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	utter_v	2,382	5	9.4981	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93709	Sparkles of glory, or Some beams of the morning-star. Wherein are many discoveries as to truth, and peace. To the establishment, and pure enlargement of a Christian in spirit and truth. / By John Saltmarsh. Preacher of the Gospell.	Saltmarsh, John, d. 1647.	1647 (1647)	Wing S504; Thomason E1114_1; ESTC R208461	88,386	372

private and thus fire is fetched down from heaven in the sight of men that dwel upon the earth or such as are yet more below then above or in heaven and Spirit and thus the people of Israel prayed whose prayers were an abomination thus the Pharisees made long prayers c. So as Prayer then according to this discovery is the Spirit of God only revealing and speaking in the people of God we know not what to pray for as we ought that is we as we are our selves know not And therefore all that we pray and not the Spirit of God in us not that Spirit of Prayer spoken on in Scripture is but the Spirit of man praying which is but the cry of the creature or a natural complaining for what we want as the Ninivites and the children and beasts of that City all cryed unto the Lord But in pure prayer the Spirit helpeth our infirmities the Spirit of God which makes intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered that is the speakings or manifestations of the Spirit of God or not so utterable by the flesh or voice of man and the Spirit maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God or according to God as in the Greek that is Prayer is God speaking in us his mind and will And therefore the Lord Jesus taught this in that form and doctrine of his thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven wherein he set forth that more spirituall and perfect Prayer which was only according to God and which the Saints should pray afterwards when the Spirit was more revealed And this is prayer in Spirit and to pray thus is to pray in some evidence and demonstration of God and in faith or beleeving the will of God as to this or this thing at this or this time whatsoever ye ask in prayer beleeving c. And all other asking or seekings of God which are not thus in Spirit and in the will or mind of God in some evidence or pure work of Spirit or raising of Spirit is but the askings of creatures as creatures and thus all meer natural and carnal people pray and are heard and answered many times in the mercy and goodness of God who makes his Sun to shine upon the just and unjust All exhortations in Scripture to this duty of prayer as seek ye my face pray continually watch and pray be fervent in prayer ask and ye shal have c. are only then rightly effectually and properly applied and obeyed when the Spirit of God doth it in the Christian when the Spirit of God breaths in and reveals the will of God and acts in the duty or expressions and the Christian speaks in himself or in presence of others that mind of God and so this Spirit of God clothes its self in flesh or letter or expressions as to the outward man and they who say Amen in the Spirit as the Apostle saith say Amen in the same Spirit or else they are not in prayer in a pure spiritual closure or unity of Spirit Prayer is the workings and weaker or fainter manifestations of the Spirit of God in the Christian while he is in bondage that is while God is not the fulness the light and glory and all in all unto him for where there is any asking or seeking or desiring there is not perfect rest enjoyment alsufficiency and fulness And therefore while Christians are in bondage and not yet brought into the glorious liberty of the sons of God they are under the Ministration of Prayer to God or of asking as children are to a father in non-age and pupillage All Scriptures of Prayer or concerning Prayer and the prayers of the Saints in the vial are considerable respectively to the state of weakness and bondage the Saints are in praying not in the Spirit of God but in weakness or the flesh according to their own wils hath been usuall with Saints formerly as Paul who prayed thrice to remove the buffeting and was answered my grace is sufficient for thee or is it not enough that I have grace for thee in all my dealings and dispensations towards thee live thou upon that and the Lord Jesus himself prayed Father if it be thy will let this cup pass yet afterwards he was more the manifestation of God Father not as I wil that is not as I or that of man in me but as thou will and many Christians wanting the clear and glorious revelation of the will of God pray for such and such things for the obtaining such and such mercies and removal of such and such miseries being all this while in the dark to the will and mind of the Lord when as if the will of the Lord were seen or discovered they would rejoyce and be at rest in such conditions and learn how to want as wel as to abound that is to want such or such things as the Lord takes from them and to abound in the Lord without those things or with those things which is the sweet state of the Christian and a rest or peace in figure to that glory and fulness to be revealed in us and those Christians as are in some measure in this light or glimpse of the fulness of God are entred upon the borders of Canaan and are feeding upon some bunches of the grapes of the promised land A discovery of the Law SOme say the Law is obligatory and binding to all Christians because moral and so perpetual and that it was revealed because of transgressions And that the Law is of no less efficacy now then before to reveal sin and convince of sin and that Christ came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it that the ministery of the Law ought to precede and go before the Gospel because none ought to have Christ offered to them in a promise but such as the Law hath humbled and prepared that God doth sanctifie the Ministry of the Law to conversion and sanctification of his people and such as preach it are not legal thus the Protestant in general Others say that a further discovery of the Law is this That the Law was a discovery or appearance of Gods righteousness and mans according to the nature of both as in the first Creation God is revealed in the Law to be one God and only to be worshiped and no other Gods but one and man is revealed in his first created righteousness love thy neighbour as thy self The Law is in every one by nature accusing and excusing and Gods transcribing it into tables of stone was to set before man a testimony or witness in the letter of what Law he had inwardly the Law is spiritual and to bear witness to his Apostacy and falling away and to all his sins transgressions and enormities committed Moses and the Prophets were Ministers of it in the letter the Law was given by

