make an alteration or a change in the heart of a sinner from worse to better except God sanctifie it The Plague upon the body is not a remedy in it self to cure the Plague of the heart for men love more the plague of their hearts than they loathe the plague of the body Possibly outward Judgements may put a stop to some mens sinnings for the present but they will return to them afterwards except God speak effectually to their hearts and consciences as well as lay his heavy stroaks upon the body Judgement to a sinner may be as a Barre to a Thief it may stop him from the present act but doth not change his heart or as a storm to a Mariner may make him cast Anchour for the present but still he retains his purpose of sayling in his Voyage when the storm is over they are oftner salve for their eyes to shew them their sin than physick for their hearts to purge them out sinners in Judgements might declaim against their sin but without a setled purpose in their hearts to decline their sin where there is Grace Afflictions work patience and submission but where there is nothing but corruption they often work passion and repining not Repentance the more God sent his Judgements and his Plagues upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians the more they hardened themselves against God and his people and by Gods Judgements were not the better but the worse Exod. 7.19 to 23. Isa 1.5 Why should ye be smitten any more ye will revolt more and more Psal 78.30 They were not estranged from their Lusts but while their meat was in their mouths v. 31. the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them V. 32. For all this they sinned still and believed not for his wondrous works And as it was with the woman that had an Issue of blood twelve years in respect of her bodily distemper after great cost and charge and use of means she was nothing bettered but rather grew worse Mar. 5. 25 26. so under Gods Judgements it is with most wicked men in respect of their spiritual state they are nothing bettered but rather grow worse And this appears First Because in time of Judgment they are not separated from their dross Ezek. 24.13 In thy filthiness is lewdness because I have purged thee i. e. God used purging Judgments and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee God hath been purging our houses but many have not been purging their hearts but retain their heart-filthiness stil and their life-wickedness stil If God in Judgement say to such You shall not be purged their case is irrecoverably miserable Secondly Because they are not more serious in Religion than they were before either they omit it wholly as before or are as dull and formal as they were before Thirdly Because they are not brought nearer unto God but are rather removed were it possible at a further distance from God than before And the Reasons of this are 1. Because When Gods hand is lifted up they will not see Isa 26.11 they look more to second Causes than to God 2. Because they search not after the sins that provoked God to so great indignation 3. Because if they do see their drunkenness and whoredoms and Sabbath-breaking yet they will not be humbled for them nor forsake them SECT IX III. WIcked men are oftentimes worse by Gods delivering them from Judgements and calamitous distresses Take a wicked man upon his sick bed when God is shaking him over the Grave and threatning him with death and affrighting him with the terrours of Hell you shall hear him acknowledge his sin confessing his drunkenness his neglect of his soul and you shall hear him it may be with tears in his eyes promising if God will raise him from his sickness and trust him with life and time a little longer he will forsake his wicked company and prophane the Sabbath no more If God will but try me saith the sick dying man how will I live and what will I doe and how obedient will I be to the Commands of God And when God answereth his desires in his restoration he performeth not his Promise in his reformation but is more wicked and more vile than before You might see this in Pharaoh when the Plagues were upon him Oh then send for Moses and let him entreat the Lord for me and then I will let Israel goe then he confesseth I and my people have sinned but the Lord is righteous Though many wicked men will not acknowledge nor confess their sin in times of Judgement so much as an hardened Pharaoh did But yet when the Plagues were removed he hardened himself more against God still Read Exod. 8.8.15.24.28.32 and 9.23.27 So Nehem. 9.27 28 29 30. And the Reasons are 1. Because after Judgements removed they are more secure and think the bitterness of death is past 2. Because they break their promises made to God in time of Judgements and so their sin is greater and their guilt is greater and therefore they the worser of this more under another Direction 3. Because Judgement is removed from them before they are purged from their sin When the Plaister is taken off before the sore is healed it will be worse the course of physick is not continued till the vitious humours are dispersed and purged away but Gods people desire the cure may be wrought before the Affliction be removed But Pharaoh was for the removing of the Plagues but not the hardness of his heart 4. Because they adde Incorrigibleness unto all their former sins and must answer for all those Judgements that were lost upon them Wicked men shall not only answer for their Mercies but for the Judgements God sent upon them to reclaim them Sinner God sent the Plague into thy house and then he looked thou shouldest have hastened to have thrown sin out of thy heart but thou hast not done it God did cast thee upon a bed of sickness but thy bed of sickness was not to thee a bed of sorrow for thy sin thou howledst and cryedst our of thy loathsom running-sores but not of thy filthy heart and more loathsome sins thy body was pained but thy heart not broken thou hast been punished and delivered but art not reformed but know the more thou hast sinned and the more thou hast been punished here and yet sin still the more shalt thou be tormented in hell For these thou shouldest look upon as means which God doth use to bring thee to himself and the more means thou hardenest thy self against the more is thy sin and the more shal be thy misery Thus wicked men are oftentimes the worse by Gods Providences But if this be thy case that readest these Lines that wast a drunkard before and wilt be drunk more frequently now that wast a lukewarm Formalist before the Plague begun but now
should walk in newness of life Ver. 6. Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin In which Scripture are set down these things viz 1. The parts of Sanctification Mortification Vivification 2. The cause of our Sanctification viz. communion with Christ in his Death Burial and Resurrection 3. The Testimony and Pledge of it our Baptism 4. The growth and progress of Mortification we should aime at the total destruction of the body of sin by the Crucifying Destroying and Burial of sin You have seen the death of thousands and you have seen the Burial of thousands to all these add one more Funeral and that is the Funeral of your sins Do you out-live this Judgment and shall your sins do so too God forbid This would be to live altogether unanswerably to so great a mercy You live but your sins should be dead in you and you unto your sins Rom. 6.11 Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Though you live yet must you be buried Now Believers are buried in three respects 1. In respect of their good names as they are reproached by the wicked The throats of the wicked are the Sepulchres or burial places of the good names of Gods people this is part of a Believers sufferings 2. In respect of Self-denial Believers must be no more taken with the things of this World so far as to draw them from God than a person dead and buried and lying in his grave 3. In respect of the Mortification of sin and these two last are our duty and of this last I would speak a little following the Metaphor in which there is some difference and some agreement in the burial of our sin and in common burial The difference in these Respects First We bury our friends weeping for their death desirous of their life wishing oâ— that this my Friend had not died oh that I could have kept him in life But we must bury our sin rejoycing as those that are glad of its death Not weeping because sin is dead but that it once did live Secondly We bury our Friends with hopes that they shall rise again and live again But we must bury our sins with hopes they shall never live more never return to them more The resemblance holds in these particulars 1. The Burial of sin supposeth the death of sin Never any man yet buried his sins alive For while sin doth live it is in the heart as in a Throne and not as in a Grave 2. The Burial of sin supposeth the ceasing of the love of sin that we see not that beauty and comliness in sin as we did when it was alive A man that loves his Relation while he lived put him in his bosome yet will not do so when he is dead a man while he loves his sin will never bury it 3. The Burial of sin includeth the removal of it out of our sight and as much as may be out of our thoughts We love not to look upon dead friends nor many times to think or talk of them who while they lived were pleasing objects to our eyes and the delightful matter of our discourse While Sarah lived she was beautiful in Abrahams eyes but when dead he desired to have her removed out of his sight Gen. 23.4 I am a stranger and a sojourner with you give me possession of a burying place with you that I may bury my dead out of my sight The presence of sin is a trouble to you when it is dead and you would have it out of your sight and this removal of sin when dead and buried hath these three properties First It is a total removal the whole body of sin and all the members of it are buried Death might arise from the disease of some particular part but burial covers all He that makes a shew of the burial of sin and yet keeps any in his heart as his love and delight hath indeed buried no sin For who doth so bury his friend as to keep any of his members in his house Secondly It is a voluntary removal when one is dead we make it matter of our choice to have him buried Yea we look upon it as a sore evil and great annoyance to have burial denied to our dead friends So it is your choice to bury your sins and the thoughts of not having them buried is a great trouble to you Thirdly It is a perpetual removal we bury our friends so that we would not have them taken up again and brought into our house So you bury sin never to have it brought back to live again in your heart One that hath buried his sin doth earnestly desire it might be removed out of the sight of God by free pardon out of the sight of his own eyes by the evidence of the pardon and out of the sight of others by leading a contrary Conversation 4. The Burial of sin includes the rotting of the old man in its grave the mouldring of it and the daily wasting of it as dead Corps buried in the earth do consume and wast daily Though a body buried doth not presently totally consume Many years after the burial if the grave be opened you may find the bones and the skull the reliques of sin in the heart of a Child of God are but as the bones and the skull but the body of sin is destroyed 5. The Burial of sin includes the loss of the power and authority that sin had in the heart while it was alive Though a man were never so potent while he lived yet when he is dead and buried he hath no more power nor jurisdiction Though thy sin did sit as a Lord and rule in thy soul while it lived yet being dead and buried its dominion ceaseth Now if you are buried with Christ these things will be a comfort to you viz 1. Those that are buried with Christ are most comely in the sight of God A man that is naturally dead and buried is not so with us but he that is spiritually dead to sin is beautiful in the eyes of God 2. Those that are buried with Christ have converse and Communion with God those that are naturally dead have no more converse with us but a man hath no Communion with God till he is buried with Christ 3. Those that are buried with Christ are past the hurt of death As those that are naturally dead have past through all that death can do unto them if you are buried with Christ though you must come under the stroke of death yet the sting of death is taken out 4. Those that are buried with Christ shall be raised at the last day and shall for ever live with God and Christ and with holy Angels and Saints in the Kingdom of God Rom. 6.8 Now if we be dead
them still The sins that were offensive unto God at first are amongst us still the sins continue the Judgement removed Oh stand and wonder at this that when Justice hath cut down so many that Mercy yet hath spared so many especially if you seriously consider Gods holiness and purity Gods justice and severity Gods infinite hatred unto sin and that it is not the death of thousands that can satisfie Gods Justice nor the death of those that are gone down into the grave that have pacified Gods wrath for us that do yet remain alive What may be the Reasons 1. God hath done this for his own Names sake If you goe to the Church-yards and Burial places in and about the City and see the heaps of dead bodyes and ask Why hath God done this We must answer We all have sinned If you goe into your houses and dwelling places and finde so many living after so great a Mortality and ask why hath God done this We must answer It is for his own Name sake The Plague was inflicted because we had displeased him but it is removed because Mercy hath pleased him We had deserved the inflicting of it but could not merit the removing of it In this late Providence Justice and Mercy have been wonderfully magnified Justice in removing so many thousands and laying them in their graves Mercy in sparing so many thousands and maintaining them in life that have been so long walking in the Valley of the shadow of death This is because God in the midst of Judgement hath remembred Mercy Ezek. 36.21 But I had pity for mine holy Name ver 22. Therefore say unto the house of Israel thus saith the Lord God I doe not this for your sakes O house of Israel but for mine holy Name sake So when God gives good things as well as when he removeth evil it is for his Name sake God hath taken away your sickness and plague-sores and given you health Vers 31. Then shall ye remember your own evil wayes and your doings that were not good and shall loathe your selves in your own sight for your Iniquities and for your Abominations V. 32. Not for your sakes doe I this saith the Lord God be it known unto you be ashamed and confounded for your own wayes O house of Israel Oh if you have been spared for his Names sake then let all the praise of your life be unto his holy Name But then you must not be worse but better than you were 2. God hath removed his Judgement in answer to the Prayers of his people Prayer hath been an ancient Antidote against the Plague and many have been preserved from the grave as a return to prayer and so it hath of old been prevalent for the removing of the Plague And therefore Magistrates commanding the people to fast and pray proceeded in Solomons course to have it removed 1 King 8.37 If there be in the Land Famine if there be Pestilence whatsoever Plague whatsoever sickness there be What must they do then Vers 38. What prayer and supplication prayer you see is a Panpharmacum a remedy for every disease soever be made by any man or by all thy people Israel which shall know every man the plague of his own heart and spread forth his hands towards this house Vers 39. Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place and forgive Prayer is the remedy prescribed by Solomon But what are the persons whose prayers shall prevail for the removing of so sore a judgement Not those that have Plague-wishes so often in their mouthes but the prayer of any man that knoweth i. e. seeth and is sensible of the Plague of his own heart 3. God may remove judgements for the benefit of his Elect that yet may be unconverted and in mercy to them who may be yet in their sins God may stay this Plague it might be for some yet unborn that may proceed from the Loyns of some that are now worse than they were before The patience and long-suffering of God is conducible to the conversion and salvation of Gods Elect 2 Pet. 3.15 And doth lead men to repentance Rom. 2.4 Many peradventure have not yet repented whom God will bring to glory and he that hath designed them to the end will preserve them in life till the means have been effectual to fit them for that end 4. God may spare some that are worse by removing judgements because as yet they are not ripe enough for slaughter The Oxe is spared longer time because not yet fit for the Shambles Thus God spared Jerusalem till they had filled up the measure of their sins Mat. 23.32 And so God exercised patience towards the Amorites till their iniquity was full Gen 15.16 God may remove and keep off judgement from some and this may be in judgement to them as he may in mercy deny some mercies unto some SECT XII What are the aggravations of this great impiety to be worse after Gods sorest judgements than they were before THat many wicked men are so we have shewed before and given the proof and reasons of it But wo to you whose case this is Is this the return you make to God Is this the fruit of his patience and forbearance to you Do you thus requite the Lord Oh foolish people and unwise Deut. 32.6 Will you seriously consider this evil frame of heart and this ungodly practise in your lives in these following particulars I. Are you worse then you were before then you are more like unto the Devil than you were before and the more unlike to God that made you A man full of all sin and bent to every wickedness is called a childe of the Devil Act. 13.10 The Devil sins as much as he can and thou dost as wickedly as thou canst Jer. 3.5 It is a folly in men to picture things immaterial and invisible and living by things without life material and visible never send a man to view the picture of the Devil with a cloven foot drawn by Art the most exact and accurate lively picture of the Devil as a Devil that is as a sinner is the worst of wicked men and who are worse than thou that neither mercy can draw nor judgement drive to God and Christ II. The worse you grow and the further you proceed in sin the more impudent you will be in the commission of it The beginnings of sin are often done with blushings of face but the progress in sin is voide of all modesty then you will be drunk and glory in it then you will swear and not be ashamed of it Jer. 6.15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination nay they were not at all ashamed neither could they blush Pro. 7.13 III. The further thou proceedest in making progress in thy sin the more it is to be feared thou wilt never return but if thou shouldest the more thou hast to sorrow for It is but very rare that God bringeth
