Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n

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

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76101	The arrovv of the Almighty shot out of the creatures bowe, against the uncalled ministers in England. Or, A messages sent to them to forewarn them of their determined destruction, before it fall upon them. Likewise here is shewed, from whence they had their calling into the ministery; and how all people have been decieved by them. Here is also a glass wherein all formalists may see their own deformity, and so seek after that which is the substance, wherein all their deformity shall be done away. Likewise here is opened the mystery of the Lords Supper, and the mystery in Baptism; and how there is a threefold Baptism, having relation to the three fold name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; with other truths very needful to be known. All of them being laid down in as brief a manner as possiblemay be, for the use and instruction of the Presbyterians, Independants, and Anabaptists, so called; or for the good of all others who have a minde to seek God in a right way; and in the conclusion, a word to the free-gracians. By Geo. Baitman.	Baiteman, George.	1653 (1653)	Wing B1095; Thomason E712_16; ESTC R207148	119,470	138

upon the heart and thus your prayers is turned into sinne and this you have by asking and receiving counsell of your blinde Priest and hereby you make a cover for your selves that you may adde sin to sin this you may plainly see in Isa 30.1 but those who knew or doe know the true ground of Prayer were never tied to set times but to occasions and the occasions being so many made our Saviour give out this caveat so oft Watch and pray Mar. 13.33 and the Apostle who knew the ground of prayer and the many occasions to pray made him bid the Thessalonians pray without ceasing 1 Thes 5.17 and those who know the evill of themselves shall not need to have one to teach them when to pray or how to pray neither can they be tyed to set times for they shall finde that sin in themselves that cannot bee limited to times and therefore they cannot limit themselves to pray against it at times for to those both sin and prayer is unlimitable and this made the Apostle utter his desire in the well-wishing of those whom hee taught in the truth and right knowledge of God and themselves and willed them to pray every where 1 Tim. 2.8 Secondly for the forme you use in your prayer it is but your owne human invention which causeth you to straine your braine drawing out from thence so many words and multiplication of speech and to fill up your houre is oft put to use the same words over and over and so contrary to the command of our Saviour you use vaine repetitions Mat. 6.7 And herein you differ not from the Heathens for they think to be heard for their much speaking and this your beat-braine Duty is but the sacrifice of fooles and yet you know not that you doe evill but this your doing pleaseth your selfe and pacifieth your blinde Conscience and from hence you draw conclusions that God is pleased also making him such a one as your selves Psa 50.21 but those who know the right ground of prayer they are not tyed to times neither are they tyed to a forme in prayer for the true ground of prayer turneeth set times into occasions and it turneth selfe formes and repetitions into short and feeling expressions yea oft times such expressions as you could not heare if you were besides the Persons who uttereth these expressions and those are the cryes that ring and eccho in the eares of the Lord of Hosts and these are the prayers that prevaileth with the Lord in answering and filling the desires of such soules and these prayers and cryes are the very vigorous out-pourings of the Spirit which maketh intercession for the Saints and he who is a Spirit knoweth the minde of the Spirit Rom. 8.26 and in this manner Moses who knew the right ground of prayer called upon the Lord in his greatest distresse not so much as speaking one word that any of the people heard and yet his spirit cryed out so vehemently to the Lord that the Lord said unto him Wherefore cryest thou unto me and all that while his spirit was calling upon the Lord with his tongue he was admonishing the people to beleeve in the Lord as you may see Exod. 14.13 14 15 c. And in this manner Hannah poured out her prayer to God and prevailed with him in the thing she desired though Eli before he knew the truth accounted her a drunkard 1 Sam. 1.13 14. but the truth is that you know not the right ground of prayer and therefore you cannot depart from your set times and set formes and therefore you aske and receive not because you aske amisse Jam. 4.3 And the reason why you have not the right ground of prayer is because you know not God but as a Person and not as he is a Spirit and you know not the wisdome righteousnesse and power of God viz. his Christ but according to the flesh and therefore all your worship and holy duties as you call them is framed according to the knowledge that you have of God and Christ and this knowledge you have is no more but by relation of others as you have heard and seen in the