Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A53273
|
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.
|
Oakes, Urian, 1631-1681.
|
1682
(1682)
|
Wing O22; ESTC R31761
|
29,412
|
40
|
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
makes a man if he do not wholly turn aside from the way of duty yet to be very unconstant and uneven and make many balks in it He walks with God at all adventures Levi. 26. 21. Not by any stedy rule or keeping any constant pace Hence we neglect the service of God secret prayer and other duties and then a terrible Sermon or some dangerous Sicknesse some sore affliction or remarkable providence awakens him to his work and then he prayes and reforms and does duties a while but in a little time the impression of those things wear off his spirit and then he relapseth into his former neglect and is as bad as ever This is weariness indeed of Gods service like the Israelites that in times of affliction sought God with much affection but there was no stedfastness in them Psal. 78. 34 37. 6. To perseverance to the end in a way of duty Gods servants must hold on in a way of service and not give in till they come to the end of their race It is the persevering Saint that shal have the reward He that endureth to the end shal be saved Matth. 24. 13. But now this weariness of Gods service tends to and frequently 〈◊〉 such in a totall apostacy Where such men as be weary of duty have served God in their lives by fitts and starts and in some good mood for a time they do at last many times grow quite cold and turne aside to the service of sin and satan Like Demas that accompanied Paul and did service a while but then forsook the service of Christ and embraoed the world and as Ecclesiasticall story says of him became a Priest in an idols temple This weariness of Gods service oft ends in a forsaking of it And no wonder if a man cast off his burthen as soon as he can Thus professors are weary of Godsservice it self or of the kind and matter of obedience and this weariness of Gods service is attended with II. Weariness of their relation to God as their Master They look upon the service of God as very grievous and God himself as an hard Master and hence are weary of the relation of servants to him They do not find His yoke easie and His burthen light but it is intollerable to their wretched hearts hence they grow into a dislike of God Himself and are weary of their relation to Him They seemed to have chosen Him for their Master but upon experience of his service they repent their choice and now He shall be no Master of theirs Now they can change away their glory Ier. 2 11. Renounce their relation to and interest in the Lord if it cannot be had on easier terms then such hard service Like that people that said to the Prophets Isa. 30. 10 11. Prophesie smooth things and get you out of the way turn ye aside out of the path we do not like this way of preaching law and duty threatnings and judgments here and damnation hereafter to the disobedient leave this way of preaching and cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us Trouble us no more with messages from God talk no more of Him and His Commands and threatnings we are weary of His Word and service and care to hear no more of it They loved not to hear their duty of Gods service pressed upon them They had done with God and His service Such are not like the servant that in the year of release was contented out of love to his Master and liking of his service to have his ear bored and to serve him for ever Exod 21. 6. But have such a dislike of the service of God that they are willing to cast off His hard service and abandon their relation to Him This is attended with III. Weariness of their Covenant obligation to the Lord and His service whereby they are engaged to be His People Subjects Servants to bear true faith and allegiance to Him and renouncing all other Lords that have had dominion over them to cleave to Him trust in Him fear love and serve Him alone They could even wish their Indentures cancelled and burnt are sorry they are so far ingaged in Church-covenant and fellowship that they are under such strickt solemn tyes and obligations to service and obedience It troubles them that they are tyed up so short so chained so bound with the bonds of the Covenant that their hands are so manicled that they cannot act as they would feet so fettered that they cannot walk as they please They cannot endure these shackles could wish they were handsomely quit of their Covenant-engagements which hold them in abridg and infringe their liberty to live as they list They are impatient of being staked down to so short a tedder that they cannot range as they please In some good mood and for some by end they entered into Covenant with God and His People but now they are sorry that the yoke of obedience and service is with their own consent so bound and fastned to their neck by the Covenant that they know not well how to shake it off and get clear of it So much weariness of the service of God so much weariness there will be of Covenant-obligations to it Again IV. Weariness of Divine Truth which directs them in the way of Gods service They would have smooth things not right things prophesied unto them Deceit and errours that will countenance their hypocrisie and sloath and give them liberty and elbow room rather then this severe truth that leads them right on in the way of piety and obedience and will not allow them to turn aside from it to the right or left hand They see no beauty and glory in Divine Truth have had little or no experience of the power of it upon their hearts receive not the love of it 2 Thessalonians 2. 10. Have no stomach or appetite to it wholesome Truths referring to Christian practice will not down with them they cannot endure found Doctrine but love dawbing with untempered Morter to be stroked and flattered and strengthned in a way of looseness and to have Pillows sewed under their Elbows This Truth is a biteing them and they cannot bear it Hence men make no great difference between Truth and Errour are not concerned for defence of the Truth and suppression of Errour have no zeal to contend earnestly for the Faith Truth may sink or swim for all them Nay they had rather it were drowned and buried out of the way it is so troublesome to them Again V. Weariness of Gods providential discipline as I may call it whereby He would quicken them to His service and reduce them into the way of it when they have wandred from it My meaning is God in His providence exerciseth severe discipline in His visible Church by chastisements and afflictions in order to their correction and emendation He will not bear that in His Covenant-People that He will overlook and wink at in others