away his precious time and never thinks to any purpose that his day is coming and what a sad tune he will be then in If mens thoughts were but frequently and seriously imployed about this subject men would not live and walk about the World for nothing as they do They would not fish all their life time and catch nothing but a little worldly pleasure and honour which was but a bait that Satan used to bring them to this misery that now they are departing into Wo wo be to the man that thinks not of Death till it is even at his door That sees it not till his eyes are ready to close up That never dreams of it till he is ready to awake in another World O Sirs your Souls are here to day and gone to morrow and you know not what one day or night may bring forth Prov. 27.1 Though you may think it is the way to a merry comfortable life to put the serious sober thoughts of your later end out of your mind yet I am sure it is not the way to a comfortable joyful death and is it not a thousand times more desireable to die comfortably than to live comfortably if you will needs part these two one from the other But I must plainly tell you that you are mistaken and that it is not the way to a comfortable chearful life to forget a mans latter end and to decline such a provident Foresight and Meditation unless you take a licentious sensual and foolish life for a comfortable life And then there 's no doubt but the frequent Consideration of a mans latter end will disturb and interrupt such sinful foolish mirth But there are no men in the World that live a more comfortable joyful life and taste so full and true content and pleasure as those that have frequently thought upon death and the consequent of it and made it familiar to their thoughts and have quite overcome the fear of death by a wise foresight of it and preparation for it He may well rejoyce oven at the heart that hath overcome his great enemy and is got over the Rub that the rest of the World must meet with sooner or later that shall put an end to their foolish mirth and laughter The considerate man hath trampled this King of Terrours under his feet and through fear of death is no longer subject unto bondage as inconsiderate men are whereas on the contrary men that are not accustomed to these thoughts nor have brought forth the fruit of them whensoever such thoughts accidentaly rush into their mind they cannot bear them how terrible and affrighting are the apparitions of death when they get into their imaginations and fancy and let them do what they can to shift these imaginations out of their hearts sometime or other they will surprize them and break in though they shut the door never so fast and bolt them out and then they pay something for their former inconsideracy If a Fit of Sickness come upon them that threatens them with death fearfulness and trembling taketh hold on them and a fit of horrour is ready to overwhelm them Psal 55.5 What now Will you call that a merry comfortable life that 's so easily disturbed with one sad dismal thought that may arise Will you say that man lives a pleasant life whom a Hand-writing upon the Wall can damp and strike into a Fit of Trembling Will you say that that man lives as happily and comfortably that by some sad accident a thousand of which he is subject to may have his Countenance changed his Thoughts trouble him and the Joynts of his Loyns loosed and his Knees smite one against another as Belshazzar had in the midst of his mirth and jollity Dan. 5.6 Will you call this a comfortable life that will so soon perish and come to a fearful end or that rather that grows more lightsome and chearful when Death it self approacheth and is drawing near Let a man that 's forsaken of Reason and Understanding forget his latter end as the fittest Expedient to his distracted foolish mirth but if thou art Master of any Wit or Reason thou wilt entertain and cherish such thoughts as these as the beginning of true Wisdom O remember that die thou must and leave the world behind thee and woe be to thee if thou hast not made some good preparation for a more lasting life The night of thy life is even almost spent see how much the Taper of thy present life is already wasted If thou knowest any thing thou canst not but know that it 's appointed for all men to die yea and that but once and after Death comes the Judgment there 's no calling back thy time and life when once they are spent no turning up thy glass again when once it is run out no after-game to play after the first is lost no dying a second time when once thy breath is gone I mean in this world though there be a second Death a thousand times more terrible than the first in the world to come Well if thou would'st live comfortably indeed yea and die comfortably also consider thy latter end be not afraid of such thoughts that will make thee wise to Salvation Seventhly Another Object worthy thy frequent consideration is the Judgment of the Great Day O what pity is it that a man that 's made for another world and that must be solemnly cited before the Tribunal of the Righteous and Impartial Judge and be responsible for his whole Life how he hath spent it should drive such thoughts out of his mind as Gallio drove Pauls Accusers from the Judgment Seat Acts 18.16 and care for none of these things What is it better to stand trembling before thy Judge in that day than to hold up thy Head with confidence If thou art one that dost not consider the Solemnity of that day nor the Concernments of thine own Soul in that general Assembly and appearance thou art more like to be confounded in that day than to rejoyce Would a proud vain-glorious Worldling so passionately rejoyce in the day of his prosperity and let his heart chear him in the midst of his foolish pleasures and walk in the ways of his heart and in the sight of his eyes if he did but consider that for all these things God will bring him to Judgment Would any man cast off all duty to God or perform it with a negligent slightness and indifferency to gratifie his lazy flesh or a busie Lust if he did but remember and consider that for these things he must be judged and for these without Repentance before Death he must die for ever O my Brethren it is no such contemptible trivial day nor the business that must then be transacted of such small and petty concernment that you should not think them worth your frequent and considerate thoughts Think you must whether you will or no upon trifles if you refuse to think on such matters
Death doth not deprive the Soul of all gracious and vertuous Sense and Motion but renders it unfit for the Spirit of true Vertue Grace and Holiness to dwell in and so there must needs follow a Devorce and Separation between them And as in the Natural Life there is a Union between the Soul and Body so in the Moral there is a Union between the Soul and God Death Metaphorical is the privation of all the comfortable effects of Life whether it be Natural or Moral whilst bear Life doth still remain and the presence of all those evils that may afflict or imbitter it And all these are either 1. Temporal 2. Eternal From what hath been spoken for the explication of these two terms Life and Death you may perceive what a priviledge and unspeakable favour it is to be translated from Death to Life 1. If thou Remembrest God The sting of a Natural Death is pulled out and though thou art not 〈◊〉 from the part of the penalty of sin whereby the Body is deprived of all sense and separated from the Soul yet thou art delivered from that which is most terrible in Death 〈◊〉 the misery or Death that will follow after and it is a comfortable passage for them that Remember God to endless Joy and Happiness and sometimes a welcome Messenger to them They may truly say as Agag 1 Sam. 15.32 The bitterness of Death is past 2. They are translated from the Death of Sin to the Life of Grace and Holiness and are united unto God and are disposed by Faith and Love to that Holiness which is the Divine Perfection and the way to the highest Happiness and Honour that the Heart of Man can wish or desire Though this Life will be imperfect whilst we stay here And if there be such pleasure in the Union between the Soul and Body then there is much more in the Union between the Soul and God 3. As Death is put for Misery and the bitter and uncomfortable effects of the endless Life to come so they are passed from Death to Life The Sentence of Death that God hath passed against sin is so far revers'd And as for the Miseries and Evils of this Life though materially they may have more than other Men yet as to the formal and most essential part of them they feel them not so much as other Men because they are allay'd and sweetned 1. By the inward Peace and Comfort that God gives to those that Remember him 2. By the benefit and advantage they get by those outward Sufferings For as their outward Man is afflicted so their inward man is renewed strengthened and confirmed day by day 2 Cor. 4.16 For their light Affliction which is but for a moment worketh for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory even in the beginnings of it here ver 17.3 It lessens their short and momentary sufferings that by them they escape so much Temptation and all the â—aiâ—s of sin are become the less taking If thou art one in whose Remembrance God is advanced above all other things thou shalt not die but live and declare the works of the Lord Psal 118.17 And though the Lord may chasten and correct thee yet he will not give thee over unto Death ver 18. For God is the Fountain of Life and in his Light thou shalt see Life Psal 36.9 O what a Mercy is it to be delivered from the power of Death and Darkness and to be translated into the Kingdom of his dear Son where thou shalt grow up from one degree of Life to another till thou come to everlasting Life Col. 1.13 At thy first entrance into this Kingdom Death is sentenced and some execution is done upon every sort of Death which will be perfected as this remembrance of God grows up to perfection in thee O Death I will be thy Plague O Grave I will be thy Destruction Hos 13.14 Which as it was verified of Christ personally understood so it is of Christ mystically understood 1. As Christ overcame Death in his Person so every true Believer such are all and only they that have God in their Remembrance hath gotten some conquest over Death which shall grow up to a full Victory and therefore Paul in the Name of the whole Church doth acknowledge this mercy Thanks be to God that giveth us the victory thorough our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15 5 7. Whilst the wicked forgetters of God are dead in trespasses and sins and dead to all soul and solid Joy and Comfort and designed to an eternal death Thou that thinkest upon God and remembrest his Love in Christ art entred into a state of Life and hast such a Promise that contains more in it than all the rich Indian Mines Because â—e hath set his Love upon me With long life will I satisfie him and shew him my Salvation Psal 91.16 If thou didst but know what a treasure is hid in thâ—â— Remembrance thou wouldst throw out every thing of thy Memory and Heart that hinders this Remembrance of God This one priviledge of being translated from Death to Life is big with a number more 1. It implies that thou art reconciled to God and he is at peace with thee and thou needest no more to fear him as thine Enemy All his Attributes of Power Justice Holiness Vengeance Majesty that sound so terrible to the forgetters of God do but the better secure thee of thine Happiness 2. It implies also thy present Justification in title of Law God hath acquitted thee by the law of Grace and Act of the Gospel from the guilt of sin and dissolved the Obligation to condemnation Who can lay any thing to thy charge if God absolve thee Who can do thee any hurt when Christ is become thy Advocate Rom. 8.33 3. With this mercy doth concur the mercy of Adoption and Sonship It 's no small Honour to be one of his menial Servants but to be a Son yea a Heir is a priviledge not easily valued and understood 4. The gift of the Spirit to dwell within thee is here also implied to mortifie all sin and to work all gracious habits that may fit thee for a state of Glory In a word 5. All real and relative Grace so far as is necessary to Salvation is thine either in Title Possession 1. The Righteousness of Imputation is thine whereby thou art made fit for Pardon and the Righteousness of Implantation is thine whereby thou art made fit for his Love and Complacency and sweetest Communion with him Secondly If thou art one that Remembrest God all things shall co-operate and conspire for thy good Every Age every state and condition of Life every Place and Company every Change and Alteration in the World Prosperity and Adversity Friends and Enemies Health and Sickness Honour and Dishonour every Relation thou art plac'd in shall help forward thy Joy and Felicity and some Foundation God is laying in every one of these whereupon to
