all the same thing equally to duty and sin without it Direct 15. Consider well how much all humane converse is maintained by the necessary belief of one another and what the world would be without it and how much you expect your selves to be believed And then think how much more belief is due to God Though sin hath made the world so bad that we may say that all men are lyars that is deceitful vanity and little to be trusted yet the honesty of those that are more vertuous doth help so far to keep up the honour of veracity and the shamefulness of lying that throughout the world a lye is in disgrace and truth in speech and dealing is well spoken of And the remnants of natural honesty in the worst do so far second the true honesty of the best that no man is so well spoken of commonly in the world as a man of truth and trustiness whose Word is his Law and Master and never speaketh deceitfully to any Nor no man is so commonly ill spoken of as a knave as he that will lye and is not to be trusted In so much that even those debauched Ruffians who live as if they said in their hearts There is no God will yet venture their lives in revenge against him that shall give them the lye Perhaps you will say that this is not from any vertue or natural Law or honesty but from common interest there being nothing more the interest of mankind than that men be trusty to each other To which I answer that you oppose things which are conjunct It is both For all Gods natural Laws are for the interest of mankind and that which is truly most for our good is made most our duty and that which is most our duty is most for our good And that which is so much for the interest of mankind must needs be good If it were not for credibility and trustiness in men there were no living in families but Masters and Servants Parents and Children Husbands and Wives would live together as enemies And neigbours would be as so many thieves to one another There could be no Society or Common-wealth when Prince and people could put no trust in one another Nay thieves themselves that are not to be trusted by any others do yet strengthen themselves by confederacies and oaths of secrecy and gather into troops and armies and there put trust in one another And can we think that GOD is not much more to be trusted and is not a greater hater of a lye and is not the fountain of all fidelity and hath not a greater care of the interest of his creatures Surely he that thinketh that God is a lyar and not to be trusted will think no better of any mortal man or Angel and therefore trusteth no one and is very censorious and would be thought no better of himself and therefore would have none believe or trust him For who would be better than his God Direct 16. Consider also that Veracity in God is his nature or essence and cannot be denyed without denying him to be God For it is nothing but his three Essentialities or Principles Power Wisdom and Goodness as they are expressed in his Word or Revelations as congruous to his mind and to the matter expressed He that neither wanteth knowledge to know what to say and do nor Goodness to love truth and hate all evil nor Power to do what he please and to make good his word cannot possibly lye because every lye is for want of one or more of these Heb. 6.18 Titus 1.12 And there as it is said that he cannot lye and that it is impossible so it is called a denying of himself if he could be unfaithfull 2 Tim. 2.13 If we believe not yet be abideth faithful and cannot deny himself Direct 17. Exercise Faith much in those proper works in which self and sense are most denyed and overcome Bodily motions and labours which we are not used to are done both unskilfully and with pain If Faith be not much exercised in its warfare and victorious acts you will neither know its strength nor find it to be strong when you come to use it It is not the easie and common acts of Faith which will serve turn to try and strengthen it As the life of sense is the adversary which Faith must conquer so use it much in such conflicts and conquests if you would find it strong and usefull Use it in such acts of mortification and self-denyal as will plainly shew that it over ruleth sense Use it in patience and rejoycing in such sufferings and in contentment in so low and cross a state where you are sure that sight and sense do not contribute to your peace and joy Use it not only in giving some little of your superfluities but in giving your whole two mites even all your substance and selling all and giving to the poor when indeed God maketh it your duty At least in forsaking all for his sake in a day of tryal Faith never doth work so like it self so clearly so powerfully and so comfortably as in these self-denying and overcoming acts when it doth not work alone without the help of sense to comfort us but also against sense which would discourage us Luke 18.22 23. 14.26 33. 2 Cor. 5.7 Direct 18. Keep a constant observation of Gods converse with your hearts and workings on them For as I said before there are within us such demonstrations of a Kingdom of God in precepts mercies rewards and punishments that he which well worketh them will have much help in the maintaining and exercising his belief of the everlasting Kingdom Especially the godly who have that Spirit there working which is indeed the very seal and pledge and earnest of life eternal 2 Cor. 1.22 5.5 Ephes 1.13 14. Gal. 4.5 6. Rom. 8.16 17. There is so much of God and Heaven in a true Believers heart that as we see the Moon and Stars when we look down into the water so we may see much of God and Heaven within us if the heart it self be throughly studied And I must add that Experiences here must be carefully recorded and when God fulfilleth promises to us it must not be forgotten Direct 19. Converse much with them that live by Faith and fetch their motives and comforts from the things unseen Converse hath a transforming power To converse with them that live all by sense and shew no other desires or joyes or sorrows but what are fetched from fleshly sensible things is a great means to draw us downwards with them And to converse with them who converse in Heaven and speak of nothing else so comfortably or so seriously who shew us that Heaven is the place they travel to and the state that all their life doth aim and who make little of all the wants or plenty pains or pleasures of the flesh this much conduceth to make us heavenly As men are apt to learn
sanctification but if they live endeavour it by all possible care in a wise and godly education Remember that nature and your dedicating them to God do both oblige you to this care for their salvation And that the education of children is one of the greatest duties in the world for the service of Christ and the prosperity of Church and State And the neglect of it not the smallest cause of the ruine of both and of the worlds calamity Many a poor sottish lazy Professor have I known who cry out against ignorant dumb and unfaithful Ministers as guilty of the blood of souls and are so religious as to separate from the Assemblies that have Ministers that are but partly such when as their own children are almost as ignorant as Heathens and they only use them to a few customary formal duties while they think they are enough against forms and turn over the chief care of their instruction to the Schoolmaster And are themselves so ignorant dumb and idle unfaithful and unnatural to their poor childrens souls as that it is a doubt whether in a well-ordered Church they ought not to be denyed communion themselves They so little practise Deut. 11.18 19. 