Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prayer_n	church_n	hand_n	imposition_n	2,100	5	10.5630	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91515	Aqua genitalis a discourse concerning baptism. First delivered in a sermon at Alhallows Lumbardstreet, Octob. 4. 1658. and now a little inlarged. Into which is since inserted, a brief discourse to perswade to a confirmation of the baptismal-vovv. / By Symon Patrick, B.D. minister of the Gospel at Battersea.	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1659 (1659)	Wing P747; Thomason E2142_2; ESTC R210125	49,818	131

in a little Tractate be upon that occasion wrote on this Subject to justifie the antient and good practise of this sacramental Rite as Bucer calls it thus speaks Cap. 1. Confirmation is an antient Ecclesiastical custom of the Church used after Baptism consisting in Examination and Imposition of hands with effectual prayer for the Ilumination of Gods most holy Spirit to confirm and perfect that which the Grace of the same Spirit hath already begun in Baptism The benefits of this Confirmation are divers whereof the first is That men expecting Examination and tryal from their spiritual Fathers they might more willingly acquaint and carefully season themselves with the grounds of Christian Religion before malice and corrupt examples depraved their minds c. Secondly It serves that when they come to years of Discretion they should publiquely make confession of that faith themselves which others had promised for them in Baptism to the discharge of their sureties and the good examples of others Thirdly That by such confession they might make profession of difference from all Jews Turks and Infidels out of the Church Hereticks Schismaticks and prophane persons in the Church Fourthly That then especially when they first come to the use of Reason beginning to fall into sundry kinds of sin and being least able to resist for want of experience by Imposition of hands and prayer they might receive strength and defence against the temptations of the World the Flesh and the Devil Fifthly That the Prelates and chief Guides of Gods family to whom the cure of souls belongeth finding upon due Examination some part of their own heavy burden discharged might from thence reap Comfort in beholding those fair Foundations already laid and glorifie God Whose praise they found in the mouths of Infants This kind of Confirmation were there no Authority to countenance it is in my Judgement so usefull in the Church of God that upon good reason it might be entertained among Christians But for further confirmation of it we are incompassed with a cloud of witnesses and that so plentifully out of all Antiquity as it might seem a kind of Ambition or lost labour to quote their names Wherefore I will only alledge the soundest of those who since the Reformation of Religion and clearer Light of the Gospel in their several Writings have approved and highly commended this antient custom And bringing in Bucer Melancton Zuinglius Chemnitius and others to speak to this Truth he cites Mr. Calvin among the rest in these words John Calvin in his fourth Book of Institut●on in theVpshot of the chapter of Confirmation Cap 19. Para. 13. not only commendeth the antient use of it but the abuse being removed heartily wisheth it restored And because his Authority is not without desert of great weight I will set down his words as I find them Would to God saith he we retained that custom which I have already declared to have been in use among the Antients before that abortive Vizard of a Sacrament was put upon it And a little after If this part of Discipline were now a dayes in force the slackness of many Parents would be much quickened who pass over the Institution or Instruction of their Children as a business nothing pertaining to them which then without some publique disgrace they could not omit Besides There would be less Ignorance and more concord in Articles of Faith among Christian people neither would they so easily be carried away with new and strange Opinions FINIS

must not only make a face and spit when we hear the Devil named but we must abhor his works and defie all his filthy lusts and have our very stomack rise at all that comes from hell And so men would were they not jugled into a belief that they defie the Devil while he embraces them in his arms I remember a story in the life of a Romish Religious S●or Maria Ma●dalena de Patsi how that she should see one day in a vision the soul of a sinner dragged to hell and beyond the mercy of purgatory for not having in account the spiritual treasures of the Church but despising both indulgences and all other graces which she grants her Children So doth the Devil labour to nurse in mens hearts a perswasion that outward things can save them and that he can do them no harm if they be baptized keep the Church say their prayers and receive the Ministers blessing which is all they think that Baptism ingages them unto and they make the same use of Christ that others do of the Pope thinking to buy a pardon if they have not one already by the profession of such a holiness as the Devil if he were incarnate need not be afraid of but might swear he would maintain O what pitty is it that Christ should be thus abused