Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	king_n	lord_n	see_v	5,758	5	3.8905	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90552	A sermon lately preached at court, before His Majesty, in ordinary attendance: by VVilliam Peterson, D.D. and Deane of Exeter. Chaplaine to His Majesty.	Peterson, William, d. 1661.	1642 (1642)	Wing P1730; Thomason E151_3; ESTC R14888	15,566	32

of all sorts one man acts a King another a Lord a third a cripple a fourth a beggar Now one of these Actours am I and therefore whatsoever part it shall please the great God of heaven and earth to assign me to represent I must perform it with cheerfulnesse and alacrity If my lot be to act a beggar or a cripple whilst another man acts a Prince or a Lord why the will of God be done all my care shall be to act my beggars or my cripples part with the best grace and comlinesse that I can knowing that the change of fortune here on this great Theatre is but like the change of garments on the lesse for when upon the one and upon the other every one weares but his owne skinne the Players are all alike And thus we see how we must pray in Cruce in the time of affliction and persecution And thus we finde this last circumstance to be verified that is wheresoever afflicted we must pray But because we may offend in doing those things which we ought to doe as the Scribes and Pharisees we know did offend in their Fastings and Prayers it will not be amisse I think to shew what Prayers must be avoided They must be neither temerariae timidae nor frigidae First temerariae rash or unadvised prayers either for matter or for manner First for matter we must not pray for those things that are unlawfull nay in those things which are good and lawfull in themselves we must put a difference for all Gods gifts I may not unfitly reduce to these two heads either spirituall which God proposeth to us as the last end of our endeavours or else temporall which hee sends unto us as means and helps the better to strengthen us in our weak endeavours Now then in suing for these we must pray diversly for in praying for temporall things we must ask upon condition but in praying for spirituall things we must aske without exception Jacob may pray for food and rayment Solomon for wisdome Job for his children but yet as it is Jam. 4. If God will So that the clause which our Saviour in the Prayer of his Agonie did expresse we in Petitions of like nature must ever imply Pater si possibile est If it stand with thy good will and pleasure For oftentimes when we reflect only upon our selves and our own inordinate appetites and desires we fasten upon God those unseasonable offices which please him not and think oft times we crave fish when indeed it proves a serpent And therefore as it comes to passe in weighty and massie bodies that they have certaine trepidations and waverings before they fixe and settle so in all our Petitions and desires for these temporall things because we may so easily erre and be deceived before we fixe and settle our resolutions to beg this or that at the hands of God we should have certaine trepidations and waverings and revolve againe and againe within our selves whether the things we ask for may be allowable in the sight of God And thus we see for the matter of our prayers it must not be rash or unadvised we must not pray for those things that are unlavvfull Secondly for the manner of our Prayers they must not be rash neither but upon due and mature deliberation it being a thing monstrous even in the course of nature to have any thing conceived and borne both in one instant Consider but the irkesome deformities and manifold confusions which are occasioned by these endlesse and senselesse effusions of indigested Prayers so that the worthiest part of our Christian dutie towards God is by this meanes oftentimes in most miserable manner both disgraced and abused for if speaking to an earthly Prince we utter nothing rashly but upon deliberate counsell and advice how much more ought we to be careful standing in Gods presence in his Temple the place where his honour dwelleth and speaking in the hearing of God men and Angels and therefore they cannot be excused that so far abuse the valuation of prayer as if there were no difference betwixt praying and selling of Doves in the Temple and instead of polishing the chiefe corner stone dawbe it up with nothing else but filthy untempered morter never framing their Prayers by meditation beforehand but contriving them all on the suddain expecting in the very instant that God should miraculously as to that widow of Sarepta multiply their little oile for the discharge of so great a dutie Hence it is that all set forme of Prayer is almost brought cleane out of taste because we make God like unto our selves and judge him by our owne bellies imagining that God doth loathe to have the same supplications often reiterated even as we doe loathe to be every day fed without alteration or change of dyet but if it be so why then did God himselfe leave unto his Priests the very speech wherewith they were to blesse the people Num. 9. Or why did our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ leave unto us a Prayer of his owne whereby to frame all other Prayers with efficacie yet without superfluity of words For in very deede