6.7 Ephes 6.4 c. Direct 5. If your children live to the flesh in an ungodly course of life contrary to the Covenant which by you they made they forfeit all the benefits of the Covenant And you can have no assurance by any thing that you can do for them that ever they shall be converted though it is not past hope And if they be converted at age their pardon and adoption will be the effect of Gods Covenant as then it was newly entered with themselves and not as it was made before for them in infancy Direct 6. Yâ—t because that still while there is life there is hope you ought not by despair or negligence to omit prayer exhortation or any other duty which you can perform in order to their recovery And though now they have wills of their own their salvation is not laid so much upon you as it was in Infancy at their first covenanting with God yet still God will shew his love to his servants in their seed and faithful endeavours are not vain nor hopeless and therefore it is still one of your greatest duties in the world to seek their true recovery to Christ Direct 7. If God make your children a scourge or a heart-breaking to you bear and improve it as becomes Believers That is 1. Repent of your own former sin your own youthfull lusts your disobedience to your Parents your carnal fondness on your children your loving them too much and God too little the evil examples you have given them and your manifold neglect of a prudent seasonable earnest unwearied instructing them in godliness your bearing with their sin and giving them their own wills till they were masterless c Renew your Repentance and you have got some benefit 2. Think how unkindly and unthankfully you have dealt with a gracious Saviour and a heavenly Father 3. Let it take off your affections from all things under the Sun and call them up the more to God For who would love a world where none are to be trusted and where all things are vexatious even the children of your love and bowels Direct 8. If they die impenitently and perish mourn for them but with the moderation of Believers That is 1. Consider that God is more the owner of your children than you are and may do with his own as he list 2. And he is more wise and merciful than you and therefore not to be murmured at as wanting either 3. And it is an unvaluable mercy that your own soul is sanctified and shall be saved 4. And the most godly have had ungodly children before you Adam had a Cain Noah had a Cham Isaac had an Esau David had an Absalom c. 5. And if all the godly that pray for their childrens salvation must be therein gratified all the world would then have been saved For Noah would have prayed for all his children and they for theirs and so to the worlds end Object Oh but my conscience telleth me that it is my own sin which hath had a hand in their undoing Answ Suppose it be so it is certainly a pardonable sin Do you then repent of it or not If you repent as you mourn for your relations so you should rejoyce that God hath forgiven you For repented sin is certainly pardoned to you and pardoned sin to you is as great cause of joy as unpardoned sin in your relations is cause of sorrow Therefore mourn with such moderation and mixed comfort and thanksgiving as becometh one that liveth by faith The affliction indeed is neer and great and heavier than any calamity that could have befallen their bodies and is not to be slighted by an unnatural insensibility But yet you have a God who is better to you than a thousand children and your cross is but as a feather if you set it in the ballance against your blessings even the Love of God and your part in Christ and life eternal CHAP. XXIV How by Faith to order our Affections to publick Societies and the unconverted world Direct 1. TAke heed that you lose not that common Love which you owe to mankind nor that desire of the increase of the Kingdom of Christ which must keep up in you a constant compassion to the unconverted world viz. Idolaters Infidels and ungodly Hypocrites It is pittiful to observe the unchristian senslesness of most zealous Professors of Religion in this point Though God hath purposely put the three publick Petitions first in the Lords Prayer to tell them what they must first and most desire that is the hallowing of his Name and the coming of his Kingdom and the doing of his Will on Earth as it is in Heaven yet they seem not to understand it or to regard it But their thoughts and desires are as selfish and private and narrow as if they knew nothing what the World or the Church is or cared for neither Their mind and talk is all of their own matters for body or soul or of their several Parties and particular Churches or if any extend his care as far as this spot of Land in Brittain and Ireland or some of the Reformed Churches they go further than their companions their selves and their side or party is almost all that most regard Perhaps the poor scattered Jews have a few words in the prayers of some but the miserable case of the vast Nations of the Earth who seem to be forsaken of God is neglected by them Five parts in six of the earth are Heathens and Mahometanes and of the sixth part the Protestants are but about a sixth compared with the poor ignorant Abbassines Armenians Syrians the Greek Churches and the Papists to say nothing what the most of the Protestants themselves are Yet are almost all these put by with
Essence or that which streameth further to other creatures And this last is either that which it sendeth to us before its own appearing or rising or that which accompanieth its appearing or that which leaveth behind it as it setteth or passeth away so must we distinguish in the present case But all this is but One Light and One Spirit So then I should in order speak 1. Of that Spirit in the words and works of Christ himself which constituteth the Christian Religion 2. That Spirit in the Prophets and Fathers before Christ which was the antecedent light 3. That Spirit in Christs followers which was the concomitant and subsequent Light or witness And 1. In those next his abode on earth And 2. Of those that are more remote CHAP. IV. The Image of Gods Wisdom 1. AND first observe the three parts of Gods Image or impress upon the Christian Religion in it self as containing the whole work of mans Redemption as it is found in the works and doctrine of Christ 1. The WISDOM of it appeareth in these particular observations which yet shew it to us but very defectively for want of the clearness and the integrality and the order of our knowledge For to see but here and there a parcel of one entire frame or work and to see those few parcels as dislocated and not in their proper places and order and all this but with a dark imperfect sight is far from that full and open view of the manifold Wisdom of God in Christ which Angels and superiour intellects have 1. Mark how wisely God hath ordered it that the three Essentialitieâ— in the Divine Nature Power Intellection and Will Omnipotency Wisdom and Goodness and the three persons in the Trinity the Father the Word and the Spirit and the three Causalities of God as the Efficient Directive and final Cause of whom and through whom and to whom are all things should have three most eminent specimina or impressions in the world or three most conspicuous works to declare and glorifie them viz. Nature Grace and Glory And that God should accordingly stand related to man in three answerable Relations viz. as our Creatour our Redeemer and our Perfecter by Holiness initially and Glory finally 2. How wisely it is ordered that seeing Mans Love to God is both his greatest duty and his perfection and felicity there should be some standing emâ—nent means for the attraction and excitation of our Love And this should be the most eminent manifestation of the Love of God to us and withall of his own most perfect Holiness and Goodness And that as we have as much need of the sense of his Goodness as of his Power Loving him being our chief work that there should be as observable a demonstration of his Goodness extant as the world is of his Power 3. Especially when man had fallen by sin from the Love of God to the Love of his carnal self and of the creature and when he was fallen under vindictive Justice and was conscious of the displeasure of his Maker and had made himself an heir of Hell And when mans nature can so hardly love one that in Justice standeth engaged or resolved to damn him forsake him and hate him How wisely is it ordered that he that would recover him to his Love should first declare his