I do not rule them M. 3. He that would not be Shipwrackt should not let his Vessel be Empty or Over-laden They shall never want wo who have too much or to little to do Who are either Drudges or Drones of their own making Idleness is a deserving cause of trouble and a working one It provokes God to send sorrow of Heart and it causes the Heart it self to create it unto it self The same must be said concerning Excess in labour Your Diligence delights God. And in it you may expect Comfort from him Thro' his grace 't is a Working cause thereof tho' it be not a Deserving one For wot it well the Diligent Soul humane frailty allow'd for has no duty Undone or Ill-done While the Drone has many Undone and the Drudge has all Ill-done In things both secular and sacred He that does too much or too little he stabs or starves his own Quiet He that does all and neither more or less he gives it Nourishment and Growth M. 4. He that would Fall no lower let him Lye upon the ground 'T is Pride makes capable of Soul falls and breaches Men and Angels both fell and brake themselves by it Humility is the sure way to rise and safe way to shun every fall Our meek and lowly Saviour sends the Proud away empty But the Humble he neither sends away angrily from him nor keeps sorrily with him Hear it O Child of sorrow Go to thy God pray him to make thee as humble as He would have thee Tell Him 't is come already to this pass with thee that in thy Heart thou believest thy self as truly worthy of Hell as any that be in it and as truly unworthy of any comfort under the Sun as any that be under it And that thou wilt endeavour to justifie Him and take to thy self all the blame if he never give thee a Kid to rejoice here Or a room in Christs Mansions to joy in hereafter And that 't is with profound self-abhorrence that thou askest either from Him. I dare engage that as sure as Adam fell by ascending even to be like God in Omnisciency thou shalt rise by descending thus and being like Christ in Humility Who sees it not The weak but humble stalk of Corn stands when the arms of Strong but Lofty Oaks be torn by Tempests M. 5. He must not believe what Rebels say who would believe well of what the King does We cannot think God good without thinking all that He does do to be good 'T is the same judgment we make of his Nature and of his Actions Now He is a great King but in this old Adam's Rebel-world He is every where spoken against If we take up what the blind Passions and wild Fancies of men utter against Him we shall unavoidably take in black thoughts of Him. He in his Word tells us that Sickness Poverty Perils Reproaches Soul-troubles and all be but refining fires Take away but our Dross Do not Hurt but Benefit and work for our good The World tells us another thing that they are consuming fires They undo us utterly Better die than bear them If God had any Love for us he would suffer a great deal of Sin before He would use us so c. Believe this and farewel to all Rest in your Spirits But is it Peace you would have This do you shall not miss of it Viz. Believe what God says concerning the World and not what the World says concerning God. M. 6. Lastly Let him learn excellently well to Wrestle that would not have any thing to give him a Fall. Every one will trample on a Down-hedge Let a man be sunk and down in his Spirit unable to rise and oppose every thing will then smite him His Life shall then be all between the Hammer and the Anvil Every Event shall be a Tragedy on his Soul. But if he has but strength enough to get upon his Knees And on them humbly to Wrestle with God in holy Prayer What then Why that Communion with the Almighty makes a Soul next to Almighty Yea in a sense Almighty And more than Conqueror even Triumpher over all his Troubles It is a certain rule If our Troubles don't cast out or corrupt our Prayers our Prayers will surely cast out or conquer our Troubles You can never fall Lower if you behave your selves well upon your Knees Now the Apostle's words deliver my Heart Rom. 13.15 The God of Hope fill you with all Joy. The Joy of Contemplation and of Expectation while you are on the earthly Globe the Joy of full Possession when your eyes are closed Let mutual Love be everlasting And mutual Prayer be continued until we ascend where Thanksgiving and Praise take up all Let these Lines be witnesses of your being continued in the affectionate memory of Your compassionate Servant in Christ Jesus D. Burgess Psalm 116.7 Return unto thy Rest O my Soul THis Psalm is an holy Vow The Royal Writer herein bindeth himself unto three things Namely the Love of God and his worship v. 1 2. Holy Life and circumspect v. 9. Payment of his Vow most true and publick v. 13 14. The remainder of the Psalm is for most part expressive of his Motives hereunto Our departed Friend seemed to have made no small use of this Scripture Many were her Troubles and many her Deliverances And very much her heart ran in the exemplary strain of David's that is here recorded It is now piously desired that somewhat be done for helping you her surviving Brethren to arise unto an a-like Imitation Unto that end I shall first set before you the principal Lessons that the six first verses give forth And then propose and prosecute also the chiefest of them that offer themselves from the seventh verse For here are no dark or difficult Phrases that call for stay in their Explication L. 1. Returns of Prayer make a Soul a Mount of holy Fire It is certain they made David so For thus are his words to be taken q. d. The God whom I Loved whiles He was making me feel the blows of his hand and denying me the Kindness of his ear I and did resolve to Love tho' He slew me Him do I now Love as I can neither speak nor be silent of Now now that His answer to my request is come down from Heaven my heart I think is gone up to Heaven 'T was comparatively Ice before 't is Flame now If my Love before was a Spark 't is now a Mount. The grant of my Prayer has made a whole burnt-offering of my Person By giving me what I asked God has took away all my will to ask for any thing else but Himself For L. 2. God Himself is the Object His Mercies be but the Motives of our Love. It was Father Son and Spirit that David Loved Mercies drew his heart unto the Divine Fountain of them They took his heart but they kept it not so low as themselves They carried it
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
