heart, or soul, to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance
of the Spirit, FOR SUCH THINGS AS GOD HATH PROMISED, &c., (Matt 6:6-8).
Prayer it is, when it is within the compass of God’s Word; and it is
blasphemy, or at best vain babbling, when the petition is beside the
book. David therefore still in his prayer kept his eye on the Word of
God. “My soul,” saith he, “cleaveth to the dust; quicken me according
to thy word.” And again, “My soul melteth for heaviness, strengthen
thou me according unto thy word” (Psa 119:25-28; see also 41, 42, 58,
65, 74, 81, 82, 107, 147, 154, 169, 170). And, “remember thy word unto
thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope” (ver 49). And
indeed the Holy Ghost doth not immediately quicken and stir up the
heart of the Christian without, but by, with, and through the Word, by
bringing that to the heart, and by opening of that, whereby the man is
provoked to go to the Lord, and to tell him how it is with him, and
also to argue, and supplicate, according to the Word; thus it was with
Daniel, that mighty prophet of the Lord. He understanding by books that
the captivity of the children of Israel was hard at an end; then,
according unto that word, he maketh his prayer to God. “I Daniel,”
saith he, “understood by books,” viz., the writings of Jeremiah, “the
number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah,—that
he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. And
I set my face to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications,
with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes” (Dan 9:2,3). So that I say, as
the Spirit is the helper and the governor of the soul, when it prayeth
according to the will of God; so it guideth by and according to, the
Word of God and his promise. Hence it is that our Lord Jesus Christ
himself did make a stop, although his life lay at stake for it. I could
now pray to my Father, and he should give me more than twelve legions
of angels; but how then must the scripture be fulfilled that thus it
must be? (Matt 26:53,54). As who should say, Were there but a word for
it in the scripture, I should soon be out of the hands of mine enemies,
I should be helped by angels; but the scripture will not warrant this
kind of praying, for that saith otherwise. It is a praying then
according to the Word and promise. The Spirit by the Word must direct,
as well in the manner, as in the matter of prayer. “I will pray with
the Spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also” (I Cor 14:15).
But there is no understanding without the Word. For if they reject the
word of the Lord, “what wisdom is in them?” (Jer 8:9).
Sixth. FOR THE GOOD OF THE CHURCH. This clause reacheth in whatsoever
tendeth either to the honour of God, Christ’s advancement, or his
people’s benefit. For God, and Christ, and his people are so linked
together that if the good of the one be prayed for, to wit, the church,
the glory of God, and advancement of Christ, must needs be included.
For as Christ is in the Father, so the saints are in Christ; and he
that toucheth the saints, toucheth the apple of God’s eye; and
therefore pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and you pray for all that is
required of you. For Jerusalem will never be in perfect peace until she
be in heaven; and there is nothing that Christ doth more desire than to
have her there. That also is the place that God through Christ hath
given to her. He then that prayeth for the peace and good of Zion, or
the church, doth ask that in prayer which Christ hath purchased with
his blood; and also that which the Father hath given to him as the
price thereof. Now he that prayeth for this, must pray for abundance of
grace for the church, for help against all its temptations; that God
would let nothing be too hard for it; and that all things might work
together for its good, that God would keep them blameless and harmless,
the sons of God, to his glory, in the midst of a crooked and perverse
nation. And this is the substance of Christ’s own prayer in John 17.
And all Paul’s prayers did run that way, as one of his prayers doth
eminently show. “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more
and more in knowledge, and in all judgment; that ye may approve things
that are excellent; that ye may be sincere, and without offence, till
the day of Christ. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which
are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God” (Phil 1:9-11).
But a short prayer, you see, and yet full of good desires for the
church, from the beginning to the end; that it may stand and go on, and
that in the most excellent frame of spirit, even without blame,
sincere, and without offence, until the day of Christ, let its
temptations or persecutions be what they will (Eph 1:16-21; 3:14-19;
Col 1:9-13).
