Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A30732
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A sermon preached before the right honourable the lord mayor and aldermen and citizens of London at St. Lawrence Jewry on the Feast of St. Michael, 1696 : at the election of the lord mayor for the year ensuing / by Lilly Butler.
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Butler, Lilly.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing B6281; ESTC R24759
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12,031
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29
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discharge of your high and honourable Callings The testimony of your Conscience that you have done your Duty especially in so difficult and useful a Station will be a continual Feast a Pleasure which no sensual Delights can equal no Adversity extinguish no outward Violence no Changes or Revolutions can rob you of What a noble Satisfaction will it be to reflect upon all the happy fruits of your Industry the Glory you have brought to God and the Good you have done to Men how highly instrumental you have been to the Peace and Safety the Prosperity and Reformation of that People committed to your Care and Government This will give you of the Joy of Angels those heavenly Ministers of God for our good yea of the greatest pleasure of God himself who chiefly delighteth in exercising loving-kindness upon Earth and doing good to Men. What an assured Hope what a delightful Prospect will it give you of the Glory and Happiness reserved in Heaven for you What an unspeakable Comfort and Refreshment will it be in the hour of Death when you must part with all your Wealth be devested of all your Pomp resign all your Preferments and yield up your Bodies to Dust and Worms then to be able to say with St. Paul that you have fought the good fight and finished your Course and faithfully served God and your Generation With what Confidence then may you look up to God with what Peace and Pleasure may you give up your Souls to him in hope of Eternal Life which God that cannot Lye hath promised to all his good and faithful Servants Mark the perfect Man and behold the Vpright for the End of that Man is Peace Psal xxxvii 37. Thirdly Consider How much the faithful and zealous discharge of the Magistrate's Office will advance your Honour and Reputation It is not Mens great Offices but the faithful exercise of them that maketh them truly Honourable To have great Opportunities and great Obligations to do publick Good as Men in Authority have and through sloath or meanness of Spirit through Fear or any selfish regards to neglect them must needs expose them to the Scorn and Indignation of the People Every one will grudge to see such a price in the hand of those that have not a Heart to use it But those that are diligent and zealous in doing all the good Offices their Authority qualifieth them for and obligeth them to perform Those Magistrates by whose Care and Zeal and Industry our Properties and Possessions are secured our Rights and Priviledges maintained our Persons defended our Peace preserved the Poor imployed or relieved Religion advanced and Wickedness suppressed such Men such great such publick Benefactors will be honoured of God and Men They will be as Signets on God's Right Hand and remembred when he maketh up his Jewels the excellent ones upon Earth in the sight of God of great price Every Man will think them worthy of that Power and Authority which is so zealously and effectually employed by them to such beneficial purposes The Ear that heareth them blesseth them and the Eye that seeeth them beareth witness to them they are every where Job xxix 11. extolled and praised and secure a great and good and lasting Reputation Their very Graves will be persumed their Works will praise them in the Dust and the generations to come will call them blessed Such Righteous Men especially Righteous Men in Authority will be had in everlasting remembrance Fourthly Consider The glorious reward which God hath prepared in the other World for all such good and faithful Servants Your Work is great on Earth and your Reward will be great in Heaven The Lord himself hath said ye are Gods He hath given you of his Power and Authority and set you to Judge for him upon Earth and if you act for him faithfully and diligently with Zeal and Courage he will make you partakers of his Nature and Glory his Joy and Happiness in a degree far beyond what you can now conceive and ye shall be like God in Heaven The faithful improvement of those more rich and numerous and useful Talents you are intrusted with will intitle you to a proportionable reward in the great day of recompence Your temporal Honours and Preferments cannot follow you into the other World but the Service you do to God and his People by virtue of them will and obtain for you from a merciful God a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory It is to you God hath given the ten Talents and if you make a due improvement of them to you he will pronounce that blessed Sentence Well done ye good and faithful Servants have ye Authority over ten Cities He will advance you to the highest rank of Saints in Light among the chiefest Favourites of the King of Heaven where you will sit upon unmoveable Thrones and shine with the brightest Rayes of Divine Glory What then remains but that we all make our earnest Addresses to God that he would continually supply this great City with such Righteous and Religious Magistrates as may faithfully and diligently imploy their Power and Authority to the Honour of God the Interest of Religion and Virtue and the great and general good of this famous Corporation that so all the People may rejoyce and the worthy Instruments of our Happiness may be loved and honoured whilst they live and unspeakably happy when they die Amen Some Books Printed for B. Aylmer at the Three Pigeons over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill THE Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury containing Fifty four Sermons and Discourses on Several Occasions together with the Rule of Faith Being all that were published by his Grace himself and now collected into one Volume To which is added an Alphabetical Table of the Principal Matters Price 20 s. Six Sermons viz. Of Stedfastness in Religion Of Family Religion Of Education of Children Of the Advantages of an Early Piety By his Grace John late Archbishop of Canterbury In 12o. price 18 d. A Perswasive to frequent Communion in the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Also by his Grace John late Archbishop of Canterbury In 12o. bound 6 d. or Stitch'd in 8o. 3 d. or something Cheaper to those that are so Charitable to give away Numbers The Holy Bible containing the Old Testament and the New with Annotations and very exact Parallel Scriptures To which is Annex'd the Harmony of the Gospels as also the Reduction of the Jewish Weights Coins and Measures to our English Standards And a Table of the Promises in Scripture By Samuel Clark Minister of the Gospel Printed in Folio on a very Fair Letter