Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	epistle_n	paul_n	timothy_n	1,469	5	10.7239	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85709	A patheticall perswasion to pray for publick peace: propounded in a sermon preached in the cathedrall church of Saint Paul, Octob. 2. 1642. By Matthew Griffith, rector of S. Mary Magdalens neer Old-Fishstreet, London.	Griffith, Matthew, 1599?-1665.	1642 (1642)	Wing G2016; Thomason E122_17; ESTC R4434	34,095	58

my solitary aim in this Sermon is to direct you both in your prayers and practice how to salve up our sores and to heal our wounds and if in any thing that serves to so good an end I seem too bold or bitter let your grave experience make this Apologie for me viz. That a mortall wound must be thorowly searched ere it can be soundly healed and that no purgative Medicine can bring health without some bitternes I would not wittingly give any man any manner of offence and yet if in the faithfull discharge of my duty I should I hope that they among you which are moderate will confesse That wholesome meat must not be altogether debarred the table though by accident it may possibly disgust some aguish Palate I will conclude with that of S. Paul to the Romanes Ro. 16.17 Now I beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions contrary to the Doctrine which you have learned and avoid them For they that are such serve not our LORD JESUS CHRIST but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches they deceive the hearts of the simple For your obedience is come abroad unto all men I am glad therefore on your behalf But yet I would have you wise unto that which is good and harmlesse concerning evill And the God of Peace shall bruise Satan under you feet shortly The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all Amen So sayeth and so prayeth Your Worships most affectionate servant in the Lord MATTH GRIFFITH A. Patheticall Perswasion to pray for Publike-Peace PSALM 122.6 O pray for the peace of Jerusalem THough the whole Scripture be given by divine inspiration yet this book of Psalms seems to challenge some kinde of priviledge and preheminence 2 Tim. 9.16 because the Pen-man hereof was not onely a King and a Prophet 1 Sam. 13.14 but a man according to GODS heart and a lively figure of Christ yea he was saith Euthymius Primiregis ●or lingua calamus The heart tongue and pen of the king of Kings and lord of Lords Apoc 17.14 King Alfred whom our English Chronicle so much extolls was wont to have the PSALTER alwayes with him as Saint Hierome advis'd his Friend Rusticus to make it his Vade-mecum John Cosmus that holy Bishop of Constantinople being forced to flye from that City took no part of his treasures with him save Davids Psalms which to him were both pro prae divitiis Our blessed Lord and his Apostles cite no lesse then Sixty Testimonies out of this book which is more frequently read and sung both in the Jewish Synagogues and also in our Christian Congregations then any other parcell of holy Writ Yea the Turks themselves swear as solemnly by the Psalms of David as by Mahomets Alcoran And whereas all other parts of Scripture have their severall bounds and limits as it were some of them consisting chiefly of matter of Prophesie others of History some serving for instruction some for reprehension some for consolation the short is that this book of Psalms comprehends all being indeed a common Store-house of good things out of which all persons of what calling or condition soever may fit and furnish themselves according to their exigents and occasions For which very reason Saint Basil calls this book a divine Treasury Saint Agustine stiles it a spiriituall Library Saint Ambrose terms it a Map of holy Writ Saint Chrysostome calls it a Panoply or whole Armour Gregory the great held it the Register of the whole Scripture and I may truly say of it what S. Paul doth of the whole 2 Tim. 3. ●6 that it is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousnesse And as for this particular Psalm of which my Text is a considerable part it is the generall consent in a manner of all Divines That it was compos'd and compil'd by the sweet-Singer of Israel upon occasion of the bringing of the Ark into Jerusalem and applyed and left for the use of the Church that so oft as the Israelites should appear before the Lord at their solemn feasts it might be sung in publick the better to stir them up to a just gratulation and thanksgiving to God for two extraordinary Benefits whereof the one was the establishing of the Church and Religion in the City of David the other was the stating of the Kingdom and succession upon the house of David And to the end that both the Church of God and the Religion thereof and eke the Kingdom of David and the succession thereof might the better flourish and continue The Psalmist in these words of my Text combines them together calling both by one name viz. Jerusalem and calling upon us as one man with one minde and