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A13120
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The gaines of seeking God In two sermons, preached in the parish church of VVestminster: by Christopher Styles.
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Styles, Christopher.
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1620
(1620)
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STC 23412; ESTC S122483
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26,139
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54
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enough to weep for Melt then your hearts in sorrow for your sinne as holy Dauid did whose heart in the middest of his bodie was euen like melting Waxe that God may quit your soules with peace and seeke him lachrimabiliter mournfully Secondly in seeking after God we must vse faithfulnesse without slothfull negligence and seeke him diligenter diligently as the woman in the Gospell seeking her Groat that was lost Luke 15.8 did light a Candle and sweepe the house and sought diligently vntill shee found it Eccles 9.10 And as Salomon the wise Preacher hath taught thee All that thine hand shall find to doe doe it with all thy power And as Dauid seeking the Lord did seeke him with his whole heart For you shall seeke mee with all your heart Ier. 29.14 and I will be found of you saith the Lord. And if thou seeke the LORD with all thy heart Deut. 4.29 and with all thy soule Pro. 10.26 thou shalt finde him For as Vineger to the teeth so is a slothfull body to them that send him Therefore the sleeper shall be clothed with ragges Pro. 23.21 and he is denounced accursed that doth the worke of the Lord negligently Ier. 48.10 The Lord loueth a cheerefull giuer as Zacheus and will be found of them that seeke him diligently that is faithfully But such is the madnesse of this rude age wherein we liue and the blindnesse of worldly minded men that they esteeme no labour too much in seeking after worldly gaine which cannot profit them and in seeking after the pleasures of this life which may much annoy them but will not step one foot towards Heauen with an holy desire to seeke after God In whom is the fulnesse of all true felicitie The Apostle complained not without a cause Phil. 2.21 That all seeke their owne and not the things of Iesus Christ but if thou desirest to finde Heauen seeke after God by Iesus Christ who is gone thither before to prepare a place for you and seeke him diligenter with all your hearts diligently Thirdly wouldst thou finde the Lord thy only Comforter seeke after him perseueranter constantly with perseuerance and bee not weary of well-doing for in due season yee shall reape if yee faint not therefore seeke the Lord and his face euermore Cant. 3.4 As the Spouse neuer ceased to seeke him whom her soule loued till she found him and tooke hold of him and left him not A Ship that hath made many a faire venture on the Sea and after perisheth in the Hauen brings losse and sorrow to the Owner that hoped for gaine And a Souldier that fainteth before the battaile bee ended must expect shame and death in stead of Victorie So he that seeketh after God and faileth in his intended course before hee finde him must needes bring losse and sorrow to his soule and expect confusion for saluation For the Crowue is giuen only to the Conquerour Apoc. 2.10 Be thou faithfull vnto the death and I will giue thee the Crowne of life the fire of Gods Altar must neuer goe out so the zeale of a constant Professor must not be extinguished by worldly care No man that putteth his hand to the Plough and looketh backe Luk. 9.62 is apt to the Kingdome of God Remember Lots wife Gen 19. who for looking backe was turned into a Pillar of Salt And hauing once begun to seeke after God Col. 3.1 and to seeke those things which are aboue where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Col. 2.20 why as though yee liued in the World are yee burthened with traditions The Prophet testifieth that the life of a righteous man shall neuer fade Psal 1.4 and that the heart of a righteous man shall neuer faint Psal 112.8 if his faith were enioyned to seeke after God through all the fierie tryalls of this World and all the fierie flames and torments of Hell it would not sticke at the condition being before with confidence perswaded Philip. 