the very promise of GOD therein Beloved God never calls us to call upon him as humble and faithfull sutors to send us from him empty away unsupplyed Can we not be when our resorts are unto God warrantable regular orderly Our hearts Eyes hands are unto him never lifted up in vaine never unanswered but for the most part above our thoughts and beyond even our hopes too answered Of prayers effectualnesse memorable are the examples we have in the booke of God and recorded they are for our close imitation and encouragement to that weighty and most usefull duty Moses the Man of God stood often in the breach betweene God enraged and the people madde in their open rebellions against him We reade of Ioshuahs prayer that made a stay of the Sunne and Moone in the firmament that he might cut off the malitious enemies of God and the Church Ionah his prayer mounted powerfully and prevailingly mounted out of the Whales belly which hee calls hell unto GODS Throne of Mercies and Glories in the highest Heavens Chapter 2. verse 2. Eliah by prayer both stayed and procured raine kept close and opened those cloudy bottles And Daniel thereby kept the affamished Lions pawes and jawes from doing him the least harme amidst them Ecclesiasticall stories mention that the Christian Souldiers were Legio fulminatrix the lightning and thundring legion of Aurelius the Roman Emperor by their prayers were the enemies thundered to destruction and the whole Campe whereof they were a part with a supply of raine in their extremity of drought refreshed Sweetely remarkeable is that passage Isaiah 65. 24. Before they call I will answer and while they are yet speaking I will heare A preventing God often and a God timely succouring is our God ever none waite none depend upon him in vaine He that supplyes the Lions and Ravens in their affamishments as the Psalmist relateth will not bee wanting in extremities to the redeemed with his Sons bloud and by his spirit in them calling in prayer on him Even that unjust Judge importun'd by the oppressed Widow righted her much more will God help them that suffer wrong much more will hee avenge the cause of his chosen in all their tentations tribulations persecutions instantly calling upon him Say not Often have I prayed in trouble but still in troubles am entangled prayed I have for my King for my Country for a reunion of all our distractions but the worke comes on slowly hath many pullbackes and various interruptions I have prayed for friends in Captivity but still they are unfettered for friends on their sick beds but their death beds have they proved against the Churches open and close Enemies have I prayed but more and more are they prevalent prayed for peace but behold Warre in his dismall colours Nay that favourite of God holy Paul prayed to God to bee rid of Sathans buffeting yet must rest in this My grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is in weakenesse perfected To these and the like objections might this be an unreplyable answer Yee aske and receive not because yee aske a misse that yee may consume it upon your lusts Saint Iames gives us that Chapter 4. verse 3. how may wee say and say truly God not hearing us heares us the more Hurtfull things demanded and received would be a curse on us not a blessing would be to us as were the Quailes to the Israelites not blissfull but banefull Plato the Heathen Philosopher could fay O God give us good things though wee aske them not give us not evill things though we aske them but to that of Saint Iohn I refer you and in that may we all rest as a direction and as an encouragement God hath given to us eternall life and this life is in his Son By believing on the name of the Son of God we may know that we have eternall life v. 13 Marke now his inference v. 14. and 15. And this is the confidence that we have in him that if we aske any thing according to his wil he heareth us if we know that he heare us whatsoever we aske we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him eternal life the things thereunto directly tending are the proper object of our faith Christian The Creed Apostolicall is closed up with that and for that have wee an absolute warrant to pray and are enjoyned not to waver in expectation thereof heare the Apostle Let us draw neere with a true heart in full assurance of faith Heb. 10. 22. hold we fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firme unto the end Chapter 3. 6. 