Selected quad for the lemma: head_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A60347
|
A funeral sermon occasioned by the death of Mr. William Rathband an aged and learned servant of Christ, and preached Octob. 13. 1695. at Highgate. By Samuel Slater, M.A. minister of the gospel.
|
Slater, Samuel, d. 1704.
|
1695
(1695)
|
Wing S3965; ESTC R220549
|
27,757
|
34
|
spake her loath to stir when her beloved who had done a great deal more and deserved much better at her hands stood all the while without knocking at the Door calling and begging for Admission Cant. 5. 2. Open to me my sister my love my dove my undefiled One would have thought such language of Love should have melted should have raised her Do not you contract upon your selves guilt of the same kind therefore my advice to you shall be the same with what you find in Psalm 24. 7. Lift up your heads O ye gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors and the king of glory shall come in Follow this advice will you Oh that you would remembring that you your selves must one day go to God and let that influence you to such a demeanour of your selves toward him now as that you may not at last find the Door shut against you and be forced to stand without calling and crying in the bitterness of your Souls Lord Lord open to us but may have an entrance ministred to you abundantly into the glorious kingdom of your God and Saviour Know for certain the very same measure you mete out shall be meted into you again with the pure he will shew himself pure and with the froward he will shew himself froward If you will be deaf to his call now he will not hear yours at last Prov. 1. 24 c. Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded When your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind when distress and anguish cometh upon you then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me The second Use that I shall make of this Point shall be for Examination Let you and me fall to work and put our selves upon the Scrutiny for I can assure you it will be no lost labour to search and try our selves whether we are such and our State such as may at a dying hour be willing to go to God and may at the present rejoyce in the thoughts of it and so tho we must expect to fall by the stroke of Death yet we are deliver'd from the fear of Death And in order to the resolving of this great case let us propound to our selves these three Questions and deal faithfully with our own Souls for it is dangerous yea ruinous to be deceived in a matter of so great importance First Hath there been reconciliation made between God and you Is it Peace O my Soul is it peace There was a bâ—each that breach sprung up to an Enmity that Enmity produc'd a War you have been fighters against God there have been Acts of Hostility how is it now Is that Breach made up is that Enmity taken away and the War at an end There hath been Peace offered to you and most condescending gracious Terms propounded have you accepted and closed with them It cannot but be a most dreadful thing for a poor Creature to find it self at last no other than a vessel of wrath fitted for destruction one in whom God can have no pleasure It is a dreadful thing for one that lived a pitiful life and had little else but trouble in this world to find it unspeakably worse in the next trouble here and torment there A dreadful thing for one that was cloathed with Silk and Velvet far'd deliciously every day swam in pleasures and had the world at will to lie down in sorrow upon a Bed of Flames where throughout Eternity he cannot procure a moment's ease nor a drop of water to cool his tongue How sad will it be when a poor Soul is deprived of those comforts and delights which it eagerly hunted after and plac'd its happiness in and is turned out of house and home its old tabernacle of the body being so weak and crazy that there is no possibility of continuing there any longer and goeth naked to God who alone is able to afford it succor and relief and then it findeth that he is an enemy to it and will not give it one good word or look nor receive it into everlasting habitations Well do you now think seriously of it God is in Christ reconciling the world to himself and he hath committed to us the Word of reconciliation and we as the Embassadors of Christ and Messengers of Peace have sounded this Word in your ears and as tho God did beseech you by us we have often and often prayed you in Christ's stead that ye would be reconciled to God Now enquire how hath this Word wrought upon you Hath it come to you not in Word only but also in Power What effect hath it had Is the enmity that was in your hearts and natures to God slain Have you thrown down your Weapons of Rebellion Are you reconciled unto God Have you laid hold by an hand of Faith upon Christ who is his strength in order to the making of peace with him He hath promised that in that way you shall make peace with him otherwise never expect it for it will be but in vain to persons out of Christ he is a consuming fire and everlasting burnings Have you submitted to God and stoop'd and bow'd to his Government Do you like and love his Law Are you desirous that he should reign over you and erect his Throne in you Set this down with your selves as a most certain truth that unless you receive him for your Lord and King you will never find him your Friend Secondly Can you say as Christ did in this Chapter that you have glorified God upon earth All the glory that great Personages Lords and Ladies Kings and Queens have now will not stead them nor comfort them at the last but their having brought glory to God in their generation and several places Christ did this and he found the thought of it sweet to him he reflected upon it with joy and this all of us should do too in cur measure and to the utmost of our power for this was the end of our Creation for this we were sent into the world without this we live to no purpose and without this we cannot rationally expect to be accepted of him or glorified by him But here some poor humble Christian may object against its self and say When you speak of my glorifying God it strikes all my hopes dead for I have not done it nay I have not been in a capacity of doing it What glory can the infinitely great and ever-blessed God who is exalted above all blessing and praise possibly receive from such a sorry contemptible Worm such an earthen Vessel such a broken Potsherd as I am I do with grief and self-abhorrence own and acknowledge that I have highly dishonour'd him being a discredit to his holy and reverend Name while I was called by it and a disparagement to Religion while I made a profession of it