Love to the offender in the fullest sort and should reconcile himself unto him and shew his readiness to forgive him and to save him yea to be his felicity and his chiefest good That so the Remedy may be answerable to the disease and to the duty 4. How wisely is it thus contrived that the frame and course of mans obedience should be appointed to consist in Love and Gratitude and to run out in such praise and chearful duty as is animated throughout by Love that so sweet a spring may bring forth answerable streams That so the Goodness of our Master may appear in the sweetness of our work and we may not serve the God of Love and Glory like slaves with a grudging weary mind but like children with delight and quietness And our work and way may be to us a foretaste of our reward and end 5. And yet how meet was it that while we live in such a dark material world in a body of corruptible flesh among enemies and snares our duty should have somewhat of caution and vigilancy and therefore of fear and godly sorrow to teach us to rellish grace the more And that our condition should have in it much of necessity and trouble to drive us homeward to God who is our rest And how aptly doth the very permission of sin it self subserve this end 6. How wisely is it thus contrived that Glory at last should be better rellished and that man who hath the Joy should give God the Glory and be bound to this by a double obligation 7. How aptly is this remedying design and all the work of mans Redemption and all the Precepts of the Gospel built upon or planted into the Law of natural perfection Faith being but the means to recover Love and Grace being to Nature but as Medicine is to the Body and being to Glory as Medicine is to Health So that as a man that was never taught to speak or to go or to do any work or to know any science or trade or business which must be known acquisitively is a miserable man as wanting all that which should help him to use his natural powers to their proper ends so it is much more with him that hath Nature without Grace which must heal it and use it to its proper ends 8. So that it appeareth that as the Love of Perfection is fitly called the Law of Nature because it is agreeable to man in his Natural state of Innocency so the Law of Grace may be now called the Law of depraved Nature because it is as suitable to lapsed man And when our pravity is undeniable how credible should it be that we have such a Law 9. And there is nothing in the Gospel either unsuitable to the first Law of Nature or contradictory to it or yet of any alien nature but only that which hath the most excellent aptitude to subserve it Giving the Glory to God in the highest by restoring Peace unto the Earth and Goodness towards men 10. And when the Divine Monarchy is apt in the order of Government to communicate some Image of it self to the Creature as well as the Divine Perfections have communicated their Image to the Creatures in their Natures or Beings how wisely it is ordered that mankind should have one universal Vicarious Head or Monarch There is great reason to believe that there is Monarchy among Angels And in the world it most apparently excelleth all other forms of Government in order to Vnity and Strength and Glory and if it be apter than some others to degenerate into oppressing Tyranny that is only caused by the great corruption of humane
11. Exod. 12.29 Deut. 26.22 Josh 4.6 21 22. 22 24 27. Therefore the writing of Church-history is the duty of all ages because Gods Works are to be known as well as his Word And as it is your forefathers duty to write it it is the childrens duty to learn it or else the writing it would be vain He that knoweth not what state the Church and world is in and hath been in in former ages and what God hath been doing in the world and how errour and sin have been resisting him and with what success doth want much to the compleating of his knowledge 5. And he must have prudence to discern particular cases and to consider of all circumstances and to compare things with things that he may discern his duty and the seasons and manner of it and may know among inconsistent seeming duties which is to be preferred and when and what circumstances or accidents do make any thing a duty which else would be no duty or a sin and what accidents make that a sin which without them would be a duty This is the knowledge which must make a Christian entire or compleat 2. And in his Will there must be 1. A full resignation and submission to the Will of God his Owner and a full subjection and obedience to the Will of God his Governour yielding readily and constantly and resolutâ—ly to the commands of God as the Scholar obeyeth his Master and as the second wheel in the clock is moved by the first And a close adhering to God as his chief Good by a Thankful Reception of his Benefits and a desirous seeking to enjoy and glorifie him and please his Will In a word loving him as God and taking our chiefest complacency in pleasing him in loving him and being loved of him 2. And in the same will there must be a well regulated Love to all Gods works according as he is manifested or glorified in them To the humanity of our Redeemer to the glory of Heaven as it is a created thing to the blessed Angels and perfected spirits of the just to the Scripture to the Church on earth to the Saints the Pastors the Rulers the holy Ordinances to all mankind even to our enemies to our selves our souls our bodies our relations our estates and mercies of every rank 3. And herewithall must be a hatred of every sin in our selves and others Of former sin and present corruption with a penitential displicence and grief and of possible sin with a vigilancy and resistance to avoid it 3. And in the Affections there must be a vivacity and sober fervency answering to all these motions of the Will in Love Delight Desire Hope Hatred Sorrow Aversation and Anger the complexion of all which is godly Zeal 4. In the vital and executive Power of the soul there must be a holy activity promptitude and fortitude to be up and doing and to set the sluggish faculties on work and to bring all knowledge and volitions into practice and to assault and conquer enemies and difficulties There must be the Spirit of Power though I know that word did chiefly then denote the Spirit of Miracles yet not only and of Love and of a sound mind 5. In the outward members there must be by use a habit of ready obedient execution of the souls commands As in the tongue a readiness to pray and praise God and declare his Word and edifie others and so in the rest 6. In the senses and appetite there must by use be a habit of yielding obedience to Reason that the senses do not rebel and rage and bear down the commands of the mind and will 7. Lastly In the Imagination there must be a clearness or purity from filthiness malice covetousness pride and vanity and there must be the impressions of things that are good and useful and a ready obedience to the superiour faculties that it may be the instrument of holiness and not the shop of temptations and sin nor a wild unruly disordered thing And the harmony of all these must be as well observed as the matter As 1. There must be a just Order among them every duty must keep its proper place and season 2. There must be a just proportion and degree some graces must not wither whilst others alone are cherished nor some duties take up all our heart and time whilst others are almost laid by 3. There must be a just activity and exercise of every grace 4. And a just conjunction and respect to one another that every one be used so as to be a help to all the rest I. The Order 1. Of Intellectual graces and duties must be this 1. In order of Time the things which are sensible are known before the things which are beyond our sight and other senses 2. Beyond these the first thing known both for certainly and for excellency is that there is a God 3. This God is to be known as one Being in his three Essential Principles Vital Power Intellect and Will 4. And these as in their Essential Perfections Omnipotency