1. What Prayer is.

AS there is no e­vill of sinne, The excel­lency and necessity of Praier: nor plague of pu­nishment, more feareful & dangerous then the Spirit of slumber; Isay 29. 10 so there is no better preser­vation against it, Rom. 12. 8. and me­dicine for the cure of it, then the Spirit of Prayer. The best of Gods people [Page 2] are taken with some dregs of this.

I sleepe (saith the spouse) but my heart waketh: Cant. 5. 2. All had need therefore to be awaked, and there is no better meanes to awake us, then to hear God spea­king to us, and to set our selves a talking to God. These be the two meanes indeed that abandon all that breake off fami­liarity with God, and keepe and increase ac­quaintance with God; let that counsell of our Sa­viour ever be with us, watch and pray. It is the best meanes for watch­men to keepe themselves awake by talking, and so rouse their Spirits by con­ference. [Page 3] This Prayer is the best medicine, the sa­fest refuge, the truest mes­senger, and the most mighty prevailer with God.

To stirre us up then to so excellent and necessary a duty, in so dangerous, secure, and backsliding time, I have made bold to hang out a litle light, that they that have erred from the way (as who doth not) may returne, they that are in the way may goe on with comfort, and they that never came into the way (who yet suppose themselves to be in the way) may, if it be possi­ble, be brought into the way.

[Page 4] For Method and me­mories sake, the subject of this litle Treatise, con­taines in it, or divideth it selfe into these particu­lars.

In the first, there is a description of Prayer.

In the second, are dis­covered the marks of the Spirit of Prayer.

The third directeth us how to attaine to the sence of the Spirit of Prai­er.

The fourth sheweth how a man should hold on the duty of Prayer without the sence of the Spirit.

The fift and last dire­cteth men that want the Spirit of Prayer how to [Page 5] labour for it: Of these and of their proper particu­lars in order, and first, briefly of the first, because the manner of true Prayer doth discover fully the nature of Prayer.

The School-men, Descripti­on of Prai­er. and Fathers have diverse De­scriptions; in which for me to be curious, standeth neither with the nature of the Treatise, nor with the scope or my intent: And for my owne part as one said in another case, I had rather pray powerfully then define Prayer accurately: The summe of all these; The summe of all Descri­ptions, may be comprised in this, namely, That Prai­er is a spirituall Ability in­fused [Page 6] into the heart, where­by the soule expresseth it selfe familiarly and imme­diately to God, in the name of Iesus Christ, with confi­dence in the promises. It is called by some the pious affection of the speaker to God; August. Hom. by others the manife­station of the heart to God, and the assent of the soul to God. This definitiō is made good by diverse places of the Scripture compared together: Rom. 8. 26. 16. First, the Spirit maketh intercession for us with Groans: Secondly, the heart is the seate &c.

Lord before thee is all my desire, Psal. 38. 10. 65. 3. and my sighing is not hid from thee: This must be done immediately to God; for thou that [Page 7] hearest Prayers (saith the Psalmist) unto thee shal all flesh come, and that in the Name of Christ. Ioh. 5. 14. If yee aske any thing in my name I will doe it; Nei­ther doth Christ his Me­diatourship make ours not to be immediate; for he is God as well as man, and is appointed our Me­diatour, as the place quo­ted testifieth, I will doe it. Lastly with confidence in the promises, and this is the confidence that we have in him, Ioh. 5. 14 that if wee aske any thing according to his will he heareth us.

First, that Prayer is not an naturall acquired abi­lity.

Secondly, it cōsisteth not [Page 8] in words though they be ornat, or well set forth with seeming holynesse, but in the powring out of the heart, by sighes and groanes inexpressible.

Thirdly, It is no Pray­er at all that is not made in and by Christ.

Fourthly & Lastly, with­out faith it is impossible to pray: Of these Conclu­sions more fully in the se­cond particular, to which now I proceed.

2 How a man may know when hee prayeth in the Spirit.

AS Prayer is the special gift of God; so all men have it not that can talk well, or that seeme to have it; Ioel, 2. 28. I will poure out my Spirit (saith the Lord) up­on all flesh; that is, upon all his own; he promiseth no such thing to the wic­ked. Pray alwaies, Ephes. 6. 18. saith the Apostle: Try we there­fore, whether wee have this or not, for good words except they be the words of the Spirit, will not serve. Would you [Page 10] then know whether you pray by the Spirit or no, try your Prayer by these particular evidences.

The first evidence of the Spirit of Praier is our Adoption, Evidences of praying in the Spi­rit. 1. Is Ado­ption. or Sonship, wherein wee are interre­sted. Bastards and stran­gers, yea, meere servants cannot pray; they learne not, nay cannot learne the language of the house, as children can doe; they cal not upon God; they may get some broken lan­guage, or termes of Art wherewithall to serve their necessities, as for meat, prefentment and e­steeme among Gods peo­ple; yea, for some words they may come to be ad­mired, [Page 11] but in the true pro­nounciation of Shiboleth they are to seeke, and so they come short of that language: But the sonnes and daughters, be they never so weake, yea, but babes or Infants in Christ, yet they can speake the language of their Fa­ther truly, though not througly, nor eloquently. All this the Apostle pro­veth in that Phrase to the Romans: Rom. 8. 15. Yee have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby yee cry Abba Fa­ther: Where observe, first, who cryeth, namely Sonnes, and they only: Secondly what they cry, namely Father, which if they can speake truly, if [Page 12] with litle children, they can say litle more, yet they pray truly, speaking the language of the Spi­rit.

A second note that one prayeth by the Spirit, 2 A desire and endea­vour of the presence of the Spirit. is an earnest desire and endeavour to take the Spi­rit along with them: They will not goe willingly without the evidence of the Spirit; witnesse the same Apostle; the Spirit maketh request for us: Where wee must under­stand that the Spirit is said to make request for us after an other manner, then the sonne is said to make request for us. v. 34. namely by the vertue and power of his merit: But [Page 13] the Spirit maketh request by stirring us up, and put­ting us on to make re­quest. The Spirit (as one saith) by that annointing power teacheth and fra­meth us to frame our peti­tions. In this wee must be like Moses, Exod. 33. 45. If the Lords presence goe not with us let us not goe from hence.

The best of Hypocrites can be content to have an Angell goe before them, give the Angellicall stile, cōming from lips touch­ed with a coale of strange fire, moved by no inter­nall principle, except it be from some common gift at the best, it is e­nough, and in this they please themselves, and [Page 14] gaine admiration from o­thers; but their praise is but of men and not of God; but this will not serve the children of Prayer; they will not stirre with­out the Spirit of their Fa­ther, neither can they doe it: Rom. 8. 26. Wee know not (saith the Apostle) what to pray as we ought: we have neither thought to conceive, nor will to consent, nor art to perfect of our selves. As the Spirit of God did move or flutter upon the waters for the inclining of that vast body, by a powerfull and procrea­tive heate, so the heate of Gods Spirit must either quicken us to the duty, or wee, and it are no better [Page 15] then a deed Carcasse, or at the fairest but like a speci­ous Picture. The people of God doe now and then neglect (I must confesse) this duty, the taking their guide with them; they weigh not so attentively, nor watch so seriously af­ter this first mover, as they should: As a man forgetteth to set his watch, or to take his guide with him. And this is a main cause why they seek and find not; yea, why they walke not in the strength of the Spirit. A­gaine the people of God may be without the sence and feeling of the Spirit, & yet the Spirit be there, they not being aware: [Page 16] howsoever they are very sensible of their insensibi­lity, and much humbled for their neglect.

The third evidence 3 A sensi­bility of our owne inability. that we pray by the Spi­rit is a sensibility of our owne inability: As the Spirit helpeth our infir­mities, so it discovereth the infirmity of the understanding, the will, the memory, the affections; yea, the Spirit discove­reth▪ all indisposition, sloathfulnesse, impatien­cy, inconstancy, and too much making hast, flesh and blood cannot disco­ver these: Indeed flesh & blood will discover want of readinesse, or of an out­ward frame of words, or [Page 17] for want of some super­naturall heate to inliven the outward action, which the hypocrite may take for the true heate of the Spirit; but the want of that coelestiall heate, or true quickning motion of the Spirit, it neither disco­vereth nor bewaileth: But the godly out of knowledge of these infir­mities, are exceeding humbled, whereupon there is roome made for the Spirit to rest in, for repairing of those ru­ines; yea, the child of God by the knowledg of these his wants, commeth to speed best, when in his owne conceipt he prayeth worst, yea, when he can [Page 18] say nothing with Moses, and is to himselfe as it were breathlesse, and speechlesse, yet out of the sensibility of his prolixity he cryeth hardest of all, and God is nighest to him, when he conceiveth him to be farthest off: If then thou findest or fee­lest not in Prayer that comfort that thy heart desireth, be not discoura­ged, but rather comfort thy selfe, upon the feeling of thy wants, and humili­ation for them, because it is a worke of the Spirit; goe on then, and rather then thou pray not at all, cast thy selfe before the Lord, look up to heaven, if thou canst but cry like a [Page 19] litle child, cease not till thou make the Echo of the Rock to resound.

The fourth evidence of the guidance of the Spi­rit, 4 Helpe a­gainst in­firmities. is a sensible helping of us in some measure against the aforesaid infirmities of Vnderstanding, Will, Memory, and Affections. Rom. 8. 26 The Spirit helpeth our in­firmities: It teacheth for what and how to pray: It strengthneth memory with motives, Memory and Vnder­standing. out of the which the understanding frameth arguments, as judgments, mercies, pre­cepts, promises, renued­nesse, ranking every one in his due place, and cau­sing the soule to pick some good out of of every one [Page 20] of them. So the Spirit bringeth the wil in Praier contrary to its disposition to be subject to the Will of God, and to make choice of that which God willeth as the very best: in this our Saviour Christ is a perfect patterne, in his heavy and dreadfull conflict, saying often and againe: Mat. 26. 39. Not as I will but as thou wilt Father. The Spi­rit doth not only correct and change the averse­nesse, and deadnesse of the affections, as feare, love, joy, and sorrow, but it sets them on with a high and heavenly temper upon their proper objects; As that the soule in Prayer, should love nothing in [Page 21] comparison of God, and his countenance; hate no­thing so much (no not the Divell or Hell it selfe) as his owne sinne, grieve, at nothing so much as the grieving of God; fear no­thing as the God of his feare.

Lastly the Spirit hel­peth the stupidity and be­nummednesse of the con­science, Conscience. making it tender and pliable, and also im­partiall in the applying home of the particulars to the present seate of the soule, which is the proper function of the consci­ence: As for instance, it ei­ther excuseth by applica­tion of mercy, the fruit whereof is present peace; [Page 22] or accuseth by applicati­on of Iudgment, the pre­sent fruit whereof is trou­ble and terror: yet it brin­geth forth and begetteth the quiet fruit of righte­ousnesse; for upon the judging of our selves by the afflicting of our selves, God ceaseth to judge us. Try then what helpe thou findest of the Spirit, in strengthning thy weak­nesse in the seeking of his face; for assuredly wee all find the lesse helpe for want of this triall.

But some will say, wee find no helpe at all; Objection. Our understanding is darker, our memories weaker, our wills more perverse, our affections deader, our [Page 23] consciences heavier then ever they were.

I answer, Answer 1. first there may be a neglect of the triall of the performance by the severall notes, and also such a carelessenesse, to walke by the rule of Prayer, that the duty is fallen into a custome; so that, because we look not to take the Spirit along with us, and cast not our selves, and the duty upon the helpe of it, we come to want the helpe thereof when we would, because we looked not for it when we should.

Againe, it may be an­swered for some, that sence is no true Iudge: For as some may conceive of [Page 24] help from the Spirit, that never had any, and con­ceipt of sound and well ordered parts in Prayer, that have nothing but rot­tennesse in their inward parts (for all their painted oratory & glozing words) so some may be unsensi­ble of the aforesaid helpe for some mistakings, or some disorder in the course, yea, by Gods hi­ding his presence, of sence, and yet he helped mighti­ly by God: which may be instanced and proved by these two particulars.

First, the sence of those infirmities in Prayer, is the worke and evidence of a praying Spirit;

Secondly, the going on [Page 25] with sighes and groanes, under the burden of these infirmities is word for word, to take us up (as it were by the hand) and to goe with us against our infirmities. If the spirit in these two be with us, it is not want of sense that can nullifie his presence. Eli­sha's servant, while his eies were shut could not see the armies of the Lord, but his eyes being open he saw clearely that there were more with him then against him: So let the soule of such goe on, and wait upon the Lord, with­out censuring the Lords work for want of feeling; and let them for their better stay, view and try [Page 26] all the points of the evi­dence, for if one hold, all the rest will in some mea­sure make for them.

Yea but others will say they are so farre from help against their infirmi­ties, 2 Ob. that the infirmities of earthly and idle thoughts doe strive into the very duty, whereby the worke of the Spirit (for the time) is quenched, the soul bea­ten off, and the heart stoln away.

For answer, Answer I must con­fesse it is a shrewd incoun­ter, and a dangerous infir­mity arising out of the loosenesse of the heart, the atheisme of the mind, the deadnesse of the con­science, the corruption of [Page 27] the memory and earthly condition of the affecti­ons; whereby wee let slip & forget with whom we have to deale, and what we have to doe: Here is want of devotion & want of attention. Bern. de medit. 6. 8. It is mad fol­ly (saith one) to thy selfe, & great iniury to another, when thou wilt neither at­tend him nor look to thy selfe; yet for all this it is no other temptation but such as may and doth o­vertake the children of God: but with this diffe­rence from that vagrancy in the hearts of the unre­generate men be they ne­ver so smooth: First the same spirit whose worke for a time recoileth, at [Page 28] length like a great & sole conquering commander, routs all those rebellious thoughts, How the godly are troubled with idle thoughts in prayer. yea and taking them on a sudden, reser­veth them in chaines for execution; then he brings up, or rather beateth up these disordered forces or faculties of the soul with sorrow & shame enough to their neglected service; which service being done then hee sheweth them what base slaves had cau­sed them to recoile from so glorious and gainfull a service of so great a God; what a commander they had forsaken; and what dangerous and shamefull hazard they had brought themselves into; at the [Page 29] consideration whereof, their hearts smite them, they abhorre their owne soules, they weep bitterly till they leave a Bochino or place of weeping behinde them to set their feet upō their necks, and doe exe­cution upon those slavish Canaanites, to whom they had shamefully inslaved thēselves; which I doubt not but many have a care to doe; yet when they have done all they can, some will escape in a cor­ner, starting out now and then to doe them a mis­chiefe at unawares: As they pray therefore, so let them watch.

But with the unregene­rate man it is nothing so: How it is with the unregene­rate. [Page 30] for hee can draw nigh to God with his lips, but keep his heart far enough off, and yet his heart ne­ver smiteth him: hee is content to have a Dove in his hand, and a Hog in his heart; thought is free with him; and that is the mark of a slave: It is one thing to let Traitors and plaguie Rogues in at doores by negligence, & so to bee troubled with getting them out, and an­other thing to keep open house for them. The fay­rest sun-shine may bee o­ver-clouded, but darknes it selfe can never be light: As for the interposition of Sathans suggestions, let that be set on Sathans score.

[Page 31] Last of all, 3 Ob. some will say, they are so far from the aid and assistance of the spirit in prayer, that they neither can pray, nor dare pray, nor have they any minde to pray; can those bee the children of God?

