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A53273
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A seasonable discourse wherein sincerity & delight in the service of God is earnestly pressed upon professors of religion delivered on a publick fast at Cambridge in New-England, by the reverend and learned Urian Oakes, late pastor of the church there, and president of Harvard Colledge.
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Oakes, Urian, 1631-1681.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing O22; ESTC R31761
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29,412
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40
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of our youth and the love of our espousals when we came after Him into this Wilderness and were Holyness to the Lord. He hath not forgot the Faith the Love the Zeal the self Denyall the Holyness and Heavenly-mindedness of those Worthies that laid the Foundation of this Plantation Questionless He hath many among us at this day of the same spirit that follow hard after God and shal never be forsaken by Him So that we have no reason to dispair and sink into discouragement but to hope in the mercy of God But alas have we not great reason to fear what God may do unto us Is not this the too general frame and spirit of Professors among us to be weary of God I truely grant that if it be so yet it doth not unavoidably follow that God will presently forsake us Jacob and Israel were weary of God and yet He promiseth to blot out their transgaessions for His Name sake and though He let their enemies carry them Captive yet to command a very great deliveverance for them The summe of all is what prerogative mercy may do for us in Pittying Pardoning Healing Saving we cannot tell but if we are indeed generally weary of God according to common Law we perish Are you willing then to put all upon this issue whether it be I say not the universall I believe it is not but the too generall frame of Professors among us to be weary of God It is a matter of great concernment Shall we examine it a little and put it to the tryall I might call over the particulars before mentioned and say Are we not weary of the service of God Where is our Love and Kindness to Gods service Where is our Strength and Vigour our Alacrity our Zeal our Evenness and Constaney our Perseverance in the service of God Do we not drive very heavily and plod on without love life vigour in a dull formall careless manner as if the service of God were a burden and drudgery to us Are we not weary of our relation to God Weary of our Covenant-obligation to Him Weary of His Truth Weary of His Correction Weary of His Government Weary of our Priviledges and Mercyes Do not our murmurings like those of Israel in the Wilderness shew this Do not many People think and say if there be any little thing amiss among us or they be crost in any thing we cannot be worse then we are Do they not wish for changes Are we not a lick People and think if we could change our bed as sick men are wont to fancy then we should be well Are not our Priviledges too costly too chargable and burdensome for us Are we not grown fatt and wanton with Jesurun Deut. 32. 15. So as to spurn at the Bowels of God kick against His Ordinances and would kick them away Are there not many that would spurn down the Churches with greatest scorn Yea Are there not many Professors even weary and ashamed of their profession But I shall not insist on these things All I shal do is to give some Criteria or Rules by which duly applyed we may judge whether we are weary of God or no. Are there not sad signes and symptomes Pathognomonicall signes as Physitians speaks of this spiritual Lacisiude this wearyness this dangerous threatning disease among us Consider First All those among us that are not weary of themselves are certainly weary of God Those that are not weary of that burden of flesh they carry about with them the body of Sin and Death their sinfull natures their vile hearts that are so much estranged from God and His service disframed for Communion with Him That weight that presseth them down and the Sin that easily besets them Heb. 12. 1. That are not sick of themselves and their aversness and indisposition to Gods service are doubtless weary of God For experience shews that the best of Gods People have their weary fits much of what we have spoken of weariness of God and His service may be applyed to the sincere faithfull Servants of God at sometimes and in some pangs of temptation they have their weary frames wherein they are ready to say Behold what a weariness is it Mal. 1. 13. But then they do not allow themselves in it but judge and condemn and hate themselves for it As Paul when he could not by reason of indwelling sin obey the Law of God perfectly doth not fall out with the Law as if it were too strict and severe but takes part with it against himself The Law is holy and the Commandment is holy just and good and we know that the Law is spiritual but I am carnall sold under sin Rom. 7. 12 14. He doth not blame the Law for his occasionall accidentall irritation of his corruptions or for any rigour in condemning him for the transgression of it or setting him hard tasks impossible for him to perform as the Law exacts But he approves and commends the perfect holyness and equity of the Law and layes all the blame on his own flesh and sinfull nature and is quite weary of himself Cryes out wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this Death Rom. 7. 24. So it will be with every faithfull Servant of God in the case before us He may be weary sometimes of Gods service but then he is weary of himself for it weary of that weariness of God falls out with himself on the account is full of displeasure and indignation against himself and his own wretched heart abhorrs himself for such an unworthy frame and repents in dust ashes and indeed God will not leave his own Children to an allowance of themselves in such weary frames but will reduce them to a true christian temper again by his Word Spirit Rod one meanes or other But now when a man is good friends with himself loves himself never fell out indeed with himself never loathed himself never was humbled to any purpose for his Original as well as Actual sins never mourned for that wretched aversation of his heart from the Law and Service of God was never weary of himself in that respect we may be sure he is weary at the very heart of the holy God and his service For a mans flesh and carnall heart cannot but be weary of Gods service it is so spirituall and holy and he so unsuitable to it and if he do feel this grown under it as his burthen if he be not heart-sick and weary of himself you may be sure he is under the power of this spirit of weariness of God II. All those that are not weary of the World and the service of it are weary of God This World and the things of it were made for the service and accommodation of man in his way of serving God Man had originally an Empire and Dominion over these creatures here below they stood ready prest to his service he could command them in God's Name
