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A93756
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A sermon preached unto the inhabitants of the town of Thornbury, in Glocestershire [sic] on March 20, 1697/8
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Stafford, Richard, 1663-1703.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing S5133; ESTC R42869
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30,618
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36
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may seem too trivial to relate and perhaps ye would think not altogether so profitable and edifying for ye to hear But herein Use might be made unto your selves as ye know such kind of Experiences Trials and Exercises of a Servant of God and how ye could go thro' therewith if it was your own Case Moreover these and such like Things are absolutely necessary to build up and exercise a Trust on God according to those Words of our Text for in thee do I trust For Trust in God is a relative Term and pre-supposes Danger and Difficulty for God to carry us thro the one and to preserve from the other And as the God of David our Father did therefore suffer his Servant David to have Enemies to keep him in Warfare and that he might exercise his Trust on his Invisible Creator so the same God according to his Method and Workings of old doth now also in this Generation and Country of ours suffer several of his Servants to meet with Enemies Imprisonments as his Servant Paul was frequent in Prisons 2 Cor. 11. 23. sore Troubles and Afflictions By all these to Try Prove and Exercise their Trust on him and whither notwithstanding All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee nor dealt falsly in thy way Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of Dragons and cover'd us with the shadow of Death Psal 44. 17 18 19. But to proceed yet further in what I have to declare unto ye I did refer it to this Issue That when it was the Will of God to call me away again from hence he would make it known unto me by some Sign and this should be the Sign viz. That if I did once perceive how that in the Course of my Ministry here among ye God did once begin to stop the Current of his Eternal Truths from coming into my Knowledge or if the Number of my Hearers did diminish and lessen then I should assuredly gather that God called me away Both which I have seen fulfill'd for I do but almost preach the same things over and over unto ye which is not improper for a Gospel Minister to do for said the greatest Preacher thereof for these several Hundred Years last past To write the same things to me is not grievous but to you it is safe And the Gentiles besought that those Words might be preached to them the next Sabbath Acts 13. 42. So that it is lawful yea sometimes convenient and necessary to preach the same Sermon or read the same Book or publish the same things over and over again and I have no new thing to declare unto ye For I have found within my self a withdrawing and stopping the Hand as to God his affording me more and further Communication of his Eternal Truths partly occasion'd thro' what was afore-mention'd of my worldly and vain Conversation which did Grieve and Quench the Spirit for the Time partly because I once said I would leave off preaching upon such a Consideration and Temptation which Expression of mine I believe was offensive unto his Holiness who knoweth all things For whosoever once puts his Hand to this Plough and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God And the other I believe was the Reason here mention'd And then the number of my Hearers hath visibly diminish'd and lessen'd as such of ye are my Witnesses who came to hear me from the very first which hath not therefore so happen'd because of much more Inability and Insufficiency in my self over others For the Word which hath been here preached is as Quick and Powerful as Lively and Affecting the Heart and Conscience as rational and true and altogether as faithfully handled as what is preached in other Congregations round about It is a Vexation to see Men of Understanding not set by nor yet to have their due Worth and Esteem from the World I returned and saw under the Sun that the race is not to the swift nor the Battle to the strong neither yet Bread to the Wise nor yet Riches to Men of Vnderstanding Eccles 9. 11. But it commonly so happens that the more Eminent Instruments of the Glory of God to their respective Generations and Countries are not understood by the People thereof For he supposed his Brethren would have underderstood how that God by his Hand would deliver them but they understood not Acts 7. 25. Our Fathers understood not thy Wonders in Egypt Psal 106. 7. Of whom the World was not worthy they wandred in Deserts in Mountains and in Dens and Caves of the Earth Heb. 11. 38. But there have to many went about in this Town and Neighbourhood like Elymas the Sorcerer to persuade People off from Hearing my Preaching the Word whereof they shall give account before him that is ready to judge both the Quick and Dead and I shall implead them there for their prating against us with malicious Words The like did Diotrephes to the Apostle John and not content themselves to refuse to hear the Word preach'd by me they disswade them who would There are many in this Town and Neighbourhood who like Alexander the Coppersmith have done me much harm I mean chiefly as to my Ministry Besides as to what hath fallen in Subordination as to my outward Condition and Circumstances in my intended Settlement of Life in this Country which according to the Flesh I did once desire but now I suppose it will not be As to the Harm they have done to my Ministry let them know as much before-hand and tremble thereat They shall hear of it again at the Judgment-Seat of God All this is chiefly occasion'd because of the matter of the Popish King because I had written not out of mine own Head but only from the Book of the Law and Commandment of God That it was not lawful to turn aside a Papist from his right Quatenus or meerly because he was a Papist especially when his People had sworn a solemn Oath kissing the Bible of Subjection and Faithfulness unto him And so the Prophet of the Lord in Ezek. 17 18 19. doth reprove the King of Jerusalem for despising the Oath which he had taken to the King of Babylon who was an Heathen and so an Oath doth bind to such an one or a Papist when lo he had given his Hand For when a Lawful Oath is once taken by invocating and sealing the same with the name of God as that is so for Subjects to swear Subjection which is their Duty unto their King and Ruler there is none can go off or recede from the same and be guiltless or blameless There is not an Instance hereof to be given throughout the whole Bible So that the aforesaid Proposition may be truly grounded upon this plain Declaration of the Law and Revealed Will of God I will be a swift Witness against false Swearers such are they who despise or do not keep the Oath of God which is contrary unto
