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A30272
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Characters of a godly man both as more and less grown in grace / by Daniel Burgess.
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Burgess, Daniel, 1645-1713.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing B5697; ESTC R23829
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60,242
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145
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above all things Purification of heart and hands c. do so do And these are attainable Inward spiritual Sense and Perception is not to be discredited In proposing of Ends and in prosecuting them with Means we have sensations of our actions and these sensations are as worthy to be believed as our bodily Eyes at any time are There is a seeing Light in God's Light there is a Feeling of Divine Power with its exceeding greatness prevailing upon our Wills there is a Tasting that the Lord is good and his Word sweeter than Honey he that hath these may safely conclude from them that he is an Heir of Grace And these are attainable also Lastly The Testimony of a Person that can neither be Deceived nor Deceive us is worthy of all acceptation The Holy Ghost is such a Person infinitely Wise and alike Good He is sent from the Father and Son to testifie unto the Children of God that they are his Children and his Heirs and Coheirs with Christ To Testifie it with their Spirits that they are so To be an additional and deciding Witness The Word of God lays down sure marks of Grace and witnesseth those marks to be true The Conscience of a Believer or his Spirit witnesseth those marks to be found in his heart and life The Spirit of God supervenient to both presents himself and witnesseth by self-evidencing Light that those marks are true and are truly in the Believer and the Believer truly in the unchangeable Love of God And who dares say this Testimony of the Holy Ghost is unattainable or being attained will not give true and proper Assurance The good man knows well the Desireableness of such Assurance For without it who can Do God's Will or Praise his Name Who can come unto the Throne of Grace with a becoming boldness Who can Rejoyce or not Mourn always Who can Comfort or not Sadden others Who can Live but very uneasily or Die but very unwillingly But Assurance is Joy and Joy is our strength Our strength against Corruptions Temptations and the Fear of Death Assured Paul beat down his Body and kept it in subjection Assured Moses chose rather to suffer Affliction with the People of God than to be Heir of the Crown of Aegypt Assured Simeon could say and sing Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace But lastly The gracious man conceives of this Assurance as a thing most Necessary Even upon a nearer consideration Necessary I mean upon consideration of the Command of God laid on him to seek it God requireth nothing more expresly and plainly in all the Bible than that we give Diligence to make our Calling and Election SURE 2 Pet. 1.10 We desire that EVERY ONE of you do shew the same diligence to the full ASSURANCE of Hope unto the end Heb. 6.11 Yea many another duty doth God require from us as means of getting and keeping this said Assurance Our Ways must be searched our Hearts must be searched the Scriptures must be searched our H. Baptism must be recognized the Lord's Supper must be frequently repeated Men to whom is given the Tongue of the Learned to speak a word in season must be oft consulted and for what less than to get and keep sure that God's Law is written in our Hearts and our Names be written in Heaven in his Book of Life Many a serious thought of this riseth walks and lieth down with the gracious man Whose setled Judgment therefore is that if the bare want of Assurance be no Sin or Loss at all yet the neglect of it is such a sin and argues such a want of all Spiritual sense as scarce consists with grace He is satisfied indeed that spring-tydes of Assurance and over flowing Comforts may be wanted without sin For they are rather Priviledges than Duties But as for Assurance which Schoolmen call Moderate and which reacheth unto Hope and Peace though not unto Dancing for joy and Triumph this the good man thinks God seldom or never denies but upon some sinful Provocation Upon the contempt of some Ordinance neglect of some Duty unexercisedness of some Grace indulgence of some Lust And therefore inclines to think the want of this sort of Assurance to be his sin This whose want he judgeth meritoriously procured by sinful Causes and he feeleth to be malignantly full of sinful Effects Nevertheless he awefully concludeth that should he add unto that sinful want the more sinful carelesness of getting out of it should he forget or despise God's positive command to seek Assurance though therein the divine goodness maketh his Comfort to be his Duty should he together break such a Gospel-Precept and slight such a Gospel-Priviledge he should then contract a much more frightful Symptom of Reprobation upon his Soul In short our gracious Man is ever busie in Getting or Preserving and Promoting his Assurance of grace The Holy Ghost must indeed work grace in us before he can Witness it to be in us But it is most certain that he may and doth often work it in a Soul long before he doth witness unto it that he hath wrought it Nor do I dare to say that he doth not let some Children of God live and die without ever witnessing it unto them at all in this World Although we all believe and teach that ordinarily he doth first or last witness the grace he works to be true and saving And doth either by and by after their Conversion or after some good Proficience in Sanctification or at least a little before their Death Assure God's people of his grace in them There are several Seasons in which above all other times he is observed to give them the said Assurance and there are several Duties which above others he useth graciously to reward and honour with Assurance There are six Seasons which are eminent The first is when a Soul hath been extraordinarily bemoaning its sin Ephraim was heard so doing And what was the next news He was straitways called a dear Son a pleasant Child Jer. 31. The second is when a Soul hath been Praying in Prayer and that with all Prayer When it hath been most restless and denied to give the Lord rest and been most importunate for Assurance in order unto holiness then frequently cometh an assuring Testimony As when our Saviour had been at Prayer then came the voice from Heaven saying This is my well beloved Son Luke 3. The third Season is when a Soul hath been Waiting for Assurance and looking for it in all the Ordinances of God no one of them excepted It is in his Ordinances that he will dispense his Consolations See what is said of them that follow those Ordinances Psal 36. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house thou shalt make them drink of the rivers of thy pleasure In the Ordinances we see most of Christ's Blood as prevailing to God's satisfaction and we feel it most prevailing as to our Consciences Pacification The