the Law but all this you have done in such a wretched manner without Faith and Obedience in hypocricy and formality and so not for me as you pretend but against me in Truth not for my Glory but to my great dishonour not for my satisfaction but to my grief and trouble When men pray hear the word performe duties of worship but without an inward principle of grace with a false and hypocritical heart without any care and conscience of Evangelicall Obedience nay in effect to palliate their sins that they may go on without regrett and remorse in a way of wickedness truely then their prayer and worship is not for God but against him to his great provocation and dishonour God is affronted and despighted rather than delighted and gratified with such worship so ill circumstanced conditioned The great designe of God in instituted outward worship is to produce exercise increase draw forth faith obedience in his people to his Glory But when this is not done but externall worship is kept up without any due regard to Faith and Obediance nay for a cover excuse and protection as it were of unbelief and disobedience it looses its end is good for nothing but to dishonour and provoke God with the greater solemnity But we need not labour much here about the vanity of reversions We may safely keep to our English Translation which is genuine plain expressive of the Originall And so there are two propositions in the words as we have intimated Thou hast not called upon me O Jacob but thou hast been weary of me O Israel And then in the latter words there is a gradation and aggravation of their sins Thou hast not only not called upon me but thou hast been weary of me I need not tell you that Israel here is the same with Jacob there Children descended from that holy powerfull Patriarch whose Names were Jacob and Israel inheriting their Father's Name even when they had little of His Piety The Lord charges them here with a weariness of Him that in-stead of calling upon Him with Faith fervency delight as they should have done in all respects they were grown weary of Him Here Observe 2. Doct. That 't is sometimes the generall but unworthy wretched frame of the visible Church and People of God to be weary of God The Lord speakes here to Iacob and Israel a People in Covenant with Him the only Church He had then upon the face of the Earth the People of His holiness His peculiar Treasure whom He had honoured above all other Nations in giving His Word unto Iacob His statutes and judgements unto Israel whereas He had not dealt so with any other Nation Psalm 147. 19 20. He had committed to them His Oracles and Ordinances formed them into a Church and Common-wealth for Himself and His own Glory planted their Heavens laid the Foundation of their Earth and said unto them Thou art my People They were a People very near and dear to the Lord as appeared by His redeeming them from Egyptian bondage leading them through the Wilderness giving them His Laws taking them under the wing of His Covenant conducting them to and setling them in the Land of Canaan and then giving them all things richly to enjoy Yet this People after all as to the body of them grew weary of God This we may think was monstrous dis-ingenuity and ingratitude to grow weary of Him that was their Father founder Protector Benefactour on all accounts better to them then all the world We may think when we read the Story the Jews were a very strange unworthy people in their deportments towards the Lord and so they were indeed But know withall that we have the same hearts and natures and are disposed also to the like frame too prone to make God the like requitall of His kindness to us and to grow weary of Him Gospell Churches are not secured from but subject to this unworthy sinfull frame of spirit It is too oft the case of Professors in these Gospell times to be weary of God We shal here enquire 1. Quest. When is a Person or People weary of God Answ. The original word as Avenarius observes hath not so much respect is not so much referred to the weariness of the flesh or body as of the mind and spirit Doubtless it is soul-weariness that is here intended Now this would require a large discourse but I shal bring all into as narrow a compass as I can Prosessors then are said to be weary of God when they are weary of subjection service and obedience unto God The Lord charged them with omission or neglect of His worship and service Thou hast not called upon me O Iacob and then subjoynes but thou hast been weary of me O Israel Thou hast been so far from serving me according to my will and thy duty that thou hast been weary of me and my service That service and obedience unto God that should have been esteemed by them as it was indeed their priviledge honour benefit and happiness was their load burthen trouble and they were sick and weary of it This includes sundry things 1. Weariness of the service of God it self or of the kind and matter of obedience When professors are weary of the work that must be done in Gods service they are weary of God The matter of Christian obedience is the preceptive will of God summarily comprehended in the Decalogue or morall Law in the two Tables containing ten Commandments When men are weary of doing and suffering what God in His Law requires so that to worship God with his own prescribed worship in that reverential awfull holy manner at such times as he requires and to make conscience of keeping close to all the Rules of Justice and Charity in their converses and dealings with men or in the Apostles concise and comprehensive expressions To live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2. 12. and to have due respect to or walk in all the Commandments of God and to fulfill all His Wills as the phrast is Act. 15. 22. When I say men call this a weariness a bondage and burthen so as to esteem the burthen of Christ that He layes upon them a burthen indeed and the yoke of His Law galling and troublesome and His Commands very grievous then doubtless they are weary of God Wearinesse of Gods Lawes and holy wayes is weariness of God himself in a just construction When men have set upon a course of reformation and obedience seem to run well for a time but then tyre and grow weary Religion is not a matter of Theory and Orthodox notions only but of practice and labour We may say of Theologie as the Philosopher of civill prudence and pollicy the end of it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not bare knowledge but practice God will have no idle servants in His family He hath set them work to do there is a race of odedience set