Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	prayer_n	spirit_n	supplication_n	1,486	5	11.4562	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27173	A sermon preach'd before the right honourable the Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen, at Guild-Hall, December the 27th, 1685 / by Luke Beaulieu ...	Beaulieu, Luke, 1644 or 5-1723.	1686 (1686)	Wing B1577; ESTC R16491	13,439	28

Doctrine are variously understood and disputed about but in the practical part of Religion that which concerns a good life all men are agreed That it shall be well with them that fear God That to take heed unto the thing that is right shall bring a man peace at the last And that good Works shall have a good Reward The living by these measures is that whereby a Christian glorifies God in the world justifies the sincerity of his Faith separates himself from Hypocrites and Unbelievers and confirms his own heart in the sure comfortable belief of the Christian Doctrine nay and recommends it to others The true way to build up our selves in our most holy Faith and to propagate it in the World is to shew its excellency and efficacy by the fruits of it in our lives This way the Apostles confuted false Religions and converted even those that persecuted the Gospel By their bearing the Yoak of Christ and by their Obedience to him they brought under his subjection the Kingdoms of the Earth It was neither by false or fearful dissimulation nor by violence they made Proselytes but by approving themselves to every mans conscience in the sight of God That way will ever be effectual to preserve the credit of true Religion and persuade men to embrace it and will be the lasting happiness of every faithful Believer Tit. 3.8 This I will that thou affirm constantly That they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works These things are good and profitable unto men Thirdly We ought to contend for the Faith by a devout attendance upon those acts of Worship and Piety which are enjoyned by it Nothing contributes more to the increase and establishment of true Religion than the earnest Devotion of its Professors It is the way to strive together for the Faith of the Gospel as St. Paul exhorts And it is the complement of that Spiritual Armour wherewith he would have us fight against the great Enemy of our Salvation Ephes 6. after the Shield of Faith c. v. 18. Praying alway with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit and watchining thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints Few were the Books of Controversie and few the Disputes of Christians amongst themselves in the Ages of fervent Devotion but great was their Piety They daily received the Blessed Sacrament to express their thankfulness to God for the Mercies of our Redemption and to tie themselves to Obedience and Virtue And they offer'd to God continually the Sacrifice of Praise They brought them that were in error to the Worship of the true God by their assiduousness in the doing of it themselves A Zeal against different Religions where it is not guarded with a due care to love and to serve God according to our own degenerates commonly into cruelty and uncharitableness So it did with the zealot Jews so with the persecuting Heathen and so it hath prov'd amongst too many Christians to the no small prejudice of true Religion Whereas in all Ages of the Church there hath been always so much of substantial goodness as there hath been of true Devotion in any hearts Cornelius thoug uncircumcised Simeon and Hannah who were Jews they are represented as very devout People and great Exemplars of Vertue But in Contentions and Disputes for the most part men will speak their Passions more than their Piety It is a dangerous deceit to rest in Negatives be they never so true and to make Religion consist in clamouring against errors though never so palpable whil'st we neglect Christian duties So to be very fierce against Transubstantiation and neglect to receive the Blessed Sacrament to make loud invectives against Prayers to Saints and offer none to God or but very cold ones and very seldom as hath been here too much in use amongst us that shews only that some men are great enemies to one Party and to some Opinions and no friends to Christianity For if it were love to the Truth they are seriously concerned for they would be at least as zealous in attending the true Worship of God as they are against the errors of some about it Indeed errors should be reprov'd and the truth asserted by good and able men But the noise of others is not like to signifie much nor will demonstrations alone They that dissent from us on either hand have long enough been bafled by unanswerable Arguments But these are above the leisure and the capacity of many who observe your deportment better and may be warm'd with the Zeal of your Devotion and perswaded by your Example So that now they that are not of our Communion may sooner be gained by our wrastling with God than by our contending with them Such are our Offices of publick Religion so excellent and so divine that no sincere Christian though not of our Church but must approve them might joyne with us The great Objection is our own neglect of them If we remove that by a more assiduous and devout attendance upon Divine Worship we shall find that the best way to win others to use and approve more and more our form and most pious Liturgy And if we rescue it from our own prophaness and indevotion we need not fear any opposition from without should ever prevaile against it But thus to contend with God in humble and earnest Supplications and Prayers requires a very earnest contending with our own selves It is one of the great Infilicities of our Nature that we are very backward to Pray Either our sins make a separation betwixt God and Us Or the Cares and Solicitudes of this World keep our Souls groveling here below So that although we know that God is ready to hear Prayers and Commands us to ask that he may have and Opportunity to give yet we can hardly lift up our Hearts unto him We are dull and untoward and our thoughts are apt to scatter when we come to Petition and to Worship in his Holy Presence And a man must have labour'd with himself very seriously to bring his Soul to a Praying temper and to keep it in such a frame as to be habitually dispos'd to converse with God To keep upon his Heart a fresh and lively sense of Religious Thoughts and Affections a man must keep his passions in subjection to reason and strictly watch over himself That fervent Prayer which St. James saith availeth much can not be offer'd up to God without the utmost striving and endeavours of a Christian It is a very earnest and effectual contending for the Faith once delivered to the Saints to recommend it devoutly to his Blessing and Protection who is the Author and the Finisher of it to be pressing with him to maintain his own Cause To bring all Infidels to the knowledg and all Christians into the Unity of that saving Faith to make it triumph over all errors and vices that it may flourish and bring forth fruit in all the