shall they be exalted For the Lord is our defence and the holy One of Israel is our King Psal 89.15 16 17 18. What gladness was there at a private meeting of a few Christians that met to pray for Peter when they saw him delivered and come among them Act. 12.12.5.14 When the Churches had Rest they were edified and walked in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost Act. 9.31 3. But the great joy will be when Christ returneth in his Glory at the last day what a multitude of sorrows will there be ended And what a multitude of Souls will then be comforted What a multitude of desires and prayers and expectations will then be answered How many thousand that have sowed in tears shall then reap in everlasting joy When the Creature shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God Rom. 8.26 27. When all the faith and labour and patience of all the Saints from the beginning of the World shall be rewarded with the Rivers of celestial pleasure and the just shall enter into their Masters joy Mat. 25.21 That you may the better understand the sweetness of all these sorts of joy which Christs return will bring to Saints observe these following ingredients in them 1. It is Christ himself that is the object of their joy He that is the dearly beloved of their Souls that for their sakes was made a man of sorrows It is he who is their hope and help with whom they are in covenant as their only Saviour In whom they have trusted with whom they have deponed their Souls If he should fail them all would fail them and they were of all Men most miserable They would be comfortless if he should not come unto them and were not their comfort The World cannot help and comfort them for it is empty vain a transient shadow It will not for it is malignant and our professed enemy For we know that we are of God and the whole World is in maligno positus set on wickedness or as some think because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for the Devil in the foregoing Verse and the Article here also used is as it were planted into the Devil or put under the Devil to War against Christ and the holy Seed And indeed Satan seemeth in this War against the Church to have somewhat like success as he had against Christ himself As Christ must be a Man of sorrows and scorn and be crucified as a Blasphemer and a Traitour before he rejoice the hearts of his Disciples by his resurrection so the Church was a persecuted scorned handful of Men for the first three hundred years and then it rose by Christian Emperours to some reputation till Satan by another game overcame them by Judas his Successours that for what will you give me by Pride and Worldliness betrayed them into that deplorate state in which they have continued these 900 Years at least So that the Christian name is confined to a sixth part of the World and serious sanctified Believers are persecuted more by the Hypocrites that wear the Livery of Christ than by Heathens and Infidels themselves And when the Church is so low almost like Christ on the Cross and the Grave will not a Resurrection be a joyful change When it crieth out on the Cross My God My God why hast thou forsaken me Will not Christ appearing for its deliverance be a welcome sight It was when Adam had brought a Curse on himself and his Posterity and all the Earth that Redemption by the holy Seed was promised and when Satan had conquered Man that Christ was promised to conquer him It was when the World was destroyed by the deluge that its reparation was promised to Noah It was when Abraham was a Sojourner in a strange Land that the peculiar promises were made to him and his Seed It was when the Israelites were enslaved to extremity that they were delivered And it was when the Scepter was departing from Judah and they and the World were gone from God that Christ the Light of the World was sent And when the Son of Man cometh shall he find faith on the Earth When we see how vast the Heathen and Infidel Kingdoms are and what a poor despised People those are that set their chief hopes on Heaven and how Satan seemeth every where to prevail against them and most by false and Worldly Christians what a trial is this to our Faith and Hope As the Disciples said of a Crucified Christ We trusted it had been he that should have Redeemed Israel we are almost ready in the hour of temptation to say We trusted that Gods Name should have been Hallowed and his Kingdom come and his Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven And O how seasonable and how joyful will the Churches Resurrection be after such low and sad distress Many a sad Christian under the Sentence of Death is going hence with fear and trouble When a Moment shall transmit them into the joyful presence of their Lord and the possession of that which with weakness and fear they did but believe 2. And Christ will not come or be alone With him will come the New Jerusalem He will put glory on each Member but much more on the whole O how many of our old Companions are now there Not under temptation or any of the tempters power Not under the darkness of ignorance error or unbelief Not under the pains of a languid diseased corruptible Body Not under the fear of Sin or Satan or wicked Men Not under the terror of Death or Hell of an accusing Conscience or the wrath of God O with what joy shall we see and enjoy that glorious Society To be translated thither from such a World as this from such temptations sins such fears and sorrows such perfidious malignant wickedness what will it be but to be taken as from a Goal unto a Kingdom and from the Suburbs of Hell unto the Communion of Blessed Saints and Angels and into the Joy of our Lord. Doct. 6. Your Joy shall no Man take from you The Joy that cometh at Christs return will be a secure everlasting joy Impregnable as Heaven it self Christ and his Church will be Crucified no more Nor any more despised scorned persecuted or falsly accused and condemned Look not then for Christ or his Church in the Grave he is not here he is risen Who can we fear will deprive us of that joy 1. Not our selves And then we need to fear no other Our folly and sin is our Enemies strength They can do nothing against us without our selves The Arrows that wound us are all feathered from our own Wings But our trying time will then be past and confirmation will be the reward of Conquest He that hath kept us in the day of our trial will keep us in our state of rest and triumph How the now fallen Angels came to
