Exhortation to those who want the Spirit of prayer 1/2

3).O labour to get this heavenly guest to come and dwell in your hearts.  Better it were thou hadst not the spirit of a man than to want the Spirit of God. If the Holy Spirit be not in thee, assure thyself the evil spirit is; and no way is there for thee to turn this troublesome guest out of doors but by getting the Spirit of God in.  Thou mayest know where thy eter­nal  mansion will be, in heaven or hell, hereafter, by the spirit that fills and acts thy soul here.  If God takes not up thy soul as a mansion for his Spirit on earth, it shows that he prepares no mansion for thy soul in heaven, but leaves thee to be entertained by him in the other world that is thy guest in this.  Thus thou seest how thy soul hangs over the infernal pit. What course canst thou take to prevent this thy end­less misery that is coming upon thee?  Wilt thou stand up as Haman to make request for the life of thy soul?  Alas! thou canst not pray though thy life lies on it; thou wantest the Spirit of God that should help thee to groans and sighs; thou must live before thou canst breathe.  Prayer, you see, is not a work of na­ture, but a gift of grace; not a matter of will and parts, got by human skill and art, but taught and inspired by the Holy Ghost.  At the bar of man the orator’s tongue may so smooth over a cause as to carry it. Rhetoric hath a kind of spell in it that charms the ears of men, he is called the ‘the eloquent ora­tor,’ {Hebrew Characters Omitted}—nekÇn l~chash—he that is skilful in a charm, Isa. 3:3.  Thus Abigail charmed David’s passion with a well-set speech, and returned his sword into his scabbard that was drawn to cut off her husband and his family.  But words, alas! how handsomely soever they chime, make no music in God’s ear; they avail no more with him when his Holy Spirit is not with them, than Esau’s prayers and tears did with old Isaac for the blessing.  The same rod which wrought miracles in Moses’ hand would have done no such thing in the hand of another, because not acted with the Spirit that Moses had.  The same words put up in prayer by a man’s own private spirit are weak and ineffectual, yea, distasteful and abomin­able; which, delivered by the Spirit of God in another, are mighty with God and exceedingly acceptable to him.  Kings have their cooks, and eat not but what is dressed by their hands.  The great God, I am sure, will not like that sacrifice which his Spirit doth not prepare and offer.  Those prayers which are highly es­teemed and applauded by men are sometimes a great abomination to the Lord, who sees the heart to be naught and wholly void of his Spirit and grace.  And on the contrary, those prayers which are despised and harshly censured by man may be highly pleasing to God.  Eli was offended with Hannah and took her for a drunken woman; but God knew her better, that she was not drunk with wine, but filled with the Spirit in prayer, and therefore answered graciously her request. It was wisely done of that Grecian, who, being sent ambassador to a foreign prince, studied the language of the country that he might the more effectually per­suade the king by delivering his embassy in his own tongue.  O, get thou the Spirit of God, that thou may­est pray to God in the language of heaven, and no fear but thou shalt speed.  Now, if thou wouldst obtain the Spirit,

           (1.) Labour to be deeply sensible of thy deplor­able state while without the Spirit.  An unsavoury sap­less creature thou art, God knows, unable for any duty, incapable of any comfort.  The Spirit is oft in Scripture compared to water, rain, and dew.  Now, as the earth is barren and can bring forth no fruit with­out these, so is the heart of man without the Spirit of God.  O get thy soul affected with this!  When the fields are burned up for want of rain, man and beast make a moan; yea, the very earth itself, cleft with drought, by opening its thirsty mouth expresseth its extreme need of some kind showers from the heavens to refresh it.  And hast thou no sense of thy woeful condition?  Which is worse, thinkest thou—to have the earth iron or thy  heart stone? that the fruits and beasts of the field should perish for want of water, or thy soul for want of the Spirit?  O couldst thou but be brought to lament thy want, there were hope for hav­ing it supplied.  ‘For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground.  I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed,’ Isa. 44:3.

           (2.) When thou art inwardly scorched with the sense of thy spiritless graceless condition, go and ear­nestly beg this gift of God.  Now thou goest in a good time and mayest hope to speed.  Possibly thou hast heretofore prayed for the Spirit, but so slightily and indifferently that thou hast grieved his Spirit while thou hast been praying for him.  But now thou seest thy need of him, and thyself undone except thou may­est get him; and therefore, I hope, thou wilt not now shut the door upon thy own prayers by being a cold suitor; which if thou dost not, thou art sure to bring him away with thee.  Christ himself assures thee as much.  Take it from his own mouth, ‘If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?’ Luke 11:13.  A fa­ther may deny his wanton child bread to play with and throw under his feet, but not his starving child that cries for bread to preserve his life.  God can, and will, deny him that asks the Spirit to pride himself with his gifts, but not the hungry soul, that pinched with his want of grace, humbly yet vehemently cries, ‘Lord, give me thy Spirit, or else I starve, I die.’  Nay, let me tell thee, thy strong cries and earnest prayers for the Spirit would be a sweet evidence to thee that thou hast him already within thee.