I answer, Answer though they bee in an exceeding great strait, yet they may bee Gods children for al that; for though they cannot, neither dare pray, yet they desire to pray: & though they have no desire, yet they wish they might de­sire. But we must learn to distinguish between par­ties in a due temper both of body and soule, and themselves distempered [Page 32] in one or both: some­times, through the distemper of black fumes of me­lancholy, the imagination is corrupt, sometimes the conscience is wounded with the sense of sin, the want of grace, or with the trouble of some blasphe­mous or wicked thoughts sometimes the Lord is pulling a sinner as a brand out of the fire, leaveth sparkles of his terrible wrath in him, for his greater humiliatiō, some­times the Lord may seal the heart and close up the mouth for the trial of the party himselfe, the exam­ple of others, and the ma­nifestation of his owne power, in keeping of thē [Page 33] in that case, and his mer­cy in the inlarging of their hearts according to the time of restraint. In all these cases the soule may be clear of the things, the exercise of prayer barred, and yet the spirit of pray­er remain; which may be evidenced by the fruits of the spirit which are a ten­dernesse of conscience, a hatred of sin, love to the Saints, and obedience to God. So much for the fourth note, wherein I have been the larger by reason of the power of the spirit herein.

The fift evidence of Prayer made by the spirit, 5. Ferven­cy of spirit is that spirituall vigor or fervency of it, which as a [Page 34] consuming fire from hea­ven, causeth the odours of the prayers of the Saints to ascend like incense: To this effect is that of the Apostle, Rom. 8. 26. The spirit ma­keth request for vs with grones that cannot bee ex­pressed: By these unpressi­ble grones, is meant the ve­hemency or fervency of Prayer, being the work of the spirit, which worketh after an unspeakable ma­ner in the hearts of all that pray; Gen. 32. 28. this is that wrest­ling that prevaileth with God; Exod. 32. 10. this is that which stirreth up a man to lay hold on God; Isay 64. 7. Can. 3. 4. this is that which layeth violent hold on him whom the soule lo­veth; This was the pra­ctice [Page 35] of our Saviour Christ, Heb. 6. 4. who in the daies of his flesh offered up prayers and supplications with strong cryes and teares: Against this his own pra­ctice Christ cannot stand out; witnesse that parable of the importunate pre­vailing widow; Luke 18. 4. 7. and shall not God revenge his e­lect that cry day & night? The want of this wrong­eth Gods cause, maketh the enimie prevaile, and our prayers to be forceles and fruitlesse, yea our courses uncomfortable; whereas on the fervency of prayer all the contrary effects attend. This fer­vency was Luthers excel­lency, and in this hee and [Page 36] many others found most good: This smiteth and overturneth both the in­ward & outward Amala­kite. If thou wilt sacrifice, take fire with thee; the want whereof may justly invert the saying of Abra­ham to thy disadvantage; here is the sacrifice but whereis the fire. The gol­den Censer receiveth no Odours without fire, more or lesse to consume them, and according to the height or lownesse of the fire, the motion of prayer is the swifter or flower. The lazie, cold, & frozen prayer prevaileth nothing with God, but by weeping and making ear­nest supplication, we may [Page 37] finde God in Bethel, Hos. 12. 4. and speak to God, and prevail with God, as Iacob did.

Let us then (as Paul saith) labour fervently in prayer, Col. 4. 12. that the power thereof may bee an evi­dence of the spirit in us; but herein wee must take heed of the deceitfulnesse of strange fire in the heart; for as a burning feaver, or the fit of an intermitting Ague, or a hecktick dis­position, may manifest more heat outwardly to the touch, yea inflame the inward parts with more ardency, or scorching & consuming heat, begetting an unquenchable thirst by drinking up the radical moisture of the Spirits, [Page 38] then is to bee felt in a due temperature; So a feverish heat, or counterfeit zeale, may exalt an hypocrite high in the outward acti­on, yea he may have a de­ceiving tast of the power of God, & seeming thirst of the glory of God, and a preposterous desire of honour and immortality, yea all this may be like to the former heat and thirst in nature, an unnaturall & adventitious heat, not truly inlivening & main­taining the life of prayer, but consuming and de­vouring the supposed spi­rit of prayer. Of these two if you desire to know the essentiall difference, I take it to consist in these particulars.

[Page 39] First, The diffe­rence of true fervē ­cy & coun­ter feit in prayer. 1 Diffe­rence. this fervency is a sanctifying & saving fruit of the spirit, wrought im­mediatly in the heart and affections, whereby the understanding faculties are much sublimated and refined, whereon follow­eth a more pure concep­tion, with a swifter & di­recter motion of prayer; because both heart and understanding are quick­ned and agitated by true celestiall heat. Neither must you conceive that the fervency of affection must carry the understan­ding without informati­on from it: this were zeal without knowledge; w ^ch the spirit peremptorily condemneth: but this sa­cred [Page 40] fire of fervency clea­reth the clouds of the un­derstanding: so that the formes of divine motions are more quickly and pu­rely framed in the passive faculty thereof, and are more soundly and judici­ally wrought on by the active faculty, so the fire be compact: so that you see this fire is of a heaven­ly operation and from heaven; well may it bee compared with that di­vine fire which came out from before Iehovah and consumed the burnt offe­ring upon the Altar: But the strange fire in the see­ming zealous hypocrite is nothing like; for first it is but a supernaturall cō ­mon [Page 41] gift of the spirit at the most; againe, it is ra­ther an inflāmation of the brain, arising from the rapture of some vainglo­rious conceipt, deceiving the heart, and running all along like a devouring wild-fire, rather (I say) then any true fire, war­ming and quickning the life of supplication.

Secondly, 2 Diffe­rence. this true ce­lestiall fire hath no fuell but the spirit, but the strange fire hath either private injury or publike applause for the fuell.

Thirdly, 3 Diffe­rence. this true fire hath for the end or ob­ject, Gods glory and the salvation of those that are heated with it, cōsuming [Page 42] every thing that stands in the way of either of these. The spouse speaking of the nature of this zeale, Cant. 8. 6. telleth us, that the coales thereof are coales of fire, which hath a most vehe­ment flame: Of this Da­vid saith, Psal. 96. 10. 119. 13. the zeale of thy house hath eaten me up, and in another place, my zeale hath consumed me, or sup­presseth me, because mine enimies have forgotten thy words: But counter­feit zeale in prayer hath for its end or object, the ravishing of mens con­ceipts, the glory of ap­plause, the gaining of some worldly commodi­ty; so far as the sun shine of Gods glory is adored [Page 43] by the times and state, so much will hypocrisie seem to advance it: like cloudes, they will follow the Sun, and seem to car­ry Gods glory right on before them, but when the current crosseth it they goe no further with it, but like a running hound, they cast up, and with an open mouth they run another way.

Fourthly, 4 Diffe­rence. this true fire though it set all on fire within and without, and turneth all that it touch­eth into the nature of fire, carrying all upward with it according to the pro­portiō of fire; yet it hum­bleth the soul exceeding­ly, and maketh it vile in [Page 44] its own eyes: for by this true fervency, the stubble and rubbish of mens cor­ruptions, and interpositi­on being removed and consumed, Gods excellē ­cy & mans meanes, Gods mercy and mans misery the more appeareth, which be the meanes and motives of mans humili­atiō. But with the strange fire-workmen it is not so; for as Cookes by unnatu­rall heat of the fire extin­guishing the naturall heat, and exhausting the radi­call moisture, and by ex­cesse of drinking become hydropicks; so these are puffed up with a swelling conceipt of themselves, by the unnaturall or ad­ventitious [Page 45] heat of this strange fire; crying in ef­fect with Iehu, come with me and see my zeale for the Lord; 2. King. 10 16. yea if these coun­terfeits of true zeal be not admired, they are all off the hinges, they count their charges and paines to be lost: Their zeale is like to the vertues of the Heathens, from which, if you separate (as one saith) the splendor of glory, Salust. ad Caesar. ver­tue it selfe will goe bitter to them: So take from the zeal of seeming zealous Hypocrites, the swelling cloud of puffing up ap­plause, their fervency fal­leth presently into an a­trophie or pining away under abūdance of means; [Page 46] so that their pride not maintained with applause either like a handfull of gun-powder carrieth fire and fuell and all that lieth in the way out of the chimney top, or like a dropsie by peecemeale it consumeth the naturall heat, and drinketh up the radicall moisture: But the heat of the truly zealous is like the harth of the Al­tar, hallowed by humili­ty, for the receit of Gods fire, and for the keeping and increasing of the heat thereof.

Fiftly and lastly, 5 Diffe­rence. the true fire of fervency is ne­ver extinguished, it is for divers causes more in­tense or remisse, higher or [Page 47] lower in the best of Gods children; yea the sparkles may lye very low over­laid with ashes; notwith­standing it is true fire, though it be never so litle or never so weake in na­ture; alwaies like the fire upon the Altar which bur­neth continually, Numb. 6. 12. 13. and shall not bee put out; to the which the spirit affordeth the fuell, stirring & blow­ing it up for the consu­ming of the sacrifice: But the strange fire is but a flash, quickly out and un­orderly kindled, like a fit of an Ephemera, or diary feaver, and is as quickly extinguished either by the oyle of prosperity, or by the water of adversity, [Page 48] yea like a rotten, sulphu­rous, fiery squib, it cracks and flashes, stinks and di­eth. Let every soule exa­mine its own fervency in prayer by the particulars, by which examination if they can finde in the least measure, these notes of fervency, they may assure themselves to their excee­ding great comfort that they can pray in the holy Ghost.

But some distressed soule will say, Ob. they can finde no life of fervency in their prayers, they are takē in the duty with syn­copes, or many fainting and sounding fits of the heart, many a cold sweat goeth over them, they are [Page 49] taken with many Lethar­gies of the understanding, mad melancholy aberia­tions in the imagination, much forgetfulnesse in the memory, yea, with a cold astonishing stupefaction of the whole man; what fire of the Spirit can be here? Surely (say they) none at all.

Conclude not so, Ans. 1. for true fire may be raked up in the ashes of neglect or distemper, though it doe not appeare.

Againe, the sence and sorrow of and for the o­verswaying suppressmēts must needs arise from the light and heat of true fire, be it never so weake or li­tle; for the common gifts [Page 50] and most glorious excel­lency in counterfeit Pray­er, cannot truly and inge­niously discover an essen­tiall defect in Prayer.

Againe, the sparkles of life that the most distres­sed and daunted of Gods people finde in Prayer, now and then make the strongest kind of demon­stration, that the Fire of Gods Spirit inlivens their Prayer: For where there is action, there is life, and where is life there is heat; for life consisteth in heat: As the Spirit of faith in the Disciples was very weake when they counted the relation of the Resurre­ction but as an idle tale; Luk. 24. 11. 32. 34. so that they would not be­lieve [Page 51] it, yet the Spirit of faith was not extinguish­ed, witnesse the burning of their hearts within them while he talked with them in the way to Emaus, which arose from the quickning of the Spirit, which lay as it were quenched in them; even so the fervency of the Spirit of Prayer, may seeme to be quenched, & yet the flames bursting out now and then, in sighs and Groanes that cannot be expressed, argueth hea­venly fire to inspire thy Prayer, howsoever thou wilt not be perswaded of it.

Lastly, observe thy ear­nest desire of fervency & striving endeavour to goe [Page 52] on, though thou feelest but litle or no comfort; these be true flames of the Spirit, which were ne­ver kindled in the least measure in the breast of any Hypocrite: will an Hypocrite with all his painted flames hold out? No, they will murmure if God heare them not; but the godly will trust in him though hee slay them. Isay 58. 2. 3. Let every one then stirre up the gift that is in him, whatsoever it be, and the Lord will be with us ere we be aware. Iob. 13. 15

The sixt evidence of the Spirit of Prayer, 6 the train of all gra­ces ac­companing. is that godly traine of all­saving graces garding it, strengthning it, and atten­ding [Page 53] upon it, Hee that can doe an errand to God is de­stitute of no gift, 1 Cor. 1. 7. as Paul saith of the Corinthians: that Embassie is guarded with all the graces of God in some measure, as first it ariseth from that impregnable pallace of faith, which ascendeth like a Cloud with Prayer in it, never ceasing, but still increasing the motion, till it come to heaven. In, and from this Pallace, Prayer is armed with an irresisti­ble violence, and com­meth forth like a valiant Champion, beating all down-right before it that standeth between God & it; Innumerable instances of this in Gods servants [Page 54] put that immediate prin­ciple of the Spirit out of all Question: Whatsoever yee shall aske in Prayer, Mat. 21. 22. be­lieving, yee shall receive: David and all the Saints make ever this foundati­on of their Prayer, Psal. 5. 3. 4. Vnto thee will I pray Iehovah, thou shalt heare my voice. Secondly, as Prayer is grounded from faith, so it is under-propped by Hope; I will looke unto the Lord (saith Micha) and I will waite for the God of my Salvation; hope and patience. My God will heare me; This place expresseth also the Chri­stian patience wherewith the Prayer of the Saints is seasoned, and also that perseverance, whereby [Page 55] the Charriot of faith is drawne: These set the soule upon the watch-Tower (as Habacuk speak­eth) and maketh her waite, Habuc. 2. 1 and hearken what the Lord will answer, David's Prai­er in his distresse was thus qualified, Psal. 5. 3. I will looke out saith the Prophet.

Further, Prepara­tion, Op­portunity, and Dili­gence. Prayer made in the Spirit is attended, with Preparation, Oppor­tunity, and Diligence: Pre­paration maketh ready the Charriot of faith, a­waketh Prayer, & attireth it with a holy disposition of heavenly position: Op­portunity as a guide ta­keth it the nighest way; and Diligence as the dri­ver of the Charriot, dri­veth [Page 56] more nimbly then Iehu the sonne of Nimshi. All these attend David's Prayer, I will direct my Prayer unto thee, or I will orderly addresse unto thee; there is his Prepara­tion: In or at the morning (that is early) there is his opportunity; I will looke out or else espy, there is his diligence, or I will pray, that is, still doe pray and cease not.

Try then, Hypocrites faile of these gra­ces. or let thy Prayer be tried by these clouds of witnesses, whe­ther it be of the spirit or no, for the Prayer of the Hypocrite hath none of these witnesses, or atten­dants: as it is said of faith­lesse hearers, Heb. 4. 2. that the Word [Page 57] heard, did not profit them, because it was not mixed with faith: They may make a faire shew in see­ming to lay hold on God, deceiving others & their own hearts; Mich. 3. 11 they will leane upon the Lord (saith the Prophet) and say, is not the Lord among us, &c. But they build upon the sand and hence are their ruines; neither is their hope any better then Hypocrites hope, Iob. 3. 13. which shall perish: as for their patience wher­with their Prayer should be seasoned. If God at­tend not their pleasure in answering of their de­sires, it is quickly turned into murmuring: In this they are like that grace­lesse [Page 58] servant of that god­lesse King; 2 King. 6. 33. because this e­vill is of the Lord, why should I waite for the Lord any longer? As for the at­tendants of Prayer, name­ly Preparation, Opportu­nity, and Diligence, the Hypocrite is not acquain­ted with them; the coun­terfeit shews or shadowes of these he may have, but the things themselves in the true nature of them, he neither hath nor desi­reth to have: The Hypo­crite rusheth into Gods presence without preme­ditation of Gods most glorious presence, and without consideration of his own vilenesse, and un­worthinesse to speake to [Page 59] so glorious and great a God: His best Preparation is but a vizard of Prepa­tion, or outward shew of seeming holinesse, in the position of the body: Their best opportunity is base and by respect, and their diligence carrieth the duty no further then customary performance, or so farre as it is in re­quest with the times. So never an Hypocrite (you see) can be an Embassa­dour to God; for he wan­teth both the Commissi­on of the Spirit, and that traine of attendants that doe accompany the Com­mission. It is no-wonder then that their Prayer be converted into sinne; for [Page 60] they are Traytors to God in taking upon them his Embassie without his Cō ­mission.