Seventh. And because, as I said, prayer doth SUBMIT TO THE WILL OF GOD,
and say, Thy will be done, as Christ hath taught us (Matt 6:10);
therefore the people of the Lord in humility are to lay themselves and
their prayers, and all that they have, at the foot of their God, to be
disposed of by him as he in his heavenly wisdom seeth best. Yet not
doubting but God will answer the desire of his people that way that
shall be most for their advantage and his glory. When the saints
therefore do pray with submission to the will of God, it doth not argue
that they are to doubt or question God’s love and kindness to them. But
because they at all times are not so wise, but that sometimes Satan may
get that advantage of them, as to tempt them to pray for that which, if
they had it, would neither prove to God’s glory nor his people’s good.
“Yet this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask
anything according to his will, he heareth us; and if we know that he
hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we
desired of him,” that is, we asking in the Spirit of grace and
supplication (I John 5:14,15). For, as I said before, that petition
that is not put up in and through the Spirit, it is not to be answered,
because it is beside the will of God. For the Spirit only knoweth that,
and so consequently knoweth how to pray according to that will of God.
“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 more of this hereafter. Thus you see, first,
what prayer is. Now to proceed.
[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, so as 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.
There is no man nor church in the world that 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 there is in this scripture
so full a discovery of the spirit of prayer, and of man’s inability to
pray without it; therefore I shall in a few words comment upon it.
“For we.” Consider first the person speaking, even Paul, and, in his
person, all the apostles. We apostles, we extraordinary officers, the
wise master-builders, that have some of us been caught up into paradise
(Rom 15:16; I Cor 3:10; II Cor 12:4). “We know not what we should pray
for.” Surely 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.9
“For we know not what we should pray for.” We know not the matter of
the things for which we should pray, neither 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 know we. “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 have also bounded how many syllables must be said in every one of
them at their public exercises. For each saint’s day, also, they 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 which the apostles came short of, as
not being able to compose so profound a manner; and that for this
reason 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 the not thinking of this word, or at least the 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; and this WE cannot do by all
the art, skill, and cunning device of men or angels. “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, approveth 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 in nothing else. And it is the Spirit only that can
teach us so to ask; it 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, yet we know not what we should pray for as we
ought, being accompanied with 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.
First. Without the Spirit man is so infirm that he cannot, with all
other means whatsoever, be enabled to think one right saving thought of
God, of Christ, or of his blessed things; and therefore he saith of the
wicked, “God is not in all his thoughts,” (Psa 10:4); unless it be that
they imagine him altogether such a one as themselves (Psa 50:21). For
“every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil,” and
that “continually” (Gen 6:5; 8:21). They then not being able to
conceive aright of God to whom they pray, of Christ through whom they
pray, nor of the things for which they pray, as is before showed, how
shall they be able to address themselves to God, without the Spirit
help this infirmity? Peradventure you will say, By the help of the
Common Prayer Book; but that cannot do it, unless it can open the eyes,
and reveal to the soul all these things before touched. Which that it
cannot, it is evident; because that is the work of the Spirit only. The
Spirit itself is the revealer of these things to poor souls, and that
which doth give us to understand them; wherefore Christ tells his
disciples, when he promised to send the Spirit, the Comforter, “He
shall take of mine and show unto you”; as if he had said, I know you
are naturally dark and ignorant as to the understanding any of my
things; though ye try this course and the other, yet your ignorance
will still remain, the veil is spread over your heart, and there is
none can take away the same, nor give you spiritual understanding but
the Spirit. The Common Prayer Book will not do it, neither can any man
expect that it should be instrumental that way, it being none of God’s
ordinances; but a thing since the Scriptures were written, patched
together one piece at one time, and another at another; a mere human
invention and institution, which God is so far from owning of, that he
expressly forbids it, with any other such like, and that by manifold
sayings in his most holy and blessed Word. (See Mark 7:7,8, and Col
