Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	apostle_n	speak_v	word_n	3,803	5	4.2444	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55344	A sermon preach'd to young people January the first, 1697. And now publish'd at their request. By Samuel Pomfret.	Pomfret, Samuel, d. 1722.	1698 (1698)	Wing P2798A; ESTC R217924	45,878	51

A SERMON Preach'd to Young People January the First 1697. AND NOW Publish'd at their Request By SAMVEL POMFRET LONDON Printed for Richard Mount at the Postern on Tower-Hill MDCXCVIII LAM iii. 27. It is good for a Man that he bear the Yoke in his Youth THE Royal Preacher saith Every Thing is beantiful in its Season And if so then I promise my self in this great Assembly of young People a sweet Harmony of Votes that my Text is so like Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver as being a Word spoken in Season It is good for a Man that he bear the Yoke in his Youth In which Words there are two general Parts I. Somewhat imposed or required as matter of Duty viz. To bear the Yoke in his Youth II. Somewhat proposed or offered as matter of Encouragement viz. It is good for a Man so to do The latter making way for the more chearful performance of the former as we sweeten bitter Pills to our Children that they may swallow them the better Such is God's Condescention here to young Ones knowing how backward Youth is to bear the Yoke he is pleased to court and allure them to it by assuring them that it is their own Good and Benefit that is contained in it The Words being thus divided there remaineth only one thing needful to be cleared before I lay down the Doctrine and that is the Word Yoke an hard and heavy Word grievous for Green Heads what may be the meaning of it Answ The Yoke in Scripture is taken two ways 1. In a Material and 2. In a Mystical Sense A Material Yoke is an Instrument made of Wood or Iron serving to tame and subdue the Creature for the use of Man Deut. 21. 3. compar'd with 1 Kings 19. 10. which cannot be the meaning of the Word in this Place For in this Sense it is proper and peculiar to Beasts only But here in the Text we read of a Yoke for a Man to bear and therefore we must look farther viz. to the Mystical Sense of the Word and herein I find in Scripture a threefold Yoke spoken of 1. The Yoke of Relations 2. The Yoke of Afflictions 3. The Yoke of Religion 1. The Yoke of Relations As that between Husband and Wife they are called Yoke-fellows and the Apostle Paul giving advice to Christians who were entring into this Relation makes use of this Word Be not saith he unequally yoked with Vnbelievers 2 Cor. 6. 14. But this is not the meaning of the Word here in my Text for it is not good for any too early in their Youth to take this Yoke upon them And I may say of many that have been too eager too early in courting and coveting to come under this Yoke what the Apostle saith in another case of those that make too much haste to be Rich They fall into Temptation and a Snare and into many foolish and hurtful Lusts which drown Men in Destruction and Perdition 1 Tim. 6. 9. Moreover the Scripture useth this Word Yoke in the Relation of a Servant to his Master Let as many Servants as are under the Yoke count their Masters worthy of all Honour 1 Tim. 6. 1. Now this indeed is good but not the thing intended in the Text. 2. The Yoke of Affliction So the Word is frequently used in Scripture Deut. 28. 48. Lev. 26. 13. Isa 9. 4. And here in this Book our weeping Prophet setting forth the grievous Afflictions and Calamities that God had brought upon his People for their Sins in the Day of his fierce Anger calls them by this Name Yoke Lam. 1. 14. The Yoke of my Transgressions is bound by his Hand that is the Afflictions brought upon me by my Sins Now this is one Sense of the Word here in my Text and undoubtedly this is a Yoke that it is good for a Man to bear in his Youth In this Age the All-wise God seeth it needful to put on this Yoke to tame the Pride and fetch out the Folly that is bound up in the Hearts of young People and how hard soever it may be to bear yet it certainly is good for them Youth is so apt to run astray like an unruly head-strong Bullock that a Yoke is of singular use to reduce and restrain them And this David found true by blessed Experience Before I was afflicted saith he I went astray but now have I kept they Word Psal 119. 67. And hence he acknowledgeth in the same Psalm It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might keep thy Statutes ver 71. So there are many young Ones that in their Prosperity have lived in a total forgetfulness of God giving themselves over to Pride and Pleasures until the Yoke of Straits and Afflictions hath been put on their fair and tender Necks and then through Grace they have come to themselves by Consideration and to God by Conversion as is set forth in the Instance of Manasseh and also in the Parable of the Prodigal Son in the 15th of Luke But it is the third and last Acceptation of the Word which I intend to insist upon viz. 3. The Yoke of Religion And in this I find several Expositors take it here in my Text. The great and Learned Calvin preferreth this sense to the other Indeed the Religion of the Jews as it stood in Rites and Ceremonies is called a Yoke and during that Pedagogy it was an hard and burdensome Yoke such as St. Peter saith neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear Act. 15. 10. But blessed be God we who live in Gospel-times are graciously freed and discharg'd from that Yoke of Bondage by Jesus Christ Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free and be not again intangled with the Yoke of Bondage Gal. 5. 1. What then my Beloved are we under the Gospel Yokeless may we live as we list O no that would be not so much Liberty as Libertinism wherefore the Christian Religion is also called a Yoke Accordingly our Blessed Saviour saith Take my Yoke upon you learn of me for I am meek and lowly and you shall find rest for your Souls Mat. 11. 29. And every one that expects Salvation by him must take his Yoke and yield Subjection to him And as for those his Enemies that will not have him to reign over them the same Jesus saith bring them hither and slay them before me Luke 19. 27. Thus I have explained the Word Yoke which I told you was the chief thing in the Text that needed opening before I laid down the Doctrine As for the encouragement proposed in these words It is good c. there is no difficulty the meaning of them is obvious and plain that is it is eminently so as that which alone can bring you to the enjoyment of God the chiefest Good and so may be said to be summary of all felicitating Good The Words thus divided and explained afford us this plain Proposition Doct. That to

