Chaff with unquenchable Fire and will this not surely be brought to pass Mat. 3.12 Heaven and Earth may sooner pass away than one jot or tittle of his Word shall pass Mat. 5.16 Things that will certainly come to pass if they concern us in this life only though they be not near yet they are not slighted by us But if they are near and certain and highly concerning the thoughts thereof will rush in upon us and prevail against the greatest necessity of nature they will disturb our Rest and make us forget to eat our Bread Could a Man that were to be tryed for his Life to morrow or a day or two hence eat his Meat quietly or lie down upon his Bed in peace and take his Rest Psal 4.8 And canst thou read the Threats or Promises in the Word of God that concern thee so unspeakably and may be made good within one day or hour for all thou knowest and yet be no more overwhelmed with Joy or Terror They that are not awakened with the serious affecting thoughts of the most certain and near accomplishment of all that is threatned or promised in the Word of God will certainly be condemned in the number of those that do forget it These are the second sort of those that forget God Those that think not upon his sacred venerable Word 3. Thirdly They forget God indeed that overlook his most observable Works and regard not his remarkable Providences The Works of the Lord are great both of Creation and Provivence sought out of all them that have pleasure in them Psal 3.2 And those that have no pleasure in them will be sure to forget them There be several ways by which the Works and Providence of God is overlooked or several persons guilty of this sin 1. First They are signally guilty that deny Gods Providence in the Rule and Dispose of all Affairs either directly or by plain consequence There are none that deny it in the first sense that is directly and expresly but plain Atheists of which I would there were none in this Nation that believe in their Hearts that all things come to pass by Fate or Chance But they deny Providence by Consequence and Interpretation that are so intent upon Means and Instruments whereby any effect is brought to pass or rather upon the Effect it self that they do not at all look up any higher Psal 10.4 The Wicked thorow the Pride of his Countenance will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts thy Judgments are far above out of his sight These lie under a deep guilt of this sin 2. Secondly They are guilty of this Wickedness also that can find out nothing among all the works of Creation and Providence so worthy their Observation as to captivate their Souls to the highest Reverence of their Author Highest I mean not in respect of the degrees of Reverence but of the kinds that is though he hath a Reverence for this Object and another for that another for a third yet he hath Highest and most principal veneration for him who doth so incomparably manage all things And who hath impudence enough to plead for that man that hath an understanding and considering Faculty and such Wonders to behold both in Heaven and Earth such Providences towards the World in general and such towards the Church in special and yer God no higher in his Judgment and Affections in his Thoughts and Heart than a full Chest and a little painted Skin and an adored Lust What hast thou heard the Voice of the Lord so often in Thunder and Lightning and seen the dreadful effects of them Hast thou not heard of a little of his Breath shut up in the caverns of the Earth that hath made this stable Body of the Earth to shake and tremble and rent and torn the very bowels thereof and overturned whole Cities at once Hast thou heard of the Division of Jordan and the Red Sea how the Waters parted and left a path-way in the midst of them whilst the People passed over of whom God had taken on him the Care and Conduct And how Pharaoh and his mighty Host were afterward overwhelmed by the same Waters who were their professed Enemies Hast thou read and believed what he did for Hezekiah when the proud King of Assyria threatned to swallow him up How he accepted his Tears heard his Prayers and an Army of Two hundred thousand men almost all struck dead in one night What he did for wicked Manasseh though he had filled Jerusalem with Idols and Blood yet how mercifully he heard him when he cryed to him in Chains Look into the sacred History or read over any profane History or consult thine own Eyes and Ears what thou hast seen or heard what he hath done to and for his Enemies and what he hath done for his Church or any parts or members of it and if thou canst be a Sot or Block under all and have Mens Persons in admiration because of advantage to thee Jude 16. rather than reverence and adore the Lord and mighty Worker of all take that thine is and go thy way thou art one that does overlook the Works of God 3. Thirdly They overlook the Works and Providence of God whose lives are ordered in a course of crossness and contradiction to them As History reports of Sardanapalus that he lay in Bed all day and rose at night when others went to Bed and so turned the day into night and the night into day So when God calleth by his Providence I mean by some formidable signs of his displeasure to Fasting and Weeping and Mourning and to girding with Sack-cloth and Baldness and behold Joy and Gladness slaying Oxen and killing Sheep eating Flesh and drinking Wine Esay 22.12 13. that will not see when the hand of God is lifted up 26.11 When God is â—utting up and throwing down and disgracing all worldly Pride They are seeking great things for themselves and feeding themselves with proud thoughts of what they have or what they hope to have Jer. 45.4 5. When God is pulling down the proud they are delighting themselves in Pride and Oppression of those that cannot defend themselves When God is searching for Sin they are hiding of it and when he is shewing his dislike of it and would stop the poison that it should spread no further it 's sweet in their Mouths they hide it under their Tongue they spare it and forsake it not Job 20.12 13. What a proud contempt of his Providence is it to sit still and shut our Eyes and not consider them Psal 111.4 He hath made his wonderful workâ— to be remembred But what a Pride is that that when God is debasing Men we will exalt them when God is visiting Sin and Transgression they are incouraging it in themselves or others and will not be searched but instead of starving their Lusts and Corruptions are making Provision for them When God is telling Men plainly of their
other depending sins as have their life and maintenance from these But only this I say that where God is not worthily Remembered there one or more of these sins have dominion and all may take their turns and so turn that Man into a very Devil in Humane Shape For what is there to stop the raging power of Lust and Concupisence and controul the fury of inordinate Passions if you take away this bridle and there be none or very little awe and reverence of God upon the Heart If you say that Reason may curb and keep in a Carnal Fleshly Heart from all notable â—ccess and Inordinancy I answer That since the Fall Reason is not able to stand against the Flesh having lost its strength by the loss of Gods Image unless it be where it is assisted by the common Grace of God For Mans end being here below and not above Flesh with its affections must needs be the leading part and Reason must needs lie still and sleep whilst Sense is domineering or else strike in with the Flesh and become a servant to its Lusts For a Man can rise no higher than his end no more than the VVater can above the Spring Head God being cast off something must supply his room Man will not be at rest till he hath a happiness seeming or real and therefore since he hath renounced God which is real he must needs chuse Creatures which are but so in appearance since he hath forsaken the Fountain he must have recourse to the Cistern since he will not build upon the Rock he must build upon the Sand and have his Hope and Foundation in the Dust and having once made Flesh his Confidence he will rather fight against God and all that opposeth him than be driven from his hold VVhat a Man takes for his happiness he will hold it as his very Life and Being and as soon part with the one as with the other VVhat sin will a Man stick at to wind himself into a faster possession of what he thinks to be his happiness and having thrown God out of his Memory he will quickly decay in his Heart and Affections And when there is little or no fear or love of him what should perswade a man to refuse the tempting pleasures of sin Neither will he take that for a sin in which he is practically perswaded his happiness doth consist Hence it is that the vilest and most shameful sinners when once they have wip'd out the Memory of Godout of their Hearts which at last they attain to through frequent and customary delight in those brutish Pleasures they verily think at last that they are no sins and will plead for the worst of them I know that many do not neither can they arrive to such a height of wickedness because God will not permit them neither can they get all awe and sear of him out of their Hearts but this is no thanks to them neither doth it disprove what I said before 1. That forgetfulness of God is apt in its own nature unless it be curbed by Providence to lead into all wickedness whatsoever even the highest degree of it Balaam will attempt for the love of Honour and Riches to serve the King of the Moabites wicked purpose and to curse the People of God if an Angel with a drawn Sword in his hand do not stand in his way and hinder the execution of his wicked intent So wicked Persons that have no true Remembrance of God will commit any wickedness that seems necessary to compass what they have set their hearts upon and will not give over till Providence crosseth them and will not let them bring their Device to pass If Honour be the end of any Person that forgets God he will not stick at any sin that will but promote his end and serve this Lust If Rule and Power be the thing that a Man hath set up for his Idol he will take any way rather than miss that which will be ever in his thought and remembrance either actually or virtually because it hath gotten into his heart As we cannot remember those things that we do not love and reverence so we cannot but remember what we do reverence and love You see then how dangerous it is to forget God such a one will remember something else that will betray him to all base and wicked Practices that will bring him under the power of the Devil who ruleth in the Children of Disobedience and bring upon him the wrath of God which cometh upon the Children of Disobedience I might here shew you how this Sin is the breach of the great and most fundamental Commandment as our Saviour calls it Mark 12.30 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Strength This is the first Commandment for he that doth not remember him cannot do this and where there is no true subjection of the Soul to God implied in this Commandment there can be no true Obedience implied in any of the other Commands And therefore he that is guilty of breaking this is prepared for the breach of all the other because they are animated by this and have their obliging power and authority from it You see then the danger of this sin if then thou darest let God slip out of thy mind thou knowest not what will succeed and enter in his room nor what wickedness thou mayst commit for thou art tumbling down hill and canst never stop by any inward power of thine own unless Providence lay an impediment before thee and hinder thee coming to the bottom that is I mean to the top of all impiety 2. Secondly If thou forget God he will cast thee out of his Remembrance and make thee to know the sin which thou hast committed by the Punishment that is inflicted Psal 9.16 Then the Lord will be known by the Judgment that he executeth As thou shutest thine Eyes against him now and will not remember him in the Pride of thy Heart so he will not remember thee in thy distress and in the day of the anguish of thy heart yea though thou criest to him with importunity he will shut his Ears God hath spoken and he will make it good When you spread forth your hands I will bide mine Eyes from you yea when you make many Prayers I will not hear Esay 1.15 And canst thou be content to be forgotten of God when Reproach hath broken thy heart and thou art full of heaviness and when thou lookest about thee for some to take pity and there is none and for Comforters and thou canst find none Psal 69.20 When thy Flesh faileth thee and thy Heart also canst thou be content that God should also fail thee Psal 73.26 When thy Mirth and Pleasure are fled away from thee and thou hast nothing but Gall to eat when thou shalt thirst and have nothing but Vinegar for thy drink Psal 69.21 Canst thou be content
likewise is the splendour and dignity of the Saints set forth by a Crown and Scepter and Kings things most glorious here on Earth And this use we should wisely make of these things to put life into our Meditations which otherwise would little affect us Sixthly Lastly you must diligently read and hear the Word of God peruse the labours of those that are most skilful in the exposition and application thereof If you ask me who they are I answer use your best endeavours to know and make the most impartial enquiry The frequent casting your eye upon and opening your ear to such matters is the way to get good furniture into your memory and heart which will ever and anon creep into your thoughts and even invite and constrain you to dwell with more intentness and affection on them But you when you are reading and hearing these things that must be the Subject of your Meditations and sowing the Seed of future consideration you must drive away the Birds of Prey that would devoure the Seed that you have sown I mean all disturbing worldly thoughts and keep your mind as much retired from all other things as you are able that it may be free and open to the impressions of the Word and Spirit those especially that are unfurnished for Meditation must take this course for it is most like to prosper since it hath not only Precept but Reason to enforce it They must never expect to have their Souls byassed to and fitted for this Duty that neglect these means which the Wisdom of God hath appointed and let their thoughts scamble about and imploy their eyes and ears about any petty matters rather than in the reading and hearing of Gods Word and such explications of it as are likeliest to bring it to the mind and heart especially read and hear those passages of truth that Life and Salvation most depends on most frequently and get them as fast into your mind as you are able and a right understanding of the very tenour and chief scope of the Gospel which is to bring men to the sight of their sins and by that to come to Christ as his tractable Disciples and by Faith in Christ to Salvation which design that it might bring to pass it sets the highest motives and encouragement before us and gives us the greatest helps But above all parts of Scripture the Psalms of David frequently read will promote you in the work of consideration and teach you hâ—â— to stir up such affections as you see Daviâ— expresseth almost in every Psalm There you may see how he sets upon God sometimes sometimes stirs up his own Soul confers with God communes with his own heart that he might kindle the Fire of Gods Love in his heart which is the principal design of consideration for whether he express sorrow and contrition for his sin it is but that he may stir up hatred in his Soul against it which is the great impediment to the Love of God Or if he express and utter his complaints of the vanity of the World and the miseries of this life all is to quicken up his desires after the true happiness of his Soul and you know love is intrinsecal and essential to desire if he enlarge as he doth frequently in the praises of the Lord and display his glory and muster up his perfections and call Heaven and Earth and Sea and all the Inhabitants of them and all the Islands and Continents of the World and bring in their testimony to him and to make his Name glorious if he summon every living thing that hath breath to praise the Lord it is that he may advance the esteem and encrease the love of God in his own heart and the hearts of others and therefore from this Book you may fetch matter enough and argument for consideration to make use of for the kindling of this and all other holy and devout affections yea the very out-side I mean the phrase and expression of the Psalms is such as hath a powerful Rhetorick with it to set the heart on fire with the love of God no contemplative and devout Christian but hath had very familiar acquaintance with this Book I have told you the flat necessity of consideration if ever a man be brought to his right mind yea and how necessary it is to preserve you in the love and fear of God after you have believed if therefore you are convinced that is your duty without which you can never get the cure of your deadly distempers then you will make Conscience of the means whereby you may be brought to consideration The heart is not easily brought to delight in God and love him above all and to use the world as if he us'd it not its consideration that must change it the heart is naturally dead to spiritual things it 's Consideration that must enliven it and make it stir the heart is prone to wander from God it 's Consideration that must bring it home the heart is full of blindness and obduracy it 's Consideration that must enlighten and soften it If therefore you would not perish in blindness and obduracy and wander from God without hopes of recovery and lose the Pearl of infinite price which who so is wise will sell all that he hath to buy and purchase then use the means that must bring you to Consideration Having given you some general Directions towards the promoting of the work and duty of Consideration I come in the next place to give you some more Particular Directions 1. As to the matter 2. As to the manner 3. As to the end How this Duty is to be performed Concerning the matter of your Contemplation First The first great Object of your Consideration should be God and the Relation you stand in to him and his glorious Perfections It 's worth thy while to consider daily that he made thee out of nothing and when there are four distinct Ranks of Creatures viz. Things that have meer being without life 2. Things that have being and life such as are all Vegetables Trees and Flowers 3. Such as have being life and sense such as are Brutes and other sensitive Creatures 4. Such as have being life sense and reason when there are these four Species and Orders of Creatures he hath placed thee in the highest form and hath made the other three Ranks for thy use and service and as he hath made thee such a Creature so thou hast thy supportation and maintenance wholly from him and he is training thee up in the world for his immediate presence and for those ravishing delights that are to be enjoyed in the Beatifical Vision Canst thou possibly consider the perfection of his Nature thy relation to him as his Creature from whom all that thou hast or doest expect must be fetched thine hourly dependance on him his Authority over thee his right and property in thee his bounty towards thee and not fall down before
the Proffers of his Love Oh with what an a king Heart will the Infidel then say Why did he dye for me since I was resolved to dye for my self If he had not died for me this Death had never been so terrible as now I feel it O that any one would bring an Argument and convince me now that Christ died not for me then should I escape the greatest part of my Torment I would not torment thee with such thoughts as these now if it were not in hope to prevent such tormenting thoughts when time is past Let me earnestly entreat thee whoever thou art that art in this doleful condition either speedily to believe in Christ or believe it thine own Conscience will one day prove thy most terrible Executioner So much for the First Motive that should Teach us to prize and exercise Faith viz. Consider the Miseries of an Unbeliever But it is not my design to fright the Sinner unto Christ neither is it possible that Fear only should work true Belief and produce a justifying Faith All that I have said hitherto is to deter the Sinner from such a damning Sin as Unbelief but these be Arguments of another Nature to attract the Sinner unto Christ Consider therefore 2. Secondly What Christ hath done to draw the Heart of Sinners to him and to engage them to believe He hath given his Soul an Offering to the death and stood in the very flames of his Father's wrath that he might keep away the burning intolerable heat thereof from us and bore the grievous burden of our sins He stript himself even to the greatest Poverty and Nakedness that he might Cloth us and emptied himself that we might be filled 2 Cor. 8.9 Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that tho he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich When we were fallen into the deepest reproach and shame he made himself of no Reputation and took upon him the Form of a Servant that he might advance us to the highest dignity and honour 2 Phill. 6.7 He humbled himself to the death that he might procure our life he made a low stoop that he might lift us up when sin had cast us down He took upon him the humane Nature that he might make us partakers of the Divine Nature Heb. 2.14 compared with 2 Pet. 1.4 Forasmuch as the Children are partakers of Flesh and Blood he also himself likewise took part with them that through Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil and purchase for us exceeding rich and precious Promises that by them we might be made partakers of the Divine Nature It was no small Endearment of himself to us to pass by the Angels and put forth his hand to help us For verily he took not upon him the Nature of Angels but the Seed of Abraham 2 Heb. 16. He rejoyced in the habitable parts of the Earth and his delight was among the Children of Men Prov. 8.3 It 's his earnest desire that thou shouldst have the benefits of his Death and enjoy what he hath so dearly purchased and therefore he invites thee to believe in him because otherwise thou canst have no advantage by his Death If thou hast any understanding or ingenuity lay the Love of Christ to Heart and consider how unspeakably great it is it 's past words to express it it is so much beyond example let thy thoughts dwell upon it and never give over the serious consideration of his Sufferings and Death for such as thou art till thy Heart melt and yield and till thou canst with Love and Thankfulness resign thy self to him as one that doth deliberately resolve to be his Loyal Subject and Disciple Methinks after thou hast heard what he hath done for thee thou shouldst be ready to do any thing and stick at nothing that he bids thee do that thou mightst shew the most grateful resentment of his love But when he commands thee nothing but for thy greatest advantage that is to leave thy deadly Enemies and forsake thy self-destroying Courses and come unto him thy greatest Friend and live under his Government to refuse such a gracious Offer shews that thou art void of all true understanding ingenuity and sense of thy own Benefit and Advantage Hadst thou rather live under the cruel Laws of a deadly malitious Enemy and one that neither can nor will protect thee when the most dreadful storms are coming on thee Than under the Government of one that beareth the greatest love and compassion to thee and hath the greatest Wisdom to direct thee the greatest Power to protect thee and whose Laws are the most perfect Rule of Life and the greatest Tendency to the Peace Welfare and Perfection of Christ's loyal faithful Subjects Hadst thou rather serve a Tyrant and professed Enemy in Chains and Slavery than a rightful just and gracious Soveraign that hath given such Demonstrations of the most wonderful and â—â—â—pendious love to such as thou art whose Service is perfect Freedom who hath contrived all his Laws for the benefit of his true Subjects and sincere Disciples If the Love of Christ testified by such exquisite Sufferings and Death and thy own Welfare and Felicity will not prevail with thee to throw off the Yoke of Satan and the World and Flesh and to become a Believer and cause thee to say from thy Heart with those in the Prophet Isaiah 26.13 O Lord our God other Lords besides thee have had Dominion over us but by thee only will we make mention of thy Name 3. Thirdly Remember that Faith is the first Grace that brings thee into a justified state Condition All that thou hast or canst do before thou dost believe in Christ is of no avail to thy Justification and Salvation It 's Faith that unites the Soul to Christ and till it be united to him it can receive no saving benefit from him when first the sinner doth heartily consent that Christ shall be his King and Teacher and he will be his Subject and Disciple he is morally joyned and united unto Christ as the Soveraign and Subject make one Body Politick of which every Subject is a Member and the King is the Head and as the Master and the Scholars are morally united then begins our union with Christ and our participation of the benefits which he hath purchased when we first enter our selves into his School and list our selves under his Government and Protection God hath peremptorily resolved that none shall have the special Benefits of his Death but those that submit themselves to him Amongst which Justification is the first and then th◠〈◊〉 follow in their due place and order 〈…〉 by Faith we have Peace 〈…〉 〈…〉 â—â—pt 〈…〉 the 〈…〉 of Eternal Salvation 〈…〉 â—se that actually obey him so neither 〈…〉 the Means of their Justification to any 〈…〉 as by Faith and Cordial Subjection resolve to obey
