does this Gate brings into this Way of Life whereas no other Gate does None can be careless whether he make Ingress and progress here but he who sets light by Life that Life which for permanency and privileges doe exceedingly transcend this Or 2ly Of the difficulty of going in and going on here A threefold difficulty is here mentioned 1st There is a difficulty in finding this Gate and this difficulty is so great that there are few overcome it Most drop into destruction before they know where the Gate of Salvation lies 2ly There is a difficulty in entring this Gate when it is found it being a strait Gate and so not to be entred with any bulk in any posture a Man must strip himself of all unnecessary lumber and compose his body into the most advantageous posture if he would get in at this strait Gate 3ly There is a difficulty in holding on in the Way which we have entred into through the Gate this Way being a narrow Way such as will not leave us at liberty to do as we list but will confine us within bounds and tye us to good behaviour so that we shall be necessitated to conform our Steps unto our Ways Doct. 1st There is a way which leads unto Life This is so clear a truth and so generall acknowledged that Christ does not think it needfull to prove it no nor so much as to assert it neither he only supposes there is such a way all that he does directly assert is touching the narrowness of this Way and the Straitness of the Gate which admits into it Here we must enquire what this Life is which has a Way to it what this way is which leasts unto this Life how this Way leads unto this Life Quest 1st What is this Life which has a Way leading to it Answer Man has a double Life 1st A Life of the Body in this World 2ly A life of the the Soul which is either inchoat and begun in this World or consummate and perfect in the other Now this Life of the Body consists in the conjunction of the Soul and Body together and exerts its self in natural vital Animal operations whereby we Eat Drink and Grow and Breath See and Hear Smell and Feel and Talk and Walk c. But this is not rhe Life which we have to do with here for we are speaking of a Life which Men generally are without yea are at a great distance from and cannot arrive at but by passing through a long Way but such a Life is not this present bodily life for all on this side the Grave have this Life The life then which we have to Enquire about is the Life of the Soul this men are without unless they be born again to it and they are but few who are born again nay men are at a distance from this life neither prizing this nor desiring it nor knowing the way to it Nay it is not the life of the Soul while it is yet in the body this vile body which we here Enquire after For though these two lives that of the Soul here and that of the Soul hereafter do agree much in their natures and Qualitys they have the same subject the immortall Soul which once was dead in trespasses and Sins Eph. 2. 1. The same principle Christ who saith of himself Job 14. 6. I am the way The truth and the Life whom St. Paul professes to be his Life Gal. 2. 20. I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Col. 3 4. When Christ who is our Life c. The same effect influencing upon all the faculties of the Soul to raise and enlarge them bettering both mind and heart in all their operations The same excellency putting upon noble designes such as concern the Glory of the great God and the welfare of precious Souls and furnishing with Satisfactory delights such as are the result of Gods presence in the Soul and the Testimony of our Conscience that according to our power we have kept close to God in obedience The same permanency neither of them ever having any end yet these two Lives differ much in degrees more than the life of a man differs from the life of a new born Child yea more than the life of a grown man differs from the life of a Child in the womb It neither has such high operations nor such high comforts it is oft so secret and so hardly discernable either by the man who enjoyes it or by others that Christ rather counts it a tendency to life than life it self it is so exceedingly below that life which shall be in righteousness peace Joy and Glory the great perfections of this life that it scarce deserves to bear the same name the life then which we are here enquiring of is the life of the Soul after it is uncased of the body this is the great life whereunto the life of grace received in regeneration serves but as a way this is that which all Gods People find feel a want yea a need of which they all pant and breath after it makes the Soul happy immediately after death and the body too as well as the Soul soon after the resurrection 2ly What is this way which leads to this life Ans The way it self is obedience and self-denyal complying with Gods will and denying our own It is but going back the same way which man took when he fell from this life we had not been to seek for this life if Adam had continued in the state wherein he was created had he thus done both he himself had been confirmed in holiness and Righteousness and all his posterity after him had probably been born in the same state but he being Tempted by Satan closed with the Temptations and instead of complying with Gods will gratified his own and thereby ruined not only himself but us too Thus we are told by one man Sin entred into the World c. Rom. 5. 