Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
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A26705
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A companion for prayer, or, Directions for improvement in grace and practical Godliness in time of extraordinary danger by Richard Allein.
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R. A. (Richard Alleine), 1611-1681.
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1684
(1684)
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Wing A985; ESTC R19955
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10,781
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17
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you have your hearts at the advantage having such weighty arguments before you and the opportunity of doing two such great things more as the saving of your selves and also of the people both from iniquity and calamity Direct 2. Do all you do in pursuance hereof in the name of the Lord Jesus He not discouraged at any prospect of difficulty trust in him for his help Encourage your hearts with the words of the Apostle Phil. 4.13 I shall be able to do all things through Christ that strengthens me Direct 4. Keep your eâ—e and your heart much upon God and the other world Be able to say with the Apostle Phil. 3.20 Our Conversation is in Heaven that is there the business of our life lies and that not only above spiritual and heavenly things but with God himself Live at the fountain and spring-head thence all your light and life and holiness and strength must flow down Be much in looking upwards and beholding in a glass the glory of the Lord you will be changed from Glory to glory into the same Image 2 Cor. 3.18 Look much and often upon the things that are not seen if ye would be delivered from the power and malign influence of the things that are seen let your eye be upon the Sun and you will see a dimness and darkness upon the Earth get you cloathed with the Sun and you will get the Moon under your feet Direct 5. See that there be no allowed sin in your hearts or practice Psal 66.18 If I regard Iniquity in mine heart God will not hear my prayer nor help me An allowed sin is as the dead flesh in the wound whatever methods or medicines be taken there will be no healing till the dead flesh be eaten off you may profess and pray and hear all your life long and yet will never prosper whilest you are privy to any one indulged sin Direct 6. Be constant and instant in dayly secret and family prayer Let not extraordinary Prayer excuse your ordinary and let not your neglect of ordinary Prayer unfit you for extraordinary Let not your way to your Closet be untrod He that holds his acquaintance in Heaven by being often with God will be the most like to prevail with God in the most pressing and difficult cases those that are much in Prayer those are the men that use to be mighty in Prayer Direct 7. In all your praying both ordinary and extraordinary let your eye be I say not chiefly but firstly upon the case of your own Souls What improvement you obtain here will be of this double advantage 1. There will be the more hope of your being heard for the publick 2. If the Lord be not prevailed with for publick mercies and deliverances yet you will be the better prepared for sufferings If God should shew mercy as to the publick should scatter our clouds and blow over our storms should cause our light to break forth as the morning and our righteousness also as the noon-day yet what would all this be to thee who art unrighteous What would it be to thee if in all the Land of Goshen there should be light and thou in the midst thereof shouldest be covered over with the darkness of Egypt if there should be dew on all the grass of the field and thy fleece only should be dry if thou shouldest live to see thy people a saved people and an holy and fruitful Nation and thou should'st stand as a withered and dry Tree amongst all the flourishing Cedars Get up thine own heart into good proof or whatever spiritual plenty thou maist see in Israel yet thou wilt not eat thereof Talk no more of thine hopes of seeing good days how little would that be to thee unless thou get thee a better heart Direct 8. Let you prayers be followed with a constant care of your ways Let not your praying serve you instead of repenting and reforming but let it quicken you to your whole duty let your entring into your Closet be your ascending heavenwards and let not your returns thence be the falling down of your Souls from Heaven to Earth Let your duties and ways he all of a piece live like praying Christians Let not the spirituality of your mornings and evenings countenance or encourage you in your all-day carnality Be in the fear of the Lord all the day long Prov. 23.17 Direct 9. Whatever incomes you receive from God into your own Souls be free in dispersing to others I mean in away of holy discourse and conference Dispersing and communicating is the best way to thriving Prov. 11.24 There is that scattereth and yet increaseth there is that withholdeth and it tendeth to poverty 'T is true with respect to spirituals as well as to temporals There are none that grow more rich towards God than those who by bringing forth what they have received labour to make others rich also Give the holy fire within you a vent and it will burn the clearer Keep not your Religion to your selves let your full cup run over let your lips drop as the honey-comb let your mouth be a well of life and your lips feed many Prov. 10.11 Build up one another in the most Holy Faith provoke one another to love and to good works let your Families your Wives and Children your Neighbours and Acquaintance have light from your Candle and be warmed by your Fire Doubtless it s one special part of Gods quarrel with Christians That they are so very many of them of such carnal and unsavoury converses Is it thy case hast thou this to charge upon thy self O! amend amend and see that thou continue not such a barren Soul as low as 't is with thee in grace think not to rise high unless thou wilt make better use of what thou hast 2. Particular Directions Direct 1. Consider what it is whereto you have already attained and be thankful and thence be encouraged to press on and hope for more Hast thou obtained Grace from the Lord and hath he caused his Grace to abound towards thee and in thee and hast thou a witness within thee that thou hast not received the Grace of God in vain But dost thou study to walk worthy of that Grace wherein thou standest O rejoyce in the Lord and let all within thee bless his Holy Name and take what thou hast thus received as an earnest of more Set thy foot upon the neck of every mortified lust take the more heart to thee to go on in the fight and rejoyce in hope of a total and final victory The Soldier when one Wing of his Enemies Army is routed or they do but give ground and begin to fall this raises his courage and he falls more smartly on Go thou and do likewise and let thy beginning much more thy growth in Grace and thy experiences hereof be the oiling of thy wheels for thy more vigorous following on after yet a greater increase Direct 2. Consider what your special
