Annnias and Sapphira. Secondly, It is a great folly. Who but a fool can think to blind the eyes of the Almighty? Canst thou cover the sun with thy hand, that it shall not shine? As unable art thou to hide thy secret designs, so that the great God should not see them. It is impossible to deceive God ; but thou deceivest thyself most wofully : thou thirikest that thou mendest the matter by praying, but thou makest it worse. When thou comest on thy trial for thy life, as Solomon saith of another kind of hypocrite, Prov. i. 18, lay wait for thine own blood, and lurk privily for thy own life. Of all sinners, the hypocrite hath the precedency in God's purposes and preparations of wrath ; hell is prepared for him as the first-born of damnation, Matt. xxiv. 51. Other sinners are said to have their portion with hypocrites, as the younger brethren with their elder who is the heir. Thirdly, Crucify thy affections to the world. Hypocrisy in religion springs fi'om the bitter root of some carnal affection vuimortified. So long as thy prey lies below, thy eye will be to the earth, when thou seemest, like an eagle, to movmt in thy prayers to heaven. God is in the hypocrite's mouth, but the world is in his heart, which he expects to gain through his good reputation. I have read of one that offered his prince a great sum of money, to have leave once or twice a-day to come into his presence, and only say, God save your Majesty ! The prince, wondering at this large offer for so small a favour, asked him. What advantage would this afford him ? O Sire, saith he, this, though I have nothing else at your hands, will get me a name in the country for one who is a great favomite at court, and such an opinion will help me to more at the year's end, than it costs me for the purchase. Thus some, by the name they get for great saints, advance their worldly interests, which lie at the bottom of all their profession. Well : as thou lovest thy soul, and wouldst not lose this for ever, mortify those carnal affections, which thou findest most likely to withdraw thy heart from God. Thou knowest not God, if thou seest not enough in him to make thee happy without the world's contribution ; this thoroughly believed will make thee sincere in his service. ' I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect,' Gen. xvii. 1.
CHAPTER IX.
THE ACCEPTABLE PRAYER IS THAT WHICH IS IN THE SPIRIT.
Having dispatched the first importance of this phrase, ' Praying in the spirit,' namely, the spirit of the person that prayeth, Ave proceed to the second. To pray in the Spirit is to pray in or with the Spirit of God; ' Praying in the Holy Ghost,' Jude 20. In order to pray aright, 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 and the soul of the Christian to the perform- ance of it. The Holy Spirit is said to pray in us, Rom. viii. 26, and we are said to pray in him, Jude 20. By the first, is meant his inspiration, whereby he excites and assists the creature to and in the work ; by the latter, the concur- rence of the saint's faculties. The Spirit doth not so pray in the Christian, as that he doth not exercise his own faculties in the duty. In handling this, I shall observe three things.
Section I. — I shall assert the truth of the point, that to pray aright, it is necessary we pray by the Spirit of God ; Ephes. ii. 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 pi-ay in us, and we by it, on earth. We may as well venture to come to the Father through another Mediator, as pray by another Spirit than by the Holy Ghost. Therefore, our Saviour, when he would shew his dislike of his disciples' rash motion, he doth it by telling them, ' Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of,' Luke ix. 55 : as if he had said. It behoves you to be well acquainted with the Spirit's influences 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 than the Spirit of Christ 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,' 1 Cor. xii. 3. A man may say the words, without any special work of the Spirit, and so may a
IX TlIK Sl'IRIT. 'J'55