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  THE CHRISTIAN IN COMPLETE ARMOUR - PART 17
  by William Gurnall
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Summary: William Gurnall emphasizes the necessity of praying in the
Spirit with knowledge, fervency, and sincerity for effective
communication with God.

Topics: "Prayer Life", "Holy Spirit"
Scripture References: Psalm 51:10, Proverbs 1:18, Ephesians 6:18, Jude 1:20

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DESCRIPTION
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William Gurnall preaches about the importance of praying 'in the
Spirit,' highlighting the need to pray with both the spirit of the
person praying and the Spirit of God. He emphasizes that true prayer
involves praying with knowledge, fervency, and sincerity, and that it
must come from a pure heart with pure intentions. Gurnall warns against
hypocrisy in prayer, urging believers to be genuine and wholehearted in
their communication with God.

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CONTENT
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Division Third.The Inward Principle of Prayer.

In the Spirit.

We are come to the third division in the apostles directory for
prayerthe principle or spring from whence they are to flowthe Spirit,
praying...in the Spirit. In proceeding to the consideration of this
topic, the first point is that which will be determined by the solution
of the following question, viz:

Question. What is it to pray in the Spirit?

Answer. Interpreters generally comprehend in this phrase both the spirit
of the person praying, and the Spirit of God, by which our spirits are
fitted for and acted in prayer. Est oratio in spiritu, nempe et nostro
quo oramus, et Spiritu Sancto per quem oramus (so Zanch. in loc)that is
a prayer in the spirit, which, by the help of the Holy Spirit, is
performed with our soul and spirit. These two indeed go ever together.
We cannot act our spirit without the Holy Spirit. Alas! this is like a
lump of clay in our bosoms till he quickens it; and we cannot but with
our heart and spirit, when the Holy Spirit moves upon it. The Spirits
breath is vital. The Holy Ghost doth not breathe in us as one through a
trunk or trumpet, which is a mere passive instrument; but stirs up our
hearts, and actuates our affections in the duty. Prayer is called a
pouring out of the soul to God. The soul is the well from which the
water of prayer is poured; but the Spirit is the spring that feeds this
well, and the hand that helps to pour it forth. The well would have no
water without the spring, neither could it deliver itself of it without
one to draw it. Thus the Spirit of God must fill the heart with praying
affections, and enable them also to pour themselves forth. From the
words thus sensed, we shall a while dwell upon these two propositions.
First. He who will pray acceptably, must pray in his heart and spirit.
Second. He that would pray in his own spirit, must pray in the Spirit of
God.

BRANCH FIRST.

[He who will pray acceptably,

must pray in his heart and spirit.]

Praying in the spirit is opposed to lip‑labour, they draw near to
me with their lips, but their heart is removed far from me; like an
adulteress, whose heart and spirit is as far from her husband as where
her paramour is. It is no prayer in which the heart of the person bears
no part. Parisiensis, glossing upon the place of Hosea 14:2, so will we
render the calves of our lips, compares the duty of prayer to the calves
in the legal sacrifices. The composure of the words, saith he, in
prayer, is as the skin or hide of the beast, the voice as the hair, the
understanding as the flesh, the desires and affections of the heart as
the fat of the inwards; this, and this alone, makes it a prayer in God's
account.

My spirit prayeth, saith the apostle, I Cor. 14:14; and, I will pray
with the spirit, ver. 15. So, God, whom I serve with my spirit, Rom.
1:9. The mel­odious sound which comes from a musical instru­ment, such
as viol or lute, is formed within the belly of the instrument, and the
deeper the belly of the instrument the sweeter is its music; the same
strings on a flat board, touched by the same hand, would make no music.
The melodiousness of prayer comes from within the man, We are the
circumcision which worship God in the spirit, and the deeper the groans
are that come from thence, still the sweeter the mel­ody.

There may be outward worship and inward atheism; as Melancthon said, vos
Itali adoratis Deum in pane, quem non creditis in cælo esseYou Italians
worship that God in bread, whom you do not believe to be in heaven.
There may be much pomp in the outward ceremony of the performance, when
the per­son neither loves nor believes that God whom he courts with an
external devotion. The blemishes which made the sacrifices in the law
rejected, were not only in the outward limbs of the beast, the sick as
well as the lame beast was refused, Mal. 1:8.

We read of loud praises when never a word was heard spoken. But God owns
none for a prayer that hath the vehe­mency of the voice but not
inspirited with the affec­tion of the heart. Separate the spirit from
the body, and the man is dead; the heart from the lip, and there is a
dissolution of prayer. Now, in handling of this I must first show what
it is to pray in our spirit when these three are found in the
duty:First. When we pray with knowledge. Second. When we pray in
fervency.

Third. When we pray in sincerity. These three exercise the three powers
of the soul and spirit. By knowledge the understanding is set on work;
by fervency the affections; and by sincerity the will. All these are
required in conjunction to praying in the spirit. There may be knowledge
without fervency, and this, like the light of the moon, is cold, and
quickens not; there may be heat without knowledge, and this is like
mettle in a blind horse; there may be knowledge and fervency, and this
like a chariot with swift horses, and a skilful driver in the box, but,
being dishonest, carries it the wrong way.

Neither of these, nor both these together, avail, because sincerity is
wanting to touch these affections, and make them stand to the right
point, which is the glory of God. He will have little thanks for his
zeal that is fervent in spirit, but serving himself with it, not the
Lord.

[To pray in the spirit, we must have

knowledge and understanding.]

First. To pray acceptably, or in the spirit, it is required that we pray
with knowledge and under­standing. A blind sacrifice was rejected in the
law, Mal. 1:8; much more are blind devotions under the gospel. As
knowledge aggravates a sin, so ignorance takes from the excellency of an
action that is good: I bear them witness, saith Paul, they have a zeal,
but not according to knowledge. The want of an eye dis­figures the
fairest face, the want of knowledge the devoutest prayer: Ye worship ye
know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews,
John 4:22, where we see what a fundamental defect the want of knowledge
is in acts of worship, such as brings damnation with it.

Question First. But why is knowledge so requi­site to acceptable
praying?

Answer First. Because without this it is not a reasonable service; for
we know not what we do. God calls for 8@(486¬< 8"JD,"<reasonable
serv­ice, Rom. 12:1, which some oppose to the legal sacri­fices. They
offered up beasts to God; in the gospel we are to offer up ourselves.
Now the soul and spirit of a man is the man. Why did not God lay a law
on beasts to worship him, but because they have not a rational soul to
understand and reflect upon their own actions? And will God accept that
service and worship from man, wherein he doth not exercise that faculty
that distinguisheth him from a beast? Show yourselves men, saith the
prophet to those idolaters, Isa. 46:8. And truly he that worships the
true God ig­norantly is brutish in his knowledge as well as he that
prays to a false god.