corruptions infirmities wants neglects temptations or your most ordinary falls are 1. What your special corruptions are how far forth you have conquered them and where you stick In some professors Pride in others Covetousness in others Sensuality in others Sloathfulness in others Peevishness or Frowardness or the like may have gotten such head in them that these weeds overtop and even choak up all their flowers 2. What your special wants or weaknesses are in point of Grace what Graces they are whether Faith or Love or Peacefulness or Meekness or Humility or Patience c. wherein you are most deficient or weak 3. What Duties they are as either Prayer Meditation Communing with your own hearts c. which you are most apt to neglect or find most difficult to go comfortably through 4. What Temptations they are by which you are most commonly assaulted or foiled 5. What your most ordinary Falls are in point of practice And here let Professors of Religion be warned to confider if they be not overtaken besides many others by some of these fout evils 1. An over-eager and greedy following after the World The zeal of some mens spirits after riches hath eaten up all their zeal of God O! into what poverty hath thy Soul fallen whilst thou hast been so busie in the world and hast felt the prosperities thereof come crouding in upon thee Some rich Professors may remember the days of old and be troubled This thought When I was but a little one in this world then was it better with me than now this thought may be an Arrow in their hearts and kill the joy and let out the juyce and sweetness of their greatest abundance I remember the kindness of my youth and the love of mine espousals but O where am I now my very rising hath given me the fall 2. A liberty for carnal jollity a jovial and vainly merry life such there are who have lest off to walk mournfully before the Lord of Hosts and have given themselves to live merrily with the World who have given over to weep with them that weep and are fallen in to laugh with them that laugh to jest and sport and be vain with the vain ones yea and it may be to drink and to sit by it with those that drink It 's now grown too creditable to frequent drinking Houses Tradesmen that are Professors especially in Cities or great Towns how ordinarily do they upon pretence of dispatch of business sit many hours over a dish of Coffee or a Cup of Ale or a glass of Sack and carry it so that they can hardly be distinguished from the good Fellows of the world but perhaps by this only That they are not down-right drunken into Beasts If there be a liberty of such Houses and meetings in them sometimes necessary as perhaps it may yer let not this liberty be used as an occasion to the flesh 3. Gaudiness or over-costliness in Apparel wherein some of them glitter and shine amongst the greatest Gallants of the Earth Some amongst professors do not only shun but disdain and despise the old self-denyal that was wont to be among Christians in these and the like particulars as if they were set at liberty by the Gospel from the Laws of Christ as well as from the Law of Moses To these three let me add one evil more 4 A neglect of your Families of the Instructing Catechising and due disciplining them the consequents of which neglect are very sadly to be seen in the ignorance errors rudeness and disorderliness abounding amongst many of them there are not a few who take some care of themselves but leave the bridle on the necks of theirs and reap many heart-breaking crops in them as the fruits of their own negligence O let holy Joshua's resolution be yours As for me and mine house we will serve the Lord. Josh 2â— 15 Now diligently search and consider thy self in all these things and when thou hast faithfully studied thy self and thy ways and hast found what it is that thou art most peccant or wanting in and most prejudiced and hindred by then conclude here my great difficulty lyes and therefore here my great work lies if ever I would prosper to get this or that corruption to be mortified this or that grace strengthened such and such temptations to be shunned or provided against and such and such faults to be amended now I have found what hinders me and that which doth hinder will hinder till it be taken out of the way Direct 3. Bend the main force of all your Religion upon those very points wherein yon are most failing or faulty The Devil will allow us to be busie in other matters of Religion so he can but keep us off from those things where our great stresses lies And the deceitful heart will take up with that which is most easie and pleasant that thereby it may the better shift it self of that which is more hard and would go to the quick with it We never purge or bleed to purpose till we hit upon the right humour and strike the right vein This is to act rationally and in judgment to bend our great strength there where our great difficulty or weakness bes When you have by searching found out what you mostly stick at let it be your first grand errand in every Prayer whether ordinary or extraordinary to beg special help in this particular case your weakness in any particular grace or duty the power of any particular lust corruption or temptation your most ordinary and common falls in point of conversation let these have a special place in every prayer you make And also let them be most needfully watched and laboured against in your lives Turn in the strength of Prayer and watchfulness upon the strength of Sin let your main batteries be against the strong holds and where your walls are weakned there set the strongest guard and watch Direct 4. Measure your proficiency in Religion by the power you get in those particulars wherein you have been most deficient or faulty Judge not your selves by those things which are most easie in Religion but by your coming off in your most difficult case Some professors may at times seem to be full of good affections strangely elevated and enlarged in their prayers yea and to live in so great peace as to take themselves to have attained to the riches of full assurance and yet for all this may be but very poor Christians all the while Let them be asked How is it with your Soul O! I bless the Lord I find it very comfortable I have sweet communion with God in Prayer and I live in the sweet and refreshing light of his countenance he washeth my steps with Butter and his Sun shineth upon my paths I thank the Lord I go comfortably on But stay man How is it with thine old corruptions Thou wer 't once intolerably proud or froward or earthly or a jolly and vainly merry soul