Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	holy_a	pray_v	stephen_n	2,337	5	12.9874	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54945	A discourse of prayer wherein this great duty is stated, so as to oppose some principles and practices of Papists and fanaticks; as they are contrary to the publick forms of the Church of England, established by her ecclesiastical canons, and confirmed by acts of Parliament. By Thomas Pittis, D.D. one of His Majesties chaplains in ordinary. Wherefore, that way and profession in religion, which gives the best directions for it, (viz. prayer) with the most effectual motives to it, and most aboundeth in its observance, hath therein the advantage of all others. Dr. Owen in his preface to his late discourse of the work of the Holy SPirit in prayer, &c.	Pittis, Thomas, 1636-1687.	1683 (1683)	Wing P2314; ESTC R220541	149,431	404

manifested to the World or the reason of men have lawfully and by good consequence concluded to be most excellent and glorious in themselves He must be endow'd therefore with all knowledge power goodness impassibility justice truth mercy faithfulness and the like with self existency and eternity crowning and adding an ornament to the whole To this God then under such glorious notions adorned with such transcendent Attributes and all possible perfections imaginable To this King Eternal Immortal Invisible the only Wise God we are to give all honour and glory adoring those Attributs of which we are transcribing the Copy as far as frail humane nature will permit and by which only we can declare his essence To this transcendent Being we ought to pray without pretending to form an Idea or similitude of his living substance which we cannot make any likeness of nor frame a due Image of his being without notions attending that are unworthy of him and such accidents as would be blemishes and imperfections at once leading us into impiety and a snare And to such a Being when we have once setled a notion of him before we enter upon our devotions to him we may address our lawful petitions and direct all the intentions of our minds without framing any similitude and worship him who is and was the Maker of all things sustains the Creation by his Almighty power and influences the whole by his daily providence Who as I believe cannot be drawn otherwise by the most accurate judgment the most towering phancy or sublimest and most retired contemplation because he is invisible To this universal Being who is the cause and parent of all others if we thus direct suitable petitions we shall worship God in spirit and in truth and the Father seeketh such to worship him John 4. 23. And thus I have done with the first part of the manner of our address in relation to the intention of our minds I proceed now to the second particular to make inquiry into that manner in which we ought to pray with reference to the gesture of our bodies Now this in general ought to be such as is most expressive of our humility reverence profound devotion and dependence on God and therefore such as is used to these ends and purposes in the Regions and Countries in which we live For prayer testifying our religion to others and by our outward example for they cannot know our inward thoughts drawing them into the same acts of devotion with our selves as well as according to the expectation of our Maker to raise and signifie our own dispositions and affections to him since therefore other men can no way be made sensible of the intentions of our minds but by those representations which they receive from the external acts and gestures of our bodies we ought to use such in prayer as may best signifie those to them which can be no other than those by which we represent both our humility and affection to those persons with whom we converse 'T is true indeed I cannot say that the sacred Scriptures have commanded any one gesture in prayer so strictly as to exclude all others For in these things an absolute necessity at any time becomes a reasonable dispensation A man may be enseebled in his limbs lay stretch'd upon a bed of languishing be moved to ejaculations when he is imployed in his Trade or occupation He may be inclined to pray when he is walking in the field or travelling on a journey and may often be lifting his thoughts to God when he is sitting at his ordinary meals In such cases and others like them he is not obliged to alter his posture but God will accept of his secret whispers or more outwardly express'd language nay the humble breathings and wishes of his mind with or without the words of his mouth And further yet sometimes even in publick Assemblies a man or woman may be in a Croud or his Knees so benum'd and his body wearied with the length of his devotions that any one posture may be so uneasie and painful too as to blunt the sharpness of his affections and hinder the most acceptable intention of his mind And God forbid that the more noble part of our devotions should be slackned or interrupted by the necessary attendance on the frailty and weakness of our own bodies for this would render them not only the restraining prisons of our souls but their Jaylors too And certainly he to whom our prayers are directed being gracious and merciful will not injoyn any