by John Bunyan, modernized with HCSB

SECOND. I will pray with the Spirit.

Now to pray with the Spirit—for that is the praying man, and none else, in order to be accepted of God—it is for a man, as we have said, sincerely and sensibly, with affection, to come to God through Christ, and so on.  That sincere, sensible, and affectionate coming must be by the working of God’s Spirit.

There is no man nor church in the world that can come to God in prayer, but by the assistance of the Holy Spirit. “For through Christ we both have access by one Spirit to the Father” (Eph 2:18).  Therefore, Paul also writes, “In the same way the Spirit also joins to help in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings. And He who searches the hearts knows the Spirit’s mind-set, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Rom 8:26-27). And because there is in this scripture so full a discovery of the spirit of prayer, and of man’s inability to pray without it; I shall in a few words comment upon it.

“For we.” Consider first the person speaking—even Paul, and, in his person, all the apostles! We apostles, we extraordinary officers, the wise master-builders, that have some of us been caught up into paradise (Rom 15:16; I Cor 3:10; II Cor 12:4).  “We know not what we should pray for.” Surely every person must admit that Paul and his companions were as able to have done any work for God, as any pope or proud prelate in the church of Rome, and could as well have made a Common Prayer Book as those who at first composed the one in use—Paul and the Apostles being not a whit behind them either in grace or gifts.

“For we know not what we should pray for.” We don’t know the matter of the things for which we should pray—neither object to whom we pray, nor the medium by or through whom we pray; we know none of these things except by the help and assistance of the Spirit. Should we pray for communion with God through Christ? Should we pray for faith, for justification by grace, and a truly sanctified heart? We don’t know! “For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” (I Cor 2:11). But here, alas! the apostles speak of inward and spiritual things, which the world knows not (Isa 29:11).

Again, as they don’t know the matter of prayer without the help of the Spirit; neither do they know the manner of prayer without the Spirit.  Therefore, Paul adds, “we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings.” Notice—they could not so well and so fully accomplish this duty, as these in our days think they can!  The apostles, when they were at the best, yes, when the Holy Ghost assisted them, yet then they were glad to pray with sighs and groans, falling short of expressing their mind, but with sighs and groans which cannot be uttered.

But now, the wise men of our days are so well skilled that they have both the manner and matter of their prayers at their fingertips, setting such a prayer for such a day, and that twenty years before it comes! One for Christmas, another for Easter, and six days after that. They have also determined how many syllables must be said in every one of them at their public exercises. For each saint’s day, also, they have them ready for the generations yet unborn to say. They can tell you, when you shall kneel, when you shall stand, when you should stay in your seats, when you should go up into the chancel, and what you should do when you come there. All which the apostles came short of, as not being able to compose so profound a manner; and that for this reason included in this scripture, because the fear of God tied them to pray as they ought.

“For we know not what we should pray for as we ought.” Mark this, “as we ought.” For not considering this word, or at least not understanding it in the spirit and truth of it, has caused these men to devise, as Jeroboam did, another way of worship, both for matter and manner, than is revealed in the Word of God (I Kings 12:26-33). But, Paul says, we must pray as we ought; and this we cannot do by all the art, skill, and cunning device of men or angels.  “we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself” helps our weakness; not the Spirit plus man’s desires, what man of his own brain may imagine and devise—this is one thing, and what they are commanded and ought to do, is another thing. Many ask and have not, because they ask amiss; and so are never closer to enjoying those things they petition for (James 4:3). It is not to pray at random that will put off God, or cause him to answer. While prayer is making, God is searching the heart, to see from what root and spirit it arises (I John 5:14). “And he that searches the heart knows,” that is, approves only, the meaning “of the Spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” For in that which is according to his will only, he hears us, and in nothing else. And it is the Spirit only that can teach us so to ask; it only being able to search out all things, even the deep things of God. Without which Spirit, though we had a thousand Common Prayer Books, yet we know not what we should pray for as we ought, being accompanied with those infirmities that make us absolutely incapable of such a work. Which infirmities—although it is a hard thing to name them all—yet following are some of them:

Without the Spirit, we cannot think right of God.