Let them pray then that can pray; Tryall of these gra­ces is ne­cessary. yea, it stan­deth us all upon, to looke to it, whether we pray or prate or bable: For Lord, Lord, a multitude of faire words, and faire shewes will not serve. An Em­bassadour with a gilded coach of temporary faith, will not serve the turne; yea, though it were full of miracles attended with a many imbrodered Lac­keyes of smooth words & courtly complements, and eare-pleasing musick, shall never have admit­tance to God, nor audi­ence [Page 61] of God: look to it then that thou be an Em­bassadour indeed, & that thou hast thy Commissi­on sealed, and art sent by the Spirit, and that thy traine be such as may be heartily welcome to God and make thee welcome. In the first place make tri­all of thy faith, and that by the inward acts of pu­rifying the heart, Tryall of thy faith. uniting it to God by victory over temptations, casting thy selfe upon the Lord, by contentment of thine e­state: also by the exten­sive worke of love, first to God for himselfe, & then to thy neighbour in him and for him. The heart so purified by faith is a [Page 62] fit lymbeck for Prayer. Out of this the Prophet David was bold to presse his Prayer upon God; Hearken to my Prayer Psal. 17. 2. that goeth not out of feig­ned lips, or without lips of deceipt; by which is meant the syncerity of the heart, agreeing with the words of the mouth: No­thing so much adorneth the heart as faith, nothing commendeth faith more then Prayer, Esay. 29. 13. and nothing graceth Prayer more then syncerity: This (with the proud Pharisee) all Hypo­crites want, Mat. 15. 8. drawing nigh God with their mouth, and honouring him with their lips, but their hearts be far from him: or as the Psal­mist, [Page 63] they flatter or flatte­ringly allured him with their mouth, Psal. 36. 37. & with their tongue lied to him, for their heart was not right with him, or not firmly prepa­red with him: And this e­specially maketh the Prai­er of the Hypocrites of an evill savour in Gods No­strills, for as he is the hea­rer of the heart (as one saith) and not of the voice, so he loveth the syncerity of the heart, and hateth the hollownesse and rot­tennesse thereof in Prayer above all things, because they goe about to deceive him, denying him in ef­fect to be the discerner of the heart; otherwise they would never deal so with him.

[Page 64] Try also thy hope in Prayer, Triall of hope and patience. namely by clea­ring of thy Author, and casting it within the vaile. The nature of hope is to keepe thee from shame, by the repulse of thy de­sires, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost, in such abundant measure and unspeakable manner, that he cannot deny us the things hoped for. Try al­so thy Prayer by patience, waiting on the Lord, and going on in Prayer in the time of distresse. This an Hypocrite, as I have shew­ed, cannot, nor will not doe. In the time of afflicti­on they wil set very fresh­ly upon the duty; so farre [Page 65] as great words will carry it, but if they be brought to any strait, or put to any hard shift, like white­livered souldiers they die down-right in their owne ayre or element, or else fling away their arms, and run from their Colours. It is much to be feared that our nations woefull experience shall teach the truth of this in one as wel as the other! But God gi­veth his owne another heart, namely to overtop the height of their affecti­ons, with the height of their Prayers, and never give over till by patience and importunity they pos­sesse the gates of their e­nemies and become more [Page 66] then Conquerors: The Scripture to this purpose affordeth abundance of remarkable instances, for a touch whereof take these two; Steven the first Martyr being cast out of the City and stoned for his worthy Sermon, as the stones were flying a­bout his eares, in the midst of all the mischiefe that they could doe him, by the power of the holy Ghost, Act. 7. 55. 59. 60. called upon God, and that with cryes knee­ling upon his knees: This lesson no doubt hee lear­of his Master Christ, the best and only pattern that any man can follow: He, though a Sonne, learned obedience by afflictions, [Page 67] in the dayes of his flesh, offered up Prayers and Supplications withstrong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, & was heard in that he feared: where observe what force, feare, and afflictions added to our Saviours Prayers, which as swelling seas make well growne fish, and thundring, and light­ning cleereth the ayre, and the nipping frost maketh the fire the hotter; So the afflictions of the Saints addeth force to their Prai­ers; they cry more migh­tily to God then ever they did, yea, where they could not speake before, now they cry and that day [Page 68] and night (saith the Spi­rit) though he beare long with them: Luk. 18. 7. where observe the patience of the Saints, they beare long in Gods bearing with their ene­mies: Then observe their instant continuance, they cry day and night; to the same effect the Lord spea­keth by his Prophet, Zacch. 13. 9. I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as gold is try­ed, they shall call upon my name, and I will hear them: Affliction maketh the wicked impatient, & dri­veth them from God; be­cause they are a burnished blade of terror in the hand of the Almighty: as the pearle in oysters by thun­der [Page 69] vanisheth, so doth the Prayer of the Hypocrite by affliction; but the triall of the godly bringeth forth patience, & driveth them nigher to God, be­cause their afflictions are but trialls indeed, and at the worst they are but as a rod in the hand of a lo­ving Father. In a word, as the Saints extremities are Gods opportunities; so the same extremities are whetstones to the Saints importunities.

Lastly, as for prepara­tion; labour to set thy heart in frame, consider what thou art about, and with whom thou hast to deale: As God bid Mo­ses, Exod. 3. 5. put off thy shooes from [Page 70] thy feet, for the place where thou stādest is holy ground; whereby is meant the putting off of earthly and carnal affections, prepa­ring the mind to spiritual and heavenly duties. En­deavour to come before the Lord with a simple and naked heart, and with affections duly prepared for so great a presence. As for Opportunity, endea­vour alwaies to be fit up­on every occasion, and fea [...] to choose the best occasion, not omitting it at any hand: for Diligence know this, that use ma­keth an Artist or Trades­man. To conclude this particular: If thou callest upon the Lord in truth, [Page 71] that is in faith, syncerity, earnestnesse and constan­cy, the Lord will be nigh unto thee; which is both the cause and evidence that thou prayest by the Spirit.

The seventh evidence of Prayer made by the Spirit, 7 The gui­dance of the Spirit in all our actions. is the guidance of the Spirit in all other acti­ons: For as he that is born of the Spirit, is Spirit, so he is spirituall in all his parts, faculties and acti­ons; because the Spirit is of an all renuing nature, though many remainders of the flesh, and much re­luctation be intermixed therewith throughout all the parts, faculties and a­ctions. To this effect is [Page 72] that of the Apostle, As many as are led by the Spi­rit, they be the sonnes of God; where observe, hee saith not, they that have received the Spirit, or live by the Spirit, or pray by the Spirit, or doe any other action, as he saith other where, but that they are led by the Spirit, inti­mating thereby the incli­ning disposition and ever­ruling power of the Spi­rit, whereby the whole spirituall man is guided in all his waies, as a ship by a pilot, or a horse by his rider; the place allu­deth to a blind man, or a man wanting strength, who is wholly guided or carried by another; so [Page 73] Gods supplicants as they pray by the spirit, so they wholly resign themselves over in all their waies to the guidance of the spirit: Wherein the gui­dance of the Spirit manife­steth it selfe. The guidance of the spi­rit in all a petitioners waies, doth manifest it selfe in these two particu­lars;

First, In the sub­duing the whole body of sinne. in the subdueing of the whole body of sin; for though the remnans of sin remain in the best of Gods Saints, yet no sin beareth dominion in thē; for then should they not be led by the spirit: who are led by the spirit (saith one) but they whose coun­sells and actions have nothing to doe with sin & Sathan; according to that [Page 74] of the Apostle, 1. Ioh. 3. 9. Hee that is borne of God sinneth not, or commiteth not sin, viz. he serveth not sin, hee de­lighteth not in sin, he ma­keth not a trade of it, nor lyeth not in it, giveth not way to it, but resisteth it and hateth it; it is an into­lerable burthen to him, he cannot beare it. But on the contrary, V. 8. he that com­mitteth sin is of the Divel, that is, he that loveth sin, loveth and obeyeth it in the lusts thereof. Now where this sin-subduing power of the spirit bea­reth sway, there the pray­ers bee the prayers of the spirit: For as divers gifts come from one spirit, so where there is one true [Page 75] gift of the spirit, there bee all the gifts of the spirit; but on the cōtrary, where one sinne beareth sway, there is not the guidance of the spirit, and where the spirit is not the guide, there the prayer is not the prayer of the spirit, accor­ding to that undenia­ble position, God heareth not sinners, but if any man be a worshipper of God, Ioh. 9. 21. and doth his will, him he hea­reth. viz. he heareth not, nor granteth the desires of such as live in any sin; but such as worship him according to his will, and live accordingly, have their desires granted; But a party, family, or nation, that liveth in any sin, God [Page 76] will not hear them. If I re­gard iniquity in my heart (saith David) or look upon it with a love to it, Psal. 66. 18. God will not heare me. Instances of this are innumerable in the Scripture; The Lord telleth the Israelites for choosing Saul for their King, 1 Sam. 8. 8. that they should cry out in that day, and hee would not heare them: So all that set at naught the counsell of God, when feare, desolation, and de­struction commeth upon them, Prov. 25. 26. 27. They shall call upon the Lord but hee will not answer; they shall seek him early but shall not find him: Will men steale and rob, Ier. 11. 11. commit murther and un­cleannesse, and conspire a­gainst [Page 77] God by impiety and iniquity (as God saith by Ieremie) yea will they hide it under their tongue, and will they cry unto the Lord when unavoidable evill commeth upon them? yea they shall cry (saith the Lord) but I will not hear­ken unto them: For the far­ther confirmation of this point, look these places. Ezech. 8. to the 19. Micha 3. to v. 4. Zach. 7. 13. Did God ever heare the Israe­lites, for all their teares, supplications and cryes under the oppression of the Philistines, Iudg. 10. 6. to 18. untill such time as they put away their strange Gods, 1 Sam. 7. 2. to 12. yea their beloved Idols, Isay 1. 15. to 19. Baal and Ashteroth? No sure; [Page 78] witnesse the word; neither will he to others till they doe the like: yea God doth not onely deny to heare his people, though they make many prayers, but to enter so much as a parly with them, till they put away the evill of their doings from before him. Yea let the formalist hy­pocrite, or hollow-hear­ted petitioner, free from outward touch, yet hi­ding iniquity under his tongue, let him (I say) car­ry the matter as cleanly as he can, yet God will not heare him, witnesse that in Iob; What is the hope of the Hypocrite, will God heare his cry when trouble commeth upon him? No [Page 79] sure; the interrogation is a vehement negation; a good reason is given of it: As hee delighted not in God, make what shew he can, so God delighteth not in his prayers, for they are not the prayers of the spirit, neither hath he clensed his heart for the spirit to reside in. That thou maist bee sure that thy prayer is from the spi­rit, bee sure to walk in the Spirit: submit thy selfe to the guidance of the spirit; wash thy heart and make it clean, Esay. 1. 16. Ps. 26. 6. wash thy hands in innocency, and then com­passe the Altar of the Lord with successe; or, as the A­postle, pray every where, Tim. 2. 8. lifting up holy hands with­out [Page 80] wrath or doubting: On this place one speaketh well; the hands are holy, when the heart is cleane: further, in the Text ob­serve three remarkable conditions of prayer, ho­linesse in a mans self; love towards his brother; and faith towards God: pray­ers thus qualified shall surely be heard, for Amen hath ingaged his promise for it: Iehovah is neer to all that call upō him in truth: the Lord is far from the wicked; but hee heareth the prayers of the righte­ous.

But some of Gods people will here object, Ob. 1. that they feel a great deale of rebellion of sin in them, [Page 81] as carnality, hate, infideli­ty, pronesse to evill, a­versnesse to good; pride, hypocrisie, selfe-love, and the like; a world of disor­der in the affections, a flat repugnancy in the will, an apparant impossibility of selfe-deniall: In a word, the whole inner and the outward man, is nothing but a confused masse of sin: Can the spirit govern & guide such a one where there is nothing but re­bellion against the Spirit? And if the Spirit beare not the sway in all & over all, though I am some­what affected in prayer, yet I pray not by the spi­rit at all, because I want the guidance of the spirit.

[Page 82] To this I answer; Answer As the aforesaid graces ac­companying the spirit of prayer, may be in a childe of God in a very weake measure, without sense & feeling, yet true in their own nature; so the lusting of the flesh against the spi­rit, may and doth migh­tily domineer in them; so that they are carnall and sold under sin, Rom. 7. 14. yea they have a law in their mem­bers rebelling against the law of the Spirit, whereby they are led captive to the law of sinne; which thing was the matter of the blessed Apostle's complaint, making him to cry out, Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver mee from [Page 83] this body of death! And yet the spirit lusting a­gainst the flesh will hold his own, not onely over­cōming, but giving good evidence from the very strife, that he reignes and rules there, maugre the heart of the flesh: by which they come at the length to thanke God through our Lord Iesus Christ, Rom 7. 25. that with the mind they serve the Law of God, though with the flesh the Law of sin.

But Paul, 2. Ob. yee will say, spake this of himselfe, as of his unregenerate e­state.

For answer; The Pa­pists would have it so, Answer and some of the Fathers take [Page 84] it so, amongst whom Au­stin was one of that mind, but upon better conside­ration reversed his judg­ment, and that upon good grounds; for the Apostle speaketh of himselfe of his present estate, which none can deny to be rege­nerate. Againe, to will was present with him; hee de­lighted in the Law of God and thanked him for his deliverance: all which are evidences of a regene­rate estate. But this is strange, say you, that hee should be carnall, & sould under sin, since the Saints are bought with a price; & war not after the flesh. For answer, he was not carnall in the service of the flesh, [Page 85] as the unregenerate are, but hee was carnall in re­spect of his pronesse, 1 Cor. 6. 20. to give way to the flesh; 2 Cor. 10. 3. So he was sold under sin, and not as Ahab, who willing­ly inslaved himselfe to sin; but as Ioseph a captive or slave against his will.

O but you will say, Ob. 2. if it were so, then these were Pauls strong stragling motions of cōcupiscence, not breaking out in effect, but I am not onely trou­bled with the first and se­cond motions of sin, but I am foyled with the very actions of sin:

I answer, Ans. was not that Pauls case: That which I doe I allow not; Rom. 7. 15 for what I would, that I doe not; but [Page 86] what I hate that doe I: where hee sheweth him­selfe often to be so foiled by his carnall desires, that he did that which in the inner man he did not de­sire, but rather hate; And so it is with the best of Gods people, who both in words & actions crosse their inward desires,

Yea, Quest. but where lyeth the difference of failings and falls of the regenerate and unregenerate heart.

I answer, in the chiefe desire of the heart; Answer which in the unregenerate long­eth and lamenteth after good, though it have ma­ny shrewd rubs in the way through the remainders of sin; but in the unrege­nerate [Page 87] it is carried with full sway toward sinne without any resistance, though it may stumble now and then upon the sting of conscience: nei­ther would I haue any, by presuming to abuse this cause of Paul, to sinne, for none can benefit by this, but such as have Pauls feelings, desires, and en­deavours in some mea­sure: but let al such as are fervent in spirit serving the Lord, though with much opposition & litle or no feeling of the evi­dence of the spirit, lay home this case to their comfort.

