it and appear for it and God who is glorious in Holiness so much commends it and approves of it let your esteem therefore be of all Persons for the Tantus quisque est quantus apud Deum Religion you find in them if God does so well may you do it too It is Religion more than Blood that ennobles for The Righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour viz. Pro. 12. 26 indefinitely whether rich or poor The Fear of the Lord is the beginning Ps 111. 10 of Wisdom the Foundation of all Religion a good Sollicitor to Devotion and a great help against Formality in it a Custos Innocentiae Preserver of Innocency and an especial Remedy against hardness of Heart Fear in a natural Isa 60. 5. sense contracts the Heart but in a spiritual sense enlarges it a Grace like the sense of touching that as the Philosopher says is Ortu primus usu maximus duratione ultimus first in being of greatest use and of longest continuance Servile Fear arises from Hatred to God filial Fear arises from Love to him they that fear God and do not love him hate him Nemo melius diligit quam qui maximè veretur offendere Salvian because they fear him but the more any love God the more they reverence and fear him God is to be fear'd as well as lov'd and prais'd for his Goodness and your Duty is as much Hos 3. 5. to fear him as to rejoyce and Ps 76. 11. trust in him His Mercy is from everlasting Ps 103. 17. to everlasting upon them that fear him and his Curse against them that do not so that if you are above his Fear you are under his Curse and if here you do not tremble before him with an obediential Fear you shall hereafter to all eternity with a devilish one Fear God and you need not fear any thing but him and for him Chuse God for your Portion and you can never want You are proud and think too well of your self if you cannot be content in any condition with him and of a low and base Spirit if you can be satisfied with a whole World without him More you need not and less will not do Renew your Repentance before him daily and beg Pardon and Remission of all your Sins as to Kind Degree and Aggravation that as the Morning Cloud they may soon vanish disappear beg the powerful Aid and Assistance of his Grace which is sufficient for you that Bounds may be set to the raging Sea of Sin that it may never overflow your Banks and a daily encrease of Grace from him who is the God of all Grace that your way may be as the Morning-light shining more and more unto the perfect day Pro. 4. 18. You were never good if you think you are good enough nor have any Grace if you think you want none Live up to that Profession you make of God to that Communion you have with him and those Duties you perform to him that it may appear you have Truth in the inward parts and are sound at the root Ps 51. 6. Deut. 32. 4. Jer. 5. 3. He is a God of Truth and his Eyes are upon the Truth Let a Zeal for his Glory be writ upon your Heart that you may honour him in all your ways to him and acknowledge him in all his ways to you both of Mercy and Judgment with Thankfulness and Humility Do his Will chearfully and bear it patiently bless him for what you have and depend upon him for what you want live upon him as your happiness and to him as your end thus living to him here you will live for ever with him hereafter This is the Advice of your earthly Father from his and your heavenly Father and if diligently observ'd by you though you may lose me your earthly Father you will never be without the teaching Guidance Counsel Care and Blessing of God your heavenly Father Non est orphanus cui mortuus Ps 27. 10. est parens sed qui scientiam Arab. Pro. non habet nec mores FINIS ERRATA THE three last lines in page 38. should have been the three first in page 39. The two last lines in page 39. should have been in a Parenthesis two lines above Eminenter in the fourth line of page 59. should have been set in the Margin Page 68. line 12. for connectuntur read convertitur Page 79. line 2. leave out And.
