Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A30285
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Rules for hearing the Word of God with certain and saving benefit The second edition. By Daniel Burgess, minister of the gospel. Published by an hearer of them, at the request of many others.
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Burgess, Daniel, 1645-1713.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing B5714; ESTC R215210
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7,490
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26
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RULES FOR HEARING THE Word of God With certain and saving Benefit The Second Edition By DANIEL BVRGESS Minister of the Gospel Published by an Hearer of them at the Request of many others London Printed for Andrew Bell and Jonas Luntley at the Pestle and Mortar over against the Horse-shoe-Tavern in Chancery-Lane MDCXCIII Price Three Pence Rules for hearing the Word of God with certain saving Benefit BEFORE you Hear DIrection I. Pray for a Blessing Ask and you shall receive it Sincere hearty Prayer is still a Prevailer and then most when it is for Gifts that be best But by not asking a Blessing you deserve a Curse because you do virtually tell God either that you need not his Spirit or that you desire not the saving Efficacy of his Word Neglect of Prayer will ruine the best Hearer holy Use of it will save the worst Hearer Direct II. Vse Forecast against Distractions in Hearing Wrath and Lust and sinful Passions will take away your Heart at Sermons but a constant cordial Watch and Fight against them will destroy those Destroyers God will let no Soul be devoured by them that is diligent to keep from them Though on the other hand Souls that do little to prevent them shall be plagued with them Divine Grace will not encourage your sinful Negligence No but the Temptations which overtake you wilfully shall overcome you wofully Believe sad Experience others and your own Direct III. Value the Word and the Preaching of it and thank God for them both Honour them for God's sake and God will honour and bless you for his Son's sake and for his Promise sake God is so free of his Blessing on both that he lets no Man who highly prizeth it go without it You may highly prize Gold and Silver and go without them but the richer Treasure of the Gospel is certainly your own if you can but supremely value it If you do despise it blame your selves that you are not enriched by it God will not throw his inestimable Pearl unto ungrateful Swine Swine that will not give so much as Thanks for the Pearl of greatest Price Direct IV. Acquaint your selves well with the Ends and Vses of the Word Read Books and ask Ministers and know as well as they to what Purposes God sendeth his Oracles The four comprehensive Ends are to convince of Sin to convert unto Jesus Christ to confirm in Grace to direct and comfort in Obedience Understand these and muse much on them Come to Sermons for these and you shall not go from Sermons without them But God hath not Pleasure in Fools and if you come to hear for you know not what it 's no marvel if you come away Fools as you went Direct V. Never forget God's Promise of Blessing on dutiful Hearing He cannot lie and he has told you Hear and your Souls shall live Keep you that Promise of his as the Apple of your Eye It will do your Heart good to think God hath not left himself at Liberty to bless or not bless your Hearing No but that his FREE Grace is also bound Grace bound by Word and Oath This will give you holy Boldness to which God always giveth happy VVelcome But the want of this in your Mind will keep it full of cursed and malignant Doubts and Fears Without a Miracle of Grace it will hold you fearful and hold you unbelieving that is perishing Direct VI. Honourably use your Advocates All the Week long honour the Son of God as he in whom alone you can ever have Acceptance with God and honour the holy Spirit of God by whom alone you can ever have effectual Assistance to any Good No Man ever thus honoured the Son and Spirit and went without the full Blessing of the VVord Without our Intercessor in Heaven and our Intercessor in our Hearts we can profitably do nothing but with them we may do every thing prosperously Therefore be Sermons every-where so lost because this Dependance on Christ and on his Spirit are scarce any where found O that this Word might be well weighed Direct VII Conclude upon it the Word will be the Savour of Life or Death unto you It will cure you or further kill you and give Life to Life or Death to Death Give your selves this preparatory Sermon before you come to hear mine Ministers Sermons soften or harden Hearers Souls they never leave you in degrees of Good or Evil as they find you Such Fore-thoughts are ordinary Antecedents and direct Causes of no small Good IN Hearing the Word DIrection I. Approve Plainness and Power Not only excuse and endure but approve and prefer them You like best the Physician that heals best and the Counsellor at Law that best brings you to Peace and quiet Possession of your Inheritance tho neither of them do complement you at all but reprove you much and chastise your mischievous Folly with needful Severity Be as wise for your Souls as for your Bodies and Estates God heals the sick Souls that prefer and use his own prescribed plain Medicines But nice and peevish Ones that loath his Manna and must have Quails that disgust his sharp Word and must be treated with Mens smooth Words such must die in their Pride and Folly Where Preachers be but Musicians Churches be but Golgotha's Direct II. Receive the faithful Minister's VVords as God's own for so they are they are God's Words originally his Sermon as well as his Text is all of it so They are God's Words materially as to the Matter and Sense of them They are God's Words to you institutively by God's Command they be spoken unto you They are God's Words given advantagiously Words of God by the Kindness of God delivered with more Advantage for your Minds and Hearts than in the Holy Scripture barely read Words of God with a Comment of his Appointment Words of God to which he hath made a special Promise of highest Blessing for Faith eminently comes by hearing these Words He that heareth you heareth me said Christ to the Preachers that he sent Receive every Gospel-Sermon as by Christ preached and doubt not but it shall be by Christ bless'd But if you take the Words as well as the Breath of a Sermon for ours the Mistake will be a deadly Loss of yours Direct III. Mix abundance of Prayer with your Hearing Souls are Spirits their Motions are swifter than the Sun 's they can and they ought to do two things at once Ejaculation helps Attention and not hinders it Bread and Salt must be in every Meal and short warm Prayer in every Duty Let your Hearts cry out at every Truth delivered O Lord fix this Truth on my Soul At every Precept and Promise Good God help me to obey this Command and to rely on this Promise At every Reproof Glorious Spirit convince and humble me for this Sin and lead me to Christ for Pardon c. Such praying Hearers never lose their Labours But wo to them who tho
