who have overcome divers temptations and mortified their other lusts yet fall here and cannot bridle their unruly tongue the last gin the Devil sets to catch Souls and it hath been observ'd by men of great piety and great experience that a great talker was never very good or never persever'd to be so 2. Silence therefore which sequesters us from mens vain converse that we may entertain our selves with God silence which sanctifies all our persecutions sorrows and infirmities must needs be highly advantageous to every one that makes a right use of it For when in any case we suffer wrongfully and yet hold our tongues we then offer to God our Souls and Bodies goods and good names as a sacrifice we follow the example of Christ who opened not his mouth but was led as a lamb to the slaughter and we possess our Souls with patience and free our selves from clamours and perturbations Sometimes indeed a just defence of our selves may be requisite but we must be very cautious that we exceed not the due bounds of Christian meekness and humility And yet this can happen but seldome as when we are called to answer by the Magistrate when the slander would make us uncapable of exercising or useless in the exercise of a publick office or when it would be others detriment in these cases we may speak with truth and meekness in others we had best hold our tongue And that it may be to purpose we must also refrain and quell our inward passions that the tumult within make not the outward peace insignificant I kept silence even from good words saith the Psalmist if from good words sometimes we must refrain much more always from vain and ill language He is a wise man that can hold his tongue for 't is less difficult to knâ—â— how to speak well than how to be silent CHAP. IX Of true and false delights and of self-complacency in virtue 1. VIrtue alone is the true and lasting pleasure of rational creatures other things are pleasant but in appearance and for a short uncertain time and according to mens various opinions for worldly pleasures proceed not from reason which is constant and common to all but from corrupt appetites which always do change and differ As a sick Palat cannot rightly discern of the relish of meats no more can a vicious man feel and understand what is true pleasure which proceeds only from virtue to which he is too much a stranger Sensible delights indeed by natures instinct are pleasing to all and few justly know how to use and when to refuse them But man was created to a nobler end than only to gratifie sense he was made for the sight and the fruition of God the last and sovereign good 'T is true indeed we cannot contemplate truth and spiritual things but by the help of those Ideas and representations which we have from sense and our rational faculties cannot well discharge their function when the organs of the body are discomposed and therefore we must have such care of our bodies as may render them fit instruments for our souls and preserve them so 2. But we sin grievously and pervert the order which God and nature have appointed if we make bodily pleasure the end of our natural actions whereas we should design them and make them subservient to those nobler offices for which we were created after God's Image I confess we cannot long subsist without some pleasure corporal or spiritual and we cannot divide our Souls equally betwixt both but then this obligeth us to aspire the more after heavenly joys and to delight our selves so much the more in God in the sense of his favour and the hope of his glory that we may despise and disrelish the pleasures of sense and vanity 3. But let it be observ'd also that some love vertue more for its glory than its goodness sake they aspire after God because it is a thing high and transcendent they live a strict and severe life because it denotes a brave and generous spirit they preserve inward peace because it is pleasant they inquire after the way to Heaven and to that purpose consult many Books that they may enlarge their knowledge and satisfie their curiosity and they walk in the narrow way to perfection that they may delight in themselves and admire their own excellencies All this these men do for to please and magnifie themselves when they think most of all to serve God they only serve to their own pride and when at last they shall expect great rewards they shall find their hands empty of good works and their hearts full of nothing but Self-love God is therefore to be sought with humility with singleness of heart and a sincere Spirit he is to be lov'd above all things and for his own sake This life is the valley of the shadow of death a state of warfare a place of perpetual labour rest and peace and joys eternal are reserv'd for a better life CHAP. X. That we are led too much by Opinion 1. THat we generally live by opinion is known and acknowledg'd but how great is the force and the prevalency of it is not perhaps so well understood Opinion in many cases and after a strange way doth exercise a great power or rather tyranny over men It makes them as it pleaseth healthy or sickly poor or rich miserable or happy for no man is either of these but as he thinks himself Opinion brings joy or sorrow not so much according to the reality of good and evil as according to the fancy for experience tells us that what we wish'd or fear'd was nothing so pleasant or grievous as we imagined More than that Opinion not only gives a kind of present being to things that are future but also unites together things that are far distant and makes us feel in one moment the goods or evils of many years to come and which perhaps shall never be Opinion alone for the most part brings credit and praise to men and their actions and if all the dignities and the riches of the world were united together they could not content one single man except his opinion were also satisfied Hamans wealth was exceeding great and he was first in the Court of King Ahasuerus and yet he thought himself the unhappiest of men because Mordecai a poor Captive would not stand up and honour him when he came into the Palace 2. Another great mischief of opinion is this that it lengthens the present time and makes its duration in some manner interminable as if our life and worldly enjoyments were to have no end and that contrariwise it contracts Eternity and lessens to almost nothing those incomprehensible amazing everlasting ages that follow this uncertain life Men also commonly take an account of moral good and evil by the measures of opinion and whilst they seek to avoid one extreme they too often fall into another As some from a dull lazy life become
