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
I love them how can I manifest it better then by commending them to God in prayer Should I leave them thousands of silver and gold if I were able it would not all amount to the price of one fervent prayer My riches might wrong them through the deceitfulness of their hearts and cause them to be contented short of Heaven but my prayers cannot prejudice them but may much further their eternal welfares Men whose natures are crabbed and cruel have granted the requests of their dying children when they have been contrary to their own humours How much more will God the Father of mercies whose nature is Love whose bowels are infinite satisfie the desire of his dying children when they fall in with his own design and desire If Joab had hopes to speed in his supplication for Absolom because he knew the Kings heart was more for it then his own may not I be confident to speed when I beg that he would pay my debts in spirituals with interest to those who have bestowed carnals on me for his sake when I ask that my Children and Relations may love and fear and worship his Majesty and be his workmanship created in Christ Iesus unto good works and when I intreat that he would accomplish all the great and good things which he hath promised to his Church the purchase of his Christ knowing that his heart is infinitely more for these things then mine can be Lord when I dye I shall no more put up prayers for my self or other particular persons My natural obligations to my Kindred and Relations my civil ingagements to my Friends and Benefactours besides my spiritual bonds to them and thy whole Israel may well provoke me to be fervent and instant with thy Majesty at such an hour on their behalves My Redeemer before his death wrought hard at this duty He offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears Ah how should I pray for my self and others when I am taking my leave of prayer O let thy spirit of supplication be so poured down on me that I may poure out my spirit in supplication unto theeâ— for my own and others souls through thy Son with the greatest success I Wish that the night of my death may shine gloriously with the sparkling stars of divine and heavenly graces In particular I desire that when the time of my combat with my last enemy and my last combat with any enemy shall come I may above all take the shield of Faith whereby I shall be sheltered against the sting of death and quench the fiery darts of the wicked one The wise Mariner perceiving a storm approaching makes hast to fasten his Vessel with Anchors that it may be steady and not altogether at the mercy of the winds I must expect the greatest tempest when I am entering into my eternal Haven then all the powers of darkness will conjure up their strongest winds if possible to shipwrack the vessel of my soul Ah how much doth it concern me to put forth this grace the anchor of my soul both sure and stedfast and which entereth into that within the vail and thereby to fasten on the rock of Ages If I fail in this I fall I miscarry for ever God is a severe judge to condemn all guilty Malefactours Without his Son I am cloathed with guilt and so under his boundless wrath When Adam had disrobed himself of original righteousness by disobeying the law he fled from God and dreaded the summons of offended justice There is no appearing in the Fathers sight with acceptance but in the garments of his Son None can have boldness to enter into the holy of holies but by the blood of Iesus It s Faith onely that interesteth in this blood I know that through the red Sea of this blood I pass may safely though enemies pursue me hard into the Land of promise Lord I confess through an evil heart of unbeleif I have many a time departed away from the living God yet Lord I believe help mine unbeleif O Lord of life be not far from me when Devils and death are near me Help me with thy servant Stephen to see Heaven open by faith and the Son of man at thy right hand Enable me to disclaim whatsoever duties I have performed or graces I have exercised and to rely alone on a crucified Christ for pardon and life Though thou killest me let me dye trusting and clinging on and cleaving to Iesus Christ Let this Pilgrims staff of faith be never out of my hand till I come to my joâ—rneys end Thou art the Lord of Hosts and the Captain of my salvation O help me to put on the whole armour of God grant me such skill to use it that I may be able to stand in the evil day Teach thou my hands to war and my fingers to fight that through thee I may do valiantly and through thee may tread down mine enemies Grant me so to finish my course to fight the good fight of faith that at death I may receive the crown of righteousness which the righteous judge shall give to all that love his appearing I Wish that my faith may ripen into full assurance that thereby I may depart with joy and an abundant entrance may be ministred unto me into the Kingdom of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Moses and Simeon could sing at their own funerals The great Apostle could call to be put to Bed expecting thereby his sweetest eternal rest How many Martyrs have gone more joyfully to dye then ever Epicure did to dine and leaped when they drew near the Stake believing that they drew near their home their happiness their heaven What is it O my soul that makes thee start and flinch back at the sight of this bug-bear What is there in death that is so dreadful to thee Is it the sweetness of life or the pain of death or thy future estate after death Consider them all seriously and then judge rationally whether any of these should make the sigh so loath to depart First The love of life need not make thee so backward to obey the call of death If all thy time were made up of Holy-days death would bring thee greater advantage The Garlick and Onions of Egypt are nothing comparable to the Clusters of Canaan But alas its far otherwise thy whole life is a civil death Thou art born to sorrow as the sparks flye upward Thy days are few but full of trouble The earth to thee is a valley of tears the cross is thy daily companion which accompanieth thee where-ever thou goest The sufferings of thy flesh are neither few nor small How many diseases in thy body losses in thy estate how much disgrace ignominy slander oppression art thou liable to The sufferings of thy spirit are more and greater Thine own sins the provocations of others the dishonour of thy God the wants and weaknesses and oppression and persecution of the Church
cometh such pride and carnal confidence in prosperity but because men beleive not the meanness and vanity and emptiness of riches and that divine mercy not the merits of men are the original of them There is no sin so monstrous but unbeleif will venture upon it He that beleiveth not will never be allured by divine promises nor affrighted at divine threatnings nor obey divine precepts nor submit to divine providences As Cicero said of Parricide I may say of Unbeleif It s a teeâ—ing vice a well of wickedness many sins are bound up in it No wonder the Apostle gives such a serious warning and so strict a charge against Infidelity as the mother and nurse of all Apostacy Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbeleif whereby ye depart away from the living God Heb. 3. 12. The superstitious Pagans thought that their Idol Vibilia kept them from erring out of their way The religious Christian knoweth by experience that his faith keeps him within the limits of his duty Faith ingrafts the soul into Christ and into the fellowship of his death by which the old man is crucified and the body of sin destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin Rom. 6. 5,6,7,8 For therefore did Christ bear ouâ— sins in his body on the tree that we might become dead to sin 1 Pet. 1. 24. Faith enableth the soul to conquer sin by enabling it to overcome the three grand provocations to sin The World the Flesh and the Wicked one There is neither of these enemies but Faith hath wounded mortally 1. Faith enableth to overcome the World the World indeed hath conquered millions the greatest Souldiers have been slain by it Alexander could subdue the Nations in it but could not subdue his Affections to it As great a conqueror as he was over it he was its slave and vassal for his ambition was still larger then his Dominions But faith cloathing the Christian with the Sun helps him to trample this Moon under his feet This is your victory over the world even your Faith 1 Joh. 6.4 The World hath two faces the oneâ— ugly and deformed toâ—affright the Saint the other comely and painted to allure him to sin but Faith seeth how pittiful onely touching the body her threatnings are and how poor onely skin-deep her promises are and makes the soul to disdain both It was by Faith that Luther could say Contemptus a me Romanus favor furor I scorn both Romes favour and Romes fury The worlds Furnace and Musickâ— are much alike to a Beleiver he is blind and deaf nay dead to both The special object of Faith is the Cross of Christ whereby saith the Apostle I am crucified to the world and the world to me Tickle a dead man or lance him it s all one he is sensible of neither As Fabricius the Noble Roman told Pyrrhus who one day tempted him with Gold and the next day sought to terrifie him with Elephants I was not yesterday moved with your money nor to day with your beasts So Basil when first offered preferment and afterward threatened with imprisonment if he would not deny Christ and turn Arrian to this purpose answered the Messenger Such babies of preferment are fit to catch Children with and such bug-bears of bonds and imprisonment may fright your tender Gallants and Courtiers Faith enableth the Christian to mount up to heaven and thereby secures him from the baits and shots the snares and lime-twigs which attend him on earth Homer saith Vlisses caused himself to be bound to the Mast of the Ship and every one of his fellows ears to be stopped with Wax that they might not hearken to the Songs of the Syrens and so be drowned in the Sea Faith fastens the soul to Christ and so ravisheth iâ—s ears with the glad tidings of pardon and peace and eternal life that it is deaf to the worlds musick 1. Faith enableth the soul to overcome the affrightments of the world Faith like blown bladders keepeth the soul from sinking in deep waters It s a Target under which a soul is free from the hurt though not from the smart of evil It s the Ark wherein he rides triumphing when the windows from above are opened and poure down and the floods from beneath are broken up In this strong Tower the soul finds shelter Faith like Ioseph layeth up in a time of plenty against a time of scarcity in a day of prosperityâ— against a day of adversity and so feareth it the less Faith sheweth the Christian a place of refuge in the time of trouble He shall hide thee saith Faith in the secret of his presence i. e. cover thee with the warm wings of his providence he shall keep thee secret in his Pavilion An allusion to Princes retiring rooms which are sacred and secure places for their Favourites Nature teacheth all creatures to run in distress to that which they count their defence The Conies run to the Rocks the Goats to the Hills the Ravenous Beasts to their Deâ—s the Child to his Mothers Armes This grace discovereth to the soul a Rock a Refuge a Fort a Fortress an High Tower which makes him fearless of the worlds threatnings and bugbears The lame and the blind those most shiftless creatures when they had got the strong hold of Sion over their heads scorned the Host of David 2 Sam. 5. 6 7. The Egyptians that dwell in the fens are much troubled with Gnats therefore they sleep in High Towers whither those Insects cannot flye The Name of the Lord is a strong Tower the righteous run unto it and are safe Prov. 15. Such a soul is like a strong Tree which no wind can shake or like Mount Sion which cannot be moved Therefore he can sing when unbeleivers quake and tremble Though the Earth be troubled though the Mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea though the Waters roar and the Mountains shake yet we will not fear The Lord of Hosts is with us the God of Jacob is our refuge Psa. 46. 56. and 91. 2 3. Faith is like the Cork in the Net when the Lead wound sink the Net the Cork keeps it above water This Faith is the Anchor of the soul both sure and stedfact entering into that within the vail and so stayeth the Saint against all the winds and waves of affliction Faith or beleif of the resurrection and that happiness which then should be enjoyed was that which enabled Paul to dye daily and to fight with Beasts at Ephesus 1 Cor. 15. 30. In the greatest distress Faith can see deliverance and when it is at the greatest distance salute it as Abraham did Christs day afar off When the weather is cloudy it can see the Heaven begin to clear and notwithstanding his present pain and poverty cause the Christian to rejoyce in his hope of bliss and glory The eye of Faith looking to the recompence of reward seeth afflictions with the Israel of
heavenly things pointing out the Messiah Jesus Christ briefly explained whereunto is added the harmony of the Prophets breathing with one mouth the mystery of his coming and of that redemptâ—on which by his death he was to accomplish By Will. Guild Good company being a collection of various seriouâ— pious meditations by I. Melvin A Religious Treatise upon Simeons song or Instructions how to live holily and dye happilyâ— by T. Woodriff B. D. The Reformation in which is reconciliation with God and his people or a Catechism unvailing the Apostles Creed with Annoâ—ations in which Faith Ordinances and Governments are professed as in the Primitive Times in opposition to all Errors and Hereâ—â—es by W. K. Prospering prophaneness provoking holy conference and Gods attention several Sermons from Mal 3 15 16 17. by Zach. Crofton The Catechism of Hugo Grâ—tius done into English Benedictio Valediction or the Remembrancer of thy friend and thy end being a farewel Sermom Preached at the house of the late Right Honourable Letitia Lady Paget Dâ—wager deceased by her Chaplain Anth. Sadler Ioh. Am. Comenii schola Luduâ— Encuclopaediâ— viva i. e. Ianâ—â— Linguarum praxiâ— Comicae A divine Cordial or the transcendent Priviledge of those that love God and are savingly called A word of comfort for the Church of God The Holy Eucharist or the mystery of the Lords Supper briefly explained A Plea for Alms in a Sermon preached at the Spittle in Easter-week All four by Tho. Watson Poems of divers sorts by Sir Aston Cokain The Protestants Triumph wherein the divinity excellency antiquity and Certaâ—nty of our Religion is asserted against the Papists by Charles Drelingcourt Twelves THe dangerous rule or a Sermon preached at Clonmel in the Province of Munster in Ireland upon Aug. 3. 1657 before the reverend Judges for that circuit by S. L. The womans Glory a Treatise aâ—serting the honour of that Sex by manifesting that Women are capable of the highest improvements by Sam. Toâ—shel The discovery of the most dangeroâ—s dead Faith by Iohn Eatâ—â— M. A. Christ a Christians only Gain by R. Viâ—es A plain Answer to this practical Question What course a Christian may take to haâ—e his heart quickened in the duty of secret prayer By Rich. Mayo late of Kingstone The dying Fathers last living Legacy to his only Son A most excellent Treatise containing The way to seek Heavens Glory To flye Earths Vanity To fear Hells Horror With the Bell-mans Summons A Good day well Improved Death disarmed at the Funeral of Dr. Hill The Balm of Gilâ—â—d for the Wounds of England By Anthony Tuâ—knâ—y The true Evangelical temper wherein Divinity and Ecclesiastical History are interwoven and mixed both to the profit and delight of the Christian Reader on Isa. 11. 6 7 9. by I. Iackson Twentyfours GRoans of the Spirit or a Tryal of the truth of prayer A Handkercheif for Parents wet eyes upon the death of their Children or Friends FINIS Salv. l. 4. De gub dâ—i Tert. Apol. Psalm 39. Ambulare Hebraica phrasi significat câ—rsum vitae instituere 1 John 1. 6. Psa. 119. 1. Est motus progressâ—vus Ambulare in Chrâ—sto duo denotat Prâ—gredi perseverare in doctrina fide Christi Dav. in Col. 2. 6. Est mâ—tus perpetuus Bis de Enoch dicitur Ambulavit cum deo ad explicandum quod ab ineâ—nte aetate profecit in via dei perseveravit profitiendo in eadem semper Câ—jrer Ambulare est vivere Hac loquendi formula admonemur Christianum esse in perpetuo itinere versus caelest in patriam neque unquam esse illi subsistendum in via sed perpetuo ambulandum prâ—grediendum Dav. in Col. Job 39. 18. 1 Cor. 15. 10. Acts 14. 16. Motives 1 T is a sign of hypocrisie to be unrighteous in our dealings Heb. 13. 18. Non est vera religio quae cum templo relinquitur Lactant. 2 Motive The Credâ—t of Râ—ligion is much engâ—ged in our dealings with others Scandalum est dictum aut sactum quo aliusâ— redditur deterior Paraeus in 1 Cor. 8. 9. Quod quasi siccos madesaceret exprimeret humentes because he did advance and wet them well when dry and press them hard when wet Tacit. Iustâ—m precium quod multo amplius erat nec opinanti dedit Aug. de Trin. l. 53. c. 3. Mâ—â—imony Treatise of Thefr Cap. 7. Be religious in the manner of thy selling Tull. de Offic. Quod tibi non vis alterine seceris Sever. Arist. Hist 9. Animal c. 24 Festina Iente Illud adagium arridebat duobus Imperatoribus facile laudatissimis Aug. Tito Eras. Adag Isa. 618 Be righteous in thy words and expressions Tul. de Offic. Vsus frandis in bello gerendo laudabilis in aliis actionibus dâ—test ibilis Machiav Be Courteous in thy dealings Benigniâ—ate adeo praeditus ut quos armis suâ—â—gerat clementia magis vicerit Solin Austin Epist. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Comis Affaâ—ilis Humanus ad vitae consuetudinem facilis commâ—dusque Eras. Tanquam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Qui sapit amica i. e. Qui studet facere ea quae alteri sunt amica grata Comitas alias dicta humanitas affabilitas est virtus in conversatione mediocritatem servans ne quis juste offendatur Praetor p. 2. Theat Eth. Sect. 13. Blunts Voyage Ruth 4. 2. Be meek in thy dealings with men Mansuetudo est virtus quae mediocritatem servat circa iram Golius l. 4. Eth. c. 5. Mansuetudo est virtus quae hominem ita tractabilem facit in communi conversatione ut non praeter aequum bonum exaâ—peretur aliorum ineptiis morositatibus peccatis leâ—ioribus etiam in suam injur amtendent hus Dav. in Col. 3. 12. Ovid Metamor Plutarâ—h Infirmi animâ—i est exiguique voluptas Vltio continuo sic Collâ—ge quod vindicta Nemo magis gaudet quam faemina Juvenal Sat. 6. Noâ—ilâ—ssimum genus vindictae est parâ— ere Contemnere opâ—rtet injurias quas injuriarum umbras dixeâ—im contumelias sive merâ—to mihi acciâ—â—t sive immerito Si merito non est contumelia sed judicium Si immerito illi qui injusta facit non mih. erubesâ—endum est Senec. in Sap. non cad injuria If Injuries be shameful it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to him that doth the wrong not to him that suffereth the wrong saith Sâ—crates Saeâ—â— dicere solitus sum Etiamsi me Lutherus diabolum vocaret me tamen hoc illi honoris habiturum ut insignem dei servum agnoscam Cael. Bu. Hierom observeth upon Ephes. 4. 32. that the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 freely forgiving your selves Nam quod bene in alium fit magis ei reponitur qui praestitit quam cui datum est (b) Hanc veniam petimusque damusque vicissim Horas Non vivitur inter perfectos bonos sed inter illos qui
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
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.
