nature being designed for an extraordinary end viz. The making atonement and expiation for the sins of the world He bare our sins in his own body on the tree was wounded for our iniquities bruised for our sins And he was a Person far from deserving the least of sufferings by any the least default For he was spotlesly innocent and ever lived in most perfect Obedience to the Will of God Yet notwithstanding the unspeakable greatness of his Sufferings and his non-desert of them he did not in the least complain of his Father for giving him up to them but intirely submitted to and acquiesced in his will and pleasure The Cup that my Father gives me to drink saith he shall I not drink it Not as I will but as thou willest And the Resignation of his Soul was also exprest by the most wonderful Meekness Charity he discovered towards his bloudy Enemies even in the midst of their unsufferable abuses and barbarous cruelties He was led as a Lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep dumb before the shearers he opened not his mouth Wherein also David was a Type of our Saviour viz. in his behaviour towards the reviling Shimei already mentioned But the Resignation of our Blessed Saviour which was of all others incomparably the greatest I shall not farther inlarge on because I have discoursed already of it and shall have yet farther occasion to speak more in another Chapter I will onely add that this is the Copy we are to eye most though we are incompassed about with a great cloud of other Witnesses and noble Examples of this Vertue CHAP. XIII Of the Example of the Apostle Saint PAUL XIII THe sixth and last Example I shall mention is Blessed Paul A follower of Christ as he stiles himself 1 Cor. xi 1. And he imitated him in nothing more than in Self-Resignation The very first words he spake at his Conversion did speak the great preparedness of his Soul for this Grace Lord said he what wilt thou have me to do Acts ix 6. There then shone round about him a light from Heaven above the brightness of the Sun but a more glorious light shined into his heart and as that light struck his Body down to the earth so did this his Soul and humbled it to the lowest degree of Self-abasement and submissive compliance with the Will of God Lord what wilt thou have me to do was as well the language of his heart as the voice of his lips And whatsoever the Will of God was that he should either do or suffer afterward he was most pliable and yielding to it He would will or act nothing but according to the Will of Christ. To him to live was Christ Phil. i. 21. His own proper will was swallowed up in his will so that he did not so much live as Christ lived in him Gal. ii 20. None of the holy Writers spake more frequently or vigorously than St. Paul of the necessity of our being crucified to the world and of having the world crucified unto us of crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts of mortifying through the Spirit the deeds of the body as being the onely way to eternal life of putting off the old man which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts By all which expressions is meant the subduing our own will and every inordinate affection whatsoever is contrary to the Will of God and opposite to Self-Resignation These things this excellent Apostle doth inculcate and press with all seriousness and in expressions of greater significancy of a more spiritual force and fuller energy than any forms of speech that occur in the Old Testament And what he thus teacheth and exhorts to he was an eminent Example of the Practice of He himself was crucified with Christ he suffered the loss of all things and accounted all other gains and advantages but losse and dung that he might win Christ that he might know the power of Christ's resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death Phil. iii. 8 10. He professed that it is most reasonable and becoming us that if Christ died for us we should live to him and not to our selves or the pleasing our own wills and that the Love of Christ doth with a sweet force constrain hereunto and that the mercies of God do powerfully engage us to make an entire oblation of our selves to him which is our reasonable service Rom. xii 1. And I say his practice and behaviour was fully agreeable to these his professions At his first Conversion God shewed him how great things he must suffer for his names sake but the hardships he was to endure did not at all startle him The Holy Ghost witnessed in every City that bonds and afflictions did await him but saith he none of these things trouble me nor count I my life dear unto my self and what is dearer than life so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Iesus to testifie the Gospel of the grace of God Acts xx 24. And therefore he went to Ierusalem where he was to expect very great afflictions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bound in Spirit constrained by a holy violence ver 22. Nor could he be perswaded by those Disciples at Tyre that by revelation from the Spirit told him that he would incur much hazard by going up to Ierusalem and therefore advised him not to go Nor was he wrought upon by those other Disciples who endeavoured by their tears added to their earnest entreaties to stay him But his answer to them was What mean you to weep and to break mine heart for I am ready not to be bound onely but also to die at Ierusalem for the name of the Lord Iesus Acts xxi 13. And by the stedfast purpose of his Soul to be resigned to the Will of God herein did he at last win them over to the same Resignation ver 14. And when he would not be perswaded we ceased saying The will of the Lord be done And what severe trials he was exercised with how many and great things he suffered we have an account in 1 Cor. iv 11 c. 2 Cor. vi 4 5. and Chap. xi 23 c. in which place are mentioned together above twenty instances of his sufferings So far was he from living a self-pleasing life that if he pleased himself in any thing it was in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake Chap. xii 10. So far was he from impatience and shrinking at those disposals of Providence that he rejoyced in his sufferings while he filled up that which was behind of the sufferings of Christ in his flesh for his bodies sake which is the Church Col. i. 24. But there is one passage in St. Paul's Writings which I had chiefly in mine eye when I thought him next to our blessed Saviour most worthy to be presented as a Pattern
