2. Majesty 3. Glory 4. Lordship 5. Immutability Fifthly The Measure of all his Attributes is Infiniteness that is They have no Stint nor Measure As the Measure of his Being is Immensity Sixthly The Crown of all his Attributes is his Eternity Of these in order 1. His Bounty the Scripture thus expresseth Psalm 145.15 Thou openest thy hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing Matth. 6.28 29. Consider the Lilies of the field they toil not neither do they spin and yet I say anto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these And Psal 104.27 28. These wait all upon thee speaking of the several living Creatures that thou mayest give them their meat in due season Thou openest thy hand and they are filled with good 2. His Justice in the Righteous Government of all things the Holy Ghost thus sets forth Psalm 89.14 Justice and Judgment are the Habitation of thy Throne And Psal 9.8 He shall judge the World in Righteousness and minister Judgment to the World in uprightness Jerem. 32.19 Thine Eyes are upon all the Ways of the Sons of Men to give to every one according to his Ways and according to the Fruit of his doings Gen. 18.25 Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right Rev. 15.3 Just and true are thy ways thou King of Saints 3. His Veracity is thus described Numb 23.19 He is not as a Man that he should lye Hath he said it and spoken it and shall it not be made good Rom. 3.4 God is true and every man a lyar Heb. 10.23 God is faithful who hath promised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is to be credited or believed Psalm 138.2 I will woriship towards thy Holy Temple and praise thy Name for thy Loving-kindness and for thy Truth for thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy Name Psalm 86.15 But thou O Lord art plenteous in Mercy and in Truth 4. His Mercy and Compassion to all Rational Creatures is thus expressed John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Ezek. 33.11 As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in him that dyeth or in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live Turn ye turn ye from your evil ways For why will ye dye 1 Tim. 2.4 There it 's said that God would have all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth Besides 1. All those Scriptures that express the Death of Christ for sinners without limitation serve to this purpose such as 1 Tim. 2.6 Who gave himself a Ransome for all Men c. 2. All those Scriptures that contain a Commission to Preach the Gospel to all the World without Exception magnifie this Attribute to the full and make it shine forth gloriously such as Matth. 28.19 Go ye therefore and teach all Nations c. 3. Likewise all those Scriptures that promise Pardon and Salvation upon the Conditions of Repentance and Faith not excluding any from these Terms are a lively demonstration of this lovely Attribute such as 1 John 12. As many as received him to them gave he Power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe in his Name 4. So likewise all those Scriptures that set forth the Patience of God towards sinners in general may be reduced hither and serve under this Head 5. Lastly All those Scriptures that insist upon the Common Providences of God towards wicked Men and his veriest Enemies in supplying all their Necessities and giving them such a large portion of these outward Comforts bear ample Testimony to this Attribute and do very much exalt it such as Matth. 5.45 where God is said to make the Sun to shine upon the Evil and upon the Good and to send Rain on the just and on the unjust 5. His Special Love to Believers the Holy Ghost thus describeth Deut. 33.29 The Lord is the shield of their help and the sword of their excellency Psal 94.14 God will not cast off his Saints nor forsake his Inheritance And Psal 149.4 The Lord taketh pleasure in his people and will beautifie them with salvation And Psal 1. last The Lord knoweth i. approveth the way of the Righteous Isa 49.16 There they are said to be graven on the Palms of his Hands and their Walls are ever in his sight And Vers 15. It 's said God cannot and will not forget them Moreover 1. All those Scriptures that entitle them to Pardon Reconciliation Adoption and Glory Comfort in all Conditions and a blessed Issue out of all their Troubles be they more or less and that entail a Blessing upon their Seed and Posterity are a sufficient proof of God's special Love to Believers and set it forth illustriously such as Psalm 97.11 Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Psal 37.37 Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace Eccles 8.12 13. Though a sinner do evil an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God which fear before him c. Psal 102.28 The children of thy servants shall continue and their seed shall be established before thee Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus that walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Psal 125.1 2. They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Sion which cannot be removed but abideth for ever As the mountains are round about Jerusalem so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth and for ever Rom. 8.28 All things work together for their good And Gal. 4.6 Because they are sons God will send forth the Spirit of his Son into their hearts 2. All those Scriptures that contain their special relations unto God and Priviledges founded thereupon do lively set forth God's special Love to them Sixthly His Almightiness the Scripture thus expresseth besides the places where he is expresly styled Almighty Ephes 3.20 He is able to do abundantly above what we can think or speak Job 26.14 The thunder of his power who can understand Prov. 21.30 There is no wisdom power nor understanding against him Jerem. 27.5 He hath made the Earth and all that therein is by his great power Isa 40.22 23. It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof are as Grass-hoppers that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in That bringeth the Princes to nothing and maketh the Judges of the Earth as vanity Heb. 1.3 God is there said to uphold all things by the word of his power All those Scriptures that assert the Creation of the World or any part of it by God The Division of the Sea or other Waters miraculously The strange Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha
the curious Fabrick and Composure of the basest and most contemptible Creature especially if we do not overlook the uses for which it serves Even a Toad hath far more in it to be admired by the Intellect than it hath to be abhorred by the Sense The sensless and inanimate Creatures are no idle Parts of the World but have enough in them to reproach and shame an idle Spectatour There 's not one of them but wears the Livery of their most wise and wonderful Creatour and carries the Badge and Cognizance of that infinite Wisdom that did at first contrive and make them and fitted them to their proper and peculiar uses Read over the History of Minerals and do but look into an Herbal where a little of the Nature and Vertue of Vegetables is described search a little into the Writers of Zoography where the Nature and Properties of Animals are somewhat though imperfectly represented and under each of these are infinite particulars which magnifie the Wisdom of their Glorious Maker and set it forth to the life to every intelligent Spectatour Since then the Brutish and Inanimate Creatures are not in a Capacity to do this Homage to their Creatour by direct and proper Acknowledgment and express Adoration and Thanksgiving it 's comely for us to pay that Debt for whose use and service they were made and intended and to whose Intellect and Senses they are objected for the perfecting of them It 's by our Tongues and Hearts that these Creatures must return him the Tribute of their Praises Can we be content to behold such rare pieces of Divine Skill and Artifice and not turn up a thankful Eye nor erect an adoring Thought nor send up a joyful Hallelujah to him Whether we look upon the World in the Gross or in the Retail in the several parts of it or as they are all joynted and set together in a curious Frame what stupendious wisdom what rare and admirable skill do they display and call us to behold and consider Had we but the Faculty to search into those rich Mines and dig out those Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge that are hid in them as every one may do in some degree if he set himself seriously to consider them what an Acknowledgment would the most contemptible Creature extort from us 1. The Matter of which they do consist 2. The curious Contexture of their Parts 3. The Manner of their Production And then 4. The Means of their Continuance and Preservation Then 5. Their Operations both Actual and Potential 6. And the Ends to which they are both immediately and remotely subservient are Heads which a little considered will advance the Heart and tune the Affections and Tongue to the Praises of him that liveth for ever and ever who hath brought all these things to pass and even compel him to say Psalm 104.14 How manifold are thy works O Lord in wisdom hast thou made them all the earth is full of thy riches To look down upon this round Ball of Earth that hangs upon nothing that hath no other Pillars to prop it up than the immediate power of him that made it And to look up upon the vast Canopy of Heaven spread over it Or the abundance of Waters gathered together in a heap and placed in the depth as in a store-house Psal 33.7 Or to cast an eye upon any one Creature that dwelleth in any of these Mansions will draw forth a Song of Praise and Thanksgiving unless it be from one that 's far gone in the Disease of Atheism and Ungodliness But to consider them all in one united Frame their Order and Connection and the Beauty that results from that Order and how they meet together in one Common Center and are linked together in one great and ultimate End which all of them conspire to promote though their proximate and nearest Ends are so various and almost innumerable will raise a Soul not basely captivated to the Body yet higher If I should insist upon the Contrariety that is among the several Creatures and how one Contrary is ballanced by another If I should stand upon the Harmony that ariseth from the very discord of things of a very different nature this would not a little set forth the wisdom of God 2. It will very much quicken a Soul to the Praises of God and to joy and delight in him to consider his Bounty and Goodness to all his Creatures even the worst and vilest of them from whom they have their Being and Support together with their several Virtues and Perfections To him the lifeless and inanimate Creatures owe their Subsistence together with their several Adjuncts and Properties whereby they are variously modified and distinguished He hath imparted that Life to the order of Vegetables which they have and whereby they become serviceable to Man and Beast It 's from the same Hand that those Higher Perfections of Sense and Motion are bestowed upon the order of Sensitive Creatures which his Wisdom hath distinguished into such various and almost infinite kinds every one whereof hath a large share and portion of his Bounty The Lord doth good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works Psal 145.9 The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord Psal 33.5 How liberal hath he been to the Heavens upon which he hath bestowed all the Glory that Sun and Moon and those glistering Cressets that shine therein contribute These he hath covered with Light as with a Garment and made of a more refined Matter than what 's seen here below and these he hath honoured to become his Footstool Yea and how bountiful hath he been to this inferiour Part of the Creation What a fertile Womb hath he bestowed upon the Earth which brings forth yearly such a plentiful Off-spring and Encrease What Minerals and Vegetables is she the Parent of Some whereof she perpetually bears in her Womb and there feedeth them Others she continually carries in her Bosom and there suckles them And what she doth not bring forth she bringeth up as the several Animals Rational and Irrational which she perpetually provideth for And as he hath dealt thus bountitifully with the Heavens and the Earth so the Ocean comes not much behind in the share he hath bestowed upon it And therefore when the Psalmist had copiously insisted upon God's Bounty and Munificence towards the Earth and eased himself in a pathetical Exclamation viz. O Lord how wonderful are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all the earth is full of thy riches Psal 104.24 He proceeds so is this great and wide sea also wherein are things creeping innumerable both small and great beasts there go the ships also vers 26. As he hath lodged innumerable sorts of Fishes in the Ocean so he hath made it a famous Boundary to divide the several Kingdoms of the World and a quick Passage for the Nations that inhabit the Earth to Traffick and Commerce with each other There be many
other ways in which God hath expressed his Bounty and Munificence to this Watry Element It would take up a Volumn to descend to particulars and to shew you the Bounty of God to the Four Elements as they are called of which all other Creatures that have their general Rendezvouz either in the Earth Water or Air are compounded whether they be Lifeless Vegetative Sensitive or Rational and to tell you the Glory that God hath put upon them And then to proceed to the several Creatures in their order This would be to write the whole History of Nature A little of this knowledge was that which the Philosophers and Wise-men of the World so much gloried in But yet though it was so much beyond their reach to bring in a compleat Inventory of all those costly Utensils wherewith God hath so richly furnished and adorned thiâ— his great Family of Heaven and Earth and much more would it pr zzle them to shew you the â—ost that is expended and laid out upon â—â—ch of these and to discover their worth and 〈…〉 yet let but a vulgar eye go forth and look about him and view the Fields and therein the Trees the Grass the various Herbage so verdant to the eye so fragrant to the smell and every one so useful to the Ends of Food and Physick even such a one if he have any Spiritual Life or Sense in him shall not want Arguments for number or weight able to convince him and to enforce a Confession of God's Bounty to these Creatures But let him behold the various Fruits and Flowers that every Orchard or Garden almost will present him with let him but consider the beautiful Rose and Tulip or rather to take the Scripture-Instance let him look upon the fair Lilly and he must needs say if he understand any thing That Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these Matth. 6.29 or if he will believe the Word of God These Vegetables have such a natural Grace and Beauty that all the Art and Wit of Man cannot imitate much less out-do To say nothing of the dead and inanimate Creatures both above and under Ground of which such Essences Spirits and Magisteries and other Extracts are prepared by the Still and other ways that Art and Industry hath discovered No nor to mention any of the sensitive or more noble Creatures No nor of those intermediate bordering and amphibious Creatures that come between these several kinds that lay claim to both and belong to neither such as are the Minerals that grow like the Vegetables And the Plantanimals that partake partly of the Vegetative and partly of the Sensitive Nature c. Upon every one of which God hath bestowed various Vertues and Perfections But I have touched only upon Generals and left the Particulars to be the Subject of your more distinct Meditations as you shall occasionally light on them 3. The omnipotency and infinite power of God is no less conspicuous in these several Creatures than the other two Attributes of his Wisdom and Goodness to a seeing eye and as fit to assist in the Praises of God as the other Power is the thing that all Men adore and aspire to and would purchase at any rate Even those that can contemn Riches and Sensual Pleasures which most Men follow after and are led by like Beasts yet are very ambitious of Power As being the best Instrument to compass any thing that the Will can desire Well then here is Power to be seen in its highest glory and its utmost perfection Alas that Idol we so much adore in Men is but a shadow and faint resemblance of that infinite and unlimitted power that God was eternally invested with that 's guided by as immense a Wisdom and as perfect a Goodness and therefore cannot possibly be mischievous and oppressive Power in Man and other Creatures is oft times pernicious both to themselves and others for want of equal Wisdom and Goodness to guide and ballance it And yet take all their Power together in the widest and wildest Notion the greatest Lord and Emperour of the World hath but a silly weak and contemptible power in respect of that which God is possessed of and the Attribute of his Almightiness doth import and which he hath displayed in the eye sight of all intelligent Creatures And this may be seen without any great pains or labour in the Make or Fabrick of every Creature and the production of so many Beings as the World abounds with out of meer nothing Let Paracelsus and the Rose-Crucians boast that they can produce Man or any other Creature by their Chymical Skill and Artifice These are but Boasts and if they can do any thing that way which will deserve some admiration It will come as far short of God's Workmanship as Art is from Nature or rather finite from infinite They must have Matter to work upon and several Tools to work with But the infinite Power hath brought to pass these mighty and wonderful Effects that are every where so visible without the help of either Matter or Tool or any the least Assistance O what a Power is that must make an invisible Vapour that fumes out of the Earth to grow into the visible Bulk of Plant or Herb and to aspire into a Tree spreading forth it self into so many Shoots and Branches And that the same Vapour should secretly convey it self through every Bough and Leaf of this Tree for its continual Growth and Nourishment That this subtil Spirit should produce so many various Shapes and such different Vertues in the several Plants and die them with such various and almost infinite Colours That a Vapour that seems so contemptible should set forth the Lilly in white and cloth the Violet in such a purple dress But what do I speak of these What a Power is that that hath hung such a vast Body as the Earth upon nothing in the midst of the Air That hath made it so immovable though it hath no Pillars to support it nor any Basis whereon to rest That hath shut up the vast Ocean in the deep as in a Store-house Psalm 33.7 And gathered the Waters of the Sea together in a heap That hath stinted the proud Waves thereof and bounded their swelling rage and fury Job 38.11 What a Power is it that ballanceth the Clouds and useth them as a Swadling-band to wrap up and hold in the Waters over our Heads that they are not rent under such a mighty Load Job 38.9 It would amaze and even confound the understanding of Man seriously to think how such a vast Body as the Sun that 's 166 times bigger than the Earth should go over the whole Circle of the Heavens in the space of 24 Hours The Sun is said to move every Hour 1038442 of Miles that is one Million of Miles every Hour which being so incredible to Mans understanding late Philosophers have found out a new way and would have the
