knows no Will of its own divided from the Will of God and would not will any thing but what he doth will such a Soul shall understand the fear of the Lord and hath great and frequent occasions of saying with David I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel 2. Be the doubts about our Condition and State what it is to God-ward and in reference to Eternity as S. Iames speaks Whence come Wars and fightings I may adde Whence come those fears anxieties and uncertainties that are to be observed in many about the state of their Souls those fears that have torment in them come they not from hence even from the lusts that war in their members One lust often wars against another scelera dissident but all war against the Soul Are not most of those tormenting fears and troubles in Christians to be resolved into the want of an entire Self-Resignation as the proper and true ground Men will not come off throughly to this they would be indulged in some thing or other and yet would be at peace and rest they would be cured of their distemper and yet are unwilling to have the root of it taken away Consider therefore is there not something of Self-will that works and is too powerfull within thee Wouldest thou not be unresigned and please thy self in this or that thing dost thou not say with Naaman the Syrian the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing and as Lot in another case is it not a little one If this be so God who seeth the heart seeth all this and he will not be mocked nor be bribed to give thee peace in thy making a great shew of being subdued and resigned in other things But if by the power of God's Grace our Wills be intirely subjected to the Divine Will we cannot have the least reason upon any account whatsoever to torment our selves with anxious thoughtfulness about our state we may be sure that the outward Hell shall not be our portion if we are delivered from the Hell within and that we cannot miss of the Heaven above while we have a Heaven within us and are put into a fit disposition for it by a free Resignation to the Will of God They to whom the doing God's Will is connaturall and their meat and drink have eternal life as in the Epistles of St. Iohn the phrase is more than once they in a lower degree live the life of Souls in Glory are affected as they are and have the disposition and temper of Heaven Indeed it is as impossible for Souls whose sincere care it is to purifie themselves as God is pure and onely to will as he wills to be in Hell as it is for impure self-willed and disobedient Souls to be in Heaven 'T is as impossible for Love Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance and the like fruits of the Spirit to be in Hell as it is for Vncleanness Lasciviousness Hatred Strife Wrath Envyings Cruelty Vnrighteousness and the like works of the Flesh to grow in Heaven That Soul cannot be miserable and is uncapable of the Hellish state which is intirely resigned for such a Soul dwelleth in love and therefore in God and God in him Nor can the infinitely good God abandon and cast off any Soul that cleaveth to him with full purpose of heart and preferreth his Will above her chief Joy Thirstings and holy breathings after the enjoyment of God God-like dispositions and a frame of heart agreeable to the heart of God cannot fail to be united to him their Original CHAP. V. That Self-Resignation is the way to rest and peace That those that have attained thereunto find satisfaction and pleasure both in doing and suffering the Will of God That it procures outward as well as inward peace and that Self-willedness is that which puts the World into Confusion V. SElf-Resignation is the way to true Peace Rest and Ioy Ioy unspeakable as St. Peter calls it Peace which passeth all understanding as St. Paul By the way observe that neither words nor thoughts can reach Spiritual Excellencies this is their sole priviledge that they can never be over-valued over-praised Other things we may easily speak too highly of but we can never invent too magnificent expressions concerning these we cannot raise mens expectations too high concerning them they will ever prove better then they are reported to be It will be said by the Soul that comes to know these things by experience as it was by the Queen of Sheba Behold half was not told me This Self-Resignation I say it is the way to an holy rest to the Sabbatum cordis the Sabbath of the heart as St. Austin calls it If thou wilt enjoy the true rest and keep the inward Sabbath thou must not do thine own ways nor speak thine own words nor find thine own pleasure to borrow those words in Isaiah lviij Thou must cease from thine own works as the phrase is Hebr. iv 10. All desire rest peace and pleasure but no where shall we find it but in yielding our selves to God and that it is to be found in this way our Saviour hath told his Disciples Mat. xi 29. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me and ye shall find rest to your Souls In taking Christ's Yoke upon us in bearing his burden in a sincere free and entire obedience to his Laws in learning of him who was meek and lowly in heart a pliable and obedient frame and temper of spirit we shall undoubtedly find the sweetest ease and tranquility of mind As the Soul groweth in Resignation it returns more to its rest it comes to be more as it would be by being more restored towards its original constitution its first state Man was made after God's Image and while his Will was the same with the Divine Will he dwelt in peace and joy But when he would needs have a Will of his own divided from the Will of God in falling from Resignation he fell also from peace and rest into trouble fears shame and confusion The Resigned Soul enjoys Religion in all the Sweetnesses and Priviledges of it it is prepard to taste and see how good the Lord is and the more a man is conformed to the Will of God and grows in Obedience the more he enjoys the peaceable fruits of Righteousness To him that overcometh that overcometh his own Will those Lusts that war against his Soul shall be given the hidden manna the white stone with a new name in it known by him onely that receiveth it and a stranger intermeddleth not with his joy Such an one hath meat which the world knows not of and is fed with the food of Angels Those which have the Holy Spirit for their Guide shall undoubtedly have him for their Comforter The work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever If. xxxij 17. A man can have no peace that lodgeth
their consideration thereof is no more available to this great end CHAP. XV. That the frequent consideration of the great Recompence of Reward is a mighty help to the attaining of Self-Resignation 15. TEnthly and lastly In order to the attaining of Self-Resignation let us look to the great recompence of Reward Let us with an eye of faith frequently look upon the promise of eternal life the prize that is set before us the Crown of Life and Glory that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for all obedient and resigned Souls It is said of Iesus Heb. xii 2. that for the joy that was set before him he endured the Cross as exquisitely painful as it was and despised the shame all the mockings and insultings of his enemies over him and the vile ignominy and infamy of his Death And in conformity to him a Christian may be enabled to endure the inward Cross in being crucified to the world in dying to sin and his own corrupt will by eying stedfastly the joy and glory set before him by often contemplating the future Reward which is infinitely above all the labours that accompany Self-Resignation and the pains and sorrows that do attend it The Great Apostle of the Gentiles who was acquainted not onely with the greatest sufferings from the world and the labours and pains of Mortification and Self-denial but also with this blessed Reward having been rapt up into Paradise where he saw and heard unutterable things he I say having well weighed both doth thus pronounce Rom. viii 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared bear no proportion with the glory that shall be revealed in us If the sufferings be laid in one ballance and the glorious Reward in the other the Glory will unspeakably out-weight them For it is a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory in comparison of which our heaviest afflictions are but light and our longest but for a moment That God is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him is the first principle to be believed in Religion without which all our motions and endeavours therein will be weak and feeble And the End of our Faith Obedience being much in our eye the excellency and infinite desireableness thereof will sweeten all that sowrness and take away all that unpleasantness which may be in the means A firm Belief and frequent fixed thoughts on the heavenly Reward would fill our hearts with joy and strength and carry us with great ease through whatsoever difficulties lye before us in the way of entire Obedience and Self-Resignation None of the Divine Commandments can can be grievous to the heavenly minded no trials over-burdensome The serious believing thoughts of the glory to be enjoyed will put such life spirit and vigour into us as will cause us to run the race set before us not onely with patience but with delight and joyfulness So that we shall sing in the ways of the Lord as the expression is Psal. cxxxviii 5. and glorifie him even in the jires Esay xxiv 15. We shall be enabled to submit to God's Will under great afflictions as without murmuring so with thankfulness They that grudge to give God more than the fruit of their lips than some good words wishes or intentions or some formal ceremonious observances or some reformation in lesser and easier matters and think they have done as became those that sought God's Kingdom surely these have a very mean esteem of and miserably undervalue the glory and felicities of the life to come They never spent so many thoughts on Heaven as to have any true and worthy conception of the happiness of it otherwise they could never imagine the doing and suffering no more than this comes to to be fit to be recompenced with such a Reward or that God will ever reward such a shadow of Religion with so real and substantial a Happiness their withering leaves of outward profession with such a Crown of Glory as shall never fade But those that frequently affect their Souls with the thoughts of that bliss which is promised in the Gospel to those who deny themselves and take up their Cross and follow Christ in spiritual Obedience and Resignation can never think much of any pains or trouble this may put them to If the Devil can prevail and perswade as he doth by those aiery and imaginary satisfactions he promiseth what influence would God's promises of fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore and an everlasting Kingdom have upon all those that duly consider them How will men deny themselves what labours will they undergo what hardships will they suffer for some worldly advantages which fall far short of a Kingdom for some petty principality and dominion over others for a preferment that hath some little authority in it or brings in some profit But had any such ambitious ones hopes of a Kingdom how would they be transported with all excesses of joy what difficulties dangers and painful labours would they go through and think them nothing And can we grudge to do or suffer as much if it were necessary for an infinitely more glorious Kingdom than any in this world if we really believed it attainable by us If we were promised a great earthly reward upon condition we would abstain from such and such things as are very pleasing and grateful to us would we not do it And shall not the eternal blessedness which God who is as faithful as able to perform hath promised be of like power and force with us Nay shall it not be of far greater force proportionable to the quality of the Reward When all that we can do is but very little and utterly unworthy to be compared with this glorious Reward is it possible we should do less than we can for the obtaining of it if we consideratively and believingly thought of it Know ye not saith the Apostle that they which run in a race run all but one receiveth the prize so run that ye may obtain And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things Now they do it to obtain a corruptible Crown but we an incorruptible 1 Cor. ix 24 25. If they in the Isthmian Games were so careful to observe an accurate diet for the preparing and enabling them to those exercises if they were temperate and continent in all things denying themselves in their sensitive desires if they were willing to weary and spend themselves in the race to endure blows and wounds in their combat and thought no diligence no labour no pains nor hazards too great for but a flowery or leafy a fading and corruptible Crown a short and perishing Reward would not Christians much more run their race with patience fight the good fight of faith endure hardship deny themselves and their fleshly desires while an exceeding and eternal weight of Glory is in their eye If the men of this world shall think no pains too great for
uncertain riches and which while they enjoy them are imbittered with many fears and anxious cares would not the lively hope of eternal life and a treasure in Heaven which neither the moth can eat nor rust corrupt nor thieves steal ingage us to greater labours and self-denials Would it not more enravish our hearts more strongly affect us and make us more intent earnest and industrious Surely it would Awake awake then O thou delicate and lazy Christian rouse up thy self and stir up the gift of God in thee Go up to Mount Nebo and take a fair view of Canaan that pleasant and glorious Land See what a goodly Heritage is reserved for theee and how great that goodness is which God hath laid or stor'd up for them that fear him Eye the fulness of the Reward Keep it in thy mind believe it with thine heart and then how chearfully wilt thou travel through the Wilderness to Canaan before thee Yea this will make the very Wilderness a little Canaan or Land of rest and delight to thee it will make it a little Eden and Garden of the Lord. Nor wilt thou then grudge at it if God shall prove and humble thee by a long journey in the Wilderness to know what is in thine heart as it is said of Israel in the figure and letter whether there be in thee an obedient will a resigned patient submissive temper as to his commands and disposals Thou wilt not be difficultly perswaded to believe that Canaan will make an abundant recompence for all thy travels and wearisome labours And if in the mean while God feeds thee with the bread of heaven sustains thee with Manna in the Wilderness art thou not well dealt with and kindly treated by him Hereafter to feed with Angels to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdom of Heaven and here to be provided for with Angels food as Manna is called to the full To have joy unspeakable and glorious an eternity of pleasures hereafter and with all peace which passeth all understanding here inward pleasures and delicious satisfactions from reflexions upon the doing of thy duty the peaceable fruit of righteousness which thy sowing to the Spirit will yield thee in this life To be crowned with Glory in Heaven and on Earth to be crowned with loving kindness and tender mercies These fore-tastes of happiness and earnests of the great Reward these aureolae and little Coronets for the present and the assurance of a massie Crown a weight of glory in the other life methinks should be of force to endear obedience and greatly to sweeten patience to thee to remove all apprehension of difficulty and harshness in what God will have thee either do or suffer If there be any Generosity in thee thou canst not but be very angry with and condemn thy self whensoever thou feelest any secret grudging and repining at what God would have thee undertake seeing he hath proposed such a Reward to animate thee to it If there were any Ingenuity in thee thou couldst not chuse but blush and be ashamed at that little thou either sufferest or doest for the Kingdom of God Thy Obedience