Motives to stir up the Reader to this work and then direct him about it SECT I. FIrst It is a duty commanded thee by God Men are apt to think the visitation of the sick to be onely an act of Courtesie and Civility which they may omit or perform at their pleasure when it is an act of Charity and Christianity which every Christian is bound to by a divine Precept The Ministers of Christ are especially enjoyned this task but every member of Christ also when God gives him opportunity oweth this debt to his Neighbour Iam. 5. 14 15. If any be sick let him send for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him The same word which commandeth the sick man to send commandeth the Elder to go Indeed it s a gross fault in many sick persons and therein they are exceedingly their own enemies that they either send not at all for the Minister or if they do not till they have done with the Physitian when their bodies are past all hope then they look after some hope for their souls But without question it is a duty for the Elder sometimes to go uncalled It s good manners to be an unbidden guest at a house of mourning Our Master was found of them that asked not for him and so should his servants There are those that can invite themselves to their Neighbours Tables who withdraw themselves from their Chambers Some are drunk so often with their Parishioners whilst they are in health that they are afraid or ashamed to discourse seriously with them when they are sick God may speak to many as to the Shepherds of Israel Wo be to the Shepherds of England that do feed themselves should not the Shepherds feed the Flock ye eat the fat and ye cloth you with the Wool ye kill them that are fed but ye feed not the Flock The diseased have ye not strengthened neither have ye healed that which was sick neither have ye bound up that which was broken but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them Ezek. 34. 3 4. None are more cruel to the Flock then those that are most covetous of the Fleece Oleaster on Lev. 14. 44. Then the Priest shall come and look and behold if the Plague be spread c. that being the third time the Priest was to visit the infected house hath this useful observation Si Saecerdos toties invisat leprosam domum cur tu non aegrum If the Priest were commanded so often to visit the leprous house why dost not thou visit the sick person The Plague in the heart calls for more pity and help then the Plague in the House This duty also belongs to private members as well as to publique Officers Every Christian should love his Neighbour as himself which he cannot do unless he have a sense of his sickness and endeavour to improve such an opportunity for his Neighbours Salvation True love like fire burns hottest when the weather is coldest Histories make mention of one Vrâ—iâ—us a Physitian that being to die for the Gospel and beginning to waver Vitalis a godly man stept to him and though he knew it would cost him his life encouraged him saying What have you been so industrious heretofore to preserve mens bodies and will you now shrink at the saving your own soul Be couragious For which faithful counsel he was condemned and suffered accordingly It s our duty to assist them that die natural as well as those that die violent deaths To visit persons in their affliction is one testimony of the truth of our Religion at this day Holiness and Charity are like Father and Child Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the Fatherless and the Widows in their afflictions c. Jam. 1. ult The fatherless and widows are expressed but the sick and strangers and captives are included because these are usually most afflicted and most neglected Those that have received mercy cannot but shew mercy As visiting the distressed is a sign of it now so it will be the test of Christianity at the great day Mat. 25. 34 35 36. Come ye blessed c. I was hungry and ye fed me naked and ye cloathed me sick and ye visited me c. Works of mercy fill up the whole bill as the evidence of the Saints right to heaven Whereof Luther gives this reason because the consciences of the wicked shall justifie Christ as well in the absolution of the godly as in their own condemnation Though Christians do not give their almes or visit the sick to be seen of men yet in doing many offices of love and acts of charity they are seen of men So they who can witness the truth of Christians mercy will be forced to acknowledge the equity of Christs sentence SECT II. SEcondly It is a special opportunity of doing and receiving good 1. Of doing good I think it the more necessary to speak to this Motive because many are apt to judge all pains with sick persons to be to no purpose They are discouraged from endeavouring the conversion of prophane men upon sick beds supposing that such mens repentance will be as unsound as their bodies even when they are sick unto death Though I would not give the least encouragement to any men to defer their turning to God beleiving him worse then mad who puts off the weighty business of his soul because peradventure God may grant him repentance hereafter yet I must obviate this suggestion of the Divel which hinders men from doing their duty God may shew mercy to a soul at last There is one example in Scripture that none might despair Sickness is with some men the tide-time of devotion They who scorned godly men and made a mock of godliness in their health will prize the Saint and desire his sanctity above all the world when they lye upon sick beds and consider what an holy God they are going to appear before Sickness as one saith is Officina virtutis morum disciplina The shop of vertue and the school of manners Therefore King Alfred was wont to say I ever find my self best when worst best in soul when worst in body the sickness of my body is physick to my soul Experience daily informeth us that the Swaggerers and Gallants of the world whose consciences are not seared with an hot Iron though they gave themselves up to Drunkenness and Gluttony and Gaming and Whoredom and all manner of wickedness in their youth and strength yet when they are weakened much with a disease and have no hopes of continuing longer on earth begin to wish that they had spent their time to more purpose and are sensible of their neglect of God and Christ and their Souls and Eternity then many of them will desire the company of those that fear God and beg their prayers and hearken to their counsels and would give all they are worth for a little of their grace and
THE WORKS OF GEORGE SVVINNOCK M. A. CONTAINING These several Treatises VIZ. The Christian Mans Calling First Part. Wherein a Christian is directed how to carry himself in Religious Duties Natural Actions Particular Vocation Family Direction his own Recreation Second Part The Christian directed to perform his duty as Parent Child Husband Wife Master Servant and in the conditions of Prosperity and Adversity Third Part Directing a Christian to perform his duty in his Dealings with all men in the Choice of his Companions in Evil Company in Good Company in Solitude on a Week-day from Morning to Night in Visiting the sick on a Dying Bed Heaven and Hell Epitomized or the true Christian Characterized Door of Salvation opened by the Key of Regeneration Fading of the Flesh and Flourishing of Faith A Valedictory Sermon on Act. 20. 32. Men are Gods on Psal. 82. 6,7 LONDON Printed by I. B. for Tho. Parkhurst at the â—hree Crowns at the lower end of Cheap side over-against the great Conduit 1665. CLARISSIMO VIRO RICHARDO HAMPDEN DE Hampden in Comitatu Bucks Armigero SVPREMI SENATVS Regni Anglicani Membro Dignissimo NEC NON NOBILISSIMAE DOMINAE LAETITIAE HAMPDEN Conjugi Pientissimae In perpetuum Summae gratitudinis monumentum Debitae observantiae testimonium Sinceri amoris symbolum Hanc tertiam de nobili 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exercitio partem D. D. D. Georgius Swinnock Obnixe rogans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut in illos omnigenam felicitatem in praesenti 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in futuro seculo conferre velit THE EPISTLE TO THE READER SUch is the beauty of Holiness the excellency of Divine Nature and the reasonableness and righteousness of the Service of God as also the necessity of Mans devoting himself wholly to it that were not his understanding which is the Sun in the lesser world strangely â—â—uffled with clouds his will which as the Moon borroweth its light from it full of spots and changes and desperately bent upon evil his affections as stars of malevolent influence brutishly enslaved to his sensual appetite and his whole nature deplorably vitiated it were impossible for him to turn his back upon the authority commands and threatnings of his Maker to trample on the bowels and blood and intreaties of his Redeemer to despise the motions and perswasions and assistance of the holy Spirit in order to his recovery out of that bottomless gulph of misery into which he hath plunged himself and his restauration to a state of purity and eternal happiness and there would be no such need of calling so frequently and fervently and of crying so urgently and earnestly to him to exercise himself unto godliness As he that is an Atheist in his principles and denyeth the being of such a thing as Religion must deny his very senses since his eyes and ears and taste and feeling do all loudly Preach a deity to him So he that is an Atheist in his practices and denyeth the making Religion his business must deny his reason and debase himself into a Beast for common understanding notwithstanding its great loss by the fall will inform him that he is made for higher things then the service of a brutish flesh and the pursuit of earthly fading enjoyments and that the worship of his God the Fountain of his being and well-spring of his happiness as most sutable to his spiritual nature as most conducing to his own advancement interest and perfection is most worthy of all his heart and soul and strength and of all his time and care and labour But alas the sad fruit of mans apostacy in the depravation of his nature abundantly manifesteth it self to every eye that is not stark blind As an old disease doth not onely afflict the part of its proper residence and by its habitual abode there make a continual diminution of the strength but also makes a path and Channel for the humours to run thither which by continual defluction dig an open passage and prevail above all the natural power of resistance So hath Original sin debauched the mind and made it think crooked things straight and straight things crooked loathsom things lovely and lovely things loathsom perverted the will and made it as a diseased stomach to call for and eat unwholsom meat against his own reason enthralled his affections to sensuality and brutishness chained the whole man and delivered it up to the law of sin and laid those strengths of reason and conscience in fetters by which it might be hindered in its vicious inclinations and course of prophaness Hence it comes to pass that neither the beauty of grace nor equity of living to God nor the absolute necessity of mans exercising himself to godliness will prevail with him So great is the glory and amiableness of the New Creation that not onely the Saints who are indued with wisdom from above and can judge aright esteem it above their honours and riches and relations and lives and rejoyce in it as their peculiar priviledge and highest dignitie but even Angels behold it with admiration and look on their own purity and conformity to the divine nature and pleasure as their greatest perfection Nay God himself whose being is the pattern and whose will is the rule of holiness is ravished and enamoured with it as that which is the travail of the soul of his dear son the immediate work of his own spirit and the end and glory and master-piece of all the works of his hands Yet this heavenly off-spring this divine image this supernatural beam of light this resemblance and picture of Gods own perfections this royal attire of the celestial Courtiers which rendereth the poorest and meanest Christian more noble and excellent then his highest and richest ungodly Neighbour and makes him more glorious then a clear skie bespangled with the shining stars or an imperial Diadem sparkling with the richest Diamonds is the scorn and derision of the blind unworthy world That as Salvian complained in his days Si honoratior quispiam religioni se applicuerit illico honoratus esse desistit si fuerit sublimis fit despicabilis â—i splendidissimus fit vilissimus si totus honoris fit totus injuria c. If a noble person betake himself to religion he is presently degraded and all his former fame and honour and renown turned into disgrace contempt and contumely and men are forced to be vicious lest they should be counted vile Foolish wormes pretended Christians are like persecuting Pagans who could think and speak well of some of the Saints onely their Religion they judged like Coperas turned all their Wine into Ink gave a dash to all their vertues and excellencies Bonus vir Cajus Sejus sed malus tanquam quod Christianus was the Heathens voice in Tertullians time Blind Beetles men admire fancies shadows nothings and trample on true worth and real excellency As the Egyptians if they met with a Cat or Crocodile bowed down to it and worshipped it when
Law But thanks be to God who hath given us the victory through our Lord Iesus Christ 1 Cor. 15. 57 58. The Naturalists tell us of a precious stone called Ceraunias that glisters most when the Skie is Cloudy and over-cast with darkness Godliness friend will cast the greatest lustre on thee and put the greatest comfort in thee when thy time of trouble and day of death is come This this is the friend that is born for the day of adversity Therefore the sweet singer of Israel having this with him promiseth Though he walk in the valley of the shadow of death he will fear none ill Psal. 23. 9. Is not that worthy to be made thy business which will help thee to comfort and confidence at a dreadful day of judgement and cause thee to lift up thy head with joy when thousands and millions shall weep and wail The day of judgement will be a terrible day indeed the judge will come in flaming sire a fire devouring before him and behind him a flame burning His tribunal will be a tribunal of fire Out of his mouth did proceed a fiery Law and by that law of fire he will try men for their eternal lives and deaths The earth at that day will be consumed with fire and the elements melt with fervent heat If the cry of fire firè in the night now be so dreadfull and doth so afright and amaze us though it be but in one house and possible not very near us how dreadful will that day be when we shall see the whole world in a flame and the Judge coming in flaming fire to pronounce our eternal dooms Who can abide the day of his coming or who can stand when he appeareth Then the Kings and Captains and Nobles and Mighty Men will call to the rocks to fall on them and to the hills to hide them from the face that sitteth in the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb Rev. 6. 15. O Reader of what worth is that which will help thee as the three Children to sing in the midst of so many flaming fiery furnaces and preserve thee from being hurt or so much as toucht therewith Truely Godliness will do this for thee it will turn this day of the perdition of ungodly men into a day of redemption to thee As true Gold is not consumed by the hottest fire and the Salamander can live in the greatest flames so the godly man in the midst of all those fires and flames will live and flourish though millions of ungodly ones are scorched and tortured As he is a King now reigning over his stubborn lusts and unruly passions that will be his Coronation day wherein he will appear before the whole world in all his glory and royalty As he is a Husbandman now sowing to the Spirit that will be his Harvest-day wherein he shall reap the fruit of all his prayers and tears and watchings and fastings and labour and sufferings As he is compared to a Virgin betrothed to Christ now keeping his garments white and clean and devoting himself to the service and honour and commands of his Lord that will be his Marriage day wherein he shall be arrayed in fine linnen the righteousness of the Saints adorned with the jewels of perfect graces and solemnly espoused to the King of Saints the heir of all things and the fairest of ten thousands the Lord Jesus Christ. As he is a servant now doing not his own but the will of his Master in Heaven and finishing his work that will be the day wherein his Indentures will expire and he shall enjoy the glorious liberty of the Sons of God As he is a Son now yielding reverence and obedience to the Father of Spirits that will be the day wherein he shall be declared to be of full age and enjoy his portion and inheritance As he is a Souldier now fighting the good fight of faith warring a good warfare enduring much hardship as a good souldier of Iesus Christ that will be the day wherein he shall be called off the guard discharged of those tiresome toylsome duties incumbent on him in this life and receive his garland a Crown of everlasting life Little dost thou conceive Reader the worth of Godliness at that day Godliness will then be honoured and admired not onely by them that have it and rejoyce in it but also by the most prophane and carnal wretches and those who now despise and deride it Then the blind world who now shut their eyes and will not see and the atheistical world who harden their hearts and will not believe shall return and discern and see and believe a difference between the godly and ungodly between them that fear the Lord and them that fear him not O friend what wouldst thou give at that day that godliness had been thy business at this day Godliness will make the judge the Lord Jesus Christ thy friend the Father by whose authority he fits the King of all Nations thy friend the Iustices who will be upon the bench for he shall come with thousands of his Saints thy friends Godliness would make the law by which thou art to be tryed thy friend Godliness would make thy conscience which is to be brought in as the evidâ—nce thy friend Godliness would strike dumb all thy accusers Satan thy corruptions and suffer none of them to hurt thee as thy foes And is not Godliness worthy to be made thy business which will do all this for thee 10. Is not that worthy to be made thy business which will do thee good to eternity The fool is for good for many years but a wise man is for goods that will last to eternity In worldly matters we value those houses and goods highest which will last longest We will give much more for the fee-simple or inheritance for ever of a dwelling or lands then for a term of few years or for a lease for life though we can enjoy them but during life O why should it not be thus in spirituals Why should we not set the greatest price and take the most pains for that which is not for years or ages but for ever for that which we may enjoy and have full solid comfort in to eternity No good that is eternal can be little if it be but an humane friend whom thou lovest to enjoy him for ever or a bodily health to enjoy it for ever or near relations to enjoy them for ever will infinitely advance the price and raise the value of them but to enjoy a God for ever the blessed Saviour for ever the comforting Spirit for ever fullness of joy for ever rivers of pleasures for ever and exceeding weight of glory for ever a crown a kingdom an inheritance for ever which is the fruit of Godliness what tongue can declare what mind can apprehend the worth of these Alas frailty is such a flaw in all earthly tenures that it doâ—h exceedingly abate their value and should our
