Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A30270
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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 / by His servant, Daniel Burgess.
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Burgess, Daniel, 1645-1713.
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1689
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Wing B5695; ESTC R23828
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12,715
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if thou canst is it any thing but Compulsion by fear of being damn'd without them that causeth thy choice Sinner I would have thee know 'T is from Christ working in thee by his Spirit that thou turnest from sin so as thou dost That thy Will to sin is dead even so much as a Tree in Winter That thou chusest Christ and his spirit tho' but for their Benefits and but on Compulsion Without divine Drawing thou hadst never come so far it self But wo be to thee that ever thou wast born if thou art not drawn and dost not come farther If thou dost not come into real and gracious Marriage-union unto the Lord Jesus Christ O go Labour Pray and Wait to be enabled to say the four particulars that follow as ever thou wouldst get able to say I am passed from death to Life P. 1. I now see the Necessity of Vnion to Christ and unto God by Christ God and Man were at first United closely tho' not inseparably Sin undid us by Disuniting us By destroying the Relation and Kin we had unto God and of Children making us Aliens and Strangers Religion is nothing at all less than Re-Union unto God. A return unto our first Kin and Relation unto Him. Such Kin as that of Father and Child such Relation as that of Friend and Friend Now hereunto no return can be made but by Union first made unto Jesus Christ Joh. 1.12 Such an Union to him as that which is betwixt Husband and Wife betwixt Head and Members bewixt Root and Branches betwixt Foundation and Stones built on it These similitudes the Holy Scripture useth and he that takes them for insignificant cyphers blasphemeth P. 2. I now see the Nature of this so necessary Vnion unto Jesus Christ 'T is the foresaid Relation and Kin by mutual Consent and Covenant made By threefold Consent God is willing that his Son Christ as Mediator should become so nearly related unto us Christ's will is always one and the same with his Fathers and He is declared most willing We sinful Fugitives and Aliens are never willing till infinite Grace by almighty Power makes us willing Nor ever are we took into the Relation we speak of till we are made so And are brought to an hearty Consent unto the Marriage-Covenant Which consent is indeed saving Faith. Consenting thereunto is believing and believing on is marrying unto Christ Jesus as appears Joh. 1.12 c. And this great work being done we are instantly a-Kin unto our blessed Lord. Related as near as a Wife is unto an Husband I and Related unto God as a Wife is unto her Husband's Father Christ MEDIATOR is our Husband and God is Our Father by the Law of grace My Father and your Father saith that gracious Husband Joh. 20.17 P. 3. I now see what that Covenant of Grace is whereto our consent given doth make the foresaid Vnion It consists I see in Promises and Demands Promises of good things unto us and Demands of duty from us The Promised Mercies I comprise in four 1. GRACE Both Grace Justifying and Absolving from the guilt of sin and Grace Sanctifying or Abolishing by degrees the Power of sin Heb. 8.10 12. 2. BREAD I mean all the necessary good things of this Life Enough of them to bear our charges to Heaven 1 Tim. 4.8 3. GLORY That is both Excellency and Eternity of all desirable good in the next World. 2 Tim. 4.8 1 Pet. 1.4 4. CHILDREN'S BLESSING An entail of good things for our sakes tho' not our merits upon our Children Rom. 11.28 Exod. 20.6 Acts 2.39 The Duty demanded is also considerable in four particulars 1 REPENTANCE An Heart-renting for sin and from it A First one necessary unto our acceptation into a Justifyed state an After-one continued necessary unto our sense of Justification and unto our daily Pardons Act. 2.38 Luk. 13.3 2 FAITH Assent unto the Gospel Revelations Consent unto the Precepts Reliance upon the promises Act. 16.31 Mar. 16.16 3. NEW OBEDIENCE Conformity of the whole man unto the whole Rule of the Gospel in Natural Civil and Religious actions 2 Thes 1.8 1 Pet. 4.17 4 PERSEVERANCE Or strict and precise adherence unto that conformity in all times places companies and conditions unto Lifes end Rev. 2.10 Our Holy Baptism and the Lord's supper do both Encourage our belief of God's fulfilling the promises of this Covenant and Engage us on our parts to fulfil the Demands of it in the strength of Christ And they would of all Ordinances be the most helpful if the Nature Ends and Vses of them were duly Taught by Ministers and Learn'd by People P. 4. I now feel my hearts free and full consent to this said Covenant of grace Unto the Acceptation of it's promised Benefits for my only Portion and Enjoyment and unto the Acceptation of its demanded Duties for my only Business and Employment in this world Blessed be free grace I do accept both And my Soul that was so far from God is made nigh The Objections of my mind and oppositions of my will are routed Grace in Christ has conquer'd my Enmity against God as Holy and my fear of Him as my Enemy His offered Son I have Accepted his Person with his Benefits I have taken Him for my Husband Teacher Saviour Ruler As the only Mediator to Reconcile God unto me and to Communicate grace to me from God. Now is Father Son and Spirit my enjoyed Portion and my served Lord again I have entred into an Oath and a Curse and bound my self at my everlasting peril Him only to serve Him only to enjoy With engaged heart with opened mouth with a fix'd hand and seal I have obliged my self to have no other God but Him no Mediator but his Son no Ruler but his Spirit no Rule but his Word The Word of his ever Blessed Covenant well ordered in all things and sure which is all my salvation and all my desire Oh Reader I have heard of a sinner who twice heard a Voice from Heaven as he thought it saying Make haste make haste and yet he a prodigious Adder died a Sinner Be it far from thee to be so obstinate Wilt thou tell me Obj. 1. That I mistake thee and that thou art no such great Sinner though it be thy lot to have been drawn away by ill Company and to have miscarryed of late Answ Alas alas if so blind and senseless what hope of thee However the Lord who is only able shall be intreated to make thee Understand 1. Every sinner is a great one for no sin is small the least of sins against God deserves Death eternal 2. By Nature thou art a Child of Wrath and Enemy of God. 3. All thy Life of Vnregeneracy has been very sinful a dead and damning Life 4. Thou art an English despiser of Christ and that is the worst sort in the World For according to the degrees of spiritual Light such are the degrees of obstinate Rebellion against it Obj.
