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
A76286	Planes apokalypsis. Popery manifested, or, the Papist incognito made known by way of dialogue betwixt a Papist priest, Protestant gentleman, and Presbyterian divine. In two parts. Intended for the good of those that shall read it by L. B. P.	Beaulieu, Luke, 1644 or 5-1723.	1673 (1673)	Wing B1574B; ESTC R232440	78,493	144

I have said before will clear it enough that you made your good success and prosperity an argument of your being Gods Church and people and I shall say more to it anon I only add now that as it is observ'd that where Religion hath been loosest there Fortune hath been most worshipped so when you had broken all natural and religious bonds you made use of the prosperous events of your enterprizes to justifie the lawfulness of them Pr. Well I see you 'll make hard shift but you 'll have something to say But can you find that we attribute to the Sacraments the vertue of working by their own efficacy the grace they signifie which you call opus operatum don 't we rather teach that nothing but Gods Grace can work any good in us and that outward means are useless without it Pa. Yes I do suppose the Sacraments are of no great account amongst you whatever is not of your own appointment is of little use or profitableness though ordained by the first Rulers of the Christian Church or by Christ himself But I could tell you of two or three things of your own devising of as great force and efficacy as any of our Sacraments that is your Covenant your powerful Preaching and your extemporary Prayers of the first I have spoken enough already how you made it a most precious and soul-saving Ordinance and equalled it at least to the Covenants God hath been pleased to make with Mankind wherefore it was to be taken standing uncovered and one hand bare and lifted up which is more of honour and reverence than you afford to the blessed Sacrament of the Body and Bloud of Christ which you receive fitting upon your tails or to any other part of Divine Worship If any one will see more of it let him read Thomas Mokett's Sermons on that subject printed 1642. That your Preaching is likewise very powerful I have evinc'd before in that you call it the Gospel the Word of God and make it in a manner equal to Scripture as proceeding from the same Spirit as Mr. Marshal told the Parliament at a Thanksgiving-Sermon for some good success of yours S. Marshal 1643. p. 3. I should send you home presently and command all of you not to weep to day but to eat the fat and drink the sweet but that I have first some banquetting stuff for your souls such as God hath brought to my hand sure they might make a very soul-refreshing meal on what God himself had prepared Mr. Palmer also pag. 27. How few come prepared to the Ordinances your preaching and Praying Who is it that considers the weightiness of the business he is about that he is now about a soul-saving or a soul-destroying work And accordingly in your Catechising your Converts if they be aged the grand question is When and at what time they were converted for your Preaching works Conversion even as Strong-drink works Madness When you have taught malicious or ignorant people to rail at the Church and to hate it and those that side with it then the powerful Ordinance of Preaching hath done the feat and the man is converted even as the weak-brain fellow that hath lost his reason by too much drinking As for your Praying being it is by the Spirit no wonder if it works strangely Mr. Vavasor Powel a holy man The History of his Life 1671. p. 16. and well worth to be credited though somewhat more Fanatick than you for having a most authentick Testimony and Approbation of fourteen of the chiefest Divines in the Assembly did by his Prayers cure one Mrs. p 18. Watkins of the Parish of Laningg in the County of Brecknock who for two years together had kept her bed and one Elizabeth Morris of New Radnorth who was troubled with the Falling-sickness and Convulsion-Fits and did once in a wet Harvest stop a most fierce rain p. 19. in seeking the Lord and begging for fair weather This will not seem strange if we consider what one of you said That God had kindled the fervent fire of Supplication in your hearts Jehovah-Jireh p. 31. Oh how did the Lord-before and ever since this Parliament began stir up and inflame the fire of supplicating faith or faithful supplication and fervent zeal in private humiliation to seek the Lord in the face of Christ for mercy and reconcilement to our poor Land And then how could that fire that came from the Lord do less than consume and devour every thing that stood in its way As Dr. Owen said to the House of Commons Joh. Owen 1659. p. 14. The Adversaries openly confest That there was nothing left for them to overcome or to overcome them but the Prayers of the Fanatick Crew And as Mr. Coleman said to the same Auditory We prayed at Nazeby 1645. p. ●● 17 they plotted see what end the Lord hath made come and behold the