uncertainty every Christian ought exceedingly to fear and with trembling and an assiduous care indeavour to make his election sure living in that Faith which worketh by Love and declaring by his good works that he is one of that little but blessed number to whom God will give his Kingdom 2. Now that that number is but little compared with the greater multitude of the wicked unhappy world nay that the number of the chosen is but small even of them that profess the Gospel and are capable of chusing life or death we have too many reasons to believe And our Blessed Saviour intimates so much when he warns his disciples of the difficulties of coming into that blessed Kingdom of which the entrance is narrow Mat. 7.13 Enter ye in at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and many there be that go in thereat Then he adds as wondring at this narrowness because strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it Being also asked another time Lord are there but few that shall be saved he gives no other answer but this Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able Luke 13.23 King David also inquiring Lord who shall abide in thy Tabernacle who shall dwell in thy holy hill the holy Spirit suggests this answer he that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness Psal 15. And in the twenty fourth Psalm he questioning again Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord he is likewise answered He that hath clean hands and a pure heart and hath not lift up his Soul unto vanity Now who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin Prov. 20.9 Who can say to David I shall for I work righteousness and I am innocent 3. Our Blessed Saviour saith Mat. 10.38 He that taketh not his Cross and follows after me is not worthy of me Now where are they that thus willingly take their Cross and suffer with Christ or rather how sadly doth St. Paul's saying fit our Age All seek their own not the things which are Jesus Christs Phil. 2.21 Our Blessed Redeemer who alone hath the keys of Heaven and knows how we must be qualified before we come thither affirms Mat. 18.3 Verily I say unto you except ye be converted and become as little Children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Which saying if compared with the pride of men it will be found that but a few by meekness and humility seek to become children to be heirs of the Heavenly Kingdome It is declar'd by St. Paul Rom. 8.29 That those whom God foreknew he also did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son But who is the man can boast that his life is conform to the Life of Christ and who is he that suffers with Christ that he may be with him glorified It is a saying that belongs to all If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments Mat. 19.17 But they are all gone out of the way they are altogether become abominable there is none that doth good no not one Psal 14.3 The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence saith the King of Heaven Mat. 11.12 and the violent take it by force Now this violence being against Nature there are but few that will offer it to themselves by forgoing any present sensual satisfaction on the account of that Kingdom which is out of the reach of sense not now to be enjoyed but expected only by Faith If all our Righteousnesses are as filthy rags as the Prophet saith Isa 64.6 What are then our sins and iniquities If the Righteous scarcely shall be saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear 1 Pet. 4.18 4. None but eight persons of the old world were saved with Noah in the Ark all the rest of mankind perisht in the floud Lot alone with his wife and two daughters escaped the conflagration of the infamous Cities all the other Inhabitants were consumed by the revenging flames And of six hundred thousand Jews that came out of Egypt two only Caleb and Joshua came into the Land of Promise Now those things were examples representations of things to come denoring that the number of those that come to life is but small in respect of the greater number of such as go to perdition Which is yet further but too evident by confidering how most men live and die how few give any certain marks of true contrition Fear and sorrow extort groans and good words and death forceth men to recant and 't is much to be feared there is seldome any sincerity in a late death-bed repentance For how can he begin to live well that is now dying how can he heartily detest those pleasures of sin which he loved and enjoyed as long as he liv'd how hardly will he now he a true penitent who before abhorred all the mortifications of true penitence how will his resolutions be prov'd effectual if he should esâ—ape for the forsaking those sins which custom hath made habitual and almost a second nature how shall now his sensual mind lift up it self to those spiritual heavenly things which he before seldom or never regarded and how shall he straitned by time and sad circumstances exercise those vertues contrary to the sins he repents of to make it appear by his life that there is a change in his heart 5. 'T is known by experience that very few when the pains and the danger is over stand to those resolves and promises which they made in the day of sorrow Generally men forget and are asham'd afterwards of what they promised and resolv'd and they soon return to their customary vices and beloved vanities Especially because there is still a secret reserve in those resolutions of amendment made in their distress there being still some hope of an escape till they are at the worst and then they are altogether passive and can act no longer or at the best their strength and rational faculties are so weakned there are such anxious fears and trepidations when the Soul is nigh to depart that men are almost distracted and know not what they do We may hope well of them who though they liv'd ill yet gave signs of repentance when they were dying But this is a desperate venture there is much of uncertainty and nothing of safety in their condition We have a sad example of this in King Antiochus read Maccab. 9. what vows he made while he was under his grievous sickness He thought himself in earnest no doubt but God knew the unsincerity of his heart that his repentance proceeded from the fear of death and would therefore no more have mercy upon him as the text affirms And who can consider all this and not tremble who will dare to presume he hath nothing to do and that his Salvation is sure who in the midst of so many and so great dangers will dwell as in safety and not watch and call upon God therefore because the chosen are few fewer perhaps than we think let us not go with the many nor follow the croud but let us live with the small select number of truly good and religious Christians that we may have comfort and confidence when our life is ended that we may with an humble and well-grounded hope look up to God and expect that gracious reward he hath promised to his faithful servants to all that sincerely love and obey him THE END A CATALOGUE of some Books Printed for and Sold by Henry Brome MR. Comber on the Common-Prayer in Three Volumes Dr. Spark's Primitive Devotions on the Feasts and Fasts of the Church of England Bishop Wilkins Natural Religion The Fathers Legacy or Counsels to his Children being the whole Duty of Man in three parts very useful for Families Christian Education of Children Cardinal Bona's Guide to Eternity Extracted out of the Writings of the Holy Fathers and Ancient Philosophers The Reformed Monastery or the Love of Jesus A sure and short but a pleasant and easie way to Heaven In two Parts Written Originally in Latin by the same Author A Guide to Heaven from the World or good Counsel how to close savingly with Christ Holy Anthems of the Church The Brief Rule of Life The Crums of Comfort Mr. Farindon-'s Sermons Several Sermons at Court and at other Places A Discourse concerning the Operations of the Holy Spirit Together with a Confutation of some part of Dr. Owen's Book upon that Subject A Discourse concerning God's Judgments Resolving many weighty Questions and Cases relating to them Preached for the substance of it at Old Swinford in Worcester-Shire And now published to accompany the annexed Narrative concerning the Man whose Hands and Legs lately rotted off in the neighbouring Parish of Kings-Swinford in Stafford-Shire Penned by another Author By Simon Ford D. D. and Rector of the said Parish Christianity no Enthusiasm or the Several Kinds of Inspirations and Revelations pretended to by the Quakers Tried and found Destructive to Holy Scripture and True Religion In Answer to Thomas Ellwood's Defence thereof in his Tract Miscalled Truth Prevailing c. A Narrative of the Principal Actions occurring in the Wars betwixt Sueden and Denmark before and after the Roschild Treaty