larger then I intended when I first put pen to paper about it If thy soul receive any profit by it I shall not repent of my pains only beg thy prayers that thou mayst is the desire of Thine and the Churches Servant in the blessed Saviour GEORGE SWINNOCK Reader The Authors absence from the Press hath caused many mistakes in the English Latine and Greek both in the Margin and Body of the Book the most material of those that are in the Body of the Book are corrected to thy hand thy Pen must correct or Candour excuse the rest Vale. ERRATA PAge 3. l. 30. for of the r. and the. p. 7. l. 19. add is unrighteous p. 60. l. 6. for the r. thy p. 64. l. 13. add to the honour p. 116. l. 11. for chattered r. clattered p. 118. l. 2. add of p. 122. l. 24. for detectable r. delectable p. 123. l. 4. r. grace l. 5. for toâ— r. paint p. 125. l 22. r. did not stir p. 130. l. 25. guest r. grief p. 187. l. 13. conversationâ— r conversion p. 195. l. 14. for nor any r. and any p. 232. l. 5. r. indirect p. 227. l. ult For Ieroboam r. Rehoboam p. 286. l. 23. for sweetness r. sweetned p. 462. l. ult for regenerate r. vegetative p. 519. l. 2. adorned r. adored p. 595. l. 10. Haman r. Heman p. 606. l. 3. ends r. friends p. 641. l. 29. for desired r. deserved p. 653. l. 31. r. insperaâ—am p. 656. l 24. for one r. none p. 721. l. 32. For conscience r. confidence p. 748. l. 16. for monstrous r. menstruous p. 769. l. 31. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 816. l. 15. for promises r. premises There is extant of this Reverend Authors these following Treaties The Christian-mans Calling or a Treatise of making Religion ones Business wherein the Nature and Necessity of it is discovered as also the Christian directed how he may perform it in Religious Duties Natural Actions his particular Vocation his Family Directions and his own Recreation to be read in Families for their instruction and Edification The first Part. The second Part Wherein a Christian is directed how to perform his duty in the Relations of Parents Children Husband Wives Masters Servants and in the Condition of Prosperity and Adversity This third Part Diâ—ecting a Christian to perform his duty in his Dealings with all men in the choice of his Companions in Evil Company in good Company in Solitude on a Week-day from morning to night in visiting the sick and on a dying bed with Means Directing and Motives perswading thereunto The Door of Salvation opened by the Key of Regeneration or a Treatise containing the Nature Necessity Marks and means of Regeneration as also the duty of the Regenerate Heaven and Hell Epitomized or the true Christian characterized The Fading of the Flesh and Flourishing of Faith or one Cast for Eternity with the only way to Tâ—row it Well as also the Gracious Persons incomparable Portion Tâ—e beauty of Magistracy in an Exposition of the 82. Psalm where in set forth the necessity Utility Dignity Duty and Morality of Magistrates 1 TIM 4. 7. But refuse Prophane and old VVives Fables and exercise thy self unto Godliness And Exercise thy self unto Godliness The Preface THe life of Man is not seldom in the Word of God compared to a Walk The womb is the place whence he first in the morning of his age sets out and his actions are the several steps by which he is alwayes hastening to his journeys end the Grave that common Inn of resort The life of a Christian is called a walking in the light a walking in the Law because his motion is regular and his whole race by rule He must have a divine word for all his works and a precept from God for all his practices Scripture is the Compass by which he steereth and the square by which he buildeth Hence he is said to walk with God because he walketh according to his Commands and his example he doth not walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Man 1 Cor. 3. 3. but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to his measure as God willeth and as God walketh Further the holy life of a Saint is compared to an orderly walking in these two respects First In regard of his gradual proficiency He doth not stand still but gets ground by his steps They go from strength to strength Psa. 84. 4. From faith to faith Rom. 1. 17. He is ever going forward in Heavens way and never thinks of sitting down till he comes to his Fathers House Sometimes indeed he is so straightned that he can onely creep at other times he is inlarged that he can run but at all times he is going on towards perfection The light of his holiness though at first but glimering is always growing and shines brighter and brighter till perfect day Pro. 4. 18. Secondly In regard of his uniforme perseverance It is not taking a step or two in a way which denominateth a man a Walker but a continued motion It is not one or two good Actions but a good conversation which will speak a man to be a right Christian. A true beleiver like the heavenly Orbes is constant and unwearied in his motion and actings An Expositor observeth of Enoch that it s twice said of him He walked with God Gen. 5. 22 and 24. to shew that as he first began to walk and profit in Gods path so he alwayes continued profiting to the end No man is judged healthy by a flushing colour in his face but by a good complexion God esteemeth none holy for a particular carriage but for a general course A sinner in some few acts may be very good Iudas Repenteth Cain Sacrifiseth The Scribes Pray and Fast and yet all were very false In the most deadly diseases there may be some intermissions and some good prognosticks A Saint in some few acts may be very bad Noah is Drunk David defileth his Neighbours Wife And Peter denyeth his best friâ—nd yet these persons were heavens favourites The best Gold must have some grains of allowance Sheep may fall into the mire but Swine love night and day to wallow in it A Christian may stumble nay he may fall but he gets up and walks on in the way of Gods Commandements the bent of his heart is right and the scope of his life is straight and thence he is deemed sincere It is the Character of the Christian to be constant in his gracious course If you would speak with the Tradesman you may meet him in his Shop The Farmers usual walk is in the Fields He that hath business with the Merchant expecteth him in his Counting-house or amongst his Goods And he that looketh for the Christian shall not fayl to finde him with his God Whether he be alone or in company abroad or in his Family buying or selling feeding himself or visiting others he doth all
as in his Gods presence and in all aimeth at his praise As the Sap of a Tree riseth up from the root not onely to the body but also to the branches of the smallest twigs so grace in a Saint springeth up from his heart and floweth out not only in his spiritual and higher but also in his civil and lower actions How the Saint may make godliness his business in Religious Actions as in praying hearing receiving the Lords Supper and Sanctification of the Lords day in natural Actions in his recreations in his particular calling and in the government of his family I have largely discovered in the First Part of The Christian-Mans Calling The Second Part will help believers in the Relations of Husbands and Wives Parents and Children Masters and Servants and in the Conditions of Prosperity and Adversity Reader The design of this Treatise is to direct thee further in this continual exercise of Piety it divideth it self into these particulars I shall herein First Endeavour to discover wherein the nature of Godliness consisteth 1. In thy Dealings with all men 2. In all Companies whether Good or Bad and therein I shall speak both to thy Choice of Companions and Carriage in Company 3. In Solitariness 4. On a Week-day from morning to night 5. In Visiting the sick 6. On a Dying Bed Secondly I shall offer thee some Means which will be helpful to thee in this business Thirdly I shall annex some Motives to stir thee up to this high and gainful Calling I begin with the first CHAP. I. How a Christian may exercise himself to Godliness in his Dealings with all men As also a Good Wish about that Particular FIrst Thy duty is to make Religion thy business in thy Dealings with all men True Godliness payeth its dues to men as well as its duty to God nay it cannot do the latter without the former Upon these two poles all Religion turnes and upon these two feet it walketh That Mans holiness is lame which always keeps home and doth not walk abroad and visit his Neighbours It s a sign of a sickly temper for a man to sit always brooding in a Chimney-Corner and not to dare to stir out of doors Sure I am thy Religion is of a sad distempered constitution whatsoever hopes it may give of healthiness in Family duties if it goeth no farther and doth not appear in the open air of thy converses with strangers Religion bindeth the Christian to his good behaviour towards all men True holiness will provide things honest not onely in the sight of God but also in the sight of all men 2 Cor. 8. 21. The Kings Coin hath his superscription without the ring as well as his Image within it The Saints civil as well as his spiritual actions have divine impression stamped on them and he is walking with God in his trading with men As thy heart must be pure so thy hands must be clean or thou canst never reach heaven Psa. 24. 3 4. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place He that hath clean hands and a pure heart To be voyd of conscience in thy civil actions speaks thee to have no right to the beatifical vision he that comes short of Heathens must needs come short of Heaven And truly to be careless in making Godliness thy business in them will very much hinder thy progress in holiness If all the passages of the body be not open there is no thriving in health The Ostrich is very swift and said to outrun the horse He mocketh the Horse and the Rider but what is the reason truly this he hath two helps of speed his Wings and his Feet whereas other creatures have but one the Hawk hath wings the Hare and Horse have feet but he hath and useth both Wings and Feet and hence is so nimble in his flight The right Christian maketh haste and runneth the way of Gods commandments because he doth use not only the wings of Religious performances for that end but also the feet of his ordinary actions When some are only for holy duties and others onely for honest dealings he outstrips them all marrying them both together and making them like Husband and Wife serviceable each to other T is true his piety is the Husband which hath the command and dominion but his dealings with men as a dutiful wife further his weal by their obedience and subjection No Christian ever made more haste in Heavens way then Paul I laboured more abundantly then they all saith he but how came it about VVhy through divine assistance he exercised himself to keep a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards all men The stream must needs be the swifter for the meeting and uniting of the waters of grace out of both those channels The bark which covereth the tree seemeth to be of little worth compared with the body of the tree yet if that be peeled off the tree dyeth Though righteous dealings seem to be but the bark and outside of Religion yet if once thou castest them off thy Religion as thriving as thou thoughtst it to be will quickly wither and come to nothing the heart-blood of thy godliness may be let out by a wound in thy hand I shall lay down a Motive or two to quicken thee to conscienciousness in thy dealings with all men and then acquaint thee wherein it consisteth SECT I. FIrst Consider It s a sure sign of Hypocrisie to be unrighteous and careless in civil dealings how consciencious soever thou mayst seem to be in sacred duties He that seems righteous towards men and is irreligious towards God is but an honest Heathen and he that seems religious towards God and unrighteous towards men is but a dissembling Christian To make Conscience of one duty and not of another is to make true conscience of neither The soul that ever had Communion with God above comes down like Moses out of the Mount with both Tables in his hands the second as well as the first and the first as well as the second One stone in a Mill one oare in a Boat will do little good there must be two or no work can be done A perfect man consisteth of two essential parts a Soul and a body though the soulâ— be the principal and doth specificate the compound yet the body is so necessary that without it none can be a compleat man A Christian that is evangelically perfect is also made up of these two parts Holiness and Righteousness though holiness be the chief as that which doth difference the Saint yet righteousness is so requisite that there can be no true Christian without it The holy Apostle argueth the purity of his conscience from the honesty of his conversation We trust that we have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly The goodness of the Fruit will commend the Tree 1. Their honesty was visible
they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth Psa. 17. 11. It s an allusion to Hunters who go poring on the ground to find the print of the Hares claws when their Dogs are at a loss in their sent So Satans agents go with their eyes bowing down marking the Saints footsteps to find out if it be possible where they have slipped or stepped awry that their blood-hounds may follow both their persons and their profession with loud cryes and fresh noise The baggage world is both desirous and industrious to scarr that face and to spie the least blemish in it that is fairer then her self If the Christian be once defiled Christianity it self will quickly be defamed Though sins in secret duties have their aggravations yet sins in our publique dealings do in a three-fold respect exceed them 1. These are scandalous to the good which those are not The children of God weep bitterly when they hear that others walk disorderly Their hearts bewail their brethrens wickedness now wouldst thou sadden the Spirit of a Saint Alas they have grief enough from their enemies and shall they be wounded in the house of their friends 2. They are infectious to the bad which secret sins are not Thy sins are like St. Pauls in London on highâ— for the gaze of the World but thy vertues as St. Faith under ground they do not note them How soon will the World plead a Christians sinful act to excuse and justifie their own sinful habits They are like ravenous birds that flie over sweet and pleasant flowers and pitch onely upon unsavoury carcasses they take little notice of thy graces but will be sure to mind thy vices The Philosopher saith that the Fleeces of such Sheep as are killed by the Wolf are most apt to breed Lice one of Christs Sheep foiled by Satan in the eyes of men doth much mischief Now will it not trouble thee that these unclean fowles should pick that from thee which will feed and nourish their filthy natures Alas they move fast enough towards Hell with the tide of their own evil hearts and shall the wind of thy example make them sayl more swiftly 3. Thy open sins occasion the wicked to speak ill of God which secret sins do not The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you saith the Apostle to the Romans Rom. 2. 24. Christians ought to be shields to ward off those blows of reproach which would fall on the name of God how unchristian are they then that are swords in the hands of the wicked wherewith the name of God is wounded Truly an unrighteous professour is such a one If thou studiest to do thy God disservice and to bring on his blessed name dishonour thou canst not do it sooner then by unjust actions under the livery of an high profession The Divel himself cannot dress a man in a more ridiculous habit to make both him and his Master the scorn of the Company then by putting on him a coat patcht up of divers peices and contrary colours a glorious name of a Saint and the unrighteous works of a reprobate Friend beware how thou behavest thy self in the world The Snow makes a fair shew to the eye but being melted it makes a dangerous flood They who make a fair shew in the flesh by walking offensively may cause such a deluge as may drown the souls of others and give many a dash at the name of God himself The Indians would not hear of Heaven when they were told that the Spaniards whom they had found to be barbarous and bloody went thither The Iews are hardened in their emnity against Christ by the evil lives of pretended Chistians Epiphanius saith that in his days many avoided the Christians company because of the looseness of some mens conversation When some beasts have blown on grass others will not eat of it for a good while after â—ts no wonder that Religion finds so few greedy of her service when her work is so much disparaged by those that already seem to be her servants Men will easily be discouraged from travailing in that rode which is haunted with Theeves and robbers Either walk up to thy calling or lay thy calling down why shouldst thou give conscience cause to say to thee truly what Michael did to David falsly thou hast made thy self like one of the vile and base fellows of the earth SECT II. AS to the exercising thy self to Godliness in thy dealings with all men it consisteth partly in the manner of thy dealings partly in the principle of thy dealing and partly in the end thou propoundest in thy dealings First Be careful in thy carriage towards others as to the maner of it that it be righteous meek and courteous 1. Be righteous in thy dealings with all men Righteousness strictly taken is a vertue which guideth and ordereth the whole man for the good of his neighbour as the understanding to conceive the Will to chose the affections to love and desire and the whole man to act and do what may tend to the welfare of others This righteousness is of so great concernment to godliness that it is sometimes put by a Synechdoche for the whole of Religion 1 Ioh. 3. 7. He that doth righteousness is righteous so Rom. 6. 17. And the Christian is denominated from this part of Christianity Gen. 7. 1. And the Lord said unto Noah Come thou and all thy house into the Ark for thee have I seen righteous before me so Psa. 5. ult For thou Lord wilt bless the righteous The Moral Philosophers tell us that justice is the sum and Epitome of all vertues the Divines will inform us that righteousness largely taken is the string upon which all the graces hang if that be broken or snapt asunder they all fall off and are lost I must tell thee Christian that civil righteousness is as really necessary as sacred He that seemeth righteous towards God and is unrighteous towards men is unrighteous both to God and Man I say be righteous in thy dealing with all men Viz. Let thy righteousness be real and universal Commntative Distributive Be righteous in thy actionâ— expressions and towards all persons 1. Be righteous in thy works or Actions Deal with men as one that in all hath to do with God If thou art a Christian thou art a Law to thy self thou hast not onely a Law without thee the Word of God but a Law within thee and so darest not transgress Thy double hedge may well prevent thy wandring Alas what do those unruly beasts get whom no fence can keep in but a more speedy slaughter It s said of an unrighteous man his own counsel shall cast him out Job 18. 7. Unjust men think by their craft to cast others down but their own counsel will cast themselves out Out out of what Out of their houses for such dwellings are built upon powder and a spark of wrath sooner or later will blow them up Psa.
