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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	great_a	life_n	write_v	5,211	5	5.2860	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30419	A sermon preached on the fast-day, Decemb. 22, 1680 at St. Margarets Westminster before the Honourable House of Commons / by Gilbert Burnet.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1681 (1681)	Wing B5874; ESTC R19858	25,524	46

that continued to the end in that course of life that they should be advanced to the same State of perfect Holiness their Names were now to be written in the Book of Life and at the Great Day when these Books should be opened Christ would before God Angels and Saints give such a Testimony to them as is recorded in the 25. Chap. of St. Mat. Gospel When I was Hungry ye Fed me c. This Epistle being thus explained it will not be difficult to apprehend what the Particulars are on which I shall enlarge They are these five 1. Jesus Christ observes and will reckon with every Church according to the blessings which they have received if they live not suitably to them 2. The Rule by which we are to examine our selves and by which God will judge us is the Doctrine which the Churches received from the Apostles 3. All those who have heard and received this Doctrine ought to keep it carefully and to conveigh down that Sacred Trust committed to them to the succeeding Generations 4. The chief Use We ought to make of this Doctrine is to reform our Hearts and Lives to repent and to forsake our Sins 5. Such as will not make this Use of it have reason to look for sudden and severe Judgments All these things are clearly gathered out of my Text and seem to comprehend the full sense of these words I have not found thy Works perfect before God Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent If therefore thou shalt not watch I will come on thee as a Thief and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee To Return to the first 1. Jesus Christ observes and will reckon with every Church according to the Blessings which they have received if they live not suitably to them I have not found thy Works perfect before God Perfect the Greek word is different from that which is commonly rendered Perfect and strictly imports accomplished or filled up with such Ingredients as make Works acceptable with God By this we are not to understand that absolute Perfection which excludes all Sin or all Defects for Works so perfect belong to another State but such a Perfection as agrees to the Gospel-Covenant by which all that is sincere is perfect in some sort and will be so accounted for to us by God Wherein the Works of this Church were not perfect We can only guess at it by what we find in the other Epistles in this and the former Chap. and in the Epistles written by S. Paul to some other Churches There are three things chiefly specified and insisted on 1. Their falling from their first Love and not doing their first Works charged by St. John on the Church of Ephesus and by St. Paul on the Galathians they received the Gospel according to the Parable of the Seed with great joy they begain in the Spirit they did run well but the fear of Persecution or the Cares of the World and the Deceitfulness of Riches made that the Seed of the Word of God that had been sown among them either withered or was choaked their first Fervour abated their Love cooled they became Lukewarm and then quite cold and dead so that those who began in the Spirit in a spiritual Course or had received the Gifts or Graces of the Holy Spirit ended in the Flesh became carnal and loose men 2. They are charged for listning to false Teachers and Seducers they had heard many strange things from the Apostles which were new to them and these did raise a curiosity in them after Novelties with a disposition to receive them some of them are particularly named in these Epistles some brought in Heathenish Sorceries and Idolatrous Rites among them as Balaam and Jesabel had done others loosed all the Tyes of Modesty and Wedlock as the Nicolaitans did others were for subjecting the Christian Church to the Yoke of all the Ceremonies of the Mosaical Law and by the Arts which these Seducers used the Churches that had received the Apostles with great kindness so that they were ready to have plucked out their very Eyes for them a phrase expressing the tenderest affection yet Were too much inclined to entertain those false Apostles 3. They were apt to divide and quarrel unreasonably about little and inconsiderable things and carried these Heats so far that even when they assembled together to receive the Holy Sacrament they met for the worse and not for the better so that there were Divisions among them and the several Parties assumed such Names as they thought would give them the most Credit some were for Paul some for Apollo some for Cephas and some for Christ. And the very Teachers themselves were factious and contentious so that some at Rome when S. Paul was in Prison for the Gospel preached there out of Contention that they might thereby add affliction to his Bonds though in that they were disappointed for notwithstanding their Injustice to him he rejoyced that Christ was preached by them Some one or all these had perhaps got into the Church of Sardis for which S. John in the name of Christ Expostulates with them They had much to answer for to whom the Apostles had delivered what they had seen and heard concerning Jesus Christ confirming it with many Miracles and had conferred on them extraordinary Gifts so that they were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and of the Powers of the World to come These seem to have been the sins of this as well as of the other Apostolical Churches And now to apply all this to Our own Case suffer me first in the Name of God to plead with you and to set before you the many blessings you have received from him beyond most or rather any Nation now in the World We are born in a Country that abounds not only with all that is necessary for the Inhabitants but yields Us great store of very valuable Goods which We exchange with other Nations and bring over such things as grow not among Us with a vast encrease of wealth which from all parts of the World flows unto Us Our Country being equally well situated for security and Traffique We have almost forgot when We were visited with the Plague of Famine We are under a Government so rarely tempered by Law that in it We have all the advantages of other Constitutions and avoid the mischiefs of the several forms of Government as much as is possible for any thing that is managed by mortal and sinful men to be So that after any of the Convulsions that have been among Us it has been still found necessary to return to the old Channel and observe the Landmarks which Our Forefathers set Us. These blessings We enjoy beyond any Nation in the World but these We have in common with the former Ages they are also Temporal and end with this Life We have yet much more to

