This sermon was created with an artificial voice for the audiobook initiative on Sermon Audio. There may be mispronunciations or occasional repetitions. To report a mistake, please email us at info at sermon audio dot com and include the sermon ID or title of the message and the time at which the error occurs. We will do our best to get it corrected for future listeners. A Discourse Touching Prayer Part 2 by John Bunyan, now to proceed, what it is to pray with the Spirit. Second, I will pray with the Spirit, now to pray with the Spirit, for that is the praying man, and none else so as to be accepted of God. It is for a man, as aforesaid, sincerely and sensibly, with affection, to come to God through Christ, etc. which 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 all have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Wherefore Paul saith, For we know not what we should pray for as we ought. but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God, 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. Therefore 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, we know not what we should pray for. Surely there is no man but will confess 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 this, as being not a wit behind them, either in grace or gifts. Nine, for we know not what we should pray for. We know not the matter of the things for which we should pray, neither the object to whom we pray, nor the medium by or through whom we pray. None of these things know we, but 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? None of these things know we, for what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. But here, alas, the apostles speak of inward and spiritual things, which the world knows not. Again, as they know not the matter, etc., of prayer without the help of the Spirit, so neither know they the manner thereof without the same, and therefore, he adds, 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 days 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 days are so well skilled, as that they have both the manner and matter of their prayers at their finger-ends. 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 bounded 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 also when you shall kneel, when you shall 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 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 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, 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, and cunning 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 itself 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, and so are never the nearer the enjoying 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. 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 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 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 his thoughts, unless it be that they imagine him altogether such a one as themselves. for every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil, and that continually. They then, not being able to conceive a right of God to whom they pray, of Christ through whom they pray, nor of the things for which they pray, as is before showed, 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 itself 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 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 ye try this course and the other, yet your ignorance will still remain. The veil 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-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 mere human invention and institution, which God is so far from owning of, that He expressly forbids it, with any other such like, and that by manifold sayings in His most holy and blessed Word. See Mark 7, 7, and 8, and Colossians 2, 16-23. Deuteronomy 12.30-32 Proverbs 36 Deuteronomy 4.2 Revelation 22.18 For right prayer must, as well 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 bane and an abomination, because the heart and tongue do not go along jointly in the same. 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 show forth thy praise. I suppose there is none can imagine, but that David could speak and express himself as well as others, nay, as any in our generation, as is clearly manifested by his word and his works. Nevertheless, when this good man, this prophet, comes into God's worship, then the Lord must help, or he can do nothing. Lord, open thou my lips, and then my mouth shall show forth thy praise." He could not speak one right word except the Spirit itself gave utterance. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself helpeth our infirmities. But 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 unseemly in their prayers, and so they with their prayers are both rendered abominable to God, it is not the excellency of the voice, nor the seeming affection and earnestness of him that prayeth That is anything regarded of God without it, for man as man is so full of all manner of wickedness, that as he cannot keep a word or thought so much less a piece of prayer clean and acceptable to God through Christ, and for this cause the Pharisees with 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 goeth to heaven, that is sent thither in the strength of the Spirit. For 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 used to say, and so it is but mouth. Worship, if there be not a sense of misery, and that effectually too. Oh, the cursed hypocrisy that is in most hearts, and that accompanieth many thousands of praying men that would be so looked upon in this day, and all for want of a sense of their misery! But now the spirit that will sweetly show the soul its misery, where it is, and what is like to become of it, also the intolerableness of that condition. For it is the Spirit that doth effectually convince of sin and misery, without the Lord Jesus, and so puts the soul into a sweet, sensible, affectionate way of praying to God according to His word. 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, saith his heart, there is no hope, it is in vain to seek God. I am so vile, so wretched, and so cursed a creature, that I shall never be regarded. Now here comes the Spirit, and stayeth the soul, helpeth 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 hence it is called the Comforter. 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 aright and in His own way. Without the Spirit, it is the Spirit that searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 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 thee, saith Moses, show me now thy way, that I may know thee way, and he shall take of mine, and show it unto you. 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 approbation. Oh, 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, however hypocrites think, yet the Christian that is so indeed finds all the difficulty in this very thing, it cannot say God is its Father. O saith he, 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 being too great a work for any man to do knowingly and believingly without it. 