13. ult Put on the New Man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Eph. 4.24 Be you cloathed with humility foâ— God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble 1 Pet. 5.5 This Garment is very neat but how much more comely and glorious is the Wedding Garment of Souls the Robe of Christ's Righteousness which is put on by Faith Oh what a blessed time will that be when I shall be arrayed with the perfect beauty of Holiness with the white Garments of perfect Light and Glory then shall be the Marriage of the Lamb. Am I not now garnishing a Body which may in a few days turn to rottenness O what shall this vile Body be deckt as a dead Body stuck with flowers and the precious Soul be neglected 3. When you have got your cloaths on then solemnly retire into your Closet for Devotion if no other necessary business call you unto something else before which may often happen when you have a Family which when you have then if occasion be first settle affairs therein for the fore-noon work and then having sounded a retreat in your heart to temporal affairs you may after retire into your Closet with more freedom from domestick cares and without fear of interruption whereas if you went to your private Devotion before you would be forced to cut it shorter to curt and clip that duty 4. Manage your domestick affairs with prudence and diligence but not with sollicitous eagerness and vexing care Solomon's virtuous Woman looketh well to the affairs of her houshold and eateth not the bread of idleness Prov. 31.27 A wise woman buildeth her house Prov. 14.2 she studies in every business how to set every thing in order as the Carpenter studies how to set every part of the frame in joynt But yet herein be not like Martha while she played the good huswife cumbred about many things And if many things fall out together dispatch them in a prudent order and not with too much haste and eagerness Those things are seldom well done that are done over-hastily The Drones flie about more hastily than the Bees but they make no Honey but Combs only 5. At your meals reflect upon God turn your eyes to see his mercies towards you Thus will you enjoy God in all A carnal heart regards no more than the bare enjoyment of these outward mercies but looks not to the spring from whence they come as a gracious heart doth who finds the greatest sweetness of them to be their coming from the Love of God Besides you may then reflect on God by raising up your thoughts to the delights in him think seriously in your heart if this meat be so sweet to my tast how much more sweet is Christ and hidden Mannah Here you may take occasion like him that sate at meat with Christ Luk. 14.15 to raise up your thoughts to the blessedness of him that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God Thus you will feast your Soul while you are feeding your Body Thus you may so sweeten your Meat and spice your Cup with the rellishes of the Love of God as may make your Table better and more pleasant to you than the Tables of the greatest Ladies in the World 6. In the midst of all your domestick over-sight of affairs when you shall have any eye Gods Providence casting all your care upon him and so he will bless your endeavours And often retire to God by Ejaculations short Addresses and holy Breathings of Soul after him By these you may sanctifie both your walking riding and journeying which are usually vainly spent in multitudes of idle thoughts that signifie nothing and all your affairs also whatsoever This was Nehemiah's practice when he was before the King he then prayed to the God of Heaven Chap. 2.4 I do not believe that he then went into some place by himself to pray no he sent up only some short Ejaculations to God while he was in the King's presence It 's reported of holy Mr. Dod that he never got up upon his Horse but he prayed before he alighted off In every corner there is a Throne of Grace therefore often every day improve this priviledge be often looking up to God and casting your eyes to Heaven and so you may bring down Heaven to you As often as you want direction in any sudden case and affair or relief in any need by one lift or sudden glance of the Eye of Faith to Jesus Christ you may have it And in such cases you may use as an Ejaculatory Prayer that of honourable Jabez O that thou wouldst bless me indeed and that thy hand may be with me and that thou wouldst keep me from evil that it may not grieve me 1 Chron. 4.10 which was so pleasing to God that it 's added there and God granted him that which he requested 7. Besides those short Ejaculations now mentioned you must make solemn Addresses to God twice a day at least The Soul must have her set meals or a set service to God twice every day at least Twice every day the Clock must necessarily be wound up Aaron lighted the Lamps and burned Incense evening and morning Exod. 30.7 8. Reading of Scripture is to us as his burning the Lamps and praying is as his burning Incense these two must go both together like eating and drinking If you do solemnly address your self to God in the morning you shall be in a better frame and temper of heart all the day after and if you do it at night you will find a better appetite to it again next morning But I do not limit you to twice a day it will be best to do it as often as with any conveniency you can Holy David did it thrice a day evening and morning and at noon Psal 55.17 so did Daniel ch 6. v. 10. 