will teach you sayes Job to trust in God for a livelyhood Mat. 6.26 and to know your times and seasons for every work Jer. 8.7 The Dove will teach you Innocency and Sympathy the little Birds to sound forth praises to God every morning and evening Cantat a lauda Deo laudes gratissima summo Hinc vos in gratâ—s gratu lacessit avis 3. Ask the Fishes of the Sea and they will teach you sayes Job The Sea by her continual fluctuating and foaming will mind you of the continual unquietness and resâ—lesness of wicked men Isa 5â— 20 They are like the troubled Sea c. The Fish of the Sea they will shew you the misery of want of Government they being every one without a Ruler so as the lesser are still devoured of the greater Hab. 1. Why hast thou made mâ—n like the Fishes of the Sea c. XX. When you are to go to wait an God in the use of his Ordinance think what a mercy it is to have the Doors of God's Sanctuary open when they are shut to others to see Souls flock to the Ordinances as the Doves to the Windows that some Souls might still be added to the Church and brought into Christ and built up further in Grace and gracious practices When you are to hear the Word remember you are not only to hear a Man but God who speaks in and by Man who hath said His Word shall not return in vain but surely prosper to the end he sends it Isa 55. last And if it be not the savour of Life it will of Death 2 Cor. 1. end When the Sermon is ended remember though the Minister have done the Sermon is not done until you have done and practised it if it be not practised it will be preached over with more terror another day when you will not be able to hear it XXI When you are walking abroad and meet with any Christian Friend think if it be sweet with a dear Christian Friend upon Earth Oh how sweet will it be to meet with all in Heaven When you hear of any good news from them then think Oh what good news hath Christ brought from Heaven and did the Angel sing at the time of his Birth and hath the Spirit of God brought home and spoken unto my heart if it be bad news that you have heard yet think and comfort your hearts with this However you have sad expectations from Earth yet you have comfortable expectations from Heaven God and Christ and the Spirit is yours and will be for ever yours 1 Cor. 3. last Psal 112.7 When you hear of any Prodigies or dreadful appearances of God in the Heaven or the Earth or the Sea then think and say How terrible O Lord art thou in all thy wayes Who knows the power of thy anger what mean these dreadful tokens of thy displeasure make me and all to fear and tremble before thee When you see or hear the corruption of men to break out into Drunkenness Uncleanness Blasphemy Persecution c. then think and say as Bradford the Martyr Lord what a wicked heart have I what cause have I to give glory to Grace that keeps under corruption in me that does not break out in me as in others When any cross or affliction befals you on the day in Body Soul Name Estate think say Lord what sin is it that thou correctest shew me my sin sanctifie this affliction and do me good by it When any mercy is renewed upon you and yours think and say Oh how great is that goodness thou hast laid up for them that fear thee and that thou workest daily for the Children of men Psal 31. XXII When the day draweth towards an end remember you are nearer to your end by one day then you were in the morning as the night approacheth towards you so do you to the Grave and for ought you know may be your last day When you look up and see the Stars appear in the Heaven think thus Though your life here be hid with Christ in God yet when he shall appear you shall appear with him in glory Col. 3.4 and then your bodies shall shine as the Stars Dan. 12. When you see the dark night to come upon you and you begin to light Candles then think if outward darkness be so uncomfortable how much more is the inward darkness of the Soul and utter darkness in Hell if the light of a Candle be so comfortable how comfortable is the Life of Grace here and will be the Life of Glory hereafter When you are about to put off your Cloaths think thus It will not be long ere I must be uncloathed of this body of Sin and Death and if I be so willing to the one why not to the other that I might be cloathed with my House from Heaven 2 Cor. 5.2 And if I be so willing to go into Bed to take my rest that I may have renewed strength for Body and Spirit to fit me for the service of the next day why should I not be as willing and more willing at God's call to lay down my body in the Grave there to rest from all sinning sorrowing suffering and to be raised up at the last day with renewed and perfect strength both in Soul and Body to be still serving and glorifying God to all Eternity Remember still O my Soul thy sleep is but the Image of Death the Bed the Image of thy Grave and the Sheets of thy Winding Sheets the biting of the Fleas but the gnawing of the Worms on the Body the crowing of the Cock in the morning the sounding of the Trump of God at the last day by the Voice of the Arch-Angel Awake ye dead and come to Judgment Isa 57.2 1 Thess 4.16 Lastly When you are about to sleep labour to sleep with precious thoughts of God for such as your thoughts are when you are about to sleep such will your thoughts be when you awake When we rake up fire in the Ashes at night so we usually find it in the morning and such I say as our thoughts are of God when we sleep will be when we awake In a word Think of your sleeping in Jesus and your awaking and appearing with him in glory in the morning of the Resurrection And thus I have as briefly as I could with any profit to you directed you how to make a Spiritual use of whatsoever presents it self to your senses from morning to evening at home and abroad What remains but that we put in practice what we see to be our duty motives to iâ— and directions for it you have had before I need not add any more onely this consideration there 's a double use God expects we should make of every Creature a natural and a spiritual and if we should content our selves only with the natural use without the Spiritual we should lose the one half and the best half of that comfort in the Creature which God gave it for and we shall do no more then natural carnal sensual men yea the very Beasts do and therefore if we will evidence our selves to be Christians indeed that mind the wellfare of our Souls as well as our Bodies then to apply our selves more then ever we have done to the practice of this sweet weighty and profitable duty of Meditation both Solemn and Occasional Which that we may blessed Lord thou who hast put it into the heart of thy weak and unworthy Servant to study and write these things for the good and comfort of thy People be thou graciously pleased by the effectual working of thy Holy Spirit to make them useful to all into whose hands they shall come for the promoting and carrying on the Work of Grace in their hearts and lives and the furthering of their everlasting Salvation Oh Lord I pray thee let it not be in vain that this or any other help is afforded them but do thou give success to the weak endeavours of thy unworthy Servant so as there may be glory to thee profit to them and comfort to him who hath found that grace in thy sight to be accepted and enabled to be any way instrumental for their help and comfort in the way homeward to everlasting life This is and shall be the Prayer of Your Affectionate and Antient Pastor J. B. FINIS
others have you given them back again for the honouring and serving Him above others if not you will one day repent bitterly as he did that had been more careful to serve his Master on Earth the King of England than the King of Heaven and Earth Woolsey Thirdly See what good you have done to others by these distinguishing Providences Has God's goodness to you wrought more goodness in you to others stirr'd you up to do more good to the Country Church State Place City Family wherein God hath set you Have your Husband Wife Children Servants Friends and Acquaintance been the better for you if so then these Providences have been in Mercy to you but otherwise if God hath been so good to you and you have done no more good for Him and His you have minded only your selves and lived only to your selves you will one day wish you had been among the Number of the poorest and miserablest Beggars than what you are to have so much and do no more good with it yea the very Heathens will rise up in Judgment and condemn you for they could say Non nobis nati they were not born for themselves but their Country Another Mallem mihi male esse quam molliter vivere Seneca I had rather be sick than be idle and do no good And thus you see What those things are you are to meditate on in about God's merciful Providences Secondly Take notice what you are to meditate on in and about the Providences of his Justice and Judgments as these the Equity the Impartiality the Severity the Unsupportableness and the Unavoidableness of his Judgments and our Duties in respect of them First The Equity of his Judgments that God is most righteous in all and can do none wrong and punishes all less than they deserve Ezra 9. Ignorant Persons and wicked Men would make him a God made all of mercy but you must know and consider He is as just as he is merciful and Infinite in both as Infinite in Mercy to Pardon the Penitent so Infinite in Justice to Punish the Impenitent Whence you shal find that where his Nature is laid down He is described by his Justice as well as his Mercy Exo. 34.6 7 8. and Nah. 1.2 3 4. Secondly The Impaâ—tiality of his Justice and Judgments He never did nor will connive at any sin or sinner He did not in his own Son who knew no sin yet because He took upon Him our sin therefore He laid upon Him the fierceness of His Wrath Lament 1.12 and if He would not spare sin in His own Son certainly he will not in others that go on impenitently and securely in any sin for there is no respect of Persons with God He regards not the Rich more than the Poor the Noble than the Ignoble the Wise than the Simple He will spare neither King nor Subject High nor Low Rich nor Poor Old nor Young no not His own People if they sin against Him Amos 3. You only have I known of all the Families of the Earth therefore I will surely punish you for your Iniquities Thirdly The severity and terribleness of His Judgment in all Ages upon Persons Families Towns Cities Kingdoms Countrys all impenitent and incorrigible sinners you may see it in His Judgments on the old World Sodom and Gomorrah Egypt and Jerusalem You may read more in Levit. 26. Deut. 28. Psal 7.11 12 13. Psal 11.5 6 7. Isaiah 1.33 Mal. 4.1 Zeph. 1. to the end Fourthly Meditate on the unsupportableness of God's Judgment Psal 90.11 Who knows the power of thy anger Ezek. 22.14 Can thy heart endure or thy hands be strong in the day that I shall deal with thee Isaiah 33.14 The sinners in Zion are afraid fearfulness hath surpriz'd the Hypocrites Who shall dwell with devouring Fire and everlasting Burnings and Nahum 1.2 3. Jer. 10.10 Fifthly On the unavoidableness of his Wrath Amos 9.1 to the 6. Though they dig to Hell thence shall my hand take them though they clime up to Heaven thence will I bring them down Sixthly To take notice and meditate on thâ— Duties the Scripture frequently calls upon you to perform in respect of the Judgments of God 〈◊〉 shall but name a few because they are obvious to you in reading the Scriptures as these To take notice of them and lay them to heart to searcâ— and try your ways what special sins of yourâ— have had a hand in pulling down and continuing of these Judgments upon you and others Tâ— humble your selves before the Lord under them for your sins that were the cause of them To accept of the punishment of your iniquity and acknowledge the Lord is not only righteous but gracious in punishing you less than you deserve And Lastly To turn every one of you from the evil of his doings and learn righteousness by his Judgments that are on the Earth Isaiah 26.9 Secondly To meditate on the parts of Providence which are three Observation Preservation Gubernation First God He observes and takes notice of all and every Creature Pro. 15.3 His Eys run to and fro thorow the Earth beholding the evil and the good Heb. 4.13 All things are open and naked to him with whom we have to do but especially he observes and takes notice of his Own Psal 33.18 Behold the eye of the Lord iâ— upon them that fear him and hope in his mercy Psal 34.15 His Eyes are upon the righteous and his Ear open unto their Prayer Secondly God preserves all and every Creature Man and Beast Nehem. 9.6 but especially his Children Job 5.19 Isaiah 43.1 2. Thirdly God He governs all and every Creature to those ends and by those means which He hath appointed He Rules in all the Kingdoms of the World but especially in Jacob Isaiah 46.3 He is their God and Guide unto death Psal 48. last All these parts of Providence are full of wonder that God being so High and Holy above the Creature should humble Himself to respect things done in Heaven and Earth that He should not only give a Beeing to the Creatures but uphold them in their Beeing that he should not only vouchsafe the means to bring them to their ends but order and dispose of all those means to those ends Oh the wonderful condescention of the great God to his poor worthless Creatures Psal 31.19 Oh how great is thy goodness c. Then Thirdly To meditate on the extent of this Providence not only to every Creature but to the least act of every Creature so as not a Sparrow falls on the ground or Hair from the Head or a Tyle from the House or a Word from the Mouth or an Answer from the Tongue no nor a Thought from the Heart without the Lord Mat. 10.29 30. Pro. 16.1 Fourthly Meditate on the ends of his Providence viz. His own glory and the good of his Church and People Whatsoever He doth in the World He doth in relation First To his own glory Rom. 11. last
over the Creatures he that was Superiour to all was made inferiour to all Psal 49.20 Isai 1.3 Jer. 8.7 The Prophet puts them to School to all to learn of the Creatures 4. As Man lost his preheminence so his authority over all he that was Lord over all became a Slave to all who instead of serving Man rebels against Man labours to pick out his Eys Pro. 30.17 to eat his Flesh and lap up his Blood 2 King 9.36 Sixthly Man lost his liberty by Creation he was a free Denizen and Citizen of the World all at his command but presently after the Fall became a Slave and was in Bondage to all the Devil the World and the Flesh 1. To the Devil taken and carried Captive by him to do his pleasure 2 Tim. 2 last Eph. 2.2 2. To the World so as to be drawn aside from that which is good and drawn into evil by the baits and allurements of it on the one hand and the menaces and persecutions of it on the other 1 Epist Joh. 4.5 whence that of James 4.4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses c. and 1 John 2.15 3. To the Flesh to do whatsoever it shall suggest for the gaining and retaining of honour and profit and pleasure Rom. 6.16 John 8.34 2 Pet. 2.19 and in this slavery and bondage all Men and Women are by nature and that not unwillingly and grudgingly but readily and cheerfully and with the greatest delight so far from being desirous to be brought out of it as they account those their greatest Enemies that would endeavour to bring them out of it Jer. 18. There is no hope but we will walk every â—ne after the imagination of our own hearts Jer. 43.1 2 3. Jer. 44.16 17. Thus you see the greatness of the punishment of loss Et heu quantum mutatus ab illo How much is Man alter'd from his first estate Tristis Lacrymosa commutatio a most sad and lamentable change you see from favour to wrath from fellowship to banishment instead of the Image of God the image of sin and Satan for glory misery for dignity infamy for dominion subjection for liberty slavery Secondly For the Positive part of punishment or the punishment of Sense that followed the fall upon every Son and Daughter of Adam and that was the curse of God Gal. 3.10 and what is this curse but the infinite and unsupportable wrath of God and all manner of Plagues Judgments and Miseries in Life at Death and after Death 1. In this life in Soul and Body in Name and Estate 1. In Soul blindness of mind hardness of heart Isai 6.9 a reprobate sense Rom. 1.23.26 strong delusions 2 Thes 2.11 horrors of conscience Isai 65.13 seconded with Hellish despair and blasphemy as in Cain Saul Judas 2. In Body all manner of aches sicknesses diseases Deut. 28.21 to the end 3. In name infamy shame reproach Deut. 28. â—â— 37. 4. In Estate losses crosses curses in getting cares in keeping fears in losing sorrows and that many times unto death Deut 28.16 Jer. 12.13 Mal. 2.2 I will curse your blessings yea I have curst them already Secondly In the end of this life death the King of terrors Rom. 5.12 Rom. 6. last Job 18.14 Thirdly After this life if men die in their sins impenitentâ—â— 1. As soon as the Soul is separated from the Body it is immediately carried by the Devil into Hell Luke 12.20 and there kept in Prison till the Day of Judgment 1 Pet. 3.19 the Body thrown into the Grave where Death gnaws upon it as upon Carrion in a ditch with the mouth full of Earth and the Belly full of Worms and the Carkass full of stinch 2. At the Day of Judgment by the Almighty Power of the Lord Jesus Christ the Supream Judg of Heaven and Earth the Soul is brought out of Hell and the Body out of the Grave out of which as soon as it begins to peep it shall behold the whole World on Fire about its Ears Christ on his Throne of Glory the Saints whom they derided and persecuted taken up into the Clouds to be assessors with Christ in Judgment upon the wicked World whil'st they with the Devils are left below to stand forth before the Tribunal of Christ and hear that dreadful Sentence Depart ye cursed into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels wherein every word is a Hell before they come to Hell 3. After the Sentence is past all wicked Reprobates shall be thrust away from the Judgment Seat of Christ and thrown into Hell with the Devils there to lie and fry and cry under easless endless and remediless torments And thus much of the cursed state of man by transgression and the things to be meditated on in it That your meditation on them may be the more effectual to cause you speedily to hye out of it 1. Beg the Spirit of God to convince you thorowly of the truth of it it being no other than what God hath spoken in his Word and we find by bitter experience 2. Labour to be truly sensible of and deeply humbled under the fight and sense of it so as to give no rest to your selves until that you are brought out of it for the promises of mercy run only unto such Mat. 9.13 Luke 19.10 Mat. 11.29 And that you may be truly sensible of and effectually humbled under it beg the Spirit of God to prick your hearts with the consideration of it as he did those Converts Acts 2.37 and tremble to stay a moment in your unregenerate estate as the Jaylor Acts 16. when Paul had preacht unto him 4. Be willing to receive Jesus Christ on his own terms not only as your Jesus but your Lord and Christ John 1.12 Rom. 13. end Lastly Hearken to that Counsel of your Lord and Saviour Mark 1.15 Repent and believe the Gospel and then his promise is to receive all and cast away no one Soul that comes to him and rests upon him for Conversion and Salvation Joh 6 37. Amen Sect. 3. The third state of Man is his gracious state by Regeneration and here to take notice of and meditate on these things First The free and unsearchable love of God to us in it 2. The nature of it what it is and wherein it consists 3. The differences of true grace from false grace from restraining grace 4. Degrees of true sanctifying grace 5. The signs of it 6. The priviledges of such as have it 7. The motives to it 8. The means for the maintaining encreasing and persevering in it First For the free unsearchable love and grace of God to his in not leaving his Elect in their fallen cursed condition but in his appointed time effectually calling all such as belong unto his Election of grace out of a state of nature into a state of grace God might have for ever passed by fallen Man-kind as well as he did the fallen Angels though he lookt in mercy upon some he might have passed
