Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A71233
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Publick sorrovv A remedy for Englands malady. Being an explanation of the fourteenth verse of the first chapter of the prophet Joel. By Ellis Weycoe, M.A.
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Weycoe, Ellis.
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1657
(1657)
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Wing W1524; ESTC R221984
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81,520
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112
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and anointing the wounds of the Apostles Witnesse Zacheus who of a pilling and powling Publican and a grinder of the faces of the poor presently became a mercifull refresher of their bowels Witnesse many others c. Every mans life is a Way wherein without intermission he walkes from the Wombe to the Grave Ab utero ad Sepulchrum ambulamus omnes and this is the way which Joshua calls the way of all flesh But in this way there is a great difference for some are upright in it and those are declared to be such as walk in the way of godlinesse to glorification Others turn aside after the crooked wayes of sin and those walk on unto perdition they goe singing and in a moment tumble into Hell Now the Lord our God that would not the death of a sinner calls all to Repentance whilest we not feeling those privy nips and perillous wounds that sin impaires our soules withall doe swim in the fullest delights that invention can procure us and our souls cleaving to the midst of our mirth our way but beguyles us and for not minding our Voyage in stead of arriving at our wished for Haven we are suckt into the gulfe ere ever we are aw re so that we had need labour for a Reformation by the wholesome Information of the Word and Christs Schoole being a Schoole for all sorts we had need all become Schollars in the Schoole of Christ both young and old and old as well as young First young men for the age of youth is indeed the age of right reformation Bend a tree while it is but a twig and it will ply which way you will have it but let it alone untill it be a sturdy Oke there is then no dealing with it Even so settle the soule once upon the lees of sinfull lust and custome in sinning proves another nature and in the end becomes inflexible incorrigible Let a man through his youth set his face against Heaven and blaspheme Gods Religion it shall be as easie for the Blackamoore to change his hue or the Leopard his spots as for that man that hath been alwayes accustomed to evill ever to learn to doe well I doe not say impâ—ssible for I know that it is the easiest thing in the world with God to enrich a sinner with his grace and therefore we dispute not his power nor his mercy Not his power for God can in an instant make of a sinner a Saint Not his mercy for Gods mercy knows no bounds nor limits But it is not easie for that sinner that hath been alwayes accustomed to doe evill ever to learn to doe well for you know the curse is commonly passed out against those who have been so long fruitlesse Mat. 21.19 Never fruit grow on thee henceforth neither in this World nor in the World to come reape they shall bring forth they shall not but they shall reape the fruit of Judgement the fruit of punishment other fruit they shall never bring forth dead Trees cut off from the land of the living dead Branches cut off from the Tree of Life And indeed what can that ground expect that brings forth nothing but thorns and bryars Heb. 6.8 but that the end of it should be to be burned So that though ye rejoyce in your youth O ye young men yet remember you must come to Judgement And sure it is but an evill and wofull division when young years are given to Sathan and old age to the Lord. It s the first fruits that God requires And you may find Saint John writing to Young men as well as to Elders 1 Iohn 2.12 13. to Children as well as to Fathers And Solomon adviseth the young man Eccles 12.1 To remember his Creator in the dayes of his youth And David Psal 119 9 to redresse his wayes For indeed the age of youth is the very Harvest and Summer in which whosoever sleepeth is the son of confusion but he that gathereth is the child of wisedome Pro. 10.5 It is with grace as it is with grafts there must be a time of in-setting and a time of out-growing and both these must be seasonable before fruit can be expected so that seed must be sown in youth which must come up in age For nip a blossome in the Spring and where is the hope of its Autumne And indeed where Sathan can make youth unprofitable little good nay much spirituall beggery may be expected in all the other ages of that mans life Again Call thy wayes to remembrance while thou art young that thy Conscience may be at peace when thou art aged for assure thy selfe that the vanitles of youth will vex the heart for many yeares after Psal 25.7 See David Praying against the sins of his youth and not without a bitter sense and sting of them Psal 25.7 Ieâ— 13.16 It was the voyce of Ephraim I was ashamed yea confounded because I did beare the roproach of my youth for though for the present a man may be sencelesse of his grossest sins yet God will waken his Conscience at last and make the very thought of his iniquities as bitter as ever the practice of them was pleasant the thought of them will fill him with trouble of Conscience and bring him not onely to doubt of his effectuall calling to Grace but almost to a despaire of his salvation And if he would be fenced against all these afterclaps the time is now wherein he may prevent such afflictions by bearing Gods yoke in his youth Now is the time wherein he should take notice of that great bundle of folly which is naturally bound up in his heart But alas No age so much stops its eares as this age of youth charme the charmer never so wisely For whereas young men should live as Nazarites consecrated to the Lord they rather live like men that have vowed and dedicated themselves to the service of Sathan loathing or seorning to become Schollars in the Schoole of Christ which indeed is most effectuall to cure the disordered affections of youth But those that would be Trees of Righteousnesse and known to be of the Lords own Planting laden especially in their age with the fruits of the Spirit must in their youth timely bud timely blossome and timely beare that so their whole lives may be a fruitfull course whereby God may be glorified others edified and themselves receive in the end a more full consolation Secondly as young men so old as well as young must be Schollars in the Schoole of Christ for though its true that the age of youth of all ages is most subject to the dangerous diseases of inordinate lusts yet there is no age without its blemishes not the hoary haire without its errors David so often as he considered his wayes found alwayes something that needed redresse and there is none so well renewed in this life but they may find somthing in themselves that needs further reformation Who can say
