will to be done in earth as it is in heaven? Nay, notwithstanding, thou
according to the form, sayest, Thy kingdom come, yet would it not make
thee ready to run mad, to hear the trumpet sound, to see the dead
arise, and thyself just now to go and appear before God, to reckon for
all the deeds thou hast done in the body? Nay, are not the very
thoughts of it altogether displeasing to thee? And if God’s will should
be done on earth as it is in heaven, must it not be thy ruin? There is
never a rebel in heaven against God, and if he should so deal on earth,
must it not whirl thee down to hell? And so of the rest of the
petitions. Ah! How sadly would even those men look, and with what
terror would they walk up and down the world, if they did but know the
lying and blaspheming that proceedeth out of their mouth, even in their
most pretended sanctity? The Lord awaken you, and teach you, poor
souls, in all humility, to take heed that you be not rash and unadvised
with your heart, and much more with your mouth! When you appear before
God, as the wise man saith, “Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not
thine heart be hasty to utter any thing,” (Eccl 5:2); especially to
call God Father, without some blessed experience when thou comest
before God. But I pass this.
Seventh. It must be a praying with the Spirit if it be accepted,
because there is nothing but the Spirit that can lift up the soul or
heart to God in prayer: “The preparations of the heart in man, and the
answer of the tongue, is from the Lord” (Prov 16:1). That is, in every
work for God, and especially in prayer, if the heart run with the
tongue, it must be prepared by the Spirit of God. Indeed the tongue is
very apt, of itself, to run without either fear or wisdom: but when it
is the answer of the heart, and that such a heart as is prepared by the
Spirit of God, then it speaks so as God commands and doth desire.
They are mighty words of David, where he saith, that he lifteth his
heart and his soul to God (Psa 25:1). It is a great work for any man
without the strength of the Spirit, and therefore I conceive that this
is one of the great reasons why the Spirit of God is called a Spirit of
supplications, (Zech 12:10), because it is that which helpeth the heart
when it supplicates indeed to do it; and therefore saith Paul, “Praying
with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit” (Eph 6:18). And so in
my text, “I will pray with the Spirit.” Prayer, without the heart be in
it, is like a sound without life; and a heart, without it be lifted up
of the Spirit, will never pray to God.
Eighth. As the heart must be lifted up by the Spirit, if it pray
aright, so also it must be held up by the Spirit when it is up, if it
continue to pray aright. I do not know what, or how it is with others’
hearts, whether they be lifted up by the Spirit of God, and so
continued, or no: but this I am sure of, First, That it is impossible
that all the prayer-books that men have made in the world, should lift
up, or prepare the heart; that is the work of the great God himself.
And, in the second place, I am sure that they are as far from keeping
it up, when it is up. And indeed here is the life of prayer, to have
the heart kept with God in the duty. It was a great matter for Moses to
keep his hands lifted up to God in prayer; but how much more then to
keep the heart in it! (Exo 17:12).
The want of this is that which God complains of; that they draw nigh to
him with their mouth, and honour him with their lips, but their hearts
were far from him (Isa 29:13; Eze 33), but chiefly that they walk after
the commandments and traditions of men, as the scope of Matthew 15:8, 9
doth testify. And verily, may I but speak my own experience, and from
that tell you the difficulty of praying to God as I ought, it is enough
to make your poor, blind, carnal men to entertain strange thoughts of
me. For, as for my heart, when I go to pray, I find it so loth to go to
God, and when it is with him, so loth to stay with him, that many times
I am forced in my prayers, first to beg of God that he would take mine
heart, and set it on himself in Christ, and when it is there, that he
would keep it there. Nay, many times I know not what to pray for, I am
so blind, nor how to pray, I am so ignorant; only, blessed be grace,
the Spirit helps our infirmities (Psa 86:11).
O! the starting-holes that the heart hath in the time of prayer; none
knows how many bye-ways the heart hath, and back-lanes, to slip away
from the presence of God. How much pride also, if enabled with
expressions. How much hypocrisy, if before others. And how little
conscience is there made of prayer between God and the soul in secret,
unless the Spirit of supplication be there to help? When the Spirit
gets into the heart, then there is prayer indeed, and not till then.
