Chapter 167

[8] In Bunyan’s days, persecution for conscience sake was more extensive under the Protestant Church of England than it was even in the fiery days of Mary. Tens of thousands fled to seek an asylum among savages in America, who were not permitted to live among men worse than savages in England. Thousands were immured in prisons, where many hundreds perished, and with those who suffered a violent death received the crown of martyrdom. Even now they that will live godly in Christ Jesus, must submit to taunts, jeers, and reproaches. May we forget not the Saviour’s comforting declaration, ‘Blessed are you when persecuted, reviled, and spoken against falsely for my sake.’—Ed.

[9] This is the language of an eye-witness, and not a theory. Our author had associated with every man in jail, whose bitter suffering, and that of their families, tried the faith and patience of the saints, and winnowed the church of formal professors.—Ed.

[10] Often have God’s saints rejoiced in tribulation, and, like Stephen, when put to death with excruciating torments, have prayed for their enemies. Bunyan’s fear was, when threatened to be hung for preaching Christ, that he should make but ‘a scrabbling shift to clamber up the ladder.’ He was, however, comforted with the hope that his dying speech might be blessed to some of the spectators.—Grace Abounding, Nos. 334, 335.—Ed.

[11] How forcibly does this remind us of the escape of the poor doubting pilgrims from the castle of Giant Despair. The outer gate, like that of the prison in which Peter was confined, was of iron (Acts 12:10). But Peter had a heavenly messenger as his guide, and faith was in lively exercise, so that ‘the gate opened to them of his own accord.’ ‘God cut the gates of iron in sunder’ (Psa 107:16). The pilgrims lay for four days under dreadful sufferings, bordering on black despair. He had overlooked or laid by the ‘key that doth go too hard’; prayer brought it to his recollection, and he cried out, ‘What a fool am I thus to be in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty.’ He recollected the ‘key called promise,’ which will open ALL the gates in Doubting Castle; and although the lock of that iron gate went damnable hard, yet the key did open it, and the prisoners escaped; see Grace Abounding, Nos 261-263. Fellow-pilgrims ‘look not over,’ nor ‘lay by,’ those keys that ‘go too hard,’ the prayerful use of which may save us much bitter dejection and gloomy doubts.—Ed.

[12] The murder of Sir E. Godfrey, and the fears of a Popish plot, greatly alarmed the country at this time. The recollection of the frightful atrocities committed by the Papists upon the unoffending and unarmed Protestants in Ireland, led to the fears which are here so forcibly, but naturally, expressed. Although we are here directed to the sole ground of hope in the spiritual warfare, yet doubtless, in temporal things, Bunyan felt the necessity of human agency. Had he lived to witness the punishment inflicted on these murderers by William III, he would have owned with gratitude the services rendered to the nation by that warlike king and his brave parliament.—Ed.

[13] How infinite is the condescension of Jehovah to enter into such a relationship with every member of his mystical body, the church. ‘Thy Maker is thy husband, the Lord of Hosts is his name’ (Isa 14:5). Surely it hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive the riches of that endowment, the magnificence of that estate.—Ed.

[14] Beware lest an evil heart, and Satan’s devices, lead us to idolatry. All our ideas of God must be formed and governed by his revelation of himself in his Word.—Ed.

[15] Gospellers was the nick-name for those who loved the gospel at the Reformation, as Puritan or Methodist in a later age.—Ed.

[16] These are solemn and bitter truths. While the public assembly is at times the gate of heaven to the soul, sincerity is better evidenced by heart-wrestling with God in private. No duty draws down such blessings from heaven, nor has greater opposition from Satan, than earnest closet prayer. While it humbles the soul before God, it excites our zeal in good works and a heavenly conduct towards man.—Ed.

[17] ‘For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth’ (Heb 12:6,7).—Ed.

[18] In Popish times, the poor wretchedly and lazily depended upon the alms of the rich, which were especially bestowed at a funeral, to buy their prayers for the repose of the soul; and at wedding, for a blessing on the newly-married couple. Happily for them they are now taught, by gospel light, to depend, under God, upon their honest exertions to produce the means of existence and enjoyment, as the most valuable class of society.—Ed.

[19] Bunyan had felt all this. ‘Alas!’ says he, ‘I could neither hear Christ, nor see him, nor feel him, nor savour any of his things; I was driven with a tempest, my heart would be unclean, the Canaanites would come into the land.’—Grace Abounding, No. 78.—Ed.

[20] See 2 Samuel 2:23, 3:27. To smite under the fifth rib is to give a mortal blow.—Ed.

