Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A30274
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The Christian temper: or, The quiet state of mind that God's servants labour for Set forth in a sermon at the funeral of Mrs. Ursula Collins. By D.B.
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Burgess, Daniel, 1645-1713.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing B5699; ESTC R213107
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22,863
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76
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to the right Owner I Love the Lord not I Love his Deliverances saith the good man q. d. 'T is unto the Giver my affections are drawn by best gifts Nor would I count any of them good if they tended not to make my Esteem and Love of Him better Return of Prayer is another kind of thing than the Gold of Ophir But all my Love is too little for Him that makes it And rather than any of it should be stole from Him I would chuse to have any Desire of mine denied by Him. 'T is Him that I studiously Love in all things for all things and above all things L. 3. The Mercy of one Day engageth us to Duty all our Days It engaged the Psalmist as the second verse most expresly saith Because He hath enclined at this time his Ear unto me therefore will I Call upon Him or Pay all Duty to Him as long as I live q. d. The Deliverance that God hath now wrought for me hath sensibly brought Fire Fuel and Bellows to the Love of God in me And for present the coals thereof are coals of Fire which hath a most vehement flame But this gives me not content I look forward and I take care for to morrow My heart is green Wood and Fire in green Wood doth as easily Die as it doth difficulty come to Live. Above measure I think my self engaged to consult for the continuance of that Zeal which is easier Lost than first Got. And easier Kept than Regain'd Lost I know it will be if the divinely appointed means be not used to preserve it The which means are all Duties And unto the Use of them all my days I am as much obliged as the very first day of my Salvation I dream not that God's end in it is to make me Bless Reverence Trust and Serve Him the more for less than all my time The benefit of the Salvation it self extends plainly thro' it all And thro' it all as in duty bound I engage my self to that universal Obedience whereof Prayer is the so eminent Pillar The World shall see there is a Thankfulness that abides unto the Giver even to the last breath of the Receiver L. 4. Death and Hell do often Fright but they never Hurt a good Soul. The Psalmist says verse the third that the fears of death to wit Bodily and Spiritual found him and he found trouble and sorrow great store in them He says not that they mischieved him It were easie to shew that they both did him good He hath elsewhere told us 'T was good beneficial for him that he was Afflicted viz. in Body and Spirit And here it self he doth with sufficient plainness speak the same For in the next verse these are his words Then called I on the Name of the Lord as if he had said In that my Affliction I sought God early That Hell upon Earth drave me to Heaven Mine Eyes had been less toward God if he had not set the Image of death upon my Eye-lids So many and so fervent Prayers had not been put up from my Soul and for my Soul if the dread of Death and Hell had not come into my Soul. Memorable is that passage of worthy Mr. Shepheard I have oft wondred If Christ hath born all our miseries and suffered death for us why then should we feel any miseries or see death any more And I could never satisfie my own heart by many answers given better than by this viz. That if the Lord should abolish the very being of our miseries they should indeed then do us no hurt but neither could they then do us any good Now the Lord Jesus hath made such Peace for us that our Enemies shall not only not hurt us but they shall be forced to do us much good Wants make us pray the more Sorrows do humble us more Temptations make us exercise graces more Desertions make us long for Heaven more 'T is now part of our portion to have not only Paul and Apollos and World but to have Death it self to do us good L. 5. The troubles of our Souls are the Souls of our Troubles David's do so appear By the heaps of words that he pileth up to express them they appear so Death-sorrows Hell-pains Troubles and Sorrows that found him and got hold of him Oh what a deal of Water can the Sea contain more than a Thimble or a Cockle-shell And what an a like deal of good and evil is the Soul capable of more than the Body And how much more to be pitied is the Soul that is betwixt Hope and Fear of God's Love than the Body that is between the Axe and the Block Let the Reader that would see more of this see the unparallellable Mr. Ro. Bolton upon Prov. 18.14 L. 6. In the Fire and Water there 's nothing like holy Prayer David was in them both with the witness and in them as the best course he could take he prays Then called I on the Name of the Lord O Lord I beseech thee deliver my Soul q.d. When I was beat off my Legs I fell upon my Knees I knew the heavenly Father used to strike his Children no lower Yea and to strike them for no purpose so much as to bring them on their Praying Knees Unmixed Praise is his delight in Heaven but upon Earth 't is Praise with Prayer he delights in And which he makes the in-let of all his Mercies and our true Consolations They quite mistake their way to welfare who when they are distressed sit still in lazy Complaints Or go busie themselves in Complotments hoping by their own and by borrowed Wisdom and Power to remove the Mountains that lay on their hearts Idleness and carnal Activity sink us deeper into sorrows they never take us out But Prayer honours God and God honours Prayer No want is so great but He can supply it and there 's no Soul that Prays in Faith but may be sure He will supply it Is his Power only Infinite no his Goodness that makes Promises and his Truth that keeps them be fully as Infinite as that Power it self is What therefore is comparable to Prayer 'T is with it and not without it that Faith subdues worlds of evils obtains Promises muzzles Lions quenches Fire scapes the edge of Swords of weak makes strong Nothing can kill a Believer but that which can stop the breath of his Prayer L. 7. God's gracious righteous and merciful Acts do teach us his gracious righteous and merciful Nature They taught our Psalmist He comes from declaring the former to conclude the latter He had said what God had Done and verse the fifth he says what God is Namely Gracious that is Kind without any Force or Necessity and without any Merit or Motive from without his own heart Righteous that is Just or Faithful Merciful that is forward to help creatures Lying in misery Be it observed 't is the Nature of God from whence alone in many cases we