amongst the Forgetters of Gods Word For Faith or Subjection to the Person of Christ and Obedience to his Laws and abrenunciation of all that would hinder this Subjection of our Hearts and Obedience of our Lives are Three great ends for which the Word of God was ordained and appointed and a high Reverence of its Authority and deep Sense of its Importance and firm perswasion of its certainty would most undoubtedly bring to pass For it is most unquestionable that God would not fail these his own means 1. First They must read or hear these Instructions slightly and unworthily that are not deeply wrought upon by the consideration of their Author and the Divinity that is instamp'd upon them It 's not enough that you believe and acknowledge this but that you be frequently under the thought of it And it is a weighty truth worthy your remembrance That the Soul is never wrought upon to any purpose either in its Understanding Will or Affections but by frequent serious and repeated Acts. The main difficulty therefore in the work of Conversion and a saving change on our part lies here in bringing our thoughts to a devout and frequent meditation of these Objects which God hath resolved shall do the work if ever it be done And though he can change the Heart by a word and in a moment if he please yet he hath told us flatly he will not do it ordinarily without these means And therefore he awakens every Soul to such Meditations whom he will shew mercy to A Mans Thoughts are the means that God makes most use of in renewing his Heart Do thou not presume whoever thou art that God will infuse Sanctification into thy Heart by a miracle when thou art thinking all the day yea all the week long upon meer vanity if not doing worse But this by the way He that doth not strike his heart into superlative Reverence of this Word by thinking often of that Holy Spirit by whom it was word for word inspired will never be made fit to take it into his heart and chew upon it when he lies down and riseth up to curb every base Inclination of his Soul by it and to resolve they shall bend to this Word or have no quiet The Heart is so prone to Earth and Vanity and the Flesh with its Affections and Lusts are so strong and masterless that they will never obey unless such Authority be produced Yea there 's none that are well vers'd in their own Hearts but will find how they will slight such Authority and sometime venture to contemn it But as he that doth wisely govern a Family or other Society much more a Kingdom will not suffer his Authority to be trampled on nor his Laws to stand for Ciphers but will vindicate them with the greatest Power and Majesty that he can put on much more will the Lord of Heaven and Earth stand up in the behalf of his own Authority and vindicate the best Laws that ever were made from contempt And if any sinner be so sottish as to think that his Wit or Pedigree or Riches or Esteem in the World will bear him out in such irreverence let me say to such a one as once Samuel said to Saul 1 Sam. 15.16 Stay and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said of such a one Them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall lightly be esteemed 1 Sam. 2.30 Be as wise and as great as thou wilt the Lord will shame thee sooner or later and kick thee down into Scorn and Disgrace 2. Secondly They are forgetful of the Word of God that are not considerably moved with the most important matters which it sets before them If thou readest it not frequently thou forgetest it in the grossest sense and thine own Conscience will fall upon and condemn thee And if thou dost read it yet if thy very Heart be not affected with those matters in the Word which more concern thee than all the World so as to shew it in thy Life I would not for all the World hear that Judgment that thou shalt shortly hear Doth it so much concern thee what thou shalt Eat and what thou shalt Drink and wherewithal thou shalt be cloathed and how thou shalt Sleep or enjoy thy Health much more how thou shalt visit this or that Friend do this or that petty business as how thou shalt save thy Soul how thou mayst get thy Heart affected with its Sin and Misery and set a value upon Christ as he deserveth this is not easily done how thou mayst break off thine Affections from these things that will abuse them and certainly blast every good work in thy Heart and turn thy Religion into meer Hypocrisie For it is impossible that the Love of God should be in that Heart where the love of any worldly thing doth prevail Hearken therefore and listen attentively what necessity the Word of God layeth upon Self-denial 〈◊〉 mortification of the Flesh with its Affections and Lusts He that will be my Disciple must deny himself take up his Cross and follow me Luke 9.23 And if ye live after the Flesh ye shall die Rom. 8.13 If thine Estate Life or Credit only were here concerned thy neglect would not prove thee so perfectly mad and distracted as now it doth when the Eternal Life and Welfare of thy Soul is so much concerned 3. Thirdly They that live not under any serious thoughts of the certain accomplishment of all that is threatned or promised in the Word cannot but forget the Word The things that are contained in the Scripture if they were liable to some doubt yet were worthy to be thought on because they concern so much if they should prove true And this is an Argument that will stop their Mouths that chuse a Romance or vain Ballad before the Word of God to be the matters of their thoughts But when God will certainly make good every Judgment he hath threatned to the impenitent sinner and when every wicked person that dies in his sin shall as certainly feel those dreadful Woes as now he hears or may hear them pronounced O what an advantage is here to beget a Resolution to withstand every Temptation that would draw us to those things that are thus threatned Though it were a pleasing and profitable Lust it 's stark madness to fulfil it O if we had 〈◊〉 or felt the wrath of God in another World it would be Armour of Proof against all wilful presumptuous sin for ever afterwards and would awaken the Soul to any pains or diligence to escape it And is it not as certain as if we had seen or felt it Hath the Lord said that he will laugh at the destruction of a sinner and mock when his fear cometh Prov. 1.26 Hath he said that he will shortly come with his Fan in his hand and thorowly purge his Floor and gather his Wheat into the Garner but that he will burn up the
Chaff with unquenchable Fire and will this not surely be brought to pass Mat. 3.12 Heaven and Earth may sooner pass away than one jot or tittle of his Word shall pass Mat. 5.16 Things that will certainly come to pass if they concern us in this life only though they be not near yet they are not slighted by us But if they are near and certain and highly concerning the thoughts thereof will rush in upon us and prevail against the greatest necessity of nature they will disturb our Rest and make us forget to eat our Bread Could a Man that were to be tryed for his Life to morrow or a day or two hence eat his Meat quietly or lie down upon his Bed in peace and take his Rest Psal 4.8 And canst thou read the Threats or Promises in the Word of God that concern thee so unspeakably and may be made good within one day or hour for all thou knowest and yet be no more overwhelmed with Joy or Terror They that are not awakened with the serious affecting thoughts of the most certain and near accomplishment of all that is threatned or promised in the Word of God will certainly be condemned in the number of those that do forget it These are the second sort of those that forget God Those that think not upon his sacred venerable Word 3. Thirdly They forget God indeed that overlook his most observable Works and regard not his remarkable Providences The Works of the Lord are great both of Creation and Provivence sought out of all them that have pleasure in them Psal 3.2 And those that have no pleasure in them will be sure to forget them There be several ways by which the Works and Providence of God is overlooked or several persons guilty of this sin 1. First They are signally guilty that deny Gods Providence in the Rule and Dispose of all Affairs either directly or by plain consequence There are none that deny it in the first sense that is directly and expresly but plain Atheists of which I would there were none in this Nation that believe in their Hearts that all things come to pass by Fate or Chance But they deny Providence by Consequence and Interpretation that are so intent upon Means and Instruments whereby any effect is brought to pass or rather upon the Effect it self that they do not at all look up any higher Psal 10.4 The Wicked thorow the Pride of his Countenance will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts thy Judgments are far above out of his sight These lie under a deep guilt of this sin 2. Secondly They are guilty of this Wickedness also that can find out nothing among all the works of Creation and Providence so worthy their Observation as to captivate their Souls to the highest Reverence of their Author Highest I mean not in respect of the degrees of Reverence but of the kinds that is though he hath a Reverence for this Object and another for that another for a third yet he hath Highest and most principal veneration for him who doth so incomparably manage all things And who hath impudence enough to plead for that man that hath an understanding and considering Faculty and such Wonders to behold both in Heaven and Earth such Providences towards the World in general and such towards the Church in special and yer God no higher in his Judgment and Affections in his Thoughts and Heart than a full Chest and a little painted Skin and an adored Lust What hast thou heard the Voice of the Lord so often in Thunder and Lightning and seen the dreadful effects of them Hast thou not heard of a little of his Breath shut up in the caverns of the Earth that hath made this stable Body of the Earth to shake and tremble and rent and torn the very bowels thereof and overturned whole Cities at once Hast thou heard of the Division of Jordan and the Red Sea how the Waters parted and left a path-way in the midst of them whilst the People passed over of whom God had taken on him the Care and Conduct And how Pharaoh and his mighty Host were afterward overwhelmed by the same Waters who were their professed Enemies Hast thou read and believed what he did for Hezekiah when the proud King of Assyria threatned to swallow him up How he accepted his Tears heard his Prayers and an Army of Two hundred thousand men almost all struck dead in one night What he did for wicked Manasseh though he had filled Jerusalem with Idols and Blood yet how mercifully he heard him when he cryed to him in Chains Look into the sacred History or read over any profane History or consult thine own Eyes and Ears what thou hast seen or heard what he hath done to and for his Enemies and what he hath done for his Church or any parts or members of it and if thou canst be a Sot or Block under all and have Mens Persons in admiration because of advantage to thee Jude 16. rather than reverence and adore the Lord and mighty Worker of all take that thine is and go thy way thou art one that does overlook the Works of God 3. Thirdly They overlook the Works and Providence of God whose lives are ordered in a course of crossness and contradiction to them As History reports of Sardanapalus that he lay in Bed all day and rose at night when others went to Bed and so turned the day into night and the night into day So when God calleth by his Providence I mean by some formidable signs of his displeasure to Fasting and Weeping and Mourning and to girding with Sack-cloth and Baldness and behold Joy and Gladness slaying Oxen and killing Sheep eating Flesh and drinking Wine Esay 22.12 13. that will not see when the hand of God is lifted up 26.11 When God is â—utting up and throwing down and disgracing all worldly Pride They are seeking great things for themselves and feeding themselves with proud thoughts of what they have or what they hope to have Jer. 45.4 5. When God is pulling down the proud they are delighting themselves in Pride and Oppression of those that cannot defend themselves When God is searching for Sin they are hiding of it and when he is shewing his dislike of it and would stop the poison that it should spread no further it 's sweet in their Mouths they hide it under their Tongue they spare it and forsake it not Job 20.12 13. What a proud contempt of his Providence is it to sit still and shut our Eyes and not consider them Psal 111.4 He hath made his wonderful workâ— to be remembred But what a Pride is that that when God is debasing Men we will exalt them when God is visiting Sin and Transgression they are incouraging it in themselves or others and will not be searched but instead of starving their Lusts and Corruptions are making Provision for them When God is telling Men plainly of their
