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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
child_n	father_n	fear_v	pity_v	2,202	5	10.4985	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42350	The Christians labour and reward, or, A sermon, part of which was preached at the funeral of the Right Honourable the Lady Mary Vere, relict of Sir Horace Vere, Baron of Tilbury, on the 10th of January, 1671, at Castle Heviningham in Essex by William Gurnall ...	Gurnall, William, 1617-1679.	1672 (1672)	Wing G2258; ESTC R10932	62,221	185

work without this help 't is heavy indeed yea too heavy for him to stand under but Gods helping hand put to it makes this heavy work light The Ship which when lying on ground all the Teams in the Country could not draw off how easily is it set a float when the Tide comes in Thus the Heart which the Christian by no pains and industry of his own can raise out of its dullness and indisposition to Duty Oh how soon is it elevated and inspirited when God flows in with his secret Aspirations and Exuscitations of his Blessed Spirit and Grace he who confessed that he could do nothing of himself not so much as think a good thought tells us also he is able to do all things through Christ who strengthneth him now this help from the Lord is promised but it comes not till the Christians hand is put to the work let him be up and doing and then God will not fail to be with him 'T is cheap travelling we say for a Child in his Fathers company to be sure God will pay the charge the Christian is at in his whole journey to Heaven it is easie working while God holds our hand yea puts strength into it Art thou to pray his Spirit will lift with thee for so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies art thou tempted whilst thou art fighting in the Valley below Christs hands are lift up in Heaven above for thy Victory I have prayed that thy Faith fail not yea he doth not only pray above for thee but will be in the Field with thee and in thee by the secret succours of his Spirit My Grace is sufficient for thee which is not meant of Grace Inherent in us that indeed is unsufficient of it self but the auxiliary Grace which he sends in to assist and excite that in a time of need Thirdly Though Christianity be a labour and many troubles and perils attend it yet 't is not alike to all every Christian hath not Hemans Faith Jobs Patience or Pauls Courage neither shall all have Hemans Disertions Jobs Losses nor Pauls Persecutions the stoutest Souldiers are put upon the hottest service the heaviest burden upon the strongest back he knows every Saints ability and so he rates them he will not suffer any to be tempted above that they are able When the Israelites came first out of Egypt he knew they were raw Souldiers and therefore led them about that they might not be put to fight before he had hardned and heartned them more to bear such a work While Christ was upon Earth he interposed his own body between his weak Disciples and the fury of the wicked world but when he went to Heaven then he ventured them into the storm but careful first to re-inforce them with power from above before he let them take the Field Acts 1.4 Being assembled together with them commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father Fourthly The merciful indulgence which the Lord gives them as to their failings hard work indeed God calls them to but the harder the work is the more his pity is expressed towards them in pardoning those invincible infirmities which notwithstanding their faithful endeavour will be found in their doing it It was hard for the Apostles to keep their eyes wakeful in the dead of the night Christ considereth this and Apologizeth for them even while he chides them the Spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak It is hard when Afflictions are strong and long not to fall into some indecencies of speech and behaviour we have heard of Jobs Impatience as well as Patience yet the Lord was graciously pleased to to take his part against his accusing Friends ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right as my servant Job hath Job 42.7 It is hard to act Faith when sense and reason are non-plust the Lord therefore is pleased to overlook the weaknesses of his Childrens faith which in such deep plunges they bewray so they strive against them and be humbled for them in magnis tentasse aliquid non parvum in great and difficult enterprizes an essay and endeavour is not little Peter shewed great Faith in venturing to go upon the Sea but discovered infirmity when he began to sink therefore Christ pitieth and succoureth his weakness Davids strait was in a manner as great at Land as Peters was at Sea When at Gath amongst his Enemies whose Champion he had slain much fear and unbelief he borrowed in this his strait yet some secret actings of Faith were mingled with these his fears as appeared by the Prayer he then lift up to God and even this Prayer attended with so many distrustful fears found acceptance with God which made the good man bring this forth as an encouragement for others This poor man cryed and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his Troubles Psalm 34.6 A poor man indeed he was at this time not only in his outward state but his inward poor and low in the actings of his Faith