is due to his Commands and thy submission to his wise righteous and good will though there were no future Reward for thee But will God bestow on thy Obedience and thy Patience the two parts of Self-Resignation so glorious a reward Will he reward an obedience for a short time and that far short of perfection too and a momentary suffering of affliction with an eternity of bliss with a glory so transcendently and astonishingly great And is this great Reward so near this present life is but short thou hast but a few days to continue here there is but a step between thee and eternal life There is between this and the other world the Vale of the shadow of death a darksome passage but a very short one and thou shalt enter upon possessing the reward of the inheritance which at the glorious appearance of Jesus Christ shall be grown up to its full proportion Canst thou seriously consider these things and think any thing too dear and precious which God would have thee part with and deny thy self in or call any thing grievous which he either commands or tries thy Resignation to his Will by The End Books Printed for and sold by Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-head in Saint Paul's Church-Yard H. 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Gal. i. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke xiv 27. Mat. x. 38 Psal. ciii 20 21. Ab eo tempore censemur ex quo in Christo renascimur S. Ierom in his Epitaph on Nepotianus 1 Cor. xv Gal. iv 6 Rom. viii 17. 1 Pet. i. 3 * Quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absque iugo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal. ii 3. Jer. v. 5. Eph. ii 2. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. vi 9. †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. ii 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Psal. lxix 31. * 1
godliness that tend to the real bettering of Man and transforming him into the Divine Image such as are most powerful to the subduing our own Wills as divided from God's and the bringing them unto a conformity to the Will of God But alas these great practical Truths have been too commonly either sparingly or but coldly and insignificantly not fully clearly and vigorously recommended The great noise and ado in the Christian World hath been about the lighter matters of the Law Mint Annise and Cummin Meats and Drinks wherein the Kingdom of God doth not consist The great talk and zeal hath been about things less necessary and more obscure and doubtful men doting about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh envy strife railings and evil surmisings It pleaseth men to hear of speculative Doctrins and to be entertained with a luscious Preaching of the Gospel made up all of Promises and these wholly unconditional it gratifies them to hear what is done without them rather than what is to be done within them and the necessity of sincere and entire obedience to our Saviours Precepts urged upon them All would reign with Christ but they would not suffer with him they would hear only of Christs dying for sin of his being crucified for them but to hear of their dying to sin and their own corrupt will of their being crucified with him and suffering their wills to be resigned to the will of the Father as Christs was to hear of making an entire oblation of themselves to God this is a hard saying few will bear it 't is very unpleasing to flesh and blood 't is too spiritual a Gospel for the carnal mind to relish But how unpleasing soever it be it is not therefore to be forborn for if we should seek to please men we should not be the servants of Christ. If we should gratifie and humour insincere people in their soft and delicate self-chosen Religion and their willing their own will we should not be faithful to their souls whose grand interest and necessary concernment it is to know and practise this first and great Lesson in the School of Christ. Self-Resignation is a great part of the Doctrin that is according to godliness They are the wholsom or healing words of our Lord Jesus Christ viz. He that doth not take up his Cross and come after me cannot be my disciple Nor is he worthy of me This is healing Doctrin that alone can cure the inward Distempers of our Souls and therefore absolutely necessary to be taught and prest with all authority It matters not that the carnally minded and delicate Christian doth not relish it We that are the Ministers of the Gospel are to imitate careful and prudent Physicians who when they come to their Patients do not ask them what they love best and then prescribe them what is most pleasing to their Palates though most hurtful but informing themselves well of the case of the diseased they appoint what they judge most proper for them though it be no whit grateful or acceptable to them But howsoever the resigning their wills to the will of God be as loathsom Physick to the carnal it is to the truly spiritual both meat and drink as it was to their great Master It is their constant Diet the savoury Meat which their Souls love and live by They esteem the fore-mentioned and the like words of their Saviours mouth more than their necessary food to borrow Iob's expression Chap. xxiii 12. And this so little minded so much neglected Doctrin of Self-Resignation is that which I design to treat of and with all seriousness to recommend to those that name the name of Christ. For the more