that in Hebron too the very place where his Father was first anointed by the men of Iudah and seven years and an half after by the Tribes of Israel And now Absolom endeavours to confirm himself in his usurped dominion by the best arts of power and policy he could imagine He gains Achitophel to be of his side who was the King's Counsellor a man of that venerable esteem for his great wisdom that his Counsel is said to be as if a man had enquired at the Oracle of God Chap. xvi 23. He is busie in preparing a great Army against his Father the Conspiracy was strong and the people increased continually with Absolom which made him cry out as he did in the third Psalm ver 1 2. a Psalm penned upon this occasion Lord how are they increased that trouble me many are they that rise up against me many there be which say of my soul there is no help for him in God And that these many were not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philistims Moabites Amalakites Amonites and other Heathens but his own Subjects was a more afflicting trouble And that among these should be found Achitophel his Friend and Counsellor that his head and hand should be in all this this made it more afflicting still as he complaineth 55. 12. It was not an enemy that reproached me then I could have born it Neither was it he that hated me that did magnifie himself against me then would I have hid my self from him But it was thou a man mine equal my guide and my acquaintance we took sweet counsel together and walked unto the house of God in company And that the General he that headed the Army against him should be Amasa the son of his sister Abigail and therefore so near to him as that David saith of him that he was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh this was another aggravation of his affliction And lastly This made the affliction most sharp of all that he that was at the head of all that animated this rebellious body should be Absolom That the Son should thirst after the Fathers bloud that he which came forth of his bowels should seek his life as he complains Chap. xvi 11. And that he should be the son whom he loved most passionately even so passionately that after his three years absence from Court it is said Chap. xiii 39. That the soul of David longed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was consumed to go forth unto Absolom And then all this to befall him in his old age too and after he had by his valour and prudent conduct saved his people out of the hands of their enemies Put all these sad circumstances together and was not David in sore troubles and trials But how doth he behave and acquit himself herein Doth he quarrel with Providence and the instruments of his trouble Nothing less But his disposition and carriage was all composed of meekness and submission to the Will of God Being sensible of the eminent danger he was in he prudently provides for his security by removing from Ierusalem which he and his servants did with all speed lest Absolom should suddenly overtake them and thrust or push evil upon them as the word is For his enemies were most quick and active in their preparations against him which therefore he calls the stormy wind and tempest Psal. lv 8. Of his hasty fleeing he speaks Psal. lv 6 7. which refers to this occasion as appears by ver 14. where he cries Oh that I had wings like a dove for then would I flee away and be at rest Lo then would I wander far off and remain in the wilderness Selah I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest Being gotten out of the City in haste he and his Guard they tarry in a place that was far off v. 17. to refresh themselves not knowing whither to go or where to be at rest as he then told Ittai the Gittite who was come to him resolving to fare as he did v. 20. Having made a little pause here he passeth over the Brook Kidron ver 23. a Brook between the City and Mount Olivet the Countrey weeping with a loud voice at this sad Procession As also when they were going up Mount Olivet they went weeping as they went up every one covering his had after the manner of mourners ver 30. And in the midst of these hardships and sorrowful sympathizings of the people which could not but much affect his heart having given order to Zadok the Priest to return back to the City with the Ark of God which thus far accompanied him desiring that that Monument of God's Glory and Presence might not wander up and down with him in his desolate condition but be placed again in the City of God he thus expresseth the humble and quiet resignation of his spirit Ch. xv 25 26. If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and shew me both it the Ark and his habitation Ierusalem the City of the great King but if he thus say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do unto me as seemeth good unto him Though I be brought to excessive straits though I be deprived of all my glory in this my old age after all the good services I have done for Israel and Iudah yet here am I let him do as seemeth good to