know the best have too much of this sin and forget their endeared Lord too much not only in the works of their civil and common Employment but also in their acts of Worship and immediate Service of him and have not adoring prising thoughts of his Greatness and Goodness as they should have and this is some degree of forgetfulness and therefore they will be ready to condemn themselves and take some share in this Reproof but the sharpest part of the Reproof belongs most to them that are least disposed to take it and most ready to quarrel with and fight against it And this is the most doleful aggravation of their misery O what a misery is it to need a bitter Cup a smarting Rod sharp and cutting reproof and yet not to endure the remedy and the proper means of their recovery to be desperately sick and not to abide the Physician This is the condition of those that have most of Guilt and therefore the sorer they are the less they care to be search'd and dress'd If it be any dangerous Distemper in the Body it 's sad when the case is thus but if the Wound be Spiritual and the Soul be the subject to be handled and will not abide it the condition of that Man or Woman is much more to be lamented O how sad is their case that need Humiliation and Repentance and the sense of their sins and misery that make them so forgetful of God and yet are impatient of the means that the Wisdom of God hath appointed and that they must use to bring this to pass O what a fearful state is it and deeply to be lamented to have the greatest necessities on them accompanied with the greatest stupidity and insensibility To have need to cry aloud for mercy mercy and a heart fit to receive it and yet to have no mind to lift up an earnest Prayer unto God and to stir up the remembrance of him nor to be awakened thereto by any way that 's like to speed How dreadful is the condition of a senseless hard hearted sinner that must die Eternally without Repentance and be broken by the vengeance of God for ever if his heart do not break now and yet doth eonsent yea and set this Seal to his own Destruction and yet doth reject all the humbling softning means that Christ the greatest friend that ever he had or shall have in the World hath taught him and beseeched him to use say not that a man may forget God and yet need no such reproof nor be in any such danger I have told you what forgetfulness of God implies and who they are that are chargeable therewith and who can easily speak worse of any unless it be those that have more of this sin and are guilty of it in a higher degree Those that the Text speaks to are such as God threatens to tear in pieces unless they be recovered by consideration And the Scripture doth not use to speak with so much heat and indignation where the sin is not so provoking I come therefore now to shew you 1. The guiltiness this sin 2. The danger of this sin And what a madness as well as wickedness it is to forget God that if it be possible this double sight of the sin and danger may the better prepare them for the means that must recover them and bring them to speedy use of them And this will appear 1. From the hainous nature of this sin 2. From the fearful effects thereof The odious nature of this sin is manifest in that this forgetfulness of God is a sin against the highest Obligations 1. On Gods part 2. On Our part 1. On Gods part 1. First In that he hath given us our Faculties on purpose to remember him and hath fitted them for this very use and service And what a sin must it needs be to frustrate so great a design of God in the very Make and Fabrick of the best of his Creatures here on Earth This end and use is legible enough in his uppermost Faculties which the rest were made to serve and obey For if all were made to minister unto one and that on purposelâ—y to do Homage unto God then all are made ultimatly for God but that he had his noblest Perfections for this very end it 's easie to see with half an Eye What should he do with an Immortal Soul indued with the powers of Reason and free Choice But that by the one he might discern the greatest Good and by the other make it his Choice There are certain Relations that intercede between all Creatures amongst which those of Cause and Effect Means and End are the most principal which the understanding of Man was given him intentionally to argue and find out that by these he might step up to the highest Cause and the supream and last end and do the highest acts of Homage and Reverence to them that his understanding and will are able to give in appretiation and love which are their two most essential Acts. Not a Creature but would lead the Reason of Man to the Creator of all things if he will use his Reason and follow this Guide The most contemptible thing had a Father that begot it that I may use Job's expression Job 38.28 c. Hath the Rain a Father or who begot the drops of the Dew Every thing hath a cause that brought it into being and that was produced by a former and that by something that was before that till you come to the foremost and highest cause And so for the other Relation of Means and End there 's nothing but is subservient to some end and that to a higher till you come to the highest e.g. The Showres moisten and supple the Earth and make it bring forth Grass This Grass is to serve a higher end viz. to feed and noâ—rish the Beasts that they might be fit for the use and service of Man his Food and other imployments either serious or recreative And can we think that here 's a full stop and man was made for no higher end but to domineer over the other Creatures and take aâ—ay their lives when it pleaseth him for his uses Certainly there was a further and higher end that God intended Man for and that is to have him in perpetual Remembrance It 's certain there 's no Creature here on Earth but Man hath any capacity to know God or to bear his Image in Holiness or to worship him which two last imply the first 1. A knowledge of him 1. What he is in himself in some measure 2. What he is to them Their Creator Preserver and bountiful Provider Neither hath any of them a Faculty to express and utter thus much to another Creature being all deprived of Speech and Eloquution which is mans Glory only Obj. And if you object the 19 Psalm 1. The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament c. and therefore not man only Ans The
Declaration there spoken of is improper and objective As a Dial tells what a Clock 't is 1. You may gather what time of day 't is if you look on it by the help of our Reason not any Tongue it hath to express thus much Neither hath any Creature an expliâ—â—â— desire of an Eternal Happiness that shall never fail or be interrupted And Lactantius one of the Latin Fathers that liv'd in the said Century places the Characteristical Difference and Specificial Distinction between Man and Beast not in Rationality but in Religion because some Creatures seem to do Acts that are Rational as the Elephant Hare Fox Dog but none that have any appearance of Religion or Piety Now it is a very great truth That God never made any Power or Capacity in any Creature in vain He hath given the Sun an Active Capacity to revive and exhilerate the lower World and it were unnatural if he should not put forth that vertue to that end He hath given Earthly Creatures a pasfive Capacity or Receptive Power to suck in this influence and they do and are covered over with Corn and laugh and sing Psal 65.13 And it 's universally true wheresoever there is a power that can put forth any Act that should not act according to the Power were a Monster and not a Creature God hath given the Fire a power to burn and consume when fit matter is offered and if it should spare the Wood that 's laid on it we should not count it a merciful but a monstrous act God hath made the Water to wet and moisten and if it should not do so what were it good for You would not commend this Property in Horse or Beast if they should fly in the Air or dive under Water the Fish that should shun the Water would be a monstrous and degenerate Breed And is it not as absurd and monstrous for a man that hath a Faculty on purpose to remember God yet to forget him To have a Capacity to be like God and yet not to employ and exercise it for this also is imply'd in our remembrance of him There were no sadder Spectacle in the World than Man were it not for these Acts and what is or will be consequent on them A Toad were not half so bad nor the most hated Creature no nor those that are continually hunted and pursued and live always in danger of the snare or some crafty device or other that may make them a prey to their cruel pursuers These brutish Creatures apprehend not the snare till they are caught in it nor fore-see a mischief till it is upon them nor vex themselves with the memory of what is past But Reason which is Mans proper Vtensil were it not for the service that it may do to God and his Soul make him but the more capable subject of Misery and Torment It helps him to prevent a mischief before it comes and to think on it after it's past and gone and to enjoy a calamity I may say and to chew upon an evil that 's swallowed down and past Alass alass If God gave not Man these Faculties to remember and aspire to him â—t would be far more desirable to be a Beast than a Man since then it 's past all doubt that God hath made Man for himself and given him such a high Capacity on purpose to remember him it 's monstrous and unnatural to forget him 2. Secondly And as he hath given him his Faculties on purpose to remember him so he hath displayed himself in the Firmament of Heaven as purposely to be remembered Psal 111.4 He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered And 1. That God may be remembered by them that 's the very end of them And verse 2. The works are great and magnificent sought out of all as we render it but in the Original it's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is exposed and laid open before all to take notice of And the Italian Translation renders it as it were wickedness in a man upon whom God hath bestowed Eyes to shut them perpetually and to refuse to make any use of so noble a Faculty So it is a wickedness much of the same kind when God hath set so many visible Objects before this Faculty to put him in mind of him that hath made both Faculty and Object and he makes no such use of them he hath Eyes and sees not he hath Objects and doth not understand them Judge what a wicked perversness this is We are prone to think it no great wickedness to commit such a sin as this is and to cross the very end of making our selves and other things whilst we do it not purposely and have no thought of contradiction to God in this sin But let us not deceive our selves when we have so high an obligation upon us to any Duty and are commanded to remember and think upon it and we do not though we do not purposely forget because God bids us to remember yet we are morally and reputatively guilty of thwarting and crossing the Will of God though not in quite so high a degree yet enough to undo us everlastingly unless we repent of what 's past and do otherwise for the time to come This will be but a pitiful shameful answer when God shall come to examine man by man what proficiency we have made amongst the Creatures that were made to instruct us and shall find a dunce instead of a knowing well informed Scholar Do the Heavens declare the Glory of God to the Moles that wâ—nt outward Eyes as it is usually said or to the Brutes that want the inward Eye that is understanding or to Man that is instructed with both these helps and will it be a venial sin think ye to wink with both these He that by all the Glory of Heaven and Earth is not so far enlightned so as to adore the wonderful Perfection of him that made them and to prostrate his very heart in love and reverence to him is wilfully blind and one that shall be dealt with as if he shut his Eyes against all What is there no Workmanship either in Heaven above or Earth beneath or Water under the Earth Is there nothing in the Air or bowels of the Earth that 's worth thine Observation or that can erect our blockish Heart and bring up our Affections to the glorious Artificer and Workman It 's a profound Sleep indeed into which that man is fallen and is a certain forerunner of Death when none of all these excellent Creatures that strike his sence can awaken him to any understanding reverence or love of his Excellency that hath bid all things come forth and stand in their several ranks and even gird themselves to the service of man This sin hath the higher aggravation in that there be so many various ways whereby the several Creatures would recover man to a due remembrance of God I might insist upon those four ways mentioned in the
Gods Word c. so the whole do provoke to a Remembrance of God If the Heathens that want this written Word of God are notwithstanding bound to keep up a Memory of their Maker worthy of his Majesty what an obligation then is the written Word of God to us that have 〈◊〉 to get the knowledge of God and to feed our thoughts with a delightful remembrance of him And as the Word of God so all the Ordinances of God are strong inforcements to this duty How fit a means is Prayer and Meditation and singing of Psalms and participation of the Supper of the Lord and the Conference of Holy Persons together to cure the Atheism of our hearts and to keep us from being unmindful of him if we mind and attend what we do As oft as we receive the Sacrament we are bid to do it in remembrance of him 1 Cor. 11.24 25. And what shall we forget him whilst we have such execellent means to get a sight of his Glory and to draw near to him and acquaint our Souls with him What a sin must it needs be to forget God whilst we are calling to him by Prayer or when he is calling to us and proclaiming his Soveraignty over us his right in us his readiness to receive us Judge what impudence it is to confer and talk of him to eat and drink in his prefence to celebrate his Sabbaths which were appointed as special helps to this Remembrance and yet to forget him To pray and hear and receive the symbols of his Grace and yet to have a heart void of true Remembrance is such an aggravation of this sin as will strike home sooner or later Thus you see the aggravations of the sin of Forgetfulness that arise from the Obligations we have on God's part to remember him And as they that forget God sin against high Obligations on God's part so Secondly They sin against great Obligations 2. On their own part Against 1. Promise and Covenant 2. Oath 3. Profession And therefore they that forget God in despight of all these Obligations are 1. First False and perfidious in a high degree to break Word and Promise with Man and to be false to one like our self is enough to imprint a mark of infamy and disgrace that will stick by as long as life lasteth and to blast such a mans reputation to all that know him And how hard a matter is it to wipe off such a reproach especially if it were a deliberate act in a matter of concernment And who will repose any trust in such a man that hath deceived the just expectation of another in any momentous affair by the breach of his Faith that hath any acquaintance with him When a Man hath so behaved himself that none can lay any hold on what he saith and no trust and confidence can be placed in him he is unfit for Humane Society But to be false and perfidious with God is far more ignominious and exposeth to worser shame and fouler consequences for Man hath incomparably greater obligations to truth and sincerity toward God than towards Men. His hatred of such injustice and unfaithfulness is greater than the most upright Man upon Earth can have and he can far better discover and will more exemplary punish it than any Man hath power or authority to do and none hath or can have that juâ—isdiction over us that God hath If falseness lying and perfidiousness be so hateful to some even because they have the Image of God but imperfectly renewed on themselves we may be sure that God abhors it By thy Precepts I get understanding saith David and therefore I hate every false way Psal 119.104 c. Psal 101.7 c. He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my House he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight But the breach of Promise and Covenant is a high degree of Falshood and Perfidiousness A Promise when 't is made to God is called by a special name a Vow Now what it is to break a Vow Solomon will inform us Eccl. 5.4 5. When thou vowest a Vow to God defer not to pay it for he hath no pleasure in fools pay that which thou hast vowed Better it is thou shouldst not vow than that thou shouldst vow and not pay The reason is because he that hath made a Vow or Promise to God if it be in a case where he was free before his Promise is now under a Bond and if he doth not perform he is insnared by the words of his own mouth and therefore is a fool but if it be in a case where he was bound before he is now bound faster and hath a streighter Obligation and in case of Non-performance he is guilty of greater sin and folly And the more frequently any Vow or Promise hath been made the more guilty and perfidious is he that hath failed in the performance and the Justice to which he hath made himself liable is the more exacting And the breach of a solemn Covenant or Contract is sinful in a higher degree than the bare breach of Promise because in a Covenant there is a further motive to Truth and faithful performance than in a meer Promise for the advantage and emolument that he expects from the party with whom he hath contracted So that he is perfidious and injust in a higher measure What a sin must it needs be to thrust God out of thy Heart and forget him to whom thou hast so often promised and vowed Remembrance for besides thy Baptismal Vow and Promise every time thou presentest thy self before him in Publick Private or Secret thou renewest thy Covenant and Promise to have him for thy All in All and canst thou indeed make him thy All in All and not remember him Canst thou pray by thy self or joyn with others and not lay any further Obligations upon thy self Doth that man confess his sin indeed or mock God that doth not desire the help of God's Grace and promise in the strength thereof to forsake and renounce it And can a man promise to let go his sin and yet not ingage himself to the Remembrance of God which must be the chief means to seperate and remove it Can any man pray for mercy and yet not oblige himself by that Prayer to Remember his Benefactor Can any man be said to thank God for any benefit he hath received and not promise to order his Conversation aright that is to his Glory that hath done so much for him These are the three general parts of Prayer and every one of them implies a new Promise and Obligation to this Remembrance But besides these vertual and implicite Engagements how oft hast thou expresly promised to be his faithful Servant to live to thy Redeemer to be his Disciple to take his Yoke on thee How oft hast thou consented and said Amen when from the Word of God thou hast been told thus much when the Preacher hath convinced thee