First. Without the Spirit man is so weak that—by any means—he cannot think one right saving thought of God, of Christ, or of his blessed things.  Therefore He says of the wicked, “God is not in all his thoughts,” (Psa 10:4); unless they imagine him to be one such as themselves (Psa 50:21). For “every scheme his mind thought of was nothing but evil all the time,” and that “from his youth” (Gen 6:5; 8:21). If they couldn’t conceive properly of God to whom they pray, of Christ through whom they pray, nor of the things for which they pray, as we have showed—how then shall they be able to address themselves to God, and help this weakness without the Spirit? Maybe you will say, by the help of the Common Prayer Book, but that cannot do it, unless it can open the eyes, and reveal to the soul all these things before touched. And it is evident that it cannot, because that is the work of the Spirit only. The Spirit itself is the revealer of these things to poor souls, and that which enables us to understand them. Therefore Christ tells his disciples, when he promised to send the Spirit, the Comforter, “He shall take of mine and show unto you”; as if he had said, I know you are naturally dark and ignorant as to the understanding any of my things; though you try this course and that course, yet your ignorance will still remain; the veil is spread over your heart, and there is none can take it away, nor give you spiritual understanding—except the Spirit. The Common Prayer Book will not do it, neither can any man expect that it should be instrumental that way, because it is none of God’s ordinances; but was written after the Scriptures, patched together one piece at one time, and another at another; a mere human invention and institution, which God is so far from owning, that he expressly forbids it, with any other such invention, by manifold sayings in his most holy and blessed Word. (See Mark 7:7-8, and Col 2:16-23; Deut 12:30-32; Prov 30:6; Deut 4:2; Rev 22:18). For right prayer must, not only in the outward part of it, the outward expression, but also in the inward intention, it must come from what the soul understands in the light of the Spirit.  Otherwise, it is condemned as vain and an abomination, because the heart and tongue do not go along together; indeed they cannot, unless the Spirit help our infirmities (Mark 7; Prov 28:9; Isa 29:13). David knew this full well, which made him cry, “Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise.” (Psa 51:15). It is obvious that David could speak and express himself as well as others, indeed, as well as anyone in our generation, as we see clearly in his words and his works. Nevertheless, when this good man—this prophet!—comes into God’s worship, still the Lord must help, or he can do nothing. “Lord, open thou my lips, and” then “my mouth will declare Your praise.” He could not speak one right word, except the Spirit itself gave utterance! “because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings.”

Without the Spirit, we are cold and inappropriate in our prayers.

Second. It must be a praying with the Spirit, that is, the effectual praying; because without that, as men are senseless, so hypocritical, cold, and inappropriate in their prayers; and so they, with their prayers, are both rendered abominable to God (Matt 23:14; Mark 12:40; Luke 18:11, 12; Isa 58:2, 3). It is not the excellency of the voice, nor the appearance of affection, and earnestness of the one who prays, that is at all regarded of God without the Spirit. For man, as man, is so full of all manner of wickedness, that as he cannot keep a word, or thought—much less a piece of prayer—clean and acceptable to God through Christ, and for this cause the Pharisees and their prayers were rejected. No question but they were excellently able to express themselves in words, and also for length of time, too, they were very notable; but they had not the Spirit of Jesus Christ to help them, and therefore they did what they did with their infirmities or weaknesses only, and so fell short of a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of their souls to God, through the strength of the Spirit. That is the prayer that goes to heaven, which is sent in the strength of the Spirit.

Without the Spirit, we cannot see our own misery and need of prayer.

Third. Nothing but the Spirit can show a man clearly his misery by nature, and so put a man into a posture of prayer. Talk is but talk, as we use to say, and so it is but mouth-worship, if there is not a sense of misery, an effective sense of it. Oh, the cursed hypocrisy that is in most hearts, and that accompanies many thousands of praying men that would be so seen in this day, all for want of a sense of their misery! But now the Spirit will sweetly show the soul its misery, where it is, and what is likely to become of it, and the intolerableness of that condition. For it is the Spirit that effectually convinces of the sin and misery that is without the Lord Jesus, and so puts the soul into a sweet, sensible, affectionate way of praying to God according to his word (John 16:7-9).

Without the Spirit, we would not pray.

Fourth. If men did see their sins, yet without the help of the Spirit they would not pray. For they would run away from God, with Cain and Judas, and utterly despair of mercy, were it not for the Spirit. When a man is indeed sensible of his sin, and God’s curse, then it is a hard thing to persuade him to pray; for his heart says, “There is no hope,” it is in vain to seek God (Jer 2:25; 18:12). I am so vile, so wretched, and so cursed a creature, that I shall never be heard! Now here comes the Spirit, and steadies the soul, helping it to hold up its face to God, by letting into the heart some small sense of mercy to encourage it to go to God, and therefore the Spirit is called “the Comforter” (John 14:26).

Without the Spirit, we wouldn’t know how to come to God.

Fifth. It must be in or with the Spirit; for without that no man can know how he should 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 come to God correctly and on his own, without the Spirit. It is “the Spirit” that “searches everything, even the depths of God” (I Cor 2:10). It is the Spirit that must show us the way of coming to God, and also what there is in God that makes him desirable: “I pray,” saith Moses, “please teach me Your ways, and I will know You and find favor in Your sight” (Exo 33:13). And, “He will take from what is Mine and declare it to you” (John 16:14).

Without the Spirit, we couldn’t claim God’s mercy.

Sixth. Because without the Spirit, though a man did see his misery, and also the way to come to God; yet he would never be able to claim a share in either God, Christ, or mercy, with God’s approval. How great a task is it, for a poor soul that becomes sensible of sin and the wrath of God, to say in faith, but this one word, “Father!” I tell you, no matter what hypocrites think, the Christian that is a Christian indeed finds all the difficulty in this very thing: it cannot say God is its Father. “Oh!” The Christian says, “I dare not call him Father,” and hence it is that the Spirit must be sent into the hearts of God’s people for this very thing, to cry Father!  It is too great a work for any man to do knowingly and believingly without the Spirit (Gal 4:6). When I say “knowingly,” I mean knowing what it is to be a child of God and to be born again. And when I say “believingly,” I mean for the soul to believe, from good experience, that the work of grace is worked in him. This is the right calling of God Father—not as many do, in a babbling way, say the so-called Lord’s prayer by heart, as it lies in the words of the book.

