thought is as the children of Israel in Egypt destined to death before it is brought forth or persecuted by the Dragon as soon as born or cut off in the Cradle as the children of Bethlehem by Herod when they are spared that deal treacherously they are planted yea take root they grow yea they bring forth as Jeremy complaines Jer. 12. 1 2. in another case Oh what a piece is this heart of man Oh what a piece of carrion which hath alwaies such a swarm of flies humming about fastening and blowing on it and what a breed and nest of Vermine that are bred in it and at last devour it I have read of a poor Monk who rebuking a rich Prelate was bidden in scorne go kill his lice who answered boldly My Lord I have killed mine but yours will kill you The poor mans lice and Vermine are not so dangerous to the body as the rich proud and wicked mans are to his soul What a deal of trash and beggery do we find when we rave into an old ruinous house but worse when we come to rave into an old rotten heart We look sometimes with disdaine upon a Beggars garment past mending where is patch upon patch of twenty severall colours and pieces look in and thou wilt find a more displeasing sight The comparison is not so homely as home and true In a fair clear River when we drain it what mud and Vermin at the bottom do we spie such is thy heart or when we scour an old deep pond It was an Herculean labour to cleanse the Augaean Stable not cleansed of seven years before he turned in a River to cleanse it What labour then will it cost to cleanse thy heart not cleansed may be of twenty or thirty yeares need we had to turn in the whole stream of the bloud of Christ the upper springs of the spirit of grace all the conduits of Scripture arguments the lower springs and all the water the standing ponds of diligence repentance endeavour and circumspectnesse can procure The lower we dig as for water so for springs of sinne the faster the water comes in The best eye having the help of the best perspective upon the fairest prospect and in the clearest summers day sees much but not the thousandth part of heaven or earth nor we of sin They say much of the earth is unknown to be sure much of hell in thy heart is If there be any part of an unknown world yet undiscovered I am sure there is a great part of an unknown world yet undiscovered in thy heart It is long ere a stranger can know all the streets lanes and allies in the City but thou wilt never know all the windings and turnings of thy heart In a great house sometimes at first a stranger looseth himself but in the heart to the last it is strange if the owner hath not been lost My heart saith Bernard is like the deep sea in which are creeping things and that without number A flint it is which though cold and dark hath seeds of fire and a thousand sparks lodged in it if you strike and break it the seeds of all sin are there even of the sin against the holy Ghost Noahs Ark was a great Microcosme in which to the wonder of all the world the species of all the creatures were contained Man is said to be a Microcosme And if the Apostle call that little member the tongue a Microcosme Jam. 3. 6. a little world of sin what is the heart but a great one The opening of the heart is like the fourth Rev. 6. 8. seal opened when the pale horse appear'd death and hell followed or like the opening of the bottomlesse pit rather where what darknesse Rev. 6. 2. and smoak issued and in them a world of horrid multiformed Monsters or Locusts How sad a judgment was that threatned to Babylon Esa 13. 19 20 21. and Esa 34. 12 13 14. where it is said that Ziim Iim the Satyrs wild beasts should dance there and the screetch Owl and nettles and brambles should be where was once the glory of Kingdomes Josephus tells how the Jewes took on and lamented when their Temple was polluted twice under Antiochus first with swines flesh offered and a second time under Herod who caused the Roman Eagle to be set over the porch Many a man lost Bel. Jud. l. 1. c. 21. his life in that quarrell whetted on by the indignation of the sight It grieves us to see the wayes of Zion mourn and fairest Churches to be turned into stables But how should we mourn and be transported with indignation to see the soul the onely spirituall and holy Temple of God defiled Many have made Epitaphs and funerall Monuments upon great men good and bad and have been able to give them all their Titles and full Characters and to say Here lies such a one None is able to make the hearts Epitaph and to say what lies there Unlesse we shall write as of Pope Sixtus the Fourth Hic scelus omne simul clauditur vitium All Sin and Vice Here buried lies Or that like it of Pope Clement the 8th Urna brevis vitium claudit omne scelus A world of Sin Lies hid within Or this of a mean Poet. Under this stone of flesh and bone Lies more of sin then can come in my narrow Verse Here ly more lusts Then earth hath dusts and much more hell then you can tell or I rehearse Here lies the whole Body of death which hath more members then this naturall body hath members or hairs Physitians and Surgeons have a thousand times raved into the bodies of men and yet are to learn all the joints limbs ligatures nerves arteries vessels and passages in this narrow body of flesh and bone what an endlesse labour is it to dissect and anatomize the heart The great Volumes of Arts and sciences have been Epitomized and the whole body or summe of Divinity hath been often contracted into a narrow compasse or Systeme but the body of sin in the heart is not to be contracted or summed up Some learned men of old and late have made Catalogues of the noted Errors and Heresies that have troubled the whole Church from the beginning but none dare undertake to enumerate and catalogue the errors and enormities of one poor single heart Here lies the killing stone or secret Ulcer as when the body is opened you see all Here is the root of the Caprificus wild fig or wild Ivy which like that Leprosie in Leviticus is not to be stayed but house and all Lev. 14. 45. must be pul'd down to kill it You cut down the branches yet it growes you cut the body yet it growes you cut it to the very hard root yet it growes you pick out the root as long as ever you can come at it yet it growes the house must be pul'd down and then it dies Or as it is with an
