous thereunto yet this Consideration principally influenceth our Souls and minds that God is not ashamed to be called our Father that the Lord Almighty hath said that he will be a Father unto us and that we shall be his Sons and Daughters 2 Cor. 6. Wherefore as a Father is he the ultimate object of all Evangelical Worship of all our Prayers So is it expressed in that Holy and Divine Description of it given by the Apostle Eph. 2. 18. Through Christ we have an Access by one Spirit unto the Father No Tongue can express no mind can reach the Heavenly placidness and Soul-satisfying Delight which are intimated in these words To come to God as a Father through Christ by the help and assistance of the Holy Spirit revealing him as a Father unto us and enabling us to go to him as a Father how full of sweetness and satisfaction is it Without a due Apprehension of God in this Relation no man can pray as he ought And hereof we have no sense herewith we have no Acquaintance but by the Holy Ghost For we do not consider God in a general manner as he may be said to be a Father unto the whole Creation but in an especial distinguishing Relation as he makes us his Children by Adoption And as it is the Spirit that bears witness with our Spirit that we are thus the Children of God Rom. 8. 16. giving us the highest and utmost Assurance of our Estate of Sonship in this World so being the Spirit of Adoption it is by him alone that we have any Acquaintance with our interest in that Priviledge Some may apprehend that these things belong but little and that very remotely unto the Duty of Prayer and the Assistance we receive by the Spirit therein But the truth is those who are so minded on Consideration know neither what it is to pray nor what doth belong thereunto There is nothing more essential unto this Duty than that in the performance of it we addresse our selves unto God under the Notion of a Father that is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and in him our Father also Without this we cannot have that Holy Delight in this Duty which is required in us and the want whereof ordinarily ruines our design in it And this we can have no spiritual satisfactory sense of but what we receive by and from the Spirit of God Thirdly There belongeth thereunto that Boldness which we have in our Access into the Holy Place or unto the Throne of Grace Having therefore boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus let us draw near with a true Heart in full assurance
end that our Prayers may be suited unto our Occasions He who can divide this Text or cut it out into a garment to cloath set forms of Prayer with will discover an admirable dexterity in the using and disposal of a Text of Scripture But yet neither do I conclude from hence that all such forms are unlawful only that another way of Praying is here enjoyned us is I suppose unquestionable unto all impartial searchers after Truth And doubtless they are not to be blamed who endeavour a Compliance therewith And if Persons are able in the daily constant reading of any Book whatever meerly of an humane Composition to rise up in answer to this Duty of Praying always with all manner of Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit or the Exercise of the aid and assistance received from him and his holy acting of them as a Spirit of Grace and Supplication endeavouring labouring and watching thereunto I shall say no more but that they have attained what I cannot understand The sole Enquiry remaining is how they are enabled to pray in whose minds the Holy Ghost doth thus work as a Spirit of Grace and Supplication And I do say in answer thereunto that those who are thus affected by him do never want a gracious Ability of making their Addresses unto God in Vocal Prayer so far as is needful unto them in their circumstances Callings States and Conditions And this is that which is called the Gift of Prayer I speak of ordinary Cases for there may be such interpositions of Temptations and Desertions as that the Soul being overwhelmed with them may for the present be able only to mourn as a Dove or to chatter as a Crane that is not to express the sense of their minds clearly and dictinctly but only as it were to mourn and groan before the Lord in brokenness of spirit and expressions But this also is sufficient for their acceptance in that Condition And hereof there are few Believers but at one time or other they have more or less experience And as for those whose Devotion dischargeth it self in a formal course of the same words as it must needs be in the Papacy wherein for the most part they understand not the signification of the Words which they make use of they are strangers unto the true Nature of Prayer at least unto the Work of the Spirit therein And such Supplications as are not variously influenced by the Variety of the Spiritual Conditions of them that make them according to the Variety of our spiritual exercise are like one constant Tone or noise which hath no Harmony nor Musick in it I say therefore 1. That the things insisted on are in some degree and measure necessary unto all acceptable Prayer The Scripture assigns them thereunto and Believers find them so by their own Experience For we discourse not about Prayer as it is the working of Nature in its straits and difficulties towards the God of Nature expressing thereby its dependence on him with an acknowledgement of his Power in which sence all Flesh in one way or other under one notion or other come to God Nor yet upon those Cries which legal Convictions will wrest from them that fall under their Power But we treat only of Prayer as it is required of Believers under the Gospel as they have an Access through Christ in one Spirit unto the Father And 2. That those in whom this Work is wrought by the Holy Spirit in any degree do not in ordinary Cases want an Ability to express themselves in this Duty so far as is needful for them It is acknowledged that an Ability herein will be greatly increased and improved by Exercise and that not only because the exercise of all moral Faculties is the genuine way of their strengthning and improvement but principally because it is instituted appointed and commanded of God unto that end God hath designed the Exercise of Grace for the means of its growth and giveth his blessing in answer to his institution But the nature of the thing it self requires a performance of the Duty suitably unto the Condition of him that is called unto it And if men grow not up unto further Degrees in that Ability by Exercise in the Duty it self by stirring up the Gifts and Grace of God in them it is their Sin and Folly And hence it follows 3. That although set forms of Prayer may be Lawful unto some as is pretended yet are they necessary unto none that is unto no true Believers as unto acceptable Evangelical Prayer But whoever is made Partaker of the Work of the Spirit of God herein which he doth infallibly effect in every one who through him is enabled to cry Abba Father as every Child of God is he will be able to pray according to the mind and Will of God if he neglect not the Aid and Assistance offered unto him for that purpose Wherefore to plead for the necessity of forms of Prayer unto Believers beyond what may be doctrinal or instructive in them is a fruit of inclination unto Parties or of Ignorance or of the want of a due Attendance unto their own Experience Of what use forms of Prayer may be unto those that are not Regenerate and have not therefore received the Spirit of Adoption belongs not directly unto our disquisition Yet I must say that I understand not clearly the Advantage of them unto them unless a contrivance to relieve them in that condition without a due endeavour after a deliverance from it may be so esteemed For these Persons are of Two sorts 1. Such as are openly under the Power of Sin their minds being not Effectually influenced by any Convictions These seldom pray unless it be under Dangers Fears Troubles Pains or other Distresses When they are smitten they will cry even to the Lord they will cry and not else And their Design is to treat about their especial occasions and the present sense which they have thereof And how can any man conceive that they should be supplied with forms of Prayer expressing their Sense Conceptions and Affections in their particular Cases And how ridiculously they may mistake themselves in reading these Prayers which are no way suited unto their Condition is easily supposed A form to such Persons may prove little better than a Charm and their minds be diverted by it from such a performance of Duty as the Light of Nature would direct to Jonahs Mariners in the Storm cryed every one unto his God and called on him also to do so too Chap. 1. 5 6. The Substance of their Prayer was that God would think upon them that they might not perish And men in such Conditions if not diverted by this pretended Relief which indeed is none will not want words to express their minds so far as there is any thing of Prayer in what they do and beyond that whatever words they are supplied withal they are of no use nor advantage unto them And it is
into them by the help of that spiritual Light which we have received we may discern so much of them as to guide us aright in this and all other Duties If this be neglected if men live in the dark unto themselves or satisfie themselves only with an acquaintance with those things which an accusing Conscience will not suffer them to be utterly ignorant of they will never know either how to pray or what to pray for in a due manner And the want of a due discharge of this Duty which we ought continually to be exercised in especially on the account of that unspeakable Variety of spiritual changes which we are subject unto is a cause of that barrenness in Prayer which is found among the most as we have observed He that would abound in all manner of Supplication which is injoined us who would have his Prayers to be proper useful fervent must be diligent in the search and consideration of his own Heart with all its dispositions and inclinations and the secret guilt which it doth variously contract 2. Constant diligent Reading of the Scriptures is another Duty that this Ability greatly depends upon From the Precepts of God therein may we learn our own wants and from his Promises the Relief which he hath provided for them And these things as hath been shewed supply us with the matter of Prayer Moreover we thence learn what words and expressions are meet and proper to be used in our Accesses unto God No words nor expressions in themselves or their signification are meet or acceptable herein but from their Analogie unto those in the Scripture which are of Gods own Teaching and Directions And where men are much conversant in the Word they will be ready for and furnished with meet Expressions of their Desires to God always This is one means whereby they may become so to be And other Helps of the like nature might be insisted on 5. There is an use herein of the Natural Abilities of Invention Memory and Elocution Why should not men use in the Service and Worship of God what God hath given them that they may be able to serve and worship him Yea it setteth off the Use and Excellency of this Spiritual Gift that in the Exercise of it we use and act our Natural Endowments and Abilities as spiritualised by Grace which in the way set up in Competition with it cannot be done The more the Soul is engaged in its Faculties and Powers the more intent it is in and unto the Duty Nor do I deny but that this Gift may be varied in degrees and divers Circumstances according unto these Abilities though it have a Being of its own distinct from them Even in Extraordinary Gifts as in the receiving and giving out of immediate Revelations from God there was a variety in outward Modes and Circumstances which followed the diversity and variety of the Natural Abilities and Qualifications of them who were imployed in that Work Much more may this Difference both be and appear in the Exercise of ordinary Gifts which do not so absolutely influence and regulate the faculties of the mind as the other And this difference we find by Experience among them who are endowed with this spiritual Ability All men who have the Gift of Prayer do not pray alike as to the matter of their Prayers or the manner of their praying but some do greatly excel others some in one thing some in another And this doth in part proceed from that Difference that is between them in the natural Abilities of Invention Judgment Memory Elocution especially as they are improved by Exercise in this Duty But yet neither is this absolutely so nor doth the difference in this matter which we observe in constant Experience depend solely hereon For if it did then those who having received this spiritual Ability do excel others in those natural Endowments would also constantly excel them in the Exercise of the Gift it self which is not so as is known to all who have observed any thing in this matter But the Exercise of these Abilities in Prayer depends on the especial Assistance of the Spirit of God And for the most part the Gift as the Scion ingrafted or inoculated turns the nature of those Abilities into it self and modifieth them according unto its own efficacy and virtue and is not it self changed by them Evidently that which makes any such difference in the discharge of this Duty as wherein the Edification of others is concerned is the frequent conscientious Exercise of the Gift received without which into whatever stock of Natural Abilities it may be planted it will neither thrive nor flourish 6. Spiritual Gifts are of two sorts 1. Such as are distinct from all other Abilities having their whole Foundation Nature and Power in themselves Such were the extraordinary Gifts of Miracles Healing Tongues and the like These were entire in themselves not built upon or adjoyned unto any other Gifts or Graces whatever 2. Such as were Adjuncts of or annexed unto any other Gifts or Graces without which they could have neither place nor use As the Gift of Utterance depends on Wisdom and knowledge For Utterance without knowledge or that which is any thing but the way of expressing sound knowledge unto the Benefit of others is folly and babling And of this latter sort is the Gift of Prayer as under our present Consideration with respect unto the Interest of words in that Duty And this we affirm to be a peculiar Gift of the Holy Ghost and shall now farther prove it so to be For 1. It is an inseparable Adjunct of that Work of the Spirit which we have described and is therefore from him who is the Author of it For he who is the Author of any thing as to its Being is the Author of all its Inseparable Adjuncts That the Work of enabling us to pray is the Work of the Spirit hath been proved and it is an immeasurable Boldness for any to deny it and yet pretend themselves to be Christians And he is not the Author of any one part of this Work but of the whole all that whereby we cry Abba Father Hereunto the Expressions of the desires of our Souls in Words suited unto the Acting of our own Graces and the Edification of others doth inseparably belong When we are commanded to pray if our Necessity Condition Edification with the Advantage and benefit of others do require the use of Words in Prayer then are we so to pray For Instance When a Minister is commanded to pray in the Church or Congregation so as to go before the Flock in the discharge of that Duty he is to use words in Prayer Yet are we not in such cases required to pray any otherwise than as the Spirit is promised to enable us to pray and so as that we may still be said to pray in the Holy Ghost So therefore to pray falls under the Command and Promise and is a Gift of
