To pray in the spirit, we must have sincerity

           Third.  We pray in the spirit when we pray in sincerity.  There may be much fervour where there is little or no sincerity.  And this is strange fire; the heat of a distemper, not the kindly natural heat of the new creature, which both comes from God and acts for God; whereas the other is from self, and ends in self. Indeed the fire which self kindles serves only to warm the man's own hands by it that makes it: ‘Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks,’ Isa. 50:11; the prophet represents them as sitting down about the fire they had made.  Self-acting and self‑aiming ever go together; therefore our Saviour with spirit requires truth.  He ‘seeketh such to worship him’ as will ‘worship him in spirit and in truth,’ John 4:23, 24.

           Question.  But wherein consists this sincere fervency?

           Answer. Zeal intends the affections, sincerity di­rects their end, and consists in their purity and incor­ruption.  The blood is oft hot when none of the pur­est, and affections strong when the heart insincere; therefore the apostle exhorts us that we ‘love one another out of a pure heart fervently,’ I Peter 1:22, and speaks in another place of ‘sorrowing after a godly sort,’ that is, sincerely.  Now the sincerity of the heart in prayer then appears when a person is real in his prayers, and that from pure principles to pure ends.

           First. When he is real in what he presents to God in prayer.  The index of his tongue without and the clockwork of his heart within go together; he doth not declaim against a sin with his lips which he fa­vours with his heart; he doth not make a loud cry for that grace which he would be sorry to have granted him.  This is the true badge of a hypocrite, who oft would be loath {that} God should take him at his word.  A dismal day it would be to such when God shall bring in their own conscience to witness against them that their hearts never signed and sealed the requests which they made.  There is a state-policy used sometimes by princes to send ambassadors, and set treaties on foot, when nothing less than peace is intended.  Such a deceit is to be found in the false heart of man, to blind and cover secret purposes of war and rebellion against God with fair overtures in prayer to him for peace.

           Second.  When the person is not only real in what he desires, but this from a pure principle to a pure end.  I doubt not but a hypocrite in confession may have a real trouble upon his spirit for his sins, and cordially, yea passionately, desire his pardoning mercy; but not from a pure principle—a hatred of sin —but an abhorrency of wrath he sees hastening to him for it; not for a pure end, that the glory of God’s mercy may be magnified in and by him, but that him­self may not be tormented by God’s just wrath.  He may desire the graces of his Spirit, but not out of any love to them, but only as an expedient, without which he knows to hell he must go; as a sick man in exqui­site torture—suppose of the stone or some other acute disease—calls for some potion he loathes, because he knows he cannot have ease except he drinks it.  Whereas the sincere soul desires grace, not only as physic, but food.  He craves it not only as necessary but as sweet to his palate.  The intrinsical bounty and excellency of holiness inflames him with such a love to it, that, as one taken with the beauty of a virgin, saith he will marry her though he hath noth­ing with her but the clothes to her back; so the sincere heart would have holiness though it brought no other advantages with it than what is found in its own lovely nature.  So much to show what sincerity in prayer is.

           Now he that would pray acceptably must pray thus in his spirit, that is, with the sincerity of his spirit.  ‘The prayer of the upright is his delight.’ Nadab and Abihu brought fire, and had fire, ‘a strange fire,’ to destroy them for the ‘strange fire’ they of­fered; and such is all fervency and zeal that is not taken from the altar of a sincere heart, Lev. 10:1.  ‘The fervent prayer’—B@8×ÆFPb,4—‘availeth much.’  It can do much, but it must be of a righteous man, and such the sincere man only is.  And no wonder that God stands so much upon sincerity in prayer, seeing the lip of truth is so prized even among men.  Nature hath taught men to commend their words to others by laying their hands on their breasts, as an assurance that what they say or promise is true and cordial; which the penitent publican it is like aimed at, he ‘smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner,’ Luke 18:13, thereby declaring whence his sor­rowful confession came.  That light which told the heathens that God must be worshipped, informed them also this worship must come from the inward recesses of the heart.  In sancto quid facit aurum —quin damnus id superis, &c.—what care the gods for gold! let us offer that which is more worth than all treasures, sanctos recessus animi—the heart and inward affections of it.  It is a strange custom Benzo, in his Historia Novi Orbis, relates of the natives there: Indi occidentales dum sacra faciunt, dimisso in guttur bacillo, vomitum cient, ut idolo ostendant nihil se in pectore mali occultum gerere—the West Indi­ans, when worshipping their gods, used, by putting a little stick down their throat, to provoke themselves to vomit, thereby showing their idol that they carried no secret evil within them.  I should not have named this barbarous custom but to show how deeply this notion is engraven in the natural conscience—that we must be sincere in the worship of God.

