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The saints daily exercise A treatise concerning the whole duty of prayer. Delivered in…The saints daily exercise A treatise concerning the whole dutie of prayer. Delivered in…
The saints daily exercise A treatise concerning the whole duty of prayer. Delivered in five sermons upon I Thess. 5.17. By the late faithful and worthy minister of Jesus Christ, John Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplain in ordinary to his Majesty, Master of Emmanuel College in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Lincolns Inn.The saints daily exercise A treatise concerning the whole dutie of prayer. Delivered in fiue sermons vpon I Thess. 5.17. By the late faithfull and worthy minister of Iesus Christ, Iohn Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplaine in ordinary to his Maiesty, Master of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Lincolnes Inne.
London: printed by W. Jones, 1629London: printed by W. Iones, 1629
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The ground of it is this, A man must first have Christ, before he can have any thing else, be hath given us all things else with Christ. if […] have all things else, if we have not him, it is nothing. All the promises, you know, are Yea, […] Amen, but it is in him; so that we must […] have him. And besides, the general Covenant must go before the particular: for the ground o• all prayer i•this, or that particular promise, but you, […] fir• be […] the Covenant, you […] have the general Covenant belonging to you, before you can have the particular branches or it; & therefore a man must be within the Covenant, his person must be first righteous, and be […], & therefore […], in this […], to ⟨p. 103⟩think thus with himself, he hopes his heart is sincere, and his prayer is right, and his ends are good: for, though all this were true, yet if his person be not right, God regards it not. You know, 1the blood of a sheep, & the blood of a swine, they are both alike, it may be; the blood of the swine is better then the other; yet the blood of the swine was not to be offered, because it was the blood of a swine. So, in this case, the prayer of an unregenerate man may be as well framed, for the petitions, for every thing that is required immediately to a prayer, but the heart, from whence it comes, the person, from whence it proceeds, that is it that makes the difference, and therefore that must be observed. See the person be right. And therefore you shall find Psalm 4. 3. David makes that the ground, why his prayer should be heard, 2saith he, be ye sure that God hath chosen for himself the godly man. And when I call upon him, I shall be heard: for that is the ground that he takes to himself, that he shall be heard, that God hath chosen to himself, the godly man. As if he should say, I am of the number; and therefore, you that are my enemies, and think to prevail against me, I fear you not: for I pray to a God that will d•nd me, I am a godly man, and, upon that ground I believe that my prayer is heard: beloved, otherwise, though we pray, and pray hard, yet out anes cy louder, then our prayers, they y down […] prayers, they make a greater noise then the […]: