obtaineth the crown above all take the shield of faith Other jewels are of great value but this is the fairest sparkling Diamond Among all duties prayer seems to challenge the garland of honour Concerning the work of my hands command ye me This is the Favourite in the Heavenly Court to whom the King of Kings can deny nothing This duty is of such weight that it is frequently put for Gods whole worship Seek ye the Lord seek his strength seek his face evermore Psa 105.4 5. Gods Temple which was the beauty of holiness the habitation of the most high was baptized by God himself with this name My House shall be called of all Nations an house of prayer Isa 56.7 Gods people which are higher then the Kings of the Earth are known to be nobly born by this practice This is the generation of them that seek him that seek thy face O Jacob Psa 24.6 Nay God himself is pleased to wear prayers Livery and to be distinguished by the royal Robes of his relation to this duty O thou that hearest prayer unto thee shall all flesh come Psa 65.1 2. Pearles of a very high price are never set but in gold the choicest mettal The Worship and people of God are more worth then all this World but O how much is God worth yet all these glister gloriously in the ring of prayer There is no duty in my observation which hath so many precepts for it or promises to it as prayer and sure I am there is no duty which giveth more honour to God or receiveth more honour from God then prayer Prayer hath a twofold preheminence above all other duties whatsoever In regard of the universality of its influence and opportunity for its performance The universality of its influence As every sacrifice was to be seasoned with Salt so every undertaking and every affliction of the creature must be sanctified with prayer nay as it sheweth the excellency of gold that it s laid upon silver it self so it speaketh the excellency of prayer that not onely natural and civil but even Religious and spiritual actions are overlaid with prayer We pray not onely before we eat or drink our bodily nourishment but also before we feed on the bread of the Word and the bread in the Sacrament prayer is requisite to make every providence and every ordinance blessed to us Prayer is needful to make our particular callings succesful prayer is the guard to secure the fort royal of the heart prayer is the Porter to keep the door of the lips prayer is the strong Hilt which defendeth the hands prayer perfumes every relation prayer helps us to profit by every condition prayer is the Chymist that turnes all into Gold prayer is the Master workman if that be out of the way the whole Trade stands still or goeth backward What the Key is to the Watch that prayer is to Religion it winds it up and sets it a going It is before other duties in regard of opportunity for its performance A Christian cannot always hear or always read or always communicate but he may pray continually No place no coâ—pany can deprive him of this priviledge If he be on the top of a House with Peter he may pray if he be in the bottom of the Ocean with Jonah he may pray if he be walking in the field with Isaak he may pray when no eye seeth him if he be waiting at table with Nehemiah he may pray when no ear heareth him If he be in the mountains with our Saviour he may pray If he be in the prison with Paul he may pray where-ever he is prayer will help him to find God out Every Saint is Gods Temple And he that carrieth his Iemple about him saith Austin may go to prayer when he pleaseth Indeed to a Christian every house is an house of prayer every closet a chamber of presence and every place he comes to an Altar whereon he may offer the sacrifice of prayer Prayer is an humble lifting up the heart or pouring out the soul to God in the name of Christ It is a crying Abba Father As Scripture is Gods Letter wherein he openeth his mind to man so Prayer is mans Letter wherein he openeth his mind to God It is fitly resembled to Jacobs Ladder the bottom of which was on earth but the top reached to Heaven A thought can fly speedily to the uttermost parts of the earth so can prayer in a moment to the highest heavens One of the Fathers compareth it to a chain one end of which is tied to mans tongue the other end to Gods ear Another Ascensus mentis ad Deum A lifting up the mind to God Paul calls it a making known our requests to God Phil. 4. Jamblicus a prophane writer calleth prayer Rerum divinarum ducem lucem copulam qua homines cum Deo conjunguntur The guide and light of Divine truths the band whereby God and man are joyned together Clavis instarqua Dei penetralia aperiuntur Like a key that openeth Gods secrets Austin calls it Dei sacrificium diaboli flagellum Christiani subsidium A sweet savour to God a terror to the Devil and a shelter to a Christian Bernard calls it Vinculum invincibilis â—he Conqueror of him who is invincible Luther saith It is omnipotent Archimedes made such an engine that saith he Could I but finde where to fasten it I would not doubt but to remove the whole earth with it Such an engine is Prayer By prayer fire hath been quenched waters divided the mouths of Lions stopped iron gates opened the bottles of heaven opened and stopped the course of nature overturned diseases removed health restored sin subdued grace bestowed Kingdoms supported Church enemies scattered the blind restored the dead enlivened devils dispossessed and the blessed God himself conquered The Jews have a proverb Sine stationibus non staret mundus alluding to their standing posture in prayer the World would not stand without prayer When a great fire in Constantinople had fastned on a great part of the City took hold of the Church flamed in at several of the windows the Bishop ran into the Church fell down on his knees and would not rise from prayer till the fire was vanquished And as prayer hath hindred fire so it hath brought down water The Legions of Christians under Aurelius in a time of drought intreated rain of God and prevailed for which they were called The lightening Legion Prayer is the Midwife to bring all those mercies into the world to the Beleever which are conceived in the womb of the Promises It is the Christians messenger which he sends to Heaven for the supply of his necessities and like Jonathans bow it never returneth empty Oftentimes as the Eccho doubleth the voyce so doth the answer the prayer when the soul like Gehezi asketh but one talent God like Naaman forceth two upon it The Lord is rich unto all that call upon him Rom. 10.12 Prayer is
who cannot hear what is spoken by reason of the clacking and noise which is made there Christ calleth and the Spirit of God cryeth to them but their eares are stopt with earth that they hear not As we say of fire and water they are good Servants but bad Masters Keep them within their bounds and they are exceeding useful but when they go beyond their bounds how hurtful are they What mischief hath fire done in England what sad work hath water made in Holland The same is true of our particular callings they are faithful Servants but they are dreadful Masters Keep them within their limits and they are helpful to our selves our relations and our neighbours but suffer them once to transgress their bounds and they will make miserable work they will rob God wrong the soul nay often ruine it eternally When those that were born slaves and servants come once to be Kings and Commanders they are ever the worst Tyrants Now if thou wouldst not have thy particular calling to incroach upon thy general take heed that it steal not away thy heart nor thy time 1. Take heed that thy particular calling steal not away thy heart from thy general calling If the Mistris keep her distance and maintain her authority over her maidens she may find them obedient and serviceable but if she grow fond of them and familiar with them they will grow saucy and incroach upon her Reader keep thy inward distance and maintain that authority which God hath given thee over the things of this life and then all will be well butif once thou doatest on them and delightest in them expect to have them thine hinderances in all holy exercises The World may have thy hands but it must not have thy heart Thy actions may be about thy particular calling but thy affections must be above it Set your affections on things above and not on things below Collos 3.2 Thy occupation is as the first Adam of the earth carthly but thy conversation must be like the second Adam the Lord from Heaven heavenly A Christian should follow the things of this World with such a slightness and indifferency of Spirit as Wicked men do the things of a better World The holy Angels behold our earthly affairs but as strangers to them It is happy for him that can carry himself towards his own estate as if it were another mans An heathen could say I do not give but onely lend my self to my business Surely then a Saint should go through th World as one in a deep study Rebus non me trodo sedcousmodo Senec de benef his mind being the whilst intent upon a better object Brutish Horseflies fasten on Dunghils Swallows make their nests of earth They who have no Heaven hereafter may give their hearts to the earth but Christian if thou lovest thy soul though riches increase set not thine heart upon them Love not the World nor the things of the World Psa 62.10 This is a certain truth the hotter thy love is to the World the colder it is to the Lord. When the sap of Worldliness is in a man he will never flame well heavenward The Ship may sail in the water and be safe but when the water getteth into the Ship it sinketh it Thou mayst work about thy earthly affairs and all may be well but if thine affairs once work themselves into thee then thou art in danger Thy God alloweth thee to warm thy self at the Sun of creature comforts but not to turn Persian and worship it The Riviers lightly salute the earth as they pass along and make no stay but pass forward to the Ocean Thy affections should but slightly touch the earth weeping for worldly crosses as if thou wepst not and rejoycing for Worldly comforts as if thou rejoycedst not and so pass on to the Ocean of thy happiness It s said Germanicus reigned in the Romans hearts Tiberius onely in the Provinces Thy general must reign in the City in thy heart thy particular calling onely in the Suburbs of thy hands Reader if the World ever get into the throne of thine inward man fare wel all Religon I have read of a custom among the Germans to know whether their children be bastards or not to throw them in Fluvium Rhenum into the River Rhine If they floated above then they acknowledged them to be their own but if the waters carried them away then they esteemed them as Bastards Truely Reader if thou canst float above the waters of thy worldly imployments thou art a child of God but if that carry thee away by lying near thy affections look to thy self and fear thy condition It is not the greatness of mans estate or employment so much as the nearness of it to his heart which will hinder holiness A small hat held near our eyes will hinder our sight of the Sun which a great mountain a far off will not do A little near the affections will hinder our sight of Christ when thousands far from the heart may as imployed further it Besides the closer we lay the flowers of our earthly mercies to our breasts the sooner they wither A nosegay in the hand will continue fresh and sweet as is generally observed much longer then when it is stuck in the bosome 2. That thy particular calling may not incroach upon thy general be careful that it steal not away thy time Thy piety Reader and thy prudence is so to order thine affairs relating to heaven and earth to God and thy family that they may not interfere or cross each other A wise foreceast will much help thee in this particular As to the winding a skein of silk he that begins at the right end will make quick riddance of it so to the dispatching of Wordly imployments that they may not prove heavenly impediments he that hath discretion to forecast them well may do very much However thy duty is to give the affairs of thy soul and thy God precedency I know the Devil and thy corrupt heart will often justle and quarrel with thy Closet and Family duties by suggesting to thee that they must of necessity be omitted because otherwise such and such concernments of thy calling upon which the welfare of thy self Wife and Children doth depend will be neglected As when Moses spake of the Israelites sacrificing to God then Pharoah spake of work to put them off so when thou art thinking of entring upon the performance of duties whether in secret or private thy back friend the evil one will send thee a message either by thy Wife or friend or thine unregenerate part that some other affairs of weight call for thy company elsewhere and therefore a dispensation must be granted thee at present as to thy solemn devotion Friend if thou lovest Jesus Christ take heed of hearkening to such temptations let the flesh but once obtain such a conquest over thee and thou shalt hear of it again it will pursue its victory to
is predestinated and created for this purpose Isa 43.1 and 7. Thou art mine I have created him for my glory I have formed him yea I have made him There is both the author and the end of our creation the author I have created him the end for my glory As man is the most exact piece on which he bestowed most pains Solâ—s homo sapientia instructus est ut religianem solus intelligat haec est hominis atque mutorum vel praecipua vel sola diâ—antia Lact. deâ—ira dei so from him he cannot but expect most praise Lactantius accounteth religion the most proper and essential difference between men and beasts The praises which Beasts give God are dumb their sacrifices are dead but the sacrifices of Men are living and their praises lively God did indeed set up the admirable house of the visible world floaring it with the earth watering it with the Ocean and ceiling it with the pearly Heavens for his own service and honor but the payment of this rent is expected from the hands of Man the inhabitant He was made and put into this house upon this very account that be might as Gods Steward gather his rents from other creatures and pay in to the great Landlord his due and deserved praise Man is made as a glass to represent the perfections that are in God A glass can receive the beams of the Sun into it and reflect them back to the Sun again The excellencies of God appear abundantly in his works man is made to be the glass where these beams of Divine glory should be united and received and also from him reflected back to God again O how absurd is it to conceive that God should work a body so curiously in the lowest parts of the Earth embroyder it with nerves veins variety and proportion of parts miracles enough saith one between head and foot to fill a Volume and then enliven it with a spark of his own fire a ray of his own light an Angelical and Heaven born soul and send this picture of his own perfections this comely creature into the World meerly to eat and drink and sleep or to buy and sell and sow and reap Surely the onely wise God had an higher end and nobler design in forming and fashioning man with so much care and cost The upright figure of mans body as the poetical Heathen could observe may mind him of looking upward to those blessedmansions above Os hominisublime dedit taelumque tueri jussit Ovid. and that fifth muscle in his eye whereby he differeth also from other creatures who have onely four one to turn downward Columb de re anat l. 1. c. 9. another to hold forwards a third to turn the eye to the right hand a fourth to turn the eye to the left but no unreasonable creature can turn the eye upward as man can may admonish him of viewing those superiour glories and exercising himself to godliness it being given him for this purpose saith the Anatomist that by the help thereof he might behold the Heavens thus the blessed God even by sensible demonstrations speaks his mind and end in making man but the nature of mans soul being a spiritual substance doth more loudly proclaim Gods pleasure that he would have it conversant about spiritual things He made it an heavenly spark that it might mount and ascend to Heaven A Philosopher may get riches Arist Polit. lib. 1. cap. ult saith Aristotle but that is not his main business a Christian may nay must follow his particular calling but that is not his main business that is not the errand for which he was sent into the World God made particular callings for men but he made men for their general callings It was a discreet answer of Anaxagoras Clazamenius to one that asked him why he came into the World Coelum mihi patria cuius cura summa est Anaxago Diogen Laert. Vt coelum contempler that I might contemplate Heaven Heaven is my Country and for that is my chiefest care May not a Christian upon better reason confess that to be the end of his creation that he might seek heaven and be serviceable to the Lord of Heaven and say as Jerom I am a miserable sinner and born onely to Repent The Jewish Talmud propounds this question Why God made man on the Sabbath-eve and gives this answer That he might presently enter upon the command of sanctifying the Sabbath and begin his life with the worship of God which was the chief reason and end why it was given him CHAP. VI. Religion is a work of the greatest weight It is Soul-work it is God-work it is Eternity-work SEcondly Godliness ought to be every mans main business because it is a work of the greatest concernment and weight Things that are of most stress call for our greatest strength Our utmost pains ought to be laid out upon that which is of highest price Mans diligence about any work must be answerable to the consequence of the work The folly of man seldom appears more then in being very busie about nothing in making a great cry where there is little Wool like that empty fellow that shewed himself to Alexander having spent much time and taken much pains at it before hand and boasted that he could throw a Pea through a little hole expecting a great reward but the King gave him onely a bushel of Pease for a recompence sutable to his diligent negligence or his busie Idleness Things that are vain and empty are unworthy of our care and industry The man that by hard labour and hazard of his life did climb up to the top of the Steeple to set an Egg an end was deservedly the object of pity and laughter We shall think him little better then mad that should make as great a fire for the rosting of an Egg as for the roasting of an Ox. On the other side the wisdom of men never presenteth it self to our view in livelier colours then in giving those affairs which are of greatest concernment precedency of time and strength Of brutes man may learn this lesson When the cart is empty or hath but little lading the Team goeth easily along they play upon the road but when the burden is heavy or the Cart stuck they pull and draw and put forth all their strength Now godliness is amongst all mans works of the greatest weight The truth is he hath no work of weight but this this is the one thing necessary and in this one thing are mans all things Our unchangeable weal or wo in the other world is wrapt up in our diligence or negligence about this our earthly business be they about food or raiment about honours or pleasures or whatsoever are but toys and trifles but bables and Butterflies to this As Candles before the sun they must all disappear and give place to this Moses a pious and tender Father when leaving them in his Swan-like
of it to consume the cedar of their souls The Heathen have admired and bemoaned mans industry about earth Sen. lib. 6. nat cap. 26. they have wondered what made man who is of an erect countenance looking up to Heaven Tertal de corona militis thus to bow down and bury himself alive in the earth Tertullian stood amazed at the folly of the Romans who would undergo all manner of hazards and hardships to be Consul which he fitly calls One years fleeting joy The Prophet tells such that they rejoyce in a thing of naught Amos 7. Nay the forementioned Moralist tels us that such worldlings operose nihil agunt Take a great deal of pains to do nothing That their whole life is but a laborious loytering or at most a more painful kind of playing their account will be nothing but ciphers like children they run up and down and labour hard to catch a gaudy Butterflie which when caught will foul their fingers and flye from them O mortal men how long will ye love vanity and follow after leasing Psa 4. Is it not sad that so noble a being as mans soul should be wholly taken up with such mean sordid things That phrase in Psa 24.5 That hath not lift up his soul untovanity is read by Arius Montanus He that hath not received his soulin vain O how many receive their souls in vain making no more use of them then the Swine of whom the Philosopher observes Cujus anima pro sale their souls are onely for salt to keep their bodies from stinking Who would not grieve to think that so choice a piece should be employed about so vain a use Reader If one should be intrusted with the education of a great Prince who was descended of the blood royal and heir to a large Empire and should set him onely to rake in Dungils or cleanse Ditches thou wouldst exceedingly condemn such a governour Wouldst thou not think It is pity indeed that so Noble a person should be busied about such low unworthy projects God hath intrusted thee with a precious soul descended highly even from God himself claiming kindred with the glorious Angels and capable of inheriting that kingdom to which the most glorious Empires of the World are but Muck-heaps Art thou not one of them that employ this Princely soul altogether about unsutable and earthly practices and causing it as the lapwing though it have a coronet on its head to feed on excrements It was one cause of Jeremiahs sad lamentation that the precious Sons of Sion comparable to fine gold should be esteemed as earthen Pitchers the work of the hands of the potter that they which were brought up in Scarlet should embrace Dunghils Lament 4.2 5. Have not we more cause of sorrow that mens souls the precious sons of God should be put to no better use then earthen pitchers that they which should be brought up delicately in the nurture and admonition of the Lord should be busie about dross and imbrace Dunghils that thy precious soul should thus lacquey after earth and vanity when it should like an Angel be always standing and waiting in the presence of God Who can read the stories how Domitian the King spent his time in catching Flies Solyman the Magnificent in making Arrow-heads Achmat the last in making strings for Bows Harcatius the King of Persia in catching Moles Caligula the Emperour in playing the Poet Nero the Emperour in Fidling and not admire at their folly that such great Princes should busie themselves in things so infinitely below their places But thy folly Reader if one of them I am writing of is far greater in that thy practices are more below thy spiritual and heavenly principle May I not say to thee as Philip to Alexander when he heard him singing Art thou not ashamed being a Kings Son to sing so well Art thou not ashamed being an immortal angelical substance the off-spring of God and capable of his likeness and love to be glewed as a Toad-stool to the earth to spend thy time and strength venture the perishing of thy mortal body and immortal soul too for that meat which perisheth It is storied of Pope Sixtus the fifth that he sould his soul to the Devil for Seven years enjoyment of the Popedom What fool ever bought so dear what mad man ever sold so cheap yet every worldly person doth implicitly the same with this Pope He selleth what is more worth then all the World for a little Wind. Ah how costly is that treasure which makes him a beggar to all eternity O Lord what a foolish silly thing is man to prize and take pains for husks before bread vanity before solidity a shadow before the substance the Worlds seraps before the costly feast the dirty Kennels before the Christal water of life an Apple before Paradise a mess of Pottage before the Birthright and the least fleeting and inconstant good before the greatest truest and eternal good Their particular callings are but about earth the lowest meanest and vilest of all the elements in these callings they deal but with men and bruits their gains here at best cannot be large because their lives here cannot be long and yet how eagerly are they pursued how closely are they followed how constantly are they busied about them their general callings are about their souls their eternal salvations in these they have to do with the blessed God the lovely Saviour in communion with whom is Heaven upon Earth their gains here are above their thoughts and beyond their most enlarged desires no less then infinite and eternal The profit of godliness is invaluable above price It cannot be gotten for gold neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof It cannot be valued with the Gold of Ophir with the precious Onix or the Saphir The Gold and the Christal cannot equalit and the exchange of it shall not be for Jewels of fine gold No mention shall be made of Coral or of Pearls for the price of Wisdom is above Rubies The Topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it neither shall it be valued with pure gold Job 28.15 to 20. yet how lingringly is this calling entred upon how lazily is it followed and how quickly cast off O foolish man who hath bewitched thee that thou dost thus dislike and disobey the truth I cannot more fitly resemble man then to a silly Hen which though much good Corn lie before her takes little notice of it but still scrapes in the Earth The favour of God the promises of the Gospel the Covenant of Grace the blood of Christ the embroydery of the Spirit the life of faith the hope of Heaven joy in the Holy Ghost are laid before man yet he overlooks them all and lives like a Mole digging and delving in the earth Though men see before their eyes a period and end of all earthly perfections that the beauty bravery of all earthly things is but like a fair Picture drawn on
our aims Now as duties are considerable in a twofold respect so a Christian must have in them a twofold end 1. Duties are considerable as services in relation to the command and so a Christian must mind them that he may testifie his obedience to God and his dependance on him Thou hast commanded me to keep thy precepts diligently O that my ways were directed to keep thy commandments Psal 119.5 6. Warn the unruly comfort the feeble minded support the weak be patient towards all men rejoycing evermore pray without ceasing in every thing give thanks For this is the will of God concerning you 1 Thess 5.14 15 16 17 18. God required the Israelites to bring a sheaf in a Ghomer about a pottle for all their increase of the fruits of the earth Lev. 23.10 whereby they acknowledged that they receive all from him Though man be unable to satisfie Gods Justice by all his devotion yet God will be owned and acknowledged in holy duties Copy-holders though they have the profiâ—s of their Houses and Lands to themselves yet pay some small Quit-Rent and at certain times do suit and service to the Lord â—f their Manor acknowleding thereby that the Fee-simple is his and they enjoy theâ— through his favour The earth is the Lords and thâ— fulness thereof He is the mighty possessor of heaven and earth and though he gives the earth by leases for lives as it were and copies to the children of men yet the Fee-simple and original right is still in himself and he hath appointed seasons daily and weekly for duties wherein Christians should acknowledge that they hold all of him and enjoy all through his grace and good will The worshipping of God in his Ordinances is the homage which as creatures we ow to our Maker and as Christians we owe to our Redeemer God alloweth us the comfort of our mercies but he reserveth to himself the credit of our mercies and hath appointed the hours of prayer to be the set times for the payment of this small Quit-rent infinitely inferior to our engagements to his sacred Majesty Truly Reader This end must be minded in thine attendance on the means of grace namely to give God glory by acknowleding his Soveraignty over thee and bounty to thee or else when thou bendest the bow of thine heart and shootest thy spiritual arrows thou wilt never hit the mark 2. Duties are considerable as means in relation to the Promise and so they are channels cut out by Christ to convey grace into the hearts of men therefore thine end in this respect must be to derive grace from the God of all grace through the means of grace The place of Ordinances is called by some The door of Heaven because there Christ gives his alms his dole Others call it The Celestial Exchange between God and his people God doth there exchange mercies for duties and they exchange Glory for Grace At the Tabernacle saith God I will meet with the children of Israel and it shall be sanctified by my glory And I will dwell a-among the children of Israel and will be their God Exod. 29.43 45. When God comes to his house he never comes empty handed If Paul comes with the fulness of the blessings of the Gospel of Christ with what clusters of blessings is the true Vine laden with what a train of Graces and Comforts is this great King attended I will meet with the children of Israel there When Jacob met Joseph they kist and wept Gen. 46.29 But when God meets the Beleever they have a merrier meeting they kiss and rejoyce And I will dwell among them Who can imagine the house which God keeps where he dwells the dainties the delicates which he provides for his friends and Family Great Princes have great provision in their Courts answerable to their quality but what provision doth the great God make surely answerable to his infinite majesty The table in the Tabernacle was furnished with so many loaves as there were Tribes in Israel Moses unveyled c. 27. p. 10 signifying that God keeps a constant and plentiful table in his Church for all Beleevers Ordinances are canales gratiae Conduit-pipes whereby the water of life is derived from Christ into the hearts of Christians As the light and beams of the Sun is the vehiculum or chariot to convey the heat and influence of the Sun to the world so the Ordinances of God are the chariots whereby God conveyeth the heat of his Grace and the influences of his Spirit to men and women Saints behold his face in the glaâ—â— of Ordinances and are changed into his image from glory to glary 2 Cor. 3.18 Those Divine graces which are for meat to satisfie and for medicine to heal the soul are found growing onely upon the banks of the waters of the Sanctuary Clark Mâ—r. part 2. p. 213. therefore go to Ordinances as the Viemaâ— lim a bird in America flieth to the fields for the dew which falls down from Heaven thereupon which it liveth Socrates one day meeting Zenophon the Son of Corillus in a certain Port Town â—â—og of aeâ— in viâ— stopt him with his staff and asked him Where was the place where several commodities were to be had He answered readily In such a place Then saith Socrates Where is the place that a man might be made good Zenophon answered he could not tell Then follow thou me saith Socrates and thou shalt learn and from that time he became Socrates Schollar The Ordinances of God are the places for both there true riches and vertue may be had the Temple is both the Exchange for traffique and a School for learning The good Mastâ—r teacheth his Schollars there those lessons which make them wise to salvation Reader the Ordinances are the food of the soul milk for babes and meat for men do thou feed on them to get spiritual health â—nd strength It is a shame for a Christian to be like an Anâ—â—busie about a molehil never to grow greater Goâ—o those wells that the vessels of thy soul may be filled with living water David longed as a Woman with Child so the word signifieth to see the beauty of the Lord and receive of his bounty in the Sanctuary Psa 84.2 and 63.1 2. and 27. Thou goest to the Market to supply thy bodily necessities and art ashamed to come home empty Dost thou not come to the Ordinances of God for the releif of thy soul indigencies and art thou not greived to come away poor and beggarly Merchants take in some goods from one part some from another part and at last come home richly laden do thou get some true riches at prayer some from the word and then how comfortably mayst thou conclude thy duties Do not rest in the formal performance of duties as the Harlot that cryed out Prov. 7.14 I have had my peace-offering to day and therefore all must be well but as the people when Moses went to speak to
the hand of thy body to take the bread and wine do thou put forth the hand of faith to receive the body and blood of Christ This is one principal act of Faith like Joseph of Arimathea to take Jesus down from his Cross and lay him in the new Tomb of thine heart Like Thomas put thy finger of faith into his side and cry out My Lord and my God Be not discour aged O penitent soul Are thy sins many His mercy is free Are thy sins weighty His merits are full Thou comest for bread and will thy Saviour give thee a stone He took notice of thy ferious preparation for this Ordinance and will he frustrate thine expectation at it Did he ever send hungry soul empty away The law of man provides for the poor in purse and will not the Gospel of Christ provide for the poor in spirit Is not his commission to bind up the broken hearted and can he be unfaithful Why shouldst thou mistrust truth it self Let me say to thee as the Disciples to the blind man Be of good chear he calleth for thee See how he casteth his eyes upon thee with a look of love as once upon Peter Observe he stretcheth out his Armes wide to embrace thee He boweth down his head to kiss thee He cryeth to thee as to Zacheus I must abide at thy house in thy heart to day O make haste to receive him and make him a feast by opening the doors of thy soul that the King of Glory may enter in Say to Christ Lord though I am unworthy that thou shouldst come under my roof yet thou art so gracious as to knock at the door of my heart and to promise if I open that thou wilt come in and sup with me and then call to him as Laban to Abrahams Steward Come in thou blessed of the Lord why standest thou without I have prepared lodging for thee Gen. 24. Truly Reader shouldst thou having mourned unfeignedly for thy sins now by unbeleif hang off from thy Saviour thou woulst much dishonour him and disadvantage thy self Christs greater things are for them that beleive If thou wilt now beleive thou shalt see the glory of God I am very consident if thou hadst been by the Cross broken heart when thy Saviour suffered and shouldst have kneeled down before him and said Dearest Saviour Why art thou now wrastling with the wrath of Heaven and rage of Hell He would have answered To satisfie poor soul for thy sins Again Why dost thou dye such a cursed death He would have said To take the curse of the law from thy back that so thou mightest inherit the blessing Once more Let not my Lord be angry and I will speak this once Blessed Redeemer Why didst thou cry out I thirst and drink Gall and Vinegar Thou mightest have heard such a reply To assure thee Thirsty sinner that I am sensible of thy thirst being scorched with that fury which is due to thy sins and that thou mightest drink of that love which is better then Wine But stay O weary thirsty soul but a while and by and by thou shalt see this side opened and blood issuing out to quench thy thirst O put the mouth of faith to that wound and what thou shalt suck thence shall do thee good for ever Reader I have read that the Souldier who peirced Christs side was blind and that the blood flying out upon him recovered his sight Sure I am that this blood sprinkled on thy conscience will purge it from dead works to serve the living God O therefore bathe thy soul in this blood when thou art at the Sacrament say to God as the Eunuch to Philip Here is water what hindereth but I may be Baptized Lord here is blood here is a fountain what hindereth but I may wash in it Rom. 3.24 1 Joh. 1.7 Heb. 9.14 Gal. 6.14 Heb. 12.13 True Lord my person is unrighteous but thy blood is justifying blood My heart is polluted but O Christ thy blood is sanctifying blood My lusts are many and strong but thy blood is mortifying blood My soul is lost but sweetest Saviour thy blood is saving blood This Justifying Sanctifying Saving blood I drink I apply for these ends O let this blood be upon me and my children for ever AWay despair my gracious Lord doth hear Though Winds and Wave assault my keel He doth preserve it Herbert the bag he doth steer Ev'n when the Boat seems most to reel Storms are the Triumph of his Art Well may he close his eyes but not his heart Hast thou not heard what my Lord Jesus did Then let me tell thee a strange story The God of power as he did ride In his Majestick robes of glory Resolv'd to light and so one day He did descend undressing all the way The Stars his tire of light and rings obtain'd The Clouds his bow the fire his spear The Skie his Azure mantle gain'd And when they ask'd what he would wear He smil'd and said as he did go He had new cloaths a making here below When he was come as travellers are wont He did repair unto an Inn Both then and after many a brunt He did endure to cancel sin And having giv'n the rest before Here he gave up his life to pay our score But as he was returning there came one Who ran upon him with a Spear He who came hither all alone Bringing no man nor armes nor fear Recio'd the blow upon his side And straight he turn'd and to his Brethren cryd If ye have any thing to send or write I have no bag but here is room Vnto my Fathers hands and sight Beleive me it shall safely come That I shall mind what you impart Look you may lay it very near my heart Or if hereafter any of my friends Will use me in this kind the door Shall still be open what he sends I will present and somewhat more Not to his hurt sighs will convey Any thing to me Heart-despair away 2. The second Grace to be called forth is love And truly if thou hast acted thy faith in his Passion for and affection to thy soul I shall not in the least doubt but thy love to him will play its part The Creatures some tell us follow the Panther being drawn after her by her sweet odours When Jesus Christ out of infinite love offered up himself a Sacrifice for thy sins surely the sweet savour thereof may draw thy heart after him Because of the savour of thy good oyntments therefore the Virgins love thee Cant. 1.4 There is nothing in Christ but what may well command thy love He is the fairest of ten thousand He is altogether lovely But his bloody sufferings for thee and his blessed love to thee one would think are such Loadstones that if thou wert as cold and hard as steel would draw thy soul both to desire him and to delight in him Meditate a little more on his love to thee Publicans and
heart to spiritual joy and delight therein Holy alacrity and joy is not onely a crown and credit to but also a special part of Christianity The Kingdom of God consisteth not in meats and drink but in righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Ghost Rom. 14.17 Gods ways are not so bad but that the Travellers in them may be chearful His work is good wages and therefore it s no wonder that his Servants are so joyful Because beleivers have ever cause of comfort therefore they are commanded always to rejoyce Phil. 3. Whether their sins or sufferings come into their hearts they must not sorrow as they that have no hope In their saddest conditions they have the spirit of consolation There is seed of joy sown within them when it is buried under the clods and appears not above ground But there are special times when God calls for this grain to spring up They have some red letters some holy days in the Calendar of their lives wherein this joy as Wine at a Wedding is most seasonable but among all those days it never relisheth so well it never tasteth so pleasantly as on a Lords day joy sutes no person so much as a Saint and it becomes no season so well as a Sabbath Joy in God on other days is like the Birds Chirping in winter which is pleasing but joy on a Lords day is like their warbling Tunes and pretty notes in Spring when all other things look with a sutable delightful aspect This is the day which the Lord hath made he that made all days so especially of this day but what follows we will rejoyce and be glad therein Psa 118.24 In which words we have the Churches solace or joy and the season or day of it Her solace was great We will rejoyce and be glad Those expressions are not needless repetitions but shew the exeuberancy or high degree of their joy The season of it This is the day the Lord hath made Compare this place with Mat. 21.22.23 and Act. 4.11 and you will find that the precedent verses are a prophetical prediction of Christs Resurrection Sic. Arnob. and so this verse foretels the Churches joy upon that memorable and glorious day And indeed if a feast be made for laughter Eccles 10.19 Then that day wherein Christ feasteth his Saints with the choicest mercies may well command his greatest spiritual mirth A thanksgiving day hath a double precedency of a fast day On a Fast-day we eye Gods anger On a Thanksgiving-day we look to God favour In the former we specially mind our own corruptions In the latter Gods compassions therefore a Fast-day calls for sorrow a Thanksgiving day for joy But the Lords day is the highest thanksgiving day and deserveth much more then the Jewish Purim to be a day of feasting and gladness and a good day On this day we enjoy the Communion of Saints and shall we not delight in those excellent ones Psa 16.3 On this day we have fellowship with the blessed Saviour and shall we not fit under his shadow with great delight Cant. 1. On this day we are partakers of the Ordinances of God and shall we not be joyful in the House of prayer Isa 56.7 On this day we have special converse with the God of Ordinances and who would not draw water with joy out of the Well of Salvation Isa 12.3 Surely whilst we are in the midst of so much Musk we must needs be perfumed Who can walk where the Sun shines so hot and not be warmed It is Gods precept as well as thy priviledge to make Gods day thy delight If thou call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord Isa 58.13 Delights Tremel reads it Thy delicate things according to the Septuag Whether thou art meditating on Gods works or attending on Gods Word which are the two principal duties of the day they both call for delight and joy If on this day of rest thou considerest the work of creation and Gods rest it behoveth thee to follow Davids pattern Thou Lord hast made me glad through thy works I will triumph in the works of thy hands Psa 92.4 If thou considerest the work of Redemption and Christs rest surely out of the carcass of the Lion of the tribe of Judah thou mayst get some Honey as may delight thy soul and force thee to sing My soul doth magnifie the Lord my spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour Luk. 1.46 47. The babe in the womb leapt for joy of him before he was born The heavenly host sung at his birth and wilt not thou at his second birth his resurrection from the dead O let the Primitive Christians salutations be thy consolation The Lord is risen If thou meditatest on glorification and thine own rest canst thou do less then rejoyce in hope of glory what Prisoner shackled with Satans temptations and fettered with his own corruptions in the dark Gaol of this World can think of the time when his Irons shall be knockt off and he enjoy the pleasant light and glorious liberty of the Sons of God and not be transported with joy What heir in his minority banisht from his kindred and country can think without comfort of his full age when he shall have the full fruition both of his estate and friends doubtless friend the Sabbaths of the holy are the Suburbs of heaven In heaven there is no buying no selling no ploughing no sowing nothing but worshiping God communion with him fruition of him and delight in him There remains a rest for the people of God There they rest from their labours If thou on a Lords day turnest thy back upon the World and goest up into the mount conversing with and rejoycing in the blessed God what dost thou less then begin thine eternal Sabbath here Such a Lords day can be no less then Heaven in a looking glass representing truly though darkly thy future eternal happiness There is no perfume so sweet to a Pilgrim as his own smoak When thou art attending on the word truely that Aquavitae that hot water may well revive thy spirit Thy testimonies are my delight saith David I have rejoyced more in thy testimonies then in all manner of riches Psa 119.24 77. The Word of God is sometimes called a treasure and what beggar would not rejoyce in a treasure sometimes fire and truly Reader thine heart is frozen to purpose if this fire do not heat it Salomon tell us As cold water to a thirsty soul so is good news from a far Country Prov. 25.25 The Word of God contains the best news that ever ears heard Peace on earth good will towards men and the glad tidings of the Gospel come from Heaven a far Country What canst thou say then why they should not be as welcome and refreshing to thee as cold water to a thirsty soul Variety of things that are excellent is not a little ground of complacency in them Variety of choice voices please the ear variety
art a good Husband for thy soul I doubt not but thou esteemest thy time in the week days at so high a rate that thou darest not sqander it away in doing nothing or in that which is worse then nothing but O what worth what price wilt thou set upon an opportunity upon a Lords day How diligent wilt thou be to improve the least peice of that day God giveth thee six whole days for thine own works do not deny to him one whole day in seven Let thy conscience be Judge Is it not unrighteousness to buy by one measure which is greater and sell by another measure which is lesser when the day is consecrated to God as the goods of Ananias it is dangerous to keep back any part of it for our own use Do thou all the day long live and walk as it were in the other World Make it a Sabbath a day of rest 1. From sin and wickedness this is thy duty every day but especially on this day Every sin on a Sabbath is double the season is a great aggravation of the sin The wicked indeed are like the raging Sea which cannot rest but every day bubble up mire and dirt Isa 57.20 2. From the World and the works of thy calling Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore for it is holy unto you Every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death for whosoever doth any work therein that soul shall be cut off from among his people Exod. 31.14 The Jews were to rest from works of least importance as gathering sticks he that fetched in sticks was sent out of the World with stones and of greatest concernment as building the Tabernacle and though the Christian now hath more liberty yet he hath no leave at all to pollute the day by wickedness or to prophane the day by any earthly work which might have been done before the day or may be done as well after it May I not say to thee of this day as Elisha to Geehezi Is this a time to receive money and garments and sheep and oxen and men-servants and maid-servants 2 Kings 5.26 Is the Sabbath a time for civil affairs The Sabbath day is therefore called a day of restraint Deut. 16.8 because then men are forbidden all work saith Junius As none were ever losers by laying afide their own works to attend Gods Worship he took care of Israels safety whilst they were in his service that none of their Neighbours though bitter enemies should so much as desire their Cities Exod 34.24 so none I am confident were ever gainers by inching in some part of their callings unnecessarily at the end of Gods day and by setting God aside to serve themselves the very time will be a Canker to consume their estates And as they that take Crocus into their stomachs bring up not onely ill humours but that also which would prove good nourishment So some have had experience that their prophanation of Gods day to increase their estates hath forced them to vomit up the whole God hath given thee days enough for thy calling space enough to mind it in thou needst not trespass upon his holy day upon his holy ground It was no small aggravation of Adams sin that though he had choice of fruits he would eat of the forbidden fruit so it will much increase thy sin if when thou hast choice of time for thy trade thou shouldst meddle with it on a Sabbath Reader Debet totus dies festivus à Christiano expendi in operibus bonis Grostead in precept as thy duty is to rest the whole day from wickedness and worldly work so also to imploy the whole day in Gods Worship be either praying or reading or hearing or singing or meditating or discoursing with others about the Works or Word of God Be always taken up either with publique Hoc sensu loquitur propheta Sià primo mane incipimuslauda re dâ—um continuandas esse ejus laudesad ultimam noctis partem Calvin in loc private or secret duties In the 92. Psalm that Psalm for the Sabbath v. 1 and 3. we are exhorted to shew forth Gods loving kindness in the morning and his faithfulness at evening Now we know that in Scripture sense the morning and the evening are the whole day The whole day is Gods by ordination and why should not it be his by observation God hath dedicated this day wholly to hsi own Worship now every devoted thing is most holy to the Lord. Lev. 27.28 The Pope and Church of Rome have half holy days as St. Blacies day which is holy in the forenoon onely but God and the Church of Christ have no half holy days Observe how exact God is in expressing a whole natural day From evening to evening you shall keep the Sabbath Lev. 23.32 Their days were reckoned from evening to evening from the creation but ours because Christ rose in the morning from morning to morning If thou hast any sincere delight in God and esteem of the true riches I cannot but think that thou wilt be covetous of the smallest part of Gods day and wish as R. Jose Iewish Antiq. l. 3. c. 3. Ex Buxtorf Comment mas that thy portion may be to begin the Sabbath with those of Tiberias because they began it sooner then others and to end it with those of Tsepphore because they continued it longer then others If thy soul ever met God on a Sabbath thou wilt surely be ready to say with Joshua Thou Sun stand still in Gibeon Iosh 10 12. and thou Moon in the vallies of Ajalon O that the day were longer that I might have more time to fight the Lords battels against my spiritual enemies Eightly If thou wouldst make Religion thy business on a Lords day Meditate therein on the word and works of God Consider his works This is part of the work of the day David in that Psalm for the Sabbath gives thee a pattern O Lord how great are thy works and thy thoughts are very deep Psa 92.5 Is a dishonour to a workman to make excellent peices and to manifest abundance of Skill and Art and ingenuity and then not to have them taken notice of God hath done his mighty works to be remembred and wondred at It s said of Pythagoras that he lived sequestred from men in a cave for a whole year together that he might meditate on the abstruse points of Philosophy I wish thee to an easier and pleasanter task to sequester thy self some time every Lords day to ponder the infinite perfections which appear in the operations of his hand God will be both admired and magnified by his people on earth as well as in Heaven which none can do but those that seriously consider his works Men have been much wondred at for some peculiar rare works though in them a Christian should look farther even to God the Author of their skill and wisdom The very Greeks acknowledged somewhat like this that all
Arts come from God in making Minerva the Daughter of Jupiter and to have had her generation in his Divine brain but alas the choicest peices of men to the smallest Works of God are but as childrens houses of dirt to the stateliest Courts of Christendom Archites was much extolled for causing a Dove of Wood to hang in the Air being equally poised with its own weight but what is this to the work of God in hanging the earth upon nothing Job 26.7 The earth is the heaviest and lowest Element A little peice of earth held up and let fall will never cease moving till it come to rest upon some solid body and yet behold the great mass of earth with innumerable bodies upon it hangs fast in the midst of the open Air having no visible Pillar nor foundation to rest upon Well might God reckon it to Job among his wondrous works Job 38.4 5 6. Vpon what be the Sockets of it fastened Aristotle himself could not but admire it Archimedes was famous for contriving the motions of the Sun Moon and Stars in his Horology but alass what is this to the glorious heavens themselves which God stretcht out like a Curtain and to the Noble Host of great and glittering bodies keeping their Rank and File and being not onely incredibly swift but also regularly and orderly in their motions The Heavens declare the glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy work There is so much of God appearing in the Heavens that many have taken them for God and given them divine worship Naturalists tell us that the head of Nilus cannot be found but many sweet springs issuing from it are discovered Though thy finite capacity can never reach fully the fountain and head Gods infinite Being and Excellencies yet thou mayst finde many refreshing streams which flow from it A little River will lead thee to the Ocean Ohow much of the goodness power and wisdom of God appeareth in the work of creation The Rabbies say that in every Apex of the Law there is a Mountain of sense sure I am that in the smallest Creatures there is abundance of the Creatour How doth the Wisdom of God shine forth in the exquisite workmanship variety order subordination and serviceableness of the Creatures one to another that David might well cry out O Lord how marvellous are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all Pontanus Scultet Annal. Chancellour of Saxony propoundeth to be viewed and weighed the most beautiful Arch-work of Heaven resting upon no post but Gods power and yet standing fast for ever The clouds as thin as the liquor contained in them behold saith he how they hang and move though weighty in their burden thy salute us onely or threaten us rather and pass we know not whither How doth his goodness appear in furnishing the World so richly for the supply of his Creatures the earth is full of thy goodness Luther in his Colloquia Meâ—s tells us that God is at more charge every day to maintain Sparrows then all the yearly Revenues of the King of France are worth but especially towards man in making him so excellent a Creature and in making so many excellent creatures for him His power is also evident both in creating such great and noble creatures of nothing he used not the least tool or instrument in making the Heavens and earth and in having them all at his beck and bidding at his call and command the greatest do him homage and the smallest do him service The Sun as strong and swift as he is moving as some write every hour 16000 Miles yet he flies back like a Coward if God speak but the word Josh 10.12 Job 9.5 to 10. He armeth Flies and Lice and what Execution did they do upon the Egyptians Cambden tels us the Armes of the Shagburies in Warwick-shire being Stars Camb. Britain are found engraven in the very stones within their Manor of Shagbury Whether that be true or no I know not but sure I am that the Armes of the Infinite God his eternal power manifold wisdom and matchless goodness are so plainly written on his works in the World in that first volume of Creation that he that runs may read them Solomon tels us God hath set the World in mens hearts namely that the skilfulness of the Workman may be admired in the exactness of his works Eccles 3.11 I might draw thee farther and shew thee but that I would not be so large how these glorious perfections of God are Printed in a larger letter in a fairer character in the second volume the work of Redemption This is the object of Angels admiration and ought to be of thy meditation Truly thy duty is to read God in the first book the book of the creatures and more especially in the second in Jesus Christ upon his own day Thy meditation of Gods works as it will give honour to God so it will not a little further thy spiritual good When David considered the work of creation â—a 8.1 to 4 he falls presently upon exalting God and debasing himself When I consider the Heavens the work of thy hands the Moon and the Stars which thou hast made O Lord our Lord how excellent is thy name in all the earth and thy glory above the Heavens there he sets God up high but then be casts himself downlow What is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou dost thus visit him When thine heart is like Wax hardened bring it by meditation to the warm beams of this Sun and they will soften it So when David considered the work of Redemption how doth he magnifie God and vilifie himself What am I and what is my Fathers House that thou hast brought me up hitherto and yet this was a small thing in thine eyes O God for thou hast also spoken of thy servants house for a great while to come 1 Chron. 16.16 17. O Friend as rubbing the Limbs with hot Oyls is a great means to recover them when they are benumb'd so when thy heart is dull and dead on a Lords day if thou wouldst but ply it with the meditation of the infinite love and goodness of God in sending his Son to dye for thy soul it would be a Soveraign means to quicken and revive it Consider also the Word of God which thou hast heard on that day Do thou like Mary ponder it in thine heart Meditation to the word is what fire is to water though water be naturally so cold yet put fire under it and it will make it hot and boyling so though thine heart be cold in regard of affection to the word put but this fire under it and it will boyl with love to it O how love I thy law there is his heat of affection the expression is both by way of interrogation and acclamation shewing the fervency and intension of his love but what was the fire which caused it it is
of God in Ordinances but also the Marrow of his day that no Lords day may satisfie me without the Lord of the day Alass what is the best time without the Rock of eternity what is the best day without the Ancient of days what are the Ordinances of God without the God of Ordinances what are Sabbaths Sermons Sacraments and Seasons of Grace without the dearest Saviour but as broken Cisterns glorious Dreams or guilded nothings I have read of a good soul who answered his Friend Speak to me while you will no words can satisfie except you mention Christ write to me what you will it will not satisfie except in your Letters I may read Christ O that in no Sermon I might be contented till I hear Christ and that in no Chapter I might be pleased till I can read Christ that as the Needle touched with the Load-stone never resteth till it turn to the North so my heart may be reâ—â— less in holy duties till it turneth to and hath fellowship with the Lord of Heaven The Lords day is an excellent resemblance of my future blessedness wherein I shall enjoy my Saviour fully and my God shall be all in all to me Lord let never this day pass without some taste of those celestial pleasures Meditation on the Works and Word of my God being a duty most in its prime and season on a Sabbath day I beg that what time I spare from publique private or secret performances I may imploy to this purpose that I may behold my God to be infinite in wisdom power and goodness in his foot-steps of creation and stand amazed at that rare Workmanship those curious contrivances of his which Angels look into with admiration that appear in his Master-peice that work of Redemption and for his word let my heart be able to say with David O how love I thy law it is my meditation all the day I wish that I may watch over my thoughts words Watchfulness and actions all the day long in special that as when the holy things belonging to the Sanctuary were to be removed they were covered all over lest any dust should soil them so I may cover my heart with such circumspection that no dust of sin may cleave to it O that I might be so wise and watchful that there may not be the least minute of the day wherein I may not either do or receive some good Lord let no Sabbath pass without some saving good to my precious soul I desire Finally Conclusion of the day that I may not lose the heat of the day in the cool of the Evening I mean that what good If gain from my God through his Ordinances in the day may not be lost by my negligence at night but that as a wise Commander I may then double my Guard and expect with much importunity some evening dews of comfort and grace O that I might so keep the Sabbath of my God chuse the things that please him and take hold of his Covenant that I might so turn away my foot from the Sabbath from doing my pleasure on his holy day Is 56.4 5. and 58.13 and call the Sabbath my delight the holy of the Lord that I may have with the Eunuch within the House of my God a name better then of Sons and Daughters even an everlasting name that shall not be cut off Amen A Good Wish to the Lords day HAil thou that art highly favoured of God Luk. 1.28 thou map of Heaven thou golden spot of the week thou Market-day of souls thou Day-break of eternal brightness thou Queen of days the Lord is with thee blessed art thou among days I may say to thee what the Angel said to Daniel Dan. 9.23 O day greatly beloved Psa 45. Thou art fairer then all the Children of time grace is poured into thy lips God even thy God hath anointed thee with the Oyl of gladness above thy fellows Of the Jewish Sabbaths and other Festivals in comparison of thee it may be spoken They perish but thou remainest and they all wax old as a Garment Heb. 1.11 12. And as a vesture hast thou folded them up and they are changed but thou shalt maugre the malice of men and Devils continue the same and thy years shall not fail As the Temple succeeded and exceeded the Tabernacle this was fleeting that was fixed so dost thou all former Sabbaths they were but morning stars to usher in thee the Sun and then to disappear Other Festivals in all their Royalty are not arrayed like unto thee All the graces triumph in thee all the Ordinances conspire to enrich thee the Father ruleth thee the Son rose upon thee the Spirit hath overshadowed thee Thus is it done to the day which the King of Heaven delighteth to honour Thou hast not onely a common blessing with other days by the law of nature but a special blessing above all other days from the love of thy Maker Let thousands mark thee for their new birth-day Exod. 12.42 be thou a day as it was said of that night to the Jews much to be Remembred much to be observed to the Lord for bringing many out of worse then Egyptian bondage Esther 8.16 be thou to them a day of light and gladness of joy and honour and a good day On thee light was created the Holy Ghost descended life hath been restored Satan subdued sin mortified souls sanctified the Grave Death and Hell conquered O how do men and women flutter up and down on the Week-days as the Dove on the waters and can find no rest for their souls till they come to thee their Ark till thou put forth thy hand and take them in O how do they sit under thy shadow with great delight and find thy fruit sweet to their taste O the mountings of mind the ravishing happiness of heart the solace of soul which on thee they enjoy in the blessed Saviour They are sorry when the days shorten for thy sake they wish for thee before thou comest they welcome thee when thou art come and they enjoy so much of heaven in thee that thence they love and look and long the more for their eternal Sabbath Go forth O thou fairest among Women and be thou fruitful in bringing forth Children to thy Maker and Husband Gen. 24.60 Be thou the Mother of thousands and of millions and let thy seed possess the Gate of them that hate them Do thou like Rachel and Leah build up the House of Israel do thou worthily in Ephratah and be thou famous in Bethlehem Gird thy sword upon thy thigh O thou mighty and gracious day and in thy Majesty ride prosperously because of meekness righteousness and truth let thy right hand teach the terrible things let thine arrows be sharp in the hearts spiritual enemies whereby the people may fall under thee Psa 132. The Lord hath chosen thee he hath desired thee for his habitation
Fathers writeth that the Primitive Christians were so holy in their talk at their Table that one would have thought they had been at a Sermon Non tam caenam caenant quam disciplinam Tertul. Apologet cap. 39 not at a Supper Plato gives rules for the writing down the Table Talk of men thereby to make them more serious Luthers Colloquia Mensalia Printed in a large Folio do abundantly prove that he was not idle when he was eating but that his Table was his Pulpit where he read many profitable Lectures There is scarce a meeting of ungodly men to eat but the Devil hath his Dish among them Psa 35.16 The Drunkards have a song of David to sugar their Liquor The Gluttons have some Taunts to fling at Saints as Sauce to their meat At Herods Birth-day Banquet one Dish served in was the Baptists head Should not friend God have his dish at thy Table When thou art eating bread let thy meditation and expression be like his who sat at Table with Jesus Christ Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God Luk. 14.15 Consider Gods bounty and mercy in feeding thee and cloathing thee when many hungry bellies and naked backs are abroad in the World how many would be glad of thy scraps when thou hast asked God leave for his creatures thou mayst taste his love in the creatures Mayst thou not gather and conclude if the Streams are so refreshing and satisfying what refreshment and satisfaction is there in the well of living waters If bread be so savoury to an hungry body how sweet how savoury is the bread which came down from heaven to an hungry soul Lord give me evermore that bread Do as the Jews They did eat and delighted themselves in thy great goodness Nehem. 9.21 When thou art feeding thy body delight thy soul in Gods great goodness Thus like Mary when Christ was at meat thou mayst break thy box of precious Ointment and perfume the whole room with its fragrant smell 3. In returning thanks when thou hast eaten Thy duty is to begin thy meales with prayer and to end them with praise Thou canst not give God his due price for mercies but thou mayst give him his due praise Though thou art never able to buy them of him yet thou art able to bless him for them If thou didst Dine at thy Neighbours Table thou wouldst think thy self very unmannerly to turn thy back upon him without any acknowledgment of and thankfulness for his courtesie Every meal thou makest is at Gods cost for shame be so civil as to thank him for his kindness Saints are compared to Doves Isa 60.8 especially for their eyes Thou hast Doves eyes Cant. 5. Now Doves after every grain they peck look upward as it were giving thanks When God opens his hand thou mayst well open thy lips When thou hast eaten and art full Joel 2.26 thou shalt bless the Lord thy God Deut. 8.10 Do not like the fed Hauk forget thy Master or like them that go to the Well as soon as they have fild their Buckets at it turn their backs upon it Why shouldst thou forget God when he remembreth thee When thou shalt have eaten and be full then beware least thou forget God Deut. 6.11 12. Let not thy fulness breed forgetfulness you think him a surly beggar who if he receive but a small peice of bread shall fling away from your doors and give you no thanks The Primitive Christians did break bread from house to house and did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart praysing God Some understand it of Sacramental others of Corporal bread Acts 2.46 47. The Lord Jesus was known by his actions or expressions in giving of thanks Luk. 24.31 Nay the Heathen would acknowledge their Dunghil deities in those outward mercies Dan. 5.4 They drank Wine and praysed the gods of Gold and of silver and of brass of iron of wood and of stone Wilt not thou do as much for the true God as they for their false Gods O let him have all thy praise who sendeth in all thy provision God takes it very ill when we do not own and honour him as the Author of our Meat and Drink Because Israel was so prided with her Pronounces Possessives My bread and my water my wool and my flax mine oyl and my drink God turnes them all into privatives For she did not know that I gave her Corn and Wine and Oyl therefore will I return and take away my Corn in the time thereof and my Wine in the season thereof and recover my wool and my flax Hosea 2.5.8 9. Trumpeters love not to sound in those places where they are not answered with a considerable Eccho God delights not to bestow mercies on those persons who will not return him sutable praise those that return things borrowed without thanks must expect the next time they need to be denyed I have read a story in the writings of an eminently pious Minister who was an eye and ear witness of the truth of it of a young man who lying upon his sick bed was always calling for meat but as soon as he saw it was brought to him at the sight of it he shook and trembled dreadfully in every part of his body and so continued till his food was carried away and thus being not able to eat he pined away and before his death acknowledged Gods Justice in that in his health he had received his meat ordinarily without giving God thanks The despisers of Gods benificence have been patterns of his vengeance He hath remembred them in fury who have forgotten his favours Some write of the Jews that in the beginning of their Feasts the Master of the House took a cup of Wine in his hand and began its consecration after this manner Blessed be thou O Lord our God the King of the World Ex P. Fagi in Deut. 8. which createst the fruit of the Vine this they called Bircath hajaiin the blessing of the cup possibly to this David alludeth in Psa 116.13 14. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits I will take the Cup of Salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord after the cup the Master of the House took the bread and consecrated it thus Blessed be thou O Lord our God the King of the World which bringest forth bread out of the Earth this they called Bircath halechem At the end of the Feast the Master called to his Friends Let us bless him who hath fed us with his own and of whose goodness we live and concluded with a large Thanksgiving wherein he blest God First For their present Food Secondly For their deliverance from Egyptian bondage Thirdly For the Covenant of Circumcision Fourthly For the Law given by the Ministry of Moses And then he prayed that God would have mercy On his people Israel Secondly On his own City Jerusalem Thirdly On Sion the Tabernacle of his
