they walk and covers their misery and danger so that they neither see nor fear the dreadful tribunal of that just Judge who will condemn all Apostates that turn from the right way They walk saith the Apostle in the vanity of their mind having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart being past feeling they have given themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness Ephes 4.17 They count their life a market for gain and say we must be getting every way though it be by evil means Wisd 15.12 And then it often happens by a just judgment that their faith comes to be as debaucht as their life that having long said it by their wicked deeds they at last say it in their heart that there is no God 3. I have already and cannot too often note the cause of this evil that is Adam who by his sin not only lost the uprightness of his will but also the true light of his understanding so that in him who was the stock and root whence all men grow we were depriv'd of both And now this corruption of the will inclines man to self-love vain glory and an imperious pride to covetousness sloth sensuality and looseness And in the darkness of the understanding exposeth him to ignorance and false apprehension of things to doubts errors and lies and makes him have an aversion to good and serious thoughts Thus man is become earthly weak and distemperd unable to resist the sinful motions of his own heart and unable to know or to attain true felicity but rather as it is written His ways are always grievous and God's judgments are far above out of his sight Psal 10.5 And he now being alienated from God to whom all things should be refer'd is also a stranger to virtue which consists in the intention in being design'd to please God rather than in the act But that Soul which by the Grace of our Blessed Jesus is redeem'd from this power of Satan and slavery to sin is also enabled to cleave stedfastly to God in whom it enjoys Peace and joy and full satisfaction all that can make him intirely happy for he is unreasonable and too unsatiable to whom God is not sufficient CHAP. XVI Another reason why so many miss of their end their living too much by sense 1. WHereas reason it self teaches and all men freely confess that things to come should be prefer'd to things present heavenly things to things earthly and things eternal to things that last but for a short time 't is hard to conceive why so many who believe and acknowledge this yet by their actions strongly deny it In worldly matters and such as concern this present life they are very active very wise and very laborious in others they seem to have neither sense nor reason If you speak to them of God of Holy-Living and Life Eternal they understand you not or they presently forget what you said Things material and perishing are sensible and therefore more regarded and set by though oftentimes experience will force them to know that all human concerns are flitting uncertain and very deceitful yet men follow sense and they soon return to embrace those things which custom and a familiar converse hath made dear to them 2. The fall as I said of our first Parents is the head-spring whence all this mischief flows from it proceed all temptations as also the darkness and inconstancy of our minds but the more immediate cause of it which I now consider is the imbecillity depravation and weakness of the faculties of our souls which have no right apprehension of the things of God and but an imperfect confused notion of the amazing concerns of Eternity The loveliness of virtue and the great deformity of sin the terrors of death and the dread of God's righteous judgments the joys of Saints above and the grievous torments of the wicked in hell these are but words which we hear we have dark and narrow conceptions of them we understand not of how great an importance they are and therefore we are not so affected with them as to be made wise unto salvation Of things offer'd to our consideration we only mind that least outward part which falls under the reach of sense but we attend not to that which is less sensible though more considerable and apt effectually to work upon the mind Thus in sin we look most of all to what 's temporal we are more concern'd for the impairing of our same and the diminution of our worth or self-complacency than for having offended God and made our selves obnoxious to an infinite pain Likewise in a dying man we most observe what is in view outward symptomes and accidents little regarding the more essential adjuncts which concern the soul and are of far greater moment And we conceive of the last judgment and the unquenchable flames of Hell which are imperceptible to sense as of things which are nothing to us and which we have no interest to mind 3. The same deception also extends it self to things present which gratifie our appetite we take notice only of that outside which pleaseth us and so deplorable is our sottish mistake that we count our selves very happy to enjoy that for a moment which must make us eternally miserable Every man knows his Soul is immortal and many Philosophers have writ great things upon that subject but where are they that are solicitous for its well-being after death Do not most men neglect their soul and live as if it were to die with the body The mischief is that generally men live neither by faith nor by reason they follow blindfold and brutishly just as sense leads them avoiding carefully what is now troublesom to the flesh as if nothing else were to be done here and nothing else fear'd hereafter CHAP. XVII That we being the Children of God ought to be guided by his Spirit and by the example of Christ 1. IF a man should rightly understand and seriously consider that God by a gracious adoption owns him for his son that he is redeem'd by the Bloud of Christ and born again by Holy Baptism into the hope of Eternal Life he would doubtless esteem it his noblest title and his greatest honour he would despise all earthly advantages and mind and value nothing but what is Divine and Eternal and passionately desiring to come to his Father he would do nothing unworthy of him As he that acts the King on the stage though it be but a vain shew to delight vainer people yet is careful to do and to speak nothing but what befits a King so and much more careful should a Christian be to do nothing unworthy of that honourable name which makes him a brother and disciple of Jesus and an heir of his Heavenly Kingdom And as a picture-drawer when he is upon a great design fixes his
