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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	day_n	life_n	put_v	4,782	5	4.7946	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64879	A sermon preached at Clonmell, on Sunday the sixteenth of September, 1683 at the assizes held for the county palatine of Tipperary / by Jo. Vesey ...	Vesey, John, 1636-1716.	1683 (1683)	Wing V281; ESTC R6797	12,340	24

this Curse and inflicted this Disease has not left us without Remedy The Curse is indeed heavy but the Remedy is light and easie the Disease is grievous but the Medicine to cure it is pleasant easie to be had and heals infallibly the poorest man may purchase it There is not any of Adam's Posterity but always stands in need of something or other the greatest Wants may be supplied by Prayer and there is no man but may pray if he please and the Duty of Prayer is so necessary that without it we shall not only want in this world but we shall be miserably in want to all eternity without it we cannot have Remission of our Sins nor the Gift of Gods Grace bestow'd upon us we cannot expect to be fed by his Mercy if we think it too much trouble to implore it we must have a very low esteem of Gods Blessings if we think them not worth the asking for and we are very little sensible of our Necessities if we will not so much as pray to have them remov'd he is doubly guilty that commits a Fault and persists in it and will not so much as ask Pardon for it In short whilst we are on this side Heaven we are continually wanting there is none that can supply our Necessities but God and there is no other way for us to be supply'd but by petitioning the Throne of Grace and therefore Prayer must needs be a necessary Duty This is the first Reason drawn from our own Wants and Necessities 2. The second Reason to enforce the Duty of Prayer is the Mercy of God in that he is willing to hear us There is nothing in the world so powerful as a man in Prayer and therefore 't is call'd the Key of Heaven What is there so difficult that Prayer cannot attain to It gives Victory to the weak and overthrows the Armies of the mighty it can make the Sun stand still for the space of a day it can bring a Drowth upon the Earth for three years six months and afterwards cause the Rain to fall plentifully upon the same if we are Enemies to God it can reconcile us to his Favour if we are in a state of Sin and Death it can renew the Image of God in us and put us in a state of Grace it can purchase for us the Blessings of this Life or which is far better the Art of Contentment without them and the Blessigns of the Life to come by Prayer we are not only in a condition of profiting our selves but of doing good to our Neighbour by it every man is a Priest and every man may be a Moses to atone for the Sins of the people to prevent the Destruction of a Nation though it hang over us and to bring down publick Blessings from on high the Blessings of Peace and Plenty the Liberty of our Religion and the Enjoyment of our Estates there is nothing so good but Prayer can purchase for us there is nothing so hurtful but Prayer can avert nay though the Sword be in Gods Hand and his Arm stretched forth to strike and the Judgment be ready to fall upon our heads yet Prayer is able to appease his Wrath and withdraw the Arm of the Almighty from confounding us and yet all this is not to be imputed to the meer force of Prayer it self but to the Goodness and Mercy of God who is so much in love with this Duty that he can deny us nothing we ask for faithfully he will certainly give us the very thing it self or something as good or better if the other be not convenient for us It has been objected by some as an Argument against Prayer That it either supposeth first God to be ignorant of our Prayers for if not say they what need we tell God that which he knows already Or secondly that he is not so bountiful to us as he ought in that he knows our Necessities and will not help us without so much intreaty Or thirdly that he is overcome by our Importunities and Sollicitations which is an argument of his Weakness and so would argue an Imperfection in him this was urg'd by one that was once an Atheist but afterwards died a great Penitent But to this the Answer is obvious For first Can there be a greater argument of Gods Goodness to us than to give us not only the Blessings of this Life but even Heaven it self for asking Secondly We do not pray to inform God of our Necessities that is too gross a Supposition but to shew our Faith and acknowledge his All sufficiency and our Dependance upon him Thirdly We are not so conceited of our Prayers as if we thought the meet Force of them or the Repetition of such and such Words though they come from a devout Heart to be able to wrest a Blessing from God whether he will or no but that God has ordain'd Prayer as the means and method of making our Addresses to his Divine Majesty 'T is true we are said to wrestle with God to prevail upon him to take Heaven by violence c. but these are figurative Expressions and bold Metaphors which are no arguments of his Weakness but of his Goodness in that he has given us so easie a method of addressing our selves to him not is it so much the force of our Prayers themselves as his infinite Goodness which moves him to answer our Petitions Ask and ye shall receive is a Promise that God will hear our Prayers and the Mercy of God prompted him to make this Promise as an encouragement to perswade us to this Duty our Prayers are offered up since this Promise and therefore it is not so much their Force that works upon God as his own Goodness that made him promise it is not any Power in us but Compassion in him A Petition may be very well drawn up but if the Prince to whom it is presented be not of himself inclin'd to do good he will never answer it meerly because it is well penn'd How many do we see attending with patience from day to day on the Persons of great Men for a Favour and value not the Slights that are put upon them so their Requests be at last but granted but God is more merciful he is more ready to hear than we to pray and does not only give us what we pray for but does encourage us even to pray And therefore if our own Wants and Necessities cannot awake us let the Goodness of God perswade us to this Duty who is so ready to hear us This is the second Reason to enforce the Duty of Prayer And so I have done with the first thing considered in my Text the earnest Injunction of a Duty O pray 2. The second thing to be taken notice of is the thing we are to pray for and that is the Peace of Jerusalem This Exhortation is directed to those that think Prayer a Duty and usually pray for themselves for they that

