Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	ghost_n	holy_a	spirit_n	3,926	5	5.5026	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95514	Two discourses 1. of baptisme, its institution, and efficacy upon all believers. 2. Of prayer ex tempore, or by pretence of the spirit. / By Jer: Taylor D.D.	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.	1652 (1652)	Wing T414; Thomason E683_15; ESTC R203749	24,698	32

having neither reason promise nor experience of his side For why should the spirit of Prayer be any other than as the gift and spirit of faith as S. Paul calls it 2 Cor. 4.13 acquired by humane meanes using divine aids that is by our endeavours in hearing reading Catechizing desires to obey and all this blessed and promoted by God this produces faith And if the spirit of Prayer be of greater consequence and hath a promise of a speciall prerogative let the first be proved and the second be shewn in any good record and then I will believe it too Numb 16 4. And the parallel of this Argument I the rather urge because I find praying in the holy Ghost joyned with graces which are as much Gods gifts and productions of the spirit as any thing in the world and yet which the Apostle presses upon us as duties and things put into our power and to be improved by our industry and those are faith in which I before instanced and charity Epist Jud. ver 20. But ye beloved building up your selves on your most holy Faith praying in the holy Ghost keep your selves in the love of God All of the same consideration Faith and Prayer and Charity all gifts of the Spirit and yet build up your selves in faith and keep yourselves in love and therefore by a parity of reason improve your selves in the spirit of prayer that is God by his Spirit having supplyed us with matter let our industry and co-operations per modum naturae improve these gifts and build upon this foundation Numb 17 So that in effect praying in the holy Ghost or with the 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 Author 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 and there also hath taught us the manner Numb 18 And this is exactly the Doctrine I plainly gather from the objected words of Saint Paul The spirit helpeth our infirmities How so it followes immediately For we know not what we should pray for as we ought So that therefore he is the Spirit of supplication and prayer because he teaches us what to ask and how to pray so he helps our infirmities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is in the Greek Collaborantem adjuvat It is an ingeminate expression of helping us in our labours together with him Now he that shall say this is not sufficiently done by Gods Spirit in Scripture by Prayers and Psalmes and Hymnes and Spirituall Songs and precepts concerning prayer set down in that holy repository of truth and devotion undervalues that inestimable treasure of the Spirit and if it be sufficiently done there he that will multiply his hopes farther then what is sufficient may possibly deceive himself but never deceive God and make him multiply and continue miracles to justifie his fancy Numb 19 5. Better it is to follow the Scriptures for our guide as in all things else so in this particular Ephes 6.17 18. Take the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God Praying alwayes 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 only 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 followes 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 Numb 20 The summe is this Whatsoever this gift is or this 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 work 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 Numb 21 6. So that now I demand Whether or no since the expiration of the Age of Miracles does not Gods Spirit most assist us when we most endeavour and most use the meanes He that sayes No discourages all men from reading the Scriptures from industry from meditation from conference from humane Arts 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 crown the best endeavours then the spirit of Prayer is greatest in him who supposing the like capacities and opportunities studies hardest reads most practices 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 studyed Excellent therefore is the councell of S. Peter 1 Ep. Chap. 4. ver 11. If any man speak let him speak as the Oracles of God not lightly then and inconsiderately 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 form or he that never considers what he sayes till hee sayes it needs not much deliberation to passe a sentence Numb 22 7. Lastly did not the Penmen of the Scripture write 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 nearer to an Enthusiasme then now adayes 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 then probable in the different styles of the severall Books some being of admirable art others lower and plaine The words were their own at least sometimes not the holy Ghosts And if the Fathers and Grammarians were not deceived by false Copies but that they truly did observe sometimes to be propriety of expression in the language sometimes not true Greek who will think those errouts 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 own productions of industry and humanity But clearely some of their words were the words of Aratus some of Epimenides some of Menander some of Saint Paul This speak I not

