the nature and cause of light and heat the order course and harmony of the universal systeme of the world what joyful acclamations would this produce in the literal studious sort of men what joy then should it be to us to know by Faith the God that made us the Creation of the world the Laws and Promises of our Creatour the Mysteries of Redemption and Regeneration the frame of the new Creature the entertainment of the spirits of the just with Christ the Judgement which all the world must undergo the work and company which we shall have hereafter and the endless joyes which all the sanctified shall possess in the sight and Love of God for ever How blessed an invention would it be if all the world could be brought again to the use of one universal language Or if all the Churches could be perfectly reconciled how joyful would the Author of so great a work be should we not then rejoyce who foresee by Faith a far more perfect union and consent than ever must be expected here on earth Alas the ordinary lowness of our Comforts doth tell us that our Faith is very small I say not so much The sorrows of a doubting heart as the little joy which we have in the fore-thoughts of Heaven when our title seemeth not much doubtful to us For those sorrows shew that such esteem it a joyful place and would rejoyce if their title were but cleared But when we have neither the sorrow or solicitousness of the afflicted soul nor yet the joy which is any whit suitable to the belief of such everlasting joyes we may know what to judge of such an uneffectual belief at best it is very low and feeble It is a joy unspeakable and full of glory which unseen things should cause in a Believer 1 Pet. 1.6 7 8. Because it is an exceeding eternal weight of glory which he believeth 2 Cor. â— 17 18. 8. Finally Learn to Die also as Believers The life of Faith must bring you to the very entrance into glory where one doth end the other begins As our dark life in the womb by nutriment from the Mother continueth till our passage into the open world You would die in the womb if Faith should cease before it bring you to full intuition and fruition Heb. 11.22 By faith Joseph when he died made mention of the departing of the children of Israel Josephs faith did not die before him Heb. 11.3 These all died in faith confessing that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth and declaring that they sought a better Country They that live by faith must die in faith yea and die by faith too Faith must fetch in their dying comforts And O how full and how near a treasure hath it to go to To die to this world is to be born into another Beggars are best when they are abroad The travail of the ungodly is better to them than their home But the Believers home is so much better than his travail that he hath little cause to be afraid of coming to his Journeys end but should rather every step cry out O when shall I be at home with Christ Is it Earth or Heaven that you have prayed for and laboured for and waited and suffered for till now And doth he indeed pray and labour and suffer for Heaven who would not come thither It is Faith which overcometh the world and the flesh which must also overcome the fears of death and can look with boldness into the loathsome grave and can triumph over both as victorious through Christ It is Faith which can say Go forth O my soul depart in peace Thy course is finished Thy warfare is accomplished The day of triumph is now at hand Thy patience hath no longer work Go forth with joy The morning of thy endless joyes is near and the night of fears and darkness at an end Thy terrible dreams are ending in eternal pleasures The glorious light will banish all thy dreadful specters and resolve all those doubts which were bred and cherished in the dark They whose employment is their weariness and toil do take the night of darkness and cessation for their rest But this is thy weariness Defect of action is thy toil and thy most grievous labour is to do too little work And thy uncessant Vision Love and Praise will be thy uncessant ease and pleasure and thy endless work will be thy endless rest Depart O my soul with peace and gladness Thou leavest not a world where Wisdom and Piety Justice and Sobriety Love and Peace and Order do prevail but a world of ignorance and folly of bruitish sensuality and rage of impiety and malignant enmity to good a world of injustice and oppression and of confusion and distracting strifes Thou goest not to a world of darkness and of wrath but of Light and Love From hellish malice to perfect amity from Bedlam rage to perfect wisdom from mad confusion to perfect order to sweetest unity and peace even to the spirits of the just made perfect and to the celestial glorious City of God! Thou goest not from Heaven to Earth from holiness to sin from the sight of God into an infernal dungeon but from Earth to Heaven from sin and imperfection unto perfect holiness and from palpable darkness into the vital splendour of the face of God! Thou goest not amongst enemies but to dearest friends nor amongst meer strangers but to many whom thou hast known by sight and to more whom thou hast known by faith and must know by the sweetest communion for ever Thou goest not to unsatisfied Justice nor to a condemning unreconciled God but to Love it self to infinite Goodness the fountain of all created and communicated good to the Maker Redeemer and Sanctifier of souls to him who prepared Heaven for thee and now hath prepared thee for Heaven Go forth then in triumph and not with terrour O my soul The prize is won Possess the things which thou hast so long prayed for and sought Make haste and enter into thy Masters joy Go view the glory which thou hast so long heard of and take thy place in the heavenly Chore and bear thy part in their celestial melody Sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God! And receive that which Christ in his Covenant did promise to give thee at the last Go boldly to that blessed God with whom thou hast so powerful a Mediatour and to the Throne of whose grace thou hast had so oft and sweet access If Heaven be thy fear or sorrow what can be thy joy and where wilt thou have refuge if thou fly from God If perfect endless pleasures be thy terrour where then dost thou expect content If grace have taught thee long ago to prefer the heavenly and durable felicity refuse it not now when thou art so near the port if it have taught thee long ago to be as a stranger in this Sodom and to renounce this
and use the language the motives and the employments of the Country and people where they live so he that is most familiar with such as live by Faith upon things unseen and take Gods promise for full security hath a very great help to learn and live that life himself Heb. 10.24 25. 1 Thes 4.17 18. Phil. 3.20 21. Direct 20. Forget not the nearness of the things unseen and think not of a long continuance in this world but live in continual expectation of your change Distant things be they never so great do hardly move us As in bodily motion the mover must be contiguous And as our senses are not fit to apprehend beyond a certain distance so our minds also are finite and have their bounds and measure And sin hath made them much narrower foolish and 〈◊〉 sighted than they would have been A certainty of dying 〈◊〉 last should do much with us But yet he that looketh to live long on earth will the more hardly live by Faith in Heaven when he that daily waiteth for his change will have easily the more serious and effectual thoughts of the world in which he must live next and of all the preparations necessary thereunto and will the more easily despise the things on earth which are the employment and felicity of the sensual Col. 3.1 2 3. Phil. 1.20 21 22 23. 1 Cor. 15.31 As we see it in constant experience in men when they see that they must presently die indeed how light then set they by the world how little are they moved with the talk of honour with the voice of mirth with the sight of meat or drink or beauty or any thing which before they had not power to deny and how seriously they will then talk of sin and grace of God and Heaven which before they could not be awakened to regard If therefore you would live by faith indeed set your selves as at the entrance of that world which faith foreseeth and live as men that know they may die to morrow and certainly must be gone ere long Dream not of I know not how many years more on earth which God never promised you unlâ—ss you make it your business to vanquish faith by setting its objects at a greater distance than God hath set them Learn Christs warning to one and all To watch and to be alwaies ready Mark 13.33 35 37. 1 Pet. 4 7. Mat. 24.44 Luke 12.40 He that thinketh he hath yet time enough and day-light before him will be the apter to loiter in his work or Journey When every man will make haste when the Sun is setting if he have much to do or far to go Delaies which are the great preventers of Repentance and undoers of the world do take their greatest advantage from this ungrounded expectation of long life When they hear the Physician say He is a dead man and there is no hope then they would fain begin to live and then how religious and reformed would they be whereas if this foolish errour did not hinder them they might be of the same mind all their lives and might have then done their work and waited with desire for the Crown and said with Paul For I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but to them also that love his appearing 2 Tim. 4.6 7 8. And so much for the General Directions to be observed by them that will live by Faith I only add that as the well doing of all our particular duties dependeth most on the common health and soundness of the soul in its state of grace so our living by Faith in all the particular cases after instanced doth depend more upon these General Directions than on the particular ones which are next to be adjoyned CHAP. I. An Enumeration of the Particular Cases in which especially Faith must be used 1. How to live by Faith on GOD. THE General Directions before given must be practised in all the Particular Cases following or in order to them But besides them it is needful to have some special Directions for each Case And the particular Cases which I shall instance in are these 1. How to exercise Faith on GOD himself 2. Upon Jesus Christ 3. Upon the Holy Ghost 4. About the Scripture Precepts and Examples 5. About the Scripture Promises 6. About the Threatnings 7. About Pardon of sin and Justification 8. About Sanctification and the exercises of other Graces 9. Against inward vices and temptations to actual sin 10. In case of Prosperity 11. In Adversity and particular Afflictions 12. In Gods Worship publick and private 13. For Spiritual Peace and Joy 14. For the World and the Church of God 15. For our Relations 16. In loving others as our selves 17. About Heaven and following the Saints 18. How to die in Faith 19. About the coming of Christ to Judgement GOD is both the object of our knowledge as he is revealed in Nature and of our Faith as he is revealed in the holy Scriptures He is the first and last object of our Faith It is life eternal to know him the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent Ye believe in God believe also in me was Christs order in commanding and causing Faith Joh. 14.1 Seeing therefore this is the principal part of Faith to know God and live upon him and to him I shall give you many though brief Directions in it Direct 1. Behold the glorious and full demonstrations of the Being of the Deity in the whole frame of nature and especially in your selves The great argument from the Effect to the Cause is unanswerable All the caused and derived Beings in the world must needs have a first Being for their cause All Action Intellection and Volition all Power Wisdom and Goodness which is caused by another doth prove that the cause can have no less than the total effect hath To see the world and to know what a man is and yet to deny that there is a God is to be mad He that will not know that which all the world doth more plainly preach than words can possibly express and will not know the sense of his own Being and faculties doth declare himself uncapable of teaching Psal 14.1 49.12 20. Isa 1.2 3. It is the greatest shame that mans understanding is capable of to be ignorant of God 1 Cor. 15.34 and the greatest shame to any Nation Hos 4.1 6.6 As it is the highest advancement of the mind to know him and therefore the summ of all our duty Prov. 2.5 Hos 6 6· 2 Chron. 30.21 22. Isa 11.9 2 Pet. 2.20 Rom. 1.20 28. Joh. 17.3 Direct 2. Therefore take not the Being and Perfections of God for superstructures and
that ever will be committed is forgiven absolutely 6. The kind of our presenâ— Justification is imperfect it being but in Covenant-title and some part of execution the full and peâ—fâ—ct sentence and execution being at the day of Judgment I leave them therefore to say Christs Righteousness imputed to us is perfect therefore we are as perfectly just and justified as Christ who know not what Imputation here is nor that Christs personal Righteousness is not given to us as proprietors in it self but in the effects and who know not the difference between believing and blaspheming and making our selves as so many Christs to our selves and that know not what need they have of Christ or of Faith or Prayer or of any holy endeavour for any more Pardon and Righteousness or Justification than they have already Or who thinke that David in his Adultery and Murder was as perfectly pardoned and justified as he will be in Heaven at last And in a word who know not the difference between Earth and Heaven Errour 12. That Christ justifieth us only as a Priest Or say others only as obeying and satisfying Contr. Christ merited our Justification in his state of humiliation as the Mediator subjected to the Law and perfectly obeying it and as a sacrifice for sin But this is not justifying us Christ offered that sacrifice as the High Priest of the Church or world But this was not justifying us Christ made us the New Covenant as our King and as the great Prophet of the Father or Angel of the Covenant Mal. 3.1 And this Covenant giveth us our pardon and title to impunity and to life eternal And Christ as our King and Judge doth justifie us by a Judiciary Sentence and also by the execution of that sentence so that the relations most eminently appear in our Justification are all excluded by the foresaid errour Errour 13. That we are justified only by the first act of Faith and all our believing afterwards to the end of our lives are no justifying acts at all Contr. Indeed if the question be only about the Name of Justifying if you will take it only for our first change into a state of righteousness by pardon it is true But the following actâ— of Faith are of the same use and need to the continuing of our Justification or state of Righteousness as the first act was for the beginning of it Errour 14. That the continuance of our Justification needeth no other conditions to be by us performed than the continuance of that Faith on which it was begun Contr. Where that first Faith continueth there our Justification doth continue But that Faith never continueth without sincere obedience to Christ and that obedience is part of the condition of the continuance or not losing our Justification as is proved before and at large elsewhere The Faith which in Baptism we profess and by which we have our first Justification or Covenant-right is an accepting of Christ as our Saviour and Lord to be obeyed by us in the use of his saving remedies and we there vow and covenant future obedience And as our marriage to Christ or Covenant-making is all the condition of our first right to him and his benefits without any other good works or obedience so our Marriage-fidelity or Covenant keeping is part of the condition of our continuance herein or not losing it by a divorce John 15. Col. 1.23 c. Errour 15. That Faith is no condition of our part in Christ and our Justification but only one of Gods gifts of the Covenant given with Christ and Justification Errour 16. That the Covenant of Grace hath no conditions on our part but only donatives on Gods part Errour 17 That if the Covenant had any conditions it were not free And that every condition is a meritorious cause or at least some cause Contr. All these I have confuted at large elsewhere and proved 1. That Faith is a proper condition of those benefits which God giveth us by the conditional Covenant of Grace but not of all the benefits which he any other way giveth us It was not the condition of his giving Christ to live and die for us nor of his giving us the Gospel or this Covenant it self nor of his giving us Preachers or of the first motions of his Spirit nor was Faith the condition of the Faithâ—â—â—elf â—â—â—elf because all these are not given us in that way by that Covenant but absolutely as God shall please 2. That some Promises of God of the last mentioned gifts have no condition The promises of giving a Saviour to the world and the promise of giving and continuing the Gospel in the world and of converting many by it in the world and of making them Believers and giving them new hearts and bringing them to salvation c. have no conditions But these are promises made some of them to Christ only and some of them to fallen mankind or the world in general or predictions what God will do by certain men unborn unnamed and not described called the Elect. But all this giveth no title to Pardon or Justification or Salvation to any one person at all Remember therefore once for all that the Covenant which I still mean by the Covenant of Grace is that which God offereth men in Baptism by the acceptance whereof we become Christians 3. That Gods gift of a Saviour and New Covenant to the world are so free as to be without any condition But Gods gift of Christ with all his benefits of Justification Adoption c. to individual persons is so free as to be without and contrary to our desert but not so free as to be without any condition And that he that will say to God Thy grace of pardon is not free if thou wilt not give it me but on condition that I accept it yea or desire it or ask it shall prove a contemner of grace and a reproacher of his Saviour and not an exalter of free grace There is no inconsistency for God to be the giver of grace to cause us to believe and accept of Christ and yet to make a deed of gift of him to all on condition of that Faith and acceptance no more than it is inconsistent to give Faith and Repentance and to command them of both which the objecters themselves do not seem to doubt For he maketh both his command and his conditional form of Promise to be his chosen means and most wisely chosen of working in us the thing commanded 4. That a condition as a condition is no cause at all much less a meritorious cause But only the non-performance of it suspendeth the donation of the Covenant by the will of the Donor Or râ—â—her it is the Donors will that suspendeth it till the condition be done And some conditions signifie no more than a term of time and some in the matter of them and not in the form are a not-demeriting or not-abusing the Giver or not-despising the gift
of the soul in God and the highest praises and thanksgivings with the readiest and chearfullest obedience And what kind of Religious performances are most excellent which we must principally intend Groans and tears and penitent confessions and moans are very suitable to our present state while we have sin and suffering But surely they are duties of the lower rank For Heaven more aboundeth with praises and thanksgiving and therefore we must labour to be fitter for them and more abundant in them not casting off any needful humiliations and penitent complaints but growing as fast as we can above the necessity of them by conquering the sin which is the cause So ask what is it that would make the Church on Earth to be likest to that part which is in Heaven Is it striving what Pastors shall be greatest or have precedency or be called gracious Lords or Benefactors Luke 22.24 25 26. 1 Pet. 5.3 4 5. Or is it in making the flock of Christ to dread the secular power of the Shepherds and tremble before them as they do before the Wolf Or is it in a proud conceit of the peoples power to ordain their Pastors and to rule them and themselves by a major vote Or in a supercilious condemning the members of Christ and a proud contempt of others as too unholy for our communion when we never had authority to try or judge them Is it in the multitude of Sects and divisions every one saying Our party and our way is best Surely all this is unlike to Heaven It is rather in the Wisdom and Holiness and Vnity of all the members When they all know God especially in his Love and Goodness and when they fervently love him and chearfully and universally obey him and when they love each other fervently and with a pure heart and without divisions do hold the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and with one heart and mind and mouth do glorifie God and our Redeemer Leaving that Church-Judgment to the Pastors which Christ hath put into their hands and leaving Gods part of Judgment unto himself This is to be like to our heavenly exemplar and to do Gods Will on Earth as it is done in Heaven Ephes 4.2 3 4 11 12 16. 9. And we must also look back to the examples of their lives while they were on earth and see wherein they are to be imitated as the imitators of Jesus Christ which way went they to Heaven before us 10. Lastly We must give God thanks on their behalf for making them so perfect and bringing them so near him and saving them from sin and Satan and the world and bringing them safe to Heaven through so many temptations difficulties and sufferings For making them such instruments of his glory in their times and shewing his glory upon them and to them in the Heavens For making them such blessings to the world in their generations and for giving us in them such patterns of faith obedience and patience and making them so great encouragements to us who may the more boldly follow them in faith duty and sufferings who have conquered all and sped so well For shewing us by faith their present state of glory with Christ for our confirmation and consolation Thus far in all these ten particulars we must have a heavenly conversation with the glorified by Faith Direct 8. Consider next wherein your imitation of the example of their lives on earth consisteth And it is 1. Not in committing any of their sins nor indulging any such weaknesses in our selves as any of them were guilty of 2. Nor in extenuating a sin or thinking ever the better of it because it was theirs 3. Nor in doing as they did in exempted cases wherein their Law and ours differed as in the marriage of Adams children in the Jews Polygamy c. 4. Nor in imitating them in things indifferent or accidental that were never intended for imitation nor done as morally good or evil 5. Nor in pretending to or expecting of their extraordinary Revelations Inspirations or Miracles 6. Nor in pretending the high attainments of the more excellent to be the necessary measure of all that shall be saved or the Rule of our Church-Communion Our imitation of them consisteth in no such things as these But it consisteth in these 1. That you fix upon the same ultimate Ends as they did That you aim at the same Glory of God and chuse the same everlasting felicity 2. That you chuse the same Guide and Captain of your salvation the same Mediator between God and man the same Teacher and Ruler of the Church and the same sacrifice for sin and Intercessor with the Father 3. That you believe the same Gospel and build upon the same Promises and live by the same Rule the Word of God 4. That you obey the same Spirit and trust to the same Sanctifier and Comforter and Illuminater to illuminate sanctifie and comfort your souls 5. That you exercise all the same graces of Faith Hope Love Repentance Obedience Patience as they did 6. That you live upon the same Truths and be moved by the same Motives as they lived upon and were moved by 7. That you avoid the same sins as they avoided and see what they feared and fled from and made conscience of that you may do the same 8. That you chuse and use the same kind of company helps and means of grace so far as yours and theirs are the same as they have done And think not to find a nearer or another way to that state of happiness which they are come â—o Phil. 3.16 Walk by the same Rule and mind the same things and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you If any preach another Gospel let him be accursed Gal. 1.7 8. Mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them Rom. 16.17 Heb. 6.11 We desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope to the end that you be not slothful but followers of them c. 9. That you avoid resist and overcome the same temptations as they did who now are crowned 10. That you bear the same cross and exercise the same faith and hope and patience unto the end 1 Pet. 4.1 Arm your selves with the same mind c. In brief this is the true imitation of the Saints Direct 9. Never suffer your life of sense to engage you so deeply in sensible converse with men on earth as to forget your heavenly relations and society but live as men that unfeignedly believe that you have a more high and noble converse every day to mind If you are Believers indeed let your faith go along with the souls of your departed friends into glory And if you have forgot them by an unfriendly negligence renew your acquaintance with them Think not that those only that live on earth are fit for our
very brief I. For the first Case before sickness cometh Direct 1. Be sure that you settle your Belief of the life to come that your Faith may not fail Direct 2. Expect Death as seriously all your life as wise Believers are obliged to do That is as men that are alwaies sure to die as men that are never sure to live a moment longer as men that are sure that life will be short and death is not far off and as foreseeing what it is to die of what eternal consequence and what will then appear to be necessary to your safe and to your comfortable change Direct 3. All your daies habituate your souls to believing sweet enlarged thoughts of the infinite Goodness and Love of God to whom you go and with whom you hope to live for ever Direct 4. Dwell in the studies of a crucified and glorified Christ who is the way the truth and life who must be your hope in life and death Ephes 3.17 18 19. Direct 5. Keep clear your evidences of your right to Christ and all his Promises by keeping grace or the heavenly nature in life activity and increase 2 Pet. 1.10 2 Cor. 13.5 John 15 1 c. 1 John 3. Direct 6. Consider often of the possession which your nature in Christ hath already of Heaven and how highly it is advanced and how near his relation is and how dear his love is to his weakest members upon earth And that as souls in Heaven have an inclination and desire to communicate their own felicity to their bodies so hath Christ as to his body the Church John 17.24 Ephes 5.25 27 c. Direct 7. Look to the Heavenly Host and those who have lived before you or with you in the flesh to make the thoughts of Heaven the more familiar to you as in the former chapter Direct 8. Improve all Afflictions yea the plague of sin it self to make you weary of this world and willing to be gone to Christ Rom. 7. Direct 9. Be much with God in Prayer Meditation and other heart-raising duties that you may not by strangeness to him be dismayed Direct 10. Live not in the guilt of any wilful sin nor in any slothful neglect of duty lest guilt breed terrour and make you fly from God your Judge But especially study to redeem your time and to do all the good you can iâ— the world and to live as totally devoted to God as conscious that you live to no carnal interest but desire to serve him with all you have and your consciences testimony of this will abundantly take off the terrours of death whatever any erroneous ones may say to the contrary for fear of being guilty of conceits of merit A fruitful life is a great preparative for death 2 Tim. 4.8 2 Cor. 1.12 c. Direct 11. Fetch from Heaven the comforts which you live upon through all your life And when you have truly learned to live more upon the comforts of believed glory than upon any pictures or hopes below then you will be able to die in and for those comforts Matth. 6.20 21. Col. 3.1 4. Phil. 3.20 21. 1 Thes 4.18 Phil. 1.21 23. Direct 12. The Knowledge and Love of God in Christ is the beginning or foretaste of Heaven John 17.3 1 Cor. 13. c. and the foretastes are excellent preparations Therefore still remember that all that you do in the world for the getting and exercising the true Knowledge and Love of God in Christ so much you do for the foretastes and best preparations for Heaven 1 Cor. 8.3 If any man love God the same is known of him with approbation and love II. In the time of sickness and near to death Direct 1. Let your first work when God seemeth to call you away be to renew a diligent search of your hearts and lives and to see lest in either of them there should be any sin which is not truly hated and repented of Though this must be done through all your lives yet with an extraordinary care and diligence when you are like to come so speedily to your tryal For it is only to Repenting Believers that the Covenant of Grace doth pardon sin And the impenitent have no right to pardon Though for ordinary failings which are forgotten and for sins which you are willing to know and remember but cannot a general Repentance will be accepted as when you pray God to shew you the sins which you see not and to forgive those which you cannot remember or find out Yet those which you know must be particularly repented of And Repentance is a remembring duty and will hardly forget any great and heinous sins which are known to be sins indeed If your Repentance be then to begin alas it is high time to begin it And though if it be sound it will be saving that is If it be such as would settle you in a truly godly life if you should recover yet you will hardly have any assurance of salvation or such comfort in it as is desirable to dying man Because you will very hardly know whether it come from true conversion and contain a Love to God and Godliness or whether it be only the fruit of fear and would come to nothing if you were restored to health But he that hath truly repented heretofore and lived in uprightness towards God and man and hath nothing to do but to discern his sincerity and to exercise a special Repentance for some late or special sins or to do that again which he hath done unfeignedly before will much more easily get the assurance and comfort of his forgiveness and salvation Direct 2. Renew your sense of the Vanity of this world Which at such a time one would think should be very easie to do When you see that you are near an end of all your pleasures and have had all except a grave to rot in that ever this world willd o for you may you not easily then see whether the godly or the worldly be the wiser and the happier man And what it is that the life of man should be spent in seeeking after Matth. 6.33 Isa 55.1 2 3. Eccles 7.3 4 5 6. Direct 3. Remember what Flesh is and what it hath been to you that you may not be too loth to lay it down Of the dust it was made and to the dust it must return Corruption is your Father and the Worm is your Mother and your Sister Job 17.14 Drought and beat consume the Snow-waters so doth the grave those which have sinned The womb shall forget him the Worm shall feed sweetly on him Job 24.20 Flesh and blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of God but this mortal must put on immortality by being made a spiritual body 1 Cor. 15. And this flesh hath cost you so dear to carry it about so much care and labour to provide it food to repair that which daily vanisheth away and so many weary painful hours and so many fearful
Nos quoque floruimus sed flos fuit ille caducus Flammaque de stipula nostra brevisque fuit Ov. VERA EFFIGIES RICHARDI BAXTERI MIN IES CH IN OP ET PATA FIDEI SPEI ET CHARITATIS An. 1670. AETAT SUAE 55º Farewell vaine World as thou hast been to me Dust and a Shadow those I leave with thee The vnseen Vitall Substance I committ The Leaves Fruit are dropt for soyle and Seed Heaven's heirs to generate to heale and feed Them also thou wilt flatter and molest But shalt not keep from Everlasting Rest THE LIFE OF FAITH THE Life of Faith In Three PARTS The First is a Sermon on Heb. 11.1 formerly preached before His Majesty and published by his Command with another added for the fuller Application The Second is Instructions for confirming Believers in the Christian Faith The Third is Directions how to live by Faith or how to exercise it upon all occasions By RICHARD BAXTER 2 Cor. 5.7 For we walk by faith not by sight 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18. For which cause we faint not but though our outward man parish yet the inward man is renewed day by day For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal Heb. 12.27 By faith he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the King for he endured as seeing him that is invisible LONDON Printed by R. W. for Nevill Simmons at the three Crowns over against Holbern Conduit 1670. To the Worshipfull my much honoured Friend Richard Hampden of Hampden Esquire and the Lady Laetitia his Wife Grace and Peace be multiplied SIR YOur Names stand here in the front of this Treatise on a double account First that the custom of Writers having given me such an advantage I may tell the present and future Ages how much I love and honour your Piety Sobriety Integrity and Moderation in an Age when such Vertues grow into contempt or into lifeless Images and Names And how much I am my self your debter for the manifold expressions of your love and that in an Age when 〈…〉 the superioâ—â—â—â—culties is ouâ— of fâ—shion and towards such as I is grown â— crime Sincerity and 〈◊〉 are things that shall be honourable when Hypocrisie and Malice have done their worst But they are most conspicuous and refulgent in times of â—â—rity and when the shame of their contraries seâ— them off Secondly To signifie my Love and Gratitude by the best 〈◊〉 which I can make which is by tendering to you and to your family the surest Directions for the most noble manly life on earth in order to a blessed life in Heaven Though you have proceeded well you 〈…〉 need of help so great a 〈…〉 for skilfull counsel and 〈…〉 and industrious and unweaâ—â—◠〈…〉 And your hopeful children may 〈…〉 to learn this excellenâ— Life from these Directions for the love of your prefixed Names And how happy will they bâ— if they converse with God 〈…〉 are wallowing in the 〈◊〉 of 〈…〉 When the dead heaâ—ted sinner thinketh not of 〈…〉 be dragg'd out of 〈◊〉 paâ—pered corruptible flesh to divinie 〈◊〉 and â—â—â—with the beginnings of endless 〈◊〉 to the world where they might have found everlasting rest what joy will then be the portion of mortified and patient Believers whosâ— Treasâ—â—â—s and Hearts and Conversatiâ—â— in Heâ—ven are now the foretaste of their possession as the Spirit of Christ which causeth this iâ— the seâ—â— of God and the pledge and earnest of their inheritance If a 〈◊〉 pleasing life in a dark distracted 〈◊〉 world were better than a life with God and Angels methinks yet they that know they cannot have what they 〈◊〉 should make sue of what they may haâ—â— And they that cannot keep what they 〈◊〉 should learn to 〈◊〉 what 〈◊〉 may keep Wonderfull stupidity â—hâ—t they 〈…〉 dead bodies 〈…〉 grave is as common a work 〈…〉 children into the world and that this life is but the road to another and that all men are posting on to their 〈…〉 should think no more considerately whither so many thousand souls do go that daily shoot the gulf of death and return no more to the world which one they called their home That men will have no house or home but the ship which carryeth them so swiftly to eternity and spend their time in furnishing a dwelling on such a tempestuous Sea where winds and tide are hasting them to the shore and even to the end are contriving to live where they are daily dying and care for no â—â—bitation but on horse-back That almost all men die much wiser than they lived and yet the certain foreknowledge of death will not serve to make them more seasonably and more safely wiâ—e Wonderful that it should be possible for a man awake to believe that he must shortly be gone from earth and enter into an unchangeable endless life and yet not bend the thoughts of his soul and the labours of his life to secure his true and 〈…〉 Adam hath given sin the 〈…〉 grace and madness the priority to wisdom and our wisdom health and safety must now come after by the way of recovery and cure The first born of lapsed man was a malignant persecuting Cain The first born of believing Abraham was a persecutor of him that was born after the Spirit 1 John 3.12 Gal. 4.29 And the first born of this Isaac himself was a profane Esau that for one morsel sold his birth-right Heb. 12.16 And naturally we are all the off-spring of this profaneness and have not acquaintance enough with God and with healthful holiness and with the everlasting heavenly Glory to make us cordially preferr it before a forbidden cup or morsel or a game at foolery or a filthy lust or before the wind of a gilded fools acclamation and applause or the cap and counterfeit subjection of the multitude But the fortunae non tua turba ut Ov. quos sportula fecit amici ut Juv. who will serve mens lusts and be their servants and humble attendants to damnation are regarded more than the God the Saviour the Sanctifier to whom these perfidious rebels were once devoted That you and yours may live that more wise and delightful life which consisteth in the daily sight of Heaven by a Living Faith which worketh by Love in constant Obedience is the principal end of this publick appellation That what is here written for the use of all may be first and specially useful to you and yours whom I am so much bound to love and honour even to your safe and comfortable life and death and to your future joy and glory which is the great desire of Your obliged Servant RICH. BAXTER Feb. 4. 1669. THE PREFACE Reader 1. IF it offend thee that the Parts of
can lay out your love and care and labour on nothing else that will answer your expectations nor make any other bargain whatsoever but what you are sure to be utterly undone by Psal 73.25 4.6 7. Mat. 6.20 21. 13.45 46. Luke 18.33 3. A sound belief of things invisible will be so far an effectual spring of a holy life as that you will seek first the Kingdom of God and its Righteousness Mat. 6.33 and not in your Resolutions only but in your Practices the bent of your lives will be for God and your invisible felicity It is not possible that you should see by faith the wonders of the world to come and yet prefer this world before it A dead opinionative belief may stand with a worldly fleshly life but a working faith will make you stir and make the things of God your business and the labour and industry of your lives will shew whether you soundly believe the things unseen 4. If you savingly believe the invisible things you will purchase them at any rate and hold them faster than your worldly accommodations and will suffer the loss of all things visible rather than you will cast away your hopes of the glory which you never saw A humane faith and bare opinion will not hold fast when trial comes For such men take Heaven but for a reserve because they must leave earth against their wills and are loth to go to Hell but they are resolved to hold the world as long as they can because their faith apprehendeth no such satisfying certainty of the things unseen as will encourage them to let go all that they see and have in sensible possession But the weakest faith that 's true and saving doth habitually dispose the soul to let go all the hopes and happiness of this world when they are inconsistent with our spiritual hopes and happiness Luke 14.33 And now I have gone before you with the light and shewed you what a Believer is will you presently consider how 〈◊〉 your hearts and lives agree to this description To know Whether you live by faith or not is consequentially to know whether God or the world be your portion and felicity and so whether you are the heirs of Heaven or Hell And is not this a question that you are most nearly concerned in O therefore for your souls sakes and as ever you love your everlasting peace Examine your selves whether you are in the faith or not Know you not that Christ is in you by faith except you be reprobates 2 Cor. 13.5 will you hearken now as long to your consciences as you have done to me As you have heard me telling you what is the nature of a living saving faith will you hearken to your consciences while they impartially tell you whether you have this life of faith or not It may be known if you are willing and diligent and impartial Iâ— you search on purpose as men that would know whether they are alive or dead and whether they shall live or die for ever and not as men that would be flattered and deceived and are resolved to think well of their state be it true or false Let conscience tell you What eyes do you see by for the conduct of the chief imployment of your lives Is it by the eye of sense or faith I take it for granted that it 's by the eye of Reason But is it by Reason corrupted and byâ—ssed by sense or is it by Reason elevated by faith What Countrey is it that your hearts converse in Is it in Heaven or Earth What company is it that you solace your selves with Is it with Angels and Saints Do you walk with them in the Spirit and joyn your eccho's to their triumphant praises and say Amen when by faith you hear them ascribing honour and praise and glory to the ancient of daies the Omnipotent Jehovah that is and that was and is to come Do you fetch your Joyes from Heaven or Earth from things unseen or seen things future or present things hoped for or things possessed What Garden yieldeth you your sweetest flowers Whence is the food that your hopes and comforts live upon Whence are the spirits and cordials that revive you when a frowning world doth cast you into a fainting fit or swoun Where is it that you repose your souls for Rest when sin or sufferings have made you weary Deal truly Is it in Heaven or Earth Which world do you take for your pilgrimage and which for your home I do not ask you where you are but where you dwell not where are your persons but where are your hearts In a word Are you in good earnest when you say you believe a Heaven and Hell And do you think and speak and pray and live as those that do indeed believe it Do you spend your time and chuse your condition of life and dispose of your affairs and answer temptations to worldly things as those that are serious in their belief Speak out do you live the life of faith upon things unseen or the life of sense on things that you behold Deal truly for your endless â—oy or sorrow doth much depend on it The life of faith is the certain passage to the life of glory The fleshly life on things here seen is the certain way to endless misery If you live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye by the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Rom. 8.13 Be not dâ—ceived God is not mocked â— for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap everlasting life Gal. 6.7 8. If you would know where you must live for ever know how and for what and upon what it is that you live here Vse 4. Having enquired whether you are Believers I am next to ask you what you will be for the time to come will you live upon things seen or unseen While you arrogate the name and honour of being Christians will you bethink you what Christianity is and will you be indeed what you say you are and would be thought to be Oh that you would give credit to the Word of God that the God of Heaven might be but heartily believed by you And that you would but take his Word to be as sure as sense and what he hath told you is or will be to be as certain as if you saw it with your eyes Oh what manner of persons would you then be how carefully and fruitfully would you speak and live How impossible were it then that you should be careless and prophane And here that I may by seriousness bring you to be serious in so serious a business I shall first put a few suppositions to you about the invisible objects of faith and then I shall put some applicatory questions to you concerning your own resolutions and