uncertainty every Christian ought exceedingly to fear and with trembling and an assiduous care indeavour to make his election sure living in that Faith which worketh by Love and declaring by his good works that he is one of that little but blessed number to whom God will give his Kingdom 2. Now that that number is but little compared with the greater multitude of the wicked unhappy world nay that the number of the chosen is but small even of them that profess the Gospel and are capable of chusing life or death we have too many reasons to believe And our Blessed Saviour intimates so much when he warns his disciples of the difficulties of coming into that blessed Kingdom of which the entrance is narrow Mat. 7.13 Enter ye in at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and many there be that go in thereat Then he adds as wondring at this narrowness because strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it Being also asked another time Lord are there but few that shall be saved he gives no other answer but this Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able Luke 13.23 King David also inquiring Lord who shall abide in thy Tabernacle who shall dwell in thy holy hill the holy Spirit suggests this answer he that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness Psal 15. And in the twenty fourth Psalm he questioning again Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord he is likewise answered He that hath clean hands and a pure heart and hath not lift up his Soul unto vanity Now who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin Prov. 20.9 Who can say to David I shall for I work righteousness and I am innocent 3. Our Blessed Saviour saith Mat. 10.38 He that taketh not his Cross and follows after me is not worthy of me Now where are they that thus willingly take their Cross and suffer with Christ or rather how sadly doth St. Paul's saying fit our Age All seek their own not the things which are Jesus Christs Phil. 2.21 Our Blessed Redeemer who alone hath the keys of Heaven and knows how we must be qualified before we come thither affirms Mat. 18.3 Verily I say unto you except ye be converted and become as little Children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Which saying if compared with the pride of men it will be found that but a few by meekness and humility seek to become children to be heirs of the Heavenly Kingdome It is declar'd by St. Paul Rom. 8.29 That those whom God foreknew he also did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son But who is the man can boast that his life is conform to the Life of Christ and who is he that suffers with Christ that he may be with him glorified It is a saying that belongs to all If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments Mat. 19.17 But they are all gone out of the way they are altogether become abominable there is none that doth good no not one Psal 14.3 The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence saith the King of Heaven Mat. 11.12 and the violent take it by force Now this violence being against Nature there are but few that will offer it to themselves by forgoing any present sensual satisfaction on the account of that Kingdom which is out of the reach of sense not now to be enjoyed but expected only by Faith If all our Righteousnesses are as filthy rags as the Prophet saith Isa 64.6 What are then our sins and iniquities If the Righteous scarcely shall be saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear 1 Pet. 4.18 4. None but eight persons of the old world were saved with Noah in the Ark all the rest of mankind perisht in the floud Lot alone with his wife and two daughters escaped the conflagration of the infamous Cities all the other Inhabitants were consumed by the revenging flames And of six hundred thousand Jews that came out of Egypt two only Caleb and Joshua came into the Land of Promise Now those things were examples representations of things to come denoring that the number of those that come to life is but small in respect of the greater number of such as go to perdition Which is yet further but too evident by confidering how most men live and die how few give any certain marks of true contrition Fear and sorrow extort groans and good words and death forceth men to recant and 't is much to be feared there is seldome any sincerity in a late death-bed repentance For how can he begin to live well that is now dying how can he heartily detest those pleasures of sin which he loved and enjoyed as long as he liv'd how hardly will he now he a true penitent who before abhorred all the mortifications of true penitence how will his resolutions be prov'd effectual if he should esâ—ape for the forsaking those sins which custom hath made habitual and almost a second nature how shall now his sensual mind lift up it self to those spiritual heavenly things which he before seldom or never regarded and how shall he straitned by time and sad circumstances exercise those vertues contrary to the sins he repents of to make it appear by his life that there is a change in his heart 5. 