Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n
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A56697
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A sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and the aldermen of the City of London at Guild-Hall Chappel, Octob. 31, 1680 being the XXI Sunday after Trinity / by Symon Patrick ...
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Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing P842; ESTC R13508
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19,534
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54
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of Salvation vers 17. which in the 1 Thess v. 8. is called the Hope of Salvation This he compares to a Helmet which you know is the Armor of the head because the blessed hope of immortal Glory hereafter and of Gods special favour love and protection here makes a Man erect himself and lift up his head as we say with confidence and boldness in the midst of the greatest terrors and dangers knowing they shall not hurt him but rather bring Salvation to him With this Hope therefore we must fill our hearts which is the fruit of Faith when Faith works by love and makes us faithful unto God Then we may have a lively hope in him and this Hope will make us not only strong and so full of courage that we shall not quail or be cast down by any dreadful appearance of dangers but inable us to rejoyce in Hope of the Glory of God VI. To which he adds The Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God or the Holy Scriptures For they are the Treasury of those Sacred Promises which are the great support of our Souls the Repository or Magazine as I may call them wherein are laid up those Truths spoken of in the beginning which we must oppose to all the temptations which either assault our Faith and Hope or would seduce us from our Obedience And therefore our business must be to study the Holy Scriptures diligently till we be well skill'd in them and have learnt to wield this weapon aright and thereby cut in sunder all objections as our Blessed Saviour did when the Devil tempted him in the Wilderness And by no means suffer any body to wrest this Sword out of our hand for if they do they have so effectually disarmed us that we may in time yield to any thing They may make us believe what they please having our Faith in their keeping and likewise do what they please perswading us the best service we can do to God is to be the greatest Enemies disturbers and destroyers of mankind VII Lastly All these will be the more effectual if by ardent Prayer as the Apostle advises vers 18. we call in the assistance of Heaven Praying alway with all Prayer and supplication in the spirit watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints For as it is not enough to be thus armed and appointed for the combate unless God be present with us which we ought to believe He will as I told you at first because he hath said He will so it is not sufficient to rely upon his word and stedfastly believe it but He expects to be solicited for his aid by our earnest Prayers and Supplications This He hath commanded as much as for the other we have his promise And our very Prayers make us strong by giving us a more lively sense of God if they be not cold and careless and a more vigorous apprehension of his love and of our Heavenly Country to which they lift up our minds And besides they derive more strength from Him when we faithfully importune Him that he will inable us to discharge all the duties of good Christians in every condition And they intitle us also to his powerful protection when we commend our selves intirely to His Providence and trust all we have with Him Which likewise mightily raises our spirits and gives us a higher degree of strength confidence and courage when we think we have made Him our friend by thus intrusting Him and relying wholly upon Him to make us happy in what way He himself pleases And if all Christians made a Conscience also to Pray one for another it might still be of greater force and avail more toward our Salvation For so the Apostle would have us make supplication for all saints that is Christians that they also may be indued with the power of Christ and get the victory over their spiritual Enemies And these Prayers would be still more prevalent did we all persevere as he says in our Supplications and Pray always at all times of prayer and that in the spirit very ardently and with such fervent desires for spiritual aid from Heaven as we feel for those things we most need for this mortal life And this also with so great care and solicitude that we watch for opportunities of Prayer and when great dangers press us take some time from our sleep or other occasion for this Heavenly converse with God our Saviour This is a thing wherein we are too defective and so find our selves faint and weak in the performance of the rest of the duties of Christian life because we languish in our Devotion especially in our COMMON PRAYER when we meet together to Pray not only for our selves but for one another for the King particularly the Royal Family the great Council of the Kingdom the Clergy and all People of whatsoever order or condition they be Whom if we did commend to God with greater earnestness and true fervour of affection we should find I am confident as happy effects of our Prayer as we our selves desire We should either for instance prevail with God to turn from us all those evils which we most righteously have deserved or to enable us so to put our full trust and confidence in his mercy as notwithstanding any troubles to serve him evermore in holiness and pureness of living to his honour and glory To summe up all that hath been said The Apostle in this Discourse compares Christians unto Souldiers who being to conflict with their Enemies took care as not to want weapons themselves so not to leave any part of their bodies uncovered and exposed to the weapons of their Adversaries The middle of their body they girt about with a Belt upon their Brest they wore a Brest-plate upon their Head a Helmet Greaves as they are called in the story of Goliath upon their legs a shield they carried in their left hand and a sword in their right and being thus appointed they called upon their Gods for help and succour Such a complete Armour must we Christians put on if we will conflict successfully with our spiritual Enemies who are of little force to do us any harm if they always find us armed with Truth in our mind with Integrity to our heart with Purity and peaceableness in our affections with Faith in Gods promises and hope of his Salvation working both in mind and heart and affections with the word of God often in our hand and with devout Prayers and Supplications in our mouth proceeding from our very heart and most intimate desires whereby we constantly implore both for our selves and our fellow Christians the gracious assistance of Him who is the Captain of our Salvation and by these means got the victory and won the Crown which He now wears at God's right hand And be you well assured that in this way by being trained up in Christian knowledg and sincere love to what you know to be
