it is to escape without Repentance Who more likely to abhor himself to be humbled and broken in heart to confess his Sin with Shame and to resolve against it which are but the several parts of Repentance than he that considers how he hath affronted God perverted his Order seduced his Brethren and wronged his own Soul and disparaged the very Reason that God hath given him and laid the Foundation of Gods Eternal displeasure and his own everlasting ruine You see Consideration when it is of such particulars is the ready way to bring a Sinner to Repentance And on the other side who so like to find joy and pleasure in the Contemplation of Heaven and the joys thereof in the possession it self and the promise that gives Right and Title to it than he that hath some good hope through Grace that he shall enjoy it So that you see of what use Consideration is both before and after Conversion but yet as before Regeneration there may be in the heart of a Sinner that love which worketh by desire though not that which worketh by complacency to Heaven and heavenly things so before Conversion there may be that Consideration that is forced and constrained but after Conversion it 's like to be more sweet and pleasant and to bring in greater profit and advantage O could you but look upon God as your reconciled Father in Christ and one that is at peace with you how would this help up your thoughts Heavenward and sweeten your Meditations of the life and happiness to come you would not need then so much to force and spur up your mind to such comfortable thoughts at least sometimes it will be getting up of its own voluntary accord upon Mount Nebo to view the promised Land he that hopes to be one of the Inhabitants of the Heavenly Jerusalem will at least sometimes walk about Sion and go round her and tell the Towers thereof And mark well her Bulwarks and view and consider her stately Mansions and Palaces Psa 48.12 13. what an encouragement will you have to look up and behold the glory and perfection of the Divine Nature when you can say This is my Father and these Attributes I have an Interest in But yet I must needs confess that even after Conversion there will be oft-times much backwardness and reluctancy to this spiritual and heavenly Duty and you will need to quicken up your selves and chide your backward hearts that they should be so strange to the place where their Treasure is laid up But yet it will not be so hard to bring your heart to such Meditations as it was when you were without hope and without God in the world Fifthly It will further the work of consideration to lay Temporal things in the balance with Eternal things and to make advantage of every Object that 's presented to our Senses to make the consideration of the highest and greatest things more warm and piercing You may very well and rationaily conclude that if the glory of Earth be so great as to dazle the eyes of some beholders and strongly to enamour their affections that the glory of Heaven doth far out-shine it He hath reserved joy and gladness indeed for that place and state if there be so much to be found in this sinning imperfect state here on Earth for all Earthly things serve but to the example and shadow of Heavenly things Heb. 8.5 If the beauty of the body be so taking that men and women oftentimes dote upon it what is the beauty of the Soul do you think and if it were to be seen with bodily eyes how much would it ravish and amaze the beholders If the pleasure of the Senses be so sweet and delicious that men will buy them at the dearest rate how sweet must the pleasures of the Soul needs be when there is so vast a difference between the Soul and Body that are the subjects of these pleasures As there is an unspeakable disproportion between a Spirit and a Body so there must needs be as wide a disproportion between the delights of the one and the delights of the other For I suppose none can be so absurd as to think that the state to come shall be no better than this present state and that mens Bodies are as much worth as their Souls and the Heaven which is the place of his glorious Habitation and Palace is no more adorned than the Earth None can be so void of reason to think that God bestows as much upon his Rational Creatures whilst they are in a state of Tryal and Probation as when they are come to Perfection and are actually chosen to be Citizens of the Heavenly Corporation where they shall live for ever How can the joy of Seed-time be comparable to the joy of Harvest And how can this visible Sun rejoyce the Creatures that it shines upon so much as the Face of God will rejoyce those that behold it You may well therefore rise up in your Meditations from any perfection that you behold on Earth to admire those perfections that are unseen They are the greatest that lye not open to the bodily eye nor can be enjoyed by any Corporeal Faculty or Organ so that when you walk abroad and look upon the glory of the visible Heaven and Earth you may much more admire the splendour and excellency of the invisible Heavens and consequently of all those things that lead thither God that made all things made those visible things that they might be some advantage to the Understanding of things invisible and that they might lead up our apprehensions and affections to him that cannot be immediately seen without the help of such a Glass God is infinitely exalted above our understanding neither are we capable of having any direct and proper Conceptions of the state and life to come and therefore the glory of Heaven is set forth to us in the Word of God by such things as seem glorious to our Senses The Streets of the New Jerusalem or Heaven are said to be paved with Gold and the Gates to consist of Pearl and precious Stones and the pleasures of that state are set forth by a Feast because these are so pleasing to our Senses Now though we must not understand these things in a proper litteral sense yet we are hence instructed that the happiness is exceeding great and such as cannot be well understood by us but by such helps as these So that we may well argue from any pleasures or excellency here on Earth to the excellency and pleasure of that state and make this advantage of all sensible comforts to make our apprehensions of things spiritual more lively and affecting As therefore you may collect the unspeakable torment and misery of the Damned by the pressures and calamities that we feel here on Earth and Hell is usually set forth by Fire and Darkness and a Worm continually feeding upon the Conscience which are things obvious to our Senses so
thou seest Pleasure written upon the face of it that is as it is coming towards thee If thou wilt not believe this now thine experience shall shortly make it good and condemn thee for a stark fool in that thou hast so much teaching and yet would'st not learn that thou had'st eyes and could'st not see and that thou wast so oft forewarned of the vanity and deceitfulness of these Earthly pleasures and yet would'st be deceived And yet I will confess if the fault could then be mended after Experience hath taught thee the vanity of them and thou art going out of the world as a miserable wretch ready to be forsaken of the comforts which thou hast inordinately loved if then thou could'st recover thine affections and bequeath thine heart to God which the world did possess all thy life time then it would be some diminution of thy Sin and Folly But as sure as thou livest God will not take that heart at thy Death which thou would'st not give him in thy Life nor be put off with a Legacy when thou art dying and going out of the world to whom thou would'st give nothing all thy life-time But yet if the Lord would accept such an Offering from thee that heart that hath been so commanded all thy life long by such pleasures as the world affords will not be now at thine own command and dispose It will be hankering after the world when it is departing and leaving of it and would still live among these pleasures if it could and prefer them before Eternal Life with God But I beseech thee to consider whether it be not perfect madness to suffer thine affections to be thus captivated and bewitched with fading momentary delights They are little to be envied whose whole lives are but a Diversion from one pleasure to another But if any men on Earth are like to perish for ever and lose those satisfying pleasures at Gods right Hand for evermore these are the men It is not one of a thousand that recovers of their Surfeit when they come to be old that have lived their younger years wholly addicted to their carnal brutish delights and not a man that dies amidst such pleasures before his heart be weaned from them but is like to feel more bitter torment than such as have lived all their life-time in poverty and little ease Surely they that let out their hearts too freely to the things of this world forget that there is such a Text in the Word of God Love not the world nor the things of the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him 1 Joh. 2.19 But that which makes some men that know this well enough to be mistaken is because they read of several rich men in Scripture that have their hands full of these Earthly comforts and see and hear of others that go to Heaven in the midst of great Possessions therefore they confidently conclude that they may enjoy them as well as others and yet be in a safe condition as if there were no difference between having and enjoying of them Their hearts were far enough from their Possessions as you might easily have seen if you had lived and conversed with them Though they had a large portion of their comforts a good measure of this Dung and Dross as the Apostle calls it yet they spread it to the good increase of Religion and Piety where they had to do they took little pleasure in this Dunghil neither did they spend their precious thoughts and time to encrease it But thy heart it may be is Wedded to these Carnal contentments and buried in this Dunghil and thy sweetest pleasures come in this way and when riches encrease thy heart is set upon them Psal 62.10 Let me tell thee that if ever Consideration open thine eyes thou wilt be as mad against these pleasures as ever thou wert mad for them And thou that do'st so industriously seek them with such careful study and endeavour wilt then be sick of them nulla major voluptas quam voluptatis fastidium No pleasure like that of contemning such transitory unmanly pleasures as these are if as Tully saith he is not worthy the name of a man that would live a whole day in such pleasures I am sure he is not worthy the name of a Christian that can live his whole life-time and prefer the pleasures of his body before the feasting of his Soul It 's the want of serious Consideration in this particular that makes so many lose the Joys of Heaven whilst they feast themselves with the Pleasures of the World Sixthly Another thing that should be the matter of your frequent serious Consideration is your latter end and the nearness of your dissolution This would make you wise indeed not to lay up riches and diet much less to treasure up sin and wrath against the day of wrath but to lay up in store a good foundation against the appointed time 1 Tim. 6.19 Rom. 2.5 It was the want of such heedful and attentive consideration that made Moses complain of the Israelites that they were a nation void of Counsel neither was there any understanding in them this made him wish so passionately O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end Deut. 32.28 29. This made the same Moses to pray so to teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to true wisdom Psal 90.121 Who can think what a vapour his life is James 4.14 and make it shorter by neglecting the work it was given him for A man never begins to live till he lives to God and he that survives the most years after he hath begun this work may be truly said to live the longest although he reach not the age of many a Carnal minded man For a mans life is not to be computed by grey hairs or the number of years but by the work that he hath done If therefore thy work be undone when death is approaching to thee what shall I say that thou hast lived but a little while nay rather that thou hast not lived at all I must conclude therefore that to consider the shortness of thy life is the way to lengthen it and to put thee into such a happy condition that death shall be sure never to surprise thee O what a madness it is for men that are to live but a few years it may be days in the world never seriously to consider it till their days are at an end when they have but a few turns more to fetch in this World not to consider it and turn unfeignedly to God before they are turned out of the World where is that mans Wits that buries his thoughts alive in the impertinencies of this life and scarce thinks from one end of the year to the other that he must die and in that very day his thoughts must perish What doth that man do that Fidles
