unprofitableness herein you are cruel to your selves when you fondly think it's self-indulgence you destroy your selves and yet weakly pretend to self-advantage Reflections upon your madness herein will be a great part of your torment Perhaps you have not thought what you expect from others tho' they must be unobliged to you upon the same Reasons as you can give for your being free from the Duty of Usefulness to them to say nothing of what you expect from the blessed God and what every Moment you receive tho' you so ill requite him Did not you expect your Parents Care the Magistrates Defence your Ministers Labours your Neighbours Favour and Help How would you be dealt by if you were in the case of the Poor or Distressed and they in yours Would you think it well done in all or any of these to be as unconcerned selfish oppressive cruel or useless as you resolve to be to them in what-ever Capacity or Relation you stand Our Lord's Rule was approved by Pagans tho' condemned by you Matth. 7.12 What would become of the Interest of Christ the Welfare of the Nation the Good of Societies Religious or Civil if every Man were as selfish and unconcerned for a common Good as you resolve to be All Safety Harmony Liberties Order and Comfort would be expelled and their contraries alone take place But if this state of Things be thy abhorrence ask thy self Why should not all others be as selfish as I am if it be justifiable in me Or why should not I be as publick Spirited as they if it be praise-worthy and useful in them Are you an ill Magistrate why should any others be better Are you an unfaithful Minister why should any others be more faithful Are you careless of the common Liberties of your Country or City why should any other in your station be more concerned Are you strait-handed to the Poor wherefore should others of your Estate be more liberal Are you indifferent about the Truth Interest and Gospel of Christ why should any other in your circumstances more expose themselves You must consent that all these may as justly excuse themselves from benefiting others as you can or else you are most basely spirited to think others should serve a Common Good that you may share therein but that you must be excepted from contributing to that Service that so you may pursue your own private Interest the more Directions Weigh these things often and deliberately judge of thy Resolves not to serve thy Generation Go and humble thy self before God and earnestly pray to him in Christ's Name to change thy Heart subdue thy Lusts and give thee another Spirit Enter into Covenant with Christ to deny thy self to take up thy Cross and follow him From this time firmly engage in Christ's strength that thou wilt not consult thy flesh in thy undertakings but keep thy self from under the influence of a narrow Spirit and base Lusts as being very ill Advisers in thy course of Life and as unfit Disposers of thy Estate Gifts or Power Set upon doing publick Good presently tho' it be with great reluctancy at first the less good thou hast hitherto done now attempt to do the more And the later you begin redeem the remainder of your days by the greater Projects and more vigorous Endeavours Pray earnestly and attend Gospel Means for sincere love to God and Man and for a believing sight of invisible Things and keep your Consciences under a tender lively sence of God's Authority and the Day of Judgment 2. To such as are unfeignedly willing to serve their Generation account it a greater Mercy than the greatest Estates or Abilities with a narrow Soul which thereby would be a Snare Abhor a suggestion as if God dealt hardly by you in making service your Duty or inclining you to it for in the first God's Wisdom and Goodness in the Government of this World appears In the last he hath honoured and benefited you in anointing you his Instruments Our Lord Jesus was wont to say It is more blessed to give than to receive Acts 20.35 Which the Apostle useth as a Motive to Mens labouring that they might support the weak relieve the needy c. We imitate God as far as we are beneficent for he is the Fountain whence all Wants are supplied tho' he is benefited by none and yet for our Encouragement in doing Good he is pleased to account himself a Borrower Prov. 19. v. 17. He that hath pity on the Poor lendeth to the Lord. Not that you can give what is not his already but that he is as sure to re-pay as if you lent it to him But this Head being too general to admit so distinct an Application as the several Sorts and Conditions of such be who are truly willing to serve their Generation requires I shall address my self to them in these several Instances which distinguish their Cases and give suitable Directions 1. To such as are capable of no very great service to their Generation as being of small Estates low Parts and the like Serve you your Generation as you can in your lower Place To which end beg God's Direction that you may not mistake your Place or Work nor be left to your self in the meanest Service Go not out of your own Calling for God will neither accept nor bless Encroachments on other Mens Work nor your usurpation of Power of your own Heads no nor at their pleasure who are not authorized to give it 1 Cor. 7.20 Levit. 10. 