Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A60354
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A sermon preached before the Right Honourable Sir John Shorter, Knight, Lord Mayor of the city of London at Grocers-Hall by Samuel Slater ...
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Slater, Samuel, d. 1704.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing S3975; ESTC R10144
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44,686
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50
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you Let no Talents lie dead upon your Hands and unoccupied but be all imployed and improved for him to whom you owe your selves and your All. Do what you can for the Name and Interest of Christ. This was the excellent Account which the holy Apostle Paul was able to give of himself Philip. 1.21 That to him to live was Christ. And it will be well very well for us if we through Grace are able to give up the like Account of our selves that while to too too many to live is Sin and the World to fulfil the Lusts of the Flesh to heap up Riches to advance in Honours to pursue the empty and perishing Delights which the Creatures afford we fly a more sublime and lofty pitch for to us to live is Christ. Our hearts are immovably fixed upon Christ and devoted to him Our Projects and Designs are laid for Christ Our Lives and Actions are directed unto Christ to his Honour and advancement of his Interest the increasing of the number of his Subjects and enlarging the Bounds of his Empire It is the positive and declared Will of God That men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father Now let us all conform and be obedient to this Will as we will answer the contrary at our peril It is far better for us to live to Christ than to our selves or to any thing else in the World. This will yield us the greatest Peace and Comfort here together with the greatest Profit and Reward hereafter They that live to Christ will never see cause to repent of it whatever else they repent of they will never see cause to reflect upon it with a Blush for they live to good purpose to the best and most excellent purpose Those Persons shall find no reason to be ashamed of so living nor to be afraid of dying when they are called hence nor tremble at the thoughts of giving up their Account when called to appear before their Judge Let me therefore in the first place direct my Discourse to you who are private Christians and accordingly move in the lowest and narrowest Sphere of Activity If you have an Heart such as you should have you even you are in a capacity of doing something for Christ though not so much as others above you I pray give me leave to ask What have you done And now do you take up the Question and bring it home to your selves and propound it seriously to your own Souls O my Soul what have I done You have lived several Years in the World some fewer some more you have some of you been great Talkers and made an high Profession of Faith in Christ and Love to him and I do not in the least question but some of you have taken a great deal of pains and eaten your Bread in the sweat of your Brows you have wrought hard for your selves and your Families you have had multitudes of Thoughts and been taken up with carking Cares you have risen up early and sate up late and eaten the Bread of Carefulness you have watch'd and you have work'd and wearied your selves with working and when you have not met with the desired Success you have fretted and pined and could almost for grief and vexation tear off your Hair But now inquire What have you in the midst of all this done for Christ Certainly he deserves something of you He humbled himself for you he suffered and died for you he became a Curse for you He did bear your Iniquities and his Fathers Wrath He made peace and purchas'd Heaven for you And all this deserves something You owe him a great deal no less than your All and you are shamefully disingenuous and ungrateful if you do not study Returns Besides this consider as he died so he rose again a Conqueror and is a King upon his Vesture and his Thigh there is this glorious Name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords And so he is able to reward you to make up all your Losses to satisfie you for all your Labours to answer all your Hopes and to exceed your highest Expectations Well then call your selves to an Account before God call you to it for he will do it one day What have you done for Christ If you have done much if you have been stedfast immovable and abounding in the Work of the Lord take the Comfort of it knowing that God is not unrighteous to forget it your Labour shall not be in vain you shall enter into Joy. But still go on and endeavour to do more and abound in it more and more for none of you have as yet done enough but have cause to mourn at your coming off so pitifully If there be any of you that to this day hath done nothing for Christ and truly I do fear yea I greatly fear there are too many such in this Congregation and in all you have had a great many Irons in the Fire and all of them diligently minded and tended while Christ hath been forgotten and neglected let me ask you Doth Conscience say nothing to you Have you not sometimes some secret Checks and inward Gripes If in such a Case as this Conscience be silent if it do not reprove you and set this Sin before you really your Case is sad But I shall do my Duty and in the Name of God I advise you to be ashamed and to begin your Duty now and double your diligence upon the account of your former slothfulness neglect and wofully mis-spent Time not knowing how soon your Breath may be stopp'd and all Opportunities for Service taken from you Now now begin and go on to speak for him plead the Cause of his Name Ordinances and Institutions and do not do it with a cold Indifference but as becomes Persons nearly concerned Commend him to your Families Relations Friends and Neighbours See what Hearts you can get for him Love him your selves with all entireness of Affection and do what you can to allure and draw others to love him too Dan. 12.3 They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to Righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever Labour then my beloved Friends labour hard as those that have a dear and fervent Love to this lovely Iesus and as those who also have an eye to this glorious Recompence of Reward In the next place I shall with faithfulness and earnestness yet with all due respect offer my Advice and Request to my Reverend Fathers and Brethren in the Ministry who hold the Head by whatsoever Sentiments and Opinions they are divided and distinguished Of and among whom all that are sound in the Faith and accompany their Labour in the Word and Doctrine with an unblamable holy and exemplary Conversation I greatly love and highly esteem and honour You are Embassadors for Christ Oh do not forget that You ought to be his Paranymphs the real and hearty Friends of this ever-blessed