Lord. Secondly To meditate on such things as may not only fit and prepare you for death but meditate on such things as may make you willing to die and help you to die comfortably What are they Mind here well for they are of special use to you As first 1. The certainty of another and a better life after this nothing so sure as that by what you have seen already by the testimony of Scripture and many weighty grounds of it in your meditations on the Life of Glory 2. Meditate on the evidences you have of an interest in that better Life of Glory as your interest in God in Christ in the Spirit and in the Graces of the Spirit as your effectual Vocation Justification Adoption Sanctification and those Graces unto which 't is promised as Saving Sanctifying Knowledge Faith Repentance Obedience love to the Saints the Truth sincerity and uprightness of your heart in all to which you may see it frequently promised Psal 84. to the end Psal 37. v. 37. Isa 57.2 Thirdly To meditate on the many and weighty grounds God hath given to encourage your Faith and strengthen your Patience and cause both to have their perfect work 1. To encourage your Faith as 1. his immutable decree 2 Tim. 2.19 2. His unchangeable Love Jer. 31.3 3. His everlasting Covenant Jer. 32.39 4. His continual Intercession Heb. 7.25 5. His almighty Power to keep them through Faith unto Salvation 2 Pet. 1.4 however we should let go our Faith yet he will hold it fast by his Spirit 2. The grounds to strengthen our Patience 1. It 's a Lord whose Will cannot be resisted a Father who ought readily to be obeyed a wise Father who knows what is better for his Children then they do for themselves a pittiful tender-hearted Father that is afflicted in all the afflictions of his that will not afflict his too much because he knows whereof they are made that they are but Dust nor too long lest the Spirit faint and the Soul which he hath made a Father from whom they have received all the good they have had and therefore to be contented to receive a little evil and the rather because it is in order to their spiritual and eternal good Rom. 8.2 Ah! but the pains of my Body are great and the pangs of Death are bitter but to quiet your spirits under these Consider 1. That the pangs of Death are sometimes less then the pains they feel before as to Mr. Bolton who said to his Friend that askt him How it was with him when the pangs of death were upon him He said to him Your cold hand is the greatest pain I feel in his Epistle to the Four last Things 2. You are content to undergoe a great deal of pain here for a little gain how much more should you for an eternal gain These pains are but like the throwes in Travail to bring forth eternal Life 3. Whatsoever your pains and sufferings are they are little or nothing to those your sins made Christ to suffer and that many of his dear and precious Saints have and do suffer and to those eternal sufferings Christ hath redeemed you from and that exceeding excessive and eternal weight of glory that will follow your sufferings 2 Cor. 4.17 Fourthly To meditate on the many and great evils that Death will free you from as 1. from a body of Sin and Death that is still inclining you to evil and indisposing you to good still dulling deading and distracting you in all the services you do 2. From a wicked World wherein continually we see and hear what doth and should more vex our souls 2 Pet. 2. 3. From the dissention of Brethren who are continually undermining the credit and comfort one of another which made Melancton so willing to die when a Friend of his askt him how it was with him and whether he were willing to die He answered Oh yes Not only that he might be freed from a body of Sin and Death and a wicked World but from the dissention of Brethren and go there where all shall be perfected in love 4. From a malicious Devil that is still tempting us to evil and discouraging us from all that is good walking up and down like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5. In a word from all Labours Pains Fears Doubts Sorrows Sufferings Rev. 14.13 Rev. 21.4 Death will perfectly cure you of all Diseases Corporeal and Spiritual at once both an aking Head and an unbelieving Heart a sickly Body and a distemper'd Spirit the best Physitian that ever you met with Fifthly To meditate on the many and great benefits Death will help you to as that glorious Place Company Imployment Priviledges you saw before in the Life of Glory the continual Presence of God the blessed Vision of God the immediate perfect and everlasting communion with God perfection of Holiness fulness of Joy and an everlasting Sabbath Sixthly To consider the evil of being unwilling to die By this Christians manifest too much ignorance unbelief hypocrisie love to the World senslesness of the body of Sin and Death that World of wickedness they live in and hereby procure more disquiet to their Spirits and hasten Death the sooner upon them besides the great unreasonableness of it that when God should be so willing of their company they should be so unwilling of his and when Christ should be content to leave Heaven and to come to Earth for them they should be unwilling to leave Earth to go to Heaven that they might enjoy him and know and profess it to be best of all to be with Jesus Christ Seventhly To meditate on the good of being willing to die Hereby you will make a vertue of necessity seeing you cannot put it off therefore you will voluntarily yeeld to it hereby you will manifest your hatred of sin contempt of the World Faith in God's Promises Love to God desire of immediate Communion with him honour your Christian Profession and make Death the less terrible to you Eighthly and Lastly Consider what the Apostle sayes 1 Cor. 13. to the end Death is yours Yours no way to hurt you but every way to do you good 1. No way to hurt you because however it be a Serpent yet 't is a Serpent without a sting by stinging of Jesus Christ to death it lost its sting so that though it may hiss yet it cannot hurt however the Devil brought Jesus Christ unto the Cross unto Death unto the Grave yet therein Jesus Christ out-shot the Devil in his own Bow spoiled Principalities and Powers and made a shew of it openly tryumphing over them on the Cross Col. 2.15 And that it can no way hurt you appears further by these Particulars 1. In that it is not the destruction or annihilation either of Soul or Body but onely the alteration and change of their condition for the better As for instance 1. In the Body The Body by Death is freed from
Christ here if you will have him to own you hereafter before all the World Mat. 10.32 But if you be ashamed of him he will of you 6. And Lastly You must hearken to that of our Saviour Luk. 21.36 Watch and pray alwayes that you may be accounted worthy to escape all those things which shall come to pass and stand before the Son of Man 1. Watch for his coming as to general so to particular Judgment which you know not how soon it may be Blessed is he that watches and keeps his Garment Rev. 14. Blessed is the Servant whom when his Lord shall come doth find so doing Mat. 25. 2. Pray pray without ceasing that whensoever he comes you may be able to bid him welcome and lift up your heads because your Redemption draws nigh Amen These special things you are to meditate on in and about the Day of Judgment and the rather because many and great will be the benefits of it For 1. it will make you to take the more heed to your thoughts words and wayes seeing all must come to judgment 2. It will quicken you to get and clear up your interest in Christ and make him your Friend that so you may find him an Advocate instead of a Judge 3. It will cause you to erect a Tribunal here and sit in judgment on your selves that so you may not be condemned with the wicked World 4. It will stir you up to a more faithful discharge of your duties as it did the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.8 10. Knowing the terror of the Lord we perswade men and labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him 5. It will make you take heed how you censure and judge others Rom. 14.10 and slight what others censure and judge of you 1 Cor. 4.3 4. Seeing we must all be â—udged of the Lord and we are sure he will judge 〈◊〉 â—â—â—teous judgment acquit the Innocent and condemn only the Nocent Thirdly Of HELL In and about that to meditate on these things What Hell is The hideousness of the place The greatness of the punishment both of loss and sense The eternity of it How inexpressibly they bewail their folly in bringing themselves there What they would be willing to do and suffer they might get out of it And what our duties are in respect of it 1. What Hell is viz. That place which God hath prepared and appointed to be the habitation of the Devil and wicked Reprobates to punish them with everlasting torments for the praise of the glory of his Justice That there is such a place is clear out of the Word Mat. 25. last Mark 9.43 to 49. 2 Thess 1.8 9. 2. The hideousness and dreadfulness of the place called A great Deep a bottomless Pit Rev. 9.1 A Prison 1 Pet. 3.19 Darkness and utter darkness Mat. 22.13 A Lake of Fire Rev. 19.20 3. The greatness of the punishment there both of loss and sense 1. Of lâ—ss not only of all Honours Riches Pleasures and Comforts of this Life but a separation for ever from the gracious presence of God and bliss of the Saints 2 Thess 1.9 Quod omnium omnino suppliciorum summum quo Deus homines punire potest The greatest punishment God can inflict upon the Creature Nam uti videre Deum ipsissima beatitudo est ita Deum videre non posse maxima damnatorum poena est saith a Father As the happiness of the Saints consists in the Vision of God so the misery of the damned in that they are deprived of the presence of God this is that which they call paena damni the punishment of loss 2. For the paena sensus the punishment of sense That is so great as it cannot be greater Luke 16.23 I am horribly tormented in this flame saith Dives And needs must it be so 1. In respect of the things they are to suffer as the Worm that never dyeth and the Fire that never goes out Mark 9.44 A Fire that so far exceeds in torment this earthly Fire as real Fire doth painted Fire now Fire of all torments is the greatest and Fire with Brimstone of all fires the hottest Rev. 21.8 Isa 20.23 And as extremity of fire so some think of cold because it is said There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth 2. The torment is so great in respect of the extent of it because it is to be inflicted on the whole Man Soul and Body every faculty and power of both none here being free from sin none there shall be free from punishment and if the pain of one member sometimes be unsufferable here what must the torture of all if a drop of God's Wrath be so bitter what will be the Sea of God's Vengeance 3. So great in respect of the ground of their suffering to wit the infinite wrath of God which the whole Creation cannot stand under much less a poor weak sinful Worm of the Earth 4. To meditate on the eternity of the punishment in Hell After the damned have been in those torments as many thousands and millions of years as there be Creatures in the World and motions in those Creatures they are as far from ending as at the first beginning for the wicked shall go into everlasting punishment Mat. 25. last There the Worm of Conscience never dies and the Fire of Hell never goes out and if a gnawing oâ— a Worm in the Tooth or the Bowels the holding of the hand or the foot in the fire but a few â—ours be unsufferable what will the eternity of it be Well might he cry out Oh! Eternity Eternity Eternity in Hell for ever for ever for ever Eternity is enough to make the least punishment though it were but the biting of Fleas or stinging of Ants intollerable 5. Meditate on the remedilessness of those torments As they are endless so they are remediless Insernus sine misericordis quos tenet cruciat saith one Ther 's neither Silver nor Gold Wit nor Policy Might or Power can help neither Tears nor Prayers Sighs nor Groans Vows nor Promises Cries nor Wishes never to have been or to have been the vilest of Creatures will be heard or prevail no nor any Creature in Heaven or Earth to interceed for them nay should all the Angels and Saints in Heaven fall down at the feet of Christ to beg mercy for one Soul it would be to no purpose Christ would deny them all there without mercy without pitty without remedy they must lie and cry and never die whence that pathetical wish of the Lord Deut. 32. Oh that men were wise c. 6. Meditate on the sad company wicked men shall have in Hell Viz. No other then the Devil and his Angels Mat. 25.41 And if Job complained that he was a Companion for Owls Job 30.29 and David cries out Wo is me that I dwell in Mesech c. Psal 120.5 How will the wicked then to have no other Companions than the Devils If the appearance of an
2. Because they are Holy Spirits and cannot indure to see any unholy or unclean behaviour 4thly To imitate the Blessed Angels especially in these four things 1. their Humility 2. Piety 3. Charity 4. Alacrity 1. Their Humility Though they be glorious Spirits yet they are content to stoop to the meanest Servants of God at God's Command they came down from Heaven to bring glad tydings of Salvation to poor Shepherds are willing to wait on those that are despised of men Mat. 18.10 how much more should we stoop to one another and serve one another in love see the command Rom. 12.3.16 2. To imitate them in their Piety They are God-like Holy as he is Holy therefore called 〈◊〉 Holy Angels Mark 8.38 And we are commandâ—◠〈◊〉 be Holy as God is Holy 1 Tim. 1.15 They seek nor their own Glory but the Lords Isa 〈…〉 so we are commanded 1 Cor. 〈…〉 They stand ready prest to know and do the Will of God Psal 103.21 And we are commanded Tuâ—â— 3. â— Be ready to every good work They do it also zealously Dan. 9.21 He make 〈◊〉 Angels a flame of Fire and this we are commâ—nded Rev. 3.19 Be zealous and amend And they do it constantly Matth. 18.10 And we are commanded 1 Cor. 15. last Be stedfast uâ—â—oveable alwayes abounding in the Work of the Lord c. Gal. 6.10 Be not weary of well doing And all this is no other then what we are taught to pray for in the Lords Prayer in these words Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven That is universally sincerely chearfully constantly 3. In their Charity They not only love one another but they love us and in love to us they are content to stoop to any Service wherein they may express their love to us how much more should we love one the other and as the Apostle exhorts serve one another in love and the rather because it is the express command of Christ and he hath given himself an Example of it and made it the chief character of a Disciple of his John 13.35 4. To imitate them in their Joy They rejoyce continually in the Glory of God the Exaltation of Christ the Conversation of Sinners the Salvation of Souls the Glorification of the Saints together with themselves how much more should we rejoyce in these things seeing the benefit redounds not so much to them as to us 6th Duty Not to fear the malice and rage of the Evil Angels for however the Evil Angels endeavour to do all the mischief they can to the Godly and God permits them to do it to wicked men Psal 78.49 50. and sometimes to afflict the Godly Job 1.6 yet here 's our comfort All the Godly have the Good Angels to protect them that they cannot hurt them as they would however Evil Angels may have a permission from God to do them evil yet the Good Angels have alwayes a Commission from God to do them good Psal 103. to the end And the power of Good Angels is more and greater then of the Evil they having lost much of it by their fall and therefore not so much to fear them A King that hath his Guard about him fears no danger how much less should we who have though not of men yet a Guard of Angels 2 Kings 6.16 7th Duty Not slavishly to fear Death but to wellcome it whensoever it comes seeing it is the last Office the Angels do for the Saints here to attend on their Death-beds and take the care of their Souls and carry them after Death to the Spirits of Just Men made perfect Luke 16.22 Heb. 12.22 Lastly Remember still to return God the Glory of this Glorious Priviledge the enjoyment of the Ministry of Angels and all the good and comfort you have reapt by it The Shepherds Luk. 2.20 having heard of the glad tydings brought by the Ministry of Angels they returned glorifying and praysing God but not the Angels the Angels ought to have their due reverence and respect for their Ministry but we are to give the honour and glory of it only to God Thus Daniel 6.22 and Peter Acts 12.11 they did not ascribe the deliverance to the Angels but unto God that sent his Angels And great cause have we to glorifie God in and for their Ministry 1. In respect of the great honour God conferreth on us in vouchsafing such honourable Guardians to us 2. In respect of the great good that comes to us by them not only in protecting us from those evil spirits which rule in the Air but the quickning and leadings to the following and guidance of his ever blessed Spirit of Grace 3. Because they are only instruments in God's Hand it 's God alone is the Author of all the good we receive by them Make these uses of the Ministry of Angels and you will be sure to reap much benefit and comfort by it and to have them still to attend upon you and minister to you in Life and Death and after Death 1. In Life to preserve you from evil and to incourage you in that which is good to comfort you in and deliver you out of trouble 2. In Death to stand about your Beds and keep off the evil Spirits and chear up your own Spirits arm you against the terrors of Death and as soon as your Soul shall be separate from the Body to carry it to the Spirits of Just Men made perfect And 3. after Death at the last and great Day to open your Graves and bring out your Bodies and take them up into the Air to the Accessors with Jesus Christ in judgment on the wicked World and after that to conduct you into Heaven there to be for ever with the Lord and with them still glorifying God the Father for God the Son by God the Spirit to all Eternity Amen Secondly For the Evil Angels and Devils Sect. 2. In and about them to take notice of and meditate on these things 1. That there are such 2. What they are 3. How they became such 4. What their punishment 5. What their Office or Work is 6. What their Properties or Qualities are Lastly What our duties are in respect of them 1. That there are such evil Spirits or Devils is abundantly manifest by the testimony of the Scripture and their frequent Temptations Apparitions Possessions and Dispossessions the Scripture often mentions in the Old New Testament In the Old we read that the Devil was a lying spirit in the mouth of the false Prophets 1 Kings 22. and that Satan stir'd up David to number the People 1 Chron. 21.1 and how he afflicted Job cap. 1. and that he stood at the right hand of Joshua to resist him Zach. 3.1 In the New Testament we read how he tempted Christ Mat. 4. and how Christ cast him out of many possest by him as for those Atheists and Epicures that question it they have some of them been forced to acknowledge it here to their horror
