Works of John Bunyan: A DISCOURSE TOUCHING PRAYER. 635

 

WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT, AND WITH THE UNDERSTANDING.

Third. The understanding is that being spiritually enlightened is the way, as aforesaid, discovered, through which the soul should come unto God, which gives excellent encouragement unto it. It is else with a poor soul, as with one who hath a work to do, and if it be not done, the danger is great; if it be done, so is the advantage. But he knows not how to begin, nor how to proceed; and so, through discouragement, lets all alone, and runs the hazard.

Fourth. The enlightened understanding sees largeness enough in the promises to encourage it to pray, which still adds strength to strength. When men promise such and such things to all who will come to them, it is great encouragement to those who know what promises are made to come and ask for them.

Fifth. The understanding being enlightened, way is made for the soul to come to God with suitable arguments, sometimes in a way of expostulation, as Jacob (Gen 32:9). Sometimes in way of supplication, yet not in a verbal way only, but even from the heart there is forced by the Spirit, through the understanding, such effectual arguments as moveth the heart of God. When Ephraim gets a right understanding of his own unseemly carriages towards the Lord, then he begins to bemoan himself (Jer 31:18-20). And in bemoaning of himself, he used such arguments with the Lord, that it affects his heart, draws out forgiveness, and makes Ephraim pleasant in his eyes through Jesus Christ our Lord: "I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus," saith God, "Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised; as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented, and after that I was instructed," or had a right understanding of myself, "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 child?

 Since I spake against 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, it is required to pray with the Spirit, so it is also necessary to pray with understanding. 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 exact words in their begging; the one saith he is nearly starved, so doth the other: but yet the man that is indeed the poor, lame, or maimed person, he speaks with more sense, 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 make him speak more in a spirit of lamentation than the other, and he shall be pitied sooner than the other, by all those with the least dram of natural affection or pity.

Just thus it is with God: there are some who out of custom and formality go and pray; there are others who go in the bitterness of their spirits: the one he prays 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 to him that is poor," of a humble and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word" (Isa 66:2). Sixth. An understanding, well-enlightened, is also of admirable use 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 sense 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. As he feels the pain, he does not need to be trained to cry. Even so, he that hath his understanding opened by the Spirit needs not be taught of other men's prayers, as he cannot pray without them. The present sense, feeling, and pressure that lieth upon his spirit, provokes him to groan his request unto the Lord. When David had the pains of hell catching hold on him, and the sorrows of hell compassing him about, he needs not a bishop in a surplice to teach him to say, "O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul" (Psa 116:3, 4). Or to look into a book, to teach him in a form to pour out his heart before God. In their pain and sickness, it is the nature of the heart of sick men to vent itself for ease, by dolorous groans and complainings to those who stand by. Thus it was with David, in Psalm 38:1-12. And thus, blessed be the Lord; it is with them that they are endued by the grace of God.

Works of John Bunyan: A DISCOURSE TOUCHING PRAYER. 634

 

WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT, AND WITH THE UNDERSTANDING.

THIRD. And now to the next thing, what it is to pray with the Spirit and with understanding. For the apostle puts a clear distinction between praying with the Spirit, and praying with the Spirit and understanding: therefore when he saith, "he will pray with the Spirit," he adds, "and I will pray with the understanding ALSO." This distinction was occasioned through the Corinthians not observing that it was their duty to do what they did to the edification of themselves and others, too, whereas they did it for their own commendation. So I judge: for many of them having extraordinary gifts, as to speak with divers tongues, &c., therefore they were more for those mighty gifts than they were for the edifying of their brethren; which was the cause that Paul wrote this chapter to them, to let them understand, that though extraordinary gifts were excellent, yet to do what they did to the edification of the church was more remarkable. For, saith the apostle, "if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding," and also the understanding of others, "is unfruitful" (I Cor 14:3, 4, 12, 19, 24, 25. Read the scope of the whole chapter). Therefore, "I will pray with the Spirit and with the understanding also."

It is expedient then that the understanding should be occupied in prayer, as well as the heart and mouth: "I will pray with the Spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also." That which is done with understanding, is done more effectually, sensibly, and heartily, as I shall show farther anon, than that which is done without it; which made the apostle pray for the Colossians, that God would fill them "with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding" (Col 1:9). And for the Ephesians, that God would give unto them "the spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of him" (Eph 1:17). And so for the Philippians, that God would make them abound "in knowledge, and in all judgment" (Phil 1:9). A suitable understanding is good in everything a man undertakes, either civil or spiritual; and therefore it must be desired by all them that would be a praying people. In speaking to this, I shall show you what it is to pray with understanding.

Understanding is to be taken both for speaking in our mother tongue and experimentally. I pass the first and treat only the second.

For the right prayers to be made, there should be a good or spiritual understanding in all who pray to God.

First, to pray with understanding is to pray as instructed by the Spirit in the knowledge of the want of those things the soul is to pray for. Though a man be in never so much need of pardon of sin, and deliverance from wrath to come, yet if he understand not this, he will either not desire them at all, or else be so cold and lukewarm in his desires after them, that God will even loathe his frame of spirit in asking for them. Thus it was with the church of the Laodiceans; they wanted knowledge or spiritual understanding; they knew not that they were poor, wretched, blind, and naked. The cause whereof made them, and all their services, so loathsome to Christ, that he threatens to spew them out of his mouth (Rev 3:16, 17). Men without understanding may say the exact words in prayer as others do, but if there is an understanding in one and none in the other, there is a mighty difference in speaking the exact words! The one speaking from a spiritual knowledge of those things that he desires, and the other words it only, and there is all.

Second. Spiritual understanding espieth in the heart of God a readiness and willingness to give those things to the soul that it needs. David by this could guess at the very thoughts of God towards him (Psa 40:5). And thus it was with the woman of Canaan; she did by faith and a right understanding discern, beyond all the rough carriage of Christ, tenderness and willingness in his heart to save, which caused her to be vehement and earnest, yea, restless, until she did enjoy the mercy she needed (Matt 15:22-28).

And understanding of the willingness that is in the heart of God to save sinners, there is nothing that will press the soul more to seek after God, and to cry for pardon, than it. If a man should see a pearl worth a hundred pounds lying in a ditch, yet if he understood not the value of it, he would lightly pass it by; but if he once gets the knowledge of it, he would venture up to the neck for it. So it is with souls concerning the things of God: if a man once understands their worth, then his heart, nay, the very strength of his soul, runs after them, and he will never leave crying till he has them. The two blind men in the gospel certainly knew that Jesus, who was going by them, was both able and willing to heal such infirmities as they were afflicted with; therefore, they cried, and the more they were rebuked, the more they cried (Matt 20:29-31).