distinct understanding whereof we must know that Self-Resignation doth relate either First to the Commands of God particularly such Commands as are difficult to nature and grievous to flesh and bloud for to obey in lesser and more easie instances is no worthy proof of our Resignation and thus considered it implieth an entire Obedience to the Preceptive Will of God Or Secondly it relates to hard Trials great hardships and sufferings such as God doth allot and appoint to humble us and to know what is in our hearts And thus considered it implieth a meek patience and quiet submission to the divine Disposals and Will of Providence But I shall not speak to these two distinctly but joyn them both together in this Aphorism wherein is comprized the grand Fundamental and Mystery of Practical Religion viz. That a Christian is to resign his Will wholly to the Will of God to make an entire Oblation of himself to him In discoursing on which we shall first present you with several weighty Considerations that do most effectually recommend to us this Self-Resignation And secondly set down such Helps and Directions as are most proper to attain it SECT I. Considerations recommending the Duty of SELF-RESIGNATION to our most serious and diligent Practice CHAP. I. That it is the Law of our Creation both first and second The Consideration of God as a second Creator shewed mightily to inforce our Engagement to this Duty upon a four-fold account 1. SElf-Resignation is the Law of our Creation our necessary condition and property both as we are Creatures and as New-Creatures as we are made and as we are renewed after God's Image It is not a new thing introduced first by Christ 't is not an Institution peculiar to the times of the Gospel so that for almost four thousand years Man was not obliged to it but it is our unchangable property arising from our dependence upon God and relation to him There is a Law written within us that requires this nor can any thing free us from our Obligation hereunto We were made by God for himself and therefore must needs be under an eternal Obligation to yield universal Obedience to him This is an old Commandment which man had from the beginning rooted in and interwoven with his very Being all the Duties enjoined therein are Branches of the everlasting Righteousness and are of an eternal and unchangable nature 'T is the Character of Angels that they do his Commandments hearkening to the voice of his word and that they do his will And the Self-Resignation of Angels their doing God's Will in Heaven is the model of Mens Resignation and Obedience on Earth for our Saviour hath taught us thus to pray Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven Angels and Men are under the same Moral Obligation of Religion the same Law for substance concerns both Love is the sum of the whole Law and Angels are to love God with all their might as well as Men and one Angel is to love another as himself Religion obligeth every rational and understanding Creature and the Quintessence of Religion is Resignation and therefore it is impossible this could ever have not been or should ever for the future cease to be our Duty Omnia sunt in
impetuously carried out to all iniquity with greediness so far as it is judged safe and that such or such a sin is not prejudicial to another more beloved sin or to any worldly advantage or Interest The Soul wherein Self-will is set up saith with proud Pharaoh Who is the Lord that I should obey him This is another abomination of desolation standing in the holy place erected in the Soul which should be holy to the Lord. Self-will it is an inward and mysterious Antichrist opposing and exalting it self above God it sits as God in the heart that inward temple of God shewing it self that it is God It is an Anti-God and will be obeyed in all things It sets up its threshold by God's threshold and its posts by God's posts In the Scripture the pleasing of our own will is frequently put in the general for all sin In Ecclesiastes xi 9. going on in sinful and wicked courses is exprest by walking in the way of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes In Ieremy mens wickedness is often stiled walking after the imagination of their own heart And in Isaiah lviij 13. doing of sinful actions is called doing thine own ways and finding thine own pleasure In Numbers xv 39. sinning against God is called seeking after thine own heart and thine own eyes And as Self-will is the Root of all Sin so is it likewise the Root of Misery both here and hereafter It being the root of the former it must needs be so of the latter also Sin and Misery being inseparable And as we shewed that the Happiness of Heaven as to the main consists in being transformed into the Divine Image or the having but one Will with God so by consequence the Hellish State doth chiefly consist in a perfect contrariety to God and the Soul's opposition to the Divine Will Therefore is the Devil a most miserable creature because he is made up of Self-will because the Will of God is most grievous to him he sets himself against it and goes about the world solliciting and endeavouring to draw others from complying with it And those with whom he prevails he by so doing makes them as miserable as himself If there were no Self-will there would be no Hell according to that of St. Bernard Cesset voluntas propria infernus non erit Let Self-will cease and there will