Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	let_v	lord_n	see_v	5,607	5	3.6795	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89587	The strong helper or, The interest, and power of the prayers of the destitute, for the building up of Sion. Opened in a sermon before the Honorable House of Commons assembled in Parliament, upon the solemn day of their monethly fast, April 30. 1645. / By Stephen Marshall, B.D. minister of Gods Word, at Finching-field in Essex.	Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.	1645 (1645)	Wing M790; Thomason E280_1; ESTC R200033	40,798	62

call upon mee Jeremiah 29. Then you shall call upon mee and I will doe it at your call and the 36 of Ezekiel All this will I do saith God but for all this you shall pray to mee I will bee sought at your hands for them So again Psal. 122. Oh pray for the peace of Hierusalem and Jer. 51. 50. Let Hierusalem come into your minde and Esa. 62. You that make mention of the Lord give him no rest till hee establish and till hee make Hierusalem a praise in the earth And then Thirdly His Promises are innumerable he hath said directly when they do pray for it he will not faile to perform it to them then you shall call and I will answer and then you shall seek mee and I will bee found of you saith the Lord Pray for the peace of Jerusalem They shall prosper 1 King 8. 46. If Gods people bee carryed away captive c. and in their bondage pray to him hee will hear hee will return them His eyes shall bee open night and day to their supplication to hearken unto them in all that they call for Insomuch that by vertue of these promises which God hath made to prayer for the building of Zion wee may conclude a kinde of Omnipotency in prayer because it can rule that hand that is Omnipotent Prayer can wrastle with God and by his own strength prevaile over him and with reverence wee speak it hee cannot stand before the power of it hee could not waste his Church unlesse Moses would give over praying Let mee alone that I may destroy them and when hee would not let him alone hee yeelded to him And therefore himself saith if it concern my Sons and Daughters command mee ask mee any thing The time would faile and I might weary you with delight to tell you what admirable effects prayer hath had in this kinde what Armies it hath overthrown what unexpected blessings it hath seasonably brought in what dry bones it hath raised what weak builders it hath helped when they have been reforming the Church how it hath stayed the Sun turned the Sea backward chained Kings and their Nobles with fetters of iron There is nothing that the hand of God can doe but when the spirit stirs his people to pray in relation to the Church all shall bee done insomuch as it is noted of Luther that when once in great danger God powred upon him and the rest of his company a spirit to pray instantly and servently when they had done praying hee cryed out Vicimus wee have got the day for hee knew that God was ingaged so that if you lay these things together the Providences of God ordering it so that there uses to bee no other means left but prayer and furnishing them with abundance of the spirit of prayer and commanding them to use it and ingaging himself to doe it you may boldly conclude that the Lord will have prayer the great meanes of the Churches building Now if you demand Why or wherefore is it that prayer should be able to doe so much I answer The truth is it is God alone doth all and he takes none in to help him propter indigentiam but propter mun-ficentiam it is not for his need but for his glory that he will have any helpers Now besides all you heare before concerning the prayers of the afflicted that it is Gods Spirit prayes in them and they are his Children and Christ their Mediatour and his promises are made to them I say besides all these there are two other great Reasons why God hath made over the building of the Church unto Prayer so far as the Creature shall have any thing to doe with it One is because this way onely is suitable with his glory he cannot take any to be partners with him in any work with preservation of his own Majesty and glory save only humble supplicants any partner but prayer would lessen him But this well-becomes the Majesty and greatnesse of God to take in such helpers For first it magnifies his free grace wonderfully that he will please to doe it when his partners in the work shall not be able to plead any thing they have contributed but tears and supplications And whereas some demand whether freegrace would not be more magnifyed if God did it without prayer I Answer Gods free grace is many wayes manifested and magnifyed in his regarding of his peoples prayers sometimes his free grace prevents our prayers vouchsafing us what we never prayed for or thought of Hee doth above what wee are able to ask or think sometimes in exceeding our prayers Hee asked life of thee and thou gavest him length of dayes for ever and ever Solomon asked wisdom and God gave him wisdom riches and honour sometimes he as much magnifies his free grace in crossing our prayers So he did Moses in his suite to goe over Jordan and Pauls in being delivered from the messenger of satan it being best for them both to be denyed But oftentimes God manifests and magnifies his free grace more by doing it at the prayers of his people then if he did it without them because he doth thereby shew his free grace as well to their requests as to their need As if a friend should supply