Answer Second. Because the understanding is JÎ º(,µT<46Î<the leading
faculty of the soul, and so the key of the work. The inward worship of
the heart is the chief. Now, the other powers of the soul are disabled
if they want this their guide which holds the candle to them. As for
those violent passions of seeming zeal, sorrow, and joy, which sometimes
ap­pear in ignorant worshippers and their blind devo­tions, they are
spurious. Christs sheep, like Jacobs, conceive by the eye.

1. The saints eye is enlightened to see the maj­esty and glorious
holiness of God, and then it reveres him, and mourns before him in the
sense of his own vileness: Now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor
myself, and repent in dust and ashes, Job 42:6.

2. Again, by an eye of faith he beholds the goodness and love of God to
poor sinners in Christ, and in particular to him, and this eye affects
his heart to love and rely on him, which it is impossible the ignorant
soul should do.

Question First. But you will say, what is neces­sary for the praying
soul to know?

Answer First. There is required a knowledge that he to whom he directs
his prayer is the true God. Re­ligious worship is an incommunicable
flower in the crown of the deity, and that both inward and outward. We
are religiously to worship him only, who, by rea­son of his infinite
perfections, deserves our supreme love, honour, and trust. He must have
the crown that owes the kingdom. The kingdom and power are Gods.
Therefore the glory of religious worship be­longs to him alone, Matt.
6:13. Angels are the highest order of creatures, but we are forbid to
worship any of the host of heaven, Deut. 17:3. Who would not fear thee,
O King of nations? for to thee it doth appertainwhere fear is put for
religious worship, as appears by the circumstance of the place. The want
of this knowledge filled the heathen world with idol­atry. For, where
they found any virtue or excellency in the creature, presently they
adored and worshipped it, like some ignorant rustic, who coming to
court, thinks every one he sees in brave clothes to be the king.

Answer Second. There is required a knowledge of this true God, what his
nature is. He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is
a rewarder of them that diligently seek him, Heb. 11:6. It is confessed,
a perfect knowledge of the divine per­fections is incomprehensible by a
finite being. He answered right who saidwhen asked quid est Deus? what
is God?si scirem essem ipse Deusif I knew, I myself would be God. None
indeed knows God thus but God himself; yet a Scripture knowledge of him
is necessary to the right performance of this duty. The want of
understanding his omniscience and in­finite mercy, is the cause of vain
babbling, and a con­ceit to prevail by long prayers, which our Sav­iour
charges upon the heathen, and prevents in his disciples by acquainting
them with these attributes, Matt. 6:7, 8. They came rather narrare than
rogareto inform God than to beg. The ignorance of his high and glorious
majesty is the cause why so many are rude and slovenly in their gesture,
so saucy and ir­reverently familiar with God in their expressions. We
are bid to be sober, watching unto prayer. Truly there is an insobriety
in our very language, when we do not clothe the desires of our hearts
with such hum­ble expressions as may signify the awe and dread of his
sacred majesty in our hearts. In a word, the rea­son why men dare come
reeking out of the adulterous embraces of their lusts, and stretch forth
their un­washen hands to heaven in prayerwhence is it? but because they
know not God to be of such infinite purity as will have no fellowship
with the workers of iniquity? Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such
an one as thyself, Ps. 50:21.

Answer Third. We must understand the matter of our prayers, what we beg,
what we deprecate. With­out this we cannot in faith say amen to our own
prayers, but may soon ask that which neither becomes us to desire, nor
is honourable for God to give. This Christ rebuked, when she in the
gospel put up her ambitious request for her children to be set one at
the right the other at the left hand of Christ in his kingdom. God never
gave us leave thus to indite our own prayers by the dictate of our
private spirit, but hath bound us up to ask only what he hath promised
to give.

Answer Fourth. There is required a knowledge of the manner how we are to
pray; as, in whose name, and what qualifications are required in the
prayer and person praying. We find Paul begging prayers, that ye strive
together with me in your prayers. In another place he tells us of a
lawful striving, II Tim. 2:5. There is a law of prayer which must be
observed, or we come at our own adventure. Even in false wor­ship they
go by some rule in their addresses to their gods. Therefore those
smattering Samaritans, when a plague was on them, concluded the reason
to be be­cause they knew not the manner of the god of the land, II Kings
17:26. The true God will be served in due order, or else expect a
breach. A word or two for application of this branch.

[Use or Application.]

Use First. How few then pray in the spirit! Were this the only character
to try many by, would they not be cast over the bar for mere babblers?
As, first, those in the Popish church, where most know not a word what
they say in prayer. If it be such a weakness to subscribe a petition to
a king, or to a parliament, which we never read or understood, what
shall we then think of such brutish prayers as these sent to heaven and
indorsed with an ignoramus on the back of them? Yea, amongst ourselves,
many, who though they pray in their mother language, yet are as ignorant
as to the matter of their prayers; how else could they patter over the
creed and commandments with their blind devotion instead of prayers? Are
there more deplored ruins of mankind to be found among the Indians than
such? Yea, when they join with their minister in prayer, neither know
that God to whom the prayer is directed, nor the Mediator under the
favour of whose name it is presented. Before Nebu­chadnezzar could bless
God, he had the under­standing of a man given him, which these yet want.
Do you not think such ignorant wretches as these might be easily
persuaded to kneel before an image gaudily dressed up, or to put their
letter into some angel or saint's hand for despatch, being made to
believe that it will find a kinder welcome by the mediation of such
favourites? O what a darkness is there even at this day upon the face of
our waters! on which, had but the popes instruments opportunity to sit
brooding awhile, they might soon bring their de­sired work to a
perfection among the multitude of ignorant souls that are amidst us! We
see there is need not only to stir up our people to pray, or else we
send them before they have learned their errand, as if we should call a
child to read before he hath learned his letters.

Use Second. It speaks to all that are at any time the mouth to God for
others in prayer, so to pray, that those who join with them may clearly
understand what they put up to God for them. Who is more to be blamedhe
that prayeth in an unknown tongue, or he that with such uncouth phrases
and high-flown expressions as are not understood by half the com­pany?
Suppose thine own spirit prays, as the apostle saith, yet thy
understanding is unfruitful unto them. They, alas! are at a loss, and
stand gazing, as the dis­ciples did when the cloud parted Christ from
them. Either come down from thy high towering expres­sions, or help them
up to thee. They may say of thee as those of Moses, We know not what is
become of the man. No wonder if, while they cannot keep sight of the
matter in hand, that their thoughts rove and dance about some object of
their own framing. Dost thou pray to be admired for thy rouling tongue,
height of gifts, or the like? Perhaps thou mayest have this thy reward
of some ignorant ones, and others that would as fain commend themselves
upon the same account; but consider what a low and base end thou
propoundest in so high a service, unworthy of a Chris­tians thought.
What! no net to fish with for thy credit and applause but a sacred
ordinance! The whip which Christ made in the gospel belongs to thy back.
Our blessed Saviour, that was all on fire with zeal to see his house of
prayer made a house of merchandise, O how doth his soul loathe the
base­ness of thy mercenary spirit, who dost the same, though in another
dress!

