[2.] There is the gracious assistance of the Holy Ghost. Now, this is eitlier habitual or actual.
(1.) Habitual grace is necessary to prayer : Zech, xii. 10, ' I will pour upon them a spirit of grace and supplication.' Where there is grace there will be supplication. As soon as we are new born we fall a-crying ; ' Behold, he prayeth,' Acts ix. 11, is the first news we hear of Paul after his conversion. Prayer is a kindly duty to the new creature. Things of an airy and fiery nature, a little thing will carry them upward, it is their natural motion and tendency ; the I'egenerate are easily drawn into God's presence, it is the vent and utterance by which we discover the impression that is upon us. The priests were to wash in the great laver before they went to the altar ; we are washed in ' the laver of regeneration, and renewed by the Holy Ghost,' Titus iii.
VeR. 20.] UrON THE EPISTLE OF JUDE. 339
5, and so made fit to offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
(2.) There is actual help and assistance which we have from the Spirit. Though a man be regenerate, yet he cannot pray as he ought, unless he be still moved and assisted by the Holy Ghost. This is continual, for we soon work out the strength which we have received. Now, these actual motions do either concern the time of pra)-er or the matter and the manner of it.
First, The time of prayer, the Spirit suggesteth the fittest seasonsTl he that searcheth out the deep things of God, knoweth the acceptable times, Ps. xxxii. 6, and accordingly giveth notice to the heart by set- ting it a-work in serious addresses to God: Ps. xxvii. 8, ' Thousaidst, Seek ye my face, and my heart said, Tliy face, Lord, will I seek.' God speaketh to us by holy motions and the impulsions of his grace, and we answer God by a ready obedience. It is the worst scorn we can put upon one whom we hate when we deny to speak witli him when he sendeth for us. By these motions we are invited to come and confer with God ; do not say, I am not at leisure. I would not have this in- terpreted as if every motion to prayer were from the Spirit. It is possible Satan may oppress an anxious soul with the tyranny of un- reasonable impulsions to duty ; I only understand such motions as are regular and according to the word. J Neither would I again be so understood as if God were never toT^e called upon, or we were never to pray, but when the Spirit moveth us ; that is one of tlie carnal flincies of many wretches now. No, no ; God must have his daily acknow- ledgment, ' Give us this day our daily bread ;' but my meaning is, that such a season, when we are so strongly moved by the Spirit of God, should not be neglected.
Secondly, The matter of prayer is suggested by the Holy Ghost. Let a man alone and he will soon run into a temptation, and cry for that which it were cruelty in God lo give him ; therefore the direction of the Holy Ghost is necessary, that we may not ask a scorpion instead of a fish, and a stone instead of bread: Rom. viii. 27, ' He maketli intercession for the saints, according to the will of God.^ We take counsel of our lusts and interests when we are left to our own private spirit, and so would have God to be a minister of our carnal desires, and would engage him in our quarrels and private revenges ; or else ask meat for our lusts. Now, the Holy Ghost teacheth us to ask not only what is lawful, but what is expedient for us, that so the will of God may take place before our inclinations.
Thirdly, For the manner. In every moral action the manner of working is a chief circumstance. A man may sin in doing good, but not in doing well. Now, in prayer, where we have immediately to do with God, we should take great heed in what manner we come to him. The right manner is when we come with affection, with confidence, with reverence.
First, With affection. It is the Holy Ghost sets us a-groaning : Pom. viii. 26, ' He maketh intercession for the saints with such sighs and groans as cannot be uttered.' Words are but the outside of prayer ; sighs and groans are the language which God will understand, and these are the prayers which the Holy Ghost maketh for us, and in
340 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [YeR. 20.
US. We learn to mourn from the turtle, from him that descended in the form of a dove ; he draweth sighs from the heart, and tears from the eyes. Parts may furnish us with eloquence, but the Spirit giveth affection, that earnest reaching forth of soul, that holy importunity, that spiritual violence. It is all of his working. Many a prayer is neatly ordered, and tunahly delivered, but this artifice of words smelleth of the man ; then it savoureth of the Holy Ghost when there is life and power in it, and the poor supplicant sets himself to wrestle with God, as if he would overcome him by his own strength.