else but Hypocrisie and deep Dissimulation It 's the worst sort of Enmity that looks like Friendship and he 's an Adversary to be abhor'd that 's drest up like a Friend and doth insinuate into the Heart and Bosom of him whom he intends to betray by pretended Love and Friendship and therefore David lays this sort of injury more to heart than any that he received from open professed Enemies Psal 55.12 13 14. For it was not an Enemy that reproached me than I could have born it neither was it he that hated me that did magnifie himself against me than I would have hid my self from him But it was thou O Man mine Equal my Guide and mine Acquaintance we took sweet Counsel together and walked unto the House of God in company And mark what a Character he gives of such a Person Psal 55.20 21. He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him he hath broken his Covenant The words of his Mouth were smoother than Butter but War was in his Heart His words were softer than Oyl yet were they drawn Swords There 's none have done more mischief in the Church of God than such as have professed Love and seemed Friends Judas gets into the nearest outward Relation that could be and acts the greatest wickedness under the disguise of a kiss and did that effectually which the Herodians attempted with smooth words and pretensions of friendship but it 's said Jesus perceived their wickedness and disappointed them Mat. 22.18 And who have done the work of the Devil more effectually than those that have professed themselves Christians that is devoted by Vow Covenant and Oath to Christ and yet by Heresie have perverted the Christian Faith and by Schism have rent and torn his Church and by Pride and Contention have set it all in a flame And who were more bitter Enemies to Christ in his Birth and Infancy than the Jews who pretended to be the only People in Covenant with God yet it 's manifest from the most authentick Records and impartial History that they were the most bloody opposers and persecutors of the Gospel and their fury was the hotter because it came under a mask of Zeal And so industrious and implacable was their enmity to the Christian Faith and so great an impediment was the Jewish Persecution to the plantation and propagation of the Gospel that Christianity could not spread and grow to any purpose till this Enemy was taken away by a universal Devastation their Temple and City destroyed and their Memorial perished from the Earth Was it not a horrid aggravation of their Irreverence Contempt and wicked forgetfulness of God that they were accompanied with such a zealous Profession of Love and Fidelity to him The Character that Josephus their own Countrey-man and a most impartial Writer gives of these men that boasted they were Abraham's Seed and the Children of the Promise is this That their wickedness was grown to such a height that if they had not been swept away by the Romans and destroyed in such numbers till none almost were left the very Earth would have opened and swallowed them up It is a fearful sin to oppose and fight against God but to do it in the Garb and Habit of a Friend and Confederate especially if it be done with design is such a sin that will sink the committers of it into deeper condemnation than the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah will them And professed Enemies are like to scape better than these seeming Friends and the more intimate and near the Friendship is that is professed the Treachery that doth accompany it is the more to be abhorred and deserves the blacker Character What then can'st thou expect that God will say to thee or how dost thou think he will proceed against thee that callest thy self a Christian and restest in thy Profession and makest thy boast of God and knowest his Will and approvest the things that are most excellent being instructed out of the Gospel Rom. 2.17 18. And yet the love of Christ constraineth thee not to Repentance Humility and the Practice of those Holy Precepts that he hath given thee the warm Remembrance of his Compassion toward thee doth not teach to order thy Conversation to the credit of the Gospel VVhat a Salutation dost thou expect when thou comest before the presence of his Glory and standest among his Friends if he call thee as thou callest thy self and say Friend how camest thou in hither thou wilt but tremble the more at such a word that will have such a dreadful sentence at the heels and be accompanied with such a terrible doom as shall make thee to abhor a friend to all eternity that deals so like an Enemy O consider this thou that forgetest God and yet hast bound thy self so fast by Vow Covenant Oath and Profession to remember him If those that take pains to imprint him upon their hearts day by day by a fresh Remembrance of his amazing Goodness shall scarce be saved where shall such a false perfidious perjur'd Hypocrite as thou appear Or how wilt thou be able to stand in Judgment Psal 1.5 God will not be mocked neither can he be deceived he expecteth thy service and it is due to him whether he have or have not thy consent But when thou dost acknowledge what thou art indebted to him and hast vowed hearty Subjection and Obedience to him and bound thy self by all the fore-mentioned Bonds thou canst not but see thy sin in forgetting him so well and rise higher and bring a more heinous guilt upon thee I have done with the aggravation of this sins and shew'd the heinousness of it in that it is a sin against The highest Obligations 1. On God's part 2. On Ours I come now to shew the danger of this sin VVhich will appear in the woful effects that tread upon it and follow after it In that This Sin is apt to produce 1. The worst of Sins 2. The worst of Judgments On us 1. First This sin is apt to lead the way to all ungodliness and to multiply into all sin and absurdity whatsoever There 's no Practice so monstrous and unnatural none so base and sordid none so filthy and disgraceful but he that forgets God is in the road way to and may commit nay if the VVind serve and Tyde run that way I mean if the Temptations to it be strong and God do not restrain him he will certainly commit For where God is not uppermost as he cannot be there where he is not remembered These The Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life will get the upper hand and animate that wretched Heart wherein they dwell to all filthy sordid and monstrous practices you can imagine or think upon I do not say that they do all de facto actually prevail where God is forgotten much less do I say that these three sins multiply into all that litter of
wood we have lost our selves in Thus it is if we count but for a day but if we go further and reckon for the month or year we shall find no end Who can count the Dust of Jacob Num. 23.10 or sum up the mercies he doth receive which are like the Dust of the Earth not for smalness but for multitude David observes them to come by whole loads Psal 68.19 Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with his Benefits But our Spiritual Miseries are yet more because they contain all our Temporals so far as they refer to a Spiritual end and how many more who can tell How many mercies concur in our Redemption Vocation Justification Sanctification How many considerations may be fetch'd from the Author from the meritorious cause from the persons that do receive from the instruments that do convey them from the frequency and reiteration of the particulars and from other circumstances of time and place which would swell our Accounts beyond all possibility of Numeration This is the first motive the infinite mercies we receive should prompt us to this Rememembrance Secondly Wouldst thou have God remember thee with compassion in thy greatest necessities then remember him with affection now It may be there are fearful days coming upon some of us before our final departure and solemn appearance before the Judge of all the World What though the Cloud that hangs over this Nation be but the bigness of a mans hand it may quickly grow bigger and blacker till it cover the face of the whole Heaven and bring down a storm of heavier misery upon those that have escaped Judgment hitherto There is nothing can fense a man from all possible Fears and Terrors if God forget us Wouldst thou not be afraid of evil tidings nor faint when the iniquities of thy heels compass thee about Wouldst thou not be confounded in the day of adversity when the Heaven frowns the Sea roars Esay 24.20 And the Earth shall reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man when the world shall be overturned and the transgression thereof shall be heavy on it and the hearts of wicked men shall fail them for fear Then keep alive such remembrance of him as hath been hitherto commended Then come what will nothing shall drive thee to desperation for the Lord God shall be thy confidence and with-hold thine heart from sinking Prov. 3.26 as well as thy foot from being taken This a great Cardinal in this Nation understood when it was too late and therefore when a Messenger from Henry 8. brought him the tidings of his doom and was sent to bring him away to Execution he pitifully complained That if he had served God as faithfully as he had endeavoured to serve his Master he had never met with such a reward As it is the top stone and the perfection of misery to be blotted out of Gods Remembrance so it is a happiness worth a World to be Remembred by him This supported David many a time when he was in miserable distress and brought to the greatest streights when Friends forsook him Enemies threatned him Saul hunted him like a Patridge about the Mountains and he was forced to flee from before his Face and to take Shelter amongst the Philistines whose Champion he had slain and from whom he had little reason to expect any succour and whilst he liv'd in banishment at Ziglag even that was suddenly surprized by the Amalekites and burnt with Fire and his Wives and Friends were taken away Captives and the People that were his only Guard being provoked spake of stoning him But though all this had been enough to have broken the heart of another man not acquainted with David's refuge yet see how David bore up and supported himself 1 Sam. 30.6 And David was greatly distressed for the People spake of stoning him because the Soul of all the People was grieved every Man for his Sons and for his Daughters But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God This helped Hezekiah to digest the proud message of the King of Assyria and to spread the railing Letter before him who he knew could put a Hook into Sennacherib's Nose and turn him back or else defend him against that Army that were grown so insolent by their Victories 2 Chron. 32. And God remembred him verse 21 22. Yea when Esaiah was sent to him to bid him put his House in order and prepare for death it was Armour of Proof to him against the terror of death that he could say Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight which he could ne'r have done if God had not been highest in his Remembrance Esay 38.3 If thou beest one that canst drive out the thoughts of God in thy youthful healthful and more comfortable days expect not that he should remember thee in distress If whilst thou art surrounded with his mercies thou wilt forget that he is gracious to thee when thou art be set with misery and affliction he will forget to be gracious to thee Be wise now therefore and take in these thoughts as thou takest in the Air every day and other comforts which he sendeth thee and lay them up as thy greatest treasure These will sweeten the sowrest Cup and gild over the bitterest Pill and God will certainly remember thee if not to take away the evil yet take out the sting Ahasuerus may forget Mordecai and the Butler may be unmindful of Joseph and the preserved City may not remember the poor man that saved it but God will not forget those that remember him He will be thy refuge and strength and a very present help in the time of trouble Psal 46.1 And then thou needst not fear though the Earth be removed and the Mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea though the Waters thereof roar and be troubled though the Mountains shake with the swelling thereof ver 2 3. Then though thy Flesh begins to fail thee yet thy heart will not or if thy Flesh should fail thee and thy Heart also yet God would remember thee and be the strength of thy hope and thy portion for ever Thou mayst easily foresee the day when Sickness will break thy Body and earthly Delights will forsake thee and Death will be inexorable and take no nay then if thou hast cherished this Remembrance of God thou wilt dare to lay down thy Body in the Dust and as certainly foresee the joyful re-union of thy Soul and Body as now thou dost their uncomfortable dissolution Wouldst thou not then be forgotten of God when thy Friends and all the World will forget thee Then Remember him now Yea wouldst thou be content to go into the place of Forgetfulness and to be forgotten as a dead man out of sight Why all this will not discourage thee if thou hast this remedy at hand But on the
contrary How unprepared is the Man that forgets God for his eternal state How loath to leave the Twig and fall into the Ocean With what regret and reluctancy with what an aking trembling Heart doth he look upon Death who can blame such a Man if he hang back and dare not launch forth into Eternity And therefore it 's said in the Proverbs The wicked is driven hence How unwilling doth he bid farewel to his dear injoyments How loath to part with the Wife out of his Bosom the Children out of his Arms He cannot bear such a loss Nothing is more dreadful to such an impudent man than to look down from the mast of this Life into the ocean of Eternity O what cold and clammy Sweats what saâ— and dismal Representations doth the thought of Death creat in him As ever thou wouldst hold up thy Head in Sickness or any other Affliction and die with comfort and keep thy Heart whole come what will then keep alive this Remembrance of God This is the second Motive Thirdly Remember God for nothing else is worthy thy Remembrance 1. Such a one as I am now speaking of there 's nothing here below that 's worth an act of our Understanding or Will that 's worth a Thought or an Embrace but as they lead to a more perfect Knowledge and Union and are a means suited to our necessity that cannot have any Knowledge worthy of God without his Works nor see him without this Glass whereby he hath represented himself to our weak capacity All Knowledge begins first in sense and we should never come to understand the things that are not seen but by those which are seen God therefore hath made the World as a School for us where we must be trained up and made fit for the higher instructions of his Word and the several Creatures are the Alphabet whereby we are to spell out the Nature and Perfections of God What a shame is it then to let sense go before and no Vnderstanding follow after To pore upon the Letters and not to mind the sense and meaning of them To exercise an act upon the visible Creatures without a following Act by way of inference and deduction to the invisible God What folly to dote upon the Letters and not to regard the meaning of them and to lose our understanding in a maze of insignificant things that stand for nothing if they teach not the knowledge of him that animates all things and is the end and signification of them What is there in Man or any other Creature that thou shouldst make an Idol of it and that thou shouldst set it up in thine Heart and prostrate thine Affections to it Is there any thing that deserves the reputation of a being every way full and perfect in which thou mayest acquiesce but God Yet if he have not the Remembrance I am pressing to something else will strike in and supply his absence and usurp thine Affections And be it what it will besides it is but a Reed or an Arm of Flesh that 's got so high in thine esteem and then thus saith the Lord Cursed be the Man that trusteth in Man and maketh Flesh his Arm and whose Heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the Heath in the Desart and shall not see when good cometh Jer. 17.5 6. All-sufficiency Immutability and indefectible Fidelity are proper to God alone It 's no wonder for the Sun to set and be eclipsed as glorious a body as it is It 's no marvel if all Creatures prove Liars Psal 116.11 and shew themselves untrusty and deceitful As it is their nature to deceive so it is our sin and folly to lean hard on them and be deceived by them Thou mayst as wisely