they walk and covers their misery and danger so that they neither see nor fear the dreadful tribunal of that just Judge who will condemn all Apostates that turn from the right way They walk saith the Apostle in the vanity of their mind having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart being past feeling they have given themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness Ephes 4.17 They count their life a market for gain and say we must be getting every way though it be by evil means Wisd 15.12 And then it often happens by a just judgment that their faith comes to be as debaucht as their life that having long said it by their wicked deeds they at last say it in their heart that there is no God 3. I have already and cannot too often note the cause of this evil that is Adam who by his sin not only lost the uprightness of his will but also the true light of his understanding so that in him who was the stock and root whence all men grow we were depriv'd of both And now this corruption of the will inclines man to self-love vain glory and an imperious pride to covetousness sloth sensuality and looseness And in the darkness of the understanding exposeth him to ignorance and false apprehension of things to doubts errors and lies and makes him have an aversion to good and serious thoughts Thus man is become earthly weak and distemperd unable to resist the sinful motions of his own heart and unable to know or to attain true felicity but rather as it is written His ways are always grievous and God's judgments are far above out of his sight Psal 10.5 And he now being alienated from God to whom all things should be refer'd is also a stranger to virtue which consists in the intention in being design'd to please God rather than in the act But that Soul which by the Grace of our Blessed Jesus is redeem'd from this power of Satan and slavery to sin is also enabled to cleave stedfastly to God in whom it enjoys Peace and joy and full satisfaction all that can make him intirely happy for he is unreasonable and too unsatiable to whom God is not sufficient CHAP. XVI Another reason why so many miss of their end their living too much by sense 1. WHereas reason it self teaches and all men freely confess that things to come should be prefer'd to things present heavenly things to things earthly and things eternal to things that last but for a short time 't is hard to conceive why so many who believe and acknowledge this yet by their actions strongly deny it In worldly matters and such as concern this present life they are very active very wise and very laborious in others they seem to have neither sense nor reason If you speak to them of God of Holy-Living and Life Eternal they understand you not or they presently forget what you said Things material and perishing are sensible and therefore more regarded and set by though oftentimes experience will force them to know that all human concerns are flitting uncertain and very deceitful yet men follow sense and they soon return to embrace those things which custom and a familiar converse hath made dear to them 2. The fall as I said of our first Parents is the head-spring whence all this mischief flows from it proceed all temptations as also the darkness and inconstancy of our minds but the more immediate cause of it which I now consider is the imbecillity depravation and weakness of the faculties of our souls which have no right apprehension of the things of God and but an imperfect confused notion of the amazing concerns of Eternity The loveliness of virtue and the great deformity of sin the terrors of death and the dread of God's righteous judgments the joys of Saints above and the grievous torments of the wicked in hell these are but words which we hear we have dark and narrow conceptions of them we understand not of how great an importance they are and therefore we are not so affected with them as to be made wise unto salvation Of things offer'd to our consideration we only mind that least outward part which falls under the reach of sense but we attend not to that which is less sensible though more considerable and apt effectually to work upon the mind Thus in sin we look most of all to what 's temporal we are more concern'd for the impairing of our same and the diminution of our worth or self-complacency than for having offended God and made our selves obnoxious to an infinite pain Likewise in a dying man we most observe what is in view outward symptomes and accidents little regarding the more essential adjuncts which concern the soul and are of far greater moment And we conceive of the last judgment and the unquenchable flames of Hell which are imperceptible to sense as of things which are nothing to us and which we have no interest to mind 3. The same deception also extends it self to things present which gratifie our appetite we take notice only of that outside which pleaseth us and so deplorable is our sottish mistake that we count our selves very happy to enjoy that for a moment which must make us eternally miserable Every man knows his Soul is immortal and many Philosophers have writ great things upon that subject but where are they that are solicitous for its well-being after death Do not most men neglect their soul and live as if it were to die with the body The mischief is that generally men live neither by faith nor by reason they follow blindfold and brutishly just as sense leads them avoiding carefully what is now troublesom to the flesh as if nothing else were to be done here and nothing else fear'd hereafter CHAP. XVII That we being the Children of God ought to be guided by his Spirit and by the example of Christ 1. IF a man should rightly understand and seriously consider that God by a gracious adoption owns him for his son that he is redeem'd by the Bloud of Christ and born again by Holy Baptism into the hope of Eternal Life he would doubtless esteem it his noblest title and his greatest honour he would despise all earthly advantages and mind and value nothing but what is Divine and Eternal and passionately desiring to come to his Father he would do nothing unworthy of him As he that acts the King on the stage though it be but a vain shew to delight vainer people yet is careful to do and to speak nothing but what befits a King so and much more careful should a Christian be to do nothing unworthy of that honourable name which makes him a brother and disciple of Jesus and an heir of his Heavenly Kingdom And as a picture-drawer when he is upon a great design fixes his
