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sin_n ghost_n holy_a remit_v 8,165 5 11.0672 5 true
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A30272 Characters of a godly man both as more and less grown in grace / by Daniel Burgess. Burgess, Daniel, 1645-1713. 1691 (1691) Wing B5697; ESTC R23829 60,242 145

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it from his Children in a way of Soveraignty or unprovokedly by their Sin that they be so oft at a loss concerning it We all know that God may if he please so with-hold or withdraw comforting Light But none I think hath proved or can prove that God doth ever so do Generally and very agreeably unto the Scripture we determine that Saints uncertainty of their Grace is meritoriously and also efficiently brought upon them by their Sin That they do 1 Permit their Lusts to domineer 2 Admit Temptations to egg on those Lusts 3 Commit Sins which are the issues of them 4 Intermit the Acts of Grace and 5 Remit and abate in the Degrees of Grace and so both Deserve and Work their Doubts So cast themselves down into the Valleys of Sorrow and the very Deeps of Despair for a time But more distinctly and plainly be it observed There are two principal Causes of gracious Souls uncertainty of the truth of their Grace 1. Some do not seek after Assurance 2. Others do seek amiss and not as they ought to do Some silly Babes do most absurdly argue That they may be saved without it and therefore they need not take much pains for it And they have been wretchedly hardned in their too common conceit That their want of Assurance is no Sin at all As if we were not bound to have peace in our Consciences as well as with our God And hereupon they do most wildly presume That all Endeavours to gain Assurance be at best but acts of Liberty and not of necessary Duty They are Ignorant or Forgetful of this unquestionable Truth that though a Child of God may be under Uncertainty of his being so yet he cannot long sit satisfiedly under that uncertainty He cannot think it a light evil and a burden easily to be endured He must needs be restless under it David's be troubled when their Evidences be obscured Psal 30.7 But of this some are not aware nor do they therefore spend an hour in a day or a day in a week month or year in seeking Assurance Alas How many Prayers have I heard made without one Petition for Assurance expresly put up And we need not wonder that they do not find who do not seek it But Secondly Many there be who seek Certainty but very faultily And though their faults be too many to be here fully enumerated I will recite briefly some special ones I mistake if I shew not a great World of them in a small Map 1. They seek Assurance that their grace is true with a sinful content in its being Small As though small things were not and would not always be hard to be seen And as though it were likely that God would discover the Truth of grace for their Comfort while they crave not the Growth of it for his Honour 2. They seek Assurance without due Diligence As if our Calling and Election were more easily to be ensured than the Scriptures of truth have suggested 3. They seek Assurance without sound Judgments and free from such mistakes as will naturally cause fear where no fear is e. g. Mistakes about the demands of the Covenant of grace Conceits that God hath made more necessary unto their acceptation than he hath indeed so made Mistakes that Faith justifying is a Perswasion that one is already Justified That if one be Converted one must needs know when God did Convert us That if ever we are Assured that Christ is formed in us we must have a vocal or immediate testimony of God from Heaven about it That if once we be Assured we must presently be rid of all fears and be filled with rapturous Joy c. 4. They seek Assurance without the help of Spiritual Teachers and Guides by God provided for them As if God would pour contempt upon the Ministry of his own Institution and harden them in their Sin who will not own and honour those unto whom he giveth the Tongue of the Learned to speak a word in season unto weary Souls And unto whom he hath said Receive ye the Holy Ghost whose Sins ye remit they are remitted and whose soever Sins ye retain they are retained Joh. 20. 5. They seek Assurance over-hastily and with sinful Impatience not submitting unto God the choice of the Time of it and of the Means As if God would allow Beggars to be Chusers or might be expected to give us our own Wills until they be subjected unto his Will 6. They seek Assurance without holy Confidence that God will give it to them in the faithful use of his appointed means Yea with a strong and setled perswasion that their Labour whatever it be shall be in vain And that they shall live and die upon the Rack without any relief by the means they use 7. They seek Assurance without a just and full renouncing of all worthiness in themselves of so inestimable a favour They over-value themselves even while they most suspect themselves which one wou'd think impossible and do harbour conceits that the Labour they take for Assurance doth in a manner earn it 8. They seek Assurance without a due and full respect unto the Merit of Jesus Christ our only Propitiation and Advocate As they do not thoroughly Abase themselves so neither do they throughly Exalt their Saviour For which cause it is that they so long continue to be as the troubled Sea 9. They seek Assurance without a due fore-acquaintance with the Office of the Spirit toward Believers and the Duty of Believers toward the Spirit And consequently without congruous Honour paid to him who is the Witnesser as well as Worker of grace And without congruous proper Prayer made for those Operations of his whereby alone we can be Assured And without congruous Trial and Examination of our selves 10. They seek Assurance without any Appearance of Thankfulness for other Mercies enjoyed Over-looking and despising them all as though all were but Cyphers without Assurance to give them virtue and value 11. They seek Assurance without an universal respect maintained unto ALL and EVERY one of Gods Commandments Some ORDINANCE or another is slighted some DUTY or other is omitted Reading is much disused Or Hearing is less frequented Or Prayer is restrained Or Conference is let down Or Sacraments be rarely minded Or Psalms be seldom sung Again either Charity to all men is grown cold or Brotherly Reproof is unexercised or true Love of Enemies is expired or the work of Mortification is at an end or that which one would judge should of any be kept up Choice of wisest and most holy Company 12. They seek Assurance without due regard to the Rules whereby and to the Season wherein they do examine themselves To the Rule for this is the Covenant of grace and this they do not understand well and will not go ask instruction about it But concluding rashly that its terms be higher than ever God made them they do accordingly condemn themselves as Hypocrites for that which