Wisdom and Goodness or Love 5. And also in his perfections called Modal and Negative c. as Immensity Eternity Independancy Immutability c. 6. God must be next known in his Three Personalities as the Father the Word or Son and the Spirit 7. And these in their three Causalities efficient dirigent and final 8. And in their three great works Creation Redemption Sanctification or Perfection producing Nature Grace and Glory or our Persons Medicine and Health 9. And God who created the world is thereupon to be known in his Relations to it as our Creator in Unity and as our Owner Ruler and Chief Good efficient dirigent and final in a Trinity of Relations You must know how the Infinite Vital Power of the Father created all things by the Infinite Wisdom of the Word or Son and by the Infinite Goodness and Love of the holy Spirit As the Son redeemed us as the eternal Wisdom and Word Incarnate sent by the eternal Vital-Power of the Father to reveal and communicate the eternal Love in the Holy Ghost And as the Holy Ghost doth sanctifie and perfect us as proceeding and sent from the Power of the Father and the Wisdom of the Son to shed abroad the Love of God upon our hearts c. 10. Next to the knowledge of God as Creator is to be considered the World which he created and especially the Intectellual Creatures Angels or heavenly Spirits and Men. Man is to be known in his person or constitution first and afterward in his appointed course and in his end and perfection 11. In his constitution is to be considered 1. His Being or essential parts 2. His Rectitude or Qualities 3. His Relations 1. To his Creatour And 2. To his fellow-creatures 12. His essential parts are his soul and body His soul is to be known in the Vnity of its Essence and Trinity of essential faculties which is its natural
agreeable to his mind and body Some are strong and some are weak some are of quick wits and some are dull All should be designed to that which they are fittest for 8. Every one should chuse that calling if he be fit for it in which he may be most serviceable to God for the doing of the greatest good in the world and not that in which he may have most ease or wealth or honour God and the publick good must be our chiefest ends in the choice 9. And in the labours of our calling the getting of riches must never be our principal end But we must labour to do the most publick good and to please God by living in obedience to his commands 10. Yet every man must desire the success of his labour and the blessing of God on it and may continue his work as best tendeth to success And though we may not labour to be rich Prov. 23.4 as our principal end yet we must not be formal in our callings nor think that God is delighted in our meer toil to see men fill a bottomless vessel but we must endeavour after the most successful way and pray for a just prosperity of our labours and when God doth prosper us with wealth we must take it thankfully though with fear and use it to his service and do all the good with it that we can 1 Cor. 16.2 Lay by as God hath prospered every man Ephes 4.28 Let him work with his hands the thing that is good that he may have to give to him that needeth James 1.9 Let the brother of low degree rejoyce in that he is exalted 11. The lowness of a mans calling or baseness of his employment will not allow him to be negligent or weary of it or uncomfortable in it Seeing God must be obeyed in the lowest services as well as in the highest and will reward men according to their faithful labour and not according to the dignity of their place And indeed no service should be accounted low and base which is sincerely done for so great and high a Master and hath the promise of so glorious a reward Col. 3.23 24. 12. The greater and more excellent any mans work and calling is his idleness and neligence is the greater sin It is bad in a Plow-man or any day-labourer but it is far worse in a Minister of the Gospel or a Magistrate Because they wrong many and that in the greatest things and violate the greatest trust from God Christ biddeth us pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth Labourers into his harvest Luke 10.27 and not proud covetous idle drones that would have honour only for their wealth and titles And he saith that the Labourer is worthy of his hire but not the loiterer Among the Elders that rule the Church it is especially the labourers in the word and doctrine that are worthy of double honour Dr. Hammond noteth on 1 Thes 5.12 that the Bishops whom they are required to know and honour were those that laboured among them and were over them in the Lord and admonished them and that it was for their works sake that they were to esteem them very highly in love The highest title that ever was put on Pastors was to be Labourers together with God 1 Cor. 3.9 And the calling of Magistrates also requireth no small diligence Jethro perswadeth Moses to take helpers not that he might himself be idle but lest he should wear away himself with doing more than he could undergo Exod. 18.18 So the calling of a Schoolmaster and of Parents and Masters of families who have rational souls to instruct and govern requireth a special diligence And negligence in such is a greater sin than in him that neglecteth sheep or horses So also it is a great sin in a Physician because he doth neglect mens lives and in a Lawyer when by sloth he destroyeth mens estates The greatness of the trust must greaten mens care 13. He that hath hired his labour to another as a Servant a Lawyer a Physician is guilty of a thievish fraud if he give him not that which he hath paid for Owe nothing to any man but love Rom. 13. Hired labour is a debt that must be paid 14. Religious duties will not excuse idleness nor negligence in our callings but oblige us to it the more nor will any bodily calling excuse us from Religious duties but both must take their place in their seasons and due proportions Qâ—est 1. But what if a man can live without labour may not be forbear who needeth it not Answ No because he is nevertheless a subject of God who doth command it and a member of the Common-wealth which needeth it Quest 2. What if I were not brought up to labour am I bound to use it Answ Yes you must yet learn to do your duty and repent and ask pardon for living so long in sinful idleness What if you had not been brought up to pray or to read or to any needful trade or ornament of life What if your Parents had never taught you to speak Is it not your duty therefore to learn it when you are at age rather than not at all Qu. 3. But what if I find that it hurteth my body to labour may I not forbear Answ If it so hurt you that you are unable to do it there is no remedy Necessity hath no Law Or if one sort of labour hurt you when you can take up another in which you may be as serviceable to the Common-wealth you may chuse that to which your strength is suitable But if you think that every sudden pain or weariness is a sufficient excuse or that some real hurt will warrant you in an idle life you may as well think that your servant and your Horse or Oxe may cease all their labour for you when they are weary or that your candle should not burn nor your knife be used in cutting because that use consumeth them Quest 4. What if I find that worldly business doth hinder me in the service of God I cannot pray or read or meditate so much Answ The labours of your callings are part of the service of God He hath set you both to do and you must do both that is both spiritual and corporal work And to quarrel with either is to quarrel against God who hath appointed them Quest 5. But is it not worldliness when we follow worldly business without any need Answ 1. Yes if you do it only from the love of the world and with a worldly mind But not when you do it in obedience to God and with a heavenly mind 2. He cannot be said to have no need who hath a body that needeth it or liveth in Common-wealth that needeth it and is a subject to God who commandeth it Quest 6. But what if I find by constant experince that my soul is more worldly after worldly business and more cold and alienated from God Answ What if you should
