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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	great_a	king_n	5,512	5	3.6764	3	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

And Lastly a constant demonstration of this affection throughout the whole course of our lives especially in our confessions prayers and thanksgivings to God First Then do we justly contemplate the works of God when we make diligent search into them and fix our minds upon the excellency of their nature and orderly disposal for use and ornament When we consider both the Heavens and the Earth and more particularly reflect upon our selves as David did and see how fearfully and wonderfully we are made that from hence we may infer the wisdom goodness and power of God 2. Then do we perform the next thing preparative to prayer and adoration when upon the intellectual view of any of Gods works of Creation or Providence we own and acknowledge his glorious Attributes thus rendred apparent to us because there are sufficient footsteps of these in the works of his hands Thus the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge Psal 19.1 2. And the invisible things of him sayes St. Paul are clearly seen from the Creation of the World being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead Rom. 1.20 3. We ascend another step of moral service when by due consideration we act with understanding and judgment upon the works of God inferring from thence his glorious Attributes and upon the contemplation and view we are properly and truly affected with them as things that mark out a most excellent Being This affection will appear in our admiration love and awful regard to him in our humility of mind and dependance on him in our rejoycing and confiding in him and the like acts of rational creatures towards their great and Soveraign Creator And therefore Lastly we must give all possible testimony of these affections throughout the whole course of our lives by adoring him whom we have cause to fear by invoking him on whom we depend by giving thanks to him who is our great Benefactor by continual calling on his power for aid and praying his goodness to relieve us in our necessities and by a constant obedience to him who is our King and most Supreme Governour Now though none almost who is endowed with any reason and understanding can refuse from the prospect of this to conclude prayer to be both necessary and advantageous Yet the Disputers of this World especially when they like not the man that writes it will not be so easily satisfied For 1. Some have conjectured things to come to pass by chance and fortune denying Gods Government of the World by Providence 2. Others have introduced a Stoical fatality concluding all things to be necessary banishing what we call contingency Now whether this is said to come to pass by the concatenation of second Causes by the fatality of Stars or by reason of absolute and irrespective Decrees This Principle like the former takes away the great reason of prayer as it regards the procuring benefits to our selves and renders our petitions useless and in vain if God be inexorable and has so tied himself up by his own Decrees that he will not be intreated by the most profound and sincere devotions nor the most affectionate humble and hearty prayers of men whom he has yet commanded to petition him Oh! What a strange being do some men make him This supposes him to be so unlike to the great Maker and Governor of the Universe that a man of but a tolerable nature and ingenuity would be ashamed of such a description of himself Now though it might be a sufficient answer to Objections raised from such absurd and ridiculous principles to expose the propositions upon which such inferences are built Yet because it would too much swell this Discourse I shall rather do it with reference unto prayer by this more short and ready Method 1. By shewing that notwithstanding all his dark and most secret Decrees God has promised to hear and grant mens lawful petitions 2. That he has done so even when he had seemed to determine things opposite to what they asked And 3. by giving some reasons for this Duty of prayer which will determine the point how great soever the Objections against it may appear to be First God has promised to hear and grant mens lawful petitions Offer to God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the most high And call upon me says God in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Psal 50.14 15. When Solomon had finished that glorious Temple devoutly dedicated to the honour of God the great Jehovah signified to him the acceptance both of his prayer and dedication together with the wise choice of that place for an house of Sacrifice And then he makes this solemn promise If I shut up heaven that there be no rain or if I command the locusts to devour the land or if I send a pestilence among my people If my people upon whom my name is called shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways Then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land And mine eyes shall be open and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place 2 Chron. 7th Chap. 13 14 15. And if any one should unreasonably think that such promises only concerned the Jews when the thing which it is quoted to prove is equally as to the main substance a duty and an incouragement to the Christians let him quit the Old Testament in point of Controversie and we will presently make use only of the New But then some Jesuited Protestants might many times lose their Cause if they had not Prophecies to retire to in the dark and would have nothing but the Book of the Revelation to guide them Yet however let us peruse the New Testament and the promises in this case will appear more large and comprehensive where we have the blood of Sprinkling speaking better things than the blood of Abel that pleads strongly for the acceptance of Christians lawful petitions where we have the Mediator of a better Covenant who continually appears in the presence of God presenting both his sufferings and his triumphs and in virtue of his Sacrifice upon the Cross now liveth to make intercession for us and therefore our prayers through his hands ascend as incense when we offer our Spiritual Sacrifices by him our Intercessor does sufficiently consecrate them in whose name we are exhorted to come boldly to the Throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us in time of need Heb. 4.16 Nay our blessed Saviour himself incourages all his Disciple to make their petitions to Almighty God Ask says he and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you For every one that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him

