the Lord will do according to the word of Moses If we keep his precepts he will fulfill our prayers God repenting once that he made man was resolved to destroy him from the face of the earth yet when Noah built an Altar and prayed to God the Lord Gen. 8. smelled a savor of Rest and said henceforth I wil not any more curse the earth for mans sake God was once so displeased with his people that he said flatly I tel you truly I will deliver you no more yet when they asked a Deliverer of him Judg. 10. His soul was grieved for their misery and he gave them Jephtha Therefore when God hath resolved on a Nations ruin he shuts his doors against Prayer The Prophet complains Lam. 3.8 He shutteth out my prayer q.d. God will not suffer his Favorite Prayer to speak with him It is a royal way for a Prince to correct the injuries of another Nation that is inferior to deny their Ambassadors audience Psa 80.4 How long will God be angry but with his people that is not all with the Prayers of his people God is oft pleased to be angry with prayer Jer. 15.1 Though Moses and Samuel stood before me and intreated for this people yet I le cast them out of my sight q d. You think to hinder me now as you were wont to do you will send out your old friend Prayer and if you cannot pray enough your selves you will procure aid from my friends Moses and Samuel but you shall not prevail I will destroy you the best means shall fail you therefore all means shall fail you To resort to other means after prayer is to fasten an Anchor with a twined thread which hath broken a Cable or to think to conquer an Enemy with a Bulrush when we could not with a Cannon In vain is God attempted by Power or sollicited by Prayer against his own mind And as God will not sometimes be intreated so he ought not at any time to be questioned But I hope the Lords door is yet to be opened to our knocking and his ears to our crying And because in this age so many prayers are frustrated be sure to pray that you may be heard I intend not a Common-place of Prayer Briefly First be sure to limit your prayers according to the Revealed Word Let us pray that Gods Will not that our Wils may be done as that Jacobine did Lord let my will be done and mine because thine We often ask and miss because we ask amiss Your Father oft gives that in anger which he would deny to give if he were pleased It s better to be without Quails than to surfet to have either a long delay or rather a full denial than an answer in wrath The contradictions by God put to the prayers of the Saints in this age is one of the greatest wonders of the age Our hearts are oft as the Spirit of God saith like crooked Bows and no wonder the Arrows we shoot are lost when many times we never aim at the mark We must take heed of praying backward with Jonah who rather than he would be accompted a false Prophet cared not so much for the salvation of Nineveh as for his own reputation Says he was not this my saying one would have thought that the salt Sea should have washed away those briny humours Take heed of the heady prayers of the Disciples Cause fire to come down from Heaven q.d. these are Rebels to thy interest we have preached the word of Life to them and they scoff at and scorn us for our labors surely O Lord if they were thine elected they would have beleeved ere now they have sinned against their own light and against the revelation of thy love they are finally impenitent Lord consume them But these were hot spirits and Christ cools them You know not of what spirits you are of Joh. 15.7 you have not the persons and therefore it is not convenient you should have the prayers of Elias Every one that rides in a fiery Chariot is not an Elias Non petitur in nomine salvatoris quicquid petitur contra rationem salutis Lastly Let us beware of sinister prayers not to write after that copy Lord when thou commest into thy Kingdom let one of my Sons fit on thy right hand another on thy left At the left hand of Christ Surely she did not know for what she prayed for none but Goats shall stand at Christs left hand The rule of our prayers is not what pleaseth our apprehensions but what is correspondent to and agreeable with the Revealed Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato III. de legibus p. 811. That which is glorious in the eyes of a man nay of a good man is often abominable in the eyes of God Pray for nothing but what God hath promised if ever you would have God to perform what you pray for It is better to beleeve that the will of God shall be fulfilled Deus non dando dat nobis nos non accipiendo à Deo accipimus than to behold our own wills fulfilled The Saints in this age justly condemn the former Generation for doing that which was never commanded and I beleeve the next Generation will as justly condemn the Saints in this age for beleeving some things which were never promised The Intercession of our Lord Jesus is a censer of gold and can we desire him to offer up our drossie prayers for Incense they are often filthy in our sight and how can they be sweet in his Fathers nostrils Many of Sions Petitions are now in the Lords accompt but waste paper and at the last day shall never be seen hung on the file in Heaven and indeed how can they speed when our consciences bearing witness they are neither worded by the Scriptures indited by the Spirit nor subscribed by