quarrels but keep the peace without a Bond. It is the base and vile bramble the fruit of the earths curse that teareth and renteth what is next it Plutarch reports of a falling out between two famous Philosophers Aristippus and AEschines and how after some time Aristippus went to AEschines saying Shall we not be friends before we be a Table-talk to all the town Yea with all my heart saith AEschines Remember then saith Aristippus that thrugh I am your Elder yet I sued for peace True replieth the other I acknowledge you the better and worthier man for I began the strife but you the peace In this Pagan glass many Christians may see their own deformities for even Heathen agree with Scripture in this first particular That they are most wise and prudent who are most meek and peaceable 2. The other which floweth from the forementioned verse is That the Christians meekness must be mixt with wisdom The Apostle calls it meekness of wisdom meekness opposeth fury in our own quarrel not zeal in Gods cause The same Spirit that appeared in the forme of a Dove appeared also in the form of fiery tongues It may be my duty to be silent when I am wronged but its sinful not to speak when God is reproached Though I may compound for my own debts yet I have no power to compound for anothers It s a singular mark of a Saint to be wet Tinder when men strike fire at himself and touch-wood when men strike at God The meekest man upon the face of the earth was the fullest of fury in the cause of Heaven Numb 12. 2. Exod. 32. A skilful Musitian knoweth when to strike a string of a lower sound when of an higher A wise Christian knoweth when to abate when to increase his heats Naturalists observe of Bees that they will ordinarily suffer any prejudice when they are far from their Hives and their own particular is onely concerned but when they are neer their Hives that their Common wealth is engaged in their combats they are furious and will lose their lives or conquer Thy work O Christian is not to abate the least of Gods due but to pocket up many private injuries and to forgive thy personal debts Be not like some as cold in Gods cause as if they had neither sense nor life and as hot in their own as if their work were to make good the opinion of Democritus that the soul is of the nature of fire nothing else but an hot subtle body dispersing it self into fiery atomes Excess of fury is a spiritual frenzy and its ill for them who come within the biting of such mad beasts I have reast of Themistocles that having an House to let he pasted on the Door Here is an House to be hired that hath a good Neighbour It s a great comfort to dwell by a pious and meek person but no small cross to live neer the peevish and passionate A meek man is a good Neighbour in these respects For 1. He is so far from wronging others that he will forgive those that wrong him He is not onely contrary to them who like furious Curs fall upon every one that passeth by without the least cause but also if he be wronged he never studieth revenge though he may seek sometimes for Iustice. The world hath learned of the Divel to offer injuries and he hath learned of God to suffer injuries He dares not usurpe Gods Throne but leaves his cause to the Judge of all men Lev. 19. 18. He knoweth also that good men must have their grains of allowance and Children of the same Father are too prone to quarrel therefore he beareth both with the bad and the good with the former for Christs sake with the latter because they are Christs seed Now such a one is a good Neighbour Calvin said though Luther should call him Satan yet he would honour Luther as a faithful servant of God It s reported of Cato that when a rash bold fellow struck him in the Bath and some time after came to ask him pardon he had forgot that he had been injured Melius putavit non agnoscere quam ignoscere saith Seneca He scorned to approach so neer revenge as acknowledge that he had been wronged It s below a generous Moralist to take notice of petty affronts He kils such slimy wormes by trampling on them The Christian upon a better consideration destroyeth those vermine with the foot of contempt He hath experience what millions of pounds are forgiven him by God and therefore out of gratitude cannot but pardon some few pence to man Forgiving one another as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you Ephes. 4. 32. He knoweth that he needeth favour from others for his offences against them he doth not always walk so carefully but some time or other he hath bespattered those that went neer him and it s but just that he should allow that pardon which he expecteth Eccles. 7.21,22 Tit. 3. 2 3. Shewing all meekness towards all men for we our selves were sometimes foolish living in malice and envy hateful and hating one another The Lacedemonians were wont to pray in their publique service that the Gods would enable them to bear private wrongs with patience 2. A meek person will part with much of his right to buy his peace Where he may not wrong his family too much nor dishonour his God he will yeild far to preserve or purchase a friend Though his priviledge be superior yet he can be contented to hold the stirrup to others and give them place Abraham was the Elder and the Nobler man yet he offereth Lot his choice of the Country and was willing to take what he would leave SECT VI. SEcondly If thou wouldst exercise thy self to godliness in thy dealings with all men look not onely to the manner of thy dealing but also to the principle Thy righteous courteous and meek carriage must proceed from obedience to Gods command Many of the Heathen as thou hast heard were just in their contracts they would as soon die as deceive Now how wouldst thou know whether thou exceedest them but by a principle of Conscience from which thou actest If Pagans and Christians be found travelling in the same path the onely way to difference them iâ— to enquire whence they both sat out and whither they are going what is the principle from which they act and what is the end of their journey According to the principle of a man such is his end If the Barrel of the Musquet be crooked it will never carry the Bullet right therefore thy principle must especially be minded There be many things that move orderly and yet their motion is not from a principle of life as a Mill moveth by reason of the water yet is no living creature An outward principle of custome or fashion or glory may make a man just and patient in his actings many do the things commanded not because they are
is before the thing exemplified If a man is bound to love another as himself he must needs love himself first and more then another Thy love to them may cause thee to hope that thou mayst convert them but thy love to thy self should make thee fear lest they should pervert thee 2. Position A Christian is bound to avoid all needless society with wicked men Mark I say needless When our Relations command it as amongst Husbands and Wives and Parents and Children or our Vocations call for it then it is necessary Those precepts that enjoyn us to forbear their company are to be understood when we have no call to it We may Trade with wicked men we must perform all moral duties to our Kindred and acts of courtesie and charity to the worst of our enemies so we be careful to keep our selves from their corruptions and use their company no longer then the discharge of those duties doth require When by admitting their persons we cannot avoid their vices we must deny both 3. Position Christians should as God gives them opportunity if there be any hope of doing good endeavour to reform men before they wholly reject their company Nay and pray for their welfare after they have refused them for Companions It s small kindness to shut up a man that hath the plague lest he should infect others and to use no means for his own cure If I finde that a man is desperately bent in wickedness that Religion is the object of his laughter and to give him any serious counsel is to cast Pearl before Swine I must judge such Ishmaels and Esaus unworthy of humane society but it s a very hard case to shut a man up in a Coffin and bury him before he be quite deadâ— Sometimes vicious men are in distress and a godly man hath a call from God to do him some charitable office here the Christian may have less fear of receiving hurt from them Afflictions are bonds and these beasts in Chains are not so unruly Pauls Viper benummed with cold did not sting him Here a Christian hath also more hope of doing good to them The hard mettal when in the fire may receive impressions Men will take that Physick willingly in their sickness which they refused in health 4. Position A Christian may love a wicked man sincerely though he wholly shun his society He may affect him with a love of pity though not of complacency He may shew his love by powring out his heart in petitions to God for him Though a Saint deny a scandalous sinner his presence yet he doth not deny him his pity nor his prayers Nay our Non-Communion may be a means of their conversion If any obey not the word have no company with him that he may be ashamed 2 Thes. 3. 14. Shame and Confusion is a good step towards Conversion A wicked mans presence burdens a Saint and a godly mans presence hardens a sinner Surely thinks he I am if not praise worthy yet tolerable and not very bad since such a good man is so much with me They who did eat and drink in Christs presence on Earth wondered much to be excluded from his Heavenly Banquet Math. 7. 23. Hymeneus and Alexander were excluded Christian society that they might learn not to blaspheme 1 Tim. 1. 20. This wounding is the way to healing â—t makes prophane men bethink themselves when sober persons avoid their presence Object 2. Did not Iesus Christ accompany with wicked men Can I follow a better pattern or can any pretend to more purity Is not Christ upon this account called a friend of Publicans and Sinners Answ. 1. I Answer More generally All our Saviours actions are for our instruction but all are not for our imitation Christ indeed hath left us an example that we should follow his steps but not in all the prints of his feet Christ did nothing amiss but he that shall undertake to do in all things as he did will follow him too close and do many things amiss It may be commendable to imitate my Soveraign but it is possible enough to do it so far as to be guilty of treason by it Some of Christs actions were done by him as man others were done by him as Mediatour or God-man In many of these latter we cannot imitate him in others we may not Who can work Miracles forgive Sins c. as Christ did Who may appoint Apostles constitute Laws for the Church c. as Christ did Answ. 2. More particularly Christ had a Call which all others have not to go amongst wicked men Where should a Physitian be but amongst his Patients to deal with such is his calling Christ came to call sinners to repentance to heal their vitiated natures and therefore it was necessary he should associate with them He went amongst them not as a friend to their sins but as a Physitian to their souls How should he otherwise have cast out Devils cured their sicknesses and proved his Deity to their faces An Ambassadour being commissionated by his Prince may do that which if an ordinary Subject should do may cost him his life Abraham might having liberty from God stand still and behold Sodom flaming when Lot might not so much as cast an eye or have a glance towards it Christ was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and so he went to them in discharge of his Errand and Mission He had also a Commission under his Fathers Hand and Seal Luk. 4. 18. Iob. 6. 27. Answ. 3. Christ had no tinder about him to take fire being conceived without sin but we are little else then dry tinder and therefore have cause to avoid the least spark The Prince of this world cometh saith Christ and findeth nothing in me He cometh with his baits but there is nothing in me that will be nibling at them Besides his Deity was a perfect Antidote against all infection As the beams of the Sun he could be in filthy places and amongst defiling persons and not receive the least pollution when we have such unhealthful souls that we are ready to receive the contagion from the least infectious breath Our corrupt nature is like fire which if there be any infection in the room draweth it straight to it self Answ. 4. Christ did not choose the Company of Publicans and Sinners though he was often amongst them A Physitian is not in a Pest-house wiâ—h delight though his own pity and their misery may call him thither Sinners were the guest Saints onely the delight of Christ wicked men had his company but the Disciples onely were his Companions He was intimate with none but beleivers others were his care they his comfort It was to them he said I have not called you servants but friends for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of the Father I have made known unto you Joh. 15. 15 16.
of a good name is above all wealth Eccles. 7. 1. A good name is better then precious Oyntment What a great theif is he then that robs his Neighbour of it Our rash judging others like the Rams-horns before Iericho may blow down that with a blast which we cannot build up again while we live An ill report is soon raised but not so soon laid It usually like the Crocodile groweth whilst it continueth Our tears should be the grave to bury our Neighbours failings in and not our mouths a grave to bury their names in That one act of Alexander merits eternal memory who having read a Letter with his favourite Hephestion wherein his mother calumniated Antipater he presently took his Signet from his finger and oppressed Hephestions lips with it conjuring him as it were to seal up his lips and not once to open them in revealing anothers disgrace Suppose the person I censure be really evil yet my duty is to do what I can to amend not to divulge his errors But if he be good I dishonour God by disgracing his Friend and shall be sure to pay for it either in tears or torment How shall I be able to stand in that day when men shall give an account of all their hard speeches and what shall I answer when God shall ask me as once he did Aaron and Miriam Wast thou not afraid to speak against my Servant Moses 3. Take heed of back-biting the bad When Men speak evil of others that are absent before many purposely to defame and disgrace them this is back-biting and condemned by God though what we speak of them be true Doeg spake nothing but truth of David and Abimelech yet the Scripture calls him a lying and deceitful tongue Psa. 52. Somtimes it may be a duty to reveal others deeds of darkness as when these two things concur 1. That we have cause for it When what we mention is naked truth and the sin not any ways rendred more ugly and deformed by misconstructions or aggravations And 2. When we have a call to it as when we are desired to mention what we know of others by them that have good ground to enquire after them or when through ignorance of such things others may be deceived in them or when we are lawfully required before a Magistrate to testifie our knowledge of such persons or actions I may add a third and that is When our desires and ends are purely to get our hearts affected with the dishonour that is done to God by their wickedness and the danger and misery of their own souls This is supposed to be the subject matter of the Saints discourse Mal. 3. 16. when in evil days they spake often one to another But for men to make it their business to publish others prophaness this is prophane Thou shalt not go up and down as a Tale-bearer among thy people Lev. 19. 16. The word for Tale-bearer in the Hebrew is Bakel and signifieth a Pedlar which fitly sets forth the property of a Back-biter The Pedlar goeth up and down the Country offring his wares at every door very willing to put them off he takes them up at one place and never ceaseth travailing till he hath sold them at another So the back-biter catcheth up an evil report of a man at one house and cannot rest till he is at some other house to tell it again offering to vend it at a very low rate to any man that will take it off his hands Nay he is so full that he is ready to burst if none will allow him vent He is bigg with child and can find no ease till anothers ears be the Midwife to deliver him of such a deformed Monster But this is opposite to the rule by which we should walk Tit. 2. 3. Our God commandeth us Speak evil of no man Not of good men for they are Gods portion not of bad men for so is Gods precept This unchristian course of some professors hath procured them many a mischief and brought up an ill report upon them all The sinner is apt to say of such as Ahab of Micaiah I hate him for he never speaks well of me And thus instead of saving their neighbours souls which ought to be the work of every Christian they harden them in their sins and help to deepen their condemnations Without doubt that time which men spend in reporting others wickedness would be far better imployed in confessing and be wailing their own It will prove at last but an evil means to raise our own names higher by pulling down others and building on their ruinesâ— and to relate their vices as a foil to render our vertues more beautiful and glorious Let not the evil speaker be established in the earth Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him Psa. 140. 11. He that plotteth to pluck up others names doth it with an intent to plant his own the surer but he shall not be established in the earth saith God He judgeth himself safe because others cannot stand before him or are disabled by reason of the disgrace he hath brought on them to oppose him But evil like a pack of ravenous hounds shall with open mouth bunt this butting Stagg and sooner or later overthrow him It was wise counsel which Diogenes gave the Emperour Take heed saith he of two sorts of beasts in thy Court both which bite dangerously the tame Beast the Flatterer and the wild Beast the Back-biter Well might he call them Beasts for a Man-like Spirit scornes to be so brutish as to claw the itching eares of others with flatteries and hates to be so currish and cowardly as to bite them behind their backs David would have no such to be his Servants Psa. 101. 6 7. The Back-biter hath this sad unhappiness that he wounds three with one Arrow of his viperous tongue Himself his Hearer and his Neighbour he speaks of 1. Himself for such weapons recoyl and flie upon him that dischargeth them The Holy Ghost compareth a back-biting tongue to a sharp sword and indeed like Sauls sword it may be the death of the owner God joyns this sin with Murder Lev. 19. 16. to note saith one that the Back-biter is a Man-slayer and surely such a one shall not escape vengeance 2. His Hearer The Receiver is as bad as the Thief If there were no Tale-hearer there would be no Tale-bearer Some are fitly compared to Brass Pots though they are great you may carry them by the ears which way you please It s an excellent expression of Solomon As the North-wind drives away Rain so doth an angry countenance a Back-biting tongue Prov. 25. 23. It s a memorable saying of Bernard The Detractour and willing hearer of it do both carry the Divel aboâ—t them the one carrieth him in his tongue the other in his ear It was the wish of Plautus that there were a Law for the hanging of Tale-bearers by the Tongue and Tale-bearers by the
him under that he rise no more How many that should reprove others have their mouths stopt as the Dogs by the Thief with a piece of bread some kindness or other Or else as Erasmus saith of Harpocrates they hold their finger in their mouths and are affraid of giving offence they are rather like the reflection of a Looking-glass ready to imitate others sinful gestures and actions then rebuke them for them There is no reprover in the gate Nay Heathen exceed in this many of us The Great Philosopher tells us That is true love which to profit and do good to us feareth not to offend us and that it is one of the chiefest offices of friendship to admonish Euripides exhorts men to get such friends as would not spare to displease them saying Friends are like new wines those that are harsh and sowr keep best the sweet are not lasting Phocian told Antipater Thou shalt not have me for thy Friend and Flatterer too Diogenes when men called him Dog for his severe kind of reproving would Answer Dogs bite their enemies but I my friends for their good And are we so hardly drawn to this duty O how justly might the Lord reprove us cuttingly and set our sins in order before our eyes to our comdemnation for our backwardness to reprove others to their humiliation We have most of us cause with Reverend Mr. Robert Bolton to confess and bewayl our neglect herein SECT V. FIfthly By bearing each others infirmities Christians like the clearest fire will have some smoak whereby they are apt to offend each others eyes and to cause anger The best and most pious may sometimes be peevish Those brethren that love sincerely may too often quarrel True Members of the same body may by some accident be dis-joynted Though contentions argue them to have flesh yet they may arise where there is spirit Therefore the Holy Ghost commandeth Bear one anothers burthens and so fulfil the Law of Christ Here is the Commandment enjoyned and the Argument whereby it is enforced Galat. 6. 2. First The Precept Bear one anothers burthens There is a threefold burden that Christians must bear for each other I. The civil burthens of their miseries and sufferings Have a fellow-feeling with them in their afflictions Who is weak and I am not weak Who is afflicted and I burn not saith holy Paul Herod and his men of War will set a persecuted Christ at naught The Chief Priests and Elders will mock him when he hangs upon the Cross Luk. 23. 11. Mat. 27. 4. Edom rejoyced in the day of Ierusalem's trouble they cryed Aha so would we have it But the true seed of Iacob sigh for others sorrows they weep with them that weep Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them and them that suffer adversity If one part of the natural body be in pain the other parts are sensible of it When one branch of a Tree is torn and mangled in Summer the other branches are affected with it and out of Sympathy as it were will not thrive so well as formerly If one person of a family be sick how much do his relations from a principle of nature lay to heart his pain and illness Christians are all members of the same body branches of the same vine children of the same family and it would be monstrous and unnatural for them not to feel each others miseries and suffer in each others sufferings II. The Spiritual burthen of their iniquities and sins Whether more immediately against God Though we must not bear with them in their sins yet we must help to bear their sins with them We ought to sit on the same floor with them that are fallen down and to mourn with them and for them and to bear some of the weight This temper was so eminent in Ambrose he would so plentifully weep with the sinning party that a Great Commander under Theodosius beholding it cried out This man is onely worthy the name of a Bishop As Stags when they swim over a River to feed in some Meadow they swim in a row and lay their heads over one anothers backs bearing the weight of one anothers horns and when the first is weary another taketh his room and so they do it by course So Christians must be willing to bear each others weight whilst they are passing through those boistrous waters till they land at their glorious eternal harbour Or whether their sins are immediately against our selves If the teeth bite the tongue that seeketh no revenge When the feet through their slipping throw the body upon the ground it riseth up and all is well Some Christians are of such weak stomachs that they can digest nothing that looks like an unkindness or injury But it s the glory of a man to pass by offences Cyprian saith to bear with affronts is a ray of Divinity A noble-spirited man will disdain to take notice of petâ—y dis-respects he will over-come contempt by contempt But an heaven-born Christian hath higher principles and more sublime motives to forgive his offending brother I Paul the Prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called with all lowliness and meekness with a long-suffering forbearing one another in love Ephes. 4. 1 2. And be ye kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you verse ult It is reported of Cosroes the Persian King that he caused a Throne to be made for him like Heaven with the Sun Moon and Stars artificially placed above it and under his feet thick and black clouds and high winds and tempests He that would have an Heaven here I mean enjoy God and himself must of necessity trample these under his feet It is good advice which Bernard gives in such a case Dost thou hear that a brother hath said or done somewhat that reflecteth upon thee or is injurious to thee then saith he 1. Be hard to believe it He should have a loud tongue that can make thee to hear such a report I would give him little thanks in case the honour of God were not concerned that were the messenger to bring me such a sowr present his pains would deserve but a poor reward that brought me tidings of a discourtesie to rob me of my charity The evidence shall be very clear or I will write Ignoramus upon his Bill of Indictment But if the thing be so plain that it cannot be denyed then saith he 2. Excuse his intent and purpose Think with thy self Possibly he had a good end in it He spake as he heard or he did what he did upon some good ground and account Though the action seem to savour of injury yet certainly in his intention there was no evil Had I his eyes I should see his end was right and honest But if there should be no reason for hope that his purpose was good then saith he