to draw and invite this Affection And have moreover disappointed thee too often of the Pleasure and Felicity that from them thou hast expected yea and which is far worse have entangled thee in many foolish and hurtful Lusts which have afterwards betrayed thee to sad and bitter complaints But here 's an Object worthy thy strongest love that will not debase and destroy but advance thy Soul to the highest Perfection The Love of him as it is sweet in the exercise so it will end at last in unspeakable sweetness and will not upbraid thee with Folly afterwards as all other Love will be sure to do Thou mayest love other things too much and here 's the Source and Spring of all Sin and Impiety and of all absurd and unreasonable Practices For as Divine Love is the sum of Duty and all worthy and becoming Actions so Carnal Love or the Love of Creatures is the Sum of all Wickedness and all incongruous and unseemly Practice But God can never be exalted too high in thine Estimation and Affections Here thou mayest safely vent and pour out all the store of thy Love with the greatest delight and security and expatiate thy Soul to the widest extent in the Ocean of his infinite and most lovely Perfections To him thou mayest safely offer up thy Soul in sacrifice as a whole-Burnt-Offering in the Fire of Love for ever Wilt thou permit thy Thoughts any more to fly abroad into Trifles and impertinent Matters when thou hast the immense Ocean of Divine Goodness to lanch forth into and mayest lose thy self with the greatest pleasure and advantage in the depths of his infinite Perfections Here to be even drowned and swallowed up is not Death but the sweetest and most ravishing Life Hast thou not pined long enough and melted away in the Cares and Love of the World the Martyrdom which corrupt Nature prompts thee fast enough to chuse Is it not now more than Time to be wiser and to bare an Honourable Testimony to him that hath redeemed thee And to subscribe that Witness to the Truth which thou hast borne too much hitherto to Lies and Falsehood Let them be taken by thee for Fools and Madmen that torture themselves with the Love and Care of this World and take Hell by that violence that the Kingdom of Heaven should be taken by But let the main stream and current of thine Affections be ever after him in whom are all the dimensions of Perfection Some little Twilight and Glimmerings of his Ravishing Beauty thou hast seen in his Words and Works But oh how short how exceeding short have they been through thy wilful Blindness and Inadvertency But these express not the thousandth part of his wonderful astonishing Splendour and Glory Something it may be thou hast tasted of his sweetest reviving Love But oh how little in respect of what thou might'st have had had it not been for thy own wilful neglect and refusal Hadst thou gazed as much upon his Glory as thou hast done upon the fading transitory Glory of the World and studied his Perfections according to the Opportunities and Advantages he hath given thee and not loved dismal affrighting Darkness rather than the quickning trransforming Light and neglected the best use of thine Understanding and Affections in holy Meditations on God Thou might'st confidently have expected the Blessing of God in a Work so well pleasing to him and found the Treasure that would have made thee contemn all other things in Comparison Then thou might'st have had joy in the darkest Night of Affliction and such an Allay to the bitterest Cup that would have made any Condition welcome to thee Then thou would'st have forgotten all the Miseries of thy life past and remembred them as Waters that pass away Job 11.16 Then thou might'st have lyen down with the sense of the pardon of former sins yea thou might'st have lyen down and thy sleep would have been sweet to thee Then the Remembrance of thy latter End would not have been such an unpleasant Theme to thy Meditations as now it is yea the Lord would have satisfied thy Soul in Drought and made thee like a watered Garden and like a Spring whose Waters fail not Isaiah 58.11 And then with what vivacity and chearfulness should'st thou have performed all Duty and borne all Sufferings when God had once answered thee in the joy of thy Heart Considerations to provoke to the Contempt of the World Psalm 119 96. I have seen an End of all Perfection but thy Commandment is exceeding broad 1 John 2.15 16. Love not the world nor the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world Vers 17. And the world passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever Isa 40.6 7. All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof is like the flower of the field The grass withereth and the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it 1 Cor. 7.9 The fashion of this world passeth away Prov. 11.4 Riches profit not in the day of wrath but righteousness delivereth from death Eccles 1.2 and 2.11 Vanity of vanities all is vanity saith the Preacher Eccles 1.8 All things are full of labour man cannot utter it the eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear with hearing Prov. 31.30 Favour is deceitful and Beauty is vain AS the Object of all rational saving Love is God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and all that standeth in subserviency to him so far as they conduce to this Noble End and Happiness of the Soul So the Object of all irrational sinful damning Love is the World and whatsoever serves to promote its interest in the Heart so far as it is Competitory with or Contradictory to the Interest of God and conduceth to the inordinate pleasing of the Flesh And thus much I intend here by the World that is any thing in the whole Creation that doth not refer to and is not subordinate unto God is to be the Object of this Contempt and Disdain First Because the World is unsatisfactory and cannot content the Mind of Man There is something still that the Soul misseth when it hath all here that it can desire It silently imagineth an Aliquid ultra when it hath gone its farthest in the Happiness and Prosperity here on Earth And it 's so far from Rest after all that it grows more hot and impatient in its desires And finding nothing to pursue after that can give content begins to fret and grow peevish when the ambitious Soul is gotten to the top of Honour he finds not the thing he expected he calls it by all the slight and contemptible Names he can invent or imagin you may as well satisfie the Appetite
judgment may be passed upon other Nations if this great Relation every Soul stands in to God were well thought upon and all things that have a power to inchant the mind and controll the mighty power of this truth upon the soul were in a good measure disgraced and turned out of the heart It could not be that heart and mouth and life should be so intollerably backward to any serious service of God as they are in the most 2. Secondly They forget God that overlook his Sovereignty and forget that he is the holy just and righteous Governour of Mankind 1. That he is the absolute and universal Sovereign that hath the most unquestionable authority to command and govern the Creatures he hath made 2. The greatest wisdom to contrive the most perfect Laws for the good of all his Subjects 3. And the most irresistible power to see them executed 4. And the highest justice to see that neither Law nor Subject shall receive any detriment or damage And if this were believed and considered would men either desire or dare to cast off such a Yoke and transgress such a Law and provoke such impartial justice What a monstrous pride must it needs be that makes a man unwilling to submit to such a Government And what a presumptuous befooled lying heart must that be that can promise it self indemnity and think to speed well in a state of disobedience Let the deceived heart that hath turned thee aside from such an honourable gainful service tell thee whom thou canst serve to better purpose and under whose command thine own welfare would be better promoted I know thou wouldst abhor the thought of being his servant who is the first-born of all pride insolence and cruelty and yet there is no possible way of escape if the Yoke of thy rightful Sovereign be too heavy for thee May be thou mayst be so void of understanding as to think if thou hadst none to controll thine actions but wert thine own Lord and accountable to none other but thy self and that thou mightst let out thy heart with a full Rein to all that it desireth it were a condition to be desired above any other but hast thou wit enough to manage all thy affairs strength enough to protect thy self soresight enough to keep out of a thousand evils that thy own blindness and nakedness would expose thee to Thy Lusts and thy Passions would make worse work with thee than all thy other enemies when they were under no restraint and thou couldst not long keep out of the fore-mentioned Tyrants hands the mention of whose dominion over thee made thee so much to start before But it may be thou meanest that this State were the most desirable if thou hadst wisdom enough to direct thee and power enough to protect thy self and fulness enough to supply all thine own wants and art thou not now ashamed of such a prodigious pride as would sit down in the Throne of God and aspire to the divine perfections Thou seest whither this inclination leadeth and what a symtom of destruction it must needs be and yet be thy case never so bad and desperate they that will habitually overlook that divine right and sovereignty and their necesssity of subjection and both from the wisdom and justice of the Laws and power of the Law-giver and that there is no wisdom nor happiness like theirs that chearfully obey must needs entangle themselves in these woful consequences fall into the absurdest sins that will but humour and gratifie this proud inclination 3. They forget God that are not prevailingly under the power of this thought that God is their happiness and that if all the world were theirs and God should deny the light and beatifical presence of himself they could never find rest or satisfaction Let the honour and Majesty of a King and the Glory of a Kingdom be given unto David and let him have all the assistance that such a power can afford to compass the pleasures that the heart of man can wish for yet this will not do In the midst of this fulness and sufficiency he is in streights Job 20.22 If God withdraw When thou hidest thy face I am troubled Psal 30.7 And when this was wanting his moisture was turned into the draught of Summer and his bones were broken hence he prayeth to God to restore the joy of his salvation and uphold him with his free spirit and to make him to hear of joy and gladness that the bones that he had broken might rejoyce Psal 51.8 12. Who that hath any experience in the world can be fool enough to believe that his soul will be quieted with such a Weathercock and Rattle as the world is and popt off with noise instead of substance and listen with full contentment to the Sounding Brass and Tinkling Cymbal Alas The Bias of a Mans Soul is after something that the world hath not something like it self and cannot be truly satisfied with these things because they have no proportion with it self They are flesh and that is spirit nor thoroughly comforted with these shews because the time is at hand when it shall be truly said as Rachel said of her Children they are not Give the Child that cryes for the Breast what you will and it gives not over because this is the only thing it wants The Soul will never be still nor give over its muttering and complaints till it hath the very thing that fully supplies its want and that only is God and they that live not under the power of this perswasion will run after every shadow and be ticed into mortal sin and yet at last lose their labour and hope and all this because they forget that God is their Rest and that their Happiness is bound up in him Jog thy self a little and consider what it is to be God but to have All-sufficiency and to have all Satisfying Ravishing Excellency in the greatest Transcendency without any Bounds or Ends what it is to be God but to have all imaginable Perfection And therefore to think we remember God when we forget those Perfections which are his very Being is a lie with a witness and will prove one with a vengeance if thou dost not pray to God and prevail with him to have thy Memory restored and to heal this defect thereof 4. They forget God that live not under a daily sense of his Omniscience and forget that his Eye pierceth the thickest darkness and that nothing is hid from his distinct Observation For he that denieth this denieth God and he that forgetteth this forgets that without which God cannot be God Tell me thou that abhorest Atheism with thy Tongue why art thou so notoriously guilty of it in thy practice Why dost thou with-draw from the Eyes of Men when thou hast some filthiness to commit which thou art ashamed they should see or know Why dost thou shut thy self up in thy Closet that there thou mayest hide thy Vanity
and Folly and darest not publish thy Levity Shame or Wickedness unto holy and discerning Men Nay it may be not to Men as wicked as thy self Such a reproach is folly vanity and wickedness unto any man Yea Why dost thou retire into thy own heart as if thou wouldst lock all up and make all sure and there exercise thy self in Pride Envy Self-conceit Uncleanness and act these sins with confidence and security in the darkness of thy heart which if another like thy self did but see thou wouldst not know where to hide thy self for shame And yet because all hath been transacted with so much silence and secrecy thou hast no disposition to blush or be ashamed but like the Whore in the Prov. Thou eatest and wipest thy mouth and say'st What shame have I done And dost thou think there is no witness of thy shameful wicked acts No Eye to take notice Better all the World had seen thee than he that stands but for a cypher to thy deluded forgetful Heart I might here run over all the Attributes of God both Essential Subsistential and Relative and oppress your Memory with particulars But having given these instances I leave the rest to your Meditations Yet before I leave this head and proceed to the second I shall add thus much of the Attributes of God in general 5. They may be said to forget them all at once that forget themselves and live not under a sense of their great necessities nor think considerately and perswade themselves day by day that they are poor and miserable and blind and naked Rev. 3.17 They that are rich in their own apprehensions and increased in Goods and have need of nothing must needs be stout and insolent and cannot escape this sin of Forgetfulness Jesurun that is Israel waxed fat and kicked against God Deut. 32.15 and they never remembred him to the purpose till they themselves by consideration or God by his Judgments did inforce a sense of their necessities on them When he slew them then they sought him and they returned and inquired early after God And they remembred that God was their Rock and the high God their Redeemer which before they forgot Psa 78.34 35. And yet so soon as ever they were out of streights and warm in Prosperity and thought they had no need they forgot God again They remembred not his hand nor the day when he delivered them from the Enemy ver 42. That man must needs send up cold and careless Prayers to God day by day that feels none or but little need of God How can be confess with a broken heart the sins that never come near his heart nor were a burthen to him How can that man magnifie or seek the Grace of God every day that doth not verily think he needs it every day How can he worthily admire his Redeemer who hath loved him and washed his Soul in his Blood that feels not his own Guilt and doth not frequently renew loathing and abhorring thoughts of it How can he lift up his Heart to the Father of Lights for the Spirit of Illumination that doth not sufficiently apprehend and bewail his own Ignorance and the darkness of his uncertain mind How can he rejoyce in the hopes of the Glory of God that foolishly adores and cheat himself with the Glory of this World The day of Deliverance and full Redemption will never be a pleasant Meditation unto him that feels not himself oppressed with his sins and is as heartily weary of that Burthen as he is of Sickness when it afflicts his Body Never think to meditate on Gods Justice with any Savour or Delight unless you bend your thoughts to consider the mischiefs of Injustice and how particular Families and Nations yea and the whole World are perverted and disturbed with Iniquity Thou wilt never apply thy Heart to God for Wisdom to live well unless thou remember thy latter end and what hast the comforts of this World make to get away from thee Can he live above in his thoughts with any content and satisfaction that doth not die daily and not often think with some seriousness that he may daily die It 's wisdom therefore to give entertainment to such thoughts How many have shut their Eyes in a healthful Sleep who have waked in another World We give too large scope to our account while we reckon seven years for a Life when we see so many dispatch'd within the Circle and Revolution of half that time and though we are such a blast our selves yet our comforts are oftentimes dead and buried before us and leave us the surviving Executors of our own misery When God hath put all things here below into the Bill of Mortality what a foolish thought is it to think that this or that shall escape which we have set our hearts upon and how sinful to take the Bill and write down this or that or the other when God hath condemned no less than all If thou forget these things God would be forgotten and one or two slight thoughts of these things will never excuse from forgetfulness These are the first sort of Men that forget God 2. Secondly They forget God that either forget or think but little on his sacred and most venerable Word when they have it continually before them I will not go about now to describe the woful state and condition of that Man that hath the Word so much in his Eyes yea in his Ears and not in his Heart and therefore cannot remember it in any saving degree or measure nor torment such a one before his time neither can I tell him the nature and danger of his Sin so well as Death or Judgment will be sure to tell him It must needs be a staring affrighting Sin when Conscience shall come to see it throughly that God hath written to us the Great things of his Law and we have counted them as a common thing Hosea 8.12 It 's in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. Amplitudines or Honorabilia legis and they counted them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a strange thing i. They made themselves strange to them or these things were strange to them and seldom in their Thoughts This is a wicked requital of such a strange and wonderful Love More particularly They forget the Word of God 1. That have not a high and transcendent Reverence of the Authority thereof 2. They that are not in any considerable measure affected with the important matters which it sets before them 3. That are not awakened by any serious thoughts of the most certain and near accomplishment of all that is either threatned or promised therein I say again They that are not awed by its Authority nor moved with its Importance nor rouzed by its certainty 1. To yield hearty Subjection unto Christ 2. To his Laws 3. And by a deliberate Resolution to renounce either self or whatsoever doth oppose them will never escape this guilt but be numbred