the Holy Spirit And the nature of the thing it self that is the Duty of Prayer doth manifest it For all that the Spirit of God works in our Hearts with respect unto this Duty is in order unto the Expression of it for what he doth is to enable us to pray And if he gives not that Expression all that he doth besides may be lost as to its principal End and Use. And indeed all that he doth in us where this is wanting or that in fixed Meditation which in some particular cases is equivalent thereunto riseth not beyond that frame which David expresseth by his keeping Silence whereby he declares an Estate of trouble wherein yet he was not freely brought over to deal with God about it as he did afterwards by Prayer and found Relief therein That which with any Pretence of Reason can be objected hereunto namely that not any part only but the whole Duty of Prayer as we are commanded to Pray is an effect in us of the Holy Spirit as a Spirit of Grace and Supplication or that the Grace of Prayer and the Gift of Prayer as some distinguish are inseparable consists in two unsound Consequents which as is supposed will thence ensue As 1. That every one who hath the Grace of Prayer as it is called or in whom the Holy Spirit worketh the Gracious Disposition before described hath also the Gift of Prayer seeing these things are inseparable And 2. That every one who hath the Gift of Prayer or who hath an Ability to pray with Utterance unto the Edification of others hath also the Grace of Prayer or the actings of saving Grace in Prayer which is the thing intended But these things it will be said are manifestly otherwise and contrary to all Experience Ans. 1. For the first of these Inferences I grant it follows from the Premises and therefore affirm that it is most true under the ensuing Limitations 1. We do not speak of what is called the Grace of Prayer in its Habit or Principle but in its actual Exercise In the first respect it is in all that are sanctified even in those Infants that are so from the Womb. It doth not hence follow that they must also have the Gift of Prayer which respects only Grace in its Exercise And thus our meaning is that all those in whom the Spirit of God doth graciously act Faith Love Delight Desire in a way of Prayer unto God have an Ability from him to express themselves in Vocal Prayer 2. It is required hereunto that such Persons be found in a way of Duty and so meet to receive the influential Assistance of the Holy Spirit Whoever will use or have the Benefit of any Spiritual Gift must himself in a way of Duty stir up by constant and frequent Exercise the Ability wherein it doth consist Stir up the Gift of God that is in thee 2 Tim. 1. 6. And where this Duty is neglected which neglect must be accounted for it is no wonder if any Persons who yet may have as they speak the Grace of Prayer should not yet have the Gift or a faculty to express their Minds and Desires in Prayer by Words of their own Some think there is no such Ability in any and therefore never look after it in themselves but despise whatever they hear spoken unto that purpose What Assistance such Persons may have in their Prayers from the Spirit of Grace I know not but it is not likely they should have much of his Aid or help in that wherein they despise him And some are so accustomed unto and so deceived by pretended helps in Prayer as making use of or reading Prayers by others composed for them that they never attempt to pray for themselves but always think they cannot do that which indeed they will not As if a Child being bred up among none but such impotent Persons as go on Crutches as he groweth up should refuse to try his own strength and resolve himself to make use of Crutches also Good Instruction or some sudden Surprizal with fear removing his prejudice he will cast away this needless help and make use of his Strength Some Gracious Persons brought up where Forms of Prayer are in general use may have a Spiritual Ability of their own to Pray but neither know it nor ever try it through a Compliance with the Principles of their Education Yea so as to think it impossible for them to pray any otherwise But when Instruction frees them from this Prejudice or some suddain surprizal with fear or Affliction cast them into an Entrance of the Exercise of their own Ability in this kind their former Aids and Helps quickly grow into disuse with them 3. The Ability which we ascribe unto all who have the Gracious Assistance of the Spirit in Prayer is not absolute but suited unto their Occasions Conditions Duties Callings and the like We do not say that every one who hath received the Spirit of Grace and Supplication must necessarily have a Gift enabling him to pray as becomes a Minister in the Congregation or any Person on the like solemn occasion no nor yet it may be to pray in a Family or in the Company of many if he be not in his Condition of life called thereunto But every one hath this Ability according to his Necessity Condition of Life and Calling He that is only a private Person hath so and he who is the Ruler of the Family hath so and he that is a Minister of the Congregation hath so also And as God enlargeth mens Occasions and Calls so he will enlarge their Abilities provided they do what is their Duty to that End and Purpose For the slothful the negligent the fearful those that are under the Power of Prejudices will have no share in this Mercy This therefore is the summ of what we affirm in this particular Every Adult Person who hath received and is able to exercise Grace in Prayer any saving Grace without which Prayer it self is an Abomination if he neglect not the improvement of the Spiritual Aids communicated unto him doth so far partake of this Gift of the Holy Spirit as to enable him to pray according as his own occasions and Duty do require He who wants mercy for the Pardon of Sin or Supplies of Grace for the Sanctification of his Person and the like If he be sensible of his Wants and have gracious desires after this supply wrought in his Heart will be enabled to ask them of God in an acceptable manner if he be not wofully and sinfully wanting unto himself and his own Duty Secondly As to the second Inference namely that if this Ability be inseparable from the gracious assistance of the Spirit of Prayer then whosoever hath this Gift and Ability he hath in the exercise of it that Gracious Assistance or he hath received the Spirit of Grace and hath saving Graces acted in him I answer 1. It doth not follow on what we have asserted
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
general be they never so well worded so queint and elegant in Expressions are so empty and jejune as that they can be of no manner of use unto any unless to keep them from praying whilest they live And such we have Books good store filled withal easy enough to be composed by such as never in their lives prayed according to the mind of God From the former sort much may be learned as they Doctrinally exhibite the Matter and Arguments of Prayer But the Composition of them for others to be used as their Prayers is that which no man hath any Promise of peculiar spiritual Assistance in with respect unto Prayer in particular 2. No man hath any Promise of the Spirit of Grace and Supplication to enable him to compose a Form or forms of Prayer for himself The Spirit of God helps us to pray not to make Prayers in that sense Suppose men as before in so doing may have his Assistance in general as in other Studies and Endeavours yet they have not that especial Assistance which he gives as a Spirit of Grace and Supplication enabling us to cry Abba Father For men do not compose Forms of Prayer however they may use them by the immediate actings of Faith Love and Delight in God with those other Graces which he Excites and Acts in those Supplications which are according to the Divine Will Nor is God the immediate object of the actings of the Faculties of the Souls of men in such a Work Their Inventions Memories Judgments are immediately exercised about their present composition and there they rest Wherefore whereas the exercise of Grace immediately on God in Christ under the Formal notion of Prayer is no part of mens Work or design when they compose and set down Forms for themselves or others if any so do they are not under a Promise of especial Assistance therein in the manner before declared 3. As there is no Assistance promised unto the composition of such Forms so it is no institution of the Law or Gospel Prayer it self is a Duty of the Law of Nature and being of such singular and indispensible use unto all Persons the Commands for it are reiterated in the Scripture beyond those concerning any other particular Duty whatever And if it hath respect unto Jesus Christ with sundry Ordinances of the Gospel to be performed in his name it falls under a New Divine Institution Hereon are Commands given us to pray to pray continually without ceasing to pray and faint not to pray for our selves to pray for one another in our Closets in our Families in the Assemblies of the Church But as for this Work of making or composing Forms of Prayers for our selves to be used as Prayers there is no Command no Institution no mention in the Scriptures of the Old Testament or the New It is a Work of Humane Extract and Original nor can any thing be expected from it but what proceeds from that fountain A Blessing possibly there may be upon it but not such as issueth from the especial Assistance of the Spirit of God in it nor from any Divine Appointment or Institution whatever But the Reader must observe that I do not urge these things to prove Forms of Prayer Unlawful to be used but only at present declare their Nature and Original with respect unto that Work of the Holy Spirit which we have described 4. This being the Original of Forms of Prayer the Benefit and Advantage which is in their Use which alone is pleadable in their behalf comes next under Consideration And this may be done with respect unto two sorts of Persons 1. Such as have the Gift or Ability of Free Prayer bestowed on them or however have attained it 2. Such as are mean and low in this Ability and therefore incompetent to perform this Duty without that Aid and Assistance of them And unto both sorts they are pleaded to be of Use and Advantage 1. It is pleaded that there is so much Good and so much Advantage in the use of them that it is expedient that those who can pray otherwise unto their own and others Edification yet ought sometimes to use them What this Benefit is hath not been distinctly declared nor do I know nor can divine wherein it should consist Sacred things are not to be used meerly to shew our Liberty And there seems to be herein a neglect of stirring up the Gift if not also of the Grace of God in those who have received them The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every one to profit withal And to forgo its exercise on any just occasion seems not warrantable We are bound at all times in the Worship of God to serve him with the best that we have And if we have a made in the Flock and do sacrifice that which in comparison thereof is a corrupt thing we are deceivers Free Prayer unto them who have an Ability for it is more suited to the nature of the Duty in the Light of Nature it self to Scripture-Commands and Examples than the use of any prescribed Forms To omit therefore the Exercise of a spiritual Ability therein and voluntarily to divert unto the other Relief which yet in that case at least is no Relief doth not readily present its advantage unto a sober Consideration And the Reader may observe that at present I examine not what men or Churches may agree upon by common consent as judging and avowing it best for their own Edification which is a matter of another consideration but only of the Duty of Believers as such in their Respective Stations and Conditions 2. It is generally supposed that the Use of such Forms are of singular Advantage unto them that are low and mean in their Ability to pray of themselves I propose it thus because I cannot grant that any who sincerely believeth that there is a God is sensible of his own wants and his absolute dependance upon him is utterly unable to make Requests unto him for relief without any help but what is suggested unto him by the working of the natural Faculties of his own Soul What men will wilfully neglect is one thing and what they cannot do if they seriously apply themselves unto their Duty is another Neither do I believe that any man who is so far instructed in the Knowledge of Christ by the Gospel as that he can make use of a composed Prayer with Understanding but also that in some measure he is able to call upon God in the name of Christ with respect unto what he feels in himself and is concerned in and farther no mans Prayers are to be extended I speak therefore of those who have the least measure and lowest degree of this Ability seeing none are absolutely uninterested therein Unto this sort of Persons I know not of what use these Forms are unless it be to keep them low and mean all the Days of their Lives For whereas both in the state of nature and
Application of them to such Idols as indeed are nothing in the World There will be in such Persons Dread and Reverence and Fear as there was in some of the Heathen unto an unspeakable Horror when they entred into the Temples and meerly imaginary presence of their Gods the whole Work being begun and finished in their Fancies And sometimes great joys satisfactions and delights do ensue on what they do For as what they so do is suited to the best Light they have and men are apt to have a complacency in their own inventions as Micah had Judg. 17. 13. and upon inveterate prejudices which are the Guides of most men in Religion their Consciences find Relief in the discharge of their Duty These things I say are found in Persons of the Highest and most dreadful Superstitions in the World yea heightened unto inexpressible Agitations of Mind in Horror on the one side and Raptures or Ecstasies on the other And they are all tempered and qualifyed according to the mode and way of Worship wherein men are ingaged but in themselves they are all of the same nature that is natural or effects and impressions upon Nature So it is with the Mahumetans who excel in this Devotion and so it is with Idolatrous Christians who place the Excellency and Glory of their profession therein Wherefore such Devotion such affections will be excited by Religious offices in all that are sincere in their use whether they be of Divine Appointment or no. But the actings of Faith and Love on God through Christ according to the Gospel or the Tenour of the New Covenant with the effects produced thereby in the Heart and Affections are things quite of another kind and nature and unless men do know how really to distinguish between these things it is to no purpose to plead Spiritual Benefit and Advantage in the use of such Forms seeing possibly it may be no other but of the same kind with what all false Worshippers in the World have or may have Experience of 2. Let them diligently enquire whether the effects on their Hearts which they plead do not proceed from a precedent preparation a good design and upright Ends occasionally excited Let it be supposed that those who thus make use of and plead for Forms of Prayer especially in publick do in a due manner prepare themselves for it by Holy Meditation with an endeavour to bring their Souls into an holy Frame of Fear Delight and Reverence of God let it also be supposed that they have a good End and design in the Worship they address themselves unto namely the Glory of God and their own spiritual Advantage the Prayers themselves though they should be in some things irregular may give occasion to exercise those Acts of Grace which they were otherwise prepared for And I say yet farther 3. That whilest these Forms of Prayer are cloathed with the general notions of Prayer that is are esteemed as such in the minds of them that use them are accompained in their use with the Motives and Ends of Prayer express no matter unlawful to be insisted on in Prayer directing the Souls of men to none but lawful Objects of Divine Worship and Prayer the Father Son and Holy Spirit and whilest men make use of them with the true design of Prayer looking after due assistance unto Prayer I do not judge there is any such evil in them as that God will not communicate his Spirit to any in the use of them so as that they should have no holy Communion with him in and under them Much less will I say that God never therein regards their Persons or rejects their praying as unlawful For the Persons and Duties of men may be accepted with God when they walk and act in sincerity according to their Light though in many things and those of no small importance sundry irregularities are found both in what they do and in the manner of doing it Where Persons walk before God in their Integrity and practise nothing contrary to their Light and conviction in his Worship God is merciful unto them although they order not every thing according to the Rule and measure of the Word So was it with them who came to the Passover in the Days of Hezekiah they had not cleansed themselves but did eat the Passover otherwise than it was written 2 Chorn. 30. 18. For whom the good King made the Solemn Prayer suited to their occasion The good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his Heart to seek the Lord God of his Fathers though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary and the Lord hearkened unto Hezekiah and healed the People ver 18 19 20. Here was a Duty for the substance of it appointed of God but in the manner of its performance there was a failure they did it not according to what was written which is the sole rule of all Religious Duties This God was displeased withal yet graciously passed by the offence and accepted them whose Hearts were upright in what they did In the mean time I do yet judge that the use of them is in it self obstructive of all the principal Ends of Prayer and sacred Worship Where they are alone used they are opposite to the Edification of the Church and where they are imposed to the absolute exclusion of other Prayer are destructive of its Liberty and render a good part of the purchase of Christ of none effect Things being thus stated it will be enquired whether the use of such Forms of Prayer is lawful or no. To this Enquiry some thing shall be returned briefly in way of Answer and an End put unto this discourse And I say 1. To compose and write Forms of Prayer to be Directive and Doctrinal helps unto others as to the matter and method to be used in the right discharge of this Duty is lawful and may in some cases be useful It were better it may be if the same thing were done in another way suited to give direction in the case and not cast into the Form of a Prayer which is apt to divert the mind from the due consideration of its proper End and use unto that which is not so But this way of Instruction is not to be looked on as unlawful meerly for the Form and method whereinto it is cast whilest its true use only is attended unto 2. To Read Consider and Meditate upon such written Prayers as to the matter and Arguments of Prayer expressed in them composed by Persons from their own Experience and the Light of Scripture directions or to make use of Expressions set down in them where the Hearts of them that read them are really affected because they find their state and Condition their wants and desires declared in them is not unlawful but may be of good use unto some though I must acknowledge I never heard any expressing any great benefit which they had received thereby But it is possible
