First, That it is the proper work of the soul in this duty, to consider all the secret workings and actings of sin, what advantages it hath got, what temptations it is in conjunction withal, what harm it hath already done, and what it is yet farther ready to do. Hence David gives that title unto one of his Prayers, Psal. 102. A prayer of the afflicted, when he is over-whelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the Lord. I speak of that prayer which is attended with a due consideration of all the wants, straits and emergencies of the soul. Without this, Prayer is not Prayer; that is, what ever show or appearance of that duty it hath, it is no way useful, either to the glory of God, or the good of the souls of men. A cloud it is without water, driven by the wind of the breath of men. Nor was there ever any more present and effectual poison for souls found out, than the binding of them unto a constant form and usage of I know not what words in their prayers and supplications, which themselves do not understand. Bind men so in their trades, or in their businesses in this world, and they will quickly find the effect of it. By this means are they disenabled from any due consideration of what a present is good for them, or evil unto them, without which, to what use can prayer serve, but to mock God, and delude mens own souls? But in this kind of Prayer which we insist on, the Spirit of God falls in to give us his assistance, and that in this very matter of finding out and ⟨p. 126⟩discovering the most secret actings and workings of the Law of sin. Rom. 8. 26. We know not what to pray for as we ought, but he helps our infirmities: he discovers our wants unto us, and wherein chiefly we stand in need of help and relief. And we find it by daily experience, that in prayer, Believers are led into such discoveries and convictions of the secret deceitful work of sin in their hearts, as no considerations could ever have led them into. So David, Psal. 51. designing the confession of his actual sin, having his wound in his prayer searched by the skilful hand of the Spirit of God, he had a discovery made unto him of the root of all his miscarriages in his original corruption, vers. 5. The Spirit in this duty is as the candle of the Lord unto the soul▪ enabling it to search all the inward parts of the belly.
First, That it is the proper work of the soul in this duty, to consider all the secret workings and actings of sin, what advantages it hath got, what temptations it is in conjunction withall, what harm it hath already done, and what it is yet farther ready to do. Hence David gives that title unto one of his Prayers, Psal. 102. A prayer of the afflicted, when he is over-whelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the Lord. I speak of that prayer which is attended with a due consideration of all the wants, straits and emergencies of the soul. Without this, Prayer is not Prayer; that is, what ever shew or appearance of that duty it hath, it is no way useful, either to the glory of God, or the good of the souls of men. A cloud it is without water, driven by the wind of the breath of men. Nor was there ever any more present and effectual poison for souls found out, than the binding of them unto a constant form and usage of I know not what words in their prayers and supplications, which themselves do not understand. Bind men so in their trades, or in their businesses in this world, and they will quickly find the effect of it. By this means are they disenabled from any due consideration of what a present is good for them, or evil unto them, without which, to what use can prayer serve, but to mock God, and delude mens own souls? But in this kind of Prayer which we insist on, the Spirit of God falls in to give us his assistance, and that in this very matter of finding out and ⟨p. 126⟩discovering the most secret actings and workings of the Law of sin. Rom. 8. 26. We know not what to pray for as we ought, but he helps our infirmities: he discovers our wants unto us, and wherein chiefly we stand in need of help and relief. And we find it by daily experience, that in prayer, Believers are led into such discoveries and convictions of the secret deceitful work of sin in their hearts, as no considerations could ever have led them into. So David, Psal. 51. designing the confession of his actual sin, having his wound in his prayer searched by the skilful hand of the Spirit of God, he had a discovery made unto him of the root of all his miscarriages in his original corruption, vers. 5. The Spirit in this duty is as the candle of the Lord unto the soul▪ enabling it to search all the inward parts of the belly.