Ninth. The soul that doth rightly pray, it must be in and with the help
and strength of the Spirit; because it is impossible that a man should
express himself in prayer without it. When I say, it is impossible for
a man to express himself in prayer without it, I mean, that it is
impossible that the heart, in a sincere and sensible affectionate way,
should pour out itself before God, with those groans and sighs that
come from a truly praying heart, without the assistance of the Spirit.
It is not the mouth that is the main thing to be looked at in prayer,
but whether the heart is so full of affection and earnestness in prayer
with God, that it is impossible to express their sense and desire; for
then a man desires indeed, when his desires are so strong, many, and
mighty, that all the words, tears, and groans that can come from the
heart, cannot utter them: “The Spirit—helpeth our infirmities,—and
maketh intercession for us with [sighs and] groanings which cannot be
uttered” (Rom 8:26).
That is but poor prayer which is only discovered in so many words. A
man that truly prays one prayer, shall after that never be able to
express with his mouth or pen the unutterable desires, sense,
affection, and longing that went to God in that prayer.
The best prayers have often more groans than words: and those words
that it hath are but a lean and shallow representation of the heart,
life, and spirit of that prayer. You do not find any words of prayer,
that we read of, come out of the mouth of Moses, when he was going out
of Egypt, and was followed by Pharaoh, and yet he made heaven ring
again with his cry (Exo 14:15). But it was inexpressible and
unsearchable groans and cryings of his soul in and with the Spirit. God
is the God of spirits, and his eyes look further than at the outside of
any duty whatsoever (Num 16:22). I doubt this is but little thought on
by the most of them that would be looked upon as a praying people (I
Sam 16:7).
The nearer a man comes in any work that God commands him to the doing
of it according to his will, so much the more hard and difficult it is;
and the reason is, because man, as man, is not able to do it. But
prayer, as aforesaid, is not only a duty, but one of the most eminent
duties, and therefore so much the more difficult: therefore Paul knew
what he said, when he said, “I will pray with the Spirit.” He knew well
it was not what others writ or said that could make him a praying
person; nothing less than the Spirit could do it.
Tenth. It must be with the Spirit, or else as there will be a failing
in the act itself, so there will be a failing, yea, a fainting, in the
prosecution of the work. Prayer is an ordinance of God, that must
continue with a soul so long as it is on this side glory. But, as I
said before, it is not possible for a man to get up his heart to God in
prayer; so it is as difficult to keep it there, without the assistance
of the Spirit. And if so, then for a man to continue from time to time
in prayer with God, it must of necessity be with the Spirit.
Christ tells us, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint (Luke
18:1). And again tells us, that this is one definition of a hypocrite,
that either he will not continue in prayer, or else if he do it, it
will not be in the power, that is, in the spirit of prayer, but in the
form, for a pretence only (Job 27:10; Matt 23:14). It is the easiest
thing of a hundred to fall from the power to the form, but it is the
hardest thing of many to keep in the life, spirit, and power of any one
duty, especially prayer; that is such a work, that a man without the
help of the Spirit cannot so much as pray once, much less continue,
without it, in a sweet praying frame, and in praying, so to pray as to
have his prayers ascend into the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth.
Jacob did not only begin, but held it: “I will not let thee go, unless
thou bless me” (Gen 32). So did the rest of the godly (Hosea 12:4). But
this could not be without the spirit of prayer. It is through the
Spirit that we have access to the Father (Eph 2:18).
The same is a remarkable place in Jude, when he stirreth up the saints
by the judgment of God upon the wicked to stand fast, and continue to
hold out in the faith of the gospel, as one excellent means thereto,
without which he knew they would never be able to do it. Saith he,
“Building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy
Ghost” (Jude 20). As if he had said, Brethren, as eternal life is laid
up for the persons that hold out only, so you cannot hold out unless
you continue praying in the Spirit. The great cheat that the devil and
antichrist delude the world withal, it is to make them continue in the
form of any duty, the form of preaching, of hearing, or praying, &c.
These are they that have “a form of godliness, but denying the power
thereof; from such turn away” (II Tim 3:5).
Here followeth the third thing; to wit,
WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT, AND WITH THE UNDERSTANDING.
