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spirit_n body_n life_n soul_n 34,804 5 5.7811 4 true
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A44698 Two sermons preached at Thurlow in Suffolk on those words, Rom. 6.13 \"Yield your selves to God\" / by J.H. ... Howe, John, 1630-1705. 1688 (1688) Wing H3044; ESTC R14684 27,043 72

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greater length and leaves no impression Perhaps there is less in their minds to answer it than most other words which men use in common discourse For they have usually distinct thoughts of the things they speak of otherwise they should neither understand one another nor themselves but might speak of an Horse and mean a Sheep Or be thought to mean so And it would no more move a man or impress his mind to hear or mention a Jest than a matter of life and death But the holy and reverend Name of God is often so slightly mentioned as in common Oaths or in idle talk is so meerly taken in vain that if they were on the sudden stopt and askt what they thought on or had in their mind when they mentioned that word and were to make a true answer they cannot say they thought of any thing As if the Name of God the All were the name of Nothing Otherwise had they thought what that great Name signifies either they had not mentioned it or the mention of it had struck their hearts and even overwhelm'd their very souls I could tell you what awe and observance hath been wont to be exprest in reference to that sacred Name among a people that were called by it and surely the very sound of that Name ought ever to shake all the powers of our souls and presently form them to reverence and adoration Shall we think it fit to play or trifle with it as is the common wont My Friends shall we now do so when we are call'd upon to yield our selves to God Labour to hear and think and act intelligently and as those that have the understandings of men And now especially in this solemn transaction endeavour to render God great to your selves Enlarge your minds that as far as is possible and needful they may take in the entire notion of him As to what he is in himself you must conceive of him as a Spirit as his own Word which can best tell us what he is instructs us and so as a Being of far higher excellency than any thing you can see with your eyes or touch with your hands or than can come under the notice of any of your senses You may easily apprehend Spiritual Being to be the source and spring of life and self-moving power This World were all a dead unmoving lump if there were no such thing as Spirit as your bodies when the soul is fled You must conceive him to be an Eternal Self-subsisting Spirit not sprung up into Being from another as our souls are But who from the excellency of his own Being was necessarily of and from himself comprehending originally and eternally in himself the fulness of all Life and Being I would fain lead you here as by the hand a few plain and easie steps You are sure that somewhat now is of this you can be in no doubt and next you may be as sure that somewhat hath of it self ever been For if nothing at all now were you can easily apprehend it impossible that any thing should ever be or of it self now begin to be and spring up out of nothing Do but make this supposition in your own minds and the matter will be as plain to you as any thing can be that if nothing at all were now in being nothing could ever come into being wherefore you may be sure that because there is somewhat now in being there must have been somewhat or other always in being that was eternally of it self And then to go a little farther since you know there are many things in being that were not of themselves you may be sure that what was always of it self had in it a sufficiency of active power to produce other things otherwise nothing that is not of it self could ever be As you know that we were not of our selves and the case is the same as to whatsoever else our eyes behold You must conceive of God therefore as comprehending originally in his own Being which is most peculiar to himself a power to produce all whatsoever Being Excellency and Perfection is to be found in all the whole Creation For there can be nothing which either is not or arises not from what was of it self And therefore that he is an absolutely universally and infinitely perfect Being and therefore that Life Knowledge Wisdom Power Goodness Holiness Justice Truth and whatsoever other conceivable Excellencies do all in highest perfection belong as necessary Attributes unchangeably and without possibility of diminution unto him And all which his own Word agreeably to the plain reason of things doth in multitudes of places ascribe to him as you that are acquainted with the Bible cannot but know You must therefore conceive of him as the All in All. So great so excellent so glorious a One he is to whom you are to surrender and yield your selves You are to conceive of him as most essentially One for there can be but one All. And so his Word teaches you to conceive Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord Deut. 6. 4. We know there is no other God but one c. 1 Cor. 8. 4 5 6. Your thoughts therefore need not be divided within you nor your minds hang in doubt to whom you are to betake and yield your selves there is no place or pretence for halting between two Opinions He most righteously lays the sole claim to you a just God and a Saviour and there is none besides him Isa. 45. 21. And so we are told often in that and the foregoing Chapters He whose far-discerning eye projects its beams every way and ranges thorough all infinity says he knows not any ch 44. 8. Yet again you are to conceive of him as Three in One and that in your yielding your selves to him as the prescrib'd form when this surrender is to be made in Baptism directs which runs thus In the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Matth. 28. 19. You are not to be curious in your enquiries beyond what is written in this matter how far the Subsistents in the Godhead are three an in what sense one they cannot be both in the same sense But there is latitude enough to conceive how they may be distinct from each other and yet agree in one Nature which in none of them depending upon will and pleasure sets each of them infinitely above all created Being which for the Divine pleasure only was and is created Rev. 4. 11. And that we so far conceive of them as three as to apprehend some things spoken of one that are not to be affirm'd of another of them is so plain of so great consequence and the whole frame of practical Religion so much depends thereon and even this transaction of yielding up our selves which must be introductive and fundamental to all the rest that it is by no means to be neglected in our daily course and least of all in this solemn business as will more appear
