The duty of watching unto prayer - And watching thereunto

           These words present us with the fourth branch in the apostle’s directory for prayer, which I called prayer’s guard.  Prayer to the saints is as the great artillery to an army—of great use to defend them, and of as great force to do execution upon their enemies; it therefore needs the stronger guard to be set about it, lest it be taken from them, or turned against them by the enemy.  Now the guard which the Spirit of God here appoints this great ordinance of prayer, is watching—‘watching thereunto.’  Watching is either or improper, literal or metaphorical.  First. Watching, literally taken, is an affection of the body.  But, Second. Watching is taken metaphorically for the vigilancy or watchfulness of the soul.

           First. Watching, literally taken, is an affection of the body.  That only can properly be said to watch which is subject to sleep; and so the body is, but not the soul.  Thus, to watch in a religious sense is a vol­untary denying of our bodies sleep, that we may spend either the whole or part of the night in pious exercises.  Thus the Jews kept the night of the pass­over holy, Ex. 12:42.  Our Saviour oft spent the night in prayer, Matt. 14:23; 26:38.  We find Paul treading in his Lord and Master’s steps, ‘In watchings, in fast­ings,’ II Cor. 6:5.  Many a sweet spiritual junket holy David’s devout soul got in the night, when others lay in their bed: ‘My soul shall be satisfied as with mar­row and fatness,...when I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches,’ Ps. 63:5, 6. No doubt, for a devout soul, upon some extra­ordinary occasions—so superstition be avoided and health regarded—thus to watch unto prayer is not only laudable but delectable.  Vig­iliæ in quantum val­etudinem non perturbant, si orando, psal­lendo, le­gendo sumantur, in delicias spirituales convertuntur —happy soul, that can thus steal in the dark into the arms of his beloved, and watch for devotion while others watch to do mischief or fill themselves with impure delights (Augustinus).  This is the Christian, whose soul, like Gideon’s fleece, shall be filled with the dews and influences of heaven above others.  But, The duty of watching unto prayer

           Second. Watching is taken metaphorically for the vigilancy or watchfulness of the soul.  This is principally meant here, and in other scriptures, where we are commanded to watch, Mark 13:35; Rev. 16:15; I Thes. 5:6; I Peter 5:8; cum multis aliis—with many others.  Now we shall the better understand what duty is imposed upon the Christian under this word [watching], if we consider what bodily watching is. Two things it imports—waking and working.  When a man wakes in the night to attend some business then to be done, such a one only truly watcheth; a man that sleeps not in the night, but to no purpose, for no business he hath to despatch, he may be said to wake but not to watch, for this relates to some em­ployment he hath in charge to look to.  Thus the shepherds are said to ‘keep watch over their flock by night,’ Luke 2:8, and the disciples ‘watched’ with Christ while they sat up to wait on him the night before his passion, Matt. 26:40.  So that, for a Christian to watch in a spiritual sense is to preserve his soul awake form sin in the height of this world, that he may keep the Lord’s charge and do the duty imposed upon him as a Christian.  Now prayer being one principal duty he is to attend and intend with all his might, therefore watching is very often joined with it, Matt. 26:41; Mark 13:33; Luke 21:36; Col. 4:2; I Peter 4:7.  In handling this duty of watching unto prayer, I shall show, First. Why the Christian is to watch unto prayer.  Second.  Wherein the duty of watchfulness, in reference to prayer, consists.  Third. I shall set the Christian’s watch for him, by giving some little counsel and help towards his performing this duty of watchfulness; for it is not a temporary duty, but for his whole lifetime.

Exhortation to those who by the rules of trial find the Spirit of God is in them 2/2

(3.) By priding ourselves in and with the assis­tances he gives.  Pride is a sin that God resists wher­ever he meets with it; for indeed it is a sin that justles with God himself for the wall.  It is time for the Spirit to be gone when his house is left over his head.  He takes it as a giving him warning to be gone, when the soul lifts up itself into his seat; if he may not have the honour of the work he will have no hand in it.  Now the proud man makes the Spirit an underling to him­self, he useth his gifts to set up himself with them. Three ways pride discovers itself in prayer, and all to be resisted if we mean to have the Spirit’s company.

