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A30278
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Eighteen directions for saving conversion unto God by Daniel Burgess ... thus published for the poor.
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Burgess, Daniel, 1645-1713.
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1691
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Wing B5705; ESTC R36045
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21,736
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58
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him and Badges of being his put upon you to the Conquest of Disobedience Sacramental Obligation is the chief Store-house and Magazine to draw Armour from in an Hour of Temptation There is none like it Rom. 6.1 2 3. What shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Know ye not that so many of us as were Baptized into Jesus Christ were Baptized into his death 1 Pet. 3.21 The like figure whereunto even Baptism doth also now save us not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience toward God by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 and 21. The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ The Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ Ye cannot drink the Cup of the Lord and the Cup of Devils ye cannot be partakers of the Lords Table and of the Table of Devils D. 17. Hear your selves daily your Catechism I mean the Summary of Religion unto which you have attained There be several set down in my Three Questions Resolved long ago Printed I advise all once a day to go over that which they have Learned and can Remember Let grown Christians ask and answer themselves how they do in their Hearts BELIEVE each Article of the Apostles Creed how they PRAY each Petition of the Lords Prayer how they PRACTISE each Commandment of both Tables how they are ENCOURAGED and ENGAGED unto all three unto the Life of Holy Faith Prayer and Practice I mean by their Holy Baptism and the Lords Table Rom. 2.21 Thou which teachest another teachest thou not thy self Psal 4.4 Commune with your own Heart Psal 16.7 My Reins instruct me D. 18. Command your last Thoughts to be fit to be your last When you compose you to sleep suppose that you may die in that sleep And if so the God unto whom you must go in that death is fit to be thought of in the entrance to it If not it will be sweet in the Morning to review last thoughts of him at Night Yea and those thoughts of Faith and Love and Trust at Night will be generative of more of the same Spirit and Goodness in the Morning Psal 63.6 I remember thee on my Bed and meditate of thee in the Night Watches He that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of Men Rom. 14.18 Motives with Directions unto Religious Discourse such as tends to promote Conversion and holy Conversation By the same Author Thus Published for the Poor THE H. Spirit setting forth the sin of all the Members of the Body insisteth longest upon the Instruments of Speech Rom. 3.13 14. Their Throat is an open sepulchre with their Tongues they have used deceit the poison of Asps is under their lips Whose Mouth is full of cursing and bitterness He declares also that our Safety depends upon the right or ill using hereof Prov. 18.21 Death and Life are in the power of the Tongue and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof And that one of the prime things that shall be brought to Judgment are our Words Mat. 12.37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned He makes our Speech the great discovery of our Heart Mat. 12.34 O generation of Vipers how can ye being evil speak good things For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Psal 37.30 The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom and his tongue talketh of judgment And accordingly holy men watch against the sins of the Tongue Psal 39.1 I said I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my Tongue I will keep my Mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me Yea and Pray unto God to assist their watch Psal 141.3 Set a Watch O Lord before my mouth Keep the door of my Lips They make conscience of expressing the Image of their hearts in holy discourses Psal 37.30 The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom and his tongue talketh of judgment And count it absurd to pretend to be religious if their Discourse be not governed by Religion Jam. 1.26 If any man among you seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his own heart this mans Religion is vain God for Christ's sake forgive me my trespasses And prosper unto many others with me these twelve Motives to Religious and Useful Discourse M. 1. Our Speech is given us by God for Religious Discourse Jam. 3.9 Therewith we bless God We do so it we use it to the end for which He gave it It is a Faculty most Excellent and therefore ought to be consecrated unto the holy uses for which it was by Him intended Otherwise we oppose his just Design and abuse his rich and extraordinary Gift That which He hath bestown upon no Creatures but those that are capable of Religion and bestown it on them for no use so much as of Religion M. 2. Religious Discourse is the most Honourable Doth God excel Creatures Doth Eternal Blessedness transcend momentany things As truely and plainly doth Religious discourse out-shine all other Men despise Childrens talk of their Play-things Princes contemn Subjects talk of their Shops and Farms and no less do New-born Souls slight Princes talk of Crowns and Kingdoms in comparison of talk concerning Heaven It is only holy Breath that is Nobly spent M. 3. Religious Discourse is the most Delightful It is most apt to Delight and doth actually Delight Men most when Sin corrupts not their Sense As Honey is incomparably sweeter than Whites of Eggs when no Disease hath vitiated our Palates For what is Delightful but Goodness And what is Goodness but Pleasingness unto God And what Discourse so pleaseth God as Religious And who have so much Pleasure as they in Heaven who have no discourse but Religious Prov. 15.26 The words of the pure are pleasant words M. 4. Religious Discourse is the most Profitable It trafficks in the richest Commodities God hath no richer than what it trades for Yea and its words be a wind that do always blow good unto both the Speaker and Hearer They prevent evil Words and Thoughts abundance of them if not much other Sin They awaken the Speakers Mind and affect his Heart and give him a rich promise of Gods Blessing Prov. 11.25 The liberal Soul shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered also himself Mal. 3.16 17. Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his Name And they shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts in that day when I make up my Jewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his own Son
