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A28156
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The believer's daily exercise, or, The Scripture precept of being in the fear of the Lord all the day long explained and urged in four sermons / by John Billingsley ...
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Billingsley, John, 1657-1722.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing B2907; ESTC R6203
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37,871
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100
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cause were it possible to cancel and blot our every day of his Life each day having been only spent in treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of God's righteous Judgment Rom. ii 5. R. 10. By such a holy improvement of the short and troublesom days of time we shall secure to our selves an happy being thorowout the long and endless days oâ— Eternity If we sow to the Spirit we shall of the Spirit reap Life Everlasting Gal. vi 7 8. If we suffer with Christ we shall reign with him 2 Tim. ii 12. The good and faithful Servant shall enter into the joy of his Lord Mat. xxv 21. Wherefore my beloved Brethren be stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. xv 58. God suffereth none of his faithful Servants to be losers by him or any thing they do for his honour and glory Our light afflictions which are but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory while we look not at the things that are seen but at the things that are not seen for the things that are seen are Temporal but the things that are not seen are Eternal 2 Cor. iv 17 18. Surely if we believe an eternity of happiness for holy Souls we shall not think any pains in duty or any patience in suffering too much for it Our discouraging apprehensions of the difficulty of duty proceed much from the Wavering and Weakness of our Faith concerning the Reality and Excellency of the heavenly glory If we lived as seeing him who is invisible Heb. xi 27. And as foreseeing that glory which is eternal we should lead other manner of lives both in respect of grace and comfort than now we do Who would not Watch and Pray Toil and Labour Suffer and Wait that did soundly apprehend and firmly believe that the result of all would be the Souls being for ever with the Lord 1 Thes iv 17. Oh the glory purchased with the redeemers blood and which he hath as our forerunner taken possession of what will it not excite and enable us to undertake and perform Did we believe that the fervent effectual Prayer of a righteous man availeth much Jam. v. 16. to the gaining of Eternal blessedness we should not so often omit nor so lazily perform that duty as we do Did Faith enliven our Meditations of Heaven we should be oftner in them and continue at them longer and with more delight Did we look upon every alms given by us to the poor as a laying up treasure in Heaven we should labour to be rich in good Works Did we reckon that the more of the sufferings of Christ are fulfilled in us now the more of the glory of Christ shall be revealed in us hereafter we should even be ambitious of Martyrdom and esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt Heb. xi 26. But alas we think Heaven may be had with less ado or else we think so poorly of it as if it were scarce worth having So that there is too much cause to take up concerning us the complaint of one of the Ancients Aut hoc non est Evangelium aut nos non sumus Evangelici either this that we have in our Bibles is not the Gospel or we are not the Gospellers so wide is the difference between the Gospel of Christ and the Lives of Christians But be assured my friends we must bring our hearts and lives to the Gospel and make that the Rule of them if ever we will be happy For Christ will never bring down his Gospel to our hearts and lives If we will be saved it must be in his way and on his Terms and he hath said Without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. xii 14. And the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. vi 9. For without are Dogs c. Rev. xxii 15. Consider therefore whether you will live a life of present ease and be hereafter cast out into eternal Torments or you will now painfully exercise your selves unto godliness and approve your selves Christ's Servants that you may hereafter be for ever with him and behold his glory John xvii 24. and share in that Rest that remaineth for the People of God Heb. iv 9. Having now shewn you what it is to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long and given you the Reasons which oblige every one of us to take care that we daily be so III. It remains that I point out to you those Inferences and practical Conclusions that follow upon and flow from the Truths we have hitherto been discoursing Inference I. Must we as you have heard be in the fear of the Lord all the day long What then shall we think of them that have no fear of God before their eyes that are so far from making Religion their daily business that they live every day as without God in the World Eph. ii 12. They say unto God Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways Job xxi 14. If it be so necessary to our present peace and future happiness as hath been shewn to walk with God continually what a condition are they in that never took one step in Heavens way or so much as