           (a) When the creature ascribes the Spirit’s work to himself, and sets his own name upon the duty, where he should write the Spirit’s; like Caligula, who set the figure of his own head on the statue of Jupiter. Instead of blessing God for assisting, he applauds himself, and hath a high opinion of his own abilities, pleasing himself with what expressions and enlarge­ments of affection he had in the duty.  This is plain felony, a sin which every gracious soul must needs tremble at.  Church robbery is a great wickedness: O what then is spirit robbery!  ‘I live,’ saith Paul, ‘yet not I,’ Gal. 2:20.  ‘I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me,’ I Cor. 15:10.  Thus shouldst thou, Christian, say, ‘I prayed, yet not I; I laboured and wrestled, yet not I, but the Spirit of God that was with me.’  Ap­plaud not thyself, but humbly admire the grace and dignation of God, to help such a poor creature as thou art.  Thus David did: ‘Who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee,’ I Chr. 29:14.  That steward deserves to be put out of his office, that brags of his master’s money as his own.

           (b) When we go to duty in confidence of the gifts and grace we have already received, and do not ac­knowledge our dependence on the Spirit, by casting ourselves after all our preparations upon him for present assistance.  As we must pray by the Spirit, so we must ask for him that we may pray by him: ‘How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him,’ Luke 11:13.  And it is not once asking for all will serve the turn.  Thou mayest have his help in the morning and want it at night, if thou dost not humbly ask again for his aid.  You know how Samson was served when he thought to go out as he used to do.  Alas! poor man, the case was altered, he was weak as water; the Spirit was gone and he had carried away his strength with him.  God will have thee, O Christian, know the key to thy heart hangs at his girdle, and not thy own, that thou shouldst be able to open and enlarge it at thy pleasure.  Acknowledge God, and his Spirit shall help thee; but ‘lean to thy own understanding,’ and thou art sure to catch a fall. When pride is in the saddle, shame is in the crupper; if pride be at the beginning of a duty, shame will be at the end of it.

           (c) When we rely on our prayers, and not en­tirely on Christ’s mediation, for acceptance and audi­ence; this is pride with a witness, and highly deroga­tory to the honour of Christ.  God indeed accepts the saints in prayer, but not for their prayer, but for Christ’s sake.  Now the Spirit, who is Christ’s messen­ger, will not, you may be sure, give his assistance to rob Christ of his glory.  When he helps thee to pray, if thou wouldst harken to his voice, thou mayest hear him calling thee out of thyself, and confidence of thy prayers, to rely wholly on the mediation of Christ.  Wrong Christ, and you are sure to grieve his Spirit.

Exhortation to those who by the rules of trial find the Spirit of God is in them 1/2

2. To the saints; the word I have for you is to be­seech you not to grieve or quench the Holy Spirit in your bosoms. Thou canst not fadge to live long with­out prayer if a saint, nor art thou able to pray to pur­pose without him.  When he withdraws, thy hand presently will forget its cunning.  Such a chillness will invade thy soul, that thou wilt have little list to pray, for it is he that stirs thee up to the duty; and if thou creepest to it, thou wilt not be warm in the work, for it is his divine breath that must make thy green-wood burn, thy affections enkindle.  Clothes do not warm the body, till the body warm them; and the body cannot warm them, except the soul, which is the prin­ciple of life, warm it.  If there be no warmth in the heart, there can be no fervency in the prayer; and without the Spirit of God—who is the Christian’s soul and what his soul is to his body—no kindly heat can be in the soul.  O take heed therefore thou dost not grieve him, lest being distasted he refuse to assist thee.  Now three ways the Spirit of God may be dis­tasted by a saint, so as to cause him to deny his wonted assistance in prayer.