but because they will not trust God for their reward they have none at all they lose their labour and themselves Many others there be that complain that their affairs and necessary employments abroad keep them from minding what is good by depriving them of their inward peace but the things that disturb the tranquillity of the Soul are from within because we will not break with our selves because we are too sensual and too much seek our ease and advantage From hence proceeds that inward and vexatious war betwixt the Spirit and the Flesh which can never cease till Reason and Religion reign in us and the inferior appetites be brought to obedience and perfect subjection to the higher rational faculties 3. If a man had a friend so dear and intimate that he could not eat nor rest nor live one day without him and a faithful and creditable Monitor should tell him that his pretended friend is false and treacherous and designs to ruin and to murther him would not his love presently cease and be turned to hatred and thoughts of revenge Christian Reader such a friend is our flesh we gratifie and indulge it and use it with the greatest kindness and at the same time under pretence of friendship it deceives us and designs to deprive us of immortal life and to bring to Eternal death Yet this false friend sleeps in our bosome we are not to war with strangers and with far distant Enemies but with one that dwells with us at home and accompanies us wherever we go and always lies in wait to take advantage of us and do us mischief Let a man forsake himself and come out of himself and then he will find no obstacles in his way to Heaven CHAP. V. How we must fight our corrupt nature and depraved affections 1. WE must be very careful to observe what is the object of our love or fear and what of our joy or sorrow for these four affections have the absolute power of our heart and God by them is the master of it when we love and fear nothing but him and for him and when he is the cause and the measure of our joy or sorrow When these motions of our mind are disorderly and tend where they should not we become unruly like beasts but when they are ordered and directed right then they are highly serviceable and they make us holy and happy like Angels For in this consisteth the perfection and happiness of man to have his affections and desires guided by truth and reason for then his love and his joys become instruments of bliss and virtue whereas the same affections when guided by corrupt nature alone become pernicious and vexatious degenerate into wild lusts monsters which we must always fight and with our utmost strength indeavor to conquer 2. But to this purpose it will not suffice that we in general indeavour to reform and keep under our appetites and unruly passions for corrupt nature is well enough pleased with all the apparel and formalities of mortification self-denyal and victory over sinful passions and Philosophers grow in love with the fair Ideas of virtue in this pompous attire and many in this have deceiv'd themselves and boasted of conquest over their evil inclinations because they find not in themselves an aversion to vertue and good desires But when it comes to tryal indeed and they are no longer to fight with the notion of sin in general but with a present urging lust with a pressing uneasiness and necessity with some provocations to anger or to impatience then it appears how vain how weak and insignificant were their great thoughts and fine resolutions Better it is therefore carefully attend to every particular occasion of vanquishing our selves and restraining our depraved appetites and to do it seriously and to purpose for so by degrees we shall rectifie and amend every defect and bring all our passions and desires under the power of right reason or Christian Religion 3. But this is not to be done without an ever-watching diligence an unwearied patience a great application and a persevering courage and labour that by offering a perpetual violence to our evil propensities as they shew themselves we may go to the root of them and quite pull them up For now in our state of depravation every holy affection and the lifting up of our Soul to God is violent being against nature against the bent of our sensual appetites so that we must renew our indeavours and add new vigor to them every moment else we fall down and nature easily prevails and we soon return to our selves 4. As weeds in gardens may be pull'd up and yet not hindred from growing again of themselves so by care and by keeping a strict hand over our vicious affections we may so keep them under that we shall think they are quite destroy'd but do what we can the ground of our corrupt nature will always be apt to produce ill weeds and sin of it self will be growing again so that we must never give over fighting never cease to mortifie and purifie our selves whilst we live And yet if by God's assistance we can once do some one noble act of Christian vertue report one noted victory over our selves that alone may be sufficient to assert and enlarge our liberty and obtain us grace whereby we shall afterwards easily overcome all our aversions to vertue Some holy men have been so encouraged and strengthned by one great and difficult triumph that afterwards without fear and with little trouble or danger they have overcome all enemies and oppositions So great a thing it is to fight with fortitude and maintain once a noble contention till we have conquer'd CHAP. VI. Of the right use and moderation of our outward Senses 1. BEcause the eyes commonly are an inlet to sin we ought to turn them from tempting objects with the same care and quickness as a man would remove out of a house infected with the Plague Now human eyes wherewith created things are beheld may be said to be of three sorts The first altogether Sensual or natural when viewing the outward beauty of an object we are pleased with it and consider no farther The second may be call'd Rational or Philosophical when we making reflections upon the symmetry and other properties of things visible are moved thereby to search and to know the nature of them And the third we may say are Christian or Religious when by the beholding of creatures we raise up our Souls to the love and contemplation of the Creator With these eyes pious Souls viewing the beauties of the universe are led to the consideration of its glorious maker who is the fountain of all beauty and perfection as the author of all subsistence and being 2. Now as the life of the body depends upon its union with the Soul so doth in some manner the life of our senses depend on the presence of their proper objects as things visible to the eyes
to righteousness unto holiness as it is written Be ye holy for I am holy saith the Lord. Lev. 11.45 3. Now as Christianity checks and restrains self-love so doth self-love keep men from understanding and approving the Christian doctrines for how can he that seeks and loves himself rightly apprehend that whatever the world dotes upon is meer vanity that Estates and Honours bring great vexations and great slavery that to forgive Enemies and do good to them that hate us is the part of a noble and generous mind that 't is better to despise than to possess riches that 't is more honourable to be subject where God commands than to bear rule and to domineer that for a man to restrain his appetite and conquer himself is more glorious than to win battels and take fenced Cities These are Paradoxes hard and incredible sayings to the self-lover whose fondness of himself ties him fast to this earth to whatever can be useful and any ways pleasant to the flesh whereas the Children of God live to God being not led and govern'd by the flesh but by the spirit they live in the flesh but not after the flesh some of their actions are natural whilest they are in the body yet they proceed from a supernatural principle and are designed to a nobler end for they continually deny themselves and mortifie all sensual unruly desires Self-lovers hold a great regard should be had to the flesh 't is true but it must be such as Christ hath taught us to keep it under otherwise Saint Paul hath declar'd that to be carnally minded is death CHAP. XXXI That Self-love is that Babylon out of which God hath called us 1. GOD at first placed man in Paradise but Adam in whom we all sinned transported us into this world out of Paradise out of Jerusalem into Babylon out of our freedom into slavery out of integrity into corruption out of our countrey into banishment and out of life into death Thus from truth and perfection we fell into vanity we are now like unto vanity nay every man is but vanity as the Psalmist