is the very spring upon which the holy conversation of the whole week is turned and moved And therefore it is observable that the Sabbath stands as it were betwixt the two Tables the last precept of the first Table and the Preface to the Second To shew us that it is the Bond of union between both Tables that without a severe sanctification of the Sabbath the Duties of both Tables will fall to the ground Whence in the Primitive times of Christianity the strict observation of the Sabbath was accounted the principall character of a true Saint And so it is even at this day there are such Christians for exemplary holiness as those which are taken notice of to make most conscience of sanctifying the Sabbath But so much for the second duty I come now to the Third Branch or Duty of Duties wherein sabbath-sanctification consists Sc. Honourable If thou call it or make it or keep it as an Honourable day Heb. Mecubbar which signifieth honourable or glorious The Duty implied is we must keep the Sabbath as the Honourable Glorious Day of Jehovah Truly glorious things are spoken of this Honourable Day The Jews were wont to call it the Queen of Days the week-days they called prophane days but the Sabbath after Gods example here they called Holy My Holy Day saith God it 's Gods peculiar One of ours now translated into his glorious rest honours it thus calling it The Map of heaven the golden spot of the week Vide Mr. Gee Swinnock in his good wish to the Lords day the market-day of the soul the day-break of eternal brightness the Queen of days the blessed amongst days the cream of time the Epitome of eternity Heaven in a glass the first-fruits of an everlasting and blessed Harvest and much more to that purpose The week-days are as it were the back-parts of the week made to carry burdens a meer Servant or Slave made to do the drudgery of the humane life The Sabbath is the face the seat of Majesty which God hath made to look upward and to contemplate the glory of the Heavens and of the maker thereof The week-days are like the Terrestrial Globe wherein are painted to us the Earth with the inferiour and more ignoble creatures The Sabbath is the Celestial Globe Heb. 12.22 23 24. wherein we have the prospect of Mount Sion the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and of an innumerable company of Angels of the general assembly and Church of the first-born and of God the Judge of all and of the spirits of just men made perfect and of Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant c. The beholding of these glorious visions truly beatifical are the work of a Sabbath Moreover to discover to you the glory of a Sabbath consider we another excellent passage in our quoted Author ut sup speaking of the Sabbath All the graces triumph in Thee All the Ordinances conspire to enrich Thee The Father ruleth Thee The Son rose upon Thee The Spirit hath overshadowed Thee Thus it is done to the Day which the Lord delighteth to honour on Thee light was created the Holy Ghost descended Life hath been restored Satan subdued the Grave Death and Hell conquered c. Much more might be added but rather The Question Question is When do we make the Sabbath or how may we make it to us an Honourable Glorious day Answer 1 Then we call the Sabbath Honourable when we make Honourable preparation for it To which purpose it is useful to mind seriously that word which stands as a watch-man at the door of the fourth Commandment Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy Remember It is like the Baptist the voice of one crying prepare ye the way of the Lord or that Eccl. 5.1 keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God c. It calls for solemn preparation for a Sabbath and the ordinances of a Sabbath a duty wofully neglected amongst Christians some little preparation people make for a Sacrament and it is to be feared there is more of superstition in it than Evangelical affection to the day consisting rather in a Ceremonial abstinence from meat and drinks than a serious separation of the heart and affections for communion with God But as to the Sabbath there is rarely any thing to separate between the drudgery of the week and the solemnities of the sabbath but a little sleep and that usually less than any other night is allowed people loading the Saturday-night with so many worldly affairs that the Lords-day-morning is too little to satisfie their sluggish indulgences of the flesh and there is not time either for closet or domestick devotion they cannot force themselves out of their bed time enough to join with the Congregation until half the publick worship be finished The Jews shall rise up against this generation and shall condemn them of whom it is reported they were so severe in their parascueves or preparations for the Sabbath which were precisely to begin at three of the clock in the afternoon Buxtorf that if the servants in the Family were cast behind in dispatching the servile labour of the Family the Master of the house though he were a Nobleman would not refuse to set his hand to the lowest drudgery that they might observe the punctual time of preparation this argued an honourable estimation of the Sabbath 2. Then we call it honourable when we give it honourable entertainment When we awaken our selves in such good time yet so as we may not indispose nature for the service of the day as David did Psal 108.2 awake my Psaltery and Harp I my self will awake right early I say to get up early in the morning Maâ—h 28.1 to meet our blessed Lord and Bridegroom coming from his Sepulchre to visit us That which is but fancied of the natural Sun its dancing upon Easter-day in the morning for joy of the Lords Resurrection I have known reallized by some excellent Christians whose hearts have not only leaped in them but themselves have hasted out of their beds and have leaped and skipped up and down in their chamber when the morning light of the Sabbath hath shined on them in remembrance of the Sun of Righteousness arising from the grave with healing under his wings Such extraordinary impulses and ravishments are not every Christians attainment and must not be imitated to the prejudice of the Body the spirit may be willing but the flesh is weak but certainly every Christian that hath the love of Christ shed abroad in his heart will be careful to abate himself somewhat of his wonted indulgences on that morning which was his redeemers Birth-day that he may have time to get on his wedding Garment by meditation Psal 2.7 reading and prayer that he may go forth to meet him whom his soul loveth in the publick solemnities of the Sabbath and bring him home with him into the chamber of her that conceived him
repent of their sins and accept of God's Son to come into and to keep in God's vvays vvhen they see vvhither those vvays have brought them There they vvill meet vvith all the Holy Martyrs so famous in their generations for their courage and constancy vvith all the Holy Prophets and Apostles the Pen-men of the Scriptures so famous in their time for the large and plentiful effusion of the Spirit of God upon them vvith all the good Kings and Princes and all the righteous persons vvhatever that have lived in all ages and generations of all kinreds Nations and Languages they shall then be gathered all into one body under Christ their head and joyn together in blessing and praising and singing Hallelujah's unto the Lord for ever 2. In Heaven pardoned persons will have the company of all the glorious Angels here the Angels guard them and are ministring Spirits unto them Heb. 1.14 Hereafter they will be their companions and there will be mutual and most sweet converse between them Some delight in the company of Nobles and the great ones which belong to the Courts of great Princes they shall have the company and conversation of the glorious Angels who are the Nobles of Heaven and Courtiers of the King of Kings How the Angels and Saints will converse together and communicate their minds one to another is too high for us to conceive and too difficult for us to determine but surely the converse will be very sweet and full of love and delight 3. In Heaven pardoned persons will have the company and fellowship of the glorious Spirit the Holy Ghost here they have his presence and powerful operations they feel now especially at some times his sweet breathings and powerful operations which do wonderfully enlighten them greatly quicken and inflame their hearts with divine love yea and fill their hearts with spiritual and heavenly joy But in Heaven they shall have a fuller sweeter more powerful and constant presence of the glorious Spirit they shall there be filled with the Holy Ghost as full as they can hold yea beyond their present capacity they shall be under the sweet breathings of the Spirit whereby the flame of divine love will be kept alive in them perpetually in the greatest height and heat of it and this shall abide to Eternity 4. In Heaven pardoned persons shall have the company of the Lord Jesus Christ in his glory Here they have heard of him there they shall see him here they see him with the eye of Faith there they shall see him eye to eye and face to face Austin did wish to have seen three things above all other things that were to be seen in the World Rome in its Glory Paul in the Pulpit and Christ in the flesh The righteous in Heaven will see that which is far beyond Austin's wish they will see Zion in its Glory Paul in his Glory and Christ in his Glory They will see Zion in its glory which will far exceed Rome in its greatest splendour when it was most illustrious for wealth and riches through the spoyls of so many conquered Kingdoms which were brought into it when it was most illustrious for stately houses and sumptuous buildings for wise and learned Men famous and valiant Captains and Souldiers The new Jerusalem Mount Zion which is above will out-shine Rome in glory more than the Sun doth out-shine the smallest Star in Heaven or the faint light of a Candle here upon earth They shall see Paul in his glory they shall hear him praising God with triumphant acclamations of joy which will be far more than to hear him preach in a state of weakness and infirmity but chiefly they shall see Christ in his glory the sight of Christ in his humiliation was nothing in comparison of a sight of him in his state of exaltation They shall see him then as he is 1 Joh. 3.2 Behold now are we the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Christ was never seen on earth as he is his glory was shadowed his Divinity was vailed and his humanity was most evident to the view which had its infirmities but hereafter his humanity will appear to be lifted up into such glory as doth exceed all created glory of Men or Angels and his Divinity will be most illustrious to the view of the Saints at the sight of which they will be astonished with admiration and love and O how will they gaze and wonder at his marvellous beauty and shining excellency when they see him come down from Heaven attended by all the holy Angels and when they shall not only see him but meet with him be owned and welcomed by him and be taken to live with him 1 Thes 4.16 17. The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the Arch-angel and with the Trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. It was a great priviledg which the Apostles had to live with Christ when he was humbled and vilified here on earth what a priviledg then will it be which all the righteous shall have to live with Christ when he is glorified in Heaven and that not for a few years but for ever What a happiness will it be to see the glory which Christ had with the Father before the World was and not only to see it but to share in it 5. In Heaven pardoned persons shall have the company of the Father they have his gracious presence here on earth they shall have his glorious presence in Heaven there they shall have the immediate Beatifical vision of him and the full most blessed fruition of him The sight of God's back-parts the glimpses and glances of his eye at a distance the mediate enjoyment of him in and by Ordinances doth sometimes even transport them and strangely fill them with wonder and delight but O what Soul-ravishing admirations what transports and extasies of joy will they have when in Heaven they shall behold God's face be alwayes under the beams of the light of his countenance and have continual close intimate full enjoyment of him fellowship and communion with him and this to abide for ever and ever In Heaven they shall dwell with God and God will dwell with them Rev. 21.3 I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying behold the Tabernacle of God is with Men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God This this will be happiness indeed to have God himself to dwell with them and manifest himself not only in his grace but in his glory unto them therefore it followeth v. 4. And
unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ for we are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God and when Christ who is our Life shall appear then shall we appear in Glory with him Mortifie therefore your earthly Members Fornication Vncleanness inordinate Affections evil Concupiscence and Covetousness which is Idolatry You must not only deny all visible gross ungodliness which even the very Sons of Morality will decline and decay but also all worldly lusts and their secret operations living soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Take heed of slumbring in these secret lusts for ye are children of the light and of the day and therefore take heed that you sleep not as others do but watch and be sober for they that sleep sleep in the night and they that are drunk are drunk in the night but let us who are of the day be sober putting on the Breast plate of Faith and Love and for an Helmet the hope of salvation watching and praying always that ye may be accounted worthy to escape those things which shall befall the foolish Virgins and that ye may stand before the Son of man who is coming with ten thousand of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all and therefore be sober and watch unto Prayer seeing the end of all things is at hand and look well to your Lamps which are your Watch-lights that they burn brightly in this World's Midnight and pray particularly for daily supplies of Oil and sincerity in all your Actions and Duties both to God and man never omitting to beg for Death-bed-Grace that so you may live and die to the honour of your Bridegroom And as for this present World use it as if you used it not and have no more to do with it than bare need requireth And set your Hearts and Houses and all your civil secular Affairs in order having your conversations in Heaven whence you look for Christ the Saviour And thus walking with God in the exercise of these gifts of Grace when we come to dye we shall change our places only but not our company And let none of you behold Death at a distance nor have it seldom in your thoughts but daily in your eye that you may not fear it when it cometh A Lion is not terrible to his Keeper that seeth him every day You must frequently converse with God Christ Death and Judgment For when Christ speaketh of his coming to Judgment he so expresseth it as if he were to come in their time to whom he spake it Matth. 24 42. Mark 13.33.35 36 37. Luke 21.34 35 36. And so indeed he did for he comes to every man at the hour of his Dissolution And we are his Agents or Factors in a foreign Land and how soon he may remind us home and call us to an Account we know not Say not therefore My Lord delayeth his coming lest we are thereby rocked into a midnight sleep and scared with a midnight-cry of Behold the Bridegroom cometh go ye out to meet him I shall not detain you much longer You have heard what those Graces are which are chiefly to be exercised in order to an actual preparation for the coming of Christ by Death and Judgment I now commend them to your daily exercise and for your encouragement therein shall leave a few Considerations with you and conclude First That the Door of eternal Rest and Glory shall stand open for you at Christ's coming to you by Death Why 1. Because you are ready and they that are ready go in with the Bridegroom God hath made you meet to be partakers of the inheritance with the Saints in light Col. 1.12 and hath wrought you for the self same thing 2 Cor. 5.5 You are a Vessel of Mercy prepared for Glory Rom. 9.23 2. You admitted Christ into the door of your hearts when there he stood and knocked Rev. 3.20 3. You had your conversation in Heaven whilst you lived here on earth It was your Father's house where you used daily to converse the doors whereof shall open to you at your Death Secondly Consider the place into which you shall be admitted for the wise Virgins shall enter into the King's Palace Psal 45.14 15. into Paradise the third Heavens your Father's House a City that hath foundations whose Builder and Maker is God Heb. 11.10 A magnificent Structure surely that hath such a Builder and Maker 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that hath built the City most artificially and curiously and for publick shew as the original words do import Such a City it is yea a Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world Mat. 25 34. The first hansel of God's workmanship Gen. 1.1 This is the place whither you shall enter Thirdly You shall enter thither with the Bridegroom even our Lord Jesus Christ and this is heaven enough viz. to be where Christ is Luke 23.42 43. John 14.3 17.24 Phil. 1.23 1 Thess 4.17 Heaven is described by being with Christ And when Christ shall descend from heaven with a shout to judge the world if all the Saints suppose should not descend with him but any of them be left behind what an alteration would they find in heaven whereas all of them going with Christ it is all one as if they were still in heaven with him You know Paul was caught up into the third heavens and yet when he comes to describe heaven and the Saints everlasting happiness there he calls it being for ever with Christ for this is a comprehensive expression How so 1. If the Saints shall be with Christ then shall they be exempt from all troubles and trials these fall off from them like Elijah's Mantle when he went to heaven There is now a glorious door of partition between these and them they are all excluded viz. Sin Sorrow Afflictions Reproaches Necessities Persecutions Poverty Sickness Pain Death Curse wicked men and Devils you shall never be troubled with these any more 2. If they enter in with Christ they shall enjoy the Father in him John 20.17 and be filled with the Holy Ghost from them both and thereby with unspeakable consolations and the fulness of God and they shall live for ever in the immediate contemplation and vision and fruition of one God in three persons and be replenished to the brim with eternal love from them and to them 3. You shall enjoy the fellowship of an innumerable company of Angels and shall then know who they are and love them entirely and be as intimately beloved of them though now in your present state you cannot bear the presence of one of them 4. You shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven and enjoy communion with the Spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12.23 All this followeth from your entrance into Heaven with Christ Fourthly Consider that you shall enter into Heaven with Christ the Bridegroom and therefore to be married to him And hence again it will follow 1. That there will be the nearest relation possible between Christ and you for you shall be one conjugally for ever with him You are one with him mystically and matrimonially who is one with the Father essentially 2. You shall be invested with unutterable Glory seeing it is a Marriage-time wherein the Bridegroom and Bride shall shine in the richest Attire and Embroidery that is in all the Wardrobe of Heaven Christ and the Saints shall wear the very same Glory John 17.22 3. There shall be unconceivable Love Joy Delight and Complacency between the Bridegrom and the Bride and as the Bridegroom rejoyceth over the Bride so shall the Lord Jesus rejoyce over his Spouse O there will be a most glorious delightful loving sweet familiarity and conjugal rejoycing between Christ Jesus and the Saints Marriage-joy upon earth is usually great what then will that be in heaven when shall be fulfilled thâ—â— which Christ spake at his last Supper I will not drink of the fruit of the Vine until the day that I drink it new with you in my Father's Kingdom Mat. 26.29 Where by fruit of the Vine we understand Wine which maketh glad the heart of man Psal 104 15. and causeth it to rejoyce and shadoweth out the Love of Christ and Joys of Heaven to us Cant. 1.2 4. And by New we understand other Mark 16.17 with Acts 2.4 in the Original So that in this Marriage there shall be new i. e. other yea othergess wine viz. Love Joy and Rejoycing than there is in the Lord's Supper For Christ who kept the best wine to the last at the Marriage in Cana in Galilee will surely do so at his own Marriage at the last day 4. This Marriage is not on Earth but in Heaven and therefore it shall never dissolve as Marriages on Earth do but continue unto Eternity O how will the Holy Angels rejoice and sing at this Marriage For they that sang at the Birth of Christ when he lay in the Manger will sing to the purpose at his Marriage when he sitteth upon his Throne in the highest Glory Now the consideration of these things is greatly inducing to be very studious in actual preparations for the coming of Christ Be ye therefore much in the exercise of Faith Hope Love Repentance Goodness Mercy and works of Bounty Diligence and Faithfulness in your Callings Sobriety Watchfulness and Prayer that so at last you may have an entrance ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And now Brethren Abide in him that when he shall appear you may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming but lift up your heads with joy unspeakable and full of Glory Hear wisdom therefore and receive instruction that you may be wise in the latter end And God himself and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ make you to encrease in all these Preparatory Graces to the end that he may establish your hearts unblameable in Holiness before God even our Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his Saints And now Grace be with all them that love him in sincerity Amen FINIS
some commands may be observed without so much as common grace as duties meerly moral but this must have a great measure of the spirit it speaks much acquaintance with God through experience of his wayes and much conformity to Christ in a well composed conversation in short it includes the highest perfection possibly attainable in this life yet let not this difficulty fright you for through Christ our sincere love though weak is accepted and our imperfect love because growing shall not be despised 8. This is the first and great command in respect of the End 8 Ratione finis All the commands of God are referr'd to this as their end and last scope which was first in the mind of the Law-giver 9. This is the first and great command in respect of the lastingness of it 9 Ratione perperuitatis Thou shalt love the Lord thy God it is not only spoken after the Hebrew (e) Futurum pro imperativo way of commanding but it notes singular perseverance Most of the other commands expire with the world as all or most of the commands of the second table but this remains and flourishes more than ever When Repentance and Mortification which now take up half our life when Faith which is now as it were Mother and Nurse to most of our Graces when Hope which now upholds weak faith in its languors when all these shall as it were dye in travail perfection of grace being then in the birth love to God shall then be more lively than ever That love which as it were passed between God and the Soul in letters and tokens shall then be perfected in a full enjoyment Our love was divided among several objects that cut the banks and weakned the stream henceforth it shall have but one current Our love is now mixt with fear fear of missing or losing what we love but that fear shall be banished There shall never be any distance never any thing to provoke jealousie never any thing to procure cloying never any thing more to be desired than is actually enjoyed Is not this then the first and great Commandment is it not our priviledge and happiness to be swallowed up in it this may suffice to evidence it to be our duty But then What abilities are requisite for the well performance of this duty and how we may obtain those abilities 3. What Abilities are requisite to the performance of this duty and how may we attain those Abilities This we must be experimentally acquainted with or all I can say will at best seem babling and therefore let me at first tell you plainly nothing on this side Regeneration can capacitate you to love God and it is God alone that giveth worketh infuseth impresseth the gracious habit of Divine Love in the Souls of his people Our love to God is nothing else but the eccho of Gods love to us Through the corruption of our Nature we hate God God implanted in our Nature an inclination to love God above all things amiable but by the fall we have an headlong inclination to depart from God and run away from him and there is in every one of us a natural impotency and inability of turning unto God The grace of love is no Flower of Nature's Garden but a Forreign p Non secundum bona naturalia sed secundum dona gratâ—ita Aquin. plant We may possibly do something for the meerly rational inflaming of our hearts with love to God e. g. God may be represented as most amiable we may be convinced of the unsatisfyingness of the Creature we may understand something of the worth of our Souls and what a folly it is to expect that any thing but God can fill them and yet this will be at the utmost but like a solid proof of the truth of the Christian Religion which may Non-plus our cavils but not make us Christians This may make love to God appear a rational duty but it will not of it self beget in us this spiritual Grace It is the immediate work of God to make us love him I do not mean immediate in opposition to the use of means but immediate in regard of the necessary efficacy of his Spirit beyond what all means in the world without his powerful influence can amount unto 'T is the Lord alone that can direct our hearts into the love of God q 2. Thes 3.5 Exoplat a Leo quod non ambigit posse praestari Ambros God is pleased in a wonderful and unexpressible manner to draw up the heart in love to him God makes use of Exhortations and Counsels and Reproofs but though he works by them and with them he works above them and beyond them r Deut. 30.6 19 20. The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul that thou may'st live And again I call heaven and earth to record this day against thee that I have set before thee life and death blessing and cursing therefore chuse life that both thou and thy seed may live that thou may'st love the Lord thy God and that thou may'st obey his voice and that thou may'st cleave unto him for he is thy life and the length of thy dayes He is thy life i. e. effectively and that by love saith Aquinas it is reported s Sales of the love of God p. 63. that it often happens among Partridges that one steals away anothers eggs but the young one that is hatcht under the wing of a stranger at her true Mothers first call who laid the egg whence she was hatch'd she renders her self to her true Mother and puts her self into her Covey 'T is thus with our hearts though we are born and bred up among terrene and base things under the wing of corrupted Nature yet at and not before God's first quickning call we receive an inclination to love him and upon his drawing t Cant. 1.4 we run after him God works a principle of love in us and we love God by that habit of love he hath implanted hence the Act of love is formally and properly attributed to man as the particular cause u Psal 18.1 116.1 Vâ—â—tius I will love thee O Lord my strength and I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice the Soul works together with God in his powerful working the Will being Acted of God Acteth It is a known saying of w Non ideo bene currit vt rotunda sit sed quia rotunda est Augustine The wheel doth not run that it may be round but because 't is round The Spirit of God enables us to love God but 't is we that love God with a created love 't is we that acquiesce in God in a gracious manner What God doth in the Soul doth not hurt the liberty of the will but strengthens it insweetly and powerfully drawing it into
carelessness without an Epithete bare sloath without any thing to aggravate it ordinarily doth the Soul more hurt than all the Devils in hell yea than all its other sins Shake off this and then you will be more than Conquerors over all other difficulties shake off this and there is but one sin that I can think of at present that you 'l be in danger of and that 's spiritual pride You 'l thrive so fast in all grace you 'l grow up into so much communion with God that unless God sometimes withdraw to keep you humble you will have a very Heaven upon Earth Imped 4. The love of any sin whatsoever the love of God and the love of any Sin can no more mix together than Iron and Clay every Sin strikes at the being of God (i) Deicidium The very best of Saints may possibly fall into the very worst of pardonable Sins but the least of Saints get above the love of the least of Sins we are ready to question Gods love unto us as Dalilah did Sampson's love to her if he do not gratifie us in all we have a mind to but how could Dalilah pretend love to Sampson while she comply'd with his mortal enemy against him how can you pretend to love God while you hide Sin his enemy in your hearts as it was with the grand-child of Athaliah (k) 2 King 11.1 2 c. stoln from among those that were slain and hidden though unable at present to disturb her e're long procures her ruine so any Sin as it were stoln from the other Sins to be preserv'd from Mortification will certainly procure the ruine of that Soul that hides it can you hide your Sin from the search of the Word and forbear your Sin while under the smart of affliction and seem to fall out with Sin when under gripes of Conscience and return to Sin as soon as the storm is over never pretend to love God God sees through your pretences and abhors your hypocrisie (l) Job 34.21 22. His eyes are upon the ways of man and he seeth all his goings there 's no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves Come Sirs let me deal plainly with you you are shameful strangers to your own heart if you do not know which is your darling Sin or Sins and you are Traytors to your own Souls if you do not endeavour a through Mortification and you are wilful Rebels against God if you do in the least indulge it never boggle at the Psalmist's counsel (m) Psal 97.10 ye that love the Lord hate evil Imped 5. Inordinate love of things lawful and in some respect here 's our greatest danger here persons have Scripture to plead for their love to several persons and things that it is a duty to bestow some love upon them and the meer stones are not so plainly set as easily to discern the utmost bounds of what is lawful and the first step into what is sinful and here having some plausible pretences for the parcelling out of their love they plead not guilty though they love not God with all their hearts souls and minds whereas they should consider that the best of the world is not for enjoyment but use not our end but means conducing to our chief end Here 's our sin and our misery our foolish transplacing of end and means Men make it their end to eat and drink and get estates and injoy their delights and what respect they have to God I know not whether to call love or Service they shew it but as means to flatter God to gratifie them in their pitiful ends Having warned you of some of the chief Impediments I shall propose some means to engage your hearts in love to God which you may confidently expect to be effectual through the operation of the Holy Ghost and you may likewise expect the operation of the Spirit in the use of such means The means are either Directing Promoting or Conserving Means to attain love to God 1. Directing and that is Spiritual Knowledge this is beyond what can be spoken in its commendation A clear and distinct knowledge of the love and loveliness of God in the amazing yet ravishing methods of its manifestations and the clear understanding of the heavenly priviledge of having our hearts inflam'd with love to God this will do I would fain perswade you to try I am not able to say how much to direct you in this case plainly get and exercise this twofold knowledge 1. The knowledge of Spiritual things did we but perfectly know the Nature of the most contemptible insect nay did we but know the Nature of Atoms this would lead us to admire and love God but then to know those things that no graceless person in the world cares for the knowledge of e. g. the inward workings of Original Sin and how to undermine it the powerful workings of the Spirit of grace and how to improve it what are the joys of the Holy Ghost and how to obtain them would not such things insinuate the love of God into you add then 2. The knowledge of ordinary things in a Spiritual manner so as to make the knowledge of Natural things serve Heavenly designs Thus Christ in all the Metaphors in all the Parables he used To value no knowledge any further than it is reducible to such an use this would lead us into the loving of God Thus I name but one directing means promoting means are various not but that Spiritual knowledge doth singularly promote the love of God but it 's proper work lyes in directing The several things I shall name for inward means your way of managing must make them so 1. Self-denyal this is so necessary that no other grace can supply the want of it It is among the graces of the Soul as among the members of the Body one member may supply the want of another the defect of the Lungs may be supplied by other parts The want of prudence may be supplied with Gospel-simplicity which looks like quite another thing but nothing can supply our want of love to God nor can any thing supply our want of Self-denyal in order to our loving of God We can never have n Fo◠fotidissimus suo 〈◊〉 horribilissimum stercus vermis nequis simus Bonavent stimul Amor. p 153. too low thoughts of ourselves provided we do not neglect our duty and let go our hold of Christ Those very things that not only we may love but we must love 't is our duty to love them and our sin not to love them yet all these must be denyed when they dare to stand in competition with our love to God o Luk. 14.26 If any man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my Disciple Christ would have us count what Religion will cost us
I love nothing but for thy sake extensively when I compare thee Lord with all other great and good things and had rather they and my self also had no being than once to offend my good God But yet most loving Lord when I consider a proportion of love I am greatly troubled If love should be according to the worth of the Object by how much thou art better than I am and more profitable to me than I am to my self I should love thee more than thou lovest me but that I never can O Lord I beseech thee how much dost thou love me is it weakly and remisly according to my goodness that be far from thee Lord. Thou lovest thine incomparably more than thou art loved of them as thou art incomparably greater and better than they But O great and good God that fillest heaven and earth yea the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee Why dost thou not fill my poor little soul O my soul why dost thou not open all thy little doors why doest not thou extend thy utmost capacity that thou may'st be wholy possest wholy satiated wholy de-ebriated with the sweetness of so great love especially when though thou art so little yet thou canst not be satisfied with the love of any lesser good Many questions might be proposed to expostulate my soul into a flame of love But I see Lord 't is easie to speak and write these things but 't is hard to doe and perfect them in effect Thou therefore most good and Almighty Lord to whom nothing is difficult grant I pray thee that I may more easily doe these things with my heart than profess them with my mouth c. And thus having after my poor manner put you upon practice and pointed you the way from the lowest to the highest step of divine love I am sensible that both good and bad have their exceptions ready against what I have delivered The humble trembling Christian he fears that if the lowest degree of love to God hath such heights in it he shall never be able to reach it and he is grieved whom God would not have made sad On the other hand those that call themselves Christians though there 's no reason for their usurping that title without any consideration of either the duty or themselves will bear you down that they love God with all their hearts souls and minds and that they have always done so and they are unworthy to live that doe not love God and if you enquire into any particulars whatsoever about their love to God they 'l rather quarrel with you than give you any satisfying answer If I could therefore propose any thing that would apply it self i. e. by its own evidence work it self into the conscience I might hope to dissolve their self-flatteries I cannot at present think of a more compendious way of undeceiving both these and of further perswasively urging the love of God than by plainly naming the infallible Properties and constant Effects of this love hereby those that despondingly fear they want it will find they have it and those that groundlesly boast of it will find they want it and both be instructed what must be done to evidence and exert it I shall begin with the properties of our love to God Properties of love to God And here as in all the rest I must study contraction and therefore dare not particularly mention Gerson's fifty properties of Divine Love I shall rather follow Voetius's method who ranks the properties of Divine Love thus They are partly Negative and Privative partly Positive and Absolute partly Comparative and Transcendent I shall speak briefly of each of these your Consciences may manage it as if it were a Use of Examination Negative Properties or Adjuncts are such as these and these may prevent the mistakes of drooping Christians and alas a great part of Christ's Family are such upon one account or other 1. This Divine Love is not at all in the unregenerate unless onely in shew and imitation that Soul that is solicitous about loving of God that Soul loves him This is proper and peculiar to all those and onely those that are born of God that are the adopted Children of God Let it be considered whether the Devil can counterfeit Love to God as he can other Graces their Faith works by Fear not by Love (a) Jam. 2.19 The Devils believe and tremble 'T is true he doth not only suffer but (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 promote an hypocritical Divine Love in some and he may appear in a Love-mask (c) Luva amoris to others as to Adam in Paradise (d) Gen. 3.5 God doth know that in the day you eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as Gods He pretends he hath more kindness for them than God himself and the like to Christ (e) Mat. 4.3 c. but did he himself ever pretend so much as to love God I grant wicked men pretend to love God but the ridiculousness of their Discourse plainly evidences they neither understand what they say nor whereof they affirm And whereas thou complainest that thou fearest thy Love is not sincere because 't is selfish be not discouraged while thou studyest to please God fearest to offend him prizest his presence mournest for his absence thy love to God is infallibly sincere though there be an ingredient of self in it nay let me say more it could not be sincere if thou didst not mind thy self as in the very quintessence of Conjugal Love 't is impossible to abstract it from self-love so the more we love God the more we cannot but love our selves yea even then when we most deny our selves out of love to God 2. This Divine Love is far from perfection 't is subject to more sensible languishments and infirmities than any other grace though it can never be totally and finally extinguisht What though sometimes to thy own Apprehension thou canst not tell whether thou lovest God at all and what though at all times thou complainest of fickleness and inconstancy what though the time of thy Fear be longer than the time of thy Love yet while thine heart can say 't is unquiet in this temper and it is thy restless desire to love God more perfectly These very complaints speak Love we never complain of want of Love to those persons whom we do not already love This as well as other graces is here but in part (f) 1 Cor. 13.10 while we are in this lower World our very Graces will have their Nepe as well as their Spring-Tides We cannot yet be so wise as to foresee all our hinderances nor so watchful as to avoid all Satan's Ambushes nor so perfect as to maintain a spiritual frame of heart Though this Grace is alwayes in motion yet it doth not alwayes nor equally go forward 3. Our love to God shall never be abolished g Non quoad formam nec
so he must minister the same to the souls and bodies of others 1 Pet. 4.10 Jam. 2.15.16 1 Joh. â— 13 If a brother or a sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you say unto them Go in peace he you warmed and filled notwithstanding you give them not the things that are needful to the body what doth it profit A man would find little profit in it himself if he should feed himself only with good words and wishes True love is not in Word and Tongue only but in Deed and in Truth Contrary to this endeavouring others good is to stand up in the way and stop the passage wherein good should flow in upon them and to be (a) Invidentia est aeg iâ—udo iuscepta p opter alterius res secundas quae nihil nocent invidenti Cic. Tuâ—t qu. l. 4. envious at the prosperity of others if they be able without our help to attain it Many men think themselves not well unless it be ill with others (b) Novum ac inaestimabile nunc in plutimis malum est parum alicui est si ipse sit felix nisi alter sec in infelix Salvianus de Gub. Dei it is not enough for them to be happy unless they see their brethren miserable 2. We have seen now in what things we do and may shew love to our selves we come now to speak of the manner of loving our selves and to shew that after the same manner we ought to love others also 1. We do or should love our selves holily i. e. in and for God we may not have a divided interest from God though God allows us to love our selves it must be in order to him and to his Glory Our love to our selves as it must be regulated by the will of God and extended or restrained according to that So God must be our utmost end in it whether it be exercised about the obtaining things temporal or spiritual for body or soul Salvation it self although it be our end must not be our last or utmost end but that God by it as by all things else may be glorified Therefore in this manner we must love others as God hath an interest in them and is or may be glorified by them and there is no man in the world but God is or may be glorified by him Every man is a creature upon whose Soul there is in a sort the Image of God and doth him some service in the place wherein he stands Isa 44.28 and 45.1 God calleth Cyrus a heathen his Shepherd and his Anointed and he did him eminent service in his generation The same may be said of every other man in some degree and proportion God hath given him some gifts whereby he is and may be serviceable to him at least in the affairs of his providential kingdom Besides all men having immortal souls within them are capable of blessedness with God for ever in the kingdom of Glory they who are at present enemies to God may be reconciled and made friends what was the most glorious Saint now in heaven but an enemy to God once when here on earth We our selves saith the Apostle were sometime foolish disobedient deceived Tit. 33.4 serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hateful and hating one another but after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Obj. How could David then say do not I hate them O Lord that hate thee and am I not grieved with these that rise up against thee Psal 139.21.22 I hate them with a perfect hatred He says that he hated them perfectly and approves himself to God in the thing Do not I hate them O Lord Ans There is a twofold hatred Odium simplex Odium redundans in personam as the Schooles speak a simple hatred and a hatred redounding to the person A simple hatred which is of the Sin of any man is our duty Psal 97.10 ye that love the Lord hate evil but to hate the Person of the sinner would be our sin as we are to abhor that which is evil Rom. 12.9 so we must cleave to that which is good David who was a man after Gods own heart knew how to distinguish between the sin and the person See how he expresseth himself elsewhere I hate the work of them that turn aside not them but the work of them Psal 101.3 he hated their sin saying it shall not cleave to me Hear him again I hate every false way this shews us plainly Psal 119.104 that he hated sin perfectly he hated sin so as that it should not cleave to him he hated it where ever he found it Every false way For what is perfect hatred Austin describes it very well He est perfecto odio odisse ut nec homines propter vitia oderis nec vitia propter homines diligas This is to hate with perfect hatred not to hate men for their Sins sake nor to love the sin for the mens sake This is one manner how we ought to love our Neighbour as our selves it must be holily 2. Our love to our selves is or should be orderly we must first and chiefly love our souls and then our bodies The Soul is of far greater worth than the body A world of things for the body will stand a man in no stead if his soul be lost and where the soul goes either to a place of bliss or torment the body must follow after and therefore when we are charged to take heed to our selves we are charged to keep our souls diligently only take heed to thy self Deut. 4 9. and keep thy soul diligently if the soul be safe all is safe if the soul be lost all is lost In like manner we ought to love our Neighbour we must desire and endeavour that it may be well with him in every respect both as to his body and outward estate but chiefly that his Soul may prosper and his outward concerns as they may be consistent with that third Epistle John ver 2. I wish above all things that thou mayst prosper and be in health as thy soul prospereth 1. We must seek the conversion of those that are unconverted lest their souls be lost for ever If we can be instrumental in this we shew the greatest love imaginable to give a man bread when he is hungry or cloathing when he is naked is somthing but to convert a soul to God is a greater kindness by much Brethren Jam. 5 19.20 if any of you do err from the truth and one convert him let him know that he which converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death He speaks of it as a great thing when he says Let him know that he
the Image of God the first-born of Faith the soul of other graces the Rule of our actions a summary of the Law an Angelick life a prelibation of Heaven a lively mark of a child of God for we may read God's Love to us in our love to him But O! how opposite and black are the characters of Love to the world nothing deserves the name of Love but that to God 2. Hence also infer that Love to God and Love to the world divide all mankind There is no middle state between these two opposites neither can they ever consist together in their perfect degrees If thou art a lover of the world in John's sense thou art a hater of God and if thou lovest God thou art an hater of the world Hereby then thou mayest make a judgment of thy state whether thou art a Saint or a sinner a Godly or worldly man And remember this that to love any worldly good more than God is in the Scripture's sense to hate God Mat. 6.24 3. This also instructs us that all natural irregenerate mens Love is but concupiscence or Lust Do not all men in their natural state prefer the creature before the Creator are not the pleasures profits and Honours of this world the worldly man's Trinity which he adoreth and sacrificeth unto Have not all men by nature a violent impetuous bent of heart towards some one or other worldly Idol are not their souls bound up in something below God Do not all men naturally esteem love use and enjoy the creature for it self without referring it to God and what is this but Lust 4. We are hence likewise taught that a regular and ordinate love to and use of this world's goods is very difficult and rare Alas how soon doth our love to creatures grow inordinate either as to its Substance Quantity Quality or Mode yea how oft and how soon doth our love to things lawful grow irregular and unlawful what an excess are most men guilty of in their love to and use of things indifferent how few are there who in using this world do not abuse it as 1 Cor. 7.31 where is that person that can say with Paul Phil. 4.12 Every where and in all things I am instructed both to abound and suffer want 5. This also informs us that where predominant Love to the world is notorious visible and manifest we cannot by any rule of judicious Charity count such a Godly man It was a Canon common among the Jews mentioned by Rabbi Salome that (x) Populus terrae non vocatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hasid the people of the earth are not called Godly i. e. the Lovers of the world may not be called Saints And Oh! how many worldly professors are cut off from the number of visible Saints hereby It is to me a dismal contemplation to consider how many follow Christ in profession and yet have the black mark of worldlings on there foreheads O! how much love to the world lies hid under the mask and vizard of professed love to God It is not the having or possessing of the world's goods but the over-loving of them that bespeaks you worldlings It 's true a Saint may fall under many preternatural heats yea fevers of Love to the world yet in time love to God as a sttonger fire expels such violent heats and noxious humors 6. Hence in like manner we may collect That worldly minded professors are composed of a world of Contradictions and Inconsistences Such Love God in profession but hate him in truth and Affection Their tongues are tipt with Heaven but their hearts are drencht in the Earth They pretend to serve God but they intend nothing but to serve their Lusts They make a shew of confidence in God but place their real confidence in the world They make mention of God in Name but exalt the world in Heart They Conform to the Laws of God in outward shew but Conform to yea are transformed into the world in Spirit Finally they hate sin and love God in appearance but they hate God and love sin in reality Ezech. 33.31 7. This also instructs thus That for professors of love to God to be deeply engaged in the love of this world is a sin of deep Aggravation O! what a peculiar Malignity is there in this sin How much Light and Love do such sin against What a reproach and disparagement is cast on God hereby Are not profane worldlings justified in their earthly-mindedness by the worldly love of Professors Yea do they not hereby take occasion to blaspheme the holy Name of God Lo say they these are your professors who are as covetous as over-reaching in their dealings as much buried in the Earth as any other And is not God hereby greatly dishonoured Do not such worldly professors live below their principles profession convictions covenant-Obligations and the practice of former Professors 8. This gives us the genuine Reason and Cause Why the word of God and all the good things contained therein find so little room in the Hearts of many great Professors It is to me a prodigious thing to consider among the croud of notional Professors and Hearers of God's Word how few entertain the same in an honest heart And where lies the main bitter root of this cursed Infidelity but in love to the world So Mark 4.18 19. And these are they which are sown among thorns Such as hear the Word and the cares of this world and the Deceitfulness of Riches and the Lusts of other things entring in choke the word and it becometh unfruitful It deserves a particular remark that the Thorny-ground hearers here characterised are ranked in the highest form of notional Hearers as much surpassing the Highway-ground or Stony-ground Hearers For in these thorny-ground Hearers the word takes some root yea with some depth and so springs up into a blade and green ears and so endures a cold winter yea a scorching summer's heat and yet after all it is choaked How so why by the cares of this world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the amorous distracting anxious cares and the deceitfulness of Riches O! what Deceitful things are Riches how soon do they choke the word and the Lusts of other things Namely Pleasures which deserve not to be named (y) Solenne fuit Hebraeis uti voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alius quoties cunque rem abominandam tacitè innuunt Horting Thesaur Philolog p. 51. For so the Hebrews were wont to express vile abominable things by other things Thence they termed Swine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 other things 9. Hence also conclude That such as love the world hate God and their own souls That predominant Love to the world in its proper notion includes the hatred of God is evident from the whole of our discourse That it implies also hatred of our selves is manifest because the hatred of God includes love to death and so by Consequence the hatred of our own souls as Prov.
