A61386:171
An antidote against distractions, or, An endeavour to serve the church, in the daily…An antidote against distractions, or, An indeavour to serve the church, in the daily…
An antidote against distractions, or, An endeavour to serve the church, in the daily case of wanderings in the worship of God by Richard Steele M.A. and minister of the Gospel.An antidote against distractions, or, An indeavour to serve the church, in the daily case of wandrings in the worship of God by Richard Steele M.A. and minister of the Gospel.
London: printed for Elizabeth Calvert, 1667
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.
Answ. 2. Most certainly the Lord is a great God, who can raise or ruin thee in a moment, and whom the Angels approach not without a profound respect: and so likewise Duties of Worship are great and weighty Duties, wherein you transact for a Kingdom, and plead or hear the cause that is for life or death. You drink a cup that will either mend or end you, and who is sufficient for these things? And it is manifest, that we are naturally unprepared, and to every good work reprobate. The positure of our hearts is inverted, and now they are open downwards, and shut towards Heaven; all which if you lay together, it must needs follow, that some preparation is necessary, even for the ordinary duties of God's Worship.
Answ. 2. Most certainly the Lord is a great God, who can raise or ruine thee in a moment, and whom the Angels approach not without a profound respect: and so likewise Duties of Worship are great and weighty Duties, wherein you transact for a Kingdom, and plead or hear the cause that is for life or death. You drink a cup that will either mend or end you, and who is sufficient for these things? And it is manifest, that we are naturally unprepared, and to every good work reprobate. The positure of our hearts is inverted, and now they are open downwards, and shut towards Heaven; all which if you lay together, it must needs follow, that some preparation is necessary, even for the ordinary duties of God's Worship.
Answ. 3. The hearts of men are of a different temper, and so are their occasions; ⟨p. 79⟩the hearts of some are always in heaven, or else within a Call: they are, as the Apostle speaks, Tit. 3.1. Ready to every good work. When a duty of Piety is offered, they are ready; when an object of charity is proposed, they are ready to distribute. And this present Spirit is a great blessing, when Holiness is so rooted and framed upon the heart, that God's Worship is their Element: the hearts of others, through custom and supine negligence, abide at great distance from God; no little ado will raise them, nor will they be fetched in with many calls; like a great Bell, hard to be raised: and as these have a greater unhappiness, so they have need of more pains to fit them for God's service.