mind 1. The former part of this Duty is to Know our Creator This is that which aged David commended to his young Son Solomon 1 Chron. 28.9 And thou Solomon my Son Know thou the God of thy Father And we have Two excellent Books wherein the Knowledge of God is discovered to us the Book of his Works the Works of his Creation and Providence and the Book of his Word contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament wherein he is more fully and explicitly and plainly discovered unto us These Books we are often to read and consider And this is the chief reason why Understanding and Reason is given unto Mankind and not unto the Beasts that perish namely that we might improve it to the attaining of the Knowledge of Almighty God in the due consideration of the Works and Word of God and hereby we learn his Eternity his Infiniteness his Wisdom his Power his Goodness his Justice his Mercy his Alsufficiency his Soveraignty his Providence his Will his Purpose concerning Mankind his Care of them his Beneficence towards them And the Nature of this Knowledge is not barely Speculative but it is a knowledge that is Operative that perfects our Nature that conforms it to the Image of that God we thus know that sets Mankind in its due state and station keeps it in its just subordination unto the God we thus know which is our greatest Perfection This Knowledge must necessarily make us love him because he is Good Merciful Bountiful Beneficent and therefore the Wise man chuseth to express him by that Title of Creator from whom we receive our very Being and all the good that can accompany it This Knowledge teacheth us to be thankful unto him as our Greatest Benefactor to depend upon him because of his Power and Goodness to fear him because of his Power and Justice to obey him because of his Power Justice and Soveraignty to walk before him in Sincerity because of his Power Justice and Wisdom In sum the several Attributes of Almighty God do strike upon the choicest parts and faculties and affections and tendencies of our Hearts and Souls and do tune them into that order and harmony that is best suitable to the perfecting of our Nature and the placing of them in a right and just posture both in relation to Almighty God our selves and others 2. The second part of our Duty is To Remember our Creator thus known which is to have the Sense and Exercise of this Knowledge always about us to set Almighty God always before our eyes frequently to think of him to make our application to him For many there are that may have a knowledge of God but yet the exercise of that knowledge is suspended sometimes by Inadvertence and Inconsiderateness sometimes by a wilful Abdication of the exercise of that Knowledge And these are such as forget God that have not God in all their thoughts that say to the Almighty Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways The Benefits of this Remembring our Creator are very great 1. It keeps the Soul and Life in a constant and true and regular frame As the want of the Knowledge so the want of the Remembrance of God is the cause of that disorder and irregularity of our minds and lives 2. And consequently the best Preventive of Sin and Apostacy and Backsliding from God and our Duty to him 3. It keeps the Mind and Soul full of constant Peace and Tranquillity because it maintains a constant humble and comfortable converse of the Soul with the Presence and Favor of God 4. It renders all conditions of life comfortable and full of contentment because it keeps the Soul in the presence of God and communicates unto it continual Influxes of Contentment and Comfort for what can disturb him who by the continual Remembrance of his Creator hath the constant acquaintance with his Power Goodness and Alsufficiency 5. Though no Man hath ground enough to promise to himself an Immunity from Temporal Calamities yet certainly there is no better expedient in the World to secure a Man against them and preserve him from them than this For the most part of those sharp Afflictions that befal Men are but to make them Remember their Creator when they have forgotten him that he may open their ears to Discipline and awake them to Remember their Creator Read Job 33. A Man that keeps about him the Remembrance of his Creator prevents in a great measure the necessity of that severe Discipline 6. In short this Remembrance of our Creator is an Antidote against the Allurements of the World the Temptations of Satan the deceitfulness of Sin It renders the best things the World can afford inconsiderable in comparison of him whom we remember it renders the worst the World can do but little and contemptible so long as we Remember our Creator it makes our lives happy our deaths easie and carries us to an everlasting Injoyment of that Creator whom we have here remembred The Injunction of the Duty of Remembring our Creator is the more importantly necessary 1. In regard of the great consequence of the benefit we receive from it as before 2. In regard of the great danger of omitting it The truth is the greatest part of the miscarriages of our lives are occasioned by the want of the remembrance of our Creator then it is that we fail in our Duty when we forget him 3. In regard of the many Temptations this World affords to make us forget our Creator the Pleasures and Profits and Recreations and Preferments and Noise and Business of this Life yea many of them which are in themselves and in their Nature lawful are apt to ingross our Thoughts our Time our Cares and to leave too little room in our memory for this great Duty that most deserves it namely The Remembrance of our Creator Our memory is a noble Cabinet and there cannot be a more excellent Jewel to lodge in it than our Great and Bountiful Creator yet for the most part we fill this noble Cabinet with pebles and straws if not with dung and filth with either sinful or at least with Unprofitable Impertinent Trifling Furniture 2. The Season for this Duty that is here principally commended is The days of our Youth And the Reasons that commend that Season for this Duty are principally these 1. Because this is the most Accepted Time God Almighty was pleased under the Old Law to intimate this in the reservation to himself of the first fruits and the first born And surely the first fruits of our Lives when dedicated to his remembrance are best accepted to him 2. Because this Season is commonly our Turning Season to Good or Evil. And if in Youth we forget our Creator it is very great difficulty to resume our Duty Commonly it requires either very extraordinary Grace or very strong Affliction to reclaim a Man to his Duty whose Youth hath been seasoned with ill Principles
Good to deny Lust both in the Practice and Love of it than to Entertain it And Consequently the Will moves towards the Greater Good according to its proper and natural Inclination 2. There is yet a further Effect wrought upon the Will viz. The sense of the Love of Christ the end of his Death to redeem us from these Lusts whereby even by an obligation of Gratitude it takes up Resolutions of Obeying him This Truth though it be first received in the Understanding and entertained by Faith yet it doth immediatly work upon the Will and Affections viz. An Aversion to that Lust that Crucified her Saviour and which the same Saviour upon the Indearment of his own Blood begs us to Crucifie 3. There is yet a further work upon the Will by the secret and powerful working of the Spirit of God strengthning and perswading and restoring it to its Liberty and Just Soveraignty over the sensual Appetite A Poem THe Great Creator gave to Brutes the light Of Sense and Natural Instinct that might Conduct them in a Sensual Life by this They steer their course and very rarely miss Their instituted Rule nor yet reject Its Guidance or its Influence neglect But the Creators great Beneficence Gave unto Man besides the Light of Sense The Nobler Light of Reason Intellect And Conscience to Govern and Direct His Life and Actions and to keep at rights The Motions of his sensual Appetite But wretched Man unhappily deserts His Makers Institution and perverts The End of all his Bounty prostitutes His Reason unto Lust and so pollutes His Noble Soul his Reason and his Wit And Intellect that in the Throne should sit Must lacky after Lust and so fulfil The base commands and pleasure of her will And thus the Humane Nature's great Advance Becomes its greater ruine doth inhance Its Guilt while Judgment Reason Wit Improve those very sins it doth Commit Dear Lord Thy Mercy sure must overflow That pardons Sins which from thy Bounty grow THE FOLLY AND Mischief of SIN 1. IT is a most Vnprofitable and Foolish thing The Content that is in it is but Imaginary and dyes in the compass of a Thought The Expectation of it is nothing but Disappointment and the Fruition of it perisheth in a moment 2. It is the infallible Seed of Shame and Mischief which without it be intercepted by Repentance and the Mercy of God doth as naturally and infallibly grow from it as Hemlock and Henbane do from their proper Seeds and though