and Divine Prayer ' That prayer among men is supposed to be a mean to change the person to whom I we pray But prayer to God does not change him but only fits us for receiving the things prayed for Yet this cannot possibly be wholsom Doctrine unless we allow it some grains of salt by distinguishing betwixt Gods Essence and his Will his Essence indeed cannot be changed by our prayers but his Will may Again before the former Assertion can be accounted true Gods Decrees must be distinguished into absolute and conditional His absolute Decrees cannot be altered but his conditional may as I have proved before However we must conclude that one end of prayer and therefore one design of Gods commanding it though this cannot be all next to a profession of our dependance on him and that natural subjection we owe to him seems to be the influence it has upon our selves to produce the growth and actions of piety and vertue and the purifying our Souls and Bodies too for the reception of those favours for which we make our humble petitions And when we shall with some thoughtfulness consider what a direct influence our prayers have to the accomplishing such glorious designs we cannot deny even this argument to conclude our duty For how effectually do our prayers move us to those vertues for the accomplishment of which we implore Gods grace and assistance if we are at all hearty in our addresses And how directly do they check those vices which we both lament a former and pray against a future commission of Our confessions bring our sins to remembrance and those expressions by which we aggravate them with truth cause us to abominate those miscarriages which we thus with horror most dreadfully decipher Our petitions mind us of our own infirmities and the person from whom we obtain relief and our very thanksgivings for blessings received impress our minds with a sense of his goodness and power from whom comes every good and perfect gift And the frequent repetitions of such a duty cannot but inform us of our great obligations to so good a benefactor fill our hearts with awe and reverence and cause returns in the obedience of our lives to him on whom we are made sensible of such a large dependance and from whom as often as we say our prayers we acknowledge to have renewed obligations So that were this great and solemn duty of prayer frequently practised with due humility and intention of mind it would be impossible for men to act those sins with industry and delight which they do and must confess with sorrow and beg the pardon of with seriousness and repentance And I may with confidence give men assurance that if they would more frequently pray they would sin less and the rational and humble management of their addresses to Almighty God would have great influence upon their dispositions and actions far beyond what those can expect by another method who do not frequently and seriously adventure the experiment For as according to Plato's Philosophy the Sovereign good and welfare of the Soul is the possession of the likeness of God when the mind having the knowledge of him is transformed into him So by often admiring and adoring his Attributes we earnestly desire that which we adore and endeavour to resemble what we admire it being natural to rational men to imitate in themselves that which they commend and praise in another Now this Image of God which in us consists in the habitual possession of his most glorious and as far as they are capable of being called communicable perfections is that which best distinguishes us from beasts and our souls themselves when they are immers'd in matter and converse only with sensual objects do as it were lose their nature and tincture themselves by their conversation and so much the less rational they become by how much the less they are virtuous and religious And therefore Grillus in Plutarch Phaed. reasons and asserts well when he affirms that if Religion be once taken from men they are not only nothing better than Brutes but more miserable For that being subject to many evils their troubles are accented and their disquietments enlarged beyond the perception of other Creatures of a meaner and more insensible nature 'T is Religion therefore that perfects and consummates the beings of men that causes them to aspire to Glory through all the crosses and afflictions of this world and prepares them for an endless immortality And in this it renders them far superiour to the lower Brutes who live some time and then die and perish Now such being the fruits which grow with and are born upon our prayers to which Religion has so natural a tendency that whenever it is genuine and sincere 't is blessed with the production of such a glorious off-spring and prayer and devotion rising up at last into the possession of eternal life this consideration cannot but convince us that prayer is both our priviledge and our duty if we either regard God or our selves the honour of our Maker or our uninterrupted and eternal wellfare The great God has appointed prayer to be the means through the intercession of our Saviour to procure to us Grace here and Glory hereafter and we invert the methods of Divine Providence when we expect the conveyance in another way For though he that is Omniscient knows our wants and what is not present to make us happy Although he is acquainted with his own resolutions nor can we prescribe methods to him or with modest devotion desire more than he has promised and intends to grant Yet in prayers directed by his most holy word he commands us to ask in order to our obtainment of what he vouchsafes to give nor will he be inclined to bestow his blessings without the signification of our desires Vuit Deus rogavi vult cogi vult quâdam importunitate vinci sayes St. Austin bona est haec violentia c. God will be intreated he will be compell'd he will be overcome by a certain importunity this is a good violence when in prayer we wrestle with Almighty God and like Jacob we will not let him go till he has left his blessing behind him He loves in our devotions that we should thus with due humility importune him with demonstration of kindness and affection at the same time when without fainting we express our wants He will neither withhold grace nor glory nor any other good thing from these And certainly if prayer be necessary to obtain such things without which we must be miserable both in this world and in that which is to come I have sufficiently evidenced prayer to be a duty incumbent upon all who resolve not to renounce their own happiness by missing those graces that are both gained and exercised in it who love communion with God here respect their eternal glory hereafter and are not so regardless of themselves as for ever to abandon the