no rest till it hath enforced consent and resolution to obey These Truths are of two sorts 1. Some are Physick and meerly purgative 2. Others are Cordial and such as are restorative and comforting And although there is reluctancy enough in the distempered Soul of Man to both these yet he nauseats these of the first rank most and hath the greatest enmity to them He doth not relish the second sort but he perfectly hates the first sort the reason is because these Truths which I call Medicinal work directly upon the disturbing Humour and filthy Matter that must be evacuated and east out before we can find any Gust or Savour in those other Truths that are Nutritive and Cordial What aversness is there in the corrupt Nature of Man to admit those Truths into the Heart that cross either 1. The Interest or 2. The Inclination of the Flesh and that strike all the Heart and Root of the Old Man and that teach Self-denial that is the mortification of inward Lusts and the contempt of all outward Objects so far as they feed and nourish them And will a Man ever pull out his right Eye and cut off his right Hand for his Pride and his Passion and his Intemperance and his Petulary and Lasciviousness or any other Lust to which his Nature prompts him are as dear to him as his most beloved Members and will a Man ever digest such truths as these or take them into any place of strength that are such bloody enemies to his raging prevailing Lusts and arm and mortifie them against so dear and near a part of him This can never be done till Consideration make it appear that the Man is undone for ever and had better he had never been born be he never so rich and honourable in the World in whom there is any reigning Lust or Corruption till frequent thoughts convince him thoroughly that he that saveth such a Life as this shall lose it and a better But on the other side he that kills his Corruptions and suffereth no sin to prevail but mortifieth every one of these Members that make up the Body and the Life of the Old Man he that loseth such a Life as this shall find it and prove an unspeakable gainer Mark 8.35 Let me instance more particularly in some truths that must go before a worthy Remembrance of God which can never get into the Heart and work to any purpose till they be fermented by Consideration 1. It 's an easie Truth and very obvious to Man's understanding That God is the chief Good and our true happiness consisteth in his Love and Goodness This is the master Principle and Foundation of all Religion and inspires all practical Truths and the duty depends upon them with Breath and Life and were it well thought upon it would make a mighty change and alteration in the World you may see by what it does upon some that do consider it what it would do upon others if they were not inconsiderate In that proportion that Men consider this Truth and believe it they will study to please God and resemble him in all his imitable Perfections and their Love and Hatred will imitate his They will follow after Peace and Holiness without which daily Consideration assures them they can never see God Heb. 12.14 And they will have no Fellowship with the unfruitful works of Darkness because God hateth them Eph. 5.11 None in sensu morali though not in sensu physico Where that that falls short of a ruling mastering degree in Morality is said not to be And the Scripture frequently speaks after the same rate But he that lives after the Flesh and minds earthly things and blesseth himself in all worldly happiness cannot consider the fore-mentioned Truth and therefore is guilty of this Folly because he doth not consider It 's another weighty truth That we are fallen from God and Happiness into a state of Sin and Misery and shall never know what true Happiness means till we return We were made after his Likeness at the first and whilst we kept the stamp of his Image on us were happy in his Favour and Love and all Creatures were ready at our beck and service and Sorrow and Misery stood afar off and came not near us but having now provoked God and lost his Image we are now unspeakably miserable and in the path-way to Eternal Misery And what 's the reason that there are so few that are affected at the Heart with their condition that loath themselves that cry out of this bondage and would be set at liberty and restored into favour again but because there are but few that consider it The rest of their minds are taken up with other things and with worldly vanities and such disturbing thoughts as these are at the first are not permitted to enter which if they be not frequent and serious till the Soul hath got a full sight of the evil of Gods displeasure and sin that hath provoked it and the necessity and blessedness of his Favour These Truths though they should be taken in or assented to they will lie crude and raw upon the Stomach and never digest into good nourishment and be distributed into Life and Practice Consideration must awaken the Soul out of its Stupidity and Insensibleness which is Natural to all or else it will sleep into everlasting Death 3. A third plain but necessary and important Truth is That we are undone for ever unless we feel our Sin and Misery so as to confess it with inward shame and be humbled under it into that degree of Brokenness and Contrition that Salvation by Christ is the most welcome news that ever we heard or can hear insomuch that we embrace him with the highest love and respect and do heartily consent to be governed by him till he hath subdued our Corruptions sanctified us by his Spirit and made us meet for love and favour of God again But none can ever feel the worth and necessity of Christ and renewing Grace who have not set this matter by Consideration frequently before your Eyes It 's true of the Intellectual as well as the Corporal Eye out of sight out of mind what we see not by Consideration we shall never mind nor care for You will slight the greatest Truths and lie still in any state in the World though never so uneasie rather than part with sin and come to Christ if you do not consider that your sin will be bitterness in the end and Christ will make amends for all that do or suffer for him There be many other Truths in which I might instance What 's the reason that matters of such a consequence and weight and so certain and out of doubt as Death and the Resurrection and the Glory of Heaven and the Torments of Hell should work no more and make Men solicitous about them Why do Men die before they were aware and in such a careless and unprepared state Why do they
for what the World will give thee instead of it thou shalt consider when it is too late and say with that unhappy King that sold away his Kingdom for a draught of water Alas must I for so short a pleasure lose so great a Kingdom Ninthly Another thing that it concerns thee much to roul about and consider with thy deepest thoughts is the horrour and confusion of those that must be banished for ever from the face of God and sentenced to everlasting misery There 's none that escape that place but those that frequently think on it and believe it it s well worth thy serious Consideration to preserve thy soul from such a fearful destruction Many a man whom God hath awakened to believe those terrible endless torments have retired themselves from all worldly noise and disturbance that they might live under the power of these thoughts as the best preservative against these torments And is not thy Soul as dear and precious to thee as their's to them and deserve as much compassion from thee Surely though it is not thy duty to think actually of the woful and miserable estate of unbelievers all the day long Yet it 's of absolute necessity that some serious thoughts should be spent on that subject till the fear thereof make void and prevail over all Carnal worldly fears whatsoever And make thee more industrious to prevent that misery than thou art to escape the scorn and and reproach and all the sufferings and miseries of this life otherwise thou art never like to escape it And methinks thou should'st easily believe that Hell is more to be feared than all the Calamities of this Life and the loss of this Life it self But thus it will never be if thou art not one that dost often represent it to thy thoughts A danger though it be never so great yet if it be both out of sight and mind also will fright no body nor have any the least influence upon our endeavours to escape it The evil must be before the eye of our sense or understanding that works upon us to take the best course for our security and defence And the nearer we apprehend it to be the more hast we make to get away from it And whether a wicked man hath no reason to think his woful misery near even at the door I leave any man to Judge that hath any competent use of his understanding what can you name almost that 's more uncertain then this Life and so soon as ever it ends then begins his distress that shall never end But yet let him not be too confident that it shall not begin before Many a man hath felt the torments of Hell on this side the grave and this Judgment hath commenc'd before his life hath been concluded some mens sins go before them to Judgment saith the Apostle and some mens follow after 1 Tim. 5.24 There is some men feel the Vengeance of a righteous Judge even in this Life Spira professed that he felt the consuming fire of Gods wrath in his heart and Conscience whilst he was alive and openly blasphemed his Maker wishing that he was above him for he knew as he said that he would have no mercy on him O Sirs the intollerable pains that every impenitent Sinner must speedily undergo are well worth the pains of a few hours Consideration to prevent and if you think it not so you may spare your pains a little longer till your lamentable experience shall put you quite out of all doubt If indeed the diversion of your thoughts from so sad an object were the way to secure your Souls and to keep out of that devouring and unquenchable fire then