[To pray in the spirit, we must have fervency.]

Second. We pray in the spirit when we pray in fervency. The soul keeps
the body warm while it is in it. So much as there is our soul and spirit
in a duty, so much heat and fervency. If the prayer be cold, we may
certainly conclude the heart is idle, and bears no part in the duty. Our
spirit is an active creature: what it doth is with a force, whether bad
or good. Hence in Scripture, to set the heart and soul upon a thing,
im­ports vehemency and fervour. Thus the poor labour­ing man is said to
set his heart on his wages, Deut. 24:15. The hopes of what he shall have
at night makes him sweat at his work in the day. Darius set his heart on
Daniel to deliver him; and it follows, He laboured till the going down
of the sun to deliver him, Dan. 6:14. When the spirit of a man is set
about a work, he will do it to purpose. If thou shalt seek the Lord with
all thy heart and with all thy soul, Deut. 4:29, that is, fervently.
This consists not in a violent agitation of the bodily spirits. A man
may put his body into a sweat in duty, and the prayer be cold. That is
the fervent prayer that flows from a warm heart and enkindled
affections; like an exhalation which first is set on fire in the cloud,
and then breaks forth into thunder. My heart was hot within me, while I
was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue, Lord, make me
to know mine end, Ps. 39:3, 4. Now as zeal is not one single affection,
but the edge and vehemency of them all; so fervency in prayer is, when
all the affections act strongly and suit­ably to the several parts of
prayer.

In confession, then have we fervency, when the soul melts into a holy
shame and sorrow for the sins he spreads before the Lord, so that he
feels a holy smart and pain within, and doth not act a tragical part
with a comical heart. For, as Chrysostom saith, To paint tears is worse
than to paint the face. Here is true fervency: I mourn in my complaint,
and make a noise, Ps. 55:2. There may be fire in the pan, when none in
the piece; a loud wind, but no rain with it. David made a noise with his
voice, and mourned in his spirit.

So, in petition we have fervency, when the heart is drawn out with
vehement desires of the grace it prays for, not some lazy woundings or
wishings, or weak velleities, but passionate breathings and break­ings
of heart. Sometimes it is set out by the violence of thirst, which is
thought more tormenting than that of hunger. As the hunted hart panteth
after the cool waters, so did Davids soul after God, Ps. 42. Some­times
it is set out by the strainings of a wrestlerso Jacob is said to wrestle
with the angel; and of those that run in a race, instantly serving God
day and night, Acts 26:7, ¦< ¦6J,<,they stretched out themselves. My
soul breaketh for longing, Ps. 119:20, as one that with straining breaks
a vein.

[Why we must pray in the spirit fervently.]

Question. But why must we pray in the spirit fervently? Answer First. We
must pray in the spirit fervently, from the command. Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy might; and these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in
thine heart, Deut. 6:5, 6; which imports the affectionate perfor­mance
of every command and duty. Sever the out­ward from the inward part of
Gods worship, and he owns it not. Who hath required this at your hands?
Isa. 1:12. As if he had said, Did I ever command you to give a beasts
heart in sacrifice, and keep back your own? Why dost thou pray at all?
Wilt thou say, Be­cause he commands it? Then, why not fervently, which
the command intends chiefly? When you send for a book, would you be
pleased with him that brings you only the cover? And will God accept the
skin for the sacrifice? The external part of the duty is but as the cup.
Thy love, faith, and joy are the wine he de­sires to taste of. Without
these, thou givest him but an empty cup to drink in. Now, what is this
but to mock him?

Answer Second. We must pray in the spirit, to comport with the name of
God. The common de­scription of prayer is calling on the name of God.
Now, as in prayer we call upon the name of God, so it must be with a
worship suitable to his name, or else we pollute it and incur his wrath.
This is the chief meaning of the third commandment. In the first, God
provides that none besides himself, the only true God, be worshipped; in
the second, that he, the true God, be not served with
will&#8209;worship, but his own institutions; and in the third, that he
be not served vainly and slightily in his own worship. There is no
attribute in God but calls for this fervency in his worship.

1. He is a great and glorious God; and as such it becomes us to approach
his presence with our affec­tions in the best array. Are yawning prayers
fit for a great Gods hearing? Darest thou speak to such a majesty before
thou art well awake, and hast such a sacrifice prepared as he will
accept? Cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and
voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great
King, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the
heathen, Mal. 1:14. See here, first, anything less than the best we have
is a corrupt thing. He will accept a little, if the best, but he abhors
that thou shouldst save thy best for another. Again he that offers not
the bestthe strength of his affectionsis a deceiver; because he robs him
of his due, and he is a great God. It is fit the princes table should be
served with the best that the market affords, and not the refuse. When
Jacob intended a present to the governor of the land, he bids his
children take of the best of the fruit of the land in your vessels.
Lastly, the awful thoughts which God extorts from the very heathen by
his mighty works, do reproach us who live in the bosom of the church,
and despise his name by our heedless and heartless serving of him.

2. He is the living God. Is a dead&#8209;hearted prayer a sacrifice
suitable to a living God? How can that be accepted of him which never
came from him? Lay not your dead prayers by his side. The lively prayer
is his, the dead thine own. What the psalmist saith of persons, we may
say of prayers, The living, the living they shall praise him. The
glorious angels, who for their zeal are called seraphims, and a flame of
fire, these he chooseth to minister to him in heaven; and the saints
belowwho, though they sojourn on earth, yet have their extraction from
heaven, and so have spirits raised and refined from the dulness of their
earthly constitutionthese he sets apart for himself as priests to offer
up spiritual sacrifices unto him. The quicker any one is himself, the
more offensive is a dull leaden heeled messenger or slow&#8209;handed
work­man to him. How then can God, who is all life, brook thy lazy
listless devotions? When he com­manded the neck of an ass to be broke,
and not offered up unto him, was it because he was angry with the beast?
No sure, it was his own workmanship; no other than himself made it; but
to teach us how unpleasant a dull heart is to him in his service.

3. He is a loving God, and love will be paid in no coin but its own.
Give God love for love, or he ac­counts you give him nothing. If ye love
me, keep my commandments, John 14:15. And, If a man would give the
substance of his house for love, it would be contemned, Song 8:7. So, if
a man thinks to commute with God, and give him anything in prayer
instead of his love and fervent affection, it will be contemned. Let the
prayer be never so pithy, the posture of the body never so devout, the
voice never so loud, if the affections of the heart be not drawn out
after God in the duty, he disdains and rejects it, because it doth not
correspond with the dear affections which God expresseth to us. He draws
out the heart with his purse, and gives his very soul and self with all
his gifts to his people. Therefore he expects our hearts should come
with all our services to him. It is no wonder to see the servant, whose
master is hard and cruel, have no heart to or mettle in his work; but
love in the master useth to put life into the servant. And there­fore
God, who is incomparably the best master, dis­dains to be served as none
but the worst among men use to be.

