Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A60344
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An earnest call to family-religion, or, A discourse concerning family-worship being the substance of eighteen sermons / preached by Samuel Slater.
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Slater, Samuel, d. 1704.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing S3961; ESTC R25152
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217,672
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342
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himself to have and own the Lord for his God And Abijah the Son of Ieroboam in whom there was found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel An Obadiah that fear'd the Lord from his youth a Iosiah whose heart was tender so that he humbled himself and wept before the Lord a young Iohn that was the Beloved Disciple of our Lord Jesus and lay in his Bosom and a Timothy who knew the Scriptures of a Child And this Age as vile as it is is not altogether barren but some such are to be found among us though too few the Lord knoweth too too few if compared with the rest of the World do you dear hearts add to the number be you Trees of Righteousness Plants of Renown Two things I do earnestly desire for you viz. that you may be holy now and happy for ever that you may spend your time as you ought and then have a blessed Eternity live to purpose and die in peace Husband and lay out this life wisely and make sure of a better I wish you the good things of this World full out so far and so much as will be good for you but withal better things too for really such is my esteem of you that however the Sons of the Earth rate them I look not upon them as good enough to make up a Portion for you they are too little and low and fading they perish in the using may Iehovah whose is the Earth and fulness thereof bestow upon you such a part as will make you serviceable to him and life comfortable to you and while you have it so use and improve it that when it shall fail you you may not miss of the delights and glories of Eternity To this end I beseech you begin betimes do not imbezzle and squander gway your choicest Seasons your golden hours lay not out the very best you have upon the World the Flesh and the Devil thinking to reserve for God the dregs and refuse Oh! how sweet is early Religion how beautiful a green head found in the way of Righteousness how pleasant to see tender Plants bringing forth Fruit unto God Are you descended of good Parents do not degenerate let the Faith that was in them be in you also like precious Faith are your Lines cast in Religious Families walk worthy of the mercy and keep peace with them in the way of God It is your unhappiness to be in wicked Families do not learn their ways partake not with them in their Sins be not tainted by them nor worse for them remembring there were Saints in Nero's House and that it is great indeed truly noble to be good in the midst of bad examples of many discouragements and of great opposition such I would fain have you to be and the more such the better That you may be such beg of God by Prayer and consider what I can but hint to you Study well your own case the vileness of your hearts and the miserableness of your State by Nature whatever you have to commend you unto Men there is more than enough to render you odious and abominable unto God Abhor therefore your selves bewail your condition and get out of it as fast as you can which you can no other way do but by getting into Christ who is the only City of Refuge unto which Sinners may flee for safety the Rock of Salvation in which they may hide and upon it build who died that he might redeem from Sin and Wrath and lives to receive and embrace all those that come unto him go then to him and beg of him that you may be washed with his blood and sanctified by his Spirit that he would please to be a Principle of Spiritual Life in you and the Author of Eternal Salvation to you Be thankful for restraints that you are not so bad as others but rest not in them nor in any external performances or the most lovely form of Godliness but look after a saving change that there be in you the root of the matter an heart sincerely set against sin and for God Avoid all loose bad Company even as you would the Devil for his Children they are and the works of the Father they will do and his designs they will be carrying on in all places where they are Can a Man touch Pitch and not be defiled therewith or familiarly converse with with wicked Men or lewd vain Women and not be in danger of learning their manner walk with wise Men so you may learn wisdom delight in them that fear the Lord and associate with those here with whom you would chuse to be in the other World Be not strangers to the necessary and excellent duty of Prayer but delight to make it your business every day keep not away from Family-duties but bless God for them and be serious and fervent in them yet think not your selves by them discharged from attendance upon God and seeking his face in your private retirements honour your Parents and other Governours and study to please them well in all things in the Lord. Open your ear to Doctrine and be ready to learn and practice all that is good Hear the instruction of your Father and forsake not the Law of your Mother let them not depart from your eyes but keep them in the midst of your heart for they are life unto them that find them and health unto all their Flesh. In your behaviour be sober modest and chast humble and loving to all you have to do with faithful to your trust and diligent in your business mind your Masters interest as much as if it were your own God will bless you the better for it when you are removed from all Spectators so that no body on earth sees you remember there is one above that doth and let that awe and preserve you from sin for he is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity Love all vertue and goodness hate all vice all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit govern your selves well keep your hearts with all diligence make a Covenant with your eyes set a watch before the door of your lips give honour to Superiours be respective to your equals courteous to your inferiours civil and obliging to all morose and imperious froward and quarrelsom with none wise and prudent in looking to your Concerns and managing all your Affairs consider every motion that is made to you before you embrace and close with it ponder your actions before you do them that you may not make more work for Repentance than you need and weigh your words before you speak them Moses suffer'd greatly for speaking unadvisedly with his lips keep your selves from Sin as that which tends to your destruction and avoid vanity and lightness as that which will issue in your disparagement Sweet youth let me perswade and prevail with you to remember your Creator in the days of your youth own him as your great Lord from whom you had
