Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bring_v	church_n	great_a	1,628	5	2.8346	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89587	The strong helper or, The interest, and power of the prayers of the destitute, for the building up of Sion. Opened in a sermon before the Honorable House of Commons assembled in Parliament, upon the solemn day of their monethly fast, April 30. 1645. / By Stephen Marshall, B.D. minister of Gods Word, at Finching-field in Essex.	Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.	1645 (1645)	Wing M790; Thomason E280_1; ESTC R200033	40,798	62

his people hath in this place a threefold aspect First Wee are to consider it in relation to the persons whose prayers shall bee regarded and that you have in this word hee will regard the prayer of the destitute And Secondly This regarding of prayer doth respect the Time when hee will regard it When the Lord doth build up Zion hee will regard the prayers of the destitute And Thirdly This regarding of the prayers of his people hath an aspect upon the matter wherein hee will regard them when hee builds up Zion hee will regard their prayer that is as God willing you shall heare anon that their prayers shall be the means of building Zion he will build Zion as that which their prayers have been the means of and have drawn from him when the Lord shall build up Zion hee will regard the prayers of the destitute I begin with the first of them The persons they are here called the destitute hee will regard the prayer of the destitute the Hebrew word which is here translated destitute doth properly signifie Myrica a low shrub humilesque Myricae low shrubs that grow in Wildernesses some think they were Juniper shrubs some a kinde of wilde Tamyris but a base low shrub that grew no where but in a desolate forlorn place and sometimes the word in the Text is used to signifie the Deserts of Arabia the sandy desert place of Arabia which was a miserable wildernesse Now when this word is applyed to men it always means such as were forsaken men despised men such men as are stripped of all that is comfortable to them either they never had children or else all their children are taken away from them and all comforts banished and themselves left utterly forlorne like the barren heath in a desolate howling Wildernesse these are the people of whom my Text speaks that the Lord will regard the prayer of the destitute and this was now the state of the Church of God when they offer'd up this prayer and yet by faith did foretell that God would grant such a gratious answer And this promise as relating to these persons affords us two excellent lessons First Into what a miserable low and forlorn condition God often lets his Church fall before hee doe appear for their deliverante They are desolate and forsaken left like the Deserts of Arabia like the broken shrub of a tree that no body regards Such was their present condition you have it in all the former part of the Psalm Like a Pelican like an Owle as a desolate Widow they eate their meat with ashes and mingle their drink with weeping to this condition did God let his Church come before hee did appear as a succourer and a helper of her I confesse God doth not always so sometimes hee doth keep the feet of his people from falling sometimes assoon as ever they fall hee snatches them up with his right hand sometimes hee lets heavinesse fall upon them for a night and sends them joy and deliverance the next morning but frequently yea and ordinarily before the greatest mercies he lets them be brought into a most miserable condition so that they shall have no humane hope ever to come out of it So they were in Egypt wasted out in an iron fornace so they were in Babylon when their bones lay scattered upon the earth as Chips in a timber-yard and it was ordinary for the Church to complain before her deliverance that she was like a bird in the fowlers snare as a Lamb falne into a Wolves or Lions den and ordinary for God to acknowledge that when hee comes to deliver them he chuses them and findes them in a furnace of affliction And this is true not onely of the Church in generall but you may read the same of abundance of Gods dearest Saints who have been brought and reduced to extremity of misery before ever he appeared for their succour Thus it was with David and Daniel and the three Children and Paul and multitudes of others And this the Lord doth for these two causes First It usually thus betides Gods people through their own foolishnesse themselves are the causes why they come so low David in the name of the Church confessed I am brought into great heavinesse I lie roaring all the night long my wounds stink and are corrupt because of my own foolishnesse for first they offend God their gratious God and when they have offended him they continue impenitently in sin and when God appeares and begins to correct them they kick with the heele against him and will not take notice of his hand but goe on obstinately They impute it to any thing rather then Gods displeasure will not confesse their sin their uncircumsized heart is not humbled in them when they lie as a wilde bull in a net full of the fury of the Lord they kick and fling fret and vex themselves suffer and murmure smart and repine but will not renounce their own counsell nor lay down their arms of rebellion and thus like foolish sons they stay longer then they need in the place of the breaking forth of children and this God will not beare from them but now by long and tedious trials and by being thus brought to great extremities their hearts are softned and melted the pride of their spirits broken they search and try their wayes their foule stomachs are emptyed of that glut which lay upon them they cast off their carnall confidence and self-conceitednesse when they have been bound in fetters and holden in cords of affliction then they see their own works then their ears are opened to Discipline when with the Prodigall they have eat husks with the Swine and are ready to dye with hunger then they think seriously of returning to their Fathers house and so hereby are made the fitter for their deliverance And Secondly Hee likewise doth it for his own glory for the lower they are before hee appeare for their succour the more honour doth he gain to himself in their deliverance This reason Christ himself gave it in the 11 of John when they told him that Lazarus was sick and Christ knew he was sick to death yea that hee was dead but This sicknesse said Christ is not unto death but that the Son of God might bee magnifyed as if he had said Lazarus shall dye and goe to the grave and lie while he is ready to stink there not that I delight to have Lazarus brought low and looked upon as a dead man but that my glory might the more appear in raising him up so when the Lord hath brought his people into such a low forlorn condition that all help and strength seems to be gone then for him to come in and succour this advances his glory many wayes the glory of his wisdome and of his love and of his power c. for such causes as these doth God let his Church

