Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	pray_v	prayer_n	supplication_n	6,912	5	11.1562	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36933	Holy rules and helps to devotion both in prayer and practice In two parts. The fourth edition. Written by the right reverend father in God, Bryan Duppa, late Lord Bishop of Winton, in the time of his sequestration.	Duppa, Brian, 1588-1662.	1683 (1683)	Wing D2660E; ESTC R220202	41,746	221

make daily use of the humors of the body the distempers of the mind the weakness and weariness of the flesh the injuries and oppressions of the Time the cares and distractions of the World Of these they make their Engines to assault us and weave their Nets to entangle us And as S. Bernard observed by his own experience they are never more earnest to disturb us than when they see us most earnest in this duty As it was said therefore of the Christians That that Religion could not but be very good which Nero persecuted so we may very well conceive of Prayer that it must needs be some divine and heavenly thing which the Devil with all his Engines so violently opposeth And the truth is he hath so much the more reason to set himself against it for nothing is more destructive nothing more terrible to him than a Soul armed with Prayer for he trembles at the sight of it saith St. Chrysostom When St. Paul therefore having first shewn us what Enemies we were to deal with that we were to wrestle with Principalities with Powers with the Rulers of the Darkness of this World with spiritual wickedness in High places when I say after this fearful Muster-Roll he adviseth us to arm our selves with the whole Armor of God with the Breast-plate of Righteousness the Shield of Faith the Helmet of Salvation the Sword of the Spirit he adds in the last place Pray always with all manner of Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit as if all the rest were nothing without Prayer And this the Apostles themselves found to be true who being not able to cure the Lunatick and to drive the evil Spirit out of him our Saviour shewed them wherein they failed by telling them That this kind is not cast out but by Prayer and Fasting For though they might have so much Faith as to remove Mountains yet without prayer that Faith could not remove the Devil For this only is that perfume whose smoke will make him fly as far as did that unclean Spirit whom Tobias his perfume did drive away But there is an Hostility more dangerous than this because being more inward and domestick it makes the heart the seat of the War and opposeth Prayer in the proper place and bed of the conception of it which the Devil immediately and directly cannot do Of these inward and intestine Enemies to Prayer St. Bernard reckons up four kinds For there are our past sins to wound us our present cares to distract us our distempered Passions to disorder us and a whole swarm of loose and floating imaginations to molest us And of these Ingredients is that cloud made up which the Prophet Ieremiah complains of That God was covered with a Cloud that our Prayer could not pass through to him For as gross Vapors ascend from the Earth and being in the upper Region of the Air condescend into Clouds hinder us from seeing of the Sun and enjoying the heat and splendor of it So saith St. Gregory out of our earthly hearts arise those several Vapours which being joined and cast into a Cloud beats back our Prayers and intercepts the Beams of the Sun of Righteousness from shining on us St. Austin likens a Soul in this condition to a man that is unhappily married for as he having spent the day in managing his affairs abroad trembles at the very thought of coming home at night being sure to meet with nothing but bitterness and disquiet there So the troubled Sinner being haunted with these ill Guests entertains his Thoughts contentedly enough with objects abroad but trembles to call them home and fix them upon Prayer But there is no remedy home we must come and sweeten as well as we can the Discontents we find there Though the mind be clouded and troubled this must not make us cast aside our Prayers but cry out the more earnestly as David did Save me O God from the great Waters that are come even into my Soul Deliver me from mine enemies for they are too mighty for me Cast out these Temptations that come about me like Bees quiet my thoughts compose my mind so that I may not fear to look home or find that to be a torment to me which was made to be my comfort But to consider these Enemies of Prayer apart we shall find in the first rank of them our unrepented sins When our Conscience stands up against us and cries out to us First make peace with me or else never think to make peace with God For he accepts of no unclean no unwashed Sacrifice and if Repentance usher not in Prayer will never find admittance Holy David deeply apprehended the Consequence of this If saith he I incline my heart unto wickedness God will not hear me For what an impudence were it to expect pardon for those sins which I am yet so far pleased with as I am not resolved to leave or to look for Mercy when that Lust is not yet cool'd with which I have offended Bring therefore no more vain Oblations your Incense is an Abomination to me saith God to that people of his who honoured him with their lips when their hearts were far from him Your appointed Feasts my Soul hates they are a trouble to me I am weary to bear them When you spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yea though you make many Prayers I will not hear Would you know why The very next words will satisfie you Your hands are full of blood you have not washed them in the waters of Repentance you are yet in your sins therefore you are not heard But what is to be done then in this case God tells you by his Prophet Wash you make you clean put away your evil doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil And when you have done this Come saith the Lord and let us reason together As if he should say You are now qualified for a Conference with God your Prayers will be seasonable and for your sins which hitherto have hindered you Do but confess and resolve to leave them Though they be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like Crimson they shall be white us Wool The Enemies of Devotion in the second Rank are our Passions which though they are not in their own nature sins yet quickly slide into them and being prone to be irregular are like cross winds to hinder us unless we can allay and temper them For unmortified passions at the time of Prayer is like loud musick at a meeting of Friends which suffers them not to hear one the other When God appear'd in the flaming Bush to Moses on purpose to be seen by him yet he would not suffer him to make any near approach to him till he had put off his shoes which signifies something more than is in the Letter and relates rather to the heart than to