poor prodigal spendeth above his estate Time in the whole compass of it is but short 1 Cor. 7.29 The time of particular persons is shorter and the time of season and present opportunity is the shortest of all Our present season our day it is but like the few sands in the little middle hole of the hour-glass The sand in the upper glass is uncertain whether ever to run one sand more or no that 's the time to come That in the lower glass is as the time spent and past but the few sands in the narrow middle hole are as the present season and only ours Non tam liberale nobis dedit tempus Natura ut aliquid ex eo liceat perdere saith Seneca Nature hath not dealt so liberally with us as that it doth allow us to mispend any of the little time it hath given us We are prodigal of time though covetous of a penny We are more profuse of our time cujus unius honesta est avaritia of which alone there is an honest covetousness You may have many pieces of gold together in your hand but you can have but one day of Grace at once 't is but one day 2. It is a day and therefore that which cannot be recalled when it is spent and done The loss of a day is an irrecoverable loss Who can restore the loss of a day nec cursum supprimit nec revocat tempus Time doth neither suppress it's course nor recall it neither doth it slack it nor revoke it As time stops not so time returns not If thy House be burnt or thy goods stoln or thy Lands forfeited Friends can make a supply of those losses but if all thy Friends nay Creatures in Heaven and in Earth should conspire to make thee happy they cannot with all their combined industry and united forces restore thee to one of those good hours in the day of Grace that thou hast foolishly mispent Esau lost his day and he could not recall it with tears The knocking of the foolish Virgins could not break open the shut door of Heaven When thy sun is set and thy day compleatly ended thy sun will never rise more I have heard of one that wantonly threw a Jewel into the Sea and they say the Jewel was brought to him in the belly of a fish that was served up to his table I know not how true this is but who or what shall ever bring back to thee the Jewel of thy lost day none shall ever bring back this Jewel to thy table if thou wilt throw it away by wantonness and negligence God will not turn thy glass when it is once out What the fall was to Angels that is death to man 3. It is a day and this should put us upon the present improving of it for it is a clear day a lightsome day The sun of Righteousness is risen The day-sping from on high hath visited our Horizon with the light of the Gospel Now a lightsome a sun-shiny day is to be regarded improved for the present 'T is a dark day indeed compared with Heaven but it is light compared with the shadows of Judaism or the fogs of Popery Work work work apace you that have the sun-shine of the Gospel I wish I could not say I see a Cloud far bigger than a man's hand and I hear a noise of much rain Now you have sun-shine cock your Hay shock your Corn a pace wanton not away your Summer least you beg in Winter God by giving of you so fair a day sheweth not that your Sun will alwaies shine but that now thou shouldst work Slumber not away a sun-shiny day in harvest The day and such a day is surely intended for working Man goeth forth to his work till the evening the night is for sleep but the day especially a sun-shiny day a clear day for working 4. It is a day and therefore puts us upon the present improving of it because it is a wasting day a day that passeth and runneth apace We usually say the day is far spent The day goeth whether you sit still or no the sun runs yea like a Gyant like a strong man though thou creepest like a cripple Though the passenger sleeps in the Ship the Ship carrieth him apace towards his Haven thou art idle but time hurrieth thee to the grave Time is winged thy hour-glass needs no jogging there is no stopping the stream of time It was a notable speech of one once to a person that was in a fit of anger Sir saith he Domine sol ad occasum the sun is going down this is my caution to every lazy Christian if the sun must not go down upon your wrath surely it must much less go down upon your loitering If the sun in the Heavens must not go down upon your Wrath the sun of your life should not be suffered to go down upon your Laziness Cum celeritate temporis utendi velocitate certandum est saith Seneca Our swiftness in work must contend with the swiftness of the time in which we work Thou dost not see thy time going but shortly thou wilt see it gone like the insensible moving hand of a dial which though thou dost not see it moving yet thou seest it hath moved 5. It is a day and therefore puts us upon the present improving of it For it is possible yet that in this thy day thy work may be done before sun set if thou beest speedy Despair not for then industry will be frozen The bridge of mercy is not yet drawn there is yet a possibility for thee to get over to a blessed eternity 'T is bad to say It is too soon though most have said so too often but it is worse to say It is too late I confess thy morning was thy golden hour and had been far the fittest for thy employment but the evening time is better than no time I dare not write despair upon any man's forehead If God will help us much work may be done in a little time but yet God must step in with a Miracle almost if thou shouldst run back the mispent age of 40 or 50 years in an hour or two surely you must fly rather than run 6. It is a day and for ought you know It may be your last day and therefore improve that present day You have no assurance of another from the upper glass of the hour-glass thou canst not be assured of one sand more Often say thou therefore to the day wherein thou livest art thou my last or may I look for another Though thou art young it may prove thy last day Death taketh us not by Seniority The new pitcher may be as easily broken as the old And which is a more severe consideration the Spirit of God possibly may never knock at the door of thy heart again never strive in thee never strive with thee Death may knock next and remember he will easily break into thy body though thy
in looking after riches and honour and the vanities of the World Oh! but now now now pursue Salvation It is a must-be and if the present time be gone you may be undone for ever 2. Salvation is that which imports rest and satisfaction Salvation it is the Soul's quietation and ease Heaven is that center of the Soul you are never at rest till you come there Now the object of rest is speedily to be pursued How doth every thing hasten to its rest its center how doth the stone with eagerness hasten to the Earth when thrown from the top of an high steeple how swiftly doth the fire fly upwards to its rest to its center with what a rapid motion with what a fierce career do the Rivers run into the Sea they are going to their place the place of waters Is Heaven thy rest is Heaven thy center why is thy tendency to it so sluggish You owe unto life Eternal all those propensions and all those inclinations wherewith all the things of the World are carried to the centers The speed that the wicked make in getting to Hell proclaims that Hell is their proper place and center though not for rest but restlessness Shall every thing hasten to rest but thy Soul it was the speech of Naomi to her Daughter my Daughter shall I not seek rest for thee Oh that every one would say unto his Soul my Soul shall I not look after rest for thee in the bosom of God and the eternal fruition of himself the little Infant that cryes for sleep will rise up in judgment against a sinner that doth not look after the rest of his Soul That little Infant that cryes for sleep out-goeth thee in wisdom 3. It is a day of Salvation and the pursuing of Salvation is Opus grande a great work a vast employment many things are required to accomplish it many lusts to be subdued many duties to be discharged many temptations to be resisted many relations to be filled Now a great work must be begun betimes If you had but a little to do in the day you might lie in bed a great while in the morning but you have a vast work to do and therefore get up early Some poor Creatures will rise up early to washing a pitiful work to the cleansing of thy Soul a far greater work surely than to wash clothes If you had a thousand Souls they might all be employed for the obtaining of Salvation If every singer were a hand they might all be employed in getting of Salvation He that hath many Children to look after and a small Estate many to feed and cloath he saith I must rise early and sit up late None have so much business as a Christian The work of Christianity is never at an end The art of Religion is never learned There is still an c. still something remaining to be done Blessed Paul thought himself far from perfection I do not look upon my self as having attained the best have much more to be done than they have already done I have read of a famous Limner who when he had wrought his picture in the best and most curious manner would never write at the bottom feci but faciebam I did it not I have done it because he judged he had never wrought any picture so well but he might work it better and add something more of art to it A Christian's art is never complete while he liveth in this world nor ever did a Saint think himself a complete Artist How exceeding large are the commands of God! how little is our most and how bad is our best compared with the rule 4. This delaying in the pursuit of Salvation is a delaying to be freed from the greatest evil What is that the wrath of God guilt damnation hell Delaying to be freed from extreme miseries is confuted by constant experience what condemned Malefactor will delay to get free from his chains from his dungeon from the sentence of death what tormented person upon the rack will say I must consider before I accept of ease and when ease and riddance from the rack are offered if instantly he will accept thereof will say I will consider of it I will give answer of it hereafter if a dust fly into the eye thou hastest to get it out and wilt thou not hast to ease thy soul who ever deliberated whether he would come out of the fire or no 't is more mad to deliberate whether thou wilt be saved or no and get out of the state of damnation Here is no place for deliberation 't is no measuring cast 5. Salvation it is our Own concern it is Opus proprium our own business it is not another's It may be a slothful apprentice will be backward to rise in the morning when he is to do his Master's business but when he sets up for himself and is to gather an Estate for himself he will go about his business speedily Salvation is a work for your selves the gain thereof is your own gain Whatever you get here goes into your own purse Here if you are wise you are wise for your selves Prov. 9.12 Oh that we had more true self-love the common self-love in the world is imployed about our bodily self the shell the sheath of the true self which is the body Few men truly love their true self 't is a common proverb interest will not lye yet the Soul that delays Salvation his interest lyes He walks contrary to it and neglects that wherein all his blessedness doth consist make sorts of his own Salvation 6. It is a day of Salvation and Salvation recompences for all earliness and earnestness Salvation maketh amends for all the sufferings and services of time How poor how short and slight is our work compared with our wages If there could be any trouble in Heaven it would be this that we have laboured for it no more and no sooner upon Earth Thou hast no more to live on to Eternity than what thou layest up here As our obedience is small compared with our rule prescribed so it is very small compared with our recompence promised Though nothing can recompence for the neglect of Salvation yet Salvation can recompence for the neglecting of all other things Nor only doth it recompence for our neglecting of all things but for our being neglected of all persons and for all our reproaches for our early pursuing it all which will easily be confuted with this answer 't is better to be reproached and derided for being too speedy than damned for being too slow in entring into Heaven's way 't is more easy to bear the scorns of the World than the scourges of Conscience I conclude We can never regard Salvation too soon for we can never either injoy it or think we can enjoy it too long What Spiritual knowledge they ought to seek for that desire to be saved and by what means they may attain it Serm. V. Isaiah 27.11
sufficient for the Salvation of them in their circumstances yet there is a vast difference between the abilities of several persons and therefore men are not to take their measures for their enquiries after Spiritual things merely by the necessariness of the things themselves but likewise by the abilities God hath given them So that upon the whole the better means and advantages in any kind men have for the gaining of knowledge so much the more knowledge is required to be in them Rule 4. By how much the more use men have for their knowledge and by how much the more good they may do with it so much the more knowledge will be expected of them That knowledge which might do well in a private Christian yet is not ordinarily sufficient for a Minister That which would be much in the one might be but little in the other And that which might do well in a Child would not be sufficient in a Parent or Master of a Family They that are to instruct others in the knowledge of God ought themselves to be more abounding in it Prop. 2. Men should in their seeking knowledge first study those truths which are most confessedly necessary to Salvation and before those which are apparently less necessary and so Principles before Controversies things essential before such as are only Circumstantial And indeed by how much the nearer any truth is to the foundation so much the more they should labour after the knowledge of it as for instance men should acquaint themselves 1. With the Being and Attributes of God as the foundation of all service yeilded to him and expectations of rewards from him Psal 14.4 Heb. 11.6 He that knows not God to be holy how can he know that God requires holiness and then how can he himself be holy how can a man trust God if he know him not to be wise powerful faithful or love him if he know him not to be good or fear him if he know him not to be just and it will easily follow that he who knows not God as he can never worship him while he lives so he can never expect that he should save him when he dies 2. With the Doctrine of the Trinity three Persons in the Godhead the Father Son and Spirit John 1.5 7. John 14.16 John 15.26 each Person having his proper part in the Salvation of sinners The Father as the Original and Fountain of it the Son as the Manager and the Holy Ghost as the Applier 3. With their own natural state and condition their being by nature in a state of sin and misery as having sin'd against this Holy Righteous Eph. 2.1 2 3. John 16.8 Powerful God and thereby exposed themselves to his wrath and curse They that would be delivered from the curse must know themselves to be obnoxious to it They that would not perish must know themselves to be in danger of it Men are not like to enjoy God's favour unless they know that they have lost it 4. With the Doctrine of a Redeemer and that both 1. As to the Person Who he is That the Lord Jesus Christ the Eternal Son of God the Second Person of the Trinity is the Redeemer of sinners Math. 20.28 and the only one Act. 4.12 That God hath not left all mankind to perish in their sin and misery but hath out of his abundant Mercy and free Grace found out a ransom for them a Saviour to deliver them and that the Lord Jesus Christ is he and none besides him so that it is in vain to seek for Salvation in any else seeing he alone hath the words of Eternal life John 6.6.8 He that knows nothing of a Saviour knows nothing savingly nor can any man partake of Redemption without some knowledge of the Redeemer They can never come to God that know not by whom to come 2. And as to the way of his working that Redemption 1. That he did in order to the Salvation of sinners John 1.14 and 3.13 take the nature of man upon him was both God and Man in one person and still continues so to be He had those natures united in himself which he was to reconcile to each other 2. That not only he was able as being God fit as being man Rom. 3.24 25 26. Rom. 5.10 1 Tim. 2.6 to satisfie Divine justice for the injury sin had done it but that by his obedience and death he did it to the full He that knows God to be infinitely just and himself to be a sinner had need know something of a Sacrifice for sin or he can never have any well-grounded hopes of escaping the hands of such a God 3. That Christ being raised from the dead and ascended into Heaven sits at the Father's right hand Rom. 8.34 Mark 16.19 and by his intercession there is now making application of the redemption he wrought on Earth He ever lives to make intercession Heb. 7.25 Men would be in an ill condition if redemption were wrought and there were none to apply it if Christ had died for them and left them to intercede for themselves 5. Men should acquaint themselves with the Doctrine of Justification by Christ that sinners must be justified by the Righteousness of the Lord Jesus imputed to them if ever they be justified at all He is the Lord their Righteousness Jer. 23.6 They are accepted in the beloved Eph. 1.6 Found in Christ not having their own Righteousness c. but that which is through the faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by faith Phil. 3.9 All their own Righteousness inherent in them and wrought by them even after regeneration and by the help of the Spirit of grace being finite imperfect short of the Law and due to it 6. With the way of their being made partakers of this Righteousness that it should be received by Faith alone as the means God hath appointed for their being interested in it God hath set forth Christ to be a propitiation through faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 and therefore they that are justified must be justified by Faith Rom. 5.1 All the holiness any Saint could ever arrive unto in this life would never entitle him to Christ's Righteousness if faith were wanting 7. With the nature properties and fruit of that faith that it must be an effectual lively Faith not only an assent of their minds to the truth of the Scripture Jam. 2.17 John 1.12 but the consent of their hearts to the terms of the Covenant a receiving whole Christ with an eye to all rhe good things he offers there and for all those holy ends and purposes for which he is propounded to them In a word they are to look upon Faith as the Principle of their Obedience and walking with God according to that rule of Righteousness God hath given them 8. With the Doctrine of sanctification that God is wont to fit and frame mens hearts at first to the duties of
of the Church done they have been to them the very joy and life of their souls Psal 122.1 I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord our feet shall stand within thy gates O Jerusalem I never was â—â—re affected with joy and gladness in all my life then when I was wont to hear the people encouraging one another to assemble themselves to the publique worship of God in the house of God on Gods day O it did my heart good to hear with what alacrity and rejoycing they did provoke one another come let us go to the house of the Lord notably prophesied of in words at length Isa 2.2 3. verses many people shall go and say Come ye and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go forth the Law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem In the loss of Ordinances and Sabbaths they have been dead in the nest like Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they were not And in the recovery and enjoyment of them they have rejoyced as men rejoyce that divide the spoil see Psal 3. Psal 42. 43. 84. per totum Christians we must write after this copy and count the Sabbath not our Duty only but our Delight and priviledge 2. Affirmative duty The Holy of the Lord. We must call it i. e. ut sup count it keep it as Lichdosh Jehovah sanctum Domini One of the titles of Jesus Christ The Holy one of God we must observe the Sabbath as Holy time Holy yet not by constitution not essentially holy as Christ is holy nor inherently as the Saints are holy but holy by institution by sanction relatively holy the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it i. e. he set it apart for holy uses Deut. 5.12 keep the Sabbath-day to sanctifie it Nothing but holy things must be done in this holy time praying reading hearing singing of Psalms c. as Psal 92. which is both a precept and plat-form for Sabbath-sanctification meditation rejoycing in God and Thanksgiving as you may read at large Thirdly We must call it i. e. count it honourable or the glorious day of God Glorious upon several accounts 1. For Gods glorious resting upon that day Gods rest that is a glorious rest rest of God As things of God in scripture are great and glorious things 2. Glorious or Honourable by a glorious sanction Coyn with the Kings stamp upon it is counted Royal not for the mettal so much though it be of Silver or Gold but for the Image superscription and impression it beareth Every day in the week is Honourable because it is Gods Creation but the Sabbath is glorious for the inscription Jehovah hath set his Image upon it He did sanctifie it It hath Gods sanction upon it and that is glorious 3. It is Honourable for those glorious ends for which it was set apart and they are three 1. That God might sanctifie his people Ezekiel 20.12 moreover I gave them my Sabbaths for a sign between me and them not a ceremonial sign as some would dwindle it that have no more Religion in them than an old rotten Ceremony cometh to but a moral sign i. e. a Testimony Pledge or Covenant whereby it might appear that they were Gods people sanctified to his service and honour So it follows that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifieth them The Sabbath is Gods Medium to raise up to himself an holy people 2. That Gods people might sanctifie him so ver 41. I will be sanctified in you so Levit. 10.3 I will be sanctified in them that draw nigh me God sanctifieth us when he makes us holy we sanctifie God when we acknowledge him to be holy God sanctifieth us when he makes us what we are not we sanctifie him when we acknowledge him to be what he is These be glorious ends but 3. Another glorious end for which God made the Sabbath was that the Sabbath on Earth might be a type and figure of the Sabbath in Heaven That in this initial and imperfect Sabbath on earth we might see though in a glass darkly what the Saints and Angels are doing in Heaven without ceasing that we might peep into Heaven before we come thither and long and wait for that eternal Sabbath A day wherein God bows the Heaven and comes down and offers himself in ways of sweet and friendly Communion with his people Exod. 20. v. 23. Fourth Duty is As we must call and count it glorious so we must actually honour it or him it may be rendred both and indeed when we honour this day we glorifie God and we glorifie God when we make him our end in honouring his day Without both these we do take Gods Name in vain and do but mock God rather in pretending to keep a Sabbath than glorifie him We must set up God in his own day and in his own Institution And thus I have done with the opening of this blessed Model in the Duties of it I should come now to the Priviledges annexed but sufficient to the day is the travel thereof For the Improvement of this doctrinal Exposition I shall do these two Things 1. I shall endeavour the stating of some Cases of Conscience concerning the Sabbath 2. I shall raise some observations instead of more distinct Uses and application Case 1 If it be inquired what Sabbath it is that is here spoken of we shall not need to stick long upon the solution Some indeed of the Antisabbatical Doctors who love neither the Name nor Thing will needs expound it of the yearly Sabbath the day of the strictest rest among the Jews in their solemn convention for Humiliation and Atonement of which we read Levit. 16.31 and 23.27.31 But surely it is an unreasonable straitning of the text to confine it to this especially since the Prophet had sufficiently insisted upon that subject both by way of reproof and Exhortation in the former part of the chapter Here therefore I conceive we are to understand the Weekly Sabbath not only the seventh day Sabbath which was yet in being but the First day Sabbath also which was to succeed the Prophet being an Evangelical Prophet as one calls him the Evangelist Isaiah speaks of the Evangelical Sabbath which was to continue to the end of the world Rules drawn from the Negative part of this model Rules 1. Note in the first place that from the Creation of the world to this day God never suffer'd his Church to be without a Sabbath As soon as ever there was a Church though it was but in its infancy and confin'd within the narrow limits of a single-family and few souls therein God did immediately institute a Sabbath for it Gen. 2.3 And on the seventh day God ended all his works which
Cant. 3. This is to call the day Honourable Thirdly Then we call it Honourable when we have a precious esteem of every moment of Sabbath-time and jealous lest any drop of it should run waste even the filings of Gold and the dust of Diamonds are pretious No man can call the Sabbath Glorious that sets light by an hour or minute or moment of so Divine a creation Time is a ring of Gold but the Sabbath is the rich sparkling Diamond in it Davids heart smote him for cutting off but a lap of Sauls Royal coat So should ours for profaning or unprofitably wasting any part of Christ's day It is like his seamless coat and cannot be divided without sacriledge Fourthly The day is honourable when we have a singular esteem of all the Institutions and Ordinances of the day When Prayer is precious and the word Read Preached is precious when singing of Psalms is precious the Sacraments precious when every one in its time and order is observed with such due regard that none do justle out or exclude the other but one doth catch in the other as the links in a chain of Gold Fifthly When it is the grief of our souls that we can keep Sabbaths no better and strive cordially and conscientiously to keep the next better than we did the last Sixthly and lastly when we are careful that all ours as well as our selves keep Sabbaths this is a main clause in our obedience to the 4th commandment Thou thy Son and thy Daughter thy man-servant and thy maid-servant c. Every one in their several capacities must keep the Sabbath To be strict our selves in the duties of a Sabbath and careless what the rest of our Families do whether our children or servants steep or be idle dance or play at cards sing idle songs or take Gods name in vain c. This is not to call the Sabbath Honourable Deut. 5.14 Gen. 8.19 I know Abraham that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord. And shalt honour him or glorifie him From Cabad honorare The verb in the Hebrew Vecibbactto may be rendred It or Him but the sence seems to incline to the latter Him rather than It the day having had its title of veneration put upon it before honourable this may more properperly belong to God even to the whole blessed and glorious Trinity requiring at the hands of every one that enjoyeth this blessed priviledge of a Sabbath that they ascribe the honour and glory of it unto God and that is done 1. When we make divine Authority the sole ground of our separating and sanctifying the whole day to his peculiar Service and Worship without alienating any part or parcel of that holy time to our own carnal uses and purposes Keep the Sabbath day to sanctifie it there 's the duty as the Lord thy God commanded thee there 's the Authority 2. When as we make Gods command our ground so we make Gods glory our end When we make it our design to set up God Father Son and Holy Ghost in all his glorious and infinite perfections in our Adorations and Admirations upon that his holy day And that is done in a special manner when we make it the great business of a Sabbath To ascribe to each glorious Person in the Trinity the glory of his proper work and operation whereby he challengeth a title to and interest in the Sabbath ex gra 1. When we ascribe to God the Father the glory of the stupendious work of Creation and that is done by a due contemplation of all his glorious Attributes shining forth in this beautiful structure of heaven and earth celebrated by the Royal Psalmist in Psal 19. v. 1. The heavens declare the glory of the Lord and the firmament sheweth his handy work the transcendent excellencies of the glorious Jehovah are conspicuous and illustrious in this admirable Theatre of the world that is to say 1. His Power 1. In creating all things out of nothing 2. And that by a word of his mouth 2. His Wisdom In making all things in such a beautiful and exact manner and order Galen l. de usu partium As the great Physitian said of the body of man no man can come after God and say this might have been better so in the Fabrick of Heaven and Earth neither man nor Angels can say here is a Defect and there is a redundancy it had been better there had been more Suns and fewer stars more land and less Sea c. No when the divine prophet had stood and in his most serious contemplation looked through the Creation he could spye out nothing that could have been otherwise but breaks out in admiration O Lord how manifold are thy works In wisdom hast thou made them all he could see nothing from one end of the Universe to the other but what speaks infinite perfection In wisdom hast thou made them all and as the Omnipotency and wisdom of God is magnified in the Creation so also 3. His bounty in bestowing all this visible creation upon man for his use and benefit as one saith God made man last that he might bring him as a father brings his son into an house ready furnished This is one branch of our honouring God when we ascribe to God the Father the glory of the work of Creation Secondly When we ascribe to God the Son the glory of his most glorious work of Redemption wherein these particulars are wonderful 1. His inessable incarnation 1 Tim. 3.16 Without controversie great is the mystery of godliness God manifest in the flesh i. e. The invisible God made visible in a bâ—dy of flesh This was a Mystery indeed A Son in Heaven without a Mother Gal 4.4 And a Son on Earth without a Father Secondly Christ his stupendious being made under the Law Behold he that made the Law was made under the Law under the Ceremonial Law that he might abolish it under the Moral Law The preceptive power of it that he might fulfill it that so every believer might have a Righteousness which he may call his own Rom. 10.4 The maledictive power of it that he might take it away Gal. 3.13 3. Christ his work of Redemption was principally transacted by his death and passion for therein he laid down pretium Redemptionis Acts 20.28 the price of Redemption which was his own precious blood 1 Pet. 1.18 19 20. 4. This great work and mystery of our Redemption was perfectly consummated in Christ his glorious Resurrection Col. 2.15 wherein he spoiled principalities and powers and made a shew of them openly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some render it in it and would refer it to his Cross but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be understood here in the masculine gender not in the neuter and so to be translanted in himself Christ rising from the dead like a conqueror lead
will sing Praise to the Name of the Lord most High And sometimes he calls upon others 1 Chron. 16.9 Sing unto him sing Psalms unto him and tell of his wondrous Works Nay sometimes he summons the whole Earth to join in this duty 1 Chron. 16.23 Psalm 68.32 Sing unto the Lord all the Earth shew forth from day to day his Salvation And holy Hezekiah he propagated this service 2 Chron. 29.30 Nay in their times when the Royal Majesty was lodg'd in Judah Singers were a peculiar Office enjoined constantly to sing the Praises of the Lord 1 Kings 10.12 And Jehosaphat appointed Singers 2 Chron. 20.21 Nay and Asaph Heman Jeduthun and Ethan men eminent and holy were employed in this holy service 2 Chron. 5.12 But why should I light a Candle at Noon-day Thus this harmonious service was most usual and most acceptable in the times of the Law And I need not straggle from my Text to bring in Gospel-Precept for this sweet Ordinance And the Apostle takes care to acquaint other Churches with the same injunction So Colos 3.16 Col. 3.16 Teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And so firmly the Apostle states this Musical Service this exhilarating Ordinance that he himself act his own injunction though fettered in a Prison and makes Barnabas a Companion of his Song as well as of his Sorrows Acts 16.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They Hymned God i.e. they celebrated his Praises with a Hymn and as Bede saith Lorinus Bede with singing 2. From Scripture-Argument And I shall only take out one shaft out of the whole Quiver I shall use one Argument among many which is this viz. We always find this duty of singing Psalms linked to and joyned with other Moral Duties Thus the Psalmist joyns Singing and Prayer together Psal 95.1 6. O come let us sing unto the Lord Psal 95.1.6 in the first Verse O come let us worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker in the sixth Verse There is Prayer and Singing connexed Singing being supposed to be of equal necessity and authority with other Ordinances And so the Apostle James Jam. 5.3 joins these two together Is any among you afflicted let him pray Is any merry let him sing Psalms So you may observe both these Services are equally calculated for man's necessity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Mart. 119. Quad Orthodox Thus Paul and Silas join them in their practice Acts 16.25 And so Justin Martyr in his 117. Question ad Orthodoxos tells us that in his time They Sang and sent up Prayers to God the Primitive Church confirming David's Injunction and the Apostolical Command So that by these instances we may observe That the duty of Praying and Singing have walk'd in the same equipage and lay claim to an equal Authority from Divine Writ the Scripture jointly favouring both 3. From Scripture-Pattern Moses both pens a Psalm viz. the Ninetieth and sings a Holy Song and the 15th of Exodus Is the record of it So David tripudiates in the practice of this delightful service Psal 104.33 Psal 104.33 Nay David composeth Psalms and Hezekiah appoints them to be Sung 2 Chron. 29.30 So David and Asaph Hezekiah and the Levites all join to Sing forth the praises of the Lord. Nay our dearest Jesus the King of Saints and the Redeemer of Mankind practiseth this sweet duty and calls in his blessed Apostles to make up the Quire Mat. 26.30 Rev. 15.3 Mat. 26.30 And when they had Sung an Hymn they went up into the Mount of Olives Our blessed Saviour honours this Ordinance with his own practice and this he did a little before his death so to seal this Ordinance with his blood as well as to consecrate it with his lips Thus this Celestial Quire of Christ and his Apostles six this sweet Ordinance in the Church for future successions 4. From Scripture-Prophesie And here I may speak of Singing as Paul speaks of Timothy's Ordination 1 Tim. 4.14 It was given by Prophesie There are divers Prophesies in the Old Testament concerning this Ordinance in the New So in Psal 108.2 Upon which Mollerus Mollerus observes That in that Text David pours forth ardent Prayers and wishes for the Kingdom of Christ And so Divines observe that the Psalm 100.1 2. are Prophetical Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye Lands serve the Lord with gladness come before his presence with Singing To which may be added that pregnant prophesie recorded in Isa 52.8 Isa 52 8. Speculatores simul jubilabunt opinare quantum sit gaudium futurum ob Redemptionem ad eptamper Christum Musc My watchmen shall lift up their voice with their voice together shall they sing which clearly prognosticates this Musical Ordinance in Gospel times And Musculus much favours this Interpretation when he saith These watchmen shall Jubilee when they shall consider the great joy approaching for the Redemption obtained by Christ And there are two things which not only establish but sweeten and honour an Ordinance 1. Promises 2. Prophesies Christ himself was the fruit and issue of both Secondly we may take notice of the sweetness of this Duty Singing is the Soul's Jubilee Our Spiritual recreation The shout of the heart Our tuning of our Hallelujahs The sweetest solace of a Sanctified Soul David was in a kind of rapture when he cries out I will Sing praise to the Lord while I have my being Psal 104.33 Psal 104.33 One well observes of Singing There is a dilating of the sound and a drawing out of the voice which gives more tïme for the fixing of the heart upon that which is Sung and so puts the Soul upon a sweeter Meditation Psal 10.4 34. Psal 104.34 And we may animadvert it That when we Sing Psalms there is more than ordinary raising and lifting up of the Soul there is an elevation to a higher degree of Communion with God It is the Soul 's high Mount towards Heaven the Saint flies higher towards the Element and Sphere of joy Then we are fledged for sublime things One asserts There is not a greater resemblance of Heaven upon Earth than a company of God's people Singing a Psalm together Then the Soul rejoyceth in Divine goodness and exults in Divine excellencies meditates on Divine promises And whatever we make the matter of our Singing it will much affect the heart 1. If we Sing of God Of his goodness It inflames our heart to love Of his Wisdom It raiseth our heart to admiration Rom. 11.33 Of his Power It engageth the heart to Faith and Confidence Nay of his Judgments It over-awes the heart to a due and reverential Fear 2. If we Sing of any thing concerning our selves If for the diversion of a trouble It fills the heart with humility If for the obtaining of a mercy It boils up the heart in Desire 3. If we Sing of
