Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	work_n	work_v	write_v	440	3	5.2807	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92851	Elisha his lamentation, upon the suddain translation of Elijah. Opened in a sermon at the funeral of Mr. VVilliam Strong, that eminently faithful servant and minister of Christ. By Obadiah Sedgwick, B.D. and preacher of the Gospel in Covent Garden.	Sedgwick, Obadiah, 1600?-1658.	1654 (1654)	Wing S2371; Thomason E745_14; ESTC R203519	19,678	40

dye they must away else they cannot take possession of the inheritance reserved for them nor of the Crown laid up for them indeed in this life they have the assured hopes of eternal blessedness and the first fruits and some Tasts but the full and perfect possession and fruition comes not to them nor to any in this life that comes onely after death and therefore Paul desires to be dissolved and so to be with Christ 3. The Lord doth this to punish the ingratitude of people who do despise and disgrace and despightfully use his servants the Prophets and injuriously handle them and there is no man that will plead for them and right them Of all the men in the world the faithful Prophets of God do the most good to others and find the worst reception from them Jesus Christ chargeth this unworthy dealing upon Jerusalem Mat. 23. 37. O Ierusalem Ierusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee And Stephen chargeth it upon them Act. 7. 52. Which of the Prophets have not your Fathers persecuted And Paul complains in 1 Cor. 4. 13. We are made as the filth of the world and are the off-scouring of all things to this very day Men do affront and contemn they do revile and reproach they do oppose and contradict they do threaten and persecute the faithful Prophets of God and those of them who are most faithful and most zealous are most hated and most persecuted Now the Lord will not bear with this odious ingratitude and with this barbarous injuriousness done unto his faithful servants he is extreamly sensible of all the evil done unto them of all the evil words spoken against them and of all the evill counsel and devices taken against them and of all the evil works done against them Touch not mine Anointed and do my Prophets Psa 105. 15. Act. 9. 4. no harm saith God Saul Saul why persecutest thou me saith Christ And therefore he takes away his choice Prophets and Servants in Judgement from such an ungracious and ungrateful people in effect saying unto them thus much Ye will not be taught and you shall not be taught any more and you will not hearken unto my messengers but mock and despise them therefore they shall speak no more unto you in my name your house shall be left unto you desolate Ye shall not see me henceforth said Christ till ye shall say blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Mat. 23. 39. 4. The fourth and last reason why the Lord takes away his most eminently faithfull and zealous Prophets from a people is this To shew unto a people the uncertainty and instability even of spiritual opportunities that they are but a season which is pretious but unsure that they are a short day and a Sun that may set a noon day There are four things which do admit of much uncertainty 1. One is all our earthly possessions and comforts wilt thou set thine eyes on that which is not saith Solomon Prov. 23. 5. There is no earthly comfort whatsoever which is not altogether uncertain nay altogether uncertainty it is but as the shade on the dyall on which you look and may be gone before you turn back to look on it again 2. The second is The gratious motions of the Spirit of God working upon our spirits My spirit shall not always strive with man Gen. 6. 3. Rara Hora Brevis mora saith Bernard The dealings of Gods Spirit with us are many times like Peters vision of the sheet which was let down but quickly drawn up to heaven again and indeed there is no man who resists or neglects any one motion of Gods Spirit but he puts it upon an uncertainty whether he shall meet with any other motion more 3. The third is the day of Grace our Gospel-day wherein Christ reveals himself and offers himself and mercy and peace and salvation this is a day for eternity but it is not an eternal day It may quickly be lost and for ever lost O if thou hadst known said Christ to Jerusalem even Thou at the least in this thy day the things which concern thy peace But now they are hid from Luk. 19. 42. thine eyes q. d. Thou hadst thy day Thou didst not make use of thy day and now thou hast lost thy day 4. The fourth is all the lifes and pains and labours of the Prophets and Ministers of God they are all fluent and uncertain This day the Minister lives and preaches the next day he is sick and dyes you cannot say of the best Minister on earth he shall be ours for ever or long or a week or a day such an instability is there not onely in the best of our outward comforts but also in the best of our spiritual helps And there is much of the wisdom of God in this very particular contingency he hath his good ends in it to awaken the hearts of people from carnal security and presumption from all carelesness and neglects and to stir and quicken them to all heavenly seriousness and wise carefulness both to know the day of their visitation and likewise to improve the light whiles they enjoy the light There are two works upon which all spiritual uncertainties in Friends or Ministers should put us 1. One is therefore to prize what is present there is no certainty but in that which is present that is ours and nothing but that is ours The present Sermon that is ours and the present offer of Christ prize what is present for the future is uncertain 2. Another is therefore to act with all our power to do as much in a little time as others are doing in a long time Nay to be striving and treasuring up in a little time so fervently and so diligently as if we had no more time There is an uncertainty in the lives of Gods Prophets therefore people should ply their doctrine and their help with all theirs strength hear them as if they should never hear them more and confer and draw from them as if they should never speak with them any more but more of this in the uses now following May and doth God translate even an Elijah doth he take away the most eminently faithful and zealous Vse 1. A double Advertisement Prophets Hence a double advertisement 1. One to Ministers 2. The other to People First to Ministers loyter not loose no time stand not idle at all up and be doing your Masters work do not talk of this pain and of that ach nor of this weakness nor of that indisposition but spend and be spent be instant in season and out of season watch and labour pray and instruct reprove and comfort pull down and build up always abounding in the work of the Lord O said that eminently religious and judicious Calvin who had worn himself to the very bone with often praying and studying and preaching and writing and therefore being

