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
A57651	Gods house, or, The hovse of prayer vindicated from prophanenesse and sacriledge delivered in a sermon the 24 day of February, Anno 1641 in Southampton / by Alexander Rosse ...	Ross, Alexander, 1591-1654.	1642 (1642)	Wing R1955; ESTC R11294	11,257	20

of the mind expressed by a submissive gesture of the body either in uncovering of the head or pulling off the shooe or bending of the knee bowing of the body kissing of the hand c. Now hearing being a passion adoration an action they are in divers predicaments therefore hearing is properly a part of Gods worship or adoration though it be the meanes by which we are taught to worship I have and ever will give Preaching its just commendations yet I will not Idolize it it shall have a roome in the Temple though I place it not on the pinacle it shall be a tenant there but an under tenant The chiefe tenant is prayer the Lord of the house will not take it well that the under tenant shall thrust the chiefe tenant out of doores Where shall prayer dwell if it hath not roome in the house of prayer Am I an enemy to Preaching because I prefer prayer to it was St. Paul an enemy to faith and hope because he preferres charity to them Let me reade to you this divinitie lesson in the phrase of S. Paul Now remaine Preaching Sacraments Prayer these three but the greatest of these is Prayer He that hath but naturall Logick knowes that the end is more excellent then the meanes prayer or the worship of God is the finall cause or end of preaching We preach that you may know how to pray I will pose these men as Christ posed the Pharisees Whether is the gold or the Temple that sanctisieth the gold the greater Whether the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift So whether Preaching or Prayer that sanctifies our preaching be the greater judge you There is much more efficacie in a short devout prayer then in a long tedious Sermon What Sermon did ever open and shut heaven stop the Sun in his full careere adde fifteene yeeres to ones life rayse the dead and quench the violence of fire and yet prayers have done all these Moyses was a good Preacher but by his Sermons he could not prevaile against Amelek his praying not his preaching got him the victorie There is a divell whom preaching cannot cast out but fasting and prayer can Preaching may prevaile with men but prayer prevailes with God and overcomes too The effect of preaching reaches no further then to the eares of those that be present but the vertue of prayer extends it selfe Vltra Garamantes Indos to the absent though they were as far distant from us as the East is from the West I must tell you it is not so much your hearing nor our preachings but our praying that must divert Gods judgements from us and our brethren it s not preaching but asking seeking knocking that shall receive and find and open heaven gates to us I commend you for your often hearing of Sermons God blesse them to you but though you heard never so many and these far-fetched and deere bought too yet without prayer you shall not prevaile and thinke not that your private prayers at home will suffice you must joyne with the Congregation for if the private prayers of Israel and Iudah had beene sufficient to divert Gods judgements from them Samuel Iehosaphat and Ezekiah would never have troubled all the people to meet together at Ierusalem I will shut up all with that saying of the great and holy Patriarch of Alexandria in his Apologie to the Emperour Constantius {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. The prayer of the people in the place of prayer is an holy and decent exercise by which our affections are the more united and God the more easily intreated In a word when wee have done preaching to you and you have given over hearing us The last anchor that you will lay hold on in your last houre when you are rendring your spirits to him that gave them will be the prayers of the Minister to bee your Vade mecum and to accompany your soules towards heaven FINIS Isaiah 56 Ieremie 〈◊〉 7. 15. 〈◊〉 6. Psa. 132. 14. Isay 14. 12 13. Luk. 18. 10. 〈◊〉 3. 5 〈◊〉 11. 22. Iohn 10. Numb 7. 89. ●am 7 5. Chron. 〈◊〉 5. 132. 3. Virg. ●ct 15. 〈◊〉 ●●k 2. 〈◊〉 ●●k 18. ●ct 3. 1. ●ct 22. 7. ●ct 26. 1. Math. ●2

temple at Delphos Diana's temple the seventh wonder of the world at Ephesus and many thousands more One city of Rome could reckon 300. faire Temples in Augustus Caesars time Maxima tercentum totam delubra per urbem I could tell you that the Egyptians spared no cost in building Temples even to Snakes and Crocodiles You 'l say they were mad and I say so too But if it was madnesse to erect Temples to false gods it 's far greater madnesse to destroy the Temples of the true God I can tell you sad stories of those who have either robbed or destroyed even idolatrous Temples Of Camhyses that spoyled the Temples of Egypt of Xerxes and Brennus who robbed Iupiters and Apollo's temples of the stolne gold of Tholousa Of Pompey Crassus and others But if these made fearefull ends that spoyled the Temples of false gods surely he that destroyes the Temples of the true God God will him destroy Not to cloy you with multitudes of examples looke upon the end of Balthasar the prophaner of the holy vessels The fearful end of Iulian the robber of holy Churches And to come neerer home the tragical end of the Conquerours Sons Richard Rufus and Henry the second Son to Duke Robert Looke on