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	teach_v	7,832	5	6.9447	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85833	An exhortation to peace: with an intimation of the prime enemies thereof, lately delivered in a sermon, and newly published with some small addition, by Lionell Gatford, B.D. rector of Dinnington in Suffolke, now a prisoner in Ely-house in Holborne.	Gatford, Lionel, d. 1665.	1643 (1643)	Wing G333; Thomason E94_1; ESTC R2004	27,384	44

neither the Prophet nor the Apostle could expresse and therefore they cry out in admiration thereof quam speciosi pedes c. how beautifull are the feet of him or them that publish or preach peace and as there is beauty in the publike preaching the Gospell so there is beauty in the publike praying unto God and praising of him as also in the rest of Gods publike worship and service rightly performed and therefore is the whole worship and service of God in his house called as you heard but now by the kingly Prophet David the beauty of the Lord Psa 27. and the beauty of holinesse Psal 29.2 But beloved in what places is this beauty and excellency of Gods worship and service to be found Not in those places wherein the sound of the trumpet and alarme of warre are daily heard for what agreement hath the preaching of the Gospell of peace with warring and fighting or what entertainment can praying finde where killing and murthering are professed and who can hope to heare the voice of praising God where cursing and blaspheming his Name are so uncontrolledly practised 't is a short but a smart and pithy examination of the Souldiers Pater-Noster which Erasmus takes in his Querimoniae pacis I will adde but a little to it and by it you may guesse how God is worshipped and served in those places where such men keepe their Randevooze quid quaeso orat miles what I beseech you saith Erasmus does the Souldier pray or how Doest thou say Our Father O impudent mouth doest thou dare to call God father who art flying at the throate of thy brother to cut it or teare it out Doest thou say hallowed be Thy Name when Gods Name is by none more blasphemed and dishonoured then by thee and thy Comrades Doest thou say thy Kingdom come when none is a greater enemy to the Kingdome of grace and hath lesse hope of the Kingdome of glory then thy selfe Doest thou say Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven and yet when God tels thee that 't is his will that thou shouldst follow peace with all men and holinesse thou delightest in war and all manner of wickednesse refusing all just conditions of peace and adhortations to piety Doest thou say Give us this day our daily bread and yet takest away by violence and rapine all the bread and other necessaries of life that thy poore brother hath laboured for in the sweat of his browes Doest thou beseech the Lord to forgive thee thy trespasses as thou forgivest them that trespasse against thee when as nothing but thy brothers blood will satisfie thee and his too who never did nor would have offended thee didst not or hadst not thou first beyond measure provoked him Doest thou pray not to be led into temptation and yet accountest it pusillanimity not to venture upon any thing that thy lusts tempts thee unto And doest thou supplicate to be delivered from all evill and yet art never at rest from plotting and practising all the evill thy heart can invent making it thy trade of life to live all thy dayes in that evill of evils bloody warre What is all this praying but a mocking of God and blaspheming of his Name and how then can praying or any other part of Gods service be performed as it should in those places where warres rage when the actors in that bloody tragedy being the onely men of power and sway in those places are so flatly opposite in all their practises to what is commanded by God or desired from him I but will some Souldiers of these times say you are quite mistaken in us we doe not use the Lords Prayer at all but we pray onely as the Spirit teacheth us but what Spirit is it I beseech them Whose teaching they follow in their prayers when they lay aside and despise the prayers which the Lord Christ himselfe hath taught them Certainly 't is not that Spirit of God which helpeth our infirmities and when we know not what we should pray for as we ought doth it selfe make intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered Rom. 8.26 For that Spirit would never teach men to contemne and reject that prayer Christ by the same Spirit hath taught them but on the contrary would so instruct and quicken them in their powring forth that and other prayers now slighted by them that the using thereof once would more effectually prevaile with God and more feelingly comfort themselves then all the vaine tedious tautologising bablings that ever fall from them besides men taught by that Spirit would abhorre to appeare in any acts so repugnant to each clause of that prayer I confesse for my share that as where I call to minde the reigning sinnes of these times such as blindnesse of heart pride vaine glory and hypocisie envy hatred malice and all manner of uncharitablenesse fornication and other such like deadly sinnes sedition and privy conspiracy false doctrine and heresie hardnesse of heart and contempt of Gods Word and Commandement c. I doe not wonder to see and heare of such multitudes that startle at our set formes of publike prayer wherein these sinnes are set forth ript up and prayed against with so much plainnesse of expression and no lesse vehemency and ardency of devotion and to desire rather to use some loose prayers of their owne wherein they may take their owne liberty and pray against those sinnes as frees any suit whereof others are guilty not themselves So when I observe of what spirit many men are calling daily for fire from heaven upon their fellow brethren or stirring up what fire earth and hell can helpe them to kindle against them I doe not admire that even the Lords prayer also is which is composed of a spirit so much contrary to theirs laid aside by them But 't is a sad case in the interim that should either be given up to such a reprobate mind or live the least time in such an ungodly course of life as not to dare to use that forme of prayer which Christ hath prescribed or if they doe their very using thereof proves no better then a mocking or an abusing of him that prescribed it I doe not condemne all Souldiers nor all souldiers prayers the faith of that Centurion in the Gospell Math. 8. Acts 10. and the prayers of that Centurion in the Acts and the faith and prayers of many devout souldiers both before and since would rise up in judgment against me if I should so judge them and their devotions but the more devout souldiers are the more they will assent to truth propugned by me that warres are an enemy to publike devotion whatsoever interruption private praiers suffer by them I doe confesse we doe not read that ever David was more fervent or frequent in his prayers then when he was encompassed or pursued by his warlike enemies but then it must be also acknowledged that even in those times David prayed for