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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	ghost_n	holy_a	write_v	2,920	5	5.5618	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54945	A discourse of prayer wherein this great duty is stated, so as to oppose some principles and practices of Papists and fanaticks; as they are contrary to the publick forms of the Church of England, established by her ecclesiastical canons, and confirmed by acts of Parliament. By Thomas Pittis, D.D. one of His Majesties chaplains in ordinary. Wherefore, that way and profession in religion, which gives the best directions for it, (viz. prayer) with the most effectual motives to it, and most aboundeth in its observance, hath therein the advantage of all others. Dr. Owen in his preface to his late discourse of the work of the Holy SPirit in prayer, &c.	Pittis, Thomas, 1636-1687.	1683 (1683)	Wing P2314; ESTC R220541	149,431	404

part of those who being otherwise minded have separated from it And it may give some rebuke to the bold confidence of such men as are not so hardned that they think there is no need of repentance or that the shame which attends it will be worse to them than the want of the thing it self and check the rude presumption of those who to exalt themselves assume too large a familiarity with their Maker And now I shall trouble the Reader with very little more being conscious to my self how much I have already tired any that has had patience to read this Discourse quite through Yet because extravagant and very lofty men pretend to inspiration in such matters as these as if the holy Spirit dictated matter and words to all Saints when they thus pray extempore If it be true I acknowledge my self to have blasphemed in this Discourse But if it be false as I verily believe it is then they themselves have blasphemed the Holy Spirit of God And to make a judgement in this case I shall only intreat treat the impartial Reader who I suppose is come thus far with me to our journeys end 1. to consider if what I have said be argumentative to convince him then the blasphemy remains in the presumption of our Adversaries on their own side 2. If their prayers were thus inspired they would be equally Canonical with the Scriptures For what made the Scriptures a Rule of life but because they were given by inspiration from God 2 Tim. 3.16 And Saint Peter informs us that holy men of God spake in old time as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.21 And though men have been at sundry times and in divers manners spoken unto in the Old and New Testament yet it was God who delivered his messages unto men Heb. 1.1 And because he inspired the Writers of the Old Testament and the New to a delivery of what their words and writings have presented to the world therefore we receive them as the Oracles of God and endeavour to manage our lives by them God Almighty has no where declared what Books are Scripture and what not But this we learn by such arguments as convince us that the men that wrote them were inspired by the Holy Ghost Now could these mens prayers of which we now discourse be proved to be dictated by the Holy Ghost they would be equally valid with the Scriptures For as in the proof of the truth of the holy Scriptures if the Historical part be proved to be true the Doctrines that are included in the History will by the same evidence appear true also So if we allow the confessions petititions and thanksgivings of these persons to be inspired the propositions on which they are founded and all the Doctrines insinuated in them will be admitted as an effect of the inspiration also and then what inspired Controversies should we have Nay there would not only be additions to the Sacred Canon which St. John is quoted by themselves to have prohibited And Doctrines also and prayers too that have no foundation in that Sacred Writ which has been derived as a compleat rule for sundry Ages But we must receive such large Appendixes that they would not only surmount all Popish traditions though they should superadd those of the Jews But it might be said in the words of the Evangelist without any or but a little Hyperbole That if they were written the world it self could not contain the Books because the prayers of these are so various and long And beside this it would level the Prophets our Saviours and his Apostles prayers to the rude and indigested and extravagant conceptions which our natural Enthusiasts utter in those which all men call extempore prayers 3. If these men had that extraordinary assistance from the Spirit of God or such an inspiration to which so bold a pretence is made Then the Spirit of God must be rendered inconsistent with it self Since it would frame tedious and long prayers contrary to that plain fulness and convenient brevity which we find in those that are recorded in Sacred Writ as delivered by the Prophets or Apostles or even our Saviour himself And then the examples mentioned in the Book of God will seem to be changed by extraordinary motions from his own Spirit Lastly Consider that notwithstanding all our extempore mens pretensions their prayers cannot be the product of inspiration dictating to the speaker matter and words Because this sudden deceiving Knack is plainly discoverable by those that know and can use it also as well as themselves to be the effect of quickness of invention in one who remembers Scripture Phrases who has a voluble and ready tongue and 't is gained only by frequent use together with little arts in the composure At several times 't is done by changing the places of expressions or altering the method so that it cannot easily be observed by the vulgar And all is but like the exercise of a Military Company of men whole front or reer ranks or files are quickly altered by one or few words of Command And this great gift as 't is called by some advances or grows weak according to the increase or decay of natural abilities the abatement of knowledge or the sprightlyness and activity of mens parts the strength of memory or the infirmity of it the volubility of speech or the hesitations and stops in it and the practice or disuse of this extempore way c. To which we may add boldness and bashfulness fear and a good assurance and the like Hence a Right Reverend Prelate not long since deceased when before he arrived at this honour though he was alwaies a very great man he was pleased to write concerning this gift of prayer was willing to subject it to the rules of Art that so the Holy Spirit of God in all its infusions into good men might be supposed only to spiritualize their judgments and affections that they might be both sanctified and raised which may as well be in forms of devotion as in conceived and extempore prayers And now I have done with all that I intend at present to write on this Subject But if any Reader shall find an objection which is neither in this Discourse obviated in the state nor already answered in particular instances I must then refer him to several Cases of Conscience published by sundry Ministers of London very lately exhibited to the World and more yet that are to come forth and when they receive a full answer I may perhaps be convinced by it Although the most that I have yet seen seem to me to have prickles in them that for their Brethren as they call them to attempt a reply will render them like things gnawing thistles Yet men may adventure at what they please and I 'll assure them it shall be all one to me whether Don Quixot encounters a flock of Sheep or a Wind-mill The Conclusion THE Learned Vossius