your duty by Faith by Hope by reading and meditating in the Holy Scriptures by ardent Prayer to the Almighty especially in sincere fellowship and communion one with another you shall prevail likewise and get the better of every thing that opposes your sincere resolution to do and suffer the whole will of Christ Jesus In Him therefore incourage your selves and receive this word of Exhortation which the Apostle here gives us be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might Fortifie your selves with a firm belief that he is able to send you relief and that He will not fail to succour you from above if you resolutely indeavour to do your duty in the way that He hath prescribed you The words seem to me to be the very same with those of the Lord to Joshua when he was to enter into Canaan and subdue that Country which are repeated thrice within the compass of a few Verses i. Josh 6. Be strong and of a good courage and vers 7. only be thou strong and very couragious and again vers 9. Have not I commanded thee be strong and of a good courage neither be thou dismayed for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest From which words you may take the truest interpretation of my Text and look upon Joshua and the Israelites as a lively picture of the state of us Christians The Lord promised to be with him whithersoever he went and bad him nothing doubt but by his strength he should vanquish all the Canaanites But for all this he and the Israelites were to go up armed against them and both to fight according to such directions as He gave them and to keep themselves from every polluted thing which He forbad them and not depend merely on the arm of the Almighty to give them the victory Even so must we strengthen our selves in our Blessed Lord and the power of his might and think we hear Him say to us Have not I commanded you be strong therefore and of a good courage be not dismayed I the Lord am with you whithersoever you go and whatsoever you do and by me you shall overcome all difficulties But we must not so trust to this Power of his as to be remiss and negligent our selves no He will strengthen and impower us if we put on the whole Armour of God and fight against our own passions and evil desires the worlds temptations and the Devils suggestions continually opposing to them Faith and Hope and the word of God and Prayer and an honest resolution not to yield by any means to their importunities but to be the more excited by their solicitations to use our most earnest indeavours to vanquish them Then as David saith to his Son Solomon perswading him to enter upon a great work 1 Chron. xxviij 20. so may I say to every one of you Be strong and of a good courage and do it fear not neither be dismayed for the Lord God will be with thee He will not fail thee nor forsake thee until thou hast finished all the work for the service of the House of the Lord. It is for God and for His glory that we fight resolutely against the Devil the World and the Flesh and therefore why should we doubt of his aid when by the Victory He will be honoured as well as our selves We not only may but ought to ask it and to expect it with a humble confidence in his Almighty Goodness who hath told us He will deny us nothing which we beg in the Name of the Lord Jesus And what can we beg of Him more acceptable to Him as well as necessary for us than this that we may be able in our place and station and in every condition to do Him all faithful service And when will his Name think you be more prevalent and obtain greater Salvation for us than when according to his own particular order and last desire we make mention of it and commemorate his love in the Communion of his body and blood There we may offer up our Prayers and Meditations in the most acceptable and prevailing manner There also we may excite our Faith and quicken our Hope and inflame our Charity and knit our selves one to another in Brotherly love and ingage to Him our Fidelity and by all these means receive a greater increase of strength and courage to do and to endure whatsoever He would have us And therefore let me admonish you of this for a conclusion of this discourse in which I have delivered or rather the Apostle taught us many important truths but none perhaps of greater moment than this that when the Apostle advises us here to Pray with all Prayer and Supplication this way of praying and supplicating by making a commemoration of Christs Death and Passion in the Holy Eucharist where we represent to God how He offered himself a Sacrifice for us is certainly included This is one sort of Prayer and the chiefest among Christian people nay the most proper to them of all other From whence we may safely conclude that they who neglect this lye more open to temptations than other men They have not put on the whole Armour of God but want a principal part of it and that part which is most properly Christian and therefore must blame themselves that they are no better men but are so frequently overcome and fall into sin even against their resolutions perhaps and notwithstanding their Prayers and their looking up to the Lord Jesus for help There is a great thing still wanting they do not use all the means that He hath appointed for the obtaining of his help There is one manner of address to Him which they either live in a constant neglect of or but seldom apply themselves seriously to its solemn use For if they did in good earnest and with all their hearts do this often in remembrance of Him as He hath required they would find their Christian resolution mightily fortified and their souls indued with much strength to do all the rest of the will of Christ Nay they would at last do their duty though in it self difficult chearfully and triumphantly saying with St. Paul elsewhere viij Rom. 35 c. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulations or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword Nay in all these things we are more than conquerours through Him that loved us To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be Glory and Majesty Dominion and Power both now and ever Amen FINIS