8. Fill up all the intervals and vacancies of your time every day those Parentheses or breathing times betwixt one employment and another with reading some good and profitable Books necessary Recreations for your health charitable Visits of the Poor friendly Courtesies neighbourly Civilities or some profitable Discourse or Recourses to God in Prayer beside your evening and morning Addresses 9 Every night before you go to Bed retire your self and call your self seriously to an account in an impartial survey of all the remarkable actions and also of the mercies of the past day And for your better direction therein you may ask your self these following questions 1. What time have I lost or trifled away this day 2. What particular duties have I omitted 3. What sins have I committed this day 4. Out of what principle have I performed my duties whether out of an inward byass of Love to God or from some outward Poises and Motives Have not the wheels been oiled by some sinister orespects in duty Hath not my perfâ—rmance of duties been more out of custom or to stop the mouth of natural Conscience than out
of any delight in them 5. In this account ask your self what have my Receivings been from God this day what Talents and Mercies have I had from him and how have I laid them out for him what Mercies have I received and what returns have I made for them 10. Close your eyes at night with some thoughts of God and Christ When you are composing your self to sleep commit your self then both Body and Soul into his hands to keep them for you while you sleep as the Child when it goes to Bed gives its Mother what it would have kept safely Or going to Bed you may suitably meditate on Death whose Image and Picture Sleep is Look upon your Bed as upon your Grave think to die as often as you fall asleep Sleep is a short Death and Death is nothing else but a long sleep the Bed is a grave for one night and the grave is a Bed for many Ages We expect to awaken from our Beds and we hope to rise again from our graves If you seriously follow this course every night you will have Jesus Christ lie all night as a bundle of Myrrh betwixt your breasts and will find your heart in a good frame when you awake If you thus rake up the fire over night you will find it in in the morning Solomon's virtuous Woman lets not her Candle go out by night Prov. 31.18 Let your Lamp be well trimm'd your Grace well lighted and put in exercise when you compose your self to rest and like a good Watch-candle you will find it burning when you awake O how many are there that lie down as the Beasts in their Straw without so much as bidding their Souls good night Ejaculations which may be used at night before sleep I Will both lay me down and sleep for thou Lord make stme dwell in safety Psal 4.8 When thou liest down thou shalt not be afraid yea thou shalt lie down and thy sleep shall be sweet Prov. 3.24 Lord I commit my self both Body and Soul into thy hands who art the keeper of Israel and neither slumbers nor sleeps The Lord is my keeper the Lord is my defence who neither slumbers nor sleeps Psal 21.4 5. 11. If there be any interceptions any interruptions or breaches of sleep in the night fill up those vacancies with meditations on some Sermon lately heard or on what you read the day before in the Bible or some other good Book or else with some Parenthetical Ejaculations as devout Souls those spiritual Crickets of the night have used to do Ejaculations that may be used in the Night in breaches of sleep BY night upon my bed I sought him whom my Soul loveth Cant. 3.1 O let me not have occasion to say I sought him but I found him not or to go about as the Spouse there did in a dark night of desertion crying out like a desolate Widdow Saw ye him whom my Soul loveth With my Soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early Isa 26.9 My Soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips while I remember thee on my bed and meditate on thee in the night watches Psal 63.5 6. O when shall I come and appear in the presence of God in the City of the New Jerusalem which hath no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it for the glory of God doth lighten it and tke Lamb is the light thereof And there shall be no Night there and they need no Candle neither Light of the Sun for the Lord God giveth them Light and they shall reign for ever and ever Rev. 21.23 O when shall my Soul be received into the number of that heavenly Chore that sing for ever Hallelujahs that rest not day and night saying Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come Rev. 4.8 I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel my reins also my inward thoughts instruct me in the night season Psal 16.7 CHAP. XXIII How to spend the Lord's Day IN general Be a curious spender of your time on the Lord's Day This will be a holy curiosity Let this day be your delight spend it wholly in walking in the Spouses Garden amongst Duties and Ordinances with a sweet and holy pleasure where there is so great variety that you may go like a diligent Bee from one Flower to another from one Duty to another and never take surfeit It 's the whole day that God commans to be sanctified and therefore the whole must be spent in holy exercises Therefore do not think it sufficient for the sanctification thereof that you have been at the Publick Worship in the Assembly unless the whole day were spent there as was antiently done by the Primitive Christians in their Publick Assemblies almost from morning to night On other days of the week Duties call for time but time calls for Duties on the Lord's Day If I were to pass my Judgment on the Religion of any person I would take my measures from the manner of their observation or the Lord's Day 2. Before you go to the Publick Worship spend what time you can in private beside