Selected quad for the lemma: rest_n
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A84322
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The church-sleeper awakened, or A discourse on Act. 20. 9. being the substance of two sermons composed and preached at Corke in Ireland. / By Joseph Eyres master of arts, and a servant of God in the Gospel of his son.
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Eyres, Joseph.
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1659
(1659)
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Wing E3949; Thomason E1902_2; ESTC R209968
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16,328
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119
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raised spirituall Bodies the sublime employment of eternal Hallelujahs will not tire or cause in us the least inclination to a drousie despondency It should be our desire and endeavour to serve God here as Saints and Angels serve him in heaven without weariness and deadness Having thus dispatched the considerations by way of motive I now come unto the directions by way of remedy and prevention of this sinfull distemper declared against 1. Set your selves as in Gods presence Labour to see him by the eye of Faith who is invisible to the eye of sense Being not aware before whom we are and with whom we have to do we are the more easily overtaken If in the Congregation we were in the presence and close by the side of earthly majesty and were surrounded and observed by Princes and Nobles I dare say there would be such an awe upon us that we should not dare to sleep or be guilty of the least incivillity and undecency of deportment O then why doth not the approach and presence of the God of glory before whom the Divels tremble ble and the Angels veil not daring to behold with unmasked faces worke in us far deeper impressions of awefulness and ingage us to the utmost attention and watchfulness The truth of it is God is not minded and hence it is that his work is so slightly slubbered over If God were in our eye our eyes eares hearts would all be open to attend and entertain him 2. Bring your Bibles with you and that not for a vain shew and ostentation to be taken notice of for a pious devout respect to sacred Writ but keep pace with the Minister whilst he reades the Word and turn to those Texts of Scripture that he quotes If this laudable course were generally and duly observed Truths delivered would better be remembred and the unhansome inconvenience of sleeping in Church Assemblies would be prevented It 's reported of the Scots by those who have been present at their Assemblies that when the Preacher names a place of Scripture the people presently and nimbly turn to it so that there is heard in the Congregation a rushing noise or sound like the fluttering of a mighty flock of birds that are hastily rising and getting upon the wing But many may say unto me Alas Sir woe and alas what shall we do we for our parts can not reade a word O! how willingly would we make use of the Bible both in publick and in private provided we were book-learned as others are And cannot you reade indeed the more to blame are those who have had the charge and care of your education and the more to blame your selves this ignorance of yours being possibly the product of a lazy neglect and lothness to take pains And here now because 't is seasonable let me lay a strict charge and severe injunction on Parents especially and Masters of Families to provide for the instruction of their children and servants that so they may be able to discern a difference betwixt a Bible and a Block not only by the shâ—pe and external figure but also by the internal and comfortable contents 3. Be exhorted to write Sermon-Notes you that can and you that cannot learn to do it It prevents not only a sleeping eye but a wandring eye It has been my observation of some that whensoever they have omitted taking notes they have been as sure to sleep as if high noon were midnight and their Pew a soft bed Flatter not your selves with a vain conceit that your extraordinary and almost invincible proneness to sleep by reason of your natural temper shall hold you excused so long as you obstinately refuse to make use of Bible and Pen by which this so great a mischief might undoubtedly be be prevented I hope you do not count it a disparagement and undervaluing to you to take notes after the Minister King Edward the Sixth did not and to peruse them and meditate on them afterwards for the fixing and ingraving of truth in his mind and memory 4. Have you not houses of your own there you may sleep with lesse scandal and inconvenience to your selves and others If there be no no remedy but you must needs take a nap in the day time which some can hardly refrain being thereto necessitated by a continued custome it 's better you should do it in private then in publick But because men are too prone to gratifie the flesh and indulge the ease of the outward man I shall intreat you to be very spare and temperate and allow your selves as little liberty as may be Far be it from you that you should be of the number of those Swine rather then Saints those Hogs rather then Christians who lye grunting yawning stretching in their beds the forenoon of the Sabbath and are hardly up and drest by dinner time or of the number of those sordid slow bellies who are wont to reserve the afternoon of the Lords day for rest and a lazy retirement 5. Principiis obsta stop the beginnings When you perceive in your selves an inclination to nod and that a soft slumber begins to seise upon you presently start up as one astonish'd at the apprehension of some grand approaching evil stand upon your guard and keep the incroaching enemy at a distance 6. Feed sparingly especially on the Lords day Great Eaters are usually great Sleepers From an over full stomach ascend obnubilating fumes which oppress the brain and lock up the passages of the spirits and thereby dispose to sleep Where the heart is overcharged with drunkenness and excess it produceth sadness searedness stupidity blockishness inadvertency forgetfulness dulness in duty and a supine negligence in soul-concernments They that fast much can watch best Hence sobriety and watchfulness are joyned together 1 Pet. 5.8 Be sober be vigilant 7. Let not sorrow too much seise upon you and prevail over you it 's of a stupifying and besotting nature the Disciples in the Garden found it so Luk. 22.45 Griefe contracts the heart and hinders the egress of spirits to the several Organs in which they move yea it exhausts the spirits and hinders concoction so that gross and black vapours invade the brain which are the cause of sleep Gerherd in his Harmony is of the opinion that Jonah's profound sleep in the side of the Ship was occasioned by grief he knowing full well that for his flying from the presence of the Lord the tempest was raised and the Ship indangered 8. Take heed of a lolling and lazy posture of body it argues irreverence and doth dispose to drouziness Standing I would commend as a more watchful posture and to be preferred before sitting especially in Prayer They that bow down their heads and rest them upon their hands will not long be awake 9. Let your eye be much upon the Minister It 's said of Christs Hearers Luk. 4.20 That their eyes were fastned on him A good help against distractions Trap in loc Our hearts
