But it may be it will be said, " There is more stir than needs made
in this matter. God help poor sinners, if all this be required unto
their prayers! Certainly men may, pray at a cheaper rate, and with
. much less trouble, or very few will continue long in that duty." For
; some can see no necessity of thus understanding the grace and mercy
276 WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PRAYER. [BOOK VII.
that is in the promises unto prayer, and suppose that men know well enough what to pray for without it.
But those who so speak neither know what it is to pray, nor, it seems, are willing to learn; for we are to pray in faith, Rom. x. 14, and faith respects God's promises, Heb. iv. 1, Rom. iv. If, therefore, we understand not what God hath promised, we cannot pray at all. It is marvellous what thoughts such persons have of God and themselves, who, without a due comprehension of their own wants, and without an understanding of God's promises, wherein all their supplies are laid up, do "say their prayers," as they call it, continually. And indeed in the poverty, or rather misery, of devised aids of prayer, this is not the least pernicious effect or consequent-, that they keep men oft from searching the promises of God, whereby they might know what to pray for. Let the matter of prayer be so prescribed unto men as that they shall never need either to search their own hearts or God's promises about it, and this whole work is despatched out of the way. But then is the soul prepared aright for this duty, and then only, when it understands its own condition, the supplies of grace provided in the promises, the suitableness of those supplies unto its wants, and the means of its conveyance unto us by Jesus Christ. That all this we have by the Spirit, and not otherwise, shall be immediately de- clared.
Thirdly, Unto the matter of prayer, I join the end we aim at in the things we pray for, and which we direct them unto. And herein, also, are Ave in ourselves at a loss; and men may lose all the benefit of their prayers by proposing undue ends unto themselves in the things they pray for. Our Saviour saith, "Ask, and ye shall receive ;" but the apostle James affirms of some, chap. iv. 3, " Ye ask, and re- ceive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it on your plea- sures." To pray for any thing, and not expressly unto the end where- unto of God it is designed, is to ask amiss, and to no purpose ; and yet, whatever confidence we may have of our own wisdom and in- tegrity, if we are left unto ourselves, without the especial guidance of the Spirit of God, our aims will never be suited unto the will of God. The ways and means whereby we may fail, and do so in this kind, when not under the actual conduct of the Spirit of God,— that is, when our own natural and distempered affections do immix them- selves in our supplications, — are innumerable. And there is nothing so excellent in itself, so useful unto us, so acceptable unto God, in the matter of prayer, but it may be vitiated, corrupted, and prayer itself rendered vain, by an application of it unto false or mistaken ends. And what is the work of the Spirit to guide us herein we shall see in its proper place.
CHAP. V.] THE SPIRIT'S WORK AS TO MATTER OF PRAYER. 277
CHAPTER V.
The work of the Holy Spirit as to the matter of prayer.
These things are considerable as to the matter of prayer; and with respect unto them, of ourselves we know not what we should pray for, nor how, nor when. And the first work of the Spirit of God, as a Spirit of supplication in believers, is to give them an un- derstanding of all their wants, and of the supplies of grace and mercy in the promises, causing [such] a sense of them to dwell and abide on their minds as that, according unto their measure, they are continu- ally furnished with the matter of prayer, without which men never pray, and by which, in some sense, they pray always; for, —
First, He alone doth, and he alone is able to give us such an un- derstanding of our own wants as that we may be able to make our thoughts about them known unto God in prayer and supplication. And what is said concerning our wants is so likewise with respect unto the whole matter of prayer, whereby we give glory to God, either in requests or prayers. And this I shall manifest in some in- stances, whereunto others may be reduced.
1. The principal matter of our prayers concerneth faith and un- belief So the apostles prayed in a particular manner, "Lord, increase our faith;" and so the poor man prayed in his distress, " Lord, help thou mine unbelief." I cannot think that they ever pray aright who never pray for the pardon of unbelief, for the removal of it, and for the increase of faith. If unbelief be the greatest of sins, and if faith be the greatest of the gifts of God, we are not Christians if these things are not one principal part of the matter of our prayers. Unto this end we must be convinced of the nature and guilt of unbelief, as also of the nature and use of faith ; nor without that conviction do we either know our own chiefest wants, or what to pray for as we ought. And that this is the especial work of the Holy Ghost our Saviour expressly declares, John xvi. 8, 9, "He will convince the world of sin, because they believe not on me." I do and must deny that any one is or can be convinced of the nature and guilt of that unbe- lief, either in the whole or in the remainders of it, which the gospel condemneth, and which is "the great condemning sin under the gos- pel, without an especial work of the Holy Ghost on his mind and soul ; for unbelief, as it respecteth Jesus Christ, — not believing in him, or not believing in him as we ought, — is a sin against the gospel, and it is by the gospel alone that we may be convinced of it, and that as it is the ministration of the Spirit. Wherefore, neither the light of a natural conscience nor the law will convince any one of the guilt