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happy, and yet go without many of the comforts of the present state: Submission is here required; and God expects to see his children thus rationally religious, and wisely to divide the things that are most agreeable to his will, and most necessary for our felicity. While we make intercession for our friends, or our enemies, we ought to feel in ourselves warm and lively compassion; and when we pray for the church of Christ in the world, we should animate all our expressions with a burning zeal for his glory, and tenderness for our fellow-christians.

V. Pleading with God, calls for humble importunity: For the arguments that we use with God, in pleading with him, are but the various forms of importunate request. But because we are but creatures, and we speak to God, humility ought to mingle with every one of our arguments. Our pleadings with him should be so expressed, as always to carry in them that decency, and that distance, that becomes creatures in the presence of their Maker. In pleading also we are required to exercise faith in the promises of the gospel, faith in the name of Christ Jesus our Mediator, faith in the mercies of our God, according to the discoveries he hath made of himself in his word. We are called to believe that he is a God hearing prayer, and will bestow upon us what we seek so far as is necessary for his glory, and our salvation; to believe that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him; Heb. xi. 6. Here also the grace of hope comes into exercise; for while we trust the promises, we hope for the things promised, or the things for which we petition. We ought to maintain an humble holy expectation of those mercies for which we plead with God. We must direct our prayer to him, and look up with David; Psalm v. 3. and with Habakkuk, stand upon our watch-tower, and see what he will answer us; Habak. ii. 1.

VI. In that part of prayer which is called profession, or self-resignation, great humility is again required; a sweet submission to his will, a composedness and quietness of spirit under his determinations, even though, for reasons of infinite wisdom and love, he withhold from us the particular comforts that we seek. Here let patience have its perfect exercise, and let the soul continue in an humble frame, waiting upon God. While we give up ourselves to God, a divine steadiness of soul should attend it, and the firmest courage of heart against all oppositions, while we confirm all our self-dedications to the Lord.

VII. In thanksgiving, a most hearty gratitude of soul is required, a deep sense of divine favours, and a readiness to return unto God according to his goodness, to the uttermost of our capacities; a growing love to God, and sincere longing to do something for him, answerable to the variety and riches of his grace towards us. Here also, with holy wonder, we acknowledge the condescension of God to bestow mercies upon us so unworthy; and this wonder should arise and grow up into divine joy, while we bless our Maker for the mercies of this life, and our Father for an interest in his covenant and his special love. And in our thanksgivings we should be sure to take notice of all returns of prayer, all merciful appearances of God in answer to our requests; for it is but a poor converse maintained with God, if we are only careful about our speaking to him, but take no notice of any replies he condescends to make to our poor and worthless addresses.

VIII. When we bless God, we should shew an earnest longing after the honour of the name of God, and our souls should breathe fervently after the accomplishment of those promises wherein he hath engaged to spread his own honours, and to magnify

his own name, and the name of his Son; we should, as it were, exult and triumph in those glories, which God, our God possesses, and rejoice to think that he shall for ever possess them. Then we conclude the whole prayer with our Amen of sincerity and faith, in one short word expressing over again our adorations, our confessions, and our petitions; trusting and hoping for the audience of our prayers, and acceptance of our persons, from whence we should take encouragement to rise from this duty with a sweet serenity and composure of mind, and maintain a joyful and heavenly frame, as those that have been with God.

But lest some pious and humble souls should be discouraged, when they find not these lively exercises of faith, hope, love, fervency of desire, and divine delight in worship, and thence conclude that they have not the grace of prayer; I would add this caution, viz. That all the graces of prayer are seldom at work in the soul at once, in an eminent and sensible degree; sometimes one prevails more, and sometimes another, in this feeble and imperfect state: And when a christian comes before God with much deadness. of heart, much overcome with carnal thoughts, and feels great reluctancy even to the duty of prayer, and falls down before God, mourning, complaining, self-condemning, and with sighs and deep groans in secret, makes known his burden, and his sins to God: though he can speak but few words before him, such a frame and temper of mind will be approved of by that God who judges the secrets of the heart, and makes most compassionate allowances for the infirmity of our flesh, and will acknowledge his own grace working in that soul, though it be but just breathing and struggling upward through loads of sin and sorrow.

SECTION IV.

DIRECTIONS TO ATTAIN THE GRACE OF PRAYER.