14. Where we have an Implication of their condemnation who so in a proud humility and in a modesty impudent enough teach men to hold the life eternall and their salvation by the Lord Iesus in a doubtfull tenure What doe they other then labour to be faithlesse with reason Methinks closely thus they seem to be speake God We find ourselves unworthy to pitch our credence on thy Word unworthy to believe what thou promisest the life eternall in Christ Iesus These doe make the Gospells doctrine a doctrine of unsetlednesse of distrustfulnesse of distraction which is the only setler of a waving and wavering Conscience no rest hath this Dove but in this Arke yet these not relyers on eternall life by Christ a rockie foundation and a building answerable are ridiculously perswaded to relye on their own sandy merits in which no marvaile is it that they do sinke into distrustfulnesse and are swallowed up in the gulfe of desperation Leave we the Popish generation to their rotten absurdities and be we close in our mutuall and spirituall edification of one another to Heaven-wards in that faith which was once delivered unto the Saints in Saint Iudes words verse 3. of his Epistle On that faith most holy faith build we up our selves praying in the Holy Ghost and keeping our selves in the love of God looking for the merâ—y of our Lord Iesus unto eternall life ver. 20. 21. of the same Epistle It is prayer that holdeth us in acquaintance with God the peace making acquaintance yet in this acquaintance we must in the next place in our prayer approaches to him both remember what he is and what we are he our God we his dependant subjects not able one moment to subsist without his protection and suppliance of good givings and perfect gifts from whom they all descend Iames 1. 17. he Iehovah the eternall we mortalls and miserables in our selves vanity yea lighter than vanity it selfe dust and ashes borne in sinfull and hastning to shamfull corruption in the slime-pits our graves Wormes meate and our selves wormes most contemptibly contemptible As those who addresse themselves often to the Potentates of the Earth Princes Kings Emperors Monarchs cloath themselves the more neately and more heedfully order their language then others doe So he that frequently betakes himselfe to God in prayer the duty of every
encouragement in our Text Call upon me in the day of trouble Had not wee this gratious warrant with small comfort should wee life up our drooping heads out of these depths by solemne Covenant we Christians are the selected people of God drawne out of the Masse of corruption to be the heyres of salvation The scope of our faith and the ayme of our Christian hope is to be joyned unto the God whom wee seeke to be undistractedly and unseparably his for ever in the Lord Iesus this life of ours is but momentany the life beleeved and expected is the life of eternity this is but a breathing after that now in our attendance by faith and hope on that blessed day of eternitie which shall not have any nights interposition God hath not left us to our selves but communicates himselfe to us to uphold us in that attendance by His Word addresseth He Himselfe to us and by our Invocation is he unto us open Seeke ye my face is His expression to us thy face wee doe seeke is our hearts faiths returned answer and practice a blessed harmony in harmonious blessednesse Psalm 27. 8. In the prophesie of Hosea we find this in an accurate way of expression set downe Thou shalt call me Ishai and not Baali chap. 2. ver. 16. Ishai not Baali My Husband not my Idolized Lord God will have us intire not divided halfe his halfe not his halfe the Idoll of our hearts what ever that Idol bee mungrell Religion is to the onely true God abominable Now goe wee on with the Prophet verse 18. and so forward for I will take away the name of Baalim out of her mouth And they shall no more bee remembred by their name And in that day will I make a Covenant for them with the Beasts of the field and with the fowles of the heaven and with the creeping things of the ground And I will breake the bow and the sword and the battle of the earth and will make them to lye downe safely and here comes in the Cordialnesse of the businesse I will betroth thee unto mee for ever yea I will betroth thee unto mee in righteousnesse and in judgement and in loving kindnesse and in mercy I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulnesse and thou shalt know the Lord And it shall come to passe in that day I will heare saith the LORD I will heare the Heavens and they shall heare the earth and the earth shall heare the corne and the Wine and they shall heare Iezreel and I will sow her to mee in the earth and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy and I will say to them which were not my people Thou art my people and they shall say thou art my God Gods promises and our prayers thence make sure worke indeed none like it Without the Word of God and that sounding and resounding in our eares with the ministeriall application thereof to our hearts by the spirits operation wee should live and dye in the grossenesse of ignorance and without Prayer also in humble and fiduciall manner put up unto our God in the merits and mediation of Iesus Christ wee should be hopelesse helplesse destitute altogether of the consolations from above the heavenly consolations in the times of afflictions disturbances feares That prayer is a most important part of our Religious service to God ward appeares in this most clearely that the sacred booke of God under those appellations of prayer and Invocation comprehendeth even the whole service of God Let that among the rest be deepely weighed and pondred in our hearts Whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved Acts 2. 