A DISCOURSE OF THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PRAYER WITH A brief Enquiry into the Nature and Use of Mental Prayer and Forms By JOHN OWEN D. D. LONDON Printed for Nathanael Ponder at the Sign of the Peacock in the Poultry near the Church 1682. PREFACE TO THE READER IT is altogether needless to premise any thing in this place concerning the Necessity Benefit and Use of Prayer in general All men will readily acknowledge that as without it there can be no Religion at all so the Life and Exercise of all Religion doth principally consist therein Wherefore that Way and Profession in Religion which gives the best Directions for it with the most effectual Motives unto it and most aboundeth in its Observance hath therein the Advantage of all others Hence also it follows that as all Errors which either pervert its nature or countenance a neglect of a due Attendanceunto it are pernitious in Religion so Differences in Opinion and Disputes about any of its Vital Concerns cannot but be dangerous and of evil consequence For on each hand these pretend unto an immediate Regulation of Christian practice in a matter of the highest Importance unto the Glory of God and the Salvation of the Souls of men Whereas therefore there is nothing more requisite in our Religion than that true Apprehensions of its Nature and Use be preserved in the minds of men the Declaration and Defence of them when they are opposed or unduely traduced is not only justifiable but necessary also This is the Design of the ensuing Discourse There is in the Scripture a Promise of the Holy Ghost to be given unto the Church as a Spirit of Grace and Supplications As such also there are particular Operations ascribed unto him Mention is likewise frequently made of the Aids and Assistances which he affords unto Believers in and unto their Prayers Hence they are said to PRAY ALWAYS WITH ALL PRAYER AND SUPPLICATIONS IN THE SPIRIT Of the want of these Aids and Assistances to enable them to pray according to the Mind of God some do profess that they have Experience as also of their Efficacy unto that End when they are received Accordingly these regulate themselves in this whole Duty in the Expectation or Improvement of them And there are those who being accommodated with other Aids of another Nature to the same purpose which they esteem sufficient for them do look on the former Profession and Plea of an Ability to pray by the Aids and Assistances of the Holy Spirit to be a meer empty pretence And in the management of these different Apprehensions those at Variance seem to be almost Barbarians one to another the one being not able to understand what the other do vehemently affirm For they are determined in their minds not meerly by notions of Truth and Falshood but by the Experience which they have of the things themselves a sense and understanding whereof they can by no means communicate unto one another For whereas spiritual Experience of Truth is above all other Demonstrations unto them that do enjoy it so it cannot be made an Argument for the Enlightening and Conviction of others Hence those who plead for Prayer by vertue of supplies of Gifts and Grace from the Holy Spirit do admire that the use or necessity of them herein should be contradicted Nor can they understand what they intend who seem to deny that it is every mans Duty in all his Circumstances to pray as well as he can and to make use in his so doing of the Assistance of the Spirit of God And by Prayer they mean that which the most eminent and only proper signification of the word doth denote namely that which is vocal Some on the other side are so far from the understanding of these things or a conviction of their Reality that with the highest confidence they despise and reproach the pretence of them To pray in the Spirit is used as a notable Expression of scorn the thing signified being esteemed fond and contemptible Moreover in such cases as this men are apt to run into Excesses in things and ways which they judge expedient either to countenance their own Opinions or to depress and decry those of them from whom they differ And no Instances can be given in this kind of greater Extravagancies than in that under consideration For hence it is that some do ascribe the Original of Free Prayer amongst us by the Assistance of the Spirit of God unto an Invention of the Jesuits which is no doubt to make them the Authors of the Bible And others do avow that all Forms of Prayer used amongst us in publick Worship are meer Traductions from the Roman Breviaries and Missal But these things will be afterwards spoken unto They are here mentioned only to evince the use of a sedate enquiry into the Truth or the mind of God in this matter which is the design of the ensuing Discourse That which should principally guide us in the management of this enquiry is that it be done unto spiritual advantage and Edification without strife or contention Now this cannot be without a diligent and constant Attendance unto the two sole Rules of judgment herein namely Scripture-Revelation and the Experience of them that do believe For although the latter is to be regulated by the former yet where it is so it is a safe Rule unto them in whom it is And in this case as in water Face answereth unto Face so do Scripture Revelation and spiritual Experience unto one another All other Reasonings from Customs Traditions and feigned consequences are here of no use The enquiries before us are concerning the Nature of the Work of the Holy Spirit in the Aids and Assistances which he gives unto Believers in and unto their Prayers according unto the mind of God as also what are the Effects and Fruits of that Work of his or what are the spiritual Abilities which are communicated unto them thereby Antecedently hereunto it should be enquired whether indeed there be any such thing or no or whether they are only vainly pretended unto by some that are deceived But the Determination hereof depending absolutely on the foregoing enquirie it may be handled jointly with them and needs no distinct consideration He that would not deceive nor be deceived in his enquiry after these things must diligently attend unto the two forementioned Rules of Scripture Testimony and Experience Other safe Guides he hath none Yet will it also be granted that from the Light of Nature whence this Duty springs wherein it is founded from whence as unto its Essence it cannot vary as also from generally received Principles of Religion suited thereunto with the uncorrupted practice of the Church of God in former Ages much direction may be given unto the Understanding of those Testimonies and Examination of that Experience Wherefore the foundation of the whole ensuing Discourse is laid in the consideration and exposition of some of those Texts
unto the Duty whereunto he is obliged whether personally or by vertue of any Relation wherein he stands unto others To suppose that God requireth Duties of men which they cannot perform in an acceptable manner by vertue and in the use of those Aids which he hath prepared and promised unto that End is to reflect Dishonour on his Goodness and Wisdom in his Commands Wherefore no man is obliged to pray in any Circumstances by vertue of any Relation or Office but he is able so to do according unto what is required of him and what he is not able for he is not called unto 6. We are expresly commanded to pray but are no where commanded to make Prayers for our selves much less for others This is supperadded for a supposed conveniency unto the light of Nature and Scripture-Institution 7. There is Assistance promised unto Believers to enable them to pray according unto the Will of God there is no assistance promised to enable any to make Prayers for others The former part of this Assertion is explained and proved in the ensuing discourse and the latter cannot be disproved And if it should be granted that the Work of composing Prayers for others is a good Work falling under the general Aids of the Holy Spirit necessary unto every good Work whatever yet are not those Aids of the same kind and nature with his actual Assistances in and unto Prayer as he is the Spirit of Grace and Supplications For in the use of those Assistances by Grace and Gifts every man that useth them doth actually pray nor are they otherwise to be used But men do not pray in the making and composing Forms of Prayer though they may do so in the reading of them afterward 8. Whatever Forms of Prayer were given out unto the use of the Church by Divine Authority and Inspiration as the Lords Prayer and the Psalms or Prayers of David they are to have their Everlasting use therein according unto what they were designed unto And be their End and Use what it will they can give no more warranty for Humane compositions unto the same End and the Injunction of their use than for other Humane Writings to be added unto the Scripture These and the like Principles which are evident in their own light and truth will be of Use to direct us in the Argument in hand so far as our present design is concerned therein For it is the Vindication of our own Principles and Practice that is principally designed and not an opposition unto those of other men Wherefore as was before intimated neither these Principles nor the Divine Testimonies which we shall more largely insist upon are ingaged to condemn all Use of set Forms of Prayers as sinful in themselves or absolutely unlawful or such as so vitiate the Worship of God as to render it wholly unacceptable in them that chuse so to worship him For God will accept the Persons of those who sincerely seek him though through invincible ignorance they may mistake in sundry things as unto the way and manner of his Worship And how far as unto particular instances of miscarriage this Rule may extend He only knows and of men whatever they pretend not one And where any do worship God in Christ with an Evidence of holy Fear and Sincerity and walk in a Conversation answerable unto the Rule of the Gospel though they have manifold Corruptions in the way of their Worship I shall never judge severely either of their present Acceptance with God or of their future Eternal Condition This is a safe Rule with respect unto others our own is to attend with all Diligence unto what God hath revealed concerning his Worship and absolutely comply therewith without which we can neither please Him nor come to the Enjoyment of Him I do acknowledge also that the general prevalency of the Use of set Forms of Prayer of Humane Invention in Christian Assemblies for many ages more than any other Argument that is urged for their necessity requires a tenderness in judgment as unto the whole nature of them and the Acceptance of their Persons in the Duty of Prayer by whom they are used Yet no consideration of this usage seeing it is not warranted by the Scriptures nor is of Apostolical Example nor is countenanced by the practice of the primitive Churches ought to hinder us from discerning and judging of the Evils and Inconveniencies that have ensued thereon Nor from discovering how far they are unwarrantable as unto their Imposition And these evils may be here a little considered The Beginnings of the Introduction of the Use of set Forms of Prayer of Humane composition into the Worship of the Church are altogether uncertain But that the Reception of them was progressive by new Additions from time to time is known to all For neither Rome nor the present Roman Missal were built in a day In that and the Breviaries did the whole Worship of the Church issue at least in these parts of the World No man is so fond as to suppose that they were of one entire composition the Work of one Age of one man or any Assembly of men at the same time unless they be so brutishly devout as to suppose that the Mass-book was brought from Heaven unto the Pope by an Angel as the Alcoran was to Mahomet It is evident indeed that the common People at least of the Communion of the Papal Church do believe it to be as much of a Divine Original as the Scripture and that on the same grounds of the proposal of it unto them as the only means of Divine Worship by their Church Hence is it unto them an Idol But it is well enough known how from small Beginnings by various Accessions it increased unto its present Form and Station And this Progress in the Reception of devised Forms of Prayer in the Worship of the Church carried along with it sundry pernitious concomitants which we may briefly consider 1. In and by the Additions made unto the first received Forms the superstitious and corrupt Doctrines of the Apostasy in several Ages were insinuated into the worship of the Church That such superstitious and corrupt Doctrines were gradually introduced into the Church is acknowledged by all Protestants and is sufficiently known the supposition of it is the sole foundation of the Reformation And by this Artifice of new Additions to received Forms they were from time to time admitted into and stated in the Worship of the Church by which principally to this very day they preserve their station in the minds of men Were that foundation of them taken away they would quickly fall to the ground By this means did those Abominations of Transubstantiation and the Sacrifice of the Mass both leaven and poyson the whole Worship of the publick Assemblies and imposed themselves on the credulity of the People The Disputes of Speculative men superstitious and subtle about these things had never infected the minds of the
5. 2. Luk. 2. 52. Acts 4. 33. And sometimes for the free effectual Efficacy of Grace in those in whom it is Acts 14. 26. 1 Cor. 15. 10. 2 Cor. 11. 9. And sometimes for our Justification and Salvation by the free Grace or favour of God in Christ John 1. 17. 1 Pet. 1. 13. For the Gospel it self as the instrument of the declaration and communication of the Grace of God 2 Cor. 6. 1. Eph. 3. 2. Col. 1. 6. Tit. 2. 11. For the free donation of the Grace and gifts of the Spirit John 1. 16. Eph. 4. 7. And many other significations it hath which belong not unto our purpose Three things may be intended in this adjunct of Grace 1. A respect of the Soveraign Cause of his Dispensation which is no other but the mere Grace of God He may be called a Spirit of Grace because his donation is an effect of Grace without the least respect unto any desert in those unto whom he is given This Reason of the Appellation is declared Titus 3 4 5 6. The sole cause and reason in opposition unto our own works or deservings of the pouring out of the Spirit upon us is the Love and Kindness of God in Jesus Christ whence he may be justly called a Spirit of Grace 2. Because he is the Author of all Grace in and unto them on whom he is poured out So God is called the God of all Grace because he is the Fountain and Author of it And that the Holy Spirit is the immediate efficient cause of all Grace in us hath been elsewhere proved both in general and in the principal instances of Regeneration and Sanctification and it shall be yet further confirmed in what doth ensue 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is commonly used for that Grace or Favour which one hath with another Let me find grace in thy sight as in the instances before-quoted And so the Spirit also may be called a Spirit of Grace because those on whom he is poured out have Grace and Favour with God they are gracious with him as being accepted in the beloved Eph. 2. 18. Whereas therefore all these concur where-ever this Spirit is communicated I know no reason why we may not judge them all here included though that in the second place be especially intended The Spirit is promised to work Grace and Holiness in all on whom he is bestowed He is as thus poured out a Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Supplications that is of Prayer for Grace and mercy The word is formed from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the other to be gracious or merciful and expressing our Act towards God it is Prayer for Grace Supplication And the original word is never used but to express vocal prayer either in the Assemblies of the people of God or by private persons Harken to the voice of my Supplications is rendred by the Apostle Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 5. 7. in which place alone in the Scripture that word is used Originally it signifies a Bough or Olive branch wrapt about with Wooll or Bays or something of the like nature which those carried in their hands and lifted up who were Suppliants unto others for the obtaining of Peace or the averting of their Displeasure Hence came the phrase of velamenta praeferre to hold out such covered branches So Livy de Bel. Punic Ramas oleae ac velamenta alia Supplicantium portantes orant ut reciperent sese Holding forth Olive branches and other covered tokens used by Suppliants they prayed that they might be received into Grace and Favour Which custome Virgil declares in his Aeneas addressing himself to Evander Optime Grajugenum cui me fortuna precari Et vitta comptos voluit praetendere Ramos And they called them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Branches of Supplication or Prayer And they constantly called those Prayers which they made solemnly unto their gods Supplicia and Supplicationes Liv. lib. 10. Eo anno multa prodigia erant quarum avertendarum causa Supplicationes in biduum Senatus decrevit A form of which kind of Prayer we have in Cato de re rustica cap 13. Mars pater te precor quaesoque ut calamitates Some render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Miserationes or Lamentationes and interpret it of mens bemoaning themselves in their Prayers for Grace and Mercy which in the issue varies not from the sense insisted on But whereas it is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to be merciful or gracious and expresses an act of ours towards God it can properly signifie nothing but Supplications for Mercy and Grace Nor is it otherwise used in the Scripture See Job 40. 21. Prov. 18. 23. Dan. 9. 3. Jer. 31. 60. 2 Chron. 6. 21. Jer. 3. 21. Psal. 28. 2 6. 31 23. 116. 1. 130. 2. 140. 7. 143. 1. Dan. 9. 18. 25. Psal. 46. 6. which are all the places besides this where the word is used in all which it denotes deprecation of Evil and Supplication for Grace constantly in the plural Number to denote the Earnestness of Men. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these are properly Supplications for Grace and Mercy in freedom and deliverance from Evil but by a Synecdoche for all sorts of Prayer whatever We may therefore enquire in what sense the Holy Spirit of God is called a Spirit of Supplication or what is the Reason of this Attribution unto him And he must be so either formally or efficiently either because he is so in himself or unto us If in the former way then he is a Spirit who himself prayeth and according to the import of those Hebraisms aboundeth in that Duty As a man of wickedness Isaiah 55. 7. or a man of Blood is a man wholly given to wickedness and violence So on the other hand a Spirit of Supplication should be a Spirit abounding in Prayer for Mercy and the diverting of evil as the word imports Now the Holy Ghost cannot be thus a Spirit of Supplication neither for himself nor us No Imagination of any such thing can be admitted with respect unto himself without the highest Blasphemy Nor can he in his own Person make Supplications for us For besides that any such Interposition in Heaven on our behalf is in the Scripture wholly confined unto the Priestly Office of Christ and his Intercession all Prayer whether Oral or Interpretative only is the Act of a nature inferiour unto that which is prayed unto This the Spirit of God hath not he hath no Nature inferiour unto that which is Divine We cannot therefore suppose him to be formally a Spirit of Supplication unless we deny his Deity He is therefore so Efficiently with respect unto us and as such he is promised unto us Our enquiry therefore in General is how or in what sense he is so And there are but two ways conceivable whereby this may be affirmed of him 1. By working Gracious Inclinations and dispositions in us unto this Duty 2. By giving