saith Psal 39.6 Man is vain in his body which ends in death and corruption vain in his soul which being inslav'd to sin is obnoxious to death eternal and vain in all his outward enjoyments which all perish or must be forsaken when he dies Yet man strangely dotes on this vanity he passionately runs after these transitory things which are all cheats and lies whereby he is drawn into thousands of pernicious errors and out of the Heavenly Jerusalem into a Hellish Babylon 2. Now these two Cities are built by two sorts of love to love God so as to despise our selves makes the City of God and to love our selves so as to despise God makes the Devils Babylon the City of this World The way to this is broad and short to that is streight difficult and long because dull and earthly as now we are we more easily fall on the earth and descend down to Hell than we can raise up our selves and ascend to Heaven Let every man therefore examine himself and find out what he chiefly loves for if he loves God so as to deny himself he is doubtless a Citizen of the Jerusalem which is from above but if he loves himself so as to prefer his own desires to God 't is plain he belongs to that Babylon out of which God hath called his Children For thus the Scripture cries aloud Go ye forth of Babylon and remove out of the midst of her Isa 48.20 Jer. 50.8 and again the Psalmist Psal 137.8 O Daughter of Babylon who art to be destroyed happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones We come out of Babylon when we leave the confusion of sin forsaking our disorderly course of life and we dash the children of Babylon against the stone when our love to Christ overcomes our ill desires and ill inclinations Self-love is the death of the Soul and the love of God is its life therefore he doth not truly love himself who by self-love destroys himself CHAP. XXXII How men naturally seek themselves even in their best works 1. IT may seem strange to observe that whereas mens opinions and inclinations are so various and different yet all men are agreed in this that none appears vile to himself none is willing to yield and submit to others none though never so mean but thinks himself somebody and is desirous to be taken notice of every one seeks to be higher than others every one is indulgent to himself and severe to others all men will have their will and their saying all applaud to their own inventions and conceits and censure others they count their own follies wisdome and notwithstanding their great ignorance there is nothing but what they think to know They carefully hide their own faults and pretend to those virtues they know they have not And what is most of all to be wonder'd at even good men who endeavour to please God and seem to aim at nothing but his honour and glory Even they sometimes in their best actions by a secret and natural instinct almost unknown to themselves seek their own comfort and complacency most of all and the more excellent are their works the more subtil and undiscernable is this snare which self-love sets to the most spiritual 2. What better than to obey God to read his Sacred Word and preach it to receive and administer his Holy Sacraments Yet these duties are commonly stain'd with some secret desire of praise and except the Christian be very watchful over his own heart he may easily lose his better reward Though I speak with the tongues of men and Angels saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 13.1 and have not Charity I am become like sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal And though a man should give all his goods to the Poor and even his Body to be burnt yet without Charity without the love of God hath purified his heart it will profit him nothing According to the saying of the Prophet Haggai 1.6 Ye eat but ye have not enough ye drink but ye are not filled with drink and he that earns wages earneth wages to put into a bag with holes for thus good works avail nothing if done out of respect to our selves and not to please God This being therefore the bent of our corrupt nature to draw us to our selves we ought carefully to examine our selves and search the hidden corners of our hearts that there lurk not in them some ill purpose of vain-glory or self-interest to mix with our best actions either first or last This is the Rule of a true Christian Life always to seek and love the things of God and never his own CHAP. XXXIII Things which every Christian is bound to know in order to obedience 1. EVery Disciple of Christ ought to know those Divine and Human Laws under which he lives and the which he is
from the other for they are all vain and uncertain and in a moment they come to nothing Wherefore David the man after Gods own heart passing by all temporal things entertain'd his meditation with things Eternal I have considered the days of old and the years of Eternity Psal 77.5 And Solomon his Son the wisest of men after a long and comprehensive enumeration of all things good and bad under the Sun concludes that all is vanity vanity of vanities Eccles 1.2 CHAP. XXXVI Three things very profitable and necessary to every Christian 1. THat we may be faithful to God as we are oblig'd we must of necessity attend to these three things First to watch and observe our selves and our actions at all times that we turn not aside out of the right path into by-ways difficult and unpassable seeking for happiness where it is not in spight of all admonitions By reason a Christian differs from the brutes and by Faith from unbelievers so that when he doth any thing rashly and basely meerly to satisfie his unruly passion and his appetite so far he becomes a beast and ceaseth to act as man and likewise when for vain-glory or self-interest he is drawn to action in this he acts like a Heathen Faith hath no hand in it As Arts are attained and perfected by working according to the rules of them so a man becomes Wise Just Sober and Patient by living according to the prescript of those Virtues 2. The second thing recommended is a good and careful use of our time on which depends Eternity Philosophers would have us not only know things useful but also be studious and watchful to take hold of all opportunities of virtue because time passeth away and comes not again and once lost is lost for ever Time flies away and the unwise man considers not that 't is never to be recall'd and that with time he loseth more than he can think or ever recover It may be pleasant indeed to pass away the time in sports and merry company but so doth our day go away and the night comes when no man can work and we lose the acceptable time that time that was given us to obtain our Pardon and work out our Salvation in We must give an account for every idle word much more for that time which is spent idly 3. The third thing we are carefully to mind is to make a right use of the Sacraments especially that of the Lord's Supper which if frequently and devoutly received would be to us a fountain of grace profitable beyond expression and the more in that penitence as a Sacramental is joyn'd to it whereby we are humbled and cleansed and our hearts prepar'd to entertain Christ whom we receive in the Holy Communion and from whom we receive increase of love to God and of meekness and charity to men As a covetous man minds nothing but gain and money and is always gasping after it so the devout Christian duly and often receives the Blessed Eucharist always pants and longs after God and cannot without trouble mind any thing but him And it is the principle of a heavenly life to despise and forsake all things that have not a relation to God CHAP. XXXVII That Repentance is necessary to