you might well excuse your selves from troubling your minds with such thoughts as these But though you may quench the spirit of God that moveth you to Consider of this and to let it sink into your heart that you may seek for mercy whilst it may be had yet you cannot quench the flames of Hell nor extinguish that fire that must feed upon your soul and body for ever O how much better is it cooly to Consider the intolerableness of Gods wrath then to feel the burning heat and extremity of his indignation when there is no remedy If it were indeed but a flea bite you might slight it and keep your thoughts for something of more weight and moment Or if it were unavoidable perhaps you might do wisely not to torment your selves before the time nor invite such a guest till it comes of his own accord 'T is to no purpose to think of such sufferings which thinking will not prevent But believe it it is no flea-bite nor a matter to be slighted Fire and Sword and Rack and all the inventions of Cruelty that were ever found out are but Sport and Recreation to the Judgment and Condemnation of the Life to come And because the loss of God and Heaven seems such a tolerable punishment to these Vessels of wrath Let me tell them that there 's no part or member either in their Soul or Body that shall not be racked with perpetual and eternal pain And can thine heart endure or thine hands be strong when he shall come to deal with thee Ezek. 22.14 Thou would'st eat thy bread with trembling and drink thy drink with terrour and astonishment if he should pour out on thee some few bitter drops of his displeasure now in this life Thou even thou saith the Psalmist to Almighty God whose Judgments thou despisest art greatly to be feared and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry Psal 76.7 what trembling eyes and what a failing heart have they whom God doth a little terrifie with some frowns of his anger here on earth you may hear them cry out in the morning would God it were evening and in the evening would God it were morning for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear and for the fear of thine eyes which thou shalt see Deut. 28.6 51 67. How dolefully doth Job complain under his outward sufferings though he had Integrity to support him and the root of Comfort was within him Job 19.28 Death it self it seems would have been welcome to him under the heavy pressures which he felt as we may see in Job 3.20 21. c. Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery and life to the bitter in Soul which long for death but it cometh not and dig for it more than for hid treasures which rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave Why is life given to a man whose way is hid and whom God hath hedg'd in for my sighing cometh before I eat and my roarings are poured out like water And how David was ready to faint away many a time under the apprehensions of Gods displeasure it 's the design of many a passage in the Psalms to tell you Psal 51.8 Make me to hear of joy and gladness that the
a one that hath unsearchable Wisdom to Rule us infinite Power both to protect us and break our Enemies in pieces and is not profited by our Service Job 22.2 Can a Man be profitable to God as he that is wise may be profitable to himself Thou owest thy hearty Subjection unto God He made thee and is thy rightful and absolute Sovereign and when thou hadst turn'd Traitor to him He hath not set thee up as a Monument of his terrible Wrath and Vengeance But hath laid the Government upon his Son so nearly allied to us by the Assumption of our Nature and relaxed the Rigour of his Law promising to accept sincere Service and Love though perfect Obedience be due O what a◠Aggravation will this be of our Sin if we still continue it after the Grace of God hath so much abounded towards us Rom. 6.1 and persist in our Rebellion we know too well what it is to be Rebels against God our Redeemer but we little imagin what it is to be sentenced and condemned for Rebels at the great and terrible Day 2. Secondly Every Unbeliever hath the Guilt of all his former Sins fast bound upon him not one of them is pardoned every Commission yea and every Omission every idle Thought and Word and Action with all their several Aggravations stand still upon Record uncancell'd God hath pass'd an Act of Indempnity and Oblivion and proclaimed wonderful Grace and Mercy to penitent Sinners but the Unbeliever whilst such hath no share nor portion in it The Blood of Christ hath infinite virtue to cleanse sinners from all unrighteousness 1 John 1.9 but it 's only such as do believe The Law of God the Creatour or Covenant of Works which threatneth Death to every Sin is still in Force to such as are not the sincere Subjects of Christ by Faith the wrath of God abideth upon such John 3.36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Every violation of the Law makes it due to the sinner and Faith in Christ is the only means to remove it but where that is wanting there it continues and abides If one sin unpardoned will sink the Soul of the transgressour into everlasting condemnation into what unspeakable misery and horrour will that vast Number that he hath committed force the sinner who will not come unto Christ nor submit himself to his Redeemer Look to thy self and answer it as thou canst that wilt not come unto Christ to be thy Advocate and answer for thee stand upon thy own Legs as well as thou art able that wilt not bottom thy self by Faith on Christ endure the storm of God's wrath as well as thou canst that wilt not anchor thy Soul upon the Redeemer of the World Thou seest the worst of it if thou canst make light of it it 's but bearing all the Sins thou hast committed upon thy own Body and Soul and the Wrath of God due to them And if thou takest this to be a tolerable and a light Burden continue still in thy unbelief 3. Thirdly If thou art no true Subject of Christ by Faith in him thou art a Slave of Satan and a Vassal to thine own Corruption There are but two principal Masters Christ is one whose Right it is And Satan is the other though an Usurper If thou wilt not devote thy self to him who is thy lawful Lord and Master thou wilt be under the Commands of a Cruel Tyrant There are but two Generals Christ the Captain of our Salvation Heb. 2.10 and Satan the Ring-leader to destruction and one thou must fight under There are but two sorts of Servants either thou art the Servant of Righteousness or else thou art the Servant of Sin Rom. 6.16 If Christ do not dwell in thy Heart by Faith Ephes 3.17 Satan hath got possession and thou art a Member of that wicked Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. that efficaciously worketh in the Children of Disobedience Ephes 2.2 He formeth thy Conceptions frameth thy Discourses animateth all thy Actions steereth thy whole Conversation and when there is need instigateth thee to any Wickedness though thou art secure and little suspectest 't is he that prompteth thee in all thou goest about If thou hadst an eye to see what influence he hath upon all thy Actions it would make thee to abhor all thou doest Indeed there are wicked Habits and Dispositions that strongly move and hurry thee into the same wickedness which the Devil would have thee to commit for if thou wert meerly passive it would be thy Misery but not thy Sin But now having no part in Christ thou art at once led by thy own Corruption and the Enemy of all Goodness into all Sin and Mischief No Turkish slavery comparable to this wherein the sinner is wounding and tearing and wracking himself every day and yet though he feels the smart sometime perceives the mischief he doth himself he cannot nor will forbear You would look with pity upon a Madman gnashing and cutting himself and bless God that you are sober when you see the pernicious Effects of Madness And yet if you are impenitent unbelievers you are guilty of far worse Cruelty to your Souls 4. Fourthly If thou art a Unbeliever thou art not sure to be one Day longer out of Hell and Eternal Misery thou hangst over the Pit of Destruction by the single Thread of thy Life and if the Twine break as it is a Miracle it doth not every hour all the World cannot save thee Let not a deceived Heart turn thee aside that thou canst not by Faith in Christ deliver thy own Soul nor say is there not a Lye in my Right Hand Esa 44.2 Thy Riches and thy Honours cannot prevent thy Death much less can they procure a Release from it least of all can they Ransom thee from Destruction thou art hasting to it every Moment and thou knowest not what one Day or Hour may bring forth Prov. 27.1 As sure as thou livest so surely thou shalt dye for ever if thou go forward in unbelief when once thy Breath is departed from thy Body and how many ways that may be stop'd who knows And wilt thou yet stand out against the gracious Offers of thy Redeemer and linger in Infidelity and run the hazard of Eternal Destruction Nay it s no hazard but as undoubtedly certain as the Word of God is true O that unbelievers would ponder this that they would but consider their latter End what a few Breaths more they have to fetch before they are turned into Everlasting Despair How dare you lye down to sleep lest you should awake in Hell How dare you rise lest it should be to Judgment and Condemnation How can you enjoy your Life one Moment that know not but that the next Moment you must exchange it for Endless Torment and Misery And how will you do to give up the Ghost
and Folly and darest not publish thy Levity Shame or Wickedness unto holy and discerning Men Nay it may be not to Men as wicked as thy self Such a reproach is folly vanity and wickedness unto any man Yea Why dost thou retire into thy own heart as if thou wouldst lock all up and make all sure and there exercise thy self in Pride Envy Self-conceit Uncleanness and act these sins with confidence and security in the darkness of thy heart which if another like thy self did but see thou wouldst not know where to hide thy self for shame And yet because all hath been transacted with so much silence and secrecy thou hast no disposition to blush or be ashamed but like the Whore in the Prov. Thou eatest and wipest thy mouth and say'st What shame have I done And dost thou think there is no witness of thy shameful wicked acts No Eye to take notice Better all the World had seen thee than he that stands but for a cypher to thy deluded forgetful Heart I might here run over all the Attributes of God both Essential Subsistential and Relative and oppress your Memory with particulars But having given these instances I leave the rest to your Meditations Yet before I leave this head and proceed to the second I shall add thus much of the Attributes of God in general 5. They may be said to forget them all at once that forget themselves and live not under a sense of their great necessities nor think considerately and perswade themselves day by day that they are poor and miserable and blind and naked Rev. 3.17 They that are rich in their own apprehensions and increased in Goods and have need of nothing must needs be stout and insolent and cannot escape this sin of Forgetfulness Jesurun that is Israel waxed fat and kicked against God Deut. 32.15 and they never remembred him to the purpose till they themselves by consideration or God by his Judgments did inforce a sense of their necessities on them When he slew them then they sought him and they returned and inquired early after God And they remembred that God was their Rock