Question. But the question will here be, What assistance doth the Spirit of God give a saint in prayer more than another person?
Answer. The assistance which the Spirit of God gives a saint in prayer above another lies deep; it is laid out upon the inward man, and inward part of the duty. So that a person may come to know whether himself prays in the Spirit, but he cannot judge so easily of another. Now this special assistance consists in these three particulars.
- The Spirit puts forth an act of exsuscitation upon the soul, to stir up his affections. Never was any formal prayer of the Holy Spirit’s making. When the Spirit comes, it is a time of life. The Christian’s affections spring in his bosom at his voice, as the babe in Elizabeth at the salutation of the Virgin Mary. Or, as the strings under the musician’s hand stir and speak harmoniously, so doth all the saint’s affections at the secret touch of the Spirit. He excite’s the saint’s fear, filling it with such a sense of God’s greatness, his own nothingness and baseness, as makes him with awful thoughts reverence the divine majesty he speaks unto, and deliver every petition with a holy trembling upon his spirit. Such a fear was upon Abraham’s spirit, when, in his prayer for Sodom, he expressed how great an adventure he made, being but ‘dust and ashes, to take upon him to speak unto the Lord.’ He excites the Christian’s mourning affections. By his divine breath he raiseth the clouds of the saint’s past sins, and when he hath overspread his soul in meditation with the sad remembrance of them, then in prayer he melts the cloud, and dissolves his heart into soft showers of evangelical mourning, that the Christian sighs and groans, weeps and mourns, like a child that is beaten, though he sees the rod laid out of his heavenly Father’s hand, and fears no wrath from him for them.
The apostle tells us the groans and sighs which the Spirit helps the saint to are such as ‘cannot be uttered,’ Rom. 8:26; no, not by the saint himself, who, being unable to translate the inward grief he conceives into words, is fain sometimes to send it with this inarticulate voice to heaven, yet it is a voice that is well understood there, and more musical in God’s ear than the most ravishing music can be to ours. In a word, he stirs up affections suitable to every part of prayer, enabling the gracious soul to confess sin with an aching heart, as if he felt so many swords raking in it; to supplicate mercy and grace, as with inward feeling of his wants, so with vehement desires to have them satisfied; and to praise God with a heart enlarged and carried on high upon the wings of love and joy. Parts may art it in the phrase and composure of the words—as a statuary may carve a goodly image, with all the outward lineaments and beautiful proportions in every part—but still it is but the counterfeit and image of a true prayer, for want of that aliquid intus—something within, which should give life and energy to it. This the Spirit of God alone can effect.
- As the Spirit of God doth excite the Christian’s affections in prayer, so he regulates and directs them. Who indeed but the Spirit of God can guide and rein these fiery steeds? He is said in this respect to ‘help our infirmities: for we know not what to pray for as we ought,’ Rom. 8:26. We, alas! are prone to over-bend the bow in some petitions, and want strength to bend it enough in some other. One while we overshoot the butt, praying absolutely for that which we should ask conditionally; another time we shoot beside the mark, either by praying for what God hath not promised, or too selfishly that which is promised. Now the Spirit helps the Christian’s infirmity in this respect, for he ‘maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God’ ver. 27, that is, he so holds the reins of their affections and directs them, that they keep their right way and due order, not flying out to unwarrantable heats and inordinate desires. He, by his secret whispers, instructs them when to let out their affections full speed, and when to take them up again. He teacheth them the law of prayer, that striving lawfully they may not lose the prize. Just as the Spirit was in the ‘living creatures’ to direct their motion, of whom it is said, ‘They went every one straight forward: whither the Spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went,’ Eze. 1:12: so the Spirit, acting his saints in prayer, keeps them that they lash out neither on this hand nor on that, but go straightforward, and draw their requests by his rule.
3. He fills the Christian with a holy confidence and humble boldness in prayer. Sin makes the face of God dreadful to the sinner. Guilty Adam shuns his presence, and tells the reason, ‘I heard thy voice and was afraid.’ If the patriarchs—being conscious how barbarously they had used their brother Joseph—were terrified at his presence, and so abashed that they could not answer him; how much more confounded must the sinner be to draw near to the great God, when he remembers the horrid sins he hath perpetrated against him? Now the Spirit easeth the Christian’s heart of this fear, assuring him that God’s heart meditates no revenge upon him, but freely forgives what wrong he hath done him; yea, which is more, that he takes him for his dear child; and, that the Christian may not stand in doubt thereof, he seals it with a kiss of love upon his heart, leaving there the impression of God’s fatherly love fairly stamped, whereby the Christian comes to have amiable thoughts of God, is able to call God Father, and expect the kind welcome of a child at his hands. This is the Spirit of adoption which the apostle speaks of, that chaseth away all servile fear and dread of God from the soul: ‘Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father,’ Rom. 8:15. And, ‘Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father,’ Gal. 4:6.