him nam'd but suppose Success crown'd his Endeavours and that Rebellion had got the upper hand he may be great but he cannot be happy Fear and Guilt shall never let him enjoy himself nor what he has unjustly gotten and besides the Hand of Providence which is ready to smite and pull him down there is a natural desire in men to destroy such a Monster as being as dangerous as a wild beast and if no body else will God himself usually makes such persons fall out among themselves in dividing the Spoil and so destroy one anothers designs as it happen'd not long since in these Kingdoms and to compleat the Rebels Miseries when his unhappy Life here is ended he shall be thrown headlong into Hell to keep company with the first Rebel Lucifer And so I have dispatch'd the third General i. e. the Encouragement we have to pray for the Peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee In the last place I will reduce what I have said to practice You see the necessity of the Duty of Prayer enjoyn'd in my Text from our Wants and Necessities and from the Mercy of God who is ready to hear us You see the thing we ought to pray for i.e. the Peace of Jerusalem the good of Church and State a publick Blessing and the Encouragement to this Duty from the third General they shall prosper that love thee You see the Happiness of those that live in peace and obedience to the Laws and the Miseries of Rebellion both in this life and that which is to come Consider the Folly as well as Misery of those that disturb the Peace of a Kingdom and the Disgrace that attends such resisting the lawful Magistrate There is no pretence whatsoever whether of Liberty Property c. that can make Rebellion not to be a damning Sin There is not any one Duty more plainly commanded throughout the whole Scripture than Obedience to Magistrates There is nothing contributes so much to the Peace of Jerusalem to the publick good of a Nation and the particular good of every person in it There are many examples in the Old Testament of Gods Judgments against Rebels and the end of our Saviours coming into the world was to plant a Gospel of Peace among men and if the preaching of Peace was ever a Duty it is now by reason of the Divisions among us The great and general cause of Rebellion is Ambition though Religion is often pretended and therefore the best way to prevent a publick Disturbance of the Peace is not to be ambitious of any thing that cannot be attain'd to without an Alteration in the Government Let us not speak evil of the Ruler of the people nor murmur at our Superiours because their Actions do not please our Humours and when we find our selves oppressed let us examine our own Lives and try whether our own Wickedness is not the Cause of Gods punishing us with such Rulers Honour thy Father and Mother which is the first Commandment with promise is not only to be understood of our Natural Parents but of the Magistrate who is our Civil Parent and length of Days is the Promise annex'd to this Commandment Saint Paul exhorts us in his first Epistle to Tymothy to make Supplications and Prayer for all men and in the first place mentions Kings and all that are in Authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty There is more Weight than Honour in Government and therefore we ought to be so much concern'd for the publick Good as never to pray for our selves but at the same time to pray for the Peace of Jerusalem for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour beware of aspersing the Government for there is a particular providence over Kings which will discover thy folly if by murmuring and complaining of the Supream Power thou art an Enemy to the Peace of Jerusalem Curse not the King no not in thine heart for a Bird of the Air shall carry the Voice and that which hath Wings shall tell the matter Is there not more wisdom in busying our selves with our own concerns in submitting to our Superiours and the Laws of the Land that we may enjoy our Religion our Estates and our Liberties which are all the effects of publick Peace than to speak evil of Dignities to promote a Disturbance in Jerusalem which does not only endanger our Happiness and Estates but even our Lives and the Welfare of our Posterity There is not any Church in the world whose Principles are more repugnant to Rebellion than the Church of England If therefore you would shew your selves to be true Sons of that Church you pretend to you must be loyal to the King and submissive to the Government it is a Principle not only honest but generous and agreeable to the meek Spirit of the primitive Christians They may pretend to Religion but they who under that colour can resist the supream Power have no more Religion than Mahometans To contrive the Death of a Prince or the Subversion of a Government for the sake of some Differences in Religion is not only unchristian but inhumane Let this be a general Observation That they who put on a precise Countenance and under the colour of Religion speak evil of Digninities murmur against the Government and when opportunity offers endeavour to disturb its Peace notwithstanding their pretences to Religion and the Good of the Nation cannot be honest men Though the Wounds of our late Civil Wars are heal'd up yet there are Scars enough remaining to frighten any wise man from attempting to disturb the Peace of Jerusalem a second time There are no Subjects under the Heavens that may live more happily than we if we by our Divisions and repinings do not make our selves otherwise have not we a gratious Prince that is so far from oppressing his good Subjects that he is merciful and even indulgent to the worst has any Kingdom in the world better Laws than we have to secure the Prerogative of the Prince and the Liberty of the People and have we not all the benefit of those Laws to protect us is there any one persecuted with Fire and Faggot for Religion is there any one that can complain that his Goods or Estate is wrested from him by Oppression or Tyranny and if we did groan under any such Calamities yet the Laws of God will not allow a Protestant of the Church of England to rebel though both the Papist and Presbyterian can make the Scripture speak treason when they please And if it be a damning Sin as certainly it is to resist the Higher Powers even when they persecute and oppress us it is much more heinous in the sight of God to reproach or rebel against so merciful a Soveraign as we enjoy I pray God remove all our Fears Jealousies and Divisions and make us sensible of the Blessings of Peace which we enjoy and may the Kings Enemies be cover'd with shame but on his Head may the Crown flourish FINIS