evil thought The evil thought is the Devils Dam that the Succubus the Devil the Incubus It is the bed in which Satan lodgeth in which his brats are conceived and born The hot Sand in which this Ostridge layes and leaves his eggs which will hatch and bring forth of themselves Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when perfected bringeth forth death Jam. 1. 13. The evil thought is the Prima mater or materia Prima the first mother or matter of all sin capable of every form of evil It is the little end of the wedge which entring makes way for the great to follow The little Boy which let in at the window sets the doores wide open for all the greater Theeves to enter and carry all away The Devil is more modest or too much a serpent to say at first Curse God and dy Blaspheme cast thy selfe down headlong give me thy soule commit adultery and give thy self over to all uncleanness with Greedinesse he hath learnt a better and surer way he useth Art method Stratagems And as Pompey when he had in vain assaulted a City and could not take it by force devised this Stratagem In way of agreement he told them he would leave the siege and make peace with them onely desired he might leave a few weak and sick souldiers among them to be cured They let in when the City was secure let in Pompey's army So Satan desires but a look or a wanton thought at first he needes no more All the sin that is in the world had his rise from a thought all Jeroboams sin who did evil and made Israel to sin began here Jeroboam said in his heart If the 1 King 12. 26 people go up to Jerusalem to worship c. then shall the Kingdome return from me to the house of David c. all Judas his sin began in a thought yea Adams first sin and Eves began in a thought Satans temptation begat a thought that a look that a liking that a lusting that a tasting that enticing her husband that fellowship in sin that running from God that denying or defending the fact thence a floud of Belial and wickednesse which hath drowned the whole world a floud before the floud a floud more dreadfull and general then Noah's floud was that drowned bodyes this soules There eight escaped here not one That lasted about thirteen moneths then dryed up This continues to this day in its height Even from Adams fall to this day every Imagination of man is evil and onely evil continually Gen. 6. 5. And which is saddest of all This floud had its head in Paradise and from thence is divided into severall streames compassing the whole earth What is unbeliefe made up of but a heap of doubting and distrustfull thoughts What is Atheism but vile impious thoughts condensed What is malice but mischievous thoughts boyled up to a consistence The whole earth was once well watered by a little cloud no bigger then the palm of a mans hand The main Sea is made up of Rivers they of lesse springs they of many single drops multiplyed and those drops bred of a thin vapour which you would think had nothing in it So that a thin vapor is great grand mother to the Ocean and a thin slender thought to the greatest sin Cogitatio prava delectationem parit delectatio consensum consensus actionem actio cousuetudinem consuetudo necessitatem necessitas mortem An evil thought saith Bernard begets delight delight consent consent action an act a custome custome a necessity necessity destruction Reas 2. But though the evil thought be the original of sin yet it stayes not there but soon proceedeth to more ungodlinesse and frets like a Gangrene How great an Ilias malorum or volume of evils may be contained in a Nutshell Behold how great a matter a little fire consumeth From this one son of the Bond-woman proceed twelve Princes of darknesse Mar. 7. 21. After the evil thought follow adulteryes fornications murders thefts covetousnesse wickednesse deceit lasciviousnesse an evil eye Blasphemy pride foolishnesse One fly-blow taints the whole flesh The Leprosie taking a thread overspreads the whole piece of cloth warp and woofe or taking a stone overruns all the wall and fabrick of the house The waters of the sanctuary Ezek. 47. 3 4. rise not so fast as the flouds of ungodlinesse from the ancles at first to the knees then to the loynes then to the neck then over head and eares You may observe how Rom. 1. 21. vain Imaginations leade to uncleannesse v. 24. Uncleannesse to Vile affections v. 26. Vile affections soon grow up to a reprobate sense and then it follows they were filled with all unrighteousnesse v. 29 30 c. where a bead roll of above twenty sins comes trayling after And Eph. 4. 18 19. you may observe with what speed and increase this evil weed growes The thin vapor presently became a drop The drop made the spring the spring a River the River a Sea This I say that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles in the vanity of their mindes having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the Ignorance that is in them because of the blindnesse of their hearts who being past feeling have given themselves over to lasciviousnesse to work all uncleannesse with greedinesse Here is first the seed then the root then the blade then the ear then the full corn in the ear then there wants nothing but a sickle to cut down all and a fire to burn it Observe here the linkes of the chaines of darknesse the gradation of sin and the descent into Hell The first head of the lake of Hell is vanity of mind that overflowes the whole understanding and darkens it then followes alienation of affection then blindnesse or hardnesse of heart that begets Insensiblenesse unsensiblenesse of sin begets desperatenesse and unsensiblenesse of danger desperatenesse begets Impudence Impudence delight delight Insatiablenesse and thus thrusts into the midst of Hell and fixeth a gulf that there is no coming back See how much mischief ariseth from an evil thought It was a strange assertion of the Philosopher that the world was made up of Atoms but I may safely say the whole world of sin in our hearts and lives is made up of these Atoms of evil thoughts united Out of nine single figures the greatest numbers in Arithmetick are made up And out of four and twenty letters all the words and languages in the world are made so of a few evil thoughts all evil actions So that all sin may be said to be virtualiter vitialiter potius virtually or rather vitially in the evil thought comprehended and contained Reas 3. It is by the ill thought onely that the heart is defiled Mat. 15. 19. out of the heart proceed evil thoughts saith our Saviour and these
Inheritance there and no thoughts there How happy a man was David who could say I set the Lord always before me he is at Psal 16. 8. my right hand therefore I shall not be moved q. d. He is neither our of sight nor out of mind to me How happy againe was he who could say How precious are thy thoughts to Psal 139. 17 18. me O God! how great is the sum of them if I should count them they are more in number then the sands How many of us may say how strange and unwelcome to us are the thoughts of thee O God how small the sum of them if I should count them they are fewer in number then the sand in the empty part of the Hour-glasse where there may be found a few scattering dusts when my thoughts of the world are like the whole measure of the sand run out into the lower part of the glasse Againe he saith when I awake I am still with Ibid. thee as if he should say Lord I have not onely remembred thee in my bed and meditated on thee in the night watches Psal 63. 