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A50468
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The life & death of Edmund Staunton D.D. To which is added, I. His treatise of Christian conference. II. His dialogue betwixt a minister and a stranger. Published by Richard Mayo of Kingston, Minister of the Gospel.
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Mayo, Richard, 1631?-1695.
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1673
(1673)
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Wing M1528; ESTC R221740
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138,938
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373
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to be damned and go to Hell for your sins Str. I hope not so great a sinner as to deserve Hell and damnation Min. Friend I must tell you that you and I and the best Men and Women that are deserve to go to Hell for their sins the least sin deserveth eternal death Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death Stranger What you say Sir I perceive is true for you bring Scripture to prove what you say Minister Why then say these words after me I am a sinner and such a sinner as that I deserve to go to Hell and be damned for my sins Str. I am a sinner and such a sinner as that I deserve to go to Hell and be damned for my sin Min. Did you ever in your life-time say so much before Str. Truly Sir I never thought or said so much before all the dayes of my life Min. It 's as true a word as ever you spake all your dayes Str. I believe it Sir Min. If you did indeed believe it Friend it would trouble you and make your heart ake within you Str. Sir how may that appear Min. Thus Friend if you did verily believe that you deserved to forfeit all your estate to be imprisoned all the dayes of your life to be hanged or burned to death would it not trouble you Str. Yes doubtless that it would Minister Friend You cannot but think that to go to Hell and to be damned for ever is a thousand times worse than all this and therefore if you did indeed believe it it would trouble you and that to some purpose Stranger I thank God Sir I was never troubled in mind all my life Min. Friend let me tell you that you had more cause to thank God if you could say that you have been troubled for your sins this be sure of that they who are not troubled for sin in this World mourning and repenting shall be troubled with a vengeance in the World to come when they lie in Hell under the wrath and curse of God tormented with fire and brimstone for ever because of their sins against God Str. I hope Sir I shall never come there I have alwayes been of a strong faith towards God Min. Friend what if your strong faith as you call it prove no better than a strong fancy or a strong presumption at the last and so deceive you Stranger I hope better Minister Friend if your faith and hope were right you would find 1. A difficulty and hardship in believing he that never doubted or never believed he that never saw his want of faith never lamented his unbelief hath cause to fear he hath no true saving faith at all It 's an easie matter to presume but it 's a hard thing to believe and hope aright in God Ephes 1.19 It 's the exceeding greatness of the power of God toward us who believe according to the working of his mighty power ver 20. Which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead 2. Your faith and hope were they true would be grounded upon the Word and Promises of God 3. Faith and hope if right would purifie the heart and life Acts 15.9 1 John 3.3 Now whether you have this kind of faith and hope or no you had need look to it Str. I trust I shall Sir Min. Friend to return to what we a little before discoursed of it must be granted that you and I and all of us deserve the wrath and curse of God for ever how do you think to escape the damnation of Hell and to get Heaven and Salvation when you die Stranger I hope to be saved by my serving of God and good prayers and by leading an honest life how else should I be saved Minister Friend What do you hope to be saved for your good Works that is Popery and I presume you are no Papist Str. Sir All my Neighbours know I am no Papist I defie Popery from my heart Min. Friend let me tell you that to relie upon our own righteousness and to hope to be justified and saved for what we do is one of the most desperate and damnable points in all Popery and therefore whatever you may think of it if you trust unto your good prayers and your honest life as you call it as if that were enough to save you you are in that point a Papist Str. Oh Sir the Papists trust to their good works and merits Minister Friend What is it not a good work to serve God to say good prayers to lead an honest life c Stranger Yes surely Min. Why then surely to trust and relie upon them is to relie upon your good works which is plain downright Popery Str. I perceive Sir you are too hard for me but what would you not have men to serve God use good prayers and lead good lives Min. Yes Friend that I would and wish from my heart that you and I and all men served God more prayed and lived better but here 's the mischief and the Popery of it when men relie upon those works for justification and salvation Str. Why may not I safely do it Min. No the Word of God is expresly against it Rom. 3.20 By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight Rom. 10.3 They who establish their own righteousness submit not unto the righteousness of God Eph. 2.8 By grace ye are saved through faith and that not of our selves ver 9. Not of works lest any man should boast and many such places I could tell you of Stranger Sir you bring so much Scripture that I cannot tell what to say to you Min. Friend it 's the Word of God by which we must be tryed and judged another day Rom. 2.16 In the day of Judgment when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel saith the Apostle and therefore we might do well to try and judge our selves by it now Str. You speak reason Sir Min. Friend deal plainly with me do not you think that though you have sometimes offended God yet you hope that your good works will satisfie and make amends for the bad and so all will be made even between God and you Str. Sir you hit me right I wonder how you come to know me so well I do indeed hope that my good works will answer for my bad Min. Friend I am a stranger to you it is not I that hits you and knows you it is the Word of God that hits you and knows you onely I may somewhat guess at your heart by my own naturally such as yours is Prov. 27.19 As in water face answereth to face so the heart of man to man Stranger If my good works my serving God my good prayers and my honest life will not serve me I pray tell me how then may I be saved Minister Friend did you never hear of Jesus Christ you speak never a word of Christ all this while why