'T is known by experience that very few when the pains and the danger is over stand to those resolves and promises which they made in the day of sorrow Generally men forget and are asham'd afterwards of what they promised and resolv'd and they soon return to their customary vices and beloved vanities Especially because there is still a secret reserve in those resolutions of amendment made in their distress there being still some hope of an escape till they are at the worst and then they are altogether passive and can act no longer or at the best their strength and rational faculties are so weakned there are such anxious fears and trepidations when the Soul is nigh to depart that men are almost distracted and know not what they do We may hope well of them who though they liv'd ill yet gave signs of repentance when they were dying But this is a desperate venture there is much of uncertainty and nothing of safety in their condition We have a sad example of this in King Antiochus read Maccab. 9. what vows he made while he was under his grievous sickness He thought himself in earnest no doubt but God knew the unsincerity of his heart that his repentance proceeded from the fear of death and would therefore no more have mercy upon him as the text affirms And who can consider all this and not tremble who will dare to presume he hath nothing to do and that his Salvation is sure who in the midst of so many and so great dangers will dwell as in safety and not watch and call upon God therefore because the chosen are few fewer perhaps than we think let us not go with the many nor follow the croud but let us live with the small select number of truly good and religious Christians that we may have comfort and confidence when our life is ended that we may with an humble and well-grounded hope look up to God and expect that gracious reward he hath promised to his faithful servants to all that sincerely love and obey him THE END A CATALOGUE of some Books Printed for and Sold by Henry Brome MR. Comber on the Common-Prayer in Three Volumes Dr. Spark's Primitive Devotions on the Feasts and Fasts of the Church of England Bishop Wilkins Natural Religion The Fathers Legacy or Counsels to his Children being the whole Duty of Man in three parts very useful for Families Christian Education of Children Cardinal Bona's Guide to Eternity Extracted out of the Writings of the Holy Fathers and Ancient Philosophers The Reformed Monastery or the Love of Jesus A sure and short but a pleasant and easie way to Heaven In two Parts Written Originally in Latin by the same Author A Guide to Heaven from the World or good Counsel how to close savingly with Christ Holy Anthems of the Church The Brief Rule of Life The Crums of Comfort Mr. Farindon-'s Sermons Several Sermons at Court and at other Places A Discourse concerning the Operations of the Holy Spirit Together with a Confutation of some part of Dr. Owen's Book upon that Subject A Discourse concerning God's Judgments Resolving many weighty Questions and Cases relating to them Preached for the substance of it at Old Swinford in Worcester-Shire And now published to accompany the annexed Narrative concerning the Man whose Hands and Legs lately rotted off in the neighbouring Parish of Kings-Swinford in Stafford-Shire Penned by another Author By Simon Ford D. D. and Rector of the said Parish Christianity no Enthusiasm or the Several Kinds of Inspirations and Revelations pretended to by the Quakers Tried and found Destructive to Holy Scripture and True Religion In Answer to Thomas Ellwood's Defence thereof in his Tract Miscalled Truth Prevailing c. A Narrative of the Principal Actions occurring in the Wars betwixt Sueden and Denmark before and after the Roschild Treaty
that it is good for me to hold me fast by my God and to put in him alone my whole confidence and not in Princes or Friends or even Brothers who as they have all a distinct being have also different ends and seek from us every one his own advantage being ever ready to forsake us as soon as they shall think we are become useless to them This light therefore we ought gladly to receive and follow that appearances and pleasing illusions put not a cheat upon us and make us seek for happiness in the creatures which are as if they were not and have no value but what the ignorant vulgar attributes to them and make us forsake God who remains for ever who is the fountain of all being and the author of all good things out of whom there is no rest no peace no felicity to be had He that departs from the supreme happiness thereby becomes miserable in the highest degree CHAP. XIII How men spend themselves and their time and abuse all things to their own ruine 1. THE Life of man runs round and spends it self within this circle they eat and drink they sleep and wake that they may return to the same again they scrape together as much as they are able and there is no end of their acquists they will live as merrily as they can and die as late as possible may be betwixt their baptism and the hour of death there lies a confused heap of acts of sin and acts of Religion of penitent confessions and wilful relapses of Sacramental vows and breaches of them No day passeth over without they add to the number of their transgressions and they all go on heedlesly without considering what will be the end of their course of life and they all run when but a few care how they come to the end of their race because they consider not what reward and glory is prepared in Heaven to them that remain faithful