Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	pray_v	prayer_n	supplication_n	1,875	5	11.3215	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28310	A soul-searching catechism wherein is opened and explained not onely the six fundamental points set down Heb. 6. I. but also many other questions of highest concernment in Christian religion : wherein is strong meat for them that are grown and milk for babes, in a very short catechism at the end, exceeding needful for all families in these ignorant and unsetled times / written by Christopher Blackwood.	Blackwood, Christopher.	1653 (1653)	Wing B3101; ESTC R24658	62,833	92

13.8 1 Kings 3.9 12. 1 Chron. 4.10 but because temporal blessings may be severed from the good will of God therefore we must judge of the answers of our Prayers from the grants we have in spiritual blessings as when we pray for a melting heart or a thirsting heart and have one given to us and we may judge of temporal blessings to be the fruits of Prayers answered when those blessings are used to a sanctified end 2. By the enlargement of the heart to holy desires Psal 10.17 Thou hast prepared their heart thou wilt cause thine ear to hear when a man hath a bag and he falls to stretching of it it s a signe he means to fill it so God enlarging the heart with more hunger and thirst longings and breathings then ordinary It s a sign he means to hear that prayer 3. When we behold the face of God in Prayer God sometimes answers the Prayers of his People with a cast of his countenance see Psal 27.7 8 9. also 22.24 as Petitioners may oft read their speeding in the amiable countenance of those they petition Job gaves an undeniable reason why God was his salvation Job 13.16 which was because an hypocrite did not come before him as Job did though every Creature come into his omnipresence yet into his special presence to behold his face in prayer and to come within the list of his countenance onely upright men come see Psal 104.13 4. When the Conscience is able to commend the Prayer setting aside the infirmities Jobs Conscience commended his Prayer to be pure Job 16.17 If thy conscience tell thee thy Prayers are rotten thy sins not purged thy heart not upright it is the voice of God in thy soul but if thy heart condemn thee not then hast thou confidence towards God 1 John 3.21 onely note sometimes the Conscience may be misinformed under a temptation to think God doth not hear them when he doth Job 30.20 Psal 22.1 2. Lam. 3.8 sometimes they were perswaded God heard their prayer as verse 46 57. sometimes they doubted thereof as verse 44. 5. When though God denies us what we ask yet God gives us a better thing Abraham prayed that Ishmael might live and God gave him a better even Isaac Gen. 17.18 19. David prayed for the life of the Child he had by Bathsheba and God gave him a better even Solomon 2 Sam. 12.22 6. By Gods drawing neer unto us in our Prayer God draws nigh to the Soul 1. By removing discouragements Lam. 3.57 Thou drawest neer in the day that I cryed unto thee thou saidst Fear not When God shall raise up the soul against discouragements from former scandalous sins from Gods justice from its own unworthiness from dumbness and barrenness of expressions from the sinning against knowledge from relapses from secret despair Psal 31.22 this drawing nigh argues an answer 2. God draws nigh by working meltings and brokenness of heart upon the soul so that as in old time God was wont to give answer to the prayers of his Servants by sending fire from Heaven to consume their Sacrifices 1 King 18.24 1 Chron. 21.26 2 Chron. 7.1 so doth he now testifie by his holy Spirit who was typified by that fire Mat. 3.11 working in prayer many passionate meltings that the heart melts under the displeasing such a loving God and the eye melts into tears Psal 6.8 blessed be God who hath heard the voice of my weeping how knew he he was heard why because he poured out weeping prayers to God Psa 39.12 hold not thy peace at my tears Isa 38.5 I have heard thy prayers and seen thy tears Jer. 31.9 I will lead them along with weeping and supplication Also Christ when he was heard offered up strong crying with tears Heb. 7.5 the like did Nehemiah when he prayed that God would give him favour in the sight of the King he wept in his prayer Nehem. 1.4 11. also Jacob wept and made supplication and found the Lord in Bethel Hos 12.3 4. yea the Saints of God generally have been thus crowned with answers in their prayers as Ezra c. 10.1 Iob c. 16 16 Iosiah 2 Chron. 34.27 Paul Acts 20.31 Ier. 9.1 13.17 Hannah 1 Sam. 1.10 Peter Mar. 14.72 not as if God did not draw nigh in other prayers wherein the eye melts not into tears for if the soul hath other signs of its prayers heard it ought not to be discouraged but this I say prayers poured out thus with inward meltings of heart so that the eye shall weep in prayer seem to me to be crowningly answered And so much the more when a person is not inclining to weep in other Cases as many women and some men are out of natural softness To conclude consider whether it be safe to be without such a frame of heart and eye in prayer as so many of the Saints in the word are recorded to have had and wherein they found such comfort and success 3. God draws nigh by chearing and inward comforting of the heart Phil. 4.6 7. inwardly warning it with the soul of his presence Now all these approaches of God to gracious souls are not alike for sometimes he gives a stronger sense of his favour in one prayer more then another and sometimes in some one or more Petitions of the same prayer then in other Petitions thereof yet when God draws nigh to thy soul in a particular request it is not certain that that request shall be granted in that manner you desired as when a man prays for the life of a sick friend and God draws nigh in that Petition and yet the friend dies but it is evidential to thee that thy prayer is heard and that the thing thou askest is according to the approving will of God though not according to his decreeing will All these drawings nigh to the soul evidence the hearing of prayers as appears Psal 69.17 hear me speedily but what signe doth he desire why verse 18. he saith Draw nigh to my soul 7. Thou mayest know thy prayers are answered by having a spirit of perseverance in prayer Psal 66.20 138.3 when a Petitioner comes to a Prince or Nobleman if the Prince embolden him in his speech and let him speak all he would it s a sign the Prince means to grant that man his Petition because otherwise he would not have endured to have heard him so long but would have commanded him to be gone so when the soul comes to God in prayer if God dispatch it out of his presence that the soul hath no heart to continue its suit and prayes deadly and dully and is glad it hath said its prayers and hath done it s a fearful sign that God answers not those prayers though poured out by a godly man but if thou prayest and God gives thee a spirit to hold out in prayer if thou prayest and hast not done in thy prayers but God doth further and further put in thee a warmth and heat of affection that