great mercy to our selves The Oyl of grace like the Widows 2 King 4. 6. increaseth by powring out an opportunity is a special season which God affordeth us for the benefit of our own and others souls When time and helps meet and marty their off-spring is opportunity Thou dealest with those at one time whom thou mayst never see again possibly their hearts being big with sin they bring forth in thy presence either swearing or slandering or mocking at holiness now God gives thee an opportunity by a prudent affectionate reproof and by serious savoury advice to kill those brats of Hell as soon as they are born and to make the Parents barren in regard of such a cursed brood for ever after which if thou neglectest thou shalt never have again The Bird of opportunity is usually upon the wing she flieth away of a sudden and we never fee her again therefore whilst thou hast her make the best use of her Thou thinkest it may be that thy counsel to such men would be but cast away as pure water in a nasty sink but do thy work which is to endavour their conversion and leave the success which is Gods work to him Benhadads Souldier drew a Bow at a venture and his Arrow pierced within the joynts of the Harness and slew Ahab the man shot the Arrow at he knew not who but God levelled it at the King amongst all the company Do thou draw the Bow according to thy duty and God may so direct the Arrow of admonition as to make it enter the sinners heart and let out the very life of his sin Sometimes things are done best on a sudden Tiberius was happier in his extempore speeches then those which he made upon study and premeditation Thou mayst as Philip to the Eunuch fall in with a person on a sudden whom thou never sawest before nor shalt ever see again and by seasonable counsel be instrumental to his eternal comfort It may be thou meetest with such as do believe then thy care must be to build them up Saints must be Land-markâ— to direct others in the way to life Apollos was a stranger to Aquila and Priscilla but coming into his company they expounded to him the way of God more perfectly Act. 18. 25. The members of the mystical body must be helpful to one another Christians with whomsoever they converse ought to endeavour either their gaining to or growing up in Jesus Christ. Alexanders body was of so exact and rare a constitution saith the Historian that it perfumed every place where he came The gracious soul being it self filled with spikenard and Calamus and Cassia and all sweet spices may well leave a sweet savour among the persons with whom he converseth They are dead and withered grains of Corn out of which there doth not one ear spring up A Good Wish of a Christian in Relation to his dealings with all men wherein the former Heads are applied THe Living and Eternal God whose I am and whom I am infinitely bound to serve whose unquestionable dominion over me calleth for universal subjection from me having commanded me in his word to be holy as he is holy in all manner of conversation and to walk by rule in my commerce with men as well as in my immediate converses with his glorious Majesty I wish in general that I may make Religion my business not onely in my sacred duties but also in my civil dealings that I may trade with God in divine performances as if men saw me and traffique with men in humane affairs as knowing that God beholdeth me and herein dayly exercise my self to keep a conscience void of offence towards God and towards all men I Wish in particular that my earthly actions may never clash with or incroach upon my heavenly calling that I may not endanger the loss of Religion in the throng and crowd of outward dealings but may be so limitted and directed therein by Gods Law that all my works may be â—orship and when I am labouring for my body and family I may be furthering the good of my soul and my eternal felicity that as my chief natural quality Reason commandeth in my lower actions of eating and drinking so my supernatural excellency Religion may bear sway in every passage of my life Lord who hast given me a perfect rule and appointed me to order my life in all things according to it be pleased to write all thy laws in my heart that I may be tender of both Tables love thee with all my soul and strength and love my Neighbour as my self for thy sake If one link of the golden chain of thy commands be broken the whole is dissolved they love one another too well to part company where one precept is wilfully despised all are disobeyed Thou hast said it He that breaks one is guilty of all O enable me to be as universal in my conformity and duty as thou art in thy mercy and bounty for then shall I not be ashamed when I shall have respect to all thy Commandements I Wish that the soundness and integrity of my heart may appear in the cleaneness and purity of my hands The sound will speak what Mettal the Bell is of the Flowers that shew themselves above ground will declare the nature of the root which lieth hid How often doth the face discover the faults of the vital parts If my tongue and speech be double my spirit cannot be single If my actions be unrighteous my inward man must needs be irreligious How grossely do I delude my self if I presume that I am holy because I mind the first Table if I be dishonest and live in the breach of the second when there is so much Religion in the duties of the second Table that there can be no Religion without them My deceitful heart is apt to suggest that it s but a small matter If I should supplant my Brother and that there is no such need of care in my ordinary outward carriage But my Soveraign to whom I have sworn Allegiance hath told me in the word of truth Mat. 23. 23. that justice and mercy are the weighty matters of the Law and hath commanded me Micah 6. 8. to do justly and to love mercy throughout my whole life O that I might never allow my self in the breach of those precepts which in the worlds blind judgment are the least of his commands and by my pattern teach men so lest I be found at last the least in the Kingdom of Heaven Lord thou hast enjoyned me to keep thy Law as the Apple of mine eye Prov. 7. I know a small thing will pain a little dust will offend mine eye but thy Law is infinitely more tender thy Word forbids and condemneth the smallest wandring the very conception of sin in a vain thought much more its birth in an unrighteous action is abominable and odious to it Thou hast commanded me to keep thy
with their firebrands to burn up the good Corn As Simeon and Levi they are brethren in iniquity the instruments of cruelty are in their habitations Shall they as Ananias and Saphira agree together to tempt the Spiâ—it of the Lord and shall not Saints agree together to please the Spirit of the Lord Surely if sinners have their Come with us let us lay wait for blood let us all have one purse Saints may well â—ave their Come let us go up to the House of the Lord Come let us walk in the light of the Lord â—sa 2. 5. Come let us joyn our selves to the Lord in a Covenant not to be forgotten It is confiderable that though sinners differ never so much amongst themselves yet they can unite against the Lord and his chosen Herod and Pilate before at odds can comply as friends and joyn together against the Lord Christ. As Dogs of differing colours disagreeing bigness and of several kinds that sometimes for bones and scrapâ— fight and mangle and tear one another can with one voice and cry and consent pursue the poor innocent Hare So the Kennel of Sathans Hell-hounds though sometimes they quarrel among themselves about the honours and riches of this world and are ready to rent one another in peices yet can with open mouth and full cry all joyn to persecute the harmless Lambs of Christ. We read of such different mettal such a speckled rabble gathered together against Israel that one would think the diversity of their Countries Constitutions Customes Languages Lusts should have kept them from melting and running into one piece Yet Lo they all unite against Gods people They take crafty counsel against thy people They consult against thy hidden ones They have said Come let us cut them off from being a Nation that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance For they have consulted together with one consent they are confederate against thee The Tabernacles of Edom and the Ishmaelites of Moab and the Hagarens Gebal and Ammon and Amalek the Philistines and the Inhabitants of Tyre Assur also is joyned with them and they have holpen the Children of Lot Psalm 83. 3 to 9. Shall such a cursed crew agree together to pull down Sion and not the blessed Company of Gods Children unite to build it up O! how shameful is it that Satans black Regiment should with one consent watch for us as the Dragon for the Man-child to devour us And as Herod for the Babes of Bethlehem to destroy us And that we should not watch over one another for our safety and defence It may well be our grief that the Children of this World are wiser in their Generation then the Children of Light T is true the combination of wicked men is no true union but rather a conspiracy against God and against their own souls Satan serving them by drawing them into this league and making them to be of one hellish heart infinitely worse then Scyron and Procrustes famous Robbers in Attica served the poor Travellers why by cutting short the taller and stretching out the lesser brought all to an even length with their bed of brass Yet such a confederacy may well move us to pity such distracted ones and doth too much reflect upon us for our dissentions Thirdly Consider the backwardness of our own hearts to any good and the need we have of all helps to quicken them towards heaven How averse are our souls to any thing that is spiritual How many excuses pretences delays will they make To sin man needs no Tutor he can ride post to Hell without a spur but how backward to do that work which he must do or be undone for ever The stone is not more untoward to flye nor lead to swim then our carnal hearts to exercise any grace or perform any duty incumbent on us Our head-strong passions hurry us our worldly interests byass us and our desperately wicked hearts draw us from God and Heaven If the wood be green there is need of constant blowing or the fire will go out when the iron is so dull it must go often to the Whetstone or little work can be done with it It s no wonder that the Spirit of God useth precept upon precept line upon line here a little and there a little when man is like the wilde Asses colt so blockish and dull to understand Gods way and so backward and heavy to walk in it How much are we in the dark about the ways and Word and Truths of God! and how apt through mistakes to stumble and fall calling evil good and good evill and do we not want their company who carry a light a lanthorn with them How often do we flatter our selves that we are rich in grace and in the favour of God when its little so looking on our selves through the false spectacles of self-love and doth it not behove us to be much in their society who will set before us a true looking-glass wherein we may behold the native countenance of our souls without any fraud or falshood We are full of doubts and want counsel and Physitians that are able themselves will in their own cases ask advice of others We are liable to many sorrows and want comfort and who can give it us better then those who fetch all their cordial waters out of Scripture We are apt to slumber and nod and neglect our spiritual watch the flesh is drowsie and the cares of the world fume up into our heads and incline us to sleep what then will become of us if we have none to jog and awaken us It will go but ill with the new man if whilst he hath so many enemies to hurt him he hath never a friend to help him Exhort one another daily lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin Heb. 3. 13. I have somewhere read of a King that having many servants some wise some indiscreet some profitable some unprofitable was asked why he would keep those foolish unprofitable fellows To which he answered I need the other and these need me and so I will have them all about me I am sure weak Christians need the strong its ill for a tottering house to have no prop and strong Christians may need the weak That knife which is best mettal may sometimes need a dull Whetstone The smallest wheel nay pin in a Watch is necessary and so each needing the other there is great need they should hold together While there is flesh and spirit combating within us and the worse so potent and likely to conquer we shall want all manner of Auxiliaries to relieve the better part Fourthly Consider The evil of neglecting Christian Communion I know the Children of God must sometimes be solitary there are some duties which cannot otherwise be performed and some callings which cannot otherwise be followed but as there are seasons for solitariness so also for society to forbear the society of Saints without
Order Every star must give light in its own and proper sphere 1. There is an authorative publick counselling admonishing c. which belongeth only to Pastors lawfully called Observe what the holy Ghost saith Are all Apostles Are all Prophets Are all Pastors Are all Teachers No all are not gifted for it It would much reflect upon the King of Heaven to send servants upon such weighty errands that were unfit for them and did rather render their business ridiculous It s no easie thing for a person to be qualified for a publick preacher The great Apostle cryeth out Who is sufficient for these things though the voyce of ignorant men is Who is not sufficient for these things Besides all are not called to it It is not gifts and parts that will make a Subject an Officer at home or an Ambassador abroad but a Commission from his Prince Let no man take this honour upon him unless he be called of God as was Aaron There be many works which private Christians may not meddle with as to consecrate things to constitute Ecclesiastical laws to excommunicate to receive in those that are cast out to administer the Sacraments c. But those works which they may and ought to do as to exhort advise admonish comfort c. they must do them as private members not as publick Officers in the name or stead of Christ and to private members not to the Church 2. There is a private charitative counselling comforting admonishing others this may belong to any Christian so he keep within his own place and carry himself therein according to Divine commands for God hath made no man a Treasurer but every man a Steward of those talents with which he is intrusted Hence the Apostle frequently commandeth believers to mind these duties Gal. 6.1 Heb. 3. 13. 1 Peter 4. 11. But in these Christians must keep within their bounds as fixed Stars give light to others continuing still in their own orbs and not as Planets according to some wander up and down out of their places The members of the body do not intrude into each others office Vzzah's upholding the Ark when shaken though questionless out of a good design yet was the cause of his death and instead of furthering it hindred its march towards the place of its rest Private Christians ought to be serviceable to each other in these particulars 1. In instructing the ignorant Among Christians there are many who have but ignorant heads though they have holy hearts though for the time they have enjoyed the means they might have been teachers of others yet themselves had need to be taught the first principles of the oracles of God Now the work of knowing men must be to instruct such though they be dull and heavy we should bear with them and condescend to them St. Austin said he would speak false latine if his bearers understood it better then true By many blows we make a nail enter into an hard board by precept upon precept and line upon line we may beat truths into the heads of them that are very dull Iobs friend tells him Behold thou hast instructed many Job 4. 3. In this sense Iob was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame eyes to prevent their wandring in a wrong way and feet to prevent their stumbling in the right way David was no Priest yet he would teach others Gods precepts When he had once tasted Gods love others should taste some honey dropping from his lips Then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee Psal. 51. It is a noble Work for Christians that have abilities and understanding to take some pains to teach and instruct them that are ignorant They cannot worship God as they ought because they are unacquainted with his Word and Will How can a servant please his Master that doth not know his pleasure They cannot do the good they should because they know not their duty They who are almost quite blinde will do but little work They are more open to temptation both from evil men and the evil one because of their ignorance It s as easie to give a child poison as wholesom milk because it hath not wisdom to discern the difference It s not hard to put the poison of error into their mouths who are but babes in understanding When the quick-sighted walk steadly these dark-sighted persons walk stumblingly in the way of Gods commandments O do what thou canst Reader to inform such poor creatures in the truths of God for as the Eunuch said to Philip How should they understand unless some one guide them We count it worthy and honourable to teach others some curious Art or high calling sure I am there is a day coming when to have taught one poor Christian how to serve God better and to honour him more will cause more comfort and bring more credit then the instructing thousands in the greatest and deepest mysteries of Nature or Art 2. By quickening the slothful The Eagle loveth her young yet when they are ready for flight and lye lazing in their nest she will pierce and prick them with her claws to make them flye abroad Love to others souls should stir us up to rouze drowsie Christians out of their spiritual slumbers and lethargies One Bell man that is stirring at midnight by crying Fire Fire awakens hundreds that were fast asleep in a short time One lively active believer acquainting men with the jealousie and justice of God and his severe proceedings against secure persons who neglect their spiritual watch may quickly call them from their beds to their watch and work Consider one another saith the Apostle to provoke one another to love and to good works Heb. 10.24 The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Consider â—ne another into a Paroxysm a violent heat of an Ague or Fever to make each other fervent and fiery in love and good works Consider one anothers backwardness and dulness and provoke one another to your duties and that with diligence Consider one anothers states and conditions and provoke one another to a sutable seriousness in working out your salvations Consider one anothers hinderances and temptations and weaknesses and provoke one another to love and to good works Christians should say to one another as Iudah to Simeon his brother Come up with me into my lot that I may fight against the Canaanites and I will go up with thee into thy lot Help me by jogging and awakening me if I sleep and I will do as much for thee Iudg. 1.13 And encourage one another as Ioab his brother Abishai 2 Sam. 10. 11,12 And he said If the Syrians be too strong for me then thou shalt help me but if the children of Ammon be too strong for thee then I will come and help thee Be of good courage and let us play the men for our people and the Cities of our God And the Lord do that which seemeth him good