Gods chosen And that your house may throughout all Generations be known by this name Jehovah Shammah The Lord is there is the desire and shall be the prayer of Your Servvnt for Jesus sake George Swinnock TO THE READER ESPECIALLY Of the Parish of Great-Kimbel in the County of Bucks HE who doth but exercise his reason in considering the infinite cost which the glorious God hath bestowed in erecting the stately fabrick of Heaven and Earth and the curious Workmanship which he hath discovered in the several creatures which are the Inhabitants of the higher and lower House causing his Almighty Power embroidered VVisdom and unsearchable Goodness to glister and sparkle far more gloriously in them then the stars in the clearest night or the Sun in his noonday brightness will easily grant me this Assertion That this great Landlord of the world must needs deserve and expect a considerable rent of Honour and service somewhat suitable to the vaste charge he hath been at Who can be so bruitish as to conceive that the Onely wise God should take so much pains as with infinite counsel to contrive the goodly frame and comely structure of this visible Creation from all Eternity and by his Omnipotent arm to give it a being and not intend that his boundless excellencies and vast perfections written in such a fair print and large characters should be admired and adored That man is the person designed to give him his due and deserved praise is the next unquestionable concession no other of Gods visible works being capable of his worship Indeed mans sight is so bad that he can see little of that beauty which appeareth in the glass of the world but beasts are stark blind they can see nothing at all Why should God create man with a rational spiritual soul and thereby capacitate him for so noble a service as the pleasing and praising himself if he had not intended him for this purpose Bruitish Principles would have been sufficient to have fitted him for brutish practises If God had made him to eat and drink and sleep and wallow in the mire of carnal contentments the soul of a beast might have served his turn It is impossible that such an intelligent workman should infuse into our flesh Angelical spirits in vain and not appoint us to some honorable work answerable to the excellency of our Natures and beings Some of the wiser Heathen have gathered from the tendency of mans countenance towards heaven that he is more noble and born to higher things then like a moving carkass to be buried alive in the earth Those who to help the weak eyes of Nature have the spectacles of Scripture cannot but see more into Mans excellency and his Makers end It is written in such broad letters in the Word That God formed man for this purpose namely to shew forth his praise that he who runs may read it But alas alas what is become of man well may God call to him Adam where art thou Man where art thou he who ere while like a star keeping a loft in the firmament of Heaven did glitter and shine most brightly to the amazement of all his beholders now declining from that pitch and falling to the earth as a commet doth vanish and disappear He who was the worlds Lord is now its slave and Vassal He who was the Master of Wisdom is now sent to school to the very beasts to learn of them understanding He who was unspeakably blessed in his love to delight in and communion with the fountain of his being is now miserably cursed in his contrariety to and deviation from the Ocean of his happiness Ah this image of Heaven is become the vizard of Hell though this princely Creature was made to be company for his Maker to stand as an Angel always in his presence and attend his noble pleasure yet look how like a pitiful Laquey he runs sneaking after the drossie world and dreggie flesh as his Lords Though Religion were first in Gods intention yet its last in mans execution Things without reason honor God in their stations They obey his will Creatures without sense do him service they keep within the bounds which he hath set them and fulfil those ends for which he made them Mine hand hath laid the foundation of the earth and my right hand hath spand the heavens when I call to them they stand up together Isa 48.13 Nay these inanimate creatures are so compliant with his pleasure that they will thwart their own nature to serve his honour Fire will descend as on Sodom and water though a fluid body stand up like a solid wall as in the red Sea if he do but speak the word But man who is most indebted to his Creator degenerateth most of all when his inferiors Beasts and his superiors Angels are loyal servants he proves a rebellions subject They whoever had any real sence of the worth of immortal souls and any serious consideration of the weight of their unchangeable estates in the other world cannot but be affected with the madness of multitudes who turn their backs upon the blessed God their greatest and onely Friend as if he were their greatest and onely Foe They who have tasted God to be gracious and know what fellowship with Jesus Christ meaneth who have rejoyced in their present gracious priviledges and hope of their future glorious possession cannot but wonder and pity at that folly which many are guilty of in disesteeming the noble concernments of their precious souls and distasting that honourable preferment and comfortable imployment of walâ—ing with the blessed God How greedily do men grasp the smoak of earthly vanities which will wring tears from their eyes and then vanish into nothing Who can sufficiently bemoan it that man who is capable of and created for so high an honor and so heavenly an exercise as to serve his Maâ—er here and to enjoy him hereafter should all his time like an hog be digging and rooting in the earth and not once look up to heaven in earnest till the knife is put to his throat that he cometh to die and enter into the other world What a deal of pains doth the Spider take in weaving her web to catch flies She runneth much and often up and down hither and thither she spendeth her self wearing out and wasting her own bowels to make a curious cabinet which when she hath finished and hung aloft in the twinkling of an eye with the sweep of a besom it s thrown to the ground and her self destroyed in it Thus silly are many men How do they cark and care toil and moil for this world which they must leave for ever they waste their time and strength to increase their heaps when on a sudden all perisheth and themselves often with it Reader If thou art one of these Moles who live in the earth as their element carking and caring chiefly how to exalt self and please the flesh Answer God these four
thy soul delight it self in fatness If Religion were thy business God would not serve thee as the World doth its servants God is such a Master that ten thousand Worlds to him are as nothing yea less then nothing and vanity He is a Master without exceptions because he is an ocean of all and nothing but infinite perfections His Worship must needs be the best work because it is it self a reward Thou canst not deny but the work of Saints and Angels in Heaven is the best work by a thousand degrees that Creatures are capable of or can possibly be exercised in Truly their work and reward is the same to worship and enjoy the blessed God They who make Religion their business have a taste beforehand of their future blessedness Religion also bringeth in the greatest profit The World payeth her servants in Cyphers and Counters aery honors a brutish pleasure and fading riches which are worth nothing but Religion here in Figures and Pearls which are worth thousands the precious blood of Christ the inestimable Covenant of Grace and Eternal immediate communion with the Infinite God Reader if profit be the bait at which thou wilt bite I will tell thee in a few words how much Religion will he worth to thee Truly two Worlds not a farthing less Exercise thy self unto Godliness Godliness hath the promise of this life and that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.7 8. Ah who would not work for thee O King of Nations when in doing of thy commands there is such great reward Friend who would not cast his net into the waters of the Sanctuary when he may be confident of such an excellent draught Once more If none of these things move thee Quest 4 I shall ask thee one question more and then leave thee to thy choice What wilt thou do in a dying hour I say again Reader if Religion be not thy business now What wilt thou do when thou comest to dye Now possibly thou bearest thy self up with the streams of carnal comforts but what will become of thee when all these waters shall be dryed up and nothing of them seen but the mud of those sins which thou hast been guilty of in the use or rather abuse of them Now thou canst do well enough thou thinkest without God and his Worship but ah what wilt thou do when thou comest to look into the other World Alas then thy brightest Sun of bodily delights will be clouded thy freshest flowers will be withered and thy greatest candles extinguished and leave onely a stink behinde them Believe it death will search thee to the quick and try to purpose what mettal thou art made of When thou comest to lie upon thy sick bed and thy wealth and honors relations and flesh and heart shall fail thee what will become of thee if God be not the strength of thy heart and thy portion for ever What will he do to look death in the face upon whom the jealous God shall frown We read in Epiphanius of a Bird called Charadius that being brought into the room where one lieth sick if he look on the sick person with a fixed eye he recovereth but if he turn away his eyes from him he dyeth Friend what a miserable condition will thy poor soul be in when all thy friends and riches shall leave thee and the blessed God himself shall not vouchsafe thee a good look but turn away his face from thee Surely thy disease will be unto death eternal Thy friends may carry thy body to its grave for a time but frightful Devils will carry thy soul to hell to remain there for ever and ever Religion indeed is like the stone Chrysolampis which will shine brightest in the dark of death The truly Religious may launch into the Ocean of Eternity and sail to their everlasting harbor as the Alexandrian ship came into the Roman haven with top and top gallant with true comfort and undaunted courage Let death come when it will he can bid it welcome Death is never sudden to a Saint no guest comes unawares to him who keepeth a constant table But as when the day dawns to us in Europe the shadows of the evening are stretched on Asia so the day of their Redemption will be a long night of destruction to thee That Jaylor who knocketh off their fetters and setteth them at perfect liberty will binde thee in chains of darkness and hale thee to that dungeon of horror whence thou shalt never come forth O Reader these are no jesting matters I am confident as lightly now as thou thinkest of a Religious man as if he were onely some singular and affected person it may be thou canst hardly look on him but with a squint eye or speak of him but with a jeer yet when thou comest to dye thou wouldst give a thousand Worlds if thou hadst them to give for the least drop of his holiness or the least crum of his happiness Ponder these four forementioned particulars and thou canst not but think them weighty Questions Do not O do not dally or jest with them for be confident thou wilt finde them one day to be edged tools Possibly Reader thou art one of them that hast heard these Sermons preached and belongest to that Parish where Providence hath cast me And then as I have a special relation to thee I must beg of thee as upon my bended knees for the Lords sake and as thou wouldst not have them brought in against thee at the dreadful day of judgement that thou put the will of the Lord discovered therein immediately into practice My hearts desire and prayer to God for thee is that thou mightest be saved O that I knew what to do for thee which might be effectual for that end If thou wilt believe the blessed God the way to the happiness in Heaven is to exercise thy self to godliness on Earth there is no going into life but through the strait gate The Devil putteth old mens spectacles on young and old mens eyes which cause them to think that the way to Heaven is broad and large when God himself hath told us that it is narrow and few go in it I have acquainted thee in this Treatise what is the price not natural but pactional of Salvation there must be striving labouring fighting using violence a working it out with fear and trembling and God is resolved he will not abate the least mite O that I could therefore prevail with thee to set upon it in good earnest I do not plead with thee for my self but for thy own profit that thou mayest be happy for ever and shall I lose my labour Neighbour surely thou believest that these things are not toys and trifles but matters of infinite concernment and wilt thou slight them Alas to be frying in Hell or living in Heaven for ever are of greater consequence then thy understanding can possibly conceive The weight of these things hath so overburthened several persons
so dreadful but its certain and therefore calls for the more caution 2. By the season of it In the latter times When the world groweth old it will dore and decline when it comes to the bottom it will run dregs Its last days which should be best will be its worst days 3. By the causes procuring it Seducing spirits and Doctrine of devils Satan and his Emissaries will like Sampsons Foxes carry firebrands abroad to set the world in a hellish flame Secondly The Remedy is prescribed in reference to himself Something he must forbear Refuse prophane and old wives fables 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rejice Piscat Beza Excommunica alii If thou wouldst not swim down with the tide of those apostatising times take heed of steering thy course by prophane though ancient customs Refuse them with scorn reject them with anger let thy spirit rise and thy stomack turn at the very sight of such sins One way to prevent Apostacy is to refuse ungrounded antiquity The will of the Father of spirits not the ways of the fathers of our flesh is to be the rule of our walking It is well observed that God in no command but the second which forbids his Worship in any way not appointed by his Word threatneth to visit the sins of the fathers upon the children because superstitious Worshippers are of all men most strengthned by the Traditions of their Fathers They will tell us Shall we be wiser then our Fathers Now because they are resolved to sin with their Fathers God is resolved they shall suffer for their Fathers They that will follow their forefathers in sin for ought I know must follow their forefathers to hell If Timothy would not share in others declensions he must forbear others traditions Refuse prophane and old wives fables Something he must also follow after Exercise thy self unto godliness This is the special help which the skilful physician appointeth his beloved patient in those infectious times to preserve his soul in health As a pestiferous air is very dangerous to the body yet for a man to get and make it his work to keep a sound constitution will be an excellent means to prevent infection So an Apostatizing place or people is very dangerous to the soul spiritual diseases are more catching and killing then corporal but a spiritual habit of a real sanctity with a constant care to continue and increase it will be a soveraign means to preserve it in safety Bodies without life quickly corrupt and become unsavory not so living creatures Running waters are sweet and clean when standing ponds putrifie and abound in vermine He that is ever trading and thriving in godliness need not fear that he shall prove a bankrupt Carts overthrow not going up hill Timothy is considerable in his twofold capacity 1. As a Minister of Christ or in his particular calling in this respect he must exercise himself to godliness Non tan tum sana doctrina sed etiâ—m pia religâ—ola vita mâ—â—iâ—ri verbo opus â—st Beza in loc A Pastor must not onely some days give precepts but every day give a pattern to his people he must not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not onely divide the word rightly but also order his conversation aright He must as Nazianzen said of Basil thunder in his doctrine and lighten in his life Singular holiness is required of those that minister about holy things as Painters they must teach by their hands by their lives as well as by their lips Ministers must exercise themselves to godliness that is do their duties with the greatest diligence They are sometimes called the Salt of the earth Matt. 5 13 14 because they must waste themselves to prevent corruption in others Sometime the light of the world they must consume themselves to direct others in the way to heaven Greg in 1. cap. lob Gregory observeth that the Spirit of God appeared in two shapes in the shape of a Dove signifying innocency in the shape of Fire signifying activity The zeal of Gods house not the rust of idleness must eat the Minister up he must be a burning shining light if ever he would thaw the frozen hearts of his hearers Quic quid dâ—cit Lutherus quicquid scribit id in aâ—in as peâ—etrat mirificos relinquit aculâ—os in cordibus â—o minum Melch. Adam in vit Luther our Chappels must not be turned into Chappels of ease Christ neglected his food spent his strength wrought so hard that he was thought to be beside himself We are called Fishers Labourers Souldiers Watchmen all which are laborious callings We are compared to clouds the clods of the earth lye still but the clouds of heaven are ever in motion and dissolve themselves to refresh others But alas how many fleece their flocks Sacerdotum nomiâ—a acceâ—imus non ad quietâ—nâ— sed ad laboreâ—â— ut inver amuâ— in operâ— qâ—od sigâ—amur in no mine Greg. l. 4. ep 8. but never feed them as if their Benesices were Sine cures The Green-sickness is the maids and laziness many Ministers disease Who is instant in season and out of season It was a notable speech of Boniface the Martyr to one that asked him whether it was lawful to give the Sacramental wine in a wooden cup. Time was when we had wooden cups and golden Priests but now we have golden cups and wooden priests CHAP. II. The opening of the Text and the Doctrine 2. TImothy is to be considered as a member of Christ or in his general calling and so this Exhortation belongs to every Christian In it we may observe these three parts 1. The act Exercise 2. The subject of that act Thy self 3. The object about which it was to be conversant Vnto godliness Exercise thy self unto godliness I shall briefly open the terms in the Text and then lay down the Doctrinal truth Exercise The word signifieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exercei semetiâ—sem ad pietatem qui diligerter intambit action bus qui bus deus servitur Est in loc strip thy self naked it s a metaphor from Runners or Wrestlers who being to contend for the prize and resolved to put forth all their strength and power lay aside their cloaths which may hinder them and then bestir themselves to purpose as if Paul had said O Timothy let godliness be the object of all thy care and cost Follow thy general calling with the greatest industry pursue it diligently do not loiter but labour about it lay aside what may hinder lay hold of what may further and mind it as the main and principal work which thou hast to do in this world Thy self A Christians first care must be about his own spiritual welfare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Religion commands us to be mindful of and helpful to our neighbours and relations The Sun rayeth out his refreshing beams and the Spring bubleth up her purling streams for the
good of others Fire in the chimney warmeth the whole room but it is burning hot on the hearth Grace in a Saint will make him useful to sinners but chiefly though not solely to his own soul Timothy be not like a burning glass to put others into a flame whilst thou thy self remainest unfired but work hard to exalt holiness in thine own heart Exercise thy self Vnto godliness Godliness is taken in Scripture either strictly or largely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verum rectum dei culium significat maxi â—â— socris Scrip 〈◊〉 Hâ—braea phâ—asi timor domini vocatur Svâ—us interp justitiam vo cat Est in loc 1. Strictly and then it includeth onely the immediate worship of God or obedience to the First Table and is distinguished from righteousness Tit. 2.11 12. so ungodliness is distinct from unrighteousness Rom. 1.18 2. Largely And then it comprehendeth our duty to our neighbour as well as to God and obedience to the Second as well as the first Table so righteousness is religion and in our dealings with men we may do our duty to God it s taken thus 1 Tim. 6.6 and in the Text. The good Husbandman makes no balks in the field of Gods precepts Timothy must make it his trade to pay God and men their due He must not like the Pharisees seem as tender of the First Table as of the apple of his eye and trample the second as dirt under his feet they prayed in Gods house all day to prey upon the widows house at night nor as some whom the world call honest men who will not wrong their neighbours of the least mite and yet wickedly rob God of many millions they steal from him both time and love and trust and bestow them on earthly trifles the bird that will flye well must use both wings the Waterman if he would have his boat move rightly must ply both oars the Christian if he would make any thing of his heavenly trade must minde both Tables The Truth that I shall draw from the Text is this That Godliness ought to be minded as every ones main and principal business Exercise thy self unto godliness Religion must be our cheif occupation The great Trade that we follow in this world must be the Trade of Truth It is observable that the more noble and singular a being is the more it is imployed in a suitable working God who is the highest in perfections is not onely the holiest but the most constant and diligent in his operations Hitherto my Father worketh and I work Joh. 5.17 His work indeed is without weariness his labour without the least lassitude as they say of Heaven Coeli motus quies all Gods working days are Sabbaths days of rest but he is a pure act and he is every moment infinitely active from and for himself Angels are next to God in being and so are next to him in working They do God the most service and they do him the best service they serve God without sin and they serve him without ceasing he makes his Angels spirits and his Ministers a flame of fire Heb. 1.7 spirits are the most active creatures with life fire is the most active creature without life a flame is the most operative part of the fire Thus active are Angels in working for God Some by fire understand lightnings by spirits winds As winds and lightnings presently pass through the earth so Angels presently fulfil Gods holy Will Now as he hath given man a more excellent being then the rest of the visible world so hath he called him to follow after and abound in the most excellent work God hath appointed contemplation or vision to be mans reward in heaven To see God as he is and to know him as he is known of him but service and action to be his work on earth to exercise himself to godliness Some read that Job 5.7 thus Man is born to work as the sparks flie upward Indeed it is the decreed lot of all mankind to labour Adam was called to industry in his state of innocency Gen. 2.15 and since mans fall Non est panis cujusquam proprius nec summi quidem re gis nisi strenue laboret in vocatione sua Rol. 1 Thess 3.6 his work which was before his pleasure is now his punishment if he eat not his bread in the sweat of his brow or his brains he steals it He that like a body louse lives upon others sweat is like Jeremiahs girdle good for nothing But the main work which God commandeth and commendeth to the children of men is to glorifie him upon earth by exercising themselves to godliness This is Gods precept and this hath been the Saints practice This is Gods precept Work out your salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 In which words we have the Christians end eternal life Salvation and the means to attain it diligent labour work out your salvation he had need to labour hard that would attain Heaven Non dicit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 operaminised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acurate magnoque cum studâ—o operamini cum mâ—â—ta dilâ—gentia solicitudine pergite vestram operari salutem A Lapid in Phil. 2. Godliness must be not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his by-business but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his main business The Jews have a proverb alluding to Manna which was to be gathered the sixth day for the seventh because on the seventh none fell from heaven He that gathereth not food on the Sabbath eve shall fast on the Sabbath day Intimating thereby that none shall reign in Heaven but such as have wrought on earth This hath been the Saints practice Our conversation is in heaven Phil. 3.18 Though our habitations be on earth yet our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our negotiation is in heaven As a Merchant that lives in London drives a great trade in Turky or the remotest part of the Indies So Paul and the Saints traded and traffiqued afar off in the other world above even when their abodes were here below Godliness was their business Christianity was minded and followed as their principal trade and calling It is the calling of some to plough and sow and reap The Christian makes and follows it as his calling to plough up the fallow ground of his heart to sow in righteousness that he may reap in mercy Hos 10.12 The trade of others is to buy and sell the godly man is the wise Merchant trading for goodly pearls that sells all to buy the field where the pearl of great price is Matth. 13.43 For the Explication of this Truth That religion or godliness ought to be every ones principal business I shall speak to these three things First What Religion or godliness is Secondly What it is for a man to make Religion his business or to exercise himself to Godliness Thirdly Why every Christian must mind Godliness as his main business CHAP. III. What Godliness is FOr the first what Religion is
omit prayer either for their meat or labour Grace as well as nature teacheth a godly man not to neglect either his Family or body but it teacheth him also to prefer his soul and his God before them both Seneca though an Heathen could say I am greater and born to greater things then to be a drudge to and the slave of my body A Christians Character is that he is not carnal or for his body but spiritual or for his soul Rom. 8. It was a great praise which Ambrose speaks of Valentinian Never man was a better servant to his Master then Valentinians body was to his soul This is the godly mans duty to make Heaven his Throne and the Earth his foot-stool It s the exposition which one gives upon those words Subdue the Earth Gen. 1.28 that is thy body and all earthly things to thy soul Our earthly callings must give way to our Heavenly we must say to them as Christ to his Disciples Tarry you here while I go and pray yonder and truely godliness must be first in our Prayers Hallowed be thy Name thy Kingdom come before give us this day our daily bread and first in all our practices seek first the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof and all other things shall be added to you Mat. 6.33 Secondly to make Religion ones business containeth to pursue it with industry in our conversations A man that makes his calling his business is not lazy but laborious about it what pains will he take what strength will he spend how will he toil and moil at it early and late The Tradesman the Husbandman eat not the bread of Idleness when they make their callings their business if they be good Husbands they are both provident to observe their seasons and diligent to improve them for their advantage they do often even dip their food in their sweat and make it thereby the more sweet Their industry appears in working hard in their callings and in improving all opportunities for the furtherance of their callings 1. Thus he that makes Religion his business is industrious and laborious in the work of the Lord. The heart of his ground the strength of his inward man is spent about the good corn of Religion not about the weeds of earthly occasions He makes hast to keep Gods Commandements knowing that the lingring lazy Snail is reckoned among unclean creatures Levit. 11.30 and he is hot and lively in his devotion knowing that a dull Eo quòd pigrnns tardum aniâ—◠〈…〉 est â—ellarm drou sie Ass though fit enough to carry the image of Isis yet was no fit sacrifice for the pureand active God Exod. 13.13 He giveth God the top the cheif the cream of all his affections as seeing him infinitely worthy of all acceptation He is not slothful in business but fervent in spirit when he is serving the Lord Rom. 12.11 He beleiveth that to fear God with a secondary fear is Atheism that to trust God with a secondary trust is Treason that to honour God with a secondary honour is Idolatry and to love God with a secondary love is Adultery therefore he loveth and he feareth and trusteth and honoreth the Lord his God with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength Mat. 22.36 37. His love to God is a labour of love as strong as death the coals thereof are coals of Juniper which do not onely burn long some say twelve moneths together but burn with the greatest heat His measure of loving God is without measure The Samseans in Epiphanius were neither Jews Gentiles nor Christians yet preserved a fair correspendency with all An Hypocrite is indifferent to any never servent in the true Religion It is reported of Redwald King of the East Saxons Cambd Brittan the first Prince of this Nation that was baptized that in the same Church he had one Altar for the Christian Religion another for the Heathenish Sacrifices The true Beleiver doth otherwise he that makes Religion his work gives God the whole of his heart without halting and without halving Set him about any duty and he is diligent in it In prayer Innuit certamen quasi luctam cum deo ipso Epis Dav. in loc he laboureth in prayer Col. 4.12 he cryeth to God 1 Sam. 7.9 he cryeth mightily Jonah 3.8 he poureth forth his soul Lam. 2.19 he strives in supplication with God Rom. 15.30 stirs up himself to lay hold on God Isa 27.5 and even wrestleth with Omnipotency Gen. 32.14 When the mill of his prayer is going his fervent affections are the waters that drive it There is fire taken from Gods own Altar not the ordinary hearth of Nature and put to his incense whereby it becomes fragrant and grateful to God himself His fervent prayer is his key to Gods Treasury and his endeavour is that it rust not for want of use When he goeth to the Sacrament he is all in a flame of affection to the Author of that feast With desire he desires to eat of the Passover He longs exceedingly for the time he loves the Table but when he seeth the Bread and Wine the wagons which the Lord Jesus hath sent for him oh how his heart revives When he seeth the Sacraments the Body and Blood of Christ in the elements who can tell how soon he cents how fast this true Eagle flyeth to the heavenly carkass At hearing he is heedful he flyeth to the salt-stone of the Word with swiftness and care as Doves to their columbaries Isa 60.8 As the new born babe he desires the sincere milk of the Word and when he is attending on it he doth not dally nor trifle but as the Bee the flower and the childe the breast suck with all his might for some spiritual milk Isa 66.11 Deut. 28.1 he hearkneth diligently to the voyce of the Lord his God let him be in company taking notice of some abominable carriage he will rebuke cuttingly Tit. 1.13 If he gives his bitter pill in sweet syrrup you may see his exceeding anger against sin whilst you behold his love to the sinner he is though a meek Lamb when himself yet a Lion when God is dishonoured his anger waxeth hot when men affront the most High Exod. 32.19 If he be counselling his child or friend to minde God and godliness how hard doth he woo to win the soul to Christ how many baits doth he lay to catch the poor creature you may perceive his bowels working by his very words How fervent how instant how urgent how earnest is he to perswade his relation or acquaintance to be happy He provokes them to love and to good works Set him about what religious exercise you will and he is according to the Apostles words zealous or fiery fervent of good works like spring water he hath a living principle Plin. lib. 5. cap. 5. and thence is warm in winter or like Debris in Cyrene is seething hot
some part but all the day Whether the actions he be about be natural or civil he makes them sacred whether the Company he be in be good or bad he will mind his holy calling whether he be riding or walking whether he be at home or abroad whether he be buying or selling eating or drinking whatsoever he be doing or wheresoever he be going still he hath an eye to further godliness Anima est tota in toto tota in qualibet parte because he makes that his business What the Philosopher said of the soul in relation to the body The soul is whole in the whole body and whole in every part of it is true of godliness in reference to the life of a Christian godliness is whole in his whole conversation and whole in every part of it As the constitution of mans body is known by his pulse if it beat not at all he is dead if it beat and keep a constant stroke it s a sign the body is sound Godliness is the pulse of the soul if it beat not at all the soul is void of spiritual life if it beat equally and constantly it speaks the soul to be in an excellent plight It was the practice of our Saviour who left us a blessed pattern therein to be always furthering godliness when bread was mentioned to him upon it he diswaded his Disciples from the leaven of the Pharisees Mat. 16.5.6 When water was denyed him by the Samaritan woman he forgets his thirst and seeks to draw her to the Well-spring of happiness John 4.10 When people came to him for bodily cures how constantly doth he mind the safety of their souls Thou art made whole go sin no more or thy sins are forgiven thee He went about doing good in the day time working Miracles and Preaching in the night time he often gave himself to meditation and prayer He that minds Religion by the by doth otherwise he can Proteus like turn himself into any shape which is in fashion Purch Pilgr Vol. 1. p. 416. As the Carbuncle a Beast amongst the Blackamores which is seen onely by night having a stone in his Fore-head which shineth incredibly and giveth him light whereby to feed but when he heareth the least noise he presently lets fall over it a skin which he hath as a natural covering least its splendor should betray him So the half Christian shines with the light of holiness by fits and starts every fright makes him hold in and hide it The mark of Antichrist was in his followers hands which they can cover or discover at their pleasure but the mark of Christs Disciples was in in their Foreheads visible at all times Thirdly To exercise our selves to godliness implyeth to persevere in it with constancy to our dissolution Men follow their Trades and open their Shops till death shut their eyes and gives them a writ of ease men pursue their earthly works till death sound a retreat and command their appearance in the other World Many a one hath breathed out his last in the midst of his labour His life and his labour have ended together Let every man abide in the calling whereto he is called saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.24 They who make Religion their business are constant immoveable and do always abound in the work of the Lord. Their day of life is their day of labour the sun ariseth and man goeth to his labour until the Evening Psa 104.23 Death onely is their night of resting when they die in the Lord then and not till then they rest from their labours Saints are compared to Palm Trees because they flourish soon to Cedars because they continue long True Saints in youth always prove Angels in age B. Hall med ti cent â— they often set out with the first but always hold on to the last The Philosopher being asked in his old age why he did not give over his studies answered When a man is to run a race of forty furlongs he will not sit down at the thirty ninth and lose the price The pious soul is faithful unto death and injoyeth a Crown of life As Cesar he is always marching forward and thinks nothing done whilst any thing remains undone Nil actumc edens si quid su per sset agendâ—m iâ—uâ—an As they are fervent in their work so they are constant at their work The Church of Ephesus had Letters Testimonial from Heaven for my names sake thou hast laboured and hast not fainted Rev. 2.3 Water in the Baths is always warm As long as there is Water there is heat not so our ordinary water though this may be warmed by the fire at present yet if taken off it returnes to its former coldness nay it is colder then before because the spirits which kept it from the extremity of cold are by the fire boyld out of it The reason is plain the heat of the Baths is from an inward principle and therefore is permanent the heat of the latter is from an external cause and therefore is inconstant That warmth of piety which proceeds from an inward principle of a purified conscience is accompanied with perseverance but that profession which floweth from an outward motive wheremen as Chamelions take their colour from that which stands next them their Religion from those they have their dependence upon is of short duration A man that minds Religion by the by is like Nebuchadnezzars Image he hath an head of gold but feet of clay His beginning may be like Nero's first five years full of hope and encouragement but afterwards as a carcass he is more filthy and unsavory every day then other His insincerity causeth his inconstancy Trees unsound at the root will quickly cease their putting forth of fruit Such men if godliness enjoy a summer of prosperity may like a Serpent creep on the ground and stretch themselves at length to receive the warmth of the Sun but if Winter come he will creep into some Ditch or Dunghil least he should take cold Travellers that go to Sea meerly to be Sea-sick or in sport if there arise a black cloud or storm their voyage is at an end they hasten to the harbour they came not to be Weather beaten or to hazard themselves amongst the boistrous Billowes but onely for pleasure But the Merchant that is bound for a voyage whose calling and business it is is not daunâ—ed at every Wave and Wind but drives through all with resolution He that onely pretends towards Religion if a storm meet him in the way to Heaven he leaves it and takes shelter in the earth as a Snail he puts out his head to see what Weather is abroad what countenance Religion â—ath at Court whether great men do smile or frown upon the Ways of God and if the Heavens be lowring he shrinks into his shell esteeming that his onely safety But they that make godliness their business do not steer their course by such cards
