in her prayers for his Conversion say Aug. Conf. Chirographa tua ingerebat tibi Lord these promises were made to be made good to some and why not to me I hunger I need I thirst I wait here is thy hand-writing in thy Word and in the last Sacrament I had thy Seal affixed to it I am resolved to be as importunate till I have obtained and as thankfull afterwards as by Grace I shall be inabled being convinced I am utterly lost and undone if thou hearest not the desires of the humble in this particular Psal 10.17 and if thou dost hear and grant I am so well acquainted with my self and mine own heart that I have nothing to glory in but I shall wholly glory in the Lord and I do resolve and believe I shall to eternity celebrate and magnifie the riches of the glory of thy Grace Thy promises are the discovery of thy purposes and vouchsafed as materials for our prayers and in my supplications I am resolved every day to present and tender them back to thee every day and if thou wilt have regard to them there and appear to be a God of truth to my soul a poor creature that hath long feared to burn in hell for hypocrisie will be made secured and made happy for ever I am resolved to wait upon thee and to cast my soul upon thee in this way and thou hast assured me thou art a God of judgement thou didst promise in judgement thou knewest what thou didst in making such promises and thou wilt be a God of judgement thou knowest when and where to make them good and thou hast pronounced Blessed are all they that wait for thee Isa 30.18 Aug. Confes Impossibile a filium tantarum lacrimarum perire and on thee I will wait and for this blessing I will hope and look Oh beloved if there be but such an heart in us and such wrestlings as Ambrose told Monica a soul of such prayers and tears should not perish I could have added much more but if these Characters and Directions be carefully observed you will beware of and shall escape the leaven of hypocrisie And that you may be carefull to observe them Consider 1. That the purging out this leaven is the great care and business of a Christians life this will afford him fear and trembling work to his dying day this till it be done makes the gate so streight and the way so narrow to life that few finde it Matth. 7.13 and if it be done renders all the service of Christ ever after an easie yoak and a light burden Matth. 11.30 2. This if it be done gives us actual possession of the Kingdome of God in grace which consists of righteousness and peace Rom. 14.17 and joy in the Holy Ghost and administers an assured and abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdome of our Lord Jesus Christ in glory 2 Pet 1.11 3. This will prevent the Devils everlasting insulting over us is this the end of all thy praying and hearing c. and defying me nay upbrayding Christ as a learned and holy man feared I have him I have gotten him from thee for all thy blood thy Miracles Basil thy Gospel thy wooings thy beseechings thy knocking 's and strivings of thy Spirit for all thy illuminating them and making them taste of the powers of the world to come I have cousened thee of them at thy very gates of heaven and by my devices shipwrackt them in the very mouth of the haven Oh I would not give the Devil occasion to upbraid and insult thus against Christ at the last day for the world Basil And this would prevent consciences gnawing and galling to eternity What are all my desires my seekings and knocking 's prayers fasts Sacraments hearing in season and out of season waiting at the posts of Gods house early and late Have I forsaken so many sins denied my self so many contents and pleasures subdued so many lusts born so many scoffes suffered so much in my body and estate and all for hell at last This would be the hell of hell and all this may be prevented if we would beware of the leaven of hypocrisie and seriously observe those Characters and carefully practice those Directions 4. Consider the means you have long had and yet do enjoy Gods admirable forbearance and patience a powerfull Ministries incessant labours and paines an awakened consciences clamour◠and warnings a danger and evils if you be negligent intolerable a reward if you observe the beware in the Text eternal and inconceiveable your life short and uncertain your death appointed most certain and you know not how near the world and the lusts thereof even those that feed and foment hypocrisie passing away 1 Ioh. 2.17 and that now is the accepted time 2 Cor. 6.2 now is the day of salvation And if you were ever serious in your lives now be so and if ever God spake to your hearts and consciences the Lord in mercy speak this Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees What must Christians doe that the influence of the Ordinances may abide upon them 1 CHRON. 29.18 O Lord God of Abraham Isaac and Israel our Fathers keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people and prepare their heart unto thee IN the preceding Chapter we have Davids Oration or if you will his Sermon the design of which was to excite the people to a contribution for the erecting of a Temple and promoting the publike worship of God It begins ver 2. of that Chapter and is continued to the 6th verse of this Chapter This Sermon was effectuall upon the auditory David had the happinesse which the best Orators and most powerfull Preachers often want not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he not onely spoke what was in it self perswasive but did actually perswade his hearers to comply with his design The effect thereof is expressed ver 6 7 8. they offered and which was the marrow and fatnesse of their offering they offered willingly Though will worship be the worst service of all other yet those that serve God willingly are the best worshippers and therefore David in this Sermon commends such service to his son chap. 28. ver 9. And thou Solomon my son know thou the God of thy father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing minde None serve God with a perfect heart but those who serve him with a willing minde to such a temper were the people wrought by this powerfull exhortation ver 9. with a perfect heart they offered willingly to the Lord. Hereupon David much affected with his successe in this affair David the King also rejoyced with great joy his soul being now upon the wing he flies to God by prayer and therewith concludes his Sermon The prayer consists of petition and thanksgiving both of them not conformed to any
on their sick beds at home they resolve if God will spare them to do or suffer any thing for God and his ways and their own salvation 9. They may cnoceive fair hopes of mercy The Lord Christ being held out in the Gospel and freely offer'd to sinners this breeds hope in them a general and preparatory hope What shall we do you told us that God had raised up that Jesus we crucified and made him Lord and Christ and that whosoever should call upon his name should be saved therefore we hope there is mercy for us Thus had they a hope kindled in them Act. 2.21 and Peter in the two next verses strengthens their hope saying Repent and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and the promise is to you and to your children 10. They may thirst after and pray for the mercy hoped for Such a qualification was in these men What shall we do you men of God we are a thirst and do intreat you to tell us where we may have water to quench our heat mercy to pardon our sins balme to cure our wounds The Publican in Luke hath left us his short pithy and affectionate prayer to imitate being in this case and state Lord saith he be merciful to me a sinner He was sensible of his sin and of his want of righteousness he had hope of mercy and thereupon came to the Temple to pray and pray'd earnestly for mercie and Conversion is none of the least mercies of God or least needful for a sinner 11. Men being come thus far they are to wait upon God for doing the work when the pots were fil'd with water the water was not made Wine till Christ put forth his mighty power neither were the men who lay at the pool of Bethesdah cur'd till the Angel came down and stirred the waters so a man in this case is to wait until the Spirit of the Lord come in omnipotenti sua vitate or victrici delectatione overcome his will and set it for the Lord and spiritual things when this is the work is done and done without violence to the will for its an omnipotent presence prevails with the will and it s immediately made willing in the day of this power By these forementioned things men are in a proximity or nextness to Conversion but not converted It must be an higher power then our own which lifts us up into an higher nature or state then we are in at present Though men may do much upon moral perswasions yet not so much as to make themselves Converts or spiritual of Animal or Natural Previous actions and preparative dispositions may make a man a picture of a Convert not a true or living Convert Having shewn what persons can and may do towards their Conversion it remains to declare what they ought to do The word must or ought the signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek imports two things 1. Necessity there must be Heresies 1 Cor. 11.19 it s no mans duty to broach or bring in Heresies but they must be its necessary for the discovery of men approved 2. Duty God is a Spirit and must be worshipped in spirit and truth its mens duty so to do Joh. 4.24 It was the Pharisees and Scribes duty to pay tythe of Mint Anise and Cummin c. therefore saith Christ These things ought they to have done c. Mat. 23.23 Now then what persons can do they ought to do First there is a necessity of it we must do what we can else we are sloathful and unfaithful and our damnation will be just one thing is necessary viz. to turn unto God that our souls may be saved here it will hold good Turn or burn if it be necessary to prevent burning in everlasting flames its necessary to turn and so to do the utmost we can towards the same Secondly it s our duty Strive to enter in at the strait gate saith Christ he commands it and lays this injunction upon all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strain be in an agony as Christ was in the work of mans redemption so let men be in the works of their Conversion put forth themselves as they did in the Olympick Games the Wrestlers and Runners exerted all their might to obtain and so must men about the work of their Conversion The Lord who hath no pleasure in the death of a sinner saith Turn your selves and live There is life in turning and what should not men do to preserve or obtain life The Lord hath two great ends in saying thus Turn your selves and live yee although he know man is not able to do it 1. That we may see how corrupt and impotent our nature is and so break the strength of humane confidence thereby Quicquid nobis praecipitur a deo ad illud faciendum sufficientem potentiam habemus Dixit Pelagius quod homo sâ—lius liberi aâ—bitrii viribus potest perficere dei mandata Bradwardinus de causa dei l. 2. c 4. and bring us to be sensible of and throughly to bewayl our condition It is not so as some think and speak viz. that whatever God commands man hath power to do what man ever kept the Law since the fall of Adam and is not the Law given by way of command if man could keep the Law we might be justified and have life by it Rom. 8.3 Gal. 3.21 but the Law can neither do the one nor the other and why because man hath not power or strength to keep it 2. To put us upon looking out for help from whence the command cometh Hence is it that what the Lord commandeth us to do in one place he promiseth to give in another Circumcise the foreskin of your heart Deut. 10.16 and God saith Deut. 30.6 The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart In the former verse to the Text they are commanded to make themselves new hearts and new spirits which they could not do therefore in Ezek. 36.26 the Lord promiseth to give and put the same in them Repent and turn your selves Ezek. 14.6 and chap. 36.27 Ideo dat praeceptum ut exciâ—et desiderium praestet auxilitum Leo. I will put my Spirit into them and cause them to walk in my ways the Spirit God would put in should turn them from their Idols and own ways and cause them to walk in his ways The Lord doth therefore command such things that our desires and endeavours being quickned he may reach forth help unto us Therefore let us apply our selves to all these means and ways by which the Lord worketh Conversion Let us make use of all the ways forenamed and especially hear the word preach'd and pray Turn us O Lord and we shall be turned and see to it that we use the means in good earnest we may do more as hath been shewed than we do It s the counsel of him who was wiser than other men that whatever our hands do find to do we
