Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A53085
|
The best acquaintance and highest honour of Christians, or, A discourse of acquaintance with God by Matthew Newcomen.
|
Newcomen, Matthew, 1610?-1669.
|
1668
(1668)
|
Wing N905; ESTC R32164
|
42,574
|
130
|
113.5 6. as well as in heaven to converse with men as well as Angels As the Sun in heaven is far above us and yet doth not disdain to inlighten and warm and quicken the poorest worm that crawls upon the earth as well as the Eagle that soars aloft above the clouds and can gaze the Sun in the face Let not therefore any poor soul be discouraged and think or say It is not for such a worm for such a nothing as I am to aspire to acquaintance and converse with God No no Men may be too high for thee to reach and too great for thee to grasp and compass acquaintance with but the great God will stoop to entertain acquaintance with thee if thou wilt acquaint thy self with him He disdaineth not the acquaintance of the least of men nor of the greatest of sinners Such was the condescension of the divine nature that it disdained not the near acquaintance with the humane nature to take it into personal union with himself and such was the condescension of God in our nature that when he was upon earth he disdained not the acquaintance of those who upon common account were the vilest of men even Publicans and sinners Mat. 9.11 And such is still the gracious condescension of God in Christ that he disdaineth not the acquaintance of the meanest Persons or vilest sinners that seek acquaintance of him Nay Secondly He offers and tenders this acquaintance to them and this is not usual for great persons to do to their Inferiours he intreateth and beseecheth poor sinners that they would be reconciled to him and acquainted with him And this he doth Thirdly Out of his meer grace and favour only for their good and benefit not for any gain or advantage to himself Can a man be profitable to God saith Eliphaz No Job 22.2 God cannot be a gainer by our acquaintance that he offers it seeks it is for our good and benefit that we may be made happy and blessed by it O then let not this grace of God be in vain to us but accept we this gracious offer of God acquainting our selves with him CHAP. VI. Particularly exhorting those that never yet had acquaintance with God now to labour for it With Directions for the attaining of it NOw here are three sorts that I would apply my self unto First Those that never yet were acquainted with God My Exhortation to them shall be that they would now acquaint themselves with God now presently without any further delay Secondly To those that have acquainted themselves with God that they would labour to keep and maintain their acquaintance with him inviolate and uninterrupted Thirdly To those whose acquaintance with God is intermitted and they have in a manner lost it that they would labour to renew it First Such as never yet had any acquaintance with God O labour now to get into acquaintance with him Acquaint thy self now with him now presently immediately without any further delay O consider how long you have lived strangers to God already enemies to God already Is it not enough that you have lived twenty thirty forty fifty years already without any intimacy or acquaintance with God O if you love God if you love your own souls live not a day longer live not an hour longer in that strange condition The time past of our life may suffice us to have lived in lasciviousness lust excess of wine 1 Pet. 4.3 c. saith the Apostle Peter And it is high time to awake out of sleep saith the Apostle Paul Rom. 13.11 So say I the time past may suffice us to have lived without God in the world and it is now high time for every one of us to begin to acquaint our selves with him Acquaint therefore now thy self with him Now now while God is pleased to offer and tender this acquaintance Now is the day of grace 2 Cor. 6.2 now is the accepted time Now while the golden scepter is held forth while the Gospel is preached unto you To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts Heb. 3.7 If God speak to your hearts and bespeak your acquaintance with him see that ye refuse not him that speaketh but acquaint thy self now with him If any say Quest But how shall we do to get this acquaintance with God I answer Answ O that there were such a heart in you O that every one into whose hands the providence of God shall bring this poor Treatise were come thus far to seek after God as seriously to enquire how they might be acquainted with God! you that are so take these directions First Labour to be fully convinced of an absolute necessity of acquainting your selves with God Look upon it as your great duty look upon it as that upon which not only the comfort of your lives but the eternal salvation of your souls doth depend There are three times especially wherein this acquaintance with God will be found of great and absolute necessity First In a time of common calamity Such a time as our Saviour speaks of Luke 21.25 26. When there shall be distress of Nations upon the earth with perplexity mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things that are coming upon the earth and how near such times may be to us and how fast they may be hastening upon us who can tell O then happy are those that have acquaintance with God they have a friend an acquaintance that will not fail them when their own hearts are ready to fail them and would undoubtedly fail them were it not for their acquaintance with God Whereas they that have not acquainted themselves with God will find God himself a terrour to them in the day of their calamity God will deal with them as he threatens I will shew them the back Jer. 18.17 and not the face in the day of their calamity Secondly In the day of death then acquaintance with God will be found absolutely necessary There is no man but when he comes to lye a dying would be glad to have God his friend and to receive his soul into his presence and favour Into thy hands Lord I commend my spirit Lord Jesus receive my soul is the prayer or at least the wish of every dying man and woman that doth not dye like Nabal stupid and senseless as a stock or stone But do you think that God will do this for every one at the first asking surely no. They that never regarded to acquaint themselves with God in the time of their life God will not so easily own them at the hour of their death but they that have acquainted themselves with God in the time of their life they may with much comfort and assurance commend their souls into the hand of God when they are at the point of death And may say with Paul 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed and that he is able to keep
