the week IT somewhat tendeth to make a holy life more easie to us when we know the ordinary course and method of our duties and every thing falleth into its proper place As it helpeth the Husbandman or Tradesman to know the ordinary course of his work that he need not go out of it unless in extraordinary cases Therefore I shall here give you some brief Directions for the holy spending of every day § 1. Direct 1. Proportion the time of your sleep aright if it be in your power that you waste Direct 1. not your pretious morning hours sluggishly in your bed Let the time of your sleep be rationally fitted to your health and labour and not sensually to your slothful pleasure About six hours is meet for healthful people and seven hours for the less healthful and eight for the more weak and aged ordinarily The morning hours are to most the preitousest of all the day for all our duties especially servants that are scanted of time must take it then for prayer if possible leâ—t they have none at all § 2. Direct 2. Let God have your first awaking thoughts Lift up your hearts to him reverently Direct 2. and thankfully for the rest of the night past and briefly cast your selves upon him for the following day and use your selves so constantly to this that your consciences may check you when common thoughts shall first intrude And if you have a Bed-fellow to speak to let your first speech be agreeable to your thoughts It will be a great help against the temptations that may else surprize you and a holy engagement of your hearts to God for all the day § 3. Direct 3. Resolve that pride and the fashions of the times shall never tempt you into such a Direct 3. garb of attire as will make you long in dressing you in the morning but wear such cloathing as is soon put on It 's dear-bought bravery or decency as they will needs call it which must cost every day an hours or a quarter of an hours time extraordinary I had rather go as the wilde Indians than have those morning hours to answer for as too many Ladies and other gallants have § 4. Direct 4. If you are persons of quality you may employ a child or servant to read a Chapter Direct 4. in the Bible while you are dressing you and eating your breakfast if you eat any Else you may employ that time in some fruitful meditation or conference with those about you as far as your necessary occasions do give leave As to think or speak of the mercy of a nights rest and of your renewed time and how many spent that night in hell and how many in prison and how many in a colder harder lodging and how many in grievous pain and sickness aweary of their beds and of their lives and how many in distracting terrours of their minds and how many souls that night were called from their bodies to appear before the dreadful God And think how fast days and nights â—oul on and how speedily your last night and day will come And observe what is wanting in the readiness of your soul for such a time and seek it presently without delay § 5. Direct 5. If more necessary duties call you not away let secret prayer by your self alone or Direct 5. with your chamber-fellow or both go before the common prayers of the family and delay it not causlesly but if it may be let it be first before any other work of the day Yet be not formal and superstitious to your hours as if God had absolutely tyed you to such a time nor think it not your duty to pray once in secret and once with your chamber-fellow and once with the family every morning when more necessary duties call you off That hour is best for one which is worst for another To most private prayer is most seasonable as soon as they are up and cloathed To others some other hour may be more free and fit And those persons that have not more necessary duties may do well to pray at all the opportunities before-mentioned But reading and meditation must be allowed their time also And the labours of your callings must be painfully followed And servants and poor people that are not at liberty or that have a necessity of providing for their families may not lawfully take so much time for prayer as some others may especially the aged and weak that cannot follow a calling may take longer time And Ministers that have many souls to look after and publick work to do must take heed of neglecting any of this that they may be longer and oftener in private prayer Allwayes remember that when two duties are at once before you and one must be omitted that you prefer that which all things considered is the greatest And understand what maketh a duty greatest Usually that is greatest which tendeth to the greatest good yet sometime that is greatest at that time which cannot be done at another time when others may Praying in it self considered is better than Plowing or Marketting or Conference And yet these may be greater than it in their proper seasons because prayer may be done at another time when these cannot § 6. Direct 6. Let family-worship be performed constantly and seasonably twice a day at that hour Direct 6. which is freest in regard of interruptions not delaying it without just cause But whenever it is performed be sure it be reverently seriously and spiritually done If greater duty hinder not begin with a brief invocation of Gods name and craving of his help and blessing through Christ and then read some part of the holy Scripture in order and either help the hearers to understand it and apply it or if you are unable for that then read some profitable Book to them for such ends and sing a Psalm if there be enough to do it fitly and earnestly pour out your souls in Prayer But if unavoidable occasions will not give way to all this do what you can especially in prayer and do the rest another time but pretend not necessity against any duty when it is but unwillingness or negligence The lively performance of Family-duties is a principal means to keep up the power and interest of Godliness in the world which all decays when these grow dead and slight and formal § 7. Direct 7. Renew the actual intention and remembrance of your ultimate end when you set your Direct 7. selves to your days work or set upon any notable business in the world Let HOLINESS TO THE LORD be written upon your hearts in all that you do Do no work which you cannot entitle God to and truly say he set you about And do nothing in the world for any other ultimate end than to Please and Glorifie and Enjoy him And remember that whatever you do must be done as a means to these and as by one that is that way going
Idolatry 8. A perverse Spirit causing staggering and giddiness as a drunken man Isa. 19. 14. § 5. In the New Testament 1. He is sometimes called simply a Spirit Mar. 9. 20 26. Luke 9. 39. 10. 20. 2. Sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unclean Spirits Luke 6. 18. as contrary to the Holy Spirit and that from their Nature and effects 3. And after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doemons a word taken in a good sense in Heathen Writers but not in Scripture because they worshipped Devils under that name unless perhaps Acts 17. 18. 1 Tim. 4. 1. And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with respect to their knowledge and as some think to the knowledge promised to Adam in the temptation 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Tempter Mat. 4. 5. Satan Mat. 4. 1 Pet. 5. 8. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an enemy Mat. 13. 28 39. 7. The strong man armed Mat. 12. 8. Angels 1 Cor. 6. 3. 2 Pet. 2. 4. Angels which kept not their first state Jude 6. 9. A Spirit of divination Acts 16. 16. 10. A roaring Lyon 1 Pet. 5. 8. 11. A Murderer John 8. 44. 12. Belial 2 Cor. 6. 15. 13. Beelzebub Mat. 12. the God of flies 14. The Prince of this world John 12. 21. from his power over wicked men 15. The God of this world 2 Cor. 4. 5. because the world obey him 16. The Prince of the power of the air Eph. 2. 2. 17. The Ruler of the darkness of this world Eph. 6. 12. Principalities and powers 18. The Father of the wicked John 8. 44. 19. The Dragon and the old Serpent Rev. 12. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the calumniatâ—r or false accuser often 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the evil one Mat. 23. 19. 22. An evil Spirit Acts 19. 15. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the destroyer and Abaddon the King of the Locusts and Angel of the bottomless pit Rev. 9. 11. unless that speak of Antichrist § 6. 3. He is too strong an enemy for lapsed sinful man to deal with of himself If he conquered us in innocency what may he do now He is dangerous 1. By the greatness of his subtilty 2. By the greatness of his Power 3. By the greatness of his Malice And hence 4. By his constant diligence watching when we sleep Mat. 13. 25. and seeking night and day to devour 1 Pet. 5. 8. Rev. 12. 4 § 7. 4. Therefore Christ hath engaged himself in our Cause and is become the Captain of our See my Treatise against Infidelity as before cited salvation Heb. 2. 10. And the world is formed into two Armies that live in continual War The Devil is the Prince and General of one and his Angels and wicked men are his Armies Christ is the King and General of the other and his Angels Heb. 2. 14. and Saints are his Army Between these two Armies are the greatest conflict in the world § 7. 5. It is supposed also that this War is carried on on both sides within us and without us by inward solicitations and outward means which are fitted thereunto § 8. 6. Both Christ and Satan work by Officers instruments and means Christ hath his Ministers 1 Cor. 3. 5. 4 1. 2 Cor. 11. 15. Acts 13. 8 9 10. to preach his Gospel and pull down the Kingdom of Satan And Satan hath his Ministers to preach licentiousness and lies and to resist the Gospel and Kingdom of Christ. Christ hath his Church and the Devil hath his Synagogue Christs Souldiers do every one in their places fight for him against the Devil And the Devils Souldiers do every one in their places fight against Christ. The Generals are both unseen to mortals and the unseen Power is theirs but their Agents are visible The Souldiers fight not only against the Generals but against one another but it is all or chiefly for the Generals sakes It is Christ that the wicked persecute in his Servants Acts 9. 4. And it is the Devil whom the godly hate and resist in the wicked But yet here are divers notable differences 1. The Devils Servants do not what they do in love to him but to their own flesh but Christs Servants do what they do in Love to him as well as to themselves 2. The Devils Army are cheated into Arms and War not knowing what they do But Christ doth all in the open light and will have no servants but those that deliberately adhere to him when they know the worst 3. The Devils servants do not know that he is their General but Christs followers do all know their Lord. 4. The Devils followers disown their Master and their work they will not own that they fight against Christ and his Kingdom while they do it But Christs followers own their Captain and his cause and work for he is not a master to be ashamed of § 9. 7. Both Christ and Satan work perswasively by moral means and neither of them by constraint and force Christ forceth not men against their wills to good and Satan cannot force them to be bad but all the endeavour is to make men willing and he is the Conquerour that getteth and keepeth our own consent § 10. 8. Their Ends are contrary and therefore their wayes are also contrary The Devils end is to draw man to sin and to damnation and to dishonour God And Christs end is to draw men from sin to Holiness and salvation and to honour God But Christ maketh known his end and Satan concealeth his End from his followers § 11. 9. There is somewhat within the good and bad for the contrary part to work upon and we are as it were divided in your selves and have somewhat in us that is on both sides The wicked have an honourable acknowledgement of God and of their greatest obligation to him a hatred to the Devil a love of themselves a willingness to be happy and an unwillingness to be miserable and a conscience which approveth of more good than they do and condemneth much of their transgression This is some advantage to the perswasions of the Ministers of Christ to work upon And they have Reason capable of knowing more The Souldiers of Christ have a fleshly appetite and the remnants of ignorance and error in their minds and of earthliness and carnality and averseness to God in their wills with a nearness to this world and much strangeness to the world to come And here is too much advantage for Satan to work on by his temptations § 12. 10. But it is the predominant part within us and the scope of our lives which sheweth which of the Armies we belong to And thus we must give up our names and hearts to Christ and engage under his Conduct against the Devil and conquer to the death if we will be saved Not to fight against the bare Name of the Devil for so will his own Souldiers and spit at his name and hang a Witch that makes a contract with him But it is
holy fetcht from Heaven § 19. Tempt 9. He would keep you in a lazy sluggish coldness to read and hear and pray as asleep Tempt 9. as if you did it not § 20. Direct 9. Awake your selves with the presence of God and the great concernment of what Direct 9. you are about and yield not to your sloth § 21. Tempt 10. He would make you bring a divided distracted heart to duty that is half about your Tempt 10. worldly business § 22. Direct 10. Remember God is jealous your business with him is great much lyeth on it Direct 10. call off your hearts and let them not stay behind all the powers of your souls are little enough in such a work Ezek. 33. 31. § 23. Tempt 11. Ignorance unskilfulness and unacquaintedness with duty is a great impediment Tempt 11. to most § 24. Direct 11. Learn by study joyned with practice Be not weary and difficulties will be Direct 11. overcome § 25. Tempt 12. Putting duty out of its place and neglecting the season that is fittest makes it oft Tempt 12. done slightly § 26. Direct 12. Redeem time and dispatch other business that idleness deprive you not of leisure Direct 12. and do all in order § 27. Tempt 13. Neglecting one duty is the Tempters snare to spoil another If he can keep you Tempt 13. from reading you will not understand well what you hear If he keep you from meditating you will not digest what you hear or read If he keep you from hearing you will want both matter and life for prayer and meditation and conference If he keep you from godly company you will be hindered in all and in the practice No one is omitted but you are disadvantaged by it in all the rest § 28. Direct 13. Observe how one duty helpeth another and take all together each one in its Direct 13. place § 29. Tempt 14. Sometime the Tempter doth call you off to other duty and puts in unseasonable Tempt 14. motions to that which in its time is good he interrupts prayer by meditation he sets seeming truth against Love and Peace and Concord § 30. Direct 14. Still know which duties are greatest and which is the due season for each and do Direct 14. all in order § 31. Tempt 15. He spoileth duty by causing you to do it only as a duty and not as a means for the Tempt 15. good of your own souls or only as a Means and not as a Duty If you do it only as a Duty then you will not be quickned to it by the ends and benefits nor carryed by Hope nor fit all to the end nor be so fervent or vigorous in it as the sense of your own good would make you be And if you do it only as a Means and not as a Duty then you will give over or faint when you want or question the success Whereas the sense of both would make you vigorous and constant § 32. Direct 15. Keep under the sense of Gods Authority that you may feel your selves bound Direct 15. to obey him whatever be the success and may resolve to wait in an obedient way And withall admire his wisdom in fitting all Duties to your Benefit and commanding you nothing but what is for your own or others good or to his honour And mark the Reason and tendency of all and your own Necessity § 33. Tempt 16. The Tempter hindereth you in duty as well as from duty by setting you a quarrelling Tempt 16. with the Minister the words the company the manner the circumstances that these things may divert your thoughts from the matter or distract your mind with causeless scruples § 34. Direct 16. Pray and labour for a clear judgement and an upright self-judging humble Direct 16. heart wihch dwelleth most at home and looketh most at the spiritual part and affecteth not singularity § 35. Tempt 17. The Tempter spoileth duty by your unconstancy While you read or pray so seldom Tempt 17. that you have lost the benefit of one duty before you come to another and cool by intermissions § 36. Direct 17. Remember that it is not your divertisement but your Calling and is to your Direct 17. soul as eating to your Bodies § 37. Tâ—mpt 18. Sometime Satan corrupteth Duty by mens private passions interest and opinions Tempt 1â— making men in preaching and praying to vent their own conceits and spleen and inveigh against those that diâ—â—er from them or ofâ—end them and prophane the name and work of God or proudly to seek the praise of men § 38. Direct 18. Remember that God is most jealous in his Worship and hateth hypocritical prophanâ—ss Tempt 18. above all prophaness Search your hearts and mortifie your passions and specially selfishness Remembring that it is a poysonous and insinuating sin and will easily hide it self with a Cloke of â—eal § 39. Tempt 19. False-hearted Reservedness is a most accursed corrupter of holy duty when the soul Tempt 19. is not wholy given up to God but sets upon duty from some common motive as because it is in credit or to pleasâ— sâ—me friend purposing to try it a while and leave it if they like it not § 40. Direct 19. Fâ—ar God thou Hypocrite and halt not between two opinions If the Lord be Direct 12. God â—bâ—y and sâ—rve him with all thy heart But if the Devil and the flesh be better Masters follow them and let him go § 41. Tempt 20. Lastly The Tempter hindereth holy duty much by wandring thoughts and melancholy Tempt 20. perplexities and a hurry of Temptations which torment and distract some Christians so that they â—ry out I cannot pray I cannot meditate and are weary of duty and even of their lives § 42. Direct 20. This sheweth the malice of the Tempter and thy weakness but if thou hadst Direct 20. rather be delivered from it it hindereth not thy acceptance with God Read for this what I have said Chap. 5. Part. 2. at large specially in my Directions to the Melancholy § 43. I have been forced to put off many things briefly here which deserved a larger handling and I must now omit the discovery of those Temptations by which Satan keepeth men in sin when he hath draâ—n them into it 2. And those by which he causeth declining in grace and Apâ—staâ—y 3. And those by which he discomforteth true Believers because else this Direction would swell to a Treatiâ—â— and most will think it too long and tedious already though the Brevity which I use to avoid prâ—liâ—ity doth wrong the matter through the whole Acquaintance with Temptations is needful to our overcoming them DIRECT X. Your lives must be laid out in doing God service and doing all the good you can in Gr. Dir. 10 â—â—â—â— sâ—rving Christ ouâ— Master in good works works of piety justice and charity with prudence fidelity industry