a bleeding heart Eo modo sunt omnia petenda quo modo sunt promissa Aut praeter verbum petis aut non propter verbum petis Secondly Be sure to pray not only for love but in love It is true that Love is a stately Garment to be worn by the Lords children in their Mansion house of Glory but you must not put off this Garment till that day as the world doth Holiness Oh say they holiness is for Heaven Love and not Parts Love and not Praying Love and not the participation visibly of the body and blood of Jesus Christ Non debet esse simultas inter eos qui sunt simul is the badge of a Disciple of Christ By this shall all men know ye are my Disciples if yee love one another Joh. 13.35 Said he that was as much for Faith and more than any of his followers Christians Love is asleep I hope not in a dead sleep for shame awaken it Gardiners speak of an Herb Love lies a bleeding and if ever that Herb grew in Sions Garden it is now Oh revive it Hosius was so in
an house the least breath of Providence throws them down and the higher they were lifted up from the ground the greater will be their fall They are Gods Plowers ver 3. It seems when Sion is in many tribulations God hath many Plows agoing and when the back of Sion is furrowed and dunged with persecutions and reproaches the Lord will loosen the Cords and cut the Traces In a good sense God speed the Plow Though they build Amos 9.2 their nest in the Stars yet God will set his Ladder up and fetch them down and before their designs are fledged he will destroy both young and old and all though man cannot reach those Nests yet God can Fear not Numb 14.9 the people of the Land for they are bread to you They shall not eat us but we shall eat them they shall not eat our bread but be our bread Hath God built his House and will he suffer it to fall down for want of repair hath the Lord formed Children by his Spirit and will he grudge to be at charges to bring them up Some would have all Gods Enemys branded on the Fore-head with his broad Arrow as if God could not know them again But let his Enemys flee as far as they will he hath them in safe custody and sure guard Let men shift Apparel and Forms never so often God knows their faces and hearts It is not always Faith to beleeve quoad hic et nunc the ruin of such and such of Gods Enemies for oft we may more justly conclude they may prosper in this world because here is all the Heaven they are like to have God will take his time Oppression is mans work and punishment is Gods work and shall we think God will not be as perfect in his work as man in his He hangs up many men in Gibbets in this World lest his Providence should be doubted of Deo confisi nunquam confusi but not all lest the Judgement-Day should be denied As man hunts one Beast with another and catcheth one Bird with another so God useth one Man for the ruin of another Richard the Third used the Instrument of his bloody Plots as men do Candles burn the first out to a snuff and then having lighted another tread that under foot God makes men while they think to grind the faces of his people to bring grice beyond their own intentions to his own Mill. Cease therefore from man that is Gods Alarm Isa 2. whose breath is in his nostrils and whereof is he to be accounted How weak is Man how strong is God Take heed of idolizing man either in fearing or loving man above God That man fears God but as Man that fears Man as God When the prayers of Saints are crossed and the Enterprizes of their Enemies succeed Remember Jacobs Ladder and the Vision of Angels Gods Tryals are like bellows Satan's the Blower Blows out false Faiths makes true ones blaze the more Fear not then little Flock the greatest ill Your Foe can do's to scratch he cannot kill The second Conclusion from Jacobs Ladder Climb not but Climb First Climb not in the world The daies are evill says the Apostle The days particularly are now ambitious Oh that men did but creep up to Heaven as fast as they run up the stairs of honor on Earth that men were as greedy to be Gods people as they are of being gods over the people How few are there that had rather lie in the dust than rise by wickedness that had rather rum with Christ than reign with Caesar Nebuchadnezzar would needs be climbing Is not this great Babylon that I have built but the Lord tumbled him down headlong from his Throne to learn humility Haman would get above his Sphear and Element not high enough still aspiring till he was too high for his honor on that Ladder he made to hang poor Mordecai and some say he made it so high that he might the more highly and visibly disgrace Mordecai Who plants the Tree deserves the fruit 't is fit That he that bought the purchase handsell it The Angels were not high enough they would be above God as some think and out-grow their own skin Jude 6. but pride tript up their heels the steps brake and they fell to Hell they left their station The world was like a well ordered Army Angels once kept Rank and File the Devill first marr'd the Camp went out of his place and was cut off Aspiring Spirits march under Satans Colours and dance after his Pipe Satan would needs also lead mother Eve up these stairs Gen. 3. you shall be as God a tempting proffer she sought after the Tree of Knowledge Fortuna dum splendet frangitur and lost the Tree of Life Many have been one day high in honor and another day