these and on all others who have either sacrilegiously or irreverently medled with holy things and you shall see vengeance pursuing them close at the heeles Shall Achan for stealing but a garment dedicated to holy use And Azariah for but offering to strike the Prophet a holy man and Vzza for but offering to put to his hand rashly to the Arke a holy Symboll be so severely punished what shall become of those that have pulled downe the houses of God and rapaciously devoured the Shew-bread the Priests maintenance leaving nothing but crums on the Altar for those that must serve all the other But the greatest mischiefe of all is that Religion is often-times made the cloake to cover sacriledge too holy a garment for so prophane a monster Shall religion the beautifull and chaste Daughter of the Almighty be made a Pander for such hainous impietie Is Religion and the outward splendour or prosperitie of the Church so inconsistent that they cannot live and dwell together Is there no avoyding of superstition but by falling into sacriledge No shunning of Charibdis but by falling upon Scylla There is no necessitie why a man that runs from the smoke should fall into the flame Thou that abhorrest Idols saith the Apostle doest thou commit sacriledge Is there not a meane between both Is he a Physitian that whilst he goes about to cure a sicke man pillages his house and strips him naked of all he hath Sacriledge whilst it cures superstition it kills Religion and if sacriledge be a remedy against the disease of superstition I must needs tell you the remedy is worse then the disease But how ever sacriledge did pretend reformation yet it intended private benefit Iudas pretended charitie when he would have the oyntment sold which was as he conceived lavishly wasted upon Christ but indeed he intended the filling of his owne bag The Churches wealth hath ever an eye-sore to covetous mindes a morsell that many gape after a sop so savorie that though Satan enter with it yet with Iudas they will swallow it it is sweet to the taste but bitter in the maw The Crow in the fable greedily swallowed down the Snake which in stead of nourishing poysoned him Solomon tells us there is a sort of bread that will turne to gravell and though Quailes to the Israelites was sweet meat yet they were seasoned with sowre sauce even the wrath of God fell on the wealthiest of them whilst the flesh was betweene their teeth He that with the Eagle will steale flesh from the Altar shall be sure a coale shall set his nest on fire and whosoever inricheth himselfe with tythes or the spoyles of the Church shall find that he hath put Eagles feathers in his bed which in time will consume all the rest How many houses nay batnes in some places have been built with Church stones but there the stone cryes out of the wall and the beame out of the timber Woe to him that buildeth a Towne with bloud and erecteth a City with iniquitie the lands that have beene purchased with sacrilegious money have proved Aceldama a field of blood which blood hath lighted upon the buyer or his posteritie But I will meddle no longer with this sore it 's immidicabile vulmus become so inveterate and obdurate that the oyle of preaching cannot soften it I will leave it therefore to that great and wise Colledge of Physitians now assembled who if they please they can cure it and so I hope they will And now I passe to the last point the end why Temples are built viz to bee houses of Prayer of which an observation or two and so I will end The house of prayer principally not the house of preaching but by accident Synagogues are the places where Moyses is preached and read every Sabbath day but the Temple is for prayer Anna the Prophetesse knew that who served God with fasting and prayer night and day in the Temple So did the Publican and Pharisee who went up unto the Temple to pray So did Peter and Iohn who went up at the ninth houre of prayer St. Paul praying in the Temple was in a trance When the Jewes sought to kill Paul they found him in the Temple I never read that these holy men stood without at the Temple doore whilst the Priests were praying within as our semi-separatists lately started up amongst us use to doe I wonder what president they have for this out of Scripture that whilst wee are praying within they should stand prating without except they learned it of Christs carnall brethren who stood without but Christ disclaimes such kindred as stay without They that come in as the Apostles did and doe his Fathers will they bee his brethren Of old Christian Churches were called Oratories from praying And when the Eunuch of Ethiopia came up to Ierusalem it was to worship in the Temple and not to stand without till prayers were done and then come in to heare a Sermon as I shewed not long since upon that place which words then were traduced by some as If I had then spoken against preaching I will judge charitably of them I thinke they speake rather out of ignorance then malice but if out of either or both all the hurt I wish them is that they would be children in malice and men in understanding lesse ignorance and more charity would become them well But indeed what I said then I say now that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or adoration mentioned there is not hearing of a Sermon For I never yet read in sacred or prophane writer that hearing is adoration properly for hearing being the reception of the sound is meerely passive Adoration is the action