Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A60357
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Vincentius redivivus, a funeral sermon preached Octob. 27, 1678 upon the occasion of the much bewailed death of that reverend and eminent servant of Christ, Mr. Thomas Vincent ... / by Samuel Slater.
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Slater, Samuel, d. 1704.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing S3979; ESTC R23647
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37,199
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50
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this is the way to glorifie your God to honour your Religion to credit your Pastors In this way you shall be their comfort while they live their Crown when they are dead yea their joy and rejoycing in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at his coming The exemplariness of your carriages is the best commendation of the Ministers you have and of the Sermons you hear whereas when you walk disorderly and as Enemies to the Cross of Christ you are our shame and reproach spots in our Assemblies goads in our sides and burdens upon our spirits Let no man nor woman tell others they sit under my Ministry unless they resolve by the grace of God to depart from iniquity 2. Follow them in their Love True faith works love and by it it kindles a pure flame of love and then makes use thereof for the promoting and furtherance of all duty Have you not taken notice of your Pastors love What did they think too much to do for you They have hazarded their liberty and spent their strength and broken their rest and wasted their lungs for you They mourned under the untractableness of some and were humbled for the unreformedness of others who had sinned and had not repented they longed for your Conversion to God and progress in Religion and growth in grace They had no greater joy than to see you walking in the truth Oh! how did they prize God and Christ and you how did they rejoyce in their work though hard yet sweet how welcome was a Sabbath upon which they might draw their breasts for your consolation and open their treasures for your inriching imitate you them in their love give the best the flower the quintessence of it unto God Erect in your hearts a Throne for Christ love him as well as you can and then mourn because you love him so little and always pray that you may love him more Love one another dearly for you are brethren and so fulfil the law of Christ and prove your selves his Disciples Have an universal love for all the Saints all in whom you can see aliquid Christi any thing of Christ yea so love all men as to wish their good and to do them all the good you can even your Enemies your Persecutors those that hate you do you hate their sins and wicked ways but love their persons and pray for their conversion and salvation 3. Follow them in their Joy You read of the joy of faith and of the Saints rejoycing in believing with joy unspeakable and full of glory Certainly it is a duty incumbent upon all the Saints to rejoyce in the Lord and that evermore and call to remembrance the times that are past Have you not seen the faith of your Pastors budding and blossoming with joy when you have been sinking and days have been dark and fears many Have you not seen a smile upon their brow even then when there was a Cloud upon their tabernacle You have indeed been acquainted with their sorrows and their tears because men hated to be reformed would not keep Gods Law but dishonoured his Name and opposed his Gospel and would break his bands asunder and cast away his cords from them but you have also been privy to and witnesses of their joys follow them in this Let them that are of a fearful heart be strong be you of a cheerful spirit and let your brethren and others see you are so You have O Saints matter of rejoycing in your worst conditions nay let me say this You have much more matter of rejoycing than you now have or ever shall have of sorrow and disquiet For if you be really what you profess your selves to be God is the cause and matter of your rejoycing it is he that is your comfort and your glory Psal. 43. 4. I will go saith that sweet singer of Israel unto the Altar of God unto God my exceeding joy or as the margin tells you it is in the Hebrew unto God the gladness of my joy Now I beseech you if you can tell me What can possibly be I ask you again what can possibly be so great a cause of sadness and sorrow as your God is of joy and rejoycing Thou O poor drooping soul thinkest thou hast a great many sins in thy heart and the Church of Christ hath a great many dangers at this day in poor England City and Country is full of them and doubtless all this is very true too too true the good Lord help us Yet know God is above them all and greater than them all He is greater than all thy sins and so can both pardon and subdue them He is greater than all his Churches enemies and so can either reconcile and change them if he pleases or curb and conquer them As he is greater than all our dangers and so can easily obviate and prevent them He can with a word command deliverance and create peace and place a defence upon and about all our glory You have my Brethren at all times in the very worst times more cause of joy in God than you can have of sorrow and discouragement in any thing nay in all things This made the holy Prophet take up that brave resolution Hab. 3. 17 18. To rejoyce in the Lord and to joy in the God of his salvation though there should be a famine in the world and the staff of creature-comforts should be broken to pieces though earth should sink under him yet he would by faith hang upon a God above him and as long as he had a God above to live upon his joy should live and flourish He knew not only how to make a meal but how to feast it upon God alone Thus have I at large set before you that duty which is incumbent upon you in reference to your deceased Pastors who have Preached to you the Word of God it lieth in these two things Remember them Follow their faith Now I come to the last clause in the Text which you may look upon either as a third duty or an excellent means for the commending of the two former and facilitating them unto you and that you have in these words Considering the end of their conversation Here again you have the Act Considering and the Object The end of their conversation I will begin with the former Considering We ought to be a considering people it would be our safety our honour our comfort and advantage every way as I could easily shew you We should sin less if we would consider more Most if not all our sins come in at this door want of consideration Men do not consider their ways lead directly to Hell going down to the Chambers of Death and therefore they go on in them They do not look into the state of their souls nor consider how affairs stand with them and so when they should mourn and weep they live jovally and frolick their days away dancing and roaring upon the very brink