[21] Human laws we must obey, unless they infringe upon the prerogative of God and upon conscience; to such we must refuse obedience, and count it an honour to suffer as Daniel and the Hebrew youths. These laws we may strive to get repealed or amended; but the laws of God are immutable and eternal—they must be obeyed, or we perish.—Ed.

[22] How striking an exemplification is this of our utter helplessness and the unbounded love of God. O my soul, it is impossible to number or recollect all his mercies, but take heed lest thou forget them all.—Ed.

[23] The reader will easily understand this passage if he considers ‘these folks’ to mean those who were deterred from making a public profession of faith, by the fear of ‘the enemies,’ or persecutors, properly called the devil’s scarecrows. ‘Today,’ refers to the time in which this encouraging treatise was written. Then persecutors and informers were let loose upon the churches, like a swarm of locusts. Many folks were terrified, and much defection prevailed. But for such a time God prepared Bunyan, Baxter, Owen, Howe, and many others of equal piety. Thus, when the enemy cometh in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.—Ed.

[24] The word ‘virtuous’ is now very rarely used in this sense; it means, ‘efficacious by inherent qualities,’ or having great or powerful properties, as, ‘By virtue of our Lord’s intercession’; see Imperial Dictionary.—Ed.

[25] ‘Tang’; a strong sense, flavour, or relish.—Ed.

[26] ‘O the unthought of imaginations, frights, fears, and terrors that are affected by a thorough application of guilt, yielded to desperation! This is the man that hath his dwelling among the tombs.’—Bunyan’s experience in Grace Abounding, No. 185.—Ed.

[27] This is not merely an exhortation to diligence in the Christian calling, but it is meant to convey to all the certain fact, that the prayer of faith in the merits of the Redeemer will and must be followed by renewed speed in running the race that is set before us.—Ed.

[28] There is something about the word blood at which the mind recoils, as if intended to impress upon us the evils of sin and its awful punishment—the death, spiritual and eternal, of the sinner. ‘Without shedding of blood is no remission.’ Blessed are those who were in Christ when his precious blood was shed as an atoning sacrifice.—Ed.

[29] See the character of Ignorance in the Pilgrim’s Progress.—Ed.

[30] The words are, ‘In the name of God, gracious and merciful,’ before each of the 114 chapters of which Alcoran consists.—Ed.

[31] No service on the part of those who are out of Christ, can be accepted (Prov 15:8). We are accepted IN the Beloved (Eph 1:6).—Ed.

[32] One who justifies himself; the self-righteous. The word is only used by religious writers, and never now.—Ed.

[33] What is this to me, O law, that thou accusest me, and sayest that I have committed many sins? Indeed, I grant that I have committed many sins, yea, and still do commit sins daily without number. This toucheth me nothing. Thou talkest to me in vain. I am dead unto thee.—Luther. In the person of his Surety, the believer has died, and paid the penalty of the law. It can have no claim on him.—Ed.

[34] A proverbial saying, which means that all are alike, ‘there is no one barrel better than another, the whole cargo is bad.’—Ed.

I WILL PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT AND WITH THE UNDERSTANDING ALSO-

OR,

A DISCOURSE TOUCHING PRAYER;

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.

WRITTEN IN PRISON, 1662. PUBLISHED, 1663.

“For we know not what we should pray for as we ought:—the Spirit—helpeth our infirmities” (Rom 8:26).

ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.

There is no subject of more solemn importance to human happiness than prayer. It is the only medium of intercourse with heaven. “It is that language wherein a creature holds correspondence with his Creator; and wherein the soul of a saint gets near to God, is entertained with great delight, and, as it were, dwells with his heavenly Father.”1 God, when manifest in the flesh, hath given us a solemn, sweeping declaration, embracing all prayer—private, social, and public—at all times and seasons, from the creation to the final consummation of all things—“God is a Spirit, and they that worship him MUST WORSHIP HIM IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH” (John 4:24).

