Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prayer_n	let_v	pray_v	sick_a	2,056	5	9.3427	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27044	A sermon preached at the funeral of that faithful minister of Christ, Mr. John Corbet with his true and exemplary character / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1680 (1680)	Wing B1416; ESTC R17576	26,901	40

cry for Mercy and abuse it no more Christ did not blame the blind and lame for crying out Jesus thou Son of David have mercy on us Nor the Canaanite VVoman for begging for the Crums is any afflicted let him pray and send for the Elders Prayers The Thorn in the Flesh will make us feel and feeling will teach us to repent and pray and prayer is the means of hope for the deliverance of Body and Soul Grace maketh us not stupid yet there are some that think a man behaveth not himself like a Believer if he cry and pray that the Thorn may depart What think they of David in Psal 6. and 17. and 88. And many more What think they of Christ that prayed that if possible the Cup might passe by him He did it to shew that even innocent nature is averse to suffering and death through Grace makes us submit to the Will of God we continue men when we are Beleivers we must mourn with them that mourn and yet not love others better than our selves nor feel their Thorns more sensibly than our own VVe must neither despise chastenings nor faint But how doth Paul pray Doth he make any great matter of of his thornes He besought the Lord thrice that it might depart Observ 13. Even earnest and oft Prayer is suitable to sharp Afflictions There is a kind of Devils and so of Satans thornes which go not out but by fasting and prayer no not by Christs own Apostles The sense and means must be suited to the malady God can do it upon one prayer or upon none but we are not so easily fited to receive it And Paul in this also is conformed to Christ who in his Agony pray'd thrice against his Cup though with submission Vse 1. You see here that the Apostles gift of healing was not to be used at their own will nor for their own flesh that it might not suffer but for the confirmation of the Faith when it pleased the Holy Spirit Troplainus and Epaphroditus might be sick and Timothy need a little VVine with his VVater though Paul had the gift of healing Vse 2. O let our pains drive us all to God who hath not some Sicknesses are all abroad what house how few persons have not some and yet is there a Prayerless house or person If Faith have not taught you to pray as Christians methinks feeling should teach you to pray as men I say not that prayer must shut out Food and Physick but Food and Physick will not do if prayer prevail not with the Lord of all Vse 3. And think not thrice or continued praying to be too much or that importunity is in vain Luk. 18. 1. Christ spake a Parable to this end that men ought always to pray and not wax faint VVhether God deliver us or not prayer is not lost it is a good posture for God to find us in we may get better if we get not what we ask Obey and Pray and Trust God But what answer doth the Lord give to Pauls thrice praying He said My grace is sufficient for thee and my strength is manifested in weakness 1. It was not a promise that the thorn should depart 2. It seems to be rather a denial at the present and that Paul must not be yet cured of his thorn for it is called a weakness that must continue for the manifesting of Gods strength and what was the sufficiency of grace and strength for but to endure and improve the thorn 3. But this promised grace and strength is better than that which was desired Obs 14. Even oft and earnest prayer of the greatest Saint for deliverance from bodily pains may not be granted in the kind or thing desired For 1. we are not Lords but beggars and must leave the issue to the donor And God hath higher ends to accomplish than our ease or deliverance It 's meet that he should first fit all his actions to his own will and glory and next to the good of many and to his publick works in the World and then to look at our interest next 2. And we are utterly unmeet judges of matter manner time or measure what God should give us for the body and how much and how and when When should we be sick or pained or persecuted or dye if all our prayers must be absolutely granted We know not how much better God is preparing us for by pain and bringing us to by dismal death He will not keep us from grace and glory because our flesh is loth to suffer and to die 3. And in this Paul also was conformed to Christ He was heard in the thing that he feared when in his agony he prayed with strong cryes but it was not by the removing of the bitter cup but by divine strength and acceptance And so it is with Paul sufficient grace and strength to bear is the thing promised Vse 1. We see then that they are mistaken that think Christs promise of giving believers whatever they ask will prove him a breaker of his promise if the strongest believer receive not all that he asketh for the body Was not Paul a strong believer All that God hath promised and we are fit to receive God will be sure to give 2. Let not unbelief get advantage by Gods not granting such prayers for the body Say not Why then is it my duty to pray 1. You know not before-hand but God may give it Possibility bids you beg 2. Why did Christ pray against his Cup 3. You lose not prayer you draw nearer God you exercise repentance and desire you signifie your dependance you are prepared for much greater gifts Obs 15. When God will not take the thorn out of our flesh and deliver us when we pray from bodily sufferings he will be sure to do better for prepared persons even to give them his sufficient grace and manifest his strength in their pain and weakness It is not for want of Love or Power that he lets us tumble on our beds in pain or lie under slanderers or persecutors rage He that with a word could make the World with a word can save us from all this But if we suffer not how shall suffering-graces be exercised faith patience self-denial and hope Is not grace better than ease or life How shall we get the benefit of suffering if we feel it not How shall grace and divine strength be manifested to our selves and others Quest What is it that Grace is sufficient for Ans 1. Not to set us up above the frailties of humanity and mortality nor to raise us to the joy that souls in heaven have 2. Not to every one alike but in our several measures some fear pain and death more than others some have greater patience and joy and long to depart and be with Christ But to all the faithful it shall suffice 1. To keep them from revolting from Christ and repenting of their choice and hope 2. To save them from