they follow their trade though they meet with many trials as resolved travellers whether the ways be fair or foul whether the weather be clear or cloudy they will go on towards their Heavenly Canaan They go from strength to strength till they appear before God in Sion Psa 84.8 When men follow godliness by the by and in jest they take it to farm and accept leases of it for a time but if the times come to be such that in their blind judgments it prove an hard penny-worth they throw it up into their Land-Lords hands Vadat Christus as he said cum suo Evangelio but men that make Religion their business take it as their free hold as their fee simple which they enjoy and esteem it their priviledge so to do for the whole term of their lives I have chosen thy statutes as my heritage for ever I have enclined my heart to perform thy statutes always unto the end Psa 119.11 12. The godliness of an unsound professour is like the light of a Candle fed with gross and greasie matter as profit and honour and pleasure which continueth burning till that tallowy substance be wasted but then goeth out and leaves a stench behind it the holiness of a true Christian is like the light of the Sun which hath its original in heaven and is fed from above and thereby shines brighter and brighter to perfect day Prov. 4.18 CHAP. V. Religion is the great end of mans Creation I Come in the third place to the reasons The Reason of the Doctrine Why godliness should be every mans main and principal business First Because it is Gods chief end in sending man into and continuing him in this World It is without question that the work should be for that end to which it is appointed and for which it is maintained by a soveraign and intelligent workman Where the Master hath authority to command there his end and errand must be chiefly in the servants eye Laert invit Zen Zeno well defines Liberty to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a power to act and practice at a mans own Pleasure opposite to which servitude must be a determination to act at and according to the will of another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Polit. c. 9. A servant is as the Oratour saith well nomen officii a word that speaks one under command he is not one that moveth of himself but the Masters living instrument according to the Philosopher to be used at his pleasure According to the title or power which one hath over another such must the service be Where the right is absolute the obedience must not be conditional God having therefore a perfect soveraignty over his creatures and compleat right to all their services his end and aim his will and word must be principally minded by them Paul gathers this fruit from that root The God whose I am and whom I serve Act. 27.23 His subjection is founded on Gods Dominion over him Now the great end to which man is designed by God Hic si is Iuâ—a naefornationis ut homo si etmplem De Deus ara homi nis is the exercising himself to godliness God erected the stately fabrique of the great World for man but he wrought the curious piece of the little World man for himself Of all his visible works he did set man apart for his own Worship Man saith one â—ustum est ut creatura laudet creatorem ipse enim ad laudan dum secreavit Aug. is the end of all in a semicircle intimating that all things in the World were made for man and man was made for God It is but rational to suppose that if this World was made for us we must be made for more then this World It is an ingenious observation of Picus Mirandula God created the Earth for beasts to inhabit the Sea for fish the Air for fowls the Heavens for Angels and Stars man therefore hath no place to dwell and abide in but the Lord alone The great God according to his infinite Wisdom hath designed all his creatures to some particular ends and hath imprinted in their natures an appetite and propensity towards that end as the point and scope of their being Yea the very inanimate and irrational creatures are serviceable to those ends and uses in their several places and stations Birds build their nests exactly bringing up their young tenderly Beasts scramble and scuffle for their Fodder and at last become mans food The Sun Moon and Stars move regularly in their orbes and by their light and influence â—dvantage the whole World The little Common-wealth of Bees work both industriously and wonderfully for the benefit of mankind Flowers refresh us with their sents Trees with their shade and fruits Fire moveth upward Earth falleth downward each by nature hastning to its center Thunder and Winds being exhalations drawn up from the earth by the heavenly bodies The ancient Philosophers and the old Divines among the Pagans did pourtray their gods in wood and stone with musical instruments not that they beleeved the gods to be fidlers or lovers of musick but to shew that nothing is more agreeable to the nature of God then to do all in a sweet harmony and proportion Platarch are wholly at though stubborn and violent creatures the call and command of the mighty possessor of Heaven and Earth and with them as with besoms he sweeps and purifieth the air Fish sport up and down in rivers Rivers run along sometimes seen sometimes secret never ceasing or tiring till they empty themselves into the Ocean the mighty Sea like a pot of water by its ebbing and flowing purgeth it self boyleth and prepareth * Piscis à pasco sustenance for living creatures Through this womb of moisture this great pond of the world as ** In contemp Bishop Hall termeth it men travel in moveable houses from Country to Country transporting and ex changing commodities Thus the Almighty Creator doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plato saith observe a curious comely order in all his work and appoints them to some use according to their nature Surely much more is man the point in which all those lines meet designed to some noble end suitable to the excellency of his being and what can that be but to worship the glorious and blessed God and the exercising himself to godliness The Lord made all things for himself Prov. 16.4 God made things without life and reason Plato finem hujus mundi bonitatem dei esse affirmavit to serve him passively and subjectively by administring occasion to man to admire and adore his Maker but man was made to worship him actively and affectionately as sensible of and affected with that Divine wisdom power and goodness which appear in them As all things are of him as the efficient cause so all things must necessarily be for him as the final cause But man in an especial manner
advantage I thank your Holiness but my souls health is dearer to me then all the things in the world Hist Counc Trent The Apostle calls the body a vile body Phil. 3. ult in regard of its original production it was made not of heavenly materials as Sun or Stars nor of precious materials as pearls or jewels but ex pulvere limoso lutoso of dust mingled with water and in regard of its ultimate resolution it becomes first an ugly gastly carkass and then moulders into earth but the Holy ghost calls the Soul The breath of the Almighty Job 33.4 It was not as the body framed of the dust but immediately breathed by God himself it was not the fruit of some praeexistent matter but the immediate effect of Divine power The soul is in a spiritual as well as in a natural sense the life of the body especially if you take vivere for valere to live for to be lusty and to be in health for what the Sun is to the greater that the Soul is to the lesser World When the sun shineth comfortably how chearfully do all things look how well do they thrive and prosper the birds sing merrily the beasts play wantonly the trees and hearbs put forth their buds and fruits the whole Creation enjoyeth a day of light and joy But when the Sun departeth what a night of horror followeth how are all things wrapt up in the sable mantle of darkness nay let but the heat of its beams abate how do all faces gather paleness the creatures are buried as it were in the winding sheet of Winters frost and snow so when the soul shineth pleasantly on the body refreshing it with its beams of holiness with its rays of grace the body cannot but enjoy a Summer of health and strength Such a soul in such a body is like a pure wax candle in a chrystal lanthorn refreshing with its sent directing by its light and comforting with its heat but if the soul be weak and full of spiritual wants the body must needs wither The soul is the ship in which the body sails if that be safe the body is safe if that sinks the body sinks for ever From all this it appeareth that Soul-work is a weighty work not to be dallied or trifled with bâ—t to be made the business of every man Godliness must therefore be followed with care and conscience because of soul consequence It was our deprivation of godliness which was the souls greatest loss and therefore for the regaining of it ought to be our greatest labour God sent his Son into the world for this very purpose that he might by his bloody passion restore man to his primitive purity and perfection Godliness is the souls food which nourisheth it who would feast his horse â—orpus est jumentum animae and starve himself The souls rayment both for its defence and warmth nay the life of its life The life of the soul as Jacobs in Benjamin is bound up in godliness Take godliness away and the soul goeth down into the grave of the other world with unspeakable sorrow Godliness as it is Soul-work so it is God-work as the excellency of the subject in which so also the excellency of the object about which it is conversant speaks it to be weighty Actiones specificantur à fine objecto circumstantiis Eustath de mor. Philos The Moralists tell us That actions are specified not onely from their ends and circumstances but likewise from their objects And the Divines assure us that the cheifest source of mans sin and sorrow is his causing the bent and stream of his inward man to run after wrong objects If objects then can vary the species they may much more add to the degree to the weight of an action Where the object is great no slip can be small Evil words spoken or blows given to an ordinary man bear but a common action at Law but in case they relate to the King they are Treason The higher the person is with whom we converse the holier and more exact should our carriage be If we walk with our equals we toy and trifle by the way and possibly if occasion be wander from them but if we wait upon a Prince especially about our own near concernments we are serious and sedulous watching his words and working with the greatest diligence for the performance of his pleasure A Lawyer will mind the Countrymans cause when he is at leisure when greater affairs will give him leave and then it may be do it but coldly and carelesly But if he have business committed to him by his Soveraign which concerns the prerogative he will make other causes stay crowd out of the Press to salute this attend it with all his parts and power and ability and industry and never take his leave of it till it be finished I need not explain my meaning in this it is obvious to every eye that godliness is the worshipping the infinite and ever blessed God surely his service is neither to be delayd nor dallied with it is not to be slighted or slubberd over Cursed is he that doth the Work of the Lord negligently When we deal with our equals with them that stand upon the same level with us we may deal as men our affections may be like Scales that are evenly poized in regard of indifferency but when we have to do with a God so great that in comparison of him the vast Ocean the broad Earth and the highest Heavens are all less then nothing and so glorious that the great lights of the World though every Star were a Sun yet in respect of him are perfect darkness we must be like Angels our affections should be all in a flame in regard of fervency and activity The very Turks though they build their own houses low and homely Turk Hist Fol. 342. yet they take much pains about their Moschees their Temples they build them high and stately David considered about a Temple for God The work is great for the palace is not for man but for the Lord God Now saith he I have prepared with all my might for the House of my God Upon this foundation that it was God-work David raiseth this building to make it his business to prepare for it with all his might as if he had said Had it been for man the work had been mean it had wanted exceedingly of that weight which now it hath but the work is great for the palace is not for man but for God and because it is a work of such infinite weight therefore I have prepared for it with all my might I can think no pains great enough for so great a Prince It was provided in the Old Law that the weights and measures of the Sanctuary should be double to the weights and measures of the Commonwealth Godw. Iew. Antiq. l. 6. c. 9. 10. The shekel of the Sanctuary was half a Crown of our money
must like soft showrs sink deep into our affections and command all our actions Ah did but man know what it is to be eternally in Hell fire and what it is to live eternally in Gods Favour he would do any thing were it never so hard to arrive at Heaven The Romans build their Temples round and the rule of Pythagoras was When men worshipped they must turn themselves round Those Heathens had confused notions of Eternity and represented it by round things because such had neither beginning nor end If they by the light of Nature saw a little of it and thence would have their Temples and Worship suitable to it then much more we who have clearer apprehensions by the light of Scripture must have our conversations answerable CHAP. VII The necessity of makiâ—g Religion our business both in regard of the opposition a Christian meets with and the multiplicity of business which lieth upon him THirdly Godliness must be made our principal business our main work because otherwise we shall lose our reward We say As good never a whit as never the better Piety without much pains will redound to little or no profit How foolish is that builder who in setting up an house hath been at much cost and yet loseth all because he will be at no further charge Many lose what they have wrought 2 Joh. 8. Their works because not their business are not perfect and so to small purpose The sloathful roasts not what he took in hunting Prov. 12.27 He was at some labour to catch the Beast but was loath to be at any more in dressing it and so all was lost laboriousness to godliness is as the soul to the body which being separated from it godliness dyeth and quickly becomes unsavoury The reward of Godliness is of infinite worth the end of Holiness as of Hope is the salvation of the soul the eternal and immediate enjoyment of God in Heaven Now who can think to atrain the place of such ravishing pleasures without much pains Iter per angusta ad augusta Things that are most delicate cannot be had without the greatest difficultie they that will enjoy large Diadems must run through many deaths and dangers and use much diligence Nature her self will not bestow her precious treasure without much unwearied labour Dust and Dirt lye common in Streets but the gold and silver mines are buried in the bowels of the earth and they must work hard and dig deep that will come at them Ordinary stones may be had in every quarry but pearls are secret in the bottom of the Sea and they must dive low and hazard their lives that will fetch up the Oysters in which they breed and enjoy them When did we ever find Nature so prodigal of her gifts as to bestow skill and excellency in any art or science without industry and diligence Doth she not force her students to beat their brains to wast their bodies to break their sleep to burn up their strength before she will permit them to pry into her secrets to pick the lock of her curious Cabinet and gain any considerable knowledge of her Wealth and richness And can we think the God of Nature will give men to know him as they are known of him will bestow on them the unspeakable gift the pearl of price the holy of holies such things as eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither mans heart conceive while they lie lazing on the bed of Idleness Heaven is not unfitly compared to an Hill among Heathen to Olympus among Christians to Mount-Sion They that will climb up to it must pant and blow and sweat for it Elijahs Translation to the place of bliss was much more speedy and facile then ordinary We see no pâ—nting heart no trembling hands no quivering lips no ghastly looks to be the forerunners of his passage into Eternal life Where the union is neer and natural there the separation is hard and painful but behold here the Marriage knot betwixt body and soul is not untied Those loving Relations like Husband and Wife ride triumphantly together in a stately Chariot to the Heavenly Court yet even in this rapture God would teach us that the Virgin inheritance must be ravished There appeared a Chariot of fire and horses of fire and Elijah went up by a Whirle-wind into Heaven 2 Kings 2.11 Why a Chariot of fire but to note that Heaven must be stormed and taken by force Fire is the most active inanimate Creature hereby is figured that laborious action is the way to the beatifical vision The Chariot is made of fire the Wheels upon which it runs are a whirlewind Activeness and violence are the onely way to the blessed inheritance Who ever entred into Heaven with ease They that will be knighted must kneel for it they that will wear the Crown must win it A man is not crowned except he strive lawfully that is strenuously 1 Tim 2.25 He that will be saved must work out his salvation and that with fear and trembling Legitime certare est ad pugnam se preparare animose adversarium aggredi Bald. Phil. 2. Christ who first bought the purchase hath already set the price upon which and no other the Sons of men may come to the possession There is indeed a twofold price of a thing a natural price when so much is layd down as is commensurate or proportionable to the thing bought so the price of Heaven was the blood of Christ Heb. 10.19 A pactional price when so much is laid down though inferiour to the commodity upon which the seller is contented that you enjoy the thing desired so labour knocking working is the price of Heaven Isa 55.3 This price is made of mans future felicity and Christ is resolved not to abate the least farthing Strive saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conamini omnibus virib us Extremas summatque vires velut agonizantes exerite quass provita si vincitis pro morte si vincimini luctaturi A Lapid in Loc. to enter in at the straight gate for many will seek to enter in and shall not be able Luk. 13.24 As if he had said there will be many Seekers Many that will both cheapen Heaven by a profession and bid somewhat by performances but they shall miss the place for want of more pains they shall not be able if ye therefore have any love to your souls be not onely seekers but strivers do not onely cheapen and offer a little but come up to the price Put forth all your strength as Wrestlers do that strive for Masteries as ever ye would enjoy those eternal pleasures Men were as good bid nothing as not come up to the sellers price All run in a Race but one receiveth the prize Sicnotat diligentiam celeritatem Cor. A. Lapid So run that ye may obtain 1 Cor. 9.24 They that intend for the Crown do before hand diet themselves breath their bodies and when they run for
the Conquest strive and stretch themselves to the utmost he that loytereth is as sure to lose as if he sate still The lazy World because Christ sends chapmen up and down with his wares to offer them to every house to every heart think to have them at their own ordinary rates but they shall find that grace which is many degrees short of glory is not to be had by sloth and idlâ—ness there must be lifting up the heart lending the ears seeking searching begging digging attention of the ouâ—ward intention of the inward man before men can understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God Prov. 2.3 4 5. Though it be easie to let the backet into the Well yet it is hot work and hard labour to draw water out of the Well of Salvation The laborious Bee onely is laden with hony The desire of the slothful killeth him O si O si O tiosi because his hands refuse to labour Non est e terris mollis ad aslra via Seâ—â—c Prov. 21.5 He is full of wishing but far from working As the Cat he would fain have the Fish but is unwilling to wet his Feet his desires are destitute of sutable endeavours and therefore rather harm him then help him Like Ishbosheth he lazeth on his bed till he is deprived of his life He thinketh to be hurried in hast to Heaven to be carried as passengers in a Ship asleep in their cabins to their Haven but is all the while in a deceitful Dream There is no going to those Heavens where Christ is in his glory as the sick man came to the house where Christ was in his estate of ignominy let down in a bed He that will be but almost a Christian must be content to go but almost to Heaven Idleness is the burial of our persons and negliligence is the burial of our actions Writing on the Sand is easie but soon worn out It s mar'd witâ— a small breath of wind but writing on marble as it is more permanent so it costeth more pains An idle servant is in Gods esteem an evil servant he doth not distinguish betwixt a slothful and an unfaithful man His Word tells us that he hath bonds for those hands that are folded in the bosom when they should be working for a blessing that he hath fetters for those feet that stand still and stick fast in the mire and mud of sinful pleasures when they should be running the way of his precepts nay that he hath utter darkness for them that will not walk and work while they enjoy the light Matth. 25.26 and 30. He that takes his ease in this world must travel in the next Two things shew a necessity that Godliness must be made our business if ever we would make any thing of it First Because of the opposition we meet with in the way of Religion When the Wind and Tide are both with the Marriner he may hoise up his sail and sit still but when both are against him he must row hard or never think to come to his Haven The way to Heaven is like Jonathans passage against the Philistims betwixt two rocks the one Bozez dirty the other Seneb thorny the men of the world will be ever diligent either with dirt to bespatter their credits or with thorns to wound and pierce their consciences that walk in this path he must therefore have a mind well resolved to take pains and his feet well shod with patience that will go this way to Paradise The way of this world is like the vale of Siddim slimy and slippery full of lime-pits and stumbling-blocks to maim or mischief us Saints are Princes in all lands but as Princes that pass through a Country in disguise meet with many affronts so do Christians The flesh is like Birdlime which when the spirit would at any time mount up to Heaven with the wings of Faith and Meditation hampers and hinders it it is the holy souls prison wherein it is fettered and fastned that it cannot as it would walk at liberty and seek Gods precepts The Devil both a Serpent for craft and a Lion for cruelty doth out of his hatred to God make it his constant business by his power and policy to hinder Godliness As the Panther because he cannot come at the person he tears the picture where-ever he finds it We wrestle not with flesh and blood but with Principalities and Powers Ephes 6.12 While Satan reigneth in a creature all may be quiet and calm but if he be once cast out he will rage and roar to purpose While Israel serveth the Egyptians carrying their crosses bearing their burdens doing their drudgery all is well but when once they shake off Pharoahs yoke turn their backs upon Egypt and set out for Canaan with what force and fury are they pursued to be brought back to their former bondage Christ was no sooner baptized then buffetted he went as it were out of the water of baptism into the fire of temptation and if the Prince were all his time persecuted his Subjects must not expect to be wholly priviledged The cross is tied as a tag to the profession of Christianity Matth. 10.30 One Article in the Indenture which all Apprentices must seal to that will call Christ Master is to bear the cross daily Matth. 16. The Saints are as vessels floating on the waters of Meribah where Omne quod flat Aquilo est as Tertullian saith of Pontus no wind blows but what is sharp and keen The Hebrews were no sooner enlightned to their conversion but they indured a sharp fight of affliction their lightning was accompanied with a grievous storm Heb. 10.32 Holiness is usually followed with much hatred and hardship The enemies of mans salvation are impudent and uncessant ever raging never resting Plut. in vit Marcel What the Carthaginian Commander said of Marcellus may be truly spoken by us in regard of them Per varios casus per tot discrimina rerum Tendimus ad coelum That we have to do with those who will never be quiet either Conquerors or conquered but Conquerors they will pursue their victory to the utmost and conquered labour to recover their loss Satan especially is both wrathful and watchful to undermine souls He is fitly called Beelzebub the master Fly because as a Fly he quickly returns to the bait from which he was but now beaten Though Emperors may turn Christians saith Austin yet the Devils will not Doth not this fully speak the necessity of making Godliness our business Opposuit Natura Alpemque nivemque Deduxit scopulos montem ru oit Aceto Juv. Sat. 10. Can such difficulties be conquered without much diligence Who can eat his way like Hannibal through such Alps of opposition without hot water and hard work If like Sampson we would break all these cords of opposition in sunder we must awake out of sleep and put forth all our strength Saints
are all called to be Souldiers Our whole life is a warfare All the days of my appointed time Job 14.14 An Expositor reads it Ad agendum natâ—milites Cicer. All the days of my warfare I will wait till my change come The Souldiers life is no lazy life Armies are wholly for action especially when they deal with such subtile strong adversaries that assault them day and night without ceasing Who can conquer three such mighty Monarchs as Flesh World and Devil are or force his way through their temptations and suggestions unless he fight in earnest and make it his business That fire if ever any had need to be hot that must melt and overcome such hard mettal and that hand if ever any had need to work hard that will remove and level such high mountains If the silly Hare pursued by such a pack of Hounds offer once to stand still or lye down she is sure to be torn in pieces and devoured There is a time saith the holy Bishop Hall Holy observ 20. when Kings go not forth to warfare our spiritual war admits no intermission it knows no night no winter abides no peace no truce this calls us not into Garison where we may have ease and respite but into pitcht fields continually we see our enemies in the face always and are always seen and assaulted ever resisting ever defending receiving and returning blows if either we be negligent or weary we dye We can never have safety and peace but in victory There must our resistance be couragious and constant where both yielding is death and all treaties of peace mortal Secondly There is a necessity of making it our main work Because of the multiplicity of businesses that is incumbent on every Christian That stream had need to run freely and with full force that must be divided into many channels That estate had need to be large that must be parted among many children Who can count the variety of works that every Christian must be engaged in how many Dangers he must wade through how many Snares must he avoid how many Taunts and Mocks must he abide how many Temptations must he conquer how many Graces must he exercise how many Lusts must he mortifie how many Duties must he perform every relation every condition calls for answerable duty and diligence every Ordinance must be improved by him every Providence must be sanctified to him Mercies must like a ladder mount him nearer to Heaven Misery must like the famine to the Prodigal force him to hasten to his Fathers house His Wife his Children his Servants his Neighbors his Friends his Enemies his shop his closets his visits his journeys do all require suitable service and who can perform it that is not diligent and sedulous Consider him in reference to Gods immediate Worship he must pray hear read meditate watch fast sanctifie Sabbaths sing Psalms receive the Sacrament and in all walk humbly reverently and uprightly with his God Consider him in reference to poor men he must love mercy and supply their necessities according to his ability and not like a muck-heap good for nothing till carried forth whatever men he deals with he must do justly love his Neighbor as himself and as God gives him opportunity provoke them to mind Grace and Sanctity as Musk perfume if possible all that he comes near Consider him in reference to himself he must live soberly vigilantly his heart is like a subtle sturdy theif ever seeking to break the goal and therefore must have a strong guard his corrupt nature is like fire and his whole man like thatch and therefore he must keep a narrow watch his Sences are the Out-works which Satan is ever assaulting by them to gain the Royal Fort of the Soul that he must defend them with care and courage day and night What is said of the Husbandman is true of every Christian His work is never at an end The end of one work is but the beginning of another He must always be imployed either in dunging dressing ploughing sowing harrowing weeding or reaping his ground he hath no leisure to be idle and lazy who hath so much work lying upon his hand Nullus mihi per â—tium exiit dies partem etiam noctium studiis vendico non vacosomno sed juc cumbo oculos vigilia fatigatos cadentesque in opere detinco Sen. epist 67. Seneca thought Philosophy cut him out so much work that he was necessitated to spend every day and part of the nights in making it up Christianity a nobler Mistris as she gives better wages so she commands greater work that her servants may say well with the Emperor Let no day pass without a line and with Solomons Houswife not let their candle to go out by night Prov. 30. The French Duke de Alva could say when he was asked by Henry the Fourth Whether he had seen the Eclipse of the Sun That he had so much business to do upon Earth that he had no time to look up to Heaven Sure I am the Christian may say with more truth and conscience That he hath so much business to do for Heaven that he hath no time to mind vain or earthly things That servant who doth ponder the strictness of his Master consider the shortness of his time conceive the largeness of his task and beleeve the weightiness of his work how it must be done or he is undone for ever will be easily convinced that it nearly concerns him that it highly behoves him to shake off sloth and sluggishness to gird up the loins of his mind to give it the precedency in all his actions to pursue it with industry against all opposition to persevere in it with constancy to his dissolution and in a word to make it his main business his principal work CHAP. VIII A Complaint that this Trade is so dead and the Worlds trade so quick THe Use which I shall make of this Doctrine shall be either by way of Complaint or Counsel First By way of Lamentation If Godliness ought to be every ones principal business How sadly should it be lamented that this calling is so exceedingly neglected What one man is there of many that doth follow this trade and exercise himself to Godliness Men generally cry out Trading is dead their particular callings are gone they make no considerable returns they stand in their shops all the day idle But may not God rather complain The holy heavenly trade is decayed and dead general callings are left and lost Why stand ye all the day idle and refuse to work in my vineyard While the Devil has whole droves to do his drudgery the Flesh vast flocks to flatter its fancies and the World many millions to admire and adore its vanities the ways of Sion mourn they are unoccupied none come to the solemn feasts all her gates are desolate While the Lawyers Closet is filled with Clients for counsel about their Estates the Physicians
Ice quickly perishing that their riches and estates are but like Snow which children take much pains to rake and scrape together to make a Ball of which upon the Suns shining on it presently melteth away though they see daily men that hoarded up Silver and wrought hard for wealth hurried away into the other World leaving all their heaps behind them yet they will take no warning but as the silly Lark still play with the feather in the Glass till they are caught and destroyd by the Fowler Men wrong themselves and misconstrue God who as if he had hidden those things because he would have them sought and laid the other open for neglect bend themselves onely to the seeking of those earthly commodities and do no more mind Heaven then if there were none If we could imagine a beast to have reason how could he be more absurd in his choice What a beast is he to love his silver above his soul Plut. in vit Anton. and lose his God for a little corruptible gold While he lives like the King of Armenia by Marc. Anton. he is a close prisoner in golden fetters and when he dieth this worldling may say to his darling as Cornelius Agrippa to his familiar spirit neer his end Abi perdita bestia quae me perdidisti Be gone thou wicked wretch thou hast undone me It was good counsel which was given John the third King of Portugal to meditate a quarter of an hour every day on that divine sentence And O that Reader I could perswade thee to it What will it profit a man to gain the whole World and lose his own soul or what will a man give in exchange for his soul Mat. 16. I have read of a Philosopher who living near a Black Smith and hearing him up every morning at his Hammer and Anvâ—l before he could get out of his Bed to his Book profest himself much ashamed that such an ignoble trade as a Smiths should be more diligently atended then his more serious and excellent studies What sayst thou Reader Dost thou not blush to think that Worldlings are more busie and laborious about the low things the rattles and trifles of this life then thou art about the high affairs of God and thy Soul the noble and serious concernments of Eternity CHAP. IX The â—omplaint continued that this Calling is so much neglected when superstition and sin are embraced and diligently followed SEcondly How do men make Superstition and Idolatry their business Though they are carelâ—ss about Divine institutions yet they are zealous for humane traditions How zealous were the Pharisees for the inventions of their Elders They called them Mashlamathath Completions or Perfections esteeming them both helpful to the observation of the Law of God and also to the perfection of it Superstitious persons do naturally think that their postures gestures ceremonies and additions do render the Worship of God more comely and more compleat but truely such embrace a cloud instead of Juno worship the shadow of Christ whilst the Prince himself goeth unsaluted Men are exceeding prone to and earnest for such vain and false ways and worship partly because its pleasing to corrupt spirits who naturally love a fair shew in the flesh A pompous holiness sutes best with a proud heart partly because these traditions were received from their Ancestours and as Austin observed in his time Men were resolved right or wrong to be followers of their Fathers Sutable to which Cicero said I will never forsake that way of Divine service which I have received from my Fore-fathers for any mans pleasure or by any mans perswasion No not though Christ himself dyed to redeem them from their vain conversations received by tradition from their Fathers 1 Pet. 1.18 19. hence though they are so backward where God Commands yet they are forward when men command What an outcry doth Micah make for his Idol What a privy search doth Laban make for his Image Gideon must dye for throwing down the Alter of Baal How earnest are many for priests Tapers Altars Sacrifices Days Meats Conservations the Holy of Holies Crossing and Cringings In these their zeal is hot boyling over to the scalding of themselves and others Though this fervency is aptly compared to a Ship without Ballast over-beared with Sails which in a strom casts away all aboard her they disesteem their estates and possessions in comparison of Idolatry and Superstition Such persons are not onely liberal but lavish Jeroboam will be at great cost for his Idols they must be not Iron or Brazen no not Silver but Golden Calves not Guilded over but Massie molted Gold they lavish gold out of the bag and weigh silver in the ballance and hire a Gold-Smith and he maketh it a God and they fall down and Worship it Isa 46.6 The Israelites will spare their Jewels for their Idols Exod. 32.3 Micha's mother to make molten and graven Images will lay out eleven hundred shekels of silver Judg. 17.2 3. The Papists are so prodigal though it is the less wonder in them because they hold such actions meritorious of Salvation and what would not a man give or do to be saved that not onely their Churches but even Clorsters are stuck and stuft with costly pearly presents to their supposed Saints The Indians in the Isle of Zeylon having a consecrated Apes tooth got from them offered an incredible mass of treasure to recover it How many zealots that will hardly give a penny to the releif of a poor Christian throw away pounds for the maintenance of Superstition They slight their relations to further their idolatrous devotion The superstitious Jews would sacrifice their children to Moloch 2 King 17.17 Diodor Sic. The Carthaginians at one time after they had received an overthrow by Agathocles sacrificed two hundred of their prime Nobility to appease their incensed Deity Good God whether is nan fallen to be more cruel then a Beast to the children of his own body What slavery is it to serve Satan and what liberty to serve thee Nay they will sacrifice not onely their Estates and children but their lives and all their outward comforts to superstition Verberari à dae mone mallebat quam à Deo coronari Mendoz. in 1 Sam. 8. How did the worshippers of Baal cut and lance themselves Ahaz sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that smote him 2 Chron. 28.23 So fervent he was that he chose rather in the service of false gods to be scourged then in the service of the true God to be saved Pur. Pilgrim p. 1478. Among the Mahometans are a sect called the Dervises whose sharp and strict penances exceed those of the Papists they live on the tops of hills solitary for contemplation fast till nature be almost decayed have no cloaths but to cover their nakedness wear such massie fetters of iron upon their legs that they can scarce stir and yet go as fast as they can with them many miles to visit