Father and the Son breathe forth this blessed Spirit with one and the same Spiration or Breathing This they do Eternally Inconceivably Naturally by the Perfection of their Nature not by any Arbitrary Decree And this said Spirit is a distinct Person acting according to the counsel of his own will He is called one Spirit and That one and self-same Spirit which are very particularising terms 1 Cor. 12. he is a Person declared to be the EQUAL of the Father and Son by his equal Titles and Attributes equal Works and Worship And accordingly the gracious Man that we speak of doth EQUALLY both Honour Worship and Obey him He is not of them that have not so much as heard whether there be a Holy Ghost or no. He knows there is one one Proceeding naturally from the Father and Son in respect of Substance as hath been said And also Proceeding from them dispensatorily in respect of the work of Grace One that in the former respect is their EQUAL and in the latter respect is their INFERIOR Vicarius Christi Tertull. With reverence and godly fear be it written and read that here followeth No occasion is given and I hope none will be taken for any blaspemous thought of Inequality of Essence between the Father and Son and their holy Spirit Inequality of Office it is which the Scripture declareth and which the gracious Man believeth It is a very Maxim and granted by all that Inferiority of Office doth very well consist with Equality of Essence And it is exemplified in our blessed Saviour who is expresly named God over all and the Servant of God God EQUAL in Essence Servant INFERIOR by Office Now be it observed this eternal Spirit did freely condescend to take an Authoritative Delegation or Commission from the Father and Son unto the work of Sanctification Even as God the Son did condescend to take an authoritative Delegation from the Father unto the work of our Redemption Joh. 14.26 The Father will SEND him And Joh. 15.26 I will SEND him saith Christ And frequently this glorious Spirit is said to be SENT GIVEN POURED forth c. Namely to TEACH his People to BRING ALL THINGS TO THEIR REMEMBRANCE to QUICKEN them to COMFORT them to RESTORE them Eph. 2.13 He is named the Spirit of the Promise that is that is promised in the Covenant of grace unto all the blessed purposes of Grace aforesaid And is indeed the grand and principal Gift of all promised therein in the New Testament day The main thing promised by our Saviour unto his Church at the time of his withdrawing his bodily Presence from the same So that it is most evident this Holy Spirit doth not come unto us or act within us only in his own Name but in the Name of the Father and of the Son from whom and by whom He is Promised and Sent. Upon which account it is thought by many excellent Divines to be that the Sin against the Holy Ghost is Unpardonable which no other Sin is Even because Sin against him is Sin against all the Authority of God and all the Love of God and the uttermost condescention of all the three Divine Persons to the work of our Salvation And to come to the Mark that we would give let this be attended The gracious Man is one that payeth unto the Holy Ghost his double Honour the honour of his Essence and the honour of his Office Considered as in his Essence he believes in him worships him and obeys him as God EQUAL with the Father and Son Considered as in his Office he Values him Prays for him Grieves him not but industriously Pleaseth him Delighteth in him Dependeth upon him Thanketh the Father for giving him and the Son for purchasing him and the Father and Son for sending him as the great APPLYER of all the Benefits by the Father given and by the Son purchased As one whose Presence is incomparably more profitable and serviceable to the application thereof than the bodily presence of Christ it self And is as freely vouchsafed by him for the Sanctification of the Elect and for the Consolation of the Sanctified as ever Christ's Presence was vouchsafed for the Reconciliation of God unto th●m by his Blood Freely our Redeemer CAME to do that Will of his Father And as freely this our Sanctifyer and Comforter PROCEEDED to do the Will of the Father and the Son For of his Oeconomical and dispensatory Proceeding unto it and not of his personal Proceeding is that Text to be understood Joh. 15.26 He PROCEEDETH from the Father Now unto this glorious Spirit in whom all the New Testament Promises are fulfilled as in Christ all the Promises of the Old Testament were unto Him who as Jesus Christ thought it no robbery to be EQVAL with God yet was Promised as Christ was Promised by God and is said to Come to be Sent and to be Given as Christ is said to Come to be Sent and to be Given and may not be esteemed a less GIFT of God than Jesus Christ himself was unto this ever-blessed Spirit descending from the bosom of the Father and the Son and residing among the needy Children of Men unto this Inspiration of the Almighty what deferences doth the gracious Man make Sciunt qi fiunt Gracious hearts do very well know what deferences They know and feel it a gracious heart would rather be no heart than be void of this Spirit It accounteth every heart that is not his Holy Temple to be no other than Satan's hideous Dunghill In short it thus testifieth concerning that Spirit that is the Soul of its Soul the prime and principal Spring of all its Motions Heaven-ward The Son of God's Work in Redemption had been in vain without the Spirit of God's Work in it's Application Without this Almighty Work as well as that most Merciful one the Work of the Father in Freation which Sin spoiled had never been repaired never restored Without this blessed Spirit never had I understood a Truth or possessed a Grace or performed a Duty or enjoyed a Privilege in hand or in hope I was Ignorant even Darkness it ' self and he was unto me the spirit of Wisdom and of Understanding I was Unconvinced of my Sin and Misery and in a feavorish Dream of the clean contrary and he convinced me making it plain to me that I was a Child of wrath by Nature and of Disobedience by all my Life I was stupid and senseless of the wrath I believed coming and he brought me to my feeling and made me cry out I am grievously tormented with the guilt of my Sins and with the power of my Lusts He brought me into that bondage without which I had never looked out after liberty Under my Conviction and Compunction I was even totally Despairing one while and going about to set up my own Righteousness another while and he it was who came and perswaded me there was a Rock of Salvation for such as I but my