15.32 7 Apurchase made 7. The making a purchase of house or land leads us into a discourse of purchasing the field wherein lay hid the treasure and of selling all to buy the pearl of great price Matth. 13.44 45 46. In brief where I have given one instance I might with ease give an hundred the voice of Providence uttering fresh newes every day Providence is the best and truest interpreter of the Decrees of God and what lay in the womb of Decree before time even from eternity that Providence brings forth day by day and so administreth fresh matter continually for Christian Conference to all that delight and take pleasure therein 3 From the word of God 3. If the voice and speech of men one to another and the voice of God in Providence suggest occasion for holy discourse and conference then surely the voice of God in his word read preached or heard doth it much more Christians do you not read and search the Scriptures day by day I take it for granted that you do and take delight in so doing and what understandest thou all thou hearest or readest is there nothing too hard for thee if so then put questions to persons of understanstanding Ministers or people among whom thou comest saying what is the meaning of this or that portion of Scripture And they will be opening and expounding hard places to thee Ministers especially their lips should keep knowledg that 's their duty and for the people to seek the law at their mouths Mat. 27. is their dutie also And studie not out questions tending to strife and vain jangling or abstruse inquiries to puzzle others as some do and go away scoffing and boasting saying I think I have posed one parson to day or gravelled such or such an one non-plust him so that he had nothing to answer but let the questions be such as tend to the edification of your selves and others by inlarging the understanding in a way of knowledge but principally to the warming of your hearts and affections to the purging of your consciences to the regulation and better ordering of your lives and conversations For when you have heard the word preached know it is spiritual seed labour to harrow it into your hearts by holy meditation Mat. 13.3 4. and 18 19. 1 Pe. 2.2 Isa 55.2 and by Christian communication that so it may spring up and grow in heart and life and thou maist have a rich and goodly crop of it in grace and glory It is also our spiritual food and in order to nourishment must have its due digestion Now they tell us of three concoctions as to natural food the first they call Chylification in the Stomack the second Sanguification with the Liver and the last Assimilation in every part the nutriment being conveyed to every part is made like to that part it is conveyed to suitable hereunto the Word in order to our spiritual nourishment and growth in grace must have various digestions First by Meditation and Conference A second in our will and affections being subdued by it to will what God wills to love or hate what God loves or hates and lastly in our lives and practice when we exercise our selves herein to have consciences void of offence toward God and toward men as Paul did Acts 24.16 Yet there is this vast difference in the resemblance for wheras our meats and drinks are assimilated and made like to the parts of man fed by them the word our spiritual food changeth the man into its own likeness makes the inward and outward man spiritual and holy like it self so far as it turns to nourishment And remember this that an errour in the first concoction is seldome mended in the second or third but vitiates the whole and the gross neglect of meditation and conference is one great cause why we are no better in our hearts and in our lives and many too many professors who hear much but thrive little they have or seem to have good appetites but to be sure they have very bad digestions by reason of their failings in holy Meditation and Christian Conference FINIS Books to be Sold by Tho Parkhurst at the Bible and three Crowns in Cheapside A Commentary on the Hebrews By John Owen D. D. fol. Sermons upon the whole Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians By Mr. John Daille Translated into English by F. S. Tho Taylor 's Works the first Volume fol. 2. An Exposition of Temptation on Matth. 4. verse 1. to the end of the 11th Divine Characters in two parts distinguishing the Hypocrite in his best dress By Samuel Crook B.D. A Learned Commentary or Exposition on the first Chapter of the second Epistle to the Corinthians By Richard Sibbs D.D. fol. A Commentary on the whole Epistle of S. Paul to the Ephesians By Mr. Paul Bain Fol. A practical Exposition on the third Chapter of the first Epistle of S. Paul to the Corinthians with the Godly Mans Choice on Psal 4. ver 6 7 8. By Anthony Burgess fol. The dead Saint speaking to Saints and sinners living in several Treatises The first on 2 Sam. 24.10 The second on Gant 4.9 The third on John 1.50 The fourth on Isa 58.2 The fifth on Exod. 15.11 By Samuel Bolton D.D. folio Christianographia or a Description of the multitude and sundry sorts of Christians in the world not subject to the Pope By Eph. Pagit fol. These seven Treatises next following are written by Mr. George Swinnock 1. The Christian Man's Calling or a Treatise of making Religion ones business in Religious Duties Natural Actions his Particular Vocation his Family Directions and his own Recreation to be read in Families for their Instruction and Edification The first Part. 2. Likewise a second Part wherein Christians are directed to perform their Duties as Husbands and Wives Parents and Children Masters and Servants in the conditions of Prosperity and Adversity 3. The third and last part of the Christian Mans Calling wherein the Christian is directed how to make Religion his business in his dealings with all Men in the choice of his Companions in his carriage in good Company in bad Company in solitariness or when he is alone on a weekday from morning to night in visiting the sick on a Dying bed as also the means how a Christian may do this and some motives to it 4. The Door of Salvation opened by the Key of Regeneration 5. Heaven and Hell Epitomised and the True Christian characterized 6. The fading of the Flesh and the flourishing of Faith Or One cast for Eternity with the only way to throw it well 7. The Incomparableness of God in his Being Attributes Works and Word opened and applyed All these by Geo. Swinnock M.A. An Antidote against Quakerism By Steven Scanderet A learned Commentary on the fourth Chapter of the second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians to which is added First A conference between Christ and Mary Second The Spiritual