Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	angel_n	golden_a	incense_n	1,470	5	12.0788	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77990	Jacobs seed or The generation of seekers. And Davids delight : or The excellent on earth. / By the late reverend preacher of the Gospel Jeremiah Burrough.	Burroughs, Jeremiah, 1599-1646.	1648 (1648)	Wing B6090; Thomason E1162_1; ESTC R210094	70,993	190

petition that his people ●enders but with a smiling countenance If it be a faithfull petition he accepts it of them and receives it graciously It is an expression of Luther speaking of the prayer of a contrite heart The least sigh of a contrite heart so fills heaven with noise that there is no noyse of any thing in heaven or earth heard at that time but onely the noyse of prayer Certainly a faithfull prayer taketh the heart of God very much yea every faithfull prayer is recorded in heaven You keep your letters upon the file that you may readily find them when you have occasion to look on such a letter sent from such a countrey so God hath his file in heaven where all faithfull prayers are kept upon record As Princes have their paper offices where transactions between one State another are kept so the Lord hath his prayer-office where he keeps all the prayers of his Saints that ever were put up to him Revel 8.3 Another Angel came and stood at the Altar having a golden censer and there was given him much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all Saints Where were those prayers of all the Saints that he must take a censer and offer incense with God had them recorded with him and now they were to be offered to him And see what great things follow upon the offering of the prayers of the Saints vers 4. The smoak of the incense which came with the prayers of the Saints ascended up before God out of the Angels hand And the Angel took the censer c. and there were voyces and thunderings and lightnings and an earthquake These followed upon the prayers of the Saints It signified the time wherein all should come in remembrance before the Lord as if an Angel were offering yea Christ the Angel of the Covenant hath a time to take the prayers presented long ago and to offer them to God with his own incense They are all recorded in heaven therefore they are not in vain When a petition is taken and put upon record the petitioner petitioneth not in vain his petitionis not thrown out If a petition be presented to the Parliament and they take it and tell you it shall be kept on record and charge the Clerk to keep it there and say they will take due time to consider of it you will not say such a petition is in vain God doth so to all his people he takes their petitions and recordeth them they are all filed in heaven Yet further there is no faithfull petition but God puts his fiat to the bottome of it at the instant that it is put up to him There is a decree in heaven issued out for mercy at the very instant that the petition is put up God dealeth not with us in this kind as men do who are counted very gratious if they please to tell us they will consider of our petition no but your petition is presently gtanted A petitioner when there is time taken to consider of his petition trembles and shakes for fear it should not be granted but the petitions of the seed of Jacob are granted presently When Daniel had been seeking God at the evening sacrifice an Angel comes to him tells him that at the beginning of his prayer there was a decree to grant it and that he was sent to him at the beginning of his prayer Dan. 9.23 Psa 56.9 When I cry unto thee then shall mine enemies turn back this I know for God is for me Did not David cry oft and yet his enemies did not turn their backs when he cryed He cryed oft when his enemies prevailed yet he saith When I cried then mine enemies turned back and This I know why for God is for me The meaning must be this that at that instant that he cryed there was a decree in heaven the thing was done He looked on it as done even as certainly as if he had seen it with his eyes This is the reason that the Saints after they have prayed though the thing be not actually done fall to praising and blessing of God We have a notable example in Jehoshaphat of whom we reade 2. Chron. 20.3 that being in a great fear had set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah He did not seek God slightly but set himself to seek the Lord. And what his prayer was ye may see from vers 6. to 12. And Jehoshaphat said O Lord God of our fathers art not thou God in heaven and rulest over all Kingdomes Mark how he pleadeth with God for the Covenant he had made vers 8. Speaking of the Sanctuary they had built for his names sake If when evil commeth upon us as the sword judgement or pestilence or famine we stand before this house and in thy presence for thy name is in this house and cry unto thee in our affliction then thou wilt hear and help He urgeth the promise made to Solomon at the dedication of the Temple For that prayer of Faith which Solomon made and God accepted hath the strength of a promise in it O our God saith he wilt thou not judge them for we have no might against this great company that commeth against us neither know we what to do but our eyes are upon thee Though he profest that his enemies were so many that he knew not what to do and that they had no might to resist them yet after his prayer was done and before the battell began when he had consulted with the people he appointed singers unto the Lord and that should praise for the beauty of holinesse as they went out before the Army and to say Praise the Lord for his mercie indureth for ever vers 21. Mark he had not yet gotten the victory the battell was not fought yet as soon as he had ended his prayer he praised the Lord for his mercie indureth for ever He made account that the thing was done It was decreed in heaven Therefore surely the people of God do not seek him in vain Nay it is not onely decreed but ere long God will satisfie his people and fill their longing souls with goodnesse Psal 107.9 A time shall come when they shall say their prayers are heard and that they have enough Yea the Lord giveth more sometimes then his people mention in their prayer they ask temporall blessings and he bestoweth spirituall yea he giveth them himself and that is all in all Surely then the prayers of the Saints are not in vain But wherein lyeth the efficacy of prayer What makes prayer so powerfull and present with God One thing is because God delighteth in mercy and in communicating himself to the children of men He taketh more pleasure in doing good then any can in seeking it yea then any can in enjoying it from him Our hearts cannot be so strongly set to seek for any mercy from God as he is to communicate mercy to