Answer Third. We must pray in the spirit, be­cause the promise is only
to fervent prayer. A still-born child is no heir, neither is a prayer
that wants life heir to any promise. Fervency is to prayer what fire was
to the spices in the censerwithout this it cannot ascend as incense
before God. Some have attempted a shorter cut to the Indies by the
north, but were ever frozen up in their way; and so will all sluggish
prayers be served. It were an easy voyage indeed to heaven if such
prayers might find the way thither. But never could they show any of
that good land's gold who prayed thus, though he were a saint. The
righteous man indeed is declared heir, as to all other promises, so to
this of having his prayer heard; but if he hath not aptitudinem
intrandihe is not in a fit posture to enter into the possession of this
promise, or claim present benefit from it, while his heart remains cold
and formal in the duty. There is a qualification to the act of prayer as
necessary as of the person praying: The effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth much. When God intends a mercy for his people, he
stirs up a spirit of prayer in them: I said not unto the seed of Jacob,
Seek ye me in vain, Isa. 45:19; that is, I never stirred them up to it,
and helped them in it, and then let them lose their labour. Then ye
shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you: and ye shall
seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart,
Jer. 29:12, 13. Feeble desires, like weak pangs, go over, and bring not
a mercy to the birth. As the full time grows nearer, so the spirit of
prayer grows stronger. Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day
and night unto him, I tell you that he will avenge them speedily, Luke
18:7, 8. None in the house per­haps will stir for a little knock at the
door; they think he is some idle beggar, or one in no great haste; but
if he raps thick and loud, then they go, yea, out of their beds. Though
he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of
his importunity, Luke 11:8.

[Use or Application.]

Use First. This sadly shows there is little true praying to be found
among us, because few that pray fervently. Let us sort men into their
several ranks.

1. The ignorant, do these pray fervently? Their hearts, alas! must needs
be frozen up in the duty; they dwell too far from the sun to have any of
this divine heat in their devotions.

2. The profane person, that is debauched with his filthy lusts, his heat
runs out another way. Can the heart which is inflamed with lusts be any
other than cold in prayer? Hell-fire must be quenched before this from
heaven can be kindled.

3. The soul under the power of roving thoughts whose mind, like Satan,
is walking to and fro the earth, while his eyes seem nailed to heavencan
he be fervent? Can the affections be intended and the mind inattentive?
Fervency unites the soul and gathers in the thoughts to the work in
hand. It will not suffer diversions, but answers all foreign thoughts,
as Nehemiah, in another case, did them that would have called him off
from building, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why
should the work cease? Neh. 6:3. It is said of Elias {Elijah}, He prayed
earnestly, he prayed in praying, so the Greek. As in Ezekiels vision,
there was a wheel in a wheel, so a prayer in his prayer. Whereas the
roving soul is prayerless, his lips pray and his mind plays; his eye is
up to heaven, as if that were his mark, but he shoots his thoughts down
to the earth.

4. He to whom the duty is tedious and weari­some, who doth not sigh and
groan in the duty, but under it; who prays as a sick man works in his
calling, finding no delight or joy in it. True fervency suffers no
weariness, feels no pain. The tradesman, when hot at his work, and the
soldier in fight, the one feels not his weariness nor the other his
wounds. Affec­tions are strong things, able to pull up a weak body.
Therefore, he that shrugs at a duty, and turns this way and that way, as
a sick man from one side of his bed to the other for ease, shows he hath
little content in the duty, and therefore less zeal. These aches of the
spirit in prayerthough he be a saintcome of some cold he hath gotten,
and declare him to be under a great distemper. A man in health finds not
more savour in his food and refreshing from it, than the Christian doth
in the offices of religion, when his heart is in the right temper.

Use Second. For exhortation. Dost thou pray? Pray fervently, or thou
dost nothing. Cold prayer is no more prayer than painted fire is fire.
That prayer which warms not thine own heart, will it, thinkest thou,
move Gods? Thou drawest the tap, but the vessel is frozen. A man hath
not the use of his hand clung up with cold, neither canst thou have the
use of thy spirit in duty till thy heart chafed into some sense and
feeling of what thou prayest for. Now to bring thy cold heart into some
spiritual heat,

[Arguments to enkindle our zeal

and fervency in prayer.]

Argument 1. Consider the excellency of zeal and fervency. If a saint,
thou hast a principle that in­clines thee to approve of things that are
excellent; and such is this. Life is the excellency of beings, yea, even
in inanimate creatures there is an analogical life, and therein consists
its excellency. The spirits of wine commend it; what is it worth when
dead and flat? In the diamond, the sparkle gives the worth; in fountain
water, that which makes it more excellent than other is its motion,
called therefore living water. Much more in beings that have true life;
for this the flea or fly are counted nobler creatures than the sun. The
higher kind of life that beings have, their nature is thereby the more
advancedbeasts above plants, men above beasts, and angels above men. Now
as life gives the excellency to being, so vivacity and vigour in
operating gives excellency to life. Indeed the nobler the life of the
creature is, the greater energy is in its actings. The apprehension of
an angel is quicker, and zeal stronger, than in a man. So that, the more
lively thou art in thy duty, and the more zeal thou expres­sest therein,
the nearer thou comest to the nature of those glorious spirits who, for
their zeal in service of God, are called a flame of fire. I confess, to
be calm and cool in inferior things, and in our own matters betwixt man
and man, is better than zeal. So Solomon saith, A man of understanding
is of an excellent spirit, Prov. 17:27. In the Hebrew it is a cool
spirit. Injuries do not put him into a flame, neither do any occurrences
in the world heat him to any height of joy, grief, or anger. Who more
temperate in these than Moses? but set this holy man to pray, he is fire
and tow, all life and zeal. Indeed it is one excel­lency of this
fervency of spirit in prayer, that it allays all sinful passions. Davids
fervency in praying for his child when alive, made him bear the tidings
of his death so calmly and patiently. We hear not an angry word that
Hannah replies to her scolding companion Peninnah. And why, but because
she had found the art of easing her troubled spirit in prayer? What need
she contend with her adversary, who could, by wrest­ling with God,
persuade him to espouse her quarrel? And truly were there nothing else
to commend fer­vency of spirit in prayer, this is enoughthat, like
David's harp, it can charm the evil spirit of our passions, which in
their excess the saint counts great sins, and I am sure finds them
grievous troubles. When are you more placate and serene, than when the
most life and fervour your souls can mount up in the flame of your
sacrifices into the bosom of God? Possibly you may come, like Moses,
down the mount with greater heat, but it will be against sin, not for
self; whereas a formal prayer, like a plaster, which hath good
ingredients in it, yet being laid cold upon the wound, hurts it rather
than heals it.