works of the Lord. And at Langport and Bridgewater they could not stand for God was against them We prayed we fought Th. Good 1645. p. 42. we conquered certainly the power of Prayers is destructive And Mr. Goodwin God hath given to those his Saints the Rebels a Commission to set up and pull down by their Prayers and Intercessions Whence by the way might be gathered that you have some kindness for us being you pull'd none down but the Church of England But possibly the efficacy of your Prayers did not so much as the reach of your Piques and Muskets However you see here is opus operatum with a vengeance all the difference is that our Sacraments are of Christs Institution and work Grace only whereas your powerful Ordinances are of your own devising and besides Grace can work destruction Pr. And can you find this one thing more about the Sacraments that we take the Cup away from the people as is the order of your Church positively against an express Command of Christ who said Drink ye all of this Sure you won't say we are guilty of dispensing with such an express Injunction of Christ as you do in this case Pa. No you never took the blessed Cup from the people but you went very near to take away from them the sacred Bread and all You know how seldom and in how few places that holy Sacrament was administred in your reforming times and you know how little regarded still by many of your party since you could preach and pray by the Spirit And yet we are in good hopes that you 'll comply with us in this too for that in another case you can dispense with as absolute a command of Christ that is concerning the Lords Prayer of which he commanded When you pray say Our Father c. Luk. 11.2 But your wisdom hath found it out that 't was enough to say the sense of that Prayer without repeating the very words and then if you should use it the people might be brought to believe that a set Form

of Prayers is lawful according to so great an example which might be a great prejudice to your more spiritual way of praying And so you know our Church hath also many wise reasons for not obeying Christ in this particular Hereby it appears that you can as well as we make bold with an express Law and Ordinance of Christ in what concerns the Worship of God and what matters it though it be not in the same matter they that can in one can in all when they shall think good Pr. I should laugh if you could make it out too that we have amongst us Miracles and Legends as I am sure you have a great many to prove your new Religion by Come try your skill I don't despair but one day you 'll find out the Quadrature of the Circle or the perpetual motion you are so ingenious and so good at making discoveries Pa. I can't tell what I shall do for the first but I am sure for perpetual motion the world is beholding to you for the finding of it out for when you taught the people that nothing must be done in Divine Worship but what is commanded in Scripture and that therefore the Liturgy was to be put away they finding that the order appointed in the Directory was no more to be found in Scripture than the other took it away too and so your Thorough-Reforming by such an unlimited Principle set a Wheel a going whose motion 't is likely will be perpetual You reformed the first Reformation others reformed yours and others that and so on it went and I believe will go as long as there is any brains in Schismatick-heads to keep on the Circulation But 't is a thing so plain that you also have Legends and Miracles to perswade the people of the Diviness of your new-contrived way of Worship and Discipline that my making of it appear will deserve none of your commendations I could tell you of a secret way of whispering Legends fine well-made stories of Bishops and Priests when the Brethren meet together but possibly those that don't know you so well as I do would not believe me therefore I 'll instance in a few of a great many that are upon record p. 8. Mr. Vavasor Powel saw several times the Devil appearing to him sometimes stamping upon the Chamber-floor and sometimes blowing a strong cold wind upon him and several other ways once it was revealed to him that he and two of his friends should be wounded in the Island of Anglessy p. 17. And another time he being in his bed p. 130. there appear'd to him a bright shining light and in the light a speckled Bird which bad him read Mat. 3.2 Mr. Cook likewise no Divine I confess but yet a man that well deserves to be credited for being an holy Covenanteer going over into Ireland and meeting with a great and fearful storm which frighted him to some purpose God as he saith put in his mind the chief places in Scripture concerning the Seas and then it follows I prest my dear Christ not to drown us for said I we fight for thy Kingly Office throw the Egyptians and all thine implacable Enemies in the midst of the Sea but let us be preserved Yet for all his fear and danger he fell asleep and then as he saith pag. 6. he saw a large Room in