acceptance with God or in a condition of spiritual life that is the forerunner and earnest of a life of glory 2. But again if you consider the nature of the drink which he hath appointed it is wine and not water By it may be signified thus much that as there is no sort of drink so grateful to the palate so reviving and strengthning to the spirits so that spiritual life that the Soul is raised to by the Death of Christ is a life of the greatest pleasure and joy that is conceivable for as no liquor like Wine doth chear a sad drooping spirit so nothing doth so glad and chear the Soul as Faith in a Crucified Christ according to that of the Apostle Peter in whom though we have not seen 1 Pet. 1.8 yet believing we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory Thus much for the Duty this do 2. The end of the Duty and that is in remembrance of me Here are two things to be inquired into I. What reason was there for the instituting an Ordinance for his remembrance II. Why of all the acts and expressions of his love to sinners above all he would be remembred in his sufferings for us which is the special signification of this Supper 1 To the first I say you must call to mind that the time of instituting this supper was the night before that day he died Now the consequent of his Death was to be this that he should be taken from Earth to Heaven there to be personally present till the day of judgment Now that his Church on Earth might not forget him in this long absence he therefore appointed this supper for a frequent quickning them to the remembrance of him till he came again 2 To the other Question I Answer That the reasons why Jesus would have this act of his love to be especially remembred above all other may be these 1. Because his dying for his Church was the greatest act of love he ever shewed his Church Greater love saith Christ hath no man than this John 15.13 1 John 3.16 that a man lay down his life for his friends Again saith the Apostle Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us If a man should part with his liberty and suffer bonds or lay down his estate and become poor or leave his Country and become an exile for his friend these were all expressions of great love but none of them are comparable to laying down life and shedding ones blood for a friend This last is that wherein Christ hath eminently demonstrated his love to his Church this he glorieth in and this is that which he would never have his Church forget but frequently remember in this supper 2. Because that though he gave and still doth give very great testimonies of his love to us as in his Resurrection Ascension Intercession preparing Glory and lastly in his coming again to raise us justifie us and to take us to himself to behold and enjoy that Glory that he had with the Father before the World was yet this Ordinance is rather for the remembrance of his bloody Death for us than for the remembrance of any of the other blessings and why Because that all these other depend on this Christ could never have risen to our justification had he not died for the satisfaction of the Law and his Fathers Justice Nor would he have been admitted as an Intercessor nor have been allowed one mansion in Glory for any of us nor would his Father have suffered him to have returned again to take any one of us to himself if he had not by his death made our peace opened the new way into the Holy of Holies and purchased a glorious Resurrection and an Ascension to the Heavenly and eternal glory for us So that since all his other acts of love to his Church depend on this of his dying no wonder if he appointed this Supper for the remembrance of his death rather than any thing else he either did or promised to do for us The Conclusion is that since that the end of this Ordinance is so glorious and that is the remembrance of the greatest love that ever God the Father or Son shewed to us it cannot but cast a Lustre and Glory upon the duty of coming to this Supper and engage us to a chearful participation thereof 3. The Obligation to this duty and that is Christ's Command this is implied in the Text but exprest in the foregoing verse what saith the Apostle Paul I have received of the Lord that which also I declare unto you The Apostle doth but declare the Command is Christ's he is the Author of it It is Christ not Paul that said This do in remembrance of me Christ's Commands are the bonds by which we are tied up to Obedience if we break his bonds we are transgressors Remember who they were that conspired together saying Let us break his bonds asunder and cast away his cords from us they were such that the Lord hath in derision to whom he will one day speak in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure The commands of superiors set out all duty to inferiors and punish for neglect and the higher or greater the superior is the more authority hath the command and the greater punishment will be inflicted on the disobedient If disobedience to the word spoken by Angels received a just recompence of reward of how much sorer punishment shall they be thought worthy that disobey the command of Jesus Christ If a Child's disobedience deserves the rod or a Servants the cudgel or a Subjects the axe or halter what doth disobedience to the Lord Jesus deserve that is greater than Father or Master or any earthly Soveraign whatever Take heed then my brethren of being found guilty of neglect of this duty that is bound upon you by the command of so great an authority as this of the Lord Jesus that hath said This do in remembrance of me 4. In the next place is to be considered the persons obliged and those are the Church of Christ so far as by Scriptural Qualifications they are capacitated to a participation thereof who are 1. Those that can discern the Lord's body in this supper the want of this the Apostle gives as the reason of unworthy receiving it 1 Cor. 10.29 and tells us they eat damnation to themselves Now there are two ways wherein the Lord's body may be said to be discerned in this supper 1. When the Understanding is spiritually enlightned to perceive the true nature and ends of this supper and thereby is enabled to see a greater difference between this and our ordinary meals for he that shall for want of knowledg therein come to this Table with no better preparations or to no other intents than when he goes to his own Table he doth certainly pervert the ends of the institution and prophanes the Ordinance and therefore cannot chuse
is the command of the Lord Jesus to remember him in this Supper is a debt you ow to him your Saviour Lord and head it is a command that bears the superscription of the most supreme Authority in Heaven or Earth and if by the sentence of Christ it was but just to pay the tribute-money to Caesar because it bore his superscription it is much more just for you to pay the tribute of obedience to this command that bears the superscription of an Authority greater than all the Caesars that ever were What 's the name of Caesar in compare to the name and title of the Son of God which is a title that speaks him greater than all Angels or Arch-Angels in Heaven for to which of his Angels said he at any time thou art my Son Heb. 1.5 this day have I begotten thee this is he whom the Prophet Isaiah calleth Wonderful Is 9.6 Counsellor the mighty God the Prince of peace on whose shoulders it hath pleased the Everlasting Father to lay the government this is he whose Kingdom is an Everlasting Kingdom Dan. 4.3 and of whose dominion there will be no end of whom David speaketh Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever a Scepter of Righteousness is the Scepter of thy Kingdom Psal 45.6 all power my brethren God hath given into his hands and hath given him to bear this royal title King of Kings and Lord of Lords Rev. 19.16 and it is he only that is head of his Church it is this great Lord that hath said this do in remembrance of me how then dare you disobey him believe it if he hath so great authority to command he hath as great a power to punish if he find you presumptuously disobedient he that could strike some sick and others dead for profaning this Supper he can do as much to you for not observing it and that he doth not is not because he wants power but because he is gracious long suffering not willing you should perish for your neglect but that you may be drawn to repentance and so to obedience but if you be obstinate after you are told throughly of your fault take heed it will be a horrible thing for you to fall into the hands of consuming fire 2. Consider your neglect of this Ordinance is a sin against the command not only of the greatest but of the best Prince in Heaven and Earth he is not only Maximus but Optimus also this is a further aggravation of your sin Who ever thought but that Absalom's taking up arms against David was treason but he that shall consider that the rebellion was against David the man after God's own heart against David the holiest of men and the justest of Princes and besides all this against David his Father cannot but judge it an act of the highest treason imaginable My brethren in your disobeying this command you sin against Jesus the just and Jesus the gracious against him that is by place your head in love your Father in openness of heart your Friend against him that emptied himself that he might fill you that became poor that he might enrich you that became an exile from his Throne and Father's Kingdom that he might bring you home to your Father's house that became a curse that you might be blessed that hung on a tree for you that you might sit on Thrones with him who called you and washed you from your sins in his blood and after all this when he shall leave such a command as this to remember him in this Supper for all this his love how inexcusable must your neglect be let your Conscience be judge with whom I leave it 3. If you consider what relation you that are believers stand in to this Jesus that left this command with you ye are the Elect of the Father who committed you to his Son to Redeem and effectually call you that he might save you from sin wrath the grave Hell and to bring you to everlasting glory Why are you called believers but from that faith whereby you acknowledg this Jesus as your Lord and your God whereby you trust in him and in what he hath done and suffered for you for the making your peace procuring your pardon and opening a new and living way into your Father's Kingdom and glory it is by this faith that you love him cleave to him and are therefore called his friends his children his brethren his subjects servants followers witnesses and shall such as you be found disobedient to him shall you carelesly forget to remember him in a supper appointed by himself for the remembrance of the greatest act of his love that is his dying for you I tell you Christ will take it worse of you than of any others how hainously did David take a contempt from his friend Psal 41.9 Yea mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted which did eat of my bread hath lift up his heel against me ye are those that he hath chosen out of the world brought into his Father's family and for you to turn the heel upon him and refuse to eat at his Table this is a contempt that cannot but grieve and anger him when Christ had been teaching that they who did not eat his flesh and drink his blood had no life in them at this multitudes were offended and forsook him but saith he to his Disciples will ye go also implying that if they should forsake him it would be matter of greater trouble than that of the multitudes leaving him John 6.53.67 That the profane world comes not nigh his Table that comes not so nigh his heart but that ye believers should withdraw this is that which he must needs take ill from you Oh do not as you tender the good pleasure of your Lord do not grieve him by absenting your selves from his table 4. If you consider the command it self as it is easie pleasant honourable your neglect must needs receive further aggravation What is more easie than to eat and drink or more pleasant than to come to a feast or more honourable than to feast with the King of Kings Christ puts you not upon the painful duty of circumcising your flesh nor on the troublesom duty of washing your selves every time you touch a dead carcase or what is ceremonially unclean nor on the costly duties of sacrificing your Lambs Goats or Oxen nor on the costly and toilsom duties of travelling scores of miles every year to feast before the Lord at Jerusalem to which the Church of the Jews were bound he hath eased you of all these burdens and made your task far easier instead of all these he hath instituted but two duties like them the one of Baptism the trouble of which you are to undergo but once in all your lives and the other of this Supper which you may have without travelling far for and which costs you next to nothing But further it is a duty not less
not the Christ but that I am sent before him He that hath the bride is the Bridegroom c. he must increase but I must decrease John would not suffer any envy or prejudice to remain in the hearts of his Disciples against Christ upon his account but seeks to check it presently But he being now not present with them the Pharisees more easily ingaged them in this opposition and objection against Christ about Fasting to join with them therein And the zeal that John's Disciples had for the reputation of their Master might somewhat incline them also to it for they saw the people following Christ which they thought might be some eclipse to it and consequently to their own as they were his Disciples And besides they knowing the austerity and abstinence that was practis'd by John his meat being locusts and wild honey such food as he found in the wilderness they might be more easily offended at that greater liberty that was taken by Christ and his Disciples about eating and drinking Especially at this time when their Master was in Prison they thought fasting might be more seasonable than going to a feast as Christ and his Disciples did at the house of Levi as Grotius observes upon the place Next we have Christ's reply to the Objection and he presents it in a parable as I said the parable of a Bridegroom who at his wedding hath his Bridemen and Bridemaids attending him in the wedding chamber who according to the Hebrew Dialect are here called the Children of the Bride-chamber And is it then a proper season for their fasting while they are in the wedding-chamber and the Bridegroom with them Wherein Christ doth represent himself as a Bridegroom and his Disciples as the Children of the Bride-chamber And he doth now represent himself thus the rather to put these Disciples of John in remembrance of their Masters speech when he call'd Christ the Bridegroom As we read John 3.29 He that hath the Bride is the Bridegroom And should then his Disciples fast and mourn while Christ the Bridegroom was with them And their Master John he profest that he was the friend of this Bridegroom and rejoyced greatly to hear his voice John 3.29 And therefore why should they be offended at his Disciples that they did not fast and mourn when their Master John rejoiced and had his joy fulfill'd in hearing his voice as we read John 3.29 And herein Christ doth intimate to them that if they were indeed his Disciples and the children of the Bride-chamber they would not fast neither for the children of the Bride-chamber cannot fast while the Bridegroom is with them But he adds The days will come when the Bridegroom shall be taken away from them and then shall they fast in those days And so I come to the Text. Wherein we may observe by the way 1. That Christ doth exempt his Disciples from observing those fasts that the Pharisees and John's Disciples were in the practice of Chemnitiu Harm in loco And the rather because they were observed especially on the Pharisees part Ex simulato pietatis studio out of ostentation of piety and for self-justification As he did exempt them from their other traditions so also from their fasts 2. That the Bridegroom was to be taken away which is to be understood of Christ's fleshly presence for his spiritual presence never was nor never will be taken away from his Church And this presence discontinues till his coming to judg the world and then the cry will be heard at Midnight Behold the Bridegroom cometh Mat. 25.6 The Bridegroom that was once visibly present on earth with his Disciples is so taken away that he will not be in that manner present with them again till his return from heaven And his taking away doth either respect the acts of men who by cruel hands took him from prison and from judgment and nail'd him upon the cross Isa 53 8. and took him out of the Land of the living Or else it respects the act of his Father who took him up into heaven after he had finisht his work here upon earth as it is said 1 Tim. 3. ult Received up into glory which is the more probable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though there is nothing in the original word to determine it to either sense 3. He also declares what the practice of his Disciples would be after his taking away Then shall they fast in those days so that he doth not deny the practice of Fasting to his Disciples but rather commends it only it was not at present seasonable as it afterwards would be Qu. But why should they fast after he was taken away Ans 1. Some say because till then the Holy Ghost was not given in such a degree as might fit them for such extraordinary duties Chrysost As Christ seems to intimate when upon this occasion he excuseth his Disciples as being not yet fit for such spiritual services No man putteth a piece of new Cloth into an old garment nor new wine into old bottles Mark 2.22 It 's true they might be able to keep fast days as the Pharisees did but Christ that values our duties by the frame of spirit exerted in them would not have them put upon extraordinary duties till they had a suitable measure of the spirit to enable them thereunto 2. Others and I think more properly understand the words of Christ with respect to the afflictions and persecutions that would come upon the Church after his ascension into heaven vvhich vvould give them great occasions of prayer and extraordinary supplications and vvhich vvould reduce them to such great sorrows and distresses vvhereby fasting vvould be not only seasonable but that principle of grace that vvould act them in other duties vvould also naturally lead them to it Not to take up again the practice of these Pharisaical Fasts as the Montanists would hence infer but the duty of Fasting as suited to Gospel times And these persecutions began early First by the Jews and then the Arrians and then the Heathen persecutions under the Dragon in the Roman Empire and then under the Beast with the seven heads and ten horns to whom the Dragon gave his seat and great power Rev. 13.2 And Christ foretold this to his Disciples before he vvas taken away That they that kil'd them would think they did God good service John 16.1 And that Nation should rise against Nation and Kingdom against Kingdom and there should be Famine Pestilence and Earthquakes Mat. 14.7 Now in these days should his Disciples fast Not that in these vvords Christ doth give an institution for fasting but declares what eventually would come to pass Neither doth he determine any particular days and times for fasting but only general during the absence of the Bridegroom they should fast in those days And indeed as soon as the Bridegroom was gone they began to have cause of mourning his absence it self was one great cause
may require frequent accesses to the throne of grace in a day But I humbly think at the least once a day which seems to be imported by that passage in our Lord's prayer give us this day our daily bread Since after our Lord's appointment of secret prayer in the text he gives us this prayer as a pattern to his Disciples Qu. 3. When persons are under temptations or disturbance by passions is it expedient then to pray 1 Tim. 2.8 Ans Since we are enjoin'd to lift up holy hands without wrath and doubting I judg it not so proper to run immediately to prayer but with some foregoing ejaculations for pardon and strength against such exorbitances and when in some measure cooled and composed then speed to prayer and take heed that the Sun go not down upon your wrath without holy purgation by prayer Eph 4.26 though I must confess a Christian should always endeavour to keep his course and heart in such a frame as not to be unfit for prayer upon small warnings The very consideration of our frequent communion with God should be a great bar to immoderate and exuberant passions Qu. 4. Whether may we pray in secret when others must needs take notice of our retirement Ans I must confess in a strait house and when a person can many times find no seasons but such as will fall under observation I think he ought not to neglect secret duty if his heart be right before God for fear of others notice we must prevent it as much as may be and especially watch our hearts against spiritual pride and God may graciously turn it to a testimony and for example to others Qu. 5. Whether we may be vocal in secret prayer if we can't so well raise or keep up affection or preserve the heart from wandering without it Ans No doubt but yet there must be used a great deal of wise caution about extending the voice De Orat. That of Tertullian counselling persons at prayer ne ipsis quidem manibus sublimius elatis c. Ne vultu quidem in audaciam erecto Sonos etiam vocis subjecios esse oportet aut quantis arteriis opus est si pro sono audiamur c. qui clarius adorant proximis obstrepunt imò prodendo orationes suas quid minùs faciunt quam si in publico orent Advises that both hands and countenance and voice should be ordered with great reverence and humility What arteries need we if we think to be heard for noise and what else do we by discovering our prayers than if we pray'd in publick yet surely if we can obtain some very private place or when others are from home and the extension of the voice be found to some persons by long experience to be of use such may lawfully improve it to their private benefit Q. 6. How to keep the heart from wandring thoughts in prayer Ans Although it be exceeding difficult to attain so excellent a frame yet by frequent reflecting upon and remembring the eye of God in secret by endeavouring to fix the heart with all possible watchfulness upon the main scope of prayer in hand by being very sensible of our wants and indigencies by not studying of impertinent length but rather being more frequent and short considering God is in heaven and we upon earth and by exercise of holy communion as we may through the implored assistance of the spirit attain some sweetness and freedom Eccl. 5.22 so likewise some more fixedness of spirit in our addresses before the Lord. Qu. 7. What if present answers seem not to correspond to our Petitions Ans We must not conclude it by and by to be a token of displeasure and say with Job Job 10.2 shew me wherefore thou contendest with me but acknowledg the soveraignty of divine wisdom and love in things that seem contrary to us in petitions for temporal mercies and submit to the counsel of Elihu 33.13 since he giveth no account of any of his matters neither can we find out the unsearchable methods of his holy ways to any perfection 11.7 There be other cases and scruples that might be treated of as about prescript words in secret prayers to which I need say but little since such as are truly converted (d) Gal. 4 6. Rom. 8.26 Zech. 1◠10 Acts 9.11 have the promise of the spirit of God to assist and enable them and they need not drink of another's bucket that have the fountain nor use stilts and crutches that have spiritual strength neither are words and phrases but faith and holy groans the nerves of prayer Yet for some help to young beginners doubtless it 's of use to observe the style of the spirit as well as the heavenly matter of several prayers in the holy Scriptures Psal 23.6 139.17.18 Neither need I to press frequency to a holy heart that is saln in love with spiritual communion for he delights to be continually with him the thoughts of God are so precious to him his soul is even sick of affection and prayes to be stayed with more of the flagous and comforted with the apples in greater abundance Cant. 2.5 To some though I fear how few how far it is lawful and expedient to withdraw for the necessity of the frail body in this vale of tears It may be replyed (g) Jam. 5.11 Hos 6.6 that the Lord is very pitiful and gracious to our frailties that he had rather have mercy than sacrifice in some cases Though I doubt these Phaenixes are but rare that are in danger of expiring in prayer as martyrs of divine love as Gerson expresses Gers T. 2. kk 5. Having now finisht with what brevity I could the foregoing queries I should treat about short sudden occasional prayers commonly call'd ejaculations but indeed that requires a set and just discourse yet because of a promise above recited I shall give a few tasts of it and then conclude with some application Ejaculatory Prayer Is a sudden short breathing of the soul towards Heaven upon instant and surprizing emergencies In holy persons it 's quick and lively rising from a vehement ardour of spirit swifter than the flight of eagles and keeps pace with a flash of lightning It flies upon the wings of a holy thought into the third Heavens in the twinkling of an eye and fetches auxiliary forces in times of straits There are many presidents recorded in sacred page upon great and notable occasions with strange success When good magistrates are busie in the work of reformation Neh. 13.14.22 let them imitate Nehemiah when redressing the profanation of the Sabbath Remember me O my God concerning this c. When Generals and Captains go forth to war Josh 1.17 observe Israel's apprecation to God rather than acclamations to men The Lord thy God be with thee as he was with Moses In time of battels or pursuit of the enemy valiant Joshuah darts up
such a prayer as this O that the Lord would lengthen this triumphant day and the (c) Jos 10.12 Lord heard his voice The tribes beyond Jordan in a (d) 2 Chr. 5 23. battel with the Hagarites Jehoshaphat in a sore strait (e) 18.31 at Ramoth Gilead Sampson ready to perish at Lehi (f) Judg. 15.18 16 28. with thirst and when blind exposed to contempt in the Temple of Dagon David near (g) 1 Sam. 30.6 stoning at Ziglag and when flying from Absalom in the ascent of (h) 2 Sam. 15.31 Mount Olivet Elisha at Dothan compast with a Syrian host (i) 2 King 6.17 Lord open the young man's eyes In the midst of lawful and laborious callings Boaz to the reapers (k) Ruth 2.4 the Lord be with you we may pray that our Oxen (l) Psal 129.8 may be strong to labour no breaking in or going out nor no complaining in our streets It sanctifies the plow as Jerom said of the fields of Bethlehem quocunque te verteris Psal 144.14 ad Marcellum p. 129 T. 1. arator stivam teneus Alleluja decantat c. The tillers of the field and the dressers of vineyards sang David's psalms it keeps the shop and inclines the hearts of customers it bars the doors it quenches fire it blesseth thy children (m) Psal 147.13 within thee it preserves thy going out and coming in (n) 128.1 Jacob found it to rest upon his children going a journey (a) Gen. 43.14 to Egypt it closes the eyes with (b) Psal 3.5.4 8. sweet sleep it (c) Job 3â— 10 Psal 139.18 given Songs in the night and wakens the soul in the arms of mercy It sits at the helm when a (d) Psal 107.28 Jon. 1.6 storm rises at sea it gives strength to Anchors in roads and prosperous gales to the venturous Merchant When in the palace at dinner Nehemiah presents the cup to his prince he presents also a Michtam a golden (e) Neh 3.4 2 Chro. 34 27 Luke 17.5 Gen. 49.18 2 Chron. 2 4. Act. 7 60. prayer to the King of Heaven at the reading of the law Josiah was heard as to some secret cries to Heaven At a holy conference in a journey the Disciples occasionally pray Lord increase our faith Jacob on his dying pillow predicting future events to his children falls into a holy rapture I have wait ed for thy salvation O Lord. At sacred death in martyrdom Zechariah cries out the Lord look upon it and require it and Stephen under a showr of stones melts in prayers for the stony hearts that slung them Lord lay not this sin unto their chage and our blessed Saviour in his greatest agonies makes a tender hearted prayer Father forgive them they know not what they do Luke 23 34. 1 Sam. 1.17 and lastly in the distresses of others Eli puts a sudden petition for Hannah the God of Israel grant thee thy petition In these and many like cases the holy word stores us with patterns for ejaculation in all extremities which I cannot now digest and improve only in a few words lets take a view of the usefulness of such a sudden flight of the soul to Heaven 1. It helps us to a speedy preparative for all duties Lam. 3 4â— with such an ejaculation le ts lift our hearts with our hands to God in the Heavens 2. It is a guard against secret sins in the first risings and the first assaults of temptation 3. It suffers not divine mercies to slip by unobserved in a wakeful Christian and proves a fruitful mother of gratitude and praise 4. It sanctifies all our worldly imployments 1 Tim 4. â— 5. it fastens the stakes in the hedge of divine protection and turns every thing to a blessing 5. It s a Saints buckler against sudden accidents a present antidote against frights and evil tidings It s good at all occasions and consecrates to us not only our meals but every gasp of air c. 6. It s a sweet companion that the severest enemies can't abridge us of Outward ordinances and closet duties they may cut off the little (a) Ezr. 9 8. nail in the holy place they may pluck out But no labyrinth no prison not the worst of company can hinder this coelo restat iter in the very face of adversaries we may lift our souls to God No more of this le ts briefly conclude with some uses Vse Vse Cant. 4 12. To convince such of their dangerous state that neglect sacred duties that have no heart-communion that draw no water out of this sealed fountain But all they do is in publick only it 's a suspicious token of hypocrisie since the kernel and soul of religion lies so much in the heart and closet mark the phrase in the text how it varies thy Father that is in secret be sees in secret God's eye is open upon thee in the closet and if thy eye be open upon his thou mayst see a glorious beauty The excellency of grace lies in making conscience of secret sins and secret duties 2. To examine such as perform secret duty but not from a sincere principle like Amaziah 2 Chron. 25.2 that prays but not with a perfect heart like Ahab they mourn but with Crocodile tears such as do it only because they find precept or example for it and therefore to quiet conscience will into secret but converse only in the shell and trunk of a duty that rest in the naked performance but matter not whether they tast of the sweet streams that flow in from heaven in the golden pipe of an ordinance what account can such render that go into their closets but like Domitian to catch flies only Sueton. in Domit. c. 3. and when the doors are shut to the world their hearts are shut to heaven and communion with God He that sees in secret beholds the evil frame of such a heart and will one day openly punish it 3. To excite and awaken all to this excellent duty and to manage it in an excellent manner Would ye live delightfully would ye translate heaven to earth then keep up communion in secret prayer to know him to discern his face to behold the lustre of his eye that shines in secret Remember the glorious person that meets in your closets all the world yields not such a glittering beauty as a gracious person sees when he is in a happy frame at secret prayer Shut your eyes when ye come out for all other objects are but vile and fordid and not worth the glances of a noble soul O the sweetness the hidden manna that the soul tasts when in lively communion with God! Psal 31.19 Part of that which is laid up for Saints in glory let us a little relish our spirits with it 1. Consider what amorous agonies the soul delights to conflict with in serret fears that raise confidence humility that exalts tremblings that embolden bright clouds
say I would my poor hungry child I would but I have it not Why then will you not come at me live together and eat together at my cost and care and charge and yet be whole months and never come at Me and that your children have reason raiment limbs not born blind nor of a monstrous birth which things Heathens have been affected with and a thousand ways besides have I done you good may God say Why then will you live whole years together and never together come at me Have you found one more able or more willing to do you good that you never can Why then are you so unthankful as not to come at me After the like manner the Lord expostulates with his People to whom he had been a bountiful Benefactor and yet they answered not his bounty nor served him their Benefactor for which he calls to the Heavens to be astonished and the Earth to be horribly afraid Jer. 2.5 Thus saith the Lord Mercies do engage to duties We should have him for our God for ever and serve him that always doth us good So the Poet. O Melibaec Deuo. nobis haec otia fecit Namque erit ille mihi semper Deus illius aram Saepe tener nostris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus Virg. Eclog. 1. Officia etiam saerae sentiunt nec ullum tam immansuetum animal est quod non cura mitiget in amorem sui vertat Leonum ora à magistris impunè tractantur Eliphantorum feritatem usque in servile obsequium demeretur cibus adeo etiam quae extra intellectum atque aestimationem bemeficii sunt posita assiduitas tamen meriti pertinacis evincit Ingratus est adversus unum beneficium adversus alterum non erit Duorum obliru est tertium etiam corum quae excideruâ—t memoriam reducet Qui instat onerat priora sequentibus etiam ex duto Immemori pectore gratiam extundat Nâ—o audebit adversus multa ocuâ—câ— allollere Senec. de benef c. 3. what iniquity have your Fathers found in me that they are gone far from me 6. Neither said they where is the Lord that brought us up out of the land of Egypt Should such a people forsake such a God and go far from him that did them so much good yet they did ver 13. Be astonished at this oh ye heavens You see when God is a Benefactor to a People and there is the same reason for Families and they do not serve him what monstrous wickedness it is God hath kept you all safe in the night and yet in the morning you do not say Where is the Lord that did preserve us come ô come Let us give joint praises to him God hath done you and your Families good so many years and yet you do not say where is the Lord that hath done such great things for us come let us acknowledg his mercy together God hath carried you through affliction and sickness in the Family the Plague hath been in the house and yet you live the Small pox and burning Feavors have been in your houses and yet you are alive your conjugal companion hath been sick and recovered children nigh to death and yet restored and for all this you do not say Where is the Lord that kept us from the Grave and saved us from the Pit that we are not rotten among the dead and yet you do not pray to nor pra se this your wonderful Benefactor together Let the very walls within which these ungrateful wretches live be astonished at this Let the very beams and pillars of their houses tremble and let the very girders of the floors on which they tread and walk be horribly afraid that such as dwell in such an House together go to bed before they go to Prayer together Let the earth be amazed that the Families which the Lord doth nourish and maintain are rebellious and unthankful Being worse than the very Ox that knoweth his Owner and of less understanding than the very Ass Isa 1.2 3. There is such validity in the consequence from God's being our Benefactor to our duty to him in serving of him that Joshua builds his exhortation to the Heads and People of Israel to fear and worship God upon this very foundation as appeareth plainly to any that read the Chapter where the Text lieth From what hath been said I reason in this manner 3. Arg. If God be the Founder Owner Governour and Benefactor of Families as such then Families as such are jointly to worship God and pray unto him This cannot be denied But God is the Founder Owner Governour and Benefactor of Families as such Neither can this be denied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot Moral Nunc adhibe puro Pectore verba puer nunc te melioribus affer Quo semel est imbuta recensâ— servabit odorem Testa diu Horat. Ep. l. 12. adeo in teneris consuescere mulâ—um est Virg Geor. l. 2. Therefore Families as such are jointly to worship God and pray unto him Argument 4. Masters of Families ought to read the Scripture to their Families teach and instruct their Children and Servants in the matters and doctrines of Salvation therefore they are to pray in and with their Families No man that will not deny the Scripture can deny the unquestionable duty of reading the Scripture in our houses Governours of Families teaching and instructing them out of the Word of God Amongst a multitude of express Scriptures look into these Exod. 12.26 And it shall come to pass when your Children shall say unto you what mean you by this service 27. Ye shall say it is the Sacrifice of the Lord 's Passeover who passed over the houses of the Children of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses And there is as much reason that Christian Parents should explain to their Children the Sacraments of the New Testament to instruct them in the nature use and ends of Baptism and the Lord's Supper Deut. 6.6 And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart 7. v. And thou shalt teach * Crebris admonitionum quasi ictibus haec mea praecepta infiges optabis sicut repetitis mallei ictibus fâ—rram aptatur Lud. de Dieu Et dentabis ea i. e. inter dentes versabis assidue lo queris vel dentibus mandes praemansa in os ingeres filiis tuis Malvend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whet or sharpen them diligently to thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house and when thou walkest in the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up i. e. morning and evening Deut. 11.18 19. Ephes 6.4 And ye Fathers provoke not your Children to wrath but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And God was pleased with this in Abraham Gen. 18.19 For I know him that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they