disquieted and tormented for the sins of his youth then he may be said to possesse them yea it may occasion not only griefe but guilt Of all sins this is many times most unmortified even after Mortification Souldiers that have received wounds and bruises when young have smartâ—d by them when they have been old There are many good souls that after cure have gone to heaven halting on the old maim Motive 3. The mortifying of our darling lust our right-eye sin and our right-hand sin is a choise evidence of regeneration truth of grace hath as much as any way been declared thus Acts 19.19 Paul after conversion becomes a Preacher of that name which he before blasphemed Those of Ephesus that were given to witchcraft and sorcery after their conversion brought their books together and burned them before all men and many other instances of the like nature are urged by Divines to this purpose Cranmer that had subscribed the Popish Articles with his right hand afterwards as a piece of revenge put that hand first into the flames A true Convert of all sins will be revenged most upon that by which he hath most dishonoured God His right eye and his right hand shall smart for it the one must be plucked out and the other must be cut off as we say of hunger he will kill that which otherwise would have killed him I speak much of mortification and death to you this morning Christians be not afraid to dye thus doth not argue imperfection there is corruptio perfectiva a corruption that tends to perfection I was alive saith Paul Rom. 7.9 without the Law once but when the Commandement came sinne revived and I dyed This is expiring unto life just as an Embrio expires after it becomes a child Here I would add two Cautions under this head 1. The forbearing of any outward act of sin whatsoever is no evidence of Mortification or Conversion Sin may be restrained when it is not mortified a chained Lyon is a Lyon still a Swine washed is a Swine still In some sense you may be said to be a new man and yet you may not be a new creature This may come to passe partly from the sense of temporall inconveniences partly from the clamours of naturall conscience or from fear of wrath Such principles as these are not strong enough to kill sin or to heal the Soul but are like those odours which we use to raise men out of a fit of the Falling sickness but doth not at all cure them of the disease 2 The mortifying of our darling sin is joyned with an universal hatred of all sin A true Convert hates every false way as the Psalmist phrases it sin is often expressed in Script by abomination it is so to God it should be so to man anger is only with reference to particulars but hatred is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against the kind a godly man hates sin as sin and therefore he hates every sin the Devil hates goodnesse as goodnesse and therefore he hates all goodnesse a quatenus ad omne valet consequentia a man may be angry with sin and not kill sin but as he that hates his brother is a murderer so he that hates sin is a mortifier When the right eye is plucked out and the right hand is cut off the whole body of sin hath its deaths wound The man that keeps himself from his iniquity will keep himself from every iniquity the heart with one hole-reserved for sin is not sound Motive 4. Mortification is a duty becoming the best of Saints whilest they are in this world I told you in the beginning of this discourse that the Text was part of Christs Sermon upon the Mount and if you consult the first and second verses of this Chapter you shall find that it was preached to Christs own Disciples Vir bonus pius Gal. 5.24 non est qui carnem non habet sed qui carnem suam mortificat a good man is not one that hath no flesh but he that hath crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Gal. 5.24 It is with our sinfull body as with our natural body If you cut a Wenn or any Excrescence of that nature it will grow again and again and it will be an hard matter to be rid of it all your dayes So though every day we be paring away our lusts yet they grow again To close all Go on and persevere in the subduing and killing of thy beloved Lust Mortification is a worke once done and yet in this life it is always a doing There are some things that consist of an iteration of multiplyed acts as in Wedlock persons are actually married at once the Husband surrenders himself unto the Wife and the Wife surrenders her self unto her Husband and yet if they live together sutably to that neer relation marriage is as it were renewed every day there is a continuall surrender of themselves each to other So 't is here when the soul is first converted the beloved sin is mortified and yet there is a continuall mortification of it this is a duty that consists not in any one act though never so good never so vigorous but 't is a continued act of the whole life 'T is not killing sin at one blow the strength of sin decays by degrees it begins in the weakning of sin and ends in the destroying of sin Sin dies a lingring death therefore let us go on in this great and necessary work You know Sampson deny'd and deny'd Dalilah for some time and would not discover where his strength lay but not holding out he lost his strength and his life to boot beware of Apostacy Crabs that go backward are reckoned amongst unclean creatures Lev. 11.10 Factum non dicitur quod non perseverat is a maxime a Will not finished is no Will a Deed unlesse it be signed sealed and delivered is no Deed. The Sacrifice that was offered up unto God was not to want so much as the tayle Lev. 3.6 True Christians hate sin so perfectly that they cannot be quiet till it be utterly abolished First they go to God for Justification ne damnet then for sanctification ne regnet then for glorification ne sit Let us be faithfull as to this spiritual death that we may receive a crown of life Amen What Relapses are inconsistent with Grace HEB. 6.4 5 6. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost And have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come If they shall fall away to renew them again to repentance seeing they crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame I Could say Beloved of the Interpretation and Application of this Scripture before I begin to open it containing the Doom and sad Sentence pronounced against Apostates and Relapsarians as once Daniel
such prodigious mercy and that when this love would have opened to thee the door of glory how great how infinite glory and when the rejecting of it would infallibly plunge thy soul into misery how dreadful how intollerable was ever madness like thine oh my soul will conscience say certainly Hell is too easie a punishment for such a Serpent such an Incarnate Devil as thou art well may God rejoyce to bee avenged on such a wretch as thee and make thee to drink up the very dreggs of his Indignation while others that dwell in God shall dwell in love oh how will God bee nothing else but fury and wrath and vengeance to thee Thou shalt one day and that day such as never shall have an end hear Justice call upon Omnipotency still to add more flame to thy torment Thus conscience will look backward and forward and even wreak it self with the most dismal flaming language that it can finde out upon the haters of Christ And is not that a dreadful sin which shall thus set a man against himself and put a sword into the hand of cruel conscience to cleave the soul in peeces And is not that a dreadful punishment when a man shall become his own Accuser Judge and Executioner When conscience shall burn so hot within a man that hee shall be a terrour to himself and an eternal amazement And yet alas what is all this to the immediate impressions of the wrath of God upon the soul when hee that hath said Vengeance is mine and I will repay Heb. 20.30 shall grasp the soul in his dreadful hand which might bee farther Improved and be demonstrated to be Incomparably the sorest part of the punishment but I come to the second particular which was to lay down some moving Considerations to provoke such as love themselves to love Christ and besides the particulars last mentioned Consider 1. Who it is that I plead for this day Sirs I do not call you to doat upon thick clay filth and vanity I do not plead to gain your hearts to one that is not worthy or hath not deserved that you should place your affections upon him if you can make either of these manifest hate him and spare not but I plead for one who is 1. glorious and excellent if you doubt it read his Character Cant. 5.9 What sayest thou now is hee not Altogether lovely is there any blemish to bee found in him and if thou mistrustest the Judgement of the Church sure thou canst not doubt of Gods Hear his sentence Matth. 3.17 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Hee knew of whom hee spake for hee was his Son and hee doth not say hee was pleased with him only but well-pleased i. e. delighted See Prov. 8.30 and satisfied And was hee worthy of Gods love and doest thou doubt whether he have deserved thine 2. Consider hee is one that died for thee first to purchase thy love and since is gone to Heaven where yet hee doth not Cease to call upon thee and Invite thee to bestow thy heart upon him were hee excellent but proud it would bee little to thy advantage But hee stoops and wooes and intreats thee Isa 55.1 Luke 15.20 Act. 9.4 John 5.21.26 'T is a day of the Gladness of his heart when hee prevailes but with one soul to close with him And all the rage of his persecutors did not grieve him more than you will if you stand it out against him 3. Consider hee is one that hath the power of thy life and death in his own hands and this is one part of his Covenant upon which thy life or death depends as offered in the promise so hee waites but as love is the Condition of it so if thou hearkenest not thou loosest thy share therein and what thou choosest bee it life or death thou shalt Certainly have 2. Consider what it is I plead for why all that I aske is love and will you deny Christ that I call thee to think well of Christ to desire him to take Complacency in him to breath after union and eternal communion with him And which of these dost thou think too much for such an object or where canst thou place them more fitly than upon him what is hee worthy of if not of this did ever death content it self with such a recompence was ever any debt easier paid any service so easily performed as this only to love hath God made Christ a King Priest and Prophet and is that all which thou must do to partake of his love in him to love him in those relations and wilt thou stick at this Hast thou any other way to the bosome of God but by him yet rather than thou wilt come thither by love wilt thou damn thy soul by hating Christ is not the enjoyment of God worth the labour of love 1 Thes 1.3 shall all go rather than be saved by love to thy Redeemer 3. Consider what hee will do for thee if thou art a sincere lover of him Hee comes not to Court thee and flatter thee to thy loss but his reward is great Rev. 22.12 and hee brings it with him Give mee leave to tell thee some particulars thereof If thou wilt love him hee will betroth thee to himself in dearest love Hee will bee thy Bridegroom and thou shalt bee his Bride Hos 2.19 20. Ephes 5.32 Zech 3 4. Gen. 20.16 Rev. â—1 9 Isa 62.5 'T is not all thy filthy garments Ragges or Poverty that shall hinder but hee will bee to thee the Covering of thine eyes And a gladness of heart shalt thoa bee unto him Zeph. 3.17 Thou shalt bee the Joy of Christ himself for as the Bridegroom rejoyâ—eth over the Bride so shall the Lord thy God rejoyce over thee 2ly He will dwell with thee John 14.23 24. Husband and Wife dwell together and so doth the betrothed soul and Christ John 17.23 I in them and they in mee saith Christ Now this is a priviledge which carries many in the womb of it Rev. 3.20 such are these 1. Intimacy and daily familiarity Christ and Christians Eph. 5.23 take their meals together there is no Communion so neer as that which is between them One spirit 1 Cor. 6.17 2. Maintenance and provision 1 Tim. 5.8 Hee is worse than an Infidel that provides not for his own house Heb. 13.5 All that live under the same roof with Christ have their daily bread provided for them at his charges and hee hath said that hee will never leave them 3. Protection every mans house is his Castle they are under safe Covert that dwell with Christ 4. Counsel guidance and direction This great Husband dwels with all his family according to knowledge 1 Pet. 3.7 for hee teacheth them all his Secrets and shews them his Covenant Psal 25.14 3ly Hee will Interest thee in all his own Riches purchases possessions and dignities
Because without this faith wee are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reprobates noâ— as opposed to the elect but denoting peâ—sons unsound and hypocritical It is also not a conjecture but a certain knowledge that wee are pressed to obtain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the word that the holy Ghost useth search make tryal as God tryed Abraham Gen. 22.1 That his love to God and fear of God appeared Prove as the Gold-smith doth his mettals in the fire or by the touch-stone because hee bids us prove it not so much by argument as experience for so the word is used Luke 14.19 Hee went to prove his Oxen and forasmuch as wee must prove our selves to bee in Christ wee must not leave it uncertain for what is uncertain after tryal is not proved A note of true Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fiscat in Loc. Besides that wee do beleeve wee might know by the Judgements valuing the wills chusing and the affections loving Christ above all 1 Pet. 2.7 To you that beleeve hee is precious Christ is an honour to the beleever and Christ is most prized and valued by the beleever And cannot a man know what hee prizeth most what hee valueth and esteemeth most what his understanding doth dictate to him to bee chosen above all and whether his will doth choose according to the dictates of the understanding and the affections love and desire are upon the wing to enjoy what the will doth make choice of and grief filleth the heart when hee cannot obtain it could not Ahab know that hee prized Naboths Vineyard when hee greived because hee could not get it and all that hee had was lessened by the want of what hee prized so much so doth the soul cry out riches is nothing without Christ and honour and friends cannot remove the grief of his heart till Christ comes in to his heart and manifests himself there cannot hee know it by his care to get by his fear to lose by his determining what to do in case hee must lose that which hee prizeth most or all other things besides hee will part with all though very desirable as a marriner will cast away his richest goods in a tempest to save his life * As Aristippus â—ast his gold into the Sea saying satius est ut haec per Aristippum quam propter haec pereat Aâ—istippus it is better these things perish by Aristippus than Aristippus by these things which think you doth hee prize most a woman if her house bee on fire suffers all her pewter to bee consumed in the flames so that shee may but save her childe is it not apparent which shee valueth most all shall go that thou mayest keep Christ if thou prize him most This is known by the delight of the heart in the enjoyment of that which a man valueth most in the want of other things thou canst delight in Christ in poverty affliction in the midst of troubles in the world So likewise for love is it not possible for a man to know that hee loveth Christ above all how else could Peter when asked three times by Christ whether hee loved him answer three times that hee did love him and did appeal to Christ that knew his heart that hee spake truly because hee knew hee loved him sincerely and this is observable that this was after Peters fall by which hee had learned to have a holy jealousie over his own heart and Christ doth not intimate any deceitfulness in his heart in thiâ— as he did before when hee said m Mat. 26.35.35 Sign of true love to God twice that he would not deny him By the effects of love wee may certainly know that wee love him 1. By thy unfeigned desires to bee like unto him wee love to imitate those whom wee dearly love love produceth assimilation if hee