           Use. Let it put us upon the trial whether we thus pray in the spirit—whether you can find sincerity stamped on your fervency.  If the prayer be not fer­vent it cannot be sincere, but it may have a fervour without this.  This is a very fine sieve; approve thyself here, and thou mayest without presumption write thy­self a saint.  But how fervent soever thou art without sincerity, it matters not.  Nay, zeal without upright­ness is worse than key‑cold; none will go to hell with more shame than the false-hearted zealot, who mounts up towards heaven in the fiery chariot, a seeming zeal, but at last is found a devil in Samuel’s mantle, and so is thrown down like lightning from heaven, whither he would have been thought by his neighbours to be going.  Be not loath to be searched. Then there will then need no further search to prove thee unsound.  If God’s officer be denied entrance, all is not right within.  Now to help thee in the work, inquire—

To pray in the spirit, we must have fervency

 

           Second.  We pray in the spirit when we pray in fervency.  The soul keeps the body warm while it is in it.  So much as there is our soul and spirit in a duty, so much heat and fervency.  If the prayer be cold, we may certainly conclude the heart is idle, and bears no part in the duty.  Our spirit is an active creature: what it doth is with a force, whether bad or good.  Hence in Scripture, to set the heart and soul upon a thing, im­ports vehemency and fervour.  Thus the poor labour­ing man is said to ‘set his heart on his wages,’ Deut. 24:15.  The hopes of what he shall have at night makes him sweat at his work in the day.  Darius ‘set his heart on Daniel to deliver him;’ and it follows, ‘He laboured till the going down of the sun to deliver him,’ Dan. 6:14.  When the spirit of a man is set about a work, he will do it to purpose.  ‘If thou shalt seek the Lord with all thy heart and with all thy soul,’ Deut. 4:29, that is, fervently.  This consists not in a violent agitation of the bodily spirits.  A man may put his body into a sweat in duty, and the prayer be cold. That is the fervent prayer that flows from a warm heart and enkindled affections; like an exhalation which first is set on fire in the cloud, and then breaks forth into thunder.  ‘My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue, Lord, make me to know mine end,’ Ps. 39:3, 4.  Now as zeal is not one single affection, but the edge and vehemency of them all; so fervency in prayer is, when all the affections act strongly and suit­ably to the several parts of prayer.

           In confession, then have we fervency, when the soul melts into a holy shame and sorrow for the sins he spreads before the Lord, so that he feels a holy smart and pain within, and doth not act a tragical part with a comical heart.  For, as Chrysostom saith, ‘To paint tears is worse than to paint the face.’  Here is true fervency: ‘I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise,’ Ps. 55:2.  There may be fire in the pan, when none in the piece; a loud wind, but no rain with it. David made a noise with his voice, and mourned in his spirit.

           So, in petition we have fervency, when the heart is drawn out with vehement desires of the grace it prays for, not some lazy woundings or wishings, or weak velleities, but passionate breathings and break­ings of heart.  Sometimes it is set out by the violence of thirst, which is thought more tormenting than that of hunger.  As the hunted hart panteth after the cool waters, so did David’s soul after God, Ps. 42.  Some­times it is set out by the strainings of a wrestler—so Jacob is said to wrestle with the angel; and of those that run in a race, ‘instantly serving God day and night,’ Acts 26:7, ¦< ¦6J,<,\‘—they stretched out themselves.  ‘My soul breaketh for longing,’ Ps. 119:20, as one that with straining breaks a vein.

To pray in the spirit, we must have knowledge and understanding

           First.  To pray acceptably, or in the spirit, it is required that we pray with knowledge and under­standing.  A blind sacrifice was rejected in the law, Mal. 1:8; much more are blind devotions under the gospel.  As knowledge aggravates a sin, so ignorance takes from the excellency of an action that is good: ‘I bear them witness,’ saith Paul, ‘they have a zeal, but not according to knowledge.’  The want of an eye dis­figures the fairest face, the want of knowledge the devoutest prayer: ‘Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews,’ John 4:22, where we see what a fundamental defect the want of knowledge is in acts of worship, such as brings damnation with it.

           Question First.  But why is knowledge so requi­site to acceptable praying?

           Answer First.  Because without this it is not a ‘reasonable service;’ for we know not what we do. God calls for 8@(486¬< 8"JD,\"<—‘reasonable serv­ice,’ Rom. 12:1, which some oppose to the legal sacri­fices.  They offered up beasts to God; in the gospel we are to offer up ourselves.  Now the soul and spirit of a man is the man.  Why did not God lay a law on beasts to worship him, but because they have not a rational soul to understand and reflect upon their own actions? And will God accept that service and worship from man, wherein he doth not exercise that faculty that distinguisheth him from a beast?  ‘Show yourselves men,’ saith the prophet to those idolaters, Isa. 46:8.  And truly he that worships the true God ig­norantly is brutish in his knowledge as well as he that prays to a false god.

