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
A49255	The penitent pardoned a treatise wherein is handled the duty of confession of sin and the priviledge of the pardon of sin : together with a discourse of Christs ascension into heaven and of his coming again from heaven : wherein the opinion of the Chiliasts is considered and solidly confuted / being the sum and substance of several sermons preached by that faithful servant of Christ, Mr. Christopher Love ...	Love, Christopher, 1618-1651.	1657 (1657)	Wing L3171; ESTC R3803	178,515	248

in forgiving of sin I now come to the Use which is for triall to put you on a diligent enquiry how you may know whether God hath brought you into a pardoned estate and hath forgiven the iniquity of your sin how may 〈◊〉 known whether God hath forgiven you your iniquities There are ten wayes to discover this I shall divide them into this order there are six Concomitants that doe attend a person in a pardoned estate and four charactors laid downe in Scripture of a man whose sin is forgiven him First the Concomitants or those things in the Scripture which doe attend or accompany a person whose sin is forgiven First In Scripture wee find that remission of sin is accompanied with renovation of the heart if sin be remitted the heart is renewed they are both joined together Rev. 2. 17. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden Manna and will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it Interpreters doe give this sense of that promise you read of two things a white Stone and a new name written in that stone the white stone it is an expression borrowed from the practice of the Gentiles who in their Judicature did use a white stone If a malefactour was condemned and had the sentence of death past upon him there was given him a black stone in token of condemnation but if a man had a white stone given him it was a token of absolution or pardon Hence the Heathens named these stones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acquitting or condemning stones And so the Poet In antient times with stones they did In judgement seat proceed By black the guilty were condemn'd The just by white were freed In allusion to this Christ doth here promise pardon of sin which is meant by the stone but what must be written on this white stone there must be written on this white stone a new Name that is a renovation the renewing of the heart so that if so be the nature of a man be not renewed the sin of a man is not pardoned therefore ●oe not boast of having your white stone if there be● blanck on that stone if there be nothing written on that stone if holinesse be not written on that stone pardon of sin hath renewing of nature to attend it A second Concomitant is this Remission and forgivenesse of sin is accompanied with endearednesse of love to Jesus Christ this is laid down in Luk. 7. 47. Wherefore I say unto thee her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much It is a Concomitant that did attend her pardon much was forgiven her therefore she loved much For not a cause but consequence of pardon Thirdly forgivenesse of sin is accompanied in Scripture with a cordiall confession of sin unto God I acknowledged my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin 1 Job 1. 9. If we confesse our sins he is faithfull and Just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse Fourthly forgivenesse of sin is accompanied in Scripture with a cordiall forgiving other men all the personall wrongs and injuries that they have done you Mat. 18. 35. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do unto you if ye from your heart forgive not every one his brother their trespasses It is in the Lords prayer annexed forgive us our trespasses Mat. 6. So that forgiving of other men is in Scripture as an Attendant or Concomitant of Gods forgiving us Put on as the Elect of God saith the Apostle bowels of mercy forbearing and forgiving one another A fifth Concomitant that attends forgivenesse of sin is repentance from dead works repentance for sin is a Concomitant that is ever joyned with the forgivenesse of sin Act 5. 31. Him hath God exalted with his Right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins There they are linckt together to give repentance remission of sin It is a Question among the Schoolemen Whether God by his absolute power can forgive a man his sin if a man doth not repent him of sin There are few of them that do incline to the affirmative because God hath expresly tied himself in the Word that pardon must have repentance for sin Wee are commanded to repent that wee may have pardon Sixtly Forgivenesse of sin is accompanied with holy endeavours for the mortification of sin he that hath the guilt of sin pardoned labours to have the power of sin destroyed therefore in Scripture pardoning mercy and subduing grace they are both joyned together Mic. 7. 19. He wi● turn again he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the Sea there is subduing grace as well as pardoning mercy Beloved if God pardon sin there are reall endeavours in a soul to have the power of sin taken away Indeed many men in the world do lay claim to pardon who never have endeavours and holy pursuits after mortification many have counterfeit mortification who playwith their sins like Fencers which it may be given them a touch a slight blow but do not fight like warriers either to kill or to be kill'd but godly men do not play with their sins but doe with their lusts as a warrier they doe conflict with lusts on these terms that either wee must kill them or they will kill us Many counterfeit Christians who do lay claim to reall pardon have but counterfeit mortifications I may fitly resemble such men as these to the Persians who had one Festival annually where in they used this custome that they laboured to finde out all their venomous creatures as Snakes Serpents and the like and one day in the year they would kill all which they found but afterwards they let them encrease Many men in some solemn performances to God will make great adoe of killing their lusts but afterwards they let them encrease and live again And thus much for the six-Concomitants that do attend a person in a pardoned state The next is the Characters to be given of a pardoned man of a man whose sin is forgiven I will name but four Characters of a pardoned sinner Char. 1 First this He who is brought into a pardoned estate doth greatly admire God and abase himself this is laid down in the 7. of Micah the Prophet brings in the Churches crying out in the extolling of God Who is a God like unto thee pardoning iniquity transgression sin a pardoned man admires God because his grace is free his bounty is great and a pardoned man abaseth himself because he seeth sin exceeding sinfull see Ezra 9. 6. Char. 2 Secondly A pardoned man doth maintain a holy dread in his heart from committing that sin that he knoweth to be pardoned a pardoned sinner knoweth this that

