Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prayer_n	affection_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	30	3	8.2392	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91526	Jewish hypocrisie, a caveat to the present generation. Wherein is shewn both the false and the true way to a nations or persons compleat happiness, from the sickness and recovery of the Jewish state. Unto which is added a discourse upon Micah 6.8. belonging to the same matter. / By Symon Patrick B.D. minister of the word of God at Batersea in Surrey.	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1660 (1660)	Wing P817; Thomason E1751_1; Thomason E1751_2; ESTC R203168	156,691	423

many c. Or if we render it with others Did not be who is one make it i. e. the covenant of marriage and he hath abundance of spirit still to breath into our seed And wherefore did that one make that order that a man should cleave to his wife but that he might have a godly seed and therefore take heed what you do in putting away your wives and taking others for hereby you offend him that breaths the spirit of life into us Or if we take it as others interpret it their wickedness is still argued to be the greater because they boasted that they were the children of Abraham Now Did that one i. e. the first of your family do so of whose spirit we are the residue and what did that one he sought a godly seed he put not away Sarah though she was barren which to you would seem a just cause nor matched with an Idolater that he might have issue Or if we receive that rendring of the words which the learned De Dieu prefers above all the rest it argues them of great inhumanity and that they had not common good nature in them which makes the sin still greater No one would do thus that had but any reliques of the spirit of God in him and therefore much less they that seek a godly seed as you pretend to do You see that he might well call this covering violence with his garment ver 16. because it was such a wrong to those that by the Laws of God and nature deserved better at their hands To spread ones garment or ones skirts over a woman is a phrase in holy writ for to marry her Ruth 3.9 Ezek. 16.8 By taking therefore of a strange woman into their society which was engaged before to another they did as it were marry to violence and contract a relation with injustice Or as the forenamed author thinks it should be translated Violence covered their garments i. e. when as they ought still to have cast their garments of love and protection over their wives violence and wrong did cover those garments their marriage was an act of injustice and their skirts which they spread over strangers were all over stained with cruelty hard-heartedness and oppression 5. And Zachary tells us by way of prophesie what should be in after times toward the end of this Nation and what manner of Rulers should be over the people He compares their Shepherds i. e. Governours as I have shewn before unto young Lyons who do not use to protect but to devour the sheep Zach. 11.3 And he calls the people the flock of slaughter ver 4. whom he is bid to instruct either because they were to be destroyed by the armies of their enemies or because they were a prey unto their Governours According as it follows ver 5. Their possessors slay them and they hold themselves not guilty Yea to such a confidence were they arrived in these sins that they Bless God for the riches which they had got in this sort They had some devotion you see left though no honesty nor goodness God is intituled to all wicked possessions and acquisitions that he may make them good and defend them against all the clamors of men and the suits of their own conscience And it seems the people were very bad also for ver 6. he threatens them that he would have no more pitty on them then their Rulers had but let them destroy one another by seditions and at last deliver them all into the hands of the King that oppressed them who should be so far from taking any pastoral care of them that he should only slay and devour them as you may read v. ●6 6. And some understand by that King the Roman Caesar to whom they made themselves a prey by such sins as those I have been treating of That long Captivity which indures to this day had its way prepared by their avarice and cruelty as those acquaint us upon whom the spirit of prophecy was again poured forth For our Lord coming and reproving the chief of that generation when he lived for devouring widdows houses for extortion rapine and blood for covetousness and oppression for being without natural affection and the like sins while they made long prayers and pretended a great deal of sanctity and religion He declaring also that faith judgement mercy and the love of God were more to be regarded then their strict observation of dayes and the multitude of sacrifices They out of a great zeal for their religion which they thought he did not speak honourably enough concerning most shamefully put him to death I believe they took themselves to be very religious persons and were zealous in what they did only their zeal was not equally dispensed nor conveyed alike through the whole body of duties that God commanded Their heat was like the flushing in mens faces or the burning in their hands which we do not take to be an argument of a good temper but rather a sign that there are obstructions as the ordinary language calls them in the body so that there is not a free motion of the vital blood in all the parts I mean they spent so much zeal in a few things that they left no warmth of affection for other most necessary duties In those things their heat was staid and stopt which made them of an extraordinary high colour and to have the repute in the world of very great Saints and most vertuous persons Yea they themselves gazed so much upon this flame that they took no notice how cold they were in matters of common honesty but they committed all iniquity in a comfortable belief that they were good men and most beloved of God Their great zeal for the Sabbath and such like matters made them take themselves for pious and devout persons but the partiality and particularity of it whereby it remained there confined made them really to be such as our Saviour calls Hypocrites which appellation they took in such disdain that they conspired his death who would not let such as they pass for godly men 7. And are Christians to this day more reformed who have inherited their promises I wish I could say that we are as free from covetousness rapine and unmercifulness as the Pharises were from Sabbath-breaking and Idolatry R. D. Kimchi upon Hos 2.19 20. hath confessed a great deal of that truth which I have endeavoured to illustrate but I can only wish that the latter part of his gloss were found as true as the former part hath proved He saith those words cannot have a compleat sense till the time of the Messiah and that God uses the word betroth three times because of the 3. captivities after which God doth as it were marry them to himself but in the dayes of the Messiah after a more excellent manner then in former times For when they came out of Aegypt he did not betroth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for

