Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A30282
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Mans whole duty and Gods wonderful intreaty of him thereunto set forth from 2 Cor. 5, 20, and published at the request of some hearers / by Daniel Burgess.
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Burgess, Daniel, 1645-1713.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing B5709; ESTC R23833
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54,814
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178
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Herein flows the Language of incomparable tenderness and such as put it beyond the most jealous suspicion that God is desirous of our Happiness in the said Reconciliation Herein the Majesty of Heaven even courts every vile Worm of us And in most compassionate manner assays to melt and overcome the perversest sinner Even thy self my Reader thy self in particular Stay therefore thy self and wonder and bless Throw aside my Book and go shut thee into thy Closet And there with humble affectionate and thankful sense of this Divine Love fall on thy Knees and say to this purpose Blessed God thy works are in themselves convincing Arguments of thy good Will unto Men. Thy innumerable Benefits conferred upon us Thy Temporal Judgments which in their own nature and in thy design are Medicinal and wholesome The Time thou allowest us in this World and in thy Church which we cannot justly take for a meer reprieve from torment but for a space to Repent in and to sue out our Pardon Above all thy giving thy Son to dye for our Reconciliation and thy Spirit to instruct and perswade us to be Reconciled After all it has seemed thee good to treat us in words of as wonderful Love as that which shines in thy works Words of Obsecration and Intreaty Such as the Potsheards of the Earth cannot afford unto their Inferiours very often no nor unto their Equals nor always unto very Superiours Thou great Judge of the whole Earth beseechest Malafactors most worthy of Hell to accept their Pardon And intreatest them to endure thee to save and glorifie them This thy Holy Angels admire at this the Divels envy But I Lord I a prodigy of stupidity what do I do Of a truth I desire to Praise and to Wonder From this Minute unto Eternal Ages uninterruptedly to Wonder and Praise I am fully convinced how justly I perish if indeed I perish after all this so superabundant Grace This thy Love and thy I know not what that is more then Love it self if more can be doth sweeten my thoughts of thee Never was my Natural Fear of thee so conquered never my Diabolical Enmity against thee so quenched as now I trust they are I am less a Divel since I considered this thy Love O my God! Experience hath now assured me Love begets Love as Fire kindles Fire I. 3. Mans Enmity unto God tho' it be strange t is true How else could Reconciliation be his Duty if his state were not of Enmity It is confessed Enmity unto God is a strange thing He is all Good and nothing but Good Our Nature reasonable can Love nothing but what appears Good and must and cannot but Love all that so appears Unto all Men if their Professions may be believed God doth appear as he is now said to be All and only Good Whence then should Hatred arise To be sure unto Angels and Men in their first holy state of Creation God did so appear and was verily and undoubtedly so believed O how could they ever break with God The particular manner is more curiously then profitably disputed by Men of argute wits It is very plain unto all thinking minds that Creatures as such are mutable things and defectible That continuation in any good is from the gift of the Creators Grace not from the strength of the Creatures Nature That God gave Angels and Men at first a stock of Holy Qualities to trade with and held both Probationers on tryal of their Faithfulness Some of the Angels and our Father Adam the infallible word assures us prov'd unfaithful Acted not up to what they had received Thereby forfeited and lost all all their foresaid Qualities of Wisdom and Goodness and consequently became full of Folly and Malice For as where Light and Heat depart Darkness and Cold must enter Where Wisdom and Goodness do cease Folly and Malice must begin to have place Now hence 't is that ever since that fatal forfeiture Devils and all unrenewed Men do do nothing but monstrously Nothing but with monstrous Folly and Malice Their Fall made them Monsters and all things must necessarily when they are not overpowered act according to their Natures let them be what they will Their depraved Natures both of them do carry them to things most unnatural To things that are and that they know to be most infinitely Vnreasonable in themselves and Injurious unto them As for example this of hating of God Men do much know and Divels do more know he is all Goodness and worthy of all Love That to hate him is to do the greatest hurt to themselves and that for which they have not the least cause from him but through the Folly and Malice that Divels hold remedilesly and unrenewed Men hold wilfully against all Divine Remedies this is most natural unto them As natural as for a poysonous Fountain to send forth poysonous Streams And alas how full is this World of this hatred of God which few in the World if any will own How less full is the Sea of water then unregenerate Souls are full of it Yea and their mouths and hands full of it Only Divels be fuller of it than Men By which means it is that only Hell is worse then this World we live in We see Mens Hands at work against God we hear their Tongues running against him in every place we discern hereby what the abundance of their Hearts is against him How passionately they wish an end put unto his Being We Instruct Perswade Intreat with tears and Beg them to let us endeavour their recovery to a better mind Nor is it above one of a hundred will regard what we say And yet must we be afraid if we will be pleasers of Men to tell them they hate God But here I publish it If I ever saw the Sun shine or the Fire burn or the Water flow I do see all unconvert Men Women and Children hate the Blessed God And whereas none that I meet with or hear of do deny but that they are sinners and do sin daily I assure them this is the soul and life of their sin And were this hatred of God but once expelled they would no longer be sinners Were that but mortifyed they would not be a minute longer impenitent or unpardoned sinners 'T is predominant hatred of God that is the ruine of every damned Man I. 4. The Gospel is a Jewel This I do argue from our common principle that it is the only directory and mean of our Reconciliation unto God If it be so and if Reconciliation be our only Duty it is surely inestimable It can be no less I trow whatever is the divinely appointed mean of our whole saving Duty Whatever is as the Gospel is and is named the Word of Reconciliation That whereby the way of making Peace with God is revealed that which is the very Charter and Grant of Christ the Peace-maker and all his benefits unto every one that will receive it If my