and soul was steeped in tears and his whole time from the womb to the tomb was spent in sorrows and sufferings full of tribulations And as Antichrist is called a man of sin because he is as Beza observes well Merum scelus Meer sin nothing but sin Isa 53.3 2 Thess 2.3 so the children of God should be men of holiness meer holiness made up of holiness nothing but holiness every part of them should be holy and every deed done by them should be holy holiness in their hearts should as the Lungs in the body be in continual motion and holiness in their life must run through all their words as the Woof through the whole Web. The Jews had their daily weekly monthly yearly addresses unto God to teach us that we must be always trading heavenward that there must be an unwearied commerce an uninterrupted intercourse betwixt God and our souls Saints lives are therefore compared to a walk and called a walking with God or a walking before God they must still walk as in company with him and tread every step as under his eye Gen. 5.22 and 17.1 The Planets because of their wandering nature are sometime nearer to sometime further from the earth yet always within the Zodiack the high-way of the Sun So the Christian though he be sometimes stooping to the earth in his particular calling sometime mounting up to Heaven in the immediate Worship of God yet he must always be in the path of godliness The highway of the Sun of Righteousness Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long saith Solomon Prov. 23.17 Whether a Christian be eating or drinking or buying or selling or plowing or sowing or riding or walking whatever he be doing or whereever he be going he must be always in the fear of the Lord Godliness must be his guide his measure and his end as the salt it must be sprinkled on every dish to make it savoury Thy life O Christian must be so led that it may be a continued serving of God The Precept is full though if a true Christian thou wilt esteem it thy priviledge that whatsoever thou dost thou art to do all to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10.31 God must be the Alpha and Omega the beginning and end of all thy actions thy duty is to pass the whole time of thy sourjourning here in fear 1 Pet. 1.17 Every moment must be devoted to God and as all seasons so all actions must be sacred There is a Prophesie that in Jerusalem in that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses Holiness to the Lord and the pots in the Lords house shall be like the bowles before the Altar yea every put in Judah and Jerusalem shall be holiness to the Lord of Hosts Zach. 14.20 21. Mark the same Inscription is to be upon the bells of horses and on every pot wich was on the High Priests mitre Holiness to the Lord to teach us That every thing though but of common use should be sanctified to Gods service Vt quicquid aggrediatnr homines sit sacrificium Calv. in loc That every ordinary enterprize saith Calvin should be a sacrifice In the prosecution of this Exhortation I shall First Speak to the nature of this duty and Manner how a Christian must exercise himself to Godliness in the whole course of his life and in every part thereof Secondly I shall lay down some Means for the accomplishing this duty Thirdly I shall annex some Motives to encourage the Reader in this holy Trade and calling First As to the Manner how a Saint may in every passage of his life follow this Trade I shall divide my Discourse into these several Heads 1. How a man may make Godliness his business in religious actions or the Worship of God in general as also in his carriage in hearing or reading in Prayer at the Lords Supper and on the Lords day in particular 2 How a Christian may make Religion his business in his natural actions of eating drinking sleeping and cloathing 3. In his Recreations 4. In his particular vocation or calling 5. In reference to his Relations and Family 6. In his dealings with all men 7. In all conditions whether of prosperity or adversity 8. In all companies whether good or bad 9. In solitariness or when he is alone 10. On a weak-day from morning to night 11. In his visiting the fick 12. Vpon a dying bed CHAP. XI How a Christian may make Religion his business in spiritual Performances and religious Actions FIrst Make Godliness thy business in religious Duties I shall put that first in order which is first in nature and excellency and truly Friend thy special care must be here thy greatest diligence will be little enough when thou comest solemnly into Gods presence Cleanly men wash their hands and brush their cloaths every day but when they are to dine with a King they will wash and scour their hands they will brush their cloaths over and over again that their hands may be if possible clean from the least dirt and their garments from the least dust The true Christian is in all company and in the whole course of his life every day careful to keep his soul clean and his conscience clear nay to encrease his Godliness but when he draweth nigh to God and he hath more special care and extraordinary caution though Tradesmen are all the year long doing somewhat at their callings either casting up their accounts or gathering in their debts or amending something in their commodities which are amiss and therefore have no time for idleness yet at some times of the year they are full of trading their shops are crowded with customers they are all the week either sending out or taking in wares now this time calls for their greatest diligence and watchfulness The time of sacred duty is a Christians market day wherein he is much imployd and therefore it calls for his greatest diligence He that leaves his Shop or loyters in it at such a time must expect that his Shop will quickly leave him The Husbandman hath his seasons to Plow and Sow in which if he be heedless and careless about that either his seed be smutty or his servant slothful he can look for but a mean and poor harvest The hours of praying and reading and hearing are the Saints opportunities and seasons of grace if he be not then careful and consciencious to Plow up the fallow ground of his heart and to sow to the Spirit his return will be very inconsiderable he will Reap but a thin crop But truely friend if thou hast no respect to thy souls good God hath to his own glory and though he stoop to thee ingiving thee leave to seek his face and hear his voice yet he will not be slighted by thee He is a glorious and jealous Majesty and esteemeth it a disparagement to him for any to wait upon him without their best attire Though Vzzah be
like Moses three strokes fetch water out of a rock Ah couldest thou that hast heard of this God by the hearing of the ear but see him with the seeing of the eye thou wouldest quickly abhor thy self in dust and ashes How ugly how loathsom would sin be couldst thou behold the Glory Holiness and Grace of that God whom thereby thou hast offended Ah how great an evil must that be which is so opposite and offensive to the greatest good Think also on the blood of the dearest Jesus which was let out by thy lusts and surely when thou beholdest those knives before thee which made those bloody mortal wounds in his blessed body Anger and Grief will both strive within thee for the mastery Meditate on thy wants He that is ignorant what he ailes cannot complain at least so as to be relieved The messenger who knoweth not the errand upon which he comes must expect to be sent back as wise as he came Do as the good Huswife when she is going to market where provision is to be had doth First she considereth with her self what her family needs what food what cloaths what her Husband what her Children what her self and accordingly disposeth her monâ—y at Market so when thou art going to God by prâ—yer who is able to supply all thy necessities consider what thou wantest what pardoning mercy what purifying mercy what sin thou didst lately foil and art afraid it will recover again that thou mayst beg strength to pursue the victory what lâ—st lately got the better of thee that thou maist intreat pardon of it and power against it what grace thou art defective in either in reference to thy calling or relations or any condition that thou mayst request God to bestow it on thee what new providence hath befallen thee or new work is laid upon thee that thou mayst beseech God to give the sutable grace and power This consideration of thy wants with the weight of them will make thee more urgent and instant with God for supply they that feel hunger how hard will they beg for bread poor prisoners that are ready to famish for want of food how earnest are they for relief Bread bread for the Lords sake Remember the poor prisoners for the Lords sake Confideration of thy soul-necessities and of what infinite concernment the releif of them is to thee will make thee feel thy wants and then thou wilt be importunate with God for mercy A man that considereth not his indigencies is like a full stomack that loaths the honey comb Consider thy Meâ—cies meditate on the several particular passages of Gods providence towards thee from thy birth to this moment how many devils thou hast been delivered from how many journeys thou hast been preserved in that seasonable succour God hath sometimes sent thee in dangers what sutable support he hath afforded thee in distress what counsel he hath given thee in doubts what comforts he hath vouchsafed thee in sorrows and darkness Make past mercies by meditation present with thee How many years hast thou lived and every moment of thy life hast breathed in mercy Do not forget former favours bestowed on thee or thine The Civet box when the Civet is gone still retains it scent the vessel when the liquor is gone hath still a savour of it So when thy mercies are past and spent thou shouldest still have the scent and savour of them in thy spirit Meditate upon the number of thy present mercies personal domestical national temporal spiritual How many are the mercies which thou enjoyest in bed at board at home abroad Thy house thy barns thy children thy body thy soul are all full of blessings thou hast many positive many privative mercies Many O Lord my God are thy wonderful works which thou hast done and thy thoughts to us ward they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee If I would declare and speak them they are more then can be numbered Psal 40.4 Think of them particularly meat swallowed down whole doth not yield such nourishment as when it is cut into small pieces If jewels are bundled up together their riches and worth are hid they must be viewed and considered one by one then their value will appear Meditate on the nature of them how freely they are bestowed When thou wast Gods enemy he fed thee and cloathed thee and maintained thee as when a man turneth his back upon the Sun the Sun even then refresheth him with his beams so when thou didst depart away from God he even then followed thee with goodness like the fountain he giveth his pleasant streams to thee gratis For alas thou art less then the least of all Gods mercies worse then any loathsome Toad or poisonous Serpent This will be an excellent file to set off the mercies of God in their lively lovely colours that David so great a King should do so much for such a dead Dog as Mephibosheth did exceedingly affect his heart 2 Sam. 7. So do thou think with thy self What am I and what is my Fathers house that the Lord should do so much for me Meditate upon the fulness and greatness of thy mercies What distinguishing mercies are thy Body-mercies they are more then God oweth thee and more then he bestoweth upon others Alas many want health liberty food rayment sleep limbs senses reason and possibly thou enjoyest them all But Oh! of what concernment are thy Soul-mercies the image of God the blood of Christ eternal Life the Gospel of thy Salvation Sabbaths Sacraments and seasons of grace God hath not dealt so with every people as with this Nation nor with every person as with thee Thou art as the Psalmist phraseth it laden with benefits hast such a weight such a burthen of benefits upon thy back that thou canst hardly stir or stand under them Hast thou not blessings of the womb blessings of the field blessings of the Throne blessings of the foot-stool blessings in thy going out blessings in thy coming in which way canst thou look and not see blessings where canst thou tread and not stand on blessings thy whole life is in this respect a bundle of blessings these thoughts before prayer may stir thee up to bless the giver If thou shouldst bless men when they curse thee much more shouldst thou bless God when he blesseth thee Meditate on the God to whom thou art to pray Consider his Majesty and greatness Nehemiah calls him The great and terrible God Nehem. 1.5 He is so great the Heavens and heavens of heavens cannot contain him that the Earth Heavens and Ocean are in comparison of him as nothing yea less then nothing and vanity Think of his attributes and infinite excellencies God is in Heaven and thou art on Earth therefore let thy words be few Eccles 5.2 As God riseth in our thoughts self falleth That Sun discovereth all our dust O how are we ashamed of our drops when we stand by this Ocean This serious apprehension of thy
distance will quicken thee to reverence Gods greatness and mans vileness are both arguments to make man humble and wary in the Worship of God Couldst thou behold God in Heaven in what Majesty he there appeareth on his Throne of glory how his heavenly Courtiers vail their faces in his presence lay their Crowns at his feet and serve him though joyfully yet humbly and awfully with what reverence and holy fear wouldst thou go to prayer Meditate on his mercy and goodness what promises he hath made to prayer how bountiful he is to his suppliants He doth more then they can ask or think he gives liberally without upbraiding It was said of Severus the Emperor that he was more troubled that men asked nothing then that he gave much God delighteth both to be sought and found This is necessary to strengthen the faith He that commeth to God must beleive that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11.6 He that would pray and obtain a blessing must beleive Gods being that he is and Gods bounty that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Meditate on his rich bounty Abraham asked but one Son God gives him seed like the Stars in the Heavens for multitude the Debtor desires but forbearance and he freely forgives the whole Debt The shekel of the Sanctuary is double to the ordinary shekel God delighteth to see men joyful in his house of prayer Isa 56.7 to see their countenances commend his chear now meditation of his Royal bounty how he giveth like a King like a God will help thee to this hearty chearfulness Beleive before thou prayest that thy hand of prayer shall not knock at Heavens gate in vain that God will not send thee away sad It is reported of the Emperor Flavius that he should say I am sorry that any man should present a petition to me as if he were offering meat to an Elephant with a trembling hand Consider not onely his habitation which art in Heaven but also his relation to thee Our Father before thou callest he will answer and when thou speakest he will say here am I Isa 65.24 Thus when thou hast by meditation cut the Sacrifice in peices put the wood in order and laid all upon the Altar thou mayst by prayer put fire to them and offer up a Sacrifice to God of a sweet smelling savour Secondly As Meditation so the stirring up of thy graces is needful to further this duty Meditation will do much towards it as thou hast heard I shall therefore speak the less to it Every person that hath grace doth not always pour out his prayers rightly Graces must be exercised in our duties Grace may lie as fire under ashes upon the hearth of thy heart and be so far from flaming that it may not so much as glow and how then canst thou expect any warmth from it thy duty is therefore to stir up the coales and endeavour that the fire may blaze out It is the language of Canaan communication seasoned with grace which onely is savoury to God Cato being asked why he was so diligent to learn the Greek language in his old age answered I hear the Gods speak Greek and I would willingly speak to them in their own language All the words of God are gracious It s said of his Son Grace is poured into thy lips Psa 45.2 Those therefore that would not speak to God in an unknown language a tongue wich he understandeth not must accent all their expressions to him with grace It is the smell of the spice of grace in the Israelite not of Garlick and Onions in the Egyptian which is so pleasant and fragrant to God Who is this that cometh out of the Wilderness like Pillars of smoke perfumed with Myrrhe and frankincense with all powders of the Merchant Cant. 3.6 Some take the words to be the voice of the Angels those friends of the Bride groom admiring the Churches gracious expressions and continual assentions of her soul in her prayers to God others take them to be the words of Christ being ravished with the odoriferous smell of those graces which his Spouse acted in her Sacrifices he stood amazed at the beauty of her person and the sweetness of her breath the graciousness of her petitions What lovely Lady what woman is here so the Hebrew What peerless Paragon is this which sendeth up such Spiritual Sacrifices such sweet Incense kindled by the fire of Gods own Spirit laid upon a meritorious Altar ascending and fuming up like the rowllings and agglomerations of smoak to the Lord himself and more welcome and grateful then all the costly evaporations of myrrhe and frankincense and all powders of the Merchants The Angel which ascended to heaven in the flame of the Altar is said to do wonderously Judg. 13.19 20. It was wonderful both to Christ and his friends to behold the acceptance of his Spouses gracious performance how it ascended to Heaven elationibus fumi like pillars of smoak and came up for a memorial before God The desire of nature in prayer is like sparks which fly out of the tunnel of the chimney and then vanish but the desire of grace in prayer is like pillars of smoak which mounteth up to the highest Heavens When Jacobs sons went down to Egypt to fetch corn they carried some along with them to support them by the way when the Christian goeth to Christ by prayer for more spiritual food he must carry some along with him to strengthen him in the duty A little water poured into the pomp will fetch up much a little grace acted in a duty may help thee to much more As the ship is sometimes wind-bound that it cannot move towards its haven so without the exercise of grace the soul is wind-bound there is no stirring towards Heaven A graceless man in prayer as was said of Alcibiades may talk much but speaketh little 2. Some things which will hinder the duty must be refused All sin in general sin regarded in the soul makes prayers disregarded of God If I regard iniquity in my heart God will not hear my prayer Psa 66.18 He that expecteth pardon must throw down his Weapons of Rebellion The Child that asketh forgiveness of his Oaths must not desire it of his Father with Curses in his mouth When dust clogs the Wheel of the Watch or Clock they cannot strike true when sin hampereth and clogs the Wheels of the affections the mouth will never speak true or right in its Petitions He that turneth away his ear from hearing the Law even his prayer shall be an abomination Pro. 28.9 It is high impudency for him that will not hear God to look that God should hear him When the sin of the petitioner is before Gods eyes his petitions cannot enter into Gods ears The wide mouth of sin out-cryeth the voice of his prayers as the Fish called the Remora though it be but little will stop a
in it or the verdict will be to his cost and damage That which boils gently over a small fire may be of use to us which if it should boil hastily and run over it may raise ashes enough to spoil it self The way to lose our requests for temporals is to be as hot and hasty for them as if they were our all even our eternals That incomparable patern of prayers the Lords Prayer which is like a Standard-measure in a Corporation Town for present use and an example for others hath five petitions for Spirituals and but one for Temporals God hath promised spiritual things absolutely therefore thou mayest desire them absolutely For pardon and the image of God and the blood of Christ and fulness of joy in the other World thou mayst be as earnest so humble and reverent as thou wilt And O! what a mercy is it that God though like a wise father he deny us leave to cry for the candle which would burn and the thorns which would prick our fingers yet he giveth us liberty to nay commandeth us to besiege and storm Heaven to follow him up and down to cry day and night to give him no rest to be instant urgent and fervent with him that our persons may be justified our natures sanctified and our souls and bodies glorified eternally Fourthly Thy prayers must be constant Thy duty is to give thy self to prayer as a servant devoted to and at the command of his noble Master This fire like that on the Altar must never go out day nor night Night and day praying exceedingly 1 Thess 3.10 Paul speaks as if his practice had been nothing but prayer he did that so much that he seemed to do nothing else Prayer is a Saints breath which he constantly draweth Ephes 6.18 Praying alwayes with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints Those that work in Iron Mills keep a continual fire though they suffer it sometimes to slack or abate yet never to go out A Christians prayer may have an intermission but never a cessation Our blessed Saviour besides his set times for ordinary did pray whole nights David was a good Husband up early at it mine eyes prevent the dawning of the morning Psa 119.147 At night he was late at this duty at mid-night will I rise to give thanks to thee Psa 119.62 this surely was his meaning when he said he should dwell in the House of the Lord for ever he would be ever in the House of Prayer Gregory writes of his Aunt Trucilla that her Elbows were as hard as an horn by often leaning upon a Desk when she prayed Jâ—â—chim the Father of the Virgin Mary used to say that prayer was his meat and drink There is no duty injoyned a Christian for his constant trade so much as prayer Pray always pray continually pray without ceasing pray with perseverance pray evermore But why is all this would God have his people do nothing else but pray must they cast by their callings cast off all care of their children and shut themselves up into some Cell or Cloyster and there be always upon their knees at prayer as the Euchites fancied No I shall therefore give a brief description of this praying without ceasing 1. Thy soul must be ever in a praying frame The Souldier hath his Weapons ready though not always in fight with his enemy Thy heart must be ever in Tune and ready upon the least touch to make heavenly Musick The Churches lips are compared to an hony-comb Cant. 4.11 The hony comb doth not always drop but it is always ready to drop The beleivers spirit is like fire upon the Hearth though it do not blaze yet its ready upon any opportunity to be blown up into a flame 2. No considerable business must be undertaken without prayer Thou art Gods servant and thy duty is to ask his leave in all thou dost Ephes 4.6 In all things let your requests be made known to God When thou risest up or liest down when thou goest out or comest in prayer must still be with thee Prayer is the way to prevent evil The Worlds poison may be expelled with this antidote Joh. 17.11 He that converseth with God by prayer dwelleth in Heaven and to such a one the earth is but a small point Prayer is both a Charm to inchant and a scourge to torment Satan It ingageth Christ in the combat with the Devil and so assureth the soul of conquest When the Saint is fighting and like to be foild either by the World the Flesh or the Wicked one prayer is the Letter which he sendeth Post to Heaven for fresh supplies of the spirit whereby he becometh more then a conqueror Prayer is the way to procure good he that will not speak must not expect to speed It sanctifieth our food raymont sleep callings and all our enjoyments to us The Christian like the Chymist extracteth all good things out of this one body of prayer 3. He that prayeth constantly hath set times every day for prayer The Morning and Evening Sacrifice were called the continual Sacrifice Numb 28.4 The Christian hath his set meals for his soul every day as well as for his body With the Mary-gold he opens himself in the morning for the sweet dews of Heavens grace and blessing and he doth at night though his occasions hinder him in the day like a Lover find some opportunity to converse with his beloved He is most free and fresh in the morning the top of the milk is the cream and he doth not think his best too good for God His evening fare is sometime extraordinary like the Jewish feasts which were at Supper The spiced cup is best at the bottom Prayer is the key of the morning to open the door of mercy and prayer is the bolt at night to shut him up in safety The Jews prayed in the Temple the third sixth and ninth hour of the day our priviledges under the Gospel are enlarged and I know no reason why our prayers should be lessened He that prayeth continually doth upon all occasions in the day time whatever he be about put up his supplication to God He hath his ejaculations his holy Apostrophes wherein he doth turn his speech at least internal and inarticulate â—â—om man to God This liberty is a great priviledge and this practice turnes to wonderful profit When Jacob was blessing his Sons he takes breath with I have waited for thy Salvation O Lord Gen 49.14 Nehemiah when at the Kings Elbow would not open his mouth to the King till he had opened his heart to God Neh. 2.6 When Noah was cursing Cham he had a short ejaculation for a blessing on Japhet God shall perswade Japhet to dwell in the tents of Shem which prayer hath been answered and will be to the end of the World We Gentiles fare the better for that prayer Christ upon the Cross darted up a short
in Battalia in rank and file in good array I will so marshal them that they be not routed by being out of order I will see that they stand in their places and keep their ground and what then his practice after prayer And will look up I will observe what became of the arrow I shot Or the word being an allusion to a Watchman as the former word to a Commander in chief of an Army speaketh this When I have marshalled my prayers in good array and sent them forth to fight against my spiritual Enemies and to wrestle with God himself for his grace and love I will get up to my Watch-Tower to see what execution they do upon my adversaries what power they have with God whether they get or lose ground whether they prevail and win the day It was the custome in those days when forces were sent forth to fight for the General to command one to watch in some high place if he could spie any coming from the Armies with news So when Davids Souldiers were engaged with Absoloms the watchman went up to the roof over the gate and spied Ahimaaz and Cushi coming with tidings Thus holy David stood as it were sentinel and watched as a spie longing every moment to hear and see the event issue and success of his prayers Men that work for a dead horse as we say when their business is done look no further because they had their pay before-hand but those whose reward is behind labour in expectation of it and after they have wrought look for it An unbeleivers hopes are in this present world and therefore if he procure but some earthly profit it is no wonder if he look no more after his prayers he had his pay before hand But a beleiver whose reward not of debt but of grace is ever behind and to come while he is upon earth when he hath prayed in obedience to Gods precept cannot but expect the performance of Gods promise He that ventureth nothing in a ship save a small parcel of pins or a few quire of paper or something which is little better then nothing takes little thought what becomes of the vessel if it sink or swim it s all one to him he loseth not a moments sleep for it But the Merchant who ventureth all he is worth in a Vessel and sendeth it out very richly laden though it be a long journey yet he is impatient to hear of it many an anxious thought hath he about it many a time he putteth the supposition to himself What if this Ship should miscarry What will become of me my Wife and Children He can hardly eat or drink with comfort or sleep with quietness till he hears it is safe A wicked man that is worth nothing ventureth nothing in his prayers and therefore whether they miscarry or no it matters not much with him when he prayed for pardon and grace he counted them little worth he prized his stock and his riches at a far higher rate and so must needs be very indifferent whether the Vessel wherein things of such small worth in his esteem were hazarded come home safe or no. But a godly man hazardeth all he is worth for this and the other world in his prayers he knoweth that all his happiness is involved in the pardon of his sins in the righteousness of his Saviour in the love of his God and the renovation of his nature all which he beggeth with strong cries and groans He esteemeth these things as the very life of his life and the very soul of his soul and O thinks he how richly laden is this Vessel which I have sent forth My precious soul my dearest Jesus my interest in the covenant of grace my eternal fruition of the ever blessed God are all aboard her If she should miscarry good Lord what would become of me I am lost I am damned I am undone eternally Was ever Ship better fraught Her burden is of inestimable value My joy my peace my love my delight my hope my heaven my all are in her Oh what should I do if the Arch-pirate Satan should seise her or if she should split upon the rock of my presumption or sink in the quicksands of my infidelity Alass alass whether should I go where should I appear Such a soul never failed of a rich return of his venture Reader when thou hast prayed wait and expect an answer Though thy prayers were mingled with many imperfections if they were the travail of thy soul upright I mean do not give them over for lost When Moses Mother could keep him no longer she made an Ark of Bul-rushes and daubed it with Pitch and put him in and hid it in the Flags by the River brink and his Sister stood a far off to see what would become of him And Pharaohs daughter came to wash her self spied the Ark sent and fetched it the babe wept and she had compassion on it sent for the Mother gave it her to nurse paid for its nursing and the Child became the great deliverer of Israel Truely so when the fruit of thy heart thy tears and sighs and groans and prayers are ready in the eye of sense to be given over for dead they lie floating upon the water let thy faith and hope be near at hand to see what will become of them the Kings Son may take pity on the weeping babe pay the charge of its nursing up bringing it into favour at the heavenly Court and make it serviceable for the conducting thy soul through the Wilderness of this World towards the true and celestial Canaan Though the Messenger thou sendest to Heaven tarry long yet wait and expect his return Those that send to the Indies for the golden wedges wait many months though they long every moment for their arrival If after thy expectation thou findest little fruit of thy petitions do not therefore lay aside that calling Continue in prayer and watch in the same Col. 4.2 Anglers though they have fished many hours and caught nothing do not therefore break their Cane and Line but draw out their hook and look upon their bait which it may be was fallen off or not well hung on and mend it and then throw it in again So when thou hast been earnest in prayer and yet received no answer reflect upon thy prayers consider whether something were not amiss either in thy preparation for the duty or in the matter or manner of thy petitions it is possible thou mightest desire stones instead of bread or fuel for thy lusts or didst forget to deliver thy petitions to the onely Master of Requests the Lord Jesus that he might present it to the Father if any of these were the fault no wonder if they failed what ever it be be diligent to find it out amend it and fall to thy work again with confidence that thou shalt not work at the labour in vain The Archer if he shoot once and again and miss
Manna the Bread of Heaven and what a condition is thy poor soul in then They that have the Green-sickness care not for solid food but hanker after trash They have souls sadly sick that neglect the good Word of God and long after the fancies and wit of men God doth by the foolishness of preaching save them that believe that he alone might have the glory of their salvation That the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us 2 Cor. 4.7 When men nibble at the bait of Humane Eloquence and are caught the skill of the Angler is applauded but when men bite at the naked hook the simplicity of the Gospel all will grant this to be a miracle and say This is the finger of God Dost thou not see that as Daniel and his companyons thrived better and looked fairer with feeding upon pulse then the other Captives who fed on the Kings dainty provision Optimi concionatores ad vulgus sunt dixit Lutherus qui puriliter trivi aliter populariter sim lieiâ— sime dâ—cent Melch. Adam in vita So those Christians in every Parish look abroad where you will thrive more in holiness and are fairer in Gods eye who feed on plain naked Scripture then those whom no dishes will please but such as are curiously cooked for a Kings Palate Thou wilt not believe but that thy face may be seen in a glass where the sides are not guilded thou wilt chuse an horse not by its trappings and fine furniture but by its usefulness and serviceableness Why shouldst thou be so childish as to be in love with no garments but what are daubed with Silver lace when other plain raiment will warm thy body as well Reader if the fault be not thine own thou mayest gain much nay I must say most good by plain preaching Those that dwell by the Sea side gather up those precious commodities bequeathed to the Sea at the death or wrack of the ship when the Sea is lowest which they cannot do when the waters are highest I do not here plead for vain repetitions and tedious circumlocutions nor for them that dress their meat so slovenly that their Guests loath it I know it s below the Majestie of a King when he is delivering his minde by his Ambassador to play the Orator but it is not below him to speak sense and reason Wise men love a neat compact discourse but it must be more full of matter then words convincing the judgement and working upon the affections Plain solid Sermons are most acceptable to pious and serious souls There is a vast difference between washing the face of a Discourse clean and painting it the former is lawful and commendable the latter sinful and abominable Ministers must minde the capacities of their Auditories and not put that meat into their mouthes which their teeth cannot chew nor their stomachs concoct Their Sermons of quiddities haeccieties and School nicities may in the opinion of giddy men tend to their own praise but never to their hearers profit Such men when their children ask bread give them stones which may choak them but will not cherish them It is pity he should ever teach School that will not speak to his Scholars so as they may understand him But the worst supposition is Thy Teacher may be untaught himself his life may give the lye to his lips As to this prejudice 1. Remember That an accusation must not be received against an Elder except under two or three witnesses thy charity O Christian and the Dignity of his Calling must both move thee to be slow to believe As it is sinful to raise up an evil report Constantine the Emperor said That if he saw a Bishop committing uncleanness he would rather cover that foul fact with his Imperial robe then suffer it to be divulged to the dishonor of the Gospel so it is sinful to take up an evil report whoever laid it down ready for thee But secondly if thy Pastor like a wooden Vessel giveth that wine to thee which he never tasteth nor savoureth himself be not therefore wholly discouraged If it be true that thy Minister is false to God and his own soul that he onely wears Christs livery that he might the more unsuspected do the Devils work I confess it is matter of great lamentation the good Lord take care either for their conversion or ejection for certainly they being listed under Christs colours and false to their Captain do his adversary the Devil double service The sins of Teachers are the Teachers of sins they who forget their Sermons will remember their sins to patronize their own But if the providence of God should binde thee to such a Pastor which is no small unhappiness consider that God fed Elijah by a Raven and surely he can feed thee by an unclean creature He increaseth sometimes his Enemies gifts that they might be instrumental to increase his peoples graces It is unquestionable in my judgement though some I know doubt it that a sinner may convert a soul and my reason is this because the operation of the word doth not depend upon the piety of the Preacher but upon the free grace and power of the Lord. Yet I must also confess that I beleive that God doth not so often vouchsafe to his enemies as to his friends that honour and happiness But as bad as he is God may use him to do thee good As the best Ministers Sermons are not to be received for their good lives sake so the worst Ministers Preaching is not to be rejected because of their evil practices A blind man may hold a Candle to give light to others whilst he himself remains in the dark the Sun of righteousness may convey the light of holiness into the house of thine heart through this sluttish Window Thou mayst derive water from the Fountain of life through a leaden pipe A deaf bell may be useful to call a Christian to Church and he that never heard so as to live may call a soul to Christ Wholesom Sugar may be in a poisoned Cane The Egyptian Jewels were helpful to the Tabernacle David made the spoiles of the Gentiles service able to the Temple and surely the son of David can make the parts and guifts of an Egyptian an Enemy to God serviceable to thy soul The Pharisees in the days of Christ were many of them vicious persons yet they fitting in Moses Chair Christ doth not deny them audience but commandeth his Disciples to distinguish between their words and their works he doth not forbid them to hear their Doctrine but enjoyn them to forbear their doings Mat. 23.2 3. 2. The second thing requisite to preparation is this Before thou goest to hear labour to affect thine heart with the necessity excellency and efficacy of the word There was half an hours silence in Heaven before the seventh Trumpet sounded thy duty is to weigh the nature and end of the word before thou goest