Sabbath-breaking careless performance of his Service and Worship Selfishness Inordinate love of and Adulterous Affections to any Creature and hiding Pride from Man and turning our Eyes from a fond Admiration of Creatures and laying them in the dust They will not endure it but fret and murmur in their hearts and are ready to say as the Rebellious Followers of Korah did to Moses Wilt thou put out these Eyes of ours We will not come down we will not deny our selves nor be crossed in our wills nor leave our shame When God is putting the Bridle into their Mouths and laying a Curb and Restraint upon their Intemperance Pride and Luxury and bringing into contempt their Gallantry and swaggering Bravery they will not endure the Curb but rage and foam and grow mad and bite the Bridle that holds them in and reply as the remnant Jews did after the Captivity when they sent Jeremiah to inquire of the Lord for their Direction and liked not the Answer that he brought Jer. 44.16 17. We will not hearken to thee but will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth of our own Mouth we will let our Hearts with a full rein to any thing they desire for when we have done thus we were well and saw no evil when we leave off to shew favour and courtesie to our selves who shall befriend us when we begin to cry shame on our selves all men will cry shame on us and if once we come down and lie in the dust all men will trample upon us Those are some of the shifts that carnal Wisdom and Reason alledgeth whereby it would frustrate the Invitations of Mercy When God is calling for the Plumb Line and meting out a Nation for Destruction Amos 7.7 when he is drawing the lines of confusion in a place 1 Sam. 2.8 and marking it for Judgment they cry as the Inhabitants of Ephraim once did The Bricks are fallen down but we will build with hewen Stones the Sycamores are cut down but we will change them into Cedars Esay 9.10 And though we may not be gotten up to such a degree of wickedness as this is it will concern us to make search and inquiry whether there be no seed of this wicked nature in us I am too much out of doubt that there is much of crossness and contradiction to the will of God in the best heart and too loth are the best to veil and stoop to the will of God when it crosseth ours but it will be fitter to help on this search in the Application 4. Lastly They overlook both his Attributes Word and Works all at once that put him off with shadows instead of substance that give him a few flattering words and shews for the inward worship and purity of their hearts This is the very instance of the Psalm a part of which we have now before us What an affront is this to remember him with the Mouth that he may be cast out of the Heart where he will have more to do than all the World or else abhor that person and his service whose heart it is To wash the outside with the paint of an external profession and to have a Heart full of Pride and unmortified Lusts full of putrid noisom Filth is not to play the Christian but the Pharisee To profess God at Home and at Church in our Houses and his House and to joyn with his Servants in the Externals of his Worship to read his Word and sing his Praises with our Lips and in Heart and Life to subvert the Christian Faith is not to be a Disciple but a Judas To give God the most glorious Attributes and Titles and call him thy Creator Lord and Governour and to acknowledge thou hast all from his Bounty and yet to deny him the Service and Obedience due to his Laws this is not to remember but to forget him If I be a Father where is mine Honour If I be a Master where is my fear saith God Mal. 1.6 Is not the Lord a Spirit and will he be put off with a meer bodily service only I know he will have the service of the body also he will have the Tongue and the Knee and an External Reverence that may be of good Example to others But thou art guilty of Hypocrisie and Folly both if this be all that thou canst spare if thou go not further thou mayst be a very devil in thy heart when thou haâ—st Oyl and Butter in thy Mouth and when thou speakest the smoothest words to God thou mayst have war and enmity to him in thy heart thou mayst fetch a sigh or a groan for sin at a pretty easie rate but God will not take this instead of Self-denial and mortification of thy Lusts but will abhor their shews and complements that cover hatred with lying Lips When God calls to the proud Person to come down and sit in the dust and humble himself will it be an acceptable service if he would offer him something else or will he take the fruit of the Body for the sin of the Soul Mich. 6.7 I mean a shew of humility in going softly speaking faintly looking sadly instead of true lowliness and poverty of Spirit I speak not against the outward signs they are good when accompanied with the thing signified but when we deceive our selves with these and think to deceive God also True humility consists in a universal submission to the Will of God and ready obedience to all his Laws when they cross our interest in the world as when they do promote it And he that hath not this in a prevailing measure and degree God will look upon him afar off let him come as near as he will with his Tongue or Knee Psal 138.6 and he will plentifully reward as a proud doer Psal 40.4.31.23 When God calleth to search our hearts and try our ways and remember our doings It will not serve turn to remember the doings of others and to seâ—â—ch and censure them to lay heavy burdens upon the City or Countrey and not to touch them with one of our Fingers not but we may and must confess the sins of the whole Nation when Gods hand is upon a whole Nation and calls it to repentance but if we remember not our own sins with a weeping heavy heart also and do not loath our selves for all our own abominations Ezek. 36.31 and feellingly confess with shame and detestation the sins that lie nearest our hearts and take it for a mercy to have the scourge of a just and smarting rod as well as the charge of a holy convincing word that we have not only threatning which we have made a shift to slight so often but some execution to make sin odious to us and to recover us to a due sense and apprehension of it If we have brought our selves to such a death in sin that we cannot understand what it is until we feel it it 's a mercy to feel that we may understand But let
us remember that if feeling do not recover our understanding God will forsake us as a desperate cure and say why should they be stricken any more they will revolt more and more Esay 1.5 When once it comes to that farewel Rod it will come to that farewel God for ever and then forgetfulness will be our punishment as now it is our sin To conclude therefore with some little touch of Application though it be out of its due place since the day of the Lord is come upon us and he is visiting for our Transgressions and we have so loud a call to Repentance Let us not think though we have mercifully escaped the Judgment that we may escape the Duty also It deserves a double acknowledgment if God do awaken us by the doleful noise of others complaints and if he do cleanse our Hearts by the Judgments that sweeps so many away but let us see that it be a true and substantial sorrow that begins at the right place even at the very heart and will not evaporate and spend its self in a few tears and sighs but doth mortifie our sin and work a sincere renovation in our life And if we do take upon us also to lament the sins of the City and Nation let us prove our sorrow to be of the right stamp by helping forward their Repentance and Reformation first by our Prayers then by other our best endeavours 'T is a poor matter to forbear a meal or twain and yet to harbour such a Guest as pulls the meat from our Mouths and calls for the Pillow under our Heads and snatches away the desire of our Eyes and divorces our Friends and Companions from us yea which is the sum and abridgement of all our misery parts between God and us 'T is a poor business to spread Sack-cloth over us I mean to deny our Bodies their usual Ornaments and to strew Ashes under our Feet and to let a few tears drop from us for sin and yet to carry in our Breasts an Heart unrent unbroken unsoftened by a true sence of sin and a work of Grace To what purpose is it to bow the Body to God and yet to make ones Heart like an Iron Sinew too stiff and stout to bend in obedience to Gods Command The Prophet Hosea lays it upon them as a heavy charge Hos 7.14 They have not cryed unto me with their Hearts when they howled upon their Beds And you know with what indignation God puts the question Esay lviii 5. Is this the Fast that I have chosen a day for a man to afflict his Soul Is it to bow down his Head as a Bull-rush and to spread Sack-cloth and Ashes under him Wilt thou call this a Fast and an acceptable day to the Lord But oh what a Fast is that when we will not go thus far when we will not afflict our selves so far as to want our Food and Ornaments I am confident it is a great provocation when we will not shew forth to one another these and the like outward signs of humiliation Ahab went thus sar and the stubborn Jews never stuck at this And though the same signs of mourning and humiliation be not in fashion with us that were with them yet I am sure gaudery is no sign external of inward humiliation If I had time or were indeed upon the Application it would be seasonable to help forward the true Repentance that God expecteth from us By setting some of our sins before our face in some of their aggravations but that I may have opportunity to do hereafter So much in answer to the Second Question who they are that forget God I come now to the Application 1. First Then we may hence discover by what hath been spoken in answer to the Two foregoing Questions What a sin it is to forget God and by Connexion how Guilty they make themselves that wipe God out of their Remembrance and reserve their hearts for other things If to forget God be not barely to cast him out of thy memory which yet were sinful enough since all thy faculties are indebted to him but to throw him out of thy Heart and Affections as the case is plain enough that it is If to forget God imply a disregard of his most glorious Attributes Word and Works to which such a high Veneration and Reverence is due from every understanding Creature Then what a Sin art thou Guilty of That dost not remember him Wilt thou Annihilate as much as in thee lies the Sun that shineth the Air that thou suckest in the Heavens that hang over thy head and the Earth under thy feet and all the Glory both of Heaven and Earth wilt thou make nothing of the light of thy Eyes and the breath of thy Nostrils If thou forget God thou dost upon the matter annihilate all these as to the end and intent of them as to their moral use though not as to their Physical nature Darest thou be guilty of the contempt of that mighty power that made thee and all the World out of Nothing of the highest Soveraignty and Jurisdiction to which every rational Creature owes subjection there 's one only Law giver that 's able to save or to destroy and darest thou contemn him James 4.12 Art thou mad to despise the Royal Law James 2.8 the Law of Heaven and the highest Wisdom that hath composed it and the highest Authority that hath imposed it Art thou so void of Reason as to contemn thine own happiness and to despise thine own welfare And to slight that Eye that always seeth thee In a word Art thou so bold to affront infinite and inflexible Justice Purity and Holiness If God be forgotten by thee yea if he have not the chiefest Room in thy Remembrance thou wilt be judged one day to be guilty of such contempt What a sin must it needs be to despise the written Word of God indited by such a Spirit confirmed by such Miracles and mighty Works given us in so much love and mercy that contains such important matters of the biggest concernment whose accomplishment is so near and certain and to slight what the God of Heaven hath there either threatned or promised And if God be forgotten by thee thou wilt fall under this damnable guilt Art thou so stupid as to overlook and despise the Works of God whether of Creation Providence or Redemption and to forget God whilst thou hast such helps for thy memory Darest thou cross the Acts of Gods Providence and say thou wouldst have it thus when God would have it otherwise This thou wilt do if thou hast a Temptation if God be forgotten In a word this will betray thee to that Formality and Hypocrisie in his Service and to such a carnal Worship of him that hath so little likeness to him or acceptance from him which he doth so much detest And which he doth so bitterly upbraid the confident impudent Jews which in this whole 50 Psalm I
Gods Word c. so the whole do provoke to a Remembrance of God If the Heathens that want this written Word of God are notwithstanding bound to keep up a Memory of their Maker worthy of his Majesty what an obligation then is the written Word of God to us that have 〈◊〉 to get the knowledge of God and to feed our thoughts with a delightful remembrance of him And as the Word of God so all the Ordinances of God are strong inforcements to this duty How fit a means is Prayer and Meditation and singing of Psalms and participation of the Supper of the Lord and the Conference of Holy Persons together to cure the Atheism of our hearts and to keep us from being unmindful of him if we mind and attend what we do As oft as we receive the Sacrament we are bid to do it in remembrance of him 1 Cor. 11.24 25. And what shall we forget him whilst we have such execellent means to get a sight of his Glory and to draw near to him and acquaint our Souls with him What a sin must it needs be to forget God whilst we are calling to him by Prayer or when he is calling to us and proclaiming his Soveraignty over us his right in us his readiness to receive us Judge what impudence it is to confer and talk of him to eat and drink in his prefence to celebrate his Sabbaths which were appointed as special helps to this Remembrance and yet to forget him To pray and hear and receive the symbols of his Grace and yet to have a heart void of true Remembrance is such an aggravation of this sin as will strike home sooner or later Thus you see the aggravations of the sin of Forgetfulness that arise from the Obligations we have on God's part to remember him And as they that forget God sin against high Obligations on God's part so Secondly They sin against great Obligations 2. On their own part Against 1. Promise and Covenant 2. Oath 3. Profession And therefore they that forget God in despight of all these Obligations are 1. First False and perfidious in a high degree to break Word and Promise with Man and to be false to one like our self is enough to imprint a mark of infamy and disgrace that will stick by as long as life lasteth and to blast such a mans reputation to all that know him And how hard a matter is it to wipe off such a reproach especially if it were a deliberate act in a matter of concernment And who will repose any trust in such a man that hath deceived the just expectation of another in any momentous affair by the breach of his Faith that hath any acquaintance with him When a Man hath so behaved himself that none can lay any hold on what he saith and no trust and confidence can be placed in him he is unfit for Humane Society But to be false and perfidious with God is far more ignominious and exposeth to worser shame and fouler consequences for Man hath incomparably greater obligations to truth and sincerity toward God than towards Men. His hatred of such injustice and unfaithfulness is greater than the most upright Man upon Earth can have and he can far better discover and will more exemplary punish it than any Man hath power or authority to do and none hath or can have that juâ—isdiction over us that God hath If falseness lying and perfidiousness be so hateful to some even because they have the Image of God but imperfectly renewed on themselves we may be sure that God abhors it By thy Precepts I get understanding saith David and therefore I hate every false way Psal 119.104 c. Psal 101.7 c. He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my House he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight But the breach of Promise and Covenant is a high degree of Falshood and Perfidiousness A Promise when 't is made to God is called by a special name a Vow Now what it is to break a Vow Solomon will inform us Eccl. 5.4 5. When thou vowest a Vow to God defer not to pay it for he hath no pleasure in fools pay that which thou hast vowed Better it is thou shouldst not vow than that thou shouldst vow and not pay The reason is because he that hath made a Vow or Promise to God if it be in a case where he was free before his Promise is now under a Bond and if he doth not perform he is insnared by the words of his own mouth and therefore is a fool but if it be in a case where he was bound before he is now bound faster and hath a streighter Obligation and in case of Non-performance he is guilty of greater sin and folly And the more frequently any Vow or Promise hath been made the more guilty and perfidious is he that hath failed in the performance and the Justice to which he hath made himself liable is the more exacting And the breach of a solemn Covenant or Contract is sinful in a higher degree than the bare breach of Promise because in a Covenant there is a further motive to Truth and faithful performance than in a meer Promise for the advantage and emolument that he expects from the party with whom he hath contracted So that he is perfidious and injust in a higher measure What a sin must it needs be to thrust God out of thy Heart and forget him to whom thou hast so often promised and vowed Remembrance for besides thy Baptismal Vow and Promise every time thou presentest thy self before him in Publick Private or Secret thou renewest thy Covenant and Promise to have him for thy All in All and canst thou indeed make him thy All in All and not remember him Canst thou pray by thy self or joyn with others and not lay any further Obligations upon thy self Doth that man confess his sin indeed or mock God that doth not desire the help of God's Grace and promise in the strength thereof to forsake and renounce it And can a man promise to let go his sin and yet not ingage himself to the Remembrance of God which must be the chief means to seperate and remove it Can any man pray for mercy and yet not oblige himself by that Prayer to Remember his Benefactor Can any man be said to thank God for any benefit he hath received and not promise to order his Conversation aright that is to his Glory that hath done so much for him These are the three general parts of Prayer and every one of them implies a new Promise and Obligation to this Remembrance But besides these vertual and implicite Engagements how oft hast thou expresly promised to be his faithful Servant to live to thy Redeemer to be his Disciple to take his Yoke on thee How oft hast thou consented and said Amen when from the Word of God thou hast been told thus much when the Preacher hath convinced thee
bring God to thy Remembrance and such a light both in Nature and in Scripture to discover it and such Assistance to fetch it in by Meditation into thine Understanding and Affections and such opportunities to learn what is thus suggested and when there is such sweetness in the very act of Learning and the benefits that directly flow from thence are so incomparable the final reward so unspeakable refuse not to apply thy Heart to the highest Wisdom All other thoughts that are not subordinate to this Remembrance have a greater or lesser tendency to discontent and vexation but these are the only comforting and reviving Meditations If thou dost not forget thy self thou wilt remember him If thou dost not forget thy later end thou wilt remember him If thou wilt but remember the days of Anguish and Trouble that are coming on thee thou wilt remember him Thou wilt then say be not far from me when trouble is near and there is none to help O let him not be far from thee now keep him in the midst of thy Heart renew thy thoughts of him as thou sittest in thy House as thou walkest by the way as thou liest down and as thou risest up Deut. 6.8 Imagine thou seest him in his Word Suppose that thou beholdest him in his Works think thou hast a taste of him whilst thou art feeding thy self and refreshing thy Body with its daily Food and Sustenance For thou livest not by Bread alone nor by such dead things as these but by the Word and Blessing of God that only can give thee life Deut. 8.3 Matth. 4.3 Oh how much doth man undervalue himself whilst he remembers not whose Coin he is and whose Stamp he bears He turns the fairest Gold into a Counter and uncoins himself and can never understand his own worth if he leave God out of his thoughts If thou wouldst think of thy own reasonable nature and put that question to thy self which was maliciously put to our Saviour by the Phariseâ—s and some of Herod's Disciples Mark 12.16 Whose is this Image and Superscription And this would bring God to thy Remembrance that hath fearfully made thee Psal 139.14 Thou art Brass indeed if thou canst impute such a stamp as this to any other cause and give away this Divine Royalty as thou dost if thou forget the Mint out of which thou camest and where thou wast stamped if thou remembrest any thing or hast any kindness or respect for thy own Soul acquaint thy self with God remember him and be at peace Job 22 21. To provoke to this Duty besides what hath been already hinted I shall only suggest thus much further by way of Interrogation First Doth God remember thee every hour and canst thou make shift for all that not to remember him If thou didst not need the Heavens that hang over thy Head nor the Earth that hangeth under thy Feet nor any of those Creatures that stand round about thee If thou wouldst spare the light and influence of the Sun and want the Air that 's turned in and out at thy Nostrils and keep in the little spark of Life without the Meat and Drink that feedeth it every Day and the hot Embers that cover it every Night I mean the warm Bed and Sleep wherewith it is cherished and refreshed or if thou couldst bid all Creatures to go and come at thy pleasure then it were a more excusable sin not to remember God but when it is so great a certainty that these are all the means and instruments that he hath made and doth use to conveigh his Blessings to us and that we cannot live a moment without one or other of them thou art an Atheist in Judgment or Practice if thou forget him Thou mayst as well stand without a Foundation or see without Eyes or hear without the hearing Faculty as live without one or other of his Mercies every moment If thou hadst nothing else to endear the thoughts of God to thee and to make the Remembrance sweet even the mercies of a meer private nature have a mighty force to one that doth but consider them If we do but acknowledge what we have deserved it 's no contemptible mercy nor to be slighted to be freed from those evils which are so many ways incident to us and which we have so well deserved not to be stricken with Blindness or Deafness not to be smitten with Distraction or Madness not forsaken of Health and Friends all outward Comforts not driven to pinching necessities of Hunger Thirst Cold and Nakedness as many are These privative mercies should amplifie the goodness of our Redeemer to us and make the thoughts of God more welcome Not to want any Member of thy Body nor Faculty of thy Soul nor a very good portion of Food Health and Friends especially if they be Friends indeed nor other Provision for a comfortable Life and yet to want an Eye to look to the Fountain nor to remember the Giver that deals with us so contrary to our deservings is a fearful case and condition The Church in her Captivity when she was in the hands of cruel Tyrants and Oppressors yet even in that condition could find out a Not that did not a little affect his Heart with thankfulness It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed Lam. 3.22 As if she had said we are in distress but we might have been in Hell we are cast down but we might have been utterly cast off A Soul truly convinced of his sin and humbled knows the value of such mercies as these Not tormented with those acute Diseases that gives us no rest day nor night not afflicted with the Stone or Gout or Iliack Passion not seized on with a hand of Judgment from Heaven not visited with the Plague or any other dreadful Sickness What an Indictment made up of such Mercies might be drawn up against one that blots God out of his Remembrance And if mercies of this kind are such an obligation to this duty what are the positive mercies of a whole life yea of a year month or but a day It 's hard to reckon up the kinds and sorts unless we should insist upon meer generals that comprehend numbers under them Such as are Temporal Spiritual Personal or Relative it 's not very easie to reckon them up The comforts of Life Health to those that have it Estate Name mercies of Food and Rayment Friends House Recreation Protection but the particulars under these who can recite Our relative mercies how various Never a one relation but would puzzle our thoughts to muster up the mercies thereof and give in the particulars the good we do them the good we receive of them every sight of them every enjoyment of their company discourse love to us our love to them In a word All our comforts are theirs and theirs reciprocally ours and so each have the mercies twice over See now whether we have brought the matter and in what a
