Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	epistle_n	paul_n	timothy_n	2,910	5	10.4803	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85709	A patheticall perswasion to pray for publick peace: propounded in a sermon preached in the cathedrall church of Saint Paul, Octob. 2. 1642. By Matthew Griffith, rector of S. Mary Magdalens neer Old-Fishstreet, London.	Griffith, Matthew, 1599?-1665.	1642 (1642)	Wing G2016; Thomason E122_17; ESTC R4434	34,095	58

aequipollent to an universall Then generall it must be and that in regard both of persons times and places for all persons at all times and in all places must pray as they be here exhorted First I say this duty belongs to all persons for though all cannot fast or give alms or weep or watch or bear arms or fight c. yet all may pray Though thou be as poor as Lazarus as impotent as Mephibosheth Luk. 16 20 2 Sam. 4 4. Mar. 10 46 Luk. 1.20 as blinde as Bartimeus as dumb as Zachary yet thou may'st pray and thou must pray in charity for though thou must have Faith for thy self and hence thou say'st I beleeve in God yet must thou pray for others also and therefore when we pray our Lord teacheth us to say Our Father c. And whilest every one prayes for the whole the whole prayes for every one Secondly it is a duty seasonable at all times for whether it be a time of mirth or mourning health or sicknesse prosperity or affliction peace or warre earely or late or at noone-tide prayer never comes amisse so it be applyed to the opportunity as our Church prescribes in the Lyturgy where wee have set prayers for all occasions Thirdly this is a duty proper for all places and for this cause Saint Paul wills us every where to pray in the 2. Chapter of the first Epistle to Timothy 3 Tim. 2.8 Be a man at home or abroad in the City or Country in his family or in the Temple he may pray to good purpose For as the Prophet Daniel prayed three times a day privately in his house Dan. 6.10 so S. Peter Acts 3.1 and Saint John went up together into the Temple at the houre of prayer And though prayer be good in any place yet there is a more speciall blessing promised to the publike prayers of the Church Vis unita fortior When all meete together in the beauty of holinesse and where there is a generall consent the musicke must needs be sweet Many instruments make the fuller consort God can hardly deny the harmonious prayers of a devout multitude Then much to blame are such Sectaries as seldome or never come to the publike prayers appointed by the Church no not upon the Lords own day and that by the way shews that it is not the word but the man that they come to hear and therin these precisians practize that popish position pressed by Stapleton in the 10 of his Quodlibets Non quid loquitur sed quis à bono Catholico est attēdendū when though they will flock to such preachers as they like yet they flye the Common-prayers as a thing which they loath But I would to God that they would take notice that this their peevishnesse and recusancy is not only punishable by censures ecclesiasticall and civill but also that herein they both neglect the right sanctification of the Sabboth publike prayer being a principall duty of this day and a speciall meanes appointed by God for the sanctifying of the same And also forget what our Saviour saith in the 21. Chapter of Saint Matthew My house shall be called the house of prayer but ye have made it a denne of theeves Mat. 21.13 Which is thus farre true in all professed adversaries of publicke prayer that they doe what in them lies to steal this speciall part of Gods worship and service quite out of his house The second circumstance implied in the manner is that you must pray fervently and this is insinuated in this particle O! O pray c. This O is sometimes an interjection of sorrowing ● Sa● 8.13 as wheu King David bewayling the untimely death of his sonne Absalom in the 18. Chapter of the 2. of Samuel cryed out O Absalom my sonne my sonne Absalom would to God I had died for thee O Absalom my sonne my sonne But here this O is an adverbe of wishing and exhorting and it is added and used the better to presse and perswade you to pray with zeale and ardency of affection Martin Luther calls prayer the gun-shot of the soule and why so but to shew that like a gunne it will not off without fire The prayer of a righteous man prevails much saith Saint James if it be fervent Mark the condition Iam. 5.16 if it be fervent for it prevailes not further then it pierceth and it pierces not at all without fire A bullet as you know flyes no further then it is driven by the strength of the powder nor will your prayers pierce the clouds unlesse they be sent up with a powder they must be fervent And fervent they will not be unlesse they flow from the sence of our spirituall wants and from a broken and bleeding heart There is no musick sounds so sweete in Gods eares as that which is made on broken instruments for a broken heart and a contrite spirit saith David in the 51 Psalme Thou O Lord wilt not despise Non musica cordula sed cor non vox sed votum Whosoever then doth pray with hope to be heard graciously he must see that he pray not more magis quam amore he must not pray faintly but fervently even with a flaming affection ascending up to God in the hearty grones sighes and strong desires of his soule and spirit The third thing implyed in the manner is that you must pray forthwith The verbe in the text is in the Present Tence and so denotes that you must fall presently to your prayers Semper nocuit differre paratis Delay may breed danger Now is the day of salvation saith the Apostle now is the acceptable time And hoc nunc nullum habet crastinum saith Saint Augustine And as Saint Paul stirres up the Romanes to arise from sleep Rom. 13. ●1 by putting them in minde of the season in the 13. to the Romanes so may I justly excite and incite you to fall close to your prayers for publike peace upon the consideration of this very season For if we looke well about us we shall finde that wee never had more cause to pray then at this present when as the publike peace is secretly undermined by false brethren at home and openly impugned by the Irish Rebells abroad There the superstitious Papist seeking to supplant and heere the irreligious Atheist labouring with might in his hand and malice in his heart utterly to roote it out And therefore as the skilfull Pilot at sea seeing a slaw or a storme a comming presently puts into some harbor where he may be safe untill the danger be over So Saint James sends us all to prayer as the onely sure haven in time of distresse where he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is any man afflicted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let him pray as if he had said Iam. 5.13 is any man in any manner of affliction why the sole remedy of all our miseries and mischiefes is prayer Then if we now finde that