Prayer (part 4) by John Bunyan

"There is nothing that will press the soul more to seek after God, and to cry for pardon, than an understanding of the willingness that is in the heart of God to save sinners. If a man should see a pearl worth an hundred pounds lie in a ditch, yet if he understood not the value of it, he would lightly pass it by: but if he once get 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 get an understanding of the worth of them, then his heart, nay, the very strength of his soul, runs after them, and he will never leave crying till he have them. The two blind men in the gospel, because they did certainly know 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)." [ibid, pg. 38]

Prayer (part 3) by John Bunyan

"Christ tells us that men ought always to pray, and not to faint (Luke 18:1). And again he 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 pretence only (Job 27:10; Matt. 23:14). It is the easiest thing of a hundred to fall from the power to the form, but it the hardest thing of many to keep in 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 of sabaoth." (ibid. pg. 34)

Prayer (part 2) by John Bunyan - 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 has promised, or according to His word, for the good of the church, with submission in faith to the will of God." (ibid. pg.13)

Prayer (part 1) by John Bunyan

John Bunyan (1628-1688). Author of the most famous Christian allegory The Pilgrim's Progress From this World to that which is to Come and other classics like Holy War and a host of other great reads. I will be highlighting good stuff from Bunyan's works on Prayer. I am using the Puritan Paperbacks series from the Banner of Truth Trust publishers, reprinted in 1995, simply entitled: Prayer. This single book is a combination of two of Bunyan's works (as noted in the forward): A Discourse Touching Prayer (1622) and The Saint's Privilege and Profit; or The Throne of Grace (1692).

"...I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also...." (1 Cor. 14:15)

"Prayer is an ordinance of God 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. It is also so prevalent an action that it gets from God, both for the person that prays, 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." (Section 1Praying in the Spirit, ii)

Christian Knowledge (part 4) by Jonathan Edwards

The usefulness and necessity of the knowledge of divine truths

"There is no other way by which any means of grace whatsoever can be of any benefit, but by knowledge. All teaching is in vain, without learning. Therefore the preaching of the Gospel would be wholly to no purpose, if it conveyed no knowledge to the mind." (ibid, pg. 14)

Christian Knowledge (part 3) by Jonathan Edwards

What kind of knowledge in divinity, is intended in the doctrine.

"There are two kinds of knowledge of divine truth, viz. speculative and practical, or in other terms, natural and spiritual. The former remains only in the head. No other faculty but the understanding is concerned in it. It consists in having a natural or rational knowledge of the things of religion, or such a knowledge as is to be obtained by the natural exercise of our own faculties, without any special illumination of the Spirit of God. The latter rests not entirely in the head, or in the speculative ideas of things; but the heart is concerned in it: it principally consists in the sense of the heart. The mere intellect, without the will or the inclination, is not the seat of it. And it may not only be called seeing, but feeling or tasting. Thus there is a difference between having a right speculative notion of the doctrines contained in the word of God, and having a due sense of them in the heart. In the former consists the speculative or natural knowledge, in the latter consists the spiritual or practical knowledge of them.

Neither of these is intended in the doctrine exclusively of the other: but it is intended that we should seek the former in order to the latter. The latter, or the spiritual and practical, is of the greatest importance; for speculative without a spiritual knowledge is to no purpose, but to make our condemnation the greater. Yet speculative knowledge is also of infinite importance in this respect, that without it we can have no spiritual or practical knowledge." (Ibid, pg.13)

Christian Knowledge (part 2) by Johnathan Edwards

"Indeed there is what is called natural religion. There are many truths concerning God, and our duty to him, which are evident by the light of nature. But Christian divinity, properly so called, is not evident by the light of nature; it depends on revelation...Divinity is commonly defined, the doctrine of living to God; and by some who seem to be more accurate, the doctrine of living to God by Christ." ("Jonathan Edwards On Knowing Christ." Banner of Truth (c) 1997, pg. 12)