Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	aaron_n	bless_v	deceive_v	23	3	9.6363	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47748	Liturgy's vindicated by the dissenters, or, The lawfulness of forms of prayer and liturgies proved from the very texts of Scripture urged against them by John Bunyan and the dissenters / by the author of the Religious conference between a minister and his parishioner about infant baptism.	Leslie, Charles, 1650-1722.	1700 (1700)	Wing L1137; ESTC R34970	43,840	127

the Vulgar most of their Prayers are presented to the Virgin Mary and to other Saints and Angels all our Prayers are offer'd up to God through the Mediation of Jesus Christ and with how many and to say no worse burdensome Ceremonies Baptism and the Lords Supper is Administred among them And with how few and Significant ones those Sacraments are Celebrated by us all which make a vast Difference between the Common Prayer and Mass Book any one will easily find that has leisure and opportunity to Compare them both together 4ly How does J. Bunyan know that St. Paul never composed a Form of Prayer The sound Words he commands Timothy to hold fast 2 Tim. 1.13 might for ought he can prove to the contrary be such a Form himself allows the Form of Godliness which the same Apostle speaks of 2 Tim. 3.5 to have respect to a Form of Prayer as I shall shew hereafter and is there not as good reason that this Form of sound Words should likewise regard Prayer And if it does we may thence infer that St. Paul made such a Form for the Church and commanded Timothy to hold fast the same by using it therein however this be we may be sure St. Paul used a Form of Prayer himself even that of Christ's own composing Luke 11.2 when ye pray say our Father c. and he taught others to use it also or else he could not have kept a Conscience void of Offence towards God and towards Man neither would he have declared unto his People the whole Council of God as he protests he had done Acts 20.27 and Chap. 24.16 and if St. Paul and the rest of the Apostles used no other Form of Prayer it was because they were assisted by the immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost and had miraculous Gifts bestowed upon them such as the gift of Tongues of Prophesie of Healing c. and so did not stand in need of it and let John Bunyan and his Party prove they have the like wonderful Gifts and can work the like stupendious Miracles and they shall be dispensed with in the use of the Common Prayer Book but if none of those extraordinary Gifts and Miracles can be truly pretended to by them then I think they need the help of such a Form of sound Words as well as we and this has been the constant Judgment of the Church of God in all Ages since those Miracles ceased and therefore did she at first establish Liturgies and has always used them if not in at least ever since the Apostles Days Page 31 our Author is very witty and says But here the wise Men of our Days are so well skill'd as that they have both the Matter and Manner of their Prayers at their Fingers end setting such a Prayer for such a Day and that twenty Years before it comes one for Christmas another for Easter and six Days after that they have also bounded how many Syllables must be said in every one of them at their publick Exercises for each Saints Day also they have them ready for the Generations yet unborn to say All this which is meer Banter must pass for an invincible Argument to overthrow our whole Liturgy at once and every Collect therein but such as it is we will examine it and shew the absurdity and folly of it 1st This Man does not shew his wisdom in pretending we make Prayers for certain Days twenty Years before they come since those very Days happen all within the compass of One Year and therefore there cannot be the distance of twenty Years between them and the making such particular Prayers and if it be said that these Prayers are repeated for more than twenty Years one after another we may answer there is good reason for it that as often as such solemn times return we should suit our publick Prayers and Praises according to such solemn Occasions having the Example of God himself and his Servant Moses to justifie our Practice for by the Divine appointment the Priests under the Law were confin'd to a Form of Words in blessing the People which they were always to pronounce when they dismissed the Assembly Numb 6.22 23 24 25 26. the Lord spake unto Moses saying speak unto Aaron and his Sons saying on this wise ye shall bless the Children of Israel saying unto them the Lord bless thee and keep thee the Lord make his Face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his Countenance upon thee and give thee Peace in which one Blessing wherein the name of Jehovah or Lord is thrice repeated we are taught the great mystery of our Christian Faith even the Trinity in Vnity or the three Persons and one God it being the peculiar property of God the Father to bless and keep us of God the Son to be gracious unto us and of God the Holy Ghost to give us Peace as * See his Com. on Num. pag. 109. Dr. Patrick has observed to the like form of Words was Moses himself confin'd as often as the Ark moved and rested in the Wilderness Numb 10.35 36. When the Ark set forward Moses said rise up O Lord and let thine Enemies be scattered and let them that hate thee flee before thee and when the Ark rested he said return O Lord to the many thousands of Israel and by the same divine Institution the Jewish People were obliged to a set form of Words in praying to God and praising his Name when they offer'd their first Fruits Deut. 26.5 6 7 8 9 10. Thou shalt speak and say before the Lord thy God a Syrian ready to perish was my Father and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there with a few and became there a Nation great mighty and populous and the Egyptians evil entreated us and afflicted us and laid upon us hard Bondage and when we cried unto the Lord God of our Fathers the Lord heard our Voice and looked on our Affliction and our Labour and our Oppression and the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty Hand and out stretched arm and with great terribleness and with Signs and with Wonders and he hath brought us unto this Place and hath given us this Land even a Land that floweth with Milk and Honey and now behold I have brought the first Fruits of the Land which thou O Lord hast given me The like Form of Words were they obliged to use in the Offering of their Tythes Deut. 26.13 14 15. Thou shall say before the Lord thy God I have brought away the hallowed things out of my House and also have given them unto the Levite and unto the Stranger to the Fatherless and to the Widow according to all thy Commandments which thou hast commanded I have not transgressed thy Commandments neither have I forgotten them I have not eaten thereof in my Mourning neither have I taken ought thereof for any unclean use nor given ought thereof for the