2:16-23; Deut 12:30-32; Prov 30:6; Deut 4:2; Rev 22:18). For right
prayer must, as well in the outward part of it, in the outward
expression, as in the inward intention, come from what the soul doth
apprehend in the light of the Spirit; otherwise it is condemned as vain
and an abomination, because the heart and tongue do not go along
jointly in the same, neither indeed can they, unless the Spirit help
our infirmities (Mark 7; Prov 28:9; Isa 29:13). And this David knew
full well, which did make him cry, “Lord, open thou my lips, and my
mouth shall show forth thy praise” (Psa 51:15). I suppose there is none
can imagine but that David could speak and express himself as well as
others, nay, as any in our generation, as is clearly manifested by his
word and his works. Nevertheless when this good man, this prophet,
comes into God’s worship, then the Lord must help, or he can do
nothing. “Lord, open thou my lips, and” then “my mouth shall show forth
thy praise.” He could not speak one right word, except the Spirit
itself gave utterance. “For we know not what we should pray for as we
ought, but the Spirit itself helpeth our infirmities.” But,
Second. It must be a praying with the Spirit, that is, the effectual
praying; because without that, as men are senseless, so hypocritical,
cold, and unseemly in their prayers; and so they, with their prayers,
are both rendered abominable to God (Matt 23:14; Mark 12:40; Luke
18:11, 12; Isa 58:2, 3). It is not the excellency of the voice, nor the
seeming affection, and earnestness of him that prayeth, that is
anything regarded of God without it. For man, as man, is so full of all
manner of wickedness, that as he cannot keep a word, or thought, so
much less a piece of prayer clean, and acceptable to God through
Christ; and for this cause the Pharisees, with their prayers, were
rejected. No question but they were excellently able to express
themselves in words, and also for length of time, too, they were very
notable; but they had not the Spirit of Jesus Christ to help them, and
therefore they did what they did with their infirmities or weaknesses
only, and so fell short of a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring
out of their souls to God, through the strength of the Spirit. That is
the prayer that goeth to heaven, that is sent thither in the strength
of the Spirit. For,
Third. Nothing but the Spirit can show a man clearly his misery by
nature, and so put a man into a posture of prayer. Talk is but talk, as
we use to say, and so it is but mouth-worship, if there be not a sense
of misery, and that effectually too. O the cursed hypocrisy that is in
most hearts, and that accompanieth many thousands of praying men that
would be so looked upon in this day, and all for want of a sense of
their misery! But now the Spirit, that will sweetly show the soul its
misery, where it is, and what is like to become of it, also the
intolerableness of that condition. For it is the Spirit that doth
effectually convince of sin and misery, without the Lord Jesus, and so
puts the soul into a sweet, sensible, affectionate way of praying to
God according to his word (John 16:7-9).
Fourth. If men did see their sins, yet without the help of the Spirit
they would not pray. For they would run away from God, with Cain and
Judas, and utterly despair of mercy, were it not for the Spirit. When a
man is indeed sensible of his sin, and God’s curse, then it is a hard
thing to persuade him to pray; for, saith his heart, “There is no
hope,” it is in vain to seek God (Jer 2:25; 18:12). I am so vile, so
wretched, and so cursed a creature, that I shall never be regarded! Now
here comes the Spirit, and stayeth the soul, helpeth it to hold up its
face to God, by letting into the heart some small sense of mercy to
encourage it to go to God, and hence it is called “the Comforter” (John
14:26).
Fifth. It must be in or with the Spirit; for without that no man can
know how he should come to God the right way. Men may easily say they
come to God in his Son: but it is the hardest thing of a thousand to
come to God aright and in his own way, without the Spirit. It is “the
Spirit” that “searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (I Cor
2:10). It is the Spirit that must show us the way of coming to God, and
also what there is in God that makes him desirable: “I pray thee,”
saith Moses, “show me now thy way, that I may know thee” (Exo 33:13).
And, He shall take of mine, and “show it unto you” (John 16:14).
Sixth. Because without the Spirit, though a man did see his misery, and
also the way to come to God; yet he would never be able to claim a
share in either God, Christ, or mercy, with God’s approbation. O how
great a task is it, for a poor soul that becomes sensible of sin and
the wrath of God, to say in faith, but this one word, “Father!” I tell
you, however hypocrites think, yet the Christian that is so indeed
finds all the difficulty in this very thing, it cannot say God is its
Father. O! saith he, I dare not call him Father; and hence it is that
the Spirit must be sent into the hearts of God’s people for this very
thing, to cry Father: it being too great a work for any man to do
knowingly and believingly without it (Gal 4:6). When I say knowingly, I
mean, knowing what it is to be a child of God, and to be born again.