burden upon men who are humble and devout which neither they nor their Forefathers were able to bear I cannot therefore sufficiently admire the piety and prudence of our own Church whose Service is so admirably contrived that the frequent intermixtures of praises and thanksgivings readings and confessions of our faith with our prayers and the confessions of our sins give frequent relief to the aged or wearied bodies of men by injoyning suitable though uniform postures that by their variation become easie and delightsome and advance the fervour and affections of the mind But that I may not deviate from this duty of Prayer We find goodmen in Sacred Writ sometimes worshipping by prostration on the ground sometimes adoring by bowing their heads and without doubt kissing their hands as the act of adoring properly signifies sometimes standing upon their feet and sometimes kneeling upon their knees But in the New Testament the latter is more frequent though prostration is a posture more lowly than this When Saint Stephen had the honour to become the first Martyr to the Faith of Jesus next to himself and like his Master signaliz'd his charity in praying for his enemies the Text tells us that he kneeled down and prayed crying out with a loud voice Lord lay not this sin to their charge Act. 7.60 When Saint Paul prayed amongst the Bishops at Miletus he kneeled down and prayed with them all Acts 20.36 When Saint Peter sealed the truth of Christianity by that eminent miracle of raising Dorcas from the dead we are given to understand that he kneeled down and prayed Act. 9.40 And the blessed and holy Jesus himself who was more worthy than all mankind because he was accepted as a just and proportionable sacrifice for them and redeemed those who were prisoners to Death and Hell yet that he might testifie the great humility and submission of his mind did not only fall down upon his knees but prostrated himself with his face to the ground when with a reserved submission to his Fathers will he prayed saying O Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me Matth. 26.39 When Saint Paul prayed for the Ephesians that they might not faint in the midst of their tribulations he bowed his knees to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ Eph. 3 14. And when in his voyage towards Jerusalem he landed at Tyre at his departure from thence himself with the disciples their wives 〈◊〉

the conceptions of their minds to an utterance of our petitions in an unknown tongue And it concludes indeed against the Publick Service of the Papists in Latin and justifies our own in English As I have already shewed But it can neither strengthen the Enthusiast nor detract from the worth or reputation of a well composed Liturgy And that this is the true meaning of this Scripture and the real opposition which is here made of Spirit to understanding and the difference betwixt them appears plainly from the naked words of the nineteenth Verse without any Paraphrase upon them For saies the Apostle I had rather speak five words with mine understanding that by my voice I may teach others also than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue And though St. Chrysostom's interpretation of the whole does not in every part agree with this Yet he expounds Spirit by the gift of tongues But if men will still evidence their vanity by defending their extravagancies by Texts of Scripture which have been won from them as often as they have trump'd them up to the world and urge that in the twelfth of Zechariah Where God promises to pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of Grace and of Supplications c. They will gain but little countenance from hence for their irrational and loose way of worship Though as a neat Commentator of their own descants upon it it should be poured out as by whole Pailfuls Trapp in loc For nothing can be concluded from this Text but that the time should come in which God would by his benign operations confer so much favour to the Jews that they who were hardned through their own infidelity to the affronting and Crucifying the blessed Jesus should so relent for their former wickedness that they would pray to God and petition for their pardon when they came to be convinced that the very person whom they put so death under the notion of an Impostor was indeed the promised Messiah And so it no more concludes that the Holy Ghost is promised under the Gospel to dictate matter and expressions to all those who devoutly pray than it proves all Saints under this dispensation to be perfect Jews that crucified their Saviour Nor can all the Hebrew and Greek and Latin in the world make either out from this Text. Nay such Doctrine can no more be founded on this Prophecy of Zechariah than that the Holy Ghost should also dictate matter and words in Preaching too and render all Sanctified mens Sermons as much the word of God as the Scriptures can be infer'd from that Promise in the second of Joel where God saies I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and your Sons and your Daughters shall prophesie Since this was fulfilled on that eminent day of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost visibly descended on the Apostles to enable them to speak divers languages and to work