time with his Son so that here you see a good man would not second time joyn with an Ahaziah So likewise you have the instance in Judah that was in father in law to Thamar Gen. 28. 26. And Judah acknowlegded them and said she hath been more righteous then I because that I gave her not to Shelah may son and he knew her again no more It was not again done he knew her again no more so as Divines do usually urge it Noah was drunke but never but once and that before he knew the strength of the grape David was adulterous but never but once This therefore shall be one caution Secondly Take this caution that you might not bee emboldned to run often into the same sin if a man doth often commit the same grosse sin it argues a greater strength and prevalency that sin hath over him then all other sins Physitians say that a disease that a man doth often relaspe into argues the strength of these peccant humours that feed the disease if thou often fallest into lusts it argues the prevalency of a lustfull temper In the third place Relapses into the same grosse sin are very dangerous and deadly symptomes of a man in a lost condition I do not say they are such symptoms that infalibly conclude a man to be an unpardonable man I may say as Physitians say of a relapse into the same disease the second time is more dangerous then the first the reason is because the first sicknesse feeds on the ill humours but relapse into the same sickness feeds on the vitall spirits Beloved the falling and relapsing into the same sin is a dangerous symptome it is a clear symptome of the prevalency of that sin It is worth your notice what symptomes the Lord doth give of the plague of leprosie for the Priest to judge that disease by Levit. 13. the first symptome was when the hair was turned white in the fore Divines accommodate that to a continuance in sin to old age that argues you are unclean Lepers Another symptome was when there was raw flesh in the scab Divines accommodate that unto a man being adventurous to sin against a raw a troubled and a wounded Conscience A third sign of the plague of leprosie was when after the sore was healed there should a new scab arise in the place thereof thus when after thou hast healeda sin by vows by fasting and prayer by holy purposes in Christs strength and after the healing the same sore breaks out and the same lust breaks in upon thee this is a dangerous symptome Fourthly that you might not be adventurous on sin and so acuse this comfort consider that falling often into the same sin doth more harden the heart then any thing in the world habituating and indulging a mans selfe into the same road of wickednesse there is nothing in the world doth more harden the heart then when the same sin hath an usual inroad into thy conscience life then all tendernesse and remorse of conscience wil be taken away I speak meerly on this ground that seeing you have instances that men may often fall into the same grosse evils yet let these four considerations keep you from abusing this comfortable point I but you will say if I do fall often into the same sin what may be to stay my heart up that I may be in a pardoned state for all this I say this to you though thou dost fall often into the same sin yet if thy conscience bears thee witnesse thou dost exercise the same grace often in opposition to the same sin thou mayest have a great deal of comfort that thou art in a state of pardon Case 5 The fifth case follows But whether may a godly man that is pardoned pray for pardon of sin Antinomians account this to be needless they account all prayer for pardon to be onely in this sense to wit of pardon and a manifestation of pardon Answ First though it be true that God doth not call a man to pray for those things that are perfectly done so as never to be done again as election and creation yet God doth command us to pray for those things that are still a doing I am not to pray to God to create the world it is perfectly done I am not to pray for Election it is so done as never to be done more I am not to pray for the incarnation of Christ Christ is come into the flesh but though I am not to pray for these things that are so fully and perfectly done yet I am to pray for those things that are still adoing pardon of sin is an act of God that is still in doing therefore the Apostle referrs pardon Rom 3. 24 25. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his bloud to declare his righteousnesse for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God And as sin is remitted and repented of it is pardoned therefore that reason is not valid to take off men from praying for pardon of sin the Scripture doth express it I acknowledged my transgression and thou forgavest Math. 6. 12. and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debters That Plat-form according to which we are to model our prayers the Antinomians would evade the Text and pretend that in that Text and such Scriptures we onely pray for a sense and manifestation of pardon in the conscience and not for actuall exhibition of pardon in regard of God To take off this first the next words in the Petition are to be taken for a reall forgivenesse not a forgivenesse in sense and feeling for consider the whole Petition Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us there can be no reason shewen why the first part of the Petition should be taken for sense and feeling of forgivenesse and the other should not be taken so Secondly consider this that in the same sense you must understand a sin to be forgiven as in Scripture language it is spoken not to be forgiven a sin is said not to be forgiven when there is an actuall guilt lies upon a man a guilt abiding upon the person of a wicked man that is not taken away Mat. 12. 32. And whosoever speaketh a word against the son of man it shall be forgiven him but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost it shall not bee forgiven him neither in this world neither in the world to come They that understand forgiving only in sense and feeling must understand this clause not forgiving onely in sense and feeling and so no reall guilt to lye upon the man so that It is against the nature of forgivenesse to be only forgiving sin in a mans own conscience Case 6 A sixt case is this Whether when a man in suing for pardon ought to make any difference between great sins and small