answer for We have the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ among Us and therein the way to Life and Immortality hereafter is opened to Us. This We have freed from all the impure mixtures of Idolatry or Superstition with which it is defiled in other Churches and are delivered from the Tyranny of a foreign Power We have had Our Religion long secured to Us by Law with all the encouragements that can be expected in a Church so happily constituted between the extreams of Ecclesiastical Tyranny one the one hand and Enthusiastical principles on the other hand so that it is only our own fault if We are not the Sanctuary and Defence of all other Reformed Churches as well as We are the chief Object of the practices and designs of Our Enemies at Rome This We have likewise in common with the former Age but I shall next enumerate those blessings that We of this Age have been more particularly favoured with They are great and signal and so obvious that it will be enough to name them We were involved in a long and tragical War at home but were not swallowed up in it Our Neighbour Island drank indeed of a bitterer Cup and was covered almost all over with the Blood and the Carcases of the slain But here the storm was not so terrible The Conquerors were so restrained by that supream Power that governs the World that it is no small wonder there was so little mischief done by those who had the Power to do so much When Our Confusions thickned so upon Us that our Government changed almost as oft as the Weather all things returned of a sudden to their old Chanel the King was restored and the Nation was setled in so serene and calm a manner that it cannot be denied there was a signal hand of Heaven in it The more have We all to answer for that have made so ill use of so extraordinary a blessing since that time we have had plenty and peace at home these twenty years no breaking out nor complaining in Our Streets or Countries We have all this while lived under the clear Light of the Gospel and though many of the Pastors have much to answer for their great failings yet there have been raised up among us not a few eminent and faithful Labourers who have asserted the Truth and demonstrated the power of Religion with as much advantage as hath been done in any Age since Miracles and Persecution ceased and these have frequently given publick and free warning to the Nation Many excellent Books have been writ and Sermons have been published as well as preached which will remain to the next Age to testifie against that we live in God has been calling on Us aloud from Heaven both by his Mercies and Judgments to turn to him and to bring forth fruits worthy of Repentance and meet for the Kingdom of God that is for his holy Gospel A raging Pestilence and a consuming Fire came quick one after another to awaken Us effectually yet though We were then engaged in an expenceful War God did not deliver Us up into the hands of our Enemies though he corrected Us so severely himself These things did perhaps give a little stop to some persons though others went on still publishing their Sin as Sodom but with the return of peace and the continuance of plenty We returned to or still continued in our Sins We have been delivered from another War since and the ill designs of wicked Men were defeated and came to nothing and now for above seven years We have slept in a profound Peace and as profound a security when there was nothing but vastation and misery in the Countries that lie next to us But our Enemies slept not they were contriving how to make Us return back again into Egypt or submit not our Necks only but our Souls and Consciences to that Tyrannical yoke of the Roman slavery and thought the design so well laid for rooting out that which they call a Pestilent Heresie that it was upon the point of being executed Then did it appear that God was still watching over Us for good and he that saw all these secret contrivances so closely carried and cemented with so many sacred ties disappointed all their Councils and brought all their designs to Light when We were least aware of it being though sensible of a great danger hovering over Us yet little apprehensive that it was so near Us and was to break out in such a manner I need not run over all those steps by which Divine providence has brought out what they intended we should never have known till We had felt it and been past the possibility of preventing or redressing it They are well enough known and are often in all our Mouths Oh that they were as much in our Hearts And now put all these things together and see if it may not be said concerning Us what the Prophet Isaias said of the people of the Jews God has planted a vinyard in a very fruitful place with the choicest vine and has fenced it and built a Tower in it In a word what more could have been done in this Vinyard that has not been done in it And therefore as partial as we are apt to be in our own concerns it may be referred to our selves to judge between God and Us. We see and acknowledge what he has done for us let us next consider what Grapes we have brought forth What returns We have made to God Have Our works been perfect before God Alas what do I say perfect Have they not been on the contrary the worst the most impious and immoral that many could think on We have exceeded the Sins of the Jews and the Vices of the Heathens It has not been only a slackning or going back of the Power of Religion but an open revolt against Heaven in too great a part of the Nation a Banner has been set up for Athiesm and Impiety and all have been encouraged to come about it The Sins which our Popish forefathers and our more remote Heathenish Ancestors were so much ashamed of that they committed them in corners We have seen done in the sight of the Sun The belief of a God that sees rewards and punishes the rules of Vertue and the doctrine of Christ have been by some openly assaulted and treated with indignities which no other Nation could endure while others have if not directly consented to them yet looked on as unconcerned have laughed at and been pleased with them Advantages have been taken from the Hipocrisie or Euthusiasme of the last Age to throw off the very appearances of Religion or Vertue in this Age and it has passed for a piece of Gallantry and decent Breeding to be above the fears and apprehensions of a supream Power or a future State Have we forgot how publickly that great blessing of the Kings Restauration was abused It grew to that height that it was thought a