him not as seemeth good to me Thy will O Lord shall be my will thy pleasure I will rest satisfied with and acquiesce in Thou shalt chuse for me and to thy choice will I accommodate my self Be it so as thou wouldest have it to be O thou most holy and wise and the Lord of all who dost whatsoever pleaseth thee both in heaven and earth My heart is ready O God my heart is ready it is fixed and resolved to drink of that Cup which thou hast appointed me And his humble disposition of Soul discovered it self immediately after in his penitential behaviour already mentioned as he went up the Mount He wept as he went up and had his head covered and he went barefoot which were the most significant expressions of a great humiliation and submissness of spirit And this meek frame of Soul in reference to God's disposals did dispose him to a rare meekness and patience in reference to men There happened a little after he was past Mount Olivet a very provoking occasion For Shimei a Benjamite threw stones at him and his men and cast dust at them all along in the way and added to this indignity curses and revilings of the person of the King Abishai one of his three chief Commanders was so incensed at the horrid insolence of this dead dog as he called Shimei that he prays the King that he might go over to him and take off his head But David was so far from permitting this that he was more offended at Abishai's Zeal
knows no Will of its own divided from the Will of God and would not will any thing but what he doth will such a Soul shall understand the fear of the Lord and hath great and frequent occasions of saying with David I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel 2. Be the doubts about our Condition and State what it is to God-ward and in reference to Eternity as S. Iames speaks Whence come Wars and fightings I may adde Whence come those fears anxieties and uncertainties that are to be observed in many about the state of their Souls those fears that have torment in them come they not from hence even from the lusts that war in their members One lust often wars against another scelera dissident but all war against the Soul Are not most of those tormenting fears and troubles in Christians to be resolved into the want of an entire Self-Resignation as the proper and true ground Men will not come off throughly to this they would be indulged in some thing or other and yet would be at peace and rest they would be cured of their distemper and yet are unwilling to have the root of it taken away Consider therefore is there not something of Self-will that works and is too powerfull within thee Wouldest thou not be unresigned and please thy self in this or that thing dost thou not say with Naaman the Syrian the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing and as Lot in another case is it not a little one If this be so God who seeth the heart seeth all this and he will not be mocked nor be bribed to give thee peace in thy making a great shew of being subdued and resigned in other things But if by the power of God's Grace our Wills be intirely subjected to the Divine Will we cannot have the least reason upon any account whatsoever to torment our selves with anxious thoughtfulness about our state we may be sure that the outward Hell shall not be our portion if we are delivered from the Hell within and that we cannot miss of the Heaven above while we have a Heaven within us and are put into a fit disposition for it by a free Resignation to the Will of God They to whom the doing God's Will is connaturall and their meat and drink have eternal life as in the Epistles of St. Iohn the phrase is more than once they in a lower degree live the life of Souls in Glory are affected as they are and have the disposition and temper of Heaven Indeed it is as impossible for Souls whose sincere care it is to purifie themselves as God is pure and onely to will as he wills to be in Hell as it is for impure self-willed and disobedient Souls to be in Heaven 'T is as impossible for Love Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance and the like fruits of the Spirit to be in Hell as it is for Vncleanness Lasciviousness Hatred Strife Wrath Envyings Cruelty Vnrighteousness and the like works of the Flesh to grow in Heaven That Soul cannot be miserable and is uncapable of the Hellish state which is intirely resigned for such a Soul dwelleth in love and therefore in God and God in him Nor can the infinitely good God abandon and cast off any Soul that cleaveth to him with full purpose of heart and preferreth his Will above her chief Joy Thirstings and holy breathings after the enjoyment of God God-like dispositions and a frame of heart agreeable to the heart of God cannot fail to be united to him their Original CHAP. V. That Self-Resignation is the way to rest and peace That those that have attained thereunto find satisfaction and pleasure both in doing and suffering the Will of God That it procures outward as well as inward peace and that Self-willedness is that which puts the World into Confusion V. SElf-Resignation is the way to true Peace Rest and Ioy Ioy unspeakable as St. Peter calls it Peace which passeth all understanding as St. Paul By the way observe that neither words nor thoughts can reach Spiritual Excellencies this is their sole priviledge that they can never be over-valued over-praised Other things we may easily speak too highly of but we can never invent too magnificent expressions concerning these we cannot raise mens expectations too high concerning them they will ever prove better then they are reported to be It will be said by the Soul that comes to know these things by experience as it was by the Queen of Sheba Behold half was not told me This Self-Resignation I say it is the way to an holy rest to the Sabbatum cordis the Sabbath of the heart as St. Austin calls it If thou wilt enjoy the true rest and keep the inward Sabbath thou must not do thine own ways nor speak thine own words nor find thine own pleasure to borrow those words in Isaiah lviij Thou must cease from thine own works as the phrase is Hebr. iv 10. All desire rest peace and pleasure but no where shall we find it but in yielding our selves to God and that it is to be found in this way our Saviour hath told his Disciples Mat. xi 29. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me and ye shall find rest to your Souls In taking Christ's Yoke upon us in bearing his burden in a sincere free and entire obedience to his Laws in learning of him who was meek and lowly in heart a pliable and obedient frame and temper of spirit we shall undoubtedly find the sweetest ease and tranquility of mind As the Soul groweth in Resignation it returns more to its rest it comes to be more as it would be by being more restored towards its original constitution its first state Man was made after God's Image and while his Will was the same with the Divine Will he dwelt in peace and joy But when he would needs have a Will of his own divided from the Will of God in falling from Resignation he fell also from peace and rest into trouble fears shame and confusion The Resigned Soul enjoys Religion in all the Sweetnesses and Priviledges of it it is prepard to taste and see how good the Lord is and the more a man is conformed to the Will of God and grows in Obedience the more he enjoys the peaceable fruits of Righteousness To him that overcometh that overcometh his own Will those Lusts that war against his Soul shall be given the hidden manna the white stone with a new name in it known by him onely that receiveth it and a stranger intermeddleth not with his joy Such an one hath meat which the world knows not of and is fed with the food of Angels Those which have the Holy Spirit for their Guide shall undoubtedly have him for their Comforter The work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever If. xxxij 17. A man can have no peace that lodgeth
impetuously carried out to all iniquity with greediness so far as it is judged safe and that such or such a sin is not prejudicial to another more beloved sin or to any worldly advantage or Interest The Soul wherein Self-will is set up saith with proud Pharaoh Who is the Lord that I should obey him This is another abomination of desolation standing in the holy place erected in the Soul which should be holy to the Lord. Self-will it is an inward and mysterious Antichrist opposing and exalting it self above God it sits as God in the heart that inward temple of God shewing it self that it is God It is an Anti-God and will be obeyed in all things It sets up its threshold by God's threshold and its posts by God's posts In the Scripture the pleasing of our own will is frequently put in the general for all sin In Ecclesiastes xi 9. going on in sinful and wicked courses is exprest by walking in the way of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes In Ieremy mens wickedness is often stiled walking after the imagination of their own heart And in Isaiah lviij 13. doing of sinful actions is called doing thine own ways and finding thine own pleasure In Numbers xv 39. sinning against God is called seeking after thine own heart and thine own eyes And as Self-will is the Root of all Sin so is it likewise the Root of Misery both here and hereafter It being the root of the former it must needs be so of the latter also Sin and Misery being inseparable And as we shewed that the Happiness of Heaven as to the main consists in being transformed into the Divine Image or the having but one Will with God so by consequence the Hellish State doth chiefly consist in a perfect contrariety to God and the Soul's opposition to the Divine Will Therefore is the Devil a most miserable creature because he is made up of Self-will because the Will of God is most grievous to him he sets himself against it and goes about the world solliciting and endeavouring to draw others from complying with it And those with whom he prevails he by so doing makes them as miserable as himself If there were no Self-will there would be no Hell according to that of St. Bernard Cesset voluntas propria infernus non erit Let Self-will cease and there will be no Hell To suppose Self-Resignation in a damned and miserable Soul and Self-will in an happy and glorified one is to suppose the greatest contradictions and inconsistences There can be nothing of Self-Resignation in Hell and nothing of Self-will in Heaven In speaking to the fourth aud fifth Considerations it hath been shewed that it is impossible that that Soul should be miserable which is sincerely and intirely resigned to the Will of God and on the contrary that that Soul cannot but be miserable that wills contrary to him and therefore I shall proceed no farther upon this Argument CHAP. XI That the Love of Christ in dying for Sinners makes the Duty of Self-Resignation most highly reasonable and lays the greatest obligation upon us thereunto XI IN the eleventh place The Love of Christ in dying for us is most powerful to oblige Christians to this great Duty of Self-Resignation Christ's giving himself a Sacrifice and Offering to God in a way of atonement and expiation layeth the strongest engagement on Christians to offer up themselves as a Sacrifice to him in a way of Resignation and Obedience This improvement the Apostle makes of this Consideration 2 Cor. v. 14 15. The Love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them What could he more express Should not live unto themselves not please themselves gratifie their own Self-will