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earth_n	hear_v	heaven_n	oil_n	4,117	5	10.0452	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36233	The preachers precept of consideration, or, Englands chief lesson and duty in this sad time of visitation wherein is contained, 1. A catalogue and collection of all the particular capital sins mentioned in Scriptures ... 2. The author's opinion and judgment, for which and why it is, that this unparallel'd visitation is now laid upon us / delivered in the parish church of St. Katherine Coleman, London, upon the monthly fast-days set apart for humiliation, by His Majesties special command.	Dobson, Jeremiah.	1665 (1665)	Wing D1799; ESTC R32815	35,607	45

THE Preachers Precept OF CONSIDERATION OR Englands chief Lesson and Duty In this sad time of VISITATION Wherein is contained 1. A Catalogue and Collection of all the particular capital Sins mentioned in Scripture whereby sometimes Princes and sometimes People have provoked God to inflict this sore Judgment upon a Nation 2. The Authors opinion and judgment for which and why it is that this unparallel'd Visitation is now laid upon us Delivered in the Parish Church of St. Katherine Coleman London upon the Monthly Fast-dayes set apart for Humiliation by His Majesties special Command LONDON Printed by E. Cotes for the Author M. DC LXV THE PREACHERS PRECEPT OF Consideration ECCLES VII 14. In the day of Prosperity be Joyfull but in the day of Adversity Consider IT 's the Wisemans observation before Chap. 3.1 That to every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under the Sun particularly vers 4. there is sayes he a time to weep and a time to laugh a time to mourn and a time to dance And reason good that it should be so for seeing that mans present condition is subject to many and frequent alterations our Life like the Sea ebbing and flowing and with the Air being now cloudy and anon clear seeing that Nulla sors longa est as the (a) Seneca Thyest Tragedian sayes very truly (b) Job 14.2 We continue not long in one state but (c) Cartwright in Eccles. Sicut noctis diei hyemis aestatis vicissitudo est i. e. As the day hath the vicissitude of an evening and morning and the year of a Winter and Summer so Health and Sickness Peace and War Prosperity and Adversity interchangeably succeed each other in this our earthly pilgrimage what therefore is more rational fit and natural than that as our outward condition is various and mutable so likewise our inward disposition of minde should be answerable and our spiritual frame be sutable to our temporal Estate This I am sure hath been the practice of the true children and servants of God in all ages who in dayes of Affliction and publick Calamity alwayes sought unto God with Prayers and Tears with Fasting and Humiliation and after Deliverance and Restauration used to set forth the glory of his Name with Anthems of joy and exultation they wisely and with due consideration imployed and exercised their hearts and tongues to utter before God either Hosanna's or Hallelujahs sometimes Prayers and sometimes Prayses as occasion required And as this was the Saints Practice every where and in all ages so 't is the Wisemans Precept here In the day of prosperity be joyful but c. Which latter clause I shall confine my Discourse unto as conteining in few words both very much and very good seasonable advice for this sad time of Visitation In the whole sentence though it may seem that there is not a direct opposition in words and terms yet we shall find the expression more emphatical and didactical than if it had been so The Wiseman indeed does not say In the time of prosperity be joyful and in the day of adversity be sorrowful but consider And the reason as I conceive is this Because outward sorrow may be worldly and carnal selfish and hypocritical yeilding neither honour nor glory to Gods holy Name nor yet any advantage or comfort to the party affected therewith for men many times are of a sad countenance and as our blessed Saviour speaks Matth. 6.16 do disfigure their faces on purpose that they may appear unto men to be sorry and there is all But an inward and serious a deep and religious consideration never fails to bring forth the fruits and good effects that God expects This is that which makes a man enter into his Closet that so he may commune with his own heart hear his case tryed in the Court of Conscience humble himself in dust and ashes and poure forth his soul in secret to God Who never fails as our Saviour there shews vers 4 6 18. not only to own and regard but also to crown and reward all such secret acts of devotion openly Whereas the Wiseman therefore here doth not say Be sad and sorrowful in the time of adversity but consider I conceive it is because the expression is much more emphatical comprehensive and didactical as I said before and doth indeed directly point out and plainly teach us without any kind of circumlocution what is the main duty that God expects and requires at our hands in times of Affliction and Tribulation and that is to Consider And truly no wonder for of This it may well be said That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. virtually it is every good Duty For as much as we know that Self-examination Self-accusation and Condemnation Prayer and Supplication Repentance Faith in Gods Promises Resolutions of new Obedience c. they are all the fruits that spring from this root they are all conceived as 't were in this Wombe they are the spiritual brood and offspring but Consideration is the Alma Mater the heavenly Parent and Mother of them Consideration 't is Spiritus Sancti quaedam Fabrica vel Officina i. e. the spiritual shop and workhouse as it were of the Holy Ghost wherein he secretly forgeth and fashioneth upon the Anvil of a truly broken and contrite heart all the pieces of that excellent armour of proof that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Apostle speaks of Ephes 6. In a word Consideration 't is the Handmaid of spiritual Knowledge and the Mistress of all true Devotion without which no acceptable service can be performed by us to God Whereas if men would but now and then bestow an hour or two in serious thoughts and soberly consider how the case stands betwixt Almighty God and their souls whether they be in a state of Grace or of Nature of Peace with God or under Wrath and What they must do that they may be saved doubtless they would find themselves better disposed to the service of God than now they are For the truth is the principal reason that so many persons in the world are no better is because they will not Consider and seriously meditate on their spiritual state and condition The cares and affairs the profits and pleasures of this life do so wholy ingross their hearts and imploy their heads that the concernments of their immortal precious souls and the things of another life are not regarded And hence it is that the labours of faithful Ministers are so unsuccessfull the good and serious advice of Friends and Parents is no more followed and all the Means of Grace and methods of God for the reclaiming of sinful Offenders affect no more and operate no better namely because they will not consider Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth sayes Almighty God himself by the Prophet Isa 1.2 3. The Ox knoweth his owner and the Ass his Masters crib but Israel doth not know my people

