Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A45687
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A sermon on the decease of Mr. Hanserd Knollis, minister of the Gospel Preached at Pinners-Hall, Octob. 4. 1691. By Tho. Harrison.
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Harrison, Thomas, fl. 1700.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing H911; ESTC R221275
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16,595
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74
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once entered into the gloomy shades of Death they can be no farther beneficial to you they shall no more entreat you Caution or warn you Counsel and admonish you comfort and encourage you then they shall no more pray for or with you as death stops the ear of the hearer so it tyes the tongue of the preacher Oh sinners Speedily accept of those offers of salvation which they make to you in their masters name for you know not how soon their feet who bring these glad tidings may go down to the grave it may be when they are taken away from you you will lament and bewail your misimprovement of 'em 't is rare that we prize what we have till we have it not and we seldom know the worth of a mercy till we experience the want of it Furthermore consider that as your Ministers must appear before the Divine Bar to give an account of their Ministry so you must appear there to give an account of your attendance on it if you reject their Messages they will come in as evidences against you in the Day of Judgment says the Apostle Do ye not know that the Saints shall judg the World 1 Cor. 6.2 and Ministers shall with other Saints judg the World not only Communicatively and Participatively in Christ their mystical Head and approbatively with respect unto that Assent which they shall give unto Christ's Sentence but also testificatively by becoming Witnesses against them How dreadful a thing will it be for those very Ministers who now plead with God for you and with you for your own Souls to become Advocates for the Law and Justice of God against you what horror will seise upon you how inexcusable will you be left when they shall say Lord these are the Men upon whom we spent our time and our strength whom we taught and admonished in season and out of season for the Salvation of whose Souls we destroyed our own Bodies we Preached to them with the greatest seriousness and perswaded them with the greatest importunity as if our own Salvation had depended upon the working out of theirs we were as Boanerges sons of Thunder proclaiming to them the Terrors of a Fiery Law and like Barnabas sons of Consolation declareing to them the blessings of the everlasting Gospel we set before them Life and Death Blessing and Cursing but they were like the deaf Adder which stops her Ears at the Voice of the Charmer charm he never so wisely Therefore O Lord we acknowledg they deserve the heaviest strokes of Vindictive Justice Thirdly When God hath taken away any of his Faithful Ministers be not insensible of the stroke tho we must not murmur at it yet we ought to Mourn for it Shall not we lie in the dust when the Crown is fallen from our heads shall the Lights of the World be removed and we put no Sack cloath on our Loyns Let us consider whether our sins have not occasion'd the removal of Gods Prophets and if they have let us speedily repent of them and turn from them least we provoke God farther to stretch out his hand and take more Labourers out of his vineyard If one Affliction do's not reform us we must expect another will quickly tread upon its heels Fourthly When God hath taken away any of your Ministers endeavour to recollect and retain those excellent truths which were delivered by them while they went in and out before you Let me perswade you who attend upon this Lecture to call to mind those blessed Truths which that faithful Servant of God who once spake to you in the Name of the Lord but is now enter'd into the place of silence delivered to you therein and endeavour to reduce them unto practise Tho he is Dead the word of the Lord Lives and abides for ever Those Counsels which he gave you from the word of God do oblige you tho he is bound with the chains of Death Fifthly When your Ministers are taken away by Death consider what things were commendable in them and endeavour an Imitation of them therein It is true the best of them had their failings and imperfections Moses and Elias were men subject to the like passions as we are the most Eminent Saints are to be followed by us no farther than they followed Christ but when they are gone all their failings should be buried with them and their Excellencies should be kept alive in our Memory in order to our imitation of them and indeed there were several things of this nature observable in this Reverend Old Man 1. His accurate and circumspect walking I do not say that he was wholly free from sin sinless perfection is unattainable in a mortal state but yet he was one who carefully endeavour'd to avoid it He with the Apostle Paul did herein exercise himself to have always a conscience void of Offence towards God and towards men He walked with that caution that his greatest Enemies had nothing against him save only in the matters of his God That holy Life which he lived did command Reverence even from those who were Enemies to the holy Doctrine which he preached He was a Preacher out of the Pulpit as well as in it Not like those who press the Form of godliness on a Lord's Day and openly deny the power of it the remainder of the week who pluck down that in their Conversations which they build up in their Pulpits 2. His universal love to Christians He had a great respect to Christ's New Commandment which he gave to his Disciples to love one another He loved the Image of God wheresoever he saw it He was not a man of a narrow and private but of a large and publick spirit The difference of his fellow Christians Opinions from his did not alienate his affections from them He lov'd all his fellow Travellers tho they did not walk in the same particular path with himself He embrac'd those in the Arms of his Love upon Earth with whom he thought he should joyn in singing the Song of the Lamb in Heaven It would be well if not only private Christians but also Ministers did imitate him therein there would not then be that sourness of spirit which is too often with grief be it spoken found among them 3. His meekness and humility He was not of a proud and lofty Temper but like that Master whom he profess'd to serve meek and lowly He was willing to bear with and forbear others To stoop and condescend to others and to pass by those injuries which he received from them 4. His laboriousness in that work which he was engaged in He was not a loyterer but a labourer He was willing to spend and tâ— be spent in the service of his Lord and for the good of poor souls It is true Old Age and Youth did as it were meet in him God had bless'd him with an extraordinary measure of bodily strength and he was not an unfaithful Steward of this Talent