Thus the children of God should bespeak each other If the world be too hard for thee I will endeavour to assist thee by discovering the vanity of its shallow allurements and the foolery of its skin deep affrightments If the Devil or Flesh be too hard for me thou shalt do thy utmost to succour me in withstanding their batterieâ— and repelling their poisonous and fiery darts Onely let us be of good courage let us watch stand fast in the faith quit our selves like men for our God and our Redeemer and our souls and our eternal salâ—ations and the Lord will be found faithful who hath assured us that he will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able 3. By comforting the sorrowful Christians should have a Cordial in store for them that are fainting a cup of wine for the heavy in heart and be able to speak a word in season to him that is weary Comâ—fort the feeble i. e. the sick at heart such as are ready to sink under the weight of sin and are frighted with the apprehension of the eternal fire 1 Thess. 5. 14. Amalek is branded with a mark of infamy and was followed with a curse and slaughter from God for falling upon the faint and feeble ones of Israel Deut. 25.18 God cannot endure it he cannot bear it that his weak sickly ones should be wronged He is tender of them himself he carrieth his lambs in his arms Isa. 40. 11. and others must do so too or he will make them rue it The world doth as the herd push the wounded Deer out of their company but Saints endeavour to bind up the broken in heart to comfort them as Paul commands his Corinthians lest they be swallowed up of too much sorrow 1 Cor. 2.14 The Husbandman doth mind his young tender trees in a special manner above them that are grown up and strong because such are in more danger of breaking and bruising and other hurt then grown trees so that besides the wall or common fence aâ—bout the Orchard he makes a special fence with bushes and stakes about these and gives them more choice nourishment and more frequent watering God is most choice of his little ones his weak children When Israel was a child I loved him I drew him with the cords of love and with the bands of a man Hos. 11. 1 3. Christians must imitate God in thisâ— and be followers of him as dear children Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees Hebr. 12.12 The Martyrs in prison by discoursing on the promises shook off their carnal seâ—ters Holy Bradford made his dark dungeon by this means lightsom to his fellow-prisoners Luther profest Melancthon very helpful to him against his inward doubts as he was to Melancthon against his frights about the publick state of the Church A friend is born for the day of adversity And t is pity he was ever born that denieth to do that for which he was born It appertaines especally to the office of a friend saith Seneca to asswage his friends grief by speech to drive away his sadness by chearfulness and to refresh him with his very presence When women travail they carry frequently with them strong waters and if one fainteth or is sick she that hath those cordial waters prayeth her to take some for her ease and comfort The Apostle prepareth for the Christian choice and rare cordials in 1 Thess. 4. about the six last verses and then wisheth them to make use of them for their mutual good Wherefore comfort one another with these words 4. By admonishing the sinful Saints like Clocks made up of curious wheels and engines are soon discomposed and therefore often want some workman to set them in order again A good man if his friend follow vertue will be a Father to encourage him if he be full of doubts will be a Minister to direct him but if he follow vice will be a Magistrate to correct him Christians must allow one another for their infirmities but not allow one another in their infirmities If a brother be overtaken with a fault restore such a one with the spirit of meekness Gal. 6.1 Which words are very emphatical and point to us 1. The nature of his fall he is overtaken with a fault he doth not overtake the fault He is rather passive of it then active in it A sinner like Ahab sells himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord but a brother like Paul is sold under sin It s proper to the wicked to be voluntiers in this unholy war against God Saints fight not except they be prest The Christian is drawn to iniquity by cords of vanity the other draweth iniquity with cords of vanity 2. The duty of his friend restore such a one It s 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an allusion to Chirurgions who set bones out of joynt though they put their Patients to pain and make them angry at present So must Christians endeavour the joynting of their brethren whose souls are out of order though at present they have little thanks for their labour This courtesie we owe to our brothers Ox or Ass much more to his Soul Exod. 22. 4. It s a strict command warn the unruly 1 Thes. 5. 14. though most men draw back when they are called to this burthen that fallen brethren lie under the same misery that Travellers do to find many Hosts but few Friends and may cry out as Lewis the eleventh of France I have plenty of all things but such as will tell me my faults 3. The manner how this friendly part must be performed with the spirit of meekness The bitterness of reprehension is much sweetness by the pleasingness of our expressions Gentle sores are but anguisht with too hard a pressure Though Swine are driven with violence yet Children that wander are gently led home According to the wound must the plaister be more or less searching Christ reproves Martha mildly Martha Martha thou art careful and troubled about many things but he rebuked Peter sharply Get thee behind me Satan The Apostle writing to the Romans commendeth them highly that they were able to admonish one another Rom. 15. 14. They had piety and grace enough to perform the duty notwithstanding the arguments of ill will or loss in estate or other evils which the flesh suggested to the contrary and they had prudence and discretion enough to perform the duty so as it might most probably be profitable But how unlike are Christians in our days to those in the Primitive times Admonition is a Lyon which few dare come near for fear it will tear them in peices We carry our selves rather like Machiavels Scholars who taught his followers if their friend were up to the knees in water to lend him their hand to help him out and so if he were up to the waste but if he were up to the chin then to lay their hand on his head and duck
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
independence on thee he beareth with thee and forbeareth thee oughtest thou not to forbear and forgive others Again Thou mayst put this question to thy self Have not I wronged others Doth not the righteous God now pay me in my own coin May I not say as Adonibezek As I have done to others so God hath requited me Nay possibly others offend me ignorantly unawares or through some violent temptation but I have offended others knowingly wilfully and upon weaker inducements O what cause have I to forgive who am so prone to offend Lord teach me to obey thy precept in forbearing my brethren that offend me and so to imitate that blessed pattern of thy Majesty who art pleased daily to requite evil with good that I may be able comfortably to pray Forgive me my trespasses as I forgive them that trespass against me I Wish that I may according to my poor ability be helpful to the weak and tender members of Christ by administring Cordials sutable to their conditions My duty is not onely to counsel the doubtful but also to comfort the sorrowful If I saw a body fainting and drooping I were bound to afford it what assistance I could and not to hide mine eyes from mine own flesh Doth not my Neighbours soul as far more precious call for more pity and command my help to my power If one Sheep be sick many others will flock about him and in an hot day after their manner refresh him by keeping the scorching Sun from him The Sheep of Christ should have more sense of others misery and more knowledge of the means relating to their recovery and shall they be less diligent for others health To him that is afflicted pity should be shewn if I deny this I forsake the fear of the Almighty How tender was my Redeemer of broken bones and sorrowful Saints When he arose from the dead he appeared first to mournful Mary and then takes special care that penitent Peter have speedy notice of that blessed news Go tell my Disciples and Peter that I am risen They that have smarted with inward wounds themselves have the more reason to compassionate others in their sorrows Lord the time hath been that thou didst cast me into the deep into the midst of the Seas thy Floods compassed me about all thy Billows and thy Waves passed over me I roared by reason of the anguish of my Spirit under the sense of thy wrath and the curse of thy Law The weight of my sins lay heavy upon my conscience and I was even sinking under them into the bottomless pit The sorrows of death compassed me about the pains of Hell gaâ— hold of me I found trouble and sorrow I knew not which way to turn nor whither to go for any ease or releif If I said My Friends should help me or my Possessions abate my grief I soon found them all miserable comforters and Physitians of no value If I said My bed should comfort me and my Couch ease my complaint then thou didst scare me with Dreams and terrifie me with Visions All the creatures were unable to afford me any succour When I lay thus half dead they all as the Priest and Levite passed by on the other side they had neither pity enough for such dreadful wounds nor power enough to work their cure Then called I upon the Name of the Lord O Lord I beseech thee deliver my soul out of the belly of Hell cried I unto thee and â—hou didst hear my voice For thou hast delivered my Soul from Death mine Eyes from Tears and my Feet from falling Thou wast the good Samaritan that hadst compassion on me that didst bind up my wounds pouring in Oyl and Wine and undertake my cure Thou didst send a Barnabas a Son of Consolation to me to proclaim liberty to me a poor captive and the opening of the Prison to me that was bound How beautiful were his feet that brought the glad ridings of peace to my poor soul O that I might be able to support the weak and comfort the feeble-minded God I Wish that I may be both faithful and wise to recover a fallen Brother out of his sin and error Jonathan a true friend of David promised to tell him if there were any danger and accordingly warned him whereby he saved his life I profess my self a lover of my Christian Companions but I am false in my profession if I suffer sin to lye upon them Yet I confess it is a difficult work to perform this duty in a right manner The best plaister may be ineffectual if it be not fitly applied I can seldom with Moses seek to unitâ— quarrelling Christians but one of them with the Hebrew is ready to quarrel with me and say Who made thee a Ruler or a Judge over us Men are seldom more touchy then when their sores are searched and therefore he that would not have their wounds to bring them into a Fever or Fury must handle them with much wariness I desire that Wisdom Courage and Love may be the ingredients of which all my medicines may be compounded Wisdom that I may observe the quality and temper of the Offendour the nature of his offence and the sittest season and manner of administring the reproof the quality of the person if he be my Superiour that I may do it with reverence rather exhorting and beseeching the plainly rebuking The temper of the offendour if he be of a fierce nature that I may so manage my work with meekness as when I am endeavouring to heal his distemper I may not increase it The nature of the offence If the sin be small that I may not make it great by giving stronger medicines then the disease requires The season of reproving that I may not give open rebuke for private offences but observe my Saviours râ—le If thy Brother offend thee tell him his fault between him and thee The presence of many may make him take up an unjust defence who in private would have taken upon him a just shame The open air makes sores to wrankle the more publique rebukes are for Magistrates and Courts of Justice to give Possibly it may be my suspicion more then any real fault as in the case of the Blessed Virgin and Joseph and then what wrong should I do him to accuse innocency before a multitude The manner of delivering it that I may give him his due praise as well us his deserved reproof This will somewhat allay his passion and make my reproof the more prevalent The Iron when heated red hot in the fire is bent and beaten afterwards without breaking which way the Smith pleaseth When I have heated him hot with the fire of commendation I may then beat upon him with reproof in greater hopes of success I would desire courage also that I may deal faithfully and not skin over a wound that hath dead flesh at the bottom Should I dally I destroy the Patient If the Ofâ—endour be so
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
ever with Ierusalem they shall be born upon her sides and dandled upon her knees they shall suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolation they shall milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her glory Amen CHAP. V. How a Christian should exercise himself to Godliness in Solitariness As also a Good Wish about that Particular THirdly Thy duty is to exercise thy self to Godliness in Solitude A gracious person is not onely consciencious in company but also when he is alone His whole life is nothing else but a walking with his God When I awake I am still with thee saith David Psa. 139. 18. He no sooner opened the eyes of his body in the morning but he was lifting up the eyes of his mind to Heaven When he was alone in his bed he was in company with his God As God was still with him so he was still with God Nevertheless I am continually with thee Psa. 73. True sanctity is visible in secresie to him that is Omniscient The Saint is many times most busie when he hath nothing to do and may say more truly then Scipio the African Nunquam minus solus quam cum solus I am never less alone then when alone The pulse of the body beats as well in solitariness as in company and so doth the pulse of the gracious soul towards his God and Saviour It s said of Domitian that he did one hour in a day sequester himself from all persons to no purpose for it was to catch flies which was the original of that answer to one that asked Whether any body were with the Emperour Ne musâ—a quidem No not so much as a flie A Believer hath business of great weight when he withdraweth from the press of the world it is that he might draw nearer to the Lord. Isaac goeth into the Fields to meditate of God Christ goeth into the Mountain apart to pray to God Daniel to the Rivers side Peter to the house top The Church to the secret place of the stairs and all to enjoy communion with their God Gen. 26. Mark 1. 35. Cant. 2. 4. Dan. 8. 2. and 10. 4. Act. 10. A Saint therefore sequestreth himself from the noise and clamour of company and worldly businesses that he might have the more free and intimate converse with his Redeemer A forced banishment from Men to dwell among Beasts hath been bewailed as a great misery but a free retirement from creatures to enjoy more of the blessed God is a great felicity Woodrow an hearb of an extraordinary pleasant smell delighteth in dark and shadowy places So the Christian who in company refresheth others with the fragrancy of his graces loveth sometimes to be obscure and in secret Many of the Heathen were so affected with the vanity and vexation of the world that they wilâ—lingly left their pleasures and preferments in Courts to live privately in the Country Sylla Felix laid aside his dictatourship to lead a retired life Dioclesians two and twenty years raigne could not make him out of love with a solitary life but he voluntarily left the Empire and could not be prevailed with to reassume it though he was threatned to it Demosthenes would shave his beard half off and all his hair from his head to necessitate his stay within doors and his abode amongst his Books Thales left the affairs of state that he might have time for Contemplation Cato in his old age wiâ—hdrew from Rome to live as he used to say out of the crowd of the world And the Romans were so much convinced of his prudence herein that as they passed by his house to which he retired they would ordinarily cry out Iste solus scit vivere This man alone knoweth how to live Old Similis having lived long in the Wars and afterwards for seven years devoting himself to solitariness when he died left this Epitaph behind Here lieth old Similis yet one that lived but seven years Hiero the Tyrant of Syracuse gave over his Kingdom to live a solitary life Others out of a deep melancholly have avoided all society and delighted onely like the Shrick Owl and Bittern in desolate places and Monuments of the dead Zeph. 2. 14. Socrates in his Ecclesiastical History Lib. 4. Cap. 18. speaks of some so strangely averse to all correspondence with men that they have immuted themselves in Cels and Silence for sixty and ninety years together even as long as they lived But Reader I would not advise thee to such continued retirement nor to any at all upon such low mean grounds Those voluntary sequestrations of deluded Votaries amongst the Papists from humane society are I dare say as unacceptable to God as uncomfortable to themselves Such solitary persons bring little comfort to their own souls little honour to God and do no good at all to others By how much as doing God great service is better then doing him little as doing good to many is better then doing good onely to my self so much is Company before solitariness But the most publique Christians have their times for privacy It s no mean misery to be either always alone or never alone He that is always crowded with Company can neither enjoy himself nor his God as he ought SECT I. I Shall first lay down some Motives and then shew wherein we should exercise our selves to Godliness when we are alone 1. To quicken thee to exercise thy self to godliness in solitude Consider The benefit of solitude well improved solitude is a good opportunity for godliness Seneca was wont to say that he seldom went into company that he came not home worse then he went out Society as it hath much gain so much perplexity Solitude is a release to the soul that was imprisoned in Company To be much in Company tires and wearies us We are prone to count it a bondage and the persons we associate with our fetters Retiring seasonably from them sets us at liberty and giveth us freedom to mount up to Heaven at our pleasure Scipio would tell his friends I have never better company then when I have no company for then can I freely entertain my own thoughts and converse with all the learned that have been in former ages Hierom speaks better Sapiens nunquam solus esse potest â—abet enim secum omnes qui sunt qui fuerunt boni si bominum sit inopia loquitur cum Deo A wise man can never be alone for he hath ever with him all the good men that are or have been and if he find any want of men he can converse with God It was a custome among the Indians when their King went to bed to pray with piping acclamations that he might have happy dreams and withal consult well for the good of his Subjects As ifâ— the silent secret night had been a friend to wisdom One of the best Kings that ever the world had tells us My reins instruct me in the night season