Gospel Leave out this Gratitude and it is no Evangelical Repentance And what is our saving faith in Christ but the Assent to the truth of the Gospel with a Thankful Acceptance of the good which it offereth us even Christ as our Saviour with the Benefits of his Redemption The Love to God that is there required is the Thankful Love of his Redeemed ones And the Love to our very enemies and the forgiving of wrongs and all the Love to one another and all the works of Charity there required are the exercises of Gratitude and are all to be done on this account because Christ hath loved us and forgiven us and that we may shew our thankful Love to him Preaching and Praying and Sacraments and publick praises and communion of Saints and obedience are all to be animated with Gratitude and they are no further Evangelically performed than Thankfulness is the very life and complexion of them all The dark and defective opening of this by Preachers gave occasion to the Antinomians to run into the contrary extream and to derogate too much from Gods Law and our Obedience But if we obscure the doctrine of Evangelical Gratitude we do as bad or worse than they Obedience to our Ruler and Thankfulness to our Benefactor conjoyned and co-operating as the Head and Heart in the Natural body do make a Christian indeed Understand this well and it will much incline your hearts to Thankfulness § 4. Direct 2. Let the greatness of the manifold mercies of God be continually before your eyes Direct 2. Thankfulness is caused by the due apprehension of the greatness of mercies If you either know them not to be mercies or know not that they are mercies to you or believe not what is said and promised in the Gospel or forget them or think not of them or make light of them through the corruption of your minds you cannot be thankful for them I have before spoken of Mercy in order to the kindling of Love and therefore shall now only recite these following to be alwayes in your memories 1. The Love of God in giving you a Redeemer and the Love of Christ in giving his life for us and in all the parts of our Redemption 2. The Covenant of Grace the pardon of all our sins the justification of our persons our adoption and title to eternal life 3. The aptness of means for calling us to Christ The gracious and wise disposals of providence to that end the gifts and compassion of our instructers the care of Parents and the helps and examples of the servants of Christ. 4. The efficacy of all these means â—he giving us to will and to do and opening of our hearts and giving us repentance unto life and the Spirit of Christ to mortifie our sins and purifie our nature and dwell within us 5. A standing in his Church under the care of faithful Pastors the liberty comfort and frequent benefit of his Word and Sacraments and the publick communion of his Saints 6. The company of those that fear the Lord and their faithful admonitions reproofs and encouragements the kindness they have shewed us for body or for soul. 7. The mercies of our Relations or habitations our estates and the notable alterations and passages of our lives 8. The manifold preservations and deliverances of our souls from errors and seducers from terrors and distress from dangerous temptations and many a soul-wounding sin and that we are not leâ—t to the errors and desires of our hearts to seared Consciences as forsaken of God 9. The manifold deliverances of our bodies from enemies hurts distresses sicknesses and death 10. The mercies of adversity in wholesome necessary chastisements or honourable sufferings for his sake and support or comfort under all 11. The communion which our souls have had with God in the course of our private and publick duties in Prayer Sacraments and Meditation 12. The use which he hath made of us for the good of others that our time hath not been wholly lost and we have not lived as burdens of the world 13. The mercies of all our friends and his servants which were to us as our own and our interest in the mercies and publick welfare of his Church which are more than our own 14. His patience and forbearance with us under our constant unprofitableness and provocations and his renewed mercies notwithstanding our abuse our perseverance untill now 15. Our hopes of everlasting Rest and Glory when this sinsul life is at an end Aggravate these mercies in your more enlarged meditations and they will sure constrain you to cry out Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thine iniquities who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies Psal. 102. 1 2 3 4. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his Courts with praise be thankful to him and bless his name For the Lord is good his Mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth to all generations Psal. 100. 4 5. The Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and plenteous in mercy For as the Heaven is high above the Earth so great is his mercy to them that fear him Psal. 103. 8 11. O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Psal. 136. 1 c. O give thanks unto the Lord call upon his name make known his deeds among the people sing ye unto him sing Psalms unto him talk ye of all his wondrous works glory ye in his holy name Let the heart of them rejoyce that seek him Psal. 105. 1 2 3. § 5. Direct 3. Be well acquainted with the greatness of your sins and sensible of them as they are Direct 3. the aggravation of Gods Mercies to you This is the main end why God will humble those that he will save Not to drive them to despair of mercy nor that he taketh pleasure in their sorrows for themselves But to work the heart to a due esteem of saving mercy and to a serious desire after it that they may thankfully receive it and carefully retain it and faithfully use it An unhumbled soul sets light by Christ and Grace and Glory It relisheth no spiritual mercy It cannot be thankful for that which it findeth no great need of But true humiliation recovereth our appetite and teacheth us to value mercy as it is Think therefore what sin is as I have opened to you Dir. 8. and think of your manifold aggravated sins and then think how great those mercies are that are bestowed on so great unworthy sinners Then mercy will melt your humbled hearts when you confess that you are unworthy to be called Sons Luke 15. and that you are not worthy to look up to Heaven Luke 18. 13. and that you are not worthy of the least
him when ever he provoketh us to it but only endeavour to strengthen our Faith and destroy the remnants of unbelief § 38. Direct 35. Remember that Christ doth propagate his Religion conjunctly by his spirit and his Direct 35. word and effecteth himself the faith which he commandeth For though there be sufficient evidence of credibility in his word yet the blinded Mind and corrupt perverted hearts of men do need the cure of his medicinal Grace before they will effectually and savingly believe a doctrine which is so holy high and heavenly and doth so much control their lusts See therefore that you distrust your corrupted hearts and earnestly beg the Spirit of Christ. § 39. Direct 36. Labour earnestly for the Love of every Truth which you believe and to feel the Direct 36. renewing power of it upon your hearts and the reforming power on your lives especially that you may be advanced to the Love of God and to a Heavenly mind and life And this will be a most excellent help against all temptations to unbelief For the Heart holdeth the Gospel much faster than the Head alone The seed that is cast into the earth if it quicken and take root is best preserved and the dâ—eper rooted the surer it abideth but if it die it perisheth and is gone When the seed of the holy word hath produced the new creature it is sure and safe But when it is retained only in the brain as a dead Opinion every temptation can overturn it It is an excellent advantage that the serious practical Christian hath above all hypocrites and unsanctified men Love will hold faster than dead belief Love is the Grace that abideth for ever and that is the enduring faith which works by Love The experienced Christian hath felt so much of the power and Goodness oâ— the wâ—rd that if you puzzle his head with subtile reasonings against it yet his heart and experience will not suffer him to let it go He hath taâ—ted it so sweet that he will not Believe it to be bitter though he cannot answer all that is said against it If another would perswade you to believe ill of your dearest friend or Father Love and experience would better preserve you from his deceit than reasoning would do The new creature or new nature in believers and the experience of Gods Love communicated by Jesus Christ unto their souls are constant witnesses to the word of God He that believeth hath the witness in himself that is The Holy Ghost which was given him which is an objective testimony or an evidence and an effective Of this see my Treat of Infidelity Unsanctified men may be 〈◊〉 turned to Infidelity For they never felt the renewed quickning work of faith nor were â—vâ—â— brought by it to the Love of God and a holy and heavenly mind and â—iâ—â— They that never were Christians at the Heart are soonest turned from being Christians in opinion and name Quest. BY what Reason evidence or obligation were the Iews bound to believe the Prophets Seing Isaiah Jeremy Ezekiel c. wrought no miracles and there were false Prophets in their daies How then câ—uld any man know that indeed they were sent of God when they nakedly affirmed it Answ. I mention this objection or case because in my book of the Reas. of Christian Religion to which for all the rest I refer the Reader it is forgotten And because it is one of the hardest questions about our faith 1. Those that think that every book of Scripture doth now prove it self to be Divine propâ—ia luce by its own matter stile and other properties will accordingly say that by Hearing the Prophets then as well as by Reading them now this intrinsick satisfactory evidence was discâ—â—nable All that I can say of this is that there are such Characters in the Prophecies as are a help to faith as making it the more easily credible that they are of God but not such as I could have been ascertained by especially as delivered by parcels then if there had been no more 2. Nor do I acquiâ—sce in their answer who say that Those that have the same spirit know the stile of the spirit in the Prophets For 1. This would suppose none capable of believing them groundedly that had not the same spirit 2. And the spirit of sanctification is not enough to our discerning Prophetical inspirations as reason and experience fully proveth The guist of discerning spirits 1 Cor. 12. 10. was not common to all the sanctified 3. It is much to be observed that God never sent any Prophet to make a Law or Covenant on which the salvation of the people did depend without the attestation of unquestionable Miracles Moses wrought numerous open miracles and such as controlled and confuted the contradictors seeming Miracles in Egypt And Christ and his Apostles wrought more than Moses So that these Laws and Covenants by which God would rule and judge the people were all confirmed beyond all just exception 4. It must be noted that many other Prophets also wrought Miracles to confirm their doctrine and prove that they were sent of God as did Elias and Elisha 5. It must be noted that there were Schools of Prophets or Societies of them in those times 1 Sam. 10. 10. 19. 20. 1 Kings 20. 35 41. 22. 13. 2 Kings 2. 3 5 7 15. 4. 1 38. 5. 22. 6. 1. 9. 1. 1 Cor. 14. 32. Who were educated in such a way as fiâ—ted them to the reception of prophetical inspirations when it pleased God to give them Not that meer education made any one a Prophet nor that the Prophets had at all times the present actual guiâ—t of prophesie But God was pleased so far to own mens commanded diligence as to joyn his blessing to a meet education and at such times as he thought meet to illuminate such by Visions and revelations above all others And therefore it is spoken of Amos as a thing extraordinary that he was made a Prophet of a herdsman 6. Therefore a Prophet among the Jews was known to be such usually before these Recorded Prophecies of theirs which we have now in the Holy Scriptures 1. The spirits of the Prophets which are subject to the Prophets were judged of by those Prophets that had indeed the Spirit And so the people had the testimony of the other Prophets concerning them 2. The Lords own direction to know a true Prophet by Deut. 18. 22. is the coming to pass of that which he foretelleth Now it is like that before they were received into the number of Prophets they had given satisfaction to the societies of the Prophets by the events of things before foretold by them 3. Or they might have wrought miracles before to have satisfied the members of the Colledge of their calling though these Miracles are not all mentioned in the Scripture 4. Or the other Prophets might have some Divine testimony concerning them by visions revelations or
against it at large before Chap. 3. Direct 6. 8. but shall add these â—ew § 2. Direct 1. Remember the Majesty and presence of that Most Holy God with whom we have to dâ— Direct 1. Heb. 4. 13. Nothing will more affect and awe the heart and over-rule it in the matters of Religion than the true knowledge of God We will not talk sleepily or contemptuously to a King How much less should we be stupid or contemptuous before the God of Heaven It is that God whom Angels worship that sustaineth the world that keepeth us in life that is alwayes present observing all that we think or say or do whose commands are upon us and with whom we have to do in all things and shall we be hardned against his fear Who hath hardned himself against him and hath prospered Job 9. 4. § 3. Direct 2. Think well of the unspeakable greatness and importance of those Truths and Things Direct 2. which should affect you and of those duties which are required of you Eternity of Iâ—y or Torment is such an amazing thing that one would think every thought and every mention either of it or of any thing that concerneth it should go to our very hearts and deeply affect us and should command the obedience and service of our souls It is true they are things unseen and therefore less apt in that respect to affect us than things visible But the Greatness of them should recompence that disadvantage a thousand fold If our lives laâ— upon every word we speak or upon every step we go how carefully should we speak and go But O how deeply should things affect us which our everlasting life is concerned in One would think a thing of so great moment as dying and passing into an endless life of pain or pleasure should so take up and transport the mind of mâ—n that we should have much ado to bring our selves to mind regard or talk of the inconsiderable interests of the flâ—sh How unexcusable a thing is a sensless careless negligent heart when God looketh on us and Heaven or Hell is a little before us Yea when we are so heavily laden with our sins and compassed about with so many enemies and in the midst of such great and manifold dangers to be yet sensless under all is so far to be dead Will not the wounds of sin and the threatnings of the Law and the accuâ—â—tions of conscience make you feel He that cannot feel the prick of a Pin will feel the stab of a Dagger if he be alive § 4. Direct 3. Remember how near the time is when stupidity and sensless neglect of God will be banished Direct 3. from all the world and what certain and powerful means are before you at death and judgement Lento gradu ad vindictaâ—â— suâ— Divina procâ—dit ira â—arditatemque supplâ—â—iâ— gravitare compensat Valerius Maâ— de Dioâ—ys l. 1. c. 2. to awaken and pierce the hardest heart There are but few that are quite insensible at Death There are none past feeling after death in Heaven or Hell No man will stand before the Lord in the day of Judgement with a sleepy or a sensless heart God will recover your feeling by misery if you will lose it by sin and not recover it by grace He can make you now a terror to your selves Ier. 20. 4. He can make conscience say such things in secret to you as you shall not be able to forget or slight But if conscience awake you not the approach of Death its likely will awake you when you see that God is now in earnest with you and that dye you must and there is no remedy will you not begin to think now whither must I go and what will become of me for ever Will you then harden your heart against God and his warnings If you do the first moment of your entrance upon Eternity will cure your stupidity for ever It would grieve a heart that is not stone to think what a feeling stony hearted sinners will shortly have When God will purposely make them feel with his wrathful streams of fire and brimstone When Satan that now hindereth your feeling will do his worst to make you feel and Conscience the never dying Worm will gnaw your hearts and make them feel without ease or hope of remedy Think what a wakening day is coming § 5. Direct 4. Think often of the Love of God in Christ and of the bloody sufferings of thy Redeemer Direct 4. for it hath a mighty power to melt the heart Iâ— Love and the Love of God and so great and wonderful a Love will not soften thy hardned heart what will § 6. Direct 5. Labour for a full apprehension of the evil and danger of a Hardned heart It is Direct 6. the Death of the soul so far as it prevaileth At the easiest it is like the stupidity of a paralytical member or a seared part Observe the names which Scripture giveth it The Hardning of the heart Prov 28. 14. The hardning of the neck Prov. 29. 10. which signifieth Inflexibility The hardning the face which signifieth impudency Prov. 21. 29. The seâ—redness of the Conscience 1 Tim. 4. 2. The Impenitency of the heart Rom. 2. 5. Sometime it is called sottishness or stupidity Ier. 4. 22. Sometime it is called a not caring or not laying things to heart and not regarding Isa. 42. 25. 5. 12. 32. 9 10 11. Sometime it is denominated metaphorically from inanimates A face harder than a rock Jer. 5. 3. Stony hearts Ezek. 11. 19. 36. 26. A neck with an Iron sinew Isa. 48. 4. and a brow of brass It is called sleep and a deep slumber and a Spirit of slumber Rom. 13. 11. 11. 8. Matth. 25. 5. and Death it self 1 Tim 5. 6. Ephes. 2. 1. 5. Col. 2. 13. Jude 12. § 7. Observe also how dreadful a case it is if it be predominant both symptomatically and effectively It is a fore-runner of mischief Prov. 28. 14. It is a dreadful sign of one that is far more unlikely than others to be converted when they are alienated from the life of God by their ignorance and are past feeling they are given up to work uncleanness with greediness Ephes. 4. 14. Usually God calleth those that he will save before they are past feeling Though such are not hopeless their hope lyeth in the recovering of the feeling which they want And a hardned heart and Iron neck and brazen forehead is a sadder sign of Gods displeasure than if he had made the Heavens as Brass and the Earth as Iron to you or let out the greatest distress upon your bodies When men have eyes and see not and ears and hear not and hearts but understand not it is a sad prognostick that they are very unlikely to be converted and forgiven Mark 4. 12. Acts 28. 27. A hardned heart prâ—dominantly is garrisoned and fortified by Satan against all the means