and his institutions perverted and souls undone when it is so plain what he would have us to do that we may be saved But will not some little sprinklings of holiness serve the turn may some say May we not allow some place for self-pleasing and gratifie our own desires sometimes seeing we wallow not alwayes in filthiness No Baptism though only upon the face signifies the washing of the whole man from spiritual pollutions and though only once administred puts us into a state of purity which must not willingly admit of any defilement And let those men know that have their good moods their cold fits of Repentance and their hot fits of zeal that use Religion as the Papists do holy water when they are entring into the Church and going to perform some devotion that Christ owns no such Disciples They were not baptized in luke-warm water but were ingaged in a state of mortification and entred into Christs death and he expects a constant performance of obedience Aelian l. 4. var. hist cap. 1. There were a people in Illyricum that were washed but three times in all their lives at their birth at their marriage at their death And they may be a picture of most Christians amongst us who in their Infancy are washed in Christs nam and then perhaps against some solemn time when the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is near they begin to put away their sins and perhaps baptize themselves in tears and deck up themselves as though they would meet the Bridegroom and be married unto him and of this you shall hear no more unless at such a time as that till death tell them that he can stay no longer and some sickness arrests them then they begin to slubber and cry to sigh and groan as if by tears they could wash away their guilt and by a few sighs and good wishes blow away the black cloud of wrath that hangs over their heads They make Religion to be a few strong pang● of devotion at certain times of their life and Christ to be pleased with any thing glad of any company and heaven to be an empty void place that wants Inhabitants much like to the new found world whither we send the most rascal people But Christ will shortly appear to all the world to confute all such men and he will drench them in seas of fire the floods of his wrath shall overwhelm them and they shall never rise again But is there such great danger then may some say Will not God be something more favourable to us then other men and will not the waters of Baptism a little quench and cool the flames Cool them No they will be like water upon lime which will make it burn the hotter Even this will be pleaded against you that you were baptized If a Souldier sworn to Caesar should forsake his Camp and flie to the Turks would he not be punished more then a stranger when he was taken and suffer as a false and treacherous fellow as a Run-agate and a perjured person Who would admit of such a plea from his mouth I am no forsworn Wretch I never denyed Caesar nor renounced my Allegiance to him no man ever heard me speak a word against him Might it not easily be returned to him but thou didst deny him in thy Actions thou hast more then forsworn him for thou hast fought against him yea thou hast joined with a Tyrant with the greatest enemy the Emperor hath and the sworn foe of all Christians if such a Fellow should live who should die What is the Ax and the Gibbet made for if not for such trayterous Villains The Gallows would think much if thou shouldst be reprieved Thou readest thy own case O Christian if thou livest in sin and fidest with the Devil and takest thy share with the world whom thou hast renounced in word but not in deed What though thou dost not call the Lord Christ a Deceiver What though thou dost not revile the holy name whereby we are called thou dost a great deal worse thou bendest all thy forces thou hast against him as if he were a thief and a Robber thou labourest to destroy his Kingdom thou tramplest under foot the blood of the Covenant and makest Christ unto thee of none effect Which is the worst enemy he that speaks thee fair and with a kiss stabs thee to the heart or he that bids thee stand upon thy guard and declares himself resolv'd against thy life I will assure you Turks are not such enemies to Christ as those that pretend to him and yet do him all the despight they can in their lives Better had it been for them that some band of souldiers had ravished them from their mothers breasts and listed them under Mahomets banners better had it been for them to have been Janizaries then to own and acknowledge the Christian Profession and live so prophanely without God in the world Heathens may sin at a cheaper rate then we because they never made any such Promise unto God They may do evil with a better front and more confident countenance that never received any such mark in their forehead But a Christian face which is besprinkled with clean water in the name of Christ should blush methinks at any impurity and the mark of Christ that is upon him should make him more modest then to sin But if he will besmear himself again and have the impudence to out-face Christ he shall pay dearly for it For he breaks his vow to God and thereby comes under the curse which is annexed to the Covenant as well as the Promise And all these terrible