12. 1. Beg earnestly for his own Spirit of life and power that may enable you to offer up a living Soul to the living God. 6. There must be Faith in your yielding your selves For it is a committing or entrusting your selves to God with the expectation of being sav'd and made happy by him So Scripture speaks of it 2 Tim. 2. 12. I know whom I have believed or trusted and that he is able to keep what I have committed to him against that day 'T is suitable to the gracious nature of God to his excellent greatness to his design to the Mediatorship of his Son to his Promise and Gospel-Covenant and to your own necessities and the exigency of your own lost undone state that you so yield your selves to him as a poor creature ready to perish expecting not for your sake but his own to be accepted and to find mercy with him You do him the honour which he seeks and which is most worthy of a God the most excellent and a self-sufficient Being when you do thus You answer the intendment of the whole Gospel-constitution which bears this Inscription To the praise of the glory of his grace c. 'T is honourable to him when you take his Word that they that believe in his Son shall not perish but have everlasting life You herein set to your Seal that he is true and the more fully and with the more significancy when upon the credit of it you yield your selves with an assurance that he will not destroy or reject a poor creature that yields to him and casts its self upon his mercy 7. Another Ingredient into this yielding of your selves must be Love. As Faith in your yielding your selves to God aims at your own welfare and salvation so Love in doing it intends his service and all the duty to him you are capable of doing him You must be able to give this as the true reason of your act and to resolve it into this Principle I yield my self to God because I love him and from the unfeigned love I bear to him to tell the World if there were occasion he hath captivated my heart with his Excellencies and his Love and hereupon having nothing else I tender my self to him to tell himself Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee and because I do I present my self to thee 't is all I can do I wish my self ten thousand times better for thy blessed sake and if I had in me all the Excellencies of many thousand Angels I were too mean a thing and such as nothing but thy own goodness could count worthy thine acceptance because I love thee I covet to be near thee I covet to be thine I covet to lead my life with thee to dwell in thy presence far be it from me to be as without thee in the World as heretofore I love thee O Lord my strength because thine own perfections highly deserve it and because thou hast heard my voice and hast delivered my Soul from death mine Eyes from tears and my Feet from falling and I yield my self to thee because I love thee I make an offer of my self to be thy servant thy servant O Lord thou hast loosed my bonds and now I desire to bind my self in new ones to thee that are never to be loosed And you can make no doubt but that it ought to be done therefore with dispositions and a temper suitable to the state you are now willing to come into that of a devoted Servant viz. 8. With great reverence and humility For consider to whom you are tendering your self to the high and lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity To him that hath Heaven for his Throne and Earth for his Footstool and in comparison of whom all the inhabitants of the World are but as Grashoppers and the Nations of the Earth as the drop of a bucket and the dust of the Balance c. Yea to him against whom you have sinn'd and before whose pure eyes you cannot in your self but appear most offensively impure so that you have reason to be ashamed and blush to lift up your eyes before him 9. And yet it surely ought to be with great joy and gladness of heart that he hath exprest himself willing to accept such as you and that he hath made you willing to yield your selves The very thought should make your heart leap and spring within you that he should ever have bespoken such as we are to yield our selves to him when he might have neglected us and let us wander endlesly without ever looking after us more How should it glad your hearts this day to have such a message brought you from the great God and which you find is written in his own Word to yield your selves to him Should not your hearts answer with wonder And blessed Lord Art thou willing again to have to do with us who left thee having no cause and who returning can be of no use to thee O blessed be God that we may yield our selves back unto him that we are invited and encourag'd to it And you have cause to bless God and rejoyce if this day you feel your heart willing to yield your selves to him and become his Do you indeed find your selves willing You are willing in the day of his power This is the day of his power upon your hearts Many are call'd and refuse he often stretches out his hands and no man regards Perhaps you have been call'd upon often before this day to do this same thing and neglected it had no heart to it and he might have said to you Now I will never treat with you more if you should call I will not hear if you stretch out your hands I will not regard it but laugh at your destruction and mock when your fear cometh But if now he is pleased to call once more your hearts do answer Lord here we are we are now ready to surrender our selves you may conclude he hath poured out his Spirit upon you The Spirit of the Lord is now moving upon this Assembly this is indeed a joyful day the day which he hath himself made and you ought to rejoyce and be glad in it When the people in David's days offered of their substance to God for the service of his house 't is said The people rejoyced for that they offered willingly And David we are told blessed God before all the Congregation saying Thine O Lord is the greatness and the power But who am I and what is my people that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort for all things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee If you are this day willing to offer your selves how much is this a greater thing and it comes of him and 't is of his own you are now giving him for he had a most unquestionable right in you before 10. You should do it with solemnity For