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truth_n	holy_a	spirit_n	word_n	12,159	5	4.3929	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56406	The faithful and diligent Christian described and exemplified, or, A sermon (with some additions) preached at the funeral of the Lady Elizabeth Brooke, the relict of Sir Robert Brooke, to which is annexed ... an account of the life and death of that eminent lady : with an appendix containing some observations, experiences, and rules for practice, found written with Her Ladiship's own hand / by Nath. Parkhurst ...	Parkhurst, Nathaniel, 1643-1707.	1684 (1684)	Wing P489; ESTC R14746	35,723	168

to our Probation State And thus Death is ours LV. Formality in Holy Things must be avoided Every Real Christian hates to act in Divine Things out of Custom and Formality and the least mixture of a By-end is to him troublesome and afflicting His Actions are with Consideration and good Design He will not only pray but consider to whom and why And doth it either in obedience to a Command or as the paying of Homage to God or as an Instance of Trust Dependance and Love or as a Means of obtaining some Blessing or as an Ordinance that brings him near into the Presence of God And when he waits upon the Publick Worship it is that thereby he may make open Profession of Faith and Holiness and that he may draw nigh to God LVI The Government of our Thoughts is necessary It is no little Self-denial to manage our Thoughts strictly yet it is the most reasonable part of Religion and not properly the Heighth of Piety but the Foundation of it without which it cannot stand He that can blush at his Thoughts and endeavours to suppress them who dares not entertain the least Sin no not so much as in his Imagination looking upon God and Conscience as more than a thousand Witnesses This Man is Religious indeed This manage of the Thoughts is of great Service to a Christian it is a vast Security against many Temptations For Thoughts breed Desires and Desires increase into Passion and Passions will grow strong and being grown strong they abuse Reason and throw the Soul headlong and render it exposed to divers Temptations LVII The End of our Actions must be good Great Care must be had concerning the End of our Actions for this like the Altar sanctifies the Gift A Man's End hath a mighty Influence upon him as is the End such is the Man He whose End is worldly is himself earthly But if God be a Man's End it makes him God-like LVIII We must beware of Spiritual Sloth Spiritual Sloth brings Spiritual Poverty To have Affections in Holy Duties requires much force to which Nature is averse Corrupt Nature doth not always discover its opposition to that which is good by passionate contradicting but oftentimes effectually enough by Sloth and sluggishness LIX Detraction must be avoided We are naturally prone to speak evil of others with delight and to aggravate their Faults This Sin persisted in will shut out of Heaven as well as Murder or Theft And there is a secret Plague attending it in this Life for the way of Divine Providence is frequently Retaliation LX. The Promises are full of Support and Comfort but God must illuminate our Minds to discern what is treasured up in them The Promises which are the Covenant of Grace display'd are most precious in the matter of them and most necessary and useful to the Christian's Spiritual Life they help and support when all other things fail The Satisfaction they bring is a real true Pleasure yet their Glory and Excellency is not to be seen till God opens the Christian's Eyes and gives him a new Light There is a Vail upon the Promises or rather a Film upon the Eye of the Soul and until that is removed the Promises are dark and they have no Form or Comliness in them And though they be great and precious in themselves yet they cannot be so to us unless God and the Promise come in together The Spirit must move upon the face of the Waters before they become refreshing Streams to make glad the Heart The Christian's own Arm will not reach Comfort from them For this God must be sought and the Promise must be our Meditation LXI The Holy Ghost proceeds in his Operations gradually The Spirit of God operates gradually He teaches first one Truth and then another He brings us first to make Conscience of a Duty and then of the manner of performing it The Holy Spirit lays a Foundation in the Heart for the whole of Religion and then draws us on gradually to more and more Rules for Practice I. LET Love and Charity be Universal For no pretence whatever no not of Religion and Zeal for God can justifie your not loving any Person in the World Treat all Men with