6. But the first and last thing I do is while I am waking to be with thee thinking of thee talking to thee It would trouble me if I did not think of thee in sleep if then I could think of any thing for even when I sleep thou art with me Thou compassest my path and my bed and thy thoughts are to me thoughts of peace all the night long But as soon as I awake I am with thee as soon as I come to my self and a throng of thoughts come pressing to the door of my heart I say to the rest stand by let first the thoughts of God come in and if there be another of his Companions let him come in so all the day let my heart be taken up with entertaining these guests and when late and dark night comes I part not willingly with them till overcome with sleep I drop a sleep with one of these in my mind and when I awake I am at it again Oh happy he that could and happy we if we can say so We would account him a dry Preacher who cannot make a Sermon of an easie and copious Text him a mean Scholar who can make no discourse of an excellent an ordinary Theme and him a weak Lawyer sure who hath not a word to say in the clearest Cause A bad Stomack that must needs be which cannot pick out a handsom Dinner out of the Richest Feast And a Silly shiftlesse fellow he who could use no meanes were he in the Syrians Tents where there was Treasure to be had for carrying if he took none with him Oh! But there is no such Text Theme Cause no such Feast and Treasure as Communion with and Meditation of God is But what dry poor stomacklesse beggerly Christians are we that can think speak utter nothing pick out carry away nothing where there is such store Complain not oh weak Memory oh dull Invention But see and bewail it oh vile Worldly Heart oh base Carnall Affection Luther said he that had but one word of God to his Text and could not make a sermon of it would never make a good preacher Luth. Col. CHAP. VII Low Thoughts of God THE next failing towards God in having no Thoughts of him is the having of Low and too mean Thoughts of him This is the sin charged on the Gentiles who knew and acknowledged God but did not glorifie him as God nor were thankfull but became Rom. 1. 21. vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkned They did not rise up high enough from their dry speculations to a high admiration and holy adoration of him to glorifie him as God as so Great and Glorious a God This is next door to Atheism to think contemptibly of God It is almost all one to Deny or to Debase the Deity Princes hold them not onely their enemies who would depose them but such as will not give them their full and due titles they refuse their petitions if not presented in due style and forme Give unto the Lord the glory due to his name saith the Psalmist The first thing required Psal 29. 2. in him that cometh to God is to beleeve that he is and the second to beleeve that he is a rewarder of such as seeke him That man shall Heb. 11. 6. obscure and disparage and unsun the sun who shall make it but like the lesser stars and he doth blaspheme God as Rabshakeh who shall think God like other creatures or deities To whom will ye liken me Es 40. 18. 25. saith God To strike awe into his people and to whom am I equall to strike them into high and magnificent thoughts of him I am first and I am last and besides me there is no Saviour The Lord is very Es 44. 6. 8. 45. 5. Jealous in this respect of his imperiall Glory and dignity He will not give away of his Glory As he said I will be aut Cesar Es 42. 8. aut nullus either Cesar or nothing so the Lord saith aut Deus aut nullus aut Deus optimus maximus aut nullus Either I will be a great God or nothing Be still and Psal 46. 10. know saith he that I am God I will be exalted among the heathen I will be exalted in the earth Am I not a great King saith the Lord and shall not my name be great from the rising of the sun Therefore cursed is that Mal. 1. 8. 11. 14. deceiver that hath in his flock a male yet offereth to God a corrupt thing any slight service That which is sick and diseased that which is torn and distracted Offer such a sorry present to thy Prince will he accept it saith the Lord much to this purpose in Malachi As the highest honour the Holy Angels can give to God is to glorifie him by raising their thoughts so high that God is raised to the highest in their admirations and Praises And as in earth the highest honour the holiest Saint can put upon God when his heart is elevated and raised to a higher exalting and lifting up of God is in his thoughts Thence the Church Ex. 15. 2. Psal 34. 3. 90. 5. 107. 32. Psal 30. 1. 145. 1. 66. 17. 69. 30. saith sometimes I will exalt him Sometimes I will Extoll him Lift him up Magnifie him all which phrases denote the Souls high thoughts of God and raised affections towards him So on the other side the greatest indignity and dishonour we can put upon God is to have low and sordid thoughts of him Therefore are the wicked brought in speaking slightingly and disdainfully of him Who is the Almighty that we should know him what profit is it to us Job 21. 15. and 22. 17. to call on him Again they say to God Depart from us for what can the Almighty do
There do the damned gnaw their tongues for anguish and blaspheme the God of heaven out of despite And as it is the case of the damned who are past all hope of mercy so it is onely the case of such unhappy miscreants yet on earth to entertain such thoughts as are without God and without hope Either desperately siâ—â—ing while they open their mouth against heaven or sinfully despairing as wretched Spira who sometimes blasphemously wisht that he might be above God Such wish that there were no God no soul no Law to forbid sin no hell to punish sin no judgement day Heaven they give for lost mercy not to be obtained Gods wrath not to be appeased and his displeasure not to be indured and undergone They have despised mercy despighted grace rejected Christ resisted the holy Ghost as enemies they have carried themselves to God and as an enemy they look to find him Hence that hatred of God departure from him despaire of all indeavours a desperate saying to God Depart from us and at last which is the utmost which Satan can perswade or wish To curse God and die Oh the rage of man oh the malice of Satan oh the poyson of unbelief and despair what fire and brimstone comes out of this Etna Yet haply a right gracious heart may be assaulted with these fiery darts our Saviour himself to what was he sollicited Even to renounce God and to devote himself to Satan There is none of these tempâ—â—tions but are common to men But God is faithfull who will not suffer you to to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be 1 Cor. 10. 13. able to bear it as the Apostle saith The busie flies will be sometimes hovering and buzzing about the purest meat so doth this Beelzebub the God of flies as his name signifies seek to taint or terrify the purest heart with these injections these come hovering and fluttering about a godly heart as Abrahams birds but he riseth up and driveth theâ— away but they light and settle on a wicked heart as the birds on the Bakers head there the interpretation is sad and ominous Job was afraid least his sons though brought up religiously might curse God in their hearts He knew they durst not speak an ill word of God in his hearing nor think irreverently of God when they were to call upon him in prayer But how far they might forget themselves when they were warmed with good cheer and mirth this holy and jealous Father was much afraid therefore he sent and sanctified them and offered burnt offerings For Job said it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts Job 1. 