words which are apt and orderly and moving and to do all with such skill and reverence and seriousness as tendeth not to encrease but to cure the dulness hypocrisie and unreverence of others Eccles 5.1 2. Matth. 6.7 8 9 10 c. Direct 11. Pray as earnestly as if God himself were to be moved with your prayers Yet so as to remember that the change is not to be made upon him but upon you As when the Boat-man layeth hold upon the bank he draweth the Boat to it and not the bank unto the Boat Prayer fitteth you to receive the mercy both naturally as it exciteth your desires after it and morally as it is a condition on which God hath promised to give it when you pray you tell God nothing which before he knew not better than you But you tell him that in confession and petition which he will hear from your own mouths before he will judge you meet for the mercies which you are to pray for In summ pray because you believe that praying Believers shall have the promised blessing And believe particularly and absolutely that you shall have that promised blessing through Christ because you are praying Believers and therefore the persons to whom it is promised CHAP. XXIII How to live by Faith towards Children and other Relations Direct 1. BElieve Gods Promises made to Believers and their seed of which I have written at large in my treatise of Infant-baptism And labour to understand how far thoâ—e promises extend both as to the persons and the blessings There was never an age of the world in which God did not distinguish the holy seed even Believers and their Children from the rest of the world and take them as those that were specially in his Covenant Direct 2. Let not your conceits of the bare birth-priviledge make you omit your serious solemn and believing Dedication of them unto God and entering them into his Covenant For the reason why your seed is called Holy and in a better case than the seed of Infidels is not meerly because they are the off-spring of your bodies and have their natures from you much less as deriving any grace or vertue from you by generation But because you are persons your selves who have dedicated your selves with all that you have absolutely to God by Christ And they being your own and therefore at your disposal your wills are taken for their wills so far as you act in their names and on their behalf And therefore when you dedicate them to God you do but that which you have both power and command to do And therefore God accepteth what you so dedicate to him And Baptism is the regular way in which this dedication should be solemnly made But if through the want of a Minister or water or time this be not done your believing dedication of your child to God without Baptism shall be accepted For it is the substance and not the sign the will and not the water which God requireth in this case Quest But what then shall we think of the children of godly Anabaptists whose Judgement is against such dedication Answ Many whose Judgement is against baptizing them is not against an offering or dedicating them to God And those who think that they are not allowed solemnly to enter them into Covenant with God yet really do that which is the same thing For they cannot be imagined to be unwilling to dedicate them to God to the utmost of that interest and power which they understand that God hath given them and doubtless they most earnestly desire that according to their capacity they may be the children of God and God will be their God in Christ And this vertual dedication seemeth to be the principal requisite condition But yet as the unbaptized are ordinarily without the visible Church and its priviledges so if any be so blind as neither explicitely nor vertually to dedicate their seed to God I know no promise of their childrens salvation any more than of the seed of Infidels Direct 3. If the children of true Christians dedicated by the Parents will to God through Christ shall die before they come to the use of reason the Parents have no cause to doubt of their salvation It is the conclusion of the Synod of Dort in Artic. 1. And the reason is this If the Parent and child be in the same Covenant then if that Covenant pardon and adopt the Parent it doth pardon and adopt the child But the Parent and child are in the same Covenant Therefore c. God hath but one Covenant on his part which is sealed by baptism as I have proved at large to Mr. Blake Indeed some are only externally in Covenant with him on their part that is they did covenant only with the tongue and not the heart And consequently God is no further in covenant with them than to allow and command his Ministers to receive them into the Visible Church and give them its priviledges and is not as a Promiser in Covenant with them at all himself either for inward or for outward blessings He hath not one Covenant which giveth outward and another which giveth inward blessings And it is here supposed that the only condition prerequisite on the Infants part that he may have right to this Covenant and its blessings is that he be the seed of a true Believer and dedicated in Covenant to God by the Parents will or act Actual Faith is not prerequired Seminal grace may be inherent but 1. Not known to the Baptizer 2. Nor prerequired as a condition but liker to be given by vertue of the Covenant Nothing else therefore being prerequisite as a condition it followeth that as the Parents dedicating themselves to God if baptized at age is the condition of their certain title to the present blessings of the Covenant viz. that God be their Father Christ their Saviour and the Spirit in Covenant to operate in them to sanctification and their sins are all pardoned and they are heirs of Heaven even so upon the Parents dedication of their children to God they have right to the same blessings else why do we baptize them seeing Baptism in the true nature and use of it is a solemn dedicating them to God in that same Covenant and a solemn investing them in the relations and rights of that same pardoning Covenant and not in any other I do not say that all baptized Infants so dying are saved be they the children of Infidels or Heathens and remaining their true propriety nor those that are offered and baptized never so wrongfully or hypocritically nor will I stay to dispute for what I have asserted But 1. I exhort Christians believingly to dedicate their children in Covenant with God in Christ And 2. To believe that if they so dye that Covenant of Christ forbiddeth them to doubt of their salvation Direct 4. Let your Duty be answerable to your hope And do not only pray for your childrens
12.12 Esther 8.15 So that it still remaineth clear that loving our neighbours as our selves doth entitle us to the comforts of all mens health estates prosperity honours yea and their holiness and wisdom too and this without any such participation of their sorrows as should be any considerable ecclipse of our delights if we do it all regularly as God requireth us 6. If I love my neighbour as my self I am freed from all the trouble of cross interests in buying and selling in trespassing in Law-suits It will comfort me as much if he get by me as if I get by him If his bargain prove the better as if mine did if he have the better at Law as if it were judged to my self Yea all his successes prosperity and whatever good befalleth any that I know of in the world will all be mine 7. And I shall never be loth by death to leave the world while I have no cause to fear the missing of salvation because whatever I leave behind me will be possessed by such as I love as my self They will have life and time and health and comforts and whatever my nature is loth to leave Therefore whilest I live why should it not be as comforting to me to think that so many shall live and prosper whom I love as my self as if I were my self to live and prosper 8. Yea more than so I have by Love a part in the Joyes of Heaven before I am actually there For the Joyes of all those blessed souls and of