           Answer Second.  Because the understanding is JΠº(,µT<46Î<—the leading faculty of the soul, and so the key of the work.  The inward worship of the heart is the chief.  Now, the other powers of the soul are disabled if they want this their guide which holds the candle to them.  As for those violent passions of seeming zeal, sorrow, and joy, which sometimes ap­pear in ignorant worshippers and their blind devo­tions, they are spurious.  Christ’s sheep, like Jacob’s, conceive by the eye.

1. The saint’s eye is enlightened to see the maj­esty and glorious holiness of God, and then it reveres him, and mourns before him in the sense of his own vileness: ‘Now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes,’ Job 42:6.
2. Again, by an eye of faith he beholds the goodness and love of God to poor sinnersin Christ, and in particular to him, and this eye affects his heart to love and rely on him, which it is impossible the ignorant soul should do.

           Question First. But you will say, what is neces­sary for the praying soul to know?

           Answer First. There is required a knowledge that he to whom he directs his prayer is the true God.  Re­ligious worship is an incommunicable flower in the crown of the deity, and that both inward and outward. We are religiously to worship him only, who, by rea­son of his infinite perfections, deserves our supreme love, honour, and trust.  He must have the crown that owes the kingdom.  ‘The kingdom and power’ are God’s.  Therefore ‘the glory’ of religious worship be­longs to him alone, Matt. 6:13.  Angels are the highest order of creatures, but we are forbid to ‘worship any of the host of heaven,’ Deut. 17:3.  ‘Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee it doth appertain’—where fear is put for religious worship, as appears by the circumstance of the place.  The want of this knowledge filled the heathen world with idol­atry.  For, where they found any virtue or excellency in the creature, presently they adored and worshipped it, like some ignorant rustic, who coming to court, thinks every one he sees in brave clothes to be the king.

           Answer Second.  There is required a knowledge of this true God, what his nature is.  ‘He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him,’ Heb. 11:6.  It is confessed, a perfect knowledge of the divine per­fections is incomprehensible by a finite being.  He answered right who said—when asked quid est Deus? what is God?—si scirem essem ipse Deus—if I knew, I myself would be God.  None indeed knows God thus but God himself; yet a Scripture knowledge of him is necessary to the right performance of this duty. The want of understanding his omniscience and in­finite mercy, is the cause of vain babbling, and a con­ceit to prevail by long prayers, which our Sav­iour charges upon the heathen, and prevents in his disciples by acquainting them with these attributes, Matt. 6:7, 8.  They came rather narrare than rogare—to inform God than to beg.  The ignorance of his high and glorious majesty is the cause why so many are rude and slovenly in their gesture, so saucy and ir­reverently familiar with God in their expressions.  We are bid to ‘be sober, watching unto prayer.’  Truly there is an insobriety in our very language, when we do not clothe the desires of our hearts with such hum­ble expressions as may signify the awe and dread of his sacred majesty in our hearts.  In a word, the rea­son why men dare come reeking out of the adulterous embraces of their lusts, and stretch forth their un­washen hands to heaven in prayer—whence is it? —but because they know not God to be of such infinite purity as will have no fellowship with the workers of iniquity?  ‘Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself,’ Ps. 50:21.

           Answer Third. We must understand the matter of our prayers, what we beg, what we deprecate. With­out this we cannot in faith say amen to our own prayers, but may soon ask that which neither becomes us to desire, nor is honourable for God to give.  This Christ rebuked, when she in the gospel put up her ambitious request for her children to be set one at the right the other at the left hand of Christ in his kingdom.  God never gave us leave thus to indite our own prayers by the dictate of our private spirit, but hath bound us up to ask only what he hath promised to give.

           Answer Fourth. There is required a knowledge of the manner how we are to pray; as, in whose name, and what qualifications are required in the prayer and person praying.  We find Paul begging prayers, ‘that ye strive together with me in your prayers.’  In another place he tells us of a lawful striving, II Tim. 2:5.  There is a law of prayer which must be observed, or we come at our own adventure.  Even in false wor­ship they go by some rule in their addresses to their gods.  Therefore those smattering Samaritans, when a plague was on them, concluded the reason to be be­cause they ‘knew not the manner of the god of the land,’ II Kings 17:26.  The true God will be served in due order, or else expect a breach.  A word or two for application of this branch.