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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	day_n	good_a	lord_n	2,726	5	3.8026	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49589	The wedding-supper as it was handled out of the fourteen first verses of the 22. chapter of Matthew, in sundry exercises in Tavistock in Devon. Wherein the offer of salvation, both to Jews and Gentiles, is noted: and divers plain and pithy doctrines observed, and applied. Being the effect of twelve sermons preached by Thomas Larkham, the oppressed pastor of the despised Church of Christ there.	Larkham, Thomas, 1602-1669.; Cross, Thomas, fl. 1632-1682, engraver.	1652 (1652)	Wing L442; ESTC R222016	113,881	272

will give any great blaze But to give an account of my manner of speaking in the name of the Lord That so if it seem good unto you I may be restored to my brethren and employment in the work of the Lord at Tavistock though I shall in regard of means of subsistence have much less then I am to have should I continue Minister there where I am come under the bond of Conscience and whither I am by jealous Letters and by strong Arguments woed to return again Or otherwise may submit to Gods will and pleasure in whose hands are the hearts of all to turn them which way soever he pleaseth and therefore yours with this comfortable testimony in mine own Soul that I am ready to do my duty keep my station and go in and out before the People over whom the Lord hath made me Overseer So far and so long as it shall please his heavenly Majesty to give me life livelihood and liberty so to do And if my Adversaries have any thing to charge me with that is of legal cognisance I stand at our English Caesars judgement seat where let me be judged in Gods name I that have learnd by his Grace to look with boldness on my Father in Heaven in Christ need not fear those but rather flie to them that are his Ministers for our good on Earth besides I am of them that have in most parts of England I was Captive to the Lord Vicoun Lisle c. and to Sir Har. Waller the first four years of the ten at Breerwich and elsewhere in K●nt and also in Ireland adventured my life spent my strength and poor estate often endangered my liberty and limbs and health in my faithfull service of and adhaering to the Parliament of England for these Ten years last past since my return to my native land from that exile which Episcopal Tyranny and tenderness of conscience forced me unto I am loth to be too bold I might boast of my many and great sufferings under the Prelacy and of Gods wonderfull deliverances vouchsafed me in those dayes but I will make an end humbly submitting my Sermon to your censure mine outward man to your ordering and you shall I commend in my daily prayers as in duty bound to Jehovah Elohim that you may be a blessing to the Common-Wealth a joy to the good a terror to the bad and successfull in all your undertakings London May 12. 1652. This is the hearty prayer of him Who desires to be found a faithfull Steward in the Lords work And hopes to approve himself true and faithfull to the Commonwealth of England Thomas Larkham To all them in the Town and Parish of Tavistock in Devon that love the Lord Jesus in sincerity and are now oppressed by an ungodly generation Thomas Larkham their Rightfull Pastor wisheth increase of Faith Patience and Wisdom c. Beloved BEcause the day is Cloudy among you and the warming beams of that bright Sun of Liberty which so many Saints in England Ireland and even in Scotland sit under is obstructed and kept off from you by the furious marching of a youthfull Jehu among you in the head of a party that know not God and that will not obey the Gospel of Christ I thought good to present to you these ensuing Sermons preached among you and them to be for a remembrance to you a testimony against them and an apology for my self against those many obloquies and opprobrious calumnies which by evil tongues and unhallowed pens dipt in pride wrath and malice are dispersed against both you and me The issue of things I hope you will readily refer to the righteous Judge who hath a day set which is always the best to relieve his slandred oppressed and persecuted Servants My * Per a Call of God temptations on the right hand will appear by the loud Calls that I have to go into Macedonia to help on the great Work of God now on foot there And on the left hand the strong opposition that I finde against my return to you which can scarce be conceived aright much less exprest fully None but a God can hinder the builders of Babell and destroy the enemies of Zion among you Sit still a while and you shall see his salvation So far as the Angel of his presence shall go before me I am ready to follow Only let your conversation be as it becommeth the Gospel of Christ c. And in nothing be ye terrified c. Our business me thinks is like the launching of great Ships heaving and shoving will not do it till the tide come and it be high water When God puts forth his arm your holy and just desires shall be fulfilled In the mean time wait and read over these Sermons which once you heard put in practice what is in them contained rejoyce in the consolation that you shall finde here and there in them dispersed live in love make up breaches study to be quiet and in your daily prayers remember your Remembrancer and loving Brother in Christ Thomas Larkham Minister of the Gospel From my Chamber in London May 12. 