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cause_n good_a grace_n work_n 7,426 5 6.4759 4 true
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A30696 The necessity and reward of a willing mind a sermon preach'd at Exon before an assembly of ministers of the counties of Devon and Somerset, April 16, 1693 / by John Bush. Bush, John, fl. 1693. 1693 (1693) Wing B6231; ESTC R35793 23,643 37

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that is really Willing to turn to God doth determine to do it presently deferring to hereafter is the fruit of an unwilling Mind Pro. 3.27 28. Withhold not good from him to whom it is due when it is in the Power of thy hands to do it Say not to thy Neighbour go and come again and to Morrow I will give when thou hast it by thee The Wise Man considered that delaying is not safe for we may either loose the Opportunity of doing or which is worse the Will to perform the present Impression as well as the present opportunity may be gone by delaying without a good cause we make no Conscience of the Command that relates to the Time and to Morrow we may make no Conscience of that part of the Command that relates to the thing it self The Apostle whom God at an Instant Inclin'd to his Duty did immediately set about it Gal. ● 15 16 17 But when it pleased God who separated me from my Mothers Womb and called me by his grace to reveal his Son in me that I might Preach him among the eathen immediately I conferred not with flesh and Blood And therefore it must needs be a general mistake in the World for men to pretend that they are not only Convinced that 't is their Duty to lead a new Life but Willing and yet this must not be till hereafter And yet think it shall be well enough especially if it should happen that they live to that hereafter 't is true in some cases and as to some particular dutys It may consist with a willing mind to defer them when the present time is not convenient or when the time to come may prove more advantagious but as to the amendment of a Mans life to pretend to be willing but not for the present as in it self 't is not a real willingness so in some respect 't is a resolution to the contrary of what we pretend to and therefore how can such a purpose be pleasing to God consider that besides the danger that you run and the presumption that you manifest that the grace and Mercy of God nay God himself shall be at your beck when you shall be at leisure to return to him you do at present resolve that as yet you will not as if you had not enough provoked the Almighty as if the time past of your Life did not suffice you to have wrought wickedness but you will continue to do so longer you do in effect declare that you ought to live otherwise than you have done that you must do otherwise and be other manner of persons and yet though you have wronged God already and wearied the Almighty and though if you die in your Sins without repentance you expect damnation and though you have no assurance that God will give you longer time as to be sure you have not yet you will venture upon it you will run the hazard of being damned under a pretence that you will do your Duty hereafter when you have spent your time in Sin and can do God no Service when you can Sin no longer you will cease to do Evil and when you can do nothing then you will learn to do well when the day is at an end you will go forth to your Labour and when the Sun is setting then you will set forth for your Journey can this delaying consist with a willing mind 3. As for discouragements this disposition of mind will help us to overcome them In the best of times well doing will meet with if not direct opposition at least discouragements for whilst the World continueth the Seed of the Serpent which sprung up in Cain will be The World will be ungrateful malicious and opposit to what is good even Morality hath had its Persecutors much more shall all they that will live Godly in Christ Jesus the greatest Innocence the strictest life the most publick Spirit the utmost caution shall never be able at all times and in all places to protect the Servants of God from the tongues or hands and hatred of the wicked who rather than they will lose the opportunity of doing mischeif will turn Christians that under the pretence of the Christian name they may wreak their Malice upon them that differ not from them but in those things wherein they themselves differ from what they pretend to these men will shew a Reverence to the deceased Apostles and Disciples of our Saviour that they may mischief the living ones Nay sometimes persecute them for that very thing for which the Apostles and Disciples of our Lord are reverenced among Christians Just so the Jews did build and adorn the Sepulchers of the Prophets whom their fathers slew and did to the Disciples what their fathers did to the Prophets Now this disposition of mind will help us against these discouragements for 't is our unresolvedness that makes the discouragements that lye in our way more and greater than they are 4. Where this is we may expect Gods assisting Grace to help us to do what by his Grace we are Inclined to for though willing and doing are not equally easy yet if we humbly go to God under the sense of our Duty and do not lean too much to our own Resolutions God will not be wanting to us his Grace shall be sufficient for us Philip. 1.6 Being confident of this very thing that he that hath begun a good work in you will perform it untill the day of Jesus Christ 't is true God keeps this grace in his own hands but yet the giving of the first grace doth give us cause to depend upon him for this also which we shall be sure to obtain if we do not forfeit it by our neglects I say again where this willing Mind is in truth It will cause that we shall not be Barren nor Unfruitful in the knowledg of our Lord Jesus Christ for the Kingdom of God doth not consist in Word but in Power nor in wishing and willing but in doing and performing 3. Having shewn in the general the necessity of this disposition of Mind I would more particularly consider it as 't is necessary to Ministers to whom whilst I am speaking I would not be thought to pretend to speak what they can't tell me as well as I do them but only to put them in Remembrance of what they all know 1. Therefore we all know and therefore should consider that the bare Art of Preuching as a task expected at our hands every Lords-day can never please God but the Mind with which this and every other part of our Duty is perform'd God is a great God and a good Master and therefore a little forc'd service without our Wills or against our Will done because we dare not for shame do otherwise can this be Accepted and Rewarded 't is said in the general there must be a Willing Mind and then God accepts men according to what they have and can do and not according