Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	believe_v	ghost_n	holy_a	1,385	5	5.2286	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63653	An apology for authorized and set forms of litvrgie against the pretence of the spirit 1. for ex tempore prayer : 2. formes of private composition.	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.	1649 (1649)	Wing T289; ESTC R7631	60,949	100

ars and sciences and from whatsoever else God and good Lawes provoke us to by proposition of rewards But if Yea as most certainly God will best crowne the best endeavours then the spirit of prayer is greatest in him who supposing the like capacities and opportunities studies hardest reads most practises most religiously deliberates most prudently and then by how much want of meanes is worse then the use of meanes by so much ex tempore prayers are worse then deliberate and studied Excellent therefore is the Counsell of Saint Peter 1. Epist. Ch. 4. v. 11. If any man speake let him speake as the Oracles of God not lightly then and inconsideratly If any man minister let him doe it as of the ability which God giveth great reason then to put all his abilities and faculties to it and whether of the two does most likely doe that he that takes paines and considers and discusses and so approves and practises a forme or he that never considers what he saies till he saies it needs not much deliberation to passe a sentence Onely me thinks it is most unreasonable that we should be bound to prepare our selves with due requisites to hear what they shall speak in publique and that they should not prepare what to speak as if to speak were of easier or of lesse consideration than to heare what is spoken or if they doe prepare what to speak to the people it were also very fit they prepar'd their prayers and considered before hand of the fitnesse of the Offertory they present to God Lastly Did not the Pen-men of the Scripture write sect. 32 the Epistles and Gospels respectively all by the Spirit Most certainly holy Men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost saith Saint Peter And certainly they were moved by a more immediate motion and a motion neerer to an Enthusiasme then now adaies in the gift and spirit of Prayer And yet in the midst of those great assistances and motions they did use study art industry and humane abilities This is more than probable in the different stiles of the severall Bookes some being of admirable art others lower and plaine The words were their owne at least sometimes not the Holy Ghosts And if Origen Saint Hierome and especially the Greek Fathers Scholiasts and Grammarians were not deceived by false Copies but that they truly did observe sometimes to be impropriety of expression in the language sometimes not true Greek who will think those errours or imperfections in Grammar were in respect of the words I say precisely immediate inspirations and dictates of the Holy Ghost and not rather their owne productions of industry and humanity But clearly some of their words were the words of Aratus some of Epimenides some of Menander some of S. Paul This speake I not the Lord Some were the words of Moses even all that part of the Leviticall Law which concerned divorces and concerning which our blessed Saviour affirmes that Moses permitted it because of the hardnesse of their hearts but from the beginning it was not so and divers others of the same nature collected and observed to this purpose by a Origen b S. Basil c Saint Ambrose and particularly that promise which S. Paul made of calling upon the Corinthians as he passed into Macedonia which certainly in all reason is to be presumed to have been spoken humanitùs not by immediate inspiration and infusion because S. Paul was so hindred that he could not be as good as his word and yet the Holy Ghost could have foreseen it and might better have excused it if Saint Paul had laid it upon his score but he did not and it is reasonable enough to believe there was no cause he should and yet because the Holy Ghost renewed their memory improved their understanding supplied to some their want of humane learning and so assisted them that they should not commit an errour in fact or opinion neither in the narrative nor dogmaticall parts therefore they writ by the Spirit Since then we cannot pretend upon any grounds of probability to an inspiration so immediate as theirs and yet their assistances which they had from the Spirit did not exclude humane arts and industry but that the ablest Scholar did write the best much rather is this true in the gifts and assistances we receive and particularly in the gift of Prayer it is not an ex tempore and an inspired faculty but the faculties of nature and the abilities of art and industry are improv'd and ennobled by the supervening assistances of the Spirit And if these who pray ex tempore say that the assistance they receive from the Spirit is the inspiration of words and powers without the operations of art and naturall abilities and humane industry then besides that it is more then the Pen men of Scripture sometime had because they needed no extraordinary assistances to what they could of themselves doe upon the stock of other abilities besides this I say it must follow that such Prayers so inspired if they were committed to writing would prove as good Canonicall Scripture as any is in Saint Paul's Epistles the impudence of which pretension is sufficient to prove the extreme vanity of the challenge The summe is this Whatsoever this gift is or this sect. 33 spirit of prayer it is to be acquired by humane industry by learning of the Scriptures by reading by conference and by whatsoever else faculties are improved and habits enlarged Gods Spirit hath done his worke sufficiently this way and he loves not either in nature or grace which are his two great sanctions to multiply miracles when there is no need And now let us take a man that pretends he hath the sect. 34 gift of Prayer and loves to pray ex tempore I suppose his thoughts go a little before his tongue I demand then Whether cannot this man when it is once come into his head hold his tongue and write downe what he hath conceived If his first conceptions were of God and Gods Spirit then they are so still even when they are written Or is the Spirit departed from him upon the sight of a Pen and Inkhorne It did use to be otherwise among the old and new Prophets whether they were Prophets of prediction or of ordinary ministery But if his conception may be written and being written is still a production of the Spirit then it followes that set forms of prayer deliberate and described may as well be a praying with the Spirit as sudden formes and ex tempore out-lets Now the case being thus put I would faine know what sect. 35 the difference is between deliberate and ex tempore Prayers save onely that in these there is lesse consideration and prudence for that the other are at least as much as these the productions of the Spirit is evident in the very case put in this Argument and whether to consider and to weigh them be any

