Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prayer_n	pray_v	spirit_n	watch_v	2,594	5	9.9201	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43579	Israel's lamentation after the Lord, or, A discourse, wherein every well-wisher to Zion is excited, and directed how to lament after the Lord with prayers and tears, to maintain the ordinances of God, or God's presence with his ordinances amongst us being some meditations upon 1 Sam. 7.2.	Heywood, Oliver, 1629-1702.	1683 (1683)	Wing H1768; ESTC R22352	67,400	163

a work what mercy were it prayer is needful at all times in all cases but much more now If any thing fetch back a departing God it must be a believing prayer 2 Chron. 7.14 If my People which are called by my Name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their Land You see the duty You see the incouragement prayer is sutable to a sad disposition and dispensation Prayer is the Conduit of comfort Afflictions make us seek out Promises Promises to seek Faith Faith to seek Prayer Prayer to seek and find God What should God's Children do were it not for this priviledge of praying When they cannot preach and hear they may pray when they cannot meet together they may meet at the Throne of Grace when they are shut out from petitioning men they may be admitted to the Court of Heaven and the Lord's Ears are still open to their cry I should think the Spirit of Prayer to be the best token for good to us Thou wilt prepare their heart thou wilt cause thine Ear to hear Psal 10.17 Moses besought the Lord and the Lord seems as bound fast by his prayer Let me alone saith God The People here intreat Samuel not to cease to cry to the Lord for them and he did pray and you see the issue Oh that we could not only pray but lift up a prayer for the Remnant that 's left If God return to us it must be upon the wings of such an advanced Prayer When Sennacherib had sent Rabshakeh to blaspheme God the Text saith For this cause Hezekiah the King and the Prophet Isaiah the Son of Amoz prayed and cryed to Heaven For this cause If any thing will quicken God's Children to Prayer surely it will be the dishonour of their Father they would not answer them but complain to God this was then and is still the most effectual course to speed When Nehemiah was to make request to a great King he saith Then prayed I to the God of Heaven It was an ejaculatory Prayer for he spoke it not yet it was effectual he thought if by Prayer he could move the main wheel all the rest would move This is a way to set a work all Second Causes Indeed we have no other means in prospect let us betake our selves to this spiritual Armour for Prayers and Tears are the Church's Weapons Ephes 6.18 19. Praying alwaies with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints and for me that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the Mystery of the Gospel This is our case we beg our Peoples Prayers for our restitution Oh that Ministers and People could strive or be in an Agony together in their mutual Prayers to God for each other If you could pray more and better we should come the sooner and with a greater blessing even in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ and for your encouragement to pray for us we hope we can truly say as Heb. 13.18 Pray for us for we trust we have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly Though we suffer as evil-doers and are reproached as factious seditious schismatical as Paul was accounted an Apostate an enemy to the Law but we carry our selves as Subjects as Ministers living orderly in our places giving none offence so that none can challenge us in any thing save in the matters of our God and in that they must excuse us if we cannot in all things see with their Eyes nor swallow down such Oaths Subscriptions as some dare whom we judge not but are afraid of nothing so much as sin and as for our Preaching to you though prohibited by men it 's our obligation to duty For woe be to us if we Preach not the Gospel Zeal for God's glory and love to your Souls that exposeth us to all these censures and oppositions it is for your sakes that we bear all these affronts and will not you pray for us Surely your selves are concerned in our work we are content to endure all for the Gospels sake we ask nothing of you but your entertainment of our Message and Prayers for our persons we spend our time and strength and lungs for you will not you pray for us If God help us will not this turn to your advantage Your Prayers will return into your own bosoms We have been serving almost three Apprentiships in our divorcement from Publick Places and Imployments yet our God hath not forsaken us but secured our Persons and some Liberties he hath delivered us doth and will deliver liver us 2 Cor. 1.10 11 12. You also helping together in prayer for us that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf for our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience c. Having obtained help of God we continue to this day at great uncertainties as Melancthon said Ego jam sum hic Dei beneficio quadraginta annos nunquam potui dicere aut certus esse me per unam septimanam mansurum esse So we may say we have continued by Divine bounty and care of us twenty years and could never say assuredly nor upon any probable grounds that we should abide one week to an end Much of this may be ascribed to the effectual Prayers of the Church as a mean under God Who can tell but in a short time your Prayers may fetch us back again Howsoever we are persuaded that these things shall turn to our and your Salvation through your Prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.19 Only see that your Prayers be such as God will accept I cannot inlarge on this Head but hint the due qualifications of such a Prayer as shall undoubtedly prevail 1. Your Persons must be in covenant 2. You must act Faith upon the Mediator Christ 3. You must pray in the Holy Ghost 4. Ask what is according to God's Will 5. Aim at God's Glory as your main end 6. Cast away all sin in heart and life 7. Live in the daily exercise of Repentance 8. Maintain an holy Awe of God in your hearts 9. Set your hearts in order for the duty 10. Pray with understanding minding the object 11. With fervency importunity 12. Forgiving others that have offended you 13. Watching against Temptations 14. Living up to your Prayers 15. Maintaining communion with God 16. Coming with hopes to speed 17. Be Sincere as to frames and ends 18. Be dayly sensible of wants weaknesses 19. Wait patiently for returns of prayer 20. Be thankful for any in-comes after Prayer Such

