Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	form_n	prayer_n	word_n	7,107	5	5.2255	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93404	Moses his prayer. Or, An exposition of the nintieth Psalme. In which is set forth, the frailty and misery of mankind; most needfull for these times. Wherein [brace] 1. The sum and scope. 2. The doctrines. 3. The reasons. 4. The uses of most texts are observed. / By Samuel Smith, minister of the Gospel, author of Davids repentance and the Great assize, and yet living.	Smith, Samuel, 1588-1665.	1656 (1656)	Wing S4189A; Thomason E1624_1; ESTC R208959	212,879	567

like time of the Churches misery and distresse or may we pray by a book Answ Answ There is no doubt but the Church of God and the particular members of it may use set forms of prayer Christ himselfe the great Doctor of his Church prescribes to his Disciples a form of prayer not only to be a pattern and sampler as some would have it Mat. 6.9 After this manner pray ye but also that they might pray in those very words Lnke 11.2 as When ye pray say Our Father c. The purest Churches have had their Lythurgies and set forms of prayer And for Heads of families where the spirit of prayer is wanting and such other qualifications as are necessary in prayer a set form may and ought to be used For every child of God though he have an honest heart yet hath he not ever a flowing tongue but is weak in invention frail in memory bashfull and fearfull Such may use the help of others in a forme prescribed before them with this condition That they take heed that they rest not in those beginnings It is requisite that the Nurse take the child by the hand at first to teach it to goe But she will not alwaies give it the hand The Lord lookes for a proficiency at our hands as in all gracee so in the gift of prayer Besides the daily occurrences that come in upon us in this life sometimes fresh temptations from Sathan troubles from the world and the workings of corruptions daily within us call for a powring out of our hearts to God and the inlargings of our requests which many times are not in our stinted prayers Besides God hath promised To him that hath shall be given By the conscionable use of thy small gift thou hast in thee thou shalt increase it and perform it daily with more comfort And that this prayer of Moses may be used in times of common Calamities It is the Churches constant practice to make use of severall Psalmes upon severall occasions to be sung in our Churches as Ps 92. Ps 22. Ps 39. Ps 102. c. Hitherto of the title of the Psalm Ver. 1. Lord thou hast been our dweling place in all generations MOses and the people of God begin this prayer of theirs with a Complaint of their great sufferings and grievous afflictions that they ind●red not onely in Aegypt under Pharaoh and the Egyptians but now in the Wildernesse since the Lord delivered them and brought them out with his Almighty hand and stretched out arm And the first part of their prayer is a Complaint unto God that their estate was far worse then the estate and condition of their Forefathers And this is called A Prayer of Moses though indeed it bee but a Complaint Hence we learn That in times of misery and affliction Doct. 1 The very complaints of the godly are effectuall prayers with God the very Complaints and Sobs and Sighs of Gods people bee forcible prayers in the sight of God and loud cries in his eares This is a speciall point to be observed of us that our very complaints to God our sighs and groanes in times of misery and distresse are with God as powerfull and effectuall prayers Moses complaining and mourning now in their misery calls it a prayer A man may pray effectually when in his own feeling and apprehension his heart is utterly indisposed to prayer When a child of God is overwhelmed with grief and his thoughts perplexed and sore troubled that he is not able to conceive a prayer either for matter or method yet even then may this troubled and perplexed soul make an effectuall prayer unto God by his Complaints sighs and groanes unto God This was Moses case at another time when the people of Israel were in great distresse by Pharaoh and the Aegyptians who pursued after them with their Chariots and Horsemen and they were in that straight that they knew not how to escape Moses Exo. 14.15 wherefore cryest thou Saith God yet wee do not read that Moses spake a word But it is like that he groaned in spirit and yet this was a loud and effectuall prayer with the Lord. And such was the behaviour of Hannah in the Temple no voice of her at all was heard and yet then it is said 1 Sam. 1.13 that She poured out her soul before the Lord. Thus did Hezechiah Esay 38.14 Mourned like a Dove and Chatter like a Crane being much oppressed with grief And this was looked upon as an effectuall prayer with God Ps 77.3.4 How oft was David in such straights in his spirit That his spirit was overwhelmed within him and hee not able to make a distinct prayer unto God nor speak a word yet even then did David pray effectually to God This honour have all the Saints that their complaints their very sighs and groanes are accepted of him Ps 88. See the title of the 88. Ps A prayer containing a grievous complaint Whereas it is true of all wicked and ungodly men though they make many prayers Es 1.15 God will not hear them Albeit ye make many prayers I will not hear you for your hands are full of blood And again Will you steal Murther and commit Adultery and stand before me in my house Behold I see it saith the Lord And therefore cast you out of my sight O the misery of every wicked and ungodly man that whereas in times of affliction and distresse his onely refuge is to fly unto God by earnest and hearty prayer This man cannot pray if he pray he speaks in a language that God understands not Prov. 15.8 Psal 66.18 his prayers are abomination unto the Lord. If I regard wickednesse in my heart the Lord will not hear me Quest But what may bee the Reasons why the complaints and groanes of the godly are thus looked upon as powerfull and effectual prayers with God First Reas 1 Because the prayer that prevails most with God is not so much the labour of the lips as the labour of the heart And let a prayer be never so well composed for matter or Method and bee dressed with never so much Eloquence and variety of expressions Yet if the heart be not affected if the sighs and groans of the heart be wanting and faith within that makes the same effectuall they are not regarded at all with God Secondly Reas 2 because the godly in their greatest miseries and distresses that they can be brought into when they are not able to pray Yet they have the spirit within them that makes requests for them Rom. 8.26 with sighs and groans that cannot be expressed But he that searcheth the heart knoweth what the mind of the Spirit is And a complaint sigh and groan proceeding from the Spirit must needs bee heard and answered of God This may minister matter of singular comfort and consolation to ma●y a poor distressed soul and wounded conscience Use 1 when as the