good Companions will advise and direct my feet in the ways of peace If I fit in darkness and see no light by their counsel and comfort I may learn the way out of the mist. If I am perplexed in any labyrinths they may help me to unty that knot of which I have been labouring long in vâ—in to find an end If I be falling they will be props to support me if I wander they will be guides to reduce me if I be dull they will be whet-stones to quicken me if I do well they will be fathers to encourage me whatever my want be they will endeavour to supply me and whatever my condition be they will be like-minded both weeping with me in my sorrows and rejoycing with me in my joys Besides if I expect the presence of my God who is rich in mercy and the God of all consolations where can I find him sooner then in his Temple they are the Temple of God and I will dwell in them His Saints on Earth are his lesser Heaven wherein he takes up his abode O my soul what an Argument is here to perswade thee to fellowship with the Saints Theirs is the onely good fellowship Their Communion is a Conjunction in the service of thy God and tendeth abundantly to thy spiritual advantage and edification Thy Redeemer calls them the light of the world and they will guide thee in the way which he hath cast up The salt of the earth and they will preserve thee from corruption Their conversations are living Commentaries upon that word which is thy rule and so will both plainly teach thee thy duty and powerfully provoke thee to do it Their expressions will by savoury and help thee to learn the language of Canaan The tongue of the just is a tree of life and beareth excellent fruit The lips of the righteous feed many Besides amongst these Children thou mayst be sure to meet with the everlasting Father Where two or three are gathered together in my name I will be in the midst of them Though but two or three that the wicked despise them for their paucity though two or three never so low and mean that the world scorns them for their poverty yet if gathered together in his name they shall not fail of his presence Surely nothing will prevail more with a faithful Spouse to joyn with any company then this She shall meet with her beloved Husband amongst them O of what great price is this one promise I will be in the midst of them His presence like the nearer approaches of the Sun in the Spring will refresh their hearts with the warm beams of his love when they are chill and almost dead with the cold of frights and fears and cause in their souls a new shooting of grace that notwithstanding any foregoing winter of barrenness they shall now abound in the fruits of righteousness What can they or thou O my soul want which his presence will not supply Art thou laden with sin he can give thee rest art thou full of sorrows he is the conâ—olation of Israel art thou poor in grace with him is durable riches and righteousness art thou dull and dead in spirituals he is the Lord of life and can quicken thee He hath power enough to subdue all thy lusts he hath wisdom enough to resolve all thy doubts he hath grace enough to pity all thy weaknesses and mercy enough to pardon all thy unworthiness He is able to save to the uttermost Nay thou hast not only his Promise to meet thee in his Garden amongst his people but thou hast also his Performance of it for thine encouragement Then the same day at evening being the first day of the week when the doors were shut where the Disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews came Jesus and stood in the midst and saith unto them Peace be unto you And when he had so said he shewd unto them his hands and his side then were the Disciples glad when they had seen the Lord Then said Iesus unto them again Peace be unto you As my Father hath sent me so send I you And he breathed on them and said Receive ye the Holy Ghost O the value of those Jewels which are lockt up in this Cabinet All the Crowns and Scepters of the world had they been thrown in amongst the Disciples could not have caused the thousandth part of that comfort nor have brought any degree of that profit which the Disciples had by the presence of the holy Jesus Consider his words Peace be unto you peace be unto you Never did sweeter words or more melodious musick ever sound in humane ears What tidings could be more welcom to them that had known the terrors of an angry God and felt the curses of his righteous Law Didst thou never see a poor debtor arrested by severe Serjeants and hailed to the Goal in which nasty miserable place he was like to continue whilst he lived with wringing of hands and watering of cheeks and doleful screeches and afterwards upon the payment of his debts by some loving Surety with what clapping of hands and gladness of heart he was enlarged If so thou hadst some poor resemblâ—nce of that exuberancy of joy which the Disciples felt when they saw the Lord and heard those blessed words Peace be unto you They were all liable every moment to the arrest of divine justice for those vast sums which they owed to the Holy and Jealous God and in continual danger to be hurried by Divels his Officers to the Prison of Hell whence they could never have come out Now his appearance to them did evidence that the Law was satisfied that all their debts were discharged in that the Surety who took upon him the payment of them was by order of the Iudge released What news could find more acceptance with those that dreaded the fury of the Lord more then death and esteemed his favour far before life then that which did speak him reconciled to them And farther observe the work of the blessed Redeemer And he breathed on them Receive ye the Holy Ghost As if he had said I know your unbeleiving hearts will think the news of a reconciled God and of peace with him too good to be true behold therefore his love-token Receive the earnest of his favour his holy Spirit who knoweth his mind fully and was at the Council-Table of Heaven when all your names were engrost in the book of life and all the methods of grace and good-will towards poor sinners were debated and concluded and is sent to you on purpose to reveal them to you and assure you of them and therefore is an unquestionable evidence that he is at one with you This O my soul was the blessed Heavenly Banquet which the Redeemer entertained his Disciples with when they met together and wouldst thou miss such a feast for all the World Lord thou lovest the Assemblies of thy Saints they are the habitations
bold as to dare God why should I be so bashful as to fear him Love that he may discern my affection to his soul in my detestation of his sin If he suspect me to bear ill-will in my heart he will throw my potion in my face What man will take Physick from an enemy Lord shouldst thou suffer me to go on in sin and not call me back though by a severe admonition it were a sign thou didst hate me Thou didst never strike Ephraim worse then when thou didst forbear to strike at all but saidst Ephraim is joyned to Idols let him alone Should I not seek to pluck my brother out of the fire of sin into which he is fallen but suffer him to lye there I hate him and am in thine esteem a murderer O deliver me from such blood-guiltiness thou God of my salvation Let thy good Spirit so strengthen and direct me when ever thou callest me to this duty that I may do it with zeal to thine honour not daring to jest with such an edged tool as sin is and with love and wisdom that if by any means I may bring back a wandring sheep to thy fold I Wish that I may receive as well as do good by all my converses with those that are good Christians are trees of righteousness planted in Gods Vineyard and it s my own fault if I gather not some good fruit from them My God tells me The lips of the righteous feed many if then I rise hungry from the Table it s a sign I am sullen and will not eat My Father delights to see his Children distributing their spiritual food as the Disciples the Loaves and Fish to the multitude amongst their brethren till they all are filled He hath acquainted me that its an argument of wisdom to receive and folly to refuse counsel Give instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser teach a just man and he will increase in learning Prov. 9. 9. The holy Apostle though high in the School of Christ and in the uppermost Form yet hoped to learn somwhat from those that were far meaner Scholars He writes to the Romans that he hopes to be filled with their Company They that are Dwarfes in Religion may do service to the tallest if they be willing to accept it A Rush Candle may give me some light if I do not wilfully shut mine eyes A brazen Bell may call me to prayer as well as one of silver if I do not stop mine ears The smallest and meanest creatures were serviceable to the Great God against the Egyptians and shall my proud heart refuse the help of mean Christians against the enemies of my salvation Did a Damsel possessed with a Devil bring her Master much temporal gain and may not a poor servant filled with the holy Spirit bring me much spiritual gain What or who am I that none must teach me but those that are eminent in grace and gifts I am sure I have nothing that good is but what I have received and this pride of my heart is too great an evidence that I am but poor in holiness Those branches that are fullest laden bend most downward Those trees that abound in clusters of fruit do not disdain to receive sap from the mean earth which every Beast trampleth on It s no wonder if a soul decline in strength that refuseth its food because it s not brought by the Steward but by some inferiour person of the Family If Satan can keep me in this proud humour he doth not doubt but to keep me in a starving condition and to hinder the efficacy of all means for my growth in grace When this Dropsie once seiseth upon my vitals I may expect a Consumption of my whole body Lord it were my duty to hear thy voice though it were through the mouth of a Balaam thou hast sometimes conveyed the water of life through these Pipes of Lead and sent considerable presents to thy chosen by contemptible messengers O suffer me not to be wise iâ— mine own eyes and thereby to turn away mine ears from the words of them that are endued with spiritual wisdom but cause me to hear counsel and receive instruction that I may be wise for my latter end I Wish that I may be so much my own friend as to esteem a bitter admonition better then the sweetest flattery and never quarrel at any for waking me out of my spiritual Lethargy The World indeed is full of them that rage at such as would prevent their ruine choosing rather to have their wounds fester though they kill them then be searched throughly to recover them Their words to their Neighbours are like the Jews to the Prophets Prophesie not unto us right things Prophesie unto us smooth things Prophesie deceits Isa. 30. 10. And their works are like theirs too If a Stephen deal but faithfully with them and tell them of their faults they are presently cut to the heart and gnash at him with their teeth Their bones are so out of order that the smallest disturbance makes them fret and fume Like Owles if any offer to lay hold on them they soon make him feel their claws Rebuke a scorner and he will hate thee But I have not so learned Christ Though Toads are no sooner toucht but they swell and are ready to spit out their poison in the face of him that hindleth them yet Sheep will be felt and shorn and suffer their sores to be drest with patience Though fools hate him that reproveth in the gate yet rebuke a wise man and he will love thee saith God Prov. 9. 8. O that I might never be so void of love to my fallen brother as not to give him a serious reproof nor so void of love to my self as not to receive a serious reproof The nipping frosts though not so pleasant are as profitable as the Summer sunshine I deceive my self if I judge no liquor wholsom but what is toothsom There is no probable way of curing some diseases but by Blisters and â—â—pping-glasses and painful medicines Is it not better for me to accept an admonition and amend then to walk on in a wicked way to my destruction Will it not be much easier for me to bear a rebuke given in love and with meekness from my fellow-creature then to provoke the Iealous God with eyes full of fury to take me by the throat and ask me what I am doing How I dare thus slight his Laws and contradict his Will O how can my heart endure or my hands be strong in the day that he shall deal with me Well might my God say He that hateth reproof is brutish Lord let me never be so much a beast as to lye snoring in a nasty kennel of filth and when any come to wake me flie in their faces but let me prefer a sharp admonition before the smoothest deceits When any praise me for the good in me cause me to suspect
mischief they conceive for lack of the Midwifery of fit instruments and opportunities to bring it forth Good men are unable to act all the good they would because they want power and ability for Execution As Paul acknowledgeth that he was better at willing then performing but every man hath liberty to devise and meditate to study and contrive what he willâ— Though a mans hand or actions may be over awed and over-ruled against his own will yet his heart and thoughts cannot As he thinks in his heart saith the wise man so is he Pov. 13. 7. Practiceâ— may be swayed by outward ends but the thoughts are always genuine and natural Violence may cause the former but love carrieth the latter in its own way Hence good men have been signalized for Saints from the holiness of their thoughts They thought upon his name they meditate in his law day and night and they have even appealed to God with comfort upon their confidence of their uprightness from the goodness of their thoughts Try me O God and know my thoughts as being the purest and most unfeigned issues of the soul Mal. 3. 17. Psalm 1. and such as have least danger of infection from forreign aimes It s observable also that wicked men are set forth by this secret mark They devise mischief they imagine wickedness the thoughts and imaginations of his â—eart are evil God is not in all his thoughts because as Adam begat a son after his own likeness so doth the heart of every man beget thoughts according to its own likeness whether it be spiritual or carnal The Bowl runs as the Bias inclines it The Ship moves as the Râ—dder steereth it and the mind thinketh according to the predominancy of vice or vertue in it The more the fire of grace burns clear in the soul the more of these sparks will ascend towards Heaven The more earthly a soul is the more his thoughts will tend downward the more he will mind earthly things Philip. 3. 17 18. Naturalists tell us of the Gnomon commonly called the Mariners needle that it always will turn to the Northâ—star though it be closed and shut up in a Coffer of Wood or Gold yet it loseth not its nature So the true Christian is always looking to the star of Iacob whether he be shut up in a Prison or shut himself up in his Closet he is ever longing after Jesus Christ. A true lover delights most to visit his friend alone when he can enjoy privacy with him Our blessed Saviour doth not without cause call the Pharisees Hypocrites though they faâ—ted and prayed and gave much almes because they performed those duties chiefly if not onely in company and to be seen of men The applause of others was the weight that set their clocks a going when that was taken off as when they were alone they stood still Therefore Christ adviseth his Apostles to take another course if they would evidence the truth of their Christianity Enter into thy closet shut thy door and pray to thy father in secret One fervent prayer in secret will speak more for our sincerity then many in publique Mat. 6. â—â—it When a Prince passeth by in the streets then all even strangers will flock about him and look upon him but his Wife and Children think not this enough but follow him home and are not satisfied unless they can enjoy him there A false Christian and one that is a stranger to God if he have but a superficial view of him in his Courts is pleased but the true believer and one that is nigh to him in Christ must have retired converses with him in his Closet or he is not contented SECT III. I Come now to shew how a Christian should exercise himself to godliness in Solitude 1. If thou wouldst exercise thy self to godliness when thou art alone guard thy heart against vain thoughts This is the first work to be done without which all that I have to commend to thee will be in vain It s to no purpose to expect that a glass should be filled with costly wine when it s filled already with puddle water When the house before-hand was taken up by strangers there was not room for Christ himself in the Inne If such flies be suffered and allowed in our hearts they will spoil our best pots of Oyntment Some persons though poor when they are solitary delight in the fancies and imaginations of great preferments and pleasures and riches as if they were real whereas they are the meer Chimera's and Fictions of their own brains and have no existence but in their thoughts No wonder our Saviour saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Out of the heart of man proceedeth madness Mark 7.21,22 Such thoughts are distracted thoughts and sutable to those that are out of their wits who please themselves in thinking that their filthy holes in Bedlam are stately Palaces that their nasty rags are royal robes that their iron fetters are chaines of gold and the feathers stuck in their caps are imperial Crowns As the Spanish Page in an high distemper of fancy imagined himself to be some great Emperour and was maintained in that humour by his Lord so some foolish men build these Castles in the air and then allow themselves a lodging in them Others please themselves in the thoughts of sinful sports or cheats or unclean acts and sit brooding on such Cockatrice eggs with great delight It is their meat and drink to roul those sugard-plums under their tongues Though they cannot act sin outwardly for want of strength of body or a fit opportunity yet they act sin inwardly with great love and complacency As Players in a Comedy they act their parts in private in order to a more exact performance of them in publique Others entertain themselves with needless and useless thoughts such as tend neither to the informing the mind nor reforming the heart or life Like vagrants a man meets with these in every place but can neither tell whence they come nor whither they go they have neither a good cause nor do they produce any good effect Such thoughts might be in a Davids heart but they were the object of his hate Psa. 119. 103. I hate vain thoughts The best Christians heart here is like Solomons ships which brought home not onely Gold and Silver but also Apes and Peacoks it hath not onely spiritual and heavenly but also vain and foolish thoughts But these latter are there as a disease or poison in the body the object of his grief and abhorrency not of his love and complacency Though we cannot keep vain thoughts from knocking at the door of our hearts nor from entering in sometimes yet we may forbear bidding them welcome or giving them entertainment How long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee Jerem. 4. 14. It s bad to let them sit down with us though but for an hour but its worse to let them lye or lodge with us It s