           (1.) By some sin secretly harboured in the heart. ‘If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me,’ Ps. 66:18.  Now when God refuseth to hear, we may be sure the Spirit refuseth to assist, for God never rejects a prayer that his Spirit indites and his Son presents. Sin is so offensive to the Holy Spirit, that wherever it is bid welcome he will show his dis­taste.  If you would have this pure dove stay with you, be sure you keep his lodging clean.  Hast thou defiled thyself with any known sin? think not to have him help thee in prayer till he hath helped thee to repent of it.  He will carry thee to the laver before he go with thee to the altar.  The musician wipes his instrument that hath fallen into the dirt before he will set it to his mouth.  If thou wouldst have the Spirit of God breathe in thy soul at prayer, present it not to him be­smeared with any sin unrepented of.

           (2.) By frequent resisting or putting off his motions.  As the Spirit helps in prayer, so he stirs up to prayer; he is the saint's remembrancer and moni­tor: ‘He shall bring all things,’ saith Christ of the Spirit, ‘to your remembrance,’ John 14:26.  God called Jacob up to Bethel, so the Spirit prompts the saint to duty.  Such a mercy thou hast received—up, Chris­tian, praise thy God for it while it is fresh in thy mem­ory and warm in thy heart.  Such a temptation lies before thee—go pray thou mayest not be led into it. Thy God waits for thy company, and expects thy attendance; now is a fit time for thy withdrawing thyself to hold communion with him, and pay thy homage to him.  Now, when the Christian shall shift off these motions and not take the hint he gives, but from time to time neglect his counsel, and discon­tinue his acquaintance with God, notwithstanding these his mementos, he is exceedingly distasted, and, taking himself to be slighted, he gives over calling upon him, and leaves the soul for a time, till his ab­sence, and the sad consequences of it, bring him to see his folly, and prepare him to entertain his mo­tions more kindly for the future.  Thus Christ leaves the spouse in her bed, when she would not rise at his knock, and makes her trot after him with many a weary step before he will be seen of her.  It is just that God should raise the price of his mercy, when we may have it at an easy rate and will not.  Christ thrice calls up his drowsy disciples to ‘watch and pray,’ that they might not ‘enter into temptation,’ but finds them still asleep when he comes; what saith he then?  Truly he bids them ‘sleep on,’ as if he had said, ‘Take your course and see what will become of it.’  Indeed they soon saw it to their sorrow, for they all presently fell into that very temptation which their master had so seasonably alarmed them by prayer to prevent, and this waked them to purpose.

           

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

   (3.) Plant thyself under the word preached.  This is vehiculum Spiritus—the Spirit’s chariot in which he rides, called therefore ‘the ministration of the Spirit.’  The serpent, that evil spirit, wriggled into Eve's heart by her ear; and the Holy Spirit ordinarily enters in at the same door, for he is received ‘by the hearing of faith,’ Gal. 3:2.  They that cast off hear­ing the word to meet with the Spirit do as if a man should turn his back off the sun that it may shine on his face. The poor do not stay at home for the rich to bring their alms to their house, but go to their door and there wait for relief.  It becomes thee, poor creature, to wait at the posts of wisdom, and not expect the Spirit should lacquey after thee.  If the master come to the truant scholar’s house it is to whip him to school.

           (4.) Take heed of resisting the Spirit when he makes his approaches to thee in the word.   Some­times he knocks, and, meeting a repulse, goes from the sinner’s door.  This is dangerous.  He that hath promised to come in if we open, hath not promised to come again though we unkindly send him away. He doth indeed oft return after repulses; but sometimes, to show his liberty, he doth not, nay, leaves a padlock, as I may so say, on the door, a judiciary hardness and unbelief, which no minister’s key can open.  Thus Christ dealt with them that so mannerly excused themselves to his messengers that invited them. ‘None of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper,’ Luke 14:24.  Doth the Spirit move on thy heart in an ordinance?  Haply it is by some secret re­bukes directing the minister’s finger unawares to touch thy sore plat.  O beware how thou now behavest thyself towards the Spirit.  Quarrel not with the preacher, as if he had a spite against thee and came for a spy to find out the nakedness of thy soul.  Strug­gle not with thy convictions, smother not the motions of the Holy Spirit in thy next pillow at night, but rather cherish and improve them.  It is no little mercy that, as the Spirit went by in his chariot, he would call at thy door and give thee so merciful a warning, which, if kindly received, may bring on a treaty of peace betwixt God and thee that may end in thy con­version here and salvation hereafter.  It heightened the favour which God bestowed on the widow of Sar­epta that there were many other widows in Israel at the same time, but the prophet was sent to her and not to them.  So it enhanceth this mercy vouchsafed to thee, that there should be many other sinners in the congregation, and yet the Spirit not sent to them, but to thee; that his arrows should fly over their heads, and be shot at thy window with a secret mes­sage from heaven, to rouse thy sleepy conscience and woo thy affections from sin to Christ.  Verily the king­dom of heaven is come nigh unto thee.  Be but friendly to these his motions and thou shalt have more of his company.