Zion it is but saying that they are all confined unto the Jews and so at once despoil the Church of God of all Right and Title to them which Impious folly and Sacriledge hath been by some attempted But whereas all the Promises belong unto the same Covenant with all the Grace contained in them and exhibited by them who ever is interessed by Faith in that Covenant is so in all the Promises of God that belong thereunto and hath an equal Right unto them with those unto whom they were first given To suppose now that the Jews are rejected for their Unbelief that the Promises of God made unto them whilst they stood by Faith are ceased and of no use is to overthrow the Covenant of Abraham and indeed the whole Truth of the New Testament But the Apostle assures us that all the Promises of God are in Christ Yea and in him Amen unto the Glory of God by us that is in their Accomplishment in us and towards us 2 Cor. 1. 20. So also he positively affirms that all Believers have Received those Promises which Originally were made unto Israel 2 Cor. 6. 16 17 18. Chap 7. 1. And not only so but he declareth also that the Promises which were made of old unto particular Persons on especial Occasions as to the Grace Power and Love contained in them and intended by them do yet belong unto all individual Believers and are applicable by them unto all their especial Occasions Heb. 13. 5 6. And their Right unto or interest in all the Promises of God is that which those who are concerned in the Obedience of Faith would not forego for all that this World can supply them withal This therefore is only a particular Instance of the Work and Effect of the Spirit as he is in general promised in the Covenant And as we have declared the Promises of him as a Spirit of Grace and Holiness in the Covenant belong unto the Believers of the Gentiles also If they do not they have neither share nor Interest in Christ which is a better Plea for the Jew than this peculiar Instance will afford But this Promise is only an especial Declaration of what in one case this Spirit shall do who is promised as a Spirit of Grace and Holiness in the Covenant And therefore the Author of the Evasion suspecting that the fraud and Sacriledge of it would be detected betakes himself to other Subterfuges which we shall afterwards meet with so far as we are concerned It may be more soberly objected that the Spirit of Grace and Supplication was given unto Believers under the Old Testament and therefore if there be no more in it if some Extraordinary Gift be not here intended how comes it to be made an Especial Promise with Respect unto the times of the New Testament It may therefore be supposed that not the Ordinary Grace or Gift of Prayer which Believers and especially the Officers of the Church do receive but some Extraordinary Gift bestowed on the Apostles and first Converts to the Church is here intended So the Prophecies concerning the Effusion of the Spirit on all sorts of Persons Joel 2. is interpreted by Peter and applied unto the sending of the Holy Ghost in Miraculous Gifts on the Day of Pentecost Acts 2. Answer 1. I have elsewhere already in General obviated this Objection by shewing the prodigious folly of that Imagination that the Dispensation of the Spirit is confined unto the first times of the Gospel whereof this Objection is a Branch as Enmity unto the matter treated of is the Occasion of the whole 2. We no where find Grace and Prayer the things here promised to be reckoned among the Extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit under the New Testament Prayer indeed in an Unknown Tongue was so but Prayer it self was not so no more than Grace which if it were the whole present Church is Graceless 3. The Promise in Joel had express Respect unto the Extraordinary Gifts of Prophecy and Visions and therefore had its Principal Accomplishment in the Day of Pentecost This Promise is quite of another nature 4. That which is Necessary for and the Duty of all Believers and that always is not an Extraordinary Gift bestowed on a few for a season Now if there are any who think that Grace and Prayer are not Necessary unto all Believers or that they may have Abilities and exercise them without any Aid of the Holy Spirit I will not at present contend with them for this is not a place to plead with those by whom the principles of the Christian Faith are denyed Divine Commands are the Rule of our Duty not mans Imaginations 5. If this be not an Especial Promise of the New Testament because the matter of it or Grace Promised was in some Degree and measure enjoyed under the Old then is there no Promise made with Respect unto that Season For the Saints under the Old Testament were really made Partakers of all the same Graces with those under the New Wherefore 6. Two things are intended in the Promise with Respect unto the times of the Gospel 1. An Ampliation and Enlargement of this Grace or Favour as unto the Subjects of it Extensively It was under the Old Testament confined unto a few but now it shall be communicated unto many and diffused all the World over It shall be so poured out as to be shed abroad and imparted thereby unto many That which before was but as the watering of a Garden by an especial hand is now as the Clouds pouring themselves forth on the whole Face of the Earth 2. An Increase of the Degrees of Spiritual Abilities for the performance of it Tit. 3. 5 6. There is now a Rich Communication of the Spirit of Grace and Prayer granted unto Believers in comparison of what was enjoyed under the Old Testament This the very Nature of the Dispensation of the Gospel wherein we Receive from Jesus Christ Grace for Grace doth evince and confirm I suppose it needless to prove that as unto all Spiritual supplies of Grace there is brought in an abundant Administration of it by Jesus Christ the whole Scripture testifying unto it There were indeed under the Old Testament Prayers and Praises of God dictated by a Spirit of Prophecy and Received by immediate Divine Revelation containing Mysteries for the Instruction of the Church in all Ages These Prayers were not suggested unto them by the Aid of the Spirit as a Spirit of Supplication but dictated in and to them by the Spirit as a Spirit of Prophecy Nor did they themselves comprehend the mind of the Holy Spirit in them fully but inquired diligently thereinto as into other Prophecies given out by the Spirit of Christ which was in them 1 Pet. 1. 11 12. An Instance whereof we may have in Psal. 22. A Prayer it is with thanksgiving from first to last Now although David unto whom it was given by Inspiration might find in his own Condition
themselves in our Supplications are innumerable And there is nothing so excellent in its self so useful unto us so acceptable unto God in the matter of Prayer but it may be vitiated corrupted and Prayer it self rendred vain by an Application of it unto false or mistaken Ends. And what is the Work of the Spirit to guide us herein we shall see in its proper place CHAP. V. The Work of the Holy Spirit as to the matter of Prayer THese things are considerable as to the matter of Prayer and with respect unto them of our selves we know not what we should pray for nor how nor when And the first Work of the Spirit of God as a Spirit of Supplication in Believers is to give them an understanding of all their wants and of the supplies of Grace and Mercy in the Promises causing a sense of them to dwell and abide on their minds as that according unto their measure they are continually furnished with the matter of Prayer without which men never pray and by which in some sense they pray always For 1. He alone doth and he alone is able to give us such an understanding of our own wants as that we may be able to make our thoughts about them known unto God in Prayer and Supplication And what is said concerning our wants is so likewise with respect unto the whole matter of Prayer whereby we give Glory to God either in Requests or Prayers And this I shall manifest in some instances whereunto others may be reduced 1. The Principal matter of our Prayer concerneth Faith and Unbelief So the Apostles prayed in a particular manner Lord increase our Faith and so the poor man prayed in his distress Lord help thou my unbelief I cannot think that they ever pray aright who never pray for the pardon of Unbelief for the removal of it and for the encrease of Faith If Unbelief be the greatest of Sins and if Faith be the greatest of the Gifts of God we are not Christians if those things are not one principal part of the matter of our Prayers Unto this end we must be convinced of the nature and guilt of Unbelief as also of the nature and use of Faith nor without that conviction do we either know our own chiefest wants or what to pray for as we ought And that this is the especial Work of the Holy Ghost our Saviour expresly declares John 16. 9. He convinceth the World of Sin because they believe not on him I do and must deny that any one is or can be convinced of the nature and guilt of that Unbelief either in the whole or in the remainder of it which the Gospel condemneth and which is the great condemning Sin under the Gospel without an especial Work of the Holy Ghost on his mind and Soul For Unbelief as it respecteth Jesus Christ not believing in him or not believing in him as we ought is a Sin against the Gospel and it is by the Gospel alone that we may be convinced of it and that as it is the ministration of the Spirit Wherefore neither the Light of a natural Conscience nor the Law will convince any one of the guilt of Unbelief with respect unto Jesus Christ nor instruct them in the nature of Faith in him No innate Notions of our Minds no Doctrines of the Law will reach hereunto And to think to teach men to pray or to help them out in praying without a sense of Unbelief or the remainders of it in its Guilt and Power the nature of Faith with its necessity use and efficacy is to say unto the naked and the hungry be ye warmed and filled and not give them those things that are needful to the Body This therefore belongs unto the Work of the Spirit as a Spirit of Supplication And let men tear and tire themselves Night and Day with a multitude of Prayers if a Work of the Spirit of God in teaching the nature and Guilt of Unbelief the nature efficacy and use of Faith in Christ Jesus go not with it all will be lost and perish And yet it is marvellous to consider how little mention of these things occurreth in most of those compositions which have been published to be used as Forms of Prayer They are generally omitted in such endeavours as if they were things wherein Christians were very little concerned The Gospel positively and frequently determines the present Acceptation of men with God or their Disobedience with their future Salvation and Condemnation according unto their Faith or Unbelief For their Obedience or Disobedience are infallible consequents thereon Now if things that are of the greatest Importance unto us and whereon all other things wherein our spiritual Estate is concerned do depend be not a part of the subject matter of our daily Prayer I know not what deserveth so to be Secondly The matter of our Prayer respects the Depravation of our natures and our wants on that account The Darkness and Ignorance that is in our Understandings our unacquaintedness with heavenly things and Alienation from the Life of God thereby the secret workings of the Lusts of the mind under the shades and Covert of this darkness the stubbornness obstinacy and perverseness of our Wills by nature with their reluctancies unto and dislike of things spiritual with innumerable latent guiles thence arising all keeping the Soul from a due conformity unto the Holiness of God are things which Believers have an especial regard unto in their Confessions and Supplications They know this to be their Duty and find by experience that the greatest concernment between God and their Souls as to Sin and Holiness do lye in these things And they are never more jealous over themselves than when they find their Hearts least affected with them And to give over treating with God about them for Mercy in their pardon for Grace in their removal and the daily Renovation of the Image of God in them thereby is to renounce all Religion and all designs of living unto God Wherefore without a knowledge a sense a due comprehension of these things no man can pray as he ought because he is unacquainted with the matter of Prayer and knows not what to pray for But this knowledge we cannot attain of our selves Nature is so corrupted as not to understand its own depravation Hence some absolutely deny this Corruption of it so taking away all necessity of labouring after its cure and the Renovation of the Image of God in us And hereby they overthrow the Prayers of all Believers which the Antient Church continually pressed the Pelagians withal Without a sense of these things I must profess I understand not how any man can pray And this knowledge as was said we have not of our selves Nature is blind and cannot see them it is proud and will not own them stupid and is senseless of them It is the Work of the Spirit of God alone to give us a due conviction of a spiritual insight
God and the Duty of Prayer to imagine that the matter of them so as to suit the various conditions of Believers can be pent up in any one Form of mans devising Much of what we are to pray about may be in general and doctrinally comprized in a Form of Words as they are in the Lords Prayer which gives directions in and a boundary unto our requests But that the things themselves should be prepared and suited unto the condition and wants of them that are to pray is a fond imagination 3. There is a vast difference between an objective Proposal of good things to be prayed for unto the consideration of them that are to pray which men may do and the implanting an acquaintance with them and Love unto them upon the mind and Heart which is the Work of the Holy Ghost 4. When things are so prepared and cast into a form of Prayer those by whom such forms are used do no more understand them than if they had never been cast into any such form unless the Spirit of God give them an understanding of them which the form it self is no sanctified means unto And where that is done there is no need of it 5. It is the Work of the Holy Spirit to give unto Believers such a comprehension of promised Grace and Mercy as that they may constantly apply their minds unto that or those things in an especial manner which are suited unto their present daily wants and occasions with the frame and dispositions of their Souls and Spirit This is that which gives spiritual beauty and order unto the Duty of Prayer namely the suiting of Wants and Supplies of a thankful disposition and Praises of Love and Admiration unto the excellencies of God in Christ all by the Wisdom of the Holy Ghost But when a Person is made to pray by his Directory for things though good in themselves yet not suited unto his present state frame inclination wants and desires there is Spiritual Confusion and disorder and nothing else Again What we have spoken concerning the Promises must also be applied unto all the Precepts or Commands of God These in like manner are the matter of our Prayers both as to Confession and Supplication And without a right understanding of them we can perform no part of this duty as we ought This is evident in their apprehension who repeating the words of the Decalogue do subjoyn their acknowledgments of a want of Mercy with respect unto the Transgression of them I suppose and their desires to have their hearts inclined to keep the Law But the Law with all the Commands of God are Spiritual and inward with whose true sense and importance in their extent and latitude we cannot have an useful Acquaintance but by the enlightning instructing efficacy of the Grace of the Spirit And where this is the mind is greatly supplied with the true matter of Prayer For when the Soul hath learnt the Spirituality and Holiness of the Law its extent unto the inward frame and disposition of our Hearts as well as unto outward Actions and its requiring absolute Holiness Rectitude and Conformity unto God at all times and in all things then doth it see and learn its own discrepancy from it and coming short of it even then when as to outward Acts and Duties it is unblameable And hence do proceed those Confessions of Sin in the best and most holy Believers which they who understand not these things do deride and scorn By this means therefore doth the Holy Spirit help us to pray by supplying us with the due and proper matter of Supplications even by acquainting us and affecting our hearts with the Spirituality of the Command and our coming short thereof in our dispositions and frequent inordinate actings of our Minds and Affections He who is instructed herein will on all occasions be prepared with a fulness of matter for Confession and Humiliation as also with a sense of that Grace and Mercy which we stand in need of with respect unto the Obedience required of us Thirdly He alone gides and directs Believers to pray or ask for any thing in order unto right and proper Ends. For there is nothing so excellent in it self so useful unto us so acceptable unto God as the matter of Prayer but it may be vitiated corrupted and Prayer it self be rendred vain by an application of it unto false or mistaken Ends. And that in this case we are relieved by the Holy Ghost it is plain in the Text under consideration For helping our infirmities and teaching us what to pray for as we ought he maketh Intercession for us according unto God that is his mind or his will v. 27. This is well explained by Origen on the Place Velut si magister suscipiens ad Rudiment a Discipulum ignorantem penitus literas ut eum docere possit instituere necesse habet inclindre se ad Discipuli rudimenta ipse prius dicere nomen literae ut respondendo discipulus discat sit quodammodo Magister incipienti Discipulo similis ea loquens ea meditans quae incipiens loqui debeat ac meditari It a Sanctus Spiritus ubi oppugnationibus carnis perturbari nostrum Spiritum viderit nescientem quid orare debeat secundum quod oportet ipse velut Magister orationem praemittit quam noster spiritus si tamen Discipulus esse Sancti Spiritus desiderat prosequatur ipse gemitus ossert quibus noster spiritus discat ingemiscere ut repropitiet sibi Deum To the same purpose speaks Damascen lib. 4. Ch. 3. and Austin in sundry places collected by Beda in his Comment on this He doth it in us and by us or enableth us so to do For the Spirit himself without us hath no Office to be performed immediately towards God nor any Nature inferiour unto the Divine wherein he might intercede The whole of any such Work with respect unto us is incumbent on Christ he alone in his own Person performeth what is to be done with God for us What the Spirit doth he doth in and by us He therefore directs and enableth us to make Supplications according to the mind of God And herein God is said to know the mind of the Spirit that is his end and design in the matter of his requests This God knows that is approves of and accepts So it is the Spirit of God who directs us as to the design and end of our Prayers that they may find Acceptance with God But yet there may be and I believe there is more in that expression God knoweth the mind of the Spirit For he worketh such high holy spiritual desires and designs in the minds of Believers in their Supplications as God alone knoweth and understandeth in their full extent and latitude That of our selves we are apt to fail and mistake hath been declared from James 4. 3. I shall not here insist on particulars but only mention two general
