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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	eye_n	faith_n	reason_n	3,499	5	6.1498	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42350	The Christians labour and reward, or, A sermon, part of which was preached at the funeral of the Right Honourable the Lady Mary Vere, relict of Sir Horace Vere, Baron of Tilbury, on the 10th of January, 1671, at Castle Heviningham in Essex by William Gurnall ...	Gurnall, William, 1617-1679.	1672 (1672)	Wing G2258; ESTC R10932	62,221	185

be the same reason for the Christians labour Answ There is a vast difference betwixt these the nature of Sin and the nature of Good and Holy Actions The evil of sin bears proportion to the object or person offended by it as the object is higher and more excellent so the offence is greater The same offence done to a King is far greater than that which is done to a mean Subject Every sin therefore being committed against an infinite God comes to be an infinite evil and so deserves an infinite punishment But the valour and worth of a good and holy action ariseth not from the excellency of the object but of the subject whose act it is This made Christ his obedience meritorious and satisfactory with God for us because his person who performed it was so excellent of infinite worth and dignity And for the same reason the Christians obedience can deserve nothing his person being so mean and low and performed to God who is so infinitely great and glorious Secondly The Christians labour can deserve no reward at Gods hands as sin doth punishment because the service he doth is due debt he owes it to his God and even men do not use to reward those who pay them a debt nay not thank them So saith our Saviour Doth the Master thank his Servant because he did that he commanded him I trow not Luke 17.9 Thirdly The Christians work and labour falls short of what is due it is blended with sin his Silver is mixed with dross and his Wine with water yea there is but parvum in magno a little silver with an abundance of dross Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags Psal 64.6 Surely that work deserves not a good reward which deserves a punishment Lastly That little which is found truly and spiritually good is not the Christians own but his by whose power it was done The Christian may say of his best performed duty what he of his axe Oh master it is borrowed The act indeed is the Christians own in Believing Repenting and the rest he useth his own faculties but the power by which he is enabled to do so is Christs And therefore he is so far from deserving a reward that he is indebted to God for his assistance and the greater the assistance is the greater is the debt he contracts Instead therefore of expecting thanks from God for what he hath done he owes thanks and praise to God who helped him to do it Thus David 1 Chron. 29.13 Now therefore our God we thank thee and praise 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 and of thine own me have given thee Yet this is the work which God so wonderfully rewards of his Free Grace pugna ego adjuvabo vince ego coronabo Fight and I will help overcome and I will Crown thee God works all in us and then rewards the work as if all had been done by our selves Oh Free Grace never enough admired Mercy Quest But if the reward be so glorious what reason can then be given why so few are found that will labour for it Answ If you expect a good reason there is none can be given but if a true reason will serve it is soon at hand First Because Heaven is a reward that is unseen to the Eye of Sense and Carnal men who make the most in the world have not such an eye as the eye of Faith to make it evident to them they have indeed an eye of Sense in their Head but that like the Sun doth revelare inferiora sed obsignare superiora It shews the good of sensual objects here below but leaves the Glory of Heaven unseen Secondly Heaven is a glorious reward but 't is to come we must wait for it and carnal mens desires are impetuous that will not let them stay so long for their consolation Now the world that offers present pleasure present profit present ease and most men are like beggarly traders who cannot sell for time but must have ready money though they put off their Goods with loss thus do carnal men Give me my Portion said the Prodigal Never thinks what he shall do when that is spent Demas loved this present World 2 Tim. 14.10 Heaven is a great way off they will put that to the adventure occidit modo imperat Let him kill me said Agrippina of her Son only let him reign This is the language of many mens hearts fall back fall edge damned or not damned hereafter so I may have my present lust satisfyed Thirdly Sinners do not like the nature and quality of Heaven Some expressions indeed there are with which it is set forth in Scripture that please them very well were they true in the Letter as when it is set out by a Marriage Feast by Rivers of Pleasures by a Crown and Kingdom A Feast the Glutton likes were the chear such in Heaven as is on his own Table here on Earth if the Wine of that Kingdom were such as is drawn at the Tavern the Drunkard would be for it But a Feast without Sensual fare joy without jollity Musick without Fidling a