wood we have lost our selves in Thus it is if we count but for a day but if we go further and reckon for the month or year we shall find no end Who can count the Dust of Jacob Num. 23.10 or sum up the mercies he doth receive which are like the Dust of the Earth not for smalness but for multitude David observes them to come by whole loads Psal 68.19 Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with his Benefits But our Spiritual Miseries are yet more because they contain all our Temporals so far as they refer to a Spiritual end and how many more who can tell How many mercies concur in our Redemption Vocation Justification Sanctification How many considerations may be fetch'd from the Author from the meritorious cause from the persons that do receive from the instruments that do convey them from the frequency and reiteration of the particulars and from other circumstances of time and place which would swell our Accounts beyond all possibility of Numeration This is the first motive the infinite mercies we receive should prompt us to this Rememembrance Secondly Wouldst thou have God remember thee with compassion in thy greatest necessities then remember him with affection now It may be there are fearful days coming upon some of us before our final departure and solemn appearance before the Judge of all the World What though the Cloud that hangs over this Nation be but the bigness of a mans hand it may quickly grow bigger and blacker till it cover the face of the whole Heaven and bring down a storm of heavier misery upon those that have escaped Judgment hitherto There is nothing can fense a man from all possible Fears and Terrors if God forget us Wouldst thou not be afraid of evil tidings nor faint when the iniquities of thy heels compass thee about Wouldst thou not be confounded in the day of adversity when the Heaven frowns the Sea roars Esay 24.20 And the Earth shall reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man when the world shall be overturned and the transgression thereof shall be heavy on it and the hearts of wicked men shall fail them for fear Then keep alive such remembrance of him as hath been hitherto commended Then come what will nothing shall drive thee to desperation for the Lord God shall be thy confidence and with-hold thine heart from sinking Prov. 3.26 as well as thy foot from being taken This a great Cardinal in this Nation understood when it was too late and therefore when a Messenger from Henry 8. brought him the tidings of his doom and was sent to bring him away to Execution he pitifully complained That if he had served God as faithfully as he had endeavoured to serve his Master he had never met with such a reward As it is the top stone and the perfection of misery to be blotted out of Gods Remembrance so it is a happiness worth a World to be Remembred by him This supported David many a time when he was in miserable distress and brought to the greatest streights when Friends forsook him Enemies threatned him Saul hunted him like a Patridge about the Mountains and he was forced to flee from before his Face and to take Shelter amongst the Philistines whose Champion he had slain and from whom he had little reason to expect any succour and whilst he liv'd in banishment at Ziglag even that was suddenly surprized by the Amalekites and burnt with Fire and his Wives and Friends were taken away Captives and the People that were his only Guard being provoked spake of stoning him But though all this had been enough to have broken the heart of another man not acquainted with David's refuge yet see how David bore up and supported himself 1 Sam. 30.6 And David was greatly distressed for the People spake of stoning him because the Soul of all the People was grieved every Man for his Sons and for his Daughters But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God This helped Hezekiah to digest the proud message of the King of Assyria and to spread the railing Letter before him who he knew could put a Hook into Sennacherib's Nose and turn him back or else defend him against that Army that were grown so insolent by their Victories 2 Chron. 32. And God remembred him verse 21 22. Yea when Esaiah was sent to him to bid him put his House in order and prepare for death it was Armour of Proof to him against the terror of death that he could say Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight which he could ne'r have done if God had not been highest in his Remembrance Esay 38.3 If thou beest one that canst drive out the thoughts of God in thy youthful healthful and more comfortable days expect not that he should remember thee in distress If whilst thou art surrounded with his mercies thou wilt forget that he is gracious to thee when thou art be set with misery and affliction he will forget to be gracious to thee Be wise now therefore and take in these thoughts as thou takest in the Air every day and other comforts which he sendeth thee and lay them up as thy greatest treasure These will sweeten the sowrest Cup and gild over the bitterest Pill and God will certainly remember thee if not to take away the evil yet take out the sting Ahasuerus may forget Mordecai and the Butler may be unmindful of Joseph and the preserved City may not remember the poor man that saved it but God will not forget those that remember him He will be thy refuge and strength and a very present help in the time of trouble Psal 46.1 And then thou needst not fear though the Earth be removed and the Mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea though the Waters thereof roar and be troubled though the Mountains shake with the swelling thereof ver 2 3. Then though thy Flesh begins to fail thee yet thy heart will not or if thy Flesh should fail thee and thy Heart also yet God would remember thee and be the strength of thy hope and thy portion for ever Thou mayst easily foresee the day when Sickness will break thy Body and earthly Delights will forsake thee and Death will be inexorable and take no nay then if thou hast cherished this Remembrance of God thou wilt dare to lay down thy Body in the Dust and as certainly foresee the joyful re-union of thy Soul and Body as now thou dost their uncomfortable dissolution Wouldst thou not then be forgotten of God when thy Friends and all the World will forget thee Then Remember him now Yea wouldst thou be content to go into the place of Forgetfulness and to be forgotten as a dead man out of sight Why all this will not discourage thee if thou hast this remedy at hand But on the
contrary How unprepared is the Man that forgets God for his eternal state How loath to leave the Twig and fall into the Ocean With what regret and reluctancy with what an aking trembling Heart doth he look upon Death who can blame such a Man if he hang back and dare not launch forth into Eternity And therefore it 's said in the Proverbs The wicked is driven hence How unwilling doth he bid farewel to his dear injoyments How loath to part with the Wife out of his Bosom the Children out of his Arms He cannot bear such a loss Nothing is more dreadful to such an impudent man than to look down from the mast of this Life into the ocean of Eternity O what cold and clammy Sweats what saâ— and dismal Representations doth the thought of Death creat in him As ever thou wouldst hold up thy Head in Sickness or any other Affliction and die with comfort and keep thy Heart whole come what will then keep alive this Remembrance of God This is the second Motive Thirdly Remember God for nothing else is worthy thy Remembrance 1. Such a one as I am now speaking of there 's nothing here below that 's worth an act of our Understanding or Will that 's worth a Thought or an Embrace but as they lead to a more perfect Knowledge and Union and are a means suited to our necessity that cannot have any Knowledge worthy of God without his Works nor see him without this Glass whereby he hath represented himself to our weak capacity All Knowledge begins first in sense and we should never come to understand the things that are not seen but by those which are seen God therefore hath made the World as a School for us where we must be trained up and made fit for the higher instructions of his Word and the several Creatures are the Alphabet whereby we are to spell out the Nature and Perfections of God What a shame is it then to let sense go before and no Vnderstanding follow after To pore upon the Letters and not to mind the sense and meaning of them To exercise an act upon the visible Creatures without a following Act by way of inference and deduction to the invisible God What folly to dote upon the Letters and not to regard the meaning of them and to lose our understanding in a maze of insignificant things that stand for nothing if they teach not the knowledge of him that animates all things and is the end and signification of them What is there in Man or any other Creature that thou shouldst make an Idol of it and that thou shouldst set it up in thine Heart and prostrate thine Affections to it Is there any thing that deserves the reputation of a being every way full and perfect in which thou mayest acquiesce but God Yet if he have not the Remembrance I am pressing to something else will strike in and supply his absence and usurp thine Affections And be it what it will besides it is but a Reed or an Arm of Flesh that 's got so high in thine esteem and then thus saith the Lord Cursed be the Man that trusteth in Man and maketh Flesh his Arm and whose Heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the Heath in the Desart and shall not see when good cometh Jer. 17.5 6. All-sufficiency Immutability and indefectible Fidelity are proper to God alone It 's no wonder for the Sun to set and be eclipsed as glorious a body as it is It 's no marvel if all Creatures prove Liars Psal 116.11 and shew themselves untrusty and deceitful As it is their nature to deceive so it is our sin and folly to lean hard on them and be deceived by them Thou mayst as wisely expect that the Wind should always blow from the same quarter and sit in the same corner as that any created Being should afford thee constant help and never shame thee But the portion of Jacob is not like these changeable things Our Fathers trusted in thee saith the Prophet David and were delivered They hoped in thee and were not confounded Psal 22.4 5. Let him that is void of understanding run to something else and remember it with greatest pleasure and repose his trust in a lie and adore a silly Man that can but promote him to Riches and Honour Mark what will be the issue may be when thou art just expecting the fruit of sinful trust his Breath goeth forth here turneth to his Earth in that very day his thoughts perish May I not well say therefore Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help that remembreth the Lord his God He that is fond of any thing here below and setteth his Heart upon it and sufâ—ereth his Affections to brood over it is like the Patridge that setteth upon Eggs and hatcheth them not and in the end he shall certainly prove himself a fool Jer. 17.11 His warm thoughts that sit upon vanity all the day long shall never hatch and produce the thing he expected nor any thing that will look like happiness when his Judgment shall come to more maturity Why then is God so seldom in thy thoughts why art thou no more delighted in the Remembrance of him Why doth he dwell no more in thy Meditations Art thou willing to be deceived and labour in vain and to lie down in frustration and disappointments If thou couldst name any thing under Heaven that were not chargeable with a thousand Imperfections and were not liable to the Moth and Rust If thou couldst assure thy self that thy Friend will never prove perfidious that thy Lovers will always bear thee the same Affection which thou imaginest now they do If Youth and Health and Life would last ten times longer than they are like to do yet when the competition lies between God and them it 's folly and madness to prefer anything in thy Remembrance before him I might here single out the things that are most attractive of Mens Affections and have indeed the highest esteem and love in a Carnal Heart and then produce the several disparagements they are liable to when they are compared with an immutable Independant and All-sufficient Being But then I should too much digress And so much by way of Question to shame us and to stir us up to so excellent and necessary Duty But you will say What is the best course to get and cherish such a worthy Remembrance of God and to feed it up to a greater degree of Strength and Perfection To which I answer That there are means 1. Proper To beget this Remembrance where it never was 2. To recover it where it is sensibly lost 3. To quicken it to a greater Energy and Life where it is but weak and faint 2. Common to them all and have an influence upon every one of these I shall rather chuse to insist upon the more general and common Helps and Directions and wave the more distinct handling of
you will but consent and take him for your Lord and Saviour you can never know that the love of Christ is so wonderful and obliging and if you leave Christ out of your Remembrance you can have no thoughts of God that will yield you solid comfort Secondly If you would Remember God aright endeavour to bring on others to this Remembrance and to set the motives before them that may well move the most backward Heart and recover the most forgetful to this duty whilst you are putting others in mind you will revive and strengthen the like disposition in your self and perform an acceptable service to God whereby you will increase his love to you and consequently the Remembrance of him will be more sweet to you Restore to me saith David the joy of thy Salvation and uphold me by thy free Spirit then will I teach Transgressors thy ways and Sinners shall be converted to thee Psal 51.12 13. The more any Grace is exercised the more it will gather fervour and intention To perswade others to this Remembrance is to reduce thine own Remembrance of him into practice whilst thou art teaching others thou canst not but learn thy self Whilst thou art bending others to Remember the Fountain of all Perfection and Goodness thou wilt feel thine own Heart and Affections more byassed toward him Who can infuse Life and Spirit into another and not grow vigorous himself David knew that he could not but thrive himself if others were gainers by him and therefore he invites others Psal 3â— 11 Come my Children hearken unto me and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. There are certain opportunities and seasons if they be wisely observed when either Affection or Affliction hath made way in which two or three words fetched from the Heart may work upon the Heart of one that hath shamefully forgot God all his days and recover him to this Remembrance And if God shew thee so much mercy and make thee such an instrument the thoughts and memory of God that hath shewed thee so much favour will be dearer to thee 3. If thou wouldst remember God with pleasure remember those that are in misery whither of Soul or Body with compassion For this will make you like to God who comforteth the sorrowful and bindeth up the broken in Heart and raiseth up those that are bowed down Psal 146.8 And the more there is of likeness the more there will be of Love and Remembrance A hard and unmerciful Heart is so unlike to God that it will strive to forget him lest the tender Boweis of God should upbraid his cruel and unrelenting Heart It 's a disposition highly pleasing to God and a blessed imitation of him to comport with those that lie under any distress or misery especially those that are ready to faint and sink under their burdens and it 's Justice as well as Mercy so to do Is it not just that thou shouldst cast an Eye of compassion and pity upon those on whom the Hand of God is fallen heavy either in Soul or Body especially when thou art as obnoxious as they and God hath spared you on purpose and set their miseries before you to move your Bowels Shouldst thou not have compassion on thy fellow Servant as God hath shewed pity unto thee Mat. 18.33 And kindness with tender heartedness is one part of the new Nature which Christ came to restore and therefore the Apostle doth endeavour to stir up the Ephesians Eph. 4.32 and also the Collosians Col. 3.12 Put on therefore as the Elect of God Holy and Beloved Bowels of Mercy and Kindness And as the miserable state and condition of Mens Souls doth most eminently bespeak this Affection so it 's Cruelty to overlook their other Miseries and not to take them into our consideration 1. To get our Hearts affected that we may truly pity them 2. And earnestly pray for them And 3. Contribute what other help we are able to make them as happy as our selves There is a selfishness too natural to every one of us that will not let us hear on this Ear and therefore we are so carless in this publick Calamity what others suffer so we are free How senseless are we under such a hand as is fallen upon many parts of this Nation And therefore we are so unthankful for our Health and Preservation when God hath required the Lives of so many of our Brethren from them What a fearful woful Scourge do the City feel and heavily groan under How do the Inhabitants of that one proud and glorious City reply to one another in Sighs and Groans and bitter Out cries and Lamentations where whole Families are smitten and blasted and Children and Parents pledge one another in Tears and drink the Wine of Astonishment where dearest Friends are made the Executors of the Calamities of their departed Friends and it 's taken and accounted for a mercy to die first lest the miserable Calamities of Wife and Children and their successive departure should be more than one single Death Their Eyes affect their Heart Lam. 3.51 But we as we see not their Miseries so neither do we feel them as we ought as thorough the goodness of God we are more safe than they so we are more secure and too void of any Christian sense of this common Calamity Alas alas they have the dreadful sound and noise of this Judgment in their Ears and see Death continually before their Eyes but we hear but at a distance and therefore are not stricken with the terror thereof The report of this Murdering-piece that God hath shot off in many places of this Nation is faint and dead before it comes to our sense But the less we see this Misery and hear these Cries the more we should supply this merciful defect by consideration If we saw or heard it may be we should not need many thoughts to fetch tears from our Eyes and Sighs from our Hearts Desolenciâ—â— and want of this compassion shews a fat and brawny Heart Though we are not to indulge this Affection so far as to make it guilty of siding against God as it will be apt to do if it proceed no farther and do not serve a higher end The end of this Affection is to make way for Compassion toward their Souls and to bewail and beg pardon for their Sins that have brought this misery on them 1. Objection I have done with the First Observable which the Texts suggesteth to us viz. That forgetfulness of God is a fearful and dangerous sin and exposeth such as are guilty of it to the unavoidable Wrath of God 2. Objection I come now to the Second Observation viz. That Consideration is one of the principal instruments on our part to bring us to the Remembrance of God at first and to prevent forgetfulness afterward or to recover us out of that degree of Forgetfulness into which we may possibly fall Two Suppositions 1. Here it is supposed 1. That we â—re
all born into the World in a state of Forgetfulness and that Naturally God is not minded by us he is not in all our thoughts 1. By a usually Hebraism in never a one of them so worthily regarded as he ought Psal 10.4 Oblivion goes before Remembrance in every Child of Adam I know Forgetfulness doth suppose that we either had or should have had the habit of which this is the privavation We cannot be said in any propriety of Speech to forget that which we never did or never ought to have Remembred As a thing can never be said to be blind which never saw nor ought to have seen But it is our miserable and unhappy case and condition that we were made to Remember God and to give him the highest of our Praises and had a Nature fit for so high and noble Service and yet are born into the World in a gross ignorance of God with a Nature that continually disposeth us to forget him and to entertain the most contemptible Vanities into our Thoughts and Affections before him This is the Disease that Christ came to Cure with the greatest pity and compassion to Mankind which it is the intenâ— of his Word and Cross and Spirit and all his Ordinances to remove and which is cured in a sincere and prevailing measure in all that shall see his Face to their comfort hereafter And although Infants are not actually guilty of this sin as neither they are of any other sin because they are not come to the use of their Reason and therefore cannot perform any act properly vertuous or sinful yet they have an oblivious Disposition a Seed in them that will bring forth this cursed Fruit when they are capable But for those that have pass'd an Infants state and are grown up to the use of Reason there 's nothing that they remember and think on less than God Secondly It 's here supposed that after any are recovered by Christ and awakened by his Word and Spirit to a due Remembrance of God they may fall back into such a degree of Forgetfulness again as that they may question whether ever they had a heart truly mindful of him though I believe they shall never totally and finally fall into Forgetfulness nor be forgotten of Christ if they be in the number of the Elect. And therefore though Christ commends the Church of Ephesus for her Faith and Patience yet he is said to have somewhat against her because she had left her Love Rev. 2.4 And she is warned to remember whence she is fallen and to repent and do her first works ver 5. These two particulars are evidently supposed in this last Proposition which I am now to prosecute and that Consideration of God his Word and Works is a necessary Remedy on our part to cure our hereditary Forgetfulness and bring us to the Remembrance I have been pleading for and to recover us after any Relapse And that for these Reasons First Because a Man can never come to the Remembrance of God till his Heart be sincerely affected with those truths that such a Remembrance doth pre-suppose but this can never be done without consideration There 's nothing that 's absent or Spiritual that can affect the Heart and get that Fort unless it be led in by Consideration that 's the Eye of the Soul and 't is the Eye only that can affect the Heart There 's nothing that can affect the Body or move the Bodily Passions that is not first apprehended by some Bodily Sense that is not seen or heard or perceived by some other sense Now Consideration supplies that to the Soul which the five Senses do to the Body it 's the Eye Ear and Taster of the Soul whereby it discerns what is good or evil to it and accordingly the Soul doth either embrace or abhor yea it mâ—st discover not only good and evil but the degree in which any thing is good or evil before the Soul can be suitably affected therewith which can never be done with any consideration If this Eye be shut set the greatest Danger before a Man and he will not fear set the greatest Delights before him and he will not be moved to desire them What 's the reason that a wicked Man goes on in sin and will not forsake it when you display Hell before his Eyes but because he considers it not It appears to him not to be so terrible because this Eye is shut If you run a Sword at a Man whose Eyes are shut and sees it not he will not endeavour to avoid the thrust but he that hath his Eyes open and sees what 's coming towards him will quickly start back and decline that instrument of Death A careless Man that never considered well what a fearful thing it is to fall into the Hands of God Heb. 10.31 noâ— how intolerable his Displeasure is when it shall break forth in good earnest and burn like a consuming fire will venture on it for a little deluding pleasure A Man that considers not the worth of his Soul will neglect it and not think it worth so many Prayers and Tears and such diligence as must be used to procure the Salvation thereof for till his Heart be touched with a lively feeling and sense of these truths he will not neglect them and live after the Flesh and if he doth not weigh and consider them his Heart will never be made to feel them What 's the reason that Men hug and embrace a little dirt and filth and suffer their Affections to cleave so fast to their Carnal Contentments It can be resolved into nothing better than that they do not consider what Sin and Folly they are guilty of and what an impediment they are being embraced to the true content and happiness of their Souls otherwise they would not nor could not be so mad as embrace the present World and to prefer it before the World to come Well then is it Consideration that must bring a Man to a worthy Remembrance of God because it opens the Eye and affects the Heart and puts an edge upon every Truth that doth bias and dispose the Soul to this Remembrance that it 's felt and entertained with some sincere measure of submission The Soul is such a Subject that cannot be wrought upon without its own consent and that 's not easily gained to any thing that 's of a reforming saving tendency unless frequent and serious Consideration make way The Soul will never consent to any purpose that the Flesh should be afflicted and humbled that it's Affections and Lusts should be mortified and subdued till Consideration shew the necessity thereof and the Death that will follow if this Death do not go before There are some truths that are preparative to this Remembrance which though they are easie to be known yet they will never be drunk in or digested till Consideration shew their excellency and plead their great necessity and importance to us and give
