Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prayer_n	pray_v	spirit_n	supplication_n	6,826	5	11.2274	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27360	A sermon preached at the funeral of M. Anthony Hinton late treasurer of St. Bartholomews Hospital on the 15th of November, 1678, at St. Sepulchres Church / by William Bell.	Bell, William, 1626-1683.	1679 (1679)	Wing B1811; ESTC R24054	16,767	41

Superiours It is then as imprudent as it is ungrateful like Sons of Belial to shake off that easie yoak that protects where it restrains and by keeping us in order keeps us in safety too Let the Law of the Land subdue that of our Lusts Let us study to be quiet and to do our own business And leaving the Steerage of the Vessel to those that sit at the Helm let us keep our own Cabins and there strengthen and encourage our Pilots by our Devotion and by our Subjection In things indifferent let us walk by the rule of Charity but of Charity first to the Church our Mother and as we owe to her our better birth so let us pay her our better Honour Her love first descended on us before ours could ascend to her and now we are able let ours ascend to her before it spread to the Brethren 't is the Method and order of Grace as well as of Nature In pursuance of which let us not dispute her Wisdom or her Authority in confining our practice in what makes for Decency or Order whereof she is certainly a more competent Judge than her Children In God's name let us search the Scriptures for every circumstance of Worship but then let us not conclude we find not this thing commanded there therefore we dare not do it but rather we find not this thing there forbid therefore we may do it Rom. iv 15. for where there is no Law there is no transgression If we doubt the Command of Authority supersedes the doubt But while we peremptorily avoid what is indifferent we meet that Judaism we pretend to run from and are too superstitious whilst we would not be at all so Nay we lose that liberty whereof we are so tender as byassed to one side and that against the Powers that are set over us we are easily drawn away by those who have no right to guide us but are restiff and head-strong to those that have a right to our obedience like debauched Gallants who value their Curtizan above their Chirurgion and will give more to get a Disease than to have it cured Where the Word is silent we have our Liberty but let us not use it for any occasion of the slesh 1 Pet. ii 16. The Primitive Christians when confined to a few things made necessary by the Precept and not so in themselves such as abstinence from things strangled Acts xv 31. and from bloud are said to rejoice for the Consolation And so did our Ancestors when reform'd from that Worship which was become all husk and shell and rind yet thought not themselves obliged to strip off all the Leaves from Christ's Vine as if they injured those Grapes which they overshadowed whose moderation let us imitate following after the things which make for peace And nothing makes more for it than our hearing the Instructions of our Civil Father Prov. i. 8. and not forsaking the Law of the Church our Mother And here were the Orator as good as the Cause I should hope with as much success as willingness to plead for the Church of England whose Doctrine and Discipline are a perfect Comment on this Text a giving to God and Caesar their due receiving as a rule of faith all the Articles of the Three Creeds preserving to God his Worship entire without the rivallings of Saints or Angels or the likeness of any thing above or below Not invading or depressing the Offices of Christ by Lording it over his Heritage or derogating from his Satisfaction or Intercession by owning any other Purgatory but that of his sufferings in this world to secure us from those of the world to come And therefore teaching us that no man can by Masses Oblations Pilgrimages or works of Supererogation redeem his Brother or pay to God a ransom for him Psal xlix 7. And that the all-sufficient merits of Christ need not be Imp'd by ours or those of men subject to like passions with our selves And therefore we look on Heaven not as wages but as gift yet are careful to maintain good works Rom. vi 23. as necessary to salvation which is that Penny that is paid to none but those that labour But when we have sow'd in righteousness Hos x. 12. we hope to reap in mercy We own but one Mediator between God and us Nor can we think our better Moses needs any Aaron or Hur to support his hands in that Mount above whilst he intercedes for his Church that is militant here below And therefore as we adore not what is left of the Saints here so we sue not to what is ascended of them on high Nor dare we give that worship to a dead Barnabas and Paul Acts xiv 11. which they refused when living How can we call on them in whom we have not believed We dare not vacate the Prophetical Office of Christ by teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of men We own such Traditions as can prove their Pedigree to be truly ancient not repugnant to Scripture and to consist with Decency and Order And that every National Church hath power to determine practice in things indifferent and to bind to obedience for Conscience sake Conscience of that duty that is owing to the fifth Commandment But we follow not cunningly devised fables while we have a more sure word of Prophesie We receive the Sacraments in their due number and order and by the Font we pass to the Altar for so we can call it as its shew-bread is a Commemorative Sacrifice tendered not to God for us but by him to us and as at it we offer up our selves to him once offered up for us in the Christian Sacrifices of a broken heart a thankful tongue a charitable hand and an holy life We have a Liturgy in a known tongue that so we may pray with the understanding and know to what we say Amen And if we pray not with the spirit too I mean not that of the gift of Tongues but of prayer and supplication both Gods and our own it is our own fault that most excellent expressions are not attended with suitable affections If our Common Prayer be a dead Letter our hearts make it so for no Cloaths will warm the dead And without the pouring out of the heart the pouring out of words extempore or premeditated is but the sacrifice of fools and that whether a Pharisee lengthen or Beads number it And as we have the same appetite for our daily bread we can in the same words beg it of him who gives it and hath given us a form wherein to ask it And as our Church is conscienciously careful to avoid all offence toward God so is she no less toward men And although ground between the two Milstones of the Papist censuring her as Schismatical and the Schismatick condemning her as Papistical yet disclaims the disloyal principles and practices of both the Conclave and the Classes Not affecting the title