Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n
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A87672
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A sermon preached before the Commissioners of both kingdomes, the same day they delivered the propositions to the Kings Maiesty, for a safe and well-grounded peace. / By Samuel Kem, Batchelour in Divinity.
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Kem, Samuel, 1604-1670.
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1646
(1646)
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Wing K255; Thomason E346_14; ESTC R201011
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22,136
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38
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or any other way to win upon him This is the strength of all other means he useth to pacifie his brother and vers 28. you see the excellent consequence of his Prayer As a Prince hast thou power with God and men and hast prevailed And I pray observe this for a truth That powerfull men with God are ever prevailing men with Man If we can but get strengh enough to wrastle with God let us trust God to wrastle with the hearts of men 1 Kings 18.37 yea the greatest Princes Oh had not this Nation laboured under the malignant distempers of sinne nay did not the Covenant-Servants of God such as passe for his own children lie dangerously weak under sad divisions yea so that the whole body is out of joynt and then what strength we might have prevailed for the Kings heart it being in Gods hand before this day For why might not we if rightly quallified obtaine a heart out of our hands and in the Lords hand for the good of a Nation nay three bleeding Nations as well as he for himself and his family Gen. 33.4 you have an incouraging president where killing is come to kissing shedding of blood to sheddig of tears They both wept The charging each other is the imbracing each other It will be an argument against us of Nationall weaknesse and wickednesse that one shall doe more then so many with God And if this be Truth we have none more to cry out of then our selves for the continuance of our sorrow may not the Lord say as sometimes to Israel Perditio tua exte we may thank our selves his hand is not shortned that it cannot save nor his eare heavie that he cannot hear but our prayers are weak because our hearts are wicked that cannot hold out a wrestle with God Indeed we act duty but not proportionable for the Churches necessity or as cordially sensible of its misery and speedy calamity not as if we see no way but one for it or beheld it sentenced to death under a Decree no we look most of us as Eliahs servant upon the first command 1 King 18.4 when misery was on Germany Ireland and Scotland being often perswaded by the Eliahs of those times to look out what we could see the return of our hearts was that we saw nothing Indeed we laid it not to heart as any thing Nay when at this day commanded to look out those within Lines of Communication and fenced Garrisons can see but a little cloud out of the Sea like a mans hand we esteeme all the Protestant blood nay the Saints blood that hath been shed as nothing do all the cruelties Murders Woundings Imprisonings Fireings Plunderings Deformings Reproachings of the Saints as yet appear as nothing How many sighing groaning lamentable complaining sad-hearted good Christians may you see in many parts of this distracted Kingdome seeking for bread and glad to part with their former pleasant things to relieve their families pressing necessities How doth many a gallant family sit solitary How many beautifull houses forlorne Yea how many are aggravating their misery by viewing over the records of their former injoyments How in many places doth the Enemy magnifie himself against God and his people having possessed and dispossessed our Congregations and destroyed the place of the Assembly How doth the blood of the Church spring forth as wine out of the wine-presse and lies spilt on the ground abroad the Sword consuming at home lofty and sad divisions even the wills of men like wild horses renting limb from limb the poore Church of God the Enemy hearing of this trouble and being glad Nay in a word The cause of God in three Kingdomes crying with them in the 1 Lament verse 12. Is it nothing to you O all ye that passe by Is there any sorrow like to my sorrow and yet who with Mordeca although it be past beyond a Decree and come to the Haman-like action of cruelty against the Church before your faces even at the doores and gates of your Cities in heart yet saith Is it any thing Nay let me adde something more Although God be so angry as to licence his enemies to pull out his own eyes for his Church is as dear to him as the apple of his eye and he must be incensed highly when he will permit this yet who laies this to heart as any thing Nay even now although God hearken and hear who speaketh aright at all or if but for a day and then every man with the day casts off the duty and returneth with the dog to his vomit and with the wrinsed sow to wallow in the mire Had Mordecai lookt thus a squint on the condition of the Jewes he had never laid it to heart and if never laid to heart it had not been communicated to every one that in probability might conveigh it to Esthers eares and had she slightly entertained it as newes onely it had never come to the hazzarding of her life in the Churches cause or prescribing an order for so serious preparation for the Churches preservation Will you license me to advise you I know you will you called me to that purpose to this duty this day Why then as the Prophet 1 King 10. Prepare your Chariots so you and I wish the whole Church of God their hearts and improve you all your interests noble Patriots of the Cause of God and let them improve theirs by proportionable and importunate duty for successe this day suitable to the Churches necessity and misery Esa 22.4 you have the story of the invading the Land of Jewrie by the Persians by reason whereof the Church of God and the Kingdome were like to be brought into a sad condition it was like to be a day of trouble and treading downe and of perplexity by the Lord breaking downe walls and breaches seen in the City of David mark in the 4. Vers what the Prophet puts immediately in practice to divert it Therefore said I look away from me mind me not of any thing else I have nothing else comparatively to look after this is the businesse of the time what I will weep bitterly or as the Originall hath it I will be bitter in weeping Labour not to comfort me because of the spoyling of the daughter of my people Jer. 8 21 22. For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt I am black astonishment hath taken hold on me c. i. grief to an extasie hath seized on me that I am not my self the hurt of the Church is his hurt I then he seeks proportionably a remedy Moses when God is angry with the people he fals sensibly to the work and being to wrastle out reconciliation and a diversion of Gods expresse resolution against them he is at it 40. dayes and nights together So againe upon another provocation Numb 14.11 How long will this people provoke me Ver. 12. I will smite them with the Pestilence and disinherit them and now God