THIRD. And now to the next thing, what it is to pray with the Spirit,
and to pray with the understanding also. For the apostle puts a clear
distinction between praying with the Spirit, and praying with the
Spirit and understanding: therefore when he saith, “he will pray with
the Spirit,” he adds, “and I will pray with the understanding ALSO.”
This distinction was occasioned through the Corinthians not observing
that it was their duty to do what they did to the edification of
themselves and others too: whereas they did it for their own
commendations. So I judge: for many of them having extraordinary gifts,
as to speak with divers tongues, &c., therefore they were more for
those mighty gifts than they were for the edifying of their brethren;
which was the cause that Paul wrote this chapter to them, to let them
understand, that though extraordinary gifts were excellent, yet to do
what they did to the edification of the church was more excellent. For,
saith the apostle, “if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth,
but my understanding,” and also the understanding of others, “is
unfruitful” (I Cor 14:3, 4, 12, 19, 24, 25. Read the scope of the whole
chapter). Therefore, “I will pray with the Spirit, and I will pray with
the understanding also.”
It is expedient then that the understanding should be occupied in
prayer, as well as the heart and mouth: “I will pray with the Spirit,
and I will pray with the understanding also.” That which is done with
understanding, is done more effectually, sensibly, and heartily, as I
shall show farther anon, than that which is done without it; which made
the apostle pray for the Colossians, that God would fill them “with the
knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” (Col
1:9). And for the Ephesians, that God would give unto them “the spirit
of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of him” (Eph 1:17). And so
for the Philippians, that God would make them abound “in knowledge, and
in all judgment” (Phil 1:9). A suitable understanding is good in
everything a man undertakes, either civil or spiritual; and therefore
it must be desired by all them that would be a praying people. In my
speaking to this, I shall show you what it is to pray with
understanding.
Understanding is to be taken both for speaking in our mother-tongue,
and also experimentally. I pass the first, and treat only on the
second.
For the making of right prayers, it is to be required that there should
be a good or spiritual understanding in all them who pray to God.
First. To pray with understanding, is to pray as being instructed by
the Spirit in the understanding of the want of those things which the
soul is to pray for. Though a man be in never so much need of pardon of
sin, and deliverance from wrath to come, yet if he understand not this,
he will either not desire them at all, or else be so cold and lukewarm
in his desires after them, that God will even loathe his frame of
spirit in asking for them. Thus it was with the church of the
Laodiceans, they wanted knowledge or spiritual understanding; they knew
not that they were poor, wretched, blind, and naked. The cause whereof
made them, and all their services, so loathsome to Christ, that he
threatens to spew them out of his mouth (Rev 3:16, 17). Men without
understanding may say the same words in prayer as others do; but if
there be an understanding in the one, and none in the other, there is,
O there is a mighty difference in speaking the very same words! The one
speaking from a spiritual understanding of those things that he in
words desires, and the other words it only, and there is all.
Second. Spiritual understanding espieth in the heart of God a readiness
and willingness to give those things to the soul that it stands in need
of. David by this could guess at the very thoughts of God towards him
(Psa 40:5). And thus it was with the woman of Canaan; she did by faith
and a right understanding discern, beyond all the rough carriage of
Christ, tenderness and willingness in his heart to save, which caused
her to be vehement and earnest, yea, restless, until she did enjoy the
mercy she stood in need of (Matt 15:22-28).
And understanding of the willingness that is in the heart of God to
save sinners, there is nothing will press the soul more to seek after
God, and to cry for pardon, than it. If a man should see a pearl worth
an hundred pounds lie in a ditch, yet if he understood not the value of
it, he would lightly pass it by: but if he once get the knowledge of
it, he would venture up to the neck for it. So it is with souls
concerning the things of God: if a man once get an understanding of the
worth of them, then his heart, nay, the very strength of his soul, runs
after them, and he will never leave crying till he have them. The two
blind men in the gospel, because they did certainly know that Jesus,
who was going by them, was both able and willing to heal such
infirmities as they were afflicted with: therefore they cried, and the
more they were rebuked, the more they cried (Matt 20:29-31).
Third. The understanding being spiritually enlightened, hereby there is
the way, as aforesaid, discovered, through which the soul should come
unto God; which gives great encouragement unto it. It is else with a
poor soul, as with one who hath a work to do, and if it be not done,
the danger is great; if it be done, so is the advantage. But he knows
not how to begin, nor how to proceed; and so, through discouragement,
lets all alone, and runs the hazard.
