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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	prophet_n	word_n	write_v	3,213	5	5.9761	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30158	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.	Bunyan, John, 1628-1688.	1663 (1663)	Wing B5541; ESTC R33259	38,056	122

his hope stay and all Right Prayer sees nothing substantial worth the looking after but God And that as I said before it doth in a sincere sensible and affectionate way Again It 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 John 14. 6. and without whom it is impossible that so much as one desire should come into the eares of the Lord of Sabbath If you ask any thing in my Name whatsoever you ask the Father in my Name I will do it Joh. 14. 13 14. This was Daniels way in praying for the People of God he did it in the Name of Christ Now therefore O our God hear the prayer of thy servant and his supplications and cause thy face to shine upon thy Sanctuary that is desolate for the Lords sake Dan. 9. 17. And so David for thy Names sake that is for thy Christs sake pardon mine iniquity for it is great Psal. 25. 11. But now it is not every one that maketh mention of Christ's Name in prayer that doth 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 I 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 he that comes to God must believe that he is Heb. 11. 6. And so he that comes to God through Christ must be enabled to know Christ. Lord saith Moses Exod. 33. 11. shew me thy Way that I may know thee This Christ none but the Father can reveale Mat. 11. 27. Mat. 16. 16. And to come through Christ is for the soul to be enabledo● God to shroud it self under the shadow of the Lord Jesus as a man shroudeth himself under a thing for safeguard Hence it is that David so often terms Christ his shield buckler tower fortress rock of defence c. Psal. 18. 2. Psal. 27. 1. Psal. 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 Gen. 15. 1. Fear not I am thy shield c. 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 hath Faith is born of God John 3. 5. 7. born again and so become one of the Sons of God John 1. 12. by virtue of which he is joyned to Christ and made a member of him Ephes. 5. 30. And therefore Secondly He as a member of Christ comes to God I say as a member of him so that God looks on that man as 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 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 Ephes. 1. 6. And because this poor creature is thus a member of the Lord Jesus and under this consideration hath admittance to come to God therefore by vertue of this union also is the holy Sprit 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 4. 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 there be a joynt concurrence of them for though it be never so famous yet 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 falleth 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 Levit. 10. 1 2. But I shall speak more to this under the second head and therefore in the mean time That which is not petitioned through the teaching and assistance of the Spirit it is not possible that it should be according to the will of God Rom. 8. 26 27. But to proceed 5. 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. Mat. 6. 6 7 8. Prayer it is when it is within the compass of God's word and it is blasphemy or at best vain babling when the Petition is beside the Book David therefore still in his prayer kept his eye on the Word of God My soul saith he cleaveth to the dust quicken me according to thy word Psal. 119. 25 28. And again Psal. 119. 41 42 58 65 74 81 82 107 147 154 169 170. My soul melteth for heaviness strengthen me according to thy Word And Remember thy word unto thy servant on which thou hast caused me to hope And indeed the holy Ghost doth not immediately quicken and stir up the heart of the Christian without but by with and through the word by bringing that to the heart and by opening of that 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 Thus 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 Then according unto that word he maketh his prayer to God I Daniel saith he Dan. 9. 2 3. understood by Books viz. the Writings of Jeremiah the number of the years whereof the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolation of Jerusalem And I set my face to the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes So that I say as the Spirit is the helper and the governour of the Soul when it prayeth according to the Will of God so it guideth 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 I could now pray to my Father he should give me more than twelve legions of Angels but how then

11. 27. 1 Cor. 2. 9 10 11. Should we pray for Communion with God through Christ should we pray for Faith for Justification by Grace and a truly sanctified heart None of these things know we For As no man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man that is in him even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God 1 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 know not the Matter c. of Prayer without the help of the Spirit so neither know they the Manner thereof without the same and therefore he addeth We know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit helpeth our infirmities with sighs and groans which cannot be uttered Mark here they could not so well and so fully come off in the manner of performing this duty as these in our dayes think they can The Apostles when they were at the best yea when the holy Ghost assisted them yet then they were fain to come off with sighs and groans falling short of expressing their mind but with sighs and groans which cannot be uttered But here now the wise men of our dayes are so well skill'd as that they have both the Manner and Matter of their Prayers at their fingers ends setting such a Prayer for such a day and that twenty years before it comes One for Christmass another for Easter and six dayes after that They have also bounded how many syllables must be said in every one of them at their publick Exercises For each Saints day also they have them ready for the generations yet unborn to say They can tell you also when you shall kneel when you should stand when you should abide 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 tyed them to pray as they ought For we know not what we should pray for as we ought Mark this As we ought For the not thinking of this word or at least the not understanding it in the spirit and truth of it hath occasioned these men to devise as Jeroboam did 1 King 12. 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33. another way of Worship both for matter and manner than is revealed in the Word of God But saith Paul We must pray as we ought and this we cannot do by all the art skill cunning and device of Men or Angels For we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit nay further it must be the Spirit it self that helpeth our infirmities not the Spirit and man's lusts What man of his own brain may imagine and devise is one thing and what they are commanded and ought to do is another Many ask and have not because they ask amiss Jam. 4. 3. and so are never the nearer the injoying of those things they petition for 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 doth arise And he that searcheth the heart knoweth that is approveth only the meaning of the Spirit because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God 1 John 5. 14. For in that which is according to his Will only he heareth us and in nothing else And it is the Spirit only that can teach us so to ask it onely 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 uncapable of such a work Which infirmities although it is a hard thing to name them all yet some of them are these that follow First Without the Spirit man is so infirm that he cannot with all other means whatsoever be enabled to think one right saving thought of God of Christ or of his blessed things and therefore he saith of the wicked God is not in all their thoughts Psal. 10. 4. Unless it be that they imagine him altogether such a one as themselves Psal. 50. 20. For every imagination of the thought of their heart is only evil and that continually Gen. 6. 5. Gen. 8. 21. They then not being able to conceive aright of God to whom they pray of Christ through whom they pray nor of the things for which they pray as is before shewed how shall they be able to address themselves to God without the Spirit help this infirmity Peradventure 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 Which that it cannot it is evident because that is the work of the Spirit only The Spirit it self is the revealer of these things to poor souls and that which doth give us to understand them wherefore Christ tells his Disciples when he promised to send the Spirit the Comforter He shall take of mine and shew unto you as if he had said I know you are naturally dark and ignorant as to the understanding any of my things though ye try this course and the other yet your ignorance will still remain the vail is spread over your heart and there is none can take away the same nor give you spiritual understanding but the Spirit The common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book will not do it neither can any man expect that it should be instrumental that way it being none of God's Ordinances but a thing since the Scriptures were written patched together one piece at one time and another at another a meer mane invention and institution which God is so far from owning of that he expresly forbids it with any other such like and that by manyfold sayings in his most holy and blessed Word See Mark 7. vers 7 8. and Col. 2. vers 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23. Deut. 12. 30 31 32. Prov. 30. 6. Deut. 4. 2. Rev. 22. 18. For right prayer must aswell in the outward part of it in the outward expression as in the inward intention come from what the soul doth apprehend in the Light of the Spirit otherwise it is condemned as vain and an abomination Mark 7. because the heart and tongue do not go along joyntly in the same Prov. 21. 9. Isa. 29. 13. neither indeed can they unless the Spirit help our infirmities And this David knew full well which did make him cry Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise Psal. 51. 10 11. I suppose there is none can imagine but that David could speak and express himself as well as others nay