bee holy so wouldest thou bee if hee hate sin so dost thou 2. By thy hearty desire to bee united to him to have him with thee * Nihâ—l magis gregale quam antor omnilim rerum patichtissimus nisi solitâ—dinis societute gaudet extorquet consortem Nieremb De art Vo p. 333. his presence thou dost desire his absence thou canst not bear without mourning and complains and wishing oh that I could see him oh that I could meet with him and therefore thou goest from duty to duty from ordinance to ordinance from thy prayers in thy closer to the congregation if thou mightest finde him there from the word to the sacrament if thou mightest finde him there if hee come unto thee thou rejoycest if hee withdraw himself thy soul is troubled 3. By thy great care to please him fear to offend him and * Se a se ausert amans amato tradit resigning thy self to him When it grieveth thy heart to grieve thy Lord and it breaks thy heart when thou breakest his commands Joh. 14.15 If yee love mee keep my commandements Vers 21. Hee that hath my commandements and keepeth them hee it is that loveth mee 1 Joh. 2. cap. 3. And hereby wee know that wee know including this affection of love unto him vers 4. Hee that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandements is a lyer and the truth is not in him vers 5. But whose keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected hereby wee know that wee are in him 1 John 5 3. For this is the love of God that wee keep his commandements and his commandements are not grievous because of the love wee have to him that doth command 4. By the love that wee bear unto his Image in whomsoever wee do see it and love them that are like to Christ so much that wee could deny our selves of honours Amor eccho The soul that loves God doth eccho to God Commands Psal 27.8 when thou saidest my heâ—â—t said and profits were it necessary and God should call us to it to do them good as wee love Christ above all so wee love his likeness in others and the beleever for Christs sake above outward things that if hee bee in necessity wee do not only wish him well but part with something and if God and the Law of nature did not require us to lay it out first for necessary provision for our families could part with all to help them in their great n Act. 4.32 34.35 37 1 Joh. 3.16.17 necessity Now this sincere love to the people of God is an evidence of the goodness of our spiritual condition 1 John 3.14 Wee know that wee have passed from death to life How not by extraordinary revelation but by this rational argumentation because wee love the brethren and vers 18. My little Children let us not love in word neither in tongue but in deed and in truth And vers 19. And hereby wee know that wee are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him But here the Papist doth not only cavil
hope fill you with all joy and peace in beleeving that you may abound in hope So much for the possibility of this assurance Now I come to the second part of the Question to speak to those that know not that they have eternal life and discern not their spiritual condition and those may bee of two sorts 1. Some that for want of diligence in the use of means are uncertain what their condition is 2. Such as have made inquiry and long earnestly to bee resolved in this great Question whether they bee converted changed and shall bee saved or no and yet cannot finde it out I would speak a few things to the first of these because the greatest part know not their condition through their own carelesness and negligence that through the slothfulness of their own hearts on the difficulty of the work or multiplicity of worldly care and business are yet in the dark That examine their shop book oftener more diligently than they do the book of their own hearts that make oftner enquiry whether they grow rich than whether they wax good If I may judge of other mens hearts by mine own in this point and not bee thought to have too hard and uncharitable thoughts of them I would conclude we are all guilty of negligence in this case and therefore walk in the dark and remain in uncertainties about the salvation of our immortal Souls which should bee the first thing wee should make sure of because it is of the greatest and everlasting concernment Ah Christian chide thy own slothful lazy negligent heart shame thy self out of this carelesness what canst thou eat and drink and sleep and trade as quietly as if thou wert past all danger And yet thou dost not know whether thou shalt be damned or saved Awake oh my soul rouse up thy self and look after thine eternal state it is no matter whether thou art rich or poor honourable or contemptible the great question that with the greatest seriousness is to bee resolved is whether thou hast grace or no whether Christ bee thine or no certainly careless persons should bee stirred up to looke after their eternal state and those that are diligent need some considerations to make them more diligent and therefore the Apostle Peter writeth to those that had obtained like precious faith with himself calling upon them urging and exhorting them to make their calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 For this end let mee propound these following Questions to thee that art negligent in this great concernment and as thou readest give thy self a sober serious answer 8. Questions propounded to slothful christians 1. Is it nothing to thee to live in the dayly neglect of a commanded duty is it not the injunction of thy Lord whose servant thou dost profess thy self to bee that thou shouldest give all diligence in this matter and wilt thou not give any at all or not at all proportionable to the waightiness of thy concernment herein might not this raise doubts and jealousies in thy soul that thy condition is not good because thou art not diligent to know and to prove it to bee good especially when thou dost consider that thy Lord commands thy diligence herein Mightest not thou question the sincerity of thy obedience to any of Gods commands for want of the universality of it extending it self to all Gods commands tell mee Christian why hath God given us this charge read 2 Pet. 1.10 Wherefore the rather brethren give all diligence to make your calling and election sure is it not the same God that commands thee to Pray that commands thee to make sure of Heaven didst thou never read these words or hast thou read them and thrown them by and thought this counsel is not fit to bee followed nor this command to bee obeyed what canst thou say for thy neglect look a little into the Text what is it that you are commanded to make sure of house or land if it had been so it is like thou wouldest have obeyed but it is something better infinitely better whether thou are effectually called eternally elected and is this to bee done slothfully carelesly or doth not God require thy diligence thy utmost diligence nay all thy diligence nay thy speedy diligence without delay thy painful diligence without indulging thy self in thy sloth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy continual diligence without weariness or till thou hadst got a certainty of thy state and shouldest thou not do this rather than any temporal concernment shouldest not thou make sure of grace rather than of riches of heaven rather than the earth of an interest in God rather than of earthly possessions 2. Is it not a shame that wicked men should daily use more care to make sure of fading vanities Operose nihil oguit than thou dost use to make sure of better more lasting riches what is not the soul better than the body or are things temporal better worth than things eternal how do they cark and care what must we eat what must we drink how shall we be sure of something to keep us when wee are old dost thou do thus for thy soul how shall I get my sins pardoned my nature sanctified and my soul saved how shall I bee sure of an eternal heavenly house above when this mouldring cottage of my body is tumbled down doth it not shame thee to see the diligence of worldly men that if they buy house or land they looke narrowly to the writing and ask advice and counsel whether the title will bee good that hee may bee sure and not defrauded The Old userer will not let forth his monies but hee will have good sufficient security both for principal and interest because hee saith and knows it is good to bee sure nay yet further doth it not shame thee that many men should take more pains for hell than thou dost for heaven and to bee sure of damnation than thou dost to be certain of thy salvation how do they daily drudge in the waies of wickedness committing sin with greediness with both hands heartily with their whole soul as though they should not come to hell sure enough or soon enough while thou art dull flat listless in thy duties to God and not praying heartily as for thy soul do not wicked men take more pains in breaking the sabbath than thou dost in keeping of it and do not they scorn duties more than thou dost prize and practise them But further 3. Dost thou not too much forget thine own Mortality dost thou indeed consider that thou art hasting into an eternal state and must within these few years months yea weeks enter into an unchangeable condition dost thou indeed beleeve Heaven or Hell is before thee that eternal death or eternal life are at the end of this fading short momentany life or dost thou judge it to bee indifferent whether bee the place of thine everlasting abode what is the
disturbeth the Court more than they that make the noise So disputing with our distractions increaseth them they are better avoided by a severe contempt 6. Bring with you to every holy Service strong spiritual affections our thoughts would not be at such a distance from our work if our affections were more ready and more earnestly set it is the unwilling Servant that is loath to stay long at his work but is soon gone could we bring our selves more delightfully to converse with God our hearts would hold our minds close and we would not straggle so often as we do therefore see you do this or you do nothing I was glad saith David when they said unto me come let us go into the House of the Lord Psal 122.1 Were we of this frame of spirit many directions would not need Now what should hinder us from being thus affected Are not the Ordinances of God the special means of our communion with him And the throne of grace the very porch of heaven Can we be better than in Gods Company pleading with him for our souls good and waiting for his blessing Therefore let us be glad and rejoyce in his presence and you will not easily find such out-strayings of mind and thought 7. Remember the weight and consequence of the duties of Religion that is a cure for slightness you are dealing with God in a Case of life and death and will you not be serious With what diligence and earnestness doth an Advocate plead with a man in a Case wherein he himself is not concerned either for the life of another or the inheritance or goods of another * Si cum sublimi homine non dicam pro vita salute nostra sed etiam pro alicujus lucri commodo supplicamus totam in cum mentus corporis aciem defigentes de nutu ejus trepida expectatione pendemus non mediocriter sormidantes ne quid sorte ineptum incongruum verbum misericordiam audientis avertat quanto magis cum illi occultorum omnium cognitori pro imminenti perpetuae mortis periculo supplicamus c. Cassian Col. 23. c 7 and wilt not thou plead earnestly with God when thy soul is in danger when it is a Case of Eternal life and death as all matters that pass between God and us are Certainly if we did consider the weight of the business the heart would be freed from this garish wantonness if Christ had taken thee aside into the Garden as he took Peter James and John and thou hadst seen him praying and trembling under his Agonies thou wouldst have seen that it is no light matter to go to God in a case of the salvation of souls though thou hast never so much assurance of the issue for so Christ had the frequent return of Christian duties maketh us to forget the consequence of them In hearing the Word be serious it is your life Deut. 32.46 Hearken unto the words of the Law for this is not a vain thing because it is your life thy everlasting estate is upon tryal and the things that are spoken concern your souls every act of communion with God every participation of his grace hath an influence upon Eternity say therefore as Nehemiah in another case Nehem. 6.3 I am doing a great work I cannot come down Can you have a heart to mind other things when you are about so great a work as the saving of your souls 8. Let every experimental wandring make you more humble and careful If men did lay their wandrings to heart and retract them even every glance with a sigh the mind would not so boldly so constantly digress and step aside all actions displeasing are not done so readily therefore it is good to bewail these distractions do not count them as light things * Haec omnia nonnullis qui sunt crassioribus vitiis involuti levia atque a peccato paene aliena videntur scientibus tamen perfectionis bonum etiam minimarum rerum multitudo gravissimâ— est Cassian Col. 23. cap 7. Cassianus speaking of these wandring thoughts saith The most that come to worship being involved in greater sins scarce count distraction of thoughts an evil and so the mischief is encreased upon them It is a sad thing to be given up to a vain mind and such a frothy spirit as cannot be serious therefore if we do soundly humble our selves for these offences and they did once become our burden they would not be our practice * Hooker on Acts 2 37. One saith that Huntsmen observe of young dogs that if a fresh game come in view they leave their old sent but if soundly beaten off from it they kindly take to their first pursuit the application is easie did we rate our hearts for this vanity and pray against the sins of our prayers with deep remorse this evill would not be so familiar with us 9. A constant heavenliness and holiness of heart if men were as they should be holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 1.14 In all manner of conversation In solemn duties good and proper thoughts would be more natural and kindly to us they that live in a constant communion with God do not find it such a tedious business to converse with him if they have any excursion of thoughts it is in their daily work and the offices of the common life which they are ever seasoning with some gracious meditations and short ejaculations When they are in duty they are where they would be constant gravity and seriousness is a great help to them Men allow themselves a lawless liberty in their ordinary conversations and then in Prayer they know not how to gather up their hearts such as men are out of prayer such they will be in prayer We cannot expect that pangs of devotion should come upon us all of a sudden and that when we come reaking from the world we should presently leap into a heavenly frame 10. The next remedy is frequent solemn meditation If the understanding were oftner taken up with the things of God and our thoughts were kept in more frequent exercise they would the better come to hand There is a double advantage comes to us by meditation 1. The soul gets more abundance of heart-warming knowledge and therefore will not be so barren and dry which certainly is a cause of wandring Psal 45.1 My heart inditeth a good matter and then my tongue is as the pen of a ready Writer A man that boyleth and concocts truths in his heart hath a greater readiness of words and affections There is a good treasure within him Mat. 12.35 out of which he may spend freely * Gobbet of Prayer one expresseth it thus He thâ—t hath store of gold and silver in his pocket and but a few Brass farthings will more readily upon every draught come out with gold and silver than brass farthings So he that hath stocked his heart with holy thoughts will not find carnal musings so
