Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A36315
|
Captives bound in chains made free by Christ their surety, or, The misery of graceless sinners and their recovery by Christ their saviour by T. Doolittle.
|
Doolittle, Thomas, 1632?-1707.
|
1674
(1674)
|
Wing D1880A; ESTC R26727
|
110,624
|
225
|
to walk strictly before the Lord yet come and do it else something will befall thee shortly that thou shalt say is hard to suffer 5. This difficulty that thou findest in religious duties is because as yet thou hast no strength but what is thine own to do them with but if thou dost renounce the Devil and the flesh and give thy self to God and Christ thou shalt have help from Heaven and then they will be more easie to thee While thou art in bonds of sin thou hast neither strength nor skill to do them with and that makes it hard but if God make thee free thou shalt have both and then it will be easie If thou wantest skill God will shew thee and if thou wantest strength God will help thee and then praying work and repenting work will go more smoothly forward When God shall come and break and melt thy heart it will be more easie to repent when God shall come and give to thee a sight and sense of thy sins and wants of thy want of grace and pardon of thy want of Christ and a renewed heart it will be more easie for thee to bewail thy sins and to pray and beg supplies for what thou wantest God is not an hard Master to his servants to put them upon work and give them neither power nor reward for he gives both to those that in sincerity give up themselves unto his service That though without Christ we can do nothing Joh. 15. 5. yet being strengthened by Christ we can do all things in order to the saving of our Souls Phil. 4. 13. and the spirit is purchased and promised by Christ to help the weaknesses and infirmities of his servants Rom. 8. 26. he shall help thee unto words in prayer to express thy wants thy heart and thy desires unto God and when thou wantest words he shall help thee with sighs and sobs and tears which are powerful pleadings with the Lord who understandeth the stammerings and the groanings of his Children Rom. 8. 27. Thus we have shewed the second Chain with which these Captives are bound the Prejudice of their hearts against the holy ways of Gods Redeemed and free new-born people and have endeavoured to cut it in twain to knock it off but alas this is too hard a work for man to do for any Minister upon earth to do or for any Angel in Heaven to do Sinners are so fast locked in their fetters that it requires Almighty power to break them that the captive may escape and be set at liberty Oh that therefore God would come and burst and break it quite asunder Oh that God would come and take it off were it but from one or two amongst you this day that though you came captives in your chain yet you might go home free-men and at liberty but yet something is required from you that you should consider and weigh with your selves impartially and deliberately what hath been said to remove this prejudice of your hearts which makes you like your present captive-state and not desirous to come forth from it and if what hath been spoken is not sufficient ground to silence these carnal pleas I beg the prayers of the Congregation for me that God would forgive my weakness and pardon my unskilfulness that know no better how to deliver a message from the Lord and to pray that for the future I might be more fitted for this weighty work but if there be evidence of truth in what hath been delivered and spoken in your ears I charge you in the name of the dreadful and eternal God in the name of Christ my Lord that sent me that you do not slight it if I have spoken my own words fling them back in my face and tell me that I lie but if it be according to the Scripture then slight them at your peril either shew wherein I have erred or else submit unto it but if thou whosoever thou art or what name soever thou art called by art convinced in thy Conscience and thy reason and judgment is satisfied that these grounds of Prejudice have been made appear to be vain and frivolous and yet shalt upon these accounts chuse rather to continue in thy captive state than come to Christ and be made free and goest to thy grave and hell with these fetters on thy Soul know that thou art hereby rendred inexcusable CHAP. V. The Third Chain is the love of the world 3. A Third Chain wherewith these Captives are bound is the immoderate and prevailing love of the profits and riches of this world This bindeth thousands fast that they will not cannot stir or move or come to Christ that they may be set at liberty these are bound with chains of gold and because they are golden chains therefore they like them so much the more the Devil doth not care for cost if by all he can keep you still in bondage he will not grudg you the riches of the world if he can keep you out of heaven Many moral men that have escaped the gross pollutions of the world that are no Swearers nor Drunkards nor openly profane that bless themselves with the thoughts of their supposed good condition yet are as sure the Devils prisoners and in slavery and bondage and shall as certainly perish and be damned except they get this bond broken as any Drunkard in the Town or Parish where they live Believe this as a certain truth for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it turn and read Ephes 5. 5. Shall not the Whoremonger be saved nor the World monger neither Shall not the unclean person inherit the Kingdom of God no nor the person that hath his heart and affections set upon the world And the Holy Ghost gives a reason because such a man is an Idolater making his Gold his god that love and delight and joy which God should have is given to the world and that God will never bear that hope and trust which should be placed in the living God is placed in uncertain riches and this the jealous God will never brook Turn again to Col. 3. 5 6. God tells you this over and over in one place after another that so you might the more beware of being kept in bondage by this golden chain which is so very strong that the Lord doth tell us the love of money is the root of all evil 1 Tim. 6. 10. There are many branches of sin which shoot out in the lives of men but all do grow upon this root the heart being fixed in its love unto the world 1. Omissions of duty neglect of Closet and Family-prayer worldliness is the root the heart is so eager after riches that they have no time nor leisure for better things and when they have time yet the worldly heart is indisposed to perform them and is listless to Heavenly employment 2. Commissions of sin the use of false balances and deceitful measures over-reaching breach of promises falsifying their