all Christians 1. EVery Christian ought so to live and die in such continual regret and mortification as to make it appear he is a true Penitent who endeavours to make what satisfaction he can for his sins and entirely to be cleansed from the guilt of them This was the beginning and is the sum of the Gospel Mark 1.4 John did baptize in the Wilderness and Preach the Baptism of Repentance for the Remission of sins And the Blessed Jesus himself the Author and finisher of our Faith made it the first subject of his preaching Verse 14. Jesus came into Galilee Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and saying the time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand repent ye and believe the Gospel Or as Saint Matthew relates it 4.17 Jesus began to preach and to say Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand Repentance was first sent to prepare men duly to entertain the Gospel that their Souls might be purified and fitted to receive Divine Grace which never enters wicked hearts nor abides with them that yield their bodies to be instruments of unrighteousness 2. But Penitence is a Sacrifice well pleasing to God when a man is sensible of his sin and confesseth it with shame and sorrow and with a broken contrite heart begs Pardon of his offended God For the greatest evil in sin is a contempt of the Divine Majesty to live in sin is to live in enmity and defiance against the Great and Holy God and to this desperate impiety men are betrayed by infidelity and by inconsideration For who is there so mad and presumptuous that would dare transgress the Divine Laws if he believed and understood that God is Almighty and infinitely Good and Glorious and that an offence against so high a Majesty is heinous beyond expression But to this height of wretched folly men are carried by original depravation that as being seiz'd on by an unhappy frenzy they have a secret aversion to God the chiefest good and delight themselves in impure shadows in base and false enjoyments and this because they see not the truth or they have not power to follow it 3. How great and deplorable is this blindness and impotency we cannot well understand except we seriously consider that the guilt and malignancy of sin was so extreme that nothing could make expiation for it but the bitter death and passion of the Blessed and only Son of God This if we believe and if we are sensible of the intolerable burthen of our sins we are to pass our days in sorrow and to spend our years in mourning thereby to own our selves guilty and that we have deserv'd the worst the greatest of evils For God readily forgives those sins which penitence and amendment indeavour to undo CHAP. XXXVIII Of the signs and effects of true Repentance 1. WE shall never be in a capacity to avoid sin when the temptation comes except the soul hath conceiv'd a great horror and detestation of it and our penitential exercises will soon be at an end except we hunger and thirst after Righteousness so as never to be satiated without it Therefore when we humble and punish our selves and when we make our confession to God or his ministers we should besides contrition and a resolution in general to sin no more design the extirpation of some one particular sin to avoid and prevent the occasions of that one sin which is most dangerous and importunate Hence will accrue to us a great advantage of our penitence and we shall the better bring forth fruits worthy of Repentance such as these fear to offend and displease God any ways a great dread of his just judgment to check and reprove our selves
that passion which carryed away the Heart coming to abate it returns to its former and more pleasing affections and soon repents of its Repentance Some seek themselves more than God in their Prayers because therein they find some refreshments and Spiritual delights and some seek after abstractions and extatick raptures to be therein raised up to Heaven and know great mysteries but all these will signifie nothing without Contrition and Humility The great benefit of Prayer is to find the World lose its power and its repute in our Hearts and to find our wills more resign'd to God to patience and to obedience He Prays best that desires to know nothing and to obtain nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified 3. It is a common error to think that meditation is a thing exceeding difficult when indeed every man is daily occupied about it for to meditate is to revolve and view things in our minds and that we always do vain and worldly and often sinful things Why cannot we then as well consider the mysteries of Faith and the concerns of our Salvation Sure we could easily if we would seriously endeavour to expel the world out of our hearts then there would be room for the things of God and we could fix our thoughts upon them Want of this makes us unfit for Prayer and unwilling to be crucified to the World and to bear the Cross and Reproach of Christ We pretend indeed that our occupations are necessary and perhaps good and profitable so that we have a good warrant to dispense with prayer and meditation but there is a time for all things and however the business of the Soul is our chiefest concern and 't is a great folly to neglect it upon any account 4. The body without nourishment soon decays into weakness and death so doth the Soul without its proper food which is prayer and it wants it the more frequently in that it hath many more and greater necessities than the body hath For heat and cold hunger thirst and sickness and whatever afflicts the body doth also vex and prey upon the Soul which is compatible with it and besides that the Devil the World and the Flesh it self are all Enemies to the Soul and daily conspire its ruin and it hath no strength nor defence nor comfort but from prayer only We ought therefore always to pray and devoutly to call upon God in the inner-man in the inward recesses of our Souls which are the Temple of God wherein he is pleased to dwell We need not always words in our private Closets God sees our thoughts and hears our secret desires Yet they may use books to good purpose that are not used to mental prayer And however the publick Devotions of the Church ought to be said and sung aloud and to be constant and unalterable That all the Faithful may agree in them and edifie one another by joyning their voices as well as minds to send up their praises and petitions to God Yet still the heart is the house of prayer and the Kingdom of God is within us CHAP. XLIII How to Pray and avoid distractions and fix the intention 1. THat our Prayer may be truly good and acceptable we must endeavour to ask all things out of love to God For though a thing be good in it self yet the surest and better way it is to desire and demand it upon Gods account because it will please him that Self-love may not be the principle and purpose of our petitions The ground on which our prayer must rest is a lively Faith and a sense of the presence of God whom we must approach with an humble simplicity as much as may be like an Infant brought to his Mothers breast He is not altogether intent to his devotion that considers himself praying for whilest he reflects on his prayer his mind is diverted from God to whom he prays and sometimes he is distracted indeavouring to avoid distraction Therefore I say simplicity is best in prayer to think of nothing but God to look to none but him whom we worship 2. For his mind shall hardly be drawn to other objects that shall consider God as present the immensity of divine perfections will absorb his thoughts they shall sail in that boundless Ocean and find no limits and all other things but God