better to receive the greatest Theives into our houses then vain thoughts into our hearts Iohn Husse seeking to reclaim a very prophane wretch was told by him that his giving way to wicked wanton thoughts was the original of all those hideous births of impiety which he was guilty of in his life Husse answered him That though he could not keep evil thoughts from courting him yet he might keep them from marrying him as saith he though I cannot keep the Birds from flying over my head yet I can keep them from building their nests in my hair Christian be careful when thou art out of Company as well as in it for these guests will visit thee as soon ever as thou art alone and if thou shouldst not frown upon them they will turn thy solitude into a crowd as Hierom found Rome in a Wilderness The Heathen Cicero employed his solitude to better purpose then most seeming Christians I being weary saith he of living amongst wicked men with whom all places in a manner swarm betake my self to solitariness as much as I can yet that none may think I trifle away my time idly to say no more let my Books speak how I employ my self Yet alas when many Christians are retired out of the crowd and throng of worldly men they suffer worldly things to crowd and throng so abundantly in their hearts that as it was said of Ephraim strangers devour their strength earthly things though tending to no profit waste their time and devour their thoughts which as Reuben are the excellency of dignity and the excellency of strength SECT IV. SEcondly If thou wouldst exercise thy self to godliness in solitude labour to spiritualize earthly things I must say this is one of the most excellent and enriching arts in Christianity Though these occasional thoughts resemble lightning as well in the suddenness of their journey as the vastness of their way being able to reach from one end of Heaven unto the other yet such light gains with quick returnes make an heavy purse He that hath learned this mystery is the true Chymist he leaves the dregs and lees of things and extracts the substance and quintessence of them He hath better then Midas Wish he turns all he toucheth into better then gold Many a great Scholar begs with rare notions of the nature of silver and gold and pearls when some Merchants who never saw Mine or Furnance or read Book concerning them hath his Coffers full of them The Rabbies of the world were they able like Solomon to speak of all plants from the Cedar to the Hysope and of all Beasts and Fish and Fowl nay and of all creatures in a Physical and Philosophical way are not comparable to the illiterate Countryman who can read his God in them and improve them for his spiritual advantage Luther relates a story of two Cardinals riding to the Council at Constance how by the way they heard a shepherd weeping and crying out sadly upon which they turned aside to know what was the matter and found the shepherd looking upon an ugly Toad They asked him the ground of his lamentation He answered I cannot but weep to consider the goodness of God that he did not make me such a loathsom creature and my own unthankefulness that I should be no more sensible of it At which one of the Cardinals was so affected that he fell from his horse in a swoon and coming again afterwards to himself told his Brother Well said St. Austin Indocti rapiunt coelum c. The unlearned take heaven by violence whilst we with all our parts and learning wallow in the mire of the earth and flesh Natural beings are as spades wherewith we may open the mines and dig out spiritual riches He that hath a gracious fancy may like the Bee suck honey from every flower in the garden of the creation and climb up by the stairs of the meanest creature to the Supream and Infinite Creator All objects to a wise Christian may be wings to mount him up to heaven As the old Romans when they saw the blew stones thought of Olympus so the holy person by every work is elevated to admire some excellency in the workman There is a threefold aspect which men cast upon the Works of God according to the difference of their eyes or the degrees of their understandings 1. Ordinary and vulgar persons who differ little from Brutes and behold the face of nature as beasts do a picture onely viewing the outside and surface of it rudely and superficially never considering any art or curiosity in it As the Horse and Mule which have no understanding they view and drink of the streams but mind not the purity or clarity of the water or the fountain whence it floweth these look on Gods works at best but as passengers on a clock to know the time of the day but take no notice of the wheels and poises and their several motions and contrivances 2. Schollars and Philosophers who go a step higher and view this picture somewhat exactly as Artists contemplating its curious wormanship its proper colours comely features and rare composure of the whole with admiration As Nicotratus that told the Country man who wondred at his wondring at the exact piece of Helena drawn by Zeuxis If thou hadst my eyes thou wouldst be affected as I am 3. Christians and spiritual men who move above the Philosopher and most skilful Naturalists in their own sphere these look on the face of nature with a spiritual eye as a lover on the Picture of her beloved delighting more in the resemblance then the table contemplating the matchless Power embroidered Wisdom and infinite Goodness of their God which appear in his creatures These are the men that can turn the stones and dirt of the streets yea the snakes and serpents of the earth into bread for their souls if they should be denied the Scripture which God forbid they can fetch spiritual food out of the creature The Heron findeth her food in lakes and rivers and picks it out with her long bill where other birds can get none So saith Hesychius the Christian by meditation can get food for his soul where others that understand not this duty starve Our blessed Saviour teacheth us to see the face of heavenly things in earthly glasses and to make a ladder of the creatures whereby we may ascend to heaven in our thoughts He hath set us a pattern that we should follow his steps What honey of profit and pleasure doth he tâ—ach us to draw from all the flowers and weeds too that grow in the garden of the Creation He instructeth his Disciples by Lillies growing and seed sown in the field by trees and vines in the Orchard and Vineyard by pearls treasure tares leven mustardseed water bread nets fish salt oyl lamps and as at Cana in Galilee turns all this water into wine as well for their imitation as information A mean
burned We strike fire by meditation to kindle our affections This application of the thoughts to the heart is like the natural heat which digesteth the food and turneth it into good nourishment When we are meditating on the sinfulness of sin In its nature its contrariety to God his being his law his honour its opposition to our own souls their present purity and peace their future glory and bliss In its causes Satan the wicked one its Father the corrupt heart of man its Mother In its properties how defiling it is filthiness it self how infectious it is overspreading the whole man polluting all his natural civil spiritual actions making his praying hearing singing an abomination how deceiving it is pretending meat and intending murder In its effects the curse of God on all the creatures evident by the vanity in them the vexation they bring with them in the anger of God on sinners apparent in those temporal punishments spiritual judgements and eternal â—orments which he inflicteth on them I say when we meditate on this we should endeavour to get our hearts broken for sin ashamed of sin and fired with indignation against sin O what a wretch am I should the soul think to harbour such a Traytor against my Soveraign What a fool am I to hug such a serpent in my bosom What sorrow for it can be sufficient What hatred of it is enough What watchfulness against it what self abhorrency because I have loved it and lived in it can equal its desert O that I could weep bitterly for the commission of it and watch narrowly for the prevention of it and pray-fervently â—or pardon of it and power against it How much am I bound to God for his patience towards so great a sinner How infinitely am I engaged to Christ for taking upon him my sins T was infinite condescention in him to take upon him my nature but O what humiliation was it to take upon him my sins What life can answer such love what thankefulness should I render for such grace such goodness The close applying of our meditations to our hearts is like the applying and rubbing in oyl on a benummed joynt which recovers it to its due sense He that omits it doth as a chapman that praiseth ware and cheapens it but doth not buy it and so is never the better for it David proceeds from meditation of Gods works to application of his thoughts Psal. 8.2,3,4 When I consider the heavens the work of thy fingers c. What is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou dost thus visit him 5. It is a serious applying of some sacred subject that his resolutions may be strengthned against evill and â—or good The Christian must not onely pray his good thoughts but practice them he must not lock them up in his mind but lay them out in his life A Council of war or of State is wholly useless if there be none to execute what they determine That Kingdom flourisheth best where faithful execution followeth sound advisements Therefore the Heathen pronounced that City â—afe which had the heads of old men for consideration and the â—ands of young men for execution Action without consideration is usually lame and defective consideration without action is lost and abortive Though meditation like Rachel be more fair execution like Leah is most fruitful The beasts under the law were unclean which did not both chew the cud and divide the hoof Ruminatio ad sapientiam fissa ungula pertinet ad mores Chewing the cud signifieth meditation dividing the hoof an holy conversation without which the former will be unprofitable saith Austin Reader Hast thou thought of the beauty and excellency of holiness in its nature its conformity to the pure nature and holy commands of the blessed God in its causes the Spirit of God its principal efficient the holy Scriptures its instrumental In its names it s the image of God the divine nature light life the travel of Christs soul grace glory the Kingdom of heaven In its effects or fruits how it renders thee amiable in Gods eye hath the promise of his ear is entituled to pardon peace joy adoption growth in grace perseverance to the end and the exceeding and eternal weight of glory and hast applied this so close to thy heart that thou hast been really affected with its worth and wished thy self enriched with that jewel though thou wert a beggar all thy life and resolved with thy self Well I will watch and weep and hear and pray both fervently and frequently for holiness I will follow God up and down and never leave him till he sanctifieth my soul Now I say to thee as Nathan to David when he told him of his thoughts and resolution of building a temple Do all that is in thine heart for God is with thee 2 Chron. 17.2 or as God to Moses concerning the Jews They have well spoken all that they have said O that there were an heart in them to keep my commandments It s well thou art brought to any good purposes but it will be ill if they be not followed with performances Good intentions without suitable actions is but a false conception or like a piece charged without a bullet which may make a noise but doth no good no execution Indeed there is no way better to evidence the sincerity of thy intentions then by answerable actions David was good at this I thought on my wayes there was his serious consideration and turned my feet to thy testimonies there is his holy conversation So again I will meditate on thy precepts and will have respect to thy testimonies T is in vain to pretend that like Moses we go into the mount of contemplation and converse with God unless we come down as he did with our faces shining our conversations more splendent with holiness This saith the cheif of the Philosophers will a man to perfect happiness if to his contemplation he joyn a constant imitation of God in wisdom justice and holiness Thus I have dispatched those five particulars in meditations The first three are but one though for methods sake to help the Reader I spake to them severally and are usually called Cogitation the other two Application and Resolution Cogitation provides food Application eats it Resolution digests it and gets strength from it Cogitation cuts out the sute Application makes it up Resolution puts it on and wears it Cogitation betters the judgement Application the affections and Resolution the life It s confest this duty of set meditation is as hard as rare and as uneasie as extraordinary but experience teacheth that the profit makes abâ—ndâ—nt recompence for our pains in the performance of it Besides as Milstones grind hard at first but being used to it they grind easily and make good flower so the Christian wholly disused to this duty at first may find it some what difficult but afterwards both facile and fruitful Reader to help thee
Morning prayer is the key of the day which openeth the treasury of divine bounty and locketh the soul up in safety A Prayerless person goeth all day unarmed and may expect many wounds from that hellish crew that lye always in ambush to destroy him The neglect of this pass gives Satan a great advantage to take the City When Saul had left off calling at Heavens gate the next time you hear of him is knocking at a Witches at the Divels door Prayer is one of the great ordinances that batters down the strong holds of the Devil hence he sets his wits at work to divert men from it It is the Souls armour and Satans terrour he that knoweth how to use this holy spell aright need not fear but he shall fright away the Devil himself The Lord Jesus when he marcht out against the powers of darkness and was to fight with them hand to hand armed himself before-hand with prayer Luk. 3. 21 22. not onely for his own protection but also for a pattern to us Every day we walk in the midst of enemies which are both mighty and crafty and will watch all advantages to undo us and should we go amongst them without prayer we are sure to become their prey It s too late to wish for weapons when we are engaged in a Battel Caesar cashierd that Souldier who had his armour to furbish and make ready when he was called to fight The moral of the Fable is good The Boar was seen whetting his Teeth when no enemy was near to offend him and being asked the reason why he stood sharpening his weapons when none was by to hurt him he answered It will be too late to whet them when I should use them therefore I whet them before danger that I may have them ready in danger Another duty that concernes thee in secret is to read some portion of the Word of God The Work-man must not go abroad without his Tools The Scripture is the Carpenters Rule by which he must square his building the Tradesmans Scales in which he must weigh his commodities The Travellers Staff which helpeth him in his journey There is no acting safely unless we act scripturally Bind it continually upon thy heart and tie it about thy neck When thou goest it shall lead thee when thou sleepest it shall keep thee when thou wakest it shall talk with thee For the commandement is a lamp and the law is light and reproofs of instruction are the way of life Prov. 6. 21 22 23. The Lawyer hath his Littleton or Cook which he consulteth The Physitian hath his Galen or Hippocrates with which he adviseth The Scholar haâ—h his Aristotle The Souldier his Caesar And the Christian his Bible that Book of Books to which all those Books are but as a course list to a fine cloth and scarce worthy to be wast paper for the Binder to put before this to shelter it This will teach the Lawyer to plead more effectually then Cicero when undertaking the cause of Quintâ—â— Ligarius one of Caesars enemies he did by the power of his Oratory make Caesar his Soveraign to tremble and often to change colour and when he described the Battel of Pharsalia caused him to let his books fall out of his hand as if he had been without spirits and life and forced him against his will to set Ligarius at liberty this will teach him so to plead as to prevail with and overcome God himself This will teach the Physitian to work greater cures then ever AEsculapius wrought to produce more strange and rare effects then the most powerful natural causes The Weapon-salve and most extraordinary cures that ever have been wrought are nothing to the healing a vitiated nature by the spirit and a wounded conscience by the blood of Christ which have been frequently done by the Word of God It hath opened the eyes of the blind abated the dropsie of pride softned the stone in the heart stopped a bloody issue of corruption healed the falling-sickness or back-sliding and raised the dead to life He sendeth his Word and healeth them Psa. 107. 20. The waters issuing out of the Sanctuary are healing waters Ezek. 47. 9. This will teach the Scholar to know more then the greatest Naturalists or then the Delphick Oracle could enable him to though it told him his duty even to know himself It is a Glass clean and clear wherein he may plainly see the spots and dirt and deformity of his heart and life It will teach him to know the only true God and Iesus Christ whom he hath seâ—t whom to know is life eternal This will teach the Souldier how to war a good warfare how to fight the Lords Battails against the Prince of Darkness and all his adherents and over all to be more then a Conquerour There is no Guide no Counsellor no Shield no Treasure among all the Books that ever were written comparable to the Scripture It is reported that a certain Iew should have poisoned Luther but was happily prevented by his Picture which was sent to Luther with this warning from a faithful friend That he should take heed of such a man when he saw him by which Picture he knew the Murtherer and escaped his hands the Word of God discovereth the face of those lusts in their proper colours which lie ready in our callingsâ— in all companies in our goings out and comings in to defile us and which Satan would employ to destroy us By them is thy servant forewarned saith David Psa. 19. 11. By reading and applying it we may know their visage and prevent their venome by the words of thy mouth I have kept my self from the paths of the destroyer Cyprian would let no day pass without reading of Tertullian nor Alexander without reading somewhat in Homer Shall the Christian let a morning pass without an inspection into the Word of Christ As God commanded Moses to come up into the Mount early in the morning with the two Tables in his hand So Reader he commandeth thee to give him a meeting every morning with the two Testaments in thy hand After the refreshment of nature about which I have given thee directions else-where and therefore shall omit it here it will be requisite that thou shouldst call thy family together and worship the blessed God with them Our Relations namely Children and Servants have mercies bestowed on them wants to be supplied dangers to be prevented natures to be sanctified souls to be saved as well as our selves and therefore must not be neglected Some tend and feed the souls in their families on the Lords day and starve them all the week after but herein they are guilty of dishonesty and unfaithfulness They rob God of the service which is due to him from all in their house joyntly They wrong the souls in their families by not allowing them the liberty at least by not calling and causing them to hear the voice and seek the face of God