Duty in the Family that so you may be better prepared for the Publick for private Devotion before will be a great means to prevent worldly thoughts and distractions when you are in the Assembly Worldly thoughts and cares do play the part of little Children if they cannot keep the Mother from going abroad they will cry to go along with her and these if they cannot keep you from Church they will strive to go thither with you but solemn preparation before lays a restraint on them gives them a discharge to prevent and hinder their accompanying of you 3. Be a constant diligent and reverent Attendant on the Publick Ordinances and make the best improvement of them for your Soul This is a frequenting the Royal Exchange of Christians and would exceedingly tend to the Souls advantage Christ's presence is most to be found in the Publick Ordinances he walks in the midst of the golden Candlesticks here the whole Assembly with united and concentricated Forces do besiege the Throne of Grace and so their prayers have more power with God Musick in Consort is the most pleasant That is the sweetest Posie that is made of most Flowers The prayers of many smell sweetest with God Besides Affections are more wrought on in publick than in private which some great Naturalists have observed as one of Natures great Mysteries and where Affections are most raised there God usually confers the greater blessing Indeed sometimes it falls out that Christians are more dull under the publick means which may be in Judgment when they either put too much confidence in such places or are fallen to a loathing or slighting of that spiritual food either because they have it so oft or by reason of
upon the height of his Stature like Saul among the People there is none like him View him in all his excellencies he is white and ruddy the Chiefest among ten thousand fairer than all the Children of Men and your self will be complete in him Know for your encouragement that you shall have the richest Dowry in all the World for all that Christ and Heaven is worth shall be yours the Wife being interested in all her Husbands Goods he will advance you to a Kingdom and Feoffe you in all the riches of it Say then Lord if I had Ten Thousand selves I would give them all up to thee who hast shewed to me such wonderful Love as to offer to give up thy self to me I will take thee with all my heart I give my free and hearty consent let the Match be made and assure your self then that it shall be made up the Spirit of Christ will be assistant to Faith in Tying the Marriage knot CHAP. II. Of Living the Life of Faith 1. LIve the Life of Faith in a continual dependence upon God in Christ for all things necessary especially for the Soul Six hundred and Thirteen precepts have been observed to be in the Law of Moses by some of the Hebrew Doctors who had the leisure to number them and they tell us that they are all wrapt up by the Prophet Habakkuk in that one short sentence The just shall live by Faith Sure it is a very pregnant and comprehensive duty for Faith is an Obediential Affiance and so is a pair of Compasses one foot whereof viz. Affiance being pitch'd upon the Center which is God the other goes round in a perfect Circle of all holy Duties Faith surveys the whole Land of promise searches it out throughly spies out all the rich Treasures that lye in the golden mines of the promises and finds suitable provision in every case both for Soul and for Body which in it can fetch in time of need and so it hath work enough daily for a constant and continued employment because every moment we are under some spiritual want 2. As for temporal good things live by Faith in a holy dependency and indifferency resting contented with the will of God whatsoever it be A believer though the Bill of fare be short lives on the wise powerful and gracious providence of God not doubting but he shall have enough to pay for his passage thorugh the Sea of this World to Heaven How many live on the Trencher of Gods Providence in their maintenance who never live on that providence in a gracious dependance or by actings of Faith in a promise Do not most Persons live wholly by their Friends by their Credit and Interest in the World but where is the Man or Woman that Lives by Faith 3 Fetch in provision for your Soul daily by actings of Faith Let Faith make out to Christ for new supplies of spiritual strength grace and comfort in all your need Faith is our Purveyor till we come to the Mount of God and goes a Catering for us till we come to that Land that flows with Milk and Hony God is a rich Mine of Wisdom and Grace which can never be digged to the bottom and hath inexhaustible Treasures lock'd up in Christ continually lying ready by him only stays for Faith to come and fetch them He is not pleased to give us in a full supply of all at once but crumbles out his mercies and gives his blessings by retail to teach us by Faith to live upon him daily Manna fell every morning God could if he had pleased have given them as much at once as should have served them all the time that they were to be in the Wilderness but he would teach them by his daily gift to depend upon his Providence for it daily Thus God is pleased to deliver out to his dear Children every day a set allowance it may be but a Crum of hidden Manna a tast of his special Love when he could fill an Omer of it if he pleased it may be he reaches forth to a believer only some Grapes of the Heavenly Canaan when he could throw clusters thereof into his Lap. He could have so form'd the new-born Babe in Christ and have cast it into such a Mould in the New-birth as that it should have been