together all the Jews you may observe That unity in duty is a sweet preparation to obtain mercy for the Church of God in difficulty Indeed it is the strength of duty and that which adaps us for mercy Psal 134. Verse 1 2 3. Behold how good for brethren to dwell together so to fast to pray together I there the Lord commands his blessing even life for evermore Act. 2.1 They were all with one accord in one place and in the fourth Verse Then they were all filled with the holy Ghost Indeed there is nothing doth so unfit us for mercy as our divisions it is the Basis of the Churches ruines that we cannot be got to go together unto the throne of grace for mercy in this our time of need Unity it is the Portall at which prayer enters every supplicated mercy When the Church is thus together their desires like Peter Act 12.12 waite and knock to enter break through all barres shackles bolts difficulties to speak to them the prevalency of such Saint-like performances It is observable whilst there was division betwixt Abraham and Lot God never appeared Gen. 13.14 c. Truely it is in this case with duty as with the child in the womb untill all the parts are rightly framed and composed the soul quickens not nor will any mercy cordially smile on us untill we are knit together in love indeed our Saviour prohibits our service to God untill we are at peace with one another nothing like this hinders the prosperity of Gods family or blocks up the passage for the Churches deliverance and I am confident nothing so much as this sinks your spirits in the expectation of present successe in this dayes imployment O what an inexpressible evill is it that all the Church of God cannot be got together for your good successe in this businesse for peace whilst we are all now gathered together I hope all of one minde with an importunity to implore it and God to soften the Kings heart to incline to it I wish heartily there be not some in this Kingdome professing the same faith baptized with the same Baptisme praying God to harden the Kings heart against it or for self-ends perswading him might and main to refuse the Propositions conducing to it But however let us that are together with one accord pray and I hope the prayers of the Saints are at this time active for a blessing upon your atchievements this day And so I shall hold out to your view a second truth wrapt up in the Text Observation â— Representative Persons interposing for the Church in a strait requires representative prayes They are nationall men and will need nationall assistance A Kingdomes strength is necessary for those that stand for a Kingdomes wealth If Esther personate the Jews to the King for salvation the Jews must present Esthers condition to the King of Kings for preservation All the Churches Worthies are worthy of the Churches best duties if Paul be labouring for the Church and adventuring for it he had need have a stock of prayers going in all the Churches for himself The 3. Observation And neither eat or drink three dayes or nights together is this That in cases of great difficulty there is a pressing necessity for the speedy and exact performance of importunate duty A bleeding Church expects a speedy and speeding Prayer Marriners in great stormes are very yare and take double pains Souldiers neer a quartering enemy are upon serious and constant duty then night and day at it life is on it as we proverbially expresse it Souldiers grutch not limbs or lives for victory nor must we think much of praying and fasting againe and againe for a Nationall mercy Indeed wee must never give over till wee speed Finis operationis est opus the end of the worke is the work it selfe Truly it will be to little purpose for you to goe to the King if you go not first to God to move the Kings heart For it is the master-peece of his own hand to worke the heart of Princes that way as shall make most for his glory and the accomplishing his fore-thought designes touching his Churches good and the Kingdomes of the heart and when hell hath plotted a designe and found out fit instruments to suggest it to Princes nay when corruption hath over-power'd convicting light and be midnighted the soule that it consenteth to be guided and followes every ignis fatuus or other fading meteor nay somtime forsaking the more eminent lights of heaven doating on very glow-wormes but indeed composures of corruption and to follow what is suggested to it and is in it self resolved to act what plotted yet then even then God can alter And what God can do for any peoples good importunate prayer exactly performed may prevaile with him to do for us his people and his Churches good Truly such Prayer with Fasting hath been of old former Messengers Preparation upon the undertaking any great and weighty action S. Iames adviseth us before we put forth our resolves to say if God will I will do this or that Iames 4.15 It is good upon every undertaking to aske Gods leave and to consult him to carrie him or somthing of him with us to effect that which we cannot promise our selves in the 24 of Gen. 12. Abraham dispatcheth his servant upon a message of concernment and it was concerning the winning and perswading of a heart as appeareth Ver. 51. It may be the woman will not be willing to follow me c. saith his Messenger so that it was dubious whether her heart might or might not incline to his Message Well what course doth he take Vers 12. by way of Preparation knowing it was in Gods power to incline it he seeks God And he said O Lord God of my Master Abraham I pray thee send me good speed this day And the successe you may read in the succeeding Verses To come a little nearer to our purpose Esau had an old grudge against his brother Jacob the messe of Pottage was not yet digested but boyled the second time in his stomack and the gaining his Fathers blessing was laid to heart and what he secretly thought in his heart before when the dayes of his Fathers mourning were come he begins to act now and arrayes foure hundred men to go against his brother upon the receit of this intelligence Jacob feareth greatly Gen. 22.7 Nay the Text saith He was distressed Well he cannot avoid a meeting nor can he expect lesse then ruine there is no probability to shun his Army or to sense possibility to escape his fury Well what course takes he Truly he goes to God in Prayer to change his heart he knew that it was in the Lords power and although sensible of his unworthinesse and insufficiency he chooseth rather first to wrastle with a good God indeed whom he might overcome and prevaile with to change his brothers heart then meerly to trust to his own policies or complements