mouth to pray for the peace of this Jerusalem O pray for the peace of Jerusalem In which words of the princely Prophet we may observe three considerable parts viz. First what it is whereunto he exhorts us viz. Prayer O pray Secondly for what it is he thus exhorts us to pray viz. for Peace O pray for peace Thirdly for whose peace it is that we are thus exhorted to pray viz. for the peace of Jerusalem O pray for the peace of Jerusalem The first viz. Prayer is the only ordinary means by which we do obtain of God all such good things as we stand in need of for what Saint Paul speaks of godlinesse in the fourth Chapter of the first Epistle to Timothy Pietas ad omnia utilis 1 Tim. 4 8. is no lesse true of Prayer This is profitable to all things having both bona proposita and eke bona reposita the promises of this life and of that which is to come And therefore O pray The second viz. Peace is the principall pillar both of Church and Common-wealth and by an usuall Hebraism it signifies all happinesse and perfection and therefore O pray for Peace Gal. 4.26 Exod. 20. The third viz. Jerusalem is from above it is the mother of us all And as children are bound in duty to pray for and procure their Naturall mothers good so is each true childe of God bound by a stronger tye to wish and work the welfare of his holy Mother The Church and therefore O pray for the Peace of Jerusalem The first word in the Text is Pray This is the Act to which we are here exhorted and it sets forth unto us the necessity of Prayer O pray The second word is Peace This is the Object of our Prayers and it sets forth unto us the commodity of Peace O pray for Peace The third and last word in the Text is Jerusalem This is the Subject whose peace and prosperity we are all to pray for and it insinuates unto us The Unity and Charity of the Church which as the Heathen spake of the Country omnes omnium charitates in se complectitur Then since Jerusalem is so highly to be respected and Peace is a

aequipollent to an universall Then generall it must be and that in regard both of persons times and places for all persons at all times and in all places must pray as they be here exhorted First I say this duty belongs to all persons for though all cannot fast or give alms or weep or watch or bear arms or fight c. yet all may pray Though thou be as poor as Lazarus as impotent as Mephibosheth Luk. 16 20 2 Sam. 4 4. Mar. 10 46 Luk. 1.20 as blinde as Bartimeus as dumb as Zachary yet thou may'st pray and thou must pray in charity for though thou must have Faith for thy self and hence thou say'st I beleeve in God yet must thou pray for others also and therefore when we pray our Lord teacheth us to say Our Father c. And whilest every one prayes for the whole the whole prayes for every one Secondly it is a duty seasonable at all times for whether it be a time of mirth or mourning health or sicknesse prosperity or affliction peace or warre earely or late or at noone-tide prayer never comes amisse so it be applyed to the opportunity as our Church prescribes in the Lyturgy where wee have set prayers for all occasions Thirdly this is a duty proper for all places and for this cause Saint Paul wills us every where to pray in the 2. Chapter of the first Epistle to Timothy 3 Tim. 2.8 Be a man at home or abroad in the City or Country in his family or in the Temple he may pray to good purpose For as the Prophet Daniel prayed three times a day privately in his house Dan. 6.10 so S. Peter Acts 3.1 and Saint John went up together into the Temple at the houre of prayer And though prayer be good in any place yet there is a more speciall blessing promised to the publike prayers of the Church Vis unita fortior When all meete together in the beauty of holinesse and where there is a generall consent the musicke must needs be sweet Many instruments make the fuller consort God can hardly deny the harmonious prayers of a devout multitude Then much to blame are such Sectaries as seldome or never come to the publike prayers appointed by the Church no not upon the Lords own day and that by the way shews that it is not the word but the man that they come to hear and therin these precisians practize that popish position pressed by Stapleton in the 10 of his Quodlibets Non quid loquitur sed quis à bono Catholico est attēdendū when though they will flock to such preachers as they like yet they flye the Common-prayers as a thing which they loath But I would to God that they would take notice that this their peevishnesse and recusancy is not only punishable by censures ecclesiasticall and civill but also that herein they both neglect the right sanctification of the Sabboth publike prayer being a principall duty of this day and a speciall meanes appointed by God for the sanctifying of the same And also forget what our Saviour saith in the 21. Chapter of Saint Matthew My house shall be called the house of prayer but ye have made it a denne of theeves Mat. 21.13 Which is thus farre true in all