What follows is the introduction and the first part of John Bunyan's Discourse Touching Prayer.
"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. 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---Psalm 66:17,18
Part of the exercise of prayer is sincerity, without which God looks not
upon it as prayer in a good sense---Psalm 16:1-4. Then "ye shall seek me and
find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart"---Jeremiah
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"---Proverbs
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"---Jeremiah 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.
6:14:16 PM 
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