and the seven and ten figures of perfection and compleatness as to the man of sin for the number of the beast is the number of a man and yet his number is but 666. that is is but a number of weakness and imperfection and work or bondage not the number of God or of seven which is perfection and rest And the whore is adorned with gold and pearl which are those excellencies of nature and forms of w●rship and Scriptures with which she decks her self and is adorned as a counterfeit spouse of Christ and upon her head is mystery that is all this appearance of hers even her highest and choicest her head is mystery to all who are made drunken with the cup of her fornications or spiritual whoredoms and idolatries they discerning none of these but all being in mystery to them And this Antichrist is one who denies Christ coming in flesh or God in his people who is coming and coming that is ever flowing out in fresh and glorious discoveries and manifestations of himselfe forbidding all beyond them as new lights and false revelations and fixing God and his appearances in their Conceptions Votes and Results and Councels and Consequences and Conclusions and Laws of worship This Antichrist thus described is found in man or the spirit of meer man in al his departure or falling away from God in al his lying signs or counterfeitings of the spirit in his sitting as God in his being a beast or opposing the Spirit in his scarlet colour or his crucifyings of Christ in us in his denying the Lords coming or further manifestations of his light and Spirit in us and thus quenching the Spirit And from hence he flows out and spreads himself in the world in all Idolatrous forms of worship in all false interpretations of God and of the truth as it is in Jesus These are the several attainments The Common Protestant THe common Protestant as to doctrine and fundamentals are so far in a discovery of the mystery of salvation as to behold a state of condemnation in sin and a way of salvation by Jesus Christ and faith in him yet some take this way to be but a knowledg of Christ after the flesh and of Christ as one single person or figure of a man and the first glympse of the love of God and but meerly a discovery beyond the law and all but a fleshly spirituality The generall Redemptionist THey that are for general redemption through Christ in the free offers of grace to all and his dying for all some say attain no higher in this then Christ after the flesh and fall into the same consequence with those that hold the particular election and reprobation of some and though there be in this a more general ministration of Christ held forth according to the letter yet they say it goes not so high as the mystery of Christ in Spirit and in pure glory and truth but of Christ in glorified flesh and as in one single person or figure of a man and all end but in a fleshly spirituality and in an attainment as to the meer letter of Scripture The Free-Gratian THey that have discovered up into free-grace or the mystery of salvation singled out from conditions qualifications and works some say attain no higher in that then a discovery meerly beyond the common Protestant both going no higher then a justification by imputation and through Christ after the flesh as in one single person or figure of a man glorified in flesh or the body without and in a local glory or a circumscribed nature and putting all the righteousness upon a meer account in God and all the taking away of sin or sinful flesh upon a non-imputation or not-accounting in the crucifying death or fiery trial of the flesh and the pure spiritual incorruptible seed of God within Christ in us the hope of glory And their highest attainment as to duties and works is only as some say to the nature and manner of their production or flowing forth they counting the nature and original of all no higher then an habit of grace or quality and their proceeding as immediately in the nature of that which they say is love all they do being from love and in love not in bondage Conclusion ANd these attainments are not such as are therefore condemned because no higher or more spiritual but are only considered as not the highest but in order to the mystery of salvation and several measures and ages of attainment and seeing darkly as in a glass till that which is perfect is come A Discovery of Prayer THat which hath been discovered concerning Prayer is this First That they who could not pray in the Spirit might use a form of prayer as John taught his Disciples and the Lord Jesus his in that of Our Father c. and David in Psalms and the Apostles and Christ himself are found in the same form and expressions of prayer very often he went away and prayed the same things again Moses prayed arise Lord c. and again arise Lord this is the first discovery and is truth though truth in weakness infancy A further discovery is that prayer is rather a work of the Spirit then of any form and that no set form ought to be pu● upon the Spirit of God out what it freely breathes and speaks and all constant speakings to God in this as they call a conceived way or impremeditate or ex-temporary way is taken commonly amongst Christians for prayer in the Spirit and for that spiritual way of prayer which the Disciples of Christ used in the Gospel who were grown up from the infancy and childishness of forms or words taught them which is but a meer natural or outward thing as they say which any may performe by strength of natural parts as wit and memory and affections The furthest discovery as some say is this That Prayer is no other but the revelation of the will of God or mind of God as to such and such particulars either spiritual or temporal and is an immediate proper and spiritual act of the Spirit of God in the Saints and that all such speakings as are not from the very manifestation of the Spirit of God in us are but such prayers and petitions as natural reason and memory and affections may form and dictate and doth usually and that there is no difference betwixt such kind of praying and forms of prayer though it may be ex-temporary or conceived as some who can pray upon this account three or four hours and nothing more frequent now nay this kind of prayer is far worse by how much it transforms its self more into an Angel of light and is not sitting in the Temple of God as God or pretending its self to be the Spirit of God and is not being more properly the flowings and breathings of reason and the strength of mans wit and memory and affections and is constantly performed in publick and