perfect in that instant as Adam was in the moment of Creation but he will have this Babe of grace to go by degrees from Faith to Faith from Strength to Strength till it come to full perfection The king appointed a daily Provision of his meat and of the Wine which he drank to certain of the Children of Israel Dan. 1.5 Thus doth the King of Heaven he will not give all grace at once out of his Store-house nor let the Pot of hidden Manna be in our keeping he doth not think fit we should have his Royal Wine of spiritual Joy and Comfort in our own Cellars to go to when we please lest we should drink and forget our selves yea and him too lest it should fume up and make our Heads giddy or our Blood too rank our Spirits too high proud for it is no easie matter to carry the brim-full Cup of Consolation steddily and equally though the Soul have rich joy to day yet it may have none to morrow unless he please to send a draught of this Cordial Wine from his own Table And why is all this but to teach us to live by Faith and wait continually upon him for new Influences The wise Father keeps the stock in his own hands and gives not all at once to keep his Son in a dependence CHAP. III. Of the Life of Holiness LIve the Life of Holiness This directly follows the Life of Faith for all holiness springs from Faith and the more you live the Life of Faith the more you will live the Life of holiness Now if you would live this Holy Life you must do these five things 1. Get a principle of holiness you cannot live a Life of holiness unless there be first a principle of holiness within Can the Body stir or move without a principle of Life how can there be actual holiness in the Life where there is not first habitual holiness in the Heart 2. Make holiness the very work of your Life or devote your self to the work of holiness he lives a Students life or the life of a Scholar who devotes himself to his Studies You do then live a Holy Life when you make holiness the very business of your Life when the Course and Tenor and main Imployment of your Life is Holiness when you make a Trade of it Do you only perform Holy Duties by fits and starts do you make stops and pauses are you off and on and act holily only occasionally or in some certain good moods or on some Holy days this is not to live a Life of Holiness You must constantly imploy your self therein and follow after it in the
whole course of your Life And therefore let me now bespeak you in the words of a Holy Man now with the Lord. Let Holiness sit in your Lips and season all your Speech with Grace let it dwell in your Heart let it be your companion in your Closet let it Travel with you in your Journey let it lye down and rise up with you let it close your Eyes in the Evening and call you out of your Bed in the Morning 3. Make holiness the main design and end of your Life Then indeed you live the Life of Holiness when holiness which is the main design of Christianity is the great design of your Life when the very drift purport and intent of your Life is to live to God 4. Spend all the time of your Life that you can redeem from other occasions in the duties of holiness while others steal time from holy duties for their Worldly business and pleasures do you borrow all the time that you can from those things yea from your sleep for holy duties 5. Put forth your Vital Power your Life your Vigor and Strength in Exercises of Holiness Summon in all the powers of your soul let none be wanting Whatsoever your Heart findeth to do in the Work of Religion do it with all your might ply your Oars hoise up your Sails put forward with all your power and strength with might and main in your course toward Heaven By thus doing you will certainly live the Life of Holiness It may be you may meet with some scoffs amongst some Ishmaels for such a Holy Life bat yet let not this discourage or take you off from following the ways of holiness and uprightness What if a Lame Man should laugh at your upright walking would you therefore go lamely But for your better encouragement I shall propound to you one Motive Consider that unless you live the Life of holiness you can never live the Life of glory Vnless you be Regenerated and Born again you can never enter into the Kingdom of God John 3.3 It 's only the New Creature that must be admitted into the New Jerusalem You will never be a Flower in the Paradise of Heaven unless you first be Transplanted out of the common field of Nature into Christ's holy Garden Without Holiness no one shall ever see the Lord. Heb. 12.14 It 's this that fits the very Angels for Heaven and therefore without it how can you ever think to come there It 's not the Angelical Nature but their Holiness that makes them fit for Heaven and therefore it 's more excellent than the very Nature of the Angels considered in it self for it is the Image of God as a bright beam of the Divine Nature and so makes us capable of Heaven My Heart therefore yearns for you my Bowels rowl within me out of tender affection to your Soul lest you should come short of Holiness and thereby come short of Heaven Moral Virtues without Holiness will never be a Jacobs Ladder to reach Heaven how near soever they may come to it O what pity is it that an Ingenuous Nature should by some Moral accomplishments come near to Heaven and yet never come there that Rachel should dye when it was but a little way to come to Ephrath Be sure therefore to add the practice and power of Godliness as a full figure to your Cyphers For unless you do this I shall never have hope to see your Face in Heaven which is an undefiled Inheritance CHAP. IV. Of Living as in Gods Presence 