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. By his Servant Daniel Burgess at the Pious Request of an Excellent Person â—f God peradventure will give them Repentance 2 Tim. 2.25 LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside and Râ—bert Gibbs at the Golden Ball in Chancery-Lane 1689. To my dear Children My Hopes and my Fears THE first Adam's sin came into You thro' my Loins O may the second Adam's grace come into you thro' my means My God and the God of my Father's grant it To Him have I Dedicated you And for Him would I Educate you I am Called unto much work for Others It's little that I can do distinctly for You. Be it your Care to make Yours what is done for many Others Thus publickly I command you to read this Call as wrote singly for your selves 'T is possible some other Parents may from so mean an example Charge their Children And this my Paper may speak unto you when I am gone from you You know they are many who think my Days on Earth will be few And that You must Die Young or Live Orphans However that be order'd by God hasten ye to make sure your Peace with Him. Up and be doing O precious Souls and dear as mine own The God of my own Mercies Comforts and Hopes be with you Amen A Call to SINNERS UNDER Sentence of DEATH and under any Prospect of approaching Death O Blessed God that hast called me to lay my Paper to the Grave and to intreat the Dead to Rise to Argue with Rocks and Perswade very Mill-stones to be Saints O take the Work into thine own hand half a word of thine will make every Reader a Sincere Convert and Sound Believer Lord if thou wilt thou canst make this Call like the Trump of the Archangel to raise Millions of Dead Souls out of their Graves Amen Amen for Jesus sake Amen Miserable O miserable but not yet Helpless Sinner THE Lusts thou hast served all thy former days cannot now give thee one pleasant Thought in these thy last days The World thou hast Idolized cannot save thee from or in thy approaching Death The Devil whom thou hast Imitated and Obeyed longs to be sent to fetch thee to Hell. The God whom thou hast not sought unto for thy Peace with Him is resolved to wait but a very little longer for thy seeking unto Him. Yet so Kind is his holy Nature so Compassionate is his holy Jesus so long-suffering is his holy Spirit that by my hand He gives thee once more the Offer of his Pardon Grace and Glory He commands me to try if any or all of these ten Cousiderations will awaken thy Soul. C. 1. The very last Week and Day of thy Life is given thee to prepare for Eternity as well as all thy former ones I and the mispending of these will be a greater sin than the mispending of all thy former Weeks and Days hath been It will be a kind of sinning over all former sins again and adding unto the same Who can say thy Day of Grace is over And who can doubt but our last sins be still incomparably our worst sins C. 2. The very minute it self wherein Thou beginnest thy true Conversion God doth begin thy true Salvation Thou art under the Sentence of Condemnation not onely by the Law but by the Gospel When thou dost begin to Convert read Luk. 15.20 And he arose and came to his father But when he was yet a great way off his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him C. 3. The very Call that in this Paper God sendeth unto thee is a probable argument that God hath saving Grace in store for thee Methinks God hath said to me Go preach to the poor condemned Malefactors for I have some people among them and Hell shall not have all that die on the Gallows C. 4. The very Book of God which directs me to all I put thee upon is full of Proofs that thou mayst be saved however wicked thou hast been if even now thou dost not Deny or Delay Gods merciful Call sent thee The Heaven is not so full of Stars as Old and New Testament of Proofs hereof In the Old Testament Manasseh is a famous Instance of saving Grace to Sinners most notorious The Thief dying on the Cross is another recorded in the New Testament One of 97 years old was converted by John Rogers And Richard Rogers used to say of John I will never despair of any man for John Rogers's sake so wicked a wretch John had bin C. 5. The very Nature Decrees and Words of God make it certain that Vnbelief dishonours God more than all other Sins and Faith more honours him than all other Duties St. Austin says Judas sinn'd worse by his unbelieving sorrow for his Sin than by all his sins that he sorrowed for And such another Phoenix saith That right Faith honoureth God more than an uniform intire Obedience to the whole Law in Innocency could do C. 6. The very Pardon and Salvation of thy perishing Soul is a Work God has more Delight in than he has in all the Works of the whole Creation Seek Sinner seek seek and fear not that God will deny unto thee the thing he delighteth to give unto all that do duly seek C. 7. The very Hope that in his Gospel-way God will save thee and Confidence that through Christ he can do it without any loss of his own glory is no small Honour unto God I and 't is that without which thou canst never rightly Believe on Jesus Christ and therefore never Do any thing pleasing unto God. C. 8. The very Soul of thine which is certainly and extremely corrupted and cursed is not worse than many of the Souls which are now in Heaven once were Gods Son hath Redeemed and his Spirit hath sanctified as bad as Thou art Why not Thee too C. 9. The very Change of thine that I write for change of Covenant of Spirit of Nature of Conversation of Company it can no sooner be made but Heaven will ring with Joy for it I. and Hell gnash for envy at it Father Son and Spirit Angels Saints above and all Saints below that hear of it will be right glad C. 10. The very State that thou art now in is not so bad as that thou shalt presently pass into is good if now thou acceptest Christ offered to Thee No nor shall the very Eternity of the Damn'd be so bitter as he Eternity of thy blessed Soul and Body be sweet Sinner sinner lay this to thy heart thy State is Hellish bad as a Creatures sin can-make it But Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and in the same moment it shall be Heavenly even good as a God-Man's Obedience can deserve to have