to their Christian engagements overcoming the world and the flesh for to follow Christ 2. God created the whole universe and in it man to his image giving him an understanding to know his maker a will to love and obey him a memory to think of his laws faculties to serve him and a tongue to praise him but then as he made man for himself so he created the whole world for man that he might use all things for his own happiness and for the glory of God the giver of all But ungrateful man unmindful of his duty drawn by the deceit of voluptuousness minds only his sensual pleasure useth or rather abuseth his knowledge and reason his riches and honours his health and life and all other enjoyments to the displeasure and dishonour of God his gracious benefactor who freely granted him all those things that if he would make a good use of them they might be instruments of his present ease and well being and of his future eternal happiness So great is the folly and perversness of man that he abuseth that to his own ruine which God intended and gave him for his greater good CHAP. XIV That the right way to Heaven is every one to remain in the station Providence hath appointed him and therein bear the crosses which he meets withal 1. EVery man that aims at the right end must guide his course thither by the measures of Eternity and that in a way sutable to the circumstances of his condition This necessary Rule is not observ'd by all for many following their own fancies unadvisedly forsake that way wherein Divine providence had brought them and take some other of their own chusing Like Naaman the Syrian who though he much longed to be cur'd of his leprosie yet refused to use the easie remedy prescrib'd by the Prophet and preferring what he himself had fancied had gone away in anger diseased as he came had not his wiser servant hindred it After this manner many following their own heads undertake many things which they cannot perform but which only vex and distract them being above their abilities or inconsistent with the necessary occupations which they lie under so that they can neither act nor advance towards the desired end but spend themselves in unprofitably wishing that things were otherwise than they are 2. But the short and ready way to Bliss is that which our Blessed Saviour hath shew'd us saying Let him that will come after me take up his Cross and follow me His Cross he saith not that which was to be another man's burthen the Cross which God lays upon him and hath fitted for him and given him strength to bear not that which he foolishly shall take up and soon after poorly sink under These two things must therefore carefully be heeded first that a man understand perfectly what is the right end at which he should aim without this all deliberations concerning the means are to no purpose and secondly that knowing that good end he keeps his mind intent upon 't and take that plain path towards it which lies before him and agrees with his state and condition therein bearing his Cross chearfully as the Lord hath commanded Now this is every man's Cross to discharge well the duties of his place and of his several relations to bear patiently those afflictions which he daily meets in his way and constantly by doing better and better that which belongs to his province to endeavour after the highest perfection attainable therein Every man in his proper station in that calling wherein he is called may best become a good Christian perfect holiness in the fear of God and at last obtain happiness CHAP. XV. How man 's last end or supreme happiness is qualified and how so many mistake and miss it 1. THese be the inseparable properties of the last and highest end at which man should aim that it be perfectly good and perfectly satisfactory so that being once obtain'd nothing else is wanted and nothing else desir'd for whoever wants any thing desires it also and he that desires is not satisfied is not yet come to that last end beyond which his wishes can go no further that is is not possest of God who alone is infinitely good and can alone replenish all our desires and capacities I shall be satisfied when thy glory appears saith the Psalmist or I shall be satisfied with thy likeness Psal 17.15 that and nothing else can perfectly do it 2. Yet such is the perverse and incurable folly of man that he will have that to be best which he loves best though by the testimony of others and the conviction of his own conscience he knows it to be evil And therefore many either ignorantly or perversly pursue after that which is good only in appearance and forsake that which is good indeed And they thereby become disorderly wretched and criminal enemies to God lovers of the thorny pleasures of sin and lovers of that fatal darkness which hides their sorrows the snares among which
who have overcome divers temptations and mortified their other lusts yet fall here and cannot bridle their unruly tongue the last gin the Devil sets to catch Souls and it hath been observ'd by men of great piety and great experience that a great talker was never very good or never persever'd to be so 2. Silence therefore which sequesters us from mens vain converse that we may entertain our selves with God silence which sanctifies all our persecutions sorrows and infirmities must needs be highly advantageous to every one that makes a right use of it For when in any case we suffer wrongfully and yet hold our tongues we then offer to God our Souls and Bodies goods and good names as a sacrifice we follow the example of Christ who opened not his mouth but was led as a lamb to the slaughter and we possess our Souls with patience and free our selves from clamours and perturbations Sometimes indeed a just