those back that are come up to an height of sin sometimes he doth that none might despair but very rarely that none might presume It is to be feared thou art forsaken of God and he hath left thee to thy self when word nor rod can reclaim thee from thy sin nor put a restraint upon thee from waxing worse IV. The worse thou art after such a judgement The sooner God will be provoked to hast on thy destruction by some other God hath not spent all his arrows in the late judgement he hath his Quiver full still and if thou go on when God giveth thee yet a space to repent after so great a warning by the Plague he will ere long cast thee into a bed of trouble Rev. 2.21 22. Thy increased wickedness is to Gods wrath as the blast to the fire will quickly blow it up into a flame though thy conscience is asleep yet thy damnation slumbereth not 2 Pet. 2.1.3 while thou lingerest in thy sin Gods judgements do not linger but are upon the wing and the worse thou art the sooner will they befall thee and be more heavy when they come Jer. 48.16 The calamity of Moab is near to come and his affliction hasteth fast V. The worse thou growest the more thou heapest up treasures of wrath and every sin is adding to the pile of that fire by which thou must eternally be burned temporal judgements might quickly befall thee but if they do not eternal damnation shall overtake thee and the higher thou goest in wickedness the lower thou shalt sink and lye in hell God will proportion thy degrees of torments to thy growth and progress in sin Now thou hast a treasure of sin Mat. 12.35 And God hath his treasures of wrath Deut. 32.34 And as thou layest in sin to the treasury of sin so God layeth in wrath to the treasury of wrath Rom. 2.5 Thy present preservation is but a reservation to greater indignation then is discovered in a Plague Tarditatem supplicii gravitate compensabit deus He will recompence the delay of thy misery and punishment with the weight and load of it Job 36.13 VI. To be worse and more wicked after so great a judgement will be to slight and set at nought the justice of God when you have seen with your eyes the dreadful heaps of dead Corpse that it hath made in every Church-yard Have you not seen that God is displeased with sin and will you go on to do worse as if you would bid defiance to God even when he is angry and displeased Have you not seen that there is wrath in God and that justice will call sinners to his barre by dragging them out of this world And will you after all this go on to sin against a just God and as it were say let justice do its pleasure I will have mine this doth aggravate your sin VII To be worse after such a judgement will be to sin against the Patience and the mercy of God that hath spared thee and waiteth to see what thou wilt do after such a visitation The mercy of God is the attribute thou intendest to appeal to it is that which thou hopest in but by this thy wickedness thou wilt turn mercy it self against thee that which thou wilt make thy request unto must be the mercy of God but this will plead against thee and patience will plead against thee Lord will Mercy say when thousands dyed weekly in London I had pity upon this sinner and did spare him when the Angel went through the Streets and Lanes in London I Mercy marked out this man for longer life but he abused me and sinned the more And I shall Patience say waited some moneths or years after the Plague to see if the mercy shewed him would any thing work upon him but I was abused too as well as Mercy The longer I Patience did lengthen out his life the more he added to his sins and therefore now we both Patience and Mercy deliver him up into the hands of Justice to deal with him according to his sins and according to the wrong he hath offered unto us Oh how will thy mouth be stopped when Mercy and Patience shall plead against thee sins against Mercy and protracted Patience are aggravated sins and the pleadings of Mercy and Patience against a man will be the most piercing cutting pleadings VIII The worse thou art the more thou wilt have to answer for and the greater accounts thou wilt have to make when ever thou shalt dye The more thou sinnest the more sins shalt thou finde in the book of Gods remembrance and in the book of thine own Conscience when thou shalt be brought before the Barr of God So many sins committed before the Plague begun and so many while the Plague continued and so many when it was stayed and this sinner spared When it shall be set down in the book of God such a sinner was drunk so many times while the Plague was round about his habitation so many Oaths he swore when he saw multitudes buryed every day so long the Plague was in the Parish where he dwelt and in the house in which he lived and he never made one hearty prayer unto God all that time And such notorious sins in and after a time of a sweeping Plague will multiply thy account and aggravate thy misery IX To be worse after such Judgements will be to adde Incorrigibleness to thy former wickedness As before thou didst shew that thou hadst an unteachable heart so now thou declarest thou hast an incorrigible heart Thou wouldest not be instructed by Gods Word neither wilt thou be corrected by Gods Rod thou didst stop thine ears against Gods Word and thou hardenest thy heart against his Rod. But if thou wilt not be corrected by a Plague thou shalt be tormented in the Infernal Pit X. To be worse after such a Judgement will be high Ingratitude Thy life was the dearest thing thou hast in the world except the sin in thy heart for skin for skin and all that he hath he will give for his life except his sin and he will venture his life and lose it too before he will part with his sin and hath God kept thee and is this thy thanks to God to dishonour him more and to provoke him more As if he had spared thee for no other end but to sin against him Oh what is Ingratitude if this be not Oh now for Gods sake and for thy precious souls sake that as thy body hath hitherto escaped the grave so thy soul may if possible escape the damnation of hell Be entreated Sinner to consider the evil of thy present practice after such a narrow escape of death and the grave Oh wilt thou that art but briars and thorns set thy self against God that is a consuming fire Dost thou sleight the wrath of the Almighty or despise his power or contemn his Judgements Dost thou think that thou canst grapple with
He was bad when he was born and worse while he lived and worst of all when he is to dye 5. Learn the equity of Gods Justice in punishing a wicked man with eternal torments for sins committed in time For he sinned more and more as long as he lived and if he had lived longer he would have sinned longer and if he had lived for ever he would have sinned for ever 6. Learn the over-ruling providence of God that setteth bounds to wicked mens sins if he did not restrain them they would be worse and do worse than they do 7. Learn that natural men by the improvement of common grace or the means of grace cannot work themselves into a state of grace nor of themselves that are bad make themselves to be good for we have shewed that without the speciall and irresistible operations of the Spirit of God wicked men grow worse under the Administrations of the Gospel 8. The folly of delays and procrastinations of repentance and turning unto God Wicked men think they can repent when they will and though they have no heart to turn to God for the present yet they will hereafter but he that is not disposed to turn to God and repent to day will finde his heart more indisposed to morrow and the longer they put it off the more unwilling and unable they will be to do it hereafter We have heard we must not be worse now let us see we must be better and that is the second part of this first Direction SECT XVI HAth the Plague been raging and you yet alive then be better than you were before And here I especially direct my speech to those that had the grace of God infused into their hearts before this Judgement came upon us that you would improve this providence by being better than you were before if Drunkards and Swearers will not be better yet be you if sensualists and flesh-pleasers will not be better yet be you It may be the wicked will be worse but will you be so too If Gods people are not mended by his Judgements who will and hath God swept away so many thousands into another world and shall there be no good effect or fruit upon neither bad nor good God forbid London hath been a place of great prosperity a City of Feasting and a place of plenty of outward enjoyments but in this last Sickness God hath filled it with dolorous complaints by the many breaches made by death in so many families and relations God hath filled it with pale faces and sick persons and running sores God hath turned it into a place an house of mourning And Solomon saith Eccl. 7.2 It is better to go into the house of mourning than to the house of feasting for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart Have not your houses been houses of mourning some dead out of most houses and you are yet living will you then lay it to your heart What should you lay to heart Lay to heart the great Judgement that hath been amongst you Lay to heart the sins that did provoke the Lord to lay his hand so heavy upon you Lay to heart the goodness of God in preserving you The City hath been an house of mourning but have you learned the lessons that are to be learned in an house of mourning Have you met so many dead Corpse carried in the streets have you seen the living laboring to carry forth their dead and yet not learned the lessons that are to be learned in such a place of mourning Where one is dead in a family that before was an house of mirth and gladness it will turn it into an house of mourning and sadness much more when many dead in one family and this is the case of many families God hath been teaching you many things at such a time but is your lesson taken out Oh what dull Scholars are we in the School of Christ that must thus be scourged to learn our lessons and yet have not done it Consider when God hath turned London by reason of their dead into an house of mourning he hath been teaching you such things as these I. God hath been teaching you the Infallible verity of divine threatnings God threatned our first Parents Gen. 2.17 That if they sinned they should certainly dye they and their posterity This threatning was made some thousands of years since and it hath been made good in all generations Length of time makes not voide the threatnings of God men read Gods threatnings but do not believe them nor fear them nor tremble at them Many will not practically believe that they shall dye though they sin and will not at all believe they shall be damned though they sin but we see that men that have sinned must dye and wicked men shall feel that they shall be damned according to Gods threatnings but you have learned the truth of Gods threatnings in this and they are as true in all other respects therefore do you that are Gods people learn the truth of Gods threatnings when he saith the Drunkard shall not inherit the Kingdom of God and let this move your heart to pity them that are such that have a threatning of God which is of undoubted verity as a flaming sword standing in their way to keep them out of the Paradise of God and be thankful unto God that you are none of these Do you learn the truth of Gods threatning when he saith the hypocrite and unbelieving shall be cast into the lake that burnes with fire and brimstone Rev. 21.8 and pity and pray for them that are such and bless God that you are none of them and so are taken from under the curse of that threatning II. In this great house of so great mourning God hath been teaching you what are the Wages of sin You have often heard that death is the Wages of sin Rom. 6.23 The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there used is a military term signifying the wages that is due to souldiers intimating that death is as due to a sinner for his service to the Devil as pay is to a Souldier for his service to his General it comes from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth properly all kind of pleasant meats that may be prepared or made ready by fire so that all the delicates and dainty dishes that sin prepares for sinners hath a deaths head in them Do you learn this and by this learn to hate sin more than you did before and watch against it more than you did before III. In this great house of so great mourning God hath been teaching you the certainty of mens mortality You have seen that this is the way of all flesh Josh 23.14 1 King 2.2 and therefore learn to live as mortal dying men should live you have seen that thousands have been carryed from their houses to their graves And Oh
but if thou hadst then dyed thou wouldest without doubt have been eternally damned because thy resolutions were not penitential resolutions as appears by the fruit of them in my returning to thy sin again and that thou didst not indeed love God and his holy ways for if thou hadst thou wouldest nor so soon no never after turned from them in the general course of thy conversation 11. This will encourage the devil to more frequent tempting of thee For if by temptation he can prevail with thee to do that which is contrary to thy resolution what hopes will he have to draw thee into sin against which thou hast made no such particular resolution If he overcome thee where thou art strongest what spoil will he make upon thee where thou art weakest It is a great advantage we give unto the devil when we sin against our resolutions 12. This will be a great provocation unto God when thou dost sin not only against his Precepts but against thy own purpose not only against the obligations he layeth upon thy soul by Mercy and Afflictions but against the Obligations thou layst upon thy self by thy Purposes and Resolutions And in thy Affliction and fears didst thou not apprehend God to be exceedingly provoked but thou must after he hath preserved recovered thee go on to provoke him more 13. If this neglect be found in thee who hast the truth of grace yet it will much hinder thy confidence at the throne of grace and stop the Influences of the Spirit of God and obstruct the illapses of the Spirit from descending upon thy heart When thou keepest thy resolutions and keepest out of the wayes of sin thou canst go to God with an humble holy boldness and pour out thy heart with much enlargedness before God and there is sweet intercourse betwixt God and thee thou feelest thy heart to burn in love to God and thou perceivest God to bear a love to thee and oh how sweet is this unto thy soul But when thou neglectest to watch against sin and to walk with God when thou hadst resolved to do both when thou goest to thy duty thou wilt finde Conscience reproach thee and thy heart straitned and thy mouth stopped and thy confidence abated thy heart much estranged from God and God carrying himself as a stranger unto thee when thou art upon thy knees And this is the bitter fruit of a careless heart after heightned Resolutions 14. If this neglect be found in thee that hast the truth of grace it will much occasion the doubting of the sincerity of thy heart A Childe of God may fail and be remiss in prosecuting of his purposes sometimes but if he be it will make him jealous of his own heart and suspicious that it is not well betwixt God and him and is not that a sore evil and much to be opposed and lamented which doth blot thine Evidences for heaven and will make thee question whether thou hast one dram of grace in truth conferred upon thee infused into thee Thus I have finished this Direction also shewing how you may live in some measure answerable to the great goodness of God in sparing you in time of Plague when so many thousands fell round about you By being carefull to be as good when the Sickness is over as you purposed and resolved to be when you were in expectation of death and waiting for your change and dissolution when the Arrowes of God were flying amongst you in the time of this sore Judgement of the Plague DIRECTION III. HAth God spared you in time of so great Contagion that you live when others are dead or were you sick and are recovered then Endeavour that the Cure may be a thorow Cure that your Soul be healed as well as your body that there be not spiritual Judgements upon your Soul when temporal Plagues are removed from your Body You may observe that such that came to Christ with diseased bodies Christ healed their bodies and their souls too he took away their corporal sickness blindness distempers and the guilt of their sins too Mat. 9.1 2. Many are delivered from a Corporal Plague that yet are infected and in danger of eternal death by the Plague upon their hearts That remain under spiritual Judgements and Soul-sickness when temporal Judgements and corporal sicknesses are cured and removed When St. John wrote to Gaius he desired that it might be as well with him as to his bodily health as it was in respect of his soul and spiritual health 3 Ep. John v. 2. Beloved I wish above all things that thou mayst prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth But it may be matter of our desire concerning those that remain alive and are well after this Visitation that their souls may prosper and be in health even as their body prospereth It is a greater mercy to have an healed soul in a sickly body than to have spiritual sickness remain in an healthful body It is not so great a Judgement to have the body full of Plague-sores as to have the soul full of reigning sins If your body be cured and not your soul the cure is but half done Therefore in speaking to this Direction I shall shew these things 1. Wherein it appears that sin is the sickness of the soul 2. Wherein it appears that sin and spiritual Judgements upon the soul are worse than sickness and temporal Judgements upon the body 3. How we may know whether our souls are healed of spiritual sicknesses 4. What they must do that lye under soul-sickness that they may be healed 5. What such should do that are healed of their soul distempers to improve the Cure to the glory of God SECT I. I. Wherein doth it appear that sin is the souls disease and the sickness thereof In these particulars 1. SIcknesses and diseases do abate and take away the Appetite Sick men have not the Appetite to their food as men in health have So sin takes away the spiritual appetite of the Soul that it doth not hunger after Christ nor thirst after righteousness and hinders its feeding upon Christ and the Word of God which is the spiritual food for the souls nourishment and growth 2. Sickness and diseases do abate the strength and activity of the body So sin doth weaken the soul and all the faculties thereof and doth disable it in all its actings to and for God 3. Sickness and diseases often fill the body full of pain aches and sores making men to cry out Oh my head and oh my heart and oh my bowels I am pained I am pained So sin doth fill the soul full of racking fears and perplexing torments and doubts and sometimes make some sinners cry out I am undone I am undone I am damned I am damned 4. Some diseases do stupifie and make men insensible and those are the worst So sin sometimes makes some sinners stupid and unsensible of their misery and