the nature of some Sins is more speedy and visible in producing that Fruit yet most certainly sooner or later every Sin yields his Crop even in this life The best Fruit it yields is Sorrow and Repentance which though it be good in comparison of their Fruit ensuing if omitted yet certainly it is not without much Trouble and Discomposure of Mind and the Bitterness even of Repentance it self infinitely over-ballanceth the Contentment that the Sin did yield 3. Sin doth not only produce an Ungrateful Fruit but there is also a certain Spight and Malignity in the Fruit it yields carrying in it the very Picture Resemblance and Memorial of the Sin for the most part which doggs a Man in the punishment of it with the very Repetition of the Guilt aâ—lex talionis 4. It Poysons and Invenomes all Conditions If a Man be in Prosperity it either makes it an occasion of new Sins to cover or secure them that are past or it sowers and infests the very State it self with sad Pre-apprehensions of the Fruit due to his Sin Or hants him in his Jollity like as I have seen an Importunate Creditor a young Gallant which blasts all his Comfort and Contentment If a Man be in Adversity it adds Affliction to Affliction The best Companion of Affliction is a clear Conscience but when a Man hath outward Troubles and a Mis-giving Guilty Soul it makes his Affliction black and Desperate 5. It Discomposeth and disorders and unqualifies a Man for any Good Duty either to God or Man I pray but I bring along with me a sense of Sin that makes me Ungrateful to my self and how can I expect to be Acceptable to God the Pure and Holy God who hates nothing but Sin I beg Blessings but how can I expect to receive a Blessing from him whom I but lately presumptuously offended If my Son or Servant hath offended me and comes to ask a benefit of me I look upon it as a sawcy Presumption and can I expect to have better Entertainment from my Maker than I think fit to allow my fellow Creature The truth is there is no Petition comes seasonably from a Man under the Guilt of Sin but Pardon Forgiveness and Mercy If I do a Good Work the Sin that I stand guilty of makes the Comfort I take in it or in other commendations of it Insipid and Empty my Heart tells me there is a Sin in my Conscience that makes me ashamed to own the Good that is in the Action If I see a fault in another that my Place or Condition requires me to Reprove the sense of my own Guilt makes me either backward to Reprove or Condemn my self while I am Reproving another with such thoughts as these I am Reproving a Sin in another where I stand as Guilty in the sight of God as the person reprehended if he knew my Sin how justly might he throw my Reprehension into my own face and if he know it not yet the God of Heaven before whom I stand and the Conscience which I bear within me makes my Reprehension of another a Condemnation of my self If I go about any action of my life though never so Honest Just and Lawful yet my mis-giving thoughts make me either un-active in it or fill me with pre-apprehensions of mischief or disappointment in it how can I expect a blessing from God whom I have offended in any business I undertake I carry along with me in all I do the Curse that the Lord threatned Deut. 28.20 The Lord shall send upon thee Cursing Vexation and Rebuke in all that thou settest thy hands unto and verse 29. Thou shalt not prosper in thy ways and verse 34. So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see and verse 67. In the morning thou shalt say Would God it were Evening and at Evening thou shalt say Would God it were Morning for the fear of thine Heart wherein thou shalt fear and for the sight of thine Eyes which thou shalt see And Certainly all this grows from the Inconguity and Dissonancy that is between sin and the true right constitution of the Nature of Man that is thereby made unuseful for his proper Operations just as a sore or a bone out of joynt disables the proper serviceableness of a Limb or as a noxious humour disorders the Stomach Liver or Spleen in its proper Office or as a Disease or ill disposition of the Body makes it unserviceable to
us to think that if the Inferiour Animals have a kind of Felicity or Happiness attending their being and suitable to it that much more Man the nobler being should not be destitute of any Happiness attending his being and suitable to it 3. But rather consequently that Man being the nobler Creature should not only have an Happiness as well as Inferiour Animals but he should have it placed in some more Noble and Excellent rank and kind than that wherein the Brutes have their Happiness placed 4. It is plain that the Inferiour Animals have a Happiness or Felicity proportionate to their Nature and Fabrick which as they exceedingly desire so they do in a great measure Enjoy namely a sensible Good answering their sensible Appetite Every thing hath Organs and Instruments answerring to the Use and Convenience of their Faculties Organs for their Sense and Local motion and for their Feeding for their Generation of their kind Every thing hath its peculiar Instincts and Connatural Artifices and Energies for the Exercises of their Organs and Faculties for their Preservation and Nourishment Every thing hath a supply of External Objects answering those Faculties Desires and Instincts Meats proper for their Nourishment Places proper for their Repose difference of Sexes in their several kinds answering their Procreative Appetite And most commonly such a proportion of Health and Integrity of Nature as goes a long to that period of time allotted for their duration and in default thereof they are for the most part furnished with Medicines naturally provided for them which they naturally know and use so that they seem to want nothing that is necessary to the complement of a Sensible Felicity It is true they are in a great measure Subjected to the Dominion of Mankind which is sometimes over severely exercised but then they have the Benefit of Supplies from them Protection under them and if they meet not with Masters more unreasonable than themselves they find Moderation from them They are also exposed to the Rapine one of another the weaker Beasts Birds and Fishes being commonly the prey of the greater but yet they are commonly endued with Nimbleness v. Lactant. de Opific Dei c. 2. Artifices or Shifts to avoid their Adversaries But be these what Abatements of their Sensible Happiness may be yet they have certain Negative Advantages that conduce very much to their Happiness or at least remove very much of what might abate it and thereby render their fruition more free and perfect and uninterrupted for instance they seem to have no Anticipations or Fear of Death as a common Evil incident to their nature They have no Anticipations of Dangers till they immediately present themselves unto them They have no great sense or apprehensions of any thing better than what at present they enjoy They are not under the Obligation of any Law or under the Sense of any such thing and consequently the Sincereness of what they enjoy not interrupted by the strokes of Conscience under a sense of deviation from Duty or Guilt 5. It is therefore plain that if the Humane Nature have no greater or better Happiness than what is accommodate only to a Sensible Nature they have no greater Happiness than the Beasts have which is not reasonable to be supposed for a Nature so far exceeding them 6. Farther yet if the Humane Nature were not under a capacity of a greater Happiness than what is terminated in Sense mankind were much more Vnhappy than the basest Animal and the more Excellent the Humane Nature is above the Beasts nay the more excellent any one individual of the Humane kind were above another the more miserable he were and the more uncapable of being in any measure happy for the more Wise and Sagacious any man were the more he must needs be sensible of Death which sense would sower all the Happiness of a sensible Good the more sensible he must needs be not only of the shortness and uncertainty of sensible Enjoyments but also of their Poorness Emptiness Insufficiency Dissatisfactoriness It is evident that a Fool sets a greater rate upon a Sensible Good than a Man truly Wise and consequently the Fool could be the only man capable of Happiness for it is most certain that according to the measure of the Esteem that any man hath of any good he enjoys such is the measure of his Happiness in that Enjoyment Since the Happiness is somewhat that is intrinsecal to the Sense or Mind that enjoys it A thing really Good can never make that man Happy who is under a Sense of Evil or Inconvenience by that enjoyment so long as he is under that sense Since therefore it is preposterous and unreasonable to suppose that Man the best of terrestrial Creatures and Wise men the best of men should be Excluded from at least an equal degree of Happiness with the Beasts that perish and since it must needs be that a bare Sensible Good can never communicate to a man an Equal degree of Happiness with a Beast nor to a Wise man an Equal degree of