God whom we serve and his Service that can make the Heart to draw near and busily attend with Affections answerable to the Service it 's employed in And what acceptance such inconsiderate Service is like to find by him that will consider and weigh all our Services and judge Righteously you may see Esay 29.13 For as much as this People he means the Jewish Hypocrites draw near me with their Mouth and with their Lips do honour me but have removed their Heart far from me Therefore he threatens to bring heavy Judgments on them Their Hearts must needs be far from God that considers it not for that 's the first and leading Act of the Soul that brings it on and makes way for the following Acts of Judgment Complacency and Affection without which there can be no reasonable Service and how well God will receive any other Service from a reasonable Creature it 's a thing of easie understanding What an high presumption and affront is it to stand before God with the face and confidence of his People and to bow our selves with an external Reverence before him when the Soul is idle or otherwise employed and there 's nothing of Reverence or Worship in the Heart What a provocation to deal with God as your Cheats and Impostors deal with us that make a shew to our Eye of things that are nothing so and have no reality but cheat and delude our Sense To use Legerdedemain and slight in the Service of God and to conveigh a Prayer in the presence of God as if it came warm from the Heart when it was never born any deeper than the Mouth Be not deceived God will not be mocked Gal. 6.7 Think not to serve the All-seeing God as the Gibeonites served Israel nor to come and make a Covenant with God by Prayer as if your Services came from a far Countrey even from the depths and bottom of your Hearts when they come no farther than the Throat and are a mess of meer wind and words and these words are also nigh thee even at thy Mouth as the Apostle in another case Rom. 10.8 You may laugh at an Ape when he bows to you and kisseth his hand as if he meant you some high respect but you will not take your self to be honoured thereby much less will God take the gestures of your Body and your outward Presence and the sound of your Lips and such ridiculous Actions for a substantial and rational Service that Heart is dangerously mistaken that thinks so There 's no Harmony in Gods Ear unless Understanding Judgment and Affections together with the outward Worship and reverend Deportment of the Body all come together to make up the Quire otherwise 't will be the Sacrifice of a Fool and such as are foolish cannot stand in his sight Psal 5.5 1. Either with approbation or without shame and where there is no Consideration nor inward Intention of Mind and Heart there can be no other Sacrifice than this nothing but meer cheating Formalities Keep thy Foot therefore saith Solomon that is thy Heart when thou entrest upon the Service of God and be more ready to hear than to give the Sacrifice of Fools and why is it the Sacrifice of Fools mark the reason follows For they consider not that they do evil Eccl. 5.1 This it is that betrays them and marrs all If Consideration stay at home better thou hadst never gone to Church for God will be sure to miss that and hate such Worship where the most essential vital part is wanting and count thee a greater sinner in some respect than if thou hadst kept away the Carcass also since the Soul was wanting Who is blind but my Servant or deaf as my Messenger Who is blind as he that is perfect and blind as the Lords Servant Esay 42.19 Here God accuseth his Servants of a greater ignorance and deafness than other Men that worship him not at all What 's the reason The next verse will tell you ver 20. Seeing many things but thou observest or considerest not Seneca jears the Jews for casting a seventh part of their time upon a Weekly Sabbath and jear he might well enough if this poor shadow of meer outward Worship were all that that People could spare him Though I do not excuse the Blasphemy of that Heathen Moralist Mr. Weemes in his Christian Synagogue tells us of a Jewish distinction They it seems distinguish'd between the Internal and External Rest of the Sabbath The Internal Rest they stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. The Secret Sabbath the External Rest is when Men rest from bodily Labour but give not themselves to the Worship of God in the Spirit This they called the Sabbath of the Ox and the Ass If thine External Presence 〈◊〉 bodily Worship be all that thou canst offer up to God the Dog that follows thee to Church or thy Beast might be taught to serve God as well as thou O what contemptible and undervaluing thoughts have such Men of their Maker and the Object of their Worship o◠rather none at all Who can sit or kneel before God with an irreverend or roving Heart and quietly suffer this intolerable dishonour to be done to him that care not for the manner how 't is performed so they be but locally present and makes the common stailty to◠much their refuge because it is the common Complaint of the best that their Hearts are quickly lost in Gods Service therefore they are well enough though they take no effectual course to heal it Well it 's want of Consideration not only in the time of Service but at other times that puts them upon this absurdity in their approaches to God to give him the Eye and Mouth and any thing but the Heart The very Heathens themselves had more judicious manly thoughts of God than such Christians have Their Books are stuff'd with such sayings as imply inward Love and Reverence to be more acceptable than the fatest Sacrifice I could multiply Sentences enough to such a purpose if I thought it were worth the while Thus you see one sad effect of Inconsideration Secondly As the want of Consideration doth multilate the Service of God and cut out the very heart of it so it makes it altogether tasteless and insipid It 's impossible that God should be served in a due manner and his Servants not feel the difference between his and all other Service Mic. 2.7 Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly Who can say he hath cleansed his Heart in vain Psal 73.13 And that there is no profit in the sincere Worship of God and that in keeping his Commandments there is no reward Psal 19.11 Who can say there is no sweetness in the Hearts approaching to God That it is a dry and empty Employment though performed with the greatest solemnity and sincerity Where is the Man that can step forth and say that it's labour and loss and is not accompanied with
to the befriending of his Interest Now in both these sorts of Action as I have already hinted we have chiefly to do with God who is principally concerned and therefore both of them must be guided by the Law of God for the matters and manner of them that they may attain their end but do this if you can without Consideration The Heart is deceitful above all things and desparatly wicked who can know it Jer. 17.9 It will make you believe that your intentions are upright and that God's Honour is aimed at when there is nothing else If therefore you would not be deceived believe not your own Hearts much less the Tongues of others that would flatter you into a good opinion of your selves Judge not according to an outward sudden appearance of things but judge Righteous Judgments But this you can never do if you Consider not There are depths in the Heart of Man depths in all his Actions depths in the Word of God which is the rule of them The Devil hath a deep reach in his Temptations whereby he sets upon us and manageth his Work with the greatest Art and Cunning. The baits that he useth are not easily discerned Vice and Wickedness is specious oftentimes Truth and Honesty appears in a disguise and seem on a sudden like him that was the perfection of Beauty to have no Form nor Comeliness in them Esay 53.2 Without Consideration you can never search these Mysteries nor wade thorough these Depths The careless and inconsiderate Man will be taken and insnared he will catch at a shew instead of a Substance He will embrace an Appearance instead of Death and the way will seem right in his Eyes the end whereof is the way of Truth It 's a fearful charge which the Prophet Esay fastens upon the careless Jews Esay 59.8 There is no Judgment in their goings they discern not where is safety nor where is danger Such Persons he knew could not escape Destruction If you Consider not there can be no judgment in your goings you will be in danger every step you tread you will never find out your duty nor be able to perform it neither Faith nor Reason will bear any sway in the course of your Life for Consideration puts these into power and authority but Sense will rule you and you will live after the Flesh and so must take what follows The Apostle tells you what that is Rom. 8.13 If you live after the Flesh ye shall die and Gal. 6.8 He that soweth to his Flesh shall of the Flesh reap Corruption 1. Perdition If then you would not bring such a shameful reproach upon Humane Nature and live like a Brute in the shape of a Man nor like an Infidel under the disguise of a Christian nor reap the fruit of a Sensual Fleshly Life use Consideration I say again live under the power of Consideration The Consideration which I commend to thee is two sold viz. Of the End Means It is the work and business of every Man both good and bad 1. To design an End and 2. To pursue that End and compass his designed intent by the surest means he can possible The End of a worldling is to thrive and grow rich and therefore it is his daily Study and Practice to compass his End his Thoughts Affections and Actions are all busied in contriving and endeavouring to grow rich The End of a Christian is to grow rich also but not in worldly Riches but in the Grace of God not to add House to House and Field to Field Esay 5.8 But to add to Faith Vertue to Vertue Knowledge 2 Pet. 1.5 And to grow up to the full assurance of Understanding Col. 2.2 What makes the one so Wise Provident and Judicious and the other so Weak and Shallow and so defective in his very Reason and Choice It 's this only that makes the difference the one hath weighed and considered these things and set the one against the other and tried them in an even ballance the other takes that comes first and prefers a present Pleasure that he tastes and feels though it be for a short and uncertain time before an everlasting Felicity that he hath no sight of but he must take upon the meer credit of God's Word Doth that Man that looks no higher than how to fare deliciously every day and to get a little better Wooll upon his Back than others and to rustle in Silk and gaudy Attire and to domineer over others and to have his Commands fulfilled though they be never so absurd and unreasonable Indeed Consider that his Life will not always last that his Dream will quickly end Doth he that is got into the Saddle and makes a greater bustle and stir than his poorer Brethren and tramples under his Feet that doth oppose him and that will not bow down that he may go over them or make a stirrop of them to climbe up into a higher degree of Pride and Ambition Doth such a one consider that he must come down at last If he had considered this he would never have made such a foolish Choice as this and neglected God and his Soul for such a flying Sensual Happiness as this is Doth that Man that wanders after the World and le ts out his Heart to any present Enjoyments and feeds upon Air and the Breath of a few lying deceived Men whilst he seeks not the Approbation of God by an Humble Holy and Heavenly Life know and consider what Dung and Dross he hath prefered before an Eternal Crown of Glory Let the event prove who was the wisest and most considering Man she that hath chosen Heaven or he that hath chosen Earth he that hath renounced God or he that hath renounced the World and who is the most weak and crack'd Brain'd Person he that studies to please God or he that studies to humour the Flesh and to satisfie the Lusts thereof I do not intend by what hath been spoken to disparage any of these lower Comforts that are used with Consideration Thankfulness and Sobriety and that do not lift up Mens Hearts with Pride and Insolency and make them the more Impious Oppressive and Intollerable the more they have of them nor negligent in their study to please God and care to promote that which is right in his sight But my design is to shew the Vertue of Consideration that makes such a vast difference between Man and Man and makes the one to dig so deep and lay his Foundation so sure that his Happiness shall last for ever and the other to chuse the Happiness that shall last but two or three score years at longest it may be not the tenth part so long And as Consideration makes so vast a difference in the Ends that Men design and intend and makes one chuse Heaven and an Eternal Life with God for his Portion and Treasure and to set his Heart upon it and to make it his ultimate End And another for want
force nor power with him to restrain his Corruption because he feels it not though he might as certainly foresee it as that which he now feels And he will do more to be rid of the Tooth-ach or some present Affliction than to prevent one that 's a thousand times greater Is he guided by Reason or Sense and doth he live like a Man that hath Understanding or like a Bruit that hath none that will take more care and pains and be at more cost to be freed from present Pain and Sickness and to get out of Poverty or Hardship when it pincheth him and to throw off any present Burthen that he feels himself oppressed with than to escape the Damnation of Hell though he must otherwise most certainly feel it ere long Judge impartially whether this be not to be like the Horse and Mule and other meer sensitive Creatures that have no Understanding Let them have what they have at present and feel no present Pain and you please them well enough though you feed them for the Slaughter You cannot Shoe an Ox unless you bind and cast him down and force him though it be to keep his Feet from hurt Your Horse is not pleased when you let him Blood though it save his Life because you hurt them for the present The Man that considers not will be too like these Brutish Creatures and run into Eternal Misery to avoid a little present Affliction Moreover 3. It 's an Argument of Pride not to Consider Psal 10.4 The wicked through the pride of his Countenance will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts thy Judgments are far above out of his sight God hath set Heaven and Earth before him and set such variety of things on purpose to be Considered And the Inconsiderate Man shuts his Eyes and will not behold the Glory of the Lord nor give him the Honour due to his Name If it be foolish Pride to undervalue any Creature what Arrogancy is it to despise and overlook the most absolute and perfect Being things of the highest value and most worthy our Observation Fifthly It 's easie to Consider your Thoughts will run some way whether you will or not The Soul of Man is a busie active thing and will not be idle it will rather be impertinently employed than not at all and the bare work of thinking is no hard matter It 's rather a work of difficulty to restrain them especially from the things that we have the highest Love and Respect for If God and thy Soul were valued and loved by thee above all other things as they must be if thou art a Christian at the Heart thou couldst not but think and think again how to please the one and save the other If things that are more worth than the whole Frame of Heaven and Earth and all that 's visible to the Eyes are not worthy thy most prizing pleasing Thoughts they are worth nothing and if thou thinkest so thou art either an ignorant Sot or an Atheist It 's a cheap purchase to gain the highest Wisdom and the Love of God and to save thy Soul for ever at the expence of a few sober serious thoughts If you stick at Consideration which it must cost you if ever you be saved you judge your selves unworthy of Eternal Life It 's easie enough to you to turn your Thoughts to an Object of Gain or Pleasure and is there any greater Gain than to save your Souls What will it profit you to win the whole World and lose your Souls Mat. 16.26 It 's a rational question that the greedy Heart of Man shall never be able to answer without Self-condemnation if he run his Soul upon destruction though he should get to be the happiest man upon Earth O unhappy Soul that couldst consider and Judge no better Wast thou master of no more Brains and Wit than what could inform thee how to Feed and Trick up thy Carkass and commend it to the Eyes of a few dying men And to live in a little Credit whilst thou art above ground though thy Name stink for ever afterwards Was this the upshot of all thy Thoughts Couldst thou think to better for thy poor Soul that might be Eternally Happy if you would not fly consideration but turn your Thoughts to those things for which God gave to you your faculty to Think O remember that it 's easie and very natural to consider how you may save your Soul if you were not become unnatural and cruel to your selves And it will shame you unto the deepest silence when God shall ask you Why you did not Consider of those things when the matters were so great and the work so easie Sixthly You will consider when it is too late and wish that you had made more hast when it would have done you good It would not be such a perfect degree of madness in us not to consider how wonderfully God hath made us how deeply we stand Indebted to him for no less than all that we have or hope for and how wickedly we have departed from him and what our sin hath deserved and what our Saviour hath done save us from the woful consequents thereof it would not be so absurd to put these Thoughts out of our Minds now if we could always keep them out But in the latter end we shall consider Jer. 23.20 It would not be so great a sin to be inconsiderate now if we could be ever so But alas stupidity and insensibleness of such things as these is the disease only of this present Life and will last no longer than the day of Grace And woe to us a thousand times if it last so long But when the day of Mercy is past be stupid if thou canst and harden thy heart against such Thoughts if thou art able Consideration is now our duty and the fittest instrument to show us the evil of Sin and the worth of Grace but if it be here neglected it shall be our punishment hereafter and the most cruel instrument to torment us Believe it then we shall passionately wish that we had considered a little sooner and had let these things sink into our hearts O that we had pondered them whilst we had the day But now the fearful night is come upon us and we are Sentenced everlastingly to such dismal Thoughts If we had spent a few serious Thoughts what this misery is to which we are now condemned we had escaped these Torments If we had considered what it is to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his power 2 Thes 1.9 and to be forsaken of all comfort for ever we had not been now pouring forth these bitter cryes and complaints But alas what are they now worth who regardeth them or is moved to any the least compassion towards Yea the righteous God will laugh at your calamity Prov. 1.26 and the Saints will praise him and say