and Lusts but please Christ do his will give him the preheminence in all things Not seek our own but the things which are Iesus Christs Not minde and pursue our own ease profit and honour chiefly and above all but live to his honour and glory and prefer his Interest before our own The like inference the same Apostle makes in 1 Cor. vi 20. Ye are bought with a price viz. with the precious bloud of Iesus Christ therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's And what is the best way of glorifying God hath been shewed in the third Chapter The Death of Christ is the great manifestation of his Love by the bitterness of his Cup by the depth of his Sorrows and Sufferings for us we may make an Estimate of the exceeding height of his dear affection Behold and see was there any Sorrow like unto his Sorrow and therefore was there any Love like unto his Love Greater love hath no man than this said Christ himself that a man lay down his life for his friends but he laid down his life for us when Enemies Out of Love he left Heaven and the bosom of his Father and the glorious attendance of the Angels and humbled himself to a mean low and afflicted life upon Earth He who was rich became poor that we through his poverty might be rich Such was the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ. Out of Love he died he who was Lord of all the Lord of Glory the brightness of God's Glory and the express Image of his Person he humbled himself to death even the death of the Cross a death of the greatest pain and shame And notwithstanding the pains and sorrows both inward and outward which he felt were inexpressibly great yet after his Resurrection he would have gone into the Garden again gone over his Agony again and drunk that bitter Cup which made his Soul so sorrowful He would have gone to Calvary and been crucified again he would have poured out his life to death again and again if it had so pleased God had it been the will of his Father that he should repeat his Sorrows and Sufferings for the Redemption of man for he knew nothing but to be obedient and perfectly resigned to the Will of his Father This is that Love of Christ which passeth knowledge Love beyond compare Love beyond expressions or conceptions and can there be a more natural a more powerful engagement to Self-Resignation than such a Love Did Christ so freely give himself for thee and shouldest not thou most heartily and willingly give up thy self to him Was all of Christ turned into a Sacrifice for thee and shouldest not thou make an intire Oblation of thy self without any reserve to him It 's not only Ingenuity but Iustice wholly to live to him that died for thee and bought thee with so dear a price Did he suffer such unexpressible pains for us and shall not we be willing to endure some pain and smart which at first will be in denying the sollicitations of our fleshly mind
and in going about to cross our own will And shall not we also patiently undergo any sorrows the Divine Wisedom sees it meet to exercise us with the worst we can undergo in this world being far short of our Saviours Sufferings in our behalf CHAP. XII That the high and holy Example of Christ layeth a mighty Obligation on Christians to Self-Resignation XII IN the last place The high and holy Example of our Lord Jesus Christ obligeth us very strongly to the practice of this Duty of Self-Resignation There never appeared in the world so perfect and lovely a Pattern and Idea of the best life as was the life of Christ. There never shined in the world such a Light nor was he in any thing more a bright and shining Example to us than in Self-Resignation A famous instance whereof we have not to name other places in that one speech of his in his Agony in the Garden recorded in Matthew xxvi 39. and Luke xxii 42. viz. Father if thou be willing let this Cup pass from me nevertheless not my will but thine be done How bitter this Cup was how great beyond compare the last Sufferings of Christ were which began in the Garden of Gethsemane and ended in his death on Mount Calvary may appear First By those significant words that occurr in the story of his Suffering and Agony Mat. xxvi 37. Then he began not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be very sorrowful but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be very heavy and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark xiv 34. to be sore amazed and that even to an Agony And both in Matthew and Mark is that Expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death Secondly By the great weakness of his Body In his Agony he sweat as it were drops of bloud an extraordinary unnatural sweat it falling from him in thick viscous clammy drops and this in a cold Season too And so weak was his body at this time that an Angel comes down from Heaven to strengthen him Luke xxiij 43. This was a visible manifestation of excessive heaviness and a great colluctation within him his mind so strangely affecting his body Thirdly By his prayers and tears He prayed thrice to this purpose Father if thou be willing let this Cup pass from me And the third time he prayed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with more earnestness and vehemence And when he prayed he kneeled down saith St. Luke he fell on his face saith St. Matthew he fell on the ground saith St. Mark He lay prostrate on the ground and put himself into the posture of lowest humiliation And besides his prayers and supplications were offered up with strong cryings and tears as saith the Author to the Hebrews chap. v. 7. By all this and more might be added it appears that this Cup was an exceedingly bitter Cup and his Sufferings and Sorrows were beyond compare And yet he was willing to undergo them though there was that