Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
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A45687
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A sermon on the decease of Mr. Hanserd Knollis, minister of the Gospel Preached at Pinners-Hall, Octob. 4. 1691. By Tho. Harrison.
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Harrison, Thomas, fl. 1700.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing H911; ESTC R221275
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16,595
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74
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of God but Ministers are imperfect men and therefore cannot always do so 3. Their unsuccessfulness in their work They have many times occasion to say with the Prophet Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed Isa 53.1 We have spread out our hands all the day long unto a rebellious people which walketh in a way that was not good after their own thoughts Isa 65.2 The Ministers work is set forth by the pangs of a woman in travail Gal. 4.19 And who can tell the Throws that their souls feel who all the time of their Ministry or a great part of it go in travail and bring forth dead children at last It is a trouble to any man to take a great deal of pains and not to have his Endeavours crowned with success It must needs grieve these Fishers of men to stand all the day long and catch nothing It cannot but trouble these Husbandmen to be continually sowing and yet see no Harvest or gathering in of Fruits To preach themselves into their Graves and yet not preach others to Christ must needs be a great affliction They seek not yours but you 2 Cor. 12.14 They think not themselves successful if you give them a little wool from your backs unless ye become Christ's Sheep 4. The great opposition and persecution which they meet with from the world To be a Minister said Luther is nothing else but to derive the world's wrath and fury upon himself The He-Goats of the Flock are most furiously assaulted by those Ravenous VVoolves who seek its destruction The Leaders of the Christian Army usually bear the greatest shock of the Enemies Rage As the Syrians gave charge to fight neither with great nor small but with the King of Israel only so sometimes wicked men only bend their Forces against Christ's Ministers Tâ—e children of darkness take the greatest pains to extinguish the Lights of the world Persecutors usually thirst most eagerly after the blood of Prophets The Persecution in Acts 12. begins with the murther of James 7000 men could lie hid in Jezabel's time better than one Prophet These are the burthensom stones which almost every one is lifting at in almost every National Storm they are taken up to be thrown over board for those that raised it They are treated as those who turn the world upside down Wicked men think that if once the Shepherd be removed the Sheep will soon be scattered That if once the Leaders of the Christian Army be taken off the Christian Army will quickly be dispersed God will not suffer his Servants to be always labouring toiling and mourning in Affliction and Distress and therefore by Death he delivers them therefrom 3. Ministers must die that they may receive the reward of their labours It is true Nothing that is done by us for God deserves any thing at his hands Could we perfectly answer the Requirements of the Divine Law we must when we have done all those things which are commanded us say we are unprofitable servants for we have done no more than it was our Duty to do Luk. 17.10 But alas how many flaws and defects are there in the best of our services and what a vast disproportion is there between Gods Law and our Obedience in their Latitude and Extent But God is pleased in a way of condescention to give the Title of a Reward to that glory and felicity which he hath prepared and promised to his faithful servants for their Encouragement in their Work It is not a Reward of Debt but of Grace according to that excellent distinction of the Apostle Rom 4.4 Tho conscientious Ministers find a great Reward in their Work yet their greatest reward is to be reciev'd when they have finisht it There is a Prophets reward which is greater than that of a righteous man as appears from Mat. 10.41 Tho we shall not be rewarded for yet we shall be rewarded according to our works VVhat we sow that shall we also reap not only as to kind but also with respect to degree The more service any of us have done for God in this life the greater will that recompence of Reward be which we shall receive from him in the next life They that be wise or they who by their instructions do instrumentally make others wise as the word properly signifies shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever Dan. 12.3 These Husband-men who have laboured in God's Husbandry all the day long must go to their Master at night that they may receive their Penny The Apostle Paul when the time of his Departure was at hand exprest his assurance that he was going to receive his Crown 2 Tim 4 6 7 8. I proceed now to 〈◊〉 4th General To give you some account of the Time when God usually calls his Ministers out of this world In General VVhen the time appointed for their continuance in this world is at an end and he time appointed for their departure into another world is come There is an appointed time to man upon earth for such an Affirmation is implied in that Interrogation Job 7.1 We may well say of Ministers in particular what Job affirms of Men in general Their days are determined the number of their months are with God he hath appointed their bounds that they cannot pass Job 14.5 But more particularly 1. VVhen their work is done God hath allotted to every one of his servants some work to be done by him in this World and till that is accomplished he shall continue therein Some Ministers live longer than others because God hath appointed them more work than others It is true many Ministers have been called off from preaching work long before their dissolution but they have had other it may be suffering work cut out for them God sends them to a Prison or confines them to their Chambers or Beds by the strokes of his hand that they may glorifie him and convince instruct and strengthen others by their Christian fortitude and exemplary patience That Reverend Minister whose Decease occasion'd this Discourse had a great deal of work to do for God in his declining Age which is evident from the many Seals which God gave to his Ministry even towards the close of it When he had as it were one foot in the Grave he was Instrumental to the Resurrection of many Dead Souls to a Spiritual Life God put an end to his Ministerial Work but a very little time before he call'd him to receive his Crown which was a singular favour granted to this Venerable Old Man 2. When their Message is generally slighted and rejected If they to whom an Embassadour is sent by an earthly Prince will not give him Audience or refuse to comply with those Proposals which he makes in his Master's Name it is time for his Lord to recal him God will not always suffer Ministerâ— who
