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 |
|
A64228
|
A funeral sermon occasioned by the sudden death of the Reverend Mr. Nathanael Vincent, late minister of the gospel in Southwark by Nathanael Taylor.
|
Taylor, Nathanael, d. 1702.
|
1697
(1697)
|
Wing T542; ESTC R23457
|
25,051
|
32
|
to take up Moses's Complaint That the Lord hath not given them a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear unto this day which is a plain argument that he hath not been seriously applied unto nor his Instructions obediently complied withal Our Saviour indeed in his Parable supposes the number of the Wise and Prepared the Foolish and Unready Virgins to be equal five of the one and five of the other But surely in our days there is a vast disproportion between these two sorts of persons 3. Are you ready for Death and Judgment yea or no Would not an immediate Summons to appear before the Bar of Christ put you into as much Disorder and Confusion as a sleepy and careless Army by the sound of their Enemies warlike Instruments in the dead of the Night 4. Will you make it the great business of your Lives from this time forword to prepare for this day that you may not be surprized by it To do this is the Wisdom of all But it would be a most unaccountable Folly in some men if it should be neglected by them Ex. Gr. Those who have weak and crazy Bodies and are frequently alarm'd by Sickness If the Roof of the House be fallen and the Floor be rotten and several pieces of the Wall broken down and the ragged Remains are visibly bowing and tottering every day 't is evident to our very Senses it cannot stand long Those who are old whose grey Hairs make 'em look like Ears of Corn which are white and ripe for the Harvest Those who are the Watchmen of Israel and whose business it is to awaken others how inexcusable would they be if they fall asleep themselves Mr. Kentish both the Brothers Mr. Okes Mr. Shewen of Coventry Mr. R. Mayo Several of our Orde of late have been struck in the Pulpit and tho' they have languisht some days never recovered the fatal Blow they there received They have been like a Taper which while 't is burning and shining in the Candlestick on a sudden drops down into the Socket where it lies for a little time shooting up its wavering and trembling Light which is immediately suckt back again and extinguisht in a few moments That you may not be surprized by this last Enemy 1. Strengthen your Faith about the coming of Christ and be much in consideration of it and the suddenness of it too 2. Be often putting Questions to your selves in a very serious anner Am I ready indeed What if I should dye before to morrow comes O my Soul art thou in such a Posture as thou art willing to be found in when Christ shall appear 3. Shame your selves by considering what care you use to be ready and prevent a Surprize in matters of a lower nature 4. Reflect upon your selves What Thoughts you had the last time you were Sick and knew that you were unready and were inwardly tormented in your minds at the Thoughts thereof Lastly Improve the sudden Death of others to this end This is the Voice of that Providence that so hastily removed your late excellent Pastor Mr. Nathanael Vincent I need not to tell you June 22. How on Tuesday was sevennight he was suddenly taken ill in the Morning and had leisure only to say I find I am a dying Lord Lord Lord have mercy on my Family and Congregation So near did you his People lye to his Heart even in his last Moments Herein he resembled his and our common Lord who having loved his own loved them even to the end He was the Son of a Godly Minister Mr. John Vincent and a living Confutation of that Scandal that the Children of the Prophets do more commonly than others prove Sons of Belial As also was his late Brother Mr. Thomas Vincent a Minister of eminent Usefulness in London while he lived especially in the time of the dreadful Plague and whose Memory is still deservedly very dear and precious to those that knew him like a Rose which adorns the Garden and perfumes the Air while 't is growing on the Tree Mr. Baxter's Life Part 3d. p. 95. and hath a fragrant smell too a long time after it is gathered and dead For he was a serious humble godly man of sober Principles and great Zeal and Diligence as the Incomparable Mr. Baxter doth truly describe him He was of such pregnant Parts and so strong a Memory that by the help of that when he was but Seven years Old he was wont for the ease of his tired Father to repeat his Sermons in the Family in the Evenings of the Lord's Day He was admitted as a Member of the Famous University of Oxford about the Eleventh Year of his Age and went out Master of Arts about Eighteen Preached publickly as a Lecturer at Pulborow in Sussex before Twenty and at the Age of One and Twenty was Ordained and fixed as Rector of Langly-Marsh in Bucking-hamshire After his Ejectment and a few years spent in a private Family he came to this City the year after the Fire and quickly settled among you in this Place And this being the most publick Sphere wherein he moved let us briefly consider him as a Minister and as a Christian for I shall not draw him at his full length 1. As a Minister He had a good share of Learning and other Ministerial Abilities which he was daily improving by great diligence in his Study as wisely considering he that spends on the main stock how large soever that may be and does not endeavour to lay more in will quickly come to Poverty He had a great Zeal against bold Intruders into the Work of the Ministry And I hope you that are his People will herein resemble him turn away from those Men and do not so much as vouchsafe them the Hearing These Vermin begin to swarm among us and disturb us by their hideous Noise not in Corners or Chambers but in our very Pulpits and are like to prove an Egyptian Plague to us If these Illiterate Antinomian Usurpers are not speedily and effectually discountenanced by Ministers and People too they who are already the Blemish of Nonconformity will quickly prove the total Ruin of it He had Luther's Three Qualifications to make a Man a Gospel-Minister he gave himself much to Meditation and Prayer to his last that he might work things upon his own Soul and thence more effectually convey them to yours If Divine Truths are first Engraven on our Hearts then are we most likely to Print them on those of our Hearers And as for Temptation he had been sorely exercised and distressed by it in his Younger days though from that time Satan left him and molested him no more in that manner He had a natural Fervency of spirit which made him somewhat vehement in every thing that he espoused which Time and Experience did correct in some matters making him more Calm and Moderate towards our Brethren who differ from us in things that lie remote