high on the Gallows and as they say of metal of which they make Glass it is nighest melting even when it shines brightest Shifting spirits are so used to climbing that they seldom find their legs till they break their necks The Spider Prov. 30.28 is made an Emblem of ambitious man they love the top of the Cieling So ambitious men weave their webs of honor and preferment but we know Spiders are poysonous creatures and weave their designs out of their own bowels and Providence hath a Besome with which he can easily sweep them down and especially Araneae telam â—exere it is notorious folly for Spiders to climb in that age wherein Providence is a cleansing the World Canutus promised to make him that would dispatch his Competitor for the Crown one of the highest men in England The Competitor was murthered and when the Attempter demanded the reward promised the King bad his head to be cut off and put on a pinacle in the Tower of London and so according to his promise made him one of the highest men in England so Satan serves his servants in the end Great men in high places seldom have been wise til after the blow as in the Roman storys and though they have had means to come down at their ease yet they have staid till Providence hath thrust them down headlong That exchange of verse between Q. E. and Sir W. R. is famous I fear to climb for fear left I should fall Either climb higher or climb not at all Not but that the Crown of honor is the gift of God and may be happily worn when the hand of Providence puts it on Magistracy is a Diadem and there is a lustre that God usually casteth on its Jewels especially when Religion and Righteousness bind it to the head Were it not for Magistracy Cheapside would be as notorious a place for robbery as Salisbury Plain Ubi nunc est Resp ibi fimus potius quam dum illam veterem sequimur fimus in nulla Dolabella Cice. in Ep. l. 9 and the distinction between mine and thine would fall to the ground and wee should more ordinarily have
his crying to God Moses egit vocis silentium ut corde clamaret no not a word Hezekiah chatters like a Crane and mourns as a Dove Isa 38.14 Yet God hears sense though he cannot speak sense words are but like smoak Faith is the fire and though smoak is a sign of fire yet often there is least smoak where there is most fire Christ receives sighs in his Censor for Prayers Though others mock at groans yet he that made them knows what they mean The Spirit first makes the sigh as an Intercessor and then as God hears it He is within praying and without hearing a dumb beggar gets an Almes at Christs gate even by making signs when his tongue cannot plead for him and the rather because he is dumb The Lord regards not the Grammar of prayers how men word it in prayer nor the Arithmetick of prayers how often they pray nor the Rhetorick of Prayers how finely they pray Cum Spiritus Jacobi suspirat Spiritus Dei inspirat nor the Musick of prayers what sweetness of tone men have in prayer but the Divinity of prayer Christians the Spirit of God makes intercession in us with sighs and groans which cannot be uttered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for their greatness that as there is joy unspeakable so there is sorrow unutterable rather for their littleness their feebleness and faintness yet God hears them when we scarce feel them he knows the meaning of those groans which never as yet knew their own meaning and understands the sense of those sighs Oratio licet tacens est Deus clamor which never understood themselves But may the soul say If my groans are unutterable are they not then unaudible can they be heard when they are not uttered Oh! consider that as God can hear without an ear so thou mayst speak without a tongue And on the contrary What a sweet thing is it for a broken heart to shed tears in the bosom and drop tears on the Bible when it is a reading in private to weep and read and read and weep again not to be able to see letters for tears Mary Magdalen was famous for tears and Christ was never so near her as when she could not see him for weeping When we wrestle with God we must mingle more Faith with our Prayers we must pray more beleevingly we must mingle more fire with our Prayers we must pray more fervently we must as Jacob mingle more water with our prayers pray more humbly and weepingly Though we read not of his weeping plainly in the History Plerumque hoc negotium plus gemitibus quam serâ—â—nibus plus fletu quam affatu geritur yet we do in the Prophecie probably Hosea some may think had that carriage by relation or Revelation Prayers and Patience are the Armor Prayers and Tears are the weapons of a Christian If we would conquer as Jacob did we must weep or sigh as Jacob did As musick on the water sounds more harmoniously than on the land so prayers joyned with tears with God Sinners wrestle with God for the pardon of their sins and as they never obtain it without a bleeding heart so seldom can they read it with dry eyes Jacobs Faith is implyed For Prayer without Faith is as a Gun discharged without a bullet that may make a great noyse but doth little execution Jacobs reasoning was Jacobs wrestling with God in prayer Deliver me saith he from the hand of my brother Esau there is the ground of his engagement v. 11. which he maintains with ten strong charges or assaults one after another The first