No, here is the life of prayer, when in or with the Spirit, a man is made sensible of sin, and of how to come to the Lord for mercy—he comes, I say, in the strength of the Spirit, and cries Father! That one word spoken in faith is better than a thousand “prayers,” as men call them, written and read in a formal, cold, lukewarm way. Oh, how far short are those people of being aware of this, who count it enough to teach themselves and children to say the Lord’s prayer, the creed, along with other sayings, when—as God knows—they are senseless of themselves, their misery, or what it is to be brought to God through Christ! Ah, poor soul! Study your misery, and cry to God to show you your confused blindness and ignorance, before you be so hasty in calling God your Father, or teaching your children to do the same! And know, that to say God is your Father, in a way of prayer or conference, without any experiment of the work of grace on your souls, it is to say you are Jews and are not—it is to lie. You say, “Our Father;” God says, “You blaspheme!” You say you are Jew, that is, true Christians; God says, you lie!

“Take note! I will make those from the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews and are not, but are lying” (Rev 3:9). And “I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan” (Rev 2:9). And the sin is so much greater by how much the more the sinner boasts it with a pretended sanctity, as the Jews did to Christ, in the 8th chapter of John, which made Christ—in in plain terms—to tell them their doom, despite all their hypocritical pretences (John 8:41-45).

And yet indeed, every pimp, thief, and drunk, every swearer, and perjured person; not only those who have been so previously but even those who are still: these, I say, by some must be counted the only honest men, merely because with their blasphemous throats and hypocritical hearts, they will come to church, and say, “Our Father!” Further, these men, though every time they say to God, “Our Father,” most abominably blaspheme, yet they must be compelled to do so! And because others that are of more sober principles doubt the truth of such vain traditions, they must be looked upon to be the only enemies of God and the nation: when as it is their own cursed superstition that sets the great God against them and causes him to count them as his enemies (Isa 53:10). And yet just like Edmund Bonner, that blood-red persecutor, they praise, these wretches, although so vile, if they conform with their traditions, to be good churchmen, the honest subjects—while God’s people are, as it has always been, looked at as a turbulent, seditious, and factious people (Ezra 4:12-16).

Therefore, give me leave a little space to reason with you, you poor, blind, ignorant sot.

Cautions of “the Lord’s Prayer”

(1.) It may be your great prayer is to say, “Our Father which art in heaven,” etc. Do you know the meaning of the very first words of this prayer? Can you truly, with the rest of the saints, cry, Our Father? Are you truly born again? Have you received the spirit of adoption? Do you see yourself in Christ, and can you come to God as a member of him? Or are you ignorant of these things—and yet you dare to say, Our Father? Isn’t the devil your father? (John 8:44). And don’t you do the deeds of the flesh? And yet you dare say to God, Our Father? No, aren’t you a desperate persecutor of the children of God? Haven’t you cursed them in your heart many times? And yet out of our blasphemous throat you allow these words to come, even our Father? He is their Father whom you hate and persecute. But as the devil presented himself among the sons of God, (Job 1), when they were to present themselves before the Father, even our Father, so is it now: because the saints were commanded to say, “Our Father,” therefore all the blind ignorant rabble in the world must also use the same words, “Our Father.”

(2.) And do you also say, “Hallowed be thy name” with your heart? Do you study, by every honest and lawful way, to advance the name, holiness, and majesty of God? Does your heart and conversation agree with this passage? Do you strive to imitate Christ in all the works of righteousness, which God commands of you, and prompts you to do? It is so, if you are one who can truly with God’s permission cry, “Our Father.” Or is it not even the smallest of your thoughts all the day? And do you not clearly make it seem like you are a cursed hypocrite, by condemning with your daily practice what you pretend in your praying with your dishonest tongue?

(3.) Would you really have the kingdom of God come in fact, and also have his will to be done in earth as it is in heaven? No, not only if you say it according to the form, “Thy kingdom come,” yet wouldn’t it make you panic to hear the trumpet sound, to see the dead arise, and yourself to go this moment and appear before God, to account for all the deeds you have done in your body? Isn’t the very thought of it entirely displeasing to you? And if God’s will should be done on earth as it is in heaven—won’t it be your ruin? There is never permitted a rebel against God in heaven, and if he should act so on earth, won’t it whirl you down to hell?

And so with the rest of the petitions. Ah! How sadly would those men look, and with what terror would they walk up and down the world, if they realized the lying and blaspheming that came out of their mouths, even in their most pretended holiness? The Lord awaken you, and teach you, poor souls, in all humility, to be careful that you are not rash and unadvised with your heart, and much more with your mouth! When you appear before God, as the wise man says, “Do not be hasty to speak, and do not be impulsive to make a speech before God,” (Eccl 5:2); especially take care not to call God Father, without having the blessed experience of when you have come before God!

Without the Spirit, our hearts cannot pray.