Scriptures and the speaking thereof by your relative Priests and from hence it is that you have formed in your heads an Historicall faith and fantastick beleeving for as yet you have not been in the City of God and what you have heard and seen therein you cannot speake of and no further then you have knowledge of God you can beleeve God and no further then you can beleeve God can you call upon him and what God is in his Spirituall being you have not yet beleeved then how can you call on him in whom you have not beleeved Rom. 10.12 and why is it that you have not rightly beleeved even because you have not rightly heard of God and why is it that you have not rightly heard of God even because you have not had him rightly preached to you by your Priests and the reason why they could not rightly declare and preach God as he is a Spirit and Christ as he was and is in the Divine nature is because they were never sent Rom. 10.14 15. But I know that you may object against me and say that you you have some examples in Scripture both for your set times and set forms of prayer for you will say that David praised at even morning and at noon c. and that our Saviour himself prayed at sundry times and the Apostles themselves used prayer in this manner very oft with others c. It is true I do not deny vocal prayer and times for vocal prayer in case the right ground of prayer be in the person or persons praying for I would have you to understand what I have formerly said for I do not deny but confess occasional praying but that which I deny is the set-times and set-set-forms of prayer which is but good thinkings rules and blinde Priests precepts without any command or example in Scripture but vocal prayer occasionally the persons rightly grounded this is all that you or any can gather out of any example in Scripture And in this wise David oftentimes both prayed and praised and occasionally Christ in the flesh both prayed and praised and occasionally did the Apostles and the believing people in the primitive time both prayer and praise And according to this same rule the Apostle bad those that were afflicted pray and those that were merry he would have them to praise in singing of Psalms Jam. 5.13 And so I would have all men while they be in the body and the body of sin in them to use vocal prayer occasionally and that their expressions may arise from the very sence of the occasion and such prayers or expressions of desires accompanied with the right ground God will hear and answer the desires of such and will deliver them from fear and trouble and then shall such have cause to praise and glorifie

and contained within the New Covenant of Grace And thus in your deceit do you live being deceived and deceiving one another And you are as blinde in what you observe as those that never had eyes to see the Sun and yet by relation of others can believe there is a Sun So you hear by Scripture and Relation there is a God and so beleeves there is a God but yet the Son of God you never saw for as yet your eyes is fast-closed or if some amongst you have a little sight it is but a dark glimpse of the Son of God in these Ordinances and that dark glimpse you have is but of Christ as he was in the flesh and not as he is in the Divine Nature but as the mystery is that you think you see Christ or the Truth of God clearly in these Ordinances and because you say you see therefore your sin remaineth John 9.41 But I know you may object and say That Saint Peter in his first Epistle Chap. 3.2 saith that Baptism saves now under the Gospel It is true he saith so in a figurative speech resembling Baptism to the Water of the Flood which saved some when all the rest was drowned in the same but how did the water save some and drowned others it was not the water it selfe that saved but the Arke and it was not the Arke could save but the living and abiding in the Arke and the water and the Arke together did save the persons in the Arke for though the Apostle say that these persons were saved by water how was it that they were saved by water seeing it was water that would have destroyed them as well as the rest and yet the same water saved from the destruction of it selfe I will tell you how the water saved the Persons from its owne destruction even by its weaknesse it had to save and the nature of it being knowne to be destroying to them that should be overtaken with it from whence the knowledge of the Persons directed them into the Arke and thus was the water an instrument by causing feare to arise in the Persons by which feare they pressed into the Arke wherein they were saved for the water saved as it was an instrument to drive the Persons into the Arke but the Arke it selfe was the chief cause of their saving by their abiding in it and so the Apostle resembleth Baptisme to it with the thing signified viz. the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead for as the water saved as beforesaid from the destruction of it selfe so doth Baptisme as an instrument save all those who know the weaknesse of that type and from the knowledge of the weaknesse of it fearing to be destroyed by abiding in it thereby the soule is led from depending on it and so runneth into