busie sawcy fellow and you bid him meddle with his own matters and let you speed as you can and keep his compassion and charity for himself you give him no thanks for his undesired help The most laborious faithful servant you like best that will do you the most work with greatest skill and care and diligence But the most laborious faithful instructer and watchman for your souls you most ungratefully vilifie as if he were more busie and precise than needs and were upon some unprofitable work and you love a superficial hypocritical Ministry that teacheth you but to complement with Heaven and leads you such a dance of comical outside hypocritical worship as is agreeable to your own hypocrisie And thus when you are mocking God you think you worship him and merit Heaven by the abuse Should a Mâ—nister or other friend be but half as earnest with you for the life of your immortal souls as you are your selves for your estates or friends or lives in any danger you would take them for Fanaticks and perhaps do by them as his carnal friends did once by Christ Mark 3.21 that went out to lay hold on him and said He is beside himself For trifles you account it wisdom to be serious but for everlasting things you account it folly or to be more busie and soliciâ—ous than needs You can believe an act of pardon and indempnity from man when as you are little solicitous about a pardon from God to whose Justice you have forfeited your souls and if a man be but earnest in begging his pardon and praying to be saved from everlasting misery you scorn him because he does it without book and say he whines or speaks through the nose forgetting that we shall have you one of these daies as earnest in vain as they are that shall prevail for their salvation and that the terrible approach of death and judgement shall teach you also to pray without book and cry Lord Lord open to us when the door is shut and it 's all too late Mat. 25.11 O Sirs had you but a lively serious foreseeing faith that openeth Heaven and Hell as to your sight what a cure would it work of this Hypocrisie 1. Such a sight would quicken you from your sloth and put more life into your thoughts and words and all that you attempt for God 2. Such a sight would soon abate your pride and humble you before the Lord and make you see how short you are of what you should be 3. Such a sight would dull the edge of your covetous desires and shew you that you have greater things to mind and another kind of world than this to seek 4. Such a sight would make you esteem the temptations of mens reports but as the shaking of a leaf and their allurements and threats as impertinent speeches that would cast a feather or a fly into the ballance against a mountain or against the world 5. Such a sight would allay the itch of lust and quench the drunkards insatiable thirst and turn your gulosity into moderation and abstinence and acquaint you with a higher sort of pleasures that are durable and worthy of a man 6. Such a sight would cure your desire of pastime and shew you that you have no time to spare when all is done that necessity and everlasting things require 7. Such a sight would change your relish of Gods Ordinances and esteem of Ministers and teach you to love and savour that which is spiritual and serious rather than hypocritical strains and shews It would teach you better how to judge of Sermons and of Prayers than unexperienced minds will ever do 8. Such a sight would cure your malignity against the waies and diligent servants of the Lord and instead of opposing them it would make you glad to be among them and fast and pray and watch and rejoyce with them and better to understand what it is to believe the communion of Saints In a word did you but see what God reveals and Saints believe and must be seen I would scarce thank you to be all as serious and solicitous for your souls as the holiest man alive and presently to repent and lament the folly of your negligence and delaies and to live as men that know no other work to mind in comparison of that which extendeth to eternity I would scarce thank the proudest of you all to lie down in the dust and in sackcloth and ashes with tears and cryes to beg the pardon of those sins which before you felt no weight in Nor the most sensual wretch that now sticks so close to his ambition covetousness and lust that he saith he cannot leave them to spit them out as loathsome bitterness and be ashamed of them as fruitless things You would then say to the most godly that now seem too precise O why do you not make more haste and lay hold on Heaven with greater violence why do you pray with no more fervency and bear witness against the sins of the world with no more undaunted courage and resolution and why do you not more freely lay out your time and strength and wealth and all that you have on the work of God Is Heaven worth no more ado than this Can you do no more for an endless life and the escaping of the wrath to come Shall worldlings over-do you These would be your thoughts on such a sight CHAP. II. Vse of Exhortation WHat now remains but that you come into the light and beg of God as the Prophet for his servant 2 King 6.17 to open your eyes that you may see the things that would do so much That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory may give you the spirit of revelation in the knowledge of him the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints Ephes 1.17 18. O set those things continually before your eyes that must forever be before them Look seriously into the infallible word and whatsoever that fore-tells believe it as if it were come to pass The unbelief of Gods threatnings and penal Laws is the perdition of souls as well as the unbelief of Promises God giveth not false fire when he dischargeth the Canons of his terrible comminations If you fall not down you shall find that the lightening is attended with the thunder and execution will be done before you are aware If there were any doubt of the things unseen yet you know it is past all doubt that there 's nothing else that 's durable and worthy of your estimation and regard You must be Knights and Gentlemen but a little while speak but a few words more and you 'l have spoke your last When you have slept a few nights more you must sleep till the Resurrection awake you as to the flesh Then where are your pleasant habitations and contents
they are the sins of those faculties over which the will hath not a despotical power As a man may be truly willing to have no sluggishness heaviness sleepiness at prayer no forgetfulness no wandering thoughts no inordinate appetite or lust at all stirring in him no sudden passions of anger grief or fear he may be willing to love God perfectly to fear him and obey him perfectly but cannot These latter are the ordinary infirmities of the godly The former sort are if at all his extraordinary falls Rom. 7.14 to the end 6. Lastly The true Christian riseth by unfeigned Repentance when his conscience hath but leisure and helps to deliberate and to bethink him what he hath done And his Repentance much better resolveth and strengtheneth him against his sin for the time to come To summ up all 1. Sin more loved than hated 2. Sin wilfully lived in which might be avoided by the sincerely willing 3. Sin made light of and not truly repented of when it is committed 4. And any sin inconsistent with habitual Love to God in predominancy is mortal or a sign of spiritual death and none of the sins of sanctified Believers CHAP. XIV How to live by Faith in Prosperity THE work of Faith in respect of Prosperity is twofold 1. To save us from the danger of it 2. To help us to a sanctified improvement of it 1. And for the first that which Faith doth is especially 1. To see deeper and further into the nature of all things in the world than sense can do 2 Cor. 4.17 18. 1 Cor. 7.29 30 31. To see that they were never intended for our Rest or portion but to be our wilderness provision in our way To foresee just how the world will use us and leave us at the last and to have the very same thoughts of it now as we foresee that we shall have when the end is come and when we have had all that ever the world will do for us It is the work of Faith to cause a man to judge of the world and all its glory as we shall do when death and judgment come and have taken off the mask of splendid names and shews and flatteries that we may use the world as if we used it not and possess it as if we possest it not because its fashion doth pass away It is the work of Faith to crucifie the world to us and us to the world by the Cross of Christ Gal. 6.14 that we may look on it as disdainfully as the world looked upon Christ when he hanged as forsaken on the Cross That when it is dead it may have no power on us and when we are dead to it we may have no inordinate love or care or thoughts or fears or grief or labour to lay out upon it It is the work of Faithâ—o â—o make all worldly pomp and glory to be to us but loss and dross and dung in comparison of Christ and the righteousness of Faith Phil. 3.7 8 9. And then no man will part with Heaven for dung nor set his God below his dung nor further from his heart nor will he feel any great power in temptations to honour wealth or pleasure if really he count them all but dung nor will he wound his conscience or betray his peace or cast away his innocency for them 2. Faith sheweth the soul those sure and great and glorious things which are infinitely more worthy of our love and labour And this is its highest and most proper work Heb. 11. it conquereth Earth by opening Heaven and shewing it us as sure and clear and near And no man will dote on this deceitful world till he have turned away his eyes from God and till Heaven be out of his sight and heart Faith saith I must shortly be with Christ and what then are these dying things to me I have better things which God that cannot lye hath promised me with Christ Titus 1.2 Heb. 6.18 I look every day when I am called in The Judge standeth before the door James 5.9 The Lord is at hand Phil. 4.5 And the end of all these things is at hand 1 Pet. 4.7 And shall I set my heart on that which is not Therefore when the world doth smile and flatter faith setteth Heaven against all that it can say or offer And what is the world when Heaven stands by Faith seeth what the blessed souls above possess at the same time while the world is alluring us to forsake it Luke 16. Heb. 11. 12.1 2. c. Faith setteth the heart upon the things above as our concernment oâ—r only hope and happiness It kindleth that Love of God in the soul and that delight in higher things which powerfully quencheth worldly love and mortifieth all our carnal pleasures Matth. 6.20.21 Col. 3.1 2 3 4. Rom. 8.5 6 7. Phil. 30.20 21. 3. Faith sheweth the soul those wants and miseries in it self which nothing in the world is able to supply and cure Nay such as the world is apter to increase It is not gold that will quench his thirst who longs for pardon grace and glory A guilâ—y conscience a sinful and condemned soul will never be cured by riches or high places by pride or flâ—shly sports and pleasures James 5.1 2 3. This humbling work is not in vain 4. Faith looketh to Christ who hath overcome the world and carefully treadeth in his stâ—ps John 16.33 Heb. 12.2 3 4 5. It looketh to his person his birth his life his cross his grave and his resurrection to all that strange example of contempt of worldly things which he gave us from his manger to his shameful kind of death And he that studieth the Life of Christ will either despise the world or him He will either vilifie the world in imitation of his Lord or vilifie Christ for the pleasures of the world Faith hath in this warfare the surest and most onourable guide the ablest Captain and the most powerful example in all the world And it hath with Christian unerring Rule which furnisheth him with armour for every use Yea it hath through him a promise of Victory before it be aâ—tained so that in the beginning of the fight it knows the end Rom. 16.20 John 16.33 It goeth to Christ for that Spirit which is our strengâ—h Ephes 6.10 Câ—l 2.7 And by that it mortifieth the desires of the flesh and when â—he flesh is mortified the world is conquered for it is loved only as it is the provision of the flâ—sh 5. Moreover Faith doth observe Gods particular Providence who distributeth his talents to every man as he pleaseth and disposeth of their estates and comforts so that the Race is not to the swift nor the Victory to the strong nor Riches to men of understanding Eccles 9.11 Therefore it convinceth us that our lives and all being in his hand it is our wisdom to make it our chiefest care to use all so as is most pleasing unto him 2 Cor. 5.8
2. It setteth you at enmity with God and holiness because God controlleth and condemneth your beloved lusts and because it is contrary to the carnal things which have your hearts 2. By this means it maketh men malignant enemies of the godly and persecutors of them because they are of contrary minds and waies As then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even so it is now Gal. 4.29 The world cannot love us because we are not of the world John 15.19 20. Pride covetousness and sensuality are the matter which the burning Feaver lodgeth in which hath consumed so much of the Church of Christ 4. It is the sin that hath corrupted the sacred Office of the Ministry throughout most of the Christian Churches in the world And thereby caused both the Schisms and Cruelties and the decay of serious godliness among them which is their present deplorable case Ignorant persons are like sick men in a Feaver They lay the blame on this and that and commonly on that which went next before the paroxism and know not the true cause of the disease We are all troubled or should be to see the many minds the many waies the confused state of the Christian Churches and to hear them cry out against each other And one layeth the blame on this party or opinion and another on that But when we come to our selves we shall find that it is The worldly mind that causeth our calamity Many well meaning friends of the Church do think how dishonourable it is to the Ministry to be poor and low and consequently despicable and what an advantage is it to their work to be able to relieve the poor and rather to oblige the people than to depend upoâ— them and to be above them rather than below them And supposing the Pastors to be mortified holy heavenly men all this is true and the zeal of these thoughts is worthy of commendation But that which good men intend for good hath become the Churches bane So certain is the common saying that Constantines zeal did poison the Church by lifting up the Pastors of it too high and occasioning those contentions for grandure and precedency which to this day separate the East and West When well-meaning Piety hath adorned the office with wealth and honour it is as true as that the Sun shineth that the most proud ambitious worldly men will be the most studious seekers of that office and will make it their plot and trade and business how by friends and observances and wills to attain their ends And usually he that seeks shall find when in the mean time the godly mortified humble man will not do so but will serve God in the state to which he is clearly called And consequently except it be under the Government of an admirably wise and holy Ruler a worthy Pastor in such a wealthy station will be a singular thing and a rarity of the age whilst worldly men whose hearts are habited with that which is utterly contrary to holiness and contrary to the very ends and work of their own office will be the men that must sit in Moses Chair that must have the doing and ruling of the work which their hearts are set against And how it will go with the Church of Christ when the Gospel is to be preached and Preachers chosen and Godliness promoted by the secret enemies of it and when ambitiâ—us fleshly worldly men are they that must cure the peoples souls under Christ of the love of the flesh and the world it were easie to prognosticate from the causes if the Christian world could not tell by the effects so that except by the wonderful Piety of Princes there is no visible way in the eye of reason to recover the miserable Churches but to retrive the Pastoral Office into such a state as that it may be no bait to a worldly mind but may be desired and chosen purely upon heavenly accounts And then the richer the Pastors are the better when they are the Sons of Nobles whose Piety bringeth with them their honour and their wealth to serve God and his Church with and they do not find it there to be their end or inducement to the work But instead of invitations or encouragements to pride and carnal minds there may be only so much as may not deter or drive away candidates from the sacred Function 5. Worldliness is a sin which maketh the Word of God unprofitable Mat. 13.22 John 12.43 Ezek. 33.31 prepossessing the heart and resisting that Gospel which would extirpate it 6. It hindereth Prayer by corrupting mens desires and by intruding worldly thoughts 7. It hindereth all holy Meditation by turning both the heart and thoughts another way 8. It drieth up all heavenly profitable Conference whilst the world doth fill both mind and mouth 9. It is a great profaner of the Lords Day distracting mens minds and alienating them from God 10. It is a murderous enemy of Love to one another All worldly men being so much for themselves that they are seldom hearty friends to any other 11. Yea it maketh men false and unrighteous in their dealings There being no trust to be put in a worldly man any further than you are sure you suit his interest 12. It is the great cause of discord and divisions in the world It setteth Families Neighbours and Kingdoms together by the ears and setteth the Nations of the earth in bloody wars to the calamity and destruction of each other 13. It causeth cheating stealing robbing oppressions cruelties lying false-witnessing perjury murders and many such other sins 14. It maketh men unfit to suffer for Christ because they love the world above him and consequently it maketh them as Apostates to forsake him in a time of tryal 15. It is a great devourer of precious time That short life which should be spent in preparing for eternity is almost all spent in drudging for the world 16. Lastly It greatly unfitteth men to die and maketh them loth to leave the world And no wonder when there is no entertainment for worldlings in any better place hereafter Direct 6. If you would be saved from the world and the snares of prosperity foresee death and judge of the world 〈◊〉 it will appear and use you at the last Dream not of long life He that looks to stay but a little while in the world will be the less careful of his provisions in it A little will serve for a little tâ—me The grave is a sufficient disgrace to all the vanities on earth though there must be more to raise the heart to Heaven Direct 7. Mâ—rtifie the flesh and you overcome the world Cure the thirsty disease and you will need none of the worldlings waies to satisfie it When the flesh is mastered there it no use for plenty or pleasures or honours to satisfie its lusts Your daily bread to fit you for your work will then suffice Direct 8.
blessed way in which Christ and all the heavenly Army have passed hence unto their Crown You would say Is the servant greater than his Lord If thus the innocent Lord of life and Master of the house was injured and afflicted am I better than he Though he suffered to save me from Hell yet not to save me from the purifying tryals here on earth Doubtless you would count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ and count them but dung that you might win him and that you might know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death Phil. 3.8 10. Direct 8. Keep the eye of Faith still fixed on the eternal glory that you may understand what affliction is when you take it with its end Remember what eternal Joyes it leadeth to and what thoughts you will have of all your pain when you find your selves in the everlasting rest Remember where all tearâ— shall be wiped from your eyes and who dare blame that way as narrow or soul which bringeth us to such an end Psal 126.5 6. They that sâ—w in tears shall reap in joy He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoycing bringing his sheaves with him Mat. 5.4 Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Is not eternal joy sufficient for you When you are suffering with the Church militant look up to the Church triumphant and remember that they were lately as low as sad as sorrowful as you and you shall shortly be as high as glad as joyful as they Look into Heaven and see what you suffer for and think whether that be not worthy of harder terms than any you can undergo Rom. 8.17 18. If we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us 2 Cor. 4 16 17 18. For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day For our light afflâ—ction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Heaven well believed will enable us patiently and chearfully to bear all things He will account the very reproach of Christ to be greater riches than the treasures of the world who looketh believingly to the recompence of reward Heb. 11.26 Direct 9. Learn to die and then you have learned to suffer He that can bear death by the power of faith can bear almost any thing And he that is well prepared to die is prepared for any affliction and he that is not is unprepared for prosperity Direct 10. Remember still that life being so very short the afflictions of Believers are as short We have so little a time to live that we have but a little while to suffer And if thou faint in the day of adversity when it is so little a while to night thy strength is small Prov. 24.10 Direct 11. Remember that thou bearest but the common burden of the Sons of Adam who are born to sorrow as the sparks fly upward And that thou in like to all the members of Christ who must take up their cross and suffer with him if they will reign with him And that thou art but going the common way to Heaven which that heavenly society hath trod before thee And canst thou expect to be exempted both from the lot of humane lapsed nature and from the lot of all the Saints If thou wouldest be carryed to Heaven in the Chariot of Elias and couldest expect to escape the jaws of death yet must thou endure the persecution weariness and hunger of Elias before such a change Direct 12. Think also how unreasonable it is for one that must have eternal glory to grudge at a little suffering in the way and for one that is saved from the torments of Hell to think it much to be duly chastened on earth For a Lazarus that must be comforted in Abraham's bosom to murmure that he waiteth a while in poverty at the rich mans doors Shall a wicked worldling venture into endless pains and put himself out of the hopes of Heaven and all this for a short and foolish pleasure And will you grudge to suffer so small and short a chastisement in the way to an endless rest and joy Direct 13. Think why it is that Christ hath so largely commended and blest a suffering state and chosen such a life for those that he will save And why he so often pronounceth a woe to the prosperous world It is not for want of love to his Disciples nor for want of power to secure their peace Matth. 5. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Luke 6.24 25 26. Woe to you that are rich for you have received your consolation Woe to you that are full for ye shall hunger Woe unto you that laugh now for ye shall mourn and weep Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you for so did their Fathers to the false Prophets James 1.2 3. My Brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations that is trying afflictions knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience James 5.1 2. Go too now ye 〈◊〉 men weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon you All these words are not for nothing And judge how he should think of adversity who believeth them Direct 14. Mark well whether you find not that your selves and others are usually much better in affliction than in prosperity And whether there be not something in the one to make you better and in the other to delude men and make them worse O look and tremble at the dangers and dolâ—ful miseries of most that are lifted high how they are blinded flattered captivated in sin and are the shame of nature and the calamity of the world And mark when they come to die or lie in sickness how inlightened how penitent how humble how mortified and reformed they then seem to be and how much they condemn all sin and justifie a holy life And observe your selves whether you be not wiser and better more penitent and less worldly in an afflicted state And will you think that intollerable which so much bettereth almost all the world Alas were it not for affliction
sanctification but if they live endeavour it by all possible care in a wise and godly education Remember that nature and your dedicating them to God do both oblige you to this care for their salvation And that the education of children is one of the greatest duties in the world for the service of Christ and the prosperity of Church and State And the neglect of it not the smallest cause of the ruine of both and of the worlds calamity Many a poor sottish lazy Professor have I known who cry out against ignorant dumb and unfaithful Ministers as guilty of the blood of souls and are so religious as to separate from the Assemblies that have Ministers that are but partly such when as their own children are almost as ignorant as Heathens and they only use them to a few customary formal duties while they think they are enough against forms and turn over the chief care of their instruction to the Schoolmaster And are themselves so ignorant dumb and idle unfaithful and unnatural to their poor childrens souls as that it is a doubt whether in a well-ordered Church they ought not to be denyed communion themselves They so little practise Deut. 11.18 19. 6.7 Ephes 6.4 c. Direct 5. If your children live to the flesh in an ungodly course of life contrary to the Covenant which by you they made they forfeit all the benefits of the Covenant And you can have no assurance by any thing that you can do for them that ever they shall be converted though it is not past hope And if they be converted at age their pardon and adoption will be the effect of Gods Covenant as then it was newly entered with themselves and not as it was made before for them in infancy Direct 6. Yâ—t because that still while there is life there is hope you ought not by despair or negligence to omit prayer exhortation or any other duty which you can perform in order to their recovery And though now they have wills of their own their salvation is not laid so much upon you as it was in Infancy at their first covenanting with God yet still God will shew his love to his servants in their seed and faithful endeavours are not vain nor hopeless and therefore it is still one of your greatest duties in the world to seek their true recovery to Christ Direct 7. If God make your children a scourge or a heart-breaking to you bear and improve it as becomes Believers That is 1. Repent of your own former sin your own youthfull lusts your disobedience to your Parents your carnal fondness on your children your loving them too much and God too little the evil examples you have given them and your manifold neglect of a prudent seasonable earnest unwearied instructing them in godliness your bearing with their sin and giving them their own wills till they were masterless c Renew your Repentance and you have got some benefit 2. Think how unkindly and unthankfully you have dealt with a gracious Saviour and a heavenly Father 3. Let it take off your affections from all things under the Sun and call them up the more to God For who would love a world where none are to be trusted and where all things are vexatious even the children of your love and bowels Direct 8. If they die impenitently and perish mourn for them but with the moderation of Believers That is 1. Consider that God is more the owner of your children than you are and may do with his own as he list 2. And he is more wise and merciful than you and therefore not to be murmured at as wanting either 3. And it is an unvaluable mercy that your own soul is sanctified and shall be saved 4. And the most godly have had ungodly children before you Adam had a Cain Noah had a Cham Isaac had an Esau David had an Absalom c. 5. And if all the godly that pray for their childrens salvation must be therein gratified all the world would then have been saved For Noah would have prayed for all his children and they for theirs and so to the worlds end Object Oh but my conscience telleth me that it is my own sin which hath had a hand in their undoing Answ Suppose it be so it is certainly a pardonable sin Do you then repent of it or not If you repent as you mourn for your relations so you should rejoyce that God hath forgiven you For repented sin is certainly pardoned to you and pardoned sin to you is as great cause of joy as unpardoned sin in your relations is cause of sorrow Therefore mourn with such moderation and mixed comfort and thanksgiving as becometh one that liveth by faith The affliction indeed is neer and great and heavier than any calamity that could have befallen their bodies and is not to be slighted by an unnatural insensibility But yet you have a God who is better to you than a thousand children and your cross is but as a feather if you set it in the ballance against your blessings even the Love of God and your part in Christ and life eternal CHAP. XXIV How by Faith to order our Affections to publick Societies and the unconverted world Direct 1. TAke heed that you lose not that common Love which you owe to mankind nor that desire of the increase of the Kingdom of Christ which must keep up in you a constant compassion to the unconverted world viz. Idolaters Infidels and ungodly Hypocrites It is pittiful to observe the unchristian senslesness of most zealous Professors of Religion in this point Though God hath purposely put the three publick Petitions first in the Lords Prayer to tell them what they must first and most desire that is the hallowing of his Name and the coming of his Kingdom and the doing of his Will on Earth as it is in Heaven yet they seem not to understand it or to regard it But their thoughts and desires are as selfish and private and narrow as if they knew nothing what the World or the Church is or cared for neither Their mind and talk is all of their own matters for body or soul or of their several Parties and particular Churches or if any extend his care as far as this spot of Land in Brittain and Ireland or some of the Reformed Churches they go further than their companions their selves and their side or party is almost all that most regard Perhaps the poor scattered Jews have a few words in the prayers of some but the miserable case of the vast Nations of the Earth who seem to be forsaken of God is neglected by them Five parts in six of the earth are Heathens and Mahometanes and of the sixth part the Protestants are but about a sixth compared with the poor ignorant Abbassines Armenians Syrians the Greek Churches and the Papists to say nothing what the most of the Protestants themselves are Yet are almost all these put by with
fully shew so also shall the Saints And it is not likely that this is wholly deferred till the resurrection but as they have a Glory before that with Christ and his Angels so they have now their part in this Superintendency before though both will be greater at the Resurrection If any say what use will there be of our superiority after the world is destroyed I answer 1. The Apostle Peter plainly telleth us though some would force his words into the dark that we according to his promise expect a new Heaven and a new Earth in which dwelleth righteousness And the Creation groaneth to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God Rom. 8.21 And the Heavens must contain Christ till the times of Restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets since the world began Acts 3.21 2. And he that said the Saints shall judge the Angels seemeth so intimate that the Devils with the wicked will be in a state of subjection or servitude to them hereafter Certain it is that Michael and his Angels shall be the conquerours of the Dragon and his Angels Rev. 12.7 9. And that the Serpents head shall be bruised by all the womans seed though chiefly by the Captain of our salvation But this shall now suffice concerning their employment 3. Behold also by Faith what the departed Saints are now enjoying And what is said of their place and work will tell you that They enjoy the fight of their glorified Head Joh. 17.24 They are with him in Paradise and therefore also enjoy the sight of the Glory of God Being absent from the body they are present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 They see not as in a glass as here they did but with open face They enjoy the pleasures of a more perfect knowledge of God and all his wondrous works than this world affords They are happy in their works in the perfect Love and Praises of God and they are filled with the pleasures of his Love to them This is their fruition 4. Let Faith also behold what evils they are delivered from 1. From a heavy drossy body which since the fall hath been an enemy a prison and fetters to the soul and therefore they here groaned to be better cloathed 2 Cor. 5.4 5. Rom. 8.21 2. From the worlds temptations 3. From wicked mens malice and persecutions 4. From sickness pain necessities labours weariness and all the troublesome effects of sin 5. From all troublesome passions desires anger discontent disappointments griefs and cares and fears of evil 6. Specially from the fears of Hell and the doubts of their own sincerity and salvation and from the desertions of God and the terrible sense of his displeasure 7. From the troubles and errours of ignorance and all our natural imperfection 8. From the fears of death which now is more painful than death it self 9. From the suggestions of Satan and his malicious vexing disquieting temptations and from his flattering allurements which are much worse 10. From the company and the tempting or grieving examples of ungodly men 11. From all sin it self and all our moral imperfections and defects 12. And finally from all danger and fear of ever losing the felicity they possess These are the immunities of the blessed 2. When Faith hath seen the Saints in Glory look back and think next what they were lately here on earth that it may help you to compare your state and theirs And here you will see 1. That they were lately in flesh as we now are They had bodies as drossie as vile as frail as burdensome as ours are It cost them as dear not as it doth the sensual but as it doth the temperate person now to keep them up a while for the service to which they were appointed 2. They had pains and sicknesses as we have The souls in Heaven have escaped thither from bodies which have lain as long tormented with the Stone with Stranguries Collicks Gripes Convulsions Consumptions Feavers and other the most tedious painful and lothsome diseases as sober men on earth now feel 3. Satan was as malicious to them as he is to us and to many of them as troublesome he haunted them with as ugly temptations to the greatest sins to unbelief and pride and despair and self-murder and horrid blasphemy as he doth any of us Yea he did so by Christ himself Matth. 4. 4. They met with as many allurements to worldliness sensuality pride and lust in the worlds deceiving baits and flatteries as now we do and were fain to proceed every step towards Heaven by conflict and conquest as we must do 5. They were in as many wants and straits in as poor and low and despised a state as we are now They were tempted to cares and murmurings and discontents through their wants and crosses as well as we 6. They have been in dangers and in fears and many a time at the brink of death before it came and put to cry to God for deliverance in the terrours and anguish of their hearts Their flesh and heart and friends have failed them and all the creatures cast them off 7. They have gone through far greater persecutions for the sake of Christ and righteousness than ever we did So persecuted they the Prophets before you Mat. 5.11 12. Which of the Prophets did not your Fathers kill and persecute even of them for whom their posterity erected Monuments Matth. 23.36 37 38. We have not resisted unto blood as many of them did Heb. 11. The same and greater afflictions which we have undergone were accomplished on our brethren in this world 1 Pet. 5.9 We go through the same conflict as they did Phil. 1.30 We are no more falsly nor odiously slandered in any of our sufferings than they were Mat. 5.11 12. 8. They were men of like passions as we are for so James saith even of Elias that was carryed to Heaven without our kind of death They had their ignorances uncertainties doubts mistakes their dark thoughts of God and that world where they now are Many of them knew as little of it till they saw it as we do now Many a fearful trembling hour many a thought that God had forsaken them and that the day of grace was past have many of them had as well as we 9. Yea they were imperfect in all their graces they had an imperfect faith an imperfect hope an imperfect Love to God and man and many an hour in such groans as ours now are O when shall we be saved from our darkness and unbelief when shall we better love the Lord 10. They had their actual sins also Though none that were regnant after conversion their obedience was imperfect as ours now is Many of their faults and falls are left on record for our warning There is not one humane soul in Heaven besides our Saviours that was not once a sinner They all came thither
converse and our comfort Will you converse with none but ignorant selfish worldly sinners Are you more contemptuous of the heavenly inhabitants than the Gentleman in hell torments was Luke 16.26 27. that thought one from the dead though it had been but a beggar would have been reverenced even by his sensual brethren on earth so far as to have perswaded them unto saving Repentance I tell you a dead mans skull is oft-times a more profitable companion than most that you shall converse with in the common world The dust of your departed friends and the clay that corps are turned into is a good medicine for those eyes that are blinded with the dust of worldly vanities Much more should you keep your acquaintance with the soul which may for all the distance be perhaps more useful to you than it was in the flesh Alas how carnally and coldly or seldom do most Professors look at their Brethren and at the Angelical hosts that are above They long for our conversion and mind our great concernments and rejoyce in our felicity and shall we be so swinishly ungrateful as seldom to look up and remember their high and blessed state Many think that they have no more business with their deceased friends than to see them decently interred and to mourn over them as if their removal were their loss or to grieve for our own loss when we perceive their places empty but we scarce look up after them with an eye of faith much less do we daily maintain our communion with them in Heaven When Christ was taken up his Disciples gazed after him Act. 1.10 Stephen looked up stedfastly into Heaven and saw Christ sitting at the right hand of God Acts 7.55 And how seldome how slightly do we look up either to Jesus his Angels or his Saints I tell you Sirs you have not done with your friends when you have buryed their flesh They have left you their holy examples They are entered before you into rest You are hastening after them and must be quickly with them if you are true Believers You must see them every day by faith When you look to Christ you must look to them as his beloved friends entertained by him in his family of glory When you look up to Heaven remember that they are there When you think of coming thither remember that you must there meet them You must honour their memories more than you did on earth because they are more honourable being more honoured of God You must love them better than you did when they were on earth because they are better and so more lovely You must rejoyce much more for their felicity than you did whilest they were on earth because they are incomparably more happy than they were Either you believe this or you do not If you do not believe that the dead are blessed that die in the Lord and rest from their labours and are with Christ in Paradise why do you seem Christians If you do believe it why do you not more rejoyce with your glorified friends than you would have done if they had been advanced to the greatest honours in the world It is the natural duty of friends to mourn with them that mourn and to rejoyce with them that rejoyce and if one member be honoured or dishonoured the rest of the body are accordingly affected Do not your sorrows then instead of joyes tell all men that you believe that your friends are gone to sorrow and not to joy If not you are very selfish or inconsiderate Direct 10. Lastly Let not your aversation to Popery turn to a factiâ—us partial forsaking of Gods Truth and your own duty and consolation in this point Abundance of Christians have taken up opinions in Religion upon the love and honour of the parties that they took them of and being possessed with a just dislike of Popery in the main they suspect and cast away not a few great truths and duties upon a false information that they are parts of Popery It hath grieved 〈…〉 â—han once to hear religious persons come from heariâ—g 〈◊〉 Ministers with disdain and censure saying that they prayed for the dead and all their proof was that Thanksgiving is a part of prayer but they gave God thanks for the glorification of the spirits of the Just therefore they prayed for them And so have they argued because they have read the 1 Cor. 15. at the grave or because they have preached a Funeral Sermon while the Corpse was present or because they prayed then for themselves or for the Church Alas for the childish ignorance and pievishness and foolish wranglings of many Christians who think they are better than their neighbours How much is Christs family dishonoured by his silly froward children And they will not be instructed by their friends and therefore they are posted up and openly reproached by their enemies Have Angels or heavenly Saints deserved so ill of God or us that we should be so shy of their communion Are they nothing to us Have we nothing to do with them Have we cause to be ashamed of them Is their honour any dishonour to God or us if it be no more than what is their due Can we give so much love respect and honour to Magistrates Ministers and Friends on earth imperfect sinful troublesome mortals and shall we think that all is idolatrous or cast away which is given to them that so far excel us Is it your design to make Heaven either contemptible or strange to men on earth Or would you perswade the world that the souls of the Saints are not immortal but perish as the bruits Or that there is no Heaven Or that God is there alone without any company Are so many fond of the opinion of a Personal Reign on Earth for Christ with his holy ones and yet is it Popery so much as to speak honourably and joyfully of the Saints in Heaven My Brethren these things declare you yet to be too dark too factious and too carnal and to hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect to parties sides and persons Christ taketh not his Saints as strangers to him He that judgeth men as they love and use him in the least of his Brethren upon Earth will not so soon censure and quarrel with us as the Sectary will do for loving and honouring him in his Saints in Heaven for it is his will and prayer that they be with him where he is to behold his glory John 12.26 17.24 And he will come with his holy Angels to be glorified in his Saints who shall judge the world and Angels and to be admired in all them that do now believe 2 Thes 1.10 11 12. CHAP. XXVII How to receive the Sentence of Death and how to die by Faith HAving said so much of this elsewhere in my Books called A Believers last work The last Enemy My Christian Directory Treatise of Self-denyal c. I shall be here but