Argument 2. God deserves the prime and strength of thy soul should be
bestowed on him in thy prayers.

(1.) He gave thee the powers of thy soul and all thy affections.
According to the mould so is the stat­ue that is cast in it; such thou
art as thou wert in the idea of the divine mind. Now, may not thy Maker
call for that which was his gift? He that made the stone an inanimate
being, and confined the narrow souls of brutes to act upon low sensitive
good, en­nobleth thee with a rational appetite and spiritual affections.
Now, wilt thou not employ those divine powers in the worship of thy God,
from whom, thou hadst them? This were hard indeedthat God should be
denied what himself gave, and not suffered to taste of his own cost. I
came unto my own, saith Christ, and they would not receive me. Thus
here, I came to my own creature; he had his life from me, and brings a
dead heart unto me! Suppose a friend should give you notice that he will
ere long be at your house, and sends you in beforehand a vessel of rich
wine; which you, when he comes, grudge to broach it for his
entertainment, and put him off with that which is dead and flat?
Expectest thou a better friend to be thy guest than thy God? The
psalmist calls upon us to serve the Lord with gladness, and what is his
enforcement? Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made
us, Ps. 100:2, 3. Who plants a vineyard and looks not to drink of the
wine? If God calls our corn and wine his, he therefore expects to be
served with them; much more with our love and joy, for surely he allows
us not to alienate the best of his gifts from him. When thou art
therefore going to pray, call up thy affections, which haply are asleep
on some creature's lap, as Jonah in the sides of the ship: What meanest
thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God.

(2.) He deserves thy affections because he gives thee his. He is jealous
of thee because he is zealous for thee. Well may he complain of thy cold
dreaming prayers whose heart is on a flame of love to thee. High and
admirable are the expressions with which he sets forth his dear love to
his people; whatever he doth for them is with a zeal. In protecting of
them, as birds flying, so will the Lord defend Jerusalem, that is,
swiftly, as a bird flies full speed to her nest when she perceives her
young is in danger; in aven­ging them of their enemies, the zeal of the
Lord of hosts shall perform this; in hearing their prayers he doth it
with delight; in forgiving their sins he is ready to forgive, multiplies
to pardon; when they ask one talent he gives them two. Jacob desires a
safe egress and regress. He doth this and more than he desired, for he
brings him home with two bands. Not the least mercy he gives but he
draws forth his souls and heart with it; even in his afflicting
providences, where he seems to show least love, there his heart
overflows with it. O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? mine heart is
turned within me.

(3.) He is a good pay-master for his peoples zeal. He is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek him, Heb. 11:6. Never did fervent prayer find
cold welcome with him. Elias {Elijahs} prayer fetched fire from heaven
because it carried fire to heaven. The tribe of Levi for their zeal were
preferred to the priesthood. And why? Surely they who were so zealous in
doing justice on their brethren would be no less zealous in making
atonement for them by their sacrifices. Most men lose their fervency and
strength of their desires by misplacing them; they are zealous for such
things as cannot, and persons that oft will not, pay them for their
pains. O how hot is the covet­ous man in his chase after the world's
pelf! He pants after the dust of the earth, and that on the head of the
poor. But what reward hath he for his labour? After all his getting,
like the dogs in pursuit of the hare, he misseth his game, and at last
goes often poor and supperless to bed in his grave; to be sure he dies a
fool, Jer. 17:11. How many court-spanielsthat have fawned and flattered,
yea, licked up their mas­ters spittle, and all for some scraps of
preferment have befooled themselves, when at last they have seen their
creeping sordid practices rewarded with the fatal stroke of the
headsman, or a lingering consump­tive death in their princes favour?
Which made that ambitious cardinal say too late, If he had been as
observant of his heavenly Master as he had been of his earthly, he could
not have been left so miserable at last. In a word, do we not see the
superstitious person knocking his breast and cutting his own flesh, out
of a zeal to his wooden god, that hath neither ear to hear nor hand to
help him? Now, doth not the liv­ing God, thy loving Father, deserve thy
zeal more than their dead and dumb idols do theirs? For shame! Let not
us be cold in his worship when the idolater sweats before his god of
clouts[1]; let not the worldlings zeal in pursuit of his earthly mammon
leave thee lagging behind with a heedless heartless serving of thy God.
Neither fear the worlds hooting at thee for thy zeal; they think thee a
fool, but thou knowest them to be so.

[How to raise our affections to fervency in prayer.]

Question. But how may we get this fervency of spirit in prayer?

Answer (a). Thou who propoundest the question art a saint or not; if
not, there is another question must precede this. How thou, that art at
present in a state of spiritual death, mayest have spiritual life? There
must be life in the soul before there can be life in the duty. All the
rugs in the upholsterers shop will not fetch a dead man to warmth, nor
any arguments, though taken from the most moving topics in the
Scripture, will make thee pray fervently while thy soul lies in a dead
state. Go first to Christ that thou may­est have life, and having life,
then there is hope to chafe thee into some heat. But,

Answer (b). If thou beest a saint, it yet calls for thy utmost care to
get, and when thou hast got, to keep, thy soul in a kindly heat. As the
stone cannot of itself mount up into the air, so the birdthough it can
do this, yetcannot stay there long without some labour and motion with
its wings. The saints have a spark of heavenly fire in their bosom, but
this needs the bellows of their care and diligence to keep it alive.
There is a rust that breeds from the gold, a worm from the wood, a moth
from the garment, that in time waste them; and ashes from the coal that
choke the fire; yea, and in the saint too, which will damp his zeal if
not cleared by daily watchfulness. Observe therefore what is thy chief
impediment to fervency in prayer, and set thyself vigorously against it.
If thou beest remiss in this precedaneous[2] duty thou wilt be much more
remiss in prayer itself. He that knows of a slough in the way, and mends
it not before he takes his journey, hath no cause to wonder when his
chariot is laid fast in it.