shut any from Mercy but onely unbelief and impenitency be but willing to see and leave sin and you cannot desire so much mercy but there is infinitely more in God for you Isa 55.6 7. Let the wicked man forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts c. Oh but saith the Devil This promise is made onely to such as turn from their wicked thoughts but you do not you have swarms of wicked thoughts arising in your minds and therefore you cannot expect a pardon Tell Satan he is a lyar in this for though they arise there they have no entertainment there which is only that which God condemns Jer 4.14 No man can keep a Bird from flying over his head but he may from nestling there so however you cannot keep Satan from injecting such wicked thoughts yet you may and ought to resolve in and thorow the Grace of Jesus Christ not to give way to them and so long as you do so know in the next place 5. These atheistical and blasphemous thoughts they are only your crosses but Satans sins they shall never be charged on you so long as you hate them and are burden'd with them however there be much of your corruption in them God will never impute that which you do not allow of as the Apostle comforts himself Rom. 7. The evil I do I allow not c. 6. If you would get power and victory over these hellish injections you must take notice of Satans drift and scope in them and labour to disappoint him in it His scope is To rob God of the glory of his Grace and either keep you from duty or distract you in it and make you weary of it and therefore to cross him in his end which that you may do mind well these particulars 1. That you do not conceal but reveal unto some wise faithful experienced Minister or Christian what it is that doth so much trouble you that they may advise and direct you what to do in and under such a temptation and when you do it take heed you do not like the Lapwing cry farthest from the Nest reveal some things but conceal that which chiefly troubles you for that will but keep encrease your trouble and therefore to be faithful to God and others and your own Souls in your confessions and complaints of your corruptions and temptations 2. Take heed you do not reason with Satan about those wicked thoughts that so much trouble you for he is too old and cunning a Sophister to parley with and will be sure to disquiet you the more 3. When such atheistical blasphemous wicked thoughts arise though you are to be humbled under them and lift up an ejaculation for pardon and power over them yet take heed be not over dejected and cast down by them so as to cast away your confidence for the more he seeth you are afflicted with them the more he will inject them 4. The more he labours by his injections to keep you from duty and distract in duty do you labour to be the more forward to duty and intent in duty and when he sees that he is slighted he will trouble you the less and grow weary of his injections 5. When such wicked thoughts arise in your mind labour to cross them with the contrary good thoughts and that you shall find will abate much the power of them Lastly Take notice of and make Conscience of those duties which God requires of you in order to your victory over such hellish temptations to atheism and blasphemy and the like as these 1. Patiently to submit unto God's correcting hand and take heed of breaking forth into passion or any unseemly carriage under them as the Prophet gives you an example Mic. 7.9 2. Be thankful to God that it is not worse with you and that you find any support under them as you may find the Church was Lam. 3.22 23. 3. Be content to stay and wait God's time till he come and take off Satan and speak peace unto you for it is only he can do it and not Men nor Angels as you may see clearly Job 34.29 and he hath promised to do it in his time Isa 57.11 Isa 54.7 8. And therefore to wait his time as the Saints have done before you Isa 8.17 Psalm 85.8 I will hearken what God will speak c. If you thus wait upon the Lord the Lord will wait to be gracious unto you Isa 30.18 and will shortly tread Satan under your feet Rom. 16. and either speak peace to you on Earth or for ever in Heaven Isa 64.4 Isa 57.2 And therefore to conclude let me perswade you to hearken unto and follow the counsel of the Prophet Isa 50.10 Who is there amongst you that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the Voice of his Servant walks in darkness and sees no light let him trust in the Name of the Lord and stay himself upon his God So long as you are such as fear to sin against the Lord in the least thing and are careful to obey the Voice of his Servant in the ministry of his Word the Lord himself tells you He is your God and your duty is to trust in his Name and to stay your selves upon him for Light and Comfort Pardon and Peace Salvation and Deliverance from Sin and Satan and all the powers of Darkness Amen And thus much of Solemn and Deliberate Meditation in and about which I have shewed you those special things you are to meditate on in and about God and Christ and the Spirit and Man and the World and the Good and Evil Angels by which God governs the World That you may with more profit and comfort meditate on them look back to the Rules I gave you for the right manner of performing this duty especially mind these two things The doing of it Orderly and Constantly 1. Orderly Begin with God and then go on day after day with the other Heads until you have gone through all and meditate on one thing one day and another thing another day And because your memory is weak take your Book to look into and call things to your remembrance and make choice of that Subject which may be most seasonable and suitable to the present occasion and your own and others necessity 2. Be careful to be constant in it because constancy will imprint them the more in your memory and work them the more home upon your heart keep you in a sweet spiritual and heavenly frame prepare and fit you more for Death and Judgment whensoever it shall please the Lord to call you to it Do but make experience awhile and you will find so much sweetness in it and profit by it as you will continually bless God that you have been so directed to it and quickned in it CHAP. IX Of Occasional and Sudden Meditation There 's nothing we see or do from our rising up to our lying down but giveth us some occasion of Spiritual and
buying the Truth that will save your souls Prov. 23.23 And whilst you look after the gain of the World think on that of Isa 55.1 Wherefore do you lay out your money for that which cannot satisfie c. And that of our Saviour What will it profit a man to win the whole World and lose his Soul c. And that of Christ to Martha Luke 10.42 Martha Martha thou art cum bered about many things but there 's one thing necessary c. XII When you are about to take a Journey as you are trevelling in the way think on this Your life is but a Journey you are in a constant motion to Eternity every action is but a step every day and hour brings you nearer to Heaven or Hell and therefore you had need look to this that you be in the right way that you may not miscarry for ever and to this end to pray to the Lord that he would remember his promise Psal 32.8 He would instruct in the way wherein you should go and guide you by his eye that he would be your God for ever and guide you unto Death guiding you by his counsel until he hath received you into Glory XIII When you are about to use the Creatures in the Morning at Noon and Evening think thus Oh what a great House-keeper is the Lord that provides for the whole Family of Heaven and Earth What a bountiful Master do I serve that provides so liberally for me and me above many and not only gives the Creature but an appetite to it when many of his want both When you are eating Bread think on the Bread which came down from Heaven to feed your Souls and how blessed they are that eat of this Bread in the Kingdom of Heaven Luke 14.15 Think also on that of our Saviour Man lives not by bread alone but every word that proceeds out of the Mouth of God Though Bread is the Staff of our Life it is the Blessing of God is the strength of that Staff and he that maintains our natural Life by dead Creatures is as able to nourish our Souls in Spiritual Life to Eternal Life by dead Ordinances how weak and contemptible soever they seeâ— in the eye of Carnal Reason XIV When you walk abroad and view the World think what a great and mighty a God is he that made so great and mighty a Fabrick out of nothing by his very Word think what a precious Soul you have that is of more worth then all the World and what cause you have therefore to value it above all the World and not to hazzard it for the gaining of the World XV. When you look up and behold the glory of the Heavens the Sun the Moon and the Stars think and say with David Lord what is Man that thou shouldst make all this for Man the greater Light to rule the Day and the lesser to rule the Night Psal 8.3 If the Light of Heaven be so sweet how sweet is the Light of thy Countenance If there be so much glory and influence in the Sun of the World what is there in the Son of Righteousness And how great will the glory of the Saints be at the last day when their glorified Bodies shall outshine the glory of the Sun Oh how glorious is the Church that is cloathed with the Sun and hath the Moon under her feet Revel 12. When you take notice of the Moon borrowing of her Light from the Sun and losing her light at the rising of the Sun every month changing her appearance increasing or decreasing her Light think how like our life is to the Moon full of changes and variety of conditions And from whom is it we must receive any light of comfort under them and be directed in them but from the Son of Righteousness XVI When you look up and behold the Clouds and see how they are supported without any outward means and carried up and down like Feathers in the Air God can as easily support his under all clouds of temptation when you see those Clouds dispersed by the Beams of the Sun then think how easily one Beam of the Son of Righteousness can scatter all the clouds of temptation when you see the Clouds think upon Jesus Christ who as he went up to Heaven in the Clouds so he will come again in the Clouds to Judgment XVII When you look downward and behold the Earth think from whence you came and where you must return Dust thou art and to dust thou must that it is the Mother of us all and the place appointed for all the living your bodies must descend first into the Earth before they can ascend up into Heaven and therefore as the Grave waits for us we should wait for it When you behold the fruitfulness of the Trees and the Plants of the Earth how every one brings forth its Fruit in due season such are or ought to be every Godly Man and Woman Trees of Righteousness bringing forth Fruit to God otherwise it will be a foul shame for Christians to remain barren and unfruitful under such plentiful dews and droppings from Heaven XVIII When you feel the powerful operation and working of the Air and of the Winds though you do not see them think thus If I believe there is Air and Wind though I do not see them then I should much more believe there is a God that made them though I do not see him and if there be so much power and vertue in them to preserve and take away life how much more in God that puts this power and vertue into them XIX When you walk abroad and view the Fowls of the Air and the Beasts of the Earth and the Fish of the Sea and the rest of the Creatures think thus they were all made for my use and service and therefore are as so many Obligations and should be as so many incouragements to serve God in all and for all and above all see Job 12.7 8 9 10 11 12. There is no Creature but teacheth us something 1. Ask the Beasts and they 'l teach you the Ox and Ass to know and acknowledge their Owner Isa 1. The Horse and the Mule they will shew you the stubborn and refractory nature of Man the Sheep our wandring dispositions and to know hearken too and follow our Shepherd John 10. To be dumb like a Sheep before the Shearer and not open your mouths as Christ was Isa 53. and the Lamb will remember you how Christ was brought as a Lamb to the slaughter and that though he was like a Lamb without spot and blemish the Dog and the Swine will mind you of the uncleanness of sinners and the hatefulness of Apostacy in causing men to return with the Dog to the Vomit and the Sow to her wallowing in the Mire the Serpent will teach you wisdom in preserving your selves and the Ant in making provision for the future 2. Ask the Fowls of the Air and they
affected with what we hear or read out of the Word Deutr. 6.6 These words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart and it cannot be in the heart if we do not meditate on it Thirdly Without meditation it will not stay or abide on the heart it is meditation that keeps it and fastens it and makes it like letters Engraven on Gold and Marble to abide long Fourthly Because Not to meditate on the Word is to offer contempt to the Word as a Man doth to that Person and thing which he never regards to mind and think on and Prov. 13 13. He that despiseth the Word shall be destroyed Fifthly Because without meditation when Men come to lie on their sick and Death-beds their Eyes will be opened to see and bewail their folly for a Man to walk in a way and never consider where he is going and what mischief may befall him in it How will he befool himself How will he wish he had hearkned to God's counsels Deut. 32. Oh that men were wise understood this consider their latter end Many have lamented when it was too late let us take warning by others harming Prov. 5.12 13. 1. It is an Angelical service the only and the chief Service that we know of that the Angels are exercised in sc the meditation of God's glorious excellencies will and ways and works and therefore if we would attain to the Height of Angels it must be by Meditation Dr. Holdsworth on Psal 119.48 2dly A second motive is the transcendent Excellency of this duty First It is a duty most pleasing and acceptable unto God above all other duties above all Ear-service Tongue-service and Hand-service if there be not Head and Heart-service he abhors all Isaiah 29.13 But now meditation that makes all acceptable whatsoever defects and failings there be in the rest the reasons are First Because meditation comes immediately from the heart which is that God principally looks to and delights in Secondly Because the secresie of it is accompanied with more humility and sincerity which are the graces God so much prizeth Thirdly Because it is a duty ordinarily more full of spiritualness and heavenliness than other duties are Fourthly The excellency of it appears in that nothing is able to hinder us from it no Time nor Tyrant though they may from speaking and acting yet not from meditating and thinking on God and the things of God the mind of the greatest Slave is still free to think on what he will Fifthly It is that which will transform us more into the Image of God from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3. ult As a Pearl by the frequent beating of the Sun-beams upon it becomes more lightsome and radiant like the Sun so Meditation not only makes the faces of Christians to shine but their lives in the Eys of all God Angels and Men good and bad Sixthly In that it is an Anticipation of glory a perspective to shew us the glory of Heaven Jacob's Ladder to carry us up to Heaven a taking possession of Heaven in our minds before we come there in our bodies by this we may with Stephen see Christ standing at the right hand of God ready to receive us and with Moses talk with God face to face and with the Apostle be rapt up to Heaven and see that happiness we are loath to leave and cannot utter what it is 2 Cor. 12. The Third Motive is the great Utility of this duty no duty more profitable for Humiliation Consolation Edification and Salvation First For Humiliation Meditation makes men look into and seriously consider the lives of their ways the multitude and greatness of their sins the Circumstances that do aggravate them the sad fruits and effects of them and so humble themselves the more thorowly under them As Peter after he had denied his Lord and Master when he reflected and consider'd whom he had denied and who he was that denied him and how often he had denied him it made him go out and weep bitterly whereas on the contrary if men never set apart any time to meditate of the sinfulness of their nature the evil of their ways and the circumstances by which they are aggravated they can never be humbled under them as they ought Jerem. 