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A93756
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A sermon preached unto the inhabitants of the town of Thornbury, in Glocestershire [sic] on March 20, 1697/8
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Stafford, Richard, 1663-1703.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing S5133; ESTC R42869
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30,618
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36
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walked who now are at Peace thro' which as a Means ye are to hope that your Spirits may be saved in the Day of the Lord. Jesus A confirming all the Words of the Law and Gospel by your doing of them But whosoever shall do and teach them even the least Commandments the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 5. 19. And it is thro' this thing even that mention'd in the foregoing Verse The setting your Hearts unto all the Words which Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles have testified unto Mankind unto this Day which ye shall command your Children to do all the Words of this Law And then it follows thro' this thing ye shall prolong your Days even so to a blessed Eternity in the Land even the new Heavens and the new Earth where Righteousness dwells whither and when ye go over the Jordan of this Life to possess it There is no other way or name given under Heaven whereby they must be saved than that of Christ Jesus and the Observance of all things whatsoever he hath commanded us Whatever Reproaches and false Sayings have been uttered against my Person or Ministry tho' here it may be expected I should take up such a kind or form of Speech Father forgive them for they know not what they do I pray God lay not this Sin to their Charge But since Christ and his Apostles spake after this manner so much Light and Grace so much Knowledge and Revelation have came into the World that People now may know what they do herein namely that themselves who reproach and speak falsly are as so many Instruments in the Hands of the Devil for to resist let and hinder to defeat spoil or render of less Effect the Ministry of such a Servant of the most High God who doth only Teach the way of Salvation So that if we should still pray and ejaculate after this manner it may seem to encourage others in a like course of sinning and Teaching Rebellion against the Lord for so did Shemaiah the Nehelamite in giving out as if Jeremiah his Prophet was mad as ye may read in Jer. 29. 26. 32. so that instead of my praying Father forgive them for they know not what they do I pray God lay not this Sin to their charge I shall here use and apply as to them other Words of Christ and his Apostle But I say unto you that every idle Word which there signifies false or reproachful Words as appears by the Verses immediately foregoing that Men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the Day of Judgment Mat 12. 36. Who shall give an account to him that is ready to judge both the Quick and Dead 1 Pet. 4. 5. We are not allow'd to pray nor will God hear but according to Truth How then can I pray Father forgive them for they know not what they do when the Times of that Ignorance which God winked at are long since past But now in this Gospel-day more Grace and Knowledge have appeared unto the World So that either People do know or may know which is near one and the same thing what they do and whom they have Reproached and Blasphemed and against whom they have exalted their Voice even against the Holy One of Israel when with their Mouth they have reproached and spoken falsly of his Minister and Servant especially as he was in the Ministration of his Word and when their lying Lips did speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the Righteous Finally Brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good Report if there be any Vertue and if there be any Praise think on these things Those things which ye have learn'd and received and heard and seen in me do and the God of Peace shall be with you Phil. 4. 8 9. Wherefore I take you to record this Day that I am pure from the Blood of all Men for I have not shunned to declare unto ye all the Counsel of God For as may be reason'd from Joshua 8. 35. there should not be a Word of all that God hath commanded in the Scriptures which his true Ministers should shun or refuse to declare and make known unto the People I am not he that is set over ye after the Law of a Carnal Commandment or according to the established manner of the Country But as God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers after that Miracles then Gifts of Healing Helps 1 Cor. 12. 