those holy Angels are mine by participation so far as to cause me to rejoyce in their felicity as if it were my own as far as I can now apprehend it Yea the Glory of the Lord Jesus and the eternal blessedness of God himself would rejoyce us more than our own felicity if we loved him as much above our selves as we ought to do we should partake of our Masters joy And now judge whether loving God as God and our neighbours sincerely as our selves would not cure almost all the calamities of our minds and give us a kind of Heaven and be a cheap and certain way to have what we can wish in all the world and even to make all the world our own And whether it be not sin it self which is the first part of all mens hell and misery Object But my neighbours meat will not fill my belly nor his health doth not ease my pain nor his fire keep me warm Answ The flesh hath got the dominion indeed when men cannot distinguish between soul and body between the pain and pleasures of the body and of the mind I do not say that Love will change the pain or pleasure of your bodies but of your minds Your appetites will not be satisfied with your neighbours food but your minds may be comforted to see his welfare Your pain is not eased by your neighbours health but your minds may be pleased by it as much as if it were your own if you loved him as much as you do your self And therefore many in a danger have saved the life of a Prince a Captain a Parent a Child a Friend with the voluntary loss of their own Object This is all true but who is there in the world that doth it or findeth it possible to love another as himself And how can that be a duty which is to nature it self an impossibility Therefore let us first know what this duty is of loving our neighbours as our selves Answ Doubtless if it be the summ of the Law all true Christians do it in sincerity though not in perfection And as to the sense of it 1. You must distinguish between that sensitive and passionate affection which is in the soul as sensitive and is common to beasts with men and that rational appetite which doth will and chuse and is pleased according to the conduct of pure reason The first we doubt not will be still more to our selves than others and it is not the use of grace to destroy it but to rule and moderate it 2. You must distinguish between Love and outward actions which are the expressions of it When our Love is due as much to one as to another yet our outward actions may be under a particular Law which obligeth us to do that for one which we are not bound to do for others As to maintain our own children families servants and so our selves rather than others And the reason is because the difference of individuals maketh that fit for one which is not fit for another and so maketh every man the fittest chuser for himself and those that are neerest to him and nature instigateth him to the greatest care in doing it And all good must be done in a regular order or else confusion will destroy it And nature maketh this most orderly As every Parish must keep their own poor and yet must love other poor as well 3. You must know that Love is formally nothing but complacence as aforesaid but Love joyned with a will and purpose to do good to another is called Love of benevolence when yet the Love there is one thing and the doing good or purpose to do it is another and I may in obedience to God purpose and do more good to one whom I am bound to Love not more but less And now you may see what it is to love our neighbours as our selves 1. God must be loved above our neighbours and our selves and both must be loved purely as related and subordinate to him and for his sake There is a double respect which all things have to God 1. As they contain that excellency which he hath put upon them which is some likeness representation or signification of himself and is called his Glory shining in the creature that is it 's derived Goodness 2. As they conduce to his further service and may honour him and please him Thus all creatures must be loved only as a means even a means declaring God being derivatively and significantly good and useful and as a means to serve and please him 2. Therefore this being the formal reason of our Rational Love must also be the measure of it à quatenus ad quantum As it is certain that I must love that best which is best because I must love it only as good so it is certain that that is best which hath most likeness to God and most of his Glory upon it and that which is most pleasing to him and useful to his service Therefore if my neighbour be better than I am I must judge him better and love him better 3. Though natural self-appetite and self-preservation by which all creatures are for themselves only not feeling the hunger cold pain of others be not sinful but the effect of creating individuation yet Reason was perfect and the Will could perfectly follow Reason in its complacency and choice till sin corrupted it Reason could judge that best which was best and the Will
his blood and resurrection is unto them When it hath cost Christ so dear to procure them certainly God will not break them A Promise ratified in the blood of the Son of God called the blood of the everlasting Covenant Heb. 13.20 and by his rising from the dead can never be broken If the Law given by Moses was firm and a jot or tittle should not pass away till all were fulfilled much more the word and testament of the Mediatour of a better Covenant 2 Cor. 1.20 All the Promises in him are Yea and Amen that is they are asserted or made in him and they are ratified and shall be fulfilled in him Heb. 8.6 He hath obtained a more excellent Ministry by how much also he is the Mediatour of a better Covenant which was established on better Promises And those that are better cannot be less sure It is the sure mercies of David that are given us by a Promise which is sure to all the sâ—ed Acts 13.34 Isa 55.3 Rom. 4.16 Direct 4. Consider well that it is Gods own interest to fulfil his Promises for he attaineth not that glory of his Love and Grace in the perfection of his people till it be done which he designed in the making of them And certainly God will not fail himself and his own interest The happiness will be ours but it will be his everlasting pleasure to see his creatures in their perfection If he was so pleased after the Creation to see them all good that he appointed a Sabbath of Rest to celebrate the commemoration of it how much more will it please him to see all restored by Jesus Christ and brought up to that perfection which Adam was but in the way to when he sinned and fell short of the Glory of God He will not miss of his own design nor lose the everlasting complacency of his love Direct 5. Consider how great stress God hath laid upon the belief of his Promises and of how great use he hath made them in the world If the intimation of another world and reward which we find in Nature and the Promise of it in Scriptures were out of the world or were not believed and so men had nothing but temporal motives to rule their hearts and lives by O what an odious thing would man be and what a Hell would the world be I have elsewhere shewed that the Government of the world is mainly steered by the hopes and fears of another life and could not be otherwise unless man be turned into far worse than a beast And certainly those Promises cannot be false which God hath laid so great a stress on and the belief of which is of so great moment For the wise and holy and powerful God neither needeth a lye nor can use it to so great a work Direct 6. Take notice how agreeable Gods Promises are to the Nature both of God and man It is not only Gods Precepts that have a congruence to natural Reason but his Promises also It is agreeable to the Nature of Infinite Goodness to do good And yet we see that he doth not do to all alike He maketh not every creature an Angel nor a man How then shall we discern what he intendeth to do by his creatures but by their several natures The nature of every thing is fitted to its use Seeing therefore God hath given man