I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also,…

Oh! saith he, I dare not call him Father; and hence it is, that the Spirit must be sent into the hearts of Gods people for this very thing, to cry, Father, Gal. 4. 6. it being too great a work for any man to do knowingly, and believingly, without it. When I say, knowingly, I mean, knowing what it is to be a Child of God, and to be born again. And when I say, believingly, I mean, for the soul to believe, and that from good experience, that the work of Grace is wrought in him: this is the right calling of God Father; and not as many do, to say in a babbling way, the Lords Prayer (so called) by heart, as it ⟨p. 42⟩lieth in the words of the Book. No, here is the life of Prayer, when in, or with the Spirit, a man being made sensible of sin, and how to come to the Lord for mercy; he comes, I say, in the strength of the Spirit, and crieth, Father.

Oh! saith he, I dare not call him Father; and hence it is, that the Spirit must be sent into the hearts of Gods people for this very thing, to cry, Father, Gal. 4. 6. it being too great a work for any man to do knowingly, and believingly, without it. When I say, knowingly, I mean, knowing what it is to be a Child of God, and to be born again. And when I say, believingly, I mean, for the soul to believe, and that from good experience, that the work of Grace is wrought in him: this is the right calling of God Father; and not as many do, to say in a babling way, the Lords Prayer (so called) by heart, as it ⟨p. 42⟩lyeth in the words of the Book. No, here is the life of Prayer, when in, or with the Spirit, a man being made sensible of sin, and how to come to the Lord for mercy; he comes, I say, in the strength of the Spirit, and cryeth, Father.

☞ That one word spoken in Faith, is better than a thousand prayers, as men call them, written and read, in a formal, cold, luke-warm way.