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A28587 Man's great duty, or, A discourse of the care every man should take to make sure the salvation of his own Soul by Samuel Bold, rector of Styple in Dorsetshire. Bold, S. (Samuel), 1649-1737. 1693 (1693) Wing B3481; ESTC R34369 57,671 141

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MAN's Great Duty OR A DISCOURSE OF The Care every Man should take to make sure the Salvation of his own Soul By Samuel Bold Rector of Styple in Dorsetshire Matt. XVI xxvi What shall a Man give in Exchange for his Soul LONDON Printed by R. Smith and are to be Sold by R. Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane 1693. THE Epistle Dedicatory TO Mrs. Mary Cooke Widow of that very Learned and Pious Man Mr. William Cooke sometime since Minister of the Gospel in the City of Chester and to the rest of the Author 's Friends in that City I Present this Discourse to you as a publick Testimony that I am not unmindful how much I am obliged to you all for your great Love and Respects to me from my Infancy to this time And in an especial manner to you Mrs. Cooke for the Motherly Affection Care and Tenderness you have constanstly Manifested towards me through my Childhood and Youth and are pleased still to continue I forbear receoning up particular Obligations because too numerous for so slow a Pen. I know you delight more in shewing Kindness and doing Good than others would in having the World told that they do so The Subject treated of in this little Book I am sure is very grateful to you all and I am confident you will not be offended with my Discourse because so familiar It is a very sad and afflicting Reflection to a serious Christian that there are such multitudes who plainly appear to take no tolerable care of their own Souls tho they profess the best Religion and are furnished with eminent Advantages For The Earth which is so Watered and beareth Thorns and Briars is Rejected and is nigh unto Cursing whose end is to be Burned But Beloved I am perswaded better things of you and things that accompany Salvation Heb. 6.8 9. It very much concerns you all to take care I be not mistaken in you and to use your utmost Diligence to bring forth Fruit in some proportion to the Labour and Pains which have been bestowed on you You have enjoyed the Labours of that eminently holy Person and faithful Minister Mr. Cooke whose love to and care of Souls and zeal for their Salvation was such I am not acquainted with any words that are significative enough to express them And therefore if you do not much exceed others in Divine Love and all the Fruits of Righteousness and Holiness you do not fully answer the Means with which you have been favoured I am willing to remember you of your Old Pastor that you may thereby be induced to reflect upon your selves and be quickned to give such diligence to make your Salvation sure as he was always pressing you unto Were the excellent Treatises he left behind him Published they would contribute much to keep those things always in your Remembrance which he mainly insisted on whilst he was Living and to establish you in the Truths and Duties you know and have been practising He was the greatest instance of an indefatigable faithful Minister and practical Believer I was ever acquainted with He was diligent and industrious even to a Prodigy His Humility and Modesty did exceedingly veil his intellectual Merits Few could comprehend the time he spent and the pains he took in his Study much less the proficiency he made there He had strong Natural Parts a great Memory a quick Apprehension was very Thoughtful and dived very far into whatsoever he applied his Mind unto He was the most void of all kind of Affectation so far as my Knowledge doth extend of any meer Man His Learning Ministerial Labours and exemplary Piety were such could the World be furnish'd with an exact faithful Account of his Life I am perswaded it would yield as grateful and pleasing Entertainment to the learned part of the World and be as profitable to all People who have a serious sense of true Piety as any thing that can be Published But I doubt those who knew him best Died before him and as for those who were acquainted with him and do Survive I suspect some were not observant enough and others did not know him long enough to understand very many of the most material Passages which would be necessary for such a Composure Indeed he did so conceal himself I very much question whether any Man was ever in a capacity to do him Right Yet a sull Collection of the many great things his Friends remember and which he could not hinder People from observing would be of extraordinary use unto the Publick Tho the whole Relation thereof would not comprehend the half of what he deserved should be said to perpetuate his Memory and encourage a laudable Imitation If this hint may prompt those who knew him to recollect themselves and jointly apply themselves to such a Work I shall have this Satisfaction that I have been instrumental to put them on Acts of Friendship and true Piety and have contributed a little to oblige the Publick You are commanded not to be Slothful but followers of them who through Faith and Patience are Inheritors of the Promises Heb. 6.12 And I propound unto you Mr. Cooke as a great Pattern you should imitate in variety of Instances which are within your reach and pertain to the Stations you are in as well as in the whole general tenor of his Conversation I shall therefore pass over in Silence many very considerable things I know concerning him which must not by any means be omitted by one who would attempt to write his Life I must not therefore insist on his Learning And indeed he who would do him Justice as to that must be furnished with a much greater measure of it than I can hope to attain unto Yet let me take liberty to mention one thing viz. That his skill in the Oriental Languages was such it procured him a respect above many Persons of great worth from the Famous Bishop Walton whose eminent Talent lay in that sort of Study A very worthy Author whom I am obliged to Love and Honour greatly for his substantial solid Learning Conformists 4th Plea for Nonconformists p. 109. but especially on the account of his exemplary Piety and more than common Zeal for the good of Souls hath told the World That Bishop Walton would speak Civilly to Mr. Cooke tho he told him unless he would Conform he could not help him I have particular reason to say that when he spake those words he did it with intimations of great Regret and that amongst other reasons of his Respect to Mr. Cooke common to others for whom that Great Man had a Kindness notwithstanding they had different Sentiments from him about some Matters it was Mr. Cooke's great knowledge in these Languages which did peculiarly commend him to that Bishop Here I am to take notice that Mr. Cooke was a Nonconformist and so had different Sentiments about some inferior and less substantial rather meerly accidental Matters about which all