1. LIve always as in the presence of God and as under his jealousie Thus did good Elizabeth in the Gospel of whom it is said That she was Righteous before God or in the Eyes of the Lord as the Vulgar Latin reads it Luke 1.6 It was good counsel of one of the Rabbins that we should always think that there was an Eye that saw all an Ear hearing all and an Hand writing all Often repeat the 1â—9 Psalm to your self and seriously consider that God is in all places and not only in the place where you are but within you in your very Breast and Bosom viewing all your thoughts and intentions not with a bare beholding but with a critical Eye and as a Judge to censure them to approve or Condemn them Whereupon his eye-lids are said to try the Children of Men Psal 11.4 You cannot shut the Heart so close but he hath a Key to unlock it he draws the Curtain and sees what is within he spies out what is Cabinetted and lock'd up in the most secret Corner and private Drawer there The bright and piercing Eye of Omniscience sees the very inward Conceptions before they come to the Birth the first eruptions and ebullitions of a Thought or Intention 2. If you do all things as believing that this Eye is upon you it will have a great influence on your Life What a holy trembling and quivering disposition would this create in you lest you should offend so Glorious an Eye What a Curb and Bridle would it be to restrain from all Sin even from secret Hypocrisie What a sharp Goad and Spur to all Uprightness The Masters Eye makes the Servant work Do but serve God faithfully while he sees you and it is enough I have read of one that committing a foul Sin said to himself No Eye sees me but presently there appear'd an Eye on the Wall with this Inscription But this Eye sees thee If you did always keep within you fresh apprehensions of God as present you would not admit a dishonourable thought of him in your Heart nor let an evil word have passage through the door of your Lips 3. Know for your encouragement that if you thus live as in Gods awful Presence you shall enjoy very much his gracious Presence here and his Glorious Presence hereafter to all Eternity CHAP. V. Of Living in Love to God and Christ 1. LIve in love to God and Jesus Christ do all things out of a principle of Love to God your Father and Jesus Christ the only Saviour God must be loved as your ultimate end the enjoyment of whom is the Souls everlasting blessedness and Christ as Mediator must be loved as the only way whereby we are reconciled to God and come to obtain that blessedness If you live not in the love of God how can you ever expect to live in his favour or that he will either accept you or your Services for it is this Love that perfumes all our actions and makes them a sweet Odour unto God Love to God is the very Life and Soul of all Natural Religion and Love to Christ is the Spirit and Vital principle that animates all Evangelical Duties which are required by the New Covenant and therefore no duty will be acceptible without it 2. Look well to it that your love to God and Christ be a singular superlative transcendent Love a Love that out-ballanceth all other Love whatsoever It must be the
not an easie grief or a mourning of the Eye only but it 's a mourning of the heart which is the heart of mourning It 's not superficial tears but the deep sorrow of the heart that will wash away sin I have read a Story that one of the Questions which the Queen of Sheba propounded to King Solomon was this She having brought before him a company of Children both Males and Females all alike apparelled demanded of him which were the Boys and which were the Girls which he thus decided he caused them all to wash in a Bason of Water and observ'd which rubb'd more hard and those he set aside for the Boys and those that washt more tenderly and softly he determined to be the Girls Those that would wash away the filth of sin must not like those of that softer Sex do it easily and tenderly but must exercise a masculine spirit and rub hard like those of the harder and rougher Sex to scour the Soul It 's not to be done by a slight Repentance there must be a great deal of pains taken to cleanse the heart from sin And therefore Repentance is generally mistaken while it is thought to be nothing else but a being sorry for sins committed and a wishing they had not been done Such slight Penitents can be sorry to day and sin again to morrow and yet think they have truly repented 2. Mourning after a godly manner is a grief springing from the bowels of love to God the stronger the stream is the more there is of the fountain and the stronger the sorrow for sin is the more there is of God A true Penitent finds a principle within him that carries him out to a mourning for sin But an unregenerate man is rather forced upon it by some extrinsick motives as fear of Hell than carried to it out of the proper and peculiar inclination of his own heart 3. It 's such a sorrow as changes the heart and life there 's a sanctification of the inward man and a reformation of the outward conversation going along with it This sorrow for sin consumes the sin that bred it as the Worm doth the Wood that bred it 4. It 's accompanied with an universal hatred of sin an utter abhorrency of every iniquity The Dove as they say which hates the Hawk hates every Feather of it A true Penitent so abhors sin that he hates every plume and feather every branch of it he would have the very memory of Amalek blotted out he hath a deadly hatred to the whole tribe of sin the whole stock and kind to every member of that cursed family of sin he hates the very occasions of sin which are only