1. Do not presumptuously attempt what is above your ability for that 's not your Duty and it may turn to publick detriment Take care that you pretend not publick Usefulness as a Cover to an idle neglect of your Callings or pragmatical Business in what belongs not to you For this discovers your corruption and will end in hurt and scandal Be sure that what you give to Good Uses be your own and not what is another Man's For this is Fraud and not Charity and instead of being liberal you will be unjust And yet be conscientiously ready and vigorous to do all the good you can your lesser Ability must be as faithfully used as if it were greater nor will your having no more excuse your unprofitableness with what you have Instruct your Family tho' you are not Preachers pray for and be affected with the state of the Church of God and the Nation if you can do no more Vote for good Men into Office encourage faithful Ministers as you are able give to what Poor you can and acquaint others with the case of such you cannot relieve your selves What little Good you can do let it be done chearfully and from love See that you use Diligence and avoid all Waste in your Persons and Families that you may be capable of doing the greater good Be favoury in Discourse exemplary in Life and ready to help those who know less than your selves And lastly Do not envy others
THE EXCELLENCY OF A Publick Spirit Set forth in a SERMON Preach'd since much enlarged at the FUNERAL Of that late Reverend Divine Dr. SAMVEL ANNESLEY Who departed this Life Dec 31. 1696. In the 77th Year of his Age. With a Brief Account of His LIFE and DEATH By Daniel Williams Minister of the Gospel LONDON Printed for Iohn Dunton at the Raven in Iewen street 1697. To that Flock of Christ over which the Reverend Dr. Annesley was lately Pastor Much honoured and esteemed THis presents you with a Discourse for substance preached and printed at your desire I faintly hope its acceptance with many when Iustice is become a stranger and a meer honest Man a glorius Title Publick Usefulness must scarce escape with the Brand of Folly with those whole Trade is turned into tricking or account publick Employs no more than a decent opportunity to cheat the People But Truth may profit them unless a Zeal for their Disease will not allow their reading what is directed for their recovery To you and some others this Subject must appear too plainly instamp'd with God's Image and Authority and a tendency to Common Weal to admit the Censure of a Narrow Spirit however disguised to be it's Standard Especially when this is what commended your late Pastor to such unusual Affection as you expressed to him living dying yea when dead Yet this might be expected seeing his very Spirit is transfused into his People by whose Bounty in good part he performed such great Things for a common Good Few Ministers had such cause of glorying in so many Publick Spirited Hearers as yours Mr. Denham Mr. Hartley Mr. Cockerill with many now at rest might be named the living I scarce forbear The Sermon is much enlarged and the Method somewhat changed that it may more contribute to common Serviceableness What 's more desirable than to Vseful in making others so Hence the eminent Services of Mr. Brand so revived the Dr. And hereby we most extend and pertuate publick Benefits yea oft above our own Ability and beyond our Life Promote you that Design in this barren Age by putting this Tract into Hands who need it and by your own vigorous Example and Prayer's that it may be seen the Spring of your Charity and Christian Activeness is more lasting than the Exemplary Life or Labours of your deceased Guide May you find in Spirituals and Externals there is that scattereth and yet increaseth The liberal Soul shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered also himself And all of us be excited to more holy Fervour by the Death of two such as Dr. Annesley and fervent Mr. Oldfield in one Day and worthy Mr. James soon after I am Your Servant in the Gospel Daniel Williams THE EXCELLENCY OF A Publick Spirit ACTS XIII Ver. 36. For David after he had served his own Generation by the Will of God fell on sleep YOUR Request bringing me hither upon this sad Occasion your Venerable Pastor's Death I have made choice of this Text as proper to inforce an Important Duty which tho' so little regarded by most in our Age yet the deceased was faithful in the practice of yea so Eminent that I hope he will be a moving Example to others in this wherein the signal Excellency of his own Life consisted The words read are part of St. Paul's Sermon to the Iews at Antioch in which after a fit Introduction 1. He proves Jesus to be the Christ from ver 23. to 38. an Article which supposing the knowledge of God hath the greatest influence into all our Religious Hopes and Duties and therefore a firm assent thereto ought to be more endeavoured than I fear is usual with many who boast of a Christian Name This point he argues from these Topicks Jesus was of David's Seed which the Christ was to be 23 24. Jesus was he whom Iohn in such esteem with them did bear Testimony to that he was the Christ 24 25. In the unjust condemnation and barbarous killing of this Jesus the Iews had unwittingly fulfilled in every circumstance all the Prophecies which foretold the unjust and cruel usuages the Christ should meet with 27 28 29. This Jesus God had certainly raised from the Dead according as it was in several places Prophesied of the Christ and promised to him which Resurrection was God's Testimony concerning him that he was his Eternal Son Incarnate But lest any might object that that Text Ps. 16. 