hath blessed you with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places Vse 3. How great is their folly and misery who keep at a distance from Christ Ioh. 5.40 Our Saviour mentions it as the highest folly in the Jews You will not come unto me that you might have life There is in Christ the life of justification to free us from that eternal death to which the Law sentences us The life of sanctification to free us from that spiritual death under which our apostacy hath brought us There is in him an Alsufficient fulnesse for the repairing of all our losses And are these mercies not worthy the coming for The Apostle puts the very Emphasis of the Heathens misery in this Ephes 2.12 that they are without Christ and therefore without hope And what is their misery Shall any of us make our choice Vse 1. Of Exhortation Let it be your care that Christ may be All to you 't is no small nor is it any common priviledge Many there are who live without Christ Ephes 2.12 Others to whom All that is in Christ is so far from being to their salvation that it only aggravates their destruction He that is to some the chief corner stone 1 Pet. 2.6 8. is to others no better than a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence This was prophesied of Christ This childe shall be for the fall and rising again of many in Israel There 's no mercy so eminently good Luk. 2.34 but through our corruptions it may become an occasion of evil Christ himself the greatest of mercies that ever God vouchsafed to creatures is yet so far from saving some from their sins that he only encreases their sin Ioh. 15.22 If I had not come and spoke unto them they had not had sin but now they have no cloak for their sin Those who enjoyed the Ministry of Christ in his own person and were not wrought upon thereby all their sins would comparatively have been a kind of innocence had they not discovered such an height of obstinacy 't is therefore no common priviledge But what should we do that it may be ours Take these few Directions 1. Labour to get your judgements setled in the belief of this great truth That all things in the world are a very nothing without Christ That you are poor in the midst of worldly riches and miserable in the midst of all earthly happinesse while you remain in your estrangements from Christ And that of all kind of poverty and misery this is the worst because it is in those spirituall blessings wherein consists both our present and future happinesse 'T is but little those persons understand of their great concernments that can with that Gospel-fool think themselves sufficiently provided for in the things of this world and say to their souls as he to his Soul Luk. 12.19 thou hast goods laid up for many years eat drinke and be merry Dost thou know thou livest in this world upon the very brink of eternity And dost thou know whether there be more than one step between thee and another world 1 Sam. 20.2 And canst thou take up with any thing on this side Christ it is an argument you know but little of your own concernments Some of the grosser Platonists thought the world to be a great Animal and the soul which acted it was God now if the soul be departed from the body what is it but a meer carkasse without life Christ is the very life and soul of all our comforts and without him all our creature-enjoyments are but as so many cyphers without a figure which have no significancy in them but are as so many nothings Nothing in respect of true comfort here nothing in respect of your preparations for another world Labour therefore through the glasse both of Scripture and experience to behold all the excellencies of this world as so many bladders filled with wind and at best to be like Hagars Bottle which was soon empty Gen. 21.15 or as broken Cisterns Cisterns and therefore cannot hold much broken Cisterns and therefore cannot hold what they have long Ier. 2.13 And withall let it be your wisdome to look upon Christ as that everlasting Fountain of all good which can never be drawn dry as that never failing Spring of all those blessings which will not onely sweeten every condition here but go with us beyond death and the grave Such fixed apprehensions of these things will be singularly usefull to engage our souls in an earnest pursuit after Christ Psal 63.8 or in the Psalmists words to follow hard after him and 't is his promise that they that come to him he will in no wise cast out Joh. 6.37 2. Be speedy in casting out those inmates which because they are unmeet companions for Christ 1 Sam. 5.4 Amos 3.3 may hinder his taking possession of your souls The Ark and Dagon could not stand together in the same room but if the Ark stands Dagon falls Can two walk together except they be agreed Christ and our corruptions are at no agreement these two cannot dwell together under the same roof If you would have Christ to take up his abode in your hearts you must prepare a place for him Psal 132.4 5. It was said of David he would neither give sleep to his eyes nor slumber to his eye-lids till he had found out an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. The souls of most men are so crowded with other guests that the best entertainment they can afford Christ is but such as he found in his first entrance into the world an out-room a stable a manger But let it be your care to renounce communion with all things that might hinder your communion with him Psal 45.10 11. to forget thy own people and thy Fathers house so shall the King greatly desire thy beauty so not otherwayes he will have no rivals no competitors not a part of our heart but all 3. Be willing to accept of Christ upon his own termes there can be no termes hard on which we may gain an interest in him Matth. 16.24 The great and main condition is Self-denial together with a full resignation of our selves to him and self-denial if duely considered is the greatest self-advantage 1. Because he calls us not to deny our selves in any thing that is truly for our spiritual good or at least so far as 't is for our good 2. Though he calls us to deny our selves in many outward good things yet 't is not so much to part with them as to exchange them for what is better 3. The main objects of self-denial are those things which 't is our priviledge to be freed from no reason therefore to be offended at such termes as these to resign up our mistaken judgements to the guidance of infinite Wisdome our corrupt wills to his most holy and gracious will 1 Joh. 5.3 Psal 119.151 172.
Tim. 1.15 Some have left their Love Rev. 2.3 Some left the Faith 1 Tim. 5.12 Some have turned after the world as Demas 2 Tim. 4 10. Some have turned aside after Satan 1 Tim. 5.15 And would to God there were no Example to be given in our age and observation it is that which the professors of a true Religion are more subject to then those of a false Jer. 21.1 Hath a nation changâ—d their god which yet are no gods but my people have changed their glory for that which doâ—h not profit Now there are three falls to which men are subject 1. Some fall as wood or Cork into the water sink at first Mat. 14.31 Act. 27.20 and 44. but get up again being helped by the hand of divine grace as Peter or brought off by a miracle of mercy as Paul and his company after all hopes of safety were quite taken a way This the fall of the godly 2. Some fall as lead or stone into the bottom of hell as Pharaohs host into the bottom of the sea and never rise again Exod. 15. having neither promise of God nor seed of God to raise them up again 1 Tim. 1.19 but make a final shipwarck of faith and conscience and of their souls together This the fall of the wicked 3. There is a mixt fall common to both which is like the falling into an Epidemical Disease whereof many dye and as many recover of which in their order There are four kinds or degrees of falling which the people of God are subject to And four kinds or degrees to which the wicked are subject and each latter is worse then other in them both 1. The first and lightest fall of the godly 4. Falls of thâ— Godly is that in their daily combate between flesh and spirit set out Rom. 7. at large and Gal. 5.17 We cannot do what we would but fail or fall short after our best endeavours Our duties are imperfect graces defective our gold and silver drossy our wine mixt with water Sin deceiveth surprizeth captiveth slayeth yet reigneth not all this while It is not I but sin that dwels in me I consent to the Law I delight in the law of God even in my inner man c. These falls or slips are unavoydable involuntary there is no Saint but complains of them no duty but is stained with them In our clearest Sun-shine we see a world of such Moats which yet hinder not the light and comfort of our Justification and destroy not Sanctification True grace consists with these Velimus nolimus Irruunt in nos Egyptiorum muscae obstrepunt Ranae in Cubilibus Regiis Prov. 24.16 yea is not separated from the assaults and induelling of such motions Will we Nill we said Bernard We are pesterd with swarms of these Egyptian flyes and have these frogs in our inmost chambers We are none of us Supralapsarians in this sense but Sub-lapsarians all yea and Relapsarians too The just falleth seven times a day by this infirmity and riseth again and taketh no harm but is kept humble and depending thereby Every son and daughter of Abraham is kept bound under this spirit of infirmity to their dying day This first fall is but like the fall of a mist in a winter morning the Sun gets up and it is a fair day after This is the first fall The second is worse which is 2. An actual visible stumble as to offence of others yet occasioned by some surreptitious surprize of temptation for want of that due consideration which we should always have this Gal. 6.1 the Apostle calls a mans being overtaken with a fault who is to be restored with a spirit of meekness considering we also may be tempted such falls or slips rather all or most are subject to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 3.2 In many things we offend all We sometimes trip or slip or misse our hold so the word signifies and so down we come but not out of choice Thus did Peter slip or halt Gal. 2.14 when he did Judaise out of too much complyance with the Jewes whom therefore Paul did rebuke and restore Thus the Disciples slipt when they in zeale to Christ would have fire fetcht down from heaven upon those that would not receive them Luk. 9.54 55. whom Christ set right with a spirit of meekness These slips or falls are like those of him whose foot is wrenched or out of joynt whence he halts till it be set right Thus Peter is said to halt Gal. 2.14 he did not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but when Paul had set his wrenched foot he went upright ever after Hence that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 6.1 restore is a Chirurgeons word to set him right as a bone out of joynt He that shall be censorious and severe against these two first kind of falls incident to most let him as Constantine said to Acesius the Novatian Bishop Get himselfe a ladder Socr. l. 1. c. 7. and climbe up to heaven by himselfe he should have but a few come there else 3. The third fall is much worse a fall from the third lost whence like Eutichus they are taken up dead for the present but they come to themselves again These are falls into grosser and more scandalous sins which do Vastare conscientiam set the stacks or Corn-fields of Conscience on fire whereas the other two forenamed especially the former are such as Tertullian calls Quotidianae Incursionis these are very dangerous and befall not all Professors they had not need but now and then one falls into some scandalous sin but they not usually again into the same sin after sense and repentance of it Thus fell David and Peter into foul flagitiousness but not deliberately nor totally nor finally nor reiteratedly Sin raged indeed and seemed to reign for the present Moses hands grew weak and the hand of Amaleck prevailed for the present But a seed of God was in them 1 John 3.9 and they could not sin unto death but were renewed to repentance and their sins are blotted out This fall is like the fall of the Leafe in Autumn life remains safe a Spring in due time follows though many a cold blast first 4. There is yet one worse fall than these former incident to a child of God too to be of the decaying hand and to remit and lose his former fervour and livelinesse And it may be he never comes as the second Temple up to the former pitch and glory Ezra 3.12 1 King 11 4 9 10. Thus Solomons zeale and love was abated in his old age as his father Davids naturall heat was in his age that he needed an Abishag to lye in his bosome Incepit melius quâ—m definit Vltima primit cedunt dissimilis hâ—c puer ille senex so was Solomons spirituall heat cooled by the many Abishags that lay in his bosome and