defence of our selves may be requisite but we must be very cautious that we exceed not the due bounds of Christian meekness and humility And yet this can happen but seldome as when we are called to answer by the Magistrate when the slander would make us uncapable of exercising or useless in the exercise of a publick office or when it would be others detriment in these cases we may speak with truth and meekness in others we had best hold our tongue And that it may be to purpose we must also refrain and quell our inward passions that the tumult within make not the outward peace insignificant I kept silence even from good words saith the Psalmist if from good words sometimes we must refrain much more always from vain and ill language He is a wise man that can hold his tongue for 't is less difficult to knâ—â— how to speak well than how to be silent CHAP. IX Of true and false delights and of self-complacency in virtue 1. VIrtue alone is the true and lasting pleasure of rational creatures other things are pleasant but in appearance and for a short uncertain time and according to mens various opinions for worldly pleasures proceed not from reason which is constant and common to all but from corrupt appetites which always do change and differ As a sick Palat cannot rightly discern of the relish of meats no more can a vicious man feel and understand what is true pleasure which proceeds only from virtue to which he is too much a stranger Sensible delights indeed by natures instinct are pleasing to all and few justly know how to use and when to refuse them But man was created to a nobler end than only to gratifie sense he was made for the sight and the fruition of God the last and sovereign good 'T is true indeed we cannot contemplate truth and spiritual things but by the help of those Ideas and representations which we have from sense and our rational faculties cannot well discharge their function when the organs of the body are discomposed and therefore we must have such care of our bodies as may render them fit instruments for our souls and preserve them so 2. But we sin grievously and pervert the order which God and nature have appointed if we make bodily pleasure the end of our natural actions whereas we should design them and make them subservient to those nobler offices for which we were created after God's Image I confess we cannot long subsist without some pleasure corporal or spiritual and we cannot divide our Souls equally betwixt both but then this obligeth us to aspire the more after heavenly joys and to delight our selves so much the more in God in the sense of his favour and the hope of his glory that we may despise and disrelish the pleasures of sense and vanity 3. But let it be observ'd also that some love vertue more for its glory than its goodness sake they aspire after God because it is a thing high and transcendent they live a strict and severe life because it denotes a brave and generous spirit they preserve inward peace because it is pleasant they inquire after the way to Heaven and to that purpose consult many Books that they may enlarge their knowledge and satisfie their curiosity and they walk in the narrow way to perfection that they may delight in themselves and admire their own excellencies All this these men do for to please and magnifie themselves when they think most of all to serve God they only serve to their own pride and when at last they shall expect great rewards they shall find their hands empty of good works and their hearts full of nothing but Self-love God is therefore to be sought with humility with singleness of heart and a sincere Spirit he is to be lov'd above all things and for his own sake This life is the valley of the shadow of death a state of warfare a place of perpetual labour rest and peace and joys eternal are reserv'd for a better life CHAP. X. That we are led too much by Opinion 1. THat we generally live by opinion is known and acknowledg'd but how great is the force and the prevalency of it is not perhaps so well understood Opinion in many cases and after a strange way doth exercise a great power or rather tyranny over men It makes them as it pleaseth healthy or sickly poor or rich miserable or happy for no man is either of these but as he thinks himself Opinion brings joy or sorrow not so much according to the reality of good and evil as according to the fancy for experience tells us that what we wish'd or fear'd was nothing so pleasant or grievous as we imagined More than that Opinion not only gives a kind of present being to things that are future but also unites together things that are far distant and makes us feel in one moment the goods or evils of many years to come and which perhaps shall never be Opinion alone for the most part brings credit and praise to men and their actions and if all the dignities and the riches of the world were united together they could not content one single man except his opinion were also satisfied Hamans wealth was exceeding great and he was first in the Court of King Ahasuerus and yet he thought himself the unhappiest of men because Mordecai a poor Captive would not stand up and honour him when he came into the Palace 2. Another great mischief of opinion is this that it lengthens the present time and makes its duration in some manner interminable as if our life and worldly enjoyments were to have no end and that contrariwise it contracts Eternity and lessens to almost nothing those incomprehensible amazing everlasting ages that follow this uncertain life Men also commonly take an account of moral good and evil by the measures of opinion and whilst they seek to avoid one extreme they too often fall into another As some from a dull lazy life become