A53685:142
A discourse of the work of the Holy Spirit in prayer with a brief…
A discourse of the work of the Holy Spirit in prayer with a brief enquiry into the nature and use of mental prayer and forms / by John Owen ...
London: printed for Nathanael Ponder, 1682
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.
Wherefore without a knowledge, a sense, a due comprehension of these things, no man can pray as he ought, because he is unacquainted with the matter of Prayer, and knows not what to pray for. But this knowledge we cannot attain of our selves. Nature is so corrupted, as not to understand its own depravation. Hence some absolutely deny this Corruption of it, so taking away all necessity of labouring after its cure, and the Renovation of the Image of God in us. And hereby they overthrow the Prayers of all Believers, which the Ancient Church continually pressed the Pelagians withal. Without a sense of these things I must profess, I understand not how any man can pray. And this knowledge, as was said, we have not of our selves. Nature is blind, and cannot see them; it is proud, and will not own them; stupid, and is senseless of them. It is the Work of the Spirit of God alone, to give us a due conviction of, a spiritual insight into, and sense of the Concernment of these things. This I have elsewhere so ⟨p. 68⟩fully proved, as not here again to insist on it.
Wherefore without a knowledge, a sense, a due comprehension of these things, no man can pray as he ought, because he is unacquainted with the matter of Prayer, and knows not what to pray for. But this knowledge we cannot attain of our selves. Nature is so corrupted, as not to understand its own depravation. Hence some absolutely deny this Corruption of it, so taking away all necessity of labouring after its cure, and the Renovation of the Image of God in us. And hereby they overthrow the Prayers of all Believers, which the Antient Church continually pressed the Pelagians withal. Without a sense of these things I must profess, I understand not how any man can pray. And this knowledge, as was said, we have not of our selves. Nature is blind, and cannot see them; it is proud, and will not own them; stupid, and is senseless of them. It is the Work of the Spirit of God alone, to give us a due conviction of, a spiritual insight into, and sense of the Concernment of these things. This I have elsewhere so ⟨p. 68⟩fully proved, as not here again to insist on it.