22. Live continually as one that is going to be judged at the barr of God where all Direct 22. Hypocrisie will be opened and shamed and Hypocrites condemned by the All-knowing God One thought of our appearing before the Lord and of the day of his impartial judgement one would think should make men walk as in the light and teach them to understand that the Sun is not eclipsed as oft as they wink nor is it night because they draw the Curtains What a shame will it be to have all your dissimulation laid open before all the world Luke 12. 1 2 3. Beware of the leven of the Pharisâ—es which is Hypocrisie For there is nothing covered which shall not be revealed neither â—id that shall not be known Therefore what ever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed on the house tops § 28. Direct 23. Think not that you avoid Hypocrisie by changing the expressions of it but see that Direct 23. you run not into a more subtile kind while you avoid a grossee There is no outward way of worshipping God nor no opinion in Religion so sound but an Hypocrite can make a cloak of it You see an ignorant ridiculous Hypocrite such as Bishop Hall describeth in his character that can pray up to a Pillar when his heart knoweth not what his tongue is doing that babbleth over a few words to God while he is dressing or washing him and talking between to the standers by who offereth to God the Sacrifice of a fool and knoweth not that he doth evil Eccles. 5. 2. that serveth God with toyes and antick gestures and saying over certain words which were never acquainted with the feeling of his heart nor scarce with his understanding And to avoid his hypocrisie perhaps you can merrily deride him and make a formal Popish Hypocrite the subject of your jeasts and you can your selves with good understanding poure out your selves many hours togethers in orderly and meet expressions of prayer But remember that many an Hypocrite maketh himself a cloak of as good stuff as this And that as Pride hath more advantage to work upon your greater knowledge and better parts so Hypocrisie is but the off-spring of Pride All this without a Heart entirely devoted unto God is but a carkass better drâ—sâ— as the rich have more curious monuments than the poor There is no outside thing in which an Hypocrite may not seem excellent Direct 24. § 29. Direct 24. Be true to Conscience and hearken diligently to all it saith and be often treating Quid proâ—â—st reâ—o dâ—â—eâ—se oâ—â—â—â—os hoâ—â—num auâ—eâ—que viâ—are â—â—â—â—a 〈…〉 entia tâ—â—â—â—m ad 〈…〉 maâ—â— aâ—â—em in so 〈…〉 anxâ—â— â—oâ—â—â—â—iâ—a est Sâ— honesta sunt quae sa is omnes sâ—â—ant Sâ— turyâ—a quid reâ—ert neminem sâ—â—re cum â—u tu scias Oâ—â— miserum si câ—ntâ—mâ—ts â—unâ—â—â—â—â—em Sâ—â— Ep. 9â— Matth. 23. 13 14 15 23 25 27 29. with it and daily conversant and well acquainted with it Hypocrites bear little reverence to their Consciences They make so often and so grosly bold with them that Conscience is deposed from its office at the present and 〈…〉 d by them lest it should gall them by preaching to them those hard sayings which they cannot bâ—â—â—â— And perhaps at last it is â—eared or bribed to take part with sin But usually an Hypocrite hath â— secret Judge within him which condemneth him Take heed how you use your Consciences as you love your peace or happiness Next Christ it must be your best friend or your gr 〈…〉 y Palliate it how you will at present if you wound it it will smart at last And it is easier to bear poverty or shame or torment than to bear its wounds Prov. 18. 14. 1. Mark the very principles and former judgement of your Consciences and if they are changed know what changed them 2. Hearken to all the secret counsel and reproofs of Conscience especially when it speaketh oft and terribly Turn it not off without a hearing yea know the reason of its very scruples and doubts 3. When it is sick and disquieted know what the matter is Psal 53. 5. and vomit up the matter that justly disquiets it whatever it cost you and be sure you go to the bottom and do not leave the root behind 4. Open your Consciences to some able trusty guide when it is necessary though it cost you shame An over-tender avoiding of such shame is the Hypocrites sin and folly Counsel is safe in matters of such importance 5. Prefer Conscience before all men how great soever None is above it but God It is Gods messenger when it is Conscience indeed Remember what it saith to you and from whom and for what end Let friends and neighbours and company and basiness and profit and sports and honour stand by and all give place whilst Conscience speaketh For it will be a better friend to you than any of these if you use it as a friend It would have been better to Iudas than his thirty pieces were 6 Yet see that it be well informed and see its commission for it is not above God nor is it masterless or lawless 7. Converse not with it only in a crowd but in secret Psal. 4. 4. 8. Keep it awake and keep it among awakening means and company It will much sooner fall asleep in an Ale-house or a Play-house or among the foolish and prophane than at a lively Sermon or Prayer or reverent discourse of God If I could but get Conscience awakened to perform its office and preach over all this that I have said in secret it would â—â—rret the Hypocrite out of his self-deceit Go Conscience and search that deceitful heart and speak to it in the Name of God Ask that Hypocrite whether Conversion ever made him a new Creature and whether his soul and all that he hath be entirely devoted unto God and whether his hopes and treasure be laid up in Heaven and his heart be there and whether he subject all his worldly interest to the Will of God and the interest of his soul and whether his greatest work be about his Heart and to approve himself to God and whether he make an impartial diligent enquiry after the truth with a desire to receive it at the dearest rates Tell him that a proud self-flattery may now make him justifie or extenuate his sins and take his formalities and lip-service and abuse of God for true devotion and hate every man that would detect his hypocrisie and convert him by bringing in the light But a light will shortly appear to his soul which he shall not resist And then let him stand to his justification if he can and let him then make it good that he gave up himself in sincerity simplicity and self-denyal to his God § 30. Direct 25. Remember that Hypocrisie lyeth much in doubling and
their opinion or sâ—ct We little consider how great a hand this Pride hath had in our desolations God hath been scattering the proud of all sorts in the imaginations of their own hearts â—â—ke 1. 51. § 88. Direct 7. Look to a humbled Christ to humble you Can you be proud while you believe Direct 7. that your Saviour was cloathed with flesh and lived in meanness and made himself of no reputation and was despised and scorned and spit upon by sinners and shamefully used and nailed as a malefactor to a cross The very incarnation of Christ is a condescension and humiliation enough to pose both â—â—th â—â—4 Mâ—â—â—â—0 men and Angels transcending all belief but such as God himself produceth by his supernatural testimony and spirit And can Pride look a crucified Christ in the face or stand before him Did God take upon him the form of a servant and must thou domineer and have the highest place Had Joâ—â— 1â— â—◠〈◊〉 2 â— 8 9 10. not Christ a place to lay his head on and must thou needst have thy adorned well-furnished rooms Must thou needs brave it out in the most fantastick fashion instead of thy Saviours seamless coat Doth he pray for his murderers And must thou be revenged for a word or petty wrong Is he patiently spit upon and buffeted And art thou ready through proud impatiencie to spit upon or busâ—â—t others Surely he that condemned sin in the flesh condemned no sin more than Pride § 89. Direct 8. Look to the examples of the most eminent saints and you will see they were all Direct 8. most eminent in humility The Apostles before the coming down of the Holy Ghost on them contended which of them should be the greatest which Christ permitted that he might most sharply rebuke it and leave his warning to all his Ministers and Disciples to the end of the world that they 〈◊〉 12. 7. 〈◊〉 44 13. that would be greatest must be the servants of all and that they must by conversion become as little children or never enter into the Kingdom of God But afterward in what humility did these Apostles labour and live and suffer in the world Paul made himself a servant unto all that he might gain the more though he was free from all men 1 Cor. 9. 19. They submitted themselves to all the injuries and affronts of men to be accounted the plagues and troublers of the world and as the scorn 1 Cor. 4. 12 13 14 15. Acts 24. 5. and off-scouring of all things and a gazing stock to Angels and to men And are you better than they If you are you are more humble and not more proud § 90. Direct 9. Look to the holy Angels that condescend to minister for man and think on the blessed Direct 9. souls with God how far they are from being proud And remember if ever thou come to Heaven how far thou wilt he from pride thy self Such a sight as Isaiahs would take doâ—n pride Isa. 6. 1 2 3. I saw the Lord sitting upon a Throne high and lifted up and his train filled the Temple Above it stood the Sâ—raphims Each one had six wings with two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet and with two he fled signifying Humility Purity and obedience And one cryed unto another and said Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts His Glory is the fulness of the whole earth So Rev. 4. 8. and vers 10. The Elders fâ—ll down and â—ast down their Crowns before him that sitteth on the Throne Look up to Heaven and you 'l abhor your pride § 91. Direct 10. Look upâ—n the great imperfection of thy grace and duties Should that man be Direct 10. proud that hath so little of the spirit and image of Jesus Christ That believeth no more and feareth God no more And loveth him no more And can no better trust in him nor rest upon his word and love Nor no more delight in him nor in his holy laws and service One would think that the lamentable weakness of any one of all these graces should take down pride and abase you in your own eyes Is he a Christian that doth not even abhor himself when he perceiveth how little he loveth his God and how little all his meditations on the Love and blood of Christ and of the infinite Goodness of God and of the heavenly Glory do kendle the fire and warm his heart Can we observe the darkness of our minds and ignorance of God and strangness to the life to come and the woful weakness of our faith and not be abased to a loathing of our selves Can we choose but even abhor those hearts that can love a friend and love the toys and vanities of this life and yet can love their God no more That take no more pleasure in his name and praise and word and service when they can find pleasure in the accomodations of their flesh Can we choose but loath those hearts that are so averse to God so loth to think of him so loth to pray to him so weary of prayer or holy meditation or any duty and yet so forward to the business and recreations of the flesh Can we feel how coldly and unbelievingly we pray how ignorantly or carnalâ—y we discourse how confusedly and vainly we think and how slothfully we work and how unprofitably we live and yet be proud and not be covered with shame O for a serious Christian to feel how little of God of Christ of Heaven is upon his heart and how little appeareth in any eminent holiness and fruitfullness and heavenliness of life is so humbling a consideration that we have much ado to own our selves and not lie down as utterly desolate Should that soul admit a thought of pride that hath so little Grace as to be uncertain whether he have any at all in sincerity or not That cannot with assurance call God Father or plead his interest in Christ or in the promises nor knoweth not if he dye this hour whether he shall go to Heaven or Hell Should he be proud that is no readier to dye and no more assured of the pardon of sin nor willinger to appear before the Lord If one pained member will make you groan and walk dejectedly though all the rest do feel no pain a soul that hath this universal weakness a weakness that is so sinful and so dangerous hath cause to be continually humbled to the dust § 92. Direct 11. Look upon thy great and manifold sins which dwell in thy heart and have been Direct 11. committed in thy life and there thou wilt see cause for great humiliation If thy body were full of Toads and Serpents and thou couldst see or feel them crawling in thee wouldst thou then be proud Why so many sins are ten thousand fold worse and should make thee far viler in thy own esteem If thou were possessed with Devils and knewest it wouldst
pleasure do waste many hours day after day in Plays and Gaming and Voluptuous courses while their miserable souls are dead in sin enslaved to their fleshly lusts unreconciled to God and find no delight in him or in his service and cannot make a recreation of any Heavenly work How will it torment these unhappy souls to think how they plaid away those hours in which they might have been pleasing God and preventing misery and laying up a treasure in Heaven And to think that they sold that precious time for a little fleshly sport in which they should have been working out their salvation and making their calling and election sure But I have more to say to these anon § 58. Th. 9. Another Time-wasting Thief is excess of worldly cares and business These do not Thief 9. only as some more disgraced sins pollute the soul with deep stains in a little time and then recede but they dwell upon the mind and keep possession and keep out good They take up the greatest part of the lives of those that are guilty of them The world is first in the morning in their thoughts and last at night and almost all the day The world will not give them leave to entertain any sober fixed thoughts of the world to come nor to do the work which all works should give place to The World devoureth all the Time almost that God and their souls should have It will not give them leave to Pray or Read or Meditate or Discourse of holy things even when they seem to be Praying or hearing the Word of God the World is in their thoughts And as it 's said Ezek. 33. 31. They come unto thee as the people cometh and they sit before thee as my people and they hear thy words but they will not do them for with their mouth they shew much love but their heart goeth after their Covetousness In most families there is almost no talk nor doings but all for the world These also will know that they had greater works for their precious time which should have always had the precedency of the World § 59. Th. 10. Another Time-waster is vain ungoverned and sinful thoughts When men are wearied Thief 10. with vain works and sports they continue unwearied in vain thoughts when they want company for vain Discourse and Games they can waste the time in idle or lustful or ambitious or Covetous thoughts alone without any company In the very night time while they wake and as they travail by the way yea while they seem to be serving God they will be wasting the Time in useless thoughts so that this devoureth a greater proportion of pretious Time than any of the former when Time must be reckoned for what abundance will be found upon most mens accounts as spent in idle sinful thoughts O watch this Thief and remember though you may think that a vain Thought is but a little sin yet Time is not a little or contemptible commodity nor to be cast away on so little a thing as idle thoughts and to vilifie thus so choice a treasure is not a little sin And that it is not a little work that you have to do in the Time which you thus wast And a daily course of idle thoughts doth waste so great a measure of time that this aggravation maketh it more heynous than many sins of greater infamy But of this more in the next part § 60. Th. 11. Another dangerous Time-wasting sin is the Reading of vain-Books Play-books Romances Thief 11. and feigned Histories and also unprofitable studies undertaken but for vain-glory or the pleasing of a carnal or curious mind Of this I have spoken in my Book of Self-denyal I speak not here how pernicious this vice is by corrupting the fancy and affections and breeding a diseased appetite and putting you out of relish to necessary things But bethink you before you spend another hour in any such Books whether you can comfortably give an account of it unto God! and how precious the Time is which you are wasting on such Childish toys You think the Reading of such things is lawful but is it lawful to lose your precious Time you say that your petty studies are desirable and laudable But the neglect of far greater necessary things is not laudable I discourage no man from labouring to know all that God hath any way revealed to be known But I say as Seneca We are ignorant of things necessary because we learn things superfluous and unnecessary Art is long and life is short And he that hath not time for all should make sure of the greatest matters and if he be ignorant of any thing let it be of that which the Love of God and our own and other mens salvation and the publick good do least require and can best spare It s a pitiful thing to see a man waste his time in criticizing or in growing wise in the less necessary Sciences and arts while he is yet a slave of pride or worldliness and hath an unrenewed soul and hath not learned the mysteries necessary to his own salvation But yet these studies are laudable in their season But the Fanatick studies of those that would pry into unrevealed things and the lascivious employment of those that read Love-books and Play-books and vain stories will one day appear to have been but an unwise expense of Time for those that had so much better and more needful work to do with it I think there is few of those that plead for it that would be found with such Books in their hands at death or will then find any pleasure in the remembrance of them § 61. Th. 12. But the Master-Thief that robs men of their Time is an unsanctified ungodly heart Thief 12. For this loseth Time whatever men are doing Because they never truly intend the Glory of God and having not a right principle or a right end their whole course is Hell-wards and whatever they do they are not working out their salvation And therefore they are still losing their Time as to themselves however God may use the Time and gifts of some of them as a mercy to others Therefore a New and Holy Heart with a Heavenly intention and design of life is the great thing necessary to all that will savingly Redeem their Time Tit. 5. On whom this duty of Redeeming Time is principally incumbent § 62. THough the Redeeming of Time be a duty of grand importance and necessity to all yet all these sorts following have special obligations to it Sort. 1. Those that are in the youth and vigour of their Time nature is not yet so much corrupted in Sort 1. you as in old accustomed sinners your hearts are not so much hardened sin is not so deeply rooted and confirmed Satan hath not triumphed in so many victories you are not yet plunged so deep as others into worldly incumbrances and cares your understanding memory and