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
that in the other world I may stand among thy Sheep on thy right hand and hear that blessed heart-chearing voice Come thou blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for thee before the foundation of the World For I was hungry and thou gavest me meat I was thirsty and thou gavest me drink I was a stranger and thou didst take me in I was sick and thou visitedst me when my soul shall be above all sin and my body above all sickness and both blessed in thy favour and fruition for ever and ever Amen CHAP. VIII How a Christian may exercise himself to Godliness on a Dying Bed SIxthly and Lastly Thy duty is to exercise thy self to Godliness if God give thee opportunity on a Dying Bed The work of a Saint is to glorifie God not onely in his life but also in his death The Silk-worm stretcheth out her self before she spin and ends her life in her long wrought clew The Christian must stretch out himself on his dying Bed and end his life in the work of his Lord. Every Man by his death payeth his debt to nature He is earth in regard of his Original creation and must be earth in regard of his ultimate resolution Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Gen. 3. 19. The Sinner when he dyeth payeth his debt to Sin Satan and the Law To sin as he is the servant of unrighteousness and so must receive its wages which is death To Satan as he hath sold himself to work wickedness at his will and so must have his tempter to be his eternal tormentor To the Law as he hath violated its precepts and commands and therefore must undergo its punishment and curse The Saint when he dieth payeth his debt to God for he oweth him honour as well by his death as by his life Hence we read not onely of their living in the Lord and to the Lord but also of their dying in the Lord and to the Lord Rom. 14. 8. Rev. 14. 13. Which though some expound in that place of the Revelations to the cause for which they died they did not dye out of humour or obstinacy or any carnal selfish interest but purely as Martyrs at Gods call and for Gods cause They loved not their lives to the death for the testimony of Iesus Yet the words may as clearly speak 1. The state in whiâ—â— they died They died in the favour of God reconciled to him through the death of the Mediatour The Castle of their souls was not taken by storm or in a state of emnity and opposition but by a quiet voluntary sâ—rrender or in a state of peace and amity 2. The manner of their deaths They died in the fear of God they exercised grace as well in sickness as in health and when dying as when living their spiritual motions were quick when their natural motions were slow Plutarch reports of Lucius Metellus high Priest of Rome that though he lived to a great old age his voice did not fail him nor his hand shake in his sacrificing to the Gods It s said of Moses when he was a hundred and twenty years old and dyed that his natural sight did not fail him neither was his heat abated So it may be said of the Christian that though he die old his spiritual sight doth not fail him nor his divine heat abate As Caleb he is as strong in regard of grace his inward strength when he is entering into the promised Canaan as he was when he first went forth as a spie by faith to search the land flowing with milk and honey The Heathen counted him happy that dyed either in the midst of the goods of fortune hence they say if Priamus had died a little before the loss of his Town he had died the greatest Prince in all Asia or in the exercise of their moral vertues Hence they so highly extol Seneca and Socrates who seemed to dare even death it self out of resolution and fortitude Though those seeming vertues were but as Austin terms them Splendida Flagitia Famous Vices and their confidence arose not from any grounded knowledge of their good estates but from their blindness and ignorance of their depraved wicked and woful estates He is the happy man indeed that dieth in the faith that sleepeth in Iesus that goeth to his grave in the exercise of grace The Master of Moral Philosophy commendeth that Pilot whom a Ship-wrack swalloweth up at the Stern with the Rudder in his hand The most high God commendeth that person whom death seiseth doing the work for which he was sent into the world Even the blind Mole if Naturalists may be credited opens his eyes when he comes to dye and the crooked Serpent stretcheth out her self straight when she is going to fetch her last breath and shall not the Saint be best at last Reader Observe how careful the Saints have been to do their last work well and to go out of the world like some sweet spices perfuming the room in which they fetch their last breath with holiness and leaving a sweet savour behind them Jacob when dying worshipped leaning on his staff Heb. 11. 21. What a Character doth he give of the Angel of the Covenant and what blessings doth he pray for and prophesie to come on his children when he was going from them How was his heart enlarged in pantings after the Lord Christ Gen. 48. 16. and 49. per tot The living waters of his graces ran with the greater strength when they were emptying themselves into the Ocean of glory Moses like the dying Swan sings most sweetly being to go up to Mount Nebo to dye there What excellent doctrines reproofs instructions doth he deliver to the Israelites How pathetically rhetorically divinely doth he dictate his last legacies to his Political children who can read and not be ravished with wonder and delight Deut. 32. 33. Ioshua like the morning star shines brightest at last He gives his people so strict a charge to serve the Lord such gracious counsel when he was going the way of all the earth that it could not but be remembred many days after Dying Ioseph will lay his bones at stake for Gods faithfulness and that he will visit Israel and deliver them out of Egypt Sampson did the Church of God much service in slaying more of her enemies at his death then in his life Iulius Caesar among the Romans and Olympia the Mother of Alexander among the Grecians were famous for their care to die handsomely and not to commit at last any ill beseeming action whereby their memories should have been rendred inglorious But the Christians care hath always been to die holily and to do their God most service when they are going to that place where they shall do him no more in a proper sense Philosophers tell us that the soul upon deaths approach is more divine and supernaturally inclined certain it is the soul of a Saint onely doth then more
to his breast Hic sat lucis Hâ—re is abundance of light of joy He asked one of his Friends What news His Friend told him None Then saith he I will tell you some news I shall presently be with my Lord Christ. I shall give thee two or three quickening Motives and then direct thee about the workâ— of exercising thy self to Godliness on a Dying Bed and because its the last time of a Christians working for his God I shall in the third place annex some brief helps to this duty In reference to the Motives Consider First What a serious thing Death will be to every Man and Woman in the World It s ill and dangerous for any to cozen themselves and undertake to mock God in their health and life but it s worst of all and desperate for any to do this on a sick and dying Bed The Heathen hardened in sin and wholly under the power of Satan ignorant of the evil of their hearts and lives and of the sad consequence of a wicked end made light of death Flavius Vespasian none of the worst of the Roman Emperors died as Sir Thomas Moor with a jest in his mouth Vt puto Deus fio Methinks I am going and growing to be a God Augustus Caesar esteemed the best of them whose death the people so much lamented that they said Vtinam aut non nasceretur aut non moreretur Would he had never been born or never dyed went off the Stage of the World with a Complement Livia Nostri Conjugii memor Vive Vale Farewel and Live Wife mindful of our Marriage Galba dyed desperately crying out Feri si ex re sit Populi Romani Strike if it be for the common good Tiberius dyed dissemblingly of whose death Tacitus wittily Iam Tiberium vires corpus non dissimulatio deserebant Now strength and life hath lest Tiberius but not dissimulation But Christians who understand the holiness and justice of God the infinite demerit of sin the certainty of an unchangeable condition in the other World either in joy or torment know that death is no jesting matter that to dye is one of the most serious searching things that they can possibly do Two or three Particulars will shew what a serious thing death is 1â— Death will try men When the Bridegroom comes it will appear who have Oyl in their Vessels and who have noneâ— As soon as ever thou takest thy leave of temporal good things thy spiritual riches will be known A scorching Summer discovers what streams are fed with Ponds and what with Springs The Wind sheweth which Clouds have Rain in them and which have none Death will anatomize every soul and reveal all that is in it Conscience will then bring in a true Verdict in despight of all those bribes and frights which formerly kept the Bill in suspense or caused it to write on it an Ignoramus There are marks by which Saints and Sinners may be distinguished whilst they live as great mens servants are by the Liveries that they wear but these characters being most inward and known to none but themselves and the Lord they serve it is their dying onely that will reveal infallibly what they are and to whom they belong This World is as a common Inn wherein all are lodged and no difference is made between the good and bad onely that the worst men have the best usage but the very moment of mens dissolution makes a plain and vast distinction Death is the way of all the earth according to Ioshua's Periphrasis of it but this way hath two turnings one on the right hand to joy and bliss another on the left hand to misery and horror now as when the attendants of two Lords travail together on the road their servants cannot easily be distinguished especially if the Servants of the one counterfeit the livery of the other but when they come to the Bivium the parting way then it s clearly known who belong to the one and who to the other for each then followeth his own Master waits on him to his house stayeth and abideth there with him So though whilst men live all professing themselves Christians and most for a shew at least putting on the livery of Christ it is not known who belong to the Prince of Life and who to the Prince of the powers of the Air but death will discover it to themselves and the Elect Angels 2. It will appear that Death is a serious thing in that Eternityâ— When thou diest thy condition will be like the Law of the Medes and Persians such as cannot be altered At death thou goest the way that thou shalt never return David speaking of his dead Child saith I shall go to him but he shall not return to me And Iob by asking the question denyeth it If a man dye shall he live again God will never trust thee with a second life or give thee leave for second thoughts or better purposes or more serious and sober actions when thou art once landed in the other world He will not offer thee a Christ and Grace and Heaven when thou art gone from this earth Think of it seriously is not that work to be done well which can be done but once Shouldst thou not use thine utmost care and strength and diligence to dye well when thy everlasting making or marring dependeth on it Ah Friend If thou failest now thou failest for ever if thou dalliest now thou art undone eternally There is no wisdom nor knowledge in the Grave whither thou art going Eccles. 11. 7. 3. Death will appear to be a serious thing in that all the powers of Hell will then assault thee Thou mayst say of it in some respects as Christ did to wicked men and the Wicked one This is your hour and the power of darkness The Devil its observeable is most busie at the conclusion of a duty as of prayer that the Christian might be hindered and distracted when he closeth up all in the name of Christ and so all his desires be frustrated so he is most busie in the conclusion of our days adding fearful dreams to our slumbers strong distractions to our fancies increasing our pains with terrors driving the good if possible to despair and intoxicating the bad with presumptuous conceits and all because his time is little The Devil is come down having great rage knowing that his time is short Rev. 12. 12. At the approach of death through pain of body and perplexity of mind men are least able to resist and therefore this cowardly enemy will then be most ready and fierce to assault When the Christian is down then if possible he will â—rample upon him The last persecutions of the Church under Dioclesian and Maximinian were the soarest The last messenger the Devil sent to Iob concerning the sudden violent death of all his Children pierced his heart deepest The subtle serpent reserved that great Ordnance for the last hoping the former small
Joseph shall send to convey me to the true Goshen I Wish that I may with patience submit on my dying bed to the divine pleasure It hath been far from some Moralists to murmure either at the extremity of their sickness or the necessity of dying By impatience I do not help but rather kill my self before-hand It s the general lot of mankind to sickeâ— and dye Am I angry that I am a man that I am mortal Because I know that I must be sick and dye I know that I must submit The knowledge of an approaching evil is no small good if improved Though it cannot teach me to prevent it by all my power or providence yet it may teach me to prepare for it and to bear it with courage and patience Discontent and quarrelling are great arguments of guilt and a defiled conscience The harmless sheep conscious of their innocency do quietly receive the Knife either on the Altar or in the Shambles and give death entrance with small reluctancy when the filthy loathsom Swine roar horribly at their first handling and with hideous cries are haled and held to the fatal block The Children of God and members of Christ who are perfect through their head do often give up the Ghost and desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ when the souls of wicked men are required of them and they are strangely passionate at the approach of death and with dreadful screeches salute its Harbinger sickness O that patience might have its perfect work in me when I am taking my leave of it and its work is near an end Lord my heart is too prone to be impatient under thy hand though thou art infinitely wise as well as gracious and knowest what is best for me In my sickness turn mine eyes upon my sins that my discontent may be at my self for that which is the original of all my sorrows and then I shall never repine or murmur against thee I Wish that I may daily think of death and wait beleiving and repenting and working out my salvation till my change shall come My whole time is given me that therein I might prepare and dress my soul for my blessed eternal estate Why should it not be imployed for that end The Child who hath all day been diligent about his duty may expect his Fathers good word at night But what Master will give a reward to him in the evening who hath all the day long served his enemy My life is the seed which will yeild a crop of horror or comfort in an hour of death If that be good my Harvest will be glorious and joyful if that be sinful my Harvest will be bitter and sorrowful Do men gather Grapes of Thorns or Figs of Thistles The Grapes of comfort are not to be expected from the Thistles of corruption nor the Figs of peace from the thorns of impiety I should blush to commit to the keeping of a cleanly and considerable person a foul and filthy vessel With what face can I commend to the holy and glorious God an impure and polluted soul O how dreadful will it be to meet with my dying bed before I have met with the Lord of life and to be going out of the world before I have seriously considered why I came into it My great work in this world is to get my depraved nature healed by the blood and spirit of Christ ifâ— I forget my business when I have time to do it and trifle away my days in doing evil or doing nothing I lose my soul am unfaithful to my Master and deepen my judgement by the number of my days â— That Traveller may well be agast and perplexed who hath a long journey to go upon pain of death in one day for which the whole day is little enough and seeth the sun near setting before he hath begun his journey How ill doth the evening of my time and the morning of my taske accord together How justly may God reserve the dregs of his wrath for me if I reserve the dregs of myâ— days for him What folly am I guilty of in deferring my preparation for death If he be a ridiculous person that having choice of lusty horses should let them all go empty and lay an extraordinary heavy load upon a poor tired jade that is hardly able to go much more foolish is he that prodigally wasteth his youth and health and strength in the service of the flesh and the world and leaves the great and weighty affairs of his soul and eternity to be transacted on a sick or dying bed O my soul what little cause hast thou to future or delay thy solemn provision for the other world First thy life is uncertain thou hast not another day at thy disposal There are some creatures they say in Pontus whose life lasteth but one day They are born in the morning come to their full growth at noon grow old in the evening and dye at night What is thy life but a vapour that soon passeth away The first minute thou didst begin to live thou didst begin to dye Death was born when thou wast born the last act of life is but the completing of death As on thy birâ—hâ—day thou didst begin to dye so on the day of thy death thou dost cease to live How many outward accidents and inward diseases art thou every moment liable to May I not say to thee as Michael to David Save thy self to night for tomorrow thou shalt be slain Others have died suddenly by imposthumes or the falling-sickness or violent means and if thou promisest thy self a fair warning before the fatal stroak thou dost but cozen and cheat thy self But secondly If thou wert sure to see the evening star of sickness before the night of death overtake thee thou art not sure thy sickness shall not be such as may not incapacitate thee for the working out thy salvation Extremity of pain anguish of body lack of sleep the violence of a fever may indispose thee and distract thee that thou canst not so much as think of God Or thy distemper may be such that the Physitian may charge thee not to trouble thy self with melancholy or sad thoughts lest thou wrongest thy body and yet the Minister commandeth thee to pull up those sluces of sorrow if thou wouldst not lose thy soul for ever Or cold diseases as the Lethargy or Palsie may surprise thee and incline thee to continual slumbers till at last thou sleepest the sleep of death O how sottish art thou and how grosly doth the destroyer of souls delude thee to defer that work of absolute necessity of conversion to God upon which thine endless weal or wo dependeth to a dying Bed when thou art not sure to dye in thy bed but mayst as well dye in thy Shop or Fields or in the Streets when thou art uncertain what disease if thou shouldst meet with a dying bed should send thee to thy eternal