without you He can Find Servants or Make them or Work without them T. 5. That Rest and Peace which cost but little are worth as little Davids get theirs by Prayers and Pains with their Souls True Saints sow in Tears before they reap in great Joy. I would not be thought to intimate that all God's Children do mourn as long as loud and as much one as another I know they do not There is a vast difference that Soveraign Grace makes But I affirm this to be clear from the Holy Scripture A frame of holy Rest in the Soul is not to be expected without the constant and diligent care of the Soul. To wit for Attaining Keeping Increasing it And whatever the temper of the Soul appears 't is more than probable that it is not worth keeping if it cost not true pains in the getting God doth not sell us Peace for our Pains But He hates Pride and Idleness and gives not Peace without our Humility and Industry The Duties whereto I exhort are five most conducive to Rest D. 1. Give all Diligence to make your Calling and Election sure There is no Rest in Creatures They are False and Delude us Weak and Disappoint us But neither is there any Rest in God for you until you be truly Converted unto God. How oft have I told you Without holiness no man shall comfortingly see God here or hereafter Without the holiness of Spirit Covenant Qualities Conversation and Company that I have treated of elsewhere If you would have Rest go no shorter a way than this to find it D. 2. They say that neither Trees nor Grass will grow upon the ground under which Gold Mines be 'T is sure that Holy Rest is often kill'd by the Love of yellow Dust Love not the World nor the things of the World. Watch and Pray against the inordinate Love of this low World and its low things It often gets into the best hearts before they are aware And sooner than other Enemies to Soul-peace When it hath invaded the strongest Grace will have enough to do to drive it out And must look for small measures of quiet while 't is in Of all the famed Saints recorded in Scripture and renowned for assurance of God's Love what one do you read of tainted with Love of this World D. 3. Walk circumspectly and precisely In Duties Personal and Relative Omission or slight Performance of one deserves deprivation of the Holy Spirit And if the Comforter go away what becomes of your Rest The weakest Christian that lives up unto the grace he hath received is safer than the strongest that doth not so And will have more Rest at Noon than he D. 4. Let your Love of God Believe all things and Hope all things I mean in all severest dispensations Believe all that He doth to be very Equitable And hope to see the day that will shew how little cause has been given of your Dislike The Law saith the King can do no hurt tho' his Ministers may The Gospel is plain Heaven's King can't do hurt to his Children Altho' the World may All Unsatisfiedness with Events is caused by our having no thoughts of God or low and slight and hard ones Do but Know and Remember He is God. And one that then cannot act but like Himself It will be almost as Impossible as Unjust to be Discontented D. 5. Muse not ever upon your Afflictions disjunctly from your Mercies If you must multiply thoughts of them then joyn you as many thoughts of your Mercies with them Else while the best men muse a wild-fire will burn But be it reflected on by us Had we ever in our Lives one Affliction under which we had not a million of Mercies Or what man is he that hath not received a Sea of Mercies for every drop of Trouble from God's hand That has not had many a good Day or Week for every sorrowful Hour A very ill Spirit it therefore appears that is took up wholly in poring on the so few sorrows tho' Deserved and Needed and Blessed too it may be Passing unregarded the so many Comforts on an Undeserving and Ill-deserving worm bestown I wave other Particulars Let such as need gather from Mr. Burroughs of Contentment and Dr. Bates of Resignation unto the Will of God. My Testimony of the gracious humble quiet Christian forementioned is unnecessary Except it be for provoking your Imitation Upon very satisfactory grounds I have thought her One of Gifts and Graces above the ordinary pitch And the same for the Consolations of God. Her Night-song was Now am I one day nearer my Father's house my heavenly home And her Morning one was harmonious to the same tune Her Memory is sweet unto many her helpful Converses are dearly missed by her Relations and Neighbours My Advice is that you all take the only way to do her Memory true Honour and your selves the greatest Kindness VVhich is to hear her tho' now Dead yet Speaking And by her Example shewn you now pressing you to conclude the Duties that I have Preach'd to be both Possible and Desirable She fore-saw her Death and pass'd thro' the darkest shadow of its Vale as undauntedly as you know O that before God take any others of you hence you may seek and find that Soul Rest which may a-like glorifie God comfort your selves and rejoyce the Congregation you leave behind Amen Restless Importunity makes thus publick the Verses of Psalm 116th sung before the Sermon And the Hymn sung after it Psalm 116. 1. THE God of Love hath all my Love All all I give Him all And well I may cause when I Pray All Help comes at my Call. 2. Because that his free Grace so pleas'd To grant this humble Pray'r When I shall cease to Him to Pray I 'le cease to breath in 's Air. 3. The sinking sorrows of pale Death My trembling Soul assail'd Fear of the Jaws of ravenous Hell Upon my heart prevail'd 4. Then which was all that I could do I did invoke God's Name My God said I Save my Lost Soul And swift Salvation came 5. Transcendent is the Grace of God That doth with Truth abound The Praises of his Mercies great Thro' Earth and Heaven sound 6. This Lord to simple helpless Souls Sufficient Help will give I seem'd as dead as Death it self And yet behold I Live. 7. Turn turn thee then my rescued Souls Unto thy calm and rest For why the God of Love to thee Hath his Choice Love exprest HYMN ARE Heav'n and Hell eternal things What! never to have end Must Heav'ns full Pleasures ne're abate Hell's stock of Plagues ne're spend O strengthen Lord our weakest Faith Of so great Hopes and Fears Make the Archangel's Trumpet be Still sounding in our Ears Vain World farewel our dead friends shew Our days to Live be few By Word and Works this day God puts Next World within our view Scorn O our Souls Time and this World Hold the next World in Eye
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