Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	cry_v	father_n	receive_v	7,843	5	5.5639	4	false

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

plain terms to tell them their doom for all their hypocritical pretences And yet forsooth every cursed whoremaster thief and drunkard swearer and perjured person they that have not only been such in times past but are even so still these I say by some must be counted the only honest men and all because with their blasphemous throats and hypocritical hearts they will come to Church and say Our Father Nay further these men though every time they say to God our Father do most abominably blaspheme yet they must be compelled thus to do And because others that are of more sober Principles scruple the truth of such vain Traditions therefore they must be looked upon to be the only Enemies of God and the Nation Isa. 53. 10. when as it is their own cursed Superstition that doth set the great God against them and cause him to count them for his enemies And yet just like to Bonner that blood-red Persecutor they commend I say these wretches although never so vile if they close in with their Traditions to be good Church-men the honest subjects while God's People are as it hath alwayes been Ezra 4. 12 to 16. looked upon to be a turbulent seditious and factious people Therefore give me leave a little to reason with thee thou poor blind ignorant Sot 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 indeed with the rest of the Saints cry Our Father Art thou truly born again hast thou received the Spirit of Adoption dost thou see thy self in Christ and canst thou come to God as a Member of him Or art thou ignorant of these things and yet darest say Our Father Is not the Devil thy Father John 8. 44. and dost thou not do the deeds of the flesh and yet darest thou say to God Our Father Nay art thou not a desperate Persecutor of the Children of God hast thou not cursed them in thy heart many a time And yet dost thou out of thy blasphemous throat suffer these words to come even Our Father He is their Father whom thou hatest and persecutest But as the Devil presented himself amongst the Sons or God Job 1. when they were to present themselves before the Father even our Father so is it now because the Saints are commanded to say Our Father therefore all the blind ignorant rabble in the world they must also use the same words Our Father Secondly And dost thou indeed say Hallowed be thy Name with thy heart Dost thou study by all honest and lawful wayes to advance the Name Holiness and Majesty of God Doth thy heart and conversation agree with this passage Dost thou strive to imitate Christ in all the works of Righteousness which God doth command of thee and prompt thee forwards to It is so if thou beest one that canst truly with God's allowance cry Our Father Or is it not the least of thy thoughts all the day and dost thou not clearly make it appear that thou art a cursed Hypocrite by condemning that with thy daily practice which thou pretendest in thy praying with thy dissembling tongue Thirdly Wouldest thou have the Kingdom of God come indeed and also his Will to be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Nay notwithstanding thou according to the form sayest Thy Kingdom come yet would it not make thee ready to run mad to hear the Trumpet sound to see the Dead arise and thy self just now to go and appear before God to reckon for all the deeds thou hast done in the Body Nay are not the very thoughts of it altogether displeasing to thee And if God's VVill should be done on Earth as it is in Heaven must it not be thy ruine There is never a Rebel in Heaven against God and if he should so deal on Earth must he not whirle thee down to Hell And so of the rest of the Petitions Ah! how sadly would even those men look and with what terror would they walk up and down the world if they did but know the lying and blaspheming that proceedeth out of their mouth even in their most pretended sanctity The Lord awaken you and learn your poor souls in all humility to take heed that you be not rash and unadvised with your heart and much more with your mouth when you appear before God as the wise man saith Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing especially to call God Father without some blessed experience when thou comest before God But I pass this Seventhly It must be a praying with the Spirit if it be accepted because there is nothing but the Spirit can lift up the soul or heart to God in Prayer The preparation of the heart in man and 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 run with the tongue it must be prepared by the Spirit of God Indeed the tongue is very apt of it self to run without either Fear or VVisdom But when it is the answer of the heart and that such an heart as is prepared by the Spirit of God then it speaketh so as God commands and doth desire They are mighty words of David where he saith That he lifteth his heart and his soul to God Psal. 25. 1. It is a great work for any man without the strength of the Spirit and therefore I conceive that this is one of the great reasons why the Spirit of God is called a Spirit of Supplication Zech. 12. 11. because it is that which helpeth the heart when it supplicates indeed to do it And therefore saith Paul Ephes. 6. 18. Praying with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit And so in my Text I will pray with the Spirit Prayer without the heart be in it is like a sound without life and a heart without it be lifted up of the Spirit will never pray to God Eighthly As the heart must be lifted up by the Spirit if it pray aright so also it must be held up by the Spirit when it is up if it continue to pray aright 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 no But this I am sure of First That it is impossible that all the Prayer-Books that men have made in the world should lift up or 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 And indeed here is the life of Prayer to have the heart kept with God in the duty Exod. 17. 12. It was a great matter for Moses to keep his hands lifted up to God in Prayer but how much more then to keep the heart in it The want