1652. To the Reader CHristian Reader The inhabitants of the place * Tavistock in Devon where these Sermons were Preached may very fitly be compared to Jeremiahs figs mentioned cap. 24.2 One basket had very good figs even like the figs that are first ripe And the other basket had very naughty figs which could not be eaten they were so bad This gave the first motion to the printing of these ensuing Sermons The bad figs are among us very bad and with a high hand hath God and his wayes and worship been opposed Some passages thou shalt read which may seem too invective and sharpe and as proceeding from a spirit of bitterness but didst thou know the occasions thou wouldst wonder that the stones of the street did not cry out Now these Sermons nothing less being dreamed of then such unworthy carriage in the first taking of the Text meeting so right by Gods guidance and providence with some miscarriages were conceived by some and reported to many to be such unsufferable Sermons as the like have not been Preached and so generally bruted among all the Cavaleirs of the Country In the mean time many gratious souls blessed God that ever they heard them and also manifested themselves much affected with them That Therefore they may answer for themselves to the charge divulged abroad against them and that they may be usefull read over as they have been first spoken they now come forth to their triall The Authors first in print after twenty seven years spent in Preaching and suffering in the time of the Prelacy in almost all the Courts in England If thou that readest them find any thing in them with Gods mark upon it bless his Majesty for it the Author was an earthen vessel but truths are treasures Let him that first preached and now permits the publishing of these

We have spoken already of his charge and that both of the matter of it that he came into the marriage without a wedding garment and also of the manner of the Lords dealing with him calling him friend by an Irony As i● the King should say Friend what make you here I see you pretend to be one of mine but how is it that you come in hither not having a wedding garment We have also spoken Secondly of his Conviction and he was speechless Thirdly We have begun to speak of his execution out of these verses now again read unto you In which we have noted First The Commission it self in the 13. verse Secondly The ground or reason of it ver 14. Again in the Commission we have observed and fully handled the circumstantial part of it And are now the Lord assisting to proceed and to speak of the substance of the Commission out of these words Bind him hand and foot c. Wherein two things are set forth First The manner of his punishment bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer darkness Secondly The condition of this poor wretch under his punishment sad enough wofull enough in these words There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth We will begin with the manner of his punishment laid forth under a continued Metaphor taken from the manner of dealing used among men with gross and heynous offenders who being found guilty are manacled fettered and separated from the society of men and cast into some dark dungeon there to lie and dye and never to come out thence again Under which words Christ sets forth the future condition of all wicked men and women to wit that they shall be cast into Hell where they shall lie weeping and wayling and gnashing of teeth not only as long as the Sun and the Moon endureth but as long as God shall be God 〈◊〉 three degrees of misery is this punishment of ungodly men here described unto us First Bind him hand and foot that is Tye hi● fast chain him up let him not escape by 〈◊〉 means Secondly Take him away that is carry him hence from my gracious presence Let him never see my face more nor come among my servants Let him never sit with my pretious Saints more Separate him from the communion and society of my faithfull ones Depart thou cursed cateiffe saith God thou caredst not for my people or mine Ordinances on Earth and therefore now thou shalt not be troubled with them Take him away and cast him into outer darkness Here is a third degree of misery Let him go like a Castaway as he is as one good for nothing cast him away For men do not use to cast that away which is good for any thing But here is an aggravation of this third degree of misery cast him into outer darkness that is into Hell Into outer darkness that is out from God and out from his Church For with God is light and in his Church is light But out of Gods presence and out of the Church is darkness Note Therefore note by the way That To be cast out of the Church here is a degree of that outer darkness that ungodly men shall be cast into hereafter So some understand 〈◊〉 8.12 Many shall come from the East ●nd from the West Calvin c. But the children o● the Kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness that is Gentiles shall become