הוהיל ×‘×™×©× ×”×ž OR A Serious Enquiry For a SUITABLE RETURN FOR Continued LIFE in and after a Time of Great Mortality BY A WASTING PLAGUE ANNO 1665. Answered in XIII DIRECTIONS By THO. DOOLITEL Psal 116.8 For thou hast delivered my soul from death mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling 9. I will walk before the Lord in the Land of the living 14. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people Isaiah 38.18 For the Grave cannot praise thee Death cannot celebrate thee they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy Truth 19. The living the living he shal praise thee as I do this day c. London Printed by R. I. for â— Johnson and are to be sold by A. Brewâ—er at the Threee Bibles at the west end of St. Pauls and R. Boulâ—er at the Turks-head in Cornhill 1666. To such whom the Lord hath kept alive in the time of so great Death by the Plague in the Land especially in the City of London THe design of these lines is neither to commend the Author nor the Book which in these few following sheets is presented to your view the former being as needless to them that know his Person as the later to them that read his Directions but I would commend the Subject being so seasonable to your perusal and the Duties being so necessary to your Practice It was the saying of a Learned Divine who had the honour of being made a Prisoner as well as Minister of the Lord That it was great pitty there were no more Prisoners of Jesus Christ to write songs of his love I will not say I could wish that more of our Citizens had in this late Dreadful Plague remained in this then Doleful place which to the Countries seemed more formidable than a Prison but I believe that many of you whose Calling and Duty did tye your hands and feet and shut you up in the City have found such sweet experiences of the goodness and love of God that they will be recorded And 65. will be remembred by you with thankefulness so long as you live You have seen the Destroying Angel entering the City and Death riding upon the Pale Horse Triumphant in the streets Arrows flying the sword bathed Garments rouling in blood and this grim Conqueror breaking in upon Houses without resistance taking Captive Men Women and Children and clapping them up in the Prison of the Grave where they must remain fast bound in his chains of darkeness untill the opening of the doors by him who hath the keys of the Grave who having Conquered Death himself will at his appearance loosen the Bonds of all Deaths prisoners that they may stand before his Judgement Seat to receive their Final Dooms In the midst of which slaughter and Captivity the Captain of your Salvation hath stood by you held his shield over you set his mark upon you and given you singular experience of his Power and Goodness in your preservation You have been in a storm God hath shown you his wonders in the Deep and when so many Ships have been cast away before your eyes and so many Persons have been devoured by the cruel Waters and your selves inviron'd with waves on every side yet the Lord hath kept you alive like Jonah in the Belly of the Sea or made a way for you to pass through when so many not onely Egyptians but Israelites have been drowned you have been in the water but the Lord hath been an Arke about you You have been in the fire like the three Children but the Son of God hath walked with you and suppressed the violence of the fire that it hath not prevailed over you you have been like the Bush which Moses saw burning but was not burn't because God was in it And when you look back upon those dark days and black Bills of Mortality where you have had account of so many thousands dying for so many weeks together Do you not wonder at your strange escape Do you not look upon your selves as Brands pluckt out of the fire And must you not acknowledge it is the Lords mercy you are not consumed You who have continued in the City in the time of the Plague when such throngs of people have been crouding out of this world daily into another have had singular advantages of looking into and preparing for Eternity which few think of with fixed seriousness till they be awakened by some dangerous sickness whereby withal they are usually so weakened in body and spirit that they are rendred unfit for such cogitations but to be in such danger whilst in so good health and in such Leasure from encumbring employments I doubt not but it hath effectually moved many of you to soar a loft in your thoughts and Meditations that you might take a view of the other Country which the Scripture doth set forth of the City which hath foundations whose builder and Maker is God I believe the wicked have had dreadful apprehensions of the burning lake of the Ocean of Gods wrath which every day they were ready to launch forth into and that however some have been hardened and are as bad yea worse than before yet I hope others have been so awakened with this dreadful Providence that they have been effectually perswaded to Repentance and Faith in Christ who alone can deliver from the wrath which is to come I believe that others have had deeper impressions of Eternity upon them than ever they had in their lives which the borders thereof on which they have been walking have given them so near frequent a prospect of and I doubt not but all of you have made vows and promises to the Lord of a Holy conversation of leaving those sins your conscience at that time upbraided you withal and dedicating your lives to the Lord if he would be pleased to spare your lives Take heed of dropping asleep again after you have been awakned of returning again unto sin after it hath been imbittered of forgetting or abusing Gods mercy after such a wonderful preservation retain the same thoughts of sins evil and the worlds vanity of the worth of true Grace and Christs beauty retain the impressions you had of Eternity when you were so near it in your apprehensions hath God laid obligations upon you by his preservations and deliverances And have you laid obligations upon your selves by your purposes and resolutions Labor then to live up to your obligations and if you be at a loss what return to make to the Lord You have by his Providence this little Book put into your hands to give you directions receive them not as the bare counsel of man but so far as backt by the Scripture as the Prescriptions of God as if the Lord should speak to you from Heaven and say This is my will these are your duties and see that you perform them Hereby you will both please the Lord and rejoyce the heart of
the Author and him who is Your servant in the Lord Thomas Vincent The CONTENTS THe Preface or Introduction p. 1 2 3. DIRECTION I. Containing two parts viz. Since you live after this Plague Be not worse but Better p. 4. I. The first part of this Direction containeth seven Questions p. 5. Question I. Whether wicked men wax worse and worse p. 6. Six things premised for Explication p. 7 8 9 10 11. Proved by Scripture Instances p. 12 to 17. Proved by Arguments p. 18 to 24. Question II. What are the several steps or gradations whereby sin grows from a low ebbe to its highest actings Or Ten Rounds in the sinners Ladder to Hell p. 24 to 35. Where seven things about Gods hardening wicked mens hearts p. 32 33. Question III. Under what Dispensations wicked men wax worse and worse p. 35. Viz. 1. Vnder Gods Providences in Prosperity p. 36 37 in Adversiâ—y 38. in Deliverances 39 40 41 42 to 46 2Vnder Ordinances Word Sacrament p. 47 48. Question IV. Why God is pleased to remove Judgements though many men are worse than they were before p. 48 to 52. Question V. What are the aggravations of this great Impiety to be worse after Gods sorest Judgments than they were before Answered in Ten particulars p. 52 to 59 Question VI. What are signs of a man waxing worse and worse Answered in 14 particulars p. 59 to 68 Where six restraints of sin which keeping from sin do not prove truth of Grace yet sin against do prove height of sin p. 63 64 65 Question VII What Considerations may be useful to stop the stream of such mens wickednesse that are waxing worse and worse p. 68 69 70 Seven Questions to such sinners p. 71 72 73 74 Six Directions to such sinners p. 75 76 Eight Corollaries from this first part of this Direction p. 77 78 II. The second part of the first Direction Since you live be better after this Judgement than you were before directed especially to the godly p. 79 Where Ten Lessons to be learned by those in the City that by reason of the Plague hath been a great House of Mourning p. 80 to 89 Ten Aggravations of Gods Peoples sin if they be worse in their spiritual condition after this Plague than they were before p. 90 91 92 Seven Positions p. 93 c. Seventeen Arguments to Gods People to be better p. 97 101 DIRECTION II. Since you live after this Plague pay your Vows and live up to your holy Purposes and Resolutions which you made in time of danger and fears of death p. 102 115 Where Seven Reasons for care to keep your Resolutions holy Purposes and Vows p. 108 Twenty Helps to perform your Resolutions holy Purposes and Vows 115 Fourteen Aggravations if you come short of your Resolutions holy Purposes and Vows p. 116 c. Where Eleven signs of a Beloved sin p. ibid. DIRECTION III. Since you live and are free from or cured of your bodily sickness look after the cure of soul-sickness take heed that you lye not under spiritual Judgments when temporal Judgment is removed p. 142 1 Sin is the souls sickness in 6 particulars p. 143 144 2 Spiritual Judgments are worse than temporal in seven particulars p. 145 149 3 How a man may know whether he be healed of Soul-sickness in six particulars p. 149 152 4 How a soul-sick sinner should do for healing in 8 particulars p. 153 The excellency of Christ our Soul-Physician in 5 particulars p. 154 c. 5 What those must do whom Christ hath healed of soul-sickness to improve this Cure to the glory of God in 4 particulars p. 158 c. DIRECTION IV. Since you live after this Plague be eminently exemplary in the capacity God hath set you p. 161 An humble Exhortation to Magistrates whom God hath preserved p. 162 163 164 Subjects Duties to Magistrates in 6 particulars p. 165 166 Ministers Duties whom God hath spared in this Plague in 4 particulars p. 167 175 Peoples Duties whom God hath continued to their Ministers p. 176 Governours of Families Duties whom God hath spared in this Plague in respect of Family Worship p. 177 Where is shewed 1 Why in 8 particulars p. 179 to 182 2 Wherein in 5 particulars p. 183 189 3 How in 4 particulars p. 190 191 Duties of Husbands and Wives whom God hath continued together after this Plague viz. Mutual Love p. 192 193 Where is shewed What manner of Love it must be p. 194 195 Why they should thus love p. 196 197 Wherein they should manifest it p. 198 199 Duties of Parents whom God hath continued to Children in 5 particulars p. 200 206 Duties of Children whom God hath continued to Parents What in 7 particulars Why in 6 particulars p. 206 209 Duties of Masters and Servants In 5 particulars p. 210 In 11 particulars p. 211 216 DIRECTION V. Since you live by Gods secret way of preservation Watch against secret sins p. 217 Perform secret Duties p. 217 Minde secret things in publick Duties p. 217 Where Fourteen Arguments against secret sins p. 219 231 Nine masked sins detected p. 221 222 Ten Preservatives against secret sins p. 232 c. Four secret Duties p. 235 236 Six secret good things in Publique Duties p. 237 238 Six secret sins in Publique Duties p. 239 240 DIRECTION VI. Since you live after this Plague be dead to the World p. 241 Viz. To the Profits of the World p. 242 243 To the Honours of the World ibid. To the Pleasures of the World p. 245 To the Wisdom of the World p. 246 How a man may know whether he be dead to the World p. 247 248 249 DIRECTION VII Since you live be dead to sin and be buried with Christ p. 250 Believers are buried in 3 respects p. 251 Two differences in burial of our Friends and of our Sins p. 252 Five things included in the Burial of sin p. 253 254 Four things for Comfort to those who are buried with Christ p. 255. DIRECTION VIII Since you live after this Plague walk in newnesse of life p. 256 What newnesse of life doth not consist in in 6 particulars p. 257 What iâ— doth consist in in Ten particulars p. 258 The Excellencies of a New Life in 10 particulars p. 261 The Hinderances of walking in Newness of Life in six particulars p. 264 DIRECTION IX Since you live after this Plague keep upon your heart a constant sense of Gods distinguishing Providence in preserving of you p. 265 Six Helps so to doe p. 267 DIRECTION X. Since you live and many of your Relations dead love God so much the more by how much you have fewer Objects of your Love than you had before p. 270 DIRECTION XI Since you live after this Plague remember what Conscience did condemn you for in time of fear of death and avoid it what it did commend you for and do it 271 DIRECTION XII Since you live after such danger of death trust God for the future
273 What this trust is 274 Eight Arguments to trust in God 275 276 277 Six special times for trusting in God 278 DIRECTION XIII Since you live after this Plague give thanks to God for your preservation 279 Three wayes how we must praise God for continued Life 280 Twelve Motives to praise God for continued Life 282 c. Six Helps to praise God for Continued Life 288 c. DIRECTIONS how to live after a wasting PLAGUE QUESTION How should those that have been preserved by God from the Grave in this time of Plague live in some measure Answerably to so great a Mercy THis is a Case of general concernment to those many thousands whom God hath kept alive in a time of Plague which hath swept so many thousands into their Graves whose bodies are now rotting in the dust and whose souls are entred into an unchangeable condition of happiness or misery whose life is ended whose time is past and gone who are now receiving their wages or reward according to what their state was found to be when the Plague removed them from time into eternity from this World into that which now they must be in for ever without alteration or redemption What Family is there in this great City or what person is there in all those families that are not concerned to enquire what signal and more than ordinary return they should make to God for such signal and more than ordinary preservation from the gates of death who have walked upon the very borders of the Grave and are yet alive who have been nearer the brink of Eternity and in more danger of being cut down than at other times and yet are spared and are numbred amongst the living and not reckoned nor made free amongst the dead It is the unquestionable and standing duty of all living to live to God but there is a super-added Obligation upon all those whom God hath marked out for Life when the slaughtering Angel was going from Parish to Parish from house to house to cut down those whom God had commissioned him to remove from hence Oh! should you not consider with your self what it is that God expecteth at mine hands How would he have me for to live and what would God have me to doe What is the special work he hath reserved me for Hath God layd the Corpses of thousands in the Church-yards and yet given me a little respit to act for my precious soul and for his glory hath he reprieved me for a while and am I not a living walking Monument of his distinguishing Mercy and unwearied Patience towards me When others are dead I live when others must pray no more hear no more God giveth me time as yet to do both and all other duties in order to my eternal peace Thus should you reason your self into your duty and to a diligent Inquiry What you should doe to live in some measure answerably to so great a Mercy But Reader wilt thou first resolve in the fear and presence of that God that hath redeemed thy life from death to make a conscientious use of any helps and directions so to doe wilt thou indeed engage thy heart before thou readest any further to use thy utmost diligence in practising and obeying what shall be from the Word of God discovered to thee to be thy duty yea in the Name of God I charge thee that thou doe it as ever thou wouldest appear before the Barr of God with comfort and give a good account of this his patience and Providence towards thee and of these Lines which now thou readest that neither the one nor the other rise up in Judgement against thee as an aggravation of thy sin nor for the greater condemnation of thy soul What dost thou say wilt thou promise and accordingly obey or wilt thou not If not better thou hadst dyed in time of Plague and fallen with others into the same common grave than to out-live the Plague and not out-live thy sin to live longer to adde unto thy sin and in the day of Gods patience towards thee to be heaping up wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous Judgement of God but if thou wilt I shall by Gods assistance proceed to resolve this Important Case in laying down these following Directions which will also be of use to answer another Query viz. How you may know whether God hath lengthened out your life in Mercy or in Judgement If you live according to these following Rules God hath spared you in mercy if you live contrary to them and dye so at last I fear your escaping this Judgement will at last prove a Judgement to you The first of these Directions will be more general the rest shall be more particular DIRECTION I. HAth God spared you in time of Plague Then be better and not worse than you were before Those that before were bad have now greater engagement to be good and those that were good before are engaged by Gods merciful Providence to them to be better not only better than those that are bad but better than themselves that before were good In time of Plague you did enquire for the best Antidote and for the best Cordial and Preservative and should you not now the Plague is thus ceased enquire what is your best Return you are to make to God especially when in time of Plague Gods Protection was your best Preservative and the Spirits Comforts your chiefest Cordials This Direction consisteth of two branches and I will speak of them apart Before the Plague begun 1 Be not worse than you were 2 Be better than you were And indeed if you be not better you will be worse as afterwards will be made appear Now because it is to be feared that some men will be worse after this dreadfull and devouring man-eating Judgement than they were before I shall more largely treat of this particular if peradventure God may by these Lines prevent in some so great an evil after so great a Plague Where I shall speak to these particular Questions Q. 1. Whether ungodly men doe oftentimes wax worse and worse and why Q 2. What are the several steps that men do take in sinfull wayes in their waxing worse and worse Q. 3. Vnder what Dispensations wicked men wax worse and worse Q. 4. Why God is pleased to remove Judgements though many men are worse than they were before Q. 5. What are the Aggravations of this great Impiety to be worse after Gods sorest Judgement than they were before Q. 6. What are the signs of a man that waxeth worse and worse under all the Means that God doth use to make him better Q. 7. What considerations may be usefull to stop the stream of such mens wickedness that yet are waxing worse and worse SECTION I. Whether ungodly men do often times wax worse and worse SOme wax richer and some wax better and all men wax older and many wax worser 2
