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duty_n day_n good_a lord_n 2,726 5 3.8026 3 true
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A86062 A funeral sermon preached at Deptford June 3. 1688 Upon the occasion of the death of Mrs. Elizabeth Kilbury, late wife of Mr. John Kilbury. By Henry Godman, minister of the gospel. With allowance. Godman, Henry, 1629 or 30-1702. 1688 (1688) Wing G940A; ESTC R229589 20,575 42

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time in a visible way and they will be brought into desolation even in a moment VSE I. Examine your selves whether God be your All Can you say Whom have we in Heaven but thee and that there is nothing on Earth that we desire besides him Prove your own selves by this Touchstone try your selves by this Weight and Ballance of the Sanctuary If you do not attain to this you are reprobate Silver and the Lord will reject you We have reason to examine our selves about this matter 1. Because there are but few that make God their All Many give him glorious Titles and challenge an interest in him they call him their Lord their God and their King yet in their serious and practical thoughts have higher estimations of lying vanities than of God blessed for ever Many there are that hear the Word of the Lord they come before him as his people use to do and sit before him as his people use to sit but amongst these how few are to be found that make him their All that look for no happiness no comfort no good but in the enjoyment of him 2. We have reason to examine because of the necessity of it it must be done Woe unto us if it be not done we are no Christians without it we are not in the state of Grace if this be not We are no more Saints whatever our Profession may be than the picture or carkass of a man is a man. Oh! if we do not make God our All though we may seem to be something and may deceive our selves and others yet in God's account we are nothing and God will make nothing of us i. e. will have no regard of us or respect unto us another day To help us now a little in our enquiry about this matter I shall give you a few Characteristical Marks of such a Soul as makes God his All. 1. This Soul will love to draw near to God To draw near to him by Faith by Prayer and in all the Duties and Ordinances of his Worship you read in the last verse of this 73 Psalm It is good for me to draw near to God So saith every one that makes God his All Oh I love to draw near to God One day in the Courts of the Lord is better to me than a thousand elsewhere I was glad when they said unto me Come let us go into the house of the Lord Whilst others say unto God Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways Job 21. 14. And again chap. 22. 17. They said unto God Depart from us and what can the Almighty do for us We shall get no good by Gods drawing near to us nor by our drawing near to him and in the 15th verse of the 21 chap. of Job What is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit should we have if we pray unto him This is the language of the men of the world their words are indeed stout against the Lord but saith the Soul that makes God his All it 's good for me whatsoever the sentiments and apprehensions of carnal ones are this I am sure of it 's good for me I believe it to be good and I have found it to be good all the people of God say it's good for them and I will say it's good for me to draw near to God Lord saith Peter Whither should I go but unto thee Thou hast the words of eternal life Lord saith this Soul Whither should I go but unto thee I love I love to come to thee for thou art my All and all my Springs are in thee and slow from thee 2. He is one that fears to sin against God He fears indeed nothing more his Motto is Nil nisi peccatum timeo There is nothing in all the world that I fear more than sin because this is the only thing that can separate between him and his God and that can make a partition wall between him and his great All. He fears sin more than suffering and will chuse it rather than iniquity because suffering doth not separate between the Soul and God. He fears sin more than poverty than sickness than death it self for none of these can separate between the Soul and God. He knows what is exprest Rom. 8. ver 35 c. That tribulation distress persecution famine nakedness peril or sword neither height nor depth death or life i. e. The pains of death or the afflictions and sorrows of life can separate from the love of God in Christ Jesus therefore he fears sin more than all Sin is against God suffering is only afflictive to the Creature It 's sin only that causes God to hide his Face from us and to set his Face against us 3. When other things come into Competition with God this Soul that accounts God his All will leave them and cleave to God. If he can't injoy Father and Mother Brethren and Sisters Houses and Lands with God he will leave them all because they are not his All and will cleave to God. As Rath left her Kindred and her Fathers house and joyned her self to Naomi And as it 's said a man shall leave his Father and Mother and shall cleave to his Wife in like manner will that Soul do whose All the Lord is As Mephibosheth said Let Ziba take all since the King is returned in peace 2 Sam. 19. 29 So saith he Let all go I am willing to forgo them all if God will return to me in peace and abide with me I shall say My lines are fallen in a fruitful place and truly I have a goodly heritage Sometimes we may see a Servant following two Gentlemen but unto which of these the Servant belongs we can't tell until they part asunder and then the Servant will go with the one and leave the other While we can have God and the world both it 's hard to say which is our All and which is our Master that we desire to serve but when they come to part asunder and we can no longer injoy God and the world together that Soul whose All the Lord is will resolve with Joshua that he will serve the Lord and as the Needle in the Compass leaves all the other points and stands to the North so will he leave all his other injoyments and joyn himself to the Lord in an everlasting Covenant to love the name of the Lord to fear him and serve him for ever 4. Such as these will not be envious at the foolish when they see the prosperity of the wicked I mean this temptation will not abide in and upon them they will not remain under the power of it though they may be surprized with it but they will soon get out of it He that makes God his All cannot but see that tho' they seem to possess all things yet indeed they have nothing that they are more to be pitied than to be envyed and that they have