Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prayer_n	answer_v	pray_v	time_n	2,021	5	3.8212	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47484	Pillulæ pestilentiales, or, A spiritual receipt for cure of the plague delivered in a sermon preach'd in St. Paul's Church London, in the mid'st of our late sore visitation / by Rich. Kingston ...	Kingston, Richard, b. 1635?	1665 (1665)	Wing K614; ESTC R4398	31,246	136

hooded Hawkes if she could flye yet she would want an eye to pursue her game Let us therefore if we would be taught by this great Schoolmaster approach him with all humility and he will not only teach us those things which are of Eternal Import but cure the Wounds which Sin hath made in our Souls in our Bodies in the Church in the State And so I come to the second Ingredient which is Prayer If my People pray and seek my face c. First then Being to speak of Prayer it will not be amiss to enquire in the first place what Prayer is L. 3. de Fide c. 4. St. John Damascen answers the Question and says It is the Elevation of the mind to God And St. Austin In Ps 85. Your Prayer is a speaking to God When you read God speaks to you when you pray you speak to God therefore Prayer is the Souls Colloquy and conversation with God So that when we pray we Elevate our spirit to God and familiarly yet with all reverence communicate our Condition unto him with a greater confidence than any Child can do to his Mother To him we unbowel our selves and lay before him what is most dear unto us and what most oppresses us in our Spiritual combats our failings and our desires the temporal blessings we would have and the Evils we would eschew as one friend doth to another in whom he most confides And this is that which the Divine Writ terms a pouring forth the heart like water before the Lord the Text doth not say like Oyle some of which will ever be sticking to the vessel that contained it but like Water to signifie That all our thoughts our whole heart must go out of it self and ascend to God And truly if ever now we have need to make this self-examination for when our Souls have as it were quitted their Mansion and travelled to the throne of Grace to beg Mercy and a ceasing of Judgments we may be confident Plagues will be crippled and not suffered to infect our clayie tenements in our spiritual absence For the truth of this we have our Lord and Saviours own Word If ye abide in me and my words abide in you ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you So powerful is fervent prayer with God that it binds his hands and to speak with reverence as it were fetters the Omnipotent one We see it likewise in the case of the Israelites Moses was gone up to the Mount to receive the Law and his stay being longer than the peoples expectation they gather themselves together and will needs have Aaron make them new Gods He out of their golden Earings to gratifie their importunity made them a Calf This accursed peice of Idolatry God resolving to punish says unto Moses Now therefore let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them c. whilest thou prayest thou bindest me do not thus manacle me let my hands be at liberty that I may cut off this stiff necked generation Suitably to this Salvianus commenting upon Psal 33.18 Oculi Domini super justos Aures ejus in preces eorum says when the Scripture affirms the Ears of the Lord to be always on the prayers of the just not only his readiness to hear but a kind of Obedience in God is pointed at as if God were so ready to hear the prayers of his faithful ones that he seems willing not only to hear but to Obey not only to grant what they desire but ready to perform what they command Thus though the Sun comes forth like a Giant and rejoyces to run his race yet He and his fellow Luminary the Moon the bright Mistress of the night by the force of Prayer are arrested and made to stand still till Joshuah and the Israelites had avenged themselves upon their Enemies Josh 10.12 Yea at the prayer of Hezekiah attended with the Divine Rhethorick of Tears the same Sun must recoyle back It might have been enough for Hezekiah's faith to believe the words of Isaiah without any Sign But God to let us see how much he was pleased with the King 's earnest Address stops the very course of Nature and by no less than a miracle declares That he had heard and accepted the voice of those Royal Tears for behold I will bring again the Shadow of the degrees which is gone down in the Sun-Dial of Ahaz ten degrees backward Isa 38.8 And as Prayer hath a power to invert the Course of Nature so likewise can it make Nature act contrary to its own self For fire which naturally towers upward at the Prayer of Elijah descended downward and consumed a Captain and fifty men 2 Kings 1.12 Neither is Prayer the weapon with which we only wound our Enemies but it is to speak with St. Ambrose telum quo vulneramus Cor Dei a weapon with which God himself is wounded as the Spouse in the Canticles speaks Charitate vulneror no other Artillery but this can batter the Cittadel of the great King This is a Truth so evident that the dim light of Nature taught the very Heathens it and therefore as Clemens Alexandrinus tells us they called their God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Protr from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if one should say a God who delighteth in the humble Prayers of hearty Petitioners So that we may well say with Luther Oratio hominis res est potentissima It overth ows Armies turns the course of Nature obtains the greatest blessings averts the greatest Evils and even conquers God himself Let us therefore offer this incense offering this Spirituale thymiama In Matth. Carthusian to its honour observes That the Style of Incense is attributed to no other Theological virtue so truly as to Prayer Nulla justitia thymiamati comparatur nisi sola Oratio for as Incense fired in the Censor mounts in perfumed Curls and casts a grateful odour about the Altar so our Prayers proceeding from hearts fired with holy Zeal ascend to the throne of God and make a sweet smell in his nosthrils But to speak more particularly since prayer is of such a power First Let us pray that we may show our selves Christians Tertullian calls Christians the Candidates of the Celestial Kingdom He alludes to the custome of those Roman Senators that stood for the Consulship who ever visited such as had any votes in their Election and by fair entreaties endevoured to win them to their Side The same we do by Prayer we acknowledge the Supremacy that Christ hath over us and that all our felicity depends upon his only Vote Now as among the Gentiles some were called Platonists others Aristotelians and from the Masters they acknowledged their Instructors so by practising this excellentest of virtues we justly wear the name of him that taught it us Secondly Let us pray That we may not only show our selves Christians but good and pious Christians How