Happines with a Fool it remains there must needs in common reason be some other subject wherein the Happiness of a Man of a Wise Man must consist that is not barely Sensible Good 7. All the good things of this Life they are but Sensible Goods and therefore they cannot be the true matter of that Happiness which we may reasonably think belongs to the reasonable Nature as such the former will appear by an induction of particulars which I shall pursue in order with the particular instances of their Insufficiencies to make up a true Happiness to the Reasonable Nature as well as that general that they are but Sensible Goods and meerly accommodated to a Sensible Life and Nature 1. Life it self is not as such a sufficient constituent of Happiness and the Instance is Evident because it is possible that Life it self may be Miserable there may be Life where there is Sickness Pain Disgrace Poverty and all those External Occurrences that may render life Grievous and Burthensome Life may indeed be the Subject of Happiness when it hath all those contributions that concur to make it such but Life alone and as such cannot be Happiness because there may be a Miserable Life 2. Those Bona Corporis or Compositi the Goods of the Body are not sufficient to make up a suitable Happiness to the Reasonable Nature as Health Strength for the Beasts themselves enjoy this and for the most part the Brutes enjoy a greater measure of these than Mankind and besides still there is that which is like the Worm at the root of the Gourd that spoils the Happiness that must arise from it viz. Mortality and Death which will certainly pull down this Tabernacle and Man hath an unintermitted Pre-apprehension of it which sowers the very enjoyment it self And in this as hath been said the Beasts that perish have a pre-eminence over Mankind for though both are
the Writings of Men especially when written by several Men at several times their Writings do seldom or never agree but differ and cross one another And the reason is because they are written by several Men who are all guided by several Minds and Judgments But the Scriptures though written by several Men in several Ages many unacquainted with one anothers Writings yet they all consent and speak the same Truth which is an evidence that it was One and the same Spirit that did dictate them 2. It is not possible for any Man without Revelation from God to foretel things to come Now these holy Writings foretold things that most certainly came to pass in their several seasons though many Generations after the Prophesie written therefore they were written by Inspiration from God As for instance the Babylonian Captivity and the Deliverance from it by Jeremy the Persian and Grecian Monarchy by Daniel the Birth and Death of Christ the final destruction of Jerusalem and Dispersion of the Jews the Conversion of the Gentiles by Isaiah and the rest of the Prophets 3. The Matter contained in these holy Writings is that of the greatest importance the Will of God concerning Man the discovery of the Creation of the World by God of assurance of the Life to come of the means of Peace between God and Man These are things of the highest concernment in the World yet things which could never be discovered but by God himself and such as never any writings of Men only ever could discover or durst pretend unto The height and rarity and excellence and weight of the matter of these Books do evidence that they were the Revelations of God to Man and by his Providence committed to writing and delivered over to Mankind as the Rule to attain their Chief End 3. As the Rule to attain our Chief End must come from God and as the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the Word of God so we say That these Scriptures are the Rule and the only Rule to attain our Chief End Good Books of other Men good Education good Sermons the determinations of the Church are good helps but there is no other Rule but this It is by this Rule we must try other Mens Books and Sermons yea the very Church it self Thus the Bereans tried the Doctrine of the Apostles themselves by the Scriptures which they then had and are commended for it Acts 17.11 And Peter prefers the evidence of the Scriptures before a voice from Heaven 2 Pet. 1.18 19. And Christ himself appeals to the Scriptures to justifie himself and his Doctrine Joh. 6.39 And if the Scriptures be the only Rule 1. Then not a Natural Conscience especially as the case now stands with Mankind for that is many times corrupted and false principled puts good for evil and evil for good It is and may be a great help guide and direction not a perfect Rule 2. Then not the Writings and Traditions of Men God that appoints the End and Means must be the discoverer of the Means of our Salvation 3. Then not pretended Revelations those may be Mens imaginations or the Devils delusions to prevent and discover which God hath set up this great and standing Revelation of his Scriptures 4. Then not the Church for that may err and it hath no way to evidence it self but by the Scriptures which are its Foundation The business of Mans Salvation is of that importance and the Wisdom of God so great that he will not commit so weighty a matter to such uncertain Rules as these but hath provided one of his own making the Holy Scriptures Thesis III. The Principal Subject of the Scriptures is what Man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of Man It is the Principal Subject of the Scriptures 1. Because it is of the greatest importance and concernment Eccles 12.13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole duty of Man Fear God which cannot be without the knowledge of him and keep his Commandments which contains his duty of Obedience to him 2. Because all the other Matters of the Scriptures have a kind of dependance upon and connexion with this Principal Matter or Subject But though this be the Principal Matter or Subject of the Scriptures yet they also contain very many other matters that do very much concern us to know and believe as namely What we are to understand concerning our selves the State of our Creation the Fall of Man the State wherein that Fall hath put all Mankind the means of our recovery the Immortality of the Soul the Resurrection the different estate of the good and bad after death the History of the Church and Houshold of God from the Creation of Man till some thirty years after the Resurrection of Christ and divers other and necessary Matters to be known both for our direction instruction and comfort And as the Scriptures do principally teach the Knowledge of Good and our duty as the principal Subject so they do principally teach it above other teachings or means It is true that the very Light of Nature doth teach us much of what is to be known concerning God and our duty to him As namely that there is a God and that there is but one God that this God is the first Cause and also the preserver of all things That he is Eternal without beginning or end Infinite Spiritual without mixture most Perfect and therefore most free most Powerful most Holy most Wise most Just most Bountiful and Merciful And upon all these Grounds the Light of Nature teacheth that he is to be Honored to be Feared to be Worshipped to be Obeyed This the Apostle shews us Rom. 1.20 For the Invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead so that they are without excuse And this light of Nature gives this Manifestation of God 1. By the Works of Creation and Providence 2. By the Workings of the Conscience 3. By a Traditional delivery over of some truths from man to man which by the study and pains of some wise men and Law-givers raised up by the Providence of God have been perfected and delivered over to others But the Preheminence of the Scriptures in their instruction of Mankind in the Knowledge of God and his duty to God appears partly in these considerations 1. The knowledge the Scriptures give in these things is more easie to be attained because it sets down these truths plainly that the most ordinary capacity may understand Whereas the knowledge of these things by the Light of Nature is more difficult requires much observation and industry and attention deducing and drawing down one thing from another and so arriving at their knowledge by much pains and study 2. The knowledge of these things delivered by the Scripture is much more
