Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	day_n	know_v	let_v	10,191	5	4.1835	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41125	The sacrifice of the faithfull, or, A treatise shewing the nature, property, and efficacy of zealous prayer together with some motives to prayer, and helps against discouragements in prayer : to which is added seven profitable sermons / by William Fenner ...	Fenner, William, 1600-1640.	1648 (1648)	Wing F698; ESTC R478	35,874	88

to this I answer A man must give over the words and times of prayer for other duties but a man must not give over the suite of prayer A poore begger comes to a housekeepers gate and begs but none heares him now he being a poore man hath something else to doe and therefore he sits downe or stands and knits or patches and then he begs or knocks and then to his work again though he do not alwaies continue knocking or begging yet he alwaies continues his suite O that my suite might be granted me or that I might have an almes here so when the soul is begging of any grace though it doth not alwaies continue the words of praier yet it alwaies continues the suite of praier David he would dwell in the house of the Lord for ever Psal. 23. 6. A wicked man it may be will turne into Gods house and say a prayer c. but the Prophet would and so all godly men must dwell there for ever his soule lyeth alwaies at the throne of grace begging for grace A wicked man he prayeth as the cock croweth the cocke crowes and ceaseth and crowes again and ceaseth again and thinkes not of crowing til he crowes again so a wicked man praies and ceaseth prayes and ceaseth againe his minde is never busied to thinke whether his prayers speede or no he thinkes it is good Religion for him to pray and therefore he takes that for granted that his praiers speede though in very deed God never heares his praiers nor no more respects it then he respects the lowing of Oxen or the gruntling of hoggs he is found in his prayers as the wilde Asse in her months Jer. 2. The wilde Asse in regard of her swiftnesse cannot be taken but in her months she hath a sleepy month and all that while she is so sleepy and dumpish that any man may take her in her months you shall finde her so a wicked man hath his prayer monthes his praier fits it may be in the morning or in the evening or day of his affliction and misery you shall have him at his prayers at his prayer fits then you shall finde him at it but otherwise his mind is about other matters But the childe of God what ever he ailes he goes with his petition presently to the throne of grace and there he never removes till he hath it granted him as here we see the prayers of the Church consisting of many yeares yet are counted but one suite try therefore and examin whether thy praiers be unsatiable praiers yea or no and for helpe herein take these markes first if thy prayers be unsatiable praiers then it is a begging praier thou praiest as if thou hadst never praied before as if thou hadst never begun to pray and thou never thinkest that thou hast done any thing till thou hast done the deede As a hungrie man eates as if he had never eate before so the unsatiable soule praies as if he had never prayed before till he hath obtained that he hath praied for but a wicked man he praies not thus Iob speaking of carnal professors Iob 27. 10. Will he call upon God at all times seest thou a wicked man go to a good duty go to praier do you think that he wil hold out alwaies he will never do it for a wicked man he reasons with himself I have called upon God thus thus long I hope I need not pray any more for this thing so he gives over But a godly man he will be alwaies calling upon God Beloved there is a beginning to an action and a beginning of an action thou never beginnest to lift up a weight till thou stirrest it from ground indeede thou mayst begin towards the action by pulling at it by reaching at it but thou never beginnest the lifting up of the weight til thou stir it from its place thou mayst give a pull at prayer and tugge at a grace but thou hast not so much as begun that duty till thou seest God begin to hear thee till thou seest the grace a coming therefore the Prophet David when he prayed and had not that he prayed for his prayers returned into his owne bosome Psal. 35. 13. there to lie to be a continuall suiTe unto God A wicked man praies and he leaves his praier behind him in his pew or in his hal or chamber but a godly man praies and his prayer is in his heart his praier is not out til the grace be in Secondly an unsatiable prayer it is evermore a proceeding prayer you would think that these are two contraries and one opposite to the other but they are not only they are two severall things as it is ever a beginning praier because in his own thoughts he reckons or thinkes that he hath nothing till he speedes so the soule that is unsatiable in praier he proceedes he gets neere to God he gaines somthing he windes up his heart higher or somthing or other he gets As a child that seeth the mother have an apple in her hand and it would faine have it it will come and pull at the mothers hand for it now she lets go one finger and yet she holds it and then he pulls againe and then she lets goe another finger and yet she keepes it and then the child pulls againe and will never leave pulling and crying till it hath got it from his mother So a child of God seeing all graces to be in God he drawes neere to the throne of grace begging for it by his earnest faithful praiers he opens the hands of God to him God dealing as parents to their children holds them off for a while not that he is unwilling to give but to make them more earnest with God to draw them the neerer to himselfe a wicked man praies and his praiers tumble downe upon him againe and his heart is as dead as ever it was before as sensuall as ever as carnall and earthly as ever as hard as impenitent and secure as ever A godly man when he praies though he have not gotten the thing totall that he desired yet he is neerer God then he was before his heart growes every day better then other by his praiers he obtaines still something as the Prophet Hoseah speakes of knowledge Hos. 6. 3. Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord so I may say of praier of al other good duties then we pray if we proceed on wards in praier A man may know and know and yet never know the Lord till he goe on in knowledge so a man may pray and pray yet if he goe not on-wards in his praiers his praiers are nothing A godly man praies as a builder builds now a builder he first layeth a foundation and because he cannot finish in one day he comes the second day and findes the frame standing that he made the first day and then he adds a second dayes worke and

under its wants and yet kept out from grace and from growing in grace because of discouragements yea the best and strongest of Gods Saints have been kept off and have hung much on discouragements Feare not saith God to Abraham Genes 15. 1. So feare not Joshua saith God to Joshua Josh. 1. 9. Intimating that both Abraham and Joshua were afraid of discouragements they were afraid that many evils would befall them that they should meet with many rubs and difficulties that would be too hard for them therefore the Lord calls to them feare not be not dismayed nor discouraged Thou saidst feare not Hence observe That God would not have any Christian soule to be discouraged in praier Thou saidst feare not For our clearer proceeding herein first let me shew you what discouragement is and secondly how it comes to be dangerous and hurtfull in praier What is discouragement It is a base dismayment of spirit below or beneath the strength that is in a man vnder the apprehension of some evill as if it were too hard for him to grapple with it There be foure things in this diffinition First I say it is a base dismayment of spirit and so I call it to distinguish it for there is an humble dismayment which a Christian is commanded A man is bound to be dismayed for his sinnes Isay 32. 11. Tremble ye carelesse women that are at ease be troubled ye carelesse ones these carelesse ones went on in their sinnes and feared not God calls to them and bids them to be dismayed But the dismayment and the discouragement I speake of it is a base dismayment of spirit which is either when he is dismayed that ought not or he is dismayed at that whereat he ought not to feare where no cause of feare is As Vitello his man thought his Master had got skill in Optickes he riding along upon the high way spying a mans shape thought it was some Spirit and thereupon he sickened and died So many a poor soul looking in the perfect Law of God and seeing his owne uglinesse and filthynesse he is discouraged and thinkes himselfe undone his heart waxeth cold within him and he begins to feare that he is but a dead and damned man Secondly it is downe beneath the strength that is in a man that man is properly said to be discouraged not that he hath no strength at all in him nor no courage at all for such a one is an infeebled man not a man discouraged but a discouraged man is a man put besides the courage that is in him when a man hath strength enough to grapple with the evill before him but through dismayment of spirit he cannot put it forth Have not I commanded thee saith God to Joshua Be strong and of a good courage be not afraid neither be thou dismaied Josh. 9. God had given Joshua strength enough whereby he was inabled to observe and do according to all that Law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded him God had now doubled his Spirit upon him yet he commands him be not afraid neither dismayed as if he had said Joshua if thou beest dismayed and discouraged though thou hast strength and power to go through the businesse that I have called thee unto yet thou wilt not be able to use it nor to put it forth if thou beest discouraged Thirdly it is at the apprehension of some evill I say not at the sight of some evill for a man may be dismayed at the apparition of good as Mary when she saw nothing but a good Angell Luke 1. 29. she saw nothing but a glorious Angel neverthelesse she was afraid and discouraged Why because she had a secret apprehension of some evill either of some evill proceeded in the salutation or some unworthinesse in herselfe to receive such a gracious salutation it cannot be the apprehension of any good that discourageth a man but the apprehension of some evill Fourthly not of every evill neither for if the evill be but small courage will stand it out but it is of such an evill as he feares he is not able to grapple withall If the evill before him be inferiour to him he scornes it as the barking of a toothlesse Dog If it be but an evill equall to his strength then he makes a tush at it because he knowes or thinkes himselfe able to encounter with it But if it be an evill above his strength then his spirit melts and droops before him See this in Saul 1 Sam. 17. 11. and his people When they saw the Champion of the Philistims comming against them when they saw him so hugely and mervelously armed and heard him speake such biggs words they thought they were not able to stand and to encounter with him and therfore saith the Text when Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistim they were dismayed and greatly afraid Thus you see what discouragement is such discouragements the Lord would not have our hearts to be in when we pray unto him For first God cannot give eare to that man that is out of heart in his prayers Thou canst never pray if thou beest dismaied in prayer When the soul begins to feare and reason O I am so unworthy that God will not looke at me I am so sinfull so blockish so dead and dull to all good that God will never regard me thou canst never pray Rom. 10. 