expect that the Wind should always blow from the same quarter and sit in the same corner as that any created Being should afford thee constant help and never shame thee But the portion of Jacob is not like these changeable things Our Fathers trusted in thee saith the Prophet David and were delivered They hoped in thee and were not confounded Psal 22.4 5. Let him that is void of understanding run to something else and remember it with greatest pleasure and repose his trust in a lie and adore a silly Man that can but promote him to Riches and Honour Mark what will be the issue may be when thou art just expecting the fruit of sinful trust his Breath goeth forth here turneth to his Earth in that very day his thoughts perish May I not well say therefore Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help that remembreth the Lord his God He that is fond of any thing here below and setteth his Heart upon it and sufâ—ereth his Affections to brood over it is like the Patridge that setteth upon Eggs and hatcheth them not and in the end he shall certainly prove himself a fool Jer. 17.11 His warm thoughts that sit upon vanity all the day long shall never hatch and produce the thing he expected nor any thing that will look like happiness when his Judgment shall come to more maturity Why then is God so seldom in thy thoughts why art thou no more delighted in the Remembrance of him Why doth he dwell no more in thy Meditations Art thou willing to be deceived and labour in vain and to lie down in frustration and disappointments If thou couldst name any thing under Heaven that were not chargeable with a thousand Imperfections and were not liable to the Moth and Rust If thou couldst assure thy self that thy Friend will never prove perfidious that thy Lovers will always bear thee the same Affection which thou imaginest now they do If Youth and Health and Life would last ten times longer than they are like to do yet when the competition lies between God and them it 's folly and madness to prefer anything in thy Remembrance before him I might here single out the things that are most attractive of Mens Affections and have indeed the highest esteem and love in a Carnal Heart and then produce the several disparagements they are liable to when they are compared with an immutable Independant and All-sufficient Being But then I should too much digress And so much by way of Question to shame us and to stir us up to so excellent and necessary Duty But you will say What is the best course to get and cherish such a worthy Remembrance of God and to feed it up to a greater degree of Strength and Perfection To which I answer That there are means 1. Proper To beget this Remembrance where it never was 2. To recover it where it is sensibly lost 3. To quicken it to a greater Energy and Life where it is but weak and faint 2. Common to them all and have an influence upon every one of these I shall rather chuse to insist upon the more general and common Helps and Directions and wave the more distinct handling of
superstruct this Happiness and build that Joy upon it that shall never end O how great are the Priviledges of one that Remembereth God whom he doth visit and continually comfort and rejoyce with refreshig Consolations To whom he openeth when they come to him with desire and doth embrace when they cast themselves on him whom he is teaching and shewing the pleasure that strangers intermeddle not with But were this all they would be miserable in comparison of what they now are How sweet are his very Delays Frowns and the Chastisements of his Rod His Estrangements Threatnings and the signs of his Displeasure dreadful to the Wicked but sweet to them that have his special Grace to make their advantage of them are in the mean while supported under them I know they are sad to them and cause great thoughts of Heart but having the root of the matter in them Job 19.28 And being forewarned by the Word of God that thus it will sometime be with his dearest Children and directed what to do in such times of Mourning and knowing that they shall not be tempted above their strength These considerations recommend Sufferings and Afflictions to them and make them far more desirable to them than the most splendid Pomp and Prosperity of those that forget God As all the Mirth and Pleasures of wicked men are preparing them for Misery and would be dreadful to their thoughts if they did but see what they all contribute to their eternal shame So all is contrary in an honest and pure hearted Believer not only the smiles but the angry looks of God are sweet to his Apprehensions not as they are signs of his displeasure but as they help him forward in the hatred of sin and mortifie his Affections to the Pleasures here below I know the Anger of God is not directly desirable to any Person but the sanctified fruits of it are desirable And some little of it when sin that would otherwise undo us makes it necessary and it is mingled with a greater proportion of Love and the Soul is disposed by Grace to tremble under it and to be rid of it upon any terms Consider therefore thou that Remembrest God Is it not an unvaluable comfort to fore-know that all thy Trouble and Sorrows shall befriend thee and that the leanest pasture thou canst be put in shall feed thee up to everlasting Joys when on the other side those that forget God though they fare deliciously every day and are gotten into the richest pastures and have the desire of their carnal hearts yet they are but fatting themselves for the slaughter and who would envy a fat Sheep or Hog that fares a little better and is preparing for the Shambles Nay who would envy a Lobworm in a fat Dunghil They seed on wicked men 〈◊〉 makes them so fat and merry it is but Dung and Filth in comparison of that which a Soul mindful of Good feeds upon Methinks that place should sound dreadful to one that prospereth in the World and doth not remember God Psal 92.7 The two verses that go before it ushers it in and that follows after in fearful pomp and state O Lord how great are thy Works and thy Thoughts very deep A brutish man knoweth not neither doth a fool understand this When the wicked spring as the Grass and all the workers of Iniquity do flonrish it is that they shall be destroyed for ever And we may say as well on the other side that God is as wonderful in his thoughts toward such as are mindful of him though a Fool understand not That when the humble Believer in whose thoughts God in Christ dwelleth uppermost withers as the Grass and fades like the green Herb it is that he may flourish for ever If thou art trod upon thou shalt grow the better Thy necessities shall cause thee to make more haste and get nearer to the Fountain that is opened to the eternal praise of Gods Mercy for such needy ones All thy miseries shall but the more illustrate the Glory of his Compassion toward thee when refuge faileth thee and none careth for thy Soul Many a one had liv'd and died in perpetual obsourlty whose names are a rich persume in the Church of God thorough their Sufferings and Afflictions which have made them the more famous and embalm'd their Memory When the ways of a Man please the Lord he can and will in one sense or other make his very Enemies to be his Friends 1. Their hatred shall be turned into love or if it do continue still God shall turn their very hatred and enmity to the greater advantage of those that are mindful of him This made Paul to boast in his Infirmities Necessities and Tribulation 2 Cor. 11.30 What if thou art poor and necessitous if the Lord remember thee What if thou hast no Friends on Earth if thou hast one in Heaven What if thou art destitute of Health it self the greatest Earthly Blessing if thou art one that remembrest God it shall turn to thine advantage If thou hast God in thy Remembrance thou hast all for he will make every state and condition serve thy turn What if thou art a Servant if God be thy Master If thou hast nothing to recommend thee unto Men if thou hast this Grace I am pressing to to recommend thee unto God thou shalt be more a gainer than if thou hadst had Dominion in the World and all the Paint and Varnish that would set thee off to the Eye of Men. Thy Temptations Reproach Sufferings of every kind and thy very Prosperity and Wordly Happiness which for the most part is such a preparative to Destruction shall be like the Dew and Sun-shine to thee and make thee more fruitful and ripen thy Graces if thou art one that hast God always in thy Remembrance Thirdly If thou art one that remembrest God as I have expressed thou hast the Key to unlock all the Mercies of God and to open the rich and most rarest Treasures of Divine Grace and to get the very desire of thy Heart I mean thou mayst come with Faith and Confidence to the Throne of Mercy and open thy very Heart to him who hath an Ear for all thy Requests The secrets of the Lord are with them that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant Psal 25.14 and Psal 37.4 Delight thy self in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart and Jam. 5. later clause 16. v. The effectual fervent Prayer of a Righteous Man availeth much Now to fear the Lord to remember him to delight in him are but several Descriptions of a Righteous Man and Believer Thou canst not have God in thy Mind and Heart but thou wilt fear him love him delight in him in some degree think on him trust in him in the way that he hath directed and then thou art a Believer and a Righteous Person in the Gospel sense though not in the sense of the Law that requires
that condemneth such practices as you can allow and approve and sets a black mark upon all those in whom there is any reigning sin Take heed sin committed with deliberation and allowance is not far from it for one such sin mightily disposeth to another and where once such sins are ordinary and habitual it shews that sin hath gotten the dominion But the mind will not be so averse to thy duty that hath a respect to all the Commandments and that doth not give toleration to any one sin that it knows to be such but doth confess shame himself for strive and Pray against every corruption that he is conscious to himself of I know some difficulty there will be after all but yet such as will easily yield and be overcome when once this grand impediment is removed And no sin hath your allowance and consent but is seriously rejected and opposed 2dly The next great enemy to this necessary duty of Consideration is a fond and inordinate delight in any thing here on earth For where there is such a doting love your Thought will be continually at the command of that beloved object and all the other Affections will be still imployed under the command of that doting love If it be something in present possession your heart will be dayly with it or if it be off a little while it is not at rest or else it 's doing something that may root this inordinate love and make it faster and stronger its main care is to keep fast hold and its only fear is lest it should be deprived of it And Consideration there will be little or none unless it be to keep out the light of those Truths that would spoile the pleasure of such an Idolized comfort Possibly there may be in such a heart some Thoughts of God and the Life to come especially in those that are frequently told and in part convinced of the necessity of such Thoughts but whilst such a foolish love prevaileth such Thoughts will come to nothing and be made of none effect or if the heart be thus inordinatly set upon a thing that is not yet in its possession thy defires will be so eager and impatient after it that there will be neither time nor room for such Consideration as I am now perswading thee to whilst thy mind is disturbed and vexed with such insolent Passions as these you may easily imagine with what Tergversation and backwardness it will come to such a work as this as doth discover that sinfulness and folly of them Every thing naturally seeketh its own preservation and so we must expect that lust will do also it will keep possession so long as it 's able its hard to pursue any worldly pleasure with heat and passion and at the same time to enter upon any serious Consideration of the vanity of it it 's not casie to let the affections loose upon any sinful and unlawful delights and with all to consider impartially at the same time the fearfulness of Gods displeasure against such practices There 's nothing can be well done where Love doth not lead the way and how can Spiritual love prevail where Carnal Farthly love hath got dominion I know God can bring such a man to Consideration that hath captivated his heart to some Earthly delight otherwise it were hard to think how he could be brought to Repentance but then usually the strength and vehemency of the affection is abated either by the power of God's Word or some affliction or other before the mind will be brought to any sober Consideration But yet I say whilst such inordinate love is in exercise and strength it will keep out Consideration and set the hearâ— against it So that if such a one would have his mind at liberty to Consider he must draw the Fewel that feedeth Affection and weaken it by a resolved Abstinence from that which is its nourishment and submit to any afflictions that God sendeth for his help and be glad of such a blessed advantage to bring him to his right mind again otherwise that work of Consideration will go but heavily on especially when the things to be considered are so much of another nature and so opposite to all Carnal Fleshly love and delights whatsoever Thirdly Another great hindrance to Consideration will be the Company and Talk of more worldly men You shall be sure to meet with nothing from such Fellowship as this that will animate and quicken you to such Thoughts as these if your mind be never so little disposed to meditate in the Law of God and think of a future reckoning and account and to examine what preparation is made towards it you shall find enough in their Frothy Idle Impertinent or Sinful discourse to quench such Thoughts and to bend your mind quite another way but nothing to promote or set forwards any good inclination or desire Alas the the heart of man is naturally too backward to Sober and Impartial Consideration of the most concerning matters that we have need of all the help we can get to put the mind in such Heavenly frame and temper and need not any thing to pull back and discourage It 's necessary to retire from the company and converse of those that are good when we would attend this work to any purpose much more from the Society of men whose Tongues are continually imployed about vanity and sin But if thou wouldst be fit for the Consideration that I am pressing on thee avoid such Company as this not only when thou art more solemnly addressing thy self to this work but also at other times also For such Companions will be storing thy mind with such empty notions and impressions as will pervert it and keep out such matter that should furnish and supply it for the successful peformance of this duty O how doth the Chatt and foolish Talk of Idle Light-headed men damp any good Seed in thee and weaken all good affections and therefore must needs be a deadly enemy to the Consideration which should be promoted thereby I appeal to those that have their Ears continually filled with discourse about the matters of this Life about their Flocks and their Herds and their Lands and their Trades where the Fair is to day and where the Market is to Morrow and what News is stirring to say no worse how hard is it to get any Reverential Thoughts of God or any affecting apprchensions of the Life to come It is no easie matter to get thy heart affected with thy sin and the mischief it hath done thee and that woful state and condition of those that die in it when thy discourse is altogether of another nature But if the discourse be Wanton Obscene Prophane and much more if it be â—theistical and intended to the scorn and derision of Holiness or any of the means God hath appointed to promote it what impression this is like to make upon the Hearers I wish you nover know by experience