this Uncourteous dealing with our Lusts and Temptations will much countervail the unpleasingness of the Duty A man is tempted to a Sin he holds conference with it and is inticed to treat with it and to think of it and it pleaseth him but it is a Thousand to one if it stay there but unless some great diversion by the Grace of God or some External restraint by Shame or Punishment prevent him he commits the Sin and so Lust when it hath Conceived will bring forth Sin and Sin when finished will bring forth Shame and Death or at the best Shame and Sorrow How will a Man reckon with himself What am I the better for that Contentment that I took in this Sin the Contentment is past and that which it hath left me is nothing else but a mis-giving Conscience a sense of a displeased God ashamed to bring my mind in his presence a pre-apprehension of some mischief or inconvenience to follow me a despondency of mind to draw near to God under it and either a great deal of Sorrow and Vexation or Affliction under it or which is the usual gratification of Satan after Sin committed to put away the remembrance of a Sin past with the committing of another till at last the Guilt grows to such a moles that a Man is desperately given over to all kind of Villany and as his Sins increase his Guilt and Shame increaseth On the other side I have denyed my Lust or my Temptation and it is gone First I am as well without it as if I had committed it for it may be the Sin had been past and the contentment that I took in it and I had been as well without it but besides all this I have no Guilt cleaving to my Soul no sting in my Conscience no dispondent nor mis-giving Mind no Interruption of my Peace with God or my self I enjoy my Innocence my Peace my Access to God with Comfort nay more than all this I have a secret Attestation of the Spirit of God in my Conscience that I have obeyed him and have pleased him and have rejected the Enemy of his Glory and my Happiness I have a secret advance of my Interest and Confidence in him and Dependance upon him and Favour with him and Liberty and Access to him which doth Infinitely more than counter vail the satisfaction of an impure and unprofitable and vexing Lust which leaves no footsteps behind it but shame and Sorrow and Guilt 15. As Resolution and Severity to a mans self is one of the best remedies against the flatttery and deceit of Lust so there are certain Expedients that are subservient to that Resolution as namely First Avoiding of Idleness for the Soul in the Body is like a flame that as it were feeds upon that oily substance of the Body which according to the various qualifications or temper of the Body gives it a tincture somewhat like it self and unless the Soul be kept in action it will dwell too much upon that tincture that it receives from it and be too intent and pleased or at least too much tainted and transported and delighted with those fuliginous foul Vapors that arise from the Flesh and natural Constitution Keep it therefore busied about somewhat that is fitter for it that may divert that Intention and Complacency in those fumes that the inferiour part of the Soul is apt to take in them and so be tempted transported or abused by them Secondly A frequent and constant Consideration of the Presence of God and his Holy Angels Luke 15.7 10. 1 Cor. 4.9 who are Spectators of thy Constancy to God and his party and delighted in it or of thy Apostasie Bruitishness and Baseness of mind and grieved at it If a good Man were but acquainted with all my Actions and Motions of my mind upon the Advance of Lusts and Temptations it would make me ashamed to offend in his sight but much more if a pure and glorious Angel did in my view attend observe and behold me but when the Eternal God doth behold me who hath given me this Command to deny my Lusts and hath told me the danger of yielding to them that they bring forth Sin and Death and Hell offers his Grace to assist me promiseth Reward to my Obedience and Constancy how shall I then dare to offend with so much presumption Thirdly A frequent Consideration of Christ's Satisfaction Sufferings and Intercession These Lusts that now solicit me to their observance were those that Crucified my Saviour it was the end of his Passion to Redeem me not only from the Guilt but from the subjection to them It is he that beholds me how shall I trample his Blood under foot If I prostitute my self to them how shall I despise and as much as in me lies disappoint him in the very end of his Incarnation How shall I shame his Gospel before men and as much as in me lies put him to shame in the presence of the Father and all the Holy Angels when they shall be witnesses of my preferring a base Lust before him How can I expect the Intercession of my Saviour for me at the right hand of God who beholds me thus unworthily to serve a Lust though to my Damnation rather than obey my Redeemer to my Salvation 4. Frequent Consideration of Death and Judgment A base Lust solicites me to obey it Shall I accept or deny it It may be this may be the last action of my Life and possibly Death that might have been respited if I shall deny my Lust may be my next event if I obey it and as Death finds me so will Judgment find me Would I be content that such an act as this should be the Amen of my Life and it may be seal me up to eternal rejection Would I be content that my Soul should be presently carried into the presence of God under the last act of my Life to his dishonor Or on the other side if I deny this base importunate Messenger of Hell and it should please God to strike me presently after with Sickness or Death would it not be a more comfortable entrance into that black Valley with a clear Conscience and an Innocent Heart that could with Comfort say as once Hezekiah did upon the like occasion Isai 38.3 Remember O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart Fifthly A due Consideration of the Issue of those solicitations of Lust if assented unto the end of it is Death it will be bitterness in the end it cannot with all its pleasures countervail that bitterness that will most certainly attend it nor can it give any security against it Suppose thou art solicited to a thought or act of Injustice Impurity or Intemperance if thou wilt needs be talking with the Temptation ask it whether it be not a Sin against that God in whose hands thy Soul is and if it be whether his Anger and
freely to us Therefore we are certain that we cannot be disappointed nor consequently have any ground of impatience or discontent in that which is our unum magnum the thing we chiefly value He that sets his intirest love on God yet hath a liberty to issue a subordinate portion of love to other good things as Health Peace Opportunities to do Good Wife Children Friends And in these he may be crossed and disappointed But the predominant love of God delivers the Soul from Discontent and Impatience even under these losses 1. Because the Soul is still assured of what it most values the love of God returned to the Soul which compensates and drowns the other loss and the discontent that may arise upon it 2. Because the Heart is satisfied that these losses come from the hand of him whom he loves of whose Truth Wisdom Love and Goodness he hath assurance and therefore will be delivered out in measure upon most just Grounds and for most excellent ends He sends an Instruction along with his Rod and the Soul reads love as well in the Rod of God as his Staff 3. Because the Love of God taking up the principal bent and strength of the Soul leaves but a gentle and moderate Affection to the things it loseth and consequently a gentle and easie parting with them or being without them The great tumult and disorder that is made in the mind upon Losses Crosses or Discontents is not so much from the Intrinsical Value of the things themselves but from the Estimation that is put upon them were the love to them no more than they deserve the Discontent and Impatience in the loss would be very little Our chiefest love when it is placed upon God it is placed where it should be and the mind is then in its right frame and temper and dispenseth his love to other things regularly and orderly and proportionably to their worth and thereby the Discontent or Trouble that ariseth upon their Loss or Disappointment is weighed out according to their true value agreeable to the just measure of Reason and Prudence But when our love is out of his place it becomes Immoderate and Disorderly and consequently the Discontents that arise upon Disappointments in the things we immoderately love become Immoderate Exorbitant Discontents Impatience and Perturbation of Mind 4. Our love to God brings us to a free Resignation of our will to His For we therefore love him because we conclude him most Wise most Bountiful most Merciful most Just most Perfect and therefore must of necessity conclude that his Will is the best Will and fit to be the measure and rule of ours and not ours of his And in as much as we conclude that no Loss or Cross befals us without his Will we do likewise conclude that it is most fit to be born And because he never Wills any thing but upon most Wise and Just Reasons we conclude that surely there are such Reasons in this Dispensation and we study and search and try whether we can spell out those Reasons of his OF MODERATION OF ANGER THe Helps against Immoderate Anger are of two kinds 1. Previous Considerations before the occasion is offered to habituate the Mind to gentleness and quietness 2. Expedients that serve to allay or divert Anger when the occasion is offered Of the first sort are these 1. The consideration of our own Failings especially in reference to Almighty God and our duty to him which are much greater than any demerits of others toward us I