Crown and Kingdom without worldly Splendour or Pomp are such things as put them quite out of liking with it So that they care for Heaven only when they can have Earth no longer and chuse it as a place only more desirable than Hell The Application of this Point followeth First To the Carnal world Two Ways First Of Conviction Secondly Of Exhortation First Of Conviction This convicteth some wicked men of a false slander And Secondly All of them of gross folly First Some among them of a slander and false report they bring upon the holy ways of God as if it would not quit cost to be Religious and to take pains in its work were labour lost This I confess is an high charge and there is reason I should make it good before I proceed to the refuting of it lest while I accuse others of slandering my self be thought the Slanderer and to set up an enemy to shoot at when there is none except in mine own imagination But the proof is easie The Devils Empire in the world was founded first of a lye and as he got it so he labours to keep it he found man at the first happy in his willing subjection and obedience to his God his only way therefore to undo him was to inveigle him out of Gods service into his own to effect this his Policy was to bring him into a dislike of his present state and to promise him not only impunity but strange advantages accruing upon the change of his Master Thus as Enemies throw down Castles by blowing them up so he by puffing man up with a conceit of being like God brought him down from the height of his Felicity and instead of making him like a God made him

work without this help 't is heavy indeed yea too heavy for him to stand under but Gods helping hand put to it makes this heavy work light The Ship which when lying on ground all the Teams in the Country could not draw off how easily is it set a float when the Tide comes in Thus the Heart which the Christian by no pains and industry of his own can raise out of its dullness and indisposition to Duty Oh how soon is it elevated and inspirited when God flows in with his secret Aspirations and Exuscitations of his Blessed Spirit and Grace he who confessed that he could do nothing of himself not so much as think a good thought tells us also he is able to do all things through Christ who strengthneth him now this help from the Lord is promised but it comes not till the Christians hand is put to the work let him be up and doing and then God will not fail to be with him 'T is cheap travelling we say for a Child in his Fathers company to be sure God will pay the charge the Christian is at in his whole journey to Heaven it is easie working while God holds our hand yea puts strength into it Art thou to pray his Spirit will lift with thee for so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies art thou tempted whilst thou art fighting in the Valley below Christs hands are lift up in Heaven above for thy Victory I have prayed that thy Faith fail not yea he doth not only pray above for thee but will be in the Field with thee and in thee by the secret succours of his Spirit My Grace is sufficient for thee which is not meant of Grace Inherent in us that indeed is unsufficient of it self but the auxiliary Grace which he sends in to assist and excite that in a time of need Thirdly Though Christianity be a labour and many troubles and perils attend it yet 't is not alike to all every Christian hath not Hemans Faith Jobs Patience or Pauls Courage neither shall all have Hemans Disertions Jobs Losses nor Pauls Persecutions the stoutest Souldiers are put upon the hottest service the heaviest burden upon the strongest back he knows every Saints ability and so he rates them he will not suffer any to be tempted above that they are able When the Israelites came first out of Egypt he knew they were raw Souldiers and therefore led them about that they might not be put to fight before he had hardned and heartned them more to bear such a work While Christ was upon Earth he interposed his own body between his weak Disciples and the fury of the wicked world but when he went to Heaven then he ventured them into the storm but careful first to re-inforce them with power from above before he let them take the Field Acts 1.4 Being assembled together with them commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father Fourthly The merciful indulgence which the Lord gives them as to their failings hard work indeed God calls them to but the harder the work is the more his pity is expressed towards them in pardoning those invincible infirmities which notwithstanding their faithful endeavour will be found in their doing it It was hard for the Apostles to keep their eyes wakeful in the dead of the night Christ considereth this and Apologizeth for them even while he chides them the Spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak It is hard when Afflictions are strong and long not to fall into some indecencies of speech and behaviour we have heard of Jobs Impatience as well as Patience yet the Lord was graciously pleased to to take his part against his accusing Friends ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right as my servant Job hath Job 42.7 It is hard to act Faith when sense and reason are non-plust the Lord therefore is