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Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
prayer_n form_n pray_v set_a 5,316 5 11.1216 5 true
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A75936 A free gift, freely given of God to Henry Abbut and by him freely given to the reader, without money or price. Abbut, Henry. 1684 (1684) Wing A70BB; ESTC R229461 180,833 200

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put themselves forth into the doing thereof they having eaten of the forbidden Tree they having done that which they knew God had commanded them not to do And the eyes of their understanding and knowledge being opened they see themselves naked that is that they have sinned against God and that there is judgment due to them from this God that they have offended and that makes them afraid and to passifie the apprehensions that they have in them of the anger of this God which by that understanding and knowledge that they have of him they know to be due to them for their sins And by that understanding and knowledge that they have of God they know that he is good and that it is good to pray to him and to worship and serve him And the subtile Serpent that by his temptations drew them in to eat of the forbidden Tree the doing of what God had forbidden them to do he perswades them that their eyes being opened by that understanding and knowledge that they have of God they of themselves know what is Gods declared will that they should do in praying to him in worshipping and serving of him and that they of themselves can will Gods will to be done and they of themselves can bring up their wills to do Gods will in performing of their Prayers Worship and Service to God And thus the subtile Serpent perswades them that their eyes being opened they are as Gods to know will and to do all of themselves and so of themselves they pray worship and serve God as they call it and are not contented to be as Creatures to know nothing but as they wait upon God to reveal it in them by his Spirit and to will nothing but what God in his will willeth in them and to do nothing but what God by his Spirit led or draw them forth in the doing thereof Although few are so bold or ignorant of God as to confess with their tongues that they of themselves do know Gods declared will that it is good and that they of themselves can will Gods will to be done in them and that they of themselves can bring up their wills to do Gods will in praying to him and in worshipping and serving of him yet by their actions they manifest the truth of what with their tongues they will not confess for by their actions it doth appear that they do all as Gods of themselves in that they do not wait upon God for him to do it in them by the leadings or drawings of his Spirit in them but they yield to the stirrings movings or drawings of their own wills and as their wills lead them out for to do so they go forth in their Prayer Worship and Service to God as they call it It were well if all those that are in the use of Set Forms of Prayers and those that pray in their Families at set times would consider what is the leading stirring moving or drawing Cause of their so praying and to see whether or no they do pray as the Apostle said of himself and the Saints That they knew not what they should pray for as they ought but as the Spirit it self made intercession for them with groanings that cannot be uttered and that their Prayers be performed in Gods Spirit and in truth or else they are not acceptable to God who is a Spirit I so well love all of them whose Lives and Conversations as to the outward are blameless and use those Prayers as a Sacrifice or Offerings to God as to beg of them to have a care that in the use of them the Serpent do not deceive them as he hath deceived me in praying worshipping and serving of God For by experience I do know that what is done in praying worshipping and serving of God that is not done wholly and alone by the Spirit of God in man and man in the doing thereof to be but an Instrument in Gods hand to do his work by And so indeed and in truth it is no other but God the Son in us praying worshipping and serving God the Father that hath begotten us in himself again unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead And what Prayer Worship and Service is not thus done in God unto God is not acceptable to God and all other Prayers Worship and Service that hath been done in me and called by me Prayer Worship and Service done to God I do now know and have experienced it to be true that it hath onely been done by the subtilty of the Serpent in me in that understanding and knowledge that I had of God that caused me to have high thoughts of my self and that of my self in that understanding and knowledge I had of God I could pray worship and serve God and was as God to my self that is to will what I knew was Gods will and to do what I knew to be Gods will that I should do that is as to an outward obedience to God And now I do know that all that then I did in obedience to God was done in my own will and for my own self-ends And knowing the danger that I was then in being in the womans deceived state and so in the transgression and so in danger of perishing I cannot but out of love and pity to those that are in that state give them warning for them to have a care that they do not fall into that Quick-sand that lieth so hid in man and as an honest Traveller in the outward Land having fallen into a Quick-sand setteth a mark there that so others may have a care of falling into the same place This being the end of all my making known of what I know of the subtil Serpents self-will in me And further to make it more clearer that it is the work of the Tempter in man as man is in the fallen state to perswade man to have high thoughts that of himself in that understanding and knowledge that he hath of God he can know Gods will and can will Gods will and can do what God would have him to do And if this be not the true state of man in the fall to have the subtile Serpent to be thus in him tempting of him I desire then to know from whence it comes that many now see it to be so hard for man to become a very nothing in the Work of his Salvation that so God may be all in it and man nothing but onely as God makes him an Instrument in his hand But they who are not in some measure come to the knowledge of that in them as to know how hard a thing it is to become a nothing in the working out of their salvation that so God may be all in them in that great work of saving of them to them it is as hard to believe the truth of what I have said concerning the experience that some have seen of the Tempter how