12. A double death entred by Adams Sin 1st A death of the Soul as to eternal life this was the immediate result of his Sin for by it he did as it were cut his own throat and thereby utterly stript himself of Spiritual life 2ly A death of the body as to this Temporal life this Followed upon his Sin also yet not so speedily for the seeds of death was only then sown which must have time to ripen Now the way to get out of this death into which we are plunged and to attain again that life which we have through Sin and folly lost is to take a quite contrary Course and whatever Temptations we have to do with either from the World or Satan more to consider what is Gods will then our own and rather to do what God bids us than what our own lusts incline us to This is the way the onely way though Christ when inwardly received into the Soul as a new life is the principle inclining and enabling us
in our Souls which formerly they had and hereby the Soul is more easily to be reduced under the Command of Christ and under The law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ 4ly We keep close under the influences of the Quickening Spirit All life is from God and the nearer we are to God the nearer we are to life Now the distance we are in at any time from God is not of place but of state We cannot possibly be any where where God is not present for God Fills Heaven and Earth Jer. 23. 24. But he is not present to us we have no sensible Experience of his presence in us because our minds are averse from him The way then to find and feel the warmth of the Sun of Righteousness is to turn to it not by Changing our place but by Changing the posture of our Soul our backs are towards God while we follow our lusts then we turn to God when we put our selves in the way of duty 3ly As a condition upon which God has suspended the giving of life Eternal life being the gift of God he may give it out unto whom he pleases upon what termes he pleases Rom. 6. 23. And that he has made Obedience the termes of Eternal life is euident Christ tells the young man Mat. 19. 17. If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments Paul Saith God will render to every one according to their works to them who by patienâ— Continuance in weldoing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality Eternal life Rom. 2. 7. John saith Men come to have right to the Tree of life by doing Gods Commands Rev. 22. 14. The difference betwixt the Old and New Covenant do's not lie here that the one requires works and the other do's not But they both require works onely with this difference the Old Covenant requires good works from us to be done by our selves the other requires good works in us to be done by the Spirit of Christ And therefore by our Works we shall be tried at the great day whether we be fit for life or we be not As is evident Mat. 25. Vse 1st Is there a way to life then none are excluded by God from Eternal life seeing God has not set this where it cannot be come at but has left a way to it which who ever take cannot miss of Eternal life There is a way to Eternal life this way is declared what it is and how it lies we are loudly called by God into this way Continually called by all providences and Ordinances Now Therefore if we will not take this way and for want of taking it ruine our selves can we say that it is Gods fault that we come short of life Can we clear our selves either by pretending ignorance as if we knew not the way when the Lord has shewed thee O man what is good And what do's the Lord by God require of thee c. Mic. 6. 8. Or by pleading Impotence we could not walk in it this cannot be for if it be a way it must be passable And though we cannot walk in this way of our selves by our own strength yet by the help of God we may and God is Never backward Seasonably to give in Convenient help to those who heartily desire it of him 2ly Is there a way to life let every one take heed how they come short of life had mans case been desperate and now that he has once fallen from life there were no more possibility of his return to it again then there is for the Devils there being no way left to life for them it would have been a troubling our selves to no purpose should we have striven to get to life What vse could there be of any cares or Endeavours in such a case All would have been superfluous But now that there is a way to life a way opened to us by the Blood of Christ and we may attain to life if we do but for our selves what we might and ought we are greatly concerned to look to it that we come not short of life for all this through our own unbelief carelesness and sloth It is sad to lose life and to be vtterly and everlastingly undone for want of it But it will be far sadder to lose it when it has been prepared and offered a way has been made to it and the way declared and we called into it Be the good never so Valuable that we come short of the Evil never so Intolerable that we are plunged into yet if the one could not be by us attained the other could not be by us avoided we Comfort our selves with this that how greivous soever our Sufferings be yet it could not be helped But as the case is here if we lose life and plung our selves into an endless Death we shall be vtterly deprived even of this Comfort we can never be able to say that it could not be helped there was no