were desirous to reclaim from their vicious course of life One of the men told one of the women that he was desirous to enjoy her company so it might be with secrecy and when she had brought him into a close room that none could pry into he told her All the bars and bolts here cannot keep God out The other desired the other woman to company with him openly in the streets which when she rejected as a mad request he told her It was better to do it in the eyes of a multitude then of God How doth the Adulterer or Drunkard or Theif when they come abroad at midnight for the satisfaction of their lusts sneak and steal away when they spye the watch or any persons who would be witness of their vices and shall not the presence of that God who hates sin who is resolved to punish it with hell-flames make us ashamed or afraid to sin and dare him to his face 2. The thoughts of this Omnipresence of God will quicken thee to holiness The Souldiers of Israel and Iudah were prodigal of their blood in the presence of their two Generals 2 Sam. 2. 14. Servants will generally work hard whilst their Master stands by and looks on It s said of Alexander that his presence caused such courage in his Souldiers Vt illo presente nullius hostium arma vel iner mes timuerunt That when he was with them though they were unarmed they feared not the weapons of any of their enemies Our blessed Redeemer exhorteth to prayer in secret upon this consideration that God seeth and heareth it Mat. 6. and to charity in secret because though the left hand knoweth not what the right hand doth God knoweth what the right hand doth Your Father which seeth in secret will reward you openly There is a story of Bishop Latimer that he having in a Sermon at Court much displeased the King Henry 8. was commanded to Preach again the next Lords day and to recant his former sermon according to appointment he cometh up and prefaceth to his Sermon in this manner Hugh Latimer dost thou know this day to whom thou art to speak even to the High and mighty Monarch the Kings most excellent Majesty who can take away thy life if thou offendest therefore take heed how thou speakest a word which may displease but as if recalling himself he proceeded Hugh Hugh dost thou know from whom thou comest upon whose message thou art sent and who it is that is present with thee and beholdeth all thy ways even that Almighty God who can cast body and soul into Hell for ever therefore look about thee and be sure thou deliverest thy message faithfully and so he went to his Text and confirmed what he had spoken the day before and urged it with the more vehemency then ordinary The eye of God as of the Sun will call the Christian to his work Those Countries that are governed by Viceroys seldom flourish or thrive so well as those Kingdoms where the Prince is present in person Conscience Gods Viceroy may much quicken a Christian to holiness but God the Prince himself much more I have kept thy precepts saith David for all my ways are before thee CHAP. X. Means whereby Christians may exercise themselves to Godliness A constant watâ—hfulness Frequent Meditation of Death Daily performance of â—aored Duties FOurthly If thou wouldst exercise thy self to Godliness Watch over thy self continually This spiritual watchfulness is the Main-guard of the soul which if once called off we lye open to the shot of every enemy This like one of the Nethinim must stand continually Porter at the door of our hearts Gods Temple to keep out whatsoever iâ— uncleanâ— Watchfulness is a diligent observation of our selves in all things and at all times that we may please God always He that watcheth hath his eyes in his head according to the wise mans phrase and seeth as the Chineses say of themselves with both eyes David expresseth it fitly I said I will take heed to my ways Psa. 39.1 i. e. I will ponder my paths and consider where I set my feet lest I should tread awry Without this wariness there is no safe walking Secure Laish is made a prey to their enemies and the secure soul is made a prey to his spiritual adversaries Iudges 19.9,10 Soul-Lethargies are most dangerous most deadly Those that slept in the sweating sickness generally died He who watcheth not is led about like one in his natural sleep by any temptation he knoweth not how nor whether When the Wolves in the Fable once prevailed with the Sheep to part with the Dogs they soon devoured them If Satan can but get men to forgo this means of their safety he will soon make them his prey The old World was drowned in sleep before they were drowned in water Sodom and Gomorah were secure when they were destroyed by fire It s reported of the Dragon that whilst he sleepeth a jewel is taken out of his head Noah lost the jewel of Temperance David the jewel of Chastity whilst they were fallen asleep If this eye of watchfulness be once shut the soul is open to all wickedness When Argus notwithstanding his hundred eyes was by Mercury piped into a sleep he was transformed into a Cow Reader hearken to Gods Watch-word Ye are all children of light and children of the day we are not of the night nor of darkness Therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober 1 Thess. 5. 5,6,7 Sleep is not seasonable in the day of grace nor sutable to a childe of light They that sleep sleep in the night Rom. 13.11 The night is for sleep therefore in it God draweth a curtain of darkness about us as the Nurse when she would lay her babe to sleep throweth a cloth over the head of the cradle But the day is for watching for working He hath little reason to give himself to sleep who is every moment surrounded with mortal enemies which are neither few nor weak Naturalists tell us that the bird Onocratulus and the Pellican take their rest with their Beaks upright expecting the Hawk and that the Whale and Dolphin sleep with their heads erected above water for fear of hurt Though there were but that one text of Scripture 1 Pet. 5.8 relating to this duty t were enough to alarm any wise man and to call him to his arms Be sober be vigilant for your adversary the Devil walketh about as a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour If that voyce among the antient Romans Hannibal ad portas Hannibal is at the gates were sufficient to make them leave whatsoever they were about and run to their weapons and stand upon their guard what watchfulness should this voyce of the holy Ghost The Devil is at the door call thee too Reader Take that verse a little in pieces and see what a foe thou hast to fight with and then tell me whether it doth not
concern thee to watch Consider 1. His Power Your adversary the Devil It is not a weak man but a mighty Devil Thou art not called to wrestle with flesh and blood but Principalities and powers Is man a match for a Devil or a stripling nodding fit to enter the Lists with Goliah What is a Pigmie to a Giant or a a dying creature to the Prince of the powers of the air Had David been asleep when the Lion out of the wood came against him the Lion had sooner tore him by the throat then he had taken the Lion by the beard The cobweb may as soon withstand the broom in the maids hand and the dust oppose the force of a violent wind as a nodding secure Christian the temptations of Satan 2. His Policy Seeking whom he may devour Had our enemy strength without craft there were not so much danger nor cause of vigilancy but when he hath seven heads as well as ten horns and exceeds us in subtilty as much as in power it concerneth us to be watchful He that playeth with a cunning Fencer will heed his wards the more Reader the Devil hath a shrewd guess what Dalilah is most likely to entice thee and deprive thee of thy spiritual strength and if amongst all the uncircumcised there be any that will fit thee thou shalt not want her He hath not walked too and fro in the earth so long for nothing but he knoweth what weeds will take best and thrive most in the soil of thy heart be confident he will help thee both to the seeds and plants of them The subtle serpent that could wind himself into Paradise knoweth surely how to wind himself into thee If he were too crafty for man when he was perfect much more is he for man polluted And can such a strong politick foe be resisted when thou art lazing upon thy bed of security 3. His Industry Your adversary the Devil goeth about He is a diligent servant never from your elbow As Ioseph's Mistris when denied still sollicited and Sampsons Harlot pressed him with continual importunity night and day that his very soul was vexed unto death So the Devil serveth men he will never forsake them but follow them with his darts and assaults till they are safe in heaven from hiâ— or safe in hell with him He is called the Prince of the powers of the air and his Angels spiritual Wickednesses in high places the air is the seat of his Empire and truly as ravenous foul hover up and doâ—n in the air to catch and kill little chickens and though they be frighted away by any one yet they lye near at the catch and the person is no sooner gone but they are descending to destroy them So those infernal spirits are hovering up and down walking too and fro to defile and destroy souls and though they are resisted and foiled yet they impudently continue their former endeavours to undo us Now hath he any time for sleep that is every moment in such danger 4. His Cruelty As a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour The Lions of the Forrest have no pitty Lest he tear my soul like a Lion renting it in peices Psal. 7.2 The Lions brake the bones of Daniels accusers before they came to the bottom of the Den But the Lions of hell have much less pity his tender mercies are cruelties indeed it is not the loss of thy life but of thy soul and thy God and thy Christ and that for ever which he looks after The racking of thy body and renting thy bones is nothing to the flames and whips and torments which he makes men suffer and that not for a day or week or year or age but to all eternity Reader is there not infinite reason for watchfulness Had not the Apostle ground enough for his precept Be sober be vigilant when our adversary is so strong a Devil so sedulous going about so cruel as a roaring Lion and so crafty seeking by all means whom he may devour Yet alas this is not all Go where we will we see abundant cause to look well to our feet Every place we come into is a net to ensnare us we cannot look out of our eyes but we see a baited hook nor open our ears but we hear the Syrens songs we cannot put forth our hands but we touch pitch nor set our feet but in the midst of nets every part of the body is a Iudas a Traytor to the soul. Our crosses and afflictions if we be secure will be to us as the Goal to a prisoner filling us with Vermine Our greatest earthly comforts if we be not watchful prove but like traps set for vermine pleasant and killing When the world sings most sweetly in our ears she doth but like Orpheus with his pipe endeavour to lead us by the ears into unquenchable flames Theives with provender in their hands catch horses to steal them The world allures our hearts by its pleasures and profits and steals them from God Our own hearts are Iacobs Supplanters of us deceitful and desperately wicked As the water-foul in Friezland will decoy other wilde foul in a net and then give a watchword to their Master to seise on them so officious will our own hearts be to the Devil And shall we not watch and pray that we enter not into temptation Sleep is the great Leveller which makes all equal The strongest Sampson is as liable in his sleep to be slain as the smallest infant When a deep sleep from the Lord had seised on Saul and his Souldiers how easily might David if he had pleased have killed them He took away Sauls Spear and Cruse of Water to assure him that he could have taken away his life Ah! how soon may the Devil or World or Flesh defile deceive and destroy a sleeping soul Bees that have many enemies Mice Spiders Drones Hornets Birds and Beasts never dare say Naturalists to give themselves to security but night and day have their Scouts and Centinels and Corp-du-guard to keep watch and ward lest some of their many enemies should on a sudden surprise them The Christian may learn this duty from such creatures Spiders weave their Cobwebs near the Flowers where the Bees use to gather and also just over the passage out of their Hives that so at their going out but especially at their comming in laden and weary they may catch them and make a prey of them David saith In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me So mayst thou Reader say In the way wherein I daily walk doth Satan privily lay Baits to catch me at my Table in my Closet in my Shop in my Bed in the Streets in all places where I go he hath laid snares for my soul. If there be a snare and such danger in all things then let me advise thee if thou woulst avoid them in the words of Paul to Timothy Watch thou in all things 2 Timoth. 4. 5.
Watch against sin against all sin The Gardiner doth not onely watch over his Flowers to water and cherish them but also watcheth all weeds to pluck and root them up Take heed lest there be any root of bitterness Epiphanius tells us when a dead corps was carried by any of the Israelites houses they used to shut their doors and windows intimating that men must be watchful against the sent and infection of sinâ— It s in vain for a Captain to guard one gate of a Castle to prevent the enemies entring there if he leave another open when the whole Fort is beleagured and surrounded with mortal enemies Watch especially against thine own sin If a man have many wounds whereof one is more dangerous then the rest being near a vital part though he will be mindful and careful of all yet he will have a special care of that which is most dangerous A Christian must watch against all sin all soul-diseases but principally against his own sin that disease which is most dangerous as a wise Governour will have a special eye upon that particular person in his Garrison whom he knoweth to be a Traytour Watch for the doing of good For seasons of Prayer and Hearing and Christian Communion The Country-man watcheth for the Bell ringing on the Market-day when the sacks will be opened that he may buy food for himself and his family The Mariner watcheth for the Tide The diseased folk watched for the moving of the waters by the Angels David watched as a Sparrow on the house top where he might peck up some corn get some spiritual nourishment An opportunity of worshipping God is a jewel the Christian may well watch to take it up Watch in duties The Child must be watcht at School or he will play and toy instead of getting his lesson The heart must be watched in an Ordinance or it will wander wholly from the business in hand continue in prayer and watch in the same Col. 4. 2. Take heed how ye hear The Bible will drop out of the sleepers hand and prayer is a wrestling with God which is not a work to be done nodding They who talk in their sleep talk idly Watch after duties Running carelesly into the open air immediately after the taking of Physick is dangerous When the Garden is drest and the seeds sown in it we must watch it lest Hogs get into it and root up all Satan thinks to take the Christian at an advantage after the duty is over and though he could not beat him in the fight yet to do it when the Saint hath laid by his weapons It was a wise speech of Marcus Aurelius after he had vanquished Popilion General of the potent Parthians and won the day I tell thee of a truth that I stand in greater fear of fortune at this present then I did before the battel for she careth not so much to overtake the Conquered as to overcome the Conqueror Truly Satan will be industrious to destroy both the conquered utterly and to overcome the Conquerour Watch thy senses These are the Cinque-ports as one calls them of the Isle of man which if not well garrisoned will let in strangers and disturbers of our peace At these Havens much of Satans lading is taken in Ioâ— made a Covenant with his eyes he would not suffer them to gad and gaze at random lest they should return defiled Democritus walking abroad would shut his eyes lest by their wandring his mind should be taken off from the contemplation of honest things Acteon became as the Poet fancieth meat for his Dogs by suffering his eyes to wander Lusting hath often been the issue of looking witness Iosephs Mistriss David Achan the Israelites Numb 15. 39. Stratonice took Mithridates with a Song The heart hath often been angled into sin by the ear and led into temptation by the eyeâ— therefore Cassian relates that to preserve the cleanness of the heart the Egyptian Masters taught that men must be Surdi Caeci Muti Deaf Blind and Dumb. If those out-works be well guarded the Royal Fort is in the less hazard Shut up the five windows i. e. guard the five senses that the whole house may be full of light according to the Arabian Proverb Watch your affections If those waves be tempestuous they will cast up much foam and froth mire and dirt He had need to make a strong wall that would keep these raging waters within their bounds Watch your Tongues The Sea hath not more need of banks to keep it in then the tongue of a bridle The tongue is compared to a Sword to a Razor both which are keen weapons and must be handled warily Psa. 39. 1 2. I said I will take heed to my ways that I offend not with my tongue I will keep my mouth with a Bridle whilst the wicked are before me Watch your hearts The heart is the Forge the spring of life and a wound there is mortal Keep thy heart with all diligence super omnem custodiam above all keeping Jun. out of it are the issues of life Watch over all things watch in all things This voice saith Bucer should always sound in our ears Watch Watch. How frequent is Christ in his Precepts to this duty as knowing fully the weight and concernment of it Watch ye therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of man cometh Watch and Pray lest ye enter into temptation What I say unto you I say unto all Watch. And he is as frequent in his promises to it Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find watching Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his Garments and if he shall come in the second or third watch and find him so blessed is he Luk. 12. 37 38 43. Surely Blessedness is worthy our waking Bliss is worth keeping our eyes open a few days for Apollonius held in his time for an Oracle coming early in the morning to Vespasians gate and finding him then a private person up and at study he said to his Companion This man is worthy to raign and command an Empire which afterwards came to pass He that watcheth with Christ the short hour of this life shall be counted worthy to raign with him in his Kingdom for ever Sion which is frequently put for the Church of God signifieth a Watch-Tower because from that hill a man might see the Holy Land and all the Countries thereabout but the spiritual signification of it may be this that all the members of Gods Church must be like Souldiers in a watch-tower observing who commeth in and who goeth out lest Traytors should steal into the fort of the heart undiscovered Fifthly If thou wouldst exercise thy self to godliness Think often of thy dying day and of what price and value godliness will be to thee at such a time There are few thoughts more terrible or more profitable then of death Hence it is that God commands man
