Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A33343
|
The saints nosegay, or, A posie of 741 spirituall flowers both fragrant and fruitfull, pleasant and profitable / collected and composed by Samuel Clark.
|
Clarke, Samuel, 1599-1682.
|
1642
(1642)
|
Wing C4555; ESTC R23711
|
51,972
|
277
|
bee the key that opens Gods treasures yet faith is the hand that turnes the key without which it will doe no good 331 There is a two-fold faith required in prayer 1. Faith in the providence of God whereby wee beleeve that he is such a God as is able to bring the things to passe 2. Faith in the promise of God wherby we beleeve he is willing to bring it to passe 332 Earnestnesse in prayer is a fruit of faith and not a meere expression of naturall desires when there is not only a sense of the thing we want but also an hope of mercy a ground to beleeve that we shall have the thing granted and out of this ground an earnest and importunate begging of it 333 The person must be righteous and the prayer fervent as indited by the helpe of Gods spirit or else it s no sacrifice fit for the Lord 334 When there is no other way to escape a danger a Christian can goe by heaven as Daedalus Restatiter coelo coelo tentabimus ire 335 Let Papists number their beads that give their prayers to God by number not by zeale but let Saints tell their teares till they be without number 336 Tertullian saith that wee should make prayers fat with fastings which ordinarily are starved with formalities 337 Gods children have the Altar of Christ to receive the incense of Christ to perfume the name intercession of Christ to present their prayers to God by 338 Gods children should proportion the vehemency of their prayers to the violence and urgency of their lusts and temptations that trouble them as 2. Cor. 12.8 339 Gods promises to us must bee the ground of our prayers to him when God makes a promise wee must make a prayer for all promises are of mercy not of duty or debt therefore God is not bound to tender them to us till we beg them 340 As promises are the rule of what wee may pray for in faith so prayer is the ground of what wee may expect with comfort 341 A Christian hath what hee will because God gives him a will to desire nothing but that which is Gods promise and his own necessity 342 God will bee sought that he may be found of us and he will be found that hee may bee farther sought of us 343 Spirituall things as they must be sought before they can bee found in regard of their difficulty so they may well bee sought that they may be found in regard of their dignity 344 It s the usuall manner of Gods people to beginne their prayers to God with thankefull commemorations of mercies formerly received Gen. â—2 10 Psal. 90.1 71.18.19 345 These are alwayes three speciall faults in prayer Faintnesse Coldnesse Boldnesse 1. There is a faint a fearefull and distrustfull prayer 2. A cold formall and superficiall prayer 3. A bold a proud a presumptuous prayer this last is worst 346 As the wheele of the Water-mill the more violently the water drives it from it the more strongly it returnes upon the streame so the more violently that God seemeth to thrust us from him the more eagerly should wee enforce our selves to presse upon him Exod. 32.10.11 347 God seemeth to sleep to make us awake out of our sleepe and cry the louder to wake him out of his seeming sleepe Psal 44.23.24 348 God heares his children when hee seemeth not to heare them to their profit though not to their pleasure he is present when hee delayeth them yea he is present in that hee doth delay them and that is better then present with them that for the present is denied them it s a point of mercy in that hee is not so forward to shew mercy 349 Faithfull prayer is ordained of God to bee a meanes to obtaine what we desire and pray for and therefore is never put up in vaine but shall have an answer 1. Iohn 5.14.15 For where God gives an heart to speake hee hath an eare to heare 350 Not the gifts but the graces in prayer are they that move the Lord 351 As wee stick the letters of friends in our windowes or carry them in our bosomes that wee may remember to answer them so the petitions of Gods people passe not out of his sight till hee sends an answer 352 As a Sermon is not done when the Preacher hath done because it s not done till it be practised so our prayers are not heard when yet made but wee must waite for and attend an answer 353 When wee have put up a faithfull prayer God is made our debtor by his promise and wee are to take notice of his payment and give him an acknowledgement of the receit of it or else he looseth of his glory 354 When God intends not to heare hee layes the key of prayer out of the way as being loath that such precious breath as that of prayer is should be without its full and direct successe 355 It s a good signe that God will heare our prayers when himselfe shall indite our Petitions 356 Great blessings that are won with prayer are worne with thankfulnesse 375 That which is a spirit of supplication in a man when hee prayeth resteth upon him as a spirit of obedience in his life so as that dependance hee hath upon God for the mercy hee seekes for is a speciall motive and means to keep him fearefull of offending and diligent to behave himselfe as becomes a suitor as well as to come and pray as a suitor 358 As direct beames have more heat in them then collaterall oblique so when our prayers are answered directly in the thing prayed for it s more comfortable then when they are answered obliquely 359 As when sinnes are punished miseries come then in like armies in troops so when prayers are answered usually mercies come thick and tumbling in 360 Temporall things granted out of ordinary Providence only doe encrease our lusts and are snares to us but obtained by prayer they are sanctified to us 361 Prayer and thanks are like the double motion of the lungs the ayre that is sucked in by prayer is breathed forth againe by thankes 362 Things long deferred and at last obtained by prayer prove most comfortable and stable blessings 363 As a wicked mans deliverance and the granting his request laies a foundation and is a reservation of him to a worse judgement so the deniall of a godly mans prayer is for his greater good and is laid as a foundation of a greater mercy 364 As a man cannot expect a crop if hee take not paines to plow and sow no more can we expect an answer if wee doe not take paines with our hearts in prayer 365 That ship doth al wayes sayle the surest which is driven with the breath of godly mens prayers 366 Our comforts in prayer in hearing our joies our earnest penies which we have laid up may be all spent in a dearth yea our owne graces and all promises made to them our own hearts may