consider that Sinners Reconciliation unto God is a thing purposed by God purchased by Christ and proved to be so by the Holy Ghost I have shewn it to be so But O Man Vnderstandest thou what thou readest I have proved it by Authority of Sacred Scriptures but alas Believest thou the report of them It is scarce every hundredth Man of those who own them that doth in truth believe them So judg'd the great Calvin himself And the truth is if in any thing it be harder then other to credit Divine Scripture it is in its Testimony unto this great Truth Nevertheless so it is that its Testimony herein must be credited sincerely and considered of seriously before we can be qualified for Christianity That is for Jesus Christs reconciling and saving Religion For the embracing it with seriousness and sincerity unto our Reconciliation and Salvation Who can charge his Conscience with all respects to a Religion whose first Principles and very Foundations he is ignorant or doubtful of Who can pursue it whatever it costs him and give it the Government of his Life and Soul They who do any less do but dally with Religion they do not use it like it self And they who do so much need to be very well certified of the goodness of the grounds they go upon If not they must continually be like to Builders who doubt their Foundation is ill laid and therefore either by and by desist from their work or go on very heartlesly with it Thus therefore must thou do whoever thou art that desirest Reconciliation unto God With a solemnity suitable to the moment of the affair thou must go and enquire into these things Namely Whether thou hast Faith And if thou hast What a Faith it is that thou hast concerning the things foresaid Alas Sin is distractive And Minds sinfully distracted do conceit themselves to believe whatever they do not in words contradict Nor do they at all discern the difference between Moon-light and Sun-shine Though the former be cold and dispel no Vapours and ripen no Fruits as the latter doth by its equally useful and beautiful Beams They distinguish not between the Historical and worthless Faith of Divels and the operative saving Faith of the operation of God Though the difference be as plain as that of a painted Sun upon a rotten Sign-post from the true Sun in the middle Heaven In a word Thou must discourse thy self soundly concerning these things and admit no rest till thou feelest thy self more then almost perswaded Till thou canst say as the Doctor of the Gentiles I know and am perswaded and as the Doctor of the Jews I believe and I am sure Lord 1. There is a God 2. This God is Three distinct Persons as to manner of Being and of Working 3. Of these Divine Persons the First hath eternally Purposed the Second hath in time dearly Purchased the Reconciliation of lost Sinners and this the Third hath convincingly Proved 4. I perish for ever if this Reconciliation be not Purposed concerning me if it be not Purchased for me and if it be not Proved some way unto me 5. Until I have this Proof made unto me I cannot possibly have knowledge of the Purchase and Purpose touching me 6. Wherefore I ought I may and I will by Gods assistance seek diligently this said Proof unto my inmost Heart and Reins Hasten Man hasten thou go Read go Pray go Hear and go Consult the best Ministers and Christians Beseech them both to tell thee how they gat assurance and certainty hereof charge them to pray the same Spirit in the use of like means to give it unto thee But this caution take thou Never judge thy Belief right and valid until it discover it self to be so by these properties e. g. Till it do shame thee for former neglects of the Father Son and Spirit and their Purpose Purchase and Proof Making thy blushing Soul to exclaim O never had I one thought worth the thinking till now Miserable Fool I have lived like a bruit as if I had been born in the Field and bred among the Cattle therein I abhor my self and every breath of my past Life Again Till it do smart and pain thee and give thee grievous feelings of thy want of more acquaintance with the Divine Persons and these their actions Causing thee to esteem and desire acquaintance with the same above all the sensual delights under the Sun Likewise Till it become an effectual Goad to quicken thee to the use of all means for it and a Nail also to fasten thy Soul unto it Driving thee to this conclusion q. d. Whatever I shall henceforth propose to my self or prosecute in the World I will never so absolutely propose any thing Never so laboriously and incessantly pursue any thing as my acquaintance with the Divine Persons and these their foresaid Works In other things I will be less resolute and more moderate in this I will be peremptory and I will strain every Nerve of my Soul Lastly Till it do sweeten and make grateful and pleasant all thy Religious pains At least as the most imperfect certainty that Husbandmen have of Harvest doth impart a sweetness unto their perpetual motions Till thou canst truly say thus So much I know of the Divine Persons So far I do credit the Holy Spirits Testimony of their Works Such Faith I have of both that what Ordinances and Duties were heretofore burthensome or undelightful are now become of my chiefest joy And such as I could not live without And now Man now first beats thy Pulse This is the first breath of thy laudable Life The first step of thine toward God The first stroke of reconciling work This is the first hairs breadth thou hast stirred from thy self-ruining Enmity toward the way of Peace God speed thee onward For Secondly Thou must Pray and Labour for the actual possession the comfortable perswasion and the practical improvement of Reconciliation unto God Thou art now out of doubt there is a way to get possessed of the Reconciliation Purposed Purchased Proved But can thy blindness unassistedly find that way Or can thy halting Soul enter into and walk in it unassistedly Or if with much ado thou wer 't able wouldst thou go without infallible counsel and invincible aid And that for want of asking Or didst thou never hear of multitudes that perish in the very mouth of their way Stumbling unto perdition at the very threshold of the door of Salvation I do now suppose thee to have an Eye in thy Head And if so I nothing question but thou hast a Tongue in thy Head too The Eye of Faith and Mouth of Prayer were never yet known far asunder And indeed it would be a wonder if any seer of Reconciliation should not be straitway a wrestler for it However wot it well Divine Authority requires and Bounty invites and intreats thee to shew that with thy sight of Reconciliation thou hast received Praying Lips and