William Gurnall: The Christian in Complete Armour
May 28
The Inward Principle of Prayer.
In the Spirit.
BRANCH SECOND.
[He that would pray in his own spirit, MUST PRAY IN THE SPIRIT OF GOD.]
Having despatched the first importance of this phrase, praying in the spirit, viz. the spirit of the person that prays, and shown that then a person prays in the spirit when his own soul and spirit acts in the dutywhen he prays with understanding, fervency, and sincerity; now we proceed to the second importance of the phrase.
To pray in the Spirit is to pray in, or with, the Spirit of God; praying in the Holy Ghost, Jude 20.
So that the note or doctrine to be insisted on will be this,
DOCTRINE. That to right praying, it is necessary that we pray in, or by, the Spirit of God. Prayer is the creatures act, but the Spirits gift. There is a concurrence both of the Spirit of God and the soul or spirit of the Christian to the performance of it. Hence we find both the Holy Spirit is said to pray in us, Romans 8:26, and we said to pray in him, Jude 20. By the first is meant his inspiration, whereby he excites and assists the creature to and in the work; by the latter the concurrence of the saints faculties. The Spirit does not so pray in him as that the Christian does not exercise his own faculties in the duty, as the *Familists fondly conceive. In handling this point I shall endeavour to do these three things:
First. I shall assert the point, and prove the truth of it.
Second. Explicate what it is to pray by the Spirit of God.
Third. Make some application of the point.
*Familist: member of Family Of Love, religious sect of Dutch origin, followers of Hendrik Niclaes, a 16th-century Dutch merchant. Niclaes main activity was in Emden, East Friesland (1540-60). In his Evangelium regni, issued in England as 'A Joyful Message of the Kingdom', he invited all lovers of truth, of what nation and religion soever they be, Christian, Jews, Mahomites, or Turks, and heathen, to join in a great fellowship of peace, the Family of Love, giving up all contention over dogma and seeking to be incorporated into the body of Christ. (Britannica)
FIRST. I shall assert the truth of the point, that to right praying it is necessary we pray by the Spirit of God. This is clear from Ephesians 2:18, Through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Mark those words, by one Spirit. As there is but one Mediator to appear and pray for us in heaven, so but one Spirit that can pray in us, and we by it, on earth. We may as well venture to come to the Father through another Mediator than his Son, as pray by another Spirit than by the Holy Ghost. Therefore our Saviour, when he would show his dislike of the disciples rash motion, he does it by telling them, You know not what manner of spirit you are of, Luke 9:55. As if he had said, It behoves you to be well acquainted with the spirit that acts you in prayer; if your prayers be not breathed in and out by my Holy Spirit, they are abominable to me and my Father also. The name of Christ is not more necessary than the Spirit of Christ is in prayer. Christs name fits only the Spirit's mouth; it is too great a word for any to speak as he ought, that has not the Spirit to help him. No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost, I Corinthians 12:3. One may say the words without any special work of the Spirit in him, and so may a parrot; but, to say Christ is Lord believingly, with thoughts and affections comporting with the greatness and sweetness thereof, requires the Spirit of God to be in his heart and tongue. Now it is not the bare naming of Christ in prayer, and saying, For the Lords sake, that procures our welcome with God; but saying it in faith, and none can do this without the Spirit.
Christ is the door that opens into Gods presence, and lets the soul into his very bosom;
faith is the key that unlocks the door;
but the Spirit is he that both makes this key, and helps the Christian to turn it in prayer,
so as to get any access to God.
You know in the law it was a sin, not only to offer strange incense, but also to bring strange fire, Leviticus 10:1. By the incense, which was a composition of sweet spices appointed by God to be burned as a sweet perfume in his nostrils, was signified the merit and satisfaction of Christ, who being bruised by his Fathers wrath, did offer up himself a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. By the fire that was put to the incensewhich also was appointed to be taken from the altar, and not any common hearthwas signified the Spirit of God, by which we are to offer up all our prayers and praises, even as Christ offered himself up by the eternal Spirit. To plead Christs merits in prayer and not by the Spirit, is to bring right incense but strange fire, and so our prayers are but smoke, offensive to his pure eyes, not incense, a sweet savour to his nostrils.
SECOND. I proceed to explicate what it is to pray by the Spirit of God. To the better opening of this, we must know that there are two ways that the Spirit of God helps persons in prayer;
one way is by his gifts,
the other by his grace.
1).. The Spirit of God helps in prayer by his gifts.
Now those gifts which he furnishes a person with for prayer are either extraordinary or ordinary.
