(3.) The third agent in prayer is the Holy Spirit. He is sometimes said to pray in us, Rom. viii. 26 ; sometimes we are said to pray in him, Jude 20. The divine Spirit exciteth those graces in us which incline us to God ; he raiseth our minds in the vision and sight of God. ' In thy light shall we see light,' Ps. xxxvi. 9 ; and he raiseth our hearts to a desire after and delight in God, for all that spiritual solace and joy is called 'joy in the Holy Ghost ; ' for both unutterable groans and un- speakable joys are of his working : Rom. viii. 26, ' The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered ; ' compared with 1 Pet. i. 8, ' In whom, though ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.' Well, then, these work a kind of an ecstasy. If you would pray so as to be transported, transformed in prayer, something you must do as reason- able creatures, something as new creatures, and the Spirit influenceth all, and causeth the soul to follow hard after God. We must put forth our utmost endeavour, stir up the gift of God in us ; and though we cannot command the influences of the Spirit, yet he is never want- ing to a serious soul as to necessary help. Pray thus, and you will find, as the help of the Spirit in prayer, so the comforts of the Spirit as the success of prayer.
[5.] As there is daily and constant prayer in which we must ever bewray a seriousness and sincerity for these daily supplies of grace, so there are extraordinary occasions, because of some great business, con- flict, or temptation : in those the heart and mind must be more than ordinarily raised and stirred. In every prayer of Christ there was not a transfiguration ; and we read of our Lord Jesus, that in his agonies he prayed, i/cTevecrrepov, more earnestly than at other times, Luke xxii. 44 ; and upon eminent occasions, as the necessities of the saints are greater, so their acts of prayer are more earnest. On these weighty occasions many Christians are wholly swallowed up with the thoughts of God, and carried beyond themselves by their high love to God, and
352 chkist's transfiguration. [Ser. II.
earnest desires of the spiritual blessings they stand in need of, so that they seem to be rapt into heaven in their admiration of God and delight in him.
APPLICATION.
Use. To reprove our feeble, remiss, and benumbed requests. There is no life in our prayers, no working up of the heart to God and heaven, no flames of love, no transports of soul by the vision and sight of faith, no holy and ardent desires after God, or spiritual solace and delight in him.
Reasons — 1. We pray cursorily, and go about prayer as a customary task for fashion's sake ; we come with a few cold devotions morning and evening, and so ' God is near in our months, and far from our reins,' Jer. xii. 2. Oh, take heed of this ! Nothing breeds slightness and hardness of heart so much as perfunctory praying. Tlie rule is, ' Continue instant in prayer,' Eom. xii. 12. And it is said of the saints that they ' Served God instantly night and day,' ev iKTevela, Acts xxvi. 7, that they might come to the blessed hope, with the united service of all their powers and faculties.
2. Our prayers are doctrinal and instructive, rather than affectionate and warming. We get light by other duties, but we should get life by prayer. This duty is not to inform the judgment, but to raise the affections, that they may be all flame. Other duties are feeding duties, but this is a spending duty, an egression of the soul after God : Ps. Ixiii. 8, ' My soul followeth hard after thee.' A man may better spend two hours in hearing than half an hour in praying, if the heart be em- ployed in it as it ought to be, in the sight of God, and an earnest de- ^sire after him. The prayers in scripture are ail supplications or doxo- logies ; there is no excursion into doctrines and instructions.
3. Else we are lamenting sin, and spend the time in confessing sin, which also hath its use in the seasons thereof; but are seldom in praises or adorations of the excellences of God, and the wonderful mysteries of his love in our redemption by Jesus Christ. Yet it is said, Ps. xxii. 3, ' 0 Lord, that inhabitest the praises of Israel.' These are the things that do most ravish the heart, and raise it in the con- templation of that glorious God to whom we speak ; and fill us with the ecstasies of love, that we may be more like him — holy, wise, and good, as he is holy, wise, and good.
4. We think a dry narrative to be enough ; that is, the fruit of a human spirit, or a mere product of memory and invention is a suffi- cient prayer, without acting faith, hope, or love in it, or those spiri- tual and heavenly desires which are the life of prayer : Ps. x. 17, ' Lord, thou hast lieard the desire of the humble, thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear.' The ardency of humble addresses is God's own gift, and he will never reject and despise those requests that, by his own Spirit and appointment, are direct and brought to him.