will be out of sight But the perfection of this is reserv'd for a better State here we must expect distractions and if we duly strive against them they shall not make our prayers to be unprofitable For God will hear them and assist us whilest we contend with our infirmities Yet we shall sooner be freed from ill and idle thoughts by slighting them and taking off our minds from attending to them than by fencing and fighting against them for sometimes whilest we stand to confute them they make the deeper impressions on perplext and timorous hearts A Prayer dry without relish and comfort is the more acceptable to God in that it is unpleasing to Nature 3. As Travellers always bear in mind the place whither they would go so they that pray should always be mindful of the design of Prayer which is to be united to God as much as is possible in this life to have our will made conform unto his in all things to aim at any thing but this is to lose our labour Now prayer may be said to be of two sorts the one common and ordinary perform'd by our endeavour and diligent application together with the assistance of Grace For no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Spirit the other extraordinary and infused more secret and mysterious with sighs unutterable We may beg the gift of both for God is free and very gracious yet we must apply our selves to that which is more common and wherein we have a part to act which consisteth in a blessed disposition to lift up our Soul to God and entertain holy affections and pour out our hearts before him This God is ready to grant to such as trust in him and are of a meek and humble Spirit for every good and perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of Lights Therefore ought we to begin our prayers with an humble acknowledgement of our being nothing but misery and impotency and wretched sinfulness and withall we should take care to fix our intention aright that God may be glorified and his will may be done and we may cheerfully fulfill it Now this is the Will of God even your Sanctification CHAP. XLIV The great advantages of Prayer 1. WHat is written concerning Wisdome may very well be said of Prayer Wisd 7. I prefer'd her before Scepters and Thrones and esteemed Riches nothing in comparison of her I loved her above health and beauty and chose to have her instead of light for the light that cometh from her never goeth out All good things together came to me with her and innumerable riches in her hand and
here pour'd upon us for a wise and good man will not only regard what he suffers but what he deserves to suffer for his offences against God Also let no man judge and condemn another remembring the saying of St. Paul Ro. 2.1 Thou art inexcusable O man for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thy self for thou that judgest dost the same things For 't is very unfitting he that owes ten thousand talents should be a severe exacter of his Brother's mite and he is a fool that thinks to cure others by his distemper that is by his pride and his impatience Who art thou saith the Apostle Rom. 14.4 that judgest another mans servant To his own master he standeth or falleth And how canst thou say to thy Brother let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye when thou thy self beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye Luke 6.42 God alone that can amend and forgive or else punish the sins of men hath right to judge of them our part is to prevent them if we can or else bring men to repentance however to hide and bear with them indeavouring first to amend our own faults before we take upon us to correct others As God is merciful and patient to us all so must we be to our Brothers CHAP. XXIV Remedies against Impatience 1. MAny and various are the affairs a man must go through in his life and very different are the humors and companies he must converse withal so that it is next to impossible all men should be of his opinion and all things should fall out according to his mind therefore he must resolve before hand and be very careful that he lose not his Peace and his Patience whatever happen To that end let him consider in all his concerns and undertakings what things may come cross to his desires and above his power to help and having took a view of them let him prepare himself to bear them if they come For this will avoid the surprize and lessen the grief and compose the mind This must be therefore our first and chiefest task to understand the nature of things and to use them accordingly as that they may be taken from us and they are and must be subject to thousands of changes and chances which we cannot hinder and they are to serve not to command us and withal they are out of our power so that we must not be troubled if we cannot dispose of them as we would 2. These considerations well weighed will make a wise mans mind stedfast and even able to entertain all events with a generous indifferency Is he depriv'd of his good name of his estate or liberty is he threatned with persecutions or with death itself he is not mov'd nor dejected he had consider'd long before that such things might happen whether he would or no and now he can bear and overcome them 'T is not outward things that wound us but the wrong notion that we have of them our own mistaken conceits do us the most hurt No man grows pale with fear or perplext with anguish but he that passionately would avoid or obtain that which is not in his power mind your duty and let not your passions go out of your own sphere and you shall avoid all those troubles which come from abroad where mans Jurisdiction cannot reach The Christian Martyrs were constant in the midst of their wearied tormentors their patience could not be conquer'd even women and children were undaunted in the midst of the flames they could not be overcome though they might be kill'd because they valued not those things which Tyrants might give or else take away Things without were nothing to them but things within things that were their own as their vertue their divine faith and love these they kept and preserv'd and in so doing were happy For these are the true goods which depend only from our selves and which the world can neither give nor take away from us CHAP. XXV Of Humility the proper Vertue of Christians 1. LEarn of me saith our Divine master the eternal wisdom the inexhaustible fountain of Grace and Vertue Learn of me what sure some great matter for he that bids us learn hath himself created Heaven and Earth and commanded the light to shine out of darkness Will he therefore teach us to make a new world and so bring things out of nothing also No that belongs only to God He bids us learn not what he made but what he himself was made for us Who being in the form of God yet made himself of no reputation taking on him the form of a Servant and being made in the likeness of men Phil. 2. Learn of me therefore saith he not to raise the dead or cast out Devils not to cleanse lepers or give light to the blind not to walk on the Sea or to work such wonders as he enabled some to do but Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart Mat. 11.29 He would not teach what himself would not do but he himself becomes our lesson and this he makes the sum of his wisdome and his saving doctrine that we learn to be meek and humble after his example So great so difficult a thing was lowliness that we could not learn it but from the humiliation of the most highest 2. Indeed human pride can be cur'd by none but him who being God yet humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the Cross And humility is the chiefest vertue of Christians proper to them alone