Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	believe_v	faith_n	hope_n	2,425	5	7.9570	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80869	An useful tractate to further Christians of these dangerous and back-sliding times, in the practice of the most needful duty of prayer Wherein are discover'd the nature, necessity and successe of fervent prayer: many objections answered, several practical cases of conscience resolved; and all briefly applied from this text, viz. James 5. 16. The effectual fervent-prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Being the substance of several sermons preached in the town of Columpton in Devon. / By William Crompton M.A. minister of that part of Christs Church there.	Crompton, William, 1599?-1642.	1659 (1659)	Wing C7033; Thomason E2142_2; ESTC R210127	70,200	187

also may be profitably enquired two things First Why our prayer must come Qu. 1 from a spiritual principle The Reasons will appear to be such as these 1. Ans Because it is directed to the Father of Spirits who is delighted with spiritual service and accepts nothing in this kind from men but what comes from a spiritual principle It is therefore we hear the Apostle enjoining prayer in the spirit Ephes 6.18 and praying in the Holy Ghost Jude v. 20. This is the wind must set you● mill on work and the poise that should cause your clock to strike 2. It is to distinguish prayers First Because many prayers are but natural desires or hypocritical expressions of counterfeit devotion The Ravens call upon God and some we read of did howl on their beds and were importunate for corn wine and oil but from a natural principle which as the Grashopper hope not much above the earth and as a vapour exhaled by the Sun doth soon fall down again when self doth seek and is sought for as the people did Christ for the loaves and Judas for the purse And this not onely in carnal persons I mean such as for the present are destitute of actual grace and the spirit of holinesse but even in the regenerate Moses his prayer was very earnest to enter C●naan and yet it was but a naturall desire Secondly Because men living under the means of grace may go far by their own spirits as to read repeat Sermons and frame prayers very exactly as if they were full of spiritual life and heat We know great wants may and do produce earnest entreaties terrours of God and frights of Conscience may make men fervent they may desire pardon and removal of judgments merited inflicted or threatned nay they may pray for grace when they never heartily desire it because they look upon it as a means of safety as a Bridge to help them to Heaven not because they love and desire sanctity and so all this while may be destitute of a gracious principle Therefore Secondly We may farther Qu. 2 enquire how prayers coming from the Spirit may be discerned The Answer may be thus 1. Ans By that liberty light and heat following the presence of that Spirit See Luke 2.25 2 Cor. 3.17 Light to discern what to ask Liberty and heat to order and send up your Petitions It removeth impediments freeth from the invisible chains of the Kingdome of darknesse enlargeth the heart and helpeth to pray with fervency such sighs and groans as cannot be uttered 2. By an hearty free and full submission of our selves and requests to the God of prayer● for the matter and measure Not my will but thy will be done As Hester submitted to the good pleasure of the King in her requests And as the mother of Christ doth not over earnestly in words presse him to do that she desired but onely laies open the case they have no wine referring all to his discretion It is reported of Socrates that he ●aught his Scholars to ask no more of God but this that he would do them good but how and how much they would leave that to him as best understanding what is best and fittest for us It comes not from the holy Spirit to drive men upon indenting with God 3. By a patient expectation in the use of all other means till the Lord be pleased to manifest his answer in so●e gracious return This disposition flows from faith He that believeth shall not make haste Isa 28.16 As the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruits of the earth and waits patiently by a natural faith he seeth the h●rve●t in the seed and so bears up himself by that faith in expectation of an harvest So much more doth a spiritual faith enable souls to do much more waiting is nothing else but faith stretched out into patience 4. By spiritual cheerfulnesse after prayer with care to improve and apply all you get by prayer to some spiritual ends 1 Sam. 1.18 Hannah prayed for a son and went away and was no more sad and after dedicated her Samuel to the service of God Thus the principle must be holy Thirdly Desires must be holy for the matter of them Whosoever shall ask any thing according to his will believing 1 John 5.14 And that 1. In the ground You must have a promise for what you ask in particular or at least in general distinctly apprehended and rightly applied no way repugnant to the Analogy of faith nor to any passage of Divine Providence otherwise we can have no hope to be heard For no faculty can or ought to extend it self beyond its adequate and proper object it is limited by peculiar rules He that prayeth without a promise denieth his own request To make our fancy the highest rule is a presumptuous folly and to ask according to our own lusts is an implicit blasphemy 2. Prayer must be holy in the matter this must also bear the stamp of God Whenever your Censers are fired the coal must be taken from the Altar nor from the Kitchin The matter must be spiritual or spiritually desired For instance First You may and must pray for the apprehension of Gods love promised Hos 14.4 I will love them freely Secondly For pardon of sin promised Isa 43.25 I even I am he that blotteth out thy tra●sgressions for my own sake and will not remember thy sins Thirdly For sanctification of nature promised Deut. 30.6 And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart Ezek. 36.25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean Fourthly For the removal of judgments spiritual or corporal promised Psal 50.15 Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee c. At least for the sanctification of them and supportation under them Q. May not we pray for temporal blessings A. Yes As some men pray for spiritual things in a carnal way So others may pray for carnal blessings in a spiritual manner Provided 1. It be done in order and that they have their due place Spiritual things must be first and principal these secondary and subordinate Matth. 6.33 First seek the Kingdome of God and the righteousnesse thereof c. 2. Upon condition that you submit to God both the things themselves and the measure and time John 12.27 28. Save me from this hour Father glorifie thy name It is enough to a gracious heart if God will glorifie his own name carnal hearts are impetuous and impatient of a check delay or denial Rachel must have children or die 3. With caution that you desire and use them to the Lord. Whatever you desire for this life make it serviceable towards the ot●er desire not mercies for nor abuse them to excesse revenge luxury Lust is an earnest craver but when it rece●veth any comfort it consumeth it in ease and pleasure This must be observed else

