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.

Rules for trying the sincerity of our hearts in prayer

           Rule 1.  What is thy care in performing this duty of prayer in secret?  If thy heart be sincere, it will delight in privacy.  A false heart calls others to see his zeal for God.  May be he is forward to put himself upon duty where he hath spectators to applaud him, and can be very hot and earnest at the work; but wither he is wholly a stranger to secret prayer, or else he is cold in the performance; he finds himself be­calmed now he wants the breath of others to fill his sails.  The plummets are off which quickened his mo­tion, and he moves heavily to what he did before company.  Whereas a sincere Christian never finds more freedom of spirit, and liquefactions of soul, than in his solitary addresses to God.  Joseph, when he would give full vent to his passion, sought some secret place where to weep, and therefore retired himself into his chamber, Gen. 43:30.  So the sincere Christian goes to his closet, and there easeth his heart into the bosom of God, and lets his passions of sor­row for sin, and love to Christ, burst forth and have their full scope, which in public prayer he restrains —as to the outward expression of them—out of a holy modesty, and fear of being observed by others, which he hunts not for. Now speak, Christian, what is thy temper?  Can thy closet witness for thee in this particular?  It is the trick of a hypocrite to strain him­self to the utmost in duty when he hath spectators, and to draw loose in his gears when alone; like some that carry their best meat to market, and save the worst for their own food at home; and others that draw their best wine to their customers, but drink the dead and flat themselves at their own private table.

           Rule 2. Observe thyself in thy more public ad­dresses to the throne of grace: and that in two par­ticulars.  (1.) When thou prayest before others.  (2.) When thou joinest with others that pray.

           (1.) When thou prayest before others, observe on what thou bestowest thy chief care and zeal, whether in the externals or internals of prayer—that which is exposed to the eye and ear of men, or that which should be prepared for the eye and ear of God; the devout posture of thy body, or the inward devo­tion of thy soul; the pomp of thy words, or the power of thy faith; the agitation of thy bodily spirits in the vehemency of thy voice, or the fervency of thy spirit in heart‑breaking affections.  These inward workings of the soul in prayer are the very soul of prayer; and all the care about the other without this, is like the trimming bestowed upon a dead body—that will not make the carcass sweet, nor these thy prayer to God’s nostrils.  It is the faith, love, brokenness of heart for sin, and the inward affections exerted in prayer, that, like Elijah in his fiery chariot, mount up to God in the heavens, while the other, with the prophet’s mantle, fall to the ground.  The sincere soul dares not be rude in his outward posture.  He is careful of his very words and phrase, that they may be grave and pertinent.  Neither would he pray them asleep that joins with him, by a cold, dreaming, and lazy manner of delivering of it; but still, it is the inward disposition of his heart he principally looks to, knowing well, that by the other he is but cook to others, and may fast himself if his own heart be idle in the duty; and there­fore he doth not count he prays well—though to the affecting of their hearts—except he finds his own affections drawn out in the duty.  Whereas the hypo­crite, if he may but come off the duty with the ap­plause of others in the external performance, is very well pleased, though he be conscious of the deadness and naughtiness of his own heart therein.

           (2.) When thou joinest with others that pray.  Do the gifts and graces that breathe from others in prayer warm thy affections, and draw out thy soul to bear them company to heaven in the petitions they put up?  Or do they stir up a secret envying and repi­ning at the gifts of God bestowed on them?  This would discover much pride and unsoundness in thy spirit. The hypocrite is proud, and thinks all the water is spilt and lost that runs beside his own mill; whereas the sincere soul prizeth the gifts of others, can heartily bless God for them, and make a humble and holy use of them.  His heart is as much affected with the holy savoury requests that another puts up, as when they come out of his own mouth.  But the hypocrite's eye is evil, because God’s is good.

           Rule 3.  Observe whether thy fervency in prayer be uniform.  A false heart may seem very hot in pray­ing against one sin; but he can skip over another, and either leave it out of his confession, or handles it very gently.  As a partial witness, that would fain save the prisoner’s life he comes against, will not speak all he knows, but minceth his evidence; thus doth the hypo­crite deal with his darling lust.  He is like one that mows grass with a gapped scythe; some he cuts down, and other he leaves standing; vehement against this, and favourable to that lust; whereas sincerity makes clear work as it goes.  ‘Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me,’ Ps. 119:133.