Righteous art thou O Lord in the Sentence which thou hast passed in the Judgment which thou hast executed Psal 119.137 Thou hast poured forth thy wrath and indignation on them and given them gall and bitterness to drink for they are worthy You shall then wish that your faculty to consider were gone it will follow you so close and be such a perpetual honour to you or rather that you had never had reason and understanding to consider then you might have both liv'd and died like a beast Whereas now though you have liv'd like a beast that you must die like a man that hath Memory Reason Foresight Judgment and Affections that will all conspire together to overwhelm you with eternal shame Why had I reason will the Soul say then but to prevent this misery Why had I will to choose when Life and Death were set before me and could choose no better Had it not been a wiser course to have troubled my self a little while with some few Thoughts of it then now to feel it for ever Why did God threaten Hell and destruction in his Word and set it forth with so much Terrour to mine apprehensions but that I might consider and escape it Why did he appoint the Ministerial Office but that knowing the Terrours of the Lord they might perswade men 2 Cor. 5.11 What could nothing prevail with one but what I now feel and must forever undergo Think not to say then I had not time to consider neither had I skill to follow such a work as this It 's not so much a knowing Head as an honest Heart that 's required to this work The Truths are but few and plain that thy Heart is to dwell upon and the certainty of them is beyond all doubt and question Whatever difference of Opinion there may be in other things yet here is no controversy all are agreed that man hath an Immortal Soul that there is a Life to come That the Happiness of man lies in these two things 1. In being like to God 2. In loving him and being loved by him that sin hath made us unlike to him and therefore must be repented of That Christ will purge away their guilt and sin and renew them by his Spirit that love him and consent to be ruled by him and will take him for their Physitian That there is a day in which God will summon all the World before him and Judge them Impartially according as they have believed or not believed in Christ to everlasting joy or 〈◊〉 These things are certain in the highest 〈◊〉 and there is none that doubteth 〈…〉 but either an Atheist or an 〈…〉 are the Truths that God hath 〈…〉 in great mercy and compassion 〈…〉 commanded every one 〈…〉 Poer and Rich 〈…〉 think upon when they are 〈…〉 when they are walk 〈…〉 when they lye down and 〈…〉 they rise up and to teach them diligently to their Children and to live as those that do believe and consider them Woe to the man or woman that considers not these things good it had been for him or her if they had never been born Wilt thou not think of those things It is because thou art void of understanding and hast chose the way of destruction If thou wilt not be perswaded now to consider thou wilt forget thy latter end thou wilt forget thine Immortal Soul and God will be forgotten and a little sensual pleasure will weigh more with thee than Eternal Life and Happiness And when the day of thy dishress is come upon thee thou wilt wish that thou hadst rather forgot to eat thy Bread than these things should have been forgotten and to fill up thy measure and make thee perfectly miserable God will forget thee forever Psal 50.22 Now consider this ye that forget God lest I tare you in peices and there be none to aeliver I Have set some of the Motives before you that should stir you up to Consideration and shewed you in part what a mischief it is for this faculty to lie dead which is given us by God to quicken those that are dead to the Life of Grace and Holiness and to make them strong and lively and vigorous Christians that are quickned by the spirit of Christ and have set their affections upon things above and not upon things here on Earth This is the way that God hath prescribed for Rational Creatures to get home to God that are revolted from him and to recover their affections to the right owner that are intangled in the love of Earth and vanity If they would but consider would feed upon Swinish pleasures no longer nor suffer their Souls to be charmed with more delusion nor prefer the imaginary dream of a sluggard before the happiness of a man that is awake and whose eyes are open Consideration would shew such a man the difference between Earth and Heaven rectify his judgment in this great point viz. where mans happiness lies And tell him roundly how the world hath cheated him with more shews and phantastick pleasures and put a picture into his hand instead of real felicity It would clear his Eye-sight and make him quite of another mind than once he was when Inconsideracy had blinded him and the world had befool'd him and he would see much more reason to live in the love of God looking for the mercies of his Redeemer unto eternal Life Jude the 21. than ever he did to live in carnal love and delights Consideration would bring the world and all its pleasures as much into disgrace as ever Inconsideracy brough◠them into credit And men that snatch'd at the riches and vain glory of the world before as a sweet bit to be purchased upon any terms would after they are enlightened by Consideration suspect all its soberest pleasures and those that come in upon the fairest terms What a Confession should you have from such a man of the foolishness and madness of his former Conversation when he liv'd upon Air and Trash as other Inconsiderate men still do Such a one as Paul's Tit. 3.3 For we our selves saith he describing his state before Consideration undeceived him were sometimes foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures Then you should hear him bitterly accuse and condemn the soberest course he formerly took when the World had the Supremacy in his mind and heart Strange it would be to see a man so much altered for the better and advanced to such an improvement in knowledge and vertue as by impartial sober and considerate Thoughts might be done He was it may be before a covetous busie worldling that scrap'd and dig'd his happiness out of the dirt and said it up on Earth Whose God was his belly whose glory was his shame that minded Earthly things Phil. 3.19 But now his conversation is in Heaven and there he hath laid up his Treasure And digs for Wisdom as for Silver and searcheth for it as for hid Treasure Prov. 2.4 And his delight
is among the Saints and such as excel in wisdom Psal 16.3 O what a blessing hath God bestowed upon the man or woman to whom he hath given a considering mind How quickly is such a man promoted and brought to unspeakable honour yea to find approbation with God! Such a man is quickly higher by head and shoulders as it s said of Saul than the rest of the inconsiderate doting World I have more understanding saith David than all my teachers for thy Testimonies are my meditation Psal 119.99 You that are yet captivated to the love of any thing here on Earth and like to perish in that state If you will but attentively consider what you dote upon and what you venture for it you would perceive your danger and certainly make your escape and feel the vertue of this excellent duty of Consideration And your present content would make you sick of your former delight And the Honourablest men on earth that had not feasted on this food would seem to you but vile and contemptible persons Methinks I see the man recovered by Consideration tâ—king up his parable like Balaam and saying Thus saith the man whose eyes consideration hath opened He saith who hath heard the words of God and seen the Vision of the Almighty How goodly are the Tents in which God dwelleth and the tabernacles of their hearts where God hath his habitation As the Valleys are they spread forth as Gardens by the Rivers side as the Trees of Ligh-Aloâ—s which the Lord hath planted and as Cedar Trees besides the waters Numb 24.3 4 5 6. And as Consideration would recover the dead and bring them out of the Grave of â—gnorance and Corruption and shew them the excellency of Divine wisdom and purity so that it would keep them in breath that are already translated from death to life and inspire fresh vigour and cheerfulness into all their services it would fill their hearts with a burning love to God and make their lives as a shining light before men It would strengthen their faith and fortify their hopes and put a fresh complexion upon their must withering and consumptive Graces and make their heart to abound and run over with joy and gladness By this time no doubt you see something of the worth and excellency of Consideration and what a gainful trade it is Will you therefore bend your minds to consider and spend more of your time in this work I know the corrupted heart of man is backward to this exercise though it be of such flat necessity and of such eternal advantage yea though it breed so much delight and pleasure after we have gotten some skill and made some progress in the work and have gotten some power over our own affections and can bespeak them in the most suitable moving way For cure therefore of this backwardness I have given you some quickning Considerations to stir you up to this duty and to gain the consent of your wills to this necessary duty In hopes therefore that you are convinced of the necessity of the duty and fully resolved on the performance and that you will not neglect such a duty any longer nor stand in the way of your own light and comfort I come next to give you some Help and Assistance for the more comfortable and successful management and performance of the work And First Endeavour to your power to shun all Impediments but especially those that are most likely to stupify and unfit your minds for Consideration they are obvious I need only to put you in remembrance First Take heed that you sin not maliciously 1. with Wilfulness and Presumption For Divines usually distinguish of Three sorts of Sins 1. Sins of Ignorance when through want of knowledge we transgress the Law of God and do that unwittingly which if we had known to be a violation of the Law of God we would not have done 2. Sins of Infirmity such as are committed through the unavoidableness unruliness of our Sense Phantasy or Passion which are not wholly under the power and command of Reason no not when it is truly enlightned and sanctified 3. Such as are committed with Knowledge and Deliberation when it is in our power to avoid them and will not what these are I need not inform you every one may be his own judge These last sort are called by some Sins of Malice and how much such sins as these will hinder all duty as well as Consideration there is no Christian of any experience but knows too well And therefore David prayeth especially against such sins as these Psal 19.13 Keep back thy servant from Presumptuous Sins let them not have dominion over me then shall I be upright and innocent from the great transgression If thou hast any good affection to this duty and art convinc'd that thy Soul will certainly perish without frequent serious consideration thou hast need to take heed of such sins as these Believe it these will wound thy Conscience break thy inward peace mightily provoke the Lord and draw away the Spirit from thee and fill thee with disturbing fears and besot thy mind that it shall not be fit for Consideration or if not such sins as these will dispose thee to hide thy self and get into thee dark and slie consideration as that which will discover thy shame and make thee odious to thy self Never think to bend thy mind to an impartial consideration of God and his Attributes and the Equity of Laws nor to think of thy latter end and the life to come to any purpose or to hear a right answer from thy Soul when thou puttest the question whether it be sanctified or unsanctified whilst thou givest thy consent and allowest thy self to live in any known sin I may say of Consideration as Mr. Bolton said of Prayer That it will make thee leave such presumptuous sinning Or else such sins will make thee to cast off Consideration you may as well hope to reconcile light and darkness as to bring these to any agreement Where Consideration is in any strength there will be no wilful sin or else Hell it self Art thou one that allowest thy self in the habitual neglect of any known duty Canst thou freely indulge thy self in any unjust or ungodly practice Are thy Thoughts at liberty to think vainly and wickedly without curb or controll Is thy Tongue at liberty to utter falshood and deceit to call evil good or good evil to plead any unrighteous causes or to disgrace any way that thou knowest in thy Conscience God approveth of Art thou wilfully proud or uncharitable and art thou intemperate in thy Appetite or Passions or commonly guilty of any such sin that thy own Conscience doth condemn No wonder then if Consideration be an unpleasant work to thee and if thy Thoughts turn away from him that abhorreth all iniquity but that especially which is wilful and allowed It is no marvel that Meditation is seldom or never in the word of the Lord
third necessity and lay a faster obligation upon our selves by charging it upon our own souls and obliging our selves by deliberate vow and resolution to as Consciscientious performance of it as we do of Prayer or any other duty that we dare not neglect lest we should not be able to rise or go to Bed without fear and the disturbance of a guilty mind Thirdly It will be a singular advantage to the work of Consideration though more remote to be temperate Now Temperance is taken in the widest compass for Moderation in the use of all Earthly Comforts And in this larger extent it 's taken when Epictetus comprehends all Vertue in those two words Temperance and Patience or Abstinence and Sustinence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or else it 's taken in its narrower compass for Moderation in those more gross and bodyty pleasures such as Meat and Drinks and 〈◊〉 or Essentinacy it 's Temperance in this more restrained sence that I here recommend to you Though I know as it 's taken in its widest acception it must needs farther it more 〈◊〉 because it includes the other and much more but then it would be co-incident with the second impediment which was to shun all â—â—ordiâ—aâ—e delights in any thing here on Earth The mind that is oppressed with Meat and 〈◊〉 and dispirited with Venery and made 〈◊〉 with Daâ—â—ance and Effeminacy is not fit for Contemplation either Solemn or Occasional unless it be of Carnal or Corpoâ—eal Beautâ—â— it is altogether â—â—meer for the pure and spirituall Contemplation of the Divine Excellencies and the ravishing Beauty of Holiness that are not enjoyed but by one that 's clear in understanding and pure in heart which they can never be which sot and pollute themselves with such muddy and impure delights The duty of Set and Solemn Contemplation requireth an illuminated attentive mind and a chearful heart if it be performed with any considerable Success But now Whoredom and Wine and new Wine take away the Heart Hos 4.11 They defraud this duty of that sprightfulness vigour and affection that it requires and the Understanding that 's perpetually smoak'd with the Fumes that rise from an over-charged Stomach hath few Lucida intervalla and is never perspicacious and sit for such contemplation I deny not but some degrees of this intemperance may consist with this duty and there may be some vacancy for a little dull exercise of this work But if this disease be grown to any height or prevalency the mind will be so listless and the affections will be so earthly that you may as well move a Block as such a surfeited soul to these Sublime and Raised Meditations It will be like Anselm's Bird with a heavy weight tyed to the Leg of it when it begins to fly and lift up it self or rather it will have no disposition to fly at all O that all Gluttons and Drunkards and Persons addicted to Filthiness and Wantonness were well sensible of this that are like to perish for ever for want of that Consideration that should save them from destruction Little do they think how they starve in the midst of such Plenty and how lean and famished their Souls are whilst Their eyes stick out with fatness Psal 73.7 Hence it is that your Gluttons and Wine-bibers and the rest of our Belly-Gods are so little acquainted with the life to come and that they so little relish any discourse with themselves or others about Heavenly things and that the Lord is not the Portion of their Cup Psal 16.5 Hence it is that those that are so familiar at the Cookes-Shop or Tavern are so strange to the place of Gods Residence and inter-meddle not with the Heavenly Joys But although it be this gross Intemperance and Sensuality that is so Point Blank an enemy to Consideration yet I must say also that every degree of Intemperance doth much hinder the duty and interrupt the joy and pleasure thereof For as it is a Sin against God and much provokes him to withdraw and conceal himself so it is a very malignant Enemy to the health and vivacity of Mind that this duty calls for for it weakens the Brain and spoils the Memory which should supply matter to Meditation and which is worse it brutifyes the heart When the Store-house of the Body is full the Store-house of the Mind must needs be empty of every thing but Fumes and Vapors with which it is like enough to abound and such Notions as these minister to No wonder if God be seldom in such Mens Memories or Hearts Therefore the Prophet complaineth of the full-fed Israelites that they were estranged from the Lord According to their Pasture so were they filled they were filled and their heart was exalted therefore have they forgotten me saith the Lord Hos 13.6 And why so but because such Fulness and Intemperance will not let Men consider and without this God must needs be forgotten because he lies not open to the bodily eye or sence it is the pure mind and heart that must see him both here and hereafter and if these that are pure in heart are the blessed men Mat. 5.8 Then they are cursed that are impure in mind and heart through Intemperance and other Lusts because they neither do now by consideration nor shall hereafter see God in the Beatifical Vision but Temperance disposeth unto both Fourthly If you have any good Evidence that Christ is yours and you are his it will very much promote and sweeten the work of Consideration I know that Consideration is a necessary means to bring a man to Christ and to turn the course of his affections and conversation but yet so soon as a man feels this work done that the world is resolutely forsaken and God is heartily chosen the Soul will be then better disposed to contemplate the glory of God and Heaven to turn its thoughts upon the promises of the Gospel when it hath some interest and propriety in them yea and to think with pleasure upon the threatnings of Gods Word the nearness of death the Worm of Conscience that shall torment the wicked for ever and ever after it hath made some good escape and the bitterness of death is past and the Sting pull'd out It 's no absurdity nor contradiction that Consideration should bring a man to Christ and that the knowledge of a mans interest in Christ should prompt him to and further him in the work of Consideration that Consideration should beget Grace and that Grace again should beget Consideration This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is frequent both in Nature and Grace What more proper to bring a man to Repentance than to consider the folly of his ways the filthiness and danger of his Sin and the terrour and unavoidableness of Gods wrath Who more like to be burthened with his transgressions and feel the load of his iniquities than he that frequently considers what misery it brings upon him both here and hereafter and how impossible
thou seest Pleasure written upon the face of it that is as it is coming towards thee If thou wilt not believe this now thine experience shall shortly make it good and condemn thee for a stark fool in that thou hast so much teaching and yet would'st not learn that thou had'st eyes and could'st not see and that thou wast so oft forewarned of the vanity and deceitfulness of these Earthly pleasures and yet would'st be deceived And yet I will confess if the fault could then be mended after Experience hath taught thee the vanity of them and thou art going out of the world as a miserable wretch ready to be forsaken of the comforts which thou hast inordinately loved if then thou could'st recover thine affections and bequeath thine heart to God which the world did possess all thy life time then it would be some diminution of thy Sin and Folly But as sure as thou livest God will not take that heart at thy Death which thou would'st not give him in thy Life nor be put off with a Legacy when thou art dying and going out of the world to whom thou would'st give nothing all thy life-time But yet if the Lord would accept such an Offering from thee that heart that hath been so commanded all thy life long by such pleasures as the world affords will not be now at thine own command and dispose It will be hankering after the world when it is departing and leaving of it and would still live among these pleasures if it could and prefer them before Eternal Life with God But I beseech thee to consider whether it be not perfect madness to suffer thine affections to be thus captivated and bewitched with fading momentary delights They are little to be envied whose whole lives are but a Diversion from one pleasure to another But if any men on Earth are like to perish for ever and lose those satisfying pleasures at Gods right Hand for evermore these are the men It is not one of a thousand that recovers of their Surfeit when they come to be old that have lived their younger years wholly addicted to their carnal brutish delights and not a man that dies amidst such pleasures before his heart be weaned from them but is like to feel more bitter torment than such as have lived all their life-time in poverty and little ease Surely they that let out their hearts too freely to the things of this world forget that there is such a Text in the Word of God Love not the world nor the things of the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him 1 Joh. 2.19 But that which makes some men that know this well enough to be mistaken is because they read of several rich men in Scripture that have their hands full of these Earthly comforts and see and hear of others that go to Heaven in the midst of great Possessions therefore they confidently conclude that they may enjoy them as well as others and yet be in a safe condition as if there were no difference between having and enjoying of them Their hearts were far enough from their Possessions as you might easily have seen if you had lived and conversed with them Though they had a large portion of their comforts a good measure of this Dung and Dross as the Apostle calls it yet they spread it to the good increase of Religion and Piety where they had to do they took little pleasure in this Dunghil neither did they spend their precious thoughts and time to encrease it But thy heart it may be is Wedded to these Carnal contentments and buried in this Dunghil and thy sweetest pleasures come in this way and when riches encrease thy heart is set upon them Psal 62.10 Let me tell thee that if ever Consideration open thine eyes thou wilt be as mad against these pleasures as ever thou wert mad for them And thou that do'st so industriously seek them with such careful study and endeavour wilt then be sick of them nulla major voluptas quam voluptatis fastidium No pleasure like that of contemning such transitory unmanly pleasures as these are if as Tully saith he is not worthy the name of a man that would live a whole day in such pleasures I am sure he is not worthy the name of a Christian that can live his whole life-time and prefer the pleasures of his body before the feasting of his Soul It 's the want of serious Consideration in this particular that makes so many lose the Joys of Heaven whilst they feast themselves with the Pleasures of the World Sixthly Another thing that should be the matter of your frequent serious Consideration is your latter end and the nearness of your dissolution This would make you wise indeed not to lay up riches and diet much less to treasure up sin and wrath against the day of wrath but to lay up in store a good foundation against the appointed time 1 Tim. 6.19 Rom. 2.5 It was the want of such heedful and attentive consideration that made Moses complain of the Israelites that they were a nation void of Counsel neither was there any understanding in them this made him wish so passionately O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end Deut. 32.28 29. This made the same Moses to pray so to teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to true wisdom Psal 90.121 Who can think what a vapour his life is James 4.14 and make it shorter by neglecting the work it was given him for A man never begins to live till he lives to God and he that survives the most years after he hath begun this work may be truly said to live the longest although he reach not the age of many a Carnal minded man For a mans life is not to be computed by grey hairs or the number of years but by the work that he hath done If therefore thy work be undone when death is approaching to thee what shall I say that thou hast lived but a little while nay rather that thou hast not lived at all I must conclude therefore that to consider the shortness of thy life is the way to lengthen it and to put thee into such a happy condition that death shall be sure never to surprise thee O what a madness it is for men that are to live but a few years it may be days in the world never seriously to consider it till their days are at an end when they have but a few turns more to fetch in this World not to consider it and turn unfeignedly to God before they are turned out of the World where is that mans Wits that buries his thoughts alive in the impertinencies of this life and scarce thinks from one end of the year to the other that he must die and in that very day his thoughts must perish What doth that man do that Fidles