if our best and most considerate desires have some things in them to be pardoned it must needes be held a most unreasonable presumption to thinke that rash and unadvised Prayers can be meritorious or worthy to be rewarded And therefore to except against set order and forme of Prayer doth savour of much pride and but little charity for how many poore souls are there in the world who not being able upon every occasion to frame Prayers anew for themselves by this meanes should be abridged of all helps and comforts they might receive from others Secondly our prayers they must not be timidae we must despaire nothing at all of Gods bounty knowing his ability still the same to perfect his power in weaknesse For shall the hand of little David O thou most mighty if a ravenous beare break into his fold and steale away a sheep or if a roaring Lion sallie out of his den and rent away a lamb from him be able to deliver them both from the mouth of the beare and pawe of the Lyon and shalt not thou be much more able to rescue the sheepe of thy fold and the lambs of thy flock surely yes if David delivered his lambs from the pawe of the beare thou deliveredst David from the mouth of the lion if he loved his flock by which he lived why then thou must needes love thine for whom thou dyedst sunt terque quaterque beati they are thrice and foure times happie who make God their shield with David and the Lord their sure defence with Moses for he is able to defend them from the strongest enemy and to give them victory in the day of battail Lastly our prayers they must not be frigidae we must not pray coldly but earnestly If with Hezekiah we poure out our prayers unto God in the bitternesse of our hearts then we shall be heard but if we doe nothing but chatter like a swallow and thinke to be heard through our vain babling we much deceive our selves For God regards not so much verba dicentis as corda orantis and therefore there were two faults which our Lord and Saviour himselfe especially reproved in prayer the first when ostentation caused it to be open and the other when superstition made it to be long The things which God regards is how vertuous their minds are and not how copious their tongues in prayer how well they thinke and not how long they speake for the words be they never so few may beget too many when they benefit neither the speaker nor the hearer but he that speaketh no more then edifieth is undeservedly reprehended it is not oratio that prevaileth with God but oratio sancti and therefore as Pliny makes mention of a certain precious stone that hath many vertues in it yet being put into a dead mans skull loseth all So Prayer though of it selfe very effectuall yet comming from a dead heart it helpes as little as the gate the cripple that was called beautifull Be mercifull unto me O God saith devout Bernard for there I commit most sinne where I should least offend in thy Temple at thine Altar even in thine owne presence When we poure out our Prayers and Supplications unto thee we make it onely a matter of forme and custome we speake with our lips but our hearts are farre from thee and thus we make a mockery of God desiring him to attend that which we our selves are not willing to attend we turne that to poison which might be our foode we lay foolishly those eggs out of which our wofull overthrow is afterwards hatcht And thus we see what prayers must be avoided they must be neither temerariae timidae nor frigidae And thus have I gone through the particulars of this Text there remaineth nothing besides but that we put this duty of prayer into practice and execution to desire of God a blessing upon these weake endeavours that they may be to his glory and your own comfort which God of his infinite mercie and goodnesse grant unto us and that for Jesus Christ his sake to whom with the Father and blessed Spirit be all honour and glory now and for ever Amen FINIS

that the Apostle doth require so much decencie to be had in the Church of God for the Angels sake 1 Cor. 11. And therefore they which forsake the Temple of God and betake themselves to private conventicles and meetings truly they may have zeale but not according to knowledge whose experience hath not found what confusion of Order and breach of that sacred bond of Peace is caused by these private meetings how they have rent the body of the Church into divers parts and divided the people into divers sects how they have taught the Sheep to despise their Pastors and alienated the Pastors from the love of their flocks To declaim against the swarme of evils issuing of private Conventicles is an easie labour I wish rather I could prescribe effectually a remedy whereby a sore so dangerous might be cured For certainly if some speedie course bee not taken to suppresse this growing mischiefe it may be feared that in some short time God will be turned out of Churches into barnes and private houses and from thence again into the fields and Mountains and under the hedges This I am sure that these unlawfull meetings have occasioned such altercations and disputings in points of Doctrine and Government that I thinke there is not greater varietie of faces then there is of fancies and opinions in points of Religion now amongst us nay I thinke there were never so many Sects and Schismes amongst