they pass beyond our Imagination Fancy what thou wilt and Majesty Pomp and Beauty can present thee with it 's all but a poor faint Resemblance of the Glorious Life to come It 's easier for a Pencil to draw the Picture of Sound and Tast than for the Tongue to utter or the Heart to imagin The Joys of Heaven All that a curious Artist can do to describe the Content of a Soul at Rest with God and perfectly Happy is so far from what he would but cannot say as Heaven is from Earth We know There 's nothing of all this that we see hear or tast or imagin in the Heavenly Paradise But thou mayest be sure there 's more than all this Considerations to excite Shame and hearty Sorrow for all former Departure from God and present Strangeness to him THough God delighteth not in Sorrow and Contrition meerly as it is the Misery and Affliction of his Creature but rather is afflicted with them in all their Sorrows Isaiah 63.9 yet as it is an expression of any sincere hatred of former sin and willingness to forsake it and comes from any true Love to God who is dishonoured by it and Mens own Souls of which it is the death and destruction and leads directly to their future Reformation and Happiness so the Lord is delighted therewith And a sinner one that is yet under the guilt of his sins cannot present him with a better Sacrifice For The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit a broken and contrite heart O Lord thou wilt not despise Psalm 51.17 1. Thou wilt take pleasure in by a usual Figure called Litote or Mecoses And in the former Clause of the Verse The Sacrifices that is The Sacrifice of Sacrifices as the Heaven of Heavens is put for the Highest Heaven In which Forms of Speech it 's customary with the Hebrew Language to leave out the first Substantive * Hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for the Elephant because she is the chief Saith Grot. of Beasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for God himself because he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most excellent wisdom Psal 49.3 So the Canticles is put for the Canticle of Canticles or the most excellent Song Instances there are many of this kind to shew that the Plural Number is sometime instead of the Comparative Degree Thus you see in what sense God is delighted in our Sorrow and taketh pleasure in a sighing and broken Heart even in the same sense that Paul was glad at the sadness of the Corinthians even as it was a sign of and step to their future Amendment and Happiness 2 Cor. 2.2 For if I make you sorry saith he who is he then that maketh me glad but the same which is made sorry by me And indeed it is no wonder that the merciful God that delighteth so much in the welfare and felicity of his Creatures should yet be so well pleased in the bitter Repentance and heart-breaking Sorrow of sinful Creatures since it is such a preparative to your future Joy and that so many excellent Texts of Scripture are dropt from the Holy Spirit to encourage Sinners to labour after such a wounding piercing Sorrow as this is So Isaiah 57.15 Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity whose Name is Holy I dwell in the High and Holy Place with him also that is of a contrite and humble Spirit to revive the Spirit of the Humble and the Heart of the Contrite one So Isaiah 66.2 There he seemeth to despise and slight the most magnificent stately Structure which they could build him and to prefer the humble contrite Heart far before all that the Hands of Men could possibly make Thus saith the Lord The Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my Footstool where is the House that ye build unto me And where is the place of my rest For all these things hath my Hand made But to this Man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my Word And how frequently is he said to comfort those that Mourn and to bind up the broken in Heart to regard their Sighs and bottle up their Tears as if there were no Temper that God more delighteth in There are some though very few that need to be warned and admonished that they do not place the Principal Part of God's Worship and Service in Sighs and Tears and pricking Sorrow and shameful Confessions of their Sin Not that I disswade any from giving due Time and Measure to these humbling self-abasing Acts For it is the design and business of this present Labour to promote this Sorrow in the Heart so far as it is a fit Instrument to promote Reformation in the Heart and Life But yet some I say have need of this Caution that they lay not too much stress upon this part of our Duty we owe unto God much less that they confine the whole work and business of Religion to Acts of Contrition and Mortification For though the Lord delighteth in the penitent broken Heart that mourneth over all its former Sin and Folly and is ashamed of his odious hainous Transgressions and doth loath himself for his Iniquities and doth particularly search into his Sores and uncover them before God with the most distinct clear and open Confession yet this is but a lower and preparatory step to that Love of God constant delight in him praises of him chearful obedience to him in the which he is far more delighted so that Tears and Sorrow and heart-melting Repentance and afflicting our Souls are not absolutely pleasing to God and a part of the immutable unchangeable Worship we owe to him but only acceptable to him 1. Upon supposition of former Miscarriages 2. In preparation to future Obedience Had we never sinned Sorrow and Repentance had been no acceptable Service to God at all neither would it have pleased him to see us go heavily as those that mourn But now supposing that every one of us is born into the World with hereditary Corruption and a depraved Nature quite contrary to that which God gave Man at the first the very first acceptable Service that we can perform to God is to be sensible of and to bewail this perverse Disposition according to its desert and to weigh and consider all the sad and woful Consequences of such a poisoned corrupted Nature how hateful it is to God how disgraceful to our selves here and how destructive to our souls hereafter and how dangerous and infectious it is to others that we are firmly resolved to take any Course to recover our former Freedom and Priviledge we had in the state of Innocency that God shall suggest to us It is as preposterous to offer up any Service to God till this be done as it is to â—earn to Read before we are acquainted with
The Inundation of the Old World The Confusion of Languages The doing things against the Course of Nature such as are Raising the Dead to Life Restoring the Blind Or above Nature such as are most of the Plagues that befel Aegypt amply describe his Infinite Power And Rom. 1.20 His Eternal Power and Godhead are there said to be seen in the Creation of the World Seventhly The Measure of himself is Immensity And of all his Attributes is Infiniteness that is They have neither Bounds nor Measure 1. His Immensity is thus set forth by the Holy Ghost in Scripture 1 Kings 8.27 But will God indeed dwell on the Earth Behold the Heaven and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee how much less this House that I have builded So 2 Chron. 2.6 to the same purport So Psalm 139.7 8 9 10. Whither shall I go from thy spirit or whither shall I flee from thy presence If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there if I make my Bed in Hell thou art there If I take the wings of the Morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me So Amos 9.2 3 4. 2. The infinity of all his Attributes Psal 147.5 Great is our Lord and of great power and his understanding is infinite And if one Attribute be infinite needs must all the rest be so and therefore Zophar may well propose it as a Query uncapable of solution Job 11.7 8 9. Canst thou by searching find out God Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection It is as high as Heaven what canst thou do Deeper than Hell what canst thou understand The measure thereof is longer than the Earth and broader than the Sea See Job 37.23 Eighthly His Attributes that result from all these are 1. His Immutability which the Holy Ghost describes James 1.17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of Lights in whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning And Malach. 3.6 I am the Lord I change not therefore the sons of Jacob are not consumed Psal 102.27 2. His Greatness which the Scripture thus describeth Psal 145.36 The Lord is great and greatly to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable he is to be feared above all Gods And 1 Chron. 15.25 and Jerem. 10.6 There is none like unto the Lord great in might Dan. 9.4 He is the great and dreadful God keeping covenant and mercy to them that love him Psal 77.13 There is none so great as our God Psal 48.1 Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God in the mountain of his holiness 3. His Majesty is thus described O Lord my God thou art very great thou art cloathed with majesty and honour Psalm 104.1 Thine O Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty 1 Chron. 29.11 And Elihu tells us that with God is terrible majesty Job 37.22 and Psalm 96.6 Honour and majesty are before him strength and beauty are in his sanctuary And Psal 145.10 11 12 13. All thy works shall praise thee O Lord c. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom and talk of thy power To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his kingdom Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations 4. His Glory the Scripture thus expresseth Psalm 138.5 Great is the glory of the Lord. And Psal 148.13 Let them praise the Name of the Lord that is the forementioned Creatures for his Name only is excellent and his glory is about the Earth and the Heaven And Isa 6.3 Holy holys holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole Earth is full of his glory Exod. 15.11 The Lord is there said to be glorious in holiness fearful in praises doing wonders 5. His Lordship and Dominion over all is thus described Isa 33.22 The Lord is our Judge the Lord is our Law-giver the Lord is our King Psal 97.5 Thou art the Lord of the whole Earth And Dan. 2.47 He is there said to be a God of Gods a Lord of Kings a revealer of secrets Psal 47.2 The Lord most high is terrible he is a great King over all the Earth Psal 103.19 The Lord hath prepared his throne in heaven and his kingdom ruleth over all Psal 145.13 Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and thy dominion endureth throughout all ages And Rom. 31.1 The Apostle tells us there is no power but of God Prov. 8.15 16. By him Kings reign and Princes decree justice By him Princes rule the Nobles and Judges of the Earth Matth. 6.13 Thine is the kingdom the power and the glory Lastly His Eternity the Crown of all is thus described Exod. 15.18 The Lord shall reign for ever and ever And Psal 45.6 Thy throne O Lord is for ever and ever the scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter Psal 90.2 Before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the Earth and the World thou art God from everlasting to everlasting i. a parte ante and a parte post without beginning and without end Psal 93.2 Thy throne is established of old thou art from everlasting Psal 102.27 Thou art the same viz. in opposition to mutable Creatures and thy years shall have no end Psal 104.31 The glory of the Lord shall endure forever c. Dan. 4.9 His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom Psal 106.10 The Lord shall reign for ever even thy God O Sion throughout all generations Dan. 8.18 His dominion shall be for ever unto the end These glorious Attributes of God especially as they stand in conjunction and shine upon one another calmly considered will mount and elevate an ingenuous and understanding Heart and wing it to this high and honourable imployment Secondly It will help on this blessed heavenly Work and Temper of Joy and Delight in God honourable and thankful thoughts and mention of him to behold his Attributes as they are further displayed in his Works Particularly his Bounty Wisdom Power Towards the 1. Irrational Creatures 2. Rational Creatures 1st It will something advance the dullest heart and dispose it to rejoyce in God and lift it up in praise and thankfulness to him to steep it a little in the meditation of that incomparable wisdom that shineth forth in the Being of every irrational Creature especially in the whole frame and orderly connection of all such Creatures Every Creature in its single existence hath treasure enough to enrich the understanding of the wisest Man on earth if it search into the depth and bottom of it and to imprint admiring reverent and thankful Inclinations towards him in the Heart There 's not a Pile of Grass that shoots up but directs the Eye Heavenward towards which it pointeth up unless it be kept shut by ignorance and inconsideration What excellent skill and cunning is there in