Seventh. It must be a praying with the Spirit if it be accepted, because there is nothing but the Spirit that can lift up the soul or heart to God in prayer: “The reflections of the heart belong to man, but 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 is to go along with the tongue, it must be prepared by the Spirit of God. The tongue is very apt, of itself, to run without either fear or wisdom: but when the tongue is the answer of the heart—such a heart as is prepared by the Spirit of God—then it speaks as God commands and desires.

They are mighty words of David where he says that he lifts his heart and his soul to God (Psa 25:1). It is a great work for any man, without the strength of the Spirit! I see that this is one of the great reasons why the Spirit of God is called a Spirit of supplications (Zech 12:10), because this Spirit is that which helps the heart when it supplicates indeed to do it; and therefore Paul writes, “pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request” (Eph 6:18). And so in my text, “I will pray with the Spirit.” Prayer, without the heart in it, is like a sound without life; and a heart, unless it is lifted up of the Spirit, will never pray to God.

Without the Spirit, our hearts could not continue to pray.

Eighth. As the heart must be lifted up by the Spirit, if it would pray, so also it must be held up by the Spirit when it is up, if in order to continue to pray. I do not know what, or how it is with others’ hearts, whether they be lifted up by the Spirit of God, and so continued, or not: but this I am sure of: first, it is impossible that all the prayer-books that men have made in the world can lift up, or even prepare the heart—that is the work of the great God himself. And, in the second place, I am sure that they are as far from keeping it up, when it is up. Here is the life of prayer: to have the heart kept with God in the duty. It was a great matter for Moses to keep his hands lifted up to God in prayer; but how much more then to keep his heart in it! (Exo 17:12).
The lack of this is what God complains about; that they draw near to him with their mouth, and honour him with their lips, but their hearts were far from him (Isa 29:13; Eze 33)—chiefly, that they walk after the commandments and traditions of men, as the scope of Matthew 15:8-9 testifies.

And very truly, I may speak my own experience, and tell you the difficulty of praying to God as I should—it is enough to make your poor, blind, carnal men to think strange things about me!  For, as for my heart, when I go to pray, I find it so reluctant to go to God, and when it is with him, so reluctant to stay with him, that many times I am forced in my prayers, to first to beg of God that he would take my heart and set it on himself in Christ, and, when it is there, that he would keep it there. No, many times I don’t even know what pray for, I am so blind—nor how to pray, I am so ignorant; only: blessed be grace, the Spirit helps our infirmities (Psa 86:11)!

Oh! the starting-holes that the heart has in the time of prayer! No one knows how many roads the heart has, and how many back alleys, to slip away from the presence of God! How much pride also, if it is enabled with expressions. How much hypocrisy, if we are before others. And how little conscience is there made of prayer between God and the soul in secret, unless the Spirit of supplication be there to help? When the Spirit gets into the heart, then there is prayer indeed, and not till then.

Without the Spirit, we could not pour out ourselves before God sincerely.

Ninth. The soul that rightly prays must be in and with the help and strength of the Spirit; because it is impossible that a man should express himself in prayer without it. When I say it is impossible for a man to express himself in prayer without it, I mean that it is impossible that the heart, in a sincere and sensible affectionate way, should pour out itself before God with those groans and sighs that come from a truly praying heart without the assistance of the Spirit. It is not the mouth that is the main thing to be looked at in prayer, but whether the heart is so full of affection and earnestness in prayer with God, so much that it is impossible to express their sense and desire—for then a man desires indeed, when his desires are so strong, many, and mighty, that all the words, tears, and groans that can come from the heart cannot utter them! “The Spirit — helps our infirmities, and makes intercession for us with [sighs and] groanings which cannot be uttered” (Rom 8:26)!

That is but poor prayer which is only discovered in so many words. A man that truly prays one prayer, shall after that never be able to express with his mouth or pen the unutterable desires, sense, affection, and longing that went to God in that prayer.

The best prayers have often more groans than words: and those words that it has are but a lean and shallow representation of the heart, life, and spirit of that prayer. You do not find any words of prayer, that we read of, come out of the mouth of Moses, when he was going out of Egypt, and was followed by Pharaoh, and yet he made heaven ring again with his cry (Exo 14:15). But it was inexpressible and unsearchable groans and cryings of his soul in and with the Spirit. God is the God of spirits, and his eyes look further than merely at the outside of any duty whatsoever (Num 16:22). I doubt this is more than slightly thought on by the majority of those who would be viewed as a praying people (I Sam 16:7).

The closer a man comes in any work that God commands him to do according to his will, the harder and more difficult it becomes; and the reason is because man, as man, is not able to do it. But prayer, as we have said, is not only a duty, but one of the most eminent duties, and therefore so much the more difficult: therefore Paul knew what he said when he said, “I will pray with the Spirit.” He knew deeply it was not what others wrote or said that could make him a praying person; nothing less than the Spirit could do it.

Without the Spirit, we would fail to pray.

Tenth. It must be with the Spirit, or else as there will be a failing in the act itself, so there will be a failing, yes, a fainting, in the completion of the work. Prayer is an ordinance of God that must continue with a soul as long as it is on this side of glory. But, as I said before, it is not possible for a man to get up his heart to God in prayer; so it is as difficult to keep it there, without the assistance of the Spirit. And so, for a man to continue from time to time in prayer with God, it must of necessity be with the Spirit.