and the high God their Redeemer which before they forgot Psa 78.34 35. And yet so soon as ever they were out of streights and warm in Prosperity and thought they had no need they forgot God again They remembred not his hand nor the day when he delivered them from the Enemy ver 42. That man must needs send up cold and careless Prayers to God day by day that feels none or but little need of God How can be confess with a broken heart the sins that never come near his heart nor were a burthen to him How can that man magnifie or seek the Grace of God every day that doth not verily think he needs it every day How can he worthily admire his Redeemer who hath loved him and washed his Soul in his Blood that feels not his own Guilt and doth not frequently renew loathing and abhorring thoughts of it How can he lift up his Heart to the Father of Lights for the Spirit of Illumination that doth not sufficiently apprehend and bewail his own Ignorance and the darkness of his uncertain mind How can he rejoyce in the hopes of the Glory of God that foolishly adores and cheat himself with the Glory of this World The day of Deliverance and full Redemption will never be a pleasant Meditation unto him that feels not himself oppressed with his sins and is as heartily weary of that Burthen as he is of Sickness when it afflicts his Body Never think to meditate on Gods Justice with any Savour or Delight unless you bend your thoughts to consider the mischiefs of Injustice and how particular Families and Nations yea and the whole World are perverted and disturbed with Iniquity Thou wilt never apply thy Heart to God for Wisdom to live well unless thou remember thy latter end and what hast the comforts of this World make to get away from thee Can he live above in his thoughts with any content and satisfaction that doth not die daily and not often think with some seriousness that he may daily die It 's wisdom therefore to give entertainment to such thoughts How many have shut their Eyes in a healthful Sleep who have waked in another World We give too large scope to our account while we reckon seven years for a Life when we see so many dispatch'd within the Circle and Revolution of half that time and though we are such a blast our selves yet our comforts are oftentimes dead and buried before us and leave us the surviving Executors of our own misery When God hath put all things here below into the Bill of Mortality what a foolish thought is it to think that this or that shall escape which we have set our hearts upon and how sinful to take the Bill and write down this or that or the other when God hath condemned no less than all If thou forget these things God would be forgotten and one or two slight thoughts of these things will never excuse from forgetfulness These are the first sort of Men that forget God 2. Secondly They forget God that either forget or think but little on his sacred and most venerable Word when they have it continually before them I will not go about now to describe the woful state and condition of that Man that hath the Word so much in his Eyes yea in his Ears and not in his Heart and therefore cannot remember it in any saving degree or measure nor torment such a one before his time neither can I tell him the nature and danger of his Sin so well as Death or Judgment will be sure to tell him It must needs be a staring affrighting Sin when Conscience shall come to see it throughly that God hath written to us the Great things of his Law and we have counted them as a common thing Hosea 8.12 It 's in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. Amplitudines or Honorabilia legis and they counted them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a strange thing i. They made themselves strange to them or these things were strange to them and seldom in their Thoughts This is a wicked requital of such a strange and wonderful Love More particularly They forget the Word of God 1. That have not a high and transcendent Reverence of the Authority thereof 2. They that are not in any considerable measure affected with the important matters which it sets before them 3. That are not awakened by any serious thoughts of the most certain and near accomplishment of all that is either threatned or promised therein I say again They that are not awed by its Authority nor moved with its Importance nor rouzed by its certainty 1. To yield hearty Subjection unto Christ 2. To his Laws 3. And by a deliberate Resolution to renounce either self or whatsoever doth oppose them will never escape this guilt but be numbred
of no other Argument though I could produce several if he died for such as deny him and crucifie him to themselves afresh and finally perish then he died no question for the rest but that he tasted Death for such is plain Heb. 10.29 Having in the verse before shewed the miserable end of those that despised Moses's Law he infers by way of interrogation Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy of that hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despight to the Spirit of Grace and yet plainer 2 Pet. 2.1 There shall be false Teachers as the Apostle gives them warning that shall bring in damnable Heresie denying the Lord that bought them So that hence it is evident that Christ laid down his Blood as a price to redeem them that ungratefully deny him And if Christ had not died for all it could not be the duty of every man to believe in him But there is nothing more unquestionable than that every one is bound to believe and such as refuse are threatned with a more fearful destruction because they wickedly frustrate as much as in them lies such a wonderful Grace of God and withstand the highest motive to Repentance and a new life 1 Cor. 6.20 Ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie him in your Body and in your Spirit which are his The Apostle speaketh to the Corinthians in general among whom there were many unbelievers And what 's the Argument he useth to perswade them to Faith and newness of Life but because Christ hath shewed such love to them as to die for them Since he hath offered up his Body upon the Cross for you do you offer up your Souls and Bodies unto him to be instruments of Righteousness to do him service is the force of the Apostles Argument We see then that the Death of Christ and the Gift of the Spirit are obligations upon all that hear the Gospel at least to a thankful Commemoration of the love of God and a Remembrance of him There are none that live under the sound and influence of the Gospel but have the love of Christ expressed in his Incarnation Life and Death for them to move them externally by way of Argument and the powerful Spirit inwardly to check their Corruptions and prompt them to obedience in some degree and measure and if they will not think upon the one nor submit to the other but slightly regard the one and stubbornly resist the other and stiffle every good motion which they feel and keep off from any serious thoughts of the death of Christ and will not be perswaded to consider the Blood that was shed for them nor suffer his love to be shed abroad into their hearts by the Holy Spirit Let such know that their forgetfulness of God is the more heynous because it hath so fast an obligation as this to the most necessary duty of remembrance the Word also as well as the Spirit What are all the passages of Scripture but such as prepare for or directly stir up to such a Remembrance You may observe some parts of Scripture more remotely conduce to this grand duty of remembring God other parts do more immediately serve to produce it where it is wanting others to reduce and recover it when 't is lost So that one of these three ways either by conducing to it or producing or reducing of it all the parts of Gods Word conspire io this principal duty The main division of the Scripture is into the Old and New Testament But what is the design and drift of both these but to rescue or preserve a Memory of God in the World Our Saviour sums up the Old Testament in these two heads the Law and the Prophets Now what doth the Law serve for if not to mind us of the great Law-giver and to beget an awe of his Soveraignty upon the World And the main end of the Prophets and their Prophesies was to reproduce this Remembrance of God when the ungrateful People had forgot him And what can be the end of that Light that hath shined to us in the Gospel but to teach us to deny all ungodliness 〈◊〉 Forgetfulness of God and to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present evil World which we can never do without frequent and effectual Remembrance of God and our Lord Jesus Christ I might more particularly insist here and shew how all the Precepts Promises and Threatnings which are the three essential parts of Gods Word are intended to this end and will leave the Soul inexcusable that forgets him or how the several Books of the Old and New Testament which are the integral parts of God's Word oblige to this Remembrance But I think the case is so plain and clear that none of these ways of demonstration is needful to convince us That the whole Word of God is no little impulsive but presseth earnestly to this Remembrance and is therefore another great Aggravation of the sin of Forgetfulness I shall only chuse to set some of those Texts of Scripture before you that are fullest of Affection and most Pathetical and that shew how unwilling God is to forget poor sinners or that they should perish as they must needs do in their Forgetfulness of him Esay 48.18 19. With what passion doth the Lord mourn over the poor forgetful Israelites that had even now brought utter ruine upon themselves O that thou hadst hearkened to my Commandments then had thy Peace been as a River and thy Righteousness as the Waves of the Sea Thy Seed also had been as the Sand and the off-spring of thy Bowels as the Gravel thereof and Hos 11.8 When the ten Tribes were got to such a degree of wickedness that God was not remembred by them any longer but they had divorced him from them by their Idolatries and could bear no longer without disparagement to the Truth and Justice of God with what unwillingness doth he throw them off How shall I give thee up O Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel How shall I make thee as Admah How shall I set thee as Zeboim My Heart is turned within me my Repentings are kindled together What heart that is not desperately sick of stupidity can hear this sound and not return and recover the remembrance of him whom before he had forgot O that my People had hearkened unto me and Israel had walked in my ways I should soon have subdued their Enemies and turned my Hand against their Adversaries The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him but their time should have endured for ever He should have fed them also with the finest of the Wheat and with Honey out of the Rock should I have satisfied thee Ps 81.13 14 15. Thus you see how these and such like Scriptures Numbers of which might be gathered together and as the parts of
