Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A28156
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The believer's daily exercise, or, The Scripture precept of being in the fear of the Lord all the day long explained and urged in four sermons / by John Billingsley ...
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Billingsley, John, 1657-1722.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing B2907; ESTC R6203
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37,871
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100
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tune When Death knocks at the doors and looks in at the Windows and out at the Eyes of these brisk merry Blades these boon Companions when nature fails and their strength is gone and their departing Soul presageth irresistibly it 's everlasting duration Oh how will they then befool themselves How will their Consciences reproach them How freely will they give themselves the Lie How heartily will they retract their censures of the Godly and with that they were not only almost but altogether such as they Acts xxvi 29. And that they might die the death of the righteous and their last end be like his Numb xxiii 10. Assure your selves Sirs there is none of you that when you come to die will repent that he hath praised so much or lived so exactly or mortified his flesh and subjected his appetite to his reason with so much diligence none repenteth then of the sufferings and scorns he hath undergone for Christ and a good Conscience Men then cry out of their Gluttony and Swearing and Sabbath-breaking and Hypocrisie and not of their holiness and circumspection and sincerity but wish it had been a thousand times more than it was And what thou wilt shortly wish thou hadst been methinks if thou art wise it should be thy hearty study and chiefest care now to be R. 7. We shall thus make evil days good to us Days of abounding iniquity in the World days of sharp sufferings to our selves whether from persecuting malice or from the immediate hand of God as in one kind or other sufficient unto every day is the evil thereof Mat. vi 34. Yet whatever be the evil of the day it will be a good day to us if we be in the fear of the Lord all the day long for then we shall avoid much of the evil of the day and what of it is unavoidable God will turn it to our good for he hath said All things shall work together for good to them that love him Rom. viii 28. There is no Antidote against daily temptations like being in the fear of God nor no support or comfort under great troubles like this that they find us in the way of our duty Nothing stilleth murmuring and complaining under our sharpest trials like a holy awe of God and a sense of his presence and governing Providence He that is in the fear of God will not use sinful shifts to escape sufferings than which nothing sooner fills the Soul of any man that is not of an utterly seared Conscience with trouble and perplexity The fear of God will wean us from the Love of the World and will subdue those inordinate desires in us which since nothing that we can here compass can ever satisfie must necessarily make us a torment to our selves It will prick the bladder of pride quench our covetous thirst after the Mammon of Unrighteousness and blunt the Edge of our sensual Inclinations that we shall be so far from esteeming any of these our happiness that we shall count our selves much more happy in having grace to deny the immoderate gratifications of the animal Life than in being never so fully possessed of whatsoever might conduce to our compliance with them In a word the fear of God powerfully prevailing in our hearts would make prosperity safe and adversity easie to us it would make our worst days good and our best days better whereas he that lives and dies a stranger to this being in the fear of the Lord all the day long though he live an hundred years in prosperity yet it may be truly said he hath not had one good day R. 8. This will secure a blessing unto us and ours Religion entails a blessing upon Families upon Persons and their Posterity Blessed is every one that feareth God and that walketh in his ways Psal cxxviii 1. God blessed the house of Potiphar for Joseph's sake Gen. xxxix 5. It is a promise to the truly godly man that whatsoever he doth shall prosper Psal i. 3. Happy is the man that feareth always Prov. xxviii 14. The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked But he blesseth the habitation of the just Prov. iii. 33 Read the 28th Chapter of Deuteronomy what blessings are there promised to the careful observers of God's Law Those that are truly Godly God will pour out his Spirit upon their Seed and his blessing upon their Off-spring Isa xliv 3. If we sincerely consecrate and devote our selves in the beginning of every day to God we thereby entitle him to our Persons Possessions and Performances and thereupon all of ours doth immediately become his care He is as it were in equity bound to take care of his own He never yet cast off any that sincerely cast themselves upon him And when we consider how needful his blessing is to the Success of any thing that we go about We cannot but think them happy that by taking God along with them continually are secured of that without which all humane forecast and industry is in vain and to no purpose Psal Cxxvii 1 2. Whence come the Crosses Losses Vexations and Ruines that are in many Families but from mens neglect or distrust of God When we cast him out of our thoughts it is just with him to cast us out of his care R. 9. If we live thus though we die young we shall have lived long enough and if we die Old we shall not have lived too long What an excellent thing now is Holiness and the fear of God which reduceth short Life and long to an equality He that in the time of his Life hath learned to know God and Jesus Christ to Worship God in Spirit and in Truth to secure to himself an happy being for Eternity and to serve his Generation while he is in this World hath lived much though it be in a little time Such a Child hath lived longer than he that is as Old as Methusalem and yet remains ignorant of these things I mean as to the great ends â—nd purposes of living For there are those of whom we may say as Seneca non diâ— vixit sed diu fuit Many have been long that have lived but a little while And further if he whose walk and course we have been at large describing to you if such a one I say live long he hath no cause to repent of the time he hath sojourned here though he have met with many Temptations and Afflictions he hath thereby only had an opportunity of exercising and confirming his Faith Hope Love and other Graces his patience hath had it's perfect work and he hath brought forth fruit abounding to his account A long Life well spent is a resemblance of as well as a preparative to Eternal Life Gray-hairs found in the way of righteousness are a Type and Emblem of an happy Eternity Whereas the sinner of an hundred years old is accursed and hath cause Isa 65. 20. to lament that ever he had a being he hath
