Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	nation_n	people_n	see_v	1,556	5	3.4909	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41125	The sacrifice of the faithfull, or, A treatise shewing the nature, property, and efficacy of zealous prayer together with some motives to prayer, and helps against discouragements in prayer : to which is added seven profitable sermons / by William Fenner ...	Fenner, William, 1600-1640.	1648 (1648)	Wing F698; ESTC R478	35,874	88

looke up unto God p. 191. 2. Doct. Sinne and disobedience against the Law of God is that which brings downe punishments and judgements upon a Nation Church or People ibid. Use 1. To discover the weaknesse of our Land in what a poore condition it is by reason of sinne p. 193. 2. To shew who be the greatest Traytors to a Kingdome p. 194. 3. To teach all of us to set hand and heart Prayers and tears a worke against sinne p. 195. Especially it concernes those that are in places of Authority p. 197. 3. Doct. The Lord often times brings fearfull and unavoydable judgements and punishments upon his owne professing people p. 200. Foure signes of Judgement a comming 1. When the Ministers of God with one voyce foretell judgements to come p. 202. 2. When sinnes of all sorts doe abound ib. 3. When the Divell and wicked men cast in bones of dissention p. 203. 4. When all mens hearts begin to faile p. 204 Three Directions what is to be done in such times 1. Let us shake off the love of all things here below p. 206. 2. Let us lay our heads upon the block and be willing that God should doe what he will with us p. 208. 3. Let us pray and cry mightily to God before we dye even all the time we have to live for mercy peace and truth ibid. The Church of England like the ship of Jonah p. 209. The Authors Admonition to the People ib. p. 210. c. More then ordinary Faith requisite for these times of danger p. 211. 212. c. A DISCOURSE OF the nature of prevalent Prayer together with some helps against discouragements in Prayer LAMENT. 3. VER. 57. Thou drewest neare in the day that I called upon thee thou saidst feare not THis Book of the Lamentations doth plainely shew what miseries and distresses sinne is the cause of Now this people of the Jewes because of their Idolatries their contempt of Gods Ordinances their slighting and misusing the Prophets c. Their Cities were taken the Temple burned their liberties confiscated themselves banished out of their countrey and deprived of the ordinances of their God and the signes of his presence before they were rebellious but now they sought God a long time they prayed but God would not heare In so much that many poore soules amongst them were discouraged and almost ready to despaire That had not the Lord put in some incklings of hope they had utterly fainted Now whilst these poore soules were praying and crying and groaning and now ready to give over for discouragement that God will not hear them presently the Lord flings in comfort and beckens to their hearts not to be discouraged but to pray on and feare not Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee thou saidst feare not the words containe in them three properties of effectuall prayer First the unsatiablenesse of it till it bee heard Secondly the sensiblenesse of it whether it be heard or noe Thirdly the supplies it hath from dangers and discouragements that it is in First the unsatiablenesse of it All the praiers of this people though they had beene of many yeares yet they counted them as the prayers of one day in the day that I called upon thee They account all their thousands of supplications and prayers as one suite never had they done their prayers till God did heare them Secondly the sensiblenesse of it whereby it is able to know whether God doe heare it or no Thou drewest neere in the day that I called upon thee Thirdly the supplyes it hath against dangers and discouragements God slings in comfort into their hearts giving them incklings of hope to support them agaynst their discouragements thou saidst feare not from the first of these observe That an effectuall prayer is an unsatiable prayer A man that prayes effectually sets down this in himself as his first conclusion never to cease nor to give over praying till he speed This is the first and prime thing that a godly heart lookes at as David in his prayers He begins in this manner Heare my crie O God attend unto my prayer Psal. 61. 1. So Give eare unto my prayer O God and hide not thy selfe from my supplications Psal. 55. 1. Hear my voyce O God in my prayer Psal. 64. 