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
A45554	A loud call to great mourning in a sermon preached on the 30th of January 1661, being the anniversary fast for the execrable murther of our Late Soveraign Lord King Charles the First, of Glorious Memory, before the Honourable Knights, citizens, & burgesses of the Commons House of Parliament, in the parish-church of Saint Margarets Westminster / by Nath. Hardy ...	Hardy, Nathaniel, 1618-1670.	1662 (1662)	Wing H730; ESTC R9601	30,912	58

as these and that in the solemn Assemblies instead of bare feet we may behold naked breasts of weeping eyes wanton looks of dejected countenances patched and painted faces of ashes upon the head powdred hair and of rough sackcloath gorgeous and fantasticall attire Oh! let us not deceive our selves with the pretences of a sorrowfull spirit whilest our outward behaviour proclaimeth the contrary let us say what we will and pretend what we can I shall as soon believe him to be sober who reeleth up and down the streets as him to be charitable whose hands are not reached forth to the poore as him devout whose gesture is unreverent in Gods worship or him penitent whose posture is bold when he cometh to bemoane his sins before God True it is the most humble posture abstracted from a suitable frame of mind is of no account with God but it is as true that that God who abhorreth the vizor liketh well the face of repentance To disfigure our faces that we may be seen of men indeed is pharisaical but yet with the penitent publican we ought to expresse our fear by standing afar off our shame by hanging down our heads and our sorrow by beating our breasts These external expressions are effecta indicia incitamenta the genuine effects manifest testimonies and strong incentives of our internal affections Which way soever the soul goeth it draweth the body after it we cannot testifie to men our inward disposition but by our outward deportment yea rectius in re affectatâ mens conservatur si corpus simul adhibeatur the mind cannot but be more intent upon any service when the body accompanieth it that therefore our sorrow may appear to be hearty yea that the sorrow of our heart may be enlarged in it self and testified to others let us not only grieve but weep mourn but sigh break our hearts but beat our breasts and use all kind of penitential expressions 3. Great sinning calls for great mourning Grandi plagae prolixa est medicina grande scelus grandi indiget satisfactione saith St. Ambrose truely violent diseases require strong potions festred sores eating corasives and haynous sins heavy sorrow Quam magna deliquimus tam granditer defleamus penitentia crimine minor non sit said St. Cyprian before him our repentance must not be lesse than our crime but how much we have put into the scale of sin so much we must put into that of sorrow Not that there can be an adequation betwixt the guilt of sinne which is infinite and our mourning which how great soever can be but finite but that there should be some analogy and proportion between the measure of the one and the other Not that this is required per modum solutionis as a payment of the debt to which our sins obliege us that must be done by Christs blood not our tears Could we weep an Ocean it were not a satisfactory compensation to God for the least offence much lesse for great faults but that hereby we may expresse that we have a sense of sin in some sort proportionable to the haynousnesse of it Accordingly we find this to be the practice of penitents in holy Writ Manessah was humbled greatly St. Peter wept bitterly not drops but rivers of tears ran down Davids eyes and Mary Magdalens were in such abundance that they washed her Saviours feet There are too many who have but one kind of sorrow for all sin and that God knoweth but slender neither when they have told a lye sworne an Oath or committed any sin though of a grievous nature A God forgive me I am sorry for it is with them sufficient repentance But Be not deceived God is not mocked with such slight sorrow for such offences Our Saviour speaketh of a Devil which cannot be cast out but by prayer and fasting nor can notorious faults be repented of without mourning and weeping He that falleth into the midst of the River must swim hard to get to shore whilest he who falls in by the bank side easily creepeth up he that sinketh into the mud must take more pains to cleanse himself than he that only steps into a puddle Idle words should trouble us but rash oaths must p●●plex us unclean thoughts call for a sigh but actual adulteries for deep groans if we have drawn iniquity with cords and cartropes we must not think to draw repentance with threds if our sins are not only clouds but thick clouds we must not look to escape without a shoure of tears excellently St. Cyprian expostulateth with the Apostate Putas ne tu Deum cito posse placari c. Dost thou imagine that God will quickly be appeased whose Temple thou hast sacrilegiously violated and whom thou hast perfidiously denyed Dost thou think he will easily have mercy on thee when thou wouldst not own him to be thine And may not the like be said of those who blaspheme and dishonour his name by any gross sinnes Surely as that Father excellently goeth on Orare oporlet impensius diem luctu transigere vigilijs noctes ac fletibus ducere c. it behoveth all sorts of great sinners to pray and beg earnestly to spend their day in sorrow and their night in tears yea their whole life in dolefull lamentation to grovel upon the ground and rowle themselves in the dust because of their abominations As our afflictions abound saith St. Paul our consolations abound much more it is true here as our transgressions abound so must our humiliations if our sins have been red as scarlet our shame must be red as crimson if our sins have been a floud our tears must be a river Finally if the cry of our crimes hath been as the roaring of a Lyon our sighs must be as loud thunder claps 4. Our greatest mourning for our sins ought to be because by them we have pierced God That of Christ to the women Weep not for me but weep for your selves would in this sense be inverted we must not weep so much in reference to our selves as him not so much because of the calamity our sins will bring upon us as the injury and dishonour that is done to God What was Josephs argument for prevention of sinne to which he was tempted How shall I do this wickednesse and sin against God should be our reasoning in humiliation for the sinnes we have committed I have done this wickednesse and sinned against God it was so with David who therefore in his penitential acknowledgement cryeth out Against thee against thee only have I sinned and with the predigall who confesseth Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee For this reason it is that penitential sorrow is called by St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sorrow according to God because for sin chiefly not as it is inflictum paenae that which brings punishment on us but offensivum Dei that which