1.6 That he that hath begunne this good worke in him will performe it vntill the Day of Iesus Christ Thus must you seeke after God Psal 51.17 with a sorrowfull heart which he shall not despise you must seeke him diligently that you may bee counted worthy to escape all those things that shall come to passe And that you may stand before the Sonne of man Luke 21.36 and you must seeke him with perseuerance and neuer giue ouer for any temptation lest you fall away for God is faithfull and will not suffer you to be tempted aboue that you bee able 1. Cor. 10.13 but will euen giue the issue with the temptation thus Thus to seeke the Lord alwayes longing after the God of our saluation wee cannot chose but finde the comforts of his graces in our soules and bee assured to bee deliuered from the power of darknesse Col. 1.13 and to bee translated into the Kingdome of his deare Sonne whether hee bring vs all that hath so dearely bought vs with his precious bloud euen Iesus Christ our Lord and only Sauiour Amen Thus you haue heard the manner how to seeke God It followeth whereby we may learne the time when to seeke God which is our second obseruation in my Text as in the time of sinne Iam. 1.14 the lusts of our owne concupiscence led vs astray from God so now in the time of grace through the preaching of the Gospell being led by the Spirit in the light of faith wee make haste to returne and seeke after God in whom alone we may find true rest vnto our soules debito tempore in a conuenient time And as at al times and in all places it is meete to seeke vnto God Rom. 11.36 Of whome and through whome and for whome wee liue and mooue and haue our being So wee are taught in holy Scriptures of three times most conuenient to seeke after God First Dum dies est Secondly dum praesens est Thirdly dum misericors est First while it is day Nicodemus Iohn 3.2 though hee was a Ruler of the Iewes and a Teacher in Israel hath this Record left in Scripture against him that hee came to Iesus by night And the Spouse in the Canticles confesseth Cant. 3.1 why she could not finde her Loue that is because shee sought him by night and our Sauiour himselfe teacheth Iohn 9.4 The night commeth when no man can worke In the night of Ignorance wee are more prone to seeke after Error then the Truth In the night of sinne we seeke for the things that please men and not the things that please God and in the night of death we shall not bee able to seeke at all For who shall giue thee thankes in the pit therefore holy Dauid longing for the God of his saluation deferres no time But flyeth to the Lord before the morning watch Psal 130.6 Psal 63.1 2. Chron. 33 3.
THE GAINES OF SEEKING GOD. In two Sermons preached in the Parish Church of WESTMINSTER By Christopher Styles ECCLVS 33.16 Behold how I haue not laboured only for my selfe but for all them that seeke knowledge LONDON Printed by William Stansby 1620. TO THE RIGHT Honourable Sir HENRY HOBART Knight and Baronet Lord Chiefe Iustice of his Maiesties Court of Common Pleas and Chancellour to the PRINCE his Highnesse all spirituall Graces temporall Blessings and eternall Happinesse be multiplyed RIGHT HONOVRABLE VPon the assurance of some interest had in your Lordships sauor which I hope I haue not vtterly lost thogh it bee long since I was knowne vnto you yet because you were my first good Master vnder whom I serued in your Church at Somerton in Norfolke by the space of foure yeeres and more till God prouided for me a good Liuing in another place which now I haue vnfortunately left And now hauing a small meanes to liue vpon by my great paines in the Parish of Westminster being so neere to your Honour and being requested to put this Sermon in print I am bold as well to satisfie my good Friends requests which were hearers of the same as for the benefit of all well-disposed Christians to commend the same vnto your Lordships fauourable acceptance for by your Honorable countenance I hope to reape much comfort for this my small labour I ayme at no other end in this Enterprize but to shew my thankfulnesse to your Honour and to all my charitable Neighbours therefore if rash and riotous Censurers be neuer so enuious in their talke against these my weake beginnings yet if your Lordship be pleased to grace my good meaning with your Honourable countenance I shall bee bound to pray daily for the continuance of your Lordships health and prosperitie and will euer remaine Your Lordships daily Orator and most dutifull Seruant CHRISTOPHER STYLES To the Reader GEntle Reader if with a godly mind thou seekest onely to profit and comfort thy soule and not by vaine and idle cauils Nodum in scirpo quaerere to find a fault not offered I wish this Booke may be to thee as Rachel and Leach were to Iacob fruitfull