the force of this Testimony some one at least would have this Intercession of the Spirit to be the Intercession of the Spirit in Christ for us now at the right Hand of God so that no Work of the Spirit it self in Believers is intended Such irrational Evasions will men sometimes make use of to escape the convincing Power of Light and Truth For this is such a Description of the Intercession of Christ at the Right Hand of God as will scarcely be reconciled unto the Analogy of Faith That it is not an humble oral Supplication but a blessed Representation of his Oblation whereby the efficacy of it is continued and applied unto all the particular occasions of the Church or Believers I have elsewhere declared and it is the common Faith of Christians But here it should be reported as the labouring of the Spirit in him with unutterable groans the highest expression of an humble burthened sollicitous Endeavour Nothing is more unsuited unto the present Glorious condition of the Mediator It is true that in the Days of his Flesh he prayed with strong cryes and tears in an humble deprecation of Evil Heb. 5. 7. But an humble prostration and praying with unutterable groans is altogether inconsistent with his present state of Glory his fulness of Power and Right to dispense all the Grace and Mercy of the Kingdom of God Besides this Exposition is as adverse to the context as any thing could be invented Ver. 15. It is said that we receive the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father which Spirit God sends forth into our Hearts Gal. 4. 6. And the blessed Work of this Spirit in us is further described v. 16 17. And thereon v. 23. having received the first-fruits of this Spirit we are said to groan within our selves to which it is added that of our selves not knowing what we ought to pray for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that very Spirit so given unto us so received by us so working in us makes intercession for us with groans that cannot be uttered Wherefore without offering violence unto the Context here is no place for the Introduction of the Intercession of Christ in Heaven especially under such an expression as is contrary to the nature of it It is mentioned afterwards by the Apostle in its proper place as a consequent and fruit of his Death and Resurrection ver 34. And there he is said simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Spirit here is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which implies an additional supply unto what is in our selves Yet to give countenance unto this uncouth Exposition a force is put upon the beginning of both the verses 26 27. For whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth constantly in the Scripture denote any kind of infirmity or weakness spiritual or corporal it is said here to be taken in the latter sense for diseases with troubles and dangers which latter it no where signifies For so the meaning should be That in such conditions we know not what to pray for whether wealth or health or Peace or the like but Christ interceeds for us And this must be the sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which yet in the Text doth plainly denote an help and assistance given unto our weaknesses that is unto us who are weak in the discharge of the Duty of Prayer as both the words themselves and the ensuing reasons of them do evince Wherefore neither the Grammatical sence of the words nor the Context nor the Analogy of Faith will admit of this new and uncouth Exposition In like manner if it be enquired why it is said that he who searcheth the Heart knoweth the mind of the Spirit which plainly refers to some great and secret Work of the Spirit in the Heart of man if the Intercession of Christ be intended nothing is offered but this Paraphrase And then God that by being a searcher of Hearts knoweth our wants exactly understands also the desire and intention of the Spirit of Christ. But these things are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and have no dependance the one on the other Nor was there any need of the mentioning the searching of our Hearts to introduce the Approbation of the Intercession of Christ. But to return That is wrought in the Hearts of Believers in their Duty which is pervious to none but him that searcheth the Heart This frame in all our Supplications we ought to aim at especially in time of Distress Troubles and Temptations such as was the season here especially intended when commonly we are most sensible of our own infirmities And wherein we come short hereof in some measure it is from our Unbelief or carelesness and negligence which God abhors I do acknowledge that there may be that there will be more earnestness and intention of mind and of our natural Spirit therein in this Duty at one time than another according as outward occasions or other motives do excite them or stir them up So our Saviour in his Agony prayed more earnestly than usuall not with an higher exercise of Grace which always acted it self in him in perfection but with a greater vehemency in the working of his natural faculties So it may be with us at especial seasons But yet we are always to endeavour after the same Aids of the Spirit the same actings of Grace in every particular Duty of this kind Thirdly The Holy Spirit gives the Soul of a Believer a Delight in God as the Object of Prayer I shall not insist on his exciting moving and acting all other Graces that are required in the exercise of this Duty as Faith Love Reverence Fear Trust Submission Waiting Hope and the like I have proved elsewhere that the exercise of them all in all Duties and of all other Graces in like manner is from him and shall not therefore here again confirm the same Truth But this Delight in God as the Object of Prayer hath a peculiar consideration in this matter For without it ordinarily the Duty is not accepted with God and is a barren burthensome task unto them by whom it is performed Now this Delight in God as the Object of Prayer is for the substance of it included in that description of Prayer given us by the Apostle namely that it is crying Abba Father Herein a Filial Holy Delight in God is included such as Children have in their Parents in their most affectionate addresses unto them as hath been declared And we are to enquire wherein this Delight in God as the object of Prayer doth consist or what is required thereunto And there is in it 1. A Sight or prospect of God as on a Throne of Grace A prospect I say not by carnal Imagination but spiritual Illumination By Faith we see him who is invisible Heb. 11. 27. For it is the Evidence of things not seen making its proper Object evident and present unto them that do believe Such a sight of God on a Throne of Grace is necessary unto
of Faith Heb. 10. 19 22. Where there is on men a Spirit of Fear unto Bondage they can never have any Delight in their Approaches unto God And this is removed by the Spirit of Grace and Supplication Rom. 8. 15. For ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage again unto fear but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father These things are opposed and the one is only removed and taken away by the other And where the Spirit of Bondage unto fear abides there we cannot cry Abba Father or pray in a due manner But where the Spirit of God is there is Liberty 2 Cor. 3. 18. And this as we render the Word consists in two things 1. in orandi libertate 2. in exauditionis fiducia 1. There is in it an Enlarged Liberty and freedom of speech in Prayer unto God So the word signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Freedom to speak all that is to be spoken a Confidence that countenanceth men in the freedom of speech according to the Exigency of their state condition and cause So the word is commonly used Eph. 6. 19. Where there is servile fear and dread the Heart is straitned bound up knows not what it may what it may not utter and is pained about the Issue of all it thinks or speaks or it cannot pray at all beyond what is prescribed unto it to say as it were whether it will or no But where this Spirit of Liberty and Boldness is the Heart is enlarged with a true genuine Openness and Readiness to express all its concerns unto God as a Child unto its Father I do not say that those who have this Aid of the Spirit have always this Liberty in Exercise or equally so The exercise of it may be variously impeded by Temptations spiritual Indispositions Desertions and by our own negligence in stirring up the Grace of God But Believers have it always in the Root and Principle even all that have received the Spirit of Adoption and are ordinarily assisted in the use of it Hereby are they enabled to comply with the blessed advice of the Apostle Phil. 4. 6. Be careful in nothing but in every thing by Prayer and Supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God The whole of our concern in this World is to be committed unto God in Prayer as that we should not retain any dividing cares in our own minds about them And herein the Apostle would have us to use an holy Freedom and Boldness in speaking unto God on all occasions as one who concerns himself in them hide nothing from God which we do what lyeth in us when we present it not unto him in our Prayers but use a full plain-hearted open Liberty with him In every thing let your requests be made known unto God He is ready to hear all that you have to offer unto him or plead before him And in so doing the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ v. 7. which is ordinarily the condition of those who are found in diligent obedience unto this Command 2. There is also in it a Confidence of Acceptance or being heard in Prayer that is that God is well pleased with their Duties accepting both them and their Persons in Jesus Christ. Without this we can have no Delight in Prayer or in God as the Object of it which vitiates the whole Duty When Adam thought there was no Acceptance with God for him he had no confidence of access unto him but as the first effect of folly that ensued on the entrance of Sin went to hide himself And all those who have no Ground of spiritual Confidence for Acceptance with Christ do in their Prayer but endeavour to hide themselves from God by the Duty which they perform They cast a mist about them to obscure themselves from the Sight of their own Convictions wherein alone they suppose that God sees them also But in such a frame there is neither Delight nor Enlargement nor Liberty nor indeed Prayer it self Now this Confidence or Boldness which is given unto Believers in their Prayers by the Holy Ghost respects not the Answer of every particular Request especially in their own understanding of it but it consists in an Holy perswasion that God is well pleased with their Duties accepts their Persons and delights in their Approaches unto his Throne Such Persons are not terrified with Apprehensions that God will say unto them What have you to do to take my name into your mouths or to what purpose are the multitude of your Supplications when you make many Prayers I will not hear Will he saith Job plead with me with his great Power no but he will put strength in me Chap. 23. 6. Yea they are assured that the more they are with God the more constantly they abide with him the better is their Acceptance For as they are commanded to Pray always and not to faint so they have a sufficient Warranty from the Encouragement and Call of Christ to be frequent in their spiritual Addresses to him so he speaks to his Church Cant. 2. 14. Oh my Dove let me see thy Countenance let me hear thy Voice for sweet is thy Voice and thy Countenance is comely And herein also is comprized a due Apprehension of the Goodness and Power of God whereby he is in all conditions ready to receive them and able to relieve them The Voice of Sinners by Nature let presumption and superstition pretend what they please to the contrary is that God is austere and not capable of Condescension or compassion And the proper acting of Unbelief lyes in limiting the most Holy saying Can God do this or that thing which the Supplies of our necessities do call for are they possible with God So long as either of these worketh in us with any kind of prevalency it is impossible we should have any Delight in calling upon God But we are freed from them by the Holy Ghost in the Representation he makes of the ingaged goodness and Power of God in the Promises of the Covenant which gives us Boldness in his presence Fourthly It is the Work of the Holy Spirit in Prayer to keep the Souls of Believers Intent upon Jesus Christ as the only way and means of Acceptance with God This is the fundamental Direction for Prayer now under the Gospel We are now to ask in his name which was not done expresly under the Old Testament Through him we Act Faith on God in all our Supplications By him we have an Access unto the Father We enter into the Holiest through the new and living Way that he hath consecrated for us The various Respect which Faith hath unto Jesus Christ as Mediator in all our Prayers is a matter worthy a particular enquiry but is not of our present consideration wherein we declare the Work of the Spirit
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
possible when they are left to work naturally towards God however unskilled and rude their Expressions may be a deep sense may be left upon their minds with a Reverence of God and Remembrance of their own Error which may be of use to them But the bounding and directing of the workings of Natural Religion by a form of words perhaps little suited unto their Occasions and not at all to their Affections tends only to stifle the operation of an awakened Conscience and to give them up unto their former security 2. Others such as by Education and the Power of Convictions from the word by one means or other are so far brought under a sense of the Authority of God and their own Duty as conscientiously according unto their Light to attend unto Prayer as unto other Duties also Now the Case of these men will be more fully determined afterwards where the whole of the use of Forms of Prayer will be spoken unto For the present I shall only say that I cannot believe until further Conviction that any one whose Duty it is to pray is not able to express his Requests and Petitions in Words so far as he is affected with the matter of them in his mind and what he doth by any Advantage beyond that belongeth not to Prayer Men may by Sloth and other vitious distempers of mind especially of a negligence in getting their Hearts and Consciences duly affected with the Matter and Object of Prayer keep themselves under a real or supposed disability in this matter But whereas Prayer in this sort of Persons is an effect of common Illumination and Grace which are also from the Spirit of God if Persons do really and sincerely endeavour a due sense of what they pray for and about he will not be wanting to help them to express themselves so far as is necessary for them either privately or in their Families But those who will never enter the Water but with Flags or Bladders under them will scarce ever learn to swim And it cannot be denyed but that the constant and unwearied use of set forms of Prayer may become a great occasion of quenching the Spirit and hindring all progress or growth in Gifts or Graces When every one hath done what he can it is his best and will be accepted of him it being according unto what he hath before that which is none of his CHAP. VIII The Duty of External Prayer by Vertue of ae spiritual Gift explained and Vindicated WHAT we have hitherto discoursed concerning the Work of the Spirit of Grace and Supplication enabling Believers to pray or to cry Abba Father belongeth principally unto the internal spiritual nature of the Duty and the Exercise of Grace therein wherein we have occasionally only diverted unto the Consideration of the Interest of Words and the use of set formes either freely or imposed And indeed what hath been evinced from Scripture Testimony herein doth upon the matter render all further dispute about these things needless For if the things mentioned be required unto all acceptable Prayer and if they are truly effected in the minds of all Believers by the Holy Ghost it is evident how little use there remains of such pretended Aids But moreover Prayer falleth under another Consideration namely as to its external Performance and as the Duty is discharged