           (5.) Converse with the saints that have the Spirit of God in them.  They that would learn a foreign lan­guage associate with men of that country whose na­tural tongue it is.  Wouldst thou have the Spirit, and so learn to speak to God in heaven’s language?  Con­sort with those who by reason of their heavenly nature will be speaking of God and the things of God unto thee.  It is true, they cannot derive and propagate this their spiritual nature; but it is as true, that the Spirit of God may make the gracious discourses which they breathe forth vital and quickening to thee.  While thou art with such, thou walkest in the Spirit’s com­pany.  Joseph and Mary sought Christ among his kin­dred, supposing it most likely to find him among them.  And it is more probable to find the Spirit of Christ among the saints, his spiritual kindred, than among strangers.  The Spirit of God came upon Saul when among the prophets; at the hearing of them prophesy and praise God, his spirit was moved also to do the same.  Who knows but thy heart may be warmed at their fire, and from the savour of their graces be drawn thyself to the love of holiness?  But, above all, take heed of profane company; this is a great quencher to the Spirit’s work.  When David re­solves for God and a holy life, he packs the wicked from him: ‘Depart from me, ye evildoers: for I will keep the commandments of my God,’ Ps. 119:115.  The husbandman busheth his young plants about to keep the cattle off.  If there be any buddings and puttings forth of the Spirit of grace in thee, as thou wouldst not have all cropped and bit off, choose not men of a profane spirit for thy associates.  They are like the north wind that blows away the rain.  When the Spirit of God hath been moving on a soul, the clouds begin to gather in his bosom, and some hopes of a shower of repentance to follow; then comes wicked company and drives all these clouds away, till there be no show left upon his heart of what before there was great hopes.

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.

        

Reproof of those that mock at the need of the Spirit in prayer, with a trial whether we have him or no 2/2

Answer 2. Affirmatively; by what thou mayest conclude that thou hast the Spirit of God; and that in two particulars; though here I might multiply.

           (1.) If thou beest regenerated by the Spirit.  The Spirit of God dwells only in a new creature.  So long as a man continues in his carnal natural state he is destitute of the Spirit.  ‘Sensual, having not the Spirit,’ Jude 19.  The word is RLP4­6@Â, such as have no more but a reasonable soul, without a higher principle of life than nature gives to all men.  St. Paul useth the word to set out a man in his mere naturals, as op­posed to another that hath a principle of supernatural life from the Spirit of God; RLP46ÎH •<¬D, ‘the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit,’ I Cor. 2:14.  But here the question will be, How shall I know I am regenerate?  To this I answer, Every re­generate soul hath divinam indolem—a di­vine nature and disposition like unto the Spirit of God that re­generates him.  ‘That which is born of the Spirit is spirit,’ John 3:6, viz. is spiritual, the abstract being put for the concrete, to increase the force of the words. He hath a soul raised as far above natural men as they are above the nature of beasts.  When Nebuchadnez­zar had the understanding of a man given him he grazed no longer among the beasts of the field, but returned to his princely throne and life.  Thus the re­generate soul returns to that high and heavenly disposition which man in his primitive holy state once had.  Now God and the things of God take up his thoughts; he hath a new eye to see vanity where before he placed felicity; a new gust and taste, which makes him spit out those sinful pleasures as poison that once were pleasant morsels, and count all earthly enjoyments, that before were his only feast, but dung and dross in comparison of Christ and his grace.  He can no more make a meal on them than a man can with dogs' meat.  ‘They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit,’ Rom. 8:5, ND@<@ØF4<, they do sapere, savour the things of the Spirit.  Find therefore what thy gust is, and thou say­est know what thy life is, whether spiritual, or natural.