other ways in which God hath expressed his Bounty and Munificence to this Watry Element It would take up a Volumn to descend to particulars and to shew you the Bounty of God to the Four Elements as they are called of which all other Creatures that have their general Rendezvouz either in the Earth Water or Air are compounded whether they be Lifeless Vegetative Sensitive or Rational and to tell you the Glory that God hath put upon them And then to proceed to the several Creatures in their order This would be to write the whole History of Nature A little of this knowledge was that which the Philosophers and Wise-men of the World so much gloried in But yet though it was so much beyond their reach to bring in a compleat Inventory of all those costly Utensils wherewith God hath so richly furnished and adorned thiâ— his great Family of Heaven and Earth and much more would it pr zzle them to shew you the â—ost that is expended and laid out upon â—â—ch of these and to discover their worth and 〈…〉 yet let but a vulgar eye go forth and look about him and view the Fields and therein the Trees the Grass the various Herbage so verdant to the eye so fragrant to the smell and every one so useful to the Ends of Food and Physick even such a one if he have any Spiritual Life or Sense in him shall not want Arguments for number or weight able to convince him and to enforce a Confession of God's Bounty to these Creatures But let him behold the various Fruits and Flowers that every Orchard or Garden almost will present him with let him but consider the beautiful Rose and Tulip or rather to take the Scripture-Instance let him look upon the fair Lilly and he must needs say if he understand any thing That Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these Matth. 6.29 or if he will believe the Word of God These Vegetables have such a natural Grace and Beauty that all the Art and Wit of Man cannot imitate much less out-do To say nothing of the dead and inanimate Creatures both above and under Ground of which such Essences Spirits and Magisteries and other Extracts are prepared by the Still and other ways that Art and Industry hath discovered No nor to mention any of the sensitive or more noble Creatures No nor of those intermediate bordering and amphibious Creatures that come between these several kinds that lay claim to both and belong to neither such as are the Minerals that grow like the Vegetables And the Plantanimals that partake partly of the Vegetative and partly of the Sensitive Nature c. Upon every one of which God hath bestowed various Vertues and Perfections But I have touched only upon Generals and left the Particulars to be the Subject of your more distinct Meditations as you shall occasionally light on them 3. The omnipotency and infinite power of God is no less conspicuous in these several Creatures than the other two Attributes of his Wisdom and Goodness to a seeing eye and as fit to assist in the Praises of God as the other Power is the thing that all Men adore and aspire to and would purchase at any rate Even those that can contemn Riches and Sensual Pleasures which most Men follow after and are led by like Beasts yet are very ambitious of Power As being the best Instrument to compass any thing that the Will can desire Well then here is Power to be seen in its highest glory and its utmost perfection Alas that Idol we so much adore in Men is but a shadow and faint resemblance of that infinite and unlimitted power that God was eternally invested with that 's guided by as immense a Wisdom and as perfect a Goodness and therefore cannot possibly be mischievous and oppressive Power in Man and other Creatures is oft times pernicious both to themselves and others for want of equal Wisdom and Goodness to guide and ballance it And yet take all their Power together in the widest and wildest Notion the greatest Lord and Emperour of the World hath but a silly weak and contemptible power in respect of that which God is possessed of and the Attribute of his Almightiness doth import and which he hath displayed in the eye sight of all intelligent Creatures And this may be seen without any great pains or labour in the Make or Fabrick of every Creature and the production of so many Beings as the World abounds with out of meer nothing Let Paracelsus and the Rose-Crucians boast that they can produce Man or any other Creature by their Chymical Skill and Artifice These are but Boasts and if they can do any thing that way which will deserve some admiration It will come as far short of God's Workmanship as Art is from Nature or rather finite from infinite They must have Matter to work upon and several Tools to work with But the infinite Power hath brought to pass these mighty and wonderful Effects that are every where so visible without the help of either Matter or Tool or any the least Assistance O what a Power is that must make an invisible Vapour that fumes out of the Earth to grow into the visible Bulk of Plant or Herb and to aspire into a Tree spreading forth it self into so many Shoots and Branches And that the same Vapour should secretly convey it self through every Bough and Leaf of this Tree for its continual Growth and Nourishment That this subtil Spirit should produce so many various Shapes and such different Vertues in the several Plants and die them with such various and almost infinite Colours That a Vapour that seems so contemptible should set forth the Lilly in white and cloth the Violet in such a purple dress But what do I speak of these What a Power is that that hath hung such a vast Body as the Earth upon nothing in the midst of the Air That hath made it so immovable though it hath no Pillars to support it nor any Basis whereon to rest That hath shut up the vast Ocean in the deep as in a Store-house Psalm 33.7 And gathered the Waters of the Sea together in a heap That hath stinted the proud Waves thereof and bounded their swelling rage and fury Job 38.11 What a Power is it that ballanceth the Clouds and useth them as a Swadling-band to wrap up and hold in the Waters over our Heads that they are not rent under such a mighty Load Job 38.9 It would amaze and even confound the understanding of Man seriously to think how such a vast Body as the Sun that 's 166 times bigger than the Earth should go over the whole Circle of the Heavens in the space of 24 Hours The Sun is said to move every Hour 1038442 of Miles that is one Million of Miles every Hour which being so incredible to Mans understanding late Philosophers have found out a new way and would have the
us remember that if feeling do not recover our understanding God will forsake us as a desperate cure and say why should they be stricken any more they will revolt more and more Esay 1.5 When once it comes to that farewel Rod it will come to that farewel God for ever and then forgetfulness will be our punishment as now it is our sin To conclude therefore with some little touch of Application though it be out of its due place since the day of the Lord is come upon us and he is visiting for our Transgressions and we have so loud a call to Repentance Let us not think though we have mercifully escaped the Judgment that we may escape the Duty also It deserves a double acknowledgment if God do awaken us by the doleful noise of others complaints and if he do cleanse our Hearts by the Judgments that sweeps so many away but let us see that it be a true and substantial sorrow that begins at the right place even at the very heart and will not evaporate and spend its self in a few tears and sighs but doth mortifie our sin and work a sincere renovation in our life And if we do take upon us also to lament the sins of the City and Nation let us prove our sorrow to be of the right stamp by helping forward their Repentance and Reformation first by our Prayers then by other our best endeavours 'T is a poor matter to forbear a meal or twain and yet to harbour such a Guest as pulls the meat from our Mouths and calls for the Pillow under our Heads and snatches away the desire of our Eyes and divorces our Friends and Companions from us yea which is the sum and abridgement of all our misery parts between God and us 'T is a poor business to spread Sack-cloth over us I mean to deny our Bodies their usual Ornaments and to strew Ashes under our Feet and to let a few tears drop from us for sin and yet to carry in our Breasts an Heart unrent unbroken unsoftened by a true sence of sin and a work of Grace To what purpose is it to bow the Body to God and yet to make ones Heart like an Iron Sinew too stiff and stout to bend in obedience to Gods Command The Prophet Hosea lays it upon them as a heavy charge Hos 7.14 They have not cryed unto me with their Hearts when they howled upon their Beds And you know with what indignation God puts the question Esay lviii 5. Is this the Fast that I have chosen a day for a man to afflict his Soul Is it to bow down his Head as a Bull-rush and to spread Sack-cloth and Ashes under him Wilt thou call this a Fast and an acceptable day to the Lord But oh what a Fast is that when we will not go thus far when we will not afflict our selves so far as to want our Food and Ornaments I am confident it is a great provocation when we will not shew forth to one another these and the like outward signs of humiliation Ahab went thus sar and the stubborn Jews never stuck at this And though the same signs of mourning and humiliation be not in fashion with us that were with them yet I am sure gaudery is no sign external of inward humiliation If I had time or were indeed upon the Application it would be seasonable to help forward the true Repentance that God expecteth from us By setting some of our sins before our face in some of their aggravations but that I may have opportunity to do hereafter So much in answer to the Second Question who they are that forget God I come now to the Application 1. First Then we may hence discover by what hath been spoken in answer to the Two foregoing Questions What a sin it is to forget God and by Connexion how Guilty they make themselves that wipe God out of their Remembrance and reserve their hearts for other things If to forget God be not barely to cast him out of thy memory which yet were sinful enough since all thy faculties are indebted to him but to throw him out of thy Heart and Affections as the case is plain enough that it is If to forget God imply a disregard of his most glorious Attributes Word and Works to which such a high Veneration and Reverence is due from every understanding Creature Then what a Sin art thou Guilty of That dost not remember him Wilt thou Annihilate as much as in thee lies the Sun that shineth the Air that thou suckest in the Heavens that hang over thy head and the Earth under thy feet and all the Glory both of Heaven and Earth wilt thou make nothing of the light of thy Eyes and the breath of thy Nostrils If thou forget God thou dost upon the matter annihilate all these as to the end and intent of them as to their moral use though not as to their Physical nature Darest thou be guilty of the contempt of that mighty power that made thee and all the World out of Nothing of the highest Soveraignty and Jurisdiction to which every rational Creature owes subjection there 's one only Law giver that 's able to save or to destroy and darest thou contemn him James 4.12 Art thou mad to despise the Royal Law James 2.8 the Law of Heaven and the highest Wisdom that hath composed it and the highest Authority that hath imposed it Art thou so void of Reason as to contemn thine own happiness and to despise thine own welfare And to slight that Eye that always seeth thee In a word Art thou so bold to affront infinite and inflexible Justice Purity and Holiness If God be forgotten by thee yea if he have not the chiefest Room in thy Remembrance thou wilt be judged one day to be guilty of such contempt What a sin must it needs be to despise the written Word of God indited by such a Spirit confirmed by such Miracles and mighty Works given us in so much love and mercy that contains such important matters of the biggest concernment whose accomplishment is so near and certain and to slight what the God of Heaven hath there either threatned or promised And if God be forgotten by thee thou wilt fall under this damnable guilt Art thou so stupid as to overlook and despise the Works of God whether of Creation Providence or Redemption and to forget God whilst thou hast such helps for thy memory Darest thou cross the Acts of Gods Providence and say thou wouldst have it thus when God would have it otherwise This thou wilt do if thou hast a Temptation if God be forgotten In a word this will betray thee to that Formality and Hypocrisie in his Service and to such a carnal Worship of him that hath so little likeness to him or acceptance from him which he doth so much detest And which he doth so bitterly upbraid the confident impudent Jews which in this whole 50 Psalm I