Remedy it could never be otherwise then it is No then we shall be made to Remember and to Acknowledge that it might have been far otherwise we might have been as full of Happiness as we are now of Misery had we but taken the right way and that we Missed the way was not so much Ignorance as Willfulness or at the best Carelessness This is that which will make Hell-fire burne hotter and its pains Torment more intolerably when we are made to Remember what Fair warnings we had against it how we were told that the way we took was the ready Road to it how we were seriously invited and that frequently into another way which we were assured would lead us into a state of as great Blessedness as we were capable of Doct. 2. The Enterance into the way of life is through a Gate a strait Gate If ye ask what Gate is this it is the Gate of Regeneration for this is the passage through which we turne out of the way of destruction into the way of Salvation while we are in our old nature our motions are Earth-ward and Hell-ward for that way do our Inclinations lead us But when we have attained a new nature a divine nature our bent is altered and by this we are carried Heaven-ward and God-ward our outward man is kept within bounds by the Law and our inward man is Enlarged and Raised carried towards those things which are Spiritual and Eternal by the Spirit Qu. But what is Regeneration which is the Gate into the way of life It is such an alteration wrought in the Soul by the powerfull operation of Gods Spirit whereby the Soul which was Dead in Trespasses and sins Passes from Death to Life 1 Joh. 3. 14. It comes to have new Senses new motions It comes to have different apprehensions from what it had before Wealth Honour Pleasures it counted things of Worth and use now it looks upon them but as vanity and vexation the ways of Sin it looked upon as wayes of
Can we expect that People should ever give over Separating from our Congregations how strict soever the provision made by the Laws be when having a great famine in their Souls and a thirst for the word of Knowledge they come amongst us and get none If there be any here that can account it nothing though the great and dreadfull God be provoked poor Souls be Everlastingly undone a Flourishing Nation laid desolate a Church well ordered as to the main miserably torne in pieces by Schismes a Ministry which hitherto God has Honoured by using it to the Converting and edifying of Souls laid aside as an useless instrument I know not what to say to them which I can hope will take the least hold of them they may go and follow their Pleasures â—ark and â—oil in the World to be Rich and great and in the mean while quite forget that it was any part of their duty to preserve saving Knowledge Only let me tell them this time may come when they shall too late find it was a duty when Judgements have pursued and overtaken them and Conscience is awakened out of its long sleep when outward afflictions press and pinch and Terrours of Death and Hell Affright and all Comfort and help from Creatures fails and the man knows not which way to turne him or what will become of him then they will wish they had Considered it sooner But for you My Brethren who have engaged in this great work following the inward call of God being fully perswaded in your hearts that by devoting your selves this way you might do God and his People best service let me speak a word to you and my self Let us make it appear that how hard conceits soever some have of us we have a sense of and regard to our duty as well as they while we faithfully discharge it Let us confute the prejudices which prevail much in the World against us as if we were a generation of men that might be best spared by being really usefull let us manage our business so that their Consciences may Justify us when their humours and Interests engage them most in the quarrell against us 1st Let us Labour to grow in Knowledge Reall Spirituall Experimentall Solid and usefull Knowledge let us faithfully set our selves to do Gods will and he will make us know it Get our hearts made more pure then our heads will be more clear Earnestly press after the Spirit of truth and Knowledge which is able to reveal unto us the hidden things of God and to lead us into all truth Let us study throughly our own hearts we need not read over the Whole impression and the Bible these we shall find the best Books out of which we may be sufficiently furnished with what ever is usefull Let us faithfully make use of our talents that God may encrease them 2ly Let us in holding out Knowledge be faithfull instant in season and out of season and wise also let us meddle little with disputable Points these take them generally come not near the heart of Religion they do small good a great deal of harm making People proud Talkative and quarrelsome Diverting them also from the main of Religion to impertinencies Deal gently with Conscientious dissenters they will not be won by being reproached and â—ttaunted by being rendred odious to those about them by Nicknames Railing against their mistakes will not confute them neither will it heal their Sores to be ever in handling them No it is Found by Experience that False opinions are sooner undermined then battered and the warm Sun causes the Traveller to lay aside that Cloak which the Blustering wind could never have forced from him Make vse