once set their faces Sion-ward Jer. L. 5. What shall we think of the Atheistical Crew that call in question God's Being and boldly deny his Providence The Infidel-scoffers that deny Jesus to be the Son of God and ridicule the sacred Records of Eternal Life that deride all pretensions to the assistance of the Holy Spirit and hold the intercourse and communion of Souls with the Father of Spirits to be no better than meer fancy and delusion How are we to account of the Hypocritical Race of pretenders to that Religion they never felt the power of upon their hearts who oft turn Infidels themselves and draw others into the same condemnation The malignant Enemies of practical Religion who profess to love God while they hate their Brethren to the very death for no other reason but because they indeed love him The lovers of this World Mammons Idolatrous Worshippers who know no godliness but gain 1 Tim. vi 5. and who have no end of living but to be rich and to compass that will deny God damn themselves and destroy their Brethren The sond admirers of ease and pleasure that are dead while they live 1 Tim. v. 6. and are willing to purchase a dying Life with eternal Death and exchange Angels fare for that of Swine lovers of Pleasures more than lovers of God 2 Tim. iii. 4. The eager hunters after applause that value themselves by what others think of them without staying to consider what they ought to think of themselves Those who seldom worship God so much as in outward appearance and never in spirit and truth
purchased for them by his death and how those benefits come to be applyed to the Souls of his chosen Labour to work things down into their hearts and get them to feel what they know This is Gods work but it is to be expected in Conjunction with your endeavour and Children thus initiated betimes rarely do amiss whereas a Child left to himself causeth shame Prov. xxix 15. Dishonours God grieves his Parents and damns himself Infer VIII What great need there is for us to keep the Christian hopes in constant believing view that by them we may be encouraged to so great and difficult work The Just shall live by his Faith Hab. ii 4. Now Faith is the Substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Heb. xi 1. Moses had respect unto the recompence of reward Heb. xi 26. And our Lord himself endured the Cross and despised the shame for the joy that was set before him Heb. xii 2. Christianity were not the best Religion if it did not propound to us the best Reward and that with the fullest and clearest evidence and we are not Christians if the hope of that reward act us not in our endeavours of conformity to its blessed Precepts So widely are they out that cry down diligence in the Christian Work and Race in expectation of the Rewards of Eternal Glory as mercenary and that talk of quenching Hell and burning Heaven to prove the sincerity of their obedience God help me to obey and suffer for the joy set before me and I doubt not but I shall be for ever in that Heaven where Jesus Christ now is and let those that hope to fare better in new-fangled ways of their own devising let them I say at long run bragg as they speed Man is a creature the very frame and constitution of whose Soul shews him made to be governed by Hopes and Fears And no hopes like those of a happiness compleat and everlasting The Apostolical Canon therefore is Heb. vi 11 12. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end that ye be not slothful but followers of them who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises He that will be an Active Useful Exemplary Persevering Christian must clear and settle well his hope of Everlasting Life as that which God who cannot lye hath promised and often review it by believing Meditation nothing quickens nothing supports like this Am I lazing and slugging and moving heavily in the ways of God What a Spur is such a thought as this Do I now act as becomes a Candidate for Eternal Glory an Expectant of Heavenly Felicity Would this pace content me if I now saw Heaven open to my bodily Eyes And is it not equally certain as if I did So when sinking into discouragement when drooping and desponding when horribly afraid of suffering or the like say O my Soul doth this become a Christian a Child of God an Heir a Coheir with Christ What a Kings Son the King of Heavens Son the Heir of a Kingdom and such a Kingdom And thus lean from day to day allusion to 2 Sam. xiii 4. Oh Sirs little do we think what a vigorous Instrument of an holy Life the Christian hope in our Souls would prove were we more careful to get it firmly rooted there and then to maintain it in its lively act and powerful exercise Infer IX How much is it the concernment of all that would be Christians indeed to get right notions of Religion That our Duty is our Interest a real pleasure and advancement to our Souls 'T is wrong conceits of Religion and the nature of the work it puts us upon that scareth so many from it Men will not hear of becoming Religious because they take it to be what it really is not and have no right understanding what indeed it is Men think Religion ties them up from all that is grateful and fills them continually with fear and sorrow and unhinges them for business unfits them for action and calls them to part with all that they at present count valuable and giveth them nothing or next to nothing in exchange This is the notion the World