8 6. No man repents of his wickedness Why because no man said What have I done c. Secondly Most profitable for Consolation First Because it makes men to look after the Remedy the grace of God hath vouchsafed to free them from sin and misery and labour to know Jesus Christ who he is and what he hath done and suffer'd for them and what they must do to get an interest in his Merits Graces Benefits Secondly It makes them to acquaint themselves with the Covenant of Grace which he hath made and seal'd in the blood of his Son to get an interest in it and those many and precious promises of pardon and peace salvation and deliverance all Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus as you may see in David Psalm 94.19 Whereas without meditation men are careless of these things and so deprive themselves of that support and comfort which otherwise they might have in time of trouble Thirdly That which will clear up a work of grace evidence them to be truly gracious Souls according to that of the wise man Prov. 23.7 As he thinketh in his heart so is he As a Man's thoughts are such is the man Meditation as one well saith is the Touch-stone of a Christian it shews what Metal he is made of it 's a spiritual Index to shew what is within as the Index shews what is in the Book so Meditation shews what is in the heart The godly Man thinks on God's Name Malachi 3.17 but for the wicked man God is not in all his thoughts Psalm 10. Thirdly Profitable for Edification and building up the whole man in grace and gracious practises it betters the Head the Heart the Tongue the Life First It betters the Head keeps out evil thoughts and furnisheth them with good thoughts it makes men look into the nature of things to search the Scriptures whether things be so or no to examine their own ways whether they be good or evil and so to make the greater progress in ways of well-doing as David Psal 119.99 whereas without Meditation all that men read and hear is but rudis indigestaque moles a kind of confused knowledge As it betters the Understanding so the Memory for it recalls things forgotten and imprints them the more deeply in the memory rivets them there and turns them into blood and spirit juice and marrow whereas the neglect of it spoils the memory and makes them lose the benefit of all they have heard and read and seen Secondly It betters the Heart for it makes men apply general truths to themselves in particular turns Brain-knowledge into Heart knowledge Contemplative-knowledge into Practical knowledge And needs must it better the Heart seeing it excites and
stirs-up the Affections to love and delight more in what they hear and read Psal 39.3 Psalm 119.97 It quickens also to duty and fits men for it Psal 5.1 It sets the heart also in Tune the Musician first puts his Instrument in Tune and then plays his Lesson so Meditation it tunes the Heart and then enables to holy duty in a word it 's the Wing of the Soul by which it mounts up to Heaven and takes a view of the Coelestial Canaan Thirdly It betters the Tongue it furnisheth a Man with matter and Method to speak unto God's glory and other's edification whether at home or abroad in trading or travelling whatsoever he is about whereas without meditation a Scholar is no more than what he reads out of his Book and a Hearer no more than what he hears out of the Pulpit Hearing brings truth to the Ear but Meditation brings it into the Heart The Bee first sucks the flower and then by working in the Hive makes Honey of it so must Christians after hearing work it on their hearts or no Honey of Grace Fourthly It betters the Life in that it causeth the Word to have power on the heart to perswade and draw Men to the practise of it 1 Thes 1.5 6. Whereas without meditation it hath no influence upon the heart as you may see generally in those that neglect it And it stands with reason because Meat though never so well dressed doth not nourish us is a burden rather than a benefit being not digested so is it with the food of the Soul as we finde in those by sad experience that cannot endure to have it brought home to their Consciences Fourthly It 's profitable unto Salvation 1 Cor. 15. vers 1. Then are ye saved if you keep in memory what I have preached unto you that is so as to meditate on it And Psalm first Blessed is the Man that delights in the Law of God and meditates therein Day and Night Blessed with Grace here and Glory hereafter A fourth Motive drawn from the sweetness of it It must needs be very sweet First Because if it be delightful to wicked men to think on evil then much more for godly Men to think on that which is good and the chief Good Secondly Because it not only carries up the Soul to Heaven but brings down Heaven into the Soul It is a beginning of the beatifical Vision a handsel of Heavens happiness a fore-tast of Eternal Life This is it made David say The meditation of him was sweet and to account it sweeter than the Honey or the Honey-comb Psalm 19. and to esteem it above Thousands of Silver and Gold Psal 119. Thus you see enough by way of Motive That which I shall do next will be To remove the Letts that hinder Men from this duty Because there is not one Duty that meets with more rubs and hinderances both from within and without than this of Meditation especially from Satan who sets himself most against this That men may not reflect upon their ways and thereby be moved to get out of his snare It should be our wisdome therefore to break the Cords of this Hellish Philistim The benefit and comfort of it will make amends for all Q. But what are these Lets and hinderances Ans They are either vain pretences or sinful lusts First Vain pretences as for instance First Some and the most pretend the difficulty of it that it 's a very hard matter to sequester a man's self and keep the heart close to God in spiritual things Answer It 's true it is so but consider So are all excellent things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But this should be no discouragement but rather an encouragement to labour the more after them It 's a hard work for Men to Plow and Sowe and Reap to digg in Mines for Gold and Silver to make long Voyages through many Storms yet all this men are willing to do for gains-sake How much more should we undertake this work of Meditation seeming though never so hard and harsh in regard of the practice yet it is sweet in regard of the profit This as you have seen betters head heart tongue life Secondly the hardness and harshness of it is only at the first entrance upon it use and exercise will make it facil and easie Christ's Yoke at the first putting on seems heavy but when it is once on and worn a while it becomes easie and will prove a Crown at last It 's hard to get up to the top of a high Mountain but when a Man is up he findes a very pleasant and delightful prospect that abundantly recompenceth all his labour and pain so will this duty of meditation it will cause us to come down from the Mount as Moses with our faces shining and our lives also Secondly Others pretend their weakness and inability for this duty in regard of the blindness of their minds dulness of their head deadness of their spirits whereas these should quicken them so much the rather to make use of it it being a special means to remove them Men do not use to abstain from food or Physick because they are weak but rather make use of them that they may get better stomacks Thirdly Others pretend want of matter wheras this is a vain excuse it is not so much want of matter as want of a heart for a Man cannot look any where above or beneath within or without or round about but he may finde matter enough to imploy his head and heart the Book of the Creatures the Book of the Scriptures of Providence of Conscience are full of profitable matter the consideration of our own sins and corruptions wants and necessities God's continued and renewed Mercies and Judgments will afford a Man matter enough every Day to meditate on Fourthly Others pretend want of leasure they have so much business as they cannot attend it a vain excuse for they can find leisure enough to meditate on vain and sinful things for vain and foolish talk and vain and foolish pass-times notwithstanding all their worldly occasions And whatsoever else men neglect they ought to have an eye to and a care of the welfare of their Souls above all other things this being the one thing necessary in comparison whereof all other things are unnecessary as men are made to acknowledg when they come to lie on their Death-beds Fifthly Others pretend they want a convenient place and time A vain excuse too for however a man may not have so convenient a place for secresie and solitariness as he would yet there is none that hath a heart to the duty but he may finde some place or other to do it in If not in the house with Daniel 6.10 yet in the Field with Isaac Gen. 24. And if he be hinder'd in the Day time yet he may do it in the Night with David Psalm 6. and Psalm 16. and Psalm 119. Secondly Other hinderances are the sinful lusts of the
any onâ—â— leave every one as he findes the temper of his body and spirit most inclin'd and disposed to Thirdly Though none strictly bound to any part of the Day yet none to leave themselves at random and at large to do it at any time of the Day but appoint some set-time for it either the Morning or Evening either before or after Supper or a little before we compose our selves to rest The reason is because if we should leave our selves at randome we should never be constant in this Exercise but shift it off from one time to another Fourthly When you have set the time then be careful to observe it constantly unless some urgent necessity prevent because otherwise fickleness and unconstancy will keep us from profiting by it and soon make us weary of it Secondly For extraordinary Seasons they are amongst others these First When the spirit of God doth in a more than ordinary manner move and incline to it when the Spirit lifts up the heart to Heaven then to lift up with him to nourish and cherish those motions Secondly When you are under more than ordinary trouble of Spirit then to apply your selves to this duty for Cordials are never more seasonable than in times of fainting Psal 94.19 2 Cor. 4. 2 last verses Thirdly When either Age or sickness do summon us to death then is a fit season to meditate on God and the things of God when all other things in the World begin to leave us then to think on those things will never leave us for it 's observable in the Saints they have been most heavenly in their mediations affections and expressions towards their end as Jacob Genes last Moses Deut. 33. 33. chap. our Saviour in the 14 15 16 17. chap. of John we should follow them in the same practise As the pulling down of one Ballance is the lifting up of another so the drawing down of the body to Earth should be the lifting up of the Soul to Heaven As the Soul here is usually at the worst when the Body is at the best so the Soul should be at the best when the Body is at the worst The fifth Circumstance is the Manner how we are to perform this duty and that is thus Cordially reverently seriously affectionately constantly and orderly First Cordially because it 's not the meditation of the head but the heart God looks unto Prov. 4. My Son give me thy heart Luke 2.19 Mary ponder'd Christ's sayings in her heart Psalm 19. last and 49.3 Secondly To do it reverently remembering and considering he is a great King and his Name is dreadful amongst the Heathen Malachy 1. ult therefore to take heed of any unreverent or careless behaviour in his presence and worship as being a great dishonour to him and that which he sharply reproves in those formal and lazie Priests Mal. 1. about the end Thirdly Seriously so as to keep the mind intent upon the business in hand and not to give way to any other thoughts though they be good thoughts because they are unseasonable at that time and will thrust out the other and so make both useless to keep also a narrow watch over our hearts and senses that they be not avocated or drawn aside by other objects Fourthly Affectionately so as to have our affections stirred and warmed and wrought upon by those things we meditate on as David here in the Text My Meditation of him shall be sweet and I will be glad in the Lord so to think on spiritual and heavenly things as they may leave an impression upon the Soul as the Seal doth on the Wax that so your affections may answer your cogitations as the Wax doth the Seal and the Eccho the voice As for Example when you think on the glorious Majesty of God to make your hearts stand in aw of Him when on his Love Grace Mercy to have your Hearts thereby indear'd to him Secondly When on Christ the amiableness and fulness that is in him and in him for you to have your desires drawn out the more after nearer sweeter fuller communion with him when on the Holy Ghost his sweet motions and invitations to have your Hearts opened to receive Him and obey Him in them Fourthly When on the Word to do it with a particular Application Fifthly When on God's Works of Mercy and Justice to have your Hearts melt with the one and tremble at the other Sixthly When on your selves your sins and corruptions to be humbled under them when on the Evidences of God's love and grace to rejoice in them Seventhly When on the World and the things of it to have your hearts disingag'd from them and hang loose to them Lastly When on Death to live in a continual expectation and a religious preparation for it when on the Judgment-Day to cast up your accounts sit in judgment on your selves that you may not be condemn'd with the World so think on Hell as your Hearts may tremble at sin that made it and so think on Heaven that your conversation may be there where you hope e're long to have your Habitation to all Eternity Fifthly To do it constantly so as to observe the due and the appointed time or otherwise omission and intermission may soon cause amission and so dead the affection as to become weary of it and cast off the duty and therefore to be constant in it and continue so long in it until our hearts be affected with what we think and we receive some benefit by it Sixthly To do it orderly for God being a God of Order he loves Order in us to this end to have an eye to three things the Ingress the Progress and the Egress As for Example to begin with Hearing or Reading and then go on with Meditation or thinking on it and then end all with Prayer for as Mr. Greenham well said Hearing and reading without Meditation is useless Meditation without reading and hearing fruitless and both without prayer will be successless miss a blessing More distinctly and fully First for the Ingress or Entrance upon it we are to prepare for it by making choice of some particular subject most sutable to your present condition and then lift up an Ejaculation for the Lord direction assistance and blessing on it Secondly For the Progress in it to observe a Method in it either such as Scholars use to do in Meditation on a subject as First The Definition or Description Secondly The Division or kind or parts Thirdly The Causes efficient material formal final Fourthly The fruits and the effects and the like Logical heads all which you may see exemplified in Bishop Hall's and Mr. Roger's Seven Treatises or thus which I conceive a more profitable way for our more ordinary sort of hearers being not acquainted with this art to proceed in your Meditations as you are taught First On the Doctrine then the Proofs then the Reasons then the Uses and in them the signs motives means You