In order to direct us in the spiritual performance of this duty, we must consider it as a holy converse maintained between earth and heaven, betwixt the great and holy God and mean and sinful creatures. Now the most natural rules that I can think of, to carry on this converse, are such as these:

I. Direction. Possess your hearts with a most affecting sense of the characters of the two parties that are to maintain this correspondence; that is, God and yourselves. This indeed is one direction for the gift of prayer, but it is also most necessary to attain the grace. Let us consider who this glorious Being is, that invites us to this fellowship with himself; how awful in majesty! how terrible in righteousness! how irresistible in power! how unsearchable in wisdom! how all-sufficient in blessedness! how condescending in mercy! Let us again consider, who are we that are invited to this correspondence: How vile in our original! how guilty in our hearts and lives! how needy of every blessing! how utterly incapable to help ourselves! and how miserable for ever, if we are without God! And if we have sincerely obeyed the call of his gospel, and have attained to some comfortable hope of his love; let us consider, how infinite are our obligations to him, and how necessary, and how delightful it is to enjoy his visits here, with whom it will be our happiness to dwell for ever. When we feel our spirits deeply impressed with such thoughts as these are, we are in the best frame, and most likely way to pray with grace in our hearts.

II. When you come before God, remember the nature of this correspondence, it is all spiritual; remember the dignity and privilege, the design and the importance of it. A sense of the high favour, in being admitted to this privilege and honour, will fill your souls with humble wonder, and with heavenly joy, such as becomes the favourites and worshippers of an infinite God. A due attendance to the design and importance of this duty, will fix your thoughts to the most immoveable attention, and strict watchfulness; it will overspread your spirit with seriousness, it will command all your inward powers to devotion, and will raise your desires to holy fervency. You pray to him that hath power to save and to destroy, about your eternal destruction, or eternal salvation, and if eternity, with all its lawful attendants, will not awaken some of the graces of prayer, the soul must be in a very stupid frame.

III. Seek earnestly a state of friendship with him with whom you converse, and labour after a good hope and assurance of that friendship. We are all by nature enemies to God, and children of his wrath; Rom. viii. 7. and Eph. ii. 2. If we are not reconciled, we can never hold communion with him. How can we delight in converse with an enemy so almighty? Or pay him due worship, while we believe he hates, and will destroy us? But oh! how unspeakable is the pleasure in holding converse with so infinite, so almighty, and so compassionate a Friend? And how ready will all the powers of nature be to render every honour to him, while we feel and know ourselves to be his favourites, and the children of his grace? While we believe, that all his honours are our glory in the state of friendship, and each of his perfections are the pillars of our hope, and the assurances of our happiness? Now, in order to obtain this friendship, and to promote this divine fellowship, I recommend you to the next direction:

IV. Live much upon, and with, Jesus the Mediator, by whose interest alone you can come near God, and be brought into his company. Christ is the way, the truth, and the life: and no man comes to the Father, but by him; John xiv. 6. Through him Jews and gentiles have access unto the Father; Eph. ii. 18. Live much upon him therefore by trust and dependence, and live much with him by meditation and love. When a sinner under first conviction sees with horror the dreadful holiness of God, and his own guilt, and desert of damnation, how fearful is he to draw near to God in prayer? And how much discouraged while he abides without hope? But when he first beholds Christ in his mediatorial offices, and his glorious all-sufficiency to save; when he first beholds this new and living way of access to God, consecrated by the blood of Christ; how cheerfully doth he come before the throne of God, and pour out his whole soul in prayer?. And how lively is his nature in the exercise of every grace suited to his duty? How deep his humility? How fervent his desires? How importunate his pleadings? How warm and hearty are his thanksgivings? And we have need always to maintain upon our spirits a deep sense of the evil of sin, of our desert of death, of the dreadful holiness of God, and impossibility of our converse with him without a Mediator, that so the name of Jesus may be ever precious to us, and that we may never venture into the presence of God in set and solemn prayer, without the eye of our soul to Christ our glorious Introducer.

V. Maintain always a praying frame; a temper of mind ready to converse with God. This will be one way to keep all praying graces ever ready for exercise. Visit him therefore often, and upon all occasions, with whom you would obtain some immediate communion at solemn seasons of devotion, and make the work of prayer your delight,

nor rest satisfied till you find pleasure in it. What advantages and opportunities soever you enjoy for social prayer, do not neglect praying in secret: At least once a day constrain the businesses of life, to give you leave to say something to God alone. When you join with others in prayer, where you are not the speaker, let your heart be kept intent and watchful to the work, that you may pray so much the better, when you are the mouth of others to God. Take frequent occasion, in the midst of your duties in the world, to lift up your heart to God: He is ready to hear a sudden sentence, and will answer the breathings of a holy soul towards himself, in the short intervals or spaces between your daily affairs. Thus you may pray without ceasing, as the apostle directs, and your graces may be ever lively. Whereas if you only make your addresses to God in the morning and evening, and forget him all the day, your hearts will grow indifferent in worship, and you will only pay a salutation with your lips and your knees, and fulfil the task with dull formality.