Lords Day on which the Apostle enjoyneth the Corinthâ—ans to lay up something in store implying thereby that that is a very fit season not only to do such works of mercy which are then offered unto us but also to prepare for other times 4. Daies of Thanksgiving for some eminent mercy are another seasonable time of doing works of mercy The remembring of the poor at such times is expresly commanded in Scripture Deut. 16.14 Thou shalt rejoyce in thy heart thou and thy Son and thy Daughter and thy Man-servant and thy Maid-servant and the Levites the Stranger and the Fatherless and the Widdow Here the Stranger the Fatherless the Widdow are commanded to rejoyce on their daies of Feasting which presupposeth the rich mens sending portions of their good chear unto them which was the practice of the people of God as appeareth by that command of Nehemiah to the Jews on a day of Thanksgiving Go your way eat the fat and drink the sweet Neh. 8.10 and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared And their day of Thanksgiving from Hamans conspiracy is called a day of feasting Ester 9.22 and of sending portions one to another and gifts to the poor And what more seasonable time can there be for shewing mercy to the poor than when wee are blessing God for his manifold mercies vouchsafed unto us 5. Daies of fasting and prayer are another seasonable time of doing works of mercy For how can wee expect that God should shew mercy unto us in removing those Judgements which wee feel or in preventing those which wee fear if wee will not shew mercy to our poor Brethren who stand in need of our relief In the day of our fasting therefore let us at least give away to the poor so much as wee save by our fast For as Austin in one of his Sermons saith Then are our fasts acceptable to God Tum grata sunt Deo nostra jejunia si illi qui necessitate jejunant reficiantur a nobis Aug. Serm. de Temp. 64. if they which fast out of necessity because they want meat bee relieved by us Let this therefore be alwaies observed by us that the poor have the gain of our fasting and not our own purses VI. Our Alms must be given readily and speedily without any needless delay according to the counsel of the Wise-man Prov. 3.27 With-hold not good from them to whom it is due that is with-hold not any act of Charity from those who stand in need of thy help Say not unto thy Neighbour go and come again and to morrow I will give thee when thou hast it by thee Qui sic moratur neganti proximus est Seneca de benefic l. 2. cap. 5. Beneficia non sunt procrastinanda sed tempestivè danda ut magis prodesse possint Bis dat qui cito d'at hee that so delaieth his helping hand is next door to him that denieth And therefore as any occasion offers it self unto us let us speedily embrace the same as knowing that a speedy giver is a double benefactor and the swifter that a benefit cometh the sweeter it casts And contrariwise a benefit loseth its grace that sticketh to his fingers who is about to bestow it What then shall wee think of their charity who put off all to their death-beds never giving any thing considerable to the Poor till they can keep it no longer these though by their last will and testament they give somewhat to the Poor yet questionless it is against their wills for could they have kept it longer they would not have parted with it Ingratum est beneficium quod diu inter manus dantis haesit Senec. de Benef. I shall desire such seriously to consider these six things 1. That if all rich men should do thus the poor would soon bee starved for want of bread 2. That this practise of theirs is against the express command of God who requireth us to do good and to communicate out of our store while wee have time and opportunity Gal. 6.10 Matth. 5.16 3 That they have no assurance of the continuance of their wealth For as the wiseman speaketh Prov. 23.5 Alas Aquilinas Riches many times make themselves wings they fly away as an Eagle towards Heaven they have Eagles wings to fly from us And how many are there who have out-lived a fair estate If God in his displeasure blasts a mans substance it vanisheth away in a moment 4. Though their riches should continue with them even to their deaths yet they have no assurance that God will give them grace to bee liberal at their deaths who had never the goodness to bee charitable in their life-time 5. That they have no assurance that God will accept of their death-bed charity what St. Austin speaketh of death-bed repentance that it is seldome true and hearty The same may I say of death-bed charity it is seldome true and hearty but for the most part rotten and Hypocritical proceeding from ill grounds as vain-glory conceit of merit and the like 6. That they have no assurance of the true performance of their will that the poor shall bee the better for what is thereby given them For how many Exeoutours have proved most unfaithful to their trusts whereby many charitable gifts have been clean perverted And if friends bee so unfaithful to us in our life time how can wee but question their fidelity after our deaths Oh therefore that all whom the Lord hath blessed with an estate would in their life time become their own administrators making as one saith their own hands their Executors and their own eyes their Overseers For questionless that charity which is exercised in a mans life time is the best and most acceptable unto God VII Our Alms must bee bountiful and liberal giving out proportionably to what the Lord hath given unto us This is implied in that command of God to his people Deut. 15.11 Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy Brother to thy poor and to thy needy in the Land that is thou shalt give unto him bountifully and liberally And our Apostle here in the Text would have rich men charged to bee rich in good work 1 Tim. 6.18 Luke 12.48 even as God hath given them all things richly to enjoy For unto whomsoever much is given of him much shall bee required And therefore the same Apostle adviseth the Corinthians to give 1 Cor. 16.2 as God had prospered them To whom God hath given little of this worlds goods of them hee requireth but little but to whom hee hath given much of them hee requireth much Rich men therefore must not only give a portion of their wealth to the releife of others but also in some fit proportion to their estate Quest If any shall aske what is that portion or proportion of estate which rich men ought to set apart for Charitable uses Answ It is an hard matter to determine
doth good to his own soul hee addeth Prov. 11.17 but hee that is cruel troubleth his own flesh Soul and Flesh are the two essential parts of a man both the one and the other are Synecdochically put for the whole man even for the person By a cruel man is meant an unmerciful or a hard-hearted-man for hee is opposed to a merciful man The meaning then of the proverb is this As a merciful man doth good not only to his poor Brother to whom hee sheweth mercy but also to himself So an hard-hearted-man doth not only grieve his distressed neighbour in affording him no succour but also brings much dammage to himself Prov. 11.24 For hee that with-holdeth more than is meet cometh to poverty With-holding is there opposed to scattering which word hath reference to casting or sowing seed on the earth to bring forth a crop and thereby is meant Alms-giving On the contrary With-holding more than is meet implies a denial of Alms when there is just cause to give Justice and equity require this duty as wee have before shewed so as that phrase doth much aggravate this kind of unmercifulness and as a just punishment thereof that which covetous men by refusing to give seek to prevent shall fall upon them even poverty And if in any distress they shall be forced to seek help of others even they shall bee neglected as they neglected others The Wise-man testifieth as much in these words Prov. 21.13 Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor hee also shall cry himself and not bee heard Not only other men Luk. 16.24 but also God himself will refuse to hear his cry Dives who refused to relieve Lazarus could not obtain any to afford him a drop of water to cool his tongue when hee was tormented in Hell flames It is expresly said Mat. 18.33 that hee shall have judgement without mercy that hath shewed no mercy James 2.13 For God deals with men according to their dealing with others Finally as blessings are promised to merciful men so curses are denounced against unmerciful men Prov. 28.27 As under blessings all manner of good things are comprized so under curses all manner of evils Unmerciful men shall have the curses of men Prov. 11.26 and people shall curse them And at the great day of judgement they shall be pronounced cursed by the great Judge For then shall hee say unto them on the left hand Depart from mee yee cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Mat. 25.41 42 c. For I was an hungred and yee gave mee no meat I was thirsty and yee gave mee no drink c. If wee must aim at Assurance what should they do that are not able to discern their own spiritual condition 1 JOHN 5.13 These things have I written unto you that beleeve on the Name of the Son of God that yee may know that yee have Eternal Life THe greatness of the mercy in having of the Scripture is manifested by the great advantages that the Elect of God receive thereby viz. a John 20.31 that they might bee brought to close with Christ by faith unfeigned and bee partakers of eternal life through him that bad men might bee made good that good men might bee made sure of an eternal blessed state in the life to come whereby the Lord hath abundantly provided both for our happiness and our comfort for our happiness that wee may have eternal life b 1 John 1.4 Rom. 15.4 for our comfort that wee may know wee have eternal life I cannot stay to view the context I need not stay to explain the Text. The case of conscience to bee treated of from this Scripture is this Since men may know that they have eternal life what must they do that cannot discern their spiritual Condition Here are two things to bee performed First That wee may know in this life that wee shall certainly bee partakers of eternal glory in the life to come For if assurance bee not possible I can neither blame you for wanting it nor stir you up to labour after it Secondly Lay down some Rules for the getting of it and directions if by these rules wee cannot for the present obtain it For the stating of the first part of the Question concerning the possibility of getting this certain knowledge of our future Happiness I shall lay before you these six positions 1. Position 1. An unregenerate person while c Iohn 3.36 1 Ioh. 5.10 12. such can have no assurance or certain knowledge of the eternal salvation of his Immortal soul Because as such hee hath no actual interest in the promises of salvation being without the conditions of faith and repentance to which the promises are made being a childe of d Eph. 2.3 wrath e Tit. 3.3 a slave to his lusts a f 2 Tim. 2.26 captive to the Devil a g Ioh. 5.40.43 Mark 12.10 rejecter of the Son of God This man hath plague sores tokens of eternal death I cannot say thou shalt bee infallibly damned because thou h 2 Tim. 2.25 mayest repent and beleeve and thou canst not say thou shalt bee saved because thou hast not yet repented for thy sin nor beleeved on the Son of God A wicked man is not subjectum capax a subject capable of this assurance Eph. 1.13 In whom also after yee beleeved yee were sealed with that holy spirit of promise It is not the hard stone but the soft wax that receiveth the impression of the seal If hee hope for Salvation while hee liveth and dyeth in a natural condition hee shall loose his hope i Iob 11.20 8.13 14. 18.14 and soul together this presumption will prove self-delusion and end in desperation Hee is worse than a Pharisee k Luke 18.11 whether hee bee a private person or a Preacher that liveth in gross sins hating the power of godliness and discouraging holiness that yet blesseth God for election justification sanctification and assured hope of glory 2. Position 2. That many of Gods dear Children l Psal 77.1 to the 10. ver 88.14 15 16. Isa 50.10 for a long time might remain very doubtful as to their present and eternal condition and know not what to conclude whether they shall bee damned or whether they shall bee saved There are beleevers of several growths in the Church of God m 1 Ioh. 2.13.14 Fathers Young men Children and n 1 Pet. 2.2 Babes and as in most families there are more babes and children than grown men so in the Church of God there are more weak doubting Christians than strong ones grown up to a full assurance A Babe may bee born and yet not know it so a man may bee born again and not be sure of it Sometimes they think they have grounds of hope that they shall bee saved sometimes they think they have grounds of fears that they shall
