Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A44819
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A sermon preached on the first of January 1698 in the parish church of St. Nicholas Cole-Abby being a New-Years-gift to the society of Christians united there to worship God in a more solemn manner after the way of the Church of England / by Robert Howson.
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Howson, Robert.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing H3198; ESTC R27121
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9,554
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34
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A SERMON PREACHED On the First of January 1698. IN THE Parish Church of St. Nicholas Cole-Abby BEING A New-Years-Gift To the Society of Christians united there to Worship God in a more Solemn manner after the way of the Church of England By Robert Howson Lecturer there Rector of Stanford-Deanly in the County of Berks and Chaplain to the truly Honourable The Lady Dowager Seymore Baroness of Trowbridge LONDON Printed by W. Downing in Bartholomew-Close for the Author To the Stewards Collectors and the rest of the Members of the Society of St. Nicholas Cole-Abby in the City of London Dear Friends THE ensuing Sermon came to the Pulpit by your Desire and by the same it comes from the Press with no Variation and but with very little Addition Fine Cadencies of Speech well clinched Periods and harangues of Rhetorick were never my Talent or if they had I would have Napkin'd it in the Pulpit that the Faith of Christians should not be thought to stand in Words of Mans Wisdom but in the Power of God For which purpose that most excellent Prelate and Gospel Preacher Arch-Bishop Usher laid aside all his Learning in Preaching the Gospel as appears by his plain and practical Discourses yet Extant And as I have heard gave it always in charge to such on whom he laid Hands to Preach to be sure to remember the Alleys by suiting their Sermons to the Capacities of their Hearers A course that for Thirty Years past I have always found most conducing to the great end of Preaching viz. Turning Men from Darkness to Light and from Satan's Power to God And therefore shall continue in it till I am convinc'd that plain Preachers and plain Hearers shall be as much decried in another World as they are in this Gentlemen in this Respect your Lines are faln in a pleasant place you have a goodly Heritage even the Blessing of a learned pious practical and savory Ministry May it be therefore a Savour of Life unto Life unto every one of you and not of Death unto Death unto any for it will certainly be one or the other is and ever shall be the Prayer of Your Affectionate Friend And Faithful Servant In the Greatest Work ROBERT HOWSON John XIII Ver. 34. A New Commandment I give unto you That you Love one another THere is nothing that doth more conduce to the Good of Mankind in general than being good to and doing good one for another in particular This engages the Affections and excites the Endeavours of all This monopolizeth all the Strength and Powers of Men not only for one another but also for the publick Communities and Societies of which they are Members This answers the End of mens Being in this lower World and glorifies that Eternal Goodness that is their Being in this Life and will for ever be their Blessedness in another On the contrary There is nothing doth more directly tend to destroy the Souls and Bodies the Liberties and Properties of Men in particular and the Good of publick Societies in general than Selfishness Pride and Covetousness This ham-strings all just Powers weakens Authority cuts all the Ligaments of the Body Politick makes every part loose and independent one upon another like Bones wier'd in an Anatomy And therefore our Blessed Saviour fore-seeing how necessary this would be in all the Churches of God to the End of the World injoins this great Catholick and Christian Duty To Love one another which He calls A New Commandment that is the Old Commandment that God gave by Moses Levit. 19.18 renewed under the Gospel Dispensation for which he proposeth himself as an excellent Pattern saying As I have Loved you In speaking to which I shall shew I. What 't is to Love another II. What are the good Effects of Loving one another in the Hearts and Lives of good Men. III. How it makes Men easie in and to themselves to the Government and Communion they are Members of in this World And IV. How it fits them for the Communion and Blessed Society of the glorified Saints in Heaven By Loving one another understand that Brotherly Love that the Apostle commends Heb. 13.1 which is such a Love as Brothers have or ought to have one towards another in Nature who have the same Father and the same Mother from whom they derive their Natural Lives Brethren we have all the same Father which is God and the same Mother which is our Church and from them we derive our vital Principle of Spiritual Life And therefore as they that are Born after the Flesh do love one another in a Natural manner so we that are Born after the Spirit should love one another in a Spiritual manner For Spirits have their Spiritual Actings and Motions one towards another as well as Bodies Where the Appearance is of God's Holiness in the Hearts and Lives of good Men it draws out a Spiritual Love to and delight in them one towards another O my Soul thou hast said unto the Lord Thou art my Lord my Goodness extendeth not unto thee But to the Saints and to the Excellent that are in the Earth in whom is all my delight Psal 16.2 3. And as the appearance of Goodness in good Men draws them one to another in holy Delight and Love so the Light of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus draws them all to Christ Because of the savour of thy good Ointments thy Name is poured forth therefore do the Virgins love thee Cant. 1.3 Draw me and we will run after thee Therefore saith our Blessed Saviour No Man can come unto me except the Father draw him and the Father draws and never drives by the Cords of a Man by the Bands of Love Hosea 11.4 displaying the Riches of Gospel-Grace viz. the heigth and depth the length and breadth of the Love of God in Christ Love in all dimensions and all dimensions in their Abstract so that as many as look unto Jesus till they love Him and love Him so as to obey Him purely from a Principle of Divine Love implanted in them by the Ministration of the Gospel shall be Saved by Him Now as natural Motion is a sure sign of natural Life so these spiritual Motions of Holy Souls to desire after and delight in good Men as such are infallible symptoms of Spiritual Life For by this we know that we are passed from Death to Life because we love the Brethren Joh. 1.3 4. In which words by the Brethren I humbly conceive such and all such and none but such as have received the Faith of the Gospel and did publickly profess and piously practise it according as they had received from the Apostles how they ought to walk and to please God and so were Disciples of the Crucified Jesus abstractedly considered without any relation to their being of Paul or Apollo or Cephas according as some did most uncharitably and factiously discriminate themselves 1 Cor. 3.4 which Love to the Brethren as such