desire p. 66. l. 31. for against r. at p. 67. l. 32. for tam r. qâ—am p. 68. l. 8. for murmurr r. moâ—rn l. 27. after better put countrey p. 69. l. 17. r. nemo p. 70 l. 16. r. ventosam p. 75. l. 24. r. made them p. 77. l. 12. r. literate p. 87. l. 3. for offered read observed p. 93. l 25. for cannot r. can p. 96. l. 12. for Nations r. â—otions l. 21. r. conduceth p. 99. l. 9. r. which â—t p. 101. l. 38. for Goodness r. Good will p. 130. l. 13. r. inconsiderateness p. 134. l. 10. r. 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Assent p. 540. l. 21. put out and p. 582. l. 11. r. friends THE Life of Faith HEBREWS 11.1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen THough the wicked are distinguished into Hypocrites and Vnbelievers yet Hypocrites themselves are Vnbelievers too They have no faith which they can justifie by its prevailing efficacy and works and therefore have no faith by which they can be justified Because their discovery is needful to their recovery and all our salvation depends on the sincerity of our faith I have chosen this text which is a description of faith that the opening of it may help us for the opening of our hearts and resolving the great question on which our endless life depends To be a Christian and to be a Believer in Christ are words in Scripture of the same signification If you have not faith you are not Christians This faith hath various offices and objects By it we are justified sanctified and saved We are justified not by believing that we are justified but by believing that we may be justified Not by receiving justification immediately but by receiving Christ for our justification not by meer accepting the pardon in it self but by first receiving him that procureth and bestoweth it on his terms Not by meer accepting health but by receiving the Physician and his remedies for health Faith is the practical Believing in God as promising and Christ as procuring justification and salvation Or the practical belief and acceptance of life as procured by Christ and promised by God in the Gospel The everlasting fruition of God in Heaven is the ultimate object No man believeth in Christ as Christ that believeth not in him for eternal life As faith looks at Christ as the necessary means and at the divine benignity as the fountain and at his veracity as the foundation or formal object and at the promise as the true signification of his will so doth it ultimately look at our salvation begun on earth and perfected in Heaven as the end for which it looketh at the rest No wonder therefore if the holy Ghost here speaking of the Dignity and Power of faith do principally insist on that part of its description which is taken from this final object As Christ himself in his Humiliation was rejected by the Gentiles and a stumbling stone to the Jews despised and not esteemed Isa 53.2 3. having made himself of no reputation Phil. 2 7. So faith in Christ as incarnate and crucified is despised and counted foolishness by the world But as Christ in his glory and the glory of believers shall force them to an aweful admiration so faith it self as exercised on that glory is more glorious in the eyes of all Believers are never so reverenced by the world as when they converse in Heaven and the Spirit of Glory resteth on them 1 Pet. 4.14 How faith by beholding this glorious end doth move all the faculties of the soul and subdue the inclinations and interests of the flesh and make the greatest sufferings tollerable is the work of the holy Ghost in this Chapter to demonstrate which beginning with the description proceeds to the proof by a cloud of witnesses There are two sorts of persons and imployments in the world for whom there are two contrary ends hereafter One sort subject their reason to their sensual or carnal interest The other subject their senses to their reason cleared conducted and elevated by faith Things present or possessed are the riches of the sensual and the byas of their hearts and lives Things absent but hoped for are the riches of Believers which actuate their chief endeavours This is the sense of the text which I have read to you which setting things hoped for in opposition to things present and things unseen to those that sense doth apprehend assureth us that faith which fixeth on the first doth give to its object a subsistence presence and evidence that is it seeth that which supplieth the want of presence and visibility The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that which quoad effectum is equal to a present subsistence And the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the evidence is somewhat which quoad effectum is equal to visibility As if he had said Though the glory promised to Believers and expected by them be yet to come and only hoped for and be yet unseen and only believed yet is the sound believer as truly affected with it and acted by its attractive force as if it were present and before his eyes as a man is by an inheritance or estate in reversion or out of sight if well secured and not only by that which is present to his view The Syriack Interpreter instead of a Translation gives us a true exposition of the words viz. Faith is a certainty of those things that are in hope as if they did already actually exist and the revelation of
great a likeness of the holy and heavenly nature in the Saints to the heavenly life that God hath promised that makes it the more easily believed 4. And it exceedingly helpeth our Belief of the life that 's yet unseen to find that Nature affordeth us undeniable Arguments to prove a future Happiness and Misery Reward and Punishment in the general yea and in special that the Love and Fruition of God is this Reward and that the effects of his displeasure are this Punishment Nothing more clear and certain than that there is a God He must be a fool indeed that dare deny it Psal 14.1 as also that this God is the Creatour of the rational nature and hath the absolute right of Soveraign Government and therefore that the rational Creature oweth him the most full and absolute obedience and deserveth punishment if he disobey And it 's most clear that infinite goodness should be loved above all finite imperfect created good And it 's clear that the rational nature is so formed that without the hopes and fears of another life the world neither is nor ever was nor by ordinary visible means can be well governed supposing God to work on man according to his nature And it is most certain that it consisteth not with infinite wisdom power and goodness to be put to rule the world in all ages by fraud and falshood And it is certain that Heathens do for the most part through the world by the light of nature acknowledge a life of joy or misery to come And the most hardened Atheists or Infidels must confess that for ought they know there may be such a life it being impossible they should know or prove the contrary And it is most certain that the meer probability or possibility of a Heaven and Hell being matters of such unspeakable concernment should in reason command our utmost diligence to the hazard or loss of the transitory vanities below and consequently that a holy diligent preparation for another life is naturally the duty of the reasonable creature And it 's a sure that God hath not made our nature in vain nor set us on a life of vain imployments nor made it our business in the world to seek after that which can never be attained These things and much more do shew that nature affordeth us so full a testimony of the life to come that 's yet invisible that it exceedingly helpeth us in believing the supernatural revelation of it which is more full 5. And though we have not seen the objects of our faith yet those that have given us their infallible testimony by infallible means have seen what they testified Though no man hath seen God at any time yet the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father hath declared him Joh 1.18 Verily verily saith our Lord we speak that we know and testifie that we have seen Joh. 3.11 Vers 31 32. He that cometh from Heaven is above all and what he hath seen and heard that he testifieth Christ that hath told us saw the things that we have not seen and you will believe honest men that speak to you of what they were eye-witnesses of And the Disciples saw the person the transfiguration and the miracles of Christ Insomuch that John thus beginneth his Epistle 1 Cor. 1.1 2 3. That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the Word of life for the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and shew it to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you So Paul 1 Cor. 9.1 Am I not an Apostle have have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord 1 Cor. 15.5.6 7. He was seen of Cephas then of the twelve after that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once of whom the greater part remain unto this present Heb. 2.3 4. This great salvation at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by them that heard him God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the holy Ghost according to his own will 2 Pet. 1.16 17. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eye-witnesses of his Majesty For he received from God the Father honour and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased And this voice which came from Heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy Mount And therefore when the Apostles were commanded by their persecutors not to speak at all or teach in the name of Jesus they answered We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard Acts 4.18 20. So that much of the objâ—cts of our faith to us invisible have yet been sâ—en by those that have instrumentally revealed them and the glory of Heaven it self is seen by many millions of souls that are now possessing it And the tradition of the Testimony of the Apostles unto us is more full and satisfactory than the tradition of any Laws of the Land or History of the most unquestionable affairs that have been done among the people of the earth as I have manifested elsewhere So that faith hath the infallible Testimony of God and of them that have seen and therefore is to us instead of sight 6. Lastly Even the enemy of faith himself doth against his will confirm our faith by the violence and rage of malice that he stirreth up in the ungodly against the life of faith and holiness and by the importunity of his oppositions and temptations discovering that it is not for nothing that he is so maliciously solicitous industrious and violent And thus you see how much faith hath that should fully satisfie a rational man instead of presence possession and â—ight If any shall here say But why would not God let us have a sight of Heaven or Hell when he could not but know that it would more generally and certainly have prevailed for the conversion and salvation of the world Doth he envy us the most â—ffâ—ctuaâ— means I answer 1. Who art thou O man that disputest against God shall the thing formed say to him that formed it Why hast thou made me thus Mâ—st God come down to the bar of man to render an account of the reason of his works Why do ye not also ask him a reason of the nature situation magnitude order influences c. of all the Stars and Superiour Orbs and call him to an account for all his works when yet there are so many things in your own bodies of which you little understand the reason Is it not intollerable impudency for such worms as we so
let me begin to plead it with your consciences Are you Believers Do you live the life of Faith or not Do you live upon things that are unseen or upon the present visible baits of sensuality That you may not turn away your ears or hear me with a sluggish sensless mind let me tell you first how nearly it concerneth you to get this Question soundly answered and then that you may not be deceived let me help you toward the true resolution 1. And for the first you may perceive by what is said that saving Faith is not so common as those that know not the nature of it do imagine All men have not faith 2 Thes 3.2 O what abundance do deceive themselves with Names and shews and a dead Opinion and customary Religion and take these for the life of faith 2. Till you have this faith you have no special interest in Christ It is only Believers that are united to him and are his living Members and it is by faith that he dwelleth in our hearts and that we live in him Ephes 3.17 Gal. 2.20 In vain do you boast of Christ if you are not true Believers You have no part or portion in him None of his special Benefits are yours till you have this living working Faith 3. You are still in the state of enmity to God and unreconciled to him while you are unbelievers For you can have no peace with God nor aâ—â—ess unto his favour but by Christ Rom. 5.1 2 3 4. Ephes 2.14 15 17. And therefore you must come by faith to Christ before you can come by Christ unto the Father as those that have a special interest in his love 4. Till you have this Faith you are under the guilt and load of all your sins and under the curse and condemnation of the Law For there is no Justification or forgiveness but by Faith Act. 26.18 Rom. 4 5 c. 5. Till you have this sound Belief of things unseen you will be carnal minded and have a carnal end to all your actions which will make those to be evil that materially are good and those to be fleshly that materially are holy Without Faith it is impossible to please God Rom. 8.5 8 9. Prov. 28.9 Heb. 11.6 6. Lastly Till you have this living Faith you have no right to Heaven nor could be saved if you die this hour Whoever believeth shall not perish but have everlasting life He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not iâ— condemned already He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that bâ—lieveth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abidâ—th on him Joh. 3.16 18 36. You see if you love your selves it concerneth you to try whether you are true Believers Unless you take it for an indifferent thing whether you live for ever in Heaven or Hell it 's best for you to put the question close to your consciences betimes Have you that Faith that serves instead of sight Do you carry within you the evidence of things unseen and the substance of the things which you say you hope for Did you know in what manner this question must be put and determined at judgement and how all your comfort will then depend upon the answer and how near that day is when you must all be sentenced to Heaven or Hell as you are found to be Believers or Vnbelievers it would make you hearken to my counsel and presently try whether you have a saving Faith 2. But lest you be deceived in your trial and lest you mistake me as if I tryed the weak by the measure of the strong and laid all your comfort upon such strong affections and high degrees as fight it self would work within you I shall briefly tell you how you may know whether you have any faith that 's true and saving though in the least degree Though none of us are affected to that height as we should be if we had the sight of all that we do believe yet all that have any saving belief of invisible things will have these four signs of faith within them 1. A sound belief of things unseen will cause a practical estimation of them and that above all earthly things A glimpse of the heavenly glory as in a glass will cause the soul deliberately to say This is the chief desirable felicity this is the Crown the Pearl the Treasure nothing but this can serve my turn It will debase the greatest pleasures or riches or honours of the world in your esteem How contemptible will they seem while you see God stand by and Heaven as it were set open to your view you 'l see there 's little cause to envy the prosperous servants of the world you will pitty them as miserable in their mirth and bound in the fetters of their folly and concupiscence and as strangers to all solid joy and honour You will be moved with some compassion to them in their misery when they are braving it among men and domineering for a little while and you will think alas poor man Is this all thy glory Hast thou no better wealth no higher honour no sweeter pleasures than these husks With such a practical judgement as you value gold above dirt and jewels above common stones you will value Heaven above all the riches and pleasures of this world if you have indeed a living saving faith Phil. 3.7 8 9. 2. A sound belief of the things unseen will habitually incline your wills to embrace them with consent and complacence and resolution above and against those worldly things that would be set above them and preferred before them If you are true believers you have made your choice you have fixâ— your hopes you have taken up your resolutions that God must be your portion or you can have none that 's worth the having that Christ must be your Saviour or you cannot be saved and therefore you are at a point with all things else they may be your Helps but not your Happiness you are resolved on what Rock to build and where to cast anchor and at what port and prize your life shall aim You are resolved what to seek and trust to God or none Heaven or nothing Christ or none is the voice of your rooted stable resolutions Though you are full of fears sometimes whether you shall be accepted and have a part in Christ or no and whether ever you shall attain the Glory which you aim at yet you are off all other hopes having seen an end of all perfections and read vanity and vexation written upon all creatures even on the most flattering state on earth and are unchangeably resolved not to change your Master and your hopes and your holy course for any other life or hopes Whatever come of it you are resolved that here you will venture all Knowing that you have no other game to play at which you are not sure to lose and that you
practice thereupon 1. Suppose you saw the Lord in glory continually before you When you are hearing praying talking jâ—sting eating drinking and when you are tempted to any wilful sin Suppose you saw the Lord stand over you as verily as you see a man As you might do if your eyes could see him for it 's most certain that he is still present with you suppose you saw but such a glimpse of his back parts as Moses did Exod. 34. when God put him into a cleft of the Rock and covered him while he passed by Chap. 33.23 when the face of Moses shined with the sight that he was fain to vail it from the people Exod. 34.33 34 35. Or if you had seen but what the Prophet saw Isa 6.1 2 3 4 5 6. when he beheld the Lord upon a Throne high and lifted up c. and heard the Seraphim cry Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole earth is full of his glory When he said Woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes haue seen the King the Lord of Hosts Or if you had seen but what Job saw Job 42.5 6. when he said I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes What course would you take what manner of persons would you be after such a sight as this If you had seen but Christ appâ—â—ring in his glory as the Disciples on the holy Mount Matth. 17. or as Paul saw him at his conversion when he was smitten to the earth Acts 9. or as John saw him Rev. 1.13 where he saith He was cloathed with a garment down to the fooâ— and girt with a golden girdle his head and his hairs were white like Wooll or 〈◊〉 and his eyes were as a flame of fire and his feet like unto fine brass as if they burned in a furnace and his voice as the sound of many waters and he had in his right hand seven Stars and out of his mouth went a sharp two edged Sword and his countenance was as the Sun shineth in his strength and when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead and he laid his right hand upon me saying unto me fear not I am the first and the last I am â—e that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen and have the keyes of hell and death What do you think you should be and do if you had seen but such a sight as this Would you be godly or ungodly after it As sure as you live and see one another God alwaies seeth you He seeth your secret filthiness and deceit and malice which you think is hid he seeth you in the dark the locking of your doors the dâ—aâ—ing of your curtains the setting of the Sun or the putting out of the Candle doth hide nothing from him that is Omniscient Psal 94.8 9. Vnderstand oh ye brutish among the people and ye fools when will ye be wise He that planted the ear shall be not hear he that formed the eye shall he not see The lust and filthiness and covetousness and envy and vanity of your very thoughts are as open to his view as the Sun at noon And therefore you may well suppose him present that cannot be absent and you may suppose you saw him that still seeth you and whom you must see Oh what a change a glympse of the glory of his Majesty would make in this Assembly Oh what amazements what passionate workings of soul would it excite Were it but an Angel that did thus appear to you what manner of hearers would you be how serious how affectionate how sensible And yet are you Believers and have none of this when faith makes unseen things to be as seen If thou have faith indeed thou seest him that is invisible thou speakest to him thou hearest him in his Word thou seest him in his Works thou walkest with him he is the life of thy comforts thy converse and thy life 2. Suppose you had seen the matters revealed in the Gospel to your faith as to what is past and done already If you had seen the deluge and the Ark and preservation of one righteous family the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire from Heaven and the saving of Lot whose righteâ—â—â— soul was grieved at their sins and hunted after as a prey to their ungodly rage because he would have hindered them from transgressing Suppose you had seen the opening of the Red Sea the passage of the Israelites the drowning of Pharaoh and his Aegyptians the Manna and the Qâ—ails that fell from Heaven the flaming Mount with the terrible Thunder when God delivered the Law to Moses what manner of people would you have been what lives would you have led after such sights as all or any one of these Suppose you had seen Christ in his state of Incarnation in his examples of lowliness meekness contempt of all the glory and vanities of this world and had heard him speak his heavenly Doctrine with power and authority as never man spake Suppose you had seen him heal the blind the lame the sick and raise the dead and seen him after all this made the scorn of sinners buffeted spit upon when they had crowned him with thorns and arrayed him gorgeously in scorn and then nailed between malefactors on a Cross and pierced and die a shameful death and this for such as you and I. Suppose you had seen the Sun darkned without any ecclipse the Vail of the Temple rent the Earth tremble the Angels terrifying the Keepers and Christ rise again Suppose you had been among the Disciples when he appeared in the midst of them and with Thomas had put your fingers into his wounded side and had seen him walking on the waters and at last seen him ascending up to Heaven Suppose you had seen when the Holy Ghost came down on the Disciples in the similitude of cloven tongues and had heard them speak in the various languages of the Nations and seen the variety of Miraclâ—s by which they convinced the unbelieving world What persons would you have been what lives would you have led if you had been eye-witnesses of all these things And do you not profess to believe all this and that these things are as certain truths as if you had seen them why then doth not your belief affect you or command you more why doth it not do what sight would do in some good measure if it were but a lively saving faith indeed that serveth instead of sense Yea I must tell you Faith must do more with you in this case than the sight of Christ alone could do or the sight of his Miracles did on most For many that saw him and saw his works heard his Word yet perished in their unbelief 3. Suppose
you saw the everlasting Glory which Christ hath purchased and prepared for his Saints That you had been once with Paul rapt up into the third Heavens and seen the things that are unutterable would you not after that have rather lived like Paul and undergone his sufferings and contempt than to have lived like the brain-sick brutish world If you had seen what Stephen saw before his death Acts 7.55 56. the Glory of God and Christ standing at his right hand If you had seen the thousands and millions of holy glorious spirits that are continually attending the Majesty of the Lord If you had seen the glorified spirits of the just that were once in flesh despised by the blind ungodly world while they waited on God in faith and holiness and hope for that blessed Crown which now they were If you had felt one moment of their joyes if you had seen them shine as the Sun in glory and made like unto the Angels of God if you had heard them sing the song of the Lamb and the joyful Hallelujahs and praise to their eternal King what would you be and what would you resolve on after such a sight as this If the rich man Luke 16. had seen Lazarus in Abrahams bosom in the midst of his bravery and honour and feasting and other sensual delights as afterwards he saw it when he was tormented in the flames of Hell do you think such a sight would not have cooled his mirth and jollity and helpt him to understand the nature and value of his earthly felicity and have proved a more effectual argument than a despised Preachers words at least to have brought him to a freer exercise of his Reason in a sober consideration of his state and waies Had you seen one hour what Abraham David Paul and all the Saints now see while sin and flesh doth keep us here in the dark what work do you think your selves it would make upon your hearts and lives 4 Suppose you saw the face of Death and that you were now lying under the power of some mortal sickness Physicians having forsaken you and said There is no hope Your friends weeping over you and preparing your winding sheet and coffin digging your graves and casting up the skulls and bones and earth that must again be cast in to be your covering and company Suppose you saw a Messenger from God to tell you that you must die to morrow or heard but what one of your predecessors heard Luke 12.20 Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee then whose shall these things be that thou hast provided How would such a Message work with you would it leave you as you are If you heard a voice from God this night in your chamber in the dark telling you that this iâ— the last night that you shall live on earth and before to morrow your souls must be in another world and come before the dreadful God what would be the effect of such a Message And do you not verily believe that all this will very shortly be Nay do you not know without believing that you must die and leave your worldly glory and that all your pleasures and contents on earth will be as if they had never been and much worse O wonderful that a change so sure so great so near should no more affect you and no more be fore-thought on and no more prepared for and that you be not awakened by so full and certain a fore-knowledge to be in good sadness for eternal life as you seem to be when death is at hand 5. Suppose you saw the great and dreadful day of Judgement as it iâ— described by Christ himself in Matth. 25. When the Son of man shall come in his glory and all his holy Angels with him and shall sit upon his glorious Throne and all Nations shall be gathered before him and he shall separate them one from another as a Shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats and shall set the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left v. 31 32 33. and shall sentence the righteous to eternal life and the rest into everlasting punishment If you did now behold the glory and terrour of that great appearance how the Saints will be magnified and rejoyce and be justified against all the accusations of Satan and calumnies of wicked men and how the ungodly then would fain deny the words and deeds that now they glory in and what horrour and confusion will then overwhelm those wretched souls that now out-face the Messengers of the Lord Had you seen them trembling before the Lord that now are braving it out in the pride and arrogancy of their hearts Had you heard how then they will change their tune and wish they had never known their sins and wish they had lived in greater holiness than those whom they derided for it What would you say and do and be after such an amazing fight as this Would you sport it out in sin as you have done Would you take no better care for your salvation If you had seen those sayings out of the holy Ghost fulfilled Jude 14 15.2 Thes 1.7 8 9. 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 What mind do you think you should be of What course would you take if you had but seen this dreadful day Could you go on to think and speak and live as sensually stupidly and negligently as now you do 2 Pet. 3.10 11 12. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in the which the bravens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent beat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up Is it possible soundly to believe such a day so sure so near and no more regard it nor make ready for it than the carelâ—ss and ungodly do 6. Suppose at that day you had heard the Devil accusing you of all the sins that you have committed and set them out in the most odious aggravations and call for justice against you to your Judge If you heard him pleading all those sins against you that now he daily tempts you to commit and now maketh you believe are harmless or small inconsiderable things If you heard him saying At such a time this sinner refused grace neglected Christ despised Heaven and preferred Earth at such a time he derided godliness and made a mock of the holy Word and Counsels of the Lord at such a time he prophaned the name of God he coveted his neighbours wealth he cherished thoughts of envy or of lust he was drunk or gluttonous or committed fornication and he was never thorowly converted by renewing
Wisdom and that parts with Heaven for a few merry hours and hath not wit to save his soul When they see the end and are arrived at eternity let them boast of their Wisdom as they find cause We will take them then for more competent Judges Let the Eternal God be the portion of my soul let Heaven be my inheritance and hope let Christ be my Head and the promise my security let Faith be my Wisdom and Love be my very heart and will and patient persevering Obedience be my life and then I can spare the wisdom of the world because I can spare the trifles that it seeks and all that they are like to get by it What abundance of complaints and calamity would foresight prevent Had the events of this one year been conditionally foreseen the actions of thousands would have bâ—en otherwise ordered and much sin and shame have been prevented What a change would it make on the judgements of the world how many words would be otherwise spoken and how many deeds would be otherwise done and how many hours would be otherwise spent if the change that will be made by Judgement and Execution were well foreseen And why is it not foreseen when it is foreshewn When the omniscient God that will certainly perform his Word hath so plainly revealed it and so frequently and loudly warns you of it Is he wise that after all these warnings will lie down in everlasting woe and say I little thought of such a day I did not believe I should ever have seen so great a change Would the servants of Christ be used as they are if the malicious world foresaw the day when Christ shall come with ten thousands of his Saints to execute Judgement on all that are ungodly Jude 14 15. When he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that do believe 2 Thes 1.10 When the Saâ—nts shall judge the world 1 Cor. 6.2 3. and when the ungodly seeing them on Christs right-hand must hear their sentence on this account Verily I say unto you in as mâ—ch as you did it or did it not to one of the least of these my Brethren you did it unto me Matth. 25. Yet a few daies and all this will be done before your eyes but the unbelieving world will not foresee it Would malignant Cain have slain his brother if he had foreseen the punishment which he calleth afterward intollerable Gen. 4.13 Would the world have despised the preaching of Noah if they had believed the deluge Would Sodom have been Sodom if they had foreseen that an Hell from Heaven would have consumed them Would Achan have medled with his prey if he had foreseen the stones that were his Executioners and his Tomb Would Gehezi have obeyed his covetous desire if he had foreseen the leprosie Or Judas have betrayed Christ if he had foreseen the hanging himself in his despair It is fore-seeing Faith that saves those that are saved and blind unbelief that causeth mens perdition Yea present things as well as future are unknown to foolish Unbelievers Do they know who seeth them in their sin and what many thousands are suffering for the like while they see no danger Whatever their tongues say the hearts and lives of fools deny that there is a God that seeth them and will be their Judge Psalm 14.1 You see then that you must live by Faith or perish by folly 4. Consider that things visible are so transitory and of so short continuance that they do but deserve the name of things being nothings and less than nothing and lighter than vanity it self compared to the necessary eternal Being whose name is IAM There is but a few daies difference between a Prince and no Prince a Lord and no Lord a man and no man a world and no world And if this be all let the time that is past inform you how small a difference this is Rational foresight may teach a Xerxes to weep over his numerous Army as knowing how soon they were all to be dead men Can you forget that death is ready to undress you and tell you that your sport and mirth is done and that now you have had all that the world can do for those that serve it and take it for their part How quickly can a feaver or the choice of an hundred Messengers of death beâ—eave you of all that earth afforded you and turn your sweetest pleasures into gall and turn a Lord into a lump of clay It is but as a wink an inch of time till you must quit the stage and speak and breath and see the face of man no more If you foresee this O live as men that do foresee it I never heard of any that stole his winding-sheet or fought for a Coffiâ— or went to Law for his grave And if you did but see as wise men should how near your Honours and Wealth and Pleasures do stand unto Eternity as well as your Winding sheets your Coffins and your Graves you would then value and desire and seek them regularly and moderately as you do these Oh what a fading flower is your strength How soon will all your gallantry shrink into the shell Si vestra sunt tollite â—a vobiscum Bern. Buâ— yet this is not the great part of the change The terminus ad quem doth make it greater It is great for persons of renown and honour to change their Palaces for graves and turn to noisom rottenness and dirt and their Power and Command into silent impotency unable to rebuke the poorest worm that sawcily feedeth on their hearts or faces But if you are Believers you can look further and foresee much more The largest and most capacious heart alive is unable fully to conceive what a change the stroak of death will make For the holy soul so suddenly to pass from prayer to Angelical praise from sorrow unto boundless joyes from the slanders and contempt and violence of men to the bosom of eternal Love from the clamours of a tumultuous world to the universal harmony and perfect uninterrupted Love and Peace O what a blessed change is this which believing now we shall shortly feel For an unholy unrenewed soul that yesterday was drowned in flesh and laught at threatnings and scorned reproofs to be suddenly snaâ—cht into another world and see the Heaven that he hath lost and feel the Hell which he would not believe to fall into the gulf of bottomless eternity and at once to find that Joy and Hope are both departed that horrour and grief must be his company and Desperation hath lockt up the door O what an amazing change is this If you think me troublesom for mentioning such ungrateful things what a trouble wil it be to feel them May it teach you to prevent that greater trouble you may well bear this Find but a medicine against death or any security for your continuance here or any prevention of the Change and I have
done But that which unavoidably must be seen should be foreseen But the unseen world is not thus mutable Eternal life is begun in the Believer The Church is built on Christ the Reck and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Fix here and you shall never be removed 4. Hence followeth another difference The mutable creature doth impart a disgraceful mutability to the soul that chuseth it It disappointeth and deceiveth And therefore the ungodly are of one mind to day and another to morrow In health they are all for pleasure and commodity and honour and at death they cry out on it as deceitful Vanity In health they cannot abide this strictness this meditating and seeking and preparing for the life to come but at death or judgement they will all be of another mind Then O that they had been so wise as to know their time and O that they hâ—d lived as holily as the best They are now the bold opposers and reproachers of an holy life But then they would be glad it had been their own They would eat their words and will be down in the mouth and stand to never a word they say when sight and sense and judgement shall convince them But things unchangeable do fix the soul Pâ—eâ—y is no matter for Repentance Doth the Believer speak against sin and sinners and for an holy sober righteous life He will do so to the last Death and Judgement shall not change his mind in this but much confirm it And therefore he perseveres through sufferings to death Rom. 8.35 36 37. For this cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory While we look not at the things that are seen but at the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal 2 Cor. 4.16 17. 6. Lastly let this move you to live by a foreseeing Faith that it is of necessity to your salvation Believing Heaven must prepare you for it before you can enjoy it Believing Hell is necessâ—ry to prevent it Mark 16.16 John 3.18 36. The just shall live by Faith but if any man draw back or be lifted up the Lord will have no pleasure in him Heb. 10.38 Hâ—b 2.4 Take heed that there be not in any of you an evil heart of unbelief to depart from the living God Heb. 3.12 And be not of them that draw back to perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the soul Heb. 10.39 It is God that saith They shall all be damned that believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes 2.10 11 12. May I now in the conclusion more particularly exhort you 1. That you will live upon things foreseen 2. That you will promote this life of faith in others according to your several capacities Princes and Nobles live not alwaies You are not the Rulers of the unmoveable Kingdom but of a boat that is in an hasty stream or a ship under sail that will speed both Pilot and Passengers to the shore Dixi estis Dii at moriemini ut homines It was not the least or worst of Kings that said I am a stranger vpon earth Psal 119.19 Vermis sum non homo I am a worm and no man Psal 32.6 You are the greater worms and we the little ones but we must all say with Job ch 17.13 14. The grave is our house and we must make our beds in darkness Corruption is our Father and the Worm our Mother and our Sister The inexorable Leveller is ready at your backs to convince you by unresistible argument that dust you are and to dust you shall return Heaven should be as desirable and Hell as terrible to you as to others No man will fear you after death much less will Christ be afraid to judge you Luke 19.27 As the Kingdoms and glory of the world were contemned by him in the hour of his temptation so are they inconsiderable to procure his approbation Trust not therefore to uncertain riches Value them but as they will prove at last As you stand on higher ground than others it is meet that you should see further The greater are your advantages the wiser and better you should be and therefore should better perceive the difference between things temporal and eternal It is alwaies dark where these glow-worms shine and a rotten post doth seem a fire Your difficulties also should excite you You must go as through a Needles eye to Heaven To live as in Heaven in a crowd of business and stream of temptations from the confluence of all worldly things is so hard that few such come to Heaven Withdraw your selves therefore to the frequent serious fore-thoughts of eternity and live by faith Had time allowed it I should have come down to some particular instances As 1. Let the things unseen be still at hand to answer every temptation and shame and repel each motion to sin 2. Let them be still at hand to quicken us to duty when backwardness and coldness doth surprize us What shall we do any thing coldly for eternity 3. Let it resolve you what company to delight in and what society to be of even those with whom you must dwell for ever What side soever is uppermost on earth you may foresee which side shall reign for ever 4. Let the things invisible be your daily solace and the satisfaction of your souls Are you slandered by men Faith tells you it is enough that Christ will justifie you O happy day when he will bring forth our righteousness as the light and set all strait which all the false histories or slanderous tongues or pens in all the world made crooked Are you frowned on or contemned by men Is it not enough that you shall everlastingly be honoured by the Lord Are you wronged oppressed or trodden on by pride or malice Is not Heaven enough to make you reparation and eternity long enough for your joyes O pray for your malicious enemies lest they suffer more than you can wish them 2. Lastly I should have become on the behalf of Christ a petitioner to you for protection and encouragement to the heirs of the invisible world For them that preach and them that live this life of faith not for the honours and riches of the world but for leave and countenance to work in the Vineyard and peaceably travel through the world as strangers and live in the Communion of Saints as they believe But though it be for the beloved of the Lord the apple of his eye the people that are sure to prevail and raign with Christ for ever whose prayers can do more for the greatest Princes than you can do for them whose joy is hastened by that which is intended for their sorrow I shall now lay
wonder that such men can believe themselves when they say they do indeed believe the Gospel And shews what a monster the blind deceitful heart of an impenitent sinner is In good sadness can they think that they truly believe that God is God and yet so wilfully disobey him that Heaven is Heaven and yet prefer the world before it that Hell is Hell and yet will venture upon it for a lust or a thing of nought What! believe that there is at hand a life of endless joy and no more mind it but hate them that set their hearts upon it Do they believe that except a man be converted and new born he shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven as Christ hath told them Matth. 18.3 John 3.3 5. and yet never trouble their minds about it to try whether they are converted and new born or not Do they believe God that no man shall see him without holiness Heb. 12.14 and yet dare they be unholy and perhaps deride it Do they believe that Christ will come in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and 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 2 Thes 2.8 9. and yet dare they disobey the Gospel Do they take God for their absolute Lord and Governour while they will not so much as meditate on his Laws but care more what a mortal man saith or what their flesh and carnal reason saith than what he saith to them in his holy Word Do they take Christ for their Saviour and yet would not be saved by him from their sins but had rather keep them Do they take the Holy Ghost for their Sanctifier while they will not have a sanctified heart or life and love it not in those that have it Do they take Heaven for their endless home and happiness while they neither mind nor seek it in comparison of the world And do they take the world for vanity and vexation while they mind and seek it more than Heaven Do they believe the communion of Saints while they fly from it and perhaps detest and persecute it Is light and darkness more contrary than their words and deeds And is not HYPOCRISIE as visible in their practice as Christianity in their profession It is the complexion of their Religion HYPOCRITE is legibly written in the forehead of it They proclaim their shame to all that they converse with When they have said they believe the life to come they tell men by your ungodly worldly lives that they are dissemblers When their tongue hath loudly said that they are Christians their tongue and hand more loudly say that they are Hypocrites And when they profess their Faith but now and then in a lifeless outside piece of worship they profess their Hypocrisie all the day long in their impious neglect of God and their salvation in their carnal speeches in their worldly lives and in their enmity to the practice of the same Religion which they profess Their Hypocrisie is a web so thin and so transparent that it leaves their nakedness open to their shame They have not Profession enough to make a considerable cover for their unbelief They hide but their tongues the rest even heart and all is bare O the stupendious power of self love the wonderful blindness and stupidity of the ungodly the dreadfulness of the judgement of God in thus dâ—serting the wâ—lful resisters of his grace That ever men in other things of seeming wisdom should be such strangers to themselves and so deceived by themselves as to think they love the thing they hate and to think that their hearts are set upon Heaven when they neither love it nor the way that leadeth to it but are principally bent another way that when they arâ— strangers or enemies to a holy life they can yet make themselves believe that they are holy and that they seek that first which they never seek and make that the drift and business of their lives which was never the serious business of an hour O Hypocrites ask any impartial man of reason that sees your lives and hears your prayers whether you pray and live like men that believe that Heaven or Hell must be their reward Ask your families whether they perceive by your constant prayer and diligent endeavours and holy conversations that your hearts are set on a life to come It was a cutting answer of a late Apostate to one that told him of the unreasonableness of Infidels that denyed the life to come saith he There 's none in the world so unreasonable as you Christians that believe that there is an endless life of joy or misery to come and do no more to obtain the one and escape the other Did I believe such a life as this I would think all too little that I could do or suffer to make it sure Who sees the certainty greatness and eternity of the Crown of Life in the resolvedness fervency and constancy of your holy labour You take up with the picture of Sermons and Prayers and with the name of Christianity and holy obedience A little more Religion you will admit than a Parrot may learn or a Poppet may exercise Compare your care and labour and cost for Heaven and for this world That you believe the flattering deceitful world we see by your daily solicitousness about it You seek it you strive for it you fall out with all that stand in your way you are at it daily and have never done But who can see that you seriously believe another world you talk idly and wantonly and proudly by the hours but you talk of Heaven and holiness but by the minutes You do not turn the glass when you go to your unnecessary recreations or your vain discourse or at least you can stay when the glass is run But in hearing the most necessary truths of God or in praying for everlasting life the hour seems long to you and the tedious Preacher is your weariness and molestation You do not feast and play by the glass but if we do not preach and pray by it exactly but exceed our hour though in speaking of and for eternity we are your burden and put your languid patience to it as if we were doing you some intollerable wrong In worldly matters you are weary of giving but seldom of receiving you grudge at the asker but seldom at the giver But if the gift be spiritual and heavenly you are a weary to hear talk of it and expostulate the case with him that offereth it and he must shew by what authority he would do you good If by serious holy conference he would further your preparations for the life to come or help you to make sure of life eternal he is examined what power he hath to meddle with you and promote your salvation And perhaps he is snappâ—shly told he is a