Heaven and the standing rule by which thou must bee tryed thou must stand or fall bee eternally blessed or everlastingly miserable as thy condition is consonant to or various from the infallible characters of saving grace contained in the Scripture Thou that hast deserved eternal death mightest know before the day of the general assize whether thou shalt bee acquitted or condemned But if thou know not how to gather these thy self go to some godly faithful Minister and desire him to give thee some Characters of a sincere Christian from the word of God wherein hypocrisie and sincerity are differenced and bee sure the signes thou tryest thy self by bee not short of saving grace or that will not hold tryal or bear thee out at the day of judgement I cannot here insert any partly because I have not room to croud them in partly because by what I have already laid down under that head that a man might know that hee is sincere beleeveth and loveth God something to this purpose might bee picked up 2. Direction 2. When thou hast thus furnished thy self thy next work must bee to set thy conscience on work and reflect upon thy own heart and upon the mâ—tions of thy will and compare thy self with the word of God The former sent you to study the book of Gods word this calleth upon you to study the book of your own hearts The other is a direct act of the understanding this is a reflect act to make a judgement of thy state whether there bee a transcript of those things in thine own heart for every beleever hath the Gospel-laws written upon the table of his soul by the spirit of God Assurance cannot bee had ordinarily without the examination of our own hearts for assurance is the certain knowledge of the conclusion drawn from the premises one out of the scripture the other by the reflect act of the understanding or conscience thus Hee that beleeveth and is justified shall bee saved that is the word of God then by the search of his own heart hee must bee able to say But I beleeve and am jusâ—ified and from these two doth result this assurance that hee may conclude Therefore I shall bee saved Luke 15.8 The woman that had lost a peece of silver did light a candle and swept her house and thereby found what she had lost Conscience is this candle the scripture is the fire at which it must bee lighted and self-examination is the broom whereby the heart is swept and so the state of the soul which before was not discerned comes to bee discovered But here take heed thy heart bee not rash in affirming or denying suspend the determination till thou hast made a narrow strict inquiry into thy soul as thou lovest thy soul do not presume as thou valuest thy comfort do not deny any work of the spirit of God upon thy heart but with thankfulness acknowledge any thing that thou canst discern to bee a fruit of the spirit Search throughly and judge impartially Say therefore to thy soul Deus est ocâ—â—us infinitus to make thy self more serious in this weighty work thou art now oh my Soul in the presence of the great heart-searching God that knoweth certainly what thy state and condition is what thy will heart and affections are thou must oh my Soul shortly stand at the bar of God as now thou standest at the bar of conscience and must bee searched judged by the Lord and have the sentence of life or death of absolution or condemnation according as thy state shall bee found to bee Consider oh my Soul thou art now about the greatest concernment in the world many have been mistaken many are now tormented in hell that once thought their condition was good it is not therefore for thee to flatter thy self and it is easie to bee mistaken and if thou shouldest bee mistaken it is as much as thy soul is worth if thy condition bee bad and thou conclude it to bee good thou wilt but go more merrily to hell It is as much as thy comfort is worth if thy condition bee good and thou conclude it to be bad thou wilt go more sadly to Heaven and wilt be unthankful to thy God and keep the glory from him and the comfort from thy self Thou art indited oh my soul arraigned and sound guilty that thou hast sinned against the Lord the question is Whether thou hast repented and are pardoned I charge thee therefore oh my soul that thou speak truly and answer rightly to these demands Art thou so far convinced of sin of the vileness of its own nature the evil in it the evil after it that thou art weary of it thou groanest under it thou loathest it and art unfeignedly willing to be broken from every sin without any reserve and what thou canst not extirpate that thou wilt bewail art thou so far convinced of thine own insufficiency to help thy self that all thy tears cannot wash thee and make thee clean all thy duties cannot save thee that though thou darest not neglect them as means yet thou darest not rely upon them as a Saviour so that thou seest the necessity of a Christ the suitableness of Christ the sufficiency and willingness of Christ offering himself unto thee in the Gospel calling to thee crying after thee saying ah thou poor miserable forlorn sinner thou hast undone thy self wilt thou now be cured thou hast wounded thy self wilt thou let mee apply a plaister of my blood my healing pacifying blood to thy bleeding soul to thy distressed disquieted conscience all that I expect from thee is to take mee for thy Lord and Husband to rule govern sanctifie and save thee thou hast withstood thine own mercy I have often asked thee and thou hast often denied mee but yet if now thou wilt receive mee behold I bring pardon along with mee and peace along with mee and eternal life and every good thing along with mee yet mercy is not gone it is not yet denied to thee When thou mayest gather such things from the Word of Christ put the question to thy self what sayest thou oâ— my soul thou hearest the gracious words of the Lord Jesus hee commands thee to come hee inviteth thee to come hee promiseth thee acceptance if thou come art thou willing or art thou not wilt thou persevere in thy former denial and be damned or wilt thou yeeld and be saved wilt thou consent to take him for thy Husband and subscribe unto his terms doth thy judgement value him above all and thy will chuse him above all and thy affections go out after him above all things in the world as a woman doth in all those three respects when shee taketh a man to be her Husband Art thou so far convinced of the excellency of the everlasting Glory of the Saints and the perfection of that Happiness that is above as it is a state or perfect Holiness as well as a state of real Happiness
Conscience is pacified with the blood of sprinkling as to what the Word declares concerning thee though not as to what thou feelest and where the Judge acquits there Conscience which is the Serjeant cannot condemn but that 't is not alwaies set right according to the Word Motive 2 2. But O! the terrour of having sin upon the file against us and doest thou remain in sin unrepented The terrour of being yet and going on in sin Doest thou go on to adde sin to sin not caring how many sins thou loadest thy Conscience withall as if there were no time of reckoning Numb 32.23 Be ye sure your sins will finde you out Sic mihi semper contingat tractare beare amicos non dulcibus verbis sed sanis terroribus Bern. Do not say Hast thou found me O my enemy or as the wicked one Art thou come to torment us before our time But as thou lovest thy soul take all I say in good part for God knows I speak out of tender respect to your eternal good Consider then 1. The innumerable number of sins thou standest guilty of Ps 19.12 Who knows the errors of his life Methinks there is no sad sight in the world but the sinner in his sins Suppose you had seen Herod covered over with worms alas what is this to one worm of Conscience Suppose you had seen every member in the Senate run upon Caesar to give him a stab would not you have given him over for dead a thousand times Brethren every sin you commit is an envenomed knife to stab you at your very heart Suppose again you should see a malefactour at the Bar for a Capital crime the evidence clear O! you will say 't will go hard with him but when you see another and another and many other Indictments sworn home against him and every one touching his life will you not say there is no hope he is a dead man and all the world cannot save him Remember this is thy case and it will be certainly called over If one poyson be enough to dispatch a man without an antidote what doth that man mean that drinks off a thousand poysons and refuses the antidote of the blood of Christ If one sin â—e as a thousand milstones to sink all the world into the bottom of hell what doest thou mean to tye so many thousand milstones about thy own neck 2. Old debts vex most the delay of payment increases them by Use upon Use and the return of them being unexpected a person is least provided for them We count old sores breaking forth incurable Augustus wondered at a person 's sleeping quietly that was very much in debt and sent for his pillow saying Surely there is some strange vertue in it that makes him rest so secure My brethren if one debt unto Gods Law be more then the whole Creation can satisfie what do any of us mean to rest secure with so vast a burden upon our Consciences and account O! take heed thou beest not surprized and arrested with old Debts O! thou remembrest former iniquities against us Psal 79.8 3. God will call over and charge thy sins upon thee when all the sweet is gone Thou makest a shift to swallow the hook with pleasure when 't is covered with the sweet bait O! but when that 's digested or disgorged and the naked hook piercing and raking thy heart what wilt thou do then O! how bitter is the Pill when all the sugar is melted off Now this will be thy case Job found but a taste of it and O! how he cries out Job 13.26 Thou writest bitter things against me i. e. bitternesses 4. With old sins must come old wrath Rom. 2.4 5. Thinkest thou that thou shalt escape the judgement of God What and despisest the riches of his goodnesse and forbearance not knowing that the goodnesse of God doth not only give thee a space of but leadeth thee to repentance But after thy hardnesse and impenitent heart treasurest tunnest up against thy self wrath against the day of wrath c. There be three sorts and degrees of wrath will come with old sins 1. Wrath for old sins 2. Wrath for the forbearance of that Wrath. 3. Wrath for the abuse of that forbearance O! what wilt thou do in the day of thy visitation 5. The former admonitions c. nips of Conscience will come again and they with the present will be unsufferable beyond all that can be expressed This is their terrour here say they he besought us and we would not hear and saith Reuben Said I not to you did I not tell you warn you what it would come to and ye would not hear O! he which hardens his neck to reproof shall surely be destroyed O! timely and fair checks and warnings obstinately rejected are the wracks of Conscience the sharp sting and teeth of the worm thereof 6. And what will now become of thee as the Lord lives thou wilt come to thy distracting misgiving thoughts Yea but and verily we are guilty c. Methinks saith Luther every cloud is loynd with thunder against me Thou wilt take every visitation from God as a messenger of death nay that God himself sets in against thy life Suppose you saw two desperate enemies grapling closing in upon each other O! account for every particular God comes to the sinner as to Adam in the cooll of the day in his cold sweat Gen. 3.8 when his Sun is setting and he is going to make his bed in the dark his life and Soul sits on his pale trembling lips ready to take her flight inâ—o Eternity and whereas thou wert before as the deaf Adder or the wild Asse snuffing up the wind or the Dromodary traversing his way without all regard of any check now taken in thy month Oh! my contempt of the means of Grace Oh! my prophaning Sabboths Sacraments Oh! my breaking bonds of Oaths Covenants Promises and casting away cords of discipline and government Oh! my malice against God's People Oh! my hardening my heart against the Word and the Rod c. as the rankling thorn in the flesh pains most when thou goest to bed 5. Before this in a time of outward Calamity and distresse and this is the second Doctrine from the special Circumstance when they were troubled And now Direct 2 2. This Inward horrour and trouble of mind falls in even to Gods People with outward Trouble This is the Case here the Patriarchs the children of the Promise are in distresse and danger by their Brother Josephs seeming severity toward them And they said one to another we are verily guilty c. with the pressure on the outward man comes a snare upon the Conscience If any find it oâ—herwise as there are some with whom when there is a storm without there is a calm within and when a storm within there is a calm without let them blesse God but in the experience of Gods People it is often found that
governing these and so hath the same object with them as is said before it all comes to one And formally includes 1. What it is that we must Moderate or the faculty or principle of what kind soever internal and external from which the action flows 2. In what actions And 3. How or the measure and proportion to be observed in such our actions Which three are allwayes distinct in themselves though not alwayes easily distinguishable to us and therefore often seem coincident I shall therefore joyn them together in the prosecution of the Case For the general Object of Moderation or about what it must be exercised and appear Negatively 1. Not such things as are materially good About such things or in such actions as are materially good Moderation hath no place because all the good we can possibly do is too little so that there can be no excesse in these and therefore no Moderation for the Office of Moderation being to restrain excesse where there can be none of this that can have no imployment e. g. we cannot believe in hope love God and Christ too much nor hate sin and Sathan as the Schoolmen affirm in regard of his wholly loosing the Image of God too much In all our internal religious duties and actings of Grace as such no Moderation therefore can or ought to have place 2. Not about such things as are materially evil For herein we cannot be defective Where the object is absolutely forbidden us and no circumstances can make the action good there we are wholly to abstain or suppresse the action if in it there being inordinacy in the principle or faculty for though Moderation is to govern even the principle yet not in the choice of it's object but in it's exercise about a due object chosen that it exceed not And though we call any great acting upon an undue object or great omission towards due immoderate because of their excesse yet this is not properly immoderacy for so every sin would be it formally whereas those only which respect the moral quantity of our actions are properly immoderacies Both these sufficiently appear by what 's said before Positively But about such things as are in themselves of an indifferent nature and neither absolutely commanded as things materially good or absolutely forbidden as those materially evil but only conditionally according to the circumstances we are in Which though of an indifferent nature yet become morally good or evil to us as we are actually conversant about them In these properly may be excesse in regard of which Moderation is to take place to restrain and keep all within due bounds being formally the modification to use the School term for once of such actions Wherein we must carefully distinguish of the several formalities of the object Grace and Nature being conversant about the same object but not in the same respect For it's exercise therefore or what wherein and how we must practice it Which I shall speak of 1. Absolutely in reference to our selves for preserving peace within as it is to be exercised towards the good and evils of this life 2. Relatively or in relation to others for external peace wherein we must exercise it in civil and in Religious matters The former I shall call Moderation towards things the latter towards persons 1. Moderation towards things 1. First then for Moderation towards things as it is absolutely taken in reference to our selves this being so clearly injoyned in the Text as appears not only by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Apostle not saying use Moderation towards all men but let it appear to all men which even that which is internal doth in our external conversation But though there be abundance of