art the Lord my God Surely after I was turned I repented and after I was instructed or had a right understanding of my self I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth These be Ephraim's complaints and bemoanings of himself at which the Lord breaks forth into these heart-melting expressions saying Is Ephraim my dear Son Is he a pleasant Chlld For since I spake unto him I do earnestly remember him still therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord. Thus you see that as it is required to pray with the Spirit so it is to pray with the Understanding also And to illustrate what hath been spoken by a similitude Set the case there should come two a begging to your door the one is a poor lame wounded and almost starved creature the other is a healthful lusty person These two use the same words in their begging the one saith he is almost starved so doth the other but yet the man that is indeed the poor lame or maimed person he speaks with more sence feeling and understanding of the misery that is mentioned in their begging than the other can do and it is discovered more by his affectionate speaking his bemoaning himself His pain and poverty makes him speak more in a spirit of lamentation than the other and he shall be pittied sooner than the other by all those that have the least dram of natural affection or pitty Just thus it is with God There are some who out of custome and formality go and pray there are others who go in the bitterness of their spirit The one he prayes out of bare notion and naked knowledge the other hath his words forced from him by the anguish of his soul. Surely that is the man that God will look at even him that is of a humble and contrite spirit and that trembleth at his word Isa. 66. 2. Sixthly An Understanding well enlightened is of admirable use also both as to the matter and manner of Prayer He that hath his understanding well exercised to discern between good and evil and in it placed a sence either of the misery of man or the mercy of God that soul hath no need of the Writings of other men to teach him by Forms of Prayer For as he that feels the pain needs not to be learned to cry Oh! Even so he that hath his Understanding opened by the Spirit needs not so to be taught of other mens prayers as that he cannot pray without them the present sence feeling and pressure that lyeth upon his spirit provokes him to groan out his requests unto the Lord. When David had the pains of hell catching hold on him and the sorrows of hell compassing him about he needed not a Bishop in a Surplice to learn him to say O Lord I beseech thee deliver my soul Psal. 116. 3 4. Or to look into a Book to teach him in a Form to pour out his heart before God It is the nature of the heart of sick men in their pain and sickness to vent it self for ease by dolorous groans and complaints to them that stand by Thus it was with David in Psal. 38. to the 12. vers And thus Blessed be the Lord it is with them that are indued with the Grace of God Seventhly It is necessary that there 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 truly willing to have the Lord Jesus Christ and that upon Christ's terms too I say to tempt that soul to be weary of seeking the face of God and to think that God is not willing to have mercy on such a one as him I saith Satan thou mayest pray indeed but thou shalt not prevail Thou seest thine heart is hard cold dull and dead thou dost not pray with the Spirit thou dost not pray in good earnest thy thoughts are running after other things when thou pretendest to pray to God Away hypocrite go no further it is but in vain to strive any longer Here now if the soul be not well informed in its understanding it will presently cry out The Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me Isa. 45. 27. Whereas the soul rightly informed and enlightned saith Well I will seek the Lord and wait I will not leave off though the Lord keep silence and speak not one word of comfort Isa. 49. 14. He loved Jacob dearly and yet he made him wrestle before he had the blessing Gen. 32. 25 26 27. Seeming delayes in God are no tokens of his displeasure he may hide his face from his dearest Saints Isa. 8. 17. He loves to keep his People praying and to find them ever knocking at the gate of Heaven It may be sayes the soul the Lord tries me or he loves to hear me groan out my condition before him The woman of Canaan would not take seeming denyals for real ones she knew the Lord was gracious Luke 18. 1 to 6. And the Lord will avenge his People though he bear long with them The Lord hath waited longer upon me than I have waited on him And thus it was with David I waited patiently saith he That is It was long before the Lord answered me though at the last he enclined his ear unto me and heard my cry Psal. 40. 1. And the most excellent remedy for this is an understanding well informed and enlightened Alas how many poor souls are there in the world that truly fear the Lord who because they are not well informed in their understanding are oft ready to give up all for lost upon almost every trick and temptation of Satan The Lord pitty them and help them to pray with the Spirit and with the Understanding also Much of mine own experience could I here discover when I have been in my fits of agonies of spirit I have been strongly perswaded to leave off and to seek the Lord no longer but being made to understand what great sinners the Lord hath had mercy upon and how large his Promises were still to sinners and that it was not the whole but the sick not the righteous but the sinner not the full but the empty that he extended his Grace and Mercy unto This made me through the assistance of his holy Spirit to cleave to him to hang upon him and yet to cry though for the present he made no answer and the Lord help all his poor tempted and afflicted People to do the like and to continue though it be long according to the saying of the Prophet Hab. 2. 3. And to help them to that end to pray not by the inventions of men and their stinted Forms but with the Spirit and with the Understanding also And now to answer a Query or two and