Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prayer_n	cast_v	devil_n	fast_v	3,166	5	10.2336	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55752	Riches of mercy to men in misery, or, Certain excellent treatises concerning the dignity and duty of Gods children by the late Reverend and Faithfull Minister of Jesus Christ, John Preston ...	Preston, John, 1587-1628.	1658 (1658)	Wing P3306; ESTC R13568	328,523	450

add further that as all grace is from him so in him there is enough grace to be had We all of his fulness receive grace for grace that is we receive the variety of graces that he had grace for grace As the child receives limb for limb or as the wax receives of the seal character for character print for print so we receive the quantity of grace that we have from that fulness that is in him But how is this grace received from Christ We take it not immediately out of the fountain but it is derived to us by certain conduit-pipes therefore take heed of that of expecting to receive grace from Christ without these means Again we must not think that these means will do it without him we must not break off the conduit-pipes from the Well-head as we must not go to the Well-head without them Now the means whereby we receive grace is by the Word and Sacraments we are not born of him by carnal generation as Adam but instead of that generation when we have taken him there is a spiritual relation instead of it in Gods sight and by vertue of that we receive grace and strength from him Therefore if ye would receive more grace increase of grace labour to draw near him and then you drawn near him when your will is brought to a greater degree of willingness to have him for your husband But yet in general we must know that grace is received from Christ as we receive corruption from Adam the old man he doth not more powerfully communicate corruption and sin to us then the new man is powerful to communicate grace and life So that when we are once in Christ as we are in Adam we are sure to have grace from him and then we are in Christ when we have taken him and are matched with him and united to him As a man may be matched to his wife after the match is past in a greater degree of will when there is a greater degree to have such a woman for his wife or a women to have such a man for her husband The will may be wound to a higher degree and peg of willingness Therefore our business is when we come to receive the Sacrament to labour to increase that willingness to labour to add to that resolu●ion of taking Christ. Now that is done by a distinct and clear apprehension of Christs willingness to match with us we must know that the gift of righteousnes is freely offered there is nothing required but that we be willing to take it there is nothing required but sincerity on our part Now this false opinion that there is more then that required is that which keeps us asunder Now to bring our hearts nearer to Christ for when we are near him then we receive most grace from him first I say the apprehension of that must be clear Then secondly we must labour to be divorced from all other husbands when the mind is weaned from all earthly things to which they are too much wedded to have those lingrings cut off when we affect riches or pleasures too much or whatsoever the heart is taken up abo●t in what measure a man is earthly minded in that measure his heart is disjoyned from Christ. Now the way to bring our hearts nearer is to be divorced from these But when is this love inordinate Then you may know it is inordinate and adulterous love when it is a let of your love to your Husband God gives you leave to take and to use outward comforts you may rejoyce in them he commands you so to do onely this you must take care of that your love to your Husband be not lessened If a man be so busie in his calling and business that he find himself more indisposed to draw near to his Husband the Lord that he is more unfit to pray and to holy conference it is an adulterous occupying of himself about the works of his calling So when he loves his children or friends his sports and recreations whatsoever his mind is occupyed about look how far it lessens his love to God and daunts and hinders and interrupts that in the same measure it is adulterous Therefore if you would draw near to Christ consider how your affections run out for he looks on you with a jealous eye And you must take pains with your hearts to labour to have those lusts mortified you must reason out the matt●r with your selves for there is no man that loves any thing inordinately but it ariseth from deceit and there is nothing so good but we must let it go and cleave to Christ and if we cannot do it with ordinary pains we must do more then ordinary There are some lusts as some Devils that will not be cast out without fasting and prayer Now when we loose our hearts from these things that is a means to draw near the Lord. Lastly to add to this consider the need we stand in of Christ and to that add the vertues of our Husband what need we have of him and what benefit we have by him Consider thy need of him thou art in such a case that when thou art out of him thou art subject to an extent and to be laid in prison but when thou hast him for thy Husband thou art under cover But you will say I hope I am past this Thou must know that thou hast continual need of it thou hast need of him every day thou hast need of him to redeem thee from every evil that thou escapest from day to day thou hast need of him to help thee to every comfort thou hast need of him to assist thee to every duty thou performest And withal consider when thou feest thy need for therfore we do not prize Christ because we know him not and we know him not because we know not our selves how impotent and weak we are without him we are able to do nothing without him I say when we have considered what our need is of him then let us consider the vertues of our Husband and the portion we have with him Consider the vertues of our Husband we are all too short in this consider the excellency that is in Christ the beauty that is in him to draw us near to him Thou must look on him as one full of beauty the fairest of ten thousand as we do with men that we converse with if it be a man that hath worth in him that you daily converse with now you see one excellency and then another now one spark appears and then another so learn to know Christ by experience continually And then as we must know him by the description of himself in his Word so to know him by his actions by all his carriage to see what a one he is There is no Husband so kind as he there is no master so bountiful as he there is no friend so loving as he