The latter particular wherein the guidance of [Page 88] the spirit consisteth, is the quickning and increasing of grace: Quickning and in­crease of grace. for as by the spi­rit, the deeds of the body are mortified, so by the same spirit the graces of the soul are quickned, Rom. 8. 13. & therefore is the spirit called the spi­rit of grace: Zac. 10. 12 Now the spi­rit of grace is joyned with the spirit of supplication, as the Cause and the con­vertible Effect, the state & the demonstrative evi­dence of the state: I will poure out (saith the Lord by Zachary in the place quoted) the spirit of grace and supplication or depre­cation: Where by the spi­rit of grace is meant the gracious spirit of regene­ration, proceeding from [Page 89] the grace of God, guiding and quickning his own in all the waies of grace: & by the spirit of deprecati­on, that spirituall immedi­atly infused ability (as I have shewed,) whereby his penitents doe beg and obtain pardon of sin and all other things condu­cing to Gods glory, and their own good. Between this spirit of grace, and de­precation there is a mu­tuall strengthning or cor­roboration: As health is the cause of walking, and by walking is strength as­sured and increased; so grace is the internall, im­mediate, conjunct cause of prayer, and is also quick­ned and strengthned by [Page 90] prayer: Or as the heat of the sun reflecting upon some solid or impenetra­ble body, is made more forcible; So the radiant beames of grace, exerci­sing themselves upon that firmly framed object of prayer by a gracious re­flection, they become out of measure gracious. If thou wouldst then excell in grace, labour to excell in that eminent ability of prayer, which doth not consist (as I have shewed) in the excellēcy of words but in the heigtht & depth of the grones of the spirit, which no words are able to expresse. Try also by the gage or land-mark of prayer, the ebbing or flo­ing [Page 91] of the tide of grace: for so much as thy soule is taken up with the true strain of prayer, so much dost thou gain in the rich traffique of grace; and so much as thou loosest in the faculty of this heavenly Oratory, so much thou loosest in the stocke of grace. Therefore for the keeping of both stock and interest on foot, it shall be good, in my judgement, to put these two particu­lar observations in pra­ctice: First look what par­ticular sin either of person or calling thou art most addicted unto; & in what patticular grace thou art most deficient; Meanes of keeping & increasing of grace. labour to countermand, and subdue [Page 92] the particular sin by the opposite grace, and to quicken & strengthen the weak and decaied grace by the speciall or proper remedies. This is the wi­sest policy, the highest point of war, the richest trade, and the proper im­ployment of our precious talent.

Another remarkable observation to be practi­sed is this; Let no day passe thee wherein thou dost not call thy selfe to a strict accompt, of the well imployment, ill imploy­ment, or misimployment of the day; record as neer as thou canst thy com­missions and omissions, in thy calling or out of thy [Page 93] calling, in thought, word, or deed, against piety, e­quity, or sobriety; recall thy company and confe­rence, thine or others pro­fiting thereby or unpro­fitablenesse; recompt the favours, the frownings, the cherishments or cha­stisements, mercies or judgements towards thee and others as nigh as thou canst; observe what corruption hath prevailed against thee, or in what particular grace thou get­test any better footing. This course deserveth neither obloquie from the wicked, nor should it seem unnecessary, strict, or impossible to profes­sours: For the very Hea­thens [Page 94] by the guide nature have given order for it in their morals, namely, that wee should not suffer our eyes to sleep, nor our eye­lids to slumber, till wee had recompted all the passages of the former day. But alas they had but a leaden rule to walke by, turning all their strictest & most glorious actions into glistring sinnes! but we have a golden rule of trial, which by a true touch will (indeed) turn us and our actions into the purest gold. It is a double shame therefore that they in this should shame us: this same point was a particular of Moses his Petition; So teach us to number our [Page 95] daies that we may apply our hearts to wisdome! Ps. 90. 12. There is no better waies to thriue than for a man to be a good accomptant, & to observe well his losses and his gaines, his receits and his layings out; what is owing to him, & what he oweth to others. This gaines a wise heart or a heart of wisdome (saith Moses) which is more worth then all the wealth in the world. This is the only meanes whereby to redeem the time: in which phrase the Apostle impli­eth the calling a mans self to accompt, and his acti­ons, as thrifty Merchants doe; the Apostles words looke both backe to the [Page 96] time past, advising us to make good one time what wee lose at another, which cannot be done without reckoning, with our selves; and also for­ward to the time to come, injoyning us to take all occasion and opportunity of serving the Lord, with more strictnesse, sincerity and alacrity, then hereto­fore we have done, sup­pose it be with temporall losse or incommodityt: he very word Redeeme inclu­deth this evidently, that for our profits, ease and pleasing of others, we put off, or altogether neglect the casting up of our ac­compts; now if wee will redeeme that losse, wee [Page 97] must be content to part with all these to become good accomptants; not that men hereby should neglect their callings; for this wil make them more strict, sincere, and diligent in their callings; but as to this strict course and the attending it many incom­modities are incident; (For you must know the Divell, World, Flesh, and it may be some of the houshold are no friends to it:) So we must accompt all are for Cyphers for the furthering our accompts. These strict accomptants must make this a part of their reckoning, that the Crosse will follow them; for the bearing whereof [Page 98] they must resolve upon selfe-denyall, with the ha­tred of father and mother, wife and children, and life it selfe, Col. 1. 21. which shall be no disadvantage to them, for Christs sake; and life and death is to such advan­tage. Of the necessity of our summoning up of The neces­sity hereof ourselves, and our wayes, the Apostle gives good reasons; Ephes. 5. 15. 16. First, wee must walke strictly, not decli­ning a haires breadth from the marke: Secondly the way is hard and difficult, that is also implied in the words: Thirdly, the dayes are evill, nay sure never worse: Many stumbling blockings & rubbes, much opposition both on the [Page 99] right hand and on the left, within and without, when Trading groweth hard, Wares grow slight, Pirats abound, Merchants cheat their Chap-men, & Chap­men fill the earth with bankrupts, and the Prisons with black smoke and beastlinesse, is it not very hard for a faire trader to walk with a streight foot, to give every man his owne, and to make good his stock, and maintaine his family? yes sure, every man averreth it: How much harder is it in these wofull times, to make good this spirituall traf­fick; wherein the Parents will defraud the children, the children cheat the pa­rents, [Page 100] the husband the wife, & the wife the hus­band, the brother the bro­ther; yea, a man will cheat and cozen his own soule? It standeth every one therefore upon it, to look to his own accompts; be­cause every one must give an account for himselfe. This taske I must confesse is somewhat hard to set upon, The diffi­culty here­of. the rather because it will not stand with neg­lect or intermission; but as­suredly the constant use of it shall make a man see better and more comfor­table dayes then ever heretofore he hath seene: By this course he shall be brought to see himselfe often as in a glasse, and by [Page 101] the sight of his failings, he shall be brought to softnesse of heart, to ten­dernesse of conscience, to deprecate the evil of com­mission and omission, and to supplicate for power against future assaults: This shall make him watchfull over his waies, wary of his company, strict in his carriage, zea­lous for his God, and ho­ly and profitable in all manner of conversation. In a word, the experimen­tall utility of this practice will shew such necessity of it, that thou wilt not believe it till thou try it: Try then, and hold fast the practice, & it shal ne­ver repent thee.

[Page 102] To this daily accompt joyn thy weekly accompt and thy accompt of more weekes, Weekly and more generall accompts. before thou goe to the sacrament, and by use of time thou maist be­come an excellent accom­ptant: The more thou at­tendest it, the lesse thou shalt have to doe; yea, by the practising by it, thou shalt be the more willing to attend it; though thou canst not be like that Em­perour, that attended suits till he had no suiters (for thou shalt alwaies find e­nough to doe,) yet thou shalt find thy selfe by Gods mercy much ina­bled to goe cheerfully through with the worke, and if thou art faithfull in [Page 103] thine accompts, thou shalt every time find thy selfe a gainer.

The eighth particular of the Spirit's evidence in Prayer, 8 The pre­cious pro­mises. is from that infal­lible ground of the faith of the Saints viz. The pre­cious promises of God. The same Spirit called the Spi­rit of supplication, is also called the Spirit of pro­mise, which doth not on­ly signifie to us the resi­dence of the Spirit in the Saints, whereby they are distinguished and discer­ned from the wicked, but also, after an Hebraisme or Hebrew Phrase, the as­suring of them of those great and precious pro­mises, or things promised [Page 104] is understood: on which the Prayers of the Saints make their stand and rise. These were the suppor­ters of David's faith; Psal. 119. 49. Re­member thy word to thy servant, upon which thou hast caused mee to hope; wherein is well observed by the Ancient, Ambrose. that Da­vid in all his supplicati­ons had recourse to the promises of God. 2 Sam. 7. 25. 28. And now Lord God (saith the same Prophet) the word that thou hast spoken con­cerning thy servant, esta­blish it. And againe, thou art God and thy words are true: whereupon shall the weake sights of a weary and overladen soule, and the heavy groans of a loa­ded [Page 105] conscience cast them­selves, but upon that sweet and comfortable promise of our Saviour, Mat. 11. 28. Come unto me all yee that labour and are heavy laden and I will refresh you! How shall the poore distressed selfe con­demning bankrupt presse home his earnest suit up­on God with any confi­dence of discharge, but by putting God to his pro­mise of the new Cove­nant; I am he, Isay 43. 25. I am he (saith the Lord) that blotteth out thine iniquities, for my names sake, and will not re­member thy sinnes. The soule in Prayer may put God to remembrance of his promise, not to re­member sinne. Also how [Page 106] should the soule tyranni­zed over by the body of some corruptiō ever look by Prayer to prevaile a­gainst the power of it, but upon the promise of God, to put the power of the word into the heart; whereby the heart is chan­ged from a stony and re­bellious dispsition, Ier. 38. into a soft, Ezech. 36. pliable and obedient disposition. How shal the fainting soule support her supplication in the day of distresse; or how should she wrestle with God in the time of calamity, when God by conten­ding desireth not only to be gone, but in sence is al­ready departed, except they have at hand that [Page 107] promise, Psal. 50. 15. Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee? Lastly, how shall ever the soule attaine by Prayer to rest it selfe upon the hope of glory, but by interessing it selfe into the promise of the Crowne of Glory, laid up for him, and all them that love the appea­ring of the Lord Iesus Christ? So that these pro­mises are like Aaron and Hur holding up the hands & strengthning the heart of Prayer; yea, as the re­membrance and applica­tion of these, faileth or in­creaseth, so the Spirit of Prayer faileth or increa­seth. Prayers of the regene­rate and unregene­rate differ.

And here lyeth a main [Page 108] difference, of the Prayers of the regenerate and un­regenerate: The Prayers of the former are uphol­den and supported from an externall principle, namely the promises of God that cannot faile but the Prayers of the later lean upon the broken reed of something within thē ­selves, namely, some workes of charity, equity or out-side pietie, the worth of their Prayer it selfe, or the mud-wall of civill honesty; all which are but as a rotten wall, whereupon the best Prai­ers that they build are but straw and stubble, and both foundation and buil­ding being naught, they [Page 109] must be burnt with fire.

If any object that Ne­hemiah Ob. 1. Nehem. 13. 14. desireth the Lord againe and againe to re­member his workes of Piety and Iustice, and that he would not wipe out the good deeds he had done, for the house of his God, and for the offices thereof: So King Ezekias in his Prai­er 1 King. 20. 3. desireth the Lord to remember his walking be­fore the Lord, his integri­ty of heart, and doing good before the Lord.

I answer, Ans. that neither the zealous Ruler, nor the godly King did presume any whit upon the worth of their works, as though thereby they should make their Prayers of accep­tance [Page 110] with God; but if the places be well observed, they cast themselves wholly upon the mercies of God, and not upon the merit of their Prayers, desiring God out of his promise made, to respect the integrity of the heart, and the righteousnesse of the actions, to make good his promise; like unto that in Iob; He shall call upon God, and he will be favou­rable to him; and hee shall see his face with joy: For he will render unto man his righteousnesse. False and forged then is that glosse of the Doctors of Doway, upon that place of Nehemiah: Ajust man that hath merited by good [Page 111] works, may pray with great confidence of reward.

Further, Ob. 2. if any object; If Prayer depend upon promises, what need men pray, since God will ac­knowledge his promises, without our Prayers, for all his promises are Yea and Amen?

For answer, Answ. briefly, he that hath promised to heare, hath commanded us also to pray, and with­out praying no promise to heare; yea, the Son of God himselfe, who doub­ted not of his glorificati­on, did notwithstanding pray, Father glorifie thy Son.

Try then thy interest to the promises, by the [Page 112] laying hold, or desiring to lay hold on the promi­ses, & thereby thou maist know, whether thou prai­est in the Spirit or no, keep alwaies thine eye up­on the promises; for as the load stone keepeth al­waies the point of the needle towards the north­pole, so the load-stone of Gods promises keepeth alwaies the point of the Prayer touched there­with, directly towards the Mercy seat of God: But as the unregenerate man hath no portion in the promises, so the promises are no point of that Com­passe whereby his Pray­ers are guided. It is true indeed, that a wicked man [Page 113] out of the darknesse of his thoughts may charge God with such a promise as God never made, by misconstruing of the pro­mise; as for instance, His argu­ment. ( Call upon me in the day of di­stresse, and I will release thee: This promise a wic­ked man may thus urge; Thou hast bound thy selfe by promise (Lord) to deliver all those that are troubled and call upon thee; but I am in trouble and call upon thee; there­fore thou hast bound thy selfe by the promise to deliver mee; and so from thee I seeke for delive­rance.

The Argument is a so­phisme Ans. (as wee speake) [Page 114] from the homonumie, or diverse significations of the word, all which in the former proposition must be taken for calling upon the Lord in truth; but in the later in cannot be so ta­ken; for the wicked may prate and bable, but hee calleth not upon the Lord, as I have shewed, & there­fore he hath no interest in the promise: Hee leaveth out the maine evidence, namely, the Glorifying of God, which a wicked man never doth; so that he presumeth himselfe to doe that he doth not, and God to promise that which he never meant.

Againe, a wicked man may obtaine that which [Page 115] he payeth for, as successe, honour, wealth, tempo­rall deliverance, and the like; whereupon hee pre­sumeth of some interest to the premises; but it doth not follow: For as God heareth not in every thing or alwaies, the children of the promise, because they are not fitted, or it is not good for them, or the the time is not come; so he often giveth the wic­ked things they crave, in his wrath, they having no ground to aske or receive any thing from him, as a promise to them; for they are none of the children of the promise: They have neither promise of the things of this life nor [Page 116] a better; neither doe they with patience waite the Will of God, that they may receive the promise; but the childrens only care is to make good to themselves some interest to the promises, and that by cleansing themselves from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit, and by doing the Will of God, waiting with patience for the pro­mises, endeavouring to bring them home by faith and supplication without ceasing.

The ninth Evidence of the Spirit of Prayer, 9 the dire­cting of Prayer. is the directing of Prayer to God in the name of Christ: we are comman­ded thus to doe; for what [Page 117] is it to seek the Face of God according to his owne ap­pointment, but to seeke him in the Face of his a­nointed? Drawing neare unto God in Christ, hath only the promise of hea­ring, witnesse Christ him­selfe, binding it with an asseveration, Verily, Ioh. 16. 25 veri­ly I say unto you, what soe­ver yee shall aske the Fa­ther in my name that will I doe; By no other, nor in no other can wee speed, but in and by him; what other can appease the wrath of God against us? Dare man by any other shew his face in Gods presence? In the worth of Christ only our Prayers find acceptance with God [Page 118] in him as in a golden Cen­sor, Rev. 8. 34. all the Prayers of the Saints come to be fra­grant and sweet-smelling odors: He is the only me­diatour as well of Inter­cession as Redemption: He is the Priest, the gol­den Altar by whose ver­tue our Prayers come to be a Sacrifice. Did there ever any prevaile with God but in his name? Is there any way or accesse but by his name? Hee is that high Priest going in­to the Sanctuary, carry­ing on his shoulders, and also on his breast the twelve precious stones, representing the twelve Tribes, or all the faithful. Hence it is cleare that Pa­pists [Page 119] goe not to God, go­ing in the name of Saints and Angels; sometime in the name of Traytors and godlesse persons! In the name (I say) of their own worth and merit: neither doth any reprobate goe to God in the name of Christ, for Christ is no Interces­sor for him; I pray not for the world, Ioh. 17. 19 but for them which thou hast granted me; for they are thine. A great rabble of the unre­generate, as Hypocrites, carnall Gospellers, meere civill men, will tell you they defie Popery; they hold it foolery and mad­nesse to pray to Saint or Angell, and also robbery to goe to God by them; [Page 120] and therefore they scorne it, they acknowledge no other mediatour of Inter­cession but Christ Iesus: All this is wel spoken, but what availeth this them? They will tell you fur­ther, in Christ his name they dayly make their Prayers to God: This is not so, for they have no interest to take his name in their mouths, or to make mention of it, ha­ting to be renued. It is true they may speake of his name, and so egregiously abuse it, as they that will alleage it in the great day, that they prophesyed and cast out Divels in his name, of whom he will professe (that is openly proclaim) [Page 121] he knew them not: viz. he never acknowledged thē for his, yea he detesteth them and biddeth them away, as workers of ini­quity; so shall it bee with all corrupt pleaders, usur­ping the name of Christ. They onely that know this name (as the Psalmist saith) can trust in it, Psal. 9. 11. and fly unto it as a strong tow­er. They know the Lords name & the Lord know­eth theirs; I say. 52. 6. My people (saith the Prophet) shall know my name, &c. And because hee hath set his love upon me, or cleaveth to mee (as the Psalmist speaketh,) therefore I will deliver him: Psal. 91. 14 15. I will set him on high because hee knoweth my [Page 122] name: He shall call upon me and I will answer him.

