A30158:176
I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also,…
I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also, or, A discourse touching prayer, from I Cor. 14.15 wherein is briefly discovered 1. What prayer is, 2. What it is to pray with the spirit, 3. What it is to pray with the spirit and with the understanding also / by John Bunyan.
London : Printed for the author, 1663
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.
Query 1.
But what would you have us poor creatures to do, that cannot tell how to pray; the Lord knows, I know not either how to pray, or what to pray for?
Answer.
Poor heart! Thou canst not (thou complainest) pray. Canst thou see thy misery? Hath God showed thee that thou art by nature under the Curse of his Law? If so, do not mistake, I know thou dost groan, and that most bitterly. I am persuaded, thou canst scarcely be found doing any thing in thy calling, but Prayer breaks from thy heart, Rom. 8. 28. Have not thy groans gone up to Heaven from every corner of thy house? I know 'tis thus; and so also, doth thine own sorrowful heart witness thy tears, thy forgetfulness of thy calling, &c? Is not thy heart so full of desires after the things of another World, that many times thou dost even forget the things of this World? Prithee read this Scripture, Job 23. 12.
Poor heart! Thou canst not (thou complainest) pray. Canst thou see thy misery? Hath God shewed thee that thou art by nature under the Curse of his Law? If so, do not mistake, I know thou dost groan, and that most bitterly. I am perswaded, thou canst scarcely be found doing any thing in thy calling, but Prayer breaks from thy heart,