Selected quad for the lemma: woman_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
woman_n	belly_n	child_n	womb_n	1,413	5	9.6916	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47146	The fundamental truths of Christianity briefly hinted at by way of question and answer : to which is added a treatise of prayer in the same method / by George Keith.	Keith, George, 1639?-1716.; Barclay, Robert, 1648-1690.	1688 (1688)	Wing K168; ESTC R14276	61,969	152

Child and hath twins in her Womb that is hard for to make her miscarry in the one but she will miscarry also in the other and he that seeks to kill one of the Twins in the Mothers Belly shall be in hazard to kill the other also But why should the one be killed or choaked more than the other Or why should the Divine Begettings of Gods Holy Spirit in the Understanding of the Soul as also in its Reason and Imagination be strangled more than these in the Will and Affections feeing they have both one Father which is God as they have one Mother which is the Soul. And also seeing what is begot by the Spirit of the Lord in the Will and Desires or Affections of the Soul hath a great dependency what is begot by the same Spirit in the Understanding and Reason For the Children and Servants of God they love him as reasonable Creatures and on reasonable accounts and for reasonable causes yea they have the best and greatest reasons for to love him and those reasons are presented to the Soul by the Holy Spirit in the Understanding and reasonable Faculty And it is generally acknowledged that the Will and Affections do commonly follow the dictates and suggestions of the Understanding and according as the Thoughts of the Understanding whether good or bad do most prevail in the Soul the Will and Affections with the Desires thereof do imbrace what is presented whether it be a true and real good or only seeming and apparent So that the Wills and Affections of all Men are swayed by the strongest Dictates which raise and spring up from their Understanding and intellectual Faculties whether true or false And thus either Wisdom or Folly ruleth the Wills of all Men with their Desires and Affections and consequently all their Actions All good Men are led by wise and good Counsels which the Holy Spirit begets in them and all bad and evil men are led by foolish and evil Counsels And hence it is that every good man is a wise man and every wise man who is truly so is a good man and every bad or evil man is a fool and is called so in Scripture and all sin and wickedness is folly and the real effect and fruit of it Seeing therefore all good inclinations motions and Affections in the will of Man Rise from good and wise Counsels in the Understanding and Reason of Man we must needs say that the Holy Spirit doth operate in both Understanding and Will and begets those good and wise Meditations and Conceptions of Truth in order of Nature before the good Inclinations and Affections which afterwards he begetteth and causeth to arise in the Will. But these good and wise Meditations and Counsels cannot be without words at least inwardly spoke or conceived in the Reason or rational Understanding of Man. And therefore the Spirit of God doth no less help and assist the Understanding or Reason of Man to conceive good Words then it doth help the Will to conceive good Desires and Affections It is therefore a great mistake and error of judgment in those who think that the Spirit of God doth only excite or beget in his Children good Desires and Affections but doth not suggest unto them or help them to conceive good words of Meditation and that as well to pray and give thanks as to preach And seeing Preachers are not stinted to set Forms of words in Preaching why should they be any more stinted to set forms in Praying I cannot understand for the Spirit of God is as near and ready to assist in the one as in the other And if it be said that men Preach not ex tempore but by study and long premeditation and therefore they are in less danger to utter or express unsound and impertinent words in their deliberate and long premeditated Sermons than in their extemporary Prayers To this I Answer 1. It is found by frequent experience that even in those long studied and premeditated Sermons many men have uttered very impertinent and unsound yea false and hurtful words and expressions for it is not much or long time to study or premeditate a Discourse that maketh it good or soundp seeing they who err in their understandings and have received or drunk in wrong and false Doctrines and Principles of Religion and wrong and false Traditional Glosses and Interpretations of Scripture may Preach very unsound and erronious Sermons altho they have taken a long time to study and prepare them 2. According to the former Reply If men shall study before-hand their Prayers as well as their Sermons then they are in no greater danger to speak impertinent and unsound words in Prayer than in Preaching but rather they are less obnoxious to such a danger because in Prayer men commonly do not meddle with matters of controversie or disputable points of Doctrine as indeed it is not proper 3. He who preacheth or prayeth by the true and real assistance of the Holy Spirit as he keepeth faithfully and carefully unto the same altho what he doth either Preach or Pray proceedeth from premeditation It being impossible that the mouth can utter any thing but the heart or mind of man must first conceive it which is a true and real kind of premeditation yet he need eth not any long time for the said premeditation For when his heart and Soul is once well prepared and fitted to be the instrument of the Spirit whether in Preaching or Pray ing c. The which preparation of the Heart at times may require a considerable season longer or shorter as the man is more or less grown up in Vertue and Holiness i● the least space of time imaginable as in moment or instant when it pleaseth the Lord to assist the understanding by the Divine influences of his Spirit it can be and 〈◊〉 is made fruitful to bring forth and conceive as many solid and living Meditations 〈◊〉 Truth as may sufficiently yield matter 〈◊〉 discourse in true and sound and living words for divers hours But if the Spirit should not suggest so much matter of discourse in so short a space as a moment or instant but only as much as to furnish the Speaker with two or three Sentences or perhaps but one Sentence at first before that one Sentence be well spoke further matter may and doth oft arise from openings of life in the understanding of the Speaker to speak more and so continually still new matter may be and oft is afforded to continue his speech longer or shorter as it pleaseth the Lord to require or as in the wisdom of God a service is seen or felt And indeed various and manifold as well as wonderful are the waies of the Lord towards his Servants whose mouthes he doth open either in Preaching or Praying in the Assemblies of his People For sometimes as one waiteth upon the Lord in pure silence and in holy fear and reverence his heart at the present time being