the midst whereof was a long Table and upon that Table an ordinary Carpet two Candles two Trenchers of Tobacco some Pipes in the Room there was a man of a middle stature his hairs were white and curling at the end but the hair of his upper lip was brown his cloaths were of a sad colour and upon his head was a Cloth-broad-brim Hat and he told him he waited upon Jesus Christ and carried him to his Master who told Cook that he should not be drowned hearing that he belonged to the Protector Traytor and other strange things which yet proved true in the event Here be as you see most miraculous Visions the particulars whereof are related with such exactitude that I believe none but Malignants ever doubted of the truth of them But I must not relate particulars my Book it self should be a miracle in bigness if you please to read the Mirabilis Annus that was printed in 1662. there you shall find as the Author saith many signal and miraculous judgments and accidents befallen those that have molested the Godly for Nonconformity And also Mr. Vicars Looking-Glass for Malignants will furnish you with many wondrous stories of the terrible and most dreadful judgments that befel the Malignants from 1640. to 1643. when the Book was printed These Books for Miracles and fine Tales may deservedly be ranked among the most fabulous Legends that ever were printed and though 't is likely the Authors did not believe them yet they served your turn Those pious frauds won more Proselytes to your side than any thing else next to your Weapons all the difference is this that our Miracles are wrought by the Saints and yours for the Saints Pr. And so you cunningly insinuate that we have Saints as well as you What don't you know we will not so much as call Peter and Paul Saints we are so far from praying to them or keeping days in their honour Prove it if you can that in this particular your Doctrine and ours hath the least resemblance and then without instancing any more I 'll make it appear that you have taken a great deal of labour to little purpose Pa. What! I have mentioned your Saints forty or fifty times out of those of your Authors whose words I have cited and now you speak as if you had none at all Why man there is no people under the Sun that owns so many as you 't is true you won't call the blessed Apostles and Martyrs by the name of Saints that would be Popery and Superstition but you 'll call your selves so very freely and humbly and without any scruple for it seems that is your due and not theirs any one that would throw a stone against the woman surprized in Adultery was ipso facto made a Saint contrary to what happened in the Gospel I mean that every one that would help to throw down the Whore and Jezabel as you call'd the Church were thereby immediately Canonized so that the worst of Fanaticks who help'd to do the work have still retained the Saintship you bestow'd upon them though since they have departed from you As Thomas Brooks in a Sermon dedicated to Sir Tho. Fairfax 1648. p. 15. To do gloriously is to appear for the Saints and side with the Saints let the issue be what it will O it is a base thing in those that have appeared and sided with the Saints now to prove treacherous and let the poor Saints shift for themselves And so before that in 1646. Mr. Cheynel instructed the Parliament concerning the Saints in this manner I am so far from endeavouring

to persecute Saints p. 37.38 c. that I humbly desire that we would all study how to make more Saints Oh it will be a comfortable work to gather and order Saints of our own making Nay though some of the Saints were froward and perchance unruly yet because they helpt to do the work of the Lord they were not to be blotted out of the Calendar for he saith a little before Saints must not be persecuted though they be peevish nay desperate I must not out of a sullen humour deny a peevish Saint the right-hand of fellowship But enough of this you shall find scattered up and down this Book Now as for your keeping of days for the old Saints I confess you are not for that neither do you keep any for Christ that would be you know what But you know also that when the designs of the new Saints were blest with success there was by Authority a day kept in remembrance of it with much solemnity So it seems the destroying of the Kings Forces was a mercy great enough to make a Holy-day of it but it would be Idolatry to do the same in remembrance of those precious mercies the Church receives from what Christ did and suffered for her and his holy Apostles after him As for praying to the ancient and despised Saints it would be to no purpose your new ones having got their place and belike their power too we have seen already that your prayers are effectual beyond what their intercessions could be which is the reason I suppose that when any amongst you is going a Journey or hath some other design in hand or feels the want of any temporal or spiritual thing he desires the prayers of the Saints in