Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A58035
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The morning seeker, shewing the benefit of being good betimes with directions to make sure work about early religion, laid open in several sermons / by John Ryther.
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Ryther, John, 1634?-1681.
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1673
(1673)
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Wing R2441; ESTC R10584
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92,848
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250
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he hath promised to carry them Isaiah 40.11 he carries the Lambs in his Bosom and can any pull them out of his Bosom If none can pull them out of his hand much less can any pull them out of his heart 2. Perseverance is Christ's Purchase did he die for you and will he lose you Will he pay the Price and let another carry away the Purchase Did not he die for Glory as well as Grace and Happiness as well as Holiness No no not a soul that his blood is gone for can be a miscarrying soul 3. Your Perseverance is Christ's charge he hath undertaken for it to his Father John 6.37 none that thou hast given me shall be lost but I will raise it up at the last day 2. They have Discouragement from without as well as from within and both meeting together is a great damp to the young Seeker The discouragements from without are from these Causes 1. From Satan As soon as he sees they look Christ-ward and Heaven-ward he begins then to torment them though while they were his Bondslaves they were all the time quiet As when the Children of Israel were to go out of the Egyptian Captivity then Pharoah with all his Host pursues them so when a soul is going out of his spiritual house of Bondage Satan with all his might and main labours to reduce them It is the observation of one upon the Church the Woman in the Revelations that all the while she was breeding the Dragon did not meddle with her but when she comes to be delivered then he casts a flood after the woman to destroy both her and her man-child So all the while a poor soul is under some Breathings and desires only after Christ Satan doth not much tempt or disturb it but when it comes to bring forth Christ and answer his Convictions with a change of Conversation O then he casts a whole flood of Temptations and discouragements after it And alas this proceeds from his envy to the good of your souls He is the envious one and his envy puts him upon laying discouragements before you O who can stand before Envy O poor soul the Lord will look after thee while thou art looking after him Poor soul be of good cheer thy Temptations argue his Rage and his Rage being great argues his time of rule in thy soul is like to be short 2. Discouragement without proceeds from the Persecution that attends the Profession of the Gospel While the Sun did shine upon the Gospel it had many friends but when it is brought under the Clouds of Persecution many go away from Christ as he said unto them Will you also go away There was I remember a Law that the first year of marriage none should go to War O but may young ones say what a discouragement it is to us as soon as ever we desire to be married to Christ in a profession of the Gospel we must be Sufferers and must go to War with Persecutions Well poor Souls be not discouraged you shall not go to war on your own cost The Lord the great Captain of your Salvation will renew your strength and you shall run and not be weary walk and not faint though Persecutions meet you in the way Jesus Christ hath his strict Charge and he will look after them in a suffering day 3. Discouragement from without is the Opposition they meet with from carnal Relations such as are Encmies to the Cross of Christ Many times such do mightily oppose these ways they are ignorant of which is a great discouragement And Satan many times helps on the rage of such and stirs up their wrath but yet for all this poor soul be not discouraged when thy way pleases the Lord he can make thine Enemies at Peace with thee much more thy Relations God many times has turned the heart of Relations about as he did Esau's heart to his Brother Jacob when pursuing of him but if not there is a Friend nearer than a Brother viz. the Lord Jesus Christ he will be a friend in the day of Adversity Nay often it is observed that as cold water makes fire burn so much the hotter so Grace gains by opposition by the cold water of discouragement burns so much the brighter Thy opposition will drive thee more to look up to him where thy strength lies and so may be a great preservation to thee 4. Discouragement from without is from the miscarriages of such as do profess the Lord Jesus Christ Many that call upon the name of Christ do not depart from iniquity but walk loosely deal unrighteously betwixt man and man dishonour their Profession by an unsuitable Conversation Others they have more grosly backsliden from God and whereas formerly they have been praying men in their Families hearing men frequenting the means of Grace somewhat strict in their lives now they have thrown off all these and become like other men as vain as other men nay as prophane as other men and this is a great discouragement O poor Soul notwithstanding this Discouragement yet go on for the ways of the Lord are the same and if thou follow on to know the Lord thou wilt find sweetness in his Ordinances and Truth notwithstanding this Application Is it so that young Seekers early Seekers meet with Discouragement Word of Use is Caution O let young ones take heed in their first looking out after Christ 1. Of consulting with flesh blood this will occasion you to yield to Discouragements It is said of Paul Gal. 1.16 he consulted not with flesh and blood The worst counsel in the World will flesh and blood give in the case of a mans soul Alas poor young man will flesh and blood say what art thou going to do Art thou able to deny thy self of the delights and pleasures of Youth Art thou able to cut off a right hand to put out a right eye to cut the throat of a beloved Isaac to let out the hearts blood of a constitutional Lust Can thy tender years indure such hard things as Religion is like to be attended with Canst thou bear the scoffs and jeers of the World the oppositions and displeasure of thy dearest Relations And thus will flesh and blood follow thee But alas what is this to a poor soul that sees its precious soul lie at stake and is in danger Cannot will not this soul reply to all these reasonings of flesh and blood Get you behind me Satan What are the greatest severities in the World to a man that sees and feels he is a lost soul for ever if he have not a Christ 2. Take heed in your first seekings out and meeting with discouragements that you pore not unbelievingly upon your discouragements It is true there ought to be sitting down and counting the cost for the want of which many poor souls after Profession have backsliden but the poor young ones may pore too much upon their discouragements may look