that have this Book because your Memory is weak to take it in your hands and begin with the first Head of Meditation and then go on Day after Day until you have gone thorow and if there be any special subject you desire to meditate on to look into the Contents Thirdly For the Egress or Conclusion of your Meditation First so reflect and look back how we have perform'd it If not with profit and comfort then to take notice wherein we are defective and faulty and humble our selves under it and mend it the next time If we have reaped benefit and comfort by it to bless God for it and conclude all with praise for his gracious presence with us and pray he would make all effectual for the bettering of our heads and hearts and tongues and lives And thus of Meditation in general Next because most complain of scarcity or want of matter others of distraction through want of Method I have therefore thought fit to select the choisest things for Meditation through the Body of Divinity and reduce them to their several Heads that so however you cannot remember them all yet you may have them still before your eye and go on in the Meditation of them Day after Day CHAP. II. AND first I shall begin with solemn and deliberate Meditation and after give you some heads for sudden and occasional Meditation For solemn and deliberate Meditation the matter of your Meditation may be reduced to these 6 or 7 Heads God and Christ the Holy Spirit Man the World and the good and evil Angels by which God governs the World First I shall shew you what special things you are to meditate on in GOD to begin with him who is the beginning of all things and to be often and much in meditation on him for the more we meditate on him the more we shall know him and the more we know him the more we shall love him and the more we love him the more we shall desire him and the more we desire him the more shall we labour after communion with him not only in grace here but in glory hereafter but here in meditating on God take with you these three Cautions First To meditate on him in a way of faith and not reason because reason cannot comprehend the Unity in Trinity or Trinity in Unity Secondly Not to conceive of God out of Christ because God out of Christ is a consuming Fire Hebr. 12. last Thirdly Take heed of framing any Image of God in your minds he being a Spirit and an Infinite Spirit in all and through all and above all but to conceive of him I say in Christ who is the express Image of the Father the Ladder by which we are to clime up to Heaven to see and know God One well expresseth it thus when I see the body of a living man I know his Soul is there also and therefore when I speak to his body I speak to his understanding also because they are together so in viewing with the eye of my mind the humane nature of Christ glorious in Heaven I do at the same time look upon the God-head that being personally united unto it for in him dwelleth the God-head bodily or Personally Q. What are those things we are to meditate on in GOD A. His Nature Attributes Word Works Worship 1. His Nature and here take notice what he is in his Beeing and that he only is Jehovah 1. What he is in his Beeing This cannot be conceived much less defined by finite Creatures yet may be described so far as he hath revealed himself in the Scripture which is this An Eternal Infinite Perfect Incomprehensible Spirit distinguished into three Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost every one Co-essential and Co-equal To open this briefly mind well I say he is a Spirit John 4.24 Now what a Spirit is our Saviour tells you Luke 24.31 Iohn 1.18 sc a Substance or Beeing that cannot be seen or felt 2. I say he is an Eternal Infinite Perfect Incomprehensible Spirit these Attributes distinguish him from all other Spirits as Angels and the Souls of men 1. He is an Eternal Spirit i. e. One that had no beginning nor can have any end 1 Tim. 1.17 To the King Eternal c. and Revel 1.8 But now Angels and the Souls of men though they shall have no end yet had a beginning were Created by God Gen. 12.1 2. God he is an Infinite Spirit i. e. Such a Beeing as cannot be contained within any place 1 Kings 8.27 Behold The Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him and Isa 66.1 But for Angels and the Souls of men they are contained within their proper places 3. God he is a perfect Spirit unto whom no degree of goodness or excellency can be added 1 Iohn 1.5 Gen. 17.1 I am God All-sufficient But for Angels and the Souls of men they are capable of more degrees of goodness and excellency 4. God is an incomprehensible Spirit Psal 145.3 His greatness is incomprehensible 1 Timothy 1.16 He dwells in light unapproachable we may more easily comprehend what God is not than what he is but now for Angels and the Souls of Men we may in some measure comprehend what they are so far forth as God hath revealed it 3. I add distinguished into three Persons Here to take notice 1. What a Person is sc a distinct Subsistence or beeing having in it the whole God-head and distinguished from another by his incommunicable properties as 1. Of the Father to beget Psal 2.7 the Son to be begotten John 18. and of the Holy Ghost to proceed from both John 15.26 2. To take notice why we say Distinguished and not divided sc because the God-head being one pure simple unchangeable Beeing it cannot be divided or separated one from the other but are in one the other as you may see cleerly John 14.9 Lastly I add Co-essential and Co-equal i. e. Every one true and very God and not one before the other or greater than the other being every one God as appears in that the same names of God and properties of God and actions of God are given to every Person in the Trinity The Father God Eph. 13. John 17.3 The Son God Isai 9.6 Heb. 1.8 The Holy Ghost God Acts 5.3 4. 1 Cor. 3.16 To take notice and meditate seriously on these things in the Nature of God because the ignorance and want of the serious consideration of it is the cause of so many misapprehensions of God and aberrations from God 2. That you may the better know what God is to take notice that he only is Jehovah Psal 83.18 Thy Name only is Jehovah Q. What is the meaning of that Ans This word Jehovah it imports three things 1. That he hath his Beeing in and of and from Himself being deemed Hava or Hajah that signifieth To be and be of himself and from himself 2. It is he that gave a beeing to all that have any beeing as Isa 44.24
David lifted up his hands to God and worshipped Psal 63.4 Jesus lifted up his eyes to Heaven and prayed John 17.1 The reason is because the Bodies of the Saints shall be glorified with God hereafter therfore they are to glorifie him with their Bodies here Rom. 12.1 I beseech you Brethren by the mercies of God present your Bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable to God Secondly Internal worship is a worshipping God with the Spirit as well as the Body it being that God especially calls for John 4.24 Phil. 3.3 And this is sometimes called a fearing of God Deut. 6.13 a loving of God Jam. 2.5 a delighting in God Psal 37.3 and a trusting in God Psal 16.1 Secondly For the Place where he is to be worshipped it is not only in this and that place as ignorant superstitious persons fancy but He is every where to be worshipped and that in the observance of all those religious duties which He requires in publick private and secret Isaiah 2.2 Psal 122.1 Gen. 18.19 Job 1.5 Jer. 10. last Mat. 6.6 Then Thirdly For the Time that he is to be worshipped by us as in all places so at all times as on the Week days by beginning continuing and ending the day with him so especially on his own day the Sabbath-day because although every day be his yet this in a special manner His Psal 18.24 This is the day which the Lord hath made this is the Day which he hath sanctified and set apart wholly for the worship of Himself Isaiah 58. last And as this is the day he made for his own glory so for Man's good the good of his Body and of his Soul The good of his Body that he might not tire out himself in the service of the World but especially the good of his soul that he might by a Sabbath on Earth be minded of and fitted for an everlasting Sabbath in Heaven by communion with God in Ordinances here he might be made to long after that place where he hath promised to be all in all without Ordinances Rev. 21.22 23. To this end he hath appointed it to be the Schooling-day and Market-day and Feasting-day and Sealing-day to the Soul therefore in a special manner to be careful of giving God his worship upon this day in the observance and performance of all those duties of piety and mercy that he requires from you in publick private and secret and here to mark that you spend not only a part but the whole day in the worship and service of God and that upon these accounts First Because He rested the whole day created nothing the Seventh-day but finished all before on the Six days Secondly Because he sanctified and set apart the whole day for Himself and therefore not to rob him of any part seeing he hath dealt so bountifully with us as to give us Six days for the service of our selves and reserved but One for the service of Himself Thirdly Because the duties of God's Worship on that Day are so many and weighty as a whole Day is little enough to perform them as they ought The Fourth Circumstance that is especially to be thought on is the right manner How we are to worship God because God looks not so much to the matter as the right manner of worshipping Him and abhorrs and rejects the work without the right manner as you may see fully Isai 1.11 to the 21. Jer. 7.8 9. Mal. 1. last Q Well what is this right manner of worshipping God Ans It is to worship Him by a right Rule from a right Principle and to a right End 1. By a right Rule sc the Rule of God's Word Isai 8.20 Psal 119.9 According to his own Institutions and not Mens Inventions In vain do you worship me c. 2. From a right Principle sc in the Name of Christ Colos 3.17 and the strength of Christ Joh. 15.5 From Faith Heb. 11.6 and Love 1 Peter 2.1 3. To a right end sc the Glory of God and the Salvation of your Souls 1 Cor. 10.13 Phil. 1.19 Q. But what are those Rules in the Word according to which we are to worship God Ans first More general as these Preparation and affection before attention and reverence in and meditation and practise after Eccles 5.1 Psal 66.18 Acts 16.14 Hebr. 12.2 last Luke 2.19 John 13.17 Secondly More special Rules for the worshipping of God are such as respect the sanctifying of the Sabbath Prayer to God Hearing of the Word Reading of the Scriptures Receiving of the Lord's Supper singing of Psalms religious Fasting and Feasting and holy Conference For the acceptable comfortable and profitable use of these you are to meditate on some things before in and after every one I shall but name a few to help your Memories and quicken your Devotion First For the right sanctifying of the Sabbath to take notice of and meditate on these things before in and after the Sabbath First Before the Sabbath to remember the Sabbath before it comes Secondly To prepare for it by ordering your Worldly affairs so as they may not hinder you and to sequester your thoughts from all other things that you may intend the duties of the Sabbath Exod. 20.8 Secondly When the Sabbath is come to consecrate it as a holy Rest to the Lord your God not thinking your own thoughts or speaking your own words or doing your own pleasure but the Lord's Isaiah 58.13 To begin continue and end the Sabbath with God And that you may do so to observe these things First To rise early on the Sabbath after the Example of Christ and when you awake to bless God for another day of grace in rising up to think on your Resurrection at the last Day to glory in putting on of your apparel to think on the command of putting on the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 13. end After you have Apparel'd your selves to remember the duties requir'd of you before in and after the publick Assemblies First Before to sequester your thoughts from all things of the World and the Flesh to mind only and wholly God his Day and Worship Secondly To pray by your selves and with the Family for God's presence with assistance in and blessing on his Ordinances to you and yours and all his especially on the Ministry of the Word that it may be made effectual to all the ends he hath appointed it as the conviction conversion humiliation consolation edification and salvation of all those that belong to the Election of grace Thirdly As you are going to the publick Assemblies to remember where you are going that you are going into the Presence not only of men but God that-God who will be sanctified by all that draw nigh to him or will be sanctified upon them Levit. 10. To consider also what you are going about a business of the greatest consequence in the World To converse with God and to enjoy communion with God and hear that Word which will make you better or
worse soften or harden you will bring you neerer to Heaven or Hell and will be either the savour of life or death to you 2 Cor. 2.16 Secondly As you are entring into the publick Assemblies to think and say with Jacob How dreadful is this place It is no other than the Gate of Heaven to set your selves in the presence of the great God and carry your selves there with all fear and reverence seeing there are not only Men but the Angels and the Great and Holy God to take notice both of your inward and outward behaviour And see you stay and not depart without the Blessing Thirdly After the publick Assemblies as you go home to meditate on what you have heard when you come home search the Scriptures whether things are so to repeat and confer with those in your Family about it to press the remembrance and practise of what you have heard on your selves and them after this to go apart and spend the rest of the day in Examination what you have profited and in meditation on the Word and Works of God and that Eterâ—â—â— Sabbath you are to celebrate hereafter in Heaven where you shall keep a Sabbath not only without weariness but with infinite delight and then conclude the Sabbath with prayer and praise pray for a blessing on the truths made known to you and for the pardon of all those infirmities you have discovered before in and after duty in publick private or secret and that God would accept of your weak endeavours and unfeigned desires to honour him in and for the all-meritorious Intercession's sake of Jesus Christ And then praise God for one Sabbath more liberty of communion with Him his Presence with you assistance of you and blessing of his Ordinances to you and so end the day as you began it As you gave Him the first of your thoughts when you rose so give Him the last of your thoughts when you lie down that so your dreams may savour of your Sabbath-days exercises Thirdly After the Sabbath to hold forth in your lives and conversations all you have heard and prayed for that so the blessing of the Sabbath may bring a blessing on all your labours the Week following Amen The Second Duty is Prayer to God And here First before Prayer to meditate First On the infinite distance between God and you as Creatures especially such finful Creatures Eccles 5.2 Secondly To make your addresses to the Throne of Grace only in the Name Worthiness and Mediation of Jesus Christ Col. 3.17 Thirdly To take notice of the special sins you are to confess the evils you are to â—â—precate or pray against the good things you are to Petition and the Mercies you are to return thanks for Fourthly Because we know not how to pray as we ought To beg the Spirit of Grace and Supplication to help your infirmity and keep your hearts close to Him in duty Fifthly To remember that we pray for all men especially for Kings and all that are in Authority 1 Tim. 2.2 3. and for all Saints Eph. 6.18 Secondly In the time of Prayer remember to do it with humility and reverence Heb. 12. end In sincerity and truth John 4.24 With feeling and servency James 5.16 17. and in faith and love Heb. 11.6 1 Tim. 2.8 Thirdly After Prayer to look-after an Answer Live what you have prayed and labour in the use of the means for that you have prayed as you are commanded Prov. 2.3 4. The Third Duty is Hearing the Word First Before Hearing remember whom you go to hear not only Man but God who speaks in and by Man 2 Cor. 5.20 Secondly Because man can but speak to the Ear beg the Lord to give his Spirit that may speak to the heart Thirdly That the Spirit may make the Word effectual to the end God hath appointed it take heed you come not with prejudice against the Minister or the Word spoken by him James 1.21 1 Peter 2.1 Fourthly That you endeavour to bring humble honest and upright hearts to the hearing of the Word Luke 8.15 Micah 2.7 Doth not my word do good to him that walks uprightly Secondly In the time of Hearing First To set your selves in the special presence of God and remember He observes not only your outward but inward carriages with what hearts every one comes and sits before him 1 Sam. 16.17 Ezek. 33.31 Secondly To attend heedfully to the things that are spoken as Lydia did Acts 16. Thirdly To apply particularly what is spoken not to others but to your selves as John's hearers did Luke 3.10 Because what is spoken to one is intended to all Mark 13. last and unless it be applyed by faith it will not profit Heb. 4.11 Thirdly After Hearing First To discourse of what you have heard and not as the manner of too many is to talk presently of other Persons and Things Secondly To search the Scripture with the noble Beraeans whether things be so or no Acts 17.11 Thirdly To work all into your hearts and lives by Meditation Prayer and Practise because the promise of a blessing runs only to such Psal 103.17 and Luke 11.28 Otherwise without practise every Sermon will be preacht over by God and Conscience again at the last Day with such horror and terror as you will never be able to hear it John 12.48 The Fourth Duty is Reading of the Scriptures First Before it to think what a great blessing it is to enjoy this blessed Book and have liberty to look into it when 't is denied to many others not only amongst the Papists but amongst us through their own and their Parents neglect of learning them to read Secondly To remember that this is a duty that lies upon all Persons private as well as publick People as well as Ministers both to read the Scriptures First In respect of the express command of God Mal. 4.4 John 5.39 Col. 3.16 Secondly In respect of the great benefit and comfort that comes by it 2 Tim. 3. the 3 last Rom. 15 41. Psal 1.2 Revel 1.3 Thirdly In reading First To lift up an Ejaculation for understanding of it praying with David Psal 119.18 Open my eyes that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law Secondly To read with Application as David Psal 40.8 It 's written of me that I should do thy will It was no where written so of David in particular only he applied the general command to his particular Thirdly After reading with David also to hide God's Word in your heart Psal 119.11 And see that you order your conversation according to it Vers 9. The Fifth Duty is Receiving the Lord's Supper First Before it to see whether you can finde your selves in a state of grace and that you have those Sacramental graces of knowledge faith repentance obedience love and an appetite to this Ordinance all which are required to qualifie and fit Souls for communion with Jesus Christ in that Ordinance This duty of Self-examination you may see