O what encouragement is here to come into the service of God hard work thou mayst meet with but not an hard Master do but thou thy best and God will forgive thy worst Beware of wickedness in not doing what thou canst and God will not reject thee for thy weakness Like as a Father pitieth his Children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him Psalm 103.13 I come now to the Second Part of the Text which presents us with the reward that attends the Christians labour it is not in vain in the Lord they shall not be put off with their labour for their pains no there is a reward laid up in Heaven which will abundantly compensate all the pain and pains they were put to on Earth but we must not understand this as if the Christian received no gain or advantage in this life from the service of God while he is labouring in it Godliness hath the promise of this life as well as the other There are promises of which payment is made here and though these be inferiour to what the Christian shall receive hereafter yet be they so pretious as prove Religion even in this life no hospes asymbolus No guest that lodgeth on free cost but such as pays well and that in present Coin for its entertainment It affords Bread to the eater as well as Seed to the sower there is fruit unto Holiness which the Christian may now feed on to his comfort as well as an hope of Eternal life to be received at the end of this The very vales which the Christian hath given him while at his work afford him enough for his present expence to maintain him in a port becoming his high hopes for afterwards First His conscionable labour in the Lords work will gain him more ability and holy skill to do his work still better by exercising of himself daily unto Godliness he becomes more

is the gift of God Ephes 2.8 And this Faith is called a Faith of the operation of God Colos 2.12 't is wrought in us not by us Not only the light of truth which the Christian sees is Divine but the eye of Faith by which he sees this light is Divine also how certain must that knowledge be which in the light of Gods Spirit beholds the light of Gods Truth now from this Word of God the Christian is assured of this reward many ways First He is assured of it by Jesus Christ who himself came from Heaven and makes report thereof In my Fathers house are many Mansions if it were not so I would have told you John 14.2 As if he had said you may belief me for I speak it that cannot lye and who loves you too well to put a cheat upon you That there are such Countries as France and Holland you do not doubt though you never saw them because some that have assure you it is true and shall the Saint be blamed for relying on Christs own faithful Word who cometh from Heaven is above all and what he hath seen and heard that he testifyeth John 3.32 Secondly The Christian knows it by the purchase Christ hath made of Heaven for Believers Mans sin had shut Heaven door against him and opened Death and Hells door upon him now before God would or indeed could set open again this door of life to poor sinners it was necessary that his Glory should first be secured which to do this admirable expedient the Divine Wisdom contrived that Christ should dye for sinners by which both Death the punishment of mans sin might be abolished and life and immortality which man had lost might be restored and brought to light again 2 Tim. 1.10 Hence it is said It became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many Sons unto Glory to make the Captain of their Salvation perfect through sufferings Heb. 2.10 Mark that it became him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there was a condecency for God thus to do God never doth any thing that doth not become him in all his works he acts like himself every work declaring his Glory but not all alike Now God in the Redemption of the world intending to make the greatest manifestation of his Glory that ever he did It became him to pitch on such a means as was sutable to such an end and this of bringing his People to Glory by the abasement of his own Son to an ignominious and cursed death was the expedient he resolved upon as every way condecent to this design and indeed never did all the Divine Attributes appear in all their Glory so as they do here According therefore to this Eternal Council of Gods Will and Love in the fullness of time the Son of God was cloathed with our Flesh laid down his life took it up again and further to shew he had got a full triumph over death and had opened Heaven gates for Believers He opened the Graves of many of the dead Saints and raised them to life as a pledge that he would do the same in due time for the rest So that now to doubt whether there be an Eternal life for the Saints after death is to make the whole Gospel a fiction Thirdly They know it by the actual possession which Christ hath already taken of Heaven for them A Child thinks himself sure of an Estate when his Father not only purchaseth it but also taketh it up for him Thus did Christ ascend to Heaven not only to sit down on his own Throne but to take and keep possession of Heaven for the behoof and benefit of Believers Hence they are said to sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus that is in him as their head which is a certain pledge to them they shall one day