Charge Jacob gives the Angel is He urges God from the Covenant made with his fore-fathers O God of my Father Abraham and God of my Father Isaak q.d. remember those Names with whom thou didst make solemn Covenants for the Protection of them and their posterity will the Lord forget his Favorites and friends but if the Lord will not yeeld at one assault Si Deus semper exaudiret omnes non jam ex voluntate libera sed ex quadam velut â—ecessitate facere videretur he shall have another Jacob comes not to God as if he came to fetch fire a spurt and away like a Messenger which is gone before he have his answer Jacob is resolved to have no other answer but to be answered Therefore he gives a Second charge from Gods special command to undertake the journey Lord says Jacob thou saydst to me return q.d. am I returning on my own head or on thy counsel and art thou not concerned to bring me out of that trouble that thy command hath brought me into have I O Lord obeyed thy command and will not God perform his Promise brave Jacob He says not Prayers as children say Grace or as men like children say a Pater Noster if God will hear them so it is they never troubled God before and they will never trouble him after in all their lives Jacob fights rather for the Blessing than for the Victory and he will rather dye at the Angels feet than give over fighting till the Angel give out fighting and give in a blessing I had rather says Jacob die a Conqueror than live a Coward And therefore gives a third Charge in putting God in mind of his promise Thou toldest me O Lord thou wouldst deal well with me will the Lord say and unsay if the Lord had not promised to be with me I had resolved not to have adventured on this journey wherefore O Lord if thy promise stand I cannot fall Fight still Jacob crys the Lord still I crys Jacob and will never be still till thou bless me If my petition were unlawful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 xl eth I would never have presented it but if it be lawful why should I desist it I had as good never have contended crys Jacob if I should be contented without conquering I love not to quarrel The first stroak begins the battel but the last onely wins it which Jacob knows and therefore is resolved to have the last word of and give the last blow to the Angel Victorious Jacob And Fourthly Assaults and reasons from his unworthiness I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies or according to the Hebrew I am less than all though I am bold to urge thy Covenant yet I am ready to acknowledge my undesert Lord thou art indeed my Debtor but by thy Promise made to me not by any performance of mine to thee Humble Jacob The Angels mercy is all his merit Faith is always humble and though it be most confident in Gods word yet it is most distrustful of its own desert Thou art a Dog says Christ to the Canaanite and doth childrens bread use to be flung to Dogs Truth Lord says she I am a Dog and though I may not sit at Table with the children yet I may lie under the Table and eat the crums with the Dogs If I be a
Sions Orator and Ambassador to plead and prevail with God Prayer puts challenges on God and dares him q. d. to a denial Why hast thou made us to erre from thy waies and hardened our hearts from thy fear Es 63.17 chides the Lord I cry O my God in the day time and thou hearest not Psa 22.2 It puts Queries to God and will have them all answered How long wilt thou forget me for ever Psa 13.1 How are the bowels of our God turned within him at the weeping and tears of his crying Church Jer. 31.20 Prayer awakens and jogs the Almighty when he seems to sleep Why sleepest thou O Lord Psal 44.13 When the wheels of Providence stand still q. d. prayer oyles them and puts them into motion It engaged God to divide the Red Sea and to break open the prison doors for Peter and Paul Oratio hominis est res omnipotentissima Luth. Hyperb. Oratio est telum quo vulneratur cor Dei Ambr. in Cant. Prayer like the wind getting into the bowels of the earth will make Earth-quakes in the Territories of Babylon and like a Pioneer undermine and blow up all the designs and Babels in the world Prayer will make all the Devils in Hell and enemies to Sion on earth to strike sail for it hath q. d. Omnipotency it self under its lee Edesia totum mundum sanguine oratione convertit Luther It were better to have all the Spears Bows and Ordnance in the world against us than to have an Army of Prayers or to have prayer in arms against us Armes and Armies and Armor cannot pull down Antichrist without Faith and Prayer Oratio quast quaedam persona ad Deum intrat Aug. but faithful Prayer can pull down Antichrist without them Generals cannot fight with lame and sick Souldiers but the prayers of lame sick men have done more in war for the interest of Christ than an Host of an Hundred thousand men Saints fear not to lose the day when Christ shall take the field While Moses held up his hand Israel prevailed While Sion cannot lift up a Spear against Amalek yet it is sufficient if they can but lift up their hand the victory is theirs Prayer can put a reeling and tottering on the Kings Courts Prelats Pilates of Babylon and like white Gunpowder can destroy Babylon and make no noyse Prayer can yoak all the Swords in Europe against the Scarlet whore and her Paramors and though she hitherto hath