Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prayer_n	forgive_v	lord_n	trespass_n	3,485	5	11.3824	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27054	The true and only way of concord of all the Christian churches the desirableness of it, and the detection of false dividing terms / opened by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1680 (1680)	Wing B1432; ESTC R18778	282,721	509

of the spirit to hear men in prayer and thanksgiving to be much and fervent for the Churches and for all the world and to make it the first and heartiest of their requests that Gods name may be hallowed his Kingdom come and his will be done on earth as it is done in heaven and not to be almost all for themselves or for a sect or a few friends about them as selfish persons use to be 68. A very fervent desire of Vnion con●ined to some few that are mistaken for all or the chief part of the Church with a ●ensorious undervaluing of others and a secret desire that God would weaken and dishonour them because they are against the opinions and the interest of that sect or party is not only consistent with Schism as I said before but is the very state of Schism called Heresie of old And the stronger the desire of that inordinate separating Unity is as opposite to the Common Vnity of all Christians the greater is the Schism Even as a bile or other aposteme or inflammation containeth an inordinate burning collection or confluence of the blood to the diseased place instead of an equal distribution CHAP. III. II. The necessity and Benefits of this Unity and Peace II. THE Necessity and excellency of the Vnity of the spirit and peace will appear in these respects 1. For the good of the particular persons that possess it 2. For the good of Christian societies 3. For the good of the uncalled world 4. For the Glory and well-pleasing of Jesus Christ and of the Father of these in order 1. For the good of each particular person that possesseth it 1. It is the very Health and Holiness of the soul and the contrary is the very state of sin and death What is Holiness but that Vniting Love by which the will adhereth to God and delighteth in his Goodness as it shineth to us in his works and specially in Christ and in all his members and in a common sort in all mankind And what is the unholy state of sin and death but that Con●ractedness and retiring to our SELVES by which the selfish person departeth from the due Love of God and others and of that holiness which is contrary to this his selfishness So far as any mans Love is contracted narrowed confined to himself and to a few so far his soul is indeed unsanctified and void of the Vnity of the Spirit or the Spirit of Vnity If a man lived in banishment or a prison uncapable of doing others any good yet if he have that Love and spirit of Unity which inclineth him to do it if he could this is his own health and rectitude and acceptable unto God Little do many Religious people think how much they do mistake unholiness and sin it self for a degree of holiness above their neighbours When they contract and narrow their Christian Love and Communion to a party and talk against the Churches of Christ by disgraceful and Love-killing censures and reproaches as being not holy enough for their Communion this want of the spirit of Love and Unity is their own want of holiness it self It was the old deceit of the Pharisees which Christ the messenger and mediator of love condemned to think that holiness lay more in sacrifices and Ritual observances and in a strict keeping of the Sabbaths rest and such like than in the Love of God and all men And the lesson that Christ twice set them to learn was I will have mercy and not sacrifice He hath most grace and holiness who hath most of the spirit of Love and Unity 2. It is the souls necessary qualification for that life of true Christianity which God hath commanded us in the world It is this inward Health which must enable us to all our duty 1. Without this spirit of Vnity we cannot perform the duties of the first table unto God Our sacrifices will be as loathsome as theirs described Isa 1. and Isa 58. If we lift not up pure hands without wrath and wrangling or disputing for so I would rather translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 2. 8. than doubting our prayers will not be acceptable to God Though it be Christs worthiness for which our prayers and services are accepted yet there must be the subordinate worthiness of necessary qualification in our selves For Christ himself hath annexed specially the express mention of this one qualification in the Lords prayer it self Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us and he repeateth it after For if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will forgive you your trespasses but if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your heavenly Father forgive you Mat. 6. 13 14. Love is here included in forgiving as a cause in its effect And Christ rather nameth forgiving than Love because men may pretend to that act which is secret in the heart but if it should not work in the necessary fruits of which forgiving others is one it would be but a vain pretence And here I intreat the Reader to consider a while the singularities of this passage of Christ 1. That men that must trust in Christs merits and mediation must yet be told of such an absolute necessity of a Condition or qualification in themselves 2. That Forgiving others as an Act of Love is singled out as this qualification 3. That this condition must be put into the very prayer it self that our own mouths may utter it to God 4. That it must be annexed to this one petition of Forgiveness rather than any of the rest where men are apt to confess their own necessity and where many are readiest to think that Gods mercy and Christs merits and mediation must do all without any condition on their part They that know that their daily bread and deliverance from temptation and evil must have some care and endeavours of their own are yet apt to think that the Forgiveness of sin needeth nothing on their part but asking and receiving 5. That Christ should after single out this one clause to repeat to them by urgent application And yet how little is this laid to heart And indeed the first word in the Lords prayer Our Father teacheth us the same lesson How needful a qualification Love and Vnity are to all that will come to God in prayer He that teacheth us that to Love our neighbour as our selves is the second summary Commandment and even like to the first which is Love to God for it is Loving God in his Likeness on his works doth here call us in all our prayers to express it by Praying for our brethren as for our selves O that men of wrath and wrangling were truly sensible what affections should be expressed by that word OVR FATHER and with what a heart men should say GIVE US and FORGIVE US and how far VS must extend beyond ME and beyond OUR PARTY or our side or our Church in the