the wickedness of another to cover thine own 4. Was not Judas graceless Did he desire truly and sincerely spiritual blessings and did not Christ say and know he was a Devil and yet did not Christ pray with his Disciples when Judas was among them Luk. 22.14 17. 5. Your words might be so ordered that you need not make a scruple to pray with them 6. By kneeling down with you do they not profess to joyn with you and if they do not that sincerely which they profess to do the sin is theirs and none of yours 7. But be really more careful that you do not pray to God with a reigning lust in your own hearts than fearful to pray with an unconverted person in your house Obj. 6. But I cannot bring my Servants to the duty they are so stubborn and unwilling to it that all that I can do cannot prevail with them to yield thereto they will rather leave my house and so I shall be left to do my work my self Answ 1. Are they not sometimes as backward to do what you set them about as they be to come to prayer but yet do you not bring them to it and make them stoop and buckle to obedience Deal plainly if they did daily totally neglect your work would you bear it at their hands would you not make them know your power and authority over them Can you use your power effectually to make them do your work though backward to it and may you not can you not to bring them to prayer if you were as hearty and as in good earnest for the glory of God and the good of their souls as you are in your own concernments 2. Why did you take no more care whom you did receive for Servants into your house Why did you not make a better choice Did you not look for one with most money you could get rather than one well educated and likely to conform to the good government of an house Servants enquire for places where they might have least work and greatest wages and vails but not where they might have a good Master to help forward the good of their souls and Parents put forth their Children Apprentices where it might be most for their outward advantage though there be no Religion in the house a great evil So many Masters look for greatest profit in taking Apprentices that have been without all education as to their souls and then cry out their Servants will not be brought to Family-prayer 3. But will they not Integer vitae mihi sit minister Tecta non intret mea fraudulentus Nemo mecum intra mea commoretur Limina mendax Buchan and are they such that you may remove and put out of your Family after you have tried all other means you can if they will not you had better be without them than without the worship of God David would Out with them Psal 101.6 7. But do you say You must then do your work your self so you had better But why so Are young people generally so bad that there are no better to be found God forbid If they be is it not high time to be in good earnest and resolved to set up God's worship in our Families that it might be remedied and not continue so from one age to another Obj. 7. But I have not time to spare Quid de rerum natura querimur illa se benignè gessit vita si scias uti longa est for my self and Family to spend time to pray twice every day this would be a hindrance to me in my Calling Answ 1. Not time man What! not to pray How justly might God say Alium insatiabilis tenet avaritia al um in supervacuis laboribus opeâ—osa sedulitas alâ—us vino madet inertiâ— torpet alium mercandi praeceps cupiditas circa omnes terras omnia maria spe lucri ducit nemo invenituâ— qui pecuniam suam dividere velit vitam unusquisque quam multis distribuit astricti sunt in continendo patrimonio simul ad temporis jâ—ctâ—ram vâ—n um est profusâ—ssiâ—i in eo cujus unius honesta avaritia est Senec. de brevâ—vit Thou shalt die this day and thou shalt have no time to pray no nor to trade neither nor to sport and game neither Thou hast time what dost thou do with it all Twenty fourty years are a great deal of time and much might be done therein but canst thou find no time out of so many years to pray in thine house Thou findest time to trade and work and eat and drink and sleep yea and to sin too and yet hast thou no time to pray Doth God give thee and thy Family all the time that thou and they have and shall God have none of it Oh ungrateful sinner Oh unthankful wretch let the heavens be astonished and the Earth amazed the one that they give light and influence to such a monster and the other to bear such a burthen a man so loaden with such impiety 2. Why dost thou grips and grasp so much worldly business and burthen thy self and Family with so many earthly Imploymenos and then cry out thou hast no time If thou canst not trade so much and pray in thy Family too trade something less that thou maist have time to pray Cannot you get food and raiment while you live and a winding sheet and Coffin when you die without so great a trade that you have no time to pray Or will you say we must mind more than food and raiment and must you not mind Heaven too and look after Christ and Grace and your souls too What if you be rich while you live and damned when you die Is your heart so set upon the world that you must have it though you have Hell and damnation with it Well might the Poet cry out and wish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phocylid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phocyl Transeundum est excutit redeuntem natura sicut intrantem non licet plus efferre quam intuleris imo etiâ—as ex eo quod â—o vitam attulistipars magna ponenda est Sen. Epist 3. What will you do with those worldly riches you are so eager to obtain or what can they do for you Will you take them with you to your Graves or carry them with you to another world You know you cannot Job 1. latter end Eccl. 5.15 No not so much as to fill your hand It was a ridiculous action of a rich man that Mr. Rogers in his Treatise of Love speaks of that being very sick to death called for his Gold and being brought to him took a twenty shillings piece and put it in his mouth saying Some are wiser than some this I will take with me however If some were not wiser than he they would all be fools for he and his gold might perish together though it may be likely that when he was dead his gold was taken from
him and so in his own sense he was not wiser than others But will gold go in Heaven or in Hell There it is nothing worth When you have got much by your trading which keeps you from praying will it not make you loth to dye having laid up no better treasure elsewhere and vex you to the heart that for this you have lost God and Christ and Heaven and your souls and your riches too at last As Mr. Latimer in a Sermon before King Edward the Sixth relates of a rich man that was sick and one coming to him and seeing how he was told him he thought he could not recover but was a dead man who presently flew into a rage saying Must I die Send for the Physician wounds sides heart Must I die must I die wounds sides heart Must I die and leave all my riches and so continued crying out in this language till he dyed and are these the things you are so earnest for that you can find no time to pray for better A like passage Mr. Jeremy Burroughs on Psal 17.14 relates of one that once lived near to him that being sick call'd for his bags of silver and hugging them in his arms said Must I leave you must I leave you Pray for an interest in God and Christ and when you die being his and he yours you shall not leave him but be taken into fuller enjoyment of him Consider again as you cannot take them with you when you die so these things cannot comfort you in your Sickness As the same Author mentions another that on his sick bed call'd for his bags of gold which being brought he laid to his brest as near his heart as he could but after a while said Here take them again take them again these will not do these will not do What will not bags of gold do No they are trash and dirt to a dying man What will they not do They will not procure health to a sick man nor prolong life to a dying man nor speak peace to a troubled man nor procure Heaven for a graceless man No no it will not do it will not do and you shall find it will not do And are these the things you are so bent upon that you have no time for looking after these to pray to God for something that would do you good while you live when you die and after death Consider and be wiser 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theocrit Epig. It is a great mistake that Prayer will hinder you in your worldly Callings To drive a trade for Heaven and on Earth may both be done You cannot love both with a predominate love nor serve both as principal Masters but you may work for one and pray for the other When you are in a Journey doth it hinder you to stay and bait If you were travelling far if you bait daily you may come there in time but if you did not bait at all you would never get thither It is a true Proverb Prayer and Provender hinder no man Surely you forget that the success of all your labours depends upon the blessing and providence of God Cannot God blast your endeavours and blow upon your estates and cause you to put it into a bag with holes Hag. 1.6 Nothing is more likely to further you than Prayer 5. Tell me in good earnest and let thy Conscienee speak Non exiguum temporis habemus sed multum perdiâ—us sâ—tis longa vita in maximarum rerum consummationem largè data est si tota bene collocaretur sed ubi per luxum negligentiam defluit ubi nulli rei bonae impenditur ultima demum necessitate cogente quam ire non intelleximus transisse sentimus ità est non accepimus brevem vitam sed fecimus nec inopes ejus sed prodigi sumus Senec de brev vita dost thou not mispend more time every day than this duty would take up Art thou not longer in some impertinent company and longer in some unnecessary business or lingring and loytering at home or abroad or at some Club or other longer than Family Prayer may be profitably performed and yet say thou hast no time 6. What if God should visit thy Family with some lasting sickness and take thee and thy Servants too from your work and callings and make you spend that time in sickness in your beds from your labour which you would not spend in Prayer Must you find a time to be sick and dye and yet find no time to pray Ab quid respondere velit Châ—isto venturo de coelis Cum à te poscet rationem Ob boni remissionem Et mali commissionem Dies illa dies irae Quam conemur praevenire Obviáâ—que deo ire 7. Wilt thou tell God so when thou standest at his Judgment Seat Which of you is the man Stand forth that shall be accused at the Bar of God that he did not pray to God in his Family that will now say he will give God this answer then Lord I was so employed in the World and my Family too that we had no leisure for thy Service No not to look after Heaven nor to seek my favour and my love nor to beg for pardon and salvation Go get you gone Go get you down to a place of torment though you could find no time to pray to me I will find an eternity to plague and punish you Quantus tremor esi futurus Quando Judex est venturus Cuncta strictè discussuruâ— Quid tum miser tum dicturus Quem patronum rogaturus Quam vix justus sit securus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epict. Enchir. cap. 66. 8. Are you the better for your riches when you have by this labour got them or do you work so hard and spend your time even all your time for such things that when you have them you are no better You account him the best man in the Parish that hath the most riches and is the greatest but so doth not God no the Heathens would not neither but he that is most holy and loves God best and serves him most Those are goods indeed that make you good indeed but you are the worse by how much you spend your time more precious than all in time you get with the neglect of your duties unto God Nolo tollas cupiditatem sed mutes nolo perdas sed lucreris avarum cupiditas argentei nummi incitat ad cupiendum aureum pro quo relinquit argenteum namque ipse valor argentei est in aureo ideo plures aereos atque argenteos pro uno commutat aureo O locupletissimum qui ita suas cupiditates contrahitâ— Commutanda omnia pro Deo sunt totum gaudium nostrum latissimum in uno colligendum Nolo aliquid nimis severum nolo ut consumas cupiditates omnes sed ut resumas omnes in una sumas Nieremb de art volunt p. 369. 9. What if thou
reverence her Husband This is the Dictate of our Creator both by the Light of Nature and of Scripture This is the constant language both of the Old Testament and of the New And is more purposely handled and prest by the two great Apostles of the Jews and Gentiles that so all Christians however descended should submit unto it The Apostle Paul Ephes 5.22 c. Col. 3.18 c. The Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 3.1 c. Not that these are all their respective Duties but these are specified either 1. (n) Mr. Byfield on Col p. 111. Because in these are the most frequent failings Husbands too commonly being defective in their Love and Wives most defective in their Reverence and Subjection Or 2. Because these two are the sum of the rest and no other Duties are either Possible or Acceptable without them And my present Work is to digest and urge these in a solemn and impartial manner that it may appear Our Religion doth not only propound Rewards to make us happy in the world to come but doth also direct the methods of setling our quiet and comfort in this present world For certainly it is not the Having of Husbands or Wives that brings contentment but the mutual Discharge of both their Duties and this makes their Lives though never so poor an Heaven upon Earth But herein I can but draw up an Abstract and send you where you may be far better provided In the mean time let us all in the prosecution hereof sadly reflect on our former failings and sincerely resolve on future amendment according to that whereof we shall be convinced by the word of Truth And here I shall indeavour these Four things 1. To propound the Mutual or Common Duties of Both. 2. The special Duty of every Husband 3. The special duty of every Wife 4. Directions how to accomplish them That so they may most certaily be Blessings to each oher First let us see what are those Mutual Duties that lie common between Husband and Wife wherein Both of them are equally at least according to the place and power of each concern'd and oblig'd And they are These following 1. Mutual Cohabitation For the man he (o) Gen. 2.24 must leave father and mother and cleave to his Wife And the Woman she (p) Psal 45.10 must forget her kinred and her fathers house The Husband (q) 1 Pet. 3.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he must dwell with the Wife and the Wife (r) 1 Cor. 7 10. she must not depart from the Husband though he be an Infidel And indeed the Ends and Duties of marriage are such as will not ordinarily dispense herewith For Example 1 Cor. 7.3 4.5 Let the husband render unto the Wife due benevolence and likewise also the wife unto the husband The wife hath not power of her own body but the husband and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body but the wife Defraud you not the one the other except it he with consent for a time that you may give your selves to fasting and prayer and come together again that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency Which plainly shews that even the sober use of the Marriage-bed is such (s) The wife of Galeac Caracciola denying this debt upon the direction of her Confessor on pain of Excommunication was judg'd a sufficient Reason of Divorce In vita a mutual debt that it may not be intermitted long without Necessity and Consent Nay in the †Deut. 24 5. Old Law the greatest necessity should not send the husband from his wife the first year that their affections might be throughly settled and that he might chear up his Wife which he hath taken * For the man is the head the Woman is as the body for the head and body to be sundered it is present death to either Gataker Serm. p. 203. Neither indeed can any of the following Duties towards each others Souls or Bodies be throughly performed nor many grievous snares avoided without dwelling together And therefore neither desire of Gain nor Fear of Trouble no occasional Distasts nor pretence of Religion should separate those from Conjugal converse and (t) Alibi fluctuare sese existimet in domo autem apud uxorem suum tanquam in portu optat◠conquiescere Daven in Col. Cohabitation unless with consent and that but for a time whom God hath joyned together 2. Mutual Love This though in a peculiar manner it be the Duty of the Husband Col. 3.18 Husbands love your Wives yet it is required also of the Wife Tit. 2.4 they must love their Husbands Indeed this is the (u) First you must choose your Love and then you must love your choice Smith Serm. Conjugal Grace the great Reason and the great Comfort of Marriage Not a sensual or doting Passion but genuine conjugal and constant out of a pure heart fervently Not grounded on beauty wealth or interest for these may soon wither and fail nor only upon Graoe and Piety for this may decay to the least degree and in the opinion of both parties quite disappear but it must be grounded upon the Command and Ordinance of God whereby of Two they are made * Vna caro non nexu amoris nec commixtione corporum nec procreatione liberorum sed vinculo conjugii Zanch. One flesh So that though either of them be poor deform'd froward though unregenerate wicked Infidels yet in Obedience to God and in Conscience of the Marriage-Vow which obligeth for better and for worse they ought to love each other with a (x) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys in Eph. hom 29. superlative Love and when the sacred knot is once tyed every man should think his wife and every wife her husband the fittest for them of any in the world And hereupon the (y) Cael. Rhodig l. 28. p. 1575. Heathens took the Gall from their nuptial Sacrifices and cast it behind the Altar to intimate the removing of all bitterness from the Marriage-state there should be nothing but Love And this Love must be as durable and constant as are the grounds of it to the Persons of each other until death and to the memory and posterity of each other when they are dead and gone and thus the good wife is understood by some to do her husband good (z) Prov. 31.12 all the days of her life not only of his life but when he is dead to his Posterity What strange instances of this lasting love former (a) Portia the wife of Brutus A ria the wife of Cecinna Pae us In Valer. Max. Ages hath given and some (b) The Bannyon Wives among the Indians burn themselves to ashes at the funeral of their husbands Herbert in his Travels Pagans at this day is in History both evident and admirable This true-hearted Love will bring true Content and constant Comfort into that Condition will make all counsels and reproofs acceptable will
in a constant calling Consider that the greatest flames begin with a spark and therefore tamper not with the pleasant motions of original concupiscence Subject not the soul of a Man to the pleasures of a Brute this is sure that they perish in the using and leave nothing but a sting behind and foolish is that pleasure where that which delights instantly (d) Verum nimium miserandi plangenda conditio est ubi cito praeterit quod delectat permanet sine fine quod cruciat Id. p. 725. vanishes and that which remains perpetually torments If you have been overtaken with these faults O cleanse your hearts and hands by the merits of Christ's blood in the use of Fasting and Prayer that God may not visit upon you your Old sins by giving you up to New ones or by bringing some signal curse upon you in husband wife or children And get a blessed taste of those more sirm safe and ravishing delights which are to be found in the favour and promises of God in the pardon of sin and assured hopes of life and immortality These will sufficiently disgrace those gross and base absurdities and make you to take no delight in the muddy stream that have drunk of the Spring 2. Be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 festina eme ag u n expecta ducturus uxorem Buxtorf ex Jevam. considerate in your choice You see how severe the Rules of that Condition are when you are once engaged in it And therefore when you find that you are called to it be sure to recommend it earnestly to God by (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Câ—rys de uxore duo Prayer as Abraham's servant did Gen. 24.12 In this way be sure to acknowledg him and he shall direct thy paths No business so critical none so weighty and therefore no business so calls for (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. in Col. solemn and earnest Prayer And let Reason and (h) For Fitness in special as well as Goodness in general must be one main ground of our choice Gatak Serm. p. 176. Judgment have some stroke in your choice Do not first love and then consider but first consider and then love Chiefly fix your observation on the Soul of the party many marry to lay lands to lands or money to money but see you that his or her (i) In the life of the lady Falkland Soul lie well for yours For no (k) Florem decoris singuli carpunt dies Senec. Beauty Friends or (l) Quicunque ducit uxorem propter divitias ei erunt liberi non probi Buxt ex Prov. in Kiddusch Portion will settle upon you a comfortable life if pride passion or any other lust predominate in the Soul And why will ye espouse a perpetual cross for some present profit or delight It concerns therefore the man and especially the woman to endeavour to marry a member of Christ a religious person where they may most rationally expect the conscionable discharge of their respective duties If such be not the best husbands and wives it is not by reason of their piety but their defect of it Add to this a Discovery of the (m) If thou wert to take an house thou wouldst enquire what commodities or inconveniences what neighbours c. and yet that thou maist sell upon a dislike how much more c. Chrysost tom 8. de uxore ducenda natural tempers of those you mean to marry If they be proud and imperious to others ten to one they will be so to you if they be cholerick sour or sullen you will hardly find an Heaven upon Earth And you ought to deal plainly with one another both concerning your natural Defects concerning your moral Dispositions and concerning your civil Condition that you may not give and that Satan may not take an advantage whereby to cause disquiet or repinings afterwards You count it a cheat to have an unfound ill-condition'd decrepid beast put upon you for a sound young and towardly one certainly it is the greatest injury in the world to defraud one whom you pretend to love and to wrong them in that wherein you can never make them reparation 3. Study the Duties of Marriage before you enter into it Leap not into this solemn condition at adventures There are crosses to be born there are snares to be avoided there are Duties to be done and do you make no provision Hence slow the frequent miscarriages in that honourable estate Hence that Repentance that is both too soon and too late The Husband knows not how to Rule and the Wife knows not how to obey Both ignorant both conceited and both miserable And therefore Parents ought to teach their children the Duties of Wedlock before they enter into the State of Wedlock neither can they be ever acquitted before God that hurry young people ready or unready willing or (n) Hostis uxor est ubi invita ad virum venit Plaut unwilling yea sometimes very (o) Hoc etiam sciendum est quod pueri ante 13 annos puellae ante 12. annos secundum leges matrimonium inire nequeunt Quod si ante predicta tempora copulam inierint separari possunt quam vis assensu parentum juncti fuerunt Lombard lib. 4. dest 36. children for secular advantages into this Relation A course that hath been signaliz'd by infinite disastrous consequenees And most people step into that estate merely to obtain pleasure and gain but as ignorant of their Duty as the Beasts that perish and so families that should be the Nurseries of the Church and Commonwealth prove to be the very Seed-plots of disorder and debauchery Indeavour therefore to read over besides the Scripture which is the Book of all Books Dr. Gouge his Treatise of Domestical Duties or Mr. Bolton or Mr. Gataker or Mr. Whately on the same Subject And the learned will lose no labour in reading Ludovicus Vives de officio Mariti de Christiana foemina fron each of whose Garden I have made up this small Posie and wherein you will find especially in the first and last a more full and clear stating and proving these things then can be expected from so simple a man in so small a time 4. Resign up your selves both of you unfeignedly unto God and to his will until you be savingly regenerated and sanctified you cannot (p) If he be pleased he will turn thy water into wine if he be displeased he will turn thy wine into vinegar Gataker Serm. p. 141. please God nor be intire blessings to one another You may indeed live together like civil Pagans but what 's this to the life of Christians Religion will most firmly bind you to God Religion will most firmly bind you to one another A good temper may do much but a new nature superadded to it will do more The Husband that truly I say that truly fears God dares not be bitter to
token of ill behaviour under Government and do disguise Children of the most comly structure in the world Thus of the first general in Childrens duties The second is concerning the Latitude and extent of Childrens obedience in all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in my Text. We cannot imagine this is so universal and absolute as Obedience to God or that the obligation lies in any thing beside the mind of the supreme Governour of Heaven and Earth or dissonant to the holy will of our Lord for only that obedience is required which is well-pleasing and grateful unto him So that the Power demanding it must have a warrant from him unless we should embrace the horrid opinion of the daring Atheist in his Leviathan †c. 42 p. 234. who impiously affirms that if a Christian be commanded by his lawful Prince or Soveraign whose authority was first paternal to say he doth not believe in Christ it is lawful to obey which atheistical tenet doth either post-pone the command of God to the command of man which is most abominable or without further enquiry doth account it a divine precept which would prefer an hellish error to the Heavenly verity overturn the whole Christian institution and set up diabolical adoration ‖ Dr Templar Idea Theol. Levia p. 96 97 251. 101 102. 'T would introduce an infallible spirit in all Civil as the Papists pretend to have in their Ecclesiastical Government yea quite exterminate all regards of Conscience and raze out the common notions of good and evil whereas all subjection which is not of faith i. e. agrees not with the judgment of Conscience propounding it's dictates under the reason of the Divine will is sin (x) Rom. 13.1 4.5 with 14.23 God is only arbitrary and absolute Lawgiver (y) Jam 4.12 And as Constant the Father of Constantine the Emperour affirm'd they could not be faithful Subjects unto him who easily contemn'd God and their Conscience neither Children be truly obedient to their Parents who do so Our obedience then ought to be only in all things acceptable to our supreme Lord and Master And therefore the Apostle hath elsewhere express'd the command to obey in the Lord (z) Eph. 6.1 5 6. which is the same as unto the Lord and unto Christ fearing God (a) Colos 3.22 23. in opposition to the pleasing of men This doth moderate the commands of Parents and regulate the obedience of Children Wives and Servants 'T is true had Parents kept their original rectitude their commands would never have been other than consonant to the Divine pleasure and Law of Nature but the fall that disordered that harmonious and happy constitution and now their precepts do often thwart or jar with the will of him who is Soveraign Lord whom to please is the determination or limit as well as motive to Childrens obedience This agrees with the sense of Arch-bishop Anselm †Comment in Colos in his tantummodo quae praâ—eptum Domini non excedunt c. 580 years ago expounding my Text. How it will rellish now with those of his order in an Hypothesis of theirs I determine not But he saith that Natural and Ecclesiastical Carnal and Spiritual Parents are to be obeyed in all things only in the Lord i. e. saith he in those things only which are not beside or Do not exceed the precept of the Lord because it is pleasing unto God that in such a manner we should obey them It should seem he held then according to truth that if a Superiour should exceed his commission by imposing any preter-evangelical Canon for Doctrine or practice the Inferiors non-conformity thereunto was no transgression For in obeying the commands of a subordinate power (b) Acts 4.19 5.29 Exod. 1.17 we are primarily to take care that the rights of the absolute Soveraign remain inviolable seeing God gave the Parent that Authority he hath in requiring that which is displeasing to God he hath none And as the Child is to obey him so he is to obey God without whose warrant his child is not oblig'd to active obedience but passive or submission by suffering the penalty with cheerfulness that is pleasing to God in such a case For the truth is It is thank-worthy if one for Conscience towards God endure grief suffering wrongfully (c) 1 Pet. 2.19 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is acceptable with God whatever acceptance it find among men there is a grace in this behaviour before God Now the great thing Children are to look at in their obedience to Parents is that it be well-pleasing to God so saith my Text and if they obey without his warrant who can secure them they shall do what is acceptable with him God is to have an affection predominant to that we have for our Parents (d) Mat. 10.37 Luke 14.26.9.59 60 61. We must not dishonour him in pretension to honour them In things impious or dishonest Parents have no authority herein disobedience would be just and obsequiousness criminal Hence we find Acrotatus commended amongst the Antients because when his Parents had required of him to do an unjust thing he answered I know you are willing I should do that which is just for so you taught me to do I will therefore do that which you desire I should but what you bid me I will not do A denial in this case is to be express'd in all humble language Hierocles though no Christian hath notable things about the extent of Childrens obedience for he arguing in this case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. ‖ Comment in Câ—rm Pytbag p. 53 c. If in all things we must obey our Parents how shall we go astray from piety and other vertues if through the pravity of their manners they lead us into those things which are not altogether honest and commendable If sometime their will be not consonant to the Divine Laws He gives this answer amongst others * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If indeed the Divine Law draw you to one thing and your Parents to another in this disagreement of wills it is more excellent to choose those things which are better and in those only to be inobservant of the commands of Parents wherein even they themselves obey not the Divine Laws for it cannot be that he who is resolv'd to observe the rules of vertue can consent to them by whom they are neglected but in all other things we ought as much as we can to honour our Parents viz. in bodily observance and a most ready free supply of things necessary sith they have right to use those they have brought forth and nourished c. Neither will the Parents unkindness be enough to discharge the Child from obedience which is to be yielded in all the circumstances of their lives And that considering 3. The great reason to engage in the duties of Childrens obedience in the Lord is undoubtedly the most cogent Motive
can be urg'd to the performance of all generous actions viz. because it is well-pleasing to the Lord. So 't is express God himself in Covenant is taken with it with this Chain on a Child's neck as I may allude to that of Christ to his Spouse (e) Cant. 4.9 because it sets forth the beauty and loveliness of a Child as a Child The Lord hath given it in charge to all Christian Children here in my Text and elsewhere (f) Eph. 6.1 as a vigorous enforcement of the fifth Commandment The supreme authority of our Heavenly Father who hath an uncontrollable dominion over us makes any duties which he requires highly reasonable But he who is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him (g) Heb. 11.6 assures the dutiful he takes much pleasure in these Relative duties that they are not only pleasing but well-pleasing to him Certainly it should hugely raise the spirits of all ingenuous Children to be most solicitous in filling up their Relation Dear Children I am hemm'd in as it were by what I am yet to say for Parents duties that I cannot here dilate my self by descending into particulars to perswade the embracing of an exhortation to these duties But if you be Christians indeed who understand your interest I can give you the quintessence of all Motives within the bounds of my Text. Consider it well I beseech you 't is this By your accurateness in these duties you do that which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 well-pleasing to the Lord to your and my Lord and Master Do this please the Lord and you do all this is right (h) Eph. 6.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether present or absent that you may be accepted of him (i) 2 Cor. 5 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or wellpleasing to him is the highest you can attain to What can I What need I say more I could tell you in pleasing of God you do that which doth or should please your Parents and will be most pleasant to your selves and then you must needs be happy when God and you are pleas'd As in the keeping all God's Commandments there is an exceeding great reward (k) Psal 19.11 Gen. 15.1 so this hath a Primacy in the Promise (l) Eph. 6.1 Prov. 4.10 22. Upon that account it is profitable and beneficial yea it is honest and honourable before God (m) 1 Tim. 5.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every way right agreeable to God's positive Law the Law of Nature and the Law of Nations It is the Parents due as in the place of God they bear his Image in their Parental authority and relation (n) Mal 1.6 with 1 Sam. 2.30 they deserve it we owe it to them as a debt So that disobedience to Parents is against Scripture the light of Nature the common equity of all Nations and renders such persons unworthy the Christian Name and worse than Infidels and Brutes Such were Hophni and Phineas (o) 1 Sam. 2.25.34 Absolom (p) 2 Sam. 18.9 and Adonijah (q) 1 Kings 2.25 Have you then my beloved Children any respect to God his good pleasure or displeasure to your Parents their right or wrong their blessing or cursing to your selves looking for recompence or fearing vengeance Consider then I pray you what you have to do 'T is no arbitrary thing I am perswading to but that which is required by an eternal indispensable Law fortified with the most signal rewards and punishments yea even in this state as you may find in the Annals of most Dominions Yet further you Christian Children are now took into a Covenant-Relation with God as the Jewish Children were under that Paedagogy (r) Rom. 9.4 compar'd with Deut 4.2 Eph 6 1 2. Mic. 7.20 Deut. 32.13 14. 2 Chro. 1.9 10 11. Psal 86.6 Consider I beseech you how much you are indebted to your Parents for pleading the Covenant and Promises on your behalf (ſ) Psal 112.1 2. Prov 20.7 Gen. 49.26 Psal 115.13 14. This obedience to Parents is commended in Scripture you 'l get a lasting reputation by it (t) Ruth 4.15 16. God and men honour the obedient grac'd with this ornament (u) 1 Sam. 2.30 Prov. 1.9 13.18 Jer. 35.18 19. The examples of Sem and Japhet Isaac Jacob Joseph c. are in Scripture recorded to their perpetual honour In Heathen Story the Piety of Aenaeas to his aged Father and the obedience of others is celebrated This is the way to have the good things of this and a better life entail'd upon posterity (w) Gen. 9.23 26 27. 'T is equity you should do as you would have them to do to you in the like circumstances The Philosopher †Arist Ethic. l. 8. c. 16.14 thought none could ever give Parents honour answerable to their merit that there is no equalizing their descending growing love they were the instruments of Childrens having affections because of their being They may then claim your best affections and actions Upon which account it is that want of natural affection as it is the most monstrous so it is the most dreadfully punish'd by God (x) 1 Sam. 4.11 Deut. 21.20 21. Senec. l. 5. contra 4. in fine Instit 6 de pub judicio Yea and for Parricides the old Romans had a strange and unusual punishment in culeum dejicere to put them alive into a great leather Sack made of an Ox-Hide with a live Dog a Cock a Viper and an Ape at first it was with Serpents after the murtherers of Parents had been made bloody with scourging then sewed up close and cast into Tiber or the next River that whiles alive they might begin to want the use of all the Elements not having the benefit of the Heavens while they liv'd nor the burial of the Earth when dead This shews how odious this crime was in the height of it to mere Heathen men also Be sure the beginning of it in the want of natural affection is very displeasing to God (y) Gen. 6.3 with Judg. 14 3. but the obedience I have been describing is very amiable to his eye It keeps from evil and disposeth to reverence God himself (z) Lev. 19.4 with 2 3. It helps to be good Subjects and conduceth to the vvelfare of our Countrey God makes choice discoveries of himself to obedient ones in filial duties as he did eminently to Jacob (a) Gen. 28.7 10.11 being peculiarly present vvith them vvho do choose the things that please him and lay hold of his Covenant (b) Isa 56.4 as those Children do who obey their Parents in all things in the Lord. All encouragement lyes in this obedience is well-pleasing to the Lord. But it is more than time now I have put Children upon their duties following the Apostle that I come to II. My next General propos'd which is the office of Parents enforc'd from the special consideration of that the Apostle suggests to move to it I
