A30158:235
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.
Thirdly, Right Prayer is accompanied with a continual labour after that which is prayed for. My soul waiteth for the Lord, more than they that watch for the morning, Psal. 130. 6. I will arise now, and seek him whom my soul loveth, Cant. 3. 2.
For mark, I beseech you, there is two things that provoke to Prayer: One is, a detestation to sin, and the things of this life; The other is, a longing desire after Communion with God, in an holy and undefiled state and inheritance.
Compare but this one thing with most of the Prayers that are made by men, and you shall find them but mock-prayers, and the breathings of an abominable spirit; for even the ⟨p. 85⟩most of men, either not pray at all, or else only endeavour to mock God and the world by so doing: for, do but compare their prayer, and the course of their lives together, and you may easily see that the thing included in their prayer is the least looked after by their lives. Oh sad Hypocrites!
Compare but this one thing with most of the Prayers that are made by men, and you shall finde them but mock-prayers, and the breathings of an abominable spirit; for even the