[WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT.]
SECOND. I will pray with the Spirit. Now to pray with the Spirit—for that is the praying man, and none else, to be accepted of God—it is for a man, as aforesaid, sincerely and sensibly, with affection, to come to God through Christ, &c.; which sincere, sensible, and affectionate coming must be by the working of God's Spirit.
No man nor church can come to God in prayer, but by the assistance of the Holy Spirit. "For through Christ we all have access by one Spirit unto the Father" (Eph 2:18). Wherefore Paul saith, "For we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts, knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God" (Rom 8:26,27). And because this scripture is so full of a discovery of the spirit of prayer and of man's inability to pray without it, I shall comment upon it in a few words.
"For we." Consider first the person speaking, even Paul, and, in his person, all the apostles. We apostles, extraordinary officers, the wise master-builders, have some of us been caught up in paradise (Rom 15:16; I Cor 3:10; II Cor 12:4). "We know not what we should pray for." Indeed there is no man but will confess, that Paul and his companions were as able to have done any work for God, as any pope or proud prelate in the church of Rome, and could as well have made a Common Prayer Book as those who at first composed this; as being not a whit behind them either in grace or gifts.
"For we know not what we should pray for." We know not the matter of the things for which we should pray, nor the object to whom we pray, nor the medium by or through whom we pray; none of these things know we, but by the help and assistance of the Spirit. Should we pray for communion with God through Christ? Should we pray for faith, for justification by grace, and a truly sanctified heart? None of these things do we know. "For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God" (I Cor 2:11). But here, alas! The apostles speak of inward and spiritual things, which the world knows not (Isa 29:11).
Again, as they know not the matter, &c., of prayer, without the help of the Spirit; so neither know they the manner thereof without the same; and therefore he adds, "We know not what we should pray for as we ought"; but the Spirit helpeth our infirmities, with sighs and groans which cannot be uttered. Mark here, they could not so well and so fully come off in the manner of performing this duty, as these in our days think they can.
The apostles, when they were at the best, yea, when the Holy Ghost assisted them, yet then they were fain to come off with sighs and groans, falling short of expressing their mind, but with sighs and groans which cannot be uttered.
But here now, the wise men of our days are so well skilled as that they have both the manner and matter of their prayers at their finger-ends; setting such a prayer for such a day, and that twenty years before it comes. One for Christmas, another for Easter, and six days after that. They also have to determine how many syllables must be said in every one of them at their public exercises. For each saint's day, they also have them ready for the generations yet unborn to say. They can tell you, also, when you shall kneel, when you shall stand, when you should abide in your seats, when you should go up into the chancel, and what you should do when you come there. All that the apostles came short of was not being able to compose so profoundly, and for this reason, they were included in this scripture because the fear of God tied them to pray as they ought.
"For we know not what we should pray for as we ought." Mark this, "as we ought." For not thinking of this word, or at least not understanding it in the spirit and truth of it, hath occasioned these men to devise, as Jeroboam did, another way of worship, both for matter and manner, than is revealed in the Word of God (I Kings 12:26-33). But, saith Paul, we must pray as we ought; this WE cannot do by all men or angels' art, skill, and cunning device. "For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit"; nay, further, it must be "the Spirit ITSELF" that helpeth our infirmities; not the Spirit and man's lusts; what man of his own brain may imagine and devise, is one thing, and what they are commanded, and ought to do, is another. Many ask and have not, because they ask amiss; and so are never the nearer the enjoying of those things they petition for (James 4:3). It is not to pray at random that will put off God, or cause him to answer. While prayer is making, God is searching the heart, to see from what root and spirit it doth arise (I John 5:14). "And he that searcheth the heart knoweth," that is, approved only, the meaning "of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." For in that which is according to his will only, he heareth us and nothing else. And it is the Spirit that can only teach us to ask; it is only being able to search out all things, even the deep things of God. Without which Spirit, though we had a thousand Common Prayer Books, we know not what we should pray for as we ought, being accompanied by those infirmities that make us absolutely incapable of such a work. Which infirmities, although it is a hard thing to name them all, yet some of them are these that follow.
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