whole world and lose his own soul or what will a man give in exchange for his soul If the gaining a little silver or gold be worth so much time and pains how much is holiness and heaven worth surely ten thousand times more Art thou in the day to take a journey thou mayst consider I am but a Pilgrim and Stranger in this earth I am every day travelling towards my long home I have no abiding City here but look for one that is to come whose Builder and Maker is God O that I could prepare for it and daily make some progress towards it Art thou to spend the day in thy Shop or fields and about many businesses think on that of Christ Martha Martha Thou art careful and troubled about many things but one thing is needful and Mary hath chosen the good part which shall never be taken from her This Reader were an excellent improvement of thy time in solitude by such occasional meditations which are obvious to ordinary understandings SECT V. THirdly If thou wouldst exercise thy self to godliness in solitude Mind solemn and set meditation In the former head I advised thee to Occasional in this to Deliberate meditation Hereby thou wilt not onely prevent those covetous ambitious lascivious thoughts which otherwise might crowd in upon thee and pollute thee but also exceedingly further thy soul in holiness Occasional meditations do some good but these much more as making a greater impression upon the soul and abiding longer with it They differ as a taste and a full meal as a sip and a good draught Occasional meditations are like loving strangers that afford us a visit but are quickly gone Deliberate meditations are as inhabitants that dwell with us and are longer helpful to us The former as the morning dew do somewhat moysten and refresh the earth but quickly passeth away The latter as a good showre soaks deep and continueth long Because this is of great weight I shall acquaint thee what solemn meditation is and then give thee a pattern of it Solemn meditation is a serious applying the mind to some sacred subject till the affections be warmed and quickened and the resolution heightned and strengthned thereby against what is evil and for that which is good There are five things in this description 1. It is an application of the mind The understanding must be awake about this duty it is not a work to be done sleeping If the mind be not stirring the affections will be nodding The understanding in this is as it were the Master-workman if that be out of the way or missing the servants of the affections will be idle and stand still T is by this Sun that heat is conveyed to the lower world Darkness like the night is accompanied with damps and cold The Chariot of light is attended with warming and quickening beams 2. It is a serious applying the mind Too quick digestion breeds crudities in the mind as well as in the body and doth often more distemper then nourish There must be a retentive faculty to hold fast that which nature receiveth until a through concoction be wrought or little strength will be gotten by it Hereby it differeth from occasional meditation which is sudden and soon vanisheth this calls at the door salutes us and takes its leave that comes in and stays some time with us Occasional meditation is transient like the dogs of Nilus that lap and are gone set meditation is permanent it as the Spouse beg'd of Christ lodgeth all night between the breasts This duty cannot be done unless the mind be kept close to it the person that is negligent cannot do this work of the Lord. Things of importance are not to be hudled up in haste Loose thoughts as loose garments hinder us in our business We need as much our hearts united to think of God as to fear God Short glances do little good it is the abiding influence of the sun that turns the earth into silver and golden mettal It is not once dipping the stuff into the Dy-fat but frequent doing it that giveth the pure scarlet colour The true Mithridate which is so cordial and opening is long a making The yellow wax lyeth long in the beams of thâ— Sun before it changeth its colour and attaineth a virgin-like whitness and purity He that rides post though he wearies himself in travelling from place to place is less able to give an account of the Country through which he passeth then he that is more slow in his course but more constant in his abode Omnis festinatio caeca est saith Seneca T is much blowing that makes the green wood to flame 3. It is about some sacred subject As good meat and drink breed good blood so good subjects will breed good thoughts There is abundant matter for our meditation as the Nature or Attributes of God the States and Offices of Christ the three-fold state of man the four last things the vanity of the creature the sinfulness of sin and the love and fulness of the blessed Saviour the Divine Word and Works out of these we may chuse somtimes one thing sometimes another to be the particular subject of our thoughts Exo. 15.11 Ps. 1.1 and 119.148 Pro. 6.22 1 Tim. 4. 13. To undertake more then one at a time will deprive us of the benefit of all Too much food will rather destroy then encrease the natural heat A little wood may help that fire to burn which a great quaintity would smother Whilst the Dog runs after two Hares now after one and presently after the other he loseth both Many subjects as a press or crowd of people do but hinder one another Those streams are strongest which are most united Greediness of appetite and receiving too much food weakeneth digestion Simples are most operative mixtures and compositions are often used to allay their force When thou hast fixt upon the subject meditate if it may be on its causes properties effects titles comparisons testimonies contraries all will help to illustrate the subject and to quicken and advantage thee they do all as so many several windows let in those beams which both enlighten the mind and warm the affections but they must be considered in their places and methodically The parts of a Watch jumbled together serve for no use but each in their order make a rare and useful peice 4. It is that the affections may be warmed and quickned Our hearts and affections should answer out thoughts as the eccho the voyce and the wax the character in the seal If our meditations do not better our hearts they do nothing Whilst they swim in the mind as light things floating on the waters they are unprofitable but when they sink down into the affections as heavy and weighty things making sutable and real impressions there then they attain their end Our design in meditation must be rather to cleanse our hearts then to clear our heads Whilst I was musing the fire
through thy strength ponder all thy sayings in my heart and make them the rule of my life I will delight inâ—thy law and meditate therein day and night I will give diligence to reading be frequent in hearing and uniform and coustant in obedience to it I will teach it diligently my children and talk of it when I sit in mine house and when I walk by the way when I lye down and when I rise up I will bind it for a sign upon my hand it shall be as a frontlet between mine eyes I will make thy statutes my songs in the house of my pilgrimage I will rejoyce in thy testimonies more then they that find great spoils I will chuse thy statutes as my heritage for ever for they are the joy of my heart I will delight in the law of God after the inner man I will incline my heart to keep thy statutes always unto the end I have sworn and I will perform that I will keep thy righteous judgements But ah Lord what do I say I have even cast thy law behind my back I have broken thy bands asunder and cast thy cords from me My carnal mind is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be I can of my self break thy law but onely through thy strength keep it I have gone astray like a lost sheep O seek thy servant and I will keep thy statutes Be surety for thy servant for good that I may observe thy precepts I am a stranger in this earth hide not thy commandments from me Incline my heart unto thy testimonies and not unto covetousness Make me to go in the path of thy commandments for therein do I delight Teach me O Lord the way of thy statutes and I will keep it unto the end Giâ—e me understanding and I shall keep thy law yea I shall keep it with my whole heart Thou art good and dost good O teach me thy statutes Thy hands have made me and fashioned me O give me understanding that I may keep thy commandments I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt inlarge my heart O send out thy light and thy truth let them lead me let them bring me unto thy holy hill unto thy heavenly habitation Then will I go into the presence of God even of God my exceeding joy Yea upon the harp will I praise thee O God my God for ever Fourthly If thou woulst exercise thy self to godliness in Solitude Accustom thy self to soliloquies I mean to conference with thy self He needs never be idle that hath so much business to do with his own soul. It was a famous answer which Antistenes gave when he was asked what fruit he reaped by all his studies By them saith he I have learned both to live and talk with my self Soliloquies are the best disputes every good man is best company for himself of all the creatures Holy David enjoyneth this to others Commune with your own hearts upon your bed and be still Selah Psal. 4.4 Commune with your own hearts when ye have none to speak with talk to your selves Ask your selves for what end ye were made what lives ye have lead what times ye have lost what love ye have abused what wrath ye have deserved Call your selves to a reckoning how ye have improved your talents how true or false ye have been to your â—rust what provision ye have laid in for an hour of death what preparation ye have made for a great day of account Vpon your beds Secresie is the best opportunity for this duty The silent night is a good time for this speech When we have no outward objects to disturb us and to call our eyes as the fools eyes are always to the ends of the earth then our eyes as the eyes of the wise may be in our heads and then our minds like the windows in Solomons Temple may be broad inwards The most successful searches have been made in the night season the soul is then wholly shut up in the earthly house of the body and hath no visits from strangers to disquiet its thoughts Physicians have judged dreams a probable sign whereby they might find out the distempers of the body Surely then the bed is no bad place â—o examine and search into the state of the soul. And be still Self-communion will much help to curb your head-strong ungodly passions Serious consideration like the casting up of earth amongst Bees will allay inordinate affections when they are full of fury and make such an hideous noise Though sensual appetites and unruly desires are as the people of Ephesus in an uproar pleading for their former priviledge and expecting their wonted provision as in the days of their predominancy if conscience use its authority commanding them in Gods name whose officer it is to keep the Kings peace and argue it with them as the Town-Clark of Ephesus We are in danger to be called in question for this days uproar there being no cause whereby we may give an account of this days concourse all is frequently by this means husht and the tumult appeased without any further mischief Selah This signifieth elevation or lifting up either the mind or voyce or both For the matter of it it importeth 1. An Asseveration of a thing so to be Hence the Chaldee Paraphrast and some other Hebrews have turned it For ever The foregoing assertions are true and shall be so for ever 2. An Admiration at it Such truths call both for our assent and wonder Selah is affixed by way of Emphasis to note the excellency of the thing asserted and the impression it should make upon our spirits As David enjoyned this duty to others so he practised it himself Psa. 77. 6. I call to remembrance my song in the night I commune with mine own heart and my spirit made diligent search He communed with his own heart was not a stranger at home Indeed an Hypocrite as the Philosopher speaks of a vicious person is not friends with himself but endeavours more to avoid himself then any others and is never in so bad company as when he is alone for then he is forced to keep company with himself Where conscience is an abused and incensed Judge t is no wonder that a guilty malefactour would flie from its presence The servant that hath rioted all day is unwilling his Master should reckon with him at night The Heathen persecutors would not hear the Christians because their cause would have appeared so just that nature it self would have justified them The ungodly will not for a contrary reason hear the indictments which conscience prefers against them because their cause will appear so bad that they cannot avoid condemning themselves It may be said of whorish hearts as of the Harlot Her feet abide not within her house But the sincere Christian that allows himself in no sin delights to commune with his own soul and when he is debating things with his own conscience
but as Zacheus when gotten out of the crowd climb up into the Sycamore of meditation and obtain a sight of thy Saviour If he want no company who is with the King surely thou mayst deny all the company on earth for the King of Kings Look how lovingly he invites thee to take a turn or two with him alone in the fields Come my beloved let us go forth into the fields there I will give thee my loves Hast thou not many a time sighed out to him O kiss me with the kisses of thy lips for thy love is better then wine Lo he tells thee the place where he will answer thy petition There will I give thee my loves Thy bridegroom is bashful and desirous to satisfie thy longings in secret Isaac met his bride in the fields and thou mayst meet thy beloved when thou turnest aside from the world to entertain thy self in solitude O how pleasant should solitude be to thee for his sake What matters it whether thou art driven or who be the whips that drive thee when thou art driven farther from men to be nearer the Lord Iesus Christ A loving Husband is instead of all company to a faithful Spouse Is not Christ dearer to thee then all the world be not thou dejected though thou shouldst be turned as he was into a Wilderness but expect an Angel even the Angel of the Covenant to be sent from Heaven for thy comfort Lord it is my support that wherever I am thou art continually with me O that I were able to say I am continually with thee I would willingly with Jacob leave all my company to meet thee aloneâ— so I might but as he did weep in secret and make supplication so as to prevail with thee for thy blessing Though I should sind cause to say with David Lovers and friends stand aloof from me and with Job My friends scorn me yet if thou pleasest by parting me from them to draw me nearer to thy self and to afford me more of thy quickening cheering presence I shall account their absence a desireable advantage The best society without thee is as a barren desart and an howling wilderness the greatest solitariness with thee is as a fruitful Country and delectable Canaan How precious are thy thoughts my thoughts of thee to me O God Let me rather dwel alone in a Prison with thy company then in a Pallace without thee I Wish that I may be the more careful of my carriage in secret lest what I intend as an opportunity for my Gods service should prove a season and advantage for Satan The body must be lookt to narrowly when it comes out of an hot Bath lest the Poors being open it should take cold The soul must be carefully tended when it comes from Christian communion lest in solitude it lose what it hath gained in good company When the Countryman hath been at Market and filled his Purse he is in most danger of robbing as he goeth home alone The Tempter will be sure to be present with me whoever be absent He walks to and fro in the earth and whilst I am in his Circuit I must expect his company Though he be more bold then welcome and though I deny his desires defie his works and resist him and sometimes foil him yet he will still attend to sollicite me to folly wherever I go he will find me out and whatever I do I must expect him at my elbow he hath a double advantage of me in solitude partly in that I have no visible second to assist me he hopes when I am alone t is a good time to set upon me and that he is strong enough by force to ravish and defile me Partly in that shame which restrains from sin in publique hath no place no prevalency in private He will tell me that secresie may be a curtain to hide my sins from the worlds eye of which I am so much afraid As Josephs Mistress he will cry Come lie with me be bold to sin to take thy pleasure for here is no man present to know it or to reveal it to thy disgrace And for God he hath forgotten he hideth his face he will never see it How shall God know can he judge through the dark Cloud Thick Clouds are a covering to him that he doth not see and he walketh in the circuit os Heaven But O my soul thy double danger calleth upon thee to be the more vigilant and diligent in minding thy duty When thou hast no humane friend to watch over thee thou art the more concerned to watch over thy self They that live far from Neighbours are the more liable to Thieves and therefore if wise will make up that want by extraordinary watchfulness and a greater provision of armour and weapons If one Devil be too hard a match for many secure Christians how unable will one single Christian be to encounter with many with a Legion of Devils Shouldst thou be idle in solitude or suffer thy thoughts to wander expect more then good Company and such as will employ thee about works of darkness Besides Consider Though thy thoughts are mantled from the view of men yet thy God knoweth thy thoughts a far off long before thou thinkest them and will judge the secrets of mens hearts according to his Gospel He that numbereth the stars of Heaven numbereth all the thoughts of thy heart I know the things that come into your mind O house of Israel every one of them Ezek. 11. 5. And he that punisheth men for wicked deeds doth not let them escape for their evil thoughts Hear O earth behold I will bring upon this people the fruit of their thoughts Ier. 6. 19. Nay thy God will scourge men both for and by their thoughts accusing thoughts are stinging vipers That worm of conscience which will ever ever gnaw the sinners heart to his unconceiveable misery is bred in his thoughts O therefore wash thy heart from wickedness let not vain thoughts lodge within thee Remember also O my soul if thy most retired thoughts are legible to thy God then thy secret actions are all open and visible to his eye Never presume upon sin in hope of secrecy for though thou mayst cover the candle of creatures with a bushel yet thou canst not the glorious sun of righteousness nothing is hid from his sight There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity can hide themselves Lord thou hast told me There is nothing hid which shall not be revealed nor secret which shall not be made known I confess my wicked heart is apt to argue impunity from secrecy and to think I am invisible to thee because thou art invisible to the eye of my sense O affect my heart so throughly with thine Omniscience and Omnipresence that â— may keep thy precepts because all my ways whether inward or outward are before thee I Wish that I may have this comfortable evidence of my sincerity by the
8. 14. And what is the substance of those shadows but that Christians who are a spiritual Priest-hood should every day have their solemn Morning and Evening addresses to God and offer up holy sacrifices acceptable to God in Iesus Christ. Davids purpose was to be early at prayer O God my voice shalt thou hear in the morning in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up And his practice was answerable I prevented the dawning of the morning and cried Psa. 5. 3. and 119. 147. He was up before the day and risen and at work before the Sun Nay he tells God In the morning shall my prayer prevent thee As if he would be at his prayer before God were stirring and going abroad But surely we cannot rise so early but God is awake before us for he that keepeth Israel never slumbereth nor sleepeth His eyes are ever waking who holdeth sometimes our eyes waking But David meaneth rather that his prayers should prevent Gods servants his severest or most solacing providences not God himself He would send a Messenger with Petitions or Thanksgivings to God before God should send any Messenger with good or bad tidings to him he would be too early either for crosses or comforts 2. The Promise to secret Prayer And thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly God heard Paul in the Dungeon as well as Peter on the House top The Sun of Righteousness looks as well into the narrow Closet Casement as into the large Church Windows Secret prayers are audible to him that made the ear As he bottleth up our secret tears so he registreth our secret prayers Though the Ark was close on every side that every man might not look into it yet it had a Window open to Heaven As the Flowers open themselves in the morning to take in the sweet influences of the Sun so should the Christian open his heart in the morning to receive a blessing from the Father of lights Mary went early in the morning to the Sepulchre of Jesus and had the honour and favour to have the first sight of him after his resurrection Many a Saint hath had a blessed vision of the glorified Saviour in a morning prayer Knowest thou not O man saith Ambrose that thou owest the first fruits of thine heart and voice to God therefore meet the Lord at the Sun rise that the Sun rising may find thee ready It s reported of Cardinal Wolsey that though he was Lord Chancellour and had great and weighty employments yet he would not go abroad any morning before he had heard two Masses I wish the Popish Mattinâ— did not shameâ— the Protestants for their sluggishness and their frequent omissions T is much that some should be so diligent at their blind devotion which comes to nothing and others that have experience how profitable their spiritual trade is so backward to it and careless about it Gods mercies prevent us early and therefore our prayers should prevent him His going forth is prepared as the morning he satisfieth us early with his mercies that we may rejoyce and be glad all our days Hosea 6. 3. Psa. 90. 14. If his mercies are renewed on us every morning our acknowledgements may well be renewed unto him Every favour makes us debtors and all the pay he expects is thanks If any man should every morning send us who have little of our own to live upon very considerable presents we should esteem our selves very uncivil and unworthy if we should not as often return him our service and thanks and sense of his kindness How great and how many are the mercies with which our God loadeth us every morning and are we not sordidly ungrateful if we neglect the acknowledgement of them Our ordinary mercies are of extraordinary merit and deserve hearty thanks The damned could we speak with them would tell us that life a naked abode on this side Hell were an infinite mercy The siâ—k and such as are troubled with continual Aches or tortured with the Stone or Gout or Collick would tell us that health is a great mercy The Blind and Lame and Deaf would tell us that Limbs and Senses are a great mercy The Hungry and Naked and Houseless and Friendless would tell us that Food and Raiment and Habitations and Friends are great mercies Poor Prisoners and such as are vexed with cruel Wars and forced to flie before their enemies will tell us that liberty and peace are great mercies The Saints in Heaven could we speak with them would tell us the Patience of God the Gospel of our Salvation the tenders of Grace are inestimable mercies and do not all these which every morning are notwithstanding our notorious abuse and frequent forfeitures renewed upon us deserve our solemn and sincere thanks every morning The Jews some tell us are bound to say over an hundred Benedictions every day and among the rest these two when they go out in the morning Blessed be he that created the greater light and when they come in at evening Blessed be he that caused darkness David was frequent at this duty I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall be continually in my mouth Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgements Psa. 34. 1. and 119. 164. It is a Motto say some often repeated in Mercers Chappel Think and Thank Our many wants and necessities command us to be every morning at Heavens Gate for supply We are needy indigent creatures and must get our living wholly by begging all the day long we want forbearing preserving supporting mercy It must be Divine power that must enable us to follow our callings to stir or move about our business that must defend and protect us in our out-goings and incomings and prosper and succeed our undertakings God alone can shield us from spiritual and corporal enemies that can supply us with inward and outward good things and surely such blessings are worth asking They who will have mercies that are not of the growth of their own Country Earth must send thither to Heaven where they are to be had Prayer like the Patriarchs and Solomons good House-wife fetcheth our food from far As the Merchants Ships it supplieth us with commodities of all sorts from forraign Countries No mercies hang on so low a bough as to be pulled to us and gathered by our own armes therefore it behoveth us to beg Give us this day our daily bread Besides our dangers and difficulties every day are many and call us to be early and earnest at this duty Our callings every company all earthly affairs are snares and temptations to us unless they are sanctified by prayer It s not safe to drink of those streams wherein so many poisonous creatures dip their venemous heads unless this Vnicorn hath healed them They who walk abroad without prayer may fear they walk abroad without Gods Protection Oratio matutina clavis diei
