Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
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A55332
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Of ejaculatory prayer the necessity there is of it, the advantages there are for it, and the advantages there are by it : demonstrated with several directions for the practice of it / by Theophilus Polwheile ...
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Polwheile, Theophilus, d. 1689.
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1674
(1674)
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Wing P2784; ESTC R40646
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52,386
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162
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Here thou offerest the Body and Blood of thy Son Thou sayest Take ye eat ye drink ye Oh now that there may be an inward act answering to this outward whereby I may receive Christ thus visibly exhibited and tendered to me Oh that I may have Faith as a taking hand to go forth to the offering hand of God! That my taking and eating and drinking may be really significative of my Faith appropriating and applying Christ Thus for the strengthning of your Faith Pray in like manner for the strengthning of your Love You should exercise Love exceedingly abundantly when you come to the Lords-Supper First to Christ considering how lovely he is First in himself If there be any thing lovely in any 't is all in him Secondly in his Love to you He loved you and gave himself to dye for you made his soul an offering for sin endured buffeting spitting Crucifying is gone to prepare a place for you in Heaven appears there for you c. Thirdly in his Love to you manifested in this Ordinance Herein he makes a representation of his Death to you Gives you it as a Pledge to assure you Instituted it that very night he was betrayed Considering all this how should you stir up your selves to love him Pray therefore for grace whereby you may be enabled to let out your affection abundantly to him Say Lord let my eye affect my heart Let the sight of the Love of Christ to me in this Ordinance beget in me answerable Love to Christ Behold how he loved me even so as to give himself to dye for me And shall I not love him then Oh help me help me blessed God Let me Love him dearly even with all my heart with all my soul with all my might Thus Pray that you may express your Love unto Christ You must express it Secondly one to another and to all Saints whatsoever You are all one in Christ Jesus all one in this Ordinance all eat of the same bread and all drink of the same Cup And therefore Pray that you may be all one in Affection Say Lord let our Communion in this Ordinance unite our hearts together more than ever before Herein is Love not that we Loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 John 4. 10 11. O Lord if thou so lovedst us we ought also to love one another Oh fill me with Love therefore to all these and to all others that are thy Servants Let me bear no malice in my heart now If any have injured me Lord I forgive them and desire from my heart that thou would'st forgive them too Forgive me my trespasses as I forgive them that trespass against me And Lord help me to forgive them as I desire thou would'st forgive me Thus pray for the strengthning of your Love Pray earnestly likewise for Desire and a Spiritual Appetite that God would make you sensible of your infinite need of Christ that so the desires of your Souls may be to him and you may hunger and thirst after him And that he would give you good hope of a gratious satisfaction to your desires that so you may be confident and be able confidently to say as Psal 65. 4. Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy Courts I shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy House And that he would seal up some Evidence of his special Love and Favour in Christ unto you that might fill you with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory that so you may be able to say My Spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour If ever we rejoyce it should be when we come to the Lord's Supper †The Superstitious deceive themselves who believe that the Commemoration of His Death consists only in mourning For in the Eucharist Jesus Christ is not simply propounded unto us as dead but as dead for us To the end that as his death is our life so it should be also our joy Nothing is more poper to the Commemoration we make of the Death of Christ therein which is our life Say therefore Lord rejoyce the soul of thy Servant Fill me with all joy peace in believing Lastly Pray that you may be in a Thankful frame that Deshagne Of the Eating of the Body of Christ Sect. 4. c. 5. so you may be able in Truth and Sincerity to say as Psal 103. 1 2. Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his holy Name Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his Benefits Thus you have the fifth Particular viz. how you should Pray with Ejaculatory Prayer when you come to the Ordinances Another special Season for Ejaculatory Prayer is VI. When you are upon your Sick-beds Then you cannot go to your Solemn Prayers as at other times therefore then is a fit season for Ejaculatory Prayer Pray then That God would shew you wherefore he contends with you That he would open your ear to Discipline and seal Instruction upon your Spirit That the fruit may be the taking away of sin That if it be his good pleasure you may live and keep his word That however you may be willing to die That you may Sanctifie the Name of God in your sickness by a meek quiet humble and submissive behaviour before others That you may be strengthned against the assaults of Sathan That you may have such to come to you as may speak sutably to your condition and that you may profit by it That you may have assurance if the Lord shall see it good for you that so an abundant enterance may be ministred to you whenever you go hence into his Heavenly Kingdome VII In the hour of Temptation Then dart up Prayers as fast as possibly you can Then Pray for Wisdome to discern the evil and danger of the Temptation For Courage and Resolution to resists it For Strength to overcome it And that Sathan may be called off VIII When you come into Vntrodden Paths then Pray that God would guide you by his Counsels IX When you are going a Journey Then Pray that God would be with you and bring you back again if you are to return That he would give his Psal 91. 11 12. Angels Charge over you to keep you in all your ways That he would succeed and Gen. 24. 12. Prosper you X. In time of the Motions of the Spirit See Psal 27. 8. When thou said'st Seek my Face my heart said Thy Face O Lord will I seek Thus be much in this Duty of Ejaculatory Prayer for your selves CHAP. V. Men exhorted to be much in Ejaculatory Prayer for Others It is their Duty to Pray for Others as well as for Themselves It is their Duty to Pray for Others with Ejaculatory Prayer When they should Pray with Ejaculatory Prayer for Others For whom they should Pray when they Pray with Ejaculatory Prayer for Others HAving