nearness of Body and Soul is such that God can use the Body to keep the Soul in a humble and a safe Condition Vse Mistake not the Nature and meaning of the Flesh's sufferings Grudge not at God if he exercise thus his greatest Saints VVonder not if the best men have sharp persecutions pinching wants and painful sickness a long and sharp tormenting stone or other such like Thorn in the Flesh 1. It is but the Flesh in our British part common to Beasts If Flesh must die and rot why may it not first feel the Thorn 2. VVe grudged not at that health and youth and ease and pleasure of it which was the danger and temptation to the Soul why then should we grudge at the pain which tendeth to our Cure 3. If you feel not the need of suffering you know not your selves Did you know your Pride and overmuch Love of Flesh and Ease you would say that Pain is a Physick which you need were it but to help on your willingness to die 4. Pain here depriveth us of none of our true Felicity it hindereth not Gods love to us it keeps us not from Heaven Lazarus was in a fairer way than Dives It takes nothing from us but what we Covenanted to forsake for Christ 5. Do we not find that we are better when we suffer than when we are high Were Religious People better when Victories and Successes did lift them up than they have been in their sufferings Did they live then more humbly peaceably and heavenly 6. The Thorn will soon be taken out Flesh will not endure long and therefore this pain will not be long a few more painful Nights and Days and the Porter which we fear will break open our Prison Doors and end these weary grievous sufferings Vse 2. And think not the Thorn is a mark that such are worse than others Paul was not worse and shall we Censure such as he Vse 3 But let us all know the use of suffering what cure hath this Medicine wrought Blessed be our wise and gracious Physician we find it a powerful though unpleasant Remedy It keepeth Lazarus from the sins of Dives from living a worldly sensual Life and loving the prosperity of the flesh instead of heavenly true felicity It keepeth us from a beastly living to our appetites and lust which would divert and deprave the spiritual appetite It keepeth us from being deluded by worldly flatteries and looking for a portion in this Life and laying up a Treasure on Earth and from growing sensless and impenitent in Sin It awakeneth the Soul to serious expectations of Eternity and keepeth us as within the sight or hearing of another World and tells us to the quick that we must make ready to Die and to be judged and that we have much more to do with God than with man and for Heaven than Earth It taketh down Pride and all excessive respects to humane approbation and keeping us still in the sight of the Grave doth tell us what mans body is Mors solae fatetur Quantula sunt hominum Corpuscula Juv. What faithful Soul that hath been bred up in the School of afflictions doth not by experience say that it was good for him How Dull how Proud how worldly might we else have been and trifled away our lives in sloth and vanity And it is not for nothing that our Thorns or Nailes in the Flesh are kin to the Nailes that pierced our Saviour on the Cross and that we tread in his steps and as Cross-bearers are thus far conformable to his sufferings Be patient than under the Pain and careful to improve it and thankful for the Profit And let not the Soul too much condole the flesh as if it had not at hand a better Habitation and Interest It is but this Vile body Phil. 3. 19. lent us for a little time as our Clothes till Night or as our Horse in a Journey when we have done with them be content of Gods separation and till then let us not take our Corrector for our Enemy I groan too much Lord I complain too much I fear too much but my Soul doth acknowledge the Justice and Love and Wisdom of thy dealings and looketh that this Thorn should bring forth sweet and happy fruit and that all the Nailes of my Cross being sanctified by the blood of my Crucified Redeemer should tend to make me partaker of thy Holiness But who put this Thorn into Pauls Flesh It was one of Satans Messengers Observ 11. The sufferings of the holiest persons in the flesh may be the buffettings of a Messenger of Satan No wonder He that hath got somewhat of his own in us all defiling us with sin if he also may answerably be permitted to afflict us He possessed many in Christs time and it was Devils that made them dumb and deaf and mad whom Christ at once delivered from Devils and Diseases He is called the Accuser and destroyer and he that had the power of Death Heb. 2. 14. whom Christ by Death and Resurrection Conquered Christ calleth his healing the Palsie man the forgiving of his sin and James saith upon Prayer and Anointing the sick should be healed and his sins forgiven And for the Cause of sin many Christians were sick and weak and many fallen asleep I cannot say that Good Angels may not hurt men and execute Gods Judgments but Scripture maketh evil ones his ordinary Executioners Vse Therefore it is no proof that a man is not a Child of God though the Devil have permission to Torment his Flesh Rev. 2. 10. The Devil shall cast some of you into Prison Please God and Satan hath no Power and Christ will take take out the Thorn ere long which Satan is permitted to put in But how doth Paul endure the Thorn He prayeth that is might depart from him Observ 12. The best men are sensible of the suffering of the Flesh and may pray God to take it from them Grace doth not make the Flesh insensible Nor separate the Soul from it though it set us above it nor make us despise it though it shew us a higher Interest and better Habitation and teach us to bear the Cross and resign the Body to the Will of God A Godly man may groan under his Pain and take it as a fruit of sin and an act of the Chastizing Justice of an offended Father and pray against it as hurtful though not as a Remedy They that ignorantly dispute that because Christ hath suffered all our Punishment therefore there is no Penal hurt in Pain or Death confute themselves if they complain under it or pray against it or desire such Prayers from the Church or any Yea one use of the Thorn is to awaken and quicken us to Prayer Like Jonas's Storm Vse Go then to God in all affliction but not with carnal discouraged hearts He maketh you thus feel the need of his Mercy that you may with the Prodigal think of home and