21. Gods whole worship is contained under this one phrase to call upon God no duty of godlinesse is to him more acceptable no sacrifice in better part taken then is that the calling on the name of the Lord is the open profession of him without dantednesse Gen. 4. 26. Where ever Abraham the Father and patterne of the faithfull where ever he came there erected he an Altar and called upon the Name of the Lord Gen. 12. 7 8. The house of prayer is the name of Gods house and God gave it that name by his Prophet Isaiah and our blessed Iesus ratifies it Preaching we have here and Sacraments we have here but prayer gives it the denomination as the major service of God and both implying and including all the rest needs must we all if there bee any ingenuity of Christianity in us needs must wee acknowledge prayer to bee a matter of the greatest consequence even upon this consideration deeply volved and revolved in our hearts that every soule to heaven-ward setled makes the recommendation of his spirit into the hands of God his practice uncessant as being in no hands late but his that of Davids is by frequency made his Into thy hands I commend my spirit thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of truth Psal. 31. 5. Gods promises are the faithfulls encourgaments and in them presenting themselves to God acceptance is to them confidently assured Prayer is that hand which we reach and stretch forth unto our mercifull God to receive from him all his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Saint Iames calls them all his givings and all his good gifts his good givings and his perfect gifts In the hand of faith prayer is a key Heaven it openeth unto us and from Heaven enricheth us with the best of treasures our wounds layes it open to the right curer of them the binder up and exquisite healer of them all up carrieth it and dispreads before our piteous God the sobbings and groanings of our disturbed hearts in an humble and holy familiarity that will have no denyall no repulse of that force it is with God when put forth a right that it makes the rods and scourges of Gods correcting hand even fall there out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 powerfully his fatherly affections and removeth his justly conceived indignations Prayer in parties and in Families well ordered is the customary sacrifice is the Morning and Evening perfume of the devoutly Religious Let my prayer writes David bee set forth before thee as incense and the lifting up of mine hands as an Evening sacrifice Psalm 141. 2. Call upon me in the day of trouble Saint Paul utters it thus pray {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} without ceasing without fainting 1 Thes. 5. 17. What ever the troubles be Our Saviour thus Watch and pray that yee enter not into tentation Matth. 26. 41. As justly wee may and sufficiently wee cannot admire the goodnesse of our God daigning his word to addresse himselfe in speech to our capacities So are we to esteeme likewise that as an high and honourable favour that he will heare us in prayer and prayses approaching unto him giving way to our importunities nay even commanding us expresly to be importunate to such prayers yea only to such are his eares opened and
and solid but what wee have from the dictates of his holy spirit This Lord our God this one Lord hath made all things for himselfe even the wicked for the day of evill Prov. 16. 4. Assuredly God will be glorified if not by us then on us if not for his mercies in our deliverance Surely then for his judgements in our sentencing to hell according to that in the Psalmist The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the Nations that forget God He that will not voluntarily glorifie God as the Father of mercies in the rigour of justice will our God glorifie himselfe in his eternall ruine If wee prove not the Heralds of his glory examples shall we be of his just indignation When his wrath is kindled but a little O blessed are they that in him repose their trust Psal. 2. 12. accursednesse shall enfetter all others in the chaines of everlasting darknesse O! my beloved in the Lord What ever we have been heretofore be this hence forward to the end of our pilgrimage and warfare on earth our mainest care never any more to receave the grace of God in vaine never turn the same into lasciviousnesse which Saint Iude fitly calls the denying of the only Lord God and our Lord Iesus Christ improve wee rather with all manner of alacrity and industriousnesse the talents thereof unto us concredited to the glory of our God upon our receiving the end of our faith even our endlesse salvation By words by works in our lives and at our deaths set wee forth the prayses of our gratious deliverer with the Psalmist from the ground of our hearts saying Blessed be the Lord God who daily loadeth us with his benefits even the God of our salvation he that is our God is the God of our salvation And unto God the Lord belong the issues from death Psalme 68. 