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A30290
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The way to peace A funeral sermon on Job 22.21. Preached upon the decease of the right honourable Elizabeth, Countess of Ranalagh. By Daniel Burgess.
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Burgess, Daniel, 1645-1713.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing B5719; ESTC R224017
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30,595
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82
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flagrant in the desire of them so panting after them as the Hart after the Water-brooks The Apostle's Assertion is thus to be taken If any Man thus love the World the Love of the Father is not in him 1 Joh. 2.15 The Throne and the Bed admit but one To subject us to the World is to depose God To take the World into our Hearts is to put him far from them How much less saith another Apostle The Friendship of the World is Enmity with God whosoever will be a Friend of the World is an Enemy of God! Jam. 4.4 When the Earth is interposed between the Sun and us it must needs be Night and when earthly things get between God and our Hearts there as necessarily follows an Estrangement and Darkness The Psalmist's Word speaks it in short The Covetous the Lord abhorreth Psal 10.3 Be it added lastly They err not knowing the Scriptures and the Grace of God who imagine Sins of unavoidable Infirmity inconsistent with his Acquaintance and Amity The Penitent who resists them is not alienated by them And as the innumerable Moats in the Air hinder not the descent of the Sun 's bright and benign Beams upon us neither do the numberless Failings of good Men deprive them of the rich Consolations of God Sins of meer VVeakness do rather excite Pity than kindle VVrath so far they be from interrupting Acquaintance Which is not broken neither by the moderate Employments or Comforts of this Life The Shop and the Plow are not only lawful but necessary Let there be just Care that the lean Kine eat not up the Fat that the Kingdom of Heaven be sought and first sought then do civil Callings subserve and not prejudice our higher Sacred One. So for the Comforts foresaid they are more than Innocent when Temperate If we take them by the Rules of God's Word we shall find them both harmless and useful to his Frindship We do so take them when we chuse none but what are of good Report for he that breaks the Hedg thereof a Serpent shall bite him and when we use not any to the wounding of Piety Charity and Chastity for by marrying of a Wife as well as by dallying with a Harlot a Man breaks the Peace of God if his Use of Liberty degenerates into Licentiousness and if he suffers it to make him break the Precepts of God Pleasure regularly chosen and used is Health to the Navel and Marrow to the Bones a Servant to Life and Godliness The Heart of the Wise is therefore in the House of such Mirth And may I not say it Look as God first created Man in a Garden of Delight He mostly new creates him also where the Voice of Joy and Gladness Sensual as well as Spiritual is heard The innocent Mirth of a Christian casteth a Lustre on his Religion and maketh it attractive Removeth from it the Reproach of Sowrness and Asperity Forth-shews its Sweetness and Alacrity whereof Men that try it not think it to be destitute Yea and as Cyprian and Justin of old because they think it to be destitute they are unpersuadable to try it Insomuch that Stoical and Monkish Austerity gives Occasion of Reproach and makes the Way of God to be blasphemed So far it is from adorning the Gospel from making it appear Amiable and from winning Men to the Love of it It was then when they that believed did eat their Meat with Gladness that the Lord added daily to the Church such as should be saved Morosity was never other than a back Friend to Christianity The Scruples of some others do require that this be added sc that Acquaintance with God is not inconsistent with Darkness and Doubts of his Love The Life of it consists not in Raptures and Extacies of Joy which God gives as in absolute Soveraignty and infinite Wisdom he sees fit and pleases How often do Children of Light sit in Darkness and see no Light Clouds of Witnesses are every where to be found yea the whole Sky of the Church is full of them Wherefore in a word the natural Sun maketh Gold and Silver where it doth not shine with any Lustre And the Sun of Righteousness riseth on many with Healing in his Wings to whom he doth not of a long time give rapturous Sensations of the same Neither know they well what Spirit they are of who think the holy One to be no Sanctifier where He is not at the same time a Comforter §. 