been grinding the faces of Sion yet to bring Grice q. d. to the Lords Mill the poorest Boy or Girle if he be but a Jacobine can do more to lift the King of Saints into the Throne than all the Powers and Potentates on this side Eternity can do to keep him out of his Throne Prayer cannot be conquered untill Christ with whom it is potent and great be conquered Prayer sets Christ in the front of the Battel against Hell and saith Devil beat Christ and you beat me take Omnipotency captive and I am your Prisoner Prayer hastens the nuptials of the Bride to the Lamb and though now Hypocrisie Unbeleef c. forbid the Banes yet the Match goes on and they cannot hinder the Marriage Our Father and thy Kingdom come are the strongest weapons in the world they thunder and lighten in Satans Regions and his followers cannot but both hear their report and feel their power Prayer will pull down that in an hour of the Devils Kingdom which he hath been building for several ages Preces sunt bombardae instrumenta bellica Christianorum It will ere long enkindle those fires in the world that neither can ever be extinguished or repaired Prayer though it made not the world yet it shall unmake it and set up a new Heaven and a new Earth A Saint may not fear the Devil though he meet him in the dark if he be armed with Faith and Prayer He that hath God on his side need not care whom he meets in the face Prayer is Sions scaling Ladder It is true an Angel brought Peter out of Prison Act. 12. but prayer first stirred the wheel in heaven vers 5. Prayer was made without ceasing to God for Peter by the Church I have heard of a young-man that had bargained with the Devil upon some condition and he should have his soul the Indentures were drawn in his blood but God disposed the heart of Luther and other Servants of the Lord to pray together for him and while they were earnest with God for the deliverance of the prisoner of Satan Satan was so netled and stung with their zeal that he was forced to come flying by the window and threw in the Indenture amongst them as much as if he had said I cannot stand before the power of Faith and Prayer Prayer we see is not onely a charm to bind but a whip also to torment this Leviathan Athanasius by his prayers hindred the proceedings of the Devil in the Churches Enemies they took off his Charriot wheels that he could drive his plot no further When Devils and men conspire and consent against Sion prayer under Christ hath the Prerogative yet of a negative voyce The keyes q.d. of Heaven and Hell hang at the girdle of Faith and Prayer O admirabilem piarum precum vim quibus coelestia cedant hostes terret manus illa quae victoriae suae trophaea in ipsis coeli orbibus figit Buch. Du bartus prettily brings in David answering Goliah his Challenge Goliah Come ten come twenty nay come all of you And in your aid let your great God come too David The odds is mine Villain I scorn thy boasts I have for aid the Almighty Lord of Hosts Rev. 19.6 I heard as it were the voyce of a great multitude and as the voyce of mighty thunderings saying Alleluja for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth This is the Hosannah Rabbah as the Jews call it It is reported that the old Brittons marching under the conduct of one Germanus who came over from France to subdue the Pelagian heresie did obtain a victory against the Saxons which victory because of their singing Hallelujahs in the Battel they afterwards termed Victoria Hallelujatica the Halleluja victory This Victory will ere long be sung again over Sions enemies When God shall open a door to burn the flesh of the Scarlet Whore there will be a famous occasion to cry out as some Souldiers did some years since Now for the fruit of Prayer The witnesses have a flame at their lips fire proceeds out of their mouths which devoures their enemies Rev. 11.5 which many interpret to be their prayers In hoc incendio uruntur Daemones The Enemy ly and level their designs against Israel but Prayer dismounts them and turns their Artillery against their own breasts How confident in God may his Jacobs be till the Devil and the malignant World can throw Christ down from his Throne theâ— cannot cast Sion out of the world It is the Prophets character
that thou art Love Thy people see not so much Prophaneness in the world as the world sees passions amongst thy people We censure and condemn them for not agreeing with thy people while they see thy people agree not amongst themselves Ah Lord If charity were the onely badge of thy Disciples how few Disciples would our Lord and Master have in the world is this a time onely to pull down and not at all to build up to cast away stones and to divide and not to gather stones to raise thy Temple is the Providence of God resolved that no more Stories shall be built in his Sion till one stone be not left on another in Babylon are not our soars searched enough Deo nihil impossibile est nisi quod non vult that yet thou pluckest away the Plaisters thy poor people apply to their wounds Is thy Israel in the midst of the Red Sea and is Pharaoh at their heels ready to swallow them up and cannot Israel be perfectly delivered till the Sea be perfectly divided Hath Sion been travelling with Reformation these many years and even when thy people are ready to welcome it into the world and to name it Glorious must it enter into