Relation to his Servants Whether he be corporally present or absent he knoweth his own and it is their care also that whether present or absent they may be accepted of him 2 Cor. 5.7 8 9. He is their Head while they are suffering on Earth and therefore he feeleth their sufferings and infirmities Heb. 4.15 And hence it is that he thus rebuketh a persecuting Zealot Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Act. 9 4. 3. He hath not laid by the least measure of his love he loveth us in Heaven as much as he did on Earth Having loved his own which were in the World to the end he loved them Joh. 13.1 And as Josephs love could not long permit him to conceal himself from his Brethren but broke out the more violently after a short restraint so that he fell on their Necks and wept so will not the more tender love of Christ permit him long to hide his face or estrange himself from the People of his Love And when he returneth it will be with redoubled expressions of endearment 4. His Covenant with his Servants is still in force his Promises are sure and shall never be broken though the performance be not so speedy as we desire Deut. 7.9 Know therefore that the Lord thy God he is God the faithful God which keepeth Covenant and Mercy with them that love him and keep his Commandments to a thousand generations and repayeth them that hate him to their face to destroy them He will not be slack to him that hateth him he will repay him to his face 1 King 8.23 He keepeth Covenant and Mercy with his Servants that walk before him with all their heart So Dan. 9.4 Neh. 1.5 and 9.32 And it is the promise of Christ when he departed from his Servants That he will come again and take them to himself that where he is there they may be also Joh. 14.3 and 12.26 5. His own interest and honor and office and preparations do engage him to return to his disconsolate Flock His Jewels and peculiar Treasure are his interest Mal. 3.17 1 Pet. 2.9 Exod. 19.5 He that hath chosen but a little Flock Luk. 12.32 and confined his interest and treasure into such a narrow compass will not forsake that little Flock but secure them to his Kingdom He that hath made it his office to Redeem and Save them and hath so dearly bought them and gone so far in the work of their Salvation will lose none of all his cost and preparations but for his People and his Blood and his Honour and his Fathers Will and Love will certainly finish what he hath undertaken And therefore his withdrawings shall not be everlasting 6. It is for their sakes that he withdraweth for a time Though the bitter part be for their sin it is intended as Medicinal for their benefit sometimes he doth it to awake and humble them and stir them up to seek him and call after him To shew them what they have done in provoking him to withdraw and hide his face that renewed repentance may prepare them for the comforts of his return Sometimes he hath such work for them to do which is not so agreeable to his presence as fasting and mourning and confessing him in sufferings Math. 9.15 And sometimes he hath comforts of another kind to give them in his seeming absence Joh. 16.7 I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away For if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him to you As there were comforts which the Disciples were fittest for in Christs Bodily absence so when he will take away his ordinances or our prosperity or friends there are comforts of another sort in secret Communion with him and in suffering for him which his people may expect Not that any can expect it who on that pretence do reject these Ordinances and Mercies no more than the Disciples could have expected the Comforter if they had rejected the corporal presence of Christ But God hath such supplies for those that mourn for his departure Use 1. Misunderstand not then the departings of your Lord It is too bad to say with the evil servant My Lord delayeth his coming and worse to say he will never return 1. He will return at his appointed day to Judge the World to justifie his Saints whom the World condemned to answer the desires and satisfie all the expectations of Believers and to comfort and everlastingly reward the faithful that have patiently waited for his return And when he returneth with Salvation then shall we also return from our calamities and shall discern bâ—tween the righteous and the wicked between him that served God and him that served him not Mal. 3.18 Undoubtedly our Redeemer liveth and shall stand at the latter day upon the Earth and though after our Skin worms devour these Bodies yet in our Flesh we shall see God Job 19.25 26. Behold he cometh with Clouds and every Eye shall see him and they also which pierced him and all kindreds of the Earth shall wail because of him even so Amen Rev. 1.7 Though unbelieving Scoffers shall say where is the promise of his coming 2 Pet. 3.4 Yet Believers consider that a day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years but as a day and that the Lord is not slack of his promise but long suffering v. 8.9 He will not leave us comfortless but will come unto us Joh. 14.18 The patient expectation of the Just shall not be forgotten nor in vain Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his Mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe in that day 2 Thes 1.6 to 11. 