the Holy Ghost to lead men by obedience to felicity Behold it with reverence as a Letter or Message sent from Heaven and as a thing of grand importance to your souls When you meditate of any Grace think on it as a part of the Image of God implanted and actuated by the Holy Ghost to advance the soul into communion with God and prepare it for him When you meditate on any Duty remember who commandeth it and whom you are chiefly to respect in your obedience and what will be the end of obeying or disobeying When you meditate on any sin remember that it is the defacing or privation of Gods image and the rebell that riseth up against him in all his attributes to depose him from the Government of the soul and of the world and foresee the End to which it tendeth Take in God if you would feel Life and Power in all that you meditate on § 21. Direct 7. Let your ordinary Meditations be on the Great and Necessary things and think Direct 7. less frequently on the less Necessary matters Meditation is but a means to a further end It is to work some good upon the soul Use therefore those subjects which are most powerful and fit to work it Great truths will do great works upon the heart They are usually the surest and most past controversie and doubt There is more weight and substance and power in one Article of the Creed or one Petition in the Lords Prayer or one Commandment in the Decalogue to benefit the soul than in abundance of the controverted opinions which men have troubled themselves and others with in all ages As one purse of Gold will buy more than a great quantity of Farthings Meditating on Great and weighty truths makes Great and weighty Christians And meditating inordinately on light and controverted opinions makes light opinionative contentious professors Little things may have their time and place but it must be but little time and the last place except when God maketh any little thing to be the matter of our lawful calling and employment as all the common matters of the world are little And then they may have a larger proportion of our time though still they must have the lowest place in our estimation and in our hearts § 22. Direct 8. When ever you are called to meditate on any smaller truth or thing see that you Direct 8. take it not as separated from the greater but still behold it as connexed to them and planted and growing in them and receiving their life and beauty from them so that you may still preserve the life and interest of the greatest matters in your hearts and may not mortifie the least and turn it into a deceit or idol We are to climb upwards and not to descend downwards and therefore we begin at the body of the Tree and so pass up to the few and greatest boughs and thence to the smaller numerous branches which as they are hard to be discerned numbred and remembred so are they not all strong enough to bear us but are fitted rather to be looked on than trodden and rested on But if you take them not as growing from the greater boughs but cut them off they lose their life and beauty and fruitfulness If all the Controversies in the Church had been managed with due honour and preservation of Holiness Charity Unity Peace and greater truths and if all the circumstantials in Religion had been ordered with a salvo and due regard and just subsâ—rviency to the power and spirituality of holy Worship the Christian world would have had more Life and strength and fruitfulness and less imagery unholy ludicrous complement and hypocrisie § 23. Direct 9. Let the end and order of your meditations be first for the setling of your judgements Direct 9. and next for the resalving and setling of your wills and thirdly for the reforming and bettering of your lives and but in the fourth place after all these for the raising of your holy passions or lively feeling which must have but its proper room and place But indeed where some of these are done already they may be supposed and we may proceed to that which is yet to do As if you know what is sin and duty but do it not your meditation must be not to make you know what you knew not but first to consider well of what you know and set the powerful truth before you and then labour hereby to bring your wills to a fixed Resolution of obedience But if it be a Truth whose principal use is on the Will and Affections as to draw up the heart to the Love of God by the meditating on his attractive excellencies then the most pains must there be taken Of which see Chap. 3. Direct 11. § 24. Direct 10. Turn your cogitations often into soliloquies methodically and earnestly preaching Direct 10. to your own hearts as you would do on that subject to others if it were to save their souls As this will keep you in order from rambling and running out and will also find you continual matter Of this see the third part of my Saints Rest more fully For method is a wonderful help both to invention memory and delight so it will bring things soonest to your affections An earnest pleading of convincing reasons with our own Hearts is a powerful way to make the fire burn and to kindle desire fear love hatred repentings shame sorrow joy resolution or any good effect Convictions upbraidings expostulations reprehensions and self-perswasions may be very powerful when a dull way of bare thinking is but like a dull way of preaching without any lively application which little stirs the hearers Learn purposely of the liveliest Books you read and of the best and liveliest Preachers you hear to preach to your hearts and use it orderly and you will find it a most powerful way of meditating § 25. Direct 11. Turn your meditations often into ejaculatory prayers and addresses unto God For Direct 11. that will keep you reverent serious and awake and make all the more powerful because the more Divine When you meditate on sin turn sometimes to God by penitent lamentation and say Lord what a wretch and rebell was I to entertain such an enemy of thine into my heart and for nothing to offend thee and violate thy Laws O pardon O cleanse me O strengthen me Conquer and â—ast out this odious enemy of thee and me So when you are seeking to excite or exercise any grace send up a fervent request to God to shew his Love and power upon thy dead and sluggish heart and to be the principal agent in a work which is so much his own Prayer is a most holy duty in which the soul hath so nearly to do with God that if there be any holy seriousness in the heart it will be thus excited A dull and wandring mind will bear some reverence to God and therefore
alloweth and requireth him to make the exercises of his mind on things sublime and holy and the affecting of his heart with them to be his principal business which taketh up the most of his time And we call that an Active obediential life when a mans state and calling requireth him to spend the chief part of his time in some external labour or vocation tending to the good of our selves and others As Artificers Tradesmen Husbandmen Labourers Physicions Lawyers Pastors and Preachers of the Gospel Soldiers and Magistrates all live an Active life which should be a life of Obedience to God Though among these some have much more time for contemplation than others And some few there are that are exempt from both these and are called to live a Passive obediential life that is such a life in which their obedient bearing of the Cross and patient suffering and submission to the chastising or trying will of God is the most eminent and principal service they can do him above Contemplation or Action § 2. Quest. 2. Must every man do his best to â—ast off all worldly and external labours and to retire Quest. 2. himself to a contemplative life as the most excellent Answ. No No man should do so without a special necessity or call For there are general precepts Gal. 6. 10. 2 Thess. 3. on all that are able that we live to the benefit of others and prefer the common good and as we have opportunity do good to all men and love our neighbours as our selves and do as we would be done by which will put us upon much action and that we labour before we eat And for a man unnecessarily to cast off all the service of his life in which he may be profitable to others is a burying or hiding his Masters talents and a neglect of charity and a sinning greatly against the Law of Love As we have Bodies so they must have their work as well as our souls § 3. Quest. 3. Is a life of Contemplation then lawful to any man and to whom Quest. 3. Answ. It is lawful and a duâ—y and a great mercy to some to live almost wholly yea all together Who are called to a contemplative life in contemplation and prayer and such holy exercises And that in these cases following 1. In case that Age hath disabled a man to be serviceable to others by an active life and when a man hath already spent his dayes and strength in doing all the good he can and being now disabled hath special reason to improve the rest of his decrepite age in more than ordinary preparations for his death and in holy communion with God 2. So also when we are disabled by sickness 3. And when imprisonment restraineth us from an active life or profitting others 4. And when persecution forceth Christians to retire into solitudes and Desarts to reserve themselves for better times and places or when prudence telleth them that their prayers in solitude may do more good than at that time their Martyrdom were like to do 5. When a Student is preparing himself for the Ministry or other active life â—o which a contemplative life is the way 6. When poverty or Wars or the rage of enemies disableth a man from all publick converse and driveth him into solitude by unavoidable necessity 7. When the number of those that are fit for action is so sufficient and the parts of the person are so insufficient and so the need and use of them in an active life so small that all things considered holy impartial prudence telleth him that the good which he could do to others by an active life is not like to countervail the losses which he should himself receive and the good which his very example of a holy and heavenly life might do and his occasional counsels and precepts and resolutions to those who come to him for advice being drawn by the estimation of his holy life in this case it is lawful to give up ones self to a contâ—mplâ—tiâ—â— life For that which maketh most to his own good and to others is past doubt lawful and a duâ—y Anna departed not from the Temple but served God with â—â—sting and prayer night and day Luke 2. 36 37. Whether the meaning be that she strictly kept the hours of prayer in the Temple and the fasting twice a Week or frequently or whether she took up her habitation in the houses of some of the Officers of the Temple devoting her self to the service of the Temple it is plain that either way she did something besides praying and fasting Even as the Widows under the Gospel who were also to continue in prayer and supplication night and day 1 Tim. 5. 5. and yet were employed in the service of the Church in over-seeing the younger and â—eaching them to be sober c. Tit. 2. 4. which is an active life But however Anna's practice be expounded if this much that I have granted would please the Monasticks we would not dâ—â—â—â—r with them § 4. Quest. 4. How far are those in an active life to use Contemplation Quâ—â—â—â— 4. Answ. With very great difference 1. According to the difference of their Callings in the world and the Offices in which they are ordinarily to serve God 2. And according to the difference of their Abilities and fitness for Contemplation or for Action 3. According to the difference of their particular opportunities 4. According to the difference of the necessities of others which may require their help 5. And of their own necessities of Action or Contemplation Which I shall more particularly determine in certain Rules § 5. 1. Every Christian must use so much contemplation as is necessary to the Loving of God Rule 1. above all and to the worshipping of him in Spirit and in truth and to a heavenly mind and conversation and to his due preparation for death and judgement and to the refâ—rring all his common works to the glory and pleasing of God that Holiness to the Lord may be written upon all and all that he hath may be sanctified or devoted with himself to God § 6. 2. The calling of a Minister of the Gospel is so perfectly mixt of contemplation and Rule 2. action that though Action denominate it as being the End and Chief yet he must be excellent in both If they be not excellent in contemplation they will not be meet to stand so much nearer to God than the people do and to sanctifie him when they draw near him and glorifie him before all the people nor will they be fit for the opening of the heavenly mysteries and working that on the peoples hearts which never was on their own And if they be not Excellent in an Active life they will betray the peoples souls and never go through that painful diligence and preaching in season and out of season publickly and from house to house day and night with tears which Paul
the Christian faith and in taking better Rooting than you had at your first believing and in growing upward into a greater knowledge of God and into greater Love of him and heavenly mindedness and then in growing up to greater skill and ability and readiness to do him service in the world Know as much as you can know of the works of God and of the languages and customs of the world but still remember that to know God in Christ better is the growth which you must daily study And when you know them most you have still much more need to know better these great things which you know already than to know more things which you never knew The Roots of faith may still increase and the branches and fruits of Love may be still greater and sweeter As long as you live you may still know better the Reasons of your Religion though not better Reasons and you may know better how to use your knowledge And whatever you know let it be that you may be led up to Know God more or Love him more or serve him better § 11. Direct 5. With fear and detestation watch and resolve against all carnal worldly ends and see that your hearts be not captivated by your fleshly interest nor grow not to a high esteem of the pleasures or profits or honours of this world nor to relish any fleshly accommodations as very pleasant and desirable but that you take up with God and the hopes of Glory as your satisfying portion and follow Christ as Cross-bearers denying your selves and dead to the world and resolved and prepared to forsake all for his sake § 12. These are words that you can easily say your selves but these are things that are so hardly Direct 5. learnt that many of the most Learned and Reverend perish for want of being better acquainted with them And I shall never take that man to be wisely learned that hath not learnt to scape damnation Christs Cross is to be learned before your Alphabet To impose the Cross is quickly learnt but to learn to bear it is the difficulty To lay the Cross on others is to be the followers of Pilate but to bear it when it is laid on us is to be the followers of Christ. If you grow corrupted with a love of honour and riches and preferment and come to the study of Divinity with a fleshly worldly mind and End you will but serve Satan while you seem to be seeking after God and damn your souls among the doctrines and means of salvation and go to God for materials to chain you faster to the Devil and steal a nail from Divinity to fasten your ears unto his door And you little know how Iudas's gain will gripe and torment the awakened Conscience and how the rust will witness against you and how it will eat your flesh as fire Iam. 5. 3. § 13. Direct 6. Digest all that you know and turn it into holy Habits and expect that success Direct 6. first on your selves which if you were to Preach you would expect in others Remembring that knowing Primum contemplativae sapientiae rudimentum est meditati condisceâ—e loquitari dediscere Paul Scalig. Thes. p. 730. is not the end of knowing but it is as eating to the body where health and strength and service is the end § 14. Every Truth of God is his candle which he sets up for you to work by It is as food that is for Life and action You lose all the knowledge which ends in knowing To fill your head and common-place-book is not all that you have to do But to fortifie and quicken and enflame your hearts Good habits are the best provision for a Preacher The habits of the Mind are better than the best library But if the Habits of Heavenly love and life in the heart do not concur the Heart and life of a Preacher and a Scholar is wanting still for all your knowledge Study Pauls words 1 Cor. 8. 1. Knowledge pusseth up but charity edifieth If he had said that knowledge edifieth others and charity saveth our selves he would have said nothing that is strange But even as to edification charity hath the precedency § 15. Direct 7. Yea see that you excell the unlearned as much in Holiness as you do in knowledge Direct 7. unless you will perswade them that your knowledge is a useless worthless thing and unless you would be judged as unprofitable servants § 16. Every degree of Knowledge is for a further degree of Holiness Ten Talents must be improved to ten more They that know and do not are beaten with many stripes The Devils Schoars look on the godly that are unlearned with hatred and disdain and preach to their discouragement and disgrace and strive to set and keep true Godliness in the stocks But Christs Ministers love Holiness where ever they see it and are ashamed to think that the unlearned should be more holy and heavenly than they and strive to go beyond them as much in the use and ends of knowledge as in knowledge it self And with Austin lament that while the unlearned take Heaven by violence the learned are thrust out into Hell as thinking it is their part to know and teach and other mens to practise § 17. Direct 8. Cast not away a moment of your pretious time in idleness or impertinencies but Direct 8. follow your work diligently and with all your might § 18. I mean not that you should over-do and overthrow your brains and bodies nor forbear such sober exercise as is most necessary to your health For a sick body is an ill companion for a Student and much more a crazed brain But time-wasters are Lovers of pleasure or idleness more than of knowledge and holiness And wisdom falleth not into idle sluggish dreaming souls If you think it not worth your painfullest and closest studies you must take up with idle ignorance and go abroad with swelling Titles and empty brains as the deceivers and the scourges of the Church § 19. Direct 9. Keep up a Delight in all your studies and carry them not on in an unwilling weariness Direct 9. And if it be not by notable error in matter or method gratifie your delight with such things as you are best pleased with though they bring some smaller inconvenience because else your weariness may bring much more § 20. I know that a delight in sin and vanity is not to be gratified and force must be used with a backward mind in cases of necessity and weight But if it be but in the variety of subjects and the choice of pleasing studies which are profitable though simply some other might be fitter something is to be yielded to delight But especially the heart must be got to a delight in holy things And then time will be improved the memory will be helped much will be done and you will persevere And it will preserve the mind from temptations
Idolatry of the Israelites it is as they feared their Idols of Wood and Stone To fear them shewed that they took them for their Gods 2 Kings 17. 38 39. Dan. 6. 26. § 7. Direct 7. Consider that it is a folly to be inordinately fearful of that which never did befall Direct 7. thee and never befalleth one of many hundred thousand men I mean any terrible appearance of the Devil Thou never sawest him nor hearest credibly but of very few in an age that see him besides Witches This fear therefore is irrational the danger being utterly improbable § 8. Direct 8. Consider that if the Devil should appear to thee yea and carry thee to the top of Direct 8. a Mountain or the pinnacle of the Temple and talk to thee with blasphemous temptations it would be no other than what thy Lord himself submitted to who was still the dearly beloved of the Father Matth. 4. One sin is more terrible than this § 9. Direct 9. Remember that if God should permit him to appear to thee it might turn to thy very Direct 9. great advantage by killing all thy unbelief or doubts of Angels and Spirits and the unseen world It would sensibly prove to thee that there is indeed an unhappy race of Spirits who envy man and seek his ruine and so would more convince thee of the evil of sin the danger of souls the need of godliness and the truth of Christianity And it is like this is one cause why the Devil no more appeareth in the world not only because it is contrary to the ordinary Government of God who will have us live by faith and not by fight but also because the Devil knoweth how much it would do to destroy his Kingdom by destroying Infidelity Atheism and security and awakening men to faith and fear and godliness The Fowler or the Angler must not come in sight lest he spoil his Game by frighting it away § 10. Direct 10. If it be the spiritual temptations and molestations only of Satan which you fear Direct 10. remember that you have more cause to fear your selves for he can but tempt you and if you do not more against your selves than all the Devils in Hell can do you will never perish And if you are willing to accept and yield to Christ you need not inordinately fear either Satan or your selves For it is in the name and strength of Christ and under his conduct and protection that you are to begin and finish your warfare And the Spirit that is in us is greater and stronger than the Spirit that is in the world and that molesteth us 1 Iohn 4. 4. And the Father that giveth us to Christ is greater than all and none can pluck us out of his hands John 10. 29. And the God of peace will tread down Satan under our feet Rom. 16. 20. If it were in his power he would molest us daily and we had never escaped so far as we have done Our daily experience telleth us that we have a Protector Directions against the sinful fear of men and sufferings by them § 1. Direct 1. Bottom thy soul and hopes on Christ and lay up thy treasure in Heaven be not a Direct 1. worldling that liveth in hope of happiness in the creature and then thou art so far above the fear of men Omma Christe tuâ— superant tormenta ferendo Tollere quae nâ— queunt haec toleraâ—e queunt His vita â—aruisse fâ—uâ— est posâ—isse potiri Et superasse paâ—â— est superesse mori as knowing that thy treasure is above their reach and thy foundation and fortress safe from their assaults It is a base hypocritical worldly heart that maketh you immoderately afraid of men Are you afraid lest they should storm and plunder Heaven Or lest they cast you into Hell or lest they turn God against you or lest they bribe or over-awe your Judge No no these are none of your fears No you are not so much as afraid lest they hinder one of your prayers from prevailing with God nor lest their Prison walls and chains should keep out God and his Spirit from you and force you from your communion with him You are not afraid lest they forcibly rob you of one degree of grace or heavenly mindedness or hopes of the life to come If it be lest they hinder you from these by tempting or affrightning you into sin which is all the hurt they can do your souls then you are the more engaged to cast away the fears of their hurting your bodies because that is their very temptation to hurt your souls No it is their hurting of your flesh the diminishing your estates the depriving you of your liberty or worldly accommodations or of your Ad tribunal aeternum judicis justâ— provocatio salva est â—â— solet is perperam judicata resemderâ— Pâ—tra â—h Dial. 66. li. 2. lives which is the thing you fear And doth not this shew how much your hearts are yet on earth and how much unmortified worldliness and fleshliness is still within you and how much yet your hearts are false to God and Heaven O how the discovery should humble you to find that you are yet no more dead to the things of the world and that the Cross of Christ hath yet no more crucified it to you to find that yet the fleshly interest is so powerful in you and the interest of Christ and Heaven so low That God seemeth not enough for you and that you cannot take Heaven alone for your portion but are so much afraid of losing earth O presently search into the bottom of this corruption in your hearts and lament your worldliness and hypocrisie and work it out and set your hearts and hopes above and be content with God and Heaven alone and then this inordinate fear of man will have nothing left to work upon § 2. Direct 2. Set God against man and his wisdom against their policy and his Love and mercy Direct 2. against their malice and cruelty and his power against their impotency and his truth and omniscience and righteousness against their slanders and lies and his promises against their threatnings and then if yet thou art inordinately afraid of man thou must confess that in that measure thou believest not in God If God be not wise enough and good enough and just enough and powerful enough to save thee so far as it is â—est for thee to be saved then he is not God Away with Atbeism and then fear not man § 3. Direct 3. Remember what man is that thou art afraid of He is a bubble raised by Providence Direct 3. to 〈…〉 ut the world and for God to honour himself by or upon He is the meer product Joâ— 13. â—5 Psal. 1. 5 6. 68. 2. Psal. 73 20. Job 20. 8. Victor uticâ—â—â—â— saith of Au gustine that he dyed of fear Nunc illud eloquentiae quod ubertim per omnes