to hear that Trumpet sounded by one of the Angels of the Churches Consider its necessity Mary minded the one thing necessary indeed she gave the word her heart but the way to it was this she gave it her ear She sat at Christs feet and heard his word The custom even in those days was for the Teacher to Preach either out of a Desk or Pulpit or some place above the people hence their hearers sitting below them are said to sit at their feet Urge thy soul with this The word which I am going to hear in regard of the ordination of God is absolutely necessary to my spiritual and eternal good I am dead and it is the word that must enliven me I am blind it is the word that must enlighten me It is absolutely necessary that I know my sins and misery now the word must do this and is therefore called a glass Jam. 1. It is absolutely necessary that I know my Saviour and the way of my recovery now the word must do this and is therefore called faith and life Joh. 6. Rom. 3. It is necessary to open mine eyes to see Christ to open my heart to receive Christ and that Heaven hereafter may be open to my poor soul My soul is sinful and its the word that must sanctifie it My soul is sick it is the word that must heal it My soul is hungry and its the word must feed it or I shall starve My soul is thirsty and its the word that must satisfie it or I shall die for thirst whatsoever conditions of misery I am in it is the word that must give sutable consolations to support me whatsoever relations of life I stand in it is the word that must give sutable exhortations to direct me whatsoever service I am called to whether of doing or suffering it is the word which must releive me with sutable supply O of what concernment is this word to my well being in this and the other World I must be sanctified or I can never be saved I must turn to God or burn in hell and the word must do this for me or it will never be done good Lord how should I hear Men are careless about things which are indifferent but they are careful about things that are absolutely necessary Necessity makes men strive oftentimes beyond their strength None work so hard as they that have necessity for their Master Consider its excellency It is the Word of God though thou dalliest when men are speaking yet surely it becomes thee to be serious when the great God is speaking It is of divine inspiration All Scripture is given by inspiration of God The Ephesians cryed up their Idol Diana because it was the Image which fell down from Jupiter Great is Diana of the Ephesians O how shouldst â—â—ou prize and prepare for the Word when it came down from the great God Men were but the Organs through which the Almighty God spoke Non vox hominum sonat It is the voyce of God and not of man It is of Divine operation I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ which is the power of God to salvation Rom. 1.16 What wonders hath the great God wrought by his Word He hath given eyes to the blinde feet to the lame ears to the deaf life to the dead by his Word What legions of Devils and lusts hath he unkennel'd and cast out with his Word Hannibals Sword Some write of the Weezel that it doth aure concipere ore parere conceive in the ear c. He hath caused many a soul to hear and live by his Word he hath awakened many a soul that was asleep in sin by the voice of the Scriptures and caused them to arise and work out their own salvations Thousands of poor creatures who were sinking into the bottomless Hell have by Gods hand stretched out in his Word been delivered from going down to the pit and lifted up to Heaven It is a Word of Divine Institution and of Divine Benediction Revel 1.3 It is the Word in which the Father speaketh John 6.45 Every one that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh to me It is the Word of Christ Heb. 12.25 Col. 3.16 In it the Spirit speaketh to the Churches Rev. 2.11 The pearl hid in it the Scriptures are they that testifie of Christ John 5.39 the price paid for it both Testaments are sprinkled with the bloâ—â— of Jesus Heb. 9.27 do fully speak the excellency of it Now Reader think with thy self thus I am going to hear that Word which hath God for its Author Jesus Christ for its matter and Eternal Life for its end Shall I like a beastly Swine trample these invaluable Jewels under my feet shall that which is infinitely more precious then fine gold be esteemed by me as dirt It is the picture of Gods own excellencies how chary should I be of the picture for the Persons sake Ah how tender should I be of that glass which hath wine in it more worth then Heaven and Earth Would it not be a thousand pities that I should suffer the Flies of my wandring thoughts to corrupt and spoil this Box of Precious Oyntments Consider the efficacy of it The revealed Word is like the essential Word for the fall as well as for the rise of many in Israel As there is nothing so evil but a serious holy person may get good out of it like some Creatures we read of he may digest and fetch nourishment out of Serpents so there is nothing so good but a careless graceless heart may pervert to his hurt like the Spider he may suck poyson out of the sweetest Rose The Word will work one way or other if it work not for thy salvation it will work for thy damnation if it be not a savour of life to life it will be a savour of death to death As the rain cometh down and watereth the earth and returneth not thither again so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth it shall not return unto me void Isa 55.10 11. The Word is compared to fire Fire doth either purifie the mettal or consume it the Word will either convert thee or confound thee The Sea sinks some Vessels and lands others safely the Scripture will either further thee towards Heaven or towards Hell The ways of the Lord are right and the just shall walk in them but the transgressors shall fall therein Hosea 14. ult Mark Reader what an Engine is here to screw thee up to the greatest attention to the Word which is possible It is like strong physick to a person exceeding sick which either mends them or ends them Think thus with thy self I am going to hear that Word which will not be in vain but will either kill me or cure me this Sword of the Spirit is sharp and keen if it doth not defend me it will destroy me O it is bad jesting with such edged tools How sad
will it be for me to finde death about the lips of Christ to fall into Hell with a stumble at the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven How exceedingly am I concerned to set my heart to all the words which I shall hear this day for it is not a vain thing but it is for my life Deut. 32.46 47. Urge thy soul in earnest with these particulars As Elisha stretching himself upon the young dead child at last got life and quickning into it so thou forcing and stretching as it were these things upon thy heart mayst quicken it how dull and dead soever it is Thirdly if thou wouldst prepare thy self for the Word entreat God to bless it to thee The operations of the Spirit must accompany the administration of the Word or it will be ineffectual It is the Spirit that quickneth John 6.63 The fire burneth naturally and the water cooleth naturally but if the fire of the Word ever burn up thy corruptions or the water of the Word refresh thee with real consolations it must not be by its own nature but by a Divine power If thine eye be opened by that eye-salve of Scripture to see Christ in his native beauty or thy self in thy natural deformity God must anoint thine eyes therewith therefore David beggeth this favour at Gods hand Open mine eyes that I may see wonderful things out of thy Law Psal 119.18 As good sight as David had he could not read in Gods Law without Gods light If the door of thine heart be opened by this key to give admission to the King of Glory Gods hand must turn the key The Lord opened the heart of Lydia that she attended to the words of Paul Acts 16. Paul might have preached his heart out before Lydia's heart would have opened to let the Word in if God had not undertaken the work If the Sword of the Word pierce thy soul hack and hew and slay thy most beloved sins those enemies within thee which would not have Christ to reign over thee the arm of the Lord must weild it The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God 2 Cor. 10.4 Surely that voice of Thunder must come from Heaven which can pluck up the strong trees of thy natural unbelief and senslessness and pull down the high Towers of pride and self If the Word which is called a Seal Rom. 6.17 ever imprint thy Saviours Image on thee to thy Regeneration God must adde weight to the Seal or it will make no stamp He hath of his own will begotten you by the Word of Truth James 1.21 He that made the Watch can make it strike right and he that made the Word can make it strike home even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow Hebr. 4.12 If the Word which is called life John 6.63 quicken thee to thine eternal Salvation God must breathe on thy dry bones and bid thee live I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ which is the power of God to salvation Rom. 1.16 It was the Angels troubling the waters which made the Pool of Bethesda medicinal to the diseased people And it is not the water of the Word which can heal thy soul-sicknesses unless the Angel of the Covenant work in it and with it Elijahs mantle could not divide the waters of Jordan but the Lord God of Elijah did it The Preacher may shew thee thy Lesson but God onely can help thee to learn it Reader before thou hearest Remember it is Gods prerogative to open thine ear Mine ear hast thou boared Psal 40.6 There is a thick film in thine ears naturally which hindreth thine hearing thine ears are stopt that Sermons can have no passage Now God alone can with his Seringer dissolve the wax congealed there and break through the skin whereby thou mayest come to hear and live Remember that the seeing eye and the hearing ear the Lord hath made them both Prov. 20.12 Therefore intreat him to open thine eyes that thou mayst see his comely face in the Glass of the word and to open thine ears that thou mayst hear his lovely voice in the word and to open thine heart that thou mayst receive grace from him through the word Say as David Shew me thy way O Lord teach me thy paths Make me to understand the way of thy precepts so shall I talk of thy wondrous works Psa 25.4 Psa 119.27 And be not discouraged either at the misteriousness of the word or at thine own dulness for he that made the lock can help thee to a key that will fit all its wards But be sure thou forget not to commend thy Minister to God As thy duty is to beg a door of entrance for thy self so a door of utterance for thy Pastor Withall praying for us that God would open to us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ Col. 4.3 Ephes 6.19 Thy profit by him will be not a little furthered by thy prayer for him He that loves his child will often remember the Nurse that feeds it He that loves his precious soul will often mind the Preacher that prepareth and bringeth its spiritual portion I have known some to praise their Cooks highly when they would prevail with them to dress a Dish curiously for their palates I am sure thy way is to pray for thy Pastor fervently if thou wouldst have him provide such food as may be for thy souls pleasure and profit Starve the Mother and you starve the child in her womb If the Heavens do not favour the Hils with shours they cannot fatten the Valleys with their chalky streams If the Pipes be broke which convey water to our houses from the River we can expect no supply 4. Let thine end in going to hear be to please God and profit thy soul Propound a good endin hearing if thou wouldst have a good end of hearing Some go to Church for nothing like the Athenians the greatest part knew not wherefore they were met together Act. 17. They have as much as they come for They come for nothing and they often go away with nothing Others go to carp and catch at the Preacher as the Herodians went to Christ to entangle him in his talk Mat. 22.15 These go not to hear Gods word but to do the Devils work and he will pay them their wages These flie to the carcass not to defend it but to devour it A third sort go to hear wit and parts neat expressions and an affecting graceful pronounciation like the Jews to hear Ezekiel Lo thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument Ezek. 33.32 These go to hear man not to hear God They hear out of curiositie not out of conscience they desire to have their ears tickled
render this Engine of the Word fruitless whereby the Strong-holds of his Kingdom have been battered and broken down Therefore as a Jaylor will sometimes let his prisoners have their hands and feet at liberty so long as the doors of the Prison are barred and bolted that they cannot run away So he will let thee have thy hand at liberty for some acts of charity and thy feet at liberty to walk in some path of civility so long as he can but have the doors of thine ear and heart lockt fast that thou canst not get from him He knoweth Christ waiteth at the outward door of the ear that he might thereby come to the inward door of thy heart and deliver thee a poor Captive out of his hands For this cause if it be possible he will keep the street door shut he will hinder thee from hearing as in Gods presence he will finde thee other work to do then to hear it may be he will get thee to play and toy as he doth many great ones or if not to be talking to thy pew-fellows or to be reading possibly somewhat finful at least somewhat unseasonable or to have thy heart in thine own house whilest thy body is in Gods house or as a childe though thou art at thy book he will make thee look off if but a Butter-fly come by he will set thee about some business or other unless thou art serious as in Gods sight that thou shalt never have so much leisure as to hear even when thou art in the Church It is reported of Henry the third King of France that in a solemn Procession at Paris hecould not be without his Jester who walking between the King and the Cardinal made mirth to them both in the mean time there was brave devotion Alas they that hear in jest will finde Hell to be hot in earnest Were not men Indians and Infidels in English habits did they but believe the invaluable worth of their souls the consequence and weight of their unchangeable estates what a searching trying time the hour of death will be and what dreadful terrible things will be seen at the day of Judgement Good Lord how would they hear The Minister need not call to them to attend to the Word of God they would of themselves give it their ears and mindes and hearts and think all too little for it 2. Apply the Word to thine own soul The Word is a salve of soveraign vertue Some talk of the Weapon-salve that it heals at a distance but the Word will not it must be applied to the sore or it will never cure The Word is seed preaching is the sowing of this soed application of it to thy heart is the harrowing of this seed into the earth If the seed be thrown on the ground and not harrowed in we can expect no harvest A good hearer is said to eat the Word Thy words were found by me and I did eat them Jer. 15.16 Eat of my bread and drink of the wine which I have mingled Prov. 9.5 It is not the bread in the cupboard of the Bible or on the table of a Sermon which will nourish thy soul unless it be by application of it to thy self eaten and taken down into thy stomack The glass of wine in thine hand will not make thy heart glad the precious promises in thine ears will not rejoyce thee they must by application be drunk down then they will refresh and comfort thy Conscience Faith is both the mouth to receive in and the stomack to digest this spiritual food It is worthy thy observation how frequently the Holy Ghost attributeth the famous effects and heroick acts of the Word to this Commander in chief under whose couragious and wise conduct it warreth The Word fighteth boldly and worketh miraculously under Faiths banner The Gospel of Christ is the power of God to salvation to them that believe Rom. 1.16 It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe 1 Cor. 1.21 so also 2 Tim. 3.15 Application is the life both of preaching and hearing If the Threatnings and Curses of the Law are preached faith is to them as the powder to the bullet causing them to make grievous havock and to do great execution upon the lusts of a man Faith turneth those stones as I may speak into bread and helpeth the Christian like Sampson to fetch meat out of the eater If the Precepts and Commands of the Law are preached Faith is the eye to see the Equity in them and the Excellency of them and Faith is the hand to put them into practice If the Promises and Comforts of the Gospel are preached Faith is to them as Induction to a Minister it gives him actual possession of them it makes them his own Faith in the Threatnings causeth Humiliation Faith in the Precepts causeth Subjection and Faith in the Promises worketh Consolation If at any time thou goest from hearing dead and undone thou mayest say to Faith as Martha to Christ If thou hadst been here my soul had not dyed The unbeliever like a man in a swoon shuts his mouth against those life-recalling Cordials which are before him in the Gospel Other sins wound the soul but Unbelief like Joab strikes under the fifth rib and kills outright Unbelief spoileth all An Unbeliever is dead he cannot hear Christ in his Word he is blind he cannot see God in the Gospel like Hagar though a Fountain be before him he beholdeth it not Unbelief makes the Word like rain upon Rocks wholly useless and fruitless What is said of the Essential Word is true of the Revealed Word It can do no mighty works because of their unbelief Unbelief is a Bulwark whereby sin secureth it self against all the darts and shot which the Word dischargeth at it What was the reason that the Word was not helpful to the Jews Heb. 4.2 The word preached did not profit them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it Unbelief was the crack in the Glass through which this inestimable Water of Life did leak out and so was lost Nay What made the Word hurtful to them This leaven of Unbelief sowred all 1 Pet. 2.8 That Rock on which Faith builds an house which reacheth up to Heaven Unbelief stumbleth at and tumbleth the soul into Hell 3. Let the Word come with Authority and Power to thy Conscience This is one of the chiefest ingredients that goeth to the composition of a Preacher that he speak as Paul did in demonstration of the Spirit and of power 1 Cor. 2.4 By this force wherewith he spake and execution which he did that incomparable pattern of Preachers the Captain of our Salvation was distinguished from the Pharisees who in discharge of this holy Ordinance onely made false fire He taught as one having Authority and not as the Scribes And the people were astonished at his Doctrine Matth. 7.2 ult ver He is the best Souldier who in this Warfare makes
do thou hear and amend Charles the great did set his Crown upon the Bible intimating thereby that his Crown his carriage as a King should be according to the commands of the word O do thou hide this word in thine heart that thou mayst hold it forth to thy companions by the hand of an holy conversation Walk according to this Rule A good Wish about the word wherein the former heads are epitomized THe holy Scriptures being of such authority The Introduction as the hand writing and heart of God himself and so singular a mercy to me that by the guidance of this Star I am directed as the wise men to Jesus Christ I wish in general that I may set an high price upon every part thereof that every peice may be currant with me for his sake whose Image and superscription it beareth O that my carriage before at and after hearing may witness to God and my conscience Preparation for hearing that I esteem the law of his lips above thousands of Gold and Silver In particular I wish that as the Jews when they went to hear the law Preparation for hearing by laying aside evil frames sanctified themselves and washed their cloaths so before I go to read or hear the word I may sanctifie my soul and wash my heart from all superfluity of naughtiness and with meekness receive that ingrafted word which is able to save my soul Prejudice I wish that like Jehoshaphat I may prefer one Micaiah before four hundred false Prophets yet that I may ever make a difference betwixt an evil Ministers Preaching and practice and even when the Minister is full of grace may so distinguish between the treasure and the vessel as not to vallue the Message for the Messengers sake but to bid the workman welcome for the words sake I wish that I may be so sensible of my owninability to profit by this holy ordinance By prayer and of the speakers impotency to Preach home to my conscience that I may cry mightily to my God that he would open my heart to receive the word with all affection and so direct the Arrows which the Preacher taketh out of the quiver of Scripture that they may hit and pierce my dearest corruptions Consideration I desire that the consideration of the words excellency may cause me to prize it highly Of its necessity may make me to improve it diligently and of its efficacy may move me to go to hear as a Prisoner going to a bar to be tryed for my everlasting life or death Good ends in hearing I wish that the weight of the word may sink so deep into my heart that I may never hear Sermons to pick flowers of Oratory or to please my fancy but to receive virtue from Christ for the drying up my issue of sin and that I might cleanse my ways by taking heed thereto according to Gods Word Worldly thoughts laid by That the noise of the World may never hinder me from hearing the voiee of my God At hearing I wish that when I come into the place of worship I may set my self solemnly as before the Judge of quick and dead Seriousness as in Gods presence and as in the presence of the Lord with fear and awe give audience to his word If I were hearkening to an earthly Prince I would be serious O with what reverence should I hear from the blessed and onely Potentate Because without application the word will be unprofitable Application of it I wish that I may never draw a curtain before my own Picture but overlooking others may see my own face in the glass of the law O that by faith I may so take down the hook of the word as to be caught and taken by it Renovation by it My prayer is that the Gospel may come to me not in word onely but in power also that I may go to it as clean paper for any inscription as soft wax for any impression which my God shall be pleased to make upon me O that I might behold the Lord so effectualy in that glass as to be changed into his Image from glory to glory In special I wish that my sins may be placed by me in the front of this spiritual battle as Uriah purposely to be slain and that those smooth stones which are taken out of the silver streams of the Sanctuary may be thrown by so skilful and powerful a hand that they may sink deep into the foreheads of those uncircumcised ones After hearing Petition for a blessing to their death and destruction I wish that after the seed is sown I may beg that the showres of Heavens blessing may accompany it that it may spring up in the fruits of righteousness to the glory of my God and good of my precious soul And because the Gospel is a dish which is not set on every Table Thanksgiving for the Word though free grace bestoweth it on me I wish that I may rise from this spiritual food before I have given thanks to the Master of the feast Practice I desire finally that as I looked like a Saint in hearing I may live like a Saint after I have heard that those blossoms of good purposes which sprouted forth while the Minister was preaching may ripen into practice that whatsoever characters others are known by to be Christians I may be known by this ear mark to be one of Christs sheep even by hearing his voyce so as to follow him wheresoever he goeth Though others like petty Chapmen deal onely in some particular commodities and those such as will serve their own turns I desire that I may deal with the Word by whole-sale and esteem all Gods Precepts concerning all things to be right O that I might order my whole conversation aright and at the last see the salvation of my God! Amen CHAP. XVIII How a Christian may exercise himself to Godliness in receiving the Lords Supper and 1. Of the Nature of that Ordinance and preparation for it VVHen God had caused his everlasting Decree to fall in labour and had delivered it by giving the world a being and upon infinite consultation had formed Man to be his Vice-Roy over all the works of his hands he embarqued him with all abilities needful for such a voyage in the bottom of the Covenant of Works Adam set forth fully furnished with skill and richly fraught with all the Fortunes Hopes and Happiness of Mankinde but he had scarce lanched out of sight before Satan who knew very well the worth of the prize envying man the Haven of bliss to which he was sailing and envying God who was the owner the honor of such of a venture raised a storm whereby the Vessel through the unfaithfulness of Adam the Pilot ran upon a Rock and miscarried O what a joyful spectacle was that to Satan What a doleful sight to Adam to behold himself and all his posterity
is one thing to take the Supper of the Lord and another thing to taste the Supper of the Lord. Not one of them which were bidden shall taste of my Supper Luk. 14.24 Many croud near a Kings person on some days when he sheweth himself in publique who never injoy his gracious presence Hundreds receive the Elements but few receive the Sacrament If a Beast did but touch the Mount when God solemnly appeared on it it was to dye What then will become of thee if thou shouldst touch the Table of the Lord with a brutish heart If any did eat of the Passoever in his uncleanness he was to be cut off from Israel Exod. 12. which some interpret of a violent death by the hand of the Magistrate Others of a cutting off from the priviledges of Gods people on earth and their possession in Heaven Surely it is as dangerous to eat the Supper in thy pollution as the Passoever It is evil to dally with the Jealous God in any duty but worst of all in this where the great affection of the Father in giving his Son and the grievous Passions of Christ to satisfie Gods justice for sin the most serious things which mans heart can conceive are represented Melancthon telleth a story of a Tragedy which was acted of the death of Christ but it proved a Tragedy indeed at last for he that acted Christs part on the Cross being wounded to death by one that should have thrust his sword through a bladder of blood fell down and with his fall killed one acting a womans part and lamenting under the Cross His brother who was first slain slew the murtherer for which himself was hanged by order of Justice Cyprian speaketh of an ancient woman who had denied the Faith and yet ventured to this Heavenly Feast but it proved her bane for as soon as she had received the Elements she fell down dead O 't is sad jesting with the Sufferings and Ordinances of Christ Friend let others wo be thy warning Take example by others lest God make thee an example to others I shall lay down two motives to quicken thee to a serious preparation for this Ordinance 1. Consider Christs diligent inspection The Lord Jesus will take special notice what respect thou hast for his Body and Blood And when the King came in to see his guests he saw there a man which had not on a Wedding-garment Mat. 22.11 12 13. Jesus Christ observeth all his wedding guests whether they come with the Wedding-garment or no. Though there was but one yet he could not lie hid and escape in the crowd the King quickly spied him The King of Saints taketh exact notice in what manner thou comest to his Supper whether thou examinest thy Regeneration and provest thy self to be one of the family before thou offerest to eat of their food whether thou carriest the Gold of thy Graces to the Touchstone of the Scripture and triest their truth before thou tenderest them to him for currant coyn He observeth with what sense of thy misery thou runnest for refuge to the spring of mercy He knoweth whether when thou art going to this Heavenly Feast thou hast the mouth of Faith with what resolution against sin for time to come thou goest for pardon of sins past He seeth whether thou goest to this Gospel-Ordinance in a Gospel-order if not both thy preparation for the Sacrament and thy carriage at it and after it are eye-services to Jesus Christ How holy therefore should thou be in them Wouldst thou trample upon the picture of thy dear Friend or of thy lawful Soveraign before their faces Wilt thou tread under foot the infinitely precious blood of the Son of God as if it were the blood of a Malefactor or of a Dog and that while he himself standeth by and looketh on Canst thou Friend finde in thine heart to offer such an abominable affront to thy best Friend and that before his face Truly if thou art not faithful in thy preparation for it thou dost all this Think with thy self I am now to sit down at the Table of the Lord amongst his own children I know beforehand that the King will come in to see his Guests even that King who is too just to be bribed too great to be slighted too wise to be deceived and too good to be forfeited O my soul what solemn provision wilt thou make for so sacred a presence If in any time of thy life thou wouldst be extraordinarily serious this is the season O let thy preparation be such for this glorious Supper that the Master of the Feast may see that thou art tender of his honor watchful of his eye and fearful of his anger 2. Consider the dreadful condition of those that receive the Lords Supper unworthily Their sin They are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord Their suffering They eat and drink their own damnation 1 Cor. 11.27 29. 1. Their sin They are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord The unworthy receiver is a Christ murtherer He that tears the Letters or defaceth the Picture or clippeth the coyn of a Prince offereth the indignity to his person The Romans when they would dishonor a person would disfigure the statue which was erected to his praise The same wickedness of heart which carrieth a man out to prophane the Sacrament would carry him out to kill the Saviour When one shoots at another to slay him though he miss he is a murderer the error of the hand doth not wipe out the malice of the heart Josephs Brethren were guilty concerning their Brother though they did not lay violent hands upon him Gen. 42.21 When Julian shot darts up to Heaven his cruelty and rage were as bad as if he had hit Christs body Besides men may be guilty of murther by approving it after it is committed Mat. 23.35 What doth the unworthy receiver less then justifie Judas and the Jews in all their treacherous and barbarous carriage towards Jesus Christ Consider therefore what thou dost when thou goest unpreparedly to the Lords Table Thou art guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Simple murther is a crying sin The voyce of thy Brothers blood cryeth to me from the earth Gen. 4.10 It is one of those sins which will give God no rest till he take vengeance on the actor and author of it and is therefore called a crying sin The light of Nature taught the Barbarians that Vengeance would not suffer a murtherer to live Acts 28.4 The Scripture acquainteth us that no satisfaction shall be taken for the life of a murtherer for blood defileth the land Numb 35.31 36. But the murther of a Superior is a far greater sin Cicero telleth us He that killeth his Father committeth many sins in one he killeth him that begot him and brought him up he sinneth against many obligations To kill a King is High-Treason Who can stretch his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltless 1