Answer (c). Now this is not the same in all, and therefore it is
necessary that thou beest so much ac­quainted with thine own estate as
to know what is thy great clog in this duty. Certainly, were not the
firma­ment of the saints soul cooled with some malignant vapours that
arise from his own breast, and weaken the force of divine grace in him,
it would be summer all the year long with him, his heart would be ever
warm, and his affections lively in duty. Look there­fore narrowly whence
thy cooling comes. Perhaps thy heart is too much let out upon the world
in the day, and at night thy spirits are spent, when thou shouldst come
before the Lord in prayer. If thou wilt be hotter in duty thou must be
colder towards the world. A horse that carrieth a pack all day is unfit
to go post at night. Wood that hath the sap in it will not burn easily;
neither will thy heart readily take fire in holy duties who comest so
sopped in the world to them. Drain, therefore, thy heart of these eager
affections to that, if thou meanest to have them warm and lively in
this. Now, no better way for this than to set thy soul under the
frequent meditation of Christ's love to thee, thy relation to him, with
the great and glorious things thou expectest from him in another world.
This, or nothing, will dry up thy love to this world, as your wood which
is laid a sunning is made fit for the fire. Whereas, let your hearts
continue soaking in the thoughts of an inordinate love to the world, and
you will find, when you come to pray, that thy heart will be in a duty
even as a foggy wet log at the back of a fire, long in kindling, and
soon out again. Haply the deadness of thy heart in prayer ariseth from
want of a deep sense of thy wants and mercies thou desirest to have
supplied. Couldst thou but pray feelingly no doubt but thou wouldst pray
fervently. The hungry man needs no help from art to learn him how to
beg; his pinched bowels make him earnest and eloquent.

Is it pardon of sin thou wouldst pray for? First see what anguish of
spirit they put thee to. Do with thy soul as the chirurgeon with his
patients wounds, who syringeth them with some sharp searching water to
try what sense he hath of them. Apply such con­siderations to thy soul
as may make thee feel their smart, and be sensible of thy deplored
estate by rea­son of them; then go and sleep at prayer if thou canst. We
have David first affecting his heart, and expres­sing the dolor of his
soul for his sin: Mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy
burden they are too heavy for me, Ps. 38:4. Now when his heart is sick
with these thoughts, as one with strong physic work­ing in his stomach,
he pours out his soul in prayer to God, All my desire is before thee;
and my groaning is not hid from thee, ver. 9.

Art thou to pray for others? First pierce thy heart through with their
sorrows, and, by a spirit of sympathy, bring thyself to feel their
miseries as if thou wert in their case. Then will thy heart be warm in
prayer for them when it flows from a heart melted in compassion to them.
Thus we read Christ troubled himself for Lazarus before he lifted up his
eyes to heaven for him, John 11:33, 38, compared.

Again, it may be thy want of zeal proceeds from a defect in thy faith.
Faith is the back of steel to the bow of prayer; this sends the arrow
with a force to heaven. Where faith is weak the cry will not be strong.
He that goes about a business with little hope to speed will do it but
faintly; he works, as we say, for a dead horse. It is a true axiom,
voluntas non fertur in impossibiliathe less we hope the less we
en­deavour. We read of strong cries that Christ put up in the days of
his flesh. Now mark what enforced his prayerunto him that was able to
save him; and not only so, but if you look into that prayer to which
this refers, you shall find that he clasped about God as his GodMy God,
my God. His hold on God held up his spirit in prayer. So in the several
precedents of praying saints upon Scripture record, you may see how the
spirit of prayer ebbed and flowed, fell and rose, as their faith was up
and down. This made David press so hard upon God in the day of his
dis­tress: I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted,
Ps. 116:10. This made the woman of Canaan so invincibly importunate. Let
Christ frown and chide, deny and rebuke her, she yet makes her
approaches nearer and nearer, gathering arguments from his very denials,
as if a soldier should shoot his enemys bullets back upon him again; and
Christ tells us what kept her spirit undaunted, O woman, great is thy
faith!

Again, may be it proceeds from some distaste thou hast given to the Holy
Spirit, who alone can blow up thy affections; and then, no wonder thou
art cold in prayer when he is gone that should keep thy heart warm at
it. What is the body without the soul but cold clay, dead earth? and
what the soul without the Spirit? truly no better. O invite him back to
thy soul, or else thy praying work is at an end. And, if thou wouldst
persuade him to return, observe what was the thing that distasted him,
and remove it. That which makes this dove forsake its lockyers will
hinder his return if not taken away.

[To pray in the spirit, we must have sincerity.]

Third. We pray in the spirit when we pray in sincerity. There may be
much fervour where there is little or no sincerity. And this is strange
fire; the heat of a distemper, not the kindly natural heat of the new
creature, which both comes from God and acts for God; whereas the other
is from self, and ends in self. Indeed the fire which self kindles
serves only to warm the man's own hands by it that makes it: Behold, all
ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks, Isa.
50:11; the prophet represents them as sitting down about the fire they
had made. Self-acting and self&#8209;aiming ever go together; therefore
our Saviour with spirit requires truth. He seeketh such to worship him
as will worship him in spirit and in truth, John 4:23, 24.

Question. But wherein consists this sincere fervency?

Answer. Zeal intends the affections, sincerity di­rects their end, and
consists in their purity and incor­ruption. The blood is oft hot when
none of the pur­est, and affections strong when the heart insincere;
therefore the apostle exhorts us that we love one another out of a pure
heart fervently, I Peter 1:22, and speaks in another place of sorrowing
after a godly sort, that is, sincerely. Now the sincerity of the heart
in prayer then appears when a person is real in his prayers, and that
from pure principles to pure ends.

First. When he is real in what he presents to God in prayer. The index
of his tongue without and the clockwork of his heart within go together;
he doth not declaim against a sin with his lips which he fa­vours with
his heart; he doth not make a loud cry for that grace which he would be
sorry to have granted him. This is the true badge of a hypocrite, who
oft would be loath {that} God should take him at his word. A dismal day
it would be to such when God shall bring in their own conscience to
witness against them that their hearts never signed and sealed the
requests which they made. There is a state-policy used sometimes by
princes to send ambassadors, and set treaties on foot, when nothing less
than peace is intended. Such a deceit is to be found in the false heart
of man, to blind and cover secret purposes of war and rebellion against
God with fair overtures in prayer to him for peace.

Second. When the person is not only real in what he desires, but this
from a pure principle to a pure end. I doubt not but a hypocrite in
confession may have a real trouble upon his spirit for his sins, and
cordially, yea passionately, desire his pardoning mercy; but not from a
pure principlea hatred of sin but an abhorrency of wrath he sees
hastening to him for it; not for a pure end, that the glory of Gods
mercy may be magnified in and by him, but that him­self may not be
tormented by Gods just wrath. He may desire the graces of his Spirit,
but not out of any love to them, but only as an expedient, without which
he knows to hell he must go; as a sick man in exqui­site torturesuppose
of the stone or some other acute diseasecalls for some potion he
loathes, because he knows he cannot have ease except he drinks it.
Whereas the sincere soul desires grace, not only as physic, but food. He
craves it not only as necessary but as sweet to his palate. The
intrinsical bounty and excellency of holiness inflames him with such a
love to it, that, as one taken with the beauty of a virgin, saith he
will marry her though he hath noth­ing with her but the clothes to her
back; so the sincere heart would have holiness though it brought no
other advantages with it than what is found in its own lovely nature. So
much to show what sincerity in prayer is.