Characters OF A Godly Man Both as more and less Grown in Grace By DANIEL BVRGESS Minister of the Gospel Here are they that keep the COMMANDMENTS of God and the FAITH of Jesus Rev. 14.12 If ye KNOW these things happy are ye if ye DOE them Joh. 13.17 Examine your selves whether ye be in the Faith Prove your own selves Know ye not your own selves that JESVS CHRIST IS IN YOV EXCEPT YE BE REPROBATES 2 Cor. 13.5 Exceptis PAUCISSIMIS qid est OMNIS coetus Christianorum Salvian LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower End of Cheapside near Mercers-Chapel 1691. To the Right Honourable and the most Eminent Ladies That disown their Portion and Good Things in this Life and being written in the Earth Jer. 17.13 That receive the Word of their Blessed Saviour from his most unworthy Minister And by their religious Zeal do provoke many of Inferior Rank Grace and Peace be multiplied from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Ladies THis Book is not cloathed with soft Raiment It doth not wear Joseph's coloured Coat But it claimeth his celebrated Name Zapnath Paaneah a Revealer of Secrets For it discovereth the things which are most Needful and most Difficult to be known It displayeth no less things than the STATES and CONDITIONS of Souls And presenteth divine Prescriptions for making both of them good Wherefore I have presumed to make it yours And to beseech your Honours and Ladiships to do me the favour to admit it to be your Minister a Clerk of your Closets and a Servant unto your Soliloquies and Sacred Communings with your selves therein Ladies This I have done of my Gratitude and Piety against many Contradictions of my Modesty Yet without one blush for the Plainness wherewith I array divine Truth Because Diamonds suffer loss by Painting and Gold needeth not to be gilded New-Testament Divinity wants no sound of Sackbut and Psaltery Preachers rich Language holdeth many Poor and that which Men will call Poor maketh many Rich. The Christians unto whom I do more statedly Minister do care for no Apes and Peacocks from Ophir But prefer wholesom Food above finest Feathers And I am well sure Your Ladiships are none of those that take him for the King who wears most Lace and Ribband on his Cloaths Or him for the Divine whose Periods are most gay with Wit and Elegance I dare no more to Flatter than to Murder But I must take leave to mention that great Grace of God in you which alone can warrant this my Boldness with you In my own defence I do here say it I have observed you to relish Manna without Quails The words of Eternal Life without the enticing ones of Man's Wisdom To reverence the Ark of God there where it hath been covered with Badgers Skins To be far from dreaming that your Saviour is Divided Or confined unto any Dividing Party that crieth Lo he is HERE or THERE only Admirable Grace And so much the more by how much bigger you are in this World For Greatness and Goodness meet not often The Obligations of great Persons unto their Maker's Service are Superlative But so are their Temptations from it also And as these latter do always Overtake they do almost always Overcome the former So that the Supream Landlord hath most of his Rent from Cottages Courts and greatest Houses do pay him least It is said that the natural Heavens are more distinctly seen in some low Vaults than upon high Mountains But it is every ones observation that the Third Heaven is best seen by People of lower Place There is no actionable Scandalum Magnatum in the Holy Bible But there we read that Not many of them are Called That it is rare that Camels do off with their Bunches and pass through the Needles eye That as Bees are drowned in Hony the Rich are choaked with their Prosperity They do know that there is no Armour against Fate That Peerage is no Protection against Death's Arrest And Imperial Crowns exempt not the Heads that wear them from the common Golgotha Their eyes see that earthly Gods die as other Men do The Misery is they put off the day which otherwise than in imagination they cannot put off They take serious Remembrancers for mis-timed Tormentors Or else make their Answer with the more audacious madness of Laughter And dub them all for Cow-hearts that tremble at our sound of a World to come Especially if they do any more than Tremble If they come to argue not Let us Eat and Drink but Let us Believe and Repent for to Morrow we Die Notable Pastime among them maketh such Language as that rare Gentleman's who with Five hundred Pounds for charitable Uses sent a Letter to Sir Edwin Sands thus Subscribed Your Brother in Christ Dust and Ashes It is true dying hours do change the colour and taste of earthly Grandeurs Then they receive a little sight when their Eye-strings are ready to break Then they believe the invisible Judge and his Tribunal who before were blind to Sunshine and deaf to Thunder And then when they can swallow no other Cordial some do call for the Gospel Then when if the blessed Fountain thereof doth give forth his Grace it can be known only unto himself We do all know there is but one if one instance in all the holy Scripture of a Man receiving his spiritual and parting with his natural Life upon the same day Ladies This is a Lamentation and I doubt not but it is religiously yours Yet is there a relict Honour of our Nation even as to your high Order in it which we have to Congratulate Namely that with the best KING on the earthly Globe we have a QUEEN of serious Religion and of Honourable Women not a few In which Constellation may your Honours and Ladiships long and brightly shine And Living and Dying be renowned Witnesses of these Eternal Truths sc That this sinful World is not supreamly Eligible that the Heavenly Mansions are by no means Contemptible and that the Passage from hence unto them is not invincibly Terrible So Prayeth in the sense of his deep Obligations Honourable Ladies Your most humble Servant in Christ Jesus Daniel Burgess A PRAEMONITION TO THE READER IT is not without better Advice than my own that this Piece goes abroad Nor without an humble Confidence that no Wood Hay or Stubble will be found in it though it's Gold and Silver be altogether unpolished Nevertheless I think my self safe from the wo of being well spoken of by all Men. Being that Light and Darkness will not lay aside their old enmity nor Fire and Water kiss and be Friends in haste Those that cannot bear the Name of supernatural GRACE and can bear no more than the Name of Moral VIRTUE may not be expected to cease from their Hostility against Books and Authors that treat them no more smoothly Natural Historians say that the sound of Timbrels killeth Tygers