be no Hell To suppose Self-Resignation in a damned and miserable Soul and Self-will in an happy and glorified one is to suppose the greatest contradictions and inconsistences There can be nothing of Self-Resignation in Hell and nothing of Self-will in Heaven In speaking to the fourth aud fifth Considerations it hath been shewed that it is impossible that that Soul should be miserable which is sincerely and intirely resigned to the Will of God and on the contrary that that Soul cannot but be miserable that wills contrary to him and therefore I shall proceed no farther upon this Argument CHAP. XI That the Love of Christ in dying for Sinners makes the Duty of Self-Resignation most highly reasonable and lays the greatest obligation upon us thereunto XI IN the eleventh place The Love of Christ in dying for us is most powerful to oblige Christians to this great Duty of Self-Resignation Christ's giving himself a Sacrifice and Offering to God in a way of atonement and expiation layeth the strongest engagement on Christians to offer up themselves as a Sacrifice to him in a way of Resignation and Obedience This improvement the Apostle makes of this Consideration 2 Cor. v. 14 15. The Love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them What could he more express Should not live unto themselves not please themselves gratifie their own Self-will and Lusts but please Christ do his will give him the preheminence in all things Not seek our own but the things which are Iesus Christs Not minde and pursue our own ease profit and honour chiefly and above all but live to his honour and glory and prefer his Interest before our own The like inference the same Apostle makes in 1 Cor. vi 20. Ye are bought with a price viz. with the precious bloud of Iesus Christ therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's And what is the best way of glorifying God hath been shewed in the third Chapter The Death of Christ is the great manifestation of his Love by the bitterness of his Cup by the depth of his Sorrows and Sufferings for us we may make an Estimate of the exceeding height of his dear affection Behold and see was there any Sorrow like unto his Sorrow and therefore was there any Love like unto his Love Greater love hath no man than this said Christ himself that a man lay down his life for his friends but he laid down his life for us when Enemies Out of Love he left Heaven and the bosom of his Father and the glorious attendance of the Angels and humbled himself to a mean low and afflicted life upon Earth He who was rich became poor that we through his poverty might be rich Such was the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ. Out of Love he died he who was Lord of all the Lord of Glory the brightness of God's Glory and the express Image of his Person he humbled himself to death even the death of the Cross a death of the greatest pain and shame And notwithstanding the pains and sorrows both inward and outward which he felt were inexpressibly great yet after his Resurrection he would have gone into the Garden again gone over his Agony again and drunk that bitter Cup which made his Soul so sorrowful He would have gone to Calvary and been crucified again he would have poured out his life to death again and again if it had so pleased God had it been the will of his Father that he should repeat his Sorrows and Sufferings for the Redemption of man for he knew nothing but to be obedient and perfectly resigned to the Will of his Father This is that Love of Christ which passeth knowledge Love beyond compare Love beyond expressions or conceptions and can there be a more natural a more powerful engagement to Self-Resignation than such a Love Did Christ so freely give himself for thee and shouldest not thou most heartily and willingly give up thy self to him Was all of Christ turned into a Sacrifice for thee and shouldest not thou make an intire Oblation of thy self without any reserve to him It 's not only Ingenuity but Iustice wholly to live to him that died for thee and bought thee with so dear a price Did he suffer such unexpressible pains for us and shall not we be willing to endure some pain and smart which at first will be in denying the sollicitations of our fleshly mind
But God will reward them with an eternal Reward with an exceeding and eternal weight of Glory So that well might the Apostle reckon the sufferings of this present time and consequently the services also not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Rom. viii 18. Thou art not far from thy journeys end thou hast but a short life a little time to testifie thy love to God here on earth and he hath an Eternity to reward thee in which therefore should encourage our patience to persevere and hold out to the end Especially when we consider that though this Reward be future yet it is near at least part of it and a considerable part too Though there will be a further completion of our felicities at the Resurrection of the just and the great day of recompence yet the Souls of the faithful may expect to receive a very considerable part of the recompence of reward before that day And even in this life they have some earnests of that glorious Reward some foretastes of the pleasures of God's right hand some bunches of the Grapes that grow in the upper and heavenly Canaan And the more Christians endeavour to live the life of Heaven the more heavenly their affections and conversations are here the more shall they have here of heavenly Enjoyments And in these respects the Scripture sometimes speaks of those that are excellently religious even whilst they are in this life that they have eternal life John vi 54. 