Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	pray_v	prayer_n	supplication_n	1,875	5	11.3215	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95727	Practical piety, or, The pastor's last legacy to his beloved people directing how to walk with God in these apostatizing times. : With two most serious exhortatory epistles to satisfie the Christian readers, concerning the whole work. : To which is added morning and evening prayers for private families. / By that reverend divine, Mr. William Thomas, late rector of the Church of Ubley, in the County of Somerset, after his 44 years labours in the ministry in that place.	Thomas, William.	1681 (1681)	Wing T987B; ESTC R184982	206,212	270

and argues unanswerably against the ungodly unsober and worse then Heathenish drinking of Healths and clean cuts off dissolute and drunken Meetings and all such use of the c●●●tures as is either dishonorable to the Creator or bringeth no glory at all to him Lastly that I may speak of one thing more because it is in every ones eye we cannot tell men just how long they oughr to wear their hair but it doth not therefore follow that if instead of wearing their hair on their heads or necks they wear it as far as they can get it to go on their backs shoulders and breasts that they may do this without any Divine controul For we can tell them that things Indifferent are to be governed and limited by those things that are not Indifferent if therefore mens long hair arise from pride vanity of minde and an affectation of being fine as they think that way then its sure unlawful for though there be an indifferency in the cutting and ordering of the hair yet Pride is no indifferent thing Or If men do it in compliance with others that in these dayes use so much to exceed that general rule Be not conformed to this World will in the just extent thereof give a check to it Or If it be of ill report and an offence to the wise and godly it doth in that regard thwart with those Rules which require us to do things of good Report and in things indifferent to give no offence to any And moreover we can tell them what the Apostle saith and what Question he propounds for better order amongst the Christians at Corinth which is this Doth not even nature it self teach you that if a man have long hair it is a shame to him Let men consider how they will answer the Apostle whose words whatsoever shuffle men make are at least thus far convincing that Men are not to wear their hair so long as to confound the Sexes and transform themselves into Women wearing an ornament which take it in such a length and extent is proper to Women and so as it were deny their Sex which God forbad in the Law If it be said For Men to wear hair as long as Women is indeed a fault but not otherwise To that I answer 1. That Men cannot wear because they cannot have ordinarily hair so long as Women Nature will not afford it them having given Women a moister temperature to nourish that hair which is their distinguishing ornament and glory 2. I answer further That it is a very bad Character for any man to come next to that though he come not fully up to it which is absolutely naught and unnatural If it be said again That the Apostle speaks of that which is against nature not absolutely but according to the custom of those times and places unto which he directs his speech when in other Countreys it was otherwise To this I answer 1. That it doth not follow that it is not against nature strictly taken to wear very long hair because some Nations have let their hair grow extreamly long for who knows not that not only Heathens but divers Christians do that which is against the dictate and direction of nature 2. I add further with Beza that the Jews and people of God did not use so to nourish their hair as appears by the Law of the Nazarites not to cut their hair which shews that others usually did so and therefore that of Absolom was extraordinary and his way and end makes his example sad 3. If we have recourse to Custom only yet we may very well say it hath not been the Custom in England for Men to wear their hair so excessively long as appears by the Lord Comwel's imprisoning a Serving-man meerly for such excess but now indeed it grows to be a Custom and so invades the whole Nation that not only every youth in a manner but every child is put into that fashion I speak not of what is moderate and modest but of a general excess this way evidently declaring that though we have been so long of late under the hand of God and still are under such hazzards notwithstanding Gods admirable working for our settlement by the return of our gracious King as should humble our hearts and keep them in a modest frame yet we are become more bold more high and a more distempered and dissolute people then heretofore And here let it be observed that at the same time that is in the late times when men grew to be so horrid and illimitable in their hair they were extreamly extravagant also in their heads and conceits and as they would have such a length and latitude of hair granted them as should only not quite raze out the distinction of Sexes so they pleaded for such a liberty of Opinion as should only not raze and force up the very foundations of Religion As if it were injustice to tie Subjects to any Laws of the Nation save only to fundamental Laws or else as if every law of Men and of State were to be obeyed and the laws of God and of Conscience to be dispensed with according to every mans several sense and interest But as Prodigals that sell their Woods will shortly sell their Lands so they that will sell truths of Superstruction when they should buy every truth and sell none will be like to sell all at last even the truths of the Foundation as divers of late have done and leave themselves nothing to live upon and walk by but false lights and true fancies If this be a Digression the exorbitances of the times yea the excesses and offences that present themselves in every poor Countrey-Congregation have drawn it from me Howsoever I am sure I am not altogether gone beyond my purpose which was and is to shew that the general rules of Scripture and the determinations of Ministers according to and in vertue of those general rules are binding in particular Cases This being before hand observed we may take notice of some general Scripture-grounds tending to the establishing of Family-prayer particularly Gods glory and our own good 1. Gods glory All we do should be as much as may be for the glory of God Now it is more for Gods glory that a whole Family should be on their knees together then that there should be here and there a single Suitor for as in the multitude of people is the Kings honour so in the multitude of Praying people is the honor of the King of Heaven Hence David studying the glory of God saith O magnifie the Lord with me and let us exalt his Name together And Paul is still earnest for Saints joynt-joynt-supplications because when they help together in Prayer then for the gift bestowed by the means of many Persons thanks is given by many And as he that offereth praise to God glorifieth him so by many thanksgivings to