it is to escape without Repentance Who more likely to abhor himself to be humbled and broken in heart to confess his Sin with Shame and to resolve against it which are but the several parts of Repentance than he that considers how he hath affronted God perverted his Order seduced his Brethren and wronged his own Soul and disparaged the very Reason that God hath given him and laid the Foundation of Gods Eternal displeasure and his own everlasting ruine You see Consideration when it is of such particulars is the ready way to bring a Sinner to Repentance And on the other side who so like to find joy and pleasure in the Contemplation of Heaven and the joys thereof in the possession it self and the promise that gives Right and Title to it than he that hath some good hope through Grace that he shall enjoy it So that you see of what use Consideration is both before and after Conversion but yet as before Regeneration there may be in the heart of a Sinner that love which worketh by desire though not that which worketh by complacency to Heaven and heavenly things so before Conversion there may be that Consideration that is forced and constrained but after Conversion it 's like to be more sweet and pleasant and to bring in greater profit and advantage O could you but look upon God as your reconciled Father in Christ and one that is at peace with you how would this help up your thoughts Heavenward and sweeten your Meditations of the life and happiness to come you would not need then so much to force and spur up your mind to such comfortable thoughts at least sometimes it will be getting up of its own voluntary accord upon Mount Nebo to view the promised Land he that hopes to be one of the Inhabitants of the Heavenly Jerusalem will at least sometimes walk about Sion and go round her and tell the Towers thereof And mark well her Bulwarks and view and consider her stately Mansions and Palaces Psa 48.12 13. what an encouragement will you have to look up and behold the glory and perfection of the Divine Nature when you can say This is my Father and these Attributes I have an Interest in But yet I must needs confess that even after Conversion there will be oft-times much backwardness and reluctancy to this spiritual and heavenly Duty and you will need to quicken up your selves and chide your backward hearts that they should be so strange to the place where their Treasure is laid up But yet it will not be so hard to bring your heart to such Meditations as it was when you were without hope and without God in the world Fifthly It will further the work of consideration to lay Temporal things in the balance with Eternal things and to make advantage of every Object that 's presented to our Senses to make the consideration of the highest and greatest things more warm and piercing You may very well and rationaily conclude that if the glory of Earth be so great as to dazle the eyes of some beholders and strongly to enamour their affections that the glory of Heaven doth far out-shine it He hath reserved joy and gladness indeed for that place and state if there be so much to be found in this sinning imperfect state here on Earth for all Earthly things serve but to the example and shadow of Heavenly things Heb. 8.5 If the beauty of the body be so taking that men and women oftentimes dote upon it what is the beauty of the Soul do you think and if it were to be seen with bodily eyes how much would it ravish and amaze the beholders If the pleasure of the Senses be so sweet and delicious that men will buy them at the dearest rate how sweet must the pleasures of the Soul needs be when there is so vast a difference between the Soul and Body that are the subjects of these pleasures As there is an unspeakable disproportion between a Spirit and a Body so there must needs be as wide a disproportion between the delights of the one and the delights of the other For I suppose none can be so absurd as to think that the state to come shall be no better than this present state and that mens Bodies are as much worth as their Souls and the Heaven which is the place of his glorious Habitation and Palace is no more adorned than the Earth None can be so void of reason to think that God bestows as much upon his Rational Creatures whilst they are in a state of Tryal and Probation as when they are come to Perfection and are actually chosen to be Citizens of the Heavenly Corporation where they shall live for ever How can the joy of Seed-time be comparable to the joy of Harvest And how can this visible Sun rejoyce the Creatures that it shines upon so much as the Face of God will rejoyce those that behold it You may well therefore rise up in your Meditations from any perfection that you behold on Earth to admire those perfections that are unseen They are the greatest that lye not open to the bodily eye nor can be enjoyed by any Corporeal Faculty or Organ so that when you walk abroad and look upon the glory of the visible Heaven and Earth you may much more admire the splendour and excellency of the invisible Heavens and consequently of all those things that lead thither God that made all things made those visible things that they might be some advantage to the Understanding of things invisible and that they might lead up our apprehensions and affections to him that cannot be immediately seen without the help of such a Glass God is infinitely exalted above our understanding neither are we capable of having any direct and proper Conceptions of the state and life to come and therefore the glory of Heaven is set forth to us in the Word of God by such things as seem glorious to our Senses The Streets of the New Jerusalem or Heaven are said to be paved with Gold and the Gates to consist of Pearl and precious Stones and the pleasures of that state are set forth by a Feast because these are so pleasing to our Senses Now though we must not understand these things in a proper litteral sense yet we are hence instructed that the happiness is exceeding great and such as cannot be well understood by us but by such helps as these So that we may well argue from any pleasures or excellency here on Earth to the excellency and pleasure of that state and make this advantage of all sensible comforts to make our apprehensions of things spiritual more lively and affecting As therefore you may collect the unspeakable torment and misery of the Damned by the pressures and calamities that we feel here on Earth and Hell is usually set forth by Fire and Darkness and a Worm continually feeding upon the Conscience which are things obvious to our Senses so
first thing that I recommend to your Consideration as being most worthy of it viz. The Nature and Attributes of God with application to your Affection and Practice Secondly The next thing that is worthy of your serious thoughts and daily consideration is wherefore you were born into the world Can any man that hath not laid his reasoning Faculty quite asleep think that he was made to live forty or threescore years in the world and then to die like a Brute and there 's an end of the Story He that will take the pains to consider and make use of the light that 's offered to him both in Nature and Scripture shall find that Man was made for something else and that he is worse than a Brute that looks no higher I take it for granted that no man can think that such a Noble Creature as Man is was made by chance by a happy conjuncture of a few fortuitous Atoms that jostled together and met at last into such an orderly shape as if all had been contrived with the greatest wisdom imaginable Nor do I think that any one that hath not quite lost his understanding can imagine that he grew out of the Earth as Grass or Trees much less will he say that there was no first Man but that there hath been a Succession of Reasonable Creatures from Eternal Ages If therefore he could not possibly come into the world any of these ways then he must be made by a Wisdom far higher than his own and that can be none but God These things being supposed can any man in his wits think that God made the highest and best of his Creatures here on Earth with such Faculties and endued him with understanding and put such desires into him that nothing in this world can satisfie to live a little while below and torment himself and to rule and domineer over the other Creatures and devour them and live as he list and then after he is dead to be had no more in remembrance Surely he might have plaid at such a Game as this without Reason he might have satisfied his lusts and took his ease and never have missed this Faculty that doth but chastise him for his brutishness and help to make him more miserable than those that want it It is most certain that God hath design'd him for a higher end even for the service of himself an Eternal life with him hereafter It 's most worthy of your serious consideration that you may be fully satisfied and know whether you have done this work If indeed you can think after you have well considered that it s no matter how a man lives so he can but enjoy a little mirth and laughter in the world then you may cast off all other care if you will and study how to live merrily and Crown your selves with Rose-buds before they be withered If any man can consider and reason impartially and think it is the wisest way to enjoy the pleasures of Meat and Drink and Lust and Ease he shall have my consent to take his course Who would envy a man that was made to live above the Stars and to out-shine the Sun in all its glory that will chuse rather to go to Grass and to feed with his Cattel All the difference is that he hath a little more Wit than a Cow or a Horse and therefore can do more mischief than one of them but his pleasure is but brutish and of no higher a stamp than theirs O consider that though you may stifle your Reason and smother the Light that teacheth you to live soberly righteously and godly in this present evil world you shall not always prevail against it if you will not let it speak now it will speak whether you will or no and cry out bitterly against you hereafter Consideration would roundly and quickly tell you that you were made to know love and obey God that made you for a while in this world and then be removed to the sight and enjoyment of himself other things sublunary were made for the service of Man but Man for Gods immediate service his very Constitution and the make and frame of all his faculties proclaim thus much What should he do with an Immortal Soul to walk up and down the world with if he were not to live in another world Why should he be put to School among the visible Creatures and be under the discipline and instructions of his Maker day and night which other Creatures are not partakers of if he were not training him up for a higher State Alas God delighteth not in cruelty nor in making this life a burden to us it is that he might prove us and try us and wean us from things temporary and awaken us to seek out for that happiness that indeed we were made for Job therefore takes it for a high favour to be thus severely educated What is Man that thou should'st magnifie him saith he or the Son of Man that thou should'st set thy heart upon him and that thou should'st visit him every morning and try him every moment If this were not in order to a future good why should he not complain rather that God hath made him in a worse condition than the Beasts they enjoy pleasure without any remorse and lay them down in their Dens and are secure but Man vexeth himself with a thousand cares and frighteth himself with as many fears and seeth evil before it comes and feeleth it after its past and gone which Brutes cannot do But as Earthly Parents if they are wise will train up their Children with more severity than they will their servants and others that they bear not such a respect to so the most wise and gracious God useth a more severe Discipline towards Man whom he intendeth to a greater honour than towards the rest of his Creatures he letteth them take their course whilst he tyes Fetters and Bands upon men and tyeth them by his Laws to Noble and Worthy actions and scourgeth them with his Rod when they deviate and wander from the way of life and happiness as if he would even constrain them to be happy O why do we no more pursue our own happiness when God doth even entreat us and spur us on by so many encouragements and hath made us for this very work and business Shall God be more solicitous for our welfare than we are for our own O poor deluded sinner thou mistakest thy work and business and where thy happiness lies when thou art pleasing thy flesh and greedily hunting after the pleasures thereof Thou thinkest that fleshly pleasure or worldly gain is godliness but it will prove quite contrary in the end and thou wilt then know when it is too late that godliness is the greatest pleasure and gain I know it 's natural to thee to thirst after happiness seek it then in the way that God hath prescribed or thou shalt never purchase thy desire though thou
by a satisfying ravishing sight and intuition Were the Soul it self loosned from this bodily Prison it would be a Spectacle worth your beholding and a most delectable glorious sight and your curiosity to behold such a sight as this would be far more excusable than theirs whom our Saviour taxed in that question What went you out for to see a Reed shaken with the wind But what went you out for to see a man cloathed in Purple and soft rayment such are in Kings houses Mat. 11.8 And if then the Soul of man be such a beautiful taking sight what a blessed sight will that be when God shall display the fulness of his glory If a Spirit be so bright and glorious what is the Father of Spirits to whom all created beauty is but a drop What a goodly sight will that be to behold the company of Prophets Martyrs and Apostles cloathed in shining rayment with Crowns on their Heads and Palms in their hands And what a ravishing pleasure must it needs be to see Sun and Stars under our feet and to behold the order and beauty of the Heavenly Jerusalem and to joyn in that Heavenly Consort to be admitted into his presence that hath made the Soul and Body out of nothing that hath fulness of joy at his right hand and pleasures for evermore Psal 16.11 Happy are the persons indeed that after a few miserable days here on Earth shall be translated thither into that Heavenly Palace with long life will he satisfie them and shew them his Salvation Psal â— 16 Talk no more so exceeding proudly O ye Sons of men of your worldly Dignity and Honour what a Dream and meer Imagination is all Earthly felicity to this of the Saints in Heaven Your riches if they were worthy to be named when we are discoursing of the riches of the Inheritance of the Saints Eph. 1.12.18 yet they may be corrupted and your garments may be Moth-eaten James 5.1 But the glory of the Saints endureth for ever for the Lord himself hath prepared a City for them Heb. 11.16 Though they were contemn'd here on Earth yet they shall have glory enough in Heaven Then shall that great Soveraign of the World command the best Robe to be brought forth and put it on them and call for the fatted Calf to entertain them and they shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in his Eternal Kingdom and they shall have an Everlasting Feast of joy and gladness Luke 15.22 23. Here they have but a Tast and do but sip now and then but there they shall have â—uch a draught that shall satisfie their Souls with Eternal pleasure a Cup that shall be ever going down O the joys of that state that no tongue can utter no mortal man did ever comprehend But yet mistake me not I do not intend by these borrowed expressions to intimate a Turkish Paradise to you of carnal delights and pleasures neither would I pervert your judgment by that which is meant for the Excitation and advancement of your affections It 's very material that your apprehensions of that glory be as right as we can attain to in such a place of darkness and distance from it where we live if you should mistake a Fleshly for a Spiritual felicity to be enjoyed hereafter it 's very possible that even a voluptuous Epicure may think himself in the Suburbs of that Kingdom already and that his Heaven is already begun here on Earth These forms of Speech therefore taken from eating and drinking and feasting whereby the Scripture represents to you the transcending pleasures of the other life are but Spectacles for weak eyes and a help for humane infirmity We are uncapable in this life of true and proper Conceptions of the happiness of that state only in general that it will be spiritual and not like these fleshly pleasures that here we tast of whilst we are in this Prison of the Body we are not able to understand the liberty that there we shall enjoy whilst we are here below in this Dungeon of the body we are not capable of beholding the light and brightness of that glory But you may safely use these Spectacles to help the dulness of your sight when Heaven is proposed to you and take the benefit of these gross expressions if they will but help to attract your desires and to raise your hopes and expectations more Heavenwards whilst you do but remember that the pleasures of that state are incomparably greater than all the pleasures here on Earth and quite of another kind that here we want a faculty to express because we want a faculty to tast You know a Horse or a Cow would take little pleasure in that food that is most delicious to us yea and many a man hath pleasure unintelligible to another man because he wants his tast and experience And it 's very hard to describe pleasure that depends upon a tast and experience that we our selves have not The sweetness of Honey would never be understood by all the definitions in the world if we had never tasted it Marvel not therefore if I tell you that the joys of that state are not to be properly understood here on Earth because we have now neither the tast nor the Meat that then we shall feed on I mean neither the faculty nor the object And certain it is that all pleasure is founded in the suitableness of the Faculty to the Object Since therefore neither Faculty nor Object shall be then the same that here we have the glorious pleasures of the perfected Saints must needs be beyond our Comprehensions But if you shall reply and say that Grace and Glory differ only gradually and not specifically and that they are the same in kind though not in the height of degree and therefore that the Regenerate and such as are truly enlightned and partakers of the Holy Ghost may taste the Heavenly gift and the Powers of the world to come Heb. 6.4 5. I answer they may better understand than others can that want their imperfect grace but yet there is so vast a difference between Faith and Sight perfect and imperfect Knowledge the Mustard-seed and the Tree that grows up from it that you may well say it is at the best far beyond their compleat and adequate comprehension And will not such a happiness as this be worthy thy frequent consideration Thou dost not soundly believe it saith Drexelius if thou dost but seldome and slightly think on it It cannot be that such as penetrate and search into this blessedness with lively active and piercing thoughts should venture the loss of it upon any terms Thou would'st have little list to part with thy hopes of future happiness for the gain of all Earthly delights if Consideration had once taught thee what Heaven is or if the Devil or the world should surprize thee before thou hast well considered what it is and befool thee to let go the hopes of Eternal Life
