Puritan Nuggets of Gold # 65

Prayer

Prayer is the soul's breathing itself into the bosom of its heavenly Father. (Thomas Watson)

Praying is the same to the new creature as crying is to the natural. The child is not learned by art or example to cry, but instructed by nature; it comes into the world crying. Praying is not a lesson got by forms and rules of art, but flowing from principles of new life itself. (William Gurnall)

You can do more than pray, after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed. (John Bunyan)

Prayer is nothing but the promise reversed, or God's Word formed into an argument, and retorted by faith upon God again. (William Gurnall)

I had rather learn what some men really judge about their own justification from their prayers than their writings. (John Owen)

Words are but the body, the garment, the outside of prayer; sighs are nearer the heart work. A dumb beggar getteth an alms at Christ's gates, even by making signs, when his tongue cannot plead for him; and the rather, because he is dumb. Tears have a tongue, and grammar, and language, that our Father knoweth. Babes have no prayer for the breast, but weeping: the mother can read hunger in weeping. (Samuel Rutherford)

Many dumb beggars have been relieved at Christ's gate by making signs. (William Secker)

I had rather stand against the cannons of the wicked than against the prayers of the righteous. (Thomas Lye)

Good prayers never come weeping home. I am sure I shall receive, either what I ask or what I should ask. (Joseph Hall)

The angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer fetched the angel. (Thomas Watson)

Prayer is putting the promises into suit. (John Trapp)

God never denied that soul anything that went as far as heaven to ask it. (John Trapp)

Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer. (John Bunyan)

God may deny your wantonness, but not your wants. (John Flavel)

Pray often; for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge for satan. (John Bunyon)

That which begins not with prayer, seldom winds up with comfort. (John Flavel)