Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	beseech_v	lord_n	please_v	3,659	5	7.7912	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85887	A treatise of prayer and of divine providence as relating to it. With an application of the general doctrine thereof unto the present time, and state of things in the land, so far as prayer is concerned in them. Written for the instruction, admonition, and comfort of those that give themselves unto prayer, and stand in need of it in the said respects. By Edvvard Gee, minister of the gospel at Eccleston in Lancashire.	Gee, Edward, 1613-1660.	1653 (1653)	Wing G451; Thomason E1430_1; ESTC R209520	284,427	526

please him to enable me to speak both of him the thing that is right and to men to his servants that which may be sound and satisfying The Question propounded affordeth matter for four Queries or it offereth four things to be distinctly considered and resolved 1. Whether there be any Example of this vis Gods hiding himself from his peoples prayers grounded upon his Promises and his seeming by his Providences to answer the prayers which are contrary thereunto 2. How or in what sence God may be said so to do 3. What may be the Reason of his so doing 4. What Vse should be made of it CHAP. II. THe first Query answered viz. Whether Gods hiding himself from his peoples prayers grounded upon his Promises and seeming by his Providences to answer the prayers which are contrary thereunto can be parallel'd with any Example SECT I. The Question affirmed and divided into Parts THis first Query is to be answered Affirmatively It is a thing that may be Exemplified there is no new thing in it Yea we are not without many Presidents of it going before us In producing the Examples required I will divide the matter to be patterned into its two Parts and shew the Examples 1. Of Gods hiding himself from his peoples prayers grounded upon his Promises 2. Of his seeming by his Providences to answer the prayers which are contrary thereunto SECT II. Examples of Gods Hiding himself from his Peoples Prayers FIrst Of the former viz. Gods hiding himself from his peoples prayers grounded upon his Promises there is great store of notable Examples of this I will set them down in this order 1. The Acknowledgments or Complaints of this in the mouths of the people of God 2. The Declarations of God himself to this purpose 3. Historical Observations of the thing I. First Of this the Saints or people of God have made their Acknowledgment or Complaint in Scripture And this is observable 1. Either of the prayers of particular persons 2. Or of the prayers of the Community or multitude of Gods people that is of the Church First For Personal Prayers Single persons have found themselves in this condition And this may be noted touching their prayers 1. For others 2. For themselves 3. For Gods own Cause 1. Let us hear their Testimonies in relation to their prayers for others Holy David telleth us He clothed himself with sackcloth Psa 35 13 and humbled his Soul with fasting for his Enemies and Persecutors Saul and his party and his prayer returned into his own bosom that is it proved ineffectual as for them He also solemnly fasted and besought God for his sick child but it availed not on the seventh day the child dyed Moses prayed earnestly for them of Israel who had set up and worshiped the golden Calf Yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin and if not blot me I pray thee out of thy Book Exod. 32.32 33 34 35. which thou hast written But what answer had he to this pathetick prayer And the Lord said unto Moses Whosoever hath sinned against me him will I blot out of my Book therefore now go lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee behold mine Angel shall go before thee Nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them And the Lord plagued the people because they made the Calf which Aaron made The Prophet Isaiah professeth his uncessantness in prayer for Zions and Jerusalems glorious Restauration For Zions sake will I not hold my peace and for Jerusalems sake I will not rest Isai 62.1 6 7. 63.11 15. 64.7 until the Righteousness thereof go forth as brightness and the Salvation thereof as a Lamp that burneth And he enjoyneth the same instancy in prayer to all other praying persons Ye that make mention of the Lord keep not silence and give him no rest till he establish and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the Earth Yet in the two following Chapters he in his own and their persons expostulateth and bemoaneth the Lords withdrawing and withholding himself from them and his people notwithstanding their prayers Where is he that brought them up out of the Sea with the Shepherd of his flock where is he that put his holy Spirit within him where is thy zeal and thy strength the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies towards me are they restrained And this his hiding himself is set out to be so dismal and long that they were even grown weary of prayer And there is none that calleth upon thy Name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee for thou hast hid thy face from us and hast consumed us because of our iniquities The Prophet Jeremiah prayeth most tenderly for Judah and Zion Jer. 14.19 21. 15.1 Hast thou utterly rejected Judah hath thy Soul lothed Zion Why hast thou smitten us and there is no healing for us We looked for peace but there is no good and for the time of healing and behold trouble Do not abhor us for thy Names sake do not disgrace the throne of thy glory remember break not thy Covenant with us c. And what is the Lords return unto this Then said the Lord unto me Though Moses and Samuel stood before me yet my mind could not be toward this people cast them out of my sight and let them go forth King Josiah upon his hearing read the words of the Book of the Law and understanding by it the great wrath of the Lord which was kindled against him and his people 2 K ng 23.25 26. he besought the Lord with extraordinary humiliation zeal and diligence His heart was tender he humbled himself before the Lord he rent his clothes and wept before God he sent to enquire of the Lord for himself and all Judah by the Prophetess H●ld ah e assembled the people published the Book of the Law made and imposed on the people a Covenant before the Lord to yield obedience to it He rooted up Idolatry and Sorcery He restored the Temple and true Worship of God He was in all these a peerless King Like unto him was there no King before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might according to all the Law of Moses neither after him arose there any like him But all this would not appease Gods anger nor avert his Judgments unto desolation from Judah Notwithstanding the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah c. The Prophet Habakkuk gives us to understand how speedless he was in prayer beginning his Prophesie with this complaint unto God Hab. 1.2 O Lord how long shall I cry and thou wilt not hear even cry out unto thee of violence and thou wilt not save And going yet a second time unto God by prayer in expectation and hope of a better answer I will