thy best friend in the World was so inhumanely used so barbarously but chered thou shouldst cry out as David in a holy passion As the Lord liveth the man the sin that hath done this thing shall surely be put to death When Antonius after Caesar was Murdered in the Senate house brought forth his Coat all bloody cut and mangled and laying it open to the view of the people said Look here is your Emperors Coat and as the bloody-minded Conspirators have dealt by it so have they dealt with Caesars body Upon this they were in an uprore and cryed out to slay the Murderers and took Brands and ran to the Houses of the Conspirators and burnt them down to the ground and as they apprehended the Murderers put them to death Reader thou seest at the Sacrament the wounds and blood of thy blessed Redeemer the dreadful painful death which thy Soveraign underwent O what canst thou do less then vow to be revenged on his Murderers thy corruptions and in an holy anger endeavour their speedy execution if thou wouldst have a full sight of sins filth and sinfulness go to Mount Calvary and behold thy Saviour hanging upon the Cross and good Lord what thoughts wilt thou have of thy lusts Physitians in unseemly convulsions advise their Patients to look into a glass that beholding their deformity they may strive the more against it The world never had such a glass as the sufferings of Jesus Christ for the discovery of sins loathsom ugly features and its horrid hideous hellish face now how should this light provoke thee to loath and hate sin O what Child would not abhor those weapons which murdered his dearest Father It was the glory of Alexander that as soon as ever he had opportunity he slew the Murderers of his Father upon his fathers Tomb. Truely Reader a Sacrament day is a special opportunity and thou wilt shew but little love to thine everlasting Father if thou dost not now put his Murderers to death upon those Monuments of his passion Now thou art at the Table think of thy unthankfulness ambition hypocrisie covetousness irreligion and infidelity and the rest how these crucified the Lord of glory and resolve through the strength of Christ that these Hamans shall be all hanged that these sins shall be condemned and crucified CHAP. XX. What a Christian ought to do after a Sacrament I Shall speak to thy duty after the Supper Thirdly Which consisteth mainly in these two things Thankefulness and Faithfulness 1. Thankefulness After such a Banquet as this is thou mayst well give thanks The Jews at their Passover did sing the hundred and thirteenth Psalm with the five following Psalmes which they called the Great Hallelujah A Christian should in every thing and at all times give thanks but at a Sacrament the great Hallelujah must be sung then God must have great thanks then we must with our souls bless the Lord and with all within us paise his holy name O Reader call upon thy self as Barak and Deborah did Awake awake Deborah Awake awake Barak utter a song and lead captivity captive thou son of Abinoam Judg. 5. Awake my love awake my joy utter a song a feast is made for laughter and wine rejoyceth the heart of man Friend is not this a rare feast where is thy chearful face Is not here good wine a cup of Nectar indeed the blood of the Son of God what mirth what musick hast thou to this Banquet of Wines Antiently it was the beginning and ending of Letters Gaudete in Domino Rejoyce in the Lord. It will be an excellent conclusion of this Ordinance to rejoyce in the Lord. O let thy soul magnisie the Lord and thy spirit rejoyce in God thy Saviour Luk. 1.46 47. The cup in the Sacrament is called the Eucharistical cup or the cup of blessing let it be so to thee Let thy heart and mouth say Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who hath visited and redeemed his people Luk. 2. Canst thou think of that infinite love which God manifested to thy soul without Davids return VVhat shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits His heart was so set upon thy salvation His Love was so great to thy soul that he delighted in the very death of his Son because it tended to thy good It pleased the Lord to bruise him Isa 53.10 Valde delectatus est Junius reads it He was exceedingly delighted in it Surely the mind of God was infinitely set upon the recovery of lost sinners in that whereas other Parents whose love to their children in comparison of his to Christ is but as a drop to the Ocean follow their children to their graves with many tears especially when they dye violent deaths he delighted exceedingly in the barbarous death of his onely Son in the bleeding of the head because it tended to the health and eternal welfare of the members Friend what manner of love hath the father loved thee with He gave his own Son to be apprehended that thou mightest escape his own Son to be condemned that thou mightest be acquitted his own Son to be whipped and wounded that thou mightest be cured and healed yea his own Son to dye a shameful cursed death that thou mightest live a glorious blessed life for ever Glory to God in the highest peace on earth and good will to men Alass how unworthy art thou of this inestimable mercy Thou art by nature a child of wrath as well as others and hadst been now wallowing in sin with the worst in the World if free grace had not renewed thee nay thou hadst been roaring in Hell at this hour if free grace had not repreived thee Thy conscience will tell thee that thou dost not deserve the bread which springeth out of the earth and yet thou are fed with the bread which came down from heaven with Angels food O infinite love Mayst not thou well say with Mephibosheth to David VVhat is thy servant that thou shouldst look upon such a dead dog as I am For all my fathers house were as dead men before my Lord yet didst thou set thy servant among them that did eat at thine own Table Lord I was a lost dead damned sinner before thee liable to the unquenchable fire and yet thou hast been pleased to set me among them that eat at thine own Table and feed on thine own Son O what is thy servant that thou shouldst take such notice of such a dead dog as I am Look abroad in the World and thou mayst see others refused when thou art chosen others past by when thou art called others polluted when thou art sanctified others put off with common gifts when thou hast special grace others fed with the scraps of ordinary bounty when thou hast the finest of the floor even the fruits of saving mercy As Elkanah gave to Peninnah and to all her sons and Daughters portions but to Hannah he gave a worthy portion because he loved her
Victory but not to improve a Victory Usually the Evenings are cold though the days are hot 19. As Oratours at the close of their speech use all their Art and Skill to move the affections of their Auditors so at the close of the Lords day put forth all thy grace and spiritual strength to prevail with God for a blessing Say of the Sabbath as Jacob to the Angel I will not let the go without a blessing 20. Labour to keep the influence of Lords day Ordinances warm upon thy spirit all the week after let not thy devotion pass away with the day Some Children when they put on new Shooes on a Sabbath are very careful to keep them clean are unwilling to set their feet to the ground for fear of dirt but in the week days will run up to the Ankles in Water or Mire O let not childrens play be thy earnest but endeavour that thy practices in secret and private in thy calling and in all companies on the Week days may be answerable to the great priviledges which thou didst enjoy and the grace which thou didst receive on the Lords day A good wish about the Lords day wherein the former heads are Epitomized THe first day of the Week being of divine institution The Introduction and Baptized by God himself with that Honorable name of the Lords day partly in regard of its Author This is the day which the Lords hath made partly in regard of the blessed Redeemer who rose that day and Triumphed over the Grave the Devil the Curse of the Law and Hell it being a day Sanctified for the glory of my Saviour of which I may say as of Jacob The Lord hath chosen it to himself for his peculiar Treasure Psa 135.4 and a day set apart for the spiritual and eternal good of my precious soul wherein I may enjoy communion with my God in all his Ordinances without interruption I wish in general that as the Spirit may be in me in the week days so that I may be in the Spirit on the Lords day filled therewith and enabled thereby to have my conversation all the day long in Heaven O that my care in fitting my soul for it my holy carriage at it and my sutable conversation after it may testifie that I had rather be a Door-keeper in the House of my God then to dwell in the Tents of Wickedness and that I esteem one day in his Courts better then a thousand else-where I wish in particular that I may prepare for it Preparation as for a Wedding day wherein Christ and my soul are to be espoused together and to that end before it cometh may be careful so to order my earthly affairs that they may not incroach upon this Holy ground and so open the door of my heart and adorn it with spiritual excellencies that the King of Glory may enter in and think himself a welcome Guest in my soul O that I might never give my God cause to complain of me as once of the Jews Your Sabbaths and solemn feasts I cannot away with for your hands are defiled As Nehemiah shut the Gates of the City that no burdens might be carried in on the Sabbath day so let me secure the Gate of my heart that no Worldly things may disturb me in Sabbath duties O let me not like Martha be careful and troubled about many things but on this day especially sit at Christs feet mind the one thing necessary and chuse the good part which shall never be taken from me I wish that I may long more for it then ever a Bride-groom did for his Bride that when it is come in I may bid it heartily Welcome and that as my Saviour rose early that morning to justifie me so I may rise early on this day to glorifie him I desire that this holy day may be an high day in my account both because the Lord of the Sabbath hath separated it to sacred uses and because it is the day of his resurrection whence so much good cometh to my soul Esteem the day as a priviledge By his passion he layd down the price of my redemption but by his rising again the Judge of Quick and dead sending his officer an Angel to roul away the stone open the prison door and let him out he manifesteth to the world that the debt is discharged and the law fully saatisfied O of what value should this day be to me My Redeemers humiliation indeed was like Josephs imprisonment but his delivery out of the grave like Josephs enlargement and preferment whereby he came into a capacity to advance and enrich all his relations I pray that I may look on this day as a special season to sow to the spirit in and improve it accordingly A price to get and increase grace I believe that my God will not hold him guiltless that takes his name or spends his day in vain O let me not like a foolish child play by that candle which is set up for me to work by lest I go to the bed of my grave in the dark of sin and sorrow Publique Ordiuances to be esteemed the chiefest work of the day I wish that I may not neglect either secret or family duties on this sacred day but yet that I may so perform them that they may be helps not hinderances to publique Ordinances that since God loveth the gates of Sion above all the the dwellings of Jacob I may set an high price upon and have an ardent love to the habitation of Gods house and the place where his honor dwelleth Delight in it that as a true child of my heavenly Father I may love most and like best that milk which is warm from the breasts of publick ordinances I wish that I may call the Lords day my delight it being a day wherein I enter into the suburbs of the holy City and begin that work of praysing pleasing and enjoying my God which I hope to be employed in to eternity that it may be my meat and drink to do the Will of my God O that I might so savour the things of the Spirit and so taste the Lord to be gracious that love may be the Loadston to draw me to my closet family and to Church and season every service I am called to upon the Sabbath Sanctifie the whole day Because every part of this day is of great price more worth then a whole World I desire that not the least moment of it may be squandred away but as the Disciples after the miracle of loaves I may gather up with care and conscience the smallest fragments that nothing be lost My God giveth me good measure heaped up pressed down shaken together and running over why should I be niggardly to him to my self indeed for it is my profit not his when he is so liberal so bountiful to me I wish in regard the blessed God is not onely the Master Communion
work As a Bird that wandreth from his Nest so is a man that wandreth from his place Pro. 27.8 By place the Holy Chost understandeth particular callings Now God had taken care that none should molest a Bird in her Nest there she was safe Deut. 22.6 7. but when she begins to wander then she is in danger either to be shot by the Fowler or caught in the Snare or made a prey to other ravenous birds So a man that is diligent in his calling whilst he is imployed therein is in Gods precincts and so under Gods protection but when he wandreth abroad from his calling going out of his bounds to sit and talk he is a weft and a stray and so falleth to the Lord of the Mannor the God of this World Reader thou mayst expect to be preserved whilst thou art a working but not when thou art wandring Tertullian speaks of a Christian woman who going to a play was possessed by the Devil and when he was asked by those that came to cast him out how he durst possess one that was a Christian he answered I found her in my own place Friend they who like Dinah gad abroad are often defiled before they come home Those Souldiers who leave their places in a March and stragle to pilfer are many times snapt and slain by their enemies when they who keep their places are safe and secure O mind thy calling in its place and season and know this for thy comfort that whilst thou art about thy lawful work observing Scripture rules in it thou art under Gods Wing Secondly Deal righteously in thy calling Take heed of unjust gain believe this truth A clear and clean conscience is infinitely better then a full purse A little with the fear of the Lord is better then the possessions of many wicked men Psa 37.15 A little wholesome food is better then a thousand poisoned Dishes All the Wealth which is got in Gods way is pleasant but all the wealth which is got unjustly by wickedness is poison The blessing of the Lord maketh rich and bringeth no sorrow of heart with it Pro. 10.22 Defrauding thy Neighbour and cheating thy Customers maketh rich and bringeth the sorrow of Hell with it He that resolveth to be unrighteous it is commonly said may soon be rich When the spring of conscience is screwed up to the highest pin that it is ready to break and godliness is locked up fast into an outhouse and not suffered so much as to peep into the Shop or Warehouse to take notice of what is done there such a Tradesman may gain silver but alass he loseth his precious Saviour and his never dying soul O what a dreadful gain is it to get earth with the loss of Heaven He that will be rich in hast shall be poor enough in Hell Know yâ— not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven be not deceived God will not be mocked 1 Cor. 6.9 Do not think Reader though thou canst cheat thy Chapmen that thou canst cozen God no he will not be mocked he seeth thy false weights and false measures which thou ordinarily usest though thou hast others to bring forth for a colour if occasion be and he will deal justly with thee for thy injustice by sending thee to that place where there is judgement without mercy I have read of an old rich covetous wretch that lying upon upon his death-bed he asked his Son whether he would not do any thing that his Father should desire him His Son answered yea then saith the Father Hold your finger in the flame of that Candle an hour Sir saith the Son I cannot possibly endure that No saith the Father I must burn for ever in Hell for raking up an estate unjustly for you and yet you will not burn a finger one hour for me O Reader if thou art guilty of this sin think of it betimes Thy ill gotten wealth will breed those wormes which will gnaw thee eternally Besides thou mayst think to raise thy House by such heaps but God himself saith it is the way to ruine it He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house Pro. 15.27 Whilst he thinks to feather his nest he doth indeed fire it It is an observation of the house of Desmond in Ireland That Maurice the first Earl of that family raised it by injustice and by injustice Girald the last Earl ruined it The crafty Fox in the Fable hugd himself that he had cozend the Crow of his break-fast but when he found himself poisoned therewith he wisht it out of his belly Unjust gain like the Italian buttered Spunge may go down glib but it swelleth in the body and never cometh away till it hath ruined the party Such men spin a fair thred to strangle themselves with The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed too and fro of them that seek death Pro. 21.6 7. Cornelius a Lapide hath a pretty fable wherein he compareth men unjust in their dealings to Spiders the righteous to Bees The Spider ubraided the Bee for going up and down for hony Thou stayest at home saith the Bee but in thy working losest thy life Salis onus unde veneratillus abiit Erasm adag How often is that Latin Proverb fulfilled The burthen of Salt returneth to the place whence it came The occasion of which was the falling of Salt by the wrack of a Ship into the Sea the place whence it came God often sendeth some to squeeze those Muck worms when they have sucked themselves full Deceitful dealing as an huge heap of Ice by the Sun by the scorching fire of Gods wrath dissolveth into nothing As the Patridge sitteth on eggs and hat cheth them not so he that getteth riches and not by right shall leave them in the midst of his days and at his end shall be a fool Jer. 17.11 Thirdly Be careful that thy particular Calling incroach not upon thy general Many lose Religion in a crowd of earthly businesses The interposition of the earth as to the Moon eclipseth the light of their Holiness It is reported of the inhabitants of Oenoe a dry Island near Athens that they bestowed much labour to draw in a River to water it and make it fruitful but when the passages were opened the water came in so plentifully that it overflowed the Island and drowned all the people Many that will be rich by their extraordinary labours to make their Flocks and Fields fruitful fall into temptations and snares and many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown them in destruction and perdition 1 Tim. 6.9 A Candle that burns well above ground when put under ground doth many times burn blew and go out the light of holiness which hath shined eminently in some profess ors when they have had little to do with the World hath been abated in a great degree when they have had great dealings They in regard of much business have been like those in a Mill
purpose Sins is a subtle Sophister it will bring Arguments and Reasons for all it doth as is plain in Sauls sparing Agag and the best of the flock The beasts were to be Sacrificed to God and in Jeroboams Calves they were set up to save the Jews those tiresome journeys to Jerusalem but take heed that thy heart be not hardened through the delightfulness of sin Remember Piety is the best path to outward prosperity Aristotle though a blind heathen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Arist Poli. lib. 7. cap. 8. could see and say Make Religion thy first and chief care that thou mayst prosper The Mahometans are so sensible of this that what occasion soever they have they will pray five times a day Because the Jews suffered Gods house to lie wast therefore God blew upon their heaps and wasted their wealth He that stealeth away time from his general for his particular calling like a thief in the Candle wasteth all our work on earth is done best when our work in heaven is done first Religious duties in reference to our Worldly occasions is like sharpening the tools which helpeth our work forward with more speed and ease Mass and Meat hinder no mans thirst was a truth visible in the dark night of Popery He that neglecteth the service of his God for the following his trade may put what he getteth into his eye as our proverb is and never see the worse nay like the gold of Tholouse or the Vineyard of Naboth to Ahab the profit will be the perdition and ruine of the possessor They who want time to do Gods Work must want an eternity to receive Gods reward If men are so busie as not to attend their souls God will be so busie as not to bestow salvation I know Farmes and Oxen and Wives do hinder many from holiness and I know also that they will hinder many from Heaven Luk. 14.24 Mat. 22.5 That German Prince who would not part with his silver to pay his Souldiers lost thereby his Empire and treasure too He that will not spare time from his present business for his future blessedness is like to lose both How much time dost thou squander away in long meales in vain sports inidle discourse in superfluous sleep and yet hast thou the face to tell God that thou hast no time in a whole day to seek his favour and to mind thine eternal felicity The truth is thou dost not so much want time as waste time Do not think that it will be a sufficient excuse at the last day to tell God that thy devotion was neglected because thy earthly occasions abounded and pressed upon thee If thy servant should tell thee when he hath neglected thy business of concernment that he could not help it because he had business of his own to look after a Friend called him to the Ale-house wouldst thou think that a sufficient plea Beleive it thy defence is far worse when thou omittest the service of God for thy particular calling The Philosopher could say Aristippus apud Plot. de tranq a nimae that he would rather neglect his means then his mind and his farm then his soul The very Turks though they work their Slaves hard will yet allow them time every day for food and rest Wilt thou Reader deal worse with thy precious soul then the Turks do with their Gally-slaves For shame man be not so cruel to thy best part A Good Christian if business crowd in upon him so much that he cannot wait on them and Worship God daily in his Closet and Family as he ought will rather like a wise Marriner when the ship is overburdened cast some overboard then endanger the loss of all and himself too Times of earing and harvest were very busie times with the Israelites yet then God would not allow them to make bold with him Exod. 32.21 He that is a faithful and wise Steward will give every one their portion their meat in due season as he will give his body and his family their portion every day so he will give his God and his soul their portion every day surely he is not faithful who atteneth the lacquey all day and neglecteth his Lord much worse is he who feedeth his flesh and starveth his spirit Reader take notice that there is a time for all things as there are plowing times so there are praying times every day as there is daily time for thy shop so also for thy Closet When the Jewish daily sacrifice was intermitted as in the days of Antiochus it was the abomination of desolation I am the larger in this particular as observing that professours are exceeding faulty in suffering the Canker of their particular callings to devour and eat up the gold and silver of their general callings Sometimes they will wholly omit family duties because the world will not permit them to be at leisure but too too often when they perform them they turn them off with a short cut in a hudling manner as a Physitian his poor patients though their business with him concern their lives when rich men stand without expecting to be called in because the World stayeth at their doors to speak with them Friend as a special help against this soul-hinerance let me perswade thee to be early in the morning at thy Religious duties Some men must be spoke to betimes in the morning or not at all their publique affairs take up the whole day and would if it were twice as long The Devil hath a thousand divices to make him an Athiest all day who neglecteth morning duties Be not so hasty about thy calling in the morning as to forget to take God along with thee Remember this one note If the World gets the start of Religion in the morning religion seldom overtaketh it all day Something warm in the morning before men go to work is very wholesom A warm prayer warm communion with the blessed God in meditating or reading will help thee to work with more comfort and courage and may prevent infections from ill fumes and vapours in the day time Job had a large family much Cattel he had besides his domestical much civil business for he was a Magistrate Job 1.5 yet Job rose up early in the morning to offer up Sacrifice and thus did Job continually In the day time also or at evening let nothing put by the concernments of thy God and thine everlasting estate what company soever thou art in say as a devout soul I have read of when his hour of prayer was come you must excuse me I must be gone a friend meaning his God stayeth to speake with me Cato repented of three things one of which was Plut. in vit That he had spent a whole day idly Truely friend if thou neglectest thy general calling how busie soever thou hast been all day long about thy particular I must tell thee though an hour cannot be bought with the revenues of
the whole earth Thou hast spent a whole day idly and thou hast much cause to sigh out with the Roman Emperour at night when he had neither done norreceived any good all day Hodie diem perdidi Today I have lost a day Fourthly If thou wouldst exercise thy self to godliness in thy particular calling look up to God for a blessing upon thy labours therein Creatures may be the object of thy diligence but God alone the object of thy confidence Thy supplication must be to God and thy expectation from God Thou canst as soon by thine own power add a cubit to thy stature as a penny to thy purse Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth Deut. 8.18 All thy endeavours without Gods blessing are but as Cesar said of Senecas works arena sine calce Sand without Lime they will not hang together if God bless them they prosper if he blast them they perish The Devil himself was so far Orthodox Job 1.10 Thou hast blessed the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the land Alas the whole course of nature turneth onely as it is moved by the hand of God It is not in the frame of nature as in frames of Art when a watch is made it may go though the workman be many miles off or though he be dead but there is not the least wheel in the frame of nature which doth not depend upon God for its motion every moment As the vapours exhaled by the Sun depend so much upon it that if that withdraw its influence they fall to the earth so do the Creatures depend on God if he withdraw his influence from them they presently come to nothing Take notice Reader to instance but in one calling how the genealogie of Corn and Wine by a Concatenation of causes is resolved into Jehovah I will hear the Heavens and the Heavens shall hear the Earth and the Earth shall hear the Corn and Wine and Oyl and they shall hear Jezreel Hos 2.21 22. God hath the key of food under his own girdle Psal 145.16 Hence some call the Earth Gods great Purse which he openeth for mans profit and shutteth for mans punishment The Jewish Rabbies call the Earth Alma Parens A kinde Mother and the rain her Husband because the showers do foecundate and make that great Mother of plenty fruitful But as likely a Mother as the Earth is to bring forth she is barren unless God open her womb 1. The plowing and sowing of the ground is from God the hands of men cannot do it without his protection and providence and the heads of men would not have thought of it without his direction and assistance Isa 28.24 25 26. to the end 2. When the ground is plowed and sowed it must be watered or the grain will quite dye this also is from God alone The Monarch of Mexico was wont to take an Oath at his Coronation that it should be what weather he pleased but Can any of the vanities of the Heathen cause rain Jer. 14.22 God alone can unstop those bottles of Heaven they are all above mans reach The most spungy clouds distil not one drop no more then a rock till God give the Word of command He decreeth rain Job 28.26 He prepareth rain Psal 135.7 and he poureth down the former and latter rain Deut. 28.12 Joel 2.21 Job 5.10 He also covereth the body of the Earth with the white mantle of snow whereby the corn is warmed and the ground mellowed Psal 147.16 3. The Stars those purses of gold as one calleth them out of which God throweth down riches which good men gather and bad men scramble for are all at Gods beck and bidding Psal 19.4 5. Mat. 5.45 Job 38.32 4. The fruitfulness of the earth after it is ploughed sowed watered with the clouds and warmed with the influence of the Sun and Stars is wholly from God Thou crownest the year with thy goodness and thy pathes drop fatness Weems Cerem Law Psal 65.11 Heb. 6.7 This some of the Heathen acknowledged by the light of Nature and therefore when they went to plough in the morning they did lay one hand upon the plow to speak their own part to be painfulness and hold the other hand up to Ceres the Goddess of Corn to testifie their expectation of plenty to be from their supposed Deity How easily can God blast all the corn in the field or blow upon it in the barn if he do but will it it is done The whole Creation indeed is but a glass without a bottom which cannot stand of it self but as God is pleased to hold it up The Philosophers tell us the Sun and man beget a man the Sun and the earth bring forth corn and speak of the Sun in every thing as a principal efficient But the Divines tell us more truly God and the Heavens God and the Earth cause harvest God by the Creatures doth all things God is the onely principal efficient the Sun it self and all other Creatures are but liveless instruments moved and acted by God according to his purpose and pleasure Except the Lord build the house they labour in vain that build it It is in vain for you to rise up early to sit up late and to eat the bread of sorrows Psal 127.1 2. Apricock trees that depend upon their own strength leaning on nothing as experience teacheth us bring forth little or no fruit when they that lean on the wall abound in clusters The way to thrive in thy trade is not to trust to thy own head or hands but to trust in the Lord for a blessing on thy endeavors Fifthly If thou dost prosper in thy Calling let God alone have the praise Do not Sacrifice to thy own net Hab. 1.10 as the Jews did as though by thy skill and wisdom thou hadst met with such a draught but consider the providence of God hath brought in all thy profit Beware when thy herds and thy flocks multiply and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied lest thine heart be lifted up and thou say in thine heart My power and the might of my hands hath gotten me this wealth Deut. 8.14 to 18. Man is apt to make himself his Idol and to attribute all to his own pains and prudence Men boast saith Luther Hoc ego feci Luther in Psal 1.7 hoc ego feri and shew themselves to be meer feces They brag This I have done and this I have done and thereby appear to be nothing but dregs God took it ill that Tyrus should say By my traffick and my wisdom I have encreased my wealth and telleth her That she had set her heart as the heart of God Ezek. 28.3 4 5. The Israelites were commanded to bring their first ripe fruits to God whereby they acknowledged him the owner and author of all their encrease Exod. 23.16 19 Levit. 23.10 The very Heathen were somewhat sensible of
and portions to Gods pleasure is the onely sleeping pill which can give rest to the soul Christian let me ask thee this question Didst thou give up thy self to Christ for Temporal or for Eternal comforts Didst thou enter upon Relien to save thine Estate or thy Soul O why then shouldst thou be so sad when thy Eternal happiness is so safe For shame live like a childe of God an heir of Heaven and let the World know that thy hopes and happiness are in a better World that though thou art denyed those Acorns which thy Father giveth to his Hogs yet thou hast the Childrens bread and expectest thine inheritance when thou comest to Age. Thus I have dispatched the fourth particular how a Christian may exercise himself to Godliness in his particular calling A good Wish about Particular Callings wherein the former heads are Epitomized MY particular calling being a peculiar and distinct station The Introductîon wherein I am bound to be serviceable to my country and family and wherein also I have this priviledge that I may further my general calling if I mind it out of conscience to the Lord and in obedience to his word I wish in general that I may never cross the wise providence of my God in the government of the World by neglecting it or thinking lightly of it but since I am listed under the Captain of my salvation may serve him faithfully not onely in general as a Souldier but also in that place or office to which he hath chosen and called me I wish in particular Our general callingsmust be followed with diligence that what my hand findeth to do I may do it with all my might that I may be of the number of them that spend themselves with labour and not of them who wast with rust and laziness my diligence herein is some help against the temptations of the Devil The sluggards heart is like his field overgrown with weeds Lord let me rather wear out with work then consume like a Garment laid by with moths for want of use Yet I wish that I may not by my industry make more hast to be rich then good speed With righteousness I mean that I may never increase my riches by dealing unrighteously in my calling knowing that unjust gain is a morsel which the strongest stomach in the World cannot possibly digest but may esteem a penny got by the blessing of God upon my honest labour at a far greater price then thousands of pounds by rapine and robbery and may weigh all my wares in the Scales of loving my neighbour as my self by the standard of that royal Law Whatsoever you would that men should do unto you do you even so unto them for this is the law and the Prophets O that I might not upon any pretence whatsoever either by taking advantage of the buyers ignorance or by putting unserviceable wares into his hands or by false weights and measures or by defrauding my neighbour any other way consult shame to my house Hab. 2.10 and sin against my own soul but when I am in my shop or warehouse or instructing my servant how to sell I may hear the sound of that dreadful threatning against unrighteous dealers in mine eares Job 20.15 He hath swallowed down riches he shall vomit them up again God shall cast them out of his belly He shall suck the poison of Asps the Vipers tongue shall slay him the increase of his house shall depart and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath They must not incroach upon our general calling I desire that I may watch my calling as they who make powder do their fire with my greatest care to keep it within its own bounds that I may so give to the World the things of the World as to give to my God the things of God In stealing away either out love To this end I wish that I may not like Demas embrace this present world but how deep soever I wade in earthly affairs may be sure to keep my head I would say my heart above water least I sink and perish in them eternally Lord though I possess outward things yet let outward things never possess me I am married to thy sacred Majesty though I converse with my calling as a friend yet let the bed of my heart never be defiled therewith but reserved onely for thy blessed self to lodge in Or time My prayer is that my earthly traffique may never be suffered to play the thief and to steal away that precious treasure of time which at least morning and evening my heavenly trade requireth in my Closet and family but though like the Eagle I stoop to the earth for my prey my outward provision I may not dwell there but mount up again to heaven O that I might be deaf to all the vain excuses which the World will plead for the total omission or shortning of Religious exercises and even when a real necessity not through any negligence of mine appeareth by some sudden providence I am denyed time to draw the long sword of solemn devotion I may be then so affected with my duty and danger as to draw the short Dagger of ejaculatory petitions to defend my self against my spiritual enemies My God never intended that my trade should be my trouble or my calling like the clouds to impede my sight of the true Sun therefore if so much business lye upon my hands that if that be attended my soul must be neglected let me rather as a wise Traveller ease my self of some part of my burthen then permit it to hinder me in my journey to heaven I desire that I may be so sensible that good things here below come from the most high God Prayer for a blessing and the success of my labours dependeth more on his providence then my diligence that I may never in a morning open my shop or lift up a tool as my trade is before I have opened my heart and lifted up my soul to my God for his blessing upon my endeavours All creatures in the hands of my God are as dead tools in the hands of a living workman by whose force and influence alone they act Lord let me never look upon second causes as more then the order in which and the means with which thou art pleased to work Thanks to God for success I wish that if God shall by my calling increase my wealth I may not sacrifice to my own nets nor burn incense to my own drags but may be so spiritual as to acknowledge my God the Author of temporals and receive them so thankefully from his hand of bounty that I may improve them faithfully as may be most for his glory The earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof He is the owner of all I enjoy I am but his Steward and must shortly give account of my Stewardship O let me make me friends of