           Again the false heart is as uneven in his petitions as in his deprecations.  Very earnest he is for some mercies, and they are commonly of an inferior nature, but more indifferent in his desires for those that are greater; he tithes mint and cummin in his prayers —temporal mercies, I mean—but neglects the weight­ier things of the promise—the sanctifying graces of the Spirit, humility, heavenly-mindedness, content­ment, self-denial; a little of these upon a knife’s point will content him.

           Rule 4.  Observe whether thy endeavours corres­pond with thy prayers.  The false heart seems hot in prayer, but you will find him cold enough at work.  He prays very fiercely against his sins, as if he desired them to be all slain upon the place; but what doth he towards the speeding of them with his own hands? Doth he set himself upon the work of mortifica­tion? doth he withdraw the fuel that feeds them? is he care­ful to shun occasions that may ensnare him?  When temptations come, do they find him in arms upon his guard, resolved to resist their motion?  Alas! no such matter.  If a few good words in prayer will do the work, well and good; but as for any more, he is too lazy to go about it.  Whereas the sincere heart is not idle after prayer; when it hath given heaven the alarm, and called God in to his help, then he takes the field himself, and opposeth his lusts with all his might, watching their motions, and taking every advantage he meets with to fall upon them.  Every mercy he receives, he beats it out into a weapon, to knock down all thoughts of sinning again.  Thus, ‘Seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this; should we again break thy commandments?’ Ezra 9:13, 14.  O God forbid, saith the holy soul, that he should bid such a thought welcome!  Every promise he reads, he lifts it up as a sword for his defence against this enemy.  ‘Having these promises, let us cleanse our­selves,’ II Cor. 7:1.  I shall shut up this head with a few directions how we may get this sincere heart in prayer.

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—

How to raise our affections to fervency in prayer

           Question.  But how may we get this fervency of spirit in prayer?

           Answer (a). Thou who propoundest the question art a saint or not; if not, there is another question must precede this.  How thou, that art at present in a state of spiritual death, mayest have spiritual life? There must be life in the soul before there can be life in the duty.  All the rugs in the upholsterer’s shop will not fetch a dead man to warmth, nor any arguments, though taken from the most moving topics in the Scripture, will make thee pray fervently while thy soul lies in a dead state.  Go first to Christ that thou may­est have life, and having life, then there is hope to chafe thee into some heat.  But,

           Answer (b).  If thou beest a saint, it yet calls for thy utmost care to get, and when thou hast got, to keep, thy soul in a kindly heat.  As the stone cannot of itself mount up into the air, so the bird—though it can do this, yet—cannot stay there long without some labour and motion with its wings.  The saints have a spark of heavenly fire in their bosom, but this needs the bellows of their care and diligence to keep it alive. There is a rust that breeds from the gold, a worm from the wood, a moth from the garment, that in time waste them; and ashes from the coal that choke the fire; yea, and in the saint too, which will damp his zeal if not cleared by daily watchfulness.  Observe therefore what is thy chief impediment to fervency in prayer, and set thyself vigorously against it.  If thou beest remiss in this precedaneous duty thou wilt be much more remiss in prayer itself.  He that knows of a slough in the way, and mends it not before he takes his journey, hath no cause to wonder when his chariot is laid fast in it.