1. As if he should say Lord now I come to call upon thee now that I come to thee to begge these and these graces that my soule wants I beseech thee to heare me for I am resolved never to give over my suit never to give thee rest but for to continue my prayers and supplications till thou give a gratious answer to my soul and heare me This is the first and prime thing that the soule looks after it being the very end of prayer to be heard it is not with prayer as with Oratory the end of oratory is not to perswade but to speake perswasively for a man may use all the perswasions that may be and use all the perswasive arguments that the wit of man can invent and speake as cuttingly as perswasively as may be and yet the heart may be so intractable as not to be perswaded it is not so with prayer The end of prayer is to prevaile with God Beloved there is difference between the end and office of prayer the office of prayer is to pray the end of prayer is to prevaile There is many a man that doth the office of prayer and yet never gets the end of prayer A man hath never gotten the end of his prayers till he hath gotten that he prayed for It is not with prayer as with a Physician that may give the best physick under heaven and yet the Patient may die under his hands and therefore one gives counsell that a Physician never meddle with a desperate man But if the soule be an effectuall suitor with God it can never faile of its suite because it is an unsatiable Suitor that never leaves his prayer till it terminates the end of it I cried unto the Lord with my voice and he heard me out of his holy hill Selah Jerom translates it for ever Psal. 3. 4. never doth a child of God pray but he prayeth so as that his praier and Gods eare may be joyned together I cried unto the Lord and the Lord heard me This also sheweth how the Prophet cried and praied namely so as his crying and Gods hearing were coupled together But some may object How can a man be unsatiable in his praiers til he speed must a man be alwaies a praying God calls men to other duties of his worshippe and of his owne particular calling after morning I must have done till noone after noone I must have done till night whether God heare me or no must I be alwaies a praying till I speed then I should doe nothing else but pray how then are we to continue our praiers till God heare us and give the grace that we pray for

speake First the soule beleeves and then every action of a Christian wherin it moves to the keeping of the condition springs from this root nay beloved a man cannot keep any condition in the Bible without faith he must believe Secondly faith is the inabling cause to keep the condition Dost thou thinke to get weeping mourning and humiliation for thy sinnes and then thereby to get the promise to thy selfe then thou goest in thy owne strength and then in Gods account thou dost just nothing John 15. 5. Without me ye can doe nothing saith Christ therefore first lay hold on me beleeve in me abide in me What! doe you first think to pray to mourne to lament and bewaile your sinnes to do this and that in turning your selves and sanctifying of your selves Indeed you may fumble about these things but you can never do any of them in deed and to the purpose without me ye can doe nothing I had fainted saith the Prophet unlesse I had beleeved to see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living Psal. 27. 13. where we may see three things First the Promise that he should see the goodnesse of the Lord otherwise he could not have beleeved Secondly the Condition if he doe not faint Thirdly the method the Prophet went by First he beleeved to see the goodnesse of the Lord As if he had said if he had not first laid hold on the Promise if I had not beleeved to have seen the goodnesse of the Lord in the Land of the living I had fainted Beloved it is true that the keeping of the Condition is before the fruition of the Promise but not before beleeving the Promise because the doing of the Condition is effected by beleeving the Promise This is the cause that many fumble about grace but never get it they are ever repenting but never repent ever learning but never learne the knowledge of the truth everlasting ever striving but never get power over their corruptions c. because they fumble about it in their own strength and take it not in the right method Let the soule come with faith in Christ and believe it shall speed and have grace and power from Christ his grace and from Christs power and then it shall speed Christ hath promised John 16. that whatsoever we aske the Father in his name he will give it us Christ beloved is an excellent Surety Indeed our credit is crackt in Heaven we may thinke to goe and fetch this and that grace in our owne names and misse of it as the servant may goe to the Merchant for wares in his owne name but the Merchant will not deliver them to him in his own name unlesse he come in his Masters name and bring a ticket from him and then when the servant sheweth his Masters ticket the Merchant will deliver him what wares he asketh for in his Masters name So when a soule goeth to the Throne of grace with a ticket from Christ if he can say Lord it is for the honour of Christ I come for grace and holinesse and strength against my corruptions Lord here is a ticket from Christ most certainly he shall speed But men must take heed that they