in gracious discourses and pouring out your Souls to God in prayer Now faith famous Mr. Perkins upon this very place if it be the duty of men to pray every where then certainly in their Families where God hath set them in so near a Relation one to another Thirdly We are commanded to pray continually or to pray always as in that fore-mentioned Ephes. 6. Praying always with all prayer Which words of the Apostle we are not to understand as if praying must ingross and take up all our time and we had nothing else to do but live Drones like a company of lazy Beggars that will not work though they are able Prayer indeed is a very considerable part of a Christians duty yet it is but a part There are various duties which he hath to perform and much other work of the Lord in which he ought to abound There is reading of the Scriptures singing of Psalms hearing the Word serious meditation and self-examination as well as prayer There is instructing of Youth and Catechizing of Children and exhorting one another and provoking one another to Love and to good works as well as praying Yea and there is tending of the Shop and working in the Trade and looking to the Children and washing of the house and providing for the Family and several other things and must be done We must have respect to all Gods Commandments and labour to fill up our places and to stand compleat in all the will of God concerning us Therefore when the Apostle speaks of our praying always understand it thus pray in every thing for so we are required to do in another Scripture Phil. 4.6 Be careful for nothing i. e. with a distrustful care with a solicitous and anxious care with a distracting disquieting care But in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make your requests known unto God Pray in great things as believing the greatness of God's Power and pray in little things as believing also the extensiveness of his Care Pray over thy Calling because it is not the diligent hand alone but the Divine Blessing with it that makes rich Pray over your Meat and Drink and go not to your Tables as Swine to their Trough knowing that Creatures cannot befriend or serve you any further than as they are commissioned and assisted by God When Ministers go to study let them pray because it is the Spirit of Truth that must lead them into all Truth They will make sad work of it if God be not with their heads in studying their Sermons and with their mouths in delivering them And when People come to hear let them pray under and after all our Labours they will learn nothing to purppose they will not be wise to Salvation unless they are taught of God Thus to pray alway is to pray in every thing Again To pray always is to pray in every condition When you are High as knowing you are neither out of the reach of Trouble nor too good to serve and wait upon God And when you are Low as knowing you are not out of the reach of the Everlasting Arms but still there is hope in Israel concerning you Pray in Sickness and in Health too for it is God that must remove the former preserve and continue the latter Pray in Advrrsity for it is God that must support and comfort under that and Prosperity for it is God that must sanctifie that and give you an heart and wisdom to improve it Pray in Trouble that God would not be a Terrour to you in Danger that he would be a Defence to you and the Rock of your Refuge and in Peace that your Halcion days may neither be overcast nor abus'd By Prayer in Adversity shew your trusting in God and believing no case to be desperate which he will please to undertake and by Prayer in Prosperity shew to others your dependence upon God and your expectations being wholly from him and that you live more upon a Father in Heaven than you do upon any or all the Creatures here below Once again Pray always that is pray daily pray every day This is to be not only a Sabbath days work as I am inform'd some penurious strait-lac'd Professors make it no no it ought 〈◊〉 to be your every day-work Sure I am there is a great deal of reason for it We do commit sin and contract much guilt every day therefore it becomes us to repent and confess and it concerns us to sue out our pardon every day We have our Dangers visible and invisible Dangers every day therefore should be daily hiding our selves under our Fathers gracious wing and craving the Divine Protection We have Mercies every day a continued succession of them an innumerable number of them they follow us they load us they compass us about therefore we should have our Sacrifices of Praise and as persons of ingenuity pay our thankful acknowledgments to God every day Further we have our Wants every day we want our daily Bread and our daily Pardon we want daily Supplies Our Cistern would soon be empty if God should cut off the stream of his goodness we want daily Supports and should quickly drop into the Grave yea into nothing if God should withdraw his hand and let go his hold of us And we want a daily blessing without which all our contrivances are vain and all our endeavours fruitless If God do not say go and prosper we had as good sit still and therefore there is very great reason why we should have our daily prayers We are commanded by our Saviour to pray and not to faint for this end he spake a Parable Luk. 18.1 and by the Apostle to continue instant in prayer Rom. 12.12 that is to pray daily which was signified and taught by the daily Sacrifice under the Law concerning which you may read in Exod. 29. It is said in the 42 verse This shall be a continual Burnt-Offering thorow-out your Generations at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation before the Lord where I will meet you to speak there unto thee This shall be a continual Burnt-Offering this what If you look back to the 38th and 39th verses you will see This is that which thou shalt offer upon the Altar two Lambs of the first year day by day continually the one Lamb thou shalt offer in the morning and the other Lamb shalt thou offer at Even Where you may take notice of this that the offering up of these two Lambs every day is called a continual Burnt-Offering And Mr. Answorth upon the place tells us that daily Sacrifice signified the continual sanctification of the Church through Faith in Christ the Lamb of God by whose mediation we and our actions are accepted of God and likewise he there tells us the Hebrew Doctors say the continual Sacrifice of the Morning did make atonement for the sins that were done in the night and the Evening Sacrifices made atonement for iniquities