professed adversaries of publicke prayer that they doe what in them lies to steal this speciall part of Gods worship and service quite out of his house The second circumstance implied in the manner is that you must pray fervently and this is insinuated in this particle O! O pray c. This O is sometimes an interjection of sorrowing ● Sa● 8.13 as wheu King David bewayling the untimely death of his sonne Absalom in the 18. Chapter of the 2. of Samuel cryed out O Absalom my sonne my sonne Absalom would to God I had died for thee O Absalom my sonne my sonne But here this O is an adverbe of wishing and exhorting and it is added and used the better to presse and perswade you to pray with zeale and ardency of affection Martin Luther calls prayer the gun-shot of the soule and why so but to shew that like a gunne it will not off without fire The prayer of a righteous man prevails much saith Saint James if it be fervent Mark the condition Iam. 5.16 if it be fervent for it prevailes not further then it pierceth and it pierces not at all without fire A bullet as you know flyes no further then it is driven by the strength of the powder nor will your prayers pierce the clouds unlesse they be sent up with a powder they must be fervent And fervent they will not be unlesse they flow from the sence of our spirituall wants and from a broken and bleeding heart There is no musick sounds so sweete in Gods eares as that which is made on broken instruments for a broken heart and a contrite spirit saith David in the 51 Psalme Thou O Lord wilt not despise Non musica cordula sed cor non vox sed votum Whosoever then doth pray with hope to be heard graciously he must see that he pray not more magis quam amore he must not pray faintly but fervently even with a flaming affection ascending up to God in the hearty grones sighes and strong desires of his soule and spirit The third thing implyed in the manner is that you must pray forthwith The verbe in the text is in the Present Tence and so denotes that you must fall presently to your prayers Semper nocuit differre paratis Delay may breed danger Now is the day of salvation saith the Apostle now is the acceptable time And hoc nunc nullum habet crastinum saith Saint Augustine And as Saint Paul stirres up the Romanes to arise from sleep Rom. 13. ●1 by putting them in minde of the season in the 13. to the Romanes so may I justly excite and incite you to fall close to your prayers for publike peace upon the consideration of this very season For if we looke well about us we shall finde that wee never had more cause to pray then at this present when as the publike peace is secretly undermined by false brethren at home and openly impugned by the Irish Rebells abroad There the superstitious Papist seeking to supplant and heere the irreligious Atheist labouring with might in his hand and malice in his heart utterly to roote it out And therefore as the skilfull Pilot at sea seeing a slaw or a storme a comming presently puts into some harbor where he may be safe untill the danger be over So Saint James sends us all to prayer as the onely sure haven in time of distresse where he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is any man afflicted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let him pray as if he had said Iam. 5.13 is any man in any manner of affliction why the sole remedy of all our miseries and mischiefes is prayer Then if we now finde that

our peace is declining and our enemies increasing who laugh at our distraction labour our destruction crying with them in the 71. Psalme Psal 71 1● Ha ha so would we have it prosecute and take them God hath forsaken them If we see Gebal and Ammon and Amalek a legion of Sectaries like unto those other Locusts that came out of the bottomlesse pit swarming at this day among us Apoc. 9.3 and joyning purse and forces heads and hands against us that so they may bring upon us a sodaine fearefull and irreparable devastation desolation Yea if our owne sinnes abounding at this day and yet unrepented off and which is worse justified and worse then that gloried in doe at this time threaten some heavy judgement ready to fall upon us from the hands of men by the sword whom neither pestilence nor famine could winne to turne from our irreverence prophanesse sacriledge schisme sedition and other raigning lusts to him Yet let us now now I say whilest we have time to repent and opportunity to amend hasten to this harbor of prayer in the text beseeching God in mercy to divert this deserved judgement and to continue his most gratious protection and our most sweet and blessed peace unto us The fourth thing implyed in the manner is that you must pray with constancy and perseverance for the verbe in the text being of the present tense denotes Actum continuum a continued Act as the School-men observe Iud. ● 30. There be many saith Saint Ambrose that make preces Bethulianas their prayers are but a composition for certaine dayes If God relieve them not at