Prayer (Puritan Paperbacks)

Even in today's secular world, scholars continue to be fascinated by the influences behind John Bunyan's famous allegories, The Pilgrim's 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-centered, 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.

These brief but invaluable expositions provide a classic study of prayer by one of the most remarkable Christians of all time.

About the Author

John Bunyan (1628–88) the son of Thomas Bunyan and Margaret Bentley. He followed his father into the tinker’s trade but rebelled against God and ‘had but few equals, both for cursing, swearing, lying, and blaspheming the holy name of God’. As a teenager, he joined Cromwell’s New Model Army, but continued his rebellious ways. His life was saved on one occasion when a fellow-soldier took his place at the siege of Leicester, and ‘as he stood sentinel he was shot in the head with a musket bullet and died’.

...In the following years, Bunyan began publishing books and became established as a reputable Puritan writer, but around this time, his first wife died. He remarried in 1659, a godly young woman named Elizabeth, who was to be a staunch advocate for her husband during his imprisonments – for in 1660 Bunyan was arrested for preaching without official permission from King Charles II; he was to spend the next 12½ years in Bedford County Gaol.

Although a time of much suffering, Bunyan’s years in prison were productive, for he wrote extensively, with only the Bible and Foxe’s Book of Martyrs beside him, publishing such titles as Christian Behaviour, The Holy City and A Defence of the Doctrine of Justification. Of particular significance for his life-story was Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, which chronicled his life up to the time of his imprisonment.

He was eventually released in 1672, and took up his pastorate in Bedford, having been appointed by the congregation the preceding January. After some fruitful years of ministry, in March of 1675 Bunyan was again imprisoned for preaching publicly without a license. It was during this imprisonment that he began the first part of his most famous book, The Pilgrim’s Progress, which was to sell more than 100,000 copies in its first ten years in print.

Released in 1677, Bunyan spent the last ten years of his life ministering to his congregation and writing, including – Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ (1678), The Life and Death of Mr. Badman (1680), The Holy War (1682), and the second part of The Pilgrim’s Progress (1685). He published ten more books in the last three years of his life, amongst them The Jerusalem Sinner Saved and The Acceptable Sacrifice.