for what the World will give thee instead of it thou shalt consider when it is too late and say with that unhappy King that sold away his Kingdom for a draught of water Alas must I for so short a pleasure lose so great a Kingdom Ninthly Another thing that it concerns thee much to roul about and consider with thy deepest thoughts is the horrour and confusion of those that must be banished for ever from the face of God and sentenced to everlasting misery There 's none that escape that place but those that frequently think on it and believe it it s well worth thy serious Consideration to preserve thy soul from such a fearful destruction Many a man whom God hath awakened to believe those terrible endless torments have retired themselves from all worldly noise and disturbance that they might live under the power of these thoughts as the best preservative against these torments And is not thy Soul as dear and precious to thee as their's to them and deserve as much compassion from thee Surely though it is not thy duty to think actually of the woful and miserable estate of unbelievers all the day long Yet it 's of absolute necessity that some serious thoughts should be spent on that subject till the fear thereof make void and prevail over all Carnal worldly fears whatsoever And make thee more industrious to prevent that misery than thou art to escape the scorn and and reproach and all the sufferings and miseries of this life otherwise thou art never like to escape it And methinks thou should'st easily believe that Hell is more to be feared than all the Calamities of this Life and the loss of this Life it self But thus it will never be if thou art not one that dost often represent it to thy thoughts A danger though it be never so great yet if it be both out of sight and mind also will fright no body nor have any the least influence upon our endeavours to escape it The evil must be before the eye of our sense or understanding that works upon us to take the best course for our security and defence And the nearer we apprehend it to be the more hast we make to get away from it And whether a wicked man hath no reason to think his woful misery near even at the door I leave any man to Judge that hath any competent use of his understanding what can you name almost that 's more uncertain then this Life and so soon as ever it ends then begins his distress that shall never end But yet let him not be too confident that it shall not begin before Many a man hath felt the torments of Hell on this side the grave and this Judgment hath commenc'd before his life hath been concluded some mens sins go before them to Judgment saith the Apostle and some mens follow after 1 Tim. 5.24 There is some men feel the Vengeance of a righteous Judge even in this Life Spira professed that he felt the consuming fire of Gods wrath in his heart and Conscience whilst he was alive and openly blasphemed his Maker wishing that he was above him for he knew as he said that he would have no mercy on him O Sirs the intollerable pains that every impenitent Sinner must speedily undergo are well worth the pains of a few hours Consideration to prevent and if you think it not so you may spare your pains a little longer till your lamentable experience shall put you quite out of all doubt If indeed the diversion of your thoughts from so sad an object were the way to secure your Souls and to keep out of that devouring and unquenchable fire then you might well excuse your selves from troubling your minds with such thoughts as these But though you may quench the spirit of God that moveth you to Consider of this and to let it sink into your heart that you may seek for mercy whilst it may be had yet you cannot quench the flames of Hell nor extinguish that fire that must feed upon your soul and body for ever O how much better is it cooly to Consider the intolerableness of Gods wrath then to feel the burning heat and extremity of his indignation when there is no remedy If it were indeed but a flea bite you might slight it and keep your thoughts for something of more weight and moment Or if it were unavoidable perhaps you might do wisely not to torment your selves before the time nor invite such a guest till it comes of his own accord 'T is to no purpose to think of such sufferings which thinking will not prevent But believe it it is no flea-bite nor a matter to be slighted Fire and Sword and Rack and all the inventions of Cruelty that were ever found out are but Sport and Recreation to the Judgment and Condemnation of the Life to come And because the loss of God and Heaven seems such a tolerable punishment to these Vessels of wrath Let me tell them that there 's no part or member either in their Soul or Body that shall not be racked with perpetual and eternal pain And can thine heart endure or thine hands be strong when he shall come to deal with thee Ezek. 22.14 Thou would'st eat thy bread with trembling and drink thy drink with terrour and astonishment if he should pour out on thee some few bitter drops of his displeasure now in this life Thou even thou saith the Psalmist to Almighty God whose Judgments thou despisest art greatly to be feared and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry Psal 76.7 what trembling eyes and what a failing heart have they whom God doth a little terrifie with some frowns of his anger here on earth you may hear them cry out in the morning would God it were evening and in the evening would God it were morning for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear and for the fear of thine eyes which thou shalt see Deut. 28.6 51 67. How dolefully doth Job complain under his outward sufferings though he had Integrity to support him and the root of Comfort was within him Job 19.28 Death it self it seems would have been welcome to him under the heavy pressures which he felt as we may see in Job 3.20 21. c. Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery and life to the bitter in Soul which long for death but it cometh not and dig for it more than for hid treasures which rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave Why is life given to a man whose way is hid and whom God hath hedg'd in for my sighing cometh before I eat and my roarings are poured out like water And how David was ready to faint away many a time under the apprehensions of Gods displeasure it 's the design of many a passage in the Psalms to tell you Psal 51.8 Make me to hear of joy and gladness that the
did intentionally lay down his life for all yet none shall reap the fruit and benefit of his sufferings and satisfaction but such as are broken in heart for their iniquities and come believingly unto him to bind them up again and heal them 5. What more certain than the vanity of all things here below and their utter insufficiency to satisfie the Soul of Man and make it happy Every one that is not wilfully blind may see how ridiculous the Competition is between God and them The greatest Epicures and those that dote most upon the world and admire its glory will confess thus much when they come to die and their eyes are then opened for the most part whose very Reason and Understanding as well as their affections were wholly captivated to its deluding pleasures all their life-long Ask them now which is better the Favour of God or the Pleasures of the World and they will not then stick to tell you there 's no comparison between them you shall have a free and a full confession from them But yet though the World be such an empty thing and not worthy to be laid in the balance with the Favour of God and an Interest in Christ yet it is a great question whether it is so indeed in thy Estimation and Affections Let thy practice and the course and tenour of thy life decide the case Which doest thou study and endeavour to serve and please most Which doest thou labour most after the Food that perisheth or the Food that endureth Which doest thou make the most careful provision for this life or the life to come It concerns thee as much as the Salvation of thy Soul comes to to put this as much out of doubt as it is past doubt that the World is altogether vanity 6. How sure is it that Death will shortly come and part thy Soul and Body and give thee thy mortal wound and turn thy flesh into corruption Not a man but must shortly make his Bed in the Grave and be forgotten as a dead man out of sight and leave his substance to those that come after This is a clear truth and hath a sound confession from all the world the experience of all our Forefathers is a clear proof But yet though this truth is so fully attested by the confession of all the living and the experience of all the Dead yet it is a very great doubt whether thou dost remember and consider thy latter end and improve thy life as that which will not always last Wo to thee if this be not as certain as the other 7. Nothing more sure than that there is a Publick Audit at which all men must give up their Accounts a general day of Oyer and Terminer where every one must undergo an impartial Tryal and Examination But it is uncertain whether thou dost sincerely believe such a day and dost make answerable preparations and whether thou dost live as in the sight of thy Judge it behoves thee to consider 8. It 's matter of greatest certainty that there is a State of unspeakable happiness for Believers and that there is a State of endless and unsufferable misery to which Unbelievers shall he condemned and when men are arrived thither their condition is unalterable there 's no possibility that they should lose the one or ever be released from the other These are all matters of the highest certainty all the doubt is whether thou hast lived under the power of these Truths by frequent Consideration and whether they had such influence on thee as things of such certainty weight and worth should have You see what is certain and what is doubtful and uncertain in all these particulars and in both respects they will deserve thy attentive heedful thoughts and thy most impartial Consideration The things that are certain will never make their due impression upon thy heart nor operate according to their worth nor put thee upon answerable practice till they be again and again considered The things that are uncertain will never be resolved till they be frequently considered Men regard not the Judgment to come because they will not be brought to consider the certainty of it and how much it doth concern them Men slight the Torments of Hell and Joys of Heaven because they will not consider the certainty of them Would any one fall in love with the world if he did but consider how certainly it will deceive him Would men live so improvidently and spend their strength and time so impertinently if they did but seriously consider that they must certainly die and speed Eternally as they have lived Would men set up their own will for a Law and live to themselves and put the fear of God out of their hearts if they did but consider that God is certainly their Maker and Soveraign and that they owe perfect subjection to his Person and obedience to his Laws Would men live so absurdly and forget their main Errand in the world and the principal business of their lives if they did but consider that God certainly sent them into the world for this very end and purpose to serve him and live in love and obedience to him In a word would men wipe their mouths after so much Rebellion and Disobedience to God as if they were Innocent and be so impenitent and unaffected with their sins if they did but consider how certain it is that without Repentance there 's no hope of pardon and that they must smart for their sin here by Repentance or else hereafter in Eternal misery and desperation and that Christ will be a Saviour to none but those that thus smart for their sin and feel its intolerable burthen and fly unto him by Faith as their only refuge O if we did enough consider the great certainty of these things they would have another effect and operation on us than usually they have upon the best of us much less would they suffer us to live in such Atheism and contempt of Christ and Salvation as the most of men live As sure as thou sinnest now thou shalt be judged for it and that to Everlasting Condemnation if thy serious Repentance step not in between as sure as thou livest now thou shalt shortly die and as sure as thou treadest upon the Earth so sure shalt thou lie down in it e're long and be trodden under foot Look up and behold the Heavens above thee that glister with so many Stars of light as sure as they now hang over thy head so certainly shall they be under thy feet e're a few years more be past If thou hast laid up thy Treasure in Heaven I mean if thy chief joy and delight be there if there be any trust in the Lord any truth and certainty in his Word these things which I have recommended to thy frequent Consideration are Truths of the highest certainty and importance the flattering World may deceive thee thy false dissembling heart may deceive thee
him when their obedience is required so that the subjection of the Heart to Christ and a deliberate purpose to serve him sincerely and constantly all our days is the first Foundation of our Union with Christ and specâ—â— Relation to him from whence Justification doth immediately flow And what a Mercy and Priviledge that is none but such as reap the Fruit of Justification perfectly in the other life can throughly tell Blessed is he whose Transgression is forgiven and whose 〈◊〉 is covered yea again Blessed is the Man 〈◊〉 David unto whom the Lord imputeth not Iniquity and in whose Spirit there is no Guile Psal 32.1 2. But as the Man is miserable and wretched for the present that is not justified so wo to him if he die in an unjustified state And this if he want true Faith he will certainly do Justification is the Act of the Supreme Rector none hath Authority to do it but he only and none can effectually remit or renounce the Penalty but he only who alone is both the Kingdom and the Power And this we have the Testimony of his certain and infallible Word that he will not do but upon the Condition of Faith and an unfeigned subjection to his Son which alone is the effectual Means to bring them off from their Sins and to reduce them to their Obedience to God Never hope to be justified till from the sense of your vile Nature and corrupt Inclinations and proneness to rebel against God and obnoxiousness to his just displeasure you do thankfully fly to Christ as your only Remedy and take his Person for your Ruler and his Laws and Example for your Rule and his Spirit for your Sanctifier For these are the only Terms on which a Sinner is made a true Member of Christ's Church and consequently justified and pardoned 4. Fourthly There 's no way whereby we can bring more honour to our Redeemer than by Believing For hereby we give him the Glory 1. Of his Love and Mercy and all the ways whereby he hath demonstrated his Bowels and Compassions towards us in his wonderful Condescention to be made like to us in the Assumption of our Nature in subjecting himself to the Law yea and to the Miseries of his Life Poverty Reproach and Shame and that in such a degree as never any one of us endured or could endure in suffering the most pitiful Usage the most sarcastical Taunts the most bitter Agonies and the most ignominious cursed Death and all to bring us into a salveable condition if we will believe Now as there can be no greater Affront nor Provocation given to him than to slight and make void his Grace and Mercy so unspeakably great so we can do him no greater honour than to close with it and accept it and be saved by it and so stand as the Eternal Monument of his Love 2. We hereby give him also the Glory of his Sovereignty that by his own Merit and Conquests as well as the Free Donation of God is advanced to the right hand of God and hath the Supreme Sovereignty and Lordship over all things both in Heaven and Earth And therefore he tells us Matth. 28.18 All Power is given unto me in Heaven and Earth And Paul tells us that to this End Christ both died and rose again and revived that he might be Lord both of Dead and Living Rom. 14.9 And Phil. 2.8 9 10. Because Christ was obedient even to the Death of the Cross Therefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every Name That at the Name of Jesus every Knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth Matth. 11.27 All things are delivered to me of my Father and so Luke 10.22 Now to believe on him is practically to acknowledge his Sovereignty that he is Lord of all Acts 10.36 That he is gone into Heaven and is on the right hand of God Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject to him 1 Pet. 3.22 When we subject our selves to him by Faith we own him whom God hath made a little lower than the Angels and crowned him with Glory and Honour and did set him over the Works of his hands and hath put all things in subjection under his feet 2 Heb. 7.8 9. Did we know what a Blessing and Priviledge it is to come under his Protection and live in subjection to him we should need no other Argument to perswade us to believe As we honour him so we ease our selves and rid our selves of those Fears that we are otherwise exposed to and therefore our Saviour that he might comfort his Disciples exhorts them John 14.1 Let not your Hearts be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me When we believe we do in effect say He hath satisfied the Justice of God and he hath given Sinners into his hands and laid the Government upon his shoulders and that he can save to the utmost all that come unto God by and through him since he ever liveth as an immutable and everlasting Priest to make intercession for them Heb. 7.25 3. Hereby we give him also the Glory of his Skill when by Faith we bring our diseased Souls to him with confidence of a Cure For that is one of the Chief Ends of Faith that we may be purified from all our Corruptions and perfect Holiness in the Fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 As it was one of Christs great Ends in dying so it should be ours in believing that we might be saved from our sins Matth. 1.21 It must be a skilful Physitian indeed that knows how to free the Soul of Man from such a Mass of Corruption from such a Chronical and Inveterate Disease that 's made up of such a complication of Distempers It must be no less than a Divine Skill indeed that must raise such an Earthly Mind that must Cure a Heart so full of Contradiction to the Will of God and that must tame the Affections to God that are grown so carnal It must be one that knows all the windings and turnings of the Heart and is throughly acquainted with its Pulse and all its secret Motions that can Cure its Selsishness and take it off from its inordinate pursuit of Earthly Things and make it submissive to the Will of God that can dispel the darkness of Mans Mind and heal the Confusion of his Thoughts and awaken him to an impartial Consideration of Things and fortifie Reason against the Flesh and rectifie his Judgment both as to present and future things and recover him out of Delirancy and Madness O how much do holy Souls admire his skill whom he hath perfectly recovered and how much will they that are now languishing in Selfishness and Pride and the doting Love of this World and under all that Litter of Corruptions wherewith their Souls are daily disquieted when he shall have restored them to Integrity again and to their right Mind Come unto him