10. was fulfilled in David the Apostle obviates this by shewing that David lay in his Grave so long as to putrifie which the Christ was not to do neither did our Jesus and by this occasion the words of my Text are introduced as David's Praise which the Apostle would not omit tho' his Argument lies in that part of the Verse which I have not read viz. He saw Corruption And the following v. 38 39. are both Arguments for Jesus being the Christ in that forgiveness of sin to which the Mosaick Ceremonies and Sacrifices were altogether unavailable but as Types and Shadows respecting what Jesus did and suffered was preached through this Iesus 2. And also a serious offer of forgiveness to all of them made in the Name and Authority of our Saviour Christ. 3. He inforceth this with an awakening caution viz. That they prevent not their own Salvation yea aggravate not their Misery by rejecting this Jesus the Christ the Lord q. d. the Lord Jesus fulfilling all that 's foretold of his Death and Resurrection his being the Crucified and Risen Saviour yea the offer of that blessed forgiveness he purchased will not suffice to your Salvation unless you also trust and receive him Nay if you receive him not and accept not Salvation in the way he proposeth your punishment will be sorer than if forgiveness had been never offered yea than if there were no Saviour v. 40 41. for the profitable matter not the meer connexion having thus far diverted I assume the Text which gives us account 1. Of David's Publick Usefulness while living he served his own Generation by the Will of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being alike governed by the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 causeth another reading to be as Grammatical viz. After he had served the Will of God in his own Generation that of Erasmus being too remote to deserve much regard viz. That he fell asleep by the Will of God yet the sence of both readings alike secures the great Duty of Publick Usefulness to be David's Praise for if you prefer the latter his Service is determined to the Publick Weal in his own Generation tho' it may more expresly include also his care for his own Soul by his obedience to God's Will as prescribing the Rule by which we must be saved which was the Gospel Law then as truly as it 's now of which a faithful improvement of our Talents is no small part But the order of the words most favours
all else fails you Psalm 73.26 When the Onset is vigorous and begins to impress be then strong in the Lord and in the power of his might Eph. 6.10 To that End remember whose Cause you plead and who employs you Read oft your Commission where you will find a promise fit to revive your very fainting Spirit Matth. 28.20 Lo I am with you to the end of the World One less faithful and compassionate than our Saviour is if possessed of Power would not suffer any Servant he employed to sink in a Business wherein himself hath the greatest concernment If your Hearts be upright and you have God's Work in hand the more eminently you are employed the greater Supports you 'll find and in the most difficult Enterprize he is careful to give the greatest assurance Ier. 1. 7 8 18. Ezek. 3. 8 9. One promise he can so spirit and fill with Power that it shall set thy Soul above all Fears and cause Strength to advance to thy own feeling in very extremity above what it appeared in the easiest of thy ways Trust then in him with thy whole Heart And because what repels our Fears tends to encourage us it 's not improper oft seriously to think what far greater mischiefs we escape by not drawing back or doing the work of the Lord deceitfully than what can attend a faithful discharge of our work which hath so great a reward when finished Heb. 10.38 Rev. 3.5 Herewith I have finished an Account of what 's necessary to support us under the Difficulties attending publick Usefulness viz. Humility mortifiedness to the World and Christian Fortitude 3. Several things are needful as tending to secure or at least facilitate the success of your Work persisted in Herein we should be solicitous that as much as in us lies the End we propose may not be defeated but that those receive that profit which we sincerely conduce to by our Endeavours whereby we may eventually prove Blessings to them To this End 1. You must duly address your selves to God to engage his Help Be much in Prayer to and dependance on God through Christ our Mediator Look to him for Direction that you may not mistake your Work nor the best way to perform it Seek to him for abundant Anointings that you may not be unqualified in proportion to your Undertaking His constant Assistance and Blessing must be fervently implored Neh. 1.11 without which your most probable Attempts will be vain yea turn to your reproach and shame And that you may be in the likelier posture for a gracious Return keep all clear between God and your own Consciences regard to iniquity in your heart Psal. 66.18 Rely on Christ's Merits and Intercession and be always ready to ascribe to God the entire Glory of all your serviceableness and success for he is a jealous God and generally blasteth that wherein he is not acknowledged we must make God all in all if we would signifie any thing 2. Be careful of your own Behaviour before those to whom you endeavour to be profitable that it conduce to and do not hinder your Usefulness Prevent all Prejudices gain their Affection and Esteem possess them with a sence of your Kindness to them good Designs towards them and your own Belief of and earnestness of Soul for the matters you call them to entertain and submit to exercise great Patience Meekness and Tenderness and see that your whole Behaviour be circumspect and your Life exemplary 1 Pet. 5.3 that they may find no just Exception against your Doctrine or Endeavours If they take occasion unjustly or that by wicked persons you are falsly slandered you may better hope God will prevent the unprofitableness of your Labours or at least accept them Neither is it unfit to be cautious how you dispute with them concerning Secular Interests avoid also fondness of External Respect and yet be as jealous that you forfeit not an Internal Reverence nor prostitute your Authority as you are Christ's Embassadours Rom. 11. 