of Knowledge rather than shew of it lest thou prejudice the more sober and understanding persons against thee by giving them too Just cause to believe that thou art studying more to gain applause then to do good Some while they affect to seem learned make themselves Ridiculous yea and nauseous too while they vomit up as it were amongst the People their crude Matters which if they had been throughly digested into strength of reason would have made the Consciences of People feel that they do understand themselves So while they seek credit they miss it and also oft times render weighty matter inefficacious by Intermixing Dilute stuff with it which Weakens the Force of it Let us thus set our selves to preserve Knowledge and Knowledge shall preserve yea advance us God himself will own us wipe away our reproach and secure our interest and every way bless us People shall owne us and readily hear us Chearfully submit to us in the Lord heartily bless God for us And we shall either see of the Travell of our Souls amongst them and be Satisfied or however we shall know that our Judgment is with the Lord and our work with our God though Israel be not gathered and great shall be our reward in Heaven Proverbs 3. 5. 6. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and leane not unto thine understanding In all thy wayes Acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths THis Book was writ by one of great naturall parts who had all imaginable advantages whereby to improve them to the height besides those Supernaturall Endowments of Knowledge and wisdom he begg'd of God and obtained It containes in it severall usefull directions learned and tryed by Experience for the ordering of ones wayes in the fear of God with discretion so as to decline the snares of this present life comfortably to wade through all its troubles profitably to make use of all the Occurrences of it so as daily to get ground of Corruption to grow in purity and Heavenly mindedness fear of Love to faith in God submission to him meekness and holiness of heart ingenuity and goodness towards men to provide for and make sure of peace Joy and Glory to the Soul unto all eternity In the begining of this Chapter he falls upon his instructions with a winning insinuating compellation a temper expressing much tender Love and serious care My Son He enforces them with very powerfull perswasions from the reall advantages they bring along with them If a long Comfortable and honourable life be of any worth the rules which point out the certain way to these are of weight But what are these In generall Two 1st Make Conscience of all thy ways and keep thine heart Continually in Exercise to find out what is thy duty in every particular case that thou mayest set about the serious practice of it Ver. 3. Know that mercy and truth goodness reality are the main things ye ought to addict your selves unto you must get your hearts purged your lives Reformed from all malice and guile filled and adorned with what ever is akin to tender Love and honest sincerity But how shall one know what is Duty and what will really promote mercy and truth in the heart and life This is wisely inquired for
in any Advantages which they make of their Religion beside the proper Advantages by it which are the Renewing of the heart the Reforming of the Life the saving of the Soul the being Vnited to Christ Interested in him and Influenced by him the being usefull in their Places Contented with their Conditions Prepared for all the Changes of this Life and the great Change at Death If we be not by it brought to Love Fear and trust in God more to make Conscience of all our Wayes following whatever is Good and Eschewing whatever is Evil there is no Foundation laid in us for any durable Advantage by Religion Doct. 3. Whoever in Religious Concerns Build on the Sand are but Foolish Builders Their Folly will appear if we consider 1st That the Concernments which we have by Religion to promote and secure are the highest Concernments which we either have or can have They are the Concernments of our Souls our better and our more lasting Part what makes for the purity Liberty Glory and felicity of our Souls which are the Immediate Work-man-ship of God the Great purchase of Christ Blood They are our Concernments to Eternity what may make for our Everlasting Peace Joy and Glory and these are far greater then any of the Concernments of this short uncertain Life can be They are such Concernments as the wise God accounts great this was the care of Gods Everlasting Councel how to secure these this was the design of Christ great undertaking to promote these 2ly The little provision which is made for Securing these Concernments by such as Build on the Sand. Such slight work will nothing Advantage the Soul For whatever Change is made in the Outward man by it there is none at all made in the Inward the Soul it self after all the Reformation which a bare hearing makes remains as poor as polluted as ever The Soul is still at as great Enmity with the Holy God at as great Distance from the Blessed God in as little Peace with its self in as great Slavery to its Lusts as ever However if such Slight work could Advantage the Soul for the present it cannot long Advantage it for it will never lâ—st An Herb without its Root will soon Wither and House without its Foundation will soon fall 3ly The expence we are at