Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A26344
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God's anger ; and, Man's comfort two sermons / preached and published by Tho. Adams.
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Adams, Thomas, fl. 1612-1653.
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1652
(1652)
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Wing A492; ESTC R22209
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47,052
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94
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them Of all others the transgression of his own people shall not passe unpunished The nearer we are to him the nearer do our offences touch him as a man more takes to heart a discourtesie done by a friend then a great injury by a stranger Pagans may blaspheme and bezzle and defile the marriage-bed and yet God let them alone but he will not endure these sinnes in his own people The more hee loves us the greater should our love be to him now love and unkindnesse cannot stand together If we revolt from our Maker as Absolom thought Hushai had renounced David may he not justly expostulate with us Is this thy Kindnesse to thy friend there is no such irksome disobedience as where God looks for service t He came unto his own and his own received him not O that could not chuse but trouble him As Demades said to Philip King of Macedon and at a time when he well deserved it Cùm fortuna tibi Agamemnonis personam imposuerit nonne pudet te Thirsitem agere When fortune hath made thee an Agamemnon art thou not ashamed to play Thirsites When God hath honoured us for his own people with the noble name of Christians is it not a shame for us to play the Pagans u Happy are the people that be in such a case yea blessed are the people that have the Lord for their God Yet that people may so farre anger him that he will take away not onely their temporall but even their spirituall happinesse Those seven Churches of Asia were Gods owne people yet the Gospel was not fastned to their territories as the old Romans pinnioned their goddesse Victoria or their apish posterity doe the Catholick faith to their own infallible Chaire But as they had a time to breathe so a time to expire and so hath my fourth proposition There is but one gradation more 5. God may be angry with his people that prayeth Wherein we have two main observations First The wonder that God will be angry at our prayers Secondly the answer which resolves the wonder shewing why our very prayers may anger him Either of these is back'd with three circumstances 1. For the wonder that God is angry with his people that prayeth 1. All the other conclusions are easily granted God may be angry and angry very long and angry with the whole people and angry with his own people all this because of their sins But that he should be angry at their prayers this is the wonder He hath commanded us to pray and will he be offended with us for doing his command Angry against our prayer He hath commended to us Prayer as the only means to asswage his anger and yet is hee angry at our Prayer a Phinehas prayed and his anger was pacified b Aaron prayed and the plague ceased and will he now be angry with the people that prayeth He is a God that heareth prayer c O thou that hearest prayer to thee shall all all flesh come and does he now reject prayer He hath so stiled his own house Oratorium the house of prayer and to them that pray unto him in his house he hath promised peace d In this house will I give peace saith the Lord of hostes Peace and wrath are contraries how should prayer procure peace when God is angry at prayer Prayer is so noble that under it is comprehended the whole worship of God e Whosoever calleth on the name of the Lord shall be saved and yet wil God be angry at the prayer of his people It is a great honour that God will vouchsafe to speake unto man but a far greater honour that man is allowed to speak unto God the very Angels stand in admiration of it and yet what comfort is there in that when God is angry at the prayer of his people What blessing is there which our prayers cannot infeoffe us in Wee send up Prayer to God with the same confidence that Adoniah sent Bathsheba to Solomon f the King will deny thee nothing and will God bee angry at prayer It is the onely means we have to pacifie him Prayer and shall our Prayer anger him Alas what hope is left us when God is angry at Prayer This hath often turned away his wrath and does it now incense his wrath If we should not pray he would then be angry and when we do pray is he angry too What neither way pleased What is the reason why there is so much empty cask in Gods cellar but for want of prayer g Ye have not because ye ask not and shall not prayer obtain favour h Oh Lord what shall I say it was the complaint of Joshua when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies So what shal we say what shall we do when God turneth back our prayers Why is it called the throne of Grace before which wee present our prayers if that throne send forth nothing but beams of wrath We look for grace and a favourable audience of our petitions but alas what shall become of us when God is angry at our very prayers 2. How wonderfull is the power of prayer i Let me alone saith God to Moses who would look for such a word from God to man as let me alone As yet Moses had said nothing before he opens his mouth God prevents his importunity as foreseeing the holy violence of prayer Moses stood trembling before the Majesty of his Maker as fearing his dire revenge and yet that Maker doth after a sort sollicite Moses for leave to revenge let me alone As it was afterwards said of Christ concerning some places that he could do no miracles there because of their unbelief So one would think that God could do no Judgements here because of Moses his faith Let me alone why what can resist God Yes Prayer can resist him Such is his mercy that he hath as it were obliged his power to the faith of our Prayer He enables us to resist himselfe Seipsum vincit The servent prayer of the faithfull can bind the hands of the Almighty What is there that God can do which Prayer cannot do O mighty I had almost said Almighty Prayer What a hand is that which can hold omnipotence What wings are those that can overtake infinitenesse Yet alas we may now mourn over Prayer as David did over Jonathan l How are the mighty fallen Prayer hath lost her force with God vvhen God is angry with prayer Her wings are clipt that she cannot mount Her bow is broken she cannot shoot an arrow that reaches the marke m She is become a widow as it was lamented over Jerusalem desolate and solitary that was a Princesse among the Provinces and a Queen among the nations She sits weeping in the dust and hath almost forgot the use of speech She mournes not so much for Mary's abstulerunt Dominum for she knows vvhere to find him as that our sins Abstulerunt Domini