Fourth. The enlightened understanding sees largeness enough in the
promises to encourage it to pray; which still adds to it strength to
strength. As when men promise such and such things to all that will
come for them, it is great encouragement to those that know what
promises are made, to come and ask for them.
Fifth. The understanding being enlightened, way is made for the soul to
come to God with suitable arguments, sometimes in a way of
expostulation, as Jacob (Gen 32:9). Sometimes in way of supplication,
yet not in a verbal way only, but even from the heart there is forced
by the Spirit, through the understanding, such effectual arguments as
moveth the heart of God. When Ephraim gets a right understanding of his
own unseemly carriages towards the Lord, then he begins to bemoan
himself (Jer 31:18-20). And in bemoaning of himself, he used such
arguments with the Lord, that it affects his heart, draws out
forgiveness, and makes Ephraim pleasant in his eyes through Jesus
Christ our Lord: “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus,”
saith God, “Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised; as a bullock
unaccustomed to the yoke; turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou
art the Lord my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented, and
after that I was instructed,” or had a right understanding of myself,
“I smote upon my thigh, I was ashamed; yea, even confounded; because I
did bear the reproach of my youth.” These be Ephraim’s complaints and
bemoanings of himself; at which the Lord breaks forth into these
heart-melting expressions, saying, “Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a
pleasant child? For since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember
him still; therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have
mercy upon him, saith the Lord.” Thus, you see, that as it is required
to pray with the Spirit, so it is to pray with the understanding also.
And to illustrate what hath been spoken by a similitude:—set the case,
there should come two a-begging to your door; the one is a poor, lame,
wounded, and almost starved creature, the other is a healthful lusty
person; these two use the same words in their begging; the one saith he
is almost starved, so doth the other: but yet the man that is indeed
the poor, lame, or maimed person, he speaks with more sense, feeling,
and understanding of the misery that is mentioned in their begging,
than the other can do; and it is discovered more by his affectionate
speaking, his bemoaning himself. His pain and poverty make him speak
more in a spirit of lamentation than the other, and he shall be pitied
sooner than the other, by all those that have the least dram of natural
affection or pity. Just thus it is with God: there are some who out of
custom and formality go and pray; there are others who go in the
bitterness of their spirits: the one he prays out of bare notion and
naked knowledge; the other hath his words forced from him by the
anguish of his soul. Surely that is the man that God will look at,
“even to him that is poor,” of an humble “and of a contrite spirit, and
trembleth at my word” (Isa 66:2).
Sixth. An understanding well enlightened is of admirable use also, both
as to the matter and manner of prayer. He that hath his understanding
well exercised, to discern between good and evil, and in it placed a
sense either of the misery of man, or the mercy of God; that soul hath
no need of the writings of other men to teach him by forms of prayer.
For as he that feels the pain needs not to be taught to cry O! even so
he that hath his understanding opened by the Spirit needs not so to be
taught of other men’s prayers, as that he cannot pray without them. The
present sense, feeling, and pressure that lieth upon his spirit,
provokes him to groan out his request unto the Lord. When David had the
pains of hell catching hold on him, and the sorrows of hell compassing
him about, he needs not a bishop in a surplice to teach him to say, “O
Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul” (Psa 116:3, 4). Or to look into
a book, to teach him in a form to pour out his heart before God. It is
the nature of the heart of sick men, in their pain and sickness, to
vent itself for ease, by dolorous groans and complainings to them that
stand by. Thus it was with David, in Psalm 38:1-12. And thus, blessed
be the Lord, it is with them that are endued with the grace of God.
Seventh. It is necessary that there be an enlightened understanding, to
the end that the soul be kept in a continuation of the duty of prayer.
