Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
B03557
|
The sacred diary: Or, select meditations for every part of the day, and the employments thereof: With directions to persons of all ranks, for the holy spending every ordinary day of the Week. Propounded as means to facilitate a pious life, and for the spiritual improvement of every Christian.
|
Gearing, William.
|
1679
(1679)
|
Wing G438; ESTC R177551
|
109,549
|
305
|
and Men that in special do want our Prayers in publique and private Calamities Object But we must ask according to the Will of God Resp Yes according to his revealed Will We must not cannot look into his secret Will to see who are there excluded from his Mercy but those who are excluded in his revealed Will we must not sue for as the Devils and those who have sinned against the Holy Ghost if we knew them Object But do we not worship God in vain when we pray for whom the Lord will not hear us Resp I answer No Our Prayer shall return into our own bosoms as it was with the Psalmist when he prayed for his Enemies III. To whom must we pray I answer Unto God who is there called a Father a Word of Nature or Person In the former sense taken for the Holy Trinity in the latter for the First Person Here ye may understand it both ways in a compound sence 1. That you are to direct your Prayers to God the whole Divine Nature Father Son and Holy Ghost And then withal to the Father first in order through the Son by the Holy Ghost All are here condemned who pray unto any other None is to be prayed unto but whom we may call our Heavenly Father which is not due to any Creature IV. Through whom I answer Through Christ alone For through him and none other is God become our Father By Him we have the priviledg of Adoption and are made Sons and Daughters We have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous who is the Prepitiation for our Sins 1 John 2.1 None can be our Mediator of Intercession unto God but He that is the Propitiation appeasing him and satisfying his Wrath due unto our Sins and therefore no Saint nor Angel must be employed in this Office There is but one Mediator of Redemption and Intercession between God and Man even Christ Jesus who is both God and Man V. How we must pray Resp 1. As to a Father 2. As to a Father which is in Heaven And therefore To one that is willing and ready to help infinite in Majesty and Soveraignty seeing and knowing all things our Hearts our Wants This should teach you to pray with Boldness Confidence Reverence Understanding Sincerity Pray with Boldness as to a Father with Confidence and Reverence as to an Heavenly Father with Sincerity and Understanding as to him that seeth your Hearts The things that we are to pray for every Morning at least one reduceth them to these Heads viz. That you may not offend God this Day That you may not want Grace Light and Courage to resist those Temptations which most assail you and those Sins to which you are most inclined That you may practise those Vertues which are most necessary for you That you may be guided this Day by God's good Providence in all that concerns your Soul Body and Estate That you may obtain new Favours and Assistance for the Necessities of your Neighbours which you may then set before him This kind of Supplication among other Commodities hath this withal that it daily reneweth in the Soul some good purposes and desires of Vertues and moveth it to be the more earnest to do that thing which he hath so frequently and so earnestly desired Chrysostom saith Such as pray earnestly in very deed will not suffer their Hearts to commit any thing that is unseemly for such an Exercise but ever have their Eyes upon God with whom a little before they talked and were conversant And so by that Cogitation they put away from them all the Suggestions of the Devil when they consider what an hainous matter it were that he that had a little before talked with Almighty God and desired of him Chastity and Holiness with all other Vertues should immediately run to his Enemies side and open the Gates of his Soul to receive in filthy and dishonest Delights and suffer the Devil to place him self in that Heart which a little before was the Temple of the Holy Ghost A form of Petition composed by Thomas Aquinas O God give unto me and unto all those whom I commend in my Prayer an understanding to know Thee and affectionate devotion to seek Thee a Wisdom to find Thee a Conversation to please Thee a Perseverance boldly to wait on Thee a Faith happily to embrace Thee My God so order it that I may be wounded with Thy sufferings in Repentance that in this Life I may use Thy Blessings in Grace and enjoy in the other Eternal Joys in Glory Amen SECT XIX Of Offering our selves to God ONe act of true Devotion is That a Man should every Morning offer up and make a Resignation of himself unto God which is an absolute parting with himself and a putting himself under the Power Wisdom and Soveraignty of God to be commanded ordered and disposed in all things by him according to his Will This work of Resigning our selves to God must be always doing whilst we are in this World When God hath wrought upon the Heart by effectual Perswasions and by his mighty Power the Lord saith to the Soul I am thy God and the Soul answers in truth And I am Thine As David Psal 116.6 O Lord I am thy Servant I am thy Servant Now is the Resignation actually made But though this be done yet it is still always doing whilst we are here upon Earth nay to Eternity For it is a thing that consists of an iteration of multiplied Acts. As Wedlock is not one single Act of Persons giving themselves each to other but if they live as Married Persons ought there is a daily giving of themselves each to other Their Hearts go out every day with Complacency and Delight willingly renewing the Bond and making the Contract yet firmer and firmer The end of this Resignation of your selves to God is that in all things you may be Commanded Ruled and Governed by him to have the Will of God to be your Bounds and to have it for your Rule and Pattern To be Bounded by God is to do nothing but what God doth either Command or Warrant All things are not Commanded a Christian that he may do But Commands and Warrants are the utmost Latitude of that Liberty which is left us we have no further to go and we need not there is scope enough to keep within these Limits Psal 119.16 Saith David I have seen an end of all Perfection but thy Commandment is exceeding broad It is as if he had said I have walked over the fair Plains of every Creature I have viewed the extent of all Excellency in them and I could look beyond it But when I look upon the Commandment of God as it is either Mandatory or Promisory it is of so vast Dimensions so exceeding great that it exceeds all things in the World there is room enough for the Spirit of a Man that is in true subjection unto God Now as we need not step