entreated by his friends a little to spare himself no saith he but I desire that when my Master comes he should find me working And so that pretious Jewel his desire was that he Nec propter vitam vivendi perdere finem might dye preaching And learned and pious Reynolds he would not lose time he lookt at the end of life more then at life it self O Brethren Ye also have but your day ye have but your day to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and ye have but your day to save you own souls and ye have but your day to save the souls of them that hear you And your day of working seems to be more variable and contingent then the day of other men for if ye be impartially faithful and zealous ye shall be sure to meet with all discouragements and oppositions from all sorts of ungodly men who if they cannot stop your mouths will yet do all they can to break your hearts And besides that your constant studies and diligent labours and publike preachings and private conferences and several other imployments will weaken your spirits spend your lungs consume your strength and hasten your death However the Lord will take you away and perhaps he will come and take you away suddenly therefore be diligent still and laborious still and faithful still and zealous still and wise still in giving unto every servant his proper portion Blessed is that servant whom when his Master comes he shall find so doing this is he who shall meet with that welcome well done good and faithful servant enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. 2. Secondly to the People Seeing that their faithful Prophets and Ministers shall be taken away from them let them remember two things for their parts 1. Let them encourage faithful and zealous Prophets who do enjoy them O do not kill them and break their hearts and thrust them into their graves by slightings by revilings by quarrellings by troublings by remaining still ignorant and unprofitable and barren nor by continuing obstinate disobedient hardned and unbelieving No by no means but honour them and love them and deal kindly with them and pray for them and encourage them all you can Why Sirs They do pitty your souls and they do watch for your souls and they do pray for your souls and they do study and weep and preach to save your souls And therefore let them have love for love care for care and respect for respect they give you bread do not give them stones they bring mercies to you do not you cast your curses upon them they attend to your salvation and peace and comfort do not requite them evil for good but let them have good for good c. 2. Improve their present survivance and your own They are given to you and for you they are your servants present freedom O it is a naughty frame of spirit to praise the dead but not to prize the living To set out with a large commendation the manifold vertues and sayings of Ministers that are dead yet not to regard nor make use of the parts and pains of those that are living and Preaching unto us But let us be more wise Elisha here is found travelling and conferring with Elijah before he is taken away Now you may hear your Ministers instructing and perswading you but within a short time you shall never see nor hear them more Now you may go unto them and open your doubts and discover your souls wants and diseases and crave their Counsel and take their Directions and partake of their Instructions and receive comforts by them But within a short time they are changing and fainting and dying and giving up the Ghost and can never be Instrumental to your souls any more O loose not your tide and loose not your Spiritual Opportunity Every faithful and Godly Minister is Simile like a Garden in the Spring-time and the people should be like so many Bees flying every day unto the Flowers in that Garden to suck out the Honey and carry it home to the Hive You may now get that Counsel that Direction that Satisfaction about the condition of your souls which may stick by you all the days of your life Remember Sirs As it will be an heavy Judgement if you make no use of your Faithful Ministers so it will cut you to the very heart when your Ministers are dead and then can be of no more use unto you that you made so little use of them living that you Traded so slightly that you have been such strangers to them that you did not enrich your souls by them O that people who do enjoy able faithful Ministers were then possessed of two Graces one is of humility to see their own wants the other is of wisdom to see their season for the supply of them Wherefore is there a price put into the hand of a fool seeing he hath no heart to make use of it Thus have I finished the first Proposition Namely That even the most eminently faithful and zealous Prophets of God may be and shal be taken away from a people I now proceed to the second Proposition which is this That the loss of any one eminently Faithful and Zealous 2. Proposition Prophet of God should affect the hearts of the people of God with much Grief and Lamentation my Father my Father The Charet of Israel and the Horsemen thereof When Moses that eminent Prophet died There arose not a Prophet since in Israel like unto Moses The children of Israel wept for him in the plains of Moab thirty days Deut. 34. 8. So the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended When Samuel that faithful and eminent Prophet died what a Mourning and Lamentation was made for him Samuel died and all the Israelites were gathered together 1 Sam. 25. 1. and lamented him The like you Read of Steven Devout men carried Acts 8. 2. Steven to his burial and made great Lamentations over him There are three things which do concern us when God takes away any faithful servants of his 1. One is a serious consideration of the hand of God in this For though their death be a mercy unto them Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord And precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints yet Rev. 14 13. Psal 116. 15. their death may be a Judgement to us As a Godly Ministers Life and Doctrine is either in Remedium or in Judieium either they are the Savour of life unto life or they are the Savour of death unto death So the loss of them is certainly an advantage to themselves and ordinarily it is a Judgement and punishment unto a people And therefore we should not slightly pass over their death but consider and lay such strokes of God to our hearts The living will lay it to his heart Surely he should surely he will Eccles 7. 2. 2.