doth not not Consider Yea hence it is that though life and death good and evil as (d) Deut. 30.15 Moses speaks are set before us and put to our choice yet the generality of people in the world live as persons not at all concerned whether there be a God or no an Heaven or an Hell eternal Joyes or everlasting Torments So that a serious consideration is very good and necessary for us even at all times but the most proper season for it as Solomon tells us is the time of affliction In the time of Adversity Consider Whence the point of Doctrin that offers it self to our Consideration is this Doct. That when Gods Judgements are in the Earth and the sad tokens of his displeasure appear against a Person or a Nation then it 's a proper season for them seriously to lay things to heart and wisely to consider The guise and custom of all Atheistical Epicures and graceless Worldlings is quite contrary who when any crosses disasters or losses are in judgement inflicted upon them do not retire into their Closets and there enter into a serious meditation of the matter communing with their own hearts and considering who it is that smites them and for what but either with Cursing Oaths and Execrations they break forth into repining and murmuring against Gods dispensations towards them which many times end in Despair or else they run to the Tavern or Alehouse that so in the jovial company of good fellows they may drown the sense of all sorrow and care and thwart and non-plus if it be possible the end and design of God in punishing them His good end certainly was to humble them and reclaim them from their iniquities but they listen not to the voyce of his Rod but in laetitiam luxum prosiliunt resolve to take their full swinge in voluptuousness saying (e) Wisd 1.6 7 8 9. Let us eat and drink and enjoy the good things of this life let us Crown our selves with Rose-buds and leave tokens of our mirth and jollity in every place This is the common deportment and practice of the ungodly in time of adversity And this they are either betrayed into by their own deceitful vile carnal hearts or else they are byassed by the great and general custom of the world or else they are prompted to it by Satan who knows full well that a due and serious Consideration would take them from him and make them quickly renounce and abhor all wicked wayes And therefore it is that he doth still with all his might and subtilty strive to divert and disswade them from it as a most childish sad and dumpish melancholy course which probably may endanger their health but can otherwise do them no good Whereby it appears that the more necessary any Duty is the more opposite Satan and our false carnal hearts are thereunto For there is not a more advantagious usefull and profitable nor a more excellent heavenly and acceptable Duty as I shall shew more fully hereafter for a good Christian to be exercised in at all times and upon all occasions in all estates and conditions especially in the day of adversity than this of a serious Consideration And therefore it is that Almighty God commends it unto us so much in Scripture as a singular means to help and direct us how to steer our courses aright as Deut. 32.29 Oh that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end Psal 4.4 Stand in awe and sin not commune with your own hearts and be still Prov. 4.26 Ponder the path of thy feet and let all thy ways be established and Hag. 1.5 7. Now therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts Consider your wayes In which remarkable place the Adverb Now and Conjunction Therefore plainly point out the Time and Occasion when and wherefore God required them to practise this duty of Consideration The Children of Israel being brought home to Jerusalem again out of their long Captivity in Babylon were exceeding backward and negligent in their carrying on the work and building of the House of the Lord. Forward enough it seems they were to erect and prepare sumptuous buildings and neat habitations for themselves the Prophet calls them cieled Houses v. 4. but the house of the Lord they let that lye waste pretending forsooth v. 2. that it was not a fit time yet to doe it This was their Crime Now the Judgment which God inflicted upon them for it was that of Famine as v. 6 9 10 11. Ye looked for much and lo it came to little and when ye brought it home I did blow upon it and why saith the Lord of Hosts because of mine House that is waste and ye run every man to his own house Therefore the Heaven over you is stayed from dew and the Earth is stayed from her fruit And I called for a drought upon the Land and upon the Mountains and upon the Corn and upon the new Wine and upon the Oyl and upon that which the ground bringeth forth and upon Men and upon Cattel and upon all the labour of the hands Surely a deplorable sad and most miserable state and condition And what is now the duty that God the great Physician of Souls puts them upon here by the Prophet and that both in order to a speedy and thorow Reformation of themselves as well as for the happy procuring of his loving kindness and gracious reconciliation towards them Why it is nothing but this Consider your wayes A duty which the Prophet Haggai seems to look back upon as an Instar omnium and therefore it is observable that he presseth no other duty upon them in the whole Prophecy Neither doth he content himself to deliver his Message authoritativè with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. thus saith the Lord of Hosts as here in this Chapter but again afterwards to inforce the same he earnestly prayes and intreats them to fall upon the speedy performance of it as Chap. 2. v. 15. to 20. Which frequent inculcation of the Precept serves to teach us two things by the way 1. The strange stupidity of the People in that they were no more affected with those manifest marks and tokens of Gods indignation no though he had snatched their very Meat out of their mouths And then 2. The great necessity of the Duty in times of distress So that when Gods Judgments are in the Earth and the sad tokens of his displeasure appear against a Person or Nation then its a proper season for them seriously to lay things to heart and wisely to consider In the prosecution of this Point I do intend to proceed in this method Method 1. By way of Explication to acquaint you with the Nature of the Duty in general as also the Subject matter thereof touching withall a little upon the two great Circumstances of most convenient Time and Place 2. By way of Confirmation to subjoyn some Reasons for the