by us amongst others of fallen Man-kind and therefore that God should pass by others more noble for birth and it may be more sober and civil for conversation and look upon us wallowing and weltring in our blood and filthiness and say unto us Live this should exceedingly affect our hearts and make us still to be admiring and adoring the free rich and unsearchable love grace and mercy of God to us in Christ Ezek. 16. Psal 103. Secondly That we may do this with more profit and comfort to take notice what this state of grace is and for the understanding of this to know there is a double grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first and the second grace the first whereby our Persons are accepted the second whereby they are sanctified the first is no other than the free love and favour of God whereby he accepts us in Christ and for his sake forgives all our sins and gives us his Spirit to renew and sanctifie our natures Rom. 11.6 Eph. 2.8 9. The second grace is no other than a special gift of that grace and favour of God otherwise call'd in the Scripture Regeneration John 3.6 and Renovation of the Image of God Eph. 4.24 and Sanctification of the whole Man 1 Thes 5.23 and the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 Godliness and holiness 1 Tim. 6. And it may be described thus a work of the Spirit in the Ministry of the Word deriving from Christ their head unto all his Elect spiritual life grace or holiness and diffusing it throughout the whole Man whereby they are enabled to act and move God-ward Grace-ward and Heaven-ward Thirdly To take notice of and meditate on the differences of true grace from false grace for Eph. 4.14 the Apostle speaks of true holiness in opposition to false and feigned now these differences are especially in three things as first true sanctifying grace is from an inward principle infused by the Spirit of Grace Psal 40.8 Rom. 7.22 but that in the Hypocrite is only from an outward principle as shame of the World fear of punishment and the like Secondly True grace makes Men to approve all their thoughts and words and ways to God's all-seeing eye Job 31.4 Job 42.4 5. John 11.17 A Hypocrite dares not do so he approves them only to the eyes of men so long as Men think well of him he cares not what God thinks Thirdly True grace makes Men humble the more knowledge they have the more they see and bewail their ignorance as that wise Man Pro. 30.2 I am more brutish than any Man and I have not the understanding of a man viz. in comparison of what he ought to know of God the more faith he has the more he bewails his unbelief as the Father of the possessed Child Mark 9.24 The more love he hath the more he bewails his want of love and calls upon his Soul to love God more Psal 116. But now a Hypocrite he is proud of the grace he hath and thinks he has more than he hath and that both God and man should respect him the better as the Pharisee Luk. 18. I thank God I am not as this Publican c. Q. But wherein doth renewing Grace differ from restraining Grace A. Especially in two things 1. Restraining grace only keeps Men from the acts of sin but doth not mortifie sin Abimeleck's lust was restrained when God with held him from Sarah Gen. 20.6 but not mortified whereas where there is renewing Grace sin is subdued as well as restrained Rom. 8.13 Secondly Restraining grace keeps men from sinning out of a servile fear of punishment but renewing grace makes men forbear out of a fillial fear of offending Gen. 39.9 Psal 130.4 Thirdly Restraining grace keeps men from sinning no longer than they are under the means of restraint as godly Magistrates Ministers Parents Masters when they are dead or removed then they can neglect the Worship of God and be as vile as the vilest when there was no King in Israel every one did what was good in his own eyes Judg. 17.6.18 but renewing grace where it is it makes and keeps men ever the same and the worse the times are the better are they Gen. 6.9 Fourthly To take notice and meditate on the degrees of grace all have not the same measures and degrees of grace but some more and some less whence we read of some strong men in Christ others weak Prov. 15.1 Some Babes in Christ and others grown Christians 1 Cor. 3.1 Some Trees of righteousness Isai 61.3 Others bruised Reeds Mat. 12.20 and God hath wise and holy ends in this as 1. To put a difference between Heaven and Earth here we are but renewed and sanctified in part how-ever it be in every part but in Heaven the Spirits of just Men are made perfect Heb. 12.23 Grace there is perfected in glory Eph. 4.13 Secondly God will have it so to teach us to live in a continual dependance on that fulness there is in Christ for us that we may still go to him and receive from him grace for grace John 1.16 that is one degree and measure after another Thirdly That he may display his glorious Attributes as his infinite wisdome All-mighty Power unchangeable grace in carrying on the work of grace until he hath crown'd grace in glory 2 Cor. 12.9 10. Q. But seeing there are different degrees of grace some have more and some less How may a Man know that he hath any truth of grace even the least degree of saving grace A. You may know it by these two things 1. A continual complaint of the want of grace and the weakness of grace in comparison of the strength of corruption as the Father of the possessed Child this is made by our Saviour the Sign of truth of grace Mat. 5.3 Blessed are the poor in Spirit that is who are spiritually poor in their own sight and sense 2. You may know it by earnest desires and endeavours after more grace as in Nehemiah 1.11 and the Church Isai 26.8 Christ pronounceth them blessed that hunger and thirst after righteousness and promiseth they shall be filled Mat. 5.6 Q. But how shall we know our desires after grace to be true desires A. Briefly thus 1. If they be industrious in the use of the means and all means 2 Cor. 7.11 1 Pet. 2.2 Secondly If they be fervent desires like David's Psal 42.1 more after spirituals than temporals Psal 4.6 Thirdly If they be restless desires until we obtain Psal 119.20 My Soul breaketh for the longing it hath to thy judgments at all times Thus of the evidences of grace in general Now Secondly Take notice of the evidences of some particular graces as knowledge faith repentance obedience love fear and hope but here before I speak unto them take this caution he that hath one of these graces in truth hath seminally all and every sanctifying grace how-ever he do not see it as he that hath one link of
Christ and never leave you until it hath crown'd you with Glory Col. 3.4 Ninthly To meditate on and make use of the means God hath revealed and commands you to â—se to get out of a state of Nature into a state of Grace What are they Mark a few 1. You must be willing to see and be sensible of and humbled under your want of Grace as they Acts 2.37 and the Jaylor Acts 16.30 2. You must labour to be united unto Christ the Fountain of Spiritual Life and Grace for the Son quickneth whom he will John 5.21 and John 1.16 from his fulness we receive Grace for Grace and 1 John 5.12 He that hath the Son hath Life 3. You must prize and value it hunger and thirst after it above all other things in the World Isa 55.1 Rev. 22.17 4. You must go to the Covenant for it and beg the Lord to remember his Covenant and glorifie his Grace in giving in that Grace to you which he promiseth in the Covenant Psal 84.11 and tells him this Grace is as free for you as for others and will be as glorious on you as on others and you shall give him the glory of it here and to all eternity Read and ponder well that excellent place 2 Cor. 9.8 A sufficiency of Grace in him for you 5. You must wait constantly on the Ministry of the Word which is the only ordinary means of getting it James 1.21 1 Pet. 1.23 when ever you come to hear the Word remember to beg the Spirit of God to quicken his Word that it may quicken your dead Souls whereby you may be enabled to stand up from the dead and act as new Creatures in a state of Regeneration to God and for God It is the Spirit alone that quickens John 16. and him that God hath promised to such as ask him Luke 11. And therefore I say still remember to beg the Spirit of God and wait upon him in the ministry of the Word till he come to breath into this Spirit Life a Life of Grace that may fit you for and entitle you to a Life of Glory to quicken and encourage you Sect. 4. Take notice of the happy estate of Man by Glorification and what those things are you are to meditate on in and about that are these 1. What this Glory is and wherein it consists 2. The Properties of it 3. The certainty of it 4. Who they are that shall partake of it 1. What this glory is In the general it is no other then the lustre or beauty of a person or thing that draws admiration after it and it is either External Internal or Eternal 1. External is that state and pomp men have in the World and drawes the eyes of others after it of which you may read Gen. 45.13 You shall shew my Father of my glory in Egypt that is of the pomp state and honour I am exalted to 2. Internal Glory is that within in the Soul in the excellent Gifts and Graces that it is endowed withal Psal 45. The Kings Daughter is all glorious within and Numb 6.27 where God said to Moses He should bring Joshua before the Priest and put some of his Glory and Spirit upon him 3. Temporal Glory Is that which he promiseth to his in this life Prov. 22.4 The reward of humility and the fear of the Lord is Riches and Glory 4. Eternal Glory Is that which God will confer upon the Saints in Heaven If you ask what that is we must answer in the words of Austin Facilius est excogitare quid non sit quam quid sit It cannot be conceived much less expressed yet as they guessed at the fruitfulness of the Land of Canaan by the mighty clusters of Grapes they brought thence so may we at the glory of Heaven by that glymps the Scripture holds forth of it That you may have the clearer sight of it we will consider it comparatively with that which is in the World and then absolutely as it is in it self First If we compare it with that glory which is visible in the World we may guess somewhat at the transcendent excellency of it You may see abundance of glory in all the Works of God especially in those Celestial Bodies above the Sun the Moon and the Stars but alas what is this to the Glory of Heaven And If in Heav'ns outward Court such glory be What is the Glory which the Saints do see Du. Bartas 2. Consider it absolutely in it self And here take notice of the Glorious Place and Glorious Company and Glorious Endowments of Soul and Body the Glorious Employments of both and the Glorious Priviledges the Saints shall enjoy there 1. For the Glotious Place that is the highest Heaven that which the Apostle calls the Third Heaven 2 Cor. 12. and this place is Verus totus Olimgus wholly Light not only bespangled here and there with glittering Stars but as one great Sun and that which is increased by the admirable splendor of the glorified Body of Jesus Christ and those millions of glorified Saints whose Bodies there shall shine not onely as the Stars Dan. 12. but as the Sun Mat. 13.43 2. For the Glorious Company There you shall have the society not only of all your Christian Alliance Friends and Acquaintance that have liv'd and dyed in the Lord but of all the Holy Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Saints not only of the Glorious Angels but the ever blessed Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost and if the company of a few humble upright chearful Christians be so sweet here how sweet must communion be with all these 3. For the Glorious Endowments 1. Of the Soul As soon as the Soul is separated from the Body it goes to the Spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12. It is perfected in all its Faculties Understanding Will Memory Affections 1. For the Understanding It is perfected in the knowledge of God and all that 's good 1 Cor. 13.10 11 12. Here we are but as in the Grammer School there we shall be in the University here the knowledge most have is but the least part of that they shall know there of God and the Creatures of the Mysteries of Religion and the Secrets of Nature 2. For the Will there shall be in it a perfect conformity to the Will of God we shall will all that is good and that more freely and with more alacrity then here we ever willed any pleasure of this life 3. For the Memory It shall be so perfected as to remember all that is good and nothing that is evil so as to be troubled for it but rejoyce rather in this that we are freed from it 4. For the Affections These shall be wholly taken up with and rest upon God and all that is good the measure of our love and delight in him shall be to love and delight in him without measure 2. For the glory of the Body you may reade it 1 Cor. 15.42 43.
1. It shall be an incorruptible body freed from all possibility of dying and suffering Luke 20.35 Rev. 17.16 2. It shall be full of beauty shining not onely as the Stars but as the Sun Mat. 13.41 made like to Christs glorious Body Phil. 3. last 3. It shall be a most vigorous Body able to do any thing Etiamsi velit terram movere saith Anselm able to encounter legions of Devils and Reprobates by the almighty power of God dwelling in it 4. A Spiritual Body Not that it shall be turned into a Spirit but endowed with such spiritual qualities as it shall be agile active and nimble in the Service of God like a Spirit 3. To meditate on the glorious employments of Soul and Body both shall be continually exercised in the highest services viz. the singing of the Songs of Moses and the Lamb the singing of continual Hallelujahs to God our Father for Christ our Redeemer by the ever blessed Spirit our Sanctifier and Comforter 4. To meditate on the glorious priviledges of Soul and Body there which are either Primitive or Positive 1. Primitive in a freedom of all evil both of Sin and Punishment 1. Of Sin not only from the power of it but the very being of it not only from sin but from all temptations to it and occasions of it Rev. 21. last 2. Of punishment Bevel 21.4 Rev. 22.3 tryumphing over all 1 Cor. 15.55 O death where is thy sting c. 2. For the Positive priviledges they are these 1. The continual presence of God 1 Thes 4. last there we shall ever be with the Lord. 2. The beatifical Vision of God 1 John 3.2 O beata visio videre Deum in nobis nos in Deo Deum in se ipso saith Bernard What a blessed sight will this be to see God in us our selves in God and God in himself so far as our finite natures are capable of 3. The nearest Union that can be not only of a Gracious but a Glorious 4. Immediate perfect and everlasting communion with God where there will be no need of Magistrates Ministers Ordinances but God will be all in all Rev. 21.21 22. 5. Perfection of Holiness both in Nature and Life Ephes 5.23 Pure as he is pure 1 John 3.2 And Perfect as he is perfect Mat. 5. last Not onely in parts but in degrees 6. Fulness of Joy and Rivers of Pleasure which are at Gods right hand for evermore Psal 16. last 7. An everlasting Sabbath here we have but a weekly Sabbath there an eternal everlasting Sabbath here we keep a Sabbath with much weatiness there we shall keep it with infinite delight Heb. 4.9 There remains a rest for the People of God and this is a transcendent Rest an uninterrupted Rest an universal Rest a perpetual Rest where we shall rest from all sinning sorrowing suffering and with the whole Quire of Heaven shall be still singing Hallelujahs to God the Father for God the Son by God the Spirit to all Eternity and still following the Lamb with Crowns on our Heads and Palmes in our Hands and tryumphant Songs in our Mouths 2. Meditate on the properties of this Glory 1. It 's a revealed Glory Rom. 8.18 Here it is hid from the eyes of the World and often from the eyes of Christians themselves but there it shall be revealed at the last day before all the World and the wicked World be made to acknowledge it to their shame and confusion of face Col. 3.3 4. 2. A full Glory Psal 16. last so full as the Apostle is not able to express it 2 Cor. 4.17 so full of Glory that if the Saints themselves were not upheld by the almighty power of God they could not stand under it so full of glory that because it cannot enter into them they shall enter into it Well done good and faithful Servant enter into thy Masters joy Mat. 25. 3ly An eternal glory such as they shall not only enjoy for millions of years but to all eternity Mat. 25. last 2 Cor. 4.17 3. To meditate on the certainty of this Glory That it is most certain there is such a glorious state for the People of God is evident upon these infallible grounds 1. Because it was prepared for them from before the foundation of the World Mat. 25.34 Heb. 11.16 2. Because they are prepared for it they are said to be Vessels prepared unto Glory Rom. 9.23 3. Because God predestinated his unto it from all eternity Rom. 8.29 2 Thes 2.13 14. 4. That which they are called unto 2 Pet. 1.3 1 Pet. 5.10 5. That which Christ hath purchased with his precious Blood Ephes 1.14 Rev. 5.9 10. 6. That which he made intercession for whilst he was here upon earth John 17.24 and still doth now in Heaven Heb. 7.25 7. That which he hath made many promises of and seconded them with his Oath Heb. 6.17 18. 8. He hath given his Spirit as the earnest of it 9. He hath given the beginnings of it in Grace here which is but glory begun 10thly and lastly He is gone into Heaven to take possession of it in our Name and Nature and hath promised he will come again and take us to himself John 14.3 and accounts not himself fully glorified until his Body and every member of it be in the same glory Ephes 1. the end And Lastly Consider who they are that have a right and title to this Glory what evidences the Scripture holds forth of it As 1. an effectual Vocation 1 Thes 2.12 2. Justification Rom. 5.3 Rom. 8.29 3. Sanctification Matth. 19.28 More particularly the having and exercising these Graces 1. Sanctified Knowledge John 17.3 2. A Justifying Faith John 3.16 3. An Evangelical Repentance Acts 3.19 4. A Gospel Obedience Heb. 5.9 5. An unfeigned love to the Saints 1 John 3.14 Lastly A loving looking and longing for the appearance of Jesus Christ in Glory by all which the Saints are described in the Gospel 2 Tim. 14.8 Titus 2.14 Heb. 9. last Rev. 22. last So much of the fourfold state of Man The Second Head of Meditation about Man is the four last Things or Ends of Man DEATH JUDGEMENT HELL and HEAVEN WE are to meditate on every one of these and that on these grounds 1. On Death because Death were no Death if Judgment did not follow in comparison and Judgement no Judgment or nothing so dreadful if Hell did not follow and Hell no Hell in comparison if it did not deprive men of Heaven 2. Therefore to meditate on these last Ends of Man because it is the Lord himself adviseth his unto and that in a very pathetical manner Deut. 32.29 Oh that men were wise that they understood this that they considered their latter end and the Prophet Jeremiah Jer. 5. last he puts this question What will you do in the latter end He would have them know there is an end and to think seriously what will become of them in the end 3. Therefore to meditate on each
