Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A84588
|
A guide to salvation, bequeathed to a person of honour, by his dying-friend the R.F. Br. Laurence Eason, Ord. S. Franc. S. Th. L.
|
Eason, Laurence.
|
1673
(1673)
|
Wing E99aA; ESTC R230984
|
39,971
|
127
|
A GUIDE TO SALVATION Bequeathed to a Person of HONOUR By his Dying-Friend The R. F. Br. Laurence Eason Ord. S. Franc. S. Th. L. Seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and all other things else shall be added unto you Mat. 6. ver 33. BRVGES By Luke Kerchove 1673. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY Earl of Norwich and Earl Marshal of England Baron HOWARD of Castlerising c. My Lord I purpose not in this my Preliminary Epistle to publish unto the World the large Catalogue of your Charitable Works and your other Christian Virtues Et laudent eam in porta opera ejus These without Flattery commend better than I am able My design is to express here some small Testimony of my many great Obligations for those large favours I have and still do receive from your Bountiful and Generous Heart This I presume I can no way better perform than by endeavouring to promote the eternal Well-fare of your Soul that grand Duty you ought most to mind in this World as being the only end of your Beeing therein For I am not of Cicero's opininion That we are born partly for our Country partly for our Parents partly for our Friends but rather That we are All born for our selves not but that we have many high Obligations besides which in Conscience we are to discharge but that the End of all is The good of our own Souls in order to eternal Salvation which I conceive to be the meaning of that of the Apostle Whither you Eat or Drink or whatsoever else ye do let All be done to the Glory of God Wherefore if you desire Riches what greater can you have than the Treasures of Heaven of which none can deprive you without your own consent If you Aspire to Honours what higher can there be than to be a Servant a Friend a Child of a most Glorious God Nimis honorati sunt amicitui Deus And if you affect Pleasures there are none so True so Permanent so Satisfying as the joys of an upright Conscience to drink of the indeficient Torrents of Pleasure and to be inebriated with the fulness of Gods House The greatest Plenty this World can afford to and earthly Heart is extream Poverty according to St. Augustine if it be without God and what-ever Pleasures or Honours may be enjoyed in this Life will still end in Misery and Confusion if they advance not the good of the Soul in order to its endless blessed Life with God in Heaven Vbi salutis damnum ibi luerum nulium saith Eucherius there is no gain to be valued if therewith our Salvation be endammaged for if this miscarries all is lost for an Eternity My Lord Heavens Providence hath placed you in a very eminent Condition amongst Men as well by your Noble Extraction as by the propitious influences of a Gracious Princes Favours That your High Rank of Nobility should powerfully bend your vast Soul to the performance of such Heroick Actions of Virtue as may befit a person of your Illâ—strous Rise and Endowmenâ— God hath â—â—â—ed you by his grace to be a â—â—mber of the Holy Catholick Church this eminent Prerogative amongst True Believers should oblidge you to glorifie God in that saving Profession that as our Blessed Saviour adviseth your Light may so shine before Men that they seeing your good Works may be moved thereby to give glory to your Heavenly Father in the same Profession with you God hath moreover blessed you with a hopeful Issue advance them by a Vertuous Education and your own fore-running good Examples for the holy lives of Christian Parents are over the most powerful Attractives whereby Children are induced to compose theirs to the Love of God and the Rules of Morality Thus doing you will purchase to your self and Posterity the blessings of this Liâ—◠〈◊〉 the next that which is aymed a◠〈◊〉 small Treatise and shall ever be thâ—â—â—rnest Petition of your dying Friend 〈…〉 Right Honorable Your Honours most devoted Servant Laurence Eason A GUIDE TO SALVATION FIRST PART The Importance of Mans Salvation manifested by divers Motives and Considerations IT is an observation of St. Bonaventure that there are two things which God doth allow which are the Creation and Conservation of the world there is one which is the work of Man alone and that is Sin to the production of which God doth not formally concur as the Psalmist affirms of him Psal 44 in these words He loves Justice and detesteth Iniquity and therefore is far from being the Author and cause of it There is yet a third thing which God and Man work together which is our Salvation for the obtaining of which to his Grace we must joyn our endeavour according to that common saying of St. Augustine Qui fecit te sine te non salvabit te sine te He who made thee without thee will not save thee without thee this is the work of Grace and our Will together as the Apostle affirms of himself Non ego sed gratia Deimecum not I alone but the grace of God with me and therefore we are stiled by him Coadjutors and fellow-Labourers with God in this work Hence is that of St. Augustine St. Aug. lib. Hypog c. 3. Nec gratia sine libero arbitrio facit hominem habere vitam beatam nec liberum arbitrium sine gratia Grace without our free will cannot make us blessed nor our free will without grace though it be true what the Prophet said of the Son of God operatus est salutem in medio terrae he wrought Salvation in the mid'st of the Earth Yet it is as true that he requires that we should deny our selves and assist him in carrying his Cross the instrument of our Redemption and so fulfil as the Apostle speaks of himself In our flesh those things which are wanting of the Passion of Christ that is we should apply his merits and benefit of his Passion and render them efficatious to us by our cooperation Wherefore it highly concerns us seriously to consider this grand affair of our Salvation that we become not deficient in our endeavours concerning it CHAP. I. Containing divers Considerations and Motives concerning the Importance of this Affair The first Consideration and Motive THe important Consequence of this first appears in that it seems to be the greatest of Gods works and the end of all the rest This our blessed Saviour insinuated in his Answer to the people when they thus demanded of him in St. John John 8. 9. what shall we do ut operemur opera Dei to perform the works of God he replyes Hoc est opus Dei this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he sent As if he should have said unto them you demand what are the works of God in the Plural number I answer you in the Singular number that there is but One for which he doth all the rest and that is the Salvation of man Hence Tertullian