Kindness and wish them well Do them good according to their Necessity and your Power and Opportunity If Persons be above you express your Love to them by paying them the Honour and Observance their Place and Authority call for If they are in Worldly Respects beneath you manifest your Love by Kindness Affability and vouchsafing an easy Address to you If they excel in Natural or Acquired Endowments of Mind express your Love to them by a due esteem of them If they be rather wanting than excelling shew your Love by pitying them and despise not their weakness If any be in Misery compassionate them pray for them comfort them with your Presence if you can reach them relieve them according to your power If any be defamed shew your Love by stopping and rebuking the Defamation II. Be very careful not to harbour any evil Affection in your Heart against any one what-ever For though you are far from intending any actual Mischief yet you tempt God to let loose your Corruption and his Providence to permit you an Opportunity and so before you are aware you may be drawn to an Act you never thought of before Moreover by an evil Affection harboured in your Mind you will prevent the blessed Illapses of the Spirit of God and open a wide Door for the Devil to enter into you And indeed an unkind disposition towards any Man is so much akin to Satan that if you admit the one you cannot exclude the other III. Despise none for Love never rides in Triumph over Inferiours IV. Look upon all unavoidable Temptations as Opportunities for an high exercise of Grace Are you injured be sorry for him that hath done it and bless God for the opportunity of shewing your self hereby a Christian by patient bearing forgiving doing Good against Evil treating him with Meekness and breaking his Heart with Love Every Provocation is a Price in your Hand get an Heart to improve it V. Put a due value upon your Name and Reputation But be not over solicitous about it for that discovers some unmortified Lust at the bottom VI. Pursue Piety under the notion of an Imitation of God and then so great a Pleasure will result from it that neither Men nor Devils shall be able to make you question God's Being and Attributes This will raise an Esteem of it and render it lovely and make the several Duties of Religion more facile and easie and it will gradually wear out the Remains of Unbelief and unkind Jealousies of God VII Let Humility be the constant covering of your Soul and let Repentance follow all your Performances This will demonstrate your Religion is inward For if Religion be suffered to enter deep into the Heart it will always find Work for Repentance

The Faithful and Diligent Christian described and exemplified OR A SERMON With some Additions Preached at the Funeral of the Lady ELIZABETH BROOKE the Relict of Sir Robert Brooke Kt. of Cockfield-Hall in Yoxford Suffolk Who departed this Life July 22. And was interred in the Parish-Church of Yoxford July 26. 1683. And in the 82d Year of her Age. To which is annexed including the Character then given of Her an Account of the Life and Death of that Eminent LADY With an APPENDIX containing some Observations Experiences and Rules for Practice found written with her Ladiship 's own Hand By NATH PARKHVRST M. A. Vicar of Yoxford and Chaplain to her Ladiship Prov. 31.29 Many Daughters have done vertuously but thou excellest them all London Printed for Samuel Sprint at the Bell in Little-Britain and John Harding at the Bible and Anchor in Newport Street near Leicester-Fields 1684. To the much honoured Truly Vertuous and Religious Mrs. MARY BROOKE MADAM THE shortness of the Time which was allowed me for the delivering of the Sermon preach'd at the Funeral of your Excellent Mother would not permit that fuller Account of Her which I now humbly offer to you with that Sermon enlarged Notwithstanding which Additions I am sensible there remains much unsaid equal to the things I have remarked though assisted by some very consideble Memorials sent to me by a most worthy Friend to your Family who hath been acquainted with her four and forty Years and passed many of them in her House But there being a necessity of omitting some things unless I would have exceeded the usual Bounds of such Narratives I only beg your Pardon if I have not made the best choice among those Treasures of Excellencies and Christian Accomplishments that were found in Her These which I have collected I hope may be useful to them who have any Inclination to Piety as serving to excite to a great degree of Holiness This being the natural Tendency of great Examples recorded even to move others to Imitation Which Effect I am much assured it