pleased to overlook the weaknesses of his Childrens faith which in such deep plunges they bewray so they strive against them and be humbled for them in magnis tentasse aliquid non parvum in great and difficult enterprizes an essay and endeavour is not little Peter shewed great Faith in venturing to go upon the Sea but discovered infirmity when he began to sink therefore Christ pitieth and succoureth his weakness Davids strait was in a manner as great at Land as Peters was at Sea When at Gath amongst his Enemies whose Champion he had slain much fear and unbelief he borrowed in this his strait yet some secret actings of Faith were mingled with these his fears as appeared by the Prayer he then lift up to God and even this Prayer attended with so many distrustful fears found acceptance with God which made the good man bring this forth as an encouragement for others This poor man cryed and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his Troubles Psalm 34.6 A poor man indeed he was at this time not only in his outward state but his inward poor and low in the actings of his Faith O what encouragement is here to come into the service of God hard work thou mayst meet with but not an hard Master do but thou thy best and God will forgive thy worst Beware of wickedness in not doing what thou canst and God will not reject thee for thy weakness Like as a Father pitieth his Children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him Psalm 103.13 I come now to the Second Part of the Text which presents us with the reward that attends the Christians labour it is not in vain in the Lord they shall not be put off with their labour for their pains no there is a reward laid up in Heaven which will abundantly compensate all the pain and pains they were put to on Earth but we must not understand this as if the Christian received no gain or advantage in this life from the service of God while he is labouring in it Godliness hath the promise of this life as well as the other There are promises of which payment is made here and though these be inferiour to what the Christian shall receive hereafter yet be they so pretious as prove Religion even in this life no hospes asymbolus No guest that lodgeth on free cost but such as pays well and that in present Coin for its entertainment It affords Bread to the eater as well as Seed to the sower there is fruit unto Holiness which the Christian may now feed on to his comfort as well as an hope of Eternal life to be received at the end of this The very vales which the Christian hath given him while at his work afford him enough for his present expence to maintain him in a port becoming his high hopes for afterwards First His conscionable labour in the Lords work will gain him more ability and holy skill to do his work still better by exercising of himself daily unto Godliness he becomes more

ready and prepared for every good work by daily combating with his corruptions and resisting temptations he learns more easily to overcome his Enemy And if in worldly trades this be accounted a sufficient reward to an Apprentice for serving out his time to learn the mystery of his Calling Oh what a reward is it by the daily practice of Godliness to learn more fully the Mystery of it This I am sure holy David set down for great gains I have remembred thy name O Lord in the night and have kept thy Law this I had because I kept thy Precepts Psal 119.55 And again I understand more than the Ancients because I kept thy Precepts ver 100. He did not grudge his own pains nor envy others ease so long as he might get more Heavenly Wisdom by it Secondly The Christians conscionable labour interesseth him in the special Providence of God for him while he is at work for God God will take care of him and what can he want that hath God for his Provider what or whom need he fear that hath God for his Protector For though all the Saints have a right in Promises yet none have a pleasant aptitude to apply the comfort of any one Promise while they are idle and negligent no this is the portion of the laborious Christian that walks in the actual exercise of his Grace No good thing shall he want that walks uprightly When God engageth to Abraham his Almightiness it is to him as walking before him not as sitting in the chair of sloth Thirdly The Christians labour is rewarded here with inward peace of Conscience and serenity of Mind Great peace have they that keep thy Law and nothing shall offend them Psalm 119.166 Peace be on them that walk by this rule as on the Israel of God Gal. 6. These are they in whose bosoms this Bird of Paradise sings her sweet Notes and her sweetest in foulest weather when sickness comes and death approacheth Now he that hath the testimony of his Conscience for having been a faithful Labourer in the Lords work will be able to make a comfortable reflection upon his past life For mens expectations of what is coming to them at death depends upon what their past lives have been Life is the time of sowing and death of reaping as they have sown so only can they expect to reap Life is a time for working and death for receiving the reward sutable to the work Hence it is when death is approaching Conscience if not seared and past all feeling is then carried back to review what