and put him on walk in him and serve him in Holiness Col. 2. 6. Luke 1. 75. and Righteousness all the days of your Life If he has delivered you from Death live to him who died for 2 Cor. 5. 15. you and by death delivered you from Death Thus by living up to your priviledges or doing the Duty of them you will at last receive the benefit of them It is sad to want priviledges but far worse to abuse or not improve them Make it your great business to secure the salvation of your Soul In order unto it 1. Believe you have a Soul 2. Believe it is precious 3. Live to it as so believing 1. Believe you have a Soul Every one has a soul but the Lives of most shew that they do not believe it Some live as if their Bodies were immortal and worthy of all their care and some as if they had no Souls or as if they were Mortal and when once dead should never be alive again The Soul of such Men is of little more use than as Tully says of the Soul of a Swine to keep the Body from stinking But be you establish'd in the belief of this truth that you have a Soul and that it is Immortal A truth that has been own'd by Heathens and is previous to Religion for all Religion is grounded upon it They did usually say That to live was to dye and to dye was to live again Potest obumbrari quia non est Deus extingui non potest quia à Deo Druydes made the Gauls Valiant by telling them that their Souls were Immortal Caesar put Gold into his Souldiers Pockets that the fear of losing it might make them so and the belief of this Treasure within you inclos'd in an Earthen Vessel as Manna in an Earthen pot and the fear of Exod. 16. 33. losing it should provoke you to a diligent care about it that you may not A Sadducee in Opinion will soon Acts 23. 8. be an Epicure in Life 2. Believe that your Soul is precious The same Offering was for the Soul of the Poor that was for Exod. 30. 15. the Soul of the Rich half a Shekel was the Soul-money for both and the Soul of both viz. of a Slave and an Emperour are alike precious and next to that which is infinite and excellent most excellent as will appear 1. By the Titles given to it 2. By the care taken of it 1. By the Titles given to it viz. The breath of Life Life is a desirable good and the Soul a Gen. 2. 7. Job 2. 4. 27. 3. Optimus modus cutis most precious Being as it is the breath of Life Gods Spirit God is a Spirit and so is the Soul too not onely in respect of its immediate procedure from him but in respect of its resemblance to him a remote Image of God or an Prov. 2◠27. Image of the Trinity in a Faculty the Candle of the Lord the Sun in the little World as the Sun is the Soul of the great one the hidden man the whole man or the Man of Man as Athens Animùs cujusque est quisque 1 Pet. 3. 4. 2 Cor. 4. 16. Pars optima nostri Job 30. 15. Prov. 4. 7 Psal 22. 20. was the Greece of Greece Mans principal one Wisdom is the principal thing and the Soul the seat of Wisdom Mans principal one Mans Darling Christ is Gods Darling Man is Christs and the Soul is Mans Mans Honour and Excellency Glory is the manifestation of Excelcellency and therefore that which Nihil magnum in terrâ nisi homo nec in homine nisi anima Gen. 49. 6. Job 4. 21. is his Glory must needs excell Man was the perfection of the Creation the Master-piece and chiefest part of it and the Soul the choicest part of Man as appears by these Titles given to it by God who rates every thing according to its kind and worth and therefore set the Crown and Diadem by him put upon it the Letters Testimonial sent from Heaven to commend it make you highly to value and esteem of it 2. By the care taken of it By God and Man to save it and by the Devil to destroy it By God viz. Father Son and Holy Ghost By the Father who in his infinite Wisdom contriv'd Redemption for it instituted Sacraments and Ordinances to feed it in this World provided Heaven a place of Eternal Rest for it in the World to come and Angels to guard Heb. 1. ult and conduct it safe to it By the Son who in his unspeakable Love laid down his Life as a Psal 49. 7 8. 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. Ex pretio pretium 1 Thes 5. 23. Ransom for it and parted with his most precious Blood as a price to Redeem it By the Holy Ghosts powerful Operation in Sanctifying of it whereby it becomes as Mount Zion the Temple of the most High the Throne of the great King of Heaven his Mansion Eph. 3. 17. Isa 57. 15. Dwelling-place and second Heaven 2. By Men viz. both good and bad By good Men while living and by bad Men when dying 1 King 21. 20. who though while living they sold themselves to work Iniquity and as by Will bequeath'd their Souls to the Devil when dying make void that Will out of a desire for their Souls sake to die well though they would not live so That which is every ones Money or bears a price every where and is by all sooner or later highly esteem'd and to all alike precious has worth and excellency in it 3. By the care taken by the Devil to destroy it There are two Lions contend for the Soul Leo propter fortitudinem advincendum Leo propter fertitatem adnocendum 1 Pet. 5. 8. Christ the Lion of the Tribe of Judah who seeks to save it and the Devil the roaring Lion who seeks to destroy it He is active and diligent for he goes about seeking bloody and cruel for he seeks to devour Other Lions prey on dead Bodies but this on living Souls He desired Job's Body for his Souls sake If you do not prize your Soul the Devil does 3. Live to your Soul as believing it is Precious God might and that without any Injustice have placed you in the lowest predicament of the vilest Creatures but since he has stampt his own Image upon you and given you a Soul with which you may converse not onely with Men and Angels but with himself bless him for your Soul with Psal 103. 1. Anim◠debere is the highest Engagement Gen. 49. 3 4. your Soul and live to it as a Being most excellent and precious It is your Excellency and Honour let it not then consult its own shame nor with Reuben lose its Excellency by sin but be Honourably employ'd serve the living God with this breath of Life Life must be served with Life worship God who is a Spirit John 4.