A Funeral Sermon Occasioned by the Sudden Death Of the Reverend Mr. Nathanael Vincent LATE Minister of the Gospel in Southwark By NATHANAEL TAYLOR LONDON Printed for John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultrey and Thomas Cockeril at the Corner of Warwick-lane in Pater-Noster Row 1697. To that part of the Church of Christ in Southwark of which the Reverend Mr. NATHANAEL VINCENT was Pastor Beloved in our Lord 'T Is commonly and justly esteemed an Instance of the Wisdom and Goodness of God that the Dispensation of the Gospel is committed to those who are of the same Make and Frame with the People to whom they Preach But that which is a Happiness in one respect is a disadvantage in another viz. That tho' they are never so Eminent and Vseful they must Dye as well as their Hearers As it was in the Mount of old tho' Christ himself remain with his Disciples and will do so even to the end of the World yet Moses and Elias tho' Excellent Prophets and glorious Creatures must withdraw and sometimes vanish in a Moment Of this you have a sad instance in the surprizing Death of your beloved Pastor which was the Occasion of the following Sermon the Design whereof is to quiet your Minds under and quicken you to improve so awakening a Providence by a diligent Preparation for your own Decease I am the rather encouraged to expect that this which is the main Scope of it will be complyed withall because many of you did immediately and readily in several Instances follow the advice which I gave you and which you may here find in the Close thereof Your so doing gives me great hopes that you will demean your selves as you ought towards a Successor when he shall he settled among you as you have done towards him who is removed from you I have often heard him speak with great pleasure of the many Testimonies you have given of a more than ordinary affection to him Indeed it would have been strange if it had been otherwise because he could use the Apostle's endearing Argument with a great many of you 1 Cor. 4.15 Though you have ten thousand Instructors in Christ yet you have not many Fathers for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel But the great Proof and Tryal of you will be when another who hath not that additional Advantage shall enter into his Labours and build upon that Foundation which this Wise Master-Builder hath laid and so successfully carried on among you Give me leave to put you in remembrance tho' you cannot but know it already Heb. 13.7 13. that you are not to govern but to be Ruled as well as Taught by him not to Trample on him but to Submit your selves to him not lightly to esteem him but shew him double Honour in Love for his Works sake and out of respect to him whom he shall Represent For a Faithful Ordained Minister is not the People's Creature 2 Cor. 5.20 Eph. 4.11 but an Embassadour of Christ his Gift from Heaven to the Church and a Great Blessing to those over whom he doth Preside That the God of Wisdom and Order would direct you to pitch upon such a One and Treat him as such with one Common Consent and by prospering his Labours among you build you up in Faith Holiness and Comfort to Eternal Life is and shall be the Earnest Prayer of Your Servant for Jesus sake Nathanael Taylor A Funeral Sermon c. LUKE XII 40. Be ye therefore ready also For the Son of Man cometh at an Hour when ye think not OUr Blessed Saviour having Preached an Excellent Sermon full of very Serious Advice in many Particulars of which you have an Account in the Foregoing Verses of this Chapter for the better Fastening of the whole upon his Hearers he falls in the Close of it upon a Subject of a very Affecting and Moving Nature namely the approaching Day of Judgment and the Necessity of living in the Continual Expectation of and making daily Provision for it This he enters upon in the 35th Verse of the Chapter and prosecutes to this 40th Verse which I have now read unto you wherein you have these four Things observable 1. The Duty that he presses upon his Hearers Be ye ready 2. A Strong Motive to back and enforce it For the Son of Man cometh at an Hour when ye think not The Son of Man cometh 'T is that more Eminent and Famous Coming of Christ to judge the World at the last Day which is here plainly meant But under this is comprehended also the Day of a Man's Death For so you shall sine the Scripture uses this Expression Philip. 1.10 That you may be sincere and without Offence till the Day of Christ 1 Tim. 6.14 Keep this Commandment till the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ These Phillipans and Timothy have been dead many Ages since and yet the Day of Christ is not come he hath not yet appeared How therefore is this to be understood 'T is meant of the Day of their Death and so the Scripture words it because the Day of every particular Man's Death and the Day of the Universal Judgment is to him in Effect one and the same his State is as truly and as fully determined thereupon as it will be when Christ shall come to judge the World no Alteration can possibly be made in it after we are once dead As to that such as we are when we leave this World such shall we be when we come to stand before the Bar of Christ at the last Day to receive our Unchangeable Sentence And as this Coming of Christ is Certain so many times 't is a very sudden thing too The Son of Man cometh that is Death and Judgment come in an hour when you think not 3. The Persons here spoken to Who they are you may learn from Peter's Question in the Verse immediately following my Text v. 41. wherein says he Lord speakest thou this Parable to us v. 42. c. or even to all And from our Lord's Answer wherein he continues this Discourse of his and particularly applies it to the Wise and Faithful Rulers and Stewards in his House So that the best of his Ministers are as much concerned in it as any of the Family they are as liable to a Sudden Summons by Death and Judgment as any of their Hearers and 't is as much their Interest yea more because of the heavier Account they have to make to be Always ready for it 4. The Connexion of these Words with the Fore-going Verse Be ye therefore ready also Which suggests another Motive to our Thoughts In the preceding Verse our Saviour had represented the Suddenness of his coming by the similitude of a Thief who sets upon a House unexpectedly in the Night which if the Owner thereof had known of he would certainly have watched and not have suffered it to have been broken open And then comes in