with others And they injure themselves most by being false to their trust Should they feed the bodies of their Children and Servants on the Lords-days and make no provision for them on the week-days their consciences would flie in their faces and tell them they were inhumane and unnatural and yet they can omit all regard of their immortal souls which are far more worthy of care and tendance without remorse and sorrow I must tell such persons that if Atheism had not the predominancy in their hearts it would not bear such sway in their houses Such men are like Swine with their Pigs as if all their noses were nailed to the trough in which they feed they look not up to the God of their food and of all their comforts Such Children and Servants will in the other world find cause to curse the time that ever they knew such Fathers and Masters Others there are some of whom I hope to be godly though not in this particular that pray in their families every night but omit morning duties As if God were the God of the night and not of the day as the Syrians blasphemously affirmed that he was God of the Hills but not of the Vallies These as Austin speaks of those that woâ—ship the Moon are Atheists by day as they that worship the Sun are Atheists by night The day is thine the night also is thine thou preparest the light and the Sun Psa. 74. 16. Surely though evening Sacrifice ought to be minded yet there is as much if not more reason for morning duties A man at night in his Chamber is like a Souldier in his Garrison subject onely to the unavoidable and more immediate hand of God whereas in the day when he stragleth abroad from his quarters to fetch in his supplies he is then exposed to many unexpected casualties and unthought of accidents Family perils and dangers every day call for family prayers and duties every morning Family favours and kindnesses every night call for family thanks and acknowledgements every day When many are joyned in a Bond they go often together to see the money paid All in a Family joyn in borrowing domestical mercies therefore they must all joyn in paying hearty praises Reader if thou art Governour of a Family Consider that thou canst not faithfully serve God as a Commander unless thou takest care that all the persons under thy power do their duties in their places The Lord of Hosts will never thank that Officer who is careful to sight for him in his own person but suffereth his Company through his carelesness to fall away to the enemy Do not pretend Servants are abroad or scattered here and there about their imployments and are not at leasure but answer 1. Art thou and thy servants contented to go all day without Gods protection and provision Without question thou art most unworthy of them that dost not think them worth asking Surely God may as well say he hath no leasure he hath other employment then to defend and feed and preserve thee as thou that thou hast no leasure to serve him 2. Dost not thou and do not thine squander away more time idly and vainly then need to be taken up in morning duties 3. Do not Children and Servants come together every morning to feed their bodies and why not to feed their souls 4. If any man should make use of thy Goods or Servants of thy Time without leave thou wouldst take it very ill at their hands Thou art Gods and all that thou hast may not God therefore take it unkindly that thou shouldst dispose of thy self and thine affairs without his leave 5. Is it not plain Atheism and horrid disrespect to the blessed God to put thy self or them under thy roof upon worldly imployments without asking his providence and blessing Is it not too plain a speaking that there is no such need of him that thou canst do well enough without him 6. Thou wilt not say that thou and thine have no leasure in the morning to plough or sow or buy and sell oâ— follow earthly affairs and why not leasure as well to serve and worship the Lord His worship is of greater worth of greater weight It is of more necessity it concerns thine endless bliss in the other world It will bring in the greatest profit In the doing of his commands there is great reward Dost thou not believe that he is a better pay-master then the world 7. Art thou able to do any thing in any part of the day without his assistance Dost thou not depend every moment upon him for all thy motions and actions and is he not worth acknowledging 8. Wilt thou sayâ— Thou hast no time no leasure to be saved to escape Hell and to attain Heaven I must tell thee if thou hast no time to serve God he will have no time to save thee 9. Wilt thou stand to this Plea at the day of Christ When God shall ask thee Why thou and thy Family went abroad prayerless and drowned your selves in worldly affairs and were taken and torn by snares and temptations and disowned him and his laws as if they were not worth regarding Dost thou think it will be sufficient then to answer Lord I was a Knight or a Squire and though I had many servants yet they had their several offices and employments and could not spare time to pay that homage they owed to thy Majesty to implore thy mercy and to intreat an interest in the merits of thy son We had other things to look after then thy beautiful Image and the blessed vision of thy face for ever Or suppose thou art of an inferiour rank canst thou imagine it will be a comfortable Plea to say Lord early in the morning my Children and Servants were called to tend my Sâ—op or Flocks or Cattel or set upon some needful business or other that they could have no leasure to mind their inestimable souls or to approach thy glorious Majesty in holy ordinances O blush Reader if thou art guilty of morning omissions and either cast away thy frivolous pretences and set upon the duty or else stand to thy foolish pleas and try whether they will bear weight at the great and terrible day of the Lord Jesus but remember in the mean time that thou hast had one warning more I have written somewhat largely about family duties in the first Part and therefore had intended onely to have saluted them in this place and so to have left them but observing how some families even where governous are judged to fear God are without morning though not without evening sacrifices I dwelt the longer upon it to quicken them to this duty that they might be able to say with Abijah The Lord is our God and we burn incense and offer sacrifice every morning and evening unto him 2 Chron. 13. 10 11. SECT III. SEcondly Spend the greatest part of the day in thy particular calling He that mindeth
not his Closet before his Shop is an Atheist and he that mindeth not his Shop after his Closet is an Hypocrite The world is Gods great Family and he will allow none in it to be idle Though he distinguisheth some from the common Mass and maketh them vessels of honour as Superiours and Officers in his house yet to every one he committeth some Talent or other and commandeth them to trade till he come The ancient Massilians would admit no man into their City who had not a good trade knowing what pests and plagues such are to the people among whom they dwell He that is void of or negligent in his calling is at best as a snail 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Septuag Domiporta according to the Latines keeping house and unprofitable But usually such a one is mischeivous and may not unfitly be compared to Kites that flie lazing up and down scarce moving their wings making a querulous complaining noise filching their food out of the shambles or warrens or out of Childrens hands by force Idleness is usher to murmuring and theâ—ving He quickly learns to do ill by doing that which is next to ill nothing The Air when still corrupts and putrifieth Wheat if not stirred groweth musty and unwholsom for mans body The earth if not tilled breeds thorns Milstones if there be no grist wast and wear out themselves The soul needeth exercise as well as the body to preserve it in health Action keeps the soul sweet and clean T is no wonder that persons are almost choacked with the flegm of corruption that deny themselves the benefit and advantage of Motion that they do not thrive who refuse to trade It s a worthy speech of holy Master Boultons He is a cursed drone a child of idleness the very Tennis ball of temptation most unworthy the blessings and benefits of humane society who doth not one way or other cooperate and contribute to the common good with his best endeavours in some honest particular calling Iob saith Man is born to labour but how many Gentlemen sing the rich fools requiem to their souls Soul take thine ease thou hast goods laid up for many years till at last they come to his end and that place where there is no ease day nor night for ever and ever but as a bone out of joynt so is a good man out of his calling The Sons of the Husbandman in the Fable being told by their Father on his Death-bed that he had left much gold buried in his Vineyard fell presently a digging and delving with diligence whereby they obtained though not the gold they sought for yet a rich Harvest by stirring the mold about the roots of the Trees In all labour there is profit Eccles. 5. Though the Christian doth not ever by diligence in his calling reap that gold of outward profit which is promised conditionally so far as God seeth fit for him in this world yet he reaps peace and comfort in the discharge of his duty and prevents temptations by being imployed about other things It s in vain for any to pretend that they are so busie in praying and reading and hearing and holy duties that they cannot attend their particular callings for the same God that calls them to spiritual traffique commands them their temporal trades and hath allotted them sufficient time for both He doth the Devil too great a courtesie who makes the Commands of God to quarrel and clash one against another If Satan can prevail with men to neglect their callings whole days together and leave their families declining and almost starving through their idleness for private fasting and praying he never fears the good such a man shall get by all that devotion which is as Paul speaks of himself born out of due time He knoweth God doth not usually send in blessings at such back-doors and that he is provoked as truly by leaving our Shops when our callings require our company as by passing by our Closets when he calls us in to speak with us there The best food may prove unwholsom and burthensom to the stomach if a fit season for taking it be not observed Our best duties like some Children are utterly lost by being brought forth before their time The Roman General said Non amo nimium diligentem I love not them that are too diligent meaning them that leave their own callings and are busie-bodies in others God loves not such over-diligent nor any negligent ones As he commandeth our dependance on him for a blessing so he commandeth our diligence in our several places But having also treated largely of the Christians carriage in his particular calling in the first part how he should undertake it in obedience to the divine command follow it with an heavenly heart depend upon God for a blessing I shall say no more here Thirdly Be watchful all the day long If thou wouldst walk safely walk as one that hath his eyes in his head Ponder the paths of thy feet Every man walketh every day in the midst of traps and gins and rubs and blocks now the secure person is as a blind man stumbling at every stone When a man goeth upon cords straitned and fastned on high it concerns him to look well to his footing lest he totter and fall and break his neck There is no Christian but walks as dangerously as he that danceth on the ropes it behoves him therefore to walk Watchfully The Children of God are called to be Souldiers to fight a good sight of faith under Christ the Captain of their salvation but Souldiers must be upon their guard especially such as are encompassed on all sides at all times with enemies of all sorts Should they who are the mark at which the world and Hell are continually shooting their fiery darts to destroy them give themselves to sleep Watch ye stand fast in the faith Quit your selves like men 1 Cor. 16. 3. The Divel watcheth to devour us and he is politique to insnare us and shall we slumber Machiavel saith A Prince ought to know the tempers of men that he may fit them with baits and wind them to his own ends Satan hath not waited on men and observed them so long but he knoweth the length of their feet and can fit them to their will and wo as Agrippina the wife of Claudius gave her Husband poison in that dish which he loved best so he can give them that meat which they love with poison for its sance He is a Serpent for his subtlety and can bait his hooks answerable to the love and liking of poor silly â—ish We read of his wiles of his devices As the Camelion that lieth on the ground to catch Flies and Grashoppers changeth himself into the colour of the grass whereby they are deceived and caught So Satan can transform himself into any shape even into an Angel of light for a shift that he may deceive and destroy Though he appeared in
commodities make the most of their Markets and buy their wares while a fit time of buying them serves and having possibly had great losses formerly or spent their time idly do by their diligence seek to redeem and as it were to buy back again the time that is past The Lacedemonians were penurious of their time and spent it all about necessary business not suffering any Citizen either to play or be idle When their Ephori heard that some used to walk in the afternoons for their recreation they forbad it as savouring too much of pleasure and commanded them to recreate their bodies by some manly exercise which might breed them to be serviceable to the Common-wealth Reader the time of thy life goeth post thou art hastening to thy last stage whether thou art eating or drinking walking or sitting buying or selling waking or sleeping death is always making speed towards thee the time of thy departure hence is concluded and resolved beyond which it is impossible for thee whether thy work be done or undone to stay one day no not one hour nay not one moment and shouldst thou waste thy time upon toys and trifles as if thou hadst nothing to do no God to make peace with no Redeemer to lay hold on no soul to take care of He that hath a great way to go or much work to do and that upon pain of death and but a little time for it hath little reason to laze or loyter When we have but a little paper and much to write we write small and thick O how much work hath every Christian to do in this world which if he neglect he is lost for ever how many head-strong lusts to subdue how many duties towards God and men to perform how many graces to exercise providences and ordinances to improve and can all this be done in a little time The Candle of our lives burns low if like foolish Children we play it out we may thank our selves if we go to bed in the dark without the light of comfort to our graves It is one of the most irrational yet ordinary action of the children of men especially persons of estates and quality to waste time in Dicing or Carding or hawking or Hunting or Chambering or Revelling and yet to murmur that they want time and tell us Its pitty mans life is so shortâ— that it is not spun out to a longer thread I must tell such that they complain of God when they should of themselves He is not penurious but they are prodigal in mispending it I must ask them Why would they have more time Is it to be more riotous and prophane and vicious The shortest moment is too much for the service of sin He that sinneth but once sinneth too much by once If it be that they might honour God and get grace and lay hold on eternal life why do they not set about it and make it their business Every one would accuse him of folly that were condemned one Assize to be hanged but was reprieved till the next and had that time allotted to sue out his pardon if he should in the interim give himself wholly to gaming and drinking and take no care about his pardon yet complain to all that came to him that his time was short and he had not enough to get his pardon in or prevent his Execution Our days are sufficient for our duties had we grace to number them and to apply our hearts to wisdom but there is no overplus of time to be abused to fleshly or worldly lusts or to be lavished away in idle and unnecessary things A good man that liveth all the day long in the fear of his God and husbands his time to the best advantage of his soul finds it so sufficient for his work that he is always ready to be called to an account and when ever he dieth he dieth full of days and hath had his fill of living but men waste their time in vanity and folly sacrifice their youth to frowardness and unprofitableness their manhood to pleasure and passion their old age if they live so long to earthly-mindedness and Atheism nay they will set down and contrive sports or send for or go into idle company to pass away the time and then complain that time is little and life is short and they have not enough to provide for death and eternity in The Moralist observeth truly Non exiguum temporis habemus sed multum perdimus It is not a little time that we have but it is much which we waste God iâ— bountiful in allotting us time but we are laviâ—h of it and then grumble that it is no more The largest possessions in a Country though worth thousands per annum are nothing in the hands of a Prodigal Heir who useth to throw away thousands at a cast and must pay the Bills which Pride and luxury and gluttony send him in daily but a twentieth part of those revenues were a large estate in the hands of a frugal person The vast incomes of Egypt and all the Eastern Provinces were but a small sum when they were gathered to maintain the pomp and ambition of Antony and the riot and fleshly lusts of Cleopatra when some prudent provident Emperours have lived freely and nobly a whole year with less then they consumed in a day Foolish men that are riotous and prodigal of their time as if it were given them onely to sport and play and roar and revel in pine and whine at last that they are lost because their time is so short but wise and gracious persons that deny themselves and crucifie the flesh that can redeem time from toys and idle talk and foolish sports and unnecessary diversions to pray and hear and read and examine their souls and bemoan their sins and provide for heaven these grow rich in good works and find the days of their pilgrimage sufficient for them SECT V. FIfthly Call thy self to an accauut at evening Take a review of thy carriage the whole day how thou didst behave thy self Begin with the morning consider whether thou didst awake with God what was the frame of thy Spirit in closet and family duties in company and solitude Reflect upon thy actions thy passions thy speech thy silence thy behaviour at table in thy shop whether thy affections were heavenly above the world when thy actions were earthly about the world whether thou wast righteous in thy particular calling and didst set upon it out of conscience to Gods precept and with an eye to his glory whether thou didst not lose an opportunity of advantaging thy brothers soul and doing thy God service whether thou hast not failed in thy thoughts or words or deeds in thy demeanour towards thy relations or neighbours or strangers whether thou didst in all walk according to that rule which thy God hath prescribed thee This is the way to make the day more pious and the night more pleasant Conscience
will be the more faithful all day when it knoweth before-hand that it shall be called to an account at night and the more conscientious we are in the day the more chearful we shall be at night Seneca reports of Sextius the Roman Philosopher that every night before he took his rest he would examine his soul Quod hodie malum sanasti Cui vitio obstitisti In qua parte melior es What evil hast thou this day healed what vice hast thou resisted in what part art thou bettered and then he addeth how sweet is the sleep which ensueth upon such a review As the Shop-keeper hath his day-book wherein he writes down what he buyeth what he selleth which he looks over in the evening so must the Christian that would thrive in his general calling at night reflect upon his well-doing his ill-doings his gains his losses left his books cast him up as some find by experience because he will not take the pains to cast them up The Merchant findeth it a ready way to make his Factours and Cash-keepers faithful to reckon with them frequently When great persons neglect to account with their Stewards they tempt them to be dishonest Our consciences are corrupted as well as other faculties and will be false if not timely examined Seneca acquaints us with his own practice which may shame many Christians Vtor hac potestate quotidie apud me causam dico Cum sublatum e conspectu lumen est conticuit â—xor moris jam â—ei conscia totum diem mecum scâ—utor facta ac dicta mea remetior Nihil mihi ipse abscondo nihil transeo quare enim quicquam ex erroribus meis timeam cum possim dicere Vide ne istud amplius facias nunc tibi ignosco In illa disputatione pugnacius locutus es Illum liberius admonuisti quam debebas itaque non emendasti sed offendisti I use saith he this authority and daily plead my cause with my self When the candle is taken away and my Wife acquainted with my custom is silent I search into the whole day and review all that I have said or done I hide nothing from my own scrutiny I pass by nothing For why should I fear any thing by reason of my errors when I can say See that thou do it no more and for this time I will pardon thee c. Pythagoras taught his Scholars to talk thus with themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What evil have I committed what good have I omitted Reader let not them who knew not God rise up in judgement against thee Put every night some brief Qâ—eries to thy conscience upon these few heads How did I behave my self in Religious Duties in Natural Actions in my Particular Calling in Recreations if any were used in Company and in Solitude Compare the carriage of thy heart and life herein to the word and law of God bring all to the touchstone Hereby 1. Sin will be prevented The Child will be the more dutiful and diligent all day who expecteth to be examined by them that have power to punish or reward for every part of it at night The Christian will keep his heart as clean as the neat maid her house who is ever in fear of a severe mistress 2. Hereby if sin be committed it will speedily be repented of The wound will be healed before it be festered A disease is much more easily cured at the beginning then when it is habituated in the body Had David called his conscience to a serious account at the close of that day wherein he defiled Bathsheba he had prevented both much sin and much sorrow 3. Our hearts will hereby be the better prepared for evening duties The reflection upon the sins committed in the day past will make the streams of our sorrow to run the more freely Wounds when fresh bleed most Our Petitions also will be the more fervent for divine strength when we are newly affected with the sad consequence of our own weakness The more we feel our pain the more urgent are our cries for a Physitian A review of the mercies newly received will likewise enlarge our hearts the more in thankâ—fulness Divine favours like flowers affect us most when fresh and green Old courtesies as old cloaths are too often cast by and thought little worth 4. Hereby our souls will be always ready for our great accounts whenever God shall summon us to give it up The keeping a diary of Receipts and disbursements facilitates the Stewards annual reckoning with his Lord. They who make all even between God and their souls every day need not fear calling to account any day None will give up their accounts with such comfort at the great day as they that cast up their accounts with conscience every day Often reckoning will make long friends He that will not hear the warnings of conscience must look to feel the worm of conscience Sixthly Close the day with God in Praying and Reading his word both in thy Closet and Family Our bed is resembled to our graves sleep to death it s of worse consequence to go to bed before we have made our prayers then to our Graves before we have made our Wills God is the first and the last and ought to be the beginning and ending of every day Thou causest the out-goings of the morning and evening to rejoyce Some understand the inhabitants of East and West others the vicissitudes of day and night for which men rejoyce in God David was mindful of the Word at night I have remembred thy law O Lord in the night and also of prayer Evening and morning will I pray and cry aloud Psal. 119. 55. Psal. 55. 17. The sins of the day call for our mournful confession The mercies of the day call for our sincere thanksgiving The perills of the night call for fervent petitions so that none can want matter for a nights prayer Our wandrings and aberrations in the day may wellengage us to confession and contrition every night They who do not paddle in every gutter or thrust their hands into every ditch though they washed clean in the morning find them durty at night We cannot meddle with money but we foul our fingers nor about earthly affairs but we defile our soul. Infirmity bewrayeth it self in all the actions of fallen man We are steady in nothing but wantonness and wickedness The feet of men limp at best and are too slow to follow the Word of God close at the heels If we intend well in any action like arrows that are shot in mighty windsâ— we wander from the bow that sent it and miss the mark Now whilst the Ship leaketh the Pump must go Whilst we sin daily we must sorrow daily He is unworthy of the least favour from his Creditor who thinks much to acknowledge his debt Austin had Davids penitential Psalms written by his Bed-side which at night he used to weep and read to read and