the Arke viz. into the death of Christ by the crosse of self-deniall and so into the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead viz. not to looke at Christ in the flesh but in the Divine nature by the power of which the soule is compassed about and saved from the danger of all things acted or created and thus farre Baptisme saveth so farre as the weaknesse of it is knowne and the danger in it manifested and so becometh instrumentall to direct and drive the soule out of it selfe into the thing signified but as the water destroyed all that abode in it without the Arke even so doth Baptisme destroy all soules who live in the forme or type thereof and yet is not inclosed about or incorporated into the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and abideth in him according as he is in the Divine nature and as the persons could not be saved if they kept not in the Arke no more can any foule be safe but as it abideth in the Divine nature as the branch in the Vine Jo. 15.1 2. But I say no more at present of this type of Baptisme because it may be you shall heare somewhat more of it afterwards and I hope by what is said you may partly understand your errour in your foolish conclusions upon it and not to be deceived by the false lying spirit of your blinde Priests so I proceed to speake a word of another principle in your Religion viz. Prayer Now as for Prayer I know there be many commands in Scripture for it and many examples also but for set times and set formes and in prayer you have none according as you use it As for the times of prayer which you use viz. usually evening and morning you have neither command nor example in Scripture but only this you follow by tradition and being led to observe the same by your good thinking and the obligation of your blinded Conscience being wrong informed by the Doctors of errour who limit the holy one of Israel and circumscribe him in a place and draweth formes and Images of him according to their fancy and imagination and so have framed a fantasticall or imaginary worship to him and in that fantastick way have learned to call upon him and so have set out to your selves these set times at which times you can call upon your imaginary God that he will heare your fained prayers and forgive you your conceited sin and supply the imaginary want of your soules and likewise you can praise him for his imaginary mercies bestowed upon your soules and adding to these a great deale of other hypocriticall repetitions to fill up your houre and when that is done then all is well with you and then heart goe whether thou wilt with thy affections for holy duty it is performed and so by this meanes your hearts is let out to goe a whoring all the day long and seeketh fellowship and communion with and in created things and so your thoughts fears cares lover and desires is carried after your chiefe God viz. the world or something contained in it for it being your treasure it hath your heart for where the treasure is there is your heart Mat. 6.21 and looke what hath most of your thoughts that is your god and if you look into your selves you shall finde that the Creature hath more of your thoughts then that God you prayed to in the morning but it mattereth not what your hearts be about all the day long for you have that at command which will cure all and that is your evening sacrifice and duty of prayer and from hence it is that you by your chosen times for prayer have become ignorant of the ground of prayer and having forsaken the ground of prayer and chusing to your selves a set time for prayer the contrary effects is produced viz. prayer proceeding from the right ground is a meane whereby sin is kept from the heart and affections and the heart with the affections is kept from sin but when the ground is changed into set times thereby the heart with the affections getteth liberty to sinne and the creature hath freedome to enter

him Psal 50.15 But in drawing from example of occasions wrong conclusions and so making set-times suiting to others occasions herein you erre greatly as also to draw conclusion from the example of others expressions who spake according to the sence of the occasion For your formal repetitions this also is but foolishness and fantastick conceit without any ground at all and long may you call upon your God even like the Priest of Baal before he grant what you would have onely this I know you may have granted of God even as you have framed him a person in your fancy and comprehended him in a place so he answereth you again by way of your fancy by suffering the Angel of Light oftimes beguile you in making you believe you have received a great deal of comfort and refreshing in your soules from God when it is no more but the deceiveable spirit working in the imagination and fancy I would have inlarged more upon this principle in your Religion but that I would be at some other thing and what is said of this may give you some sight and glimpse of light that you thereby may darkly see where about you are in this your holy duty of prayer for in case you come to see your selfe in this particular you shall know assuredly that you differ not from the Papists themselves for