THE Christian Temper OR The Quiet State of Mind that God's Servants Labour for Set forth in a Sermon at the Funeral of Mrs. Ursula Collins By D. B. Ah my dear angry Lord Since thou dost Love yet Strike Cast down but Help afford Sure I will do the Like I will Complain and Praise Bewail but yet Approve And all my sour-sweet days I will Lament and Love. Herbert Tho' I am quite forgot Let me not Love thee if I Love thee not Idem LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside and Robert Gibbs at the Golden Ball in Chancery-Lane 1688. TO Mr. Joseph Collins SIR I Have complyed with your Desire and your Neighbours as far and as soon as I have been able You have the Sermon desired for substance Tho' not in every particular as it was delivered A difference I think ought to be between Preaching and Writing Or if not my Memory served me not to give it you otherwise You better know my Employments than to accuse me of slowness I wish I were as free from the blame of too much Haste with it Such as it is you will accept it I know at my hand 'T is followed with my Prayer that it may not be Useless to Your self and to others as Craving for it The Print of Sermons in the Heart and Life is that which must make them Useful or Harmless it self It s Argument is of the most seasonable for us all And more especially for You. So heavenly a Yoke-fellow cannot be quietly parted with without a need of Faith's being strengthned by some such word Your own feelings I presume do so certify you better than any Lines of mine can do O Sir industriously Imitate that Piety which you justly Praise And take into your Heart the Truths you Longed to have in your eye So shall it not repent you of asking nor me of granting them unto you I commend you to divine grace and tuition as Yours in much Love unfeigned D. Burgess To my Friends of troubled Spirits in the Countrey YOU are Many Altho' it be every one's word I am Alone and I am Like no body My Ministrations unto you by Speech are at an end That I served you no better when I was with you is a sorrow that I shall go in unto my Grave Notwithstanding all your good Opinions Thanks c. But I am not able by so frequent Letters as you desire to Gratifie you and Relieve my self My Hands are full my Eyes are weak and my actuative Graces be not proportionately Strong Proportionately to my Work in my present Place I mean. For this cause I would that this Sermon may pass for an Epistle unto each of you And that every one of you may read it as supposing it written peculiarly for himself As also the other small Scripts wherewith I have cared to have it joined Ministerial services are not effectual or the contrary according unto Ministers intentions But if they were you would fare as well as any in the use of mine For tho' I Love my present Congregation as my own Soul I do unfeignedly Love your selves as them More I cannot and less I do not I do my self suspect it and by others I believe it will be determined that that affection of mine hath out-run my Judgment in treating you thus in this corner But I have bid my self follow his ironical counsel who lately said to me Go on with thy useful Indiscretions Bishop Hall's words are a wind that I think to have blown me good Divine goodness saith he Loves the Strength and passes over the Infirmities of good Affections It pardons the Errors of our Fervency rather than the Indifferencies of our Lukewarmness If by any innocent means I may be Useful unto others be the Praise of being Discreet Indeed I have commended in this Sermon three Books which may make needless this Sermon it self And any Additament I mean Mr. Burroughs of Content Mr. Richard Alleine of Heart-work and Dr. Bates of Resignation Works that praise their great Authors enrich their serious Readers shame and condemn their Neglecters But I so well know the Gust and Appetite and Digestion of your Spirits that I shall set before you the following Memorandums And not retract my request of your conning my plain Sermon Against the Invasions of your Unquietness against it's Abode in you and it's Prevalence over you remember ye M. 1. He must turn his Eye inward that would judge right of any thing outward Self-ignorance is the great hindrance of Self-denial The want of Self-denial is the great cause of all Contending with God and Distracting our selves Could I but deny my Self my own Wisdom and my own Will I should never know a Restless hour more To do this my way is to be looking often into my self To sit and consider What am I I was first Nothing Then Dust Then a Body Then a Body and Soul and that Holy and Happy Then a Body and Soul Corrupted and Cursed Then Sanctified thro' my Redeemer's Blood and by his Spirit Imperfectly Sanctified Of my self I never was am or can be but Nothing or Worse Evil the worst I do deserve Good the least I cannot deserve c. Now am I such a Thing Can I deserve nothing Why then I will quietly bear any thing For I see I am a thing that wrong cannot be done to by God. The truth is till we conclude God cannot wrong us we shall surmise in every trouble of ours that He doth wrong us And till we well Understand our selves we shall never believe but that we are things to which God owes somewhat And must do us a great deal of wrong if He make not good payment too M. 2. He that would be carryed without falling must bridle his Horse before he Mounts In all our ways we are carried by our Thoughts They are the Horses whereon we travel As they go Orderly or Disorderly so we ride prosperously in Grace and Peace or fall shamefully from both But so it is with them that restrain'd and bridled by the Word of God they go orderly and well If they are let to have their heads and have not the governing bridle put on them they are sure to go as ill No Sin or Grace no Sorrow or Comfort stirs but in and by these Thoughts Now if before we ascended to make judgment of any Event befalling us we took the course aforesaid we should lose a thousand Plagues by the year in our Spirits and find as many Comforts by it Sinful and sorrowful Ways can never be left till like Thoughts be left Isa 55.7 Ungoverned topping Thoughts undo Mankind 1 King. 18.28 Why halt you 'twixt two domineering Thoughts so the Hebrew Unless my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unruly high and head-strong Thoughts be cast down by Gods Word as 2 Cor. 10.5 I shall consume my self with vexing at his work in the World. Thoughts do rend me when