health and strength and friends may prove treacherous and unfaithful all thy worldly hopes may become like a Spiders Web Job 8.14 The Heavens over thy head may turn into darkness and the Sun and Stars may refuse to give their light the Earth may fail under thy feet and reel to and fro and stagger like a Drunken Man and the Inhabitants thereof may be at their wits end but the Word of God will never fail thee it shall be accomplished in despight of all opposing power and the threatnings and promises thereof shall stand when all other things shall fall to the ground and be like water that 's spilt on it that cannot be gathered up again Heaven and Earth shall pass away but not one jot nor tittle of the Word of God shall pass till all be fulfilled Mat. 5.18 And Mat. 24.35 God that hath established the Earth so firmly though it hang upon nothing and it abideth and shall abide till the great Earthquake shall come he that hath fixed the Ordinances of Heaven and Earth and setled the appointed times and seasons of Spring and Summer Winter and Harvest Day and Night and they continue to this daâ— without variation according to his Decree for all are his servants Psal 119.90 91. and Gen. 8.22 will make good the word that is gone out of his mouth and it shall not return till it hath accomplish'd that which he hath spoken Isa 55.11 And therefore David acknowledgeth that he had magnified his Word above all his Name So much for the matter of our Consideration or the things that we should frequently consider I conclude with that in Psal 107.43 Who so is wise will consider these things and they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. I come in the next place to speak to the manner or to shew how Consideration shold be exercised First after you have lift up your heart to God for the heavenly Light and Assistance set your self seriously to the duty as in his sight and presence Trifling with all matters of moment is inconsistent with the nature of such things and betrays our folly But it is the bane and poison of all Religion and a wicked disparagement both to that and our selves if whatsoever our hand findeth to do we should do it with our might Eccles 9.10 then much more should we rouze up our selves and put to all our strength when we have works of the greatest consequence in our hands we must not be slothful in such business as this is especially but fervent in spirit serving the Lord Rom. 12.11 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain is a precept that extends it self to all Religious Acts and strictly forbids a slight and customary performance of them Thou art guilty of Irreverence and contempt of such sacred things and consequently of God himself to whom they are nearly related when thou medlest in them with a careless and wandring spirit and mayest expect that the anger of the Lord should wax hot against thee when thou art so cold in his service If God threatned to spew the Church of Laodicea out of his mouth because she was but lukewarm in his service Rev. 3.16 He will certainly deal worse with them that are stone-cold in their approaches to him The heart and soul of Consideration and all other Religious Acts are wanting when the heart and soul and strength are not imployed in them For when earnestness and serious intention of the mind and heart are deficient it not only turns Religious Acts into meer form but makes them utterly unsuccessful You will miss of your intended purpose when you come to God and seek for mercy in a careless and customary manner you will never obtain wisdom at the hands of God if you know not how to be importunate for it when you are shut up in affliction and misery and cannot get out if you cannot cry aloud and knock at the door of grace it will never be opened to you The Lord will give you a praying spirit fervent in supplication if ever he intend to give you the thing prayed for He will give you a heart seriously to Consider if ever he work the saving truths into your heart if you are not serious in the service of God you cannot be sincere and how well God will accept that service in which sincerity is wanting look into the word of God and Judge The Consideration I am pressing you to is a principal part of Gods Worship I speak not of that which is occasional and ordinary for such Consideration must accompany all your Actions both toward God and men if ever they be prudently managed but of that Consideration which is set and solemn and that requires some time to be set apart for it as well as Prayer and other Duty during which time we must no more intermix our thoughts with worldly matters then we must in Prayer and Hearing and Reading the Word of God But our Meditations must be tied to the most weighty saving truths till we begin to feel the power of them upon our hearts that so they may command our Lives 'T is such serious Consideration as this about the greatest and uncontroverted truths for some set time together till suitable affections and resolutions be kindled in us which is such an excellent part of Gods Worship because it inspires the Soul with Life and Fitness for all other Worship and Service and if you do not awaken and call up the powers of your Soul and seriously imploy them in this work of Consideration you are never like to see the beauty and excellency of these saving truths nor to feel the mighty power of them Ignorance and prejudice have so fast closed the eyes of your understanding that unless you rub hard they will never be opened and the affections are so backward to the most weighty things that unless they be set upon in good earnest and enforced by the evidence and mighty power of these truths they will not stir to any purpose nor ripen your Soul for Practice Secondly You must narrowly watch over your heart and keep it close to the work and when it refuseth you must use the Authority God hath given you over it to compel it Though the Soul hath not that absolute command over its own thoughts and affections which once it had before it rebelled against God yet it hath not quite lost its Soveraignty and power Experience doth sufficiently assure us that we can command our thoughts to this or that subject keep them on it if we will take pains with them even those that want the special Grace of God and are unsanctified in heart can yet bend their thoughts to think on God his Attributes and his Word and Works the Life to come the vanity of Creatures and make very pertinent moving discourses on them else none can Preach but such as are endued with saving Light and Knowledge much more may they command
shall confine all that I have to say to kindle and stir up this Affection First It is most highly congruous and doth very much beseem a reasonable Creature And that for these following Reasons Reason 1. First Because God is the most excellent and lovely Object And as in reason the greatest Beauty caeteris paribus should attract the strongest Love so the contrary implies absurdity and contradiction which Reason doth abhor For what can it be less than a Contradiction for one that hath understanding to prefer a less good before a greater there being equality and likeness in all other Circumstances The same rational Appetite that prompts us to love Goodness doth also encline us to love the greatest Good with the greatest heat and fervour of Affection But especially when the difference is so vast as it is between God and all competitory Good whatsoever They are but like a Drop to the whole Ocean or a small Dust compared to the whole Globe of Earth A single Beam of Light may as well stand up and vye Glory as with the Sun And a little Sword of Grass may better compare with the Spirit of Life and Vegetation and all the Flowers of the Field as any Created Good may hold up its head against God Shall I say As far as the East is from the West or as far as the Heaven is above the Earth so great is the distance between God and all Creatures put together Or rather the distance is a thousand times greater even infinite and incomprehensible and far beyond any created Capacity to conceive His Excellency is most apparent above all other Things 1. In that all the kinds and degrees of Excellency and Perfection are united in him which are but scattered and divided amongst the Creatures and that which they have but some faint degree of dwelleth in him in the highest measure of fulness and exuperancy So that if there be any Beauty or Glory in the Frame of Heaven and Earth or any Creatures in them contained that can stir up desire and attract our Love the same Motive with infinite Advantage may be fetch'd from the most lovely Nature of God And though the things with which Mortal Men are commonly moved are not formally in God because they imply imperfection such as are Worldly Riches Corporeal Beauty Sensual Pleasures and all those Accommodations which suit that part of us which is Flesh and Blood yet they are in him these several ways 1. Per viam Eminentiae by way of Excellency as the rational Soul doth eminently contain the sensitive though not formally And as the understanding of Man that invents Watches and Clocks and other Utensils is far better than they and doth eminently contain them 2. Per viam Causalitatis by way of Efficiency in that he is able to produce and create any of these things with the least Word of his Mouth He is therefore eminently able to furnish out all good to the Soul that loveth him And so he hath promised To give them the desires of their Heart that delight in him Psal 37.4 And therefore the Apostle had ground enough to tell us That Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of Man in this life to understand the things which God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2.9 And David had cause enough for such a passionate Invitation O tast and see that the Lord is good blessed is the Man that trusteth in him Which Trust supposeth and implieth Love 2. He is the productive Cause of all that is desirable and truly Good as I just intimated before He is the Womb from whence all other Good hath its birth and original For he hath made Heaven and Earth and all that in them is Psalm 95.5 The Sea is his and he made it and his hands prepared the dry Land And Psal 104. per totum There 's no Virtue Comeliness or Perfection in any Creature but he is the Author of it The Influences of the Heaven and the Fertility of the Earth and all the Verdure and Glory of the Grass and Flowers of the Field do but declare and set forth his infinite Perfection Who watereth the Hills from his Chambers and the Earth is satisfied with the Fruit of his Works And causeth the Grass to grow for the Cattel and Herb for the Service of Man that he may bring forth Food out of the Earth And Wine that maketh glad the Heart of Man and Oyl to make his Face to shine and Bread which strengthneth 〈…〉 15. And hath 〈…〉 beauty and 〈…〉 all his 〈…〉 Matth. 6.29 It 's true he is no way the 〈…〉 though he be the Cauâ—â— of all that is desirable any other ways 〈◊〉 as he made Man to whom that Monster and Abortion is wholly to be ascribed though it be so greedily desired and committed But yet though it be actually so much desired by Man through his Ignorance and Mistake and the Corruption of his blinded and distempered Faculties yet is not desirable indeed nor truly good any otherwise than Chalk and Coals and Ashes are to one that hath the Pica and is distempered in the Stomach I am forced to confess though with grief of Heart and to the shame and reproach of Mankind that Man is come to that pass that he may drink Iniquity like Water Job 15.16 And call Evil Good and Good Evil and put Darkness for Light and Light for Darkness Bitter for Sweet and Sweet for Bitter Isaiah 5.20 But then it is because the Foundations of his Soul are all out of course and Sense hath got the upper hand and Reason is under Feet and his Head stands where his Feet should do Alas It is a sad Consideration that the best of God's Creatures here on Earth is become the worst of Monsters But this is no derogation from God's infinite Fulness and Perfection that he is not the Productive Cause of such a Poyson as this and the Father of such a deformed loathsome Birth Reason 2d Secondly It doth most highly beseem a Reasonable Creature to love God above all because God hath most obliged us His Love to us bids highest for the highest Return of Love again If there were any thing in Heaven or Earth that had more obliged us than God it had not been than a Fault neither could Reason have risen up and accused us if we had loved that thing more than God But now that all Creatures both in Heaven and Earth are silent and have nothing to say and the love of God hath so loud a Tongue and his infinite transcendent Favours do bespeak our Hearts so strongly what an unpardonable sin is it to love any thing more than him The Good we receive from others is by his Special Command and Appointment what we receive therefore from them we are indebted unto God for He is the first Mover they are but his Instruments to bring his Favours to us Now though his Personal