19 20. Endangered is the Church of God at this day every where in the world and in this Island from the world divided endangered amongst Atheists Papists Sectaries in troubles are all right Christians involved O! now is the time of instant prayer for their gratious deliverance out of them all Call we heartily upon our God and his bowell mercies will tenderly reach us and savingly relieve us wee shall find and feele his timely succours there is yet balm in Gilead yet mercies and the plenteous redemption with our God He he it is that shall redeeme Israel from all his iniquities bring all his people every where out of all their depths of sins sorrowes miseries Psa. 130. Vtterly will he never forsake his own people the Israel of God but upon their unfained repentance and faith without hypocrisie settle them unremovably in himselfe and let them see even their full desires on al their malicious enemies and ungratious opposers for seeing God for the love of his Church made the world Sathan who labours the worlds ruine cannot with all his forces and devices ruinate the Church The eternall God the Lord of Armies and Mercies who from that roaring and circuiting Lion hath many times and many wayes delivered us from the hands of men his Captives and instruments how ever malitiously bent against us will still and still deliver us Our Petitions shall be prevalent with him for us and against them And after he hath given us deliverance upon deliverance here on earth he will possesse us in Heaven with our inheritance there our Inheritance immortall undefiled and that can never fade away 1 Pet. 1. 4. to this inheritance the King of glory bring us that there wee may for evermore glorifie him undâ—stractedly AMEN FINIS Post-Script W. A. D. D. Minor invidiâ I. G. D. D. Major contemptu Lesser than Envie greater than contempt From th' One and th' other let me be exempt I wish not Much with little am content So let My Yeares runne on My Life be spent There are some words mis-printed others mis-placed and the pointing here and there unobserved Pardon and amend friendly then peruse curteously The LORDS Prayer enlarged The PREFACE GRatious and glorious Father all good all mightie thou art with us alwayes present but thy Majestie principally demonstrates it selfe in and from Heaven in thee do we live move and have our being as thou hast created us of nothing so doest thou nourish maintaine defend us in the order and ranke of our creation We have our gratious enjoyment to betake our selves in prayer unto thee whose title is the hearer and answerer of prayers the helper of us to pray aright and the succourer of us too in right prayer to thy glory in our salvation Petion 1. O! cause thy Name and thy Selfe to bee made known upon Earth and thy saving health among all nations manifest thy selfe yet more more in and to the habitable world and be thou holy and heavenly Father by all of all conditions and sorts of Mankind honoured and glorified in the thoughts of our hearts in the words of our mouthes in the deeds of our holy lives and conversations even upon earth heavenly Petition 2. O! grant that the Scepter of thy Kingdome the word of thy power and the power of thy Word may bee efficacious and prevalent all the world over let us receive it humbly retaine it in our hearts closely grow up thrivingly by it in the cleare knowledge of thee and thy Christ day by day O let all Christian Churches agree in the truth of thy holy and lively word and be strengthened in grace by it and fitted by degrees for glory Petition 3. What thou willest be that accomplished and all the opposers of thy will confuted really and everlastingly confounded O be thy revealed will the rule of our thoughts words actions and thy very least becke our sway as it is of all thy holy Angels thy ministring spirits by thee sent forth to minister for them who shall bee the heyres of thy salvation Petition 4. What is needfull for this outward man let thy divine providence supply us withall and on that let our dependance be alwayes and in all things and teach us that lesson in what estate so ever we are with thine allotments to rest contented and in every thing to bee unto thy Majesty unfainedly thankfull Petition 5. O! look not severely upon our innumerous errors transgressions sins but cover them pardon them cast them all into the Seas bottome never to rise thence against us unto condemnation and separation from thee and give us all mutually forgiving hearts in the case of arising differences and offences Petition 6. We are in the midst of snares O let us never bee ensnared uphold us in thy feare and deliver us from the feare of all thine and our enemies Sathan sin death hell destruction The Doxologie WE are in thy Kingdom O with thy golden Scepter rule us we are under thy power O shelter us from all adversary forces we breath after the propagation of thy glory in our eternall salvation O manifest the same in thy due time and that in all clearenesse and fulnesse to our redeemed soules Amen So be it is our prayer Amen be it so will be thy ratification thou art faithfull and we are happie Amen Amen * Moaning the practice of Separatists c. 1 Iohn 5. 11.