of these as 1. on Death because it will be a notable means 1. to make us apply our hearts unto Spiritual Wisdom Psal 90.12 2. To restrain us from sin lest Death should find us in it or presently after it As a Copy of Writing is safest from blotting when dust is cast on it so we are safest from sinning when we remember that we are but Dust Callamy 3. A notable means to quicken us to repentance an instance you have in Waldus A rich Merchant of Lyons in France who seeing one drop down dead in the streets went home repented and changed his life studied the Scriptures became a Teacher and Father of those Christians called the Waldenses or the poor Men of Lyons Therefore 2. To meditate on the great and terrible day of Judgment because it will be as a curb to restrain from sinning so a spur to quicken to duty 2 Cor. 15.9.10 11. 3. Therefore to meditate on Hell because it will be a notable means to keep us out of Hell whence one adviseth thus Descendamus viventes ut non descendamus morientes Bernard Let us often look down into it that we may never fall into it 4. Therefore to meditate on Heaven because it will make us more willing to leave Earth to go to Heaven whensoever God calls for us the reason why so few go to Heaven when they die is because they never thought of Heaven until they came to die Calamy First On DEATH In it to meditate on those things that may fit you for Death and those things that may make you willing to die First On those things that may fit you for Death as 1. that it is one of the chiefest parts of Wisdom that which God you saw wisheth to Man in a most pathettical manner Deut. 22.29 Oh that men were wise c. 2. The original procreant cause of it viz. Sin Rom. 6. last The wages of sin is death therefore as often as you are tempted to sin by the present credit profit and pleasure of it to think on the fruit of it Rom. 6.21 What fruit had you in those things whereof ye are now ashamed 3. On the certainty of it In the day that thou eatest of it in dying thou shalt die that is thou shalt most certainly die Gen. 2. Heb. 9.27 It 's appointed for all to die 4. The uncertainty of it as nothing more certain so nothing more uncertain Ut morior scio sed nescio ubi quomodo quando That I shall die I know but where how and when I know not It 's a Proverb When Health is highest Death is many times nighest 1 Thess 5.3 When men cry peace then comes sudden destruction To day the Sermon-Bell tolls to call you to Church to morrow it may be the Passing-Bell to summon you to the Grave and therfore to wait for it at all times and in all places in all manner of wayes because all things come alike to all Eccles 9.1 5. To consider to die is but once to be done and that which is but once to be done had need to be well done or we are for ever undone if this work be not done or but half done at the time of dying there 's no doing or finishing it afterwards Eccles 9.10 As the Tree falleth so it lyeth as Death leaves men so Judgment finds them Heb. 9.27 6. To meditate on the terribleness of Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the King of Terrors Job 18.14 and needs must seeing it separates those two friends Soul and Body delivers up the Soul immediately to stand forth before the Tribunal of Christ to receive his peculiar Sentence of Damnation before the Judgment Day comes and after the Sentence to be carried by the Devils into Hell and throwes the body of the wicked into the Grave where Death gnaws upon it as upon Carrion in a Ditch puts an end to all his temporal felicity and begins his eternal misery strips him of all the comforts of this life and brings him to eternal torments 5. To meditate on the means you are to use to use to fit you for Death and they are amongst others these 1. To acquaint your selves with God and make your peace with him by Jesus Christ as Eliphas counsels Job Job 21.22 2. To get and clear up your interest in Jesus Christ who hath destroyed Death and him that had the power of Death Heb. 2.14 3. To pull out the sting of Death by Faith in the Blood of Christ and repentance for every known sin 1 John 1.7 Acts 3.19 to see that Sin die ere you die for it 's one of the terriblest threatnings in the Book of God John 8.21 If you believe not that I am He you shall die in your sins and Luke 13. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish And therefore Antequam moriaris moriantur in te vitia before thou dyest be careful to see that sin die 4. Labour to die daily as unto sin so unto the World 1 Cor. 7.29 The time is but short and the fashion of this World passeth away it 's the worst husbandry in the World to have Grace to seek when men should make use of it and the sick Bed is the worst time of all others to seek it in being then scarce able to think on any thing but Pain and Death and Hell 5. To get and clear up a Work of Grace that may entitle you to Glory or there will be nothing else able to stand by you and comfort you all things in the World without a Work of Grace will like Job's Friends prove miserable Comforters 3 John 3. Except a man be born again c. Flesh and Blood shall never inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 15. 6. Not only look to this that you have Grace but that you keep it in exercise not only that you have Lamps and Oyl in them but that you trim them against your Lord's coming Mat. 25. that is that you act and exercise your Graces especially these your Faith and Patience Heb. 6.12 your heavenly-mindedness and contempt of the World Phil. 3.20 7. That you get and keep good Consciences this will be light in darkness and life in death Prov. 14.32 The Righteous hath hope in his death 2 Cor. 1.12 This is our rejoycing in the testimony of our Consciences c. Isa 38.2 Remember how I have walkt before thee in Truth c. Lastly It was Moses's Prayer and let it be yours daily Teach us Lord so to number our dayes as we may apply our hearts unto Wisdom Psal 90. In a word Let the ends of all your thoughts be the thought of your latter end that so when you come to die you may have nothing else left to do but to die and whensoever Death comes you may bid it wellcome in the Name of Christ and when you are to die to die in charity with all in obedience to God's Call and in Faith to go to and be for ever with the
all pains and miseries and calamities and all sin which is the cause of them as sin brought Death into our bodies so Death carries sin out of the body and however these vile bodies be dissolved into dust yet they shall be raised up again at the last day and be made like unto Christ's Glorious Body Phil. 3. last 2. For the Soul It shall be no loser but a great gainer by Death and that three wayes 1. In the place it goes unto viz. from Earth unto Heaven 2. In the excellent qualities it shall be endowed withall viz. perfection in all the faculties of it as it goes to the spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12. 3. In the excellent company it goes to enjoy leaving the company of sinners here and going to enjoy the company of Saints and Angels and the ever blessed Unity in Trinity 2dly In that it cannot hurt us appears in that it can never dissolve the Union between Christ and a believing Soul but brings it to a nearer sweeter and fuller Union of a Gracious makes it a Glorious Union however it separates Soul and Body one from the other yet it cannot separate either from Jesus Christ the Soul upon Death goes immediately unto Christ in Paradise and Christ goes down with the Body into the Grave where it sweetly rests as in its Bed in the Arms of Jesus Christ until the morning of the Resurrection of the Just Isa 57.2 1. It can never break the Covenant of Grace between God and the Soul for it 's an everlasting Covenant Gen. 17. And he hath not only promised to be their God unto Death but after Death and to all eternity 2. It can never untie the Marriage-Knot between Christ and his Spouse for he hath betrothed her unto himself for ever Hos 2. And whom he loves he loves to the end John 13.1 even with an everlasting love Jeremiah 31.3 3. It can never reverse those grants of Grace that God hath vouchsafed his as the grants of Reconciliation Justification Adoption Sanctification Salvation for the Gifts and Callings of God are without repentance Rev. 11.29 3dly As it is no way able to hurt you so it will every way do you good Though it be the last enemy that shall be destroyed yet of an enemy it shall be made a friend and the best friend that ever you had How so Why because Jesus Christ by undergoing Death and lying in the Grave he hath altered the nature both of Death and the Grave Death of a King of Terrors it made a Prince of Peace of a passage to eternal Death made a passage to eternal Life unto all that do believe the Grave that is a loathsome Dungeon to the wicked is made a sweet resting-place to the Saints That you may the more clearly and fully see the good will come to you by Death and so be made the more willing to it and chearfully resign your Spirit into the hands of God when he calls for it take serious notice of these ten following Particulars 1. Death is no Death to a true Believer It 's not his last day but the beginning of an everlasting day 2. Your dying day will not be your worst day but your best day better is the day of a mans Death then the day of his Birth saith Solomon Eccles 7.1 it being the egress of all misery and the ingress of eternal felicity 3. A Christians dying day it will be his enlarging day when he shall be set at liberty out of the Prison of the Body and brought home to his Fathers House 2 Cor. 5.8 It is but as Christ stiles it His departing and going to the Father John 13.1 4. A Christians dying day will be his resting day wherein he shall rest from all sinning sorrowing suffering from all temptations corruptions vexations Job 3.17 And who desires not rest 5. His dying day will be his reaping day having sown here in Tears he shall reap in Joy reap the fruit of all the Sermons they have heard all the Prayers they have made all the Tears they have shed all the Sighs and Groans they have uttered all the good Thoughts they have had all the good Words they have spoken all the good Works they have done all the Evils they have suffered and all they have forgotten to do and suffer Mat. 25.34 When saw we thee an hungry and fed thee not c. Then Christ will remember them and say In that you did it unto them ye did it unto me Yea there is not the least good work that any have done for any of his but it shall be remembred and rewarded even to a cup of cold Water Mat. 10. last 6. A Christians dying day will be his conquering and tryumphing day over all his Enemies Sin Satan and the World Death and Hell here we are in a continual warfare there 's not a day hour or moment wherein we can rest either from corruption within or temptation without but then there shall be an end of all then we shall tryumph over all in the words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.55 Oh Death where 's now thy sting c. 7. A Christians dying day will be his transplanting day from Earth to Heaven from Misery to Glory from a Valley of Tears to a Valley of blessed Visions from a howling Wilderness to a heavenly Paradise It is no other then a straight Gate to a Pallace of Glory a dark Entry to the Inheritance of the Saints in Light And oh Who would not be willing to exchange a Sodom for Sion an Egypt for Canaan Misery for Glory 8. A Christians dying day it 's his uncloathing day of a body of Sin and Death and the cloathing him with his House from Heaven his putting off his old Rags of Sin and Corruption and his putting on of the White Robe of Christ's Righteousness and with it the Robe of Glory 9. A Christians dying day it 's his marriage day with the Lamb the King of Saints and if the day of a Believers espousals be so sweet how sweet will the marriage day be Rev. 19.7 10. A Christians dying day will be his corronation day wherein Christ will crown all those that love his appearance with the Crown of Righteousness 2 Tim. 4.8 where they shall be still following the Lamb with Crowns on their Heads and Palms in their Hands and tryumphant Songs in their Mouths Rev. 5.11 12 13. Mix these Meditations with Faith and Prayer and you will find them mighty through God not only to make you willing but even long with the Apostle to be dissolv'd and be with Christ which is best of all Phil. 1.23 Amen and Amen Secondly That which follows DEATH is JUDGMENT Sect. 6. In and about the Judgment Day to take notice of and meditate seriously on these things 1. The Certainty 2. The Uncertainty 3. The near approach of it 4. The great solemnity of it 5. The universality of the Persons to be judged 6. The impartiality of it
evil spirit be so dreadful to them here what will it be to be still in their company and never suffered to go out of it Consider well but these two things 1. Their ghostly deformity they make Hell look black as one saith 2. Their deadly antipathy they are filled with rage against mankind and therefore having been temptors here they become for ever tormentors there 7. Meditate and consider before it be yet too late how inexpressibly the damned in Hell do and will for ever bewail their folly and madness in hearkening to and following the temptations of the Devil the World and the Flesh and mis-spending their health and strength time and tallents in the service of them and neglecting so great Salvation as was so frequently and affectionately offer'd them from time to time 8. Meditate and consider what those damned Souls in Hell would be willing to do and suffer if they might come out thence and have one offer more of a Christ Life and Salvation doubtless they would be willing in testimony of their thankfulness to spend every moment of time from the beginning of the World to the end could they live so long in the most holy pure strict precise manner they possibly could and would be content also to suffer whatsoever Men or Devils should invent or impose so they might but escape the eternity of those hellish torments but all in vain for out of Hell there 's no redemption Psal 49. Once in Hell and for ever in Hell 9. And Lastly Meditate on the duties you are to perform if you would escape those endless easless and remediless torments of Hell Q. What are they A. I will but name a few 1. Be still blessing God for Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ for undertaking the great Work of Redemption from the wrath to come 2. Get and clear up your interest in him and his redemption by the directions I have given you before 3. Be careful speedily to hearken unto and accept the offer of Christ and Life and Salvation in him before it be too late 4. Hasten as fast as you can out of the Suburbs of Hell I mean your natural unregenerate estate an estate of ignorance unbelief impenitency disobedience for this is the broad way to Hell 5. Learn from what you have seen to hate and fear and fly from all and every sin as you would from Hell and the rather because it is worse then Hell it being that which made Hell to be Hell and therefore to hearken to the counsel of our Saviour Mark 9.43 If thy hand offend thee cut it off it 's better for thee to enter into life maimed then having two hands to go into Hell c. 6. Be willing to do and suffer what ever God shall be pleased to call you unto here rather then by refusal to throw Soul and Body into Hell Fire Heb. 12.5 Fear not them which can only kill the Body c. 7. Pitty poor Souls who are every day running and posting in the broad way to Hell and labour by your Counsels Exhortations Admonitions Prayers Tears Examples to turn them back It may be they will be angry with you for it but it 's better they should be angry with you then God should be angry with you for not doing it better you should feel a little of their wrath then they and you lie under the eternal wrath of God that you may not 8. Be perswaded your selves and do you perswade others to look every day into Hell that you may not fall into Hell and that you may look to the purpose think and think again think every day and all your dayes of those things I have laid before you how unconceivably miserable the condition of the Damned is in Hell and yet you of free and rich Grace wonderful patience and long sufferance out of Hell who have deserved it as well as others you yet have a day of Grace when 't is past to others and therefore whilst it is called to day harden not your hearts but turn every one of you from your evil wayes that he may turn away his wrath and you may escape the damnation of Hell Amen Fourthly Of HEAVEN In and about it to meditate on those things I directed you before in and about the Life of Glory that glorious Place and glorious Company and glorious Endowments and glorious Imployments and glorious Injoyments the Saints shall have there add to those these two or three particulars more What Heaven is The excellent Titles given to it The glorious Objects we shall see there And the perfect happiness we shall for ever in joy there First What Heaven is viz. The highest and most excellent of places called the Heaven of Heavens and by the Apostle the Third Heaven This God hath prepared and appointed to be the Habitation of the Glorious Angels and all the Blessed Saints who have liv'd and died here in the Lord to reward all their faithful services here with everlasting bliss and happiness to the praise of the glory of his Grace Mat. 25.34 last 1 Thess 4. last Secondly Take notice of and meditate on the excellent Titles given to it in Scripture as for instance in some 1. In respect of the loving and kind imbracements of it it 's called Abraham's Bosom Luke 16. 2. In regard of the pleasure and delight of it it 's called Paradise Luke 23.48 and the Joy of the Lord Mat. 25. and the Fulness of Joy Psal 16. last 3. In regard of the greatness and spaciousness of it it 's called God the Fathers House John 14.2 The City of the Living God Heb. 12.22 The Kingdom of God Luke 12.32 A Heavenly Kingdom Mat. 7.21 A Kingdom which so far excelleth all earthly Kingdoms as Heaven doth Earth and further The Kingdom of God whose Kingdom infinitely excels all other Kingdoms as he doth all other Kings 4. In regard of the dureableness and continuance of it it 's called an Inheritance Acts 10.32 and a rich and glorious Inheritance Ephes 1.18 The Inheritance of the Saints in Light Colos 1.12 An Inheritance incorruptible undefiled that fades not away 1 Pet. 1.4 5. In respect of the Honour and Glory of it it 's called a Crown and that we may not think it to be a Crown gotten by Injustice it 's called a Crown of Righteousness 2 Tim. 4.8 And lest we should think it to be like earthly Crowns subject to change it 's called an Incorruptible Crown Luke 9.25 and a Crown of Life James 1.12 And that we not think it too mean a Crown it 's called a Crown of Glory 1 Pet. 1.4 An eternal weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4.17 which all other Crowns and Jewels do but darkly shaddow out It is as one saith A superlative transcendent Phrase such as is not to be found in all the Rhetorick of the Heathens because they never treated of such a Theam or with such a Spirit as the Apostle did Thirdly Meditate on the Glorious sights we