The great enemy of souls, aided by the perverse state of the human mind, has exhausted his ingenuity and malice to prevent the exercise of this holy and delightful duty. His most successful effort has been to keep the soul in that fatal lethargy, or death unto holiness, and consequently unto prayer, into which it is plunged by Adam’s transgression. Bunyan has some striking illustrations of Satan’s devices to stifle prayer, in his history of the Holy War. When the troops of Emmanuel besiege Mansoul, their great effort was to gain “eargate” as a chief entrance to Mansoul, and at that important gate there were placed, by order of Diabolous, “the Lord Will-be-will, who made one old Mr. Prejudice, an angry and ill-conditioned fellow, captain of that ward, and put under his power sixty men called Deafmen to keep it,” and these were arrayed in the most excellent armour of Diabolous, “A DUMB AND PRAYERLESS SPIRIT.” Nothing but the irresistible power of Emmanuel could have overcome these obstacles. He conquers and reigns supreme, and Mansoul becomes happy; prayer without ceasing enables the new-born man to breathe the celestial atmosphere. At length Carnal Security interrupts and mars this happiness. The Redeemer gradually withdraws. Satan assaults the soul with armies of doubts, and, to prevent prayer, Diabolous “lands up Mouthgate with dirt.”2 Various efforts are made to send petitions, but the messengers make no impression, until, in the extremity of the soul’s distress, two acceptable messengers are found, not dwelling in palaces, but in “a very mean cottage,”3 their names were “Desires Awake and Wet Eyes,” illustrating the inspired words, “Thus saith the High and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy: I dwell—with him—that is of a contrite and humble spirit” (Isa 57:15). By this we are taught the utter worthlessness of depending upon the prayers of saints on earth, or the glorified spirits of heaven. Our own prayers alone are availing. Our own “Desires-awake” and “Wet-eyes,” our own aspirations after God, our own deep repentance and sense of utter helplessness drives us to the Saviour, through whom ALONE we can find access and adoption into the family of our Father who is in heaven.

The soul that communes with God attains an aptitude in prayer which no human learning can give; devotional expressions become familiar; the Spirit of adoption leads them with deep solemnity to approach the Infinite Eternal as a father. Private prayer is so essentially spiritual that it cannot be reduced to writing. “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”. Prayer leads to “pure religion and undefiled,” “to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction,” and to preserve us “unspotted from the world” (James 1:27). Blessed indeed are those who enjoy an abiding sense of the Divine presence; the Christian’s divine life may be measured by his being able to “pray without ceasing,” to “seek God’s face continually.” Men ought “always to pray,” and to “continue in prayer.” This does not consist in perpetually repeating any form of prayer, but in that devotional frame of mind which enables the soul to say, “For me to live is Christ.” When David was compassed about with the sorrows of hell, he at once ejaculates, “O Lord, I beseech thee deliver my soul.” When the disciples were in danger they did not recite the Lord’s Prayer, or any other form, but at once cried, “Lord, save us, we perish.” Bunyan, speaking of private prayer, keenly inquires, will God not hear thee “except thou comest before him with some eloquent oration?” “It is not, as many take it to be, even a few babbling, prating, complimentary expressions, but a sensible feeling in the heart.” Sincerity and a dependence upon the mediatorial office of Christ is all that God requires. “The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him—IN TRUTH” (Psa 145:18). In all that related to the individual approach of the spirit to its heavenly Father, our pious author offended not; but having enjoyed communion with God, he was, as all Christians are, desirous of communion with the saints on earth, and in choosing the forms of public worship, he gave great offence to many by rejecting the Book of Common Prayer.

To compel or to bribe persons to attend religious services is unjustifiable, and naturally produces hypocrisy and persecution. So it was with the decree of King Darius, (Dan 6); and so it has ever been with any royal or parliamentary interference with Christian liberty. “Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth” (Rom 14:4). “EVERY ONE of us shall give account of himself to God” (Rom 14:12). All the solemnities of the day of judgment point not merely to the right, but to the necessity of private decision on all questions of faith, worship, and conduct, guided solely by the volume of inspiration. Mansoul, in its regenerate state, is the temple which the Creator has chosen for his worship; and it is infinitely more glorious than earthly edifices, which crumble into dust, while God’s temples will be ever glorious as eternity rolls on.