you will but consent and take him for your Lord and Saviour you can never know that the love of Christ is so wonderful and obliging and if you leave Christ out of your Remembrance you can have no thoughts of God that will yield you solid comfort Secondly If you would Remember God aright endeavour to bring on others to this Remembrance and to set the motives before them that may well move the most backward Heart and recover the most forgetful to this duty whilst you are putting others in mind you will revive and strengthen the like disposition in your self and perform an acceptable service to God whereby you will increase his love to you and consequently the Remembrance of him will be more sweet to you Restore to me saith David the joy of thy Salvation and uphold me by thy free Spirit then will I teach Transgressors thy ways and Sinners shall be converted to thee Psal 51.12 13. The more any Grace is exercised the more it will gather fervour and intention To perswade others to this Remembrance is to reduce thine own Remembrance of him into practice whilst thou art teaching others thou canst not but learn thy self Whilst thou art bending others to Remember the Fountain of all Perfection and Goodness thou wilt feel thine own Heart and Affections more byassed toward him Who can infuse Life and Spirit into another and not grow vigorous himself David knew that he could not but thrive himself if others were gainers by him and therefore he invites others Psal 3â— 11 Come my Children hearken unto me and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. There are certain opportunities and seasons if they be wisely observed when either Affection or Affliction hath made way in which two or three words fetched from the Heart may work upon the Heart of one that hath shamefully forgot God all his days and recover him to this Remembrance And if God shew thee so much mercy and make thee such an instrument the thoughts and memory of God that hath shewed thee so much favour will be dearer to thee 3. If thou wouldst remember God with pleasure remember those that are in misery whither of Soul or Body with compassion For this will make you like to God who comforteth the sorrowful and bindeth up the broken in Heart and raiseth up those that are bowed down Psal 146.8 And the more there is of likeness the more there will be of Love and Remembrance A hard and unmerciful Heart is so unlike to God that it will strive to forget him lest the tender Boweis of God should upbraid his cruel and unrelenting Heart It 's a disposition highly pleasing to God and a blessed imitation of him to comport with those that lie under any distress or misery especially those that are ready to faint and sink under their burdens and it 's Justice as well as Mercy so to do Is it not just that thou shouldst cast an Eye of compassion and pity upon those on whom the Hand of God is fallen heavy either in Soul or Body especially when thou art as obnoxious as they and God hath spared you on purpose and set their miseries before you to move your Bowels Shouldst thou not have compassion on thy fellow Servant as God hath shewed pity unto thee Mat. 18.33 And kindness with tender heartedness is one part of the new Nature which Christ came to restore and therefore the Apostle doth endeavour to stir up the Ephesians Eph. 4.32 and also the Collosians Col. 3.12 Put on therefore as the Elect of God Holy and Beloved Bowels of Mercy and Kindness And as the miserable state and condition of Mens Souls doth most eminently bespeak this Affection so it 's Cruelty to overlook their other Miseries and not to take them into our consideration 1. To get our Hearts affected that we may truly pity them 2. And earnestly pray for them And 3. Contribute what other help we are able to make them as happy as our selves There is a selfishness too natural to every one of us that will not let us hear on this Ear and therefore we are so carless in this publick Calamity what others suffer so we are free How senseless are we under such a hand as is fallen upon many parts of this Nation And therefore we are so unthankful for our Health and Preservation when God hath required the Lives of so many of our Brethren from them What a fearful woful Scourge do the City feel and heavily groan under How do the Inhabitants of that one proud and glorious City reply to one another in Sighs and Groans and bitter Out cries and Lamentations where whole Families are smitten and blasted and Children and Parents pledge one another in Tears and drink the Wine of Astonishment where dearest Friends are made the Executors of the Calamities of their departed Friends and it 's taken and accounted for a mercy to die first lest the miserable Calamities of Wife and Children and their successive departure should be more than one single Death Their Eyes affect their Heart Lam. 3.51 But we as we see not their Miseries so neither do we feel them as we ought as thorough the goodness of God we are more safe than they so we are more secure and too void of any Christian sense of this common Calamity Alas alas they have the dreadful sound and noise of this Judgment in their Ears and see Death continually before their Eyes but we hear but at a distance and therefore are not stricken with the terror thereof The report of this Murdering-piece that God hath shot off in many places of this Nation is faint and dead before it comes to our sense But the less we see this Misery and hear these Cries the more we should supply this merciful defect by consideration If we saw or heard it may be we should not need many thoughts to fetch tears from our Eyes and Sighs from our Hearts Desolenciâ—â— and want of this compassion shews a fat and brawny Heart Though we are not to indulge this Affection so far as to make it guilty of siding against God as it will be apt to do if it proceed no farther and do not serve a higher end The end of this Affection is to make way for Compassion toward their Souls and to bewail and beg pardon for their Sins that have brought this misery on them 1. Objection I have done with the First Observable which the Texts suggesteth to us viz. That forgetfulness of God is a fearful and dangerous sin and exposeth such as are guilty of it to the unavoidable Wrath of God 2. Objection I come now to the Second Observation viz. That Consideration is one of the principal instruments on our part to bring us to the Remembrance of God at first and to prevent forgetfulness afterward or to recover us out of that degree of Forgetfulness into which we may possibly fall Two Suppositions 1. Here it is supposed 1. That we â—re
third necessity and lay a faster obligation upon our selves by charging it upon our own souls and obliging our selves by deliberate vow and resolution to as Consciscientious performance of it as we do of Prayer or any other duty that we dare not neglect lest we should not be able to rise or go to Bed without fear and the disturbance of a guilty mind Thirdly It will be a singular advantage to the work of Consideration though more remote to be temperate Now Temperance is taken in the widest compass for Moderation in the use of all Earthly Comforts And in this larger extent it 's taken when Epictetus comprehends all Vertue in those two words Temperance and Patience or Abstinence and Sustinence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or else it 's taken in its narrower compass for Moderation in those more gross and bodyty pleasures such as Meat and Drinks and 〈◊〉 or Essentinacy it 's Temperance in this more restrained sence that I here recommend to you Though I know as it 's taken in its widest acception it must needs farther it more 〈◊〉 because it includes the other and much more but then it would be co-incident with the second impediment which was to shun all â—â—ordiâ—aâ—e delights in any thing here on Earth The mind that is oppressed with Meat and 〈◊〉 and dispirited with Venery and made 〈◊〉 with Daâ—â—ance and Effeminacy is not fit for Contemplation either Solemn or Occasional unless it be of Carnal or Corpoâ—eal Beautâ—â— it is altogether â—â—meer for the pure and spirituall Contemplation of the Divine Excellencies and the ravishing Beauty of Holiness that are not enjoyed but by one that 's clear in understanding and pure in heart which they can never be which sot and pollute themselves with such muddy and impure delights The duty of Set and Solemn Contemplation requireth an illuminated attentive mind and a chearful heart if it be performed with any considerable Success But now Whoredom and Wine and new Wine take away the Heart Hos 4.11 They defraud this duty of that sprightfulness vigour and affection that it requires and the Understanding that 's perpetually smoak'd with the Fumes that rise from an over-charged Stomach hath few Lucida intervalla and is never perspicacious and sit for such contemplation I deny not but some degrees of this intemperance may consist with this duty and there may be some vacancy for a little dull exercise of this work But if this disease be grown to any height or prevalency the mind will be so listless and the affections will be so earthly that you may as well move a Block as such a surfeited soul to these Sublime and Raised Meditations It will be like Anselm's Bird with a heavy weight tyed to the Leg of it when it begins to fly and lift up it self or rather it will have no disposition to fly at all O that all Gluttons and Drunkards and Persons addicted to Filthiness and Wantonness were well sensible of this that are like to perish for ever for want of that Consideration that should save them from destruction Little do they think how they starve in the midst of such Plenty and how lean and famished their Souls are whilst Their eyes stick out with fatness Psal 73.7 Hence it is that your Gluttons and Wine-bibers and the rest of our Belly-Gods are so little acquainted with the life to come and that they so little relish any discourse with themselves or others about Heavenly things and that the Lord is not the Portion of their Cup Psal 16.5 Hence it is that those that are so familiar at the Cookes-Shop or Tavern are so strange to the place of Gods Residence and inter-meddle not with the Heavenly Joys But although it be this gross Intemperance and Sensuality that is so Point Blank an enemy to Consideration yet I must say also that every degree of Intemperance doth much hinder the duty and interrupt the joy and pleasure thereof For as it is a Sin against God and much provokes him to withdraw and conceal himself so it is a very malignant Enemy to the health and vivacity of Mind that this duty calls for for it weakens the Brain and spoils the Memory which should supply matter to Meditation and which is worse it brutifyes the heart When the Store-house of the Body is full the Store-house of the Mind must needs be empty of every thing but Fumes and Vapors with which it is like enough to abound and such Notions as these minister to No wonder if God be seldom in such Mens Memories or Hearts Therefore the Prophet complaineth of the full-fed Israelites that they were estranged from the Lord According to their Pasture so were they filled they were filled and their heart was exalted therefore have they forgotten me saith the Lord Hos 13.6 And why so but because such Fulness and Intemperance will not let Men consider and without this God must needs be forgotten because he lies not open to the bodily eye or sence it is the pure mind and heart that must see him both here and hereafter and if these that are pure in heart are the blessed men Mat. 5.8 Then they are cursed that are impure in mind and heart through Intemperance and other Lusts because they neither do now by consideration nor shall hereafter see God in the Beatifical Vision but Temperance disposeth unto both Fourthly If you have any good Evidence that Christ is yours and you are his it will very much promote and sweeten the work of Consideration I know that Consideration is a necessary means to bring a man to Christ and to turn the course of his affections and conversation but yet so soon as a man feels this work done that the world is resolutely forsaken and God is heartily chosen the Soul will be then better disposed to contemplate the glory of God and Heaven to turn its thoughts upon the promises of the Gospel when it hath some interest and propriety in them yea and to think with pleasure upon the threatnings of Gods Word the nearness of death the Worm of Conscience that shall torment the wicked for ever and ever after it hath made some good escape and the bitterness of death is past and the Sting pull'd out It 's no absurdity nor contradiction that Consideration should bring a man to Christ and that the knowledge of a mans interest in Christ should prompt him to and further him in the work of Consideration that Consideration should beget Grace and that Grace again should beget Consideration This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is frequent both in Nature and Grace What more proper to bring a man to Repentance than to consider the folly of his ways the filthiness and danger of his Sin and the terrour and unavoidableness of Gods wrath Who more like to be burthened with his transgressions and feel the load of his iniquities than he that frequently considers what misery it brings upon him both here and hereafter and how impossible