Expressions by no means agree to St. Paul who was Converted before this being quite contrary to the Nature of a Regenerate Man who is said in other places of this Epistle to be free from Sin and the Servant of Righteousness Rom. 6.18 That the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ has made me free from the Law of Sin and Death Rom. 8.2 That he has crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts Gal. 5.24 That Sin does not Reign in his mortal Body that he should obey it in the Lusts thereof Rom. 6.12 So that unless we can twist Contradictions we cannot suppose St. Paul to speak of himself in that seventh Chapter but only of a Judaising Christian or a Convinced but not Converted Person and nothing is more usual than for Prophets and Apostles to speak in the Person of others when they say I or We did so or so for we cannot suppose St. Paul and the rest of the Apostles or indeed any sensible Christian so very Ignorant as not to know to whom and thro' whom and for what to Pray and therefore the we know not c. must have respect to other Men and such as were Heathens and Unconverted who had not before heard of Christ or seen the Gospel where there are Rules laid down and those Dictated and written by the Holy Spirit how they and all Men ought to Pray even to our Father which is in Heaven thro' his beloved Son Jesus Christ for such Lawful things as are according to his Will And when Men Pray thus according to that excellent Form which Christ has prescribed his Holy Spirit will also assist them with good Desires so that they shall Heartily wish and long for those things for which they Pray with submission to the Will of God and thus the Spirit helpeth our Infirmities in revealing to us the Holy Scriptures where those that were Ignorant before are taught how to Pray as they ought But our Author goes on with his Paraphrase p. 30.31 The Apostles when they were at best yea when they were assisted with the Holy Ghost yet then they were fain to come off with Sighs and Groans c. Mark here says he they could not so well and fully come off in the manner of performing this Duty as these in our Days think they can But is not this another good Argument for Forms of Prayer when the Apostles themselves stood in need of them and therefore desired Christ to teach them such a Form as John had taught his Disciples Luke 11.1 Lord teach us to Pray as John also taught his Disciples And certainly they had need to be taught such a Form to help them out if they were such Bunglers at Prayer as J. Bunyan represents them viz. That they were not able to make an end of the Prayer they had begun in the Congregation but were forc'd to break off abruptly perhaps in the midst thereof which must needs cause Shame to themselves and Disappointment and Confusion to the whole Assembly which all their Sighs and Groans would never be able to compensate but no Man of Sense can believe the Apostles ever Prayed at this rate in the Church of God where they command all things to be done Decently and in order and to the Edification of the People 1 Cor. 14.26.40 For what Order Decency or Edifying is there in Sighs and Groans which Hypocrites may utter as well as Sincere Christians And when either does it who can tell the meaning of them And may not a Man edifie as much by the Quakers Silent-meetings as by such Sighs and Groans which have no certain and determinate Signification as Words and Speeches have And yet if we may believe Jo. Bunyan these were a good part of the Apostles Prayers even in their publik Assemblies but the Proof which he brings for it is Simple and Ridiculous viz. For the Spirit it self maketh Intercession for us with Groanings which cannot be uttered Whereas these are not the Groanings of the Apostles or of any Man else upon the Face of the Earth but the Groanings of the Holy-Ghost himself in Heaven where together with the Lord Jesus he maketh Intercession for us at the Right-hand of God and that in a very fervent and powerful manner which St. Paul calls his Groanings which cannot be uttered and therefore can never be applyed to the Groanings of Men which are always heard and make a sound in their very utterance So foolish and presumptuous is this Man in Expounding and Applying this Text especially in endeavouring to prove from it that the Holy Spirit does invent and dictate to us the very words of Prayer for here are no Words at all proceeding from the Spirit but only Groanings How then can this place prove that the Spirit suggests to us the Words of our Prayer when he interceeds for us without Words even with Groanings but pray mistake not not with such Groanings as Jo. Bunyan and his Party makes and may be heard in every corner of the House and in the very Streets but with Groanings that cannot be uttered And that these are the inexpressible Desires of Christ and the Spirit of God in Heaven is plain from Rom. 8.27 He that searcheth the Hearts i. e. Almighty God whose Prerogative it is knoweth what is the Mind of the Spirit because he maketh Intercession for the Saints according to the Will of God So that this Text also as all the rest turns upon the Objector and proves that the Spirit does not put Words into their Mouths nor cause those Groanings which are so loud and frequent in their Meetings the Spirits Groanings here being said to be without noise or sound without utterance or expression they are such as cannot be uttered Whence I may well conclude that Jo. Bunyan 's extemporary Prayers his dismal Groans and those Fits and Agonies of the Spirit which he says he was sometimes in when he was strongly perswaded to leave off and to seek the Lord no longer p. 71. I may conclude I say that this is a great Cheat of the Devil and Antichrist by which he does delude and deceive the World by which Men would perswade themselves and others that they Pray with the Spirit that they Preach with the Spirit and Hear with the Spirit even with the same extraordinary Spirit which St. Paul had when there is no such thing but they are rather possessed by an evil Spirit which makes them think and speak so highly and vain-gloriously of themselves and so contemptibly and uncharitably of others their Mouth speaketh great swelling Words having Mens Persons in admiration because of advantage These be they that separate themselves Sensual having not the Spirit Jud. ver 16.19 CHAP. VIII HAving said in the Conclusion of the former Chapter that J. Bunyan and his Party have not the Spirit to which they so much pretend I come now to prove this Charge against them from two substantial Arguments 1st Their Disobedience to their Lawful