Selected quad for the lemma: life_n
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A30278
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Eighteen directions for saving conversion unto God by Daniel Burgess ... thus published for the poor.
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Burgess, Daniel, 1645-1713.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing B5705; ESTC R36045
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21,736
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58
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Eighteen Directions FOR Saving Conversion UNTO GOD. WITH Directions for Daily Holy Living And Motives with Directions unto Religious Discourse such as tends to promote Conversion and holy Conversation By Daniel Burgess Minister of the Gospel Thus Published for the Poor LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside near Mercers Chapel 1691. EIGHTEEN DIRECTIONS FOR Saving Conversion UNTO GOD. By Daniel Burgess Minister of the Gospel Thus Published for the Poor LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside near Mercers Chapel 1691. To my Friends in the Counties of Wilts Berks Somerset Glocester Oxford Southampton Middlesex Grace and Peace Sirs I thankfully remember all your old true Love And by your frequent Salutations I am comfortably assured of it's continuance Having not any thing better I Re-salute you all together with this Fragment I intreat that your Children may be exercised in Learning to Understand them and Recite them Especially those Children whom I Baptized and do with an especial Affection remember This Inscription obtains its end if it certifie you that You and Yours live in the affectionate memory of one that sticks not to go out of the common Road to fetch in one Soul unto Jesus Christ Your Fervent Lover and Oratour D. Burgess Eighteen Directions for Saving Conversion unto God c. D. 1. BE Men. Be not content to be Flies and Worms or Dogs and Swine in Men's Shape You have REASON a faculty of Understanding and Judging what is True and what is False You have a WILL a freedom of Chusing what you understand to be Good and of Refusing what you think to be Evil. You have a CONSCIENCE also obliging you always to ACT upon Choice and to CHUSE upon Judgment Be not then as if you had neither of the three Be not swayed by brutish Sense and acted by Colours Smells Sounds and Tasts as if you had been Born in the Field among Cattel and had in you no nobler Principle than they Rise presently and say each of you From this moment I will use my Powers My Nature is better than Brutes and my Life shall be better I will follow my exercised Reason and seek GRACE which is it's Perfection Till this be resolutely said you have no proper Manhood No but are Bruits and worse Morally though you are Men Naturally Psal 49.20 D. 2. Know your Maker Endure not to be Silly Children that know not their own Father You know you made not your selves Your Parents know little of your inner parts and confess that they did not form the same You believe your Maker to be one that was Himself never made But an Eternal Being and the common Father and Fountain of all Beings And by consequence of more Wisdom Power and Goodness than all And more worth Knowing than all Rise then and say every one of you What good shall my Life do me if I may not know the Father of it Give me the Knowledge of my Father or else I die I will never know rest till I understand WHO and WHAT He is Go learn the Sixteen things concerning GOD in the first of my Three Questions resolved Till He be known nothing can be rightly known 2 Thes 1.7 8. D. 3. Love your Selves Being descended from so excellent a Father LOVELINESS and LOVE it self and being so excellent a race of his as Men bearing his Image do not make light of your selves The visible Creation is not by millions of times worth one of your Souls Say then straightway in your Souls every of you I see nothing but my God better than my Soul Next to his Glory I will therefore make this Souls good my chief End and Care If this Soul be lost it shall not be for want of any thing I can do to Save it I will do and suffer work and beg Live and Die for this Soul of mine For it's Felicity in my Maker's Love and Favour and Likeness Until this be said you do but Flatter you do not Love your Selves No but interpretatively you Hate your selves And you Mischief your Selves more than Devils can do Prov. 8.36 D. 4. Visit Heaven and Hell You know there is another World none of you all pretend to be sure that there is not another If there be another confine not your Acquaintance unto this Heathens Turks and Jews themselves believe another World And say it is a Bigger than this and an Everlasting one And one whose Pleasures exceed those of this lower Worlds as much as the Light of the Sun exceedeth the Gloworm's Whose Pains and Torments also be such that the worst Torments here wou'd be very Refreshments unto the tormented there Let every one then say I will as daily think of the next World as I breath in this And Fear the torments of that World more than the pains of this And Desire and seek the Pleasures of that World more than all of this Before this Practice you do not see afar off but are blind You live in this World as Spiders in their Webs careless and thoughtless of the Beesom of destruction And as Serpents in the Dust regardless of the glory of higher Regions 2 Cor. 4.18 D. 5. Call Earth your Purgatory Your Time here is all of it given you on Tryal and for Preparation for your Eternal State Your Maker is Holy his Heaven is Pure All that enter it must be Purified their Time is allowed them for Purification As they are Purified or not Purified here on Earth they are taken into Heaven or excluded No other Place of Purifying or Time is set by God Say then Reader say often unto thy self My time is my tryal for Eternity I am here on my good behaviour as I Live here I Speed for ever After my death God will neither hold me on tryal in that World nor send me back again and try me in this If I am Glorified I must be Purified and if Purified it must be now My Motto shall be NOW or NEVER Eph. 5.15 16. 2 Cor. 5.9 10. D. 6. Believe and search God's Word Believe the H. Scripture so to be It is in a manner as plain that the Scripture is his Word as that the World is his Work Men could no more invent such a Bible than they could make such a World Read Dr. Manton Dr Bates Mr. Baxter hereof you shall say so As sure as there is a God his Will must be Revealed but if it be not Revealed in the H. Scripture where is it Revealed And what is there in the Scripture but is like Him and speaks it self His And if His it be how Continually Awfully and Affectionately should it be studied Rather than neglect it I would burn all my other Books and read the Scripture by the light of them Say thou that readest this upon due consideration say thou If I had a thousand Souls I would venture them all upon the truth of