for making this poor Provision is great Those thoughts and that time which is laid out about Hearing if they had been wisely managed might have brought us to the Obedience of Faith whereby we might have come to be Redeemed from all Iniquity to be Purifyed unto God a peculiar People and got our Souls finally Saved wheras now as we use them only to get a little Credit and to make a little Worldly Advantage by a Profession to put off the Rebukes of Conscience a while longer and to delude our selves with a vain hope of Happiness which unless we be Changed greatly from what we were we are like to be great Losers by we lose God Christ and Heaven all these Vtterly and Everlastingly Use Let us take heed we be not such Foolish Builders 1st Lest we undergo the great Reproach of being Fools the greatest Fools of all For none are so great Fools as those who Fool away their Souls and fool themselves into Hell in which there is no Comfort out of which there is no Recovery Whatever men think of us for the present they will then know us to be Fools when we have utterly lost our opportunity of being saved and have Ruined our selves Irrecoverably And we our selves shall call our selves Fools and shall upbraid our selves with and Curse our selves for our own Folly when we find and feel what Miserable Creatures we have made our selves to be And lest we reap the Bitter Fruits of our Folly being utterly excluded from that Joy and Glory which was as seriously offered us as it is offered any and we were as solemnly invited to it as any and we might as certainly have attained it as any had we been but Faithfull to God and our own Souls being finally concluded under that Misery which we can neither bear nor escape That we may be wise Builders we must look well to our Foundation that it be solid and that our Souls be closely united to it Let Christ be our Foundation and let us take care that we be made one with him Doct. 4. All Buildings in Religion which are Founded on the Sand be they never so high and Specious will fall at last and the Fall of them will be Great Sometimes God suffers them to Fall during this Life Thus it was with Judas who betrayed his Master withdrew himself from the Society of the Disciples lost all the Reputation he had got by being an Apostle was greatly disquieted in his own Conscience and Killed himself after he had done much suffered something gained some Repute among Good men and probably had some measure of Peace in his Conscience and some hope of Happiness after Death Thus it was with Hymeneus Alexander and Philetus who though they had professed the Faith and used a Good Conscience in many things and got some Name in the Church yet afterwards fell off from all 1. Tim. 1. 19. 20. 2. Tim. 2. 17. 18. Thus it was with those who are Resembled to Stony and Thorny Ground There is a hearing of the Word and a receiving it with Joy but no good comes of all either through Tribulation and Persecution or through the Cares and Pleasures of the World S. Mat. 12. 20. 21. 22. Thus it was with those in Heb. 6. Who went far who had in their minds a Great Light in their Hearts a Savoury Tast who came under some Powerfull Work of God who were endured with the Holy Ghost and tasted Gods Word yet these are supposed to fall away v. 6. And those who were in some Measure Sanctified by the Holy Ghost and had Received the spirit of Grace even these come to tread under foot the Son of God and to profane the Blood of the Covenant Heb. 10. 29. Thus it was with those in 2. Pet. 2. 20. who had a common Knowledge of Christ by which they were brought into the Way of Righteousness and escaped the Pollutions and Entanglements of the World and yet afterwards come to be Polluted and Entangled and overcome to turn from the holy Commandment unto their former Filth However they fall at Death Then they fall wholly all the gifts and graces the good works Credit and worldly Advantages their Peace and hope then fail them they see the â—â—nity of them all they find no Comfort in them no help by them Sometimes they are made to see all this while they are in a Condition to declare it to the World and all about them see that they die Miserably full of horrour and despair Sometimes they see this before they be quite Dead but they are so far gone that they cannot express the Anguish they feel Those ghastly looks and
The Condition of lost man would be very deplorable if that God in whose Enjoyment his Happiness consists could in no wise be found The Undertaking of Christ also would be altogether in vain whatever he he has done or suffered even that Painfull shamefull Execrable Death upon the Câ—â—ss would be wholly to no Purpose if men could not be brought to God so as to find him for S. Peter tells us this was the great End of all That he might bring us unto God S. Pet 3. 18. Doubtless then God may be Found if he be but Sought 1. Duly If men seek him out of a feeling sense of their want need of him and out of a sincere desire to find him if they diligently enquire after him faithfully follow the guide which leads to him and carefully use the means whereby he is drawn nigh unto He hath promised Jer. 29. 13. Ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your Heart Which is as true of Gods readiness to be found when rightly sought to deliver from the Bondage of Sin as from the Captivity of Babylon 2ly God must be sought timely while he may be found before the Proper season of finding him be over Prov. 8. 