2. And he will return also to the seemingly forsaken Flocks of his Disciples He hath his times of trial when the Shepherds being smitten the Sheep are scattered and he hath his times of gathering the scattered ones again together and giving them Pastors after his own heart that shall feed them with knowledge and understanding Jer. 3.14 15. And shall say What is the Chaff unto the Wheat Jer. 23.28 When we cry Wo is me for my hurt my wound is grievous We must also say Truly this is a grief and I must bear it My Tabernacle is spoiled and all my Cords are broken My Children are gone forth of me and they are not there is none to stretch forth my Tent any more and to set up my Curtains for the Pastors are become bruitish and have not sought the Lord.
and the abatement of his graces in us And all the works of mortifying self-denyal and forbearing all forbidden pleasures which God doth call his servants to Though in the Primitive and Principal part of Holyness there is nothing but what is sweet and pleasant to a Soul so far as it is holy As the Love of God and the Love of others and worshipping God and doing good and joy and thanks and praise and obedience c. Yet the Medicinal parts of grace or holiness have something necessarily in them that is bitter even to nature as nature and not only as corrupt such as are contrition self-denyal mortification abstinence as aforesaid 7. There are Charitable sorrows for the dishonour of God and for the sin and hurt and miseries of others These also are our Duties and we must be Agents in them as well as Patients As we must first pray for the Hallowing of the name of God and the coming of his kingdom and the doing of his will on earth as it is done in heaven So we must most grieve for the abuse dishonor of Gods name the hindering of his Kingdom and the breaking of his Laws that so many Nations see not the Peril and know not God and have not the Gospel or will not receive it but live in rebellion against their maker and in blindness obstinacy and hardness of heart and are given up to commit uncleanness with greediness that so many nations which are called Christians are captivated in ignorance and superstition by the blindness pride carnality and covetousness of their usurping self-obtruding Guides That so many men professing Christianity have so little of the knowledge or power of what they generally and ignorantly profess and live to the shame of their profession the great dishonour and displeasure of their Lord and the grief or hardening of others that the Church of Christ is broken into so many sects and fractions possessed with such an uncharitable destroying zeal against each other and persecuting their Brethren as cruelly as Turks and Heathens do that the best of Christians are so few and yet so weak and lyable to miscarriages All these are the matter of that sorrow which God hath made our duty And all these sorts of sorrow do go before a Christians fullest joy Reas 1. God will have some conformity between the order of Nature and of Grace Non-entity was before created entity The evening before the morning Infancy before maturity of age weakness before strength The buried seed before the plant the flower and fruit And infants cry before they laugh weakness is soon hurt and very querulous No wonder then if our sorrows go before our joys 2. Sin goeth before grace and therefore our sorrows are before our joys The seed is first fruitful which was first sown Joy indeed hath the elder Parent in esse reali absoluto but not in esse causali relativo We are the Children of the first Adam before we are Children of the second we are born flesh of flesh before we are born Spiritual of the Spirit And where Satan goeth before Christ it is equal that sorrow be before joy 3. Our gracious Father and wise Physician doth see that this is the fittest method for our cure That we may deny our selves we must know how little we are beholden to our selves and must smart by the fruit of our sin and folly before we are eased by the fruit of Love grace It is the property of the flesh to judg by sense and therefore sense shall help to mortify it The frowns of the World shall be an antidote against its flatteries It killeth by Pleasing and therefore it may help our cure by displeasing us Loving it is mens undoing and hurting us is the way to keep us from overloving it These wholsom sorrows do greatly disable our most dangerous temptations and preserve us from the pernicious poyson of prosperity They rowze us up when we are lazy and ready to sit down They awake us when we are ready to fall asleep They drive us to God when we are ready to forget him and dote upon a deceiver They teach us part of the meaning of the Gospel without them we know not well what a Saviour a promise a pardon grace and many other Gospel terms do signify They teach us to pray and teach us to hear and read with understanding They tell us the value of all our Mercies and teach us the use of all the means of grace They are needful to fix our flashy light unconstant minds Which are apt to be gazing upon every baite and to be touching or tasting the forbidden fruit and to be taken with those things which we had lately cast behind our backs till medicinal sorrow doth awake our reason and make us see the folly of our dreams Yea if sorrow