Vnprofitableness Let your Thanks be more than verbal your Profit shall be real It shall appear to all Men. But as long as you hear unthankfully you must be and appear unholy Ingratitude doth of any Sin to be named turn Honey into Gall and Physick to Poison It is the same thing to call a Man unthankful and to say he is a Samaritan and hath a Devil Direct III. Lament your Sins in hearing and go act Faith on Christ for your Pardon Abundance of Dross is in all our Gold Iniquity abounds in our holy Things The holiest of them all need a thousand Pardons and deserve our deepest Blushes And let us not flatter our selves Repenting and Believing be not Things indifferent or Acts of meer Christian Liberty but indispensable Duty They must go before the Seal of our Pardon in our Conscience or in Heaven And believe it God is incensed with Sin whoever it be that sinneth and in whatever He delighteth to be kind but he hateth to be fond As ever you would profit by a Sermon follow it with the Tears of Repentance and with the Prayers of Faith Then will God give you Profit with Measure pressed down and running over If you are too proud for this in God's Name I tell you that Pride of yours shall have a shameful Fall The best thing proud is worse than the worst that is truly humble Direct IV. Examine with humble Diligence what in hearing appeared to you as doubtful Suspect your own Vnderstandings more than your Minister's But lean not rashly on your own or idolatrously on his If Error be in his Doctrine it turns to Poison in thy Soul Wherefore do not swallow what thou dost suspect The most noble Hearers try all Doctrine by the holy Scriptures Good Children ask their Parents Advice wise Women ask their Husbands the Wise of all Sorts go ask their Ministers and intreat them to clear up by God's written Word the Truth of their preached Word Thus do and whoever be barren Hearers you shall be fruitful ones God never fails to teach Souls so careful to imbibe nothing but Truth O happy Church where Mal. 2.7 is wisely and duly observed where Ministers Lips preserve Knowledg and People seek it at their Mouths But it is no more than is to be expected if stupid Drones and contentious Cavillers live Idiots and die without saving Wisdom God's Curse rests on the Idle and he resisteth the Proud Direct V. Prove your State and Condition by every Gospel-Sermon You cannot try too often things whereof you can never be sufficiently certain I mean so much certain but that you will still need to be more certain You are true Believers and alive to God or Vnbelievers and dead in Sin and Misery You are strong in the Grace that is in Christ or Babes weak in the same It is a sorry Sermon by which no Help is given you to form a Judgment of your selves touching these things God's Blessing upon your conscientious Care to make use of the Help you need not to distrust His Command on you to prove your selves is not without a Promise of Blessing made to it He ever enricheth those Hearers who use Sermons as Scales to weigh and Touchstones to try their Souls But as for the Presumptuous who dream themselves to be as good as they need to be and the Despairing who conclude that they shall remedilesly abide as bad as they are and therefore never put the Word of God so close unto them What Hope of these God will condemn those by his Word who will not judg themselves by it If you will not make it a Light unto you he will make it Fire to you Direct VI. Carry on your Knowledg Memory and every good Purpose unto Practice Christian Divinity is an Art of doing more than knowing God's Will remembring it and temporarily purposing to do it It teacheth living unto God Word and Sacraments yea Faith and Repentance all are for Obedience God gave his Son and sent down his Spirit to get him a People zealous of good Works as well as Words Much Fruit it is and not your fair Leaves that glorifieth God And it is the Hearer rich in good VVorks that God will glorify The Hearer to whose Feet the Word is a Light to walk by it as well as a Light to his Head to talk by it I have Warrant from our Saviour to tell you If you hear his Word and so keep it you shall have greater Honour than the Virgin Mary had in being his Mother And do you but still do the Word of his that you know you shall never fail to be made know the Word that he would have you to do Use well your Hands and Feet and he will make every Sermon a Royal Salve to your Eyes But from him that practiseth not what he knows from him shall be taken the Light that he hath To him is promised no more Light unto him is threatned the darkest Fire Luke 28.29 Heathen Moralists hold no Man to be so very bad as he who acts Evil and no more than talks of Good Christian ones must needs pronounce them the worst Monsters that speak as with cloven Tongues and yet as Negroes are no where white but in the Mouth Direct VII Teach your Relations what God teacheth you at Sermons God will never forfeit his Name of Love nor fail to reward Charity and specially Soul-Charity It is the Devil's Proverb The Free shall not be fat God's Proverb is The liberal Soul shall be made fat and he that waters others shall be watered God will hide nothing from an Abraham for this very reason because he will instruct all his Family with it Go you now and instruct yours so shall you be taught of God as you have never been in past Days Drop Divine Truths on them and God shall make Sermons rain down rich Showers on you But vain are your idle Moans while you are uncharitable to your Relations If I know the Mind of God He will starve you if you will not feed them God is a great lover of Children and our Children are his more than ours Nor can you easily incense God more than by neglect of these his Children I wonder not that many hear and understand not because what they understand they teach not You may be ever learning but you shall never come to the saving Knowledg of the Truth until you make conscience of communicating the Truth you know Thus spend and God will send Teach others and God shall teach you comfort them and God shall increase and multiply Comfort to you When these Rules shall be observed Ministers shall be joyful both Fathers and Nurses The Bed of Christ shall be green in our Assemblies It shall be no more querulously said that our Sermons have miscarrying Wombs and dry Breasts Joy shall be made in Heaven and in the midst of us Fear shall come on every Soul of our Scorners We shall praise God as the Primitive Christians and have Favour with all the People The Word of God shall so run and be glorified and God even our own God shall so bless us Amen FINIS