to the same sin but sin encroacheth more into the sinners heart and affections and brings him more and more into bondage to it and so makes him worse and worse as a man that was wont to take a cup too much at length is brought to frequent drunkenness till at last it brings him to Hell and to damnation irrecoverably where he is as bad as he can be 5. Sin is of a craving and unsatiable nature therefore those that would satisfie their Lusts must needs in length of time be very bad There are four things which are never satisfied and never say It is enough Prov. 30.15 16. and sin may make a fifth For though a man drudge under sin all his dayes yet it thinks the Sinner hath not done enough for it The Horse-leech hath two daughters crying Give give such a thing is sin that never leaves sucking the heart-blood of the Sinner till it hath sucked him to death Sin cannot cease to ask and sinners know not how to deny and they must be wicked indeed that will be as wicked as sin can make them I might run through the several kinds of sin and shew how they are never satisfied The Egyptians thought that the Israelites never made brick enough and sin thinks the sinner never is enslaved enough that he never doth obey enough but I will briefly instance but in three First Covetousness is unsatiable it never saith It is enough It is not satisfied with having nor in seeing what it hath Eccles 4.8 and 5.10 and therefore puts the Worldling to go drudge again Crescit amor nummi c. Secondly Revenge is unsatiable Malice never thinks it hath done enough and therefore puts on the malicious to consult to contrive and never to be at rest till he hath been more injurious to the person that is the object of his malice Thirdly Lust and uncleanness is unsatiable and therefore such as are addicted to it and would have it satisfied must be very wicked for they never do it 2 Pet. 2.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having eyes full of the Adulteress the very looks of their eye betrayes the lust of their heart and it follows And cannot cease from sin therefore will proceed to great Impiety SECT IV. II. THat wicked men will grow in sin appears from the instigation of the Devil who is unweariedly diligent to tempt unto sin and to adde one iniquity unto another and that because he rules in their hearts and takes them captive at his pleasure 2 Tim. 2.26 A man will be very wicked that will sin as often as the Devil tempts A man is never so bad but the Devil would have him to be worse Judas was an hypocrite before but yet Satan put it into his heart to be more vile in betraying Christ Joh. 13.2 Satan tempting without and sin inclining within Satan never ceasing to tempt and Sinners not knowing how to resist will be growing like the Crocodile from an Egge to a stupendous magnitude SECT V. III. THat wicked men will grow in sin appears from the absence of that which should restrain them If a man hath drunk in poyson and hath no Alexipharmacum or Antidote his sickness will grow upon him Wicked men want that which should preserve them from sin as 1. The Fear of God This is that which causeth a man to shun evil Job 1.1 Job was a man fearing God and eschewing evil Prov. 8.13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil But where the fear of the Lord is not there the flood-gates are pulled up If the Devil tempt a man that feareth not God to sport on the Lords day he will do it to omit Prayer he will doe it yea if there were no Devil to tempt him he would run on in sin This is brought in as the cause of crying sins Rom. 3.12 13 14 15 16 17 18. Many sins there are enumerated and at the close of all is There is no fear of God before their eyes Abraham dared not to trust himself with a people that did not fear God Gen. 20.11 Abraham said Because I thought surely the fear of God is not in this place and they will slay me for my Wives sake 2. Wicked men want serious Consideration that should keep them from being worse they do not seriously consider of Death and Judgement of the Wrath of God of the Torments of Hell nor of Gods Omniscience that he alwayes sees them Hos 7.2 They consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness now their own doings have beset them about they are before my face Nor of his Omnipresence that he is alwayes with them and by them they consider not If I sin I shall lose my soul and it will cost me bitter tears or bitter torments They do not weigh in their serious thoughts the greatness of their danger the heaviness of Gods wrath nor the eternity of the miseries of another world God complains of the want of Consideration as the great cause of the height of sin Isa 1.2 3 4. 3. Wicked men want a firm assent to the verity of Gods Word that they doe not verily believe the truth of Gods threatnings but they have a secret hope that it shall goe well with them whatever they doe and whatever God saith They hear of the evil of sin and of the torments of Hell but they feel nothing for the present and fear nothing for the future and therefore goe on to adde drunkenness to thirst Deut. 29.19 20 21. And it come to passe when he heareth the words of this curse that he bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart to adde drunkenness to thirst Vers 20. The Lord will not spare him but then the anger of the Lord and his Jealousie shall smoak against that man and all the Curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him and the Lord shall blot out his Name from under Heaven 4. Wicked men want a lively tender Conscience which should warn them that they sin not and accuse them and threaten them with damnation if they doe Many have cauterized Consciences 1 Tim. 4.2 Where Conscience is dead or sleepy or feared there iniquity will abound SECT VI. What are the several steps and gradations whereby sin growes from a low ebbe to its highest actings THere are ten steps to the highest actings of sin five of which are common to good and bad the other five proper to the wicked and ungodly Many Hypocrites may goe half way with the godly in that which is good but never while such goe quite thorow So too often a man that is godly goes half way with the wicked in sinning but never goes quite thorow with them in all the circumstances of sin The rounds in the Sinners Ladder to hell are these ten 1. Original Concupiscence 2. Temptation 3. Inclination 4. Consent 5. Action 6. Custome 7.
Habit. 8. Hardness contracted 9. Hardness Judicial 10. Consummation or final Impenitence Of these briefly in their order I. Natural Concupiscence or the Vitiousness of our Nature which is in Infants this is as the Tinder or the Gun-powder whereby our Natures are apt to take fire at the least spark This is a sin because it is the absence or privation of that rectitude which ought to be in our Nature it is a fruit and punishment of Adams first sin and an immediate consequent of the loss of our Original Righteousness This is fomes peccati like to that wherewith the fire is kindled or kept burning called the Old Man sinful Sin the body of Sin sin dwelling Law of Members II. Then there is some Temptation solicitation suited to this corrupt Principle either by the Devil or wicked men or some Object presented to a man that might stirre up and excite this internal principle of Corruption in our hearts and though all men have the seeds of all sin yet Satan observing mens different constitutions hath different baits as men have several baits for several fish some he soliciteth to drunkenness others to uncleanness and others to covetousness Where note that Satan hath a wonderful advantage of us which he had not in our first Parents before the first sin for there was nothing in their hearts that was corrupt and yet how did the Devils temptation together with the Object set before their eyes prevail over them What the warm Sun is to the stiff and frozen Serpent it doth enliven it and then it sendeth forth its venom and useth its sting that a Temptation or an Object proposed is to our corrupt Natures Some call this Abstraction a drawing the minde off from good to evil III. Then there ariseth some Inclination in the soul or an hankering of the heart after that sinful Object an entring into a patley with the Devil minding of the motion made by the Tempter thinking further of the committing of the sin This is called Inescation as the Fish delighteth to play with the bait or Vitiosus motus joyned with some titillation or delight of the heart therein The first motions of the heart that are primo primi though they be involuntary and before consent of will and the judgement against them yet are sins 1 Because they are motus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disorderly motions of the heart 2 Because they be forbidden by the Law of God and 3 Hinder our love to God IV. Next is the Compliance and consent of the will yielding to the temptation and closing with the motion made concerning such an act upon such an Object The Will as queen and commander in the soul makes a decree to close with the temptation and to close with and consent unto the solicitation to sin upon the understandings mistake in its comparative judgement apprehending and dictating to the will that to be good which indeed is evil or the sensitive appetite moving the will by the mediation of the understanding allureth it unto consent and this is the conception of sin Jam. 1.14 15. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and entised then when Lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin c. V. When the Will hath consented it layes a despotical or flat Injunction on the Members of the body to execute and proceed to action and this is the actual commission of sin in the execution in Imperate acts Thus when Judas had consented to betray Christ he goes forth and covenants with Christs crucifyers and betrayes him Thus the eye moveth to behold and the hand to act that which the will consenteth to and commands Thus far it is the unhappiness of the people of God in their state of imperfection to yield David had a principle of corruption then an Object proposed then wicked suggestions arose or were injected into his minde then his will consented and then proceeded to the actual commission of his after-bitterly-lamented sin VI. Then wicked men proceed to the frequent Iteration of the same sin till it becomes customary A wicked man is drunk till it is his custom to be so and to swear till it becomes his custom to do so This is a great progress made in sin it is great growth and such will be hardly reclaimed Jer. 13.23 Can the Aethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may you who are accustomed to do evil learn to do well Aethiopem lavare is to labour in vain Ministers endeavour to reclaim men accustomed to swearing and lying and drunkenness and they preach in vain and study and pray in vain as to any success usually upon such mens hearts It is the commendation of a man to be accustomed to a thing if it be good for a Christian to say it is his custom to pray and a Minister it is his custom to preach though it is not good that the one pray out of custom nor the other preach customarily To have it customary to perform holy dutyes is good but to do them customarily is evil Thus it was Christs custom or he was wont to preach and teach the people But it is an aggravation to be accustomed to a thing if it be evil and if it be gross it is a sign of a graceless person Though some carnal men when reproved for their often swearing say I thought no harm it is only a custom I have got and I cannot leave it A custom why that is the aggravation and growth of thy wickedness and thou dost as foolishly alledge that to extenuate thy sin which indeed doth aggravate thy sin as a Thief accused before the Judge for stealing should plead it was his custom so to doe Now sin is become the profession of the sinner and he goes to his sin as customarily as an Artificer to his Shop or Work-house but it is not the custom of Gods people to make a custom of committing gross sins David did to the wounding of his soul once commit Adultery but it was not his Custome so to doe Peter at one time did deny his Lord but it was not his custom so to do It is not the custom of a gracious person often to commit the same grosse sin but it is his custom often to lament a gross sin but once committed Therefore if it be thy custom to commit grosse sins and thou art wont to do so thou art gone beyond the people of God in thy sinnings Thy state is deplorable VII Customary commission of sin begets an Habit in sinning whereby the love of sin is more deeply radicated in the heart Habits are got by frequent repeated acts and doth adde a greater facility to act and such as are customary sinners will soon be habitual Sinners by frequent swearing they will have an habit of swearing by frequent drunkenness they will acquire an habit of that sin and what is habitual especially in evil
things is not easily lost VIII Then Habitual commission of sin begets contracted Hardness of heart and fearlesness of all Gods Judgements and threatnings and contracted hardness added to natural hardness is a great progress in sinning Thy Conscience is seared thy heart hard as the nether milstone past feeling When Pharaoh hardened his heart his sinning was great Exod. 8.15 Now thou stiffenest thy neck against all admonitions Act. 7.51 and hardenest thy heart against reproofs Prov. 29.1 Now thou actest as if thou wert above controul and if thou couldst wouldest shake off the very Sovereignty of God Exod 5.2 And Pharaoh who was come up to the degree of hardness said Who is the Lord that I should obey his voyce to let Israel goe I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel goe So hardened Sinners reply to Gods Ministers exhorting them to let their sins and lusts goe saying at least in their hearts Who is the Lord whose Name you use we know not the Lord neither will we let our sins goe nor our pleasures and profits goe Now thou sayest to the Lord Depart from me Job 21.14 My tongue is mine own who is Lord over me Psal 12.4 Now thou gloriest in thy wickedness that is thy shame Philip. 3.19 Thou rejoycest to doe evil Prov. 2.14 and makest a mock of Sin Prov. 14.9 and makest a sport in doing mischief Prov. 10.23 Oh if thou couldest vapour it thus at the day of judgement and make as light of torment as now thou dost of sin if thou couldest brave it out thus before Christ at his comming and Russian like bid defiance to an almighty God and angry judge thy case were not so miserable but thou canst not alas thou canst not doe it Now thou art stout against the Lord Mal. 3.13 But then thou shalt sneake and crouch before him IX Then Judiciall Hardness is added to contracted Hardness thou hast hardned thine own heart and God will harden it also Now when Naturall Contracted and Judicial all meet in one mans heart how hard must it needs be and how great a sinner is this man in the sight of God you read sometime Pharaoh hardned his heart â—â—mself Exod. 8.15 and sometimes that God hardned Pharaohs heart also Exod. 10.20 So God giveth men up to their own hearts lusts which is a greater judgement unspeakably greater than all bodily Plagues Read Rom. 1.21 to the end Psal 81.11 12. Rev. 22.11 Isa 6.9.10 Hos 4.14 17. But here conceive of God aright when the Scripture saith God hardneth mens heart it is not to be understood as if God were the author of their sin no more than the Sun can be the efficient cause of darkness for how shall the chiefest good be the authour of the greatest evill For 1. God doth not infuse any wickedness into their hearts 2. Nor doth God tempt them to sin James 1.13 he may try them but not tempt them to sin 3. God commands no man to sin for Gods command would make it no sin as in the case of Abrahams Sacrificing his Son or the Israelites taking the Jewels and Ear-rings of the Egyptians except such things as are intrinsecally evill as are hating of God and blaspheming of God and these things God cannot command as he is said that he cannot lye Tit. 1.2 4. God with greatest severity forbids mens sins he chargeth you upon pain of damnation upon perill of Hell torments that you sin not but commands men to repent and mourne for sin therefore doth forbid them to be hard and stupid under sin 5. Neither doth God co-operate or concurre to the wickedness of their actions though without derogation to Gods honour we may say he doth concurre to their wicked actions For in him all live and move and have their beings Act. 17.28 The action materially considered as it is an action or motion is good and so God is the cause of it but the action formally considered is evill and so God is not the author of it as when you spur a lame Horse you are the cause that the Horse doth move but you are not the cause of his halting 6. But God doth permit and suffer men to harden themselves he doth not give them preventing grace but denieth that which he is not bound to give which would keep off this Hardness from them So God is said to give men over to their own wicked hearts to let them alone and leave them to their lusts Rom. 1.24 26. and to give them over to a Reprobate mind 2 Thes 2.10 11. 12. But if some should say bare Divine permission cannot be the reason why God should be said to harden mens hearts no more than he would be said to steal because he suffereth men so to doe Some therefore adde 7. That Hardness of heart may be considered either as a sin and so God is not the author of it or as a punishment and so it may be from God as the same thing in divers respects might be a sin and a punishment of former sin and a cause of future sinning so the same thing in divers respects might be from God and from the creature as Absaloms Rebellion against the King was an hainous sin as from him yet it was also a punishment of Davids sins 2 Sam. 16.22 But the Scripture asserts two things however 1 That with God dwels no evill and he cannot be the cause of sin and yet 2 expressely saith that the Lord hardned Pharaohs heart Exod. 10.20 Though we know not the manner that doth not lessen the dreadfullness of the judgement but when God doth judicially harden then men are almost ripe in sin and for hell X. When God hath judicially hardned them they let loose the reignes of their lusts and now are fit for any wickedness and stop not at the most abominable and loathsome practises Now they can blaspheme and mock God and deride holiness and act like incarnate Devils when the people in Act. 14.8.11 saw the wonderfull works wrought by the Apostles they said The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men but when we see the most abominable and sordid practises of wicked men might we not say the devills are come up to us in the likeness of men When men are judicially hardened they will commit sins against nature Rom. 1.24 26. c. And could wish there were no God nay now they are when they have given themselves over to work wickedness and God hath given them over too when they say we will be filthy and God say you shall be filthy eager and greedy after sin they weary themselves in committing iniquity and yet are not weary of iniquity and do even scorne at threatnings and mock at judgements 2 Pet. 3.3 4. Men walking after their own lusts say where is the Promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation Is 5.19 That