check us not and make us wise we are ready to lay by our grace and wit and to follow any goblin in the dark and like men bewitched to be deceived by we know not what and to go on as a bird to the fowlers snare as an ox to the slaughter and as a Fool to the correction of the stocks 4. Moreover precedent sorrows will raise the price of following Joys They will make us more desirous of the day of our deliverance and make it the welcomer to us when it comes Heaven will be seasonable after a life of so much trouble and they that come out of great tribulation will joyfully sing the Praises of their Redeemer 5. And God will have the members conformed to their Head This was Christs method and it must be ours We must take up the Cross and follow him if ever we will have the Crown and we must suffer with him if we will be glorifyed with him Though the will of God be the Reason which alone should satisfy his creatures yet these Reasons shew you the Equity and goodness of his waies use 1 Use 1. If sorrow before Joy be Gods ordinary Method of dealing with his most beloved servants learn hence to understand the importance of your Sorrows You say as Baruch Jer. 45.3 Wo is me now For the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow I fainted in my sighing and I find no rest You are ingenious in recounting and aggravating your afflictions But are you as ingenious in expounding them aright Do you not judge of them rather by your present sense than by their use and tendency You will not do so by the bitterness of a Medicine or the working of a Purge or Vomit You will like it best when it worketh in that way as usually it doth with them that it cureth And should you not be glad to find that God taketh that way with you which he most usually takes with those that he saveth Sure you do not set light by the Love of God! Why then do you complain so much against the signs products of it Is it not because you
Servants wrongfully is but short and therefore the sorrows of such affliction can be but short though it be foreign Churches of whom I speak I hope it is to such as take their case to be to them as their own While they are breathing out threatnings they are ready to breath out their guilty Souls If a man in a Dropsie or Consumption persecute us we would not be over fearful of him because we see he is a dying man And so little is the distance between the death of one man and another that we may well say all mens lives are in a Consumption and may bear their indignation as we would do the injuries of a dying man How short is the day of the Power of darkness Christ calleth it but an hour Luke 22.53 This is your hour and the power of darkness How quickly was Herod eaten of Worms and many another cut off in the height of their prosperity when they have been raging in the heat of persecution Little thought Ahab that he had been so near his woful day when he had given order that Michaiah should be fed with the Bread and Water of affliction till he returned in peace What persecutions have the death of a Licinius a Julian a Qu. Mary c. shortened While they are raging they are dying while they are condemning the Just they are going to be condemned by their most just avenger How quickly will their Corps be laid in dust and their condemned Souls be put under the Chains of darkness till the judgment of the great and dreadful day He is not only an Unbeliever but irrational or inconsiderate that cannot see their end in the greatest of their glory How easie is it to see these bubbles vanishing and to foresee the sad and speedy period of all their cruelties and triumphs Job 20.4 5 6 7 8. Knowest thou not this of old since man was placed upon Earth that the triumphing of the wiched is short and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment Though his excellency mount up to the Heavens and his Head reach unto the Clouds yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung They which have seen him shall say where is he He shall fly away as a Dream and shall not be found yea he shall be chased away as a Vision of the night The Eye also which saw him shall see him no more neither shall his place behold him Though pride do compass them about as a Chain and violence cover them as a Garment and they are corrupt and speak oppression or calumny wickedly they speak loftily or from on high Though they set their mouth against the Heavens and their tongue walketh through the Earth yet surely they are set in slippery places God doth cast them down into destruction How are they brought into desolation as in a moment They are utterly consumed with terrors as a Dream from one that awaketh so O Lord in awaking or raising up that is saith the Chaldee Paraphrase in thy day of judging or as all the other Translations in civitate tuâ in thy Kingdom or Government thou shalt despise their Image that is shew them and all the World how despicable that Image of greatness and power and felicity was which they were so proud of If such a bubble of vain glory such an Image of felicity such a Dream of power and greatness be all that the Church of God hath to be afraid of it may be well said as Isa 2.22 Cease ye from Man whose Breath is in his Nostrils For wherein is he to be accounted of Psal 146.4 His Breath goeth forth he returneth to his Earth in that very day his thoughts perish And Isa 50.9 Behold the Lord God will help me who is he that shall condemn me Lo they all shall wax old as a Garment the Moth shall eat them up And Isa 51.7 8. Hearken unto me ye that know righteousness the People in whose heart is my law Fear ye not the reproach of men neither be ye afraid of their revilings For the Moth shall eat them up like a Garment and the Worm