God's fear Reckon your Sabbaths gains consider your actions and the frame of your Souls in them fix the Word of the day upon your hearts and resolve by the Grace of God to be found in the sincere and speedy practice of it He who thus regardeth a day unto the Lord Rom. xiv 6. shall comfortably experience that the Lords-day hath the seventh days blessing transferred unto it and an additional blessing of its own conferred upon it Infer III. Seriousness in Religion is not more ado than needs Strictness is not Fanaticism Religion in all its parts is our reasonable service Rom. xii 1. We do not serve God for nought that true enough though once said by the Father of Lies Job i. 9. In keeping Gods Commandments there is great reward Psal xix 11. All this work you have heard laid open is of God's setting us and we may be sure he will not suffer us to be losers by our care to please him And besides the variety of Employments allotted to us which sinners count their burden and their cumber is indeed that which sweetens Religion unto holy Souls It is not the hardness of the work in it self but the unsuitableness of it to our Spirits that maketh it so uneasie to the most and when Grace hath removed that the Soul goes on with chearfulness in those ways which sinners cannot endure to tread and do all they can to discourage others from walking in When therefore sinners entice thee from the ways of godliness and tell thee What needeth so much ado sure God is more merciful than to damn men for neglect of secret prayer for vain thoughts for foolish speeches for taking now and then a Cup of Nimis for making the best of their own c. Sure God won't shut all out of Heaven but a few Puritans and Precisians so much reading and praying c. will but mope you or make you melancholy or mad take care of thy Body and make sure of thy Estate and trust God with thy Soul When I say sinners do thus entice thee consent thou not Prov. i. 10. Let no man deceive you with vain words Eph. v. 6. Tell them God knows better who he will save and who he will damn than any of they and he hath said Without holiness no man shall see the Lord He will pour out his fury upon the Families that call not upon his Name Life and Death are in the power of the Tongue Drunkards among others shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Covetousness is Idolatry It is a little Flock our Heavenly Father will give his Kingdom to The Righteous are scarcely saved The Kingdom of God consists in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost What is a man profited if he gain the whole World and lose himself or be cast away Tell them these are the true sayings of God see Heb. xii 14. Jer. x. 25. Prov. xviii 21. 1 Cor. vi 10. Col. iii. 5. Luke xii 32. 1 Pet. iv v. 18. Rom. xiv 17. Luke ix 25. And you should be a Fool indeed if you should believe the silly sayings of blind Earth-worms and prejudiced unexperienced Sots before the Word of the Living and True God the Infinite and Eternal Wisdom Infer IV. What cause have we to lament the Fall of our First Parents by which we are disabled for this excellent Life God Created Man holy and happy with wisdom to know his Duty and power to do it and holy Love to encline him to the performance of it It was easie for Adam to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long though it was possible for him by a faulty omission of Reasons government over the inferiour powers of the Soul to depart there-from And such was the mutability of his Will that being assaulted by Temptation he wretchedly yielded and so betrayed himself and his Posterity into a forlorn state of wretchedness and impotency so that now we have none of us by nature light enough to discern nor ability to perform aright our Duty in the most ordinary instances of Life Certain it is we have lost that Moral Liberty of Will which was the glory of Innocent Adam and had been our glory had he stood and remained in his Integrity But now the Crown is fallen from our Heads woe unto us that we have sinned Lam. v. 16. We may well name ours Ichabod for the glory is departed from us 1 Sam. iv 21. We are all shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin Psal Li. 5. In our flesh dwelleth no good thing when we would do good evil is present with us O wretched ones that we are who shall deliver us from the body of this death Rom. vii 18 21 24. By one man sin entred into the World and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Rom. v. 12. We have cause to look our hearts and lives in the glass of God's Law and cry out as once a good Man did after a long Sickness looking his Face in a Glass and beholding his pale Cheeks and meager Visage Ah! Adam saith he Adam what hast thou done Oh! what a condition are we who sinned in Adam fallen from and what a sad estate are we fallen into our Minds are dark our Wills perverse our Affections froward c. we cannot of our selves think one good thought if we might have Heaven and Eternal happiness for our pains 2 Cor. iii. 5. We cannot pray nor read nor hear nor do any spiritual Duty aright We have an hereditary Sickness that threatens us with death in that it makes us loath the means of Life Oh what a averseness to and unfitness for secret prayer and meditation and examining themselves do even awakened sinners find and feel till special Grace come in to their aid What shifting what shufling what excuses what slightness what slubbering over of Duties is there In a word Adam's Fall hath rendered us all utterly unable of our selves to do aright any duty to God our Neighbour or our selves Infer V. What cause have we all to lament our past days because they have been in too great a measure lost days If you look back upon the description that hath been laid before you of the everyday work and walk of a serious practical Christian and consider how every day of your Life hath been spent since you came to the use of reason I fear you will most of you have cause to cry out not only with the Emperour Augustus Hem amici diem perdidi Alas my Friends I have lost a day But Heu vitam perdidi Alas I have lost my whole Life Alas How have our days been squandered away and our time lavished out upon unprofitable vanities Ask one man what he hath been doing ever since he came into the World And he must if he say true tell you he hath been labouring for the meat that perisheth he hath been toiling and drudging to add house to house and