5. Thoughts of this nature were darted into Jobs wives heart and took fire she was overcome by them and by her they were handed to her husband Curse God and die This old mischievous Engineer Satan will be casting these Squibs at us to try if they will either fire or fright us and these Granadoes he is often throwing into well fortified hearts knowing well that if they ly a while and break there they make bloudy execution but our wisdome is to catch these Granadoes before they break and settle and throw them back upon him then they will mischief him not us Or do as the Gardiner who espyeth the weeds springing up where he set good herbs who cries out I wonder how you come here I sowed better seeds here is no place for you what envious one hath sown these tares he plucks them up and his garden is kept clean I intended not to extenuate or excuse these blasphemous and cursed thoughts for they are the greatest sins the child of Beliall can conceive and travel with neither need I to aggravate them for they are the greatest trouble a child of God can be exposed to Yet are sometimes such thoughts darted in by Satan and words to like purpose are sometimes bolted out even from the child of God but it is when he is not himself but overclouded with passion overwhelmed with temptation or disordered by some violent disease which hath distempered not his faith onely but his reason But our comfort is God can distinguish between our diseases and our sins between our constant temper and a transient distemper between our voluntary transgressions and our involuntary and bewailed suffrings between Satans act and our passivenesse as he did between Josephs Mistresse tempting and Joseph resisting and slying Shee was looked upon as foully guilty as if the sin had been committed but he as innocent as if he had never been tempted Besides the Scripture saith There is pardon for Blasphemies and Blasphemers All sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven to men All passive or Maâ— 12. 31. involuntary Blasphemy this is not the Blaspheming of the Holy Ghost which is never forgiven for that is alwayes allowed voluntary willfull obstinate and unbewailed Paul had been a Blasphemer in his Ignorance and Peter a worse in his inconsideratnesse but both pardoned Paul because he knew not what he did Peter because he liked not what he did but repented of it Bernard saith Satan doth cast in Offert horribiliâ— de divinitate terribilia de fide mirabilia de fidei institutione et in alveolo ment is venenifer as ingerit potiones quas in consesssione evomere peccator oneratus exhorret thoughts horrible to think about God terrible things about faith and Scripture promises and casts in such poisonous potions into the soul that the burdened patient sick to death with them dare hardly venture to vomit up by a holy confession In the law there was a provision made that if fire did break out and catch thornes so that the stacks of corn or the standing corn or the field were consumed there with he that kindled the fire should be liable to make restitution Exod. 22. 6. The Lord doth know what an Incendiary Satan is and how that by his thornes or firebrands the stack and standing corn is set a fire the trouble is ours at present but the damage will be charged upon him Yet in this case our duty is to bestir our selves as fast as we can to quench this fire and preserve as much of the corn as we can by stopping the flames Or to do as Hezekiah did upon the receipt of that blasphemous letter humble thy self extraordinarily Rend thy clothes put on sackcloth go into the house of the Lord spread the railing letter before the Lord cry out this is a day of trouble indeed and of rebuke and blasphemy for the children are come to the birth and there is no strength to bring forth lift up thy own prayers call for help from others if so be that the Lord will hear all those railing blasphemies and reprove the words which he hath heard and put a hooke into the nostrils and a bridle into the Jaws of this infernall Sennacherib and cause him to
care is 1 Cor. 7. 32. This Câ—refullnesse is evil 1. When Inordinate 2. When Immoderate 1. When Inordinate when we care for the body more then the soul when more for what we shall eat drink and how we shall live then how we shall be saved When we are more carefull of our own things then of the things of the Lord When we take more care to double our state and stock then to double our Talent These are Inordinate Cares 2. When Immoderate Luke 21. 34. Take heed your hearts be not overcharged with surfeiting and drunkennesse and cares of this life Our Saviour ranks immoderate care with immoderate eating and drinking Eating is good and drinking good and necessary when with moderation so of care we may say Modicum non nocet But immoderate eating is surfeiting and immoderate drinking is drunkennesse and immoderate care is as bad as either And Immoderate they are 1. When Solicitudo est aegritudo animi cum cogitatione Tully the heart is oppressed and overloaden with them In that place last named Luke 21. 34. First Let not them come near your heart Secondly Let not your heart have more than you can well bear a little meat and drink lightens and refresheth the body so moderate care is good but when one hath loaded his stomack with meat and hath more drink than he can bear What is he fit for so is the man overloaden with cares 2. When they distract and divide the mind hinder our close and individed cleaving to the Lord 1 Cor. 7. 35. And when they get between God and us that his service is neglected The farm oxen marchandise and family businesses following marririage take up the man that he hath no leisure to attend matters of soul-concernment 3. When they are distrustful cares tending to damp Faith and to weaken duties but so much care as sets Faith and prayer awork are good cares Melanchthon said his cares taught him to pray Si non curarem non orarem No care no prayer A due measure of care to the soul is like water to the mill so much as drives it about doth well but when flouds of water come down so great that they cannot passe that the Mill stands with a back water it is ill so when care drives prayer about it is well when it makes prayer stand still it is ill 4. When they are extended beyond their bounds Care is but for the present as the Manna for the day if it be kept till the morrow it stinketh Care not for the future Let the morrow care for it self Mat. 6. 34. The evil of them appeareth 1. In their Causes 2. Properties 3. Effects 1. The chief Causes and Roots whence they spring are 1. Diffidence and distrust or ignorance of the Care and Providence of God whence such say Care I must for I have none to care for me They consider not Gods care of them therefore cry out as they Mar. 4. 38. Carest thou not we perish So Luke 10. 41. Carest thou not that I am left alone to look after all Where our care ends Gods begins and when we think his ends there must ours needs begin 2. They spring from an Over-high and false opinion of some Excellency in outward things The â—ich mans riches are his Castle men are apt to think had they so much they might then sing a Requiem to their souls and then they were out of the fear of Evil Hab. 2. 9. 