but be glad they might think that such good friends of his grew rich on any fashion seeing he was not like to lose but to get by it For if you look into Matth. 23. you cannot but observe that they were monstrous extortioners and as full of covetous desires as a drunkards cup is full of drink Besides they were abominably proud undervaluing all men in compare with themselves And so many wayes also they had of disanulling all Gods commands as if by their prayers they had obtained a power from God to wipe and cross what they pleased out of his Law They took God to be so much beholden to them for their pains and sweat in praying to him that they thought he was bound to let them make themselves an amends some other wayes And because it cost them much to be so devout they thought their labour was as pretious with him and that he put the same value upon it In short so little there was in all this devotion that if a man had had a mind to deny himself in little or nothing his best way had been to have put himself into the garb of a Pharisee and buy a grant of God to do what he list by many prayers Which was just as if a man should think by giving his neighbour many good morrows to make him overlook the breaking of his hedges and the stealing of his goods or as if a man should beseech another not to be offended with him though he beat his children and took upon him to do what he listed in his house 4. And such there have been in the Christian world who have delighted in praying and offering up continual petitions to heaven whom the earth could not bear because of their vile and wicked lives As John Basilides Duke of Muscovy whom Dr. Casaubon instances in who loved to be continually upon his knees and lifting up his hands to God when they were not employed in some butcherous and bloody action or other And Hacket here in England in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth of whom Saravia saith that he seemed to have a divine heat in him when he prayed though it is known to all the world with what wild fires he was acted For there is a natural ardor may do much this way as that Doctor speaks or rather a Religious melancholy as Mr. More hath shewn in his excellent Treatise of Enthusiasm For that humour will work and boil up even to an Exstasie and where it meets with some spice of Religion it may do strange feats by way of devotion Ignatius the Jesuites tell us was sometimes lifted up four cubits above the ground when he was at prayer and he might possibly seem to himself so to be if that be true which Eunapius reports of Jamblicus how that when he was a praying Eunap in vita Jambl. V. etiam in vita Aedesii he was heaved up from the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above ten cubits and his rayment seemed to shine with a brightness like to gold But above all I desire the Reader to take notice of what Theodoret saith of the Mossaliani or Prayers that they used to do nothing else and would not follow any calling but when they did not pray they fell asleep L. 4. Eccles hist cap. 10. L. 4. haeret fab cap. 11. And then they thought that they beheld Visions and could prophesie and saw the sacred Trinity with their eyes They said that there was an evil spirit in all men which must be cast out by prayers and then the holy Spirit of God comes in after which there was no need of fasting for to humble the body nor of any doctrine or teaching which bridles and guides the motion of the body but the Spirit doth all One egg is not more like another then those men were like them among us who say they are above all Ordinances They feel some heat in their hearts when they pray and they are lifted up in some kind of pious thoughts by the strong workings of their own melancholy fancies and then they think that this is to them instead of all other things so that the Lords Supper is but a carnal Feast and the Scriptures themselves are but dead letters and Ministers are but School-masters for children and fools 5. So much of the Pharisee is still among us that it would make any godly soul blush to see what foul things are done by those that make very fair pretences to God in their prayers The measure of which many times is length and loudness many words and much heat whilest there is no true spiritual life and sense of God which breaths forth their souls unto him Men care not to be as long in confessing of their sins as they intend to be in leaving of them if it will but pass current for Religion They will pray for forgiveness of their sins as often as God pleases so they may but have leave when they see occasion to commit them They will call for that strength and power which they never mean to use for that Spirit of holiness which they would not have so kind as to come and trouble them in their enjoyments They pray for that light which they would not have to look too broad in their faces for that purity and sanctity which they will bestow no more upon then a prayer to obtain and if they knew what they prayed for they would be loth to have an Answer They beg that comfort the spring of which they would be loth should dwell within them that righteousness of Christ which they would have to cover all their filthiness and keep them warm in their sins that blood of Jesus which should quench the fiery indignation which they say but think not that their sins do deserve 6. And yet I have told you the best of this sort of Religionists for there are that think they shall be heard for their much babling and are little better then heathenish worshippers They are rude and sensless in their Tautologies without any real and unforc't affection Their prayers are a confused indigested heap of words rash and bold expressions irreverent and unbecoming addresses to the glorious majesty of heaven fulsome and nauseating language savouring of an unprepared though hasty careless though confident mind They are measured by the glass and must be stretched though by heathenish repetitions i. e. without any order or handsom zeal to such a certain length And if a childish tone like that when they say their lessons can help out these devotions it is accounted a great token of good affection and a sign that a man is more then ordinarily moved If the voice likewise be loud sonorous most people are apt to think the heavens will hear those prayers sooner then others as coming from the greatest zeal and fervency of Spirit But all good Christians whose hearts are in their prayers feel that the sence of Gods Glory as well as his