a becke and grant not what they pray for at the instant then they grow impatient and will pray no longer This is the sin which the Psalmist objects against the Israelites viz. That they tempted God and limited the Holy one of Israel Psal 78.41 where note that he who limits God is said to tempt him Then stint him not to thy time who is the Lord of times and seasons Though he heare not ad voluntatem yet happily he doth ad sanitatem But pray continually as Saint Paul injoynes in the 5. Chapter of the first Epistle to the Thessalonians which words of the Apostle must not be understood in so rigid an acception as if a true Christian should doe nothing but pray as the Euchitês held and whose heresie Saint Augustine doth worthily confute and condemne but Saint Paul must be understood either secundum effectum orationis according to the effect of prayer which commonly is an holy life and qui benè vivit semper orat He that lives christianly prayes continually The constant practice of piety is a continuall prayer Luke 18.1 Or he must be understood of perseverance in prayer as in the 18. Chapter of Saint Luke we read that our Saviour propounded two parables the one of an unjust Judge the other of an importunate widow thereby teaching us to pray always that is not only to pray at certain set hours or onely when some speciall occasion is offered but not to give over praying untill God hath heard us graciously and answered us in mercy And to do this and thus we are both exhorted and encourag'd First I say we are hereunto exhorted and that both in the generall as in the 6. Chapter to the Galathians Bee not weary of well doing And also in spetiall ●as in the 62. of Esay Galat. 6. Isa 62.7 keep not silence and give the Lord no rest till he establish thee And we are also hereunto incourag'd by many memorable instances and examples Ma●● Ma●● 28. ●● as of blind Bartimeus who gave not over calling and crying for mercy to the son of David till he restored him his sight And the Canaanitish woman which notwithstanding so many repulses yet continued her devotions till she obtain'd her desires The fift and last thing implyed in the manner is that you must pray practically according to the rule of the Rabins Verbs of sence imply action Your prayer must not only be Optative but Operative The word in the originall is indeed very Emphaticall that way and by divers expositours rendred diversly For Some translate it Quaerite pacem Seek peace and seek it not lazily and at leasure but as our Saviour exhorts us in the like case Quaerite primum Seek it in the first place Mat. 6. ●3 even first in your intentions before other things and first in your affections above other things It must be sought first both tempore et honore as St. Ambrose speaks Others render it interrogate pacem Inquire for peace Let it be the main interrogatory The Churches cause stand's or fal's upon this issue and therefore see you put it home Arias Montanus hath it Postulate pacem Require peace If you have any interest in man or power with God extend it this way Junius and Uremelius read it Expet●te p●cem desire peace and see you desire it ex intimis precordiis from the very bottome of your hearts For as this peace under God is your Summum bonum the only height of your happinesse so must it be your Summum vo●um The very depth of your desires Rhemigius out of the Septuagint and St Hierome render it Rogate pacem pray for and procure peace and these you must do even as a beggar forc'd by extreame necessity sues for an alms with much earnestnes and importunity The Summe is you must all diligently and devoutly seek and inquire and require and desire and humbly pray for and studiously procure this peace in the text For Orati● sine oper● nihil est saith S Chrysostome Prayer without practise is nothing and nothing worth And it is a good rule in Divinity Pro ill●s laborandum pr● quibis orandum We must labour for those things with our hands which we pray for with all our hearts and we must strive against those evills which we pray against For as it were extreme folly for a man that 's fallen unawares into a pit or snare to lye still crying God help Lord help if he did not withall bestir himself seeking by all possible means to get up and to get out So is it not much better to say God send us peace as 't is the manner of some dow-bak'd men among us now adayes who like so many Cymballs sound out of their emptinesse and pray Ex usu magis quam ex sensu more for fashion then out of feeling unlesse we do in our severall places and callings to the very utmost of our power pursue it and labour to procure it I say we must all both Prince and People Magistrate and Minister Nobility and Comminalty Clergy and Laity even all and every of us from the highest to the lowest laying all private ends and oblique respects aside must endeavour to procure and preserve the publique peace and to prevent all Schisme Sedition Rebellion and other notorious impediments of the same And yet forasmuch