acknowledgeth And therefore Origen Arnob. Tertulian Justin Martyr Athanasius Clemens Alexandrinus Athenagoras Lactantius with the rest that dealt with the Heathens do make the pure Excellency of Christs Doctrine above all other Doctrine whereby it promoteth Holiness and Justice and order in the World and strongly opposeth all impious and unrighteous Practises in which the Devils are delighted whereby their Kingdom is very much weakened and in some places utterly ruined one of the main Arguments for the Christian Faith Would the Devil ever set any seal or give any confirming Testimony to such Precepts as command that which he hateth to such Promises as encourage Men every where to hate and oppose him to such threatening as tend exceedingly to discourage and bring to repentance all his Confederates Would he helpon such a Doctrine that teacheth Men What a filthy malicious Spirit he is and from what a Happiness he fell and what a design he driveth on against God and whatsoever hath the Face of Goodness and how he hateth Mankind and would bring all Men into the same cursed condition with himself Would he have Men know his devices least he should come upon them unawares And would he have them abhor and tremble at the mention of his very Name These are the effects that this Doctrin is like to have upon Mens Minds And therefore it 's past doubt that if the Devil could work Miracles he would never do it in the present case nor give the least Countenance to such writings But if he were Master of such a Seal and had that Faculty he would rather lend it to the Sects that seek to disparage undermine and cry down these Writings in the World He perfectly hateth that parity that runneth in every vein of the Christian Doctrine which made Aeneas Sylv. say ut Plat. p. 328. Christiana Fides si Miraculis nonesset approbata Honestate suâ recipi debuit And therefore it would be a wonder indeed if he should do a Miracle to confirm it The Miracles therefore that were wrought in Attestation of this Doctrine never came from him He had no more hand in the Miracles than he had in the Doctrine they bore witness to or than he would have in the overthrow of his own Kingdom And therefore Mr. Stillingfleet Orig. Sac. l. 2.10 well makes it a Test or Criterium of Miracles wrought by a Divine Power where they tend to the overthrow of Satans Power in the World And this Argument taken from Miracles conjunct with the Holy Doctrine which they ratifie and attest is such a demonstration of the Truth of the Mosaical Religion before Christ and to the Christian Religion since that to attribute these Miracles to the Devil which could not possibly be wrought by any other Power than the Finger of the Holy-Ghost is now commonly thought by the most learned and judicious Divines to be The Blasphemy against the Holy-Ghost c. The unpardonable Sin Thus Athanasius Episcopus and Dr. Hammond thought and Mr. Baxter hath demonstratively shewed in his Treat of Infidelity The only Exception that can have any shew of Pretence to invalidate this Argument is that the matters of fact seem to be Questionable 1 Some may possibly question whether ever such Miracles were wrought to confirm the Scriptures or whether ever there were such a person as Christ that did such Mighty works that dyed and rose again from the Dead and poured forth a Holy and Miraculous Spirit upon his Followers for the Conviction of Infidels Answer The matter of Fact can be questioned with no more Reason than whether there be such a City as Rome or Constantinople by the Persons that never saw them or whether there ever lived such a Person as Julius or Augustus Caesar For there is the same or greater Evidence for THOSE than these is for These But there is none that will question these And the Reason is because this their Assent is grounded upon Two Principles that will not suffer any dissent The first is It 's impossible that so many Men in so many Ages should meet or combine in a Lye when they get nothing by their Lye Nulla ratam testis debet habere Ovid ubi premia falsi ibidem The second is It 's not possible the sences of so many Men should fail them and that they should all mistake and be deluded that were eye and Earwitnesses of the matter of Fact and both saw and heard the Authors of those Writings and the Miracles which they wrought to confirm them See Pet. Hart. de Mendozâ Phys disp 8. de Animâ Sect. 3. and Sect. 23.4 5. pag. 570. And the same Author to This Question what sort of Evidence is that by which I believe that there is such a place as Rome upon the witness of so many Men asserting it Answereth It is Physical For it is impossible even in a Physical sense that so many Men in so many Ages should so lye so that I have no less Evidence that there is a City called Rome than that all Fire is heating Thus he See Mr. Baxter's Spirits witness to the Truth of Christianity pag. 68. The same or as infallible Physical Evidence have we of the Truth of the Miracles by which the Holy-Ghost did witness to the Truth of the Christian Faith For First It 's naturally impossible that so many Churches in so many Countries of the World at such a distance should combine to lye in telling the world that the Holy-Ghost was given and Tongues spoken and Miracles done amongst them for so many Years if it had not been so Secondly Man hath a Nature as well as a Free-will and the understanding naturally enclines to Truth and the will hath naturally and of Necessity Good as Good for its object And man as well as Brutes hath a Nature that cannot but love it self and desire its own wellfare and abhor death and Misery Temporral and Eternal And therefore tho here and there a Man in some desperate Passion may make away himself yet we are Physically certain that it must be a thing which they do indeed believe that must perswade Cities and Countries of People in their wits to cast their Estates and Lives into the Hands of Bloody Tyrants and utterly ruin their worldly hopes And especially when they do all this in hope of a Blessedness in the Life to come Where it is impossible that so many Men of Reason should expect to be blessed for conspiring in a Lye but rather to be everlastingly cursed and miserable by the justice of that God from whom they expect their Reward I conclude therefore that the Case being resolved into Mans Natural Principles and inclinations so clearly as it is There is natural Evidence of the Truth of these Miracles This infallible Certainty that we have or may have is grounded upon Vniversal Tradition whereby Vniversal is not meant the Consent of all Men in the World no more than all the world is meant by Vniversal Church
weapons that were in their hands to ruin and destroy it All which laid together is no less than a demonstration of a Divine and Almighty Power in succeeding such an unlikely Work Secondly And as it was at first planted by no less than a Divine Power so the same mighty Assistance was necessary and therefore observable in its Propagation It was impossible that such a Doctrin should spread and subdue the World to its obedience as it quickly did unless infinite wisdom and power had made way and blessed it How could it have got so much ground and have run so swiftly thorough the World if he that rideth upon a Cherub and flyeth upon the wings of the wind Psal 18.10 had not carried it In the space of Thirty Years or thereabouts as appears by uncontrouled History it spread it self far and near not only in Judea and all Asia yea thorough the whole Roman Empire but beyond it also It sounded in the Ears of Parthians and Indians It shot it self like Lightning thorough the places where it made its progress and melted Mens Hearts whilst their Bodies were untouched Though it was such an Enemy to the Pride Pomp and Glory of the World which it was purposely intended to disparage that it might make way for a despised crucified Christ to reign in the Earth yet it soon got into the Courts of Princes and into the Consistories of Sage and Wise Counsellours and into the Academies of Learning and prevailed over all opposing power yea the more it was cut and wounded the more it grew up and shot forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianz. Orat. Duris ut Ilex tonsa bipennibus Nigrae feraci frondis in Algido Per damna per caedes ab ipso Ducit opes animumque ferro Object And though bare Success be no Argument of Truth or a good Cause because we see that Lyes and Falsehood have succeeded and perverted very considerable Numbers of Men. Thus Mahumetism doth prevail over a great part of the World to this day Answer Yet in the Case of the Christian Religion a Doctrin so contrary to the World which hath been propagated not by Fire and Sword but by Argument and Perswasion by Sufferings and Persecution here Success is both a demonstration of Truth and of the Power of God when like Lightning as I said before it shall melt Mens Hearts and not touch their Bodies with any force As for the Religion of Mahomet it 's no wonder that such a carnal Flesh-pleasing Doctrin that doth so highly gratifie the Lusts of Men should so take with them and quickly spread it self especially when it had so many Advantages of Power and Policy to diffuse it Fire and Sword were the Arguments that Mahomet used to support his Cause and to encrease his Followers But Christ took a quite contrary course and very unlikely to succeed but that it had the Countenance and Approbation of Him who knew well enough how to prosper it with a mighty success With which since the Christian Cause hath been so miraculously blessed it 's a Proof beyond exception that God hath owned it and consequently the Scriptures that contain this Doctrin were inspired by God because they lay claim to such inspiration and pretend to be the Word of Almighty God This is more than sufficient to prove in the General God's Approbation of the whole Scripture But yet more particularly Consider how exactly the Promises and Threatnings of this Word have been fulfilled and made good in all Ages and Successions of the Church And this will manifest that God hath owned this Doctrin ex superabundanti