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, and that from good experience, that the work of grace is wrought in him. This is the right calling of God Father, and not as many do to say in a babbling way, the Lord's Prayer so called by heart, as it lieth in the words of the book. No, here is the life of prayer, when in or with the Spirit, a man being made sensible of sin, and how to come to the Lord for mercy. He comes, I say, in the strength of the Spirit, and crieth, 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 sensible of this, who counted enough to teach themselves and children to say the Lord's Prayer, the creed 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 rife in calling God your Father, or teaching your children either, so to say. 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, and so to lie. You say, Our Father, God saith you blaspheme, you say you are Jew, that is, true Christians, God saith you lie. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not, but do lie. And I know the blasphemy of them that say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. And so much the greater the sin is, by how much the more the sinner boasts it with a pretended sanctity. As the Jews did to Christ in the eighth of John, which made Christ, even in plain terms, to tell them their doom, for all their hypocritical pretenses, 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, 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 bluttered persecutor, they commend, I say, these wretches, although never so vile, if they close in with their traditions, to be good churchmen, the honest subjects. while God's people are, as it hath always been, 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. 1. It may be thy great prayer is to say, Our Father which art in heaven, etc. Does 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 thyself in Christ, and canst thou come to God as a member of Him? Or art thou ignorant of these things? And yet darest thou say, Our Father? is not the devil thy father? 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 thine 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 of God, 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, they must also use the same words, Our Father. 2. And dost thou indeed say, Hallowed be thy name with thy heart? Dost thou study by all honest and lawful ways 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 forward to? It is so, if thou be one that can 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, three Wouldst 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 thyself 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 will should be done on earth as it is in heaven, must it not be thy ruin? There is never a rebel in heaven against God, and if he should so deal on earth, must it not whirl 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 teach you 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 anything. especially to call God Father, without some blessed experience when thou comest before God. But I pass this. 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 preparations of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. 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 itself, to run without either fear or wisdom, but when it is the answer of the heart, and that such a heart as is prepared by the Spirit of God, Then it speaks 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. 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 supplications, because it is that which helpeth the heart when it supplicates indeed to do it. and therefore saith Paul, 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. Eighth, 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. 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 of this is that which God complains of, that they draw nigh to Him with their mouth, and honor Him with their lips. But their hearts were far from Him. But chiefly, that they walk after the commandments and traditions of men, As the scope of Matthew 15, 8, 9 doth testify, and barely may I but speak my own experience, and from that tell you the difficulty of praying to God as I out, it is enough to make your poor, blind, carnal men to entertain strange thoughts of me. For, as for my heart when I go to pray, I find it so loath to go to God, and when it is with him, so loath to stay with him. that many times I am forced in my prayers first to beg of God that He would take mine heart and set it on Himself in Christ, and when it is there, that He would keep it there. Nay, many times I know not what to pray for. I am so blind, nor how to pray. I am so ignorant. Only blessed be grace, the Spirit helps our infirmities. Oh, the starting holes that the heart hath in the time of prayer! None knows how many byways the heart hath, and back, lanes, to slip away from the presence of God. How much pride also, if enabled with expressions! How much hypocrisy, if 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. Ninth, the soul that doth rightly pray, it 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, 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 helpeth our infirmities, and maketh intercession for us with sighs and groanings which cannot be uttered. 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 hath are but a lean and shallow representation of the heart, life, eif, eif, 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. 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 at the outside of any duty whatsoever. I doubt this is but little thought on by the most of them that would be looked upon as a praying people. The nearer a man comes in any work that God commands him to the doing of it according to his will, so much the more hard and difficult it is. and the reason is because man as man is not able to do it, but prayer, as aforesaid, 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 well it was not what others writ or said that could make him a praying person, Nothing less than the spirit could do it. 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, yea, a fainting. In the prosecution of the work, prayer is an ordinance of God that must continue with the soul so long as it is on this side 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 if so, then 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, and again tells us that this is one definition of a hypocrite, that either he will not continue in prayer, or else if he do it, It will not be in the power, that is in the spirit of prayer, but in the form for a pretense only. 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 frame 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 thee go, unless thou bless me. So did the rest of the godly, but this could not be without the spirit of prayer, It is through the Spirit that we have access to the Father. The same is a remarkable place in Jude, when he stirreth up 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 thereto, without which he knew they would never be able to do it. Say of he building up your cells on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, as if he had said, Brethren, as eternal life is laid up for the persons that hold out only, so you cannot hold out unless you continue praying in the Spirit. The great cheat that the devil and Antichrist delude the world with all, it is to make them continue in the form of any duty, the form of preaching, of hearing, or praying, etc. These are they that have a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. From such turn away