perfect Obedience It was said of Luther that he could do what he would with God by Prayer If God be promoted in thy Heart as high as he was in Luth. thou shalt prevail with him as much as ever Luth. did I know thou hast no ground from the word to expect that God should satisfie thy desires in temporal things when they will not consist with the welfare of thy Soul But every desire that is honourable to God to grant and profitable to thy Soul to receive thou shalt have And when he denies thee what thou dost express he will give what thou dost imply and mean When he granteth not thy particular Request he will give thee thy general Request whatsoever thou askest it 's happiness that thou meanest that 's the general intent and meaning and this he will fulfil though not always in the same method it may be that thine own Wisdom suggesteth he will give thee money or money worth Thou shalt have thy desire in kind or value yea a frequent Remembrance of God will teach thee to pray so as thou shalt prevail and the knowledge of his Attributes and Perfections which the Remembrance of God doth imply will make thee so ingenious as to ask nothing that shall cross the Wisdom Justice or Holiness of God or be the least prejudicial to the merciful design of thy Salvation O what a priviledge is it to have such an open free access to him that can strangely turn things about when it pleaseth him and is wonderful in Counsel and mighty in Working Esay 28.29 with a promise to be heard to plead with God and get the Blessing for thy Self for thy Relations and for the Land of thy Nativity and by this means to be one of the Props and Pillars of the Nation of which thou art a Member This is an Honour indeed and an unvaluable Mercy which yet thou shalt partake of in that degree and measure as thou dost Remember him Fourthly To Remember God is the ready way to entail the Blessing of Heaven and Earth upon thy Seed and Posterity Children speed ordinarily according to their Parents interest or want of interest in God Those that die in Infancy it 's more than probable that they speed according as their Parents or those that have the nearest interest in them are in Covenant with God or out of Covenant And those that live beyond an Infants state have cause to count amongst the greatest of their early Blessings that they have either one or both Parents that are true Believers especially where the Faith of their Parents is gotten up to some degree of Eminency I would not intimate that the Lord doth never shew special love and mercy to the Posterity of the Wicked nor that he doth always impart saving Grace to the Children of the godly But I believe it will prove a rare case if one instance can be produced that all the Children of Believers if they have several are finally forsaken of God and denyed his saving Grace yea many times they are all remembred It is the Argument that Peter useth to perswade Faith and Repentance to his hearers in the first Sermon which he preached after Christs Assention and the Descension of the Holy Ghost that by this means Parents would bring their Children to participate in Gospel-mercy with themselves Acts 2.39 Repent and be Baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost For the Promise is to you and your Children And it hath the most general testimony of the soundest Writers that the Faith of the Parents is the condition of the Childrens right to Baptism The Profession of it in the Court of Men the Possession of it in the Court of Heaven * See the Reverend Mr. Baxters Dispu of right to Sacrament But be it how it will I am sure it 's a doleful condition to be the Child of wicked Parents that forget God and a mercy better than the biggest Portion can be left them to be the Seed of Parents that Remember him Thus saith the Lord c. Fear not O Jacob my Servant for I will pour my Spirit upon thy Seed and my Blessing upon thine off-spring Esa 44.3 And as the special Promise was made to Isaac so even Ishmael fared the better for being Abraham's Seed And as it is threatned in one of the Prophets that the Seed of evil doers shall never he Renowned so the Posterity of those that Remember God are the most likely to be Remembred even in this Life and to be famous in their Congregation Men of Renown Num. 16.2 I do not mean for their worldly Pomp and Splendor but for their Grace Wisdom and Usefulness to the World To which sometime such a measure of these outward Blessings are added as may make their Grace more resplendent and them more serviceable to him that will most eminently reward it If therefore your own Bowels are dear to you and you desire that your Posterity should be blessed here and had in Eternal Remembrance hereafter advance God in your Remembrance Lastly This Exercise of thy Thoughts and Affections in the Remembrance of God is thy greatest Happiness as well as thy greatest interest I mean it will yield thee the highest Pleasure as well as the highest Profit I know to the ignorant that have no competent knowledge of God and such as are unwonted to these thoughts and have their Affections buried in the World and are loaden with divers Lusts no work is more unpleasant nothing that they will more decline Light it self is unpleasant to a sore and distempered Eye but those that are pretty well acquainted with the amiable Nature and Perfections of God and with such Thoughts and Meditations of him as will amount to a worthy Remembrance of him would not be untaught this Art for all the Pleasures which the World can supply to them These are the most reviving these are the most comforting these are the most satisfying Thoughts These are the most illuminating instructing perfecting Thoughts These are the Thoughts that best improve our present Comfort and our future Hopes From all these Heads I might particularly and distinctly shew how the sincere Remembrance of God doth make way for the greatest Pleasure viz. In that it doth 1. Clear and perfect the Understanding 2. Purifie and rejoyce the Heart 3. Revive the Spirit and actuate it to greater Life and Life is sweet 4. In that it doth quiet and satisfie the very Soul 5. Multiply and improve our present Comforts 6. And our future Happiness All these ways and many other doth this Remembrance of God contribute to our immediate Pleasure and Happiness That Soul must needs abound most with Life and Joy and Pleasure that hath most frequent access to the Fountain of all Life and Pleasure who enjoy themselves more than they if other things concur that are most under the power and command of
of Earthly Prosperity but that 's but a meer negative and no positive Act whereas true Contentment is something positive And that Soul that hath it doth not only hold its peace and say nothing to the contrary but with deliberation speaketh Peace to a Man upon the surest and most infallible grounds The plain truth is the Soul of an ambitious and voluptuous Worldling may seem to be satisfied and acquiesce if he hath what the World can afford him because he doth not believe or consider The end of all things is at hand 1 Pet. 4.7 But sense hath a full mastery over him being gratified to the full and doth make the Mind drunk that it cannot make an impartial enquiry into the worth of what the Man for the present is so much pleased with O if such a one did consider and believe he would like his condition worse than that of the vilest Begger He could not look into the Word of God and see such dreadful passages against those that have their Affections set upon the World and Pleasures thereof nor read the terrible Description of those Men that have the Riches of this World and are not rich towards God Luke 12.21 and not tremble and even throw away such Earthly Luggage that is such an impediment in the way to Salvation if he could not be otherwise rid of it And as the inconsiderate Mans great and principal End is no higher so he is as foolish and void of Understanding in his choice of the means whereby he would attain his End Alas that ever Men that have such excellent parts and means for their Improvement that are bred up to more Understanding than other Men should so disparage their very Reason and Judgmenâ— as to think that Hawking and Hunting and Carding and Dicing and Courting and Feasting and such like Courses should bring a Man to Content and Happiness If they did but consider they could not possibly judge this unless their Reason were besotted and there were some considerable flaw in their understanding Faculty I deny not but in reference to their intended End they have made a wise and prudent choice and hit upon the fittest means Their end being the pleasing of the Flesh what can they do more wisely than to make provision for it to fulfil the Lusts and Desires thereof Rom. 13.14 and to live at Ease And so the Children of this World as our Saviour hath affirmed are wiser in their Generation than the Children of Light Luke 16.8 Their end though by accident being to lose the Life which is to come what can they do more shrewdly than to save this present Life Since their end is to destroy their Souls can they take a more prudent course than to love the World and the things of the World and keep all thoughts of a future state out of their Minds as much as may be lest they should be converted and saved This their way is their folly Psal 49.13 But the Man that Considers will look higher and be sure to project for all Eternity and make nothing his chief End but what will never fail and therefore hath a wiser reach than the most applauded admired Wit that is Earthly Minded And he is as wise in the choice of the means whereby he makes towards his End they being no other than what God himself hath prescribed and therefore can never miscarry his End is to save his Life for ever and therefore he will venture to lose it here Matth. 10.39 His end is to get him Everlasting Honour and to embalm his Name to all Eternity and therefore he doth rejoyce when Men revile him and speak all evil of him falsly for Christs sake Thus you see that Consideration maketh a Man truly and solidly wise This is the first benefit of Consideration 2. Consideration is a work accompanied with the sweetest Pleasure and Contentment The meer agitation and exercise of the Intellectual is sweet to one that knows how to employ them But when moreover the Objects of the Mind are such as do enlighten purifie and rejoyce the Heart such a Man if he know how to manage the work must needs advance himself to a high degree of pleasure The reason why some Christians grow weary and faint in the Service of God and walk heavily in the bitterness of their Souls a great part of their Life if not all is because they do not more frequently approach the Fountain of Joy and Gladness in their Meditations of him and do not so well consider the evil of Sin to forsake it more heartily nor clear up their interest in Christ and Evidences for Heaven by daily Consideration Were these things better considered they would be better known and what a pleasure would it be to think upon God and Heaven and Christ if we had but 〈…〉 â—â—â—erest in them Thus you see some of the fruits of Consideration Fourthly As the benefits of Consideration are unspeakably great so the mischiefs of Inconsideracy are as sad 1. God threatens it heavily Psal 28.5 Because they consider or gard not the works of the Lord nor the operation of his Hands he will destroy them and not build them up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because they did not understand in the Original for Consideration and Vnderstanding are so near a kin that they are both expressed by the same word and Esay 5.12 13. And the Harp and the Viol and the Tabret are in their Feasts but they regard not the Work of the Lord nor consider the operation of his Hands So Hos 7.2 They consider not in their Hearts that I remember all their Wickedness now their own doings have beset them about they are before my Face Neither doth he barely threaten some Execution is done Job 34.26 27. He striketh them as wicked Men in the open sight of others and the Reason follows because they turned back from him and would not consider any of his ways 2. It 's an Argument of Brutishness and Folly Psal 92.5 6. O Lord how great are thy Works and thy Thoughts very deep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Man that 's led by Lust and not by Reason we render it a Brutish Man knoweth not neither doth a Fool understand or consider this As it is Reason and Understanding that makes a Man differ from a Bruit and become more excellent than a Beast so Consideration is nothing else but the use of his Reason without which he must needs live like a Beast To speak plainly he that will not use his Reason and consider and so live like a Man that should be guided by this higher Principle he will be guided by a lower Principle and be led by Sense and Feeling as a Beast is And a little that is present and felt shall weigh more with such a one than one that 's to come though ten times greater Hence it is that though God threaten a wicked Man and one that lives by sense with Hell and Damnation it hath no