this your holy duty of prayer as you call it was first instituted according to times and formes amongst them and you from them have borrowed that fashion of prayer and you and they are both one in the substance though you differ in some circumstances in your formes yet both of you worship one and the same God in your hearts But no more of this at present But to proceed I speake a word of another principall ground of your Religion viz. your blinde zeale in being so carried out to heare the Ordinances of God as you call them viz. your blinde Priests who have the lying spirit of errour in them by which they have preached to you and having bewitched you with their Charmes they have made you beleeve lyes instead of truth and from hence it is that you are altogether out of the way of the truth both inwardly and outwardly and yet you have no more knowledge thereof nor no more sence thereof then Witches whom the Devill have cheated with his fantastick delusions so that they finding or indeed conceiting they finde such comfort and content in these delusions so that they cannot be sensible of the danger they be in even so are you cheated by your false Priests and have no knowledge at all of the dangerfull deceit you are in but instead of finding out their deceit you are in love with them for their deceiving but no marvell for they have offered chanting powder to you and you have received the same of them and have eaten it in your morsels and so by the vertue or rather poysonable nature thereof you are made to goe and run starke mad after them and in this mad zeale you have lived and doe live in and in so doing you thinke you doe Gods service and seeke to honour him by attending of his Ordinance O poore blinde cheated soules I pitty you for your great ignorance herein for I was in your condition formerly and I had as great zeale in that way as any of you have or can have and I had the same thought of duty that you have yea and I doted in my madnesse upon these your false Priests and did very much adore them I am sure as much as you can doe and I owned them as the Ordinances Oracles and Ministers of God but when the loving kindnesse of God appeared to me and that he was pleased to make the way of his truth knowne to me then did I see my great folly and madnesse and then was manifested to me the great deceit of the Priests and more and more as God was pleased to owne me and teach me so more and more they were discovered to me and out of my love and pitty toward you as my owne flesh and blood I give you warning of them for they are none of the Ministers of God neither ever sent hee them but they have been brought into their places by other meanes as I have somewhat shewed you before therefore as all the rest of your duties and performances taught you by them is but by their owne wisdomes invention so is this also for this duty of hearing them is that which most of all exalteth them for thereby they have both their praise pride and profit upholden and that causeth them to beat so sore upon that very point and layeth load upon your poore blinded Conscience and by help of the lying spirit that is in them they have wrested all the Scriptures to and for their owne purpose in this particular and so have blinded you of the right sence of many places that painted them out in their right colours and have made use of them and applied them for the upholding of themselves and for the opposing and putting downe of all who had more appearance of God in them then themselves and beside when or where they had or have power they took to them the help of the Sword of Justice to uphold themselves and destroy others who had God more clearly manifested in them then themselves and thus have they become the Man of Sin who exalteth himselfe above God or any that are called by the name of God as you shall see plainly opened afterward but in the interim beware of them and thinke not that you performe any acceptable service to God in going to heare them for by this very act of yours you become transgressours against God and so he giveth you up to be deceived and the way of truth is hid from you But you may object and say In case they be not sent Ministers of God yet you may heare them for Christ bad the people heare the Scribes and Pharisees which sate in Moses Chaire and yet they were such as were against Christ and taught the people to observe the Law and yet themselves observed not what they taught to others It is true Christ bad the people observe and doe whatsoever the Scribes and Pharisees taught them but yet he commanded not the people to heare them but only as you may inferre from the other words but in case he had in plaine words commanded them to heare them that maketh not for your hearing of unsent Ministers in our dayes as I shall plainly prove the same unto you For in these last dayes both the Law of Commandement and the Law of Ceremonies and the observation of Circumcision was all in force untill the death of Christ in the flesh but when he spake these words he was in the flesh and so the observation of the ceremoniall Law and Circumcision was tollerable and to be observed of the people and those Scribes and Pharisees who then sate in Moses