Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
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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
will not reckon every Sin a Revolt That which we disallow and deplore He will not vindictively remember As Amity between Princes is not broken by what is done by Pirats if they are not countenanced by supream Commanders so our Acquaintance with God is not broke by every inordinacy of the inferiour Appetite if it be not indulged by the superior Faculties If the Will doth the mean time consent that the Law is Holy Just and Good and calls to the Vnderstanding for Arguments against the breach of it if the Mind and the Heart do defy the Sin the Sin doth not then break our Acquaintance But otherwise it worketh in our Souls a Dread and a Dislike of God It maketh that we neither dare nor desire to approach him And causeth on God's Part a sad Restraint and suspension of Grace and Peace as to the usual degree of Communication Who knows not what David's Bones felt for his Sin of this sort And who is he that hath not himself dearly smarted for it Or who that knows God wonders at it He will be Just as well as Merciful in his dealing with his own Children And will make them to know that he can endure no Sin in them that they are able to endure in themselves Sin against Knowledg being Death to Acquaintance Which if we would maintain effectually to our Peace we must walk as we are taught by Divine Grace denying Vngodliness and worldly Lusts i. e. refusing assent to their lying Suggestions of Pleasure and Profit and refusing Consent unto their importunate Solicitations Behaving our selves soberly in the Duties of our personal Capacity Righteously in relative Duties to Men and Godly in the Duties of immediate Intercourse with God Then may we in Peace Look for the blessed Hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Thus Lived and for this looked the rare Christian whose Decease hath occasioned this Discourse A Christian much more in Truth than in Appearance One of an acquaintance with God that bare few Leaves with much Fruit. Soveraign Grace most richly adorned her Person but my Skill shall not be strained to garnish her Tomb. Only as in the Place of a last Exhortation I add thus much not as Panegyrick but as Sermon Of the Honour of her Parentage of the Beauty of her Person and other common Gifts which do not make known God's Love or Hatred I say not any thing Ecclesia haec tanquam supervacanea dimittit saith an Antient Bishop Though in the World these do make great Figures the Church takes them for no more than Cyphers This only I exhort The things which some of you have seen in her more of you have Heard and all of you shall Now-Hear these things Seek and these Do and the God of Peace shall be with you A summary of them as for some Years I have both Heard and Seen them I give in few words and in no more than these particulars Spiritual Vnderstanding Extensive Knowledg of Revealed as well as of Natural Religion Intensive of Clear as well as of true Light and Applicative taking all that God saith as spoken to ones self as well as to others This is what is wrought by the Vnction which God's Children have from the Holy One. This is the Wisdom that is unto Salvation This was eminently in Her of whom we speak a Guide unto Duty and a Keeper therein a Judg condemning for Neglect of Duty and a Lictor punishing for all done amiss Other Light is but Ignis fatuus other Knowledg but Learned Ignorance Holy Affections Holily Directed by the Dictates of an informed Judgment holily Set upon deserving Objects and holily Proportionated according to their various Degrees of Goodness and Deserts These Affections are our Souls Feet and Wings in Actions Natural Civil and Religious these are the things that move us Insomuch that while these are Naught we cannot do the least Good But when these are Rectified in the Gospel Sense we are Perfect and throughly Furnished unto every good Work The Father and the Fashioner of Spirits so regulated the Affections of this his Servant's Spirit that Enemies if she had any would confess them to have bin set upon the One thing necessary and so set as hath been said True Diligence Such as stirs Promptly as Flames do Ascend Earnestly as for Life with all Violence and with both Hands and Incessantly as Waters flow from Fountains Such was her Industry in Sacred Affairs Unto them her Inclination prevented Human Perswasion and in them she appeared to be none of that sad Multitude who so Pray as though they cared not whether they sped and so Hear God's Word as though they desired nothing less than to Profit Who ever saw her in Prayer but most Fervent in Hearing but most fixedly Intent A most useful Pattern to the Congregation wherein she Worshipped Her Perseverance in this was unfainting to the last her Spirit was Willing when her Flesh was Weak The very Day