provoke my Creator daily and yet I desire his Patience towards me and find it With what face can I expect gentleness from my Creator if every small provocation from my fellow Creature puts me into passion 2. The consideration of the Vnreasonableness of that Distemper in respect of my self It puts me into a Perturbation and makes me unuseful for my self or others while the distemper is upon me It breaks and discomposeth my thoughts and makes me unfit for business It disorders my Constitution of Body till the storm be over It discovers to others my Impotency of Mind and is more perceived and observed by others than it can be by my self It gratifies my Adversary when by my Passion I improve his Injury beyond the value of it and injure and torment and damnifie my self more by my own Perturbation than he can by the injury he doth It evidenceth a Prevalence of my more inferior and sensual part common to me with the Beasts above my Reasonable and more Noble part Sometimes indeed a Personated Anger managed with Judgment is of singular use especially in persons in Authority but such an Anger is but a painted fire and without perturbation But a Passionate Anger upon Injuries received or upon sudden Conceptions of them is always without any end at all of Good either intended or effected Nay It is an impediment to the attaining of any Good end because it blinds the Judgment and transports Men into inconsiderate Gestures Words and Actions 3. Consideration in respect of others even of the very persons provoking It may be they are Instruments permitted by God as his Instruments either to correct or try me Peradventure God hath bidden Shimei curse David be not too violent against the Instrument lest peradventure thou oppose therein the principal Agent Again many Men are of such a pitiful constitution that their injuries arise from very Impotence of Mind in them Shall I be angry with them because they want that understanding they should have And yet it is very strange to see the weakness and folly of our nature in this Passion that it will break into a Perturbation even with Children Drunken Men Mad-men Beasts yea very dumb things Witness our anger with the Cards and Dice when their chances please us not which shews the Unreasonableness and Frenzy of this Passion 2. There be some Expedients against it even when the occasion is offered 1. Carry always a Jealousie over thy Passion and a strict Watch upon it Take up this peremptory Resolution and Practice I will not be angry though an occasion be administred And let the return upon that Resolution be the first act after the Provocation given For if a Man can but bring himself to this pass that he take not fire upon the first offer the Passion will cool A Man calls then his Reason about him and debates with himself Is there cause I should be angry Or is there any Good end attainable by it Or if it be what is the just medium or size or measure of Anger proportionable to that end And these Considerations will break the first on-set of Passion and then it seldom prevails For it is the first Wave that carries on the Perturbation to the end which if it be broken at the first Serenity of Mind is preserved with much Contentation and sense of advantage 2. Take up this Resolution never to give thy self leave to be angry till thou seest the just
upon them as upon Heavenly yet they have this advantage that they are present and therefore affect the Sense and the Mind more than things that are better at a distance and therefore we are apt to set up our rest here And this is the reason that even Good Men though they value and prize Grace and the inwaâ—d favour of God yet they commonly love the World a little too much and divide their Affections too equally between God and the World and therefore study and indeavour such a Contemperation that they may hold both And hence it is that God who requires intirely the Heart doth many times make the world bitter to us to make us weary of his Rival that so we may with more Intireness and Integrity set our Hearts upon Him and upon that Everlasting Hope and long after and Integrity set our Hearts upon Him and it and satisfie our selves with the Expectation of it and make it our Treasure and set up our rest upon it and in it And these are some of those many reasons that evidence the Necessity of Afflictions 6. And now we will come to consider these Three matters 1. What Preparations we should use before Afflictions overtake us 2. What should be our Exercise under it 3. What should be our frame of mind in case of Deliverance from it I. And in the first place of the first of these We have seen that it is a Lot to be expected in this World we cannot upon any terms promise our selves an exemption from it nay if we should escape all other Temporal Calamities yet sickness and infirmities of Body will most infallibly overtake us they are part of that black guard that commonly attends death which is the inevitable Lot of the living It concerns us all therefore to be prepared for that which must necessarily sooner or latter be our condition in some kind or other it may be in many it may be in all kinds 1. Therefore the first Expedient Preparatory to Afflictions is this In the time of our Prosperity it must be our care to walk with as much Innocence Watchfulness and Circumspection as can be for it is a most certain truth that the Malignity and Sting and Venome of Affliction is not so much in the things I suffer as in the sense of my former Guilt and Sin No Man is in a better condition to bear Afflictions than he that hath the cleanest Conscience for as any distemper in any part of the Body draws all the mischievous and hurtful humours of the Body to that part so it is a most sure consequent of any manner of Affliction it brings all former Sins to remembrance and calls the thoughts of them together upon such an occasion When Joseph's Brethren were under a strait in Egypt under the threatnings and seeming jealousies of their unknown Brother then comes in the remembrance of their injury to their Brother and it is represented to them with all the aggravations that can be Gen. 42.21 We are verily guilty concerning our Brother in that we saw the anguish of his Soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us Conscience that they had before stifled and injured now takes her time to be even with them and flies upon them when they are in a strait and then she will be heard though in their Prosperity she could not And this Return of the Remembrance of former Sins is the very Gall of Afflictions and that principally upon these two reasons 1. It is that which weakens and impares the strength that should bear them for for the most part all ternal Afflictions they concern the Body or the outward Man whether it be Poverty or Reproach or Sickness or Pain and if for all this the Mind be but free she will be able to bear them pretty well will suggest Reasons for Patience Hopes for Deliverance and Twenty allayes at least to mitigate the present sufferings but when that Mind and Reason and Judgment that should support is likewise wounded and vexed and tormented with the sense of past Sins and the Storms that are within be as violent and turbulent as those without there is nothing to bear up against the Afflictions the Soul it self that should support the outward Man wants support for it self 2. In all external Troubles as it is the Duty so it is the Nature of Man to fly to God and that application possibly gains Relief from it but howsoever it bears up the Man with a convenient strength against them the very liberty of recourse to God gains a Dependance a Hope a Confidence which supports in a very great measure under the Greatest Troubles but this Return of Sins past upon the Conscience and Memory if it doth not wholly deprive yet it doth wonderfully interrupt discourage and divert the Soul from this most admirable expedient When a Man shall have such thoughts as these I am under a very great Affliction either in my Estate Friends Name Body and I know no way to extricate my self but one and that is by application to the Almighty and Merciful God and if I could but do so I were safe but alass the Memory of my former Sins my breach of Covenant with him my frequent Relapses into Sin my Ingratitude to him they fall in upon me and I dare not I know not how I have not the face the confidence to come unto him and so I must lie and sink under as well my Guilt as my Affliction And although this is a very false way of Argumentation and such as is most displeasing to God and derogatory to his high Prerogative of Mercy as well in forgiving as in delivering who hath given to the most hainous Sinner and under the greatest Afflictions a Commission to ask his mercy both to Pardon and to Deliver and that with a Promise of Mercy yet it is most certain that what by our own weakness and what by the Devils subtilty the Remembrance of our past Sins doth most ordinarily make our addresses to God under our Afflictions very difficult Little therefore do people consider in the time of their Prosperity what a stock of Venom and malignity they lay up against an evil day by a dissolute and sinful life Affliction without this most accursed contribution were much more tolerable If thou meanest therefore to make thy Affliction easie keep thy Conscience clean before it comes thou hast then the Strength of thine own Soul to support thee and the liberty of Access to the most Mighty and Gracious God to deliver thee when thou canst in the sincerity of thy Heart with Hezek Isa 38.3 appeal unto God Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in Truth and with a perfect Heart and have done that which is good in thy sight I say with reverence keep God thy Friend in thy Prosperity and thou mayest with confidence resort to him and relie upon him in