13 14. 3. Labour to attain and use true Wisdom in the ordering of your Endeavours that they may be apt to real Publick Usefulness 1. I call it true Wisdom not only to oppose it to Folly and Indiscretion but also to all Knavish Craftiness God's Cause needs no base Tricks upright Men abhor the use of them Christ seldom prospereth such to serve his Interest but if he over-rule them to any common Good as sometimes he doth other pieces of Wickedness yet he will never justifie or accept such Methods but condemn those ways and them who use them But indeed as base Tricks consist not with sincere Designs of a Publick Good so they are never used with that intention No no let Men's pretences be never so sacred it 's to serve a carnal selfish turn to propagate or uphold some private Faction in opposition to the true Extensive Interests of Christ in the World The eminently Useful could not die in peace if they must not say with the Apostle Our rejoycing is this the Testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly Wisdom but by the Grace of God we have had our Conversation in the World 2 Cor. 1.12 They were wiser than to think that will be accounted a service to Christ in life for which without Repentance he will cast them into Hell at their death This Text may assure us that Paul's Guile with which he caught these very People 2 Cor. 12.16 was not any thing contrary to godly Sincerity which in this Epistle the fore-cited place he had with more than usual care instanced towards them it was therefore no other than honest Wisdom or godly Prudence even that which I have said is so needful to advantage the Success of your well designed Labour it was an instance of his Self-denial not his Self seeking He used his sparing their Purses as a help to save their Souls upon finding their Temper such that the Gospel was like to be less profitable to them if he subsisted by it This was far enough from any misrepresenting and undermining cheating dividing imposing ensnaring and intangling Arts or Methods ways so abominable in the most ordinary Affairs between Man and Man that you should tremble at a thought of using them in matters enstamped with the Name of God yea tho' it were but in defending a Publick Good and your self from the dangerous attempts of such as practise them 2. Yet true Wisdom and Prudence be very needful to direct your just Endeavours in the greatest aptness to succeed with all those whom you design to benefit A true Judgment of Persons and Seasons with a direct regard to the End and an exquisite understanding of the nature of the various lawful Means will qualifie you to chuse the fittest Means to that End with those Persons God's Word Prayer Consideration and Experience must be your helps to arrive to Wisdom and be sure to exercise and apply to all your Endeavours the
in my Reformation Safety or Liberty c. Your Families have a Right to Godly Education as well as other Benefits but they do testifie against you as injurious in not instructing perswading and striving with them to rescue them from the power of the Devil and to become devoted to the Lord. The Poors cryes go up to Heaven against you for keeping back their Portion of your Substance and denying that Advice and Help whereby you might have made them useful and comfortable Such just Complaints may well touch their Hearts against whom they are directed perhaps you would hate to defraud any Man in what the Laws of the Land declare unjust but is not the Law of Nature and the positive Laws of God as sufficient to determine what 's Just or Unjust as Humane Laws can be And these do accuse you to be injurious to Men in your wilful unprofitableness But besides all this it may be many are exclaiming against you among the Damned already as accessary to their Miseries by your neglects as well as otherwise They are dead in their sin for want of thy reproof and thy slackness in pulling them out as Brands out of the burnings If our Hearts have any tenderness under a sence of so many and manifest injuries we must feel this Wickedness much embittered to us 5. You should blush at and bewail your Unusefulness as it is a great hurt to your selves Unprofitable persons govern themselves by a great mistake in that they fall into mischief the way they think to escape it to avoid Self-hurt they refrain being useful to others but you 'll find that thereby you incur a far greater damage For fear of loss you kept from others what you ought to have laid out for their Relief and you think it 's so much saved for your own benefit but God will so order matters that all such riches were kept to your own hurt Eccl. 5.13 Whenever power is mis-applied or not exerted for common Benefit that 's the time wherein a Man ruleth over another to his own hurt Eccl. 8.9 Folly when detected is cause of shame Mischief when perceived forceth sorrow in him on whom it falleth it 's your Blindness and Infidelity that you now find not in your great Unusefulness