Bunyan, to the sixteenth year of his age, had, when he attended public worship, listened to the Book of Common Prayer. At that time an Act of Parliament prohibited its use under severe and unjust penalties, and ordered the services to be conducted by the rules of a directory. In this an outline is given of public thanksgivings, confessions, and petitions; but no form of prayer. In the preface the Puritans record their opinion, that the Liturgy of the Church of England, notwithstanding all the pains and religious intentions of its compilers, hath proved an offence; unprofitable ceremonies hath occasioned much mischief; its estimation hath been raised by prelates, as if there were no other way of worship; making it an idol to the ignorant and superstitious, a matter of endless strife, and of increasing an idle ministry. Bunyan had weighed these observations, and recollected his former ignorance and superstition, when he counted all things holy connected with the outward forms, and did “very devoutly say and sing as others did.”4 But when he arose from the long and dread conflict with sin, and entered upon his Christian life, he decidedly preferred emancipation from forms of prayer, and treated them with great severity. He considered that the most essential qualification for the Christian ministry is the gift of prayer. Upon this subject learned and pious men have differed; but the opinions of one so eminently pious, and so well-taught in the Scriptures, are worthy of our careful investigation. Great allowances must be made for all that appears harsh in language, because urbanity was not the fashion of that day in religious controversy. He had been most cruelly imprisoned, with threats of transportation, and even an ignominious death, for refusing conformity to the Book of Common Prayer. Being conscientiously and prayerfully decided in his judgment, he set all these threats at defiance, and boldly, at the risk of his life, published this treatise, while yet a prisoner in Bedford jail; and it is a clear, concise, and scriptural discourse, setting forth his views upon this most important subject.

Any preconceived form would have fettered Bunyan’s free spirit; he was a giant in prayer, and commanded the deepest reverence while leading the public devotions of the largest congregations. The great question as to public prayer is whether the minister should, relying upon Divine assistance, offer up prayer to God in the Saviour’s name, immediately conceived under a sense of His presence; or whether it is better, as it is certainly easier, to read a form of prayer, from time to time, skillfully arranged, and with every regard to beauty of language? Which of these modes is most in accordance with the directions of the Sacred Scriptures, and most likely to be attended with spiritual benefit to the assembled church? Surely this inquiry does not involve the charge of schism or heresy upon either party. “Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.” Nor should such differences lead us to despise each other. Let our first inquiry be, whether the Saviour intended a fixed form of prayer? And if so, did he give His church any other than that most beautiful and comprehensive form called the Lord’s Prayer? And did he license any one, and if so, who, to alter, add to, or diminish from it? On the other hand, should we conclude that “We know not what we should pray for as we ought, only as the Spirit helpeth our infirmities,” then must we rely, as Bunyan did, upon the promised aid of that gracious Spirit. Blessed, indeed, are those whose intercourse with heaven sheds an influence on their whole conduct, gives them abundance of well-arranged words in praying with their families and with the sick or dejected, and—whose lives prove that they have been with Jesus, and are taught by him, or who, in Scripture language, “pray with the spirit and with the understanding also.”

GEO. OFFOR.

ON PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT.

“I WILL PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT, AND I WILL PRAY WITH THE UNDERSTANDING ALSO”—(I Cor 14:15).

PRAYER is an ORDINANCE of God, and that to be used both in public and private; yea, such an ordinance as brings those that have the spirit of supplication into great familiarity with God; and is also so prevalent in action, that it getteth of God, both for the person that prayeth, and for them that are prayed for, great things.5 It is the opener of the heart of God, and a means by which the soul, though 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 that I shall go on in at this time shall be, FIRST. To show you what true prayer is. SECOND. To show you what it is to pray with the Spirit. THIRD. What it is to pray with the Spirit and understanding also. And so, FOURTHLY. 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. First, It is a sincere; Second, A sensible; Third, An affectionate, pouring out of the soul to God, through Christ; Fourth, By the strength or assistance of the Spirit; Fifth, For such things as God hath promised, or, according to his word; Sixth, For the good of the church; Seventh, With submission in faith to the will of God.

First. 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 actings of a Christian, and hath the sway in them too, or else their actings are not any thing regarded of God, and so of and in prayer, of which particularly David speaks, when he mentions prayer. “I cried unto him,” the Lord “with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear” my prayer (Psa 66:17,18). Part of the exercise of prayer is sincerity, without which God looks not upon it as prayer in a good sense (Psa 16:1-4). Then “ye shall seek me and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jer 29:12-13). The want of this made the Lord reject their prayers in Hosea 7:14, where he saith, “They have not cried unto me with their heart,” that is, in sincerity, “when they howled upon their beds.” But for a pretence, for a show in hypocrisy, to be seen of men, and applauded for the same, they prayed. Sincerity was that which Christ commended in Nathaniel, when he was under the fig tree. “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.” Probably this good man was pouring out of his soul to God in prayer under the fig tree, and that in a sincere and unfeigned spirit before the Lord. The prayer that hath this in it as one of the principal ingredients, is the prayer that God looks at. Thus, “The prayer of the upright is his delight” (Prov 15:8).

And why must sincerity be one of the essentials of prayer which is accepted of God, but 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 surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou has chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke” (Jer 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 vizards, 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 lip-labour that it doth regard, 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.

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 God to give mercy, &c.