your honours and attendance Is a day that is spent or a life that is â—xtinct any thing or nothing Is there any sweetness in a feast that was eaten or drink that was drunk or time that was spent in sports and mirth a year ago Certainly a known vanity should not be preferred before a probable endless joy But when we have certainty as well as excellency and eternity to set against certain transitory vanity what room is left for further deliberation whether we should prefer the Sun before a squib or a flash of lightening that suddenly leaves us in the dark one would think should be an easie question to resolve Up then and work while it is day and let us run and strive with all our might Heaven is at hand as sure as if you saw it You are certain you can be no losers by the choice You part with nothing for all things you escape the tearing of your heart by submitting to the scratching of a bryer You that will bear the opening of a vein for the cure of a Feaver and will not forbear a necessary Journey for the barking of a Dog or the blowing of the wind O leap not into Hell to scape the stinking breath of a scorner Part not with God with Conscience and with Heaven to save your purses or your flesh Chuse not a merry way to misery before a prudent sober preparation for a perfect everlasting joy You would not prefer a merry cup before a Kingdom You would let go a lâ—sser delight or commodity for a greater here Thus a greater sin can forbid the exercise of a less And shall not endless joy weigh down a brutish lust or pleasure If you love pleasure take that which is true and full and durable For all that he calleth you to Repentance and Mortification and necessary strictness there is none that 's more for your pleasure and delight than God or else he would not offer you the rivers of pleasure that are at his right hand nor himself to be your perpetual delight If you come into a room where are variety of pictures and one is gravely reading or meditating and another with a cup or harlot in his hand is profusely laughing with a gaping grining mouth would you take the latter or the former to be the picture of a wise and happy man Do you approve of the state of those in Heaven and do you like the way that brought them thither If not why speak you of them so honourably and why would you keep holy-daies in remembrance of them If you do examine the sacred records and see whether the Apostles and others that are now honoured as glorified Saints did live as you do or rather as those that you think are too precise Did they spend the day in feasting and sports and idle talk Did they swagger it out in pride and wealth hate their brethren that were not in all things of their conceits Did they come to Heaven by a worldly formal hypocritical ceremonious Religion or by faith and love and self-denial and unwearied labouring for their own and other mens salvation while they became the wonder and the scorn of the ungodly and as the off-scouring and refuse of the world Do you like holiness when it is for from you in a dead man that never troubled you with his presence or reproofs or in a Saint in Heaven that comes not near you Why then do you not like it for your selves If it be good the nearer the better Your own health and your own wealth do comfort you more than another mans And so would your own holiness if you had it If you would speed as they that are now beholding the face of God believe and live and wait as they did And as the righteous God did not forget their work and labour of love for his Name so he will remember you with the same reward if you shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end and be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the Promises Heb. 6.10 11 12. O did you but see what they now enjoy and what they see and what they are and what they do you would never sure scorn or persecute a Saint more If you believe you see though not as they with open face If you believe not yet it is not your unbelief that shall make Gods Word of none effect Rom. 3.3 God will be God if you be Atheists Christ will be Christ if you be Infidels Heaven will be Heaven if you by despising it go to Hell Judgement sleepeth not when you sleep I'ts coming as fast when you laugh at it or question it as if your eyes were open to foresee it If you would not believe that you must die do you think that this would delay your death one year or hour If ten or twenty years time more be allotted you it passeth as swiftly and death and judgement come as surely if you spend it in voluptuousness and unbelief as if you watcht and waited for your change We preach not to you Ifs and And 's It is not perhaps there is a Heaven and Hell But as sure as you are here and must anon go hence you must as shortly quit this world and take up your abode in the world that 's now to us invisible And no tongue can express how sensible you will then be of the things that you will not now be made sensible of O then with what a dreadful view will you look before you and behind you Behind you upon Time and say It is gone and never will return and hear conscience ask you How you spent it and what you did with it Before you upon Eternâ—ty and say It is come and to the ungodly will be an Eternity of woe What a peal will conscience then ring in the unbelievers ears Now the day is come that I was forewarned of the day and change which I would not believe whither must I now go what must I now do what shall I say before the Lord for all the sin that I have wilfully committed for all the time of mercy which I lost How shall I answer my contempt of Christ my neglect of means and enmity to a holy serious life What a distracted wretch was I to condemn and dislike them that spent their lives in preparation for this day when now I would give a thousand worlds to be but one of the meanest of them O that the Church doors and the door of grace were open to me now as once they were when I refused to enter Many a time did I hear of this day and would not believe or soberly consider of it Many a time was I intreated to prepare and I thought an hypocritical trifling shew would have been taken for a sufficient prepâ—â—â—tion Now who must be my companions How long must I dwell with woe and horrour God by his Ministers was wont to call to
me How long O scorner wilt thou delight in scorning How long wilt thou go on impenitently in thy folly And now I must cry out How long How long must I feel the wrath of the Almighty the unquenchable fire the immortal worm Alas for ever When shall I receive one moments ease when shall I see one glimpse of hope O never never never Now I perceive what Satan meant in his temptations what â—in intended what God meant in the threatnings of his Law what grace was good for what Christ was sent for and what was the design and meaning of the Gospel and how I should have valued the offers and promises of life Now I understand what Ministers meant to be so importunate with me for my conversion and what was the cause that they would even have kneeled to me to have procured my return to God in time Now I understand that holiness was not a needless thing that Christ and Grace deserved better entertainment than contempt that precious time was worth more than to be wasted idly that an immortal soul and life eternal should have been more regarded and not cast away for so short so base a fleshly pleasure Now all these things are plain and open to my understanding But alas it 's now too late I know that now to my woe and torment which I might have known in time to my recovery and joy For the Lords sake and for your souls sake open your eyes and foresee the things that are even at hand and prevent these fruitless lamentations Judge but as you will all shortly judge and live but as you will wish that you had lived and I desire no more Be serious as if you saw the things that you say you do believe I know this serious discourse of another life is usually ungrateful to men that are conscious of their strangeness to it and taking up their portion here are loth to be tormented before the time This is not the smoothing pleasing way But remember that we have flesh as well as you which longs not to be accounted troublesome or precise which loves not to displease or be displeased And had we no higher light and life we should â—aâ—k as men that saw and felt no more than fight and flesh can reach But when we are preaching and dying and you are hearing and dying and we believe and know that you are nâ—w going to see the things we speak of and death will straightway draw aside the veil and shew you the great amazing sight it 's time for us to speak and you to hear with all our hearts It 's time for us to be serious when we are so near the place where all are serious There are none that are in jest in Heaven or Hell pardon us therefore if we jest not at the door and in the way to such a serious state All that see and feel are serious and therefore all that truly believe must be so too Were your eyes all opened this hour to see what we believe we appeal to your own consciences whether it would not make you more serious than we Marvel not if you see Believers make another matter of their salvation than those that have hired their understandings in service to their sense and think the world is no bigger or better than their globe or map and reacheth no further than they can kennâ— As long as we see you serious about Lands and Lordships and titles and honours the rattles and tarrying Irons of the cheating world you must give us leave whether you will or no to be serious about the life eternal They that scramble so eagerly for the bonds of worldly riches and devour so greedily the drâ—ffe of sensual delights methinks should blush if such animals had the blushing property to blame or deride us for being a little alas too little earnest in the matters of God and our salvation Can you not pardon us if we love God a little more than you love your lusts and if we run as fast for the Crown of Life as you run after a feather or a fly or if we breath as hard after Christ in holy desires as you do in blowing the bubble of vain-glory If a thousand pound a year in passage to a grave and the chains of darkness be worth your labour give us leave to belieâ—â— that mercy in order to everlasting mercy grace in order to glory and glory as the end of grace is worth our labour and infinitely more Your end is narrow though your way be broad and our end is broad though our way be narrow You build as Miners in Cole-pits do by digging downwards into the dark and yet you are laborious Though we begin on earth we build towards Heaven where an attractive loadstone draws up the workmen and the work and shall we loiter under so great encouragements Have you considered that Faith is the beholding grace the evidence of things not seen and yet have you the hearts to blame Believers for doing all that they can do in a case of such unspeakable everlasting consequence If we are Believers Heaven and Hell are as iâ— were open to our sight And would you wish us to trifle in the sight of Heaven or to leap into Hell when we see it as before us what name can express the inhumane cruelty of such a wish oâ— motion or the unchristian folly of those that will obey you O give us leave to be serious for a Kingdom which by Faith we see Blame us for this and blame us that we are not beside our selves Pardon us that we are awake when the thunder of Jehovah's voice doth call to us denouncing everlasting wrath to all that are sensual and ungodly Were we asleep as you are we would lie still and take no heed what God or man said to us Pardon us that we are Christians and believe these things seeing you profess the same your selves Disclaim not the practice till you dare disclaim the profession If we were Infidels we would do as the ungodly world we would pursue our present pleasures and commodity and say that things above us are nothing to us and would take Religion to be the Troubler of the world But till we are Infidels or Atheists at the heart we cannot do so Forgive us that we are men if you take it to be pardonable Were we bruits we would eat and drink and play and never trouble our selves or others with the care of our salvation or the fears of any death but one or with resisting sensual inclinations and meditating on the life to come but would take our ease and pleasure while we may At least forgive us that we are not blocks or stones that we have life and feeling Were we insensate clods we would not see the light of Heaven nor hear the roaring of the Lion nor fear the threats of God himself we would not complain or sigh or groan because we feel not If therefore we may
have leave to be awake and to be in our wiâ—s to be Christians to be men to be creatures that have life and sense forgive us that we believe the living God that we cannot laugh at Heaven and Hell nor jest at the threatned wrath of the Almighty If these things must make us the object of the worlds reproach and malice let me rather be a reproached man than an honoured beast and a hated Christian than a beloved Infidel and rather let me live in the midst of malice and contempt than pass through honour unto shame through mirth to misery and a sensless to a feeling death Hate us when we are in Heaven and see who will be the sufferer by it If ever we should begin to nod and relapse towards your hypocritical formality and sensless indifferency our lively sight of the world invisible by a serious faith would presently awake us and force us confidently to conclude AVT SANCTVS AVT BRVTVS There is practically and predominantly no Mean He 'l prove a BRVIT that is not a SAINT CHAP. III. HAving done with this general conviction and exhortation to unbelieving Hypocrites I proceed to acquaint Believers with their Duty in several particulars 1. Worship God as Believers serve him with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire Heb. 12.28 29. A seeing faith if well excited would kindle love desire fear and all praying graces No man prayes well that doth not well know what he prayes for When it comes to seeing all men can cry loud and pray when praying will do no good They will not then speak sleepily or by rote Fides intuendo amorem recipit amorem susâ—â—tat Cor flagrans amore desideria gemitus orationes spirat Faith is the burning-glass which beholding God receiveth the beams of his communicated love and inflameth the heart with love to him again which mounteth up by groans and prayers till it reach its original and love for ever rest in love 2. Desire and use the creature as Believers Interpret all things as they receive their meaning from the things unseen understand them in no other sense It 's only God and the life to come that can tell you what 's good or bad for you in the world And therefore the ungodly that cannot go to Heaven for counsel are carryed about by meer deceits Take heed what you love and take heed of that you love God is very jealous of our love He sheds abroad his own love in our hearts that our hearts may be fruitful in love to him which is his chief delight By love he commandeth love that we may suitably move toward him and center in him He communicateth so much for the procuring of a little that we should endeavour to give him all that little and shed none of it inordinately upon the creature by the way Nothing is great or greatly to be admired while the great God is in sight And it is unsuitable for little things to have great affections and for low matters to have a high esteem It is the corruption and folly of the mind and the delusion of the affections to exalt a Shrub above a Cedar and magnifie a Mole-hill above a Mountain to embrace a shadow or spectrum of felicity which vanisheth into Nothing when you bring in the light The creature is nihil nullipotens Nothing should have no interest in us and be able to do Nothing with us as to the motions that are under the dominion of the will God is All and Almighty And he that is All should have All and command All And the Omnipotent should do All things with us by his Interest in Morals as he will do by his force in Naturals I deny not but we may love a friend One soul in two bodies will have one mind and will and love But as it is not the body of my friend that I love or converse with principally but the soul and therefore should have no mind of the case the corps the empty nest if the bird were flown so is it not the person but Christ in him or that of God which appeareth on him that must be the principal object of our love The man is mutable and must be loved as Plato did commend his friend to Dionysius Haec tibi scribo de homine viz. animante naturâ mutabili and therefore must be loved with a reserve But God is unchangeable and must be absolutely and unchangeably loved That life is best that 's likest Heaven There God will be All and yet even there it will be no dishonour or displeasure to the Deity that the glorified humanity of Christ and the New Jerusalem and our holy society are loved more dearly than we can love any creature here on earth So here God taketh not that affection as stoln from him that 's given to his servants for his sake but accepts it as sent to him by them Let the creature have it so God have it finally in and by the creature and then it is not so properly the creature that hath it as God If you chuse and love your friends for God you will use them for God not flattering them or desiring to be flattered by them but to kindle in each other the holy flame which will aspire and mount and know no bounds till it reach the boundless element of love You will not value them as friends qui omnia dicta facta vestra laudant sed qui errata delicta amice reprehendunt Not them that call you good but them that would make you better And you will let them know as Phocian did Antipater that they can never use you amiciâ— adulatoribus as friends and flatterers that differ as a wife and a harlot It 's hard to love the imperfect creature without mistakes and inordinacy in our love And therefore usually where we love most we sin most and our sin finds us out and then we suffer most and too much affection is the forerunner of much affliction which will be much prevented if Faith might be the guide of Love and Humane Love might be made Divine and all to be referred to the things unseen and animated by them Love where you can never love too much where you are sure to have no disappointments where there is no unkindness to ecclipse or interrupt where the only errour is that God hath not all and the only grief that we love no more Especially in the midst of your entising pleasures or entising employments and profits in the world foresee the end do all in Faith which telleth you The time is short it remaineth therefore that both they that have wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as through they used it not or not abusing it for the fashion of this
soul He cuts out the heart with a Hae sedes livoris erant jam pascua vermis you next tread on his interred corps that 's honoured but with a Hic jacet Here lyeth the body of such a one And if he have the honour to be magnified by fame or history it 's a fool-trap to ensnare the living but easeth not the soul in Hell And shall we envy men such a happiness as this what if they be able to command mens lives and to hurt those that they hate for a little while Is this a matter of honour or of delight A Pestilence is more honourable if destroying be an honour The Devil is more powerful if God permit him to do men hurt than the greatest Tyrant in the world And yet I hope you envy not his happiness nor are ambitious to partake of it If Witches were not kin to Devils they would never sell their souls for a power to do hurt And how little do tyrannical worldlings consider that under a mask of Government and Honour they do the same Let the world then rejoyce while we lament and weep Our sorrow shall be speedily turned into joy and our joy shall no man â—hen take from us Joh. 16.20 22. Envy not a dying man â—he happiness of a feather-bed or a merry dream You think â—t hard in them to deny you the liberties and comforts of this â—â—fe though you look for Heaven And will you be more cruel than the ungodly Will you envy the trifling commodities or delights of earth to those that are like to have no more but to lye in Hell when the sport is ended It is unreasonable impatience that cannot endure to see them in silks and gallantry a few daies that must be so extreamly miserable for ever Your crums and leavings and overplus is their All. And will you grudge them this much In this you are unlike your heavenly Father that doth good to the just and unjust would you change cases with them would you change the fruit of your adversity for the fruit of their prosperity Affliction maketh you somewhat more calm and wise and sober and cautelous and considerate and preventeth as well as cureth sin Prosperity makes them through their abuse inconsiderate rash insensible foolish proud unperswadable And the turning away of the simple slayeth them and the prosperity of fools destroyeth them Prov. 1.32 It 's long since Lazarus's sores were healed and his wants relieved and long since Dives feast was ended O let me rather be afflicted than rejected and be a door-keeper in the house of God than dwell in the tents of wickedness and rather be under the rod than turned out of doors Look with a serious Faith upon Eternity and then make a great matter of enjoyments or sufferings here if you can Great joyes and sorrows forbid men to complain of the biting of a Flea Thunder-claps drown a whispering voice O what unbelief our impatiency and disquietness in sufferings do discover Is this living by faith and conversing in another world and taking God for All and the world for Nothing What! make such a do of pâ—verty imprisonment injuries disgrace with Heaven and Hell before our eyes The Lord vouchsafe me that condition in which I shall be nearest to himself and have most communion with Heaven be it what it will be for the things of earth These are the desires to which I 'le stand To thank God for the fruit of past afflictions as the most necessary mercies of our lives as some of us have daily cause and at the same time to be impatient under present afflictions or inordinately afraid of those to come is an irrational as well as unbelieving incongruity Are we derided slandered abused by the ungodly If we repine that we have enemies and must fight we repine that we are Christs souldires and that is that we are Christians Quomodo potest imperator militum suorum virtutem probare nisi habuerit hostem saith Lactantius Enemies of God do not use to fight professedly against himself but against his souldiers Non qui contra ipsum Deum pugnent sed contra milites ejus inquit idem If the remnants of goodness had not been a derision among the Heathens themselves in the more sober sort a Heathen would not have said Nondum faelix es si non te turba deriferit si beatus vis esse cogita hoc primum contemnere ab aliis contemni Sen. Thou art not yet happy if the rabble deride thee not If thou wilt be blessed learn first to contemn this and to be contemned of others No body will deride or persecute us in Heaven 5. Improve your talents and opportunities in your callings as Believers especially you that are Governours God is the original and end of Government The highest are but his ministers Rom. 13.6 This world is but the way unto another Things seen are for things unseen And Government is to order them to that end Especially by terrifying evil doers and by promoting holiness in the earth The Moral as well as the Natural motion of inferiour agents must proceed from the influence of the superiour The spring and the end of every action truly good are out of fight Where these are not discerned or are ignorantly or maliciously opposed the action is vitiated and tendeth to confusion and ruine God is the end of all holy actions and carnal self is the end of sin If God and self are infinitely distinct you may easily see that the actions materialâ—y the same that are intended to such distant ends must needs be very distant Nothing but saving Faith and Holiness can conquer selfishness in the lowest of the people But where the flesh hath more plentiful provision and self is accommodated with the fullest contents of honour and pleasure that the world affords how difficult a work then is self-denyal And the reign of the flesh is contrary to the reign of Christ Where the flesh and visible things bear sway the enemy of Christ bears sway The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to his Law nor can be Rom. 8.7 And how Christs enemies will receive his Laws and use his Messengers and regard his waies and servants the most of the world have experience to their cost The interest of the flesh being contrary to Christs interest the competition maintaineth a continual conflict The Word of God doth seem to be against them The faithful Ministers that would save them from their sins do seem to wrong them and deal too boldly with them Were it an Elijah he would be called The troubler of Israel and met with an Hast thou found me O mine enemy No measure of prudence knowledge piety innocency meekness or self-denyal will serve to appease the wrath and displeasure of this carnal enmity If it would the Apostles had escaped it or at least it would not have fallen so furiously upon Christ hâ—mself Nay these are the oyl that
increase the flame And Satan hath still the bellows in his hand He knoweth that if he can corrupt or win the Commander he can rout the Army and ruine them with the greatest ease It hath been Satans grand design since the Christian name was known on earth to advance the selfish interest of men against the interest of Christ and to entangle the Rulers of the world in some cause that Christ and his Word and Servants cannot favour and so to make them believe that there is a necessity on them to watch against and subdue the interest of Christ As if it were necessary that the shore be brought to the boat and not the boat to the shore And that the Physician be brought to the Patients mind or else destroyed or used as his enemy I am afraid to speak out the terrible words of God in Scripture that are against such persons lest you should misunderstand me and think I misapply them But Christ feareth no man and hath not spoken his Word in vain and his Messengers must be faithful for he will bear them out and preventive cautions are easier and safer than reprehensive corrasives I will but refer you to the texts that you may peruse them Matth. 21.44 Matth. 18.3.6 Matth. 25.40 45. Luke 18.7 Psal 2. Luke 19.27 Acts 9.4 5. 1 Thess 2.15 16. Read them with fear as the Words of God Blessed are those Rulers and Nations of the Earth that perceive and escape this pernicious snare of the grand deceiver that with all his subtilty and industry endeavoureth to breed quarrels and sow dissentions between them and the universal King The more God giveth to the carnal and unwise the more they think themselves engaged against him because by his commands he seems to take it from them again by crossing the flesh which would use it only to fulfil its lusts Like a Dog that fawneth on you till he have his bone and then snarleth at you lest you take it from him and will fly in your face if you offer to meddle with it Men readily confess that they have their wealth from God because it cannot be denyed and because they would use the name of God as a cover to hide their covetousness and unlawful waies of getting But if you judge by their usage of it and their returns to God you would think that they believed that they had nothing at all from God but some injuries and that all their benefits and good were from themselves The Turkish and Tartarian Emperour will say that all his grandeur and power is from God that by making it most Divine he may procure the more reverence and obedience to himself But when he hath said so for his own interest he useth the same power against God and his interest to the banishing of his Word and holy Worship and the forbidding the preaching of the Gospel of salvation and to the cherishing of tyranny pride and lust As if God had armed them against himself and made his Officers to be his enemies and gave them power that they might powerfully hinder mens salvation and made great to be great oppressors As a believing Pastor is a Priest that standeth between God and the people to mediate under the great Mediatour to receive from God his Word and Ordinances and deliver them to the flocks and to offer up supplications in their names to God So believing Governours of civil Societies or Families receive from God a power to rule the subjects for their good and they use it to make the subjects good that God may be pleased and honoured by all And the obedience which they require is such as may be given to God in them They take power from God to use it for God and are so much more excellent than the greatest of ambitious carnal Princes as the pleasing and honouring of God is a more excellent design and work than the gratifying of fleshly lust and the advancement of a lump of clay The Kingdoms of the world would all be used as the Kingdoms of the Lord if the everlasting Kingdom were well believed The families of men would be sanctified as Churches unto God if the eternal house not made with hands were truly taken for their home and their trade were to lay up a treasure in Heaven In Cities and Countries Brethren would dwell in holy peace and all concur in honouring God if once they were made fellow Citizens with the Saints and their Burgeship and conversation were in Heaven Ephes 2.19 Phil. 3.20 21. 6. Resist Temptations as Believers If you live by Faith then fight against the world and flesh by Faith Faith must be your helmet and the Word of Faith must be your shield Eph. 6.16 And your victory it self must be by Faith 1 Joh. 5.4 If Satan tell the flesh of the preferment riches or the pleasures of lust answer him with a believing foresight of Gods Judgement and the life to come Never look on the baits of sin alone but still look at once on God and on Eternity As a just Judge will hear both parties speak or see their evidences before he will determine So tell the Tempter that as you have heard what fleshly allurements can say you will see also what the Word of God saith and take a view of Heaven and Hell and then you will answer him 7. Rejoyce as Believers Can Faith set open the windows of the soul and no light of heavenly pleasures enter Can it peruse the Map of the Land of Promise or see and taste the bunch of Grapes without any sweetness to the soul That is the truest Belief of Heaven which maketh men likest those that are in Heaven And what is their character work and portion but the Joyes of Heavenly Light and Love Can we believe that we shall live in Heaven for ever Can we believe that very shortly we shall be there and not rejoyce in such believing I know we commonly say that the uncertainty of our proper title is the cause of all our want of joy But if that were all if that were the first and greatest cause and our belief of the promise it self were lively we should at least set our hearts on Heaven as the most delightful and desirable state and Love would work by more eager desires and diligent seekings till it had reacht assurance and cast out the hinderances of our joy How much would a meer Philosopher rejoyce if he could find out natural evidence of so much as we know by Faith You may perceive what their content in finding it would be by their excâ—eding pains in seeking The unwearied studies by day and night which many of them used with the contempt of the riches and greatness of the world do tell us how glad they would have been to have seen but half so far as we may If they could but discover more clearly and certainly the principles and elements and forms of Beings the nature of spirits the causes of motion
Nature and therefore if we have a Head who hath no such corruption there is no place for that objection And as it is not credible that God would make no communication of this Image of his Dominions in the world so it is certain that besides the Lord Jesus the world hath no other Universal Head whatever the Pope may pretend to be an Vniversal Vicarious Monarch under the Vniversal Vicarious Monarch Kingdoms have their Monarchs subordinate to Christ but the world hath none but Christ alone 11. And how meet was it that he who was the Monarch or Deputy of God should be also the Mediatour and that a polluted sinner dwelling in clay should not come immediately to God but by a Reconciler who is worthy to prevail 12. And when we had lost the knowledge of God and of the world to come and of the way thereto yea and of our selves too and our own immortality of soul how meet was it that a sure Revelation should settle us that we might know what to seek and whither to return and by what way seeing Light must be the guide of our Love and Power And who could so infallibly and satisfactorily do this as a Teacher sent from God of perfectest knowledge and veracity 13. And when God intended the free forgiveness of our sins how meet was it that he who would be the Mediatour of our pardon should yield to those terms which are consistent with the ends of Government and expose not the wisdom and veracity and justice and the Laws of God to the worlds contempt If no mark of odiousness should be put upon sin nor any demonstration of Justice been made the Devil would have triumphed and said Did not I say truer than God when he told you of dying and I told you that you should not die And if the grand penalty had been remitted to the world for four thousand years together successively without any sufficient demonstration of Gods Justice undertaken why should any sinner have feared Hell to the worlds end If you say that Repentance alone might be sufficient I answer 1. That is no vindication of the Justice and Truth of the Law-maker 2. Who should bring a sinner to Repentance whose heart is corrupted with the love of sin 3. It would hinder Repentance if men knew that God can forgive all the world upon bare Repentance without any reparation of the breaches made by sin in the order of the world For if he that threatneth future misery or death for sin can absolutely dispense with that commination they may think that he may do so as easily by his threatning of death to the impenitent If you say that Threatnings in a Law are not false when they are not fulfilled because they speak not de eventâ— but de debito poenae I answer they speak directly only de debito but withall he that maketh a Law doth thereby say This shall be the Rule of your lives and of my ordinary Judgement And therefore consequently they speak of an ordinary event also And they are the Rule of Just Judgement and therefore Justice must not be contemned by their contempt Or if any shall think that all this proveth not a demonstration of Justice on the Redeemer to be absolutely necessary but that God could have pardoned the penitent without it it is nevertheless manifest that this was a very wise and congruous way As he that cannot prove that God could not have illuminated and moved and quickened the inferiour sensitives without the Sun may yet prove that the Sun is a noble creature in whose operations Gods Wisdom and Power and Goodness do appear 14. And how agreeable is this doctrine of the Sacrifice of Christ to the common doctrine of Sacrificing which hath been received throughout almost all the world And who can imagine any other original of that practice so early and so universally obtaining than either divine revelation or somewhat even in nature which beareth witness to the necessity of a demonstration of Gods Justice and displeasure against sin 15. How wisely is it determined of God that he who undertakes all â—is should be Man and yet more than Man even God That the Monarch of Mankind and the Mediatour and the Teacher of Man and the Sacrifice for sin should not be only of another kind but that he be one that is fit to be familiar with man and to be interested naturally in his concerns and one that is by nature and nearness capable of these undertakings and relations And yet that he be so high and near the Father as may put a sufficient value on his works and make him most meet to mediate for us 16. How wisely is it ordered that with a perfect doctrine we should have the pattern of a perfect life as knowing how agreeable the way of imitation is to our natures and necessities 17. And as a pattern of all other vertue is still before us so how fit was it especially that we should have a lively example to teach us to contemn this deceitful world and to set little comparatively by reputation wealth preheminence grandeur pleasures yea and life it self which are the things which all that perish prefer before God and immortality 18. And how needful is it that they that must be overtaken with renewed faults should have a daily remedy and refuge and a plaister for their wounds and a more acceptable name than their own to plead with God for pardon 19. How meet was it that our Saviour should rise from the dead and consequently that he should die to shew us that his Sacrifice was accepted and that there is indeed another life for man and that death and the grave shall not still detain us 20. And how meet was it that our Saviour should ascend into Heaven and therein our natures be glorified with God that he might have all power to finish the work of mans salvation and his possession might be a pledge of our future possession 21. Most wisely also is it ordered of God that man might not be left under the Covenant of Works or of entire nature which after it was broken could never justifie him and which was now unsuitable to his lapsed state and that God should make a New Covenant with him as his Redeemer as he made the first as his Creatour and that an Act of general pardon and oblivion might secure us of forgiveness and everlasting life And that as we had a Rule to live by for preventing sin and misery we might have a Rule for our duty in order to our recovery 22. And what more convenient conditions could this Covenant have had than a believing and thankful Acceptance of the mercy and a penitent and obedient following of our Redeemer unto everlasting life 23. And how convenient is it that when our King is to depart from earth and keep his residence in the Court of Heaven he should appoint his Officers to manage the humane part of his remaining
these things and to expound all these Solemnities Laws and Ceremonies to them so that the frame of Church and State and Families was a preservative hereof 5. But to pass by all the rest in the Old Testament the Incarnation of Christ was such a work of Omnipotent Love as caâ—not by us be comprehended That God should be united to humanity in person that humanity should thus be advanced into union with the Deity and Man be set above the Angels that a Virgin should conceive that men from the East should be led thither to worship an Infant by the conduct of a Star which Caesarius thinketh was one of those Angels or Spirits which are called a flame of fire Psal 104.4 That Angels from Heaven should declare his nativity to the Shepherds and celebrate it with their praises that John Baptist should be so called to be his forerunner and Elizabeth Zachary Simeon and Anna should so prophesie of him That the Spirit should be seen descending on him at his Baptism and the voice be heard from Heaven which owned him that he should fast forty daies and nights and that he should be transfigured before his three Disciples on the Mount and Moses and Elias seen with him in that glory and the voice from Heaven again bear witness to him These and many such like were the attestations of Divine Omnipotency to the truth of Christ 6. To these may be next joyned the whole course of miracles performed by Christ in healing the sick and raising the dead and in many other miraculous acts which are most of the substance of the Gospel-history and which I have recited together in my Reasons of the Christian Religion see Heb. 2.2 3 4. 7. And to these may be added the Power which was given over all the creatures to Christ our Mediatour All power in Heaven and Earth was given him Joh. 17.2 13.3 Mat. 28.19 Rom. 14.9 Ephes 1.22 23. He was made Head over all things to the Church and all principalities and powers were put under him And this was not barely asserted by him but demonstrated He shewed his power over the Devils in casting them out and his power over Angels by their attendance and his power of life and death by raising the dead and his power over all diseases by healing them and his power over the winds and waters by appeasing them and his power over our food and natures by turning water into wine and by feeding many thousands miraculously yea and his power over them into whose hands he was resolved to yield himself by restraining them till his hour was come and by making them all fall to the ground at his name and his power over Sun and Heaven and Earth by the darkening of the Sun and the trembling of the Earth and the rending of the Rocks and of the Vail of the Temple Mat. 27.45 51. And his power over the dead by the rising of the bodies of many Mat. 27.52 And his power over the Saints in Heaven by the attendance of Moses and Elias and his power to forgive sins by taking away the penal maladies and his power to change hearts and save souls by causing his Disciples to leave all and follow him at a word and Zacheus to receive him and believe and the thief on the cross to be converted and to enter that day into Paradise 8. And his own Resurrection is an undoubted attestation of Divine Omnipotency If God gave him such a victory over death and raised him to life when men had killed him and rolled a stone upon his Sepulchre and sealed and guarded it there needeth no further evidence of the Power of God impressing and attesting the Christian Religion than that which ascertaineth to us the truth of Christs Resurrection For he was declared to be the Son of God by POWER by resurrection from the dead Rom. 1.4 9. And his bodily appearance to his congregated Disciples when the doors were shut his miracle at their fishing his walking on the Sea his vanishing out of their sight Luke 24. when he had discoursed with the two Disciples his opening their hearts to understand his Word c. do all shew this part of Gods Image on our Religion even his Power 10. And so doth his bodily ascending into Heaven before the face of his Disciples Acts 1. 11. But especially the sending down the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples according as he promised To cause them that were before so low in knowledge to be suddenly inspired with languages and with the full understanding of his own will and with unanimity and concord herein this made his Disciples the living monuments and effects of his own Omnipotency Acts 2. 12. And accordingly all the miracles which they did by this power recorded partly in the Acts of the Apostles or rather the Acts of Paul by Luke who was his companion which you may there read and no doubt but other Apostles in their measures did the like as Paul though they are not recorded for they had all the same Promise and Spirit This is another impression of POWER 13. Whereto must be added the great and wonderful gifts of communicating the same Spirit or doing that upon which God would give it to those converted Believers on whom they laid their hands which Simon Magus would fain have bought with money Acts 8. To enable them to speak with tongues to heal diseases to prophesie c. as they themselves had done which is a great attestation of Omnipotency 14. And the lamentable destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans foretold by Christ was an attestation of Gods POWER in the revenge or punishment of their unbelief and putting Christ to death 15. And so was the great fortitude and constancy of Believers who underwent all persecutions so joyfully as they did for the sake of Christ which was the effect of the corroborating Power of the Almighty 16. And so was the Power which the Apostles had to execute present judgements upon the enemies of the Gospel as Elimas and Simon Magus and on the abusers of Religion as Ananias and Saphyra and on many whom they excommunicated and delivered up to Satan 17. The same evidence is found in Christs Legislation as an universal Soveraign making Laws for heart and life for all the world Taking down the Laws of the Jewish Polity and Ceremonies which God by Moses had for a time set up Commanding his Ministers to proclaim his Laws to all the world and Princes and people to obey them And by these Laws conferring on Believers no less than forgiveness and salvation and binding over the impenitent to everlasting punishment 18. But the great and continued impress of Gods Power is that which together with his Wisdom and Love is made and shewed in the conveâ—sion of mens souls to God by Christ You may here first consider the numbers which were suddenly converted by the preaching of the Apostles at the first And in how little time there were Churches planted