Relapses into them Remember the mischiefs they then did thee and let them know they shall do thee no more be most severe and strict against them 5. Make a frequent Vse of thy Deliverance as a singular Preservative against the Power of thy Temptations and Corruptions Deliverance carries in the very apprehension of it these two things 1. A supposition of a former Misery or Visitation 2. A present injoyment of a freedom from that Misery Therefore if any Corruption or Temptation unto Sin sollicite thee improve this consideration to this or the like effect I was lately under the Rack under the Rod under extream Want Imprisonment Disgrace Losses Sickness Sorrows Fears and an imminent expectation of the worst of Evils and though these were sore and sharp Afflictions yet the sense of my former Sins and the importunate restlesness of that Guilt that was contracted from them were more bitter and tormenting than all the rest of my sufferings it was that which was the sting and venome of all my Afflictions and it hath pleased Almighty God to accept of my Humiliation and to remove my Afflictions and to give me Beauty for Ashes and shall I be so very a fool as by committing of a new sin to run the hazard of another plunge another scourge which in all probability must be much more severe than the former because it would be the Issue not only of Sin but of Presumption a Sin committed against the experience that I have had of the bitterness of Sin and with what face or hope could I expect any possibility of Deliverance from a second Relapse into Misery occasioned by so Desperate a presumptuous relapse into Sin But suppose it were possible that notwithstanding my yielding to this Temptation I might escape the Vengeance yet can I be so false so ungrateful to that God that hath delivered me from my Sufferings and from my Fears as to recompence his Love and Mercy and Goodness with a Presumptuous Apostacy from him shall I thus requite his Mercy and Goodness that heard me in my Anguish and Sadness of Soul in my Extremity and Misery and so heard me that he hath delivered me out of all my Troubles and Miseries Certainly if either common Prudence or common Ingenuity be left in a Man the sense of a former Calamity and the sense of so great a Mercy will make a Man abhor the least submission to that Temptation that may at once hazard the continuance of his present Comfort and cannot be entertained without the Presumptuous rejection of him that thus Mercifully sent Deliverance 6. Let the remembrance of thy Misery and thy present Mercy make thee most jealously and passionately careful to keep thy Interest and if it be not too bold a word thy Friendship with God Remember he was thy support in thy Affliction and he was thy Deliverer out of thy Affliction let Gratitude bind thee to it as he was thy Benefactor and let Prudence bind thee to it thou knowest not how soon thou mayst have the same necessity again and where canst thou find such a friend The truth is when we are in extremity and have no whither else to fly O then we run to God and we pray unto him and promise him fair but when once our turn is served and we have gotten our ends and think our selves out of Gun-shot we are like Mariners after a Storm and God hears no more of us but this is as extream Ingratitude so extream Folly Oh keep thy God thy Friend for most certain it is thou wilt have occasion to use him again and thou knowest not how soon keep thine interest in him and estrange not thy self from him in thy Recovery whom thou canst not be without in thy Affliction 7. As I would have thee recollect what were the things in thy life past that most troubled thee in thy Affliction that so thou mayst avoid them so think what things or practices or expence of time in thy life past was most Acceptable and Comfortable to thee in thy Affliction that so thou mayst practise them after thy restitution Consider whether in thy Affliction thou didst remember thy past Recreations thy Merriments thy Feastings thy Lusts thy Honours thy Greatness with any Comfort or Contentment or whether the remembrance of the Hours thou hast formerly spent in Prayer Reading the Scriptures Hearing Sermons Relieving the Poor Visiting the Sick Relieving the Oppressed Harbouring the Persecuted Members of Christ gave thee more contentment And I dare appeal to any Mans Experience under Heaven that when the former sort of Transactions of our lives were either extreamly bitter or at best very insipid to his remembrance yet the remembrance of these of the latter sort were most Comfortable and Contenting Thou art now recovered it is true but as sure as thou shalt dye so sure thou shalt pass through new Afflictions though it may be not of the same kind yet of some kind let it be thy care after God hath thus delivered thee from thy former Affliction to lay up a stock of Good Works against another Evil day such Cordials will lie warm at thy Heart even when the cold pangs of Death it self shall be ready to invade and seize upon it and the Comfort of them shall pass into the other World with thee 8. Though the portion of thy life before thy Affliction and under it were very well spent yet remember that the Mercy of God in thy Deliverance doth call upon thee for a farther degree of Goodness and Perfection than thou hadst before it calls for more Humility and more Thankfulness and more Heavenly Mindedness and more Charity and more Devotion and more Self-Denial and more Sanctity and more Jealousie for the Honour of God For 1. On Gods part thou hast more Ingagements and Obligations put upon thee than before Every increase of Mercy calls for an increase of Duty 2. On thy own part thy Experiences are greater thou hast past through the School of Afflictions and that is a season wherein God opens the Ear to Discipline the Rod hath a voice and a lesson to teach and thou hast past through the experience of Gods Goodness Tenderness and Faithfulness in thy Deliverance and that tutors thee to more Dependance upon him Thankfulness to him and Love of him and these affections carry out the Heart to Duty and Obedience 9. Beware that after Deliverance from Afflictions thou be not secure think not with Agag surely the bitterness of death is past that now thou hast escaped this brunt all is safe and the danger past still be Watchful and stand upon thy Guard 1. Thou hast Sins and Corruptions within thee that if thou art not watchful may surprize thee and raise new storms 2. Thou hast watchful and vigilant Enemies without thee Evil Men and Evil Angels that envy thee the more because thou hast escaped 3. As long as thou livest in the World thy condition is uncertain and unstable in Externals and though
waiting upon him partly to carry us on to more Importunity and Continuance in Prayer and by this means our Souls are made the better by drawing nearer and nearer to him that is the Fountain of Light and Goodness for the repetition of Prayers rectifies the Soul brings it nearer to God lays more hold upon his Strength and Goodness as the sinking Man draws himself nearer to the shore by the repeated laying hold upon that Cord that is from thence thrown out to save him Neither doth he rest here for the Deliverance he sends is not barely sent to deliver us from the Affliction or Danger nor barely to gratifie our Prayers but to bring us yet nearer to God and to make us active Instruments to give Glory to that God that hath thus delivered us whereby at once we are drawn nearer to the Fountain of our own Happiness and Almighty God receives and attains the great end of his Goodness in the active Glory and Gratitude that he receives from his Creature And this is attained 1. By a kind of Natural Instinct Ingenuity and implanted Tendency as I may call it of a Good Nature whereby unless a Man be a fool or hath put off the common Rudiments of Humanity he is carried out to Thankfulness Gratitude and an indeavor of complacency to him that is his Benefactor which as it is the most rational consequence imaginable so it is a principle so riveted in the very Constitution of Humanity it self that even without any antecedent ratiocination or rational discourse it doth presently and at first view and antecedently antevert any rational discourse of the Mind We are Grateful and study to be complacent to him that doth us good without any using of Topicks or Arguments