are strong wise vigilant that are many who have all the Antichristian and Malignant part of the Christian world joyned with them and besides all this I am perswaded we now grapple with the revenging hand of God for the sins which this Nation hath lien in this hundred years God doth now remember them and visits the Kingdome for them the idolatry the blood the Apostasie and innumerable other evils and abominations our troubles are very great and the event may seem very difficult and doubtfull but let me tell you here is that may counterpoise all and support us against all discouragements and make us comfortably conclude of a good issue We shall over-master all that are against us we shall over-match them because the spirit and power of prayer is on our side we have had these three or foure years especially the spirit of prayer powred out I am perswaded in the greatest measure that hath been since the Apostles of Christ lived upon earth and our prayers have not been in vain though the full return be not yet made we have had the first fruits many a sweet in-come we have had already But know Honorable and beloved they are all filed up before God there is not one of them lost they will bring another manner of return then yet they have done And not our prayers only but the prayers of all the Christian world are before God in our behalf our cause is Gods the work we are ingaged in is the building up of Zion and therefore there is not a good man in the world no not at Oxford who prayes Thy Kingdome come but prayes for us who are indevouring the raising up of Christs Kingdom now these prayers are all before God and must bring a comfortable answer in due time Nay this comfort reaches yet further not onely wee that are now alive and our prayers but all the Worthies who are now with God their Prayers pray for us Though we must say of them as the Church did of Abraham they know us not they are ignorant of our condition yet their prayers which they offered up while they were on earth and longed to see this work proceed are now really assistant to us Daniel and Jeremiah did as really build the Temple and City as Zerubbabel and Nehemiah though they were dead long before That look as the blood of the Martyrs cryed for vengeance from Abel to Zacharias and thereby reach a present persecuting generation so the prayers of those who loved Zion do blesse and reach all the workmen now imployed in the rearing up of the Church their prayers speak as Abels Faith did when he was dead and rotten insomuch that I may confidently conclude that the two Houses of Parliament and our Armies as unworthy as we are are daily carryed upon the wings of many millions of prayers that have been offered up to God these many years they are all before God night and day God is only waiting the fit time and therefore I beseech you bear up your spirits against all other discouragements the Lord will in the most accepted time let you know that all that have ever said to him Lord remember England Lord purge thy Church in England Lord set it up there down with Prelacy stablish Liberty make way for Christ they are all before God and must prevaile and therefore certainly our comfort may be greater ten to one then our discomfort need be though all the Nations of the world were sworn against us You shall God willing have more of this before I dismisse you let this taste suffice at the present And Secondly It is also a most comfortable lesson to poore afflicted dejected spirits who mourn and wrastle with God for their own distresses There may be many such in this Assembly this day who pray every day it may be with David seven times in a day ten times in a day but the heart sinkes for want of an answer as wicked men think they shall never be reckoned with for their sins because divine vengeance seems to sleep so do poore soules conceive that because God at present seems to slight them he will never regard them I have oft heard many a sad soule lament after this manner Did but God heare my prayers did he but accept me I would with David call upon him as long as I did live might but my prayer come up before him and be lookt upon but to be thus as a despised reed a scorned poore creature as I confesse I deserve to be this daunts my soule that I dare not pray I am even ready to give over O saith the sad heart I beg mercies and I taste wrath I beg grace and I feel corruption I beg ease and I indure torment I beg love and I finde displeasure all goes backwards God casts my prayer out shuts it out from him and this this wounds the soule let me to such a sad soule speak a few comfortable words from the Lord I take this for granted that the things thou dost beg are according to Gods will thou darest not beg an unlawfull thing I take it also for granted that thou that dost call upon God dost indevour to depart from iniquity that thou darest not call upon the name of God and walk in sinfull waies but thou wouldest be his servant and I likewise take it for granted that thou dost not expect or desire audience for any ones sake but for Christ Jesus thy Saviour to whom thou lookest this I hope God witnesses with thee Why if so then it seems the onely evill that oppresses thy spirit is God doth not answer thee he doth not give thee such a return of thy prayer as thou desirest But know thou Gods answering of thy prayer must not be measured by thy sad apprehensions but by his own word which word assures me that all thy prayers are before God night and day and for his present answering of thee it is no token of his displeasure that he does not give thee a sudden answer his forbearance is no deniall the best of all his Saints have cryed and prayed till their throate hath been dry and God hath seemed not to answer David had prayed long for an answer Psal. 69. 3. when he complained Hee was weary of his crying his throate was dry his eyes failed while hee did waite for his God The whole Church long sought him whom her soule loved and found him not and Paul thrice that is many times besought God to remove the messenger of Satan which was sent to buffet him and was fain to wait still so that thou art not alone in being thus delayed Nay I tell thee further God hath many wayes of regarding and answering Prayer Sometimes he may regard a prayer which he absolutely denies when the thing would not be good for him that begs it So he peremptorily denyed Moses his prayer to goe into the Land of Canaan But if the thing be good and