shall confine all that I have to say to kindle and stir up this Affection First It is most highly congruous and doth very much beseem a reasonable Creature And that for these following Reasons Reason 1. First Because God is the most excellent and lovely Object And as in reason the greatest Beauty caeteris paribus should attract the strongest Love so the contrary implies absurdity and contradiction which Reason doth abhor For what can it be less than a Contradiction for one that hath understanding to prefer a less good before a greater there being equality and likeness in all other Circumstances The same rational Appetite that prompts us to love Goodness doth also encline us to love the greatest Good with the greatest heat and fervour of Affection But especially when the difference is so vast as it is between God and all competitory Good whatsoever They are but like a Drop to the whole Ocean or a small Dust compared to the whole Globe of Earth A single Beam of Light may as well stand up and vye Glory as with the Sun And a little Sword of Grass may better compare with the Spirit of Life and Vegetation and all the Flowers of the Field as any Created Good may hold up its head against God Shall I say As far as the East is from the West or as far as the Heaven is above the Earth so great is the distance between God and all Creatures put together Or rather the distance is a thousand times greater even infinite and incomprehensible and far beyond any created Capacity to conceive His Excellency is most apparent above all other Things 1. In that all the kinds and degrees of Excellency and Perfection are united in him which are but scattered and divided amongst the Creatures and that which they have but some faint degree of dwelleth in him in the highest measure of fulness and exuperancy So that if there be any Beauty or Glory in the Frame of Heaven and Earth or any Creatures in them contained that can stir up desire and attract our Love the same Motive with infinite Advantage may be fetch'd from the most lovely Nature of God And though the things with which Mortal Men are commonly moved are not formally in God because they imply imperfection such as are Worldly Riches Corporeal Beauty Sensual Pleasures and all those Accommodations which suit that part of us which is Flesh and Blood yet they are in him these several ways 1. Per viam Eminentiae by way of Excellency as the rational Soul doth eminently contain the sensitive though not formally And as the understanding of Man that invents Watches and Clocks and other Utensils is far better than they and doth eminently contain them 2. Per viam Causalitatis by way of Efficiency in that he is able to produce and create any of these things with the least Word of his Mouth He is therefore eminently able to furnish out all good to the Soul that loveth him And so he hath promised To give them the desires of their Heart that delight in him Psal 37.4 And therefore the Apostle had ground enough to tell us That Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of Man in this life to understand the things which God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2.9 And David had cause enough for such a passionate Invitation O tast and see that the Lord is good blessed is the Man that trusteth in him Which Trust supposeth and implieth Love 2. He is the productive Cause of all that is desirable and truly Good as I just intimated before He is the Womb from whence all other Good hath its birth and original For he hath made Heaven and Earth and all that in them is Psalm 95.5 The Sea is his and he made it and his hands prepared the dry Land And Psal 104. per totum There 's no Virtue Comeliness or Perfection in any Creature but he is the Author of it The Influences of the Heaven and the Fertility of the Earth and all the Verdure and Glory of the Grass and Flowers of the Field do but declare and set forth his infinite Perfection Who watereth the Hills from his Chambers and the Earth is satisfied with the Fruit of his Works And causeth the Grass to grow for the Cattel and Herb for the Service of Man that he may bring forth Food out of the Earth And Wine that maketh glad the Heart of Man and Oyl to make his Face to shine and Bread which strengthneth 〈…〉 15. And hath 〈…〉 beauty and 〈…〉 all his 〈…〉 Matth. 6.29 It 's true he is no way the 〈…〉 though he be the Cauâ—â— of all that is desirable any other ways 〈◊〉 as he made Man to whom that Monster and Abortion is wholly to be ascribed though it be so greedily desired and committed But yet though it be actually so much desired by Man through his Ignorance and Mistake and the Corruption of his blinded and distempered Faculties yet is not desirable indeed nor truly good any otherwise than Chalk and Coals and Ashes are to one that hath the Pica and is distempered in the Stomach I am forced to confess though with grief of Heart and to the shame and reproach of Mankind that Man is come to that pass that he may drink Iniquity like Water Job 15.16 And call Evil Good and Good Evil and put Darkness for Light and Light for Darkness Bitter for Sweet and Sweet for Bitter Isaiah 5.20 But then it is because the Foundations of his Soul are all out of course and Sense hath got the upper hand and Reason is under Feet and his Head stands where his Feet should do Alas It is a sad Consideration that the best of God's Creatures here on Earth is become the worst of Monsters But this is no derogation from God's infinite Fulness and Perfection that he is not the Productive Cause of such a Poyson as this and the Father of such a deformed loathsome Birth Reason 2d Secondly It doth most highly beseem a Reasonable Creature to love God above all because God hath most obliged us His Love to us bids highest for the highest Return of Love again If there were any thing in Heaven or Earth that had more obliged us than God it had not been than a Fault neither could Reason have risen up and accused us if we had loved that thing more than God But now that all Creatures both in Heaven and Earth are silent and have nothing to say and the love of God hath so loud a Tongue and his infinite transcendent Favours do bespeak our Hearts so strongly what an unpardonable sin is it to love any thing more than him The Good we receive from others is by his Special Command and Appointment what we receive therefore from them we are indebted unto God for He is the first Mover they are but his Instruments to bring his Favours to us Now though his Personal
Nature a shameful Spectacle to God Angels and Men Better he judgeth it a thousand times that God had made him a Beast rather than that he should have made himself a Beast If you judge not Sin to be the greatest evil to you and a greater disparagement than Poverty and Raggs and all the reproach and scorn of Men barely considered in themselves without sin you cannot have that sorrow for sin which is sincere For it 's absolutely necessary that sorrow for sin committed against God be greater than all other sorrow for worldly Calamities whatsoever as to the rational part of it which is in the Intellect and Will though perchance not as to that part of sorrow which is in the sensitive part and is it may be expressed in Tears or those sensible Perturbations of the Body which we usually call by the Name of Passions And how is it possible that there should bean intellectual sorrow greater than all other sorrow unless it be first truly judged to be the greatest disgrace and shame to us of any thing that can befal us and doth necessarily draw after it more evil and mischief to Body and Soul than the World can inflict on us It 's possible for a Man to have great inward Peace and Content and an excellent Spirit that is the object of the World's contempt and scorn Our Saviour had no Form nor Comeliness in him saith the Prophet Isaiah ch 53.2 And yet he was speciosus prae Filiis hominum Fairer than the Children of Men 1. for internal but not external Endowments saith the Prophet David Psal 45.2 And as the sinner that 's wounded with hearty sorrow for his sin doth thus judge of himself and doth say He is a Worm and no Man a Reproach of Men and worthily despised by the People Psalm 22.6 So he doth adjudge himself to the greatest sufferings and counts it an unspeakable Favour to be admitted to Repentance and that he may be received into Favour with God again upon any Terms This is Another Act that Godly Sorrow doth contain and is made up of Eighthly The Soul that 's truly penitent is deeply displeased with himself and wisheth heartily he had never been guilty of such Folly And if it were to do again would venture upon any suffering or shame rather than give his Consent thereto He is fallen out with himself so far as he is tainted with Corruption and upbraids himself with all his Rebellion and Ingratitude against God and his unrighteous and unbrotherly Practices towards Men and ill Government of himself He is heartily willing to grieve for his Sin and to express that grief by all significant signs that either Nature or Scripture doth suggest to him and to use all Means whereby this Grief may be procured as by Fasting and hard Usage of his Body when it may be a probable Means to promote this Repentance of his Heart Whatever is like to make his Heart more Tender and Sensible of his Sin he is willing to submit to He is willing to take a frequent view of his loathsom sin that he might more deeply abhor himself He is willing that God should afflict him in that measure that his Wisdom sees most fit if he will but kill his Corruptions thereby And that Men think of him as he hath deserved And when he cannot weep in reality he weepeth in desire Ninthly And as the Understanding and Will do thus far conquer to produce this Repentance and Sorrow so there will be some degree and measure of the Passions properly so called stirring in such a true Penitent There will be Grief and Shame for the Offence and Fear of him whom thou hast offended and longing desire to be reconciled And then Tenthly He that hath a truly penitent Heart and the Sorrow of the right stamp will express it by all outward Signs for the Honour of God and the Good of others He will accuse and speak evil of himself and humble himself by Confession before God his shameful Iniquities Neither will he spare to lay open the shame of his particular sins so far as he knoweth them Nay his pride is so far taken down that he will not stick to make Confession of them before Men if it be such sins whereby they have wronged their Souls and hardned them in any sinful course They will endeavour to undo what they have done by their penitent Confessions and remove the scandal as much as lyeth in their power though it cost them shame It 's a good sign that their sorrow for sin is sincere when it puts them upon such outward Acts as have a strong tendency to condemn and disgrace their former sinful Courses And they may well suspect themselves and their Repentance that stick at such disgraceful Acts as Confession is And are content that God should want the Honour that 's given to him by an humble acknowledgment of our vileness and particular sins And that Men should want such an Argument against the like sinful Courses for the time to come than that themselves should undergo a little disgrace and shame I say not that sins of a fouler nature that would tend to the disparagement of the Gospel that were committed in secret should be publickly made known at all It may suffice that such are confessed before God and the Persons that are already privy to them And that we do protest to them our unfeigned Grief for such foul Transgressions and our readiness to give them all satisfaction for any Wrong or Injury done them But the wrong that we have done to our Associates and Companions by prophanation of the Sabbath Oaths Ribbaldry or any other infectious Courses we are to beg pardon for of them whom we have thus wronged by our Miscarriages And to confess the sinfulness of such Courses to the Glory of God and to the preventing of such Evil for the future And as the penitent humble Person will not stick at Confession both to God and Men when need requireth so he will with patience and silence submit himself to any Afflictions that the righteous God whom he hath provoked doth think meet to inflict upon him He doth not mutter in his Heart as knowing that he hath deserved the most calamitous afflicted Life in this World and the unsupportable Miseries of the other Life Should a Malefactour that hath forfeited his Life murmur at the Judge that punisheth him with a few stripes and so remits the other part of his punishment I will patiently bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him saith the Church Micah 7.9 A truly penitent Heart will not complain for the punishment of his sin Lam. 3.39 What do I say he will not complain Nay he will justifie God in all that he brings upon him And as he doth express his Sorrow by humble Confession of his Sins and Justification of his Judge so he will do it by penitential Tears if the Temper and Constitution of his Body will
easily force thee to an Acknowledgment of thy Pride and Worldliness and filthy Lusts which thou doest so carefully conceal and the hainous dishonour thou hast done to his Name He could make thine own Conscience fall upon thee and condemn thee in despight of thee and thy Tongue to fall upon thy self But he loves to deal with every Creature according to the Nature he hath given them He leaves thee to thine own choice having given thee Reason to discern what is fittest to be done and his infallible Word to guide thee He useth Arguments to perswade rather than Power to compel and draws thee with Cords of a Man as the Prophet expresseth it Hosea 11.4 That if Love and Ingenuity will not prevail with thee to do thy Duty to him Shame and Ingenuity might perswade thee to repent thee of the Folly There is some ingenuity in a free and open confession of thy sin and a proportionable sorrow for it and endeavour to vindicate the Name of God which thou hast dishonoured after thou hast been so disingenious to dishonour him by thy Transgressions He that can harden himself against his dearest Friend and blot his precious Name with any foul Aspersions and then justifie and defend what he hath done or at least manifest himself to be altogether insensible of such behaviour deserves to be thrust out of the Society of Men And all Men would take him for a Monster and degenerate piece of Humanity But it 's a thousand times worse to play such Tricks with God who will lay them to Heart and not let them go unpunished And when he sees thou art past all Ingenuity and hast out grown the Heart of a Man and there is nothing to be done with thee without stripes and blows he will deal with thee as Masters use to deal with a Scholar that will no longer be moved by any other Arguments make them the common whipping-Blocks of the School that by their just punishment the other that have some ingenuity still left may take warning or else turn such untractable Disciples quite out of their Tuition O my Brethren your Case would be sad indeed if it should once come to any of these The Heathen could say Q. Curt. Illum ego perisse dico â—â—i periit pudor He that hath lost all shame is utterly lost And he that hath lost all ingenuity is quite shameless I beseech you look into your Hearts and search Can you find no Motions to Sorrow and Complaints and bitterness of Spirit for all those Hours you have foolishly spent in the Service of the Flesh or the World and the Devil which are the professed Enemies of him who is your greatest Friend Surely you cannot reflect upon those rebellious sinful Courses you have taken and not be moved with indignation against your corrupt Inclinations that have so much seduced you Surely you can never be vile enough in your own Eyes that have so much villified and despised the just Commands of him that holdeth your Soul in life and keepeth you every moment If you are past all sorrow for sin you are past all hope and are become like a broken Vessel that can never be made up again Peter indeed was so disingenious to deny his dearest Master the effect of whose sweetest Love he had so often tasted But it was when he was in a fright and passion He no sooner thought upon his odious disingenuity but the poor Man melts into Tears and weeps bitterly There 's no sin but is curable but this of Final Impenitance and Unbelief It 's possible that though seven Devils have got possession of thee they may be cast out It was Mary Magdalen's case and she yet found mercy with the Lord but then remember how she wept and wiped the very Feet of Christ with the Hair of her Head Luke 7.44 But if thou want Tears for thy sin and a penitent bleeding Heart for thine iniquities thy case is a thousand times worse than if thou hadst the greatest sins and yet couldst bewail them and humble thy self for them For this would shew that there is some ingenuity left in thee which the Lord loveth where ever he sees it And will not let the person perish that confesseth from his heart that he hath deserved to perish and is afflicted for what he hath done Fourthly Consider there 's no Evil or Misery whatsoever calls for Grief and Sorrow so much as Sin doth And yet we can weep our Eyes out almost for some petty Evils and Miseries that sometimes do afflict us What an absurd and preposterous sorrow is it to cry for the death of a Friend to howl for the loss of a Child and to be overwhelmed with grief when an intimate dear Acquaintance is snatch'd away from thee And yet to be heart-whole when God is provoked to depart from thee and thou art in danger to lose thy Soul We take the Person for a Child or a Fool that whines and makes a stir for a Trifle and makes sad Complaints for a Scratch or a Flea-bite and is little or no whit moved for the loss of his Credit or good Name or something that 's far better This as well as all other Passions in Man should be governed by Reason otherwise they are no more regardable than the howling of a Dog And how is that Passion guided by Reason that makes a great Noise and is moved with much Violence for a Matter of nothing and is very quiet when it hath much more cause to be moved Is that a rational sorrow or doth become a Creature that hath understanding that brings a Man down even to death's door for the departure of some worldly comfort and leaves him without Tears and Sighs when he is losing that which is a thousand times more desirable Understand thy self aright and thou wilt be ashamed of such a ridiculous sorrow as this Sin is the cause of all other Evil that comes upon thee and therefore must needs be far worse it self and much more to be lamented It takes away thy Friend from thy side thy Child from thy bosom It bereaves thee of thy Health deprives thee of thy Credit and Estate It parts between thy Soul and Body and makes the most lamentable divorce of all between God and thy Soul As I live saith the Lord though the Son of Jehoiakim King of Judah were the Signet upon my right hand yet would I pluck him thence Jerem. 22.24 And why is this but because he had provoked God by his sin It is sin that is our greatest Enemy It 's our Comfort against all other Enemies that they can pursue us no further than the Grave and there the weary be at rest Job 3.17 There we shall feel our worldly troubles no longer But this Enemy begins then to rage most when all other Cruelties cease Then it comes upon us like a Tempest It follows us beyond the Grave and will never leave us till it hath compleated our Misery and
put us beyond all hope And shall this trouble us no more Well might our Saviour bid the Daughters of Jerusalem not to weep for him but for themselves and for their sins Luke 23.28 They had some womanish Tears to command when they saw him led away to Execution but might have shed them far more acceptably for their sins whereby they had brought such a horrid thing to pass It 's a lamentable sight to see Men endued with reason to ring their hands and weep for almost nothing and to be cruelly hard-hearted when they have the greatest cause to weep What a vast difference is there between a little bodily suffering and the intolerable pains of thy Soul between a little Scratch in thy Flesh and the Wounds of thy Spirit A wounded Spirit who can bear saith Solomon Prov. 18.14 Shewing by this Question the incomparable difference between all external griefs and those which are internal and seated in the Spirit What a wide difference is there between the loss of some temporal finite good and the loss of that which is infinite and eternal Thou mayest repair the one but thou canst never repair the other It 's far more tolerable to be scorned by Men than to be contemned by God To be fâ—ighted by thy Friends and Acquaintance when thou art in misery and distress and doest expect some pity and relief from them than that God should laugh at thy Calamity and mock when thy Fear cometh And yet in such like cases as these we want no sorrow but have Tears and Sighs and bitter Expostulations at command O Sirs stop your Tears cease your Complaints forbear your Sighs when it is but the Flesh or outward Man that is concerned Keep these in store for your outward sins which far better deserve them and do you a thousand times more wrong Noli tristari nisi quam male feceris Keep them in store for a time of greater Necessity The Sorrow of the World worketh Death 2 Cor. 7.10 These Tears give your Heart no ease but rather make way for greater sorrow The time is coming when you will wish you could have â—â—â—ghted all other Evils but that of sin Fifthly Consider This is one great End for which Christ shed his Blood and suffered the shameful Death upon the Cross that he might bring Sinners to Repentance He knew they could never be happy till they should get a true sight of the Sin and Misery and till their Hearts were throughly broken for their Transgressions And that they must part with their Corruptions or part with God Being therefore moved with wonderful pity and compassion towards them and loth that they should go on and perish in their Rebellion against God hath undertook to bring them to Repentance If the work could have been done by him alone it would have been a matter of far less difficulty to effect and bring to pass But he well knew before he began to make the least attempt that it was a far easier task to shed his blood and satisfie for his sins pass'd than to bring us to future obedience If it had been only to lay down his Life for us so great was his compassion to us that he could easily have parted with it But this was not all no nor the one half He had a worse work to do the stubborn rebellious Heart of Man to change and to renew He must be brought to see and confess and renounce his sins and come again and submit himself to his Maker whom he had provoked or else his Blood would be spilt in vain O my Brethren this was a work indeed and sets forth the wonderful amazing Love of our Redeemer that he would undertake such a Task as this If he had had no more to do but to fulfil the Law of God in his own Person and our Nature and to have fought with the Devil and Death and to have laid down his Life for us he could have conquered these with a far less power than he could have conquered the rebellious untructable Hearts of sinners It was much easier for him to have confounded all the Powers of Hâ—ll and Darkness than to break in pieces a stoâ—â— sensless Heart and to bring a sinner to Repentance and Reformation But yet he hath undertook the work notwithstanding And what course doth he tâ—ke to mollifie a flinty Heart and to make a sensless sinner feel the odiousness of his sin and to bend such a perverse and obstinate will as ours is Why he undergoes the most horrible Sufferings that the Ear of Man ever heard of And then he causeth the History of them to be written and set before us And withal doth most affectionately beseech us by all these sufferings to consider the Folly of our former Ways â—â—d to lay them to heart till we begin to yield and acknowledge our sins and are stedfastly resolued to follow his Directions and depend upon 〈◊〉 Assistance till we can perfectly overcome our Corruptions and serve the Lord that made us with singleness and sincerity of heart for the suâ—â—â—â— To this 〈◊〉 he sets up an Office on purpose to 〈◊〉 us in remembrance of the bitter Pangs and Sorrows that he hath undergone for us And he both commanded this to be Preached publickly 〈◊〉 the World He hath moreover instituted the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper to represent 〈◊〉 â—â—e his Sufferings to us To tell us what Poverty land Shame he hath endured what malicious Usage from the Jews how he was wounded for our Transgressions and bruised for our Iniquities and how the chastisement of our peace was upon him that through his stripes we might be healed Isa 53.5 How the Lord laid on him the Iniquities of us all vers 6. How he was made sin for us that knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God through him 2 Cor. 5.21 How he trod the Wine-press of his Father's wrath Isa 63.3 and drunk off the dregs of the bitter cup of his displeasure and swet drops of Blood while he was conflicting with the Terrours of God's wrath And is not that Man a block indeed that cannot be moved with such Rhetorick as this is Is that Man fit to be pardoned or to find any Mercy at God's hands that stoppeth his Ears to one that hath thus befriended him when he is pleading with him to make his Heart give and relent for all his former sins It 's certain that Mans case is desperate that will not yield to such an Argument as this is But alas sad and woful experience tells us how many Thousand slight it and are no more moved with the real story of Christ's Passion than with a Romance or Fable no nor many I fear half so much O how must this needs Crucifie our Lord afresh to see his love and tender compassion so much slighted and his Blood trampled under feet O wretched unworthy sinner Canst thou find in thy heart to run the bloody Spear and to strike