Vera Effigies Rev. di in Christo Patris at D. D. Bryan Duppa quondam Episcopi Wintoniensis HOLY RULES and HELPS TO DEVOTION Both in Prayer and Practice IN TWO PARTS The fourth Edition Written by The right Reverend Father in God Bryan Duppa Late Lord Bishop of Winton In the time of his SEQUESTRATION London Printed for vp Hensman at the King's-Head in Westminster-Hall 1683. TO THE Christian Reader THe Name and Memory of the excellent Author of this Treatise needs not borrow or derive a Reputation from any Pen but its own There are already many useful Pieces and Helps to Devotion set forth both by Bishops and others of our Church more solid serviceable and advantagious to true Piety and the power of Godliness than all the gifted Impertinencies to say no worse of some Holy Pretenders For if Noise and Clamour might pass for Inspiration the Apostles must go for Weak-Brethren and mere Novices compared with our new Lights and Improvements That Set Forms of Prayer are altogether necessary in Publick cannot be denied and needs not now be represented They are abundantly useful even for private Christians also since it is not every one that can pray extempore in his Closet and he that can may notwithstanding be defective enough in the matter or manner of his Petitions For though God principally respects the Heart and Affections of his Servants and the Spirit helps our Infirmities with sighs and groans yet we ought even in private to have an awful orderly regard of the Great God to whom we address our selves and the Holy Spirit teaches us to pray as with ardent Affections so with reverend humble minds and not with disorderly confused or unprepared approaches and a rude confidence without just ground or foundation This is not to help or diminish our infirmities but to augment them more He that prays extempore must be one of better Faith and Principles Life and Conversation than many are who so familiarly pretend to it But whatever some mens Graces may be in this particular which God forbid I should seek to diminish or reproach yet for such who I doubt are far the greater number as yet have not attained to so great a Perfection in this holy Duty I cannot but recommend these Rules and Directions which answer the Title and will I hope the Expectation of those that use them to their benefit and comfort God grant us all that Unity of Spirit which intitles us to the Gifts and Graces of of the Spirit that so praying with one heart and mind as becometh Saints we may have our Communion in Glory among the Iust hereafter Ben. Parry HOLY Rules and Helps TO DEVOTION Both in Prayer and Practice But I will give my self unto Prayer O Eternal Wisdom who communicatest thy self unto thy Creatures in such measure as they are capable of vouchsafe to impart to my Soul that Heavenly Gift to be a Guide to me in all my Thoughts my Thoughts my Words my Actions that so being taught by Thy Holy Spirit I may so far know Thee as to love Thee and so far love Thee as ever to fix my thoughts upon Thee Of Prayer what it is THe several Properties and Excellencies of Prayer have afforded matter enough to the Ancient Fathers to mold as many several and different Descriptions of it which like many Stars cast into a Constellation may give all together a full and perfect Representation of it Gregory Nyssen defines Prayer to be the conversing or discoursing of the Soul with God concerning her Salvation Which being done by the outward Expressions of the Voice is called Vocal Prayer but if by the Mind alone Mental In this way of conversing with God the Soul makes use of her Three principal Faculties her Memory her Understanding her Will Her Memory to call to mind what she is to treat of her Understanding to weigh and to judge what she delivers Her Will to perform this Duty feelingly and affectionately For all these Faculties must concur in Prayer elevating the Soul and fixing it upon God as the highest Truth in which we are to believe the Soveraign Happiness which we are to hope for the Supream Goodness which we are to love and the infinite Excellence which we are to adore So that Prayer is principally grounded on a lively Faith of such things as God hath revealed an assured Hope of what he hath promised and a servent Love which serves as the Fire to kindle this Sacrifice and to carry the Soul upward till it arrive at the Throne of Grace From hence it is that Damascen describes Prayer to be an ascending of the Soul to God being therefore compared to the sweet Perfume that ascended from the Incense But as the Incense being cast into the Fire ascends only in the more subtile and delicate part of it which being converted into Air and Smoak leaves behind it the grosser and earthier part turn'd into Ashes So in this ascent the Soul leaves behind it the earthier parts as Abraham left his Servants behind him at the foot of the Mountain while he ascended to the top of it to sacrifice For this is a business that belongs to Eagles which as they fly high so in their flight they look stedfastly on the Sun It is not for those that intrench themselves in the Earth as in their proper Element nor yet for Birds of Prey which though they fly high yet their eyes are still cast downward Sursum Corda was the form in ancient Liturgies the Priest calling out to the People Lift up your hearts which the people as readily answered Habemus ad Dominum This ascending of the Soul by Prayer was figured as St. Austin conceives by that mysterious Ladder whose foot being upon the Earth the top of it reached unto Heaven seen by Iacob in a Vision with Angels ascending and descending on the Rundles of it carrying up our Prayers to God and bringing down Blessings upon him that offers them But because this ascent is not ordinarily by Rapture for the Angels were not seen to fly up the Ladder but to mount by degrees we are to consider the several Steps and Rundles we are to ascend by THe first Step is laid hold on by the Memory which begins this spiritual ascent by putting the Soul in mind to look up to the Majesty of him that stands above the Ladder to remember that though the place we chuse for our Devotion be never so solitary yet we are not alone that God hears what we say sees what we do that the whole Trinity is present as visible to thy eyes of Faith as grosser Objects are to the outward senses For there is God the Father the Fountain of good Thoughts ready to assist through his power and to keep us from distraction in our Prayers there is God the Son the eternal Truth prepared to direct us by his Wisdom and to deliver us from errour and delusion there is God the Holy Ghost the Source and Spring of