Members of the Church and the Jews called the children of the Kingdom because they were so then shall be exiled and cast into a dark and dead frame of Spirit as usually such are as are justly excommunicated if Gods physick work not with them to their humiliation and repentance Now We will gather some short lessons from these particulars thus opened And the first shall be Doct. That ungodly men shall not escape punishment The Reason is because they are bound as it were hand and foot God hath ordained Bands and Chains to bind wicked men withall They are bound with a threefold Cord which is not quickly broken Besides the Chains and cords which God binds wicked men withal to Hell torments there is a threefold Cord to bind them with in this life First The Cord of Gods Decree Jude's Epistle ver 4. Who were before of old ordained to this condemnation All the men on Earth or Angels in Heaven are not able to break this Cord. There is also a blessed Cord which the Saints are bound with Rom. 8.30 Moreover whom he did predestinate them also he called and whom he called them also he justified and whom he justified them also he glorified The use that we may make of it is to bless God if we sind we are not bound with that chain that the wicked are bound with but with that fore-appointed for the Saints The second Cord to bind men is that Mat. 18.18 Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven This Church binding is the second with which men are bound And for my part I would not lie under the just censure of a well-ordered Church for the whole World The reason is because the Scriptures being true whom the Church binds on Earth God binds in Heaven There are three acts in this binding God acts first and last and the Church in the middle God acts first in giving rules to his Church to walk by The Church acts by those rules which God hath given and are like Levi which knew not father nor mother And this acting of a Church carrieth more in it then the reproof of one Godly man though a publick Preacher because of the Authority which the Lord hath given to his Church And then thirdly God acts in confirming in Heaven what the Church regularly doth on Earth There is in the Church use of ordinary and common brotherly admonitions and exhortations with this Cord the People of God bind one another to the Lord. So Heb. 3.12 Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God But exhort one another daily while it called to day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfullness of sin And therefore all the People of the Lord should look upon this work as a duty and when it is performed it should be looked upon as a mercy from the Lord to tie us closer to him Besides this sometimes the unruly are to be warned and desired to forbear from communicating with the People of God This is as it were the trial of Leprosie We usually call it suspension from the Lords Supper and it hath its use as a cord to bind men to the good behaviour or to discover their Spirits But in the last place Fulk on 1 Cor. 5. Sect. 3. Rhem. Test there is excommunication which is to be done by the officers of th● Church as in the name of Christ so in the name of the Church and People to avoid

especially if we find the hand of the Lord with them that is an expression Acts 11.21 Question But how is that to be known I answer It is to be known by the effects there mentioned And a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. O 'T is a mercy to live under the sound of the voice of a servant of the Lord. Gods immediate voice no man is able to hear Exod. 20.19 And they said unto Moses speak thou with us and we will hear but let not God speak with us lest we die So Deut. 5.25 the presence of God is terrible who may abide it Therefore God hath appointed our brethren to teach us familiarly and to be in his stead among us and it is our happiness to enjoy them if we could see it Vse 3 And lastly to end this point it serves to teach us that these men whom the Lord imployes as his special servants ought to be esteemed although it be their portion to be as David was the song of the drunkards Psal 69.12 And to be despised by yong children as Job was cap. 19.18 Yea by yong men whose fathers he would have disdained to have set with the dogs of his flock cap. 30.1 All the silly yet proud fools and all the knaves in the country think that Gospel-Preachers are fit to be made a Parable of reproach and object of despight O how do some among us ruffle it in the second and third Generations whose Ancestors infamously scrapt a little dung together and ended their dayes remarkably I But this ought not so to be neither will it be so among them that fear God Neither let it be so among you For Mot. 1 First To dishonour them is to dishonour God Luke 10.16 He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me saith Christ to his Disciples and this is to despise him that sent Christ as it is in the same verse Secondly If you carry your selves respectfully towards them it will encourage them in the Lords work And Thirdly It will be for your own benefit Both these are to be proved Heb. 13.17 Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you And indeed experience teacheth