say let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it and let the counsell of the holy one of Israel draw nigh and come that we may know it Thus sinning with judiciall hardness and dying in finall impenitency are at the bottom round from whence they step into endless misery Thus you see how great a matter a little fire kindleth and from how small beginnings some have proceeded to the very pitch and height of sin that can scarce be worse save in the frequent iteration of the sins that they commit for they have got into all kinds of sin they are guilty of spirituall wickedness which the devill is malice enmity against God and goodness c. and of corporall wickedness as Adultery Drunkenness Gluttony c. Which the Devill is not capable of committing the Devill being only a spirit but men consist of body and spirit and so may commit more sins for kind than the Devill himself can do But God forbid that after such a judgement amongst us should be found such sinners this will be an evil requitall to the Lord for his removing his sore judgement from us SECT VII Vnder what dispensations do wicked men grow worse and worse IN the generall I answer wicked men are the worse in all conditions that God puts them into more particularly they are worse and worse Under Gods Providences Gods Ordinances First Wicked men wax worse under all Gods Providences whether Of Prosperity Adversity Deliverances I. Ungodly men are worse under their prosperity when the world smiles upon them and when they have all that their carnall hearts can wish and desire If the Sun shine it hardens the clay and the more it makes the dunghill send forth unsavory smels Rom. 2.4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance ver 5. But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God A wicked man is more hardened by Gods kindness to him Animus Iniquus beneficio fit pejor A wicked heart is made worse by every kindness As Christ fed Judas at his table and he runs presently to betray him The more God aboundeth to them in common goodness the more they abound against God in multiplied wickedness Neh. 9.16 ad 27. Psal 78.12 17. Prov. 1.32 The prosperity of fools shall destroy them Isa 26.10 Let favor be shewed to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly and will not behold the majesty of the Lord. They are worse by prosperity 1. Because they are thereby listed up with pride and carnall confidence many men the more rich the more proud and the prouder the worser the more their riches increase the more they set their hearts upon them and the more a mans heart is upon the creature the worse he is Prosperity is full of snares and we are apt then to forget God and to lift up the heel against him Deut. 32.15 But Jesurun waxed fat and kicked thou art waxen fat thou art grown thick thou art covered with fatness then he forsook God which made him and lightly esteemed the Rock of his Salvation Here is great prosperity and great impiety and God seeing how apt his own people are to be worse by prosperity doth caution them largely against it Deut. 8.7 11 12 13 14 17 18. 2. Wicked men are worse by prosperity because then they have more fuell to feed their lusts Sodomites had fulness of bread and that did feed their uncleanness They turn Gods grace into wantonness and his mercies into fuell for their wickedness Those things which should be cords of love to draw them to God they turn to the nourishment of their sinnes against God and desire riches not that they may glorify God but gratify their lusts Jam. 4.3 The more abundance of outward things a drunkard hath the more he is able to please his palate with great abundance of the richest Wines the more the adulterer hath the more he bestows upon his harlot and so the greater plenty the more they lead a sensuall bruitish flesh-pleasing life and the more of that the worse they be 3. Wicked men in prosperity are the worse because they are apt to gather Gods special love to them from the common bounty he bestowes upon them Because the world smiles upon them they think God doth so too Because Gods hand is opened to them therefore they think they are engraven upon his heart and think Divine Toleration is Divine Approbation when indeed it is a sign of Gods great displeasure to give prosperity to a man in a sinfull course God was angry with the rich man in the Gospel when he gave him more abundance than he knew how to bestow Luk. 12.18 19 20. and 16.19 20. They are apt to think that is the best way which is the most prosperous way Jer. 44.17 But we will certainly doe what soever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth to burn Incense to the Queen of heaven and to pour out drink-Offerings unto her as we have done we and our Fathers our Kings and our Princes in the Cityes of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem for then had we plenty of Victuals and were well and saw no evil Vers 18. But since we left off to burn Incense to the Queen of Heaven and to pour out drink Offerings unto her we have wanted all things and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine By prosperity they take encouragement to proceed in their Iniquity 4. Wicked men by prosperity are worse because they are apt to put far from them the evil day and the hour and thoughts of Death and Judgement and the Life to come In health they have not serious thoughts of sickness a wicked man is too apt to think that the Sun of Prosperity which shines upon him will never set nor be clouded Psal 49.11 Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever and their dwelling places to all generations they call their Lands after their own Names In Prosperity they think little of death Luk. 12.19 And I will say to my soul Soul thou hast goods laid up for many years eat drink and be merry They promise themselves a continuance of their outward happiness and so sin more freely and abundantly Isa 56.12 Come ye say they I will fetch Wine and we will fill our selves with strong drink and to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant This perswasion begets carnal security and the more secure still the worse SECT VIII II. WIcked men are often times worse under adversity judgements and afflictions that do befall them the more they are punished the more they are hardened there is nothing in adversity and judgements in sickness and plagues in poverty and distress to
Omnipotency and make thy party good against Almighty strength Didst thou ever read of any one that hardened himself against God and prospered and dost thou think that thou shalt be the first who art thou or what is thy strength or what were thy Ancestours that thou dost thus in pride and stubbornness of thy heart dare the great eternal God who can look thee into hell and frown thee in a moment into another world Sure if thou hadst the knowledge of God of thy self of sin of the guilt of sin of Hell and the torments thereof thou wouldest not thus proceed to adde these new sins to thy former old sins but wouldest fall down upon thy knees and cover thy face in the very dust before the Lord in deep humiliation for thy sins and wouldest own it as a Mercy so great that cannot be express'd that the Plague hath been so vehemently raging round about thy habitation and it may be hath been upon thy body and thou yet alive and thy body not rotting in a cold grave nor thy soul roaring in a hot Hell think on this this is Mercy and wilt thou so abuse it SECT XIII What are the signs of a man that waxeth worse and worse under all the Means that God useth to make him better MY purpose is not here to speak of the declinings of Grace in the hearts of Gods people which never is so much because not total to denominate them absolutely bad though they make them worse because on the losing hand being compared with themselves when better in the lively actings and daily increase of grace but of the growth of wicked men in sin and Impiety which may be discerned by these symptomes I. The less a man is attending upon God in the use of holy Means the worse he is Thou wast wont to keep up a constancy or at least a frequency in holy duties though thou never didst perform them in a right manner nor from a right principle nor for a right end yet time was that thou couldest not omit them but thy natural Conscience would reproach thee and molest thy peace and though the performance of those duties in thy manner and way did never prove thee to be good yet the total omission of them now doth prove thee to be worse inasmuch as thou hast shaked off all form of Religion and dost not profess thy self to be at all Religious but hast stifled Natural Conscience and laid aside a sense of a Deity which before did stir thee up to do some Homage unto God Thou didst pray but now thou dost not thou didst hear but now thou dost not it is because thou art worse II. The lesse thou lyest under the common workings of the Spirit of God the worse thou art Though thou hearest and prayest as before yet the Spirit of God doth not strive with thee as before Thou wast wont to finde thy heart something affected and to have some common convictions and relentings for sin and some purposes and resolutions to forsake thy sin and leave thy wicked wayes and company and almost perswaded to come over unto Christ but now thou art no more affected than the seat thou fittest upon and the Pillar thou leanest against thou hast quenched the motions of the Spirit and he in wrath hath departed from thee and leaves thee to the hardness of thy heart and the blindness of thy minde and then thou must needs be waxing worse III. The more thou art found in the Iteration and Repetition of the acts of sin the worse thou art Thou wast wont to swear but seldom but now Oaths are frequent in thy mouth Thou wast wont to be drunk more seldom but now it is thy weekly or thy daily practice Iteration of sin is an aggravation of sin The number of thy sins and the greatness of thy guilt is hereby encreased and thou made worse IV. The more kinds of sins thou dost usually fall into the worse thou art Thou wast wont to swear but not to be drunk but now both Thou wast wont to be drunk but wast not given to uncleanness but now thou art and to uncleanness thou addest scorning at godliness vvhen sometimes thou seemedst to approve it and speak for it and to thy scorning of godliness thou proceedest to the persecution of godliness when before thou didst pretend to favour and to countenance it Thou art increased in thy wickedness V. The fewer self-Reflexions the worse thou art Thou wast use to reflect upon thy wayes and sometimes consider of thy deviations from the Rule of holiness and thy Conscience did check and did reprove thee but now thou goest on and never lookest back so much as to consider wherein thou goest astray and though thou art more wicked and more vile yet thou hast more peace and quietness in thy wayes It is because thy heart is more hard and thy Conscience more seared and thou worse VI. The greater Light thou sinnest against and the more thou goest on against the Dictates of thy Conscience the worse thou art Conscience discovereth to thee the evil of thy wayes the wickedness of thy life Conscience threatneth thee with damnation with the loss of God and Happiness and thundereth against thee and doth disturb thee in thy sin and yet thou goest on against thy knowledge and dost imprison the Truths of God thou art worse VII The more of thy heart and will is in thy sinnings than before the worse thou art now than before The more the will doth give consent and the more the will doth choose wickedness the greater progress thou hast made in thy sinful courses Though a Childe of God doth commit a sin yet because his will and the bent of his heart is against it the lesser is the aggravation of his sin when he can say The thing that I doe I would not I allow it not So when thou art wilful in thy sin thou frequentest wicked company and thou wilt doe it thou prophanest the Lords day and thou wilt do it this maketh thee to be very bad The more of resolution and purpose of heart the more of the choice and consent of the will in sinning the greater is the sinner VIII The lesser force divine Arguments have upon thy heart to keep thee from sin than before thou art so much worser than thou wast before Time was that Arguments taken from the Wrath of God from the Torments of Hell from Judgement to come from the Curses written in the Law of God did awe thy heart and restrain thy hand from the open actings of thy grosser sins these were once the banks that dammed up thy wickednesse but now thou sleightest all these that Hell doth not affright thee and the wrath of God doth not awe thy heart but the Spring and Fountain of sin within is risen higher and overflowes these banks and like water spreads it self and diffuseth it self in the general course of thy life IX The lesser force humane Arguments have upon
is not his loving kindness better than life Psal 63.3 and what is life if you have no comfort in it and where wiâ—l you have solid lasting suitable satisfying comfort if not from God 6. If you are worse in your spiritual condition than you were before and love God less and desire after him less and delight in him less you will have less Evidences for Heaven than you had before you will not so clearly see your Interest in Christ your title to his Kingdom as you did before and do you live to blot your Evidences Oh what an aggravation will it be to you to say before the Plague I knew that God did love me but now I doubt of it Before I knew if I had dyed I should have been saved but now if I should dye I cannot tell 7. If you are worse than you were you will have less experience of the workings of God upon your heart than you had before You will not have such experience of his quickning presence nor of the powerful Operations of the Spirit upon your heart and what is it if you feel the motions and acting of life if you do not feel the motions of the Spirit so much upon your heart 8. If you are worse you will dishonour God more than you did before and that you need not do you did that too much before And hath God spared you to live to his dishonour I tell you you had better dyed with others in the Plague than live after it to dishonour God 9. If you have less of goodness than you had before you will have more of sin than you had before If you love God less than you did you will love something else more than you did if you have less faith you will have more unbelief if you be less heavenly you will be more worldly if you be less spiritual you will be more carnal And hath God been using physick to purge out your sin and shall it be found more in you than it was before Hath God put you in the Furnace and doth your dross continue and increase It is the nature of contraries the less there is of the one the more there is of the other If the Sun be setting darkness is approaching if heat be expelled out of the water more cold is introduced and so it is with your heart in respect of sin and grace 10. If you be worse it will cost you much pains and prayers and tears before you will recover to be as good as you were before You may lose that with a little neglect which you will not re-gain without great diligence Thus I have laid before you these Considerations to prevent your being worse But that will not be a sufficient Improvement of this Providence that you be not worse in your spiritual condition but you must be better Not enough that you do not decline but you must increase and thrive in grace and goodness And before I come to press you to be better let me lay down these following Positions and the last shall bring me to my intended Work SECT XVIII Posit 1. THere are many that are really bad and not so much as seemingly good There are many that do not profess any goodness such are your open debaucht sinners that give themselves up unto all Licentiousness and sin Posit 2. That there are many that are seemingly good that are not really good Many make a great shew in Religion that have no Religion in them Many pray much and hear much and talk of good things much but are not good themselves and the misery of these is 1. That they lose all their labour for if they themselves be not good their praying is not good and their talking of good things is not good For the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord Prov. 15.8 2. They have no real Communion with God who are but seemingly good For what communion hath light with darknesse 2 Cor. 6.13 c. 3. They shall have no real reward in the Kingdom of Heaven Their goodnesse is but seeming goodness and their happiness is but seeming happiness 4. They are seemingly like to God but are really like the Devil 5. They associate with Gods Children but are none of Gods Children for all Gods Children are good 6. They have no true peace Isa 57.21 But God hath really preserved you from death and really kept you alive therefore be not satisfied to be seemingly good but be really so Posit 3. That there be many that are really good that are not gradually good that have grace in truth that have not grace in growth Those that are seemingly good are not so many as those that are openly bad and those that are really good are not so many as those that are seemingly good and those that are gradually good are not so many as those that are really good Ever the better the fewer both for kinde and degree It is so in Naturals not so many Whales as lesser Fish not so many Eagles as little Birds not so many Suns as Stars And so it is in Spirituals not so many strong men in Christ as babes not so many tall Cedars as there are Shrubs in Gods Lebanon Now my purpose is to exhort you especially after such a Providence to be not only really good but to be gradually good Posit 4. That those that are gradually good are yet imperfectly good as appears by the remainders of sin in the best and would be evident by a particular enumeration of their Graces which is the best thing in the best men they know but in part and they love but in part and delight in God but imperfectly Philip. 3.9 10 11 12. Posit 5. Those that are really good though imperfectly good are truly acceptable unto God God will not break the bruised Reed nor quench the smoaking Flax Mat. 12.20 There may be a great deal of smoak where there is but little fire a great deal of sin where there is but little grace but yet it is pleasing unto God if it be true a little grace is of great value a Pearl of small quantity might be of great worth and better than a great deal of riches or of gifts better than a strong Memory pregnant phantacy solid Judgement quick Apprehension voluble Tongue or any such things because the least Grace is a pledge of Heaven and so are none of all the rest Posit 6. That when a good man doth increase in goodness he increaseth more or less in all saving goodness When any one sin is more mortified every sin is in some measure more mortified and yet every sin is not equally strong because some sins are more deeply radicated have been more strengthened by frequent acts and are more rooted in the constitution so though addition be made in every Grace when a Christian growes better yet every grace might not be equally strong in the same Christian because some grace may be more opposed by
at home Did it not then trouble thee that thou being a Professor hadst been at nights drinking in the Tavern when thou shouldst have been praying in thy family that thy Wife and Children though they have not gone Supperless to bed yet have almost every night gone prayerless to bed except they went apart to pray in secret But did not then thy conscience tell thee that their performance of their duty would be no excuse to thee when thou shouldst stand at the Bar of God for thy neglecting of what thou oughtest to have done Didst thou not then resolve if thou shouldst live it should be so no more That thou wouldst read thy Bible more as well as look over thy Shop-books daily That thou wouldst spend some time in secret before God whereas before thou wast use to waste it in thy pleasures and taking of thy worldly delights Deal plainly man with thy self and do not flatter thy soul and daube with thy conscience Was there not some such thoughts and purposes and resolutions as these in thy heart at such a time And didst thou promise and resolve in jest and not in earnest God did afflict thee by the plague in good earnest and thou waste then affraid of death and the grave and judgement in good earnest And didst thou onely purpose in jest and resolve in jest and play with holy things when thou wast near another world and dally with God when thou didst not know but within an hour thou mightest have appeared at his Bar and been set before the terrible tribunal of the great heart-searching God But if thou wast in earnest with God when God was in earnest with thee if thou wast in earnest in promising be earnest in earnest to perform if thou didst indeed resolve to reform when thou shouldst be well then reform indeed according to thy resolution since God hath made thee well and saved thee from the Grave to which thou wast so near so very near Or if God hath been so good to thee to preserve thee from the infection of the Plague amongst the many thousands that have been visited that thou hast not been heart-sick yet thou hast often felt shootings and pains and prickings up and down in several parts of thy body and sometimes hast had such things as thou hast thought to be symptomes of the distemper and hast apprehended it to be approaching to thee that hath made thee hasten to thy bed and make use of thy preservatives and thy cordials that thou thoughtest thy self in real danger and wast possest with real fears What were thy purposes at such a time as this And what didst thou resolve to do And how to live if God would prevent the thing thou fearedst Or hadst thou no such purpose in thy heart No such resolution in thy breast that if thou livedst thou wouldst be better Was thy heart indeed so backward unto good that at such a time of fears and dangers thou hadst not so much as a purpose to be better but if thou hadst and let thy conscience be thy witness and the God of heaven that did fully know the purpose of thy heart then now perform what then thy heart did purpose to perform I am perswaded if the people in London and in Country too would live up according to the purpose of their heart in time of danger of the Plague would reform and mend as they did resolve to do we should be much better than we were before Oh what a difference would there be in the frame of our hearts and in the course of our lives What a change would there be in all our practises Those that were forward Professors of Religion and were not much more then Professors would be zealous practisers of Religious duties and in order hereunto I shall to follow this direction do three things 1. Lay down some considerations why you should be careful to keep your purposes resolutions and vows 2. Prescribe some helpes how you may perform your purposes resolutions and vows 3. Set down the aggravations of your sin if you break your purposes resolutions and vows SECT I. 1. GReat and constant diligent care should be taken in time of health to keep our purposes to perform our resolutions and to pay our vows to God which we made in time of sickness and danger and distress if you consider these particulars 1. That one great deceit of the heart of man doth appear in this in being forward to purpose in our selves and promise unto God but are backward to perform In time of sickness what resolutions do men make what purposes have they in themselves to mend and turn to God and seem to promise this with tears in their eyes and sorrow in their hearts for the evil that is past and done and seem to others and think verily themselves that they promise in good earnest and mean to do as they do speak and when they think the danger is past and their fears removed do nothing less than what they promised I have known some upon sick beds so to promise that they would be drunk no more c. and yet when health hath been restored have returned to their wickedness So did Pharaoh promise fair when the Plagues of God were upon the Land that he would let the children of Israel goe but when the Plagues have been removed he hath hardened his heart against them more than before and this he often did Exod. 8.8 15. 9.27 28 34 10.16 17 20. Now this deceitfulness of the heart is yet in part remaining in the best of men and therefore you must be carefull else though you have promised you will never perform 2. That sin is of a bewitching encroaching and alluring nature if it can prevail it will keep you from resolving against it if you do resolve it will entreat you that you would not send it farre from you that your Resolution might not be peremptory and universal that if you resolve to banish it from your heart it might be only some of its members that are not so dear unto you and reserve the rest or if it be peremptory and universal that you will part with all sin it will contend that your Resolution may not be perpetual that you send it not away for ever but only till your danger of death is over and your fears thereof are ceased that then it may be received into your heart be your Favourite again or if you do resolve to part with sin peremptorily universally and perpetually yet after a while it will solicit you to change your resolution or if you will not change it it will solicit you to abate the strength and vehemency thereof and will come and offer you so much delight and so much pleasure and so much profit if you will not be so severe against it If you are not carefull it will encroach upon your heart and insinuate and winde it self into your love and delight and
danger 5. Sickness and diseases do take away mens delight in those things which men in perfect health do take pleasure in Sick men have no delight in the pleasures of the world and in the riches of the world which other men finde So sin takes away that delight in God and spiritual duties and in heavenly things which those whose souls are cured do experience 6. Sickness and diseases do spoyl the beauty of the body They spoil the fairest complexion and make the ruddy cheeks to become pale and many diseases bring deformity in the room of beauty So sin doth spoyl the soul of that spiritual beauty wherewith it was adorned in its first Creation which did consist in likeness unto God so that now instead of the likeness of God there is nothing but blackness and deformity that the soul that was comely and amiable in the sight of God is now become loathsome and abominable SECT II. II. Wherein doth it appear that Soul sickness and spiritual Judgements upon mens hearts are worse thâ—n sickness and temporal Judgments upon mens bodyes THough most men in the World look upon bodily sickness and corporal Judgments to be more dreadful than sin upon their souls yet if we take a right estimate and make a true judgment of both spiritual Judgements are the greater evils In respect of the 1. Cause or manner of conveyance 2. Signs of greater wrath 3. Subject in which they do reside 4. Number being many 5. Effect that they do produce 6. Difficulty of cure 7. Want of sense 1. Spiritual Judgements and soul-sicknesses are greater evils than temporal Judgements and sickness upon the body in respect of the cause or manner of Conveyance which is by natural propagation and so unavoidable Sin is born with us it is derived from Parents to Children from one generation to another There are some diseases that are conveyed from Parents to Children but this is not general nor perpetual to all generations But the propagation of spiritual diseases is universal and general it is constant and perpetual The seed of all sin is derived from Adam to all his Posterity 2. Soul-sicknesses and spiritual Judgements upon mens hearts are Signs of greater wrath than bodily sicknesses are You may be sick of the Plague and yet God may love you you may have bodily afflictions and God may be at peace with you and because he loves you he may afflict you But spiritual Judgements as judicial hardness blindness are signs of Gods anger yea his sorest displeasure yea which is more they are signs of Gods Hatred to such a man that lyeth under them Now that which doth alwayes argue Hatred in God to a sinner is worse than those things that might proceed barely from his Anger and sometimes from his Love God loathes and abhorres that man the plague of whose heart is not at all cured 3. Spiritual Judgements and soul-sicknesses are greater evils than temporal and corporal sicknesses are because they be spiritual and have the heart and soul for their seat and subject As mercies are better that are spiritual and that are soul mercies so Judgments and sicknesses spiritual are the greater evils because they are the disease of the better and more noble part of man that which doth corrupt the soul must be worse than that which doth corrupt the body by how much the soul is more excellent than the body 4. They are worse because they are more numerous there is more diseases in the soul than in the body If the body be diseased in one part it may be well in all the rest if in more yet not in all if in all yet your case is not so bad But there is no sinner but is diseased in every part there are spiritual distempers in all the faculties and powers of the soul in the Understanding Will Affections Conscience Memory Phantasie In the members of the body no part free Nay there are many spiritual diseases in every faculty in the Understanding there are many ignorance errour c. in the Will many stubbornness choosing the Creature and sin before God c. In every affection of the soul there are swarms of sin In the heart there are innumerable distempers evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications thefts blasphemies false witness Maâ— 15.19 Spiritual diseases naturally be all in every man and be in every part of every man 5. They are worse in regard of the Effects The effects of bodily sickness at the utmost and the greatest is but the death of the body it brings the body to the dust and the grave it doth but separate from friends and betwixt the body and the soul But the effects of spiritual soul-sicknesses except they be healed are dreadful and inconceivably great great and dreadful in this world but greater and more dreadful in the world to come they cause Gods anger they deprive the sinner of communion with God they will separate betwixt God and him for ever they will bring the soul to the place of Devils and the torments of the damned 6. They are worse in regard of difficulty of Cure Bodily distempers may be cured by the skill of man in the use of natural means but the sickness of the soul with nothing but the blood of Christ Of which more afterwards 7. They are worse in regard of the want of sense Where one man cryes out of the hardness of his heart and complains of the unbelief and earthliness of his heart there are many cry out of the sickness of their bodyes If their finger doth but ake they are sensible of it but though the whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint and exceedingly distempered yet they are not sensible of it Therefore though God hath cured the Plague of thy body and not the Plague of thy heart if thy bodily disease is removed but the sickness of thy soul remain without cure thy case is deplorable And while thou art rejoycing that thou hast escaped the Plague thou hast more cause to goe unto thy Chamber and be deeply humbled and mourn before God for the Plagues and Judgements that remain upon thy Soul SECT III. III. How may a man know whether he be healed of Soul-sickness THe cure of these distempers are but partial yet so far are they healed that they shall not be the death of the soul The cure will not be perfect till we die Death we say cures all distempers and so it doth those of the soul There is a double wound that sin doth make there is the wound that doth certainly destroy the soul by hindring it from salvation and eternal life and there is the wound that destroyes the peace and comfort of the soul So there is a double Cure which Christ doth work the one for the safety and happiness of the Soul the other for the peace and comfort of the Soul The first of these we enquire after 1. Every man that is healed of Soul-sickness hath been
do not Preach the Gospel 1 Cor. 9.16 and are described to be such as are apt as well as able to Teach 1 Tim. 3.2 And if they do forbear to warn Men of their sins those Men shall die but God will require their blood at their hands Ezek. 3.18 And though God in Judgment to a People may make his Ministers dumb and cause their Tongues to cleave to the roofe of their mouthes that they should not be Reprovers to them because of their sin Ezek. 3.26 Yet such as are dumb through Ignorance that they cannot or through Negligence that they will not speak to Men to save their Soules is a great charge of God against them Isa 56.10 His Watchmen are blind they are all ignorant they are all dumb Dogs they cannot bark sleeping lying down loving to slumber Vers 11. Yea they are greedy Dogs which can never have enough and they are Shepherds that cannot understand they all look to their own way every one for his gain from his quarter Vers 12. Come ye say they I will fetch Wine and we will fill our selves with strong Drink and to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant And God sharply reproveth such for this neglect Ezek. 34.2 Son of Man Prophesy against the Shepherds of Israel Prophesy and say unto them Thus saith the Lord God unto the Shepherds Woe be to the Shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves should not the Shepherds feed the Flock Vers 3. Ye eate the Fat and ye cloath you with the Wool ye kill them that are fed but ye feed not the Flock Vers 4. The Diseased have ye not strengâ—hened neither have ye healed that which was sick neither have ye bound up that which was broken neither have ye brought again that which was driven away neither have you sought that which was lâ—st but with force and cruelty have ye ruled them Vers 18. Seemeth it a small thing to you to have eaten up the good pasture but you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures and to have drunk of the deep waters but ye must foule the residue with your feet Vers 19. And as for my flock they eat that which ye have troden with your feet and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet Ministers diligence in Preaching the Word which such should be awakened to much more by Gods late Providence is pointed at by God in those several Names and Appellations with which they and their Work is Metaphorically set forth as they are 1. Labourers Mat. 9.38 Therefore must not loyter but should work as day-labourers 2. Builders 1 Cor. 3.10 Must repair Gods Buildings 3. Husbandmen 1 Cor. 3.9 Must Plow up the fallow ground that they sow not among thornes they are Gods harvest-Men and that is hard work 4. Watchmen Ezek. 33.7 Must see the danger and indure the cold and give warning 5. Stewards 1 Cor. 4.1 2. Must deal to every one their portion 6. Fathers 1 Cor. 4.15 1 Thes 2.11 In begeting and bringing up Spiritual Children for God 7. Guides Rom. 2.19 Must direct lost Men into their way 8. Nurses 1 Thes 2.7 Must seed the Babes in Christ 9. Physitians Jer. 13.12 13. Must heale the Spiritual Sickness of Mens Soules 10. Embassadours 2 Cor. 5.20 Must Parley with Sinners to make Peace betwixt God and them After such a Providence as this those in this Office should labour to be more in the most effectuall manner of Preaching as 1. In Preaching with more self-denial not seeking themselves nor their own Applause but more the Glory of God and the good of Soules 2 Cor. 12.14 For I seek not yours but you 1 Tim. 3.3 Not greedy of filthy lucre 1 Thes 2.5 For neither at any time used we flattering words as ye know nor a cloak of covetousness God is witness 2. With more plainness to the capacity of the People Not with enticing words of Mans Wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power 1 Cor. 2.4 Lest such seem to Preach themselves and not Christ and to speak one word to shew the excellency of Christ and ten to shew the excellency of their own Parts 3. With more experience of the things they Preach upon their own hearts 4. More particularly coming down to the particular cases of the Peoples Soules Dolus latet in universalibus 5. More compassionately if possible shewing the greatest desire after the Soules of them they Preach unto When you stand in your Pulpit remember many of them you Preached to the other day are now in their graves and are entred into Eternity and those that are before you must shortly follow after you have not long to Preach unto them those that are now alive before you must shortly die and be damned or saved be received to Glory or thrust down to Misery such actuâ—l believing thoughts as these woulâ— move great compassion in Ministers hearts unto their People 6. More Livelily as those that believe the things themselves which they Preach unto others remember you are Preaching to Men that must shoâ—â—ly die and yet eternally Live and for ought you know if you do not prevâ—il with them by this Sermon they may perish for ever and will you be luke-warm in such a case of so great importance 7. What is most necessary to the salvation of their Soules Press more the misery of Man by Nature the necessity of seeing the evil and be sensible of the burden of their Sin the necessity of Christ of Regeneration of Holiness of heart and Life of Justification by Faith in the blood of Christ of Judgment to come of the happiness of Heaven of the torments of Hell SECTION VI. MInisters whom God hath spared from the Grave in thâ— time of great Morrality should improve this Mercy in the manner of their holy Conversation i◠〈◊〉 Mens Lives should be the Application of their Doctrine should press to Holiness and live shoâ—tly press the People to Mortification of Sin and Self-denial and be Examples to the People in this else the People will not believe that they think what they say if they do not in some measure Live as they say Drunkards will not believe that that Minister is in good earnest in telling them that Drunkards shall be damned if he be one himself Look therefore to your Life and copy out that pressed upon you 1 Tim. 4.12 Let no Man despise thy youth but be thou an example of believers in Word in Conversation in Charity in Spirit in Faith in Purity 1 Tim. 3.2 For a Bishop must be blameless the Husband of one Wife sober vigilant of good behaviour a lover of Hospitality apt to Teach Vers 3. Not given to wine not a striker not greedy of filthy lucre SECTION VII THe People whom God hath kept alive should improve their Life in attending upon their Ministers in inquiring the Law of God at their Lips in mingling the Word with Faith in