my need it is a great favour but if he will please to shew his love to my petition as well as his compassion to my need it is a double favour So God shews a double free grace when he is pleased to let such a great work be done at the request of poore contemptible sinners that are fit for nothing but death and destruction With men it may be he who asks oft and long for such things as men can give payes very dear for them but it is not so betwixt God and man the least favour which God can give though granted upon long suite must needs bee acknowledged a free favour to such ill-deserving creatures as we are and to have his favours conveighed in a way of prayer no wayes derogates from the freenesse of the mercy especially because our prayers are so weak and poore and the mercies of God especially this of building up of Zion so great that I cannot say whether he be a more silly or proud foole that will not confesse that God casts in the mercy gratis though hee have cast in his prayers yea that the mercy is the greater when it is done with any respect to his supplications And then besides God provides for his glory herein for time come for you shall finde the Lord is wonderfull jealous of using any instruments who will be prone to come to share with him in his glory he loves not to set such instruments a work as will ingrave their own name into the work that shall be erected and therefore when Gideon had an Army of two and thirty thousand I will not use these saith God they will be like enough to say

Die Mercurii April 30. 1645. ORdered by the Commons Assembled in Parliament that Sir William Massam do from this House give thanks to Mr. Marshall for the great paines hee took in the Sermon hee Preached this day at the intreaty of this House at St. Margarets Westminster it being the day of publique humiliation and to desire him to Print his Sermon And it is Ordered that none shall presume to Print his Sermon not being authorized under his hand-writing H. Elsynge Cler. Parl. D. Com. I appoint Stephen Bowtell to Print my Sermon Stephen Marshall THE STRONG HELPER OR The interest and power of the Prayers of the destitute for the building up of Sion Opened in A SERMON BEFORE The Honorable House of COMMONS Assembled in Parliament upon the solemn day of their Monethly Fast April 30. 1645. BY Stephen Marshall B.D. Minister of Gods Word at Finching-field in Essex JER. 29. 12. Then shall yee call upon me and yee shall goe and pray unto mee and I will hearken unto you PSAL. 10. 17. Lord thou hast heard the desire of the humble thou wilt prepare their heart thou wilt cause thy eare to hear LONDON Printed by Richard Cotes for Stephen Bowtell and are to be sold at the signe of the Bible in Popes-head Alley 1645. TO THE HONORABLE HOVSE OF COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT THE Lord that now makes it his great work to build up Zion and settle his Arke there in its place hath made it your great honour that hee hath taken you into a partnership in so blessed a work Hee make it your happinesse that your Faithfull indevours being crowned with a blessed successe both the present and after Ages may deservedly call you the Repairers of the breach and restorers of paths to dwell in It is pity such builders should want either fair weather or a sure Scaffold to build on but you will not be discouraged whilest you think how in great repaires all use to lie on heaps and remember what the ablest of Gods Master-builders in this kind have met with it is enough that Jerusalems Wall may be built in troubleous times God can lay the beams of his Chambers in the water and Faith can plant Sycamines in the Sea it was a confused Chaos without form and void full of darknesse which this goodly Fabrick of Heaven and Earth was at first made out of and there were Evenings as well as Mornings all along in the Work however it went on each day adding distinction and beauty and the last perfection so that God beheld all and saw it to bee very good It is the same creating God that must order our present confusions and raise up our ruines in which your humble and faithfull Prayers will be more usefull then your ablest Counsels Moses Elias our Saviour the great builders and repairers of the Church are every one of them recorded to have fasted forty daies and nights when they were upon that Worke it much commends Prayer and Fasting to all who are at any time ingaged in a like service that was your businesse when this Sermon was Preached which if either in the delivery it did any whit help your Spirits then in prayer or in the publishing it may now or hereafter ingage you when you most diligently look to your Work more earnestly to look up to God in it it will bee the joy as it is the prayer of Your Servant in this great Work STEPHEN MARSHALL A SERMON PREACHED To the Honorable House of COMMONS at their Monethly Fast Aprill 30. 1645. PSAL. 102. 