the plainest evidence of both but what Unbelief will not now discern Experience shortly will force the securest of you to acknowledge and that to the filling of you with shame and grief Oh that you would consider your latter end Deut. 32.29 i. e. that you would consider what this selfish barren course will come to what it will end in I can by good warrant assure you it will not be either so comfortable nor gainful as to justifie your Neglects You perhaps will say With what I save by not relieving the Poor or promoting any good Design I shall get an Inheritance the more hastily by so much Is it so Take God's Word for an Answer But the end thereof shall not be Blessed Prov. 20.21 Write that as a Prophecy upon whatever of your Estates God hath forbidden you to lay up by his Call to lay it out The same is applicable to all that Strength Safety Credit or Interest you think you secure by neglecting to serve your Generation the end thereof shall not be blessed To Evidence this and thereby further Convince you that Unusefulness yields reason of shame and sorrow of shame by your folly in it of sorrow by the mischief of it Consider 1. You can keep nothing with a Blessing which you have gotten or saved by Unusefulness very oft God even disappoints Men of getting what they propose to get by their unfaithfulness to him and unusefulness to others with Balaam they miss of what they so greedily desire and some way or other God signally defeats them in the danger they thought to prevent and the benefit they expected so that they are forced to say even at present I have neither saved nor gotten any thing by refusing to serve my Generation I am as poor as if I had laid out for God what I covetously with held Prov. 11.24 I am as much reproached and as little esteemed by these Men for fear of whose Tongues or Dislike I betrayed the Truth as if I had faithfully adher'd to it But upon supposition you have made some present Advantage yet you may not long keep it God may soon blast it to the terror of others Iudas soon parted with the Silver he got by betraying Christ Matth. 27.34 some have been burnt in their House by God's Hand who refused to burn for the Truths sake Ananias soon lost the use of what he reserved from publick Service and his Life to the Bargain Act. 5. cap. Oh! how many remarkable Instances are upon Record of the ruined Families of such as acquir'd Estates by unfaithfulness to God and uncharitableness to Men Their Children could not keep what their Parents perfidiously heaped Nay Examples are very many that did not keep for their own time the Wealth or Reputation which they secured at the price of a common Harm but became Beggarly and Infamous God hath made many Men's Parts to wither and their Health to decay whose Sloth made their Gifts and Strength unuseful to the Publick such a Method God took with Israel when they disregarded God's House and over-regarded their own Hag. 1.4 9 11. Ye looked for much and it came to little and when ye brought it home I did blow upon it Why saith the Lord of Hostes Because of mine House that lies waste and ye run every Man into his own House What advantage they got was small and that soon turned to no Account because of God's Blast it was presently reduced to nothing But supposing God for wise Ends suffer you to keep what you have gotten or saved yet I am sure you cannot keep it with a Blessing If you are Ungodly it 's your Snare which is the worst of Curses If you have serious Spirits you must uneasily enjoy it and use it with bitter reflections as what you hold not with God's Good-will a desecrated accursed thing that hazardeth and curseth the rest which without this might have been possess'd comfortably and safely yea and have been employed to blessed Uses whereas now God disdains to accept or succeed the residue to his Service but he embittereth it to your disquiet as well as emptieth it to your dissatisfaction 2. You shall be great losers by your unusefulness notwithstanding all you can get or save thereby No profit by deceitfulness towards God will countervail the loss you will sustain Bethink you whether you have not lost already more than that amounts to Do you enjoy that peace you once had Have you that free access into his presence as sometimes you found Doth he afford you that communion with himself and tokens of his favour in which you were accustomed to relish the highest delight Have you not less composure and fixedness of Heart when dangers threaten
nor murmur that you are in no higher station than you are for God knew what place of service you were fittest for if you be faithful in that he will accept and reward it and if fit he will capacitate you for higher Work Nay you may prove of far greater use in this station than you can now perceive who knows what success God may give to thy Advice or other Endeavours To thy Children Servants c. and how Eminent they may prove 2. To such as are capable of eminent Service to their Generation and willing to it keep a humble sence of your unworthiness that God should make you able and willing to do him greater service than others and answerably praise him for it as the Sovereign Bestower both of ability and willingness also be watchful over your hearts that your Ends be upright in whatever service you perform and abhor an Opinion of meriting from God by the most you do in all which you have David for a lively Example 1 Chron. 29. 