savour of it So if godliness and the immediate worship of God do first in the morning possess my soul my natural and civil affairs will probably rellish of it Again Mens hearts are generally upon that in the morning which they esteem their happiness and portion The covetous Muck-worm no sooner openeth his eyes but his â—eart is tumbling in his heaps The voluptuous beast no sooner wakes but he is sporting in sensual waters The ambitious Peacock no sooner is able to think but his gay Feathers and gaudy dress for that day come into his mind and why should not my heart send its first thoughts into Heaven Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire in comparison of thee The Birds early in the morning salute the rising Sun with their sweet notes and shall not I the Sun of righteousness Further My wants my mercies call for morning duties I walk in the midst of deaths of dangers every day and shall I dare to travail without my defence Men cloath their bodies against the sharpness of the weather and why not their souls against the assaults of the flesh the world and the wicked one There is no safety without this breast-work If Satan take me out of my trenches and strong holds as Joshua did the men of Ai it will be no wonder if he roâ—t and ruine me If I do not bless God in the morning how can I expect that he should bless me in the day Is any earthly Prince so prodigal of his favours as to throw them away upon those that esteem them unworthy to be desired If I do not serve the Precepts of God I am presumptuous to look that his providence should serve meâ— Should I undertake my affairs on earth before I have dispatched my business with heaven I am a notorious Cheat and Theif I am a Theif to God by robbing him of his glory and that natural allegiance which I owe to my Maker I am a Theif to my self in robbing my self of that blessing which I might have on my callings and undertakings O that prayer might be the girdle to compass in the whole body of my natural and civil dealings and concernments And that I could every day of my life forestal the worlds market by setting early about closet and family duties Suitors find it fittest to wait upon and dispatch their business with great persons betimes in the morning Lord freedom of access to thy throne of grace is an unspeakable favour Access is hard to earthly Princes No worldly Court is so open as to admit all comers Those that with much difficulty present their Petitions are often against all reason denyed Thy gates are open night and day all that will may come and be welcome Thou invitest souls to come into thy presence and delightest to hear and grant their prayers Thine eares are more open and ready to hear then their mouths to ask Thou pressest upon many undesired blessings but denyest none who ask not stones instead of bread Importunity never angers thee the more fervent and frequent my soul is with thee the more prevalent Thou fillest the hungry with good things and dost not send any that desire thy grace empty away from thy gate What care I how little notice or knowledge the Nobles of the earth will take of me when I can speak so freely to their better their Soveraign and not fear a repulse O teach me the right art of begging and then I need not be afraid of poverty If I be but skilful to follow that trade my returns will be both â—â—re and large Thy mercies are renewed upon me every morning so are my necessities O let my prayses and prayers be as frequent and early I will bless the Lord at all times his praise â—hall be continually in my mouth O God my God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee in a dry and barren Wilderness where no water is My voice shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up I Wiâ—h that having done with the more immediaâ—e service of my God in Praying and Reading both in my Closet and Family I may proceed to serve him in my Shop and Particular Calling When God saith Man is born to labour I must not sing with the fool Soul take thine ease An idle person is like Caterpillars and Mice that devour Gods creatures and do no good to others It s pity he ever lived the book of whose life is filled up with nothing but Cyphers Nature never intended men to be drones to feed on others labours nor bats to spend their lives in the company of sleep the brother of death My God my soul my family my country do all call upon me to be diligent in that calling whereto he hath called me My God is a pure act himself and hath capacitated all his creatures for action He created all men but never made a sluggard The idle person wholly degenerates from the end of his being and receiveth his faculties in vain The command for civil labour hath the same divine stamp as that for sacred rest I have also his pattern for my encouragement as well as his precept for my warrant Hitherto my father worketh and I work My soul also stands in as much need of exercise as my body Idleness is the door at which diseases enter into both Rust eats up vessels that are laid by and unused The mind is never more bright then when it is in imployment from doing nothing we proceed to do evil Idleness is not onely a vice it self but also hath this unhappiness to usher in all other This is the least advantage of industry that it gives the soul no leasure to play with sin or to entertain the wicked one Standing waters do not sooner putrifie then lazy souls T is action that preserves the â—oul in health As Gâ—ats dance up and down in the Sun and then sit down and sting the next hand they seize upon So they who have no time to work have much to imploy in slandering and backbiting others One sin never goeth alone Again my Family may well rouze me out of the bed of laziness If I expect supply of their wants it must come in with Gods blessing at the door of diligence I am stealing from my wife and children all the while I am loytering The Heavens may cause seed sown to ripen into a joyful Harvest but untilled land will afford no crop save of weeds or stones Once more My Country commands me to my calling I am but an ill member in the body Politique if as a diseased part I take of its nourishment but rather hinder its growth then contribute to its health A jarring string is not more prejudicial to the rarest Viol in the hands of a skilful artist then an idle person to the musick and composure of the universe The most venemous
creatures that nature produceth are some way serviceable to their fellow creatures O that I might never by filling up my life with laziness be a Wen in the face of nature serving no way to profit onely to disfigure it Yet I desire that my diligence in my particular may be regulated by my duty towards my General calling Oyl moderately poured in feeds the Lamp excessively drowns it Alexanders Souldier run so lightly upon the sand that he made no impression with his feet My duty is to give earthly things my hands but my heart onely to the things of heaven Lord It s as well thy pleasure that I should work here as thy promise that I shall rest hereafter Let tâ—y grace be so operative in me that I may never give Satan advantage against me by being negligent or over-diligent in my particular calling Suffer not the interposition of the earth ever to cause an eclipse of holiness in my soul But let thy word so limit me and thy spirit guide me that as one diligent in his business I may come at last to stand before the King of Kings to my eternal comfort I Wish that I may no part of the day be so overcharged with the cares of this life by my particular calling as to expose my self to wickedness by neglecting my spiritual watch If my heart be full of earthly vapours they will fume up into my head and make me drowsie A drunken man is no sooner set in his chair but he is fast asleep Sober and Vigilant are sisters in Scripture 1 Thes. 5. Let us watch and be sober 1 Pet. 5. 8. Be sober and vigilant The immoderate love of the world will incline me as effectually to spiritual slumbers as immoderate drinking of Wine to bodily If Satan can get me to take this Opium he doubts not but to lock me fast to my bed and to have me at what advantage be pleaseth O how easie is it to destroy a sleeping body to defile a sleepy soul Noah Lot David Solomon walked in their sleep and dreams in strange and sensual paths When the eye of the souls watchfulness is â—hut the soul is open to all dangers and assaults Whilst the Husbandmen sleep the enemy soweth Tares Sisera's head was nailed to the earth whilst he lâ—y snoring on the ground Epaminondas was not more severe then exemplary when he ran the Souldier through with his sword whom he found sleeping upon the Guard as if he intended to bring the two Brothers Sleep and Death to a meeting The Hare therefore say someâ— being liable to many enemies sleepeth with her eyes open to see danger before it surprise her I walk continually in the midst of powerful and politick adversaries The Canaanite is yet in the Land though not Master of the Field yet skulking in Holes and Ambushments watching an opportunity to set upon and destroy me There is not onely an Army of Temptations besieging me without but also many Traytours conspiring within to open the gate of my heart to them that they may enter and undo me My own heart is like Jacob a Supplanter and conspireth to rob me both of the birth-right and the blessing Let me go where I will I tread upon Lime-twigs which the Arch-fowler layeth to intangle and insnare me Saul sent messengers to Davids house to watch him and to slay him Satan sendeth messengers after me in all places where I â—ome to watch me and to sâ—ay me The whole world is as the valâ— of Siddimâ— full of slime-pits and without watchfulness the anointed of the Lord are taken in those pits Gen. 14. 10. Lam. 4. 10. Sin is a slie theif that steals upon the soul to rob it when t is asleep O what need have I of the greatest watchfulness and circumspection imaginable As the eye-lids guard the tender eyes from harm so doth watchfulness preserve the soul from wickedness O my soul canst thou not watch with thy Redeemer one hour when he ever liveth to make intercession for thee T is but the short night of this life that thou art commanded to stand â—entinel ere long thou shalt be called off the guard and freed from that trouble Lord thou art ever watchful over me for good thou never slumberest nor sleepest but thy seven eyes are ever upon me Thou mayst say to me as to thy Vineyard I the Lord do keep it I water it every moment lest any hurt it I keep it night and day O since thou watchest to preserve me let me watch to serve thee Set a watch O Lord before my lips Be thou the Governour of my heart Lighten mine eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death Let mine enemies never find me nodding lest they leave me dying Thou hast told me Behold I come as a Theif Blesâ—ed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame Give me so to wake and watch now that death may bring me a Writ of ease and call me to my endless rest I Wish that I may all the day long be even covetous of my time as knowing it is allowed me not for the service of the flesh but for the service of my God and to dress my soul for Heaven If I be lavish of my time I am the greatest Prodigal in the World If he be a spendthrift that throweth away an hundred pound every day he is a far greater that wasteth half an hour in one day Time is more worth then the revenues of the whole world He that can command millions of treasure cannot command one moment of time The Father of eternity hath the sole disposition of time The value of this commodity is not known to this beggarly world in a day of life Now men study sports and pleasures and company and plays to waste time It lieth as a drug upon their hands and they think themselves beholden to any that will help them to put it off But when the King of terrors with his gastly countenance approacheth them and summons them to a speedy appearance bâ—fore the King of nations to receive their eternal dooms O then their judgements will be quite altered and time will be precious indeed Then they who play away their time and give all to the world or flesh will tell me that time was good for something else then to eat and drink and sleep and trade that it was good to feed an immortal soul in and provide for an eternal estate Then the Rich and Covetous as well as they loved their wealth though it be now dearer to them then their God and Christ and Souls and Heaven will part with all they have for a little time Then the Swaggerers and Gallants of the world who spend twenty hourâ— in Taverns to one hour in the Temple and if it were not for Play-houses and Ale-houses and Whore-houses and Hawks and Hounds and Cards and Dice could not tell what to do with their time who mark all the
Chaff that the Storm carrieth away I flie away as a dream and shall not be found my life is chased away as a vision of the night The eyes which have seen me shall see me no more neither shall my place any more behold me I must live now or never If I die I shall not live again O that all the days of my appointed time I could wait till my change cometh Were I to take my leave of the world this night and were my life to end with the day how then would I spend every hour every moment of it Should I lavish away my time about this or that vanity Would I play it away in vain company Would I neglect my spiritual watch or waste my talents upon trifles should I dally about secret or private duties or be careless of my carriage in my calling would I starve my immortal soul or cast off all care of eternity No but I should all the day long act by the square and rule of the word How serious should I be in praying in reading in working for my soul for my salvation how diligent to do all the good I could to receive all the good I might how watchful to catch at and embrace all opportunities of honouring and serving my Maker and Redeemer because my time is short and I must pray and read and work for eternity now or no more no more for ever And why should I not be as holy though I do not know that I shall die this night when I know not but I may die this night How foolish is he who neglects doing his work till his work is past doing Besides Other creatures are constant and unwearied in serving their maker they are every day all the day long in their stations obedient to his commands If I look to Heaven to Earth to inanimate to irrational creatures I behold them all as so many Souldiers in their several ranks exactly and continually subject to the orders which they receive from the Lord of hosts and shall I be shamed by them I am at present more indebted more intrusted by God I have a reward hereafter of joy to encourage me of pain to provoke me to unweariedness in well doing which they neither hope nor fear Lord I live every moment upon thee why should I not live every moment to thee My life is by thy providence O that it were according to thy precepts I would not be thine hireling to serve thee meerly for wages thou thy self art my exceeding great reward but I would be thy days-man to work for thee by the day every day all the day long O help me to live well in time that I may live well eternally Let every day be so devoted to thy praise and every part of it so imployed in thy service that I may be the more fitted to please and woâ—â—â—ip thee in that place where there is no night yet all rest no Sun yet all day all light all joy where I shall have no meat or drink or sleep or shop or flocks or family and which is best of all no unbeleiving selfish carnal heart to call me from or hinder me in thy work but I shall worship and enjoy thee without diversion without distraction without interruption without intermission both perfectly and perpetually Amen CHAP. VII How a Christian may exercise himself to Godliness in visiting the Sick FIfthly Thy duty is to exercise thy self in visiting the sick The Visitation of the sick is a work of as great weight as any injoyned us relating to others and as much neglected and slighted in its management as almost any duty commanded Sickness is so common and Death so ordinary that with most their frequency takes away the sense of them and charity in many sickens and dieth as fast as others bodies The generality of pretended Christians like the Priest and the Levite if they see a man wounded both in his body and soul though it be to death pass on the other side of the way not caring to meddle with any that are in misery They tell us they are true members of Christ but like a bag of suppurated blood they feel nothing neither have any communion with the body Many on their dying beds whose souls are worse and more dangerously sick then their bodies may speak to their Minister or Neighbour for the duty belongs to the People as well as the Pastor almost in the words of Martha to Christ Sir If thou hadst been here my soul had not dyed Some visite the sick but rather out of a complement then out of conscience or to profit themselves more then their Neighbours The Ingenuous Heathen Seneca will tell such If a man visit his sick friend and watch at his Pillow for charity sake and out of his old affection we approve it but if for a Legacy he is a Vulture and watcheth onely for the carcass The discourse of these is chiefly about worldly affairs and nothing about the great concernments of eternity Others sometimes go about the work but perform it so ill administring Cordials when there is need of Corrosives sowing Pillows under their sick friends heads that they may die easily or if they tell them of their danger they do it so coldly and carelesly and by halves that as he said there is diseaseâ— their soul-sickness is curable but the unsutable medicines they take make it incurable It may be said of many a soul as Adrians Counsellers said of him Multitudo medicorum c. Many Physitians have killed the Emperour Ah! How dreadful is it when unskilful and unfaithful Mountebanks undertake to tamper and trifle with immortal souls that are just entring into their eternal estates Father forgive them they know not what they do Galen saith in respect of bodily Medicines In medicina nihil exiguum There is nothing small in Physick Every thing in it is of great consequence A little mistake may cause death I may upon greater reason say There is nothing little in spiritual Physick A small error in our prescriptions to sick souls may cause dreadful mischief Instead of curing we may kill the patient Hazaels wet cloth was not more deadly to his Masters body then the discourse of most is to their sick neighbours souls Fear of displeasing and a natural propensity to flatter prevail with too many to sooth their dying friends into unquenchable flames But surely there is more love as well as more faithfulness in frighting a sick person out of his spiritual Lethargy then in fawning him into the eternal lake that burneth with Fire and Brimstone Some venemous creatures tickle a man till he laughs even when they sting him to death so doth the flattering Minister or Neighbour he raiseth a sick man void of grace to the Pinnacle of joy and highest hopes of Heaven and thereby throweth him down into the Culph of irrecoverable sorrows and leaves him to undeceive himself in hell I shall first lay down two or three