28. so by the Gifts given and committed unto me I may come in for an Helper in the Work of the Ministry And by my constant Warning of the Inhabitants of this Town and Neighbourhood against all manner of Sin and Transgression and by laying open the Unreasonableness and Danger thereof I shall somewhat ease that Account which he is to give for the Souls more immediately and especially committed unto his Charge Notwithstanding all the Labours that are used in this Parish and the Parts adjacent to prevent it whosoever for all that shall perish at last yet I take you to record again that I am pure from the Blood of all Men because I have not refused to declare unto them all the Counsel of God that came into my Mind and which was against their Sin Iniquity Transgression Hypocrisie Disobedience and Ignorance all which and the like do drown Men in Destruction and Perdition And now Brethren I commend you to God and to the Word of his Grace which is able to build you up and to give you an Inheritance amongst all them which are sanctified I commend you especially to the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation and to its Teaching us that denying Vngodliness and Worldly Lusts we should live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present World So that whosoever of you shall deny Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts and shall live Soberly and Righteously and Godly in this present World he or she and such only shall obtain and inherit Salvation in the next World I commend you also to the Teaching of the Spirit of God there is no Teaching like the Teaching of the Spirit and Lord evermore give us this Bread Lord evermore give us the Teaching of thy Spirit and there be sure to obey its Voice and to do always according to those Dictates of Duty and Motions of Good the Spirit shall from Time to Time suggest and put into your several Minds Remember to observe this Rule even to do and put in Practice all the Good that ye shall ever think of or what shall be in the Power of your Hands for to do But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any Man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things and is no Lie and even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him And now little Children abide in him that when he shall appear we may have Confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming 1 John 2. 27 28. As ye and my self do constantly to our Lives end observe these last Rules and Directions here deliver'd however we shall be divided and separated one from another on this Earth in matter of Place But we Brethren being taken from you for a short time in Presence not in Heart 1 Thess 2. 17. for such of us as are obedient unto the Word in Heart and Affection we shall be together still for Godly Hearers will remember a Godly Teacher after he is removed from them as also he will remember such Hearers as were attendant on and obedient unto the Word of his Ministry in such a Place yet such of us as do these things If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them and blessed are those Servants whom when the Lord cometh he shall find so doing shall meet again at a blessed Resurrection Amen so be it saith my Soul Richard Stafford FINIS LONDON Printed in the Year 1698. and are to be Sold unto such who will receive the Truth in the Love thereof Advertisement THese are to give notice That I have several other Practical Sermons or Discourses of mine own composing lying by me in Manuscript which if they who have the Plenty or Competency of this Worlds Goods would according to their several Ability thus Consecrate some part of their Gain and Substance unto the Lord Micah 4 13. so as to be ready to Distribute and willing to Communicate towards the outward Labour and Charge of the Printing and Publishing of them it would be for the Glory of God in making known his Truth Isa 38. 19. and for the Edification and Benefit of his Church and People and consequently it would be a good Work in such Persons who shall be helpful and any ways assistant herein for which they would be rewarded by God in the Life that is to come Charge them that are rich in this World that they do Good that they be rich in good Works ready to distribute willing to communicate laying up in store for themselves a good Foundation against the Time to come that they may lay bold on Eternal Life 1 Tim. 6. 17 18 19. This is a Faithful Saying and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good Works these things are good and profitable unto Men Titus 3. 8.