17. Hee will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer I Began the handling of this portion of Scripture the last publique solemn Fast before the Honourable House of Peeres and I then shewed that these two Verses doe containe two such remarkable circumstances which alwayes accompany the building up of Zion as doe justly render it the most glorious and excellent work in all the world most worthy of all mens observation and admiration so that all the Kings and all the Nations might well stand amazed at it and it deserves to bee writen that all the Generations to come may praise God for it the first is that when ever the Lord doth build up Zion hee doth appeare in his glory hee never shews himself more like himself never more magnifies those excellent perfections of his Wisdom and Power and Mercy and Holinesse and Truth then hee doth when hee builds up his Church This I handled before that Honourable House the last day at large and now this Honourable House having commanded my poore labours to bee a furtherance of your humiliation and prayer that you may be the assistance of God be carryed on the better in your great work of helping the Lord in building the Church while like so many Nehemiahs you are building with the Trowell in one hand and the Sword in the other I could not think of any more fitter more suitable or seasonable Theame then to goe on to open the second Circumstance which accompanies the building up of Zion which you have in these words When the Lord doth build up Zion hee will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer All the prayers that his forlorn and desolate people had been offering up many yeeres before when it may bee they despaired of ever meeting with any comfortable return they should now finde their Jubilee they should now have a full crop of all their seed gathered in with joy when the Lord doth build up Zion hee regards his peoples Prayers The summe of the Text is A gratious promise of Gods hearing his peoples Prayers Hee will regard the prayers of the destitute or hee will turn to them or hee will looke upon them hee will behold them the meaning plainly is hee will grant them thus that is first positively laid down secondly it is also laid down negatively Hee will not despise them and in this negative there is another affirmation rather stronger then the former for when God is said not to despise the meaning is hee doth highly value it with God non spernere is magnifacere as An humble and a broken heart O God thou wilt not despise that is thou dost highly esteem it so also here however these poore afflicted ones had imagined because God had made them no return that hee did scorne them and their prayers hee would now let them to their comfort know that all their prayers lay before him and were very highly regarded by him They had sown in tears they must now reap in joy now they should finde that their prayers were like so many Talents put into Gods bank which they should receive into their bosome with advantage hee would no longer cause their heart to faint with deferring their hope hee would now regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer Which gracious promise of God to regard the prayers of

his people hath in this place a threefold aspect First Wee are to consider it in relation to the persons whose prayers shall bee regarded and that you have in this word hee will regard the prayer of the destitute And Secondly This regarding of prayer doth respect the Time when hee will regard it When the Lord doth build up Zion hee will regard the prayers of the destitute And Thirdly This regarding of the prayers of his people hath an aspect upon the matter wherein hee will regard them when hee builds up Zion hee will regard their prayer that is as God willing you shall heare anon that their prayers shall be the means of building Zion he will build Zion as that which their prayers have been the means of and have drawn from him when the Lord shall build up Zion hee will regard the prayers of the destitute I begin with the first of them The persons they are here called the destitute hee will regard the prayer of the destitute the Hebrew word which is here translated destitute doth properly signifie Myrica a low shrub humilesque Myricae low shrubs that grow in Wildernesses some think they were Juniper shrubs some a kinde of wilde Tamyris but a base low shrub that grew no where but in a desolate forlorn place and sometimes the word in the Text is used to signifie the Deserts of Arabia the sandy desert place of Arabia which was a miserable wildernesse Now when this word is applyed to men it always means such as were forsaken men despised men such men as are stripped of all that is comfortable to them either they never had children or else all their children are taken away from them and all comforts banished and themselves left utterly forlorne like the barren heath in a desolate howling Wildernesse these are the people of whom my Text speaks that the Lord will regard the prayer of the destitute and this was now the state of the Church of God when they offer'd up this prayer and yet by faith did foretell that God would grant such a gratious answer And this promise as relating to these persons affords us two excellent lessons First Into what a miserable low and forlorn condition God often lets his Church fall before hee doe appear for their deliverante They are desolate and forsaken left like the Deserts of Arabia like the broken shrub of a tree that no body regards Such was their present condition you have it in all the former part of the Psalm Like a Pelican like an Owle as a desolate Widow they eate their meat with ashes and mingle their drink with weeping to this condition did God let his Church come before hee did appear as a succourer and a helper of her I confesse God doth not always so sometimes hee doth keep the feet of his people from falling sometimes assoon as ever they fall hee snatches them up with his right hand sometimes hee lets heavinesse fall upon them for a night and sends them joy and deliverance