before her Ascension how eagerly did she Point when she could not speak and make Signs when she could utter no Words to have Holy Prayer put up There was no extinction of the Fire upon her Altar it Ascended with Her Exemplary Patience A Silently-submitting one as that of David who was Dumb because it was God who smote him a Thankfully-Accepting one as that of Job who Blessed God Taking away good things as well as Giving of them and a Chearfully-Receiving one as that of the Apostle's who Gloried or Rejoiced in Tribulations In all her Moanings throughout her long Sickness I heard no Murmuring But a perpetual Acknowledgment of the Divine Goodness in Mitigating her Pains and Moderating her Sorrows Profound Thankfulness Cordial when the Heart is by Gifts made an Oblation to the Giver Oral when the Mouth is made a Trumpet of his Goodness Practical when it 's made the Business of our whole Life to give him the Glory of his Bounty This which is the Soul of all Religion was conspicuosly the Exercise and Delight of her Religious Soul Vniversal Godliness The highest and most solemn Respects toward God as the First Cause ascribing all Good unto Him and Trusting Him for all as the Chiefest Good Reverencing of Him and Delighting in Him as the Supream Power subjecting us to his Authority and yielding Obedience to his Laws as the Last End Glorifying Him in all Things and above all Things O happy Days when there shall be found many such manner of Persons for all holy Conversation and Godliness Christian Charity Of Pity towards God's Enemies of Pardon towards our own Enemies of Complacence in good Men of Benevolence to all Men. This was her Sweet and Gentle Temper her Kind and Meek Spirit A Temper most Delightful to her self most Beneficial to all about her most Like unto God and most Acceptable to Him Excellent and regular Moderation Such Government of the Affections as keepeth from being brought under the Power of any either in the Pursuit or Vse of things Temporal That wherein the desiring Appetite is with Sobriety and Temperance restrain'd from inordinate Pleasure and the angry Appetite is with Fortitude and Patience bridled from unrighteous Wrath. That whereby we are enfranchised from Captivity unto Sense and have Spiritual Dominion established over our Brutish part That whereby we are Crucified to the World and the World is Crucified to us as the Sacred Writer speaks q. d. the Love and Fear of the World is regulated in us so that it can no more seduce or Terrify us That through which Christian Souldiers get the Mastery over the bloody Conspirators this World their Tempter and the Body their Traitor Surrounded with Riches and Honours and in a Prosperity full of Temptations as Nilus of Crocodiles this Moderation of her's was well known In our lower stations of fewer Blandishments and Provocations may our like Moderation be known unto all Men Hope to the End Assent to the Truth of the Gospel of Christ Reliance upon the Goodness of God reconciled by Him Expectation of the promised incorruptible Inheritance and all three maintained unto Death Of the many Months whereof I was not absent from her Chamber many Days never could I discern her Hope to be departed Nor ever heard her complain that it was Departed Indeed the best Hope sometime lieth Prostrate Abraham was not always Abraham When it was worst with her it was no worse than with Job in whose words she express'd it Tho He Slay me I will Trust in Him He knows the Way that I have Chosen It 's not every dark-Cloud that maketh Night nor every sad-Doubt and Fear that is to be named Despair This therefore I testify I have oft seen her Troubled but not once Distressed often Perplexed but not once in Despair May all that hear this have so well-built Hope in their Death Then how terribly soever the old Serpent may Hiss mortally it shall not Sting Whereof I am much the more confident because of that wherein she peculiarly excelled Conspicuous Humility A Mind of low thoughts of her Self a Will of no desire to be thought more highly of than is meet a Language and Behaviour convincingly showing both No Observation or Reading of mine hath given me to know the Saint wherein Humility had its more perfect Work But hereof so much is known that no more shall be told This only is suggested it 's nothing but Acquaintance with God that can truly Humble or Comfort Men and Augels This it is that maketh Seraphims to cover their Wings Feet and Faces and to feel a fulness of Joy and Pleasures for evermore in so doing Which it is most reasonable to believe she is now enjoying with them Insomuch that I am bold thus to conclude I would to God that not only I but also all that hear me this Day were both almost and altogether such as it is meet to believe this great Lover of her God was except but her Infirmities which she ever bewailed and Tribulations through which she Passed into the Heavenly Kingdom Amen FINIS