in his humane natural will which had a great antipathy against this Cup yet it was not overcome and carried away thereby but the Divine Principle in him did bring this will into a due acquiescence and by the power thereof he freely resigned it up to the will of his Father He was most willing to undergo these direful sufferings notwithstanding they were inflicted without any the least demerit of his own he being perfectly innocent and without sin Now the consideration of his holy Example lays a great obligation upon us to follow him as in every other grace so particularly in his Resignation For the Gospel represents him not onely as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a propitiatory Sacrifice but also as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pattern and example The Gospel doth not onely represent the Doctrine of Christ to be believed but the Life of Christ to be followed Nor shall any have him for their Advocate and Propitiation but such as are willing to have him for their Patern and Example to copy out and imitate his Humility Patience Purity Benignity and Self-Resignation None shall be benefited by his Death that are unwilling to live his Life So far was it from being the intention of our Saviours Death to make void or lessen the necessity of our being conformed to his Life that one of the great ends of his coming into the World and clothing himself with humane nature was that he might give us an example of living and be a patern for our imitation As we may learn from 1 Pet. ii 21 22 23. Mat. xi 29. Iohn xiii 15 c. That God might the more plainly and familiarly teach us how to be like himself he was pleased to manifest himself in flesh pitch his Tabernacle among us go in and out before us in our likeness and thus visibly exhibite himself and become the most excellent patern of Purity and Holiness that as he was so we might be in this world And I heartily wish that Christians did more feriously consider what a transcendent priviledge and advantage it is that they have the Spirit and Life of Christ set before them in the New Testament to shew what a Spirit they should be of and what a life they should live This is such a favour as the people of God had not vouchsafed to them in the Old Testament There were several manifestations of God to the Jews but they were all far short of this manifestation of his in the flesh there was nothing in those for imitation and for the forming of their lives into a conformity to his And therefore if our lives be not better than theirs we do not live as becomes Christians nor are we faithful to this and other advantages we have above them But I fear we are too insensible of this priviledge and that we do not think sufficiently of this that he who was in the form of God took upon him the form of a servant clothed himself with humanity put himself into the lowest and hardest circumstances was tempted in all points as we that so we might have a compleat Patern and Guide in those many varieties of Conditions difficulties and temptations we may meet withall and be more particularly instructed how to behave our selves therein worthy of Christ. This I know and have observed and I doubt not but others can testifie the same That those Christians who are most sensible of this extraordinary priviledge that have high and dear thoughts of the Life of Christ which is the Life of God manifested in our flesh that have it most in their eye and are most affected and enamoured with it are most visibly bettered and differ eminently from others that there is a more excellent spirit in them that they are more pure meek and lowly more benign and merciful more resigned and every way more exemplary more of God is in them of a truth they are greater Ornaments to the holy Religion which they
innumerable and transcendent Blessings we receive from God will work in us such an ingenuous gratitude as will excite us to give up our hearts and our all to him The excellencies of his Nature and the exceeding riches of his Bounty will represent him as most worthy to be known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the flower of our mind as Zoroaster expresseth it and our highest apprehensions And to be loved with the flower of our hearts so that our sweetest and dearest affections will not be thought too precious for him Let us briefly reflect upon the power of worldly and sensual Love and see what this will do First The Love of Money How doth this oblige and inforce the men of this world to hard labours dangerous adventures anxious cares To rise early sit up late eat the bread of sorrows to deny themselves many of the comforts aud contents of this life to fare hardly and to live a toylsom and painful life and in a word to use the Apostles phrase to pierce themselves through with many sorrows Secondly The Love of Honour Dignities and Preferments How doth it put ambitious men upon restless labours tedious attendances servile offices base flatteries and compliances Such stick at nothing for the obtaining their ends devote and surrender themselves to the will and humour of their Patron as if he were their God and they his Creatures more than God's They deport and address themselves to him by whose favour they hope to be raised in such a form of respect and devotion as approacheth near to that regard and reverence which is onely due to the most high God So full of zeal and observance is this civil kind of Superstition Thirdly The Love of Beauty What a strange power and force hath it upon the fond man To him no services no sufferings seem grievous that his Mistress wills him to undertake With all submission and devotion he admires and adores this his Souls Idol this Deity of Clay and that in such strains as blasphemously resemble that