by the Prophet in the name of the Lord (m) Jer. 29.6 1 Cor. 7.36 to take wives to their sons and give daughters to their husbands should with a good and serious conscience without carnal glosses study this prime Canon as they really design the promotion and spiritual advancement of their offspring Thus Abraham so famous in his parental government (n) Gen. 18.19 was very careful with respect to the Lord in covenant for the matching of his son Isaac that in a matter of so great importance lest he should be tempted to a failure in his trust he took a most solemn oath by the Lord God of Heaven and Earth from his faithful Steward Eleazer (o) 24.2 4 6 8. upon serious seeking of God by Prayer that he should take a wife for him out of a religious Family and by no means yield that Isaac should be brought into a relation communion and residence with any of those who might be an occasion to alienate his affections from the service of the true God in a true manner which had an excellent effect sith Isaac and Rebekah were the most chast pair of all those Patriarchal Worthies their affections being entirely united And Isaac at his wife Rebekah's motion when almost dead for fear of an ungodly wife (p) 27. ver followed his Father's example in the disposal of his son Jacob (q) 28.2 c. We indeed live in an age wherein there is much complaint by many wealthy Parents that though they like well of this grand rule yet they know not where to have suitable matches for their children especially of the female sex I confess there is too much ground for this lamentation The Lord remove it Yet I may with submission not being sollicitous to please man but my Lord and Master (r) Gal. 1.10 Eph. 6.6 Mr. White put these complainants in mind of what hath been observ'd by another before me That Persons of quality and estate likely have in one respect a greater advantage than others in that they have a greater latitude of choice amongst those who are in estate below them So that of religious prudent and suitable persons they may choose almost whom they please But the truth is many Parents who sit at the upper end of the world though they profess Religion they are too often so biassed with the love of this world that marrying to the very height of their estate hath the casting vote and so they bestow their pious hopeful children upon persons in whom they have no probable positive evidence of real godliness and sobriety or on such who are not comparably so vertuous as others they might have more religious prudent and desirable who upon conjuncture of Estates would be abundantly well accommodated for a comfortable and chearful livelyhood When alas some of them are so sway'd by carnal motives that as one saith †Mr. Baxter pol. p. 484. they marry their children to a swine for a golden trough they prefer temporals to spirituals and eternals riches and honour or comliness to vertue and godliness and take one that is at enmity with God (s) Rom. 8.7 8. into the nearest and strictest league of amity with those they are oblig'd to love best And thence it comes to pass that in succeeding generations by unequal mixture of the holy seed with the profane (t) Ezra 9 2 4. there is such a decay of piety as at this day amongst those sprung on one side from worthy Progenitors being much like those of the old world who defiled the face of the earth with an unblest generation which so grieved the Almighty that after he had given the inhabitants fair warning by the preacher of righteousness (u) Gen. 6.2 4. See more Gen. 26.34 35. 34 14. 38.2 7 8.9 10. he swept them all away but eight persons with an universal deluge I know upon the hearing of this some professing Parents of our Age will be touch'd to the quick though they do thereby a little shake their own title to the best inheritance but it concerns a watchman when call'd to give them warning from the Lord (w) Ezek. 3.17 to deal faithfully Upon the remembrance of which and an affecting apprhension of this growing epidemical distemper I do in the name of the Lord put all Christian Parents in mind not too vehemently to seek after great things to themselves (x) Jer. 45.5 in bestowing of their children richly but labour to link them with gracious and suitable persons where there may be mutual kindness and hearty liking of each other and with vvhom they may live religiously and contentedly For the truth is without this mutual complacency and loving contentment each in other vvhich the Scripture calls for (y) Prov. 5.19 with Gen. 20.16 Ezek. 24.16 18. upon a good foundation there cannot be an happy match Wherefore in this great office of Parents vvhich is a comfortable one for their Children if well done but most uncomfortable if otherwise they are mostly concern'd to look after the fear of the Lord. For the Wise man by the spirit of God hath so determin'd upon weighing of things saying (z) Prov. 31.30 with 19.23 Favour is deceitful and beauty is vain but a woman that feareth the Lord she shall be praised and so shall the man also If things be tryed at God's ballance Religion will weigh most Houses and riches are the inheritance of Fathers but a prudent wife is from the Lord (a) 19.14 and so is a prudent husband too Either is to be valued as a more blessed gift than any temporal portion left by Parents who may and ought to be provident but there is a more special finger of God who gives wisdom and unites hearts in every happy match Wherein good-nature or as we now speak good-humour doth much sweeten society in a humane way but I pray you what doth it in a Christian way wherein the married couple should live as being heirs together of the grace of life that their prayers he not hindred (b) 1 Pet. 3.7 Alas my Friends as to this a good nature as one saith * Mr. Thomas Couns l to married Couples is but like the white of an egg which as it offends not so it relisheth not There may be a tolerable conversation as to temporals on the week day but what is pleasant in it as to spirituals especially on the Lord's day and at other seasons when the Soul hath need of quickening direction and comfort or a companion in Heavenly joys Then real grace with all its faults will be better than refined nature (c) Eccles 2.13 as light than darkness Discretion will set a lustre on Religion and is to be look'd after else how troublesom will it be for wisdom to be subject to folly No one can live lovingly and comfortably with a Fool. Next an ungodly an unworthy yoke-fellow especially if in Husbands is to be feared And next to
wisdom and Religion worth calling so in the world in that so few blessed be God some there are are good in their Relations Where are Magistrates to be found that are God's Vicegerents in their places Where are the Masters that command and direct in wisdom so as their service is rather a priviledg than a toil a pleasure than a vassalage Where are the Servants that obey in singleness of heart as unto Christ Isa 3.5 What a strange disorder and confusion is there in the world in Kingdoms Corporations Jam. 4.1 and Families and who may be thanked for it but mens lusts and their not faithfully filling up that Relation God hath set them in Most are governed by the Law of corrupt nature and hell but few too few have that respect to the Law of God which should be Ar. Epict. 1.13 How excellently doth that Imperial Philosopher declaim against those that are unfaithful in their places and do not willingly submit to and order their lives according to the direction of the most good wise and just Law-giver of the world Hear his words Antoninus ◠4. n. 24. l. ◠n. 38. He is an Aposteme of the world who being unfaithful in his place doth as it were apostatize and separate himself from God's rational administration O that men were wise and understood their true interest and were faithful to it O that every one would labour to rectifie that ataxy and disorder that is in himself and then in his Family Then O then how happy would our Kingdom Cities Families be It was no small commendation of the Grecian Commander Plutarch in vita Them that he reckon'd it none of the best qualifications of a man to be able to play well upon a Harp but to be able to govern himself and others well and if a City were put into his hands poor dis-mantled un-disciplined to be able quickly to make it rich strong orderly To fill up our Relations with Religion is the divine precept our true wisdom our peace profit it 's honest I had almost said it 's one of the fairest fruits of real Christianity Would we could all as one man engage to do our best for the putting this in execution and then holiness to the Lord might quickly be written upon our Door our City might be called Jehovah Shammah the Lord dwells there and our Land Hephsibah and Beulah For this let every honest soul pray for this let Ministers preach And in the prosecution of this design I shall in my poor way give you advice by resolving of this Question which I have made way to by this Preface What are the Duties of Masters and Servants and how must both eye their great Master in Heaven In the answering of this Question the more fully I shall do these things First Show you what is meant by Master and Servant Secondly Show you how both are to eye their great Master in Heaven Thirdly I shall show you what is the Master's duty exhort him to it and give him helps for the performance of it Fourthly I shall show what is the duty of Servants press them to it and give them some helps for the performance of it First I shall show what is meant by Master and Servant By Master here is meant either Master or Mistress such a one as hath the power of himself and upon whose government and command another dependeth Now in an absolute and most proper sense there is none may be called Master but God he only hath an absolute independent unlimited power of himself and hath all others at his command and direction and he alone is fit for this despotick Monarchy being infinite in wisdom goodness and justice And this clears the meaning of those words of our Saviour Call no man Father Master Mat. 23.8 but God that is look upon none as absolute infallible Lords of the Conscience but him But in a more limited sense there are Masters to which respect and honour must be paid by their Servants and that with all readiness and chearfulness so far as they command nothing that is contrary to God's command By Servant I mean one that is not at his own disposal but at the command of another so far as his commands thwart not the commands of God Remember whatever is spoken of Servants is spoken to Maid-Servants as well as Men-Servants Now this Relation seems in a word to rise from Nature Law or Contract From Nature in that some are of a more strong body and weaker understanding others of weaker bodies but of more judgment and experience and so one is by nature fit to rule and the other to be ruled That Relation that riseth from Law is when any one by some flagitious act hath justly forfeited his liberty and is condemned to servility either for a time or during his life The last and usual foundation of this Relation is by Contract and that is where one that is by nature free subjects himself to another's command for a certain time upon such and such just considerations Now this is that Relation that I am principally concerned to shew you the Duties of Secondly I come now to shew you how both Master and Servants are to eye their great Master in Heaven First they are both to have an eye to the presence of their great Master which is in Heaven God in his Nature is a Spirit that is infinitely immense filling Heaven and Earth and yet not included in either If man did indeed lye under the lively impressions of God's omnisciency and omnipresence what an awe would it put upon their spirits how honest would it make them in the dark This this would make the Master reasonable just and merciful this would make the Servant faithful diligent and constant in his obedience to his Master What makes men to act like Devils but this a hope that God doth not see Gen 17.1 Psal 16.8 What made Abraham so upright but his walking before God What kept David so unmoved but his setting the Lord always before his eyes I am perswaded the greatest failures in either Master or Servant have their spring here a secret root of atheism and disbelief of God's eye and observation What truth in all the Bible more clear than this and yet what almost less believed O what do men make of God How do they rob him of his glory and themselves of the truest motives of fidelity activity and chearfulness Sirs Is the hundred thirty ninth Psalm canonical Scripture or no Can any hide any thing from God's eye Jer. 23.24 Prov. 15.3 Prov. 5.21 Psal 94.7 9. Ar. Epict. 2. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ar. Ep. l. 1. c. 14. 1 Cor. 10.31 Rom. 6.16 Do not his eyes behold the good and evil Doth not he ponder the ways of men Do you indeed believe this What then is the meaning of falseness on all hands It was no unjust complaint of the Moralist when he said that
mind be tired with sucking one object it can with the bee presently fasten upon another Senses are weary till they have a new recruit of spirits as the poor horse may sink under his burden when the rider is as violent as ever Thus old men may change their outward profaneness into mental wickedness and as the Psalmist remembred his old songs * Psal 77.5 6. so they their calcin'd sins in the night with an equal pleasure So that you see there may be a thousand thoughts as ushers and lacqueys to one act as numerous as the sparks of a new lighted fire 2. In regard of the Objects the mind is conversant about Such thoughts there are and attended with a heavy guilt which cannot probably no nor possibly descend into outward acts A man may in a complacent thought commit fornication with a woman in Spain in a covetous thought rob another in the Indies and in a revengeful thought stab a third in America and that while he is in this Congregation An unclean person may commit a mental folly with every beauty he meets A covetous man cannot plunder a whole Kingdom but in one twinkling of a thought he may wish himself the possessor of all the estates in it A Timon a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cannot cut the throats of all the world but like Nero with one glance of his heart he may chop off the heads of all mankind at a blow Ambitious men's practices are confined to a small spot of land but with a cast of his mind he may grasp an Empire as large as the four Monarchies A beggar cannot ascend a throne but in his thoughts he may pass the Guards murder his Prince and usurp the Government Nay further an Atheist may think there is no God Psal 14.1 i. e. as some interpret it wish there were no God and thus in thought undeifie God himself though he may sooner dash heaven and earth in pieces than accomplish it The body is confined to one object and that narrow and proportionable to its nature but the mind can wing it self to various objects in all parts of the earth Where it finds none it can make one for phancy can compact several objects together coyn an image colour a picture and commit folly with it when it hath done It can nestle it self in cobwebs spun out of its own bowels 3. In respect of Strength Imaginations of the heart are only i. e. purely evil The nearer any thing is in union with the root the more radical strength it hath The first ebullitions of light and heat from the Sun are more vigorous than the remoter beams and the steams of a dunghil more noysom next that putrified body than when they are dilated in the air Grace is stronger in the heart-operations than in the outward streams and sin more soul in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart than in the act In the Text the outward wickedness of the world is passed over with a short expression but the Holy Ghost dwells upon the description of the wicked imagination because there lay the mass Mans * Psal 5 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inward part is very wickednesses a whole nest of vipers Thoughts are the immediate spawn of the original corruption and therefote partake more of the strength and nature of it Acts are more distant being the children of our thoughts but the Grand-children of our natural pravity Besides they lye nearest to that wickedness in the inward part sucking the breast of that poysonous dam that bred them The strength of our thoughts is also reinforced by being kept in for want of opportunity to act them as liquors in close glasses ferment and encrease their spriteliness Musing either carnal or spiritual makes the †Psal 39.3 fire burn the hotter as the fury of fire is doubled by being pent in a furnace Outward acts are but the sprouts the sap and juice lies in the wicked imagination or contrivance which hath a strength in it to produce a thousand fruits as poysonous as the former The members are the instruments or * Rom. 6.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 weapons of unrighteousness now the whole strength which doth manage the weapon lyes in the arm that wields it the weapon of it self could do no hurt without a force imprest Let me add this too that sin in thoughts is more simply sin In acts there may be some occasional good to others for a good man will make use of the sight of sin committed by others to encrease his hatred of it but in our sinful thoughts there it no occasion of good to others they lying lock'd up from the view of man 4. In respect of Alliance In these we have the nearest communion with the Devil The understanding of man is so tainted that his †Jam. 3.15 wisdom the chiefest flower in it is not only earthly and sensual it were well if it were no worse but devillish too If the flower be so rank what are the weeds 1 Cor. 2.11 2 Cor. 10.5 Satan's devices and our thoughts are of the same nature and sometimes in Scripture exprest by the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As he hath his devices so have we against the authority of God's law the power of the Gospel and the Kingdom of Christ The Devils are call'd spiritual wickednesses because they are not capable of carnal sins Ephes 6.12 Prophaneness is an Uniformity with the world and intellectual sins are an Uniformity with the God of it 1 Ephes 2.2.3 v. 3. There is a double walking answerable to a double pattern in v. 2. Fulfilling the desires of the flesh is a walking according to the course of this world or making the world our copy and fulfilling the desires of the mind is a walking according to the Prince of the power of the air or a making the Devil our pattern In carnal sins Satan is a tempter in mental an actor Therefore in the one we are conformed to his will in the other we are transformed into his likeness In outward we evidence more of obedience to his laws in inward more of affection to his person as all imitations of others are Therefore there is more of enmity to God because more of similitude and love to the Devil a nearer approach to the Diabolical nature implying a greater distance from the Divine Christ never gave so black a character as that of the Devil's children to the prophane world but to the Pharisees who had left the sins of men to take up those of Devils and were most guilty of those high imaginations which ought to be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ 5. In respect of contrariety and odiousness to God Imaginations were only evil and so most directly contrary to God who is only good Rom. 8.7 Our natural enmity against God is seated in the mind The sensitive part aims at its own gratification and in mens serving their
Pet. 2.13 Spots they are and blemishes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sporting themselves with their own deceivings 4. In regard of the applause it ordinarily hath Whisperers and Tale-bearers how welcome are they to a great many for their story's sake They procure oftentimes favour to themselves while they are breaking the most entire Friendship The profanest Scoffers even at Religion it self for some spark of wit in that their greatest folly are entertained commonly by laughter one corruption or other in hearers cryes up every thing that is ill said and many things purely for being ill said and these prating Fools are hardned in their sin in that these laughing Fools make a mock of it Prov. 14.9 Upon these Accounts then it appears no small difficulty to govern the Tongue the more pains is to be took with it the severer watch is to be set over it 2. Secondly The Tongue is a very mischievous Out-Law no Member like it if it get loose what expressions has the Apostle of it Jam. 3.6 a world of iniquity he calls it knowing by nothing greater to set it out and intimating all sin to be gathered together in it Uncleanness Injustice Heresie Hard-heartedness and what not And yet as if he had not said enough he adds that it defiles the whole Body It begins its mischief at home like a recoyling Gun that lays its shooter in a shattered condition on his back while it wounds his Brother at the heart one cannot bespatter his Neighbour but he dirties and daubs himself the sin is his and the shame shall be his who ever may at present suffer by him Can he charge any further mischief on the Tongue it setteth on fire the course of Nature all the turbulent motions of these lower Spheres are from the petulancy and inordinacy of this little Member that lashes every thing out of its genuine pace it sows Jealousies it stirs up heats and Animosities it foments enmities provokes to Injuries it sets all the World together by the ears that we had better been without Tongues than that they should be without government Yet more particularly 1. It le ts fly at every one no body is secure from it Majesty and Innocency that are Fences against most evils set none beyond the reach of the Tongue The God of Heaven and the greatest and Holiest men on Earth do often suffer by it We are told of some that should curse their King and their God Isa 8.21 2 Pet. 2.10 And are not afraid to speak evil of Dignities It is a meddlesome Member that will let no body alone a very Wasp that is buzzing about in every corner if its wings be not clipped another Ishmael its hands are against every one very extensive it is then in its Offence 2. It le ts fly every way in a way of detracting reviling slattering lying c. No Member has so many and such contrary ways of offending that it never lacks opportunity of doing mischief be it in good humour or in bad either by its glozing it deceives us or by its roving it tires us or by its levity it deadens us or by its Ribaldry it daubs us or by its Insolency it affronts us 3. No such Wounds as those that are made by it it hits us e'ne where it lists in our Estates in our Lives in our Names by false witness or privy slander it may undo us in all that is dear to us at once especially in a credulous uncharitable day as this is hence you may observe that he which bore all the evils of the World without any flinching Psal 69 19 20 is something moved by what he suffered from the Tongue that commonly touches where we be most tender its Darts sink deepest and its wounds heal slowest of any other And in this respect the Tongue may be expressed not only by a Rod Psal 140.3 Psal 42.10 Prov. 14 3. by a Scourge by a Sword but by the sting and poyson of a Serpent to note the anguish of its biting and the difficulty of its Curing Can we infer nothing from all this Sure we may conclude 1. That in all Reason and Righteousness such a Member should be strictly kept in even as an Ox that is wont to goring Or 2. That if we keep it not in God will cut it out his Righteousness requires one if our Righteousness fail of the other If our Tongue must take its course and go uncontrolled it shall not go unpunished the first signal Judgments in the Primitive times were for the sins of the Tongue Ananias and Saphira for their lie are struck dead Acts 5.3 And Herod for his vanity and vain-glory in his speech is eaten up with Worms while alive Acts 12.23 And doth not the scorched Tongue of the Rich man in Hell tell us Luke 16.24 that Tongue-sins shall be severely required of us 3. That the Tongue when reduced into Order is an Excellent Subject no Member so able so Active as that it is the same for good as it was for evil when rightly set none is more useful or Ornamental to Religion than that You hear what a value God sets upon it the very hearts of others are not to be compared to it Prov. 10.20 The Tongue of the Just is as choice silver the Heart of the Wicked is little worth To shew particularly what a good Subject it is such as none like it Note 1. That it is a faithful Intelligencer to God and to that purpose holds a continual correspondence with him betraying its bosom Friends that it finds Enemies to him and discovering all plots that are against him not a sin shall stir in our own hearts but God shall hear of it that he may timely suppress it not a sinner shall tumultuate in the World but it shall notice him thereof with a sharp Zeal for his Honour and Interest Psal 119.126 It is time for thee Lord to work for they have made void thy Law Psal 74 22 23. Arise O Lord plead thine own Cause remember how the Foolish man reproacheth thee daily forget not the voice of thine Enemies the tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth continually This Office advanceth the Tongue unto no small capacity in the Kingdom of God not that God needs it but he likes and requires it and with a communication of like Secrets that concern us he ordinarily requites it 2. It pays a continual and considerable Tribute to him of Praise and Thanksgiving yea it doth not only pay its own share but would willingly Collect it of others for its great and greatly beloved Prince Psal 145.21 My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord and let all flesh bless his holy Name for ever and ever It s only grudging is that it hath so scanty an Offering that it can speak no louder and sing no sweeter when it hath such a Subject as God's praises whence is that Psal 51.15 O Lord open thou my Lips and my mouth
weighty matters And I note eminently three occasions where there may seem needful some more than ordinary strain of Speech or use of Salt in it 1. If what we say be for Food or Physick to a Sick or weak stomacked Person that may otherwise nauseate it this Salt may be useful to give it a relish and get it the easier down for which purpose the plain way of speaking was waved by Nathan 2 Sam. 12.1 c. And again by another Prophet 1 Kings 20.38 c. And almost generally by our Saviour without a Parable he scarce spake any thing there was no coming upon those kind of Persons without circumventing of them On the like necessity we should endeavour to shew like ingenuity that we may catch Persons with guile that will not otherwise come to hand 2. If our words be intended for Swords this kind of Speech doth set a keenness upon them for which purpose it is most frequently used in Scripture as you may see notable instances 1 Kings 18.27 2 Kings 17.32 33. The proud Fool will not be convinced often by plain Reason that there is almost a necessity of irrision we must make him ridiculous that his Folly may be conspicuous when he is throughly exposed he may chance be humbled I take the wise man as directing us to this method with this sort of men Prov. 26.5 Answer a Fool according to his Folly lest he be wise in his own Conceit according to his Folly that is according as his Folly does deserve answer him sharply smartly utterly silence him that he may take care to speak wiser another time repone illi verbera virgam as one says answer him with words as smart as Rods the Fool 's back requires them Prov. 26.3 3. Eccl. 12.11 If as Nails we would drive our words to which also they are compared there is a tendency in this pleasantness of Speech to fasten them and fix them more firmly in the memory whence I conceive old dying Jacob gave his last Blessing in such harmonious words as some of them are bearing allusion to his Sons names such as Jehudah Jodudah Dan Jadin Gad Gedud c. The Mother 's imposed their names for one Reason but something in their future condition the Father sees that agrees well enough to their names whereon he chooseth to read their destinies as it were by them for the more easie remembrance of them I would not these Examples should be abused to prevent which let me only caution That we gravely sparingly and for like necessary ends do imitate them or pretend no Patronage from them To proceed 6. Naturalize this Discourse if possible and as far as possible to you then and not till then you will speak with ease and speak with a grace and this facility is chiefly got by frequency We must in a manner confine our selves to this dialect that we may get this Excellency in it for which purpose let your converse be most with those that speak this Language and converse with all that are any way capable in this Language provoke them to it use them to it necessitate them to it if they will converse with you be as one that could hardly speak any thing but it from your youths accustom your selves to it in your Houses and among your familiars initiate your selves herein they will bear with your stammerings which you might be ashamed of before Strangers and having once got take heed you do not forget the Language but inure your selves daily to it you may travel through the World with it it is one of the Learned Languages that all Scholars 〈◊〉 have been bred in Christ's School understand you herein have conâ—â—se with them and it is no great matter if you are a Barbarian to others if it quits you of their Company it does you a kindness if this way you can be quit of vile and vain Companions it is the honourablest way you can be rid of them and so far as separated from them you have Heaven's happiness on Earth better a great deal they should be angred and estranged from you upon the holiness of your Discourse than you grieved or defiled by the commonness or Profaneness of theirs Though I must also tell you if once this Discourse was habitual to you it might be better born in you and no body would expect other from you but as they had occasions of dealing with you might probably be awed into a Conformity to you Further to engage you so far as may be in this holy strain of Speech take these Motives 1. No Discourse is so proper for you as Christians Motives it being the Language of the Countrey to which you do belong further your concerns generally lye in the word all that are worth speaking of why should you in a manner talk of any thing else It is almost an impertinency for a Christian to talk of this World wherein he is a Stranger and whereof he can call little his own but a burying place This was the utmost I find great Abraham to have grasped after or reckoned of in this World that he made sure of Gen. 23.4 20. I am a Stranger and Sojourner with you give me a possession of a burying place And the Field and the Cave was made sure to Abraham for a Burial place Truly this is all we are sure of here below that if we talk of any thing in this World it is most proper to talk of our Graves and our daily readiness to drop into them into which Discourse David Naturally fell when his Company would not bear higher Psal 39.4 c. Lord make me to know my end and the measure of my days what it is that I may know how frail I am But turn him to the Word he has something there God Christ Men Angels Life Death things present things to come all things are his Confine then to your own matters especially since you have so large a Field Every one talks of their proper concerns Navita de ponto Have you nothing of your own to talk of or is it not to compare with what others so much please themselves to prattle about For shame Christians that you alone should rove and ramble at this rate holy heavenly Discourse is that one would expect from you and that alone seems pertinent to you 2. No Discourse is so profitable One may hear a deal of other chat and be neither the better nor wiser or at least we are instructed unto some little mean designs but when we talk out of the Word we are in the way of Learning or Teaching what will be for our universal accomplishment for as he says 2 Tim. 3.16 The Scripture is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works Yea such Discourse does not only fit us for the work of this World the best the noblest Atchievements in it
but it prepares us for and in a sense enters us into the Work of the other World for that I conceive lyes much in the holy use of the Tongue we hear of no other imployment of the Saints in glory but that they night and day are praising God he is always in their eyes he is ever in their mouth The work of Heaven will not be uncouth to them that have been much Exercised in holy Heavenly Discourse on Earth but for others that can scarce frame their mouths to a good word on Earth for my part I know not what they will do in Heaven though I think there is no great danger of their coming thither 3. No Discourse is so pleasant next to the Songs of Angels the pious conference of holy men is the sweetest melody our ears can be entertained with other things comparatively found harsh to the things of God neither at the instant affect the Ear with that pleasure nor afterwards leave it in that composure To reflect a little by way of comparison And first let us listen a little to what the World says a buzze there is in both ears but what do we hear Such a man hath play'd the Knave and such a man hath play'd the Fool such a Family is at great Discord or in great distress such a Nation is involved in War or such a Person hath shed the blood of War in Peace for ordinary we hear nothing but what it is a vexation to hear nothing but what may make our Ears to tingle or if ought seems at present to tickle them as profane Jests and idle stories may for a while do this tickling ends in torment the Ear is put out of Order and the Heart as being defiled is not a little discomposed He could see so little pleasure in the Speeches that he abhorred the Songs of Sinners as having no harmony in them their Mirth was rather his Sorrow Eccl. 7.5 It is better to hear the rebuke of the Wise than for a man to hear the Song of Fools But 2. In listning to holy Discourse we hear of the Love of God the glory of Heaven the Graces that do shine in some the Duties that are performed by others we hear of an end that shall be put to all earthly troubles whereby the sharpest sufferings are allayed and by what we may hear further death it self comes to be despised Are the stories we hear on one Ear and the other to be compared we may hearken long enough e're the Ear will be satisfied with hearing except we chance to hear something from Heaven all the good News is in the Word of God and to be heard from good men that bring us stories there-from 4. By neglecting holy Discourse you may lose opportunities of good both to your selves and others that you will wish you had taken 1. It may be as to your selves you were in Company with Persons eminent for grace and knowledg here was an opportunity of doing your own Soul good but by the stream of your impertinent tattle all savoury Discourse was diverted that Season was neglected afterwards you see your lack of knowledg the Instrument is removed Ah Fools do we not then cry out of our selves the opportunity is gone and we are undone How must it gall an awakned Jew to think what Discourse he had with Jesus Christ Is it lawful to give Tribute to Caesar Here is a Woman caught in Adultery Why do not thy Disciples Fast c. Ah! had I nothing else to enquire of my Saviour Would it not have been more pertinent to have asked what I shall do to be saved But he is gone and I must die in my sins How many Persons have we sent away that have had a word of wisdom in their hearts having learnt only what a Clock it was what weather what News forgetting to ask our own hearts what all this was to us and enquire of them things worthy of their wisdom and our learning Secondly as to others you may rue the opportunities you have lost here lay a poor wretch with one foot in Hell would he not have started back if he had had light to Discover his Danger Well you are together something you must say the same breath would serve for a compassionate admonition as a complacent impertinency which will redound to neither of your advantages you part the man dies in his sins and in the midst of Hell cryes out against you one word of yours might have saved me you had me you might have told me of my danger you forbore I hardned the Lord reward your negligence Oh give not poor Souls occasion to rail at you in Hell for your sinful silence or impertinent converse with them here on Earth You will pretend it may be want of matter in excuse for your forbearing holy Discourse Object No Friend it was want of mind Answ thou art not straitned in thy Subject but in thy self Religious matter has no End Eternity is not sufficient for it but thou art resolved also it shall have no beginning Well you know your duty and do as likes you 3. In order to the right management of our Tongue especial regard must be had to its scope what is aimed at in every motion of it either immediately or ultimately for without some scope it is vain talk and according to the goodness or badness of our scope it is ordinarily good or bad talk I say ordinarily for some talk is so bad that it is scarce capable of a good scope much less of being made good by it yet less evil it does become to instance in blasphemy and lying great moral evils both in their own Nature and no design can destroy the Nature of them in that the Word of God allows not but forbids the doing of evil that good may come of it yet speeches materially so have been passed over the evil as of simplicity pardoned and the good aimed at in them as of sincerity rather rewarded As Paul Rahab and the Egyptian Midwives might be instances but let us take heed of making them Examples But ordinarily as I said before the Scope does much unto the Specification of the Speech so much 1. That fair Speeches become foul if dirty designs be couched under them or carried on by them he cryes out therefore for help against the Flatterer as if he was a Murtherer Psal 12.1 2 3. Help Lord for the faithful fail they speak vanity every one with his Neighbour with flattering lips c. the Lord shall cut off all flattering lips Psal 55.21 His words are softer than Oyl yet are they drawn Swords The like may be said of the fawning Woman that entices to vice Prov. 5.3 4. The Lips of a strange Woman drop as an Honey-comb but her end is bitter as Wormwood sharp as a two-edged Sword 2. Good Speeches become evil to the users of them if evil be meant by them as if we couch under them to cover sinful purposes