unknown to the Philosophers and wise men of the world recommended by Christ by his Example and by his Precepts above all other duties That we following him in his abasement might at last come to his glory Now that we may think meanly of our selves we must seriously consider who it is that calls us the wretched State whence he calls us the Bliss he calls us to our perverse dulness to follow and the assistances he gives to forward us For we shall never come to the prize of our high calling except humility goes along and follows our best works which are the steps we make towards it Because our vertues shall avail nothing if we be proud of them and if we seek for praise and glory here we shall not have any hereafter 3. If at any time our thoughts be lift up and we fancy our selves to be something the Earth which is always present will tell us whereof we are made and whence we had our origin For dust we are and to dust we must needs return and upon this humble and low foundation we must build the highest vertues For if a man had the gift of miracles and could remove mountains if he could speak all languages and foretel things to come if he had converted all the infidels and given all his substance to the Poor yet he would be in great and perpetual danger of falling and losing his reward
that no man without a special Revelation can have a special assurance of his Salvation but we have that which is as good to secure us against despair and to ground an holy and comfortable hope upon That we are redeemed by the Bloud of Christ and devoted to him in Holy Baptism and that God is our confidence and refuge always ready to help them that call upon him and to forgive them that beg for pardon with tears and contrition and a serious purpose of amendment And many more great and precious assurances we have that God hath given us eternal life and that this life is in his Son so that all his Providences are to fit us for it if we do not wilfully frustrate all his saving methods and purposes Only he would have our Election to be hid and secret that security may not breed in us pride and negligence and that he that thinketh he standeth should take heed lest he fall 2. Now therefore because the chosen are few let every true Christian live a Holy Life with the few that he may make his Calling and Election sure and be counted worthy at last to receive the Crown of Life with the few Streight is the way and narrow is the gate that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it saith our Blessed Saviour Mat. 7.13 Therefore we must walk in that narrow way and that always with care and fear even when we seem to run with most speed because no man in respect of himself is absolutely sure of perseverance Yet our fear must not proceed so far as to make us faint but only to make us wary and make us put our trust and confidence in God and with a chearful submission cast our selves upon him both for time and eternity If any one objects that he knows not how Gods will is affected towards him I answer that Gods promises are sincere and must be received as they are generally set forth in Holy Scripture to all that will obey Gods revealed will and moreover that his own will is much more uncertain so that it is much more safe to trust Gods for God we are certain is infinitely good He is extremely proud and unhappy withal that relies on himself more than upon God but happy is he that confides in that gracious Lord whose mercies and promises are sure for ever and in whom whosoever trusted was never confounded CHAP. XXXIII That Love is the Spirit of Christian Religion 1. THough it be by vertue of our Baptism and profession of the Christian Faith that we are and are called Christians yet the Life or Soul of our Religion is Charity or the Love of God whereby we are enabled to live godly as becomes Christians For as God by his great love wherewith he loved us sent his dear Son into the world to die for us that we might live through him so are we to love God most affectionately with all our heart and strength and our Neighbour as our selves for his sake In this is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins Love therefore is the first and great Commandment on which depends the Law and the Prophets Love is the foundation and excellency of our Faith to know the love of God which passeth knowledge that when we were enemies we were reconciled to him by the death of his Son Love is that fire which our Blessed Redeemer came to send in the Earth Luke 12.49 which cost him much to kindle and which burns up mens dross and impurities and cannot be put out but where iniquity doth abound And Love is the spirit of Primitive Christians who had one heart and one mind and is even the Soul of the whole Church whereby it is united and lives 2. Christ left and appointed Love as the mark whereby his followers should be known Joh. 13.35 By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another And so in the love of God consists our union with him and it is the highest perfection of the Christian life Now perfection is the work of Grace therefore we must not relie upon our own strength but we must beg of God daily and devoutly that by his good Spirit he would kindle in our hearts the fire of an holy Charity that by it we may be guided quickned and at last perfected Neither yet must we lose heart if we sometimes fall as if all our hope were in our own strength but we must acknowledge our own infirmity and rise quickly and pray more fervently and afterwards fight more couragiously Still pursuing after perfection not only in words or ineffective wishes but in hearty desires and serious indeavours manifesting our love by daily mortifying our sins and attaining to new and higher degrees of vertue And then shall a Christian be most perfect and happy when his heart shall be empty of himself and free from the love of the world but purified and burning with the love of God CHAP. XXXIV Of the right Placing and Ordering of Love 1. HE is a just and holy man who rightly values things according to their worth and also loves them proportionably for sin is duly by wise men defin'd to be a disorderly Love and vertue to be a regular and well placed Love And though there be other natural affections yet they all proceed from and depend upon love and if this be well placed and governed as it should the rest cannot be unruly It is vertue to love what deserves to be lov'd and wisdome to make choise of it and constancy to pursue it through all dangers and sufferings and to be drawn from it by no inticements is temperance and to prefer nothing to it is justice and the order of Love must follow the order of things and so God is to be lov'd infinitely more than any creature because he is infinitely better more perfect and lovely We become good and pure by loving him who is the fountain of all goodness and purity for our manners follow our affections we become either vertuous or vicious according to the nature of what we most love 2. The true object of Love is God our Neighbour and our selves God in the first place to whom all love is due and from whom it must pass to other creatures according as they are more or less like him By this we must love our Neighbour because he is or that he may be just and we must love our selves in that we are or else that we may be holy taking from God the measure of our Love to all other things that our Love may be regular and we may be happy Let no man therefore love sin for thereby he hates and destroys his Soul and let no man love himself for his own sake but upon Gods account who is the chiefest Good in whom alone we can be intirely happy For God who alone is the Author of our being