this would be more sutable for your Family than Ballads prophane and lascivious filthy Rymes which you should not suffer under your Roof SECT XI THirdly The manner how you should Worship God in your Family is chiefly to be minded for it is not any service that God will accept you may keep up a course of praying in your Family and yet live very unworthy of the great mercy of God in your wonderful preservation Therefore 1. In your Family worship God really and indeed with your heart and mind and all your strength do not seem to pray but pray indeed in your Family For this end consider 1. The God whom you serve in your Families is God indeed he is a real God therefore worship him indeed and in a real manner 2. The sins of your Families are real sins your own sins are real sins and your childrens sins are real sins and have real guilt therefore confess them really and mourn and sorrow for them really 3. The wants of your Family are real wants you do not seem to want outward mercies but except God supply you you will want them indeed 4. The supplies which God doth give you are real supplies God giveth you real health and real food and reâ—l cloathing for your Family therefore be real in your Family Worship 5. You and your Family are real in following of the World you work in good earnest and you buy and sell in good earnest And will you be real in the things of the World that concern your Family and will you not be real in your Family Worship 2. In your Family worship God Livelily not only with a true and sincere heart but with a lively heart take heed of dulness and formality take heed of sleeping at your prayers And here I would advise that Masters of Families would not put off their duties too long in the Morning till half the day be past nor too late in the Evening when the Family will be more disposed and inclined to sleep than to pray 3. In your Family worship God chearfully go not to Family Prayer as a task and burden but as a great favour and priviledge that you and your Children might call upon God 4. In your Family worship God constantly Some will pray on a Sabbath night but it may be not all the Week after Thus if you serve God in your Family it will be a great step to your walking in some measure answerably for so great preservation and then it will be a good discovery that God hath spared you in mercy to do him service in the Education of your Children and not in judgment to the encreasing of your sins only Thus far concerning the Duties of Families whom God hath spared in this time of Pestilence in general Of the several Relations in a Family next SECT XII SEcondly If you will live in some measure answerably to so great a mercy as Preservation from death in a time of great Mortalitie is then fill up the duties of your particular Relation wherein you stand Relative sins are very offensive unto God and a great scandal to Religion The fiâ—st of these Relations in a Family is First Conjugal betwixt Husband and Wife and the great duty incumbent upon them is mutuâ—l love in which many are deficient and many are excessive it being hard for such to let out their affections one to another so much as God commands and no more than God allows and both these extreams will terrisie conscience when such come to dye And this sin is more usually seen when death hath broken this Relation than while God continueth them together the Surviver then seeth he did not love his Wife and the Wife her Husband with that degree of love as that Relation called for or with a greater degree than was pleasing unto God when the love of this Relation did diminish the love they should have to God And how many breaches hath God made in this Relation to punish the sin of both extreams It may be thy love was Immoderate and therefore God hath taken thy Relation from thee Or it may be thy love was deficient and therefore God hath taken thy Relation from thee When thou wâ—st sick and thou thoughtest thou shouldest have died did not thy Conscience then accuse thee for one of these in thy Relation And yet hath God spared thee and thy Wife or thee and thy Husbâ—nd then what conscience did reproach thee for in this particular if thou wouldst answer Gods mercie in sparing of thee let this be reformed There are many this day may be lamenting not so much the loss of this Relation as that they did not walk sutablie in this Relation while they were in it this being the sting of their affliction Oh! methinks such as God hath continued in a Conjugal Relation in this time of great Mortality should look upon themselves now more engaged to perform their mutual duties with more care and conscience than before Such a one hath buried his Wife and such a one hath buried her Husband but God hath preserved you in your Relation you cannot live answerablie for this mercie but in a better discharge of your mutual duties How would you wish you had loved your Relation Wife or Husband if God had taken either away by death so do now when God continueth you both in life Because this conduceth so much to an answerable return for so great a mercie I will a little insist upon it And in the general if you would improve this mercie the direction is that your love and affection be such one to another as is the love betwixt Christ and the Church Eph. 2.25 Husbands love your Wives even as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it And this love of the Husband must be requited with the love of the Wife for it is reciprocal Tit. 2.4 Teach the young women to be sober to love their Husbands SECT XIII BUT more particularly I shall speak to three things What manner of love is this Why they should have this Wherein they should manifest this love one to another If you will improve this mercie God hath vouchsafed you your love must have these properties 1. It must be a Superlative love that is in respect of all sublunarie things though your love to God and Christ must be more than your love one to another else it doth sinfully exceed for if any loveth Father or Mother Husband or Wife more than Christ he is not worthie of him yet in respect of all other persons and things in this world it must be more else it is sinfully deficient A man must love his Wife above all other persons above his Estate or whatsoever is dear unto him in this world and so the Wife Thus Christ loveth his Church and a believing soul above all other persons and the Church reciprocallie loves Christ above all other things in the world 2.
from them yet they may sin by suffering their Masters Goods to be wasted as Food to be cast away and many things to be spent and consumed when there is no need this is not to shew all fidelity to your Masters So Jacob Gen. 31.36 37.38 39 40. That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee I bare the loss of it of my hands didst thou require it whether stollen by day or stollen by night 10. They must not answer again out of a murmuring spirit nor give word for word that if their Master rebukes them for their sin they must not speak as fast as he nay though a Master should speak Wrathfully and in unjust Anger yet they must not Answer Perversely to them again but with meekness and silence except they require or give leave go about their Imployment committing their cause to God who will right them if their Masters wrong them Col. 3.25 But he that doth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done and there is no respect of Persons God regards not Mens outward conditions he regards not the Mistriss more than the Maid nor the Master more than the Man but judgeth righteously betwixt the greatest and the meanest 11. They must remember when they are obedient in their Masters Service they are serving the Lord Christ What a poor servant doth in servile Labour in the meanest lowest imployment he is serving of God and this might sweeten to him more difficult and unpleasing Work Thus I have done with this direction in which all Men in one capacity or other herein considered are concerned to make improvement of Gods Preserving of them in time of so great Contagion by being eminently exemplary in the Conditions Capacity Relations wherein they stand which if they do caeteris paribus they live in some measure answerable to so great a Mercy DIRECTION V. HAth God spared you in a time of Pestilence then if you would live answerable diligently watch against secret sins and let your special care be about the hidden and secret things in Religious Duties God hath kept you in his Chambers Isa 26.20 Come my people enter thou into thy Chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thy self as it were for a little moment untill the indignation be overpast God hath hid you from Judgment in the secret Chambers of his Protection and will you hide your sins in the secret corners of your hearts Or will you allow your self to sin because you are in your secret Chambers Or will this be to live worthy of Gods secret Protection of you to commit secret sins against God That you are preserved this is visible all that see you walking in the streets know this But Gods way of preserving you was not only by visible means as Antidotes and Cordials but by the invisible Guard of holy Angels Psal 91.10 There shall no evil befall thee neither shall any Plague come nigh thy dwelling Ver. 11. For he shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy waies Ver. 12. They shall bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against a stone The reason why you have been preserved is because God hath caused you to dwell in the secret place of the most high and hath made you to abide under the shadow of the Almightie Psal 91.1 When the Pestilence was walking in darkness and the Arrows of the Almightie were secretly shot and flying abroad He kept you in the secret of his Pavilion Psal 37.5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his Pavilion in the secret of his Tabernacle he shall hide me he shall set me upon a rock As all visible means would not have been effectual for your preservation without Gods secret and invisible watching over you So abstaining only from visible sins and performing only that of duty which is visible will not be a sutable nor answerable return for this great mercie Therefore my advice unto you is that as Gods goodness to you hath been in a secret way of preservation so your care should especially be about secret things and that in two respects In abstaining from secret sins In maintaining secret duties First Be careful to abstain from secret sins Do not cherish sins in your hearts and thoughts though they should never proceed to outward act For a man whom God hath kept in time of Plague might be no open Swearer no visible Drunkard nor live in open wickedness and yet might walk unworthy of Gods mercy to him And here I shall answer these two Questions 1. What are those Considerations whereby a man should urge his heart to abstaine from heart and secret sins 2. What are the helps and means for inabling of a man to abstain from heart and secret sins Quest 1. What are those Considerations whereby a Christian should urge his heart to abstain from heart sins and secret sins not to let into the secrets of his heart what he can by watchfulness prevent and not to allow that which notwithstanding all his diligence he cannot prevent For there is great difference betwixt having sin in the heart and regarding or allowing sin in the heart Psal 66.18 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me A Christian may have yea cannot in this life but have sin in his heart but this not allowed but groaned under and lamented for shall not hinder the audience of his prayers nor the salvation of his soul But the regarding and allowing of it will prevent both SECT I. Considerations to keep you from secret sins GOD sets your secret sins in the light of his countenance Psal 90.8 You can never sin so secretlie as to hide your sins from God Study well these Scriptures Psal 139.1 to 17 vers Jer. 23.24 Heb. 4.13 Prov. 5.21 For the waies of man are before the eyes of the Lord and he pondereth all his goings Whether your waies are good or evil open or secret they are before the eyes of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rectà è regione right over Gods eyes He pondereth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He weigheth them in scales and many of our actions he findeth to be too light There are some sins so secret that other men might not know them and some are so secret that a man might not know them himself as sins of Ignorance Psal 19.12 Who can understand his errours Cleanse thou me from secret faults But no sin can be said to be secret in respect of God Others see some sin in you you may see more in your self But God seeth all because he is omniscient But there â—re many sins which are so secret that we our selves see them not The causes of this are 1. Imperfection of self-knowledge 2. Excess of self-love 3. Deceiâ—fulness of sin 4. Closeness of sin 5. Want of watchfulness But there is no sin can be hid from God for God seeth the Nature Number and Aggravations
secret shall reward thee openly This is true also of abstaining from secret sinnings God will reward you openly Be most careful against secret sins because in these thou hast least help and least assistance from others If thy sin be visible thy friend may reprove thee and he may help to recover thee If thy sin be visible thy enemy may reproach thee for it and that may occasion thy repentance But if thy sin be secret thou wilt not have these helps nor occasions of repentance and therefore where thou art least capable of advantages and helps from others therein be the greatest friend unto thy self Thus if you would walk answerably for Gods hiding of you in the secret of his Tabernacle in time of danger live not in a course of secret sins and for your help herein I shall next proceed to the second Question viz. SECT III. WHat are the helps and means for the enabling of a Christian to abstain from heart-sins and secret sins 1. Fill your mind with actual believing thoughts of Gods all-seeing eye When you are tempted to sin in secret consider God seeth you All the thoughts of your heart and all the motions of your affections are known to him 2 Cor. 4.2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty not walking in craftiness nor handling the Word of God deceitfully but by manifestation of the truth commending our selves to every mans conscience in the sight of God Psal 139.11 If I say the darkness shall cover me even the night shall be light about me Ver. 12. Yea the darkness hideth not from thee but the night shineth as the day the darkness and the light are both alike to thee It is the Atheism and Infidelity of mens hearts that encourageth them to sin because it is secret 2. Firmly believe and often think of the judgement to come Then will God make manifest every secret thing The thoughts of the heart shall then be revealed If thou wouldst not have thy secret sin produced at the last day and published befoâ—e all the world do not commit i◠〈◊〉 12.14 For God shall bring every work iâ—to â—dgmenâ— with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil Rom. 2.16 In the day wâ— God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Châ—ist according to my Gospel 1 Cor. 4.5 Therefore â—udge working before the time untill the Lord come who both shall bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the couâ—sels of the hearts and then shall every man have praise of God 3. Get a deep roâ—ted hatred in thy heart to sin He that hateth sin truly will not indulge himself in committing sin secretly For true hatred of sin will set the soul with strongest opposition against it at all times and all places Hatred to sin as sin will be to all sin whether open or secret He that hates a Toade will hate it in his Chamber or Closet as well as in the Field yea the nearer it is to him if in his Bed his hatred is raised so much the more and the nearer sin is to your heart the more you should hate it He that can sin secretly when he will not openly it is not because he hates the sin but because he hates the disgrace which that sin would expose him to before Men. 4. Possess thy heart with the true fear of God Fear of shame and lessening our esteem among Men might keep from open sins but the fear of God doth steel and Antidote the heart against all sins When our restraint from sin is terminated in God it will be a general preservative against all sorts of sin 5. Get and increase in uprightness of heart the more of sincerity the less in secret sinning Hypocrisie is consistent with a constant course of secret sin but sincerity of heart doth diminish the acts and habits of sin 6. Make it your great design to have the approbation of God He that doth hunt after the commendation of Men will be good when Men do see him but he that seekes for the approbation of God endeavours to be good at all times and in all places Rom. 2.29 But he is a Jew which is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter whose praise is not of Men but of God 2 Tim. 2.15 Study to shew thy self approved unto God 7. Be very watchful over your heart when you are alone and over your outward Senses when you are in Company He that doth not diligently watch will frequently sin there will be many secret stirrings of Unbelief in your heart and of Pride and of Vain-Thoughts either injected by the Devil or arising from the Corruption in your own heart A secret enemy must be watched more narrowly and so must secret sins 8. Suppress the first motions of sin crush this Cockatrice in the Egge do not dally with secret Temptations unto Sin abstain from every appearance of secret sins If you are too much given to contemplative Uncleanness avoid such things as may occasion it as beholding of Objects c. 9. Get a deep Impression of Gods kindness and mercy into thy soul Many of Gods Mercies to thee are secret Mercies which none can infallibly see in thee but thy self as Grace and the love of God shed abroad in thy heart and let the sense of Gods secret love to thee keep thee from secret sinnings against God then wilt thou say with Joseph when he was tempted to secret uncleanness Gen. 39.7 9 10. How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God 10. If you would be kept from secret sins be much in secret duties He that hath all his duties abroad will have a nest of secret sins at home And this brings me to the second general Head about secret Good SECTION IV. SEcondly Maintain secret Duties and especially mind the secret things of Publick Duties this part consisteth of two Branches Maintain secret Duties Minde Secret things in Publick Duties I. Keep up a constant course of secret Duties Be much with God when you are alone Let not all your Religion lie without doores especially be much in the Practise of these four Duties in secret 1. Be much in secret Prayer This hath been the practice of the holy Men of God so Jacob Gen. 32.24 And Jacob was left alone and there wrastled a Man with him while the breaking of the day In this you have the Example of Christ himself who was much in secret Prayer Maâ— 14.23 And when he had sent the Multitudes away he went up into a Mountain apart to Pray and when the evening wâ—s come he was there alone You have some secret burdens upon your heart you have some secret and hidden workings of sin in your soul which is not convenient for you to express in the hearing of others take time then to do this when you are alone