a nature capable of knowing loving and enjoying him we have reason to think he gave it not in vain And we have reason to think that nature may be brought up to its own perfection and that he never intended to imploy man all his daies on earth in seeking an end which cannot be attained And yet we see that some do unfit themselves for this end by turning from it and following vanity and that God requireth every man as a free Agent to use his guidance and help aright for his own preparation to felicity Therefore reason may tell us that those who are so prepared by the nearest capacity and have a love to God and a heavenly mind shall enjoy the Glory which they are fitted for And it helpeth much our belief of Gods Promise to find that Reason thus discerneth the equity of it Yea to find that a Cicero a Seneca a Socrates a Plato c. expected much the like felicity to the just which the Scripture promiseth Direct 7. Be sure to understand Gods Promises aright that you expect not that which he never promised and take not presumption to be Faith Many do make promises to themselves by misunderstanding and look that God should fulfil them and if any of them be not fulfilled they are ready to suspect the truth of God And thus men become false Prophets to themselves and others and speak words in the Name of the Lord which he hath never spoken and incur much of the guilt which God oft chargeth on false Prophets and such as add to the Word of God It is no small fault to father an untruth on God and to call that his Promise which he never made Direct 8. Think not that God promiseth you all that you desire or think you want in bodily things It is not our own desires which he hath made the measure of his outward gifts no nor of our own Opinion of our Necessity neither else most men would have nothing but riches and health and love and respect from men and few would have any want or pain or suffering But it is so much as is good 1. To the common ends of Government and the Societies with which we live 2. And to our souls which God doth promise to his own And his Wisdom and not their partial conceits shall be the Judge Our Father knoweth what we need and therefore we must cast our care on him and take not too particular nor anxious thoughts for our selves Mat. 6.24 to the end 1 Pet. 5 7. Direct 9. Think not that God promiseth you all that you will ask no not that which he commandeth you to ask unless it agree with his promising will as well as with his commanding will That promise of Christ Ask and ye shall receive c. And whatsoever you ask the Father in my Name according to his will he will give it you are often misunderstood and there is some dâ—fficulty in understanding what Will of God is here meant If it be his Decreeing Will that is secret and the promise giveth us no sure consolation If it be meant of his Promising Will what use is this general promise for if we must have a particular promise also for all that we can expect If it be meant of his Commanding Will the event notoriously gainsayeth it For it is most certain that since the Church hath long prayed for the conversion of the Infidel world and the reforming of the corrupted Churches c. it is not yet done And it is all Christians duty to pray for Kings and all in Authority and to ask that wisdom
and grace for them which God doth seldom give them And all Parents who are bound to pray for grace for their children do not speed according to their prayers Object That is because that prayers for other men suppose others to concur in the qualifying conditions as well as our selves But the promise is meant only of whatsoever we ask for our selves as he commandeth or for others who are prepared as he requireth Answ 1. If so then the promise is not only made to our praying as commanded 2. It cannot be thought that our prayers for Infidels who must have preparing grace before they can be prepared should be thus suspended in their preparation of themselves 3. It maybe a duty to pray for many things for our selves too which yet we shall not particularly receive As a Minister may pray for greater abilities for his work c. Object We pray not as commanded for any such things if we pray not conditionally for them Answ But still the difficulty is What is the condition to be inserted whether it be If God will Or If it be for our good Or If it be for the universal good of the world If it were the last then we might be sure of the salvation of all men when we ask it and the second cannot be the condition when we pray for others and if it be the first then it telleth us that the commanding Will of God is not it which is principally meant in the promise In this difficulty we must conclude that the text respecteth Gods Will comprehensively in all these three forementioned respects but primarily his promising Will in matters which fall under promise and his decreeing Will in things which he hath thought meet to make no promise of and then secondarily his commanding Will to us but this extendeth not only to prayer it self but also to the manner of prayer and to our conjunct and subsequent endeavours And so this meeteth and closeth with the former Will of God because we do not pray according to his commanding Will unless we do it with due respect to his promising and decreeing Will. And so it is as iâ— it were said Of all those things which God hath promised or decreed whatsoever you ask in my Name in a manner agreeable to his command and do sâ—cond your prayers with faithful endeavours you shall obtain it because neither his decrees or promises are nakedly or meerly to give such a thing but complicately to give it in this way of asking And as to the Objections in the beginning I answer 1. Where only Gods decreeing Will is the measure of the matter to be granted the text intendeth not to us a particular assurance of the thing but the comfort that we and our prayers are accepted and they shall be granted if it be not such a thing as God in his wisdom and eternal counsel hath secretly determined not to do As if you pray for the conversion of the Kingdom of China of Japon of Indostan of Tartary c. And 2. Where Gods Promise hath given us securiâ—y of the thing in particular yet this general promise and our prayer are neither of them in vain For 1. The general promise doth both confirm our Faith in general which is a help to us in each particular case and also it directeth us to Christ as the means in whose name we are to ask all things of the Father and assureth us that it is for his sake that God doth fulfil those particular promises to us 2. And prayer in his Name is the condition way or means of the fulfilling them It is a very common errour among many praying persons to think that if they can but prove it their duty to ask such a thing this promise telleth them that they shall have it But you see there is more necessary to the understanding of it than so Direct 10. Think not that God promâ—seth you all that you do believe that you shall receive when you ask it though it be with never so confident an expectation This is a more common errour than the former Many think that if the thing be but lawful which they pray for much more if it be their duty to pray for it then a particular belief that they shall receive it is the condition of the promise and therefore that they shall certainly receive it As if they pray for the recovery of one that is sick or for the conversion of one that is unconverted and can but believe that it shall be done they think God is then obliged by promise to do it Mark 9.23 If thou canst believe all things are possible And 11.23 24. Whosoever shall say to this Mountain Be thou removed c. and shall not doubt in his heart but believe c. Therefore I say unto you what things soever ye desire when ye pray believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them Answ The reason of this was because they had a special promise of the gift of miracles as is exprest Mark 16.17 18. And even this text is such a particular promise For the spirit of miracles was then given to confirm the Gospel and gather