God in the hypostaticall union of the two natures wherein he joyned the humane and the divine nature together in one person excepting that the worke of grace in any soul is the greatest work that ever God did from all eternity or that ever he will do for the kind of it Now that which hath so much of God in it and comes from the eternall election and love of God and is the greatest work that ever was done or ever shall be done and the greatest good that ever was or shall be communicated to any creature for ever truly this must needs be the greatest excellency For God made the world for that end that he might communicate his excellency and glory to the world to the creature Now that which was the greatest thing that God intended from all eternity for the communicating of all his glory it must needs make the creature excellent That is the first thing they are the excellent on earth in regard of the image of God upon them the work of grace But secondly tkey are the excellent of the earth in regard of the seperating of them for God they are those that God set his thoughts upon from all eternity that they might enjoy him The great counsels that God wrought from all eternity especially were set on work upon this great thing of separating of certain creatures for himself from the rest of the world Now when God shall set as it were to speak after the manner of men his thoughts and counsels on work from all eternity to set apart a few creatures for himself if there can be known who they are certainly we cannot but look on them as the excellent on earth Now wheresoever we see the work of grace in any we may by that know that these God hath separated for himself as setting his infinite wisedome on work from all eternity above that That was the thing he was most excercised in before the world about the work of separating such and such for himself The Psalmist saith Psalm 4.3 that God hath set apart the godly for himself they are those that are dedicated and consecrated to God therefore there is a wonderfull excellency put upon them As you know any thing that is dedicated and consecrated though it be never so mean in it self yet being once dedicated being once made a consecrated thing there is a great deal of excellency put upon that thing As in the law if it were but a piece of wood in the Tabernacle if it were but a Badgers skin if it were but brasse or Goats hair or any such thing that were meant in it self yet if it were once consecrated and made holy to God they looked upon it as having a great deal of excellency on it Now I reason thus if a piece of wood or a little hair or leather consecrated to God had an excellency what then hath an immortall soul that hath the graces of the spirit as so many pearls in it when that is consecrated and set apart to God to the glory and praise of his grace to all eternity here must needs be much excellency When a thing is consecrated we look on it no more according to the quality of the thing but to the consecration As I remember I read of some people in India that when they have but lost an Apes tooth that was consecrated to their god they will give an unspeakable summe of money for the redemption of it again because it was a thing that was consecrated to their god So I reade of another that being raised from a mean birth he took this way to make himself to be highly esteemed of the people he had a golden bason that he used to wash his feet in he took that and made an idoll of it and consecrated it and then every one fell down and worshiped it when it was consecrated Nay saith he if this which was mean before it was set apart to this use comes so to be honoured then I that am mean by birth being set apart to the government may as well be honoured by you Thus then if the superstition and will of man having consecrated a thing thinks he puts so much excellency on it how much more when God himself and the great and speciall work of the holy Ghost that he is designed to it is a speciall work of his office to consecrate souls to God and to set them apart to himself what an excellency must this needs be that is put upon them They are the excellent of the earth That is the second Thirdly if we consider that relation that the saints have to God they are the nearest relations that can be exprest Of children to parents they are the children of God Of a spouse to her husband they are the spouse of Jesus Christ the second person in Trinity and in that regard they are more nearly united to God then the Angels themselves are in being the spouse of the Son of God yea the very members of his body they have a nearer relation in that respect to the divine nature to the second person in Trinity then the Angels themselves for they have not such a relation as this therefore they are the excellent of the earth Again fourthly if we consider the great priviledges that the saints have we shall see them the excellent of the earth Not to speak of their deliverance from sin and guiltinesse and those immunities that they have from others But consider they have this priviledge that God in all his attributes and works he is continually working for their good There is this excellent prerogative of the saints there is no attribute of God but it is continually working good to every saint of God There is no work of Gods providence but it works alway continually for their good It would be a mighty excellent honour put upon any man if but such an honourable assembly as the Parliament should take thought for such an one and all their purposes and plots and councels all the time they are sitting should tend to the good of such an one in particular taking notice in particular of him It is that which I said all your wisdome and power and mercy and faithfulnesse and the infinite alsufficiency of God is continually every moment working not onely for the good of those that love God in generall but for every particular saint of God God takes speciall notice of them and sets all his attributes continually on work for their good And the heavens continually work for them They have this priviledge that the whole world is made for them God hath given them the world they are the heirs of the world as it is said of Abraham he was the heir of the world Rom. 4.14 Abraham had little himself yet he had the world Now the children inherit their fathers estate if the world were Abrahams inheritance then it is the inheritance of every child of Abraham for so the children of Abraham are