hath commonly of Religion and no wonder if in this dress it appear very terrible and be so far from alluring Lovers that it affright Spectators But I pray you Sirs you that labour under these prejudices come a little nearer and take a better prospect of Religion before you renounce her utterly It may be she is not what you take her for perhaps she hath charms you never yet discovered I hope you will not think it impossible but Solomon might be in the right when he said of Wisdom or true Religion All her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace Prov. iii. 17. What if upon enquiry all your Objections against Religion prove calumnies What if upon a true opening of the case your Scruples all vanish and a little light of sober Reason dispel the mists you have endeavoured to benight her with I hope you will then come over to that side which hitherto you have so violently opposed and so malignantly derided Come then and let us reason together If Religion debar you of no true pleasure but call you to exchange sordid and perishing ones for those that are noble and durable will you then become her Votary Why so it is Religion teaches you Temperance in the use of bodily Pleasures which alone gives them their true relish and renders them safe to be enjoyed and which is of more important consideration makes their use consistent with the obtaining of those better Pleasures whereof she allows and offers you freer and fuller draughts and whereof you can never have too much and shall not finally want enough The pleasures of Knowledge and Love are ever perfecting till we come to glory immediately upon our entrance whereunto they are perfected to satisfaction though according to some see the ingenious discourse of a nameless Author called The Future State even there they are in a state of perpetual progress and advance Obj. But it may be you will say Surely Religion cannot be a state of Joy when men pass into it thorow so many fears and sorrows and when the great Author of it hath clad it in mourning saying Blessed are they that mourn Matth. v. 4. Sol. I answer Religion only calleth for so much sorrow as is consistent with or conducive to the greatest joy and debarreth us only of such joys as will end in everlasting sorrows For Religion's taking men off from business or unfitting them for it it is a vain cavil and contradicted by the Experience of all Ages For in every Age some of the most active and eminent have been jointly noted for Religion and for Wisdom Courage and Success in the management of Publick Affairs both in War and Peace as Abraham David Nehemiah and others The truth is Religion in these things changeth not mens natural Tempers and Endowments but taking them as it findeth them improves and perfects them And for what Religion obligeth us to forego it is demonstrable that it calleth us to quit nothing but what may well be spared and for what is not consistent with our happiness giveth us in exchange what is alone constituent of it And if its worst Enemies have no more to say against it but that which is so easily refutable who can wonder if notwithstanding all the scorns of profane wits heavenly Wisdom be still justified of her Children Matth. xi 19. as she will shortly more fully be by her great Author who is able to defend her against all her profane contemners and malignant opposers Infer X. Great cause there is for all such as know by experience how sweet and comfortable a thing it is to be daily taken up in the lively spiritual performance of Religious Exercises to pity and by counsel prayer and example do all they can to help the rest who are the most of Mankind yea of professed Christians that live as without God in the World having neither skill nor will to holy Employments or the due improvement of their Time It is a doleful thing to take a considerate view of the world and think what God made man and placed him upon the Earth for and what we are redeemed for and what large provision of help there is in the Gospel for lost Mankind and yet how few do in any measure answer the end of their Beings or act like persons that have any hope of saving benefit by Jesus Christ Not only the Heathen and Mahometan World and the obstinate Infidel Jews and the Idolatrous persecuting Papists but alas the generality of the Reformed Churches are a sight fit to make a sensible heart bleed abounding so with ignorance profaneness worldliness sensuality corruption in VVorship Church-tyranny Heresies Schisms Divisions Envyings and bitter Zeal that the Tares do in a manner hide the Wheat and the Faith even of good men is sometimes put to stagger at the Promise That the gates of Hell shall not prevail Mat. xvi 18. But oh that we did rather in our places all do our utmost to promote its accomplishment by personal Reformation by fervent Prayer by due instructing and calling upon others and setting them a good Example by mourning for the sins of the Times and pleading with God his Promises for the Remnant of his People If we thus hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord Lam. iii. 26. we may yet live to see the eminent returns of Prayer and the glorious accomplishment of Prophecies and Promises when Salvation shall be to God's Israel for VValls and Bulwarks Isa xxvi 1. and when Jerusalem's VValls shall be Salvation and her Gates praise Isa Lx. 18. Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly Amen FINIS