the first Churches and Faith was the condition of them Or the Spirit when ever he would work a miracle would first work an extraordinary Faith to prepare for it And yet if you examine well the particular texts which speak of this subject you shall find that as it was the doubt of the divine Authority of Christs testimony and of his own real power which was the unbelief of those times so it was the belief of his Authority and Power which was the Faith required and this is oftener expressed than the belief of the event and when the belief of the event is extolled it is because the belief of Christs Power is contained in it If thou canst believe all things are possible Maâ—k 9.23 Not all things shall come to pass Mat. 9.28 The blind men came to him and Jesus said Believe ye that I am able to do this They said unto him yea Lord Then touched 〈◊〉 their eyes saying according to your faith be it unto you So the Centurions faith is described as a belief of Christs Power Mat. 8.7 8 9 10 So is it in many other instances So that this text is no exception from the general Rule but the meaning of it is Whatsoever promised thing you ask not doubting ye shall receive it Or doubt not of my enabling power and you shall receive whatever you ask which I have promised you and miracles themselves shall be done by you Object But what if they had only doubted of Christs Will Answ If they had doubted of his will in cases where he never exprest his will they could not indeed have been certain of the event for that is contrary to the doubt But they could not have charged Christ with any breach of promise and therefore could not themselves have been charged with any unbelief
the Attributes of God are the seal which must make his Image on us so the apprehension of his presence setteth them on and keepeth our faculties awake Direct 13. Be sure that Faith make Gods acceptance your full reward and set you above the opinion of man Not in self-conceitedness and pride of your self-sufficiency to set light by the judgment of other men That is a heinous sin of it self and doubled when it is done upon pretence of living upon God alone But that really you live so much to God alone as that all men seem as nothing to you and their opinion of you as a blast of wind in regard of any felicity of your own which might be placed in their love or praise Though as a means to Gods service and their own good you must please all men to their edification and become all things to all men to win them to God Gal. 1.10 11. Rom. 15.1 2. Prov. 11.30 1 Cor. 9.22 10.33 yea and study to please your Governours as your duty Titus 2.9 But as man-pleasing is the Hypocrites work and wages so must the pleasing of God be ours though all the world should be displeased Matth. 6.1 2 3 5 6 c. 2 Tim. 2.4 1 Cor. 7.32 1 Thes 4.1 2 Cor. 5.8 9. 1 Thes 2.4 1 John 3.22 Direct 14. Let the constant work of Faith be to take you off the life of sense by mortifying all the concupiscence of the flesh and over-powering all the objects of sense The neerness of things sensible and the violence and unreasonableness of the senses and appetite do necessitate Faith to be a conflicting grace It s use is to illuminate elevate and corroborate Reason and help it to maintain its authority and government The life of a Believer is but a conquering warfare between Faith and Sense and between things unseen and the things that are seen Therefore it is said that they thâ—â— are in the flesh cannot please God because the flesh bâ—ing the predominant principle in them they most savour and mind the things of the flesh and therefore they can do more with them than the things of the Spirit can do when both are set before them Rom. 8.5 6 7 8. Direct 15. Let Faith set the example first of Christ and next of his holiest servants still before you He that purposely lived among men in flâ—sh a life of holiness and patience and contempt of the world to be a pattern or example to us doth expect that it be the daily work of Faith to imitate him and therefore that we have this Copy still before our eyes It will help us when we are sluggish and sit down in low and common things to see more noble things before us It will help us when we are in doubt of the way of our duty and when we are apt to favour our corruptions It will guide our minds and quicken our desires with a holy ambition and covetousness to be more holy It will serve us to answer all that the world or flesh can say from the contrary examples of sinning men If any tell us what great men or learned men think or say or do against Religion and for a sinful life it is enough if Faith do but tell us presently what Christ and his Apostles and Saints and Martyrs have thought and said and done to the contrary Mat. 11.28 29. 1 Pet. 2.21 John 13.15 Phil. 3.17 2 Thes 3.9 1 Tim. 4.12 Ephes 5.1 Heb. 6.12 1 Thes 1.6 2.14 Direct 16. Let your Faith set all graces on work in their proper order and proportion and carry on the work of holiness and obedience in harmony and not set one part against another nor look at one while you forget or neglect another Every grace and duty is to be a help to all the rest And the want or neglect of any one is a hinderance to all As the want of one wheel or smaller particle in a clock or watch will make all stand still or go out of order The new creature consisteth of all due parts as the body doth of all its members The soul is as a musical instrument which must neither want one string nor have one out of tune nor neglected without spoiling all the melody A fragment of the most excellent work or one member of the comliest body cut off is not beautiful The beauty of a holy soul and life is not only in the quality of each grace and duty but much in the proportion feature and harmony of all Therefore every part hath its proper armour Ephes 6.11 12 13 14. And the whole armour of God must be put on Because all fulness dwelleth in Christ we are compleat in him as being sufficient to communicate every grace Epaphras laboured alwaies fervently in prayers for the Colossians that they might stand perfect and compleat in all the Will of God Col. 4.12 James 1.4 Let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing We oft comfort our selves that though we want the perfection of degrees yet we have the perfection of parts or of integrity But many are fain to prove this only by inferring that he that hath one grace hath all but as to the discerning and orderly use of all they are yet to seek CHAP. XI Of the Order of Graces and Duties BEcause I find not this insisted on in any Writers for the peoples instruction as it ought I will not pass over so needful a point without some further advertisement about it I will therefore shew you 1. What is the compleatness and the harmony to be desired 2. What are our contrary defects and distempers 3. What are the causes of them and what must be the cure 4. Some useful Inferences hence arising I. He that will be compleat and entire must have all these Graces and Duties following 1. A solid and clear understanding of all the great the needful and practical matters of the sacred Scriptures 2 Tim. 3.16 And if he have the understanding of the Scripture languages and the customs of those times and other such helps his understanding of the Scripture will be the more compleat Acts 26.3 If he have not he must make use of other mens 2. A settled well grounded Belief of all Gods supernatural Revelations as well as the knowledge of natural verities 3. Experience to make this knowledge and belief to be satisfactory powerful and firm Especially the experience of the Spirits effectual operations in our selves by the means of this word Rom. 5.4 8.9 Gal. 4.6 4. The historical knowledge of the Scripture matters of fact and how God in all ages since Scripture times hath fulfilled his Word both promises and threatnings and what Christ and Satan Grace and Sin have been doing in the world Therefore the Scripture is written so much by way of history and therefore the Jews were so often charged to tell the history of Gods works to their children 1 Cor. 10.1 2 6 7