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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	day_n	know_v	lord_n	2,641	5	3.7017	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52250	A sermon preached at the funeral of Mr. Joseph Aleine by George Newton ...	Newton, George, 1602-1681.	1672 (1672)	Wing N1047; ESTC R16860	20,159	39

storm and from the rain Sometimes they are called Shepherds and the business of a Shepherd is to keep and save the flock Sometimes they are called Angels and Angels are the Guardians of the Lords people They Guard and Cover and Protect a people Now this they do while they instruct them so to walk that wrath may not come upon them while they Intercede with God and stand up in the breach to keep out the indignation that is flowing in upon it A praying Minister and such a one have you lost one that bare you on his heart continually before the Lord as Aaron did the names of Israel on his Breast-plate I say a praying Minister is a protection to the people It s true the fervent prayers of the meanest Saint are an Incredible defence to any place to save it from the strokes of God And therefore even they are stiled Intercessors Isaiah 59. 16 Because they mediate with God when he is Angry and by their zealous Supplications hold his hands But yet however though it be a certaine truth that God hath much respect to the Petitions of his weakest Servants yea though perhaps some private Christians may Excel a holy Minister in prayer yet God hath more regard to the Intreaties of his faithful Ministers who have a special charge and Commission to be his Remembrancers for the good of that people which he committeth to their charge and their Petitions are of more availe and power with God both to procùre his Blessings and avert his Judgments Moses and Aaron among his Priests and Samuel among them that call on his name They called upon the Lord and he answered them Psalm 99. 6. Why doubtless so he heard the prayers of his other Saints But these his holy Priests and Prophets had the Ear of God as special favorites have their Princes Ears and could be heard and Answer'd when others were denied Access and Audience And this is not obscurely Intimated in that protestation of the Lord to Israel concerning their approaching Desolation Ezek. 14. 14. Though these three men Noah Daniel and Job were in it they should deliver but their own souls By which he insinuates that when the absolute decree is once gone forth it can by no means be revok'd so he suggests withall that if it had been feasible these holy Prophets would have done it q. d. were those three men in Israel they would put me to it hard and try me shrewdly to forbear the Land I should be hardly able to deny them He said he would destroy them had not his chosen Moses stood before him in the breach to turn away his warth Psalm 106. 23. Oh how did Moses stand against him and bind the hands of the Almighty when he was about to strike So that the Lord intreats and flatters with him to let him alone Exodus 32. 10. While such as Moses are Intercessors for a people God forbears he holds his hands and restrains his indignation as he that means to strike observes what strength there will be likely to oppose him And when he looks and sees that there is no Intercessor then he goes on with his design Isaiah 59 16. Then his Arm brings salvation to him and he puts on the Garments of vengeance Brethren you are in greater danger then you are aware by the removal of your praying Minister For you have lost one Intercessor if any breach should happen between God and you Yea you have lost your Covering if a storm of wrath should fall So that it may be said of you as it was once of Israel when Moses was away that you are naked And what are you in Laodicea's case indeed do you not know that you are naked Are you naked and are you not afraid Are you naked and not ashamed This would become a state of Innocence indeed in which it was observed of Adam and his Wife that they were both naked and were not ashamed Genesis 2. 5. But will it suit with such a state of sin and danger as the best of you are in do you not find your selves uncovered Have you no sense and feeling of it especially at such a time as this when the Judgments of the Lord are abroad upon the Earth upon the Land upon this very place in which you live more waies then I am able to express Alas alas you are uncovered whether you know it yea or no. And it is perhaps some mercy that you are not quite uncovered Here spend your tears and you shall not misplace your sorrow That is the first branch of Direction Weep for your selves For the sins that you have done and for the Judgments that you may 2. There is a second yet behind and I have done Weep for your children Weep not for me saith Christ but weep for your selves and for your children And why for them Because their children were to bear a share and suffer with them in the wrath that was about to come upon them as you may see Luke 19. 43. For the daies shall come upon thee saith our Saviour that thine enemies shall cast a Trench about thee and compass thee round and keep thee in on every side and shall lay thee even with the ground and thy children within thee Brethren if you have any tears lest drop a few upon your Children you are not able to foresee what miseries your little ones may be reserved for and verily their danger is increased as well as yours by this stroke For you have lost a Catechiser as well as a Preacher you know what care and pains he took and what a gift and faculty he had in instilling holy knowledge into your children and your little ones while he had liberty in Publick and strength with opportunity in Private He took a very great delight to tamper with them and to tole them on to the holy waies of God by all the means that he was able to devise It was his very last design as he was alwaies full of holy projects to take some Course that children might be more generally Principled in the grounds and Fundamentals of Religion then they are And I am very well assured that many of your children have such Liquor poured into them by his means that they will relish of it as long as they have a day to live and it may be bless the Lord and him for it to all Eternity And therefore you have cause enough to weep that you have lost a Minister that was fit and apt to teach not your selves only but your children too and make them know the way of the Lord. Not to feed the Sheep only but to lead the Lambs too and to bear them in his Bosome as the expression is Isaiah 40. 11. I have done with the Directions Weep for your selves and for your children And now for the close of all I say again Weep not for him his sorrow certainly is turned into Joy and therefore so let yours be also He hath receiv'd that blessed Sentence Well done good and faithful Servant enter into thy Masters Joy And let me tell you I speak it upon good assurance he went Triumphantly to Glory an Entrance was ministred to him abundantly into the Heavenly Kingdom As he drew nearer Heaven till his Disease prevailed against his Reason he grew still more Heavenly When Grace and Glory were about to Joyn Grace in him was most Glorious Oh with what Extasies and Ravishments of spirit did he fly away into the Bosome of his Saviour I have but one word to add and it is that of the Apostle Hebrews 13. Remember him that had sometimes the Rule over you who hath spoken to you the word of the Lord whose faith follow considering the end of his conversation And that was a blessed end indeed Remember him to follow him in all that was exemplary in him whether concerning Faith or Life that walking in the holy way that he did you may at last come to the happy end and place where he is FINIS

