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book_n	call_v	speak_v	time_n	1,688	5	3.1930	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49461	The good and faithful servant set forth in a sermon preached at Hatfield Broad-Oake in Essex, August 2. the day before the funeral of Mr. John Warren, sometime minister of the gospel there. Now published with some small additions, and a brief account of his life and character. By Henry Lukin.	Lukin, H. (Henry), 1628-1719.	1696 (1696)	Wing L3474A; ESTC R218826	22,563	42

The Good and Faithful SERVANT Set forth in a SERMON Preached at Hatfield Broad-Oake in Essex August 2. the day before the Funeral of Mr. JOHN WARREN Sometime Minister of the Gospel there Now Published with some small Additions and a brief Account of his Life and Character By HENRY LUKIN LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns the lower End of Cheapside 1696. THE Good and Faithful Servant Matthew 25.21 His Lord said unto him Well done thou good and faithful Servant thou hast been faithful over a few things I will make thee Ruler over many things enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. AS it was said of the Woman that came with a Box of Ointment of Spikenard to pour on the head of Jesus before his Death She did what she could she came aforehand to anoint his Body to the Burying she took the best way that she could think of to express her affection and respect to him Mark 14. v. 8. So I am come aforehand anticipating a little the Funeral of our dear Friend to do what I can to improve so sad a Providence for the benefit of his surviving Friends and to spread abroad and preserve the sweet savour of his Name which is as a precious Ointment Eccles 7.1 when he is gathered to his Fathers As under the Old Testament God multiplied Visions and used similitudes by the Ministry of the Prophets Hos 12.10 So under the New Testament Christ spake very often to the Multitude in Parables Matth. 13.34 This being a very useful way of teaching Some call Images Laymens Books because they suppose they represent things so clearly and plainly to the meanest capacities but tho' God is a Spirit and requires Spiritual Worship yet he hath thought fit to represent spiritual things by natural so that as it is said The invisible things of him are seen clearly from the Creation of the World Rom. 1.20 And if we do undersland that of the time ever since the Creation yet the words following are to be understood of the Works of Creation But not only the things that are made represent to us God's Eternal Power and Godhead but all things that are done or transacted in the World serve to represent spiritual things to us And while we have such a Teacher as Christ to instruct us in the resemblance that is betwixt these things they may be of much use to us to help our understandings and memories to quicken our affections and to invite and draw our thoughts to heavenly things so as we can hardly be about any worldly business but we may take occasion from thence to raise up our minds to heavenly things which is a great advantage to us because we have so little command over our thoughts and because all our actions have their first rise from our thoughts out of the heart proceed first evil thoughts and thence murders adulteries fornications c. Matth. 15.19 Before I proceed further I will premise that in similitudes the Scripture is very brief and concise so that there is not only an omission sometimes of the note of similitude which doth frequently occur in Scripture but the Protasis and Apodosis as they are called are confounded together and not set exactly one against another or explained one by the other as Prov. 11.22 A fair Woman is not as a Jewel of Gold but Beauty in a foolish Woman as a Jewel of Gold in a Swines snout So John 3.8 He that is born of the Spirit is not like the Wind but in the business of Regeneration the Spirit works freely invisibly yet effectually as the Wind blows Sometimes that only which belongs to the Protasis or former part of the similitude is expressed without that in the latter part of the similitude which answers thereto as Luke 12.35 Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning We need not busie our selves to find out what are these loins that should be girt and those lights that should be burning for those expressions belong to the persons that we should be like to As those that wait for their Master 's coming from a Wedding should not only be up and have their Cloths on but should have those Garments girded about them which were much like Morning Gowns which they could not well either run in or do service in unless they were girt about them as you may see by 1 Kings 18.46 and Luke 17.8 So they should not only have their lights or lamps by them but have them ready lighted that they might not make their Masters stay when they knocked till they were prepared to wait on them but that they might open to them immediately So we should not only be in a Habitual preparation for Death by being in a state of Grace but in an Actual preparation for it having our Evidences for Heaven ready our hearts weaned from the World a clear prospect of suture Glory and being always so employed as Death may not surprize us idle or doing that which is evil I have spent so many words on this thing because it may be of use to us for the right understanding of this Parable out of which the words of the Text are taken wherein he instructs his Disciples how they thould carry themselves in his absence the time of his Departure from them being now at hand We have this Parable differently set down here and in Lu. 19.12 For it is here in the Evangelists as it is in the Books of Samuel Kings and Chronicles in the Old Testament what is omitted in one Book is set down in another so that put together they make the History more compleat therefore the Greek Translators of the Old Testament call the Books of Chronicles Paralipomena or praetermissions because many things are added in them which were omitted in the foregoing Books In Luke he plainiy foretells what he should meet with from the Jews and how he should be rejected of them But in both he is compared to one going from home and leaving his Servants Luke saith a Noble man going to receive a Kingdom He must indeed be a great Man that gave so many Talents to his Servants to Trade with till he came back again The Parable plainly shews that he gave to some more to some less according to their places and abilities Luke saith Pounds but the Evangelists have regard rather to the sense and meaning of Christ than to his words they both imply that he gave different summs of money or portions of goods Now when they come to give an account of the improvement of what he had committed to their trust the first had doubled his Stock or what he was trusted withal and here in the Text we have his Lords approbation of what he had done and his liberal rewarding of his diligence and faithfulness It was but little in comparison which he had trusted him with but he should be Ruler over much as he that had been faithful in the

and Determinations which might well have become the Divinity-Schools or have entertained an Academical Auditory All these things required much study which he had need be a good Husband to find time for amidst so much business especially considering how much Acquaintance and Company he had all that knew him being so desirous of his Conversation which was so pleasing and profitable and so many having recourse to him for satisfying their doubts he having according to the Proverb an Eagle's Eye and a Lady's Hand in dealing with wounded Consciences that is a deep and piercing in sight into matters of that nature and much of tenderness and compassion towards such persons And further as was observed of Mr. Joseph Mede that profound Scholar that he seemed most delighted with those Studies which might strain the sinews of his Brain and therefore did set upon the most difficult places of Scripture so Mr. Warren did Preach long upon the Song of Solomon and the Revelation As that pious learned judicious Man Mr. Durham in Scotland likewise did though Mr. Warren did not undertake to determine any thing upon the Prophetical part of the Revelation I know those are charged with arrogance and over-weening that will attempt to explain such difficult places of Scripture yet there is a blessing promised to him that reads and to him that hears the words of the Revelation Chap. 1.3 There are many things therein that must be kept and therefore understood and certainly there are many things in both these Books that at first seem very obscure which by prayer study and comparing them with other places of Scripture may be made more plain than could at first be imagined As a learned Man saith of Mr. Durham's Lectures on the Revelation that divers of the most obscure Texts of that Book which he understood little of at the beginning of his Lecture before he closed his Exercise were made so clear to him that he thought he might well acquiesce in his Exposition without much more debate Though he was thus employed yet he redeemed so much time for Study that he was a General Scholar And when there was once a suspicion suggested where there were many persons of Quality together that some of the Non-Conformists might be Jesuits too great an honour to that Order as if though Learning do not die with them yet it brings Learned Men whom others are not on all accounts satisfied with under a suspicion that they belong to them one in the Company replied that the fittest person that he knew to make a Jesuit was Mr. Warren not that he had any such suspicion of him for I know he gave an high Character of him both for Piety and Learning But he accounted him a Person of such quickness and acumen which he gave an instance of in his so baffling a Doctor in his hearing which was known to some of the Company There are some living who can still remember that about fifty years agoe there was a person of competent Learning as appears by a Visitation Sermon long since printed but of greater confidence that Preached a Lecture at a place in this County wherein he took upon him to maintain Vniversal Redemption and still after his Sermon he made a general challenge as Goliah did to the Host of Israel Give me a man that we may fight together 1 Sam. 17.10 He was ready to dispute with any that should question what he had preached Now there was a weekly Lecture not far off where several Ministers met and upon consulting together they thought it fit for them to accept of his challenge lest by their silence they should seem to consent to his Doctrine or at least that as the Host of Israel was dismaid and greatly afraid at the words of Goliath so they were afraid to encounter him So it was agreed amongst them to go the next Lecture-day to hear him and to dispute with him and Mr. Warren was desired to be there with them So they went and he made his challenge as he used to do and tho' Mr. Warren was much younger than most of the other Ministers they put him upon accepting the challenge which he did and at the first on-set put him quite beside his play which did non plus him for a time but after a little while he recovered himself so far as to ask Mr. Warren a Question appealing to him Whether he thought in his Conscience that the interpretation which he gave of those places of Scripture which he had alledged for the proof of his Doctrine was the true sense of them to which Mr. Warren made him presently such a reply that he came down from the Pulpit as a man confounded and quitted the field came thither no more to make any further challenge Indeed Mr. Warren did in some sense acknowlede a general Redemption yet not that conditional Redemption which is contended for by so many Learned men but such a Redemption whereby Christ did obtain an Universal Dominion over all so as not only to be the head of his Christ but to be head over all things to his Church or for their good Eph. 1.22 and whereby he had power over all flesh that he might give eternal life to as many as the Father had given him Joh. 17.2 Amyrald who was a great Abbetor of this new Hypothesis of Redemption might I think say of it as he once did of the new Philosophy when two happened to come to visit him at the same time and fell into a very warm debate about the old and new Philosophy Amyrald after he had heard their several exceptions on one side and the other crys out difficulte pour difficulte le vicil vaut autant que le nouveau Difficulty for difficulty the old is as good as the new I doubt the new Aypothesis of Redemption will do no more to extricate us out of pretended difficulties than the old Some suppose that the four Beasts mentioned Rev. 4.7 are Emblems of the Ministers of the Church that Zeal and Courage that Patience and Industriousness that Prudence in managing the Affairs of the Church that insight into the Mysteries of the Gospel that should be in Ministers and which are in them in different degrees some excelling more in one some in another Mr. Warren did not want Courage and Patience under Affliction suffering joyfully the spoiling of his goods and of his industriousness I have already spoken but he was Eminent in prudence and insight into the Mysteries of the Gospel His prudence was such that he was of great use to his Friends in advising them in several Cases even about worldly things though he minded them so little that he might seem to some to be a meer Scholar But he was none of the Philosophers which the Greek Comaedian complains of that were wise in words only but in managing business very fools for managing affairs he was so fitted that a Considerable Congregation of Christians of a different persuasion from him