with all Saints the breadth and length and depth and height of his Love how should I abound in Admiring Praising Glorifying and giving Thanks unto him and to what a height would this sort of exercise raise my estimation of my Soul towards which this great this glorious this beneficent and most gracious Saviour hath manifested a Love which passeth Knowledge As the best and greatest Friend to Mankind hath in so stupendous a manner Testified his love to and thereby the real and extraordinary worth of Souls so the most envious inveterate and malicious Enemy to Human Race hath mightily fortified this Truth That the Soul of Man is exceeding precious by his indefatigable and unwearied attempts to destroy our Souls both in the ways of Subtilty and Violence We commonly acknowledge and bouldly affirm the Devil is our great Adversary and then we must likewise allow and grant that he designs to do us the greatest Mischief and what can that be but to prejudice and ruine that part of us which is undoubtedly of greatest value And can any thing be more apparent and manifest than that all his methods and assaults are levelled against our Souls What a Monster shall I appear if I make little or no account of this Soul for the ransoming of which the eternal Son of God laid down his most precious Life And for the ruining of which the Devil doth not spare any either of his Craft and Artifice or of his Strength and Industry Would the Prince of the Powers of the Air so sedulously contrive and plot be so very observant and constant upon his Watch make such diligent Search after and take so much pains as he doth to destroy our Souls if they were such inconsiderable worthless Trifles as we seem to reckon them We are careful of and do look accurately after those those things we really prize and of which we make a very great account And were we truly sensible of and duly affected with the worth the excellency the preciousness of our own Souls O! with what seriousness should we busie our selves to secure their Salvation Secondly Salvation is an inestimable Mercy and Privilege Salvation What a sweet delicious good word is this Take all the Letters in the World and join them together how you please you cannot frame a word that makes so comfortable and charming a Sound as this does Of all the expressions that can be named this is the most proper and the best accommodated to our State and Circumstances to our Case and Necessities We are in Misery our wants and dangers are greater than our Lips can utter Who so wretched and forlorn as Sinners and guilty Persons None certainly excepting them whose Condemnation is already Seal'd and ratified May such as we be Saved is it possible for us to obtain Salvation May our aggravated Transgressions the horrible Rebellion we have so long and so obstinately persisted in against the Holy God be Pardoned May we yet escape the terrible wrath that is coming apace upon the Wicked and Disobedient Is the door of Mercy still open May we yet be received into favour Most joyful tidings most comfortable and ravishing News Blesbe my Rock Exalted be the God of my Salvation Praise the Lord O my Soul and let all that is within me magnifie his Holy Name Thy loving kindness is better than Life O Lord I will praise thee as long as I Live Let all the Angels of God which excel in strength bless him Yea let all his works in all Places of his Dominion bless him Bless the Lord O my Soul Oh that Men would praise the Lord for his Goodness and for his wonderful Works to the Children of Men Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from Everlasting to Everlasting and let all the People say Amen Praise ye the Lord This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation That Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners of whom we may justly repute our selves the greatest Let that Message brought from Heaven by an Angel A Message every way worthy of such a Messenger be the chief subject of my Meditations And Oh that I might never think of it but with a Heart rightly affected towards it powerfully influenced by it and mightily enlarged in thankfulness and praise for it Fear not for behold I bring you good Tydings of great Joy which shall be to all People for unto you is Born this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord Luke 2.10 11. This Salvation is indeed a great and blessed word but how little do we know of that which it imports No created Being can comprehend and fully understand the Mercy Good and Privilege it signifies A Blessing is the less by its being such that any finite Being can reach and know its full Dimensions This is a Mercy and Benefit which deserves our loudest Praises our most solemn Acknowledgments and our silent Admiration We cannot possibly raise our estimation to its real Value It is so great the loftiest Expressions fall infinitely short of conveying to our Minds an adequate and exact conception of it How shall we then escape if we neglect so great Salvation Heb. 2.3 Our deliverances are incompleat whilst we are on Earth we are encompassed and surrounded here with such variety of dangers calamities and troubles we are no sooner rescued out of one but we feel our selves Arrested by another Disaster and are in all respects as uneasie and dissatisfied till freed from this as we were when mourning under the former Yea many times our very Deliverance proves but a step to a Relapse which sinks us deeper into the very same kind of Trouble and Disquietment we thought we had escaped We are Born to Trouble as the Sparks fly upward When one afflicting occurrence having gorg'd it self as we conceive leaves us we presently become a Booty to another or else the former returns with greater eagerness and preys on us with more unsatiable greediness and violence No sooner have we one Deliverance but we find we do as much need another We are not sure but whole Troops of Sorrows will seize on us and these so thick and close one after another they will not afford us one pleasant Interval Our Lives are at best chequered and our Deliverances in this World yield not a satisfaction of any long continuance But blessed be God the Lord Jesus being made perfect is become the Author of eternal Salvation unto all them that obey him Heb. 5.9 O! the blessedness of them who partake of this Salvation who are perfectly freed from every thing that ean offend and molest from the worst of Evils Sin and the next Temptations to it and from all the Sufferings Pains Diseases Doubts and Fears which here extort our Tears Complaints and Moans God shall wipe away all Tears from their Eyes and there shall be no more Death neither Sorrow nor Crying neither shall there be any more Pain for the former things