Miracles c. for the propagation and confirmation of the Gospel and accordingly 't is limited by St. Peter Acts 2.16 If men will still trifle with the Scriptures let them allow also women to be Preachers as well as men Because in the promise it is said that Daughters as well as Sons shall Prophesie 'T will only as 't is usual with some men prefer the Old Testament to the New and set a Prophet and an Apostle together by the ears that we may judge the advantage to which we please as he gratifies either our humour or our interest But suppose our extempore men should flie from Scripture to the succeeding Writers among the Christians as I know not but they may when they find any thing that makes for them and tell us that all this worship which we declaim against is justifiable by the practice of the Primitive Christians who living near the times of our Saviour and his Apostles must needs understand their Doctrine and their practice better than we who live in an Age so far off and quote some passages from the Ancient Fathers to justifie their extravagant devotions now I only reply 1. We grant that in the first times of Miraculous operations before the Christian Church was well setled in the World the Spirit did as well dictate prayer to some for the help of others as it inspired some to deliver the Christian Doctrines and faith that they might be derived downward to posterity But all this ceased afterwards when the reasons of it ceased when the Canon of the new Law was compleated and Knowledge and Parts became the fruits of liberal education and the Spirts co-operation with human industry 2. That the Fathers give no countenance to this extempore wild way of prayer And the later Patrons of this conceived method when they urge any expressions from them are fain to squeeze a few particular passages hard either by a false rehearsal Or else by Criticising and large interpretations they draw their words off from the sence which the subject matter and coherence of the place does willingly afford them 3. That this way of arguing in this affair is disclaimed by a late Nonconformist writer who is eminent both in venting and darkning too these extempore prayers And almost as ancient as any now living in defending them Nay and he has reason too when the contrary opinion as he saies becomes opposite to his own experience But to give him his due he admits Scripture in this Controversie And would have men to believe that all the commands for prayer in the Sacred writings are so many laws to injoin their own extempore way and method Yet though he adventures at some promises I cannot find that he meddles with the commands so as to appropriate any one to extempore prayer Though he is very good at Criticism and Inference But natural Enthusiasm when riveted by custom skulks so within a man that though possess'd with it he does not know it And 't is such another thing as what the vulgar call Arminianism which a man may sometimes be charg'd with when he yet pleads not guilty As I have heard of another great Writer whose Aphorisms when Dr. Hammond had perused presently replied This man is an Arminian but he does not know it 4. If any will defend these conceived publick prayers from Antiquity I wish they would also put other matters in Controversie betwixt them and the Church of England upon the same trial and permit the Government of the Church of Christ to be also determined this way Yet Lastly these things are here set down not because we have any cause of fear from what can fairly be urged for extempore prayer out of any Ancient Author of undoubted Credit the quotations having frequently been answered But more especially because they are just now explain'd in the Second Part of certain Cases of Conscience resolded concerning the lawfulness of joining with forms of Prayer in publick worship The view of which since the composure of this small Discourse

part of those who being otherwise minded have separated from it And it may give some rebuke to the bold confidence of such men as are not so hardned that they think there is no need of repentance or that the shame which attends it will be worse to them than the want of the thing it self and check the rude presumption of those who to exalt themselves assume too large a familiarity with their Maker And now I shall trouble the Reader with very little more being conscious to my self how much I have already tired any that has had patience to read this Discourse quite through Yet because extravagant and very lofty men pretend to inspiration in such matters as these as if the holy Spirit dictated matter and words to all Saints when they thus pray extempore If it be true I acknowledge my self to have blasphemed in this Discourse But if it be false as I verily believe it is then they themselves have blasphemed the Holy Spirit of God And to make a judgement in this case I shall only intreat treat the impartial Reader who I suppose is come thus far with me to our journeys end 1. to consider if what I have said be argumentative to convince him then the blasphemy remains in the presumption of our Adversaries on their own side 2. If their prayers were thus inspired they would be equally Canonical with the Scriptures For what made the Scriptures a Rule of life but because they