Look then to it in all thy supplications to look towards God in Christ: The neces­sity and be­nefit hereof As Moses, desiring to see the face of God, was put by God in the Clift of the rock, and covered with his hand till he passed by, that he might see his back parts; so thou and thy prayers must be put in the Rock Christ Iesus, if ever thou com'st to see the face of God in favour. As they that would make an echo repaire to some rocky place whereupon the words resound, so they that will have an answer from God, must either ply their prayers upon the [Page 123] Rock Christ Iesus, or no ccho, no answer at all: As they that are dim-sighted make the object more ap­parant by the use of spe­ctacles; or as some speak through a trunck that they may bee the better heard; So the Saints look through Christ, & speake through Christ; that they may see God and heare God giving a gracious answer. As some glasse maketh things presented by it, to be the same co­lour; So God looking up­on us in Christ, seeth us to be of the colour of his Son, and wee looking on God through Christ, see God reconciled to us in Christ: Therefore what­soever [Page 124] wee offer to God, let us present it to him through Christ; set al­waies Christ betweene thee and him; and whatso­ever God giveth to thee, labour to entertain it al­waies & through Christ: herein comfort shall a­bound to thee & honour to God. As by some kind of Perspectives a man may bring two objects together; So by the Per­spective of faith, directing the prayer to God, in and by Christ, thou maist bring God and Christ & all the promises home to thy soule at one sight.

The tenth evidence that a man prayeth by the Spirit, 10. Praying in a time of trouble. is the betaking of [Page 125] himselfe to it in the time of trouble, as to a rock of defence, or the making of it his especiall remedy in the time of misery. For this indeed is the very best: as David said of Go­liah's, there is none like this; so there is no sword like unto the sword of the Spirit. This is a true Pa­nacea to heal all maladies, a balm for the wounded conscience, a precious medicine for all diseases of the body, a plaister for all sores, a cordiall against all discomforts, armes in­vasive & defensive against all enimies: The Apostle delivereth all this in few words; If any bee afflicted let him pray. It is the safest [Page 126] guard against all evills of sin, Prayer an al sufficient remedy. and evills of punish­ment, 1. Reason. it is the onely best meanes of deliverance from both these: witnesse first that great Physitian God himselfe (for so hee calleth himselfe) Exod. 15. 26. I am Ie­hovah that healeth thee, or I am thy healer or Physiti­an: Now what receipt gi­veth he thee? this is it: call on mee in the day of di­stresse.

Secondly, 2. Reason look but on the soveraigne nature of the medicine it self, where in it differenceth it selfe from all other meanes of life and godlinesse: All o­ther meanes are sanctified by this, but this is the im­mediate motion of the [Page 127] spirit, of an unexpressible vertue and irresistible force.

Thirdly, 3. Reason what glorious things in Gods book are spokē of this inestimable peece of spirituall armes, witnesse S. Iames for all the rest, laying downe the excellency of prayer, first in generall termes, The ef­fectuall fervent prayer of a righteous man prevaileth much; Iam. 5. 16. then hee instanceth it in the prayers of Elias, what great effects were wrought by it. The de­vout Ancients, hardly sa­tisfie themselves in com­mending this excellent peece: Bernard. de med. [...]. 7. There is nothing (saith one) so sensibly sweet to the soule; nothing doth [Page 128] weane the minde so much from the loue of all this world, nothing stirreth up a man to the exercise of all and every grace, nothing prevaileth so much against evill of sin and evill of pu­nishment, whether for pre­servation or deliverance, nothing standeth in better steed for the increase of Gods kingdome by the con­version of soules; For as prayer brake Peters fetters, set open the prison doore; so it shaketh the chaines of sin in peeces, openeth or breaketh up the iron gates of a sinners heart, & offers violence to heaven for the enterance of a sin­ner. One of the Ancients doth attribute Pauls con­version [Page 129] to Stevens prayer, Had not Steven prayed for Paul (saith he) the Church should never have had Paul for a teacher. In a word, nothing maketh a man so amiable to his God, so deare and faith­full to his friend, so for­midable to his foe, so con­tentfull to himselfe, and so profitable to the place where he liveth.

Fourthly, 4 Reason. all the peo­ple of God in all their straits have made this their Master-peece, and prospered by plying it; were it famine, pestilence, sword, captivity, con­tempt, persecution, or any other evill to be feared or inflicted, yea or evill of [Page 130] sin whereby God was of­fended or the soule trou­bled, did they not alwaies fall hard on the worke of petitioning; and did they ever in sincerity so doe & went away without a gra­cious answer? Instance Ia­cob, Moses, Iehosophat, E­zekias, Manasses, Samuel, Eliah, the Cananitish wo­man, the Publican, the Theefe upon the Crosse, with many others, known to the meanest reader of the book of God. What was Moses his best fight when Amaleck charged Israel? Prevailed not this sword of prayer, Neglect of prayer ar­gueth want of the spi­rit. more then the sword of Ioshuah. If this bee so then of the excellency and efficacy of [Page 131] prayer, why doe not men run to it, and trust to it in the time of need? Because the spirit dwelleth not in them: Every one that hath but a shew of profession, yea & prophane men too, wil acknowledge the the­ory or speculative truth thereof; but a woe it is to see how few confirme it by their practise: The worser sort of men can­not do this, if they would, and the better sort will not doe it (to their shame be it spoken) in that mea­sure and manner they should, and as the trouble­some times require it: How the hypocrite useth pray­er. and for the hypocrite when hee commeth into any strait, hee maketh a faire [Page 132] shew in the flesh at the first onset, bearing the world in hand that hee e­steemeth prayer aboue all the meanes in the world; but first his heart can tell him that he relieth more upon subordinate meanes (which may and ought to be used in their time and place) and useth prayer only for a triall of a con­clusion, which if it prove not according to their ex­pectation, then farewell prayer, they will have no more to doe with it; they look for good of it and finde none, and not being acquainted with the ver­tue of it, they say of it as the ignorant say of Christ, What is this so much extol­led [Page 133] medicine more then a­nother medicine? Cant. 5. 9. we have tried it & found no good in it, but rather hurt by neglecting the meanes; & therefore wee will use the meanes that most prevails amongst men; & for pray­er we will not altogether cast it out of doores, but wee will lay it up in some by-corner of the house, & reserve it till it come in request; we will peruse it now and then, but this is not time to trust to it: In this the hypocrite is like one labouring of an inve­terate disease, who wil try a litle of this mans skill & a litle of the others, but will not set himselfe to a­ny constant course of phy­sick, [Page 135] by which hee might be perfectly cured, & fin­ding no good by this course, hee resolveth pe­remptorily never to take any more Physick; yea further, desperately de­termineth to forbeare no­thing, be it never so hurt­full, but use every thing that his minde giveth him to: Iust so the hypocrite in his distresse will have about with prayer, & fall very fresh upon it for a fit or a start; but finding the event not immediately to answer his desires, he fals a quarrelling with it and casheeres it, with a resolu­tion to attend it no fur­ther, yea and not only ca­steth himselfe upon the [Page 135] subordinate meanes, but imbraceth the worst meanes that the Divell will offer him: A preg­nant instance wee have of this in Saul, who in his di­stresse made a seeking of God (for he is said to in­quire of the Lord;) But he did it neither in sincerity nor constancy; and there­fore in another place he is said not to enquire at all, he enquired not of the Lord; for not to enquire of the Lord in truth, is not to en­quire at all. But God not vouchsafing him an an­swer, hee commeth from him to the Divell for an answer. Let every soule then put it selfe to triall upon this point, whither [Page 136] dost thou goe in thy trou­bles? whereon dost thou stay thy selfe? dost thou be take thy selfe to prayer? dost thou walke with this staffe over the rocky, steep and invious mountaines of thy distressefull trou­bles? Then thou talkest by the spirit, thou walkest by the spirit, the spirit protecteth and directeth thee; though thy feet stick fast in the clay, & thy soul be sunk in the pit, the Lord will take thee out, and set thy feet upon a rock. If thy troubles (as Iob saith) were more and heavier thē the sand of the sea, yet the Lord will ease thee, and de­liver thee: though all the waves of the Lord goe o­ver [Page 137] thee, ply but the oares of prayer, in the boat of faith, and they shall nei­ther drowne thee in the depth of despaire, nor split thee upon the rock of Apostasie: If all thine enimies conspire a­gainst thee, and all thy friends for sake thee, bee thou ever with God in prayer, and God will ever be with thee to preserve thee; yea in life and death he will never forsake thee; and this shall be an unde­niable evidence in thy soules deepest distresse, that God is with thee: But if thou canst be con­tent in thy trouble, onely to make thy triall of prai­er, and if thou findest not [Page 138] present successe to prefer other meanes to this, and yet thou wilt use this but as if thou used it not, then thou dealest in this case as Achas dealt with the Altar of God, He brought in (as the History telleth us) the Altar of Damascus, 2. Kings from v. the 10. to 16. whereon all his offerings, and the offerings of the people must be laid; but the Altar of the Lord must haue an inferiour place, and be reserved only to consult withall a litle for fashion sake; So though thou canst bee content to prate with praier, having given it an inferiour place and respect, yet all thy sacrifi­ces are for the subordi­nate meanes. As the Lord [Page 139] abhorred Achas, and his offerings, so will he never look upon thee in this case, nor on thy prayers to doe thee any good: Therefore looke to it as thou lovest to thriue: All lawfull meanes (as I have shewed) thou maist and must use, because the neg­lect of them is a tempting of God, but be sure to use them in subordination to prayer, by which they must bee either sanctified or supported, or they will prove but rotten and de­ceitfull reeds. But here by the way, thou must ob­serve a necessary Caveat, Comfort for such as cannot or dare not pray. that Gods dearest childrē may bee so deaded with distresse of soule, and pres­sure [Page 140] of afflictions, that they cannot pray, or, as I have shewed, so distem­pered and distracted, that they dare not pray; but this may stay their heart, that they would fain pray; their heart beareth them witnesse, that they prize nothing so much as pray­er; if they had all the meanes in the world at command, they will give none the place of prayer; yea they had rather pray then be delivered. And there is great reason, why thus they should esteeme of prayer, above all other meanes, because the grea­test thing that they can ef­fect, is but hearts desire, in things like the meanes [Page 141] themselves: but prayer, over and besides, procu­reth greater familiarity with God, which is the highest honour and the richest profit, that the soul can attain unto. A nota­ble instance wee have of this in Daniel, who though he understood by holy Writ, that the time of Ierusalems deliverance was come; Dan. 9. 2. 23. yet he fals hard to prayer, and that to his great rejoycing: for the Angell of the Lord be­commeth the Herald of the Lords affliction to­wards him, calling him a man of desires, or as it is translated, much beloved or desired of the Lord. So if thou hast assurance of [Page 142] the thing desired, yet thou shouldest not cease to desire it in prayer.

It is further true, that Gods deare people may in the damp of their di­stresses look more to the subordinate meanes than they should, and lesse to prayer than they ought, yea in this particular wee may all lay our hands up­on our mouths, and with shame enough confesse our faultinesse. In this we labour of the squintnesse of the eye of the soule; for as this is caused in the eye of the body from loose­nesse of the muscles or nerves, or from inversion of the Christaline humor, or from the suddain sight [Page 143] some fearefull object; So the other of the soule, ari­seth from the weaknesse of Faith, the terrors with­out and the feares within, making us look a squint upon that which should help us, and more direct­ly to that which cannot help us: but the cause be­ing removed, & the sight being rectified they looke streighter and more dire­ctly upon the proper ob­ject: or if you will, wee may be compared to un­advised patients, who be­ing in a direct and appro­ved course of Physick, & not feeling such present good as they looke for, they fall presently upon some Emperick medicin, [Page 144] either from a Mounte­banck Foe or an ignorant Friend; the evill and dis­order whereof when they begin to feele, they con­fesse their errour and re­solve thence forth to walk by the rule: So the peo­ple of God in their brain­sick fits count with Naa­man the rivers of Damas­cus more medicinable thē the rivers of Israel: but upon better consideration they conceive and finde it to be true, that one bucket full of Iordan, is better thē al the rivers of Damascus; A few graines of the spi­rit are of more force then all the friends and means whatsoever in the world. And as a wise patiēt grown [Page 145] wise to his cost from foo­lery and experimented e­vill of a hurtful Medicine, resolveth hence forth to cleave to a methodicall course, and to die or live by the Book; So the foo­led and ashamed Chri­stian by relying too much upon subordinate means, recalleth his wits, chideth himself for his foolery, & resolves for ever to make more accompt of Prayer then all meanes that the whole world can afford him. Our neg­lect of Prayer, relying on other meanes what evill it is unto us. And thrice happy were the people of God at this time, if wee could now at length fall upon the second and sounder thoughts; for wofull ex­perience hath taught how [Page 146] our more relying upon o­ther meanes than Prayer, hath made God's Inheri­tance every where a prey to the enemy: When the troubles first began, wee took them to heart; wee began togather our forces together, and importune God; but God denying his eare (it may be not on­ly for the faults of our persons and Prayers, but also to try our perseve­rance) we quickly give o­ver, leaving the cause and the persons as buried in oblivion, caring litle or nothing what become of them or our selves: It is no evidence of the Spirit to begin to run, and to break off in the mid way: [Page 147] Naturall motions are the swifter, the nigher they come to their end. Is not Prayer as powerfull as e­ver it was to prevaile with God? Have wee not to doe with the same God that heareth Prayer? De­sireth he not to heare the voice of his own, as much as ever he did? Are not suppliants now the men of his desire? Hateth hee not his enemies as much as ever he did? Have wee not the same command, the same promise? And shall it not find the same entertainment? Yes veri­ly. What is the cause then the Lord is so farre from us? Even because wee are so farre from him; we fol­low [Page 148] not to the mark, wee turne backe in the day of battaile; wee endeavour not by wrestling to stay the Lord, and not to let him goe til he give us a blessing. And how should the Lord be intreated of us? We are like to Iohas King of Israel in our Prayers, who smote the ground (as the man of God cōman­ded) with his arrowes, but not often enough, & there­fore the man of God was wroth with him; for if hee had smitten often enough he should have smitten the Assyrians, till he had con­sumed them: So had wee followed the businesse in the power of the Spirit & smitten often enough, [Page 149] wee should have smitten the Babylonians til we had consumed them; but wee have not done it, & there­fore they prevaile: The breaking off of Prayer, and the negligent perfor­mance of it, is a fearfull evidence that God wil ne­ver honour us with being the means of their delive­rance.