Woe to the persons that use the Talents God hath given them to such a wicked purpose and serve the Devil so openly in the world and that are imployed as his Agents not only to destroy themselves but to pervert and destroy the Souls of others with whom they have any fellowship I would not be in the condition of those that go down to the Grave with the guilt of such a sin on them for all the World If as the Apostle tells us He that converteâ—h a sinner from the evil of his waâ— shall save his Soul from death and hide 〈◊〉 of sins James 5.23 What reward shall be given unto thee thou false tongue Psal 120.3 that studiest to convert a sinner to the errour of thy ways and to bring his soul to death what shall be done unto thee that dost in plain terms or else by cunning Fetches endeavour to discourage thy brother from prayer meditation in the word of God and consideration of the life to come If you have any belief of the life to come and compassion for your souls avoid the company of such persons as much as you can and stopt your ears to such discourses or rather openly declaim against them and rebuke the persons roundly that are such enemies to the salvation of mens souls and consequently to all the means that should promote and bring it to pass amongst which Consideration is none of the least Fourthly see that you carefully shun too much occupation in worldly affairs If your thoughts be much entangled with the matters of the world they will be very unfit for the consideration of such weighty serious things which you must think upon till you are affected with them more than all other matters that meerly concern this life or else wish that God had never given you a thinking faculty Be still and know that I am God so we render it Psal 46.10 But in the Hebrew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Desist from and remit your other imployments and consider that I am God For the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hiph signifies Desistere Absistere Remittere 1. To desist to leave off or remit If worldly matters be too busie in your heads spiritual and eternal things cannot be considered nor thought upon as they ought You may as well walk upright with a Mountain on your backs as erect your thoughts Heaven-ward whilst they are incumbred with the world Though slight and trivial business may be transacted in a Croud yet when we have matters of weight and moment we then chuse silence and retâ—â—â—ment Let me tell you there 's nothing of such consequence as those things that are to fall under our consideration And do you think a mind distract with worldly cares is fit for such a work as this It is not easie to be affected with the eye of God that 's ever on us and to stand always in awe of him unless frequent serious consideration make way And who can do that that hath one worldly business or another perpetually in his mind And is even burthened and oppressed with such thoughts As the eye of the body is disturbed by the violent motion of the Wind or Air so the eye of the understanding is more perturbed by busie confused and tumultuous thoughts And although they that have their heads continually exercised and imployed in worldly business are very subject to such confusion and disorder yet even those also that have not their hands very much imployed may have their hearts in continual disturbance and agitation and may have as little vacancy and leisure for such consideration as those that are over head and ears in the World and are as busie all the day long as if they were labouring for a Crown or Kingdom It is an unvaluable mercy to have a free composed and undisturbed mind and to have vacancy and leisure to ask a mans self what he is doing and whether it will yield him comfort when he is passing out of the World Many have bitterly repented them that they have had so many Irons in the Fire and that with Martha they have been careful and solicitous for many things whilst they have neglected the one thing necessary Luke 10.41 Let their Repentance be a warning unto us that the oppressing cares of the world do not either prevent or else smother and choke better thoughts Fifthly Another grand obstruction to the work of necessary consideration is pride in all the kinds thereof As God deals with pride so pride deals with him He looks upon the proud and the proud look upon him afar off or rather he regardeth them not at all nor they him The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not consider and seek after God God is not in all his thoughts Psal 10.4 His wayes are alwayes grievous to him They are far above out of his sight Vers 5. Though the proud man looketh too high yet not high enough you see to take God into his consideration who should be the principal object of it There is none that standeth at a greater distance from God both Actively and Passively by way of sin and punishment than the proud person Though the heart that 's lifted up with pride beareth it self so high yet not high enough for such a work as consideration is that is to be exercised in the highest matters It 's true both pride and consideration are of an aspiring nature and yet you can scarce name two things that are more inconsistent The one seeks the vanishing breath and applause of men The other is ambitious of God's approbation The one reacheth after the pomp and glory of the Earth and the other foares after the riches and glory of Heaven And as pride lifteth up the flesh so consideration doth enable and advance the Spirit Now he that is gotten up to the Top of wordly pride and greatness is far more indisposed to consider the high Attributes of God and his glorious perfections and the life to come and the joys of Heaven than he that is cast down and humbled by worldly poverty and shame he hath a better prospect into the Heavenly Kingdom and Glory and seeth more of the Majesty of God and the splendour and dignity of his Servants that is placed low in the world than he that is got upon a Pinnacle or stands upon the Mountain of worldly honour and felicity There is no man that is the least acquainted with the 〈◊〉 of God but will easily confess that an 〈…〉 lowly spirit hath more clear distinct affecting apprehensions of the highest things than the proudest and most 〈◊〉 spirit Men think to advance themselves to honour by such a spirit as this but it 's certainly true that nothing doth more debase them so true is it thâ—â— Solomon â—ffiâ—â—meth that the wicke worâ—â—â—th a deceifed work Râ—oâ—â— 11.18 As pride is an enâ—my to all grace whatsoever so it is a deadly enemy to consideration for there 's nothing
as these and to take this day into your sober consideration Though you should think on the greatest worldly matters and your thoughts be imployed in the management of the Affairs of a Kingdom yet if you think not upon the Affairs of this great and wonderful day you do but trifle and dream away your precious life They that have but a Cause to be tryed before a Judge of Nisi Prius that very much concerns their Estates cannot but remember it and consider how they may come off with success but those that are to be tryed for their Lives cannot sleep nor talk it out of their mind by Night the terrible Apparitions of it in their fancies interrupts their repose and sleep and the horrible thoughts of it in the day time strikes them mute and damps all their discourse And shall not a day far more remarkable where you must undergo a Tryal for your Eternal Estate and Life be considered And it is the more worth your consideration because the Judge before whom this Tryal must be made is He that made thy self and all the World clothed with his Robes of Majesty and Justice He that delivered into thy hands thy Reason Memory Judgment Freewill Senses Honours Estates as Talents to be now accounted for Did not all the Priviledges of thy Birth and Education Did not all the Mercies of thy Infancy Youth and Riper Age come from above Deny it now if thou canst And were not all thy choicest dearest comforts as Pearls begotten by the Dew of Heaven His Circuit is not confined to one Nation or piece of a Nation but the Circuit that he will ride in that great day shall be the Heaven of Heavens with a glorious Train and Retinue of Saints and Angels and the people that shall be gathered before him are are the whole Creation of Angels and Men the matters that must then be brought to Examination and Tryal are the secret and more publick actions of our whole lives the Witnesses that shall be produced shall be such as are beyond all Exception viz. mens own Consciences the Devil and his Angels that are continually watching our miscarriages and the Judge himself that can tell the time the place the persons with whom or the things about which the wickedness hath been committed and the Question that shall be then decided in the face of all the world shall be whether the persons thus tryed shall live or die for ever These are no fidling trifling matters to be slighted nor unworthy your serious forethought and consideration besides the Judge is inflexible and cannot be bended by force bribery or entreaty If you look into Psal 50.4 5 6. you shall see with what circumstances of Majesty and Terrour this Judg's Process is described and set forth a fire shall devour before him and it shall be very tempestuous round about him he shall call to the Heavens from above and to the Earth that he may judge his people and the Heavens shall declare his Righteousness for God is Judge himself Were this day well believed and considered men would not live in any fashion nor think and speak any thing that comes next nor do actions that they dare not call themselves to account for They would fear their own Consciences more than a thousand Witnesses which in despite of them will be privy to all their actions I warn thee to take heed of this Witness for it will betray thee If thou art wise when thou hast any wickedness to commit see that neither God nor the Devil nor thine own Conscience have any eye upon thee and then thou canst find no place nor time in which thou canst be secure As it is the great policy of Satan to hide this day from thine eyes and to keep it out of thy thoughts if he can that he may take thee Captive at his will so it should be thy chief care to have it continually before thine eyes that thou mayst escape his temptations The lively frequent thoughts of this day made Paul so unwearied in the work of the Lord and so importunate with his hearers Knowing the terrours of the Lord saith he we perswade men 2 Cor. 5.11 And it was the great Argument he used with Tim. to spur him up to the like diligence 2 Tim. 4.1 2. I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the Quick and the Dead at his appearing and Kingdom Preach the Word be instant in season and out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering and Doctrine And when he did but cast a flash of this day into the eyes of Felix you know what effect it had on him Acts 〈◊〉 24.25 Though Paul was but a Prisoner at the Bar and Felix his Judge upon the Bench yet when Paul reasoned with him of Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come the Text saith Felix trembled It 's madness to put this day out of thy mind which God hath put into his Word as the most powerful Curb to all Sin and the most irresistible motive to a sober righteous and a godly life Be not afraid to entertain this day into thy Meditations the consideration and forethought of this day doth not make it but make thee ready for it whether thou thinkest of it or not it cometh on apace and thine eyes shall shortly behold the Solemnity of it either to thy terrour or to thy unspeakable joy S. Hierom thought he heard the very Trumpet sound continually that must call all the world together whatsoever he was doing the Voice was never out of his ears All the Musick of Worldly Delights and Pleasures would be but as sounding Brass and a tinkling Cymbal to one that hath this Trumpet frequently in his hearing think but believingly of the terrible Pomp and glorious Solemnity of that day and then think of vanity and folly with delight if thou canst These thoughts would drown the petty thoughts of worldly matters as the Report of a Cannon doth a Whisper or as the Sun obscureth the smallest Glow-worm And if any thing would stop thee in a course of sinning these thoughts would do it Thou would'st think it a poor shift to fly to the dark to cover thee when thou committest any iniquity if thou didst but consider that what is done in secret shall then be proclaimed upon the house-top and God will find Evidence enough to convince thee that thus and thus thou didst when he kept silence◠yea thou shalt betray thy self by thy own confession This is another Object of thy thoughts and very worthy thine often Consideration Eighthly Another thing that you should frequently steep your thoughts in is the joys of Heaven and unexpressible happiness of the Saints in Light there the Fountain of all Bliss and pleasure shall stand open and the Face of glorious Majesty shall be revealed Here we behold him but in a glass and see but a glimpse of his back-parts but then we shall see him face to face