forgiven in the Blood of my Redeemer by my gracious God! May my more Judicious Brethren more able in Speaking and more able in Writing be drawn to publish their more Elaborate Directions by the good Success of these so hastily thrown together May these Lines Live when I am Dead and Speak when my Breath is Stopt and in the mean time may they Preach unto Thousands of whom I can never see the Faces till the Resurrection Amen and Amen FINIS Books Printed for and Sold by Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chapel A Call to Sinners such as are under Sentence of Death and such as are under any Prospect of it from the Long-suffering and Gracious but most Righteous God Three Questions resolved briefly and plainly viz. 1. What Conceptions ought we to have of the blessed God 2. What are those Truths whereof the Knowledge appeareth most indispensibly necessary unto our Salvation and therefore to be first and most learnt by us 3. What is the change wrought in a Man by God's H. Spirit before he can safely conclude himself pass'd from Death to Life Being the Summ of three Sermons A seasonable Question plainly resolved viz. What are we to judge of their Spiritual Estate who neglect the Lord's Supper And What is that discerning of the Lord's Body in it without which Men do eat and drink their own Damnation Mans whole Duty and Gods wonderful Intreaty of him thereunto Set forth from 2 Cor. 5.20 and published at the Request of some Hearers Advice to Parents and Children The Sum of a few Sermons Contracted and Published at the Request of many Pious Hearers Christian Commemoration and Imitation of Saints Departed Explicated and Pressed from Heb. 13.7 occasioned by the Decease of the Reverend Mr. Henry Hurst Lately Minister of the Gospel in London All Six by Daniel Burgess Minister of the Gospel FINIS Directions for Daily Holy Living by D. Burgess Minister of the Gospel D. 1. LImit your sleeping hours Let them not be as many as brutish Sense demandeth Let Reason fit their number to your Health and Labour Your Motion is not by the Rule of Religion if your Rest be not so Psal 139.18 I awake that I may be still with thee So some Learned read it D. 2. Consecrate your waking thoughts Let your God have those first Fruits He always Loved the first of all things The first Fruits and first Born under the Law were his Present Him with these every morning Thoughts are inward Speeches Let God hear Himself first spoken of by you still It will argue that He is your Beloved and it will make Him more so Love makes Thoughtful and Thoughtfulness makes Love A Potter is known by his Vessels and a Heart by its Thoughts and of all Thoughts by its first in the morning and last at night My voice shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord Psal 5.3 D. 3. Regulate your Bodily Dresses Long Dresses bewray large Consciences if no worse He that duly prefers his Soul above his Body would rather go like the wild Indians than dress like some Londoners The Hebrew word Beged signifies Cloathing and Covenant-breaking God seems to have taught thereby that the Cloaths on our backs should humble us for the sin of our first Parents and Persons But if they do not so and if outward Adorning be that which employs our early hours and severe thoughts it will be dearly paid for in our dying hours with tormenting thoughts 1 Pet. 3.3 Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning D. 4. Time well your Closet and Family Worship They be not the same things in season and out of season Let the Word be read one verse rather than none and Prayer be made the shortest rather than none both by your selves alone and with your Families If it may be worship first by your selves But needlesly tie not your selves being God hath not bound you unto such and such hours Still do as you verily think is most for Edification Mat. 6.6 Enter into thy closet and when thou hast shut the door pray to thy Father Josh 24.15 As for me and my House we will serve the Lord. D. 5. Sanctifie your worldly Business Nothing is your business but that which God your Master sets you about Dare not then do any thing but that whereto you can entitle Him Nor dare you to do it for any other chief end but to please Him When you do WHAT He sets you and supremely BECAUSE He sets it and wills that you do it knowing and hoping for his Direction in it and Blessing of it you then sanctifie it Then HOLINESS TO THE LORD is written upon it whatever it be 1 Cor. 10.31 Whether ye Eat or Drink or WHATSOEVER ye do do all to the glory of God D. 6. Moderate your Pains in your Callings Pains must be Sweat is required But by Reason and Religion they must be measured God's Laws be all Just and Good Drones that will not work must not eat He that is a sluggard in his work is branded as Brother of the Prodigal waster Prov. 18.9 Drudges of whose Labour there is no end and who bereave their Souls of good who use themselves worse than God allows Oxen to be used Treading out the Corn and muzzling themselves these are branded by the Spirit of God as inconsiderate absurd and self-destroying fools Eccles 4.8 Diligent hands have the promise of being made rich That is Hands that be neither Drones nor Drudges Prov. 10.4 The hand of the diligent maketh rich D. 7. Strengthen your guards against your strongest Enemies Sin is our Enemy even One and All. God hates nothing but sin and man can be hurt by nothing but sin Sin 's name is Legion for it is many And of the many there is some one or other in every man that has more power than all the rest That gives strength unto all the rest And being mortified all the rest are mortified There be also beside that KING-sin in the Souls some kind of PEER-sins which of all next unto the KING-sin are by far the most dangerous The KING-sin is alway or mostly your Temperamental sin the sin of your Constitution The PEER-sins be the Radical ones of Sensuality Unbelief Hypocrisie and the way-laying ones whereunto Temptations will every day meet us in our Company and Business You can never have any but a false Peace till you can say as Psal 18.23 I am upright before the Lord I keep my self from my own iniquity Doctor Bates his little Book upon that Text is a Light and a Lamp a Rod and a Staff D. 8. Govern your Thoughts and your Words Let not your Minds or Tongues be unbridled and run whither they will You are in your Shops and your Business very often alone Reverence your Conscience and dare not in the presence of God's Vicegerent to suffer a sinful or useless self-discourse But talk with your selves of great and good Subjects and with