Christ tells us that men ought always to pray, and not to faint (Luke 18:1). And again tells us, that this is one definition of a hypocrite, that either he will not continue in prayer, or that if he will pray, it will not be in the power, that is, in the spirit of prayer, but in the form, for a pretence only (Job 27:10; Matt 23:14). It is the easiest thing of a hundred to fall from the power to the form, but it is the hardest thing of many to keep in the life, spirit, and power of any one duty, especially prayer; that is such a work that a man without the help of the Spirit cannot so much as pray once, much less continue, without it, in a sweet praying disposition, and in praying,  so to pray as to have his prayers ascend into the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth.

Jacob did not only begin, but held it: “I will not let you go, unless you bless me” (Gen 32). So did the rest of the godly (Hosea 12:4). But this could not be without the Spirit of prayer. It is through the Spirit that we have access to the Father (Eph 2:18).

The same is a remarkable place in Jude, when he exhorts the saints by the judgment of God upon the wicked to stand fast, and continue to hold out in the faith of the gospel, as one excellent means to do so, and without which he knew they could never stand. He says, “build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit,” (Jude 20). As if he had said, brothers, as eternal life is laid up for only the persons who hold out, so you cannot hold out unless you continue praying in the Spirit.

The great cheat that the devil and antichrist use to delude the world it is to make them continue in the form of any duty, the form of preaching, of hearing, or praying, and so on.

These are they that have “the form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people!” (II Tim 3:5).

John Bunyan ~ modernized, with Scripture quotes from the HCSB.

I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with my understanding. – 1 Corinthians 14:15

PRAYER is an ORDINANCE [law] of God, to be used both in public and private.  It is such an ordinance that it brings those with the spirit of supplication into great familiarity with God; and is also so powerful in action, that it gets great things of God, both for the person that prays, and for those who are prayed for.  Prayer is the opener of the heart of God, and a means by which the soul, although empty, is filled. By prayer the Christian can open his heart to God, as to a friend, and obtain fresh testimony of God’s friendship to him.

I might spend many words in distinguishing between public and private prayer; as also between that in the heart, and that with the vocal voice. Something also might be spoken to distinguish between the gifts and graces of prayer; but eschewing this method, my business shall be at this time only to show you the very heart of prayer, without which, all your lifting up, both of hands, and eyes, and voices, will be to no purpose at all. “I will pray with the Spirit.”

The method I will use is this: 1) To show you what true prayer is. 2) To show you what it is to pray with the Spirit. 3) What it is to pray with the Spirit and understanding also. And, 4) To make some short use and application of what shall be spoken.

WHAT PRAYER IS.

First, what true prayer is.  Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit, for such things as God hath promised, or according to the Word, for the good of the church, with submission, in faith, to the will of God.

In this description are these seven things: 1) It is a sincere; 2) A sensible; 3) An affectionate, pouring out of the soul to God, through Christ; 4)  By the strength or assistance of the Spirit; 5) For such things as God hath promised, or, according to his word; 6) For the good of the church; 7) With submission in faith to the will of God.

Prayer is sincere.

For the first of these, it is a SINCERE pouring out of the soul to God. Sincerity is such a grace as runs through all the graces of God in us, and through all the actions of a Christian, and is the motivation of them, too, or else their actions  are not any thing regarded of God.  And so also in prayer, of which particularly David speaks, when he mentions prayer:

I cried out to Him with my mouth,
and praise was on my tongue.
If I had been aware of malice in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
Ps. 66:17-18

Part of the exercise of prayer is sincerity, without which God doesn’t consider it prayer in a good sense (Ps. 16:1-4). Then “you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” (Jer 29:12-13). The lack of sincerity made the Lord reject their prayers in Hosea 7:14, where he says, “They do not cry to Me from their hearts,” that is, in sincerity, “rather, they wail on their beds.” They prayed only for a pretence, for a show in hypocrisy, to be seen of men, and applauded by men.  Sincerity was that which Christ commended in Nathaniel, when he was under the fig tree. “Here is a true Israelite; no deceit is in him.” Probably this good man was pouring out of his soul to God in prayer under the fig tree, and in a sincere and honest spirit before the Lord. The prayer that hath sincerity as one of its principal ingredients is the prayer that God looks at. Thus, “The prayer of the upright is his delight” (Prov 15:8).

And why is sincerity essential to prayers that are accepted of God?  Because sincerity carries the soul in all simplicity to open its heart to God, and to tell him the case plainly, without equivocation; to condemn itself plainly, without dissembling; to cry to God heartily, without complimenting.

I have heard Ephraim moaning,
“You disciplined me, and I have been disciplined
like an untrained calf.
Restore me, and I will return,
for you, Lord, are my God.
(Jeremiah 31:18)

Sincerity is the same in a corner alone as it is before the face of the world. It knows not how to wear two faces, one for an appearance before men, and another for a short snatch in a corner; but it must have God, and be with him in the duty of prayer. It is not referring to lip-labour, for it is the heart that God looks at, and that which sincerity looks at, and that which prayer comes from, if it be that prayer which is accompanied with sincerity.