by a satisfying ravishing sight and intuition Were the Soul it self loosned from this bodily Prison it would be a Spectacle worth your beholding and a most delectable glorious sight and your curiosity to behold such a sight as this would be far more excusable than theirs whom our Saviour taxed in that question What went you out for to see a Reed shaken with the wind But what went you out for to see a man cloathed in Purple and soft rayment such are in Kings houses Mat. 11.8 And if then the Soul of man be such a beautiful taking sight what a blessed sight will that be when God shall display the fulness of his glory If a Spirit be so bright and glorious what is the Father of Spirits to whom all created beauty is but a drop What a goodly sight will that be to behold the company of Prophets Martyrs and Apostles cloathed in shining rayment with Crowns on their Heads and Palms in their hands And what a ravishing pleasure must it needs be to see Sun and Stars under our feet and to behold the order and beauty of the Heavenly Jerusalem and to joyn in that Heavenly Consort to be admitted into his presence that hath made the Soul and Body out of nothing that hath fulness of joy at his right hand and pleasures for evermore Psal 16.11 Happy are the persons indeed that after a few miserable days here on Earth shall be translated thither into that Heavenly Palace with long life will he satisfie them and shew them his Salvation Psal â— 16 Talk no more so exceeding proudly O ye Sons of men of your worldly Dignity and Honour what a Dream and meer Imagination is all Earthly felicity to this of the Saints in Heaven Your riches if they were worthy to be named when we are discoursing of the riches of the Inheritance of the Saints Eph. 1.12.18 yet they may be corrupted and your garments may be Moth-eaten James 5.1 But the glory of the Saints endureth for ever for the Lord himself hath prepared a City for them Heb. 11.16 Though they were contemn'd here on Earth yet they shall have glory enough in Heaven Then shall that great Soveraign of the World command the best Robe to be brought forth and put it on them and call for the fatted Calf to entertain them and they shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in his Eternal Kingdom and they shall have an Everlasting Feast of joy and gladness Luke 15.22 23. Here they have but a Tast and do but sip now and then but there they shall have â—uch a draught that shall satisfie their Souls with Eternal pleasure a Cup that shall be ever going down O the joys of that state that no tongue can utter no mortal man did ever comprehend But yet mistake me not I do not intend by these borrowed expressions to intimate a Turkish Paradise to you of carnal delights and pleasures neither would I pervert your judgment by that which is meant for the Excitation and advancement of your affections It 's very material that your apprehensions of that glory be as right as we can attain to in such a place of darkness and distance from it where we live if you should mistake a Fleshly for a Spiritual felicity to be enjoyed hereafter it 's very possible that even a voluptuous Epicure may think himself in the Suburbs of that Kingdom already and that his Heaven is already begun here on Earth These forms of Speech therefore taken from eating and drinking and feasting whereby the Scripture represents to you the transcending pleasures of the other life are but Spectacles for weak eyes and a help for humane infirmity We are uncapable in this life of true and proper Conceptions of the happiness of that state only in general that it will be spiritual and not like these fleshly pleasures that here we tast of whilst we are in this Prison of the Body we are not able to understand the liberty that there we shall enjoy whilst we are here below in this Dungeon of the body we are not capable of beholding the light and brightness of that glory But you may safely use these Spectacles to help the dulness of your sight when Heaven is proposed to you and take the benefit of these gross expressions if they will but help to attract your desires and to raise your hopes and expectations more Heavenwards whilst you do but remember that the pleasures of that state are incomparably greater than all the pleasures here on Earth and quite of another kind that here we want a faculty to express because we want a faculty to tast You know a Horse or a Cow would take little pleasure in that food that is most delicious to us yea and many a man hath pleasure unintelligible to another man because he wants his tast and experience And it 's very hard to describe pleasure that depends upon a tast and experience that we our selves have not The sweetness of Honey would never be understood by all the definitions in the world if we had never tasted it Marvel not therefore if I tell you that the joys of that state are not to be properly understood here on Earth because we have now neither the tast nor the Meat that then we shall feed on I mean neither the faculty nor the object And certain it is that all pleasure is founded in the suitableness of the Faculty to the Object Since therefore neither Faculty nor Object shall be then the same that here we have the glorious pleasures of the perfected Saints must needs be beyond our Comprehensions But if you shall reply and say that Grace and Glory differ only gradually and not specifically and that they are the same in kind though not in the height of degree and therefore that the Regenerate and such as are truly enlightned and partakers of the Holy Ghost may taste the Heavenly gift and the Powers of the world to come Heb. 6.4 5. I answer they may better understand than others can that want their imperfect grace but yet there is so vast a difference between Faith and Sight perfect and imperfect Knowledge the Mustard-seed and the Tree that grows up from it that you may well say it is at the best far beyond their compleat and adequate comprehension And will not such a happiness as this be worthy thy frequent consideration Thou dost not soundly believe it saith Drexelius if thou dost but seldome and slightly think on it It cannot be that such as penetrate and search into this blessedness with lively active and piercing thoughts should venture the loss of it upon any terms Thou would'st have little list to part with thy hopes of future happiness for the gain of all Earthly delights if Consideration had once taught thee what Heaven is or if the Devil or the world should surprize thee before thou hast well considered what it is and befool thee to let go the hopes of Eternal Life
to draw and invite this Affection And have moreover disappointed thee too often of the Pleasure and Felicity that from them thou hast expected yea and which is far worse have entangled thee in many foolish and hurtful Lusts which have afterwards betrayed thee to sad and bitter complaints But here 's an Object worthy thy strongest love that will not debase and destroy but advance thy Soul to the highest Perfection The Love of him as it is sweet in the exercise so it will end at last in unspeakable sweetness and will not upbraid thee with Folly afterwards as all other Love will be sure to do Thou mayest love other things too much and here 's the Source and Spring of all Sin and Impiety and of all absurd and unreasonable Practices For as Divine Love is the sum of Duty and all worthy and becoming Actions so Carnal Love or the Love of Creatures is the Sum of all Wickedness and all incongruous and unseemly Practice But God can never be exalted too high in thine Estimation and Affections Here thou mayest safely vent and pour out all the store of thy Love with the greatest delight and security and expatiate thy Soul to the widest extent in the Ocean of his infinite and most lovely Perfections To him thou mayest safely offer up thy Soul in sacrifice as a whole-Burnt-Offering in the Fire of Love for ever Wilt thou permit thy Thoughts any more to fly abroad into Trifles and impertinent Matters when thou hast the immense Ocean of Divine Goodness to lanch forth into and mayest lose thy self with the greatest pleasure and advantage in the depths of his infinite Perfections Here to be even drowned and swallowed up is not Death but the sweetest and most ravishing Life Hast thou not pined long enough and melted away in the Cares and Love of the World the Martyrdom which corrupt Nature prompts thee fast enough to chuse Is it not now more than Time to be wiser and to bare an Honourable Testimony to him that hath redeemed thee And to subscribe that Witness to the Truth which thou hast borne too much hitherto to Lies and Falsehood Let them be taken by thee for Fools and Madmen that torture themselves with the Love and Care of this World and take Hell by that violence that the Kingdom of Heaven should be taken by But let the main stream and current of thine Affections be ever after him in whom are all the dimensions of Perfection Some little Twilight and Glimmerings of his Ravishing Beauty thou hast seen in his Words and Works But oh how short how exceeding short have they been through thy wilful Blindness and Inadvertency But these express not the thousandth part of his wonderful astonishing Splendour and Glory Something it may be thou hast tasted of his sweetest reviving Love But oh how little in respect of what thou might'st have had had it not been for thy own wilful neglect and refusal Hadst thou gazed as much upon his Glory as thou hast done upon the fading transitory Glory of the World and studied his Perfections according to the Opportunities and Advantages he hath given thee and not loved dismal affrighting Darkness rather than the quickning trransforming Light and neglected the best use of thine Understanding and Affections in holy Meditations on God Thou might'st confidently have expected the Blessing of God in a Work so well pleasing to him and found the Treasure that would have made thee contemn all other things in Comparison Then thou might'st have had joy in the darkest Night of Affliction and such an Allay to the bitterest Cup that would have made any Condition welcome to thee Then thou would'st have forgotten all the Miseries of thy life past and remembred them as Waters that pass away Job 11.16 Then thou might'st have lyen down with the sense of the pardon of former sins yea thou might'st have lyen down and thy sleep would have been sweet to thee Then the Remembrance of thy latter End would not have been such an unpleasant Theme to thy Meditations as now it is yea the Lord would have satisfied thy Soul in Drought and made thee like a watered Garden and like a Spring whose Waters fail not Isaiah 58.11 And then with what vivacity and chearfulness should'st thou have performed all Duty and borne all Sufferings when God had once answered thee in the joy of thy Heart Considerations to provoke to the Contempt of the World Psalm 119 96. I have seen an End of all Perfection but thy Commandment is exceeding broad 1 John 2.15 16. Love not the world nor the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world Vers 17. And the world passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever Isa 40.6 7. All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof is like the flower of the field The grass withereth and the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it 1 Cor. 7.9 The fashion of this world passeth away Prov. 11.4 Riches profit not in the day of wrath but righteousness delivereth from death Eccles 1.2 and 2.11 Vanity of vanities all is vanity saith the Preacher Eccles 1.8 All things are full of labour man cannot utter it the eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear with hearing Prov. 31.30 Favour is deceitful and Beauty is vain AS the Object of all rational saving Love is God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and all that standeth in subserviency to him so far as they conduce to this Noble End and Happiness of the Soul So the Object of all irrational sinful damning Love is the World and whatsoever serves to promote its interest in the Heart so far as it is Competitory with or Contradictory to the Interest of God and conduceth to the inordinate pleasing of the Flesh And thus much I intend here by the World that is any thing in the whole Creation that doth not refer to and is not subordinate unto God is to be the Object of this Contempt and Disdain First Because the World is unsatisfactory and cannot content the Mind of Man There is something still that the Soul misseth when it hath all here that it can desire It silently imagineth an Aliquid ultra when it hath gone its farthest in the Happiness and Prosperity here on Earth And it 's so far from Rest after all that it grows more hot and impatient in its desires And finding nothing to pursue after that can give content begins to fret and grow peevish when the ambitious Soul is gotten to the top of Honour he finds not the thing he expected he calls it by all the slight and contemptible Names he can invent or imagin you may as well satisfie the Appetite