Duty As David three times seven times a day Daniel three times a day and it was his usual custome which he continued in the most dangerous times Hannah poured out her soul Peter went up to the house top 3. That people may be at Set-prayer God hath appointed yea expressly commanded them to go alone and to enter into their Closets and shut the door which needs not to be done for Ejaculatory Prayer Mat. 6. 6. 4. Sometimes to go together As they did Acts 2. 42. Acts 4. 24. 5. That they might have Set-prayers in time of the Old Testament he built them an house chiefly for that end which therefore had its denomination from thence It was called the house of Prayer Isa 56. 7. 6. Therefore God will have Set-prayer that he may be worshiped with Solemnity Lastly We have many things to Pray for which cannot be expressed as is necessary they should be in Ejaculatory Prayer For these reasons Ejaculatory Prayer must not justle out Set-prayer He that prays only or mostly with Ejaculatory Prayer and not with Set-prayer offers to God only the tyth of Mint and Cummin and neglects the weightier matters of the Law This we ought to do but not to neglect the other vid. Preston's Daily Exercise Suppose thou hast business yet there must be a time for Set-prayer You will have an eating time and a drinking time notwithstanding business and so you should have a Praying time People do not look upon Prayer as necessary or else they would never neglect it for other matter as they do And there is much of Atheism and Infidelity in it that is the cause of it as hath been said And therefore though I shew it you by way of information from this Doctrine of Ejaculatory Prayer that you may learn this Not to expect to be heard meerly for your long Prayers because then you could not be heard for your Ejaculatory Prayers yet it is not so to be understood as if long Prayers were simply to be condemned vid. Hildersham ubi supra Our own and others Necessities especially the Churches Necessities do often make it necessary that there be many and long Prayers And therefore know that you may make long Prayers so that you do not affect to be long thereby to shew your ability in Prayer and get applause which is Pharisaical nor think to be heard meerly for your much speaking using vain Repititions for that end which is Paganish but having respect to the Magisty of God do not multiply expressions carelessly but endeavour that there be as much matter and affection as words and then there is no evil in the length of your Prayer and you shall not offend thereby This then is the first Caution It must not justle out Set-prayer Though Ejaculatory Prayer be necessary yet it is not enough it is not only necessary there must be Set-prayer too Caut. 2. It must not be Formal that is having only a vain shew and appearance or resemblance and likeness of Ejaculatory Prayer without any reality as being only a customary thing from Education Example or the like Now then it is so 1. When it is without any attention of the mind unto it As when persons being used or accustomed to such expressions as are materially expressions of Ejaculatory Prayer do make use of them upon any occasion but that so as they do not consider or attend to what they say Thus many upon trivial occasions or otherwise will cry out O Lord and O God and God bless us God have mercy Christ help us God forbid God shield c. not minding what they say so as to have any thoughts of God in such Prayer or really intending to pray unto him Thus God is neer in their mouth but far from their reins as the Prophet complains Jer. 12. 2. It must not be so therefore when you dart up any prayer unto God you must not dart up words only When you take your leave of others you say God-bu'y The expression is good yet it may be you do not mind what you say many times when you say so and then it 's but a meer formality or as we say a Complement a Ceremony and no more 2. Then it 's Formal when it is without any concurrance of affection with it any out-going of desires either after the thing or unto God for the thing prayed for Thus many pray not caring whether they have the thing or no that they pray for not looking after it when they have prayed Or if they desire the thing tho' they express a desire yet it is not to God They shoot at random not aiming at the mark Now it must not be so for there must be a darting up of desire unto God or else it is not Prayer Without this though you dart up never so many Prayers you do not pray in any of them as 't is said of Elias That he pray'd in prayer Jam. 5. 17. 3. Then it is Formal when it is without power in it Then a thing is said to be in form when it is not in power 2 Tim. 3. 5. when it is not effectual so as to have any powerful influence upon a man so as to stir him up to effectual endeavours either for the avoiding of the evil prayed against or the obtaining of the good prayed for You must take heed of praying with Ejaculatory Prayer in this manner You must not dart up prayers as men when they shoot at random not considering why nor wherefore nor how and in what manner you do it But it must be so as God may be sanctified in it Otherwise it is but a taking his Name in vain and God will not hold those guiltless that do so Therefore when you dart up any prayer to God consider what you do Labour to be serious and real in it Look that there be desires and that your prayer be such in respect of desires as may put you upon effectual endeavours else your darts will fly short they will not reach up to heaven God cannot endure such praying and therefore let not any one think to obtain any thing by it If your Prayers have no power with your selves they will have no power with God They will not be like Jacobs Prayers that had such power as to prevail Hos 12. 4. Caut. 3. It must not be Hypocritical As there is abundance of Hypocrisie many times in Set-prayer So likewise there is in Ejaculatory Prayer Then it is Hypocritical 1. When it is done purposely and in tentionally to be seen of men and so to be thought to be more holy and devout for it Thus men may be frequently lifting up their eyes and hands a sign of mental Ejaculatory Prayer that it may be taken notice of that they pray and are men that are mindful of God Thus the Pharisees did love to appear to men to fast and so all Hypocrites they love to appear to men to perform those Duties that they perform 2. When it