particular sinne in thee It may be God doth it for the tryal of thee It is good for thee to observe When any thing falls upon men amisse and contrary to their expectation or to their prayers they are ready to attribute it to other causes it is good rather to say that thou hast prayed amisse and that is the cause of it When a man is distempered in his health either he will say that he hath not taken physick or else it was not physick fit for him it is still forgotten whether he hath prayed to God or whether he hath prayed amisse In Iames 4. there the cause is given you have either not prayed or prayed amisse you ask and receive not because you ask amisse therefore you do not obtain It may be I say that that may be the cause why thy prayers are not heard that thou prayest amisse Therefore you should do in this case as a fisher-man doth that hath cast a bait and hath waited long and nothing taken he takes up the angle and sees whether or no the bait be well placed and whether things be in the right order or no. When we see we do not obtain any thing at Gods hands by our prayers that we have sought the Lord and got no answer let us look well to our prayers and see whether there be not something amisse there Besides it may be when thou prayest thou art mistaken in the thing thou askest it may be the thing thou desirest is not good for thee for there are many cases wherein we seek to the Lord wherein we are perswaded that if we had it it would be good for us but if it were granted it may be it would be our undoing The Lord denies many things to a man in mercy as he grants many things to men in judgement It may be thy great advantage that though thou pray and pray earnestly yet thy requests are denied Again it may be the Lord hath done the thing but in another manner then thou expectest many times the same thing is done though not in the same fashion A man desires money and riches it may be the Lord denies him that and gives him meat and drink and cloathing A man desires his enemies may be at peace with him God denies him this it may be but he gives him a helmet to bear it off and so for other things I say it is to be considered that the Lord may do the same thing in another manner though it be not in the same kind that we expect Besides God may do it by another means then we look for Commonly we pitch upon some means which we think if it fail all is gone but the Lord may go another way to work I will instance no more in these things for this is not the thing that I must stand upon Onely I say that when we make our prayers to God we must consider what answer we have of them And this we should do upon this occasion of Thanksgiving when we have sought to the Lord in prayer and fasting as we have done we are now to consider what answer the Lord hath given he hath removed the judgement we must set it down among the memorandums of his mercy that he hath heard our prayers and healed our land But I say I must not stand upon this The second thing that is to be observed is this And the Lord spake to him Observe that When we pray to the Lord he is exceeding ready to hear As we see he was ready hear to hear Hezekiah And so David and Asa and Iehoshaphat so he will do to us to the end of the world when men seek to him Onely this must be considered that the Lord hath an ear open to our prayer but if it be no prayer if it be but a lip-labour if it want the conditions of prayer the Lord rejects it And this is not because he hearkens not to it but because it is no prayer Therefore make account when thou goest about to pray that God doth encline his ear to hear that is he doth not onely hear the prayers of his servants but also of those that are carnal men of those that are strangers and that are without the covenant as yet As you shall see 2 Chron. 12. It is said that Rehoboam and the Princes humbled themselves and sought to to the Lord and Rehoboam was not upright hearted yet because he and the Princes did humble themselves the Lord did not destroy them but sent them deliverance So did he to Ahab he heard him And so it may be the Lord hath done with us in removing this judgement though it may be our prayers and our humiliation and fasting have been but overly and perfunctory yet it may be the Lord hath heard us for he is ready to hear prayers Although mens hearts be not humbled aright in their prayers yet when men are humbled in any manner before him to shew that he is ready to hear prayers he hears them And this is a thing that should wound our hearts and break them more then any thing in the world to make us see that the Lord is patient and long suffering that though the humiliation of men he not sound and according to what he expects yet he is ready to remove the judgement And this use we should further make of it that if the Lord hear when humiliation is not found what wil he do when our prayers are servent and sound when our humiliation is perfect This is a thing that we ought to take notice of that when the Lord is so ready to hear we should be encouraged to pray and to seek unto him For when the Lord shall do as he hath done with us when he shall stay the plague when he shall say to it as he doth to the raging sea thus far thou shalt go and no further when we look upon this and observe this dealing of the Lord we should have a store house of such experiments as these that we may learn thereby to know the Lord and to trust him that we may be encouraged thereby to seek unto him For when such actions as these are slighted we take his name in vain and the Lord will not hold us guiltless if we take his Name in vain no more will he if we pass by these actions of his without taking notice Therefore it is well that such a day as this is set apart that we may remember it and consider what answer the Lord gives our prayers and acknowledge it but I will not stand to enlarge this The next words are And he gave him a sign You know there is a double ground of asking a sign One is when a man asks a sign to tempt the Lord. As the Iewes asked a sign not out of a desire to profit by it but because they would see what the Lord would do and this Christ denyed them this is a sinful asking of