           (2.) If thou beest led by the Spirit.  The Spirit is the saints’ guide, ‘As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God,’ Rom. 8:14.  As the soul is in the body, to direct and move it, so is the Spirit in their soul: ‘Thou hast holden me by my right hand, thou shalt guide me with thy counsel,’ Ps. 73:23, 24.  Even as the child is led by his father’s hand, so the saint by the manuduction of the Spirit.  Now, to be led by the Spirit of God imports these three things:

• A sense of our own weakness and ignorance. He that thinks he knows his way, or that he is able to direct his own steps, will not accept of a guide.  It is the weak child or the blind man that calls to be led. First Saul was struck blind, and then he gives his hand to be led to Damascus, Acts 9.  Inquire therefore whether God hath made thee sensible of thy own ig­norance and impotency.  Man by nature is proud and self-conceited; he leans much to his own under­standing, and stands upon his own strength, very loath to be thought out of the way or unable to go of himself in it.  ‘A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident,’  14:16.  Tell a soul spiritually wise he is out of his way, he fears himself, hearkens to the counsel, and turns back; but a fool—and such is every carnal man—he falls out with him that counsels or reproves him, and is confident he is right, as if he knew the way to heaven as well as he doth the way from his house to the market.  The first thing that the Spirit doth is to dismount the soul from his high opinion he hath of himself, thereby to make him teachable and tractable.  ‘Men and brethren,’ say those converts, after God with one prick in their hearts had let out this wind of pride, ‘what shall we do?’ Acts 2:37.  Their spirit now comes down, willing they are to be directed, so meek and humble that a child may lead them.

           (b) He that is led by another is ruled and deter­mined by him that is his guide which way he should go.  Inquire, there­fore, whether the Spirit of God doth thus determine thy soul in its actings and mo­tions.  If thou beest led by the Spirit, thou walkest after the Spirit, and goest the way he goes.  Now you know which is the Spirit’s walk.  He is a Spirit of truth and leads into truth.  The word of God is the road he keeps; if thou walkest not by this rule he is not thy guide.  Speak therefore, what authority and sway bears the word with thee?  Dost thou consult with it and hearken to it? or is it to thee as Micaiah was to Ahab, art thou afraid to advise with it?  Or, when thou dost, canst thou cast its counsel at thy heels, and venture to break its hedge, to pursue thy ambitious or covetous projects?  If a word lying in thy way will not stop thee, thou art not led by the Spirit of God thou mayest be sure.

           (c) To be led imports spontaneity and willing­ness.  This is the difference betwixt leading and driv­ing.  The carnal heart may be driven by the rebukes and convictions of the Spirit, as a beast by switch and spur; but the gracious soul follows the Spirit as a child his father that holds him by the hand, yea, that cries after his father to take him along with him.  ‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.’  The Spirit indeed ‘draws,’ but then the soul ‘runs after him.’ Mary chose the ‘better part;’ it was not imposed on her against her liking. The obedience of the saints is compared to a sacrifice, ‘Present your bodies a living sacrifice,’ &c., Rom. 12:1; and it is no acceptable sacrifice that is not offered willingly.  The Spirit of God makes the soul ‘willing in the day of his power.’ ‘I will go with this man,’ said Rebekah; she was as willing to have Isaac as he to have her.  The gracious soul answers the Spirit's call as the echo the voice: ‘Seek ye my face.  Thy face, Lord, will I seek.’  Now, this use of trial calls for a double word of exhortation.