Consecration of the blessed Sacrament But all of them used the Lords Prayer in the Canon and office of Consecration and other prayers taken from Scripture so Justin Martyr testifies that the Consecration is made per preces verbi Dei by the prayers taken from the Word of God and the whole Canon was short determined and mysterious Numb 40 Who desires to be further satisfied in this particular shall find enough in Walafridus Strabo Aymonius Cassander Flacius Illyricus Josephus Vicecomes and the other Ritualists and in the old offices themselves So that I need not put you in mind of that famous doxology of Gloria Patria c. nor the Trisagion nor any of those memorable hymnes used in the Ancient Church so knownly and frequently that the beginning of them came to bee their name and they were known more by their own words then the Authors inscription Numb 41 At last when some men that thought themselves better gifted would be venturing at conceived formes of their own there was a timely restraint made in the Councell of Milevis in Africa Placuit ut preces quae probatae fuerint in Concilio ab omnibus celebrentur nec aliae omnino dicantur in Ecclesia nisi quae à prudentioribus factae fuerint in Synodo That 's the restraint and prohibition publick prayers must be such as are publickly appointed and prescribed by our Superiours and no private forms of our conceiving must be used in the Church The reason followes Ne forte aliquid contra fidem vel per ignorantiam vel per minus studium sit compositum Lest through ignorance or want of deliberation any thing be spoken in our prayers against faith and good manners The reason is good and they are eare-witnesses of it that hear the variety of prayers before and after Sermons there where the Directory is practised where to speak most modestly not only their private opinions but also humane interests and their own personall concernments and wild fancies born perhaps not two dayes before are made the objects of the peoples hopes of their desires and their prayers and all in the meane time pretend to the holy Spirit Numb 42 I will not now instance in the vaine-glory that is appendant to these ex tempore formes of prayer where the gift of the man is more then the devotion of the man nor will I consider that then his gift is best when his prayer is longest and if he take a complacency in his gift as who is not apt to doe it he will be sure to extend his Prayer till a suspicious and scrupulous man would be apt to say his prayer pressed hard upon that which our blessed Saviour reprehended in the Pharisees who thought to bee heard for their much babling But these things are accidentall to the nature of the thing And therefore though they are too certainly consequent to the person yet I will not be too severe but preserve my selfe on the surer side of charitable construction which truly I desire to keep nor only to their persons whom I much reverence but also to their actions But yet I durst not doe the same thing even for these last reasons though I had no other Numb 43 But it is objected that in set forms of Prayer we restrain and confine the blessed Spirit and in conceived forms when every man is left to his liberty then the Spirit is free unlimited and unconstra ned Numb 44 I answer either their conceived formes I use their own words though indeed the expression is very inartificiall are premeditate and described or they are ex tempore If they be premeditate and described then the Spirit is as much limited in their conceived forms as in the Churches conceived forms For as to this particular it is all one who describes and limits the form whether the Church or a single man does it still the Spirit is in constraint and limit So that in this case they are not angry at set forms of Prayer but that they do not make them And if it be replyed that if a single person composes a set form he may alter it if he please and so his spirit is at liberty I answer so may the Church if she see cause for it and unlesse there be cause the single person will not alter it unlesse he do things unreasonable and without cause So that it will be an unequall and a peevish quarrell to allow of ser forms of prayer made by private persons and not of set forms made by the publick spirit of the Church It is evident that the Spirit is limited in both alike Numb 45 But if by Conceived forms in this objection they meane ex tempore prayers for so they most generally practice it and that in the use of these the liberty of the spirit is best preserved To this I answer that the being ex tempore or premeditate will be wholly impertinent to this Question of limiting the spirit For there may be great liberty in set forms even when there is much variety and there may be great restraint in ex tempore prayers even then when it shall be called unlawfull to use set forms That the spirit is restrained or that it is free in either is accidentall to them both for it may be either free or not free in both as it may happen Numb 46 But the restraint is this that every one is not left to his liberty to pray how he list with premeditation or without it makes not much matter but that he is prescribed unto by the spirit of another But if it be a fault thus to restraine the spirit I would faine know is not the spirit restrained when the whole Congregation shall be confined to the form of this one mans composing or it shall be unlawfull or at least a disgrace and disparagement to use any set forms especially of the Churches composition More plainly thus Numb 47 2. Doth not the Minister confine and restraine the spirit of the Lords People when they are tyed to his form It would sound of more liberty to their spirits that every one might make a prayer of his own and all pray together and not be forced or confined to the Ministers single dictate and private spirit It is true it would breed confusions and therefore they might pray silently till the Sermon began and not for the avoiding one inconvenience runne into a greater and to avoid the disorder of a popular noyse restraine the blessed Spirit for even in this case as well as in the other Where the spirit of God is there must be liberty Numb 48 3. If the spirit must be at liberty who shall assure us this liberty must be in forms of prayer And if so whether also it must be in publike prayer and will it not suffice that it be in private And if in publike prayers is not the liberty of the spirit sufficiently preserved in that the publike spirit is free That is the Church