Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prayer_n	cast_v	devil_n	fast_v	3,166	5	10.2336	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A19862	The wonderfull combate (for Gods glorie and mans saluation) betweene Christ and Satan Opened in seuen most excellent, learned and zealous sermons, vpon the temptations of Christ, in the wilderness, &c. Seene and allowed.	Andrewes, Lancelot, 1555-1626.	1592 (1592)	STC 629; ESTC S100202	68,496	222

in effect alone for his Disciples slept all the while Mat. 26. 40. that vnto him might bee ascribed all the praise Secondly we will note heere that there is no place priuiledged from tēptations as ther be some that think there be certain places to be exempt from Gods presence as was noted in the dreame of Iacob so the Monkes and Heremites thought that by auoiding companie they should bee free from temptations which is not so For although Christ were alone in the wildernes and fasting too yet was he tempted we see And yet it is true that he that will liue well must shunne the companie of the wicked Gen. 19. 17. When the Angells had brought Lot his familie out of the doores they charged him not to tarie nor to stand still nor once to looke backe So after the Cocke had crowed and put Peter in minde of his fall hee went out of the doores and wept bitterly Matt. 26. 75. his solitarinesse was a cause to make his repentaunce the more earnest and helped to increase his teares and companie is commonly a hindrance to the receiuing of any good grace and to the exercising and confirming vs in anie good purpose But as true it is that temptations are and may as well be in the deserts as in publike places not onely in the valleyes but in the mountaines verse 8. and not onely in the countrey but euen in the holie Citie vers 5. yea and sometimes ful and sometimes fasting yea in paradice and in heauen it self for thether dooth the diuell come and accuse vs before God wee are therefore alwayes to stand vpon our gard For in the II. chap. of Luke verse 24. He is said to walke through drie places least happily some might be escaped from him thither and though wee could goe whether hee could not come we should not be free for wee carrie euer a tempter about with vs. And when wee pray to bee deliuered from temptation it is not onely from the diuell but from our selues we carie fire within vs. Nazianzen and Basil were of that minde once that by change of the place a man might goe from temptation but afterward they recanted it affirming that it was impossible to auoyde temptation yea though he went out of the world except he left his hart behind him also The second Sermon Matth Chap. 4. Ver. 2. And when he had fasted fortie dayes and fortie nights hee was afterward hungrie NOw come we to the 7. and last circumstance It may seeme strange that beeing about to present himselfe to the world as Prince Priest and Prophet that he would make his progresse into the Wildernesse and begin with a fast for this was cleane contrarie to the course and fashion of the World which vseth when any great matter is in hand to make a Preface or Praeludium with some great solemnitie As when Salomon came first to his crown he went to the chiefe Citie and gathered a solemne conuent So Christ should rather first haue gone to ●●rusalem the holy Citie and there should haue been some solemne banquet But Christ from his Baptisme began his calling and fasted fortie dayes fortie nights This his fast by the new Writers is called the entraunce into his calling by the olde Writers it is called the entraunce into hi● conflict The manner of the Church hath alwayes been that at the first institution or vndertaking of anie great and weightie matter there hath been extraordinarie fasting So Moses Deut. 9. 9. when he entred into his calling at the receyuing of the Lawe fasted fortie dayes So Elias 1. King 19. 18. at the restoring of the same Law did the like And so when they went about the reedifying of the Temple as appeareth Esdr. 8. 49. So in the new Testament at the seperation of Paule and Barnabas Act. 13. 3. And as Ierome reporteth Saint Iohn would not vndertake to write the the diuine woorke of his Gospell vntill the whole Church by Fasting had recommended the same vnto God So likewise at the entraunce into a conflict for the obtayning of some Victorie as Iehoshaphat did when hee ouercame the Amorites 2. of the Chronicles chapter 20. the 3. verse So did Hester when shee went about the deliueraunce of the Iewes as in the fourth of Hester the sixteenth verse And Eusebius reporteth that when Peter was to enter disputation with Simon Magus there was fasting of the whole Church generally Whether at the entraunce into a calling or to resist the Diuel Saint Peters rule mentioned in his first Chapter and fifth verse ought to take place we must vse prayer and fasting And as at all times wee are to vse watchfulnesse and carefulnesse so then especially when wee looke that the diuell will be most busie and the rather for that in some cases there is no dealing without fasting as Mar. 9. 29. there is a kinde of diuell that will not bee cast out without prayer and fasting As for the number of dayes wherein he fasted iust fortie Curiositie may finde it selfe worke enough but it is daungerous to make Conclusions when no certaintie appeareth Some say there is a correspondencie betweene these fortie dayes and the fortie dayes wherein the World was destroyed by the Deluge but it is better to say As Moses fasted fortie daies at the institution of the law and Elias fortie at the restauration so Christ heere And because hee came but in the shape of a seruaunt hee would not take vpon him aboue his fellow-seruaunts Contrarie to our times wherein a man is accounted no bodie except hee can haue a quirke aboue his fellowes But it is more materiall to see how it concerneth vs. It is a thing rather to bee adored by admiration than to be followed by apish imitation This fast heere was not the fast of a day as that of Peter and of Cornelius Act. 10. 9 30. but such as Luke 4. 2. describeth he did eate nothing al that time Saint Iohn the Baptist though his life were verie strict did eate Locusts and wilde honnie Matth. 3. 4. Ours is not properly a fast but a prouocation of meates and therefore there can be no proportion betweene them but as it is what is to be thought of it Socrates and Irenaeus record that at the first the Church did vse to celebrate but one day in remembrance of Christes Fast till after the Montanists a certaine sect of heretikes who thereupon were called Eucratitae raised it to fourteene dayes the zeale of the Clergie after increased it to fortie after to fiftie the Monkes brought it to sixtie the Friars to seuentie and if the Pope had not there staid it they would haue brought it to eightie and so haue doubled Christs fast When the Primitiue Church sawe the Heretikes by this outward shew goe about to disgrace the Christians by this counterfet shew of holinesse they vsed it also but saith Augustine and Chrisostome they held it onely a positiue law which was in the church to