the ancient Philosophhrs as is to be found in this little Island of ours amongst us Christians every contentious and ignorant person cloathing his fancie with the Spirit of God and his imagination with the gift of Revelation so as when the truth which is but one shall by this meanes appeare unto the simple multitude no lesse variable then contrary to it selfe the faith of men will soone die by degrees and all Religion held but in scorne and contempt But there are another sort of men which refuse to communicate with us and those are seduced Recusants it is their idle boast that their Religion hath built all our Churches If it be so the more is our griefe that our Founders should be like the carpenters of Noahs Arke who building and preparing for others refuse to save themselves in it when they have done But let them urge their claime and make a religious conscionable and peaceable entrance For what is wanting in our Churches that Christians would desire to have Here have wee Christ and him crucified would they feede on on Christ Behold here in his Supper his very body and blood as he ordained it If they can be aquilae saith Saint Chrysostome not graculi Eagels to fly aloft and not Jayes to seeke their foode on the ground Here have we Baptisme by water and the Word the Scriptures most uncorruptly published the Law the Gospel the same Pater noster they brag off What should aile them then but that they should joyne with us in one accord and sing chearfully that heavenly Hallelujah Glory to God on high peace on earth good will towards men And thus you see how we must pray in Templo publiquely in the midst of the congregation Secondly we must pray likewise in Deserto privately When thou prayest saith Christ enter into thy chamber and when thou hast shut the doore pray unto thy Father which is in secret Saint Augustine I remember expounds these words Allegorically Enter into thy chamber saith hee that is into thine heart and inhabit there and become a fearfull witnesse to thy selfe of thine owne secret evills and shut the doore that is cleanse thine heart from all wicked and wandering cogitations that may distract thy soule in her most retired meditations But these words may be taken as well literally for this holy and religious duty and service towards God concerneth us one way in that we are men and another way as we are joyned as members of that visible mysticall body which is the Church As private men then it is at our own choice both for time place and forme as the exigencie of our occasions require in private and he that doth not set apart some select time of the day for the performance of this duty is infinitely wanting to himselfe and carelesse of his owne salvation But as we doe performe this duty as members of a publique body it must be publique and this is thought by some so much worthier then the other as a whole society exceeds the worth of any one person For every Prayer as considered singly and solely by it selfe it is like a little stick of juniper that sends forth a small perfume but many of these together like a fagot that sends forth whole pillars of smoake and therefore must needes make a farre sweeter smell in the nostrils of God Thirdly thou must pray in Horto in the Garden that is in the midst of all thy pleasures and delights and not to be like the wild Asse that never brayeth but when it wanteth fodder or like the ungratefull Israelites to forget God whilst thou sittest by the flesh-pots of Egypt or like Jobs yong Hindes that growing up and waxing fat goe forth and never returne unto their dammes For many there are who never think on God but when they finde themselves in great extremity and feare like little children saith Chrysostome who when they perceive any imminent danger run presently under the wing of the mother But thus never to seeke after God but when the crib or the whip shall constraine is a bruitish servility And certainly it is greatly derogatorie from that which is most predominant in man if we have not sometimes a voluntary accesse unto God all other inferiour considerations whatsoever laid aside and therefore as in our greatest necessity we must beg for supply of those things we want so in our greatest abundance and plenty we must pray for a continuance of those wee have received and never entertain a benefit at the hands of God without a thankfull acknowledgement of his liberality and goodnesse by whose providence it is enjoyed Fourthly we must pray in Cruce that is in the time of affliction and persecution Many there are who can be content to pray and are mindfull of God too so long as they may stretch themselves upon beds of Ivorie and have all their hearts can wish but if they be constrained to lie downe in the waves of sorrow if affliction doe assault why then they are readie presently to turne their backs starting aside like a broken bow but a true Christian saith Saint Angustine he must be like a stone that is square that stands howsoever you turne it he must not be like Hezekiahs sunne to goe backward nor like Josuahs sun to stand still but like Davids sunne who like a Bridegroome comes out of his chamber and like a Gyant rejoyceth to runne his course and though he walke through the valley of teares yet no other resolution must possesse his minde then this O my God thou art