A discourse of the work of the Holy Spirit in prayer with a brief…

It is not easy to conjecture, how men pray, or what they pray about, who know not the plague of their own Hearts. Yea, this Ignorance, want of Light into, or conviction of the depravation of their nature, and the remainders thereof, even in those that are renewed, with the Fruits, Consequents and Effects thereof, is the principal cause of mens Barrenness in this Duty, so that they can seldom go beyond what is prescribed unto them. And they can thence also satisfy themselves with a set or frame of well composed words, wherein they might easily discern that their own condition and concernment are not at all expressed, if they were acquainted with them. I do not fix measures unto other men, nor give bounds unto their understandings; Only I shall take leave to profess for my own part, that I cannot conceive or apprehend how any man doth or can know what to pray for as he ought, in the whole compass and course of that Duty, who hath no Spiritual illumination enabling him to discern in some measure the Corruption of his nature, and the internal Evils of his Heart. If men judge the faculties of ⟨p. 69⟩their Souls to be undepraved, their minds free from vanity, their Hearts from Guile and deceit, their Wills from perverseness and carnality, I wonder not on what Grounds they despise the Prayers of others, but should do so, to find real Humiliation, and fervency in their own.

It is not easy to conjecture, how men pray, or what they pray about, who know not the plague of their own Hearts. Yea, this Ignorance, want of Light into, or conviction of the depravation of their nature, and the remainders thereof, even in those that are renewed, with the Fruits, Consequents and Effects thereof, is the principal cause of mens Barrenness in this Duty, so that they can seldome go beyond what is prescribed unto them. And they can thence also satisfie themselves with a set or frame of well composed words, wherein they might easily discern that their own condition and concernment are not at all expressed, if they were acquainted with them. I do not fix measures unto other men, nor give bounds unto their understandings; Only I shall take leave to profess for my own part, that I cannot conceive or apprehend how any man doth or can know what to pray for as he ought, in the whole compass and course of that Duty, who hath no Spiritual illumination enabling him to discern in some measure the Corruption of his nature, and the internal Evils of his Heart. If men judge the faculties of ⟨p. 69⟩