many are there in the World that pass from month to month yea from year to year that scarce ever pray as if there were neither a God to reward nor a Devil to be his Executioner and yet if you tell them they are not Christians they will esteem you the most injurious persons in the world But we must not be content with the bare name of Christianity and think it is enough that our Parents brought us to the Font and that there we received our Christian Livery We must come up to the life of christianity which is Prayer it is that in the Soul which Springs are in Clocks and Watches if they be broke the motion of all the Wheels ceases and if we devote not our selves to prayer all our Theological virtues are idle and as it were pinnion'd in us and therefore St. Chrysostome says excellently Tom. 1. de fide as when a Queen enters a city not only a great Retinue but an amass of Wealth comes along with her so likewise when the Soul is enflamed with a love of prayer all other virtues croud and throng in upon her Of Men it makes us the Temples of Christ Now as gold and precious stones and the richest Marbles constitute the Palaces of Princes so Prayer builds up these Temples of the Son of God that he may dwell in our hearts as in a Sanctum Sanctorum the noblest Seat of his Residence That we may therefore pray aright and like good christians that God may cease the plague and heal our wounds I shall show you what qualifications are necessary First then Our Prayer must be an earnest fervent Prayer it is St. James his character The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much indeed it peirceth heaven and is Clavis Coeli as St. Bernard speaks the Key that unlocks the Treasuries of heaven that it may showre down its blessings upon us We may learn the Nature of this effectual Prayer from the Royal Prophet when he says Ps 141.2 Dirigatur Oratio mea sicut incensum in conspectu tuo Let my prayer be set before thee as Incense in which words he briefly comprehends all the requisites of a fervent prayer by comparing it to Incense First In the Incense was Frankincense Onyx Galbanum Oyle of Cinnamond or Myrrh and Mastich so our Prayer if it be effectually fervent must be mingled with Faith Humility Charity Confidence in God and Patience these as lesser Stars must wait upon this Queen and Mother of virtues this Breviary of the Gospel Secondly This Incense was appropriated to the Temples and lodged in the Holy of Holies so likewise the Soul of Man is the Temple and House of God as St. Paul speaks 1 Cor. 3.16 Know ye not that ye are the Temple of the Holy Ghost we therefore must burn this Incense of Prayer in the inward'st and purest part of this Temple Thirdly This Incense was to be offered by none but the High Priest so likewise all our prayers must be offered up by our High Priest Christ Jesus if we hope they shall prevail for upon this account the Church teaches us to conclude all our prayers with this clause Through Iesus Christ our Lord. Fourthly This Incense was to be fir'd before its grateful perfume could be sented If the High Priest flung never so many handfuls of it on dead coals there came forth no odour so our Prayers are altogether frigid and no way pleasing until kindled by the flames of the Spirit where heat and fervour is wanting in him that prays the very Soul of prayer is absent Fifthly says David Dirigatur Oratio mea c. let it mount let it tend towards thee he that will pray fervently and effectually must have a good end a sincere intention and a constant attention he must not pray like Pharisees to be seen of men that he may purchase the Repute of Religious and holy he must make God and his interest his ultimate end and therefore our Lord the Great Master of Prayer says When thou prayest enter into thy closet and when thou hast shut thy dore pray to thy Father which is in Secret By which he would teach us rather to acquit our selves to God than Man God only being able to reward our Integrity with better blessings than vulgar applause can afford Secondly But in the second place as our Prayer must be earnest and fervent so it must be without ceasing If we would have a Truce with God's judgments it is an argument of an evil heart to proportion our Prayers to the increase or decrease of Judgments for though the rule in Philosophy be That Oratio is quantitas discreta yet in Divinity it is most certain That Oratio ought to be quantitas continua according to the Apostle's Maxime Pray continually and indeed now 1 Eph. 5.17 if ever we had need to be constant in Prayer when thousands dye in a week and every parish yea every street is the fatal Theatre of so many sad Tragedies Is not this a time of trouble when the rich and abler sort are fled citè longè tardè and the poorer through necessity are oblieged to tarry notwithstanding infinite dangers surround them their Servants and their poor children Is it not a time of trouble when Tradesmen become poor and poverty enforces beggary and that unhappy profession cannot keep them from Starving Is it not a time of trouble when trade in general is so Dead that the Sexton and the Grave-maker have the most Employment in the parish Surely this is a time of trouble and this time is our time O therefore let us take up holy David's Resolution and give neither sleep to our eyes nor slumber to our Eyelids till the Lintells of our dore-posts are annointed with the blood of sprinkling that the destroying Angel may pass over our habitations Ask and give not over till you find seek and leave not till you find knock and cease not till a dore of Salvation be opened unto you 3. But thirdly We must lift up pure hearts and holy hands unto God in Prayer It is the work of the Seraphims to be continually crying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabbaoth to express the ardent affection in them and the ready adoration of the Holyness so repeated by them it being that noble attribute that indeed is only proper to God Now if we would take a part in this Seraphick Consort we must endevour to have holiness and purity in our hearts and hands and then our addresses will be musical in God's Ears To this purpose the Schoolman Victorinus observes That a reasonable Soul is the chief and principal glass wherein to see God Ric. Victor lib. de Patriar This the Israel of God must continually hold wipe look on hold lest falling down it sink to the Earth in love wipe lest it be sullied with the dust of vain thoughts look on that it divert not the eye and intention to vain