by any one in lesser or greater Societies wherein upon his words and expressions do depend their Conjunction with him their Communion in the Duty and consequently their Edification in the whole This is the Will of God that in Assemblies of his Appointment as Churches and Families and occasional meetings of two or three or more in the name of Christ one should pray in the name of himself and the rest that joyn with him Thus are Ministers enabled to pray in Church-Assemblies as other Christians in occasional meetings of the Disciples of Christ in his name Parents in their Families and in Secret every Believer for himself There is a Spiritual Ability given unto men by the Holy Ghost whereby they are enabled to express the matter of Prayer as taught and revealed in the manner before described in words fitted and suited to lead on their own minds and the minds of others unto an Holy Communion in the Duty to the Honour of God and their own Edification I do not confine the use of this Ability unto Assemblies every one may and usually is to make use of it according to the measure which he hath received for himself also For if a man have not an Ability to pray for himself in private and alone he can have none to pray in publick and Societies Wherefore take Prayer as Vocal without which Adjunct it is not compleat and this Ability belongs to the Nature and Essence of it And this also is from the Spirit of God This is that which meets with such Contradiction and opposition from many and which hath other things set up in Competition with it yea to the Exclusion of it even from Families and Closets also What they are we shall afterwards examine And judged it is by some not only to be separable from the Work of the Spirit of Prayer but no way to belong thereunto A fruit they say it is of Wit Fancy Memory Elocution Volubility and readiness of Speech namely in them in whom on other Accounts they will acknowledge none of these things to be at least in no considerable degree Some while since indeed they defended themselves against any esteem of this Ability by crying out that all those who thus prayed by the Spirit as they call it did but babble and talk non-sense But those who have any sobriety and modesty are convinced that the generality of those who do pray according to the Ability received do use words of Truth and soberness in the exercise thereof And it is but a sorry relief that any can find in cavilling at some expressions which perhaps good and wholesom in themselves yet suit not their Palats or if they are such as may seem to miss of due order and decency yet is not their failure to be compared with the Extravagancies considering the nature of the Duty of some in supposed quaint and elegant expressions used in this Duty But herein they betake themselves unto this Countenance That this Ability is the effect of the natural Endowments before mentioned only which they think to be set off by a Boldness and Confidence but a little beneath an intolerable Impudence Thus it seems is it with all who desire to pray as God enables them that is according to his mind and will if any thing in the Light of Nature the common Voice of mankind Examples of Scripture express Testimonies and Commands are able to declare what is so I shall therefore make way unto the declaration and Confirmation of the Truth asserted by the ensuing Observations 1. Every man is to pray or call upon God according as he is able with respect
unto his own Condition Relations Occasions and Duties Certainly there is not a man in the World who hath not forfeited all his Reason and Understanding unto Atheism or utterly buried all their Operations under the fury of brutish Affections but he is convinced that it is his Duty to pray to the Deity he owns in words of his own as well as he is able For this and none other is the genuine and natural notion of Prayer This is implanted in the Heart of Mankind which they need not be taught nor directed unto The Artificial help of constant forms is an Arbitrary Invention And I would hope that there are but few in the World especially of those who are called Christians but that at one time or other they do so pray And those who for the most part do betake themselves to other Reliefs as unto the reading of Prayers composed unto some good End and Purpose though not absolutely to their occasions as to the present state of their minds and the things they would pray for which is absolutely impossible cannot as I conceive but sometimes be conscious to themselves not only of the weakness of what they do but of their neglect of the Duty which they profess to perform And as for such who by the prevalency of Ignorance the Power of Prejudice and infatuation of Superstition are diverted from the Dictates of Nature and Light of Scripture directions to say a Pater-noster it may be an Ave or a Credo for their Prayer intending it for this or that end the benefit it may be of this or that Person or the obtaining of what is no way mentioned or included in what they utter there is nothing of Prayer in it but a meer taking the name of God in vain with the horrible Prophanation of an Holy Ordinance Persons tyed up unto such Rules and Forms never pray in their Lives but in their occasional Ejaculations which break from them almost by Surprizal And there hath not been any one more effectual means of bringing Unholiness with an ungodly Course of Conversation into the Christian World than this one of teaching men to satisfy themselves in this Duty by their Saying Reading or Repetition of the words of other men which it may be they understand not and certainly are not in a due manner affected withal For it is this Duty whereby our whole Course is principally influenced And let men say what they will our Conversation in walking before God which principally regards the frame and disposition of our Hearts is influenced and regulated by our Attendance unto and Performance of this Duty He whose Prayers are Hypocritical is an Hypocrite in his whole Course and he who is but negligent in them is equally negligent in all other Duties Now whereas our whole Obedience unto God ought to be our reasonable service Rom. 12. 1. how can it be expected that it should be so when the foundation of it is laid in such an irrational supposition that men should not pray themselves what they are able but read the Forms of others instead thereof which they do not understand 2. All the Examples we have in the Scripture of the Prayers of the Holy men of Old either under the Old Testament or the New were all of them the effects of their own Ability in expressing the gracious Conceptions of their minds wrought in them by the Holy Ghost in the way and manner before described I call it their own Ability in opposition to all outward Aids and Assistances From others or an antecedaneous prescription of a Form of Words unto themselves Not one Instance can be given to the contrary Sometimes it is said they spread forth their Hands sometimes that they listed up their voices sometimes that they fell upon their knees and cryed sometimes that they poured out their Hearts when overwhelmed all according unto present occasions and circumstances The Solemn Benediction of the Priests instituted of God like the present Forms in the Administration of the Sacraments were of another Consideration as shall be shewed And as for those who by immediate Inspiration gave out and wrote discourses in the form of Prayers which were in part Mystical and in part Prophetical we have before given an Account concerning them Some plead indeed that the Church of the Jews under the Second Temple had sundry Forms of Prayers in use among them even at the time when our Saviour was conversant in the Temple and their Synagogues But they pretend and plead what they cannot prove and I challenge any Learned man to give but a tolerable Evidence unto the Assertion For what is found to that purpose among the Talmudists is mixed with such ridiculous fables as the first suiting the number of their Prayers to the number of the Bones in the back of a man as fully defeats its own Evidence 3. The Commands which are given us to pray thus according unto our own Abilities are no more nor less than all the Commands we have in the Scripture to pray at all Not one of them hath any regard or respect unto outward Forms Aids or helps of Prayer And the manner of Prayer it self is so described limited and determined as that no other kind of Prayer can be intended For whereas we are commanded to pray in the Spirit to pray earnestly and servently with the mind and understanding continually with all manner of Prayer and Supplication to make our Requests known unto God so as not to take care our selves about our present concerns to pour out our Hearts unto God to cry Abba Father by the Spirit and the like I do not understand how those things are suited unto any kind of Prayer but only that which is from the Ability which men have received for the entire discharge of that Duty For there are evidently intimated in these Precepts and Directions such various Occasional Workings of our Minds and Spirits such Actings of Gracious Affections as will not comply with a constant use of a prescribed Form of Words 4. When we speak of mens own Ability in this matter we do include therein the conscientious diligent use of all means which God hath appointed for the Communication of this Ability unto them or to help them in the due use exercise and improvement of it Such means there are and such are they to attend unto As 1. The diligent searching of our own Hearts in their Frames Dispositions Inclinations and Actings that we may be in some measure acquainted with their state and condition towards God Indeed the Heart of man is absolutely unsearchable unto any but God himself that is as unto a compleat and perfect knowledge of it Hence David prays that God would search and try him and lead and conduct him by his Grace according unto what he found in him and not leave him wholly to act or be acted according unto his own Apprehensions of himself Psal. 139. 23 24. But yet where we do in sincerity enquire
better But for evident reasons we will not be bound to stand unto the Testimony of those men although they shall not here be pleaded In the mean time we know that from him which hath not is taken away that which he had And it is no wonder if Persons endowed sometimes with a Gift of Prayer proportionable unto their Light and Illumination improving neither the one nor the other as they ought have lost both their Light and Gift also And thus suitably unto my design and purpose I have given a delineation of the Work of the Holy Ghost as a Spirit of Grace and Supplication promised unto and bestowed on all Believers enabling them to cry Abba Father CHAP. IX Duties inferred from the preceding Discourse THE issue of all inquiries in these things is How we may improve them unto Obedience in the Life of God For if we know them happy are we if we do them and not otherwise And our practice herein may be reduced unto these two heads 1. A due and constant returning of Glory unto God on the account of his Grace in that free Gift of his whose Nature we have enquired into 2. A constant Attendance unto the Duty which we are graciously enabled unto thereby And 1. We ought continually to bless God and give Glory to him for this great priviledge of the Spirit of Grace and Supplication granted unto the Church This is the principal means on their part of all holy entercourse with God and of giving Glory unto him How doth the World which is destitute of this fruit of divine bounty grope in the dark and wander after vain imaginations whilst it knows not how to manage its convictions nor how at all to deal with God about its concerns That World which cannot receive the Spirit of Grace and Truth can never have ought to do with God in a due manner There are by whom this Gift of God is despised is reviled is blasphemed and under the shades of many pretences do they hide themselves from the Light in their so doing But they know not what they do nor by what Spirit they are acted Our Duty it is to pray that God would pour forth his Spirit even on them also who will quickly cause them to look on him whom they have pierced and mourn And it appears two ways how great a Mercy it is to enjoy and improve this priviledge 1. In that both the Psalmist and the Prophet pray directly in a Spirit of Prophecy and without limitation that God would pour out his fury on the Families that call not on his name Psal. 79. 6. Jer. 10. 25. and 2. In that the whole work of Faith in Obedience is denominated from this Duty of Prayer For so it is said that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved Rom. 10. 13. For Invocation or Prayer in the Power of the Spirit of Grace and Supplications is an infallible evidence and fruit of saving Faith and Obedience and therefore is the Promise of Salvation so eminently annexed unto it Or it is placed by a Synecdoche for the whole Worship of God and Obedience of Faith And it were endless to declare the benefits that the Church of God and every one that belongeth thereunto hath thereby No Heart can conceive that Treasury of Mercies which lye in this one priviledge in having Liberty and Ability to approach unto God at all times according unto his Mind and Will This is the Relief the Refuge the Weapons and assured Refreshment of the Church in all Conditions 2. It is a matter of Praise and Glory to God in an especial manner that he hath granted an Ampliation of this Priviledge under the Gospel The Spirit is now poured forth from above and enlarged in his dispensation both intensively and extensively Those on whom he is bestowed do receive him in a larger measure than they did formerly under the Old Testament Thence is that Liberty and boldness in their access unto the Throne of Grace and their crying Abba Father which the Apostle reckons among the great priviledges of the Dispensation of the Spirit of Christ which of old they were not partakers of If the difference between the Old Testament State and the New lay only in the outward letter and the Rule thereof it would not be so easily discerned on which side the advantage lay especially methinks it should not be so by them who seem really to preferr the Pomp of Legal worship before the plainness and simplicity of the Gospel But he who understands what it is not to receive the Spirit of Bondage to fear but to receive the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father and what it is to serve God in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter understands their difference well enough And I cannot but admire that some will make use of Arguments or a pretence of them for such helps and Forms of Prayer as seem not compliant with the Work of the Spirit of Supplication before described from the Old Testament and the practice of the Church of the Jews before the time of our Saviour though indeed they can prove nothing from thence For do they not acknowledge that there is a more plentiful effusion of the Spirit on the Church under the New Testament than of the Old To deny it is to take away the principal difference between the Law and the Gospel And is not the performance of Duties to be regulated according to the supplies of Grace If we should suppose that the People being then carnal and obliged to the observation of carnal ordinances did in this particular stand in need of Forms of Prayer which indeed they did not of those which were meerly so and only so nor had that we know of any use of them doth it follow that therefore Believers under the New Testament who have unquestionably a larger portion of the Spirit of Grace and Supplication poured on them should either stand in need of them or be obliged unto them And it is in vain to pretend a different dispensation of the Spirit unto them and us where different fruits and effects are not acknowledged He that hath been under the Power of the Law and hath been set free by the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus knows the difference and will be thankful for the Grace that is in it Again it is extensively enlarged in that it is now communicated unto Multitudes whereas of old it was confined unto a few Then the dews of it only watered the land of Canaan and the Posterity of Abraham according to the Flesh now the showrs of it are poured down on all Nations even all that in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours In every Assembly of Mount Zion through the World called according to the mind of Christ Prayers and Supplications are offered unto God through the effectual working