           Answer (c).  Now this is not the same in all, and therefore it is necessary that thou beest so much ac­quainted with thine own estate as to know what is thy great clog in this duty.  Certainly, were not the firma­ment of the saint’s soul cooled with some malignant vapours that arise from his own breast, and weaken the force of divine grace in him, it would be summer all the year long with him, his heart would be ever warm, and his affections lively in duty.  Look there­fore narrowly whence thy cooling comes.  Perhaps thy heart is too much let out upon the world in the day, and at night thy spirits are spent, when thou shouldst come before the Lord in prayer.  If thou wilt be hotter in duty thou must be colder towards the world.  A horse that carrieth a pack all day is unfit to go post at night.  Wood that hath the sap in it will not burn easily; neither will thy heart readily take fire in holy duties who comest so sopped in the world to them. Drain, therefore, thy heart of these eager affections to that, if thou meanest to have them warm and lively in this.  Now, no better way for this than to set thy soul under the frequent meditation of Christ's love to thee, thy relation to him, with the great and glorious things thou expectest from him in another world.  This, or nothing, will dry up thy love to this world, as your wood which is laid a sunning is made fit for the fire. Whereas, let your hearts continue soaking in the thoughts of an inordinate love to the world, and you will find, when you come to pray, that thy  heart will be in a duty even as a foggy wet log at the back of a fire, long in kindling, and soon out again.  Haply the deadness of thy heart in prayer ariseth from want of a deep sense of thy wants and mercies thou desirest to have supplied.  Couldst thou but pray feelingly no doubt but thou wouldst pray fervently.  The hungry man needs no help from art to learn him how to beg; his pinched bowels make him earnest and eloquent.

           Is it pardon of sin thou wouldst pray for?  First see what anguish of spirit they put thee to.  Do with thy soul as the chirurgeon with his patient’s wounds, who syringeth them with some sharp searching water to try what sense he hath of them.  Apply such con­siderations to thy soul as may make thee feel their smart, and be sensible of thy deplored estate by rea­son of them; then go and sleep at prayer if thou canst. We have David first affecting his heart, and expres­sing the dolor of his soul for his sin: ‘Mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me,’ Ps. 38:4.  Now when his heart is sick with these thoughts, as one with strong physic work­ing in his stomach, he pours out his soul in prayer to God, ‘All my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee,’ ver. 9.

           Art thou to pray for others?  First pierce thy heart through with their sorrows, and, by a spirit of sympathy, bring thyself to feel their miseries as if thou wert in their case.  Then will thy heart be warm in prayer for them when it flows from a heart melted in compassion to them.  Thus we read Christ troubled himself for Lazarus before he lifted up his eyes to heaven for him, John 11:33, 38, compared.

           Again, it may be thy want of zeal proceeds from a defect in thy faith.  Faith is the back of steel to the bow of prayer; this sends the arrow with a force to heaven.  Where faith is weak the cry will not be strong.  He that goes about a business with little hope to speed will do it but faintly; he works, as we say, for a dead horse.  It is a true axiom, voluntas non fertur in impossibilia—the less we hope the less we en­deavour.  We read of strong cries that Christ put up in the days of his flesh.  Now mark what enforced his prayer—‘unto him that was able to save him;’ and not only so, but if you look into that prayer to which this refers, you shall find that he clasped about God as his God—‘My God, my God.’  His hold on God held up his spirit in prayer.  So in the several precedents of praying saints upon Scripture record, you may see how the spirit of prayer ebbed and flowed, fell and rose, as their faith was up and down.  This made David press so hard upon God in the day of his dis­tress: ‘I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted,’ Ps. 116:10.  This made the woman of Canaan so invincibly importunate.  Let Christ frown and chide, deny and rebuke her, she yet makes her approaches nearer and nearer, gathering arguments from his very denials, as if a soldier should shoot his enemy’s bullets back upon him again; and Christ tells us what kept her spirit undaunted, ‘O woman, great is thy faith!’

           Again, may be it proceeds from some distaste thou hast given to the Holy Spirit, who alone can blow up thy affections; and then, no wonder thou art cold in prayer when he is gone that should keep thy heart warm at it.  What is the body without the soul but cold clay, dead earth? and what the soul without the Spirit? truly no better.  O invite him back to thy soul, or else thy praying work is at an end.  And, if thou wouldst persuade him to return, observe what was the thing that distasted him, and remove it.  That which makes this dove forsake its lockyers will hinder his return if not taken away.

Arguments to enkindle our zeal and fervency in prayer 2/2

  Argument 2.  God deserves the prime and strength of thy soul should be bestowed on him in thy prayers.