by a kind of Natural Instinct or Sympathy 2. By a kind of Stipulation or bargain made by Almighty God with his poor Creature to have this Tribute of Gratitude and Benevolent Affection from his Creature as the Tribute and return of his Goodness and Beneficence Psal 50.15 Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me And this Retribution as it is most admirably Con-genious and Con-natural to the right constitution of the Humane Nature so it is the most Reasonable and the most Noble and the most Easie and the most Beneficial Retribution in the World to him that makes it For first Whereas the Creature in his Prayer seeks and in the returns thereof receives something from God in his Gratitude and Glorification of God he performs that which his Maker graciously accepts as a return made to him from his Creature Secondly By this means he attains the two great Ends of his Being namely the Glorifying of God and the Improvement of his own Felicity for Gratitude and Thankfulness brings the Soul to a nearer approach to God if it be possible than his very Prayers doth because it is the greatest motion of Love and Beneficence in the Soul unto God that can be and the nearer the Soul is moved unto God the nearer it is joyned to its Life its Perfection its Happiness The more it participates of the Love the Goodness the Influence the Communication of the Divine Goodness OF PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING Psal CXVI 12. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his Benefits towards me THere are two great Duties that we ow unto God which are never out of season But such as we have continual occasion and necessity to use whilest we live namely Prayer and Thanksgiving Prayer Is always seasonable in this life because we ever stand in need of it we always want something and have always occasion to fear something although we could be supposed in such a state of Happiness in this World that we could not say we wanted any thing yet we have cause to pray for the continuance of the Happiness we injoy which is not so fixed and stable but that it may leave us I said in my prosperity I shall never be moved Thou hiddest thy face and I was troubled We are never out of the reach of the Divine Providence either to Relieve or Afflict us and therefore we are under a continual Necessity of Prayer either to Relieve and Supply us or at least to preserve and uphold us Thanksgiving is likewise always seasonable because we are never without something that we receive from the Divine Goodness that deserves and requires our Thankfulness It may be we want Wealth yet have we not Health If we want both yet have we not Life If we want Temporal Blessings yet have we not Eternal Everlasting Blessings If we have any thing that is comfortable to or convenient for us we have it from the Goodness and Bounty of God And though we have not all we would yet we have what we deserve not and what we prize and value and therefore while we have any thing we have occasion of Thanksgiving to our great Benefactor But yet it seems though both those Duties be highly due and necessary yet Thanksgiving hath a kind of preference even above Prayer it self in these considerations especially 1. The Duty of Thanksgiving seems to be a more Permanent Duty even than Prayer it self and of a greater extent and durableness The Blessed Angels and the Saints that are and shall be settled and fixed in a state of full and unchangeable Happiness that enjoy whatsoever they can desire and therefore have no reason to pray for more because they cannot enjoy more than they do yet have an Everlasting occasion of Thanksgiving for that Happiness they Everlastingly enjoy And as this is their Everlasting occasion so it is and shall be their Everlasting business unto all Eternity to Praise and Glorifie God And as the Beams of the Divine Goodness shall Everlastingly shine upon them so there will be an Everlasting Reflection as it were of the same Goodness in the necessary and uncessant returns of Praise and Thanksgiving by them 2. The Duty of Thanksgiving seems to be a Duty of more noble Nature than even Prayer it self because it answers more appositly and closely the noblest End in the World namely the Glory of God which certainly is a more ultimate and noble End than even the very Good of the Creature It is true Almighty God receives no accession to his Happiness and Perfection by all the Honour and Praise and Thanksgiving that all the Creatures in the World can pay him yet the Glory of his Majesty is the chief ultimate End why he made all things Rev. 4.11 Thou art worthy to receive Glory Honour and Power for thou hast Created all things and for thy pleasure they were and are Created It is true the proximate immediate reason of the Creation of all things was that the Redundant Goodness of Almighty God might be communicated unto Being derived from him by Creation But the ultimate and more universal End was that by this Communication of the Divine Goodness unto something without
reject those Requests which he himself hath Commanded thee to make 2. As thou prayest in the first place that his Name may be sanctified so let that be the End of all thy Requests Be sure thou ask not any thing which may not be sutable to that End much less contrary to it And in what thou askest agreeable to that End let it be likewise for that End Ask not thy daily Bread for thy Lusts but that thou mayest Glorifie him by it and for it Ask not Pardon for thy Sin barely for thy ease from Punishment much less to make room for new Offences but that thereby his Mercy and Truth may be magnified and his Creature restored to a condition actively to serve him and glorifie him The End is first in intention and is it that draws out all the Actions and orders and directs them to that End and every Action tasts and relisheth of that End Since therefore the Sanctifying of the Name of God is or should be thy chief End and therefore is first in thy Requests Let all thy Requests and Prayers be primarily and chiefly directed to this that is or should be thy chiefest End 3. As the Glory of God should be the chief of thy desires so consequently must it be the Measure of them That which is the chiefest End must control and over-rule all other subordinate Ends if they come in competition with it For as it is of greatest value so it is of greatest force Whatsoever therefore thou askest let it be still with subordination to the Glory of God and be rather contented to be disappointed in thy other inferiour Ends than that this should in the least degree be disappointed Only know and rest assured of this truth that such is the great Goodness and Wisdom of God that he hath placed all those Requests which are of absolute necessity to be granted thee in such an order and path that the granting of them always consists with his Glory and whil'st thou seekest them thou canst not miss of glorifying him and therefore thou mayest be sure the making of his Glory the measure of thy Request shall never disappoint thee in them such as are the pardoning thy sins the delivering thee from being finally overcome with spiritual Evil but thy other requests for temporal Benefits or Deliverances or the particular Circumstances of those other as the manifestation or assurance of Pardon the degrees of spiritual Blessings or the seasons of granting them these may not always lie in the Road-way of his Glory Be content in these to wait upon him and let them still be asked with subordination to this great End but be assured that by preferring his Glory as thy chief End and subjecting the fulfilling of thy Request to the Glory of God thou shalt be no loser in the end Never any man was a loser nor ever shall be that principally intends the Glory of God though to the disappointment of his own particular Ends. Thou hast done thy duty in asking and in asking with this restriction if it tend most for the Glory of God And thou hast done thy Duty in being contented and rejoycing that thy very request is disappointed if God receive Glory thereby for thou hast that which thou diddest in the first place desire and had thy particular Request been granted and the Glory of thy Maker suffered thereby thou had'st been disappointed in this first and great Petition Sanctified be thy Name which thou hast carried along with thee as the qualification of all the rest of thy Requests and as that which thou hast as it were prayed over again in every other Petition thou hast made Assure thy self if thou canst take delight in the Glory of God though to thy own particular damage God will more abundantly recompence thy seeking of his Glory than that very Petition which is denied could have done if granted Thou servest a Bountiful Master that will surely recompence thy Love of his Glory above thy own particular advantage And thou servest a Wise Master that will recompence thee in such a kind or at such a season as shall be more sutable and more comfortable than if thou had'st been thy own carver And this thou shalt clearly and sensibly find that which thou did'st in the first place ask is granted in kind viz. the Honour of God and that which thou did'st ask for thy self though denied in kind is the more granted in value thy own particular benefit Our Saviour prayed that that bitter Cup of death might pass from him yet with submission to the Will and Glory of God Matth. 