shall eat them like Wool But my righteousness shall be for ever and my salvation from generation to generation The sorrows which so short-lived power can inflâ—ct can be but short You read of their Victories and Persecutions in the News-books one year and quickly after of their death Use Hence therefore you may learn how injudicious they are that think Religion is disparaged by such short and small afflictions of Believers and how unexcusable they are who yield unto temptation and venture upon sin and comply with the ungodly and forsake the truth through the fear of so short and momentary sorrows When there is none of them but would endure the prick of a Pin or the scratch of a Briar or the biting of a Flea to gain a Kingdom or the opening of a Vein or the griping of a Purge to save their Lives O how deservedly are ungodly men forsaken of God For how short a pleasure do they forsake him and the everlasting pleasures And how short a trouble do they avoid by running into everlasting trouble If sin had not first subdued reason men would never make it a matter of question whether to escape so small a suffering they should break the Laws of the most righteous God nor would they once put so short a pain or pleasure into the ballance against the endless pain and pleasure Nor would a temptation bring them to deliberate on a matter which should be past deliberation with a man that is in his Wits And yet alas how much do these short concernments prevail through all the World Unbelievers are short sighted they look only or chiefly to things near and present A lease of this empty World for a few years yea an uncertain tenure of it is preferred before the best security for eternal life It s present pleasures which they must have and its present sorrows which they take care to escape As Christ hath taught us to say about these worldly things so the Devil hath taught them to say about everlasting things Care not for to morrow the morrow shall take thought for the things of it self sufficient to the day is the evil thereof Math. 6.34 Therefore when the day of their calamity shall come a despairing Conscience will perpetually torment them and say This is but the sorrow which thou chosest to endure or the misery which thou wouldst venture on to escape a present inconsiderable pain If there be any of you that shall think that present sufferings are considerable things to be put into the scales against eternity or that are tempted to murmuring and impatience under such short afflictions I desire them but to consider 1. that your suffering will be no longer than your sin And if it endure but as long is it any matter of wonder or repining Can you expect to keep your sickness and yet
lose their first innocency and wellfare is unknown to us But we have a promise of being for ever with Christ 2. Nor shall Devils deprive us of that joy Neither by those malicious temptations wherewith they now molest and haunt us Nor by the unhappy advantages which we have given them by our sin to corrupt our imaginations and thoughts and affections or to disturb our passions or pervert our understandings Nor by any terror or violence to molest us 3. Nor shall any Men take from us that joy The blessed will increase it Their Joy will be ours and the wicked will be utterly disabled They will be miserable themselves in Hell They will no more endanger us by flattering temptations nor terrify us by threats nor tread us down by their power nor hurt us in their malice nor render us odious by false accusations nor triumph over us with pride and false reproach They that said of the Church as of Christ He trusted in God let him deliver him now if he will have him for he said I am the Son of God they shall see that God hath delivered his Church and he will have it Use And will not a firm belief of all this rejoyce the Soul under all disappointments and sufferings on Earth And doth not our dejectedness and want of Joy declare the sinful weakness of our faith O Sirs our sadness our impatience our small desire to be with Christ the little comfort that we fetch from Heaven do tell us that Christianity and a life of Faith is a harder work than most imagine And the Art and Form and Words of Holiness are much more common than a holy Heavenly mind and life Christ speaketh many words of pity to his Servants under sorrows and sinking grief which some mistake for words of approbation or command Why are ye afraid O ye of little faith were words both of compassion and reproof I am sure the great unbelief that appeareth in much of our dejectedness and sorrow deserveth more reproof than our sufferings deserve to be entertained with those sorrows Use 2. I will therefore take my farewel of you in advising and charging you as from God that you be not deceived by a flattering World nor dejected by a frowning World but place your hopes on those Joys which no Man can take from you If you cannot trust the Love of God and the Grace and Promises of our Saviour and the witness of the Holy Spirit you must despair for there is no other trust So many of you seem to have chosen this good part the one thing necessary which shall never be taken from you that in the midst of our sorrows I must profess that I part with you with thankfulness and joy And I will tell you for what I am so thankful that you may know what I would have you be for the time to come I I thank the Lord that chose for me so comfortable a station even a People whom he purposed to bless II. I thank the Lord that I have not laboured among you in vain and that he opened the Hearts of so great a number of yours to receive his Word with a teachable and willing mind III. I thank the Lord that he hath made so many of you as