that toucheth not the heart neither Is it loss of children or friends or is it pain and sickness I confess these are sore but yet they do not touch the heart If they come thither it is your doing and though thither they should come moderately if they are immoderate it is your own sinful doing It is you that grieve and make the heart ake God and man did but make the flesh ake If others hurt your bodys will you therefore vex your minds Will you pierce through your hearts because they touch your name or goods If so remember which part of your sorrow is of their making and which is of your own And can you for shame go beg of Gâ—d or man to ease the grief which you your selves are causing and willfully continue it while you pray against it And why lament you that which you cause and choose It is a shame to be willfully your own tormentâ—r◠§ 20. Direct 14. Abhor all that tendeth to take down the power and government of Reason that is Direct 14. all fâ—â—bleness and câ—wardize of mind and a melancholy a piâ—vish passionate disposition and labour to keep up the authâ—rity of Reason and to keep all your passions subject to your wills which must be done by Christian faith and fortitude If you come once to that childish or distracted pass as to grieve and say I cannot help it I know it is sinful and immoderate but I cannot choose if you say true you are out of the reach of counsel advice or comfort You are not to be preacht to nor talkt to nor to be written for we do not write Directions to teach men how to touch the Stars or explain the Asperites or inequalities of the Moon or the Opacous parts of Saturn or to govern the Orbs or rule the Chariot of the Sun If it be become a natural impossibility to you Doctrine can give you no remedy But if the impossibility be but Moral in the weakness of your Reason and want of consideration it may by Doctrine Consideration and Resolution be overcome You can do more if you will than you think you can How come you to lose the command of your Passions Did not God make you a rational creature that hath an understanding and will to rule all Passions How come you to have lost the Ruling power of Reason and will You would take it for a disparagement to be told that you have lâ—st the use of your Reason And is it not a principal use of it to Rule the passions and all other inferior subject powers You say you cannot choose but grieve But if one could give you that creature which you want or desire then you could choose You could rejoyce if one could restore you that Child that Friend that Estate which you have lost But God and Christ and Heaven it seems are not enough to cure you if you must have but theâ— you cannot choose but grieve And what hearts have you then that are thus affected Should not those hearts be rather grieved for God will sometime make you see that you had more power than you used § 21. Direct 15. Observe the mischiefs of excessive sorrow that you may feel what reason you have Direct 15. to avoid it While you know not what hurt is in it you will be the more remiss in your resisting it I shall briefly name you some of its unhappy fruits § 22. 1. It is a continual pain and sickness of the mind This you know by feeling 2. It is a The ill effects of sinful grieâ— destroyer of bodily health and life For worldly sorrow worketh death 2 Cor. 7. 10. Prov. 17. 22. A merry heart doth good like a medicine but a broken spirit dryeth the the bones 3. It putteth the soul out of relish with its mercies and so causeth us to undervalue them and consequently to be unthankful for them and not to improve them 4. It destroyeth the sense of the Love of God and lamentably undisposeth the soul to Love them And therefore should be abhorred by us were it but for that Even Anaâ—agoâ—as a Philosopher could say â—o one that asked him Nullâ—m tibi paâ—riae â—ura est Mihi quidem pâ—â—â—â—iae cura est quidem summa digitum 〈…〉 lum intendâ—ns Laâ—rt p 85. one effect 5. It destroyeth the joy in the Holy Ghost and unfitteth us to obey that command of God Rejoyce continually 6. It contradicteth a Heavenly mind and conversation and hindereth us from all foreâ—asts of the everlasting joys 7. It undisposeth us to the excellent work of Praise Who can ascend in the Praises of God while Grief doth oppress and captivate the soul 8. It destroyeth the sweetness of all Gods Ordinances Hearing Reading Prayer Sacraments we may force our selves to use them but shall have no delight in them 9. It hindreth the exercise of Faith and raiseth distrust and sinful doubts and fears within us 10. It causeth sinful discontents and murmurings at God and man 11. It maketh us impatient pievish froward angry and hard to be pleased 12. It weakneth the soul to all that 's good and destroyeth its fortitude and strength For it is the Ioy of the Lord that is our strength Neh. 8. 10. 13. It hindreth us in the duties of our callings who can do them as they should be done under the clog of a disquiet mind 14. It maketh us a grief and burden to our friends and robs them of the comfort which they should have in and by us 15. It maketh us unprofitable to others and hindreth us from doing the good we might when we should be instructing exhorting and praying for poor sinners or minding the Church of God we are all taken up at home about our own afflictions 16. It maketh us a stumbling block and scandal to the ungodly and hindreth their conversiion while the Devil setteth us before the Church doors to keep away the ungodly from a holy life as men set scar-crows in their fields and gardens to frighten away the birds 17. It dishonoureth Religion by making men believe that it is a melancholy vexatious self-tormenting life 18. It obscureth the Glory of the Gospel and crosseth the work of Christ his Spirit and Ministers who all come upon a message of Great joy to all Nations and proclaim Glad tidings to the worst of sinners much more to the sons of God and heirs of life 19. It misrepresenteth God himself as if we would perswade men that he is a hard and cruel master that none can please though they do all through a Mediator upon a covenant of grace and that it is worse with us since we served him than before and that he delighteth in our grief and misery and is against our peace and joy and as if there were no joy nor pleasure in his service Such hideous doctrine do our lives preach of God when those that profess to fear and seek him do live in such immoderate
imployment for all thy time Direct 3. which Gods immediate service spareth Yea which somewhat urgeth thee to diligence Otherwise thou wilt lye in bed and say thou hast time to spare or nothing to do You can rise when you have a journey to be gone or a business of pressing necessity to be done Keep your selves under some constant necessity or urgency of business at the least § 14. Direct 4. Take pleasure in your Callings and in the service of God Sluggards themselves Direct 4. can rise to that which they take much pleasure in As to go to a Merriment or Feast or Play or Game or to a good bargain or any thing which they delight in If thou hadst a Delight in thy Calling and in reading the Scripture and praying and doing good thou couldst not lye contentedly in bed but wouldst long to be up and doing as Children to their play The wicked can rise early to do wickedness because their hearts are set upon it They can be drunk or steal or whâ—re or plot â—râ—v 4 16 1 Thess. 5. 6 7. their ambitious and covetous designs when they should sleep And if thy heart were set as much on good as theirs is on evil wouldst not thou be as wakeful and as readily up § 15. Direct 5. Remember the grand importance of the business of your souls which alwayes lyeth Direct 5. on your hands that the greatness of your work may rowze you up What lye slugging in bed when you are so far behind hand in knowledge and grace and assurance of salvation and have so much of the Scripture and other Books to read and understand Hast thou not grace to beg for a needy soul Is not Prayer better work than excess of sleeping Great business in the world can make you rise and why not Greater § 16. Direct 6. Remember that thou must answer in judgement for thy time And what comfort Direct 6. wilt thou have to say I slug'd away so many hours in a morning And what comfort at death when time is gone to review so much cast away in sleep § 17. Direct 7. Remember that God beholdeth thee and is calling thee up to work If thou understoodst Direct 7. his Word and Providence thou wouldst hear him as it were saying as the Marriners to Ionah What meanest thou O sleeper Arise call upon thy God Wilt thou lye sleeping inordinately when God Jonah 1. 6. stands over thee and calls thee up If the King or any great person or friend did but knock at thy door thou wouldst rise presently to wait upon them Why God would speak with thee by his Word or hear thee speak to him by prayer and wilt thou lye still and despise his Call § 18. Direct 8. Remember how many are attending thee while thou sleepest If it be Summer the Direct 8. Sun is up before thee that hath gone so many thousand miles while thou wast asleep It hath given a dayes light to the other half of the world since thou laist down and is come again to light thee to thy work and wilt thou let it shine in vain All the creatures are ready in their places to assist thee and art thou asleep § 19. Direct 9. Consider whether thou wilt allow thy servants to do the like They must be up Direct 9. and at work or you will be offended and tell them that they are no servants for you and that you hire them not to sleep And do you not owe God more service than they owe you Doth God hire you to sleep Is it any lawfuller for you than them to sleep one minute more than is needful to your health No not a minute If you are sicklier than they that 's another matter But see that fulness and idleness cause it not But otherwise your Riches are no excuse to you Will you loyter more than they because you receive more and do less service because you have more pay Or is it your priviledge to be so miserable as to lose that time which poor men save § 20. Direct 10. Remember that your morning hours are the choicest part of all the day for any holy Direct 10. exercise or special employment of the mind The mind is fresh and clear and there is less interruption by worldly business whereas when others are up and about their business you will have interpellations Those that have tryed it can say by experience that the morning hours are the flower of their time for prayer or studies and that early rising is a great part of the art of Redeeming Time § 21. Direct 11. Remember how many are condemning you by their diligence while you are slugging Direct 11. away your time How many holy persons are then at prayer in secret wrestling fervently with God for their salvation or reading and meditating in his word What do they get while you are sleeping The blessed man doth delight in the Law of the Lord and meditate in it day and night and you love your ease and are sleeping day and night Will not all these be witnesses against you So will the diligent in their Callings and so will the worldlings and wicked that rise early to their sin How many thousand are hard at work while you are sleeping Have you not work to do as well as they § 22. Direct 12. Remember that sensuality or flesh-pleasing is the great condemning sin that Direct 12. turns the heart from God And if it be odious in a drunkard or fornicator why is it not so in you Mortifie the flesh and learn to deny it its inordinate desires and your sin is almost cured § 23. Direct 13. For then the executive part is easie when you are willing It is but agreeing Direct 13. with some one to awaken you and a little cold water will wash away your drowsiness if you consent PART VII Directions against sinful Dreams § 1. DReams are neither good nor sinful simply in themselves because they are not rational and voluntary nor in our power But they are often made sinful by some other voluntary Act They may be sinful by participation and consequently And the acts that make them sinful are either such as go before or such as follow after § 2. 1. The antecedent causes are any sinful act which distempereth the body or any sin which inclineth the fantasie and mind thereto or the omission of what was necessary to prevent them 2. The causes which afterwards make them objectively sinful are the ill uses that men make of them As when they take their dreams to be Divine Revelations and trust to them or are affrighted by them as ominous or as prophetical and make them the ground of their actions and seduce themselves by the phantasms of their own brains § 3. Direct 1. Avoid those bodily distempers as much you can which cause sinful dreams especially Direct 1. fulness of dyet A full stomach causeth troublesome
Lust and Covetousness 1 Sam. 2. 23 29. Rev. 3. 19. and Pride and Sensuality It maketh such work among our sins as diligent weeders do in your Gardens It pulleth up the tares and burneth them It stands not dallying with sin nor tasting or looking on the bait nor disputing with and hearkening to the Tempter but casteth away the motion 1 Thes. 5. 22. Jude 23. Jam. 4 7. 1 Pet. 5. 9. with abhorrence and abstaineth from the very appearance of evil and hateth the garment spotted by the flesh and presently quencheth the sparks of Concupiscence It chargeth home and so resisteth the Devil that he flyeth When sloth and negligence cherish the sin and encourage the tempter and invite him by a cold resistance The Vineyard of the Sluggard is overgrown with Nettles His heart Eccl 10. 18. Prov. 24. 30. Prov. 21. 15. Prov. 13. 4. swarmeth with noysome thoughts and lusts and he resisteth them not but easily beareth them If he feel sinful thoughts possessing his mind he riseth not up with zeal against them He hath not the heart to cast them out nor make any effectual resistance He famisheth his soul with fruitless wishes because his hands refuse to labour Negligence is the Nurse of sin § 13. 8. Zeal and Diligence bear down all opposition against duty with power and success Those impediments which stop a sluggard are as nothing before them As the Cart wheels which go slowly are easily stopt by a little stone or any thing in their way when those that are in a swifter motion easily get over all The Lyon that is in the sluggards way is not so much as a barking Whelp in the way Prov. 22. 13. 26 13. Prov. 20 4. of a diligent zealous Christian. The cold doth not hinder him from plowing A very scorn or mock or threatning of a mortal man will dismay and stop a heartless hypocrite which do but serve as oyle to the fire to enflame the courage of the zealous so much more The difficulties which seem insuperable to the slothful are small matters to the zealous He goeth through that which the slothful calls impossible And when the slothful sits still and saith I cannot do this or that the zealous diligent Christian doth it § 14. 9. Zeal and diligence take off the toyle and irksomness of duty and make it easie As a quick-spirited diligent servant maketh but a pleasure of his work which a lazy servant doth with pain and weariness And as a mettlesome Horse makes a pleasure of a journey which a heavy jade goeth through with pain so Reading and Hearing and Prayer are easie to a zealous soul which to another is an unwelcome task and toile § 15. 10. Zeal is faithful and constant and valiant and therefore greatly pleaseth God It sticks Num 25. 11 13. 〈…〉 8. 6 7. Heb 11. 34. Dan. 3 6. Mat. 13 20 21. Rev. 2. 5. Rev 3. 16. 2 Thes. 2. 10. to him through persecution The fire consumeth it not many Waters quench it not But others are false hearted and those that have but a cold Religion will easily be drawn or driven from their Religion They are so indifferent that a little more of the World put into the ballance will weigh down Christ in their esteem The Hopes or fears of temporal things prevail with them against the Hopes and fears of things eternal No wonder therefore if God disown such treacherous Servants and turn them away as unworthy of his Family § 16. Direct 3. Let the great motives of holy zeal and diligence be set home and printed on your Direct 3. hearts And often read them over in some quickning Books that you may remember them and be Read before Chap. 5. the cont Dir. for Redeeming time Motives of Zeal affected with them I have given you so many of these Moving exciting considerations in the third Part of my Saints Rest and my Saint or Bruit and Now or Never and in my Sermon against making Light of Christ that I shall be but very brief in them at present § 17. 1. When you grow cold and slothful remember how Great a Master you serve should any thing be done negligently for God And remember how Good a Master you serve For whom you are certain that you can never do too much nor so much as he deserveth of you nor will he ever suffer you to be losers by him § 18. 2. Remember that he is always present In your converse with others in your Prayers your Reading and all your duties and will you loiter in his sight when a very eye-servant will work while his master standeth by § 19. 3. One serious thought of the end and consequence of all thy work one would think should put life into the dullest soul say to thy sleepy frozen heart Is it not Heaven that I am seeking Is it not Hell that I am avoiding And can I be cold and slothful about Heaven and Hell Must it not go with me for ever according as I now behave my self And is this the best that I can do for my salvation Is it not God that I have to please and honour and shall I do it slothfully § 20. 4. One thought of the exceeding Greatness of our work one would think should make us be zealous and diligent To think what abundance of knowledge we have to get and how much of every grace we want and how much means we have to use and how much opposition and temptations to overcome The humble sense of the weakness of our souls and the greatness of our sins should make us say that whatever the Rich in grace may do its Labour that becomes the poor § 21. 5. To remember how short our time of working is and also how uncertain How fast it flyeth away how soon it will be at an end and that all the time that ever we shall have to prepare 1 Cor. 7. 29 30. 2 Pet 3. 11. Rev. 12. 12. for Eternity is now and that shortly there will be no Praying no Hearing no Working any more on Earth To look into the Grave to go to the House of Mourning to consider that this heart hath but a little more time to think and this tongue but a little more time to speak and all will end in the endless recompence methinks this should quicken the coldest heart § 22. 6. To remember how many millions are undone already by their sloth and negligence how many are in Hell lamenting their slothfulness on earth while I am hearing or reading or praying to prevent it one would think should waken me from my sloth what if I saw them and heard their cryes would it not make me serious what if one of them had time and leave and hope again as I have would he be cold and careless § 23. 7. To think how many millions are now in Heaven that all came thither by holy zeal and diligence and are now enjoying the fruit of