14. How shall they call on him in whom they have not beleeved If thou dost not believe that God will heare thee if thou dost not beleeve that thou shalt prevaile that God will deliver thee out of these corruptions and that lust that thou praiest against that God will give thee this grace or that grace if thou dost not beleeve that God will owne thee if thou hast these doubtfull discouragements O he will not grant me I shall never get this or that how canst thou call on him thou mayest call so and so but never canst thou call to any purpose if thou dost not beleeve in him A begger though he be never so well able to begge yet if when he comes to the House-keepers dore he be perswaded that he shall not speed that let him beg as long as he will he shall get nothing this blunts his begging and makes him give over his suite without any great importunity So it is impossible that ever a soule should hold out and pray that is discouraged in prayer Secondly thou canst not pray unlesse thou use all thy strength in prayer If thou be discouraged thou canst not use thy strength A discouraged man his strength melts into feare and whatsoever strength he hath he cannot put it forth How came Jacob to prevaile and to have power with God Why he used all his strength with God and so prevailed Hosea 12. 3. Thou canst never prevaile with God by thy prayers unlesse thou puttest forth all thy strength in praier If Jacob had reasoned I am but dust and

earth no word no commandement no threatning condemnes him But if thy conscience condemne thee and tell thee thou lettest sin lie at the dore rapping at thy conscience day after day and month after month telling thee that yet thou art without Christ that yet thou never hadst any true faith in the Lord Jesus that yet thou hast not truely repented and turned from thy sinnes this will at last drive thy soule into heavie discouragements if not into finall despaire O beloved religion and piety and the power of godlinesse goe downe the winde every where What is the reason of it but because of these discouragements that men live and go in Men pray and pray and their prayers profit them not men run up and downe and come to the Church and heare the Word and receive the Sacraments and use the meanes of grace but to no end they are unprofitable to them they remaine in their sinnes still the ordinances of God bring them not out of their lusts and corruptions hereby they disgrace and discredit the ordinances of God in the eyes and account of the men of the world making them thinke as if there were no more power nor force in the Ordinances of God then these men manifest There is no life in many Christians mens spirits are discouraged these secret discouragements in their hearts take away their spirits in the use of the meanes that though they use the meanes yet it drives them to despaire of reaping good or profit by them Beloved I could here tell you enough to make your hearts ake to heare it First all your complaints they are but winde Job 6. 26. doe you imagine to reprove words and the speeches of one that is desperate which are as winde Jobs friends taking Job to be a man of despaire they accounted all his words but as winde Doest thou nestle any discouragement in thy heart thou maist complaine of sinne as much as thou canst yet all thy complainings are but as winde thou maist cry out against thy corruptions with weeping and teares and pray and fight against them and yet all thy weeping mourning and praying is but as the winde thou maiest beg grace thou maist seeke after God thou maist heare the Word receive the Sacraments and yet all will be to thee as wind all will vanish be unprofitable not regarded Secondly discouragements drive us from the use of the meanes If ever we meane to come out of our sinnes if ever we meane to get grace and faith and assurance and zeale we must constantly use the meanes 1 Sam. 27. 1. David saith there is nothing better for me then that I should speedily escape into the Land of the Philistims and Saul shall despaire of me to seeke me any more David thought in himselfe if I can make him out of hope of finding me certainely he will give over seeking of me So when the soule hath any secret despaire of finding the Lord that soule will quickly be drawne from seeking of the Lord in the use of the meanes What ever you doe then O be not discouraged lest you be driven from the use of the meanes if you be driven from the use of the meanes woe is to you you will never finde God then Be not driven from praier nor driven from holy conference nor driven from the Word nor driven from the Sacrament nor from meditation nor from the diligent and strict examination of thy selfe of thy heart and of all thy waies for these are the waies of finding the Lord If you nourish any thoughts and feares of despaire in you if you be discouraged you will be driven from the use of the meanes which is a lamentable thing therefore be not discouraged Thirdly discouragements will make you stand poaring on your former courses thus I should have done and that I should have done woe is me that I did it not it will make a man stand poaring on his sinnes but never able to get out of them So it was like to be with them in the Ship with Paul Acts 27. 