how could we goe unto him by the Foot of Prayer if we did not beleeve in him Rom. 10. â—â— For how shall they call on him in whom they have not belceved The second Foot is Prayer which is so swift a Foot as that it dispatcheth in an instant all the way betwixt Heaven and Earth and as a fiery Chariot mounts into the presence of the Almighty to implore his assistance and though we live here in this vale of misery so farre off from our Fathers House yet being furnished with these two spirituall Feet we may in a moment ascend up thither and there recreate our wearied spirits though we live in this world as in a wast desart if we be in want of any thing with these spirituall Fees we may runne to our Fathers House and there provide our selves If the Lord hath east us down upon our bed of sicknesse that we cannot use the Feet of our bodies yet he hath given us those other Feet of Faith and Prayer to use in flead of them Hezekiah being sick of the Plague 1 Kings 20.2 could not use the Feet of his Body but with the Feet of the Spirit he went unto this place Ionah was lockt up in Prison in the belly of the Whale yet by the vertue of these Feet out of the depth he ascended to the holy Temple of Iehovah But notwithstanding all this though we know we have a House to goe unto and no hinderance in the way nor difficulty in the passage nor want a guide to direct us and have good right to the place and friends and acquaintance to entertaine us and robes to adorne us and feet to carry us thither yet if we know not how to behave our selves when we come there though we come as suiters we shall be but bad speeders And therefore the next shall be to teach you how to demeanc your selves in this House of the Lord your God And for this purpose I shall for your sakes endeavour my selfe to binde you all to such good behaviour in Gods House as becomes the glory of his publick service and presence for the godly Christian ought with all care to lay before him the rules that tye him to a comely composure and carryage in the House of God and to strive to fashion his nature and practice so as may become the Majesty of his Publick Worship for there be divers things which in a speciall manner must be lookt unto in performing these publick duties And to this end I shall give you some few Rules which if you please to observe you shall not onely be good Suiters but good Speeders also First All of all sorts must come and appear publikely before the Lord to doe him homage and service Viâ— unita fortior the more the better not onely the Elders but all the Iuhabitants of the Land This you may see in Deutoronomy 31.11.12.13 where you shall find That all Israel were to come to appeare before the Lord their God in the place which he should chuse men women and children and the stranger within their gates that they might heare and learne and feare the Lord their God and keep and observe the words of his Law none exempted all must come Secondly We must come with all possible reverence and look to our feet when we enter into the House of God and strive to shew before all men our most carefull respect to God his holy Ordinances for God will be sanctified by them that come neer him and he looks for it at our hands by our reverent behaviour to be glorified before all the people See it your selves in the tenth of Leviticus and the third And Ecclesiastes the fifth and first and be perswaded to shew a most holy and reverent feare of Gods name and presence So that Princely Prophet I will come into thine House in the multitude of thy mercies and in thy feare will I worship towards thy holy temple Psal 5.7 Thirdly We must come with a great deale of Zeale In all publick duties that of David should be true of us The Zeale of Gods House should eat us up Psal 69.9 And this singular Zeale we should shew these six wayes 1. By loving Gods House above all other places in the world our heart should be fired in us in that respect that we may truely say with the Psalmist Psal 26.8 O how I love thy house I have loved the habitation of thine house and the place where thine honour-dwelleth 2. By resolutely purposing to resort to Gods House with joy and gladnesse notwithstanding the scornes and oppositions of worldly men O that we were of Davids mind glad when men say Come let us goe into the House of the Lord Psal 122.1 3. By stirring up others with all importunity to goe with us to worship God in Sion The mountaine of the House of the Lord shall be prepared in the top of the mountaines and shall be exalted above the hils and all Nations shall flow unto it the word flow declaring the zeale of the Children of God when they are called And many people shall goe and say Come let us goe up to the mountaine of the Lord to the House of the God of Jacob and he will teach us his wayes and we will walke in his paths for the Law shall goe forth of Zion and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem Isay 2.2.3 4. By making hast to Gods worship going to the House of the Lord with the first and with willing hearts with an holy thirst after the means flocking and flying thither as the Cloudes or as so many Doves to their Windows Up let us goe and pray before the Lord and seek the Lord of Hosts Zachar. 8.21 And the Psalmist Thy people shall come willingly at the time of assembling thine army in holy beauty from the wombe of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth Psal 110.3 5. By forwardnesse and cheerefulnesse in contributing towards the maintenance of Gods House and service in the means thereof 6. By grieving heartily because other men neglect and contemne the House of God The Zeale of Gods Children ought to be such when they see his Word sleighted as that they should be like David whose Eyes gusht out with Rivers of Water because men keep not thy Law Psal 119.136 Fourthly We should in all publick Duties serve God with one consent and one heart There should appeare in Gods servants a wonderfull desire of unanimity and concord that when they speake to God it may be as the voyce of one man when the Lord speaks to them they should heare with one Eare It is a marvellous glory in Religion when people can come to this to serve the Lord with one shoulder Let us all call upon the name of the Lord Zeph. 3.9 and serve him with one consent or as it were with one shoulder Fiftly and lastly look upon the fifty second Psalme eighth and ninth verses and from thence we