helpful to your Neighbours in your place as I have been in mine and that you have not been uncharitable to the Souls of others but have with great success endeavoured the good of all IV. I rejoyce that God hath kept you humble that you have not been addicted to proud ostentation of your Gifts or Wisdom nor inclined to invade any part of the Sacred Office but to serve God in the capacity where he hath placed you V. I rejoyce that God hath made you Unanimous and kept out Sects and Heresies and Schisms so that you have served him as with one Mind and Mouth And that you have not been addicted to proud wranglings disputings and contentions but have lived in Unity Love and Peace and the practice of known and necessary truths VI. I rejoyce that your frequent meetings in your Houses spent only in Reading Repeating your Teachers Sermons Prayer and Praise to God have had none of those effects which the Conventicles of proud Opiniators and Self-conceited Persons use to have and which have brought even needful converse and godly communication into suspicion at least with some that argue against duty from the abuse Yea I rejoyce that hereby so much good hath been done by you You have had above Forty years experience of the great benefit of such well ordered Christian converse increasing knowledge quickening holy desires prevailing with God for marvellous if not miraculous answers of your earnest prayers keeping out errors and Sects VII I am glad that you have had the great encouragement of so many sober godly able peaceable Ministers in all that part of the Country round about you and mostly through that and the Neighbour Countries Men that avoided vain and bitter contentions that engaged themselves in no Sects or Factions that of a multitude not above two that I know of in all our Association had ever any hand in Wars But their principles and practices were reconciling and pacificatory They consented to Catechize all their Parishioners House by House and to live in the peaceable practice of so much Church Discipline as good Christians of several parties were all agreed in And you have lived to see what that Discipline was and what were the effects of such agreement VIII I am glad that you were kept from taking the Solemn League and Covenant and the Engagement and all consent to the change of the constituted Government of this Kingdom I took the Covenant my self of which I repent and I 'le tell you why I never gave it but to one Man that I remember and he professed himself to be a Papist Physician newly turned Protestant and he came to me to give it him I was perswaded that he took it in false dissimulation and it troubled me to think what it was to draw multitudes of men by carnal interest so falsely to take it And I kept it and the engagement from being taken in your Town and Country At first it was not imposed but taken by Volunteers But after that it was made a test of such as were to be trusted or accepted Besides the illegality there are two things that cause me to be against it 1. That Men should make a meer dividing engine and pretend it a means of Unity We all knew at that time when it was imposed that a great part if not the greatest of Church and Kingdom were of another mind And that as Learned and Worthy Men were for Prelacy as most the World had such as Usher Morton Hall Davenant Brownrig c. And to make our terms of Union to be such as should exclude so many and such Men was but to imitate those Church Dividers and Persecutors who in many Countries and Ages have
still made their own Impositions the engines of division by pretence of Union And it seemeth to accuse Christ as if he had not sufficiently made us terms of Concord but we must devise our own Forms as necessary thereto 2. And it was an imposing on the Providence of God to tye our selves by Vows to that as unchangeable which we knew not but God might after change as if we had been the Masters of his Providence No Man then knew but that God might so alter many circumstances as might make some things sins that were then taken for duty and some things to be duty which then past for sin And when such changes come we that should have been content with Gods Obligations do find our selves ensnared in our own rash Vows And I wish that it teach no other Men the way of dividing Impositions either to cut the Knot or to be even with the Covenanters IX I greatly rejoyce that Family Religion is so conscionably kept up among you that your Children and Apprentices seem to promise us a hopeful continuation of piety among you X. And I thank God that so great a number of Persons Eminent for holiness temperance humility and charity are safely got to Heaven already since I first came among you and being escaped from the temptations and troubles of this present evil World have left you the remembrance of their most imitable Examples And having all this comfort in you as to what is past I shall once more leave you some of my Counsels and Requests for the time to come which I earnestly intreat you not to neglect I. Spend most of your studies in confirming your belief of the Truth of the Gospel the Immortality of the Soul and the Life to come and in exercising that belief and laying up your treasure in Heaven and see that you content not your selves in talking of Heaven and speaking for it but that your Hopes your Hearts and your Conversation be there and that you Live for it as worldlings do for the Flesh II. Flatter not your selves with the hopes of long Life on Earth but make it the summ of all your Religion Care and Business to be ready for a safe and comfortable Death For 'till you can fetch comfort from the Life to come you can have no comfort that true reason can