Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A42680
|
XXXI sermons preached to the parishioners of Stanford-Rivers in Essex upon serveral subjects and occasions / by Charles Gibbes.
|
Gibbes, Charles, 1604-1681.
|
1677
(1677)
|
Wing G644; ESTC R25459
|
268,902
|
472
|
and the pleasing of him as our End Insomuch that if we can acquit our selves so as to have his Favour and good Liking of us we must not care what we lose or what Obloquy Censure or Disgrace we incurro from men Our Righteousness and Holiness should not be in shew but in truth Eph. 4.24 4. In Following of that which is Good we should doe it zealously with our Minds our Affections and our Studies We should give all diligence and study that we may abound in Faith Vertue Knowledge Temperance Patience Godliness Brotherly love Charity 2 Pet. 1.5 6 7. We should follow Peace with all men and Holiness Heb. 12.14 pursue after it as Hunters after a Prey or Enemies after Enemies This one thing I doe saith the Apostle Phil. 3.13 14. forgetting the things that are behind and reaching forth unto those things that are before I press or pursue towards the Mark for the price of the high Calling of God in Christ Jesus A lazy slack Following of Good is ineffectual such a Seeking as the old Saints are said to have used is that which is required of them that will inherit the Promises Heb. 6.11 12. 5. Yea we should not onely follow that which is Good our selves but animate others to follow it too He loves not God nor his Brother that seeing him in Want doth not relieve him when it is in his power so neither doth he follow God that seeing his Brother erre doth not as he hath opportunity endeavour to convert him from the Errour of his ways that doth not lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees Heb. 12.12 that doth not avoid giving such Offence as may cause the Lame to fall in the way or to turn out of it that doth not encourage others in that which is Good comfort and heal the sorrowfull Spirit and lead others by Example Instruction and Prayer Such as are of God doe good even as he doeth who benefits all invites all is Bonum universale an universal communicative Good 6. Our following of Good must be with Constancy We must always be zealous in a good thing Gal. 4.18 all our days in youth and age in all Companies in all Estates on all Occasions not by sits and starts We must cleave to that which is good Rom. 12.9 as a Wife adheres to her Husband as Ruth did to her Mother-in-law We should be stedfast and unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord as knowing that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 Which brings me to the other Particulars propounded to be considered in which I shall be very brief III. The Harm that they who are zealous Followers of that which is Good are secured from This is indeed all sorts of Evils the chief whereof are the Wounds of Conscience and the Wrath of God While men follow that which is Good they are not obnoxious to those Lashes of a guilty Conscience which are consequent upon the remembrance of lewd Pranks in youth Deceits and Covetous practices in age cruel Murthers horrid Perjuries unjust Bribes Purloining Stealing and such other Evils as do vastare Conscientiam violently torture the Mind and are as scorching Heat in a man's Bones Gall and Wormwood in his Belly as when God wrote bitter things against Job and made him possess the Sins of his youth These Tortures were resembled in the Poets by the Affrightments of Furies and are Forerunners of Hell-Torments Nor shall those who follow what is Good be liable to the Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish which God inflicts on them that are contentious and obey not the Truth but obey Vnrighteousness Rom. 2.8 9. These are indeed the grand Harms that are like the stinging of a Scorpion but my Text intends likewise all Afflictions incident to us from mens Injuriousness and Malignity such as are Reproaches Derision Slanders privation of Liberty Livelihood Life which though they be but Flea-bitings in comparison of the other yet are they very harmfull as being extreme trouble-some and grievous Yet by Following of that which is Good there is Security from them if not altogether at least in a great measure if not from the Feeling of them yet from the Oppression of them if not from the Buzzing and Disquieting of them as of Flies yet from the Sting of them as of Scorpions if not from the Molestation of them yet from the Deadliness of them which will be better discerned if we consider our next Particular IV. Who they are from whose Harming they are secured They are either Men or Devils neither of whom can mortally and eternally wound us Fear not them saith our Lord that can kill the Body and when they have done that can doe no more but fear him that can cast both Soul and Body into Hell-sire Matth. 10.28 Luk. 12.4 Men and Devils may interrupt our Peace but cannot damn our Souls Neither Tribulation nor Distress nor Persecution nor Famine nor Nakedness nor Peril nor Sword neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor Height nor Depth nor any other Creature can separate them that follow that which is Good from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. But in all these things they are more then Conquerours through him that hath loved them as S. Paul saith of himself Rom. 8.35 37 38 39. Yet are they sorely assaulted by both these Enemies insomuch that the Apostle tells us there vers 36. for God's sake they are killed all the day long and are counted as Sheep for the slaughter They are as Sheep among Wolves who are ready to worry them Satan casts some into Prison ten days that they may be tried Rev. 12.10 He goes about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5.8 There is a spitefull Spirit in all that are of the Wicked one yet sometimes God restrains the remainder of their Wrath. He cuts off the spirit of Princes he is terrible to the Kings of the earth Psal 76.10 12. He rebukes an Abimelech in a Dream so as that he dares not touch them Gen. 20.6 He suffers no man to doe them wrong he reproves Kings for their sake saying Touch not mine Anointed and doe my Prophets no harm Psal 105.14 15. When a man's ways please the Lord he maketh even his Enemies to be at peace with him Prov. 16.7 Sometimes the Luster of a Good life doth either attract the favourable Aspect or dazzle the Eyes of those with whom they live Sometimes the benefit of Laws and Government secures their Peace they are Ministers to them for good Rom. 13.4 By these and many more means are they that follow that which is Good indemnified whenas his own Iniquities take the Wicked himself and he is holden with the Chords of his Sins Prov. 5.22 V. When it is that they are secured But then this is not perpetually so it falleth out sometimes otherwise When