therefore has shone bright warming a Chaos into an orderly Creation and brought us forth to be subordinate Governours over the works of Gods hands 'T is no wonder that it enlightens us to a sense of duty and heats our zeal to worship and adore since we cannot chuse but pay our esteem unless injustice checks ingenuity to men amongst our selves suitable to the excellencies inherent in them Thus far I suppose mankind are agreed and I may modestly challenge the universal vogue to vouch the assertion But now the thoughts of men will differ and temperament or interest will sway their minds with reference to the modes of address For the discourses of men being oftentimes as different as their complexions and the sentiments and dispositions of the mind being very servile in attending upon the temperament of the body besides the power of custom and education it is very difficult to disentangle the soul from those fetters in which prejudice has chained it that it may be free in its inferences and conclusions Hence is it that though we all agree upon the Being of a God and that adoration and worship are due to him Yet the acts compounding and the ceremonies attending it have raised so many Schisms and Contentions among men that they seem to agree in nothing but resolutions always to differ That we may say therefore to these winds be still and rebuke the storms which disturb the world that some serenity may at last appear when the clouds are scattered I have taken the subject of Prayer to discourse on it being a duty that ought to attend the course of our lives to which our own necessities prompt us our dependance upon God reasonably requires and his command renders it indispensible But yet because the variety of mens apprehensions and interests which controvert every thing have perplexed this I would willingly be as instrumental as I can in setling your minds in a point of such universal concernment especally at this separated time of Lent in which our publick devotions are more frequent and with a greater solemnity injoyned and praictis'd accompanied with fasting and Alms-giving those mighty resignations of our selves and estates as sacrifices well pleasing unto God And therefore I shall endeavour 1. to explain this duty 2. draw some inferences from the discourse In the explication I shall shew you these seven things First What it is to Pray Secondly What may be the import of some Precepts and Phrases in Sacred Writ which seem to set forth this duty of Prayer as if it were to be continued without interruption Thirdly What is the object of our Prayers or to whom we ought to make this religious address Fourthly In what manner we ought to pray And this 1. in relation to the intentions of our minds 2. with reference to the gesture of our bodies 3. in relation to words and expressions Fifthly For what we may lawfully and ought to pray and this particular will involve persons and things Sixthly Whether this duty of Prayer is injoyned so that it is expected from all men or only such as are good and vertuous And Lastly I shall consider whether it be so necessary or no since God already knows our wants and we cannot break the links that chain causes to effects nor alter the Almighties decrees or providence by any of our wishes or Prayers From the stating and resolution of which particulars I shall at last infer three things First That the service or prayers of our own Church are so framed and performed that God does accept them and are a proper method of addressing to him Secondly That the Church of Rome is most irrational and abominably peccant in hers Lastly That such as live among our selves and yet separate from us under the pretence of greater Reformation and a more Pure and Evangelical worship do not perform their services to God in such manner as is suitable to his Attributes mans dependence and the infinite distance 'twixt their Creator and themselves CHAP. I. HAving thus exhibited my designed method I address my self to the first particular to shew what it is to pray And because many may conjecture that my labour may be excus'd in this since common practice will justly supersede this scruple I shall be very brief in the resolution Prayer then is no more than the offering up our desires unto God In which the Soul has the honour and advantage too of breathing forth its wishes to our Maker lodging them in the bosom and heart of our Intercessor and through him petitioning relief to supply all its necessities and wants Now although this when compleat is joyned with confession and thanksgiving yet I shall not exceed the bounds of prayer those being duties distinct from this and each requires a different explication Various men conceive divers definitions of prayer but yet they are distingished by words and phrases more than sence One tells us 't is a discourse or a converse with God Another an ascending of the Soul to him and men exemplifie this duty by a multitude of Metaphors that rather obscure than explain the thing Nay some set up Jacobs Ladder in this case for Angels to make their descent from Heaven that they may obtain again a sensible and direct passage upwards mount into the Regions above carrying mens Petitions under their wings and then convey the blessings of God down to them This may indeed be allowed for Rhetorick but it neither explains or argues the thing We may better guess at our Prayer unto God by reflecting on our petitions to men in which we always signifie our desires which we earnestly wish for and humbly beg the grant of And this I think to be the common notion we have of Prayer which no●man that at all considers can refuse to give his assent to Now this is made when directed unto God either in the inflamed and ardent desires of our minds when devoutly fixing our intentions upon him we secretly wish what we do not express with our tongues And we may easily suppose this method available when the actions of our Souls are performed to him who as well understands the affections of our minds as the language of our mouths and discerns our hearts as well as hears our words But our Prayers to God are also express'd by those instruments of speech which he has framed as well for his service as our own When we put the wishes and desires of our souls into suitable and expressive language rehearsing this with the due and humble intention of our minds and affection correspondent to our petitions And this is of two sorts either private or publick 1. Private and this either of Husband and Wife who being in a sence but one flesh have some necessities betwixt themselves but yet being distinct from others require different and more secret petitions 2. There is a private praying most properly so which every man does or ought to perform singly by himself when first examining his