that when the persons of Ministers are out of esteem their Doctrine lies the more open to prejudice and misconstruction Quest Question But how shall I know whether I esteem them as I ought to do or no Answ I answer If thou look upon them as Ambassadours sent of God for this very end that People may believe in Christ and dost so come to hear what they say c. this is a good note of such as are sound Christians and have the spirit of God 1 Cor. 14.37 If any man think himself to be a Prophet or spiritual let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. And no doubt such as are spiritual will so acknowledge and in their eyes the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things will be beautifull Rom. 10.15 Thus I have finished the second particular observed in the first offer of Christ to the Jews his Ancient acquaintance I now come to the third and last to wit the ground and Original of this action of calling people to come to Christ And that is a Commission given he sent forth as it is in the Text. The Servants go not untill God whose messengers they be sends them These words he sent forth his servants are not only in this third vers I am now upon but also in the next the fourth and likewise ver 9. a Commission is expresly given unto them So that we may have good ground for this Doctrine Doct. That such as take upon them to invite ●●ople to Christ and to Preach are of Gods ●ending in a speciall manner if they be of the right stamp I will give them Pastors after mine own heart Jerem. 3.15 Such as run before they be sent have success accordingly But they have somewhat else to do and all trades must 〈◊〉 as we say and so must they And this ●ort of men though called Ministers are the very tail of men It is the part of a servant to have the word from his Muster first and then to do faithfully what they are Commissionated and commanded to do It was the Lords complaint by the Prophet Jer. c. 23.21 I have not sent these Prophets yet they rann I have not spoken to them yet they Prophesied And when the spirit of a man hath received a Call from the spirit of Christ and knows it self to be sent of God it will put him upon strict duty First To deliver nothing but what is warranted 1 Cor. 11.23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you And. 1 John 1. ver 3. And Secondly To extend his gifts to the utmost advantage of the giver and benefit of those that a man is sent unto 1 Pet. 4. ver 10. As every one hath received the gift so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God Lastly He must and shall know on whose arrand he goes whose Messenger he is So 1 Pet. 4. v. 11. If any man speak let him speak as the Oracles of God if any man Minister let him do it as of the ability which God giveth Vse 1 Know therefore for the first use that the Call and comming of Ministers of the Gospel is of God it is not without Authority They are in Gods stead they must give account to him that hath sent them Vse 2 And therefore they should not be despised and opposed as they are by foolish proud People It is thought now among us to be a sufficient cause of injustice iniquity and oppression because Ministers shall not be masters of the Town because they shall not have their will which yet indeed is Gods will Alas neighbours are we not men as well as you Why then should we not enjoy our common priviledges as well as you are we unworthy to be heard because we are Ministers how low would ye bring us But I desire not to provoke but rather to convince that you might not be found despisers of God in despising contradicting and opposing of us in the way of our well doing Vse 3 But Thirdly You that obey the Lords Call to you by us doubt not of kind wellcom We call not of our own heads He sent us forth that will make good whatsoever we promise you according to our instructions that we have received from him Vse 4 And lastly be perswaded to hearken to our Call in regard of the authority of the Sender It will not be well taken under any pretence whatsoever to slight the Lords gracious offers to trample under foot his

to their getting of more acquaintance with God and to the further conquest of the world and their Corruptions shall receive exceeding great comfort here and be at last inhabitors of the New Jerusalem singing Halelujah's to Heavens King and to the Lamb where their unexpressible unconceivable joy and happiness shall run Parallel with the line of Eternity Bolton I can go no further at this time The fifth Sermon Mat. 22. the latter part of the 5. and the 6. v. And went their wayes one to his Farm another to his Merchandise And the remnant took the Servants and intreated them spitefully and slew them WE spake last out of this 5. ver of the frame of spirit that was in the Jews and how they stood affected towards the Doctrine of the Gospel which was begun to be preached among them now the second time after the death and passion of Christ out of those words They made light of it that is they cared not for it as it hath been shewed the word here used in the Original signifieth Time would not give leave to end that verse then Therefore that is our next work To wit to speak of the ground of this their undervaluing of Christ and the preaching of the Gospel which was their overprizing of worldly things From which we will handle this last Doctrine out of this fifth verse Doct. That worldly affairs are a great occasion unto worldly-minded people to make them set light by the Gospel and the means of grace and salvation It is observed of the Jews that even to this day they are a worldly thriving people where ever they come within a little while they grow rich And hence was it that the generality of them thought it not worth their labour to look after matters of Religion Even as to this day we finde our honest Hogs just of that temper which are our best neighbours For we have so many barking yea biting dogs that these grunting Swine seem to be very honest men among us But yet in truth you must pardon me O ye my honest courteous neighbours I must render evil for your good as perhaps you will account it untill your eyes be opened You undervalue opportunities of Worship you attend not the places of worship What 's the Reason Surely because ye think that while ye are attending the affairs of the world ye are imployed in your lawfull Calling and therefore that your absence from the Means of grace may very well be excused And because this is such a plausible evil such a poison of Asps I will speak a little of it by way of digression Know therefore that there is not a man alive that hath not a touch a tang as we say of this evil Yet nevertheless it is as dangerous an evil and as incompatible with Grace when it becomes predominant as any sin whatsoever And it is to be noted that of all Sins seldom are the Saints of God tainted with this in Scripture And also that such as fall into it seldom return to their wonted glory and lustre in the Church VVhereas we find Peter denying his Master and David falling into Adultery and Lot into drunkenness c. yet we finde a returning again a recovery out of their falls But when men give themselves to covetousness we may fitly compare this sin to that deep ditch which Solomon compares a whore unto They that come into it return not again neither take they hold of the paths of life You have an example in Demas how he broke his neck quite in falling into this ditch of the World 2 Tim. 4.10 We never read of his recovery Let me a little declame or if it must be so exclame against these hoggs and Swine Do you think the land you have is yours or the Silver and Gold you have is yours No no You shall know it is Gods and that you are but stewards and shall one day hear that same give an account of thy stewardship for thou maist be no longer steward spoken of Luk. 16.2 O when a wretched man a beast rather shall have an estate thrown into his hands and shall either hugg it as a God or wallow in it as the Swine do in dirty muddy places and shall never regard to use any part of it to Gods Glory nor to the good of the common wealth nor to the comfort of the poor ●ay some will scarce allow what is needfull for their own nourishment like Tantalus up to the chin in water and yet dying for thirst c. I say when such a running out of the Soul is in a man after the World is it likely there will be any great mind upon the things of God of Christ of Salvation Truly no. This sin is like the disease called the hectick feaver at first hard to be discerned but easie to be cured but at last easie to be known sure enough when it is grown incurable When worldliness breaketh out into gross opposition of the wayes of God take heed honest and kind neighbours you will come to it at last if you do not take heed I say when it is come to a hight then the Soul is as it were becrusted seared it will not be discerned easily by such a Soul that covetousness hath any harm in it at all T is good husbandry thriftiness Men grow bold to plead for it and for their neglect of duty to do other things See how bold Martha is Mary was hearkning to Christ preaching Martha was cooking it and dressing meat for Christs dinner Out cries Martha to Christ you shall find it Luk. 10.40 Lord dost not thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone bid her therefore that she help me And if it be so in the green tree how much more in the dry If good People under a temptation be so bold to plead for their neglect of attending upon Christ and to blame them thar are more carefull and strict then themselves how much more will such as are swallowed up as it were of the World be bold But you see in that place of Luke what Christ the King of the Church doth He falls a chiding of Martha not of Mary He tells her Mary had chosen the good part Worldly people say to the Almighty depart from us they hold it good wisdom to labour and save while they be yong that they may not live in want when they be old It cannot be denied but this is good Wisdom in its place But they are penny wise and pound foolish as it is said of the Widdows that live in pleasure 1 Tim. 5.6 they are dead while they live For what is a man profited if he winn the whole World and lose his own Soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul Mat. 16.26 I tell you for every hours coming to Sermons spent in praier thoushalt be rewarded thou shalt have the comfort of it one day Time spent in Gods service is the