all the Crosses in the World sufficiently with this that God is their God and his Love shall be their endless Joy Psal 73.1 and 73.25 26. And when they can Live by Faith not by Sight 2 Cor. 5.7 and can rejoyce in hope of the Glory of God Rom. 5.3 5. and can comfort themselves and one another with this that they shall for ever be with the Lord 1 Thes 4.17 18. and can trust him to the Death who hath said I will never fail thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13.5 If you would have other Men honour your God and your Religion and desire to be such as you you must really shew them that you are on safer grounds and in a happier state than they And that you will hardly do if you be not more comfortable than they or at least settled in more Peace and contentedness of mind as those that have a certain Cure for the fears of Death and the danger that ungodly men are in of the revenging Justice of the final Judge I confess it 's possible for trembling troubled and distressed Christians to be saved But O that they knew what a scandal they are to Unbelievers and what a dishonour to God whom their Lives should Glorifie What Man will fall in Love with Terrors and unquietness of mind If you would Glorifie God by your fears and tears they must be such as are accompanied with Faith and Hope and you must not only shew men what would make you happy if you could obtain it but also that it is attainable Happiness is every Man's desire and none will come to Christ unless they believe that it tendeth to their Happiness They take up with the present pleasures of the Flesh because they have no satisfying apprehensions of any better And if no Man shew them the first-fruits of any better here they will hardly believe that they may have better hereafter It is too hard a talk to put a poor Drunkard Fornicator or a proud and Covetous Worldling on to believe that a poor complaining comfortless Christian is happier than he and that so sad and unquiet a Life must be preferred before all his temporal contentments and delights You must shew him better or the signs and fruits of better before he will part with what he hath You must shew him the bunch of Grapes if you will have him go for the Land of Promise when he is told of Gyants that must be overcome And O what a blessing is reserved for every Caleb and Joshua that encourage Souls and glorifie the Promise And how much do dejected discouragers of sinners dishonour God and displease him I have known some ungodly Men when they have seen believers rejoycing in God and triumphantly passing through sufferings in the joyful hopes of Glory to sigh and say would I were such a one or in his case But I have seldome heard any say so of a Person that is still sad or crying or troubling themselves and others with their Scruples Crosses or Discontents unless it be in respect to their blameless Living perhaps condoling them they may say Would I had no more sin to trouble me than you have I confess that some Excellent Christians do shew no great mirth in the way of their Conversation either because they are of a grave and silent temper or taken up with severe Studies and Contemplations or hindred by bodily pains or weakness But yet their grave and sober Comforts their Peace of Conscience and settled hopes and trust in God delivering them from the terrors of Death and Hell may convince an Unbeliever that this is a far better state than the mirth and laughter of Fools in the House of Feasting and in the vanities of a short prosperity The grave and solid Peace and Comfort of those that have made their Calling and Election sure is more convincing than a lighter kind of mirth Joh. 16.22 VI. The Dominion of Love in the hearts of Christians appearing in all the course of their Lives doth much Glorifie God and their Religion I mean a common hearty Love to all men and a special love to holy men according to their various degrees of loveliness Love is a thing so agreeable to right reason and to sociable Nature and to the common Interest of all Mankind that all Men commend it and they that have it not for others would have it from others Who is it that loveth not to be loved And who is it that loveth not the Man that he is convinced loveth him better than him that hateth him or regardeth him not And do you think that the same course which maketh men hate your selves is like to make them love your Religion Love is the powerful Conquerer of the World By it God conquereth the enmity of Man and reconcileth to himself even malignant sinners And by it he hath taught us to conquer all the tribulations and persecutions by which the world would separate us from his Love Yea and to be more than Conquerers through him that loved us and thereby did kindle in us our reflecting love Rom. 8.34 35 36. And by it he hath instructed us to go on to Conquer both his Enemies and our own yea to conquer the enmity rather than the Enemy in imitation of himself who saveth the sinner and kills the sin And this is the most noble kind of Victory Every Souldier can end a Fever or other Disease by cutting a man's throat and ending his Life But it 's the work of the Physitian to kill the Disease and save the Man The scandalous Pastor is for Curing Heresie in the Roman way by silencing sound Preachers and tormenting and burning the supposed Hereticks or at least to trust for the acceptance and success of his Labours to the Sword And if that which will restrain men from crossing the Pastor would restrain them from resâ—sting the Spirit of God and constrain them to the love of Holiness it were well Then the glory of conversion should be more ascribed to the Magistrate and Souldier than to the Preacher But the true Pastor is Armed with a special measure of Life Light and Love that he may be a meet Instrument for the Regenerating of Souls who by holy Life and Light and Love must be renewed to their Father's Image Every thing Naturally generateth its like which hath a generative power And it is the Love of God which the Preacher is to bring all men to that must be saved This is his Office this is his work and this must be his study He doth little or nothing if he doth not this Souls are not sanctified till they are wrought up to the Love of God and Holiness And therefore the Furniture and Arms which Christ hath left us in his Word are all suited to this work of Love We have the Love of God himself to Preach to them and the love of an humbled dying and Glorified Redeemer and all the amiable blessings of Heaven and Earth to open to
our Father What can be more orderly and harmonious than for the will of the creature to move according to the Creator s Will and to be duly subservient to it and accurately compliant with it What can be more Holy nay what else is Holiness but a will and life devoted and conformed to the Will of God What can be more safe or what else can be safe at all but to will the same things which the most perfect Wisdom doth direct to and infinite love it self doth chuse And what can be more easie and quieting to the Soul than to rest in that Will which is always good which never was misguided and never chose amiss and never was frustrated or mist of its decreed ends If we have no will but what is objectively the same with God's that is if we wholly comply with and follow his will as our Guide and rest in his will as our ultimate end our wills will never be disordered sinful misled or frustrate God hath all that he willeth absolutely and is never disappointed And so should we if we could will nothing but what he willeth And would you not take him unquestionably for a happy man who hath whatsoever he would have Yea and would have nothing but what is more just and good There is no way to this Happiness but making the Will of God our will God will not mutably change his Will to bring it to ours Should Holiness it self be conformed to sinners and perfection to imperfection But we must by Grace bring over our wills to God's and then they are in joynt and then only will they find content and rest O what would I beg more earnestly in the World than a will conformed wholly to God's Will and cast into that Mould and desiring nothing but what God willeth But contrarily What can be more foolish than for such Infants and ignorant Souls as we to will that which Infinite Wisdom is against What more dishonourable than to be even at the very Heart so contrary or unlike to God What can be more irregular and unjust than for a created Worm to set his will against his Maker's What else is sin but a will and life that is cross to the regulating Will of God What can be more perillous and pernicious than to forsake a perfect unerring Guide and to follow such ignorant judgments as our own in matters of Eternal consequence What can that Soul expect but a restless state in an uncomfortable Wilderness yea perpetual self-vexation and despair who forsakes God's Will to follow his own and hath a will that doth go cross to God's Poor self-tormenting sinners consider that your own wills are your Idols which you set up against the Will of God and your own wills are the Tyrants to which you are in bondage your own wills are your Prison and the Executioners that torment you with fear and grief and disappointments What is it that you are afraid of but lest you miss of your own wills For sure you fear not lest God's Will should be overcome and frustrate What are your cares about but this What are your sighs and groans and tears for And what is it else that you complain of but that your own wills are not fulfilled It is not that God hath not his Will What is it that you are so impatient of but the crossing of your own wills This person crosseth them and that accident crosseth them and God crosseth them and you cross them your selves and crost they will be while they are cross to the Will of God For all this while they are as a bone out of joynt there is no ease till it be set right In a word a will that is contrary to God's Will and striveth and struggleth against it is the Off-spring of the Devil the sum of all sin and a fore-taste of Hell even a restless self-tormenter And to will nothing but what God willeth and to love his will and study to please him and rest therein is the rectitude and only Rest of Souls and he that cannot rest contentedly in the Will of God must be for ever restless And when such a Holy will and contentment appeareth in you mankind will reverence it and see that your Natures are Divine and as they dare not reproach the Will of God so they will fear to speak evil of yours When they see that you chuse but what God first chuseth for you and your wills do but follow the Will of God men will be afraid of provoking God against them as blasphemers if they should scorn deride or vilifie you And could we convince all men that our course is but the same which God commandeth it would do much to stop their reproach and persecution And if they see that we can joyfully suffer reproach or poverty or pains or death and joyfully pass away to God when he shall call us and live and die in a contented complacency in the Will of God they will see that you have a beginning of Heaven on Earth which no Tyrant no loss or cross or suffering can deprive you of while you can joyfully say The Will of the Lord be done Act. 21.14 Object But if it be God's Will for sin to punish me or forsake me should I contentedly rest in that revenging Will Answ 1. That sin of ours which maketh us uncapable objects of the complacential Will of God is evil and to be hated But that Will of God which is terminated on such an object according to the nature of it by just hatred is good and should be loved And punishment is hurtful to us but God's Will and Justice is good and amiable 2. If you will close with God's Will you need not fear his Will If your will be unfeignedly to obey his commanding Will and to be and do what he would have you his Will is not to condemn or punish you But if God's Will prescribe you a holy life and your will rebel and be against it no wonder if God's Will be to punish you when your wills would not be punished Joh. 1.13 Heb. 10.10 Joh. 7.17 Luk. 12.47 XX. It glorifieth God and Religion in the World when Christians are faithful in all their Relations and diligently endeavour the sanctifying and happiness of all the Societies which they are members of I. Holy Families well ordered do much glorifie God and keep up Religion in the World 1. When Husbands live with their Wives in wisdom holiness and love and Wives are pious obedient meek and peaceable Eph. 5.22 25. Col. 3.18 19. yea unto such Husbands as obey not the Word that without the Word they may be won by the conversation of the Wives 1 Pet. 3.1 2. 2. When Parents make it their great and constant care and labour with all holy skill and love and diligence to educate their Children in the fear of God and the love of goodness and the practice of a holy life and to save them from sin and the
larger opening of the Methods of Grace than we can now have leasure for and therefore must be don◠its proper season Those that honour God he will honour and therefore let us also give Vse 7 them that honour which is their due The barren Professors who honour themselves by over-valuing their poor knowledge gifts and grace and affecting too great a distance from their Brethren and censuring others as unworthy of their Communion without proof are not the men that honour God and can lay claim to no great honour from men But God hath among us a prudent holy humble laborious patient Ministry that glorifie him by their works and patience and he hath among us a meek and humble a blameless and a loving and fruitful sort of Christians who imitate the Purity Charity and Simplicity yea and Concord of the Primitive Church These tell the World to their sight and experience that Religion is better than Ignorance and Carnality These tell the World that Christ and his Holy Word are true while he doth that in renewing and sanctifying Souls which none else in the World can do These shew the World that Faith and Holiness and Self-denial and the hopes of Immortality are no deceits These glorifie God and are the great Benefactors of the World I must solemnly profess that did I not know such a people in the world who notwithstanding their infirmities do manifest a holy and heavenly disposition in their lives I should want my self so great a help to my Faith in Christ and the promise of Life Eternal that I fear without it my Faith would fail And had I never known a holier Ministry and People than those that live but a common life and excel Heathens in nothing but their Belief or Opinions and Church orders and Formalities I should find my Faith assaulted with so great temptations as I doubt I should not well withstand No talk will perswade men that he is the best Physitian that healeth no more nor worse diseases than others do Nor would Christ be taken for the Saviour of the World if he did not save men And he saveth them not if he make them not holier and better than other men O then how much do we owe to Christ for sending his Spirit into his Saints and for exemplifying his holy Word on holy Souls and for giving us as many visible proofs of his Holiness Power and Truth as there are Holy Christians in the world we must not flatter them nor excuse their faults nor puff them up But because the Righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour we must accordingly love and honour them and Christ in them For Christ telleth us that he is glorified in them here Joh. 17.10 And that what is done to them his Brethren even the least is taken as done to him Mat. 25. And he will be glorified and admired in them when he cometh in his Glory at the last 2 Thes 1.8 9 10. And he will glorifie their very works before all the world with a Well done good and faithful Servant enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. What is it to do all we do in the Name of Christ and how may we do so Serm. XXIII Colos 3.17 And whatsoever ye do in word and deed do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God and the Father by him THERE have been and still are many great and famous Names in the World into which men have been Baptized according to which they have been call'd and also walked in the world Rev. 11.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men of great Name or men of Renown Gen. 6.4 What a Renowned Name had the Beast in the Earth Rev. 13.3 4. that the world wondered after the Beast and worshipped the Dragon that gave power to the Beast and they worshipped the Beast saying Who is like to the Beast Pharaoh was a great Name amongst the Kings of Egypt which were so call'd from their famous Predecessors So the Kings of the Amalakites were called Agag and of Tyre Hyram and of Lycia Antiochus of Pontus Mithridates of the Emperours of Rome Caesars and in the Church Professors have affected to be call'd by the Name of some Eminent persons 1 Cor. 3.4 5. Some cryed up Paul others Peter and this was a growing evil in the Church 1 Cor. 1.12 13 14. They ambitiously affected to be denominated from some Eminent Persons among them As the Lutherans and Calvinists and many others at this day have been call'd and denominated from some great persons that have been famous in their Generation But here is a Name in my Text is above all Names in Heaven and Earth and all Christians are call'd by this Name and call on this Name Jer. 14.9 Amos 9.12 This Name you must trust in and boast in beyond and above all Names whatsoever Isa 45.24 25. Surely shall one say in the Lord have I righteousness and strength and in the Lord shall all the Seed of Israel be justified and shall glory See what a Name is given to Christ Isa 6.7 And bow to it his Name shall be call'd Wonderful Councellour and consider every Letter of his Name and adore it The Apostle according to his usual manner in this Epistle having spoken of the Doctrine of the Gospel and how they received it and the influence it had on them v. 12 13. And concerning Christ in whom they had Redemption v. 14 15 16 17 18 19. And of the Excellency of his Person and of the riches of the glory of his Grace revealed in it v. 27. Then Chap. 2. he stirs them up to live such lives as becometh the Gospel and to beware of Seducers v. 16. to the end Then Chap. 3. he puts them in mind of several duties throughout the Chap. He lays down some general Exhortations with reference to the Gospel and their living suitably to it from v. 1. to 17. Then he proceeds to particular duties in our place and Relations and in this v. 17. having laid down something he gathers up all into one sum how to carry themselves in the whole course of their lives in their thoughts words and works We may observe from the general Scope Doct. That the Doctrine of the Gospel carrieth the highest and strictest obligations upon all such to whom it reveal'd to duty and service in their places and relations to God and Man In the words we have 1. A Rule laid down 2. The things that are under the Rule words works and thoughts and secret motions of the heart which works also are well known to God and so they come under Rule 3. Here is the Universality of the Rule in its extent and full compass it fetcheth in all words and works without exception and all persons for this You takes in all persons of what rank or degree soever 4. Here is the manner how they must be done so as to answer the Mind of God in the Name of Christ 5. Here is a further
that have like precious Faith spoken of in v. 1. and that Live in the Exercise of it upon Christ as Paul did Gal. 2.20 This Faith in Christ's Name being Exercised in a way of Prayer is the way to obtain whatever we ask Joh. 16.23 Every Believer doth live a life of Faith Heb. 10.33 In all conditions and at all times in the whole course of his Life so that what Peter said of the healing of the Cripple may in a sort be said of a Believer in the course of his Life by Faith in Christ's Name he does all 6. To do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus it is to walk in the Religion of the Lord Jesus according to his Rule for Doctrine Worship and Practice of Life Micah 4.5 The People of God do say we will walk in the Name of the Lord our God The Heathens did own and honour the Names of their gods especially in the Religion Worship and Institutions of their gods and so the People of God that walk in the Name of the Lord Jesus keep close to the Religion of Christ 2 Tim. 2.19 He that nameth the Name of Christ must depart from Iniquity It is on this account that the Servants of Christ are hated and persecuted Mat. 10.22 Luke 21.17 for his Religion which they Professed so Rev. 2.3 they are said for his Name 's sake to have laboured c. 13. to hold fast his Name and Rev. 3.8 not to deny his Name All People joyn in Communion with their God and one another that trust in the Name of their God Acts 2.42 43. The Primitive Christians did walk and continue in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and they about the Throne at the Sea of Ordinances appointed by Christ Rev. 15.2 worshipping of him in a way of visible Communion with all such as are joyned to the God of Abraham Psal 47.9 All that walk in the Name of Christ walk in all the ways and Ordinances of Christ Deut. 8.6 In all his ways Deut. 11.22 and in no other Mat. 28.19 20. observe all things which I command you 7. It is to follow his Example The Examples of Persons who have had great Names in the World have prevailed much for doing and suffering All such as are professedly the Disciples of Christ his Name is upon them in a special manner and therefore they should follow his Example Mat. 16.24 And follow me We must walk as Christ walked 1 Joh. 2.6 We must follow his Example for his Life was Exemplary 1 Pet. 2.21 22 23. He presseth his own Example Mat. 11.29 for meekness and lowliness and Joh. 13.15 I have given you an Example that you should do as I have done to you It was an Example of the greatest condescension in the eleven Offices of Love Eph. 5.25 Husbands have Christ propounded as an Example of Love to their Wives Persons of Eminency and Dignity have great Names and carry many followers and many walk according to their Example and upon that account are called by their Names for Examples prevail more than Precepts The second thing proposed was the reasons why we must do all in the Name of Christ 1. Because all we have are or can do is of Christ 1 Cor. 3.22 23. All Grace and strength to us is from him 1 Cor. 1.30 So that he is a Believer's all and in all Col. 3.11 All that God gives to us is through him and by him only Eph. 1.3 c. Adoption is by him v. 5. the Seal of the Spirit and the earnest of our Inheritance is by him v. 13 14. We are created to good works in him Eph. 2.10 Reconciliation and Peace is by him 2 Cor. 5.18 All our actual supplyes are by him Phil. 4.19 His Grace is exceeding abundant in him 1 Tim. 1.14 15. For he is a Super-excellent Person and hath the preheminence above all things a Name above every Name in him all things subsist in him all fulness dwels as the Apostle shews Col. 1.16 17 18 19. and therefore it pleaseth the Father that we should receive all Grace for Grace through him 2. Because the Father hath exalted Christ and given him a Name above every Name that he who was so much despised and rejected and whose Name was a Reproach and Scorn to all Isa 53.2 3 c. that Name so much abased the Father hath appointed that it shall be exalted above every Name Phil. 2.8 9 10. and all other names shall vanish and be as nothing before this Name Acts 4.12 there being no other Name in Heaven or in Earth by which we shall be saved therefore all must honour the Son as they honour the Father Joh. 5.23 Upon this account all People shall be beholding to him for all the good that ever they do or have or are 3. Because we cannot be accepted either as to our Persons or performances but by him Eph. 1.6 accepted in the beloved in him alone he is well pleased Mat. 3.17 so that all that goes to God from us is by his hand it must be presented by his hand and perfumed with his Incense Rev. 8.3 4. Abel's Sacrifice found acceptation by faith in the Messiah when he presented it to God Heb. 11.4 We have our Lord Christ Rev. 5.6 in the midst of the Throne to negotiate between him that sits upon the Throne and the Saints that are about the Throne so that nothing comes from Heaven to us in a way of Blessing but what comes through his hand and nothing goes from us to Heaven in a way of Duty so as to be accepted but only by his hand Joh. 16.23 So that his Name is the only prevailing Name with God he having satisfied the Justice of God pacified the wrath of God and removed the Curse of God from us so that all Sacrifices whatever that find the way to Heaven and find acceptance there must of necessity be in his Name Heb. 13.15 Heb. 5.1 4. Because all that comes from God to us must be by his hand he is the Jacob's Ladder spoken of Gen. 28.12 God acts towards us as a God in a Covenant of Grace and Peace with us only in Christ Heb. 13.20 21. 1 Pet. 5.10 and therefore the Apostolical Benedictions and Prayers for Grace Mercy and Peace are from God through our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 1.7 1 Cor. 1.3 4. 2 Cor. 1.2 Eph. 1.2 3. 1 Pet. 1.2 3. He calls them Elect c. by God the Father through Sanctification of the Spirit and blood of Jesus v. 3. We are said to be blessed by the Father and begotten c. through Christ and therefore since God doth act as a God of all Grace and Peace we must do all in his Name by which the Father is propitiated toward us he being made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.20 and a Curse Gal. 3.13 But here comes in a Quest How they can be said to do any thing in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ that are not one with him though
yet they pretend to do all in his Name Mat. 7.22 23. but are not owned by him I Answer It is one thing to pretend to do a thing in the Name of Christ another thing to do it indeed that is by true Faith in his Name by which they are made one with him 2. There was in that Age a Faith of Miracles which though it were an Extraordinary gift and common both to Believers and Reprobates they might be said to do those great things in Christ's Name that is by a Power derived from him though they were not in Christ neither did own him as their Saviour nor were owned by him Ponum non nisi ex integra causa malum ex quolibet dâ—fâ—ctu 3. What is done properly in his Name in the sence of the Text must take into its compass all the foregoing particulars mentioned else it will not be accepted it must be done in the Name of Christ as Mediator Many things may be done in the Name of Christ even Mountains may be removed 1 Cor. 13.2 and yet not be done by Faith in his Name as has been said The third thing propounded was how we may come to do all in the Name of our Lord Jesus and this may be instead of a Use of Direction to us 1. We must be supposed to be in Christ before we can do any thing in Christ's Name according to that in John 15.4 5. where he tells us that except we abide in him that supposeth that they are in him first we can do nothing v. 5. for he compares our being in him to that of a Branch in the Vine which cannot bear Fruit of it self unless it abide in the Vine Luther enquiring into the reason why so many ordinary things done by the Saints are set down in Scripture with a mark of Honour upon them and yet the moral vertues and famous deeds of the great Philosophers and others are passed by Answers that the reason is because their Persons are not in Christ and therefore their actions are not accepted and saith Si vel Cicero vel Socrates sanguinem sudasset tamen propterea non placeret Deo If Socrates or Cicero had sweat drops of blood their actions had not pleased God Coment in Gen. 29. 2. Supposing we are one with Christ we must Exercise Faith upon him and have constant recourse to him in all that ever we do for the supplyes of his Grace and Spirit 1 Pet. 2.20 By Faith resigning all to him casting all our burdens and cares upon him committing our selves and all our affairs to him and fetching in all our strength from him Christ tells us Whatever we ask the Father in his Name shall be given to us John 15.16 John 16.23 26. For whatever we ask in Prayer believing we shall receive Mat. 21.22 Jam. 5.15 So that if we would be enabled to do all in the Name of Christ we must Exercise Faith in his Name in Prayer to God for all things for he is in Office in Heaven for this purpose Heb. 7.25 for he ever Liveth to make Intercession for us The hand of Faith put forth in Prayer though but in ejaculatory Prayer draws vertue from Heaven as we read when he was on Earth those that did but touch him drew vertue from him Luke 6.19 Luke 8.46 3. Living close and secret Communion with the Lord Jesus in the use of all his Ordinances by and through which he communicates himself in the fulness and freeness of Life Light Love and Grace to our Souls for they be the Golden Pipes spoken of Zach. 4.12 by which the Golden Oyl is convey'd to our Souls for his Name is an oyntment poured forth in dayes of Holy Communion Cant. 1.3 By this means we come to have further acquaintance with him and peace from him to see his Power and Glory and our Souls to be satisfied as with marrow and fatness Psal 63.5 and to be changed into his Image 2 Cor. 3.18 and to be refreshed with fuller tasts of his love which is better than Wine 4. Exercise your thoughts much upon him and be much taken up with him in the course of your lives but in a special manner upon singular occasions The Psalmist Psal 73.23 saith I am continually with thee that was in his heart and thoughts Let your thoughts be taken up much in the consideration how to manage your affairs so as may be according to the mind of Christ by strength derived from him and for his honour that we may be accepted in our works Perhaps you will object that it is impossible we should in every business of our lives have actual thoughts of Christ and his Glory or go actually to him for assistance and guidance in every particular business I answer 1. There may and must be an habitual gracious holy frame of heart in us wrought by the Spirit by which we may be strongly inclined to the Lord Christ and his Word as our Rule and his Glory as our end so that we do in the full purpose of our hearts resolve to trust in him and commit our selves to him and rest upon him for help assistance guidance acceptance and success in all things What David pray'd for for himself and people when they were in a good frame of heart is the desire and endeavour of every believer 1 Chron. 29.18 viz. that the Lord would keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of their hearts and prepare their hearts unto him This is the habitual preparation of the heart for God this frame of heart is the New Creature in us 2. When we have especial and particular work to do for Christ then there ought to be an actual preparation of our hearts for him and stirring up the grace that is in us an actual making out after him and laying hold on him for strength and grace from him in time of need Heb. 4. last This is especially to be done upon more solemn and momentous occasions then we must in an especial manner think upon that word that was spoken to Israel Amos 4.11 Prepare to meet thy God We read Exod. 40.30 31. there was a Laver before the Altar in which they were to wash before they went into the Congregation for service We cannot sanctifie God in an Ordinance except we prepare for him which is all one with sanctifying of God Levit. 10.3 1 Sam. 16.5 Samuel when he came to sacrifice to the Lord said to the Elders of Bethleem Sanctifie your selves and come with me to the Sacrifice 3. The more frequent actual thoughts we have of Christ and his Word and our eye upon the Rule and his Glory as our end it is the better ever therefore we should often call upon our selves as Deborah did Judges 5.12 Awake Deborah awake c. There must be an actual excitation of our selves and exercising of our Graces when we have some special duty to perform It is said of Sampson Judges 16.20 That he went
Name Though the Action may be a common Action in it self or perhaps some base servile low imployment yet being done in the Name of Christ with Faith in him with care and conscience to please him such an Action far surpasseth the great and noble exploit of Alexander the Great of Pompey or Caesar or of any of the Renowned Hero's in the World who in the name of parts or gifts or any acquired Excellencies have done great things in the World There may be a great difference betwixt Persons and their Imployments as betwixt a Prince and a Peasant in their places and yet a poor Peasant doing some common work in an ordinary way it may be a piece of drudgery yet his work being done by Faith in Christ's Name it doth as much surpass the Person and Actions of a Prince in a worth and Excellency which doth not manage his Publick and weighty affairs of State in the Name of Christ as the Prince doth surpass him in place They have great advantage above all others who go about their common Imployments in the Name of Christ and for the honour of Christ above all others who Act in their own name as it was with David and Goliah 1 Sam. 17.45 The lowest Actions done by Faith have a very great honour put upon them by the Spirit of God above all others Heb. 11.31 The Harlot Rahab receiving the Spies by Faith is put among the worthies upon that account Civil and natural Actions done in the Name of Christ are raised to a very great height to have the name of Religious put upon them Thus doth Faith in Christ's Name turn Brass and Copper into Gold Luther saith that if he might have his Option he would rather chuse the lowest and basest Imployment of a poor Rustick or Maid-Servant doing their work in Faith before all the Victories and Triumphs of Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar Why Because hic est Deus illic est Diabolus haec est differentia essentialis hoc non omnes possunt cernere neque Erasmus quidem vidit that is because with a poor Saint God is and the Devil with them and this is an essential difference betwixt them every one does not see it Erasmus himself did not perceive it By this Name the most contemptible Persons in the World are come to be renowned in the Church Heb. 11.2 38 39. Those that Live by Faith on that Name had a great and good Report in Heaven and though they were despised by the World yet the World was not worthy of them God never speaks such a word of all the men of great Name in the World as he does of the poorest Saint on Earth that the World is not worthy of them Sure I am that many of those great Men of the World were not worthy to Live in the World the World was weary of them and the worse for them 6. Infer If all we do well in the World is to be done in Christ's Name and through his strength it is very fit that we should give him the glory of all Since all we can do is of him and from him all must be to him Rom. 11.36 We find in Rev. 5.8 9 10 c. that the Saints and Angels fell down and gave glory to God and to the Lamb. The Lord is very jealous of his Honour when Men take the glory that is due to him to themselves and Sacrifice to their own Acts and as God is jealous of his Honour Isa 42.8 and will endure to have no Co-partners with him so the Servants of Christ are also jealous of themselves lest when they have done worthily they should rob him of his Honour and therefore 1 Cor. 15.10 the Apostle Paul when he had said I laboured more abundantly than they all seems presently to correct himself yet not I but the Grace of God in me 7. Infer Hence it will follow that whatever Service or Worship is done in any Name to God than that of Christ it is rejected or what is done in his Name but not according to his mind is abhorred of God though he may do that which is commanded by God which for Substance may be the same that a Believer doth yet being not done in the Name of Christ God abhors it Isa 66.3 Though they did Sacrifice such things as God commanded Isa 58.1 2 3 c. yet being not done in the Name of the Lord for his Glory and according to his Word it is rejected of God Isa 1.10 11 12. Their Incense which was appointed for expiation was an abomination to God so that all the Worship of the Jewish Synagogue was abhorr'd of God because the Name of Christ is abhorred by them and all the Services of Papists who are of the Synagogue of Satan which are tendered in the Name of Saints or Angels or of their own merit or Righteousness are rejected with greatest detestation all the Service of the whole Nations of Turks what are done in the Name of Mahomet and their Alchoran are an abomination to God 8. Infer Hence Learn that there is no honouring of God but in the Name of his Son John 5.23 There can be no true praise given to God in any work by any Person but in and through Christ Eph. 2.10 We are Created in Christ Jesus to good Works so as they must be a new Created People through Christ which are a People to his Praise Psal 102.8 The lowest meanest work done by Faith in Christ as it brings great Honour to God so it is greatly honoured by God Mat. 10. A Cup of cold water given upon the account of Christ has a great reward from him Salvian speaks to this point very notably non perdiderit mercedem suam Mat. 10.42 Etiam eam rem in futuro habituram praemium esse dicit quae in praesenti praetium non dabit tantum honoris cultori suo tribuit ut aliquid esset per fidem quod hic omnino nihil esset per servilitatem He shall not lose his reward says he in the World to come he shall have a great reward which perhaps in the present Life he may miss of so great an honour is God pleased to put upon an Action done in Faith however mean and inconsiderable and which by reason of its vileness in the eyes of men is nothing A visit of a poor Member of Christ sick or in Prison or an Alms given to feed or cloath them what an honour is put upon these at the last day Mat. 25.34 35 36. But what shall we think of Cyrus and Darius and others who did so great things for the Church of God Isa 45.1 2 3 4. And of the King of Tyrus who upon account of the Protection that the People of God had from him is called the Anointed Cherub that covereth Ezek. 28.14 16. To this I Answer that as for Cyrus though God made great use of him yet the Lord says expresly of him that he know him