and his offering which he hath commanded in his habitation or at least fly higher then the Church-assemblies Worship and Sacraments and the Scriptures too he is scarce one of the godly or well-affected Again look into the disposition of hearers when they are come May it not be said of divers yea of the most and in some places of all Their ear is uncircumcised they cannot harken behold Jer. 6.10 the Word of the Lord is unto them a reproach they have no delight in it The Word of God was unto David more desireable then gold and sweeter then honey now it is generally nauseous and wearisom How hard dead careless disdainful quarrelling are mens hearts unto it Some can hardly stay it out others can scarce refrain their tongues from breaking out against it many come and sit it out but their hearts are gone from it Plain and pure doctrine pleaseth but a few Now the common temper of them that lend their ear to hear the Word is nicety and novellizing So great is the affectation of novelty and disrelish of ancient and wholesom truth that no doctrine will go down with many but what is quaint and new either for the matter or the dress Men are never swift to hear but when they smell something that is uncouth The beaten rode of plain and familiar doctrine though in the Apostles sentence it be safe for the hearer * Phil. 3.1 yet it is no way satisfying but tiresome Again Look into mens houses and closets What constancy care delight is there used of men in the Reading of Gods Word Are not the Bibles of many that have them and can read cast into a corner the week through never taken up unless to carry to and from the Church scarce ever looked upon but when their ear should rather be employed in hearing then their eye in reading At home they are seldom or never opened What was once spoken as a heavy Judgment is now become a wilful practice Isai 29.11 The vision of all is become as the words of a Book that is sealed In what account was the Word of God in England when it was first translated by Mr Tindal and then under what peril did many procure and keep it in their houses and with what diligence eagerness and pleasure did they read or hear it Some that could not read it hired others with their money to read it to them Now the Book of God is reputed as strange and antiquated whilest Diurnals and Prognostications those worse then legendary lyars the one for time past the other for the future those constant publique scandals of our Religion and Nation are in all the request upon which it may be doubted the continual users of them do bestow more time and cost and it s well if they give not more heed and credit to them then they do upon or to the Word of God Rome and some other Cities are infamous for the permission of Stews Is it not as disgraceful to our Commonwealth to suffer such Marts of falshood cozenage and slander as are practised by those weekly and yearly Pamphlets Their officious lyes and flatteries will not be found advantageous at all to the State if the dishonor and guilt that they lay upon it be well weighed But I had almost in pursuit of these shameful abuses digressed but sure I am not transgressed 2. In point of believing we manifest our contempt of the Word in this respect That exclamation of the Prophet Isaiah applyed by the Evangelist John and by the Apostle Paul unto the Jews of whom they wrote may be justly taken up of us Isai 53.1 Joh 12.36 Ro. 10.16 Lord who hath believed our report The preaching of Christ and Faith in him is very plentiful and general but the Faith which is in Christ is very rare if we may judg by the Apostle James his demonstration of Faith * Jam. 2.18 Christ Jesus is layd forth unto us now as once he was layd in Sion 1 Pet. 2.6 Isai 28.16 as a most precious tryed stone a chief corner stone a sure foundation but with multitudes he is a stone disallowed set at nought and rejected If Christ were our sure foundation there would not be so many rents and divisions If he were our tryed stone or touchstone * See on Isai 28.16 Div. Annot 2 Edit there would not be taken up so many apparantly false doctrines and unlawful courses If he were a stone precious and in honor with us there would not be so much stumbling and falling at him If he were really believed on among us there would not be such making haste Isai 28.16 so much impatience and and fear of man such shrinking in and deserting of the way of Truth and Righteousness upon the least imagination of trouble 3. In point of obedience The Word of God consisting in a great part in Commands and containing the Will of God which we are to do and being spoken to us for that end that we may become conform to the Will of God the most immediate direct and real contempt of it after we come to know it is disobedience to it Now our contempt of it in this respect breaks forth most notoriously and in all kinds of contumacious and rebellious carriages how unsubjugate we generally are thereto would be endless to discover Look into our Congregations once again after the power success and fruit of the Word of God herein who almost is there that gives up himself to the Lord 2 Cor. 8.5 Rom. 6.17 who that obeys from the heart that form of doctrine unto which he is delivered May not the Lord say of us as of Israel sometimes Isa 65.2 3 I have spred out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people which walketh in a way not good after their own thoughts a people that provoke me to anger continually to my face There is a sort of men among us who dispute and deny the binding power of the Moral Law of God unto Christians but we are generally practical Antinomians When the Commandments of God are delivered unto us though we do not flatly say unto him as the first son in the Parable unto his father Mat. 11.28 We will not go yet we do as the second son did who answered his father I go Sir and went not The Land is full of nothing so much as of disobedience and contemptuous violations of the Commandments of God and of Jesus Christ We cast off and abrogate the Precepts of both Testaments We reject both Law and Gospel we not only break in sunder the bands of the Lord but we cast away the cords of his anointed the easie and light yoke of Christ is refused The general vote among us even against Christ himself is We will not have this man to reign over us Witness both the impetuous resistance that hath been made against his regiment in his house and the searedness of mens Consciences