A30158:95
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.
And so of the rest of the Petitions.
Ah! how sadly would even those men look, and with what terror would they walk up and down the world, if they did but know the lying and blaspheming ⟨p. 48⟩that proceedeth out of their mouth, even in their most pretended sanctity?
The Lord awaken you, and learn your poor souls, in all humility, to take heed, that you be not rash and unadvised with your heart, and much more with your mouth; when you appear before God (as the wise man saith) Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing; especially to call God Father, without some blessed experience when thou comest before God. But I pass this.
Seventhly, It must be a praying with the Spirit if it be accepted; because, there is nothing but the Spirit can lift up the soul or heart to God in Prayer. The preparation of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord, Prov. 16. 1. That is, In every work for God (and especially in Prayer) if the heart run with the tongue, it must be prepared by the Spirit of God.