such a Case How much more would a sinner bewail his Offences committed against him that is his Creatour and Sovereign and hath absolute dominion over him and the power of Eternal Life and Death in his hands Thou canst not endure his displeasure if he doth but frown Nor live without his favour if he should totally withdraw it but an hour As he commandeth the Sun to shed his light and influence upon thee so he clotheth the Heaven with blackness and maketh Sackcloth their covering when he pleaseth Isaiah 50.3 If thou didst but know and consider the one half of the infinite Mercies he doth bestow upon thee and the worth of them it would make thee sure to break into bitter complaints for all thy odious Transgressions especially when thou knowest before-hand That the Penitent are so sure to speed and find Mercy with him This is a Third Act That Godly Sorrow if it be sincere doth imply even a deep sense of all the Obligations every one of us lies under to abstain from all Appearance of Evil. Fourthly He that would bewail his sin aright must be sensible how shameful it is and destructive to his own Soul and Body It prevents his Reason and makes him far more vile than a Creature that wants that Faculty It animates his Senses to all insolency it makes his Passions masterless and unruly it destroys the Health of the Body the Peace and Composure of the Mind it fills the Conscience with perpetual Remorse and Unquietness And all these Effects do as naturally flow from it as Poyson doth from a Toad or Serpent And thus it would punish it self although God should inflict no other punishment than what will inevitably follow such sinful inordinate Acts and such abuse of the Reason and Faculties that Man is possessed of It procures the hatred of God and the shame of Men and breeds a continual Worm at home that will gnaw in twain the Thred of this Life and will then feed upon Soul and Body to their everlasting pain and torment hereafter Fifthly He that is truly penitent and doth lament his sin as he ought doth know and consider the Merit of his sin and what Wages it deserves He is sensible that the least sin committed against such a Majesty by a Creature so much obliged and enabled to the contrary deserves damnation and that he can make God no recompence for the wrong and injury it doth him And he understands in some good measure what Eternal Damnation doth imply And then when he calls to mind the infinite Number he hath committed and how oft he hath deserved such a dreadful Reward and that yet he is invited to Repentance and knows that he shall find Mercy if he repent from the bottom of his Heart This melts him into Tears and dissolveth his rocky Heart and maketh it to feel what heretofore he made light matter of Sixthly As the penitent sinner is sensible of all the foregoing Particulars so he is acquainted with his own personal Transgressions not only that he is a sinner in general but what actual wickedness he is every day guilty of How little his Thoughts Words or Actions come up to the Rule at the best and how often they utterly thwart and contradict the Rule and what are his Master-Corruptions and where the strength of his sin lies He is also deeply sensible of his sinful Nature that he brought with him into the World and how cross it is to the Will of God expressed in his Word and Law and altogether unlike the Nature that God gave Man at the first Seventhly He doth hereupon judge himself exceeding vile and even loath himself for his Abominations Ezek. 36.31 When he thinketh upon his odious ways he is heartily ashamed and counteth himself unworthy of any outward Mercy and wondreth at the Mercies that God doth bestow so contrary to his deserts He seriously judgeth himself more wretched and miserable by reason of his sin and an Object of greater shame and contempt than if he had liv'd in the greatest poverty and want without sin as knowing that one makes him contemptible only to such as judge according to outward appearance but the other to those that judge righteous judgment He knows that sin makes him a Beast or a Devil in Humane shape and is a Disgrace and Reproach to all his Faculties and quite perverts the very frame and design of them For what is sin but an absurd and unreasonable Act Actus debito ordine privatus as the School-men define it and supposeth the Senses and their Objects to be in chief power and command and the nobler Part I mean his Rational and Immortal Spirit to be chained up and lye by as a Prisoner in Fetters or which is worse to be a voluntary Servant and Drudge to the stinking corruptible part of Man What Lord that hath the Spirit of a Man would endure to be a drudge to his Servant It 's a sad sight to see a Prince a Captive to his Subjects or a Lord to be in the hand and power of his Slaves led up and down in Chains at the will and pleasure of him that is but of a base and degenerate Breed compared with himself It was a great aggravation of Job's pitiful Condition that contemptible persons had him in derision whose Fathers he would have disdained to have set with the Doggs of his Flock Job 30.1 That Children of Fools and Base Men that were viler than the Earth made him their Song and By-word and that they did abhor him and flee far from him and not spare to spit in his Face vers 8 9 10. It was a very doleful pitiful sight to see Edward the Second so barbarously entreated by Gourney and made to sit upon a Mole-hill whilst the Barber shaved him and to take cold Water out of a Ditch to wash him with which the patient King seeing told them that in despight of them he would have warm Water at his Barbing and therewithal poured down Tears in abundance It 's a much sadder Spectacle to see Sense trample upon Reason and the Flesh that is of so base a descent to domineer over the Soul that 's born of God and is of the Blood-Royal made to rule and govern as the very Heathen could tell Animi imperio Corporis servitio utimur saith Salast And what 's the Fruit of such a Monstrous Disorder when Flesh and Sense do exercise such an oppressive usurping Power and that Faculty that makes a Man is perfectly cow'd Why This unspeakable Mischief is the Fruit thereof Earth is preferr'd before Heaven The Creature before the Creator The momentary pleasures of Sin before the durable and everlasting Felicity And Men chuse rather to be Termers in these decaying Comforts that expire with their Lives than to have the Propriety of an Eternal Inheritance hereafter that shall never be out-dated These and the like Considerations make the sinner to judge himself a vile Person a Reproach to Humane
Hour and his Right in us and over us we shall be either tempted to deny them or at least to deny that Homage which they call for If we can overlook him that is all in all and the Spring that moves all second Causes and sets them on work to do us that good which they do for us at any time No wonder if we commit Sacriledge and rob God of his deserved Praises yea or if we undervalue them and mistake the Mercies that are more worth than Heaven and Earth to be but petty and inconsiderable we shall be as slight in our grateful Acknowledgment These two or three Things therefore are comprized in the due Reverence and Estimation of God and his Favours 1st A clear and solid Apprehension of our own great Unworthiness of any the least of his Favours and our infinite distance from his Person not only by Nature but much more through Guilt and Sin we must be pretty well acquainted with our own Poverty and Baseness and that we have nothing but from him That All is forfeited again and again That the Miseries of this Life and that which is to come are our Desert That God can expect no Advantage from us when he bestows his Mercies but the pleasure of doing good Nor when we are most cordial and diligent in his Service but the pleasure of our receiving Good and seeing his Grace prosper in us And that in all his Threats and Punishments he is still designing our Good and mortifying our Corruption which will otherwise be sure to ruine and undo us if it be not forsaken And this would teach us to prize and thank God and our Redeemer for every piece of Bread that we eat and the House that covers us and the Cloaths that warm us the Sun that shineth on us the Rod that corrects us when we come to know and consider how much we need them and how little we deserve them 2ly It would help us to prize all the Mercies of God if we did but consider and understand the Misery of those that want them We could not want the Bread we eat nor the Air we breath nor the Limbs we use nor the Senses that we have without Misery enough But what Man could want the Grace of the Gospel the Merits and Intercession of Christ that knows that he is everlastingly undone without them 3ly It will help us to estimate them rightly if we consider what they cost and the price that paid for them Our sins and the sins of our Parents whose Flesh and Blood we are did cry out aloud for vengeance in the utter destruction of our Persons And God who is the just and righteous Governour of the World could not without disparagement to his Wisdom and Justice stop his Ears to the Cry of our Sins unless his Son had suffered for our Sins and satisfied the Demands of his Justice and purchased all our forfeited Mercies back again by his Blood So that all the Temporal and Spiritual Mercies that now we have were Redeemed not with Silver and Gold but by the precious Blood of our most endeared Saviour And this Consideration if it be not customary but serious will make every Mercy full weight and enforce better Apprehensions of them and Thankfulness for them 4ly and lastly It will conduce very much to the worthy Estimation of all God's Mercies if we consider the End God hath in All to which he doth design every Mercy that he doth bestow in this present Life And that is our highest Perfection and everlasting Felicity in a blessed Communion with God for ever Every Hour he giveth us Every Favour whether Common or Special is valued infinitely below its worth if this Reference and Subordination be overlooked He can never thank God as he ought for his Health or Food or Friends or any Temporal Mercy or Affliction but will rather be tempted to murmur and repine sometimes that considers not well what it is intended for and what it may and should contribute to his endless Content and Rest These Particulars must concur to make up a due Estimation of all God's Mercies Secondly Gratitude and Praise with the concomitant Affections of Joy and Delight in God do essentially imply 1st A Love that 's suited to and bears some proportion with the Mercies we receive and God doth bestow on us Temporal and Transitory Mercies must be loved with a lower and subordinate degree of our Love Spiritual and Eternal Mercies must be loved with a higher and more absolute degree of our Love And the highest Mercy of all which is himself with the most superlative and transcendent Love 2ly And they do imply a greater Love to his Person 1. That hath purchased them 2. That doth confer them He that hath no Complacency in the Things which he doth receive and that according to the greater or lesser Tendency they have to lead him to the highest Mercy even the Fruition of God the Giver will have none worth the naming in the person that doth bestow them And he that wants that can never praise God as he ought nor do any such Act with acceptance Thirdly There must be some sensible Expressions of this Estimation of the Mind and Complacency of the Will in God and his Mercies In the Affections and Sensible Passions of Love Joy Admiration Reverence Humility which help and assist the Will and cannot lye still when the Soul is well elevated in Praises and Thanksgiving when the Soul is exercised with any seriousness and vigour in these noble Operations of Praise and Thanks and Complacency in God how can it chuse but work upon the Blood and Spirits and cause those forementioned Passions in some sensible degree Fourthly And as Thankfulness and Holy Praise if they be right will become sensible by the Affections to the very Body to which the Soul is linked more or less according as the Grace that causeth them is more or less vigorous so they will become visible to others by our more ready observance of his Will and Pleasure a greater Zeal for his Interest and Glory in the World and a more chearful obedience to him whom we thus praise and admire And as in the Law of Moses there were three kinds of Sacrifice Immolations Libations and Victimes Immolations were made of the Fruits of the Earth Libations of Liquors as Oyls and Wines Victimes of living Creatures So the Soul that is truly Grateful will not only offer up himself to God for a Victime and his Affections as it were for Liquors but his Actions also for Fruits Thanks among Men signifie nothing that evaporate and melt away into meer Words and Air and do not proceed to substantial Acts and Deeds These are the Complements and Perfection of every true Moral Act And if they come not up to Life and Practice where there is opportunity they are but meer Mockery and Deceit Having somewhat explicated the Nature of These Affections which are to be exercised I proceed
The Inundation of the Old World The Confusion of Languages The doing things against the Course of Nature such as are Raising the Dead to Life Restoring the Blind Or above Nature such as are most of the Plagues that befel Aegypt amply describe his Infinite Power And Rom. 1.20 His Eternal Power and Godhead are there said to be seen in the Creation of the World Seventhly The Measure of himself is Immensity And of all his Attributes is Infiniteness that is They have neither Bounds nor Measure 1. His Immensity is thus set forth by the Holy Ghost in Scripture 1 Kings 8.27 But will God indeed dwell on the Earth Behold the Heaven and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee how much less this House that I have builded So 2 Chron. 2.6 to the same purport So Psalm 139.7 8 9 10. Whither shall I go from thy spirit or whither shall I flee from thy presence If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there if I make my Bed in Hell thou art there If I take the wings of the Morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me So Amos 9.2 3 4. 2. The infinity of all his Attributes Psal 147.5 Great is our Lord and of great power and his understanding is infinite And if one Attribute be infinite needs must all the rest be so and therefore Zophar may well propose it as a Query uncapable of solution Job 11.7 8 9. Canst thou by searching find out God Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection It is as high as Heaven what canst thou do Deeper than Hell what canst thou understand The measure thereof is longer than the Earth and broader than the Sea See Job 37.23 Eighthly His Attributes that result from all these are 1. His Immutability which the Holy Ghost describes James 1.17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of Lights in whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning And Malach. 3.6 I am the Lord I change not therefore the sons of Jacob are not consumed Psal 102.27 2. His Greatness which the Scripture thus describeth Psal 145.36 The Lord is great and greatly to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable he is to be feared above all Gods And 1 Chron. 15.25 and Jerem. 10.6 There is none like unto the Lord great in might Dan. 9.4 He is the great and dreadful God keeping covenant and mercy to them that love him Psal 77.13 There is none so great as our God Psal 48.1 Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God in the mountain of his holiness 3. His Majesty is thus described O Lord my God thou art very great thou art cloathed with majesty and honour Psalm 104.1 Thine O Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty 1 Chron. 29.11 And Elihu tells us that with God is terrible majesty Job 37.22 and Psalm 96.6 Honour and majesty are before him strength and beauty are in his sanctuary And Psal 145.10 11 12 13. All thy works shall praise thee O Lord c. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom and talk of thy power To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his kingdom Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations 4. His Glory the Scripture thus expresseth Psalm 138.5 Great is the glory of the Lord. And Psal 148.13 Let them praise the Name of the Lord that is the forementioned Creatures for his Name only is excellent and his glory is about the Earth and the Heaven And Isa 6.3 Holy holys holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole Earth is full of his glory Exod. 15.11 The Lord is there said to be glorious in holiness fearful in praises doing wonders 5. His Lordship and Dominion over all is thus described Isa 33.22 The Lord is our Judge the Lord is our Law-giver the Lord is our King Psal 97.5 Thou art the Lord of the whole Earth And Dan. 2.47 He is there said to be a God of Gods a Lord of Kings a revealer of secrets Psal 47.2 The Lord most high is terrible he is a great King over all the Earth Psal 103.19 The Lord hath prepared his throne in heaven and his kingdom ruleth over all Psal 145.13 Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and thy dominion endureth throughout all ages And Rom. 31.1 The Apostle tells us there is no power but of God Prov. 8.15 16. By him Kings reign and Princes decree justice By him Princes rule the Nobles and Judges of the Earth Matth. 6.13 Thine is the kingdom the power and the glory Lastly His Eternity the Crown of all is thus described Exod. 15.18 The Lord shall reign for ever and ever And Psal 45.6 Thy throne O Lord is for ever and ever the scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter Psal 90.2 Before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the Earth and the World thou art God from everlasting to everlasting i. a parte ante and a parte post without beginning and without end Psal 93.2 Thy throne is established of old thou art from everlasting Psal 102.27 Thou art the same viz. in opposition to mutable Creatures and thy years shall have no end Psal 104.31 The glory of the Lord shall endure forever c. Dan. 4.9 His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom Psal 106.10 The Lord shall reign for ever even thy God O Sion throughout all generations Dan. 8.18 His dominion shall be for ever unto the end These glorious Attributes of God especially as they stand in conjunction and shine upon one another calmly considered will mount and elevate an ingenuous and understanding Heart and wing it to this high and honourable imployment Secondly It will help on this blessed heavenly Work and Temper of Joy and Delight in God honourable and thankful thoughts and mention of him to behold his Attributes as they are further displayed in his Works Particularly his Bounty Wisdom Power Towards the 1. Irrational Creatures 2. Rational Creatures 1st It will something advance the dullest heart and dispose it to rejoyce in God and lift it up in praise and thankfulness to him to steep it a little in the meditation of that incomparable wisdom that shineth forth in the Being of every irrational Creature especially in the whole frame and orderly connection of all such Creatures Every Creature in its single existence hath treasure enough to enrich the understanding of the wisest Man on earth if it search into the depth and bottom of it and to imprint admiring reverent and thankful Inclinations towards him in the Heart There 's not a Pile of Grass that shoots up but directs the Eye Heavenward towards which it pointeth up unless it be kept shut by ignorance and inconsideration What excellent skill and cunning is there in