17. Those that seek me early shall find me For The fifth thing implied in the Proposition is that the Time of finding God by seeking him will not always last And 1st It will certainly be ended at Death Indeed there is a Presence of God according to which he will be found after Death unsought for and undesired A Terrible furious presence which fills the Conscience of the Impenitent Sinner with a sense of Guilt and wrath and his heart with anguish and Horror Perplexity and Despair It is this Presence which kindles That fire that shall never be Quenched and which so affrights the greatest and stoutest that they are not able to abide it but Call to the Mountains and Rocks to fall on them and hide them from it Rev. 6 16. When the Soul is once separated from this Lumpish Body which straitens its Capacities and dulls its senses and greatly unfits it for Converse with any thing but this Gross world then it comes immediately to have to do with God himself whom it has so much despised and hated and his presence they can in no wise possibly avoid although by reason of the Contrariety which is between Gods nature and theirs it be extremely Tormenting to them like a fire that doth continually scorch Isa 33. 14. Who among us shall dwell with Everlasting Burnings But as for the Amiable and Gracious Presence of God that Presence which the Soul needeth and desireth with which it is so refreshed and ravished this if it be not sought here can never be found hereafter After Death the state of the Soul is unalterable it is with men then as it was with the Devils immediately after their Fall their Wills are Immutably fixed to their former Choice so that those who will not seek God now cannot then There is no such Work as seeking in the Grave whither we go Besides if there could be any seeking God after death there could be no finding him then seing there is then a Vast Gulf fixt between God and Sinfull Souls S. Luke 16. 26. The Romanists who suppose a Purgatory after death and a seeking and finding God out of Purgatory only assign this Purgatory for those in the state of grace who have been sincerely seeking God during this Life but have not found him being not sufficiently purified and so not prepared for him 2ly It may possibly be ended during Life There are those who have outlived the day of Grace in which God offers himself to be found Thus it was with Pharoah whom God after the sixth Plague reserved alive till he should have a more seasonable opportunity for the Glorifying of himself in his destruction Thus it was also with Judas of whom Christ gave this Character some time before his death that he was a Devil S. Joh. 6. 70. A Devil not only for the Wickedness of his heart but also for the desperateness of his state Devils might as soon find God as he There are those who while alive sin the Sin unto Death S. John 5. 19. Opposing the Spirit of God so obstinately and contumaciously in its saving work that at last it fully and finally Resolves to leave them to themselves to go on to their own Destruction God can never be found but when he sets himself to be found saying Behold me Behold me Isa 65. 1. Nay while he himself Seeks his Servants Psal 119. 176. And this is only so long as there is any Hopes that a Sinner may be Reclaimed by any Methods of Grace which Gods Wisdome and Justice will allow to be used towards him But if after a Tryall of all these in spight of Instructions and Reproofs of mercy and Judgement of what God can do mediately by his Ministers and of what God thinks fit to do immediately by his Holy Spirit the Sinner persist obstinately and Incorrigibly in neglecting and rejecting of God God saith of him as he said of Ephraim Hos 4. 17. He is joyned to Idols let him alone I see he will have none of me and I am resolved he shall not And let me tell you this is one of the greatest Judgements a sinner is capable of on this side Hell to be herein by God Iudicially condemned to his own sinfull choice After this there can be no seeking God so as to find him let a man live never so long Having shewn you those things that were implied in the first Proposition I come now to the Proposition it self and shall shew you That it is the Duty and Concern of all to seek God so as to find him It is their Duty for 1st It is the Precept of God whom we ought to obey Psal 25. 4. Seek ye the Lord and his strength Seek his face evermore 2. It is the Practise of the Saints whom we ought to imitate This is the Generation of them that seek him Psal 24. 6. It need not be Explained whom God speaks to Isa 51. 1. Ye that seek the Lord for it is to them that follow after Righteousness 3. The Promises of God encourage to it and they ought not to be slighted The Promise assures of us that we Shall find God if we search for him with all our heart Jer. 26. 13. And together with him every good thing besides Psal 34. 10. They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing 4. The Providences of God call to this and they ought to be complied with Mercies are therefore vouchsafed to men to this purpose God hath set men The bounds of their habitations that they should seek the Lord. Act. 17. 46. 27. Judgements are inflicted for this purpose upon this account God ill resents it that People turn not unto him that smiteth them neither do they seek the Lord of