VI. Seek earnestly the assistance of the Holy Spirit. It is he that works every grace in us, and fits us for every duty; it is he that awakens sleeping graces into exercise; it is he that draws the soul near to God, and teaches us this correspondence with heaven. He is the Spirit of grace and supplication; but because this is the subject of the following chapter, I shall pursue it no further here.

CHAPTER IV.

OF THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER.

ALL the rules and directions that have hitherto been laid down, in order to teach us to pray, will be ineffectual if we have no divine aids; we are not sufficient of ourselves to think one thought, and all that is good comes from God. If therefore we would attain the gift or grace of prayer, we must seek both from heaven; and since the mercies of God of this kind, that are bestowed on men, are usually attributed to the Holy Spirit, he may very properly be called the Spirit of prayer; and as such, his assistance is to be sought with diligence and importunity. I confess, the spirit of prayer, in our language, may sometimes signify a temper of mind well furnished and ready for the work of prayer. So when we say, There was a greater spirit of prayer found in churches in former days than now; we mean, there was a greater degree of the gift and grace of prayer found amongst men; their hearts and their tongues were better furnished and fitted for this duty. But to deny the spirit of prayer in all other senses, and declare there is no need of any influences from the Holy Spirit to assist us to pray, carries in it a high degree of self-sufficiency, and borders upon profaneness. My business therefore in this chapter, shall be to prove, by plain and easy arguments, that the Spirit of God doth assist his people in prayer: Then to shew what his assistances are, and how far they extend, that we may not expect more from him than scripture promises, nor attribute too little to his influences: And after a few cautions laid down, I shall proceed to give some directions how the aids of the Holy Spirit may be obtained.

SECTION I.

PROOFS OF THE ASSISTANCE OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD IN PRAYER.

THE methods of proof which I shall use to evince the influences of the Spirit of God in prayer, are these three: 1. Express texts of scripture. 2. Collateral texts. 3. The experience of christians.

I. The first argument is drawn from such express texts of scripture as these:

1. Text. Zech. xii. 10. I will pour out on the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a Spirit of grace, and of supplications. Here the Holy Spirit of God is called a Spirit of supplication, with respect to the special operations and ends for which he is here promised. The plentiful communication of his operations to men, is often expressed by pouring him out upon them; as Isaiah xlv. 3. Prov. i. 23. Titus iii. 6. and many. other places. Now that this prophecy refers to the times of the gospel is evident, because the effect of it is a looking to Christ as pierced or crucified. They shall look on him whom they have pierced.

Objection. Some will say this promise only refers to the Jews at the time of their conversion.

Answer. Most of these exceeding great and precious promises, that relate to gospel-times, are made expressly to Jacob, and Israel, and Jerusalem, and Sion, in the language of the Old Testament. And how dreadfully should we deprive ourselves, and all the gentile believers, of all these gracious promises at one stroke, by such a confined exposition? Whereas the apostle Paul sometimes takes occasion to quote a promise of the Old Testament made to the Jews, and applies it to the gentiles, as 2 Cor. vi. 16, 17, 18. I will dwell in them, and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people; which is written for the Jews, in Levit. xxvi. 12. Come out from among them -touch no unclean thing and I will be a father to you, &c. which are cited from Isaiah lii. 11. and Jer. xxxi. 1, 9. where Israel alone is mentioned. And yet in 2' Cor. vii. 1. the apostle says, Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves, &c. And thus he makes the Corinthians as it were possessors of these very promises. He gives us also much encouragement to do the same, when he tells us; Rom. xv. 4. Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope: and verse 8, 9. he assures us, that Jesus Christ confirms the promises made to the fathers, that the gentiles may glorify God for his mercy. Again, in 2 Cor. i. 20. All the promises of God in him are yea, and in him amen, to the glory of God. Now it would have been to very little purpose to have told the Romans or the Corinthians of the stability of all the promises of God, if their faith might not have embraced them.

We are said to be blessed with faithful Abraham, if we are imitators of his faith; Gal. iii. 29. If we are Christ's, then are we Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise; heirs by faith of the same blessings that are promised to Abraham, and to his seed; Rom. iv. 13. Now this very promise, the promise of the Spirit, is received by us gentiles, as heirs of Abraham; Gal. iii. 14. That the blessing of Abraham might come on the gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit, through

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