A47528:55
God acknowledged, or, The true interest of the nation and all that fear God…
God acknowledged, or, The true interest of the nation and all that fear God opened in a sermon preached December the 11th, 1695 : being the day appointed by the king for public prayer and humiliation / by Benjamin Keach.God acknowledged, or, The true interest of the nation and all that fear God opened in a sermon preached December the 11th, 1695 : being the day appointed by the king for publick prayer and humiliation / by Benjamin Keach.
London: printed for William Marshal, 1696
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Brethren, we are not to consult, Men, General Counsels, nor Ancient Fathers, but the Word of God; 'tis not Custom here will carry the Cause, though it be of some hundred of years standing; if from the beginning it was not so, nor is it sufficient, though many Learned Men, nay, Holy Men, assert it to be a Truth, if it be not written in God's Word. Where God hath no Tongue to speak, we should have no Ear to hear, nor Hand to do; but alas! some Men more consult their own Carnal Reason and Interest, their own Profits, their own Passions than God's Word and his Glory; many peruse their unwarrantable blind Zeal, like Paul, when a Pharisee, who verily thought he ought to do many things against the Name of Jesus of Nazareth, though it was to the making a fearful Slaughter of Christ's blessed Members.
2. Men should acknowledge God in all their Purposes, or about what they think to do, or intend to do, before they put them into Execution. Man sometimes purpose▪ and God disappoints: Go to now, you that say to day or to morrow, we will go into 1such a City, and continue there a year, and buy and sell and get gain, whereas you know not what will be on the morrow.
3. Men should, before they enter upon any Action Civil or Religious, seek to God, by Prayer, for Wisdom and Direction; and also for Strength, Aid, and Assistance; and they that do not this, do not as they ought, Acknowledge God: and thus, I say, in a more general way, we should do; though it be in the smallest matters, and in the doing of things that are Lawful to be done; if they would have Success therein.