your Conventicles So there appears to me no other difference in the case but that our Saints are dead and Canonized by the Pope whereas yours for the most part are alive and of your own making Now I hope I have satisfied you and made it appear that you come much nearer to Popery than the Church of England which by your own confession hath nothing common with us that 's bad but a few Ceremonies and this of order which don't much concern Religion and which according to your Chronology were in the Christian Church long before Popery whereas you own both in belief and practice many of the Popish Doctrines which are counted the worst of our errours only you disguise them a little and put them in a Presbyterian Garb. Pr. Worthy Sir you might have spar'd your great pains for all you have said will not perswade any one man that we have any good will for the Papists 't is too well known that there is an irreconcileable antipathy betwixt them and us No we detest those opinions and practices of yours which you would perswade the world we approve and imitate and we agree with you in nothing that other Protestants disagree in Pa. Yes we do we both hate the Church of England I am sure we are agreed in that except you have gone beyond us as I remember Mr. Love said when there was an overture for peace pag. 42. At Uxbridge Is it likely to have peace with such men as these We can as soon make fire and water to agree I had almost said reconcile Heaven and Earth But there is enough said already to prove that As for your disclaiming friendship with us it only perswades me that you are of those generous Friends who oblige people behind their backs without desiring that any notice should be taken of it for to use Mr. Loves words pag. 22. When ●ou had put down the Pests and Plague-sores of the Kingdom Episcopacy and common-Common-Prayer Books you thereby advanced our interest greatly and did us a notable piece of service for then you left no visible Church no known Rules of Doctrines no set form of Government and Discipline so that whilst your tedious Rabbies were hammering in their brains the new form of a future Church according to their several fancies or according to the Pattern in the Mount the people were fain to betake themselves some to the Communion of our Church as not a few did and other some to Madness and Enthusiasm as did a great many more And besides the scandal which you brought upon the first Reformation by your fine doings was so great that thanks be to you it hath perswaded a great many that there is no safety but in the Church of Rome where there is a constant union and order So we find a Book printed in 1652. call'd A Beacon set on fire or an Information of the Stationers to the Parliament concerning the great advancement the Papists made and the many Books they printed as also the many blasphemous Books which others put out And in the seasonable Exhortation of the London Ministers 1660. they tell us pag. 10. That all manner of blasphemous and horrid Opinions were openly written and published that there was in many Atheism and contempt of Religion in others Scepticism and Irresolution in many and that some were grown to that heigth of wickedness as to worship the Devil himself And there they complain also That some by their back-sliding and apostacy fell from the truth to Popery as being the only Religion wherein unity and order was retained All which how naturally they issued from your late doings and how much the Pope and Devil were beholding to you for I leave to your own conscienciousness to consider And one thing more that makes me believe that you have more kindness for us than you own by words is that you destroy'd the King and the Church of England by the same means that were appointed by Campanella a cunning Politician and a great Enemy to Protestants pag. 160. The English Bishops it should have been Puritans are to be exasperated and put into fears and jealousies by telling them that the King of Scotland King James turned Protestant out of hope but that he will quickly return to the former Religion when he is establisht in the English Throne The same advice is also lately given by the Marquiss de C. in his Politique de France in that Chapter that treats of England That counsel was followed by you and prov'd successful the outcry whereby you rais'd the people against our late martyr'd Sovereign was Popery Rome Babylon therefore after all this judge you whether we must not be very ungrateful if we did not ingenuously acknowledge that we are highly beholding to you Pr. All that signifies nothing for we differ from the Church of England only in some few Ceremonies being agreed as to the Essentials both of Doctrine and Discipline We honour the first Reformators of this Church and we are perfectly agreed with the reformed Churches beyond Sea which we love and reverence and desire to imitate and when you have said all you can this will be truth still and I am sure will be believ'd so to be by all rational