capable of improvement and an obligation to labour and that the effect of having the gift of prayer depends upon the mutuall concourse that is upon God blessing our powers and our endeavours And if this way the Spirit performes his promise sufficiently and does all that we need and all that he ties himself to he that will multiply his hopes farther then what is sufficient or what is promised may possibly deceive himself but never deceive God and make him multiply and continue miracles to justifie his phansie Better it is to follow the Scriptures for our guide as in sect. 26 all things else so in this particular Ephes. 6. 17 18. Take the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God Praying alwaies with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit The word of God is the sword of the Spirit praying in the Spirit is one way of using it indeed the onely way that he here specifies Praying in the Spirit then being the using of this Sword and this Sword being the word of God it follows evidently that praying in the spirit is praying in or according to the word of God that is in the directions rules and expresses of the Word of God that is of the holy Scriptures For we have many infirmities and we need the spirit to help as doubting coldnesse wearinesse disrelish of heavenly things indifferency and these are enough to interpret the place quoted in the Objection without tying him to make words for us to no great religious purposes when God hath done that for us in other manner then what we dreame of So that in effect praying in the Holy Ghost or with the sect. 27 spirit is nothing but prayer for such things and in such manner which God by his Spirit hath taught us in holy Scripture Holy Prayers spirituall songs so the Apostle calls one part of prayer viz. Eucharisticall or thanksgiving that is Prayers or Songs which are spirituall in materiâ And if they be called spirituall for the Efficient cause too the Holy Ghost being the Authour of them it comes all to one for therefore he is the cause and giver of them because he hath in his word revealed what things we are to pray for there also hath taught us the manner And this I plainly prove from the words of sect. 28 Saint Paul before quoted The Spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought In this we are infirme that we know not our owne needs nor our owne advantages when the Holy Ghost hath taught us what to aske and to aske that as we ought then he hath healed our infirmities and our ignorances in the matter and the manner then we know what to pray for as we ought then we have the grace of Prayer and the Spirit of supplication And therefore in the instance before mentioned concerning spirituall songs when the Apostle had twice enjoyn'd the use of them in order to Prayer and Preaching to instruction and to Eucharist and those to be done by the aide of Christ and Christs spirit What in * one place he calls being filled with the Spirit In the other he calls * the dwelling of the word of Christ in us richly plainly intimating to us that when we are mighty in the Scriptures full of the word of Christ then we are filled with the Spirit because the Spirit is the great Dictatour of them to us and the Remembrancer and when by such helps of Scripture we sing Hymnes to Gods honour and our mutuall comfort then we sing and give thanks in the spirit And this is evident if you consult the places and compare them And that this is for this reason called a gift and grace sect. 29 or issue of the Spirit is so evident and notorious that the speaking of an ordinary revealed truth is called in Scripture a speaking by the Spirit 1 Cor. 12. 8. No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost For though the world could not acknowledge Jesus for the Lord without a revelation yet now that we are taught this truth by Scripture and by the preaching of the Apostles to which they were enabled by the Holy Ghost we need no revelation or Enthusiasme to confesse this truth which we are taught in our Creeds and Catechismes and this light sprang first from the immission of a ray from Gods Spirit we must for ever acknowledge him the fountaine of our light Though we coole our thirst at the mouth of the river yet we owe for our draughts to the springs and fountains from whence the waters first came though derived to us by the succession of a long current If the Holy Ghost supplies us with materials and fundamentals for our building it is then enough to denominate the whole edifice to be of him although the labour and the workmanship be ours upon another stock And this is it which the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 2. 13. Which things also we speake not in the words which mans wisdome teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth comparing spirituall things with spirituall The Holy Ghost teaches yet it is upon our co-operation our study and endeavour while we compare spirituall things with spirituall the Holy is said to teach us because these spirituals were of his suffestion and revelation For it is a rule of the Schoole and there is much sect. 30 reason in it Habitus infusi infunduntur per modum acquisitorum whatsoever is infused into us is in the same manner infused as other things are acquired that is step by step by humane meanes and co-operation and grace does not give us new faculties and create another nature but meliorates and improves our owne And therefore what the Greeks called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} habits the Christians used to call {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} gifts because we derive assistances from above to heighten the habits and facilitate the actions in order to a more noble and supernaturall end And what Saint Paul said in the Resurrection is also true in this Question That is not first which is spirituall but that which is naturall and then that which is spirituall The graces and gifts of the Spirit are postnate and are additions to art and nature God directs our counsels opens our understandings regulates our will orders our affections supplies us with objects and arguments and opportunities and revelations in scriptis and then most when we most imploy our owne endeavours God loving to blesse all the meanes and instruments of his service whether they be natural or acquisite So that now I demand Whether since the expiration sect. 31 of the age of miracles Gods spirit does not most assist us when we most endeavour and most use the meanes He that saies No discourages all men from reading the Scriptures from industry from meditation from conference from humane