though we must not with Fanatical persons put first our own interpretation upon Gods works and then expound his Word by them but use his works as the fulfilling of his Word and expound his Providences by his Precepts and his Promises and Threats Direct 7. Mark well Gods inward works of Government upon the soul and you shall find it very agreeable to the Gospel There is a very great evidence of a certain Kingdom of God within us And as he is himself a Spirit so it is with the Spirit that he doth most apparently converse in the work of his moral Government in the world 1. There you shall find a Law of duty or an inward conviction of much of that obedience which you owe to God 2. There you shall find an inward mover striving with you to draw you to perform this duty 3. There you shall find the inward suggestions of an enemy labouring to draw you away from this duty and to make a godly life seem grievous to you and also to draw you to all the sins which Christ forbiddeth 4. There you shall find an inward conviction that God is your Judge and that he will call you to account for your wilful violations of the Laws of Christ 5. There you shall find an inward sentence past upon you according as you do good or evil 6. And there you may find the sorest Judgements of God inflicted which any short of Hell endure You may there find how God for sin doth first afflict the soul that is not quite forsaken with troubles and affrightments and some of the feeling of his displeasure And where that is long despised and men sin on still he useth to with hold his gracious motions and leave the sinner dull and senseless so that he can sin with sinful remorse having no heart or life to any thing that is spiritually good And if yet the sinner think not of his condition to repent he is usually so far forsaken as to be given up to the power of his most bruitish lust and to glory impudently in his shame and to hate and persecute the servants of Christ who would recover him till he hath filled up the measure of his sin and wrath be come upon him to the uttermost Ephes 4.18 19. 1 Thes 2.15 16. being abominable and disobedient and to every good work reprobate Titus 1.15 16. Besides the lesser penal withdrawings of the Spirit which Gods own servants find in themselves after some sins or neglects of grace 7. And there also you may find the Rewards of Love and faithful duty by many tastes of Gods acceptance and many comforts of his Spirit and by his owning the soul and giving out larger assistance of his Spirit and peace of conscience and entertainment in prayer and all approaches of the soul to God and sweeter forecasts of life eternal In a word if we did but note Gods dreadful Judgements on the souls of the ungodly in this age as well as we have noted our plagues and flames and if Gods servants kept as exact observations of their inward rewards and punishments and that in particulars as suited to their particular sins and duties you will see that Christ is King indeed and that there is a real Government according to his Gospel kept up in the consciences or souls of men though not so observable as the rewards and punishments at the last day Direct 8. Dwell not too much on sensual objects and let them not come too near your hearts Three things I here perswade you carefully to avoid 1. That you keep your hearts at a meet distance from all things in this world that they grow not too sweet to you nor too great in your esteem 2. That you gratifie not sense it self too much and live not in the pleasing of your taste or lust 3. That you suffer not your imaginations to run out greedily after things sensitive nor make them the too frequent objects of your thoughts You may ask perhaps what is all this to our faith why the life of faith is exercised upon things that are not seen And if you live upon the things that are seen and imprison your soul in the fetters of your concupiscence and fill your fancies with things of another nature how can you be acquainted with the life of faith Can a bird flye that hath a stone tyed to her foot Can you have a mind full of lust and of God at once Or can that mind that is used to these inordinate sensualities be fit to rellish the things that are spiritual And can it be a lover of earth and fleshly pleasures and also a Believer and lover of Heaven Direct 9. Vse your selves much to think and speak of Heaven and the invisible things of Faith Speaking of Heaven is needful both to express your thoughts and to actuate and preserve them And the often thoughts of Heaven will make the mind familiar there And familiarity will assist and encourage faith For it will much acquaint us with those reasons and inducements of faith which a few strange and distant thoughts will never reach to As he that converseth much with a learned wise or godly man will easilier believe that he is learned wise or godly than he that is a stranger to him and only now and then seeth him afar off So he that thinketh so frequently of God and Heaven till his mind hath contracted a humble acquaintance and familiarity must needs believe the truth of all that excellency which before he doubted of For doubting is the effect of ignorance And he that knoweth most here believeth best Falshood and evil cannot bear the light but the more you think of them and know them the more they are detected and ashamed But truth and goodness love the light and the better you are acquainted with them the more will your belief and love be increased Direct 10. Live not in the guilt of wilful sin For that will many waies hinder your belief 1. It will breed fear and horrour in your minds and make you wish that it were not true that there is a day of Judgement and a Hell for the ungodly and such a God such a Christ and such a life to come as the Gospel doth describe And when you take it for your interest to be an unbeliever you will hearken with desire to all that the Devil and Infidels can say And you will the more easily make your selves believe that the Gospel is not true by how much the more you desire that it should not be true 2. And you will forfeit the grace which should help you to believe both by your wilfull sin and by your unwillingness to believe For who can expect that Christ should give his grace to them who wilfully despise him and abuse it Or that he should make men believe who had rather not believe Indeed he may possibly do both these but these are not the way nor is it a thing which we can expect
cast in the light of Faith extraordinarily which is indeed the life of Faith Nor is it seeming to stir up Faith in a Prayer or Sermon and looking no more after it all the day This is but to give God a salutation and not to dwell and walk with him And to give Heaven a complemental visit sometimes but not to have your conversation there 2 Cor. 5.7 8. Direct 3. Be not too seldom in solitary meditation Though it be a duty which melancholy persons are disabled to perform in any set and long and orderly manner yet it is so needful to those who are able that the greatest works of Faith are to be managed by it How should things unseen be apprehended so as to affect our hearts without any serious exercise of our thoughts How should we search into mysteries of the Gospel or converse with God or walk in Heaven or fetch either joyes or motives thence without any retired studious contemplation If you cannot meditate or think you cannot believe Meditation abstracteth the mind from vanity and lifteth it up above the world and setteth it about the work of Faith which by a mindless thoughtless or worldly soul can never be performed 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18. Phil. 3.20 Mat. 6.21 Col. 3.1 3. Direct 4. Let the Image of the Life of Christ and his Martyrs and holiest servants be deeply printed on your minds That you may know what the way is which you have to go and what patterns they be which you have to imitate think how much they were above things sensitive and how light they set by all the pleasures wealth and glory of this world Therefore the Holy Ghost doth set before us that cloud of witnesses and catalogue of Martyrs in Heb. 11. that example may help us and we may see with how good company we go in the life of Faith Paul had well studied the example of Christ when he took pleasure in infirmities and gloryed only in the Cross to be base and afflicted in this world for the hopes of endless glory 2 Cor. 11.30 12.5 9 10. And when he could say I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death Phil. 3.8 9 10. No man will well militate in the life of Faith but he that followeth the Captain of his salvation Heb. 2.10 who for the bringing of many Sons to glory even those whom he is not ashamed to call his Brethren was made perfect as to perfection of action or performance by suffering thereby to shew us how little the best of these visible and sensible corporeal things are to be valued in comparison of the things invisible and therefore as the General and the souldiers make up one army and militate in one militia so he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one Heb. 2.10 11 12. Though that which is called the life of Faith in us deserved a higher title in Christ and his faith in his Father and ours do much differ and he had not many of the objects acts and uses of Faith as we have who are sinners yet in this we must follow him as our great example in valuing things invisible and vilifying things visible in comparison of them And therefore Paul saith I am crucified with Christ Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2.20 Direct 5. Remember therefore that God and Heaven the unseen things are the final object of true Faith and that the final object is the noblest and that the principal use of Faith is to carry up the whole heart and life from things visible and temporal to things invisible and eternal and not only to comfort us in the assurance of our own forgiveness and salvation It is an exceeding common and dangerous deceit to overlook both this principal object and principal use of the Christian Faith 1. Many think of no other object of it but the death and righteousness of Christ and the pardon of sin and the promise of that pardon And God and Heaven they look at as the objects of some other common kind of Faith 2. And they think of little other use of it than to comfort them against the guilt of sin with the assurance of their Justification But the great and principal work of Faith is that which is about its final object to carry up the soul to God and Heaven where the world and things sensible are the terminus à quo and God and things invisible the terminus ad quem And thus it is put in contradistinction to living by fight in 2 Cor. 5.6 7. And thus mortification is made one part of this great effect in Rom. 6. throughout and many other places and thus it is that Heb. 11. doth set before us those numerous examples of a life of Faith as it was expressed in valuing things unseen upon the belief of the Word of God and the vilifying of things seen which stand against them And thus Christ tryed the Rich man Luke 18.22 whether he would be his Disciple by calling him to sell all and give to the poâ—r for the hopes of a treasure in Heaven And thus Christ maketh bearing the Cross and denying our selves and forsaking all for him to be necessary in all that are his Disciples And thus Paul describeth the life of Faith 2 Cor. 4.17 18. by the contempt of the world and suffering afflictions for the hopes of Heaven For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal Our Faith is our victory over the world even in the very nature of it and not only in the remote effect for its aspect and believing approaches to God and the things unseen and a proportionable recess from the things which are seen is one and the same motion of the soul denominated variously from its various respects to the terminus ad quem and à quo Direct 6. Remember that as God to be believed in is the principal and final object of Faith so the kindling of love to God in the soul is the principal use and effect of Faith And to live by Faith is but to love obey and suffer by Faith Faith working by Love is the description of our Christianity Gal. 5.6 As Christ is the Way to the Father Joh. 14.6 and came into the world to recover Apostate
Tim. 6.17 4.10 Psal 49.6 52.7 But yet because the hypocrite knoweth that he cannot live here alwaies but must die and his riches must be parted with at last and heareth of a life of glory afterwards he would fain have his part in that too when he can keep the world no longer And so he taketh both together for his part and hope viz. as much bodily happiness as he can get in this world and Heaven at last when he must die not knowing that God will be all our portion and felicity or none and that the world must be valued and used but for his sake and in subordination to him and a better world 5. Yet some hypocrites seem to go further though they do not for they will seem even to themselves to resign goods and life and all things absolutely to the will of God But the reason is because they are secretly perswaded in their hearts that their resignation shall no whit deprive them of them and that God will never the more take it from them but that they may possess as much present corporal felicity in a life of Religion as if they lived in the dangerous case of the ungodly or at least that they may keep so much as not to be undone or left to any great sufferings in the world or at least their lives may not be called for For they live in a time when few suffer for Christ and therefore they see little cause to â—eâ—r that they should be of that smaller number and it is but being a little the more wise and cautelous and they hope they may scape well enough And if they had not this hope they would never give up all to Christ But like persons that will be liberal to their Physician they will offer a great deal when they think he will not take it but if they thought he would take all that is offered they would offer less Or as if a sick person should hear that such a Physician will give him no very strong or loathsome Physick and therefore when the Physician telleth him I will be none of your Physician unless you will absolutely promise to take every thing which I shall give you He promiseth that he will do it but it is only because he supposeth that he will give him nothing which is troublesome And if he find his expectation crost he breaketh his promise and â—aith If I had known that he would have used me thus I would never have promised it him So hypocrites by promise give up themselves absolutely to God and to bâ— wholly at his will without excepting life it self But their hearts do secretly except it For all this is because they doubt not but they may save their earthly prosperity and lives and be Christians too And if once Christ call them to suffer death for him they shew then what was the meaning of their hearts To reassume the former similitude If Christ on earth should offer to convey you to a Kingdom at the Antipodes where men live for ever in glorious holiness if you will but trust him and go in his Ship and take him for your Pilot Here one saith I do not believe him that there is such a place and therefore I will not go that is the Infidel Another saith I like my merry life at home better than his glorious holiness that 's the open worldling and prophane Another saith I will live in my own Country and on my own estate as long as I can and when I find that I am dying and can stay here no longer that I may be sure to lose nothing by him I will take his offer Another saith I will go with him but I will turn back again if I find any dangerous storms and gulfs in the passage Another saith I will take another Ship and Pilot along with me lest he should fail me that I may not be deceived Another saith I am told that the Seas are calm and there is no danger in the passage and therefore I will absolutely trust him and venture all but when he meets with storms and hideous waves he saith This is not as I expected and so he turneth back again But another the true Christian saith I will venture all and wholly trust him And so though he is oft afraid in dangers when he seeth the devouring gulfs yet not so fearful as to turn back but on he goeth come on it what will because he knoweth that the place which he goeth to is most desirable and mortality will soon end his old prosperity and he hath great reason to believe his Pilot to be trusty By all this you may see how it cometh to pass that Christ who promiseth life to Believers doth yet make self-denyal and forsaking all that we have even life it self to be also necessary and what relation self-denyal hath to faith Luke 14.26 3â— Nearer by far than most consider You may see here the reason why Christ tryed the rich man Luke 18.22 with selling all and following him in hope of a reward in Heaven And why he bid his Diciples Luke 12.33 Sell that ye have and give alms provide your selves bags which wax not old a treasure in the Heavens which faileth not And why the first Christians were made a pattern of entire Christianity by selling all and laying down at the Apostles feet And Ananias and Saphira were the instances of Hypocrisie who secretly and lyingly kept back part You see here how it comes to pass that all true Christians must be heart-martyrs or prepared to die for Christ and Heaven rather than forsake him You may plainly perceive that Faith it self is an Affiance or Trusting in God by Christ even a Trusting in God in Heaven as our felicity and in Christ as the Mediator and the Way and that this Trust is a venturing all upon him and a forsaking all for God and his promises in Christ And that it is one and the same Motion which from the terminus à quo is called Repentance and forsaking all and from the terminus ad quem is called Trust and Love They that are willing to see may profit much by this observation and they that are not may quarrel at it and talk against that which their prejudice will not allow them to understand And by all this you may see also wherein the strength of Faith consisteth And that is 1. In so clear a sight of the evidences of truth as shall leave no considerable doubtings Mat. 21.21 So Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God Rom. 4. 2. In so confirmed a Resolution to cleave to God and Christ alone as leaveth no wavering or looking back that we may say groundedly with Peter Though I die I will not deny thee which doubtless signified then some strength of faith And as Paul I am ready not only to be bound but to die for the Name of the Lord
him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 26.18 To open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me 1 John 1.9 If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness Heb. 8.12 I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more Acts 10.43 To him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Luke 24.47 That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his Name to all Nations 2. Promises of Salvation from Hell and possession of Heaven John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life v. 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned v. 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life 1 John 5.11 12. And this is the record that God hath given us eternal life and this is in his Son He that hath the Son hath life Acts 26.18 before cited 1 Tim. 1.15 Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners Heb. 7.25 He is able to save to the utmost all that come to God by him Heb. 5.9 And being made perfect he became the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him Mark 16.16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved John 10.9 By me if any man enter in he shall be saved John 10.27 28. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I will give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish Rom. 5.9 10. Being justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him Much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life See Luke 18 30. John 4.14 6.27 40 47. 12.50 Rom. 6.22 Gal. 6.8 1 Tim. 1.16 3. Promises of Reconciliation Adoption and acceptance with God through Christ 2 Cor. 5.18 19 20. God hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses to them and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation Now then we are Ambassadours for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled unto God For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Rom. 5.1 2 10. Being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God When we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son 2 Cor. 6.16 17 18. I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people I will receive you and be a Father unto you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord Almighty Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit John 1.12 As many as received him to them give he power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his Name which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flâ—sh nor of the will of man but of God Acts 10.35 In every Nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him Ephes 1 6 He hath made us accepted in the Beloved Ephes 2.14 16. Col. 1.20 John 16.27 The Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me and believed that I came out from God 4. Promises of renewed Pardon of sins after conversion 1 John 2.12 If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world Matth. 6.14 Forgive us our trespasses For if we forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will forgive you James 5.15 If he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him Matth. 12.31 I say unto you All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the blasphemy against the Spirit Psal 103.3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities 1 John 1.9 If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins 5. Promises of the Spirit of Sanctification to Believers and of divine assistances of grace Luke 11.13 How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him John 7.37 38 39. If any man thirst let him come to me and drink He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water This he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on him shall receive John 4.10 14. If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living waters Ezek. 36.26 27. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes Ezek. 11.19 And I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within you Acts 2.38 39 Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call Gal. 4.6 And because you are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father Prov. 1.23 Turn you at my reproof behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you I will make known my words unto you Rom. 8.26 Likewise the Spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intecerssion for us with groanings which cannot be uttered 6. Promises of Gods giving his grace to all that truly desire and seek it Matth. 5 6. Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled Isa 55.1 Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no mony come ye buy and eat yea come buy wine and milk without mony and without price Hearken diligently to me and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight it self in fatness Encline
28.19 20. Go and Disciple all Nations baptizing them c. Rom. 4.16 That the promise might be sure to all the seed And 9.8 The children of the Promise are counted for the seed Matth. 19.13 14. Jesus said suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto me for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven 27. Promises to the Church of its increase and preservation and perfection Rev. 11.15 The Kingdoms of the world are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ Luke 1.33 He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end Matth. 13.31 33. The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of Mustard-seed which a man took and sowed in his field which is indeed the least of all seeds but when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs and becometh a tree so that the birds of the air lodge in the branches of it The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto leven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was levened John 12.32 And I if I be lifted up will draw all men unto me Dan. 2.44 In the daies of these Kings shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these Kingdoms and it shall stand for ever Matth. 16.18 Upon this Rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Ephes 4.12 16. For the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ that henceforth we may be no more children tossed to and fro and carryed about with every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive but speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things who is the head Christ from whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body to the edifying of it self in Love Ephes 5.25 26 27. Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinckle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Read Rev. 21 22. Matth. 28.20 Lo I am with you to the end of the world Matth. 24.14 And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all Nations and then shall the end come Matth. 21.44 Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken but on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder The obscure Prophetick passages I pass by So much for living by Faith on the Promises of God CHAP. VI. How Faith must be exercised on Gods Threatnings and Judgments THE exercise of Faith upon Gods Threatnings and Judgments must be guided by such rules and helps as these Direct 1. Think not either that Christ hath no Threatning penal Laws or that there are none which are made for the use of Believers If there were no penalties or penal Laws there were no distinguishing Government of the world This Antinomian fancy destroyeth Religion And if there be threats or penal Laws none can be expected to make so much use of them as true Believers 1. Because he that most believeth them must needs be most affected with them 2. Because all things are for them and for their benefit and it is they that must be moved by them to the fear of God and an escaping of the punishment And therefore they that object that Believers are passed already from death to life and there is no condemnation to them and they are already justified and therefore have no use of threats or fears do contradâ—ct themselves For it wâ—ll rather follow Therefore they and they only do and will faithfully use the threatnings in godly fears For 1. Though they are justified and passed from death to life they have ever faith in order of nature before their Justification and he that believeth not Gods threatnings with fear hath no true Faith And 2. They have ever inherent Righteousness or Sanctification with their Justification And this Faith is part of that holiness and of the life of grace which they are passed into For this is life eternal to know the only true God and Jesus Christ John 17.3 And he knoweth not God who knoweth him not to be true And this is part of our knowledge of Christ also to know him as the infallible Author of our Faith that is of the Gospel which saith not only He that believeth and is baptiz'd shall be saved but also He that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16.16 And this is the record which God gave of his Son which he that believeth not maketh him a lyar that God hath given us eternal life and this life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life 1 John 5.12 Yea as he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life so he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him John 3.36 And therefore 3. The reason why there is no condemnation to us is because believing not part only but all this Word of Christ we fly from sin and wrath and are in Christ Jesus as giving up our selves to him and walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit being moved so to do both by the promises and threats of God This is plain English and plain and necessary truth the greater is the pitty that many honest well-meaning Antinomians should fight against it on an ignorant conceit of vindicating Free Grace If the plain Word of God were not through partiality over-lookt by them they might see enough to end the controversie in many and full expressions of Scripture I will cite but three more Matth. 10.28 and Luke 12.5 But fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell or when he hath killed hath power to cast into Hell yea I say unto you fear him Doth Christ thus iterate that it is he that saith it and saith it to his Disciples and yet shall a Christian say it must not be preached to Disciples as the Word of Christ to them Hâ—b 4.1 Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it Heb. 11.7 By Faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet that is of the deluge
moved with fear prepared an Ark to the saving of his house by the which be condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith Note here how much the belief of Gods threatnings doth to the constitution of that faith which is justifying and saving Direct 2. Judge not of Gods threatnings by the evil which is threatned but by the obedience to which the threatnings should drive us and the evil from which they would preserve us and the order of the world which they preserve and the wisdom and holiness and justice of God which they demonstrate When men think how dreadful a misery Hell is they are ready to think hardly of God both for his threatning and execution as if it were long of him and not of themselves that they are miserable And as it is a very hard thing to think of the punishment it self with approbation so is it also to think of the threatning or Law which binds men over to it or of the Judgement which will pass the sentence on them But think of the true nature use and benefits of these threats or penaâ— Laws and true reason and faith will not only be reconciled to them but see that they are to be loved and honoured as well as feared 1. They are of great use to drive us to obedience And it is easier to see the amiableness of Gods commands than of his threats And obedience to these commands is the holy rectitude health and beauty of the soul And therefore that which is a suitable and needful means to promote obedience is amiable and beneficial to us Though Love must be the principle or chief spring of our obedience yet he that knoweth not that Fear must drive as Love must draw and is necessary in its place to joyn with Love or to do that which the weaknesses of Love leave undone doth neither know what a man is nor what Gods Word is nor what his Government is nor what either Magistracy or any civil or domestical Government is and therefore should spend many years at School before he turneth a disputer 2. They are of use to keep up order in the world which could not be expected if it were not for Gods threatnings If the world be so full of wickedness rapine and oppressions notwithstanding all the threatnings of Hell what could we expect it should be if there were none such but even as the suburbs of Hell it self When Princes and Lords and Rich men and all those thieves and rebels that can but get strength enough to defend themselves and all that can but hide their faults would be under no restraints considerable but would do all the evil that they have a mind to do Men would be worse to one another than Bears and Tygers 3. Gods threatnings in their primary intention or use are made to keep us from the punishment threatned Punishment is naturally due to evil doers And God declareth it to give us warning that we may take heed avoid it and escape 4. That which doth so clearly demonstrate the Holiness of God in his righteous Government his Wisdom and his Justice is certainly good and amiable in it self But we must not expect that the same thing should be good and amiable to the wicked who run themselves into it which is good to the world or to the just about them or to the honour of God Assizes Prisons and Gallows are good to the Country and to all the innocent to preserve their peace and to the honour of the King and his Government but not to murderers thieves or rebels Isa 26.7 8 9. Psal 48.11 9.16 89.14 97.2 149.9 146.7 37.6 28. Jude 6. 15. Rev. 4.7 15.4 16.7 19.2 Eccles 12.14 Direct 3. Judge of the severity of Gods threatnings partly by the greatness of himself whom we offend and partly by the necessity of them for the Government of the world 1. Remember that sinning wilfully against the infinite Majesty of Heaven and refusing his healing mercy to the last deserveth worse than any thing against a man can do 1 Sam. 2.25 2. And remember that even the threatning of Hell doth not serve turn with most of the world to keep them from sinning and despising God and therefore you cannot say that they are too great For that plaister draweth not too strongly which will not draw out the thorn If Hell be not terrible enough to perswade you from sin it is not too terrible to be threatned and executed He that should say Why will God make so terrible a Law and withall should say As terrible as it is I will venture on it rather than leave my pleasures and rather than live a holy life doth contradict himself and telleth us that the Law is not terrible enough to attain its chief and primary end with such as he that will not be moved by it from the most sordid base or bruitish pleasure Direct 4. Remember how Christ himself even when he came to deliver us from Gods Law did yet come to verifie his threatning in the matter of it and to be a sacrifice for sin and publick demonstration of Gods Justice For this end was Christ manifested to destroy the works of the Devil 1 John 3.5 8. And the first and great work of the Devil was to represent God as a lyar and to perswade Eve not to believe his threatnings and to tell her that though she sinned she should not die And though God so far dispensed with it as to forgive man the greatest part of the penalty it was by laying it on his Redeemer and making him a sacrifice to his Justice that his Cross might openly confute the Tempter and assure the world that God is just and that the wages of sin is death Rom. 6.23 though eternal life be the gift of God through Jesus Christ And he that well considereth this that the Son of God would rather stoop to sufferings and death than the Dâ—vils reproach of Gods threatnings should be made true and than the Justice of God against sin should not be manifested will sure never think that this Justice is any dishonour to the Almighty Direct 5. Let this be your use of the threatnings of God to drive you from sin to more careful obedience and to help you against the defects of love and to set them against every temptation when you are assaulted by it When a tempting bait is set before you set Hell against it as well as Heaven and say Can I take this cup this whore this preferment this gain of Judas with Hell for my part instead of Heaven If men threaten death imprisonment or any other penalty or if losses or reproaches be like by men to be made your reward remember that God threatneth Hell and ask whether this be not the most intollerable suffering And if any Antinomian revile you for thus doing and say You should set only Free Grace before you to keep you
in their Ordination which is a Consecration and their self-dedication to God And it is high sacriledge in themselves or any other that shall alienate them unjustly from their sacred calling and work Or of things to holy uses as places and utensils may be sanctified Or it may be a dedication of persons to a holy state relation and use as is that of every Christian in his Baptism and this is either an external dedication and so all the baptized are sanctified and holy or an internal Dedication which if it be sincere it is both actual and habitual when we both give up our selves to God in Covenant and are also disposed and inclined to him and our hearts are set upon him yea and the life also consisteth of the exercise of this disposition and performance of this covenant This is the Sanctification which here I speak of And so much for the name The doctrinal Propositions necessary to be understood about it are these more largely and plainly laid down in my Confession Chap. 3. Prop. 1. So much of the appearance or Image of God as there is upon any creature so much it is good and amiable to God and man Object God loveth us from eternity and when we were his enemies not because we were good but to make us better than we were Answ Gods Love and all Love consisteth formally in complacency God hath no complacency in any thing but in good or according to the measure of its goodness From eternity God foreseeing the good which would be in us loved us as good in esse cognito and not as actually good when we were not When we were his enemies he had a double love to us or complacency the one was for that natural good which remained in us as we were men and repairable and capable of being made Saints The other was for that foreseen goodes in esse cognito which he purposed in time to come to put upon us This complacency exceeded not at all the good which was the object of it But with it was joyned a will and purpose to give us grace and glory hereafter and thence it is called A Love of Benevolence Not but that complacency is the true action of Love and Benevolence or a purpose to give benefits is but the fruit of it But if any will needs call the Benevolence alone by the name of Love we deny not in that sense that God loveth Saul a persecutor as well as Paul an Apostle in that his purpose to do him good is the same Object God loveth us in Christ and for his righteousness and not only for our own inherent holiness Answ 1. The Benevolence of God is exercised towards us in and by Christ and the fruits of his Love are Christ himself and the mercies given us with Christ and by Christ And our Pardon and Justification and Adoption and Acceptance is by his meritorious righteousness And it is by him that we are possessed with Gods Spirit and renewed according to his Image in Wisdom and Righteousness and Holiness And all this relative and inherent mercy we have as in Christ related to him without whom we have nothing And thus it is that we are accepted and beloved in him and for his righteousness But Christ did not die or merit to change Gods Nature and make him more indifferent in his Love to the holy and the unholy or equally to the more holy and to the less holy But his complacency is still in no man further than he is made truly amiable in his real holiness and his relation to Christ and to the Father The Doctrine of Imputation is opened before John 16.27 The Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me and believed c. And 14.21 He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father As God loved us with the love of benevolence and so much complacence as is before described before we loved him 1 John 4.10 Ephes 2.4 so he now loveth us complacentially for his Image upon us and so much of his grace as is found in us and also for our relation to his Son and to himself which we stand in by this grace But as he loveth not Saul a persecutor under the notion of a fulfiller of his Law in Christ so neither doth he love David in his sin under the notion of one that is without sin and perfect as having fulfilled the Law in Christ But so loveth him in Christ as to pardon his sin and make him more lovely in himself by creating a clean heart and renewing a right spirit within him for the sake of the satisfaction and merits of Christ Prop. 2. Holiness is Gods Image upon us and that which was our primitive amiableness Col. 3.10 Prop. 3. The loss of Holiness was the loss of our amiableness and our state of enmity to God Prop. 4. Holiness consisteth in 1. Our resignation of our selves to God as our Owner and submission to his Providence 2. And our subjection to God as our Ruler and obedience to his Teaching and his Laws 3. And in Thankfulness and Love to God as our Chief Good efficiently and finally Prop. 5. Love is that final perfective act which implyeth and comprehendeth all the rest and so is the fulfilling of the Law and the true state of sanctification Rom. 13.10 Matth. 22.37 Mark 12.33 1 John 7.16 Prop. 6. Heaven it self as it is our ultimate end and perfection is but our perfect Love to God maintained by perfect vision of him with the perfect reception of his Love to us Prop. 7. Therefore it was Christs great business in the world to destroy the works of the Devil and to bring us to this perfect Love of God Prop. 8. Accordingly the greatest use of Faith in Christ is to subserve and kindle our Love to God Prop. 9. This it doth two special waies 1. By procuring the pardon of sin which forfeited the grace of the Spirit that so the Spirit may kindle the Love of God in us 2. By actual beholding the Love of God which shineth to us most gloriously in Christ by which our Love must be excited as the most suitable and effectual means John 3.1 4.10 Prop. 10. Our whole Religion therefore consisteth of two parts 1. Primitive Holiness restored and perfected 2. The restoring and perfecting means Or 1. Love to God the final and morâ— excellent part 2. Faith in Christ the mediate part Faith causing Love and Love caused by Faith 1 Cor. 12. last 13. Rom. 8.35 Ephes 6.23 1 Tim. 1.5 2 Thes 3.5 1 Cor. 2.9 8.3 Rom. 8.28 James 1.12 2.5 1 Pet. 1.8 Prop. 11. Repentance towards God is the souls return to God in Love and Regeneration by the Spirit is the Spirits begetting us to the Image and Nature of God our heavenly Father in a heavenly Love to him So that the Holy Ghost is given us to work in us a Love to God which is our sanctification Rom. 5.5 Titus 3.4 5 6
