Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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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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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