Reproof of those that mock at the need of the Spirit in prayer, with a trial whether we have him or no 1/2

           Third. I shall make some application of the point that it is necessary that we pray in or by the ‘Spirit of God.’
           Use First. Take heed of blaspheming the Holy Spirit as to this work of his in his saints.  Some are so desperately profane, that they dare flout and jeer at those who show any strictness in their lives, or zeal in the worship of God, especially in this duty of prayer, with this—‘These are they that have the Spirit, that pray, forsooth, by the Spirit.’  Nay more—I tremble to speak it—some have called their praying by the Spirit praying by the devil.  That every gracious soul hath the Spirit of God dwelling in him the Scripture tells us, ‘If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his,’ Rom. 8:9.  That God hath promised his Spirit to help his saints in prayer is undeniable, and that he accepts no prayer but what is put up by his Spirit is as sure.  Now mayest thou not know, bold wretch, what spirit thou art acted by, who makest a mock of having the Spirit and praying by the Spirit?  Who but the devil would set thee on work to blas­pheme the Spirit of God?  But why should we wonder that the actings of the Holy Spirit in the saints should be thus scorned and blasphemed, seeing we find that the Spirit of God, working so mightily in Christ him­self, was maliciously interpreted by the wicked Phari­sees to be from the devil? Matt. 12:24.  But let such know to their terror, that to make a jeer of the Spirit, or to attribute his works to the devil, if it be mali­ciously done, will be found to come near to the blas­phemy of the Spirit which is unpardonable, see ver. 32, ‘Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.’ And this our Saviour spake upon their attributing what he did by the Spirit of God to the spirit of the devil.
           Use Second. Try whether you have the Spirit of God or no.  A prayerless state is a sad state to live in. Now thou canst not pray acceptably except thou prayest in the Spirit, and thou canst not pray in the Spirit except thou hast the Spirit in thee.
           Question. But how may I know whether I have the Spirit of God or no?
           I shall answer.  1. Negatively, by what thou must not conclude that thou hast the Spirit.  2. Affirma­tively, by what thou mayest.
           Answer 1. Negatively; thou canst not know, be­cause thou hast now and then some good motions from the Holy Spirit stirred in thee.  The evil spirit is found oft stirring evil motions in souls where he doth not dwell.  A foul stir he makes oft in the bosom of a saint; yet dwells not there, because he is not there per modum quietis—he finds no rest in these dry places. Therefore he is brought in saying, ‘I will return to my house,’ viz. to those that are yet in a carnal state, where he can rule the roost, and command as a mas­ter doth all in his house.  Truly thus the Holy Spirit is often moving in the consciences and affections of carnal creatures, counselling, rebuking, and exciting them; so that, upon his suggestions, some flashy short pangs of affections are raised in them to that which is good, but presently all is quashed and comes to noth­ing, and the Spirit driven away by the churlish enter­tainment he finds.
           Again, thou canst not know by the common gifts of the Spirit, illumination, conviction, restraining grace, and assistance to perform the external part of religious duties, even to the admiration sometimes of others that hear them.  These are gifts of the Spirit, but such as do not prove he hath the Spirit that hath them.  They are like the brightness or radiancy which we see the clouds gilt with in the morning before the body of the sun is above the horizon—they show the sun is near, but it is not yet risen for all this radiancy that is seen; so these gifts are beamed from the Spirit of God, and show the kingdom of God is come nigh such a one; but they do not demonstrate that the Spirit of God is come into that soul and taken posses­sion of it for his house and temple.  Or they are like the tokens which a suitor sends to a person whom he is wooing to be his wife—the more to insinuate upon her; but the match breaking off, all are required again. Many have these gifts sent them by the Spirit of God, with whom the match betwixt Christ and them was never made up; and if they be not called for back in this life, they shall however be accountable for them at the great day.
           

What assistance the Holy Ghost gives to a saint more than to any other in prayer

           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.

1. 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.

2. 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.

He that would pray in his own spirit, must pray in the Spirit of God 2/2

           Second.  I proceed to explicate what it is to pray by the Spirit of God.  To the better opening of this, we must know that there are two ways that the Spirit of God helps persons in prayer; one way is by his gifts, the other by his grace.