the man hath been doing for whom he hath been labouring and therefore must needs bring in heavy tidings to the sinner of his approaching misery then it rips up all the stitches of that false peace which the ungodly wretch had been bolstred up with and tells him that now the Righteous Judge is at hand to pay him the dismal wages due to him for all the wicked works he hath done which makes the thoughts of death a terror to him But the Sincere Christian who hath laboured faithfully in the Lords work he then hath a pleasant Prospect to behold when he looks back upon his conscionable walking and can thence make his humble appeal to God and desire him to remember how he hath walked before him in Truth and with a Perfect Heart Oh what joy is this to his poor heart that his Conscience bears him witness he hath endeavoured to walk before God with godly simplicity and not in guile and can cast himself upon the Mercy of God in Christ and breathe out his Soul with a joyful expectation of being received into the Kingdom of Glory This premised I address my self to speak of the Christians reward in the other world this being principally if not solely in the Text where it is set forth two ways First By its certainty For as much as ye know Secondly By its transcendency Your labour is not in vain in the Lord. In which words you may remember I told you there is more intended than exprest First of the first The certainty of the Saints reward intimated by this Phrase ye know that is ye know it for a certain indubitable truth ye make no doubt of this thus is the Saints future Happiness spoke of with the greatest assurance and certainty We know that if our earthly house of his Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens 1 Cor. 5.1 We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him The Saints know this so well that they dare venture the loss of all they are worth here for the reward they expect there Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods knowing in your selves that ye have in Heaven a more enduring substance Heb. 10.34 yea they have refused their temporal life when offered to the prejudice of their eternal Heb. 11.35 Not accepting Deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection If any should ask how do they know so assuredly there is this reward I would ask such how they know the Sun to be when they see it shine if they say by seeing of it they may know that the Saint sees an Heaven as certainly by an eye of Faith as they can do the Sun by an eye of Sense Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen The very light of nature whereby the Heathens knew a God did let with it into their minds some knowledge of another world and of a double state therein of happiness to the good and misery to the wicked being not able otherwise to reconcile the unevenness of Providence in this world with the righteous nature of God but alas what was this lesser light which God left in man to rule him in the night of Heathenish darkness to the certainty of the Saints knowledge which comes in by the light of Faith first the Christians Faith is grounded on the testimony of God himself in his word Humane Faith is indeed the weakest and most uncertain kind of knowledge because mans testimony on which it relys is so fallible but Divine Faith the most certain because the testimony of God on which its weight bears is infallible One who cannot deceive because he is truth it self nor be deceived because he is wisdom it self So that though Faith be not Reason yet to believe what God saith is true there is the highest reason 2 ly As the testimony on which the Saints Faith relies is the infallible Word of God so his very Faith which relies on this Word of God is no other than the work of God the same Spirit who is the Author of that is the efficient of this for the Christian believes not from the power of his own will but the power of God mightily working his heart up to this supernatural act Hence we are said to be saved through Faith and that not of our selves it

ready she was to be dejected from an over deep sence of her unworthiness will find reason to believe that this Man of God gave this Testimony of her to her as a Cordial to revive her Humble Spirit and therefore brings it in with And this to your comfort I add But I am too troublesom I fear to your Honour my hearty Prayers are that as you have begun so you may go on in living your Mothers Holy Life and that then yon may in a good Old Age dye her happy death with much Peace and Honour And that so long as you shall have a Posterity live on Earth your good Mother may never be Dead but may from Generation to Generation have those descending from her that will keep her Name and Pretious Example alive by a due Veneration of the one and Pious imitation of the other Madam I am your Honours most Humble Servant W. GVRNALL Evenham March 13. 