sit with him there in their own persons Because I live saith Christ ye shall live also Indeed he lives there to make Intercession for them and will never leave praying till he hath prayed them up unto himself I may say to Believers as once Naomi to Ruth sit still for the man will not cease till he hath finished the thing Christ will not cease his Mediatory work till he hath finished his peoples happiness and got his betrothed Spouse home to him in his Fathers house 4 ly He knows the certainty of this happy estate by the many express Promises made to Believers of it I cannot number them they are so many neither need I name them there being no Child of God so little I hope acquainted with his Saviours Will and Testament as not to be able to turn on a sudden to many places where this Inheritance is setled on them The greatest Heir that lives is the Saint He is heir to both Worlds having Promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come But the grand promise of all is that which gives him title to his Heavenly Inheritance In one place they are called Heirs of Promise in another Heirs of Salvation because this is the Crowning Promise Heaven it is called their Hope till this comes he hath not his Portion all he hath here is the least of what is promised But when Heaven comes then all is paid the Bond then is delivered in Faith and Hopes work is done The Christian who on Earth believes and expects Promises shall in Heaven inherit Promises there Faith shall be turned into Vision and Hope swallowed up in Fruition Now though nothing can make Heaven more sure to the Believer than Gods Promise no not the Oath of God it self because it is as impossible for God to lye without an Oath as with it for being he can swear by no greater he sweareth only by himself and so the strength even of his Oath lyeth in his Veracity which is engaged in his Promise as well as Oath yet he is graciously pleased ex abundanti consulting therein with our frailty to superadd all those things to his Promise by which men in contracts amongst themselves do conceive a further confirmation and security to to be given for performance of their Promises one to another as witnesses Seal Oath and Earnest that having these Securities which are wont to satisfie us in Humane Promises the sin of distrusting Gods performance of his might appear the more unreasonable in us and injurious to him as indeed it is beyond all expression when those Securities will not assure our hearts concerning the performance of Gods Promises than which we cannot exact more from those men that are most unresponsable or deceitful Secondly The Saints reward is described by its Transcendency your labour is not in vain in the Lord. In the explication of which Phrase I shewed that there is more implyed than is exprest That the Christians labour shall be highly unspeakably rewarded the place where the reward is laid up proves the transcendency of it and that is

not even as others which have no hope nor mourn so as to refuse to be comforted to take our own loss so to heart as not to rejoyce in their gain Is this thy kindness to thy Friends wouldst thou have them labour and never rest work and never receive their reward They could not have had these here but they have them where they are gone Oh be not unkind to them by being over-kind to your selves If ye loved me ye would rejoice saith our Saviour to his Disciples because I said I go to the Father Joh. 16.28 As if he had said to them you are indeed my Disciples too selvish You think what you shall lose if I depart hence but you do not consider what I should lose by my staying here You see the poor condition I live in here on Earth and know the Royalty and Glory I am going to be possessed of in Heaven and are you unwilling I should be advanced to my Throne there and that after I shall have finished the work of your Redemption here Truly you are unkind and shew but little love in this to me your dear Lord and Saviour Nor do we express much love to our deceased Friends of whose happy change we have no reason to doubt if their incomparable advantage doth not make us more rejoyce for them than our loss make us mourn for our selves If we be as they were sincere and faithful Christians our loss is but short ere long we shall recover it by being taken up to them they are not lost but gone a little before whither the rest of their Brethren ere long shall be called And while we are left here behind we have a God to live upon who cannot dye who will not leave us and whose presence is sufficient to compensate I trow the absence not of one but all our Friends Would Elkanah be thought better to his barren Wife than ten Sons May not God then look his Children when bereaved of any Creature Comforts should count the having him better yea infinitely better than them all Let therefore every Saint in this and all other bereavements solace himself with this of David Psalm 18.46 The Lord liveth and blessed be my rock and let the God of my Salvation be exalted It is expected I know that I should now speak something of that Noble and without offence I hope I may say Elect Lady the Solemnization of whose Funeral occasioned this our sorrowful meeting which should I not do without doubt I should send you all away very much dissatisfyed But far be it from me that I should by