Prayer is sensible.

Secondly, prayer 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 has in it a sensibleness of diverse things; sometimes sense of sin, sometimes of mercy received, sometimes of the readiness of God to give mercy, and so on.

A sense of the want of mercy, by reason of the danger of sin. The soul feels, and from feeling sighs, groans, and breaks at the heart. For right prayer bubbles out of the heart when it is overpressed with grief and bitterness, as blood is forced out of the flesh by reason of some heavy burden that lies upon it (I Sam 1:10; Psa 69:3). David roars, cries, weeps, faints at heart, fails at the eyes, loses his moisture, etc. (Psa 38:8-10). Hezekiah mourns like a dove (Isa 38:14). Ephraim bemoans himself (Jer 31:18). Peter weeps bitterly (Matt 26:75). Christ has strong cryings and tears (Heb 5:7). And all this from a sense of the justice of God, the guilt of sin, the pains of hell and destruction.

The ropes of death were wrapped around me,
and the torments of Sheol overcame me;
I encountered trouble and sorrow.
Then I called on the name of Yahweh:
“Yahweh, save me!”
(Psalm 116:3-4)

And in another place, “My hands were continually lifted up
all night long” (Psa 77:2). Again, “I am bent over and brought low; all day long I go around in mourning.” (Psa 38:6). In all these instances, and in hundreds more, you see that prayer carries in it a sensible feeling disposition, firstly from a sense of sin.

Sometimes there is a sweet sense of mercy received; encouraging, comforting, strengthening, enlivening, enlightening mercy, etc. Thus David pours out his soul, to bless, and praise, and admire the great God for his loving- kindness to such poor vile wretches. “

My soul, praise Yahweh,
and all that is within me, praise His holy name.
My soul, praise the Lord,
and do not forget all His benefits.
He forgives all your sin;
He heals all your diseases.
He redeems your life from the Pit;
He crowns you with faithful love and compassion.
He satisfies you with goodness;
your youth is renewed like the eagle.
(Psa 103:1-5)

And thus is the prayer of saints sometimes turned into praise and thanksgiving, and yet are still prayers. This is a mystery; God’s people pray with their praises, as it is written, “Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Phil 4:6).  A sensible thanksgiving, for mercies received, is a mighty prayer in the sight of God; it is unspeakably effective with Him.

In prayer there is sometimes in the soul a sense of mercy to be received. This again sets the soul all on a flame. “You, Lord of Hosts,” says David, “have revealed this to Your servant when You said, “I will build a house for you.” Therefore, Your servant has found the courage to pray this prayer to You” (2 Sam 7:27). This provoked Jacob, David, Daniel, with others–a sense of mercies to be received–which caused them, not by fits and starts, nor yet in a foolish frothy way, to babble over a few words written in a paper; but mightily, fervently, and continually, to groan out their conditions before the Lord, as being sensible—sensible, I say, of their wants, their misery, and the willingness of God to show mercy (Gen 32:10,11; Dan 9:3,4).

A good sense of sin, and the wrath of God, with some encouragement from God to come to Him, is a better Common-prayer-book than that which is taken out of the Papistical mass-book, being the scraps and fragments of the devices of some popes, some friars, and I know not what.

Prayer is affectionate.

Prayer is a sincere, sensible, and an AFFECTIONATE pouring out of the soul to God. Oh, the heat, strength, life, vigour, and affection, that is in right prayer!

As a deer longs for streams of water,
so I long for You, God.
(Psa 42:1)
How I long for Your precepts!
(Psa 119:40)
“I long for Your salvation!
(Psa 119:174)
I long and yearn
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and flesh cry out for the living God.
(Psa 84:2)
I am continually overcome
with longing for Your judgments.
(Psa 119:20)

Notice this, “My soul longeth,” it longeth, it longeth, and so on! Oh, what affection is here discovered in prayer! The same thing you have in Daniel. “Lord, hear! Lord, forgive! Lord, listen and act! My God, for Your own sake, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.” (Dan 9:19). Every syllable carries a mighty vehemence in it. This is called the fervent, or the working prayer, by James. And again, “Being in anguish, He prayed more fervently” (Luke 22:44). Or had his affections more and more drawn out after God for his helping hand.

Oh! How far are the majority of men with their prayers from this prayer, that is, PRAYER in God’s account! Alas! The greatest part of men make no notice at all of the duty; and as for them that do, it is to be feared that many of them are very great strangers to a sincere, sensible, and affectionate pouring out their hearts or souls to God; but even content themselves with a little lip-labour and bodily exercise, mumbling over a few imaginary prayers. When the affections are indeed engaged in prayer, then, then the whole man is engaged, and in such a way that the soul will spend itself to nothing, as it were, rather than go without that good it desires—even communion and solace with Christ. And so it is that the saints have spent their strengths, and lost their lives, rather than go without the blessing (Psa 69:3; 38:9,10; Gen 32:24,26).

All this is far too evident by the ignorance, profaneness, and spirit of envy, that reign in the hearts of those men that 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 for all their prayers, they still live cursed, drunken, whorish, and abominable lives, full of malice, envy, deceit, persecuting of the dear children of God. Oh what a dreadful thunder is coming upon them! Such that all their hypocritical assembling themselves together, with all their prayers, shall never be able to help them against, or shelter them from.