1671. ERRATA PAge 51. Line 25. read Bewrayed pag. 87 l. 2O r. on p. 97. l. 22. r. sloughs p. 110 l. 11. r. Sin 1 Cor. 15.58 For as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. WHAT Luther said of Justification by Faith that may we concerning the Resurrection of the dead Articulus est Ecclesiae stantis aut cadentis it is an Article with which the Church standeth or falleth Yet so foul an errour had taken the head of some Members in the Church of Corinth as to deny this grand Truth which S t Paul calls in another place one of the principles of the Doctrine of Christ how say some among you there is no Resurrection of the dead v. 12. And is it not strange that such who professed to believe the Resurrection of Christ should deny their own but much more that any in the Church of Corinth especially in those early days should have such a darkness found upon their minds who stood so near the rising Sun and that while S t Paul himself was yet alive who had planted this Church by this we see though Truth is errours elder yet errour is not much Truths younger Though the Gospel-Church was purest in the Primitive times yet it soon began to corrupt in its Members Not unapt therefore was his saying who compared in this respect the gathering of Churches to the gathering of Apples which when first gathered may appear all fair and sound but then within a while some amongst them begin to speak and others to discover their rottinness No doubt this Church of Corinth and so others gathered by the rest of the Apostles appeared in their Members very sound in the faith and fair in their lives at their first embraceing of the Gospel yet some we see did thus soon discover corruption in both Now to recover the tainted and especially to preserve the sound from this dangerous infection the Apostle sets himself to defend this Article of our Faith well knowing that this was a blow made at the root of Christianity which must needs fall to the ground if this cannot be maintained and he doth it with such invincible arguments that if any Heretick shall now deny it the reason cannot be deficiency in the proof here given but rather a criminous conscience in himself which makes him on his own defence deny a Resurrection for fear of the Judgment which attends it Now the Apostle having done this and withal shewn the glorious array in which the Saints shall arise out of their beds of dust he then v. 55. sings his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or triumphant song over Death and out-braves this King of Terrours to his face that is wont to keep the hearts of poor Mortals in the miserable bondage of a slavish fear O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory As if he had said Death do now thy worst we fear thee not thou mayest indeed get us into thy hands but thou canst not long keep us in thy power fall we shall into the Grave but we fall to rise again and when we arise out of our Graves then shalt thou Death fall into thy Grave never to arise again Then v. 57. he sings with an holy ravishment of joy the praises of God and Christ our Redeemer by whose atchievement this glorious victory over death is won The sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law but thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ This indeed is our David who cut off the head of this Goliah with his own sword killed Death by falling dead upon it he unstung this Serpent by receiving its sting into his own blesed body He overcame this great Conquerour by submitting himself for a time to be conquered by it when Christ lost his life then his whole Army of Saints won the day Death now to them is no death that which was their punishment as Sinners is now their priviledge as Saints That which stood amongst the threatnings of the Law and was the most formidable of them all hath now changed its place and is got amongst the promises of the Gospel All things are yours or Life or Death 1 Cor. 3.21 So pretious an oyl doth our Apostle extract from this slain Scorpion so sweet an honey comb doth he find in this dead Lyons breast and gives it into the hand of the Saints to go eating of it to their unspeakable joy and comfort but is this victory over Death only matter of joy and comfort unto Believers Oh no Blessed art thou O Land when thy Princes eat for strength and not for drunkenness and blessed art thou O Emanuels Land when thy Saints feed on the priviledges and promises of the Gospel not to make them drunk with Pride nor to lay them asleepin Sloth but to rèfresh them to run the Race set before them and the Joy of the Lord becomes their strength the Apostle therefore goes on to improve and close up his discourse on this subject with an Exhortation to Duty Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast always abounding in the work of the Lord that is be stedfast in the faith of the Gospel and especially in the belief of this particular Article of our Christian faith the Resurrection of the dead and then live up unto this belief walk and work as for God while you live as believing you shall when dead rise again Now my Text hath the nature of a powerful Argument to inforce this Exhortation upon them for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. In which words these two things are observable First the Nature and Quality of the service or work of God it is a Labour the Apostle changeth the the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Work which he had used in the Exhortation immediately preceding into this of Labour and that not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies any ordinary labour but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