go no further than the Bible Look not on the Vine saith Solomon when it is red when it giveth its colour in the Cup when it moveth it self aright At the last it biteth like a Serpent and stingeth like an Adder Prov. 23.31 32. When the World smiles most and looks the most pleasingly it usually gives the most mortal stab Let the Experience of all Ages speak out and tell us plainly how the World hath used its greatest Followers and Admirers some it hath taken from the Top of all their worldly Dignity and Glory and made the very Scorn and Contempt of all Thus it served the famous Bellisarius that great and worthy Commander under the Emperour Justinian Thus also it served Seianus the great Favorite of Tiberius and Pillippa the Catanian that was so famous in the Court of Naples Thus it used the great Darius Cyrus Craesus and the proud Bajazet with infinite others that were gotten to the height of worldly Prosperity But those that it hath used best it hath left them at last to grapple with Death and Judgment It saves none from the devouring stroke of Death It accompanies none beyond the Grave Thither if it chance to bring any of its Paramours there to be sure it leaves them Their Glory shall not depart after them Psalm 49.17 The Happiness and Felicity of the World will be sure to leave us in our greatest need These Goards will be sure to wither before the Morning of the Resurrection when we shall need most Protection from the scorching heat of God's wrath But if we go to the Sanctuary there we may more certainly learn how it hath and will befriend those that have doted most upon it and have ventured the Favour of God and their Everlasting Hopes for the World Psalm 92.7 When the wicked spring as the grass and all the workers of iniquity do flourish it is that they shall be destroyed for ever And how doth the World then stand up in their behalf when they are betrayed thereby to such a fearful Destruction It leaves them to the stroke of Justice to shift for themselves Job 20.5 6 7. The triumphing of the wicked is short and the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment Though his excellency mount up to the heavens and his head reach unto the clouds yet he shall perish for ever as his own dung All they which have seen him shall say Where is he This is the Portion of a wicked man from God and the heritage appointed unto him by God Job 20.29 Thus the World gives up its Lovers to the Wrath of God and shall come in as a Witness also to their Everlasting Confusion Ninthly The prevailing Love of any thing here on Earth is a Sin not fit to be pardoned if a Man dye in it And it is an infallible Mark of one that shall perish without Mercy yea and of one whom God hateth 1 John 2.15 Love not the world nor the things of the world If any man love the world in this predominant measure the love of the Father is not in him And James 4.4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is emnity with God He therefore that will be a friend of the world is an enemy unto God Luke 14.26 If any man come to me and hate not that is love them not less his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters and his own Life much more all other things he cannot be my Disciple These are the plain Passages of God's Word that shew manifestly how every one shall be sure to speed that loveth any thing here below more than Christ No Apology can be made for such a one neither is such a one a Subject capable of Mercy if he live and dye in that state that sets so light by it and God the Author of it as to prefer such a short liv'd Trifle before him That say unto God Directly or by Consequence by Word or Practice stand thou here at my Foot-stool when the World is exalted and set up in Honour and Esteem In a word to love any Thing more than God is a Sin that the Gospel hath no pardon for if it be final because it argues an ungodly Heart and he that 's ungodly cannot be a Believer or a Christian Because the Means presuppose the End and Christianity which is the way to God presupposeth Godliness or some Love to God who is the End intended or desired And without Faith the Gospel Grant giveth no Remission of Sin Tenthly Till a Man can contemn the World in the sense before stated he is no better than a Brute so far is he from the Life and Spirit of a Christian Christianity doth not depose but always suppose Reason It doth refine and not subvert and undermine it And where a Man is not got so high as the sober use of his Reason he is not fit to be a Disciple of Christ He that follows not the Light and Guidance of his Natural Reason for the main when Sense and Passion do oppose and make head against it though he hath the distinctive Faculty of a Man yet is not a Man in Use and Exercise but a Brute And he that 's no Man be sure is no Christian But he that prefers his Body before his Soul in the main Course of his Conversation lives not so as the Light of Nature can direct him The clearest Reason doth suggest that the better part is to be principally looked after And that a Man hath a Soul as well as a Body we need not go to Scripture for an Argument as if there were no Light elsewhere to inform us There be other Topicks common to us with Infidels and Heathen Now the World is but the Accommodation of the Sensual Part And he that cannot slight and contemn this when it thwarts the Interest of his Better Part He is so far from learning that which is supernatural in the Doctrin of Christ and Salvation that he hath not learned that which is but Natural and the Object of a lower Faculty He is so far from the higher Acts of Faith that he wants the lower Acts of Reason and hath not the presupposed Matter that 's required to the Christian Faith Eleventhly The Contempt of Earth and Earthly Things lays an excellent Foundation for a cleer and piercing Understanding For nothing doth so much dull and sot the Intellect as Earthly Pleasure and Sensual Delight which makes the Flesh insolent the Passions masterless and untractable the Mind listless and unfit to search after wisdom And whilst the Soul is daily offended with the streams of a Body drunk with Earthly Pleasures the vigor and sprightfulness of it is quite extinguished And the understanding is quite perverted and knows not how to discern and judge aright when it is upon any search For nothing will enter such a perverted Mind or seem Credible that doth any ways thwart this Carnal
return home should bring in his Accounts So much spent in Meat and Drink so much in Apparel so much in Entertainments and other Recreations and when he came to the main point in hand the Business on which he was purposely sent could give none or but a slight and careless Account thereof would you not account him a foolish Factour and that Merchant a worse Fool that should imploy such a one again without any Signs of Repentance and hopes of his Amendment Shall I liken their Folly to this yea it is incomparably greater that come hither into the World on purpose to serve their Maker and live in obedience to his Laws and yet do nothing less Should God call thee now to an account Is it not the plain truth that thy Thoughts have been upon this Vanity and that Vanity And thine Affections have run after every Shadow And thy time hath been spent in the drudgery of the Flesh in providing for thy Carcass And the main Design upon which thou art sent into the World shamefully neglected I know it is duty to think upon and labour after Temporal things and in the sweat of thy face to eat thy bread Gen. 3.19 But is it not damnable Folly to labour after the Food that perisheth more than that which endureth To spend thy days in sinful foolish Merriment and then to go down to the place of Eternal Misery Can that Man go for any other than a Fool in thine account that will not be perswaded to consider that for his good now which he must unavoidably consider to his hurt and mischief hereafter It 's one known difference between a Wiseman and a Fool that the one provideth for a Mischief while time serveth and the other would do it when it is too late And it is another undoubted Character of a Fool to prefer the chacing of a Feather before the lading of himself with the richest Treasure such a Fool is every sinner that wilfully displeaseth God to satisfie a vain and inordinate desire And therefore what more common in the Scripture than to find Folly put for Sin and the Sinner for a Fool It 's needless to cite places in a Case so known and obvious Now consider how oft hast thou thus play'd the Fool And is it not time to return to thy Wits again How much hath sin befooled their understandings that refuse a little pains and self-denial to get the Everlasting Crown and Kingdom Much more that take so much pains to get into the place of Torment and Misery as some will undergo Will not the Toyl that some Worldlings will dispense with to get a little Worldly Treasure convince the one of Folly And the shifts that Men will use to escape a Temporal Misery rise up and condemn the other of stark Madness We see Men rip up the Bowels of the Earth and dig into the Entrails of craggy Rocks and take incredible pains to get a little Silver and Gold They will break their sweetest sleep to accomplish an ambitious desire They will spend their Patrimony their Credit their Bodies and their very Souls for a drop of Swinish Pleasure and Carnal Delight What 's the matter that we cannot be content to spend a few earnest Thoughts to use a little serious Diligence for the purchase of so great a Glory as Christ doth promise to his Servants for the Riches of Heaven For the Promises of this Life and that which is to come for a Dignity not inferiour to Angels for a Sea of Delights and Pleasures that ravish the Heart of God himself Alas we are surely ignorant of the Pleasures which our Lord calleth us to or else we are Fools indeed to stop our Ears Our carnal besotted Hearts imagine that there is nothing better than to eat and to drink and to satiate the Body with that which tickleth the Senses Certainly if Men did believe that the Joyes of Heaven are as far beyond all the Happiness of this Life as Heaven is beyond Earth they could not they would not forsake the Service of Christ for some little discouragements as sometimes they must meet with Let such faint-hearted Cowards as these remember what Sufferings Christ himself underwent and Contradiction of Sinners he endured that they may not be weary and faint in their minds Heb. 12.3 And let me say to such as Christ said of himself in another Case to his yet ignorant Disciples O Fools and slow of Heart to understand and believe ought not you chearfully to suffer these things and to enter into glory Luke 24.24 25. And for the other sort that take so much pains to undo themselves Let me but appeal to their own Judgments and ask them whether it is not palpable Folly to refuse to do that for to make themselves everlastingly happy which they will not refuse to do to make themselves eternally miserable Ob. But they will say They intend it not They think to make themselves happy by such Toil and Pains An. You much mend the matter by this Objection and wipe off the Aspersion For if thou art not a Fool the one way thou art another Canst thou imagine unless thou wert guilty of this Accusation that to rise up early and sit up late and eat the Bread of Carefulness to get a little more of the World and the Pleasures of the Flesh when God's Service is neglected is the way to make thy self happy Thou couldst not think thus if thou wert not ignorant and wholly bereft of thine understanding Consider therefore before it be too late what Folly thou hast been guilty of in forsaking God and following the ways of thine own Heart And humble thy self at last and pour forth thy Tears before God in the sence of thy foolish sinful disobedience And lift up thy broken Heart to him for Pardon in the Name of thy Redeemer And this is the way to recover thy Wits again and to come to thy self as the Prodigal did when he returned to his Father and confessed his sin Thirdly Consider There is no spark of true Ingenuity left in that Heart that refuseth to lay to Heart the Transgressions he hath committed against God Doth not thy Heart smite thee and â—ell thee how shamefully thou hast done in provoking him to whom thou art so wonderfully endebted Doth not thy Heart bleed at all for the Wounds and Dishonour thou hast done to his Name Nor is it a burthen to thy Soul that thou hast wearied him with thy rebellions and made him to serve with thy sins Isaiah 43.24 Doth it seem a small matter to thee that thou hast slighted his Word neglected his Service prophaned his Sabbaths despised the offers of his Grace taken part with his Enemies and preferred every foolish Delight before his Love and and Favour Be it known to thee thou art of a base and sordid disposition and utterly forsaken of all Reason and Ingenuity God deals not with Men in a way of Violence and Constraint He could