the womb again Is it our indiscreet importunity that hath hasted to bring it to the birth before the Lords time and day and therefore shall there be no strength given to bring forth Are the grounds of our fears not onely from thy secret or open Enemies but also from the vain conversations of the Professors of thy Name and indeed howl ready have we been to censure the persons and condemn the practises of others and to say there goes an Oppressor an Apostate an Hypocrite so as if there were none of those lusts in our hearts which are visibly reigning in others lives Will the Lord consume their Gold and Silver as well as the others Hay and Stubble pull down many of their works before he set up his own Or wil the Lord further suffer worms and no men to reason with him O Lord are we partly brought out of Egypt and shall we want the cloud of thy presence because that either we long to go backward or fear to go forward Must thy children begin to spell their A B C and go again to School to learn what Mortification and their first love mean before they take out further lessons of experience of Faith Wretched England How many sins do we make that our God did never call sins and how many Articles do our passions put into the Creed which thou didst never enjoyn to be beleeved for Salvation How have one form of thy people been trampling and triumphing over another whiles mostly they have been tithing Mint Annice and Cummin neglecting the Salvation of souls and the advancement of thy Sons Kingdom amongst us when will the Candle of the Almighty shine on the heads of thy people as of old when shall the name of thy Son be poured out as a precious oyntment that the Virgins again may love thee O Lord let us be thy Patients though thou woundest us Let us be under thy rod rather than we should be out of thy Covenant rather than we should sleep to death sound thy Trumpet beat thine Alarm if thou shouldest not administer physick to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cle. Alex. our Disease were desperate Thrice happy will that storm be that shall drive us to our Harbor We will not appoint thee the Rod to lay on our backs onely we intreat that when thou purposest to strike first break our hearts before thou breakest our backs rather than we should not have thy presence let us with the three children go into a furnace thy Son let us with thy Disciples have a storm Rather then we should not be thy children whip us thy Servants beat us thy Spouse chide us thy Friends frown on us Ah Lord Those that lost their blood together cannot now shed tears together those that fought together in the field can scarce now pray together in a family Blessed God! If it be thy will sound a retreat speedily to these disorders Let some publick Enemy of thy Sons Kingdom abroad come upon the Stage that thy Saints may one and all engage together both their prayers and their persons against him that Sion may be terrible as as Army with Banners that the Brats of Babylon may come and worship before her feet Hinc Syncreâ—ismus Synchristianismus and know that thou hast loved her If the building of Sion may not go forward in this age Lord let it not go backward if with Solomon we may not build thy spiritual Temple let us at least lay up stuff for the building of it with David in the next generation If the Lord had never smiled on us we could better have born his frowns if we had not known what the presence of his Spirit Wisdom Glory had meant in England we could better have born his absence Our darkness is now the greater because that our light formerly was so great How dolorous is it to consider that we that have been brought up in Scarlet should imbrace Dunghils And that England that was the terror of the Lord to the Nations round about us should so much be a scorn unto them and a terror one to another You that are Gods Jacobs up and be doing surely we have little love to if we have not a sigh a tear or two for Sion If ever you would rejoyce in Sions deliverance pray for it Faith and Prayer are Sions Granadoes and truely make her the Thundering Legion onely take heed of counterfeiting these heavenly Ordnance and Artillery with the wicked Emperor these weapons are not artificial but infused Methinks I hear Faith and Prayer say Saints in England be patient and persevere in the holy and sincere profession of the Gospel though your God be long before he come yet he will certainly and comfortably come Endure reproaches hold on and hold out notwithstanding your doubts and difficulties your trials and temptations Though your way to Paradise be dirty yet the Tree of Life in the midst thereof the Rivers of divine pleasure and Gates of pearl will richly make amends for all Be beleeving in prayer and in this age especially If once with Jacob you prevail with God you need not fear all the world If any thing in the world can perswade the Lord to preserve a Nation it is Prayer Prayer hath often met God as Abigal did David and moved him to put up his Sword Pharaoh being plagued with Frogs got the man of God to pray for him and Exod. 8.13 The Lord did according to the word of Moses And the Lord obeyed the voyce of a man It is plain that Moses did according to the word of the Lord but it is strange that the Lord should do according to the word of Moses yet it is so If Moses will do according to the word of the Lord