Goodness fills their souls Which makes them modest and humble blushing and bashfull before his face reverent and composed solemn and sedate in their speech unto him Serious in their zeal and zealous in their repetitions understand in what they ask and earnestly desirous to receive it And above all they know that an holy life is most pleasing unto God whereby they do continually bespeak his favour and are alwayes sending up Orators to the throne of grace to bring down more blessings upon them 7. And if any one have a list to enquire into the bottom of this deceit I believe he will find that many mens prayers are but a piece of Art which they have learnt by imitation of others whose language and affection they most admired from whom they have borrowed such feeling expressions as won their souls to some endeavours to be like them I have sometimes thought that an hypocrite is rather a counterfeit of a Christian then of Christ for he doth not so much shape himself according to what he reads of him as what he sees in them He is but their Ape and never more discovers himself then when he labours to imitate their zeal and to come up to the height of their piety As Apes are never more like themselves then when they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Lucian somewhere speaks put on the face and garb of Noble men so the higher strains of devotion they endeavour to personate the more their affectation and fulsome forcedness appears Or as the deeper any women paint the more plainly is their dissembled complexion seen so the more colours these men lay on and the greater ruddiness of zeal they would attain unto the more is their ugliness revealed and the false beauty of their holiness laid open to the world As it is in those Meteors which they call parelia when two Suns appear together besides the great light of heaven Cap. 13. nat quaest the one saith Seneca is simulacrum Solis the picture or image of the Sun the other is simulacrum imaginis the picture or image of the eimage so it is in this case a good man is the image of Christ the Sun of righteousness but an hypocrite is only the image of the good man not of Christ having only a picture of his righteousness And yet these pictures and images of Christians may seem to some to excell the coppy and be more admired then good and religious people As a picture in a room is by Art so drawn that it seems to look upon every one in it on whatsoever side you stand whereas a living man doth look but one way so these artificial pieces have a more notable way of looking graciously upon the multitude then real Christians have who appear most lovely to those that have the spirit of life ruling in them 8. And if these Artists have an active fancy and a natural heat it will much promote their good opinion of themselves because their devotions will be beyond the vulgar strain For a quick fancy can administer very apt words and fluent expressions that shall not justle one against another but run off very smoothly and there is a kind of charm in dainty words well put together which roll off the tongue without any rub in their way The natural heat also when it makes the animal spirits boil and leap up to a great height can produce some affections and passions answerable to that sreedom of language which will have still more of ravishment and transportation in it By the power of Imagination likewise being thus heated and chafed unusual thoughts may be raised up and the mind may be filled with new notions which men may take to be an argument of their being under the power of the Spirit and their praying without a form may seem to them to be a token of the power of godliness But when this heat abates and they cease to be tickled with such affections then these men grow pittifull creatures and have no religion at all unless they can comfort themselves with what they hear others also talk of that they are under desertion and make this as much a sign of grace as they did their former enlargements 9. It must likewise be considered that the beginning and continuance of this devotion is to be imputed to the natural conscience which men have of some duty owing unto God and of some recompense that they stand bound to make him for their neglects of it Though this conscience when it is once awakned cannot be satisfied unless they do something to please him yet it rests commonly in that which is easie and agrees best with their natural dispositions and least contradicts their inbred lusts and desires Now where there is that nimble fancy which I spoke of and that voluble tongue and spirits that can soon take fire by any motion there is nothing more accommodated to the end of giving them satisfaction then prayer because such people are naturally forward to talk and can both with ease and pleasure make long speeches unto God And when they have prayed themselves into a good opinion of their holiness and favour with God then as soon as their morning devotions are past they may securely lie all day long in hatred malice covetousness injustice and such like sins as though they had consecrated and craved a blessing upon all their Actions Lib. 1. Essayes chap. 56. And so Mount aigne tells us that there was a young Prince who when he went about any leud and unchaste design would alwayes go into that Church which was in his way both as he went and as he returned from his filthiness this was told him by a great person as an instance of special and singular devotion But let any impartiall man tell me saith he to what purpose he invoked and called on God for his divine favour having his mind wholly bent to sin and his thoughts set on lasciviousness And yet thus it is every man calls upon God it matters not for what the covetous the ambitious the theef all pray God to succeed their enterprises which is just as if a Cut-purse should call in justice for his aid and as if we should call God to witness to a lie And there he adds this golden saying Verily it seemeth that we make no other use of our prayers then of a company of gibberish phrases or as those that imploy holy and sacred words about witchcraft and magical effects and that we magine their effect dependeth on the contexture or sound or succession of words or on our countenance For mans soul being full fraught with lusts and nothing touched with repentance they headlong present unto him those heedless words that memory affordeth their tongue by which they hope to obtain an expiation of all their offences 10. I shall hereunto annex briefly another way of deceiving mens selves which is by a whining puling kind of religion that many have taken up I