beyond our Callings nor into confusion Argument 5. It is a Duty to receive all the mercies that God offereth us But for a family to have access to God in joynt prayers and praises is a mercy that God offereth them Therefore it is their duty to accept it The major is clear in nature and Scripture Because I have offered and ye refused is Gods great aggravation of the sin of the rebellious How oft would I have gathered you together and ye would not All the day long have I stretched out my hand c. To refuse an offered kindness is contempt and ingratitude The minor is undeniable by any Christian that ever knew what family prayers and prayses were Who dare say that it is no mercy to have such a joynt access to God Who feels not conjunction somewhat help his own affections who makes conscience of watching his heart Argument 6. Part of the Duties of families are such that they apparently loose their chiefest life and excellency if they be not performed joyntly Therefore they are so to be performed I mean singing of Psalms which I before proved an ordinary Duty of conjunct Christians Therefore of families The Melody and Harmony is lost by our separation and consequently the alacrity and quickning which our affections should get by it And if part of Gods praises must be performed together it is easie to see that the rest must be so too Not to speak of teaching which cannot be done alone Argument 7. Family prayer and praises are a Duty owned by the teaching and sanctifying work of the spirit Therefore they are of God I would not argue backward from the spirits teaching to the words commanding but on these two suppositions 1. That the experiment is very general and undeniable 2. That many texts of Scripture are brought already for family prayer and that this argument is but to second them and prove them truly interpreted The Spirit and the word do alway agree If therefore I can prove that the spirit of God doth commonly work mens hearts to a love and savour of these Duties doubtless they are of God Sanctification is a transcript of the precepts of the word on the heart written out by the spirit of God So much for the consequence The Antecedent consisteth of two parts 1. That the sanctified have in them inclinations to these Duties 2. That these Inclinations are from the spirit of God The first needs no proof being a matter of experience I appeal to the heart of every sound and stable Christian whether he feel not a conviction of this Duty and an inclination to the performance of it I never met with one such to my knowledge that was otherwise minded Object Many in our times are quite against family prayer who are good Christians Answ. I know none of them I confess I once thought some very good Christians that now are against them but now they appear otherwise not only by this but by other things I know none that cast off these Duties but they took up vile sins in their stead and cast off other Duties as well as these Let others observe and judge as they find 2. The power of delusion may for a time make a Christian forbear as unlawful that which his very new nature is inclined too As some think it unlawful to pray in our Assemblies and some to joyn in Sacraments And yet they have a spirit within them that inclineth their hearts to it still and therefore they love iâ— and wish it were lawful even when they forbear it upon a conceit that it is unlawful And so it 's possible for a time some may do by family Duties But as I expect that these ere long recover so for my part I take all the rest to be graceless Prejudice and error as a temptation may prohibit the exercise of a Duty when yet the spirit of God doth work in the heart an inclination to that Duty in sanctifying it 2. And that these inclinations are indeed from the spirit is evident 1. In that they come in with all other grace 2. And by the same means 3. And are preserved by the same means standing or falling increasing or decreasing with the rest 4. And are to the same end 5. And are so generally in all the sâ—iâ—ts 6. And so resisted by flesh and blood 7. And so agreeable to the Word that a Christian sins against his new nature when he neglects family Dutys And God doth by his spirit create a desire after them and an estimation of them in every gracious soul. Argument 8. Family prayer and praises is a Duty ordinarily crowned with admirable divine and special blessings Therefore it is of God The consequence is evident For though common outward prosperity may be given to the wicked who have their portion in this life yet so is not prosperity of soul. For the Antecedent I willingly appeal to the experience of all the holy families in the world Who ever used these Duties seriously and found not the benefits What Families be they in which grace and Heavenly mindedness prospereth but those that use these Duties Compare in all your Towns Cities and Villages the families that read Scriptures pray and praise God with those that do not and see the difference Which of them abound more with impiety with Oaths and cursings and railings and Drunkenness and Whoredoms and Worldliness c. And which abound most with Faith and Patience and Temperance and Charity and Repentance and Hope c. The controversie is not hard to decide Look to the Nobility and Gentry of England See you no difference between those that have been bred in praying families and the rest I mean taking them as we say one with another proportionably Look to the Ministers of England Is it praying families or prayerless families that have done most to the well furnishing of the Universities Argument 9. All Churches ought solemnly to pray to God and praise him A Christian family is a Church Therefore The major is past doubt the minor I prove from the nature of a Church in general which is a society of Christians combined for the better worshipping and serving of God I say not that a family formally as a family is a Church But every family of Christians ought moreover by such a combination to be a Church Yea as Christians they are so combined seeing Christianity tieth them to serve God conjunctly together in their Relations 2. Scripture expresseth it 2 Cor. 16. 19. Aquila and Priscilla salute much in the Lord with the Church that is in they house He saith not which meeteth in their house but which is in it So Philemon 2. And to the Church in this house Rom. 16. 5. Likewise greet the Church that is in their house Col. 4. 15. Salute the brethren that are at Laodicea and Nymphas and the Church which is in his house Though some Learned men take these to be meant of part of the Churches assembling in
speak of For 1. Such a heart will be like a Spring which is alwayes running and will contiuually feed the streams Forced and feigned things are of short continuance The hypocrites affected forced speech is exercised but among those where it may serve his pride and carnal ends At other times and in other company he hath another tongue like other men It is like a Land-flood that is quickly gone or like the bending of a Bow which returneth to its place as soon as it is loosed 2. And that which cometh from your hearts will be serious and hearty and likeliest to do good to others For words do their work upon us not only by signifying the matter which is spoken but also by signifying the affections of the speaker And that which will work affections must express affection ordinarily If it come not from the heart of the speaker it is not so like to go to the hearts of the hearers A hearty Preacher and a hearty feeling discourse of holy things do pierce heart-deep and do that good which better composed words that are heartless do not § 2. Direct 2. Yet for all that when your hearts are cold and dull and barren do not think that Direct 2. your tongues must therefore neglect their duty and be silent from all good till your hearts be better but force your tongues to do their duty if they will not do them freely without constraint For 1. Duty is duty whether you be well disposed to it or not If all duty should cease when men are ill disposed to it no wicked man would be bound to any thing that is truly holy 2. And if Heart and Tongue be both obliged it is worse to omit both than one 3. And there may be sincerity in a duty when the heart is cold and dull 4. And beginning to do your duty as well as you can is the way to overcome your dulness and unfitness when you force your tongues at first to speak of that which is good the words which you speak or hear may help to bring you into a better frame Many a man hath begun to pray with coldness that hath got him heat before he had done And many a man hath gone unwillingly to hear a Sermon that hath come home a converted soul. 5. And when you set your selves in the way of Duty you are in the way of promised grace § 3. Object But is not this to play the Hypocrite to let my tongue go before my heart and speak the Object things which my heart is not affected with Answ. If you speak falsly and dissemblingly you play the Hypocrites But you may force your Answ. selves to speak of good without any falshood or hypocrisie Words signifie as I told you the matter spoken and the speakers mind Now your speaking of the things of God doth tell no more of your mind but this that you take them to be true and that you desire those that you speak to to regard them And all this is so and therefore there is no hypocrisie in it Indeed if you told the hearers that you are deeply affected with these things your selves when it is not so this were hypocrisie But a man may exhort another to be good without professing himself to be good yea though he confess himself to be bad Therefore all the good discourses of a wicked man are not hypocrisie Much less the good discourse of a sincere Christian that is dull and cold in that discourse And if a duty had some hypocrisie in it it is not the duty but the hypocrisie that God disliketh and you must forsake As if there be coldness in a duty it is the coldness and not the duty that is to be blamed and forborn And wholly to omit the duty is worse than to do it with some coldness or hypocrisie which is not the predominant complexion of the duty § 4. Object But if it be not the fruit of the Spirit it is not acceptable to God And that which Object I force my tongue to is none of the fruits of the Spirit Therefore I must stay till the Spirit move me Answ. 1. There are many duties done by Reason and the common assistances of God that are better Answ. than the total omission of them is Else no unsanctified man should hear the Word or pray or relieve the poor or obey his Prince or Governours or do any duty towards children or neighbours because whatsoever is not the fruit of the special grace of the Spirit is sin and without faith it is impossible to please God and all men have not faith Heb. 11. 6. 2 Thess. 3. 2. 2. It is a distracted conceit of the Qâ—akers and other Fanaticks to think that Reason and the Spirit of God are not conjunct principles in the same act Doth the Spirit work on a man as on a beast or a stone and cause you to speak as a Clock that striketh it knoweth not what or play on mans soul as on an instrument of Musick that hath neither knowledge of the melody nor any pleasure in it No the Spirit of God supposeth Nature and worketh on man as man by exciting your own Understanding and Will to do their parts So that when against all the remnant of dulness and backwardness that is in you you can force your selves to do your duty it is because the Spirit of God assisteth you to take that resolution and use that force For thus the Spirit striveth against the flesh Gal. 5. 17. Rom. 7. 16 17 18 c. Though it is confessed that there is more of the Spirit where there is no backwardness or resistance or need of forcing § 5. Direct 3. By all means labour to be furnished with understanding in the matters of God For Direct 3. 1. An understanding person hath a Mine of holy matter in himself and never is quite void of matter for good discourse He is the good Scribe that is instructed to the Kingdom of God that bringeth out of his treasury things new and old Matth. 13. 52. 2. And an understanding person will speak discreetly and so will much further the success of his discourse and not make it ridiculous contemptuous or uneffectual through his indiscretion But yet if you are ignorant and wanting in understanding do not therefore be silent for though your ability is least your necessity is greatest Let necessity therefore constrain you to ask instruction as it constraineth the needy to beg for what they want But spare no pains to increase your knowledge § 6. Direct 4. If your own understandings and hearts do not furnish you with matter have recourse to Direct 4. those manifold helps that God vouchsafeth you As 1. You may discourse of the last Sermon that you heard or some one lately preached that nearly touched you 2. Or of something in the last Book you read 3. Or of some Text of Scripture obvious to your thoughts 4. Or of
the most behind 2. Another may remember more than you 3. All is not lost when the words are forgotten For it may breed a habit of understanding and promote resolution affection and practice § 8. Direct 8. Writing is an easie help for memory to those that can use it Some question whether they should use it because it hindereth their affection But that must be differently determined according to the difference of subjects and of hearers Some Sermons are all to work upon the affections at present and the present advantage is to be preferred before the after perusal But some must more profit us in after-digestion and review And some hearers can write much with ease and little hinder their affection and some write so little and are hindered so much that it recompenseth not their loss Some know so fully all that is said that they need no notes and some that are ignorant need them for perusal § 9. Direct 9. Peruse what you remember or write down when you come home and fix it speedily before it 's lost And hear others that can repeat it better Pray it over and confer of it with others § 10. Direct 10. If you forget the very words yet remember the main drift of all and get those Direct 10. Resolutions and affections which they drive at And then you have not lost the Sermon though you have lost the words As he hath not lost his food that hath digested it and turned it into flesh and blood Tit. 3. Directions for holy Resolutions and Affections in hearing THE understanding and memory are but the passage to the Heart and the Practice is but the expression of the Heart therefore how to work upon the Heart is the principal business § 1. Direct 1. Live under the most convincing lively serious Preacher that possibly you can It is Direct 1. a matter of great concernment to all but especially to dull and sensless hearts Hearken not to that earthly generation that tell you because God can bless the weakest and because it is your own fault if you profit not by the weakest that therefore you should make no difference but sit down under an ignorant dumb or sensless man Try first whether they had as willingly have a bad servant or a bad Physicion as a good one because God can bless the labours of the weakest Try whether they would not have their Children duly reproved or corrected because it is their own faults that they need it And whether they would not take physick after a surfet though it be their own fault that made them sick It 's true that all our sin is our own fault but the question is what is the most effectual cure what man that is alive and awake doth not feel a very great difference between a dead and a lively Preacher § 2. Direct 2. Remember that Ministers are the Messengers of Christ and come to you on his business Direct 2. and in his name Hear them therefore as his officers and as men that have more to do with God 2 Cor. 6. 1. himself than with the speaker It is the phrase of the holy Ghost Heb. 4. 13. All things are naked and opened to the eyes of him with whom we have to do It is God with whom you have to do and therefore accordingly behave your selves See Luk. 10. 16. 1 Thes. 4. 8. 1 Cor. 4. 1. § 3. Direct 3. Remember that this God is instructing you and warning you and treating with Direct 3. yâ—u about no less than the saving of your souls Come therefore to hear as for your salvation Can that heart be dull that well considereth that it is Heaven and Hell that is the matter that God is treating with him about § 4. Direct 4. Remember that you have but a little time to hear in and you know not whether Direct 4. ever you shall hear again Hear therefore as if it were your last Think when you hear the Calls of God and the offers of Grace I know not but this may be my last How would I hear if I were sure to dye to morrow I am sure it will be ere long and may be to day for ought I know § 5. Direct 5. Remember that all these dayes and Sermons must be reviewed and you must answer for Direct 5. all that you have heard whether you heard it with Love or with unwillingness and weariness with diligent attention or with carelesness and the word which you hear shall judge you at the last day Hear therefore as those that are going to judgement to give account of their hearing and obeying Joh. 12. 48. § 6. Direct 6. Make it your work with diligence to apply the Word as you are hearing it and to Direct 6. work your own hearts to those suitable resolutions and affections which it bespeaketh Cast not all upon the Minister as those that will go no further than they are carryed as by force This is fitter for the dead than the living You have work to do as well as the Preachers and should all the while be as busie as he As helpless as the infant is he must suck when the Mother offereth him the breast If you must be fed yet you must open your mouths and digest it For another cannot digest it for you nor can the holiest wisest powerful Minister convert or save you without your selves nor deliver a people from sin and hell that will not stir for their own deliverance Therefore be all the while at work and abhor an idle heart in hearing as well as an idle Minister § 7. Direct 7. Chew the Cud and call up all when you come home in secret and by Meditation Direct 7. Preach it over to your selves If it were coldly delivered by the Preacher do you consider of the great weight of the matter and Preach it more earnestly over to your own hearts You should love your selves best and best be acquainted with your own condition and necessities § 8. Direct 8. Pray it over all to God and there lament a stupid heart and put up your complaints Direct 8. to Heaven against it The name and presence of God hath a quickening and awaking power § 9. Direct 9. Go to Christ by faith for the quickenings of his spirit Your life is hid in him Direct 9. your root and head and from him all must be conveyed He that hath the Son hath life and because he liveth we shall live also Intreat him to glorifie the power of his Resurrection by raising the dead and to open your hearts and speak to you by his spirit that you may be taught of God and your hearts may be his Epistles and the tables where the everlasting Law is written Col. 3. 3 4. Ioh. 15. 1 2 3 4 5. Ioh. 11. 25. 14. 19. Phil. 3. 7 8. Act. 16. 14. Ioh. 6. 45. 2 Cor. 3. 3 6 17 18. Heb. 8. 10. 10. 16. Ier. 31. 33.
