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love_n affection_n heart_n know_v 3,560 5 3.6423 3 false
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A66358 A sermon preach'd before the King and Queen at White-Hall, May the 4th. M.DC.XC. by William Wake ... Wake, William, 1657-1737. 1690 (1690) Wing W266; ESTC R4855 16,394 40

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necessary affairs of their Lives permit them to have so distinct and thorough a knowledge of the Mysteries of the Gospel Of the Love of God and the Merits and Satisfaction of our Redeemer Of the Terrors of the final judgment And what the glories or miseries of another World import And what mighty obligations all these things lay upon us to live well and to depart from all iniquity And yet even among these we may find many who are zealous for God's service beyond what one could almost have expected from them That improve every Opportunity suffer no Occasion to slip them that they can possibly steal from their present employments to encrease their knowledge and to exercise their piety How much more ought those to whom God has given so many more and better opportunities to do this Whose Souls are more raised Whose Understandings more enlarged Who know the Mysteries of Christ's Kingdom What promises God has made to assist our piety and What blessings he has prepared for ever to reward it to be in an extraordinary manner careful of themselves And not suffer these poor Souls to rise up in the judgment against them and condemn them for that being so much better fitted to discharge their duty and having so much more liberty to do it than they they have nevertheless so grosly neglected their Souls and taken no care to exceed or it may be even to equal them in well-doing But 3dly Such persons as these have not only more Time and a better capacity than those of a lower degree but what is yet more they have in many respects a greater Ability too of Doing Good and of promoting the Interests of Piety and Religion And that especially upon these Three Accounts 1st Of their Riches 2dly Of Their Authority And in the consequence of both these 3dly Of their very Example 1st If we consider them as Persons of larger Fortunes and more plentiful Estates than other Men How many Advantages will this one thing minister unto them for the better advancing the Service of God and the Interests of Christianity What influence will this give them not only over their own Houses but over multitudes abroad who some way or other depend upon them and need only their encouragement to become religious To pass by all other Benefits and offer but one Instance instead of many It cannot be doubted but that the more it has pleased God to dispense to any one of these things the more he not only is able but ought in duty to lay out in the Exercise of that most excellent Vertue of Charity and Beneficence and than which I know not whether there be any more acceptable to God or more advantageous to our Eternal Salvation And though there is scarce any state so mean as to be utterly exempt from all discharge of it yet they are the Rich and Wealthy Those to whom Providence has been free and liberal no less to set them an Example what they ought to do to others than to enable them to Do it whom we are to look upon as the chief Stewards of Heaven and dispensers of its blessings to the poor and needy And therefore S. Paul though he recommends a Christian Charity to all and passes by none in his Exhortations to it yet we may observe that they are such as these whom he bids Timothy in a particular manner call upon not to be wanting in it Charge them that are rich in this world that they be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life For the next instance 2dly that of Power and Authority I shall not need to say what a mighty Advantage this also gives to such persons of doing more than ordinary Good by obliging Others to become so And indeed I cannot tell whether there be any more truly beneficial but sure I am a more noble and worthy Use there cannot be made of any Power or Authority we may have committed to us than for the promoting the Glory of God the Salvation of Mens Souls and a publick sense of Piety and Religion in the World And how those to whom God has given so glorious an Advantage as this of serving him in a more than Ordinary manner will be able to excuse themselves at the last day if they do not especially employ it to this best of Ends I must confess I do not see Nor can I perswade my self that a private Piety is all God will exact of such persons in whose power it was in some measure to have reformed the Age and if not to have made it Good yet at least to have kept it from being openly and scandalously wicked Nay but 3dly And to close this Point Should those whom we are now speaking of have no such Advantages as these in point either of Riches or Authority which nevertheless I believe but few of them want yet still the very influence of a Great Mans Example is beneficial It not only strikes mens Eyes but for the most part I know not how charms their very Hearts and Affections into a Love first and then into an Imitation of it There is nothing more ordinary in the common practise of the World than for those of an Inferiour Rank to take their measures from such as are above Them 'T is this makes Sin its self become reputable when countenanced by the Examples of the Great and Honourable And the Commands of God and all the Terrors of Eternity are too weak to prevail against the Power of Vice when got into Credit and Custome among such persons How much more might we hope to see Piety and Religion revive among us would the Princes and Nobles of our Israel seriously resolve to set the Example And make Vertue as necessary to a good Esteem and Interest and Reputation with Men as it is to gain the Love of God and the Blessings and Glories of Eternity And thus have I consider'd very briefly a few of those Advantages which oblige Persons of Great Authority and Fortune and Quality in the World to a more strict and careful discharge of their Duty than other men Let us see 2dly What the Effect of all this generally is And whether these very things at the same time that they thus lay a greater Obligation upon such Persons are not apt considering the evil Inclinations of corrupt Nature to be perverted to a quite contrary purpose both to tempt them first and then to enable them to be more highly Criminal than other men In speaking to which Point I presume no One will so far misunderstand me as to think I have any design to make an Apology for the Sins of Great Men by shewing what extraordinary Dangers and Temptations their very condition often times exposes them to For though where there is a sincere desire and an hearty Endeavour to live Well