Now he that would pray acceptably must pray thus in his spirit, that is,
with the sincerity of his spirit. The prayer of the upright is his
delight. Nadab and Abihu brought fire, and had fire, a strange fire, to
destroy them for the strange fire they of­fered; and such is all
fervency and zeal that is not taken from the altar of a sincere heart,
Lev. 10:1. The fervent prayerB@8×ÆFPb,4availeth much. It can do much,
but it must be of a righteous man, and such the sincere man only is. And
no wonder that God stands so much upon sincerity in prayer, seeing the
lip of truth is so prized even among men. Nature hath taught men to
commend their words to others by laying their hands on their breasts, as
an assurance that what they say or promise is true and cordial; which
the penitent publican it is like aimed at, he smote upon his breast,
saying, God be merciful to me a sinner, Luke 18:13, thereby declaring
whence his sor­rowful confession came. That light which told the
heathens that God must be worshipped, informed them also this worship
must come from the inward recesses of the heart. In sancto quid facit
aurum quin damnus id superis, &c.what care the gods for gold! let us
offer that which is more worth than all treasures, sanctos recessus
animithe heart and inward affections of it. It is a strange custom
Benzo, in his Historia Novi Orbis, relates of the natives there: Indi
occidentales dum sacra faciunt, dimisso in guttur bacillo, vomitum
cient, ut idolo ostendant nihil se in pectore mali occultum gererethe
West Indi­ans, when worshipping their gods, used, by putting a little
stick down their throat, to provoke themselves to vomit, thereby showing
their idol that they carried no secret evil within them. I should not
have named this barbarous custom but to show how deeply this notion is
engraven in the natural consciencethat we must be sincere in the worship
of God.

Use. Let it put us upon the trial whether we thus pray in the
spiritwhether you can find sincerity stamped on your fervency. If the
prayer be not fer­vent it cannot be sincere, but it may have a fervour
without this. This is a very fine sieve; approve thyself here, and thou
mayest without presumption write thy­self a saint. But how fervent
soever thou art without sincerity, it matters not. Nay, zeal without
upright­ness is worse than key&#8209;cold; none will go to hell with
more shame than the false-hearted zealot, who mounts up towards heaven
in the fiery chariot, a seeming zeal, but at last is found a devil in
Samuels mantle, and so is thrown down like lightning from heaven,
whither he would have been thought by his neighbours to be going. Be not
loath to be searched. Then there will then need no further search to
prove thee unsound. If Gods officer be denied entrance, all is not right
within. Now to help thee in the work, inquire

[Rules for trying the sincerity of our hearts in prayer.]

Rule 1. What is thy care in performing this duty of prayer in secret? If
thy heart be sincere, it will delight in privacy. A false heart calls
others to see his zeal for God. May be he is forward to put himself upon
duty where he hath spectators to applaud him, and can be very hot and
earnest at the work; but wither he is wholly a stranger to secret
prayer, or else he is cold in the performance; he finds himself
be­calmed now he wants the breath of others to fill his sails. The
plummets are off which quickened his mo­tion, and he moves heavily to
what he did before company. Whereas a sincere Christian never finds more
freedom of spirit, and liquefactions of soul, than in his solitary
addresses to God. Joseph, when he would give full vent to his passion,
sought some secret place where to weep, and therefore retired himself
into his chamber, Gen. 43:30. So the sincere Christian goes to his
closet, and there easeth his heart into the bosom of God, and lets his
passions of sor­row for sin, and love to Christ, burst forth and have
their full scope, which in public prayer he restrains as to the outward
expression of themout of a holy modesty, and fear of being observed by
others, which he hunts not for. Now speak, Christian, what is thy
temper? Can thy closet witness for thee in this particular? It is the
trick of a hypocrite to strain him­self to the utmost in duty when he
hath spectators, and to draw loose in his gears when alone; like some
that carry their best meat to market, and save the worst for their own
food at home; and others that draw their best wine to their customers,
but drink the dead and flat themselves at their own private table.

Rule 2. Observe thyself in thy more public ad­dresses to the throne of
grace: and that in two par­ticulars. (1.) When thou prayest before
others. (2.) When thou joinest with others that pray.

(1.) When thou prayest before others, observe on what thou bestowest thy
chief care and zeal, whether in the externals or internals of prayerthat
which is exposed to the eye and ear of men, or that which should be
prepared for the eye and ear of God; the devout posture of thy body, or
the inward devo­tion of thy soul; the pomp of thy words, or the power of
thy faith; the agitation of thy bodily spirits in the vehemency of thy
voice, or the fervency of thy spirit in heart&#8209;breaking affections.
These inward workings of the soul in prayer are the very soul of prayer;
and all the care about the other without this, is like the trimming
bestowed upon a dead bodythat will not make the carcass sweet, nor these
thy prayer to Gods nostrils. It is the faith, love, brokenness of heart
for sin, and the inward affections exerted in prayer, that, like Elijah
in his fiery chariot, mount up to God in the heavens, while the other,
with the prophets mantle, fall to the ground. The sincere soul dares not
be rude in his outward posture. He is careful of his very words and
phrase, that they may be grave and pertinent. Neither would he pray them
asleep that joins with him, by a cold, dreaming, and lazy manner of
delivering of it; but still, it is the inward disposition of his heart
he principally looks to, knowing well, that by the other he is but cook
to others, and may fast himself if his own heart be idle in the duty;
and there­fore he doth not count he prays wellthough to the affecting of
their heartsexcept he finds his own affections drawn out in the duty.
Whereas the hypo­crite, if he may but come off the duty with the
ap­plause of others in the external performance, is very well pleased,
though he be conscious of the deadness and naughtiness of his own heart
therein.

(2.) When thou joinest with others that pray. Do the gifts and graces
that breathe from others in prayer warm thy affections, and draw out thy
soul to bear them company to heaven in the petitions they put up? Or do
they stir up a secret envying and repi­ning at the gifts of God bestowed
on them? This would discover much pride and unsoundness in thy spirit.
The hypocrite is proud, and thinks all the water is spilt and lost that
runs beside his own mill; whereas the sincere soul prizeth the gifts of
others, can heartily bless God for them, and make a humble and holy use
of them. His heart is as much affected with the holy savoury requests
that another puts up, as when they come out of his own mouth. But the
hypocrite's eye is evil, because Gods is good.

Rule 3. Observe whether thy fervency in prayer be uniform. A false heart
may seem very hot in pray­ing against one sin; but he can skip over
another, and either leave it out of his confession, or handles it very
gently. As a partial witness, that would fain save the prisoners life he
comes against, will not speak all he knows, but minceth his evidence;
thus doth the hypo­crite deal with his darling lust. He is like one that
mows grass with a gapped scythe; some he cuts down, and other he leaves
standing; vehement against this, and favourable to that lust; whereas
sincerity makes clear work as it goes. Order my steps in thy word: and
let not any iniquity have dominion over me, Ps. 119:133.

