Barry, James. The Spirit of Prayer the Infallible Character of a Heaven-Born Soul; or, A Serious and Impartial Discourse on Right Prayer. London: E. Huntington, 1814. Reprint Edition. [8740]
Disbound, 22 cm (8 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches), 125 clean pp. Good. Paperback.
Title continues: In the Several Questions following: I. Who is that man whom God will vouchsafe in prayer? II. What that prayer is that God will accept as pleasing to him? III. Whether it be the duty of an unconverted man to pray to God, seeing all such a man doth is sin? IV. Whether it be the duty of an awakened sinner to use a set form of prayer? V. Whether the gift of prayer doth prove the man in a regenerate state? VI. What is the spirit of prayer which proves a man to be regenerate? VII. The believer's encouragement to the duty of prayer. VIII. Answers to the most material objections made by the believer against himself.
This pamphlet was first published in 1702.
The quotations in the following are from William Huntington's Introduction to a different pamphlet that he prepared for reprinting.
Rev. James Barry (1641-1719) b. in Ireland; d. in London. His birth coincided with a great persecution of Protestants, and he later said that his nurse threw him out into the snow in fear she should lose her life for nursing a heretic's child. "He was called to the public ministry in Dublin, where he laboured with great success, which made him the butt of popish rage" and 100 pounds was offered for his capture, dead or alive. Disguised, he fled to England and became pastor of a church near Stepney. In taking this congregation he left the established church and became an independent. "[James Barry] was the son of a protestant bishop, the nephew of a noble lord, and was training up for the ministry, and expected to cut no mean figure in the same establishment of which his father was a prelate; but God came with an army of terrors, and with a few arrows from his quiver, bent him to his bow, and made him a son of consolation to the chosen fraternity of Jesus Christ." He had great physical afflictions for the last twenty years of his life, which incapacitated him for regular ministerial duties.
"He wrote the following books: Election before Time, Two Sermons on the Apple Tree...The Spirit of Prayer, The Falseness and Unscripturalness of Anabaptism, A Cordial for Sin-despairing Souls....I cannot learn that Dr. Calamy, or any other writer of the History of the Puritans, take any notice of him, which is easily accounted for; God having stript him of all confidence in the flesh, and wiped him out of the cathedral, his testimony could never gain him any credit among the tories, papists, or rotten arminians, whose craft is always in danger from such witnesses; therefore, when they become historians, they are sure to bury the names of such men, and their testimonies, in silence, lest the devil's interest should fall to the ground." - William Huntington, The Coalheaver's Cousin & A Few Fragments of the Life and Death of the Rev. James Barry, intended as a Supplement to the Coalheaver's Cousin.
William Huntington (1744-1813), a Calvinistic Methodist preacher. “He passed his early life in menial service and dissipation, but after conversion he entered the ministry, and became a popular preacher in London. On his books he took the title S.S., or Sinner Saved.” – M’Clintock & Strong.
“ I cannot get a D.D. for the want of cash, neither can I get at M.A. for want of learning; therefore I am compelled to fly for refuge to S.S., by which I mean Sinner Saved.” – Huntington.