on this day than on others and an extraordinary exercise of Grace in them The whole day is his and unless works of Necessity and Mercy Mat. 127. relating either to Man or Beast intervene it must be wholly denoted to him The Duties of the day are not all of a sort but various there are all the means and ways of Communion with God on this day to take off Tediousness and promote Delight in them If you come with rejoycing Ps 122. 1. you will go away so Christ's coming in the Flesh was the fulfilling of the Law the coming down of his Spirit on this day was the fulfilling of the Gospel then he took our Nature on this we were made Partakers of his when he died he shed his Blood effectually for our Justification on this he shed abroad his Spirit abundantly for our Sanctification on this day he arose and then his Spirit quicken'd his natural Body on this day his Spirit descended and quicken'd his mystical Body when he ascended he carried our Nature up to Heaven and on this day he sent down his Spirit to us Now my Prayer for you shall be That the same Spirit that descended this day may sanctifie you that you may sanctifie this day and that you by it may be made holy that you may keep this day holy to God that made it so that keeping this day of rest here you may at last be taken up into his Rest that remains for ever hereafter Heb. 2. 9. Live to the Honour of that worthy Name in which you were baptiz'd and by which you are Jam. 2. 7. called Baptism is a sacred Flood sent not to drown but to save the World but then you must be in Christ the Ark and walk worthy 1 Thess 2. 12. of him that as you are in the Bond of the Covenant you may be also under the Blessing of it The outward Baptism of Water will avail you nothing Mat. 3. 11. without the inward Baptism of the Spirit The Sacrament of the Lords Supper was instituted by Christ and appointed as a standing Ordinance Matth. to the end of the World for the commemoration of Christs Death and his great Love in it and for the Confirmation of all those Blessings obtain'd by him to them that believe in him They only that are in the Covenant have a right to the Seal of it Some seldom receive it some never living in a wilful breach and contempt both of God's Law and Mans some are careless and negligent when they do receive But do you 1. Duely attend upon it 2. Come worthily to it 1. Duely attend upon it While you live in the neglect of it you reject not only motives but instituted means to subdue your Corruptions and strengthen your Graces question God's Wisdom as if he had ordain'd a needless and superfluous thing contemn Christ and his Love as if they were not worth the remembring and live in disobedience to a Gospel Command and thereby become liable to the Wrath of God He that came to the Feast Mat. 22. 3. 4 5 6 7 11 12 13. without a wedding-garment was destroy'd and so were they too that did not come 2. Come worthily to it The Sacrament is a Feast the Souls Exceedings if you come not to it you will starve your Soul if you come unworthily you will poison it eating Damnation as surely as you eat Bread and 1 Cor. 11. 29. drinking a Cup of Wrath instead of a Cup of Blessing and therefore do what you can to come in a worthy manner viz. With hungring and thirsting after Righteousness Unless you come empty you Mat. 5. 6. Luk. 15. 3. wil be sent away so With Faith without which Christus fide digerendus though you eat you will never be nourish'd You may touch the Body but you will receive no Vertue from it With inflamed Love to God for giving Christ to you and to Christ for offering up himself for you He is the Founder of the Feast and died to make it With a Heart deeply humbled for Sin that you may not crucifie him afresh but mourn over him Heb. 6. 6. who was crucified for you and by you A broken Saviour must be received with a broken Heart With Humility and lowliness of mind as unworthy of the Crums that fall from his Table much more as a Guest to sit there The more humble the more welcome With Praise and Thanksgiving The Feast is all of free-cost and you can do no less than take the Cup of Salvation Ps 116. 13 and bless him for it In the Sacrament Christ's death is shewn forth and in a holy Conversation his Life now when in that you have shewn forth his Death go and shew forth his Life in the Holiness of yours that it may appear you have an interest in the Power of his Cross as well as in the Merit of it Sin is an Impostor it comes of a cheating kind by the Fathers and Mothers side viz. the Devil and your Heart he is the Incubus and that the Womb. The first Sin by which you may judge of all the rest came into the World by a cheat and all whether Angels or Men that ever had any thing to do with it have been deceived by it your great wisdom Pro. 11. 18 therefore will be to understand the deceitfulness of Sin and Heb. 3. 13. to watch against it Our first Parents expected Gen. 3. 5 6 7. to be as Gods but they became as Devils Unbelief is a Sin That gave life to the first actual Sin and ever since gives life to Gen. 3. all and maintains the life of them in the Judgment as in a Castle in the Heart as in a Closet and in the Life as in a Trade All Grace acts in the strength of Faith and all Sin in the strength of Unbelief A Sin that puts God in the Devils place and the Devil in God's for By dis-believing God you believe the Devil A Sin that binds the Guilt of all other Sins fast upon you they deserve Punishment but this binds you over to it Hell seems to be prepar'd on purpose for Unbelievers and Hypocrites as the chief of Sinners I hope you have so much Faith Heb. 3. 12. Quantò magis à Deo recedimus tantò minus sumus as to believe this that you may take heed and beware of an evil Heart of Unbelief in departing from the living God By going from a living God will go to a killing Devil Pambo was thirty years as he says learning how to rule his Tongue and yet had not perfectly learn'd that Lesson and Saint James tells us the Tongue is an unruly Member not easily tamed yet an endeavour to do it is not more difficult than necessary for without it your Religion is Jam. 3. 8. 1. 26. vain The Sins of the Tongue are many but I shall here only advise you in an