The people of God are not ignorant how many wiles, tricks, and
temptations the devil hath to make a poor soul, who is truly willing to
have the Lord Jesus Christ, and that upon Christ’s terms too; I say, to
tempt that soul to be weary of seeking the face of God, and to think
that God is not willing to have mercy on such a one as him. Ay, saith
Satan, thou mayest pray indeed, but thou shalt not prevail. Thou seest
thine heart is hard, cold, dull, and dread; thou dost not pray with the
Spirit, thou dost not pray in good earnest, thy thoughts are running
after other things, when thou pretendest to pray to God. Away
hypocrite, go no further, it is but in vain to strive any longer! Here
now, if the soul be not well informed in its understanding, it will
presently cry out, “the Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath
forgotten me” (Isa 49:14). Whereas the soul rightly informed and
enlightened saith, Well, I will seek the Lord, and wait; I will not
leave off, though the Lord keep silence, and speak not one word of
comfort (Isa 40:27). He loved Jacob dearly, and yet he made him wrestle
before he had the blessing (Gen 32:25-27). Seeming delays in God are no
tokens of his displeasure; he may hide his face from his dearest saints
(Isa 8:17). He loves to keep his people praying, and to find them ever
knocking at the gate of heaven; it may be, says the soul, the Lord
tries me, or he loves to hear me groan out my condition before him.
The woman of Canaan would not take seeming denials for real ones; she
knew the Lord was gracious, and the Lord will avenge his people, though
he bear long with them (Luke 18:1-6). The Lord hath waited longer upon
me than I have waited upon him; and thus it was with David, “I waited
patiently,” saith he; that is, it was long before the Lord answered me,
though at the last “he inclined” his ear “unto me, and heard my cry”
(Psa 40:1). And the most excellent remedy for this is, an understanding
well informed and enlightened. Alas, how many poor souls are there in
the world, that truly fear the Lord, who, because they are not well
informed in their understanding, are oft ready to give up all for lost,
upon almost every trick and temptation of Satan! The Lord pity them,
and help them to “pray with the Spirit, and with the understanding
also.” Much of mine own experience could I here discover; when I have
been in my fits of agony of spirit, I have been strongly persuaded to
leave off, and to seek the Lord no longer;10 but being made to
understand what great sinners the Lord hath had mercy upon, and how
large his promises were still to sinners; and that it was not the
whole, but the sick, not the righteous, but the sinner, not the full,
but the empty, that he extended his grace and mercy unto. This made me,
through the assistance of his Holy Spirit, to cleave to him, to hang
upon him, and yet to cry, though for the present he made no answer; and
the Lord help all his poor, tempted, and afflicted people to do the
like, and to continue, though it be long, according to the saying of
the prophet (Hab 2:3). And to help them (to that end) to pray, not by
the inventions of men, and their stinted forms, but “with the Spirit,
and with the understanding also.”
[Queries and Objections answered.]
And now to answer a query or two, and so to pass on to the next thing.
Query First. But what would you have us poor creatures to do that
cannot tell how to pray? The Lord knows I know not either how to pray,
or what to pray for.
Answ. Poor heart! thou canst not, thou complainest, pray. Canst thou
see thy misery? Hath God showed thee that thou art by nature under the
curse of his law? If so, do not mistake, I know thou dost groan and
that most bitterly. I am persuaded thou canst scarcely be found doing
any thing in thy calling, but prayer breaketh from thy heart. Have not
thy groans gone up to heaven from every corner of thy house? (Rom
8:26). I know it is thus; and so also doth thine own sorrowful heart
witness thy tears, thy forgetfulness of thy calling, &c. Is not thy
heart so full of desires after the things of another world, that many
times thou dost even forget the things of this world? Prithee read this
scripture, Job 23:12.
Query Second. Yea, but when I go into secret, and intend to pour out my
soul before God, I can scarce say anything at all.
Answ. 1. Ah! Sweet soul! It is not thy words that God so much regards,
as that he will not mind thee, except thou comest before him with some
eloquent oration. His eye is on the brokenness of thine heart; and that
it is that makes the very bowels of the Lord to run over. “A broken and
a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psa 51:17).
2. The stopping of thy words may arise from overmuch trouble in thy
heart. David was so troubled sometimes, that he could not speak (Psa
77:3, 4). But this may comfort all such sorrowful hearts as thou art,
that though thou canst not through the anguish of thy spirit speak
much, yet the Holy Spirit stirs up in thine heart groans and sighs, so
much the more vehement: when the mouth is hindered, yet the spirit is
not. Moses, as aforesaid, made heaven ring again with his prayers, when
(that we read of) not one word came out of his mouth (Exo 14:15). But,