take thy leave of hours and days and months and years and time and to sail into the boundless Ocean of Eternity Suppose thou sawest death creep in at thy Chamber window come up to thy Bed-side draw the Curtain take thee by the hand and tell thee that he is come from the Infinite Almighty jealous most holy God to fetch thee immediately into his presence there to answer for all thy thoughts words and deeds and to receive either matchless and endless pain or unchangeable and unconceiveable pleasures according as thy practices have been What wouldst thou think at such a time of godliness Good Lord what a price wouldst thou set upon it what wouldst thou not do or give for it Then godliness will be godliness indeed as little and as lightly as thou settest by it now And why is it not worth as much now Dost thou not see death like a Mole digging thy grave under thee Dost thou not feel that worm within thee which will ere long consume thee Beleive it thy death may be nearer then thou dreamest the glass of thy life may be almost out though thou thinkest it s but new turned The Murdering-peice which kills thee parting thy soul and body may be discharged with white powder give thee no warning at all The next Arrow which is shot may hit thee The next time the Bell goes may be to tell others that thou art dead The next time the Earth is opened may be to receive thy body in Thou seest some fall on thy right hand some on thy left hand some of thy very age and of greater strength and health and canst thou esteem thy self shot-free Is not every carcass a cryer and every Tomb a teacher calling upon thee to number thy days and apply thine heart unto wisdom Silly man is like the foolish Chicken though the Kite comes and takes away many of their fellows yet the rest continue pecking the ground never heeding their owner nor minding their shelter Death comes and snatcheth away one man here a second there one before them another behind them and they are killed with death undone for ever Rev. 2. 23. yet they who survive take no warning but persist in their wicked and ungodly ways They are destroyed from morning to evening they perish for ever without any regarding it Doth not their excellency which is in them go away they dye even without wisdom Job 4.20 21. It is the saying of an Heathen That it is impossible for a man to live the present day well who doth not purpose to live it as his last I may say to thee Friend It is impossible for thee to live the present day ill if thou wilt but live it as thy last day If thou dost but consider Well this place may be the last place I shall come into shall I pollute it with sin or shall I not rather perfume it with sanctity This expression may be the last that ever I shall speak shall it â—e tainted with vice or shall it not rather be seasoned with grace This action may be the last that ever I shall do and shall it be a deed of darkness or shall it not rather be a work of the day of the light This Sermon may be the last that ever I shall hear and shall I now be heedless After this I shall never more have a call from Christ and â—hall I now be careless This Prayer may be the last Prayer that ever I shall poure out to God if God deny me now I am damned and undone for ever and shall not my head and heart and will and mind and all be working that it may be a prosperous a prevalent prayer This Sabbath may be the last Sabbath that ever I shall sanctifie I may from henceforth and for ever be deprived of all such opportunities of getting and increasing grace of serving and honouring my Saviour and of working out my own salvation If I sow not now good seed I must never expect an happy harvest If I buy not now the market will be quickly over Shall I lose any precious minute of this holy day Is it time now to trifle about the affairs of my soul and eternity Well I will through Christ take heed how I hear I will hear in hearing I will pray in praying I will hear and hearken cry and call with all my heart and strength and soul and mind that if it be possible the Lord may not leave me without a blessing When the Oratour thinketh he is at the close of his Oration then he useth his chiefest Art and Rhetorick to move his Auditors affections he would have his last part his best part O Reader if thou wilt but often wind up this weight of thine approaching death it would keep thy soul in a quick spiritual and regular motion at all times As ashes preserve fire and keep coals from going out so the thought that we shall ere long be turned into ashes will preserve the fire of grace alive and in action Sixthly If thou wouldst exercise thy self to godliness Mind a daily performance of sacred duties He that hath nothing of his own whereupon to live must be frequently fetching in provision from the Shops or Market where it is to be had The Christians life is maintained not by himself but by what he receiveth from God Not that we are sufficient of our selves our sufficiency of God therefore there is a necessity of daily converse with God by holy Ordinances and of waiting at his gate as the beggar who hath neither a bit of bread nor a penny to buy any at the rich mans door for supply Our spiritual strength is like Israels Manna rained down daily we are kept by a divine power and allowed but from hand to mouth that we might continually depend on and resort to the Lord Jesus for our allowance Paul speaks in some places of his great disbursements how much he laid out for God and his people that he laboured more then all the Apostles but you must think Whence had Paul such a spiritual stock that he was able to outvy all others in his expences he tells you that the Son of God kept house for him and that he was the Steward to spend of his treasure and thence his disbursements were so large I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life that I live in the flesh is by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2. 20. As the Plant Mistel having no root of its own both grows and lives in the stock or body of the Oak So the Apostle having no root of his own did live and grow in Christ. As if he had said I live I keep a noble house am given to Hospitality above many in labours more abundant in watchings in fastings more frequent in perils and dangers and deaths often but the truth is I do all this at anothers cost and charge not at mine own I am beholden to Christ for
strength to do and suffer whatsoever I am called to He carrieth the purse for me and gives out to me according to my necessities I have not a farthing of my own wherewith to buy the least morsel I can do nothâ—ng of my self but I can do all things through Christ strengthning me Man is a weak creature and so far from runing that he is not able to creep in the way of Gods commandements unless Christ strengthen him Without me ye can do nothing Joh. 13. 3. If Christ with-draw himself as the Sun he carrieth the light of holiness along with him The easiest duty is too hard and the weakest enemy too strong for us unless Christ assist us 'T is upon his wings alone that we can mount to Heaven in an Ordinance and through his power that we do improve any Providence It is not the standing Army of habitual grace that will make the Christian a Conquerour he must daily be recruted with Auxilaries from Heaven The watch-man doth not onely make the watch and set every wheel in its right place but he or some other must wind it up daily or it will stand still Exerciâ—ing grace is as requisite to our spiritual motion as habitual grace to our spiritual being The Razor though it be never so sharp or keen at first if it be used must be often at the Whetstone or it will grow dull The Wife that hath frequent occasions for money for provision for her Self and Children and Servants and for Cloaths and all Family necessaries and not a penny but what comes out of her Husbands purse and he fearing she should be prodigal lets her have money by driplets but from hand to mouth must be always going or sending to him or otherwise starve The Shopkeeper that drives a great trade in the Country must go often to London or abroad in other parts to fetch in commodities The Israelites in the Wilderness were maintained for water by the Rock They drank of the Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ. The Rock followed them they did not only drink of it at first but had a constant mornings draught and drank of it often in the day it ran iâ— a stream after them and every day supplied them It s no marvail the Apostle commandeth us Pray continually Pray without ceasing Pray evermore when he knew all our living was got by begging that all our supplies must be from above and we must expect nothing without asking Ordinances are the food of the soul. As Cows afford us both Milk and Beef so Ordinances are Milk to Babes and Meat for strong Men. Our God is the Fountain of Spiritual as well as of natural life It s said most truly in respect of a Natural life In him meaning God we live and move and have our beings Act. 17. 28. We live Now as God hath made the heart the spring of natural life and hath drawn from thence a multitude of arteries to carry the vital spirits through the whole body and disperse life through every part of it So he hath made the Mediatour the spring of spiritual life and his Ordinances the Arteries to convey life to every part of the soul. In whom we move As God hath from the head derived manifold sinews to carry out thence the animal spirits and with them the faculty both of sense and motion over all So the Lord from Jesus Christ the Churches head through the sinews of sacred duties conveyeth spiritual sense and motion to all his members And have our being To preserve our being he hath made the Liver a fountain of blood and from thence drawn the Veins to convey it over the body to the nourishment of the whole Ordinances are those Veins which convey and disperse gracious spirits over the whole new man With him is the well of life Psa. 36. Sacred duties are as needful every day for our souls as food and raiment for our bodies The body must continually be repaired with nourishment because it is continually consumed by our natural heat Yesterdays bread will not keep the laborer to day in strength and vigor to go through with his work he must have new diet or he cannot hold out Friend I must bespeak thee as the Angel to Elijah Vp and eat for the journey is too great for thee Vp and be doing in Prayer and Scripture and holy Ordinances that thou mayst feed and receive spiritual nourishment for otherwise the business of exercising thy self to godliness the duties required of thee to be performed the graces to be exercised the temptations to be resisted the deadly enemies to be conquered will be too hard for thee the journey will be too great for thee The Amalekite by long fasting grew faint and unable to go his journey If the bringing stream be not as large as the running stream the bottom will quickly be without water The greatest stock will lesson apace if a man spend daily on it though but in a small quantity if he hath no way of getting Those that are under-kept and called to hard labour can never perform what is required of them The spirits daily are decaying and if not daily renewed by proper nourishment we perish The Vessels that are always leaking must stand constantly under the conduit to get what they lose When Ionathan through fasting became faint He tasted a little honey and his eyes were enlightened How much more said he if happily the people had eaten liberally of the spoil of their enemies which they found for had there not been now a much greater slaughter among the Philistines 1 Sam. 14. 29 30. The more a Christian mindeth Divine Ordinances in obedience to Gods precept and affiance on Gods promise the more strength he shall receive to conquer his spiritual adversaries and to discharge the several duties incumbent on him The truth is our religious life our heavenly flame is like a straw fire to mault which must constantly be tended and fed with fuel or it will go out There is noâ— more need of the Shepherds constant and daily tending his weak sheep in the summer seasonâ— then of the Saints daily regarding his precious soul. As trees being well ordered with skill and diligence they become abundantly fruitful but being left to themselves without culture and care they bring forth little or no fruit So Christians by a diligent use of means abound in the fruits of righteousness but neglecting ordinances they decline and decay The heart of man is like Reuben unstable 〈◊〉 water and is stablished with grace Heb. 10. which cannot be expected but through the means of grace The Viol that with every change of weather is apt to be out of tune must be constantly hung within sent of the fire Whilst we are in the care of this world we are full of damps and therefore need all means of quickening Our hearts are like Clocks twice a day at least the Plummets must be pulled up or their motion and
shine brightly with grace and holiness they do not they will not know it They consider their greatest light and lustre is but a reflection from the Father of lights and therefore they have no reason at all to boast of borrowed goods The worm of pride breeds soonest in rotten wood The proud Pharisee who justified himself had nothing in him but matter of condemnation When the poor humble Publican affected with his own vileness and baseness had something of worth in him even his sense of his own unworthiness Brass makes a greater sound and is heard farther then Gold but every one knoweth there is no comparison between them Chaff is seen above the Wheat not because it is better but because it is lighter Alas what is man what hath man that he should be proud He is but enlivened dust moving earth refined clay that which beasts trample under their feet He hath nothing that good is but what he hath received He lives wholly upon the alms and charity of another A proud heart and a beggars purse do not agree As he is a sinner he is more vile and base more noisom and loathsom then any Toad or Snake or Serpent and hath he any reason to be proud Reader be cloathed with humility learn of thy Redeemer for he was meek and lowly in heart Though he thought it no robbery to be equal with God yet he made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant Phil. 2.7,8 When pride cometh then cometh a fall As a Wrastler if he can lift his fellow from the ground quickly gives him a fall so the Devil if he can lift up with pride doubts not but to throw them Physicians observe that the Dropsie and Consumption are usually together when once thou swellest with this Dropsie of pride expect a Consumption of thy godliness He walks but dangerously who walks on high places as on the ridges of houses and on ropes he that walks below is more safe Angels Adam David Hezekiah Peter and many others in Scripture confirm the Wisemans Proverb Pride goeth before a fall Trees that are set on mountains are easily shaken and torn up by the roots when stormy winds arise Indeed t is no wonder that a proud man should fall into sin for he relieth on his own strength which is but a broken reed Peter had not fallen so fouly if he had not undertaken to stand upon his own legs which were too weak to bear his weight But before honour is humility The lower the foundation the higher the building A proud man hath a great infelicity in that he is his own enemy and makes all others his enemies God is his enemy there is no sinner whom he proclaims such open war against in such express terms as the Proud God setteth himself in battel array against the proud T were better Earth and Hell should unite their force against him then one God Ah who knoweth the power of thine anger Men are his enemies he disdaineth others for their meaness or poveâ—ty or want of parts and they disdain him for his pride He that over-valueth himself shall soon be under-valued by every one Pride makes him scorn friends for familiarity would deprive him he thinks of that reverence which he deserves and therefore all must be his enemies but he is his own enemy most in cutting such a gash in his soul by his pride and making way for all other sins to fall on He that is lifted up with pride quickly falls into the condemnation of the Devil Satan had found this vice Pride by experience so prevalent to draw the creature from God that he knew no better bait to catch Adam with Ye shall be as gods and when afterwards he encountred David 't was with this weapon he tempted David to number the people Yet alas though it be so prejudicial how natural is it to us Pride is a weed a worm that gets into the best Garden It was a witty taunt which a proud Cardinal had from a friend of his that upon his election went to Rome on purpose to see him where finding his behaviour stretcht to nothing but pride and state he departed and put on a mourning suit and the next day comes in black to visit him The Cardinal asking the cause why he was in mourning he answered It was for the death of Humility which fetcht its last breath in him when he was elected Cardinal Most of us have cause to put on mourning upon the same account Eleventhly If thou wouldst exercise thy self to godliness Suppress sin in the beginning This foul Bird is easiest kild in the egge When a fire is first broke out in a Chimny it may with much less labour be quenched then when it hath seised the Timber of the House What small beginnings had those fires which have conquered stately Pallaces and turned famous Cities into ruinous heaps An Hair is but a little thing yet some have been choaked with it If the Tetter be not killed it will come to be a Ring-worm Passion at the first kindling may be quenched but if let alone sends such a smoke into the understanding which thickens into a cloud and hinders us from the sight of our selves and our duties The Tree may soon be pulled up before it hath taken root but then it may be too hard for the strongest man A prick with a Pin or a Thorn being let alone hath sometimes caused the cutting off of a limb nay the loss of life Minutes to sin are like Cyphers to a figure which quickly increase it to vast sums Sin increaseth by degrees Iam. 1. 14 15. First it surprizeth the heart in a thought then it stealeth into the affections for approbation then the affections plead with the will for its consent and then that commandeth the act of it and frequent acts cause an habit and custom in sin causeth despair despair causeth men to defend sin their defence of sin a boasting and glorying in it and the next step is Hell Sin is therefore fitly by the Prophet compared to a Chain for one link draweth another As the Ivy by little and little creepth upon the Oak till at last it doth destroy it so doth sin cling about the soul and by degrees over-run and undo it When the water begins to freeze it will hardly bear a peny weight let it alone a little longer and it will bear a shilling then a pound weight then a man then a horse then cart and load and all As the cloud which Elijahs servant saw was at first no bigger then a mans hand but afterwards it spread till it covered the Heavens Peter first denyeth his Master then sweareth then curseth and forsweareth himself Cain first haâ—bours envious thoughs of his brother then murdereth him in his heart then kills him with his hand then quarrelleth with God and despaireth There is no staying when we are once down the Hill till we come to the bottom If this
