CHAPTER IX.
Duties inferred from the preceding discourse.
The issue of all our inquiries is, how we may improve them unto obedience in the life of God; for "if we know them, happy are we if we do them," and not otherwise. And our practice herein may be reduced unto these two heads: — 1. A due and constant returning of glory unto God on the account of his grace in that free gift of his whose nature we have inquired into. 2. A constant attendance unto the duty which we are graciously enabled unto thereby. And, —
1. (1.) We ought continually to bless God and give glory to him for this great privilege of the Spirit of grace and supplication granted unto the church.1 This is the principal means on their part of all holy intercourse with God, and of giving glory unto him. How doth the world, which is destitute of this fruit of divine bounty, grope in the dark and wander after vain imaginations, whilst it knows not how to manage its convictions, nor how at all to deal with God about its concerns! That world which cannot receive the Spirit of grace and truth can never have aught to do with God in a due manner. There are by whom this gift of God is despised, is reviled, is blas- phemed; and under the shades of many pretences do they hide them- selves from the light in their so doing. But they know not what they do, nor by what spirit they are acted. Our duty it is to pray that God would pour forth his Spirit even on them also, who will quickly cause them to " look on him whom they have pierced, and mourn."
And it appears two ways how great a mercy it is to enjoy and im- prove this privilege: — [1.] In that both the psalmist and the prophet pray directly, in a spirit of prophecy, and without limitation, that God would " pour out his fury on the families that call not on his
1 T<s ovx. olv iKirXayi'in xai S-au/jcaertn rvtv rov @iou <piXa,vfya<Fitzv, %v us '/ifix; IvioiiKvvvtti, Ttxravrwv 7iftr;v avdpcovoi; %api%of&tvos, as xu) irp?tnu%n; a^iatrai xai o[/.iXi'/.s t7,s vtotyvroul Qtw yuf> aXtitas XuXov pit rev KU.ru TYt; wpoenv^ij;. — CJirys. Hoill. lxvii. de PreC. 1.
SI 6 V/ORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PRAYER. [BOOK VII.
name," Ps. Ixxix. 6; Jer. x. 25. And, [2.] In that the whole work of faith in obedience is denominated from this duty of prayer, for so it is said that " whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved," Rom. x. 13; for invocation or prayer, in the power of the Spirit of grace and supplication, is an infallible evidence and fruit of saving faith and obedience, and therefore is the promise of salvation so eminently annexed unto it, or it is placed by a synecdoche for the whole worship of God and obedience of faith. And it were endless to declare the benefits that the church of God, and every one that belongeth thereunto, hath thereby. No heart can conceive that treasury of mercies which lies in this one privilege, in having liberty and ability to approach unto God at all times, according unto his mind and will. This is the relief, the refuge, the weapons, and as- sured refreshment, of the church in all conditions.
(2.) It is a matter of praise and glory to God, in an especial manner, that he hath granted an ampliation of this privilege under the gospel. The Spirit is now poured forth from above, and enlarged in his dispensation, both intensively and extensively. Those on whom he is bestowed do receive him in a larger measure than they did formerly under the Old Testament. Thence is that liberty and boldness in their access unto the throne of grace, and their crying " Abba, Father," which the apostle reckons among the great privi- leges of the dispensation of the Spirit of Christ, which they of old were not partakers of. If the difference between the Old Testament state and the New lay only in the outward letter and the rule thereof, it would not be so easily discerned on which side the ad- vantage lay ; especially, methinks, it should not be so by them who seem really to prefer the pomp of legal worship before the plainness and simplicity of the gospel. But he who understands what it is not to " receive the spirit of bondage to fear," but to " receive the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father," and what it is to " serve God in the newness of the Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter," understands their difference well enough. And I cannot but admire that some will make use of arguments, or a pretence of them, for such helps and forms of prayer as seem not compliant with the work of the Spirit of supplication before described, from the Old Testament, and the practice of the church of the Jews before the time of our Saviour, though indeed they can prove nothing from thence; for do they not acknowledge that there is a more plentiful effusion of the Spirit on the church under the New Testament than under the Old ? To deny it is to take away the principal difference be- tween the law and the gospel. And is not the performance of duties to be regulated according to the supplies of grace? If we should suppose that the people, being then carnal, and obliged to the obser-