shall have there Austin wished he might have seen three things before he died Rome in its Glory Paul in the Pulpit and Christ in the Flesh but the Saints shall see better sights there They shall see not Rome but Heaven in its Glory Paul not in Pulpit but on the Throne Christ not with a crucified but glorified Body They shall behold the King in his beauty Isa 33.17 And what a glorious sight will this be And which is more then all the ever blessed Vision of God in himself and God in us and our selves in God Fourthly To meditate on those things wherein the happiness and blessedness of the Saints consist viz. In a removal of all evils and a confluence of all good things 1st In the removal of all evils which may be reduced to these three heads viz. 〈◊〉 Evil of Sin The Evil of Temptation The Evil of Affliction 1. The Evil of Sin The Saints shall not only be freed from the power of sin but from the very being of sin Grace here weakens Sin but Glory there will wholly abolish it Rev. 21. last No unclean thing shall enter there 2. From the Evil of Temptation Here we are continually subject unto temptations from within and from without from the Devil the World and the Flesh but there shall be freed from all though in Paradise yet none in Heaven no Serpent can creep in there nor any wicked one to vex our righteous Soul or any corruption left to incline us to evil 3. From the Evil of Affliction Here we are continually subject to one affliction or other in Body or Soul Name or Estate our selves or ours but there freed from all Rev. 21.4 God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes This happiness consists 2dly In a confluence of all good things The Saints there will be blessed in their Bodies in their Souls in their Company in the security and perpetuity of all 1. In their Bodies their bodies made immortal most beautiful vigorous active and glorious bodies as you saw before 1 Cor. 15.42 Phil. 3. last 2. For the Soul the Understanding Will Memory Affections all perfected in their acts and operations 1 Cor. 13. 3ly For their Company They shall have communion with all the glorious Angels and glorified Saints and the sacred Trinity in Unity God blessed for ever 4. For the security and perpetuity of this blessed condition it runs parallel with God to all eternity Mat. 25. last Fifthly To meditate on the duties you are to perform for the getting and making sure Heavens happiness to you as amongst others these 1. To see you be conformed to Christ in holiness because without holiness no happiness Mat. 5.8 John 3.3 Heb. 12.14 Rom. 8.29 2. To strengthen your Faith in this happy condition by the consideration of this That Christ your Head is gone into Heaven and taken the possession of it in your Name and Nature Heb. 6.20 and hath promised to come take you to himself that where he is you may be with him and that for ever John 14.3 4. 3. To admire and adore the infinite love of God to you in Christ in preparing for you and appointing you to so happy and blessed a state after this miserable life here saying still with David Lord what is Man and I amongst the Sons of Men that thou shouldest have such thoughts of love and eternal love to me Psal 103.1 Praise thou the Lord O my Soul c. 4. To contemn the World and all the glory of it in comparison of that glory above as David did Psal 4.6 and the Apostle Phil. 3.7 8. 5. To quicken and encourage your selves and all others especially your near and dear Relations to lay out themselves all they are and can for the making sure Heavens happiness to them 1 Cor. 15. last 2 Pet. 1.10 11. 6. To be still loving looking and longing for the appearance of Christ in Glory that when he appears we may appear with him as the promise runs to such Colos 3.4 2 Tim. 4.8 Titus 2.13 14. Rev. 22. last Great will be the benefit of meditation on these things it will put life and vigour into all your actions 1 Cor. 15. last and all your passions Rom. 8.18 One hour in Heaven will make an abundant recompence for all your sufferings here CHAP. VI. The third Head of Meditation in and about Man are such things in SOUL and BODY and about the Tongue Tallents Time Eternity of Man as may most conduce to the enabling of Man to answer God and Christ and the Spirit in all they have done for Man First The SOUL TO meditate in and about it of these Particulars The Nature of it The Worth of it The greatness of the Loss of it The greatness of the Salvation of it The Conscience God hath put into it to mind you of all First The Nature of it what it is sc A spiritual Substance Invisible Immortal Created of God United to the Body and endowed with admirable faculties of Vegitation Sense and Reason Secondly To meditate on the transcendent worth or excellency of it This appears 1st By the excellent Majesty of which it is an Image nothing so much resembles God as the Soul 1. In Spirituality 2. In Immortality 3. In the infinity of Comprehension or Duration 2dly By the excellent price was paid for the Redemption of a Soul not Silver and Gold but the precious Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 Had all the Creatures in the World laid down their lives they could never have done it being finite Creatures they could never have satisfied an infinite Justice 3dly By the excellent end and the use of it it being made to contemplate all those glorious Excellencies that are in God and in God for us 4thly The transcendent excellency of it above the Body and above all the World 1. Above the Body 1. The Body but an earthly Substance the Soul a heavenly Substance 2. The Body is a material and visible Substance the Soul a spiritual invisible Substance 3. The Body cannot live without the Soul but the Soul can and doth without the Body 4. The Soul not made for the Body but the Body for the Soul as the Box for a Jewel and the House for the Inhabitant 2. Above all the World One Soul 's of more worth then all the World then ten thousand Worlds as appears in this That all the World and ten thousand Worlds cannot content and satisfie the Soul no more then a Barley Corn can fill the World the Soul is of so large and vast a capacity as it 's able to conceive of and desire millions of Worlds Thirdly Consider the greatness of the Loss of a Soul There 's no loss to be compared to the loss of a Soul because he that loseth it loseth all not only himself but God and Christ and Grace and Glory both this World and that to come and this loss an irrecoverable loss Mat. 16.26 What will it profit
Pen or Purse and therefore how much more should Christians that have more light to shew them the weightiness of their work and the brevity and preciousness of their time To meditate on the express command Ephes 5.15 Redeem the time because the dayes are evil Here take notice of three things 1 From what you are to redeem the time 2. Unto what 3. Why. 1. From what you are to redeem the time You are to redeem it out of the hands of those who would steal it away from God and your Souls as 1. Idleness and her Daughters viz. vain Imaginations and idle Discourses 2. Worldliness and her Daughters viz. inordinate carking and caring toyling and termoiling about the things of the World 3. Voluptuousness and her Daughters viz. vain sporting rioting feasting proud apparelling immoderate and unseasonable sleeping These we find by sad and general experience to take up and consume the most of the precious time of men and women therefore you should do well to reflect and look back wherein you have been peccant and faulty how much of your precious time hath been stollen away by these time-devourers how much time hath been spent every day in Eating Drinking Sleeping Tricking Triming Fidling Dancing Carding Dicing and the like vain Sports and how little in Hearing Reading Praying Meditation holy Conference c. How much the vanities of the World carnal Pleasures needless Visits unprofitable Discourses and unnecessary Recreations have eaten up and to humble your selves under it and redeem your time out of the hands of these Thiéves for the future more especially to ask your own Consciences and look into your Conversation how you have imployed the time of your Youth the means and seasons of Grace the opportunities you have had of doing and receiving good the times of affliction either Personal Family National what good you have gotten or done in and by all otherwise very Heathens will rise up in judgement against you Take notice 2. What you are to redeem it unto viz. The promoting of the Glory of God the publick Good and your spiritual and everlasting Well-fare Isa 43.3 Ephes 1.6 Psal 137.5 John 6.27 3. For the grounds why you are so to redeem it you have it here in the Text Because the dayes are evil full of the evil of Sin full of the evil of Punishment never did iniquity more abound and never was the wrath of God more revealed from Heaven then in our dayes and therefore to redeem time that we may be fitted for the worst of times and the best of dayes Lastly Meditate how bitterly men have bewailed the loss of their time on their Death-beds and do still in Hell and what they would be willing to do and suffer if they might have further time but all in vain in vain did she cry out Call back Time Oh call back Time Time being past not a moment to be recalled A serious meditation of these things may through the blessing of God be an effectual means to make you prize and improve better your time then ever you have done Sixthly Of Eternity Sect. 14. In and about it to take notice of and meditate on these things 1. What it is 2. The kinds of it 3. How near we are to it 4. How bitterly men will bewail at the last the loss of a Blessed Eternity 1. What Eternity is scilicet An intellâ—ctual Sphear as one observes whose Center 's every where and Circumference no where For the better understanding of it take notice there is a double Eternity one a parte ante and another a parte post one that hath neither beginning nor end another that hath a beginning but no end For the first so God onely is Eternal Isa 43.10 13. Rev. 22.1 8. And the things of God as his Attributes as his Truth Psal 117.2 Mercy Psal 136.1 Righteousness Psal 119.142 c. For the other Eternity which hath a beginning but no end This the Eternity of Angels and Men and this Eternity is that we are to speak of 2. For the kinds of Eternity There is a double Eternity of Woe and Joy Misery and Felicity 1. Of Woe and Misery that shall befal the wicked and of Joy and Felicity which shall be bestowed on the godly Mat. 25. last The wicked shall go into everlasting punishment but the Righteous into Eternal Life And what folly and madness then is it for a temporary delight to lose eternal happiness Momentanium quod delectat eternum quod Cruciat 3. We should consider that we stand every day before the door of Eternity and we know not how soon we may lanch forth into that Ocean from whence there 's no return 4. How bitterly men will bewail at last when 't is too late their folly and madness in losing a Blessed Eternity and incurring a Cursed Eternity how unconceiveably miserable it will be for men to lose Heaven and lie in Hell so long as God is God He found it by bitter experience that cryed out on his Death-bed Oh Eternity Eternity Eternity in Hell for ever for ever for ever This word ever will break the hearts of men before ever they enter upon the borders of Eternity and therefore think seriously upon it before it be too late and let it be your morning and evening Thoughts The serious meditation of it may through the blessing of God be an effectual means to take off your hearts from these perishing things of the World and the pleasures of sin here which are but for a season keep you from envying the prosperity of the wicked and repining at your own adversity all being momentany in comparison of Eternity and make you look out after an interest in an eternal God and Christ and Spirit and Grace and Glory and do whatsoever you do in your particular and general Calling upon eternal grounds and to eternal ends Amen CHAP. VII The World and the Creatures in it IN and about this to meditate on three things 1. Those things in the Creatures that engage our hearts to love God 2. Those things in the Creatures that disengage our hearts from inordinate love to and pursuit of the Creature 3. Those duties we owe to God for the Creatures and the Creatures teach us to perform to God First To meditate on those things in the Creatures which discover the love of God to us and that engage our hearts again to love him As for instance The Magnitude Multitude Variety Beauty Structures Vertues Sympathy and Antipathy of the Creature 1. For the Magnitude or Greatness of the Creature Who can measure the breadth of the Earth and the depth of the Sea saith the wise man Eccles 13. And if the Earth be so great how great is the whole World The Earth is but a Point in comparison of the Heavens Circumference 2. For the Multitude of the Creatures Who can number the Sand of the Sea and if not the Sand much less all the Creatures that are in and under and above the Earth
to make provision for him at last falling sick and drawing towards his end a Servant of his came to visit him and asking him how he did Oh saith he I am going to another World Master said he you were wont here to send Provision before you to your Houses here have you done so for another House your eternal House Oh no said he that is my folly and misery 3. He is a fool that will hazzard and adventure his life for a toy and a trifle and put off a business for the present of greatest consequence to another day when yet he knows not whether he shall have another day and yet this is the greatest folly of worldly wise men though they hear often that there 's but one thing necessary in the World in comparison whereof all other things are unnecessary viz. the Salvation of the Soul yet will hazzard that to gain the World and put off that to the last and weakest hour when they can scarce think upon any thing else but pain and then when 't is too late lament their great folly and madness in it Thirdly Meditate on the duties you ow to God for the Creatures and the uses you are to make of the Creatures I shall but name a few As 1. To contemplate those glorious Attributes of God which shine forth in the Creatures as his Eternity Omnipotency infinite Wisdom and unsearchable goodness to Mankind in making a World and all things in it for him and him for himself and that first Because it 's expresly commanded Eccles 7.13 Job 37.14 2. The practise of the Saints Psal 77.11 12. Psal 143.5 6. all Gods People Psal 111.2 3. Because it 's the end wherefore God made Man and gave him a reasonable Soul not onely that he should barely view the Creatures but contemplate his glorious Attributes that shine forth in them There 's no skilful Artificer that will take it well to have his skill not taken notice of in the works he doth much less will God and it will exceedingly agravate mens sin and condemnation at last that they have so much taken notice of and admired the works of men and so little taken notice of the great and glorious Works of God in the Creation of this glorious Fabrick of Heaven and Earth 2. Duty to learn those good things in the Creatures which they do teach us in and by the instinct of Nature for all the World is but a great School to teach us the knowledge of God Rom. 1.20 Creatio Mundi Scriptura Dei Universus Mundus Deus Explicatus as one saith well The whole Creation is a Scripture of God the Heaven the Earth and the Sea 3. Great Leaves of that Book the Creatures contained in them as so many Lines by which God would read a Divinity-Lecture to us all the Creatures but a Ladder made of many steps to raise us up to God and as it were a pair of Spectacles whereby we may read God and the invisible things of God more clearly and plainly Jenkins on Jude But what are those things the Creatures teach us They all teach us Obedience Love Unity and dependance upon God a desire of freedom from that bondage our sin hath brought upon them 1. They all teach us Obedience to God for they all keep their station in which God hath set them they all do what God commands them and leave undone what he forbids them 1. They all keep their station the Sun rejoyceth to run its course the Sea keeps within its Banks the Earth standeth fast upon her Foundation onely Man is fallen from it 2. They do whatsoever God commands them Psal 19.1 The Heavens declare the Glory of God c. the Sea and the Winds and all fulfil his Word Psal 148.8 3. They leave undone what he forbids them the Fire burns not the Sea stands on heaps the Sun stands still and goes backward ten degrees the Fire descends and the Water ascends at his command all the Creatures have an ear to hear their Creator only Man is deaf Yea and mark farther they not onely obey their Creator but they obey him in a right manner For 1. they serve him only and not us any further and longer then we serve him therefore he is called the Lord of Hosts because all is at his command to teach us as to obey him so him only and men no further then they obey God 2. They serve him chearfully Psalm 19. The Sun rejoyceth as a Gyant to run his course and so ought we for the abundance of all his goodness to us or else are threatned to serve our enemies in the want of all things Deut. 2.8 3. They serve him constantly day and night and are never weary of doing him service so neither ought we 1 Cor. 15. last Be stedfast unmoveable c. Gal. 6.9 Be not weary of well doing c. 4. They serve the Lord freely by the instinct of Nature how much more should we by the instinct of Grace 5. They waste and consume themselves in the service of us to teach us to spend our selves and be spent for God 2. They all teach us to love God as being all fruits and tokens of his love to us and refuse to love us if we neglect to love him the Sun denies its Shine the Clouds their Rain and the Earth its Fruits they teach us also as to love God so to love others for God's sake especially those that are nearly related to us for they generally love those of the same kind and are very tender over their Mates and to their young ones 3. They all teach us unity amongst our selves for they all combine and conspire in one for the good of the whole they all prefer the good of the whole above their own particular the Fire will descend and the Waters ascend rather then there shall be a vacuum in Nature though they be of contrary qualities yet they do not trouble but help one the other the Fire warms the Air the Air preserves the Water the Water moistneth the Earth one Element is a good Neighbour to the other and all to teach us we should not be hurtful but helpful one to another and prefer the publick before our own private good 4. They all teach us dependance on God for being and well-being Psal 147.9 10. The eyes of all things look up to thee c. To teach us to look up to God and to have our dependance upon him for our selves and ours and to be careful about nothing Phil. 4.7 Matth. 6.26 to the end 5. They all teach us a desire and longing to be freed from that bondage our sins have brought upon them and our selves Rom. 8.19 22. And shall the Creatures sigh and groan under our burdens and we not under our own A third Duty is this To bewail the first sin of ours which brought such vanity and vexation upon the Creatures God at first looked down upon all that he had made and loe