2. Their Properties are evill 1. Because senselesse absurd and irrationall We take Gods work out of his hand where it is much better 1 Pet. 5. 7. As if a Child of seven years age should say to his Father let me mannage the businesse of the Family Poor Child Thy shoulders are not for such burthens 2. They are needlesse your heavenly Father doth it for you Mat. 6. 3. Fruitlesse you cannot with all your care and skill add a cue or doit to your state or a cubit or inch to your stature Mat. 6. 27. 4. Endlesse Life hath an end and Riches have an end onely Cares have no end The rich man had as many cares when his riches increased most as when he had lesse The ten thousand pound man hath more cares then the ten pound man Eccl. 4. 8. There is one alone and there is not a second yea he hath neither child nor brother yet is there no end of all his labour nor is his eye satisfyed with riches neither saith he for whom do I labour and bereave my soul of good This is Vanity and a sore evil Unus Pellaeo juveni non sufficit Orbis All the World can stand in a mans heart and he desire never the lesse 5. They are easelesse and restlesse breaking the sleep Eccles 5. 12. They cause a continual head-ach or heart-ach or are like those wormes bred in children which gnaw and torture them make them lose their fresh colour look like earth smell like earth they start in their sleep and rest unquietly Old age is more troubled with these wormes than childhood with the former and more die of these than of them 6. But they are not faultlesse and sinlesse for consider the Effects 1. What a strange alteration they make in man 1. They turn man into a clod or stone as some springs and grounds turn wood into stone These cares turn man into stone so was Nabal 2. They turn man into a serpent who lives on the dust goeth on his belly and cleaveth to the ground these bring the serpents curse on the soul 3. Turns a Christian into an heathen Mat. 6. 32. after these things the heathens seek and if you take not heed will turn thy family into an heathen family where is no care of the worship and service of God 4. At best turn a Christian into a Meteor Luke 12. 29. Who hangs between heaven and earth and is never like to get higher He hath somewhat of heaven in his Conscience more of earth in his Affection therefore at last fals down to earth in his Conversation Earth being the predominate part 2. These destroy the life of Faith and love whereby we should cleave to God without distraction 1 Cor. 7. 35. 3. These keep from duties Luke 14. The farm and merchandize keep from the Lords supper The great husband hath devoured the good Christian 4. These distract in duty Martha could not stay by it when our Saviour was speaking Luke 10. 42. These hinder our attending on a duty and watching in it 5. These choak Grace and all good motions Mat. 13. as the thornes choak the seed The mines of gold and silver are noted to be in the barrenest earth where these cares are there is greatest barrennesse of grace The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saint signifies an unearthly man therefore as some observe 6. These keep out and banish Soul-peace Phil. 4. 6 7. Be carefull for nothing c. And the peace of God which passeth understanding shall guarde your
hearts The peace of God and evidence of his love and assurance of salvation was never yet given nor shall be to an earth-worm whose heart is eaten up with worldly cares This hidden Manna is onely put into a golden not earthen pot 7. These ever unfit for death Luke 21. 34. Let not your hearts be overcharged with surfeting and drunkennesse and cares of this life least that day overtake you as a snare As one being drunken or one sick of a surfet is unfit for work or in an ill case to die such is the man of cares at all times Death comes to him as a snare Either he dies suddenly before he expects as Luke 12. That rich fool died suddenly or he ever dies unpreparedly which is worse Nabal died not 1 Sam. 25. 37 38. suddenly but though he lay ten dayes sick he died unpreparedly he lay like a block or stone and died miserably Before his death earth was turned into earth and before his buriall his heart was covered with a stone As Archimedes was busie in drawing his lines when the City was taken and he knockt down before he knew who hurt him So doth the Rich man fade away in his waies he Jam. 1. 11. Jer. 17. 11. dies in the midst of his dayes and in the midst of his buildings and businesses and in the end shall be a fool That is all his Monument Dives vixit stultus obiit He gathered wealth but died a fool But because we are all so subject to these thoughts and hardly perswaded out of them they have so much to say for themselves I shall 1. Remove the objections by which they are upheld 2. Prescribe certain remedies Obj. Oh but yet the world is hard and it is not Talk will pay Rent Taxes bring the Year about we must take care Ans Use a moderate providentiall carefulnesse in Gods name and spare not but then commit thy way to God 2. Is the world hard and is not thy heart harder in which all the world is crouded Eccl. 3. 11. It is this makes thee so full of cares 3. And is not heaven hard too why hast thou not some more such cares here quit thy self as a man offer violence As the worldling hath the world set in his heart so hath the godly heaven set in his heart therefore his cares thoughts and discourse are all of heaven Obj. But I am poor and this doctrine is for the Rich they need not I must care Ans Say with David Psal 40. 17. I am poor and needy yet the Lord thinketh on me The Lord provideth for the poor 2. The rich and poor meet together the Lord is the maker and careth for both Prov. 22. 2. Obj. A poor widow God help me and full of cares Ans The Lord cals himself The God of the Widow Psal 68. 5. hath an especiall care and gives speciall charge about them Exod. 22. 22 23 24. In the time of famine Elias the Prophet was sent onely to a Widow to relieve her Ob. But I have a many fatherlesse Children Ans Psal 68. 5. The Lord is the Father of the fatherlesse and Jer. 49. 11. he bids thee leave thy fatherlesse children with him and be they many of few cannot God provide for many as well as few Num. 11. Must it be marvelous in Gods eyes because it is marvelous in ours Ob. I have but a little left I have lived to make a hand of all R. Yet may the Lord give his blessing to that little in the Cruse that it may suffice to bring thee to thy journeyes end Ob. But which is worse I am in debt too Ans Yet distrust not but make thy case known to God by supplication and prayer and to the people of God as did that poor widow of the Godly Prophet 2 Kings 4. 1 2. Who was left in straites yet not left in her straites Distressed not forsaken Ob. I am a poor servant Ans So was Joseph formerly God setteth up the poor from the dunghill and maketh them Princes Better is the poor servant at the last then the Prince born and will not change states with him Out of poverty he comes to rise whereas he that is born to a Kingdom comes to poverty Eccles 4. 13 14. Ob. But I have nothing in the world to begin the world withall R. Yet a diligent hand and depending Prov. 10. 5. Gen. 32. 