The extraordinary gifts of the Spirit in prayer were, in the primitive times, shed forth, whereby the apostles and others were able in a miraculous manner to pray as well as preach on a sudden in a language that they never had learned. Of this gift interpreters understand that passage of Paul, I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also, I Corinthians 14:15. That is, he would make use of this extraordinary gift Christ had furnished him with, but so as he might edify the church by it, and no otherwise. This extraordinary gift was fitted for the infancy of the gospel church, and ceasedas others of the like nature didwith it.
Note: Gurnall does not give any scripture to uphold his claim that the gifts of the Spirit ceased during the infancy of the church. If he had given a scripture we would expect it to be 1 Corinthians 13:10-11 but Gurnall probably does not use this scripture because the context does not agree with this interpretation. All the gifts of the Spirit apart from two (tongues and interpretation) are seen operating at times in the Old Testament why should they cease now? Tongues could not happen in the Old Testament because it is the Spirit moving upon the new heart created in Christ Jesus; tongues required a new heart and is therefore exclusive to the New Testament. Both scripture and sound reason affirm that the supernatural gifts have not ceased. Supernatural gifts have continued working and still continue to work in the church. Gurnall associates tongues with known languages. This is evident in Acts 2 but Paul says he spoke in tongues more than everyone in 1 Corinthians 14:18. This would suggest that tongues were a very important part of Pauls prayer life. (Bible Teaching Program)
The ordinary gift of the Spirit in prayer is that special faculty whereby persons are enabled on a sudden to form the conceptions of their minds and desires of their hearts into apt words before the Lord in prayer. This is a common gift, and is bestowed on those that are none of the best men. The hypocrite may have more of this gift than some sincere Christian. It is a gift that commonly bears proportion to natural endowments, a ready apprehension, fruitful fancy, voluble tongue, and audacity of spirit, which are all gifts of the Spirit, and do dispose a person for this. Now we see that the head may be ripe and the heart rotten; and, on the contrary, the heart sound and sincere where the head is low-parted.
2). The Spirit helps in prayer by his grace.
His gifts help to the outward expression, but his grace to the inward affection.
By the gifts of the Spirit a person is enabled to take the ear and affect the heart of men that hear him; but by the grace of the Spirit acting a soul in prayer, he is enabled to move his own heart and the heart of God also; and this is the man that indeed prays in the Spirit. The other hath the gift, but this has the spirit, of prayer. Now, there is a twofold grace necessary to pray thus in the Spirit.
1. Grace from the Spirit to sanctify the person that prays.
2. Grace to act and assist this person sanctified in prayer.
By the first, the Spirit dwells in the soul; by the second, he acts the soul.
1. There is necessary to this praying in the Spirit, grace to sanctify the person that prays. Before the creature is renewed and sanctified by the Holy Ghost, it can neither apprehend nor desire things aright. The carnal mind receives not the things of God, no, it is enmity to God. And is how such a one fit to pray in an acceptable manner? First, then, the Spirit renews the creature by infusing those supernatural qualities, or habits of saving sanctifying graces, which makes him a new creature; by these he comes to dwell and live in him, and then he acts his own graces thus infused. The soul is in the body before it acts and moves it. We read of living in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit, Galatians 5:25: If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Walking supposes life. To pray, hear, or perform any other holy action in a holy manner, is to walk in the Spirit; but we must live in the Spirit, or the Spirit live in us which is all onebefore we can thus walk in the Spirit. There are some acts indeed the Spirit of God puts forth upon souls that are not thus sanctified acts of common illumination, restraining grace, and assisting also. Thus many hypocrites are enabled to pray in excellent expressions. But he never did assist hypocrite, or any unsanctified person, to perform the inward part of prayer, to mourn sincerely for sin, to pant after Christ and his grace, or to cry, Abba Father, believingly; these are the vital acts of the new creature, and flow from a Spirit of grace infused into the soul, which follows this spirit of supplication, Zechariah 12:10.
2. As habitual grace is required to sanctify the person, so actual grace to assist him as oft as he prays. The Spirit of God may dwell in a soul by his habitual grace, yet deny actual assistance to this or that particular duty, and then the poor Christian is becalmed, as a ship at sea when no wind is stirring. For as grace cannot evidence itself, so neither can it act itself. Hence it is that sometimes the saints prayers speed no better, because he is not acted by the Spirit in it. Samson, when his lock was cut, was weak like another man. A saint, when the Spirit of God denies his help, prays no better than a carnal man. The Spirit of God is a free agent: Uphold me, says David, with your free spirit, Psalm 51:12. He is not as a prisoner tied to the oar, that must needs work when we will have him; but, as a prince, when he pleases he comes forth and shows himself to the soul, and when he pleases he retires and will not be seen. What freer than the wind? not the greatest king on earth can command it to rise for his pleasure; to this the Spirit of God is compared, John 3:8. He is not only free to breathe where he lists, in this soul and not that, but when he pleases also.