Prayer - Puritan Paperbacks (Bunyan)

Description

Even in today’s secular world, scholars continue to be fascinated by the influences behind John Bunyan’s famous allegories, The Pilgrims Progress and The Holy War. In the pages of this book we discover part of the real secret of Bunyan’s greatness. He was a man whose life was profoundly God-centred, and consequently he was a man of prayer.

Praying in the Spirit, written in 1662 in Bedford gaol (where Bunyan was later to have his immortal dream) expounds what he calls ‘the very heart of prayer.’ In clear and simple terms he defines what it means to pray with the spirit and with the understanding, deals with difficulties in prayer, and shows how ‘the Christian can open his heart to God as a friend.’

In The Throne of Grace, Bunyan explains how to approach God’s throne in prayer, and gives a rich, practical exposition of the blessings God’s people receive from the high priestly ministry of Jesus Christ.

Contents

Publisher’s Foreword

PART I: Praying in the Spirit

1. What True Prayer Is
2. What It Is to Pray with the Spirit
3. What It Is to Pray with the Spirit and with the Understanding
4. Queries and Objections Answered
5. Use and Application
6. The Conclusion

PART II: The Throne of Grace

1. God Has More Thrones than One
2. The Godly Can Distinguish One Throne from Another

i. There is a throne of grace
- Import of the term ‘grace’
- What is to be inferred from the term, ‘throne of grace’?
- What this throne of grace is
- Where the throne of grace is erected
- Why the law and the mercy-seat are so near together
ii. How the godly distinguish the throne of grace from other thrones
iii. The Persons Intended by the Exhortation ‘Let Us Come’
- The orderly coming to the throne of grace
iv. How We Are to Approach the Throne of Grace
- What it is to come to the throne of grace without boldness
- None but the godly know the throne of grace
v. Motives for Coming Boldly to the Throne of Grace
- Because we have such an high priest there
- The legal qualifications of Jesus Christ for the office of high priest
- Christ the sacrifice as well as the high priest, and how he offered it
- Christ a willing and an effectual sacrifice
- Christ the altar
- How Christ executes the office of high priest
- How these mysteries are to be learned
- The natural qualifications of Jesus Christ to be our high priest
- Because we are sure to speed
- Saints are like to meet with needy times
- Continual supplies of grace are essential to our welfare
What this should teach us
vi. Conclusion
- Six lessons to be learned from this text

About the Author

Born in 1628 in Elstow, England, John Bunyan did not display a serious love for Christ until after he got married. Then, after a group of women talked to him about Christ, Bunyan was converted by the Lord and was baptized. By 1655, he was preaching. He was imprisoned more than once for preaching without official permission, for about 15 years in total, and he spent much of that time writing. John Bunyan books include his masterpiece, Pilgrim’s Progress, which is widely claimed as the most read book in history, besides the Bible.