him he departs from them in so far and remaineth still in his own freedom altho such who seek to limit the Spirit by using Set Forms may and do quench the Spirit as unto themselves But they think there is no limitting or quenching or grieving of the Spirit in the case because they believe there is no such gift in the Church remaining since the primitive times as to be helped by the Spirit to Pray in words either in the conceiving or uttering them They grant indeed so far the help and assistance of the Spirit and acknowledg it altogether necessary to Pray acceptably unto God that the Holy Spirit stir up our desires and affections and excite in us his own Graces and the doing of this as they say is a sufficient helping of us by the Spirit as well when a set Form of Prayer is used as otherwise But why do they believe there is no such gift remaining in the true Church seeing they generally confess it was in the Church both in the Apostles daies and some considerable time since They say it ceased with the ceasing of the gift of Tongues and Miracles but what ground have they for this That is a bad Argument that because some of these Gifts which were extraordinary and less necessary did cease or discontinue that therefore this allo did cease with those other And seeing they do not profess to have the Spirit or Gift of Discerning whereby to know whether this Gift be in the Church or no. How do they know but some have it And as they say the Spirit is ceased in respect to help us to pray in words so others do as confidently say to wit the Socinians and Pelagians that it is ceased in all other respects and there is no need of it either to help us to conceive words of Prayer or excite our Affections but that man by his free will helped by the Scriptures without any immediate help of the Spirit can pray sufficiently both with good Words and fervent Affections And yet even these will say they are helped by the Grace of the Spirit to wit mediately and remotely by means of the Spirit Again Why do they limit and stint the help and operation of the Spirit only to the Will and Affections and to exciting the Graces of the Spirit in us Doth not the Spirit operate upon the Understanding as well and as nearly and immediately and closely as upon the Will and Affections Are there not intellectual Graces and Gifts of the Spirit to wit such as properly belong to and are seated in the Understanding as well as such that belong to the Will Do not we read in Scripture as well of the Spirit of Wisdom and Knowledg Counsel Understanding as of the Spirit of Love and Meekness c. And if they will grant that there are such intellectual Graces that belong to the Understanding as well as others that belong to the Will shall not these intellectual Graces be made fruitful by the Spirit and Understanding in whom they reside and are placed as well as these other in the Will. Again Will they not grant that the Spirit helpeth us to conceive Words at least in Meditation Or will they confine us to see Forms of Meditation as well as of vocal Prayer I suppose not seeing no such set Forms are yet extant and they themselves take liberty to their Meditations upon religious matters and preach to the People these said Meditations and yet I suppose they will reckon at times the Spirit helpeth them to conceive these Meditations which cannot be conceived without words And further The words of these set Forms of Prayer whence came they Had the Spirit no influence upon the Understandings of those Men who conceived them to help and assist them in those Conceptions If they say nay they will render the set Forms of Prayer of small value what the People in that respect But if they say the Spirit did help them to form these Conceptions of the words of their set Prayers then such a Gift is not ceased in the true Church for it was in these men who penned and conceived those Prayers it may as well be in men now to conceive other words of Prayer But 4. Praying by a set Form not only tendeth to limit and stint the Spirit and quench it in regard of its operations but also it tendeth to make the Understanding and divers other Faculties and Abilities or Powers of our Souls and the intellectual Graces and Vertues seated and planted in them altogether barren and unfruitful in respect of Prayer which yet ought to exercise the Understanding as much as any other thing as Paul said I will pray with the Spirit I will pray with the Understanding also For if the Understanding be limited to a set Form of Words then there is no room nor place nor liberty left for it to bring forth Prayer in any other Forms the which seemeth verily as absurd to me As who would limit the Earth to bring forth only such a limited and determined number of Forms of Vegetables Flowers and Fruits and not only so but to limit her as to length breadth and depth of each Form which we know is an impossible thing for the Forms of all living and growing things must have liberty to spring out from their respective Seeds Principles and Causes otherwise they will not grow but wither and die And as the Forms of Vegetables must not be limited and stinted to such peculiar Figures and Dimensions much less the Forms of Animals and yet far less the Forms and Figures of Mens Bodies and Faces For among all the many millions of Mankind that have been or are upon the Earth never were any two found but did more or less differ in outward Form and Figure in the Face or Countenance And surely as differing as Mens Bodies and Faces are so much or rather more do the Thoughts or Conceptions of their Understanding differ and to limit them all to one Form of inward conceptions of Words is as vain as to stint and determine all Men to have one and the same Form of Visage or Countenance And he who would go about to limit the Figure of the Childs Body and Face in the Mothers Womb to another shape and form than God and Nature hath designed to have would do amiss and be occasion of causing the Womb to miscarry and render it barren rather than any way to help it I know it is answered by some that the fruitfulness of the Understanding may show it self in other Exercises and Performances whereas man also may use his Gifts freely as in Preaching Writing Conference c. But why not in Prayer as well as in these other for to restrict yea and to hinder and stop the fruitfulness of the Understanding and the intellectual Graces seated therein in one respect is of a tendency to stop its fruitfulness and render it barren in other respects A Woman that is with