repent yet sin again A. 1. A truly gracious soul though it sin yet it makes no league o● peace with sin but keeps the war on foo● still As Hannibal took an Oath to his father to maintain perpetual hostility with Rome So have gracious souls covenanted with ●od to wage a perpetual war with sin though it sometime receives a foil and losse yet thereby it is more enraged against the adversary Carnal counterfeit persons once foiled seldome come on again but the true penitent riseth and fights most valiantly doubles his guard after unwarinesse strengthens the battle after a blow laying on more strongly after sin hath been too hard as we see in Peter and Paul and many other Scripture-examples 2. True grace gets advantage by the stirring and sometimes prevailing power of sin which meer nature cannot do it alwaies loseth the heart is made worse sin loved holinesse loathed some degrees more and security surpriseth the soul When as in gracious hearts every thing falleth out otherwise the heart is made better sin more loathed holinesse prized some degrees more the soul strengthned like the Giant Anteus who in his wrestling with Hercules is seigned to get strength by every fall to the ground The Third Grace required to be acted in prayer is humility which may serve as the pins of Jacobs Ladder whereby the soul climbeth up to He●ven He that would leap highest must stoop lowest God exalteth the humble whilst he resisteth the proud and sends them empty away As men use to lay up the richest wine in the lowest Ce●lars so doth God the choicest mercies in humble and lowly hearts Christ when he was upon the earth did most for those that were humble and so continues to do The truly humble soul is Gods second Heaven I will dwell with the cont●●●e spirit The Valleys shall laugh with satnesse when the Hills are barren And this Grace may be discerned thus First By a grateful disposition for former favours Of old a pe●ce-offering was appointed to be joine● with the trespasse-offering to teach the Church ever to join praise with prayer But the proud heart hath never enough is ever unthankful Secondly By a mean and low conceit of your selves and your own unworthinesse before God Like that of Abraham Gen. 18.27 that am but dust and ashes or of David ●o foolish was I as a beast before thee and Agur Prov. 30.2 I am more brutish then any man or as that Martyr who cried out Gehenna sum Domine c. Lord thou art Heaven but I am as bad as Hell Tantillitas nostra said Ignatius of himself and his Colleagues the humble man like Paul doth not elevate but aggravate his sins against himself vails all the top-sails and sits down in the dust Job 42.6 Mine eye seeth thee therefore I abhorre my self in dust and ashes when he had a glorious apparition of God he vanished into nothing in his own thoughts The stars vanish when the Sun appears and our poor Candle vanisheth into a disappearance when the glory of God ariseth in the thoughts of the humble Thirdly By this when heavenly Objects appear in our eye great and beautiful more and more As in David Psal 4.6 who preferred Gods favour to all things and in Paul Phil. 3.8 who counted all things but dung in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ He undervalues a whole sky full of stars to one Sun of Righteousnesse And as holy Lambert None but Christ none but Christ To them that believe he is precious they can see those beauties and excellencie● in him that are not discovered to others To unbelievers heavenly objects are as orient pearls in an heap of sand and a Mine of gold covered over with rubbish and earth Fourthly By meeknesse and readinesse to yield in all your own causes but resolutenesse in the cause o● God in behalf of his truth Moses one of the meekest men on earth yet who more hot and zealous in the service of God The three children Dan. 3.16 are well resolved in the like case and will not suffer truth to fall for them Luther regards not himself nor the rich presents but is eaten up with the zeal of Gods house Fifthly By a patient waiting upon God till the time appointed He that believeth will not make hast to step aside through indirect means to obtain what is prayed for or promised not sorcery charms witchcraft to finde things lost to obtain health or grow rich who art thou that fearest God and obeyest the voice of his servants and yet walkest in darknesse wait upon God and stay thy self on the Lord. We re●d of Zachary that he prayed for a childe heretofore while there was any ordinary ground of hope but after as it is probable left off that suit but not waiting what God would do for him and he had his request at last Prayers are often granted long before manifested Thus must grace be exercised in acceptable prayer it is the Palaestra the Arena the Artillary-yard of all our graces in which they must shew their activity And thus much may suffice for the discovery of the Conditions required in prayer In the last place we come to the Motives not to the reading or repeating saying over of prayers onely not to a cold carelesse performance of this duty at all but to fervent praying this is praying with power whereof that passage is fitly verified and rightly to be understood Acts 9.11 Behold he prayeth Saul struck to the ground remained three days without sight and did neither eat nor drink but behold he prayeth i. e. with all his might as one that taketh no denial To pray fervently is the point in hand first undertaken and hitherto prosecured And to this there are seve●all Motives and they may be taken ●irst From the Lord to whom we must pray Secondly From men Thirdly ●rom prayer it self First From the Lord and then you may take into consideration such Motives as these 1. He commands that you should pray to him as you love him i. e. strongly vehemently and constantly My son give me thy hea● It is a special part of Divine worship and if you make conscience of any duty you will of this especially Hos 14.2.2 He delights in earnest and zealous prayers and petitioners God is not a man who may be tired with uncessant suits and frequent visits Prov. 25.17 as was the unjust Judge and the Disciples with the poor womans cries repeating the same request over and over Such were Moses and David highly commended of God for their skill art in praying one the meekest man on earth th● other a man after Gods own heart and he can deny them nothing provided they referre the time and measure to him As men take delight in the deep-mou●h'd hound and the shrill sound of the Trumpet and the loud report of the Piec● so doth God take delight in the fervent reports of his people 3. He is ready to return answer