Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	heart_n	pray_v	prayer_n	13,124	5	6.7659	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50898	Eikonoklestēs in answer to a book intitl'd Eikōn basilikē the portrature His Sacred Majesty in his solitudes and sufferings the author J.M.	Milton, John, 1608-1674.	1650 (1650)	Wing M2113; ESTC R32096	139,697	248

instruments also of his designes The Ministers which were sent him no marvel he indur'd not for they Preacht repentance to him the others gave him easie confession easie absolution nay strength'nd his hands and hard'nd his heart by applauding him in his wilfull wayes To them he was an Ahab to these a Constantine it must follow then that they to him were as unwelcome as Eliah was to Ahab these as deer and pleasing as Amaziah the Priest of Bethel was to Jeroboam These had learnt well the lesson that would please Prophesie not against Bethel for it is the Kings Chappel the Kings Court and had taught the King to say of those Ministers which the Parlament had sent Amos hath conspir'd against me the Land is not able to beare all his words Returning to our first Parallel this King lookt upon his Prelats as Orphans under the sacrilegious eyes of many rapacious Reformers and there was as great feare of Sacrilege between Micah and his Mother till with thir holy treasure about the loss whereof there was such cursing they made a grav'n and a molt'n Image and got a Priest of thir own To let go his Criticizing about the sound of Prayers imperious rude or passionat modes of his own divising we are in danger to fall again upon the flats and shallows of Liturgie Which if I should repeat again would turn my answers into Responsories and begett another Liturgie having too much of one already This onely I shall add that if the heart as he alleges cannot safely joyn with another mans extemporal sufficiency because we know not so exactly what they mean to say then those public Prayers made in the Temple by those forenamed Kings and by the Apostles in the Congregation and by the ancient Christians for above three hundred yeares before Liturgies came in were with the People made in vain After he hath acknowledg'd that kings heertofore prayd without Chaplains eev'n publicly in the Temple it self and that every privat Beleever is invested with a royall Priesthood yet like one that relisht not what he tasted of the heav'nly gift and the good word of God whose name he so confidently takes into his mouth he frames to himself impertinent and vain reasons why he should rather pray by the officiating mouth of a Closet Chaplain Their prayers saith he are more prevalent they flow from minds more enlightn'd from affections less distracted Admitt this true which is not this might be somthing said as to thir prayers for him but what availes it to thir praying with him If his own minde be incumbred with secular affaires what helps it his particular prayer though the mind of his Chaplain be not wandring either after new preferment or his Dinner The fervencie of one man in prayer cannot supererogate for the coldness of another neither can his spiritual defects in that duty be made out in the acceptance of God by another mans abilities Let him endeavour to have more light in himself And not to walk by another mans Lamp but to get Oyle into his own Let him cast from him as in a Christian warrfare that secular incumbrance which either distracts or overloads him his load els will never be the less heavie because another mans is light Thus these pious flourishes and colours examin'd throughly are like the Apples of Asphaltis appearing goodly to the sudden eye but look well upon them or at least but touch them and they turne into Cinders In his Prayer he remembers what voices of joy and gladness there were in his Chappell Gods house in his opinion between the Singing men and the Organs and this was unity of spirit in the bond of peace the vanity superstition and misdevotion of which place was a scandall farr and neer Wherin so many things were sung and pray'd in those Songs which were not understood and yet he who makes a difficulty how the people can joyne thir hearts to extemporal prayers though distinctly heard and understood makes no question how they should joyn thir hearts in unitie to songs not understood I beleeve that God is no more mov'd with a prayer elaboratly pend then men truely charitable are mov'd with the pen'd speech of a Begger Finally O yee Ministers ye pluralists whose lips preserve not knowledge but the way ever op'n to your bellies read heer what work he makes among your wares your Gally pots your Balmes and Cordials in print not onely your sweet Sippets in widows houses but the huge gobbets wherewith he charges you to have devourd houses and all the houses of your Brethren your King and your God Crie him up for a Saint in your Pulpits while he cries you down for Atheists into Hell XXV Vpon His penitentiall Meditations and Vowes at Holmby IT is not hard for any man who hath a Bible in his hands to borrow good words and holy sayings in abundance but to make them his own is a work of grace onely from above He borrows heer many penitential Verses out of Davids Psalmes So did many among those Israelites who had revolted from the true worship of God invent to themselves instruments of music like David and probably Psalmes also like his and yet the Profet Amos complaines heavily against them But to prove how short this is of true repentance I will recite the penitence of others who have repented in words not borrowd but thir own and yet by the doom of Scripture it self are judg'd reprobates Cain said unto the Lord My iniquity is greater then I can beare behold thou hast driv'n me this day from the face of the earth and from thy face shall I be bid And when Esau heard the words of his Father he cry'd with an exceeding bitter cry and said Bless me eev'n me also O my Father yet found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with teares Heb. 12. And Pharaoh said to Moses The Lord is righteous I and my people are wicked I have sind against the Lord your God and against you And Balaam said Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his And Saul said to Samuel I have sin'd for I have transgress'd the commandment of the Lord yet honour me now I pray thee before the Elders of my People And when Ahab heard the words of Eliah he rent his cloaths and put sackcloth upon his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went softly Jehoram also rent his cloaths and the people look'd and behold he had Sackcloth upon his flesh yet in the very act of his humiliation he could say God doe so and more also to me if the head of Elishah shall stand on him this day Therfore saith the Lord They have not cri'd unto me with thir heart when they howl'd upon thir beds They returne but not to the most High Hosea 7. And Judas said I have sind in that I have betray'd innocent blood And Simon Magus sayd Pray yee to the Lord for me that