with the horror and darkness of thy miserable estate dwell not too long at the gates of hell lest the devil pull thee in but wind thy self up again by renewed acts of faith and fly for refuge unto the hope that is set before thee Heb. 6.18 And all the way thou goest admire the infinite grace and love of God to thee in delivering thee from so great a death My brethren there 's no entring into the maze and labyrinth of sin without this clew in your hands Solitary considerations of sin if we dwell too long upon them will work too violently therefore we should make frequent transitions from sin to free grace from the Law to the Gospel from our miserable and wretched selves to our merciful and mighty Redeemer But you 'l say how can this be to pass from one contrary passion to another who can make such transitions The Schools tell us it must be per magnum conatum by some great endeavour that is a strain beyond ordinary and such endeavours we must put forth counting it as much our duty to rejoyce in mercy as to mourn for sin and we cannot do both at once though there be a connexion of divine Graces as well as moral vertues yet this implies rather a successive continuation than any simultaneousness at least as to the intense actings of different graces 't is true where there is one grace there is every grace that is in semine in the seed or root of it and it may be also as to some weaker latent actual influences yet those particular graces which upon different distinct considerations do work contrary passions in us they cannot be both intensely acted at the same time sed per vices intervalla there is a time to mourn and a time to rejoyce a time to fear and a time to hope particular graces do take their turns in the soul and act sutably unto the present occasion 2. Direction against despair for unbelievers convinced of sin but unacquainted with Christ and free Grace The distraction fear and amazement of spirit that seizes upon such is unexpressible till God break in upon them and begin with them speaking peace to them man can do little yet means must be used I shall name a few things 1. Look upon this conviction of sin thou lyest under rather as a mercy than a judgement as a token for good in as much as God hath given thee timely notice of thy danger and fair warning to flee from the wrath to come 2. Look upon thy self now in a far greater capacity for grace and pardon than ever heretofore 3. Set thy self with all seriousness to study the doctrine of free grace in Christ never more need than now meditate much upon the great goodness of God and his excellent loving kindness Psal 31.19 Psal 36.6 Intense thoughts of sin and slight perfunctory thoughts of mercy drive us to despair 4. Be perswaded to come to Christ under all thy fears Hast thou been as a Dove of the valley mourning on the mountains for thy iniquity Ezek. 7.16 come down from those mountains those solitary places and go weeping to the Lord Jer. 50.4 Bemoan thy self at the feet of Christ he will hear thee Jer. 31.18 19. tell God all thou hast to say of thy miserable condition complaining to thy self and to men signifies little it heightens thy fear but God sympathizes with thee Jer. 31.20 put thy self into his hands he will lead thee ver 9. refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord Acts 3.19 there will be a lifting up Job 22.29 what ever the issue be thou canst be no worse than thou art in thy own judgement to sin is mors animae but to despair is descendere in infernum sin is death and despair is hell cry out of the belly of that hell to Christ and see if he do not bring thee forth But alas those who are under a spirit of bondage and fear have a thousand objections against this I have been pressing them to I shall go over some of these and answer them as I go they come to Christ they 'l tell us They cannot come Tell the Lord then thou art willing to come but canst not be perswaded to come as thou canst canst thou not go into thy chamber into thy closet and shut thy door and throw thy self down in the dust before the Lord this is coming and this thou canst do I am sure do it then and call upon the name of the Lord. But Object 2 I cannot pray Answ It may be not now at this time but how canst thou tell what thou maist do at such a time when in obedience to an Ordinance of God thou hast put thy self into a praying posture in that very hour it may be given and hath been I am perswaded to thousands of God's children he will prepare thy heart Psal 10.17 if thou canst not utter thy mind as thou wouldest pray as thou canst and if thou hast nothing to say if no one savoury expression drops from thee it may be it is because the inward sense thou hast of sin is too big for utterance it may be so sometimes and 't is best when it is so and then out of the abundance of thy heart weep and mourn out thy inward meaning Lacrymae pondera vocis hahent groan and sigh and look wishfully towards heaven and believe that God sees thee when thou hast no sight of him this is prayer But Object 3 I have lived hitherto as without God in the world neglecting prayer altogether I am a mere stranger unto Christ and will he hear such a one as I who come upon this pinch just when necessity drives me certainly no he will tell me to my face as well he may he knows me not and bid me go to those empty creatures I formerly trusted in Answ Don't you take upon you to personate Christ in his dealings with sinners his thoughts are not as your thoughts what if you would do thus and thus if you were in Christs stead does it therefore follow that he must do so too O no as the heavens are higher than the earth so are his thoughts above thy thoughts Isa 55.8 9. do you think and say what you will Christ will act like himself and do that for thee that never entred into thy heart to conceive of his wayes are unsearchable and past our finding out his love passeth knowledge thou dost not know thou canst not tell before-hand what infinite rich grace is able to do for thee O come then and make a tryal and know for thy further encouragement that poor humble sinners are alwayes welcome to Christ but never more welcome than at their first coming Luke 15.22 c. There are two jubilees kept in heaven one at the conversion of a sinner here on earth Luke 15.7 the other at his glorification in heaven Jude 24. Christ does then present us to glory with exceeding joy how glad is Christ
with the other 't is sweet and bitter mingled together 'T is not all mercy that 's reserved for Heaven nor all misery that 's reserved for Hell but something of both that 's proper to the middle state of earth Eccl. 7.14 God hath set the one over against the other Prosperity and Adversity Comforts and Crosses Mercies and Afflictions to the end that man should find nothing after him so as to find fault with what God doth or to say this and that might have been better ordered by him Now if men would but let their thoughts dwell upon this how would it tend to the quieting of their minds in every Condition For shall we receive good at the hands of God and shall we not receive evil Job 2.10 Especially when we consider 1. That the good is much more than the evil and 2. That the evil is our desert the good of mere grace We take but a partial view of our condition eying the dark side of it only and then we vex and repine under it whereas did we view the whole and think of our mercies as well as of our afflictions we should not carry it so disingenuously towards God Hezekiah had a sad message sent to him but he received it with all submission because there was a mixture of mercy in it Isa 39.8 Good is the word of the Lord c. for there shall be peace and truth in my days There 's (o) Acquiescendum conditioni suae quam minimè de illa querendum quicquid habet circa se commodi apprehenden dum est Nihil tam acerbum est in quo non aequus animus solatium inveniat Sen. de Tranq Anim. ad Helvid c. 10. no state so sad in which a good man may not pick out something to comfort and quiet him therefore Christian deal wisely and faithfully in this set the good against the bad and there will be no discontent 2. This is to be thought of be the estate what it will 't is but common whatsoever your troubles are you have many sharers and companions therein * 1 Kin. 19 14 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euripid. vide Plut. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 475. The Prophet fancied he was left alone which made him the more froward in his condition but God told him he had reserved some thousands in Israel who had not bow'd their knees to Baal And so some in their tryals are apt to think they are alone their case is singular none so cross'd so afflicted as they when God knows there are many thousands who drink of the same Cup. 1 Cor. 10.13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 5.9 Knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world If this was but considered by persons under afflictions their Spirits would not be so disturbed as they are when 't is but with me as 't is with others why should not I be content men will quietly submit to that which is the lot of others as well as their own Ferre quam sortem patiuntur omnes Nemo recusat The Greek Tragaedian brings in one as heightning his misery and crying out Wo is me but why saith he Wo is me when we suffer nothing but what is incident to all Mortals Did we but in time of need revive this upon our thoughts it would much alleviate our grief and obviate all heart-disquietment That which is proper to the present life 3. This state doth but agree and suit with the present life Thou canst not expect it should be much better whilst thou art here below consider this and be content We forget where we are and look for that here on earth which we cannot have and this betrays us to impatience and discontent Did we but remember and urge it upon our selves that this life is the time of Tryals that we are born to trouble here that 't is vanity to expect rest and ease and comfort and felicity in this world surely we should not be much disturbed at any trouble that doth befall us Shall Israel when in the Wilderness murmur if there they meet with hardship Shall they who are at Sea be angry if they meet with storms shall the Traveller be offended at a little bad way in the lower region would we have nothing but serenity and calmness 'T is a thing no less foolish and absurd for Christians to be discomposed in their minds if here troubles and afflictions seize upon them Alas these are inseparable from the present life 4. No state is so bad as it might be ponder upon that It might be worse and it will teach you in every state to be content 'T is bad but it might be worse yea it is worse with many their wants are more pinching than thine their pains more acute than thine their losses greater than thine c. thou hast cause rather to be thankful than impatient in as much as a lesser evil carries mercy in it But why do I instance in these lower matters thy state is an afflicted state but it is not a damned estate 't is chastning but 't is not condemning 't is some temporary cross but 't is not the everlasting curse 't is affliction for a moment but 't is not eternal misery It might be Hell separation from God for ever burning in that fire which is unquenchable thou that art freed from these tremendous things wilt thou fret because of some petty tryals or calamities Oh think of this and be still Shall the malefactor fret at his Judge for sentencing him to some corporal punishment when he might have passed the sentence of death upon him shall the offending son be angry with his father for correcting him when he might have disinherited him Oh Christian this is thy case towards God act thy reason and consideration upon it to suppress all passion 3. The third thing Consideration of the frame of contentment that thoughts must dwell upon and be imploy'd about in order to Contentment is Contentment it self in considering what an happy and excellent frame that is And indeed the due consideration of what it is to be Content as è contra what it is to be discontented is not only a strong motive but also a very proper means to further the exercise and practice of Contentment As to the large handling of this subject the excellency of a contented frame I must not engage therein for that I refer you to others who have done it fully I will but hint a few things for your thoughts to work upon as occasion shall require Contentment therefore 1. Is a frame that carries much grace in it 'T is a holy 'T is a gracious frame 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laert. in vit Epicuri Gen. 32.10 good and gracious temper of Soul It speaks the creature to have a due sense of God in his Sovereignty
righteousness wisdom goodness c. It speaks the creature to have a due sense of what he is in himself a poor vile worthless nothing less than the least of all the mercies of God It speaks the due subjection of the creature's Will to the Will of his Creator and that he lives in an entire surrender and resignation of himself to the dispose of his Maker Is not this holy and gracious wherein doth grace more shew it self than in such things as these Contentment evidenceth much grace Discontentment much sin The former is a compound of several graces the latter a compound of several sins In a contented frame there 's Humility Faith Hope Patience Heavenly-mindedness Crucifixion to the world c. in a discontented frame there 's Pride Vnbelief Impatience Carnality nay practical Atheism it self The truth is contentment is better than any comfort which we want Discontent is worse than any evil which we feel no outward enjoyment is comparable to the good of the one no outward affliction is comparable to the evil of the other Highly pleasing to God 2. It 's a frame highly pleasing to God When a man is once brought to this to lay himself and all his Concerns at God's feet to say It is the Lord let him do with me and mine what seems him good I 'le like well of whatsoever he doth O this pleaseth God greatly We are well pleasing to him when his Providences are well pleasing to us The discontented Person is angry with God for which to be sure God is angry with him Nothing provokes God more than a murmuring and fretful spirit nothing pleases him more than a quiet Spirit Great advantages so our selves 3. The advantages of it to our selves are very great it fills with comfort He never wants comfort that lives Contentment A contented spirit is ever a chearful spirit 'T is an heaven upon earth as the opposite to it is an Hell upon earth 'T is the mind at rest in every condition A contented man hath not only the comfort of what he hath but also of what he hath not What he wants in outward possession is made up to him in inward submission It fits for Duty Lord When the heart is repining and mutinying against God how unfit is a man for Duty but when the spirit is still and quiet all is done well Passion unfits us for converse with men much more for converse with God in holy Duties 'T is sad praying when discontent prevails Animus aequus optimum est aerumnae condimentum Plaut It alwayes procures that very mercy which we desire or some other that is better for us Discontent makes us to lose what we have Contentment gets us what we want Fretting never removed a Cross nor procured a comfort quiet submission doth both The Father continues to correct the froward Child but when once it yields and is quiet he gives it any thing It sweetens every bitter Cup. This ingredient takes off the bitterness of every State as the wood cast by Moses did the bitterness of the Waters Nothing can come amiss to him that hath learned to be content Many such advantages do accrue from Contentment but as to the contrary vice 't is a thing greatly mischievous 'T is a sad inlet to Sin what will not a man do when he is under the power of discontent he 'l shift for himself use unlawful means do any thing to better his condition if nothing will do this for him he can even lay violent hands upon himself Oh that we had not too many sad examples of this 'T is a sad preparation to all temptations the Devil will be sure to be fishing where the waters are troubled as Flies settle upon the galled back so the Tempter betakes himself to the man that is in pain with his condition It deprives of Happiness for the discontented person alwayes thinks himself miserable and so he can never be happy Nemo felix est qui suo judicio miser est Salvian de Provid It exposes to dreadful judgments What severe punishments did the Israelites murmuring bring upon them Read Numb 14. per. tot Psal 106.24 25. 1 Cor 10.10 Now if these things were but laid to heart and seriously considered by Christians would not the consideration thereof much conduce to their attaining and living of Contentment Certainly the due fixing and working of the thoughts upon the excellency of this frame of the Sin and evil of the contrary frame vvould be of great use and very effectual towards the composing and quieting of their spirits in every condition Suppose it pleaseth the Lord so or so to afflict me to exercise me with such or such things which are very cross to my desires and hereupon I find my heart to begin to be moved vvhat 's now to be done to prevent the further growth of Passion why I 'le retire and vveigh with my self what a gracious temper of Soul contentment is vvhat a sinful and cursed temper of Soul discontent is how much I shall please God and profit my self by the one how much I shall offend God and prejudice my self by the other this my thoughts shall stay upon and I 'le reason with my self Why art thou O my Soul thus disquieted within me Psal 42.11 This is the Course which I resolve to take in my afflicted condition to keep my heart still and composed hoping that God will bless it to the end Ay and so do for 't is a good one and many by experience have found the benefit of it But to close this Head We are undone for want of Consideration the world groans under the mischievous effects of inconsideracy which might be made out in several particulars I shall go no furtherâ— than that one thing vvhich I am upon Whence is it that there is amongst Men amongst Professors so little of Contentment that so few have learnt in every state to be content that impatience repining quarelling with God discontent are so epidemical that the most live in the dislike of their condition I say whence is this I answer 't is in a great measure from the general neglect of Consideration Could vve but bring men to this Contentation vvould not be so rare a thing as now it is I do not assert this one Means to be sufficient but believe me it would go very far Well as any of you desire for the time to come to be as here Paul was vvhenever any thing troubles you see that you fall upon consideration and draw it to these three Heads Who orders your state How your state is circumstantiated What the frame it self is So much for the first thing in the Direction the special Matter upon which Consideration is to be acted in order to Contentment I go on to the second Particular cases wherein Consideration is to be acted in order to Contentment viz. to instance in some of those special Cases unto which contentment doth mainly refer
children Now if this was duly thought of would it not quiet the heart when the thing is ordered by God shall we dislike and fret at what he doth may not he dispense his blessings where he pleaseth Oh if he will give we should be thankful in the owning of his Goodness if he will deny we must be patient in the owning of his Soveraignty 2. Sometimes this mercy is denyed but better are bestowed God doth not give Children but he gives himself and is not he better than ten Sons as Elkanah said of himself to Hannah 1 Sam. 1.8 There is a better name than that of Sons and Daughters promised Isa 56.3.4 they who have that better name have no reason to murmur because they have not that which is worse They who have God for their Father in heaven may well be content to go childless here on earth If God will not give me the lesser yet if he gives me the greater Good have I cause to be angry surely no more than he hath to be angry with me to whom I deny a brass farthing and give him a purse of Gold 3. Children sometimes are withheld a long time but they are given at last of which we have many Instances The case is never desperate so long as we can submit and wait 't is to be hoped God designs to give us that comfort under the want of which we can be contented 4. If Children be given after froward and irregular desires of them 't is to be questioned whether it be done in mercy and 't is to be feared this frame will very much spoil the mercy What we get by discontent we seldom enjoy with comfort How many Parents have experienced the truth of this they were not quiet till they had Children and less quiet after they had them they proved so undutiful stubborn naught that there was much more of vexation in the having than there was in the wanting of them 5. Many wanting the comfort of this Relation it pleaseth God to fill up the comfort of their other Relations The Husband or the Wife are the better because there are no childrn and so the Lord recompences what is denied in one Relation by doubling the comfort of another Relation 6. Children are great comforts but they are but mixt comforts The Rose hath its sweetness but it hath its pricks too and so 't is with Children Oh the cares fears distractions that Parents are filled with about them they are certain cares uncertain comforts as we usually express it We eye the sweet only of this Relation and that makes us fretful did we eye the bitter also we should be more still and calm 7. Had we this mercy in the height of it fill'd up in all respects according to our desires and expectations 't is a thousand to one but our hearts would be too much set upon it And that would be of fatal consequence to us upon many accounts and therefore God foreseeing this 't is out of kindness and love that he withholds it from us These things being considered as to this affliction methinks they should very much dispose the heart to contentation under it 2. Secondly when dear Relations are taken away by death then it 's a time of Discontent To lose a tender Husband an affectionate Wife an hopeful Child How as to the loss of Relations a faithful Friend oh this is a cutting tryal a very smarting rod under which 't is no easie thing to keep the spirit sedate free from all passion and discomposures Yet as hard as it is Consideration would much facilitate it Consider therefore 1. About the true stating of this affliction 'T is great to us because of the greatness of our affection but otherwise as to the thing in it self is it more than the breaking of a pitcher than the dying or withering of a flower than the nipping of a blossom and vvill any considerate person be much moved at such things as these The Heathen bore the death of his child very well upon this consideration vvhen news thereof was brought to him he was not disturbed for said he I knew I begot my child mortal We forget what these comforts are and then we fret at the loss of them 2. Think of the commonness of this affliction You think never was any sorrow like to yours never did any lose such a Husband or such a Wife or such a Child as you have done alas this is but the fondness and excess of love Many have lost as dear Relations as you have lost let them be what they will you are not the first nor will be the last who are thus exercised When a Mercy is common in our eye we set it too low when an Affliction is singular in our eye we set it too high 3. 'T is God himself who makes this rod If a sparrow doth not fall to the ground vvithout him Math. 10.29 certainly a dear Relation doth not shall we not be silent before him He that gave he hath taken he that hath a greater right to Husband Wife Child than any of the Possessors have he hath seen good to call back vvhat is his own shall any vex at this Dead Relations are not * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lost but restored to their first Owner and though 't is our Affliction to lose them yet 't is †Sustulisti liberos quos ipse dederas non contri stor quod recepisti ago gratias quod dedisti Hierâ—n ad Julian Non moeremus quod talem amisimus sed gratias agimus quod habuimus Idem mercy that ever vve had them both must be put together and then the heart vvill be quiet 4. Is all taken if not thou hast no reason to complain The child is taken but 't is but one of many but the Husband is yet spared thou must not be impatient for what is removed but thankful for vvhat is continued as Themistocles when Amyntas took away some of his dishes bore it contentedly saying he might have taken all And pray keep down all passion for this may make you lose vvhat you have though it vvill not regain you vvhat you have lost Oh but some will say my only child is dead Is it so thy affliction is the greater but thy contentation must be never the less He that gave an only son to thee may take an only child from thee Isaac vvas an only son and yet Abraham vvillingly offered him up to God 5. 'T was high time for God to make a breach upon you 'T is the vvisdom of God to his he vvill not let them have long what they over love had you loved less the child might have lived longer When these comforts are too much in our hearts they must not be long in our hands It 's infinite mercy that God will secure our love to himself and take that away from us which would take off our affections from him 6. 'T is that temper of soul which
Christianity calls for quietly and readily to resign up all our comforts to God's dispose Christian 't is a great part of thy religion to be content under these crosses not to have thy comforts ‖ Omnia ista nobis accedant non haereant ut si abducantur fine ullâ nostri lacetatione discedant Senec. Ep. 74. torn from thee as the plaister is from the flesh but to come off easily as the glove doth from the hand 5. Where there is ground of hope that the everlasting state of dead Relations is secured as there is for the Adult who lived in the fear of God for Children descending from Parents in covenant with God there 't is mere self-love which must cause discontent For had we true love to the dead we should rejoyce in their advancement as Christ saith Joh. 14.28 if ye loved me ye would rejoyce because I go to my Father You are troubled because they are not with you but you should joy in this that they are with Christ which is far better Phil. i. 21. 8. Think how others have undergone this tryal Aaron had his sons cut off by a dreadful Judgment but 't is said of him he held his peace Levit. 10.3 Job 1.21 2 Sam. 12.15 c. See Val. Max. l. 5. c. 10. So it was with Job and yet he blessed the Lord So long as there was hope of the life of the child David prayed and fasted but when he saw God's will was done he rose up and eat and afflicted himself no more Nay I might recite several examples of Heathens who did to the shame of us Christians bear the death of dear Relations with great equanimity and undisturbedness of spirit Well I hint these several things to you when any of you are thus tryed I allow you a due and regular grief and sense of God's afflicting hand but there must be no vexing or discontent under it which the Considering of the forementioned particulars may very much prevent or remove 3. Thirdly Wben Relations continued prove uncomfortable How as to uncomfortable Relations this occasions daily risings of heart and much discontent O the sad fires of passion which hereby are kindled in many too many hearts and houses The comfort of Relations is grounded upon suitableness where that is not the rose is turned into a briar or thorn What is unsuitable is uncomfortable as the yoke that doth not suit or fit the neck is alwaies uneasie Now this unsuitableness refers either to the natural temper or to something of an higher nature in both 't is very afflictive but especially in the latter There is an unsuitableness in respect of the natural temper or disposition I intend in this principally Husband and Wife the one is loving mild gentle of an even and calm spirit sweet and obliging in his or her converse the other is quite contrary froward passionate cholerick hard to be pleased alwayes quarelling c. Here 's a cross now and a heavy cross too but what 's to be done by them that bear it so as that they may learn Contentment under it why let them be often in considering these things 1. That God hath a special hand in this affliction 'T is he who brings persons together in this relation he made the match in Heaven before it was made on earth and therefore he is to be eyed in all the Consequences that attend it if it be comfort he is to be blessed for it if it be discomfort he is to be submitted to under it 2. Though this be a sharp tryal yet 't is for good where it 's sanctified It drives many nearer to God weans them more from the world keeps them humble draws out their graces gives them experience of supporting mercy learns them to be more pitiful to others and the like 3. May be this is the only affliction with which some are exercised In all things else 't is mercy only in this thing God sees it good to afflict surely such have little reason to be discontented What under such variety of signal mercies canst thou not bear contentedly one signal affliction 4. The Cross is heavy but patience and contentedness will make it lighter Levius fit patientiâ quod corrigere est nefas The more the Beast strives the more the yoke pinches the more quiet he is the less it hurts him and so it is in that Case which I am upon 5. Possibly more suitable Relations were once enjoyed but forfeited So that if you will be angry it must be with your selves not with God 6. Death will soon put an end to this Cross and we shall shortly be in that state wherein we shall have nothing unsuitable to us But 2. There is an unsuitableness in higher things such as do more immediately concern the honour of God and the everlasting condition of Souls as Grace and no Grace Holiness and sin Godliness and Vngodliness Here now I principally intend Parents and Children though other Relations may be included also Here is a Parent that fears God that lives an holy and godly life that owns the good wayes of God and walks in them c. But his Child or Children are of a quite other Spirit and take a quite other course oh they live in sin and wickedness in open enmity to God carrying it as the Sons of Belial they curse swear drink defile their bodies profane Sabbaths neglect duties scoff at Godliness puff at all good counsel discover a Spirit obstinately set against God c. This is an affliction of a very great stature taller by the head and shoulders than several that have been spoken unto before yet many godly Parents groan under it whose head and hearts are broken by ungodly Children and never was this affliction more common than now when youth is so much debauched I verily believe many good Parents could with much less grief bear the death of their Sons were they but fit for it than that which they daily undergoe through the wickedness of their lives Truly these are much to be pitied yet I would desire them to labour to be contented and submissively to bear this heavy cross In order to which frame let them consider 1. That 't is no new thing for good Parents to have bad Children Sometimes it so happens that when the Father is bad the Son is good but it more frequently happens and God suffers it to be so that the world may see Grace doth not run in a blood that when the Father is good the Son is bad It hath been so from the beginning Adam had his Cain Noah his Cham Abraham his Ismael Isaac his Esau David his Amnon and so in many others and it will be so to the end of the world Pray think of this though 't is a cutting yet but common affliction 2. Children are ungodly yet there is hope at last they may be reclaimed As stubborn as they are God can make them yield he can change
unbelief that is within and so it prevents or puts a stop to inordinate sorrow for what is externally afflictive as bleeding at the arm stops bleeding at the nose Where 't is repenting there 't is not repining 4. Heavenly mindedness The more a man doth mind things above the less he is concerned about things below he who hath his heart and conversation in heaven will not be sollicitous or querulous about what befalls him here on earth Math. 6.21 Phil. 3.20 Nihil sentit crus in nervo cum animus est in coelo Tertul. 5. Self-denyal A grace that hath a great tendency to Contentment because it takes men off from their own wisdom will and affections and causeth them wholly to resign up themselves to the wise and gracious dispose of God Oh saith the self-denying Christian I am not fit to be my own chooser God shall choose for me I would not have my condition brought to my mind but my mind brought to my condition I would not have God give me what I desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iambl in V. Pythag. L. 1. C. 28. but I would desire nothing but what God sees good to give me As that Philosopher when one wished for him that he might have from the gods whatever he would nay rather saith he wish for me that I may will nothing but what the gods will give me Surely when 't is once come to this it must needs be Contentment These are some of the wayes others there are but I must pass them over by which Godliness doth promote and work Contentment So that as you desire to learn it you must look to this that you be gracious and godly persons without Grace in the habit and exercise thereof it cannot be composedness and tranquillity of spirit in every state I do not affirm that he who hath grace is so constant and universal in this frame as that he is never under discontent for even such a one hath his infirmities and surprisals and pro hic nunc corruption may be too hard for grace but this I say he as to the general course and when he is himself is contented and that he is the person who is fitted and qualified to live contentment The Third and last Means is Prayer The third Help to contentment viz. Prayer without this the two former will be ineffectual Let a man be never so considerative yea never so Godly yet Prayer is necessary to his being contented Humility Faith Repentance Heavenly-mindedness self-denial are the heart-quieting Graces and Prayer is the heart-quieting Duty He that hath not learnt to pray will not learn to be content When God is seldom spoke to he will be often hardly thought of There must be good striving with God in prayer or else there will be bad striving with him in the way of Discontent O Sirs are you afflicted pray Jam. 5.13 do you meet with crosses pray doth the Estate decay the Relations die the Body consume by pain and sickness pray The best way to be content in every state is to pray in every state We study this hard lesson best upon our knees Prayer furthers contentment 1. As it gives a vent to the mind under trouble Vessels that are full if they have not some vent are apt to burst and so when the heart is full of grief if it hath not a vent it breaks Sorrow kept in overwhelms the spirit Strangulat inclusus dolor let it be vented a little and the spirit is much at ease Now prayer is the best vent the poor Christian goes to God tells him his case pours out his heart before him upon this his heart that was ready to break before is now greatly relieved When Hannah had prayed under her trouble she went away and did eat and her countenance was no moâ—e sad 1 Sam. 1.18 What sad work doth the wind make where 't is pent up whence come the dreadful shakings of the earth but from its being shut up in the cavities thereof And so here when we keep in our troubles do not open them first to the Lord in prayer and then to some experienced Christian what commotions and perturbations of mind is that the occasion of 2. As it obtains Grace and strength from God to enable the creature to be contented For 't is he and he only that can work up the heart to this excellent frame he that stills the sea when it rages doth also still the soul in all its passions and discontents When Paul had spoken thus high of his Contentment lest any should think he ascribed this * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theophyl Quia de maximis â—eâ—us gloriatus f erâ—t â—e superbiae id tribueretur vel nè aliis jactantiaâ— occasionem daret suâ—jicit hâ◠fortitudine se à Christo instrui Calvin in loc to himself or had it from himself immediately he subjoyns I can do all things through Christ strengthning of me to note that the quietness of his mind was divine and supernatural We read of our Saviour how he being at sea and a great tempest arising he rebuked the winds and the sea and there was a great calm And the men marvelled saying what manner of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him Matth. 8.24 c. Truly the calming of the heart in its inward storms is a thing every way as marvellous as what Christ here did and that which requires as great a power to effect it If therefore you desire to arrive at this even temper of mind in every condition often go to God and beg it of him Say Lord I have a Peevish froward discontented heart that is ready upon every cross to vex and fret against thee this I hope is my burden I would fain have it otherwise but I cannot get victory over my passion I cannot bring my self to a calm and submissive frame wherefore I seek to thee to inable me thereunto Blessed God do thou help me through the power of thy grace let there be evermore a contented mind in me such and such crosses I meet with but Lord under all let me be patient here 's an hard lesson for me to learn but through the teachings of thy spirit let me learn it Oh do but thus pray and in due time God will give you what you pray for Thus I have answered this weighty Question What Christians are to do that they may learn in every state to be content Now to close all I leave it with your selves to enquire what your attainments are as to this Contentment 'T is a sad thing that even amongst Christians there is so little of it that many mere Heathens who had nothing but reason and the dim light of Nature seem herein to outstrip those who have far greater helps to it Nemo facile cum fortunae suae conditione concordat Boeth de Coâ—sol Phil. l. 2. prosâ 4. Quis est tam compositae foelicitatis ut non