this Trinity also of Relations towards Man 1. Their Owner 2. Their Ruler 3. Their Benefactor The Father also as the first principle of Redemption acquiring a second title besides the first by Creation to all these and towards God Christ continueth the Relation of a heavenly Priest 30. In order to the works of these Relations for the future we must consider of Christs exaltation 1. Of his Justification and Resurrection 2. Of his Ascension and Glorification And 3. Of the delivering of All Power and All Things into his hands 31. The work of Redemption thus fundamentally wrought doth not of it self renew mans nature and therefore putteth no Law of Nature into us of it self as the Creation did And therefore we must next proceed to Christs Administration of this office according to these Relations which is 1. By Legislation or Donation enacting the New Covenant where this last and perfect edition of it is to be explained the Preceptive the Promisory and the Penal parts with its effects and its differences from the former Edition and from the Law of Nature and of Works 32. And 2. By the promulgation or publication of this Covenant or Gospel to the world by calling special Officers for that work and giving them their commission and promising them his Spirit his Protection and their Reward 33. And here we come to the special work of the Holy Ghost who is 1. To be known in his Essence and Person as the third in Trinity and the eternal Love of God 2. And as he is the grand Advocate or Agent of Christ in the world where his works are to be considered 1. Preparatory on and by Christ himself 2. Administratory 1. Extraordinary on the Apostles and their helpers 1. Being in them a spirit of extraordinary Power by gifts and miracles 2. Of extraordinary Wisdom and Infallibility as far as their commission-work required 3. And of extraordinary Love and Holiness 2. By the Apostles 1. Extraordinarily convincing and bringing in the world 2. Settling all Church-Doctrines Officers and Orders which Christ had left unsettled bringing all things to their remembrance which Christ had taught and commanded them and guiding them in the rest 3. Recording all this for posterity in the holy Scriptures 2. His Ordinary Agency 1. On Ministers 2. By sanctification on all true Believers is after to be opened 34. And here is to be considered the Nature of Christianity in fieri Faith and Repentance in our three great Relations to our Redeemer as we are his Own his Disciples and Subjects and his Beneficiaries with all the special benefits of these Relations as antecedent to our duty and then all our duty in them as commanded And then the benefits after to be expected as in promise only 35. Next must distinctly be considered the preaching and converting and baptizing part of the ministerial Office 1. As in the Apostles 2. And in their successors to the end with the nature of Baptism and the part of Christ and of the Minister and of the baptized in that Covenant 36. And then the description of the universal Church which the baptized constitute 37. Next is to be described the state of Christians after Baptism 1. Relative 1. In Pardon Reconciliation Justification 2. Adoption 2. Physical in the Spirit of Sanctification 38. Where is to be opened 1. The first sanctifying work of the Spirit 2. It s after-helps and their conditions 3. All the duties of Holiness primitive and medicinal towards God our selves and others 39. Our special duties in secret reading meditation prayer c. 40. Our duties in Family Relations and Callings 41. Our duties in Church Relations where is to be described the nature of particular Churches their work and worship their ministry and their members with the duties of each 42. Our duties in our Civil Relations 43. What temptations are against us as be to be overcome 44. Next is to be considered the state of Christians and Societies in the world How far all these duties are performed and what are their weaknesses and sins 45. And what are the punishments which God useth in this life 46. And what Christians must do for pardon and reparation after falls and to be delivered from those punishments 47. Of Death and the change which it maketh and of our special preparation for it 48. Of the coming of Christ and the Judgement of the great day 49. Of the punishment of the wicked impenitent in Hell 50. And of the blessedness of the Saints in Heaven and the everlasting Kingdom These are the Heads and this is the Method of true Divinity and the order in which it should lye in the understanding of him that will be compleat in knowledge II. And as this is the Intellectual Order of knowledge so the order which all things must lye in at our hearts and wills is much more necessary to be observed 1. That nothing but GOD be loved as the infinite simple good totally with all the heart and finally for himself And that nothing at all be loved with any Love which is not purely subordinate to the Love of God or which causeth us to love him ever the less 2. That the blessed person of our Mediatour as in the Humane Nature glorified be loved above all creatures next to God Because there is most of the Divines Perfections appearing in him 3. That the heavenly Church or Society of Angels and Saints be loved next to Jesus Christ as being next in excellence 4. That the Vniversal Church on earth be loved next to the perfect Church in Heaven 5. That particular Churches and Kingdoms be next loved and where ever there is more of Gods Interest and Image than in our selves that our Love be more there than on our selves 6. That we next love our selves with that peculiar kind of love which God hath made necessary to our duty and our happiness and end with a self-preserving watchful diligent love preferring our souls before our bodies and spiritual mercies before temporal and greater before less 7. That we love our Christian Relations with that double Love which is due to them as Christians and Relations and love all Relations according to their places with that kind of Love which is proper for them as fitting us to all the duties which we must perform to them 8. That we love all good Christians as the sanctified members of Christ with a special Love according to the measure of Gods Image appearing on them 9. That we love every visible Christian that we cannot prove hath unchristened himself by apostacy or ungodliness with the special Love also belonging to true Christians because he appeareth such to us But yet according to the measure of that appearance as being more confident of some and more doubtful of others 10. That we love our intimate suitable friends that are godly with a double Love as godly and as friends 11. That we love Neighbours and civil Relations with a Love which is suitable to
would you be in the same condition again Would you be unsanctified and unjustified and unpardoned and unsaved Every wilful sin is a turning backward toward the state of your former captivity and misery Direct 5. When Satan sets the bait before you let Faith alwaies set Heaven and Hell before you and take all together the end with the beginning And think when you are tempted to lye to steal to deceive to lust to pride to gulosity or drunkenness c. what men are now suffering for these same sins and what all that are in Hell and in Heaven do think of them Suppose a man offered you a cup of wine and a friend telleth you I saw him put poison into it and therefore take heed what you do If the offerer were an enemy you would hardly take it The world and the flâ—sh and the devil are enemies when they offer you the delights of sin hear Faith and it will tell you there is poison in it there is sin and hell and Gods displeasure in it Direct 6. Let Faith keep you under the continual apprehensions of the Divine Authority and Rule that as a child a servant a scholar a subject doth still know that he is not masterless but one that must be ruled by the will or Law of his superiour so may you alwaies live with the yoâ—k of Christ upon your necks and his bridle in your mouths Remembring also that you are still in your Masters eye Direct 7. Remember still that it is the work of Faith to overcome the world and the flesh and to over-rule your sense and appetite and to make nothing of all that would stand up against your heavenly interest and to crucifie it by the Cross of Christ Gal. 6.14 5.24 Rom. 8.1 9 10 13. Set Faith therefore upon its proper work and when you live by Faith and walk after the Spirit you will not live by sight nor walk after the flesh 2 Cor. 5.7 Direct 8. It is also the work of Faith to take off all the masks of sin and open its nakedness and shame and cast by all shifts pretences and excuses When Satan saith It is a little one and the danger is not great and it will serve thy pleasure profit or preferment Faith should say Doth not God forbid it There is no dallying with the fire of God Be not deceived man God will not be mocked Whatsoever a man soweth that shall be also reap If you sow to the flesh of the flâ—sh you shall reap corruption Gal 6. When Satan saith Ye shall not die and when the sinner with Adam hideth himself Faith will call him out to Judgment and say What hast thou done Hast thou eaten of the fruit which God forbade Direct 9. Let Faith still keep you busied in your Masters work Nothing breedeth and feedeth sin so much as idleness of mind and life Sins of omission have this double mischief that they are the first part of Satans game themselves and they also bring in sins of commission When men are not taken up with good they are at leisure for temptations to intice them and they set open their doors to the tempter and tell him he may speak with then when he will Wanton thoughts and covetous thoughts may dwell there when better thoughts are absent But when you are so wholly taken up with your duty spiritual or corporal and so constantly and industriously busie in your proper work sin cannot enter nor Satan find you at leisure for his service Direct 10. Let Faith make Gods service pleasant to you and lose not your delight in Gâ—d and godliness and then you will not rellish sinful pleasures You will find no need of such base delights when you live on the foretast of Angelical pleasures You will not be easily drawn to steal a morsel of dung or poison from the Devils table while you daily feast your souls on Christ or to steal the Onions of Egypt when you dwell in a Land that floweth with milk and hony But while you keep your selves in the wilderness you will be tempted to look back again to Egypt The great cause of mens sinning and yielding to the temptations of forbidden pleasures is because they are negligent to live upon the pleasures of Believers Direct 11. Take heed of the beginnings if ever you would escape the sin No man becometh stark nought at the first step He that beginneth to take one pleasing unprofitable cup or bit intendeth not drunkenness and gluttony in the grossest sense But he hath set fire in the thatch though he did not intend to burn his house and it will be harder to quench it than to have forborn at first He that beginneth but with lascivious dalliance speeches or embraces thinketh not to proceed to filthy fornication But he might better have secured his conscience if he had never medled so far with sin Few ruinating damning sins began any otherwise than with such small approaches as seemed to have little harm or danger Direct 12. If ever you will scape sin keep off from strong temptations and opportunities He that will be still neer the fire or water may be burnt or drowned at last No man is long safe in the midst of danger and at the next step to ruine He that liveth in a Tavern or Ale-house had need to be very averse to tipling And he that sitteth at Dives table had need to be very averse to gulosity And he that is in the least danger of the fire of lust must keep at a sufficient distance not only from the bed and from immodest actions but from secret company and opportunities of sin and from a licentious ungoverned eye and imagination This caused Christ to say How hard it is for the Rich to be saved because they have a stronger fleshly interest to keep them from Christ and godliness which must be denyed and because their sin hath plentiful provision and the fire of concupiscence wanteth no fewel and it is a very easie thing to them still to sin and alwaies a hard thing to avoid it And mans sluggish nature will hardly long either hold on in that which is hardly done or forbear that which is still hard to forbear Good must be made sweet and easie to us or else we shall never be constant in it Direct 13. If you find any difficulty in forsaking any disgraceful sin cherish it not by secrecy but 1. Plainly confess it to your bosom friend And 2. If that will not serve to others also that you may have the greater engagements to forbear I know wisdom must be used in such confessions and they must be avoided when the hurt will prove greater than the good But fleshly wisdom must be no councellor and fleshly interest must not prevail Secrecy is the nest of sin where it is kept warm and hidden from disgrace Turn it out of this nest and it will thd sooner perish Gods eye and knowledge should serve turn but when it
It foreseeth also the day of Judgment and teacheth us to use our prosperity and wealth as we desire to hear of it in the day of our accounts Faith is a provident and a vigilant grace and useth to ask when we have any thing in may possession which way I make the best advantage of it for my soul which way will be most comfortable to me in my last review how shall I wish that I had used my time my wealth my power when time is at an end and all these transitory things are vanished 6. And Faith doth so absolutely devote and subject the soul to God that it will suffer us to do nothing so far as it prevaileth but what is for him and by his consent It telleth us that we are not our own but his and that we have nothing but what we have received and that we must be just in giving God his own and therefore it first asketh which way may I best serve and honour God with all that he hath given me Not only with my substance and the first fruits of mine increase but with all 1 Cor. 10.31 When Love and devotion hath delivered up our selves entirely to God it keeps nothing back but delivereth him all things with our selves even as Christ with himself doth give us all things Rom. 8.32 And Faith doth so much subject the soul to God that it maketh us like servants and children that use not their Masters or Parents goods at their own pleasure but ask him first how he would have us use them Lord what wouldst thou have me to do is one of the first words of a converted soul Acts 9.6 In a word Faith writeth out that charge upon the heart 1 John 2.15 Love not the world nor the things that are in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and pride of life For if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him Ye cannot serve God and Mammon But on this subject Mr. Alleine hath said so much in his excellent Book of the Victory of Faith over the world that I shall at this time say no more The Directions which I would give you in general for preservation from the danger of prosperity by Faith are these that follow Direct 1. Remember still that the common cause of mens damnation is their Love of this world more than God and Heaven and that the world cannot undo you any other way but by tempting you to over-love it and to undervalue higher things And therefore that is the most dangerous condition which maketh the world seem most pleasing and most lovely to us And can you believe this and yet be so eager to be humoured and to have all things fitted to your pleasure and desires Mark here what a task Faith hath and mark what the work of self-denyal is The worldling must be pleased the Believer must be saved The worldling must have his flesh and fancy gratified the Believer must have Heaven secured and God obeyed Men sell not their souls for sorrow but for mirth They forsake not Heaven for poverty but for riches they turn not away from God for the love of sufferings and dishonour but for the love of pleasure preferments dignities and estimation in the world And is that state better and more desirable for which all that perish turn from God and fell their souls and are befooled and undone for ever Or that which no man ever sinned for nor forsook God for or was undone for Read over this question once and again and mark what answer your hearts give to it if you would know whether you live by sense or faith And mark what contrary answers the flesh and faith will give to it when it comes to practice I say though many sin in poverty and in sufferings and in disgrace yea and by occasion of them and by their temptations yet no man ever sinned for them They are none of the bait that straled away the heart from God Set deep upon your heart the sense of the danger of a prosperous state and sear and vigilancy will help to save you Direct 2. Imprint upon your memory the characters of this deadly sin of worldliness that so you may not perish by it whilst you dream that you are free from it but may alwâ—ies see how far it doth prevail Here therefore to help you I will set before you the characters of this sin and I will but briefly name them lest I be tedious because they are many 1. The great mark of damning worldliness is when God and Heaven are not loved and preferred before the pleasures and profits and honours of the world 2. Another is when the world is esteemed and used more for the service and pleasure of the flesh than to honour God and to do good with and to further our salvation When men desire great places and riches more to please their appetites and carnal minds with than to benefit others or to serve the Lord with when they are not rich to God but to themselves Luke 12.20 21. 3. It is a mark of some degree of worldliness to desire a greater measure of riches or honour than our spiritual work and ends and benefit do require For when we are convinced that less is as good or better to our highest ends and yet we would have more it is a sign that the rest is desired for the flesh Rom. 13.14 8.8 9 10 13. 4. When our desires after worldly things are too eager and violent when we must needs have them and cannot be without them 1 Tim. 6.9 5. When our contrivances for the world are too solâ—icitous and our cares for it take up an undue proportion of our time Mat. 6.24 25. to the end 6. When we are impatient under want dishonour or disappointments and live in trouble and discontent if we want much or have not our wills 7. When the thoughts of the world are proportionably so many more than our thoughts of Heaven and our salvation that they keep us in the neglect of the duty of Meditation and keep empty our minds of holy things Mat. 6.21 8. When it turneth our talk all towards the world or taketh up our freest and our sweetest and most serious words and leaveth us to the use of seldom dull or formal or affected words about the things which should profit the soul and glorifie our great Creator 9. When the world incroacheth upon Gods part in our families and thrusts out prayer or the reading of the Scriptures or the due instruction of children or servants when it cometh in upon the Lords day when it is intruding in Gods Worship and at Sermon or Prayer our thoughts are more pleasingly running out after some worldly thing than kept in attendance upon God Ezek. 33 31. 10. When worldly prosperity is so sweet to you that it can keep you quiet under the guilt of wilful sin and in the midst of all the
dangers of your souls Because you have your hearts desire a while you can forget eternity or bear those thoughts of it with security which otherwise would amaze your souls Luke 12.19 20. 11. When the peace and pleasure which you daily live upon is fetcht more from the world than from God and Heaven so that if at any time you ask your selves the true reason of your peace and whence it is that you rise and lie down in quietness of mind your consciences must tell you it is not so much from your belief of the Love of God in Christ nor from your hope to live in Heaven for ever as because you feel your self well in body and live at ease and prosperity in the world And when any mirth or joy possesseth you you may easily feel that it is more from something which is grateful to your flesh than from the belief of everlasting glory 12. When you think too highly and pleasingly of the condition of the rich and too meanly of the state of poor Believers when you make too great a difference between the rich and the poor and say to the man with the gold Ring and the gay Apparel Come up hither and to the poor Sit there at my footstool James 4. 5. When you had rather be made like the rich and honourable in the world than like the poor that are more holy and think with more delight of being like Lords or Great men in the world than of being more like to humble heavenly Believers 13. When you are at the heart more thankful to one that giveth you lands or money than to God for giving you Christ and the Scriptures and the Means of Grace and would be better pleased if you were advanced or enriched by the King than to think of being sanctified by the Spirit of Christ And when you give God himself more hearty thanks for worldly than for spiritual things 14. When you make too much ado for the things of the world and labour for them with inordinate industry or plunge your selves into unnecessary business as one that can never have or do enough 15. When you are too much in expecting liberality kindnesses and gifts from others and are too much pleased in it and grudge at all that goeth beside you and think that it is mens duty to mind all your concernments and further your commodity more than other mens 16. When you are selfish and partial about worldly interest and have little sense of your neighbours concernments in comparison of your own If one give never so liberally to many others and give nothing to you it doth never the more content you nor reconcile your mind to the charity of the giver If one give to you and pass by many that have more need you love and honour the bounty which satisfieth your own desires If you sell dear you rejoyce and if you buy cheap you are glad of your good bargain though perhaps the seller be poorer than you He that wrongeth you or any way hindereth your commodity is alwaies a bad man in your esteem No vertue will save him from your censures and reproach But he that dealeth as hardly by your neighbour and well with you is a very honest man and worthy of your praise 17. When you are quarrelsome for worldly thing and the love of them can at any time break your charity and peace and make an enemy of your neerest friend or engage you in causless Law-suits and contentions What abundance doth the world set together by the ears 18. When you can see your poor brother or neighbour in want and shut up the bowels of your compassion from him and do little good with what God hath given you but the flesh and self devoureth all 19. When you will venture upon unlawful waies of getting or will sin for honour or commodity or at least will let go your innocency and conscience rather than lose your prosperity in the world and will distinguish your selves out of every danger or costly duty or suffering for righteousness sake and will prove every thing lawful which seemeth necessary to the prosperity and safety of the flesh 20. When you are more careful to provide riches and honors for your children after you than to save them from worldliness voluptuousness and pride and to bring them up to be the heirs of Heaven and had rather venture their souls in the most dangerous temptations than abate any of their plenty or grandure in the world These be the plain marks of worldly minds whatever a blinded heart may devise to hide them Direct 3. Take heed of those blinding pretences which worldly minds do commonly use to flatter deceive and undo themselves For instance 1. The most common pretence is That Gods creatures are good and prosperity is his blessing and that our bodies must be cherished and that synical and eremetical extreams and austerities are far from the genius of true Christianity There is truth in all this or else it would not be so fit to be made a cloak for sin by misapplication The world and all Gods works are good and to the pure they are pure to the sanctified they are sanctified that is they are devoted to the service of God and used for him from whom they come God hath given us nothing which may not be used for his service and our salvation No doubt but you may make you friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness to further your reception into the everlasting habitations You may lay up a good foundation for the time to come and you may sow to the Spirit and reap in the end everlasting life Gal. 6. You may provide you bags that wax not old you may please God by the sacrifices of distributing and communicating Heb. 13. But yet I must tell you the world and all Gods creatures in it are too good to be sacrificed to the flesh and to the Devil and not good enough to be loved and preferred before God and your innocency and salvation The body must be cherished but yet the flesh must be subdued and if you live afâ—er it you shall die Health and alacrity must be preserved because they make you fit for duty but wanton appetites must be restrained and no provision must be made for the flesh to satisfie its lusts or wills Rom. 13.14 It must be cherished as your horse or servant for his work but it must not be pampered and made unruly or your Master You may seek food for your necessity and use and ask of God your daily bread Matth. 6. Psal 145. but you may not with the Israelites ask meat for your lust as being weary of eating Manna so long Psal 78. Hurting your health by useless austerities is not pleasing unto God But sensuality and flesh-pleasing and love of the world is nevertheless abominable in his sight Object 2. Necessity makes me mind the world I have children to maintain and am in debt and cannot pay every
and sellers from Christs Temple their merchandize is exposed without shame and their signs set forth and the trade of getting preferments openly professed and it is enough to wipe off all the shame to put some venerable titles upon this Den of thieves But the Lord whom we wait for will once more come and cleanse his Temple But who may abide the day of his coming for he is like a refiners fire and like fullers sâ—pe and will throughly purge the Sons of Levi Mal. 3.1 2 3 4. If talking against worldliness would prove that the world is overcome and that God is dearest to the soul then Preachers will be the happiest men on earth But it 's easier to commend God than to love him above all and easier to cry out against the world than to have a heart that is truly weaned from it and set upon a better world Object 10. But all this belongeth only to them that are in prosperity but I am poor and therefore it is nothing to me Answ Many a one loveth prosperity that hath it not And such are doubly sinful that will love a world which loveth not them Even a world of poverty misery and distress Something you would have done if you had had a full estate and honour and fleshly delights to love Nay many poor men think better of riches and honour than those that have them because they never tryed how vain and vexatious they are and if they had tryed them perhaps would love them less The world is but a painted Strumpet admired afar off but the neerer you come to it and the more it 's known the worse you will like it Is it by your own desire that you are poor or is it against your wills Had you not rather be as great and rich as others Had you not rather live at ease and fulness And do you think God will love you ever the better for that which is against your wills Will he count that man to be no worldling that would fain have more of the world and cannot and that loveth God and Heaven no better than the rich Nay that will sin for a shilling when great ones do it for greater summs who can be more unfit for Heaven than he that loveth a life of labour and want and misery better Alas it is but little that the greatest worldlings have for their salvation But poor worldlings sell it for less than they and therefore do despise it more Direct 4. Let the true nature and aggravations of the sin of worldliness be still in your eye to make it odious to you As for instance 1. It is true and odious Idolatry Ephes 5.5 Col. 3.5 To have God for our God indeed is to love him as our God and to delight in him and be ruled by him Who then is an Idolater if he be not one who loveth the world and delighteth in it more than in God or esteemeth it fitter to be the matter of his delight and is ruled by it and seeketh it more Isa 55.1 2 3. 2. It is a blasphemous contempt of God and Heaven to prefer a dung hill world before him To set more by the provisions and pleasures of the flesh than by all the blessedness of Heaven It is called prophaneness in Esau to sell his birth-right for one morsel Heb. 12.16 What prophaneness is it then to say as worldlings hearts and lives do The satisfying of my flesh and fansie for a time is better than God and the Joyes of Heaven to all eternity 3. It is a sin of Interest and not only of Passion and therefore it possesseth the very Heart and Love which is the principal faculty of the soul and that which God most reserveth for himself No actual sin which is but little loved is so heinous and morâ—al as that which is most loved Because these do must exclude the Love of God Some other sins may do more hurt to others but this is worst to the sinner himself We justly pitty poor Heathenish Idolaters and pray for their conversion and I would we did it more But do not you not think that our hypocrite-worldlings do love their riches and their honours and pleasures better than the poor Heathens love their Idols They bow the knee to a creature and you entertain it in your heart 4. It is a sin of deliberation and contrivance which is much worse than a surprize by a sudden temptation You plot how you may compass your voluptuous covetous and ambitious ends Therefore it is a sin that standeth at the furthest distance from Repentance and is both voluntary and a settled habit 5. It is a continued sin Men be not alwaies lying though they be never so great lyars nor alwaies stealing if they be the most notorious thieves nor alwaies swearing if they be the profanest swearers But a worldly mind is alwaies worldly He is alwaies committing his Idolatry with the world and alwaies denying his Love to God 6. It is not only a sin about the means to a right end as mischosen waies of Religion may be but it is a sin against the End it self and a mischusing of a false pernicious End And so it is the perverting not only of one particular action but even of the bent and course of mens lives And consequently a mis-spending all their time 7. It is a perverting of Gods creatures to a use clean contrary to that which they are given us for and an unthankful turning of all his gifts against himself He gave us his creatures to lead us to him and by their loveliness to shew his greater loveliness and to taste in their sweetness the greater sweetness of his love And will you use them to turn your affections from him 8. It it a great debasing of the soul it self to fill that noble Spirit with nothing but dirt and smoak which was made to know and love its God 9. It is an irrational vice and signifieth not only much unbelief of the unseen things which should take up the soul but also a sottish inconsiderateness of the vanity and brevity of the things below It is an unmanning our selves and hiring out our reason to be a servant to our fleshly lusts 10. Lastly It is a pregnant multiplying sin which bringeth forth abundance more The love of money is the root of all evil 1 Tim. 6.9 10. Therefore Direct 5. Let the mischievous effects of this sin be still befâ—re your eyes As for instance 1. It keepeth the heart strange to God and Heaven The Love of God and of the world are contrary 1 John 2.15 3.17 James 4.4 So is an earthly and a heavenly conversation Phil. 3.18 19 20. And the laying up a treasure in Heaven and upon Earth Matth. 6.19 20 21. And the living after the flesh and after the Spirit Rom. 8.1 5 6 13. Ye cannot possibly serve God and Mammon nor travel two contrary waies at once nor have two contrary felicities till you have two hearts
are guilty of more disorders tautologies unmeet expressions and manifold defects than any that I ever yet heard from those Ministers that pray either by habit or book Direct 9. Take heed both of carelesness and curiosity in the worshipping of God Avoid carelesness because it is prophaneness and contempt Therefore watch against idleness of mind and wandering thoughts and remember how great a work it is to speak to God or to hear from him about your everlasting state And yet curiosity is a heinous sin When men are so nice that unless there be quaint phrases and fine cadencies and jingles or at least a very laudable style they nauseate all and are weary of hearing a homely style or common things when every unmeet expression or tautology of the speaker doth turn their stomachs against the wholesomest food This curiosity cometh from a weak and an unhealthful state of soul Direct 10. Lastly Let your eye of Faith be all the while upon the heavenly Host or Church triumphant I remember how they worship God with what wisdom and purity and fervour of Love and sacred pleasure and with what unity and peace and concord And let your Worship be as much composed to the imitation of them as is agreeable to the likeness of our condition unto theirs There is no hypocrisie dulness darkness errours self-conceitedness pride division section or uncharitable contention Oh how they burn in Love to God and how sweet that Love is to themselves and how those souls work up in heavenly Joyes to the face of God in all his praises Labour as it were to joyn your selves by faith with them and as far as standeth with your different case to imitate them They are more imitable and amiable than the purest Churches upon earth Their love and blessed concord is more lovely than our uncharitable animosities and odious factions and divisions are And remember also the time when you must meet all those upright souls in Heaven whose manner of Worship you vilified and spake reproachfully of on earth and from whose communion you turned away And only consider how far they should be disowned who must be dear to Christ and you for ever The open disowning and avoiding the ungodly and scandalous is a great duty in due season when it is regularly done and is necessary to cast shame on sin and sinners and to vindicate the honour of Christianity before the world But otherwise it is but made an instrument of pernicious pride and of divisions in the Church and of hindering the successes of the Gospel of Christ CHAP. XXII How to pray in Faith PAssing by all the other particular parts of Worship as handled elsewhere in my Christian Directory I shall only briefly touch the duty of prayer especially as in private Direct 1. Let your heart lead your tongue and be the fountain of your words and suffer not your tongues in a customary volubility to over-run your hearts Desire first and pray next and remember that desire is the soul of prayer and that the heart-searching God doth hate hypocrisie and will not be mocked Matth. 6.1 3 4. Direct 2. Yet do not forbear prayer because your desires are not so earnest as you would have them For 1. Even good desires are to be begged of God 2. And such desires as you have towards God must be exercised and expressed 3. And this is the way of their usual increase 4. And a prophane turning away from God will kill those weak desires which you have when drawing near him in prayer may revive and cherish them Direct 3. Remember still that you pray to a heavenly Father who is readier to give than you are to receive or ask If you knew his Fulness and Goodness how joyfully would you run to him and cry Abba Father John 20.17 Luke 12.30 32. Mark 11.25 Matth. 6.8 32. Direct 4. Go boldly to him in the Name of Christ alone Remember that he is the only Way and Mediatour When guilt and conscience would drive you back believe the sufficiency of his sacrifice and attonement When your weakness and unworthiness would discourage you remember that no one is so worthy as to be accepted by God on any other terms than Christs Mediation Come boldly then to the Throne of Grace by the new and living way and put your prayers into his hand and remember that he still liveth to make intercession for you and that he appeareth before God in the highest in your cause Heb. 10.19 Ephes 3.12 Rom. 5.2 Heb. 9.24 7.25 26. Direct 5. Desire nothing in your hearts which you dare not pray for or which is unmeet for prayer Let the Rule of Prayer be the Rule of your Desires And undertake no business in the world which you may not lawfully pray for a blessing on Direct 6. Desire and pray to God first for God himself and nothing lower and next for all those spiritual blessings in Christ which may fit you for communion with him And lastly for corporal mercies as the means to these Matth. 6.33 Psal 42.1 2 3 c. Psal 73.25 26. Direct 7. Pray only for what is promised you or you are commanded to pray for And make not promises to your selves and then look that God should fulfil them because you confidently believe that he will do it and do not so reproach God as to call such self-conceits and expectations by the name of a particular Faith For where there is no word there is no faith Direct 8. What God hath promised confidently expect though you feel no answer at the present For most of our prayers are to be granted or the things desired to be given at the harvest time when we shall have all at once Whether you find your selves the better at present for prayer or not believe that a word is not in vain but you shall reap the fruit of all in season Luke 18.1 7 8. James 5.7 8. Direct 9. Let the Lords Prayer be the Rule for the matter and method of your desires and prayers But with this difference It must alwaies be the Rule which your desires must be formed to both in matter and method You must alwaies first and most desire the hallowing of Gods Name the coming of his Kingdom and the doing of his will on Earth as it is in Heaven before your own being or well-being But this is only a Rule for your General Prayers which take in all the parts For when you either intend to pray only or chiefly for some one particular thing you may begin with that or be most upon it Therefore all Christians should specially labour to understand the true sense and method of the Lords Prayer which God willing I hope elsewhere to open Direct 10. Be more careful in secret of your affections than of the order of your words yet chusing such as are aptest to the matter and fittest to excite your hearts But in your families or with others be very careful to speak to God in
a word or two or none at all in the daily prayers of most Professors And it is rare to hear any to pray with any importunity for their conversion Is this mens love to mankind Is this their love to the Kingdom of Christ or to God and Godliness Is God of as narrow a mind as you Are you and your party all the world or all the Church or all that is to be regarded and prayed for Direct 2. Do not only pray for them but study what is within the reach of your power to do for their conversion For though private men can do little in comparison of what Christian Princes might do who must not be told their duty by such as I. Yet somewhat might be done by Merchants and their Chaplains if skill and zeal were well united and somewhat might be done by writing and translating such books as are fittest for this use And greater matters might be done by training up some Scholars in the Persian Indostan Tartarian and such other languages who are for mind and body fitted for that work and willing with due encouragement to give up themselves thereto Were such a Colledge erected natives might be got to teach the languages and no doubt but God would put into the hearts of many young men to devote themselves to so excellent a service and of many rich men to settle Lands sufficient to maintain them and many Merchants would help them in their expedition But whether those that God will so much honour be yet born I know not Direct 3. Pray and labour for the Reformation and Concord of all the Christian Churches as the most probable means to win to Christ the world of Heathens and Vnbelievers If the Protestant Churches were more pure and peaceable more holy and more unanimous and charitable to each other it would do much to win the Papists that are near them And if the Papists and Greeks and Armenians and Abassines were more reformed wise and holy it would do much to win the Heathens and Mahometanes round about them They would be the salt of the earth and the lights of the world and the leaven which must leaven the whole lump The neighbouring Mahometanes and Heathens would see their good works and glorifie God Matth. 5.16 A holy harmless loving conversation is a Sermon which men of all languages can understand Thus as Apostles we might preach to men of several tongues though we have but one O that the sanctifying Spirit would teach Christians this art and reform and unite the Churches of Christ that they might be no longer a scandal to hinder the saving of the world about them It is the sense of Christs prayer before his death John 17.21 22 23 25. that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that the world may believe that thou hast sent me I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in One and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me Direct 4. Be sure at least that your holy loving and blameless loves be an example to these that are about you If you cannot convert Kingdoms nor get other men to do their duty towards it be sure that you do your part within your reach And believe that your lives must be the best part of your labours and that good works and love and good example must be the first part of your doctrine Direct 5. When you see that the world lyeth still in wickedness and there seemeth to be no possibility of a cure yet search the Scripture and so far as you can find any Prophecy or Promise of their conversion believe that God in his time will make it good Direct 6. But take heed that on this pretence you plunge not your selves into any inordinate studies or conceited expositions of the Revelations and other Scripture Prophecies as many have done to the great wrong of themselves and the Church of God By inordinate studies I mean 1. When you begin there where you should end and before you have digested the necessary greater truths in Theology you go to those that should come after them 2. When an undue proportion of your zeal and time and study and talk is bestowed upon these Prophecies in comparison of other things 3. When you are proudly and causlesly conceited of your singular expositions That when of ten of the learnedest and hardest studied Expositors of the Revelation perhaps in many things scarce two are of a mind yet when you differ from them all or all save one you can be as peremptory and confident in your opinion as if you were far wiser or more infallible than they 4. When you place a greater necessity in it than there is as if salvation or Church-communion lay upon your conceits Whereas God hath made the points that are of necessity to salvation to be few and plain Direct 7. When you look on the sin and misery of the world and see small hope of its recovery look up by Faith to that better world where all is Light and Love and Peace And pray for that coming of Christ when all this sin shall be brought to Judgment and wisdom and godliness be fully justified before all the world Let the badness of this world drive up your hearts to that above where all is better than you can wish Direct 8. When you are ready to stumble at the consideration of Gods desertion of so great a part of the world quiet your minds in the implicite submission to his infinite wisdom and goodness Dare you think that you are more gracious and merciful than God Or that it is meet you should know all the secrets of his providence who must not know the mysteries oâ— Government in the State or Kingdom where you live He that cannot rest in the wisdom will and mercies of infinite Goodness it self but must have all his own expectations satisfied shall have no rest And think withall how little a spot of Gods Creation this earthly world is and how incomprehensibly vast the superiour Regions are in comparison of it And if all the upper parts of the world be possessed with none but holy Spirits and even this lower earth have also many millions of Saints prepared here for the things above we have no more reason to judge God to be unmerciful because this lower world is so bad than we have to judge the King unmerciful when we look into the common Jayle nor to judge of his government by the Rogues in a Jayle but by his Court and all the subjects of his Kingdom If God should forsake no place but Hell of all his Creation you could not grudge at him as unmerciful And it is a very hard question whether this earth and the air about it be not the place of Hell when you consider that the Devils are cast down from Heaven and yet that they dwell and rule in
