328 / 808
311
r.Ioh.5.14i15.
Era.
53.
to.
Hilt.s.z.
Doff.'
Spirit
brings
os
before
God
in pray-
er,
Rásfo>,
i:
Exed.
tot.
Intending
to
pray, beg
the
Spirit
coa
llift.
2.
Many prayers
are worthletfe.
Lphefans,Chap
®2.
V
E c
.18.
f
to
him with fecurity
to
fpeed at his
owne
hand:
fay
one fliould reafon
thus:
I
know
if
I fhould goe
to the
King
I
fhould fpeed
,
yet though
I
know not
fo
well
what the Courtiers about
him will or
can
doe
in
my
!I
caufe,
I will about
with
it
by them
;
every one would condemne
it
as abfurd in
him. But wee
have fure ground
of
fecurity
touching
our requefts.
We
arc
perfwadedthat
what
fever
wee
aske
in
his
name
he
heareth
us
in
it.
If
a
man had (ome great
perfen
in
the Court that
would
fecond him and fpeak
to
his
petition preferred
,
a
man
would
write upon
it
that
he fhould fpeed. Hee
that
fweat water
and
blood;
that
made
his
footle
an offering,
and
gave
himf
lfe
a
fecrifice
of
Tweet
fmelling favour
acceptable
to God
the
Father,he
it
is
that
is our
Mediatorar;
let
us
therefore
got
boldly unto
the throne
of
grace
that
wee may
receive
mercy,
and
find grace
to help
in
time ofneed,
Heb. 4.
t
6.
By
one
Spirit.)
Obferve then,
what
it
is
which doth
enable us
to
come
xoto
God
in
prayer, the
fpirit
of
God.
No
man
can name the
Lord
lefus
without the
glirit,a.Cor. 12.3. We
know not how to
pray as
we
nrght,6ut
the fpirit
helpeth
our
infirmities
with
fighes and
grtanes
unutterable,
Rom.
8.26.
therefore called the Spirit
of
['application,
Zach.
r
a.
ro.
Look
as
it was
with thofe holocaufls
,
they
muff
have the
fire from
!
dheaven
kindle
them,
if
they were accepted: So
it
is
true
that
our
f2-
crifices
of
Petition and Thankfgivings they
muff have the
spirit!
which
is
a fire kindling
them,or
the
favour of
them
will
not
be
fweet
in
thenoffrills
of
God.
Such hellifh
darkneffe,
fuch
miffs
of
igno
-'
ranee,
fuch remainders
of
death hang about
us
,
that
wee cannot
for
matter or manner order our
prayers acceptably
to
the Lord.
The
inward man
of
the heart
muff
chi.fiy
bee occupyed
in
prayer:
in
all
1
our
fervice
we fhould
fay
with
Paul, Rom.r.g.
that
we
ferve
God
in
our
Í
Spirits,but
efpecially
in
prayer:It
being not
the warbling
of
words,but
the
yearning and panting
of
the heart after God
and
the things
of
our
peace.Suchwas Chriffs prayers,
Heb.
5.7.
from
his
foule
they
came,
for
they
were offered up with flrong
cryes
and
many
tearer
:
and
if
ar-
dent
defire
is
the thingwhich God heareth, though there be
no voyce
annexed,as appeareth
in
Mefes,Why cryefl thou unto
metthe
Spirit
is
the
rife
of
true
prayer,
if
it proceed
not thence
it is an
empty thing,
which
God
regardeth
not.And
this maketh
prayer
laborious,becaufc the
Spi-
rit
is
to
travaile
in
it;
and
the
Saints
in
this regard can endure
better
to
heare an houre, then to pray
a
quarter.
Which
mutt
teach
us
to begge the
Spirit above
all
things,
without
which we
are not able
to
come neare
to God
in
prayer: it
is
the
Spirit
which teacheth
us
with
a
childlike
affe
&ion
to cry
.1bba
Father,
when
fent
into our hearts,
Gal.
4.
6.
It
ferveth to convince
fuck
prayers
as are
nothing but
vaine bab-
ling and
words without fpirit;
as
with
many the
nd is
running on
twenty
things,
while the body
boweth to
pray
d
lips
whiîper
words that way. Yea
it
doth
check the
indevotionaZPd
want
of
Spirit
that doth
creep
upon
us
that
are
theLords. And
let
us
take heed;
for
a
powerleffe prayer,
if
it come
not frommeet
feebleneffe
,
which
is
accompanyed