But to leave them in the pit, (for there they are like to be for us,) what shall wee say of our selves, or what shall wee doe for our selves? Wee look indeed for peace, Ier. 8. 15. (as the Prophet saith) and for a time of health, and behold trouble; Deut. 22. 25. And, to use Mo­ses his words, Is not the [Page 150] day of our calamity neere? And doe not the things that are threatned make hast? And what remedy, namely this, to cry migh­tily to God by continu­ance in Prayers: Iohas, though a wicked man, knew reasonable well the worth of Prayer when he gave the Prophet this te­stimony on his death­bed, weeping bitterly that hee should depart, O my Father, the Charriots and horse-men of Israel! By which speech, what other meant the King, 2 King. 13. 14. then that the Prophet and his Pray­ers were of more worth for the good of the state, then all the forces of the Kingdome. One of the [Page 151] Learned telleth us, that the sincere Prayers of an old, weak, godly woman, will prevaile more with God for helpe from hea­ven against the enemy, then thousands of armed Souldiers in the field. But with woe and griefe of soule we may say, where be the men that stand up in the gappe to turne away the wrath? Exod. 32. 33. Who, with Mo­ses offereth that violence to God, that God should say to him, let me alone? Who will stay by the Lord as he did, and will not off, nor goe one foote till hee have the Lord to goe with us? O how that complaint of the Pro­phet may pierce us to the [Page 152] very heart; Esay 64. 7. There is none that calleth upon thy Name nor stirreth up himselfe to take hold on thee! And what followeth? even that which partly is upon us, and partly like to come upon the, Thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast con­sumed us because of our ini­quities. Who is it now, with the Spouse in the Canticles, that laieth hold upon Christ till hee have brought him into his Mo­thers house? Cant. 3. 4. Whereby is meant both the Heart and the Church, which is the house of God: For there indeed is Gods dwelling. Let us awake then since now is the trouble some time, and draw nigh to [Page 153] God; Hab. 2. 1. yea, let us stay our selves upon the Tower, and stand upon the watch to see what the Lord will say un­to us: Though he be an­gry with our Prayers let us not give over, but let us pray continually, not returning againe to folly; and wee may be sure it shall goe well with us in the day of tryall.

Another Evidence of the Spirit on Prayer, 11 Respect to order & matter of Praier. is a due respect had to the Matter and Order of Prayer: As to the former, when they pray for no­thing but that which is pleasing to God: Rom. 8. 18. We know not indeed of our selves what to pray for, nor how to pray, but the Spirit [Page 154] teacheth us in both; against that old and new Pelagi­an Heresie of mans abili­lity in both duties, the Spirit teacheth us to aske that, and nothing but that, which is agreeable to his Will; for that hath the promise and confidence in the promises annexed unto it: 1 Ioh. 5. 14. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if wee aske any thing according to his will, he heareth us: So that the Will of God must be the Rule and Square of our Prayers; God gave Salo­mon his choice to ask what hee would, yet Salomon knew very well (as appea­reth by his choice) that 1 King. 3. 5. that was included accor­ding [Page 155] to will: So that place in Matthew is to be un­derstood, Mat. 7. Aske and it shall be given you &c. For wee must take heed (as it there followeth) that instead of bread wee aske not stones, nor a Scorpion instead of fish, that is, hurtfull and not lawful things, instead of usefull and lawful. The man destitute of the Spi­rit of God asketh ever a­misse Iam. 4. 3. (as S. Iames saith) ei­ther for quantity or qua­lity, or for ill ends; hee as­keth there that which is naught in it selfe; or if it be good it is not fit for him; or if it might be fit for him, if hee were such as he should be, yet hee is not fitted for it because [Page 156] he is not such as he should be. I must confesse upon wofull experience, that the Children of God in their Lunatick fits, fall of­ten foul upō these shelves or sandes: As for asking things unlawfull; the Dil­ciples would have fire from heaven; Luk. 9. 45. Mat. 20. Zebedees sons would sit on the right hand, and on the left of Christ; Psal. 55. David would have the wings of a Dove that he might flie from his co­lours: and so they aske things not fitting for thē, though to good intent, and often they are not fit­ted for the things they aske. But thus they doe in their hast, the Word of God checketh them; [Page 157] Gods Spirit & their owne cōscience diverteth them from this course; and they endeavour to square their desires according to the Will of God. But the wicked are like to Elies sonnes, They will have what they will, if they pe­rish for it. Try thy Prayer then by the object of thy desires; if thou canst hear­tily submit thy self to the Will of God in all things, then thou hast assurance of the guidance of the Spi­rit; but if thou wilt be both begger and choo­ser, thou art too saucy to be guided by the Spi­rit. The order to be obser­ved in Praier.

Secōdly, as for the Mat­ter so they have due re­spect [Page 158] unto the Order: The Spirit whereby they are guided, is a spirit of Order & not of confusion. They first seeke heaven and hea­venly things, 1 Rule. because they are heavenly minded, ac­cording to that rule of our Saviour, Mat. 6. 33. Seek yee first the Kingdome of God and his righteousnesse, and all these things shall be added unto you: where by the King­dome of God and his righ­teousnesse is meant heaven and all the means of Gods appointment, that bring us to heaven, which both for excellency and order we must seeke and esteem above & before all things; not but that wee may and must seeke earthly things, [Page 159] for there is a necessity of them, we have the promi­ses for them, but it must be as they are necessary helps to the better things, giving them their due time and place: A pattern for this our Saviour gi­veth us in that perfect pat­terne of Prayer, wherein he teacheth us first to pray for heavenly things, and then for earthly things. Where if any object, Ob. That the asking of dayly bread is prefixt to the asking of forgivenesse of sinnes, the former being earthly, the later heavenly; Answer I answer, it is not needfull (with some of the Fathers and others) to expound this bread of the sacramentall [Page 160] bread, for the temporall bread is the bread of the children (as one of them well observeth) as well as the spirituall bread; but the petition for Bread is put before the petition of Remission of sins, as some think, because the former of petitions is for good, the later is in the number of the deprecations for e­vill: Others, that from the sight of our necessities of earthly things, we are led to a sight of our necessity of heavenly things: Ac­cording to this patterne is the practice of the Saints; Salomō makes first choice for Wisdome, 1 King. 3. 9 and letteth other things follow in their course; David first [Page 161] desireth the light of Ieho­vah's face or countenance, Psal. 4. and letteth the corne, and the wine, and the oyle fol­low in their order. But it is nothing so with the wicked, they desire earth­ly things in the first place because they are earth­ly minded, as for hea­venly things, they ne­ver question the attai­ning of them: Give E­sau first his red pottage, and let him deale after­ward for the birth-right as hee can; let Saul be ho­noured before the people, and hee will take his ven­ture of the honour from God.

Againe, 2 Rule. wee must aske heavenly things absolute­ly [Page 162] (I meane in their kinds, not in any particular mea­sure or quantity;) but for earthly things wee must aske them conditionally, for so they are promised; In some sort, namely, so farre as they are absolute­ly necessary for the main­taining us in Gods service, and making good of his promises, so farre wee may crave them absolute­ly; for as wee crave the end, so we may crave the meanes that lead to that end.

Then try thy selfe by the right ordering of thy heart towards the object of thy desires; if thy heart pant, and thy soule thir­steth after the living God, [Page 163] and the promises of God Christ Iesus: Doest thou desire the loving kind­nesse of the Lord more then Life it selfe, then let this assure thee, though thou want other assu­rance, that thy desires are the desires of the Spi­rit; for every desire is of the nature of the thing desired: Beasts affect on­ly sensuall objects, be­cause their desires are meerly sensuall, and the naturall man desireth na­turall things as the ade­quat object of his desires, though by some spar­kle of common instinct he may glance at better things, which he neither knoweth, nor truly affe­cteth. [Page 164] So the Kingdome of God and his righteous­nesse is the adequat object of the spirituall mans de­sires, although the sto­mach may be affected with the maukin, or such a disease as women with-child and men also labour of, arising from an excre­mentious or venemous, humour, whereby they long extremely for things hurtfull, like the humour it selfe, and desire them more then holsome food: But as this is cured by vo­miting, so the Lord by some crosse or other pur­geth out his malignant menstrous humour, after which they come to hate their owne desires: David [Page 165] was taken with a longing 2 Sam. 23. desire for the water of Be­thlem, but not when hee perceived it to be the price of blood; by hazarding the lives of his worthies, hee would not give it to his desires. So when the Saints perceive their inordinate desires to hazard their e­steeme & desire of Chirst, they say to them, as E­phraim to his Idols, get you hence, what have I to doe with you? Look to it then, for if thou set thine ease, profit, pleasures, ho­nour, or any thing else be­fore Christ, thy desire is not of Christ.

The last note of Evi­dence of the Spirit, 12 Expe­ctation of the thing desired. is the looking for an answer [Page 166] from him to whom wee pray: The end of every action, is first in intention. A man can never intend that which hee lookes not to see in execution; the end of Prayer is to be heard: Heare (O Lord) the Praier of Iudah, Deut. 33. 7. and bring him unto his people: To heare is no other thing but to an­swer; he who prayeth then intendeth to have answer, looketh for an answer; it will follow then by con­version, that he that look­eth not for an answer, prayeth not at all. That speech of the blind man, Ioh. 9. God heareth sinners, carri­rieth these two things in it; First, as I have shewed, the living in any sinne can­not [Page 167] stand with the Spirit of Prayer: This hath been the course of all the Saints: Iacob looked for a bles­sing, and hee would not a­way without a blessing; The Canaanitish Woman will not away til she have somewhat, though it be but crummes; David will look out, that is, (as I have shewed) he will waite for an answer; My soule wai­teth for Iehovah, Psal. 136. 6. more then a watch-man for the morning: Psal. 123. 2. 3. As the eyes of servants are unto the hand of their Masters, or as the eyes of a Maiden unto the hand of her Mistresse; So our eyes are toward Ieho­vah, our God, untill that he be gracious unto us: The [Page 168] leadeth us unto this duty by the very instinct of brutish creatures; The eyes of all looke attentively to thee, and thou givest them their meat in due season. Plin. l. 2. c. 4. The Humanists tell of O­ryx a kind of Goat in E­gypt, that it is so affected with the feare of scorch­ing heat at the rising of the dog-starre, that it stan­deth with tears in the eies looking up to the hea­vens, as though it seemed to deprecate the intolera­ble fervency thereof, and to thirst with an un­quenchable desire for some moisture from the heavens: So the soule ta­ken up with desire of that it prayeth for, will waite [Page 169] for it till it hath it: And this is more then an unre­generate man doth or can doe; he hath not the pro­mise, which is the ground of the answer, nor careth he for the best things; how then can hee wait for an answer? He may conceit that God wil answer him, yea that hee doth answer him, because hee obtain­eth some earthly things, but his conceit is groūd­lesse, for God answereth not his prayers neither will he, though hee make many prayers, although it please God to cast those things upon him for the further convincing and condemning of him: Put thy soule therefore to it in [Page 170] this particular, and looke on thy prayer with like or dislike, according to thy looking or not look­ing for an answer. The Godly fail herein. Our comming short of this maketh us come short of our suits for our selves & others; wee are like the children that shoot their shafts, & never look after them; or carelesse petitio­ners, who never look af­ter an answer of their pe­tition: This is one maine cause of the Lords ab­sence from his Church, and of his standing out notwithstanding our prai­ers, in that wee have not waited still on God, and importun'd him for an answer. Then let us set [Page 171] our selves upon the wall continually, to watch and wait for it, and the Lord in his due time will give a gracious answer.

If a wearied soule ob­ject Ob. his waiting for an an­swer till his eyes hath fai­led, and his heart fainted;

I answer, Answ. if thy suit hath the promise for its ground, thou shalt have it, for God denieth not what he delayeth, yea in this he answereth thee that he stayeth thy heart to looke for answer; for therein he answereth the heart, though he answereth not the hand, hee knitteth thy heart unto him that it doe not depart from him. But if thou hast no promise [Page 172] for thy particular, then know, that deniall is the very best answer; for pri­vate blessings are every way as good as positive.

Thus much I hope shal The Con­clusion of this parti­cular. serve for the particular markes of the Grones of the Spirit, which in some measure are in all Gods children. All these marks indeed, or, at the least, some of them be very cō ­spicuous; yet through dis­use or neglect the chara­cters may be mightily ra­ced, and illegible, mosse­grown with the cares of this life, and the remnants of carnality, hypocrisy, & security, yet they are not quite raced out, so that they are not there at all; [Page 173] but in the unregenerate they are not at all, or in a­ny measure. I have beene the larger in thē, because of the deceitfulnesse of the heart, the neglect of triall, the presumption of hypocrites and prophane men, and for stirring up of Gods people to look bet­ter to it, that they may not only pray in the spirit in some measure, but also that they may pray in sense of the spirit, which is the third Point in order to be handled.

3. How the Sence of the Spirit in Prayer may bee attained.

BEFORE I Quest. come to o­pen this par­ticular, it shall not be amisse to answer a questi­on which I heard moved; Whether a man without the Spirit, especially un­derstand close hypocrites, may goe frequently and ordinarily to God in se­cret, because all other ob­jects and by-respects re­moved, the soule com­meth [Page 175] in a more direct a­spect to talke with God? Answer

For answer hereunto, I must acknowledge, that as the prayer of the wic­ked is never mentioned but with professed dete­station of it, so I never read of any prayer of the wicked in secret; But the Pharisees, the very pi­cture of hypocrites, are reproved for turning the course of secret prayer to publique ostentation: It is discovered in the Scri­pture to be the practice of the Saints; Gen. 24. 63. Isaac went out into the fields with deepe meditation (for so the word signifieth.) It was Daniels ordinary practice to goe into his chamber Dan. 6i 10. [Page 176] three times a day to pray; So David, Ps. 55. 17. 33. 4. evening and morning and at noone will I meditate; Act. 10. 9. And at the sixt houre Peter went into pray­er. Lastly, Luk. 6. 12. it was the fre­quent practice of Christ himselfe, the pattern of all goodnesse: yet notwith­standing all these, a pro­phane man may stumble now and then on his knees before God, as a night­walker may a dangerous way in his sleep, not knowing what danger he is in, yea a close hypocrite may so harden his face a­gainst the feare of Gods presence, or upon some selfe-fantasticall ground of libertinisme, liue in grosse sinnes, one or more [Page 177] & goe ordinarily to God in secret, which the Lord in judgement doth suffer for a time, that they may be hardned in sin, and clo­thed with judgement as with a robe, but failing of their ends, or their ends or their sin being discove­red, they fall off from the practice to open Propha­nesse, Apostasie of profes­sion, or Terror of consci­ence, which is the best that can befall them.

Now having answe­red this Question, I come directly to the point it selfe, namely, The meanes of attaining the sense of the Spirit in prayer: For as many think they pray, & yet pray not at all; so ma­ny [Page 178] pray indeed, and doe not belieue they pray. As it is the highest happines of the soule to converse with God in prayer, so is it the heavenliest consola­tion of the soule, to know it selfe to bee conversant with God in prayer: Now for the attainment of this, thou must,

1 First stir up and quic­ken the motion of the spi­rit: As in nature, Motion stirreth up naturall heat, and naturall heat maintai­neth Motion, making the part moved more sensible of livelinesse, and activity; so the stirring up of any spirituall faculty, maketh it more active & agile, and the activity thereof [Page 179] maintaines the vigor of the faculty, and maketh the subject more sensible of its own activity: It is directly so in prayer; to this the Apostle is very pertinent, 1. Tim. 1. 6 Stir up the gift that is in thee. The pro­perty of the word is to stir up the sparkles of fire, covered as it were with ashes, and by laying fuell to them, to kindle them up, and make them burne again. So that if thou wouldst feele the heat of the spirit, thou must by a devout indeavour & care­full assiduity, gather to­gether the sparkles of the spirituall motions, raked up in the ashes of corrup­tion, and the rubbish of [Page 180] carelesse neglect, and by laying on the fuell of the grones of the spirit, with the soft breath of the bel­lows of heavenly medi­tations, thou must resusci­tate and kindle up againe that spirituall fire, which is like to be extinguished. The neglect of this ma­keth want of sense, and want of sense want of comfort; and therefore (as the Apostle saith) neg­lect not, or be not carelesse of the gift that is in thee. If ever then thou wouldst have comfort from the sense of prayer, dig thy selfe out of thine own se­curity, dull not, neither drowne thy pretious thoughts in cares, plea­sures, [Page 181] worldly joyes, or sorrowes; be ever bring­ing the dispersed sparkles of the Spirit together, and like a good workmā, look well to the fire, and then the Lord will not onely take notice of thy prayer, as he did of Pauls, but hee will also give thy soule to know, that it is such a prayer as he taketh notice of; so that thou maist cōfi­dently averre with David, I have called upon thee, & maist urge it with an argu­ment, Ps. 31. 18. let mee not bee con­founded.