After his Predictions concerning his own Death and Suffering and the Manner together with the Means and Instruments of it were accomplished and that he was Crucified by his own Country-men and mocked and spit upon and numbred amongst Transgressors his Garments parted his side pierced and such like circumstances punctually fulfilled according as he had foretold and that he was risen the Third Day and had shewed himself openly to his Disciples for their encouragement and the strengthning of their Faith and that he had ascended to Heaven in their sight He promised that he would send the Holy Ghost and endue them with power from above to work Miracles and to speak with Tongues which Promise was accordingly fulfilled For on the day of Pentecost when they were assembled at Jerusalem which other Histories as well as the Sacred affirm and none contradict He promised also his extraordinary Power and Presence with them and wonderful success and all came to pass in like manner He threatneth the hardning of the Jews and the conversion of the Gentiles And were they not accordingly affected Moreover he promised Blessing and Peace to the diligent observers of his Statutes And have not many remarkable Providences made good this Word of Promise With what joy and inward comfort unutterable have the faithful Servants of Christ triumphed in their very sufferings Many of the Martyrs that have sealed the Truth of Christ with their very Blood have sung at the Stake and have professed an inward ravishment of Spirit I and that Men of a grave and discreet and no Fanatical credulous Spirit Instances might be produced in great number Let Mahomet now or any other Religion whatsoever produce as good Testimony for the Truth of their Religion if they can as what is here produced to declare the Approbation Countenance and Favour of God to this Religion which Christ taught and his Followers embraced and maintained to the death And although God doth not daily shew forth these confirming Signs and Tokens of Christianity or that Religion which Christ in the New Testament hath taught both by his Mouth and Example yet sometimes he is pleased to give such clear and convincing Testimonies and Tokens of his Approbation not liable to any exception that they might be for standing Monuments to others ever after And such as will not acknowledge them but either take them for Fables or ascribe them to Chance or Fortune and act their wickedness in defiance of such Examples such Persons God meets with now and then even still to vindicate the Credit of those former Stories and to reinforce their Authority I could run over the Decalogue which is the sum and substance of the Divine Laws contained in the Scripture and shew you how God hath remarkably punished the more notable and famous Transgressours of all these Laws and the contempt of the Book in which these Laws are contained and the derision of his Messengers which he hath ordained to proclame and expound these Laws and to provoke and perswade Men to the hearty observance of them It would be an endless labour to produce all the Instances that are to be found in credible Authors of this kind So much in Confirmation of the Second Argument Argument III. 3. THose Writings that contain peremptory Predictions of Future Things purely contingent which no eye but God's could possibly foresee
began to fail in his Obedience till first his Faith and Heart subjection to God was shaken But when his Heart began secretly to revolt from God and to haesitate about the perfect Veracity Justice and Goodness of God and to believe the Tempter before him who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then he began to transgress and violate his Command And having made Shipwreck of Faith and a good Conscience towards God his Sovereign that Law or Covenant which he had broken threatens him with Eternal Death But God being moved with pity towards lapsed Mankind did not execute the deserved Penalty but contrived a way in his Infinite Wisdom in which he might shew Mercy to his miserable Creature Man upon honourable Terms and vindicate the Honour of his Law and the Authority of the Law-giver and make Transgression as odious as if the whole Species of Mankind had suffered the Penalty of the Law And that was by the Incarnation of God the Son taking our Flesh upon him and uniting it to his Godhead and so both Humane and Divine Nature being united in one Person he might by the one be made capable of suffering and by the other of satisfying offended Justice Thus God the Son and our dearest Saviour undertook the Work liv'd in an exact Conformity to the Law fulfill'd all Righteousness and suffered what was due for our Transgressions and having finished the Work God the Father was so well pleased therewith that he alters the state of things and commits all into the hands of his Son and now the Second Kingdom commenceth which is the Kingdom of God as Redeemer as the other was of God as Creator And here the Constitution and Government is quite different from the former The former required Faith in God and Perfect Obedience upon the Penalty of Eternal Death if there was the least Violation The latter requireth Repentance and Faith in Christ as Sovereign Redeemer and sincere Obedience continued to the End or else threatneth a heavier Condemnation than the former Here Faith in God the Redeemer constitutes us Subjects of this Second Kingdom which is nothing else but Heart-Subjection to our Sovereign Redeemer as Faith in God was our Heart-Subjection to our Sovereign Creatour or else the deliberate Consent of the Soul to come under the Yoke and Government of Christ So that the Faith which puts the Christian into a Justified State is a Political Act such a one as he performs to a Prince that first consents to be his Subject 1. to do the Duties of a Subject if he may but enjoy the Priviledges and Immunities of such a Subject So that Faith is no one Physical Act of the Understanding or Will but is made up of divers Acts of both It supposeth our knowledge of God the Second Person in the Trinity suffering and satisfying in our Nature and God's acceptance and a full pardon granted to all that repenting them of their Sin and Rebellion against God their Creatour consent heartily to come under the Sovereignty of God Redeemer and to obey him in sincerity all the days of their Life It supposeth that we believe thus much and that he is able to subdue our Corruptions and to bring us into favour with God again and thereupon give ear hearty consent resigning up our selves in a deliberate Covenant unto him This is the Faith which in the Gospel is said to justifie By which description of Faith you may see that Faith Negatively is not 1. A Perswasion that we are justified for that would infer that a Man is justified before he is justified which Doctrin is so notoriously absurd that now I think Few or None own it You may see it solidly confuted by several Arguments in Mr. Baxter's Answer to Serjeant Shephard 2. Nor is it a bare Belief that Christ died for Sinners and hath satisfied the Divine Justice The Devil may have such a Faith as this 3. Nor is it an Affyance to Recumbency upon Christ for pardon The middlemost is an Act antecedent to justifying Faith and the other Two are consequent upon it though not immediately it may be at least the first For that sometimes comes a long time after when the Believer is grown up to a state of strength and stability in his Faith and sometimes it never follows at all in many weak Believers But Positively it is The weary Sinner's acceptance of Christ as his Soveraign to Rule Sanctifie and Save him and the Souls deliberate subjecting it self to him as his most endeared Lord and Governour the absolute Priest and Prophet and one every way able to save those that are his true Subjects and Disciples This is the Universal Radical and Fundamental Grace of the Gospel that diffuseth its Virtue into all parts of the Christian Life and its weakness or strength will be seen and felt in all our Christian Duties For the deeper radification and confirmation of this Grace therefore it 's necessary that we keep those Reasons continually upon our Minds that are apt to produce or strengthen it and frequently ponder them with our most serious Thoughts that they may put us upon the Practice and Exercise of this universal Grace till it grow up to the highest Perfection we are able Those that I shall suggest are such as these 1. First You will never prize nor exercise that Life of Faith till you have well considered the Miseries of an Unbeliever It 's impossible now to conceive much more to express their intolerable greatness None can throughly understand what they are but those that feel them Wo to the Person that comes thus to understand them But such assuredly will all those be that die in unbelief Let me make a Brief Enumeration of the Particulars 1. First They continue in flat Rebellion against God and how such are like to speed I leave you to judge We are all born with a rebellious Nature against God and practice nothing but Emnity and Contradiction to him till this Nature be changed shall God proclaim Pardon Mercy and Grace to Conquer the Violence of Corruption and Temptation to those that will lay down their Weapons of Rebellion and give over their stubborn opposition against God and come under the Command and Government of his Son And shall you and I reject such a gracious Offer and say with those Rebels We will not have this Man to reign over us i. e. We will not believe in him Luke 19.14 Nay hath Christ done so much to endear his Person and Government to us treading the Wine-Press of his Father's wrath for us Isa 63.3 shedding his warmest Blood to purchase our Peace with God And shall we refuse to submit our selves to him Is it he or we that are the gainers Should he glory in such poor contemptible Subjects or we in such an Almighty Sovereign and Saviour We mistake infinitely and apprehend not the Matter aright if we do not take it for a high Priviledge and Favour to be under the Conduct of such