will produce in your Self and You of all others are most obliged to endeavour it having been constantly conversant with the Patern when living It is a great Honour to have descended from such a Parent but it will be much more to tread with that Exactness in her Steps that all that behold your Conversation may see Her living in You. It was Her earnest desire you might survive and God hath fulfilled it She hath left You in her Province clothed with her Mantle And may a double Portion of her Spirit rest upon You that You may honour God as She did And that You may enjoy a long and prosperous Life here and then ascend to Heaven and partake together with Her in equal Glory is the earnest Prayer of Madam Your much obliged and most humble Servant NATH PARKHURST ERRATA PAge 17. line 17. for and his read and in his P. 19. l. 11. f. is before us r. is set before us P. 56. in the Margin f. Sussex r. Suffolk P. 106. l. 9 10. f. Heaven makes r. it makes P. 108. l. 10. f. rational r. notional P. 114. l. 1. f. the End r. his End P. 151. l. ult f. in the State r. in this State Some few other lesser Mistakes of a Letter or two in a word may be easily taken notice of and mended in the reading A SERMON PREACHED At the FUNERAL of the Lady Elizabeth Brooke c. 1 COR. XV. 58. Therefore my beloved Brethren be ye stedfast unmovable always abounding in the Work of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your Labour is not in vain in the Lord. THE Gospel of our Blessed Saviour hath many Excellencies in it inviting us to accept and obey it For First The matter of it is Grace in the most kind and condescending Offers thereof And Holiness described in the exactest Rules for the management of our Hearts and Lives no Ethicks being comparable to the Precepts of it Secondly The Author of it is The Prince of Peace and King of Kings The Eternal Son of God The Brightness of his Father's Glory and express Image of has Person Thirdly The end of it is The most eminent Display of all the Perfections and Attributes of God For His Power is most admirably manifested in the Miracles that have confirmed it and in the success of it upon the Minds of many who have been changed by it into the Divine Image His Wisdom also shines most illustriously in that Contrivance in it of the Harmony between His offended Justice and his Mercy in being Just and yet the Justifier of him that believes in Jesus Moreover his Holiness is greatly declared in it in the satisfaction and sufferings of his only Son And above all his Mercy and Goodness is most eminently exprest in it by his free Acceptance of them that repent of their Sins believe in his Son and sincerely obey him notwithstanding their many Infirmities entertaining them with the greatest Kindness and Love beyond expression beyond conception And Fourthly As one of its most glorious Excellencies The Encouragement to receive and obey it is no less than the Promise of an unspeakable Future Happiness in our Souls immediatly after Death and of a most glorious Resurrection of our Bodies in the last day unto a Life Eternal and Enjoyments no less excellent than durable Of which the Apostle discourseth largely in this Chapter with abundant Demonstration of the truth of it concluding with this practical Inference in the Text Therefore my Beloved c. In which Words besides many things which I omit we have observable First The Duty of Christians proposed Be ye stedfast unmovable always abounding in the Work of the Lord. Secondly The Reward of accomplishing the Duty Your Labour is not in vain in the Lord. Thirdly The Rational Inference or Conclusion from the certainty of the Reward Therefore my Beloved be ye stedfast c. forasmuch c. Of which Things I shall discourse in this Method shewing I. It is our Duty to be employed in the Work of the Lord. II. That we ought to attend it with steadiness III. That we should be perpetually progressive in it IV. That the Recompence will answer the Labour For it shall not be in vain I. It is our Duty to be employed in the Work of the Lord. It is called His Work because it is enjoyn'd by His Laws encouraged by His Promises and performed by His Aids For otherwise it might have been termed Our Work it being the whole Christian Exercise which is intended by it In this therefore is comprehended 1. The Labours and Industry required of us towards the attaining necessary sound and sufficient knowledge of the Great Principles of Faith and of the Rules For conducting our Conversation and the encouragements to Holiness contained in the gracious Promises and the Cautions against Sin which we have in the severe Threatnings dispersed through the Scriptures of the Old and New