my silence put her light now she is dead under a Bushel which shined before all your eyes so radiently while she was alive even as a great Candle on an high Candlestick It was said of John Baptist all men counted John that he was a Prophet indeed And I am perswaded that all who knew her esteemed the Lady Vere a Christian indeed Truly if we may not think so of her we shall be at a great loss to find such Characters by which we may judge any at all to be so I shall begin to speak of her where she her self began to be her Birth I mean and Parentage from which she had her Extraction And this was High and Ancient on both sides For by her Mothers side she sprang from the chief of the Throg-mortons Family and by the Fathers side was extracted of the Ancient Family of the Tracies at Todington in Gloucester-shire She was the youngest of Fifteen Children born on the Eighteenth day of May Anno 1581. being the 23. of Queen Elizabeth Her Mother dyed three days after she was Born and her Father when she was but eight years old Thus soon was she an Orphan but indeed they only are Orphans who have no Father in Heaven When her Father and her Mother thus forsook her the Lord took her up The many Experiences she had all along her life of Gods most tender care over her occasioned her to chuse this for her Motto which is found written by her in the front of most of her Books in her Closet God will Provide She took much delight in speaking of one of her Ancestors as one of the greatest Honours to her Family William Tracy of Toddington Esquire mentioned by Mr. Fox in his Martyrology who in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth for the sound Profession of his Faith made by him in his last Will and Testament was after his Decease condemned to have his body taken out of the ground and burnt which Sentence accordingly was executed She was twice Married to Mr. William Hobby her first Husband at Nineteen Years of Age by whom she had two Sons which were Religiously Educated by her the happy fruit of this her care she reaped at their Pious Deaths for they both went young to Heaven the Younger dyed in the Fourteenth Year of his Age the Elder in his Three and Twentieth much admired for his Parts and loved for his Piety Her second Husband was Sir Horace Vere afterward Baron of Tilbury so Noble and Excellent a Person that I must not name him without some Honourable Reflection one whose Coat Armour made more Renowned than his Coat of Arms and his Personal Atchievements in the field ennobled more than the High Blood he borrowed from his Ancestors But his Piety gave him the highest Character of all by the other he got a great Name like unto the great Men that are in the Earth but by this he obtained a good Name And even Tacitus the Roman Historian prefers a praise from Goodness before that which is obtained by Greatness And therefore speaking of a Noble Roman saith he was inter claros potiùs quàm inter bonos censendus This Noble Lord was one who could wrestle with God as well as fight with Men and may be thought to have got his Victories upon his knees in his Closet before he drew his Sword in the Field And when he had overcome his Enemies he could overcome himself also being one of the humblest Souls in whom so much true worth lodged that I have heard of His good Lady would say she honoured him for his Valour but most for the Grace of God which shined in him Thus she did coruscare radiis Mariti shined by the Rays of her Husbands Excellencies but not only with these for she had radient Beams of her own by which she cast like Honour upon him as she received from him So happily was this Noble Couple suited us in the high Extraction of both their Births so also in the rest of their accomplishments that they mutually illustrated each the others Honour But passing by all her secular Prerogatives we shall now present her to you in some of her spiritual Excellencies These indeed give the intrinsick value to a person He that would take the true height of of a man must not measure him with the vantage-ground he stands on I may

quickly She found to her great grief that her imperfect state on Earth made it impossible to serve God here as she would and therefore did wonderfully complain she was unprofitable and unserviceable and this deep sence of her unserviceableness while others admired her fruitfulness and usefulness did still increase her desires to be where all these infirmities would be cured and where she knew her ability should fully correspond to the height of her desires she had to serve and glorifie her God Thirdly Her love to the Saints who are born of God and have his lively Image stamped upon them This in Scripture is made one of the fairest evidences for our love to God Every one that loveth the Father that begat loveth him that is begotten 1 John 5.1 A man may love the Child and not love his Father but he cannot love him because he is his Child and because he is like his Father but he must needs love his Father Yea love him first and most because his love to the Child springs from his love to the Father This Good Lady then was a great Lover doubtless of God himself because she had so dear an affection to his Children She did not praise the dead Saints and persecute the Living she did not pretend love to those that lived far from her but shewed