10. heart may make rich Jacob went out with his staffe in his hand and returned full of Cattel and stock and store of riches how many men at present and in former times have risen to the greatest States and highest Honours in the City that came hither in leathren breeches and clouted shoes like Gibeonites that have afterwards like Mordecai changed their sackcloth into blue and purple and scarlet and chaines of gold Ob. But if I had a little more I should then be content Ans Thou hast a deceitfull heart of thine own which will never be content 2. Didst thou never say so before when thou wast little in thine own eyes that if God would give so much as now thou hast thou wouldest aske no more 3. Crescit amor nummi quantum ipsa pecunia crescit He that loveth silver shall never be satisfied with silver Eccle. 5. 11 12. The desires are enlarged as hell Hab. 2. why was not he content of whom Solomon speakes Eccle. 4. 8. who had neither son nor brother no end of riches and yet no end of his labours Obj. The most plausible plea of all is had I more I might do more good Ans Thou mightest do more haply but wouldest do lesse The heart and the price never meet in a fooles hand will and power seldome in a wise mans What good did he Eccle. 4. 8. or he in Luk. 12. Few rich men rich in grace or good workes The lower vines give sweeter fruites then the higher cedars The lower vallies are alway more fruitfull then the loftier hills The lesser springs and brookes yeeld many a wholsomer draught then the swelling ocean Twelve pence comes more hardly out of the bag full cramd then five shillings out of a bag half empty The poor widow gave more then all the rich The rich have more the poor love more They spend more wastfully These give more cheerfully The 1 King 17. poor widow could find in her heart to give a bit of her last peece of bread to the Prophet in a time of extream famine and could spare it out of her own belly rather then he should want when that rich miser 1 Sam. 25. Nabal who knew no end of his riches could not part with bread or cheese to David in a time of plenty and in a day of feasting In our late collections for the distresâ—ed Protestants in Piedmont it was observed the rich Aldermens fellows came not off so liberally in their contributions as some meaner Godly persons 2. For remedies 1. Study beleeve and rely upon Gods
but his thoughts as busie and working as all the week besides as the Miller can set his mill a going and himself stand still and the horseman sets his horse a going when he sits all the while so is the mind grinding and travelling when the man sits still 6. Between provision for life and provision for death A surfeit of cares taken by overheating our selves in seeking the things of this life makes a sad and untimely death and is as bad as a surfeit of eating and drinking Lu. 21. 34. therefore joyned by our Saviour Take heed least at any time your hearts be surcharged with surfeiting or drunkennesse and cares of this world least that day overtake you as a snare 7. Between getting and giving The Godly houswife Pro. 31. hath two handes one to get another to give she stretcheth out her hand to the poor and reckons what is well laid out is better then ill laid up 14. These alway divide between the soul and grace for if they divide between the body and health rest and sleep the mind and content between labour and delight between the man and his duty industry and piety diâ—igence and dependance c. then sure between the soul and grace Ever those grounds are barren where are the mines of gold silver and other mettalls those hearts to be sure are most barren of grace where is most of worldly mindednesse It is hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdome of God it is impossible for such as trust in riches as our Saviour expounds himself Grace and poverty usually go together grace and riches rarely grace and carefullnesse never God and mammon cannot be served The one is despised where the other is cleaved to whether of the two soever it is The God the world is as great an enemy to grace and groweth in it as the God of the world Pius Quintus said when he was first a Priest Cum essem religiosus sperabam de salute Cardinalis factus extimâ—i Pontisex creatus pene dâ—speâ—o he had good hopes of salvation when a Cardinall he much feared but when he came to be Pope he then despaired 15. If they divide the soul and grace then they must needs divide between the soul and communion with God how can these rejoyce in God How can the hypocrite hope when God taketh away his soul though he hath gained can he delight himself in the Almighty He never could in all his life He cannot joy in God who is joyned Job 27. 8 9. to mammon 16. Then of necessity they must divide between the soul and salvation Their end is destruction who mind earthly things Phil. 3. 19. as Shimei lost his life by seeking his servants while he went beyond the bounds of his confinement 17. Lastly which is his greatest affliction but the righteous and most just judgment of God these cares are a meanes not onely to divide between us and joy and us and God but between us and enjoying between endeavours and successe God would give more and sooner if we were lesse eager If the child aske mannerly and fairly the father gives if eagerly then you shall stay a while we tell him The Lord giveth rest to his beloved when Psal 127. 2. others rise up early and sit up late and eat the bread of sorrowes Care will saith God Care shall self do self have self serve self save The race is not to the swift Is it Eccle. 9. 11. Hab. 2. 13. Hos 8. 7. Malach. 1. 4. Hagge 1. 7. 8. 9. Pro. 11. 24. not of the Lord of hosts that men labour as in the fire yet weary themselves for very vanity They sow the wind and reap the blasting east wind They build God pulls down They sow much reap little gather much and it is put into a bag of holes Covetousnesse brings home nothing but poverty alwayes spare and alwayes bare Besides that God bloweth upon his soul it prospers not he blasteth his labours that he comes not on God pulls down such as he did Nebuchadnezzar till he come to know that the heavens do rule In returning and rest shall ye be safe saith the Lord in quietnesse confidence and dependence ye shall have rest no saith unbelief we will shift for our selves no we will flie upon horses from poverty therefore Es 30. 16. 17. shall ye flie and we will ride after the world upon the swift therefore they that pursue you shall be swift cares torments and wants shall pursue and overtake you How much happier is the beleever who hath the promises of this life as well at that to come therefore doth his soul dwell at ease 1 Tim. 4. 8. Psal 25. 13. casting his cares on his heavenly father and he sits still as Ruth and goes about her own businesse while Boaz is taking thought for Ruth 3. 18. her The righteous is recompensed upon earth he cleaves to the Lord without separation Pro. 11. 