excellent fruit on this branch of Moderation yet in regard I conceive that towards persons principally intended I will not stand to shake it down but only point you out briefly the boughs on which it especially grows that you may gather it your selves and proceed to the second Moderation towards others which I shall only prosecute afterwards in all the following discourse Now the good things of this life being either internal of the mind as parts learning c. of the body as health strength beauty and the like or external as the riches honours relations and lawful pleasures of the World and what comprehended under them And the evils of this life such as are contrary to these as shallownesse of parts natural or acquired sicknesse weaknesse death deformity poverty losses of friends or estate infamy reproaches troubles warrs hunger thirst nakednesse imprisonment captivity banishment and such like we are towards these to exercise Moderation 1. Towards the good things of this life 1. We must moderate our Judgements in the valuation of them As forbidden fruit must not be looked upon so lawful must not be judged by us more desirable then it is As we may not undervalue these good things and with the Stoick despise and cast them away so we must not over-value them beyond their intrinsick worth and the ends for which God allows them the end and use being the measure of every things estimation For though every creature be good in it self and some better in themselves and to us than others yet those that are the best and best for us that the World affords are still but creatures who are most of them serviceable only to our bodyes that they may be serviceable to our Souls in the service of our Heavenly Father which when we too much estimate we quickly fall to admire and so bow down to them and commit idolatry with them For an overvaluation of the Judgement begets in us admiration and so an over-valuation of them also in our affections These sensitive objects make such impressions upon our imagination when absent and our passions when present that if Grace and Reason moderate not our Judgement of them our whole man becomes inflamed therewith and violently carryed out towards them by an excessive admiration of their seeming excellency love to them for the same and desire after them for their apprehended sutablenesse hope to obtain them seeming possible using means for obtaining them and delighting and glorying in them Therefore our Saviour prescribes wisely that our hearts may not be in them the light of our minds being single Matth. 6.22 23. When Achan Josh 7.21 judged the Babylonish garment goodly and the silver and gold then he quickly coveted and took them Let thy Moderation therefore begin here and consider the character Solomon upon good experience gives them that they are all to us in this degenerate state vanity of vanities yea vexation of Spirit 2. Moderate thy will and affections in their love desires hopes after the getting or keeping these things according to the ends for which God allows them thee in particular and with subordination to his pleasure and providence in the event We must value love desire God and
and nourished only by our own brain these we must carefully avoid and if formed not be cruel to our selves in being compassionate to them but dâ—sh them in pieces And theâ—e are real evils which come not forth of our own dust nor spring out of the ground but are from above of Gods creating and framing Amos 3.6 Isa 45.7 Jer. 18.11 These we are not to be senseless under but duly affected with and yet not over-affected so as to murmur and repine much less quarrel with God A Stoical apathy becomes us not and yet better than quarrelling at Goâ—s Providence it coming nearer moderation for wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sin Lam. 3.39 little reason whilst thou art living seeing it is less than thy desert and no reâ—son even for death and hell for they are but equal to thy desert if thou confess thy self a sinner thou must confess this Plato said that God doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sympos l. 8. Q. 2. which is expounded by Plutarch well That God is said alwaies to act the Geometrician in regard of his equal dealing with all men in proportioning rewards and punishments to their deserts And a greater than he yea the greatest that can be God himself appeals to the sinners own conscience Is not my way equal are not yours unequal Ezek. 18. which whole Chapter is a defence of his equity Troubled then we may be murmuring and discontented we must not be Nay troubled we ought to be as the evills are greater or less which must be judgeâ— by the good they deprive us of more for publick because that good is greater less for private evils because ouâ— own good is not equal to the communities But in the body politick 't is quite otherwise than in the natural body we are usually too senseless under publick and too sensible of and immoderate under our own particular evils rather apt to quarrel with God like Jonah for a Gourd or some inconsiderable concerns of our own than be troubled at the destruction of a great Ninevey more troubled at our own houses being on fire or child sick than all our neighbours in the City about us burnt and dead Therefore Scripture accordingly calls for affection for the publike and forbids it in our own concernments in regard we are generally defective in the former and excessive in the latter Nay even towards others when just cause of compassion if excessive So our Saviour when the women lamented his death which was matter of grief as in respect of him though of greatest joy in it self as to them and the world bids them Weep not for me but for your selves and your children in regard of the publick calamities that were coming upon Jerusalem Mat. 23.27 28 29. Every particular being concerned in the community Now of these evils seeing all are privations of good Some are of the good we want and never enjoyed as deformity of body defect in parts constant poverty c. and here we must beware we judge not those evils which are none and so trouble and torment our selves without cause and reproach our Maker saying Why hath he made me thus Why am I no nobler born no more beautiful made no greater heir no quicker Parted Why am I not as such or such not as they this or that When thou hast what is sutable and convenient for thy condition for this all may say of those that excel them and the best of imaginary excellencies as well as thou Other evils are of the good we have enjoyed and are deprived of as sickness of health losses of friends and estate reproaches of our good name imprisonment of liberty and the like which are incident to our present state These are they especially which the world lament and cry out after as foolishly as Micah Judges 18.24 Ye have taken away our Gods and what have we more and saiest thou what aileth us We must not here be too passionately excessive either in the degree or duration of our trouble we must be affected with the providence of God in these evils according to their greatness to us a little loss in it self may be great to a poor man as the Widows two mites was more to her than their far greater sums was to them that cast them in the death of an only child greater than when a number and so trouble and sorrow for them but discontented we must not be nor distracted in the duties God requires nor refuse to be comforted because our Husbands Wives Children Pleasures Honours Riches are not for as there is a time to weep so a time to take up and refrain from weeping we must love them so as we may lose them that when we do we may not lose our selves Amavi haec omnia tanquam amissurus let us every one say at parting with them I loved you so as I can lose you Take heed of murmuring with the Israelites cursing thy Stars with the prophane of discontentedness which the best are apt to fall into nay wish for death rather than life as several of the Prophets Maintain that equilibrious frame in thee as David 2 Sam. 15.26 Here I am let God do to me as seemeth good to him which is the mother of patience and like it makes these evils though not none yet become none to us Thus I have done with moderation towards things most of whose particulars mentioned you have prest by the Apostle Paul and by the same argument of the Text 1 Cor. 7.29 30 31. The time is short It remaineth that both they that have Wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away And though I have stood longer upon this than I intended and promised both you and my self in regard the fruit hung so thick about me that I could not but pluck some of it and after I had tasted it more yet I hope it will prove so pleasant also to the taste that you will pardon me especially considering how much this moderation towards things conduceth to that which respects persons the contentions in the world arising usually from our want of moderation to the things of the world as in civil matters it is patent and in religious though less obvious yet most frequently as certain that these are the springs from which they flow and how necessary it is for us all to know and practice it for licitis perimus omnis we usually perish by the hand of these lawful things 2. Moderation towards persons Having spoken of moderation as it respects our selves for preserving peace within this as all government having peace for its end which appears and is made known to others by our conversation let us now look abroad as we are
to be in all things at the command of him whose commands are in nothing grievous but in all things truth and righteousness Be therefore as willing to be his as you are desirous he should be yours the consent must be mutual or else the match can never be made up 'twixt Christ and your souls 4. Measure all things by their reference unto Christ of all good things account them the best which may promote your endeavours after that good which is the highest as Ordinances Psal 27.4 Psal 42.1 2. Psal 63.1 2. Isa 59.2 the means of Grace which at how high a rate they are valued by David may appear from his pathetical and most affectionate desires of waiting upon God in them of all evill things account them the worst which estrange you from Christ the truest good and therefore let your only impatience be of sin as that which onely separates between you and your God The observation of this rule will very much secure you from all diversions and quicken you in your endeavours after an interest in Christ 2. Vse Be serious in resolving this great Question whether Christ who is All to sincere Christians be All to you 't is a question of that importance that all your comfort depends upon the resolution of it yea all your hopes Take these two Characters 1. Are you conformable unto Christ Is the same minde in you that was in him Are you holy and humble and self-denying and in all things followers of that pattern which he hath set before you in his own example He that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit 1 Cor. 6.17 Old things are passed away behold all things are bicome new Philip. 2.5 Rom. 8.9 2 Cor. 5.17 Causes are best known by their effects Trees by their fruits Fountains by their streams So is our interest in Christ by this effect thereof our conformity unto Christ 2. Are you All to him 'T is but a just retaliation in Christians to be so and 't is withall an evidence that Christ is All to them 1. Are you all to him in your affections in prizing him above all can you with the Spouse esteem the love of Christ better than wine with David better than life can you in the middest of all your creature comforts account all as nothing in comparison of him and say with Asaph Whom have I in heaven but God and there is none on earth I desire in comparison of him So high were Moses affections Cant. 1.2 Psal 63.3 Psal 73.25 Heb. 11.26 that he esteems the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt And indeed if Christ be but an underling in our affections 't is an argument we have no part in him He that loveth Father or Mother more than me is not worthy of me Matth. 10.37 he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me The affections are the truest pulse of the soul the most genuine and natural symptomes of its frame and temper 'T is these that speak the proper idiom and language of the heart Make use of this rule therefore is Christ uppermost in thy heart thy affection to him is an evidence of his to thee 2. Are you all to him in your acknowledgements in ascribing all to him Thus St. Paul 1 Cor. 15.10 By the Grace of God I am what I am That my condition is not better it is from my self that 't is so good 't is from him so Eph. 5 20. 3. Are you all to him in your contentment and satisfaction accounting you have all in him though you have nothing besides him Although the fig-tree shall not blossome neither fruits be in the Vine the labour of the Olive shall fail Hab. 3.17 18. c. yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation 4. Are you all to him in your dependances and expectations in seeking all from him the highest condition of grace needs further grace but in Christ are all supplies 't is an argument of our interest in him when in all distresses we make him our refuge in all weaknesses our strength 5. Are you all to him in your designs and aims in seeking his glory beyond your private advantages this was St. Pauls design in life and death that Christ might be magnified Philip. 1.20 and if you be thus all to Christ 't is an evidence Christ is All to you And how well are they provided for who have him who is All for their Portion How shall those Merchants keep up the life of Religion who while at home enjoyed all Gospell Ordinances and when abroad are not only destitute of them but exposed to persecution PSALM 120.5 Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech that I dwell in the tents of Kedar THis Psalm is the first of those fifteen which are called Songs of Degrees concerning which the conjectures of Interpreters are various and uncertain either because they were sung by the Jews at their severall stages in their return from the Babylonish captivity or by the Levites on the fifteen steps or stairs whereby they went up to the house of the Lord or because they raised up their voices to an high strain in singing them or because they are Psalms of greatest use and excellency The Psalm is generally thought to be composed upon occasion of Davids flying from Saul and Doegs false accusation of him 1 Sam. 22.23 and it consists of three generall parts 1. Davids carriage towards God in the time of his distresse ver 1 2. In my distresse I cried unto the Lord and he heard me Deliver my soul c. 2. Davids denouncing of judgment against his slanderous false-tongued enemy ver 3 4. What shall be given intimating that he expected some great reward for his malice against David but saith the Psalmist he shall have sharp arrows of the Almighty with coals of juniper q. d. whatever reward he have from men this shall be his reward from God 3. Davids bewailing his present condition ver 5 6 7. The words of the Text are a branch of the third generall part of the Psalm wherein we have David sadly breathing forth the sorrow of his heart for his absence from the Tabernacle and the company of good men and his dwelling among and converse with evill and wicked men Woe is me c. By sojourning I suppose is implied his absence from some desired habitation viz. Jerusalem and the Tabernacle for no man is said to sojourn at home Psal 39.12.105.23 Heb. 11.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est trahere Isa 13.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dies ejus non trahentur i. e. non prorogabuntur Bocharti Geog. Sacr. par 1. l. 3. c. 12. p. 209. and when he is where he would be The word Mesech is taken by Expositors either 1. For a place as our translation carries it from the Chaldee paraphase which is the first of the ancient versions that so