to draw and invite this Affection And have moreover disappointed thee too often of the Pleasure and Felicity that from them thou hast expected yea and which is far worse have entangled thee in many foolish and hurtful Lusts which have afterwards betrayed thee to sad and bitter complaints But here 's an Object worthy thy strongest love that will not debase and destroy but advance thy Soul to the highest Perfection The Love of him as it is sweet in the exercise so it will end at last in unspeakable sweetness and will not upbraid thee with Folly afterwards as all other Love will be sure to do Thou mayest love other things too much and here 's the Source and Spring of all Sin and Impiety and of all absurd and unreasonable Practices For as Divine Love is the sum of Duty and all worthy and becoming Actions so Carnal Love or the Love of Creatures is the Sum of all Wickedness and all incongruous and unseemly Practice But God can never be exalted too high in thine Estimation and Affections Here thou mayest safely vent and pour out all the store of thy Love with the greatest delight and security and expatiate thy Soul to the widest extent in the Ocean of his infinite and most lovely Perfections To him thou mayest safely offer up thy Soul in sacrifice as a whole-Burnt-Offering in the Fire of Love for ever Wilt thou permit thy Thoughts any more to fly abroad into Trifles and impertinent Matters when thou hast the immense Ocean of Divine Goodness to lanch forth into and mayest lose thy self with the greatest pleasure and advantage in the depths of his infinite Perfections Here to be even drowned and swallowed up is not Death but the sweetest and most ravishing Life Hast thou not pined long enough and melted away in the Cares and Love of the World the Martyrdom which corrupt Nature prompts thee fast enough to chuse Is it not now more than Time to be wiser and to bare an Honourable Testimony to him that hath redeemed thee And to subscribe that Witness to the Truth which thou hast borne too much hitherto to Lies and Falsehood Let them be taken by thee for Fools and Madmen that torture themselves with the Love and Care of this World and take Hell by that violence that the Kingdom of Heaven should be taken by But let the main stream and current of thine Affections be ever after him in whom are all the dimensions of Perfection Some little Twilight and Glimmerings of his Ravishing Beauty thou hast seen in his Words and Works But oh how short how exceeding short have they been through thy wilful Blindness and Inadvertency But these express not the thousandth part of his wonderful astonishing Splendour and Glory Something it may be thou hast tasted of his sweetest reviving Love But oh how little in respect of what thou might'st have had had it not been for thy own wilful neglect and refusal Hadst thou gazed as much upon his Glory as thou hast done upon the fading transitory Glory of the World and studied his Perfections according to the Opportunities and Advantages he hath given thee and not loved dismal affrighting Darkness rather than the quickning trransforming Light and neglected the best use of thine Understanding and Affections in holy Meditations on God Thou might'st confidently have expected the Blessing of God in a Work so well pleasing to him and found the Treasure that would have made thee contemn all other things in Comparison Then thou might'st have had joy in the darkest Night of Affliction and such an Allay to the bitterest Cup that would have made any Condition welcome to thee Then thou would'st have forgotten all the Miseries of thy life past and remembred them as Waters that pass away Job 11.16 Then thou might'st have lyen down with the sense of the pardon of former sins yea thou might'st have lyen down and thy sleep would have been sweet to thee Then the Remembrance of thy latter End would not have been such an unpleasant Theme to thy Meditations as now it is yea the Lord would have satisfied thy Soul in Drought and made thee like a watered Garden and like a Spring whose Waters fail not Isaiah 58.11 And then with what vivacity and chearfulness should'st thou have performed all Duty and borne all Sufferings when God had once answered thee in the joy of thy Heart Considerations to provoke to the Contempt of the World Psalm 119 96. I have seen an End of all Perfection but thy Commandment is exceeding broad 1 John 2.15 16. Love not the world nor the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world Vers 17. And the world passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever Isa 40.6 7. All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof is like the flower of the field The grass withereth and the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it 1 Cor. 7.9 The fashion of this world passeth away Prov. 11.4 Riches profit not in the day of wrath but righteousness delivereth from death Eccles 1.2 and 2.11 Vanity of vanities all is vanity saith the Preacher Eccles 1.8 All things are full of labour man cannot utter it the eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear with hearing Prov. 31.30 Favour is deceitful and Beauty is vain AS the Object of all rational saving Love is God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and all that standeth in subserviency to him so far as they conduce to this Noble End and Happiness of the Soul So the Object of all irrational sinful damning Love is the World and whatsoever serves to promote its interest in the Heart so far as it is Competitory with or Contradictory to the Interest of God and conduceth to the inordinate pleasing of the Flesh And thus much I intend here by the World that is any thing in the whole Creation that doth not refer to and is not subordinate unto God is to be the Object of this Contempt and Disdain First Because the World is unsatisfactory and cannot content the Mind of Man There is something still that the Soul misseth when it hath all here that it can desire It silently imagineth an Aliquid ultra when it hath gone its farthest in the Happiness and Prosperity here on Earth And it 's so far from Rest after all that it grows more hot and impatient in its desires And finding nothing to pursue after that can give content begins to fret and grow peevish when the ambitious Soul is gotten to the top of Honour he finds not the thing he expected he calls it by all the slight and contemptible Names he can invent or imagin you may as well satisfie the Appetite
quickly end and then thou wilt begin to rejoyce that a Soul is born into the Spiritual World And then thou wilt forget all thy former Sighs and Groans and Fears and the bitter Agonies of thy Soul becaufe God hath now answered thee in the joy of thy Heart And taken thee into his special care and pardoned all thy sin Eccles 5.20 Or if thou beest one that hath pass'd the New Birth already thy speedy repentance after sin committed will be like a Shower in Summer after the Ground is parched with heat and drought The Winter-Rain though the Ground be well soaked therewith may indeed prepare the Earth to bring forth its Encrease which Men expect from it in Summer and Harvest But if there fall not some Showers now and then especially after violent hot Seasons all the hopes of a good Harvest may come to nought So it is in the Case of sin your first Repentance and Tears are like the Winter-Rain that is of long continuance and doth throughly soak into the Heart and make it soft and fertile But your after-Repentance is like the Summer-Showers and the more the heat is parched with sin and hardned through the Sun-shine of Prosperity the more it must be watered with fresh Showers of Holy Repentance and Sorrow or else you will lose your hopes of Future Joy and Happiness Seeing then the Necessity of a first and after Repentance refuse not the Mercy that 's offered to thee upon such fair Terms For shame disown that Faculty of Sorrow and Weeping if it will not serve thee and stand thee in stead in this greatest Necessity Shall thine Eyes trickle and run down with Tears if thou hast but lost a dear Friend and Acquaintance Yea if thou hast but parted with him for a time and hast not quite lost him or her And shall not thy Heart melt and thine Eyes pour down when God is departed from thee though it should be but for a certain time Alas thou wantest him every Moment more than thou canst do the most useful helpful Friend that ever thou hadst in the World And if thou knowest not thus much the greater is thy need of repentance and sorrow for such a wicked deadly ignorance as this will prove if the Tears of Repentance do not clear thine Eyes and cause thee better to see and understand what need thou hast of the Divine Grace and Comfort every hour And then thou wilt be as ready to say as David I am poor and needy make hast unto me O God Thou art my help and my deliverer make no long tarrying O my God Psalm 70.5 And when thou hast well considered and had a little more experience thou wilt say as he did Vnless the Lord had been my help my soul had long since dwelt in silence 1 death Psalm 94.17 It 's easie to see if thou regardest either Scripture or Experience That in the multitude of thy troublesome thoughts within he only can comfort and rejoyce thy soul Psalm 94.19 If thou canst not therefore weep in the want and absence of him better thou hadst had no Eyes nor a Faculty to sigh or weep Yea the very Children of the Bride-chamber though they have no need to weep whilst the Bride-groom is with them that is whilst they seel the effects of God's gracious Presence and Favour yet when the Bride-groom is gone from them and driven away by some sinful unkind usage in these days they must mourn or the Comforter will not return again How much more must they weep that are none of the Children of the Bride-chamber that never yet repented in all their life Well there is no Remedy Except you repent you will certainly perish Luke 13.3 5. This is the First Consideration to provoke Repentance and to stir up this Affection Secondly Consider how foolishly thou hast done and then refrain thy deepest Sorrow and Tears if thou art able This Consideration stirr'd up David's repentance after that carnal confidence and distrust of God he had been guilty of in numbring the People 2 Sam. 24.10 And David 's heart smote him after he had numbred the People And David said unto the Lord I have sinned greatly in that I have done And now I beseech thee O Lord take away the iniquity of thy servant for I have done very foolishly Is it not a ridiculous foolish Act to set our strength and wit against him that made us For the Stubble to quarrel with the Fire And the Dust to fight against the Wind that scattereth it on the Face of the Earth 'T is just such a piece of wisdom to provoke God wilfully And when he calls to give him no answer And when he hath given us a Law to direct us how to live Never seriously to enquire what it is nor to trouble our selves with such Thoughts If an Earthly Master should command his Servant to do any thing that were just and reasonable and he should peremptorily refuse to do it you would call that plain Rebellion and say that Servant deserves to be used accordingly And is it much better do you think if he should send him Instructions written in black and white what he would have him do And he should let them lye by and never read them Wilful ignorance of what we may and are bound to know lives at next door to direct and open Contradiction and Rebellion Now judge whether that Man be not void of understanding or stark mad That dare stand up and contradict and say he will not obey when God commands him I know there 's not a Man believes there is a God and knows what he is that dares say plainly as Pharaoh did Who is the Lord that I should obey him Exod. 5.2 But are there not many thousands that will go their ways and never consider or regard what God commands them I would it were not a very common Case And Mens ordinary course in the World And what 's the reason that Men are so exceeding bold and adventurous The plain reason is becaufe they are foolish Children and have no knowledge they are sottish and have no understanding Jer. 4.22 And yet it follows They are wise enough to do evil but to do good they have no knowledge What canst thou say for thy self that art yet an impenitent wretch If thou art one that doest believe thou hast a Soul to save and a God to serve and that the Day is coming when thou must account for these things and yet regardest them not will not thy Tongue be forced to say thou hast done very foolishly Is he not a Fool that neglects his greatest Concernments and spendeth all his Time without any Thoughts of them Suppose a Merchant should send a Factour into a far Countrey to negotiate his Affairs and transact his Business there and to carry on his Trade with the Inhabitants of that Countrey and there should live gallantly upon the Cost and Expences of his Master that sent him and when he should