were given by inspiration from God 2 Tim. 3.16 And Saint Peter informs us that holy men of God spake in old time as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.21 And though men have been at sundry times and in divers manners spoken unto in the Old and New Testament yet it was God who delivered his messages unto men Heb. 1.1 And because he inspired the Writers of the Old Testament and the New to a delivery of what their words and writings have presented to the world therefore we receive them as the Oracles of God and endeavour to manage our lives by them God Almighty has no where declared what Books are Scripture and what not But this we learn by such arguments as convince us that the men that wrote them were inspired by the Holy Ghost Now could these mens prayers of which we now discourse be proved to be dictated by the Holy Ghost they would be equally valid with the Scriptures For as in the proof of the truth of the holy Scriptures if the Historical part be proved to be true the Doctrines that are included in the History will by the same evidence appear true also So if we allow the confessions petititions and thanksgivings of these persons to be inspired the propositions on which they are founded and all the Doctrines insinuated in them will be admitted as an effect of the inspiration also and then what inspired Controversies should we have Nay there would not only be additions to the Sacred Canon which St. John is quoted by themselves to have prohibited And Doctrines also and prayers too that have no foundation in that Sacred Writ which has been derived as a compleat rule for sundry Ages But we must receive such large Appendixes that they would not only surmount all Popish traditions though they should superadd those of the Jews But it might be said in the words of the Evangelist without any or but a little Hyperbole That if they were written the world it self could not contain the Books because the prayers of these are so various and long And beside this it would level the Prophets our Saviours and his Apostles prayers to the rude and indigested and extravagant conceptions which our natural Enthusiasts utter in those which all men call extempore prayers 3. If these men had that extraordinary assistance from the Spirit of God or such an inspiration to which so bold a pretence is made Then the Spirit of God must be rendered inconsistent with it self Since it would frame tedious and long prayers contrary to that plain fulness and convenient brevity which we find in those that are recorded in Sacred Writ as delivered by the Prophets or Apostles or even our Saviour himself And then the examples mentioned in the Book of God will seem to be changed by extraordinary motions from his own Spirit Lastly Consider that notwithstanding all our extempore mens pretensions their prayers cannot be the product of inspiration dictating to the speaker matter and words Because this sudden deceiving Knack is plainly discoverable by those that know and can use it also as well as themselves to be the effect of quickness of invention in one who remembers Scripture Phrases who has a voluble and ready tongue and 't is gained only by frequent use together with little arts in the composure At several times 't is done by changing the places of expressions or altering the method so that it cannot easily be observed by the vulgar And all is but like the exercise of a Military Company of men whole front or reer ranks or files are quickly altered by one or few words of Command And this great gift as 't is called by some advances or grows weak according to the increase or decay of natural abilities the abatement of knowledge or the sprightlyness and activity of mens parts the strength of memory or the infirmity of it the volubility of speech or the hesitations and stops in it and the practice or disuse of this extempore way c. To which we may add boldness and bashfulness fear and a good assurance and the like Hence a Right Reverend Prelate not long since deceased when before he arrived at this honour though he was alwaies a very great man he was pleased to write concerning this gift of prayer was willing to subject it to the rules of Art that so the Holy Spirit of God in all its infusions into good men might be supposed only to spiritualize their judgments and affections that they might be both sanctified and raised which may as well be in forms of devotion as in conceived and extempore prayers And now I have done with all that I intend at present to write on this Subject But if any Reader shall find an objection which is neither in this Discourse obviated in the state nor already answered in particular instances I must then refer him to several Cases of Conscience published by sundry Ministers of London very lately exhibited to the World and more yet that are to come forth and when they receive a full answer I may perhaps be convinced by it Although the most that I have yet seen seem to me to have prickles in them that for their Brethren as they call them to attempt a reply will render them like things gnawing thistles Yet men may adventure at what they please and I 'll assure them it shall be all one to me whether Don Quixot encounters a flock of Sheep or a Wind-mill The Conclusion THE Learned Vossius