justify III. Live as in a constant War against all fleshly lusts and love not the World as it cherisheth those lusts Take heed of the love of Mony as the root of manifold evils Think of Riches with more Fear than Desire Seeing Christ hath told us how hard and dangerous it maketh our way to Heaven When once a Man falls deeply in love with Riches he is never to be trusted but becomes false to God to all others and to himself IV. Be furnished before hand with expectation and patience for all evils that may befal you And make not too great a matter of sufferings especially Poverty or wrong from Men. It is sin and folly in poor Men that they over-value Riches and be not thankful for their peculiar Blessings I am in hopes that God will give you more quietness than many others because there are none of you rich It s a great means of safety to have nothing that tempteth another Mans desire nor that he envieth you for Despised Men live quietly and he that hath an empty Purse can sing among the Robbers He that lieth on the ground feareth not falling When Judea and so when England by Saxons Danes c. was Conquered the poor were let alone to possess and Till the Land and had more than before It was the Great and Rich that were destroyed or carried or driven away Is it not a great benefit to have your Souls saved from rich Mens temptations and your Bodies from the envy assaults and fears and miseries that they are under V. Take heed of a Self-conceited unhumbled understanding and of hasty and rash conclusions it is the Fool that rageth and is confident Sober Men are conscious of so much darkness and weakness that they are suspicious of their apprehensions Proud self conceitedness and rash hasty concluding causeth most of the mischiefs in the world which might be prevented if Men had the humility and patience to stay till things be throughly weighed and tried Be not ashamed to profess uncertainty where you are indeed uncertain Humble doubting is much safer than confident erring VI. Maintain Union and Communion with all true Christians on Earth and therefore hold to Catholick principles of meer Christianity without which you must needs crumble into Sects Love Christians as Christians but the best most Locally separate from none as accusing of them further than they separate from Christ or deny you their Communion unless you will sin The zeal of a Sect as such is partial turbulent hurtful to Dissenters and maketh men as Thorns and Thistles But the zeal of Christianity as such is pure and peaceable full of mercy and good fruits mellow and sweet and inclineth to the good of all If God give you a faithful or a tolerable publick Minister be thankful to God and love honour and encourage him and let not the Imperfections of the Common-Prayer make you separate from his Communion prejudice will make all Modes of Worship different from that which we preferr to seem some heynous sinful Crime But humble Christians are most careful about the frame of their own Hearts and conscious of so much faultiness in themselves and all their service of God that they are not apt to accuse and aggravate the failings of others especially in matters which God has left to our own determination Whether we shall pray with a Book or without in divers short Prayers or one long one whether the People shall sing Gods praise in Tunes or speak it in Prose c. is left to be determined by the general rules of Concord Order and Edification Yet do not withdraw from the Communion of Sober Godly Nonconformists though falsly called Schismaticks by others VII Be sure that you maintain due honour and subjection to your Governours Fear the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change Prov. 24.21 and that in regard of the Oath of God Eccl. 8.2 Curse not the King no not in thy thought and curse not the Rich in thy Bed-chamber for a Bird of the Air shall carry the voice and that which hath Wings shall tell the matter Eccl. 10.20 Obey God with your first and absolute obedience and no man against him but obey the just commands of Magistrates and that out of Obedience to God and suffer patiently when you cannot obey And if God should ever cast you under oppressing and persecuting Governours in your patience possess your Souls trust God and keep your innocency and abhor all thoughts of Rebellion or Revenge He that believeth will not make haste Do nothing but what God will own and then commit your selves and your
way to him Repress wrath and hate unpeaceable Counsels Our way and our time must be only Gods way and time Self-saving men are usually the destroyers of themselves and others Peter that drew his Sword for Christ denied him the same Night with Oaths and Curses Fools trust themselves and Wise Men trust God Fools tear the Tree by beating down the Fruit that 's unripe and harsh and Wise men stay till it is ripe and sweet and will drop into their hands Fools rip up the Mother for an untimely Birth but Wise Men stay till Maturity give it them Fools take red hot Iron to be Gold till it burn their Fingers to the Bone They rush into Seditions and Blood as if it were a matter of jest but Wise Men sow the fruit of righteousness in peace and as much as in them lieth live peaceably with all men All men are mortal both oppressours and oppressed Stay a little and mortality will change the Scene Gods time is best Martyrdom seldome killeth the hundredth part so many as Wars do And he is no true believer that taketh Martyrdom to be his loss And Christ is more interessed in his Gospel Church and Honour than we Queen Maries cruelties and the Bishops bonefires made Religion universally received the more easily when her short Reign was ended We may learn wit of the Fool that