of him and obey his Voice From the last Words of my Text for I lift up my Soul unto thee the best Instruction that may be learnt from thence is That ye should always have your Hearts lifted up and praying unto God especially in such like Petitions Cause me to hear thy loving Kindness in the Morning cause me to know the way wherein I should walk and then seek out of the Book of the Lord and read and in Subordination to that and as guided thereby follow and obey the Dictates of thine own Conscience We live in an Ignorant and Men-pleasing World wherein they Excuse the Rich and Condemn the Poor in his Cause But admist all the manifold kind of sayings and talk of others amidst the Strife of Tongues Psal 31. 10. or that Advice and Reproach even from the Religious also every and each Person is to guide and steer his own Actions by the Word of God and the Dictates of his own Conscience According to what that teaches and manifests from within and not according to what others say so we are to move and act There is but little in the Opinions and Talk of People but every Man's Judgment cometh from the Lord. That which is highly esteem'd among Men is an Abomination in the sight of the Lord and so contrariwise it runs that which is lessen'd and despised amongst Men provided it be agreeable to the Word of his Holiness is highly esteemed in the sight of God The Reason whereof is because the common Multitude of Men even of the outward Worshippers Religious and Professors also for that of Luke 16. 15. was spoken in Reference to the Jewish Nation who were all of them Worshippers of the Father are not nor have they been as yet brought in Conformity to the great and perfect Rule of Righteousness in Scripture and they do not understand the Things of God as his Saints and Servants did of old time or as themselves shall yet do when they are let slip from out of this Flesh But Abraham said Son remember that thou in thy Life time receivedst thy good things and so the departed Soul will remember the several Steps and Passages of this Life And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the Wilderness Deut 8. 2. And so we shall remember all the way which the Lord led us these Threescore Years and Ten or so many Years as we lived in this Wilderness of the Earth as also we shall then remember and discern when we were in the way of God which was the way wherein we should walk and when we were not If we could know as much in this Life as we shall know in the next Life we should never do amiss or miscarry as to futurity If we would so do in all things as we shall wish we had done when we come to die and are let slip into Eternity we should never go much astray from the way of the Lord. Our Duty to God in many Places of Scripture is called the way and the way of the Lord which here in the Text is called the way wherein we should walk From whence this plain Inference necessarily arises That to obey and serve God is to do as we should do It is a Walking in the way wherein we should walk For a Creature to do as he should do is to obey and serve the Lord. But besides this general Explication and Assertion there being diversities of Gifts and differences of Administrations and diversities of Operations 1 Cor. 12. 4 5 6. given to the several Creatures And the Son of Man hath given to every Man his Work and commanded the Porter to watch Mark 13. 34. So that besides the general Service of God and keeping his Commandments there is some distinct and particular Work according to the Gifts given them and according to their condition and manner of Life wherein the several Men and Women are to glorifie and serve the Lord according to their several Trade Degree or Rank People stand in the World Whoso shall hear or read this may somewhat conceive what is his particular Work which God hath set him to do and I do in part know and apprehend what is mine Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk for I lift up my Soul unto thee Now to apply all this to my Preaching and your Hearing After that Paul had seen the Vision immediately he endeavoured to go into Macedonia assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the Gospel unto them So I reflecting and looking back upon my manner of Life from my Youth up which know some of my Neighbours and by my Preaching unto some of my Father's Servants at Eleven or Twelve Years of age and in the hearing of the then Godly Schoolmaster of this Town as also by the whole Drift Bent and Tendency of my Mind ever since which the Lord hath made to be seriously given and inclined from all this I assuredly gather that the Lord who created my Soul thus had called me that is by his having enabled me so to do to preach the Gospel that is to preach and publish the Truths thereof unto the People of this my Generation And when my Parent had designed me for the Study and Practice of the common Law I remember and observ'd many times that as the Law-books lay open before me and whilst I was outwardly reading in them my Mind at the very same time would be so intent and running upon Divine and Spiritual Things even the Things pertaining to the Kingdom of God that I could not mind and be fixedly intent on the Law Whereupon I did several times think Do not I strive against the very Bent and Call of God in me which would have been if I had applied my self to the Study of the Law of Man when I should have given up my self unto the Study of God's Statutes It would seem Arrogancy and Boldness of Speech if I should apply unto my self what God said to Jeremiah Before I formed thee in the Belly I knew thee and before thou camest forth out of the Womb I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a Prophet unto the Nations Yet the Lord himself who shall rehearse all things from the beginning of the World and calleth all his Creatures by Name in the Day that He shall write up the People He will make known how much there was in this of my having been sanctified from the Womb. But when after that Thought of Heart Do I strive against the Bent and Call of God in me yet I did not obey this same Call so as like unto Timothy To give up my self wholly and only unto Reading and Study of the Scripture until as when Absolom sent for Joab he would not come therefore he said unto his Servants see Joab's Field is near mine and he hath Barley there go and set it on Fire Then Joab arose and came unto