hearted to preach liberty to the captive c. Here you see to whom Christ is sent and here is a soul qualified for mercy not all and every one that lives under the Gospell that hath been Baptized and goes under the name of a Christian but such only as are sensible at their spirituall misery and thraldome by reason of sin I came saith Christ to seek and to save that was lost Miserable creature thou Luk. 19.10 if thou be not one that Christ came to seek and to save But if thou be not a lost creature a poor wretched damned creature in thy own apprehension thou wilt never have Christ to save thee Secondly till we thus see sin Reas 2 and are sensible of Gods wrath and displeasure for sin we shall never prize Christ neither are fit to receive any comfort from Christ When a poor soul comes truly to see fin and the wrath of God due for sin and that sin is a burthen too heavy for that soul to bear Christ will never be pretious to the soul The full soul loatheth the hony comb But take a poor wounded soul whose heart is truly humbled it is like a smitten Hart O to the soyle it flyeth Ps 42.1 As the Hart brayeth after the Rivers of water so longeth my soul after thee O God Let such a soul have all the treasure in the world presented unto him on the one hand and the least drop of the blood of Christ on the other hand O it is Christs blood that he priseth above all As Rachel said to Jacob Give me Children or else I die so saith a poor soul Give me Christ for the pardon of my sins or else I die and shall perish for ever This serves to discover unto us what is Gods manner of dealing in the work of mans Conversion and Salvation Use 1 the Lord works by contraries God brings men to joy by sorrow to blessednesse by the sense of our cursednesse as at the first Creation God brought light out of darknesse so doth God now bring life out of death and out of our deep apprehension of Gods anger and displeasure God founds and grounds our greatest comfort Well then would you know how it fares between God and your souls call to minde your sins past the sins of your youth the sins of your middle age and the sins of your riper years and see how your hearts stand affected towards them Can you think of them without griefe of heart have you as yet never felt the terrours of the Almighty for sin You never felt such a weight and burthen of sin that you were ready to sink under it O deceive not your own souls the foundation of grace and salvation is not yet laid But now if upon examination you finde the terrours of the Lord your hearts wounded that the remembrance of your sins is grievous unto you and that the burthen of them is intollerable here is a good mark that God intends much good to such a soul Seeing this is Gods manner of dealing in the work of Repentance and conversion to God Use 2 to work in the soul an apprehension of Gods anger and displeasure for sin Here is matter of mourning and lamentation in regard of the great security of this age wherein we live there is little fear or dread of Gods anger and wrath for sin amongst men a clear argument that men are far from this grace of true repentance The Lord be mercifull to a world of men that live amongst us even in the bosome of the Church if we had a fountain of tears with Jeremy we might weep them out to see the misery of the greatest part of the world that though they live in the bosome of the Church and partake daily of the Word yet are not wrought upon How many have we that are so far from grieving for their sins that it is their grief they cannot sin more freely Men cannot endure to meet with any check or controlment in their sinfull courses You that know the world and you that know the state of this place cannot but know how many we have that sit upon their Ale-bench and there despite the Spirit of grace glorying in their sin O that such would but consider that dreadfull place of the Apostle 2 Thess 2.13 That all might be damned that took pleusure in unrighteousnesse yet fear not damnation But the damnation of such doth not sleep And last of all Use 3 here is matter of admirable comfort and consolation to such upon whose hearts God hath been at work that have been under the Spirit of bondage and have layne under the threats of the Law have seen sin and have apprehended Gods displeasure in their souls for sin I may say to such a one as it was said to blind Bartimaeus Behold Christ calleth thee who for this spirit of heavinesse will give thee the spirit of gladnesse sorrow may endure for a night but joy commeth in the morning and Mat. 5.4 Blessed are they that mourn for they shall rejoyce O Object but if I were sure that my sorrow were right I might have comfort but I fear my trouble is not so much for offending God by my sins as for fear of Hell and of wrath which sorrow even a wicked man may have and yet perish at last Even this fear of Gods wrath Ans of hell and damnation may be at the first in us and as a needle make way for the threed of godly sorrow thus much is intimated by that of Paul Ye have not received the Spirit of bondage to fear again Ro. 8.15 which word implyeth thus much that even the very godly themselves had at first in them the spirit of bondage to fear God for his wrath hell and damnation A degree of grace if I may so call it that for ought I know all Gods children at first in some measure or other passe under But how shall I know Quest that it is not my case at this present True sight of sin and humiliation of the soul that shall finde comfort Answ hath principally these three properties First when the heart is carried against sin with such an indignation as that there is a heart-rising against a mans most secret corruptions 2 Cor. 7.11 What indignation saith Paul hath it wrought in you A heart-rising against our most secret corruptions stirring in us is a good signe our sorrow for sin is sound It may again be known by that full purpose of heart that is in us not to sin again as those godly Converts mentioned in the Scripture Paul Zacheus Mary Magdalen Peter c. fell not into their sins again Thirdly it may be known by the blessed victory that the soul gets daily against sin when corruption weakens daily and grace growes more vigorous in the soul these may comfort the heart that such a soul is qualified for mercy Ver. 10. The daies of our years are threescore years and ten and