the harbingers and spokes-men of it and will give them no entertainment but thrusts them out of doors He so hates sin that he longs to be rid of it The Apostle cries out as one tied to a dead carcass or tired with the Chains of a grievous bondage O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Rom. 7.14 He here cries out against the sinfulness of Nature and hates and would be rid of that as well as sinfulness of Life If you mourn only for actual sins you only cleanse the streams and let the spring continue muddy and noisome which will soon send forth new streams of the same nature But further Repentance is not only a mourning for sins past but a fiducial Resolution to forsake all for the future I call it a fiducial Resolution i. e. a Resolution of Faith for it is not an ordinary Resolution that will prove one to be a true Penitent we have very revolting slippery hearts apt to return to sin and therefore had need to take up strong and fiducial Resolutions in the strength of Christ to fortifie our hearts against sin Crazy Timber in a Building must be well Crampt with Iron Bars to keep it from yielding And broken Bones had need of strong filleting to bind them together Take heed that you do not defer your Repentance or adjourn it to another day It 's very dangerous so to do Therefore I desire you with all possible earnestness for the Love of God and of your precious Souls set upon this duty presently Do not say within your self I am young and it's time enough to do it hereafter Remember Death comes riding Post and though sometimes he change Horses first come on one Disease and leaving that after come on another yet oftentimes he doth not change but comes on one single Horse and takes away at the first Sickness and then as you will but have little time to repent so little aptness or disposition thereunto when Sickness hath once arrested you Oh how unfit will you then be to turn to God when you can scarce turn your self in your Bed Let me therefore give you the Counsel that a Rabbin gave one of his Scholars Repent a day before you die and the Scholar thereupon thinking that he should have time enough then he bade him repent to day for thou knowest not but thou mayest be dead to morrow But is not this it may be said a hard painful Life to be every day repenting No when it is done every day it soon grows an easie work The good Huswife that scours her Plate often hath an easier task of it every day than other But is not this a sad and melancholy Life for to be always mourning and repenting No Tears of Repentance saith holy Bernard are sweeter than all worldly Joy Repentance is a most sweet Grace and hath much comfort in it The day of Expiation in the Old Law was a day of mourning yet the Jubilee was always to be proclaimed on that day The day of mourning for sin is a day of Expiation of sin and God then proclaims a Jubilee to the Soul in the pardon of it But further to take off this Objection and to give a fuller Answer thereunto I shall add the next following Advice CHAP. X. Of making Religion a delight MAke Religion your great delight and Recreation Delight your self in the Lord Psal 37.4 Or as the Apostle enjoyns Rejoyce in the Lord alway and again I say rejoyce Phil. 4.4 1 Thes 5.16 Take delight in God himself in his infinite Excellencies and Perfections in his Goodness Love and Mercy in his Word and Works in his Commands and in his Promises in his Ways and in his Heaven which he hath prepared for Souls This and my last Advice for a daily mourning for sin are no way inconsistent but lovingly meet and kiss each other Chrysostom observes that David the great mourner in Israel was also the chief finger in Israel As with one Eye we look down to our sins so we mourn but as with the other Eye i. e. the Eye of Faith we look up to God and his Mercy pardoning sin upon Repentance so we rejoyce Godly sorrow makes pardoning Mercy taste the sweeter and causeth greater joy and
hereafter also CHAP. XVIII How to manage an Afflicted Condition 1. USE your best endeavours to get good by all the Afflictions and Crosses that shall befal you I know indeed it may be with Christians as with Meats some are preserved in Sugar as Cherries and Plums c. others as Beef are preserved in Brine But yet I think you have more reason to fear the sweetness of a prosperous rather than the sharp Brine of an adverse condition Bees are killed with Honey but quickened with Vinegar If you read your Bible through you shall find that few of God's Children have gone through a prosperous condition without being ensnared thereby and rarely find any but have been bettered by adversity In the Summer of prosperity it 's well if you be not Fly-blown In the budding Spring and in the blooming Summer then Pride and Vanity Formality in Religion and Satisfaction in Creature comforts will be apt to sprout forth and taint you but the sharp Winter of Affliction will kill these Vermin Sharp and bitter things are abstersive and cleanse the body from many noxious and phlegmatick humours whereas sweet things much used do stuff up the passages of the body and create many obstructions It 's a high Character that is given of that Noble Person that Mirrour of your Sex the Lady Jane Gray that she so managed an afflicted condition that she made Misery it self seem amiable and the Night-cloths of Adversity did as much become her as her Day-dressing God's Children are his Jewels his rich Plate which being scoured by Afflictions look brighter their Souls are bleacht and whitened in the Waters of Afflictions These are the sharp Lemmon that take off their Mill-dews Christians seldom come to be great Scholars in