2. Of the Peace and Good following Acquaintance with God The Hebrew Dialect takes Peace for the whole Element of Goodness For no less than all that is desirable Nor can the Gain of God's Acquaintance be supposed to be less Omnia habet qi habet habentem omnia To enjoy Him who is all Good is to enjoy no less than all of it Uncreated Goodness giving us its Acquaintance how shall it not with the same freely give us all things All that is necessary of created Goodness God is Faithful and his Acquaintance is thus Gainful His Friends are Kings as well as Priests and richer than the Persian Kings who went a begging to Projectors to invent them more Pleasures These are blest with more than they can ask or think But because Particulars are most affective that we may be provoked in the Faith and Love hereof to pursue it with becoming Zeal and Vigour attend we but these two Positions Yet sufficient one would think to reform the most Obstinate in evil VVays and to encourage the least Resolute in good Ones The Lord clothe them with a Power which none may be able to resist Posit 1 The Properties which commend this Peace are many e. gr 1. It is Vniversal One which contains all sc Peace with God with Conscience with Creatures and with Death Peace with God with God whose Wrath is Hell and whose Peace is Heaven A Peace which the Apostle saith passes all Vnderstanding Phil. 4.7 This follows Acquaintance with God When Adam sinned Enmity was made Enmity that is a Reciprocation of Hatred Christ Jesus maketh Friendship which is a Reciprocation of Love And how Partly by his Blood satisfying God's Justice and meriting his Mercy for us Partly by his Spirit mortifying our Malice and reviving all Grace in us Propitiating God to us and qualifying us for God's Love and Acquaintance Without the first God would be a consuming Fire to us and without the other we should never conquer our Fear or quench our Malice against him But by means of both there 's mutual Peace The Peace whence do spring the sweet Ones following Peace with Conscience one less known by the most accurate Description than by the least Fruition It can be but darkly shadowed forth by the liveliest Colours of Language but faintly represented by Metaphors What Calmness is to the Sea what Serenity is to a Day what Health is to a Body that Peace of Conscience is unto a Man That and much more But to such as have
quote the Psalms the Canticles and other Portions of Holy Scripture for Instances I ask what Christian of any Sense knows not this by his Experience Experience which maketh all things more manifest than Speech the most Excellent can do as the least Beam of the Sun better shews its Glory than the richest Painting of it can do Briefly then the Deaf and the Dumb be Demoniacks They are Strangers to God who hear not oft from Him and speak not oft to Him Who hear him not saying Seek ye my Face And whom he hears not answering Thy Face Lord we will seek 5. Ambition to please Him is imported in Acquaintance with him His Service is perfect Freedom and his Friend's highest Ambition Let me not love thee if I love thee not saith our English Psalmist Let me not serve thee if I serve thee not saith every true Israelite Pleasing God is by doing his Will and bearing it promptly and patiently Doing his Will of Precept after sound Knowledg of it and full Consent unto it Both Vniversally as to Times and as to the Precepts themselves and regularly making it our greatest Employment to keep the first and greatest Commandments Preferring Mercy and Obedience before Sacrifice the weighty Things of the Law before Mint and Cummin Righteousness and Peace before disputed Meat and Drink Submitting to his Will of Providence is no less necessary Submitting without contemning of its Chastisements or fainting under them Stupidity and Despondency are both Sins and Judgments Sense of our Sufferings and a proportionate Sorrow is the Grace of God both in us and unto us Our Duty towards him and his Mercy to us Grief and its Expressions are no Offences but when they are unqualified with their due Circumstances When they are Disproportionate to an inflicted stroke and our Complaint is great for a Cross that is little like Jonah's anger to the Death for no heavier loss than that of a Gourd When they are Indecent and invective against second Causes expressing Fury and not Humility Like those of Job and of Jeremy who in their Calentures cursed their Birth-days and the Messengers of them