every act of my Office that I may as Abrahams Steward provide a Wife for my Masters Son and enable me through thine help so to set forth the beauty of his Person the excellency of all his Preceps and the vastness of his Portion that I may woo to purpose and prevail to present my People as a Chaste Virgin unto Christ I wish 2 Able That because the work I am occupied about is great in regard it is not for man but for the Lord that I may as Bezaleel and Aholiah for the Service of the Sanctuary be singularly gifted and endowed by my God for the building of his Spiritual Temple that as a wise Builder I may lay the foundation of Sound Doctrine raise it upon strong Pillars of convincing Reasons and cover it with useful and powerful Application I would not like some young Shop-keepers for want of stock set out Pictures of Wares instead of Parcels but be so throughly furnished unto every good work that I may upon all occasions bring out of my Treasury things both new and old Lord let a double portion of thy Spirit be poured on me and let thy Blessing so prosper my Studies that I may be an able Minister of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the Word of truth 2 Cor. 3.6 I wish that since I am a steward of the mysteries of Christ and that it is required of a Steward 3 Faithful that he be found faithful that I may upon no pretence be false to the souls of my people that I may not daub with untempered morter or sow pillows under mens elbows for any gain or advantage but may be a Barnabas a son of consolation to the Penitent a Boanerges a son of thunder to the Presuptuous that knowing the terrour of the Lord I may perswade men and give to every one their particular and proper portion in due season O let me not be curious to provide meat toothsom for polluted pallats to the feeding of their distempers like Ahabs 400. Trencher-Chaplains who sold their Lords life at the Cheap rate of a lye but as Micaiah be careful to distribute food that is wholesome and sutable to their several spiritual constitutions Though my patients may be angry at present when I search their festered wounds to the bottom and thereby put them to pain yet when upon my faithful dealing they recover they will give me hearty thanks It was the saying of Mauritius the Emperor when he heard that Phocas was a Coward If he be a Coward he is a Murderer if I be fearful to tell men of their sins I murder their souls Lord when I am visiting my Parishioners in private or preaching to them in publike cause me to hear thy voyce behind me When I say unto the wicked Ezek. 3.18 that he shall surely dye and thou givest him no warning nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live the same wicked man shall dye in his iniquities but his blood will I require at thine hand I desire that I may not be obnoxious to the censure of a wicked and slothful Servant 4 Industrious not of wicked by hiding my sins in the cloak of excuses nor of slothful by hiding my Talent in the Napkin of idleness but may mind the work of the Ministery and make it appear that both in my preparation for and execution of my office I labour in the Word and Doctrine My time and parts are not mine own but under God my peoples and to be improved for their profit If men dye for robbing single persons what shall befal me should I be such a thief as to rob the poor the rich and indeed the whole parishes stock My prayer is In preparation for his Office that I may not offer to the Lord my God that which cost me nothing that my meat which I set before the family committed to my charge may not be like Ephraim half-baked raw or rude and so unmeet for their stomachs to concoct because of my negligence in preparing it 1 Tim. 4.13.15 that I may give attendance to reading meditate on those things give my self wholly to them that my profitting may appear to all men They that spend upon the main stock where it is but small will quickly prove bankrupts My layings out are considerable my comings in had need to be answerable Surely if any in the World should feed high should study read and pray hard those should do it who carry so many in their wombs or give so many suck I wish that I may be industrious as well in rearing the Temple In the execution of his Office as in providing materials that I may chearfully spend and be spent in the service of Christ My Saviour was taken to be fifty when he was little above thirty by reason of his excessive industry his very countenance was aged O my soul follow thou this blessed pattern do not play but work the work of him that sent thee in the Lord Improve all opportunities to the utmost be instant in season and out of season serve thy God with all thy strength Like fuel consume thy self in burning to warm the spirit of the Saint and to thaw the frozen heart of the sinner Thy work is of infinite consequence Thy time is exceeding short thy reward is glorious and eternal up and be doing and like the silk-worm wear out thine own bowels to hide others nakedness waste thy self to prevent thine own and others endless wo. Be thou a fruitful mother to conceive and bring forth new creatures though thou conceivest with sorrow and bringest forth with much pain and thy labours at last should cost thee thy life I desire that I may be tenderly affected to all the souls in my charge 5 Compassionate to souls as knowing their worth and beleiving of what concernment their unchangeable estates are in the other world Lord what melting bowels should I have towards them when I consider that every one of them must dye within a few days and either live in Heaven or fry in Hell to all eternity My Saviour was a faithful and merciful High Priest he had compassion on the multitude when they had nothing to eat and would not send them away empty least they should faint in the wilderness O that I had but that pity for the souls which he had to the bodies of men Nature will help me to pity a body without a soul why should not grace teach me to pity a soul without a God Lord when I behold wounded bleeding dying souls let mine eyes affect my heart with sorrow that both mine eyes and heart may be up to thee with the greatest importunity for a blessing upon my most diligent endeavours for their recovery Make me so tender and affectionate a mother that I may patiently bear with the frowardness and willingly go
through with the burden of instructing my children Though others nurse children for the love of wages let me nurse mine for the wages of love Let all my actions towards them flow from sincere affection to them and not onely my counsel and comforts but even my rod of reproof like Jonathans be dipt in this hony When I am rebuking them cuttingly and frighting them from sin with the fear of the unquenchable fire let all my bitter pils be given in this sweet syrrup of love that they may know and acknowledge my greatest anger against their sins to proceed from a tender respect and love to their immortal souls I wish that being a sworn Souldier of the Lord of Hosts Full of courage whatsoever trials and tribulations I meet with in my holy warfare whatsoever dangers and death shall look me in the face I may never flye from my colours or forsake my Captain but endure hardshipas a good Souldier of Jesus Christ When I first listed my self in his Muster-Roll I understood the greivous hardships and various hazards which all his Army but especially his Officers must encounter with that to Preach the Gospel is as Luther saith to draw the hatred of the whole World upon a man yea that Earth and Hell would both conspire and plant their strongest batteries against the Bulworks of the Church under God the Ministers of the word notwithstanding all which I entred my name as a Volunteer and promised to live and dye in his quarrel and shall I now because the enemies appear numerous and the Bullets flye thick like Peter deny my righteous cause and disown my glorious Captain Lord let me dye with thee rather then deny thee Enable me through thy strength to be ready not onely to be bound but to dye for the name of the Lord Jesus My onely safety consisteth in keeping close to my Saviour Should I through cowardliness run away I must expect Marshal law If any man draw back thy soul will have no pleasure in him If I like Jonah should run from thy presence as unwilling to deliver an unwelcome message I must expect a storm to follow after me and either the waves to swallow me up or the Whale to swallow me down I should but go out of thy blessing into the warm Sun If the service of my God be not in all respects the best why did I chuse and like it If it be why should I refuse and leave it My cause is good I fight against sin and Satan the desperate and bloody enemies of my soul My Crown is better after a a temporal conflict followeth an eternal Crown of glory O my soul be thou faithful unto death and thou shalt have a Crown of life but my Captain is best of all he looketh upon me goeth before me fighteth for me and as he leadeth me on to this tryal so he will not like the Devil and the World who leave their servants and Lovers in the lurch but bring me off with triumph either safe on earth or safe to heaven Lord whatsoever dirt of calumny shall be thrown in my face whatsoever dart of cruelty shall be stuck in my body Act. 20.22 for keeping the word of thy patience in an hour of temptation yet let none of these things move me neither let me count my life dear unto me so that I may finish my course with joy and the Ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testifie the grace of God As to the preaching of the Gospel The several duties of a Minister 1. To preach the Gospel which is the principal work of the Minister as being the main Engine in the hand of God wherewith he undermineth and overturneth the strong-holds of sin and the Kingdom of darkness I wish that I may prepare for this work diligently ever handle this weapon warily deliver the message of my God soberly as may be most for his glory and my peoples good not with the enticing words of mans wisdom but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power To this end I desire His Sermons must be the fruits of servent prayer that all my Sermons may be like Monica's son children of many prayers and tears and thereby the more unlikely to perish Luther saith He that prayeth hard studieth hard Lord let all my Sermons as dew be Heaven-born that they may drop down upon my people like rain upon the mown grass Let prayer be the key to open the mysteries of Christ to me and let prayer be the turning of the key to lock them up safe within me Let prayer open and shut all my Books form and write begin and conclude every Sermon Ah how should he pray both for his preaching and before he preacheth who by every Sermon preacheth his beloved Neighbours into Eternal burnings or Eternal pleasures I wish also for the furtherance of the former ends Preached over first to his own soui That I may preach over every Sermon to my own heart before I preach them to my hearers That I preaching feelingly may preach the more effectually and the milk of the Word coming warm out of the Mothers breasts may be as more natural so more pleasing and nourishing to the children Why should I like a Lawyer plead the cause of my God for my fees and 〈…〉 have my own person concerned in it O let 〈◊〉 rather as a Physician drink of those potions my self which I prescribe and administer to my Patients I desire He must preach the Word 1. Purely That I may never dare to play the Huckster with the Word of God to sophisticate or adulterate it by my additions to it but that I may receive from the Lord what I deliver to men and feed all my charge with the sincere milk of the Word that they may grow thereby If it be Treason to counterfeit the Kings Coyn what High Treason is it for me to imprint the King of Kings stamp on my brass Money O that as I am an Ambassador I might keep close to my Instructions and as a Builder may lay every stone in his Temple by the line and rule of his Word and as a Physician may never try experiments upon the souls of my people but hold fast to the form of wholesome words and ever prescribe those tryed and approved receits which the Great Physician hath left me under his own hand Because my work is to touch and pierce my hearers hearts 2 〈◊〉 and not to tickle and please their ears I wish That I may preach a crucified Saviour in a crucified stile That I may not blow up my Sermons as Butchers some joynts of meat to make them shew fairer with a windy pomp of words but by using all plainness and stooping to the lowest capacity may become all things to all men that I may save some I am a Barbarian to my people whilest I preach to them in an unknown language I starve their souls whilest
19. O how few Abrahams are there in England Many teach their Families the works of the Devil but few teach them the way of the Lord many lop their trees prune their plants break their horses train their hauks yea teach their dogs yet never instruct their children Friend consider the worth of thy children and servants souls and the weight of their everlasting estates and how in the dark of ignorance they must unavoidably stumble into Hell and for the Lords sake be perswaded to instruct them in the knowledge of the true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent John 17.3 Naturalists tell us that bees carry small gravel in their feet to poise their bodies as they fly through stormy Winds If thou wouldst not have thy little ones blown away with the Winds of temptations do thou labour to poise them with the principles of the Oracles of God Ah what pity is it that men like silly Doves without hearts should sit in their Dove-coats see their Nests destroyed and their young ones killed before their eyes but the old Manslayer the Devil and never stir or offer once to rescue or revenge them Good Lord what unnaturalness is is many Parents and Masters Cardan speaks of one that had a receipt for the certain dissolving the stone in the bladder and I question not saith he but he is damned for not discovering it before his death Thou knowest the word under God must cure the persons in thy family of the stone in the heart and wilt thou neglect to acquaint them with it but suffer them to dye eternally O Reader be not guilty of such horrid and barbarous cruelty Do as that holy Bishop of Armagh who one day in every week did Catechise his family It is reported of Lewis the ninth of France that he was found instructing a poor Kitchin Boy and being asked the reason answered piously I know the meanest in my family hath a soul as precious as my own and bought with the blood of Jesus Christ Our Saviour taught his Disciples often in private as their Governor and according to their capacities Mar. 4.33 Mat. 16.17 18. It is an honour to the highest prince to teach his Houshold Gods precepts O let thy words in thy family as the waters of Nilus often overflow to make others fruitful The Papists confess that all the ground which we have got of them is by Chatechising and instructing our youth 3. Singing of Psalms must be used in thy family The Lord Iesus and his family did practice this duty Mat. 26.30 And when they sang an Hymn they went out into the Mount of Olives David in that Psalm at the dedication of his house speaketh that his glory should sing praise to God and not be silent Psal 30. Title ver 4. and ult Our tongues are called our glory not onely because by our speech we excel beasts but chiefly because therewith we should glorifie God It is observable that most of those places which prophesie the Gentiles conversion do mention their worshipping the true God by singing Psa 108.3 and 100. Psa 66.4 Isa 54.1 and 52.8 The Holy Ghost when he commandeth that the word should keep house with us doth also enjoyn us to teach and admonish one another in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs which are the titles of Davids Psalms and the known division of them expresly answering to the Hebrew words Shurim Tehillim and Mizinurim by which his Psalms are distinguished and entitled as the learned observe singing and making melody with grace in our hearts to the Lord Col. 3.16 Ephes 5.19 Basilde Virt laud. Psa Tom. 1 Jam 5.13 Basil speaks high in the prayse of praysing God by this holy exercise Chrysostom speaketh of some in his time who always concluded their suppers with singing a Psalm and saith he they lived like Angels This ordinance will much quicken holy affections and help a Christian to serve God with more chearfulness When the Israelites were singing the hundred and thirty six Psalm at the bringing in the Ark the glory of the Lord filled the House 2 Chron. 20.22 The sweet singer in Israel was the man after Gods own heart Onely Reader be careful to sing Davids Psalms with Davids spirit and not like a Nightingale to sing by rote I will sing with my spirit and I will sing with understanding also making melody with grace in the heart is the best tune to set all Davids Psalms with Thirdly Set a good pattern to thy family The fore-horse in the Team had need to go right because all the rest follow in the same road If the Commander be treacherous how soon may he betray his Souldiers who follow him at the heels into the enemies hands A governour of a family must like Moses be mighty both in word and deed Patterns are very prevalent both to good and evil Precepts teach but examples draw Why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews Gal. 2.14 Peter did not compel them by his Preaching but by his pattern His example was so powerful that even Barnabas as well as others was drawn away therewith It is observable that Jeroboam seldom appeareth in the Heaven of Scripture but in the form of a Blazing Star with a tayl after him Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin by his precepts he commanded them to sin but by his pattern he compelled them to sin As examples are attractive to evil so also to good That if any beleive not they may be won without the word by the conversation of the wife 1 Pet. 3.1 2. If godliness be written in the book of thy life in a fair Character in a large lovely letter it may invite thy children and servants to read and like it who otherwise possibly would not have taken the least notice of it He that ruleth others must not be unruly himself If a ruler hearken to lies all his servants are wicked Pro. 29.12 If a Governour of a family a father or mother be a Drunkard a Swearer or an Atheist their Children will quickly imitate them They will as certainly inherit their lusts as their lands As some parents make their Children rich by their Lordships so they make them riotous by their evil lives Observe Abraham a good man denyeth his Wife Isaac is his heir not onely in his wealth but also in that weakness Isaac denieth his Wife likewise Gen. 20.2 with Gen. 26 7. Jacobs wives got little good by the pattern and practice of Laban their father Gen. 31.19 and 35.1 2. The Parents of the Children destroyed by the two she-Bears were wont to jeer Elijah in their ordinary talk What Elijah the bald-pate must be taken up to Heaven Forsooth as well as Elias The Chidren hearing it spoken by them learned it of them though they paid dear for their learning for it cost them their lives and for ought I know their souls 2 King 2.24 O Reader doth not thine heart ake to read
they must not starve they say and will not work therefore they must steal 2 Thes 3.12 When Servants are idle many times they rob their Masters Talebearing also is one of the fruits that groweth upon this tree When Servants are idle they run tatling from house to house making difference amongst Neighbours 1 Tim. 5.13 Pro. 11.23 Carping Momus was never found working Truly Friend thou canst not think the wrong thou dost thy family if thou suffer them like Milstones to consume themselves thus for want of work Mr. Graenham in his works St. Greenham as Bishop Hall calleth him when a Woman tempted much by the Devil came to him for advice gave her this direction Never be idle but be always well imployed for in my own experience I have found it when the Devil came to tempt me I told him that I was not at leasure to hearken to his temptations but was busie in my calling and thereby resisted his assaults Seventhly Maintain peace and love in thy family Contentions will hinder Religion Strife like fire is wholly opposite to the water of grace As in times of warring the laws of men are silent in a state inter arma silent leges so in jarring families the Laws of God can be little heard God was not in the tempestuous rough wind nor in the fire but in the still low voyce 1 Kings 19.12 Live in peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you 2 Cor. 13.11 If thy house be in a flame it is time for thy best friends to be gone Thy House should be a lesser Heaven in it thy God must be worshipped and glorified but in heaven there are no storms tempests ascend no higher then the middle Region Where God is served with perfect purity there is perfect peace As in the Ringing of Bells where every one keepeth its place and time and order they make an harmonious sound and delight the Daughters of Musick but when they jar and strike against each other their noise is harsh and distastful The holy performances of Families that live in love are Heavens musick but brawlings in houses make prayers ungrateful and have too much resemblance of the yellowings in Hell When the wind of contention is high the smoak of thy incense cannot ascend it will be beaten down again In stormy weather one but a little way distant sometimes cannot hear his Neighbour calling storms of passions will hinder Gods hearing thy petitions It s said that in Cimmeria there is no light and truely its more sad that in some Families there is no love The Husband is against the Wife and the Wife against the Husband Master and Servants Parents and Children are ever quarreling Seven Devils could agree in one heart nay a Legion which is seven thousand six hundred twenty two if Varro may be believed in another and yet seven persons cannot agree in one house The language in it is usually like Billings gate and the carriage often like Bedlam But the hand of the Devil is in all this who knoweth his best time to fish is when the waters are troubled When there is a tempest raised in the spirits of men we may quickly know that Satan was the Conjurer to raise the high winds He knoweth one way to take an house is by firing it Truely Satan hath a mighty advantage against an Idle and a brawling family As the Dog he devoureth the sheep in peices which he could not do whole When Cyrus came near Babylon with his great Army and finding the River by reason of its depth unpassable he divided it into many Channels whereby the main River sank so on a suddain that his Army went over and took the City Thus by division doth Satan conquer and surprise families There is mention made of a dispute betwixt Mars and Pallas Ioh. Bodin Method Hist c. 6. which of them should have the honour to give the name to the City of Athens at length is was resolved that he should give the name who could find out that which could most conduce to the benefit of the City Hereupon Mars presented them with a stately Horse signifying Wars and divisions but Pallas came in with an Olive Branch the emblem of peace Upon which the City chose Pallas to be their Guardian as knowing that unity is the way to prosperity Godliness in a family ebbeth and floweth much Plin. Nat. Hist lib. 2. according to the wranglings or love in a family As the Lapis Tyrrhenus Pliny speaketh of which being entire swimmeth but broken every part of it sinketh to the bottom Truely thy family may float above water while it is whole and undivided but if it be in peices it will quickly sink But I must especially commend this duty to the governours of families Husbands and Wives Children are seldom so impudent and servants may either be made quiet within or be turned out of doors but if the chief strings jar all the melody is marr'd Observe how the Holy Ghost giveth this particular precept in order to the promotion of piety in a family The Wife must be of a meek and quiet spirit and the Husband must give honour to the Wife as unto the weaker Vessel as heirs together of the grace of life that prayers be not hindered 1 Pet. 3.4 7. We may consider the injunction and the reason of it the injunction is first to Wives They must be of meek and quiet spirits quiet not quarrelsom meek not murmuring through peevishness or mad with passion A contentious wife is a continual dropping saith Solomon Pro. 19.13 The man would stay at home but her tongue like rain dropping through the roof upon his head where-ever he sitteth down drives him out of his house Where is godliness in the mean time The wise man saith again It s better to dwell in the Wilderness amongst venemous creatures then with such a Wife Pro. 21.13 when she should be praying she is like a mad Dog barking or biting Such a Wife saith Lycophron is but a cold armful This made Sylla say I had been blessed if I had continued a Batchelor Upon this ground I suppose Julian the Apostate whose mouth was often black with blasphemies said that Moses instead of meet-help might have written meet-hinderer But certainly whatsoever some mens perversness may drivel and utter or some womens peevishness occasion a woman if of a godly and quiet spirit is the greatest comfort on earth and a great help she may be to her Husband in his journey to Heaven The Injunction is secondly to the Husband he must honor his Wife as the weaker vessel as his fellow-heir of the grace of life He must honor her not be bitter to her He must give her his greatest love not deny her a good look Some Husbands are so Currrish and Crabbed they are always raging and fretting at their Wives nay like those that are distracted they sometimes beat and tear their Wives themselves For they two are one
will bring the plague along with them One scabbed sheep may wrong the whole flock one putrid grape corrupt a cluster a little Leaven Leaveneth the whole lump Lord in the choyce of inhabitants for my house let my eye be not onely upon my own welfare and their fitness for my work but chiefly on thy glory and their willingness to work the work of him that sent them into the World Ioh. 9.4 Psa 26.4 5. and 119. Let me hate the congregation of evil doers Let me not sitwith vain persons Let mine eyes be upon the faithful in the Land Let them that fear thee turn unto me and such as keep thy righteous judgements Let me dwell with them here on earth with whom I shall dwell hereafter in the house not made with hands but eternal in the Heavens I wish that that there may be a Church in my house and all the persons in it 2 Mind holy performances in thy Family both Morning and Evening at least imploved in those holy performances which my God requireth My house should be a resemblance of Heaven Above in his greatest and most glorious house my God is served without ceasing and without sinning O that though in his lower and lesser house natural and civil actions cause intermission of and the body of death causeth imperfections in holy duties yet he might be worshipped both constantly and perfectly in a Gospel and Evangelical sence I have read that amongst the worst of Turks the Moors it is a just exception against any Witness by their law Prayer that he hath not prayed four times in every natural day â— Hall Contemp. I wish that none in my Familie may be worse then Turks but that both all apart may secretly and all together may privaetly offer up the Morning and Evening Sacrifice of prayer and praise to the Lord my God Daniel would pray three times a day though he were cast to the Lions for it and shall my Family neglect prayer when the Omission of it will make them a prey to roaring Lions It is the honour and happiness of my house to exalt the Worship of my God in it his Service is the greatest freedom his work is a reward to it self why should we be our own enemies in banishing our best friends out of our family The mercies of my God are renewed upon me and mine every Morning his care and love is continued to us all the day long the dews and showrs of his compassion fall down upon us every Evening shall we be forgetful of him who is every moment so mindful of us O let my Family never be so void of grace and manners as not to bid our God Good-Morrow and Good-Night upon any pretence whatsoever I wish that the word of Christ may dwell richly in my heart and house Scripture instruction and Catechising that my whole familie may have their set meales every day of this Spiritual food How can I expect that Children or Servants who know not the God of their Fathers should serve him with perfect hearts Alas how often are their ignorant hearts like dark Cellers abounding in vermine full of sin 1 Cron. 28.9 O that I might so talk of the Word of God in my house Deut. 6.7 8. when I lye down and when I rise up that it may be written upon the Posts of my House and on my Gates that I may so often water the young plants in it that their first acquaintance may be acquaintance with God and from their childhood they may know the holy Scriptures and be wise to Salvation through faith which in Christ Jesus Though others care be to instruct their Servants onely in their own work let my care be to instruct mine in Gods Will and Word Though others labour to leave their children rich let my endeavour be to leave mine religious Lord enable me so to teach them thy Trade in their youth that they may not depart from it when they are old Prov. 22.6 that their young years well led may be like the Sweetness of a Rose whose swell remaineth in the dried leaves I wish That all the voyces in my house may tuneably sing Gods praises Singing Psalms yet that they may not like Trumpets and Pipes make a sound being filled onely with winde but have hearts fixed and prepared when they sing and give praise O that all the Viols in my house may be so in tune and their strokes so true that singing with grace in our hearts we may make melody to the Lord. Drunkards have their Songs in derision of them that are good Atheists have their Sonnets in dishonor of the blessed God Why should not the voyce of joy and rejoycing be in the Tabernacle of the righteous Psal 118.15 Though my house is a Tabernacle and all the inhabitants in it Travellers yet our work is pleasant O let us go merrily on and make Gods Statutes our Songs in this house of our pilgrimage Because my pattern of evil will do more hurt to my family 3 Set them a good example then my precepts can do good servants and children being apt to be led more by the eye then the ear I wish That I may take heed to my self weigh and watch over all my words and works not onely for my own but also for the sake of them that are committed to my charge Distillations from the head often consume and destroy the vitals My family is like a flock of sheep if the first leap through into a ditch or river the rest are ready to follow O that I might therefore be wary in all my ways and be so serious in Spiritual so sober in Natural actions so righteous towards men so religious towards my God so faithful in every relation and so holy and heavenly in every condition that I may have cause to say to my children and servants as Gideon to his Souldiers Look on me and do likewise Judg. 7.17 I wish 4 See that thy family sanctifie the Lords Day That my house may not onely spend some part of every Week day but also the whole Sabbath day in the service of my God It is a special priviledge granted me by the Lord for my families profit wherein I may be singularly helpful to my own and my housholds everlasting happiness O that not the least part of it may be lost or prophaned by any within my gate either by worldly labour pastimes or idleness but that I may be so mindeful of my charge as to take care that my children and servants do forbear what my God forbiddeth and spend that Sacred Day altogether in Sacred Duties To which purpose I desire That all my houshold both males and females if of capacity may appear before the Lord in publique and in his Temple give him praise and that in private I may whet the Word on them as the mower doth his sithe by going over it again and again according
chamber with Patients about their bodily health and the Tradesmans shop crowded with customers Jesus Christ is left alone Though he offereth wares which are of infinite worth and stretcheth out his hand all the day long yet no man regardeth It is reported of some Spaniards that live near the place where is store of fish P. Pâ—grim that they will rather go without them then take the pains to catch them Heaven and Happiness Saviour and Salvation are near men they are brought to their very doors and yet men will rather lose then labour for them rather go sleeping to Hell then sweating to Heaven All seek their own and none the things of Jesus Christ Offer a crust to a dog and he will catch at it offer him a Crown and he will contemn it offer these men the crusts of vanity and how greedily are they imbraced while the Crown of Glory is most unworthily dispised like beastly swine they trample this pearl under their feet and love to wallow in the mire But possibly you may say that there are many that make Religion their business onely they are so near me that according to the rule of Opticks which requires a due distance between the faculty and the object I cannot behold them they abound in every Country Parish Family All are Christians and make the Worship of God their main work I must answer as he did when he saw the vast Army of Antiochus There are many men but few Souldiers many mouths but few hands there are many nominal but few real Christians many that flourish like fencers beating onely the air but few that fight in earnest the good fight of faith Godliness hath many complemental servants that will give her the cap and the knee a few good words and outward ceremonies but Godliness hath few faithful friends that make her the Mistris of their affections that give her the command of their hearts and that wait upon her and walk with her all the day long Pretenders to her service are indeed like the sand of the sea numerous but practitioners or faithful servants are like the pearl of the sea rare and precious many court her but few marry her for indeed men generally deal with Godliness as the Germans with the Italians or the Dutch with the Spaniards hold a fair out ward correspondency enough to serve for mutual trade and traffick but enter not into a near familiarity they have no great intimacie with Godliness it s rather a stranger to them whom now and then they bestow a visit on for fashion sake then an indweller or constant inhabitant Lepidus Major a loose Roman when his Comrades were exercising themself in the Camp would lay himself down to sleep in the shade and cry out Vtinam hoc esset laborare would this were all the duty I were to do Such Souldiers are many who pretend to fight under Christs Banner when they should be watching their souls and warring with Satan and fin they are sleeping and snoring as if that were the way to work out their salvations Reader I must acquaint thee with the Physicians rule that Spontanae lassitudines morbos loquuntur Weariness without some apparent cause is a sign of a diseased body so thy laziness doth speak a very unsound soul This complaint is urged with a threefold consideration First How eager is the worldling for wealth and earthly things though they loyter about the meat which endureth to eternal life yet they can labour for the meat that perisheth though they are so negligent about the Kingdom of Heaven yet the Kingdom of Earth suffereth violence What pains do the Mariners take for treasure What perils doth the Souldier under go for plunder what labour and industry doth the Husbandman use for profit he riseth early sits up late denieth himself loseth his sleep rides and runs too and fro imbraceth all opportunities is eaten up almost with cares and fears all for the earthly maâ—â—â—â— whilst the heavenly Mansions are like the unknown part of the world which no man regardeth or looketh after They pant after the dust of the earth as greedily as hot creatures do after the air to cool their scorched intrails Amos 2.7 The Serpents curse is entailed on that poysonous brood the dust is their diet they feed on ashes Gen. 3.14 Amos 7. They laugh at dangers and trample upon difficulties they force their way through darkness and the shadow of death through stifling damps and overflowing floods through rocks and mountains in the pursuit of earthly treasures Job 28.9 10 11. It s said of the Dutch they are so industrious at Navigation that if it were possible to sail in ships to Heaven they would not come short of that Haven Ah what pity is it that this jewel should hang in a swines snout which would so well become the Christians finger that this diligence this violence should be exercised about mens earthly and particular which would so well suit their heavenly and general calling The ambitious person like the Panther Pliny nat hist lib. 8. cap 27. is so greedy of the poisonous Aconite hung up by the Hunters purposely in vessels above their reach of air and honour that he never leaves leaping and straining thereat till he breaks and bursts himself in sunder The covetous man saith one that hath more then enough yet perplexeth himself with his own wants look how like a fool he goeth leading his horse in his hand and carrying his saddle on his back till he be pickled in his own sweat and killed with cares when his horse would with ease carry him and his saddle The Voluptuous man like the Drone is busie about the glass of water baited with honey in it he labours and wearieth himself even till he be drowned How do men like the Israelites in the Egyptian bondage travel up and down and even weary themselves to gather straw What pains do they take to hew unto themselves broken cysterns Their chief strife is with the Toads who shall fall asleep with most earth in their mouths who shall leave this world with most wealth in their hands Their parts and gifts their time and talents are all improved to help forward their earthly trade They are wiser in their generation then the children of light Oh how lamentable is it that the oynions and garlick of Egypt are preferred before the milk and honey of Canaan Luthers Colloq Mensal p. 85. Lysippus made Alexanders picture with this posie tupiter asserai terram mihi ta assere coelum Luther tells us of a noble man at Vienna in the time of his abode there which made a great Supper and in the midst of his mirth belched out this windy and blasphemous speech If God will leave me this world to live and injoy my pleasure therein but a thousand years then let him take his Heaven to himself This man spake what most men think the bramble of their bodies reigneth and fire ariseth out