Again the false heart is as uneven in his petitions as in his
deprecations. Very earnest he is for some mercies, and they are commonly
of an inferior nature, but more indifferent in his desires for those
that are greater; he tithes mint and cummin in his prayers temporal
mercies, I meanbut neglects the weight­ier things of the promisethe
sanctifying graces of the Spirit, humility, heavenly-mindedness,
content­ment, self-denial; a little of these upon a knifes point will
content him.

Rule 4. Observe whether thy endeavours corres­pond with thy prayers. The
false heart seems hot in prayer, but you will find him cold enough at
work. He prays very fiercely against his sins, as if he desired them to
be all slain upon the place; but what doth he towards the speeding of
them with his own hands? Doth he set himself upon the work of
mortifica­tion? doth he withdraw the fuel that feeds them? is he
care­ful to shun occasions that may ensnare him? When temptations come,
do they find him in arms upon his guard, resolved to resist their
motion? Alas! no such matter. If a few good words in prayer will do the
work, well and good; but as for any more, he is too lazy to go about it.
Whereas the sincere heart is not idle after prayer; when it hath given
heaven the alarm, and called God in to his help, then he takes the field
himself, and opposeth his lusts with all his might, watching their
motions, and taking every advantage he meets with to fall upon them.
Every mercy he receives, he beats it out into a weapon, to knock down
all thoughts of sinning again. Thus, Seeing that thou our God hast
punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such
deliverance as this; should we again break thy commandments? Ezra 9:13,
14. O God forbid, saith the holy soul, that he should bid such a thought
welcome! Every promise he reads, he lifts it up as a sword for his
defence against this enemy. Having these promises, let us cleanse
our­selves, II Cor. 7:1. I shall shut up this head with a few directions
how we may get this sincere heart in prayer.

[How we may get this sincerity in prayer.]

(1.) Get thy heart united by faith to Christ. It is faith that purifies
the heart from its false principles and ends in duty. God made man
upright; and, while he stood so, his eye and foot went right; neither
did his eye look or his foot tread awry. But after Eve had talked with
the serpent, she and all mankind after her learned the serpents crooked
motion, to look one way and go another. God hath made man upright; but
they have sought out many inventions, Ecc. 7:29. O beg therefore, with
David, that God would renew a right spirit within thee, Ps. 51:10. What
the evil spirit hath perverted the Holy Spirit alone can set right. If
the cause why a piece carries wrong be in its make and mould, it must be
new cast, or it will never carry right. Hypocrisy in duty comes from the
falseness of mans depraved nature; the heart therefore must be made new
before it can be sincere. The new heart is the single heart, I will give
them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you, Eze. 11:19. He
that loves truth in the inward parts can put it there.

(2.) Make hypocrisy in prayer appear as odious to thee as possibly thou
canst; and thou needest not dress it up in any other than its own
clothes to do this. Consider but how grievous a sin and how great a
folly it is, and methinks it were enough to set thee against it.

(a) Consider what a grievous sin it is. A lie spoken by one man to
another is a sin capable of high aggravations; what then is that lie
which is uttered in prayer to God? Surely this must be much more
hor­rid, for here is blasphemy in the untruth. God spares not to give
the hypocrite the lie, Ephraim compas­seth me about with lies, and the
house of Israel with deceit, Hosea 11:12; so many lies they told to God,
as prayers they put up. O the patience of a God that doth not strike the
hypocrite dead upon the place, while the lie is in his throat, as he did
Ananias and Sapphira.

(b) Consider what a great folly it is. [1.] As it is infeasible. Who but
a fool can think to blind the eyes of the Almighty? Canst thou cover the
eye of the sun with thy hand or hat, that it shall not shine? as unable
art thou to hide thy secret designs so close that the great God should
not see them. [2.] As it is impossible to deceive God, so thou puttest a
woful cheat upon thyself. Thou thinkest thou mendest the matter by
praying, and thou makest it worse. When thou comest on thy trial for thy
life, thy hypocrisy in prayer will cost thee dearer than thy other sins.
Thou takest pains to increase thy condemnation; thou dost, as Solomon
saith of another kind of hypocrite, Prov. 1:18, lay wait for thy own
blood; they lurk privily for thy own life. Of all sinners, the hypocrite
hath the precedency in Gods pur­poses and preparations of wrath. Hell is
prepared for them as the firstborn of damnation. Other sinners are said
to have their por­tion with hypocrites, as the younger brethren with
their elder, who is the heir, Matt. 24:51.

(3.) Crucify thy affections to the world. Hypoc­risy in religion springs
from the bitter root of some carnal affections unmortified. So long as
thy prey lies below, thy eye will be to the earth, even when thou
seemest like an eagle to mount in thy prayers to heaven. The false heart
does uti Deo ut fruatur mun­dohe useth religion for secular ends, and
makes his seeming piety to God but as a horsing&#8209;block to get into
the creatures saddle. God is in his mouth, but the world is in his
heart; which he projects to attain more easily by the reputation that
this will gain him. I have read of one that offered his prince a great
sum of money for no more but to have his leave once or twice a day to
come into his presence, and only say, God save your majesty. The prince,
wondering at this large offer for so small a favour, asked him what this
would advantage him? O sir, saith he, this, though I have nothing else
at your hands, will get me a name in the country for one that is a great
favourite at court, and such an opinion will help me to more by the
year's end than I am out for the purchase. Thus some, it is to be
feared, by the very name which they get for great saints among their
neighbours, from their acquaintance with religious duties, do facilitate
their carnal projects, and advance their worldly interest, that lie at
the bottom of all their goodly profession. Well, Christian, this is but
to play at small gameto fish for any of the world's petty enjoyments
with re­ligions golden hook. As thou lovest thy soul, and wouldst not
lose this for ever, to get that which thou must lose after thou hast got
it, mortify those carnal affections which thou findest most likely to
withdraw thy heart from God. Thou knowest not God, if thou seest not
enough in him to make thee happy without the world's contributions.
This, thoroughly believed, will make thee sincere in his service. I am
the Al­mighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect, Gen. 17:1.

BRANCH SECOND.

[He that would pray in his own spirit,

must pray in the Spirit of God.]

Having despatched the first importance of this phrase, praying in the
spirit, viz. the spirit of the person that prayeth, and shown that then
a person prays in the spirit when his own soul and spirit acts in the
dutywhen he prays with understanding, fer­vency, and sincerity; now we
proceed to the second importance of the phrase. To pray in the Spirit is
to pray in, or with, the Spirit of God; praying in the Holy Ghost, Jude
20. So that the note or doctrine to be insisted on will be this,

Doctrine.

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Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/william-gurnall/the-christian-in-complete-armour-part-17/
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