A53685:289
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.
1. The Holy Ghost as a Spirit of Grace and Supplications is no where, that I know of, promised unto any to help or assist them in composing Prayers for others; and therefore we have no ground to pray for him or ⟨p. 215⟩his Assistance unto that End in particular; nor foundation to build Faith or Expectation of receiving him, upon. Wherefore he is not in any especial or gracious manner concerned in that Work or Endeavour. Whether this be a Duty that falls under his care as communicating gifts in general for the Edification of the Church, shall be afterwards Examined. That which we plead at present is, that he is no where peculiarly promised for that End, nor have we either command or direction to ask for his Assistance therein. If any shall say that he is promised to this purpose, where he is so, as a Spirit of Grace and Supplication; I answer, besides what hath been already pleaded at large in the Explication and vindication of the proper sense of that Promise; that he is promised directly, to them that are to pray, and not to them that make Prayers for others, which themselves will not say is praying. But supposing it a Duty in general so to compose Prayers for our own or the use of others, it is lawful and warrantable to pray for the Aid and Guidance of the Holy Ghost therein; not as unto his peculiar Assistances in Prayer, not as he is unto Believers a Spirit of Supplication, but as he is our Sanctifier, the ⟨p. 216⟩Author and efficient cause of every gracious Work and Duty in us.
It may be, the Prayers composed by some Holy men under the Old Testament by the immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost for the use of the Church, will be also pretended. But as the Inspiration or Assistance which they had in their Work was a thing quite of another kind than any thing that is ordinarily promised, or that any Persons can now pretend unto; so whether they were dictated unto them by the Holy Ghost to be used afterwards by others as mere Forms of Prayer, may be yet farther enquired into.