raines down new expressions into our hearts in stead of being fit to use they will be found like reserv'd Manna rather to breed wormes and stink Wee have the same duties upon us and feele the same wants yet not alwayes the same nor at all times alike but with variety of Circumstances which ask varietie of words Wherof God hath giv'n us plenty not to use so copiously upon all other occasions and so niggardly to him alone in our devotions As if Christians were now in a wors famin of words fitt for praier then was of food at the seige of Jerusalem when perhaps the Priests being to remove the shew bread as was accustom'd were compell'd every Sabbath day for want of other Loaves to bring again still the same If the Lords Prayer had bin the warrant or the pattern of set Liturgies as is heer affirm'd why was neither that Prayer nor any other sett forme ever after us'd or so much as mention'd by the Apostles much less commended to our use Why was thir care wanting in a thing so usefull to the Church So full of danger and contention to be left undon by them to other mens Penning of whose autority we could not be so certain Why was this forgott'n by them who declare that they have reveal'd to us the whole Counsel of God who as he left our affections to be guided by his sanctifying spirit so did he likewise our words to be put into us without our premeditation not onely those cautious words to be us'd before Gentiles and Tyrants but much more those filial words of which we have so frequent use in our access with freedom of speech to the Throne of Grace Which to lay aside for other outward dictates of men were to injure him and his perfet Gift who is the spirit and the giver of our abilitie to pray as if his ministration were incomplete and that to whom he gave affections he did not also afford utterance to make his Gift of prayer a perfet Gift to them especially whose office in the Church is to pray publicly And although the gift were onely natural yet voluntary prayers are less subject to formal and superficial tempers then sett formes For in those at least for words matter he who prays must consult first w th his heart which in likelyhood may stirr up his affections in these having both words and matter readie made to his lips which is anough to make up the outward act of prayer his affections grow lazy and com not up easilie at the call of words not thir own the prayer also having less intercours and sympathy with a heart wherin it was not conceav'd saves it self the labour of so long a journey downward and flying up in hast on the specious wings of formalitie if it fall not back again headlong in stead of a prayer which was expected presents God with a sett of stale and empty words No doubt but ostentation and formalitie may taint the best duties we are not therfore to leave duties for no duties and to turne prayer into a kind of Lurrey Cannot unpremeditated babling be rebuk'd and restraind in whom we find they are but the spirit of God must be forbidd'n in all men But it is the custom of bad men and Hypocrits to take advantage at the least abuse of good things that under that covert they may remove the goodness of those things rather then the abuse And how unknowingly how weakly is the using of sett forms attributed here to constancy as if it were constancie in the Cuckoo to be alwaies in the same liturgie Much less can it be lawfull that an Englisht Mass-Book compos'd for ought we know by men neither lerned nor godly should justle out or at any time deprive us the exercise of that Heav'nly gift which God by special promise powrs out daily upon his Church that is to say the spirit of Prayer Wherof to help those many infirmities which he reck'ns up rudeness impertinencie flatness and the like we have a remedy of Gods finding out which is not Liturgie but his own free spirit Though we know not what to pray as we ought yet he with sighs unutterable by any words much less by a stinted Liturgie dwelling in us makes intercession for us according to the mind and will of God both in privat and in the performance of all Ecclesiastical duties For it is his promise also that where two or three gather'd together in his name shall agree to ask him any thing it shall be granted for he is there in the midst of them If then ancient Churches to remedie the infirmities of prayer or rather the infections of Arian and Pelagian Heresies neglecting that ordain'd and promis'd help of the spirit betook them almost four hundred yeares after Christ to Liturgie thir own invention wee are not to imitate them nor to distrust God in the removal of that Truant help to our Devotion which by him never was appointed And what is said of Liturgie is said also of Directory if it be impos'd although to forbidd the Service Book there be much more reason as being of it self superstitious offensive and indeed though Englisht yet still the Mass-Book and public places ought to be provided of such as need not the help of Liturgies or Directories continually but are supported with Ministerial gifts answerable to thir Calling Lastly that the Common-Prayer Book was rejected because it prayd so oft for him he had no reason to Object for what large and laborious Prayers were made for him in the Pulpits if he never heard t is doubtful they were never heard in Heav'n Wee might now have expected that his own following Prayer should add much credit to sett Forms but on the contrary we find the same imperfections in it as in most before which he lays heer upon Extemporal Nor doth he ask of God to be directed whether Liturgies be lawful but presumes and in a manner would perswade him that they be so praying that the Church and he may never want them What could be prayd wors extempore unless he mean by wanting that they may never need them XVII Of the differences in point of Church-Goverment THE Goverment of Church by Bishops hath bin so fully prov'd from the Scriptures to be vitious and usurp'd that whether out of Piety or Policy maintain'd it is not much material For Pietie grounded upon error can no more justifie King Charles then it did Queen Mary in the sight of God or Man This however must not be let pass without a serious observation God having so dispos'd the Author in this Chapter as to confess and discover more of Mysterie and combination between Tyranny and fals Religion then from any other hand would have bin credible Heer we may see the very dark roots of them both turn'd up and how they twine and interweave one another in the Earth though above ground shooting up in two sever'd Branches We may have learnt both from