any Preaching could never hear God's Voice And they that have admitted it into the Ear without opening of the inner Door of the Heart want the enjoyment of it It was Lydia's happiness that when she heard S. Paul the Lord opened her Heart that she attended unto the things which were spoken Act. 16.14 They are unhappy to whom the Lord vouchsafes not the opening of the Ear to hear his Voice but they are most unhappy and accursed to whose Ears the Voice of God comes but their Hearts are not opened to receive it No Curse more direfull then that which our Saviour saith was fulfilled in his Auditours By hearing they heard and did not understand and seeing they did see and not perceive For this people's Heart is waxed gross and their Ears are dull of hearing and their Eyes have they closed lest at any time they should see with their Eyes and hear with their Ears and should understand with their Heart and should be converted and I should heal them Matth. 13.14 15. For this reason as the absenting from hearing of God's Voice is a damnable Sin they that come not to hear with their Ears shew their Contempt of God's Grace so much more damnable is the hardening of the Heart whereby the Voice of God is wilfully kept out of the Understanding Memory Conscience Will Affections so as it cannot be seated in them nor they guided and ruled by it Which thing comes to pass by the Deceitfulness of Sin as our Apostle tells us Heb. 3.13 Love of any Sin adherence to any Errour opposite to God's Voice will harden the Heart so as neither to admit the enlightning Brightness of it into the Eye of the Mind nor the softning Virtue of it into the Will to make it pliable Pride and Self-dependence were two of the chief Causes of the Jews hardening their Hearts against the Voice of God in the Preaching of the Gospell by Christ and his Apostles How can ye believe saith our Saviour Joh. 5.44 which receive honour one of another and seek not the Honour which cometh from God onely Rom. 10.3 They being ignorant of God's Righteousness and going about to establish their own Righteousness have not submitted themselves to the Righteousness of God Rom. 10.3 Thus at this day do Popish Justitiaries who place their Righteousness in their own good Merits All ignorant people who are wedded to vain Superstitions harden their Hearts against the Voice of the Gospell so as not to be humbled for Sin as the penitent Publican but to boast themselves as the proud Pharisee They receive not Christ joyfully with sinfull Zacchaeus but reject the offers of Grace like those who judged themselves unworthy of eternall life Act. 13.46 In like manner the Cares of this World the Deceitfulness of Riches the Pleasures of this life with other Lusts choak the word of the Kingdome so as that it becomes unfruitfull Matth. 13.22 Luk. 8.14 Hence it is that worldly-minded men and voluptuous livers harden their Hearts against the Warnings of God's Word slight the Tender of the Gospell imploy their wits to discredit it hearken to Seducers which foment their Lusts and pervert their Understanding As redundance of Choler in the Stomach makes it cast up the best Meat as unsavoury so where the Heart is filled with sinfull Lusts or erroneous Principles they make the most precious Truths of the Gospell to be loathed and refused Vicious minds expell holy Doctrines and therefore till the Heart be softned the Motions of God's Spirit will not be entertained APPLICATION Let me now intreat you Brethren to descend into your selves and examine whether it be not so with you The Voice of God in the Gospell of Christ hath been so evidently demonstrated to the world that never was there any thing which was published with more manifest proofs and Divine infallible assurance of its Truth And to take away all doubt of Imposture in the Publishers Testimony hath been given to their Sincerity therein by their relinquishing all outward desirable Advantages even with the sacrificing of their own Lives And to you of this Nation it hath been held forth with much Perspicuity pressed with much Earnestness But do you hear it do you perceive this to be the time of your Visitation your Day Do you not harden your Hearts as in the Provocation Do not your proud Spirits think it below you to stoop to it May we not say as once the Jews did Which of the Rulers believe on him Do we not find the Poor receive the Gospell when the Rich are sent empty away Surgunt Indocti rapiunt Coelum the Unlearned rise up and take Heaven by violence when the reputed Wise goe on in their waies to Perdition Do we not love the Praise of Men more then the Praise of God Do not your love of Pleasures and the Cares of this world choak the Word and make it unfruitfull I come not to accuse you but would have you judge your selves as knowing that you shall be judged by the Lord and if you prevent it not by self-judging condemned with the World Take it as a warning out of a most ardent desire I have to save your Souls that I tell you that there are shrewd Symptoms of the Hardness of your Heart and Averseness from hearing God's Voice in that places of Pastime and Pleasure houses of Good-fellowship are so much frequented as they are and the Church of God neglected in that Romances profane Histories yea Discourses savouring of Atheism are bought up and read with more delight then the Bible or any other Holy Writings we take more pleasure to furnish our Fancy then to rectify our Conscience Are you not sensible that God hath limited you a certain time to hear his Voice that your daies are numbred and your months that you cannot pass that while the Gospell is preached is your Day of Salvation that if the Sun of your Life be set the Day of the Gospell darkned over you there will be no time left to make your Peace to save your immortall Spirits that if you harden your Hearts there remains nothing after this Day but Hell and eternall Judgment Think seriously then upon your Condition and while it is called to day provide for Eternity Hear God's Voice readily and constantly Harden not your Hearts by Pride Luxury Covetousness Superstition or any other evil Lusts Submit your Understandings to God's Wisedom Retain his Word in your Memory and Conscience Believe him against your own Fancies Conform your Wills to his Receive his Truth in the love of it and you shall be saved by it Which he grant c. Amen LAVS DEO THE DANGER OF Abusing Grace The Thirteenth SERMON ROM vi 1. and part of 2. What shall we say then shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound God forbid TO acquit the Gospel which he preached from the Exceptions and Obloquies which it and the Preachers of it were obnoxious to and to demonstrate the Wisedom