empty and unsatisfying pleasures they do not fill content nor satiate them that give themselves most to follow after them IV. Should not you be dead to and take heed of resting in the wisdom of the World in the attainment onely of Humane Learning after you have seen the Learned die as the Ignorant and the Wise Man as the Fool Humane Learning is more desirable than Riches and Honours and the Pleasâ—res of this World but yet it is not to be acquiesced in without the knowledg of God in Christ Notions in Learning will never deliver from the Torments of Hell many learned sinners have gone to eternal Misery and their torments there are greater than the torments of the Ignorant and unlearned the vanity of the wisdom of this World compared with the knowledge of Christ appeares in that 1. It cannot redress the sinfulness of the thoughts nor help against the vanity of the mind The wise and learned Heathens became vain in their imaginations Rom. 1.21 2. It doth not prevent sinful elections and choise of the will Men of great knowledge choose the World and Honours and Ease and Preferments before Christ 3. It doth not remedy a sinful Conversation Mâ—ny know things to be evil and yet do them and so is an aggravation of their sin and will be of their misery 4. It doth not season Mens communications nor prevent corrupt Discourses but makes them more witty and able to scorn Godlâ—ness jest with Scripture and deride the Professors of the Gosspel But the knowledge of Christ iâ— is 1. the sweetest knowledge 2. It is the surest knowledg being by the Revelation of the Spirit of God 3. It is saving knowledge Thus take a true account of all the things the best the most excellent the most desirable things in this world and you will see no reason why you should wholly spend the residue of that time which God hath â—ent you from the Grave in such an eager pursuit of any thing of this life SECTION II. BUt that you may know whether you yet living are dead to the things of this world I shall give you this general Character viz. If you carry your self towards the world as those that are dead to God do carry themselves towards God then are you dead unto the world and this general is resolved into these particulars 1. Those that are dead to God they see no real excellency in God and Christ but they see something more in the things of the world they see more excellency in their Gold and Silver in their Profits and Preferments in their Pleasures and Delights so if you are dead to the world you do not admire the Choisest and the Chiefest things that are therein but do see more real worth in God and Christ and one dram of Grace then in all the Mines of the most precious things in Nature and in your practical judgment do account them but dung and dross in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. 2. Those that are dead to God do make choice of the World and the things thereof before God The will following the ultimate comparative practical dictate of the understanding in wicked Men doth choose Earthly things before God and Christ For though their absolute judgment might be for God yet the comparat judgment all circumstances considered is for the world and their will doth make choice of it accordingly So if you are dead to the world you make choice of God for your chiefest good and greatest happiness For though you may in your absolute judgment look upon the Things of the world used with moderation and kept in their proper place as good yet in your comparative judgment all circumstances considered you do ultimately conclude That God is better in himself and for you yea in both respects and your will doth choose him accordingly 3. Those that are dead to God though they may Pray to God and talk of God yet they do this as though they did it not and Pray as if they Prayed not God hath their Tongues but the world hath their Hearts So if you are dead to the world though you may talk of the world and Trade in the world yet you do all this as if you did it not You buy as if you possessed not and you use this world as if you used it not and though the world may have your hands yet God hath your heart 4. Those that are dead to God they are not troubled at the loss of God nor rejoyce at the tidings how they may have the enjoyment of him So if you are dead to the World you are not chiefly troubled at the loss of these things nor count it so great matter of joy if you have them and enjoy them A man that is dead to God desireth the world and let who will look after God So a man dead to the world desireth God and let who will look after the World as his portion and his chiefest happiness he will not 5. A man that is dead towards God is not restrained from sin by Gods most terrible threatnings though God threaten him with eternal death and everlasting damnation with the loss of heaven and eternal happiness if he persist in his wickedness and continue in sin yet fear of the punishment of loss nor of the punishment of sense will not awaken him to Conversion and through Reformation So a man that is dead towards the World all the threatnings of men that he shall have inflicted upon him divers penalties loss of goods liberty life yet all this is not cogent to bring him in to a course of sin and to do wickedly 6. A man that is dead towards God is not drawn nor allured with the precious and most glorious promises of God to do that which is good Though God promise him heaven and eternal happiness the pardon of sin and his favour yet all this moves him not to come to Christ nor forsake his sins So a man that is dead to the world all the offers preferments enticements of the world to allure him into sin will not prevail he is dead to these things and offers and overâ—ures of the greatest things move not a dead man Thus you may try whether you are dead to the world or no. You live in the world even after such a devouring Pestilence you cannot live answerably to this great mercy except you be dead to the World DIRECTION VII HAth God spared you in time of Pestilence then now be dead to sin kill your sin and solemnize the funeral of your lusts because you live after such a judgment such a mercy doth oblige to the death and burial of sin You are not buried with others in their graves but you should be buried with Christ Rom. 6.4 Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into death that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also
would improve this Mercy that God hath spared you you must live to God and walk in newness of life DIRECTION IX HAth God spared you in time of so great Contagion Then keep upon your heart a constant sense of Gods distinguishing Providence in his preservation of you Let not length of time if God give it you wear off the greatness of this his Mercy towards you if you forget Gods goodness you will not walk worthy of it This was the sin of the People of Israel for whom God did such great things Psal 78.10 They kept not the Covenant of God and refused to walk in his Law Vers 11. And forgot his Works and his Wonders that he had shewed them Psal 106.21 They forgot God their Saviour which had done great things in Egypt God hath done great wonders for you in preserving of you in the valley of the shadow of death God hath not given you over unto death God hath not laid you in the Grave where you would soon have been forgotten do not you lay Gods Mercy towards you in the grave of oblivion nor bury his mercy of saving you alive in forgetfulness David laid a charge upon his Soul that he should not forget the benefits of the Lord towards him Psal 103.2 Set down therefore and Record your danger what it was Such a Moneth in such a Year the Plague was nigh my dwelling it came into my house it took away so many of my Children and Servants but God spared me he took away the Wife the Husband of my bosome but God spared me yea it was upon my Body so many Plague-Sores were running at once and God delivered me from the Grave and from the very jawes of death and will you forget this while you live That you may have and keep a sense of Gods mercy to you in preserving of you consider these few particulars 1. Consider you had deserved the Plague and death by the Plague as well as those that have fallen into their Graves thereby and it may be more too do not think that those that have died were greater sinners than you Luke 13.2 And Jesus answered and said unto them suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things Vers 3. I tell you nay but except you repent ye shall all likewise perish Vers 4. Or those eighteen upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell and slew them think ye that they were sinners above all Men that dwelt in Jerusalem Vers 5. I tell you nay but extept ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Do you think that those whom the Plague hath slaughtered that they were greater sinners then all that dwelt in London Take heed of such conceptions Or if many have fallen in this judgment that were of worser Lives than you yet none have fâ—llen that had worser Hearts than you naturally hâ—ve Nay have not your sins been capable of greater â—ggravations than the sins of many Dâ—unkards and Swearers and prophane Peâ—sons that did never sin against a God that pardoned their sins that did never sin against such love nor after such experiences of the working of Gods Spirit upon their hearâ—s as you have had Nay consider that you are not likely â—o do God that service nor bring to God that Glory that some of them might have done that are now in their Grâ—ves if God had spared them and yet God hath lengthened out your life Oh what an Obligation should this be to you to remember Gods Mercy that you had Plague-deserving-sins but yet you had not the Plague that you have death-deserving-sins and yet you are not dead 2. Consider you had a Body as liable to Infection as many others had There were such natural causes in your Body that might have laid you in your Grave if God had not prevented it and did not you suck in the same Aire as others did yea as others breathed out and yet God hath kept you 3. Consider you had no better Preservatives nor Cordials then many others had that yet by the Plague are laid silent in the Grave and are now resting in the dust and others that now are dead used the same meanes as you did and it may be more and better too and yet God denyed his blessing to the use of those meanes that were more probable to prevent Infection then yours were by this you may be convinced that it was the hand of God that hath preserved you and therefore by this you should be obliged to remember and keep upon your heart a sense of Gods mercy towards you 4. Consider you have been in more visible danger and when you were called did venture further then many others did some were more reserved and kept from Company more than you have done being called to Duty where Visited Persons have been as to help them that were sick of this Distemper c. and yet some that lived more retiredly and kept themselves more close were Visited and are dead and yet you have escaped this is the finger of Divine Providence and will you let the sense of this weare off from your heart 5. Consider that you have been more weakly and more infirme of Body then many of them that the Plague hath removed Many that were more likely to out-live you are cut down before you Many that were strong and of healthful constitutions are laid in the Dust while you that have been waiting for your dissolution many Moneths or Years because of the infirmity of your Body and the frequent distempers that have been upon you are preserved 6. Consider how great a Mercy your praservation is not onely to your self but to those to whom you are related You have many little Children that are not able to help themselves nor to provide for themselves that in all likelihood would have been exposed to hardships and to want if God had taken you from them They are sharers in this Mercy of your Preservation and the more are concerned in it the greater the Mercy is and the deeper and more lasting sense it should make upon your heart The thoughts of your Children did increase your feares and trouble when you were in danger and should not the consideration of this advance the greatness of the Mercy of being continued to them DIRECTION X. HAth God spared you in time of Pestilence when he hath taken away many of your own Relations then the fewer objects you have for your love now the stronger let your love be towards God then it was before In steâ—d of murmuring against God that you have lost those whom you did love the greater let your love be to God since you hâ—ve not so many for to love Love lâ—id out upon many objects is the weaker buâ— love united and spent upon one object is tâ—e stronger As those that have but one only Son love that more then those that have more do love any because their love is divided
existimant se aliquod bonis suis adjicere tandem pro the sauro inventuros dei indignationem Bez in loc Question Sixth Question Seventh Corollaries from the first part of this Direction The second part of the first Direction Ten Lessons to be learned in this City that hath been a great house of mourning Verity of divine threatnings Desert of sin Mans mortâ—lâ—ty The worlds vanity The uncertainty of all relatiâ—ns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When they set forth to Sea Vâ—la daâ—t when they have done their voyage vela contra hunt Humility Parity in â—â—t â—â—d afflictions Difference â—n the â—anner Folly of delays Mortification Ten Aggravations of Gods Peoples sin if they be worse Seventeen Arguments to Gods People to be better Perform your purpose pay your vows Seven Arguments for care to keep oâ—r resolutions made in time of fear and sickness The heart is deceitful Sin is encroaching Satan will assault The world will interrupt You will meet with opposition Concurrence of many duties re-qui-red Twenty Helps for keeping our Resolutions Watch against your Darling sin Signs of a beloved sin And against Temptation Sin is as odious to God when you are well as when you were sick Holiness in acâ— pleasing to God more than in purpose Sin is prejudicial â—hâ—n you are well as when you were sick Holiness in act will be sweeter to you than onely in purpose When you are well you are stil mortal Believe judgment to come Gods eye is upon you Keep conscience tender Choose a choise friend Gods purpose always the same to you Holy courage Zeal Frequent Self-reflexions Renew your Purpose It will bring great benefits Pray for strength Mortifie self-love and use self-denial Examples Fourteen Aggravations of neglect to live up to our holy Resolutions It is great hypocrisie Double Iniquity Creaâ—â—olly It is to lye to God * Oratio quando non est conformis menti dicentis dicitur falsa ethice quando non est conformis rebus est salsa logice To sin against conscience It will make death terrible It is great unthankfulness for your life It will make you loose the benefit of affliction It is to approve of sin after dislike If thou hadst dyed in thy sickness thou hadst been damned It encourageth the devil to tempt It provoketh God Hinders Prayer Begets doubtings Since you live look after the cure of soul-sickness Sin is the souls sickness Sickness of the Soul more dreadfull than of the Body Signs of the cure of soul-sickness How to be cured of soul-sickness Christ the soul-â—hysician Directions to give to God the glory of our souls cure The Reader is desired to make the following Direction the Fourth Be Eminent in your place and Relation Subjects Duties to Magistrates Ministers should be more in Studying Praying Preaching 10 Appellations shewing the work of Ministers Living exemplarily The Peoples Duty in hearing the word Governoâ—s of families must set up Gods Worship in their houses Why Wherein In praying Four Reasons for daily prayer in families Râ—adiâ—g the Word of God 4 Reasons for reading Scripture in Families Repeating things delivered in publick In Catechizing 4 Reasons for Catechizing in Families In singing Psalms How 〈◊〉 Really For five Reasons Livelily Chearfully Constantly Duties of husbands wives whom God hath spared in this Plague The properties of their love Superlative Constant Holy Tender Forgiving love The Reasons of their love Wherein they should manifest this love ☜ Duties of Parents whom God hath continued to children viz. Instruction Correction Prayer Choosing them a Calling Disposing them in Marriage Duties of Children whom God hath continued to their Parents Reasons for these Duties Duties of Masters whom God hath continued to Servants Duties of Servants whom God hath continued to Masters Watch against secret sins Abstain from secret sins Considerations to watch against secret sins God setteth secret sins in the light of his countenance Masked sins detected 4 Properties of Gods view of secret sins Secresie is no security It is a sign of sincerity God judgeth not by outward appearances To allow secret sin is great â—mpâ—iety Secret sins provoke God And grieve the Spirit And destroy your peace Hâ—nder grace And fervent prayer and prevent audience Do harden Stop communications of Gods secrets If you make conscience of secret sin you shall have an open reward In these you have least help from others Que. 2. Helps against secret sins God his eye Eâ—e judgment to come Deep hatred True fear Uprightness of heart Design Gods approbation Be watchful Suppress first motions of sin Sense of Gods love Secret duties Secret duties Secret things in Publick duties Secret evils in publick duties to be avoided Since you live after the Plague be dead to the World To the Profits of the world Are corruptâ—ble Hurtful Unprofitable Hurtful Uncertain Easily valued Unsatisfying To the Honours of the World To the pleasures of the World To the wisdom of the World ☜ Signes of a Man that is dead to the world Since you live after this Plague be dead to sin and be buried with Christ Believers are buried in 3. respects 2 Differences between the burial of our friends and our sins 5 Resemblances Comfort to those that are buried with Christ Since you live after this Plague walk in newness of life What newness of life doth not consist in In what consisteth newness of life The excellenâ—ies of a new life Hindrances of walking in newness of life Since you live after this Plague keep upon your heart a sense of this Mercy Helpes to be sensible of the Mercy of life If you have fewer objects of love left you love God so much the more Since you live remember what were the actings of conscience in time of danger and live accordingly Since you live after you have been in such danger trust God for the future Description of trust 8 Arguments to trust in God Six special times to trust in God Since you live after this Plague give thanks to God 3 Wayes you must Praâ—se God with your Tongue Heart Life 12 Arguments to thankfulness for life Psal 6.4 5. Psal 30.9 Isa 3â— 18 19. Mat. 20.22 23. Jer. 16.7 Psal 16.5 6 Helpes to thankfulness for life