he has a brow of brass may say to those who understand not or else never look'd into their allowed Breviary or their common and established Mass-Book that we charge them with what they are not guilty of I must instance in a few particulars in which prayers are made to glorified creatures and to some inanimate things too in the publick Offices of the Roman Church since some of the professors of that Religion are so bold and apparently wicked that to serve a turn they will affirm 't is dark in the face of the Sun and light even in the midst of darkness and nothing almost according to their principles of equivocation and mental reservation if they take also the Doctrine of probable opinions in to their assistance can be propounded but they may either affirm or deny as it makes for the advantage of their Church Nay they are bound according to the determination of Bellarmin to say that Vertue is Vice or Vice Vertue if the Pope so concludes either But yet my present charge is so apparently true that all must own it to any that have knowledge of their publick Service whatever they may at any time reply to the ignorant that receive the charge upon the authority of others For in their Commune Apostolorum there is an Hymn consisting both of prayer and praise in which we find these expressions Vos saecli justi judices c. speaking to the Apostles they say O ye just Judges and Lights of the world we beseech you with the desires of our hearts to hear the prayers of your supplicants ye that shut the heavens with a word and unlock them again loose us we pray you from all our sins by your command you to whose authority is subject both the health and misery of all c. In their Office to the Blessed Virgin you have these expressions O Mary Mother of Grace Mother of Mercy protect us from the enemy and receive us at the hour of death And let the Virgin Mary together with her off-spring bestow her blessing upon us and the like I shall instance yet in one more although many know I might translate a multitude of the same nature into this Discourse and that shall be in the service relating to one who was the Founder of one of the most pernicious Sects that ever infested the Christian world in comparison to many of whom the Gnosticks were Saints the Goths and Vandals were of a Religious Order the Great Turk becomes a Christian and the wild Fanatick is temperate and mild I mean Ignatius Loyola who founded the first Society of the Jesuits to perplex and confound the Councils of Princes and carry on mischievous designs against us as well by those who have been at the top as those that remain at the bottom of the Ladder In the Service at the Celebration of his Festival there is this Prayer or Collect on the one and thirtieth day of July O God! who for the greater propagation of thy glory hast strengthened thy Church militant properly so indeed under the command of a Jesuit with a new aid by blessed Ignatius grant that we who strive or fight on earth by the imitation and help of him may deserve with him to be crowned in the heavens And if they all deserve the same lot may they together possess the same place for fear they should be as troublesome to us in the other world as they have been in this But I will no longer employ my self in translating their prayers Many instances of their petitions to Saints and Angels have been exposed to view in most Books that have been by Protestants written against them I heartily wish that those who use such prayers understood them better because they would then more easily see how poyson is wrap'd in gilded pills Why should I relate the Attributes which the Church of Rome gives to the Cross of Christ as great as to him who suffered on it and yet have no method to shift their blasphemy but by the same way in which they translate their prayers and praises too from the Cross to him who died upon it And though I love not to pursue a Lion to his den for fear that being weary he may be hungry too and take some opportunity to rend and devour Yet it would be a strange expression from a Protestants mouth that which must needs grate upon the ears of all the devout worshippers of God and such as believe that their prayers are heard only through the merits and intercession of Christ Sancta Crux or a pro nobis Holy Cross pray for us And Ave Crux spes unica Hail Cross our only hope would be words that to us would not only seem ridiculous but abominable and if at all considered to any that hope in the mercy of God through him who suffer'd and dyed upon the Cross But notwithstanding all these are things as common with the Papists as whining and another sort of nonsence are among some Separatists that pretend to set themselves at the greatest distance from them Nay any may see if they have skill and leisure to peruse it in an office of or relating to the Holy Cross Printed at Paris 1664. by publick authority such strange expressions as these are After it has begun with a Prayer to God to free men from their enemies by the Sign of the Cross which if we should make a thousand times upon our selves we should hardly be quit from those that are so devout to it we find afterwards these expressions O Crux venerabilis c. I know not how they may edifie in Latin but I am sure that they sound harsh in English and good or bad thus they run O venerable Cross who hast brought salvation to us miserable with what praises shall I extoll thee because thou hast prepared heavenly life for us And in the close of another Hymn the style tho' a new one is in these words O victory of the Cross and admirable sign make us to triumph in the Celestial Court or the Court of Heaven But this is an ungrateful task to me thus to transcribe the most abominable Popish Prayers and as unpleasant as it can be to Protestants to read it And therefore I shall not fill these Papers with those particular addresses which many of them make to individual Saints as they account them who are departed this life for particular things which they suppose to be in the power of them singly to bestow whilst they appropriate one faculty to one and a second to another whilst they constitute a first to be a Patron to their Horses another to their Sheep a third to their Hoggs and another to keep off some Disease from themselves or at least to cure it And so they make them Grooms or Farriers or Swiniards or Shepherds or Physicians or Mountebanks or what they please For I am weary of raking in such a dunghill in which there is neither Barley-corn nor Jewel