the next morning but frequently yea and ordinarily before the greatest mercies he lets them be brought into a most miserable condition so that they shall have no humane hope ever to come out of it So they were in Egypt wasted out in an iron fornace so they were in Babylon when their bones lay scattered upon the earth as Chips in a timber-yard and it was ordinary for the Church to complain before her deliverance that she was like a bird in the fowlers snare as a Lamb falne into a Wolves or Lions den and ordinary for God to acknowledge that when hee comes to deliver them he chuses them and findes them in a furnace of affliction And this is true not onely of the Church in generall but you may read the same of abundance of Gods dearest Saints who have been brought and reduced to extremity of misery before ever he appeared for their succour Thus it was with David and Daniel and the three Children and Paul and multitudes of others And this the Lord doth for these two causes First It usually thus betides Gods people through their own foolishnesse themselves are the causes why they come so low David in the name of the Church confessed I am brought into great heavinesse I lie roaring all the night long my wounds stink and are corrupt because of my own foolishnesse for first they offend God their gratious God and when they have offended him they continue impenitently in sin and when God appeares and begins to correct them they kick with the heele against him and will not take notice of his hand but goe on obstinately They impute it to any thing rather then Gods displeasure will not confesse their sin their uncircumsized heart is not humbled in them when they lie as a wilde bull in a net full of the fury of the Lord they kick and fling fret and vex themselves suffer and murmure smart and repine but will not renounce their own counsell nor lay down their arms of rebellion and thus like foolish sons they stay longer then they need in the place of the breaking forth of children and this God will not beare from them but now by long and tedious trials and by being thus brought to great extremities their hearts are softned and melted the pride of their spirits broken they search and try their wayes their foule stomachs are emptyed of that glut which lay upon them they cast off their carnall confidence and self-conceitednesse when they have been bound in fetters and holden in cords of affliction then they see their own works then their ears are opened to Discipline when with the Prodigall they have eat husks with the Swine and are ready to dye with hunger then they think seriously of returning to their Fathers house and so hereby are made the fitter for their deliverance And Secondly Hee likewise doth it for his own glory for the lower they are before hee appeare for their succour the more honour doth he gain to himself in their deliverance This reason Christ himself gave it in the 11 of John when they told him that Lazarus was sick and Christ knew he was sick to death yea that hee was dead but This sicknesse said Christ is not unto death but that the Son of God might bee magnifyed as if he had said Lazarus shall dye and goe to the grave and lie while he is ready to stink there not that I delight to have Lazarus brought low and looked upon as a dead man but that my glory might the more appear in raising him up so when the Lord hath brought his people into such a low forlorn condition that all help and strength seems to be gone then for him to come in and succour this advances his glory many wayes the glory of his wisdome and of his love and of his power c. for such causes as these doth God let his Church

are strong wise vigilant that are many who have all the Antichristian and Malignant part of the Christian world joyned with them and besides all this I am perswaded we now grapple with the revenging hand of God for the sins which this Nation hath lien in this hundred years God doth now remember them and visits the Kingdome for them the idolatry the blood the Apostasie and innumerable other evils and abominations our troubles are very great and the event may seem very difficult and doubtfull but let me tell you here is that may counterpoise all and support us against all discouragements and make us comfortably conclude of a good issue We shall over-master all that are against us we shall over-match them because the spirit and power of prayer is on our side we have had these three or foure years especially the spirit of prayer powred out I am perswaded in the greatest measure that hath been since the Apostles of Christ lived upon earth and our prayers have not been in vain though the full return be not yet made we have had the first fruits many a sweet in-come we have had already But know Honorable and beloved they are all filed up before God there is not one of them lost they will bring another manner of return then yet they have done And not our prayers only but the prayers of all the Christian world are before God in our behalf our cause is Gods the work we are ingaged in is the building up of Zion and therefore there is not a good man in the world no not at Oxford who prayes Thy Kingdome come but prayes for us who are indevouring the raising up of Christs Kingdom now these prayers are all before God and must bring a comfortable answer in due time Nay this comfort reaches yet further not onely wee that are now alive and our prayers but all the Worthies who are now with God their Prayers pray for us