dividers sense I tell you if you will be welcome to God in your prayers or any other religious services you must come as in Vnion with Christ and with his Universal Church God will receive no one that cometh to him as alone and divided from the rest As you must have Union with Christ the Head so must you have with his Body A divided member is no member but a dead thing Little think many ignorant persons of this who think that the singularity and smallness of their sect or party is the necessary sign of their acceptance with God Because they read Fear not little flock As if a little flock must separate from Christs little flock for fear of being too great And as if his Flock which then was but a few hundreds must be no greater when the Kingdoms of the world are become his Kingdoms Yet such have there been of late among us who first became as they were called Puritans or Presbyterians when they saw them a small and suffering party But when they prospered and multiplyed they turned Independents or Separatists thinking that the former were too many to be the true Church And on the same reason when the Independents prospered they turned Anabaptists And when they prospered they turned Quakers thinking that unless it were a small and suffering party it could not be the Little flock of Christ As if he that is called The Saviour of the world would take it for his honour to be the Saviour only of a few Families or Villages and his Kingdom must be as little as Bethlehem where he was born Should they take the same course about their Language and say that it is not the language of Canaan but of the beast if it grow common and so take up with a new one that it might be a narrow one the folly of it would discover it self And what is the excellency of a Language but significancy and extensive community and what greater plague since Adams sin hath befaln mankind than the division of tongues as hindering communication and propagation of the Gospel And what greater blessing as a means to universal Reformation could be given men than an universal common language And what is the property of Babel but division and confusion of tongues And doth not all this intimate the necessity of a Union of minds While we keep in the Vnity of the Body and spirit we may we must strive for such a singularity as consisteth in an excellency of degree and endeavour to be the best and holiest persons and the usefullest members in the body of Christ But if once you must separate from the body as too good to be members of so great or so bad a society you perish God will own no Church which is so Independent as not to be a member of the universal not any person who is so independent as not to come to him as in Communion with all the Christians in the world We must not approve of the faults of any Church or Christian and so communicate with their sin by Voluntary consent But disowning their sin we must own them as Christs members and have communion with them in faith and Love and holy profession of both and while we are absent in body must be as present in spirit with them and still come to God as in communion with all his Church on earth and offer up our prayers as in conjunction with them and not as a separated independent thing 2. And as our Vnity is part of our necessary fitness for duties of holy worship so is it also for duties of the second table that is of Justice and Charity to men And this is evident in the nature of the thing No man will be exact in Justice till he do as he would be done by And who can do that who Loveth not his neighbour as himself What is our unity but our Love to others as our selves And how can we do the works of Love without Love It is divided SELF that is the cause of all the unmercifulness and injustice in the world Unity maketh my neighbour to be to me as my self and his Interest and welfare to be to me as my own and his loss and hurt to be as mine And were he indeed my self and his welfare and his hurt mine own you may judge without many words how I should use him whether I should shew him mercy in his wants and misery whether I should rejoice with him in his joy and mourn with him in his sorrows whether I should speak well or ill of him behind his back and whether I should persecute him and undo him whether I should defame him and write books to render him odious and to perswade the rulers that he is unworthy to have the liberty of a Christian or of a man to preach to pray to be conversed with or to live Would not uniting Love make a wonderful change in some mens judgements speeches and behaviour and make those men good Christians or good Moralists at least who now when they have cryed up Morality and Charity and good works would perswade men by the Commentary of their practice that they mean Malignity cruelty and the propagating of hatred and all iniquity Where there is not a dominion of LOVE and UNITY there is a dominion of SELFISHNESS and ENMITY and how well these will keep the Commandments which are all fulfilled in LOVE how well they will do good to all men especially to them of the houshold of faith and provoke one another to Love and to good works it is easie for any man to judge Once alienate mens hearts from one another and the Life will shew the alienation 3. This UNITY of SPIRIT and spirit of unity is our necessary preservation against sins of commission as well as of omission as aforesaid even against the common iniquities of the world LOVE and UNITY tyrannize not over inferiours contrive not to tread down others that we may rise and to keep them down to secure our domination They oppress not the poor the weak or innocent They make not snares for other mens Consciences nor lay stumbling-blocks before them to occasion them to sin nor drive men on to sin against Conscience and so to hell to shew mens authority in a thing of nought Had this ruled in Ahab and his Prophets Michaiah had not been smitten on the mouth nor fed in a Prison with the bread and water of affliction nor had Elijah been hunted after as the troubler of Israel Had this unity of spirit ruled in Jeroboam and in Rehoboam one had not stretcht out his hand against the Prophet nor the other despised experienced Counsellours to make heavier the burdens of the complaining people Had it overcome the SELFISHNESS of the Kings of Israel their Calves and High places had not engaged them against the Prophets and been their ruine Had it prevailed in the Kings of Judah and their people Jeremy had not been