seeing great Guns and Musquets ask'd what they were to do and the answerer said to kill men saith he Do not men die here without killing In our Country they will die of themselves VIII Be sure that you keep up Family Religion especially in the careful Education of youth Keep them from evil company and from temptations and especially of idleness fullness and baits of lust Read the Scripture and good Books and call upon God and sing his Praise And recreate youth with reading the History of the Church and the Lives of Holy Men and Martyrs instruct them in Catechisms and Fundamentals IX Above all live in Love to God and Man and let not selfishness and worldliness prevail against it Think of Gods goodness as equal to his Greatness and Wisdom and take your selves as Members of the same Body with all true Christians Blessed are they that faithfully practise those three grand principles which all profess viz. 1. To love God as God above all and so to obey him 2. To love our Neighbours as our selves 3. And to do as we would be done by Love is not envious malignant censorious it slandereth not it persecuteth not it oppresseth not it defraudeth not it striveth not to gain by anothers loss Get Men once to love their Neighbours as themselves and you may easily prognosticate peace quietness and concord happiness to the Land and Salvation to the peoples Souls Finally Brethren live in love and the God of love and peace shall be among you The Lord save you from the evils of which I have here and often warned you Remember with thankfulness the many years of abundant mercy which we have enjoyed tho too much mixt with our sins and vilified by some 1 Thes 5.11 12 13. Comfort your selves together and edify one another even as also ye do and I beseech you Brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in Love for their work sake and be at peace among your selves And the Lord deeply write on all your Hearts these blessed words 1 Joh. 4.16 We have known and believed the Love that God hath to us God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him And remember 2 Pet. 3.11 12 13. Seeing all these things shall be dissolved what manner of Persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for and hasting to the coming of the day of God wherein the Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth righteousness I need not lengthen my Counsels further to you now having been called by the Will and Providence of God to leave behind me a multitude of Books which may remember you of what you heard and acquaint the world what Doctrine I have taught you And if longer studies shall teach me to retract and amend any failings in the writings or practice of my unripe and less experienced age as it will be to my self as pleasing as the cure of any Bodily Disease I hope it will not seem strange or ungrateful to you Though we must hold fast the truth which we have received both you and I are much to be blamed if we grow not in knowledge both in Matter Words and Method The Lord grant that also we may grow in Faith Obedience Patience in Hope Love and desire to be with Christ Now the God of Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great shepherd of the sheep through the Blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be Glory for ever and ever Amen Heb. 13.20 21. FINIS These Books following are lately Printed for and Sold by B. Simmons at the Three Golden Cocks at the West end of Pauls A Full Treatise of Episcopacy for the Primitive sort only Poetical fragments Heart Imployment with God and it self The Concordant Discord of a broken healed heart Sorrowing rejoycing fearing hoping dying living By Richard Baxter in Octavo Price bound 1 s. Of the Immortality of Mans Soul and the nature of it and other Spirits Two Discourses one in a Letter to an unknown doubter the other in a reply to Dr. Henry Moors Animadversions on a private Letter to him which he published in his Second Edition of Mr. Joseph Glanvils Saducismus Triumphatus or History of Aparitions By Richard Baxter in Octavo Price bound 1 s. 6 d. Richard Baxters Dying Thoughts upon Phil. 1.23 written for his own use in the latter times of his corporal pains and weakness in Octavo Price bound 2 s. 6 d. Aâ—ditions to the Poetical fragments of Richard Baxter written for himself and communicated to such as are more for serious Verse than smooth in Octavo Price stitcht 6 d. Truth and Peace promoted Or a Guide to young Christians in the way of Salvation past the danger of errors and difficulties of curiosity In a familiar Dialogue between a Minister of Christ and a devout private Christian With an Appendix concerning the length of a Sabbath days Journey By Adam Martingdale a Minister of the Gospel in Cheshire Price bound 6 d. Isa 30.20 Heb. 12. from v. 1. to 〈…〉 1 Cor. 13.3 Matth. 5.10 11 12. Eph. 4.18 19. 1 Cor. 15. John 3.6 Prov. 7.22 23. Rev. Luke 14.28 33. Rom. 8.17 18. Tim. 2 Cor. 4.18 Mat. 6.20 21. Col. 3.1 2 â— 4. Luke 22.44 Luk. 8.37 Math. 25.41 Mat. 7.23 Luk. 13.27 1 Pet. 1.6 7 9. Ps 119.67.75 Ps 129.1 2 3. Isa 49.13 Psal 18.27 2 Pet. 24. Jude 6. * Or as Amyraldus Paraphras Cum olim evigilabunt praesens eorum felicitas erit instar somnii quod somno discusso dissipatum est quin etiam antequam evigilent in ipsa illa urbe in qua antea florebant vanam istam felicitatis poâ—pam in qua antea volitabant reddes contemnendam tanquam umbram aut imaginem evanescenteâ— in qua nihil solidi est * Nubecula est cito evanescit said Athanasius of Julian When Julian's death was told at Antioch they all cried out Maxime fatue ubi sunt vaticinia tua Vicit Deus Christus ejus Abbas Vrspargens pag. 91. Gen. 4.7 Numb 32.23 Heb. 11.25 26 c. Ps 9.7 8. Psal 43.2 3 4. Mat. 27.43