desired by qualifying our selves for it as if indeed they moved the mind of God to a real change Even as he that is in a Boat and by his hook layeth hold of the banck doth as truly by his labour get nearer the banck as if he drew the banck to him § 4. Direct 3. Labour above all to know that God to whom you pray To know him as your Maker Direct 3. your Redeemer and your Regenerater as your Owner your Ruler and your Father Felicity and End as All-sufficient for your relief in the infiniteness of his Power his Wisdom and his Goodness and to know your own dependance on him and to understand his Covenant or Promises upon what terms he is engaged and resolved either to give his mercies or to deny them He that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. He that calleth on the name of the Lord shall be saved But how shall they call on him on whom they have not believed Rom. 10. 13 14. § 5. Direct 4. Labâ—ur when you are about to pray to stir uâ— in your souls the moâ—t lively Direct 4. and â—â—riâ—uâ— bâ—lief of thâ—se uâ—seen things that your Prayers have respect to and to pray as if you saw them all the while Even as if you saw God in his Glâ—ry and saw Heaven and Hell the glorified and the damned and Iesus Christ your Mediator interceding for you in the Heavens As you would pray if your eyes beheld all these so strive to pray while you believe them And say to your selves Are they not as sure as if I saw them Are they not made known by the Son and Spirit of God § 6. Direct 5. Labour for a constant aâ—cuaintance with your selves your sins and manifold Direct 5. wants and necâ—ssiâ—ies and also to take an actual special notice of your case when you go to prayer If you get not a former câ—â—stant acquaintance with your own case you cannot expect to know it aright upon a suddâ—n as you go to pray And yet if you do not actually survâ—y your hâ—â—â—â—ts and lives when you go to prayer your souls will be unhumbled and want that lively sense of your necessities which must put life into your prayers Know well what sin is and what Gods wrath and Hell and Iudgement is and whâ—t sin you have committed and what duty you have omitted and failed in and what wants and corruptions are yet within you and what mercy and grace you stand in need of and then all this will make you pray and pray to purpose with all your hearts But when men are wilful strangers to themselves and never seriously look backwards or inwards to see what is amiss and wanting nor look not forwards to see the danger that is before them no wonder if their hearts be dead and dull and if they are as unfit to pray as a sleeping man to work § 7. Direct 6. See that you hate hypâ—crisie and let not your lips go against or without your hearts Direct 6. but that your hearts be the spring of all your words That you love not sin and be not â—â—th to 〈…〉 quum navis tâ—â—pestaâ—e qâ—â—â—â—e eâ—uâ— 1 lique Dâ—â—s invocarent Sâ—lâ—te inquit neâ—vâ—s â—â—c illi nâ—â—igarâ— sâ—ntâ—ant 〈…〉 p 55. leave it when you seem to pray against it and that you truly desire the grace which you ask and ask not for that which you would not have And that you be ready to use the lawful means to get the mercies which you ask and be not like those lazy wishers that will pray God to give them increase at harvest when they lye in bed and will neither plow or sow or that pray him to save them from fire or water or danger while they run into it or will not be at the pains to go out of the way O what abundance of wretches do offer up hypocritical mock-prayers to God! blaspheming him thereby as if he were an Idol and knew not their hypocrisie and searched not the hearts Alas how commonly do men pray in publick that the rest of their lives hereafter may be pure and holy that hate purity and holiness at the heart and deride and oppose that which they sâ—em to pray for As Austin confesseth of himself before he was converted that he prayed against his filthy sin and yet was afraid lest God should grant his prayers So many pray against the sins which they would not be delivered from or would not use the means that is necessary to their conquest and deliverance Let him that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2. 19. If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me Psal. 66. 18. See Ezek. 14. 3 4 14. Alas how easie is it for anâ— ungodly person to learn to say a few words by rote and to run them over without any sense of what he speaketh while the tongue is a stranger to the heart and speaketh not according to its desires § 8. Direct 7. Search your hearts and watch them carefully lest some beloved Vanity alienate Direct 7. them from the work in hand and turn away your thoughts or prepossess your affections so that you want them when you should use them If the mind be set on other matters prayer will be a heartless lifeless thing Alas what a dead and pitiful work is the prayer of one that hath his heart ensnared in the Love of money or in any ambitious or covetous design The thoughts will easily follow the affections § 9. Direct 8. Be sure that you pray for nothing that is disagreeable to the will of God and Direct 8. that is not for the good of your selves or others or for the honour of God And therefore take heed lest an erring judgement or carnal desires or passions should corrupt your prayers and turn them into sin If men will ignorantly pray to God to do them hurt it is a mercy to them if God will but pardon and deny such prayers and a judgement to grant them And it is an easie thing for fleshly interest or partiality or passion to blind the judgement and consequently to corrupt mens prayers An Ambitious or Covetous man will easily be drawn to pray for the grant of his sinful desires and think it would be for his good And there is scarce an heretical or erroneous person but thinketh that it would be good that the world were all reduced to his opinion and all the opposers of it were born down There are few zealous Antinomians Anabaptists or any other Dividers of the Church but they put their Opinions usually into their prayers and plead with God for the interest of their Sâ—cts and Errors And its like that the Jews that had a persecuting Zeal for God Rom. 10. 2. did pray according to that Zeal as well as persecute as its like Paul himself
subscribed if afterwards you will question that account again you must take as full a time to do it and that when you are as calm and vacant as before and not unsettle an exact account upon a sudden view or a thought of some one particular Thus must you trust to no examinations and decisions about the state of your souls but those that in long and calm deliberation have brought it to an issue § 16. Direct 7. And in doing this neglect not to make use of the assistance of an able Direct 7. faithful Guide so far as your own weakness makes it necessary Your doubting sheweth that you are not sufficient to dispatch it satisfactorily your selves The Question then is What help a wiser man can give you Why he can clearlier open to you the true nature of Grace and the marks that are infallible and the extent of the Grace and tenour of the Covenant and he can help you how to trace your hearts and observe the discoveries of good or evil in them he can shew you your mistakes and help you in the application and tell you much of his own and others experiences And he can pass a strong Conjecture upon your own Case in particular if he be one that knoweth the course of your lives and is intimately acquainted with you For Sin and Grace are both expressive operative things like Life that ordinarily will stir or Fire that will be seen Though their judgement cannot be infallible of you and though for a while Hypocrisie may hide you from the knowledge of another yet ficâ—a non diâ— c. ordinarily Nature will be seen and that which is within you will shew it self so that your familiar acquaintance that see your lives in private and in publick may pass a very strong conjecture at your state whether you sâ—t your selves indeed to please God in sincerity or no. Therefore if possible choose such a man to help you as is 1. Able 2. Faithful and 3. Well acquainted with you And undervalue not his judgement § 17. Direct 8. When you cannot attain to a Certainty of your case undervalue not and Direct 8. neglect not the Comforts which a bare probability may afford you I know that a Certainty in so weighty a case should be earnestly desired and endeavoured to the uttermost But yet it is no small comfort which a likelihood or hopefulness may yield you Husband and Wife are uncertain every day whether one of them may kill the other And yet they can live comfortably together because it is an unlikely thing and though it be possible it is not much to be feared All the comforts of Christians dependeth not on their Assurance It is but few Christians in the world that reach to clear Assurance For all the Papists Lutherans and Arminians are without any Certainty of their salvation because they think it cannot be had And all those Jansenists or Protestants that are of Augustines judgement are without Assurance of salvation though they may have assurance of their Justification and Sanctification Because their judgement is that the justified and sanctified though not the Elect may fall away And of those that hold the Doctrine of Perseverance how few do we find that can say they are certain of their sincerity and salvation Alas not one of very many And yet many thousands of these do live in some peace of Conscience and quietness and comfort in the hopefulness and probabilities to which they have attained § 18. Direct 9. Resolve to be much in the great delightful duties of Thanksgiving and the Direct 9. Praise of God and to spend a considerable part ordinarily of all your prayers herein especially to spend the Lords Day principally in these And thus you will have three great advantages 1. The very actings of Love and Thanks and Joy will help you to comfort in a nearer way than arguments and self-examination will do even in a way of feeling as the fire maketh you warm 2. The custome of exercising those sweetest graces will habituate your souls to it and in time wear out the sadder impression 3. God will most own you in those highest duties § 19. Direct 10. Mark well how far your doubtings do help or hinder you in your sanctification Direct 10. So far as they turn your heart from God and from the Love and sweetness of a holy life and unfit you for thankfulness and chearful obedience so far you may be sure that Satan is gratified by them and God displeased and therefore they should be resisted But so far as they keep you humble and obedient and make you more tenderly afraid of sin and quicken your desires of Christ and grace so far God useth them for your benefit And therefore be not too impatient under them but wait on God in the use of his means and he will give his comforts in the fittest season Many an one hath sweet assurance at his death or in his sufferings for Christ when he needed it most that was fain to live long before without it Especially take care 1. That you miss not of Assurance through your own neglect 2. And that your doubtings work no ill effects in turning away your hearts from God or discouraging you in his service and then you may take them as a tryal of your patience and they will certainly have a happy end CHAP. XXVI Directions for Declining or Backsliding Christians and about Perseverance THe case of Backsliders is so terrible and yet the mistakes of many Christians so common in thinking unjustly that they are backsliders that this subject must be handled with the greater care And when I have first given some Directions for the Cure I shall next give some to others for Prevention of so sad a state § 1. Direct 1. Understand well wherein Backsliding doth consist the sorts and the degrees of it that so you may the more certainly and exactly discern whether it be indeed your case or not To this end I shall here open to you I. The several sorts of Backsliders II. The several steps or degrees of backsliding III. The signs of it § 2. I. There are in general three sorts of Backsliders 1. Such as decline from the Truth by the error of their Understanding 2. Such as turn from the Goodness of God and Holiness by the corruption of their Will and Affections 3. Such as turn from the Obedience of God and an upright conversation by the sinfulness of their lives The first sort containeth in it 1. Such as decline to Infidelity from Faith and doubt of the Truth of the Word of God 2. Such as decline only to error about the meaning of the Scriptures though they doubt not of the Truth of them This corrupted Iudgement will presently corrupt both Heart and Life § 3. The second sort Backsliders in Heart containeth 1. Such as only lose their Affections to Good their complacency and desire and lose their averseness and zeal against
the poorest people and their children They never teach them to read nor teach them any thing for the saving of their souls and they think that their poverty will be an excuse for all When reason telleth them that none should be more careful to help their children to Heaven than they that can give them nothing upon earth § 21. Direct 9. Be acquainted with the special Duties of the poor and carefully perform them Direct 9. They are these 1. Let your sufferings teach you to contemn the world It will be a happy poverty if it do but help Duty 1. to wean your affections from all things below that you set as little by the world as it deserveth 2. Be eminently Heavenly-minded The less you have or hope for in this life the more fervently Duty 2. seek a better You are at least as capable of the heavenly treasures as the greatest Princes God purposely Phil. 3. 18 20 21. 2 Cor. 5. 7 8. straitneth your condition in the world that he may force up your hearts unto himself and teach you to seek first for that which indeed is worth your seeking Matth. 6. 33 19 20 21. 3. Learn to live upon God alone Study his Goodness and faithfulness and all-sufficiency When Duty 3. you have not a place nor a friend in the world that you can comfortably betake your selves to for relief Gal. 2. 20. Psal. 73. 25. 26 27 28. 2 Cor. 1. 10. retire unto God and trust him and dwell the more with him If your poverty have but this effect it will be better to you than all the Riches in the world 4. Be laborious and diligent in your Callings Both precept and necessity call you unto this And Duty 4. if you cheerfully serve him in the labour of your hands with a heavenly and obedient mind it will Ephes 4. 28. Prov. 21. 25. 1 Sam. 15. 22. 2 Thes. 3. 8 10 be as acceptable to him as if you had spent all that time in more spiritual exercises For he had rather have Obedience than Sacrifice and all things are pure and sanctified to the pure If you cheerfully serve God in the meanest work it is the more acceptable to him by how much the more subjection and submission there is in your obedience 5. Be humble and submissive unto all A poor man proud is doubly hateful And if Poverty Duty 5. cure your Pride and help you to be truly humble it will be no small mercy to you 〈…〉 1â— 23. 〈…〉 uty 6 6. You are specially obliged to mortifie the flesh and keep your senses and appetites in subjection because you have greater helps for it than the Rich You have not so many baits of lust and wantonness and gluttony and voluptuousness as they 7. Your corporal wants must make you more sensibly remember your spiritual wants and teach Duty 7. you to value spiritual blessings Think with your selves If a hungry cold and naked body be so great a calamity how much greater is a guilty graceless soul a dead or a diseased heart If bodily food and necessaries are so desirable O how desirable is Christ and his Spirit and the Love of God and life eternal 8. You must above all men be careful Redeemers of your Time Especially of the Lords Day Duty 8. Your labours take up so much of your time that you must be the more careful to catch every opportunity for your souls Rise earlier to get half an hour for holy duty and meditate on holy things in your labours and spend the Lords Day in special diligence and be glad of such seasons and let scarcity preserve your appetites 9. Be willing to dye Seeing the world giveth you so cold entertainment be the more content to Duty 9. let it go when God shall call you For what is here to detain your hearts 10. Above all men you should be most fearless of sufferings from men and therefore true to God Duty 10. and Conscience For you have no great matter of honour or riches or pleasure to lose As you fear not a Thief when you have nothing for him to rob you of 11. Be specially careful to fit your children also for Heaven Provide them a portion which is better Duty 11. than a Kingdom For you can provide but little for them in the world 12. Be exemplary in Patience and Contentedness with your state For that grace should be the Duty 12. strongest in us which is most exercised And Poverty calleth you to the frequent exercise of this § 22. Direct 10. Be specially furnished with those Reasons which should keep you in a chearful contentedness Direct 10. with your state and may suppress every thought of anxiety and discontent As 1. Consider as aforesaid that that is the best condition for you which helpeth you best to Heaven Phil. 4. 11 12 13. Maâ—â—h â— â— 1 Sam. 2. 7. Matth. â— 2â— c. 〈…〉 8. 2◠〈…〉 14. 11. 〈…〉 16. 9. 〈…〉 3 15. 〈…〉 9 〈…〉 30 31. 〈…〉 3â— 25. 〈…〉 1â— 14. 〈…〉 5. 22. 〈…〉 9. 20. 〈…〉 4. â— 10. Rom. 8. 28. Heb. 13. 5. and God best knoweth what will do you good or hurt 2. That it is rebellion to grudge at the Will of God which must dispose of us and should be our Rest. 3. Look over the life of Christ who chose a life of poverty for your sakes and had not a place to lay his head He was not one of the Rich and voluptuous in the world and are you grieved to be conformed to him Phil. 3. 7 8 9. 4. Look to all his Apostles and most holy Servants and Martyrs Were not they as great sufferers as you 5. Consider that the Rich will shortly be all as poor as you Naked they came into the world and naked they must go out And a little time makes little difference 6. It is no more comfort to dye Rich than poor but usually much less because the pleasanter the world is to them the more it grieveth them to leave it 7. All men cry out that the world is vanity at last How little is it valued by a dying man and how sadly will it cast him off 8. The time is very short and uncertain in which you must enjoy it We have but a few dayes more to walk about and we are gone Alas of how small concernment is it whether a man be rich or poor that is ready to step into another world 9. The Love of this world drawing the heart from God is the common cause of mens damnation And is not the world liker to be over-loved when it entertaineth you with prosperity than when it useth you like an enemy Are you displeased that God thus helpeth to save you from the most damning sin and that he maketh not your way to Heaven more dangerous 10. You little know the troubles of the Rich He that hath much hath much to do with it and
know by your own experience thâ—se Joyes or Torments which the wicked will not know by faith And O what a preparation doth such a change require II. You are next to know what persons they are and how they differ who must abide for ever in these different states As we are the Children of Adam we are all corrupted our minds are carnal and set upon this world and savour nothing but the things of the flesh And the further we go in sin the worse we are being strangers to the Life of faith and to the Love of God and the Life to come taking the prosperity and pleasure of the flesh for the felicity which we most desire and seek The name of this state in Scripture is Carnal and ungodly and unholy because such men live in a meer flâ—shly nature or disposition for fleshly ends in a fleshly manner and are not at all Devoted to God and carryed up to Heavenly Desires and Delights but live chiefly for this life and not for the life to come And though they may take up some kind of Religion in a second place and upon the by for fear of being damned when they can keep the world no longer yet is it this world which they principally value love and seek and their Religion is subject to their worldly and fleshly interest and delights And though God hath provided and offered them a Saviour to teach them better and reclaim and sanctifie them by his word and spirit and forgive them if they will believe in him and return yet do they sottishly neglect this mercy or obstinately refuse it and continue their worldly fleshly lives till time be past and mercy hath done and there is no remedy These are the men that God will condemn and this is the true description of them And it will not stand with the Governing-Justice and Holiness and truth of God to save them But on the other side all those that God will save do heartily believe in Iesus Christ who is sent of God to be the Saviour of souls and he maketh them know by his word and spirit their grievous sin and misery in their state of corrupted nature and he humbleth them for it and bringeth them to true Repentance and maketh them loath themselves for their iniquities and seeing how they have cast away and undone themselves and are no better than the slaves of Satan and the heirs of hell they joyfully accept of the remedy that is offered them in Christ They heartily take him for their Saviour and King and give up themselves in Covenant to him to be justified and sanctified by him whereupon he pardoneth all their sin and further enlighteneth and sanctifieth them by his spirit He sheweth them by faith the infinite Love of God and the sure everlasting Holy Ioyes which they may have in Heaven with him and how blessed a life they may there obtain through his purchase and gift with all the blessed Saints and Angels He maketh them deliberately to compare this offer of Eternal Happiness with all the pleasures and seeming commodities of sin and all that this deceitful world can do for them And having considered of both they see that there is no comparison to be made and are ashamed that ever they were so mad as to prefer Earth before Heaven and an inch of Time before Eternity and a dream of pleasure before the Everlasting Ioyes and to love the pleasures of a transitory world above the presence and favour and Glory of God! And for the time to come they are firmly Resolved what to do Even to take Heaven for their only Happiness and there to lay up their Hopes and Treasure and to live to God as they have done to the flesh and to make sure of their salvation whatever become of their worldly interest And thus the spirit doth dwell and work in them and renew their Hearts and give them a hatred to every sin and a Love to every holy thing even to the holy word and worship and wayes and servants of the Lord and in a word he maketh them New Creatures and though they have still their sinful imperfections yet the bent of their Hearts and Lives is Holy and Heavenly and they long to be perfect and are labouring after it and seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and live above the world and flesh And shortly Christ will make them perfect and Iustifie them in the day of their judgement and give them the Glorious end of all their faith obedience and patience These are the persons and none but these among us that have the use of Reason that shall live with God III. Now this being the infallible truth of the Gospel and this being the true difference between the Righteous and the wicked the Iustified and Condemned souls O how neerly doth it now concern you to try which of these is your own condition Certainly it may be known For God will judge the world in righteousness by the same Law or Covenant by which he Governeth them Know but whom the Law of Christ condemneth or justifieth and you may soon know whom the Judge will condemn and justifie For he will proceed according to this Law If you should die in an unrenewed state in your sins your Hopes of Heaven would all die with you And if you should think never so well of your self till death and pretend never so confidently to trust on Christ and the Mercy of God one hour will convince Mat. 18. 3. Heb. 12. 14. Joh. 3. 3 5 6. you to your everlasting woe that Gods mercy and Christs merits did never bring to Heaven an unsanctified soul. Self flattery is good for nothing but to keep you from Repenting till time be past and to quiet you in Satans snares till there be no remedy Therefore presently as you love your soul examine your self and try which of these is the condition that you are in and accordingly judge you self before God judge you May you not know if you will whether you have most minded Earth or Heaven and which you have preferred and sought with the highest esteem and Resolution and whether your Worldly or Heavenly interest have born sway and which of them it is that gave place unto the other Cannot a man tell if he will what it is which his very soul hath practically taken for his chief concernment and what it is that haâ—â— had most of his Love and Care and what hath been next his heart and which he hath preferred wheâ—â—hey came to the parting and one was set against the other Cannot you tell whether you have lived principally to the flesh for the prosperity of this world and the pleasures of sin or whether the spirit of Christ by his word hath enlightned you and shewed you your â—in and misery and humbled you for it and shewed you the Glory of the life to come and the happiness of living in the Love of God and hereupon hath