Oh what a Combination is there at home and abroad of Papists and Atheists to rout out the Name of Israel and to banish the God of Israel and cause him to cease from amongst us Oh what crafty Councels and potent Confederates animated with devilish hatred may we espy in this our Native Country Antichrist makes many furious Assaults with a Design to kill the poor Witnesses after they have been Prophesying in Sackcloth Rev. 11.3 7. Yea among our selves Is there not some that are indifferent whether the Ark or Mass Gospel-preaching or dumb Idols take place Yea some say unto God Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of his waies Men are scorched with the glorious Rayes of the Gospel-Sun and blaspheme God rather than kindly melted by its warm and benign Influences How many Ahabs hate Micaiah's or Felix's at best that adjourn the Court of Conscience and Plain-Preaching Or Gadarens that prefer their Swine-Sty to God's Sanctuary and desire blessed Jesus to depart out of our Coasts God's Ark is a troublesom Guest to graceless Philistins Some that received not the Truth in love are in danger to be given up to Popish Delusions and the mixt multitude that fell a lusting or longing for the Onions of Aegypt If the Gospel may be sinned away surely it is in hazard now to depart If prodigious lusts daring Heaven unfruitfulness decay of Zeal loss of first Love carnal confidence of Priviledges and contempt of the Power of Godliness neutrality empty Formality have robbed People of this Pearl surely without a prerogative add of mercy we cannot keep it long 2. Where are the Souls that stir up themselves to take hold of a withdrawing God Some I hope there are that stand in the gap but oh how few and how faintly Where is there a Moses to hold up his hands a Joshua to fall at God's feet a Phinehas to execute Justice God sees that there is no man and may wonder that there is no Intercessor Strange That there should be none to guide her among all the Sons she hath brought forth What! none to take her by the hand of all the Sons that she hath brought up What! Is there no Rod strong enough for bearing such a weight Well this is a lamentation and shall be for a lamentation But may not the Innocent deliver the Island May not the poor wise man deliver the City Are not Saints Prayers effectual Ans Yes But where are they The old Stock is worn out and few new ones come in for a supply Strong Torrents are carried by the dead Sea into the Ocean of Eternity and new Springs are yet rare and faint Where shall we find Elijah's Spirit doubled on succeeding Elisha Though a Kingdom may have much Treasure in it yet if Trade cease no Bullion or Merchandise be imported it will decay because it spends upon the old Stock This is our case old Saints are worn away few Converts fit to plead with God come in their room And this is the Devils design to wear out the Saints of the most High and extirpate the genuine Seed of Jacob. But alas By whom shall Jacob arise for he is small His face waxeth pale having of late lost so much good blood And doth not our Lord sometimes withdraw the Spirit of Prayer which is an interpretative saying Pray not for this People Doth not stupidity and sleepiness seize on the Disciples even when Jesus is in his Agony Doth not this bode evil Is there not in them even in them sins enow to weaken and evacuate their own Prayers Alas What Divisions what Decaies Deadness Unprositableness The Old Puritan-Spirit is gone we are wofully degenerated Professors are grown like the world How unlike are we to Primitive Saints Abraham is ignorant of us Israel would not acknowledge us for their genuine Seed But may we not think our disease is grown so stubborn and inveterate that no Doses will conquer the Disease though ultimi conatus these hard struglings of Nature may maintain Life for a season Judgments have been prorogued upon the Vine-dressers interposing importunity three years longer but beware the forth God's Patience hath bounds his Spirit will not alwaies strive We look like a people ripe for ruine However Noah Dantel and Job may deliver their own Souls though none besides by their righteousness God can make those few Names in Sardis to walk in white though he come against her as a Thief and leave her in Aegyptian darkness He can find harbour for his Children though he pull down the house upon the heads of formal Hypocrites And if there be not cause of lamenting after the Ark when its removal is feared to be sure men will see cause to lament when this evil is felt The Anger of the Lord shall not return until he hath executed and till he hath performed the thoughts of his heart In the latter daies ye shall consider it perfectly Jer. 23. v. 20. 2. Is not the God of Ordinances much removed from amongst us And is not he worth lamenting after God makes gradual removes It 's true sometimes the Sun sets at noon-day yet ordinarily the Sun leaves the Horizon by sensible declinings The glory of the Lord goes up from the Cherub to the Threshold of the house thence to the middle of the City thence to the Mountain I shall briefly mention four Removes which our Lord hath taken from us By way of Query 1. Is not restraining grace much gone from amongst us Some persons in former times were wont to be civil orderly and in many things conformable to the letter of the Word but now God hath cast the Reins in their necks and they get the Bit of Conscience betwixt the teeth of sensual affections and obstinate sinning and there 's no hoe with them they run mad in their own waies petty Oaths of Mass or Troth are commence to Dam me and full mouth'd blasphemies tippling to down-drive Drunkenness and open reeling wanton dalliances to defended Adulteries squibbing Strictness to open persecution of all that looks like seriousness from questioning Divine Providence men advance to avowed Atheism and open defiance of Heaven Some men are given up to such sins as are not fit to be named and which themselves formerly would have blusht at the mention of and if any had predicted their committing them would have said as Hazael Is thy Servant a Dog Sinners that used to walk under a Vail or Mask now go bare-fac'd and men glory in their shame Many abhor Sobriety Justice Temperance We overpass the deeds of the wicked the Moral Heathens would be ashamed of us Men work all uncleanness with greediness Yea if they court God in a few formal Prayers they think they are delivered to do all these abominations as though they had got a Popish Indulgence and Dispensation to sin As Breerwood in his Enquiries tells us The common people think they do