10. to the 17. We thank thee and bless thy glorious Name But who am I and what is my People that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort for all things come of thee all this store cometh of thine hand and is all thine own I know also my God that thou triest the heart and hast pleasure in uprightness c. Do not judge it enough that you perform as great Services as others when you are capable of and called to more nor let the less useful however many of your station prescribe to you for they will not justifie your neglects Let not meer difficulty danger nor expence cause you to conclude yea or to suspect you are not called to this or that eminent Service for your call must be adjusted by other Rules of which be-before where opportunity for great things offer delay not lest that being lost it may not be recalled or more hinderances intervene Judge of Unusefulness and incumbent Service by what your Consciences suggest in great dangers as on a Sick-Bed and in the liveliest frame by fullest communion with God as after the Lord's Supper c. for these are Seasons to make the truest Judgment in what concerneth eminent Usefulness Never make your abilities or activeness serve a Faction as distinguished from much less as opposed to a publick Interest for hereby you act selfishly and not as Christians and will be more hurtful to the publick concernments of Christ than if you did nothing at all and be the more guarded against this because the Heads of Factions will sollicit such as you and Satan will set in with your misguided Zeal as knowing he can make no other use of you now that you are honestly willing to be serviceable If you are persons eminently useful do not hastily govern your Activity by the Opinion of others if weak Men misinterpret your well-adjusted Attempts be you resolved should many good Men blame you never so much for your performance adhere to and still pursue it whiles you have good ground to believe it 's the fittest means to prevent a publick Mischief or produce a general Benefit The Reasons of this Direction are these the Opinion and Censures of most Men are very weak and misguided Satan hath access to the Imagination of good Men and oft employs such to obstruct great Designs Mat. 16. 23. And Men entirely devoted to God in the Service of their Generation after some tiâ—e of faithful acquitting themselves thâ—rein they stand more in God's secret and by experience are fitter to judge of publick good and hurt than other good Men be Whatever offers as your present work do not thinking lesser things needless when you have not greater things at present to undertake for you know not what great good a seemingly small endeavour may do as Advice to a Child this is your present work the most of your time is not filled with opportunities of very great Services these lesser Attemps being very frequent as taking up so much of our time will amount together to great Service a very great part of our lives will be unprofitably spent if we neglect these lower endeavours and most Mens unusefulness is greatly owing to a disregard to these But yet see the greatest Services be still preferred to lesser when in compitition Keep a jealous watch over your selves that no Lusts prescribe your work be admitted into it or nourished by it to which end see that you do nothing through strife or vain-glory Phil. 2. 3. or for covetous ends Despise not others who cannot equal your Service or do need it think not your great Services give you an allowance in any way of sin or that they are a compensation for it or will be accepted in commutation for the opposite duties c. I give this direction because Satan's Wiles are deep and his Attempts on the eminently useful are many various and unwearied the remains of corruption are great in the best Lusts are deceitful and signal Service is an apt occasion to be improved Look to Christ for strength and fervour for fresh Anointings and continual Conduct that you may omit nothing which God assigneth you to do in your Generation nor take up with any excuse which he will not approve of when he comes to judge the secrets of all hearts because of our selves we can do nothing by his strength we can do all Phil. 4. 13. We need new supplies in every new business and the more as its importance is and by dependance we shall and must receive it 3. To Useful persons under discouragements in their Service Still persist in your work for the greater opposition you meet with in it the more likely it is to be subservient to Christ's present Designs and to produce the greater Effects in a common good since Satan is so active to obstruct thee Gird up the loins of your mind and hope to the end 1 Pet. 1. 13. Whatever is a plain duty will bring with it sufficient fitness and not want success in due time no rightly directed labour in the work Christ hath upon the Wheel will be lost tho' success may be delayed and the work seem dead for a season that so the World may be prepared to submit to it and Christ's Victory may appear the greater as it baffleth the Confidence of Satan and his Instruments When ready to faint tell thy Soul I must not be weary in well doing for I shall reap if I faint not You have God as eminently concerned for you and in you as you can be engaged for him his Perfections will uphold you in all that which his Authority sets you upon and he allows you to place to his Account the losses reproaches and hardships you sustain in his Cause neither shall you lose thereby Mark 10. 29. 30. Search lest there be any sin unrepented of which interrupt his supporting Comforts or that you have too much confided in your own Abilities