Though we must say of them as the Church did of Abraham they know us not they are ignorant of our condition yet their prayers which they offered up while they were on earth and longed to see this work proceed are now really assistant to us Daniel and Jeremiah did as really build the Temple and City as Zerubbabel and Nehemiah though they were dead long before That look as the blood of the Martyrs cryed for vengeance from Abel to Zacharias and thereby reach a present persecuting generation so the prayers of those who loved Zion do blesse and reach all the workmen now imployed in the rearing up of the Church their prayers speak as Abels Faith did when he was dead and rotten insomuch that I may confidently conclude that the two Houses of Parliament and our Armies as unworthy as we are are daily carryed upon the wings of many millions of prayers that have been offered up to God these many years they are all before God night and day God is only waiting the fit time and therefore I beseech you bear up your spirits against all other discouragements the Lord will in the most accepted time let you know that all that have ever said to him Lord remember England Lord purge thy Church in England Lord set it up there down with Prelacy stablish Liberty make way for Christ they are all before God and must prevaile and therefore certainly our comfort may be greater ten to one then our discomfort need be though all the Nations of the world were sworn against us You shall God willing have more of this before I dismisse you let this taste suffice at the present And Secondly It is also a most comfortable lesson to poore afflicted dejected spirits who mourn and wrastle with God for their own distresses There may be many such in this Assembly this day who pray every day it may be with David seven times in a day ten times in a day but the heart sinkes for want of an answer as wicked men think they shall never be reckoned with for their sins because divine vengeance seems to sleep so do poore soules conceive that because God at present seems to slight them he will never regard them I have oft heard many a sad soule lament after this manner Did but God heare my prayers did he but accept me I would with David call upon him as long as I did live might but my prayer come up before him and be lookt upon but to be thus as a despised reed a scorned poore creature as I confesse I deserve to be this daunts my soule that I dare not pray I am even ready to give over O saith the sad heart I beg mercies and I taste wrath I beg grace and I feel corruption I beg ease and I indure torment I beg love and I finde displeasure all goes backwards God casts my prayer out shuts it out from him and this this wounds the soule let me to such a sad soule speak a few comfortable words from the Lord I take this for granted that the things thou dost beg are according to Gods will thou darest not beg an unlawfull thing I take it also for granted that thou that dost call upon God dost indevour to depart from iniquity that thou darest not call upon the name of God and walk in sinfull waies but thou wouldest be his servant and I likewise take it for granted that thou dost not expect or desire audience for any ones sake but for Christ Jesus thy Saviour to whom thou lookest this I hope God witnesses with thee Why if so then it seems the onely evill that oppresses thy spirit is God doth not answer thee he doth not give thee such a return of thy prayer as thou desirest But know thou Gods answering of thy prayer must not be measured by thy sad apprehensions but by his own word which word assures me that all thy prayers are before God night and day and for his present answering of thee it is no token of his displeasure that he does not give thee a sudden answer his forbearance is no deniall the best of all his Saints have cryed and prayed till their throate hath been dry and God hath seemed not to answer David had prayed long for an answer Psal. 69. 3. when he complained Hee was weary of his crying his throate was dry his eyes failed while hee did waite for his God The whole Church long sought him whom her soule loved and found him not and Paul thrice that is many times besought God to remove the messenger of Satan which was sent to buffet him and was fain to wait still so that thou art not alone in being thus delayed Nay I tell thee further God hath many wayes of regarding and answering Prayer Sometimes he may regard a prayer which he absolutely denies when the thing would not be good for him that begs it So he peremptorily denyed Moses his prayer to goe into the Land of Canaan But if the thing be good and

a very low condition our strong holds taken our Armies melted away our hearts generally failing us for feare multitudes flying out of the Kingdome and many deserting the cause as desperate making their peace at Oxford nothing almost left us but preces lachrymae but blessed be God prayer was not conquered they have found it the hardest wall to climbe the strongest Brigade to overthrow it hath hitherto preserved us it hath raised up unexpected helps and brought many unhoped for successes and deliverances let us therefore under God let the Crowne upon the head of prayer ye Nobles and Worthies be ye all content to have it so it will wrong none of you in your deserved praise God and man will give you your due Many of you have done worthily but prayer surpasses you all and this is no new thing prayer hath alwayes had the preheminence in the building of Zion