A30158:183
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
I will pray with the Spirit, and I will pray with the understanding… › Part 3 › Section › Answer.
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.
Answer.
Ah sweet soul! It is not thy words, that God so much regards, as that he will not mind thee, except thou comest before him with some eloquent Oration. His eye is on the brokenness of thine heart, and that it is, that makes the very bowels of the Lord run over, A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise, Psal. 51. 17.
2. The stopping of thy words may arise from over much trouble in thy heart. David was so troubled sometimes, that he could not speak, Psal. 77. 3, 4. But this may comfort all such sorrowful hearts as thou art, that though thou canst not through the anguish of thy spirit speak much, yet the holy Spirit stirs up in thine heart groans and sighs, so much the more vehement; when the mouth is hindered, yet the Spirit is not.
2. The stopping of thy words may arise from over much trouble in thy heart. David was so troubled sometimes, that he could not speak, Psal. 77. 3, 4. But this may comfort all such sorrowful hearts as thou art, that though thou canst not through the anguish of thy spirit speak much, yet the holy Spirit stirs up in thine heart groans and sighs, so much the more vehement; when the mouth is hindred, yet the Spirit is not.