1 John v. 13. And that they sit with Christ in heavenly places Eph. ii 6. Lastly This Resignation to the Will of God is also highly conducing to our Temporal Good And that not onely because it hath the promise of the life that now is as well as of that to come but because it tends in its own nature hereunto Here I will particularly and very briefly shew that it makes for our profit and advantage as to our outward estate as to our ease and quiet and as to our health and strength 1. As to our outward estate This it doth 1. As it engages men against Pride and to Humility and Modesty By this means are avoided vast and needless expenses about Attire and Dressing Building Feastings and a great number of pompous Vanities And also the great charges which men of aspiring and ambitious spirits are at for the procuring of Dignities Honours and high Places and the supporting of their Grandeur that they may be the more esteemed reverenced and admired by the world 2. As it engageth to Temperance and Sobriety against all Sensuality and a delicious luxurious life And so expensive Divertisements Sports and Revellings Incontinence and making provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof which impair and consume mens Estates and bring not a few to a morsel of bread are all avoided The desires of Temperance are cheap easie and soon satisfied 3. As it engages to Meekness in opposition to Wrath Malice and Revenge And by this means Quarrels which often cost men dear and abundance of expensive Law-suits are prevented It costs men much more usually to revenge Injuries than to bear them 4. As it engageth to Labour and Industry in lawful Callings in opposition to Carelessness and Sloth which as Solomon saith shall clothe a man with rags whereas the hand of the diligent maketh rich 2. It makes for our ease and quiet in the world And this 1. As it engageth to Meekness and peaceable spiritedness which as it is a grace most lovely in it self so it makes those that are indued with it lovely and acceptable to others and wins and attracts good will 2. As it engageth to Mercifulness both in giving and forgiving None but a Monster and one prodigiously wicked and unworthy will put affronts upon and procure trouble to those that are mercifull in these two respects 3. As it engageth to Justice Truth and Uprightness in giving to every one his due in not defrauding wronging or defaming any all which plainly tend to the procuring of Peace 3. It makes for our health and strength the good habit and constitution of our Bodies as well as of our Souls This it doth 1. As it engageth to Sobriety against Excess which both begets and feeds diseases and Distempers Incontinence and Intemperance weaken both the body and the mind shorten life and make it painful and uncomfortable while it lasts 2. As it engageth against heart-tearing Cares and such anxious Solicitudes as waste natural strength and prey upon the spirits 3. As it engages against all inordinate affections all fleshly as well as worldly lusts These make men lean and sick as Amnon's lust after Tamar made him 4. As it begets chearfulness and tranquillity of spirit which hath a proper efficacy to the preservation of health As a broken spirit drieth the bones so a chearful heart doth good like a medicine Prov. xvii 22. 5. As it engageth to honest labour in opposition to a soft and delicate life Exercise hath a natural tendency to the making men hardy strong and healthful Now then would we be fully and in all things resigned to the holy and good will of God let us observe this first Direction and labour after a great sense of the truth of the foregoing Principles and all those Considerations which have been proposed to our view which are most powerful arguments to perswade to this Duty CHAP. II. That humble and fervent prayer is a necessary and effectual means to the attaining the grace of Self-Resignation II. IN the second place Being humbled in a deep sense of thy Irresignation and Disobedience wherein thou hast hitherto walked to the hurt and danger of thy Soul beg of God this high and holy temper of Soul This one thing desire thou of God and seek after it all thy days Humble and holy Prayer is one of the greatest helps to the obtaining of any grace or good thing from God Let us then carefully apply our selves to him for this great blessing it being such a one as none but himself can give and he who is our Father in Heaven the Father of mercies will give this and all good things to them that ask him If any of you lack wisdom saith S. Iames let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him Now this Resignation of our wills to the Will of God is the highest point of wisdom and this sort of wisedom is particularly meant in the Text as appears by the foregoing verses But then our Prayers must be with fervency and in faith First They must be fervent The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much James v. 16. Not cold and languid desires or faint wishes But we are not to judge of the true fervency of Prayer by the heat of the head or phansie but by the heat of the heart and the ardency of our affections My heart saith David 〈◊〉 〈◊〉