that our Religion may not be a dull languid lethargick principle but may render us fit and prompt for all the actions of a spirituall life And now this life of Religion the case supposeth the person to have who needs advice and then you 'l quickly perceive that there be two things in danger 1. The life of Religion in a religious person 2. The life of a religious person and so the case doth resolve it self into these two Queries 1. What should believing Christians do to support the life and vigour of Religion in their souls when they want the ordinary means of publick Ordinances and are indangered by the leavening society of wicked men 2. How should they preserve their lives among persecuting enemies without hazarding the life of their Religion For the clearing of and directing in this case I shall now premise some Propositions fit to be taken notice of Prop. 1. It cannot be expected that any Rule should be given according to Scripture whereby both the one and the other life may be certainly secured for many times Gods providence brings us into such circumstances that if we are resolved that come what will wee 'l keep our Religion we must lose our lives and if we are resolved to keep our lives though with the hazard or shipwrack of our Religion we must then part with our Religion and perhaps our lives too 2. There can be no certain and infallible course propounded whereby the life of the body may be secured with the losse of Religion though Devil and world bid fair and promise we shall live and do well if we will part with our Religion yet they are not able if willing to make good their promise so long as there be so many thousand wayes to death besides Martyrdome and this is the purport of that threatning expression Mat. 16.25 Whosoever will save his life shall lose it not only that eternall life which is the only true life but even this temporall life as many relations tell us 3. The life of Religion in the soul is that which by Gods blessing and our spirituall care and industry may be infallibly secured in any place among any persons in any condition I do not say the outward exercise of Religion but that which is the life and principle of Religion in the soul may be preserved Force and violence may deprive those that are religious of opportunities to meet together and pour forth their Common prayers and supplications to God and publikely sing forth the praises of God and hear the great truths of the Gospell preached unto them nay they may be hindred from speaking with their mouthes either to God or for God as many of the Martyrs have been gagged but all the force and violence in the world cannot take away that which is the principle and life of Religion unlesse we our selves betray and cast it from us nor can they hinder the prime and principall acts and exercises of Religion All the world cannot hinder you or me from having good thoughts of God from sanctifying the Lord God in our hearts from trusting in hoping in rejoycing in the goodnesse and mercy of God through Jesus Christ from making holy melody in our hearts and such musick as shall be heard beyond the sphears though he that stands at our elbow knows not a word we speak so that true Religion both in the principle and prime exercises of it may be infallibly secured insomuch that he who can rend the heart out of the body cannot tear Religion out of the soul 4. His soul cannot be quickned with the life of the Religion of the Gospell who is not in heart perswaded that the securing the life of Religion in his soul is hugely more his concernment than the preserving of the life of the body Yea his Religion is built on a sandy foundation who hath not seriously considered that for ought he knows his Religion may cost him his life and hath not brought his soul to an humble resolution to lay down his life rather than let go his Religion thus much is clearly imported in that passage Luk. 14.27 28 c. Which of you intending to build a tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost c 5. The society of good men and enjoyment of Gospell Ordinances is of speciall use to preserve quicken and enliven the principle of Religion in the soul they are to Religion in the soul what food is to the naturall life of the body and therefore the Ordinances in the Church are compared to breasts of consolation Isa 66.11 The great design of God in appointing Gospell-Ordinances is that by the help and assistance of those gifts and graces which he bestows upon his Ministers the souls of those who are estranged from him should be brought home to the owning and acknowledging of the truth and that those who have returned to the Lord should be more and more affected with a sense of divine goodnesse and their dependance on the Lord for all they have and hope for and indeed if preaching and reading and praying and every other Ordinance both in publike and in private do not aim at and intend this great end the begetting or actuating and stirring up the life of Religion in our souls then are they what some would fain perswade us vain uselesse troublesome things If thy coming to Church to hear a prayer or a Sermon be not by thee designed and do not in the even tend to make thee better to love God more loath sin more and value the world lesse and resolve more heartily to obey the Gospell thou hadst as good have been in thy bed or shop as in the Church and if in preaching and praying we that are Gods mouth to you and your mouth to God have any other design than to stir up in your souls good thoughts of God affectionate workings of heart towards a loving tender-hearted father zealous and hungring desires to do the will of God and expresse our love by obeying his commandments I seriously professe I should think my self much better imployed to be working in a Coblers stall or raking in the kennell or filling a dung cart than preaching or praying in a pulpit and let those who do not intend these great ends know that ere long they will finde they had bettter have been imployed in the most debasing drudgery than in the outward work of God with sinister and unworthy ends These things premised the case resolves it self into these particular questions 1. What should beleeving Christians do to support the life of Religion in their souls when they want the ordinary food of publick Gospel-Ordinances 2. What should such do to preserve their outward concernments among persecuting enemies without hazarding their Religion In answer to the first question take these Directions 1. Let such humbly reflect upon their former sleighting despising and abusing the means of grace which now they want it is the usual method of God to
were quite overpowred The word had some effect upon Simon Magus He believed Act. 8.13 and being taken for a believer was baptized and afterwards continued with Philip c. but a strong affectation of vain-glory suppressed those better motions and the worst got upmost Take heed of any inordinacy as to lawfull things your relations studies ordinary callings c. this will not not suffer you to come so often to holy duties to stay so long in them or to be so intent upon them as is requisite for the deep impressing of their efficacy and after they are done this will hurry your souls from under those thoughts and exercises which should fix and settle their virtue and influence upon your minds and hearts Natural bodies follow the tendency of that element which is predominant in them a stone moves downwards it would be at the centre that which stops it offers it violence and when the force is removed down it fals freely Just thus doth the heart follow the tendency of these inOrdinacies if it meet with a stop in an Ordinance that 's but an ungratefull violence to it it will struggle to break through it will be restlesse till the force be removed till the power of the Ordinance be shaken off which checks an inclination natural and acceptable to it and what hopes in this case that the efficacy of any holy duty will long continue Fourthly Rest not in the best performance of any duty nor in any assistances you find therein though they be special and more than ordinary If this satisfie and exalt you you will be apt to grow secure and carelesse not looking to the improvement of Ordinances when once they are over and that 's the way to lose all We are apt to take the most dangerous colds when we are in the greatest heats And it s observed that some professors have had the fowlest fals after they have been most elevated in holy imployments The resting upon the opus operatum the meer outward performance of a duty when the heart is not ingaged therein is an open pit which none fall into save those that are blind but the resting upon the opus operantis a duty affectionately performed is a more secret and so a more dangerous snare He that makes account he hath done enough because he hath done well may be apt to think he is not obliged to look further after it and so the continued influence of the duty upon his heart and life which is indeed the principal advantage of it may be neglected and consequently lost for want of looking to To conclude Make not the Ordinances your end but use them as the means to attain it They are not injoyned us for themselves but in order to something more desirable their end is something further than their use Take heed you place not all your Religion in hearing praying communicating c. neither count your selves religious enough because you are much and often in these duties This is to make them your end and then you will rest therein without proceeding further for the motion of the Agent is terminated in his end and so you will stay short of that for which they were principally intended viz. the keeping of your hearts and minds in a setled posture of holinesse and righteousnesse and neglect that by which this main end of the Ordinances is onely to be attained viz. the continuing of their influence upon you So much for the case propounded which I have indeavoured to resolve as the nature of it requires practically and therefore as there is no time for so there will be lesse need of Application But that I may not dismisse you without something of this nature having laid your duty before you in the Observation and shewed you how it may be performed in satisfying the case Let me now presse you to the performance of it by one Consideration which will have the force of a Motive where there is any sense of soul-concernments If the efficacy of the Ordinances abide not on you you cannot be fruitfull under them at least you cannot bring forth fruit unto perfection as the expression is Luke 8.14 you may bring forth buds or leaves or blossomes c. but if their influence continue not that which you bring forth will never come to ripenesse and perfection it will be crude and sowr at best and sowr Grapes are as bad as no fruit in the Lords account and unfruitfullnesse will provoke the Lord to deprive you of the Gospel and Ordinances Isaiah 5.2 5 6. Ye looked that it should bring forth Grapes and it brought forth wild Grapes And now go to I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard I will take away the hedge thereof I will lay it waste that it shall not be pruned nor digged I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it The meaning of this parable so farre as concerns our purpose is expressed by another threatning denounced for the same sin Matth. 21.43 The kingdome of God i. e. the Gospel of the kingdome shall be taken from you and given to a people bringing forth the fruits thereof And Christs threatning of Ephesus amounts to as much Rev. 2.4 5. Neverthelesse I have something against thee because thou hast left thy first love The first impressions of the Gospel were worn off and vanished And what follows I will come against thee quickly and remove thy Candlestick out of its place unlesse thou repent So that this sin will pull up your hedge and break down your wall level all your securities and so lay you open to the boar of the wood and the wild beasts of the field such as instead of digging and pruning you will devour and lay you wast and Sharon will become a desart This sin will provoke Christ to let the Stars fall out of his right hand so as you will be left to perish for want of vision This sin will provoke the Lord to take the Gospel of the Kingdome from you and leave you under the hellish influences of the Prince of darknesse This sin will overturn your Candlesticks and extinguish your lights and leave you nothing but the snuffs This sin will deliver your strength into captivity and your glory into the enemies hand This sin will smite the shepheards and scatter the flocks and lay the heritage of God desolate This sinne will cause your Sun to set at noon and turn the day of your gracious visitation into a sad and dismal night This sin will turn the place which hath been a valley of vision into a seat of darknesse and a valley of the shadow of death If then you would avoid a judgement which strikes not only at your estates and lives but at your souls if you would prevent that dreadfull stroke which may not only râ—ach your selveâ— but â—our posterity your children and childrens children 〈…〉 â—â—ld â—ot have them and your selves and thousand aâ—d 〈…〉 â—â—u