the curious Fabrick and Composure of the basest and most contemptible Creature especially if we do not overlook the uses for which it serves Even a Toad hath far more in it to be admired by the Intellect than it hath to be abhorred by the Sense The sensless and inanimate Creatures are no idle Parts of the World but have enough in them to reproach and shame an idle Spectatour There 's not one of them but wears the Livery of their most wise and wonderful Creatour and carries the Badge and Cognizance of that infinite Wisdom that did at first contrive and make them and fitted them to their proper and peculiar uses Read over the History of Minerals and do but look into an Herbal where a little of the Nature and Vertue of Vegetables is described search a little into the Writers of Zoography where the Nature and Properties of Animals are somewhat though imperfectly represented and under each of these are infinite particulars which magnifie the Wisdom of their Glorious Maker and set it forth to the life to every intelligent Spectatour Since then the Brutish and Inanimate Creatures are not in a Capacity to do this Homage to their Creatour by direct and proper Acknowledgment and express Adoration and Thanksgiving it 's comely for us to pay that Debt for whose use and service they were made and intended and to whose Intellect and Senses they are objected for the perfecting of them It 's by our Tongues and Hearts that these Creatures must return him the Tribute of their Praises Can we be content to behold such rare pieces of Divine Skill and Artifice and not turn up a thankful Eye nor erect an adoring Thought nor send up a joyful Hallelujah to him Whether we look upon the World in the Gross or in the Retail in the several parts of it or as they are all joynted and set together in a curious Frame what stupendious wisdom what rare and admirable skill do they display and call us to behold and consider Had we but the Faculty to search into those rich Mines and dig out those Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge that are hid in them as every one may do in some degree if he set himself seriously to consider them what an Acknowledgment would the most contemptible Creature extort from us 1. The Matter of which they do consist 2. The curious Contexture of their Parts 3. The Manner of their Production And then 4. The Means of their Continuance and Preservation Then 5. Their Operations both Actual and Potential 6. And the Ends to which they are both immediately and remotely subservient are Heads which a little considered will advance the Heart and tune the Affections and Tongue to the Praises of him that liveth for ever and ever who hath brought all these things to pass and even compel him to say Psalm 104.14 How manifold are thy works O Lord in wisdom hast thou made them all the earth is full of thy riches To look down upon this round Ball of Earth that hangs upon nothing that hath no other Pillars to prop it up than the immediate power of him that made it And to look up upon the vast Canopy of Heaven spread over it Or the abundance of Waters gathered together in a heap and placed in the depth as in a store-house Psal 33.7 Or to cast an eye upon any one Creature that dwelleth in any of these Mansions will draw forth a Song of Praise and Thanksgiving unless it be from one that 's far gone in the Disease of Atheism and Ungodliness But to consider them all in one united Frame their Order and Connection and the Beauty that results from that Order and how they meet together in one Common Center and are linked together in one great and ultimate End which all of them conspire to promote though their proximate and nearest Ends are so various and almost innumerable will raise a Soul not basely captivated to the Body yet higher If I should insist upon the Contrariety that is among the several Creatures and how one Contrary is ballanced by another If I should stand upon the Harmony that ariseth from the very discord of things of a very different nature this would not a little set forth the wisdom of God 2. It will very much quicken a Soul to the Praises of God and to joy and delight in him to consider his Bounty and Goodness to all his Creatures even the worst and vilest of them from whom they have their Being and Support together with their several Virtues and Perfections To him the lifeless and inanimate Creatures owe their Subsistence together with their several Adjuncts and Properties whereby they are variously modified and distinguished He hath imparted that Life to the order of Vegetables which they have and whereby they become serviceable to Man and Beast It 's from the same Hand that those Higher Perfections of Sense and Motion are bestowed upon the order of Sensitive Creatures which his Wisdom hath distinguished into such various and almost infinite kinds every one whereof hath a large share and portion of his Bounty The Lord doth good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works Psal 145.9 The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord Psal 33.5 How liberal hath he been to the Heavens upon which he hath bestowed all the Glory that Sun and Moon and those glistering Cressets that shine therein contribute These he hath covered with Light as with a Garment and made of a more refined Matter than what 's seen here below and these he hath honoured to become his Footstool Yea and how bountiful hath he been to this inferiour Part of the Creation What a fertile Womb hath he bestowed upon the Earth which brings forth yearly such a plentiful Off-spring and Encrease What Minerals and Vegetables is she the Parent of Some whereof she perpetually bears in her Womb and there feedeth them Others she continually carries in her Bosom and there suckles them And what she doth not bring forth she bringeth up as the several Animals Rational and Irrational which she perpetually provideth for And as he hath dealt thus bountitifully with the Heavens and the Earth so the Ocean comes not much behind in the share he hath bestowed upon it And therefore when the Psalmist had copiously insisted upon God's Bounty and Munificence towards the Earth and eased himself in a pathetical Exclamation viz. O Lord how wonderful are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all the earth is full of thy riches Psal 104.24 He proceeds so is this great and wide sea also wherein are things creeping innumerable both small and great beasts there go the ships also vers 26. As he hath lodged innumerable sorts of Fishes in the Ocean so he hath made it a famous Boundary to divide the several Kingdoms of the World and a quick Passage for the Nations that inhabit the Earth to Traffick and Commerce with each other There be many
Earth move about and the Heavens to stand still which if it be supposed yet must be the effect of an infinite Power It 's the description that 's usually given of a wise Man That he is one that wonders at nothing because they suppose Ignorance to be the Cause of wonder And therefore the more we know and understand any thing the less we wonder at it But yet for all this I may take the boldness to say That he is a wise Man indeed that wonders not at every thing Especially if he be one that hath Wit enough to see the impregnable Difficulties that stand in the way and hinder a distinct and perfect understanding of any the least of God's Works And this is another Confideration that will do good service in provoking us to the Praises of the Lord if it be weighed with an undisturbed silence and attention 2. As it will advance a Heart in Praises and Thanksgiving to God and help on this noblest part of God's Worship to behold these Three great Attributes of his Wisdom Goodness and Power as they shine forth in the Works of Creation and Providence about the unreasonable Creatures So 2. It will elevate a Soul yet higher and make it more fit for the work of Thankfulness and Praise to ponder these Attributes as they are made glorious in and about the reasonable and intelligent Creatures And here I shall pass over the Angels the most noble Creatures which God hath made And because this is an Argument most likely to move us with the greatest force Let us more particularly insist upon his Goodness towards us 1. In giving us a Nobler Being than he hath done to any other visible Creature He hath stamped his Image upon Man more lively than he hath done upon any Creature if you look on him barely in his Natural Capacity as consisting of a Body and Soul The one Corruptible The other Incorruptible The first he hath in Common with other Creatures but the other is a peculiar Glory that God hath put upon no other Creature here below besides himself And yet in his very Body he far surpasseth all his Fellow-Creatures If you consider well the Comeliness and Propoâ—ition of Parts the well mixing of the Humours that give the Colour and the pure lively Spirit that gives Air and Motion to the several Parts his erect stature and the symmetry of the whole To say nothing of Speech that 's peculiar to Man alone all other Creatures must submit and bow before him But as to his Moral Capacity There 's no other Creature here below that hath any Lineament of his Maker's Image but Man only He alone was intended to represent his Maker in Righteousness and true Holiness and had a Capacity first to be honoured in his Service and to be made happy in his Eternal Enjoyment The rest of the Creatures as they have their Face downward so they have no disposition to look so high as to their Maker nor any tendency of love or desire towards him For God having made them uncapable of any such Acts or Habits expects no such Service at their Hands But God made Man for his own immediate Service and therefore gave him a Nature suited to that imployment He did not only bestow on him the Faculties of Understanding and Will but endued them with the knowledge and love of God that by the exercise of these Acts he might find out the Rest and Happiness that he doth so indefatigably seek after 2. He gave him Seigniory and Dominion over this lower World Psalm 8. As all things were made for his use and service so they were given into his hand to dispose of And they had no power to cross his Command or disobey till he had rebelled against his Maker They were all ready at his service to go and come at his beck and to execute his pleasure to their utmost strength and capacity Gen. 1.28 And God blessed them that is Adam and Eve and said to them Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the Earth and subdue it and have dominion over the Fish of the Sea and over the Fowl of the Air and over every living thing that moveth upon the Earth See also Gen. 2.19 20. And Man wanted not the Faculty to discern the Nature and Vertue of every Creature and for what uses they might serve Yea the Inferiour Heavens were made to accommodate him and every way God dealt with him as a Bountiful Lord and most Liberal Benefactour The Sun was made to enlighten him and the Heavens to chear him and make the Earth fruitful with their Influences which was to bring him forth it s various Productions for his several uses and occasions And who that hath the Heart of a Man and not of a Beast can think of such Munificence and Bounty which God hath exercised towards him and not abhor ingratitude And even feel himself delighted in the Praises of his so great Benefactour 3. When he had undone himself and had involved his Soul and Body in Misery unspeakable the Lord did not utterly forsake him as he deserved but he set his Wisdom a work to contrive a way how to salve the honour of his Justice and yet save the miserable Rebels from destruction When we were all fallen short of the Glory of God he found out a Method to recover us into Happiness again And when no Creature in Heaven or Earth could do such a Favour for us the Son of God became Man and dyed for us that he might satisfie offended Justice and vindicate the honour both of the Law and Law-giver and procure Terms of Peace and Favour for us O what a Remarkable Sentence is that which should be engraven upon the Heart of every sinner When we were without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly Rom. 5.6 This is a faithful saying indeed and worthy of all acceptation 1. highest and most thankful entertainment that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners 1 Tim. 4.9 10. We had been now bound hand and foot and shut up in outward darkness and had been Fuel to the Wrath of God and the Flames of Hell which are kindled thereby and had been tormenting our Souls with the bitter remembrance of our sin who are or may be comforted with the blessed Tydings of the Gospel What a comfortable Thought should it be to us when we lye down and when we rise up to remember that Christ is risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15.20 To understand which Text of Scripture it 's necessary that we be informed that sin having brought a Curse upon Man and upon the Earth for his sake and all the Fruit it brought forth the Sacrifice of the First-Fruits among the Jews to which the Apostle here alludes was appointed by God as a Means whereby the whole Harvest might be sanctified and secured and the Curse removed Which First-Fruits were a Type of Christ by