And when I say believingly, I mean, for the soul to believe, and that
from good experience, that the work of grace is wrought in him. This is
the right calling of God Father; and not as many do, to say in a
babbling way, the Lord’s prayer (so called) by heart, as it lieth in
the words of the book. No, here is the life of prayer, when in or with
the Spirit, a man being made sensible of sin, and how to come to the
Lord for mercy; he comes, I say, in the strength of the Spirit, and
crieth Father. That one word spoken in faith, is better than a thousand
prayers, as men call them, written and read, in a formal, cold,
lukewarm way. O how far short are those people of being sensible of
this, who count it enough to teach themselves and children to say the
Lord’s prayer, the creed, with other sayings; when, as God knows, they
are senseless of themselves, their misery, or what it is to be brought
to God through Christ! Ah, poor soul! Study your misery, and cry to God
to show you your confused blindness and ignorance, before you be so
rife in calling God your Father, or teaching your children either so to
say. And know, that to say God is your Father, in a way of prayer or
conference, without any experiment of the work of grace on your souls,
it is to say you are Jews and are not, and so to lie. You say, Our
Father; God saith, You blaspheme! You say you are Jew, that is, true
Christians; God saith, You lie! “Behold I will make them of the
synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie”
(Rev 3:9). “And I know the blasphemy of them that say they are Jews,
and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan” (Rev 2:9). And so much the
greater the sin is, by how much the more the sinner boasts it with a
pretended sanctity, as the Jews did to Christ, in the 8th of John,
which made Christ, even in plain terms, to tell them their doom, for
all their hypocritical pretences (John 8:41-45). And yet forsooth every
cursed whoremaster, thief, and drunkard, swearer, and perjured person;
they that have not only been such in times past, but are even so still:
these I say, by some must be counted the only honest men, and all
because with their blasphemous throats, and hypocritical hearts, they
will come to church, and say, “Our Father!” Nay further, these men,
though every time they say to God, Our Father, do most abominably
blaspheme, yet they must be compelled thus to do. And because others
that are of more sober principles, scruple the truth of such vain
traditions; therefore they must be looked upon to be the only enemies
of God and the nation: when as it is their own cursed superstition that
doth set the great God against them, and cause him to count them for
his enemies (Isa 53:10). And yet just like to Bonner, that blood-red
persecutor, they commend, I say, these wretches, although never so
vile, if they close in with their traditions, to be good churchmen, the
honest subjects; while God’s people are, as it hath always been, looked
upon to be a turbulent, seditious, and factious people (Ezra 4:12-16).
Therefore give me leave a little to reason with thee, thou poor, blind,
ignorant sot.
(1.) It may be thy great prayer is to say, “Our Father which art in
heaven,” &c. Dost thou know the meaning of the very first words of this
prayer? Canst thou indeed, with the rest of the saints, cry, Our
Father? Art thou truly born again? Hast thou received the spirit of
adoption? Dost thou see thyself in Christ, and canst thou come to God
as a member of him? Or art thou ignorant of these things, and yet
darest thou say, Our Father? Is not the devil thy father? (John 8:44).
And dost thou not do the deeds of the flesh? And yet darest thou say to
God, Our Father? Nay, art thou not a desperate persecutor of the
children of God? Hast thou not cursed them in thine heart many a time?
And yet dost thou out of thy blasphemous throat suffer these words to
come, even our Father? He is their Father whom thou hatest and
persecutest. But as the devil presented himself amongst the sons of
God, (Job 1), when they were to present themselves before the Father,
even our Father, so is it now; because the saints were commanded to
say, Our Father, therefore all the blind ignorant rabble in the world,
they must also use the same words, Our Father.
(2.) And dost thou indeed say, “Hallowed be thy name” with thy heart?
Dost thou study, by all honest and lawful ways, to advance the name,
holiness, and majesty of God? Doth thy heart and conversation agree
with this passage? Dost thou strive to imitate Christ in all the works
of righteousness, which God doth command of thee, and prompt thee
forward to? It is so, if thou be one that can truly with God’s
allowance cry, “Our Father.” Or is it not the least of thy thoughts all
the day? And dost thou not clearly make it appear, that thou art a
cursed hypocrite, by condemning that with thy daily practice, which
thou pretendest in thy praying with thy dissembling tongue?