them as to all others or as to the most Direct 9. Love is our spiritual health and Selfishness is our sickness sin and death When we fell from the Love of God to our selves we fell also from the Love of others to our selves The individuate creature was contracted in himself and all together set upon Propriety and forgot his relations to God and man And when grace destroyeth this selfish privateness of spirit it setteth us again in love with God and man together and the better any man is the more publick spirit he is of and the less dâ—fference he maketh between his neighbours interest and his own when God and his interest make not a difference And this is to Love our neighbour as our selves that is without the vice of partial selfishness not setting up our own interest against his but equally measuring both by Gods and referring them thereunto Levit. 19.18 34. Matth. 19.19 Gal. 15.4 Direct 10. Remember that loving others as our selves is our own interest and benefit as well as our duty And a notable instance it is how much our duty is our own interest and good and how merciful God is in his strictest Laws As the Love of God is Heaven it self and sinners that love him not do damn themselves and put themselves from Heaven and happiness and to pardon them is to sanctifie them even so it is an unspeakable loss and misery which sinners draw upon themselves by not loving their neighbours as themselves but only in a subordination to themselves and for their proper private ends I pray you mark but these few particular instances 1. If I love my neighbour as my self my very love is my delight and ease The form of Love consisteth in complacency or pleasedness and therefore it must needs be pleasant to every one that useth it However bad Love hath bitter fruits And whenever wrath or envy or hatred comes instead of Love it is my sickness I feel my self diseased by it 2. If I love others others will love me They are scarce free to do otherwise You may almost constrain any man to love you if you love him heartily and shew it plainly and were within his view to make him see it All men love a loving nature but especially if they be loved by such themselves 3. If I love my neighbour as my self to do good to him will be as easie and pleasant as to my self I can ride and run and labour contentedly for my self I can sloop to the most sordid employment for my self And so I should as easily do for others Whereas want of Love doth make all tedious that I do and maketh my duty a continual burden and too often tempts me to omit it Love made both Christ and his Apostles to do so much for souls with ease and pleasure which else they could not have undergone John 15.13.9 2 Cor. 12.15 Ephes 3.17 5.2 Col. 2.2 4. If I love my neighbour as my self I can as easily suffer any thing from him as from my self I can easily bear that in my self as to sight or smell the loathsomest sores or ulcers which others cannot bear I am easily brought to forgive my self and to forbear self-hurting and self-revenge and so should I do to others if I thus loved them And then how easie would my life be among all the injuries of the world 5. If I loved my neighbour as my self if my flesh did want my mind which is my self could never be in want Because all that my neighbours have is mine as to my comfort and content My house is homely but my neighbours is comely and convenient and to my mind that is as comfortable as if it were my own My Land is small but my neighbours is large my grounds are barren but my neighbours fruitful my corn is bad but his proves good my cattel die or prosper not but his do well I am low and despicable and no man careth for me but others are Lords and Princes and honourable and if I love them as my self their corn their cattel their houses and lands their Kingdoms and honours are as much my comfort as if they were my own I know these are Paradoxes to dapraved selfish nature but thus it would be if Love were perfect and thus it is in that measure that we love And should that duty be taken for a burden which as to my comfort maketh all the wealth and honour and Kingdoms of others to be my own Obj. If you love your neighbours as your selves you must mourn with them that mourn and all the calamities and sorrows of the world must be yours which will overcome your joyes Ans 1. I am not to sorrow as much as they do sorrow but as much as they rationally ought to do And men are not to think that a loving correction which worketh for their good and salvation is worse than the snares of prosperity The brother of high degree must rejoyce when he is made low as well as the brother of low degree must rejoyce when he is exalted Jam 19.10 And why should that be my sorrow which is his benefit and should be his joy If Paul and Silas sing in the stocks why should not I sing with them Patience and rejoycing are the duty of all Believers in affliction 2. The mercies and happiness of every one that feareth God is far more than his misery Therefore his joy and gratitude should be more than his sorrows and complaints If a mans tooth do ach and all the rest of his body be well should not he and I be more thankful for the health of all the rest than troubled for a tooth A Believer hath alwaies the Spirit of God and a part in Christ and the pardon of sin and a right to Heaven And then how much greater should his joy be than his sorrows and mine also on his behalf 3. The Goodness and Love of God is manifested to the world more abundantly than his justice and severity We know of no afflicted Saints but on this spot of earth And we know of no damned ones but Devils and wicked men But we know that the worlds above us are incomparably more vast than this and that the glory of the celestial Spirits is far greater than our sufferings and sorrows here Therefore our joy which Love procureth should be a thousand-fold greater than our sorrows 4. And as for the wicked as the consequent Will of God layeth by compassion so consequently considering them as the obstinate final refusers of grace they are not those neighbours whom we are bound to love as our selves For they are enemies to God and deprived of his Image and therefore our obligations to mourn for them are abated as Samuels for Saul when he knew that God had rejected him 1 Sam. 15.35 16.1 And we are obliged to rejoyce in the declarations of the Justice and Holiness of God and the universal benefit which redoundeth from his Judgments Rev. 18.20
12.12 Esther 8.15 So that it still remaineth clear that loving our neighbours as our selves doth entitle us to the comforts of all mens health estates prosperity honours yea and their holiness and wisdom too and this without any such participation of their sorrows as should be any considerable ecclipse of our delights if we do it all regularly as God requireth us 6. If I love my neighbour as my self I am freed from all the trouble of cross interests in buying and selling in trespassing in Law-suits It will comfort me as much if he get by me as if I get by him If his bargain prove the better as if mine did if he have the better at Law as if it were judged to my self Yea all his successes prosperity and whatever good befalleth any that I know of in the world will all be mine 7. And I shall never be loth by death to leave the world while I have no cause to fear the missing of salvation because whatever I leave behind me will be possessed by such as I love as my self They will have life and time and health and comforts and whatever my nature is loth to leave Therefore whilest I live why should it not be as comforting to me to think that so many shall live and prosper whom I love as my self as if I were my self to live and prosper 8. Yea more than so I have by Love a part in the Joyes of Heaven before I am actually there For the Joyes of all those blessed souls and of those holy Angels are mine by participation so far as to cause me to rejoyce in their felicity as if it were my own as far as I can now apprehend it Yea the Glory of the Lord Jesus and the eternal blessedness of God himself would rejoyce us more than our own felicity if we loved him as much above our selves as we ought to do we should partake of our Masters joy And now judge whether loving God as God and our neighbours sincerely as our selves would not cure almost all the calamities of our minds and give us a kind of Heaven and be a cheap and certain way to have what we can wish in all the world and even to make all the world our own And whether it be not sin it self which is the first part of all mens hell and misery Object But my neighbours meat will not fill my belly nor his health doth not ease my pain nor his fire keep me warm Answ The flesh hath got the dominion indeed when men cannot distinguish between soul and body between the pain and pleasures of the body and of the mind I do not say that Love will change the pain or pleasure of your bodies but of your minds Your appetites will not be satisfied with your neighbours food but your minds may be comforted to see his welfare Your pain is not eased by your neighbours health but your minds may be pleased by it as much as if it were your own if you loved him as much as you do your self And therefore many in a danger have saved the life of a Prince a Captain a Parent a Child a Friend with the voluntary loss of their own Object This is all true but who is there in the world that doth it or findeth it possible to love another as himself And how can that be a duty which is to nature it self an impossibility Therefore let us first know what this duty is of loving our neighbours as our selves Answ Doubtless if it be the summ of the Law all true Christians do it in sincerity though not in perfection And as to the sense of it 1. You must distinguish between that sensitive and passionate affection which is in the soul as sensitive and is common to beasts with men and that rational appetite which doth will and chuse and is pleased according to the conduct of pure reason The first we doubt not will be still more to our selves than others and it is not the use of grace to destroy it but to rule and moderate it 2. You must distinguish between Love and outward actions which are the expressions of it When our Love is due as much to one as to another yet our outward actions may be under a particular Law which obligeth us to do that for one which we are not bound to do for others As to maintain our own children families servants and so our selves rather than others And the reason is because the difference of individuals maketh that fit for one which is not fit for another and so maketh every man the fittest chuser for himself and those that are neerest to him and nature instigateth him to the greatest care in doing it And all good must be done in a regular order or else confusion will destroy it And nature maketh this most orderly As every Parish must keep their own poor and yet must love other poor as well 3. You must know that Love is formally nothing but complacence as aforesaid but Love joyned with a will and purpose to do good to another is called Love of benevolence when yet the Love there is one thing and the doing good or purpose to do it is another and I may in obedience to God purpose and do more good to one whom I am bound to Love not more but less And now you may see what it is to love our neighbours as our selves 1. God must be loved above our neighbours and our selves and both must be loved purely as related and subordinate to him and for his sake There is a double respect which all things have to God 1. As they contain that excellency which he hath put upon them which is some likeness representation or signification of himself and is called his Glory shining in the creature that is it 's derived Goodness 2. As they conduce to his further service and may honour him and please him Thus all creatures must be loved only as a means even a means declaring God being derivatively and significantly good and useful and as a means to serve and please him 2. Therefore this being the formal reason of our Rational Love must also be the measure of it à quatenus ad quantum As it is certain that I must love that best which is best because I must love it only as good so it is certain that that is best which hath most likeness to God and most of his Glory upon it and that which is most pleasing to him and useful to his service Therefore if my neighbour be better than I am I must judge him better and love him better 3. Though natural self-appetite and self-preservation by which all creatures are for themselves only not feeling the hunger cold pain of others be not sinful but the effect of creating individuation yet Reason was perfect and the Will could perfectly follow Reason in its complacency and choice till sin corrupted it Reason could judge that best which was best and the Will
by a Redeemer as we must do They had their too great selfishness Phil. 2.21 They had their pusillanimity and fears of men as Peter and the Apostles They had their sinful controversies as Paul and Barnabas and sinful separations in complyance with the censorious as Peter and Barnabas had Gal. 2.16 17. They had their carnal sidings factions and divisions in the Church 1 Cor. 1. 3. Many a time have they been put to groan O wretched man who shall deliver me from this body of death Rom. 7 c. 11. They had as difficult duties to go through as any of us They were put upon as many tears and troubles watchings and travels fastings and self-denyal as the most laborious and suffering Christians now 12. They had as long delayes of the accomplishment of their desires as any of us 13. And lastly they past through death it self as we must do They lay gasping on their beds of languâ—shing and death broke in upon every part and they underwent that separation of soul and body as we must do Their flesh was turned to rottenness and dust and laid out of the sight of man in darkness and remaineth to this day as common earth All this the Saints in Heaven have undergone This was their case a while ago who are now in glory And this was not only the case of some few but of thousands and millions and that in the most of these particulars even of all that are gone before us unto blessedness It is not we that are tempted first that are persecuted or afflicted first that have sinned first that must die first but all this host hath broke the Ice and are safely past through this Red Sea and are now triumphing in felicity with their Saviour Direct 3. Let Faith next look back and see by what way these Saints have come to this felicity I mean by what means they did overcome and win the Crown And briefly you will find 1. That they all came to Heaven by the Mediation the Sacrifice the meritorious Righteousness of a Redeemer Jesus Christ either as promised or as incarnate none of them were justified by the works of the Law or the Covenant of Innocency 2. That their common way was by Faith Repentance Love and Obedience Not by works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed oâ— us abundently through Christ Titus 3.5 Even by the triple Image of the Divine perfections Power Love and Wisdom 2 Tim. 1.7 They lived soberly righteously and godly in the world and were zealous of good works looking for the blessed hope which they have attained Titus 2.14 15. Knowing that Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ are the summ of saving doctrine and duty Acts 20.21 And that to fear God and keep his Commandments is the whole duty of man Eccles 12.13 And that the end of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and of faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1.5 and that Love is the fulfilling of the Law 3. They studied the Word of God or such means of knowing him as God afforded them in order to the attaining and maintaining of these graces Psal 1.2 and sought the Lord with all their hearts while he might be found and called upon him while he was near Isa 55.6 10. And did not presumptuously neglect Gods helps and despise his Word while they trusted for his mercy 4. They lived in a continual conflict against the temptations of the Devil the world and the flesh and in the main did conquer as well as strive They made it their work to mortifie those fleshly lusts which others make it their interest and work to please Gal. 5.17.21 22. 6.14 5. They suffered afflictions and persecutions patiently and being reviled they did not revile They loved their enemies and blest those that curse them and prayed for those that despitefully used and persecuted them Matth. 5.44 45. 1 Cor. 4.11 12 13. 2 Cor. 1.6 7. Heb. 11. They would not accept of deliverance from imprisonment torments and death upon sinning terms 6. They endured to the end and did not fall off and forsake the Covenant of their God Rev. 2. 3. 7. Lastly They did all this by the motive of their hopes of Heaven and by a confidence in the promises of it and in a heavenly mind and conversation as knowing that they did not labour or suffer in vain 1 Cor. 15.58 2 Cor. 4.17 1 Tim. 4.10 Rom. 8.18 Matth. 5.11 2 Thes 1.6 7. Heb. 12.2 This was the way by which the Saints have gone to Heaven the only true successful way Direct 4. Consider next what helps and means God gave them for this work and compare our own with them and see whether ours be not as great 1. We have the same natural capacity as they we are intellectual free agents made for another world and capable of all that they attained There is no difference in our natural faculties 2. We have the same God to shew us mercy 1 Cor. 12.5 There are divers operations but the same God Ephes 4.4 5. There is one God one Lord c. even the Lord over all good to all that call upon him Rom. 10.12 The same mercy which called them and waited on them calleth us even a God who hath no respect of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him Acts 10.37 Though he be a free benefactor he is a righteous Judge and he is good to all and the Father of every member of his Son 3. They had the same Saviour as we have the same sacrifice for their sins the same Teacher and the same example the same intercessor with the Father For though there be divers administrations there is the same Lord 1 Cor. 12.5 Ephes 4.4 For other foundation can no man lay than him who is the chief corner stone 1 Cor. 3.11 They all did eat of the same spiritual meat and drank of the same rock as we do which is Christ 1 Cor. 10.3 4. It was the reproach of Christ which Moses in Egypt esteemed better than their treasures Heb. 11.26 The same Physician of souls who hath us in cure did cure all them The same Captain who is conducting us to salvation is he that saved them The same Prince of the Covenant and Lord of life who conquered death and all their enemies hath conquered them for us and is preparing us for life with them They had no greater or better High Priest and Mediator with God than we have 4. They had the same Rule to walk by and the same way to go as all we have Gal. 1.7 8. 6.16 Phil. 3.14 15. The same Gospel and Word of God in the main though under various promulgations and administrations Those before the flood were under the Covenant of the promised seed
sins and miseries in the presence of their Lord. Direct 5. When you have made these comparisons think next what an excellent benefit it will be to you to look thus believingly and frequently to the Saints that are gone before you into glory All these unspeakable benefits will follow it 1. It will much quicken and confirm our faith As we do the more easily trust the boat and boat-man when we see many thousand passengers safely landed by him And we easily trust the Physician when we see many thousands cured by him who were once in our case so it will greatly satisfie the soul against the suspicions and fears of unbelief when faith seeth all the glorified Saints that are actually saved by Christ already and have obtained all that we believe and seek Methinks I hear Henoch Joshua Abraham Peter Paul John Cyprian Macarius Augustine Melancthon Calvin Zanchius Rogers Bradford Hooper Jewel Grindal Vsher Hildersham Ames Dod Baines Bolton Gataker with thousands such as men standing on the further side of the river and calling to us that must come after them Fear not the depths or storms or streams trust boldly that vessel and that faithful Pilot we trusted him and none of us have miscarried but all of us are here landed safe We were once in storms and doubts and fears as you now are but it is our diffidence and not our confidence which proved our infirmity and shame Who would not boldly follow such a multitude of excellent persons who have sped so well 2. It will also much confirm our hope that is our glad expectation of the Crown when our apprehensions of it grow dull and slack and our feare do grow upon us and we are ready to question whether ever such a happiness will be our lot the sight of these that are now triumphing in the actual possession will banish despair and much revive us We cannot but think they were once as low and bad as I and had as many difficulties to overcome and why may not I then be as holy and as happy as they 3. Such a sight will greatly quicken our desires to attain their happiness and to go their way As when worldlings see the grandeur and honours and power of Great men as they are yet called it maketh them think how brave a life is this And as the sensual when they see their companions in the Tavern or Gaming-house or Play-house or the merry fool-house as Solomon accounteth it Eccles 7.4 do long to be with them and to partake of their beloved pleasure so when by faith we see the departed Saints in glory and think where our old acquaintance are and the multitudes of wise and holy souls that are gone before it will greatly stir up our sluggish desires and make us long for the same felicity and to be as near to God as they are 4. And it will do much to direct us in the way For we must follow them as they followed Christ As the history of the Wars of Alexander Caesar Tamerlane c. will teach men how to fight for temporal tyrannical domination so the history of the Saints do teach us how to fight against spiritual wickednesses and powers and how to take the prospering way It is easie there to find whether laziness or labour whether sensuality or spirituality hath alwaies been the way to Heaven Whether Saints were gluttons drunkards whoremongers riotous licentious and proud or temporate chaste mortified and humble whether the Saints were the scorners or the scorned the oppressors or the oppressed the persecutors or the persecuted the burdens or the blessings of the times they lived in When the world is divided about matters of Religion and every Party hath a several way for the Unity and the Reformation and the Communion of the Churches and the right Government Discipline and Worshiping of God how easie and safe is it in the main and in all things of necessity to look back and see which way it was that Peter and Paul did go to Heaven by and what terms they were on which their Union Communion Government Discipline and Worship were performed 5. The sight of blessed souls by faith will also increase the Resolution and Fortitude of the mind Faintness and pusilanimity seize upon us when we look only on the difficulties and dangers But when we see the thousands that have overcome them all by the same means which we are called to use it steeleth our courage and maketh us resolve to break through all When we think only how mortal our diseases are our hearts do fail us But when all that were cured of the very same do call to us and say Never fear there is no disease too hard for your Physician he hath cured us of the very same and cureth all that ever trust him and use his remedies This will embolden a fainting mind Therefore in the fore-cited text Heb. 6.12 It is said Be not slothful which there meaneth such as faint with despondency despair or fears but followers of them who by faith and patience inherit the promises When we look on the Saints tribulations for the faith we are apt to faint as some do that stand by another that is under the Surgeons hands Ephes 3.13 But when we see them in triumph it cureth our cowardize and it is they only that labour and faint not that are crowned and that reap in due season c. Rev. 2.3 Gal. 6.9 that is who faint not into cessation or so as to be overcome Do you think when the Israelites passed through the Red Sea that the Leaders had not the greatest tryal and that it was not an exceeding increase of their courage who came after in the rear when they saw most of their brethren safely passed through Look believingly upon the souls in Heaven and you will do or suffer any thing to follow them 6. And it will greatly provoke us to diligence in well doing Look up to your Brethren and you will mend your pace If a horse be going towards his Pasture he will go chearfully especially when he seeth his companions there It will make us pray hard and meditate studiously and work laboriously and watch diligently that we may be with Christ where our Brethren are and receive the end of our faith and labour 7. And to see our Brethren in Heaven before us will greatly help us to suffer for Christ and to be patient in any tribulation which befalleth us When we see them in glory we shall source stay to complain of the soulness or narrowness of the way but look before us and go on through all Or if the flesh do repine and our hearts begin to fail us it will make us lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make strait paths for our feet Heb. 12.12 13. and to gird up the loins of our minds and be sober and hope to the end 1 Pet. 1.13 When we look forward to the end of former
sufferers it will cause us to possess our souls in patience and to let it have its perfect work 8. It will much overcome the fears of death It is no small abatement of them that Cicero and such honest Heathens had to think of the thousands of their worthiest Ancestors and that they were to go the common way of all mankind But how much more may it encourage a Believer to think that he is not only to go the way of all the world through the gate of mortality but the way also which all Gods Saints have gone save Henoch and Elias who are now in Heaven Thus died all the Prophets and the holy men of God yea Jesus Christ himself before us that death might be conquered when it seemed to have conquered Heb. 2.14 9. It will do much to raise us from hypocritical reserves and temporizings and from lukewarmness and resting in low degrees When our conversation is with the holy ones above we shall have upon our minds an ambition to attain to their degrees and to do Gods will on Earth as it is done in Heaven It will much encline us to the highest and noblest sort of duty which the spirits of the just made perfect do perform He that converseth only with his own sad tempted sinful heart and with tempted faulty mourning Christians may learn to confess and mourn and weep and pray But he that also converseth with glorified spirits will be so rapt up with their heavenly melody that he will learn and long to love God more fervently to praise him more chearfully and to give him thanks more abundantly for his mercies Heaven-work is learnt by a heavenly mind in the use of a heavenly conversation 10. And to look much at our Brethren that are now in glory will also fill our lives with pleasures and make our Religion our continual joy and will help us to a foretaste of Heaven on Earth For we shall as it were take our selves to be almost with then and their melodies will be our delight and love to them will make their joyes to be our own And though it is the sight of God and our Mediatour by faith which must be our chiefest hope and joy yet while we are here men in flesh yea more when we have laid by flesh and blood the presence of all the blessed spirits and heavenly host will be a great though subordinate part of our heavenly felicity and delight Direct 6. When you have gone thus far consider what obligations lie upon you to converse by Faith with your Brethren in Heaven and to look up frequently to their state and work 1. Your necessary Love to God requireth it For as your Love to him must be shewed by your loving his Image in your Brethren so it requireth you to love them most that are likest God or else you love them not for his likeness And it requireth you to love them most whom God loveth most and that is those that are likest him and nearest him And he that loveth God in his creatures and loveth any one truly for God must love the Angels and perfected Spirits best because they love him best and are nearest him and likest to him and are also most beloved by him 2. The common nature of Love and Humanity requireth it For it requireth us to love that best which is best as is said But the blessed ones in Heaven are better than any here on Earth and therefore should be better loved 3. The nature of our Love to the Saints requireth it For if we love them as Saints and Godly we shall love those most that are most holy and that is the blessed ones above And if we love them most we shall certainly mind them and converse with them by Faith and not be voluntary strangers to them 4. It is part of that heavenly conversation which is commended to us Phil. 3.20 21. When it is said that our conversation is in Heaven it signifieth that our Burgeship is there and our interest and great concerns are there and our dwelling is there and our trading and thriving business is there and for it and our friends and fellow-citizens and those that we daily trade and converse with in love and familiarity are there even as our God and our Head and our Inheritance is there He never knew a heavenly conversation that pretending there to know God alone hath no converse with his holy ones that attend him and doth not live as a member of their society in the City of God that doth not with some delight behold their holiness unity and order c. 5. The honouring of God and our Redeemer doth require it that we daily converse with the Saints in Heaven Because it is in them that God is seen in the greatest glory of his Love and it is in them that the Power and Efficacy and Love of our dear Redeemer most appeareth You judge now of the Father by his Children and of the Physician by his Patients and of the Builder by the House and of the Captain by his Victories And if you see no better children of God than such childish crying feeble froward diseased burdensome ones as we are you will rob him of the chief of this his honour And if you look at none of the Patients of our Saviour but such lame and languid pained groaning diseased half-cured ones as we you will rob him of the glory of his skill and cures And if you look but to such an imperfect broken fabrick as the Church on Earth you will dishonour the Builder And if you look to no other Victories of Christ and his Spirit but what is made in this confused dark and bedlam world you will be tempted to dishonour his conduct and his conquests But if you will look to his Children in Heaven who are perfected in his Love and Likeness and to Christs Patients which are there perfectly cured and to his Building in the heavenly unity and glory and to all his Victories as there compleat then you will give him the glory which is his due Rev. 21. 22. 2 Thes 1.10 11 12. 6. So also you will dishonour Religion and the Church if you converse not with the Saints above For the reasons last given For you will judge of the Church and of Religion by such imperfect things as here you see where men turn Religion to the service of their worldly interests and ends and fight for ambition faction tyranny usurpation and worldly lusts under the sacred names of Religion and the Church and for the pretended Love of Christ and one another do tear the Church into shreds and worry and hunt and devour one another You will be tempted to be Infidels if you do not here converse with the sincere humble holy charitable Christians and look up to Heaven to perfect souls And then you will see a Church that is truly amiable holy unanimous and glorious in perfect Love 7. If you look not up to
the interest of the Gospel and Kingdom of Christ and to promote the Gospel by silencing or prohibiting the most able zealous faithful Preachers of it and to go with a drawn sword among the people and say Love us or we will kill you Love Christ and us or the inquisition and wrack shall reach you love To see them take the terrifying of men by corporal penalties to be their chiefest work and the way of Love to be but such popularity as destroyeth the Church Will not now and then a walk in Heaven be a great refreshing to the mind that hath been long haunted with such hideous and ugly specters as all these Will not some converse with the most wises and holy and peaceable Society whose Life is Love be a great recreation to your minds when such sights as these have made them sad Moreover you have many burdens of your own to bear your own ignorance your own temptations your passions your wants and worst of all the relicks of your sin which you cannot bear with that hope and support which is needful to you without oft looking to the happiness of those that have overcome all these and are now at rest And you have many excellent duties to perform which will not be so well done without looking oft on such a Copy Yea you have the fears of death to overcome which will not be so easily done as by looking to all the world of souls that have already gone that way before you Yea in your converse with God himself though you have one only sufficient Mediator you will cast your selves upon great disadvantages if your thoughts leave out the blessed society of Saints and Angels who are nearest to him You cast away your stepping-stones or stairs of ascent and you will but tempt your selves to look at God as through the great interposing gulf and hinder the needful familiarity of your thoughts above Neglect not then a help so needful to you in your present state 12. Lastly The remembrance and observation of the heavenly inhabitants is the way that is commended and commanded to all Believers and that as part of their ordinary duty in their prayers to God He hath not only minded us that Abraham Isaac and Jacob are still living to prove the resurrection Matth. 12.27 but hath also comforted the expectants of Heaven by describing the joy of Lazarus as in Abrahams bosome Luke 16.22 23. and introduced Abraham as pleading Lazarus's cause v. 25 26. And hath made it a part of the comfortable description of his Kingdom that we shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in it Matth. 8.11 And when he would appear transfigured in a glimpse of his glory to Peter James and John he would not do it alone but with Moses and Elias talking with him Matth. 17. And the comfort which Paul giveth to the suffering Thessalonians is Rest with us 2 Thes 1.6 not only Rest with Christ but with his servants And when he describeth the glory of Christs appearing it is that He shall come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that do believe vers 11 12. As himself describeth his appearing as with his glorious Angels Mat. 25.31 All the holy Angels with him Whether it be all the blessed Spirits of the higher worlds or only all those of them who were deputed to the service of the Church on earth Matth. 18.10 and so were made Angels to man I pass over And Henoch the seventh from Adam prophesied saying Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints c Jude v. 14. Many other Scriptures tell us that we must not leave out the Saints and Angels when we look towards Heaven by faith and when we converse and walk above But this is but as on the by That which I intend for your special observation is the third Petition of the Lords Prayer where the annexed clause which seemeth to referr to all the three first Petitions doth set the heavenly Church before us as the Pattern of that obedience to the will of God which both we and all the world must imitate and pray to God that we may imitate Thy Will be done on Earth as it is done in Heaven Here Christ requireth all Christians in Prayer to look up to the Heavenly Society and to consider how they do the Will of God and to make it their Pattern and in their daily Prayers as men that long for their celestial perfection to pray that they may become their imitators even as the Scholars in the lowest form in the school must look at those in the highest form and desire and endeavour to attain to their degree You see them that this is a commanded ordinary duty Direct 7. Consider next wherein it is that your converse with Angels and the perfected spirits of the just consisteth that you may neither by your mistake neglect it nor carry it too far I. Negatively 1. It is not a Deifying them as the Heathen did their Hero's and their Divi They are still but Gods Ministers and must have nothing ascribed to them of the Divine Prerogative 2. Nor doth it consist in building Temples and Altars to their honour which savoureth at least of a compliance with Idolatry 3. Nor doth it at all consist in praying to them 1. Because as we know that they are not omnipresent or omniscient so 2. We know not at all when they are present and when they do hear us and when not 3. Nor do we know which of them it is that is at any time present with us 4. Nor have we any precept president promise or other encouragement to such prayers in Gods Word but rather much to keep us from it 4. Nor yet is it in desiring them to pray for us For that which is their duty they better know than we and it is little that we know of their capacities or opportunities And we have no Word of God neither to encourage us to this 5. Nor doth it consist in chusing any one of them above the rest for our guardian and protector and so committing our selves to their care For we have no reason to be so presumptuous as to think that we have the choice of our own Protector or that it is a matter at all referred to us or that they will undertake it ever the more for our choice 6. Nor yet may we pretend to know what particular Saint or Angel is deputed of God to our protection For there is not the least discovery of it in Nature or in the Word of God And he that pretendeth extraordinary revelation of it must be sure to prove it 7. Nor may we pray for them as if they were in purgatory or in any misery or danger which did need our prayers for them For we have neither reason to believe the thing nor any precept or encouragement to the work And as all these seven are unlawful things so these also that follow must be medled
thoughts of dying that methinks you should quietly resign it to the grave which hath been so long calling for it Especially considering what it hath done by the temptations of a vitiated appetite and sense against your souls into how many sins it hath drawn you and what grief and shame it hath procured you and what assurance and heavenly pleasures it hath hindered and how many repentings and purposes and promises it hath frustrated or undone Methinks we should conceive that we have long enough dwelt in such an habitation Direct 4. Foresee by Faith the resurrection of the body when it shall be raised a spiritual body unto Glory and shall be no more an enemy to the soul Direct 5. Renew your familiarity with the blessed ones above Remember that the great Army of God the souls of the just from Adam till now are all got safe through this Red Sea and are triumphing in Heaven already and that it is but a few straglers in the end of the world that are left behind And which part then should you desire to be with And remember how ready those Angels which rejoyced at your conversion are to be your Convoy unto Christ Luke 16.23 Direct 6. But especially think with greatest confidence and delight that Jesus your Head is entred into the Heavens before you and is making intercession for you and is preparing you a place and loveth your company and will not lose it You shall find him ready to receive your souls and present them spotless unto God as the fruit of his mediation He will have you be with him to behold his glory and none shall take you out of his hands Let his Love therefore draw up your desires and stablish your hearts in confidence and rest Direct 7. Remember that all that are living must come after you and how quickly their turn will come and would you wish to be exempt from death alone which the whole world below must needs submit to Direct 8. Think still of the Resurrection of Christ your Head that you may see that death is a conquered thing and what a pledge you have of a life to come Direct 9. Dwell still in the believing fore thoughts of the blessedness of the life to which you go as it is your personal perfection and the perfect Love and fruition of God with his perfect joyous praise Remember still what it is to see and know the Lord and all things else in him which are fit for us to know And labour to revive your Love to God and then you revive your desires and preparations Direct 10. Give up your selves wholly to the Will of God and think how much better it is for upright Souls to be in Gods hand than in your own The Will of God is the first and last the Original and End of all the creatures Besides the Will of Infinite Goodness there is no final Rest for humane souls But mans will is the Alpha and Omega the beginning or first efficient and the ultimate end of all obliquity and sin Be bold then and thankful in your approach to God remembring how much more safe and comfortable it is to be for life and death at Gods disposal than our own Bâ—sides these read the Directions against the fear of death in my Book of Self-denyal and what is said in my Saints Rest and other the Treatises before mentioned CHAP. XXVIII How by Faith to look aright to the Coming of Jesus Christ in Glory BEcause I have said so much of this also in my Saints Rest and in many other Treatises I will now pass it over with these brief Directions Direct 1. Delude not your souls nor corrupt your faith and hope by placing Christs Kingdom in things too low or that are utterly uncertain Think not so carnally of the second coming of Christ as the Jews did of the first who looked for an earthly Kingdom and despised the spiritual and heavenly And make not the unknown time or other circumstances of his coming to be to you as the certain and necessary things lest you do as many of those called Millenaries or Fifth-Monarchy men among us who have turned the doctrine of Christian hope into an outragious fury to bring Christ down before his time and to make themselves Rulers in the world that they might presently reign under the name of the Reign of Christ and have by seditious rebellious railing at Christs Ministers and hating those that are not of their mind done much to promote the Kingdom of Satan while they cryed up nothing but the Kingdom of Christ Direct 2. Do all that you can in this day of grace to promote Christs present Kingdom in the world and that will prove your best preparation for his glorious coming To that end labour with all your might to set up Life and Light and Love abhorring Hypocrisie Ignorance and Vncharitableness turn not Religion into a ceremony carkass or dead Imagery or Form Nor yet into Darkness Errour or a humane wandering distracting maze Nor into selfish proud censorious faction Build not Christs Kingdom as the Devil would do by hypocritical dead shews or by putting out his Lights or by schism division hatred and strife Read James 3. Direct 3. Yet leave not out of your faith and hope any certain part of Christs glorious Kingdom We know that we shall for ever be with the Lord and in the presence of the Father in heavenly glory and withall that we shall be in the New Jerusalem and that there shall be a new Heaven and a new Earth in which shall dwell righteousness and that we shall judge the Angels and the world And if we know not the circumstances of all these parts let not therefore any of them be denyed 1 Thes 4.11 2 Cor. 5.1 3 8. Rev. 20. 22. 2 Pet. 3.13 Direct 4. Think what a day of Glory it will be to Jesus Christ Matth. 25.31 O how different from his state of humiliation He will not come again to be despised spit on buffeted blasphemed and crucified Pilate and Herod must be arraigned at his bar it is the marriage-day of the Lamb a day appointed for his glory Rev. 21 22. Direct 5. Think what a day of honour it will be to God the Father how his Truth will be vindicated his Love and Justice gloriously demonstrated Matth. 25. 2 Thes 1.8 9. Direct 6. Think what a day it will be to all the children of God to see their Lord when he purposely cometh to be admired and glorified in them 2 Thes 1.11 12. To see him in whom they have believed whom they loved and longed for 2 Pet. 3.11 12 13. 1 Pet. 1.8 To see him who is their dearest Head and Lord who will justifie them before all the world and sentence them to life eternal To see the day in which they must receive the end of all their faith and hope their prayers labours and patience to the full 1 Pet. 1.8 9. Rev. 2 3.