more congruously and it seems with less offence than we Saith the Geographia Nubiensis aptly There is a certain King dwelling at Rome called the Pope c. when he goeth to describe him Nothing well suites with our function but the pure Doctrine of Salvation Let States-men and Lawyers mind the rest Two things I must apologize for in this Part 1. That it 's maimed by defect of those Directions to Princes Nobles Parliament-men and other Magistrates on whose duty the happiness of Kingdoms Churches and the World dependeth To which I answer that those must teach them whom they will hear while my Reason and experience forbid me as an unacceptable person to speak to them without a special invitation I can bear the Censures of Strangers who knew not them or me I am not so proud as to expect that men so much above me should stoop to read any Directions of mine much less to think me fit to teach them Every one may reprove a poor servant or a beggar It 's part of their priviledge But Great men must not be so much as admonished by any but themselves and such as they will hear At least nothing is a duty which a man hath reason to think is like to do much more harm than good And my own judgement is much against pragmatical presumptuous Preachers who are over-forward to meddle with their Governours or their affairs and think that God sendeth them to reprove persons and things that are strange to them and above them and vent their distastes upon uncertain reports or without a Call 2. And I expect to be both blamed and mis-understood for what I hear say in the Confutation of Mr. Richard Hooker his Political Principles and my Citation of B. Bilson and such others But they must observe 1. That it is not all in Mr. Hookers first and eighth Book which I gainsay but the principle of the Peoples being the fountain of Authority or that Kings receive their Office it self from them with the consequents hereof How far the people have in any Countrys the power of Electing the Persons Families or Forms of Government or how far nature giveth them propriety and the consequents of this I meddle not with at all 2. Nor do I choose Mr. Hooker out of any envy to his name and honour but I confess I do it to let men know truly whose Principles these are And if any causelesly question whether the eighth imperfect Book be in those passages his own let them remember that the sum of all that I confute is in his first Book which is old and highly honoured by you know whom And I will do him the honour and my self the dishonour to confess that I think the far greater number of Casuists and Authors of Politicks Papists and Protestants are on his side and fewest on mine But truth is truth On the subjects duty I am larger because if they will not hear at least I may boldly and freely instruct them If in the later part there be any useful Cases of Conscience left out it is because I could not remember them Farewell A Christian Directory TOM IV. Christian Politicks CHAP. I. General Rules for an Upright Conversation § 1. SOLOMON saith Prov. 10. 9. He that walketh uprightly walketh surely And Perfection and Uprightness are the characters of Iob Chap. 1. 1 8. 2. 3. And in the Scripture to be Upright or Righteous and to walk uprightly and to do righteously are the titles of those that are acceptable to God And by Uprightness is meant not only sincerity as opposed to Hypocrisie but also Rectitude of Heart and Life as opposed to crookedness or sin and this as it is found in various Degrees of which we use to call the lowest degree that is saving by the name of sincerity and the highest by the name of Perfection § 2. Concerning Uprightness of life I shall I. Briefly tell you some of those blessings that should make us all in love with it and II. Give you some necessary Rules of practice § 3. I. Uprightness of heart and life is a certain fruit of the Spirit of Grace and consequently a mark of our Union with Christ and a proof of our acceptableness with God Psal. 7. 10. My defence is of God who saveth the upright in heart Psal. 11. 7. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness and his countenance doth behold the upright It is a title that God himself assumeth Psal. 25. 8. Good and upright is the Lord. Psal. 92. 15. To shew that the Lord is upright He is my rock and no unrighteousness is in him And God-calleth himself the Maker the Director the Protector and the Lover of the upright Eccl. 7. 29. God made man upright Psal. 1. 6. The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous Psal. 25. 12. What man is he that feareth the Lord him will he teach in the way that he shall choose Prov. 2. 7. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly 2. The Upright are the Pillars of humane society that keep up Truth and Iustice in the world without whom it would be but a company of lyers deceivers robbers and enemies that live in constant rapine or â—ostility There were no Trust to be put in one another further than self-interest did oblige men Psal. 15. 1 2. Lord who shall abide in thy Tabernacle Who shall dwell in thy holy hill He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart Therefore the wicked and the enemies of Peace and destroyers of Societies are still described as Enemies to the upright Psal. 11. 2 3. For lo the wicked bend their bow they make ready their arrow upon the string that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart If the foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do Job 12. 4. The just and upright man is laughed to scorn Psal. 37. 14. The wicked have drawn out the sword to slay such as be of upright conversation And indeed it is for the uprights sake that societies are preserved by God as Sodom might have been for ten Lots At least they are under the protection of Omnipotency themselves Isa. 33. 15 16. He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly he that despiseth the gain of oppression that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes that stoppeth his ear from hearing of blood that shutteth his eyes from seeing evil He shall dwell on high his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks bread shall be given him his waters shall be sure Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty they shall behold the Land that is very far off Prov. â—8 10. The upright shall have good things in possession Prov. 14. 11. The house of the wicked shall be overthrown but the tabernacle of the upright shall flourish 3. Uprightness affordeth Peace of Conscience and quietness and holy security to the soul. This was Pauls rejoycing the testimony
Superiour must be reproved by a private inferiour And when it is done it must be done with great submission and respect An angry pievish person must be dealt with tenderly as you handle thorns but a duller sottish person must be more earnestly and warmly dealt with So also a greater sin must be roughly handled or with greater detestation than a less § 6. Direct 6. Take a fit season Not when a man is in drink or passion or among others Direct 6. where the disgrace will vex and harden him but in secret between him and you if his conversion be your end § 7. Direct 7. Do all in love and tender pity If you convince not the hearer that you do it in unfeigned Direct 7. love you must usually expect to lose your labour because you make not advantage of 2 Thess. 3. 15. 2 Cor. 2. 4. Gal. ◠1. 2 Tim. 2. 25. 1 Thess 5 13. his self-love to promote your exhortations Therefore the exhorting way should be more frequent than the reproving way For reproof disgraceth and exasperateth when the same thing contrived into an exhortation may prevail § 8. Direct 8. Therefore be as much or more in shewing the Good which you would draw them to as Direct 8. the evil which you would turn them from For they are never savingly converted till they are won to the Love of God and Holiness Therefore the opening of the riches of the Gospel and the Love of God and the Joyes of Heaven must be the greatest part of your treaty with a sinner § 9. Direct 9. And labour so to help him to a true understanding of the nature of Religion that Direct 9. he may perceive that it is not only a necessary but a pleasant thing All love delights It is the slander and misrepresentation of godliness by the Devil the World and the Flesh which maketh mistaken sinners shun it The way to convert them and win their hearts to it is to make them know how good and pleasant it is and to confute those calumnies § 10. Direct 10. Yet alwayes insert the remembrance of death and judgement and of Hell For Direct 10. the drowsie mind hath need to be awakened and Love worketh best when fear subserveth it It s hard to procure a serious audience and consideration of things from hardened hearts if the sight of death and Hell do not help to make them serious Danger which must be escaped must be known and thought on These things put weight and power into your speech § 11. Direct 11. Do all as with Divine authority and therefore have ready some plain Texts Direct 11. of Scripture for the duty and against the sin you speak of Shew them where God himself hath Col. 3. 16. said it § 12. Direct 12. Seasonable expostulations putting themselves to judge themselves in their answer Direct 12. hath a convincing and engaging force As when you shew them Scripture ask them Is not this the Word of God Do you not believe that its true Do you think he that wrote this knoweth not better than you or I c. § 13. Direct 13. Put them on speedy practice and prudently engage them to it by their promise Direct 13. As if you speak to a drunkard draw him to promise you to come no more at least of so long time into an Ale-house Or not drink Ale or Wine but by the consent of his Wife or some sober houshold friend who may watch over him Engage the voluptuous the unchaste and gamester to forsake the company which ensnareth them Engage the ungodly to read the Scripture to frequent good company to pray morning and night with a Book or without as they are best able Their promise may bring them to such a present change of practice as may prepare for more § 14. Direct 14. If you know any near you who are much fitter than your selves and liker to Direct 14. prevail procure them to attempt that which you cannot do succesifully At least when sinners perceive Ezek. 33. 34. Gal. 6. 1. Tit. 2. 4. that it is not only one mans opinion it may somewhat move them to reverence the reproof § 15. Direct 15. Put some good Book into their hands which is fittest to the work which you would Direct 15. have done And get them to promise you seriously to read it over and consider it As if it be for the conversion of a careless sinner Mr. Whateleys or Mr. Swinnocks Treatise of Regeneration or some other Treatise of Repentance and Conversion If it be for one that is prejudiced against a strict Religious life Mr. Allens Vindication of Godliness If it be an idle voluptuous person who wasteth pretious Time in Playes or needless recreations in gaming or an idle life Mr. Whateleys Sermon called The Redemption of Time If it be a prayerless person Dr. Prestons Saints Daily Exercise If it be a drunkard Mr. Harris Drunkards Cup And for many reigning particular sins a Book called Solomons Prescription against the Plague For directions in the daily practice of Godliness The Practice of Piety or Mr. Thomas Gouges Directions c. Such Books may speak more pertinently than you can and be as constant food to their sober thoughts and so may further what you have begun § 16. Direct 16. When you cannot speak or where your speaking prevaileth not mourn for them Direct 16. and earnestly pray for their recovery A sad countenance of Nehemiah remembered Artaxerxes of his Ezek. 9. 4. 2 Pet. 2. 7 8. duty A sigh or a tear for a miserable sinner may move his heart when exhortation will not He hath a heart of stone who will have no sense of his condition when he seeth another weeping for him § 17. Quest. But it is alwayes a duty to reprove or exhort a sinner How shall I know when it is Quest. my duty and when it is not Answ. It is no duty in any of these cases following 1. In general When you have sufficient reason to judge that it will do more harm than good and will not attain its proper end For God hath not appointed us to do hurt under pretence of duty It is no Means which doth cross the end which it should attain As prayer and preaching may be a sin when they are like to cross their proper end so also may reproof be 2. Therefore it must not be used when it apparently hindereth a greater good As we may not pray or preach when we should be quenching a fire in the Town or saving a mans life So when reproof doth exclude some greater duty or benefit it is unseasonable and no duty at that time Christ alloweth us to forbear the casting of pearls before Swine or giving that which is holy to Prov. 9. 7. 8. Matth 7. 6. Dogs because of these two Reasons forementioned It is no means to the contemptuous and they will turn again and all to
c. because the changes may be such which God will make as shall make that way to be one year necessary which before was not and so change your duty We cannot prescribe to God what way he shall appoint us for the future to use his talents in His Word bids us prefer the greatest good but which is the greatest his providence must tell us 8. He that hath no more than is necessary to the very preservation of his own life and his families is not bound to give to others unless in some extraordinary case which calleth him to prefer a greater and more publick good And he that hath no more than is needful to the comfortable support of himself and family is not bound to relieve those that have no greater wants than himself And his own necessity is not to be measured meerly by what he hath but by the use he hath for it For a Magistrate or one that is engaged in publick works may have as much need of many hundreds a year as a private man of many pounds 9. Those that have many children to provide for or poor kindred that nature casteth on them cannot give so much proportionably to other poor as those are bound to do that have few or none For these are bound to give all except their personal necessaries to publick pious or charitable works because God calleth not for it any other way 10. To pamper the flesh is a sin as well in the Rich as in the Poor The Rich therefore are bound not only to give all that the flesh can spare when it s own inordinate desires are satisfied but to deny themselves and mortifie the flesh and be good husbands for God and studiousness to retrench all unnecessary expences and to live Laboriously and Thriftily that they may have the more to do good with It is a great extenuation of the largest gifts as to Gods esteem when they are but the leavings of the flesh and are given out of mens abundance and when we offer that to God that costeth us nothing As Christ doth purposely determine the case Luke 21. 1 2 3 4. comparing the Rich mans gifts with the Widows two mites he said Of a truth I say unto you that this poor Widow hath cast in more than they all For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had that is all the stock she had before-hand though she had need of it her self It is a very considerable thing in our charity how much mortification and self-denyal is expressed in it and how much it costeth our own flesh to give to others And therefore they that think they are excused from doing good to others as long as they have any need of it themselves and will give nothing but what they have no need of it being not of absolute necessity to their lives do offer a sacrifice of no great value in the eyes of God What then shall we say of them that will not give even out of their abundance and that which without any suffering they may spare 11. The first and principal thing to be done by one that would give as God would have him is to get a truly charitable heart which containeth all â—â—ese parts 1. That we see God in his needy creatures and â—â— his cause or work that needs our help 2. That we be sensible of his abundant love in Christ to us in giving pardon and eternal life and that from the sense of this our thankful hearts are moved to do good to others 3. That therefore we do it ultimately as to Christ himself who taketh that which is done for his cause and servants as done to him Matth. 25. 40. 4. That we conquer the cursed sin of selfishness which makes men little regard any but themselves 5. That we love our Neighbours as our selves and love most where there is most of God and goodness and not according to self-interest And that as members of the same Body we take our brethrens wants and sufferings as our own and then we should be as ready to help them as our selves 6. That we know the vanity of worldly riches and be not earthly-minded but regard the interest of God and our souls above all the treasures of the world 7. That we unfeignedly believe the promises of God who hath engaged himself to provide for us and everlastingly to reward us in glory with himself If these seven qualifications be wrought upon the Heart good works will plentifully follow Make but the Tree good and the fruit will be good But when the Heart is void of the root and life which should produce them the Iudgement will not be perswaded that so much is necessary and required of us and the will it self will still hang back and be delaying to do good and doing all pinchingly and hypocritically with unwillingness and distrust No wonder if good works are so rare when it is evident that to do them sincerely and heartily as our Trade and business it is necessary that the whole soul be thus renewed by faith and love and self-denyal and mortification and by a Heavenly hope and mind They are the fruits and works of the new creature which is alas too rare in the world For we are his workmanship created in Christ Iesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them Ephes. 2. 10. Therefore our first and chiefest labour should be to be sure that we are furnished with such hearts and then if we have wherewith to do good such hearts will be sure to do it Such hearts will best discern the time and measure as a healthful mans appetite will in eating For they will take it for a mercy and happiness to do good and know that it is they that give that are the great receivers It is but a little money or alms that the poor receive of us but it is Gods acceptance and favour and reward that wâ— receive which is in this life a hundred fold in value and in the world to come eternal life Matth. 19. 29. But if we have but little or nothing to give such a heart is accepted as if we had given as much as we desire to give so that if you have a heart that would give thousands if you had it God will set down upon your account so many thousands given in desire Your two mites shall be valued above all the superfluities of sensual worldlings For if there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not 2 Cor. 8. 12. But God taketh not that for a willing mind which only saith I would give if I should suffer nothing by it my self or were sure I should not want But that which saith I will serve God as well as I can with my estate while I have it and deny my