kindness to them that lived near her She did not factiously love some of one Party and reproach those of another In a word she did not love the Saints in an equality with others from a Natural tenderness which disposeth some to be kind to all good and bad but her love was a Spiritual Cordial Special and Uniform Love to them Where-ever she saw any thing of God her Love was drawn out towards them and had the most love for those that discovered most of God she loved them so as to delight in converse and communion with them yea and the chief of her Charity was extended to them As for the Faithful Ministers of Christ whose Function lifts them above private Christians few ever exceeded her in loving and honouring of them yea she loved first the Ministry and then the Ministers professing seriously the great love and high esteem she had for them was for their dear Masters sake whose Embassadours they were So that what I have heard concerning her worthy Son-in-Law in Norfolk Sir Roger Townsend that for his Love to the Ministry he got the title of being called Deliciae Cleri The Ministers Delight may be truly given to her Fourthly Her works of Charity were remarkable upon manifold accounts First The largeness of her Charity so great indeed it was that it may well be admired how this Tree should not long ago have killed it self with over-bearing The Trees in our Orchards yield their Fruit but once a year taking so long a time to be put in heart for bearing again But her Charity was dropping Fruit all the year long Many ways it diffused it self she had Silver for the Moniless aliment for the Hungry Medicaments for the Sick Salves for the Wounded Abundance of good she did this way in Town and Country she did not only give but devised liberal things If her Servants knew of any that were in great need and did not tell her of it she would when by otherways she heard thereof be very angry with them It hapned that an honest poor Neighbour dyed before she knew he was sick for which being troubled she asked her Servant whether he had wanted in his Sickness saying with some earnestness I tell you I had rather part with my Gown from my back than the Poor should want Secondly In the prime objects of her Charity she cast her seed upon all sorts of ground but especially on Gods enclosure The Houshold of Faith had her fullest handfulls to such she never thought she gave enough Thirdly Her Secresie in giving When it might be she did not give her Charity as some throw their Money into a Basin at a Collection so that it rings again but it fell like Oyl into a vessel without noise Fourthly Her Self-denying Spirit in all this she was no Merit-monger good Lady she never thought to purchase Land in Heaven with the money she gave on Earth She was no Merchant to sell her Charity but a Faithful Steward acknowledging what she gave was not her own but her Lords money she was notwithstanding all her Charity carried out to a naked Christ desiring to be found alone in him and his Righteousness as earnestly as if she had not done one good work in all her life Hear this Oh ye Papists and be ashamed for your notorious slander who would make the world believe that Protestant Religion is too cold a Soil for Charity to thrive in Behold here a Protestant Dorcas full of good Works and Alms-deeds Though she had no opinion of Merit to cherish the root of her Charity from which much of yours comes had not hope of expiating some foul Crimes or conceit of meriting Heaven been at the bottom of the Charity of many in your Church it may be believed the first stone had this day been to be laid in some of your Goodly Hospitals and Churches also Fifthly Her Sincerity This was as her under Garment which she wore nearest to her and gave excellency to all her other Graces Many notable testimonies there were for this in her First The uniformity of her Holy Walking her Religion was not like a drift Snow which lyeth thick in one place and leaves the ground bare in another the Hypocrite hath some naked plot in his Conversation that renders him suspicious you may perswade him with Herod to do many things but never make him with Saint Paul willing in all things to live honestly But in this good Ladies Conversation one part corresponded admirably with another an happy Symmetry appeared in her whole course towards God and Man abroad and also at home among her Domestick Relations those that lived constantly with her who saw her as we are wont to say hot and cold in her night-cloaths as well as when dressed to go abroad Few I believe have had an higher testimony for Piety from those that have lived near and long with them than she hath from all that dwelt under her roof Secondly The great freedom she gave her Friends in speaking to her of what they saw amiss in her she was wont much to applaud the priviledge of having a Faithful Friend saying others might see more by us than we by our selves she would also say 'T is a great mercy to be convinced of any sin Thirdly Her Faith which was wont to be then strongest when death appeared nearest Like that great Souldier I have read of who would tremble every joynt whilst his Armour was putting on in his Tent but without all fear when he engaged in the Battel A little more than a Twelve-month since she fell into a long swound which lasted about half an hour without