and delightfull and this I certifie to thee I did not rashly but verie timorously vndertake this burthen to content my friends and could not be so much encouraged by many as I was discouraged in my selfe At last resolued because the Method of my Teaching herein is only be way of exhortation Paraphrastically expounding euery word of my Text which is not the most vnprofitable way whereby the hearer may be edified therefore I thought it might be acceptable and this made me the bolder to satisfie my Friends desires and publikely to make my selfe acquainted with your Christian Carriages Well-minded people will not deny my common Courtesie that is to iudge of my labors as if they were their owne and this is all I aske C.S. THE GAINES OF SEEKING GOD. PSAL. 69.32 Seeke after God and your soule shall liue THe Booke of Psalmes is a spirituall Librarie whether the whole breadth of Scripture may be reduced for authority of the Scripture contained in this Book we find it admitted into the Church as a Booke of absolute Diuinitie and so approoued throughout the New Testament This Psalme out of which I haue chosen my Text is a liuely description of the passions and patience of Christ and his members the Church These words which I haue chosen for my Text are an holy instruction left for all Posterities wherein they are shewed the gaines of seeking God whatsoeuer else we seeke for our labour is but lost but in seeking after God we shall enioy the fulnesse of all true comfort to our soules which only is in God then seeke after God and your soule shall liue In these words of my Text two things are to bee obserued first a precept seeke after God secondly a promise and your soule shall liue In this precept also three things are to be considered First how we should seeke after God and that must be debito modo in the right fashion and order Secondly when wee should seeke him and that must bee debito tempore in a fit and right time Thirdly where to seeke God and that must bee debito loco in the right place Of these points only I purpose to entreate at this time reseruing the other part which is the promise vntill another Sabbath For the first part of the precept how wee should seeke God nature it selfe will teach vs if wee haue lost a Iewell which was most deare vnto vs first to seeke it in sorrow for the losse secondly with diligence to regaine it thirdly with constant perseuerance till we haue found it Oh then let not the man endued with grace plead ignorance in seeking God but first lacrimabiliter mournfully secondly diligenter faithfully thirdly perseueranter constantly in perseuerance neuer giue ouer vntill you find the Lord. The blessed Virgin Marie returning homewards from the Feast and not finding him whom her soule loued the child Iesus went back again to Ierusalem sought him saying Luke 2.48 Ego Pater tuus dolentes querebamus te Thy Father and I haue sought thee sorrowing And thus recouered shee the Iewell of her ioy The ryotous Prodigall hauing wasted all the Treasure by which he should haue liued and now remembring how in his Fathers House the hired Seruants had meat enough and he was readie to perish for hunger hee sought his Fathers loue againe mournfully confessing and saying Father Luke 15.18 I haue sinned c. and so was receiued with feasting and ioy Marie Magdalene out of whom Christ had cast seuen Deuils and was the only friend and comfort of her soule when shee came to the Graue and found him not there shee bowed her selfe into the Graue Iohn 20.13 and wept because they had taken away her Lord and she knew not where they had layd him and in this sorrowfull seeking she found him to her great comfort Iesus himselfe while hee liued in the World was neuer seene to laugh but often weeping Wise Salomon in the depth of his Diuinitie Eccles 2.2 said vnto mirth what aylest thou to laughter thou art mad Oh blessed Iesu how should I thinke to find thee in pleasure and ioy whom thy Mother could scarce find with teares Take heed therefore you that feast it with Nabal braue it with Haman and carouse it with Belshazzar and reuell with Herod not at all regarding to seeke the Lord lest the Lord on a sudden deale with you as with them and turne your feasting into fasting take the cup from your mouth and fill you with spuing turne you out of all your iollitie and hauing perpetuall shame vpon you this can God and this will God doe if you doe not humbly preuent his Iudgements seeking to his mercie mournfully Gods Wordes preuaile much with men and more with God but teares constraine compassion our sins are cause