the School of Christ without the Rod of Afflictions Learn to value Afflictions as you do Physick not according to the tast and rellish but according to the profitable effects that it works That is to be accounted a blessed Feaver that preserves the Soul from everlasting burnings 2. If you be not better'd by God's Rod when he sends it take heed lest he turn not his Rod into a Serpent as Moses Rod was Is it not to be thought a dangerous symptom of God's rejection and that the Physician of our Souls is leaving us when Afflictions which usually are God's Physick to purge out our Disease do cooperate therewith and so encrease it it's then to be feared that we shall hardly recover 3. Improve all Afflictions for your spiritual good by Prayers and actings of Faith in a Promise 1. By Prayer Is any afflicted let him pray Jam. 5.13 Afflictions may be said to be improv'd by Prayer these two ways 1. By making them a motive to put your self on Prayer The Rod then doth the Child good when it brings his stubborn heart to his knees God therefore lays his People on their backs that he may make them to look up to Heaven Every Cross is an unsanctified Cross that is not attended with Prayer 2. By using Prayer as a means to help you against those sins which are apt to accompany an afflicted condition as Impatience Discontent c. and to fetch in those graces which you have most need of therein as Faith Humility Repentance Contentment Joy and Submission to the Will of God Prayer will cause these precious fruits to grow on the Cross and so it will be sanctified to you 2. Improve Afflictions by actings of Faith in the Promises Afflictions are sweetned to Believers they are rolled up in Sugar they are steept in Honey sanctified by the word of the Promise that they shall work together for good Rom. 8.28 and yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness Heb. 12.1 The Promise gives them a most delicious rellish to Faith Faith can make a soveraign Oil of these Scorpions to heal the Soul Faith can turn Water into Wine even the bitter Waters of Marah into the Wine of Comfort CHAP. XIX How to manage your Relative Condition 1. BE earnest in Prayer to the God of all Grace to furnish you with suitable Grace for the Relations you stand in Hath God called you to be a Wife pray for the spirit of a Wife There 's no Relation that we enter into but it calls for new duties from us No Relation but hath its peculiar temptations and sins to which it is prone Consider then what are your Relation-temptations and your Relation-sins and what are your Relation-duties and pray for strength against those particular temptations and sins and for those particular duties No duties are more momentous and yet none less observed usually It 's a common fault to neglect our own work and too much to complain of others neglecting theirs and so like Planets we eclipse one another Many Wives are apt to pick quarrels because their Husbands do not their duties when themselves omit their own And so many unnatural Children complain of their Parents for being so when it is next door to an impossibility for a Patent to be unnatural O mind well your Relation defects and be very careful that Religion may form and mould your demeanour towards all your Relations whatsoever This will be your excellency thus will you be like a fixed Star shining in that proper Orb in that very sphere and station where God hath fixt you without eccentrick motions 2. If you would know how the case stands betwixt God and your Soul consider what you are in all your several Relations and how you manage them Judge not your self so much by your praying and hearing and other duties of Religion in your general Calling as a Christian as by the practice of your Religion at home in your Relations Observe specially how your Religion works in your Relative condition and the temptations thereof She is not a good Woman that is not a good Wife or not a good Daughter 3. Live in a free and chearful submission and obedience to your Husband You have this command given in several places of Scripture Wives submit your selves to your own Husbands as unto the Lord Eph. 5.22 Col. 3.18 1 Pet. 3.1 This submission includes both Reverence and Obedience to the Husband and this Obedience must be shewed both to his commands his desires his restraints and his rebukes nay if his rebukes should turn to revilings the Wife may not revile again for that would be to shoot with the Devil in his own Bow but she may sweetly admonish him in things that she certainly knows to be sinful and hurtful Your subjection doth not hinder you from provoking him to love and good works as the Apostle useth the phrase Heb. 10 24. but yet even this provocation must be without passion You may lovingly admonish him thereunto but with a care that in so doing you provoke him not to wrath lest you do like those who take hot water to heat the Stomach and thereby enflame the Liver The Wife in Nathan's Parable is called a Lamb she must be a Lamb for