2 The second Mean of procuring sense, is the re­moving of hinderances, as the distemper of the body by intemperancy, [Page 182] the distemper of the soule by passion, dividing cares or loose and unprofitable company; these bee the rubbish of our ruinous di­sposition, that keep us frō the view of the straine of prayer in us: These be the ashes that cover the spar­kles of the Spirit, & keep us from the sensible heat of them. Away then with these if thou desirest the sense of the vigor of the Spirit! First the soule fol­loweth the temperature of the body; thou must labour, as much as may be, for a sound minde in a well tempered body: The over-wearied, and over-toyled bodies, whereunto most men reserve their fa­milies [Page 183] and secret duties, are unfit to organize the soule, or to vent the soul's desires in prayer; It is good therefore to ply the duty in health, & strength of body, that hence com­fort may arise in time of sicknesse, and weaknesse. As for the Passions or Perturbatiōs of the mind, if they be the symptomes of evill affected bodies, the body must be brought in frame; but if they bee the more spiritual pertur­bations, or such turbulent commotions as wee call properly the sicknesse of the minde, as anguish, sla­vish feare, sadnesse, & the like, these being of an aë­reall and subtile nature, [Page 184] doe trouble and miscarry the temper, as the winde doth carry the calmest ayre and smoothest water against the rocks: So that for want of smooth wa­ters to move on (if you will) a well-composed minde, the evidence of the Spirit, can neither be seen nor heard. Therefore these perturbations must be alayed by their oppo­site. Graces, (as I have shewed) not quite taken away, with the Stoicks, but they must bee so tem­pered and alaied by grace, above the temper of the Platonists, that they may be as sinews to the moti­on of the Spirit, whereby evidence may bee furthe­red, [Page 185] and not hindered. As for instance; an angry or wrathfull disposition, is like choler, distasting or distempering the rellish of the Spirit; or as the unna­turall heat doth wast and consume the naturall a­ctive heat that commeth from the heart; so the de­vouring heat of anger ea­teth up the evidence of the Spirit. The minde (as one saith) must be at peace in it selfe, if it look towards God: But if the heat of an­ger be turned into a holy zeal, tempered with dis­cretion, it will consume that rubbish that lyeth in the way of sense, and will be like a coach to carry the evidence or feeling of [Page 186] the Spirit to our Spirit in the time of prayer.

Secondly, And so a ha­bit of dulnesse or pensive heavinesse, dulleth & flat­teth the sense of the spirit in prayer, but a well set or moderate mournfulnesse, is that sowing in teares, which maketh us sensible in prayer to reap in joy. Lastly distracting and sla­vish feare doth weaken the sense of Gods love to­wards us, but a reverent awe of the Majesty of God in prayer, will give thy soule assurance, that he is thy Father, and that by the power of the spirit, thou callest him so.

Thirdly, As for the re­moveall of any reigning [Page 187] sin, I have spoke of it be­fore, for continuance in that cannot stand with the Spirit of prayer; yea I am of that minde, that though David lost not the Spirit by his sin, it is pro­bable that he prayed not scarce all the time that he lay in his sin.

A third Mean to attain sense of the Spirit in pray­er, is in thy disposition to the duty, and desire to bee guided by the spirit, and not by the flesh & blood. In thine indisposition, or averse disposition, it will disswade thee from pray­ing at all, and that upon some shew of probable ground, as that thou hast not the Spirit, thou canst [Page 188] not pray, God will not entertain it, If any bee by thou maist shame thy self, and bewray thee to bee a man of no gifts; So thou hadst best let it alone till thou be fitted, God will accept of thy good inten­tion, and better not pray at all, then not to pray ex­cellently: But these, & the like be sophisticall sugge­stions, whereunto if thou hearknest, thou neglectest thy duty, thou weaknest thy prayer by thy neg­lect, thou disacquaintest thy selfe with God, thou bewraiest a doting on thine own ability, thou in­terceptest Gods opportu­nity of manifesting his strength in thy weaknesse, [Page 189] thou givest advantage to Sathan, thou indangerest the very habit of prayer as much as in thee lyeth; for from frequency of neglect thou maist dere­linquish the duty, or bring it to a bare presumptory performance. Lastly, there is nothing that weakneth, depriveth, and opposeth sense more then this: for as a sedentary life; or slee­ping after meat, bringeth a fat cold body to a Palsie or Lethargie, wherein sense and motion is often weakned or deprived; so the neglect of duty may indanger sense to a mans dying day. Therefore if thou canst not pray as thou wouldest, or as thou [Page 190] shouldst, pray yet as thou canst; God may bee there and thou not aware of it: and when thou art least a­ble, thou art most able; & when thou art most hum­ble, thou art fittest for sense: & take this as the di­rection of the Spirit in many places besides the practice of the Saints: Eph. 6. 19. Pray alwaies; Col. 4. 2. Continue in pray­er: Rom. 12. 12. Watch and pray alwaies: Luk. 21. 36 The meaning of which places wee must not mis­take (after the example of Euchytes the Psallian) that we must doe nothing but pray, (for many evills would then arise) but that upon all occasions wee should have something to say to God, especially as [Page 691] both ancient and modern observe, at the stinted times of duty, which though wee change, yet we must not neglect or o­mit, whether private or secret. In a word, that of the Apostle in another case, though often by sin abused, will serve well here, 2. Tim. 4. 2 Be instant in season and out of season; that is, whether it please or please not: So whether thou art disposed or not disposed, goe to, and doe it; the Lord hath bidden thee.

The fourth Meane in Prayer to obtaine sence, is the labouring in Prayer to bring home Christ sen­sibly to the soule: This is the Spouses desire, I would [Page 192] lead thee, I would bring thee into my mothers house: And thus she doth indeed; I held him and would not let him goe until I brought him into my mothers house; which is no other but to bring him into the heart, where hee dwelleth by Faith. As the Conduit-pipe bringeth home wa­ter from the Fountaine to the Cisterne, so the Con­duit of Faith bringeth home the Fountaine of li­ving water, even Christ himselfe, to the Cisterne of the heart. As the eye of Faith in Prayer look­eth for Christ, so the hand of faith bringeth him home, for faith is a thrifty grace, bringing all riches [Page 193] home to the soule. The want of this thrifty course maketh want of sense in our suits to God; for as the light of Gods truth bringeth home to the soul the Mountaine of his ho­linesse, so the Spirit of Prayer bringeth home the Lord to the soule of an humbled sinner. If a man could fill the Censer with odors, and the hea­vens with Groanēs, and labour not in particular for this Vnion or Con­tract between God & his Soule, God may be there with litle or no immedi­ate sense of his presence: Look then to the plying of this; for this will make thee to remove every [Page 194] thing that may displease the faithfull witnesse, or weaken sense.

A fift Mean to procure sense, is a due notice-ta­king of God & our selves in Prayer: The knowledge of our selves, Moral, Na­turall, and Spirituall, ca­steth us quite out of our selves, and leadeth us (as one saith) as it were by the hand to the knowledge of God; by which reflection or circular knowledge we come to be vile in our owne eyes: It casteth out and keepeth out sin, ma­king the Spirit rejoyce to beare witnesse with our Spirits, that our Prayers are as odors of incense in his nostrills. Againe, the [Page 195] Spirituall knowledge of Gods Excellency, Sove­raignty, Al-sufficiency of all his Attributes and workes, worketh a lively sense in the Suiter, because the bare naturall or super­naturall knowledge of God, be it as may be, will never beget any sense without that anointing eye-salve. This knowledg then of Gods Excellency will countervail the sense of thine owne unworthi­nesse, his Soveraignty will command the rebellion thereof: His All-sufficien­cy supplyeth thy wants; all his attributes, yea, even his Iustice (in Christ) ser­veth for thy good; This knowledge giveth thee [Page 196] not only (with the hea­then) some light to see God in his Creatures. The truth of this passage appeareth plainly in A­braham his suite to God for Sodome; I have taken upon me, or begun to speak unto the Lord, and I am dust and ashes, whereby a reflective knowledge of God upon him selfe, hee seeth and acknowledgeth himselfe to be nothing: yet by this is not discou­raged but rather encoura­ged to continue his re­quest, renuing it to the number of nine times, which hee could never have done without the sense of the Spirits appro­bation.

[Page 197] Our comming short herein maketh us come short of sense in Prayer, for either we examine not our selves, and empty not our selves of our selves as we should, till we be vile in our own eyes, & there­fore the Lord will not let us know that hee taketh notice of us, till we take better notice of our selves; or on the contrary, wee fixe both our eyes upon our owne unworthinesse, vilenesse, and insufficien­cy, where finding no mat­ter of feeling, wee drench our selves in teares of de­spair with S. Iohn, because there is nothing found in us worthy to give testi­mony: Rev. 5. 4. But we looke not [Page 198] up to the Lyons power, nor the worth of the Lambes blood, by which the sealed evidence of the Fathers good will is o­pened or broken up to us, by whom the Odors or Prayers of the Saints are carried up to the Father, and to the Fathers pre­sence, and evidence of his presence is brought down into the soule. And this is the means to make us sing that new song with trium­phant joy and melody in ovr heart, having God in Christ to be all in all un­to us, though wee be no­thing of our selves.

The sixt and last sense-procuring Meane, is a close and constant holy [Page 199] walking with God in all our Thoughts, Words, & Actions, both in our ge­nerall and particular cal­ling. The guidance of the Spirit, Praying by the Spi­rit, and Evidence of the Spirit (in some measure) goe usually together; (I say usually) because some­time the two first may be without the last, and that for causes best knowne to God, as some sinne past, prevention of some sinne, as spirituall pride, or the like; or for the tryall of the patience of the Saints, and their continuance in Prayer, trusting in the Lord, although hee should kill them: And truly I may say for the comfort of [Page 200] such, that though it be not so sweet a condition as that which is joyned with sense, yet it is as happy & as sure a condition as that which is carried by sense, if all meanes for sense be used. Hither may I apply that saying of our Saviour to Thomas, Ioh 20. 29. Thou beleevest because thou seest, blessed are those that have not seen and yet have beleeved: So, blessed are those that continue in Praier, though they want the sense of as­surance in Prayer.

But to the matter in hand, close obedience out of Prayer, bringeth good Evidence in Prayer, not only as the effect, or as the fruit evidenceth the [Page 201] tree, but it challengeth the Spirit of promise to be with us in Prayer, to give Evidence and Approba­tion to his owne Worke: For as remisse walking in a Christian (though not absolutely loose) doth in some sort quench the Spi­rit and damp the evidence thereof in Prayer; so a close, strict, and holy wal­king with God, doth quic­ken and rejoyce the Spi­rit, for that it is ready with cheerfulnesse to give joy­full evidence, when wee goe about its particular businesse of Prayer. This walking with God (for which the Patriarchs and Saints were commended) is nothing else (as the Au­thor [Page 202] to the Hebrewes ex­poundeth it) but a plea­sing of God by faith and o­bedience: Now when we thus please him, hee (ac­cording to his covenant made to Ahraham and his seed,) is with us in our re­quests, by giving us con­tentment of assurance. But our want of this, maketh weaknesse of Prayer, and want of assurance: Many mens affections are led captive and their judg­ments; wee presume our wayes to be Gods wayes, when they are none of his; by being strict in one of the Tables, we take li­berty to transgresse the o­ther: The harmony of the Spirit is distempered by [Page 203] our disordered passions; we beare false witnesse a­gainst God in denying the Saints their due, out of a partiall humour, and therefore it is just with God to withdraw his te­stimony from our re­quests, though we eager­ly desire it. Lastly, the hearts of the most profes­sing, are so overcharged with the cares of this life, that the Spirit also is o­vercharged with the dul­nesse & deadnesse of their Prayers, whereby the du­ty hath small force with it and the evidence is sup­pressed: Therefore looke to thy walking in every particular, if ever thou meanest to attaine to assu­rance [Page 204] in thy Prayer.

Other meanes I might deliver for the obtaining of sense, as due Preparati­on to Praier, a Habit of ho­ly ejaculations, but I have already spoke of the for­mer, and will only adde this, Withdraw thy selfe from all impediments, & prepare thy selfe with a reverent awe to meet thy God: And for the later, These holy breathings, as ayre, keepe and cleere the fire upon the hearth, whereby sense is kindled when thou settest upon the worke: Also for helpe in this particular, the fre­quent use of secret Prayer will doe well; David (as I have shewed) sought the [Page 205] Lord three times a day; we should of necessity be twice a day with God at the least, besides going unto him upon other oc­casions, as hearing of the Word, or others, remem­birng also to double our Sacrifice on the Lord's Day. And so much for the Meanes, which if the Lord dispose thy heart to use conscionably, thou canst not but obtain some good measure of assu­rance, that thou praiest by the Holy Ghost.

4 How a man should hold on in the duty without the sense of the Spirit.

THe fourth par­ticular head of of this Treatise, Quaest. shall be the sa­tisfying a demand: If one feele not the assurance of the Spirit in Prayer, with what comfort or encourage­ment shall that party hold on in Prayer, or should hee resolve to give over Pray­er, as Ieremy resolved to give over preaching?

For answer, Ans. let such a one neither resolve so nor [Page 207] doe so: As for motives of encouragement thereun­to; First, thou must doe it in conscience to the com­mandement, joyned with a promise, Call upon me in the day of trouble and I wil deliver thee: What grea­ter trouble then to be without sense of assurance in Prayer, and when is de­liverance nigher then in great trouble?

Secondly, remember that hee, to whom thou goest, is a loving, kind, and compassionate Father, who pittieth his children, and will not suffer them to cry alwaies without an answer, he will not hide his face for ever. If evill pa­rents wil give good things [Page 208] to their children, yea, and that to evil children: much more wil he who is good­nesse it selfe give better things to such as hee hath made partakers of his goodnesse.

Thirdly, take encou­ragement from earnest desire of Gods face that he hath put into thy heart which hee never meaneth to frustrate, for hee gran­teth the desires of his children. Thou art as sure­ly happy (as I have shew­ed) though not so sensi­bly happy, in hungring and thirsting after sense, as though thy soule were filled with sense: These desires are his owne, and he will crowne his owne [Page 209] works with mercy & ten­der compassion; keep then but open thy mouth and heart in Prayer, and assu­redly as he hath promised he wil fil them with good things.

Fourthly, comfort thy selfe with this thy deser­tion or want of sense; it may be it is not yet Gods opportunity to shew him­selfe in the Mount, it may come in an houre which thou never didst looke for.

Fiftly, let the Wis­dome of God stay thee in thy course, who hath all times and seasons in his hands, who knoweth when to shut and when to open: By which drawing [Page 210] his presence, hee maketh thee to long the more af­ter it, and the more thou wilt value it when thou hast it.

Sixtly, let the exam­ples of all Gods children in this comfort thee: didst thou ever know or heare that ever any of them pe­rished, but at length they found the thing they sought for?

Lastly, let thine owne experience teach thee to run thy race with pati­ence, till thou dost obtain: For though thou hast not the sense of his presence, yet thou hast other fruits of his presence, as Holi­nesse, Humility, Patience, Brotherly-love, Softnesse [Page 111] of heart, Tendernesse of conscience, Psal. 4. Feare to dis­please, a Reverent awe of God, Hunger and Thirst after all righteousnesse. These, it may be, or some of these thou hast in a greater measure thē some that have sense: But how­soever, these be the har­bingers of sense, & where they take up the heart, there sense of assurance wil be sure to lodge: Thou hast already that witnesse in thy selfe, namely the Spirit, and that Spirit will make thee know the things that are of God.