• He gave thee the powers of thy soul and all thy affections.  According to the mould so is the stat­ue that is cast in it; such thou art as thou wert in the idea of the divine mind.  Now, may not thy Maker call for that which was his gift?  He that made the stone an inanimate being, and confined the narrow souls of brutes to act upon low sensitive good, en­nobleth thee with a rational appetite and spiritual affections.  Now, wilt thou not employ those divine powers in the worship of thy God, from whom, thou hadst them?  This were hard indeed—that God should be denied what himself gave, and not suffered to taste of his own cost.  ‘I came unto my own,’ saith Christ, ‘and they would not receive me.’  Thus here, I came to my own creature; he had his life from me, and brings a dead heart unto me!  Suppose a friend should give you notice that he will ere long be at your house, and sends you in beforehand a vessel of rich wine; which you, when he comes, grudge to broach it for his entertainment, and put him off with that which is dead and flat?  Expectest thou a better friend to be thy guest than thy God?  The psalmist calls upon us to ‘serve the Lord with gladness,’ and what is his enforcement?  ‘Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us,’  100:2, 3.  Who plants a vineyard and looks not to drink  of the wine?  If God calls our corn and wine his, he therefore expects to be served with them; much more with our love and joy, for surely he allows us not to alienate the best of his gifts from him.  When thou art therefore going to pray, call up thy affections, which haply are asleep on some creature's lap, as Jonah in the sides of the ship: ‘What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God.’

           (2.) He deserves thy affections because he gives thee his.  He is jealous of thee because he is zealous for thee.  Well may he complain of thy cold dreaming prayers whose heart is on a flame of love to thee. High and admirable are the expressions with which he sets forth his dear love to his people; whatever he doth for them is with a zeal.  In protecting of them, ‘as birds flying, so will the Lord defend Jerusalem,’ that is, swiftly, as a bird flies full speed to her nest when she perceives her young is in danger; in aven­ging them of their enemies, ‘the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall perform this;’ in hearing their prayers he doth it ‘with delight;’ in forgiving their sins he is ready to forgive,’ ‘multiplies to pardon;’ when they ask one talent he gives them two.  Jacob desires a safe egress and regress.  He doth this and more than he desired, for he brings him home with two bands.  Not the least mercy he gives but he draws forth his souls and heart with it; even in his afflicting providences, where he seems to show least love, there his heart overflows with it.  ‘O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? mine heart is turned within me.’

           (3.) He is a good pay-master for his people’s zeal.  ‘He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him,’ Heb. 11:6.  Never did fervent prayer find cold welcome with him.  Elias’ {Elijah’s} prayer fetched fire from heaven because it carried fire to heaven. The tribe of Levi for their zeal were preferred to the priesthood.  And why?  Surely they who were so zealous in doing justice on their brethren would be no less zealous in making atonement for them by their sacrifices.  Most men lose their fervency and strength of their desires by misplacing them; they are zealous for such things as cannot, and persons that oft will not, pay them for their pains.  O how hot is the covet­ous man in his chase after the world's pelf!  He ‘pants after the dust of the earth,’ and that ‘on the head of the poor.’  But what reward hath he for his labour? After all his getting, like the dogs in pursuit of the hare, he misseth his game, and at last goes often poor and supperless to bed in his grave; to be sure he dies ‘a fool,’ Jer. 17:11.  How many court-spaniels—that have fawned and flattered, yea, licked up their mas­ter’s spittle, and all for some scraps of preferment —have befooled themselves, when at last they have seen their creeping sordid practices rewarded with the fatal stroke of the headsman, or a lingering consump­tive death in their prince’s favour?  Which made that ambitious cardinal say too late, If he had been as observant of his heavenly Master as he had been of his earthly, he could not have been left so miserable at last.  In a word, do we not see the superstitious person knocking his breast and cutting his own flesh, out of a zeal to his wooden god, that hath neither ear to hear nor hand to help him?  Now, doth not the liv­ing God, thy loving Father, deserve thy zeal more than their dead and dumb idols do theirs?  For shame!  Let not us be cold in his worship when the idolater sweats before his god of clouts; let not the worldling’s zeal in pursuit of his earthly mammon leave thee lagging behind with a heedless heartless serving of thy God.  Neither fear the world’s hooting at thee for thy zeal; they think thee a fool, but thou knowest them to be so.