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A93739 The exceeding great comfort and benefit of having walked before God in truth, and with a perfect heart, and of having done that which is good in his sight set forth in several discourses on Isaiah 38. 2, 3 / by Richard Stafford ... Stafford, Richard, 1663-1703. 1699 (1699) Wing S5118A; ESTC R43773 94,501 125

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perceive somewhat more as we come near to the end of our Hope the Day of Death which is indeed to the Children and Servants of God the Birth-Day of Immortality Therefore only it is that we have not more Profit because we did not so much as we should walk Mournfully but we should have walked yet more closely before the Lord of Hosts To walk Mournfully is according to the Reproach and manner of Speech of the People of the World for they imagine and say as if Religion and the Service of God was a Melancholly and Irksome thing whereas if it be True and Universal Inward and Real it is the greatest satisfaction and Peace to the Soul of Man of any thing in this World In a Dying Hour when all things fail and slip from us God and Religion are the only Resort My Soul cleaveth fast unto thee saith the Psalmist by the Spirit But though hardly ever any one in a dying Condition did say that it would have been vain for them to have served God we have heard of Thousands sad Examples on the other Hand crying out upon their Death-beds of the Misery and Deceitfulness of Sin with Anguish Bitterness and Vexation of Spirit that ever they themselves should give way unto it and really and sincerely then wishing that themselves had lived otherwise Then they confess and acknowledge that it was an evil and bitter thing to have forsaken the Lord and that his Fear was not in them And they have not cried unto me with their Heart when they howled upon their Beds Hos 7. 14. That is upon their Sick and Dying Beds By the Phrase of Howling the Holy Ghost doth seem to allude unto that kind of Noise which Dogs usually make when they are in Pain and Misery the Sense or Smart whereof makes them to Howl when they have no Reason of Soul to comfort and mitigate the other Even so the Sinners and Hypocrites when they are under violent Pains of Body or the languishing of Pining Sickness and yet much more from that fearful Expectation of those dreadful things of the Invisible World all this will sometimes make them cry out and howl and yet at the same time they do not cry out with their Heart to God for that hath been a long time at enmity and distance from him and indeed they are ignorant and unacquainted with him In a Dying Hour things will appear in a just and real value and then will be discerned what was best to have been done Then shall ye return and discern between the Righteous and the Wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not In the latter Days ye shall consider it perfectly It is certain that we must give Account for all and the several Talents which we have received as Knowledge Health Riches Time and such like Now to instance in this last which is most proper because we are here speaking of a Dying Hour When Time is ended and shall be no more which do you think will tend to better Reckoning when we come to give an Account for so many Days and Hours spent Either so many Days or Hours were spent in Hearing or Reading or Meditating on the Word of God in his Law doth he meditate Day and Night Psal 1. 2. Item So many Hours in Worship and Prayer Item So many Hours expended in good Works and the Duties of Christianity Item So many Hours in Honest Labour in our Trade or Employment which is a complying with that Prime Ordinance of God In the Sweat of thy Face shalt thou eat thy Bread till thou return unto the Ground Gen. 3. 19. All these will turn to Good and Profitable Accounts that we may find Mercy Comfort and Reward from the Lord in that Day 2 Tim. 1. 18. But then comes in also the Account which some must be forced to make on the other and worse Hand Imprimis So many Hours spent in serving divers Lusts and Pleasures Item So many Hours in Cards and Dice and in other vain and unnecessary Recreations Item So many Hours in Carnal Visits and Company Item So many Hours in Pride and Dressing Item So many Hours in Stage-Plays Item So many Hours in Taverns or Ale-Houses Item So many Hours expended in serving of Mammon Covetousness and getting of unjust Gain All these and such like will tend to Loss and Punishment at that Day This Question is easie to be answered and it will be seen which of these Two will tend most to Mens and Womens Happiness at the Last Day Seeing we must all unavoidably give Account for so many Sabbaths as we have had Will it not tend to better Account to have spent the remaining Hours thereof after the Publick Worship is over in Hearing the Scriptures and what Truths do flow from them for on the Sabbath-day besides the double Burnt Offering was to be a continual Burut Offering Numb 28. 9 10. The Holy Ghost thereby signifying that that Day was to be wholly and throughly spent in the immediate worship of God and Hearing Reading or Meditating on his Word Or the very same Time expended in Worldly Company and therein speaking their own Words contrary to Isa 58. 13. Or in Carnal Perambulation in the Fields Ay but here some will be apt to say S●ould not they who are Working and Trades People all the Week long have some Delight and ●ecreation on this Day of Rest To which I answer they should call the Sabbath a Delight and delight themselves in the Lord Isa 58. 13 14. And delight to do thy Will O my God Psal 40. 8. And so to Hear his Will for if Heaven is not thus begun with them whilst on Earth as to delig●t in that which is good it will not be their Portion when they come to die As Isaac went out to Meditate in the Margent there it is to Pray in the Fi●ld at Eventide Gen. 24. 63. So it seems to be no Sin to walk out into the Fields in the Evening of the Sabbath if it be for Meditation or Prayer or to discourse together only of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God But it seems to be sinful to spend the Evening of the Sabbath or Lord's Day in Loytering and Idleness or standing by the Walls or in the Doors of the Houses Ezek. 33. 30. when they will not go to hear what is the Word that cometh forth from the Lord as the same is truly and faithfully alledged from the Bible Some of my Kindred according to the Flesh have despised me upon the Account of my Preaching in a little Meeting or Assembly of Christians as if it was mean little pitiful and unbecoming that Birth Education and Family I am off Good God! what kind of Imaginations do lurk in the Heart of Man Can any one be too good to serve thee And is it beneath those of what 〈◊〉 called a Genteel Birth and Extraction which eccho like 〈◊〉 a Voice and nothing else for they