Christ and yet miss of him so nigh the Kingdom and never come at it O how it grieves a man to miscarry that had once a fair wind O had I but taken the opportunity of a wind how happy had I been Who can think of it but with dread to look back upon all the motions that you have lost all the breathings you have lost and to say under the sense of all these being lost Now your Souls are lost too 3. Especial finding time is in a time of universal calamities and judgments upon nations When the deluge is abroad upon the face of the earth then he is willing to ask Souls to let them have room in himself Psal 32.6 For this shall every one pray unto thee in a time when thou wilt be found and observe what follows Surcly in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh thee Some Expositors take it of a finding God in a time of general trouble and calamity Therefore we have that sweet counsel Seek ye the Lord Zeph. 2.3 seek meekness if that you may be hid in the day of the Lords anger When the Lords Judgements are abroad he calls upon poor Sinners to sue to him after an especial manner O poor sinners How can your hearts endure or your hands be made strong in the day that I shall deal with you saith the Lord. You will be like the man-slayer that had no City of Refuge to fly to when the avenger of blood was upon him And was not this a very sad case Well may it be said to such What will you do in the day of your Visitation and where will you leave your Glory Isa 10.2 3. and whither will you flee for help God would never have given that especial counsel when he was to march in his anger through Israel therefore prepare to meet thy God O Israel if he did not aime it should be an especial time of finding him O what a Christ seeking nay finding time was the plague when death and danger faced you every day nay every hour when the Grave and Hell opened their mouths wide to swallow you 4. Another especial time of finding is a time of personal affliction when sinners months are upon them in their months one shall find her Jer. 2.24 spoken of the wild Ass So it is with a poor Sinner He cannot be tamed cannot be brought to hand brought to the hand of Christ but when affliction is upon the sinner O then it is an Ephraim Thou chastisedst me and I was chastised Jer. 37.18 19. as a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoke but yet the Lord tamed the Bullock Manasseh as wild as he was was thus tamed and brought to seek the Lord when he was in the bryars and fetters Now is a time for the sinner to return from iniquity Job 36.9 so Job hath it In their affliction they will seek me early 5. Another especial time of finding Christ is when the Soul is under the sense of its bewildred lost estate and condition O then the Soul looks out after Christ sees it is undone without Christ a perishing lost Soul for ever This put the Prodigal upon returning to his Father and I perish by hunger The Lord allures the Soul into the wilderness it knows not what to make of its condition it is in a wilderness of doubts and objections but yet Christ now is found of it and speaks comfortably unto it Now the Soul doth as the four Lepers in the gate of Samaria they were under the sentence of death in their own apprehensions and therefore they conclude they could but dye So they resolve to go into the Assyrian Camp rather than dye in the Gate they would dye in the Field Thus sayes a poor Soul I can but dye therefore I will go out to Christ and if I dye I will dye at his foot if I perish I perish Now this is a time wherein the Lord is found of poor Souls 6. Another especial time is a time of violent and fierce assaults and temptations from Satan Paul looked upon this time to be an especial praying time Paul besought the Lord thrice 2 Cor. 12.7 8. and it was an answering time my Grace is sufficient for thee Satan he is the great Seeker after Souls seeking whom he may devour O now the Soul runs from Satan to Jesus Christ to take sanctuary in Christ. Some poor Souls have cause to bless God for their temptation-experiences upon this very account that Satan's assaults have hastened them to Christ Thus God out-shoots Satan in his own bow 7. When the Soul meets with disappointments from the Creature this is another especial finding time The poor Church speaks as a disappointed people Hos 6.1 Come let us return unto the Lord. We have been big-bellied with expectations and hopes from the Creature but all proves but a tympany come therefore say they let us return unto the Lord He will not disappoint us The Lord was resolved to make up a hedge of disappointments against the poor Church and now she resolves what to do Hos 2.7 I will return to my first Husband it was better with me then than it is now Disappointments have been the occasion of the conversion of many The Prodigal would fain have filled his belly with the husks the Swine did eat here was his desire no man gave him to eat here was his disappointment And what then does he resolve on O then he resolves to arise and go to his Father Application Is it so that there are some especial times of finding Christ then it is a word of counsel O then let no such times slip you Lay hold of the fore-lock of your especial times There is time and opportunity and we distinguish betwixt them opportunity is time filled up with seasons of Grace O be sure then poor Souls you redeem opportunities It is the same counsel that the Apostle gives them Eph. 5.15 16. Redeem the time and the reason is very cogent for the dayes are evil A man hath a fair wind he hath waited long for it and now it is come about he will not neglect it O when the wind presents be sure then you take it O poor Soul hast thou not laid long without a wind for Heaven Well now it is come about O then improve it O poor Soul put not off these precious gales say not come again to morrow 1. These especial seasons and times you must be accountable for And can you answer it before the Great God Sinners that you did trifle with those seasons that did concern your immortal Souls God puts every Sermon upon account every Sabbath upon account every Motion nay every Conviction upon account they are all bookt down in Gods book of Remembrance and though you have forgotten them yet he hath not O what horrour will fill your Souls and what confusion of face will be upon you when you shall be called