sort not unto Death and Damnation but unto Life and Salvation a Repentance never to be repented of And the same Christian will tell you that he is never so sad as when he feels his Heart hard and unrelenting So that upon the whole this Objection against the Yoke as if it were not good to bear because Repentance is required in it which you have thought to be so sour and unpleasant you see it proceeds from a meer palpable Mistake and Error it hath been want of Judgment and Understanding in you as Christ told the Woman of Samaria John 4. 10. If thou knewest the Gift of God thou would'st have ask'd of him and he would have given thee living Water So if thou knewest the sweetness of Gospel-Repentance thou would'st not endure to live a Day longer in an Impenitent State It 's certain Sin hath no such Pleasure as Repentance hath Hos 2. 7. I will return to my first Husband for then it was better with me than now Consult but thine own Experience or if thou hast had none ask thine own Conscience which Day of a Sinner's Life yieldeth the sweetest Rest and Repose at Night whether the Day wherein he has been a Drudg to his Lusts heaping Guilt upon Guilt against the Day of Reckoning Or the day wherein a Man hath been in the Fear of God confessing and forsaking his Sin that all may be blotted out when the Times of Refreshing should come from the presence of the Lord O the Hell upon Earth of the former Could you search the Bed dig up the Conscience of such a Man O what bitings tormenting Despair might you find at the bottom The deeper they have sunk in Rebellion the faster have they tied Damnation to their Souls O fearful miserable Condition But O the Heaven upon Earth of the latter How welcome may he be to both to his God and his Conscience And so how merry may he be in the dark Night on his Bed After a Seasonable April-Shower and breaking out of the Sun again how are the Flowers and Herbs refreshed In like manner after a penitent Soul hath gone forth largely and freely Weeping and Mourning for Sin how Sweet an Odour doth it leave in Conscience It returneth not ashamed but refreshed especially when it can espy a Bow in the Cloud or The Sun of Righteousness breaking through it and shining upon the Soul Mat. 4. 2. Thus having cleared up this that the most difficult part of Christ's Yoke viz. Repentance it self which usually through Satan's Cunning and Malice is represented to Youth as frightful and formidable is good i. e. pleasant which according to the School-distinction of Good into jucundum utile honestum is a material part of what is Good I say having done this and so waded through the most difficult craggy part of my way and work that was most liable to Objections it may shorten my work as to what remaineth This Fort of the Jebusites being won we may conclude all will yield if the most exceptionable part of Christ's Yoke will pass Muster we need not question the rest Thus I have done with the first Head of Argument to prove the Truth treated on viz. That it is Good in an absolute Sense to bear Christ's Yoke Now that it is so especially in time of Youth I shall reserve the proof of that to the Close of the second Head of Argument Wherefore I now shall pass on to the second Consideration mentioned for the clearing up the Doctrine That to bear the Yoke of Christ is the summary of all Good viz. 2. That it is so relatively with respect to the Effects and Conquances of it For the Demonstration and Proof of this it is to be considered that some of the blessed Effects of bearing Christ's Yoke in the time of Youth do respect this present Life and others that which is to come For what the Apostle saith of Godliness I may say of bearing the Yoke of Christ it being the same thing in Sense tho different in Sound It is profitable for all things having the Promise of the Life that now is and that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. 1. Touching those that concern this present Life take these following 1. The bearing this Yoke is good in this respect viz. That now a Man may hereby come to know that his Sins are all pardoned and that the dreadful Controversy is at an end between the Great God and him This the Prophet David lays down as the summary of Blessedness Psal 32. 1. Blessed is the Man whose Transgression is forgiven c. This Load of Sin is laid on Christ So that there is now no Condemnation to him Rom. 8. 1. O how ravishing a thing is it to be able to say Well! Here I stand under this Yoke of Jesus with a full a free a final Pardon there is an Act of Grace and my Name is in it If Satan come with his Charge of my former Vileness Conscience sprinkled with the Blood of Christ may discharge all for Christ's Yoke and Blood go together Before a Man come under and bear this easy Yoke of Christ he abideth under the cruel Yoke of the Guilt of all his Sins O cursed Case poor Christless Sinner had'st thou but thy Spiritual Senses restored thou would'st find and feel the Yoke the Load of Guilt upon thy Soul to be incomparably a greater load than Mountains or all the dead Weights in the World can be to thy Body A Giant that can bear a great Stone on his Back can't endure a little one in his Bladder but roars out and the Earth it self that can bear the Hurricanes Tempests and Storms on her Surface can't bear a little Wind in her Bowels but heaves and sets and roars and opens and overturns Cities c. So the case is here when a Sinner's Conscience awakes in Power and by the Law which is the strength of Sin arrests chargeth curseth condemneth throwing like Fire-Balls into the Soul an exquisite Sense and feeling of its Sins in all their Aggravations and Guilt O till this poor wounded Spirit comes under the sweet Yoke of Christ it is impossible to express the Stabs the Wounds the Throws it feels within so true is that of Solomon The Spirit of a Man may sustain his Infirmity but a wounded Spirit who can bear i. e. A Spirit feeling the Yoke of Guilt or unpardoned Sin Racks Stakes Fire biting Worms rendring Tortures are tolerable to this of a wounded Spirit The Psalmist felt a great deal of it Psal 38. 4. when he cries out Mine Iniquities are gone over my head a Burden too heavy for me to bear and Psal 32. 3. But the greatest part of unpardoned Sinners are altogether unsensible of it and in the greatness of their Madness and Folly sport themselves under this Yoke of Guilt Prov. 14. 9. Fools make a mock of Sin which makes a serious Christian sigh and groan Thus now Contraries illustrate one another what a