foyst not the name of Christ that they foyst not a ticket to say that Christ sent them when it is their own selfe-love and their owne lust that sends them it is not enough to pray and at the end to say through Christ our Lord Amen No for this may be a meere foysting of the Name of Christ But canst thou pray and shew that Christ sent thee and say as the servant I come from my Master and he sent me Lord it is for Christ that I come it is not to satisfie my owne lust nor to ease and deliver me from the galls of my conscience nor to free me from hell but for Christ Lord I begge grace and holinesse that I may have power to glorifie Christ It is for the honour of my Lord Christ that I come When the soul comes thus in Christs name beleeving it shall speed then his prayer shall prevaile Wbatsoever saith Christ ye shall aske the Father in my Name he will give it you We come now to the third and last part of our Text to wit the supplies they had against danger and discouragements The Lord upheld their hearts from being dismayed in prayer thou saidst feare not There be two things that do much hurt in prayer First groundlesse incouragements Secondly needlesse discouragements First I say greundlesse incouragements and these the wicked are most subject to especially who because they pray heare the Word and performe many duties of religion therefore they incourage themselves in the goodnesse of their estates judgeing themselves happy though notwithstanding they go on and continue in the hardnesse of their hearts and rebellions against God We have abundance of sayings amongst us that if they were examined would prove false and unsound As that the vipers die when they bring forth their young for say they the young eate out the old ones bowels that beares shape all their young by licking of them that the Swanne singeth sweetest at her death that the Adamant stone is softned by Goats blood c. These things are not so as may be shewn out of ancient Writers So beloved there are abundance of sayings that goe up and down amongst men concerning Divinity which if they were examined will prove to be rotten sayings as he that made them will save them It is not so saith the Prophet Esai 27. 11. He that made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will not pitty them It is commonly beleeved if men come to Church heare the Word and call upon God that then presently they are good Christians Beloved it is not so Matth. 7. 21. Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Men are ready when they can but call Lord have mercy on me O sweet Saviour pitty me most mercifull Lord Jesus have compassion on me if they can pray in their families and pray at Church c. to think now all is well with them and Christ cannot but save them and give them the Kingdome of Heaven but our Saviour puts a not upon it and saith not every one that saith Lord Lord it is not a Lord a Lording of Christ with the tongue onely it is not a taking up of an outward profession of Christ only that is sufficient for a man that shall inherit the Kingdome of Heaven no saith Christ but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven But of this by the by Secondly there are needlesse discouragements which doe much hurt in prayer Needlesse discouragements doe much hurt to many a poore soule that hath forcible wouldings and wracked desires after grace and holinesse and yet is held by discouragements yea many a Christian heart lieth a long time under it wrastling and striving

even in the depth of miserie plunged over head and eares so that now I sinke and perish if thou helpe not Lord hear my praier This desperation a Christian must have this quickens up his Spirits and puts life into him but take heede of the desperation of Infidelity Saint Austen saith it is the murtherer of the soule the spice of it will eate out the heart of a man and kill the strength of all his endeavours I should now come to apply this doctrine but I feare me there be many amongst us that never come so farre towards heaven as to know what these discouragements meane This is lamentable It is true discouragements are hideous cases in praier and a man may perish and goe to hell that hath them but yet they are some-what profitable signes that a man doth at the least looke a little towards God or else he could not know what they are But there are abundance that never have attained so farre in religion as to understand what they meane but goe on in drinking whoring carding and dicing hating and malicing fretting and chafing mocking coveting swearing and blaspheming in security in hardnes of heart and impenitencie they are more carefull for their doggs for their potts and for their tables and for their shops then they are of their soules And which is enough to astonish any that is godly these men scarce finde any discouragements in praier O they have a good courage to pray at all times O say they God forbid that any man should be discouraged in praier I thanke God I have a good hope in God God hath given me a good heart of grace to call upon him and I make no question but that God heares me God would never bid us to pray if he did not meane to heare us Beloved these men that are so bold in the goodnes of their hearts to call upon God they never as yet praied in all their lives all the praiers of the wicked are indeede no praiers Daniel confessing the sinnes of wicked Judah saith though all this evill be come upon us yet made we not our prayer to turne from our wicked wayes Dan. 9. 