God hath reserved severall works for severall men and severall ages but in all ages and among all men prayer hath been the chiefest instrument especially in the building up of Zion Let me in the next place shew you what esteem you should all have of prayer and praying men who have liberty to have the Lords eare who have the Spirit of prayer powred downe upon them while you live have them in high esteem what David said of Goliahs sword There is none to it is true here No helpe like the help of prayer There are foure things wherein prayer is beyond all other helps whatsoever The one is It is the most absolute the most universall medicine in the World it is a Catholicon it is good for every thing it is offensive and defensive it will do good in the Army in the Parliament house in the Assembly in the City every where Solomon teacheth this 1 Kings 8. from the 33 to the latter end of it whatsoever plague whatsoever sicknesse whatsoever other evill of pestilence war famine if they pray help will come it is of such a large extent there is no enemy but it will conquer no sore but it will cure no misery but it will heale no danger but it will prevent or remove the healing tongue of prayer is like the Tree of Life which healeth every disease Others may be good for something but Prayer for every thing Nay secondly it is not onely a help in any evill but in any extremity of evil A man a State a Church a People can be in no such extremity as to be past prayers help if prayer takes them in hand there is helpe for them if God poure out the Spirit of prayer if Esay can lift up a Prayer when the child is come to the birth and no strength to bring forth prayer will doe it I have read of a stone I think they call it Dioscordis that if it be put into the mouth of one newly dead it will revive him again I know not how true that is but certainly there is no extremity so great but prayer may help if any help may be found in heaven or earth And then thirdly It will help at any distance They talk of some kind of Weapon-salve that will cure at a great distance but prayer will doe any thing at any distance Look what is said of God in the 139 Psalme If you goe into heaven or hell or the utmost parts of the sea or any of the corners of the earth Gods hand reaches there and elsewhere he is a God afar off as well as a God at hand the same may we say of praier it wil passe through sea and land relieve any distressed garrison strengthen any of our Armies They say Archimedes could sit in his Study and with his Engins defend Syracusa both by sea and land this may a praying man do upon his knees in his Closet he may bring helpe unto the uttermost parts of the world And then It is speedy it will help at an instant it is like Elias his cloud which his man saw when he was at prayer for rain a little cloud like a hand which presently spread over all the heavens the Angel Gabriel could not flye more swiftly then prayer will flye to help at any extremity at any distance O that these things were studied and beleeved how highly should we then esteeme it what encouragement then should we give to prayer and praying men how much would we then endevour to have our Armies furnished with praying Ministers and Souldiers all your Garrisons Assemblies Committees well stocked and stored with praying Saints nothing would be too hard for them you would if you rightly consider this be more carefull to keep them all in a posture of prayer then in a posture of defence Lastly with which I shall end because God will have prayer the great means of building up the Church I most earnestly beseech you that this means may never be wanting in any of you who have it to contribute O pray pray pray do not with-draw from it use it as the first and last and best remedy of all others turne not your back upon it O doe not as men say some great ones doe make the dayes of prayer and the times of prayer the times they chuse for their owne pleasures or businesse and thereby plainly discover themselves to be of Machiavels religion who counsels a Prince to set up a shew of Religion ad captandum populum to awe their people but themselves not to be under such rules let us really attend it and give God no rest night nor day untill he establish our Jerusalem a praise in the earth and this every one of you who are godly may doe Every one hath not money to contribute nor strength nor wisdome but every gracious heart can pray there is not a Maid not an Apprentice not a Servant not the meanest in the Congregation that hath the Spirit of God in them but is this thing you may come in to be Master-builders you may do as much as any Parliament-man or Assembly-man or any whatsoever if the Lord give you but a praying heart therefore I beseech you follow this work Two Motives I propound to quicken you the one is We may justly say our prayers hitherto have not had a miscarrying wombe nor dry breasts we may say with the Psalmist Verily God hath heard us he hath attended to the voice of our prayers and with Johan When our soule fainted within us we remembred God and our prayer came in unto him Never had an unworthy people more experience of the power of prayer then we have had The Romans once in a great distresse took the weapons out of the Temple of their God and with them got a glorious victory over their enemies O how many victories have these Sanctuary-weapons obtained for us he is a blind man who seeth not visible returnes of prayer and God hath so ordered our affaires that what