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Works of John Bunyan: A DISCOURSE TOUCHING PRAYER. 641

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT, AND WITH THE UNDERSTANDING. Caution 1. And the first is, take heed thou do not throw off prayer, through sudden persuasions that thou hast not the Spirit, neither prayest thereby. It is the excellent work of the devil to do his best, or rather worst, against the best prayers. He will flatter your false dissembling…

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Works of John Bunyan: A DISCOURSE TOUCHING PRAYER. 640

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT, AND WITH THE UNDERSTANDING. 3. A third sort of prayer that God will not accept is when they either pray for wrong or right things, yet the thing prayed for might be spent upon their lusts and laid out to evil ends. Some have not, because they ask not, saith James, and others ask and have not, because they ask amiss, that…

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Works of John Bunyan: A DISCOURSE TOUCHING PRAYER. 639

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT, AND WITH THE UNDERSTANDING. FOURTH. [USE AND APPLICATION.] I shall now speak a word or two of application, concluding with: First, A word of information; Second, A word of encouragement; Third, A word of rebuke. USE First, A word of information. For the first to inform you; as prayer is the duty of every one of the…

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Works of John Bunyan: A DISCOURSE TOUCHING PRAYER. 638

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT, AND WITH THE UNDERSTANDING. Ah! Poor sweet babes, the Lord open their eyes, and make them holy Christians. Saith David, “Come ye children, hearken unto me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord” (Psa 34:11). He doth not say, I will muzzle you up in a form of prayer; but “I will teach you the fear of the Lord”; which is,…

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Works of John Bunyan: A DISCOURSE TOUCHING PRAYER. 637

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT, AND WITH THE UNDERSTANDING.  Queries and Objections answered. Now, to answer a query or two, and so to pass on to the next thing. Query First. But what would you have us poor creatures to do that cannot tell how to pray? The Lord knows I know not how to pray, or what to pray for. Answ. Poor heart! thou canst not, thou…

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Works of John Bunyan: A DISCOURSE TOUCHING PRAYER. 636

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT, AND WITH THE UNDERSTANDING. Seventh. There must be an enlightened understanding, to the end that the soul be kept in a continuation of the duty of prayer. The people of God are not ignorant how many wiles, tricks, and temptations the devil hath to make a poor soul, who is genuinely willing to have the Lord Jesus Christ,…

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Works of John Bunyan: A DISCOURSE TOUCHING PRAYER. 635

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT, AND WITH THE UNDERSTANDING. Third. The understanding is that being spiritually enlightened is the way, as aforesaid, discovered, through which the soul should come unto God, which gives excellent encouragement unto it. It is else with a poor soul, as with one who hath a work to do, and if it be not done, the danger is…

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Works of John Bunyan: A DISCOURSE TOUCHING PRAYER. 634

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT, AND WITH THE UNDERSTANDING. THIRD. And now to the next thing, what it is to pray with the Spirit and with understanding. For the apostle puts a clear distinction between praying with the Spirit, and praying with the Spirit and understanding: therefore when he saith, “he will pray with the Spirit,” he adds, “and I will…

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Works of John Bunyan: A DISCOURSE TOUCHING PRAYER. 633

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684  [WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT.] The want of this is that which God complains of; that they draw nigh to him with their mouth, and honour him with their lips, but their hearts were far from him (Isa 29:13; Eze 33), but chiefly that they walk after the commandments and traditions of men, as the scope of Matthew 15:8, 9 doth testify. And verily, may I…

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Works of John Bunyan: A DISCOURSE TOUCHING PRAYER. 632

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684  [WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT.] Therefore, give me a little to reason with thee, thou poor, blind, ignorant sot. (1.) It may be thy great prayer is to say, “Our Father which art in heaven,” &c. Dost thou know the meaning of the very first words of this prayer? Canst thou, with the rest of the saints, cry, Our Father? Art thou truly born again? Hast…

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Works of John Bunyan: A DISCOURSE TOUCHING PRAYER. 631

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684  [WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT.] Fifth. It must be in or with the Spirit; without that, no man can know how to come to God the right way. Men may easily say they come to God in his Son, but it is the hardest thing of a thousand to go to God aright and in his own way, without the Spirit. It is “the Spirit” that “searcheth all things, yea, the deep…

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Works of John Bunyan: A DISCOURSE TOUCHING PRAYER. 630

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 hat he cannot, with all other means whatsoever, be enabled to think one proper saving thought of God, of Christ, or of his blessed things; and therefore he saith of the wicked, “God is not in all his thoughts,” (Psa 10:4); unless it be that they imagine him altogether such a one as themselves (Psa 50:21). For “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart…

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Works of John Bunyan: A DISCOURSE TOUCHING PRAYER. 629

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684  [WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT.] SECOND. I will pray with the Spirit. Now to pray with the Spirit—for that is the praying man, and none else, to be accepted of God—it is for a man, as aforesaid, sincerely and sensibly, with affection, to come to God through Christ, &c.; which sincere, sensible, and affectionate coming must be by the working of God’s…

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Works of John Bunyan: A DISCOURSE TOUCHING PRAYER. 628

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 WHAT PRAYER IS. Sixth. FOR THE GOOD OF THE CHURCH. This clause reacheth in whatsoever tendeth either to the honour of God, Christ’s advancement, or his people’s benefit. For God, and Christ, and his people are so linked together that if the good of the one be prayed for, to wit, the church, the glory of God, and advancement of Christ, must needs be…

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Works of John Bunyan: A DISCOURSE TOUCHING PRAYER. 627

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 WHAT PRAYER IS. Fourth. Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate, pouring out of the heart or soul to God through Christ, by the strength or ASSISTANCE OF THE SPIRIT. For these things do so depend one upon another, that it is impossible that it should be prayer, without a joint concurrence of them; for though it be never so famous, without these things,…

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Works of John Bunyan: A DISCOURSE TOUCHING PRAYER. 626

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 WHAT PRAYER IS. All this is too evident by the ignorance, profaneness, and spirit of envy that reign in the hearts of those men who are so hot for the forms and not the power of praying. Scarce one of forty among them know what it is to be born again, to have communion with the Father through the Son, to feel the power of grace sanctifying their hearts: but…

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Works of John Bunyan: A DISCOURSE TOUCHING PRAYER. 625

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 WHAT PRAYER IS. Second. It is a sincere and SENSIBLE pouring out of the heart or soul. It is not, as many take it to be, even a few babbling, prating, complimentary expressions, but a sensible feeling there is in the heart. Prayer hath in it a sensibleness of diverse things; sometimes sense of sin, sometimes of mercy received, sometimes of the readiness of…