are come If God carry you aside into a Wilderness and strip you naked there of any mercy as if he meant to Iash you to the purpose your ways and your doings have procured you these things such is your wickedness Believe it you have sinned some way or other against the mercy which the Lord takes from you They are our sins against the Ordinances of the Lord that cause the Lord to take away our Ordinances from us They are our sins against the Ministers of Christ in that capacity as Ministers that provoke him to remove our Ministers from us Yea many times to take away the Candlestick and Light together You may take up the Lamentation of the Church this day The Crown is faln from our heads wo to us for we have sinned They are our sins that Weaken and impair and kill our Ministers who are indeed the Churches Crown and the glory of Christ. Sometimes we overvalue them and then we kill them with kindness Sometimes we undervalue them and then we kill them with neglect and make them do their work with grief Sometimes we are untractable and unthankful and unfruitful and God calls away his workmen out of the Vineyard that will yield no better fruit Nay sometimes we decline and grow remiss and cold and flat we lose our love to God and Christ and then he takes away our Beloved comforts from us And let me tell you some of you have backslidden grievously and sonsibly abated of your former zeal and holiness and strictness in the ways of God Yea sinned scandalously to the dishonour of Religion and the Gospel This greived our dear Brother who will grieve no more now I had it from his mouth and pen how tenderly he took some late miscarriages and how near they went to him These things brought him low among you who was low enough before and made him to bewail many who have manifestly sinned and have not repented as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 12. 21. Oh how it wounded him after so many labours and so many sufferings for your establishment and confirmation to see such declinations and backslidings He might have said with the Apostle 1 Thess. 3. 8. Now I live if you stand fast in the Lord If not I die and dead he is Oh my dear friends what have your sins done what hath your barrenness and your unfruitfulness and your Backsliding done I know you lov'd him with a very high affection and have made it to appear in many outward declarations to your great praise But the best way to shew your love to the true Ministers of Christ who seek not yours but you who seek not profit and applause but Fruit is to bear their just reproofs and to be amended by them to hear and obey them in their regular directions to follow all their good Examples for the Ministers of Christ are Samplers to the flock Samplers must be wrought after And in a word to bring them in the return of all their labours in holiness and holy walking that they may see the travel of their souls and be satisfied Nothing but this will satisfie them and make them do their work with Joy I know you lov'd him as there was cause enough you should but say in truth have you Improv'd him I am assur'd that many of you a considerable number have Improv'd him to the utmost of your power That you have made the most you could of his indefagatible and incessant pains among you That you have gather'd up the very Fragments of the Bread of life and pik'd up the very Crums that nothing might be lost That you have eyed his exemplary Conversation and walked according to your pattern And this I make no question is no small comfort to you in this doleful day But have you all done this Are there no secret Stitches at the hearts of any of you upon this consideration He spent his strength indeed among you he wasted and consumed himself that you might flourish But tell me have there been answerable fruits among you of holiness and obedience when he fed you have you prosper'd he got a poor lean wither'd Body that you might have fat Souls And are you all fat and well likeing Oh what lean souls have some of you who have attended on his Ministry even to his dying day How hath your rich and fat pasture been cast away upon you So that our Brother might have said in reference to many as the Prophet did I have spent my strength in vain However he is glorious with his God But I am very much afraid that many of you will find this holy Witness who is now ascended Witnessing against you when the day of trial comes Dear friends Be not offended if I tell you that your sins have had a stroke in the sickness and the weakness and the death of your deservedly beloved Minister They were our sins that killed Christ he was bruised for our iniquities and broken for our sins He bare our sins in his Body on the Tree And so they are our sins that kill the Ministers of Christ. You have often seen your Saviour slain before you by and for your sins Now you have seen a holy Minister of his slain by the same hands And yet your sins have still to do more such work and the Lord knows where it will end There is no Execution done upon them who have done such dreadfull Execution in our view Oh let your hearts break and your tears run down till your lusts be broken mortified and destroyed or else they will break you and destroy you If you have any love to Christ to the Ministers of Christ or to your selves you may see cause enough to weep though not for our deceased Brother yet for your selves and for your sins That 's the first thing then weep for the sins that you have done 2. For the Judgments that now you may be like to suffer To this our Saviour referth in the Text Weep for your selves and for your children That is for the extremity of wrath and deletery vengeance that is about to come on you and them Even so say I to you my Brethren with the Apostle James 5. 1. Go to now weep and howl for your miseris that shall come upon you Oh let not that complaint of the Prophet Isaiah 57. 1. be renewed against you The Righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart and merciful men are taken away none considering that the Righteous is taken away from the evil to come Our dear Brother now deceased was a Righteous man yea a Preacher of Righteousness The Lord you see hath taken him away oh what evil is to come When such as he are hous'd what dreadful stormes may there be like to fall Brethren the holy Ministers of God are the peoples life-guard The Chariots of Israel and the Horsmen thereof 2 Kings 13. 14. They are anointed Cherubs that Cover They are a Shelter and a Covering from the