A SERMON On the Decease of Mr. Hanserd Knollis Minister of the Gospel Preached at Pinners-Hall Octob. 4. 1691. By Tho. Harrison Rev. XIV 13. And I heard a Voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their Works do follow them LONDON Printed for H. Barnard at the Bible in the Poultrey 1694. THE Epistle to the Reader Courteous Reader I Do not Intitle the following Discourse Mr. Knollis's Funeral Sermon because that was Preach't to his own Congregation by a Person far more eminent than my self But it was a Sermon which I voluntarily Preached upon the occasion of his decease in that morning Lecture at Pinners-Hall which was first erected by him and wherein I have ground to hope he Labour'd with great success as well as acceptance Soon after this Sermon came from the Pulpit some were desirous that I would send it to the Press But I was not then willing to appear in so publick a manner upon the stage of the World It is at last brought out of my study wherein I design'd that it should have lain all my days with the rest of my unpolish't Papers by the request and encouragement of some Friends to publick view I must expect the Common Lot of such mean Authors as my self and which sometimes hath been the Portion of others of a higher rank to have both my Person and my Book Censured and Condemn'd But however if God shall be Pleas'd to bless this little piece to the good of one Soul I shall have no cause to repent its publication That thou may'st reap some spiritual advantage therefrom is the Prayer of Thine in the Lord T. H. A SERMON On the Decease of Mr Hanserd Knollis Zech. l. v. 5. latter part And the Prophets do they live for ever WHat frequent Conquests doth the King of Terrours gain over the Children of Men Man goes continually to his long home and the Mourners walk about the streets Men of all ages ranks and degrees are led away into Deaths gloomy Territories One would think that if any could plead an exemption therefrom it should be they who are in the highest place and office in the Church of Christ That if any could be discharged in this warfare it should be they whose work it is to subdue Rebellious sinners unto Christ That if any could be delivered from going down to the dark grave it should be they who are the lights of the World That they if any should escape the house of silence who are to convey the Joyful sound of the ever blessed Gospel to the ears of men But yet they must dye as well as others for the Prophets do they live for ever Before I come to the words of my Text I shall give you a brief account of the occasion of them When God had wrought out an unexpected and Miraculous deliverance for the Jews from their Babylonian Captivity and brought them again into their own Land from whence they had been exiled seventy years He was pleased to send the Prophet Zechariah having not long before sent Haggai to them to excite and stir them up to those duties which were at that time Incumbent on them In v. 3. of this Ch. the Prophet gives a summary account of that message which he was Commanded to deliver from the Lord of the Prophets to them Thus saith the Lord of Hosts return unto me which Command is enforc't with a gracious Promise that if they did so God would return unto them Our return to God in a way of duty is the most likely means to obtain his return to us in a way of grace and mercy And for as much as this People were very prone to Imitate the evil examples of their Progenitours and to follow them in those crooked ways which they walked in he verse 4. Cautions them against an Imitation of their Forefathers in their Impenitency and Contumacy And this he enforceth by an Argument taken from the dreadful event thereof in the former part of this 5th ver Your fathers where are they q. d. they are not for they are said not to be who are departed out of the Land of the Living and made free among the dead Jer. 31.15 v. q. d. Your fathers have been Consumed and destroyed by fire sword and Pestilence they have been made dreadful examples of God's displeasure against stubborn and impenitent sinners and their ruine should be a warning to you least treading in their steps ye should undergo the same punishment with them And says he in the words of my Text the Prophets do they live for ever The scope and design of these words is and according to the Judgment of expositors to distinguish between the Persons of the Prophets and those things which were in the name of God delivered by them He here speaks by way of Concession for this Interrogation carries a negation in it and amounts to a Negative Proposition q. d. the Prophets do not live for ever But tho they dye it may be before their Predictions are fulfilled yet they shall certainly be Accomplished as you may see if you compare these words with the following verse But I shall no farther consider the words relatively with respect to the Context but absolutely in themselves as they are a negative Proposition wherein we may consider First the subject the Prophets Secondly the Predicate do not live for ever 1. The subject The Prophets with respect unto which expositors are divided in their opinions 1. Some hereby understand the false Prophets who came when God did not send them and delivered those things in his name which they never received from him Who endeavoured to please rather than to profit the People sowing Pillows under their Elbows and crying Peace Peace when destruction was hastily marching towards them But Secondly With others I conceive we are hereby to understand the true Prophets who received their mission from God and acted according to that Commission which he had given them God at sundry times and in Divers manners spake by the Old Testament Church by the Prophets Heb. 1.1 v. He made great Revelations and discoveries of his mind and will unto them which they by virtue of their office were obliged to declare unto the People But under this title are comprehended not only the extraordinary but the ordinary Ministers both of the old and new Testament Thus Mat. 10. 41. He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward Luk. 11.49 v. Though the ordinary Ministers of the new Testamentâ— are not now to exercise that part of the Prophetical office which consisted in the Prediction of Future events yet there are other parts of this office viz. More clearly to unfold and explain the mind and will of God contain'd in his word to Reprove for sin and excite to duty which appertain to them Secondly the