31. and attends upon him without distraction Oh how admirable are the effects and how sweet the fruit of faith that uniting grace Which not onely unites the soul to God the heart and love to Christ the desires and hopes to heaven but sweetly joynes and reconciles those which this carefullnesse separates It gives to every one his due children family friendes poor to the body rest to the eyes sleep to the mind content sweetly joynes labour and delight diligence and dependance industry and piety providence and providence soul carefullnesse with moderate worldly carefullnesse It joynes duties holy duties with endeavors the heart with duties It makes the Generall and particular calling go hand in hand together and makes provision for life give way to preparation makeing for death and by the blessing of God hath his successe and expectation joyned to his endeavors and undertakings Lastly to make an end for I am weary and weary at my heart of all these evill thoughts and would fain come to see an end of them Yea I may say as Rebekah weary of my self because of these daughters of Heth Gen. 27. 46. There is a company of vain thoughts which we are to beware of I hate vain thoughts said holy David And Psal 119. 119. the Lords command is to wash the heart so clean that a vain thought may not lodge in Jer. 4. 14. it The vain thought is a sad but common disease morbus naturae morbus gratiae the disease of nature and the disease of grace too The vain thought is a fit bait for Satan to nibble at as a whale or Shoale of Herrings make sport with an empty vessel so Satan to with a light futilous frivolous and empty mind Vain thoughts make the mind as the ship without Ballast ankers and Pilot to be tost upon the waves and driven without stay before the windes as children play with a feather or run after an empty hoop loosed from the vessel and drive it before them till they
thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks and look well in the Hebrew set thy heart unto it to thy herd And I may say as the Apostle 1 Cor. 9. 9 10. Doth God take care for oxen and sheep or doth he speak this altogether for our sakes may I not say rather be diligent to know the state of thy heart and of that flock of thoughts which is a greater businesse to look well too then to keep a flock of sheep or herd of swine A shame it is for man to look after every thing and not himself to know every City Country Art Language Science and not to know himself to observe men times customes every thing and not to observe himself and the customes and manners of his own heart and thoughts The Grammarian makes his latine by rule the Poet makes his verse by rule the workman builds his house by rule and must we have no rule for our hearts and thoughts The heavens and every star move by rule day and night come and go by rule Summer Winter seedtime and harvest come and go by rule yea the Sea ebbes and flowes by rule and the birds of the aire the Swallow and Cuckow come and go by rule and shall man be the onely unruly creature and have Jer. 8. 7. no rule for his heart and thoughts to move by and be as the clouds of the aire or waves of the sea or a ship without compasse or Pilot that is driven up and down without guide or stay Is it not matter of shame to see we should keep house clean face clean hands clean and all our cloths must be clean or we are ashamed of our selves and the heart unclean Garden must be weeded house must be washt houshold stuffe must be scoured door must be swept swine and poultry must be rended and the heart neglected Strange it is we should observe order in every thing and affect neatnesse every thing must have his fit place the horse hath his stable the oxe his crib the dog his kennell the swine their coat that horse dog and swine eat not nor ly together that we should have no partition in our hearts good and evil thoughts tumble together We keep doors to our houses yea to every roome locks and bolts or latches to every door yea we have doors and iron bars to our very stables and none to the heart As a City without watch and ward Gates and bars or house without Pro. 25. 28. doors and locks so is the man saith Solomon that hath no rule over his own spirit we have hedges and ditches about our grounds foldes to keep in our sheep and to keep out other cattle and shall our hearts onely ly open and unfenced as commons and wastes without any regard We put our very swine to a keeper and we have a horse-keeper and shall we have no heart-keeper Especially when we have such a charge that whatever is neglected the heart must be 〈◊〉 with all keeping Pro. 4. 23. There are two things that aske a great deal of paines and good skill 1. To break and tame the heart this is a work for the best Minister the man of a thousand that can skill to tame and break a wild heart as he had need of good Job 33. 23. skill that shall back and break an unruly colt 2. The other is thy own work To keep thy own heart and this is as great a charge as Jacob had to keep a great flock of sheep which made him sweat and toyle by day Gen. 31. 40. and broke his sleep by night or to keep a herd of swine is not a more toylsome businesse yea thou hast as great a charge and task to keep thy heart as if thou wast made keeper of Newgate or any common Goale thou hast as many unruly ones to deal with that are more hardly kept in order that thou hast need of strong doors store of Animum rege qui nisi paret Imperat hunc fraenis hunctu compesâ—e catena Hor. locks bolts fetters cords and make all sure least they give thee the slip A Captain over an unruly company of souldiers hath somewhat to do to keep them in order but a General of an army had need to be a man of a good command to keep all in good order what hast thou to do who art to command so many Companyes and Regiments of mutinous and unruly thoughts Labour therefore to be well acquainted with they seâ—f and to know thy heart as perfectly as thou dost every room in thy own house that thou maist say Nota magis nulli domus est sua quam mihi cor est Yea labour to know thy heart as perfectly as if thou hadst a mesure of it as the Prophet had of the Temple who was to shew them Ezek. 43. â—â— the form of the house and the fashion thereof the goings out thereof and the comings in thereof and all the formes thereof and ordinances thereof and all the formes thereof again and the laws thereof and write it in their sight that they may keep the whole form thereof and all the ordinances thereof So there are formes and formes again many and divers and outgoings and incomings of the heart the best temple of a good heart which are not easily described This is the Art of Arts and science of sciences It was an adventurous undertaking of those that were sent to spy out the land of Canaan and it Num. 13. 2. 25. was fit for chosen men A ruler and eminent person in every tribe they went out and returned with a full account of their voyage after fourty dayes It will cost thee many more dayes and yet thou wilt not be able to espy half that little-great piece of earth in thy own heart and to be able to say I speak all that was in my heart as Caleb did And what an undertaking was that of our Josh 14. 7. English worthies Drake and Candish and many others since to go search the whole world and make discoveries of unknown lands and seas They compassed the whole earth in the space of two or three years and returned but it is a more honourable and profitable adventure to seek to compasse this Narrow-wide spot of earth in thy heart though it may cost thee more time and paines and yet thou must say there is a great part of Terra incognita yet in it undiscovered 2. The second exhortation is that of the text To repent of evil thoughts so Agur exhorts Pro. 30. 32. If thou hast thought evill lay thy hand upon thy mouth that is humble thy self and bewaile thy sin If ever thou hast repented of any thing repent much more for thy thoughts if thou hast never repenred begin repentance here cleanse first the inside of this foule cup and platter Mat. 23. 26. Here is the Original sin and the Original of all sin Open the mouth of this Cave and thou wilt