           First.  The Spirit of God helps in prayer by his gifts.  Now those gifts which he furnisheth a person with for prayer are either extraordinary or ordinary. The extraordinary gifts of the Spirit in prayer were, in the primitive times, shed forth, whereby the apostles and others were able in a miraculous manner to pray as well as preach on a sudden in a language that they never had learned.  Of this gift interpreters under­stand that passage of Paul, ‘I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also,’ I Cor. 14:15.  That is, he would make use of this extraor­dinary gift Christ had furnished him with, but so as he might edify the church by it, and no otherwise.  This extraordinary gift was fitted for the infancy of the gospel church, and ceased—as others of the like nature did—with it.  The ordinary gift of the Spirit in prayer is that special faculty whereby persons are en­abled on a sudden to form the conceptions of their minds and desires of their hearts into apt words be­fore the Lord in prayer.  This is a common gift, and is bestowed on those that are none of the best men. The hypocrite may have more of this gift than some sincere Christian.  It is a gift that commonly bears proportion to natural endowments, a ready apprehen­sion, fruitful fancy, voluble tongue, and audacity of spirit, which are all gifts of the Spirit, and do dispose a person for this.  Now we see that the head may be ripe and the heart rotten; and, on the contrary, the heart sound and sincere where the head is low‑parted.

           Second. The Spirit helps in prayer by his grace. His gifts help to the outward expression, but his grace to the inward affection.  By the gifts of the Spirit a person is enabled to take the ear and affect the heart of men that hear him; but by the grace of the Spirit acting a soul in prayer, he is enabled to move his own heart and the heart of God also; and this is the man that indeed prays ‘in the Spirit.’  The other hath the gift, but this hath the spirit, of prayer.  Now, there is a twofold grace necessary to pray thus in the Spirit.  1. Grace from the Spirit to sanctify the person that prays.  2. Grace to act and assist this person sanctified in prayer.  By the first, the Spirit dwells in the soul; by the second, he acts the soul.

1. There is necessary to this praying in the Spirit, grace to sanctify the person that prays.  Before the creature is renewed and sanctified by the Holy Ghost, it can neither apprehend nor desire things aright.  ‘The carnal mind receiveth not the things of God,’ nay, ‘it is enmity to God.’  And is how such a one fit to pray in an acceptable manner?  First, then, the Spirit renews the creature by infusing those super­natural qualities, or habits of saving sanctifying graces, which makes him a new creature; by these he comes to dwell and live in him, and then he acts his own graces thus infused.  The soul is in the body before it acts and moves it.  We read of living in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit, Gal. 5:25: ‘If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.’  Walking supposeth life.  To pray, hear, or perform any other holy action in a holy manner, is to walk in the Spirit; but we must live in the Spirit, or the Spirit live in us —which is all one—before we can thus walk in the Spirit.  There are some acts indeed the Spirit of God puts forth upon souls that are not thus sanctified —acts of common illumination, restraining grace, and assisting also.  Thus many hypocrites are enabled to pray in excellent expressions.  But he never did assist hypocrite, or any unsanctified person, to perform the inward part of prayer, to mourn sincerely for sin, to pant after Christ and his grace, or to cry, ‘Abba Father,’ believingly; these are the vital acts of the new creature, and flow from a Spirit of grace infused into the soul, which follows this ‘spirit of supplication,’ Zech. 12:10.

           2. As habitual grace is required to sanctify the person, so actual grace to assist him as oft as he prays. The Spirit of God may dwell in a soul by his habitual grace, yet deny actual assistance to this or that parti­cular duty, and then the poor Christian is becalmed, as a ship at sea when no wind is stirring.  For as grace cannot evidence itself, so neither can it act itself. Hence it is that sometimes the saint’s prayers speed no better, because he is not acted by the Spirit in it.  Samson, when his lock was cut, was ‘weak like anoth­er man.’  A saint, when the Spirit of God denies his help, prays no better than a carnal man.  The Spirit of God is a free agent: ‘Uphold me,’ saith David, ‘with thy free spirit,’ Ps. 51:12.  He is not as a prisoner tied to the oar, that must needs work when we will have him; but, as a prince, when he pleaseth he comes forth and shows himself to the soul, and when he pleaseth he retires and will not be seen.  What freer than the wind? not the greatest king on earth can command it to rise for his pleasure; to this the Spirit of God is compared, John 3:8.  He is not only free to breathe where he lists, in this soul and not that, but when he pleaseth also.