Psal 5.4 5. 9.7 James 1.15 By this time methinks you should better know what the use and meaning of the Gospel and Grace and Ministers is and what is the design of Preaching and in what manner it should be done Would you have us silent or talk to you as in jeast while we see such a day as this before us Every true Preacher spaketh to you with Judgment and Eternity in his eye Our work is to prepare you or to help you to prepare to meet the Lord and to be ready for your final sentence O then with what seriousness should we speak and should you bear and should both we and you prepare It 's pitty to see people hear Sermons many years and not so much as know what a Sermon is or what is the use and nature of it If our business were to draw away Disciples after us and to make our selves the admired heads of factions then we would speak those perverse things contrary to the doctrine which you have been taught by which our ends might be carryed on Acts 20.30 Rom. 16.17 Or if our design were to be high and great and rich we would flatter the great ones of the world that we might rule you with violence instead of love Or if we consulted our case we should spare much of this labour and let you silently alone at cheaper rates to the flesh than now we speak to you But O who can be silent who is engaged in this sacred office when he foreseeth what will shortly be the issue of our prevailing or not prevailing with you Now as we love Christ we must feed his sheep and necessity is laid upon us and woe be unto us if we preach not the Gospel 1 Cor. 9.16 Our preaching Christ is to warn every man and teach every man that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus Col. 1.22 And to perswade men as knowing the terrours of the Lord 2 Cor. 9.10 11. Heb. 12.25 29. If it were only that we loved so to hear our selves talk or to be cryed up by many followers we deserved to pay dear indeed for such Preaching But when our Lord loved and pittied souls at the rate of his sufferings and bloody death surely our rates are not above the worth of souls O what a doleful sight is it to us to foresee by faith how loud how earnestly you would knock and cry when the door is shut and hope is gone And what you would then give for one of these daies which you now are a weary of and for a drop of that mercy which now doth beg your entertainment What then remaineth but as ever you believe that day and as ever you care what becometh of your souls and bodies for ever and as ever you would not be chargâ—d and condemned as final and obstinate refuâ—ers of mercy and salvation yea and for wronging the Ministers of Christ by making them study and preach in vain That you harden not your hearâ—s but hear Christs voice to day while it is called to day before the door of grace be shut O cry while crying and begging may do good Meet Christ now as may best prepare you to meet him then Meet him now as the Prodigal met his Father Luke 15. Saying I have sinned and am no more worthy to be called thy Son make me one of thy hired servants Meet God as Abigail met David 1 Sam. 25.32 34. with an offering of peace even Christ apprehended by an obedient faith When she heard from David Except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me all had been destroyed Meet him to enquire of his sacred Oracle what is like to become of thy soul as the King of Syria sent Hazael with a present to Elisha to meet him saying Shall I recover of this disease 2 King 8.8 Or as Paul met with Christ when he humbled and converted him saying Who art thou Lord and what wouldst thou have me do Acts 9. Meet him as the men of Israel and Juda did David their King 2 Sam. 19. striving who should first own and honour him Amos 4.12 Meet God thus nâ—w when hâ— caâ—â—eth you by his Word when he perswadeth you by his Mâ—â—â—sters when he moveth you by his Spirit when he allureth and obligeth you by his mercies while he driveth you by affliction while he waiteth on you by his patience and by all thâ—se calleth you to repent to love him and to obey to set your hearts on Heaven if ever you hope it should be your portion Meet him thus now and then you may joyfully meet him in his glory II. And O all you that are true Believers lift up your heads with hope and joy for your final deliverance draweth nigh The world hath but a little while longer to abuse you Satan hath but a little while more to molest you The blinded Sodomites shall not long be groping for your doors You shall not long walk among snares and dangers nor live with enemies nor with troublesome unsuitable friends You have not long to bear the burden of that wearisome body of that seducing flesh of those unruly passions or those disordered thoughts you have not long to groan under the misery of that troubled and doubting conscience that darkened mind those dull affections those remnants of unbelief stupidity and carnality nor to cry out with weariness from day to day O when shall I know God better and love him more Death is coming and quickly after Christ is coming One will begin and the other perfect your full deliverance and put an end to these complaints And remember that though Death hath somewhat in it which to nature is terrible God having made the love of Life to be the pondus or spring of motion to the great engine of the sensitive world yet what is there in the second coming of Christ that should seem unwelcome to you You shall not meet an enemy but a friend your surest and your greatest friend one that hath done more for you than all the world hath done and one that is ready now to do much more and shew his love and friendship to the height One that will be then your surest friend when all the world shall cast you off You go not to be condemned but to be openly justified yea honoured before all the world and sentenced to endless glory You go not to be numbered with the enemies of holiness or with the slothful and unprofitable servants but to be perfectly incorporated into the heavenly society and to see the glorified faces of Henoch Moses and Elias of Peter and John and Paul and Timothy and all the Saints that ever you knew or whose writings you have ever read or whose names you ever heard of millions more You go to be better acquainted with those Angels that rejoyced at your repentance and that ministred for your good and that bore you in their hands and were your continual guard both night and day You go
to joyn in consort with all these in those seraphick praises which are harmoniously sounded forth continually through all the intellectual world in the greatest fervours of perfect Love and the constant raptures of perfect Joy in the fullest intuition of the glory of the Eternal God and the glorified humanity of your Redeemer and the glory of the celestial world and society and under the streams of Infinite Life and Light and Love poured forth upon you to feed all this to all Eternity And all this in so near and sweet an union with the glorified ones who are the body and Spouse of Christ that it shall be all as one Praise one Love one Joy in all O for a more lively and quick-sighted faith to foresee this day in some measure as affectingly as we shall then see it Alas my Lord is this dark prospect all that I must here hope for Is this dull and dreaming and amazing apprehension all that I shall reach to here Is this sensless heart this despondent mind these drowsie desires the best that I must here employ in the contemplation of so high a glory Must I come in such a sleepy state to God and go as in a dream to the beatifical vision I am ashamed and confounded to find my soul alas so dark so dead so low so unsuitable to such a day and state even whilest I am daily looking towards it and whilest I am daily talking of it and perswading others to higher apprehensions than I can reach my self and even whilest I am writing of it and attempting to draw a Map of Heaven for the consolation of my self and fellow-believers Thou hast convinced my Reason of the truth of thy predictions and of the certain futurity of that glorious day And yet how little do my affections stir and how unanswerable are my joyes and my desires to those convictions when the light of my understanding should cure the deadness of my heart alas this deadness rather extinguisheth that light and cherisheth temptations to unbelief and my faith and reason and knowledge are as it were asleep and useless for want of that Life which should awaken them unto exercise and use Awakened Reason serveth Faith and is alwaies on thy side But sleepy Reason in the gleams of prosperity is ready to give place to flesh and fancy and hath a thousand distracted incoherent dreams O now reveal thy Power thy Truth thy Love and Goodness effectually to my soul and then I shall wait with love and longing for the revelation of thy Glory Thy inward heavenly powerful Light is kin to the glorious brightness of thy coming and will shew me that which books and talk only without thy Spirit cannot shew Thy Kingdom in me and my daily faithful subjection to thy Government there must prepare me for the glorious endless Kingdom If now thou wouldest pour out thy Love upon my soul it would flame up towards thee and long to meet thee and think with daily pleasure on that day And my perfect Love would cast out that fear which maketh the thoughts of thy coming to be a torment O meet me now when my soul doth seek thee and secretly cry after thee that I may know thou wilt meet me with love and pitty at the last O turn not now thine ears from my requests For if thou receive me not now as thy humble supplicant how shall I hope that thou wilt receive me then And if thou wilt not hear me in the day of grace and visitation and in this time when thou mayest be found how can I hope that thou wilt hear me then when the door is shut and the seeking and finding time is past If thou cast me out of thy presence now and turn away thy face from my soul and my supplication as a loathed thing how can I then expect thy smiles or the vital embracements of thy glorifying Love or to be owned by thee before all the world with that cordial and consolatory Justification which may keep my conscience from becoming my Hell If thou permit my flesh and sense to conquer my faith and to turn away my love and desire from thee how shall I then expect that Joy that Heaven which consisteth in thy Love And if thou suffer this unstedfast heart to depart from thee now will it not be the forerunner of that dreadful doom Depart from me ye workers of iniquity I know you not And if for the love of transitory vanity I now deny thee what can I then expect but to be finally denyed by thee Come Lord and dwell by thy Spirit in my soul that I may have something in me to take my part and may know that I shall dwell with thee for ever If now thou wilt make me thy temple and habitatâ—on and wilt dwell by faith and love within me I shall know thee by more than the hearing of the ear and thy last appearing will be less terrible to my thoughts Thou wilt be health to my soul when my body lyeth languishing in pain And when flesh and heart fail my failing heart will find reviving strength in thee And when the portion of worldlings is spent and at an end I shall find thee a never-ending portion Why wouldest thou come down from Heaven to Earth in the daies of thy voluntary humiliation but to bring down grace to dwell where God himself hath dwelt If the Eternal Word will dwell in flesh the Eternal Spirit will not disdain it whose dwelling is not by so close an union but by sweet unexpressible inoperations This world hath had the pledge of thy bodily presence when thou broughtest life and immortality to light O let my dark and fearful soul have the pledge of thy illuminating quickening comforting Spirit that life and immortality may be begun within me Thy word of promise is certain in it self but knowing our weakness thou wilt give us more Thy seal thy pledge thy earnest will not only confirm my faith as settling my doubting mind but it will also draw up my love and desire as suited to my intellectual appetite and will be a true foretaste of Heaven How oft have I gazed in the glass and yet overlookt or not been taken with the beauty of thy face But one drop of thy Love if it fall into my soul will fill it with the most fragrant and delectable odour and will be its life and joy and vigour I shall never know effectually what Heaven is till I know what it is to love thee and to be beloved by thee For what but Love will tell me what a life of Love is If I could love thee more ardently more absolutely more operatively I should quickly know and feel thy Love And O when I shall know that prosperous life and live in in the delicious entertainments of thy love and in the sweet and vigorous exercise of mine then I shall know the nature of Heaven the wisdom of believers and the happiness of enjoyers And then
which they do not perform and against many sins which they do not forbear as to forbear an oath or a lye or a cup of drink to go to Church when they go to an Ale-house c. Such a thing therefore there is and such a power mans will hath to do or not do when such a degree only of help is given Therefore we have reason enough to suppose 1. That such a degree of the Spirits help is given under the bare Teachings of the Creature or to them that have no outward light but natural revelation as is necessary to the foresaid ends and uses of that Light or Means that is to convince man that there is a God and what he is as aforesaid and that we are his subjects and benâ—ficiaries and owe him our chiâ—fest love and service and to convince them of the need of some further supernatural revelation Not that every one hath this measure of spiritual help for some by abusing the help which they have to learn the Alphabet of Nature or to practise it do forfeit that help which should bring them into Natures higher forms But so much as I have mentioned of the help of the Spirit is given to those that do not grosly forfeit it by abuse among the Pagans of the world And so much multitudes have attained 2. And so much of the Spirit was given ordinarily to the Jews as was sufficient to have enabled them to believe in the Messiah to come as aforesaid if they did not wilfully reject this help 3. And so much seemeth to be given to many that hear the Gospel and never believe it or that believe it not with a justifying Faith is as sufficient to have made them true Believers as Adams was to have kept him from his fall For seeing it is certain that such a sufficient uneffectual grace there is we have no reason to conceit that God doth any more desert his own means now than he did then or that he maketh Believing a more impossible condition of Justification under the Gospel to them that are in the neerest capacity of it before effectual grace than he made perfect obedience to be to Adam The objections against this are to be answered in due place and are already answered by the Dominicans at large 4. The outward means of grace under Christ are all one frame and must be used in harmony as followeth 1. The Witness and Preaching of Christ and his Apostles was the first and chief part together with their settling the Churches and recording so much as is to be our standing Rule in the holy Scriptures which are now to us the chief part of this means 2. Next to the Scriptures the Pastoral Office and Gifts to preserve them and teach them to us is the next principal part of this frame of means In which I comprehend all their office Preaching for conversion baptizing preaching for confirmation and edification of the faithful praying and praising God before the Church administring the body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament of communion and watching over all the flock by personal instruction admonition reproofs censures and absolutions 3. The next part conjunct with this is the communion of the faithful in the Churches 4. The next is our holy society in Christian families and family-instructions worship and just discipline 5. The next is our secret duties between God and us alone As. 1. Reading 2. Meditation and self examination 3. Prayer and thanksgiving and praise to God 6. The next part is our improvement of godly mens intimate friendship who may instruct and warn and reprove and comfort us 7. The next is the daily course of prospering Providences and Mercies which express Gods Love and call up ours as provisions protections preservations deliverances c. 8. The next is Gods castigations by what hand or means soever which are to make us partakers of his holiness Heb. 12.9 10. 9. The next is the examples of others 1. Their graces and duties 2. Their faults and falls 3. Their mercies And 4. Their sufferings and corrections 1 Cor. 10.1 10 11. 10. And lastly Our own constant watchfulness against temptations and stirring up Gods graces in our selves These are the frame of the means of Grace and of our receiving duties 2. The next in order to be considered is the whole frame of our returning duties in which we lay out the talents which we receive which lye in the order following 1. That we do what good we can to our own souls that we first pluck the beam out of our own eyes and set that motion on work at home which must go further Therefore all the foregoing means were primarily for this effect though not chiefly and ultimately for this end 2. Next we must do good according to our power to our neer Relations 3. And next to our whole Families and more remote Relations 4. And next them to our Neighbours 5. And next to Strangers 6. And lastly To Enemies of our selves and Christ 7. But our greatest duties must be for publick Societies viz. 1. For the Common-wealth both Governours and People 2. And for the Church 8. And the next part in intention and dignity must be for the whole world whose good by prayer and all just means we must endeavour 9. And the next for the honour of Jesus Christ our Mediatour 10. And the highest ultimate temination of our returning duties is the pure Deity alone For the further opening to you the Order of Christian Practice take these following Notes or Rules 1. Though receiving duties such as hearing reading praying faith c. go first in order of nature and time before expending or returning duties so that the motion is truly circular yet we must not stay till we have received more before we make returns to God of that which we have already But every degree of received grace must presently work towards God our end and as there is no intermission between my moving of my hand and pen and its writing upon this paper so must there be no intermission between Gods beams of Love and Mercy to us and our reflexions of Love and Duty unto him Even as ths veins and arteries in the body lye much together and one doth often empty it self into the other for circulation and not stay till the whole mass hath run through all the vessels of one sort veins or arteries before any pass into the other 2. The internal returns of Love are much quicker than the return of outward fruits The Love of God shed or streamed forth upon the soul doth presently warm it to a return of Love But it may be some time before that Love appear in any notable useful benefits to the world or in any thing that much glorifieth God and our Profession Even as the heat of the Sun upon the earth or trees is suddenly reflected but doth not so suddenly bring forth herbs and buds and blossoms and ripe fruits 3. All truly good works
must have one constant Order of intention which is before opened God must be first intended then Christ then the universal Church in Heaven and Earth c. But in the order of operation and execution there may be a great difference among our duties As God appointeth us to lay out some one way and some another Yet ordinarily as the emitted beams begin from God and dart themselves on the soul of man so the reflected beams begin upon or from our hearts and pass toward God though first beloved and intended by several receptacles before they bring us to the perfect fruition of him 4. Therefore the order of Loving or complacency and the order of doing good or Benevolence is not the same We must Love the universal Church better than our selves But we cannot do them sincere service before we do good to our selves And our neerest Relations must be preferred in acts of Beneficence before many whom we must love more 5. When two goods come together either to be Received or to be Done the greater is ever to be preferred and the chusing or using of the lesser at that time is to be taken for a sin I lately read a denyal of this in a superficial satyre but the thing it self if rightly understood is past all doubt with a rational man For 1. Else good is not to be chosen and done as good if the best be not to be preferred 2. Else almost all wicked omissions might be excused I may be excused for not giving a poor man a shâ—lling whatever his necessity be because I give him a farthing No doubt but Dives Luke 16. did good at such a rate as this at least and else a man might be excused from saving a drowning man if he save his horse that while c. A quatenus ad summum valet consequentia in the case of desiring and doing good But then mark the following explications 6. That is not alwaies to be accounted the greatest good which is so only in regard of the matter simply considered But that is the greatest good which is so consideratis considerandis all things considered and set together 7. When God doth peremptorily tye me to one certain duty without any dispensation or liberty of choice that duty at that time is a greater good and duty than many others which may be greater in their time and place A duty materially lesser is formally and by accident materially greater in its proper season Reaping and baking and eating are better than plowing and weeding the Corn as they are neerer to the end But plowing and weeding are better in their season To make pins or points is not materially so good a work as to pray But in its season as then done it is better And he that is of this trade may not be praying when he should be about his trade Not that he is to prefer the matter of it before praying But praying is to keep its time and may be a sin when it is out of time He that would come at midnight to disturb his rest to present his service to his Lord or King would have little thanks for such unseasonable service 8. He that is restrained by a lower calling or any true restraining reasons from doing a good which is materially greater yet doth that which is greatest unto him Ruling and Preaching are materially a greater good than threshing or digging and yet to a man whose gifts and calling restrain him from the former to the latter the latter is the greatest good 9. Good is not to be measured principally by the Will or Benefit of our selves or any creature but by 1. The Will of God in his Laws And 2. By the interest of his pleasedness and glory But secondarily humane interest is the measure of it 10. It followeth not that because the greatest good is ever to be preferred that therefore we must perplex and distract our selves in cases of difficulty when the ballance seemeth equal For either there is a difference or there is none And if any it is discernable or not If there be no difference there is room for taking one but not for chusing one If there be no discernable difference it is all one to us as if there were none at all If it be discernable by a due proportion of enquiry we must labour to know it and chuse accordingly If it be not discernable in such time and by such measure of enquiry as is our duty we must still take it as undiscernable to us If after just search the weakness of our own understandings leave us doubting we must go according to the best understanding which we have and chearfully go on in our duty as well as we can know it remembring that we have a gracious God and Covenant which taketh not advantage of involuntary weaknesses but accepteth their endeavours who sincerely do their best 11. Meer spiritual or mental duties require most labour of the mind but corporal duties such as the labours of our calling must have more labour of the body 12. All corporal duties must be also spiritual by doing them from a spiritual principle to a spiritual end in a spiritual manner But it is not necessary that every spiritual duty be also corporal 13. The duties immediately about God our end are greater than those about any of the means caeteris paribus And yet those that are about lower objects may be greater by accident and in their season As to be saving a mans life is then greater than to be exciting the mind to the acting of Divine Love or Fear But yet it is God the greatest object then which puteth the greatness upon the latter duty both by commanding it and so making it an act more pleasing to him and because that the Love of God is supposed to be the concurring spring of that Love to man which we shew in seeking their preservation 14. Our great duty about God our ultimate end can never be done too much considered in it self and in respect to the soul only we cannot so love God too much And this Love so considered hath no extream Matth. 22.37 15. But yet even this may by accident and in the circumstances be too much As 1. In respect to the bodies weaknesses if a man should so fear God or so love him as that the intenseness of the act did stir the passions so much as to bring him to distraction or to disorder his mind and make it unfit for that or any other duty 2. Or if he should be exciting the Love of God when he should be quenching a fire in the Town or relieving the poor that are ready to perish But neither of these is properly called A loving God too much 16. The duties of the heart are in themselves greater and nobler than the actions of the outward man of themselves abstractedly considered Because the soul is more noble than the body 17. Yet outward duties are frequently yea most frequently
the Air and compass the Earth and tempt the wicked and work in the children of disobedience Ephes 2.1 2. Job 1. 2 Tim. 2.26 And that Satan is called the God and Prince of this world Joh. 12.31 14.30 16.11 2 Cor. 4.4 Ephes 6.12 But if it be not the place of final execution it is the place where they are kept in prison till the great Assizes and where they are reserved in chains of darkness to the Judgment of the great day and where they are tormented before the time 2 Pet. 2.4 Jude 6. Matth. 8.29 Look then from this Dungeon to the glorious incomprehensible mansions of the holy ones and judge by them and not by this prison of the goodness and infinite benignity of God And if he will give so many obstinate despisers of his grace a place with those Devils that did seduce and rule them think not God to be therefore unmerciful but behold his mercy in the innumerable vessels of honour and mercy that shall possess the higher mansions for ever CHAP. XXV How to live by Faith in the love of one another against Self-love Direct 1. LEt Faith first employ you in the knowledge of God and when you know him who is Love it self you will best learn of him to love You will see that that is best which is likest unto God and that is worst which is most unlike him And when you consider how universally though variously he loveth his creatures and how he expresseth it and how he loveth benevolently because he is good and loveth complacentially because also the thing is good which he loveth you will learn the art of love from God Rom. 9.13 Deut. 4.37 7.8 23.5 33.3 1 John 3.16 17. 4.7 9 11 12 19 20 21. Direct 2. Study Jesus Christ aright and you will also learn to love of him There you will see Self-denying Love which stooped to earth to reproach to sufferings to labours to death and spared not life or any thing to do good It is the chief Lesson which you go to School to Christ to learn And it is as proper to go to him to learn to love as it is to go to the Sun for light Rom. 5.8 John 13.34 1 Thes 4.9 John 11.36.5 13.1 15.9 Ephes 5.2 25. John 15.12 Direct 3. Know God in his Works and Image and then you will see him in his natural Image in all men as rational and in his moral Image in all his Saints and then you will see what to love and why He that cannot see God in a glass in this world cannot see him at all and cannot love him Remember that it is in his servants and creatures that he exposeth himself to be seen and known and loved 1 Joh. 2.10 3.10 14. 4.7 8 20 21. 5.1 Matth. 25.40 Direct 4. Abhor that proud malignant censoriousness which is apt to make the worst of others and to deny and extenuate and overlook Gods graces in them as the Devil did by Job and which can see no goodness in them that are not eminently good For this is but the Devils artifice to kill mens love to one another Though he pretend the honour of Godliness and the hatred of sin when he telleth you such an one is an Hypocrite and such an one hath nothing but a form and no power of Godliness I can see nothing of God in him alas they are poor carnal people all is but to destroy your Love And thus he mightily prospereth in the malignant spirit of separation by which he can make you unchurch whole Churches and unchristen whole Towns and Parishes and all because that you that are strangers to them and see not their godliness or hear of nothing eminent in them But the world of dividers will take no warning any more than the world of the prophane Satan doth deceive them all Direct 5. Abhor therefore the sin of backbiting and evil-speaking and when you hear a malignant censurer thus unchristen and unchurch men without proof behind their backs if gentler reproofs will not serve the turn frown them away and say Get thee behind me Satan the accuser of the brethren and the spirit of hatred maketh it his work in the world to destroy mens love to one another and he hath no such way to do it as by making them seem unlovely to one another And he that perswadeth me that my neighbour is not good perswadeth me that he is not lovely and so perswadeth me from loving him Prov. 25.23 Rom. 1.30 Psal 15.3 2 Cor. 12.20 Rom. 14.3 4 10 13. James 4.11 12. Matth. 7.1 2. 1 Cor. 4.5 Direct 6. Above all seek to mortifie selfishness which is the great enemy of love to God and man A selfish man can faithfully love none but himself for he loveth all others but for himself His own opinions interests and ends are the disposers of his Love Therefore he never heartily loveth his enemy no nor the best that do not honour him but seem to slight him If any should neglect him or speak hardly of him or do him any real or seeming wrong or be of another side against his party or his cause no censures are too sharp nor no love too little for such a one And yet these that can love none heartily but themselves will find that they had no greater enemies than themselves and that Hell and Earth did not so much as themselves against them Direct 7. Subject your selves truly to Gods authority and his commands will further Love For it is the summ of them all and the fulfilling of his Law both old and new Gal. 5.14 Rom. 13.8 9 10. John 13.34 15.12 17. Matth. 12.30 32 33. Direct 8. Remember that Love is the bond and life and interest of the Church and of the world Without Love the world would have neither unity peace or safety What were a family without it Were it not for Love men that were not kept fettered in Jayles or Bedlams would be as Robbers or Wolves or mad Dogs to one another Were it not for Love the Church would be crumbled into malicious Sects that would spend their time in prating and militating against each other and preach and talk down Love to one another and would call this devilish work the preaching of the Gospel or the worshipping of God while they blaspheme him by offering him a sacrifice of hatred and reviling as they do that offer him a sacrifice of mans blood Ephes 4.15 16. But speaking the truth in Love you may grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ From whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body to the edifying of it self in Love Yea their own Sects would turn to dust and atoms if Love which is there confined did not soder them together when it is dead in