turn what they read into Prayer or Praise unto God whereby the Instructions unto Faith and obedience would be more confirmed in their Minds and their Hearts be more engaged into their practice An example hereof we have Psal. 119. wherein all Considerations of Gods will and our Duty are turned into Petitions 3. A due Meditation on Gods glorious Excellencies tends greatly to the cherishing of this gracious Gift of the Holy Spirit There is no example that we have of Prayer in the Scripture but the entrance into it consists in Expressions of the Name and most commonly of some other glorious Titles of God whereunto the Remembrance of some mighty acts of his Power is usually added And the nature of the thing requires it should be so For besides that God hath revealed his Name unto us for this very purpose that we might call upon him by the Name which he owns and takes to himself it is necessary we should by some external description determine our minds unto Him to whom we make our Addresses seeing we cannot conceive any Image or Idea of him therein Now the End hereof is twofold 1. To ingenerate in us that Reverence and Godly fear which is required of all that draw nigh to this infinitely Holy God Lev. 10. 3. Heb. 12. 29. The most signal incouragement unto Boldness in Prayer and an Access to God thereby is in Heb. 10. 19 20 21 22. with Chap. 4. 16. Into the Holy place we may go with Boldness and unto the Throne of Grace And it is a Throne of Grace that God in Christ is represented unto us upon But yet it is a Throne still whereon Majesty and Glory do reside And God is always to be considered by us as on a Throne 2. Faith and confidence are excited and acted unto a due Frame thereby For Prayer is our betaking our selves unto God as our shield our Rock and our Reward Prov. 18. 10. Wherefore a due previous consideration of those Holy properties of his Nature which may encourage us so to do and assure us in our so doing is necessary And this being so great a part of Prayer the great Foundation of Supplication and Praise frequent Meditation on these holy Excellencies of the Divine Nature must needs be an excellent preparation for the whole Duty by filling the Heart with a sense of those things which the Mouth is to express and making ready those Graces for their exercise which is required therein 4. Meditation on the Mediation and Intercession of Christ for our Encouragement is of the same importance and tendency To this End spiritually is he proposed unto us as abiding in the discharge of his Priestly Office Heb. 4. 15 16. Chap. 10. 19 20 21 22. And this is not only an Encouragement unto and in our Supplications but a means to increase and strengthen the Grace and Gift of Prayer it self For the Mind is thereby made ready to exercise it self about the effectual Interposition of the Lord Christ at the Throne of Grace in our behalf which hath a principal place and consideration in the Prayers of all Believers And hereby principally may we try our Faith of what Race and kind it is whether truly Evangelical or no. Some relate or talk that the Eagle tries the Eyes of her young ones by turning them to the Sun which if they cannot look steadily on she rejects them as spurious We may truly try our Faith by immediate Intuitions of the Sun of Righteousness Direct Faith to act it self immediately and directly on the Incarnation of Christ and his Mediation and if it be not of the right kind and race it will turn its Eye aside unto any thing else Gods essential Properties his Precepts and Promises it can bear a fixed consideration of but it cannot fix it self on the Person and Mediation of Christ with steadiness and satisfaction There is indeed much profession of Christ in the World but little Faith in him 5. Frequency in Exercise is the immediate way and means of the Increase of this Gift and its improvement All spiritual Gifts are bestowed on men to be imployed and exercised For the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every one to profit withal 1 Cor. 12. 7. God both requireth that his Talents be traded withal that his Gifts be imployed and exercised and will also call us to an account of the discharge of the trust committed unto us in them see 1 Pet. 4. 10 11. Wherefore the Exercise of this and of the like Gifts tends unto their improvement on a double account For 1. whereas they reside in the mind after the manner and nature of an Habit or a Faculty it is natural that they should be encreased and strengthned by Exercise as all Habits are by a multiplication of Acts proceeding from them So also by desuetude they will weaken decay and in the issue be utterly lost and perish So is it with many as to the Gift of Prayer They were known to have received it in some good measure of usefulness unto their own Edification and that of others But upon a neglect of the Use and Exercise of it in publick and private which seldome goes alone without some secret or open enormities they have lost all their Ability and cannot open their mouths on any Occasion in Prayer beyond what is prescribed unto them or composed for them But the just hand of God is also in this matter depriving them of what they had for their abominable neglect of his Grace and Bounty therein 2. The Encrease will be added unto by vertue of Gods blessing on his own appointment For having bestowed their Gifts for that End where Persons are faithful in the discharge of the trust committed unto them He will graciously add unto them in what they have This is the eternal Law concerning the dispensation of Evangelical Gifts Unto every one that hath shall be given and he shall have abundance but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath Mat. 25. 29. It is not the meer having or not having of them that is intended but the using or not using of what we have received as is plain in the Context Now I do not say that a man may or ought to exercise himself in Prayer meerly with this design that he may preserve and improve his Gift It may indeed in some cases be lawful for a man to have Respect hereunto but not only As where a Master of a Family hath any one in his Family who is able to discharge that Duty and can attend unto it yet he will find it his Wisdom not to omit his own performance of it unless he be contented his Gift as to the use of his Family should wither and decay But all that I plead is that he who conscientiously with respect unto all the ends of Prayer doth abound in the exercise of this Gift he shall assuredly thrive and grow in it or at least preserve it
make of their Condition and Temptations He who is constantly to be the mouth of others to God is not to pray at Random as though all Persons and Conditions were alike unto him None prayeth for others constantly by vertue of especial Duty but he is called also to watch over them and observe their ways In so doing he may know That of their state which may be a great Direction unto his Supplications with them and for them Yea without this no man can ever discharge this Duty aright in the behalf of others so as they may find their particular concernments therein And if a Minister be obliged to consider the Ways Light Knowledge and walking of his Flock in his preaching unto them that what he teacheth may be suited unto their Edification he is no less bound unto the same consideration in his Prayers also with them and for them if he intends to pray unto their use and profit The like may be said of others in their capacity The Wisdom and Caution which are to be used herein I may not here insist upon 4. Unto the Account which they receive from themselves concerning their Wants their state and Condition This in some cases Persons are obliged to give unto those whose Duty it is to help them by their Prayers James 5. 16. And if this Duty were more attended unto the minds of many might receive inconceivable Relief thereby 6. Let us take heed 1. That this Gift be not solitary or alone and 2. That it be not solitarily acted at any time When it is solitary that is where the Gift of Prayer is in the Mind but no Grace to exercise in Prayer in the Heart it is at best but a part of that Form of Godliness which men may have and deny the Power thereof and is therefore consistent with all sorts of secret Lusts and Abominations And it were easy to demonstrate that whatever Advantage others may have by this Gift in them who are destitute of saving Grace yet themselves are many ways worsted by it For hence are they lifted up with spiritual pride which is the ordinary Consequent of all unsanctified Light and hereby do they countenance themselves against the Reflections of their Consciences on the guilt of other Sins resting and pleasing themselves in their own performances But to the best Observation that I have been able to make of all spiritual Gifts which may be communicated for a time unto Unsanctified minds this doth soonest decay and wither Whether it be that God takes it away Judicially from them or that themselves are not able to bear the Exercise of it because it is diametrically opposite unto the lusts wherein they indulge themselves for the most part it quickly and visibly decaies especially in such as with whom the continuance of it by reason of open Sins and Apostasie might be a matter of danger or Scandal unto others 2. Let it not be acted solitarily Persons in whom is a principle of spiritual Life and Grace who are endowed with those Graces of the Spirit which ought to be acted in all our Supplications may yet even in the use and exercise of this Gift neglect to stir them up and act them And there is no greater Evidence of a weak sickly spiritual Constitution than often to be surprized into this miscarriage Now this is so when men in their Prayers ingage only their Light Invention Memory and Elocution without especial actings of Faith and delight in God And he who watcheth his Soul and its actings may easily discern when he is sinfully negligent in this matter or when outward Circumstances and Occasions have made him more to attend unto the Gift than unto Grace in Prayer for which he will be humbled And these few things I thought meet to add concerning the due use and improvement of this Gift of the Spirit of God CHAP. X. Of Mental Prayer as pretended unto by some in the Church of Rome HAving described or given an account of the Gift of Prayer and the use of it in the Church of God and the Nature of the Work of the Spirit therein it will be necessary to consider briefly what is by some set up in Competition with it as a more Excellent way in this part of Divine Worship And in the first place Mental Prayer as described by some devout persons of the Church of Rome is preferred above it They call it pure spiritual Prayer or a quiet repose of Contemplation that which excludes all Images of the Fancy and in time all perceptible actuations of the Understanding and is exercised in single Elevations of the Will without any force at all yet with admirable Efficacy and to dispose a Soul for such Prayer there is previously required an entire Calmness and even Death of the Passions a perfect purity in the spiritual affections of the will and an entire abstraction from all Creatures Cressy Church Hist. Pref. parag 42 43. 1. The Truth is I am so fixed in a dislike of that meer outside formal course of reading or singing Prayers which is in use in the Roman Church which though in Mr. Cressy's esteem it have a shew of a very civil Conversation with God yet is it indeed accompanied with the highest contempt of his infinite purity and all Divine Excellencies and do so much more abhor that Magical incantation which many among them use in the Repetition of Words which they understand not or of applying what they repeat to another End than what the words signifie as saying so many Prayers for such an End or purpose whereof it may be there is not one word of mention in the Prayers themselves that I must approve of any search after a real internal entercourse of Soul with God in this Duty But herein men must be careful of two things 1. That they assert not what they can fansie but what indeed in some measure they have an Experience of For men to conjecture what others do experience for they can do no more and thence to form Rules or Examples of Duty is dangerous always and may be pernicious unto those who shall follow such Instructions And herein this Author fails and gives nothing but his own Fancies of others pretended Experience 2. That what they pretend unto an Experience of be confirmable by Scripture Rule or Example For if it be not so we are directed unto the Conduct of all extravagant imaginations in every one who will pretend unto spiritual Experience Attend unto these Rules and I will grant in Prayer all the ways whereby the Soul or the Faculties of it can rationally act it self towards God in an Holy and spiritual manner But if you extend it unto such kind of actings as our Nature is not capable of at least in this World it is the open fruit of a deceived Fancy and makes all that is tendred from the same hand to be justly suspected And such is that instance of this Prayer that it is in the Will
that some may so do For no such Freedom of Prayer is asserted as should make it unlawful for men to make use of any proper means the better to enable them to pray Nor is any such Ability of Prayer granted as to supersede the Duty of using means for the Encrease and furtherance of it 3. To set up and prescribe the use of such Forms universally in opposition and unto the Exclusion of free Prayer by the Aid of the Spirit of Grace is contrary not only to many Divine precepts before insisted on but to the Light of nature it self requiring every man to pray and on some occasions necessitating them thereunto But whatever be the practice of some men I know not that any such Opinion is pleaded for and so shall not farther oppose it 4. It is not enquired whether Forms of Prayer especially as they may be designed unto and used for other Ends and not to be read instead of Prayer have in their Composition any thing of intrinsecal evil in them for it is granted they have not But the Enquiry is whether in their use as Prayers they are not hindrances unto the right discharge of the Duty of Prayer according to the mind of God and so may be unlawful in that respect For I take it as granted that they are no where appointed of God for such an Use no where commanded so to be used whence an argument may be formed against their having any Interest in Divine acceptable Worship but it is not of our present Consideration For if on the accounts mentioned they appear not contrary unto or inconsistent with or are not used in a way exclusive of that Work of the Holy Spirit in Prayer which we have described from the Scripture nor are reducible unto any Divine prohibition whilest I may enjoy my own Liberty I shall not contend with any about them Nor shall I now engage into the Examination of the Arguments that are pleaded in their behalf which some have greatly multiplied as I suppose not much to the Advantage of their cause For in things of Religious Practice one Testimony of Scripture rightly explained and applied with the Experience of Believers thereon is of more weight and value than a thousand dubious Reasonings which cannot be evidently resolved into those Principles Wherefore some few additional Considerations shall put an issue unto this Discourse 1. Some observe that there are Forms of Prayer composed and prescribed to be used both in the Old Testament and the New Such they say was the Form of Blessing prescribed unto the Priests on solemn Occasions Numb 6. 24 25 26. And the Psalms of David as also the Lords Prayer in the New Testament 1. If this be so it proves that Forms of Prayer are not intrinsecally evil which is granted yet may the use of them be unnecessary 2. The Argument will not hold so far as it is usually extended at least God himself hath prescribed some Forms of Prayer to be used by some Persons on some occasions therefore men may invent yea and prescribe those that shall be for common and constant use He who forbad all Images or all use of them in sacred things appointed the making of the Cherubims in the Tabernacle and Temple 3. The Argument from the practice in use under the Old Testament in this matter if any could thence be taken when the People were carnal and tyed up unto Carnal Ordinances unto the Duty and practice of Believers under the New Testament and a more plentiful effusion of the Spirit hath been before disproved 4. The words prescribed unto the Priests were not a Prayer properly but an Authoritative Benediction and an instituted sign of Gods blessing the People For so it is added in the Explication of that Ordinance They shall put my name upon the Children of Israel and I will bless them ver 27. 5. Davids Psalms were given out by immediate Inspiration were most of them Mystical and Prophetical appointed to be used in the Church as all other Scriptures only some of them in a certain manner namely of Singing and that manner also determined by Divine Appointment 6. That any Form of Prayer is appointed in the New Testament to be used as a Form is neither granted nor can be proved 7. Give us Prayers composed by Divine inspiration with a command for their use with the Time Manner and Form of their usage which these instances prove to be lawful if they prove any thing in this case and there will be no contest about them 8. All and every one of the Precedents or Examples which we have in the whole Scripture of the Prayers of any of the People of God Men or Women being all accommodated to their present occasions and uttered in the Freedom of their own Spirits do all give Testimony unto free Prayer if not against the use of Forms in that Duty 2. Moreover it seems that when any one prayeth his Prayer is a Form unto all that join with him whether in Families or Church-Assemblies which some lay great weight upon though I am not able to discern the Force of it in this case For 1. The question is solely about him that prayeth and his discharge of Duty according to the mind of God and not concerning them who join with him 2. The conjunction of others with him that prayeth according to his Ability is an express command of God 3. Those who so join are at Liberty when it is their Duty to pray themselves 4. That which is not a Form in it self is not a Form to any for there is more required to make it so than meerly that the words and Expressions are not of their own present Invention It is to them the Benefit of a Gift bestowed for their Edification in its present Exercise according to the Mind of God That only is a Form of Prayer unto any which he himself useth as a Form for its nature depends on its use 5. The Argument is incogent God hath commanded some to pray according to the Ability they have received and others to join with them therein therefore it is lawful to invent Forms of Prayer for our selves or others to be used as Prayers by them or us 3. That which those who pretend unto moderation in this matter plead is that Prayer it self is a commanded Duty but Praying by or with a prescribed Form is only an outward manner and Circumstance of it which is indifferent and may or may not be used as we see occasion And might a general Rule to this purpose be duely established it would be of huge importance But 1. It is an easy thing to invent and prescribe such outward Forms and manner of outward Worship as shall leave nothing of the Duty prescribed but the empty name 2. Praying before an image or Worshipping God or Christ by an image is but an outward mode of Worship yet such as renders the whole Idolatrous 3. Any outward mode of Worship the Attendance whereunto or the Observance whereof is prejudicial unto the due performance of the Duty whereunto it is annexed is inexpedient and what there is hereof in the present instance must be judged from the preceding discourse FINIS Abba Father the meaning of it * Omnino oportet nos * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost. Hom. 67. de Prec 1. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys. Hom. 67. de Prec 1.