most affectionate and humble devotion which none but his Creator may challenge from him He gives her his whole heart and resigns his whole will to her will complies with all her humours yields an entire obedience to all her commands be they never so unreasonable He patiently suffers tedious delays and waitings meekly bears her frowns affronts and disdains her harsh language and hard usage and all the other arts she hath of afflicting him besides the troubles and hazards he sometimes meets with from his Rivals This Love Bigot such is his devotion neglects himself his rest his food his health renounceth all his own contentments and denies himself in whatsoever is for either his delight or advantage if he understands it to be the pleasure of his Mistress He mortifies himself pines and consumes and is lean from day to day for her as lustful Amnon was for Tamar These and such like are the severe Penances Mortifications and Austorities that this man is wont to undergo in this idolatrous Love-service yea and sometimes he sacrificeth his very life which the poor wretch calleth Love's Martyrdom Here is Self-denial Self-Resignation with a witness With what a deal of pains and trouble doth this poor creature purchase to himself misery With much more ease and less vexation had his love been placed upon the best of objects he might have been happy to eternity He might have lived with God who is Love it self holy and unspotted Love and reigned with Christ the faithful lover of his Soul in a Kingdom of peace and joy for ever By these instances we may discern the strange force of a degenerate and impure Love and what a degree of Self-renunciation it forceth those to in whom it reigns And is the Love of uncertain Riches a little white and yellow Clay so powerful with men and shall not the Love of the true durable Riches the glorious Inheritance in Heaven which is incorruptible and fadeth not away be more forceable Hath the Love of airy Honour such power and shall not the Love of that Honour which is from God that honour and glory that he hath promised to every soul that worketh good that honour of shining forth as the sun in the Kingdom of the Father shall not the love I say of such inexpressible honour as this have as powerful effects upon us and much more powerful Shall the Love of a fading Skin-beauty the love of a little red and white the love of withering Roses and Lillies and Violets with which fond Lovers bestick the Cheeks and Hands and Veins of their Mistresses besides I know not how many more such gay embellishments of their foolish fancies shall this impotent kind of love so potently command poor mortals and shall not the Love of God do much more who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first-fair and original Beauty as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first good whom Angels the flower and top of the Creation admire and adore with the greatest complacency and ardor of affection Shall not Love fixed upon such an object as this inflame us with an holy resolution to undertake or undergo any thing for the fulfilling and satisfaction of his Will Considering withall that his Commands are as hath been shewn in themselves most reasonable most fit to be approved and observed by us agreeable to the dignity of our Souls in their own nature most lovely excellent and worthy and have moreover a mighty recompence of reward which cannot be said of the Commands of Lust and sensual impure Love but the perfectly contrary they being most vain and foolish unreasonable and cruel and obedience to them of most pernicious and sad consequence Nor is there any thing that God would have us part withall but what it is better for us to be without better for our ease peace and pleasure and more for our liberty to be freed and disintangled from As hath been already proved And so I pass to that other branch of this Direction viz. that we should labour to be affected with a strong and ardent Love as of God so of Divine things of Vertue and Holiness the impressions of the Divine Image upon the Soul Had we a worthy resentment of Spiritual Excellencies and a due sense of the beauty of Holiness they would even ravish our hearts and mirabiles amores excitare excite in us strange and wonderful affections to them as Tully speaks of Vertue and consequently secure us from the allurements and attractions of any earthly vanity whatsoever But till a man comes to admire and be enamoured with the Divine Graces and Vertues every thing will be ready to get his heart which gratifieth sensuality and to carry him away captive By one unacquainted with the loveliness of Holiness will the least twinkling of this worlds glory be admired but there can be no better way to put by and frustrate the attempts and temptations of the things below than to be
their consideration thereof is no more available to this great end CHAP. XV. That the frequent consideration of the great Recompence of Reward is a mighty help to the attaining of Self-Resignation 15. TEnthly and lastly In order to the attaining of Self-Resignation let us look to the great recompence of Reward Let us with an eye of faith frequently look upon the promise of eternal life the prize that is set before us the Crown of Life and Glory that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for all obedient and resigned Souls It is said of Iesus Heb. xii 2. that for the joy that was set before him he endured the Cross as exquisitely painful as it was and despised the shame all the mockings and insultings of his enemies over him and the vile ignominy and infamy of his Death And in conformity to him a Christian may be enabled to endure the inward Cross in being crucified to the world in dying to sin and his own corrupt will by eying