to the service of the Lord neither wouldst thou do it if one came to thee from â—e dead Luk. 16. 27 to the end 5. What if thou hadst been in hell thy self a month or two and felt the pains and torments there and God should let thee out again and put thee in the same capacity as now thou art in and place thee again under the same means and ministry as now thou dost enjoy and the same Doctrine should be preached unto thee and the same offers of Christ and pardon of heaven and eternal life as now thou hearest Wouldst thou then hearken to our Doctrine and renounce the Devils service and beg and pray that God would knock off thy fetters and thy chains and of a slave of Satan make thee a willing servant of the blessed and the living God Or wouldst tâ—ou still live as now thou dost and hope again upon the same grounds as now that thou shouldst not the second time be cast into that place of torments Oh then why then wilt thou not believe that God that cannot lye as well as thy own experience Though this God will never do he will never try thee again nor set thee in this life again for once in hell and for ever there God will not give thee a second life to mend what was amiss in thy living upon earth If thou thinkest thou shouldst be more careful if God should try thee after he had damned thee that thou mayest not be damned again why shouldst thou not be as careful now that thou mayest not be damned at all What then poor captive sinner wilt thou after all this that hath been said go on in sin and yet hope thou shalt do well Or shall the Devil still keep thee in captivity and hold thee fast in this bond and chain of a false perswasion that thy state is good and groundless hopes that thou shalt be saved I am afraid he will oh I do greatly fear he will Poor prisoner what dost thou think of what ailes thee why art thou no more concerned at the hearing of these things wilt thou still remain in the fools paradise why do I preach and why dost thou come and hear if thou wilt not regard what is spoken to thee from the word of God in the name of God Oh how hard a thing is it to stand and view so many Souls and think after all the study pains prayer and preaching for you and to you so many should still be in the Devils fetters and are going in chains to the prison of hell and bound fast in sin to a place of everlasting torments Oh how shall I do to bear the thoughts of your damnation O it is a burden it is a burden it is indeed a heavy burden to my Soul to think that any of you should be damned that you should go from hence to hell from a place of solemn worship to a place of torment and of blasphemy Do you think it is not enough to break a poor Ministers heart to preach and labour that your bonds may be broken and your souls escape and set at liberty and after all you are in fetters still Were it not that some do hearken and obey were it not that some give great grounds of hope that they are leaving off the Devils service and that their Chains are broke it would be a sore temptation to preach no more but alas though some are set at liberty what shall we do for the rest that still remain in bonds especially in this that is so strong a false perswasion that you are already free and false hopes that you shall be for ever saved Sirs the stronger is your false hopes the greater is poor Ministers true and real sorrow and the more you hope for heaven upon such slender grounds the more we do despair of being instruments to help you out the more confident we see you to be that you are not in bondage the more discouragement it is unto us for if we set forth the misery of these Captives we lose our labour as to you because you think you are not the persons if we exhort and direct you to look after liberty as to you we lose our labour because you are perswaded strongly though falsly that you are free already whereas if you did see your selves in chains and were sensible of your bonds there were more hopes that we might prevail with you to accept of a Redeemer Oh that God would break this bond Oh that God would open your eyes that you may see that you are Captives and not be so vainly confident that you are made free Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes fountains of tears that I might night and day lament the woful state of these Captives that are on their way to hell and yet think they are in the way to heaven But let me leave this particular by leaving this with such presuming Captives that if you will hope while your eyes are open yet when death shall close your eyes you shall hope no more let me commend unto you the serious study of three places of Scripture and I will procede unto the next The first is Job 8. 13. The hypocrites hope shall perish 14. Whose hope shall be cut off and whose trust shall be a spiders web If your hope perish shall not your souls perish too If your hope be cut off will not your souls be cut short of heaven hoped for if your hope be as a Spiders web can it be a sure hope can the Spiders web stand before the broome God at furthest with the besom of death shall sweep your hope away The second is Job 11. 20. But the eyes of the wicked shall fail and they shall not escape and and their hope shall be as the giving up of the Ghost Thou poor Captive lookest for heaven but thy eyes shall fail before thou hast it thou lookest for happiness but thou shall look thy eyes out before without being made free by Christ thou shalt enjoy it thou hopest thou shalt escape wrath and hell but thou shalt not escape it is the true infallible God that saith thou shalt not escape and thy hope shall be as the giving up of the Ghost in these respects 1. A man is loth to give up the Ghost it is the last thing he doth Thou art loth to give up thy false hopes of heaven except God prevent it it will be the last thing thou wilt do 2. A man must give up the Ghost though he be never so loth to do it he would not dye but he must thou must at last give over hoping though thou keep this hope till thou dyest yet then thou shalt hope no more it is as impossible for you to keep these hopes for ever as it is for you to live upon earth for ever 3. A man that gives up the Ghost by all the power on earth cannot be called to life again When thy soul and body