into and sense of the Concernment of these things This I have elsewhere so fully proved as not here again to insist on it It is not easy to conjecture how men pray or what they pray about who know not the plague of their own Hearts Yea this Ignorance want of Light into or conviction of the depravation of their nature and the remainders thereof even in those that are renewed with the Fruits Consequents and Effects thereof is the principal cause of mens Barrenness in this Duty so that they can seldome go beyond what is prescribed unto them And they can thence also satisfie themselves with a set or frame of well composed words wherein they might easily discern that their own condition and concernment are not at all expressed if they were acquainted with them I do not fix measures unto other men nor give bounds unto their understandings Only I shall take leave to profess for my own part that I cannot conceive or apprehend how any man doth or can know what to pray for as he ought in the whole compass and course of that Duty who hath no Spiritual illumination enabling him to discern in some measure the Corruption of his nature and the internal Evils of his Heart If men judge the faculties of their Souls to be undepraved their minds free from vanity their Hearts from Guile and deceit their Wills from perverseness and carnality I wonder not on what Grounds they despise the Prayers of others but should do so to find real Humiliation and fervency in their own Hereunto I may add the irregularity and disorder of our Affections These I confess are discernible in the Light of Nature and the rectifying of them or an attempt for it was the principal end of the old Philosophy But the chief respect that on this principle it had unto them is as they disquiet the mind or break forth into outward expressions whereby men are defiled or dishonoured or distressed So far natural Light will go and thereby in the working of their Consciences as far as I know men may be put to pray about them But the chief depravation of the Affections lyes in their aversation unto things spiritual and Heavenly They are indeed sometimes ready of themselves to like things spiritual under false Notions of them and divine Worship under Superstitious Ornaments and meretricious dresses in which respect they are the spring and life of all that Devotion which is in the Church of Rome But take Heavenly and Spiritual things in themselves with respect unto their proper Ends and there is in all our Affections as corrupted a dislike of them and aversation unto them which variously act themselves and influence our Souls unto Vanities and disorders in all Holy Duties And no man knows what it is to pray who is not exercised in Supplications for mortifying changing and renewing of these Affections as spiritually irregular And yet is it the Spirit of God alone which discovereth these things unto us and gives us a sense of our concernment in them I say the Spiritual irregularity of our Affections and their Aversation from spiritual things is discernible in no Light but that of supernatural illumination For if without that Spiritual things themselves cannot be discerned as the Apostle assures us they cannot 1 Cor. 2. it is impossible that the disorder of our Affections with respect unto them should be so If we know not an object in the true nature of it we cannot know the actings of our minds towards it Wherefore although there be in our Affections an innate universal aversation from spiritual things seeing by nature we are wholly alienated from the life of God yet can it not be discerned by us in any Light but that which discovers these spiritual things themselves unto us Nor can any man be made sensible of the Evil and Guilt of that disorder who hath not a Love also implanted in his Heart unto those things which it finds obstructed thereby Wherefore the Mortification of these Affections and their Renovation with respect unto things Spiritual and Heavenly being no small part of the matter of the Prayers of Believers as being an especial part of their Duty they have no otherwise an acquaintance with them or sense of them but as they receive them by Light and Conviction from the Spirit of God And those who are destitute hereof must needs be strangers unto the Life and Power of the Duty of Prayer it self As it is with respect unto Sin so it is with respect unto God and Christ and the Covenant Grace Holiness and Priviledges We have no spiritual conceptions about them no right Understanding of them no insight into them but what is given us by the Spirit of God And without an Acquaintance with these things what are our Prayers or what do they signifie Men without them may say on to the World's end without giving any thing of Glory unto God or obtaining of any Advantage unto their own Souls And this I place as the first part of the Work of the Spirit of Supplications in Believers enabling them to pray according to the mind of God which of themselves they know not how to do as is afterward in the place of the Apostle insisted on When this is done when a right apprehension of Sin and Grace and of our concernment in them is fixed on our minds then have we in some measure the matter of Prayer always in readiness which words and expressions will easily follow though the Aid of the Holy Spirit be necessary thereunto also as we shall afterwards declare And hence it is that the Duty performed with respect unto this part of the Aid and assistance of the Spirit of God is of late by some as was said vilified and reproached Formerly their exceptions lay all of them against some Expressions or weakness of some Persons in conceived Prayer which they liked But now scorn is poured out upon the matter of Prayer it self especially the humble and deep confessions of Sin which on the discoveries before mentioned are made in the Supplications of Ministers and others The things themselves are traduced as absurd foolish and irrational as all Spiritual things are unto some sorts of men Neither do I see how this disagreement is capable of any Reconciliation For they who have no Light to discern those respects of Sin and Grace which we have mentioned cannot but think it uncouth to have them continually made the matter of mens Prayers And those on the other hand who have received a Light into them and Acquaintance with them by the Spirit of God are troubled at nothing more than that they cannot sufficiently abase themselves under a sense of them nor in any words fully express that impression on their minds which is put on them by the Holy Ghost nor cloath their desires after Grace and Mercy with words sufficiently significant and emphatical And therefore this difference is irreconcileable by any but the Spirit
of God himself Whilst it doth abide those who have respect only unto what is discernible in the Light of Nature or of a natural Conscience in their Prayers will keep themselves unto general expressions and outward things in words prepared unto that purpose by themselves or others do we what we can to the contrary For men will not be led beyond their own Light neither is it meet they should And those who do receive the Supplies of the Spirit in this matter will in their Prayer be principally conversant about the spiritual internal concernments of their Souls in Sin and Grace let others despise them and reproach them whilst they please And it is in vain much to contend about these things which are regulated not by Arguments but by Principles Men will invincibly adhere unto the capacity of their Light Nothing can put an end to this difference but a more plentiful Effusion of the Spirit from above which according unto the Promise we wait for Secondly We know not what to pray for as we ought but the Holy Ghost acquaints us with the Grace and Mercy which are prepared in the Promises of God for our Relief That the Knowledge hereof is necessary to enable us to direct our Prayers unto God in a due manner I declared before and I suppose it will not be denied For what do we pray for What do we take a prospect and design of in our Supplications What is it we desire to be made Partakers of Praying only by saying or repeating so many words of Prayer whose sence and meaning those who make use of them perhaps understand not as in the Papacy or so as to rest in the saying or Repetition of them without an especial design of obtaining some thing or things which we make known in our Supplications is unworthy the Disciples of Christ indeed of rational Creatures Deal thus with thy Governour Will he be pleased with thee or accept thy Person as Mal. 1. 8. neither Ruler nor Friend nor Neighbour would accept it at our hands if we should constantly make solemn addresses unto them without any especial design We must pray with our understanding that is understand what we pray for And these things are no other but what God hath promised which if we are not regulated by in our Supplications we ask amiss It is therefore indispensably necessary unto Prayer that we should know what God hath promised or that we should have an understanding of the Grace and Mercy of the Promises God knoweth our wants what is good for us what is useful to us what is necessary to bring us unto the injoyment of himself infinitely better than we do our selves Yea we know nothing of these things but what he is pleased to teach us These are the things which he hath prepared for us as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 2. 9. And what he hath so prepar'd he declareth in the Promises of the Covenant For they are the declaration of the Grace and good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself And hence Believers may learn what is good for them and what is wanting unto them in the Promises more clearly and certainly than by any other means whatever From them therefore do we learn what to pray for as we ought And this is another Reason why men are so barren in their Supplications they know not what to pray for but are forced to betake themselves unto a confused Repetition of the same requests namely their ignorance of the Promises of God and the Grace exhibited in them Our enquiry therefore is by what way or means we come to an Acquaintance with these Promises which all Believers have in some measure some more full and distinct than others but all in an useful sufficiency And this we say is by the Spirit of God without whose Aid and Assistance we can neither understand them nor what is contained in them I do confess that some by frequent reading of the Scripture by the only help of a faithful Memory may be able to express in their Prayers the Promises of God without any spiritual Acquaintance with the Grace of them whereby they administer unto others and not unto themselves But this Remembrance of Words or Expressions belongs not unto the especial Work of the Holy Ghost in supplying the Hearts and minds of Believers with the matter of Prayer But this is that which he doth herein He openeth their Eyes he giveth an understanding he enlighteneth their minds so that they shall perceive the things that are of God prepared for them and that are contained in the Promises of the Gospel and represents them therein in their beauty Glory suitableness and desirableness unto their Souls He maketh them to see Christ in them and all the Fruits of his Mediation in them all the effect of the Grace and Love of God in them the Excellency of Mercy and Pardon of Grace and Holiness of a new Heart with Principles dispositions Inclinations and Actings all as they are proposed in the Truth and Faithfulness of God Now when the mind and Heart is continually filled with an Understanding and due Apprehensions of these things it is always furnished with the matter of Prayer and praise unto God which Persons make use of according as they have actual assistance and utterance given unto them And whereas this Holy Spirit together with the knowledge of them doth also implant a Love unto them upon the minds of Believers they are not only hereby directed what to pray for but are excited and stirred up to seek after the injoyment of them with ardent Affections and earnest Endeavours which is to pray And although among those on whose Hearts these things are not implanted some may as was before observed make an appearance of it by expressing in Prayer the words of the Promises of God retined in their memories yet for the most part they are not able themselves to pray in any tolerable useful manner and do either wonder at or despise those that are so enabled But it may be said that where there is any defect herein it may be easily supplied For if men are not acquainted with the Promises of God themselves in the manner before described and so know not what they ought to pray for others who have the understanding of them may compose Prayers for their use according to their Apprehensions of the mind of God in them which they may read and so have the matter of Prayer always in a readiness I answer 1. I do not know that any one hath a Command or Promise of Assistance to make or compose Prayers to be said or read by others as their Prayers and therefore I expect no great matter from what any one shall do in that kind The Spirit of Grace and Supplication is promised as I have proved to enable us to pray not to enable us to make or compose Prayers for others 2. It savours of some unacquaintance with the Promises of