A30158:246
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.
Prayer is an Ordinance of God, in which a man draws very near to God; and therefore it calleth for so much the more of the assistance of the Grace of God, to help a soul to pray, as becomes one that is in the presence of him.
It is a shame for a man to behave himself irreverently before a King but a sin to do so before God. And a ⟨p. 87⟩a King (if wise) is not pleased with an Oration made up with unseemly words and gestures; So God takes no pleasure in the sacrifice of fools, Eccles. 5. 1, 4.
It is not long discourses, nor eloquent tongues, that are the things which are pleasing in the ears of the Lord; but a humble, broken and contrite heart, (Psal. 51. 17. Isa. 57. 15.) that is sweet in the nostrils of the heavenly Majesty.