Again, It is a pouring out of the heart or soul. There is in prayer an unbosoming of a man’s self, an opening of the heart to God, an affectionate pouring out of the soul in requests, sighs, and groans. “My every desire is known to You,” says David, “and my sighing is not hidden from You” (Psa 38:9). And again, “I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and appear before God?  I remember this as I pour out my heart” (Psa 42:2,4). Mark, “I pour out my soul.” It is an expression signifying that in prayer the very life and whole strength goes to God. As in another place, “Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts before Him” (Psa 62:8). This is the prayer to which the promise is made, for the delivering of a poor creature out of captivity and thralldom. “But from there, you will search for the Lord your God, and you will find Him when you seek Him with all your heart and all your soul.” (Deut 4:29).

Prayer is to God.

It is a pouring out of the heart or soul TO GOD. This shows also the excellency of the spirit of prayer. It is the great God to which it retires. “When shall I come and appear before God?” And it argues that the soul that truly prays to God sees an emptiness in all things under heaven; it sees that in God alone there is rest and satisfaction for the soul. “The real widow, left all alone, has put her hope in God” (I Tim 5:5). So saith David,

Lord, I seek refuge in You;
let me never be disgraced.
In Your justice, rescue and deliver me;
listen closely to me and save me.
Be a rock of refuge for me,
where I can always go.
Give the command to save me,
for You are my rock and fortress.
Deliver me, my God, from the power of the wicked,
from the grasp of the unjust and oppressive.
For You are my hope, Lord God,
my confidence from my youth.
(Psa 71:1-5)

Many speak of God with their words, but right prayer makes God his hope, stay, and all. Right prayer sees nothing substantial, and nothing worth looking after, except God. And that, as I said before, it does in a sincere, sensible, and affectionate way.

Prayer is through Christ.

Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God, THROUGH CHRIST. This “through Christ” must needs be added, or else it is to be questioned, whether it be prayer, though in appearance it be never so eminent or eloquent.

Christ is the way through whom the soul hath admittance to God, and without Him it is impossible that so much as a single desire should come into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth (John 14:6). “Whatever you ask in My name”; “if you ask Me anything in My Name, I will do it” (John 14:13,14). This was Daniel’s way in praying for the people of God; he did it in the name of Christ. “Therefore, our God, hear the prayer and the petitions of Your servant. Show Your favor to Your desolate sanctuary for the Lord’s sake.” (Dan 9:17). And so David, “Because of Your name, Yahweh,” that is, for Your Christ’s sake, “forgive my sin, for it is great” (Psa 25:11).

However, it is not every one that mentions Christ’s name in prayer, that does indeed and in truth effectually pray to God in the name of Christ, or through him. This coming to God through Christ is the hardest part that is found in prayer. A man may more easily be sensible of his works, indeed, and sincerely too desire mercy, and yet not be able to come to God by Christ. That man that comes to God by Christ, he must first have the knowledge of him; “for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists” (Heb 11:6). And so he who comes to God through Christ must be enabled to know Christ. Lord, says Moses, “please teach me Your ways, and I will know You” (Exo 33:13).

This Christ can be revealed by no one except the Father (Matt 11:27). And to come through Christ is for the soul to be enabled of God to shroud itself under the shadow of the Lord Jesus, as a man shrouds himself under a thing for safety (Matt 16:16).  Thus it is that David so often terms Christ his shield, buckler, tower, fortress, rock of defence, etc., (Psa 18:2; 27:1; 28:1). Not only because by him he overcame his enemies, but because through him he found favour with God the Father. And so he saith to Abraham, “Fear not, I am your shield,” etc., (Gen 15:1).

The man then that comes to God through Christ, must have faith, by which he puts on Christ, and in him appears before God. Now he that has faith is born of God, born again, and so becomes one of the sons of God; by virtue of which he is joined to Christ, and made a member of him (John 3:5,7; 1:12). And therefore, secondly, he, as a member of Christ, comes to God, as a member of him, so that God looks on that man as a part of Christ, part of his body, flesh, and bones, united to him by election, conversion, illumination, the Spirit being conveyed into the heart of that poor man by God (Eph 5:30). So that now he comes to God in Christ’s merits, in his blood, righteousness, victory, intercession, and so stands before him, being “accepted in his Beloved” (Eph 1:6). And because this poor creature is thus a member of the Lord Jesus, and under this consideration has admittance to come to God; therefore, also by virtue of this union, is the Holy Spirit conveyed into him, whereby he is able to pour out himself, to wit, his soul, before God, with his audience. And this leads me to the next, or fourth particular.

Prayer is by assistance of the Spirit.

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. These things are so dependent upon one another that it is impossible that it should be prayer, without a joint concurrence of them.  For though it is never so famous, but without these things, it is only such prayer as is rejected of God.

For without a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart to God, it is but lip-labour; and if it be not through Christ, it falls far short of ever sounding well in the ears of God. So also, if it be not in the strength and assistance of the Spirit, it is but like the sons of Aaron, offering with strange fire (Lev 10:1,2). But I shall speak more to this under the second head; and therefore in the meantime, that which is not petitioned through the teaching and assistance of the Spirit, cannot be “according to the will of God (Rom 8:26,27).