love of creatures is a canker which in time will eat up the very life of godliness Reader If thou art risen with Christ seek those things that are above where Christ is It is recorded by divers Historians both of the East and West Indians and some Blackamoors in Guinea between both that many subjects willingly dye with their Princes and Women with their Husbands that some Men give their Wives others their Children others their Servants to be buried alive in the Grave with their Kings to serve him as they conceit in the other world that some Women cast themâ—elves into the fire in which the dead bodies of their Husbands are consumed If those can cast away and contemn the world and all things in it for the love of a poor wretched creature what a shame is it to Christians if the love of Jesus Christ their Head their Prince their Husband do not mortifie them to the world and make them dispise all in it to injoy him whilst they live and to be with him where he is when they dye 4. Allow thy self in â—o known sin This like a thief used to the shop which will steal away all thy gains and keep thee assuredly from thriving in thy heavenly calling There is no possibility of making Religion thy business without the gracious concurrence of the holy Spirit he it is that must lay the foundation rear up the building and perfect what he beginneth but thou canst not expect his company or assistance if thou harbourest any corruption in thy heart though this Dove may flye to thee desirous to make its abode with thee as the Dove went of out the Ark yet if it behold the earth under water thy heart in any way of wickedness it will return again whence it came Doves will lye clean or be gone Bees will not continue in a stinking or impure Hive therefore those that would not loose them prepare the stools where they set them with perfumes and sweet-smelling boughs lest ill savours force them to forsake their stations Thus saith Chrysostom deals the holy spirit Our souls are the hives which if perfumed with grace invite his presence but if polluted with any known sin provoke him to depart O let there not be any way of wickedness in thee if thou wouldst run the way of Gods commandments CHAP. XIV Motives inciting Christians to exercise themselves to Godliness The Vanity of other exercises The brevity of mans life The Patterns of others THirdly I shall annex some Motives to quicken thee to exercise thy self to godliness and then conclude the Treatise First Consider The vanity of all other exercises and labours The wise man begins his Ecclesiastes with Vanity of Vanities all is Vanity and after a large and exact demonstration thereof makes this use and ends his book with Hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear God and keep his commandements for this is the whole duty of man It may be Reader thou takest much pains and spendest much time thou risest early and sittest up late and wastest thy body and wearest out thy strength and toylest and moylest about the things of this life but alass to what purpose to what profit The foot of all thy accompts when at the end of thy life the total comes to be summed up will be onely Ciphers and signifie nothing Thou workest all this while at the labour in vain like the Disciples thou fishest all night and catchest nothing thou spendest thy strength for what is not bread and thy labour for what will not satisfie If the word of truth and the God for whom it is impossible to lye may be beleived all the things of this life separated from godliness are lying vanities broken cisternes ashes lyes wind vanity of vanities and things of naught Joh. 2. 8. Ier. 2. 13. 1. Sam. 12. 21. Hos. 10. 13. and 12. 1. Eccles. 1. 2. Hab. 2. 13. It is Chrysostoms saying that if he had been to Preach to all the world and could so have spoken that all should have heard him he would have chosen that Text O mortal men how long will ye love vanity and follow after leasing Democritus gave that for the reason of his continual laughter which occasioned his Country-men to look on him as distracted That when he beheld the labour and diligence the running and riding the sweating and painting nay the fighting and killing of men to get one above another and to heap up a fading treasure he could not but deride their folly Indeed though the Heathen laughed at the ridiculousness of such persons the sensible Christian seeth great cause to weep at the emptiness and unprofitablenss of such actions and the madness of the Agents Cyprian advised his friend Donatus to suppose himself at the top of the highest mountain and thence to behold the tumults and chances of this wavering world and told him that then he could not but either laugh at it or pity it It s no such wonder that brutish horses should leave good provender to feed on litter as some Jades do but that men who are indued with reasonable souls that seeming Christians who have a Table spread before them with hidden Manna with Angels food with meat indeed and drink indeed withal tâ—e dainties of Heaven should neglect these and feed on ashes may well be matter both of admiration and lamentation The holy Ghost tells such that they follow after vain things which cannot profit them 1 Sam. 12. 21. All outward things are like an olive or date stone hard to crack or cleave but when with much labour they are opened they are nothing worth The Wise Moralist speaking of such laborious loyterers as work hard for nothing compares them to such as spend many months to learn to write with their feet and when they have learned it are never the Better for it Caesar compares them to such as fish for gudgeons with a golden hook hazard more then the fish when taken are worth Life is precious health and strength and time are precious because all these have a relation to an eternal estate now how foolish is he that wasteth them upon toys and trifles and neglecteth provision for the other world Surely every man walketh in a vain shew surely they are disquieted in vain Psal. 39. 6. Observe Rearder how dearly men pay for their guilded nothings for their earthen potsherds coverd with silver dross they walk up and down run hither and thither disquiet themselves with cares and fears and heart piercing frights and vexations for a vain shew The people labour in the fire and weary themselves for very vanity Habbak 2. 13. Their work is hot and hard they labour in the fire even to lassitude and weariness But is it about the noble concerments of their immortal souls Is it that their sins may be pardoned the vitiosity of their natures healed and that their souls may be fitted for the heavenly mansions No it is for very vanity For that which will
Treatise A CHristians should Admonish one another 285 How ibid. Afflictions tend to a Christians advantage 814,815 Anger resteth in the bosome of fools 44,45 B Backbiting to be avoided 271 The great danger and evil of it 272 to 275 A Backbiter wounds three wiâ—h one arrow 274 Christians must bear with one another 288 A threefold burthen Christians must bear for each other 289 Their Civil Spiritual and Natural burthens ibid. The Beasts of the field may teach men 453 Beasts teach man six lessons Thankefulness to God Dependance on God The dread of God Diligence in our callings Innocency Wisdom 453 454 Birds of the Air teach man eight Lessonsâ— 454 to 457 Christians must use a conscience in buying 17 C CHristians should be diligent in their particular Callings 511 Christians must avoid censuring 266 The great evil of censuring 267 How to apply our selves to civil men in sickness 577 Saints must be careful in the choice of their Companions 90 133 The benefit of Company 86 87 to 90 138 139 The great danger of evil Company to draw men to sin 9â— to 95. 133 to 135 to draw men to suffering 95 to 99 136 The Great advantage of good Company 98 to 101. 241 to 247 A mans Company will discover him 101 102 139 Christians should Company with them that are godly 109,110,140,141 because they are godly 116,117 Whether a Christian may not be more intimate with some godly Companions then others 119 Two Cautions about it 120,121 Christians should endeavour the spiritual good of their Companions 121 to 125,182 Saints may sometimes use but should not chuse the Company of sinners 109,110 Objections against it answered 124 to 128 Evil Company infectioâ—sâ— 156 157 Saints may be the better for evil Company when they are called to it 158 159 177 Wherein 179 to 182 Christians must guard their souls in evil Company 160,161 not needlesly expose themselves to sufferings 167 Saints must not disown Christ in any Company 172 to 175 Saints should endeavour the Conversion of sinners 182 183 How 183 to 189 By good Company pious souls have been confirmed 245 Erring Saints recovered ibid. Dull Christians quickened 246 Much sin prevented 248 Christians must watch themselves in good Company â—62 What sins Saints are most prone to in good Company 263 The Communion of Saints the most excellent Communion 236 250 257 Wherein the Communion of Saints consisteth 275 In a mutual communication of their gifts and graces ibid. In joyning in the Ordinances of God ibid. In serviceableness each to other 276 Wherein 280 to 287 A Contented spirit a great help to godlinessâ— 809 Nine Arguments to Contentedness in the most afflicted condition 813 Christians should receive Counsel 301 Penitent Christians should be comforted 283 It s a duty to be courteous 39 Courtesie is an ornament to Christianity 40,41 D EVery day to be begun with duty 496 Arguments to it ib. to 499 Christians should exercise themselves to godliness in their dealings with all men 5 It s a sign of hypocrisie to be careless in dealings with men 7 to 10 The credit of Religion is much engaged in our Dealings with others 11 to 14 In our dealings with others we must be righteous 15 Courteous 39 Meek 42 The Principle of a Christian in his dealings must be gracious 51 52 The end of a Christian in his dealings must be minded 53 54 A daily performance of holy duties to be minded 756 The necessity and benefit of daily duties 757 to 760 Christians should exercise themselves to Godliness on a dying bed 611,612 What it is to dye in the Lord. 612 Three things in it ib. In what respects Christ was obedient to the death 6â—5 Death is a serious thing 619 Death will try men 620 At death man is stated for eternity 622 Satan is busie to assault at death ib. 623 A death bed is a special season to honour God 624 It s the last opportunity 627 How Christians should honour God on a dying bed 628 In commending God and godliness to others 629 In commending our selves to God 633 In praying for our Relations the Church our Benefactours and our Enemies 634 to 637 In exercising grace on a dying bed 637 What graces Saints should especially exercise on a dying bed Faith Courage Repentance Charity Patience 637 to 647 Our whole life should be a preparation for Death 633 634 In what respects or how a Saint may dye with comfort 658 to 662 Meditation of death a special help to holiness 745 to 753 The great mischif of discontent 811 812 E CHristians must spiritualize earthly things 372,373 Several examples hereof 374 to 380 The earth teacheth man four lessons 457 Earthly things unsutable unsatisfying vexatious deceitful and uncertain 828 to 840 Ejaculations profitable 435 Christians must look to their ends in their actions 53 54 Frequent Examination of our selves and our ways a duty 523 786 The great advantage thereof 524 to 727.781 to 786 Examples helpful to encourage us heaven-ward 841 F FAith necessary if we would exercise our selves unto godliness 706 The excellency of Faith 707 Faith destroyeth sin 708 Overcometh the world 712 Faith overcometh the affrightments of the World 713 714 Faith overcometh the allurements of the world 716 717 Faith enableth to overcome Satan 720 the flesh 722 Faith deriveth grace from Christ. 724 Faith sets all other graces at work 725 Faith makes Ordinances profitable 727 Nine Questions to them that neglect Family duties 508 to 511 Fear sinful when 179 There can be no true Friendship betwixt a godly and a wicked man 105 to 108 Who is thy best friend 303 345 G SEtting God always before our eyes a great help to godliness 729 to 737 The knowledge of God a great help to holiness 801 to 809 Gods Omniscience 493 494 Gods Patience Vide Patience Gods word Vide word Means whereby Christians may exercise themselves to Godliness 695. Vide Means Godliness the most excellent Calling 844 The most honourable ib. The most comfortable 849 The most profitable Calling 858 Twelve serious thoughts to quicken all to Exercise themselves to Godliness Vide Epistle to the Reader H THe heart the great work-house of thoughts words and actions 698 The necessity of a new heart in all that would make religion their business 699 700 The heart of man backward to good 255 prone to evil 364 must be watched 369 Holiness is honourable 844 Humility an help to holiness 792 The Excellency of humility 793 794 Vnrighteousness a sign of Hypocrisie 7 8 I THe evil of Idleness 820 The great mischief of Ignorance 806 The Ignorant should be instructed 280 281 A serious consideration of the day of judgement a special help to godliness 765 Dreadfulness of the day of judgement to wicked men 767 776 The day of judgement will be comfortable to Saints 772 Their godliness will be mentioned ibid. Their names vindicated 773 Persons publiquely acquitted ib. Their happiness will be perfected 774 Justice to what resembled 39
in the everlasting Covenant wherein is set forth the Nature Conditions and Excellencies of it and how a sinner should do to enter into it and the danger of refusing this Covenant Reâ—ation Also the Treasures of Grace Blessings Comforts Promises and Priviledges that are comprised in the covenant of Gods free and rich mercy made in Jesus Christ with Beleivers By Obadiaâ— Sedgwick B. D. The Parly of Beasts or Morphandra Queen of the inchanted Island with Reflexes upon the present state of most Countries in Christendom By Iames Howel Esq The dead Saint speaking to Saints and Sinners livingâ— in several Treatises viz. The fulness and greatest evil that is in sin on 2 Sam. 24. 10. The love of Christ to his Spouse on Cant. 4. 9. Nature and Royalties of Faith on Iohn 1. 15. The slowness of heart to believe on Iohn 1. 50. The causes signs and cure of Hypocrisie with motives and helps to sincerity on Isa. 58â— 2. The wonderful workings of God for his Church and his people on Exod. 15â— 11. Never before published By Boltâ—â—â— D D. Quarto's AN Expositâ—on upon the nineteen last Chapters of Ezekiel By Will. Gâ—eenhil An Exposition on the first eighteen verses of Iohn By I. Arrowsmith An exposition on the book of Canticles By R. Robotham A Treatise shâ—wing the right ordering of the Bee By Sam. Purchas An Exposition on the 15 16 17. Chap. of Iob By I. Caryll An Exhortation from the Churches of Bohemia to the Church of England By Iohn Amos Comenius The Plain Doctrine of the Justification of a sinner in the sight of God justified by the God of truth in his holy Word and the Cloud of Witneâ—â—es in all ages By Charles Chauncy of New England The whole Tryal of the Marquiss of Arguile An Exposition upon the 4. Chap. of the 2. Epist. to the Corâ—nthians By R. Sâ—bbs Comfortable Sermons on Psalm 24â— Preached before the Lady Elizabeth her Grace By Daniel Dyke B. D. God save the King in a Sermon preached the day after his Majesty came into Londonâ— by Anth. Walker Preacher of the Gospel An Antidote against Anabaptism wherein the baptizing Infants taking Tythes c are fâ—lly vindicated by Aylmor Haughton The Conversation as heavenly and as natural in two Treatises by D. Stoughton Jesus Christ the mystical or Gospel Sun sometimes seemingly Eclipsed yet never going gown from his people opened in a Sermon at Pauls Church before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor Aldermenâ— c. March 28. 1652. the day before the lâ—â—e Solar Eclipse by Fulk Beller M. A. A Sermon Preached before the Honourable House of Commons at their late Monethly Fast being on Wednesday Iune 30. 1647. by Nath. Ward A Declaration of the Faith and Order owned and practised in the Congregational Churches in England agreed upon consented unto by their Elders Messengers in their meeting at the Savoy Oct. 12. 1658. Mesolabium Architectonicum that is a most rare and singular Instrument for the easie speedy and most certain measuring of Plaâ—ns and Solids by the foot invented long since by Mr. Tho. Bedwel Esq A Changlâ—ng no company for lovers of Loyalty or the Subjects Lesson in point of sacred submission to and humble compliance with God and the King The beauty of Magistracy in an Expositioo of the 82. Psalm where is set forth the Necessity Utility Dignity Duty and Morâ—lity of Magistrates by the labours of Tho Hall B. D. and Pastor of Kings Norton and George Swinock M. A. and Pastor of Great Kimbel Large Octavo's FOur profitable Treatises very useful for Christian practice viz. The killing power of the Law the spirâ—tual watch the New Birth of the Sabbath by the reverenâ— Fenneâ—â— late Minister of Rotchford in Essex Enchirid on Iudlâ—um or Iehoshaphats charge to his Judges together with the Catastrophe Magnatum or King Davids lamentâ—tâ—on at Prince Abners Incinerationâ— by Iames Livesey Minister of the Gospel at Atherton The greatest loss upon Mat. 15 26 by the same â—uthor Meditations Divine and Moral by Henry Tabb M. A. The Psalms of K. Davâ—d translated by K. Iames. Willâ—ul impenitency the greatest Self-murther by that able faithful and laborious Minister of Jesus Christ Mr. W. Fenner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Almost Christian discovered or the False professor tryed and cast by Matthew Mead. Spiritual Wisdom improved against Temptation by the same Author Pharonnida an Heroick Poem by VVill. Chamberlain The good old way of Perkins improved in a plain Exposition of Perkins Catechism by C. Broxholme A Treatise of Self-denial with the Necessity and Excellency of it by Thâ—â—philuâ— Polwheele The Hippocrâ—tes Ladder by John Sheffield The Christian compleatly armed by R. Robinson A practical discourse of prayer wherein is handled the nature and duty of prayer by T. Câ—bbet The Righteoâ—s mans tower by Ier. Dike Mount Ebal levelled or a redemption from the â—urse by El. Wales with Mr. Calamies Epistle Tentations their nature danger cure to which is added his Remains by R. Capel A Wedding-Ring fit for the finger â—ogether with the Non-such Professor by W. Secker The History of the Turkish Wars in Hungary Transilvania Austria Silesia and other Provinces of the German Empire from the first invasion of Amurath the second Anno. 1432. to this present year 1664. to which is prefixed a shorâ— discourse of the state and government of the said Provinces The spiritual taste described and a glimpse of Christ discovered in two parts grounded on Psalm 34. 8. and Mal. 4. 2. by Râ—b Dingley M. A. Small Octavo's CAtechizing Gods Ordinance in sundry Sermons by Mr. Zach. Crosâ—on A bridle for the tongue or a â—â—eatise of ten sins of the tongue viz. Cursing Swearing Slandering Scoffing Filthy Speaking Flattering Censuring Murmuring Lying and Boasting on Iam. â— 26. by W. Gearing The Pastor and the Clerk or a debate real concerning Infant Baptism by Iohn Ellis Habakkâ—k's prayer applied to the Churches present occasions on Hab. 3. 2. and Christs counsel to the Church of Philadelphia on Rev. 3. 11. by Sam. Balmford The Rudiments of Grammar The Rules composed in English verse for the great benefit and delight of young beginners by Iames Shirley The Ladies Dispensatory containing the Natures Vertues and Qualities of Herbs and Simples useful in Physick reduced into a methodical order for their more ready use in any sickness or other accident of the body The godly mans Ark in the day of his distress discovered in divers Sermons the first of which was preached at the Funeral of Mrs. Elizabeth Moor. Whereunto is annexed Mrs. Elizabeth Moors Evidences for Heaven composed and collected by her in the time of her health â—or her comfort in the â—ime of sickness by E. Calamy B. D. The Gale of Opportunity and the beloved Disciple by Thomas Froysal Sion in the house of mourning because of sin and suffering being an Exposition on the 5. Chap. of the Lamentations by D. S. Moses unvailed or those figures which served unto the pattern and shadow of