20. In the tempest at Sea they were utterly discouraged from any hope of safety now indeed Paul told them what they should have done if they had been wise Sirs you should have hearkned to me and not have loosed ver. 21. as if he had said you should have done thus and thus but now doe not stand poaring too much on that you should have hearkned to me and not have launched forth c. but that cannot be holpen now therefore I exhort you to be of good cheare c. So beloved when the soule is discouraged upon these thoughts I should have prayed better I should have heard the Word of God better and with more profit I should have repented better I should have performed this and that religious and good dutie better but ah wretch that I am I have sinned thus and thus it is alwaies looking on this sinne and that sinne this imperfection and that failing when now I say the soule is discouraged it will be alwaies poaring upon sinne but it will never come out of its sinne alwaies poaring upon its deadnesse and unprofitablenesse but never able to come out of it O beloved be of good cheare and be not discouraged it is true you should have prayed better you should have heard the Word of God better heretofore you should have been more carefull and circumspect of your wayes then you were but now you cannot helpe it these things and times are gone and cannot be recalled such a one hath been a drunkard a swearer a worldling c. but he cannot helpe it now True he might have helped it and because he did not his heart shall bleed for it if he belong to God but doe not stand poaring too much upon it but consider now what you have to doe now you are to humble your selfe now you are to strive with God in all manner of prayer for more grace and more power of obedience and assurance and be not discouraged Fourthly if the soule be discouraged it will breed nothing but sorrow What is the reason that many Christians are alwaies weeping and mourning and sighing and sobbing from day to day all their life time and will not be comforted because of these discouragements 1 Thes. 4. 13. Sorrow not saith the Apostle as those that have no hope as if he had said sorrow if you will but do not sorrow as they that have no hope How is that it is a sorrow with nothing but sorrow from which they have no hope of inlargement or freedome O then my brethren suppose you have dead hearts suppose you want zeale you want assurance suppose it be so yet labour to attaine these graces sorrow and spare not weepe and mourne and powre out whole buckets of teares for your sinnes if you can but sorrow not with nothing but sorrow be not discouraged suppose that thou hast a dead heart that thou art an hypocrite that thou hast a rotten heart it is a heavie thing and a fearefull case indeed for which thou hast great cause of humiliation and sorrow but yet sorrow not desperately as men without hope be not wholly discouraged but as you sorrow for your sins so also labour with incouragement to get out and be rid of your sins Fifthly discouragements breed and procure a totall perplexity They leave the soule in a maze that it knowes not whether to turne it selfe When men come to be discouraged Oh what shall I doe saith one I am utterly undone saith another I know not what will become of me saith a third Oh I am utterly lost I shall perish one day one day God will discover me and be avenged on me for this and that sin I were as good go to hell at the first as at the last for that will be the end of me I have gon to prayer but that doth not helpe me I have gone to Sacraments but I finde no helpe still my soule lies under the power of sinne still my sinnes are as strong in me as ever Thus the soule is discouraged and cryes out Oh what shall I doe I know not what to doe What shall I doe sayest thou Alas thou hast things enough to doe if thou wert not discouraged Utterly undone No man thou mightest see that thou art not utterly undone but that thou art discouraged Dost thou not know what will become of thee yea poore soule there is mercy grace and peace for thee if thou wilt not be discouraged Sixthly discouragements whisper within a man a sentence of death and an impossibility of escaping As far as the discouragement of life goeth so farre goeth the sentence of death We despaired of life and had the sentence of death in our selves saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 1. 8. 9. he despaired of life in himself and therefore had the sentence of death in himselfe this was good but he did not despaire of life in God for then he should have had likewise the sentence of death from God in his conscience If you despaire in the Lord you have the sentence of death and damnation from God in your conscience take heed of this my beloved be not discouraged in God do not despaire in the Lord that will worke a miserable effect in your soules it will secretly whisper a sentence of damnation in your soules It is strange to consider how many poore soules rub on with these whispering sentences in their bosomes suffering their consciences day by day to tell them that they are rotten to tell them that they were never yet converted to tell them that they are yet in the state of damnation and yet they will not root out these discouragements O goe to the Throne of grace beg for grace and for mercy and for power against sinne and be not discouraged What wilt thou carry thy owne sentence of death in thy brest if thou wilt not rouze up thy soule and pray with more affection and confidence and shake off discouragements take heed lest thou carry the sentence of thy own death and damnation in thy bowels O therefore once more let me beseech you to take heed of these discouragements and now hearken to the voice of God which calleth upon you feare not Thou drewest nigh in the day that I called upon thee thou saidst feare not FINIS Object Answ Use Object Answ Object Answ Object Answ Doct. Quest Answ