stedfastly the joy and glory set before him by often contemplating the future Reward which is infinitely above all the labours that accompany Self-Resignation and the pains and sorrows that do attend it The Great Apostle of the Gentiles who was acquainted not onely with the greatest sufferings from the world and the labours and pains of Mortification and Self-denial but also with this blessed Reward having been rapt up into Paradise where he saw and heard unutterable things he I say having well weighed both doth thus pronounce Rom. viii 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared bear no proportion with the glory that shall be revealed in us If the sufferings be laid in one ballance and the glorious Reward in the other the Glory will unspeakably out-weight them For it is a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory in comparison of which our heaviest afflictions are but light and our longest but for a moment That God is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him is the first principle to be believed in Religion without which all our motions and endeavours therein will be weak and feeble And the End of our Faith Obedience being much in our eye the excellency and infinite desireableness thereof will sweeten all that sowrness and take away all that unpleasantness which may be in the means A firm Belief and frequent fixed thoughts on the heavenly Reward would fill our hearts with joy and strength and carry us with great ease through whatsoever difficulties lye before us in the way of entire Obedience and Self-Resignation None of the Divine Commandments can can be grievous to the heavenly minded no trials over-burdensome The serious believing thoughts of the glory to be enjoyed will put such life spirit and vigour into us as will cause us to run the race set before us not onely with patience but with delight and joyfulness So that we shall sing in the ways of the Lord as the expression is Psal. cxxxviii 5. and glorifie him even in the jires Esay xxiv 15. We shall be enabled to submit to God's Will under great afflictions as without murmuring so with thankfulness They that grudge to give God more than the fruit of their lips than some good words wishes or intentions or some formal ceremonious observances or some reformation in lesser and easier matters and think they have done as became those that sought God's Kingdom surely these have a very mean esteem of and miserably undervalue the glory and felicities of the life to come They never spent so many thoughts on Heaven as to have any true and worthy conception of the happiness of it otherwise they could never imagine the doing and suffering no more than this comes to to be fit to be recompenced with such a Reward or that God will ever reward such a shadow of Religion with so real and substantial a Happiness their withering leaves of outward profession with such a Crown of Glory as shall never fade But those that frequently affect their Souls with the thoughts of that bliss which is promised in the Gospel to those who deny themselves and take up their Cross and follow Christ in spiritual Obedience and Resignation can never think much of any pains or trouble this may put them to If the Devil can prevail and perswade as he doth by those aiery and imaginary satisfactions he promiseth what influence would God's promises of fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore and an everlasting Kingdom have upon all those that duly consider them How will men deny themselves what labours will they undergo what hardships will they suffer for some worldly advantages which fall far short of a Kingdom for some petty principality and dominion over others for a preferment that hath some little authority in it or brings in some profit But had any such ambitious ones hopes of a Kingdom how would they be transported with all excesses of joy what difficulties dangers and painful labours would they go through and think them nothing And can we grudge to do or suffer as much if it were necessary for an infinitely more glorious Kingdom than any in this world if we really believed it attainable by us If we were promised a great earthly reward upon condition we would abstain from such and such things as are very pleasing and grateful to us would we not do it And shall not the eternal blessedness which God who is as faithful as able to perform hath promised be of like power and force with us Nay shall it not be of far greater force proportionable to the quality of the Reward When all that we can do is but very little and utterly unworthy to be compared with this glorious Reward is it possible we should do less than we can for the obtaining of it if we consideratively and believingly thought of it Know ye not saith the Apostle that they which run in a race run all but one receiveth the prize so run that ye may obtain And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things Now they do it to obtain a corruptible Crown but we an incorruptible 1 Cor. ix 24 25. If they in the Isthmian Games were so careful to observe an accurate diet for the preparing and enabling them to those exercises if they were temperate and continent in all things denying themselves in their sensitive desires if they were willing to weary and spend themselves in the race to endure blows and wounds in their combat and thought no diligence no labour no pains nor hazards too great for but a flowery or leafy a fading and corruptible Crown a short and perishing Reward would not Christians much more run their race with patience fight the good fight of faith endure hardship deny themselves and their fleshly desires while an exceeding and eternal weight of Glory is in their eye If the men of this world shall think no pains too great for