secretly mock him as well as those that publickly affront him Make sure work therefore for your precious souls see that you have that faith which is unfeigned the faith of Gods Elect that you do cordially imbrace the Truths of the Gospel and â—lose with an offered Jesus that you have that faith by which you may live that faith by which you may walk until you come to walk by sight I would not have any of you deceived and cheated to your own destruction as many poor creatures are who run away with a lie in their right-hand build hopes of Heaven and Happiness upon a sandy bottom please themselves in a lifeless Image of Religion which the holy One of Israel will despise when he awaketh unto judgment their faith is no better than a fancy their Godliness is not a Godliness of Gods making nor approving they walk about in the sparks of that fire which themselves have kindled and at last lie down in sorrow Be you wise for your souls and deal prudently get that faith which upon tryal will be found to praise and honour much more precious than gold that perisheth be ye provided with that Oyl which will keep your Lamps burning when the blessed Bridegroom cometh 3. Follow them in the actings of their faith Grace is given you not only for Ornament but also for use we are not only to be justified by faith and saved by â—aith but to live by faith Have you got it then suffer it not to lie dormant but exercise it Act your faith upon Christ his Mediation Merits and Intercession He is a full Christ it hath pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell a fulness that is far beyond your emptiness live upon him therefore and draw from him you can never draw him dry Act your faith upon the Covenant it is an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure God is ever mindful of it with it holy David comforted himself in it he placed all his happiness and sum'd up all his desires Act your faith upon the Promises these are exceeding great and precious you cannot measure them nor over-rate them In them there is an answerableness to every case a complete suitableness to every condition in which you either are or can be And you cannot over-trust them being Yea and Amen of most sure and certain accomplishment The Womb of Divine Promise never miscarried but shall bring forth at the time of life all the mercies and blessings with which it travails Ever count Gods Promise abundant security and believe that all Mountains which lie in the way of its performance shall be made a plain the darkest Providences are still subservient to the promise Iosephs being sold for a Slave and clapt up in a Prison were steps to his being made the second man in the Kingdom Act your faith upon the wisdom and power the love and care of your heavenly Father know he endears you and will look after you His Glory shall not be lost nor given to another his Truth is great and shall overcome his Church is built upon a Rock and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Iacob though small shall rise and though a worm he shall thresh the mountains the Beast and the false Prophet shall be cast into a lake of fire burning with brimstone and the glorious victory shall be the Lambs for he is King of kings and Lord of lords and they that be with him are chosen and faithful and true Believe and rejoyce while you believe that when Gods desperate Enemies are at work He himself is not idle but observes them is in the Conclave and the Cabal undermines them counter-acts them and will turn their counsels backward or headlong so that no weapon shall prosper which they form against his cause and people but he will accomplish the thoughts of his heart which shall stand in all generations and effect his own designs and be absolute Master of all his ends finishing all the work which he hath to do in the world and that without losing either time or ground as our days go off so Gods work goeth on it is never out of hand Thus act your faith upon God in all conditions and under all dispensations when you are high and when low yea at the lowest for still still still the everlasting arms arms are underneath In these actings of faith those holy men lived and so must you otherwise you will never be established much less in such gloomy tottering turning and tumbling times as these are 4. Lastly Follow them in the fruitfulness of their faith Your gracious Pastors were not neither may you be Solifidians As they did believe so they maintained good works and by that means obtained a good report While you know that faith justifieth you you must also know it is your duty to justifie your faith that faith which is alone is stark naught it is dead and rotten and stinks above-ground shew me and shew the world your faith by your works If you ask me what fruits they are which grow upon the root of faith and prove it genuine I Answer all the fruits of the spirit in which you must abound if you would have an abundant entraâ—ce into the glorious Kingdom of our God and Saviour But I shall speak only to three Holiness Love Ioy. 1. Follow them in their Holiness A wicked Believer is as meer an impossibility as a gracious Devil such a faith as will consist with the love and life and reign of sin is no better than what may be found in Hell among lapsed Angels and damned Spirits who as the Apostle Iames tells us Believe and tremble Wheresoever true faith is it purifies the heart and reforms the life and orders the footsteps according to the word As it cloathes the soul with the beautiful Robe of Christs Righteousness so it subjects the soul to his governing Scepter and Law it lets Christ in and casts corruption out when Christ dwells in the heart by Faith he shines in the life by Holiness The pearl of faith is never found in the dunghil of profaneness Study then study holiness and perfect it too in the fear of God think with your selves what manner of persons ye ought to be how acurate and exact in your whole course remembring That grace of God which bringeth salvation and hath appeared unto you teacheth you that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts ye should live soberly righteously and godly in this present evil world 2 Tit. 11 12. And that you ought to be like your Father who is holy in all his ways and righteous in all his works When therefore a temptation to any sin assaults you resist it with utmost indignation and say as Nehemiah did in another case Shall such a man as I do this or as Ioseph How shall I do this great wickedness and sin against God or as that good Woman Christiana sum I am a Christian. This my dear Friends