Prayer is for the things God has promised.

Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart, or soul, to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Spirit, FOR SUCH THINGS AS GOD HATH PROMISED, &c., (Matt 6:6-8).

It is “prayer” when it is within the compass of God’s Word, and it is blasphemy—or at best vain babbling—when the petition is beside the book. David therefore in his prayer kept his eye on the Word of God. “My life,” he says, “is down in the dust; give me life through Your word.” And again, “I am weary from grief; strengthen me through Your word” (Psa 119:25-28; see also 41, 42, 58, 65, 74, 81, 82, 107, 147, 154, 169, 170).  And, “remember Your word to Your servant;
You have given me hope through it” (ver 49). And indeed the Holy Spirit doesn’t immediately quicken and stir up the heart of the Christian without the Word, but by, with, and through the it, by bringing the Word to the heart, and by opening of it, whereby the man is provoked to go to the Lord, and to tell him how it is with him, and also to argue, and supplicate, according to the Word.

This is how it was with Daniel, that mighty prophet of the Lord. He, understanding by books that the captivity of the children of Israel was hard at an end, according to that word made his prayer to God. “I Daniel,” he said, “understood from the books,” that is, the writings of Jeremiah, “according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet that the number of years for the desolation of Jerusalem would be 70. So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petitions, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.” (Dan 9:2,3). So that I say, as the Spirit is the helper and the governor of the soul, when it prays according to the will of God; so it guides by and according to, the Word of God and his promise. Hence it is that our Lord Jesus Christ himself did make a stop, although his life lay at stake for it: “Or do you think that I cannot call on My Father, and He will provide Me at once with more than 12 legions of angels? How, then, would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?” (Matt 26:53,54). As who should say, Were there but a word for it in the scripture, I should soon be out of the hands of mine enemies, I should be helped by angels; but the scripture will not warrant this kind of praying, for it says otherwise. It is a praying then according to the Word and promise. The Spirit by the Word must direct, as well in the manner, as in the matter of prayer. “I will pray with the Spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also” (I Cor 14:15). But there is no understanding without the Word. For if they reject the word of the Lord, “what wisdom is in them?” (Jer 8:9).

Prayer is for the good of the church.

This clause reaches in whatsoever tends 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 be included. For as Christ is in the Father, so the saints are in Christ; and he that touches the saints touches the apple of God’s eye; and therefore pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and you pray for all that is required of you. For Jerusalem will never be in perfect peace until she is in heaven; and there is nothing that Christ desires more than to have her there. That also is the place that God through Christ has given to her. He then that prays for the peace and good of Zion, or the church, asks in prayer that which Christ has purchased with his blood, and also that which the Father has given to him as the price of it.

Now he that prays for this, must pray for abundance of grace for the church, for help against all its temptations; that God would let nothing be too hard for it; and that all things might work together for its good, that God would keep them blameless and harmless, the sons of God, to his glory, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation—this is the substance of Christ’s own prayer in John 17. And all Paul’s prayers also ran that way, as one of his prayers eminently shows:

And I pray this: that your love will keep on growing in knowledge and every kind of discernment, ¹⁰ so that you can approve the things that are superior and can be pure and blameless in the day of Christ, ¹¹ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.
(Phil 1:9-11)

This is but a short prayer, you see, and yet full of good desires for the church, from the beginning to the end; that it may stand and go on, and that in the most excellent frame of spirit, even without blame, sincere, and without offence, until the day of Christ, let its temptations or persecutions be what they will (Eph 1:16-21; 3:14-19; Col 1:9- 13).

Prayer submits to the will of God.

Because, as I said, prayer doth SUBMIT TO THE WILL OF GOD, and say, Thy will be done, as Christ has taught us (Matt 6:10); therefore, the people of the Lord in humility are to lay themselves and their prayers—and all that they have—at the foot of their God, to be disposed of by him as he in his heavenly wisdom sees best. And yet, not doubting that God will answer the desire of his people in a way that shall be most for their advantage and his glory. When the saints pray with submission to the will of God, it doesn’t mean that they doubt or question God’s love and kindness to them. But because they at all times are not so wise, and that sometimes Satan may get that advantage of them, and tempt them to pray for that which, if they had it, would neither prove to God’s glory nor his people’s good. “

Now this is the confidence we have before Him: Whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked Him for.
(1 John 5:14-15)

That is, what we ask in the Spirit of grace and supplication, for, as I said before, that petition which is not put up in and through the Spirit it is not to be answered, because it is beside the will of God. For the Spirit alone knows that, and so consequently knows how to pray according to that will of God. “For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” (I Cor 2:11). But more of this hereafter.

Thus you see, first, what prayer is.

[Here ends the first quarter of Bunyan’s “Discourse on Prayer.”  By “modernizing” I mean occasionally replacing archaic words, often replacing archaic typographical conventions (paragraph breaks, formatting), and very rarely rearranging sentences.  Time permitting, I hope to get to the rest of the discourse.]