He that would pray in his own spirit, must pray in the Spirit of God 1/2

           Having despatched the first importance of this phrase, ‘praying in the spirit,’ viz. the spirit of the person that prayeth, and shown that then a person prays in the spirit when his own soul and spirit acts in the duty—when he prays with understanding, fer­vency, and sincerity; now we proceed to the second importance of the phrase.  To pray ‘in the Spirit’ is to pray in, or with, the Spirit of God; ‘praying in the Holy Ghost,’ Jude 20.  So that the note or doctrine to be insisted on will be this,

           Doctrine.  That to right praying, it is necessary that we pray in, or by, the Spirit of God.  Prayer is the creature’s act, but the Spirit’s gift.  There is a concurrence both of the Spirit of God and the soul or spirit of the Christian to the performance of it.  Hence we find both the Holy Spirit is said to pray in us, Rom. 8:26, and we said to pray in him, Jude 20.  By the first is meant is his inspiration, whereby he excites and assists the creature to and in the work; by the latter the concurrence of the saint’s faculties.  The Spirit doth not so pray in him as that the Christian doth not exercise his own faculties in the duty, as the Familists Niclaes gained many followers, among them the great publisher Christophe Plantin, who surreptitiously printed a number of Niclaes’ works.  Niclaes apparently made two visits to England, where his sect had the largest following.  Elizabeth I issued a proclamation against the Family of Love in 1580, and James I believed it to have been the source of Puritanism.  The sect did not survive after the Restoration of the English monarchy in 1660, but according to George Fox, a British preacher and the founder of the Society of Friends (or Quakers), some remaining Familists later became associated with the Quakers.  —From Encyclopædia Britannica. fondly conceive.  In handling this point I shall endeavour to do these three things: First. I shall assert the point, and prove the truth of it. Second. Explicate what it is to pray by the Spirit of God.  Third. Make some application of the point.

           First. I shall assert the truth of the point, that to right praying it is necessary we pray by the Spirit of God.  This is clear from Eph. 2:18, ‘Through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.’  Mark those words, ‘by one Spirit.’  As there is but one Mediator to appear and pray for us in heaven, so but one Spirit that can pray in us, and we by it, on earth. We may as well venture to come to the Father through another Mediator than his Son, as pray by another Spirit than by the Holy Ghost.  Therefore our Saviour, when he would show his dislike of the disciples rash motion, he doth it by telling them, ‘Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of,’ Luke 9:55. As if he had said, It behoves you to be well ac­quainted with the spirit that acts you in prayer; if your prayers be not breathed in and out by my Holy Spirit, they are abominable to me and my Father also.  The name of Christ is not more necessary that the Spirit of Christ is in prayer.  Christ’s name fits only the Spirit's mouth; it is too great a word for any to speak as he ought, that hath not the Spirit to help him. ‘No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost,’ I Cor. 12:3.  One may say the words without any special work of the Spirit in him, and so may a parrot; but, to say Christ is Lord believingly, with thoughts and affections comporting with the greatness and sweetness thereof, requires the Spirit of God to be in his heart and tongue.  Now it is not the bare naming of Christ in prayer, and saying, ‘For the Lord’s sake,’ that procure’s our welcome with God; but saying it in faith, and none an do this without the Spirit.  Christ is the door that opens into God’s presence, and lets the soul into his very bosom; faith is the key that unlocks the door; but the Spirit is he that both makes this key, and helps the Christian to turn it in prayer, so as to get any access to God.  You know in the law it was a sin, not only to offer ‘strange incense,’ but also to bring ‘strange fire,’ Lev. 10:1.  By the incense, which was a composition of sweet spices appointed by God to be burned as a sweet perfume in his nostrils, was signified the merit and satisfaction of Christ, who being bruised by his Father’s wrath, did offer up himself a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.  By the fire that was put to the in­cense—which also was appointed to be taken from the altar, and not any common hearth—was signified the Spirit of God, by which we are to offer up all our prayers and praises, even as Christ offered himself up by the eternal Spirit.  To plead Christ’s merits in prayer and not by the Spirit, is to bring right incense but strange fire, and so our prayers are but smoke, of­fensive to his pure eyes, not incense, a sweet savour to his nostrils.