Wisdom In special we thank thee for any well-grounded hopes we have of a better life and that Inheritance which is incoru●●ible undefiled and that fadeth not away re●…ed in Heaven for us and for which also we are preserved O Lo●… of ti●e are less then the least of all thy mercies and if thou lay upon us the heavyest of thy judgements we have no right to complain being men of death and such as have deserved everlasting condemnation For we brought into the world with us a corrupt nature wherein is the seed of all sin and by reason whereof in the whole course of our lives we have neglected or done negligently what thou requirest and have moreover too too carelesly rusht into those evils both in thought word and deed which thou forbiddest But since thou art a God that delightest in mercy and that hast been pleas'd out of thine infinite love to mankind to lay upon thine only Son the iniquity of us all We that are the sheep that have gone so far astray come boldly unto the Throne of Grace in his Name intreating thy Majesty that by that Lamb of God that hath taken away the sins of the World our many and great sins our day-sins and our night-sins may be so taken away that if they be sought they may not be found being removed from us as far as the East is from the West that so in all the sorrows of this world we may joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement Make us able we pray thee by thy grace to prove that our sins are forgiven because they are forsaken s and that we have right to the promises of the Tree of Life because we do thy Commandements and walk sincerely in the duties of Christianity and of our particular Callings that thereby though we cannot procure yet we may assure our happiness and in that way of thine may come to be possessed of it That we may the better perform the duties belonging to us in our several places Help us we beseech thee to take heed both of Idleness and ill Company that are Enemies to Imployment And if we do labour diligently let us shew the power of godliness in not aiming at our own advantage and self-ends Set our hearts O God in so good a frame as that we may follow our business day by day in obedience to thy Word with respect to thy glory and to the doing of good to those that we live amongst and ought to be helpful unto For these ends and purposes we beg of thee as of a God Al-sufficient to preserve us from danger by thy Providence to enable us for what we are to do by thy power and to make all we do to thrive and prosper by thy blessing without which it is in vain to rise up early to sit up late and to eat the bread of sorrows Have a gracious respect we humbly pray thee unto all thine and ours according to all thy wisdom and goodness and according to all their need and occasions Be pleas'd to look with special favour upon the Churches of the Saints in all places especially in this and the neighbour-Nations Herein Pour forth thy choysest blessings on the head and thy choisest graces into the heart of the Kings Majesty with the rest of the Royal Family Furnish those with ability and fidelity that are in Authority in the State and that watch over the souls of thy people in the Church As for our selves and all that are under authority make us ever ready to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods Let thy fear O Lord be upon our hearts all the day long that walking conscionably as in thy presence we may present our selves comfortably before thee in the Evening with the sense and feeling of thy grace in us and goodness towards us in Jesus Christ through whom we glory in thee and to whom with thee O Father and the Eternal Spirit we acknowledge to be due and desire to give all honour and glory now and evermore Amen A shorter Prayer for the Evening MOst glorious God and in Jesus Christ our most loving Father It is of thy great mercy that we have been preserved and followed with many fatherly favours this day and that we are in so good a condition before thee to offer up this Evening Sacrifice unto thee We must needs confess and we come unto thee to confess that thy gracious dealing with us is altogether undeserved and that any evil that is or shall come upon us in this world is far less then we deserve For if we look to our beginnings we that at first were made good and like our God have by our sin in our first Parents forfeited and lost that holiness in which and that happiness unto which we were created so that thou mayest justly call us transgressors from the womb we having procured this unto our selves that we are every one of us shapen in iniquity and in sin did our mother conceive us And this corruption that over-spreads our natures so declareth and disperseth it self also in our whole carriage that as there is no day of our life wherein we do not many wayes partake in thy mercy so no day passeth over our heads wherein we do not in many things provoke thy justice In regard whereof we do not more need our daily bread for our bodies and being then a daily pardon of sin for our souls and for our well-being And blessed be thy Name O gracious God who art so far from leaving us without hope of a pardon that thou callest us unto thee and teachest us to seek it from thee as from our heavenly Father Unto thee therefore we come acknowledging O Father that we have sinned against Heaven and against Thee so that we are not worthy to be called thy children But though we forget to be towardly children yet do not thou forget to be a compassionate Father but be pleased to come forth and meet us and kiss us with the kisses of thy love Declare thy self in Jesus Christ a God reconciled unto us and that our sins and iniquities thou wilt remember no more So shall we remember thy Loves more then Wine and thou shalt put gladness into our hearts more then can possibly be had from all worldly enjoyments Nor do thou kiss us only but clothe us Take away our filthy garments which by our prodigality we have brought our selves unto and clothe us with change of rayment for as our great desire is that the righteousness of Christ which is the righteousness of God may be put upon us to shelter us from thy justice so we beg also for the clothing of the new Man that we may be meet to partake in thy mercy and may walk worthy of