13. all the time of those seventy yeares Daniel saith they never made praier to God yet they fasted every yeare and praied every day twise every day at the least which would amount in that time to 50000 and 100 prayers how then could Daniel say they never made one praier I answer and pray marke it because they never did quite turne from their evill waies Though thou makest never so many praiers though thou boastest of the goodnesse of thy condition and snatchest at the Promises of God yet if thou turnest not from thine iniquities thou never as yet mad'st any praier by the Judgement of God himselfe Paul made many thousand praiers before his conversion he could not have beene a Pharise else but they were never accounted praiers to him therefore as soon as ever he was converted behold saith God he prayeth Acts 9. A wicked man a carnall Christian though he have the righteousnesse of Saint Paul before his conversion of living blamlesse unreproveable in respect of the outward righteousnesse of the Law yet he can never make an acceptable prayer till he be truely converted his praiers are no better then howling of dogs or lowing of Oxen yea the Lord abhorrs them O what poore incouragements canst thou have seeing the Lord never tallies downe any of thy prayers wicked men are like Ulysses who wept more for the death of his dogge then of his wife so wicked men weepe and mourne for the losse of their corne and their cattle hawkes and houndes cardes and dice but never for the losse of their praiers So long as thou continuest in thy prophanesse and impenitency thou losest all thy praiers there is not one of them that God tallies downe or reckons for a praier Here we might have a great deale of matter if time would suffer me But it will not onely let me tell you I speake onely to those whose hearts God hath awakened out of their sinnes but who are oft discouraged take heede of these discouragements For first they will drive thee to melancholy Beloved there are a great many melancholy men in the world and this is the cause of it men are contented to be converted by halves because they are discouraged in the worke If thou suffer thy selfe to be discouraged it will care up thy spirit and thou wilt be like a silly dove without a heart Prov. 7. 11. A dove is a melancholy creature that hath no heart to any thing so Ephraim hath no heart to call upon God no heart to returne unto God and this is the cause that men and women goe whineing and mourning under the burden of sin and are not able to come out because of discouragements all the policie of hell is lesse then this policy of the divell in driving men to despair or discouragements this doth more hurt then al the rest of hel besides Secondly if you doe not take heede of them they will bring you to speake against God I have prayed but the Lord will not heare me I have called and the Lord will not answer but hath turned away his eares from me Now thou speakest against God Num. 21. 4 5. The soule of the people was much discouraged and the people spake against God and against Moses saying Wherefore have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wildernesse for here is neither bread nor water and our soule loatheth this light bread So beloved if we suffer our soules to be discouraged we shall soone come to murmure against God wherefore hath he brought me up to this strictnes and precisensse when I was a drunkard a worldling when I followed the lust of my flesh and Liberty then I enjoed onnions garlicke and the flesh-pots of Egypt pleaures and delights for my soule then I had a good hope in God and a good perswasion that my soul should goe to heaven and then Preachers told me that if I would give over such and such sinnes and looke after Heaven a little more and doe such and such things O then I should come to a Land flowing with milke and honey then I should not misse of glory and salvation But alas I see nothing but Gyants and Anakims I am in a wildernesse now now I see a man have a great deal of repentance and yet be a cast-away A man may have a great deal of faith yet be but a reprobate A man may give over a great many sins and yet perish in hell now I see a man may live civilly and well and have do a great many good things and yet be damned when he hath done all A man may even goe to Heaven Gates and yet the gates be shut against him and he turned into hell Alas my poore soule is in a wildernesse now I know not which way to goe I am ready