Heywood - BS2575 H49 1687

a <ltlJ~itttau ~tltr. 4) Pented·and praye<d unto God towards their Land, apd that Houfe ofGod-; then he begs that God would hear them: and God teftifies tha~ he did h~lf this Prayer of Solomon, I King8. 46, 48 . Wtth chap. 9· 3. Th~paffage to He~ven is as near and open from one part oftheearth as another: thereforeDavid fai th,he will cry to Godfrom the end ~f ·the Eart/:J, Pfal. 6r. 2 . A·notable inftance for this we have in 1o1Jah : he was got into the bottom of the Sea ( ai! fa,: from Heaven locally as one could ima– gine) into a great Fifhes belly, which he calls the very belly of Hell ; :1nd as he W3s then far from men, fQ he looks upon himfelf as call: dut of the fight of God, ;md he ·pathetically expreffethh_is mitery /and hop~lefs ,fiate. What cloth he in this doleful plight? Why he will look towards Gods holy Temple. Alas, poor Jonah kn(:W not now which way the Temple ~ood,.. he had but a {hart Prafpetl in that dark and narrowPrifon; yes, faith can fet'Jonah ·upon·one of the Mountains of Ifrael,thai thence._he may .fee as far as Mount Zion,and ~ reach as high as Heaven ; he prayes, yea cryes ; God hears, and,delivers.: as low as he was he knocks atHea– .ven gates, and his Prayer doth pierce the Clo1ds, it '1nakes :bold, and fteps io, My prayer, faith he, came in untoihet, into.thine holy Temple, Jonah 2. 2, 7· Oh the 'firange-and fwifc motion ofa believing Prayer! Let thepraying foul be where it will, the Prayer will come to God'~ ea.-, ·and get an anfwer. , 2. AChild .of God that cannot fpeak a word, may put up anacceptable Prayer : fuppofe the tongue which is the organ of fpeech, were cut our, yet a Saint cannot thereby be obfl:ructed in his accefs ro God by Prayer. For, as Amefius faith [Orat-io formaliter ·e{f atfus volun:. tatis,] Pr~yet: is formally ~he aa Qf theWill; defire is the fout ofPriyer, which God mayhear, thaugh.it be nofexpre1fed,for heknowsthe.hearr,Pfal.ro. 17. Lord !h~u_ haft beardtke dejireqftk.e h11mble : ASaiats defir~ . ~ . -~- ·-· ·- .. . ""· . , - -- . _ . . tS

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