of him and obey his Voice From the last Words of my Text for I lift up my Soul unto thee the best Instruction that may be learnt from thence is That ye should always have your Hearts lifted up and praying unto God especially in such like Petitions Cause me to hear thy loving Kindness in the Morning cause me to know the way wherein I should walk and then seek out of the Book of the Lord and read and in Subordination to that and as guided thereby follow and obey the Dictates of thine own Conscience We live in an Ignorant and Men-pleasing World wherein they Excuse the Rich and Condemn the Poor in his Cause But admist all the manifold kind of sayings and talk of others amidst the Strife of Tongues Psal 31. 10. or that Advice and Reproach even from the Religious also every and each Person is to guide and steer his own Actions by the Word of God and the Dictates of his own Conscience According to what that teaches and manifests from within and not according to what others say so we are to move and act There is but little in the Opinions and Talk of People but every Man's Judgment cometh from the Lord. That which is highly esteem'd among Men is an Abomination in the sight of the Lord and so contrariwise it runs that which is lessen'd and despised amongst Men provided it be agreeable to the Word of his Holiness is highly esteemed in the sight of God The Reason whereof is because the common Multitude of Men even of the outward Worshippers Religious and Professors also for that of Luke 16. 15. was spoken in Reference to the Jewish Nation who were all of them Worshippers of the Father are not nor have they been as yet brought in Conformity to the great and perfect Rule of Righteousness in Scripture and they do not understand the Things of God as his Saints and Servants did of old time or as themselves shall yet do when they are let slip from out of this Flesh But Abraham said Son remember that thou in thy Life time receivedst thy good things and so the departed Soul will remember the several Steps and Passages of this Life And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the Wilderness Deut 8. 2. And so we shall remember all the way which the Lord led us these Threescore Years and Ten or so many Years as we lived in this Wilderness of the Earth as also we shall then remember and discern when we were in the way of God which was the way wherein we should walk and when we were not If we could know as much in this Life as we shall know in the next Life we should never do amiss or miscarry as to futurity If we would so do in all things as we shall wish we had done when we come to die and are let slip into Eternity we should never go much astray from the way of the Lord. Our Duty to God in many Places of Scripture is called the way and the way of the Lord which here in the Text is called the way wherein we should walk From whence this plain Inference necessarily arises That to obey and serve God is to do as we should do It is a Walking in the way wherein we should walk For a Creature to do as he should do is to obey and serve the Lord. But besides this general Explication and Assertion there being diversities of Gifts and differences of Administrations and diversities of Operations 1 Cor. 12. 4 5 6. given to the several Creatures And the Son of Man hath given to every Man his Work and commanded the Porter to watch Mark 13. 34. So that besides the general Service of God and keeping his Commandments there is some distinct and particular Work according to the Gifts given them and according to their condition and manner of Life wherein the several Men and Women are to glorifie and serve the Lord according to their several Trade Degree or Rank People stand in the World Whoso shall hear or read this may somewhat conceive what is his particular Work which God hath set him to do and I do in part know and apprehend what is mine Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk for I lift up my Soul unto thee Now to apply all this to my Preaching and your Hearing After that Paul had seen the Vision immediately he endeavoured to go into Macedonia assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the Gospel unto them So I reflecting and looking back upon my manner of Life from my Youth up which know some of my Neighbours and by my Preaching unto some of my Father's Servants at Eleven or Twelve Years of age and in the hearing of the then Godly Schoolmaster of this Town as also by the whole Drift Bent and Tendency of my Mind ever since which the Lord hath made to be seriously given and inclined from all this I assuredly gather that the Lord who created my Soul thus had called me that is by his having enabled me so to do to preach the Gospel that is to preach and publish the Truths thereof unto the People of this my Generation And when my Parent had designed me for the Study and Practice of the common Law I remember and observ'd many times that as the law-Law-books lay open before me and whilst I was outwardly reading in them my Mind at the very same time would be so intent and running upon Divine and Spiritual Things even the Things pertaining to the Kingdom of God that I could not mind and be fixedly intent on the Law Whereupon I did several times think Do not I strive against the very Bent and Call of God in me which would have been if I had applied my self to the Study of the Law of Man when I should have given up my self unto the Study of God's Statutes It would seem Arrogancy and Boldness of Speech if I should apply unto my self what God said to Jeremiah Before I formed thee in the Belly I knew thee and before thou camest forth out of the Womb I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a Prophet unto the Nations Yet the Lord himself who shall rehearse all things from the beginning of the World and calleth all his Creatures by Name in the Day that He shall write up the People He will make known how much there was in this of my having been sanctified from the Womb. But when after that Thought of Heart Do I strive against the Bent and Call of God in me yet I did not obey this same Call so as like unto Timothy To give up my self wholly and only unto Reading and Study of the Scripture until as when Absolom sent for Joab he would not come therefore he said unto his Servants see Joab's Field is near mine and he hath Barley there go and set it on Fire Then Joab arose and came unto