1. Pardoned Persons being taken into Covenant are taken into God's favour Nothing doth hinder God's special favour but unpardoned sin nothing but that which is the only Object of his hatred and cause of his displeasure and this is nothing else but sin Although God's love have many Objects yet his hatred hath but one and that is sin God hateth none of his Creatures as they are Creatures but as they are sinful never did any thing offend or displease God but sin nothing else hath power to enkindle God's anger and to blow it up into a flame When God forgiveth sin his hatred ceaseth his anger is removed and he receiveth them whom he pardoneth into the arms of his special love God's favour is the peculiar priviledg of God's pardoned People Psal 106.4 Remember me with the favour which thou bearest to thy People O visit me with thy Salvation Therefore all pardoned Persons being in God's favour they are Blessed because his favour is the Fountain of Blessedness In his favour there is life Psal 30.5 Yea his loving kindness is better than life Psal 63.3 The favour of an earthly King is counted a great Priviledg but the favour of the King of Heaven is really a great Blessedness The God of Heaven who is so Powerful Wise Faithful Good Merciful hath a special favour and kindness for them and doth love them with an incomparable incomprehensible unchangeable and eternal Love therefore they must needs be the happiest People on the Earth 2. Pardoned Persons being in Covenant are taken into God's family being reconciled by the Cross of Christ Eph. 2.16 they are no more strangers and forreigners but fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the Houshold of God v. 19. And being of God's Houshold they are God's Children 1 Cor. 6.18 I will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord Almighty This is a priviledg which rendreth all those above all others most Blessed who partake of it Joh. 1.12 To as many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his Name To them gave he power The Original word signifieth Right or Priviledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is the greatest priviledge in the World to be numbred amongst God's Children hence it is that John writing of it in his Epistle doth break forth into an exclamation of joy and wonder 1 Joh. 3.1 Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God! He seems to be in an extasie of joy at the greatness of this priviledg and the happiness of such as had attained it If beggars were lifted up from the Dunghil to be adopted Children of the greatest Prince upon the Earth it would not be so great an honour to them as this honour and dignity which is conferred upon pardoned Persons in their being advanced into the number of the adopted Children of the great Jehovah the Lord of Heaven and Earth and will any question whether they are Blessed 3. Pardoned Persons being in Covenant are under God's special Providence There is a General Providence that doth attend all the Children of men but God's especial Providence doth attend his own Children and his peculiar People who are reconciled unto him by Jesus Christ such are under God's especial Providence they dwell in the secret place of the most High and under the shadow of the Almighty Psal 91.1 God's Name is their strong Tower unto which they run and are safe Prov. 18.10 God is frequently called their Rock and Fortress Buckler Shield and Deliverer and hath made many Promises unto them of Defence and Deliverance They are under God's special Provision as a Father provideth for his Children so God provideth for his People he provideth for their Bodies When the young Lions lack and suffer hunger they shall not want any good thing Psal 34.10 He promiseth to Feed them and Clothe them and to with-hold no good thing from them and if they always have not as much in the World as they wish they shall be sure to have as much as God seeth they do really need but more especially he provideth for their Souls the Robes of his Son's Righteousness to Clothe them sweet and precious Promises to Feed and Nourish them Jewels of Grace to enrich and adorn them the guard of Angels to attend them himself and his Son to be Companions to them the Peace and Joys of the Holy Ghost to chear them and to sweeten their passage through the valley of the World and the dark entry of Death This is the priviledg of pardoned Persons and surely then they are Blessed 4. Pardoned Persons being in Covenant have free access unto God in Prayer Eph. 2.18 Through him we have access by one Spirit unto the Father Chap. 3.12 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the Faith of him Heb. 4.16 Let us therefore come boldly to the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need Being pardoned and reconciled through Christ they may with boldness and confidence come daily to the Throne of Grace and there by Prayer and Supplication make known their requests unto God and they shall be sure to have both acceptance and audience God who hath given them a pardon will deny them nothing that is really for their good having interest in Christ who hath such interest in Heaven whatever they ask of the Father in his Name if it is according to his will they may be assured because Christ hath faithfully promised it that he will do it for them Surely then such Persons are happy 5. Pardoned Persons being in Covenant have Communion with God in all his Ordinances not only in Prayer but hearing of the Word Singing and at the Table of the Lord when others rest in the out-side of Ordinances they meet with God there Sin being removed which before made a separation they now attain Communion with God and their hearts close with him as their chief good There is nothing more sweet in the World than Communion with God hence David doth account those most happy that had the liberty of God's House and Ordinances where they did or might enjoy so great a priviledg Psal 84.4 Blessed are they that dwell in thy House And Psal 65.4 Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy Courts he shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy House even of thy Holy Temple Such only are truely Blessed that find satisfaction it is not the Enjoyment of Creatures will give this but in the Enjoyment of and Communion with God in his Ordinances which is the goodness of God's House true satisfaction may be found and therefore pardoned Persons who do attain this are truely and the only Blessed Persons Reas 4. Such must needs be Blessed whose iniquities are forgiven because they
may be drawn from the certainty of all pardoned persons perseverance in Grace unto the end All such as persevere in Grace unto the end shall certainly obtain Eternal blessedness Mat. 24.15 He that shall endure to the end the same shall be saved Rev. 2.10 Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a Crown of Life Rom. 2. 6 7. Who will render to every Man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality Eternal Life All pardoned persons shall persevere in Grace unto the end they shall not only persevere through Faith 1 Pet. 1.5 but they shall persevere in it God will fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness in believers and the work of Faith with power 2 Thes 1.11 God will keep them in his hand out of which none is able to pluck them Joh. 10.29 He that hath begun a good work in them will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.6 God hath promised them to enable them to persevere I will make an everlasting Covenant with them and I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Jer. 32.40 The Scripture is very full and clear in the Doctrine of the true believer's perseverance and all pardoned persons being believers as I have already shewed all pardoned persons shall persevere to the end and therefore shall certainly attain future Eternal blessedness of Heaven 3. The third particular to be spoken unto is to shew how this future Eternal blessedness of Heaven doth render pardoned persons blessed here upon the Earth this will appear in these following particulars 1. Pardoned persons have a sight of their future blessedness and the excellency of it 1. They have a sight of the Eternal blessedness it self 1 Tim. 1.10 Christ hath abolished death and brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel The Lord hath made a clear Revelation in his Gospel unto them of that Eternal Life and blessedness which he hath laid up in Heaven for them This in former ages and generations was not made known to the Sons of Men as now it is made known unto them by the Spirit of Christ in the Gospel Man by his fall hath lost his eyes and cannot find the way unto Paradise and this is one part of his misery that he doth not know what his chief happiness is nor how it is to be obtained The Heathen Philosophers have had several hundred opinions concerning the chief good and in all mistaken The Heathen Poets had foolish and groundless fancies of the Elisian pleasures and delights which the Souls of the vertuous should enjoy in the other world but they were in the dark as to the true discovery of Heaven The Saints themselves had the future happiness of Heaven discovered in a dark way under Types Figures and Shadows the earthly Canaan Typifying the Heavenly Canaan the Jerusalem below shadowing forth the Jerusalem which is above the Holy of Holies in the Temple made with hands figuring the holy place made without hands eternal in the Heavens But now the darkness is past and the true light shineth the shadows are fled the vail before the Holiest is rent and the cloud in the Temple removed so that now with open face though still in a glass the glory which is above may be seen The Gospel doth reveal what Man 's chiefest happiness is and wherein it doth consist that it doth not consist in earthly riches nor worldly honours nor Epicurean pleasures nor the Stoick's Apathy nor the Platonist's dark contemplation of Idea's nor the Peripatetick's exercise of Moral vertues but that God is the chief good of the Children of men the Gospel reveals God in the face of Jesus Christ and that man's chief happiness doth consist in the Vision and fruition of him begun here and which will be perfected in Glory hereafter the Gospel reveals Heaven to pardoned sinners discovers the Holy of Holies that is above and the way to it as well as the Glories that are in it And pardoned sinners have not only a notional knowledg of the chief happiness hereafter But secondly they have a sight of the excellency thereof which cannot be seen by any carnal Eye and this they have by the Eye of Faith and the light of the Spirit by the Eye of Faith Heaven is realized to them and made evident to their view in its transcendent excellency Faith being the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 But this as the Eye of Faith is enlightned by the Spirit of Wisdom and revelation whereby they perceive the Riches of the Glory of his Inheritance Eph. 1.17 18. When the Apostle speaking of those things which God hath prepared for them that love him saith That neither eye hath seen nor ear heard neither have they entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him yet God saith he hath revealed these things to us by his Spirit 1 Cor. 2.9 10. This foresight of Heaven and something although comparatively little of the Glory and excellency thereof doth render pardoned persons blessed even in this World 2. That which doth further contribute to the present blessedness of pardoned persons is not only their foresight of future blessedness but also their hopes of it that they shall one day have possession of so great felicity They are blessed now in hopes of what they shall be they carry about with them in their Bosoms the greatest hopes of any in the World and their hopes are such as shall not make them ashamed Rom. 5.5 The hopes of worldlings make them ashamed in that either they fall short of the thing which they hope for God's providence oftentimes bringing upon them unthought of crosses and unexpected disappointments yea that which is quite contrary to their hopes disgrace instead of honour poverty instead of riches trouble instead of peace pain instead of pleasure yea sudden death which cuts off them and their hopes together or if they attain the thing which they hoped for they are ashamed of their hopes in that they are always disappointed of that satisfaction and contentment which they looked for in the thing the waters of the Cistern cannot quench the thirst of man's desire the Creatures cannot give more than they have and they which hope for contentment in any thing beneath the chief good must needs meet with a disappointment riches may fill the House Gold and Silver may fill the baggs but none of these things can fill the heart honour and esteem of men may swell and puff up the mind but the Soul cannot be filled unto satisfaction with Air and Wind sensual delights may cloy the Appetite but the desires of the Soul are too high and capacious for such things to fill up So that worldling's hopes must needs one way
Your sins are inexcusable your condemnation is unavoidable and your punishment hereafter in Hell will be most dreadful and intolerable Possibly now you are careless and secure sin is sweet and conscience is quiet you are at ease and conscience asleep but will this ease and sleep always continue Is there not a time coming when you shall be awakened If you are not awakened under God's Word may not God awaken you under his Rod If you are not awakened under God's threatnings will you not awake when he cometh to execution If you are secure in the midst of outward peace and prosperity can you be secure in the midst of trouble and adversity Think what you will do when death doth approach Think what a dreadful aspect unpardoned sin will have when you are brought down unto the sides of the pit to the brink and border of eternity and when you are summoned to make your appearance before the highest Majesty O the horrour that then will seize you O the fearfulness that then will surprise you To have the black guilt of drunkenness or swearing of uncleanness or deceiving or any other iniquity to stare you then in the face O how dismal will it be and affrighting And think with what rage and fury your consciences will then reflect upon your fore-past sins especially your neglect of a pardon then unattainable and how tormenting will this be unto you You may then cry out Lord have mercy on us Christ have mercy on us But will God then hear you who have refused to hearken unto him Will Christ regard you who have neglected refused and shut the door of your hearts against him all your days But sinners what will you do at the day of judgment when the Lord Jesus shall come in flaming fire to take vengeance upon you for unpardoned sins That great day will certainly come and it will quickly be here Time runs away swiftly and it will quickly be run out yet a little while and the Angel will lift up his hand and cry with a loud voice and swear by him that liveth for ever and ever that time shall be no longer Rev. 10.5 6. Then the mystery will be finished the prophesie accomplished and the whole frame of this visible world dissolved the Sun then and the Moon will be darkened and the Stars will fall unto the earth as the fig-tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind and the heavens themselves then shall be rolled together as a great scroll and so pass away with a great noise the earth and all the elements shall be on fire and consume away on that day when the Lord Jesus Christ shall appear from Heaven with Millions of mighty Angels in power and brightness of majesty and then you must come out of your graves and will stand trembling before Christ's great Tribunal and none of you will be able to hide your selves under any Rock or Mountain from his angry face Then then you will fully know what a priviledg it is to be pardoned when you see where pardoned persons are placed when you see them gathered to the right hand of the great Judg and there acquitted openly owned graciously and crowned by him with honour and glory and invited by him to take possession of those eternal habitations of rest and joy in his Kingdom prepared for them by his Father But O the tearings of spirit and heart-vexing tormenting grief which you will have that no place is found for you amongst them that through your neglect of pardoning mercy you have forfeited and eternally lost a share in eternal glory and not only so but have by sin also plunged your selves into a bottomless gulf of endless misery Think how dreadful the irreversible sentence of condemnation will be unto you Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Alas Alas sinners what will you do no thought can conceive what your horror will be when you come to reap the bitter fruit of all your unpardoned sins It is the punishment of Hell Sinners which the guilt of sin unremoved doth oblige you to undergo And therefore I am sent this day to forewarn you and in the name of my Master to foretel you that if you do not now sue out for and obtain this forgiveness of sin your sin hereafter will bring eternal ruine and destruction of soul and body in Hell Without a pardon profaneness will be your ruine Some of you it may be can swear and curse and blaspheme the Name of God hereafter God will swear in his wrath that you shall not enter into his rest and you shall be banished out of Christ's presence with a curse Depart from me ye cursed c. Those tongues which have been so liberal of oaths and blasphemies must be tormented in flames of fire without one drop of water to cool them Without a pardon drunkenness will be your ruine you that have so often enflamed your selves with wine and strong drink God will enflame you with the wine of his vengeance he will make you to drink the dregs of his wrath which is at the bottom of the cup of his indignation Without a pardon uncleanness will be your ruine your pleasures are empty and of short continuance but your pains will be full hereafter and they will abide for ever Without a pardon unrighteousness will be your ruine your unrighteous gains one day will prove your unspeakable loss and God will be the avenger of all such upon you as have been wronged and defrauded by you Without a pardon your neglect of Christ and Salvation will be your ruine and if you persevere in this neglect it is impossible that you should escape Sinners think seriously and think frequently of your unpardoned iniquities and withal think of the dreadful punishment they will bring upon you think of your eternal damnation unto the most exquisite torments of Hell and then drink on swear on and scoff your fill be unholy and profane unjust and unclean if you think good but know that for all these sins God will bring you to judgment know that these iniquities unpardoned will be your ruine Should I tell you of one that were condemned for some vile fact to be slay'd alive or burnt alive or sawn asunder or dragg'd to pieces with wild horses or starv'd with hunger and cold or any other ways cruelly tortured to death but that he might escape all this misery if he would accept of a pardon ready provided for him and withal leave off such vile facts for the future you would count him worse than mad should he neglect his pardon and expose himself to ruine and misery through his carelesness and obstinacy And yet though you are condemned for sin to far worse torment and misery that which is more dreadful than ten thousand painful deaths and all this mischief and punishment may be avoided and escaped if you will accept of the pardon
which Christ hath provided and in the Gospel is profered unto you and withal break off your sins by repentance yet no words or arguments will perswade you to use the means of prevention but still you live in the neglect of pardon and so great salvation and are secure however great your danger be O the folly and strange madness of unconverted sinners O the unspeakable sottishness and senslesness they are under Although we make it appear to their consciences that their condition is unutterably miserable they are not moved except it be with choler against the Minister that warns them of the sword of God's vengeance which hangeth over them and they champ at the Bridle that would hold them from running to their destruction But O that you would rather turn your anger against your sins and say this iniquity will be my ruine and that sin without pardon will be my damnation Vse 3. Therefore in the next place let me exhort all of you that lye under the guilt of sin that you would labour after this blessedness of forgiveness O that you would pity your own souls think what provision you have made for them think whither they are like to go upon their separation from your bodies and what you will do at the last day when Christ cometh to judg and punish unpardoned sinners think how you will be able to dwell with devouring fire to inhabit everlasting burnings Methinks you should take up such thoughts as these and argue thus with your selves What! Shall I undo my self for a filthy lust Shall I lose my Soul to gain a little uncertain earthly riches Shall I forfeit a Crown of Glory for the empty honour of this world Shall I cast my self into everlasting horrour and pain for a little vain fading carnal delight and pleasure Can I be contented to be tormented for ever in Hell to satisfie the desires of my flesh on earth and that when they will never be satisfied Shall I hugg a viper in my bosom that will kill me Harbour lusts in my heart that will slay me Shall I dishonour God and damn my own soul to gratifie the Devil my enemy and please my flesh which will soon be turned into dirt and rottenness and withal throw away the hopes of a glorious resurrection for my body hereby Away then ye foolish filthy lusts I 'le no more hearken to you or be entangled or enslaved by you Be gone thou deluding tempting Devil I 'le lend my ear no longer to thy lying suggestions nor yield any more to thy beguiling and bewitching temptations farewel thou glozing flattering world with all thy charmes and allurements thy gold is but dross thy wine mixt with water thy honour but wind and vanity thy delights are bitter-sweets such as will end in death and ruine I 'le choose another portion and look after a better blessedness than thou canst give me even the blessedness of forgiveness which will bring me unto eternal blessedness Methinks you should take no sleep nor rest and find no comfort in house or trade or friends or any thing until the anger of God be appeased your sins all pardoned and so your souls set in safety from all that ruine unto which they are exposed by unpardoned iniquity The absolute necessity of forgiveness should quicken you to look after it you have not so much need of food to remove your hunger as you have need of mercy to remove your guilt you have not so much need of clothes to cover your bodies as you have need of righteousness to cover your iniquities Better be starv'd than damn'd better be hang'd than burn'd better be exposed to the misery of the weather and any bodily distemper than to be exposed unto the storms and strokes of God's vengeance and the eternal ruine of body and soul in Hell which there is no possibility of escaping without a pardon And that which may encourage you to seek after forgiveness is the attainableness of it and that by the vilest and most guilty amongst you others have obtained pardoning mercy that have been found as guilty Manasseh was pardoned who was so hainous a transgressor Paul who was so Zealous a Persecutor Mary Magdalen who was possessed with seven Devils the Corinthians some of whom were Idolaters Adulterers effeminate abusers of themselves with mankind Theeves Covetous Extortioners Drunkards Revilers yet they were justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus some of them who had imbrued their hands in Christ's Blood had the guilt of their sins washed away by it There is Mercy enough in God to give a pardon for the greatest Transgression there is merit enough in Christ to purchase a pardon and prevalency in his Intercession to procure it whatever your offences have been the invitation unto Christ for Remission and Salvation is General none are excluded but such as exclude themselves the promises are full Crimson sins such as are of the deepest dye God promiseth to make as Wool and the promises are free the acceptation of a pardon by Faith makes it yours without any price or merit on your part We Ministers have a commission to preach Remission of sins in the Name of Christ and to declare to you the glad tidings of Salvation yea we have instructions as Embassadors in the Name of God and Christ to beseech you that you would be reconciled that you would accept of forgiveness 2 Cor. 5.20 Now then we are Embassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled unto God Give me leave to press this Argument upon you the great God of Heaven and Earth so glorious in Holiness and Righteousness is so infinitely Merciful and Gracious as to beseech you that you would be reconciled although you are so infinitely inferiour unto him He condescends to intreat you not that you would shew kindness unto him but that you would shew kindness to your selves and accept of the greatest kindness at his hands of Forgiveness and Reconciliation God might command and upon once the least refusal he might execute his vengeance upon you but although some of you have stopped your Ears so long refused his gracious prosfer so often though you have abused his kindness trampled upon his Patience slighted his invitations despised his threatnings disregarded his promises and turning all his rich Grace into wantonness do continue still in your disobedience yet the Lord doth again make suit unto you stretcheth forth his hands unto you however disobedient and gain-saying you have been and by me doth intreat you that you would be reconciled Need we use intreaties with condemned Malefactors to accept of a pardon if we had commission to preach pardoning Mercy unto Devils would they need intreaties to accept would they be fooled out of such a gracious prosfer by any as you hitherto have been by them Sinners I beseech you in the name of the great and glorious Jehovah and the Lord Jesus Christ your
from God's arbitrary ordination but from the very frame and habitude and fitness of means and ends themselves and the sense is this as I have elsewhere lately and largely shewed on the forementioned place though not in print nor fit to be so that unless I be perswaded that God's Majesty deserves and that he can and will reward us for the cost and exercises of Godliness to infinite advantage no man could be prevailed on to be Religious The very difficulties burthens and temptations of Religion under the present circumstances of revolted man would press too sore upon the frailty and concernments of flesh and blood to suffer him to obtain of himself to submit to the discipline and severities of true and powerful Godliness Nor can I see if this be once denied where the Apostles argument prevails and pinches 1 Cor. 15.19 29 23 58. Adam in Innocency was influenced by arguments and I do not see that the oeconomy of grace destroys the frame of nature but rather comes in by way of Medicinal Ordination to repair it that so Religious government may revive again by such energetical arguments and influences as are proper to the case Psal 130.4 Nor did the Son of God and Saviour of the World appear for the supplanting of the Father as to his Throne and interest but rather acted all along in a professed state and way of delegation and ordinate substitution to this end that government might flourish and poor apostate man might be Encouraged to seek and sâ—rve and please his God again and were this well considered I think that all our censorious malignant flames would dye which have no other fewell but such confidences as are grounded on and fomented by our rash mistakes and we might peaceably Credere de verbis but not de jure veritatis And I confess I cannot see how the joys of Godliness can have the vim motivam of pressing arguments to quicken us to what activity faithfulness and resolution and perseverance are enjoyned us and expected from us if persevering Godliness which is the finishing of our course with joy be not the great condition of our Crown and triumph and therefore 't is ignorance and inconsiderateness that strengthens our infidelity and consequent reluctances to run the hazards of Religion and entertain the work and cost of this our Christian course to reach its compensations One piercing glance and sober look within the Vail would strangely help us unto a right estimate of things and make our quick reflections upon our foolish former choice and trifling carriages to minister to our present grief and shame 'T is but a dotage to imagine that any thing short of Holiness and Heaven or inconsistent with our present work can be the true enrichment or content of Souls What man can keep his heart below his work that knows and credits the blessed resolutions wherewith the all-sufficient God is fixt to recompence all self-denying regular and resolved Racers see 1 Joh. 3.3 Who can advance that life into a competition with the present work and Will of God which must be swallowed up of a surpassing immortality when he hath regularly finished his course so that now the way is clear to lead us to answer these Queries Quer. 1. What is this finishing our course with joy which is to influence us into this regardlesness of life and death and every thing in order thereunto 1. Joy is the * Privilegâ—um est Principis benefâ—ciu n contra jus commune indultum non enim est privilegium nisi aliquid indulgeâ—t speciale Say the Civilians priviledge and satisfaction of the Soul at rest in the possession and embraces of its both adequate and desired end and object which is the sum of what is intended by the expression in the Text. 1. I call it a Priviledge as it importeth some considerable excellency in the object or gift and thus 't is God in Christ when he becomes the portion of once Apostate man though now recovered by relative and real grace when he appears in the perfection of his Image favour and presence and that reciprocal intimacy which is consequent thereupon and as its a favour peculiar to some by way of discrimination and difference from others for 't is the joy of God dispenced only to the Godly And I call it 2. Satisfaction as importing sutableness to the subject on whom it is bestowed on all accounts and as such apprehended and resented by it And 3. I appropriate it to the Soul as being first and most concerned in it and most capable of it for till the Resurrection the Soul alone enjoys it Before the dissolution of the body the Soul is only capable of the prospect and improvement of it and therefore most concerned and engaged about it and after the Resurrection of the person and his introduction into glory the Soul is made the most immediate recipient of it and the comforts and perfection of the body are resultant from the Soul's satisfaction and delights and truly subordinate thereunto as both are subordinate unto God not to hâ—s joys but will and honour And 4. I fixt it on the Soul at rest as the result of all its aims and motions for 't is both the recompence and cessation of all its painful exercises and pursuits 5. I make the matter of this joy to be the Soul 's adequate End and Object which none but God can be since it is apparent that neither Heaven nor Earth have any besides God to make and be a portion for the Soul Psal 73.25 And then 6. I lay the formality of this joy in the possession and embraces of this End and Object both as adequate and desired for as it is adequate it speaks no want nor deficiency in the Object and as it is desired so it speaks the preparation of the Subject and as it is embraced and possess'd so it speaks no cost and labours lost nor expectations frustrated And now indeed the Soul is most ravished when all its motions are directed to their End and terminated there with unconceivable satisfaction when God is all in all and the poor painful Christian is through tedious oppositions difficulties and travels safely conducted to its most proper Portion Choice and Joy 2. By Course is meant the Time of Life in reference to our stated work and difficulties The Metaphor is fetcht from that Olympick Exercise which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which the Racers ran in Armour because of sharp Assaults and Oppositions all the way In armis Cursorum fuere Galea quam capite Ocreae quas tibiis Aspis sive Clypeus quem manibus ferrent qui eo certamine contenderent Pet. Fab. Agonistic lib. 2. cap. 23. p. 186. Hence we have something in our Christian Panoply answerable hereunto as The Helmet of Salvation Eph. 6.17 Feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace answering to the Ocreae v. 15. And the Shield of Faith v. 16. And therefore after the
What useful Instruments have holy Kings and Princes been for God upon their Thrones Plenty and fulness are desirable 'T is better to give than to receive Acts 20.35 Innocence and Independence steel the Countenance 'T is comfortable to be the poor man's staff and the rich man's pattern The like I may say of Liberty Gifts Parts c. And when God throws these things upon us to make us useful it would be our misery shame and sin to cast them from us with contempt and as both Life and Comforts stand in relation to Vsefulness and Glory Grace rather heightens than abates esteem and value of them and rather quickens and engages thankfulness and affections for and to them than sets the heart against them thus considered 3. It is the Apostasie of our state and hearts from God that sets our lives and comforts in their capacity of being snares to us Had it not been for sin God and our Lives and Comforts had not been reduced to such an inconsistency as now they are nor had our natural Lives and Comforts been our snares had not their end and ours been changed they had never been so insignificant as to our safety and delight had we not torn them from that their Figure God himself to whom their true subordinate relation gave them their whole worth and value Our snares and surfeits come from our own irregular appetites 1 Tim. 6.9 10. Luke 21.34 Life and its Consolations are God's and good Jam. 1.17 The Lust is ours 1 John 2.16 4. Life and all things must be disregarded as they are separate from God and set against him as they are separated from God so they must be neglected and as they are set against God so they must be opposed Our lives must never be a course of lusts Rom. 13.13 Nor must their Comforts and Continuance be entertained or indulged as God's Opponents or Corrivals nor be preserved possest or prosecuted to the prejudice of better things even holy works and joy while they and better things may keep together the elder must serve the younger Our present Life and Comforts must minister to the great Concernments of another better state and when Religion or our Lives must go we must disclaim the latter to secure the former Nothing must bound or circumvent Religion nor must it be subjected to the trifling ends and dotages of a transient Life Our Lives and Comforts are dispensed to us for usefulness not satisfaction We must secure obedience and submission to God's preceptive and disposing Will and a true constant practical relation and subserviency unto God's Glory and our own eternal Welfare and the full credit of Religion and its advancement in our selves and others And wherein soever the love of Life threatens or makes towards an equality with God and Life-to-come-concernments or makes us change our Lord to serve our Lusts or grow reluctant to that great Seal and Testimony which we owe to the full Interest and Claims of Christianity or makes us more remiss sluggish and fearful in our Christian Course of holy painful and resolved exercises than our Hopes and Circumstances can admit of therein must Life be wholly disregarded Query 3. Whence is it evident that this Design and Prospect will have such powerful influences upon concerned serious Christian as to make this regardlesness of Life and every thing to be a possible attainment 1. From personal Instances All that are gone to Heaven have reach'd this Frame Oh what a Cloud of Witnesses is afforded us Heb. 11.2 39. 10.32 The Apostle here himself stands like a Monument with this Superscription 'T is possible to be a Conqueror of Life and Death 2 Tim. 4.6.8 Acts 21.13 Phil. 1.20 23. Nor doth he want his Seconds as Barnabas Acts 15.26 Epaphroditus Phil. 2.30 Daniel also and the Three Children long before Dan. 3.16 18. 6.13 22. and those in Rev. 12.11 and many others 2. From Scriptural Injunctions and Comminations Luke 14.26 1 Pet. 4.12 16. It is no ways probable that such weighty Accents of Command Concernedness and Importunity and Caution should be laid upon Impossibilities or that God should urge and threaten man and press upon him both with promises and menaces and be at such expence of cost and patience grace and bounty and digest his Name and Treasures into such cogent arguments and make both Heaven and Earth yea Hell and Conscience minister to this Design of ripening and advancing him to such a p tâ—h of exâ—ltation above all prejudicial love of Life and fear of Death if this were foreign to his own capacity and therefore unattainable for this would be the way even to distract the Hâ—rmony of God's whole Name with such unaccountable and impossible Discords as that account which God hath given us thereof would not admit of nor is it consonant to that Analogy which his Image on the New Creature expresly beareth unto himself 3. From the Advantages which the Design and Prospect of the Text afford us We have something nobler to attempt than to preserve and cherish that Life and Interest which is separate from God and set against him and something better to expect and promise to our selves than such contracted transient Comforts as Death can strip us of namely the finishing of an honourable Course that is set before us and reaching of those matchless Consolations which are tendred to us and affixed to the end and termination of that costly painful Race which we have to run And such things have an exact sufficiency in their kind as Arguments and Motives to our Hopes and Diligence and Resolution to make us more than Conquerors both of and in Life and Death Rev. 2.10 Rom. 8.18 2 Tim. 1.8 12. 2.12 Acts 24.14 16. Rom. 8.32 39. 4. From the Assistance which God is ready to afford us 1 Cor. 10.13 2 Cor. 1.3 5. 12.7 10. John 14.18 Mat. 28.20 Jer. 1.8 Our Winter-work hath sutable furniture and provisions Jam. 1.2 6. We shall have Counsels Comforts Quicknings and sutable Relishes Views and Strength to all our Work and Exercises Query 4 and the Case in hand What must we therefore do to and how must we overcome the inordinate Love of Life and Fear of Death For no man can love or dare to dye that loves this Life inordinately and values it too dear to let it go or that prevailingly doubts or fears or undervalues a better Life hereafter Now in this instance in my Text Bonds and Afflictions seemed to minister to Death and Death is very terrible to Nature as its Dissolution and terrible to interested Souls in the Concernments of this Life as ending all the Pleasures Profits Honors that Sense Fancy can be courted with 't is terrible to those that are not satisfied of another state because it ends what they were sure of the existence of and had the greatest desires of and pleasures in and because it ushers them thither where their doubt will be resolved and that for ought