the Atheist herein is the devils Prosylite two fold more a child of hell then his master Yet for all this haply if we be not more aware we may find this fools Bolt shot into our hearts and these fiery darts injected by the Prince of darknesse who as he deceived our first Parents with this cheat would put the same upon us You shall be as Gods A godly soul may sometime be dog'd and hanted with such tentations but take heed of parlying with them or pausing on them Resist this devil and he will fly from you This Cerberus cannot chuse but affright and terrifie when he barks in thy ears Believe no God worship no God renounce God abjure Religion Curse God and dye or eat and live fall down and worship and thou shalt rise and be worshipped But take heed of giving the least entertainment to such a thought or so much as to debate them but break off abruptly with Michaels farewell The Lord rebuke thee Satan Jud. v. 9. I have read of a little Vermin in Guiana in the West Indies lesse then the least flea Heylin in Guiana Gage discovery of the West Indies no bigger then a pins point called by the Spaniard Nignas which getting into the least Toe multiply there to infinite numbers breed a bladder full of nits which cause a fearfull burning and itching with intolerable torments unlesse speedily prevented and it hath caused their feet to fester and hath cost many their lives They find no better remedy then to pour melted wax hot on the place which being puld off when cold hath drawn the Vermin away sometimes 800 at a pull Do thou so let not one of these nits rest they will fearfully multiply As the Magicians said of their Lice This is the finger of God so mean a Exod. 8. 9. Creature could never else have caused so great annoyance So say thou when thou â—eest any of these Vermin in thy soul This is the finger of the Devil The hand of Satan is palpable in this for it can have no other father then the father of Lies Therefore saith learned Weems This Atheism is the center of all sins and the Atheist the vilest of all Creatures Therefore when he had compared them with Balaam the worst of Southsayers and false Prophets with the Samaritans the worst of Israelites with Epicures the worst of Philosophers with Hereticks the worst of Christians and with the Devil the worst of Creatures and Beings he saith the Atheist is worse then any of them Therefore saith he let us abhorre Atheism above all other sinnes and shun the company of these damnable Atheists who are appointed for hell and damnation CHAP. IX Of Injurious and Erroneous Thoughts THERE are Injurious and Erroneous Thoughts which men are apt to harbour of God which are ful of hellish impiety These charge God foolishly and horridly with their wickedness Ps 50. 12. the Lord tells the wicked what his deeds were and what his thoughts Thou sawest a thief and consentest hast been partaker with adulterers thou sattest and spakest against thy brother and slanderest thy mothers Son These things thou didst and I kept silence thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes As who should say thy deeds were very bad but thy thoughts were far worse And we may observe that God keeps a Register for Thoughts as well as acts and words and in the day of Judgement Processe shall issue out against Thoughts as well as either Imprimis will God begin So many evil words oathes idle and scurrilous speeches Item So many evil acts at such a time thou sattest there and didst so another time in that place thou stoodest and didst thus place and day and very gesture and company all set down together But above all in comes this talent of lead to make the Ephath of iniquity full weight thou hadst such and such Thoughts of me at that time which is worst of all Erroneous and impious thoughts are as bad as Atheisticall Deus bonus convertuntur God and good are convertible Tolle bonitatem tollis Deitatem take away Gods Piety and you take away his Deity We can fasten no greater contumelies or dishonour upon God then by injurious thoughts to charge God with Nescience the Lord seeth us not Ezek. 8. 12. or with negligence the Lord regardeth us not or with forgetfullnesse the Lord hath forgotten he hideth his face he will never see Psal 10. 11. or with supine oscitancy and unadvertence he will neither do good or evil Zeph. 1. 12. Above all to make God such a one as hath pleasure in wickednesse not to reprove and punish it or to have no such pleasure in holinesse as to approve and reward it is the highest and most daring impiety that can be With the Familists and Gnosticks to think all our acts are of Gods acting in us and there is no difference of good and evil or with the misguided Zelot to think to set up his own way by violence and to take away Ministery Ordinances and old duties as Antichristian forms is to do God service These erroneous and deceitfull thoughts are such high steps to all impiety as you can hardly go further For the Gentiles to make a God of gold and silver was too grosse and simple but for Christians to make a God of impiety and impurity is ten thousand times worse There was God represented in the likenesse of man but here in the likenesse of Satan And indeed Plutarch was not out when he said Superstitious and impious thoughts of God were worse then downright Atheism when he speakes of the impious barbarous inhumane and obscene service many Pagans did tender to their gods It had been well said he if those Typhones Cyclopes and Gyants had overthrown those gods rather than that they should be thought to be honoured with such Victimes and Sacrifices As I had rather said he that any should say there is no such man as Plutarch than to say Plutarch is an angry furious unchast and vitious person CHAP. X. Of Blasphemous Thoughts NEXT unto these march a Troop of Blasphemous and hellish Thoughts and they march furiously as the Divels Vantguard more furiously than Jehu like Goliah with his Armour-Bearer defying the hosts of the living God or like railing Rabshakeh with a libellous letter in his hand and black mouth wide open reviling the most High Yet are the seeds of this in every heart as well as other evil Thoughts Mar. 7. 22 23. Out of the heart of man every man proceed evil thoughts blasphemies This case is very sad and goes as a sword to the soul of the people of God They rend their clothes humble yea torment themselves they weep pray mourn and spread out their hands to heaven in this day of sad rebuke and blasphemy These Thoughts are the Devils black Guard and are properly the sin of Hell