black guard in order a soft downy pillow is no place for his working contriving head Being hurried and harassed by the Divel he cannot by the darkness and silence of the night be flattered into the least slumber The eye that is full of adultery doth not sleep in the Congregation but is continually roving about to find out objects for a foul and frothy fancy to work upon and being found out they are gazed on with much greediness and delight The Adulterer will be waking and walking abroad in the dark and black night that so he may give his Drab a meeting Prov. 7.9 Ahab lies tossing and tumbling upon his bed and cannot take any rest untill he be possessed of Naboths Vineyard 1 King 21.4 And Amnon is in little better plight till he have his will on his Sister Tamar 2 Sam. 13.2 How usual a thing is it for the Divels Imps I mean the roaring Ruffians and Bacchanalian Roysters of the times to spend whole dayes and nights in quaffing carousing gaming c. They have not the least lust to sleep in the midst of so much mirth Musick and madness VVith what whickering attention do they hearken to a roguish Fidler that will sing them a sordid and filthy Song Any Musick keeps them waking a midnight Mask or paltry Poppet-play how doth it affect and make men dance an unwearied attendance who yet are no more affected with the admirable contrivance and sublime discoveries of the Gospel then so many stocks and stones save the Musick of the Temple 6. It 's a sin that is mightily promoted by the Divel He knows of what fatall consequence it is unto his kingdome for people to hearken unto the word of life which is as an hammer to knock off the bolts from the galled feet of his chained Captives and therefore he endevours by all wayes and means imaginable to distract divert and take you off from the present work and business that is before you He will be sure to sit very heavy on your eye-lids and close them if possible The Prince of darkness startles at the approach of light and therefore will be sure to draw the curtain and shut the window to keep it out The nodding head leans on the Divels bosome The sleepy Hearer is rockt in the Divels cradle and dandled on the Divels knee 7. A sleepy eye is a shrewd sign of a sleepy conscience and a sottish insensibility of matters spirituall A fat heart a deaf eare and a closed eye go hand in hand Esa 6.10 A waking conscience is usually attended with a watchfull eye They who work out their salvation with fear and trembling will look about them 8. You may out-sleep that truth wherein you are neerly concerned and which if attended to might prove successfully instrumentall for your conversion consolation There is no one truth to be slighted disregarded but surely those truths that reach your particular condition should be entertained with exactest observation You know not when that plaister will be spread and applyed that is most suitable to your sore You know not at what time that medicine will be administred that is most likely to cure those spirituall maladies and distempers that you labour under and therefore it 's wisdome to be wary and watchfull Possibly there may be some way of wickedness which you securely walk in some necessary duty which you live in the neglect of some griezly temptation with which you are assaulted now if you should be sleeping when these things are pathetically and powerfully spoken to you may still live in the practise of that sin in the neglect of that duty and be overwhelmed with that temptation to your ruine 9. This may be the last Sermon that ever you may hear and I am confident could you be assured of it that it would be so it would mightily startle There will be such a thing as the last prayer that ever you shall put up the last Chapter that you shall reade the last Sermon that you shall hear it behoves you therefore with utmost industry to improve the present opportunity Hearken to the voice of God whilst it is called to day you do not know whether ever you may hear that voice again behind you saying unto you This is the way walk in it shut not your eyes against the light that now shines for you do not know whether ever your eyes may again behold a rising sun and dispersed beams 10. The Lord may take you away in your sleep The instance of this young man in the Text one would think should make you tremble You that come alive into the Congregation may be carried out dead You that do not attentively hearken to what the Minister hath to say unto you may be suddenly struck dead in the place snatcht out of your seats dragged to Christs Tribunal and there constrained to hearken unto what the great Judge of heaven and earth hath to say unto you who will speak in such language and in such a tone as will make your souls to shake and shiver It 's more dreadfull to dye whilst asleep in Gods house than to dye whilst asleep in your own 11. There is no sleeping in hell There will not be the least minutes rest taken to eternity The smoke of wicked mens torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and they have no rest day nor night Rev. 14.11 You that can so confidently sleep in the Church shall not be able to sleep in the fiery lake The extremity of torment the continuall gnawing of the never dying worm and the hideous howlings of Divels and fellow-damned wights will keep you waking in spight of your hearts How welcome would a few houres sleep be to those who are sweating and sweltring in seaverish flames and for many nights together have been full of tossings to and fro until the dawning of the day But O! how transcendently and surpassingly welcome would a minutes rest and repose be to those who for millions of years have been rosting and roaring in the everlasting flames But alas it cannot be Who but a fool and a mad man would for a little present sinfull ease and rest plunge himself into an intollerable restless state and condition that knows no end If this prove not an awakening consideration I know not what will 12. There is no sleeping in heaven That which is the misery of the damned is the happiness of the saved Rev. 4.8 They rest not day and night saying Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come The Angels do not want sleep neither shall the Saints when they are translated to the upper Patadise Whilst we are in this animall state nature cannot bear up under continued watchings refreshing and rest Christ himself did not spend all his dayes in acts of immediate worship he consumed not every night in prayer and holy meditations We reade as of his eating and drinking so of his sleeping But when these naturall Bodies shall be