26.39 yet his Soul must be made an offering for sin and it was so The Glory and the Truth of God required it yet he was heard in that he feared Heb. 5.7 he suffers him to dye but raiseth him from death and he saw of the travail of his Soul and was satisfied Isa 53.11 Thou prayest for deliverance from any affliction from a Disease from Poverty for knowledg or Assurance in such a degree It may be it will not be so much for the Glory of God to grant it or to grant it yet as for the present to deny it First therefore pray Thy Name be hallowed and though I am for the present denied it is enough I am abundantly answered if God be glorified though I be denied Thou shalt find that none that waits upon him shall be ashamed if he grant thee not deliverance he will give thee sufficient Grace if he deny thy recovery he will give thee patience if he deny thee Riches he will give thee Contentedness If he deny thee that measure of Grace he will grant thee Humility If he deny thee that degree of Assurance he will give thee Dependance So that though thou walk in darkness for a while and hast no light yet thou shalt trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon thy God Isa 50.10 such is the Goodness of God that while we seek his Glory in the first place and other things with subordination to it our other request shall be granted either in kind or compensation Thy Kingdom Come The Kingdom of God hath several acceptations 1. His Universal Kingdom The Kingdom of his Providence which extendeth to all the Actions and Events of all his Creatures Mat. 10.39 Luke 12.6 even to the falling of a Sparrow Psal 103.19 The Lord hath prepared his Throne in Heaven his Kingdom ruleth over all Psal 66.7 He ruleth by his Power for ever his Eyes behold the Nations And this he doth by planting originally in his Creatures their several Laws or Rules by which they move by a derivation of a continual Influence whereby they are supported and preserved in their several Motions Operations and Beings which if he should withdraw but one Moment all things would return unto their Nothing by correcting and over-ruling of all things sometimes contrary to their Nature to shew his freedom and Sovereignty but always by the mingling
and the Forgetfulness of God 3. Because the time of Youth is most Obnoxious to forget God there is great Inadvertency and Inconsiderateness Incogitancy Unstableness Vanity Love of Pleasures Easiness to be corrupted in Youth and therefore necessary in this season to lodge the Remembrance of our Creator in our Youth to be an Antidote against these defects to establish and fix the entrance of our lives with this great Preservative the Remembrance of our Creator 4. When Almighty God lays hold of our Youth by a timely Remembrance of himself and thereby takes the first possession of our Souls commonly it keeps its ground and seasons the whole course of our ensuing Lives it prevents and anticipates the Devil and the World It is true it may possibly be that Natural Corruption and Worldly Temptations may suspend the actings of this Principle but it is rarely extinguished It is like that abiding seed remaining in him spoken of by John 1 Joh. 3.9 Which will recover him again 5. The last reason is because there are Evil Days that will certainly come which will render this work of Remembring our Creator difficult to be first begun and therefore it is the greatest Prudence imaginable to lay in this stock before they come for it will certainly stand us in great stead when they come It is the greatest Imprudence in the World to defer that business which is necessary to be done unto such a time wherein it is very difficult to be done and it is the greatest Prudence in the World to do that work which must be done in such a season wherein it may be easily and safely done He that lays in this store of Remembrance of his Creator before the Evil Day come will find it of the greatest use and service to him in that Evil Day Now those Evil Days are many and all of them befall some but some of them will certainly befall all Mankind 1. An Evil Day of Publick or Private Calamities He that beforehand hath laid in this stock of Remembring his Creator will be easily able to bear any Calamity when it comes but a man that hath not done this before hand will find it a very unseanable time to begin to set about it when Fear and Anguish and Perplexity and Storms and Confusion are round about him and take up all his thoughts 2. The Evil Day of Sickness is an unseasonable time or at least a very difficult time to begin such a business When Sickness and Pain and Disorder and uneasiness shall render a man Impatient and full of Trouble and his Thoughts full of Disorder and Discomposure and Waywardness then it will be found a difficult business to begin the Remembrance of our Creator It is true no time is utterly unacceptable of God for this work but surely it is best to begin before this Evil day come for then it will be a comfort and mitigate the Pains and Discomposure of Sickness when a man can thus reflect upon his life past as Hezekiah did in his Sickness Remember O Lord that I have not failed to remember my Creator in the days of my Health 3. The evil Day of Old and Infirm Age which is a Disease and burthen of it self and yet is ever accompanied with other Sicknesses Pains and Diseases and a Natural frowardness and Morosity and Discontentedness of mind and therefore not so seasonable to begin the undertaking of this work as the flourishing Youth And indeed a man cannot reasonably expect that the Great God who invites the Remembring our Creator in the Days of our Youth and hath been ungratefully denied should accept the Dreggs of our Age for a Sacrifice when we have neglected the thoughts of him in our strong and flourishing age But on the other side that man that hath spent the time of his Youth and Strength in the remembrance of his Creator may with comfort and contentment in his old and feeble age reflect upon his past life with Hezekiah Remember O Lord I pray thee that I have not failed to remember thee in the days of my Youth and Strength and I pray thee accept of the endeavours of my Old Decayed Age to preserve that Remembrance of thee which I so early began and have constantly continued and pardon the defects that the natural decays of my strength and age have occasioned in that duty 4. The evil day of Death when my Soul fits hovering upon my lips and is ready to take its flight when all the World cannot give my Life any certain truce for a day or for an hour and I am under the cold embraces of Death then to begin to remember my Creator is a difficult and unseasonable time But when I have began that business early and held on the Remembrance of my Creator it will be a Cordial even against Death it self and will carry my Soul unto the Presence of that God which I have thus remembred in and from the days of my Youth with Triumph and Rejoycing Briefly therefore 1. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth because thou knowest not whether thou shalt have any other Season to Remember him Death may overtake thee and lay thee in the Land of Forgetfulness thy Spring may be thy Autumn and thy early bud may be the only fruit that Mortality may afford thee 2. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth because it is a time of Invitation neglect not this Season because thou knowest not whether ever thou shalt be again invited to it Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth that thy Creator may remember thee in the days of thy Sickness and Old Age and in the Evil Day 4. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth lest thy Creator neglect thee in the Evil Day Neglected Favours especially from thy God may justly provoke him never to lend thee more Because I called and ye refused I also will laugh at your Calamity and mock when your Fear cometh Prov. 1.24 26. 5. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth because it will heal the Evil of Evil days when they come it will turn those days that are in themselves Evil to become days of Ease and Comfort it will heal the Evil of the day of Affliction of Sickness of Old Age and of Death it self and make it a passage into a better a more abiding Life OF THE Vncleanness of the Heart and how it is Cleansed Psal 51.10 Cor mundum crea in me Deus THis Prayer imports or leads us into the Consideration of these things 1. What the condition of every mans Heart is by Nature It is a foul and unclean Heart 2. Wherein consists this uncleanness of the Heart 3. What is the ground or cause of this uncleanness of the Heart 4. Whence it is that the condition of the Heart is changed It is an act of Divine Omnipotence 5. What is the condition of a Heart thus cleansed or wherein the cleanness of the Heart consists