acts of the new creature, and flow from a spirit of grace infused into tlie soul, from which follows this spirit of supplication, Zech. xii. 10. Secondly, As habitual grace is required to sanctify the person, so actual grace to assist him as often as he prays. The Spirit of God may dwell in a soul by his habitual grace, yet deny actual assistance in a particular duty ; and then the poor Christian is becalmed, as a ship at sea when no wind is stirring : for as grace cannot evidence itself, neither can it act itself. Hence it is, that sometimes the saint's prayer speeds no better, because he is not influenced by the Spirit in it. Samson, when his hair was cut, was weak like another man. The Spirit of God is a free agent ; ' Uphold me with thy free Spirit,' Psa. li. 12. As a prince, when he plenseth he comes forth and shows himself to the soul, and when he pleaseth retireth. What more free than the wind ? Not the greatest king on earth can command it to rise at his pleasure ; to this the Spirit of God is compared, John iii. 8 ; he is not only free to breathe where he lists, in this soul, and not in that, but when he pleaseth also.
CHAPTER X.
THE ASSISTANCE THE HOLY GHOST GIVES A SAINT IN PRAYEI!.
But the question will here be, What assistance doth the Spirit of God give a saint in prayer, more than another? The assistance which the Spirit of God gives a saint in prayer above another, lies deep ; it is laid out upon the inward man, and the inward part of the duty. So that a person may come to know whether himself prays in the Spirit, but he cannot judge so easily of another. Now this special assistance consists in three particulars. First, The Spirit puts forth an act of resuscitation upon the soul, to stir up its affections. Never was any formal prayer of the Holy Spirit's making ; when he comes, it is a time of life; the Christian's aifections spring in his bosom at his voice, as the babe in Elizabeth at the salutation of Mary ; or as the strings under the musician's hands stir and speak harmoniously, so also the saint's aftections at the secret touch of the Spirit. He excites the saint's fear, filling him with such a sense of God's greatness, his own nothingness and baseness, as makes him reverence the Divine Majesty he speaks unto, and deliver every petition with a holj' trembling upon his spirit. Such a fear was upon Abraham's spirit, when in his prayer for Sodom he expressed how great an adventure he made, being but dust and ashes, to take upon him to speak unto the Lord. He excites the Christian's mourning aftections; by his divine breath he raiseth the clouds of the saint's past sins, and when he hath overspread his soul in meditation with the sad remembrance of them, then in prayer he melts the cloud, and dissolves his heart into soft showers of evangelical mourning, that the Christian sighs and groans, weeps and mourns, like a child that is beaten, though he sees the rod laid out of his heavenly Father's hands, and fears no wrath from him for them. The apostle tells us, the groans and sighs wluch the Spii'it helps the saint to, are such as 'cannot be uttered,' Rom. viii. 26 ; no, not by the saint himself: being unable to translate the inward grief he conceives into words, he is fain sometimes to send it with this inarticulate voice to heaven, yet it is a voice well understood there, and very musical in God's ear. In a word, he stirs up aftec- tions suitable to every part of prayer, enabling the gracious soul to confess sin with an aching heart; to sujiplicate mercy and grace, with an inward feeling of his wants ; and to praise God with a heart enlarged and carried on high upon the wings of love and joy. A hypocrite may display his art in the phrase and composition of his words, still it is but counterfeit prayer, for want of that which should give life and energy to it. This the Spirit of God alone can effect. Secondlv, As the Spirit of God excites the Christian's affec- tions in prayer, so he regulates and directs them. Who, indeed, but the Spirit of God can guide and rule these fiery steeds? He is said, in this respect, to help our infirmities, for we know not what to pray for as we ought, Rom. viii. 26. We are prone to over-bend the bow in some petitions, and want strength to bend it enough in others : one while we overshoot the mark, praying abso- lutely for that which we should ask conditionally ; another time we shoot beside the mark, either by praying for what God hath not promised, or too selfishly for that which is promised. Now, the Spirit helps the Christian's infirmity in
IN THK SPIRIT. 757