A53685:161
A discourse of the work of the Holy Spirit in prayer with a brief…
A discourse of the work of the Holy Spirit in prayer with a brief enquiry into the nature and use of mental prayer and forms / by John Owen ...
London: printed for Nathanael Ponder, 1682
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
CHAP. VI.
The due manner of Prayer, wherein it doth consist.
THE Holy Spirit having given the mind a due Apprehension of the things we ought to pray for, or furnished it with the matter of Prayer, he moreover works a due sense and valuation of them with desires after them upon the Will and Affections, wherein the due manner of it, doth consist. These things are separable. The mind may have Light to discern the things that are to be prayed for, and yet the Will and Affections be dead unto them, or unconcerned in them. And there may be a Gift of Prayer founded hereon, in whose exercise the Soul doth not spiritually act towards God. For Light is the matter of all common Gifts. And by virtue of a perishing Illumination a man may attain a Gift in Prayer, which may be of use unto the Edification of others. For the manifestation of the Spirit is given unto every man to profit withal. In the mean time it is with him that so prayeth, not much otherwise than it was with him of old, who ⟨p. 88⟩prayed in an unknown Tongue; his Spirit prayeth, but his Heart is unfruitful. He prayeth by virtue of the Light and Gift that he hath received, but his own Soul is not benefited nor improved thereby. Only sometimes God makes use of mens own Gifts to convey Grace into their own Souls. But Prayer properly so called, is the Obediential acting of the whole Soul towards God.
THE Holy Spirit having given the mind a due Apprehension of the things we ought to pray for, or furnished it with the matter of Prayer, he moreover works a due sense and valuation of them with desires after them upon the Will and Affections, wherein the due manner of it, doth consist. These things are separable. The mind may have Light to discern the things that are to be prayed for, and yet the Will and Affections be dead unto them, or unconcerned in them. And there may be a Gift of Prayer founded hereon, in whose exercise the Soul doth not spiritually act towards God. For Light is the matter of all common Gifts. And by vertue of a perishing Illumination a man may attain a Gift in Prayer, which may be of use unto the Edification of others. For the manifestation of the Spirit is given unto every man to profit withal. In the mean time it is with him that so prayeth, not much otherwise than it was with him of old, who