him and Badges of being his put upon you to the Conquest of Disobedience Sacramental Obligation is the chief Store-house and Magazine to draw Armour from in an Hour of Temptation There is none like it Rom. 6.1 2 3. What shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Know ye not that so many of us as were Baptized into Jesus Christ were Baptized into his death 1 Pet. 3.21 The like figure whereunto even Baptism doth also now save us not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience toward God by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 and 21. The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ The Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ Ye cannot drink the Cup of the Lord and the Cup of Devils ye cannot be partakers of the Lords Table and of the Table of Devils D. 17. Hear your selves daily your Catechism I mean the Summary of Religion unto which you have attained There be several set down in my Three Questions Resolved long ago Printed I advise all once a day to go over that which they have Learned and can Remember Let grown Christians ask and answer themselves how they do in their Hearts BELIEVE each Article of the Apostles Creed how they PRAY each Petition of the Lords Prayer how they PRACTISE each Commandment of both Tables how they are ENCOURAGED and ENGAGED unto all three unto the Life of Holy Faith Prayer and Practice I mean by their Holy Baptism and the Lords Table Rom. 2.21 Thou which teachest another teachest thou not thy self Psal 4.4 Commune with your own Heart Psal 16.7 My Reins instruct me D. 18. Command your last Thoughts to be fit to be your last When you compose you to sleep suppose that you may die in that sleep And if so the God unto whom you must go in that death is fit to be thought of in the entrance to it If not it will be sweet in the Morning to review last thoughts of him at Night Yea and those thoughts of Faith and Love and Trust at Night will be generative of more of the same Spirit and Goodness in the Morning Psal 63.6 I remember thee on my Bed and meditate of thee in the Night Watches He that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of Men Rom. 14.18 Motives with Directions unto Religious Discourse such as tends to promote Conversion and holy Conversation By the same Author Thus Published for the Poor THE H. Spirit setting forth the sin of all the Members of the Body insisteth longest upon the Instruments of Speech Rom. 3.13 14. Their Throat is an open sepulchre with their Tongues they have used deceit the poison of Asps is under their lips Whose Mouth is full of cursing and bitterness He declares also that our Safety depends upon the right or ill using hereof Prov. 18.21 Death and Life are in the power of the Tongue and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof And that one of the prime things that shall be brought to Judgment are our Words Mat. 12.37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned He makes our Speech the great discovery of our Heart Mat. 12.34 O generation of Vipers how can ye being evil speak good things For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Psal 37.30 The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom and his tongue talketh of judgment And accordingly holy men watch against the sins of the Tongue Psal 39.1 I said I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my Tongue I will keep my Mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me Yea and Pray unto God to assist their watch Psal 141.3 Set a Watch O Lord before my mouth Keep the door of my Lips They make conscience of expressing the Image of their hearts in holy discourses Psal 37.30 The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom and his tongue talketh of judgment And count it absurd to pretend to be religious if their Discourse be not governed by Religion Jam. 1.26 If any man among you seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his own heart this mans Religion is vain God for Christ's sake forgive me my trespasses And prosper unto many others with me these twelve Motives to Religious and Useful Discourse M. 1. Our Speech is given us by God for Religious Discourse Jam. 3.9 Therewith we bless God We do so it we use it to the end for which He gave it It is a Faculty most Excellent and therefore ought to be consecrated unto the holy uses for which it was by Him intended Otherwise we oppose his just Design and abuse his rich and extraordinary Gift That which He hath bestown upon no Creatures but those that are capable of Religion and bestown it on them for no use so much as of Religion M. 2. Religious Discourse is the most Honourable Doth God excel Creatures Doth Eternal Blessedness transcend momentany things As truely and plainly doth Religious discourse out-shine all other Men despise Childrens talk of their Play-things Princes contemn Subjects talk of their Shops and Farms and no less do New-born Souls slight Princes talk of Crowns and Kingdoms in comparison of talk concerning Heaven It is only holy Breath that is Nobly spent M. 3. Religious Discourse is the most Delightful It is most apt to Delight and doth actually Delight Men most when Sin corrupts not their Sense As Honey is incomparably sweeter than Whites of Eggs when no Disease hath vitiated our Palates For what is Delightful but Goodness And what is Goodness but Pleasingness unto God And what Discourse so pleaseth God as Religious And who have so much Pleasure as they in Heaven who have no discourse but Religious Prov. 15.26 The words of the pure are pleasant words M. 4. Religious Discourse is the most Profitable It trafficks in the richest Commodities God hath no richer than what it trades for Yea and its words be a wind that do always blow good unto both the Speaker and Hearer They prevent evil Words and Thoughts abundance of them if not much other Sin They awaken the Speakers Mind and affect his Heart and give him a rich promise of Gods Blessing Prov. 11.25 The liberal Soul shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered also himself Mal. 3.16 17. Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his Name And they shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts in that day when I make up my Jewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his own Son