5 How such as want the the Spirit of Prayer should labour for it.

THE fift and last particular of this Trea­tise, is how men that want this Spirit of Prayer shall attain unto it; For all men have it not, not the elect till they be converted, although most thinke that every man in the face of the Church can pray, yet nothing lesse. It is true in­deed that our blessed Sa­viour maketh intercession [Page 213] by his presence for the E­lect, even before their conversion, witnesse him­selfe; neither pray I for these alone, Ioh. 17. 20 but for them al­so that shall beleeve on me through their word: where the ancients observe, that Christ prayed not only for those that should hear the Apostles (for neither Abraham nor the Theife heard) but hee prayed for all them that from the be­ginning of the world had beleeved or should be­leeve: yet for all this hee prayeth in none before they have the Spirit. Though Paul, an elect vessell, before his conver­sion had the Prayer of Christ, yet he prayed not [Page 214] for himselfe till hee was transformed by the Spirit into the Image of Christ, by whose Spirit he began to pray, of the truth of whose Prayer Christ gi­veth this testimony; Act. 9. 10. be­hold he prayeth: Vnrege­nerate men may perhaps peruse this draught of Prayer, whereby as they come to see the necessity of Prayer, so they may discerne the falacy of the flesh and Sathans sugge­stions, in perswading men that they pray when they doe nothing lesse, & here­upon they come to en­quire, how they may at­taine to the true gift of Prayer?

For answer, let them [Page 215] understand, first, that Prai­er is no acquired gift by the industry of man, but an infused ability of the Spirit (as I have shewed,) which God, out of the free motive of his love, powreth upon all and e­very one of his chosen, when hee worketh that glorious change in them by the power of the Go­pell. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it commeth nor whither it go­eth: So is every one that is borne of the Spirit. As this is spoken of the free and forcible mystery of mans conversion, incom­prehensible by mans ca­pacity, [Page 216] yet understood of faith; so this Spirit of sup­plication maketh free and forcible entry upon the heart of a convert, nei­ther acquired, nor tru­ly desired, nor under­stood by the best man in his naturall estate, or most compleate endow­ments, before his conver­sion.

Further, since thou doest enquire also in thy case with those that came to Iob, what thou shouldst doe, I answer, thou must know & ingeniously con­fesse, that thou canst not pray at all; for men con­ceit that they can pray, when they can doe no­thing lesse: And this reach­cheth [Page 217] not only to carnall professours, who hold it a heresie to doubt that they cannot pray to God, but also to close and for­mall hypocrites, yea tem­porary professours in the highest degree, whose hearts fouly deceive thē in this particular. The cō ­ceit of the proud Pharisee amongst the rest of his faults, that he could pray and none like him, spoiled him for ever from pray­ing. To men so conceited that saying of the Physi­tian well agreeth: When the minds of men are once takē up with fals opinions, they make them not only deaf but also blind against the truth it selfe: yea fur­ther [Page 218] saith hee, there is no tincture so indelible, stai­ning the judgement of well ruled reason; for their ar­rogancy and ignorance combine themselves to­gether: Even just so it is with men in this particu­lar; yea I dare avouch that this conceit maketh such further off from prayer then prophane Infidells that never offered to pray in all theit lives. It is rela­ted of a skilfull Musitian, that hee tooke twice as much for teaching those that were evill taught, as for those that were not taught at all; because a false position in a science is a greater hinderance to the attainment thereof, [Page 219] then the pure privation of it: if ever then thou desi­rest to pray, confesse in­geniously that thou canst not pray at all; know that thou art stark blinde and lame, that thou maist re­ceive thy limbs and sight.

In the next place, thou must lay to heart and bee sensible of thy miserable and wretched condition, through want of this pre­cious gift of prayer: this well considered will make thee at thy wits end, and it will shake the sandy foundation of all thy en­deavours, it will batter & take the fort of all thy vain confidence, it wil cut the sinews of all thy selfe deceiving policy, it will [Page 220] faint the heart, and dead the very soule of all thy pale-faced hopes, it will imbitter the sweetnesse of al thy rats-bane pleasures, it will mar the market of all thy possessions & trea­sures, it will bring off the hooks all thy jollity and mirth, it will make thee behold, as in a true glasse, all thy jollity and madde mirth, it will let thee see the vanity of all thy great friends, favorites, suppor­ters, lovers, acquaintance, yea the Ioviall compani­ons. In a word, if thou wilt hold to it, it will give thee no rest till thou hast found some other footing for thy soul to rest on.

To make all good, let [Page 221] me a litle expostulate the matter with thee: What canst thou doe in the day of thy distresse, when trouble comes upon thee, like paine on a woman in child-birth? When thy cōscience begins to roare, thy soul to faint, thy state to wast or bee taken from thee by violence? Whi­ther canst thou goe? Wilt thou know what thou canst doe? I know, & thou shalt know it, thou canst doe just nothing for thy selfe that good is. If thou canst not pray, thou canst goe no where at all out of thy selfe; to him thou canst not goe that hath e­ternall life, for thou art not acquainted with him, [Page 222] thou hast no odours to fill the Censer, and there­fore hee hath nothing for thee but a Censer full of fire from the Altar to cō ­sume thee: here thou maist know (if thou wilt) that thou art blind, and naked, miserable and wretched. But what is the remedy? where is the refuge? who is thy shelter in this thy distresse? Surely if thou canst not pray, thou maist look about thee, within thee, aboue thee, beneath thee, and finde no reme­dy, refuge, or helpe: For thou hast no promise of all these in calling upon God, no promise of deli­verance, as I have shewed: yea instead thereof, thou [Page 223] hast the arrow of the Lords wrath drawn (even to the head) against thee; Ps. 50. 15. 79. 6. witnes the Psalmist; powre out thy wrathfull heat against the heathen that know thee not, and upon the kingdomes that cal not upon thy name. The very same phrase hath Ieremy, calling them the Families that call not on thy name; Ier. 10. 25. whether it be family, kingdome, or per­son, all is one. Further, what canst thou doe for thy family, if famine, fire, plague▪ or fearefull sick­nesse come amongst thē? If thou canst pray just so much as thou canst doe for thy selfe, yea if they were all running to hell, which is worse then the [Page 224] former, thou neither canst nor wilt stay them, but ra­ther hasten them thither. Observe this I beseech thee, as thou art husband or wife, parent or childe, master or servant; what canst thou doe for thy country, when the dismal day of calamity thickens in upon it as a cloud, and the evill threatned maketh hast. Deut. 32. 35. Though thou art the most civiliz'd formalist in all the world, the clo­sest hypocrite, the most glistring moralist, yea the most potent grandie for state and puissance in all the land, and yet canst not pray, thou makest many breaches, and openest ma­ny gaps to the betraying [Page 225] of the state and kingdome but thou canstnot for thy heart, by sword or coun­sell protect the State, frō the least ensuing danger. An evill man may by Gods imployment bee a fort or Cannon, yet hee hath neither the promise nor any good by it: It is the poore wise man that by his wisdome delive­reth the City, though no man regard him; for fools can doe no good; & fooles are all such as cannot pray: for they spend all time in learning strange language, but have never a word of the language of Canaan. Misery in sicknes, & death with out prayer. Lastly, what canst thou doe when sicknesse seazeth on the, and death, [Page 226] the last enimy looketh gastly in thy face? Then all thy worldly confi­dence, policy, hopes, plea­sures, profits, possessions, joviallity, mirth, favour­ers, freinds (and what not) shall forsake thee: then one groane or sigh from the spirit, would bring thee better newes from God, then if all the Princes Embassadours in in the world should salute thee Master, or their Sove­raign and sole Monarch of the world: But this Embassie of prayer being wanting, what woe will be wāting, yea thou maist wish the hills and moun­taines to overwhelme thee and cover thee from the [Page 227] presence of him that sit­teth upon the throne; but all in vaine, if the Lord put not words in thy mouth, whereby hee may be entreated, thou shalt ei­ther dye desperately like Iudas, or with thy heart dying within thee, like Nabal: So consider this strait wherein thou art, & this may put thee further on to set thine eyes to­wards the Lord.

But some desperately may object Ob. (for such there bee) if the sense of ones state that cannot pray, set him so upon the rack, it were better for such a one to content himselfe with such pray­ers as have served him hi­therto, [Page 228] then by medling after a new strain of pray­er to make life uncomfor­table and death intollera­ble.

For answer, Answer the remedy is worse then the disease; for if such a one see it not in time, he shall see it will be one time or other, yea it may bee out of time, greater horrour. I have been the larger in this particular, that the terror of a non-suppliant estate might hasten him out of it, yea I think verily if such men would look well up­on it, it might be a meane to bring many out of it. Thou must resolve in the third place if ever thou wouldst pray to break off [Page 229] thy sins, and to part with thy prophanesse; for as I have shewed, a sinfull course & familiarity with God cannot consist or stand together: A corrupt tongue or leprous throat maketh a harsh noise in the eare of God: Prov. 15. 29. remēber that the Lord is far from the wicked, and though they cry to him he wil not har­ken to them;

Fourthly, thou must a­void and abandon all pro­phane, idle, and unprofi­table company; for as thy living in a corrupt ayre, or with contagious bo­dies, will increase the ha­bit of thy corrupt dispo­sition, till thou be utterly consumed; so lewd and [Page 230] wicked company will more and more contami­nate thy soule, and spirit, so that thy breath shall stink worser and worser in the nostrills of God: As the soule in the Law that touched any abominable unclean thing, Lev. 21. and ate of the sacrifice, was to bee cut off from Gods people, so the conversing and familiari­ty with unclean & cursed company, cutteth a soule off, & keepeth it off from familiarity with God in prayer; Prov. 4. 14 Therefore (saith the wiseman) Enter not into the path of the wicked, and goe not into the way of evill men: Ps. 26. 5. 6. The Prophet David, washing his hands in innocēcy, that he might [Page 231] compasse the Altar of the Lord, abandoneth all vain persons, & resolveth not to sit or converse with the wicked: for as thou must avoid evill company, and hate them that regard ly­ing vanities, Pro. 13. 20. so thou must associate thy selfe to the godly. Hee that walketh with the wise shal be wise; hate the evill (saith the Prophet) and love the good. Amos. 5. 14. The meerely mo­ral man doth counsel thee to converse with such as will make thee better, as men by constant conver­sing with natives of a Na­tion doe learne the lan­guage of the nation; so by sorting thy self with beg­gers thou maist happily learne to beg.

[Page 232] Fiftly, thou must in­treat the godly earnestly to pray for thee, and to beg thee of the Lord, e­steem much of their prai­ers, which be of that effi­cacy to convert a sinner from his waies, and to save a soule from death, hiding a multitude of sinnes. If thus thou dost, and God affecteth the hearts of his people to pray for thee, there is good hope that thou shalt come to pray for thy selfe and for o­thers also; for the Sonne of many prayers cā hard­ly perish: but so long as thou dost scoffe & mock at the prayers of the Saints, or hast them in light esteem, the spirit of [Page 233] prayer or supplication will not come nigh thee. Yet with this begging of the prayers of the Saints, thou maist learne to beg thy selfe. The people of Israel desired Samuel to pray for them when they had sinned; but they prai­ed also for themselves; but Pharaoh desired Mo­ses to pray againe and a­gaine for him, but hee would never learne to pray for himselfe, neither did he at all desire Moses his prayer, Exod. 8. 8. till the hand of God was the second time upon him, for at the first he did not. A great many doe never desire the prai­ers of Gods people; if they desire them at all, it [Page 234] is not till Gods hand be so heavy upon thē, that they know not what to doe.

Sixtly, thou must at­tend the meanes of the word, read, preached and conferred upon, for thou shalt never learne to speak to God, except thou hea­rest God speak unto thee: hee that turnes away his eare from hearing the Law, even his prayer shall be abomination; It is not a set manner in a secret corner, nor the best pen­ned praier that thou canst get by hart, without a dili­gent attendance on the word, especially preach­ed, that ever will teach or inable thee to pray: For faith commeth by hearing; [Page 235] And because wee believe therefore we speak: As the lame man in the Gospell lay still by the Poole of Bethesda (which was the meanes appointed for re­covery) till the power of God had wrought upon him, so thou must still at­tend the meanes, till God smite the heart, unvail the eyes, touch and untie the tongue to this duty of prayer.

Seventhly and lastly, enquire & learn of God's people, and they can tell thee what unvaluable pro­fit, what sweet pleasures, what unspeakable conso­lation, what peace-pas­sing understanding, what height of honour, what [Page 236] heaven of happinesse, they find in this familiar con­ference, with God; aske and they will tell thee (as a Father observeth) that of all vertues they can find none but this compared to incense. Secondly, they can tell thee on experi­ence, that it is the best guard against all assaults of Sinne and Sathan. All kind of Divels are kept out and cast out by this. When the evill Spirit came upon Saul, 1. Sam. 16. 23. David a­layed and abandoned it by playing on his harpe; that harpe, saith one, was devout Prayer: Thirdly, if thou wouldst know what is the best trading, Gods people will tel thee [Page 237] there is none like Prayer: For no state, time, place, person, or opposition, can intercept thrift if thou art disposed to pray; thou maist ever be imploying thy stock, and that with the returne of encrease; thou maist gain more by Prayer, in one houre (as one saith well) then all the Merchants in the world in a thousand yeares. Fourthly, wilt thou know what is the very best phy­sick? Gods people can tell thee by experience, that none is like Prayer: It hea­leth the infirmities of the body, and the diseases of the soule, and the Praiers of the faithfull shall save the Sicklie, and the Lord [Page 238] shall raise them up, Iam. 5. 15. and if he have committed sinnes they shall be forgiven him: Fiftly, if it be enquired what is the greatest ho­nour that mortall man can obtaine unto? Is it not this, for a man to talke fa­miliarly with God as with his friend? And such ho­nour have all the Saints, and they only: What ho­nour were it for a poore, meane, despicable man to come to be so inward with a great Monarch to have his eare at his plea­sure, and to goe into the bed-chamber when hee list without repulse or in­terruption of any? So is it with Gods favorites, how despicable, and despised [Page 239] soever they be amongst men: Hee that will be in­ward with God (saith one) let him pray frequently; let him read diligently; for when we speak with God, when wee read or heare, God speaketh to us. Sixt­ly, if thou wouldst be pro­vided of the best armes a­gainst thine enemies, of the best, safest refuge in distresse, the speediest de­liverance out of trouble, the Saints can assure thee upon experience, that there is none like this: wit­nesse Moses, Hester, Ieho­saphat and the rest. Se­venthly, wouldst thou command all the armes of creatures, as heaven & earth and all the creatures [Page 240] therein, yea, even the An­gels themselves, the peo­ple of God wil teach thee, that Prayer is the only word of command. By this Elijah did open and shut the heavens; By this Moses tied and untied the hands of the Almighty; by this Iacob made the Lord to stay with him, so that hee could not depart till hee had blessed him. Eighthly and lastly in a word, wouldst thou have a guide that might direct thee, and protect thee, as­sist thee, and never leave thee till thou art brought through this trouble­some vale to the life of glory, the Saints can as­sure thee, that Prayer is [Page 227] the only meane to bring the guidance of the Spirit into the heart, and there to continue it, till thou commest to thy journies end; these effects of Pray­er who can choose but af­fect?

Now if thou doest fall in love with the Fruits, thou maist haply endeavor to get the Tree into the garden of thy soul, which will make all the ground fruitful. These rules being observed by thee, and the motives considered, thou art in a fair possibility, to come acquainted with God, by whose mercy & guidance I have been led along in this litle Treatise: desiring for the Cōclusion [Page 228] nothing but this, that God may have the honour, & his People the profit.