teeth that it eateth out the heart of the strongest timber Flattery is to sin what Oyl to Fire it makes it flame the more O t is dangerous to speak peace where God speaks war shouldst thou do so the blood of such a soul would be required at thy hands Ezek. 33.8 Jer. 23. Faithful dealing will bring thee in most comfort at present and most credit hereafter as also be most advantagious to the sick person When the great day comes the man that hated flattery and scorned for a little profit or favour to disown his duty or prove false to the soul of his Neighbour will hold up his head with courage but the cowardly and fearful wil hang down their heads with shame Rev. 21. 8. 4. Pray with him and for him Sick persons are often full of pain and grief and are more then usually assaulted by Satan whereby they are the less able to pray for themselves and have the more need of the prayers of others It s observable that though the Holy Ghost commandeth men in other afflictions to pray themselves Is any afflicted let him Pray yet when he mentioneth sickness he saith not Is any sick let him Pray But Is any sick let him send for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him Jam. 5. 13 14. i. e. A sick man is not so fit to pray himself he wanteth others to pray for him and with him The soul sympathizeth in the sufferings of the body and the inner man is seldom at rest if the outward man be distempered and disquieted The mind is unfitted for duties by the diseases of the flesh Paul calls his bodily weaknesses a temptation Gal. 4. 13 14. Afflictions on the flesh are temptations to the spirit and sickness is a piercing Arrow in Satans Quiver of temptations If the person be carnal what Motives hast thou from his misery to quicken thee to the duty The poor creature is going to Hell and knoweth it not His destruction is near and he is not aware How should the thoughts of that extremity and eternity of torments which he is every moment liable to stir thee up to be earnest and instant with God on his behalf It may be thou wouldst sit up a whole night to watch with him for the comfort of his body Dost thou not know that the soul is infinitely more worth O watch and pray that he enter not into eternal condemnation Thou art not ignorant that God hath made promises of grace as well as promises to grace and canst not tell but that grace waiteth in heaven for the â—ick person onely thy prayer must be the messenger to fetch it thence God hath shewn mercy at the last he can do it to this man therefore thou mayst have the more hopes Besides it may be his sickness shall not be unto death but onely to heal his diseased soul and so to give him a new life both natural and spiritual The Question before thee is whether that poor sick creatures soul shall be Christs or the Devils for ever and wilt thou not plead hard with God that it may be thrown in to Christ whose title is unquestionable and that the Grand and Arch-enemy of Christ and Men may be frustrated and disappointed in his expectation Zeal to the advancement of thy Redeemers interest and love to the soul of thy Neighbour should actuate and animate thy requests and put life and fervency into thy Petitions If the sick man be godly thou hast the more encouragement to pray God hath promised as much to him as thou canst rationally desire for him He hath hopes to speed that goeth to an honest able man and sheweth him his Bond for what he demands God is infinite both in righteousness and power so that there is no fear of a repulse if you can shew his hand for your request He delights to hear his promises pleaded in prayer and to see his Children so full of affection as to be fervent in their petitions for each other Thou mayst send the same message by prayer to Jesus that the Sister of Lazarus did Lord behold he whom thou lovest is sick and mayst be confident of the like gracious answer This sickness is not unto death eternal but for the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified thereby Next to thy endeavours for the good of thy sick Neighbours spiritual estate it will be fit to advise him about his temporal estate that he may dispose of his worldly affairs and his wealth if God have given him any with wisdom and settle things so firmly that his Relations may not be wrangling for his goods when his body is at rest in his grave Secondly The exercising our selves to Godliness in visiting the sick consisteth in getting good to our own souls by it Though it be forbidden us to enquire of the dead and ask their counsel yet it s commanded us to enquire of the dying and to learn of them Sick men may teach them that are in health many excellent lessons Some say that ground covered with Ashes is made thereby the more fruitful The Dust of the dead falling upon a right soil an honest heart will make it the more abundant in holiness A Christian findeth walking in Hospitals or Church-yards among the sick or dying much conducing to the health and life of his soul. He that was cast dead into his Grave by touching the bones of dead Elisha he was ravished to life That which Elias said to Elisha when he begged a double portion of his spirit If thou seest me when I am taken from thee it shall be so unto thee may fitly be alluded to in this place The sight of others sickness and death and their departures from us is a great means to increase the spirit in us and to double our care and diligence in preparing for such an hour 1. In laying to heart thine own frailty He is but a cold clod of clay and dead already who doth not see his own death in the death of others Sickness is but one remove from death the sick bed is the way to the coffin therefore when thou visitest the sick or dying reflect upon thy self and consider This will be my case or a worse a violent stroak The same enemy that encountred my Neighbour is upon his march towards me and will certainly overtake me The feet of them that carry my friend to his grave are ready to carry me also what need have I to be always in a dying frame and ready for death The very next arrow that death shoots may be levelled at me and shall not I stand always upon my guard in expectation of it and armed for it O how deep will the head of that Arrow pierce me if it find me naked 2. In considering Gods mercy to thee and blessing him for the health thou enjoyest The pain of others will tell thee that ease is a mercy the racking sickness and restless nights
aspire heaven-ward when its returning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to its original divinity according to Plotinus his phrase of death As his Saviour he brings out his best wine at last and his last works are more then his first Rev. 2. 19. The blessed Prince and Lord of life should be our pattern at death He got his Father most glory he did his Church most good by his death though he was eminently serviceable to both all his life time It s said of him He was obedient Phil. 2. 7. to the death Which may import 1. His continuance in well-doing His obedience lasted to the last moment of his life so should ours Elisha would not leave his Master till taken from him into Heaven and we should not leave our Lord till taken to him into Heaven Polycarp in his old age being urged by the Proconsul to deny Christ answered I have served him eighty six years and he never once hurt me and shall I now deny him 2. His obedience in his death His death was a Free-will offering in obedience to his Fathers command Not onely his birth and life was an answer to his Fathers call A body hast thou prepared c. Then said I Lo I come to put on that body to take upo◠〈◊〉 that nature and thereby and therein to do thy Will O God but also his death was in pursuance of his duty This commandment received I of my Father Thus the Christians death must be offered up as a sacrifice to God in obedience to his command The Sinners soul is Prest to this War in which there is no discharge This night thy soul shall be required of thee The Saint understanding the orders from the Lord of Hosts is a Voluntier He gives up the Ghost Into thy hands Lord I commend my Spirit 3. The gracious manner of his dying The Sun of righteousness when setting did shine most gloriously Though at his death he had such infinite disadvantage being to wrestle with the frowns of an incensed God the fury of earth and Hell and met with clouds black and thick enough to have obscured the graces and hindered the holiness of any but himself from shining at all yet how brightly did they break forth in the midst of all those Fogs and Mists and Darkness What holy counsel and comfort did he give his Disciples to prepare them for his departure in his last and one of his longest Sermon Ioh. 14 15 16. What an heavenly prayer doth he put up to his Father for them and all his elect to give them both a taste and a pledge of that intercession which he was going to Heaven to make for them When he was hanging on the Cross under such an heavy weight as the sins of the whole World Grace was not depressed His love to his Mother is observeable Woman behold thy Son And from that hour that Disciple took her to his own house John 19. 26. But his love to his membrenâ— though enemies was wonderful Father forgiâ—â— them they know not what they do His Faith in his Father Father into thy hands I commend my spirit His pity to one of the Theives His Patience in bearing the scoffing words and taunts more bitter then Worm-wood of them that passed by reviling him as well as in suffering the wracking of his bones and whole body and the anger of an infinite God in his soul without any murmuring may well call for our admiration Reader he hath set thee a pattern that thou shouldst follow his steps Some tell us the Phoenix of Saba in Arabia Faelix so called from Phoenicea or the Purple colour of her wings liveth six hundred and sixty years at the end of which time she buildeth her a nest of Cassia Calamus Cinnamon and other precious spices and gums which the Sun by the extremity of his heat and the wavering of her wings fires and she taking delight in the sweetness of the savour hovers so long over it that she burns her self in her own Nest. Thus did the blessed Jesus and thus ought his followers to expire in a Nest of sweet Spices the exercise of the graces of the holy Spirit It was a poor farewel to the world which even Octavius Augustus gave when at the point of death he called for his Looking-glass commanded to have his Head and beard combed and his shriveled Cheeks smoothed up then asking his friends if he had acted his part well Cum ita responderint vos omnes igitur inquit Plaudite It is a dreadful conclusion which Pliny relates the Hyberboreans to make who when they have lived to one hundred years or more make a great feast to which they invite all their friends and after their jollity and mirth throw themselves down a steep rock and so perish Ungodly men are always worst at last when they come to the bottom they are flat and dead and nothing but grounds and dregs How often in the eyes of the world do wicked persons go out like a Lamp leaving a stench behind them The scandalous sinner usually like the Goats beard or star of Jerusalem closeth up the flower of his presumptuous hope at high noon he is cast in his own conscience long before his death The Hypocrite ordinarily as the Daysie and Dandelion declares the approach of the evening by shutting up before its approach If he be gold in the morning and silver at noon yet as we say of Butter he is lead at night What is the hope of the Hypocrite when God shall take away his soul As its storied of the Pardora a people in India that in their youth they have silver hairs but in their age their hairs are quite black Or as the She Wolf hath a yearly defect in generation the first time she hath five the second time four then three then two then one then barren ever after So the Hypocrite dâ—clines and decreaseth in goodness faster then the Moon in its last quarter and is commonly worst at last But the sincere Christian hath his best at the bottom and hath his daintiest dish reserved to be served in at the last courseâ— Naturalists tell us of Honey that that is the thickest and best Honey which is squeezed last out of the Comb. O what excellent periods and endings both in regard of the exercise of grace and comfort have many of the Children of God made The Death-bed to some Saints hath been like Tharah to the Israelites in the Wilderness where after many journeys growing near to the Land of Canaan they rested themselves and it was called Tharah from Roah and Tarah which signifieth a breathing time The Sun when it declines into the West hath even then much more light then any of the Stars The meanest upright Christian when he is near setting hath more joy and comfort then a specious Hypocrite any day of his life When some asked Oecolampadius lying on his death-bed whether the light did not offend him he answered pointing
Conclusion of the Treatise FOurthly Consider the excellency of this Calling As it is said of God in respect of beings Who is like thee O God! Among all the Gods none is to be compared to thee So I may say of godliness in respect of Callings What is like thee O Godliness amongst all callings none is comparable to thee 1. It is the most honourable Calling The Master that thou are bound to is King of Kings and Lord of Lords the Fountain of honour and Lord of glory One of whom the greatest Princes and Potentates of the world hold their Crowns and Scepters to whom they must kneel and do their homage One to whom the whole creation is lesse then nothing The work that thou art imployed in is not servile and mean but high and noble the worship of the great God walking and conversing with his blessed Majesty subduing brutish lusts living above this beggarly earth a conversation in heaven a conflict with and conquest over this dreggy flesh and drossy world and powers of hell to which the greatest battels and victories of the most valiant warriours that ever drew the sword are worse then childrens play To conquer our passions is more then to conquer kingdomes Thâ—mistocles is renowned by Cicero for telling some who disparaged him for his ignorance in playing on the Lute That he knew not how to play on the Lute yet he knew how to take a City To subdue one lust is more then to subdue a thousand Cities Thy fellow servants are the elect of God glorious Angels and Saints who are higher then the Kings of the earth Princes in all lands a crown of glory a royal diadem a chosen generation the excellent of the earth vessels of Gold the Children of the most high of whom the world is not worthy The Priviledges of this calling and company are eminent Adoption remission growth in grace divine love perseverance â—n holiness an eternal kingdom are all contained in the Charter granted to thiâ— Corporation The covenant of grace that hive of sweetness that mine of gold that cabinet of jewels to which all the world is but an heap of dust is their part and portion and contains more in iâ— for their comfort then heaven and earth is able to contain To serve God is one of the fairest flowers in the Saints garland of honour hence the Lords kinsman glorieth in being the Lords servant and the Lords Mother calleth her self his handmaid Iude ver 1. Luk. 1. 38. If the meanest offices about earthly Princes are esteemed honourable what an honour is it to wait on the King of heaven The Saints duty is their preferment and that service which is commanded them a priviledge The great Apostle boasteth of his Chain for God as his glory and credit and holdeth it up as a mark and badge of honour For the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain Act. 28. 20. and begins one of his Epistles with this honourary Title Paul a prisoner of Iesus Christ Philem. 1. It is not earthly riches that make a man honourable we mistake in calling and counting rich men the best men in the Parish Riches without godliness are but a gold ring in a swines snout for which the brute is nothing the better It is not aiery applause or worldly preferments that will make a man honourable Titles are but like feathers in the hat or glistering scarfes under the armes which adde not the least worth to the man that wears them A great letter makes no more to the sense of the word then a small one Worship Honourâ— Grace Highness Majesty make nothing to the real intrinsick value of any person The ungodly Monarchs of the world are but beasts in Gods account Antiâ—chus Epiphanes whose name signifieth Illustrious whom the Samaritans stiled the Mighty God is called by the Holy Ghost because of his ungodliness a vile person Dan. 11. 21. In his days shall stand up a vile person All honour without holiness is fading as well as fancied rather then real External nobility though it glister in the face of the world is but as Seneca saith vitrea brittle as glass and compounded of earth The Potentates of the world are often like Tennis-balls tossed up on high to fall down low Hence some of the wiser Heathen have called them Ludibria fortunae the scorn of fortune Haman honoured one day the next day hanged Gelimer the Puissant Prince of the Vandals Bellisarius Charles the fifth and Henry the fourth Emperours and many others experienced the brittleness of worldly glory But that honour which is from above is true and eternal Plutarch tells us the Roman nobles as a badge of their nobility wore the picture of the Moon upon their shoes signifying as their nobility did increase so it would decrease All priviledges all prerogatives all titles all dignities without godliness are vanishing shadows T is the new creation that rendreth the children of Abraham like the glorious stars in heaven The world looks on the Saint possibly he is poor and mean in the world as the Jews lookt on Christ As a root out of a dry ground and so saw no form nor comliness in him but they who could pierce into the inside of Christ could see that in him dwelt thee fullness of the godhead bodily and they who can see into the inside of Christians behold the Kings daughter all glorious within As the precious stone Sandastra hath nothing in outward appearance but that which seemeth black bâ—t being broken poureth forth beams like the Sun So the Church of Christ is outwardly black with affliction but inwardly more bright and glorious then the Sun with thriving vertues and celestial graces The power of godliness in a mean Christian is a rich treasure in a mean Cabinet but vice in robes in scarlet is poison in wine the more deadly and dangerous Tamberlain tomb was rifled by the Turks and his bones worn by them for Iewels though their enemy and one that had conquered them in divers combates and captivated their Emperour and carried him up and down in an Iron Cage for his foot-stool God makes his people honourable in the eyes of the wicked Since thou wast precious in my sight thou art honourable and I have loved thee therefore will I give men for thee and people for thy life The sons of them that afflicted thee shall bow before thee and thine enemies shall lick the dust Isa. 43. 4. A wicked King Iohoram honoreth and waiteth on a Servant of God Elisha Herod reverenceth the Baptist. Grace is a powerful though silent Oratour to perswade all that see it to love and honour it What Diogenes spake of learning is truly applicable to grace or the knowledge of God in Christ It makes young men sober old men happy poor men rich and rich men honourable When Agesilaus was ready to dye he charged his friends that they should not make any picture or statue of him for saith he If I
10. Motives to frequent good company The good of good Company Fulk Meteor lib. 4. In vit * In the same sense that the Poet speaks Aâ—ri sacra fames or as mons is so called a non movendo 2 Motive Wicked men joyn together 3 Motive The backwardness of our own hearts 4 Motive The evil of neglecting Christian Communion 1 Take heed of thoâ—e sins which good mâ—n are prone to when they meet together 1 Mispending time 2 In censuring the good Qui judicat fratrem tantum crimen elationâ—s incurrit ut Christi tribunal sibi videatur assumâ—â—e ejus judicium praeâ—enire Ans. in Rom. 14. Luther gives the Character of wicked men Tanquam fameliâ—i porâ—i immergunt se in sterâ—ora nostra ex iis delicias â—aciunt cum infirmitatem nostram exemple malâ—dict aperiunt traducunt Lut. in Gen. 9. Detractor â—ubens aâ—ditor uterque diabolum portat alter in ore alter in aure Bern. 2 Be serviceable to others Ephes. 4. 16. Si amici sunt quo sâ—m alter ita dives alter ita pauper â—en Epist. 8. Quanto plus prosundimus fluentorum bonorum spiritualâ—um tanto nâ—hiâ— fluenta sunt auctiora Non enim in hac causa contingit sicut in pâ—cuniis Illic enim quanto plus expendit tanto plus pâ—ssidet pecuniae hic autem plane secus agitur Chrys. Hom. 8. in Gen. p. 37. Prov. 17. 17. 2 Thes. 3. 11. Perrigit panem ut â—ilâ—at Vt malus sermoâ— inducit in peccatumâ— siâ— malum silentium relinquit in peccatoâ— August In Quat Noviss Rom. 12. 15. Heb. 3. 3. Cyprian de patâ—ent 3 Christians must receive good in good company Sir W. Râ—wl Hist. World l. 4. c. 4. Prov. 29. 1. Pâ—ov 21. 24. Prov. 27. 6. 4 Christians should rejoyce in each others graces Plutarâ—hâ— The Introduction Motives to mind the Communion of Saints 1. The profit of Christian Society 1 Cor. 6. â—â— 2 Motive Wicked men joyn togethâ—r 2 Motive The evil of needless solitariness 4 Motive The backwardnesâ— of our hearts Caution in good company 1 Beware of those sinâ— that good men are too guilty of when they meet together 1 In spending time vainly 2 In censuring the good 3 In backbiting the bad 2 Christians should be serviceable to each other 1 Pet. 4. 10. Châ—istians must be serviceable 1. In instructing the ignorant 2 In bearing with one anothers inâ—irmâ—ties 3 In comâ—orting the sorrowful 4 In reproving the sinful 3 Christians should endeavour to receive what good they can from each other 1 In receiving counsel 2 In accepting a reproof 4 To rejoyce in each others wâ—lfare The Conclusion Rev. 7. Suetonius Motives 1. The benefit of solitude Quando secrete dâ—us erat in tabernaculo Vulgar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. 2 Motive The danger of neglect Seâ— Epist. 10. Isa. 34. 11. 3 Motive It will be some evidence of uprightness Wherein the exercising our selves to godliness in solitude consisteth 1 In keeping away vain thoughtâ—â— Quid trâ—lesâ— solitudo corporis si non est solitudo cordis Greg. Hoâ— 7. 9. 2 In spiritualizing natural things Luth. Declam Popular de Terti Precept Tom. 1. Nâ—â— est â—llum animalâ—ulum tam exiguum in quo non â—lâ—s disâ—ere possimuâ— quam in omnibus sâ—ulâ—tis pictis aut â—asâ—â— simâ—laâ—bris Lavat Every creature saâ—th Bernard hath this voyce Qâ—â— secit mâ— propter te sâ—â—it tâ— propter se. Cant 7. 11. Isa. 40.6 3 Mind solemn and set meditations The Subject matter of meditation The word of God The first part of meditation Cogitation of the word First In it Câ—uses 1 It s principal efficient Cause The Spirit of God John 7. 46. 2 It s instrumental Cause Eminent Saints 3 The Material Cause 3 The formal cause of it 1 Inward 2 Outward 4 The final cause Joh. 7. 18. 2 Cor. 4. 6. 2 Tiâ— 1. 9. 2 In its properties Psa. 119. 142. Joh. 17. 17 Dan. 10. ult Eccles. 12. 10. Col. 1. 4. 1 Pet. 1. 19 Gal. 1. 8 2 Pet. 1. 19 Luk. 16. 31 John 3. â—lt 3 In its names and titles a John 10. 35. b Matth. 22.29 c 1 Pet. 1.15 d 2 Tim. 3.15 e Ephes. 1.9 f Ephes. 3.9 g Prov. 20.17 h James 1 25. i Rom. 3.27 k Psal. 19.7 l James 1. 8. m Josh. 1.8 n Isa. 34. 16. o 2 King 22.8 p Ephes. 1.16 q Rom. 1. 1. r Acts 20.24 s Acts 20 27. t 1 Kings 2. 3. u Job 37. 10. x Jer. 9. 12 y Deut. 29. 12. z Acts 7.38 a Micah 6. 9. b Prov 8.14 c Rom 10.14 d Luke 10. ult e Matth 16.19 f Luke 11. 52. g Luke 2.10 h Isa 52.7 i 1 Sam. 13. 23 k Psalm 101.2 l Matth 7. 13. 4 In itâ— comparisons Application Resolution Aâ—nsw on Psa. 3. 2. The Introduction Motives to exercise our selves to godliness in solitude 1. The advantage which a Christian may reap by solitude 2 Motive The danger of carelesness in solitude 3 Motive T is a good sign of sincerity Wherein godliness consisteth in solitude 1 By watching against sinful and vain thoughts 2 Spiritualize natural things 3 Be frequent in deliberate meditations An example oâ— set meditation The subject of meditatâ—on The Patience of God 1 The nature of it Patience amplified towards sinners 1 In that God hates sin 2 The coâ—dition of sinners Mr Boltoâ— 1 Cor 11. 31. Rom. 9. 22. 2 Pet. 3. 9. Isa. 30. 18. Gen. 6. 3. 1 Pet. 3.20 Testimonies Exod. 32. Pâ—alm 103. 8. Applicat Rev. 13. Chap 21 22 1 Pet. 1. 17. 1 Motive Every day may be our last day 2 Motive God observeth us all the day long An nescis O homo quod primitias cordis vocis deo debeas occurre ergo ad sulis ortum sol oriens inveniat te jam paratum Amb. in Psal. 119 Serm 19 Melâ—h Adam in â—it Luth. Christian mâ—â—â— Calling 1. Paâ—â— Chap. 23. Valer l. 6. c. 1. Dâ—rections for walking with God p. 49. Prov. 5. 10 to the end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rursus emo Metaphora sumpta a mercatoribus Beza Labitur occulte fallitque volubilis aetas Ovid. Metam l. 10. Sen. de brevit vit cap. 1. Sen de Irae l. 3. c. 36. Desinet ira crit moderatior quae sâ—ietâ—s â—i quotidie ad Iudicem esse veniendum Qualis ille somnus post recogâ—tionem sui sequitur quam trinquillus c. Idem ibid. Idem ibid. The Introduction Motives Every day may be thy last day 2 Motive Gods eye is on thee all the day loâ—g Wherein the exercising our selves to godliness on a week-day consisteth 1 In beginning tâ—e day with God 2 Spend the greatest part of the day in thy particular calling 3 Be watchful all the day 1 Sam. 19. 11. 4 Redeem time 5 Call thy self to account 6 Mind evening duties