that good thing that I have committed unto him against that day It was a noble speech of good Dr. Preston when he lay a dying and full of Christian confidence and comfort I shall change my place but not my company The meaning was that he had so acquainted himself with God here upon earth and had so much conversed with him that now that he was to dye his company should still be the same after death that it was in life How far are they from being able to speak this at their death that have had no care to acquaint themselves with God and to converse with him in the course of their life Thirdly In the day of Judgment it will then be necessary that you should have acquaintance with God Can you your selves imagine but that God who is the righteous Judge of all the world will in that great day look and judge and pronounce far otherwise upon those that have been here acquainted with him than upon those that have lived and dyed strangers and enemies to him To the one he will say Come ye blessed ye have known me and I have known you you have loved me and I have loved you you have visited me and I have visited you and you have thankfully and gladly entertained those visits you have been of my old acquaintance many a prayer have I received from you and many a tear have you dropt into my bottle come therefore come ye blessed inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world But to the other he will say go ye cursed ye have not known me ye have not loved me ye have not regarded to acquaint your selves with me ye have set at nought all my counsels and would none of my reproofs ye have said unto me depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes Therefore now I say unto you depart from me into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels O dreadful sentence dreadful to hear intolerable to bear which yet ye can no wayes avoid but by acquainting your selves with God You must of necessity acquaint your selves with God or dye miserably and perish eternally O press these and the like considerations upon your selves till you be throughly and effectually convinced of an absolute necessity of acquainting your selves with God Then Secondly Labour to be seriously and deeply humbled that you have lived so â—ong as you have done and lived unacquainted with God Let me plead with you as Moses doth with Israel Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people Deut. 32.6 and unwise is not he thy father that hath bought thee hath he not made thee and established thee Is not he that God that hath given thee life and being that hath preserved thee upheld thee maintained thee fed thee clothed thee is not he the God in whose hands thy breath and all thy ways are upon whose pleasure and favour thou dependest for all thy present and eternal good who is able to kill or cause to live to save or to destroy to make blessed or to make miserable to all eternity And hast thou lived twenty thirty or forty years before this God yea upon this God and all this while never acquainted thy self at all with him O what unthankfulness what disingenuity what folly what brutishness is this If thou hadst fed a horse or a dog but the tenth part of that time that God hath fed thee he would have taken more knowledge and acquaintance of thee than thou didst ever do of God Yea thou hast not only not acquainted thy self with God but thou hast not cared thou hast not regarded to acquaint thy self with him but hast lived in a continual mindlessness and regardlessness of God Of the rock that begat thee Deut. 32.18 thou art unmindful and hast forgotten the God that formed thee Yea thou hast not only neglected acquaintance with God but thou hast despised it undervalued it preferred converse with the world and with thy lusts above converse and acquaintance with God as if a man should prefer the company and consortship of beggars and thieves and whores and such like lewd persons before the favour familiarity and acquaintance of his Sovereign King such an affront hast thou put upon the great God of heaven and earth O let the thoughts of this afflict and humble thee in time or else know that hereafter it will torment thee to all eternity and make thee tear thy flesh and gnaw thy tongue and curse thy self for rage indignation at this thy present folly Thirdly When you have thus convinced your selves of a necessity of getting acquaintance with God and humbled your selves for living so long without acquaintance with God Then in the third place be careful to remove those things which may be bars in your way and may obstruct and hinder your acquaintance with God Now what is that why sin and only sin Sin is the wall of separation between God and us that keeps God and us from meeting together and from acquainting one with another Your sins have separated between God and you and have hid his face from you Isa 59.2 Therefore saith God Wash you make you clean Isa 1.16 17. put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well Come now and let us reason together As if God had said Ay now you have repented and made your selves clean from sin now you are fit for God to treat withal before you were not fit to come near him nor approach his presence A rebel that would be admitted into his Princes favour and acquaintance must first throw down his weapons of rebellion so must they that would have any acquaintance with God they must put away sin all sin Sin is the only thing that God hates and is an enemy against for its own sake they therefore that would have any acquaintance with God must renounce all acquaintance and familiarity with sin If I regard iniquity in my heart Psal 66.18 God will not hear my prayer Let a man pray never so often and never so earnestly and beg acquaintance with God never so much yet if he regard iniquity in his heart God will not regard him nor his prayers We must therefore resolve to break off all our leagues with sin to give a bill of divorce to every lust to renounce for ever all acquaintance with sin or else to renounce all acquaintance with God Now which of these two would you rather do Fourthly When you have thus convinced your selves of a necessity of acquainting your selves with God and have humbled your selves for living so long without acquaintance with God and have not only resolved but have actually renounced every evil way you must not now think that for your humiliation or for your repentance or for your forsaking of your sins God is obliged or bound to take you for his friends or to admit you into his acquaintance