When they are Immoderate and such as argue us to be Men without Hope as David in his ejulation for his lost Absalom And when they are Profane taxing the Divine Justice and reviling Providence In short this Passive Obedience as truly as Active is in all true Acquaintance with God And as Difficult as they seem and repugnant to human Nature they are more than Facilitated both of them they are even Necessitated by a good understanding of God's Power and Dominion his Knowledg and Wisdom his Goodness and Truth Yea they are Commended unto us as our Principality and the Crown of our Glory Accordingly we find this to be the Language of Men Acquainted with God I will Walk at Liberty for I seek thy Precepts It is Good for me that I have bin Afflicted Here I am Let the Lord do to me as seemeth him good 6. Dependence on Him is also essential unto Acquaintance with God The three known branches of Dependance are so to wit Trust Faith and Hope Trust in his Goodness when we sit in greatest Darkness Faith and Assent unto whatsoever He says and Hope or sweet Expectation of all He Promises For there is a real Foundation in Him for all the Affections which He requireth from Us. It were not beseeming his Majesty to demand them if there were not that in his Nature and that in his Works that did deserve them Consequently their state in this World requiring that they should have somewhat to lean on and to keep them from being overwhelmed with outward Troubles and inward Passions they must necessarily Lean on the Lord and stay themselves on the God of their Salvation As promptly therefore as Seamen use their Anchor or Souldiers their Breastplate and Shield and Helmet Saints do exercise these Vertues which the Scripture representeth by those Names Heb. 6.19 1 Thess 5.8 Eph. 6.17 Their Life is spent in Contemplation of the Divine Perfections which make a proper Object of Confidence and in practical Exaltation of them Namely of the unerring Wisdom which infallibly knows all our Wants and understandeth what are the best Supplies Of the unspotted Goodness which is surely concerned for us and taketh care for Creatures less than our selves for Ravens for Sparrows for the Grass of the Field Of the unquestionable Power to which all things are possible and nothing is difficult tho by us much is unintelligible Power that can do more than we can know and is worthy to be trusted further than we can see The Holy Prophet saith all in a Word They that know thy Name will put their Trust in thee 7. Humility before Him is in all Acquaintance with God His Acquaintance is a Holy Familiarity that doth not breed Contempt nor brook it Tho the Majesty of Heaven condescends to acquaint it self with Worms it maketh them to know their Distance The Proud whose Souls are lifted up are opposed to Believers who walk with God Hab. 2.11 And it is certain that exiled Devils are the proudest and glorious Angels the most humble Creatures These latter would be Nothing that God may be All these Fiends would be All and have God to be Nothing Whomsoever he adopts into his Favour God always qualifieth with a sutable Nature And we know that great Honours do melt down ingenuous Spirits The Grace which setteth Crowns upon their Heads doth make them fall on their Knees And the more they are magnified the farther they be from magnifying of themselves Mephibosheth being invited to eat the King's Bread debasingly stiles himself a dead Dog Abigail when honoured with a Call to be the King's Wife professeth it too high a Preferment for her to be his Servant Let thy Handmaid be a Servant to wash the Feet of the Servants of my Lord In a Word David is told that God would build him an House and establish his Sons on the Throne after him and doth it not swell him up No we find not that ever his Lips dropped more self-denying Words Who am I O Lord God and what is my House So unto Job God appears in excelling Glory and Majesty and what is the Effect I abhor my self saith that excellent Saint Lord I am Hell said the Martyr Hooper as he was ascending to Heaven Pride is the Sin which is least of all consistent with God's Friendship It is as much against his Laws as any and more against his Being and Sovereignty It 's also the grossest Defiance of his Providence receiving its Crosses with no less than Rage and its Blessings with no better than Disdain It 's the Sin that God is not content to ruin but delighteth also to shame Not sending Lions but Lice to eat up an Herod not Wolves and Bears but Goats and Flies to assault a Pharaoh not an Anakim but a very Stripling to fell a Goliah I shall suggest no more to