from him an act of patience the mind quietly contenting it selfe till God doth come and of submission if he should not come 198 Wee would so beleeve in God as if we used no meanes and yet as diligently use the meanes even as if our confidence were to be in them 199 Thistles are il weeds but the ground is fat where they grow so doubting in a child of God is a thing that resists faith it is bad but it is a signe that the heart is good where it is 201 Faith should bee in the soule as the soule is in the body which is not there in vaine but is still stirring and shewing it selfe by motion and action 202 As wine which is turned to vineger ceaseth to be wine So ineffectuall faith hath the shaddow and name of faith only but it is not faith and therefore not accepted of by God 203 As exercise begets health and by health wee are made fit for exercise So assurance grounded upon the promise enableth enlargeth and encreaseth sanctification and sanctification encreaseth assurance 204 The Saints that ascend high in obedience are like men gone up high upon Ladder the higher they are gone up the faster they hold and they are not without some passages of feare to slip downe 205 There is no darkenesse so desolate no crosse so cutting but the splendor of a sound faith and cleare conscience is able to enlighten and mollifie 206 In prayer it is faith that must make us successefull in the word its faith must make us profitable In obedience its faith must make us cheerfull In afflictions its faith must make us patient In trials its faith must make us resolute In desertions its faith must make us comfortable In life its faith which must make us fruitfull and in death its faith which must make us victorious 207 What we cannot beleeve by understanding we should labour to understand by beleeving 208 Downewards a mans eye hath something immediatly to fix on all the beauty and fruit of the earth being set on the outside of it to shew how short and narrow our affections should be toward it but outward the eye scarse finds any thing to bound it all being transparent and Diaphanous to note how vaste our affections should be towards God how endlesse our thoughts and desires of his Kingdome and how present to our faith heavenly things should be even at the greatest distance 209 As Husbandmen cast some of their corne back into a fruitfull soyle wherby in due time they receive it back again with encrease so should wee doe with worldly blessings sow them in the bowels and backs of the poore members of Christ and in the day of harvest we shall find a great increase 210 Charities eys must be open as well as her hands though she giveth away the branches yet not to part with the root 211 Almes in Greeke comes from a word that signifies to piety because they should proceed from a mercifull and pâ—tifull heart and in the Hebrew and Syriack it s called righteousnesse as being by right due to the poore 212 In workes of charity our scattering is increasing no spending but a lending no laying out but a laying up Prov. 11.24 Pro 19.17 213 Nothing can more effectually deliver a man from need then to be liberall to them that be in need 214 Duties must be discharged whatsoever difficulties wee meet withall 215 Christs obedience was meritorious for the redemption of his Church ours only ministeriall for the edificatioÌ„ of his church 216 Luther said that God loves curristas not quaristas wee must not reason but run 217 Wee bewray our love more by griefe in parting with any good then by our joy in partaking of it 218 Reward hath an attractive and punishment an impulsive but Love hath a compulsive faculty Reward drawes Punishment drives but love hales a man forward to the discharge of his duty 219 Love unto Christ is an holy affection of the soule carrying of us with full desire to the enjoying of him and making us to preferre our communion with him before all things in the world that may challenge our dearest respect 220 If God write a law of love in our hearts and shed abroad his owne love to joyne therewith it will worke so strongly that one graine of it will have more force to purge out sinne and to constraine and strengthen to obedience then a whole pound of terrors 221 How can God but love them that love him seeing he loved them when they loved him not 222 There is no affection freer then love as there is nothing more forcible so nothing that can bee lesse forced 223 As Rackets at tennis make the ball live in a perpetuall motion so doe repulses in love and reflect it stronger into one anothers bosome the best temper of it is that the communication of it bee neither too forward to coole desire nor too froward least it cause despaire 224 God delights more in his countrey cottage of a godly heart then in his courtly pallace of heaven 225 The triangular heart of man was intended for a mansion for the blessed Trinity and if wee could but looke into our owne heart we should find chalked upon the doore For God as the Kings Harbingers doe for the lodgings of the Courtiers 226 Nothing is difficult with God for his word is his will and his will is his worke 227 We can see no more then the back parts of God and live wee need see no more that we may live 228 Where God is absolute in threatning he will be resolute in punishing 229 God is the most glorious and most alluring object our minds can fasten on and therefore the thoughts of him should swallow up all other as not worthy to be seene the same day with him 230 Gods power is as much seene in pardoning sinne and over comming his wrath as in making a world Num. 14.17.18 231 A poore soule is not contented with ease pardon knocking of his bolts till hee enjoyes communion with God and sees his face in his ordinances 232 As the sunne is the fountaine of all light so that whatsoever the ayre hath it s derived from the sunne so whatsoever comfort is in the creature it s derived from God 233 As the fire that makes any thing hot must needs be hotter it selfe so the Lord since all that is in the creature is taken from him himselfe must needs have an al-sufficiency he must be full of al things 234 An host may entertaine strangers with better food then he gives his children yet hee keeps the best portion for his children so God may do much for those that are strangers to him yet he keeps the best portioÌ„ for his children which they shal have in the end though they fare hard here 235 We must principally love God for his excelleÌ„cies not for our own advaÌ„tages 236 When wee guidâ— our hearts to God hee gives them backe to us againe much better then