lawful things being here most apt to go beyond our bounds There are more killed by Wine than there are by Poison But why may not I do as the most persons do that are of my rank and quality No do not you set your Watch by the Town Clock but by the Sun-Dial of the Scripture the true and perfect Dial of the increated Sun Make not your Neighbours but the Scriptures the Rule of your Life If you eye what others do and direct your course of Life accordingly you do steer by a Planet and not by the Pole-Star and will never so come at the heavenly Harbour the Port of Eternal bliss and happiness I do not advise you against necessary Recreations for your health But those that spend much time in Playing Carding Dicing or such kind of Games against which I hope I need not much caution you do but nick-name it when they call it Recreation and are like such that have a nice stomach who feed more on sauce than they do on meat 3. Make every day a working-day for Heaven and every day a Sabbath from sin I mean a resting-day from it Be every day working out your Salvation with fear and trembling your time is short and your work is great and your Salvation lies at stake therefore fall hard to your work set on it with all your might and hoard up all the time that possibly you can for it 4. Remember often that Immortality and Eternity hangs upon the spending of your time and according as you spend this so it will be with you to all eternity either for happiness or misery I have read a Story of a certain Gentlewoman who used to spend much time in playing at Cards and such Games coming once from that Pastime late in the night and finding her Waiting-Maid reading a good Book cast her Eyes over the Maids shoulder and spake words to this effect Thou poor melancholy Soul what alway reading and spending thy time in this manner wilt thou take no comfort in thy life But the Gentlewoman being soon after got to Bed could take no rest but lay groaning and sighing bitterly The Maid lying in the same Room and hearing it desired to know the reason of it to whom her Mistress replied I read this word Eternity in thy Book which hath so pierced my heart that I believe I shall never sleep more till I have a better Assurance of my Eternity Lastly Consider seriously that you must at the great Day of the Lord give an account for all your time It 's said of Ignatius that whensoever he heard a Clock strike he would say Here is now one hour more past which I have to answer for O what a heart-affecting consideration is the loss of time with the account to be given for it Holy Mr. Baxter tells us he familiarly knew a most holy grave and Reverend Divine who was so affected with the words of a godly Woman who at her death did often and vehemently cry out O call time again O call time again that the sense of it seemed to remain on his heart and appear in his Praying Preaching and Conversation to his death O that the reading of her words here might have the like happy Influence on your Heart and Conversation CHAP. XXII Of the Order and Method of Duties every Week-day 1. AS soon as you are awake in the morning lift up your heart in some good thought to God Let your heart be raised up in thankfulness to God for the mercies of the former night and by fiducial reliance on him for his Providence over you that day following Set forth in the morning in the Name of God resolving to do all things that day in that Name Col. 3.17 and for his Glory and that you will so spend it for God And likewise fortifie and arm your self against all the temptations that you foresee you are likely to meet with occasionally that day And if any thought about any worldly concern shall present it self to you striving to get first in check it with the words of our Saviour in another case Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father I have not yet raised up my heart to God Thoughts will stand about your heart in a morning as a company of Clients about the door and that which first enters hath usually most to do all that day Satan will first croud in if possible by some worldly or vain thought to get the first entrance in the morn he is like a greedy and restless stomach-worm that keeps a coyl to have his break-fast before his Master be served Therefore let it be your diligent care as soon as you awake to fill your heart with some thoughts of God which will be the best break-fast to keep out the wind of a temptation And if you thus perfume the Soul in the morning with such sweet odours you will the better keep out ill scents all the day Let your heart be as the Sun-Dial that early receives the Sun-beams and goes along with it till the evening Let it receive the Beams of the Sun of Righteousness freely in the morning and he will shine on it all the day If you do not at first set out to a right point of the Compass you will make a bad Voyage Ejaculations which may be used when you awake in or toward the Morning MY voice shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up Psal 5.3 How precious are thy thoughts unto me O God how great is the sum of them If I would count them they are more in number than the Sand. When I awake I am still with thee Psal 139.17 18. My Soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning I say more than they that watch for the morning Psal 130.6 O when shall the day dawn and the day-star arise in my heart It is of the Lords mercies that I am not consumed because his compassions fail not they are new every morning Lam. 3.22 23. Therefore my thanks shall never fail but be new and fresh every morning also 2. Let not your morning hours which are the very flower and cream of time the most precious of all the day for any work or duty be spent in Bed or vainly out of Bed And while you are dressing let some one if you can conveniently read to you or else you may employ your time in thinking of the last Sermon you heard or some other good thoughts as of the Soul's Wedding Garment Matth. 22.11 or of the durable Cloathing Ezek. 23.18 in comparison of which all the best Apparel is but a Cobweb Tiffany a fine worthlese Nothing or you may use such Ejaculations and Meditations as these following Ejaculations and Meditations which may be used while you are dressing PVT on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Rom.