it were it to do again I would do it Indeed once he said concerning Saul 1 Sam. 15.11 It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be King for he is turned back from following me and hath not performed my Commandments But it shall never be said concerning the Lord Iesus that it repenteth God that he hath made him King. Such a Thought will never be in the Mind of God. Secondly This Yet doth sweetly signifie Gods settled and unalterable Resolution in the case This is so done as that it shall never be undone As when Pilate had given order for that Inscription to be upon the Cross of Christ Iesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews it gave great offence to his Enemies they knew not how to brook it the chief Priests being incensed said unto him Write not The King of the Jews Iohn 19.21 They cared not though he had called him all to naught such a Title they could by no means away with But He answered them thus What I have written I have written The thing is done therefore it is to no purpose for you to say any more So saith God I have set my Son up for King and doth any one think I will pull him down again No far be it from me What I have done I have done So Isaac said concerning his Son Iacob Gen. 27.33 So God hath made Christ King and he shall continue so without being deposed Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever His Kingdom cannot be shaken nor his Throne overturned and indeed it is pity it should since the same verse tells us That the Scepter of his Kingdom is a right Scepter The Counsels of God shall stand all of them and the Thoughts of his Heart to all Generations There is no Act of his Will but there is Counsel in it it is managed with infinite Wisdom And therefore it shall continue because God seeth none not the least cause to revoke it Iob 23.13 He is in one mind and who can turn him None can prevail with him to alter his Mind either by Power or by Persuasion and Intreaty or by Argument and Reason And as it is thus with God with reference to other things so to this in particular and indeed as there is not any Shadow of turning in God as to this so there is not any Shadow of Reason why there should You may see that which Samuel said to Saul 1 Sam. 13.14 Thy Kingdom shall not continue the Lord hath sought him a Man after his own Heart He sought him and he found him That was spoken of David the Type but it may be much more said so concerning the Lord Jesus Christ that he is a Man after the Heart of God. He is perfectly such an One as God would have him Take him as to the Qualification of his Person there is no defect in him no fault nothing amiss He is all and only what he should be And take him as to his Government and managing of Affairs He is according to the Heart of God for the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand Isa. 53.10 He shall deal prudently and prosperously And as He is according to the Heart of God so according to the Heart of his People whom he will rule with love and save to the utmost Thirdly This Yet doth plainly speak the indignation of God the Father against all the Enemies of Christ. It is as one saith Signum irae accensae a sign of Wrath kindled and burning in the Breast of God which will certainly have its vent and break forth in fury to their destruction As you find it in the verse preceding the Text He shall speak unto them in his Wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure When he shall speak to them He will vex them His Words will be Swords and Daggers that shall pierce and wound them to the Heart But what is that which He will speak That which you have in the Text Yet have I set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion How now What is to do here What is the matter with this mad besotted and unchristian World What mean they by their Raging Plotting and Combining Is not my Will sufficiently declared Have not I made my Son Ruler over them and will they not reverence my Son Have not I anointed him with mine Holy Oyl and will they spit in his Face Have not I given forth my command to all the Angels to worship him Heb. 1.6 and will these sorry contemptible Worms be wriggling and moving Disturbances Have not I put all things in subjection under his Feet and will they strengthen themselves against him and run upon him even upon his Neck and the thick Bosses of his Buckler What! dare you notwithstanding that which I have done dare you appear in desperate Opposition to him and to rise up in a flat and open Rebellion against him Dare you for all this meet and consult conspire and contrive for the breaking of his Bands asunder and the casting away his Cords from you Have you so much forgotten me And do you so much overvalue your selves as to dare to run counter to my eternal Counsels and to act in such a way of contradiction to my declared will Are not these mad Men quite out of their Wits and far more fit for Bedlams than for Thrones and Tribunals that do so wickedly and foolishly attempt to put him down and wrest the Scepter out of his Hand and in his stead to advance the Man of Sin the Son of Perdition when yet they have had notice given them by my Word what I have done and how I have Authorized him and that it is by me that he Reigns This doth highly provoke and incense God this makes the Fury to come up into his Face And therefore let all the Enemies of Christ know they had better desist from this their vain undertaking they had better mind their own Business and study how to secure and provide for their own Peace and let Christ alone in the enjoyment of what is given him for an Inheritance and Possession God the Father takes the part of Christ and will plead his Cause as one that is in Honour and Interest ingaged so to do for this is past all question those Persons that are so eagerly set for the unkinging of Christ would if it were in their power ungod the Father too And since he sides with Christ he will be too hard for all his Adversaries and break their Hearts and Necks and Arms whose design it is to break his Bands This brings me to the last thing Fourthly This Yet speaks the Vanity and Unsuccessfulness of all the Attempts which the Enemies of the Lord Jesus make against him and Gods looking with holy Scorn and highest Contempt upon all the grand and petty Antichrists in the World. Yonder is a huge multitude of them saith God Gebal Ammon Amalek and the Inhabitants of Mount Seir with many more